“胖猫”事件后续

昨晚，官方通报“胖猫”事件详情，该事件再次引发热议。

有朋友留言，想要看互联网舆论或者传播学相关研究，今天就一起来看看。

🤔️小作业：

1. What is the primary purpose of the second paragraph in the passage?

A) To highlight the negative effects of social media

B) To present a balanced view of social media's impact

C) To criticize the widespread use of social media

D) To suggest ways to mitigate the harms of social media

A) To increase user interaction on the platform

B) To slow down the spread of misinformation

C) To promote conservative viewpoints

D) To reduce the overall number of retweets

无注释原文：

Can ❤️s change minds? How social media influences public opinion and news circulation

From: The Conversation, September 10, 2023

Social media use has been shown to decrease mental health and well-being, and to increase levels of political polarization.

②But social media also provides many benefits, including facilitating access to information, enabling connections with friends, serving as an outlet for expressing opinions and allowing news to be shared freely.

To maximize the benefits of social media while minimizing its harms, we need to better understand the different ways in which it affects us. Social science can contribute to this understanding. I recently conducted two studies with colleagues to investigate and disentangle some of the complex effects of social media.

Social media likes and public policy

In a recently published article, my co-researchers and I examined how social media endorsements, such as likes and retweets, can influence people's opinions on policy issues.

We conducted an experimental survey in 2020 with respondents from the United States, Italy and Ireland. In the study, we showed participants social media posts about COVID-19 and the tension between economic activity and public health. We then manipulated the perceived level of support within these social media posts.

Overall, we found that the perceived level of support of the social media posts did not affect participants' views — with one exception. Participants who reported using Facebook or Twitter for more than one hour a day did appear to be influenced. For these respondents, the perceived endorsements in the posts affected their policy preferences.

Social media metrics can be an important mechanism through which online influence occurs. Though not all users pay attention to these metrics, those that do can change their opinions as a result.

Active social media users in our survey were also more likely to report being politically engaged. They were more likely to have voted and discussed policy issues with friends and family (both online and offline) more frequently. These perceived metrics could, therefore, also have effects on politics and policy decisions.

Twitter's retweet change and news sharing

In October 2020, a few weeks before the U.S. presidential election, Twitter changed the functionality of its retweet button. The modified button prompted users to share a quote tweet instead, encouraging them to add their own commentary.

Twitter hoped that this change would encourage users to reflect on the content they were sharing and to slow down the spread of misinformation and false news.

In a recent working paper, my co-researcher Daniel Ershov and I investigated how Twitter's change to its user interface affected the spread of information on the platform.

We collected Twitter data for popular U.S. news outlets and examined what happened to their retweets after the change was implemented. Our study revealed that this change had significant effects on news diffusion: on average, retweets for news media outlets fell by over 15 per cent.

We then investigated whether the change affected all news media outlets to the same extent. We specifically examined whether media outlets where misinformation is more common were affected more by the change. We discovered this was not the case: the effect on these outlets was not greater than for outlets of higher journalistic quality (and if anything, the effects were slightly smaller).

A similar comparison revealed that left-wing news outlets were affected significantly more than right-wing outlets. The average drop in retweets for liberal outlets was more than 20 per cent, but the drop for conservative outlets was only five per cent. This occurred because conservative users changed their behaviour significantly less than liberal users.

Lastly, we also found that Twitter's policy affected visits to the websites of the news outlets affected, suggesting that the new policy had broad effects on the diffusion of news.

Understanding social media

These two studies underscore that seemingly simple features can have complex effects on user attitudes and media diffusion. Disentangling the specific features that make up social media and estimating their individual effects is key to understanding how social media affects us.

Like Instagram, Meta's new Threads platform allows users to hide the number of likes on posts. X, formerly Twitter, has just rolled out a similar feature by allowing paid users to hide their likes. These decisions can have important implications for political discourse within the new social network.

At the same time, subtle changes to platforms' design can have unintended consequences which depend on how users respond to these policies. Social scientists can play an important role in furthering our understanding of these nuanced effects of social media.

- ◆ -

注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为机器翻译并非一一对应，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Can ❤️s change minds? How social media influences public opinion and news circulation

From: The Conversation, September 10, 2023

Social media use has been shown to decrease mental health and well-being, and to increase levels of political polarization.

