scholarly journals Social Media Representations of the Pilgrimage to Mecca

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Kholoud Al-Ajarma ◽  
Marjo Buitelaar
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
The State ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
National Media ◽  
Self Presentations

Abstract In this article, we compare representations of the pilgrimage to Mecca posted on Facebook and Youtube by ‘ordinary’ pilgrims from Morocco and (semi)professional bloggers of Moroccan parentage in the Netherlands. We discuss how such posts challenge representations that circulate in the mainstream media in both countries about Islam in general and the hajj in particular. For Morocco we demonstrate that this kind of digital mediation of pilgrimage contests the ways in which the state-organized hajj is framed in Morocco’s national media. For the Netherlands, we argue that bloggers deconstruct dominant images of the Muslim ‘other’ in their self-presentations as specifically Dutch Muslim pilgrims by connecting the meanings they attribute to the pilgrimage to Mecca to universal issues.

scholarly journals Re-Orienting Refugee Representation? A Multimodal Analysis of Syrian Refugee Representation on the social media platform Humans of New York

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Aarssen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Syrian Refugee ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Platform

This major research paper (MRP) examines a selection of photo-narratives presented by the social media account Humans of New York, focusing on a series that documented Syrian refugees in the fall of 2015. It seeks to answer the following questions: How does the HONY platform frame the Syrian Refugee crisis? Which visual, textual, and multimodal elements are mostprevalent in the sample? How does HONY’s representations of Syrian refugees contribute to or challenge the discourse of Orientalism and Othering? Does the HONY coverage provide the opportunity for a more humanizing, compassionate perspective? To answer these questions, I coded the twenty most “liked” posts from the series for various visual, narrative, and multimodal elements. A codebook was developed from the literature review on Orientalism, neo-Orientalism, media representations of Islam, and media representations of refugees, as well as from theories of visual social semiotics, narrative analysis, and multimodal communication. The findings of this MRP question how alternative media platforms may challenge or reinforce traditional tropes utilized by mainstream media to represent a marginalized group such as Syrian refugees. The results suggest that while alternative platforms may challenge aspects of the Orientalist discourse and highlight a shared sense of humanity, the continuity of this discourse is seen to adapt through more subtle manifestations. The HONY audience is more likely to affirm representations that fit within the neo-liberal notion of who is an acceptable and “worthy” refugee. Based on the findings, this study is relevant to how professional communicators and audiences engage with media representations of marginalized groups, particularly in the current sociopolitical environment that is witnessing the unprecedented mass movement of displaced peoples.

scholarly journals Challenging the lack of representation in mainstream media through the establishment of inclusive digital spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia Zibaei
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Climate ◽  
The State ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Safe Space ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Digital Publication ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Digital Environments

Media representations of marginalized people are a growing concern given the state of the current social climate. The origin of intolerance stems from a lack of exposure and knowledge and as a result, marginalized groups struggle to maintain adequate space and representation in mainstream media. This reflects a lack of inclusivity, diversity and safe spaces. Establishing inclusive digital environments that promote the equality of peoples rather than perpetuating stereotypes is a vital way to achieving visibility and growth among marginalized and underrepresented people. INFLUENCE Magazine is a digital publication that is committed to equality, representation and opportunity. By providing a safe space for marginalized and underrepresented sectors of society to express every aspect of their identity, art and lived experiences, INFLUENCE Magazine fosters a positive environment for artists and individuals to freely express themselves.

scholarly journals A clown, a political messiah or a punching bag? Rethinking the performative identity construction of celebrity through social media

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommy Tse ◽  
Vivienne Leung ◽  
Kimmy Cheng ◽  
Joey Chan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Online Audiences ◽  
A Site ◽  
Self Presentations ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Identity Production

