scholarly journals SOCIAL MEDIA, PUBLIC SPHERE AND THE POLITICAL TRAGEDIES OF CONTEMPORARY ETHIOPIA

Skhid ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-12
Author(s):  
Binyam Mekonnen ADERA
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Basic Source ◽  
Democratic Rights ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The One ◽  
Social Turmoil

Ethiopia since 1991 G.C has been adopting democracy and federalism as constitutional frameworks of the state. The core objective to maintain the two political cultures is the presence of multiple cultural identities within the state and the actual need for an intersubjective discussion on the public sphere. And one of the major areas of public sphere is the social media. As per the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia citizens of Ethiopia have the democratic rights of Thoughts, Opinion and Expression (Art. 29), so in social media it is natural to expect that individuals talk on the different affairs of the state ‘freely’. Basically the social media is serving as an instrument in maintaining discursive talk among individuals. However, it has been also producing considerable social turmoil across the world. The same is what is encountering in Ethiopia today; on the one hand, social media as a communication platform allows people to communicate effectively with sharing alternative views, attitudes and forming democratic consensus on the social anomalies and responses, and on the other hand, the media is the sphere of communicative maladjustment where misunderstanding, extremism and miscommunication is producing. In the present Ethiopian context the basic source of communication and miscommunication in the social media is the ‘pluriversal identities’ of the cultural horizon. Taking this as a crucial object, this article will discuss the connection between democracy, federalism and social media in the current Ethiopia. On the top of this, the study aims at exploring the following issues: the social media sphere in Ethiopia, the modern and postmodern challenges of social media in Ethiopia and alternatives for the social media reconstruction.

scholarly journals THE STATE IN THE SYSTEM OF PROTECTING NATIONAL INTERESTS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Shedyakov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Transition Period ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Corporate Sector ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Private Partnership ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multilateral System ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One

Optimizing transformations during the transition period requires the use of the entire multilateral system of mechanisms to protect national interests. The state occupies an essential place, in particular, the establishment of forms of public-private partnership in coordinating diverse initiatives and creative searches. At the same time, on the one hand, the independence and security of development force them to predominantly rely on their own forces. On the other hand, the refusal to unify the social structure (in particular, statehood) makes it easier to increase efficiency, flexibility and adaptability while maintaining loyalty to national foundations and traditions. The two most noticeable trends in the transformation of the state structure are the strengthening of totalitarian-corporate characteristics or features of democracy. Accordingly, the depersonalization of responsibility – or its embodiment in specific leaders is realizing. At the same time, as you know, selection and promotion in the corporate sector has nothing to do with democracy. And the processes of pathologizing political and economic life may imply a departure from general, direct, secret and equal elections to senior government positions, and include broad manipulative capabilities of the media sphere.

The Contentious Public Sphere

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Wen Lei
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Critique ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Legal Subjects

Since the mid-2000s, public opinion and debate in China have become increasingly common and consequential, despite the ongoing censorship of speech and regulation of civil society. How did this happen? This book shows how the Chinese state drew on law, the media, and the Internet to further an authoritarian project of modernization, but in so doing, inadvertently created a nationwide public sphere in China—one the state must now endeavor to control. The book examines the influence this unruly sphere has had on Chinese politics and the ways that the state has responded. It shows that the development of the public sphere in China has provided an unprecedented forum for citizens to influence the public agenda, demand accountability from the government, and organize around the concepts of law and rights. It demonstrates how citizens came to understand themselves as legal subjects, how legal and media professionals began to collaborate in unexpected ways, and how existing conditions of political and economic fragmentation created unintended opportunities for political critique, particularly with the rise of the Internet. The emergence of this public sphere—and its uncertain future—is a pressing issue with important implications for the political prospects of the Chinese people. The book offers new possibilities for thinking about the transformation of state–society relations.

Technological Illusions and Educational Resistances

2016 ◽  
pp. 428-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Villanueva-Mansilla
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Class ◽  
The Public ◽  
One Laptop Per Child ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The One

OLPC, the One Laptop Per Child initiative, was accepted by just a few countries, including Peru. The largest acquisition of computers has produced a fairly low impact in education and is now being quietly phased-out. Peru's government decision to adopt the computers, back in 2007, was not contested or questioned by the political class, the media or even teachers, with just a rather small number of specialists arguing against it. This chapters discussed the political and argumentative processes that brought OLPC into the public sphere, through the use of a specific narrative, that of hackerism, i.e., the hacker attitude towards computers, and how social and political validation resulted in adoption. An assessment of the process of framing OLPC as a hacker product and the perils of such reasoning lead to discuss the need for a counter-narrative about the role of computers in society.

scholarly journals Information Disorders

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 10-28
Author(s):  
Divina Frau-Meigs
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
The One

This paper analyses the major modifications created by the “social turn” i.e. the emergence of social media. It presents the drastic change of ecosystem created by the three “continents” of the Internet. This sets up the context of deployment for “information disorders” such as radicalisation and disinformation. The analysis then considers the risks and opportunities for Media and Information Literacy: on the one hand, the rise of fact-checking and the increasing interference of social media platforms; on the other hand, the augmentation of the Media and Information Literacy epistemology and the Media and Information Literacy paradigm shift entailed by information disorders. It concludes on an agenda for Media and Information Literacy in 21st century.