研究表明，使用社交媒体会对心理健康产生负面影响，降低幸福感，并加剧政治两极分化程度。

polarization /ˌpəʊ.lə.raɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ 表示“（尤指人或观点）两级分化”，英文解释为“the act of dividing something, especially something that contains different people or opinions, into two completely opposing groups”举个🌰：The polarization of society into rich and poor can clearly be seen in urban areas. 在都市地区可以清楚地看到社会贫富两极分化的现象。

But social media also provides many benefits, including facilitating access to information, enabling connections with friends, serving as an outlet for expressing opinions and allowing news to be shared freely.

然而，社交媒体也有许多优点，包括方便获取信息、与朋友建立联系、作为发表观点的渠道以及自由分享新闻。

facilitate /fəˈsɪl.ɪ.teɪt/ 表示“促进；促使；使便利”，英文解释为“to make something possible or easier”举个🌰：The new ramp will facilitate the entry of wheelchairs. 新坡道将方便轮椅进入。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述国内电动车行业的文章中提到：The state also facilitates the roll-out of advanced technical features for the benefit of the public at large. 政府也在提供便利来促进企业推出能造福普罗大众的先进技术功能。

outlet /ˈaʊt.let/ 或者outlets一词经常出现，media outlet / news outlets 都可以表示媒体/新闻机构；outlet本身表示“商店，商行；销售公司；专卖店；直销店”，英文解释为“An outlet is a shop or organization which sells the goods made by a particular manufacturer or at a discount price, often direct from the manufacturer.”如：a fast-food outlet 快餐店，a retail outlet 零售店，举个🌰：At the factory outlet you'll find discounted items at up to 75% off regular prices. 在工厂的直销店里，你会找到比常规价低75%的打折商品。

📍而我们日常生活中常见的“奥特莱斯”商场就是outlets的音译，指的就是品牌直销购物中心。

此外，也可以指“（情绪或精力的）发泄方式，发泄途径，施展的机会”，英文解释为“a way in which emotion or energy can be expressed or made use of”举个🌰：Her work provided no outlet for her energies and talents. 她的工作没有给她提供发泄精力及施展才华的机会。

📍美式英语里还可以表示“电源插座（同 power point）”。

To maximize the benefits of social media while minimizing its harms, we need to better understand the different ways in which it affects us. Social science can contribute to this understanding. I recently conducted two studies with colleagues to investigate and disentangle some of the complex effects of social media.

为了最大限度地发挥社交媒体的优点，同时将其危害降至最低，我们需要更好地理解社交媒体影响我们的不同方式。社会科学可以对此做出贡献。我最近与同事进行了两项研究，以探讨和理清社交媒体的一些复杂影响。

disentangle /ˌdɪs.ɪnˈtæŋ.ɡəl/ 表示“使脱离；使摆脱；分开；理顺，分清”，英文解释为“to separate things that have become joined or confused”举个🌰：It's difficult to disentangle hard fact from myth, or truth from lies. 要分清事实与神话、真理与谎言并不是一件容易的事。

Social media likes and public policy 社交媒体点赞和公共政策

In a recently published article, my co-researchers and I examined how social media endorsements, such as likes and retweets, can influence people's opinions on policy issues.

在最近发表的一篇文章中，我和合作研究者分析了社交媒体上的点赞和转发等背书行为如何影响人们对政策问题的看法。

endorsement /ɪnˈdɔːs.mənt/ 1）表示“支持，认可”，英文解释为“the act of saying that you approve of or support something or someone”

2）表示“名人为某商品做广告，名人代言”，英文解释为“the fact of a famous person appearing in an advertisement saying that they use and like a product”如：products that carry an endorsement from a celebrity 名人代言做广告的商品。

like /laɪk/ 表示“（在社交媒体上）点赞”，英文解释为“to show that you think something is good on a social networking website by clicking on a symbol or the word 'like'”

tweet作名词，表示“发布在推特上的信息”，其实指的就是“推文”，英文解释为“a short remark or piece of information published on Twitter”；

作动词，指的就是“发推文，发推特”（to publish a short remark or piece of information on Twitter），retweet就是转发推文，举个🌰：He tweeted that he was just about to meet the president. 他发推特说自己即将见到总统。

We conducted an experimental survey in 2020 with respondents from the United States, Italy and Ireland. In the study, we showed participants social media posts about COVID-19 and the tension between economic activity and public health. We then manipulated the perceived level of support within these social media posts.

