Islam in the Spotlight: The Mediatisation of Politics in an Amsterdam Neighbourhood

Urban Studies ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 1325-1342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justus Uitermark ◽  
Amy-Jane Gielen
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Van Gogh ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Discursive Power

Conflicts over the presence of migrants and Muslims in Western societies have become increasingly ‘mediatised’ in recent years. Interactions between governments and migrants are now subject to constant scrutiny and the media have become a prime battle ground for political struggles. This paper investigates the effects of mediatisation on the relationships between the government and civil society associations in one Amsterdam neighbourhood before and after a Muslim extremist assassinated film maker Theo van Gogh in November 2004. With the help of field theory, it is shown that media representations do not just reflect local realities, but in fact are a part and outcome of struggles between actors unequally invested with discursive power. Mediatisation thus transforms the logic of politics and alters the balance of power between different actors.

scholarly journals MEDIA FREEDOM IN KENYA in 2017: A REALITY OR A MIRAGE?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirley Genga
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Information Management ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Media Freedom ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Free Media ◽  
Freedom House

Media freedom is the capacity of the media to act as a barometer to call government to account vis-à-vis the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 especially the values, spirit and ethos enshrined therein. So much so that countries which are strong democracies always have strong and free media. A free and democratic society is not possible without an independent, free and responsible media and an active civil society. Freedom House Report results from the fact that Kenya currently finds itself in a very interesting position where media freedom exists boldly on paper, but the reality on the ground is something else. The current Constitution of Kenya which came into force on 27 August 2010, has not only been hailed as reformist, but it has a new and progressive Bill of Rights requiring extensive reforms to both the media and information management frameworks. However, the government seems to have another agenda. As will be observed below, the government has introduced several laws that, on the outside appear to be progressive and in line with the new Constitution, but upon closer inspection clearly has an agenda that undermines media freedom in Kenya. In the sections which follow, this paper will analyse the legal framework and social factors relevant to media freedom in Kenya.

scholarly journals Democratic Dawn? Civil Society and Elections in Myanmar 2010-2012

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lidauer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
International Community ◽  
National Election ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Electoral Process ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Election Observation ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government

While the general elections in Myanmar in November 2010 were widely condemned, both national and international actors approached the by-elections of April 2012 as a political rite-de-passage to improve relations between the government and the opposition inside, and between the former pariah state and the international community outside the country. An undercurrent of the government-led transition process from an authoritarian to a formally more democratic regime was the development of a politically oriented civil society that found ways to engage in the electoral process. This article describes the emerging spaces of election-related civil society activism in the forms of civic and voter education, national election observation, and election-related agency in the media. Noting that, in particular, election observation helps connect civil society to regional and international debates, the paper draws preliminary conclusions about further developments ahead of the general elections in Myanmar expected to take place in 2015.

scholarly journals Print Media Representations Of An Unusual Health Event: Chikungunya virus, risk and identity on Réunion Island

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Weinstein ◽  
Srilata Ravi
Keyword(s):  
Print Media ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Metropolitan Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Event ◽  
Indian Ocean Island ◽  
The Media ◽  
Historical Relationship ◽  
The Government

In 2005-6, the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion experienced a massive epidemic of the mosquito-borne viral infection Chikungunya. Reporting on the epidemic in the print media demonstrates a considerable lag compared to the realtime evolution of the epidemic, and this paper explores possible reasons for that delay. We analyse the content of print media articles about Chikungunya from two Reunionese newspapers (Témoignages and Clicanoo) and two newspapers from metropolitan France (Le Figaro and Le Monde). In the Reunionese newspapers, the delay in acknowledging the public health risk posed by the virus suggests passive denial in the early stages of the epidemic, followed by acceptance with blame attributed to the French metropolitan government – reflecting the uneasy historical relationship between the Reunionese and the government. In the French metropolitan newspapers, the delay is even greater and may reflect the influence of residual colonialist thinking on the priority placed on reporting on an epidemic in a remote tropical location: once a risk to metropolitan France is identified, reporting intensifies considerably. The media representations also highlight the importance of belief systems as modulators of people’s risk perception and their subsequent health-protection behaviour. We suggest that a better understanding of these drivers of health behaviour in multicultural societies may provide important opportunities to reduce the community burden of disease.

