scholarly journals The Geographies of Poverty: Modernist Photo Texts in the Age of Social Media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donal Harris

This essay explores the representation of economic precarity in the twenty-first century, and particularly how new media technologies have impacted such representations, through two photo-text projects: Matt Black’s American Geography (2014-Present) and Radcliffe “Ruddy” Roye’s When Living is a Protest (2015-Present). Both adapt the visual style of New Deal documentary practiced by photographers such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White, and Gordon Parks – a genre that Jeff Allred refers to as the “modernist photo text” – to document the after-effects of the 2008 Great Recession; and both specifically were created to circulate on Instagram, the image-and-text based social media platform initially launched in October 2010. Black’s and Roye’s Instagram series exemplify a resurgence in documentary following the financial collapse of 2008. At the same time, they offer limit cases for the way that “born digital” literary and visual art can re-imagine modernism’s insistence on media specificity for twenty-first century artistic works, especially those keyed to capturing the social life of economic crisis.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 7081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athapol Ruangkanjanases ◽  
Shu-Ling Hsu ◽  
Yenchun Jim Wu ◽  
Shih-Chih Chen ◽  
Jo-Yu Chang

With the growth of social media communities, people now use this new media to engage in many interrelated activities. As a result, social media communities have grown into popular and interactive platforms among users, consumers and enterprises. In the social media era of high competition, increasing continuance intention towards a specific social media platform could transfer extra benefits to such virtual groups. Based on the expectation-confirmation model (ECM), this research proposed a conceptual framework incorporating social influence and social identity as key determinants of social media continuous usage intention. The research findings of this study highlight that: (1) the social influence view of the group norms and image significantly affects social identity; (2) social identity significantly affects perceived usefulness and confirmation; (3) confirmation has a significant impact on perceived usefulness and satisfaction; (4) perceived usefulness and satisfaction have positive effects on usage continuance intention. The results of this study can serve as a guide to better understand the reasons for and implications of social media usage and adoption.


Modern Italy ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierluigi Erbaggio

Based on Roberto Saviano's book Gomorra (2006), production of the TV series Gomorra – La serie (2014) was met with scepticism as many feared it would glamorise organised crime and, consequently, attract young people toward Camorra affiliation. The series' bleak portrayal of criminals and criminality was offered as a response to such concerns. Despite the preoccupations, Gomorra – La serie was hugely successful and, because of its quality, was sold to other countries. In Italy, the series' success can be measured by the popularity of its Twitter hashtag #GomorraLaSerie. Engaged with Henry Jenkins' theories of media convergence and based on a corpus of tweets bearing this official hashtag, this article proposes a quantitative analysis and advances conclusions regarding the Italian TV audience and second-screen viewing practices. Additionally, through a qualitative study of Saviano's tweets about the series, it examines the writer's use of the social media platform as a tool of narrative continuity. Finally, the article highlights a few examples of fan-generated media and concludes with remarks regarding Saviano's problematic position at the centre of a transmedia object.


Inner Asia ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-171
Author(s):  
Hildegard Diemberger

AbstractIn this paper I follow the social life of the Tibetan books belonging to the Younghusband-Waddell collection. I show how books as literary artefacts can transform from ritual objects into loot, into commodities and into academic treasures and how books can have agency over people, creating networks and shaping identities. Exploring connections between books and people, I look at colonial collecting, Orientalist scholarship and imperial visions from an unusual perspective in which the social life and cultural biography of people and things intertwine and mutually define each other. By following the trajectory of these literary artefacts, I show how their traces left in letters, minutes and acquisition documents give insight into the functioning of academic institutions and their relationship to imperial governing structures and individual aspirations. In particular, I outline the lives of a group of scholars who were involved with this collection in different capacities and whose deeds are unevenly known. This adds a new perspective to the study of this period, which has so far been largely focused on the deeds of key individuals and the political and military setting in which they operated. Finally, I show how the books of this collection have continued to exercise their attraction and moral pressure on twenty-first-century scholars, both Tibetan and international, linking them through digital technology and cyberspace.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Shaimma El Naggar

