Pub Date : 2024-05-16DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241254568
T. Thomson, Lesley Irvine, Glen Thomas
Many scholars find the peer-review process to be a puzzling, non-transparent, and subjective exercise. Many emerging scholars also learn about the peer-review and publishing process through painful and time-consuming trial and error while still students or as early-career researchers rather than through formal training or guided supervision. Yet many pitfalls exist in this process for new and veteran scholars alike. With this study, grounded in the communication field, we aim to pull back the curtain on this opaque process and assist scholars in their publishing ambitions while also providing suggestions, primarily for journal editors and those who train future reviewers, about how the peer-review process can be improved for collective benefit. To do so, this grounded theory study reviews a year's worth of reviews from a communication journal to explore which issues reviewers identify within the submitted research, to explore how the reviewer feedback reveals their implicit understanding of their role in the peer-review process, and to identify how clear reviewers and editors are regarding which feedback is most important. Taken together, this allows for an understanding of how reviewers and editors engage in the social construction of research. The results inform the training of communication scholars, reviewers, and editors.
{"title":"Learning the art of Scholarly Peer-Review: Insights from the Communication Discipline","authors":"T. Thomson, Lesley Irvine, Glen Thomas","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241254568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241254568","url":null,"abstract":"Many scholars find the peer-review process to be a puzzling, non-transparent, and subjective exercise. Many emerging scholars also learn about the peer-review and publishing process through painful and time-consuming trial and error while still students or as early-career researchers rather than through formal training or guided supervision. Yet many pitfalls exist in this process for new and veteran scholars alike. With this study, grounded in the communication field, we aim to pull back the curtain on this opaque process and assist scholars in their publishing ambitions while also providing suggestions, primarily for journal editors and those who train future reviewers, about how the peer-review process can be improved for collective benefit. To do so, this grounded theory study reviews a year's worth of reviews from a communication journal to explore which issues reviewers identify within the submitted research, to explore how the reviewer feedback reveals their implicit understanding of their role in the peer-review process, and to identify how clear reviewers and editors are regarding which feedback is most important. Taken together, this allows for an understanding of how reviewers and editors engage in the social construction of research. The results inform the training of communication scholars, reviewers, and editors.","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140969804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-15DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241253011
S. Hobbis, Geoffrey Hobbis
Smartphones have become crucial for understanding how digital technologies are adopted and adapted into people's lives, while also emerging as tools for studying social phenomena more broadly. Drawing on insights from our own longitudinal work in Solomon Islands, this article details a sociotechnical approach to smartphone research that combines both potentialities. It distinguishes itself from other smartphone-based methods by connecting media-centric perspectives with non-media-centric approaches through an additional focus on body techniques. The approach is centered on object-centric, semi-structured interviews embedded in longitudinal participant observation and theoretically informed by anthropologies of technologies. Emphasizing a holistic perspective and the diversity of human experiences, this approach allows for generating material evidence of contextually-embedded mediations of social relationships through the hardware and software of the phones themselves.
{"title":"A Sociotechnical Approach to Smartphone Research: Outline for a Holistic, Qualitative Mobile Method","authors":"S. Hobbis, Geoffrey Hobbis","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241253011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241253011","url":null,"abstract":"Smartphones have become crucial for understanding how digital technologies are adopted and adapted into people's lives, while also emerging as tools for studying social phenomena more broadly. Drawing on insights from our own longitudinal work in Solomon Islands, this article details a sociotechnical approach to smartphone research that combines both potentialities. It distinguishes itself from other smartphone-based methods by connecting media-centric perspectives with non-media-centric approaches through an additional focus on body techniques. The approach is centered on object-centric, semi-structured interviews embedded in longitudinal participant observation and theoretically informed by anthropologies of technologies. Emphasizing a holistic perspective and the diversity of human experiences, this approach allows for generating material evidence of contextually-embedded mediations of social relationships through the hardware and software of the phones themselves.","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140977487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-07DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241251497
Mona Chatskin
This article underscores the transformative impact of victim–survivor voices in reshaping public discourse on child sexual abuse (CSA). The research project took as the backbone for analysis the Malka Leifer case that spanned 15 years and is linked to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse's report of Case Study 22, which examined responses in ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools to child sexual abuse. Adopting a mixed methods research approach, this study combines qualitative media analysis of 102 news articles and 8 in-depth focus groups to investigate the impact of media outlets in amplifying victim voice and influencing public discourse, and how this impacts the subjects of mediatised public crises. Drawing on the theorising of Couldry and Cottle, the article considers the capacity and limitations of survivor-advocates to leverage media power in the contemporary media system. By exploring the ‘Privileging Victim Voice’ frame, this paper sheds light on how victim–survivor advocates utilised mainstream, local religious, and social media to solidify their central place in the narrative and its reportage. The media analysis served as the foundation for a ‘peer conversation’ style of focus groups with Jewish community members to investigate local impacts of the case's media reportage. The focus group methodology sought to represent this diverse community as wholly as possible. Findings reveal the significant power of journalists’ framing and sourcing practices, and how Jewish institutional child sexual abuse is framed by media outlets within the Australian media landscape. Further, it showcases the broader implications of public inquiries, such as Australia's Royal Commission, in empowering victim–survivors and centreing their narratives in media reportage.
