scholarly journals From “Networked Publics” to “Refracted Publics”: A Companion Framework for Researching “Below the Radar” Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630512098445
Author(s):  
Crystal Abidin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Protests ◽  
To Come ◽  
Foundational Work ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
Networked Publics

Reflecting on a decade (2009–2020) of research on influencer cultures in Singapore, the Asia Pacific, and beyond, this article considers the potential of “below the radar” studies for understanding the fast evolving and growing potentials of subversive, risky, and hidden practices on social media. The article updates technology and social media scholar danah boyd’s foundational work on “networked publics” to offer the framework of “refracted publics.” While “networked publics” arose from media and communication studies of social network sites during the decade of the 2000s, focused on platforms, infrastructure, and affordances, “refracted publics” is birthed from anthropological and sociological studies of internet user cultures during the decade of the 2010s, focused on agentic and circumventive adaptations of what platforms offer them. “Refracted publics” are a product of the landscape of platform data leaks, political protests, fake news, and (most recently) COVID-19, and are creative vernacular strategies to accommodate for perpetual content saturation, hyper-competitive attention economies, gamified and datafied metric cultures, and information distrust. The key conditions (transience, discoverability, decodability, and silosociality) and dynamics (impactful audiences, weaponized contexts, and alternating publics and privates) of “refracted publics” allow cultures, communities, and contents to avoid being registered on a radar, register in misplaced pockets while appearing on the radar, or register on the radar but parsed as something else altogether. They are the strategies of private groups, locked platforms, or ephemeral contents that will continue to thrive alongside the internet for decades to come.

scholarly journals Sincerely Fake: Exploring User-Generated Political Fakes and Networked Publics

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630512096382
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Satire ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Networked Publics

This article investigates user-generated political satire, focusing in particular on one genre: fake political accounts. Such fakes, created as social media profiles, satirize politicians or political organizations by impersonating them. Through interviews with a sample of Italian fake accounts creators, I explore how the fakes navigate their fakeness vis-à-vis the affordances of social network sites and their publics. First, I map how the publics of the fake accounts react to the satire along two axes: one referring to the public’s understanding of the satire and the other to the uses that the public makes of the satire. Second, I show how fakeness is part of everyday interactions in networked publics. Third, I argue for fakeness as a playful, powerful, and sincere critique of the political and its pretense to authenticity. By focusing on fake political accounts, this article provides insights on the place of fakeness in online communication beyond the debate around “fake news.”

Indigenous Media and Social Media Convergence: Adaptation of Storytelling on Twitter, SoundCloud and YouTube

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110491
Author(s):  
Phillip Mpofu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Media Convergence ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Indigenous Media ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
Secondary Form ◽  
Media And Communication

Storytelling is ordinarily trivialised as an antiquated oramedia genre, and of less significance in Zimbabwean mainstream media and communication studies, hence it is understudied. Recent studies largely take a literary gaze on storytelling, and do not theorise it from an indigenous media viewpoint or appreciate its convergence with social media. Drawing on concepts of media convergence and the digital public sphere, this netnographic study examines the adaptation of storytelling on Twitter, SoundCloud and YouTube, focusing on patterns of production, delivery, participation, language forms, reception and audiences. The article shows inventive re-embodiment and adaptation of storytelling on online spaces, that is, the endurance and remaking of indigenous media in the context of new media and communication technologies. The manifestation of the folktale narrative style on social media exhibits the rise of a secondary form of orality recreated, reproduced and applied in the digital form and on social media. While digital and social media are perceived as threatening the continued existence of indigenous media, this article attests social media as breathing spaces for indigenous media.

Media and Communication Research Facing Social Media

2013 ◽  
pp. 371-392
Author(s):  
Georgeta Drula
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
Academic Publications ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
Network Studies ◽  
Media And Communication

It is already a fact that social media are engaged in research activities. Social media may make the object of research studies or an important data source. This chapter addresses issues related to social media research in media and communication studies. The pursued objective is to capture how researchers consider and analyze social media through scientific methods, in their work with academic purposes, in order to present the discussed theories. The ideas addressed by this chapter are case studies arising from the articles in the academic publications, topics related to social media and media and communication fields, outputs of researches, and appropriate methods for studying social media. The conclusions of this chapter show that social media research in media and communication studies, theories, and methods must be transformed or must be used more appropriate to social media. New and social media are faced with other practices and types of communication related to users’ participation and social actions and are based on network studies.

scholarly journals Strong and Weak Forms of Mediatization Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (s1) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Ampuja ◽  
Juha Koivisto ◽  
Esa Väliverronen
Keyword(s):  
Social Institutions ◽  
Weak Form ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Logic ◽  
Media Research ◽  
To Come ◽  
Media And Communication

