Pub Date : 2022-02-04DOI: 10.1177/20570473211073932
Satofumi Kawamura, Koichi Iwabuchi
This article considers how digital media communication reconfigures a “neo-nationalist subject” in the Japanese context. A neo-nationalist subject is not the so-called modern national subject that maintains a shared, collective identity as the rationale regulating his or her decisions and behavior, but rather is a fragmented subject that, in view of “the decline of symbolic efficiency,” is open to discourses that others are in effect stealing his or her “enjoyment” (jouissance). Starting from an overview of the rise of cyber-nationalism and the popularity of neoliberal authoritarian governance in Japan since the 1990s, we explore how affect-driven digital media environments promoted by a neoliberal economy produce neo-nationalist subjects who attribute responsibility for their dissatisfaction with life to others, and whose self-defensive “drive” functions as the primary support of the culture of hate and modern racism. In this way, we offer an account for the intersection of nationalism, jingoism, and populism in the digital age.
{"title":"Making neo-nationalist subject in Japan: The intersection of nationalism, jingoism, and populism in the digital age","authors":"Satofumi Kawamura, Koichi Iwabuchi","doi":"10.1177/20570473211073932","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473211073932","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers how digital media communication reconfigures a “neo-nationalist subject” in the Japanese context. A neo-nationalist subject is not the so-called modern national subject that maintains a shared, collective identity as the rationale regulating his or her decisions and behavior, but rather is a fragmented subject that, in view of “the decline of symbolic efficiency,” is open to discourses that others are in effect stealing his or her “enjoyment” (jouissance). Starting from an overview of the rise of cyber-nationalism and the popularity of neoliberal authoritarian governance in Japan since the 1990s, we explore how affect-driven digital media environments promoted by a neoliberal economy produce neo-nationalist subjects who attribute responsibility for their dissatisfaction with life to others, and whose self-defensive “drive” functions as the primary support of the culture of hate and modern racism. In this way, we offer an account for the intersection of nationalism, jingoism, and populism in the digital age.","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"7 1","pages":"15 - 26"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43703309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-29DOI: 10.1177/20570473221074814
Joshua P Ewalt
This essay explores the mapping of power geometries as public rhetoric within People’s Tribune’s coverage of Benton Harbor, Michigan. In doing so, the essay demonstrates three techniques for mapping power geometries: that they (a) oscillate between spatial scales, thereby managing a tension between framing place as unique and common to a broader geography; (b) articulate regions so as to locate the power dynamics of the nation; and (c) connect the place to a power geometry of resistance. Mapping power geometries also enables the production of a multi-scalar public: a set of strangers who understand their relationship to each other through a shared, yet differentiated, connection to variously scaled issues. The analysis consequently contributes to existing literature regarding spatial scale, the use of place-based argument in social movement rhetoric, and the formation of multi-scalar publics.
{"title":"Oscillating scale and articulating regions: Power geometries and multi-scalar publics in People’s Tribune’s coverage of Benton Harbor, Michigan","authors":"Joshua P Ewalt","doi":"10.1177/20570473221074814","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473221074814","url":null,"abstract":"This essay explores the mapping of power geometries as public rhetoric within People’s Tribune’s coverage of Benton Harbor, Michigan. In doing so, the essay demonstrates three techniques for mapping power geometries: that they (a) oscillate between spatial scales, thereby managing a tension between framing place as unique and common to a broader geography; (b) articulate regions so as to locate the power dynamics of the nation; and (c) connect the place to a power geometry of resistance. Mapping power geometries also enables the production of a multi-scalar public: a set of strangers who understand their relationship to each other through a shared, yet differentiated, connection to variously scaled issues. The analysis consequently contributes to existing literature regarding spatial scale, the use of place-based argument in social movement rhetoric, and the formation of multi-scalar publics.","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"7 1","pages":"27 - 39"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49444357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-28DOI: 10.1177/20570473211063237
Jiyoun Suk, David Coppini, Carlos Muñiz, Hernando Rojas
The contemporary communication ecology contributes to affective polarization by presenting us with extreme exemplars of disliked groups. News exposure that is associated with political discussion networks is related to greater political knowledge, yet unlike previous eras where political knowledge and tolerance went hand in hand, this is no longer the case. We employ a comparative design to examine this idea among two democracies with differing levels of journalistic professionalism and political system: Mexico and the United States. Results show that greater political knowledge is associated with affective polarization, especially for the United States. Furthermore, there was a significant indirect path between media use and affective polarization, mediated through homogeneous political talk and political knowledge, but not in Mexico.
