scholarly journals Freedom as Virus: A Critique of the Neoliberal Notion of Freedom and an Analysis of its Cultural Consequences

Author(s):  
Aaron Michael Mulligan

The extent to which the COVID pandemic has been shaped by communication is enigmatic as the very term “viral” has become a term of information science as much as of biology. Insofar as sizable populations have become cynical about information regarding COVID, their behavior has accelerated the threat of the virus. This paper proposes that this pandemic is fundamentally a crisis of communication emerging from antagonisms and inconsistencies latent within a general concept of “freedom”. The notion of freedom that has emerged with neoliberalism is one of a lack of regulation. Such a naive idea of freedom becomes particularly problematic when compounded with the classical liberal value of freedom of speech. This paper addresses the impossibility of unlimited speech, particularly on the internet, focusing on the desire such impossibility stimulates. This desire is an economic fuel for social media platforms. Insofar as artists share their practices via social media and generally use these platforms for networking, their practices inherit contradictions that artists must become conscious of to prevent a web-based practice from becoming emotionally exploitive and economically complicit. This crisis amplifies those contradictions that drive the artist to the point of despair.

Communicology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-179
Author(s):  
E.S. Nadezhkina

The term “digital public diplomacy” that appeared in the 21st century owes much to the emergence and development of the concept of Web 2.0 (interactive communication on the Internet). The principle of network interaction, in which the system becomes better with an increase in the number of users and the creation of user-generated content, made it possible to create social media platforms where news and entertainment content is created and moderated by the user. Such platforms have become an expression of the opinions of various groups of people in many countries of the world, including China. The Chinese segment of the Internet is “closed”, and many popular Western services are blocked in it. Studying the structure of Chinese social media platforms and microblogging, as well as analyzing targeted content is necessary to understand China’s public opinion, choose the right message channels and receive feedback for promoting the country’s public diplomacy. This paper reveals the main Chinese social media platforms and microblogging and provides the assessment of their popularity, as well as possibility of analyzing China’s public opinion based on “listening” to social media platforms and microblogging.


Author(s):  
Rita Otibhor Salami ◽  
Abubakar Saka Katamba ◽  
Mohammed Abubakar Bitagi ◽  
Samuel Jimmy Udoudoh

The paper examines how academic social media utilisation can enhance research activities of Library and Information Science educators in Nigerian universities. The study highlighted the various research activities of Library and Information Science educators such as information gathering, collaboration, and dissemination of research findings and measurement of impacts. In addition, the authors elaborated on the benefits of academic social media such as Research gate, Academia.edu, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, Open Researcher Contributor Identity and Mendeley to include profile creation, information gathering, search for potential collaborators, instant research result dissemination, measurement of impact and management of research. The study stated that factors such as social influence, technical factors and personal factors can influence use of academic social media platforms. Keywords: Social media, Academics, Research Library and Information Science, Educators


Author(s):  
Chiemezie Chukwuka Ugochukwu ◽  
Obiajulu Joel Nwolu

In 2017, the #ENDSARS hashtag began trending across social media platforms, calling for a scrap of a police unit Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Nigerians complained about the activities of SARS that include extortion, extra-judicial killing, and harassment, among others. The Nigerian government and Police authorities promised to overhaul the SARS activities despite calls to scrap the police unit. On October 3rd 2020, a video went viral across social media platforms how police officers suspected SARS officers shot a young man and took his Lexus car away. Social media influencers organized the protest and like wildfire, it spread across the country. Based on this, the research is structured to ascertain respondents’ level of exposure to social media framing on EndSARS protest, to determine if social media framing on EndSARS protest motivated the youths, to find out if social media framing contributed to protests across the country. No doubt, the internet and social media have changed the narrative of organizing protests across the globe and Nigeria in particular. Anchored on three theories namely, framing theory, social category theory, and technology determinism theory. Survey research method was adopted for the study and copies of the questionnaire were distributed online with help of Google forms. Findings revealed that respondents were exposed to social media framing on EndSARS agenda and social media framing contributed to country’s protest across the country. The study recommends, among others, that government should always investigate reports about its agencies and take proper action to forestall any protest in the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Santho Vlennery Mettan ◽  
Aldo Hardi Sancoko

Indonesian’s Millennials are estimated to reach 70% of the productive population in 2020-2030 (BPS 2018), who cannot be separated from the internet and social media (Harahap 2017). Due to this fact, (Hsu 2018) and (Benini 2018) claim that millennials are afraid of being left behind by ephemeral content which will disappear within 24 hours so that many social media platforms are equipped with these temporary content features and companies are using temporary content strategies to reach more consumers. SMEs on the other hand have low knowledge of ephemeral content, even though 84% of millennials buy products due to the influence of social media, where ephemeral content lies within (Boen 2016). In the other hand, word-of-mouth has a significant impact on customer purchasing decisions until now. Along with the change to the digital era, word-of-mouth is being accelerated with the help of the internet, it called e-WOM, where many businesses use social media or other online platforms to promote business. The results showed that the two variables of ephemeral content and word-of-mouth with the help of the internet had a significant effect on customer purchase intentions, especially the millennial customer for SMEs in Surabaya City. In the future, by implementing ephemeral content in SMEs media social will increases their customer’s e-WOM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-74
Author(s):  
Tukino Tukino ◽  
Sasa Ani Arnomo