<p>Over the past few decades, televangelism has emerged as one important media phenomenon, inter alia, among Muslim communities. As a phenomenon, televangelism is interesting in many respects; it is a manifestation of the phenomenon of "info-tainment" as televangelists integrate entertainment features such as sound effects and music in their sermons. It is also a manifestation of the rise of the celebrity culture as televangelists have become 'media celebrities' with thousands of hundreds of fans and followers on social media networks.</p><p> </p><p>Thematically, this study is divided into two main sections. First. I delineate the characteristics of televangelism as a novel form of religious expression in which televangelists adopt a modern style and use colloquial language; and in which televangelists present religion as a source of individual change. I have argued that these features seem to have granted televangelists popularity particularly among Muslim youth who view televangelism as a new form of religious expression that is modern in appearance and relevant to their everyday lives.</p><p>The study has further highlighted the importance of digital media technologies in popularizing televangelists' programmes and sermons. Drawing on two case studies of popular televangelists, namely Amr Khaled and Hamza Yusuf, the study has shown that televangelists draw on a plethora of digital media tools to extend the visibility of their programmes including websites and social media networks. The study has found that televangelists' fans play an important role in popularizing televangelists' programmes. Moreover, the study relates televangelism to the rise of digital Islam. The study has argued that digitization and the increase of literacy rates have changed the structure of religious authority in the twenty first century, giving rise to new voices that are competing for authority. </p><p>Having provided an explanatory framework for the phenomenon of televangelism, the study moves in the second section to critique televangelism as an 'info-tainment' phenomenon.</p>Drawing on Carrette and King's <em>Selling Spirituality, </em>one issue that the study raises is the extent to which televangelism fits into the modern form of 'spiritualities'. Rather than being a critical reflection of the consumer culture, modern spiritualities seem to 'smooth out' resistance to the hegemony of capitalism and consumerism. I have proposed that it is through a content-related analysis of televangelists' sermons that one can get a nuanced understanding of how the discourses of particular televangelists can possibly relate to dominant (capitalist) ideologies, how structures of power are represented in their discourses and what their texts may reveal about the socio-historical contexts of Muslims in the twenty first century.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Du ◽  
Wei Jiang

ABSTRACT This paper examines the association between firm performance and social media. Based on a sample of S&P 1500 firms, the study finds that firms with a social media presence are more highly valued by the market and have higher future financial performance. Further analysis indicates that the impact of social media on firm performance varies depending on the social media platform involved. Finally, using a restricted sample of Global 100 firms, the study finds some evidence that a higher level of social media engagement is associated with higher firm performance. Overall, these findings provide consistent evidence of the positive impact of social media technologies on firm performance. Data Availability: All data are available from public sources.


2015 ◽  
pp. 1718-1742
Author(s):  
Kindra Cotton ◽  
Denise O'Neil Green

While most have grasped how to utilize social media in their personal lives, very few have been able to bridge the gap in leveraging new media effectively to enhance their careers. This chapter is a how-to guide for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) professionals seeking to use social media to carve a niche in the social networking arena. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how EDI professionals can benefit from utilizing new media marketing tools to position themselves as subject-matter experts and use this authority to create engaged communities surrounding the topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education. A current review of new media technologies and emerging strategies starts the chapter. It continues with further details on the steps needed to develop and implement a successful social media marketing strategy. The chapter concludes with how to turn plans into actionable steps and includes a social media marketing planning worksheet.


Author(s):  
Kindra Cotton ◽  
Denise O’Neil Green

While most have grasped how to utilize social media in their personal lives, very few have been able to bridge the gap in leveraging new media effectively to enhance their careers. This chapter is a how-to guide for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) professionals seeking to use social media to carve a niche in the social networking arena. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how EDI professionals can benefit from utilizing new media marketing tools to position themselves as subject-matter experts and use this authority to create engaged communities surrounding the topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education. A current review of new media technologies and emerging strategies starts the chapter. It continues with further details on the steps needed to develop and implement a successful social media marketing strategy. The chapter concludes with how to turn plans into actionable steps and includes a social media marketing planning worksheet.


2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1195-1220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Casadei ◽  
Neil Lee

The creative and cultural industries form an important part of many urban economies, and the fashion industries are one of the exemplar creative industries. Because fashion is based on intangibles such as branding and reputation, it tends to have a two-way relationship with cities: urban areas market themselves through their fashion industry, while the fashion industry draws heavily on the representation of place. In this paper we investigate this interlinked relationship between the fashion industry and place in four of the major cities of global fashion – London, New York, Milan and Paris – using data from the social media platform Twitter. To do this, we draw upon a variety of computer-aided text analysis techniques – including cluster, correspondence and specificity analyses – to examine almost 100,000 tweets collected during the Spring–Summer fashion weeks of February and March 2018. We find considerable diversity in how these cities are represented. Milan and Paris are seen in terms of national fashion houses, artisanal production and traditional institutions such as galleries and exhibitions. New York is focused on media and entertainment, independent designers and a ‘buzzy’ social life. London is portrayed in the most diverse ways, with events, shopping, education, social movements, political issues and the royal family all prominent. In each case, the historical legacy and built environment form important parts of the city’s image. However, there is considerable diversity in representation. We argue that social media allow a more democratic view of the way cities are represented than other methodologies.


Author(s):  
Oloo Ong’ong’a

The rise of fake news into the new media platform has raised significant concern in Africa and Kenya in recent years. The new media has embedded itself with fake news, which sometimes has led to the misunderstanding and misinformation of particular events that might be of the public interest. The general public, policymakers, and scholars, as well as the media, have found this as a very challenging issue. The upsurge of the new technologies, mainly social media, has posed challenges as youth immerse themselves in utilizing these social media for their own benefits. This is coupled with the creation and spreading of fake news, which sometimes when it goes viral; they lead to stress, panic and uncertainty to the individuals that come across them. The ability of users’ exceptional capacity to produce, reproduce, and distribute their information to a broad audience makes social media, an essential tool in the information age. The article critically reviews the literature on fake news and recommends for media literacy, strengthening the legal structures and use of sophisticated technologies as a strategy to fight fake news in the social media in Kenya.


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