The nexus of journalism and political activism in post-2000 Zimbabwe: A field theory critique

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Chibuwe
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
National Union ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The Media ◽  
Journalistic Field ◽  
Political Economic

The post-2000 political-economic crisis in Zimbabwe saw the migration of journalists as political and economic refugees. Many, if not all, of these claimed persecution at home and some amongst them established online publications with an interest on Zimbabwe. But some of the journalists that remained in Zimbabwe became activists in support of either the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) regime or the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Another group joined civil society whilst others joined either the ruling ZANU-PF party or the opposition political parties, mainly MDC. In the same context, some activists joined newsrooms. In this context, the distinction between journalism and political activism became increasingly blurred. The article, deploying Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, explores how and why this morphing of journalists into activists and vice versa unfolded and its impact on the journalistic field. The findings demonstrate that on one hand journalists morphed into activists through: switching into civil society; active involvement in party politics either as members or election candidates; openly campaigning for or against certain political parties and candidates; and writing political campaign material disguised as news. On the other hand, activists entered the journalistic field as columnists, correspondents or stringers, editors and, in one high profile case, a Ministry of Information official. The metamorphosis happened openly and underground, and it was caused by poverty, greed, the desire to migrate, disenchantment with economic challenges, state-sponsored repression of the media and the desire to secure one’s privileged position in the journalistic social field.

scholarly journals Information management in government policy: the challenges of time and responses to them

2021 ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
S. Bulbeniuk ◽  
Yu. Maneliuk
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Information Management ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Communication Techniques ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government

The article examines the peculiarities of the formation of government policy in the field of information management under the influence of systemic challenges of recent years. Particular attention is paid to the role and place of civil society, in particular its network segment, in the relationship between the state and the media in the media market. The authors propose a rationale for information management and social capital of society as interrelated political and social phenomena. After all, the effective promotion of certain models of information management is possible under the conditions of attracting social capital to the mechanisms of political communication. At the same time, social capital as an exclusively group resource is both an object and a subject of information flows involved in the processes of political communication. The problem of mass media involvement is covered in two aspects. First, through the consideration of communication techniques. Secondly, it was found that in recent years the practice of forming qualitatively different models of mass media financing has become established. The article analyzes the prospects of diversification of mass media funding sources through public activist campaigns of donors and crowdfunding, in particular in Ukraine. In the domestic socio-political realities, according to the authors, it is worth talking more about attempts to introduce such a systemic practice. And this is not surprising, because the spread of donor and crowdfunding practices of the mass media is one of the indicators of the maturity of civil society. However, traditional and modern channels of interaction between the government and civil society in the field of information management can have unpredictable consequences, such as the threat of manipulative influences of different directions.

From #MeToo to #ProtestToo: How a Feminist Movement Converged with a Pro-democracy Protest in Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Ruby Y. S. Lai
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Collaborative Model ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government

The #MeToo movement in Hong Kong emerged in late 2017, subsequently converged with the Anti-Extradition Law protest in 2019, and evolved into the #ProtestToo campaign against police violence and sexual assult. This essay traces the development of the #MeToo movement and analyzes the collaboration among the government, civil society, and the media in fostering the movement to combat sexual violence. It argues that whether the collaborative model succeeds or fails depends upon sociocultural and political circumstances: the failure of existing measures in preventing, investigating, and prosecuting the alleged sexual assaults inflicted on protesters in 2019 reveals how a shift to authoritarian governance may cripple the established anti–sexual violence collaboration.

scholarly journals The Māori Party and the media: Representations in mainstream print leading to the 2005 election

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-149
Author(s):  
Ann Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
National Party ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government

Race issues featured in political campaigns leading up to the 2005 election. A speech made by the leader of the National Party, Don Brash, at Orewa, 27 January 2004 decrying racial separatism and accusing the government of supporting race-based policies resonated with a considerable sector of the populace and public polling at that time showed increased popular support for the National party (Miller, 2005, p. 166). There was considerable media exposure to race issues following the Brash speech and it contributed to a re-evaluatiuon of Māori policy by the 1999-2005 Labour coalition government which in turn resolved to remove ethnic targeting from public policy. Tradition Māori support for the Labour party dissipated because of the ‘foreshore and seabed’ issue and the newly created Māori party.subsequently won four of the 121 parliamentary seats.