The progress of the internet has become the best means to start a property business and it has been proven to be an effective and effective media of information from the internet to disseminate information that is fully accessible to anyone,anytime and anywhere. The great effect on the property business is caused through the internet because only by accessing it from smartphone device and computers at home or in the office of prospective buyers can see property add information.In today’s digital era property sales are mostly done on social media. Social media has many users. But social media has the disadvantages of having to pay if you want to advertise sales, consumers are only users of social media, sales posts quickly sink. In this research, a web-based property sales and leasing information system will be built to cover the shortage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Evelina Francisco ◽  
Nadira Fardos ◽  
Aakash Bhatt ◽  
Gulhan Bizel

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting stay-at-home orders have disrupted all aspects of life globally, most notably our relationship with the internet and social media platforms. People are online more than ever before, working and attending school from home and socializing with friends and family via video conferencing. Marketers and brands have been forced to adapt to a new normal and, as a result, have shifted their brand communication and marketing mix to digital approaches. Hence, this study aims to examine the shift of influencer marketing on Instagram during this period and the possible future implications. By employing an online survey for exploratory research, individuals answered questions addressing their perceptions about the impact of the pandemic, brands and influencers’ relationship, and the overall changes made in marketing strategy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Feraday

Non-cisgender and non-straight identity language has long been a site of contention and evolution. There has been an increase in new non-cisgender, non-straight identity words since the creation of the internet, thanks to social media platforms like Tumblr. Tumblr in particular has been host to many conversations about identity and self-naming, though these conversations have not yet been the subject of much academic research. Through interviews and analysis of Tumblr posts, this thesis examines the emergence of new identity words, or neo-identities, used by non-cisgender and non-straight users of Tumblr. The work presents neo-identities as strategies for resisting and challenging cisheteronormative conceptions of gender and attraction, as well as sources of comfort and relief for non-cisgender/non-straight people who feel ‘broken’ and excluded from mainstream identity categories. This thesis also posits that Tumblr is uniquely suited for conversations about identity because of its potential for self-expression, community, and anonymity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 326-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thais Martini ◽  
Leticia S. Czepielewski ◽  
Daniel Prates Baldez ◽  
Emma Gliddon ◽  
Christian Kieling ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction The Internet has seen rapid growth in the number of websites focusing on mental health content. Considering the increased need for access to accurate information about mental health treatment, it is important to understand the promotion of this information online. Objective To analyze BuzzFeed’s Mental Health Week (BFMHW) interactions on its own website and in related social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) using metrics of information delivery in mental health topics. Methods We extracted social media metrics from the 20 posts with the highest number of BuzzFeed interactions on the BFMHW website and from 41 videos available on the BFMHW playlist created by the BuzzFeed Video profile on YouTube. We analyzed the format and content used in BuzzFeed’s publishing methods as well as the following social media metrics: exposure (presence online, views and time online), influence (likes) and engagement (comments, shares, replies and BuzzFeed interactions). Results Analysis of the variables revealed that audience engagement is associated with the number of medias in which the content is published: views on YouTube and shares on Facebook (0.71, p<0.001), total interactions on Facebook (0.66, p<0.001) and BuzzFeed number of total interactions (0.56, p<0.001). Conclusions Our results suggest that videos on YouTube may be an important information channel, including activity and engagement on other medias such as Facebook. Information may be more effective in reaching the audience if it is delivered in more than one media and includes personal experiences, some humor in content and detailed information about treatment.


Author(s):  
Judy Malloy

In the formative years of the Internet, researchers collaboratively connected computing systems with a goal of sharing research and computing resources. The model process with which they created the Internet and its forefather, the ARPANET, was echoed in early social media platforms, where creative computer scientists, artists, writers, musicians educators explored the promise of computer-based platforms to bring together communities of interest in what would be called “cyberspace.” With a focus on the arts and humanities, this introduction traces the development of social media affordances in applications such as email, mailing lists, BBSs, the Community Memory, PLATO, Usenet, mail art, telematic art, and video communication. The author outlines the early social media platforms documented in each chapter in this book and summarizes how the book's epilogues both explore differences between early and contemporary social media and look to the future of the arts in social media.


Author(s):  
Shalin Hai-Jew

Malicious political socialbots used to sway public opinion regarding the U.S. government and its functions have been identified as part of a larger information warfare effort by the Russian government. This work asks what is knowable from a web-based sleuthing approach regarding the following four factors: 1) the ability to identify malicious political socialbot accounts based on their ego neighborhoods at 1, 1.5, and 2 degrees; 2) the ability to identify malicious political socialbot accounts based on the claimed and linked geographical locations of their accounts, their ego neighborhoods, and their #hashtag networks; 3) the ability to identify malicious political socialbot accounts based on their strategic messaging (content, sentiment, and language structures) on respective social media platforms; and 4) the ability to identify and describe “maliciousness” in malicious political socialbot accounts based on observable behaviors on that account on three social media platform types: (a) microblogging, (b) social networking, and (c) crowd-sourced encyclopedia content sharing.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document