Making the revolution intelligible, rendering political imaginations unthinkable: A postcolonial reading of British and American media representations of Rojava

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-338
Author(s):  
Cihan Erdost Akin
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Ecological Principles ◽  
Media Portrayal ◽  
American Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Political Model ◽  
The Revolution

Although the gendered media portrayal of female Kurdish fighters has drawn academic attention, the representation of the socio-political model of Rojava by the British and American media is often neglected. This paper surveys the British and American media to understand the kinds of opinions found in the media, the discursive means that make the Rojava model intelligible, and what is rendered either commonsensical or unimaginable. The Rojava project is framed as “a separatist rebellion”, “an experiment”, and “a genuine social revolution”. By excluding the anti-capitalist and ecological principles of Rojava, and either dismissing or romanticising its achievements, these discourses render an alternative to capitalism and the nation-state unthinkable, and reproduce Orientalist images of the region, thus serving capitalist and imperialist interests. This study suggests that we should pay more attention to socio-political imaginations and representations of non-state paradigms in order to understand the hegemony of the state. Abstract in Kurmanji Fehmbarkirina şoreşê, pêşkêşkirina nemumkiniya tesewira polîtîk: Xwendineke postkolonyal a temsîlên Rojava di medyaya Brîtanya û Amerîkayê de Li hember teswîra zayendî ya şervanên kurd ên jin ku gelek bala akademiyê kişandiye, temsîla modela sosyo-polîtîk a Rojava ji teref medyaya brîtanyayî û emerîkî ve pirî caran hate paşguhkirin. Ev nivîs li medyaya brîtanyayî û emerîkî dinêre da ku cureyên fikrên di medyayê de, amûrên vegotinê yên ku modela Rojavayê fehmbar dikin vebikole û fehm bike ka çi û çiqas beraqil an jî nexeyalbar tê pêşkêşkirin. Projeya Rojava, weke “serhildaneke cudaxwaz”, “ceribandek” û “şoreşeke civakî ya resen” tê resmkirin. Bi derkirina prensîbên dij-kapîtalîst û ekolojîk yên Rojava û bi paşguhkirin an jî romantîzekirina destkeftên wê, ev dîskûr nemumkiniya alternatîfa kapîtalîzmê û netewe-dewletê îfade dikin û wêneyekî Oryantalîst ya herêmê diafirînin ku xizmeta berjewendiyên kapîtalîst û emperyalîst dike. Ev xebat pêşniyar dike ku divê em bêtir bala xwe bidin tesewirên sosyo-polîtîk û temsîlên paradîgmaya ne-dewlet ji bo fehmkirina hegemonyaya dewletê. Abstract in Sorani Be têgeyandin kirdnî şorrş, bê mana kirdnî endêşe syasîyekan: Xwêndneweyekî postkolonyalaney wênakirdnî mîdyay berîtanî û emrîkî bo rojawa Egerçî wêne mîdyayye cênderekanî jne şervanekanî kurd sernicî ekadîmîyekanî rakêşawe, zorcar wênakirdnî modêlî syasî-cvakî rojava lelayen mîdyay berîtanî û emrîkayewe feramoşkrawe. Bo têgeyîştin lew bîruboçunaney le mîdyakanda bedî dekrêt, em babete rumallêkî mîdyay berîtanî û emrîkî dekat, amraze gutarîyekan ke modêlî rojava bê mana deken û  yan wek ştêkî asayî yan xeyallî dexrête rû . Projey rojava xrawete çwarçîwey “yaxîbunêkî cudaxwazî”, “ezmunêk” we “şorşêkî rasteqîney komellayetî”. Be wedernanî bnema dje-sermayedarî û îkolojîyekanî rojava, we yan be nadîdekirdin û romantîkirdnî deskewtekan, em gutarane bedîlêk bo sermayedarî û dewllet-netewe dexate derewey bîrkirdnewe.  Em twêjîneweye pêşnyar dekat ke bo ewey le hejmûnî dewllet têbgeyn, pêwîste bayexî zyatir be endêşey syasî-cvakî û nwênerayetîkrinî paradaymî nadewlletî bdeyn. Abstract in Zazaki Şoreşî dayîşfehmkerdiş, fikranê sîyasîyan nêdayîşfikirîyayîş: Medyaya Brîtanya û Amerîka de temsîlê Rojawanî ser o wendişêko postkolonîyalîst   Herçiqas ke nawitişê medyaya cinsîyetperwere de rolê şêrvananê cinîkanê kurdan bala akademîkan ante, modelê komel û sîyasetê Rojawanî zafê reyan hetê medyaya Brîtanya û Amerîka ra peygoş bî. Na meqale qayîtê medyaya Brîtanya û Amerîka kena ke wina tede qeneatê ci yê cîya-cîyayî, usûlê munaqeşeyî yê îzahkerdişê modelê Rojawanî û çîyê bimantiqkerde yan zî nefikrbarî fehm bibê. Projeyê Rojawanî sey “serewedaritişo cîyaker”, “ceribnayîş” û “şoreşê komelî yo raştikên” name beno. Bi îhmalkerdişê prensîpanê Rojawanî yê antîkapîtalîst û ekolojîkan û bi redkerdiş yan zî romantîzekerdişê serkewtişanê ci, nê munaqeşeyî alternatîfê kapîtalîzm û dewleta netewe nêdanê fikirîyayene. Wina herêm ra resimo oryantalîst yeno xêzkerdene ke menfeatanê kapîtalîst û emperyalîstan rê fayde dano. No cigêrayîş pêşnîyaz keno ke ma hîna zaf bala xo bidîme fikranê komelkî û sîyasîyan û estbîyayîşê paradîgmayanê nedewlete ser ke bandura dewlete fehm bikerîme.

