scholarly journals Blasting the past: A rereading of Walter Benjamin’s theses on the philosophy of history

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-398
Author(s):  
Zarko Cvejic
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Populist Movements

The text offers a reappraisal of Walter Benjamin?s Theses on the Philosophy of History (?ber den Begriff der Geschichte; ?On the Concept of History?) from the perspective of global politics today and its similarities with the socio-economic and political situation in Europe and the Americas during the 1920s and 30s; more specifically, the impact of crises on the erosion of trust in liberal representative democracy and the concomitant rise of mostly rightwing populist movements and their strongmen leaders, aided to a significant degree by the media, ?old? and ?new? alike. The purpose of the text is to draw lessons from Benjamin?s vision of materialist historiography for our current political predicament.

scholarly journals Atrocity Prevention in the New Media Landscape

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 262-266
Author(s):  
Rebecca Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Preventive Action ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Foreign Correspondents ◽  
Civilian Protection ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact

Journalists have traditionally played a crucial role in building public pressure on government officials to uphold their legal obligations under the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. But over the past twenty years there has been radical change in the media landscape: foreign bureaus have been shuttered, young freelance journalists have taken over some of the work traditionally done by experienced foreign correspondents, and, more recently, the advent of social media has enabled people in conflict-affected areas to tell their own stories to the world. This essay assesses the impact of these changes on atrocity prevention across the different stages of the policy process. It concludes that the new media landscape is comparatively poorly equipped to raise an early warning alarm in a way that will spur preventive action, but that it is well-positioned to sustain attention to ongoing atrocities. Unfortunately, such later stages of a crisis generally provide the most limited policy options for civilian protection.

Applying McLuhan’s tetradic framework to the effects of 9/11 on US media reports and depictions of Muslims

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Matusitz
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
The Impact ◽  
People’S Perceptions

This article applies McLuhan’s tetradic framework to the impact of 9/11 on US media reports and portrayals of Muslims. The tetradic framework posits that transformations in media and world life happen through four fundamental steps. All forms of media (1) intensify specific aspects of media culture while, simultaneously, (2) making other characteristics of media culture obsolete. At some point, people tend to (3) discover new things about aspects in media culture that were ignored in the past (i.e. which obsolete aspects of culture do media retrieve?). Finally, (4) with this rise in information-seeking and discovery, media culture is experiencing continuous modification. Stated differently, the media go through a reversal when pushed too far or extended beyond the limits of their capacity. Overall, this analysis is able to inform readers on the full complexity of the long-term development of people’s perceptions of Muslims as a result of the constant metamorphosis of the media.

scholarly journals The Experience and Meaning of Media to Non-Mainstream Athletes: Qualitative Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1154
Author(s):  
Eunhye Yoo ◽  
Jeong-Hui Park ◽  
Jung-Min Lee
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
Auxiliary Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media ◽  
Sustained Effort ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

This study aims to understand the process by which ssireum (traditional Korean wrestling), which was labeled a declining industry, has regained its popularity owing to the impact of the media. The study was conducted as a case study with ten ssireum athletes who participated in the television program “The Rhapsody of Ssireum.” Additionally, text analysis was performed based on in-depth interviews and auxiliary data collection. As a result, four media-driven transformative trends in ssireum were observed: a shift of the public’s interest from online to offline under the influence of media, shift in the public’s perception of ssireum athletes’ body, birth of ssireum stars with nicknames matching the characteristics of popular ssireum athletes, and ssireum athletes’ increased sense of responsibility toward ssireum matches felt under the spotlight of the media. Admittedly, media exposure of ssireum athletes has increased significantly compared to the past. However, for the popularization of ssireum, a sport unique to Korea, the athletes, and the ssireum association need to make a sustained effort.

