Media Scholars Research Articles

Resistance, reclamation and repair: the Parragirls feminist archive and reparative media practices in the wake of institutional harm and media damage

ABSTRACT This paper engages with the creative strategies and media interventions of the Parragirls—a lose collective of women subject to punitive confinement and abuse as children in out-of-home “care” at the former Parramatta Girls Home—as a feminist archive of collective resistance, reclamation, and repair in the wake of institutional harm and media damage. We consider the Parragirls feminist archive in the context of a larger project analysing the role of media, journalism, and media activism in the ground-breaking Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2013–17) (RCIRCSA). Drawing on Couldry’s theorisation of “media as practice,” we foreground the ways Parragirls have responded to media injustice and media damage. We analyse a range of Parragirls practices and interventions which, taken together, complicate one of key media narratives which emerged during the RCIRCSA public hearings about abuses at Parramatta Girls, namely that “providing evidence, while traumatic can be beneficial and worthwhile.” Our paper thus contributes to critical scholarship on news values as racialised, classed, and gendered hierarchies of attention, and to feminist media scholarship that highlights resistant and transformative alternative visions for media practice. We ask: how might we imagine, or work towards a more reparative media?

Sahara Reporters and Premium Times online coverage of the Russia–Ukraine war

Abstract Purpose The mass media have continued to be significant news sources for human society, particularly during conflict and war. The media dependency theory posits that during crisis or instability, society relies more on traditional and new media to help it understand the developments in the war. This article investigated the frequency of the coverage of the Russia–Ukraine War by Sahara Reporters and Premium Times, ascertained the most dominant tone used by Sahara Reporters and Premium Times in the reporting of the Russian–Ukraine War, and unfurled the frame of coverage of Russian–Ukraine War by Sahara Reporters and Premium Times. Theoretical and Methodical Considerations Anchored in Robert Entman’s Framing Theory, online publications of Sahara Reporters and Premium Times from March 2022 to September 2022 served as the population of the study and the census sampling technique was used to draw a sample for the study. The explanation-building model was the method of data analysis. Findings Results showed that Sahara Reporters and Premium Times reports on the 2022 Russian–Ukraine War were frequent. Also, they paid more attention to the impacts of the war on Nigerian emigrants or students overseas in Russia and Ukraine. Implications Our findings suggest that online newspapers mostly toned the Russian–Ukraine War in negative slants and framed the stories highlighting the impact of the war on Nigerians, especially Nigerian students in Russia and Ukraine. Value The article brings a new perspective to the Russian–Ukraine War in media scholarship by examining Nigeria’s online news reporting of the Russian–Ukraine conflict. It is, therefore, recommended that Nigerian online newspapers not solely focus on negative reports of the war and its implications for stakeholders in Nigeria. They should adopt a more diverse range of frames and tones in their coverage, to influence stakeholders to take action to prevent wars and hold the Nigerian government accountable for providing adequate infrastructure and human capital that discourages emigration in search of a better life both academically and otherwise.

Creanalytics: Automating the supercut as a form of critical technical practice

Based on the notion of critical technical practice and its resonances with recent debates in digital film and media scholarship, in this article I outline a type of computational practice that aims to couple the relational-analytic powers of machine learning with the explanatory-creative powers of visual narrative. I provisionally call this approach creanalytics. To enact this coupling, I designed a system to annotate and classify a large corpus of film clips, automatically extract fragments from this corpus, and edit them into new compositions, rendered into a computational supercut, which I go on to argue can be understood as the minimal expression of a broader emergent form of media: the computational video essay. Below I describe the most salient technical aspects of this system, analyse the principles of its design, and discuss the methodological and conceptual possibilities of its use as a format that mediates between critics and their networked environments, and between individual media artefacts, their parts, and the larger collections to which they belong.

