There has been considerable hype about filter bubbles and echo chambers influencing the views of information consumers. The fear is that these technologies are undermining democracy by swaying opinion and creating an uninformed, polarised populace. The literature in this space is mostly techno-centric, addressing the impact of technology. In contrast, our work is the first research in the information interaction field to examine changing viewpoints from a human-centric perspective. It provides a new understanding of view change and how we might support informed, autonomous view change behaviour. We interviewed 18 participants about a self-identified change of view, and the information touchpoints they engaged with along the way. In this paper we present the information types and sources that informed changes of viewpoint, and the ways in which our participants interacted with that information. We describe our findings in the context of the techno-centric literature and suggest principles for designing digital information environments that support user autonomy and reflection in viewpoint formation.
CCS CONCEPTS• Information systems~Users and interactive retrieval • Humancentered computing~Empirical studies in HCI • Information systems~Retrieval tasks and goals
Migration is one of the most pressing, divisive issues in global politics today, and media play a crucial role in how communities understand and respond. This study examines how UK newspapers (n = 974) and popular news websites (n = 1044) reported on asylum seekers throughout 2017. It contributes to previous literature in two important ways. First, by examining the 'new normal' of daily news coverage in the wake of the 2015 'refugee crisis' in Europe. Second, by looking at how asylum seekers from different regions are represented. The content analysis finds significant variations in how asylum seekers are reported, including terminology use and topics they are associated with. The paper also identifies important commonalities in how all asylum seekers are represented-most notably, the dominance of political elites as sources across all media content. It argues that Entman's 'cascade network model' can help to explain this, with elites in one country able to influence transnational reports. BEYOND THE 'REFUGEE CRISIS' their political agenda (KhosraviNik, 2009, 2010). Donald Trump credits his tough stance on refugees with helping him win the US Presidency, for example. And asylum seekers were one of the most salient issues during the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom, when the public narrowly voted to secede from the European Union. During the campaign, the 'Vote Leave' group frequently portrayed these migrants as both economic and security threats, setting boundaries between 'us' and 'them' (Stewart and Mason, 2016; Virdee and McGeever, 2018). Researchers have paid significant attention to the role of the news media in supporting and reinforcing negative depictions of refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and migrants. Studies show that news media frequently portray those seeking asylum as an economic and
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