{"title":"Amplifying victim–survivor voices: media power, collective action, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish identity in the Leifer case","authors":"Mona Chatskin","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241251497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241251497","url":null,"abstract":"This article underscores the transformative impact of victim–survivor voices in reshaping public discourse on child sexual abuse (CSA). The research project took as the backbone for analysis the Malka Leifer case that spanned 15 years and is linked to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse's report of Case Study 22, which examined responses in ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools to child sexual abuse. Adopting a mixed methods research approach, this study combines qualitative media analysis of 102 news articles and 8 in-depth focus groups to investigate the impact of media outlets in amplifying victim voice and influencing public discourse, and how this impacts the subjects of mediatised public crises. Drawing on the theorising of Couldry and Cottle, the article considers the capacity and limitations of survivor-advocates to leverage media power in the contemporary media system. By exploring the ‘Privileging Victim Voice’ frame, this paper sheds light on how victim–survivor advocates utilised mainstream, local religious, and social media to solidify their central place in the narrative and its reportage. The media analysis served as the foundation for a ‘peer conversation’ style of focus groups with Jewish community members to investigate local impacts of the case's media reportage. The focus group methodology sought to represent this diverse community as wholly as possible. Findings reveal the significant power of journalists’ framing and sourcing practices, and how Jewish institutional child sexual abuse is framed by media outlets within the Australian media landscape. Further, it showcases the broader implications of public inquiries, such as Australia's Royal Commission, in empowering victim–survivors and centreing their narratives in media reportage.","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140939616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-23DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241248264
M. Imran, Zehra Ahmed
This article presents a discursive analysis of crisis communication strategies employed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilising critical discourse analysis, the study examined official communications from March 2020 to January 2022. While Johnson's communication style encompassed empathy, assertiveness, and a focus on vaccination efforts, enhancing specificity, transparency, addressing potential inequalities, as well as prioritising community building, could have heightened the impact of his messages during the COVID-19 pandemic. By examining Boris Johnson's speeches as a case study, the research adds depth to the discourse on effective communication strategies employed by world leaders. The findings underscore the significance of clarity, adaptability, empathy, and reliance on scientific evidence in navigating the complexities of crisis communication.
{"title":"‘We’re in this together’ – COVID-19 statements by Boris Johnson: A discourse analysis","authors":"M. Imran, Zehra Ahmed","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241248264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241248264","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a discursive analysis of crisis communication strategies employed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilising critical discourse analysis, the study examined official communications from March 2020 to January 2022. While Johnson's communication style encompassed empathy, assertiveness, and a focus on vaccination efforts, enhancing specificity, transparency, addressing potential inequalities, as well as prioritising community building, could have heightened the impact of his messages during the COVID-19 pandemic. By examining Boris Johnson's speeches as a case study, the research adds depth to the discourse on effective communication strategies employed by world leaders. The findings underscore the significance of clarity, adaptability, empathy, and reliance on scientific evidence in navigating the complexities of crisis communication.","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140671288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-22DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241249812
{"title":"ERRATUM to “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and nonbinary representation on Australian scripted television in the 2000s and 2010s”","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241249812","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241249812","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140674549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-11DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241245785
Briony Luttrell, Hannah Joyce Banks
Our Flag Means Death ( OFMD) premiered to critical acclaim and unprecedented audience engagement. It can be argued that it is a romantic queer reading of historical facts. In this article, we reflect on the social function of storytelling and audience labour within the context of queer screen representations. We theorise queer reading as a practice of learning to recognise, identify and create patterns of semiotic resources. This practice is a reaction to a history of being erased or relegated to subtext. We argue queer reading is a particular form of audience labour, in that readers are asked to do extra work. This is especially important in cases where identities and communities are regularly symbolically annihilated. Season One of OFMD is a unique case study where we explore how the show achieves a low/easy labour environment for a vulnerable viewer and how this is an act of care and empathy.
