Loving Ebola-chan: Internet memes in an epidemic

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Rose Marcus ◽  
Merrill Singer

In this article, the authors provide a layered analysis of Ebola-chan, a visual cultural artifact of the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak. Rather than considering her as a two-dimensional anime character (i.e. as a simple iconic coping mechanism and/or a fear response), this recent Internet meme is analyzed using an integrated semiotic and structural approach that involves discussion of the genesis of disaster humor in light of the changing world of the Internet, the history of anthropomorphism of disease, and the biosocial nature of an infectious disease epidemic. Our analysis is designed to advance both the anthropology of the Internet and the anthropology of infectious disease. As a multi-vocal symbol with different meanings for different audiences, Ebola-chan represents a social response to a lethal epidemic in the digital age.

Author(s):  
Kelly Schrum ◽  
Sheila Brennan ◽  
James Halabuk ◽  
Sharon Leon ◽  
Tom Scheinfeldt

Oral history means many things. It is a record of oral tradition, compiled of stories handed down from one generation to the next, as well as the recording of personal history or experiences. It can involve a formal interview examining a particular topic, such as the history of the space telescope, or a moment in time, such as the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island commercial nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1979. A kind of oral history can also occur informally, when family members share stories around a kitchen table or when a high school student interviews his grandmother about immigrating to the United States. The task of categorizing oral history has become even more challenging in the digital age. It is possible to define online oral history, as resources are available via the Internet that are related to the collecting, cataloging, preserving, or sharing of oral history.


2021 ◽  
pp. 78-90
Author(s):  
Julie C. Garlen ◽  
Sarah L. Hembruff

In this article, we look to viewer responses to James Bridle’s TED Talk on children’s YouTube to learn about the discursive landscape of childhood in the digital age. We first situate concerns about children’s use of YouTube within a history of moral panic and then conduct a thematic analysis of online comments to discover what viewers identify as the central concerns. We “unbox” three emergent themes of responsibility—corporate, parental, and societal—to understand how these themes might help us think about contemporary discourses of childhood “at risk,” critical media literacy, and children’s agency as social actors on the Internet.


Author(s):  
Deirdre de la Cruz

This chapter assesses the persistence of material culture in modern Marian devotion, against the backdrop of technological developments in the mass media and in conjunction with a history of modern apparitions. It argues that, despite the ‘virtualization’ of Marian phenomena, iconography, and devotional practice through media such as photography and the internet, the sensuous materiality of objects such as statues, relics, and the rosary still offers an important means through which the faithful experience Mary collectively and phenomenologically. Linking the centrality of material religion in Mary’s cult to theological notions of her corporeal incorruptibility and intercessory power, the chapter presents several cases where both mass and materially mediated images and relics of Mary have been used to propagate devotion to her. The chapter concludes with a discussion of deterritorialized religion in the digital age, arguing that despite the effect of technologies like the internet on Marian devotion and phenomena, Mary’s devotees will still reach for tangible signs of her presence.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 94-112
Author(s):  
Angelė Pečeliūnaitė

The article analyses the possibility of how Cloud Computing can be used by libraries to organise activities online. In order to achieve a uniform understanding of the essence of technology SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS, the article discusses the Cloud Computing services, which can be used for the relocation of libraries to the Internet. The improvement of the general activity of libraries in the digital age, the analysis of the international experience in the libraries are examples. Also the article discusses the results of a survey of the Lithuanian scientific community that confirms that 90% of the scientific community is in the interest of getting full access to e-publications online. It is concluded that the decrease in funding for libraries, Cloud Computing can be an economically beneficial step, expanding the library services and improving their quality.


Author(s):  
Dan Jerker B. Svantesson

Internet jurisdiction has emerged as one of the greatest and most urgent challenges online, severely affecting areas as diverse as e-commerce, data privacy, law enforcement, content take-downs, cloud computing, e-health, Cyber security, intellectual property, freedom of speech, and Cyberwar. In this innovative book, Professor Svantesson presents a vision for a new approach to Internet jurisdiction––for both private international law and public international law––based on sixteen years of research dedicated specifically to the topic. The book demonstrates that our current paradigm remains attached to a territorial thinking that is out of sync with our modern world, especially, but not only, online. Having made the claim that our adherence to the territoriality principle is based more on habit than on any clear and universally accepted legal principles, Professor Svantesson advances a new jurisprudential framework for how we approach jurisdiction. He also proposes several other reform initiatives such as the concept of ‘investigative jurisdiction’ and an approach to geo-blocking, aimed at equipping us to solve the Internet jurisdiction puzzle. In addition, the book provides a history of Internet jurisdiction, and challenges our traditional categorisation of different types of jurisdiction. It places Internet jurisdiction in a broader context and outlines methods for how properly to understand and work with rules of Internet jurisdiction. While Solving the Internet Puzzle paints a clear picture of the concerns involved and the problems that needs to be overcome, this book is distinctly aimed at finding practical solutions anchored in a solid theoretical framework.


