Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Impact of User Participation Methods on E-Government Projects: The Case of La Louvière, Belgium File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1657 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1657 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 175-186 Author-Name: Anthony Simonofski Author-Workplace-Name: Leuven Institute for Research on Information Systems (LIRIS), Faculty of Economy and Business, KU Leuven/Computer Science Faculty, University of Namur, 5000 Namur, Belgium Author-Name: Benoît Vanderose Author-Workplace-Name: Computer Science Faculty, University of Namur, Belgium Author-Name: Antoine Clarinval Author-Workplace-Name: Computer Science Faculty, University of Namur, Belgium Author-Name: Monique Snoeck Author-Workplace-Name: Leuven Institute for Research on Information Systems (LIRIS), Faculty of Economy and Business, KU Leuven, Belgium Abstract: In recent years, information and communication technologies (ICT) have allowed governments to improve their internal functioning and to improve the delivery of information and services to their users. This application of ICT in governments has been conceptualized as “e-government”. However, more recently, smart cities emerged as a locally-embedded paradigm that proposes the design of innovative solutions across all domains of our everyday life (mobility, environment, economy, education, quality of life, and governance) with ICT as an enabler. In their recent evolutions, these two concepts have advocated for increased involvement of their stakeholders (citizens, businesses, public servants, etc.) through user-participation methods to support the design of their projects. This article intends to examine how these methods impact an e-government project and, more particularly, to find out which challenges and benefits practitioners experience. In order to reach that goal, we studied the case of the city of La Louvière (Belgium) through a one year plus study following action research’s best practices. This article contributes at several levels. First, it describes the challenges and benefits experienced with participation methods in a concrete project. Second, it proposes an e-government implementation process enhanced with these methods. Third, this article discusses the similarities and differences between e-government and smart cities through the lens of participation methods. Keywords: action research; citizen; e-government; information and communication technologies; smart city; user participation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:175-186 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Delivering Smart Governance in a Future City: The Case of Glasgow File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1639 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1639 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 163-174 Author-Name: Charles Leleux Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy, Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, UK Author-Name: C. William R. Webster Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy, Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, UK Abstract: In 2013, Glasgow City Council received significant funding to develop innovative smart city applications, including the delivery of new electronic public services and the co-production of governance. This case study examines the processes that underpin the ways in which the ‘Future City Glasgow programme’ delivered ‘smart governance’, in the context of a regenerating post-industrial city. We assess the contribution of smart city technologies and data collection and monitoring processes designed to facilitate citizen engagement and sustainable governance practices. The Future City Glasgow programme ran from 2013‒2015, and included the Open Glasgow project, and ‘Demonstrator Projects’ of: Energy Efficiency; Intelligent Street Lighting; Active Travel; and, Integrated Social Transport. Opportunities arose from these demonstrators for developing co-production and legacy initiatives. The case study provides insight into the ways in which citizens and local communities in Glasgow have been engaged in governance processes. This engagement has taken place via traditional and innovative smart city technologies, and in particular in relation to policy formulation, service design and delivery. It finds that the co-creation of governance is shaped by vested interests, that engagement is fragmented and partial, but at the same time new technologies, social media and shared learning opportunities offer innovative new ways for some citizens to influence local governance. Keywords: citizen engagement; co-production; eGovernment; Future City Glasgow; Glasgow; post-industrial city; smart governance; sustainability Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:163-174 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: In Waze We Trust: Algorithmic Governance of the Public Sphere File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1710 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1710 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 153-162 Author-Name: Shenja van der Graaf Author-Workplace-Name: Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Abstract: This article explores the current ‘place’ of e-government in realizing public value in the context of what seems to be an emerging platform urbanism. It highlights a complex platform-based urban ecosystem encompassing private and public organisations and citizens. This ‘mainstreaming’ of e-government practices puts demands on cities and governments to reconsider their own role in ‘city making’ so as to achieve meaningful public oversight. The point of departure is the operationalization of this ‘place’ by conceptualizing participation and (multi-sided) platformisation as a framework to draw attention to the dynamic domain of e-governance where shifts can be seen in market structures, infrastructures, and changing forms of governance, and which may challenge the public interest. This is illustrated by an exploration of the social traffic and navigation application Waze. Keywords: e-governance; participation; platforms; public value; social navigation application; smart city; Waze Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:153-162 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Channel Choice Determinants of (Digital) Government Communication: A Case Study of Spatial Planning in Flanders File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1652 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1652 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 140-152 Author-Name: Willemien Laenens Author-Workplace-Name: Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Author-Name: Wendy Van den Broeck Author-Workplace-Name: Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Author-Name: Ilse Mariën Author-Workplace-Name: Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Abstract: Governments at all levels believe the digitisation of their services and increased interaction with citizens will bring significant advantages in terms of transparency, creation of public value, and improvement of government performance (Al-Hujran, Al-Debei, Chatfield, & Migdadi, 2015). Nonetheless, this evolution towards more digital services and communication by governments raises questions in terms of inclusivity and accessibility. We conducted focus groups with a heterogeneous panel of over 80 citizens, ranging from non-users of digital technologies to high-level users, to study their choice of channel and their perception towards the evolving digitisation of communication and services, applied to the case of spatial planning in Flanders (Belgium). The results reveal that the most decisive channel choice determinants in spatial planning relate to the channel characteristics themselves, the information, the contextual aspect of the communication flow, and digital inequality mechanisms; meaning that (a) citizens opt for local communication channels when interacting with local, regional, and national governments, (b) citizens prefer to be personally informed when the communicated message has a direct impact on them, and (c) more vulnerable digital profiles consider the transition to digital communication by default as problematic. Keywords: channel choice; digital by default; government communication; government services; media user profiles; public services; spatial planning Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:140-152 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “Technology Readiness and Acceptance Model” as a Predictor for the Use Intention of Data Standards in Smart Cities File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1679 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1679 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 127-139 Author-Name: Raf Buyle Author-Workplace-Name: Internet Technology and Data Science Lab, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Mathias Van Compernolle Author-Workplace-Name: Research Group for Media, Innovation, and Communication Technologies, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Eveline Vlassenroot Author-Workplace-Name: Research Group for Media, Innovation, and Communication Technologies, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Ziggy Vanlishout Author-Workplace-Name: Informatie Vlaanderen, Flemish Government, Belgium Author-Name: Peter Mechant Author-Workplace-Name: Internet Technology and Data Science Lab, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Erik Mannens Author-Workplace-Name: Research Group for Media, Innovation, and Communication Technologies, Ghent University, Belgium Abstract: Taking the region of Flanders in Belgium as a case study, this article reflects on how smart cities initiated a grassroots initiative on data interoperability. We observe that cities are struggling due to the fragmentation of data and services across different governmental levels. This may cause frustrations in the everyday life of citizens as they expect a coherent user experience. Our research question considers the relationship between individual characteristics of decision makers and their intention to use data standards. We identified criteria for implementing data standards in the public sector by analysing the factors that affect the adoption of data governance, based on the Technology Readiness and Acceptance Model (TRAM), by conducting an online survey (n = 205). Results indicate that respondents who score high on innovativeness have a higher intention to use data standards. However, we conclude that personality characteristics as described in the TRAM-model are not significant predictors of the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of data standards. Therefore, we suggest exploring the effects of network governance and organisational impediments to speed-up the adoption of open standards and raise interoperability in complex ecosystems. Keywords: Data Governance; Decentralisation; E-Government; Interoperability; Linked Data; Policy Making; Smart Cities; TRAM; Standardisation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:127-139 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Forging Smarter Cities through CrowdLaw File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1665 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1665 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 123-126 Author-Name: Beth Simone Noveck Author-Workplace-Name: The GovLab, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, USA Abstract: Public officials are often ill-equipped when it comes to knowing how to regulate complex societal challenges, especially those that involve cutting-edge scientific and technological advances that raise myriad ethical, moral, political, legal, regulatory and social questions. But what if technology could be used to improve the quality of regulation and legislation? Online, tech-enabled participation methods, known as “CrowdLaw”, enable more individuals, not only interest groups, to inform the legislative and policymaking processes. In this brief commentary, I survey a handful of global examples which show CrowdLaw in use at each stage of the lawmaking process at the local level and exhibit how participation is improving outcomes. Keywords: citizen engagement; citizen participation; CrowdLaw; decision-making; policymaking; smart cities Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:123-126 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: E-Government and Smart Cities: Theoretical Reflections and Case Studies File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1848 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1848 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 119-122 Author-Name: Peter Mechant Author-Workplace-Name: Research Group for Media, Innovation and Communication Technologies, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Nils Walravens Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Studies on Media, Information and Technology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Abstract: This editorial introduces the thematic issue on “E-Government and Smart Cities: Theoretical Reflections and Case Studies” and presents five articles and one commentary related to e-government and smart cities. All contributions take a use-case driven research approach to investigate, discuss and comment (on) overarching themes such as data, governance and participation which are inherently linked to the concepts of e-government and smart cities. Keywords: e-government; government communication; government services; participation; smart city; smart governance Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:119-122 