Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Semiotics of Emoji: The Rise of Visual Language in the Age of the Internet
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1041
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i4.1041
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 4
Pages: 75-78
Author-Name: Laura Kerslake
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Author-Name: Rupert Wegerif
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Abstract: This paper reviews Marcel Danesi’s new book on the use of emoji in particular, and the use of visual language more generally. Danesi offers a number of interesting examples of emoji use, pointing out that their use has risen considerably in a number of contexts. He goes on to question how far emoji use can be extended by examining the structure of the emoji ‘language’. Overall this is an accessible book that presents a number of examples of visual languages and comments on the possibilities and challenges for visual language use against a backdrop of technological change.
Keywords: emoji; visual communication; semiotics; visual languages
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:4:p:75-78
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “I Set the Camera on the Handle of My Dresser”: Re-Matter-Ializing Social Media Visual Methods through a Case Study of Selfies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1057
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i4.1057
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 4
Pages: 65-74
Author-Name: Katie Warfield
Author-Workplace-Name: Journalism and Communication Studies, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada
Abstract: This article is a confession about research trouble and the start of a narrative of research rectification. I begin this article with a review of new materialist theory and methods broadly and specifically those that contribute insight into interviews and photo elicitation such as intra-views and posthuman visual methods. I then detail the research methodology I used for an empirical study conducted last year to look at what young women experience while taking selfies, or images of their face and body to be shared on social media. After this fairly procedural account, I return to my messy research notes and video recordings, and—rather than reread—I re-trace and re-matter-ialize one specific interview with one young woman using new materialist methods (intra-views and reading images horizontally) to reveal data that would otherwise not have been evidenced via my original humanist methods. Re-matter-ializing describes my process as a researcher re-visiting not only the discursive moments, but the affective encounters and the matter of the research assemblage; meaning I move beyond the spoken data to look at how the material-discursive-afffective assemblage or arrangment of the interview room, technologies of data recording, props in the room, and embodied interactions of the participants were entangled in and vital agents in the production of data. In conclusion I detail the benefits of a posthuman re-tracing: 1) an attentiveness to the complex human and non-human agents in a research assemblage, 2) a response-ability or ethical duty of researchers to not reduce the complexity of the phenomena they study, 3) the importance of affect in the research encounter especially in visual methods, and, 4) a questioning of the implicit assumption that—of all steps in a research program—methodology is the least malleable.
Keywords: intra-view; new materialism; photo elicitation; posthumanism; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:4:p:65-74
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digital-Networked Images as Personal Acts of Political Expression: New Categories for Meaning Formation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1065
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i4.1065
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 4
Pages: 51-64
Author-Name: Mona Kasra
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Drama, University of Virginia, USA
Abstract: This article examines the growing use of digital-networked images, specifically online self-portraits or “selfies”, as deliberate and personal acts of political expression and the ways in which meaning evolves and expands from their presence on the Internet. To understand the role of digital-networked images as a site for engaging in a personal and connective “visual” action that leads to formation of transient communities, the author analyzes the nude self-portrait of the young Egyptian woman Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, which during the Egyptian uprisings in 2011 drew attention across social media. As an object of analysis this image is a prime example of the use of digital-networked images in temporally intentional distribution, and as an instance of political enactment unique to this era. This article also explains the concept of participatory narratives as an ongoing process of meaning formation in the digital-networked image, shaped by the fluidity of the multiple and immediate textual narratives, visual derivatives, re-appropriation, and remixes contributed by other interested viewers. The online circulation of digital-networked images in fact culminates in a flow of ever-changing and overarching narratives, broadening the contextual scope around which images are traditionally viewed.
Keywords: Arab Spring; feminist art; online images; political expression; self-portrait; selfies; social media; visual communication
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:4:p:51-64
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Showing/Sharing: Analysing Visual Communication from a Praxeological Perspective
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1075
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i4.1075
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 4
Pages: 37-50
Author-Name: Maria Schreiber
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: This contribution proposes a methodological framework for empirical research into visual practices on social media. The framework identifies practices, pictures and platforms as relevant dimensions of analysis. It is mainly developed within, and is compatible with qualitative, interpretive approaches which focus on visual communication as part of everyday personal communicative practices. Two screenshots from Instagram and Facebook are introduced as empirical examples to investigate collaborative practices of meaning-making relating to pictures on social media. While social media seems to augment reflexive, processual practices of negotiating identities, visual media, in particular, amps up aesthetic, ambivalent and embodied dimensions within these practices.
Keywords: Facebook; iconography/iconology; Instagram; Internet research; media practices; practice theory; qualitative research; social media; visual communication; visual methods
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:4:p:37-50
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Visual Discourse of Protest Movements on Twitter: The Case of Hong Kong 2014
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1020
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i4.1020
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 4
Pages: 26-36
Author-Name: Irmgard Wetzstein
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: The article presents the results of a qualitative documentary image interpretation of the visual discourse of the Hong Kong protests on the Twitter hashtag #hongkongprotests. Visual thematic patterns, the actors depicted, and the relations between actors as well as visual perspectives were analyzed to derive the function of visual images and to give insights into visual protest storytelling. Visuals and image-text relations in Tweets within #hongkongprotests revealed an application of images in clear favor of the protest movement taking an ‘at the scene’/‘on the ground’ perspective, with media workers being active in front of the camera rather than mere observers behind the camera. While the approach used proved to be suitable for the research project, the research design comes with some limitations, for example in terms of the non-generalizability of results.
