Understanding new media -- The political economy of new media -- Politics and citizenship -- Divides, participation and inequality -- New media uses and abuses -- Security, surveillance and safety -- New media and journalism -- Mobile media and everyday life -- New media and identity -- Socialities and social media -- Games and gaming -- The future of new media
Cultural Diversity and Global Media explores the relationship between the media and multiculturalism.: Summarises and critically discusses current approaches to multiculturalism and the media from a global perspecive; Explores both the theoretical debates and empirical findings on multiculturalism and the media; Assumes the new perspective of mediation of cultural diversity, which critically combines elements of previous theories in order to gain a better understanding of the relationship between the media and cultural diversity; Explores media 'moments' of production, representation and consu
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The article explores Bitchute, a video-hosting platform associated with the Far/Alt Right, with the aim of understanding how it reconfigures political communication and the digital public sphere. Methodologically, the article employs the walkthrough method and non-participant observation to identify the main features and functionalities offered to users. These include a set of values that prioritise creators, an algorithmic organisation that keeps users engaged with a single creator channel rather than with the same topic across channels; and embedded buttons for tips and pledges for creators enabling them to directly monetise their content. The content posted on Bitchute tends to coalesce around politicised cultural issues. It is noteworthy that although Bitchute hosts some advertising, it does not use data for microtargeting and in general makes limited use of user data. We interpret these findings as suggesting that Bitchute constitutes a media infrastructure that encourages, incentivises and sustains microcelebrities of the Far/Alt Right, who act as ideology entrepreneurs. Bitchute can therefore be seen as an infrastructure for the multiplication/sustenance of ideological entrepreneurs/political influencers who vie for the attention and money of far-right publics. If we can speak of a structural transformation of the public sphere associated with Alt Tech, our discussion of Bitchute suggests that this takes the form of a political media infrastructure that enables the continued existence and consolidation of a new type of political actor, the ideology entrepreneur.
This article reviews the central problematique of citizenship, arguing that the challenges imposed by neoliberal globalisation involve the loss of political, social and civil rights. By negating the mediations performed by citizenship between the people and the state, post-democracy renders citizenship meaningless. The article traces two main responses to this, a reactionary and a progressive one, none of which can address the problems of citizenship. The grains of a new response are found in three developments: a new ontology of the citizen, brought into being through digital acts; the existence of dual power, creating new forms of governance and social reproduction from below; and between these, the development of new procedures that directly engage with state power. Taken together, these considerations indicate a new possibility for the radicalisation of citizenship rather than a return to the former state of affairs.
This article reviews the central problematique of citizenship, arguing that the challenges imposed by neoliberal globalisation involve the loss of political, social and civil rights. By negating the mediations performed by citizenship between the people and the state, post-democracy renders citizenship meaningless. The article traces two main responses to this, a reactionary and a progressive one, none of which can address the problems of citizenship. The grains of a new response are found in three developments: a new ontology of the citizen, brought into being through digital acts; the existence of dual power, creating new forms of governance and social reproduction from below; and between these, the development of new procedures that directly engage with state power. Taken together, these considerations indicate a new possibility for the radicalisation of citizenship rather than a return to the former state of affairs.
AbstractThis article reviews the central problematique of citizenship, arguing that the challenges imposed by neoliberal globalisation involve the loss of political, social and civil rights. By negating the mediations performed by citizenship between the people and the state, post-democracy renders citizenship meaningless. The article traces two main responses to this, a reactionary and a progressive one, none of which can address the problems of citizenship. The grains of a new response are found in three developments: a new ontology of the citizen, brought into being through digital acts; the existence of dual power, creating new forms of governance and social reproduction from below; and between these, the development of new procedures that directly engage with state power. Taken together, these considerations indicate a new possibility for the radicalisation of citizenship rather than a return to the former state of affairs.
