‘Welcome to selfiestan’: identity and the networked gaze in Indian mobile media

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-108
Author(s):  
Stephen Monteiro
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hindu Nationalism ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Production Methods ◽  
Critical Technology ◽  
Media Imagery ◽  
Visual Regimes ◽  
Political Success ◽  
User Device

This article examines selfie culture and visual social media in India by exploring how smartphone marketing and the performativity of the user–device interface intersect with the cultural influence of the Hindu ritual of darshan and the recent political success of populist Hindu nationalism. Darshan, a long-standing, everyday Hindu practice entailing an active visual and physical exchange between worshiper and devotional image or object, bears striking overlaps with the mechanics and conditions of the networked visuality of the self. Taking a critical technology approach, this article places scholarship on selfies and their production methods in conversation with anthropological descriptions of darshan and existing theories of darshan’s impact on media in South Asia. Theoretical exploration of concepts and practices is augmented by content analysis of social media imagery related to darshan. In arguing that aspects of traditional visual regimes may endure in personal networked media use in India, this work underscores the need for balancing globalized affordances and applications, on one hand, with culturally specific meanings and ideological frames, on the other, particularly as these converge in the visual performance of networked identity.

scholarly journals The platformisation of public service broadcasting in Germany: The network ‘funk’ and the case of Druck/Skam Germany

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-144
Author(s):  
Sven Stollfuß
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Web Series ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
German Adaptation

This article investigates how platformisation changes the practices of content production and distribution through the case of the web series, Druck (tr. Pressure (2018–), for the public service content network ‘funk’ (ARD and ZDF). An analysis of the German adaptation of the Norwegian television and web series Skam (tr. Shame) (NRK3, 2015–2017) shows how public service broadcasting (PSB) in Germany is changing due to the influence of social media. To reach a younger audience, PSB has to meet them on third-party platforms. Consequently, PSB must provide content that fits the mobile media environment of social media.

scholarly journals Digital Genealogies: Understanding Social Mobile Media LINE in the Role of Japanese Families

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630511770381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kana Ohashi ◽  
Fumitoshi Kato ◽  
Larissa Hjorth
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Media Platform

This article explores the emergence of the dominant mobile social media platform in Japan, LINE. In particular, the article focuses upon its usage to maintain familial ties, especially between matriarchal connections. Drawing upon ethnographic work with 12 families over 3 years, this article seeks to provide a detailed and nuanced sense of how social mobile media is deployed intergenerationally.

scholarly journals The Ambivalent Potentials of Social Media Use by Unaccompanied Minor Refugees

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511876443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Kutscher ◽  
Lisa-Marie Kreß
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Professional Support ◽  
Ethical Reflection ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Unaccompanied Minor Refugees ◽  
Minor Refugees ◽  
Transnational Social Networks

In 2015, an unprecedented number of unaccompanied minor refugees came to Europe. To verify reports in mass media as well as professionals’ and volunteers’ impressions regarding the importance of digital media, this empirical study was conducted in the summer of 2015 in cooperation with the “Children’s Charity of Germany” (Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk e.V.). The study focused on the question of how unaccompanied minor refugees use digital (social and mobile) media in the context of their forced migration to Germany. It explored how they use these media to stay in contact with family and friends in their country of origin and beyond, to establish new relationships, to orientate themselves in the receiving country, and to search for (professional) support. Thus, the role of digital media in maintaining transnational social networks and enabling participation in a receiving society is investigated. This article presents key findings and their theoretical implications as well as a methodological and ethical reflection on this research.

scholarly journals Pemanfaatan Digital Marketing dalam Promosi Pariwisata pada Era Industri 4.0

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
I Gede Agus Krisna Warmayana
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mobile Applications ◽  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Online Advertising ◽  
Digital Marketing ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
The World ◽  
Web Forums

<p>Digital marketing is promoting online can use website and mobile media. In industry 4.0 is an automatic trend to carry out activities in the business field. The use of digital marketing in the industrial era 4.0 in the world of tourism is very influential supported by 5 digital marketing applications, namely websites, online advertising, social media, web forums and mobile applications. By applying digital marketing tourism will grow professionally and globally.</p>

A Socio-semiotic Analysis of Qat culture in Yemen

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 i (14) ◽  
pp. 68-83
Author(s):  
Nabil Salem ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Catha Edulis ◽  
Linguistic Model ◽  
Sign System ◽  
Linguistic Sign ◽  
Lexical Items

Qat, Catha edulis has become synonymous with Yemen, as the phenomenon of Qat chewing in Yemen dates back hundreds of years in history. No social, cultural, or political gathering in the afternoon time can do without Qat. Afternoon time becomes the sign of Qat sessions and socialization. Despite Yemen's openness to other cultures and the recent revolution in all kinds of social media, Yemenis do not stop the habit of chewing Qat. The purpose of the present research work is to analyze 'Qat' as a linguistic sign consisting of a signifier and a signified to understand its various social, cultural, and political signifieds that give it the semiotic power to dominate all aspects of life in Yemen and to ground the coinage of many lexical items that are culturally specific to Qat culture and Yemeni dialects. The present paper uses semiotics as a research method in which it adopts Saussure's linguistic model of sign, signifier, and signified and Barthes' concepts of denotation and connotation. Semiotically, this paper shows that the Yemeni people are not addicted to Qat as a drug, as might be assumed by some foreigners who are not familiar with the sign system of Yemeni culture. The Yemeni people are addicted to Qat as a polysemous sign that is associated with values, norms, rituals, enjoyment, relationship, and socialization at the connotative level.

Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Studying Digital Feminist Activism

2019 ◽  
pp. 24-41
Author(s):  
Kaitlynn Mendes ◽  
Jessica Ringrose ◽  
Jessalynn Keller
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Critical Technology ◽  
Key Terms

In this chapter, we outline our conceptual framework, addressing key theories that underpin our analysis, including, affect and related concepts, including affective solidarity, networked affect, and affective publics. We also introduce key terms from critical technology studies, including platform vernacular and other concepts relevant to the political economy of social media. After providing further information on the six case studies described in the Introduction, including their reason for selection and methods used, the chapter details our unique methodological approach, which draws insights from a range of interdisciplinary tools, including feminist ethnographic methods, thematic textual analysis, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and online observations.

scholarly journals Decolonizing mobile media: Mobile Internet appropriation in a Guaraní community

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-103
Author(s):  
Sarah Wagner ◽  
Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mobile Internet ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Communication Preferences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Media Services ◽  
Media Practices

The Internet has been a valuable resource for many indigenous groups as a vehicle for self-representation. In this paper, we describe how the installation of a Wi-Fi signal in a Guaraní community in Greater Buenos Aires—as part of the community leader’s decolonizing media projects—generated issues within the community. While much indigenous media research concerns the politics of cultural representation, we consider the politics of everyday, intracommunity mobile communication practices. Firstly, our findings show how the choice of communication medium can become a political issue. An upsurge in mobile-mediated communication within the community contributed to the decline of face-to-face deliberations, which were the mainstay of communal sharing arrangements and which held a central position in understandings of Guaraní culture. Secondly, our findings show how discrepancies between users’ communication preferences and the readily available mobile media services can generate a use barrier by deterring users from obtaining the skills needed to effectively appropriate or transform mobile media services. Familiarity with a few mainstream social media apps not only reinforced imaginaries of the Internet as a nonindigenous space but also generated set ideas of what the Internet supports in terms of communicative form—social networking—and content type—mainstream media. In the end, the community leader’s decolonizing projects, aimed at using social media for community media dissemination, were not only rejected by community members but also undermined by the dynamics of mobile media practices in the community. We argue that limited mobile technology skills combined with commercially oriented mobile media services can hinder creative and adaptable mobile media practices, and in turn, undermine decolonizing mobile appropriations.

scholarly journals Digital (dis)connectivity in fraught contexts: The case of gay refugees in Belgium

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 784-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Dhoest
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Sexual Orientations ◽  
The Family ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Depth Interviews

The key role of digital and mobile media for refugees is increasingly acknowledged, but while the literature on the topic tends to celebrate the advantages of digital media, it is important to also acknowledge limitations. Thus, the focus on the creation and maintenance of connections through digital media may obscure experiences and practices of disconnection. This is certainly the case for forced migrants with non-normative sexual orientations, for whom experiences of homophobia within the family and ethno-cultural community in the country of origin may extend to fraught situations in the country of residence. As with digital media in general, it is important to consider the ‘offline’ social and cultural conditions determining online media uses. This article focuses on the specific challenges for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer refugees, both in general and in Belgium, drawing on desk research and expert interviews, as well as nine in-depth interviews with gay-identifying male refugees. While the refugees are relatively positive about the Belgian situation, they do identify a number of challenges. They use digital media to stay connected to family and other people in the country of origin, but often this connection has become difficult. Social media and dating sites also offer a way to connect to other gay men, but these connections can be equally fraught, particularly in the country of origin for danger of exposure but also in Belgium as social media transcend national boundaries. For this reason, some participants created new or parallel profiles, to keep their gay lives disconnected from their family lives. Overall, then, digital media are a tool not only of connection but also of strategic disconnection for gay refugees.

Muslim Sportswomen as Digital Space Invaders: Hashtag Politics and Everyday Visibilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 668-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nida Ahmad ◽  
Holly Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Digital Ethnography ◽  
Digital Space ◽  
Dominant Discourses

This article examines the ways Muslim sportswomen are using social media to challenge stereotypical representations and to build community. Drawing from an 8-month digital ethnography of 50 different social media profiles across four different platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter) and interviews with 20 Muslim sportswomen, we reveal some of the various ways they are using social media to challenge dominant portrayals of Muslim women as in need of “saving”. We draw upon and elaborate Nirmal Puwar’s concept of “space invaders” to explain how Muslim sportswomen are using social media to challenge dominant discourses, build connections, and represent aspects of their sporting lives in culturally specific ways. The article focuses on two key strategies of the sportswomen, firstly their political use of hashtags and secondly the diverse politics of everyday visibilities. Ultimately, this article creates space for Muslim sportswomen’s voices to reveal the various culturally specific forms of agency and politics being employed in the digital realm.

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