{"title":"‘Oh my god this is happening’: how Our Flag Means Death staged an empathic mutiny against the labour of queer reading practices","authors":"Briony Luttrell, Hannah Joyce Banks","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241245785","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241245785","url":null,"abstract":"Our Flag Means Death ( OFMD) premiered to critical acclaim and unprecedented audience engagement. It can be argued that it is a romantic queer reading of historical facts. In this article, we reflect on the social function of storytelling and audience labour within the context of queer screen representations. We theorise queer reading as a practice of learning to recognise, identify and create patterns of semiotic resources. This practice is a reaction to a history of being erased or relegated to subtext. We argue queer reading is a particular form of audience labour, in that readers are asked to do extra work. This is especially important in cases where identities and communities are regularly symbolically annihilated. Season One of OFMD is a unique case study where we explore how the show achieves a low/easy labour environment for a vulnerable viewer and how this is an act of care and empathy.","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140595581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-04DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241244919
Timothy Graham, Katherine M. FitzGerald
This study investigates post-truth messaging and participatory disinformation on Twitter, focusing on the activities of Craig Kelly, a former Australian member of parliament and a key figure previously accused of spreading health misinformation in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw on Harsin's conceptualisation of post truth communication to analyse 4317 tweets and 5.2 million interactions with Kelly's account and his network of followers over a six-month period. Our novel empirical approach, combining coordination network analysis with a forensic qualitative approach, explores the participatory nature of online interaction, where fringe actors mobilise around Kelly's tweets. The findings demonstrate how political figures have a privileged and outsized role in public discourse, undermining scientific institutions and promoting anti-deliberative politics. This research underscores the role of participatory disinformation in the post-truth era and suggests that regulators, governments, and social media platforms work collaboratively to develop a whole-of-society framework to tackle misinformation.
{"title":"Exploring the role of political elites in post-truth communication on social media","authors":"Timothy Graham, Katherine M. FitzGerald","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241244919","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241244919","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates post-truth messaging and participatory disinformation on Twitter, focusing on the activities of Craig Kelly, a former Australian member of parliament and a key figure previously accused of spreading health misinformation in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw on Harsin's conceptualisation of post truth communication to analyse 4317 tweets and 5.2 million interactions with Kelly's account and his network of followers over a six-month period. Our novel empirical approach, combining coordination network analysis with a forensic qualitative approach, explores the participatory nature of online interaction, where fringe actors mobilise around Kelly's tweets. The findings demonstrate how political figures have a privileged and outsized role in public discourse, undermining scientific institutions and promoting anti-deliberative politics. This research underscores the role of participatory disinformation in the post-truth era and suggests that regulators, governments, and social media platforms work collaboratively to develop a whole-of-society framework to tackle misinformation.","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140595117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-02DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241243093
Jim Macnamara
The ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has changed society are the source of widespread discussion. But references to a ‘new normal’ are mostly confined to hybrid working and a possible four-day working week. Should future-scoping remain so narrow, a major opportunity for fundamental rethinking will be lost. This commentary seeks to take up and expand the argument of a 2021 article on the effects of COVID-19 by exploring the wider social implications and the opportunity presented by this existential crisis. Specifically, this critical analysis explores whether COVID-19 and its impacts have created a moment of liminality – a time of “transition during which the normal limits to thought are relaxed, opening the way to novelty and imagination, construction, and destruction” potentially leading to what Victor Turner refers to as communitas in which we can rethink the issues of our time and in which new social structures and understandings can form.
