Showing papers in "Media, Culture & Society in 2009"
947 citations
TL;DR: In recent years, there has been growing interest in the potential of so-called "creative" methods in media research, and in social research more broadly as mentioned in this paper, which typically, although by no means exclusively, employ visual means of representation, such as drawings, photography and video.
Abstract: In recent years, there has been growing interest in the potential of so-called ‘creative’ methods in media research, and in social research more broadly. While some of this work has employed quantitative techniques, much of the impetus has come from qualitative researchers seeking to move beyond what are seen as the limitations of talk-based methods such as interviews and focus groups. Such methods typically, although by no means exclusively, employ visual means of representation, such as drawings, photography and video. Asking people to ‘create’ media – to compose their own news stories, advertisements or television schedules, to take photographs, make (or edit) videotapes or build three-dimensional models – can, it is argued, reach the parts that other methods have failed to reach. Such methods are believed to overcome the rationalistic or logocentric tendencies of verbal approaches, and to enable the subjects of research to express their views more directly, and with less interference or contamination from the researcher. As such, they are frequently claimed to be ‘empowering’ for participants. This new emphasis has been seen to reflect a broader ‘shift to the visual’ – although it is worth noting that such a shift has been repeatedly proclaimed across the past several decades (cf. Gattegno, 1969; Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996). The interest in visual methods is apparent across a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, anthropology and education; and it has been particularly apparent in research involving children and young people (e.g. Clark and Moss, 2001; Kaplan and Howes, 2004; Niesyto, 2000). In the past ten years, there have been numerous ‘handbooks’ offering introductory accounts of visual methodologies from various disciplinary perspectives (e.g. Banks, 2001; van Leeuwen and Jewitt, 2001; Pink, 2006; Prosser, 1998;
250 citations
TL;DR: The longest-running gay character in American television is Will Truman, played by Erick McCormick on NBC's Will & Grace for eight seasons from 1998 until 2006 as mentioned in this paper, but the American public never sawWill Truman go to bed with another man, for most of those eight years, Will Truman was sitting by himself in America's prime-time network television gay bar.
Abstract: The longest-running gay character in American television is Will Truman, played by Erick McCormick on NBC’s Will & Grace for eight seasons from 1998 until 2006. Will Truman is an attractive and successful Manhattan lawyer in his mid-thirties. However, the American public never sawWill Truman go to bed with another man. In addition, for most of those eight years, Will Truman was sitting by himself in America’s prime-time network television gay bar. However, starting in 2003 American television witnessed the appearance of more audacious gay male characters, including a sitcom featuring a middleaged gay couple with a daughter (It’s all Relative on ABC), a dating reality show (Boy Meets Boy on Bravo) and a make-over show (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on Bravo), in addition to the controversial drama Queer as Folk. According to the media-watch organization GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) the 2003–4 network prime-time line-up can be considered a breakthrough with eight leading gay characters, compared to five the three previous seasons (GLAAD, 2006). Gay characters, in particular gay males, started populating television dramas, situation comedies and reality shows. The presence of homosexual characters in American television would seem to imply an endorsement of a liberal agenda of tolerance and inclusion of alternative lifestyles and sexual orientations. However, the perceived progressiveness of gays’ sudden appearance on American television could be undermined if it responds to traditional norms of social relations. In her analysis of the television program Ellen, where comedian Ellen DeGeneres and her fictional character came out in 1997, Dow (2001) argues that increased visibility of gays and lesbians in the media does not always translate into social tolerance
121 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the recursive relationship between online digital new media and print and electronic news media, which is an important task if the precise dimensions of the power struggle occurring between environmental activists and news media are to be understood.
Abstract: Print and electronic news media have played a central role in environmental
politics for 30 years: negotiating access, shaping meanings, circulating symbols.