2020 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-114
Author(s):  
Adrian Blau

AbstractThis paper proposes a new framework for categorizing approaches to the history of political thought. Previous categorizations exclude much research; political theory, if included, is often caricatured. And previous categorizations are one-dimensional, presenting different approaches as alternatives. My framework is two-dimensional, distinguishing six kinds of end (two empirical, four theoretical) and six kinds of means. Importantly, these choices are not alternatives: studies may have more than one end and typically use several means. Studies with different ends often use some of the same means. And all studies straddle the supposed empirical/theoretical “divide.” Quentin Skinner himself expertly combines empirical and theoretical analysis—yet the latter is often overlooked, not least because of Skinner's own methodological pronouncements. This highlights a curious disjuncture in methodological writings, between what they say we do, and what we should do. What we should do is much broader than existing categorizations imply.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S349-S351
Author(s):  
Jahanavi M Ramakrishna ◽  
Tambi Jarmi ◽  
Claudia R Libertin

Abstract Background Vaccine-preventable diseases account for significant morbidity and mortality in the kidney transplant (KT) patient population. AST Guidelines support review and documentation of pneumococcal vaccines in KT candidate infectious disease (ID) evaluations. The objective of this study is to determine the number of KT candidates screened for prior pneumococcal immunizations and the frequency of vaccines ordered by providers when indicated at Mayo Clinic Florida’s (MCF) Transplant Center. Methods This study was an institution-based retrospective analysis of all KT candidates evaluated at MCF from December 2, 2019 – January 14, 2020. Data collection was obtained by electronic health record review. Outcomes included known history and documentation rates of prior pneumococcal vaccinations (both Prevnar 13 and Pneumovax 23) by infectious disease (ID) providers, as well as pneumococcal vaccine order frequency during ID pre-transplant evaluation when indicated. Data analysis was done using simple descriptive statistics. Results Sixty-one patients underwent KT evaluation during the study period. Among the 61 patients, 20 (32.8%) and 20 (32.8%) had a known prior history of receiving Prevnar 13 and Pneumovax 23 vaccinations, respectively. Vaccine history was unknown for Prevnar 13 and Pneumovax 23 in 39 (63.9%) patients. Vaccine status was not documented by ID providers in 2 (3.3%) patients. When appropriate, ID providers ordered Prevnar 13 and Pneumovax 23 in 38 (92.7%) and 41 (100%) patients, respectively. Orders included both electronic and written documentation to account for patients planning immunization elsewhere. Of the 38 patients advised to receive the Prevnar 13 vaccine, 17 (41.5%) patients were documented completing immunization. Pneumovax 23 order completion rates were not recorded since the study period only lasted six weeks due to closure by COVID-19. Table 1. Pneumococcal Vaccine History Documentation Rates Obtained by Patient Recall or Records Table 2. Pneumococcal Vaccine Order Rates at Pre-Kidney Transplant Consultations Table 3. Prevnar 13 Order Completion Rate by Documentation Conclusion The data reflect a high number of patients who either do not recall or have documentation of prior pneumococcal vaccination available at time of KT ID evaluation. Providers documented history of pneumococcal vaccinations extremely well, ordering immunizations when necessary. This study highlights lack of portability of immunization histories in a given patient population and opportunity for improved care. Disclosures Claudia R. Libertin, MD, Pfizer, Inc. (Grant/Research Support, Research Grant or Support)


Cryptography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Xavier Boyen ◽  
Udyani Herath ◽  
Matthew McKague ◽  
Douglas Stebila

The conventional public key infrastructure (PKI) model, which powers most of the Internet, suffers from an excess of trust into certificate authorities (CAs), compounded by a lack of transparency which makes it vulnerable to hard-to-detect targeted stealth impersonation attacks. Existing approaches to make certificate issuance more transparent, including ones based on blockchains, are still somewhat centralized. We present decentralized PKI transparency (DPKIT): a decentralized client-based approach to enforcing transparency in certificate issuance and revocation while eliminating single points of failure. DPKIT efficiently leverages an existing blockchain to realize an append-only, distributed associative array, which allows anyone (or their browser) to audit and update the history of all publicly issued certificates and revocations for any domain. Our technical contributions include definitions for append-only associative ledgers, a security model for certificate transparency, and a formal analysis of our DPKIT construction with respect to the same. Intended as a client-side browser extension, DPKIT will be effective at fraud detection and prosecution, even under fledgling user adoption, and with better coverage and privacy than federated observatories, such as Google’s or the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110186
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Polizzi

This article proposes a theoretical framework for how critical digital literacy, conceptualized as incorporating Internet users’ utopian/dystopian imaginaries of society in the digital age, facilitates civic engagement. To do so, after reviewing media literacy research, it draws on utopian studies and political theory to frame utopian thinking as relying dialectically on utopianism and dystopianism. Conceptualizing critical digital literacy as incorporating utopianism/dystopianism prescribes that constructing and deploying an understanding of the Internet’s civic potentials and limitations is crucial to pursuing civic opportunities. The framework proposed, which has implications for media literacy research and practice, allows us to (1) disentangle users’ imaginaries of civic life from their imaginaries of the Internet, (2) resist the collapse of critical digital literacy into civic engagement that is understood as inherently progressive, and (3) problematize polarizing conclusions about users’ interpretations of the Internet as either crucial or detrimental to their online engagement.


2003 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian David ◽  
Catherine Granger ◽  
Nicole Picot

The French national museum libraries service comprises 21 libraries specialising in the history of western art and archaeology. The central library, which is at the head of the network, was automated first and has completed its retrospective conversion. At first this library catalogued the material acquired for all the others; then a number of them were able in their turn to computerise and thus contribute directly to the union catalogue of the national museum libraries. This can now be consulted on the internet site of the Ministry of Culture.


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