The Gospel According to Tim Tebow: Sporting Celebrity, Whiteness, and the Cultural Politics of Christian Fundamentalism in America

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew G. Hawzen ◽  
Joshua I. Newman
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
National Football League ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
White Identity ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
American Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Christian Fundamentalism

In this article, we explore the media and cultural politics of former National Football League (NFL) quarterback Tim Tebow. More specifically, we investigate paradoxical and contradictory media representations of Tebow as his celebrity surfaced within, and came to dominate, the Obama-era ‘American’ media landscape. In so doing, we draw lines of articulation from Tebow—as performative and representative embodiment of white identity politics and Christian fundamentalism—to broader frames of nation-based morality and racialized meritocracy. We end the article with a discussion on why mediated and mediating Tebow—as framed in contradictory yet religiously significant ways—was at once polarizing and codifying in the media’s ability to galvanize a contextually-significant set of cultural and racial politics.Dans cet article, nous explorons les politiques médiatiques et culturelles de l’ancien quarterback de la National Football League (NFL) Tim Tebow. Plus spécifiquement, nous étudions les représentations médiatiques paradoxales et contradictoires de Tebow étant donné que sa célébrité est apparue, et a fini par dominer, le paysage médiatique ‘américain’ pendant l’ère Obama. Pour ce faire, nous envisageons l’articulation de pistes allant de Tebow – en tant qu’incarnation performative et représentative des politiques identitaires blanches et du fondamentalisme chrétien – à des cadres plus larges de moralité nationale et de méritocratie racialisée. Nous terminons l’article sur une discussion expliquant pourquoi le médiatique et médiatisé Tebow – décrit dans des termes significativement contradictoires bien que religieux – a été immédiatement polarisé et codifié par la capacité des médias à galvaniser un ensemble contextuellement significatif de politiques culturelles et raciales.

State Functions and Media Politics

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-349
Author(s):  
Nikolai Genov
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection ◽  
The State ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Large Share ◽  
Daily Newspaper ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Politics ◽  
State Functions

What is specific in the efforts of the Slovenian state institutions to handle the current economic, political, and cultural crisis in the country? The answer is searched for in the media representations of the building of a new government in February 2012. The analysis is focused on five major functions of modern states: security provision, regulation of macro-economy, administration, reproduction of human resources, and environmental protection. The source of primary information for the analysis and argumentation is the daily newspaper Delo (Labor). Relevant publications in the newspaper were differentiated by applying two criteria: first, predominant reference to one of the five functions of the state; second, if the article contains no alternative (1) or presents a strong alternative to a given situation, event or opinion related to the state functions (5) on a 5-point scale. The analysis identifies a large share of publications focusing on the administrative function of the state and rather limited share of publications on security issues and environmental protection. The analyzed publications contain only modest efforts to present and discuss alternatives to political situations and opinions. The hypothesis about alleged colonization of politics by mass media is falsified.