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Designing a Renaissance for Digital News Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1769 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1769 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 115-118 Author-Name: Anette Novak Author-Workplace-Name: Swedish Media Council, Sweden Abstract: User participation in the journalistic context has theoretically been possible since the emergence of the Internet. The few interface formats which have been developed to link newsrooms and citizens have, however, not followed the same explosive development as other parts of the media landscape. One reason often referred to by the scientific community is the defensive newsroom culture. This essay presents an alternative interpretation and argues that bridging the gap between interaction design research, media and communications research, and practitioners within digital news media, could shed new light on the stalled process of newsroom co-creation with users. Keywords: design; media; news; participation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:115-118 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Why We Should Keep Studying Good (and Everyday) Participation: An Analogy to Political Participation File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1744 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1744 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 111-114 Author-Name: Neta Kligler-Vilenchik Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Abstract: Research on participation is currently characterized by a trend towards studying its “darker” sides. In this commentary, I make an argument for why we should keep studying good participation. In addition, I claim that the flipside of studying exceptional case studies of participation shouldn’t be only focusing on dark participation, but on everyday, mundane forms of participation, that may happen in surprising contexts (such as non-proprietary platforms) and may take different shapes. To make these claims, I introduce a case study of “good participation” in news production processes, and explain why it may merit this distinction. I then use a three-pronged analogy to the cognate field of political participation to show what it can tell us about good—and everyday—participation in the news. Keywords: citizen journalism; dark participation; everyday participation; good participation; news; participatory journalism; political participation; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:111-114 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Midlife Crisis of the Network Society File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1751 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1751 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 107-110 Author-Name: Nikki Usher Author-Workplace-Name: College of Media, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA Author-Name: Matt Carlson Author-Workplace-Name: Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, USA Abstract: The network society is moving into some sort of middle age, or has at least normalized into the daily set of expectations people have for how they live their lives, not to mention consume news and information. In their adolescence, the technological and temporal affordances that have come with these new digital technologies were supposed to make the world better, or least they could have. There was much we did not foresee, such as the way that this brave new world would turn journalism into distributed content, not only taking away news organizations’ gatekeeping power but also their business model. This is indeed a midlife crisis. The present moment provides a vantage point for stocktaking and the mix of awe, nostalgia, and ruefulness that comes with maturity. Keywords: digital journalism; fake news; hybridity; Networks; Media; participation; reflexivity Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:107-110 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Commentary on News and Participation through and beyond Proprietary Platforms in an Age of Social Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1743 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1743 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 103-106 Author-Name: James E. Katz Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, USA Abstract: The far-seeing collection in this issue is arrayed across the terrain of journalism infused with social media. The authors take deep dives into the material and in the process contribute significantly to the research community’s corpus on social media and proprietary platforms in journalism. In their wake, they leave an ambitious albeit hazy roster of research topics. My aim is to offer a brief critique of the articles and conclude with a few hortatory words. Keywords: comparative methodology; critical studies; journalism; research agenda; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:103-106 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Networked News Participation: Future Pathways File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1674 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1674 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 91-102 Author-Name: Sue Robinson Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Author-Name: Yidong Wang Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Abstract: Civic participation in news production has been a trend under academic scrutiny for at least two decades. The prevalence of digital communication and the dominance of proprietary platforms are two combining forces that disrupt the established journalistic norms. In this article, we investigate news participation and make three grand statements regarding: 1) the holistic definition of participation, 2) the network structure of participation delineating the power dynamics of different media actors, and 3) the transnational context of participation exhibiting the structural constraints within nation-state sovereignty. It is our argument that news participation as a civic act in the digital, globalized age has not fundamentally democratized the information flow as early optimists predicted. Instead, a group of “information elite” have risen to power due to their access to institutional resources, their advantageous positioning in the media ecology, and their entrenchment in the dominant ideology. Participation on proprietary platforms can be easily co-opted to serve the interest of the new information elite. Keywords: civic participation; news participation; participatory journalism; proprietary platforms; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:91-102 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Hybrid Engagement: Discourses and Scenarios of Entrepreneurial Journalism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1465 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1465 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 79-90 Author-Name: Juho Ruotsalainen Author-Workplace-Name: Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku, Finland Author-Name: Mikko Villi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Abstract: Although the challenge posed by social media and the participatory turn concerns culture and values at the very heart of journalism, journalists have been reluctant to adopt participatory values and practices. To encourage audience participation and to offer journalism that is both trustworthy and engaging, journalists of the future may embrace a hybrid practice of journalistic objectivity and audience-centred dialogue. As innovative and experimental actors, entrepreneurial journalism outlets can perform as forerunners of such a culture. By analysing discourses in the “About Us” pages of 41 entrepreneurial journalism outlets, the article examines the emerging journalistic ethos of entrepreneurial journalism and its participatory tendencies. The results show a conception of journalism that is a hybrid of the journalistic ideals of dialogue and objectivity. This kind of hybrid journalism and adjacent “hybrid engagement” can offer an answer to the dual challenge of how to make journalism more participation-friendly while at the same time hold on to the defining values and criteria of journalism. Drawing from futures research, the article concludes by sketching four scenarios of how entrepreneurial journalism and participatory hybrid engagement may develop in the future. Keywords: affect; discourse analysis; entrepreneurial journalism; futures research; future of journalism; hybrid journalism; participatory journalism; scenarios Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:79-90 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Strangers to the Game? Interlopers, Intralopers, and Shifting News Production File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1490 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1490 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 70-78 Author-Name: Avery E. Holton Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Utah, USA Author-Name: Valerie Belair-Gagnon Author-Workplace-Name: Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, USA Abstract: The contours of journalistic practice have evolved substantially since the emergence of the world wide web to include those who were once strangers to the profession. Amateur journalists, bloggers, mobile app designers, programmers, web analytics managers, and others have become part of journalism, influencing the process of journalism from news production to distribution. These technology-oriented strangers—those who have not belonged to traditional journalism practice but have imported their qualities and work into it—are increasingly taking part in journalism, whether welcomed by journalists or shunned as interlopers. Yet, the labels that keep them at journalism’s periphery risk conflating them with much larger groups who are not always adding to the news process (e.g., bloggers, microbloggers) or generalizing them as insiders/outsiders. In this essay, we consider studies that have addressed the roles of journalistic strangers and argue that by delineating differences among these strangers and seeking representative categorizations of who they are, a more holistic understanding of their impact on news production, and journalism broadly, can be advanced. Considering the norms and practices of journalism as increasingly fluid and open to new actors, we offer categorizations of journalistic strangers as explicit and implicit interlopers as well as intralopers. In working to understand these strangers as innovators and disruptors of news production, we begin to unpack how they are collectively contributing to an increasingly un-institutionalized meaning of news while also suggesting a research agenda that gives definition to the various strangers who may be influencing news production and distribution and the organizational field of journalism more broadly. Keywords: digital news; innovation; interloper; intraloper; journalism; media; news production; strangers Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:70-78 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Moral Gatekeeper? Moderation and Deletion of User-Generated Content in a Leading News Forum File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1493 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1493 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 58-69 Author-Name: Svenja Boberg Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Muenster, Germany Author-Name: Tim Schatto-Eckrodt Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Muenster, Germany Author-Name: Lena Frischlich Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Muenster, Germany Author-Name: Thorsten Quandt Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Muenster, Germany Abstract: Participatory formats in online journalism offer increased options for user comments to reach a mass audience, also enabling the spreading of incivility. As a result, journalists feel the need to moderate offensive user comments in order to prevent the derailment of discussion threads. However, little is known about the principles on which forum moderation is based. The current study aims to fill this void by examining 673,361 user comments (including all incoming and rejected comments) of the largest newspaper forum in Germany (Spiegel Online) in terms of the moderation decision, the topic addressed, and the use of insulting language using automated content analysis. The analyses revealed that the deletion of user comments is a frequently used moderation strategy. Overall, more than one-third of comments studied were rejected. Further, users mostly engaged with political topics. The usage of swear words was not a reason to block a comment, except when offenses were used in connection with politically sensitive topics. We discuss the results in light of the necessity for journalists to establish consistent and transparent moderation strategies. Keywords: community management; computational methods; forum moderation; gatekeeping; journalism; participatory media; Spiegel Online; topic modeling; user comments; user participation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:58-69 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Alternative Media and the Notion of Anti-Systemness: Towards an Analytical Framework File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1467 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1467 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 49-57 Author-Name: Kristoffer Holt Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Mass Communication and Media, Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), Kuwait Abstract: A range of alternative media