In meeting the changing demands of authenticity and visibility in social media, performances of identity and connections are discussed to entail new sociotechnical labours and digital literacies. Research has looked into the construction and presentation of celebrity identities, in light of these developments, but has paid little attention on the celebrities’ experiences and perspectives, which is also due to the lack of willingness of industry insiders in this culturally sensitive business to be interviewed and genuinely talk about its problems. Twelve in-depth interviews with celebrities and entertainment industry practitioners were conducted between 2014 and 2015. Particularly, this article draws on the cases of two established celebrities in Hong Kong and China, and assesses how and why they were unable to actively construct and perform their preferred media identities, highlighting the blurring boundaries among traditional celebrities, micro-celebrities and ordinary people for their construction of online identities through social media, and also elucidating the opportunities and challenges posed by today’s evolving media environment. We argue that social media only superficially open up a site of counter-narratives for celebrities to resist the identities imposed on them by the mainstream media and online audiences. The interviewed celebrities’ contradictory experiences in their self-presentations in social media offer alternative angles to understanding the incoherent and unstable celebrity identity production processes, the blurring boundaries between celebrities and ordinary people through such processes as well as the celebrities’ capacity to reclaim control in asserting their ‘true’ selves.

scholarly journals Challenging the lack of representation in mainstream media through the establishment of inclusive digital spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia Zibaei
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Climate ◽  
The State ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Safe Space ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Digital Publication ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Digital Environments

Media representations of marginalized people are a growing concern given the state of the current social climate. The origin of intolerance stems from a lack of exposure and knowledge and as a result, marginalized groups struggle to maintain adequate space and representation in mainstream media. This reflects a lack of inclusivity, diversity and safe spaces. Establishing inclusive digital environments that promote the equality of peoples rather than perpetuating stereotypes is a vital way to achieving visibility and growth among marginalized and underrepresented people. INFLUENCE Magazine is a digital publication that is committed to equality, representation and opportunity. By providing a safe space for marginalized and underrepresented sectors of society to express every aspect of their identity, art and lived experiences, INFLUENCE Magazine fosters a positive environment for artists and individuals to freely express themselves.

scholarly journals Re-Orienting Refugee Representation? A Multimodal Analysis of Syrian Refugee Representation on the Social Media Platform "Humans of New York"

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Nicole Cathleen Aarssen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Selection Of

This paper examines a selection of photo-narratives from the social media account Humans of New York, which documented the experiences of Syrian refugees in the fall of 2015. It questions how an alternative media platform may challenge or reinforce traditional tropes utilized by mainstream media to represent a marginalized group such as Syrian refugees. To engage in the analysis, codes were developed from the literature review on Orientalism, neo-Orientalism, media representations of Islam and of refugees, as well as from theories of visual social semiotics and narrative analysis. The results suggest that while alternative platforms may challenge aspects of the Orientalist discourse, this discourse is also seen to adapt and persist through more subtle manifestations. The HONY audience is more likely to affirm representations that fit within the neo-liberal notion of who is an acceptable and “worthy” refugee.

scholarly journals Re-Orienting Refugee Representation? A Multimodal Analysis of Syrian Refugee Representation on the social media platform Humans of New York

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Aarssen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Syrian Refugee ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Platform

This major research paper (MRP) examines a selection of photo-narratives presented by the social media account Humans of New York, focusing on a series that documented Syrian refugees in the fall of 2015. It seeks to answer the following questions: How does the HONY platform frame the Syrian Refugee crisis? Which visual, textual, and multimodal elements are mostprevalent in the sample? How does HONY’s representations of Syrian refugees contribute to or challenge the discourse of Orientalism and Othering? Does the HONY coverage provide the opportunity for a more humanizing, compassionate perspective? To answer these questions, I coded the twenty most “liked” posts from the series for various visual, narrative, and multimodal elements. A codebook was developed from the literature review on Orientalism, neo-Orientalism, media representations of Islam, and media representations of refugees, as well as from theories of visual social semiotics, narrative analysis, and multimodal communication. The findings of this MRP question how alternative media platforms may challenge or reinforce traditional tropes utilized by mainstream media to represent a marginalized group such as Syrian refugees. The results suggest that while alternative platforms may challenge aspects of the Orientalist discourse and highlight a shared sense of humanity, the continuity of this discourse is seen to adapt through more subtle manifestations. The HONY audience is more likely to affirm representations that fit within the neo-liberal notion of who is an acceptable and “worthy” refugee. Based on the findings, this study is relevant to how professional communicators and audiences engage with media representations of marginalized groups, particularly in the current sociopolitical environment that is witnessing the unprecedented mass movement of displaced peoples.

