The Media and Postmodern Conflict

Author(s):  
Chiara de Franco

Contemporary conflicts and warfare are invariably connected to some recurrent elements: globalization; the decline of the State; the emergence of transnational relations, both cultural and economic; late capitalism; post-industrialism; the end of ideologies and metaphysics; and the rise of the “society of spectacle” and the information age. These elements are all generally recognized as being the distinctive characteristics of postmodernity. The media plays an important role in understanding conflict dynamics and in illuminating some characteristics of postmodern conflict. The literature on the relationship between the media and conflict develops concepts and theories which are essential for understanding the role of the media in the evolution and conduct of contemporary conflicts. This literature focuses on two different aspects: firstly, the specific activities of the mass media, i.e. the media coverage of conflicts, and secondly, the interaction between the media and the political and military decision-making processes. Following either the powerful media paradigm or the limited effects hypothesis, these works develop in the same period very different concepts like propaganda and the CNN effect. It is important to keep in mind that these concepts are the result of an attempt to clarify the existing conceptualization of the role of the media in present conflicts and do not represent consolidated categories as such.

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Birkner ◽  
Daniel Nölleke

Using the concept of mediatization, in this article, we analyze the relationship between sport and media from a sport-centered perspective. Examining the autobiographies of 14 German and English soccer players, we investigate how athletes use media outlets, what they perceive as the media’s influence and its logic, and—crucially—how this usage and these perceptions affect their own media-related behavior. Our findings demonstrate the important role of the media for the sports systems from the athlete’s point of view and demonstrate the research potential of mediatization as a fruitful concept in studies on sport communication. On the one hand, the sport stars reflect in their autobiographies that their status and income depend on media coverage; and on the other hand, they complain about the omnipresence of the media, especially offside the pitch and feel unfairly treated by the tabloid press, both in England and in Germany.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piet Bakker ◽  
Peter L.M. Vasterman

Wilders and the role of the media Wilders and the role of the media Between 2006 and 2011 more than forty empirical studies were published about the Dutch populist Geert Wilders and the role of the media. This article examines which methods and theories are dominant in these studies, and which media and which aspects of the relationship between Wilders and the media coverage are the topics of these researches. We also ask what kind of conclusions can be drawn from this large amount of research. At first glance, journalism studies academics use a variety of methods and theories but further analysis shows skewedness within this variety with content analysis of print media forming the bulk of the research. There is also a preference for framing research. The media attention for Wilders shows a wave-pattern, with a strong focus on deliberately created incidents. Media, however, seem to be unable to ignore these events.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yahya Fatah

This study deals with the relationship between the political field and the media field especially the role of the social media platforms on the political transformation recently in Kurdistan region of Iraq. This is done through a scientific and theoretical study about the controversial relationship between both politic and media and by directing a group of questions concerning this subject to the media experts and socialists in both of Sulaymaniyah and Polytechnic University of Sulaymaniyah. Finally the researcher reaches a group of results, of which: most of the sample members see that the social media platforms is a suitable environment to express and oppose the authority in the Kurdistan region but it is also see that the social media platforms causes stirring up strife and chaos in the region and they also see that it encourages violence which leads to burning party headquarters and governmental institutes in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. On the other hand, most of the sample people see that the role of the religious leaders is stronger than the role of the social media on the community in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.


2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-361
Author(s):  
Greg Marquis

Since the 1960s, celebrity drug trials have usually involved actors or musicians. The first drug prosecution of a Canadian “celebrity” took place in 1985 after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) found a small amount of marijuana in the luggage of New Brunswick Premier Richard Hatfield at the airport in Fredericton. He was charged with simple possession and, aided by a team of lawyers, pleaded not guilty. Although Hatfield was the most successful premier in the province’s history, he was facing challenges over the economy and language policy, and a finding of guilt would have devastated both his political career and the fortunes of his party. This article examines the Hatfield drug prosecution, which was followed by revelations of drug use with university students in 1981, as a chapter in Canadian legal and political history. It involved not only a privileged defendant, but also the independence of judges, the role of the RCMP, the relationship between the courts and the media, federal-provincial relations and an internal RCMP probe. Hatfield, the political celebrity, won his 1985 court battle but, with his lifestyle impugned, lost in the court of public opinion. In 1987, his party was crushed by the landslide victory of Frank McKenna’s Liberals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helge Rønning

The article involves three main topics. The first deals with the role of referendums in relation to constitutional processes, and how they have become increasingly common, with a focus on African developments. The second topic is a description of the referendums in relation to the media coverage of the rejected constitutional change in Zimbabwe in 2000 and in Kenya 2005, and with subsequent elections in both countries shortly after, and then the referendums that accepted constitutional change years later. The last part of the article is an analysis of coverage in the Tanzanian press of the constitutional debate before the aborted referendum in 2015, followed by some comparative reflections on the relationship between referendum and election reporting.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Stephanie Garrison

