scholarly journals Running Naked and Unmasked in Goa: Pleasure in the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-156
Author(s):  
R. Benedito Ferrão
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Requirement

In November 2020, Indian celebrity Milind Soman posted a picture of himself on social media, which showed him running naked on a beach. He was charged with obscenity. This article considers the time and place of Soman’s act over the alleged impropriety. The photograph was taken on a beach in Goa, the tropical setting serving as a pleasure periphery to India which annexed the region in 1961. Accordingly, a longer history of states of undress in Indian advertising, filmmaking, and tourism are considered here to apprehend how Goa has been posited in the Indian imagination as a destination for wanton self-gratification while local realities are undermined. The article thus interrogates what it means for Goa, whose economy is overly dependent on tourism, to serve as a vacation spot during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when, in 2020, it had among the highest number of virus-related deaths in the country (Dias, 2020, par. 4). Using the metaphor of the celebrity who has no qualms about running naked and unmasked in Goa, this article enquires into what such events leave unrevealed in the economic requirement that some locales function as holiday destinations, even in the midst of a pandemic.

New Wars and Their Visual Representation: Dead Bodies without Graves/Mourne

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Tuncay Şur ◽  
Betül Yarar
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Public ◽  
Photographic Images ◽  
War Photography ◽  
New Wars ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This paper seeks to understand why there has been an increase in photographic images exposing military violence or displaying bodies killed by military forces and how they can freely circulate in the public without being censored or kept hidden. In other words, it aims to analyze this particular issue as a symptom of the emergence of new wars and a new regime of their visual representation. Within this framework, it attempts to relate two kinds of literature that are namely the history of war and war photography with the bridge of theoretical discussions on the real, its photographic representation, power, and violence.  Rather than systematic empirical analysis, the paper is based on a theoretical attempt which is reflected on some socio-political observations in the Middle East where there has been ongoing wars or new wars. The core discussion of the paper is supported by a brief analysis of some illustrative photographic images that are served through the social media under the circumstances of war for instance in Turkey between Turkish military troops and the Kurdish militants. The paper concludes that in line with the process of dissolution/transformation of the old nation-state formations and globalization, the mechanism and mode of power have also transformed to the extent that it resulted in the emergence of new wars. This is one dynamic that we need to recognize in relation to the above-mentioned question, the other is the impact of social media in not only delivering but also receiving war photographies. Today these changes have led the emergence of new machinery of power in which the old modern visual/photographic techniques of representing wars without human beings, torture, and violence through censorship began to be employed alongside medieval power techniques of a visual exhibition of tortures and violence.

scholarly journals “Let’s Go, Baby Forklift!”: Fandom Governance and the Political Power of Cuteness in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110249
Author(s):  
Jamie Wong ◽  
Crystal Lee ◽  
Vesper Keyi Long ◽  
Di Wu ◽  
Graham M. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
The State ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Voluntary Response ◽  
New Development ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hospital Construction ◽  
Novel Strategy

This article describes how the Chinese state borrows from the culture of celebrity fandom to implement a novel strategy of governing that we term “fandom governance.” We illustrate how state-run social media employed fandom governance early in the COVID-19 pandemic when the country was convulsed with anxiety. As the state faced a crisis of confidence, state social media responded with a propagandistic display of state efficacy, broadcasting a round-the-clock livestream of a massive emergency hospital construction project. Chinese internet users playfully embellished imagery from the livestream. They unexpectedly transformed the construction vehicles into cute personified memes, with Baby Forklift and Baby Mud Barfer (a cement mixer) among the most popular. In turn, state social media strategically channeled this playful engagement in politically productive directions by resignifying the personified vehicles as celebrity idols. Combining social media studies with cultural and linguistic anthropology, we offer a processual account of the semiotic mediations involved in turning vehicles into memes, memes into idols, and citizens into fans. We show how, by embedding cute memes within modules of fandom management such as celebrity ranking lists, state social media rendered them artificially vulnerable to a fall in status. Fans, in turn, rallied around to “protect” these cute idols with small but significant acts of digital devotion and care, organizing themselves into fan circles and exhorting each other to vote. In elevating the memes to the status of celebrity idols, state social media thereby created a disposable pantheon of virtual avatars for the state, and consolidated state power by exploiting citizens’ voluntary response to vulnerability. We analyze fandom governance as a new development in the Chinese state’s long history of governing citizens through the management of emotion.