我们在2020年对来自美国、意大利和爱尔兰的受访者进行了一项实验性调查。在这项研究中，我们向参与者展示了关于新冠疫情以及经济活动与公共卫生之间紧张关系的社交媒体帖子。然后，我们操纵了这些社交媒体帖子中所感知的支持度（点赞和转发数量）。

respondent /rɪˈspɒn.dənt/ 表示“回答者；答复者；应答者”，英文解释为“a person who answers a request for information”举个🌰：In a recent opinion poll, a majority of respondents were against nuclear weapons. 在最近的一次民意调查中，大多数调查对象表示反对发展核武器。

manipulate /məˈnɪp.jə.leɪt/ 1）表示“操纵，控制”，英文解释为“to control something or someone to your advantage, often unfairly or dishonestly”举个🌰：Throughout her career she has very successfully manipulated the media. 她在整个职业生涯中非常成功地控制了媒体。

2）表示“（用手）操纵，控制”，英文解释为“to control something using the hands”举个🌰：The wheelchair is designed so that it is easy to manipulate. 轮椅设计得很容易用手控制。

类似的还有一个词rig.

📍rig表示“（采取不正当的手段）操纵；对…做手脚”，英文解释为“to arrange dishonestly for the result of something, for example an election, to be changed”举个🌰：He said the election had been rigged. 他说选举被人操纵了。

perceive /pəˈsiːv/ 1）表示“感知，察觉，注意到，意识到”，英文解释为“to see something or someone, or to notice something that is obvious”举个🌰：He perceived a tiny figure in the distance. 他注意到远处有个很小的身影。

2）表示“认为；看待；视为”，英文解释为“to come to an opinion about something, or have a belief about something”举个🌰：How do the French perceive the British? 法国人是如何看待英国人的？

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述比特币的文章中提到：Scarcity is a trait of many things that are perceived to have value. 稀缺性正是许多被视为有价值的事物共有的特征。

Overall, we found that the perceived level of support of the social media posts did not affect participants' views — with one exception. Participants who reported using Facebook or Twitter for more than one hour a day did appear to be influenced. For these respondents, the perceived endorsements in the posts affected their policy preferences.

总体而言，我们发现社交媒体帖子的支持度并不影响参与者的观点，但有一个例外。每天使用脸书（Facebook）或推特（Twitter）超过一小时的参与者似乎受到了影响。对于这些受访者来说，帖子中的支持度影响了他们的政策偏好。

exception /ɪkˈsep.ʃən/ 表示“一般情况以外的人（或事物）；例外”，英文解释为“a person or thing that is not included in a general statement”举个🌰：Nobody had much money at the time and I was no exception. 那时候谁都没有很多钱，我也不例外。

📺美剧《绝望的主妇》（Desperate Housewives）中的台词提到：Rex and Bree Van de Kamp were no exception. 雷克斯和布里·范德坎普也不例外。

Social media metrics can be an important mechanism through which online influence occurs. Though not all users pay attention to these metrics, those that do can change their opinions as a result.

社交媒体指标可能是产生网络影响力的重要机制。尽管并非所有用户都会关注这些指标，但关注的用户会因此改变自己的观点。

metrics /ˈmetrɪks/ 表示“衡量指标；指标；度量”，英文解释为“Metrics are measures of quantitative assessment commonly used for comparing, and tracking performance or production.”

📍词源和词根：来自古希腊语的metrike，源于metron，意为「测量」。派生词：metric, metrical，常用短语：business metrics 商业指标。

Active social media users in our survey were also more likely to report being politically engaged. They were more likely to have voted and discussed policy issues with friends and family (both online and offline) more frequently. These perceived metrics could, therefore, also have effects on politics and policy decisions.