With the release of the novel Outlander (1991) by American author Diana Gabaldon and the subsequent television adaptation in 2014, Scotland has experienced an exponential rise in screen tourism which is being dubbed the ‘Outlander effect’. While the steady influx of Outlander fans is mostly perceived as an economic boon, media outlets and heritage agencies have begun reporting damages to Scottish heritage sites due to increased Outlander-related tourism. The media coverage of these damages depicts the actions of ‘rampaging’, ‘loutish’, ‘crack-pot’, ‘selfie-mad’ Outlander fans which is proving to be a troubling colouration of Outlander fans in the media. This article examines the relationship between an online Outlander Facebook fan community called OutlandishUK and tourism to Scotland. Drawing from ethnographic and netnographic research, this article examines how online Facebook fan groups are embracing the role of being proactive online communities that engage fluidly with members of the media and regional interest groups to promote proper care of heritage sites in Scotland by the wider Outlander fandom. In contrast to the negative colouration of fans as vandals, the article suggests that it is through these collaborative efforts these fan groups are looking beyond fandom to act as guardians of Scottish heritage and facilitate regional tourism in Scotland.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-431
Author(s):  
Bulat R. Rakhimzianov

Abstract This article explores relations between Muscovy and the so-called Later Golden Horde successor states that existed during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries on the territory of Desht-i Qipchaq (the Qipchaq Steppe, a part of the East European steppe bounded roughly by the Oskol and Tobol rivers, the steppe-forest line, and the Caspian and Aral Seas). As a part of, and later a successor to, the Juchid ulus (also known as the Golden Horde), Muscovy adopted a number of its political and social institutions. The most crucial events in the almost six-century-long history of relations between Muscovy and the Tatars (13–18th centuries) were the Mongol invasion of the Northern, Eastern and parts of the Southern Rus’ principalities between 1237 and 1241, and the Muscovite annexation of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates between 1552 and 1556. According to the model proposed here, the Tatars began as the dominant partner in these mutual relations; however, from the beginning of the seventeenth century this role was gradually inverted. Indicators of a change in the relationship between the Muscovite grand principality and the Golden Horde can be found in the diplomatic contacts between Muscovy and the Tatar khanates. The main goal of the article is to reveal the changing position of Muscovy within the system of the Later Golden Horde successor states. An additional goal is to revisit the role of the Tatar khanates in the political history of Central Eurasia in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5056
Author(s):  
Barbara Pick ◽  
Delphine Marie-Vivien

This paper explores the issues of representativeness and participation in the collective processes involved in the elaboration of the geographical indications (GI) specifications and the governance of the GI initiatives. The objective is to understand the relationship among collective dynamics, representativeness of relevant stakeholders, and the legal frameworks for the protection of GIs. Using a qualitative methodology based on an analysis of six case studies in France and Vietnam, we show the role of the law in shaping the different ways of understanding and implementing the concept of representativeness in the French producer-led and the Vietnamese state-driven approaches to GI protection. In France, the GI specifications result from negotiations among all legitimate stakeholders, which may prove long, complex, and lead to standards that can continue to be challenged after the GI registration. We also argue that the rules for the representation of all GI users in the decision-making processes do not necessarily lead to fairness. In Vietnam, local stakeholders usually have a consultative role under the authority of the State, resulting in their little understanding and low use of the GI. Their empowerment is further hindered by the involvement of state authorities in the management of the producers’ associations. We conclude by discussing in-between solutions to promote the producers’ representation and participation.


Author(s):  
José Nederhand

Abstract The topic of government-nonprofit collaboration continues to be much-discussed in the literature. However, there has been little consensus on whether and how collaborating with government is beneficial for the performance of community-based nonprofits. This article examines three dominant theoretical interpretations of the relationship between collaboration and performance: collaboration is necessary for the performance of nonprofits; the absence of collaboration is necessary for the performance of nonprofits; and the effect of collaboration is contingent on the nonprofits’ bridging and bonding network ties. Building on the ideas of governance, nonprofit, and social capital in their respective literature, this article uses set-theoretic methods (fsQCA) to conceptualize and test their relationship. Results show the pivotal role of the nonprofit’s network ties in mitigating the effects of either collaborating or abstaining from collaborating with government. Particularly, the political network ties of nonprofits are crucial to explaining the relationship between collaboration and performance. The evidence demonstrates the value of studying collaboration processes in context.


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