Environmentalists have responded with strategies and tactics created
for and communicated through the news media. Protest action is one such
strategy that has become ‘reflexively conditioned’ to an unprecedented level
in its pursuit of media attention (Cottle, 2008: 853). It is for this reason that
the internet and the worldwide web have been a tantalising source of hope
for activists over the past decade, offering the potential for independent
information distribution devoid of the mediating effect of news journalists
and the established news media industries. This article investigates and
analyses how the recursive relationship between online digital ‘new media’
and print and electronic news media – or ‘old media’ – has unfolded
(Jenkins, 2006), which is an important task if the precise dimensions of the
power struggle occurring between environmental activists and news media
sources are to be understood.
114 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine cosmopolitanism as an identity with four key "performances" with a distinct moral hierarchy: (a) ecstatic cosmopolitanisms, (b) banal cosmologies, (c) instrumental cosmographies, and (d) closed cosmography.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is not only to provide a review of how cosmopolitanism has been theorized in the past, but also to propose a new way of thinking about cosmopolitanism. Beginning with a critique of how media and morality literature ignores an exploration of cosmopolitanism from the perspective of everyday life, this article proposes that we examine cosmopolitanism as an identity with four key ‘performances’ with a distinct moral hierarchy: (a) ecstatic cosmopolitanism, (b) banal cosmopolitanism, (c) instrumental cosmopolitanism and (d) closed cosmopolitanism. I argue that individuals weave in and out of expressions of openness to the Other based on particular contexts. Taking a bottom-up perspective, I posit that the field of media and morality will benefit from asking when and why do individuals ‘open up’ and ‘close in’ from the wider world, and how is the media significant (or not) in expressions of cosmopolitanism. Studying cosmopolitan identity as a contextual, fragile identity that is enabled/disabled by various factors allows us to see which media contents and contexts transform our ‘fear of touch’ to a ‘caress’ for the Other, and which prompt us to fall back on the scale.
104 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors stress the dual character of media goods, the underlying ideological ideals, and the attendant institutional setting as source of value conflict in communications policy making and emphasize the need to re-emphasize normative claims as essential guiding elements of communications policy-making.
Abstract: Debates about media concentration and its adequate handling are not coming to an end. This paper stresses the dual character of media goods, the underlying ideological ideals, and the attendant institutional setting as source of value conflict in communications policy making. It discusses this value conflict and gives examples of where it surfaces and how it is confronted. It is particularly evident in cases of media concentration. Newly introduced communications laws and policies within Europe and the USA aim to reduce (ownership) regulation, promote competition and cope with the challenges posed by convergence. This quest is coupled in part with protections of media pluralism through custom-developed indices for measuring concentration in media markets and tests for assessing media plurality in merger cases. The paper describes and discusses such new methods and instruments as novel but imperfect attempts by policy makers to respond to the various challenges in communications such as value conflict, convergence, the need for empirical proof and claims for non-economic ways of assessing media diversity. It concludes by stressing the need to re-emphasize normative claims as essential guiding elements of communications policy making.
82 citations
TL;DR: In the case of the Konginkangas bus accident as mentioned in this paper, a bus carrying passengers on a skiing vacation from Helsinki to Lapland crashed into a tractor-trailer loaded with paper rolls on an icy highway.
Abstract: On the night of 19 March 2004, in Konginkangas, Central Finland, a bus carrying passengers on a skiing vacation from Helsinki to Lapland crashed into a tractor-trailer loaded with paper rolls on an icy highway. The heavy rolls ejected into the bus immediately killed most of the passengers, mainly teenagers and young adults. With 23 dead, the Konginkangas bus accident represented the worst traffic accident in Finnish history. The death of young people is not expected in a modern society and perhaps because of that the expressions of public grief and ritualizing were unprecedented: people laid flowers and lighted candles at the snowy road site, placed virtual condolences and attended memorial services. A sense of national tragedy was heightened by intense media coverage that focused on mourning rituals and the youngest of the victims. Recently, a discussion within media research on the notion of ritual and the relationship between ritual and mass media has intensified (e.g. Becker, 1995; Coman, 2005; Cottle, 2006; Couldry, 2003; Dayan and Katz, 1992; Ehrlich, 1996; Ettema, 1990; Kitch, 2003; Liebes, 1998; Rothenbuhler, 1998). Our contribution to this debate is to offer a historical perspective on mourning ritual in news media. What has been lacking thus far within media literature is a discussion on the kind of changes that have taken place in the relationship between ritual and media. In fact, the idea that public mourning, and the rituals it entails, has a history in which the development of media plays a role (for example, the
73 citations
70 citations
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64 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the blurring of boundaries between those who are fighting and the people who are documenting the war and highlight the recent phenomenon of coalition soldiers logging on to the web from Iraq and Afghanistan, publicizing personal, at times shockingly brutal, photographs and video clips from the frontlines.
