Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-46
Author(s):  
Marc DiPaolo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
The United States ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Anxieties ◽  
Contemporary Context

Examines case studies of fictional heroes as analogues of real-life working-class figures to encourage greater empathy between members of different classes. Doing so will help scholar, undergraduate, and fan readers understand the very contemporary context of America through the lens of fictional characters who are understandably resonant with a broad swath of the public during this politically divided time. The essays in this anthology contemplate the social anxieties that attend class conflict in the United States and Great Britain, and consider how fictional comic book narratives depict these cultural anxieties.

scholarly journals The Social Oikos

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-32
Author(s):  
Michael Lee Humphrey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Core Points

In one of the foundational articles of persona studies, Marshall and Barbour (2015) look to Hannah Arendt for development of a key concept within the larger persona framework: “Arendt saw the need to construct clear and separate public and private identities. What can be discerned from this understanding of the public and the private is a nuanced sense of the significance of persona: the presentation of the self for public comportment and expression” (2015, p. 3). But as far back as the ancient world from which Arendt draws her insights, the affordance of persona was not evenly distributed. As Gines (2014) argues, the realm of the household, oikos, was a space of subjugation of those who were forced to be “private,” tending to the necessities of life, while others were privileged with life in the public at their expense. To demonstrate the core points of this essay, I use textual analysis of a YouTube family vlog, featuring a Black mother in the United States, whose persona rapidly changed after she and her White husband divorced. By critically examining Arendt’s concepts around public, private, and social, a more nuanced understanding of how personas are formed in unjust cultures can help us theorize persona studies in more egalitarian and robust ways.

scholarly journals The politics of platform power in surveillance capitalism: A comparative case study of ride-hailing platforms in China and the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 205943642110467
Author(s):  
Ngai Keung Chan ◽  
Chi Kwok
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
Behavioral Predictions

This article uses a comparative case study of two ride-hailing platforms—DiDi Chuxing in China and Uber in the United States—to explore the comparative politics of platform power in surveillance capitalism. Surveillance capitalism is an emerging economic system that translates human experiences into surveillance assets for behavioral predictions and modifications. Through this comparative study, we demonstrate how DiDi and Uber articulate their operational legitimacy for advancing their corporate interests and visions of datafication in the face of legal uncertainty. Although DiDi and Uber are both “sectoral platforms” in urban mobility with similar visions of datafication and infrastructuralization, we highlight that they deploy different discursive legitimation strategies. Our study shows that Uber adopts a “confrontational” strategy, while DiDi employs a “collaborative” strategy when they need to legitimize their data and business practices to the public and regulatory authorities. This study offers a comparative lens to examine the social and political dynamics of platform firms based in China and the United States and, therefore, contributes to understanding the various aspirational logic of platform thinking in different political contexts.

Background in the United States and Great Britain to 1950

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The Public ◽  
The 1950S

Throughout the twentieth century, folk music has had many definitions and incarnations in the United States and Great Britain. The public has been most aware of its commercial substance and appeal, with the focus on recording artists and their repertoires, but there has been so much more, including a political agenda, folklore theories, grassroots styles, regional promoters, and discussions on what musical forms—blues, hillbilly, gospel, Anglo-Saxon, pop, singer-songwriters, instrumental and/or vocal, international—should be included. These contrasting and conflicting interpretations were particularly evident during the 1950s. This chapter begins by focusing on Alan Lomax (1915–2002), one of the most active folk music collectors, radio promoters, and organizers during the 1940s. Lomax had a major influence on folk music in both the United States and Great Britain, tying together what had come before and what would follow. The chapter then discusses folk festivals and performers; British folk music, musicians, and trans-Atlantic musical connections; and Carl Sandburg's publication of the The American Songbag in 1927.

Introduction

1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Nasaw
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Social History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Schooling ◽  
The Public ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Public Colleges And Universities

A history of American public schooling reduced to graphs would tell a simple story of almost continuous growth. In every category, the graphs would incline upwards, recording a steady rise in the number of students in school, the time they spent there, the teachers who taught them, the schools that housed them, and the dollars expended. The upward trend would continue unbroken from the 1820s until the 1970s. We cannot, at this time, chart the downward course that has commenced (if only temporarily) in the mid-1970s. We know only that that part of the American public that votes on school bond issues and makes its opinions known to professional pollsters is no longer willing to spend as much money or place as much trust in public schooling as it once was. It is too soon to predict the future course of public schooling in America, but a good time to reconsider the past. To understand why Americans have grown disillusioned with their public schools we must look beyond the immediate present to the larger history of the United States and its public schools. The public schools of this country—elementary, secondary, and higher—were not conceived full-blown. They have a history, and it is the social history of the United States. This essay will not attempt to present that history in its entirety but will focus instead on three specific periods decisive for the social history of this society and its public schools: the decades before the Civil War, in which the elementary or “common schools” were reformed; the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century, in which the secondary schools “welcomed” the “children of the plain people”; and the post-World War II decades, which found the public colleges and universities “overwhelmed” by a “tidal wave” of “non-traditional” students— those traditionally excluded from higher education by sex, race, and class. In each of these periods, the quantitative expansion of the student population was matched by a qualitative transformation of the enlarged institutions.

From the street to public service: ‘Humans of New York’ photographer’s journey to journalism

Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 1480-1496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Roberts
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New Media ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Responsibilities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Press ◽  
News Organizations

The ‘Humans of New York’ social media feed, featuring photographs of people in New York City – and in recent years also Iran, Syria, and other locations – has amassed nearly 18 million Facebook followers, spawned multiple books, and inspired various copy-cat projects. Over the 6 years since its creation, the feed has evolved from an assortment of photos of individuals in New York to an intentional, morally conscious portrait of the perspectives and lived experiences of the inhabitants of New York and other places, and has resulted in real-life consequences for the subjects, ranging from donations to projects to invitations from the president of the United States. This article analyzes the ‘Humans of New York’ posts in the context of public service ideals of modern journalism as laid out by scholars, professional journalism societies, and leading news organizations. This analysis considers the perspective of the posts through the captions that accompany each post and finds that, since 2011, the feed has changed its narrative focus from the photographer to the subjects, who share their stories in their own words. In this way, the ‘Humans of New York’ feed satisfies several aspects of the public service ideal of journalism, lending support to the idea that new media sites created by non-professionals, or citizen journalists, may be able to satisfy some of the social responsibilities of the press, and offer lessons for both professionals and amateurs.

scholarly journals “That Was What I Had to Use”: Social and Cultural Capital in the Careers of Women Broadcasters

2018 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Lucht ◽  
Kelsey Batschelet
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social And Cultural Capital ◽  
The Public ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
The Public Sphere

This study uses in-depth, biographical interviews to understand a range of historical experiences in the careers of individual women broadcasters in the Midwest, a region of the United States that has received relatively little attention from media scholars. The findings demonstrate the barriers these women faced as well as the social and cultural capital available to them as they pursued diverse roles in an industry that did not welcome their full participation. The study contributes to scholars’ understanding of women’s participation in the public sphere during the 1950s to 1970s.

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