By Pierre Bourdieu (London: Routledge, 2010), xxx + 607 pp. £15.99 paper. A combination of social theory, statistical data, illustrations, and interviews, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judg...

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

Setting the Agenda: The Mass Media and Public Opinion

Despite major advances in vaccination over the past century, resurgence of vaccine-preventable illnesses has led the World Health Organization to identify vaccine hesitancy as a major threat to global health. Vaccine hesitancy may be fueled by health information obtained from a variety of sources, including new media such as the Internet and social media platforms. As access to technology has improved, social media has attained global penetrance. In contrast to traditional media, social media allow individuals to rapidly create and share content globally without editorial oversight. Users may self-select content streams, contributing to ideological isolation. As such, there are considerable public health concerns raised by anti-vaccination messaging on such platforms and the consequent potential for downstream vaccine hesitancy, including the compromise of public confidence in future vaccine development for novel pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2 for the prevention of COVID-19. In this review, we discuss the current position of social media platforms in propagating vaccine hesitancy and explore next steps in how social media may be used to improve health literacy and foster public trust in vaccination.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21645515.2020.1780846

Social media and vaccine hesitancy: new updates for the era of COVID-19 and globalized infectious diseases.

Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression

This article presents the findings of a discourse analysis carried out from November 2011 to February 2012 on two prominent association football (soccer) message boards that examined fans’ views toward racism in English football. After analyzing more than 500 posts, the article reveals the racist discourse used by some supporters in their online discussions and the extent to which the posts were either supported or contested by fellow posters. The overall findings are that social media sites such as fan message boards have allowed racist thoughts to flourish online, in particular by rejecting multiculturalism and Islam through the presentation of whiteness and national belonging and an outright hostility and resistance toward the Other. Despite this, the majority of posts that contained some form of racist discourse were openly challenged.

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Racism, Football Fans, and Online Message Boards: How Social Media Has Added a New Dimension to Racist Discourse in English Football

The rise of social media

Cyber hate is increasing. Every 30 seconds, a woman, somewhere, receives an abusive comment on Twitter (Amnesty International). And, it is estimated that around 20% of college students in the Unite...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0163443720972318

The virtual stages of hate: Using Goffman’s work to conceptualise the motivations for online hate:

Although English football has, to some extent, managed the problem of racism in and around football matches, recent years have seen an increase in football-related racist content published on social media. Footballers are frequently the target or subject of such abuse and occasionally the source of it. In this context, this article explores and critically assesses the response of English football’s institutions, organisations, and clubs to the problem of racism on social media. Its findings are based on interviews with key officials from the Professional Footballers’ Association and Kick It Out and with safeguarding and media officers from football clubs across the English Premier League and English Football League. It concludes there are a number of systematic failings undermining or hindering football’s attempts to address this issue including poor coordination, a lack of clear guidelines, ad hoc educational provision, a shortage of resources, and a culture of secrecy at many clubs. This article concludes with some recommendations about how these weaknesses may start to be improved.

/pdf/tackling-social-media-abuse-critically-assessing-english-wblj4gga0z.pdf

Tackling Social Media Abuse? Critically Assessing English Football’s Response to Online Racism:

Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. The Rise of Social Media Chapter 3. Managing Social Media Chapter 4. 'Race' and Racisms in a Digital World Chapter 5. Football, Racism and Social Media Chapter 6. Cricket, Racism and Social Media Chapter 7. Boxing, Racism and Social Media Chapter 8. US Sport, Racism and Social Media Chapter 9. The Way Forward

Sport, Racism and Social Media

Beginning with a theoretical discussion of race, sport and media, this book critically examines issues of race, racism and sports journalism and offers practical advice on sports reporting, including a discussion of guidelines for ethical journalism. In a series of case studies, representations of race will be explored through historical and contemporary analysis of international media coverage, including online and digital platforms. The background and impacts of these representations will also be discussed through interviews with athletes and sports journalists.

Subjects covered include:


cricket in the UK, Australian and Asian media, with particular focus on Pakistan
athletics and media representations of athletes, including a study of the reporting of South African runner Caster Semenya
football and the under-representation of British-Asians, with an analysis of how race is constructed in the digital arena
boxing with particular reference to Muhammad Ali, America and Islam
Formula One and analysis of the media reporting, international spectator response and racism towards Lewis Hamilton, described in the media as the first black driver.


Finally, the book will analyse the make-up of sports journalism, examining the causes and consequences of a lack of diversity within the profession.

Daniel Kilvington

Papers

The rise of social media

The virtual stages of hate: Using Goffman’s work to conceptualise the motivations for online hate:

Tackling Social Media Abuse? Critically Assessing English Football’s Response to Online Racism:

Sport, Racism and Social Media

Race, Racism and Sports Journalism