在我们的调查中，活跃的社交媒体用户也更有可能表示自己参与政治活动。他们更有可能投过票，也更经常与朋友和家人（线上和线下）讨论政策问题。因此，这些感知指标也会对政治和政策决策产生影响。

Twitter's retweet change and news sharing 推特转发变化和新闻传播

In October 2020, a few weeks before the U.S. presidential election, Twitter changed the functionality of its retweet button. The modified button prompted users to share a quote tweet instead, encouraging them to add their own commentary.

2020年10月，在美国总统大选前几周，推特更改了其转发按钮的功能。修改后的转发按钮鼓励用户添加自己的评论，而不是单纯引用原推文。

modify /ˈmɒd.ɪ.faɪ/ 表示“（稍作）修改，更改，改造，改变”，英文解释为“to change something such as a plan, opinion, law, or way of behaviour slightly, usually to improve it or make it more acceptable”举个🌰：The proposals were unpopular and were only accepted in a modified form. 这些建议不受欢迎，修改之后才得以接受。

prompt /prɒmpt/ 作名词，1）表示“（计算机屏幕上的）提示符（显示计算机已经准备好接受指令）”，英文解释为“a sign on a computer screen that shows that the computer is ready to receive your instructions”

📍在ChatGPT火热的今天，prompt通常指的是给模型的输入，用来激发或引导模型生成特定的输出或回答。简而言之，prompt是指用户提供给语言模型的一段文字或命令，以便模型据此理解用户的需求并给出相应的响应或信息。例如，在与像ChatGPT这样的大语言模型交互时，用户提出的问题或指令就是一个“prompt”。模型会根据这个prompt的内容分析、处理并生成回答或执行相关的任务。Prompt对于大语言模型来说是非常关键的，因为它直接决定了模型如何理解和回应用户的需求。

📍prompt中文里有译为“提示词”，prompt engineering 就是“提示工程/提示词工程”。

2）表示“（给演员的）提词，提白”，英文解释为“words that are spoken to an actor who has forgotten what he or she is going to say during the performance of a play”

3）作动词，表示“促使；导致；激起”，英文解释为“to make sb decide to do sth; to cause sth to happen”举个🌰：His speech prompted an angry outburst from a man in the crowd. 他的讲话激起了人群中一男子的愤怒。

📺美剧《斯巴达克斯：血与沙》（Spartacus: Blood and Sand）中的台词提到：One cannot but wonder what would prompt such an act 不知他们为何遭此不幸。

4）作动词，表示“（尤指）给（演员）提词”，英文解释为“to help someone, especially an actor, to remember what they were going to say or do”举个🌰：I forgot my line and had to be prompted. 我忘词了，只好让人提词。

quote /kwəʊt/ 可以作名词，也可以作动词，表示“引用，引述，援引”，英文解释为“to repeat the words that someone else has said or written”举个🌰：He's always quoting from LearnAndRecord. 他总是引用《LearnAndRecord》上的内容。

📍听听力时有时候会听到「quote... unquote」指的就是“引文起…引文止”，英文解释为“said to show that you are repeating someone else's words, especially if you do not agree”，可以理解为念的是引号内的内容，举个🌰：She says they're quote "just good friends" unquote. 她说她们，引号，“只是好朋友而已”，引号完。

commentary /ˈkɒm.ən.tər.i/ 表示“评论；评注；评述”，英文解释为“a set of written remarks on an event, book, or person that explains its subject or expresses an opinion on it”

Twitter hoped that this change would encourage users to reflect on the content they were sharing and to slow down the spread of misinformation and false news.

推特希望这一变化能鼓励用户对自己分享的内容进行反思，并减缓错误信息和虚假新闻的传播。

In a recent working paper, my co-researcher Daniel Ershov and I investigated how Twitter's change to its user interface affected the spread of information on the platform.

在最近的一篇研究报告中，我和我的合作研究者丹尼尔·埃尔绍夫（Daniel Ershov）分析了推特对其用户界面所做的改变如何影响平台上的信息传播。

user interface /ˌjuː.zər ˈɪn.tə.feɪs/ 表示“用户界面”，英文解释为“the way in which the information on a computer, phone, etc. and instructions on how to use it are arranged on the screen and shown to the user ”举个🌰：Menus are important interactive components of most user interfaces. 菜单是大多数用户界面的重要交互组件。

interface /ˈɪn.tə.feɪs/ 表示“接口；界面”，英文解释为“a connection between two pieces of electronic equipment, or between a person and a computer”举个🌰：My computer has a network interface, which allows me to get to other computers. 我的计算机有网络接口，可以与其他计算机连在一起。

We collected Twitter data for popular U.S. news outlets and examined what happened to their retweets after the change was implemented. Our study revealed that this change had significant effects on news diffusion: on average, retweets for news media outlets fell by over 15 per cent.

