scholarly journals Saudi women driving: images, stereotyping and digital media

2021 ◽  
pp. 147035722110408
Author(s):  
Areej Albawardi ◽  
Rodney H Jones

This article examines the representations of Saudi women driving that circulated shortly after the lifting of the ban and considers the social, commercial and technological forces that helped to shape those representations . A corpus of images was collected from two international image banks – Getty and Shutterstock – as well as from a Google Image search. The images use Van Leeuwen’s (2008) visual representation framework in Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Analysis, paying particular attention to the similarities and differences between the images available in the image banks and those that were made prominent in the Google search. In addition, semantic metadata accompanying these images were also analysed in order to understand the linguistic constraints that had been put on searches for these images and the ontologies of the issue that they promoted. Finally, a more detailed analysis was performed on images that had been appropriated into different contexts such as news stories and advertisements to investigate how these images were adapted to support different political, cultural and commercial agendas. Findings suggest that images of Saudi women that circulated online internationally shortly after the lifting of the ban were mostly generic and decontextualized, creating simplified and trivialized depictions of gender relations and social change in the Kingdom. The analysis shows how commercial concerns which influence both the creation of stock images and the way they are taken up by news organizations and advertisers can sometimes have the effect of erasing the complexity of political events and reinforcing the very stereotypes they seem to be challenging.

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Graves ◽  
CW Anderson

News organizations have adapted in various ways to a digital media environment dominated by algorithmic gatekeepers such as search engines and social networks. This article dissects a campaign to actively shape that environment led by professional fact-checking organizations. We trace the development of the Share the Facts “widget,” a device designed to give fact-checks greater purchase in algorithmically governed media networks by driving adoption of a new data standard called ClaimReview. We show how “structured journalism” gave journalists a language for the social and technical challenges involved, and how this infrastructural technology mediates between fact-checkers, audiences, and platform companies. We argue that this standard-setting initiative exhibits both promotional and disciplining facets, offering greater distribution and impact to journalists while also defining their work in specific ways. Crucially, in this case, this disciplining influence reflects internal professional-institutional agendas in an emerging subfield of journalism as much as the demands of platform companies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-294
Author(s):  
Ali A. Dashti ◽  
Salah M. al-Fadhli ◽  
M.S. Son ◽  
H.I. Hamdy

Abstract The social and the technical mechanisms of Twitter have encouraged many journalists to use it as part of their daily journalism practices. Journalists use Twitter for various purposes, such as newsgathering, reporting and sourcing news. Twitter has become an official and unofficial source for news for many journalists and news organizations. This study examines how Twitter is affecting the way Kuwaiti journalists source news, and asks whether Twitter has affected their journalistic practices. The results support previous studies that Twitter represents a platform in which journalists source, seek and cover news stories.


Author(s):  
Simon Keegan-Phipps ◽  
Lucy Wright

This chapter considers the role of social media (broadly conceived) in the learning experiences of folk musicians in the Anglophone West. The chapter draws on the findings of the Digital Folk project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), and begins by summarizing and problematizing the nature of learning as a concept in the folk music context. It briefly explicates the instructive, appropriative, and locative impacts of digital media for folk music learning before exploring in detail two case studies of folk-oriented social media: (1) the phenomenon of abc notation as a transmissive media and (2) the Mudcat Café website as an example of the folk-oriented discussion forum. These case studies are shown to exemplify and illuminate the constructs of traditional transmission and vernacularism as significant influences on the social shaping and deployment of folk-related media technologies. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the need to understand the musical learning process as a culturally performative act and to recognize online learning mechanisms as sites for the (re)negotiation of musical, cultural, local, and personal identities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 631
Author(s):  
Eun Ah Ryu ◽  
Eun Kyoung Han

Since the introduction of smartphones in 2009, social networking services (SNS), which have seen a surge in users, facilitated changes in the media environment along with social influence that has increased the economic value and political influence of SNS. In particular, as consumers’ media use and consumption behavior change around digital media, social media plays a very important role in consumers’ lives. From this perspective, influencers who influence not only consumers’ consumption behavior, but also decision-making and opinion formation based on social media are attracting attention. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop items to measure an influencer’s reputation as a new source of information in the SNS environment; no previous researchers have presented generalized measurement items for an influencer’s reputation. We intended to identify what dimensions and items in the existing literature could effectively measure a social media influencer’s reputation and to verify each item’s relevance as a measure of a social media influencer’s reputation. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 experts and empirical findings from 557 adults, this study identified dimensions that impact on a consumer’s perception of a social media influencer and developed a scale. The results showed that the social media Influencer’s Reputation scale comprises four distinctive dimensions: Communication skills, influence, authenticity, and expertise. Additionally, the reliability and validity of the scale were assessed, using exploratory and confirmatory analyses and construct validity. The findings confirmed that the social media influencer’s reputation scale measurement items, in this study, can be used as a consistent measurement tool for each dimension. It is also important to develop value in favor of the marketing strategy by increasing value through the influencer’s reputation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdulrahman Al-Haramlah ◽  
Fawziah Al-Bakr ◽  
Haniah Merza

<p class="apa">This study aimed to detect the common diseases among Saudi women and their relationship with the level of physical activity and some variables. This study was applied to 1233 Saudi woman in different regions of the Kingdom, and adopted to explore the common diseases: obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol and asthma.</p><p class="apa">The study results showed the existence of a statistically significant relationship between the common diseases among Saudi women and the variables of educational level, the nature of the profession, the social status, the justification of the practice of physical activity, the rate of participation in physical activity per week, the practice of physical activity in relation to asthma and the number of children with regard to obesity.</p><p class="apa">The study provided a number of recommendations including: the need to strengthen the role of culture in promoting physical activity by women, through health education via the health centers in the Kingdom.</p>