Keywords: documentary image interpretation; Hong Kong; protest movement; social media; Twitter; visual discourse
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:4:p:26-36
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Political Storytelling on Instagram: Key Aspects of Alexander Van der Bellen’s Successful 2016 Presidential Election Campaign
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1062
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i4.1062
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 4
Pages: 15-25
Author-Name: Karin Liebhart
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria
Author-Name: Petra Bernhardt
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: This article addresses the strategic use of Instagram in election campaigns for the office of the Austrian Federal President in 2016. Based on a comprehensive visual analysis of 504 Instagram posts from Green-backed but independent presidential candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, who resulted as winner after almost one year of campaigning, this contribution reconstructs key aspects of digital storytelling on Instagram. By identifying relevant image types central to the self-representation of the candidate, this article shows how a politician makes use of a digital platform in order to project and manage desired images. The salience of image types allows for the reconstruction of underlying visual strategies: (1) the highlighting of the candidate’s biography (biographical strategy), (2) the presentation of his campaign team (team strategy), and (3) the presentation of the candidate as a legitimate office holder (incumbent strategy). The article thus sheds light on visual aspects of digital storytelling as relevant factor of political communication.
Keywords: digital platforms; Instagram; political communication; presidential election campaigns; storytelling; visual imagery; visual strategies
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:4:p:15-25
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Brand New Images? Implications of Instagram Photography for Place Branding
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1053
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i4.1053
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 4
Pages: 6-14
Author-Name: Åsa Thelander
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Strategic Communication, Lund University, Sweden
Author-Name: Cecilia Cassinger
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Strategic Communication, Lund University, Sweden
Abstract: The aim of this article is to develop an understanding of what happens when Instagram photography is used for branding a place. Questions raised are which photographs are taken and published, does the practice result in novel ways of representing a place, and, in turn the image of a place. A practice approach to photography is used where focus is directed to the performative aspect of photography. Fifteen qualitative interviews were conducted with participants in an Instagram takeover project concerning their photographs. The study shows that adopting a communication strategy based on visual social media is dependent on the participants’ competencies and that it is embedded in everyday life. Moreover, the participants’ photographic practices were found to be influenced by social conventions, which resulted in the city being imagined differently by different participants. To use visual social media such as Instagram for branding purposes does not necessarily mean that novel images are generated, but that they are choreographed according to the conditions of Instagram as medium.
Keywords: Instagram; photography; place branding; practice; social media; strategic communication; visual
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:4:p:6-14
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Introduction to Visual Communication in the Age of Social Media: Conceptual, Theoretical and Methodological Challenges
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1263
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i4.1263
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 4
Pages: 1-5
Author-Name: Uta Russmann
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Marketing & Sales, FHWien der WKW University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication, Austria
Author-Name: Jakob Svensson
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Arts & Communication (K3), Malmö University, Sweden
Abstract: This thematic issue of Media and Communication focuses attention on the shift towards visual images on social media as well as the transformation of visual communication which has occurred within the online ecology of social media platforms. The sharing of images is becoming an integral part of the social media experience today, and given that social media platforms are the prime locus for sociability—at least among young people in the West—this shift towards visuals arguably transforms how we relate to each other and the world around us, as well as how we perceive and construct our sense of self. For researchers, this raises conceptual, theoretical and methodological challenges. This thematic issue presents six articles as well as a book review on visual communication in social media focusing on developing a conceptual apparatus and precise definitions of objects and practices of study as well as contributions that address and discuss the methodological challenges as well as their potential solutions. The idea was to synergize research from a wide variety of communication-related disciplines on this rather new topic.
Keywords: images; Instagram; Facebook; practices; qualitative methods; Twitter; visual communication; visual social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:4:p:1-5
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: International Federation of Free Journalists: Opposing Communist Propaganda During the Cold War
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1049
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.1049
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 103-106
Author-Name: Martin Nekola
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, Czech Republic
Abstract: The topic of supranational organizations of East-European émigrés during the Cold War still remains a lesser-known topic. There were a number of anti-Communist organizations between 1948–1989, consisting of former politicians, diplomats, soldiers, lawyers or academics from behind the Iron Curtain. The community of exiled journalists was represented by the International Federation of Free Journalists, officially founded in November 1948 in Paris by delegates from twelve nations. Its membership base soon grew to 1,400 people. The Federation warned the Western public against the injustices, false propaganda and the red terror in Eastern Europe for four decades.
Keywords: anti-Communism; Cold War; exile; international; Iron Curtain; journalism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:103-106
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Story of Journalist Organizations in Czechoslovakia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1042
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.1042
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 95-102
Author-Name: Markéta Ševčíková
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, Czech Republic
Author-Name: Kaarle Nordenstreng
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland
Abstract: This article reviews the political history of Czechoslovakia as a vital part of the Soviet-dominated “Communist bloc” and its repercussions for the journalist associations based in the country. Following an eventful history since 1918, Czechoslovakia changed in 1948 from a liberal democracy into a Communist regime. This had significant consequences for journalists and their national union and also for the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ), which had just established its headquarters in Prague. The second historical event to shake the political system was the “Prague Spring” of 1968 and its aftermath among journalists and their unions. The third landmark was the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989, which played a significant part in the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and led to the closing of the old Union of Journalists in 1990, followed by the founding of a new Syndicate which refused to serve as the host of the IOJ. This led to a gradual disintegration and the closing down of what in the 1980s was the world’s largest non-governmental organization in the media field.