我们收集了美国热门新闻媒体的推特数据，并研究了转发按钮变化后这些媒体的转发情况。我们的研究表明，这一变化对新闻传播产生了重大影响：平均而言，新闻媒体的转发量下降了15%以上。

diffusion /dɪˈfjuː.ʒən/ 1）表示“扩散；传播；散布”，英文解释为“the action of spreading in many directions”举个🌰：Powerful global institutions drive the diffusion of new technologies. 强大的全球机构推动了新技术的传播。

2）表示“（气体或液体的）扩散”，英文解释为“(of a gas or liquid) the process of spreading through or into a surrounding substance by mixing with it”如：the process of diffusion in gases/liquids/solids 气体/液体/固体中的扩散过程。

We then investigated whether the change affected all news media outlets to the same extent. We specifically examined whether media outlets where misinformation is more common were affected more by the change. We discovered this was not the case: the effect on these outlets was not greater than for outlets of higher journalistic quality (and if anything, the effects were slightly smaller).

我们随后调查了这一变化是否对所有新闻媒体产生了相同程度的影响。我们特别研究了错误信息更常见的媒体是否受这一变化的影响更大。我们发现情况并非如此：对这些媒体的影响并不比对新闻质量较高媒体的影响大（实际上，影响还略微小一些）。

A similar comparison revealed that left-wing news outlets were affected significantly more than right-wing outlets. The average drop in retweets for liberal outlets was more than 20 per cent, but the drop for conservative outlets was only five per cent. This occurred because conservative users changed their behaviour significantly less than liberal users.

类似的比较显示，左翼新闻媒体受到的影响明显大于右翼媒体。自由派媒体的转发量平均下降了20%以上，而保守派媒体的转发量仅下降了5%。出现这种情况的原因是保守派用户的行为变化明显小于自由派用户的行为变化。

left-wing /ˌleft ˈwɪŋ/ 表示“左翼的，左派的，左倾的”，英文解释为“supporting the political left; relating to the belief that wealth and power should be shared between all parts of society”举个🌰：Her views are fairly left-wing. 她的观点相当左倾。

liberal /ˈlɪb.ər.əl/ 作形容词，表示“自由开放的，开放的，开明的”，英文解释为“respecting and allowing many different types of beliefs or behaviour”如：a liberal society/attitude 自由开放的社会/态度。

作名词，表示“自由主义者”，英文解释为“someone who respects many different types of beliefs or behaviour”举个🌰：He's a good old-fashioned liberal. 他是个老式的自由主义者。

📍Liberal 特指“（旧时）英国自由党成员；（英国以外国家的）自由党成员”，英文解释为“a member of the British Liberal Party in the past, or of a Liberal Party in another country”

conservative /kənˈsɜː.və.tɪv/ 作名词，表示“保守党，保守派”，作形容词，表示“保守的；守旧的”，英文解释为“not usually liking or trusting change, especially sudden change”如：a conservative society/outlook 保守的社会/观念。

Conservative 表示“（英国）保守党的”，英文解释为“belonging to or supporting the British political party that traditionally supports business and opposes high taxes and government involvement in industry”如：the Conservative Party 保守党，Conservative policies 保守党奉行的政策。

Lastly, we also found that Twitter's policy affected visits to the websites of the news outlets affected, suggesting that the new policy had broad effects on the diffusion of news.

最后，我们还发现，推特的策略影响了受影响新闻媒体网站的访问量，这表明新策略对新闻传播产生了广泛的影响。

Understanding social media 理解社交媒体

These two studies underscore that seemingly simple features can have complex effects on user attitudes and media diffusion. Disentangling the specific features that make up social media and estimating their individual effects is key to understanding how social media affects us.

