scholarly journals SUBVERSIVE COMMEMORATION: MAPPING THE ASSEMBLAGE OF COUNTER-MEMORY ON TWITTER

Author(s):  
Fatima Gaw ◽  
Jon Benedik Bunquin

Beyond enabling participatory forms of memory-making, digital media reconfigure power relations in memory construction. In the Philippines, we witness this through the hashtag network #ArawNgMagnakakaw (‘Day of Thieves’) to counter the heroic commemoration of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos sanctioned by the state and supported by online networks that distort and deny his crimes during his 20-year regime. This case illustrates not only how digital media facilitates the negotiation of memory by non-institutional actors, but also how it sets the conditions to resist elite narratives through non-conventional ways of remembering. This study examines the performance of counter-memory (Foucault, 1977) in the intersection of networked publics, counter-narratives, and technologies of memories. We investigate the hashtag network #ArawNgMagnanakaw by mapping its social network and analyzing its discourses as digital practices (Jones, Chik & Hafner, 2015). We argue that the network derives its power from neither elite nor collective actions, but through connective action of structures, discourses and practices of remembrance. Firstly, the locus of analysis shifts from a single actor (‘who remembers’) to the assemblage (‘what enacts the remembering’) as an agent of counter-memory, with technology shaping its possibilities and boundaries. Secondly, the assemblage’s resistance to elite commemoration surfaces silenced and neglected historical narratives (‘what is remembered’) through affective articulations of protest and subversive commemorative practices (‘how is it remembered’). We theorize the ‘assemblage of counter-memory’ as the connective, discursive, and material assemblage that enact political agency to privilege marginalized narratives and play an active role in the (re)construction of memory.

Comunicar ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (55) ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
María-Elena Meneses ◽  
Alejandro Martín-del-Campo ◽  
Héctor Rueda-Zárate

This article aims to identify how digital public opinion was articulated on Twitter during the visit of the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to Mexico City in 2016 by invitation from the Mexican government, which was preceded by the threat to construct a border wall that Mexico would pay for. Using a mixed methodology made up of computational methods such as data mining and social network analysis combined with content analysis, the authors identify conversational patterns and the structures of the net-works formed, beginning with this event involving the foreign policy of both countries that share a long border. The authors study the digital media practices and emotional frameworks these social network users employed to involve themselves in the controversial visit, marked by complex political, cultural and historical relations. The analysis of 352,203 tweets in two languages (English and Spanish), those most used in the conversations, opened the door to an understanding as to how transnational public opinion is articulated in connective actions detonated by newsworthy events in distinct cultural contexts, as well as the emotional frameworks that permeated the conversation, whose palpable differences show that Twitter is not a homogeneous universe, but rather a set of universes co-determined by sociocultural context. El presente artículo busca identificar cómo se articuló la opinión pública digital en la red social Twitter durante la visita del entonces candidato republicano Donald Trump a la Ciudad de México en el año 2016 por invitación del gobierno mexicano que fue precedida de la amenaza de construir un muro fronterizo que pagaría México. Mediante una metodología mixta compuesta por métodos computacionales tales como minería de datos y análisis de redes sociales combinado con análisis de contenido se identifican los patrones de la conversación y las estructuras de redes que se conformaron a partir de este acontecimiento de la política exterior de ambas naciones que comparten una extensa frontera. Se estudiaron las prácticas mediáticas digitales y los encuadres emocionales con los cuales los usuarios de esta red social se involucraron en la controversial visita marcada por una compleja relación política, cultural e histórica. El análisis de 352.203 tuits en dos idiomas (inglés y español), los más utilizados en las conversaciones, permitió comprender cómo se articula la opinión pública transnacional en acciones conectivas detonadas por eventos noticiosos en contextos culturales distintos, así como los encuadres emocionales que permearon la conversación, cuyas diferencias palpables demuestran que cuando se habla de Twitter no se trata de un universo homogéneo, sino de un conjunto de universos codeterminados por el contexto sociocultural.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Gabriela Christmann ◽  
Ajit Singh ◽  
Jörg Stollmann ◽  
Christoph Bernhardt