Abstract: Since the Kosovo conflict in 1999, attempts to manage the reporting of wars and conflicts, and specifically their visual representation, have accelerated. The global ‘information space’ is a key battlefront in the ongoing war against international terrorism, with all parties increasingly engaged in the production, distribution and mobilization of images to support their cause (Campbell, 2003; Keeble, 2004; Robinson, 2004; Webster, 2003; Taylor, 2003). The blurring of boundaries between those who are fighting and those who are documenting the war is critically manifested in the recent phenomenon of coalition soldiers logging on to the web from Iraq and Afghanistan, publicizing personal, at times shockingly brutal, photographs and video clips from the frontlines (Kennedy, 2008; Mortensen, 2007). The ability of global audiences to access the soldiers’ own images and stories directly through war blogs, mass emails and popular video-sharing sites such as YouTube and MySpace is opening up a new window on modern warfare that throws into sharp relief the ways in which mainstream media and governments cover the reality of war. The firsthand testimonials by soldiers actually living the war offer the public uncensored insights into the dark, violent and even depraved faces of warfare, thereby providing the basis for the kind of critical perspectives needed for a more open democratic debate. However, the soldiers’ visual recordings are at times so violent that they run the risk of severing the viewer’s emotional connection to what is represented. These hideous sights bring to a head the ongoing debates on the forms of witnessing called forth by the representations of distant suffering in the media (e.g. Boltanski, 1999; Chouliaraki, 2006; Hesford, 2004; Tait, 2008). If the moral justification for publicizing the death and agony of others lies in its potential for fostering an active public response,
TL;DR: In this paper, Finnish information society strategies (1999-2004) are analyzed in relation to education in order to shed light on the underlying discourses, and it is argued that the action programmes based on deficiently defined premises lead to ICT being seen as a simple answer for complex societal and educational problems.
Abstract: Following the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution, governments around the world have formulated strategies to meet the challenges proposed by the ubiquitous globalization and information society discourse Education has been the focal point of the information society strategies, first, because strategies have touted the use of ICT to enhance education and, second, because education is seen as a way to move nations into the information age Finland has been soaring high in the international ranking lists measuring different aspects of information society development, and Finland’s recent success in the Programme for International Student Assessment study might suggest a relation between information society development and education In this article, Finnish information society strategies (1999–2004) are analyzed in relation to education in order to shed light on the underlying discourses It is then argued that the action programmes based on deficiently defined premises’ lead to ICT being seen as a simple answer for complex societal and educational problems Further, political discourse is challenged by a diverging interpretation of the information society By providing a cross-section of Finnish information society strategies and their implementation, the internationally recurrent themes are discussed as an example of a larger phenomenon in educational policy
TL;DR: The scanlation phenomenon refers to the phenomenon where ardent fans scan in manga titles, translate them from Japanese to another language and release the translated version free of charge via the internet.