Introduction to the special issue of social media: the good, the bad, and the ugly

Abstract As social media scholarship pervades the communication discipline, it is time to reflect on the good, bad, and ugly of social media. The theme for this special issue is inspired in part by the 1966 film, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” Like its portrayal of the American Civil War, we again face deep divisions. The question is what role is social media helping us to heal those divides versus fragmenting us further? The seven articles in this issue reflect the complexity of the answer. Although we aimed for diversity, this issue focuses on the Global North. This reflects the field and the need to decenter Western epistemology. Nevertheless, the articles help us see that social media is not easily reduced to simplistic framings, but instead enables new connections and collective action, while also risking further fragmentation of our information environment and greater polarization—while technology companies profit.

Critiquing the Social Media Scholarship in Sport Studies: A Sport Entrepreneurship Analysis

Social media is endemic to the sport industry and ensures its global competitiveness. The aim of this article is to critique social media scholarship in sport studies by taking a sport entrepreneurship perspective. This approach is useful in expanding and building on the existing social media research by focusing on the innovation apparent in the sport industry. An overview of current literature on social media and sport entrepreneurship is discussed. This article concludes with a number of different research trajectories that are needed to advance the practice and scholarship of sport social media studies and sport entrepreneurship.

Transmedia discourse in the digital age: exploring radical intertextuality, audiovisual hybridization, and the "aporia" of homo medialis

This article explores the evolution of transmedia discourse, a trend that emerges from the interplay between technological advancements and the modern individual's worldview, and its impact on contemporary media practices. The study focuses on the principles of radical intertextuality in convergent and television journalism, demonstrating how these principles contribute to the development of performativity, extraction, media symbiosis, and hybridization processes in screen arts. Additionally, the article delves into multimodal storytelling techniques, shedding light on the increasing demand for non-linear narratives and aesthetic models. The analysis concludes with an examination of the "aporia" of homo medialis within the context of digital anthropology, emphasizing the need for a better understanding of the human experience and identity in an increasingly interconnected digital landscape. The results of this investigation provide valuable insights for media scholars, industry professionals, and educators, with a focus on adapting to and leveraging the ever-shifting media landscape.

In Pursuit of a “Safe” Space for Political Participation: A Study of Selected WhatsApp Communities in Kenya

Kenya has a history of media censorship and citizen surveillance. The advent of social media is laudable for contributing to freedom of speech and accountability in Kenya. Studies show that WhatsApp, through its group formation affordance, has largely contributed to political participation in Kenya and beyond. Kenyans see it as a ”safe” place away from government surveillance, a carry-over of authoritarian rule. This is especially so since WhatsApp is considered as private media compared to other social media platforms. For instance, many political bloggers on Twitter and Facebook perceived to be anti-establishment have been arrested and charged, but only accountable arrests have been made in connection to WhatsApp activities despite government threats. This article argues that although actors, both human and non-human, act to construct a safe community for political participation on WhatsApp, modes of exclusion and inclusion arise from the socio-technological interaction which could pose a threat to the newly founded ”safe space”. Though the study site is in Kenya, this article grapples with issues other scholars of social media and politics grapple with globally, that is, safety, security, surveillance, and political participation, among others.

Disciplinary brakes on the sociology of digital media: the incongruity of communication and the sociological imagination

ABSTRACT This paper draws on my experience over two decades as part of an early generation of scholars who graduated with a PhD in sociology into a career as a researcher and teacher in the multidisciplinary field of digital media. I reflect on my experiences to offer an assessment of the state of digital media scholarship within sociology and the field of communication. The study of digital media remains underdeveloped within sociology. In part, this is due to disciplinary failures, an array of relevant, specialized areas within sociology have yet to fully realize the role of digital media. Sociological perspectives are also constrained through a dominant ‘communication perspective’ at the center of the field of communication. Communication is home to most digital media scholars and uses its institutional dominance to arbitrate what qualifies as scholarship. Whereas communication serves as a plural disciplinary catch-all for the subjects of the social sciences, it often does so without crossing the boundaries of a relatively homogeneous, epistemological framework. That framework does not adequately represent sociological perspectives on digital media. I point to key differences between sociology and communication that tend to marginalize sociological perspectives. These differences have also served to render the field of communication less relevant to sociology (and likely to other disciplines in the social sciences). I stress the importance of building institutions and practices that support (multi)disciplinary representation in the field to strengthen sociology and other perspectives and avoid a myopic lens on our understanding of digital media and social life.