scholarly journals Soberanía, globalización y la constitucion de significado

Justicia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (27) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farid Samir Benavides Vanegas
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Soap Opera ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Society Of The Spectacle ◽  
Meaning Production ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion ◽  
Legal Meaning

ResumenEn este articulo se demostrara cómo la perdida de soberania del Derecho y de la nación ha implicado la emergencia de nuevos lugares de construcción de la identidad y como estas nuevas identidades han llegado a ser globales, debido a la perdida de centralidad del Estado-Nación como lugar de producción de significado. Mediante el analisis del concepto de soberania y de su relación con el poder de nombrar qué posee el Estado, ejercido a través de la ley, se mostrara cómo en una sociedad del espectaculo este poder es quitado al Estado y dado a otros lugares que puedan garantizar la pasividad de los espectadores y por tanto la ausencia de resistencia en la construcción del significado. Esto mediante el análisis de una telenovela colombiana y su manejo del concepto de corrupción para mostrar cómo el significado legal fue superado por aquel construido en los medios de comunicación. AbstractIn this essay I wish to show how law's and the nation's loss of sovereignty have meant the emergence of new sites of identity construction and how these new identities have become global due to the loss of centrality of the Nation- State as place of meaning production. By analyzing the concept of sovereignty and its relation to the power of naming held by the State, and exercised through the law, I want to show how in a society of the spectacle that power is removed from the State and given to other places that can ensure passivity of viewers and thus the absence of resistance in the construction of meaning. This I will do by analyzing a Colombian soap opera and its handling of the concept of corruption to show legal meaning was overtaken by the one built in the media

Zwara (Zuwārah) Berber

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-387
Author(s):  
Carlos Gussenhoven
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
The State ◽  
Conservative Estimate ◽  
Coastal City ◽  
Scientific Term ◽  
The Media ◽  
Official Status ◽  
The Revolution ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

Zwara Berber is a variety of Nafusi (ISO 639-3; Lewis, Simons & Fennig 2016) which belongs to the eastern Zenati group within northern Berber (where Berber is the scientific term for Tamazight), a branch of Afro-Asiatic. Zwara (Zuwārah, Zuwara, Zuāra, Zuara, Zouara) is a coastal city located at 32.9° N, 12.1° E in Libya. The speakers refer to themselves as /at ˈwil.lul/ (also /ajt ˈwil.lul/) ‘those of Willul’ and to their specific variety of the language as /t.ˈwil.lult/ ‘the language of Willul’. Having no official status during the Italian colonization of Libya and the first period after the country's independence in 1951, repression of the language became severe after the Cultural Revolution of 1973. Its propagation through teaching and the media fell under a constitutional ban on the denial of the Arab identity of the state, and qualified as such as treason, a capital offense. Until the revolution of 2011 (‘17 February’), the language was therefore not spoken in cultural, educational or governmental domains and could not be taught, printed or broadcast. The number of Tamazight speakers in Libya is estimated at 184,000 in Lewis et al. (2016) and at 560,000 by Chakel & Ferkal (2012). In the absence of a municipal register, the number of inhabitants in Zwara is uncertain. A conservative estimate is between 50,000 and 100,000, which is also the number of speakers of the Zwara variety. Other than through exposure by radio and television, children learn Arabic only from age six, when attending school. Speakers have variable L2 Arabic competence depending on exposure to the language.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Role of the Press in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismael Mohammadpour
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
The State ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
Research Show ◽  
The Revolution

