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Immigrant-critical alternative media in online conversations
Victoria Yantseva1, Davide Vega1, Matteo Magnani1
1InfoLab, Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Plos One
|November 30, 2023
Summary
Alternative media on Swedish platforms like Flashback have limited impact on immigration debates. However, discussions involving this content show more negative views and less participation.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Media Studies
- Communication Studies
Background:
- Alternative media significantly influences public discourse, particularly on contentious issues like immigration.
- Online platforms serve as key arenas for political discussions and the formation of collective emotions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of immigrant-critical alternative media in shaping user emotions and evaluations regarding immigration.
- To analyze the impact of alternative media consumption on conversation dynamics and user stances on Swedish online platforms.
Main Methods:
- Text and network-based analysis of over 9,000 conversations on the Swedish platform Flashback.
- Empirical case study focusing on the period of the last election.
Main Results:
- Users consume diverse media content across the ideological spectrum, but this has limited influence on conversation evolution or user stances.
- Conversation networks featuring alternative media content exhibit more negative evaluations of immigration, attract fewer participants, and are shorter-lived.
- Findings are contextualized using Collins' Interaction Ritual Chains (IRC) theory.
Conclusions:
- Alternative media's influence on immigration debates may be less direct than assumed, but it can foster negative sentiment and polarization.
- Conditions for high user involvement and potential radicalization in online discussions involving alternative media are explored.
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