outlets focusing on criticizing immigration politics and mainstream media have emerged in Sweden in recent years. Although they have quite different ideological profiles, they share a clear and critical focus on immigration and mainstream journalistic representations of reality. Their message is that mainstream media conceal or distort information about negative societal and cultural consequences of immigration and that mainstream journalists have teamed up with the political elites and engage in witch-hunts of critics, while ignoring abuses by those in power. Such media outlets (especially online participatory media) need to be analyzed in the light of their position as self-perceived correctives of traditional media. There has been a remarkable surge of alternative media in Sweden with these traits in common during the past few years, and it is important to be able to discuss these media together as a phenomenon, while at the same time taking their differences into account. In relation to this, I argue that the notion of anti-systemness is useful in discussions of the impact these alternative media may (or may not) have on public discourse. In the article, I present a matrix that distinguishes between different types of anti-systemness: ideological anti-systemness and relational anti-systemness. The article therefore mainly presents a theoretical argument, rather than empirical findings, with the aim of pointing to a way forward for research about alternative media. Keywords: alternative media; anti-systemness; counter-publics; ICAM; immigration; journalism; media distrust; polarization Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:49-57 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Dark Participation File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1519 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1519 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 36-48 Author-Name: Thorsten Quandt Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Muenster, Germany Abstract: Citizen participation in the news-making process has been a hopeful promise since the 1990s. Observers hoped for a rejuvenation of journalism and democracy alike. However, many of the enthusiastic theoretical concepts on user engagement did not endure close empirical examination. Some of the major fallacies of these early works (to whom the author contributed himself) will be outlined in this article. As a bleak flip side to these utopian ideas, the concept of “dark participation” is introduced here. As research has revealed, this type of user engagement seems to be growing parallel to the recent wave of populism in Western democracies. In a systematization, some essential aspects of dark participation will be differentiated. Finally, the benefits of (also) looking at the wicked side of things will be discussed. Keywords: citizen engagement; dark participation; fake news; news-making process; participatory journalism; populism; propaganda; user-generated content Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:36-48 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From Counter-Power to Counter-Pepe: The Vagaries of Participatory Epistemology in a Digital Age File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1492 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1492 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 24-25 Author-Name: C. W. Anderson Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds, UK Author-Name: Matthias Revers Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds, UK Abstract: This article reconstructs the evolution of societal and journalistic meta-discourse about the participation of ordinary citizens in the news production process. We do so through a genealogy of what we call “participatory epistemology”, defined here as a form of journalistic knowledge in which professional expertise is modified through public interaction. It is our argument that the notion of “citizen participation in news process” has not simply functioned as a normative concept but has rather carried with it a particular understanding of what journalists could reasonably know, and how their knowledge could be enhanced by engaging with the public in order to produce journalistic work. By examining four key moments in the evolution of participatory epistemology, as well as the discursive webs that have surrounded these moments, we aim to demonstrate some of the factors which led a cherished and utopian concept to become a dark and dystopian one. In this, we supplement the work of Quandt (2018) and add some historical flesh to the conceptual arguments of his article on “dark participation”. Keywords: Andy Carvin; Buzzfeed; citizen journalism; Indymedia; meta-discourse; memes; participatory epistemology; Pepe the Frog; populism; trolls Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:24-25 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Decade of Research on Social Media and Journalism: Assumptions, Blind Spots, and a Way Forward File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1562 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1562 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 11-23 Author-Name: Seth C. Lewis Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, USA Author-Name: Logan Molyneux Author-Workplace-Name: Klein College of Media and Communication, Temple University, USA Abstract: Amid a broader reckoning about the role of social media in public life, this article argues that the same scrutiny can be applied to the journalism studies field and its approaches to examining social media. A decade later, what hath such research wrought? In the broad study of news and its digital transformation, few topics have captivated researchers quite like social media, with hundreds of studies on everything from how journalists use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat to how such platforms facilitate various forms of engagement between journalists and audiences. Now, some 10 years into journalism studies on social media, we need a more particular accounting of the assumptions, biases, and blind spots that have crept into this line of research. Our purpose is to provoke reflection and chart a path for future research by critiquing themes of what has come before. In particular, our goal is to untangle three faulty assumptions—often implicit but no less influential—that have been overlooked in the rapid take-up of social media as a key phenomenon for journalism studies: (1) that social media would be a net positive; (2) that social media reflects reality; and (3) that social media matters over and above other factors. Keywords: audience; journalism; news; research; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:11-23 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: News and Participation through and beyond Proprietary Platforms in an Age of Social Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1775 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i4.1775 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 4 Pages: 1-10 Author-Name: Oscar Westlund Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway / Department for Journalism, Volda University College, Norway / Department of Journalism, Media and Communication University of Gothenburg, Sweden Author-Name: Mats Ekström Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Abstract: The link between journalism and participation has since long been envisioned and argued to be an important one. However, it is also a complex link. It encompasses how the news media and their social actors actively work towards enabling and engaging citizens as active participants through the digital infrastructures of their proprietary platforms, as well as the ways citizens potentially make use of such opportunities or not in their everyday lives, and how this affects epistemologies of news journalism. However, to date, journalism studies scholars have mostly focused on positive forms of participatory journalism via proprietary platforms, and thus fail to account for and problematize dark participation and participation taking place on social media platforms non-proprietary to the news media. This introduction, and the thematic issue as a whole, attempts to address this void. The introduction discusses three key aspects of journalism’s relationship with participation: 1) proprietary or non-proprietary platforms, 2) participants, and 3) positive or dark participation. Keywords: digital intermediaries; epistemology; participatory journalism; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:4:p:1-10 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Psychopaths Online: The Linguistic Traces of Psychopathy in Email, Text Messaging and Facebook File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1499 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1499 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 83-92 Author-Name: Jeffrey T Hancock Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Stanford University, USA Author-Name: Michael Woodworth Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Canada Author-Name: Rachel Boochever Author-Workplace-Name: Law School, Stanford University, USA Abstract: Individuals high in psychopathy are interpersonally manipulative, exhibit callous affect, and have criminal tendencies. The present study examines whether these attributes of psychopathy are correlated with linguistic patterns present in everyday online communication. Participants’ emails, SMS messages, and Facebook messages were collected and analyzed in relation to their scores on the Self-Report Psychopathy Test III. The findings suggest that psychopathic tendencies leave a trace in online discourse, and that different forms of online media sometimes moderate the association between a linguistic dimension and psychopathy scores. Consistent with previous studies and the emotional and interpersonal deficits central to psychopathy, participants higher in psychopathy showed more evidence of psychological distancing, wrote less comprehensible discourse, and produced more interpersonally hostile language. The results reveal that linguistic traces of psychopathy can be detected in online communication, and that those with higher traits of psychopathy fail to modify their language use across media types. Keywords: computer-mediated communication; email; Facebook; online media; psychopathy; text messaging Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:83-92 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: News, Ads, Chats, and Property Rights over Algorithms File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1601 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1601 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 77-82 Author-Name: Jan Kleinnijenhuis Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: The success of tech firms rests on their ownership of the algorithms for operating new platforms for the interactions among five groups of stakeholders in the markets of news, ads, and chats: stakeholders from the spheres of politics, journalism, the citizenry, the tech firms themselves, and other firms. Recent regulations that touch on property rights such as the German Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz and the European Directive on Copyright in the Digital Market have turned ownership of algorithms into exclusive ownership. Thereby tech firms obtain also the right to censor and the exclusive right to micro-target clients for advertisers. Coase’s theorem is used to discuss alternative allocations of property rights that could improve the quality of news, ads, and chats. Keywords: algorithms; networks; property rights; social media; tech industry Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:77-82 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The New Frontier in Communication Research: Why We Should Study Social Robots File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1596 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1596 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 73-76 Author-Name: Jochen Peter Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Rinaldo Kühne Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Social robots—robots that are made for interaction with humans—are becoming increasingly popular. In contrast to other disciplines, however, communication research has been slow in studying them. In our view, there are at least three theoretical reasons for communication researchers to deal with social robots. First, social robots challenge our notions of medium and media. Second, social robots challenge our understanding of the communication partner. Finally, social robots challenge our notions of the boundaries of communication. We therefore believe that social robots should play a more central role in communication research than it is currently the case. Keywords: artificial intelligence; communication science; human-machine interaction; human-robot interaction; social robots Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:73-76 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Implications of the FCC’s Net Neutrality Repeal File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1560 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1560 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 69-72 Author-Name: Florian Schaub Author-Workplace-Name: School of Information, University of Michigan, USA Abstract: In December 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed US net neutrality regulation. The author discusses the meaning and importance of net neutrality, the FCC’s prior net neutrality rules and the implications of their repeal. Keywords: Internet; net neutrality; public policy; regulation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:69-72 