Keywords: Cold War; communism; Czechoslovakia; International Organization of Journalists; journalism; union of journalists
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:95-102
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Rocky Road towards Professional Autonomy: The Estonian Journalists’ Organization in the Political Turmoil of the 20th Century
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1046
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.1046
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 85-94
Author-Name: Epp Lauk
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Abstract: This article attempts to explain the relationships between journalists, politics and the state from the perspective of collective autonomy, that of the professional organization of journalists. The case of Estonian Journalists’ Union demonstrates the complexity and historical contingency of professional autonomy of journalism. The development of the Estonian journalists’ organization occurred as a sequence of transformations from the Estonian Journalists’ Association to the Estonian Journalists’ Union to the Soviet type journalists’ union, and lastly to an independent trade union. This sequence was disrupted by several fatal breakdowns that changed not only the character of the association, but also professional values, the whole occupational ideology and the conditions of the existence of journalism as a profession in Estonia.
Keywords: Estonian Journalists’ Organization; history; journalists; politics; professional autonomy
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:85-94
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Journalists’ Associations in Poland Before and After 1980
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/997
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.997
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 79-84
Author-Name: Wojciech Furman
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, University of Rzeszow, Poland
Abstract: Even under the authoritarian political system, the Association of Polish Journalists was able to achieve a certain level of independence. Journalists sought to use any possibility to expand the area of their freedom; however, the more possibilities arose, the bigger were differences of opinions about the ways and means of democratization. Contemporary arguments between diverse journalists’ associations in Poland reveal how difficult it is to separate a common concern for professional journalism from political divisions.
Keywords: association; democratization; journalism; Poland; politics; professionalism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:79-84
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Cleansing among Czech Journalists after World War II and a Comparison with the Situation in France and the Netherlands
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1027
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.1027
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 70-78
Author-Name: Jan Cebe
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media Studies, Charles University, Czech Republic
Abstract: After the end of World War II Czechoslovakia was faced with the task of punishing its Nazi collaborators. Besides sentencing traitors by the special people’s courts, Czech journalists themselves also started the cleansing among their own ranks. The cleansing committee of the Czech Journalists’ Union investigated some 400 journalists and imposed some sort of penalties on more than 200 people. The article also presents a brief a comparison with the situation in France and the Netherlands. The cleansing among Czech journalists was very rigorous, even in comparison to other European countries. In contrast to Western countries, and due to the subsequent political developments, the journalists punished were often prohibited from resuming their profession.
Keywords: cleansing; collaboration; Czechia; France; journalists; media; Netherlands; WWII
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:70-78
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Journalists’ Associations as Political Instruments in Central and Eastern Europe
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1177
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.1177
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 67-69
Author-Name: Epp Lauk
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Humanities, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Author-Name: Kaarle Nordenstreng
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland
Abstract: This editorial provides the overall context for the five cases—three national and two international—covered in this thematic issue. While the cases are from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), they highlight fundamental questions of journalism everywhere, including contradictions between freedom and control, professionalism and politics, individual and collective. The associations of journalists serve as very useful platforms to study these questions, especially at historical turning points when the whole political system changed, as happened twice in CEE after World War II.
Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe; journalism; journalist associations; political control; professionalism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:67-69
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Media Activism as Movement? Collective Identity Formation in the World Forum of Free Media
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1034
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.1034
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 59-66
Author-Name: Hilde C. Stephansen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of History, Sociology and Criminology, University of Westminster, UK
Abstract: More than simply tools used by social movements to reach other substantive aims, media are increasingly becoming subjects of activism. This article contributes to advancing understanding of such media-focused activism through a case study of the World Forum of Free Media, a thematic forum for media activists and media advocacy organisations linked to the World Social Forum. Based on qualitative research conducted between 2008 and 2016—including participant observation, in-depth interviews and textual analysis—the article critically explores the extent to which the World Forum of Free Media can be considered a ‘free media’ movement in the making, and examines some of the challenges and contradictions that such a movement-building project entails. Drawing on social movement theory, specifically the concept of collective identity, it analyses efforts by forum organisers to mobilise a very diverse range of actors—from alternative media activists to policy- and advocacy NGOs—around a plural and inclusive ‘free media’ identity. While the World Forum of Free Media has to some extent succeeded in facilitating convergence around a set of core principles and ideas, it has so far struggled to develop a clear outwards-facing identity and mobilise a broad grassroots base.
Keywords: alternative media; collective identity; communication rights; FMML; media activism; media democracy movement; social movements; World Forum of Free Media; World Social Forum
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:59-66
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Forgetting History: Mediated Reflections on Occupy Wall Street
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/979
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.979
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 49-58
Author-Name: Michael S. Daubs
Author-Workplace-Name: School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Author-Name: Jeffrey Wimmer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media, Knowledge and Communication, University of Augsburg, Germany
Abstract: This study examines how Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors’ practices and stated understanding of media act on social perceptions of networked media. It stems from a discursive content analysis of online commentary from OWS protestors and supporters, using different sources from the first Adbusters blog in July 2011 until May 2012. We demonstrate how the belief in the myth of an egalitarian Internet was incorporated into the offline structure of OWS and led OWS participants to adopt rhetoric that distances the movement from past protest actions by stating the movement was “like the Internet”.
Keywords: discursive content analysis; media logic; mediatisation; Occupy Wall Street; protest movement
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:49-58
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: (De)Centralization of the Global Informational Ecosystem
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1067
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.1067
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 37-48
Author-Name: Johanna Möller
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany
Author-Name: M. Bjørn von Rimscha
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany
Abstract: Centralization and decentralization are key concepts in debates that focus on the (anti)democratic character of digital societies. Centralization is understood as the control over communication and data flows, and decentralization as giving it (back) to users. Communication and media research focuses on centralization put forward by dominant digital media platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and governments. Decentralization is investigated regarding its potential in civil society, i.e., hacktivism, (encryption) technologies, and grass-root technology movements. As content-based media companies increasingly engage with technology, they move into the focus of critical media studies. Moreover, as formerly nationally oriented companies now compete with global media platforms, they share several interests with civil society decentralization agents. Based on 26 qualitative interviews with leading media managers, we investigate (de)centralization strategies applied by content-oriented media companies. Theoretically, this perspective on media companies as agents of (de)centralization expands (de)centralization research beyond traditional democratic stakeholders by considering economic actors within the “global informational ecosystem” (Birkinbine, Gómez, & Wasko, 2017). We provide a three-dimensional framework to empirically investigate (de)centralization. From critical media studies, we borrow the (de)centralization of data and infrastructures, from media business research, the (de)centralization of content distribution.