A rare dance

2021 ◽  
pp. 101269022199365
Author(s):  
Ilan Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Basketball Player ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Marketing System ◽  
Rare Phenomenon ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Media Event ◽  
Enormous Success

The enormous success of The Last Dance, the sports documentary on Michael Jordan’s career, and especially his last season, is the result of a rare confluence of factors, each of which is a unique and rare phenomenon in the history of sport. Their combination has already turned the mini-series into a global media event of the kind that is usually reserved for live broadcasts of extraordinary events. A basketball player with unusual personal and professional abilities, supported by a highly polished and well-oiled marketing system; the specific window of time in which his star shone – the late 1990s, when the era of media commercialization and globalization flourished, yet before the emergence of social media and their typical critical discourse; the rise in sports documentaries in recent years; and encasing all of these is the time of the documentary’s broadcast, when sports life across the world ceased due to the coronavirus. The mini-series, which seemingly deals with a single season in the career of a single player in a single sport, is actually so much more. It is a composition reflecting much wider social, sports and media phenomena.

scholarly journals Knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare workers toward COVID-19 and its prevention in Ethiopia: A multicenter study

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 205031212110343
Author(s):  
Bedru Jemal ◽  
Zemedu Aweke ◽  
Simeneh Mola ◽  
Sileshi Hailu ◽  
Sileshi Abiy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Odds Ratio ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Medical Illness ◽  
Chronic Medical Illness ◽  
Attitude And Practice ◽  
Route Of Transmission ◽  
History Of ◽  
Knowledge Attitude And Practice

Background: An emerging respiratory disease abbreviated as coronavirus disease 2019 was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan city of China. The virus is zoonotic and tends to be transmitted between animals to humans and humans to humans. The major route of transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 is droplet and close contact. The Ethiopian Ministry of Health has initiated training for health care workers at a different level. Thus, the main objective of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health workers in Ethiopia toward coronavirus disease 2019 and its prevention techniques. Method: An institution-based multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in each of eight teaching and referral hospitals. A total of 422 Ethiopian healthcare workers were selected for the assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice toward coronavirus disease 2019. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. A logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with the attitude and knowledge of healthcare workers toward coronavirus disease 2019 at a significance level of p < 0.05. Result: Three hundred ninety-seven healthcare workers participated in the study, with a response rate of 94%. Among these, 88.2% and 94.7% of respondents had good knowledge and positive attitudes, respectively. A respondent with a history of chronic medical illness (odds ratio: 0.193, 95% confidence interval: 0.063–0.593), social media, telecommunication, and television/radio as a source of information were significantly associated with knowledge (odds ratio: 3.4, 95% confidence interval: 1.5–7.4, OR: 4.3, 95% confidence interval: 1.3–14.3 and odds ratio: 3.2, 95% confidence interval: 1.4–7.2). In addition, respondents with a history of chronic medical illness were significantly associated with a negative attitude toward coronavirus disease 2019. Conclusion: The knowledge and attitude were good while; the practice was relatively low. Sources of information such as social media, telecommunication, and television/radio were positively associated with healthcare workers' knowledge about coronavirus disease 2019.

scholarly journals CHANGING FACE OF ELECTORAL BEHAVIOUR: ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA -GENERAL ELECTIONS 2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (03) ◽  
pp. 118-121
Author(s):  
Archana Sawshilya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Majority Party ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
General Elections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Electoral Behaviour