A Systematic Review of Social Media and Government in the Social Science Discipline

The technical viewpoint recognises the critical role of information and communication technology as a driving force in our time. The importance of public policy management in the environment of public service institutions and regional commands is investigated from the standpoint of public administration and the use of social media. Academics need to map out ideas about how social media and government interact. This research aims to see the important themes or issues raised by scholars in social media and their government articles. What are the comprehensive factors that influence the use of social media in government circles? The research method used was a literature review on social media and government by reviewing journal articles on social media and government published in Scopus as data-based and processed using the NVivo 12 Plus analysis tool. The results of this study reveal five significant problems between social media and the government. These problems include digital difficulties, policies, information, communication, and politics. This research also gave birth to social media and government, which must take the form of digital activism; secondly, access to information disseminated by the government through social media; and third, administrative communication, which looks at how ideas are offered via social media to the government. Fourth, to achieve social media and government goals, it is necessary to demonstrate ethical and political behaviour, formulate policies following those goals, and then evaluate those policies through the implementation of rules or laws.

INTERNET HUMOUR AND THE NORMALISATION OF RAPE CULTURE

This paper investigates the discursive construction of sexual violence in humorous Internet memes. Feminist digital media scholars have taken an increased interest in the ways in which Internet communication and content reproduces notions of gender norms as well as creating misogynist, racist, homophobic and transphobic content. However, little research has investigated the role humour plays in this discourse – especially how it is presented in Internet memes. Using #MeToo as a case study, the paper investigates the role of humour in memes that focus on sexual violence. Investigating how gender and sexuality are discursively constructed in memes, the paper focuses on how this plays into the representation of sexual violence. The paper asks: what can Internet scholars learn by taking Internet humour seriously? The key findings of this paper is the discursive construction of sexual violence and the role humour plays in this. A himpathetic (Manne 2018) logic runs through most of the memes which centralises men’s experiences and provides disproportionate sympathy with male perpetrators and widely disregards the experiences of female victims. Humour is used to signal inclusion and exclusion as the platforms become spaces for indicating and reaffirming heteronormativity and homosociality. The work done by humour discursively excludes women, sexual minorities and people of colour. This exclusion extends to victim/survivors who often become the butt of the joke and are used as a prop to create a humorous meme.

Cutting through the Hype: Understanding the Implications of Deepfakes for the Fact-Checking Actor-Network

During recent years, growing concerns about emergent formats of visual disinformation and, in particular, deepfakes have shaped public debates and media scholarship. Empirical studies about deepfakes have most often focused on investigating their potential effects on news audiences. However, very little is known about how they impact producers of mediated communication and what strategies are taken to mitigate this potential threat. Based on in-depth interviews, this study focuses on fact-checkers as a central expert group dealing with evolving forms of visual mis- and disinformation on a day-to-day basis. We employ actor-network theory (ANT) to investigate the tangible impact deepfake technology has on their work. Our findings show that, so far, deepfakes as novel actants are only impacting fact-checking routines to a limited degree and are considered a future challenge. Instead, other forms of false and misleading images are considered to be far more disruptive. In particular, fact-checkers struggle with decontextualized videos, whose corrections require the integration of new technology-driven and manual detection techniques not yet available to many.

Trash, dirt, glitch: The imperfect turn

‘Trash, dirt, glitch’ offers an introduction to a cluster devoted to trash, dirt and glitch – concepts that, in aesthetic and artistic domains, firmly merit joint exploration. In fashion and urban design, music, art and other aesthetic practices, the trashy, the dirty and the glitchy interconnect in complex choreographies, in discourses and practices where they are framed as benefit rather than bother. For this cluster, the authors asked four scholars in media, design and fashion to examine the interconnections between trash, dirt and glitch as affirmatively charged categories. They do so through in-depth studies of ‘dirt(y)’ and glitch-based sound-making practices and media art in Australia (Caleb Kelly); German electronic and glitch music (Jakko Kemper); dirt and trash aesthetics in sneaker fashion and (especially but not only) US-based grunge subcultures (Ekaterina Kulinicheva); and discourses of dirt and disorder in the creative industry in Russia (Margarita Kuleva). This introduction contextualizes their findings and offers tools to theorize the present-day interest in dirt-, trash-, and glitch-based aesthetics as an imperfect turn. This turn we envision not as an unprecedented shift, but as the latest in a series of socio-technologically motivated historical imperfect turns. The imperfect turn that we witness today is not without its flaws – but, as we argue below, it can facilitate important social interventions.