Social media bots as active disseminators of COVID-19 news (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Al-Rawi ◽  
Vishal Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Breaking News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Credible Information ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Standard Terms ◽  
Official Sources

BACKGROUND In this study, we examined the activities of automated social media accounts or bots that tweet or retweet referencing #COVID-19 and #COVID19. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to identify bot accounts to understand the nature of messages sent by them on COVID-19. Social media bots have been widely discussed in academic literature as some kind of moral panic mostly in relation to spreading controversial and politically polarized messages or in connection to problematic health bots (Broniatowski et al., 2018; Allem & Ferrara, 2018). The findings of this study, however, show that bots that reference COVID-19 mostly mention mainstream media and credible health sources while spreading breaking news on the pandemic or urging people to stay at home. These results align with previous research on the possible benefits, advantages, or possibilities afforded by the use of health chatbots (Brandtzaeg & Følstad, 2018; Skjuve & Brandtzæg, 2018; Kretzschmar et al., 2019; Greer et al., 2019). METHODS We used a mixed approach mostly comprised of several digital methods in this study. First, we collected 50,811,299 tweets and retweets referencing #COVID-19 and #COVID19 for a period of over two months from February 12 until April 18, 2020. We focused on these two hashtags because they are standard terms used by WHO and other official sources. From a total sample of over 50 million tweets, we used a mixed method to extract more than 185,000 messages posted by 127 bots. RESULTS Unlike the literature on health bots that associate them with anti-social activities, our findings show that the majority of these bots tweet, retweet and mention mainstream media outlets and credible official sources, promote health protection and telemedicine, and disseminate breaking news on the number of casualties and deaths caused by COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS Despite that some literature on social media bots highlight the controversial and anti-social nature of automated accounts, the findings of this study show that the majority of bots spread news on and awareness of COVID-19 risks while citing and referencing mainstream media outlets and credible health sources. We argue that there might be financial incentives behind designing some of these bots. However and if monitored and updated with credible information by health agencies themselves, we believe that bots can be useful during health crises due to their efficiency and speed in spreading valuable information, some of which is crucial for public health. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

scholarly journals A Panel Evaluation of the Changes in the General Public’s Social-Media-Following of United States’ Public Health Departments during COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272199545
Author(s):  
Areej Khokhar ◽  
Aaron Spaulding ◽  
Zuhair Niazi ◽  
Sikander Ailawadhi ◽  
Rami Manochakian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Health Department ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Departments ◽  
The Social ◽  
The U.S

Importance: Social media is widely used by various segments of society. Its role as a tool of communication by the Public Health Departments in the U.S. remains unknown. Objective: To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media following of the Public Health Departments of the 50 States of the U.S. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were collected by visiting the Public Health Department web page for each social media platform. State-level demographics were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention was utilized to collect information regarding the Governance of each State’s Public Health Department. Health rankings were collected from “America’s Health Rankings” 2019 Annual report from the United Health Foundation. The U.S. News and World Report Education Rankings were utilized to provide information regarding the public education of each State. Exposure: Data were pulled on 3 separate dates: first on March 5th (baseline and pre-national emergency declaration (NED) for COVID-19), March 18th (week following NED), and March 25th (2 weeks after NED). In addition, a variable identifying the total change across platforms was also created. All data were collected at the State level. Main Outcome: Overall, the social media following of the state Public Health Departments was very low. There was a significant increase in the public interest in following the Public Health Departments during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: With the declaration of National Emergency, there was a 150% increase in overall public following of the State Public Health Departments in the U.S. The increase was most noted in the Midwest and South regions of the U.S. The overall following in the pandemic “hotspots,” such as New York, California, and Florida, was significantly lower. Interesting correlations were noted between various demographic variables, health, and education ranking of the States and the social media following of their Health Departments. Conclusion and Relevance: Social media following of Public Health Departments across all States of the U.S. was very low. Though, the social media following significantly increased during the early course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still remains low. Significant opportunity exists for Public Health Departments to improve social media use to engage the public better.

