“This changes things”: Children, targeting, and the making of precision

2021 ◽  
pp. 001083672110502
Author(s):  
J Marshall Beier
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Technology ◽  
Collateral Damage ◽  
Important Site

Avoidance of civilian casualties increasingly affects the political calculus of legitimacy in armed conflict. “Collateral damage” is a problem that can be managed through the material production of precision, but it is also the case that precision is a problem managed through the cultural production of collateral damage. Bearing decisively on popular perceptions of ethical conduct in recourse to political violence, childhood is an important site of meaning-making in this process. In pop culture, news dispatches, and social media, children, as quintessential innocents, figure prominently where the dire human consequences of imprecision are depicted. Children thus affect the practical “precision” of even the most advanced weapons, perhaps precluding a strike for their presence, potentially coloring it with their corpses. But who count as children, how, when, where, and why are not at all settled questions. Drawing insights from what the 2015 film, Eye in the Sky, reveals about a key social technology of governance we have already internalized, I explore how childhood is itself a terrain of engagement in the (un)making of precision.

scholarly journals The Empire Tweets Back? #HumanitarianStarWars and Memetic Self-Critique in the Aid Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630511988865
Author(s):  
Peter Chonka
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Still Images ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Shed Light

In 2015, a series of memes appeared on Twitter under the hashtag #HumanitarianStarWars. Combining still images from the original Star Wars movies with ironic references to humanitarian/development jargon and institutions, the memes presented a humorous reflection on the modern aid industry. While memetic content has become an increasingly scrutinized area in digital culture studies—particularly with regard to unbounded and anonymous online communities, and popular discursive contestation—this article examines #HumanitarianStarWars to shed light on the possibilities and problematics of social media auto-critique undertaken by “insiders” in a particular professional realm. Keeping in mind critiques of the racial and imperial connotations of the (Western) pop-culture mythology itself, the article explores the use of the Star Wars franchise as a vehicle for commentary on an industry at work in the “Global South.” It highlights an ambiguous process of meaning-making that can be traced through the memes’ generation, circulation, and re-mediation. Although the memes provide a satirical self-reflection on practitioners’ experiences and perspectives of power relations in the global development industry, certain tendencies emerge in their remixing of this Hollywood universe that may reinforce some of the dynamics that they ostensibly critique. The article argues that examination of the ideological ambivalence of an institutional micro-meme can yield valuable insights into tensions playing out in professional social media spaces where public/private boundaries are increasingly and irrevocably blurred.

scholarly journals Las prácticas paramilitares en el Alto Nordeste Antioqueño

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Edward Villamil Carvajal
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
El Alto ◽  
Violencia Politica

El artículo aborda el análisis de una modalidad particular del fenómeno paramilitar en Colombia como son las prácticas paramilitares, comprendidas como la constitución de redes o alianzas criminales funcionales, cambiantes y coyunturales en la planeación, coordinación y perpetración de graves violaciones a los DDHH y al DIH. Se toma como epicentro del análisis el proceso de violencia política ocurrido entre los años 1982-1997 en el Alto Nordeste Antioqueño (conformado por los municipios de Remedios y Segovia), paradigmático de esta trayectoria particular del fenómeno paramilitar. La caracterización y análisis de las prácticas paramilitares amplían la comprensión acerca del proceso de conformación, expansión y consolidación de las estructuras paramilitares que se agruparon en la confederación de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).Palabras Clave: Conflicto armado interno, Violencia política, Memoria histórica, Remedios y Segovia, Paramilitarismo ABSTRACTPARAMILITARY PRACTICES IN THE ALTO NORDESTE ANTIOQUEÑOThe article deals with the analysis of a particular modality of the paramilitary phenomenon in Colombia, such as paramilitary practices, including the constitution of functional, changing and conjunctural criminal networks or alliances in the planning, coordination and perpetration of serious violations of human rights and IHL . The epicenter of the analysis is the political violence that occurred between 1982 and 1997 in the Alto Nordeste Antioquioqueño (made up of the municipalities of Remedios and Segovia), paradigmatic of this particular trajectory of the paramilitary phenomenon. The characterization and analysis of paramilitary practices broaden the understanding of the process of conformation, expansion and consolidation of the paramilitary structures that were grouped in the confederation of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).Key Words: Internal armed conflict, Political violence, Historical memory, Remedios and Segovia, Paramilitarism

Making mirrors, making albums and making documentaries: the music of Gotye and negotiating Bourdieu's field of cultural production

Popular Music ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 669-684
Author(s):  
Pat O'Grady
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Music Production ◽  
The Past ◽  
Equipment Production ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Independent Musicians