Archiwum TVP a programy publicystyczno-kulturalne o tematyce filmowej. Lata 1989–2020


 
 
 The article analyses the content and availability of audio-visual archives of Polish Public Television regarding TV shows devoted to film and cinema productions broadcast between 1989 and 2020. This study allows general conclusions to be formulated that concern the research opportunities that this particular archive generates mostly for film and media scholars. Apart from presenting the results of in-depth analysis of archives, the text inscribes these reflections into the latest studies on archives, as well as into discussions on contemporary TV film criticism.
 
 

Global perceptions of plastic pollution: The contours and limits of debate

AbstractPlastic pollution is central to policy and public debates about anthropogenic damage to the environment. Negotiations for an international binding treaty to end plastic pollution provide a timely opportunity to analyse peer-reviewed papers concerning public perceptions of plastic pollution (n = 39). These focused on the impact of plastic pollution solely on the marine ecosystem, single-use plastics, barriers to recycling and risks of microplastics. Research studies explored public perceptions of ‘plastic pollution’, ‘marine plastic litter’, ‘marine plastic pollution’ and ‘plastic marine debris’. These terms are not interchangeable and frame the problem. Awareness links to media representations and personal ‘choices’ are limited by lack of options (extended producer responsibility schemes). There was limited discussion of reducing the aggregate global volume of plastics produced. Future research could explore perceptions of risk (toxic chemicals, bioplastics) plastics and climate change or plastics and global biodiversity loss (beyond turtles). The social meaning of plastics, the heterogeneity of audiences and the role of media in framing risks can help inform plastics-related policy. Social Sciences and media scholars are well placed to unpack the socio-cultural context in which plastics are intertwined in people’s everyday lives and how social meanings of plastics may change in response to global crises.

From precarious conditions to permanent positions? Problems, responsible actors, and solutions for strengthening the academic mid-level staff in Switzerland

The precarious situation of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, resulting from fixed-term contracts and the demanding working conditions of young researchers at Swiss universities, has been increasingly discussed in recent years by academic organizations, political actors, and the broader public. While discussions on various levels are intensifying, concrete measures remain largely absent, and young researchers find themselves in an environment of job insecurity and a lack of prospects. Therefore, we organized a panel discussion on why and how to create permanent positions in the Swiss academic system during this year’s annual conference of the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research (SACM). The panel included presentations of preliminary results from a recent study analyzing the working conditions of young and emerging communication and media scholars in Switzerland as well as discussions with researchers and actors from science organizations regarding: 1) the need for improvement of the current working conditions and the future perspectives of mid-level staff at Swiss universities, 2) the responsibilities of different actors, and 3) alternatives to the status quo that help solve the precarious situation of young and emerging scholars in Switzerland and beyond. The discussion showed several reasons for establishing more permanent positions and inducing a systemic change. While there are manifold arguments for creating more permanent positions, these arguments must appeal to those with decision-making power.

An explanatory combinatorial dictionary of English conflict lexis: A case study of modern political discourse

Though political discourse is in the mainstream of modern studies, scholars haven’t so far paid much attention to compiling political discourse-oriented dictionaries. The need to further develop lexicographic theory and practice for specific purposes and advance new methods to dictionary making is a challenge that linguists are facing today. The aim of the case study is twofold: to work out the principles for making an Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary (ECD) of English political conflict lexis and the microstructure of an ECD entry. The source of the data is the NOW corpus; the material is current American political discourse (2022). The ECD is generally consistent with Mel'čuk’s Meaning-Text theory (MTT). The authors describe a process of collecting and processing the data: corpus search and analysis, automatic and manual text processing, glossary compilation with the use of lexicographic, semasiological, and etymological methods and present an example of an ECD entry consisting of semantic, phonological, and cooccurrence zones. The findings prove that the use of electronic text corpora offers an effective way for compiling a specialized discourse-based dictionary. The research illustrates the validity of MTT: though based on the data of “language in context” , the dictionary is synthesis-oriented: it aims at speech production. The paper is the first result of a bigger project sketching the overall framework of the discursive ECD of political conflict lexis, which subsequent studies will hopefully develop with more precision and detail. The dictionary will be helpful for scholars in linguistics, discourse analysis, media and communication, political science, and conflict studies.

