Content Analysis has been developed within communication science as a technique to analyze bodies of text for features or (recurring) themes, in order to identify cultural indicators, societal trends and issues. And while Content Analysis has seen a tremendous uptake across scientific disciplines, the advent of digital media has presented new challenges to the demarcation and study of content. Within Content Analysis, different strategies have been put forward to grapple with these dynamics. And although these approaches each present ways forward for the analysis of web content, they do not yet regard the vast differences between web platforms that serve content, which each have their own ‘technicities,’ e.g. carry their own (often visually undisclosed) formats and formatting, and output their own results and rankings. In this dissertation I therefore develop Networked Content Analysis as a term for such techniques of Content Analysis that are adapted specifically to the study of networked digital media content. The case in question is climate change, one of the major societal challenges of our times, which I study on the web and with search engines, on Wikipedia as well as Twitter. In all, my contribution provides footing for a return to the roots of Content Analysis and at the same time adds to its toolkit the necessary web- and platform-specific research techniques for creating a fine-grained picture of the climate change debate as it takes place across platforms.
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Climate change is one of the key societal challenges of our times, and its debate takes place across scientific disciplines and into the public realm, traversing platforms, sources, and fields of study. The analysis of such mediated debates has a strong tradition, which started in communication science and has since then been applied across a wide range of academic disciplines.So-called ‘content analysis’ provides a means to study (mass) media content in many media shapes and formats to retrieve signs of the zeitgeist, such as cultural phenomena, representation of certain groups, and the resonance of political viewpoints. In the era of big data and digital culture, in which websites and social media platforms produce massive amounts of content and network this through hyperlinks and social media buttons, content analysis needs to become adaptive to the many ways in which digital platforms and engines handle content.This book introduces Networked Content Analysis as a digital research approach, which offers ways forward for students and researchers who want to work with digital methods and tools to study online content. Besides providing a thorough theoretical framework, the book demonstrates new tools and methods for research through case studies that study the climate change debate with search engines, Twitter, and the encyclopedia project of Wikipedia.
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Climate change is now considered more than just an environmental issue, with far-reaching effects for society at large. While the exact implications of climate change for policing practice are still unknown, over the past two decades criminologists have anticipated that climate change will have a number of effects that will result in compromised safety and security. This article is informed by the outcome of a co-creation workshop with 16 practitioners and scholars of diverse backgrounds based in The Netherlands, who sought to conceptualize and systematize the existing knowledge on how climate change will most likely impact the professional practice of the Dutch (or any other) police. These challenges, with varying degrees of intensity, are observable at three main levels: the societal, organizational, and individual level. These levels cannot be separated neatly in practice but we use them as a structuring device, and to illustrate how dynamics on one level impact the others. This article aims to establish the precepts necessary to consider when exploring the intersection between climate change and policing. We conclude that much still needs to be done to ensure that the implications of climate change and the subject of policing are better aligned, and that climate change is recognized as an immediate challenge experienced on the ground and not treated as a distant, intangible phenomenon with possible future impacts. This starts with creating awareness about the possible ways in which it is already impacting the functioning of policing organizations, as well as their longer-term repercussions.
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