Suchergebnisse

Increasingly, political actors have to act in online communication environments. There they meet overlapping networked publics with different levels of participatory cultures and varying expectations of participation in the (re)making and coproduction of political content. This challenges political actors used to a top-down approach to communication. Meanwhile, online users are increasingly politically involved as legislatures all over the world become more active in regulating communication environments online. These new political actors often share participatory practices and have high levels of new media skills. Now they are challenged to adapt these bottom-up participatory cultures to the traditional political environment. This paper examines these adaption processes by examining three examples from the campaign for the German federal election of 2009. These examples include the attempt of Germany's conservative party (CDU) to encourage their supporters to adapt participatory practices, the German Social Democrats' (SPD) top-down production and distribution of online content that mimicked the look and feel of user-generated content, and the bottom-up emergence of political flash mobs.

Review of: Theme Park Fandom: Spatial Transmedia, Materiality and Participatory Cultures, Rebecca Williams (2020)
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 260 pp.,
ISBN 978-9-46298-257-4, h/bk, $127.00

This article builds off of the author's classroom experience as a high school teacher in South Central Los Angeles and looks at how cultural shifts with regards to media consumption and production impact liberatory pedagogical practice. Using media superstar Kanye West as a case study, this article argues that today's classroom practices must expand in ways that reflect a more participatory culture. In particular, West's marketing and engagement with his audience during the release of his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy highlight how mainstream media practices offer pathways for renewing critical pedagogy in the 21st century.

As a pedagogical tool, zines exist at the intersection of radical history, analog creativity, participatory culture, and community engagement. This article highlights the importance of contextualizing zines within a history of social activism to shift the focus of zines from individualism and self motivation to their role in community empowerment and social justice. This is particularly relevant when teaching about the topic of Asian American zines and community engagement. The first half of this article discusses the use of Densho's online archive of the complete print run of the Asian American movement periodical Gidra as a way to teach students about histories of Asian American independent publishing, racial formation, and community activism. The second part of this article moves from archives to practice, concerning how students can use the skills and knowledge that they learn from these archival materials and apply them to current events and community engagement projects surrounding gentrification and tenants' rights in Los Angeles Chinatown.

State supported socio-economic development has been a notable feature of many third world countries. The major investment goes in the nation building industrialisation, infrastructure development and development of human resources through specially created and funded strategic developmental organisations which assume the responsibility for the growth and development of the domain in which they function. They clearly have a developmental mission but have moderate to high resource dependence on government. So, in spite of the mission requiring participatory modes of operation, they are trapped in the bureaucratic jungle loosing their real spirit and identity. They may be a weapon against poverty, inequity and backwardness but their functional effectiveness is dependent on their ability to tackle bureaucratic red tapism and, at the same time, obtaining the required resources from the government machinery. Based on this background, the article attempts to analyse the psyche of Indian administrators and reasoning for their resistance to adopt Participative Approach for the effectiveness of strategic developmental organisations. It is suggested that there is a need to fill the gap between Indian bureaucratic psychology and Participative Management Approach. Only then the intended results in the form of high individual, organisational and social effectiveness can be obtained for the successful functioning of strategic developmental organisations.

Political Internet memes significantly contribute to discourse around contemporary events. By studying memes, scholars understand these 'units of culture' as forms of participatory content that can fulfill political functions. To explore whether users ascribe memes a political role and consider them an alternative to or supplement of traditional political participation, this study provides a user-centered perspective focusing on core motives of meme use. Via a Delphi method interview approach, participants discuss uses and gratifications of memes in political contexts. A qualitative content analysis provides insight into the role and impact of memes in social movements and everyday politics. The findings show that users perceive memes as a tool for easy, effortless engagement in the public sphere driven by the interplay of self-expression, social identity, and entertainment motives. Participants also discuss potentials and limitations of memes in political contexts, concluding that political memes can only support other efforts. The study contributes to our understanding of memes from a psychological perspective and establishes a basis for further research on deliberative political practices from a user perspective.

Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and big data will radically change the interactions and media that fans rely on in their communities. The membership of fandom will also change by the participation of nonhuman entities such as chatbots. New interfaces and technologies will soon create a more data-driven fandom, which I predict will lead to participatory culture being shared with nonhuman entities and to a celebration of creative products created by nonhuman entities.

Contemporary diplomacy is subject to the same pressures of globalization as many other communication industries. However, insights from different areas of Media and Communication Studies have only been partly explored in the context of diplomacy. This article applies theories of transmedia storytelling, transmedia engagement and surveillance upon a case study of the recent Campaign to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. The aim is to investigate the ways in which contemporary diplomatic advocacy campaigns cope with fundamental problems such as media repertoires, co-created content, collective intelligence, digital convergence and stakeholder management. The article contends that co-creation and co-option of shared values through transmedia engagement techniques perform a disciplining role for stakeholders that may be linked to theories of surveillance and biopolitics. This study will be of much relevance to those interested in the significance of participatory culture theories to contemporary international advocacy, including its policies, strategies and mediating practices.