Abstract: In recent years, the Japanese comic book or ‘manga’ has gained remarkable popularity outside Japan, particularly in the US and Europe (Fishbein, 2007; Hickley, 2005; JETRO 2005a, 2005b, 2006). There might be a variety of driving forces for this phenomenon: Western society’s increasing fascination with contemporary, popular culture in Japan; the critical and commercial success of Japanese animation, which is often based on manga; Japanese governmental agencies’ support for manga-related studies and events overseas; and a variety of manga for girls, which immediately created a new, rapidly growing, market (Deutsche Welle, 2002, 2006; JETRO, 2005b; Kelts, 2007; Kinsella, 2000: 12-13). Behind the successful globalization of manga there exists manga scanlation (Deppey, 2005; Macias, 2006; Yang, 2004). ‘Scan(s)lation’ refers to the phenomenon where ardent fans scan in manga titles, translate them from Japanese to another language and release the translated version free of charge via the internet. It can be argued that scanlation has been driven by two main factors: first, demand exceeding the supply of manga outside Japan; and second, the availability of digital technologies and the internet, which allow the digitalization of manga and its international distribution through internet chat channels, peer-to-peer file sharing, scanlation distribution websites and simply websites run by scanlators.
TL;DR: The switch from analogue to digital television is now an established global trend as discussed by the authors, and a number of countries around the world are following, and the 2006 Regional Radiocommunication Conference for Europe, Africa and the Middle East set a date of June 2015 for completing the transition to digital broadcasting.
Abstract: The switch from analogue to digital television is now an established global trend. Switchover motives vary in emphasis from country to country but the common objective is to achieve greater spectrum efficiency by closing down analogue terrestrial transmission. The spectrum saved at this point can be reallocated or auctioned, for a wide range of broadcasting and telecommunications purposes. Switch-off started at regional level with Berlin in 2003 and at national level with the Netherlands in 2006. Finland and Sweden followed in 2007. Firm target dates have been set for the United States (2009), Japan (2011), the United Kingdom (2008–12) and several other western European countries. In the wake of these pioneers, other governments around the world are following, and the 2006 Regional Radiocommunication Conference for Europe, Africa and the Middle East set a date of June 2015 for completing the transition to digital broadcasting. Comparative study of switchover policy and its implementation has tended to stress the differences between countries (Brown and Picard, 2005; Cave and Nakamura, 2006; Frezza and Sorice, 2004; Galperin, 2003; 2004), as indeed has our own previous work (García Leiva, 2008; García Leiva et al., 2006; Starks, 2007). Differences can be explained by variations of emphasis in motivation, by national market characteristics and the extent of multi-channel development, by political and cultural factors, and by timing. Several of the pioneering countries faced crises at some point, characterized by a stalled market, bankrupt broadcasters or postponed switch-off timetables. Switchover has proved neither commercially nor politically simple.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the potential of the emerging video-film pop culture in Nigeria for its potential to stimulate social change in the society, and analyzed three video-films from the industry were analyzed for social commentary and options for change.
Abstract: The emerging video-film pop culture in Nigeria is examined for its potential to stimulate social change in the society. Three video-films from the industry were analyzed for social commentary and options for change in the society. The study concludes that the industry has a potential to stimulate social change in the society, but its commercial nature and its melodramatic content may create impediments.
TL;DR: The development of journalism education might have paralleled the legitimization process of applied fields in American universities as discussed by the authors, which was oriented from the beginning toward the training of vocational skills, and applied vocational fields gained their academic legitimacy mostly in Midwestern land-grant state universities, where one of the proclaimed missions was community service.
Abstract: Journalism education was anAmerican invention, oriented from the beginning toward the training of vocational skills. Older European and elite US universities had rejected journalism education for a perceived lack of a specialized body of expert knowledge. Harvard, for example, turned down an endowment from Joseph Pulitzer for establishing a journalism school; the money was accepted reluctantly by Columbia to launch the now-renowned Journalism School in 1912. Boorstin (1978) argues that applied vocational fields (notably, agricultural colleges) gained their academic legitimacy mostly in Midwestern land-grant state universities, where one of the proclaimed missions was community service, which was regarded as being as important as teaching abstract knowledge. The development of journalism education might have paralleled the legitimization process of applied fields in American universities. Missouri founded the world’s first journalism school in 1908, and by the 1930s journalism education was firmly established in major Midwestern land-grant universities. Part of the impetus came from strong lobbying efforts of state press associations and publishers who saw a university journalism curriculum as a way to enhance the occupational prestige of the trade (Carey, 2000). Even though many countries came to adopt American journalism education, it has continued to be met with suspicion. None of the Ivy League institutions in the United States has joined Columbia to offer a degree in practical journalism. What’s most intriguing is that US-style journalism education
TL;DR: This article argued that race is malleable and that race can be interrupted in ways that gesture to the constructed nature of racial identity. But they also pointed out that while regulated daily performatives should not be mistaken for 'theatrical self-representation' (1993: 95), performance can be used to explicate aspects of performativity.
