Barbara Cyrek

In this paper, we have reviewed selected issues related to the metaverse concept, taking into account selected social, technological, and legal aspects. We focused on reviewing the newest literature on the metaverse topic published in the years 2020–2023. The database was gained through Google Scholar search, in order to check if any specific publishers or research areas are dominant among results provided by this search engine. The qualitative content analysis of the literature within the scope of technology, social sciences, and law, revealed the most promising and most threatening aspects of metaverse development and dissemination.

JEL: O3, K2, K4

* The article was developed within the framework of the project “Experience and immersive technologies – from creative practice to educational theory” in partnership with Jagiellonian University, Łódź Film School, University of Malta and University of Athens (project ID number: 2020-1-PL01-KA226-HE-095891).

The article presents different ways of reporting the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022 by three American TV stations: CNN, PBS, and Fox News. Our study covered and categorized Facebook posts published between February 24th and May 31st. The analysis revealed three main themes around which reports about the war have been focused: the United States, Ukraine, and Russia, each one was treated differently by each station. The article shows and discusses the differences between them. The article also presents the overall context of discussing the war in Ukraine, which, right after it started, consisted of three main perspectives: 1) reports from the battlefield; 2) words and actions of Biden, Zelensky, and Putin; and 3) sanctions on Russia.

Livestreaming is an opportunity to participate in digital social life, both for streamers and their audience. This participation is associated with the possibility of spreading content considered as socially harmful. Although trash streams have been popular in Central Europe for several years, they are still not fully characterized. Previous studies define them rather operationally – for the needs of a given analysis. This study fills that gap. Based on long-term observation of trash streamers activity and review of the literature and press reports, the authors provide a comprehensive description of trash streams pointing to differences in nomenclature used in Poland and worldwide. The article also provides methodological guidelines for the analysis of trash streams. The authors developed these guidelines on the basis of the analysis of the literature and their own research experience.

The study depicts ways used in CNN news portal to portray Russian aggression of Ukraine in 2022, on the example of “Russia-Ukraine News” headlines, published in September 2022. Using both quantitative and qualitative analysis, author revealed most common means of portraying the war, as well as sources most often referred to. Additionally, the study covers categorization of news provided by CNN themselves.

Live video streaming on YouTube – management of a hateful content

The purpose of the article is to characterize current issues related to the occurrence of hate speech in live broadcasts on YouTube. Adding more tools to make the platform more attractive to users also gives new opportunities to spread hateful content. Platform policy must be constantly evolving, and subsequent regulations are widely commented on by both advertisers and users. For live broadcasts, real-time control requires automated solutions that are sometimes fallible.

 JEL: L82, Z19

The image of veganism and vegetarianism on YouTube from the perspective of media studies

The aim of the article is to characterize the image of veganism and vegetarianism emerging from the most popular videos dealing with these issues, published on the Polish version of YouTube, as well as to indicate the role of the search engine in creating this image. The analysis covered a multi-hour video material, which consists of several dozen films suggested by YouTube in the search results for the slogans “veganism”, “vegan diet”, “vegetarianism” and “vegetarian diet”.

Keywords: social media, social networking sites, search engine, video materials analysis, YouTube algorithm.

Streszczenie
Celem artykułu jest charakterystyka obrazu weganizmu i wegetarianizmu wyłaniającego się z najpopularniejszych filmów podejmujących te zagadnienia, opublikowanych w polskiej wersji serwisu YouTube, a także wskazanie roli wyszukiwarki w kreowaniu tego obrazu. Analizie poddano wielogodzinny materiał wideo, na który składa się kilkadziesiąt filmów proponowanych przez serwis YouTube w wynikach wyszukiwania dla haseł „weganizm”, „dieta wegańska”, „wegetarianizm” oraz „dieta wegetariańska”.

• RADIOWA INTEGRACJA: Marta Jas-Koziarkiewicz: Euranet Plus – europejski głos w Twoim domu. Radio w procesie europeizacji (Agnieszka Szymańska); 
   
• GEOPOLITYKA I PROPAGANDA: Robert Rajczyk: Współczesne oblicza propagandy. Przypadek chińsko-tajwańskiej wojny informacyjnej (Michał Bukowski);  
   
• NOWY WSPANIAŁY ŚWIAT ALGORYTMÓW: Jan Kreft: Władza algorytmów. U źródeł potęgi Google i Facebooka (Barbara Cyrek). 

The social network(ing) YouTube – towards the classification of the site

The aim of the article is to systematize knowledge about YouTube within the frames of social communication and media sciences. The review of literature showed problems of a terminological nature. Researchers do not agree on how to define and what terms to use to describe YouTube. The site is sometimes classifi ed as a video sharing site or digital archive. Many authors making deeper divisions within social media do not classify this site as a social networking site, although – as demonstrated in this article – it has the vast majority of the constitutive features attributed to social networking sites in the scientific literature.