Title
Utopian or dystopian? The portrayal of the metaverse in popular news on social media
Abstract
The metaverse has sparked lots of interest worldwide as many giant tech companies are pursuing this futuristic idea. However, it has not been properly studied empirically by social science scholars yet. Considering the vital role played by media frames in affecting people's attitudes and behaviors towards the technology, this study examined the framing of the metaverse in popular news across Social Network Sites (SNSs) by cluster analyzing Entman's four operational frame elements. It identified five frames: economic prospect frame, unwanted future frame, consumer prospect frame, threatening future frame, and probable future frame. Overall, findings suggest a polarized framing of the metaverse on social media. While the majority of voices about the metaverse are optimistic, there is also a strong negative and dystopian perspective in more than one third of the SNS news. This positive or negative one-sided framing of the metaverse on SNSs may therefore fragmentize and polarize the audience, rather than informing in a balanced way. Implications for future research are discussed.
Keywords
MetaverseMedia framingTechnology framingTechnology communicationTechnology journalismHierarchy cluster analysis
Object type
Language
English [eng]
Persistent identifier
phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2042514
Appeared in
Title
Heliyon
Volume
9
Issue
4
ISSN
2405-8440
Issued
2023
Publication
Elsevier BV
Version type
Date issued
2023
Access rights
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