#RepresentationMatters on TV: a critical textual analysis of intersectional representation at work on NBC’s Superstore

ABSTRACT Television often depicts narratives reinforcing whiteness, cisheteronormativity, classism, and masculinity, particularly in organizations. This essay joins calls for #RepresentationMatters and feminist media scholarship on intersectional representation of difference at work. We analyze NBC’s Superstore, whose characters receive media praise for diverse representations of retail work while simultaneously depicting problematic portrayals. Our critical textual analysis reveals three themes of intersectional representation: (1) meta-representation of difference, (2) silencing intersectional voices, and (3) managing intersectional identities. We theorize difference at work on TV and invite future scholarship.

Hylomorphic McLuhan: One figure, two grounds

This article draws on the issue of digital sovereignty as a probe to explore the media scholarship of Marshall McLuhan as it relates to human sovereignty. Taking seriously McLuhan’s characterization of himself as a follower of Thomas Aquinas, the article argues that McLuhan’s application of gestalt psychology to culture and technology is analogical to Aquinas’s existential development of the figure–ground polarity central to Aristotelian hylomorphism. This structural equivalence allows us to understand McLuhan’s notion of ground in two primary senses – as acoustic material potency and as tactile existential actuality. I contend that conflating the existential Ground of human artefacts with the material ground of human artefacts obsolesces the figural structure of human perception, leading to a posthuman metaphysics that is at odds both with McLuhan’s humanistic message and with efforts to promote human sovereignty in the digital world.

Review of Secret Feminist Agenda, Season 4

Review of Secret Feminist Agenda, Season 4

Mutable Observation Used by Television Drone Pilots: Efficiency of Aerial Filming Regarding the Quality of Completed Shots

Drones, as mobile media of the present day, increase the operational and narrative capabilities of television and accelerate the logistics of shooting. Unmanned aerial vehicles with a camera properly steered by a pilot are able, to some extent, to replace a jimmy jib/crane and a dolly; basic technical devices, used in the studios, enabling the creation of narrative systems of pictures in film and television. Television is more and more often using drone footage to report events, broadcast live, as well as create coverage and television documentaries. In many productions, the pilot of the drone simultaneously acts as the drone camera operator, which can improve the effectiveness of shooting, but also carries some risks related to flight safety. The article describes and presents in the form of processed footage the real conditional ties of a Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) flight faced by pilots filming with a drone. VLOS is a type of air operation, which requires maintaining eye contact with the drone. In many countries, a drone visibility flight is legally sanctioned as VLOS Operation. An experiment was conducted to investigate the interactions between a human and a machine in airspace steered using a controller with a touchscreen. The drone pilot was considered an integral part of the drone’s flight system control Experimental data was collected with the use of a mobile eye-tracker, video cameras, surveys, and pilot declarations. During the experiment, eight television drone pilot operators recaptured a model shot under the regime of VLOS flight at low altitudes. They all show that both advanced and beginner pilots did not look at the UAV for over half the time of shot execution. The experiment allowed establishing two coefficients related to the effectiveness of a VLOS flight aiming at filming from the drone. The results point to clear differences in screen perception styles used by drone television pilots. The coefficients were described in the form of mathematical formulas and their limit values were determined. The research also determines the limits of pilots’ perception, within which they can film with a drone. The outcomes may help to optimize the process of aerial filming with the use of a drone, carried out for television, film, and other media, as well as in a simulation of such a flight for research and training. From the perspective of media science and social communication, the presented study included a technological component that can be accessed through information science, using statistical models and variable distributions. Media scholars can study the impact of the media without having to look into the metaphorical black box. Computer science opens up this possibility.