From invisible to visible: Kwai and the hierarchical cultural order of China’s cyberspace

Contemporary China owns over 750 million Internet users, and a short-video-sharing app named Kwai has over 600 million users. From 2016 to 2017, when Kwai emerged as the largest short-video-sharing app and the fourth largest social media app in China, its major competitor Dou Yin was just released, and no other similar app could post a serious threat to Kwai. However, the emergence of Kwai to the mainstream public was tightly intertwined with a media discourse that established Kwai as a representation of rural China and low culture. Words like “vulgar,” “low,” “absurd,” and so forth were constantly used to describe Kwai and its users, and Kwai embodied a representativeness of rural and low culture that carries a taken-for-granted characteristic. This article unpacks Kwai’s controversial emergence and examines the power relations and cultural dynamics that were at play when Kwai was established by the mainstream media discourse a rural and culturally low. It interrogates the media discourse that constructs a regime of representation of Kwai, as well as how it contributes to the establishment of a regime of truth about Kwai, rural China, and rural Chinese. I unearth the seemingly natural condition of this representativeness and argue that Kwai’s controversial emergence from 2016 to 2017 signifies China’s rural–urban dichotomy, as well as a dominance of urban culture. I also indicate that we see a flow of this cultural dynamic from the physical world to the cyberspace, where the urban culture exercises the power to define and marginalize the rural.

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Mainstream Media Discourse! Or the Divine Word of the Postmodern?

Human and Social Studies ◽

10.1515/hssr-2016-0013 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 40-73

Author(s):

Yasser Rhimi

Keyword(s):

Media Coverage ◽

Human Experience ◽

The Other ◽

Media Discourse ◽

Investigative Reporting ◽

Mainstream Media ◽

Objective Truth ◽

Exponential Increase ◽

The Media ◽

Ultimate Ground

Abstract This paper calls into question the growing tendency of quasi-absolutism within postmodern mainstream media discourse under the guise of objectivity. The tendency’s major aim is to ascribe more believability to its discourse by re-presenting that which it covers as the vehicle of objective truth to the mainstream audience. Two interweaving discourses have marked such objectivity: one in the form of indoctrinating and omnipresent narratives, which via effective propaganda become tantamount to ritualism, the other epitomised in the nostalgia for rationalisation, already inherent in western positivist thought through the exponential increase of quasi-empiricism (e.g. investigative reporting or speculative statistics). Accordingly, what the media cover exists. What they do not remains in the order of myth. The article starts by rethinking objectivity within modern western academia, a discourse whose objectivity is already flawed from within. Then, with respect to human experience and media coverage, the paper concludes by raising the question of postmodern mainstream media’s substitution of religious quasi-absolutist narratives, be they secular or non-secular. Subjectivity thus emerges as the ultimate ground upon which our being may be legitimate.

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PODCASTS AND JOURNALISM

MEDIA STUDIES AND APPLIED ETHICS ◽

10.46630/msae.2.2021.02 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 19-31

Author(s):

Anka Mihajlov Prokopović

Keyword(s):

New Technologies ◽

Online Media ◽

Regulatory Body ◽

Mainstream Media ◽

Media Companies ◽

Internet Users ◽

Television Broadcasting ◽

The Media ◽

The Individual ◽

Research Show

The application of new technologies in journalism contributes to the development of new forms of journalistic content. Podcasts that present content posted online and allow online users to access them whenever and however many times they want are experiencing continued success around the world (Newman, 2021). This development has also led to a variety in the content of podcasts, and the approach to topics is journalistic in some podcast series. Podcast authors can be journalists, as well as other people, Internet users and sometimes celebrities. For example, it is predicted that this year there will be a “battle for the stars” between the platforms and the media. The aim of this paper is mapping the use of podcasts in Serbia, starting, above all, from podcasts as journalism technology. A few years ago, the traditional mainstream media in Serbia tried to keep pace with the innovators in the online environment and increase attendance at their online editions. The results of this research show that the podcast develops in two ways when it comes to journalism: as part of the online media and as an individual endeavor of the author. It can be concluded that the podcast that is the individual endeavor of the author, considering that it is realized outside the media institution, is a freer form of expression and is often very popular. Finally, since the podcast technology is cheaper than radio or television broadcasting and that this broadcasting does not require the permission of the regulatory body, it is run by other companies, not just media companies.