Keywords: business models; centralization; content-oriented media companies; decentralization; digital media platforms; distribution; Facebook; Google; technology infrastructures
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:37-48
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Raging Against the Machine: Network Gatekeeping and Collective Action on Social Media Platforms
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/989
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.989
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 28-36
Author-Name: Sarah Myers West
Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, USA
Abstract: Social media platforms act as networked gatekeepers—by ranking, channeling, promoting, censoring, and deleting content they hold power to facilitate or hinder information flows. One of the mechanisms they use is content moderation, or the enforcement of which content is allowed or disallowed on the platform. Though content moderation relies on users’ labor to identify content to delete, users have little capacity to influence content policies or enforcement. Despite this, some social media users are turning to collective action campaigns, redirecting information flows by subverting the activities of moderators, raising the visibility of otherwise hidden moderation practices, and organizing constituencies in opposition to content policies. Drawing on the example of the campaign to change Facebook’s nudity policy, this paper examines the strategies and tactics of users turning to collective action, considering which factors are most influential in determining the success or failure of a campaign. It finds that network gatekeeping salience is a good model for assessing which collective action efforts are most likely to be effective in achieving individual user goals. This indicates that the users who are already most able to harness the attention economy of social media platforms are more likely to successfully navigate the content moderation process. The analysis concludes by attending to what users might learn from the dynamics of network gatekeeping as they seek to resist the asymmetrical power relations of platforms.
Keywords: collective action; content moderation; network gatekeeping; platforms; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:28-36
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Fan (Fiction) Acting on Media and the Politics of Appropriation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/990
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.990
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 15-27
Author-Name: Wolfgang Reißmann
Author-Workplace-Name: Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation”, University of Siegen, Germany
Author-Name: Moritz Stock
Author-Workplace-Name: Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation”, University of Siegen, Germany
Author-Name: Svenja Kaiser
Author-Workplace-Name: Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation”, University of Siegen, Germany
Author-Name: Vanessa Isenberg
Author-Workplace-Name: Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation”, University of Siegen, Germany
Author-Name: Jörg-Uwe Nieland
Author-Workplace-Name: Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation”, University of Siegen, Germany
Abstract: Fanfiction is the creative appropriation and transformation of existing popular media texts by fans who take stories, worlds and/or characters as starting points and create their own stories based on them. As a cultural field of practice, fanfiction questions prevalent concepts of individual authorship and proprietary of cultural goods. At the same time, fanfiction itself is challenged. Through processes of mediatization, fanfiction grew and became increasingly visible. Third parties, ranging from the media industry (e.g., film studios) and copyright holders to journalism and academia, are interested in fanfiction and are following its development. We regard fanfiction communities and fan acting as fields for experimentation and as discursive arenas which can help understand what appropriating, writing and publishing in a digital culture and the future of writing might look like. In this paper, we outline important debates on the legitimacy and nature of fanfiction and present preliminary results of current research within Germany.
Keywords: appropriation; collective and distributed authorship; commercialization; copyright; fanfiction; gift culture
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:15-27
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Variants of Interplay as Drivers of Media Change
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/971
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.971
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 5-14
Author-Name: Tilo Grenz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria
Author-Name: Paul Eisewicht
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Abstract: This article conceptualizes acting on media in terms of different interplays between focal actors, users, and user communities. It is argued that—in times of mediated visibility, the increasing entanglement of social and technological change, and accelerated feedback loops—arenas of negotiation emerge and therewith the complexities of relations between producers and users increases. Using insights from the fields of Wii hacking, Circuit Bending, and online poker tools, three variants of interplay are presented and discussed: integration, segregation, and permanent confrontation. Whilst a process-oriented perspective on reciprocal action is developed the paper contributes (a) to a balanced perspective on what is often a one-sided discussion regarding the actions leading to media change, and (b) to the understanding of the relation between media change and reflexive modernity.
Keywords: acting on media; digital infrastructures; feedback loop; hacking; interplay; mediated construction of reality; outlaw innovation; reflexive modernity; side-effects; unmanageable consumer
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:5-14
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Acting on Media: Influencing, Shaping and (Re)Configuring the Fabric of Everyday Life
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1165
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i3.1165
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 3
Pages: 1-4
Author-Name: Sigrid Kannengießer
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen, Germany
Author-Name: Sebastian Kubitschko
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen, Germany
Abstract: Computerization, digitalization and datafication are by far no neutral or self-dependent occurrences. They are, to a large degree, co-determined by heterogeneous actors who reflect about, construct, configure, manipulate or even control media. The contributors to this issue put the spotlight on these actors and investigate how they influence, shape and (re)configure broader social constellations. Instead of exploring what people do with media, the articles focus on the many ways individuals, civil society initiatives, corporations and social movements act on media. The notion of acting on media denotes the efforts of a wide range of actors to take an active part in the molding of media organizations, infrastructures and technologies that are part of the fabric of everyday life. Therefore, by conceptualizing acting on media as a form of political action, the issue aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on the media practice paradigm.