Understanding the impact of a major earthquake on Wellington lifelines

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.L. Mowll ◽  
D.R. Brunsdon ◽  
F. Wilde ◽  
P.D. Leslie
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Hazard ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Cell Phone ◽  
Major Earthquake ◽  
The Past ◽  
Response And Recovery ◽  
The Media ◽  
Telecommunications Services ◽  
Civil Defence ◽  
The Impact

Understanding seismic hazard and the potential impacts of an earthquake on a population allows better planning of response and recovery. It also allows a better understanding of how to mitigate against the effects of earthquakes. The Wellington Lifelines Group (WeLG) and the various Wellington lifeline utility organisations over the past five years have synthesised information on the consequences of a major earthquake, drawing upon hazard information (including from the GNS Science-led ‘It’s Our Fault’ studies), learning from civil defence emergency management exercises and from overseas earthquakes, and specialist studies commissioned by individual utilities. During 2012, WeLG facilitated specific discussions in order to summarise the time taken to restore water, transport, power (electricity) and telecommunications services following a rupture of the Wellington Fault, and therefore the effects on the population. The outcome of this work was an indication of substantial post-earthquake restoration times, agreed across and within key utility sectors. The time-scales for restoration of lifelines in a major earthquake are in the tens of days for power and water, and some key roads would not be recovered for up to 120 days. Telecommunications systems, particularly cell phone sites, would be recovered earlier, but are critically dependent upon access and fuel supplies for the refuelling of emergency generators. Given the significance of these likely restoration times for the community, it was decided to publically release the information, with buy-in from all of the lifeline utility organisations involved. The resulting report was released, with appropriate messaging, via the Wellington CDEM Group to the media in mid-November 2012. This paper provides a summary of the likely restoration times, background to their derivation, and the initial reactions to the release of the information.

News, Economic Governance, and Anti-Corruption

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anya Schiffrin
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
Journalism Studies ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Systems ◽  
Free Media ◽  
The Impact

In the past 50 years, there has been a burgeoning literature on the role of journalism in promoting governance and supporting anti-corruption efforts. Much of this comes from the work of economists and political scientists, and there is a lot for journalism studies scholars to learn from. The three disciplines grapple with many of the same questions; including the effects of journalism on society and journalists’ role as watchdogs and scarecrows. Economists are the boldest about establishing causality between journalism and governance, arguing that a free and open press can curb corruption and promote accountability. However, this is not always borne out in practice as modern technological and political developments have threatened journalism’s business model, especially in regions without a historically robust free press. Media capture continues to be a growing problem in places where government and business interests are aligned and seek to instrumentalize the media. Further quantitative research and exploration of the impediments to the functioning of a free media will help our understanding of the contemporary problems facing journalists and how they can be solved in order to improve governance across the world. There is much more to be learned about the impact of journalism on governance and studies on this topic should not only cross disciplines but must also be decolonialized so that the field has more information on how the media contributes, or not, to governance in the Global South and in the different media systems outlined by Hallin and Mancini as well as the updated analysis of Efrat Nechushtai.

In a Parallel World: An Introduction to Frank Ankersmit’s Philosophy of History

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Tamm ◽  
Eugen Zeleňák
Keyword(s):  
Academic Career ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
Historical Representation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Existentialist Philosophy ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article proposes to identify the conceptual structure guiding Frank Ankersmit’s philosophy of history. We argue that philosophical analysis of history consists in Ankersmit’s approach of three different levels: 1) the level of the past itself which is the subject of ontology, 2) the level of description of the past that is studied by epistemology, and 3) the level of representation of the past which should be analysed primarily by means of aesthetics. In other words, the realm of history is constituted of three aspects: 1) historical experience, 2) historical research, and 3) historical representation. During his whole academic career, Ankersmit has been interested in the first and the third aspects and has tried deliberately to avoid any serious engagement in epistemology (historical research). Ankersmit’s philosophy of history is built on a few fundamental dichotomies that can be considered as a kind of axioms of his thinking: 1) the distinction between historical research and historical writing, and 2) the distinction between description and historical representation. The article offers a critical discussion of Ankersmit’s two different approaches to the philosophy of history: cognitivist philosophy of history (analysis of historical representation) and existentialist philosophy of history (analysis of historical experience), and concludes by a short overview of the impact and significance of his historical-philosophical work and of his idea of the uniqueness of history.

scholarly journals On Breaking Up Time, or, Perennialism as Philosophy of History

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Bennett Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Moral Thought ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recent Philosophy