The 2019 election witnessed a society that was consuming digital technology .For the first time in the history of India’s political platform the national elections were fought both on the streets and by using the smart phones and social media platforms using the digital technology .The digital media teams of the political parties in the 2019 elections played a very crucial role in trying to tip the scales in the favor of their party .The NaMo app had nearly 10 million downloads while the Shakti app of the Congress had around 70-80 lakh users. But the critics raised the question what if the party that mis-adopted the technology during 2019 is also the majority party in the house that would be responsible for designing the control mechanisms?

scholarly journals Twitter under Storm: Social Media Response Sensitization in the Caribbean

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo T Perez-Rivera ◽  
Alexis Josué Martínez ◽  
Adriana Pons ◽  
Alejandro Rodríguez-Natal ◽  
Sergio Andrés Davila-Santana
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Emergency Preparedness ◽  
Previous History ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Hurricane Exposure ◽  
Effective Design

Climate change has led to rising sea levels and warmer sea surface temperatures. These factors contribute greatly to the intensity of hurricanes and floods they provoke. Projections estimate there will be an increase of 45% to 87% in the frequency of Category &gt;4 hurricanes originating in the Atlantic Basin, which typically impact the Caribbean and Continental United States of America. During the 2019 Hurricane Season, there were 20 depressions, 18 storms, 6 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes. Through this work, we explored the response on Social Media to these natural phenomena as a function of their trajectory, intensity, and previous exposure of the population to intense natural disasters. Data was collected through the Twitter API. The influences of hurricane proximity and intensity on volume of Social Media production was explored. Hurricane Dorian, with its trajectory strongly threatening the previously exposed Puerto Rico, and eventually causing widespread damage in the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas, presented the strongest case for the evaluation of the dichotomy of responses between populations with differences in previous history of exposure. The landscape of historic hurricane exposure Caribbean has radically changed in recent years. Taking advantage of Big Data to help elucidate these dynamics could be instrumental in the tailoring of emergency preparedness plans and the effective design of mental health first aid strategies.

scholarly journals Lengsernya Soeharto sebagai Presiden Republik Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rizka Wahyu Nurmalaningrum
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Political History ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic

Often the link between politics, economics and history escapes our attention so far. Much of the history of Indonesian development even the political history of the Indonesian nation itself has been forgotten by this millennial era society. They prefer mobile phones rather than books. Prefer cellphones from history. Even though history is important. The successors of the nation in the millennial era are more concerned with social media than knowing the origin of a country. Many do not understand the history of someone who can become president. There are various theories about history, such as Aristotelian theory, and the theory of plateau. Arisstoteles can be made a reference for learning for the ideals of the State with a fair and calm manner. The discussion with this theme takes the example of the fall of Soeharto as President of the Republic of Indonesia.

scholarly journals Using Social Media Data to Evaluate Urban Parks Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (20) ◽  
pp. 10860
Author(s):  
Mihai Răzvan Niță ◽  
Miruna Arsene ◽  
Giorgiana Barbu ◽  
Alina Gabriela Cus ◽  
Mihail Ene ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Urban Parks ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Peak Period ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
Media Data ◽  
Selection Of

In the context of increasing urbanization and associated economic, social and environmental challenges, cities have increasingly acknowledged the importance of urban parks in delivering social, economic and environmental benefits to the population. The importance has been demonstrated also during the COVID-19 pandemic that generated lockdowns and reduced the capacity of urban inhabitants in accessing such benefits. The present study aims to determine how the presence in urban parks was reflected on social media during the pandemic period of 2020. We examined Instagram posts associated with a sample of eight urban parks in Bucharest, Romania and also the entire history of Google reviews between January and August 2020. The selection of parks was made according to their size, location in Bucharest, previous reported number of visitors and profile of attractiveness. Results revealed that the peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the first initiation of the lockdowns strongly affected the recreation and leisure activities that people performed almost daily in the parks of Bucharest. Reviews and comments of the population were not that focused on the pandemic even after the restrictions were lifted, but they evidenced the positive and negative aspects of each park. Our results can represent a useful instrument for local administrations in determining both the flow of visitors but also their perceptions towards the endowments, landscape and most important management of urban parks.

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