Keywords: acting on media; civil society organizations; media appropriation; media corporations; media practice; social movements
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:1-4
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Welcome to the Era of Fake News
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/977
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.977
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 87-89
Author-Name: Jonathan Albright
Author-Workplace-Name: Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, USA
Abstract: For the news industry, information is used to tell stories, which have traditionally been organized around “facts”. A growing problem, however, is that fact-based evidence is not relevant to a growing segment of the populace. Journalists need facts to tell stories, but they need data to understand how to engage audiences with this accurate information. The implementation of data is part of the solution to countering the erosion of trust and the decay of social discourse across networked spaces. Rather than following “trends”, news organizations should establish the groundwork to make facts “matter” by shaping the narrative instead of following deceptive statements.
Keywords: fake news; journalism; misinformation; politics
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:87-89
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Reinvention of Publishers’ Revenue Model—Expectations of Advertisers towards Publishers’ Products
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/845
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.845
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 77-86
Author-Name: Bianca Dennstedt
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Technology and Innovation Management, Helmut-Schmidt University, Germany
Author-Name: Hans Koller
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Technology and Innovation Management, Helmut-Schmidt University, Germany
Abstract: Publishers have to reconsider their revenue model. Facing a massive decline in the circulation of newspapers and magazines over the past years, publishers have lost not only readers but also many advertisers. Thus, publishers are faced with both changed customer expectations as well as difficulty in generating profit. Users are increasingly less willing to pay for digital products and their expectations of digital content have changed: They would like to contribute their own content as well as to comment or share with others. Furthermore, advertisers can choose from a greater variety of options for placing adverts, particularly on social media and other online platforms. Therefore, many publishers struggle with the questions: How to earn money? What is the revenue model of the new business model? In order to determine the implications for publishers’ revenue models, we assume that advertising companies are going to play a prominent role in the new business model. Hence, this paper focuses on publishers’ services for advertising companies and therefore the expectations of advertisers towards publishers’ services. In particular, this preliminary qualitative study explores advertisers’ marketing interests in communities of readers who simultaneously contribute to discussions. Therefore, (1) a pre-study was conducted followed by (2) qualitative interviews with managers from advertising companies in Germany. Our initial findings confirm that advertisers could play an important role in the revenue model of publishers if they meet the expectations of advertisers who expressed their interest in both, using communities for customer research as well as interacting with users directly. The results also identify other possible services that publishers could offer advertisers in conjunction with addressing communities of contributing readers.
Keywords: advertisers; business model; digitalization; innovation; publishers
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:77-86
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Crises, Rumours and Reposts: Journalists’ Social Media Content Gathering and Verification Practices in Breaking News Situations
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/878
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.878
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 67-76
Author-Name: Klas Backholm
Author-Workplace-Name: Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Julian Ausserhofer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria, and Research Group Internet Policy & Governance, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Germany
Author-Name: Elsebeth Frey
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway
Author-Name: Anna Grøndahl Larsen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway
Author-Name: Harald Hornmoen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway
Author-Name: Joachim Högväg
Author-Workplace-Name: Experience Lab, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Author-Name: Gudrun Reimerth
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Design, FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences, Austria
Abstract: Social media (SoMe) platforms provide potentially important information for news journalists during everyday work and in crisis-related contexts. The aims of this study were (a) to map central journalistic challenges and emerging practices related to using SoMe for collecting and validating newsworthy content; and (b) to investigate how practices may contribute to a user-friendly design of a web-based SoMe content validation toolset. Interviews were carried out with 22 journalists from three European countries. Information about journalistic work tasks was also collected during a crisis training scenario (N = 5). Results showed that participants experienced challenges with filtering and estimating trustworthiness of SoMe content. These challenges were especially due to the vast overall amount of information, and the need to monitor several platforms simultaneously. To support improved situational awareness in journalistic work during crises, a user-friendly tool should provide content search results representing several media formats and gathered from a diversity of platforms, presented in easy-to-approach visualizations. The final decision-making about content and source trustworthiness should, however, remain as a manual journalistic task, as the sample would not trust an automated estimation based on tool algorithms.
Keywords: crisis; journalism; situational awareness; social media; usability; user-centred design; verification
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:67-76
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Historical Analysis of Media Practices and Technologies in Protest Movements: A Review of Crisis and Critique by Anne Kaun
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/976
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.976
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 64-66
Author-Name: Anne Laajalahti
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Abstract: Dr. Anne Kaun’s book, Crisis and Critique: A Brief History of Media Participation in Times of Crisis (London: Zed Books, 2016, 131 pp., ISBN: 978-1-78360-736-5), is a concise but comprehensive analysis of the changing media practices and technologies in protest movements. The book overviews the topic within the context of major economic crises and scrutinises three richly detailed case studies in the United States: (a) the unemployed workers’ movement during the Great Depression in the 1930s, (b) the tenants’ rent strike movement of the early 1970s, and (c) the Occupy Wall Street movement following the Great Recession of 2008. Kaun begins her book with an introduction to economic crises and protest movements and highlights the relationship of crisis and critique to media practices. She goes on to investigate historical forms of media participation in protest movements from three different perspectives: (a) protest time, (b) protest space, and (c) protest speed. The book contributes to the recent discussion on the emerging role of social media in protest by providing a historically nuanced analysis of the media participation in times of crisis. As a whole, the book is valuable to anyone interested in media and social activism.