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Personal Power and Agency When Dealing with Interactive Voice Response Systems and Alternative Modalities File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1205 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1205 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 60-68 Author-Name: Jill Walsh Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, USA Author-Name: Brittany Leigh Andersen Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, USA Author-Name: James E. Katz Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, USA Author-Name: Jacob Groshek Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, USA Abstract: In summer 2015, we conducted an exploratory study of how people in the U.S. use and respond to robot-like systems in order to achieve their needs through mediated customer service interfaces. To understand this process, we carried out three focus groups sessions along with 50 in-depth interviews. Strikingly we found that people perceive (correctly or not) that interactive voice response customer service technology is set up to deter them from pursuing further contact. And yet, for the most part, people were unwilling to simply give up on the goals that motivated their initial contact. Consequently, they had to innovate ways to communicate with the automated systems that essentially serve as gatekeepers to their desired ends. These results have implications for communication theory and system design, especially since these systems will be increasingly presented to consumers as social media affordances evolve. Keywords: computer mediated communication (CMC); interactive voice response systems (IVRs); media equation theory; power in communication; social robots; theory of mind Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:60-68 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Leak Early, Leak (More Than) Often: Outlining the Affective Politics of Data Leaks in Network Ecologies File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1440 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1440 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 48-59 Author-Name: Alberto Micali Author-Workplace-Name: Communications Faculty, John Cabot University, Italy Abstract: Data leaks have become one of the most ubiquitous weapons in the arsenal of digital media dissent. However, often such processes of mediation exceed a rational understanding of the information revealed. Acting in the domain of the accident, the mediations of leaks operate in the dimension of the event: an immanent and particular set of relations that is provoked by the encounter and collision of various forces, virtually becoming their productive potential. This article advances the question of how data leaks―as a form of media dissent―operate beyond representation, touching upon the vital realm of affect. Intensively enabling a transformation in the state of the forces at play, affect generates possibilities within the emergent world that is constantly in creation. In this article, I argue that the politics of leaks in contemporary network ecologies works in such an affective register, possessing the capabilities to trigger and activate subjects differentially. Exploring the 2012 leak by Anonymous Italia, consisting of around 3,500 Italian police documents, mostly concerning the NoTav movement, I propose that the mediations of data leaks need to be studied and apprehended via their inductive capacities, as a question of affective politics, or alter-politics. Keywords: affect; affective politics; affect theory; Anonymous; data leaks; media theory; nonrepresentational theory; NoTav movement Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:48-59 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: How Culture Influences Emotion Display in Transnational Television Formats: The Case of The Voice of China File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1455 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1455 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 40-47 Author-Name: Yuanchen Zhang Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, Germany Abstract: Both television production practice and academic writings indicate the necessity of the localization of TV formats to fit sociocultural circumstances in different countries. This article narrows its focus to the issue of emotion display during localization. Inspired by Paul Ekman’s neurocultural theory of emotion, which describes human emotion expression in actual social situations, this article attempts to apply Ekman’s ideas about relations between culture and emotion to the field of media communication and to build a theoretical framework for the analysis of cultural influence in emotion display during the adaptation of a TV format. Applying the theoretical findings to the case of the singing competition show The Voice of China (adapted from The Voice of Holland), this article shows how the collectivist nature of Chinese culture influences the aesthetic and dramatic tools used to elicit emotion and to control emotion display in the Chinese version of the show. Keywords: emotion; emotion display; localization; transnational television format Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:40-47 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Negotiating Belonging as Cultural Proximity in the Process of Adapting Global Reality TV Formats File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1502 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1502 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 30-39 Author-Name: Laura Suna Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Abstract: This article focuses on aspects of belonging the producers of reality TV programmes address in the staging of emotions. Based on interview statements by 12 experts from the field of national and international reality TV format production, we argue as follows: on the one hand, producers in reality TV shows address belonging as a perceived cultural proximity to trans-local meta-narratives of a longing for change, romantic love, competition and victory. The producers associate these trans-local meta-narratives with allegedly universal emotions. On the other hand, the producers address belonging as a perceived cultural proximity to local cultural discourses on beauty ideals and combine these with a specific local cultural performance of emotions. The results show that an emotional repertoire is developed and negotiated in the adaptation process of trans-local formats. It refers to universalistic understanding of emotional display and negotiates specific “feeling rules” accordingly. Keywords: belonging; cultural proximity; emotion repertoires; emotions; feeling rules; format adaptation; reality TV Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:30-39 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Towards a Psychoanalytic Concept of Affective-Digital Labour File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1424 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1424 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 22-29 Author-Name: Jacob Johanssen Author-Workplace-Name: Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), Faculty of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster, UK Abstract: This article draws on the argument that users on corporate social media conduct labour through the sharing of user-generated content. Critical political economists argue that such acts contribute to value creation on social media and are therefore to be seen as labour. Following a brief introduction of this paradigm, I relate it to the notion of affective labour which has been popularised by the Marxist thinkers Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. To them, affective labour (as a sub-category of immaterial labour) denotes embodied forms of labour that are about passion, well-being, feelings of ease, immaterial products and generally a kind of communicative relationality between individuals. I point to some problems with a lack of clarity in their conceptualisation of affective labour and argue that the Freudian model of affect can help in theorising affective labour further through a focus on social media. According to Freud, affect can be understood as a subjective, bodily experience which is in tension with the discursive and denotes a momentary feeling of bodily dispossession. In order to illustrate those points, I draw on some data from a research project which featured interviews with social media users who have facial disfigurements about their affective experiences online. The narratives attempt to turn embodied experiences into discourse. Keywords: affective labour; digital labour; psychoanalysis; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:22-29 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Affect Disposition(ing): A Genealogical Approach to the Organization and Regulation of Emotions File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1460 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1460 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 15-21 Author-Name: Bernd Bösel Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Arts and Media, University of Potsdam, Germany Abstract: The “affective turn” has been primarily concerned not with what affect is, but what it does. This article focuses on yet another shift towards how affect gets organized, i.e., how it is produced, classified, and controlled. It proposes a genealogical as well as a critical approach to the organization of affect and distinguishes between several “affect disposition(ing) regimes”—meaning paradigms of how to interpret and manage affects, for e.g., encoding them as byproducts of demonic possession, judging them in reference to a moralistic framework, or subsuming them under an industrial regime. Bernard Stiegler’s concept of psychopower will be engaged at one point and expanded to include social media and affective technologies, especially Affective Computing. Finally, the industrialization and cybernetization of affect will be contrasted with poststructuralist interpretations of affects as events. Keywords: affect; Affective Computing; disposition; emotions; event; eventology; genealogy; psychopower; theory Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:15-21 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Affect in Media and Communication Studies: Potentials and Assemblages File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1470 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1470 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 5-14 Author-Name: Brigitte Hipfl Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication Studies, Klagenfurt University, Austria Abstract: After a general mapping of the different understandings of affect, this article focuses on two aspects of a Deleuze-Guattarian understanding of affect which are of particular relevance for media and communication studies. The first is understanding affect as potential. It is through the forces of encounter that bodies are affected and that these affections then can be turned into action, into their capacity to affect. The second is understanding the perpetual becoming that takes place through continual encounters between bodies; with each encounter, the body changes, however slightly and subtly. The concept of assemblage that allows one to grasp these dynamics and complexities is discussed as an approach towards a much more complex theoretical grounding for processes of agency and power. Working with affect in media and communication studies, a three-fold strategy will be presented: to analyse how media generate affects and capitalise on them; to analyse what media do—in the sense of mobilizing potential; to analyse phenomena of mediated communication as assemblages. The article ends with challenges and new paths for conducting research on affect. Keywords: affect; affections; assemblage; communication; media; structure of feeling; virtual/actual Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:5-14 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Turn to Affect and Emotion in Media Studies File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1732 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i3.1732 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 3 Pages: 1-4 Author-Name: Margreth Lünenborg Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Author-Name: Tanja Maier Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Abstract: This editorial delivers an introduction to the thematic Media and Communication issue on “The Turn to Affect and Emotion in Media Studies”. The social and cultural formation of affect and emotion has been of central interest to social science-based emotion research as well as to affect studies, which are mainly grounded in cultural studies. Media and communication scholars, in turn, have especially focused on how emotion and affect are produced by media, the way they are communicated through media, and the forms of emotion audiences develop during the use of media. Distinguishing theoretical lines of emotion theory in social sciences and diverse traditions of affect theory, we reflect on the need to engage more deeply with affect and emotion as driving forces in contemporary media and society. This thematic issue aims to add to ongoing affect studies research and to existing emotion research within media studies. A special emphasis will be placed on exploring structures of difference and power produced in and by media in relation to affect and emotion. Keywords: affect; body emotion; communication; media studies; power Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:3:p:1-4 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Meaning of the Feminist T-Shirt: Social Media, Postmodern Aesthetics, and the Potential for Sociopolitical Change File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1302 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1302 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 210-219 Author-Name: Trine Kvidal-Røvik Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Tourism and Northern Studies, UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, Norway Abstract: This article examines the potential for political or social change as part of postmodern cultural expression in consumer culture. Throughout the article, I discuss the way sociopolitical messages, circulating in contemporary culture, represent an interesting element in terms of their intertextual referencing and postmodern blurring. Postmodern aesthetic features merge commodifying, resistive, and identifying processes, which can enable sociopolitical messages to spread into new arenas of resistance and fly under the radar, so to speak. In particular, I claim that new forms of engagement in social media communication produce an alternative venue for politics—one created by neoliberalism itself. I explain that sociopolitical messages presented via postmodern aesthetics in consumer culture, particularly when circulated using social media, can function counter-hegemonically, even while using hegemonic structures to gain commercial success. With this, the potential for change can come about; power lies in the hands (or social media accounts) of consumers.