AbstractRecent popular music and film studies have revealed the political functions of documentaries about musicians. These studies suggest that such documentaries make powerful interventions into the field of music production as they construct the value of their subjects and their work. Owing to the expense and complexity of broadcast equipment, production companies have tended to favour documentaries about artists and work considered to be popular and historically significant. Over the past 15 years, however, new technologies have allowed musicians to make documentaries themselves, which they can release at the same time as their song or album. Using the example of Gotye and his album Making Mirrors, this article argues that these developments have led to powerful and distinct interventions into debates and themes within home music production for independent musicians. It also argues that the use of this technology on social media platforms challenges the relationships between text and process.

scholarly journals Explaining Support for Political Violence: Grievance and Perceived Opportunity

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 1724-1753
Author(s):  
Karin Dyrstad ◽  
Solveig Hillesund
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Potential Interaction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
Individual Level

What explains support for violence against the state? The surge in survey-based studies in (former) conflict areas has improved our understanding of the determinants of armed conflict. Yet, the potential interaction between grievances and political opportunity structure has received little attention in microlevel studies. Integrating common arguments from the civil war literature with the political behavior tradition, this article argues that perceived political efficacy, a central component of the political opportunity structure, moderates the association between individual and group grievance and people’s support for political violence. It represents a first individual-level test of the argument that perceived political opportunity structure and grievances combine to explain internal armed conflict. Using original survey data from Guatemala, Nepal, and Northern Ireland (2016), we find robust empirical evidence that support for violence increases with perceived grievance and decreases with political efficacy; and some evidence of an interaction between the two.

scholarly journals Comparing ‘New’ and ‘Old’ Media for Violence Monitoring and Crisis Response: Evidence from Kenya

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 205316802093759
Author(s):  
Caitriona Dowd ◽  
Patricia Justino ◽  
Roudabeh Kishi ◽  
Gauthier Marchais
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Event Data ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Run Up

This paper assesses the comparative opportunities and limitations of ‘new’ and ‘old’ data sources for early warning, crisis response and violence research by comparing reports of political violence, and both violent and peaceful demonstrations, produced through social media and traditional media during the Kenyan elections in August and October 2017. We leverage data from a sample of social media reports of violence through public posts to Twitter and compare these with events coded from media and published sources by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) along two dimensions: 1) geography of violence; and 2) temporality of reporting. We find that the profile of violence recorded varies significantly by source. Records from Twitter are more geographically concentrated, particularly in the capital city and wealthier areas. They are timelier in the immediate period surrounding elections. Records from ACLED have a wider geographic reach, and are relatively more numerous than Twitter in rural and less wealthy areas. They are timelier and more consistent in the run-up to and following elections. While neither source can reveal the ‘true’ violence that occurred, the findings point to the value of drawing on a constellation of various source types given their complementary advantages.

scholarly journals FANATISME PENGGEMAR KPOP DALAM BERMEDIA SOSIAL DI INSTAGRAM

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Asfira Rachmad Rinata ◽  
Sulih Indra Dewi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Knowledge Building ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
Account Management ◽  
Korean Wave ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract. Korean wave has become a big phenomenon in Indonesia, enthusiasm and passion for K-pop culture has led to fanaticism for fans. The distribution of K-pop content on social media such as Instagram gives fans space to participate in supporting their idols and this is one of the factors forming the fanaticism of k-pop fans. This study aims to determine the fanaticism of kpop fans in social media on Instagram as well as how kpop fans respond in responding to hoax and negative information from favorite idols. This research uses descriptive qualitative methods and data collection techniques used are interviews, and literature study. The selection of informants used a purposive sampling technique. The results showed the fact that fanaticism fans in social media on Instagram evaluated through fan activities such as Meaning Making, Meaning Sharing such as interpreting K-pop idol posts as motivation in research, making posts amazed and happy for K-pop idols . Poaching by following  fansite accounts and making fanfiction and making videos. Collecting such as uploading pictures about the official kpop merchandise needed and knowledge building  with fellow fans. Fanaticism, kpop fans, also through fan responses, asking for information, hoaxes and negatives from their idols responded with many variations such as annoyance, anger until heartache. And to seek clarification of the truth of the news that is by looking at reliable sources such as the official Instagram account K-pop idol, official Instagram account management artist to the Korean major media such as Soompi, Allkpop, and press realease provided by artist management

scholarly journals Pop Culture, Twitter, and Study Abroad: Estonia as a Case Study

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (01) ◽  
pp. 204-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
The Political ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Lead Study