<p>The Egyptian Revolution of 2011, in fact was the result of crises in the Egyptian society; such as increasing social inequality and corruption and Mubarak’s efforts to inherit the presidency. These crises by the help of the media –from the press to the social networks- provided the grounds for shaping anti-Mubarak social movements and eventually led to fall him. In this regard, one of the most considerable point, was the salient role of the press and the print media in the process of the revolution. Traditionally, there have been three types of journalism system in Egypt: the state-owned, independent and partisan (party-run) press. In this context, the researcher has tried to answer this question: how was the role and position of each type of these press systems in Egypt in the process of the revolution -especially since January 25th until February 11, the day that Mubarak resigned-, and how effective were these roles and positions on the Egyptian Revolution of 2011?<strong></strong></p><p>In this regard, in addition to detailed introduction of the newspapers of each press, the emphasis is to observe their views and positions accurately and portray the main discrepancies between the state-owned press with the independent and partisan papers.</p>As the findings of the research show, it seems in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the relative freedom of these traditional media in expressing their own views with the growth of the middle class, enabled Egypt to pass the Mubarak's thirty-year dictatorship by mobilizing their demands and forming powerful social movements.

6. Social revolution

2017 ◽  
pp. 84-102
Author(s):  
Craig Jeffrey
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Cultural Expression ◽  
Institutional Infrastructure ◽  
The Media

Social revolution has provided people, elites in particular, with new economic and social aspirations. These have been brought about by a transformation in people’s access to communication technologies through mobile phones and the internet, as well as access to and enthusiasm for education. The educational revolution is in turn linked to a third key shift related to notions of citizenship and the state. ‘Social revolution’ also explains how cultural expression has been encouraged and civil society has increased. However, civil society and social production of hope are limited by three significant weaknesses in India’s political institutional infrastructure related to the law, policing, and the media.

Abad de Santillán and the Anarchist Revolution in Spain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Baer
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Voluntary Association ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Coercive Power ◽  
Second Spanish Republic ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Revolution

This chapter looks at the significance of returning immigrants and the importance of the Argentine anarchist movement during the Second Spanish Republic and in the anarchist revolution that transformed Catalonia in 1936. Abad de Santillán's After the Revolution (1936) gave a detailed account of the organization of an anarchist society. In July 1936, workers in Barcelona armed themselves and defeated the military in that city before beginning a social revolution that implemented many of the ideas expressed in Abad de Santillán's book. The anarchist-inspired revolution established a libertarian society based on anarchist principles of voluntary association without the coercive power of the state.

Suicide and the Media

Crisis ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 163-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Warwick Blood ◽  
Jane Pirkis
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Causal Association ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
Media Portrayal ◽  
The Media ◽  
Actual Suicide ◽  
Multiple Meanings

Summary: The body of evidence suggests that there is a causal association between nonfictional media reporting of suicide (in newspapers, on television, and in books) and actual suicide, and that there may be one between fictional media portrayal (in film and television, in music, and in plays) and actual suicide. This finding has been explained by social learning theory. The majority of studies upon which this finding is based fall into the media “effects tradition,” which has been criticized for its positivist-like approach that fails to take into account of media content or the capacity of audiences to make meaning out of messages. A cultural studies approach that relies on discourse and frame analyses to explore meanings, and that qualitatively examines the multiple meanings that audiences give to media messages, could complement the effects tradition. Together, these approaches have the potential to clarify the notion of what constitutes responsible reporting of suicide, and to broaden the framework for evaluating media performance.

Smart Girls, Dumb Boys!?

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Latsch ◽  
Bettina Hannover
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
School Students ◽  
Compensatory Strategies ◽  
Media Portrayal ◽  
Stereotype Lift ◽  
The Media

We investigated effects of the media’s portrayal of boys as “scholastic failures” on secondary school students. The negative portrayal induced stereotype threat (boys underperformed in reading), stereotype reactance (boys displayed stronger learning goals towards mathematics but not reading), and stereotype lift (girls performed better in reading but not in mathematics). Apparently, boys were motivated to disconfirm their group’s negative depiction, however, while they could successfully apply compensatory strategies when describing their learning goals, this motivation did not enable them to perform better. Overall the media portrayal thus contributes to the maintenance of gender stereotypes, by impairing boys’ and strengthening girls’ performance in female connoted domains and by prompting boys to align their learning goals to the gender connotation of the domain.

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