< Keywords: consumer culture, postmodern aesthetics, resistance, social media, sociopolitical change Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:210-219 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Dialectics of Care: Communicating Ethical Trade in Poland File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1283 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1283 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 199-209 Author-Name: Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland Abstract: This article is an empirical exploration of how ethical trade organisations draw on and appropriate in their communication the moral repertoire of ethical trade. Theoretically, it employs the notion of the “dialectics of care” to examine the tactics used in ethical trade communication to reconcile care for oneself and one’s close ones with care for distant producers. Empirically, this article is based on the discourse-theoretical analysis of two interviews with the representatives of Polish ethical trade organisations: (1) a fair trade firm, Pizca del Mundo, and (2) an NGO, the Institute for Global Responsibility. The analysis finds that ethical trade organisations seek to harmonise care for distant producers with the interests of the Polish public through (1) embedding it into the discourse of product quality, or (2) linking it to care for oneself, one’s family and society while raising awareness of the global interconnectedness. Keywords: care; discourse-theoretical analysis; ethical trade; fair trade; interviews; metageography; moral education; Poland Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:199-209 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Domestic Connectivity: Media, Gender and the Domestic Sphere in Kenya File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1295 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1295 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 188-198 Author-Name: Jessica Gustafsson Author-Workplace-Name: School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Sweden Abstract: This article explores how increased media access and use influences Kenyan women’s everyday life and alters the domestic space. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with women in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya, the article demonstrates that women have incorporated newly gained media into their daily lives and routines. Increased media access has opened up the home and turned the domestic sphere from a secluded place into a connected space in which women can receive input from, connect with and interact with the world beyond their immediate surroundings whilst simultaneously remaining at home and fulfilling their traditional gender roles. Women’s media use thus reinforces their connection to the domestic sphere and the gendered division of labour. Although it has the potential to challenge gender inequalities, the extent to which this occurs depends on the individual woman’s ability to act on the imaginaries and ideas that media carry. Keywords: domestic sphere; gender roles; Kenya; media and everyday life; women’s media use Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:188-198 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Iranian Diaspora, Reality Television and Connecting to Homeland File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1293 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1293 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 179-187 Author-Name: Elham Atashi Author-Workplace-Name: Justice and Peace Studies, Georgetown University, USA Abstract:

Befarmaeed Sham, an Iranian diasporic media production adapted from the original UK reality show “Come Dine with me” features Iranian diaspora of diverse backgrounds as contestants in a cooking reality show. The success of the show has been unprecedented among audiences back home in Iran, reaching millions of households. Using discourse analysis this article examines the potential of reality TV in widening the scope of public sphere and in providing a space for participation and representation. The key practices to illustrate this are ways diaspora position themselves as subjects through discursive practices to express agency in generating, participating and sharing opinions. Casual talk and the entertaining attribute of reality TV focused on the everyday life of ordinary people, constructs a space to normalize audience engagement with what is otherwise, restrictive taboo topics embedded in themes around belonging, homeland, gender, and identity. The article concludes that the broad system of discourse used by diaspora as participants in the reality show constructs a space for representation. It can be considered as a contribution to enhancing the public sphere to not only communicate and connect with their homeland but to express opinions on broader social issues as a practice of civic engagement. This unique adaptation of reality TV is an important aspect of globalization and in using new media to mobilize diaspora in connecting to homeland.

Keywords: diaspora media; homeland; Iranian diaspora; migration; public sphere; reality TV Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:179-187 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Watchdogs, Advocates and Adversaries: Journalists’ Relational Role Conceptions in Asylum Reporting File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1284 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1284 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 168-178 Author-Name: Markus Ojala Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Finland Author-Name: Reeta Pöyhtäri Author-Workplace-Name: Research Centre for Journalism, Media and Communication COMET, University of Tampere, Finland Abstract: Journalistic role conceptions are usually understood as internalised professional conventions about the tasks reporters pursue in society. This study insists that more attention be put on the relational and context-dependent nature of journalistic role conceptions. Adopting a social-interactionist approach to journalistic roles, the study examines how Finnish journalists conceived of their professional roles when covering asylum issues during the so-called “refugee crisis” of 2015–2016. Based on an analysis of open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 24 journalists, we highlight how considerations of the political context and interactions with three key reference groups—officials, asylum seekers and anti-immigrant publics—shaped the journalists’ conceptions of their tasks and duties. The article contributes to the study of journalistic role conceptions by illustrating how the conceptualisation of journalistic roles in relation to reference groups takes place in practice. It also sheds light on the tensions involved in journalistic balancing and negotiation between various available role conceptions, especially in the shifting societal and political contexts of a Europe marked by multiculturalism and the simultaneous rise of anti-immigrant movements. Keywords: asylum seekers; migration; journalism; refugee crisis; role; role conception Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:168-178 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Female Bodies Adrift: Violation of the Female Bodies in Becoming a Subject in the Western Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1278 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1278 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 158-167 Author-Name: Tuija Parikka Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Mass Communication, St. John’s University, USA Abstract: This article focuses on how the violation of female bodies in the case of mass harassment of women is rendered intelligible by the Western media and the refugees. Violation of female bodies is approached as a site for politicizing possibilities of becoming a subject in the Western media. Informed by Deleuzian notion of “becoming” and the subjectivation of the refugees, I argue that the understanding of “violation” is a central component in contributing to possibilities of becoming affirmed as a subject in the Western media. Empirical material subjected to critical text analysis includes a key text form the Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and refugee interviews. The analysis suggests that the repression of irreducible conceptions of “violation,” and the subsequent erasure of the uncertainty of a “self” in the process of becoming, yields to offering possibilities of becoming primarily in Western terms and the affirmation of Western ideological certainty in understanding mass harassment of European women by the refugees. Keywords: body; mass harassment; media; refugees; subjectivity Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:158-167 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Media Practices and Forced Migration: Trust Online and Offline File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1281 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1281 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 149-157 Author-Name: Heike Graf Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication Department, Södertörn University, Sweden Abstract: This article explores the relationship between online and offline practices in the special case of forced migration. By applying a central category in social relations, trust/distrust as developed by Niklas Luhmann, this article contributes to the understanding of forced migration in the digital age. It presupposes that, without a strategy of trust, it would be almost impossible to cope with situations of unfamiliarity and uncertainty. By interviewing refugees, the question is in what contexts the refugee recognizes that they can trust (or not). The article concludes that through the combination of on- and offline communication practices, more varied mechanisms for the creation and stabilization of trust are provided. In contexts of unfamiliarity, interpersonal relations with the native inhabitants play an important role in bridging online and offline worlds. Keywords: media technologies; migration; refugee; systems theory; trust Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:149-157 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Media and Communication between the Local and the Global File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1637 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1637 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 145-148 Author-Name: Jessica Gustafsson Author-Workplace-Name: School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Sweden Author-Name: Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland Abstract: This editorial introduces the thematic issue of “Media and Communication between the Local and the Global”. It does so first by presenting the origin of this thematic issue: the Media, Globalization and Social Change division at the NordMedia 2017 conference. The thematic issue is then anchored theoretically through discussion of the widely conceived notion of mediation as a technological, symbolic and ethical process―highlighting the interest in how media actors and communication technologies, practices and artefacts mediate between global phenomena and local contexts, which is what unites the contributions to this thematic issue. Last, the final section of this editorial introduces the articles, which coalesce around three broad themes: migration, marginalised communities, and consumption. Keywords: communication; consumption; global; local; marginalised communities; media; mediation; migration Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:145-148 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Form of Game Formalism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1321 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1321 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 137-144 Author-Name: Ea C. Willumsen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, Norway Abstract: This article explores how the concept of formalism and the resulting method of formal analysis have been used and applied in the study of digital games. Three types of formalism in