Abstract: In her work Bodies that Matter, Judith Butler argues that sex is materialized through an existing discourse of gender that slots ‘acceptable’ bodies into two categories, male or female (1993: 1–25). If we accepted that Butler’s arguments concerning performativity could be applied to race, what might this mean for anti-racist politics and performance? If we took seriously the assertion that discourse materializes bodies, perhaps we could examine how race may be interrupted in ways that gesture to the constructed nature of racial identity. Racially charged humour may offer insight into how race is malleable, while gesturing to the psychic anxieties that arise when the performative nature of identity is revealed. It should be noted that Butler warns against equating ‘performativity’ with ‘performance’ (1993: 234). However, while regulated daily performatives should not be mistaken for ‘theatrical self-representation’ (1993: 95), perhaps performance can be used to explicate aspects of performativity. In Performative Maladies in Contemporary Anglophone Drama, Ward argues that:
TL;DR: By combining ethnographic methods with textual analysis, this article sets out to answer the question how a scripted event on live television is infused with a sense of ‘liveness’ in order to balan balan.
Abstract: By combining ethnographic methods with textual analysis, this article sets out to answer the question how a scripted event on live television is infused with a sense of ‘liveness’ in order to balan ...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the technical and cultural meaning of Web 2.0 in order to determine whether a deeper understanding of the history and original context of the label has anything to offer toward a more intelligently informed Web2.0.
Abstract: Since the naming by Tim O’Reilly (2005) of ‘Web 2.0’ to signify a new phase in web development and user experience, the ‘2.0’ suffix has been applied in a number of disciplines to indicate a similarly new direction in that field. However, this borrowed branding can fail to transfer the culture of development and original intentions of the ‘Web 2.0’ label, and may therefore be applied without detailed knowledge of its origins. There is a case for examining the technical and cultural meaning of Web 2.0 in order to determine whether a deeper understanding of the history and original context of the label – and the technology behind it – have anything to offer toward a more intelligently informed ‘2.0’metaphor, or – fundamentally – whether its use in other contexts is meaningful in any case beyond the current phase of the web. To this end we explore the contrast between what may be termed ‘technology-independent’ applications of the metaphorical suffix and those that may be termed ‘technology-dependent’ with regard to how accurately they reflect the tenets behind the original concept. Additionally, we explore the drivers behind the rush to adopt the 2.0 suffix, and in particular its relation to contemporary discussion regarding how Media Studies needs to be ‘upgraded’ to Media Studies 2.0 in order to deal with new media.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the significance of Hirschman's concept of voice in relation to media policy, media participation through user-created content, and the rise of 'citizen media' and 'Citizen journalism' and conclude that voice and participation, rather than citizenship, may constitute a more suitable foundation for understanding new digital media initiatives.
Abstract: This paper analyses Albert Hirschman's Exit, Voice and Loyalty (Hirschman 1970) as a basis for understanding the relationship between media and citizenship. It considers the significance of Hirschman's concept of voice in relation to media policy, media participation through user-created content, and the rise of 'citizen media' and 'citizen journalism'. It associates these developments with a 'de-centering' of both media practice and media studies, as considered by Couldry (2006a, 2006b). It concludes by suggesting that voice and participation, rather than citizenship, may constitute a more suitable foundation for understanding new digital media initiatives.