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Prof Catherine Happer

@catherinehapper.bsky.social

260 followers 250 following 55 posts

Director, Glasgow University Media Group (GUMG). Sociologist charting the entanglement of media and communications with capitalist power. Climate, cost of living, crisis. Author of 'The Construction of Public Opinion in a Digital Age', MUP.

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Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Dec 10

Finally! My new book, The Construction of Public Opinion in a Digital Age is out, order it here: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526180223/
It offers a new perspective on digital media & social change, connecting the dots between media engagement, socio-economic conditions & lived experience.

Manchester University Press - The construction of public opinion in a digital age

The construction of public opinion in a digital age - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of The construction of public opinion in a digital age by Catherine Happer

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

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Reposted by Prof Catherine Happer

Steph Petrie @stephpet.bsky.social · Apr 18

youtube.com/post/UgkxaqG...

Post from Breezy Politics - YouTube

youtube.com

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · Apr 9

15. I cannot tell you how frustrating it has been, banging my head against this brick wall for so long. Despairing of better policy, I've now started stockpiling food. Though small compensation, it's good to know that industry insiders share my frustrations. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Britain’s food supply is precarious – and Trump’s chaos is spreading. I have a plan. Do you? | George Monbiot

I’ve started a stockpile, but that isn’t the answer. If crisis strikes, the government needs a strategy to protect us all, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshksi.bsky.social · Mar 16

Silicon Valley is coming for faculty governance. The vultures are circling the corpse of the neoliberal American university. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Screenshot from Heller’s article in latest New Yorker quoting donors targeting faculty

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Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Mar 6

On #WorldBookDay, and in the context of digital technologies slowly eroding our ability to source trusted information, here are two books I read recently which gave me a better insight into what is going on in the world right now than any media report.

Reposted by Prof Catherine Happer

Lindsey Macmillan @lindseymacmillan.bsky.social · Mar 6

📢 New report out today! 📢

➡️ Access the report here: repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeow/cepeo...

📊 What did we find?

🔸 Most of the socio-economic background (SEB) and ethnic inequalities in entry to professional occupations are driven by employer-side decisions made during the recruitment process

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Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 28

Not sure if it's just me but when I hear government representatives repeatedly state that 'the NHS is not on the table', I immediately assume that the NHS is on the table. #trump-starmer #tradedeal

Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 20

I've been thinking this for a while now. Google actually restricts your access to information, and asks that you do no thinking. It no longer has any use value.
The World's Largest Search Doesn't Want You to Search www.honest-broker.com/p/the-worlds...

The World's Largest Search Doesn't Want You to Search

Why is Google abandoning its core mission?

www.honest-broker.com

Reposted by Prof Catherine Happer

Paul Reilly @pauljreilly.bsky.social · Feb 20

wp.me/p3V8m9-ul

Fab interview with @cairsti.bsky.social on @freedomtorunfilm.bsky.social and her research on Israel-Palestine here cc @uofglasgow.bsky.social @uofgsocsci.bsky.social @docmediacentre.bsky.social

wp.me

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Andrew Hoskins @andrewhoskins.bsky.social · Feb 20

NEW BOOK OUT TODAY!!

SHARDED MEDIA
Trump’s Rage Against the Mainstream

@williammerrin.bsky.social

Tech bros, Trump and trolls, have not toxified the Mainstream Media...
they have replaced it.

link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

SHARDED MEDIA

This book shows how the election of Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2024 is not a fluke but rather a symptom of a deep crisis within representative democracy

link.springer.com

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Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 18

I'm doing an online seminar discussing my book, The Construction of Public Opinion in a Digital Age, next Wednesday (26th) at 2pm organised by the Centre for Science, Health & Data Comm Research @bournemouthuni.bsky.social All welcome: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-constr...

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

lnkd.in

Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 18

This sounds like a great idea....

Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 16

So it needs a far-reaching multi-factor plan to re-build trust and win consent for a new political programme. It’s not enough to expose propaganda and lies – though it’s a big part of it – but offer actual change & show there is commitment to delivering it. #Starmer is doing the opposite right now.

Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 16

Makes a key point on combatting the far right – winning public consent has been a gradual process of shifting public thought and perception via mainstream & social media, cultural institutions & narratives capitalising on decades of political failure. 1/ www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/metapolitics...

Metapolitics and the Battle for Europe’s Future

As the far right’s cultural influence grows, Sybren Kooistra dusts off Gramsci’s notes to shift the “climate of opinion”.

www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu

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Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 16

So RFK Jr’s promise to ‘make diets healthy again', ask how this sits with a government which is anti-regulation, anti-science, and pro-business (and by extension Big Food). Take each idea on its own merits. Expose the interests. Say what should be done.

Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 16

Great thread from @georgemonbiot.bsky.social on the ideological inconsistency & the false promises of the far right. As much as taking on the outright dangerous elements, journalists, politicians & leftists need to think carefully how to expose promises that sound right & speak to a wide public 1/

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · Feb 15

1. A common mistake is to look for ideological consistency on the far right, and to become confused when some of the things it claims to stand for sound positive and even progressive. Here’s a thread on how to understand this. 🧵

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Marta Cambronero @martacambro.bsky.social · Feb 14

This event seems great www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-constr.... It revolves around this book manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526180223/ by @catherinehapper.bsky.social.

I leave here the info in case someone might find it interesting.

The Construction of Public Opinion in a Digital Age

A new mode on how media and comms interact with politics, culture, and daily experience to construct people’s ideas.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 14

thank you!

Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 13

Media outlets all reporting 'welcome news' for the government as GDP grows - actually most people don't care about this, and this is not going to change the current position in respect of declining approval and the challenge from Reform at all.

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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · Feb 10

"Researchers find that the more people use AI at their job, the less critical thinking they use."

Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared”

Researchers find that the more people use AI at their job, the less critical thinking they use.

www.404media.co

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Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Feb 5

@labourlewis.bsky.social is very right. This is a government stuck in the thinking of a decade ago when the public have moved on - totally disconnected from the broken promises of neoliberal 'growth'. My work shows empirically how this only benefits the right.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I’m a Labour MP – but the government’s ‘growth’ mission reeks of panic | Clive Lewis

The decision to expand Heathrow is just the latest evidence that my party is chasing policies that serve profit, not people, says Labour MP Clive Lewis

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Prof Catherine Happer

Marc Owen Jones @marcowenjones.bsky.social · Feb 1

It's disturbing how legacy media outlets somehow normalise and legitimise the plausibility of DEI being a factor in the DC crash. Trump's sinister rhetoric should be seen as just that, not as a mantle on which to construct an illusion of "legitimate debate". It's horseshit, & should be seen as such

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Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Jan 29

Cuts at Cardiff University - up to 400 jobs - are absolutely horrifying. All sorts of potential impacts - reduction in trained nurses in Wales, in language scholarship, and the terrible human cost to individuals and communities. Where does Labour's obsession with growth fit with this? #cardiffUCU

Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Jan 29

Looking forward to speaking about my new book at the Centre for Climate & Data Science, Exeter tomorrow c3ds.ex.ac.uk. Climate and environment are very present in the book and the new six filter model of opinion formation I present within it is informed in part by my research on climate.

c3ds

c3ds.ex.ac.uk

Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Jan 28

It was a comparative point, but let's see if that holds up.

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Prof Catherine Happer @catherinehapper.bsky.social · Jan 28

I had been thinking that the unprecedented investment in AI had been a bit premature so not surprised to hear about #Deepseek. Good news for the planet, but my hope is it throws the whole agenda up in the air, or at least gives us pause to think - whose agenda? whose interests? - before we power on.

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