game studies are identified based on a review of their uses in the literature, particularly the discussion of essentialism and form that resulted from the narratology-ludology debate: 1) formalism focused on the aesthetic form of the game artifact, 2) formalism as game essentialism, and 3) formalism as a level of abstraction, related to formal language and ontology-like reasoning. These three are discussed in relation to the distinctions between form and matter, in the Aristotelian tradition, to highlight how the method of formal analysis of games appears to be dealing with matter rather than form, on a specific fundamental level of abstraction, and in turn how formal analysis becomes a misleading concept that leads to unnecessary confusion. Finally, the relationship between game essentialism and the more computer science-centric approach to ontology is studied, to account for the contemporary trend of identifying the unique properties of games and opposing them with properties of, e.g., traditional storytelling media like literature and film, explored through their aesthetic form. Keywords: aesthetic formalism; game formalism; game studies; research methods; research ideologies; Russian Formalism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:137-144 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Model Matching Theory: A Framework for Examining the Alignment between Game Mechanics and Mental Models File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1326 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1326 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 126-136 Author-Name: Rory McGloin Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Connecticut, USA Author-Name: Joe A. Wasserman Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, West Virginia University, USA Author-Name: Andy Boyan Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Studies Department, Albion College, USA Abstract: The primary aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive review and elaboration of model matching and its theoretical propositions. Model matching explains and predicts individuals’ outcomes related to gameplay by focusing on the interrelationships among games’ systems of mechanics, relevant situations external to the game, and players’ mental models. Formalizing model matching theory in this way provides researchers a unified explanation for game-based learning, game performance, and related gameplay outcomes while also providing a theory-based direction for advancing the study of games more broadly. The propositions explicated in this article are intended to serve as the primary tenets of model matching theory. Considerations for how these propositions may be tested in future games studies research are discussed. Keywords: game-based learning; game mechanics; media effects; mental models; model matching; skill acquisition; video games Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:126-136 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Challenges with Measuring Learning through Digital Gameplay in K-12 Classrooms File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1366 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1366 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 112-125 Author-Name: Cristyne Hebert Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, York University, Canada Author-Name: Jennifer Jenson Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, York University, Canada Author-Name: Katrina Fong Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, York University, Canada Abstract: Videogames have long been lauded for their potential to increase engagement and enhance learning when used in classrooms. At the same time, how to best evaluate learning presents challenges, especially when the game does not have standardized assessments built-into it and when games are taken up in a wide variety of ways in quite diverse contexts. This article details the use of a geography game to support learning in 32 diverse classrooms in Ontario, Canada, alongside challenges with evaluating student learning using a game that did not have a built-in assessment system. In total, 795 students participated in the study. Classroom observations and interviews with teachers were triangulated with student pre and post evaluations. Results demonstrated that students did learn from gameplay, as demonstrated through multiple choice and short answer change scores in the pre to post evaluation, despite variations in duration of play and how the game was integrated in the classroom more generally. Keywords: assessment; digital games; game-based learning; games Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:112-125 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Persuasive Roles of Digital Games: The Case of Cancer Games File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1336 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1336 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 103-111 Author-Name: Teresa de la Hera Conde-Pumpido Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Using behavioral scientist B. J. Fogg’s conceptual framework on the role computer technology plays for users as a starting point, this article argues that persuasion through digital games can be approached from three different perspectives: digital games as media for persuasion, digital games as tools for persuasion and digital games as social actors for persuasion. In this article, I use five cancer gaming cases to illustrate how these three different persuasive roles can be used to accomplish different persuasive goals. In this respect, I explain how each of these persuasive roles digital games can play in the process of persuasion can serve to support cancer patients to face three different challenges: (1) lack of information about the treatment or the disease itself, (2) lack of motivation to start or continue with the treatment, and (3) difficulties in coping with the treatment or the disease. The analysis of these games is theoretical in nature and is done to illustrate my arguments. The categorization proposed in this article can be used as an analytical approach for the study of persuasive gaming strategies. Keywords: cancer games; persuasion; persuasive games; persuasive technology; serious games; theoretical model Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:103-111 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Psychasthenia Studio and the Gamification of Contemporary Culture File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1351 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1351 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 90-102 Author-Name: Victoria Szabo Author-Workplace-Name: Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Duke University, USA Abstract: What does it mean to say that Games Matter within a new media art context? Conversely, what contributions can artists and scholars exploring the medium make to the cultural conversation around their use and meaning? This contribution highlights the ways in which our interdisciplinary art collective, Psychasthenia Studio, has addressed the cultural effects of games and gamification as they have evolved over the last decade, using a series of videogame art projects as the medium of expression and critique. As Mary Flanagan (2009) suggested in Critical Play, “games carry beliefs within their representation systems and mechanics” (p. 4). Through their thematic content and interaction design, the three videogames developed by us in the interdisciplinary Psychasthenia Studio between 2009‒2017 draw attention to those beliefs as they exist not only in the games themselves, but also more broadly in an increasingly gamified contemporary culture. Psychasthenia Studio simultaneously intervenes in the discussion around games in society and pushes the boundaries of what constitutes new media art practice today. By playing the Psychasthenia games, our hope is that users both co-author and witness their own participation in the system. Keywords: activist games; critical play; game studies; gamification; installation art; new media; psychology; subversion; videogames Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:90-102 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Games without Frontiers: A Framework for Analyzing Digital Game Cultures Comparatively File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1330 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1330 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 80-89 Author-Name: Ahmed Elmezeny Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media, Knowledge and Communication, University of Augsburg, Germany Author-Name: Jeffrey Wimmer Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media, Knowledge and Communication, University of Augsburg, Germany Abstract: Currently in game studies there is a gap in frameworks for comparatively researching game cultures. This is a serious shortcoming as it ignores the transcultural and transnational aspects of games, play and their cultures. Based on Hepp’s (2009) transcultural framework, and Du Gay, Hall, Janes, Mackay and Negus’s (1997) circuit of culture, this article proposes a structure to comparatively analyze game cultures. This procedural method comprises several steps determining specific contexts of game culture and their categories for comparison. Each step is illustrated with a case example. Finally, we recommend placing game cultures on a transnational spectrum, which helps in suggesting that many digital games express both local and international characteristics. Keywords: comparative analysis; game culture; game studies; mediatization; transculturality; transnationality Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:80-89 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Do We Need Permission to Play in Public? The Design of Participation for Social Play Video Games at Play Parties and ‘Alternative’ Games Festivals File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1382 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1382 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 69-79 Author-Name: Lynn H. C. Love Author-Workplace-Name: School of Design and Informatics, Abertay University, UK Abstract: Play is fundamental to being Human. It helps to make sense of the self, to learn, to be creative and to relax. The advent of video games challenged traditional notions of play, introducing a single player experience to what had primarily been a communal social activity. As technology has developed, communal play has found both online and real-world spaces within video games. Online streaming, multiplayer games and built-in spectator modes within games underpin online communal play experiences, whilst ‘alternative’ games festivals, play parties and electronic sports, provide real world spaces for people to meet, play and exchange knowledge relating to both playing and making video games. This article reports the study of social play events which bring people together in the same space to explore video games making and playing. Expert interviews with curators, and event facilitators provides qualitative data from which design processes are formalised into a ‘model of participation’ of social play. Four key areas of balance are proposed as core considerations in supporting participation in event design. The study of these events also suggests that their design and fostering of participation has the potential to evoke cultural change in game making and playing practices. Keywords: cultural intermediaries; cultural transformation; games; independent video games; social play events Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:69-79 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Running Head: Video Game Nostalgia and Retro Gaming File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1317 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1317 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 60-68 Author-Name: Tim Wulf Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany Author-Name: Nicholas D. Bowman Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, West Virginia University, USA Author-Name: Diana Rieger Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media and Communication Studies, University of Mannheim, Germany Author-Name: John A. Velez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Creative Media Industries, Texas Tech University, USA Author-Name: Johannes Breuer Author-Workplace-Name: Data Archive for the Social Sciences, GESIS, Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany Abstract: This article conceptually integrates research on the experience of nostalgia—defined as a predominantly positive, social, and past-oriented emotion—into the fold of video game research. We emphasize the role of nostalgia as an explanation for contemporary retro gaming trends, and suggest that nostalgia towards gaming events is a necessary area of research. To those ends, we broadly review existing literature on nostalgia before specifically focusing on media-induced nostalgia, and demonstrate how theoretical and empirical observations from this work can be applied to understand video game nostalgia. In particular, we argue that engaging in older gaming experiences indirectly (via memories) and even directly (via replaying or recreating experiences) elicits nostalgia, which in turn contributes to players' self-optimization and enhanced well-being. Moreover, as gamers and the medium mature together, nostalgic experiences with the medium are likely to become increasingly prevalent. The broad aim of this article is to offer future directions for research on video game nostalgia and provide a research agenda for research in this area. Keywords: entertainment; nostalgia; retro gaming; video games; well-being Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:60-68 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Grow Up, Level Up, and Game On; Evolving Games Research File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1566 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1566 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 56-59 Author-Name: Julia Kneer Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Ruud S. Jacobs Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Science, University of Twente, The Netherlands Abstract: Playing host to articles written in different disciplines and perspectives on the shared subject of digital gaming, the current special issue means to galvanise interest in and recognition of the nascent field of games research. Despite being little more than 50 years old, the medium of digital games has seen a meteoric rise to economic and cultural prominence across the globe. A cultural shift accepting games as a worthwhile recreational activity (and more) is likewise resulting in shifting attentions within game studies. Games were seen as frivolous and even harmful, and research traditionally focused on the negative effects they were perceived to have while in the end coming up with very little reliable evidence to support this position. The current wave of games research exemplified in this issue is certainly wider: games are a cultural and often highly socialised medium that has changed the way we view the world. They are used in non-entertainment settings, helping to promote active learning in players of all ages. The medium also facilitates deeper psychological and philosophical theorizing, as researchers grapple with deeper questions on what games and play mean to each of us. Put simply: games research is not just fun and games. Keywords: culture; digital games; effects; serious games; social panic Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:56-59 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: ‘It’s Something Posh People Do’: Digital Distinction in Young People’s Cross-Media News Engagement File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1322 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1322 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 46-55 Author-Name: Jannie Møller Hartley Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University, Denmark Abstract: In this article, I analyse digital distinction mechanisms in young people’s cross media engagement with news. Using a combination of open online diaries and qualitative interviews with young Danes aged 15 to 18 who differ in social background and education, and with Bourdieu’s field theory as an analytical framework, the article investigates how cultural capital (CC) operates in specific tastes and distastes for news genres, platforms and providers. The article argues that distinction mechanism not only works on the level of news providers and news genres but also on the level of engagement practices—the ways in which people enact and describe their own news engagement practices. Among those rich in CC, physical, analogue objects in the form of newspapers and physical conversations about news are seen as ‘better’ that digital ones, resulting in a feeling of guilt when they mostly engage with news on social media. Secondly, young people with lower CC discard legacy news, which they see as elitist and irrelevant. Thirdly, those rich in CC are media and news genre savvy in the sense that it makes them able to critically evaluate the news they engage with across platforms and sites. Keywords: engagement; diaries, distinction, field theory; media; news; social media intermediaries; young people Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:46-55 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Sensorial Organization as an Ethics of Space: Digital Media in Everyday Life File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1337 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1337 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 39-45 Author-Name: Stina Bengtsson Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden Abstract: This article outlines an analysis of the ethical organization of digital media and social and individual space in everyday life. This is made from a perspective of an ‘ethics of the ordinary’, highlighting the mundane negotiations and practices conducted to maintain a ‘good life’ with the media. The analysis shows a sensorial organization of space is conducted in relation to social space, as well as individually. The interviewees use facilities provided by media technologies in order to organize space, as well as organize their media devices spatially in order to construct space for specific purposes, and maintain a good life. These results call for a deepened analysis of the sensorial dimensions of everyday space, in order to understand the ethical struggles of a life with digital media. It is important to include the full spectrum of sensorial experiences in our approach to everyday life and to take the sensorial experiences of ordinary media users into account in our analysis of space as part of an everyday ethics. Keywords: digital media; ethics; everyday life; phenomenology; sensorial; space Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:39-45 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Mediatization of Social Space and the Case of Uber Drivers File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1316 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1316 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 29-38 Author-Name: Ngai Keung Chan Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA Author-Name: Lee Humphreys Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA Abstract: Digital data have become a form of “objectivation”, which affect how we construct social knowledge and organize social space (Couldry & Hepp, 2017). The workplace is one sphere that is increasingly datafied. This study explores how Uber drivers, a form of digitally-enabled service workers, contribute to the normalization of the social production of space through their interpretative practices of digital data in an online forum. Drawing on Uber’s corporate discourse and an Uber driver online forum, we analyze two facets of the Uber app and drivers’ mediated experiences: (1) the quantification and discipline of drivers’ performance through Uber’s rating system and (2) the coordination of spatial movement through location-related metrics. We argue that the underlying workings of the Uber app premediate expectations of service encounters and spatial movement. Uber drivers meanwhile develop practices which respond to and circumvent their own data contributions to the system. Drivers’ practices, we argue, are largely in compliance with the calculative logics set by Uber. The article addresses implications of Uber drivers’ practices for the reproduction of social space and power-relations in digitally-enabled service work and the gig economy. Keywords: digitally-enabled service work; mediatization; mobile apps; ratings; social space; Uber; work practices Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:29-38 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Discursive Approach to Mediatisation: Corporate Technology Discourse and the Trope of Media Indispensability File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1311 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1311 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 15-28 Author-Name: Karin Fast Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Abstract: Hitherto, and mainly by way of ethnographic studies, mediatisation research has informed us regarding the relevance, influence, and role of media in various spheres of social life. Less is known, however, about how mediatisation is discursively constructed. The relevance of constructivist approaches to mediatisation has been explicated, e.g., by Krotz (2017), who calls for critical mediatisation studies that consider the economic interests of mediatisation stakeholders, including the ICT industry. Against this backdrop, this article scrutinizes what the alleged ‘mobility revolution’ entails according to some who would benefit most from such a revolution. More concretely, the article studies the discursive practices of three leading corporations in the mobile communications sector: IBM, Huawei, and Ericsson. Stimulated by critical mediatisation theory as well as related accounts of the (technology) discourse-reality relationship, the article asks: if mobile media changes ‘everything’ in life—whose lives are being changed? If mobile media are ‘indispensable’ to modern ways of living—what are they supposed to do? Ultimately, the article speaks to the theme of this thematic issue by interrogating how contemporary mobile technology discourse contributes to the (re-)production of social space. Findings suggest that mediatisation is constructed as the response to an internal human drive for connectivity and as an inexorable natural force. Three sub-discourses on mobile technology are identified: ‘technologies of cosmos’, ‘technologies of self’, and, ultimately, ‘technologies of life’. Altogether, these sub-discourses disclose and reinforce the hegemonic nature of mediatisation by communicating the indispensability of mobile media in modern—notably, urban and privileged—lives. In addition to providing answers to the study’s empirical questions, the article includes a discussion about the potential implications of existing discourse overlaps between ICT companies and mediatisation theorists, as well as a sketch for an agenda for the ‘discursive turn’ in mediatisation studies. Keywords: discursive turn; media indispensability; mediatisation; mobile media; mobility revolution; technology discourse; Social Construction of Technology (SCOT); social space Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:15-28 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Mobile Media and Social Space: How Anytime, Anyplace Connectivity Structures Everyday Life File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1399 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1399 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 5-14 Author-Name: Mariek Vanden Abeele Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Ralf De Wolf Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, imec-mict, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Rich Ling Author-Workplace-Name: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Abstract: Using Giddens’ (1984) structuration theory we examine how social structures in mobile communication technologies shape the everyday life of individuals, thereby re-shaping power dynamics that underlie the social organization of society. We argue that the anytime, anyplace connectivity afforded by mobile communication technologies structures society by imposing a network, social and personal logic. We discuss how each logic both reproduces and challenges traditional power structures, at the micro- as well as macro-level. At the micro-level, the network logic refers to mobile communication technologies’ capacity to organize activities in a networked fashion, granting people greater autonomy from time and place. The social logic refers to mobile communication technologies’ capacity for perpetual contact, fostering social connectedness with social relationships. The personal logic refers to mobile communication technologies’ capacity to serve as extensions of the Self, with which people can personalize contents, services, place and time. The flipside of these logics is that, at the micro-level, the responsibility to operate autonomously, to maintain personal social networks, and to manage and act based on personal information shifts to the individual. We also notice shifts in power structures at the macro-level. For instance, to reap the benefits of mobile communication technology individuals engage in free ‘digital labor’ and tolerate new forms of surveillance and control. Keywords: Giddens; logics; mobile media; power; responsibilization; social structure Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:5-14 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Media Studies for a Mediatized World: Rethinking Media and Social Space File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1495 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1495 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 2 Pages: 1-4 Author-Name: André Jansson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Author-Name: Johan Lindell Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Abstract: This editorial introduces a thematic issue on “Rethinking Media and Social Space”. By critically rethinking the relationship between media and social space this issue takes initial steps towards ensuring that media studies is appropriate for a mediatized world. Contemporary societies are permeated by media that play important roles in how people maneuver and position themselves in the social world. Yet, analyses of media-related social change too often fail to engage with the complex and situated nature of power relations. This editorial highlights three enduring problems: (1) the annihilation of the socially structured and structuring role of media technologies and practices; (2) the conflation of inherent social capacities of media technologies and discourses with existing mediations of power, and (3) the reduction of social space to one predominant dimension which overshadows all other forms of social power that media technologies, discourses, and practices are part of. As a response to these problems—and in bringing together the arguments of the five articles included in the thematic issue—this editorial