scholarly journals Hybrid Media and Hybrid Politics: Contesting Informational Uncertainty in Lebanon and Tunisia

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122199926
Author(s):  
Katrin Voltmer ◽  
Kjetil Selvik ◽  
Jacob Høigilt
Keyword(s):  
Economic Resources ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Informational Uncertainty ◽  
The Media

This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between hybrid media and hybrid politics in Lebanon and Tunisia. While previous research on the media in hybrid regimes has mainly focused on regime strategies of restricting and manipulating public debate, our analysis moves beyond repression. We argue that the ambiguities of hybrid politics, which combines democratic and authoritarian elements, not only constrain independent and critical reporting but also open up opportunities for journalistic agencies. We draw on Schedler's concept of informational uncertainty to capture the epistemological instability of hybrid regimes and the strategies of political actors to control public knowledge. Distinguishing between three dimensions of media hybridity - economic, cultural and technological - we show how the new hybrid media environment significantly increases the volatility of hybrid politics and informational uncertainty for political actors. Our empirical analysis is based on seventy-one semistructured interviews with journalists in Lebanon and Tunisia conducted between 2016 and 2019. The material reveals a broad range of strategies used by journalists who employ the internal contradictions of hybrid politics to pursue their own agenda. The comparison between Lebanon and Tunisia also highlights contextual conditions that enable, or limit, journalistic agency, such as clientelistic dependencies, economic resources, and civil society alliances.

scholarly journals How can we Agree on Anything in This Environment? Tunisian Media, Transition and Elite Compromises: A View From Parliament

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110180
Author(s):  
Francesco Cavatorta ◽  
Nidhal Mekki
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Transitions To Democracy ◽  
The Media ◽  
Rules Of The Game

The literature on the role of the media during processes of transitions to democracy is divided over the positive or negative influence media outlets have. Both theoretically and empirically cases can be substantiated. In the case of the 2011 Arab revolts, however, there is a scholarly consensus that the media—traditional and social—have negatively affected the processes of transitions. While the criticism of the role of the media is empirically borne out, it does not explain how Tunisia was able to consolidate its democracy despite a polarizing media environment. Based on participant observation and interviews, the article argues that the inner workings of the Constituent Assembly and the role of individual deputies were crucial in overcoming a hostile atmosphere. This suggests that the role of political actors in negotiating the new rules of the game is more important than other factors shaping a transition.

scholarly journals Populists Prefer Social Media Over Talk Shows: An Analysis of Populist Messages and Stylistic Elements Across Six Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511882335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Ernst ◽  
Sina Blassnig ◽  
Sven Engesser ◽  
Florin Büchel ◽  
Frank Esser
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Talk Shows ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Stylistic Elements ◽  
Political Talk ◽  
Media Channels

For studying populism in a hybrid and high-choice media environment, the comparison of various media channels is especially instructive. We argue that populism-related communication is a combination of key messages (content) and certain stylistic devices (form), and we compare their utilization by a broad range of political actors on Facebook, Twitter, and televised talk shows across six countries (CH, DE, FR, IT, UK, and US). We conducted a content analysis of social media and talk show statements ( N = 2067) from 31 parties during a nonelection period of 3 months in 2015. We place special emphasis on stylistic devices and find that they can be grouped into three dimensions—equivalent to three dimensions used for populist key messages. We further find that political parties are generally more inclined to use populism-related communication on Facebook and Twitter than in political talk shows and that both new challenger parties and extreme parties use higher amounts of populist key messages and style elements.

scholarly journals Mediatization of Religion: Three Dimensions from a Latin American/Brazilian Perspective

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 482
Author(s):  
Luis Mauro Sá Martino
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Core Questions

Research on the mediatization of religion seems to have become a major issue both for Social Sciences and Media Studies, although some core questions concerning its definitions and characteristics are still open to debate. This paper addresses some of these interrogations from a Latin American/Brazilian perspective, taking into the account some of the particular perspectives of the region. It draws on previous studies, combined with contemporary cases, to outline an overview of mediatization, as it has been studied by some Latin American scholars, in three dimensions: (1) Theoretical: Mediatization as an alternative path to ‘media and religion’ studies by focusing on the articulation between the media environment and religious practices, both institutional and individual; (2) cultural: Mediatization has drawn religion closer to media culture and entertainment, which has allowed churches and denominations to reach a wider audience; and (3) political: Mediatization has enabled religion to get a broader visibility in the public space and to have a say in social matters. These elements lead to the suggestion that mediatization of religion is a new way of living the religious experience in everyday life.

Bossa Mundo

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.E. Goldschmitt
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Film Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Brand ◽  
Brazilian Music ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Media ◽  
Rich Countries

Bossa Mundo chronicles how Brazilian music has been central to Brazil’s national brand in the United States and the United Kingdom since the late 1950s. Scholarly texts on Brazilian popular music generally focus on questions of music and national identity, and when they discuss the music’s international popularity, they keep the artists, recordings, and live performances as the focus, ignoring the process of transnational mediation. This book fills a major gap in Brazilian music studies by analyzing the consequences of moments when Brazilian music was popular in Anglophone markets, with a focus on the media industries. With subject matter as varied as jazz, film music, dance fads, DJ/remix culture, and new models of musical distribution, the book demonstrates how the mediation of Brazilian music in an increasingly crowded transnational marketplace has had lasting consequences for the creative output celebrated by Brazil as part of its national brand. Through a discussion of the political meaning of mass-mediated music in chronologically organized chapters, the book shifts the scholarly focus on the music’s transnational popularity from the scholarly framework of representing Otherness to broader considerations of a media environment where listeners and intermediaries often have differing priorities. The book provides a new model for studying music from culturally rich countries in the Global South where local governments often leverage stereotypes in their national branding project.

