The essence of a democratic process is the guarantee that citizens have free and easy access to public information. How can that be made possible and how can people learn to use that information critically? In earlier papers (Boef, et.al. 2008 and 2009), we discussed the relationship between public library, press and the free access to relevant information. In this paper, we concentrate on the role of journalistic media in making public information accessible for the citizen. Our starting point is the fact that the citizen, in shaping her or his position in relation to political and other societal issues needs fewer opinions of others, but more reliable information; verified and certified by professionals. That way, the citizen will become enabled to create and to ground his or her opinion. Based on that solid foundation, opinions and comments of others can be appreciated and rated. Finally, we will discuss the ongoing process of the disappearing of independent media and the negative effect on the democratic process, and hence the need for a new generation of Internet savvy civil journalists.
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The annual publication (since 1995) of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International (TI) Secretariat in Berlin, gives the scores of the perceptions which selected observers have of the prevalence of corruption in their countries. They do not report about facts. Moreover, these observers are not at random chosen from whatever universum of respondents. Those contributing are predominantly male, between 25 and 50 years of age, well-paid and expatriate, white collar workers, with diplomas of MBA and similar studies, anglophone. Perceptions of women, poor, locals, blue collar workers, francophone and lusophone, are predominantly missing. The automatic result is that rich countries rank in the top, are perceived as less corrupt, ‘clean’. Poor countries rank at the bottom end of the list. The result is unreliable, unscientific, and should not be used – as is generally done by governments and the media – as a yardstick for the level of corruption in particular countries. (TI-Berlin has announced that beginning with the CPI of December 2012, it will use another methodology with more reliable results. As soon as this is published such information and comments will become available on this website).
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Este artículo busca señales de discursos de odio aparecidos en comentarios sobre el procés y el independentismo catalán publicados en las noticias en prensa sobre Lionel Messi en Madrid y en Barcelona (Abc, La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo, Marca, El mundo y As) en el periodo 2019-2021. Partiendo de 2.639 noticias con Messi en el titular, se usaron métodos cuantitativos para identificar los hilos con comentarios políticos para estudiarlos después a través de análisis cualitativo del discurso. Los resultados reflejan que en Madrid se usan noticias y comentarios sobre Messi para hablar del procés y del independentismo, mientras que en Barcelona (tanto medios como comentaristas) no relacionan al jugador con la política. Dos periódicos de Barcelona (La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo) y dos de Madrid (Marca y El mundo) reúnen los 12 hilos con más comentarios políticos en ambas ciudades: 487, en total. Su análisis revela que la prensa deportiva concita opiniones más diversas que la generalista y, por tanto, recoge más conflicto y más presencia de discursos de odio por ideología política. Los primeros mensajes (1-25) en los hilos de comentarios aparecen un 77% de las veces como los más seguidos y, por lo tanto, los usuarios que escriben primero influyen más. Esta investigación concluye que los discursos de odio se detectan más en estructuras y argumentaciones que en palabras concretas, pero su existencia no tiene por qué ser negativa y puede derivar en un efecto búmeran contra el propio mensaje de odio si aparece derrotado en la dinámica de intervenciones.This paper examines hate speech traces within comments about the Catalan independentist procés embedded in news published about Lionel Messi in Madrid’s and Barcelona’s online newspapers (Abc, La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo, Marca, El mundo, As) during the period 2019-2021. Starting from 2,639 news with Messi in the title, quantitative techniques were applied to identify those with the highest volume of political terms, and their comments’ threads were later studied in depth by means of qualitative discourse analysis. The results show that in Madrid news and comments about Messi are leveraged to discuss the procés, while in Barcelona both press and commenters refrain from tying politics to the footballer. Two newspapers from Barcelona (La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo) and two from Madrid (Marca, El mundo) gather the 12 threads with the highest prevalence of political comments: 487 in total. Their analysis reveals that opinions in sports newspapers are more diverse than in the general press and, consequently, show more conflict and more hate messages linked to opposing political views. The few first (1-25) of the threads’ comments turn out to be the most followed 77% of the times, making the users who comment first become more influential than the latecomers. This research concludes that hate speech appears more in structures and argumentations than in specific words, but their presence isn’t necessarily negative and can create a boomerang effect against the hate message if this becomes defeated during the subsequent online dispute.
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