calls for sociologized approaches to media technologies, discourses, and practices. Keywords: mediatization; media discourse; media practice; media sociology; media technology; power; social space Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:1-4 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Media Protest of Neighbouring Associations, Promoter of Citizen Democratic Culture during Transition in Southern Spain File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1195 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i1.1195 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 1 Pages: 62-72 Author-Name: Sandra Méndez-Muros Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism II, University of Seville, Spain Abstract: In the current context of placing value on the neighbouring movement within the Spanish democratic Transition, we set out to confirm that the press actively participates in the growing conjunction of neighbouring issues with political content and contributes to the idea that this movement becomes a parameter of the democratic culture for the citizen during Transition. Since the conflict is newsworthy, we conduct a micro-social study of the neighbouring protest in the newspaper El Correo de Andalucía, published in the southern Spanish city of Seville. Through analysis of content, we study the informative flow and the repertoire of protest following a typology that distinguishes four formats (demonstrations, strikes, speeches and associations) divided into two levels of conflict. The analysis sample consists of 33 texts published between November 1975 (Franco’s death and the accession to the throne of Juan Carlos I) and June 1977 (the first democratic general elections). The main conclusion reveals that the newspaper becomes a platform that gives visibility to the neighbouring movement, normalising behaviours and procedure rules through the protest. Keywords: civil society; democratic culture; local press; media; media history; neighbouring movement; Spanish Transition Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:1:p:62-72 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “Approaching an Abyss”: Liberalist Ideology in a Norwegian Cold War Business Paper File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1189 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i1.1189 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 1 Pages: 52-61 Author-Name: Birgitte Kjos Fonn Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Abstract: The international business press has been a powerful and influential voice in modern societies and, as its formative years took place during the Cold War, a closer look at the ideologies that were promoted in this part of the press is of interest. Until the 1970s, Farmand was the only Norwegian business magazine of any size and standing. Trygve J. B. Hoff, Farmand’s editor from 1935, was part of the Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS), a neoliberal intellectual collective established in 1947 with participants such as Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. This article is a study of the ideas that Hoff promoted, particularly in Farmand, from the 1940s to the 1970s. Keywords: business press; Cold War; democracy; liberalism; media; media history; Mont Pèlerin Society; Norway Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:1:p:52-61 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: River Activism, “Levees-Only” and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1179 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i1.1179 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 1 Pages: 43-51 Author-Name: Ned Randolph Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of California San Diego, USA Abstract: This article investigates media coverage of 19th and early 20th century river activism and its effect on federal policy to control the Mississippi River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ “levees-only” policy—which joined disparate navigation and flood control interests—is largely blamed for the Great Flood of 1927, called the largest peacetime disaster in American history. River activists organized annual conventions, and later, professional lobbies organized media campaigns up and down the Mississippi River to sway public opinion and pressure Congress to fund flood control and river navigation projects. Annual river conventions drew thousands of delegates such as plantation owners, shippers, bankers, chambers of commerce, governors, congressmen, mayors and cabinet members with interests on the Mississippi River. Public pressure on Congress successfully captured millions of federal dollars to protect property, drain swamps for development, subsidize local levee districts and influence river policy. Keywords: activism; commerce; democracy; floods; levees; media; media history; Mississippi River; river conventions Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:1:p:43-51 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From the Old New Republic to a Great Community: Insights and Contradictions in John Dewey’s Public Pedagogy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1172 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i1.1172 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 1 Pages: 34-42 Author-Name: James Anderson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Cultural Studies, University of California, USA, and Communication Studies Department, Riverside City College, USA Abstract: This article draws from John Dewey’s philosophy of education, ideas about democracy and pragmatist assumptions to explain how his articles for The New Republic functioned pedagogically. Taking media as a mode of public pedagogy, and drawing extensively from Dewey’s Democracy and Education, as well as from his book The Public and its Problems, the article explores the relationships between communication, education and democracy using the expanded conceptions of all the aforementioned advanced by Dewey. Borrowing insights from Randolph Bourne, who used Dewey’s own ideas to criticize his mentor’s influence on intellectuals who supported US involvement in World War I, the analysis explores the contradictions within Dewey’s public pedagogy. The article suggests Dewey’s relevance as a public intellectual in the liberal-progressive press, his view of the State and some of his related presuppositions produced a tension in his thought, delimiting democratic possibilities while simultaneously pointing toward greater democratic potentials. The essay concludes by suggesting that learning from both Dewey and Bourne prompts us to get beyond the former’s public/private dualism to realize what he called the “Great Community” by communicating and practicing the Commons. Keywords: John Dewey; media; media history; public pedagogy; Randolph Bourne; The New Republic Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:1:p:34-42 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Methodological Perspectives on British Commercial Telegraphy and the Colonial Struggle over Democratic Connections in Gibraltar, 1914–1941 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1197 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i1.1197 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 1 Pages: 21-33 Author-Name: Bryce Peake Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication Studies Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA Abstract: This article examines the privatization of telegraphy in the British Empire from the perspective of Gibraltar, an overseas territory in the Mediterranean. While the history of international telegraphy is typically written from a world-systems perspective, this article presents a key methodological critique of the use of collections spread across many institutions and colonies: archival satellites are not simply reducible to parts of a scattered whole, as archival collections are themselves curations of socially-positioned understandings of Empire. This is especially true of the “girdle round the world” that was British telegraphy. At a meta-historical level, individual archival collections of the global British telegraphy system can be read as histories of colonial administrators’ geographically- and socially- situated perspectives on Empire—namely through what archives have, and have not, preserved. I demonstrate how the documents about telegraphy collected and maintained in the Gibraltar National Archives reflect pre- and post-World War I English, anti-Liberal colonial administrators’ and military officials’ fear that privatization was an opening salvo against the democratic web that held the last vestiges of Empire together. Keywords: British Empire; colonial management; historical methodology; media archives; media history; telegraphy Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:1:p:21-33 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Private Broadcasting and the Path to Radio Broadcasting Policy in Canada File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1219 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i1.1219 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-20 Author-Name: Anne Frances MacLennan Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, York University, Canada Abstract: The largely unregulated early years of Canadian radio were vital to development of broadcasting policy. The Report of the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting in 1929 and American broadcasting both changed the direction of Canadian broadcasting, but were mitigated by the early, largely unregulated years. Broadcasters operated initially as small, independent, and local broadcasters, then, national networks developed in stages during the 1920s and 1930s. The late adoption of radio broadcasting policy to build a national network in Canada allowed other practices to take root in the wake of other examples, in particular, American commercial broadcasting. By 1929 when the Aird Report recommended a national network, the potential impact of the report was shaped by the path of early broadcasting and the shifts forced on Canada by American broadcasting and policy. Eventually Canada forged its own course that pulled in both directions, permitting both private commercial networks and public national networks. Keywords: America; broadcasting; Canada; commission; frequencies; media history; national; networks; radio; religious Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:1:p:13-20 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Net Neutrality, the Fairness Doctrine, and the NRB: The Tension between United States Religious Expression and Media Regulation File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1198 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i1.1198 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-12 Author-Name: Kathryn Montalbano Author-Workplace-Name: Communication and Digital Media, Neumann University, USA Abstract: This article analyzes the historical continuity between the opposition of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) to the Fairness Doctrine (1949) and to the contemporary Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Open Internet principle, net neutrality. These debates demonstrate how media policy discourse has shaped democratic ideals, including by designating whose voices are or are not included in broadcast and digital communication spaces. The discourse emerging from both media policy debates reveals that fears concerning cultural hegemony and the diversity of expression in the United States have intertwined with fears concerning the invasion of foreign ideologies. The article then considers the possibility of reconciling religious and secular discourse in the mediated public sphere. Keywords: evangelicals; Fairness Doctrine; Federal Communications Commission; media regulation; National Religious Broadcasters; net neutrality; public sphere; radio; religion; secularism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:1:p:5-12 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Introduction to Media History and Democracy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1356 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i1.1356 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 6 Year: 2018 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-4 Author-Name: David W. Park Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Lake Forest College, USA Abstract: This thematic issue of Media and Communication features articles that address the workings of democracy as understood through the lens of media history. The intersection of democracy and media history brings together two impossibly expansive terms, so expansive that the articles herein cannot provide any meaningful closure to the questions that even a cursory consideration of media history and democracy would provoke. Instead of closure, what these authors develop is a demonstration of the value of media history to our understandings of democracy. Historical methods of inquiry are necessary components for any meaningful understanding of media or democracy, and the authors gathered here work from a multi-hued palette of historiographical approaches. One finds in this issue a careful attention to how issues related to media history and democracy can be investigated through consideration of intellectual history, the history of political debates, journalism history, and the history of media organizations and institutions. These articles make a strong case for the continued relevance of media history to understanding the democracy and the media. Keywords: communication history; democracy; journalism; media; media history; public Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v6:y:2018:i:1:p:1-4