{"title":"The more you know, the less you like: A comparative study of how news and political conversation shape political knowledge and affective polarization","authors":"Jiyoun Suk, David Coppini, Carlos Muñiz, Hernando Rojas","doi":"10.1177/20570473211063237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473211063237","url":null,"abstract":"The contemporary communication ecology contributes to affective polarization by presenting us with extreme exemplars of disliked groups. News exposure that is associated with political discussion networks is related to greater political knowledge, yet unlike previous eras where political knowledge and tolerance went hand in hand, this is no longer the case. We employ a comparative design to examine this idea among two democracies with differing levels of journalistic professionalism and political system: Mexico and the United States. Results show that greater political knowledge is associated with affective polarization, especially for the United States. Furthermore, there was a significant indirect path between media use and affective polarization, mediated through homogeneous political talk and political knowledge, but not in Mexico.","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"7 1","pages":"40 - 56"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44801759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-01DOI: 10.1177/20570473211048029
F. Schneider
When the COVID-19 virus broke out in China, foreign observers speculated whether the Chinese leadership was facing its ‘Chernobyl Moment’. China’s leadership, however, defied foreign expectations about its ostensibly floundering legitimacy and instead turned the crisis into a national success story. This article explores the role that digital media played in cementing this success, specifically how various actors mobilized nationalist sentiments and discourses on the online video-sharing platform Bilibili. By focusing on visual discourses, online commentaries, and the affordances of the digital platform, the article analyses the role that ‘hip’ and youthful content played in the authorities’ attempts to guiding online audiences to rally around the flag. The results of these efforts were viral villages of community sentiment that created strong incentives for conformity, and in which the official party line was able to reverberate with pop-culture memes and popular nationalism.
{"title":"China’s viral villages: Digital nationalism and the COVID-19 crisis on online video-sharing platform Bilibili","authors":"F. Schneider","doi":"10.1177/20570473211048029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473211048029","url":null,"abstract":"When the COVID-19 virus broke out in China, foreign observers speculated whether the Chinese leadership was facing its ‘Chernobyl Moment’. China’s leadership, however, defied foreign expectations about its ostensibly floundering legitimacy and instead turned the crisis into a national success story. This article explores the role that digital media played in cementing this success, specifically how various actors mobilized nationalist sentiments and discourses on the online video-sharing platform Bilibili. By focusing on visual discourses, online commentaries, and the affordances of the digital platform, the article analyses the role that ‘hip’ and youthful content played in the authorities’ attempts to guiding online audiences to rally around the flag. The results of these efforts were viral villages of community sentiment that created strong incentives for conformity, and in which the official party line was able to reverberate with pop-culture memes and popular nationalism.","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"6 1","pages":"48 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47442160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-01DOI: 10.1177/20570473211006481
David Deacon, J. Stanyer
Diversity is recognised as a significant criterion for appraising the democratic performance of media systems. This article begins by considering key conceptual debates that help differentiate types and levels of diversity. It then addresses a core methodological challenge in measuring diversity: how do we model statistical variation and difference when many measures of source and content diversity only attain the nominal level of measurement? We identify a range of obscure statistical indices developed in other fields that measure the strength of ‘qualitative variation’. Using original data, we compare the performance of five diversity indices and, on this basis, propose the creation of a more effective diversity average measure. The article concludes by outlining innovative strategies for drawing statistical inferences from these measures, using bootstrapping and permutation testing resampling. All statistical procedures are supported by a unique online resource developed for this article.