Keywords: critique; economic crises; media history; media participation; media practices; media technologies; protest movements
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:64-66
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Political Participation and Power Relations in Egypt: The Scope of Newspapers and Social Network Sites
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/898
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.898
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 53-63
Author-Name: Mostafa Shehata
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University, Denmark
Abstract: The political use of media in Egypt post-2011 revolution brought about drastic transformations in political activism and power structures. In the context of communication power theory, this article investigates the effects of newspapers and social network sites on political participation and political power relations. The research employed a mixed methodology, comprised of a survey of 527 Egyptian youth and semi-structured interviews of 12 political activists and journalists. The results showed a significant relationship between reading newspapers and youth’s political participation, but not between using social network sites and political participation. In addition, newspapers and social network sites were platforms for a series of conflicts and coalitions that emerged between pro- and anti-revolution actors. Despite the importance of social network sites as key tools for informing and mobilizing the public, they eventually failed to empower new political actors, and this was because old actors, supported by newspapers and other mainstream media, managed to obstruct the new actors’ progress.
Keywords: communication power; Egyptian newspapers; Egyptian political actors; mediatization of politics; political participation; politicizing newspapers; power relations; social network sites
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:53-63
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Subjective Evaluation of Media Content as a Moderator of Media Effects on European Identity: Mere Exposure and the Hostile Media Phenomenon
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/885
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.885
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 41-52
Author-Name: Waqas Ejaz
Author-Workplace-Name: Empirical Media Research and Political Communication Department, Technical University of Ilmenau, Germany
Author-Name: Marco Bräuer
Author-Workplace-Name: Federal Office for the Family and Civil Society, Germany
Author-Name: Jens Wolling
Author-Workplace-Name: Empirical Media Research and Political Communication Department, Technical University of Ilmenau, Germany
Abstract: This paper posits that the concept of European identity is an important indicator of the legitimacy of the European Union (EU). It further assumes that the exposure to EU related media content can influence the feeling of European identity. In order to verify this assumption, we combined the mere-exposure-theory and the hostile media phenomenon. We assume that these theoretical concepts could help to understand the influence of media on people’s levels of attachment to the EU. Regression analyses are performed on secondary data that were collected in a Eurobarometer survey in 2013. Our findings revealed that media exposure affected the respondents’ identification with Europe, as well as the modifications of this effect based on their assessments of EU media coverage. The results of the current study not only validate assumptions about the mere-exposure effects on identity but also confirm the theoretical assumption that perceived hostility reduces such effects, whereas exposure to information that is perceived as neutral promotes the effects of media exposure on the feeling of European identity.
Keywords: collective identity; European identity; hostile media; mere-exposure effect
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:41-52
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Under the Influence: Advertisers’ Impact on the Content of Swiss Free Newspapers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/901
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.901
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 31-40
Author-Name: Colin Porlezza
Author-Workplace-Name: PMZ—Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract: The study focuses on whether and to what extent advertisers influence the editorial content of free newspapers in the German part of Switzerland. The contribution analyzes, grounded on an historic approach, the most competitive period in Switzerland, 2008, when not less than five freesheets were competing for advertisers and public attention. By using Altmeppen’s (2006) organizational theory, the paper offers a theoretical frame able to describe the vanishing co-orientation between the media management and the newsroom, a trend that aggravates commercialization processes in news organizations. In a situation of economic turmoil, so the hypothesis, newsrooms are more inclined to positively adapt the valence of their coverage about their main advertisers in order to keep them in the portfolio. Using a content analysis, the author examined the editorial coverage of six among the most important advertisers of Swiss free newspapers, carrying out an aggregated statistical analysis based on logistic regression. The study revealed that free newspapers with a strong market orientation display a higher chance to publish positive facts and evaluations about advertisers with a high advertising expenditure.
Keywords: advertising; commercialization; free newspapers; journalism; media accountability
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:31-40
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Market Value of Who We Are: The Flow of Personal Data and Its Regulation in China
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/890
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.890
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 21-30
Author-Name: Dong Han
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism, Southern Illinois University, USA
Abstract: This article focuses on market-driven collection of personal data and its regulation in China. It argues that there is a growing demand for personal data from China’s advertising, marketing, and credit reporting businesses. Meanwhile, the rapid development of the Internet, notably social media and e-commerce, has generated very large pools of personal data on digital platforms. These two factors contribute to the fast growth of both legitimate and illegitimate collection and exploitation of personal information. Chinese laws and regulations lag behind the market and are not ready to regulate personal data as a key economic resource. They scatter in a wide array of economic and social sectors and lack a coherent structure and effective enforcement mechanism. Unspecified overarching rationale, ambivalent market regulation, inadequate enforcement, as well as safety risks of governmental databases are problems that hinder the protection of personal data in China. The role and implications of the new Internet Security Law, entering into force in June 2017, remain to be seen.
Keywords: China; credit analysis; e-commerce; Internet; media law; personal data; privacy; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:21-30
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The New Visual Testimonial: Narrative, Authenticity, and Subjectivity in Emerging Commercial Photographic Practice
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/809
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.809
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 11-20
Author-Name: Heather Morton
Author-Workplace-Name: Photography Department, Sheridan College, Canada
Abstract: By studying the cultural and aesthetic impact of increasingly pervasive digital technologies and mass amateurization, this paper examines the ramifications of the networked information economy on professional photographic practice and considers the concomitant implications for the photographic classroom. Using the framework of convergence culture as per the writings of Yochai Benkler, Henry Jenkins, Mark Deuze, and Axel Bruns, the impact of accessible and instantaneous image creation and dispersal are explored. Given the rise of consumer engagement in brand co-creation on social media platforms, we can observe massive changes to professional practice in areas such as aesthetics, and the erosion of previous sustainable business models. Indeed, as traditional notions of “expertise” shift from technological prowess to narrative and disseminative abilities, the effects on commercial practice and photographic education need to be addressed. This paper argues that there are three emerging priorities for commercial image use: narrative ability, authenticity, and subjectivity and suggests initial steps in their pedagogical application. By acknowledging these transformations, this paper explores the idea that students need to harness technique, social media influence, adaptability, subjectivity, and storytelling power in order to better serve emerging image-based needs in commercial spaces.