scholarly journals Quantifying Media Effects, Its Content, and Role in Promoting Community Awareness of Chikungunya Epidemic in Bangladesh

Epidemiologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-94
Author(s):  
Mst. Marium Begum ◽  
Osman Ulvi ◽  
Ajlina Karamehic-Muratovic ◽  
Mallory R. Walsh ◽  
Hasan Tarek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Media Outlet ◽  
And Control

Background: Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease, mostly present in tropical and subtropical regions. The virus is spread by Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitos and symptoms include high fever to severe joint pain. Dhaka, Bangladesh, suffered an outbreak of chikungunya in 2017 lasting from April to September. With the goal of reducing cases, social media was at the forefront during this outbreak and educated the public about symptoms, prevention, and control of the virus. Popular web-based sources such as the top dailies in Bangladesh, local news outlets, and Facebook spread awareness of the outbreak. Objective: This study sought to investigate the role of social and mainstream media during the chikungunya epidemic. The study objective was to determine if social media can improve awareness of and practice associated with reducing cases of chikungunya. Methods: We collected chikungunya-related information circulated from the top nine television channels in Dhaka, Bangladesh, airing from 1st April–20th August 2017. All the news published in the top six dailies in Bangladesh were also compiled. The 50 most viewed chikungunya-related Bengali videos were manually coded and analyzed. Other social media outlets, such as Facebook, were also analyzed to determine the number of chikungunya-related posts and responses to these posts. Results: Our study showed that media outlets were associated with reducing cases of chikungunya, indicating that media has the potential to impact future outbreaks of these alpha viruses. Each media outlet (e.g., web, television) had an impact on the human response to an individual’s healthcare during this outbreak. Conclusions: To prevent future outbreaks of chikungunya, media outlets and social media can be used to educate the public regarding prevention strategies such as encouraging safe travel, removing stagnant water sources, and assisting with tracking cases globally to determine where future outbreaks may occur.

scholarly journals #reimagining Arab Women’s Social Media Empowerment and the Postdigital Condition

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110101
Author(s):  
Zoe Hurley
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Actor ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Physical Spaces ◽  
Self Presentations

Social media intersects across physical spaces, digital infrastructures, and social subjectivities in terms of what is being called the “postdigital,” in an increasingly merging offline/online world. But what precisely does it mean to be “postdigital” if you are an Arab woman or social actor in the Global South? How does access to social networking sites, while increasing visibilities, also provide potential for increased agency? This study is concerned with the extent to which Arab women’s self-presentation practices on Instagram could be considered as empowering, or otherwise, within the postdigital condition. First, the study takes Instagram as a case to develop a theoretical framework for considering social media as a tertiary artifact, involving material, routine-symbolic, and conceptual affordances. Second, it applies the artifact framework to explore a corpus of self-presentations by five Arab women influencers. Feminist postdigital theorizing offers unique contributions to problematizing normative, ethnocentric, and neoliberal conceptions of Arab women’s empowerment. The application of the novel framework leads to an interpretative discussion of Arab women’s influencing practices across merging offline/online and transnational boundaries. Overall, the critical perspective begins to reimagine Arab women’s empowerment, not simply as individualized or material processes, but as agencies that are interwoven within the commercialized and conceptual dynamics of visual social media.

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