{"title":"Media diversity and the analysis of qualitative variation","authors":"David Deacon, J. Stanyer","doi":"10.1177/20570473211006481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473211006481","url":null,"abstract":"Diversity is recognised as a significant criterion for appraising the democratic performance of media systems. This article begins by considering key conceptual debates that help differentiate types and levels of diversity. It then addresses a core methodological challenge in measuring diversity: how do we model statistical variation and difference when many measures of source and content diversity only attain the nominal level of measurement? We identify a range of obscure statistical indices developed in other fields that measure the strength of ‘qualitative variation’. Using original data, we compare the performance of five diversity indices and, on this basis, propose the creation of a more effective diversity average measure. The article concludes by outlining innovative strategies for drawing statistical inferences from these measures, using bootstrapping and permutation testing resampling. All statistical procedures are supported by a unique online resource developed for this article.","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"6 1","pages":"19 - 32"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/20570473211006481","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47016196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-01DOI: 10.1177/20570473211046733
D. Jin
BTS fandom has been one of the strongest, and many Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth members have dedicated themselves to protect BTS from numerous controversies, while promoting the group’s messages, which can be identified as cyber-nationalism. By employing a critical discourse analysis on BTS fans’ social media posts and their online activities surrounding a few incidents, this article attempts to develop cyber-nationalism in the context of the BTS fandom. It investigates the formation of transnational cyber-nationalism, and then discusses how Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth members as citizens in the BTS nation utilize cyberspace, in particular, social media, not only to form alliances but also to protect BTS from any critical points of view. Finally, it articulates how transnational cyber-nationalism in tandem with BTS has shifted the notion of cyber-nationalism, which can be identified as negative, even patriotic parochialism, into constructive and socio-culturally corrected cyber-movements.
{"title":"The BTS sphere: Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth’s transnational cyber-nationalism on social media","authors":"D. Jin","doi":"10.1177/20570473211046733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473211046733","url":null,"abstract":"BTS fandom has been one of the strongest, and many Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth members have dedicated themselves to protect BTS from numerous controversies, while promoting the group’s messages, which can be identified as cyber-nationalism. By employing a critical discourse analysis on BTS fans’ social media posts and their online activities surrounding a few incidents, this article attempts to develop cyber-nationalism in the context of the BTS fandom. It investigates the formation of transnational cyber-nationalism, and then discusses how Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth members as citizens in the BTS nation utilize cyberspace, in particular, social media, not only to form alliances but also to protect BTS from any critical points of view. Finally, it articulates how transnational cyber-nationalism in tandem with BTS has shifted the notion of cyber-nationalism, which can be identified as negative, even patriotic parochialism, into constructive and socio-culturally corrected cyber-movements.","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"6 1","pages":"33 - 47"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49057910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-01DOI: 10.1177/20570473211046730
Martín Becerra, S. Waisbord
In this article, we are interested in examining the factors that drive cybernationalism and digital governance in media policies. As scholars with a long-standing interest in media industries and policies in Latin America, we start with a simple empirical observation: the curious absence of debates and strong efforts to regulate digital media in the region grounded on nationalistic arguments. It is not exaggerated to affirm that for the past two decades, the region has largely adopted a laissez-faire, deregulatory approach on fundamental issues about the structure and functioning of the Internet, including the performance of global digital platforms, content traffic, data ownership and access, and speech. We believe that understanding the decades-long transition from nationalistic media regulations to pragmatism in digital policies in Latin America yields valuable insights for theorizing the conditions that foster (and discourage) nationalism and sovereignty in digital policies.
{"title":"The curious absence of cybernationalism in Latin America: Lessons for the study of digital sovereignty and governance","authors":"Martín Becerra, S. Waisbord","doi":"10.1177/20570473211046730","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473211046730","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we are interested in examining the factors that drive cybernationalism and digital governance in media policies. As scholars with a long-standing interest in media industries and policies in Latin America, we start with a simple empirical observation: the curious absence of debates and strong efforts to regulate digital media in the region grounded on nationalistic arguments. It is not exaggerated to affirm that for the past two decades, the region has largely adopted a laissez-faire, deregulatory approach on fundamental issues about the structure and functioning of the Internet, including the performance of global digital platforms, content traffic, data ownership and access, and speech. We believe that understanding the decades-long transition from nationalistic media regulations to pragmatism in digital policies in Latin America yields valuable insights for theorizing the conditions that foster (and discourage) nationalism and sovereignty in digital policies.","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"6 1","pages":"67 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47116461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-01DOI: 10.1177/2057047320969433
J. Schradie
Dismissing conservative participants in protests as duped fools or ranting ideologues who have fallen prey to fake news is a dangerous reaction that fails to recognize the essential and grassroots role they play in profoundly effective conservative messaging that continues to outfox progressive information campaigns. This article uses the collective action against Covid-19 stay-at-home orders and mask requirements as an example of the broader arguments in the book, The Revolution That Wasn’t: How Digital Activism Favors Conservatives (Harvard University Press, 2019).