AbstractDuring recent years, the concept of mediatization has made a strong impact on media and communication studies, and its advocates have attempted to turn it into a refined and central theoretical framework for media research. The present article distinguishes two forms of mediatization theory: a strong form based on the assumption that a ‘media logic’ increasingly determines the actions of different social institutions and groups, and a weak form that questions such a logic, though the latter form emphasizes the key role of the media in social change and singles out mediatization as a central ‘meta-process’ today. Exponents of the weak form have convincingly criticized the notion of media logic. However, the weaker version of mediatization is itself problematic, as its advocates have failed to produce a clear explanatory framework around the concept. We argue that, although the analytical status of mediatization is unclear, fascination with the concept will, in all probability, continue in the years to come, due to the promises of heightened disciplinary coherence and status that this notion has conveyed for media and communication studies.

Re/constructing politics through social & online media

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Krzyżanowski ◽  
Joshua A. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Political Research ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Media And Communication

Abstract In recent years, the connection between online and in particular social media and politics has become one of the central ones in contemporary societies, and has been explored very widely in political research and media and communication studies. Against such growing body of research, this Special Issue foregrounds the role of language as a key carrier of political ideologies and practices on social and online media. It aims to advance the scholarly understanding of contemporary political and democratic dynamics by postulating the need for a broader, problem-driven look at how political practices and ideologies are articulated on social and online media. It illustrates the value of a cross-disciplinary take that allows overcoming both the classic (e.g. qualitative vs. quantitative) and the more recent (e.g. small vs. big data) divides in explorations of the language of online and politics.

Affective Publics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zizi Papacharissi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Structures Of Feeling ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Networked Publics

Social science is vested in the potential technology carries for expression and connection. Human beings utilize media, social media, and communication technologies for expression and connection. The author has been studying the social and political consequences of communication technologies, with an interest in the soft structures of feeling that these technologies filter, conduit, and enable. This interest has led to the development of the construct of “affective publics” and its companion term, “affective news.” Affective publics are networked publics that come together, are identified, and disband through shared sentiment. These concepts have been adopted in a multitude of studies that examine the relationship between technology and politics. This chapter explicates the concept, traces its theoretical roots, and describes how it might further an understanding of civic engagement.

scholarly journals Fake News Detection: A Survey of Techniques

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 383-386
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Fake News ◽  
False Information ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
To Come

The extensive spread of fake news (low quality news with intentionally false information) has the potential for extremely negative impacts on individuals, society and particular in the political world. Therefore, fake news detection on social media has recently become an emerging research which is attracting tremendous attention. Detection of false information is technically challenging for several reasons. Use of various social media tools, content is easily generated and quickly spread, which lead to a large volume of content to analyze. Online information is very wide spread, which cover a large number of subjects, which contributes complexity to this task. The application of machine learning techniques are explored for the detection of ‘fake news’ that come from non-reputable sources which mislead real news stories. The purpose of the work is to come up with a solution that can be utilized by users to detect and filter out sites containing false and misleading information. This paper performs survey of Machine learning techniques which is mainly used for false detection and provides easier way to generate results.

Knowledge Management in the Advertising Industry

2018 ◽  
pp. 167-187
Author(s):  
A. M. Sakkthivel ◽  
R. Satish Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
The Other ◽  
Advertising Industry ◽  
To Come ◽  
Internal Social Media ◽  
Media And Communication

In today's competitive business environment Advertising companies need to use knowledge efficiently and effectively to attain sustainable growth. Knowledge is one of the competitive tools of advantage which will clearly distinguish one company with the other. Advertising companies which are highly creative need to come out with innovative measures to handle knowledge management effectively and efficiently. Information and data for the field of advertising is gathered from various sources such as marketing, consumer behavior, media, and communication technologies. It is imperative that the agencies disseminate this information periodically to all the functionaries in the organisation and enhance their competencies. The objective of this paper is to provides insights into the best practices followed by the agencies in Knowledge Management. In this respect, the internal social media have been used by the agencies for effective knowledge management within the organisation.

scholarly journals Childhoods in transition: Mediating ‘in-between spaces’

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-286
Author(s):  
Annamária Neag ◽  
Richard Berger
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Deep Impact ◽  
Queer Youth ◽  
Media And Communication

This editorial serves as an introduction to the Special Issue titled ‘Childhoods in Transition – Mediating “In-Between Spaces”’. The thematic issue was conceived in an effort to conceptualize and explore the topic of ‘in-between spaces’ from the point of view of media and communication studies. The contributions presented in this Special Issue offer a complex view of what it means today to live a childhood in transition and how digital and social media can have a deep impact on the ‘in-between spaces’ the young people inhabit. From children in migration to queer youth and from Snapchat to minority language media, this Special Issue offers an international and interdisciplinary perspective on the inextricably linked issues of media use, identity and becoming.

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