Keywords: brand co-creation; commercial photography; convergent culture; Instagram; marketing; post-secondary education; social media; user generated content
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:11-20
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Finns Party: Euroscepticism, Euro Crisis, Populism and the Media
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/803
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i2.803
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 1-10
Author-Name: Juha Herkman
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Finland
Abstract: In many European countries, populist right-wing parties have been most noticeable representatives of Euroscepticism. In Finland, the Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset) has been a constant promoter of organisational Euroscepticism through its leader, Timo Soini. The party broke through in Finland’s ‘big bang elections’ of 2011, when the most debated issue was the European economic crisis, which was dominated by Eurosceptic Soini. Research concerning the relationship between the media, populism and Euroscepticism usually focus on national or European Parliament elections. This study analyses the media portrayal of the Eurosceptic Finns Party during times other than elections, focusing on the Finland’s overall Euro crisis press coverage in 2010–2012. The analysis shows that the populist Finns Party has been a minor player in that coverage, which was dominated by the Euro positive political and economic elites. Differences between newspapers indicate that journalistic routines and political context direct media coverage toward particular framings, even when the media proclaims itself politically independent and neutral.
Keywords: Euro Crisis; Euroscepticism; Finland; frame analysis; media; populism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:2:p:1-10
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Metadata Laws, Journalism and Resistance in Australia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/810
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.810
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 1
Pages: 76-83
Author-Name: Benedetta Brevini
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, The University of Sydney, Australia
Abstract: The intelligence leaks from Edward Snowden in 2013 unveiled the sophistication and extent of data collection by the United States’ National Security Agency and major global digital firms prompting domestic and international debates about the balance between security and privacy, openness and enclosure, accountability and secrecy. It is difficult not to see a clear connection with the Snowden leaks in the sharp acceleration of new national security legislations in Australia, a long term member of the Five Eyes Alliance. In October 2015, the Australian federal government passed controversial laws that require telecommunications companies to retain the metadata of their customers for a period of two years. The new acts pose serious threats for the profession of journalism as they enable government agencies to easily identify and pursue journalists’ sources. Bulk data collections of this type of information deter future whistleblowers from approaching journalists, making the performance of the latter’s democratic role a challenge. After situating this debate within the scholarly literature at the intersection between surveillance studies and communication studies, this article discusses the political context in which journalists are operating and working in Australia; assesses how metadata laws have affected journalism practices and addresses the possibility for resistance.
Keywords: digital resistance; journalists; metadata; surveillance
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:76-83
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Corporate Privacy Policy Changes during PRISM and the Rise of Surveillance Capitalism
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/813
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.813
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 1
Pages: 63-75
Author-Name: Priya Kumar
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, USA
Abstract: Disclosure of the NSA’s PRISM program demonstrated that Internet companies have become prime targets of government surveillance. But what role do companies themselves play in putting users’ privacy at risk? By comparing the changes in the privacy policies of ten companies—the nine in PRISM plus Twitter—I seek to understand how users’ privacy shifted. Specifically, I study how company practices surrounding the life cycle of user information (e.g. collection, use, sharing, and retention) shifted between the times when companies joined PRISM and when PRISM news broke. A qualitative analysis of the changes in the privacy policies suggests that company disclosure of tracking for advertising purposes increased. I draw on business scholar Shoshana Zuboff’s conceptualization of “surveillance capitalism” and legal scholar Joel Reidenberg’s “transparent citizen” to explain the implications such changes hold for users’ privacy. These findings underscore why public debates about post-Snowden privacy rights cannot ignore the role that companies play in legitimizing surveillance activities under the auspices of creating market value.
Keywords: Internet companies; PRISM; privacy policies; surveillance capitalism; targeted advertising; transparent citizen
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:63-75
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Clipper Meets Apple vs. FBI—A Comparison of the Cryptography Discourses from 1993 and 2016
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/805
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.805
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 1
Pages: 54-62
Author-Name: Matthias Schulze
Author-Workplace-Name: International Relations Department, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany
Abstract: This article analyzes two cryptography discourses dealing with the question of whether governments should be able to monitor secure and encrypted communication, for example via security vulnerabilities in cryptographic systems. The Clipper chip debate of 1993 and the FBI vs. Apple case of 2016 are analyzed to infer whether these discourses show similarities in their arguments and to draw lessons from them. The study is based on the securitization framework and analyzes the social construction of security threats in political discourses. The findings are that the arguments made by the proponents of exceptional access show major continuities between the two cases. In contrast, the arguments of the critics are more diverse. The critical arguments for stronger encryption remain highly relevant, especially in the context of the Snowden revelations. The article concludes that we need to adopt a more general cyber security perspective, considering the threat of cyber crime and state hacking, when debating whether the government should be able to weaken encryption.
Keywords: Apple; cryptowar; discourse analysis; encryption; FBI
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:54-62
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Migrating Servers, Elusive Users: Reconfigurations of the Russian Internet in the Post-Snowden Era
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/816
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.816
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 1
Pages: 42-53
Author-Name: Ksenia Ermoshina
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Communication Sciences, France
Author-Name: Francesca Musiani
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Communication Sciences, France
Abstract: In response to the growing censorship of their national Internet, Russian users, content producers and service providers have developed several resistance tactics. This paper analyzes these tactics with particular attention paid to their materiality. It first addresses the different levels of Internet “governance by infrastructure” in Russia, then focuses on the different tactics of individual and collective resistance and concludes by discussing how forms of control enacted at different levels of infrastructure are reconfiguring the geopolitics of the Russian Internet.