scholarly journals The Strategic Bias: How Journalists Respond to Antimedia Populism

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110226
Author(s):  
Ayala Panievsky
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Best Response ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
The Media ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Strategic Bias ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Right

As populist campaigns against the media become increasingly common around the world, it is ever more urgent to explore how journalists adopt and respond to them. Which strategies have journalists developed to maintain the public's trust, and what may be the implications for democracy? These questions are addressed using a thematic analysis of forty-five semistructured interviews with leading Israeli journalists who have been publicly targeted by Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The article suggests that while most interviewees asserted that adherence to objective reporting was the best response to antimedia populism, many of them have in fact applied a “strategic bias” to their reporting, intentionally leaning to the Right in an attempt to refute the accusations of media bias to the Left. This strategy was shaped by interviewees' perceived helplessness versus Israel's Prime Minister and his extensive use of social media, a phenomenon called here “the influence of presumed media impotence.” Finally, this article points at the potential ramifications of strategic bias for journalism and democracy. Drawing on Hallin's Spheres theory, it claims that the strategic bias might advance Right-wing populism at present, while also narrowing the sphere of legitimate controversy—thus further restricting press freedom—in the future.

scholarly journals The kiss of death. Public service media under right-wing populist attack

2021 ◽  
pp. 026732312199133
Author(s):  
Christina Holtz-Bacha
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
The Media ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Public Scrutiny

With the surge of populism in Europe, public service broadcasting has come under increased pressure. The established media are considered part of the corrupt elite not serving the interests of the people. The public service media, for which pluralism is at the core of their remit, are a particular thorn in the side of the populists. Therefore, they attack the financial basis of public service, which is supposed to guarantee their independence. The populist attacks on the traditional broadcasting corporations meet with the interests of neoliberal politics and of those political actors who want to evade public scrutiny and democratic control and do no longer feel committed to democratic accountability. The assaults on the public service media are thus an assault on freedom of the media and further increase the pressure on the democratic system.

China's Newsmakers: Official Media Coverage and Political Shifts in the Xi Jinping Era

2017 ◽  
Vol 233 ◽  
pp. 111-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Jaros ◽  
Jennifer Pan
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Xi Jinping ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Automated Text Analysis ◽  
The Media ◽  
Party Dominance

AbstractXi Jinping's rise to power in late 2012 brought immediate political realignments in China, but the extent of these shifts has remained unclear. In this paper, we evaluate whether the perceived changes associated with Xi Jinping's ascent – increased personalization of power, centralization of authority, Party dominance and anti-Western sentiment – were reflected in the content of provincial-level official media. As past research makes clear, media in China have strong signalling functions, and media coverage patterns can reveal which actors are up and down in politics. Applying innovations in automated text analysis to nearly two million newspaper articles published between 2011 and 2014, we identify and tabulate the individuals and organizations appearing in official media coverage in order to help characterize political shifts in the early years of Xi Jinping's leadership. We find substantively mixed and regionally varied trends in the media coverage of political actors, qualifying the prevailing picture of China's “new normal.” Provincial media coverage reflects increases in the personalization and centralization of political authority, but we find a drop in the media profile of Party organizations and see uneven declines in the media profile of foreign actors. More generally, we highlight marked variation across provinces in coverage trends.

scholarly journals Native Advertising—The Formats and Types of Content Most Demanded by Brands in the Spanish Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-544
Author(s):  
Daniel Zomeño ◽  
Rocío Blay-Arráez
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Editorial Content ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Ecosystem ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Formats ◽  
Depth Interviews

Media convergence and the incorporation of new narratives typical of the consumption habits of younger audiences in the social media environment have led to the proliferation of a wide variety of formats and types of content in the media ecosystem through which the editorial content offered to brands is being distributed. This qualitative research, using in-depth interviews with a qualified sample of branded content managers from the main Spanish media, allows us to determine the main characteristics of the native advertising demanded by advertisers. The results corroborate observations that content channelled through more sophisticated consumption experiences, using both multimedia and interactivity with a clear transmedia approach, tends to be better received by the audience and, therefore, in greater demand by brands. It also confirms that both video and social media formats have grown exponentially when it comes to providing an outlet for branded content. Based on the results obtained, a proposed classification of these products, including definitions, has been drawn up so they can be publicised to the professional world, offering the reflection and precision that their rapid development has not allowed until now.

scholarly journals Audiobook, audio podcast, audio series – modern formats of the media space

Bibliosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 56-63
Author(s):  
V. Yu. Bal
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Cognitive Aspect ◽  
Modern Media ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Technical Base ◽  
Media Space ◽  
The Media ◽  
Qualitative Changes

The article discusses modern audioformats – audiobook, audio series and audio podcast. Now these formats have gained great popularity and demand, considerable market weight with their own segment, the growth of which experts note. The research material is audio products of the modern market, which reflect the trends in the development of audio literature in the current media environment. The scientific novelty of the work consists in the consideration of an audiobook, an audio series and an audio podcast in the context of a new stage in the development of audio culture. The problem of popularity of the studied audio products is considered in direct dependence on audio reading. It is understood as a modern modification of auditory reading, as a reader’s practice due to the qualitative changes in the material and technical base for creating audio records, for their copying and use. The analysis of audio formats in the informational, sociocultural and cognitive aspect of the modern media consumption allows the determination new editorial approaches to the work with audio texts. Conclusions are as follows: one can observe the tendency to transit from voicing printed texts to creating texts specially for voicing; there is a reduction in the novel form, stories become popular; the editing of audio books and audio series requires support from sound design principles; the editorial and director’s task on preparing podcasts is associated with the compositional alignment of several voices of storytellers, forming a single ideological and thematic field.

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