{"title":"“Give me Liberty or Give me Covid-19”: Anti-lockdown protesters were never Trump puppets","authors":"J. Schradie","doi":"10.1177/2057047320969433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047320969433","url":null,"abstract":"Dismissing conservative participants in protests as duped fools or ranting ideologues who have fallen prey to fake news is a dangerous reaction that fails to recognize the essential and grassroots role they play in profoundly effective conservative messaging that continues to outfox progressive information campaigns. This article uses the collective action against Covid-19 stay-at-home orders and mask requirements as an example of the broader arguments in the book, The Revolution That Wasn’t: How Digital Activism Favors Conservatives (Harvard University Press, 2019).","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"5 1","pages":"126 - 128"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2057047320969433","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48432462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-01DOI: 10.1177/2057047320959852
Fatih Demir, Mehmet F. Bastug, Aziz Douai
Over the last decade, social media platforms have become the leading communication tools for activists and protesters all over the world. Understanding protesters’ motivations and reasons for using social media is a challenging issue for researchers. In this article, we analyzed the use of Twitter during the anti-governmental protests in Istanbul that was launched in May 2013. We examined 13,794 tweets posted to the #direngeziparki hashtag over a 6-day period. Based on the results of a qualitative content coding of the tweets, we found that the Twitter platform was widely used to mobilize protesters, share information about the events, and express opinions about the policing of the protests. We argue that social media can help keep protests peaceful by preventing vandalism, informing the protesters about extremist or violent groups participating in the protests, and can help them to avoid engaging in violent acts against police forces.
{"title":"Keeping it peaceful: Twitter and the Gezi Park movement","authors":"Fatih Demir, Mehmet F. Bastug, Aziz Douai","doi":"10.1177/2057047320959852","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047320959852","url":null,"abstract":"Over the last decade, social media platforms have become the leading communication tools for activists and protesters all over the world. Understanding protesters’ motivations and reasons for using social media is a challenging issue for researchers. In this article, we analyzed the use of Twitter during the anti-governmental protests in Istanbul that was launched in May 2013. We examined 13,794 tweets posted to the #direngeziparki hashtag over a 6-day period. Based on the results of a qualitative content coding of the tweets, we found that the Twitter platform was widely used to mobilize protesters, share information about the events, and express opinions about the policing of the protests. We argue that social media can help keep protests peaceful by preventing vandalism, informing the protesters about extremist or violent groups participating in the protests, and can help them to avoid engaging in violent acts against police forces.","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"5 1","pages":"149 - 163"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2057047320959852","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46688969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-01DOI: 10.1177/2057047320961562
Meredith D. Clark
The term “cancel culture” has significant implications for defining discourses of digital and social media activism. In this essay, I briefly interrogate the evolution of digital accountability praxis as performed by Black Twitter, a meta-network of culturally linked communities online. I trace the practice of the social media callout from its roots in Black vernacular tradition to its misappropriation in the digital age by social elites, arguing that the application of useful anger by minoritized people and groups has been effectively harnessed in social media spaces as a strategy for networked framing of extant social problems. This strategy is challenged, however, by the dominant culture’s ability to narrativize the process of being “canceled” as a moral panic with the potential to upset the concept of a limited public sphere.
{"title":"DRAG THEM: A brief etymology of so-called “cancel culture”","authors":"Meredith D. Clark","doi":"10.1177/2057047320961562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047320961562","url":null,"abstract":"The term “cancel culture” has significant implications for defining discourses of digital and social media activism. In this essay, I briefly interrogate the evolution of digital accountability praxis as performed by Black Twitter, a meta-network of culturally linked communities online. I trace the practice of the social media callout from its roots in Black vernacular tradition to its misappropriation in the digital age by social elites, arguing that the application of useful anger by minoritized people and groups has been effectively harnessed in social media spaces as a strategy for networked framing of extant social problems. This strategy is challenged, however, by the dominant culture’s ability to narrativize the process of being “canceled” as a moral panic with the potential to upset the concept of a limited public sphere.","PeriodicalId":44233,"journal":{"name":"Communication and the Public","volume":"5 1","pages":"88 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2057047320961562","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46765413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}