Which has more influence on perception of pseudo-therapies: the media’s information, friends or acquaintances opinion, or educational background?

Abstract

This study analyses the discourses of Education and Journalism students in order to understand their perception of complementary and alternative therapies. Likewise, to know if educational background or friends or acquaintances opinion has a more considerable influence on their knowledge and use of these socially controversial techniques than the media. This study uses qualitative research methods based upon 12 discussion groups with 102 participants. Once transcriptions were completed, discourse analysis was conducted using linguistic corpus software (T-LAB. 9.1.). In the design of the research, these students were selected for their social involvement in their future careers, such as when they are going to address or analyse scientific controversies, both in classrooms and media, or evidence-based medicine. Also, to complement the results of the qualitative study, and thus obtain more robust conclusions, this work compares the data collected in discussion groups, with results of a survey (quantitative research) administered to 718 students of Education, Journalism, Medicine and Nursing. One hand, the focus groups revealed that the information channels through which students learned about these therapies were by word of mouth and through networks of family members, friends and acquaintances and their digital equivalents, social networks and blogs. In all the discussion groups, a lack of scientific knowledge was detected. Second hand, survey results showed that the Education and Nursing students presented a higher level of acceptance of alternative therapies compared with the Medicine and Journalism students, who were the most unaccepting

Who Did the Top Media From Spain Started Following on Twitter? An Exploratory Data Analysis Case Study

“…The tendency to follow men grew in 2018 and slightly decreased in 2019, with a ratio close to 70% to 30% in all the 3 years we analyzed (Figure 12). This seems to be in line with the fact that men tend to be more represented and have more presence in the media and the news (Armstrong, 2004; Armstrong & Gao, 2011; Caro González et al, 2014; Len-Ríos et al, 2005; López González, 2002; Shor et al, 2015), and in line with the fact that most of the sources used by the media tend to belong to man (Armstrong, 2004; Armstrong & Gao, 2011; Armstrong & Nelson, 2005; Bustamante, 1994; de Bruin, 2014; De Swert & Hooghe, 2010; Moreno-Castro et al, 2019; Zoch & Van Slyke Turk, 1998; Figures 13 and 14).…”

“…These results also show concordance with previous research where it was found that despite the existence of a vast number of women experts in different areas (academia, business, science), they are usually much less consulted as experts or as sources than men (Caro González et al, 2014). There are many studies that demonstrate the fact that the media and journalists have predominantly used male sources over female sources over the years, which in turn has reinforced the male role in leadership and authority (Armstrong, 2004; Armstrong & Gao, 2011; Armstrong & Nelson, 2005; De Swert & Hooghe, 2010; Moreno-Castro et al, 2019; Zoch & Van Slyke Turk, 1998), as well as the mentioned overrepresentation of men in the core content of the news (Armstrong & Gao, 2011; Caro González et al, 2014; López González, 2002; Shor et al, 2015). In recent years, there has been an increase in female publishers and journalists (Caro González et al, 2014), however, in our study, we see how the media began to follow more men than women every year.…”

“…We analyzed whether the accounts that belonged to citizens (not institutions) were from men, women, or nonbinary citizens (Butler, 1988; Richards et al, 2016), in order to understand whether the accounts the media began to follow are gender-balanced or if they respond to other long-lasting patterns of media behavior in relation to gender, such as the disproportion in the use of male sources over female ones (Armstrong, 2004; Armstrong & Gao, 2011; Armstrong & Nelson, 2005; Bustamante, 1994; De Swert & Hooghe, 2010; Moreno-Castro et al, 2019; Zoch & Van Slyke Turk, 1998), or the unbalanced representation of men over women in the news and in the media (Armstrong, 2004; Armstrong & Gao, 2011; Caro González et al, 2014; Len-Ríos et al, 2005; López González, 2002; Shor et al, 2015), which could be related to the underrepresentation of women in power positions (Carli & Eagly, 2002; Connell, 2013; Kubu, 2017; Madsen & Andrade, 2018; Painter-Morland, 2011). We also crossed this data with the types of accounts and with the number of followers.…”

Who Did Spanish Politicians Start Following on Twitter? Homophilic Tendencies among the Political Elite

“…Men are given space in various and different roles and are often taken as referents and leaders in different fields, as there is a long association of masculinity and leadership (Aaldering and Van Der Pas 2018). Evidence of this is the media s gender bias in the use of a higher number of male sources in the most diverse areas, regardless of whether there are women leaders in the areas being consulted (Armstrong 2004;Armstrong and Gao 2011;Armstrong and Nelson 2005;Bustamante 1994;De Swert and Hooghe 2010;Moreno-Castro et al 2019;Zoch and Van Slyke Turk 1998). The results of this study propose the idea that women begin to be followed when they have an established role such as a political office, and men are taken as referents in a wider variety of fields.…”