Structural Analysis to Measure the Influence of Think Tanks’ Networks in the Digital Era

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-395
Author(s):  
Juan Luis Manfredi-Sánchez ◽  
Juan Antonio Sánchez-Giménez ◽  
Juan Pizarro-Miranda
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Structural Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Public Sphere

Ideas fuel power, giving means, understanding and arguments to the public sphere. Think tanks are the most influential actors in creating and disseminating such ideas in the field of international relations. This article analyses the networks of relations among think tanks in order better to understand their nature and the ways in which they operate in a global reality, organized by geographical areas. The research method is by structural analysis, using raw data collected on Twitter. Most of the think tanks selected are those categorized by the gotothinktank.com study. The main conclusions are that English is the predominant language, that geography still matters in influencing ideas and that us-based think tanks lead the social media conversation.

scholarly journals Un/making the British Asian Male Athlete: Race, Legibility and the State

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Burdsey
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Male Athlete ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
British Muslims ◽  
Asian Male ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
British Asians

This article explores the social construction of the British Asian male sport star. It foregrounds an analysis of the racial state, primarily its biopolitical function in (re)affirming racialised models of citizenship and contemporary hierarchies of belonging. Drawing on conceptualisations of legibility, the article argues that this relationship between race and the state is necessary to understand the processes by which such athletes are made intelligible in the popular imagination. Empirically, the article focuses on the articulations, experiences and performativity of British Asian Muslim international cricketer, Moeen Ali, during the summer of 2014. It suggests that these examples reflect the contestation and de/legitimisation of various forms of social, cultural and political attachment and embodiment within the public sphere. The article argues that the extent to which athletes such as Ali are made il/legible in sport is linked inextricably to the way in which British Asians and British Muslims are made il/legible in society. Finally, the article considers the spaces, contexts and discourses within which British Asian athletes can(not) represent themselves; and the dominant forms of being, speaking and thinking with which they must conform to meet the requirements of elite sporting citizenship.

scholarly journals UNRULY WOMEN IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: LA BARBE ON LE PETIT JOURNAL

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy E Forrest
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Television Programme ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article considers the social consequences of transgressing expected norms of gendered behaviour in the public sphere of a mainstream French television programme. La Barbe, who appeared on Le Petit Journal in December 2011, elicited an onslaught of indignant and sardonic public responses via social media. Drawing on Meehan (1995), Fraser (1990, 1995), and Landes (1995), this article analyses the televised appearance and the online reactions. Due to La Barbe’s unsuccessful communication and interested discourse, the public denounced, and so attempted to regulate, feminist disobedience.

scholarly journals O aktywności społeczno-ekonomicznej kobiet w czasopiśmie „Twój Styl”

2012 ◽  
pp. 113-135
Author(s):  
Anna Kozłowska
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Male Partner ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The One ◽  
Female Disadvantage

The text is about the issue theme of socio-economic activity of women in the text analyzes the issue theme of socio-economic activity of women in the Polish magazine “Twój Styl”. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the image of modern woman is a bit fuzzy. Typical woman is torn between the private and public sphere and forced (through social practices and effective gender stereotypes) into an attempt at the collision-free fulfillment of the social roles. The prevailing stereotype that woman are limited to the private sphere is the one of the causes of female disadvantage on the labor market. At the same time that stereotype creates an impression that woman in the public sphere is a rarity and if she’s ever managed to enter it, it was only possible thanks to the support of her male partner or by limiting her personal life.

scholarly journals To Whom Do Politicians Talk and Listen? : Mapping Swiss Politicians’ Public Sphere on Twitter

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-202
Author(s):  
Tobias R. Keller
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Public ◽  
Automated Content Analysis ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Mps I ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

Abstract Politicians use social media platforms such as Twitter to connect with the public. However, it remains largely unknown who constitutes the public sphere to whom politicians actually connect, talk, and listen. Focusing on the Twitter network of all Swiss MPs, I identified 129,063 Twitter users with whom politicians connected (i.e., their follower‐followee network) or with whom they interacted (e.g., [were] replied to or retweeted). I qualitatively analyzed top connected, talking, and listening MPs, and conducted a semi-automated content analysis of the Twitter users to classify them (N = 70.589). Politicians’ audience consists primarily of ordinary citizens, who also react most often to the politicians’ messages. However, politicians listen more often to actors close to politics and the media than to ordinary citizens. Thus, politicians navigate between engaging with everyone without losing control over the communication situation and address key multipliers such journalist to get their messages out.

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