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AUTISM IN THE DISCOURSE OF THE RUSSIAN MASS MEDIA: CONSTRUCTING OF THE IMAGE OF A HUMAN WITH ASD

Bulletin Biomedicine and sociology ◽

10.26787/nydha-2618-8783-2020-5-4-37-43 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 37-43

Author(s):

Saveleva Zh.V.

Keyword(s):

Mass Media ◽

Early Stage ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Media Discourse ◽

Adults With Autism ◽

Video Clips ◽

The Media ◽

Inner World ◽

Spectrum Disorders ◽

The Mass Media

The prevalence of autism is growing, the problems of stigmatization and discrimination of people with autism spectrum disorders in society are exacerbating. The mass media play an important role in enlightening and reducing stigmatizing effects, in connection with which the goal was formulated to study the construction of images of a person with ASD in the mass media by the method of qualitative and discourse analysis of video clips from the federal channel. According to the results of the study, it can be argued that the range of characteristics used to describe people with autism in media discourse is diverse, but in retrospect, dominant interpretation models can be identified. At an early stage, the prevailing image of a person with ASD was deprived of the quality’s characteristic of normotypical people who do not want to leave their world. People diagnosed with autism were referred to as the intolerant category of "autistic". Since 2013, there has been a discursive turn, within which the category “autist” is replaced by tolerant speech patterns, adults with autism get into the lens of the media, the topic of uncommunicability as a property of a person with autism is replaced by the intention of the lack of opportunities to communicate, one of the reasons for which is social exclusion. In television stories of recent years, the mass media are actively constructing the image of a person with autism spectrum disorder through his inner world, through the advantages that a person with ASD can have due to his characteristics. However, it cannot be said that there has been a complete change of the image: the old cliches, as a rule, manifest themselves at a more latent level of grammatical constructions and semiotic meanings.

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Ironic Content Features in the Orthodox Media Discourse

Известия Смоленского государственного университета ◽

10.35785/2072-9464-2020-52-4-71-86 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 71-86

Author(s):

Alexandra Makarova

Keyword(s):

Religious Discourse ◽

Integrative Approach ◽

The Internet ◽

Media Discourse ◽

Human Communication ◽

Cultural Methods ◽

Religious Communication ◽

The Media ◽

To Come ◽

Sphere Of Influence

The religious communication is the most ancient of human communication types. The pragmatic linguistics as well as rhetoric shows a special attitude to this special type of discourse. Today the Internet text with its unlimited abilities is being in the focus of linguists’ attention. That is why the orthodox journalists are covering not only print media but also the Internet that helps to widen the sphere of influence on the people’s minds and souls. The analyses show that the media context of the Orthodox sites (such as The Orthodox people laugh and etc.) includes humorous publications that prove the necessity of studying peculiarities of religious communication and humorous texts in orthodox sites. The integrative approach including content analyses, discourse and linguistic cultural methods helps the author to come to a conclusion that orthodox media texts are distinguished by intertextuality, hypertextuality, creolism, and the authors want to influence the addressee in the most effective way. To define the communicative task, the missionary function should be taken into account which is peculiar to the religious discourse.

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The Propaganda Pipeline: Hacking the Core from the Periphery

10.1093/oso/9780190923624.003.0007 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Yochai Benkler ◽

Robert Faris ◽

Hal Roberts

Keyword(s):

Presidential Election ◽

Mainstream Media ◽

The Core ◽

Media Ecosystem ◽

The Media ◽

Cation Sites

This chapter examines the claim that alt-right activists hacked the media ecosystem byinserting various destructive memes into the mainstream media that helped DonaldTrump win the 2016 presidential election. In particular, this chapter considers thepropaganda pipeline—the path from the periphery to the core through a series ofwell-known amplifi cation sites, most prominently Infowars and Drudge. Th e “spiritcooking” stories as seen on Infowars, Washington Times, and Sean Hannity perfectlyencapsulate the propaganda pipeline from the periphery to the core, drawingin the various suspects in producing information disorder. Th e chapter also showshow statements by marginal actors on Reddit and 4chan were collated and preparedfor propagation by more visible sites, and how this technique was exploited by bothalt-right and Russia-related actors successfully to get a story from the periphery toHannity.