{"title":"The long now and liminality: Will we create communitas? A macro-social perspective of COVID-19","authors":"Jim Macnamara","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241243093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241243093","url":null,"abstract":"The ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has changed society are the source of widespread discussion. But references to a ‘new normal’ are mostly confined to hybrid working and a possible four-day working week. Should future-scoping remain so narrow, a major opportunity for fundamental rethinking will be lost. This commentary seeks to take up and expand the argument of a 2021 article on the effects of COVID-19 by exploring the wider social implications and the opportunity presented by this existential crisis. Specifically, this critical analysis explores whether COVID-19 and its impacts have created a moment of liminality – a time of “transition during which the normal limits to thought are relaxed, opening the way to novelty and imagination, construction, and destruction” potentially leading to what Victor Turner refers to as communitas in which we can rethink the issues of our time and in which new social structures and understandings can form.","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140594989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-15DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241239454
Nansong Zhou
In the 1990s, in China, arcade and console games were called “spiritual opium.” Why were video games labeled spiritual drugs, specifically opium, as opposed to other types of drugs? How did the mainstream media gradually depict video games as spiritual opium? The term “spiritual opium” carries profound historical and political connotations and is skillfully employed by media entities to disparage video games, fostering adverse perceptions among the populace. This scholarly inquiry delves into the cultural history of arcade and console games during this era. Historical and cultural methods were used to meticulously trace the genesis and evolution of the “spiritual opium” metaphor in the 1990s, scrutinizing the process through which video games were ensnared by this pejorative label. In addition, the paper also elucidates the “spiritual opium war,” a series of government-led campaigns against arcade and console games, including investigations, crackdowns on arcades, and reminiscent of Mao-era mobilizations. By doing so, this research fills a critical gap in the historiography of Chinese gaming, thereby enriching studies of the regional game industry and contributing to a broader understanding of the global gaming landscape. This article also shows how postsocialist states such as China navigate the challenges posed by the influx of video games and their perceived political threats and provides a nuanced understanding of state–media dynamics and cultural policy in postsocialist contexts.
{"title":"Spiritual opium and the spiritual opium war: a cultural history of arcade games and console games in 1990s China","authors":"Nansong Zhou","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241239454","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241239454","url":null,"abstract":"In the 1990s, in China, arcade and console games were called “spiritual opium.” Why were video games labeled spiritual drugs, specifically opium, as opposed to other types of drugs? How did the mainstream media gradually depict video games as spiritual opium? The term “spiritual opium” carries profound historical and political connotations and is skillfully employed by media entities to disparage video games, fostering adverse perceptions among the populace. This scholarly inquiry delves into the cultural history of arcade and console games during this era. Historical and cultural methods were used to meticulously trace the genesis and evolution of the “spiritual opium” metaphor in the 1990s, scrutinizing the process through which video games were ensnared by this pejorative label. In addition, the paper also elucidates the “spiritual opium war,” a series of government-led campaigns against arcade and console games, including investigations, crackdowns on arcades, and reminiscent of Mao-era mobilizations. By doing so, this research fills a critical gap in the historiography of Chinese gaming, thereby enriching studies of the regional game industry and contributing to a broader understanding of the global gaming landscape. This article also shows how postsocialist states such as China navigate the challenges posed by the influx of video games and their perceived political threats and provides a nuanced understanding of state–media dynamics and cultural policy in postsocialist contexts.","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140236903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-13DOI: 10.1177/1329878x241236984
Amelia Johns, Francesco Bailo, Emily Booth, Marian-Andrei Rizoiu
In this paper, we ask how effective Meta's content moderation strategy was on its flagship platform, Facebook, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse the performance of 18 Australian right-wing/anti-vaccination pages, posts and commenting sections collected between January 2019 and July 2021, and use engagement metrics and time series analysis to analyse the data, mapping key policy announcements against page performance. We combine this with content analysis of comments parsed from two public pages that overperformed in the time period. The results show that Meta's content moderation systems were partially effective, with previously high-performing pages showing steady decline. Nonetheless, some pages not only slipped through the net but overperformed, proving this strategy to be piecemeal and inconsistent. The analysis identifies trends that content labelling and ‘shadow banning’ accounts was resisted by these communities, who employed tactics to stay engaged on Facebook, while migrating some conversations to less moderated platforms.
{"title":"Labelling, shadow bans and community resistance: did meta's strategy to suppress rather than remove COVID misinformation and conspiracy theory on Facebook slow the spread?","authors":"Amelia Johns, Francesco Bailo, Emily Booth, Marian-Andrei Rizoiu","doi":"10.1177/1329878x241236984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x241236984","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we ask how effective Meta's content moderation strategy was on its flagship platform, Facebook, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse the performance of 18 Australian right-wing/anti-vaccination pages, posts and commenting sections collected between January 2019 and July 2021, and use engagement metrics and time series analysis to analyse the data, mapping key policy announcements against page performance. We combine this with content analysis of comments parsed from two public pages that overperformed in the time period. The results show that Meta's content moderation systems were partially effective, with previously high-performing pages showing steady decline. Nonetheless, some pages not only slipped through the net but overperformed, proving this strategy to be piecemeal and inconsistent. The analysis identifies trends that content labelling and ‘shadow banning’ accounts was resisted by these communities, who employed tactics to stay engaged on Facebook, while migrating some conversations to less moderated platforms.","PeriodicalId":46880,"journal":{"name":"Media International Australia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140148327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}