‘That is the skin of my brother’: alterity, hybridity and media representations of facial transplantation

2021 ◽  
pp. medhum-2020-012031
Author(s):  
Marc Lafrance
Keyword(s):  
Medical Science ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Transplant Recipients ◽  
Facial Transplantation ◽  
Normal People ◽  
Face Transplant ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Media ◽  
Good Lives

In this paper, I explore the 2012 face transplant performed on US recipient Richard Norris and how it was represented by the media as a ‘makeover story’. Informed by press coverage from the date of the transplant to the present day, I examine a widely viewed and critically acclaimed investigative report that aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes entitled ‘My Brother’s Keeper’. Through a close reading of both its form and content, I claim that the report’s makeover story consists of four key themes: heroic medicine and miraculous science; appearance-based stigma and social alienation; appearance-based conformity and social assimilation; and subjective alterity and embodied hybridity. In doing so, I contend that the report’s themes contain the widespread ambivalence about facial transplantation by confirming prevailing assumptions about medical science and how it creates normal people who live good lives. That said, I also contend that the report’s themes complicate these assumptions by highlighting how facial transplantation invariably involves immediate encounters with otherness and corporeal interconnectedness. I conclude that the report’s makeover story—characterised as it is by the constraints of the before-and-after format—must be rethought and, ultimately, reworked if we wish to do justice to face transplant recipients.

scholarly journals After the Revolution: State, Civil Society, and Democratization in Armenia and Georgia

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph H. Stefes ◽  
Yevgenya J. Paturyan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Transitions ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Government ◽  
Revolutionary Regime

In 2003 and 2018, mass protests triggered the collapse of authoritarian regimes in Georgia and Armenia, respectively. In both cases, civil society organizations (CSOs) played an important role in laying the groundwork and organizing the protests. Following the toppling of semi-autocratic leaders, reform-oriented governments took over in both countries. Yet, the way civil society engaged the new rulers differed considerably. Whereas in Georgia, former civil society leaders were often absorbed into the new government, Armenian civil society has kept its distance from the new political leadership. In this paper, we attempt to explain why state-civil society relations after the revolutions have developed in different directions in these two Soviet successor states. We argue that three conditions explain differences in engagement with the new governments: CSOs pre-revolutionary cooperation with the political opposition, Western governments support for civil society before and after the political transitions, and the degree to which CSOs represent and are rooted in the general public. As a consequence, Georgia’s post-revolutionary regime lacked the checks and balances that CSOs usually provide, allowing it to sacrifice democratization on the altar of modernization. In Armenia, in contrast, CSOs have maintained a critical stance and continued to hold the government accountable.

How to Tell the Truth without Outraging the Press?

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Li Xiguang
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese News Media

The commercialization of meclia in China has cultivated a new journalism business model characterized with scandalization, sensationalization, exaggeration, oversimplification, highly opinionated news stories, one-sidedly reporting, fabrication and hate reporting, which have clone more harm than good to the public affairs. Today the Chinese journalists are more prey to the manipu/ation of the emotions of the audiences than being a faithful messenger for the public. Une/er such a media environment, in case of news events, particularly, during crisis, it is not the media being scared by the government. but the media itself is scaring the government into silence. The Chinese news media have grown so negative and so cynica/ that it has produced growing popular clistrust of the government and the government officials. Entering a freer but fearful commercially mediated society, the Chinese government is totally tmprepared in engaging the Chinese press effectively and has lost its ability for setting public agenda and shaping public opinions. 

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