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 342
Author(s):  
Tine Vekemans

In early 2020, Jain diaspora communities and organizations that had been painstakingly built over the past decades were faced with the far-reaching consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and its concomitant restrictions. With the possibility of regular face-to-face contact and participation in recurring events—praying, eating, learning, and meditating together—severely limited in most places, organizations were compelled to make a choice. They either had to suspend their activities, leaving members to organize their religious activities on an individual or household basis, or pursue the continuation of some of their habitual activities in an online format, relying on their members’ motivation and technical skills. This study will explore how many Jain organizations in London took to digital media in its different forms to continue to engage with their members throughout 2020. Looking at a selection of websites and social media channels, it will examine online discourses that reveal the social and mental impact of the pandemic on Jains and the broader community, explore the relocation of activities to the digital realm, and assess participation in these activities. In doing so, this article will open a discussion on the long-term effects of this crisis-induced digital turn in Jain religious praxis, and in socio-cultural life in general.


Author(s):  
Melissa J. Robinson ◽  
Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick

The informative value of news has often been the focus of mass communication research, but individuals do tune into the news for entertainment purposes. In addition, news organizations frequently add entertainment elements into news stories to increase audience interest. Considering both of these factors, theorizing about the entertainment processes (e.g., appreciation, enjoyment, and suspense) that occur during news consumption is necessary to understand audience behavior. This chapter investigates factors that influence entertainment processes during news consumption. Two entertainment theories in particular (affective disposition theory and the affective news extended model) are reviewed to understand how affective responses influence enjoyment of news. It organizes existing research on affective responses and entertainment processes into two categories focusing on news event characteristics (i.e., elements that journalists cannot change) and message design principles that journalists create or edit. Areas for future research are provided.


2019 ◽  
pp. 0095327X1985930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nehemia Stern ◽  
Uzi Ben Shalom

This article explores the social media postings of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers on two different and unofficial Facebook groups. While scholars of armed forces and society have noted the growing importance that militaries have placed on digital media, there is little data regarding the unofficial uses and meanings that regular soldiers themselves make of social networking sites. With an anthropological focus on everyday experiences, we argue that the social media activity of IDF personnel highlights the quotidian aspects of military life in ways that reverberate beyond the strictly ideological or political facets of their service. Here, soldiers can express their frustrations with military bureaucracy, while also presenting a lighthearted (and positive) commentary on a shared rite of passage. This research opens a window into the lives and dilemmas of the first generation of Israeli soldiers to employ new media as a taken for granted aspect of their service.


Author(s):  
Алена Владимировна Искрина

В статье рассматриваются особенности формирования социальной стратификации Древней Руси на раннем этапе развития, этапы появления различных страт в зависимости от социально-политических событий с X по XII вв. Предметом исследования является процесс образования социальных страт в древнерусском государстве. Цель статьи - рассмотреть социальное устройство Древней Руси, определить и описать стратификацию и взаимодействие страт между собой, историю изучения данного вопроса, политические события, влияющие на данные процессы. Основным вопросом исследования явились исторические события, оказавшие влияние на формирование социальных страт с X по XII вв., появление социальных страт в данный исторический период и формы их взаимодействия. Отвечая на данный вопрос, автор приходит к выводу, что разложение патриархально-общинного строя, формирование феодального вассалитета, принципа майората, княжеской дружины и другие внутриполитические события повлияли на формирование социальных страт государства. В связи с данными историческими событиями удается проследить этапы происхождения социальных слоев населения, их состав, социальные функции в обществе и государстве. The paper examines the features of the social stratification of the Ancient system at an early stage of development, the stages of the emergence of various strata depending on political events from the 10th to the 12th centuries. The subject of this research is the process of the formation of social strata in the ancient European state. The purpose of the publication is to consider the social structure of Ancient Rus, to determine and describe the stratification and interaction of strata with each other, to study this issue, political events that affect these processes. The main research issue was the historical events that influenced the formation of social strata from the 10th to the 12th centuries, the emergence of social strata in a given historical period and the forms of their interaction. Answering this question, the author arrives at the conclusion that the disintegration of the patriarchal-communal system, the formation of a feudal vassalage, the principle of primacy, the princely squad and other internal political events influenced the formation of social strata of the state. In connection with these historical events, it is possible to trace the stages of the origin of social strata of the population, their composition, social functions in society and the state.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lysle Hood

In the digital age, technology and digital media shapes virtually every aspect of our lives. Poetry, which has seen a surprising revival in recent years, is no exception. One of the most popular contemporary poets today is Rupi Kaur, made famous for her verse posted on the social media platform Instagram. This MRP seeks to answer the following research questions: 1) In what ways has the digital age effected contemporary poetry? 2) What role has digital media played in shaping the success and formal elements of Rupi Kaur’s body of work? This MRP begins by offering a brief history of poetry’s relationship with media and an account of how poetry is produced and consumed in the digital age. The core of the MRP is a case study of contemporary Insta-poet Rupi Kaur. Through qualitative visual and textual analysis, the case study considers: 1) Kaur’s poetry, 2) her Instagram content, 3) her readership, and 4) the criticisms of her work. As to the discussion, the analysis of the four categories reveals


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