Keywords: digital sovereignty; Edward Snowden; Internet geopolitics; Internet governance; Internet infrastructure; resistance; Russian Internet
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:42-53
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Networked Authoritarianism and the Geopolitics of Information: Understanding Russian Internet Policy
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/808
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.808
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 1
Pages: 29-41
Author-Name: Nathalie Maréchal
Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, USA
Abstract: In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. election, researchers, policymakers and the general public are grappling with the notion that the 45th president of the United States may very well owe his electoral victory to a sophisticated propaganda effort masterminded by the Kremlin. This article synthesizes existing research on Russia’s domestic information controls, its internet policy at the global level (notably via internet governance processes), and the country’s resurgence as a major geopolitical player to argue that policymakers as well as the general public should consider these themes holistically, particularly as they formulate responses to what many see as the Russian threat to Western liberal democracy. Russia may have lost the Cold War, but it is now waging information warfare against the liberal democracies of Europe and North America in a sophisticated bid to win the next round. Russia does not view internet governance, cybersecurity, and media policy as separate domains. Rather, all the areas covered by those disciplines fall under “information security” for Russian foreign policy. The paper begins by tracing the history of information controls within what is now the Russian Federation before discussing the role of information and internet policy in Russian foreign policy, drawing connections between the Russian government’s control and manipulation of information—including its internet policy—in the domestic and international arenas. Next, it discusses the spread of networked authoritarianism and suggests that a “geopolitics of information” will become increasingly necessary in the coming years. Just as networked authoritarianism establishes strategic infrastructures to control the message domestically and intervene in global media systems, liberal democracies need to rethink media and communication infrastructures to ensure they foster pluralist, rights-respecting societies that are resilient to authoritarianism and extremism. In doing so, they should resist the temptation to respond to this threat in ways that will erode democracy even further, such as expanded surveillance and limits on free expression.
Keywords: 2016 election; censorship; data localization; human rights; networked authoritarianism; propaganda; Russia; surveillance
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:29-41
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intelligence Reform and the Snowden Paradox: The Case of France
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/821
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.821
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 1
Pages: 17-28
Author-Name: Félix Tréguer
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for International Studies and Research, Sciences Po, France
Abstract: Taking France as a case study, this article reflects on the ongoing legalisation strategies pursued by liberal states as they seek to secure and expand the Internet surveillance programs of their domestic and foreign intelligence agencies. Following the path to legalisation prior and after the Snowden disclosures of 2013, the article shows how post-Snowden controversies helped mobilise advocacy groups against the extra judicial surveillance of Internet communications, a policy area which had hitherto been overlooked by French human rights groups. It also points to the dilemma that post-Snowden contention created for governments. On the one hand, the disclosures helped document the growing gap between the existing legal framework and actual surveillance practices, exposing them to litigation and thereby reinforcing the rationale for legalisation. On the other hand, they made such a legislative reform politically risky and unpredictable. In France, policy-makers navigated these constraints through a cautious mix of silence, denials, and securitisation. After the Paris attacks of January 2015 and a hasty deliberation in Parliament, the Intelligence Act was passed, making it the most extensive piece of legislation ever adopted in France to regulate secret state surveillance. The article concludes by pointing to the paradoxical effect of post-Snowden contention: French law now provides for clear rules authorising large-scale surveillance, to a degree of detail that was hard to imagine just a few years ago.
Keywords: contentious politics; intelligence; internet; securitisation; Snowden; surveillance
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:17-28
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Outrage without Consequences? Post-Snowden Discourses and Governmental Practice in Germany
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/814
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.814
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 1
Pages: 7-16
Author-Name: Stefan Steiger
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Germany
Author-Name: Wolf J. Schünemann
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Sciences, Hildesheim University, Germany
Author-Name: Katharina Dimmroth
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany
Abstract: In 2013 Edward Snowden’s disclosures of mass surveillance performed by US intelligence agencies seriously irritated politicians and citizens around the globe. This holds particularly true for privacy-sensitive communities in Germany. However, while the public was outraged, intelligence and security cooperation between the United States and Germany has been marked by continuity instead of disruption. The rather insubstantial debate over a so-called “No-Spy-Agreement” between the United States and Germany is just one telling example of the disconnect between public discourse and governmental action, as is the recent intelligence service regulation. This article considers why and where the “Snowden effect” has been lost on different discursive levels. We analyze and compare parliamentary and governmental discourses in the two years after the Snowden revelations by using the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) to dissect the group-specific statements and interpretive schemes in 287 official documents by the German Bundestag, selected ministries and agencies within the policy subsystem. These will be analyzed in reference to actual governmental practice.
Keywords: cyber security; discourse analysis; dispositive analysis; German–US intelligence cooperation; surveillance
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:7-16
Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Post-Snowden Internet Policy: Between Public Outrage, Resistance and Policy Change
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/932
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.932
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 5
Year: 2017
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-6
Author-Name: Julia Pohle
Author-Workplace-Name: Internet Policy Project Group, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany
Author-Name: Leo Van Audenhove
Author-Workplace-Name: Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunication, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, and Co-Lab for e-Inclusion and Social Innovation, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Abstract: This editors’ introduction provides a short summary of the Snowden revelations and the paradoxical political and public responses to them. It further provides an overview of the current academic debate triggered by the Snowden case and the documents leaked by him and introduces the articles featured in this issue on post-Snowden Internet policy.
Keywords: digital; intelligence agency; Internet policy; policy change; privacy; Snowden; surveillance; whistleblowing
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:1-6