AbstractThis article highlights a number of different pedagogical practices that can be used with study abroad programs, both classroom methods and out-of-class techniques. In this particular class—which focused on Estonia's Singing Revolution and included a 10-day trip abroad to Estonia—social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr were frequently used to create collaboration among students. In addition, Estonian music and pop culture were studied, giving students a unique insight into a culture very foreign from their own. Although Estonia was the focus of this particular class, the results of these methods are generalizable to help others who lead study abroad programs and develop creative ways to foster interaction. This article also demonstrates why social media platforms are helpful to political scientists and the political science discipline more generally.

scholarly journals YULETIDE IDEOLOGY AS ADVERTISING IDEOLOGY: AN HISTORICAL ILLUMINATION FROM SAINT NICHOLAS TO THE PRESENT DAY

2018 ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Taofeek Dalamu
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
The Political ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Santa Claus ◽  
The World ◽  
Interdisciplinary Nature ◽  
Historical Phenomenon ◽  
Global Affairs

The study traces the historical phenomenon of Saint Nicholas, the renowned icon known as Santa Claus. The objective is to demonstrate how advertisers have seized the virtues of Santa Claus as an article of persuading consumers. Owing to the interdisciplinary nature of this enquiry exemplified in the domains of history, linguistics and advertising, the concept of ideology enraptured in interpellation is adopted as both the analytical tool and discursive assistant to unravel the data meaning-making potentiality. The author utilizes twelve adverts associated with Santa Claus as illustrations in which six of them are from the Coca-cola Company® as a reference of honour as well as a signal to the role the institution plays in promoting the heroic persona. The study reveals the universality and acceptability of Santa Claus in global affairs during the Yuletide season. That hegemonic influence is perceived as motivation for advertisers to project Santa Claus in a civilized way as a cook, a dove or an angel, a car lover or owner, an alcoholic or a lover of alcohol, and a banker. Santa Claus with his traditional values enthralled in kindness to humanity is further represented as a parsimonious person somehow addicted to sugary contents without any unhealthy resultant effects. In all, the traditional etiquette of Santa Claus established by Saint Nicholas and promoted by Coca-cola®, the study suggests, is worthy of emulation for all. Perhaps, through such characteristic adoption the political violence and terrorism intimidating the world can be laid to rest in no time and at less cost.

scholarly journals Criminal Politics: An Integrated Approach to the Study of Organized Crime, Politics, and Violence

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 967-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Criminal Violence ◽  
Organized Violence ◽  
Criminal Organizations ◽  
The Relationship

Over the last decade, organized criminal violence has reached unprecedented levels and has caused as much violent death globally as direct armed conflict. Nonetheless, the study of organized crime in political science remains limited because these organizations and their violence are not viewed as political. Building on recent innovations in the study of armed conflict, I argue that organized criminal violence should no longer be segregated from related forms of organized violence and incorporated within the political violence literature. While criminal organizations do not seek to replace or break away from the state, they have increasingly engaged in the politics of the state through the accumulation of the means of violence itself. Like other non-state armed groups, they have developed variously collaborative and competitive relationships with the state that have produced heightened levels of violence in many contexts and allowed these organizations to gather significant political authority. I propose a simple conceptual typology for incorporating the study of these organizations into the political violence literature and suggest several areas of future inquiry that will illuminate the relationship between violence and politics more generally.

Arte ConTexto

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
Antonio Bellisario ◽  
Leslie Prock
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Pictorial Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Socialist Government ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Military

The article examines Chilean muralism, looking at its role in articulating political struggles in urban public space through a visual political culture perspective that emphasizes its sociological and ideological context. The analysis characterizes the main themes and functions of left-wing brigade muralism and outlines four subpolitical phases: (i) Chilean mural painting’s beginnings in 1940–1950, especially following the influence of Mexican muralism, (ii) the development of brigade muralism for political persuasion under the context of revolutionary sociopolitical upheaval during the 1960s and in the socialist government of Allende from 1970 to 1973, (iii) the characteristics of muralism during the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1980s as a form of popular protest, and (iv) muralism to express broader social discontent during the return to democracy in the 1990s. How did the progressive popular culture movement represent, through murals, the political hopes during Allende’s government and then the political violence suffered under the military dictatorship? Several online repositories of photographs of left-wing brigade murals provide data for the analysis, which suggests that brigade muralism used murals mostly for political expression and for popular education. Visual art’s inherent political dimension is enmeshed in a field of power constituted by hegemony and confrontation. The muralist brigades executed murals to express their political views and offer them to all spectators because the street wall was within everyone's reach. These murals also suggested ideas that went beyond pictorial representation; thus, muralism was a process of education that invited the audience to decipher its polysemic elements.

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