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A Relic of Communism, an Architectural Nightmare or a Determinant of the City’s Brand? Media, Political and Architectural Dispute over the Monument to the Revolutionary Act in Rzeszów (Poland)

Arts ◽

10.3390/arts10010008 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 8

Author(s):

Sławomir Gawroński ◽

Dariusz Tworzydło ◽

Kinga Bajorek ◽

Łukasz Bis

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Political Communication ◽

Critical Analysis ◽

Historical Memory ◽

Media Discourse ◽

Political Dimension ◽

Social Events ◽

The Media ◽

Mutual Relations ◽

The Impact

This article deals with the issues of architectural elements of public space, treated as components of art and visual communication, and at the same time determinants of the emotional aspects of political conflicts, social disputes, and media discourse. The aim of the considerations is to show, with the usage of the principles of critical analysis of media discourse, the impact of social events, political communication, and the activity of mass communicators on the perception of the monument of historical memory and the changes that take place within its public evaluation. The authors chose the method of critical analysis of the media discourse due to its compliance with the planned purpose of the analyses, thus, providing the opportunity to perform qualitative research, enabling the creation of possibly up-to-date conclusions regarding both the studied thread, and allowing the extrapolation of certain conclusions to other examples. The media material relating to the controversial Monument to the Revolutionary Act, located in the city of Rzeszów (Poland), was selected for the analysis. On this example, an attempt was made to evaluate the mutual relations between politically engaged architecture and art, and the contemporary consequences of this involvement in the social and political dimension.

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An analysis of media discourse on genetically modified rice in China

Discourse & Communication ◽

10.1177/1750481320982093 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 175048132098209

Author(s):

Quan Zheng ◽

Zengyi Zhang

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Chinese Government ◽

Media Discourse ◽

Dominant Position ◽

The Public ◽

News Reports ◽

Gm Rice ◽

The Social ◽

The Media ◽

Specific Meaning

Current problems and controversies involving GM issues are not limited to scientific fields but spill over into the social context. When disagreements enter society via media outlets, social factors such as interests, resources, and values can contribute to complicating discourse about a controversial subject. Using the framework for the analysis of media discourse proposed by Carvalho, this paper examines news reports on Chinese GM rice from the dimensions of both text and context, covering the period of 2001–2015. This study shows that media may not only construct basic concepts, theme, and discursive strategies but also generate an ideological stance. This ideology constituted an influential dimension of the GM rice controversy. By following ideology consistent with the dominant position of the Chinese government, the media selectively constructed and endowed GM rice with a specific meaning in the Chinese social context, making possible the reproduction and communication of GM rice knowledge and risks to the public.

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Sex Dolls in the Swedish Media Discourse: Intimacy, Sexuality, and Technology

Sexuality & Culture ◽

10.1007/s12119-021-09829-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Robin Björkas ◽

Mariah Larsson

Keyword(s):

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Sexual Practices ◽

Media Discourse ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Therapeutic Uses ◽

Broad Variety ◽

The Media ◽

Definition Of ◽

The Relationship

AbstractSex dolls are a complex phenomenon with several diverse possible emotional, sexual and therapeutic uses. They can be part of a broad variety of sexual practices, and also function as a sexual aid. However, the media discourse on sex dolls first and foremost concerns how we perceive the relationship between intimacy and technology. A critical discourse analysis of the Swedish media discourse on sex dolls reveals six themes which dominate the discourse: (a) the definition of what a human being is; (b) a discourse on the (technological and existential) future; (c) a social effort; (d) a loveless phenomenon; (e) men’s violence against women; and (f) pedophilia. Accordingly, this discourse is very conservative and normative in its view of sexuality, technology, and humanity. Overall, the dominant themes do not provide any space for positive effects of technology on human sexuality, and if they do, it is usually as a substitute for something else.

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