Abstract Current and recent philosophy of history contemplates a deep change in fundamental notions of the presence of the past. This is called breaking up time. The chief value for this change is enhancing the moral reach of historical research and writing. However, the materialist view of reality that most historians hold cannot support this approach. The origin of the notion in the thought of Walter Benjamin is suggested. I propose a neo-idealist approach called perennialism, centered on recurrent moral dilemmas and choices. This suggests a view of the relations of moral thought and ontology placed in the diachronic context that historians study.

scholarly journals INFLUENCE OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL SITUATION IN THE WORLD. ANALYSIS OF RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN MEDIA

2021 ◽  
pp. 182-189
Author(s):  
Алексей Владиславович Кшинин
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Situation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Media ◽  
Foreign Media ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Negative Factors

В ряду важнейших тем, поднимаемых СМИ за последние полтора года, влияние пандемии коронавируса на экологическую ситуацию в мире. В статье приведён анализ публикаций российских и зарубежных средств массовой информации по этой теме, рассмотрены положительные и отрицательные факторы влияния пандемии на экологию. One of the most important topics raised by the media over the past one and a half years is the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the environmental situation in the world. The article provides an analysis of publications of Russian and foreign media, examines the positive and negative factors of the impact of the pandemic on the environment.

scholarly journals A alegoria como poética do (ex)combro em Manoel de Barros: uma visada benjaminiana

eLyra ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 95-115
Author(s):  
Paulo Eduardo Benites de Moraes ◽  
Rosana Cristina Zanelatto Santos
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Paul Klee ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Present Experience ◽  
Tragic Drama

Walter Benjamin was one of the philosophers who most appropriately discussed the dialectics of history as a movement of extremes, that is, as an impoverished present experience before the glories of the past, which conceals, ironically, another formulation, exposed in the 9th thesis “On the concept of history”: which presents the interpretation of the allegory (ex)put in The Angelus Novus, by Paul Klee, as the “hippocratic facies of history” (Benjamin 1984), thinking this image as “the core of allegorical vision” (ibidem). Manoel de Barros, in his time, dialogues with both Klee and Benjamin, in a movement of (ex)position of episodic scenes/fragments of a nature always in a state of violence, suffering, tedium and death, despite an appearance of exuberance and abundance. In this essay, we propose to discuss/read in Barros’ poetry these poetic-allegorical constructions of nature, especially in the light of The Origin of German Tragic Drama and the thesis IX of Theses on the Philosophy of History by Walter Benjamin (1984 and 1986, respectively), as well as texts by Jeanne Marie Gagnebin (2013) and Michel Löwy (2005) on allegory in the Benjamin’s perspective.

scholarly journals Interrupção e montagem nas teses “Sobre o conceito de história” / Interruption and Assemblage in the Theses “On the Concept of History”

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Tomaz Amorim Izabel
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

Resumo: O artigo se pretende um ensaio a partir das teses “Sobre o conceito de história”, focando nos aspectos disruptivos de sua proposição sobre um contar histórico crítico à ideologia do progresso utilizando a técnica da montagem como uma de suas estratégias. Além disso, seguindo o gesto benjamininano de pensar o passado em um encontro com o tempo de agora – o jetztzeit –, sempre em risco de ser cooptado pela história dos vencedores, o artigo busca atualizar os perigos abordados por Benjamin na década de quarenta em nosso presente mergulhado em crises sociais, políticas e ecológicas. Trata-se menos de um panorama bibliográfico sobre este texto seminal do que uma tentativa de tornar efetivas suas potencialidades a partir de questões urgentes do agora.Palavras-chave: filosofia da história; modernidade; Walter Benjamin.Abstract: The article intends to be an essay about the thesis “On the concept of history”, focusing on the disruptive aspects of its proposition about a historical telling critical to the ideology of progress using the montage technique as one of its strategies. Moreover, following the Benjaminean gesture of thinking the past in a meeting with the present time – the jetztzeit – always in danger of being co-opted by the history of the winners, the article seeks to update the dangers that Benjamin addressed in the 1940s in our present steeped in social, political and ecological crises. It is less a bibliographical overview of this seminal text than an attempt to make its potentials effective on the urgent issues of the present.Keywords: philosophy of history; modernity; Walter Benjamin.

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