这两项研究强调，看似简单的功能会对用户态度和媒体传播产生复杂的影响。解析构成社交媒体的具体功能并估计其各自的影响是理解社交媒体如何影响我们的关键。

underscore /ˌʌn.dəˈskɔːr/ 表示“突出显示；强调”，英文解释为“If something such as an action or an event underscores another, it draws attention to the other thing and emphasizes its importance.”举个🌰：The figures underscore the state of the economic recovery.数据突出显示了经济复苏的状态。

🎬电影《笔下求生》（Stranger Than Fiction）中的台词提到：lts desperate attempts to escape... only underscore the hopelessness of its plight. 它绝望的挣扎 只能强调它无望的处境。

Like Instagram, Meta's new Threads platform allows users to hide the number of likes on posts. X, formerly Twitter, has just rolled out a similar feature by allowing paid users to hide their likes. These decisions can have important implications for political discourse within the new social network.

与Instagram一样，Meta的新平台Threads允许用户隐藏帖子的点赞数。X（推特前身）刚刚推出了类似的功能，允许付费用户隐藏自己的点赞数。这些决定可能会对新社交网络中的政治话语产生重要影响。

表示“推出（新产品或服务）”，英文解释为“If a company rolls out a new product or service, or if the product or service rolls out, it is made available to the public.”举个🌰：Microsoft rolls out its new operating system. 微软推出了它的新操作系统。

📍此外，roll out还有另一个含义，表示“将…轧平”，英文解释为“to make sth flat by pushing sth over it”举个🌰：Roll out the pastry. 将油酥面团擀平。

🎬电影《老爸上战场》（Dad's Army）中刚好有这个例句：Shall I roll out the pastry?  我要把面团轧平吗？

📍rollout作名词时，表示“首次提供（产品或服务）”，英文解释为“the act of making something, especially a product or service, available for the first time”举个🌰：Since its rollout in 2011, Wechat has gained billions of members. 自从2011年首次提供使用以来，微信已经吸引了数以亿计的用户。

📍2020年政府工作报告Part 12中就提到：We will support the rollout of e-commerce and express delivery services in rural areas to expand rural consumption. 支持电商、快递进农村，拓展农村消费。

implication /ˌɪm.plɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ 1）表示“可能的影响（或作用、结果）”，英文解释为“a possible effect or result of an action or a decision”举个🌰：The development of the site will have implications for the surrounding countryside. 这个地点的开发将会影响周围的乡村。

2）表示“含意；暗指，暗示”，英文解释为“an occasion when you seem to suggest something without saying it directly”举个🌰：From what she said, the implication was that they were splitting up. 她的话中暗示他们将要分手。

discourse /ˈdɪs.kɔːs/ 1）表示“论文；演讲”，英文解释为“a long and serious treatment or discussion of a subject in speech or writing”，如：a discourse on issues of gender equality 关于性别平等的论文。

2）表示“语篇；话语；对话；交流”，英文解释为“the use of language in speech and writing in order to produce meaning; language that is studied, usually in order to see how the different parts of a text are connected”

At the same time, subtle changes to platforms' design can have unintended consequences which depend on how users respond to these policies. Social scientists can play an important role in furthering our understanding of these nuanced effects of social media.

与此同时，平台设计的微妙变化也会产生意想不到的后果，这取决于用户对这些策略的反应。社会科学家可以发挥重要作用，帮助我们进一步理解社交媒体的这些微妙影响。

subtle /ˈsʌt.əl/ 表示“难以察觉，难以理解的；微妙的，细微的”，英文解释为“not easy to notice or understand unless you pay careful attention”举个🌰：The pictures are similar, but there are subtle differences between them. 这些图片很相似，但它们之间有细微的差别。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述企业发现AI难以实施的文章中提到：A more subtle problem is that of deciding what to use AI for. 一个更微妙的问题是决定AI派上什么用场。

nuanced /ˈnjuː.ɑːnst/ 形容词，是由它的名词 nuance /njuːˈɑːns/ 派生而来，表示“（在外表、意义、感觉、声音等上）有细微差別的”举个🌰：His London accent is very slightly nuanced by an occasional Russian pronunciation. 他的伦敦口音因而时而夹杂的俄语发音而略显不同。

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