Abstract Diasporas in the New Media Age: Identity, Politics and Community, A. Alonso and A. Oiarzabal (eds) (2010) Reno: University of Nevada Press, pp. 288, ISBN 10: 0874178150 (pbk), €36.28 Digital Diasporas: Identity and Transnational Engagement, J. Brinkerhoff (2009) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 288, ISBN 10: 0521741432 (pbk), €22.30 Migration and New Media: Transnational Families and Polymedia, M. Madianou and D. Miller (2012) London: Routledge, pp. 192, ISBN 10: 041567929X (pbk), €26.52 Diaspora Online: Identity Politics and Romanian Migrants, R. Trandafoiu (2013) Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 212, ISBN 10: 0857459430 (hbk), €47.93
In: Orient: deutsche Zeitschrift für Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur des Orients = German journal for politics, economics and culture of the Middle East, Volume 51, Issue 1, p. 25-37
"This article is concerned with the question of power in Web 2.0 networks. It focuses on the issue of Palestine, and seeks to show the new power configurations in these kinds of network. Implied in the rhetoric of Web 2.0 is that power and hierarchy are somehow diffused, decentralized, and to an extent also disabled. Within this often celebratory language, there is a tendency to dismiss power structures and hierarchies as no longer relevant in the days of network organization. This paper poses therefore the question of power in an explicit way, seeking to trace its new configurations within Web 2.0 applications. In empirical terms, the question of power will be discussed in a case study looking at 'Palestine' in the context of Web 2.0. The choice of Palestine is significant: in a global geopolitical environment which has turned Palestine into an underdog, fighting an uneven fight, considerably disadvantaged and impoverished, the blogosphere offers an apparently more egalitarian space within which it can voice its concerns. But are the networks developed really egalitarian? Where is power located within these networks, and what are its accomplishments for Palestine? This paper will address these questions through studying a Palestinian issue network and a blogging network. In both cases, three main questions will be asked: Who (or what) has power over the network? What is the power of the network? What are the power dynamics within the network? The findings suggest that offline power structures and hierarchies both enable and limit Palestinian networks. Secondly, that the actual efficacy of the networks under study is limited, and finally, that while the blogging network appears to be egalitarian this is probably because it is a network of similar blogs operated by people of very similar educational and cultural background." (author's abstract)
In: Orient: deutsche Zeitschrift für Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur des Orients = German journal for politics, economics and culture of the Middle East, Volume 51, Issue 1, p. 6-16
Multiculturalism has recently been under attack not only from its traditional adversaries in the right of the political spectrum, but also by left wing, progressive commentators. Multiculturalism is seen as divisive and oppressive, and in the case of Islam in particular as a contributing factor to the radicalization of Muslims. Yet this critique, despite its many important points, focuses on multiculturalism as conceived in state policies overlooking the actual politics of everyday multicultural existence. This article will therefore discuss the critiques of multiculturalism by influential progressive commentators, such as Yasmin Alibhai Brown, Kenan Malik and Gilles Kepel, before embarking on an empirical analysis of the online presence of British Muslim communities. The empirical analysis shows that interventions by Muslim citizens address the left wing demands for justice and equality from a positioned perspective, that of being Muslim in Britain. The open and public new media formats undermine attempts to form an essentialist Muslim identity; indeed, we suggest that the online Muslim sites might be better understood as loose networks rather than closelyknit communities. Additionally, rather than operating from a group enclave mentality, active efforts are made to connect at least to formal British politics.
International audience ; This article is concerned with the politics of multiculturalism as encountered on the internet. Theoretically, it examines the different normative positions vis-à-vis multiculturalism in the works of Charles Taylor, Jürgen Habermas, Jeremy Waldron and Nancy Fraser. Three main dilemmas emerge: essentialism or fluidity of identities; universalism or particularism; and recognition or redistribution. These are empirically examined subsequently through online portals developed by four minority communities in the UK. Eight portals, developed by black British, Indian/South Asian, Chinese and Muslim communities were analysed with a view to understanding how such dilemmas are understood in online environments, taken to represent a version of everyday political conduct. The analysis focused on addressees/interlocutors, communicative forms and users, indicating that all multicultural dilemmas are enacted online. Following an agonistic model of politics, the article suggests that multicultural politics should be understood as an open arena for the struggle between these dilemmas.