French Scandals on the Web, and on the Streets: A Small Experiment in Stretching the Limits of Reported Reality

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rogers ◽  
Noortje Marres

The main argument of this paper is that the Web is well suited for the role of a streetwise informant for protest events. Using special software, we plot the network of Web sites of organisations related to the meat and anti-globalization protests in Milau, France, in June of 2000, and compare our findings about the nature of the actors with the reports in the mass media. Not only do the findings deepen mass media accounts but they also point to a new web-sociological means to re-open the question of the real. Putting on display the institutional dimension of the protest, the Web network simultaneously undermines and enriches the mass media accounts of the protests. The Web may provide a reality check on existing accounts of the protest and document encounters between opposing definitions of reality. Our analysis also suggests the Web can be harnessed to complicate the definition of real social action.

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Boccia Artieri ◽  
Laura Gemini

The aim of the article is to observe the contemporary media system in the light of Luhmann’s media system, namely a specific function system of society which has witnessed ever greater internal complexity vis-a-vis an environment marked by the spread of the web and social network sites. From the viewpoint of sociocybernetics, the question of increased complexity can be addressed through an ecological approach in order to analyse the distinction between the mass media and the web – in its specific 2.0 evolution, characterized by user-generated content and algorithms. This approach allows to observe the reciprocal relations by preserving the autonomy of the two spheres without resorting to explanations that have to do with hybridization or the blur of the boundaries. In this sense the article analyses Facebook – as an example of web 2.0 operational logic – as a social system distinct from that of the mass media, where the first substantial difference depends on the role played by individuals in reproducing communication and on the role of the algorithm. In this sense mass media and the web are treated on the basis of their relationship of structural coupling by observing how they irritate, or disturb, each other and at the same time maintain their autonomy.


Author(s):  
Wenjia-Jasmine Ruan ◽  
Junjae Lee ◽  
Hakjun Song

This study examines the behavioural intentions of international tourists travelling to Beijing when faced with smog pollution. An extended MGB (model of goal-directed behaviour) was employed as the theoretical framework by integrating mass-media effect and perception of smog. The role of mass-media effect and perception of smog were considered as new variables in the international tourist’s decision-making process for travel to Beijing. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to identify the structural relationships among research variables. Our research results showed a strong correlation between positive anticipated emotion and desire. The mass-media effect is a significant (direct) predictor of both the perception of smog and behavioural intention. The Chinese government could attach great importance to the mass-media effect to reduce the negative impact caused by smog pollution on inbound tourism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (53) ◽  
pp. 25-40
Author(s):  
Fabio Perocco

Abstract During the last two decades of rising anti-migrant racism in Europe, Islamophobia has proven to be the highest, most acute, and widely spread form of racism. The article shows how anti-migrant Islamophobia is a structural phenomenon in European societies and how its internal structure has specific social roots and mechanisms of functioning. Such an articulate and interdependent set of key themes, policies, practices, discourses, and social actors it is intended to inferiorise and marginalise Muslim immigrants while legitimising and reproducing social inequalities affecting the majority of them. The article examines the social origins of anti-migrant Islamophobia and the modes and mechanisms through which it naturalises inequalities; it focuses on the main social actors involved in its production, specifically on the role of some collective subjects as anti-Muslim organizations and movements, far-right parties, best-selling authors, and the mass-media.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Advan Navis Zubaidi

This article discusses the urgency of media literacy in addressing the framing of cynicism and conflict issues between tribes, religions, races and groups carried out by the mass media in Indonesia. Specifically, this study at­tempts to contribute the role of media literacy in minimizing cynicism between tribes, religions, races and groups. Through text studies, this article argues that literacy is considered as science. The more educated people, the more acquired knowledge will be. It means that when people re­ceive more information from the mass media, they will cer­tain­ly be wiser. Further, to raise public awareness, a systema­tic way through education, both formal and non-formal, is needed. Hence, harmonious human relations could be rea­li­zed, regardless of ethnic status, race, and religious belief.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Doyle

Thomas Mathiesen’s ‘The Viewer Society’ has been widely influential. Mathiesen posited, alongside the panopticon, a reciprocal system of control, the synopticon, in which ‘the many’ watch ‘the few’. I point to the value of Mathiesen’s arguments but also suggest a reconsideration. I consider where recent challenges to theorizing surveillance as panoptic leave the synopticon. The synopticon is tied to a top—down, instrumental way of theorizing the media. It neglects resistance, alternative currents in media production and reception, the role of culture and the increasing centrality of the internet. Mathiesen’s piece is most useful in a narrower way, in highlighting how surveillance and the mass media interact, rather than in thinking about the role of the media in control more generally.


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