<p>This editorial introduces the subject matter of the thematic issue, which includes a diverse collection of contributions from authors in various disciplines including, history, architecture, planning, sociology and geography. Within the context of mediatisation processes—and the increased use of ever-expanding I&amp;C technologies—communication has undergone profound changes. As such, this thematic issue will discuss how far (digital) media tools and their social uses in urban design and planning have impacted the visualisation of urban imaginations and how urban futures are thereby communicatively produced. Referring to an approach originating from the media and communication sciences, the authors begin with an outline of the core concepts of mediatisation and digitalisation. They suggest how the term ‘visualisation’ can be conceived and, against this background, based upon the sociological approach of communicative constructivism, a proposal is offered, which diverges from traditional methods of conceptualising visualisations: Instead, it highlights the need for a greater consideration towards the active role of creators (e.g., planners) and recipients (e.g., stakeholders) as well as the distinctive techniques of communication involved (e.g., a specific digital planning tools). The authors in this issue illustrate how communicative construction, particularly the visual construction of urban futures, can be understood, depending upon the kind of social actors as well as the means of communication involved. The editorial concludes with a summary of the main arguments and core results presented.</p>


Author(s):  
G Ezgi Akguloglu ◽  
Gulcin Con Wright

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the governments of the world to implement different regulative and protective measures. Although these measures required serious re-considerations of public health strategies, they were still grounded on pre-existing contexts of countries’ health systems, namely the “new public health” paradigm. Turkey’s neoliberal health reforms since 2003 coincide with the principles of this paradigm’s trends toward marketizing services and responsibilizing individuals; yet the Turkish context of the pandemic also stands out due to its mixed and unique form of governance. Utilizing the tweets of the Turkish Health Minister between March 13th and October 1st, 2020, we conducted a thematic qualitative analysis investigating the Turkish state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis revealed that state responsibility was framed around building new pandemic hospitals, informing the public, and building trust. Conversely, his tweets assigned Turkish individuals an active role in shaping pandemic outcomes through their “informed” and “empowered” agency. Finally, he coined “togetherness,” referring to the sum of individual actions, as an indispensable goal in assuring public compliance with precautions. The Minister’s tweets reflect the unique nature of pandemic governance in Turkey with a relatively imposing and swift response of centralized power but a primary focus on “responsibilized” individuals’ collective actions.


Nuncius ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 754-778
Author(s):  
Dayana Ariffin

Abstract Mapping of “ethnic” or “racial” groups in the Philippines was an enterprise that was taken up through the direct interventions of the two colonial polities in Filipino history—Spain and the United States. The objective of mapping race or ethnicity in the Philippines was to identify the location of native racial groups for ethnological and administrative purposes. This article intends to explore the relationship between mapping and the scientific conceptualization of race during the changeover in colonial rule by examining two ethnographic maps, specifically the “Blumentritt Map” (1890) and the Atlas de Filipinas (1899). Maps are complex artefacts that can be read on various levels. Thus, the spatializing effects of mapping can extend well beyond the documentation of a geographic reality and capable of altering historical narratives and sociopolitical experiences.


Author(s):  
Hasan Turgut ◽  
Neslihan Yayla

Extreme-right populist tendencies are getting stronger day by day. Although there are various factors that make the extreme-right populist tendencies stronger, the fact that cannot be ignored is that these tendencies must be reproduced discursively (history, culture, etc.) by the ruling power structures. Today, digital media and especially games are the primary areas where this reproduction process is most visible. Mobile games, in particular, turn into dominant cultural phenomena related to daily life beyond leisure, entertainment, and mind refreshing functions. Within this view, it is claimed that the mobile games based on the historical narratives in Turkey work as technology of self to contribute to the discourse of neo-Ottomanism. In order to test this claim, the three most downloaded mobile games (Game of Sultans, Magnificent Ottoman, and Age of Ottomans) in the Appstore and Android markets are selected as examples, and the aesthetic production realized through the structural elements of the game will be analyzed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Stacey

This article explores social movement theory and attempts to modernize and explain contemporary movements with consideration of the digital tools being utilized by citizens on the ground. The ability to transcend borders and traditional boundaries using digital media, to facilitate international participation and develop communication, and the dissemination of information and coordination among activist networks around the world is hugely important. This article asserts that modern contentious collective actions and contemporary movements have received an infusion of autonomy and grassroots energy fueled by digital technologies, and social networking platforms.


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