“If you didn’t take a selfie, did you even vote?”: Embodied mass communication and citizenship models in “I voted” selfies

After participating in US elections, voters have begun to share “I voted” selfies, or networked self-portraits that display their political participation. “I voted” selfies exist at the intersection of competing ideals of citizenship, including dutiful citizenship, which centers civic duty and voting, and self-actualizing citizenship, which focuses on individualized and expressive forms of political participation. I argue that these images can be understood through historically resonant communication practices, namely, as a mediated manifestation of 19th-century political congregations that I term embodied mass communication. To trace how voters perform embodied visions of citizenship through shared practices of digital self-representation, I conducted a content analysis of “I voted” selfies posted to Twitter on US Election Day 2016. In these selfies, voters present their bodies as civic evidence, frame individual representations to signify visual collectives, and creatively contextualize their political participation. Their selfies suggest how representational rituals can reflect and reconstitute citizenship models.

Obowiązek posiadania dowodu osobistego i funkcje dowodów pod rządami dekretu z dnia 22 października 1951 roku o dowodach osobistych oraz w czasach współczesnych

The fulfilment of basic civic duties has always entailed the need for individuals to bear certain responsibilities. Their weight varies depending on the content of the obligation itself and the political system of the state in which the obligation is fulfilled. Such a claim is fully justified if we consider the obligation to have an identity card, defined by the content of the Decree of 22 October 1951 and the Act of 6 August 2010 on Identity Cards. The analysis of the above-mentioned regulations allows for: emphasizing the obligation’s character as a basic civic duty, recalling the differences in the actual occurrence and social perception of ailments related to the implementation of the obligation to have an identity card in the times of the Polish People’s Republic and in the 21st century, while referring to the similarities and differences resulting from the visual aspects and functionality of contemporary and historical ID cards.

Constituting good health citizenship through British Columbia’s COVID-19 public updates

The COVID-19 pandemic has augmented discourses of individual citizen responsibility for collective health. This article explores how British Columbia, Canada’s widely praised COVID-19 communication participates in the development of neo-communitarian “active citizenship” governmentalities focused on the civic duty of voluntarily taking responsibility for the health of one’s community. We do so by investigating how public health updates from BC’s acclaimed Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry articulate this civic imperative through the rhetorical constitution of the “good covid citizen.” Our rhetorical analysis shows how this pro-social communication interpellates citizens within a discourse of behavioral, epistemic, and ethical responsibilisation. The communal ethos constituted through this public health communication significantly increases the burden of personal responsibility for health beyond norms of self-care. Making the protection of community health primarily the responsibility of individual citizens also presumes a privileged identity of empowered, active agency and implicitly excludes citizens who lack the means to successfully fulfill the expectations of good covid citizenship.

Of Parochial Partisanship and Education: Towards Civic Duty or Polarization?

This article explored parochial partisanship among university students amid growing concerns about political polarization in Ghana. The paper used mixed research methods to gather data with the aid of an interview guide and a questionnaire. It argued that university education inculcates in and endows young people with a sense of civic-minded duty to prioritize the collective good of society and subordinate parochial partisan preferences in an analysis of political policies. The novel finding is that university education in Ghana has enlightened many young people to decipher between the facts and the propagandistic view held by political activists because of parochial partisan interest. However, university education was found to be a necessary but not sufficient condition to wipe out parochial partisanship which is the bane behind the growing political polarization in Ghana. The paper recommends continuous seminars on the dangers associated with negative partisanship in all tertiary educational institutions. Further, the winner-takes-all politics should be reviewed.

Efektivitas Penanganan Covid-19 dan Dampaknya pada Hasil Pemilihan Umum

Pandemi Covid-19 mendisrupsi jalannya pemilu di berbagai negara dan berpengaruh pada penurunan partisipasi pemilih dan meningkatkan potensi transmisi virus yang mengancam kesehatan masyarakat. Salah satu negara yang menyelenggarakan pemilu di tengah pandemi Covid-19 adalah Korea Selatan. Berbeda dengan mayoritas negara penyelenggara pemilu lainnya di saat pandemi, Pemilu Legislatif Korea Selatan tahun 2020 menjadi pemilu legislatif dengan perolehan turnout voters tertinggi mencapai 66,2 persen. Pemilu tersebut dimenangkan oleh Democratic People’s Party of Korea selaku partai pengusung Presiden Moon Jae-in. Penelitian ini membahas pengaruh dari four-pronged strategy yang digunakan oleh Presiden Moon Jae-in dalam menanggulangi Covid-19 terhadap kemenangan Democratic People’s Party of Korea. Tidak hanya menggunakan penilaian retrospective, penelitian ini juga akan membahas tingginya civic duty masyarakat Korea Selatan yang mempengaruhi tingginya perolehan turnout voters, terlepas dari pemilu yang diadakan di tengah situasi krisis. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa terlepas dari buruknya penilaian kebijakan ekonomi, hubungan luar negeri, dan skandal politik pada pemerintahan Presiden Moon Jae-in, situasi krisis dinilai memiliki urgensi yang lebih tinggi dan menjadi indikator utama masyarakat dalam melakukan penilaian retrospective. Hal tersebut didukung dengan pandangan masyarakat yang menilai Pandemi Covid-19 sebagai krisis nasional, dan berpartisipasi dalam pemilu dianggap sebagai bentuk nation-saving duty. Tingginya partisipasi pemilih dan efektivitas four-pronged strategy mempengaruhi kemenangan Democratic People’s Party of Korea pada Pemilu Legislatif Korea Selatan tahun 2020.

From Crisis to Rebirth: Modern Museums as Assessed by Specialists

The article is devoted to conflicting assessments of the state of the museum in contemporary museum criticism: museums are experiencing either a protracted crisis or the Golden Age. The public is also criticized: people prefer to come to museums in order to be entertained with the help of new technologies and to achieve a scientific goal, and not in order to fulfill their civic duty (appreciating national treasure). In general, among the objectives of the museum (to form a “national imaginary”, to support a state ideology, to serve as a scientific and educational center, to entertain and give pleasure), the aesthetic is in the last place, but the current negative views about the state of a museum as a sociocultural institution are caused by the general suspicion that aesthetics has come to the fore as the most important factor. In order to correctly assess what is happening, modern approaches to the duties of the museum and the needs of the general public need to take the existing points of view on this subject in both Russian and international specialized literature into account. The analysis of the situation also involves data from Internet resources specializing in reporting on the modern art market, which is closely tied to museum politics. The article compares various approaches to the current situation: the goals and objectives historically attributed to the museum, a review of current exhibitions and of the technology used, a change in museum policy as a whole (in particular the fact that what was considered a profanation of a great idea 10 years ago has become a cultural norm today). Based on the results of the study, the following conclusion can be made: modern museums are indeed extremely commercialized. The most unexpected souvenirs are sold in museum stores. Para-museums openly parasitize on the tourist flow of large museums. More than that, nobody thinks twice about making a profit in any possible way, while simultaneously grumbling about the fall in cultural demands of the public. However, interest in museums among the general population remains unchanged, so asserting the widespread crisis of the modern museum is a very big stretch.

Pro Bono in South Africa

This chapter explores issues related to the state of pro bono legal services and access to justice in South Africa. As is made clear in this book, what is referred to as “pro bono” comes from the Latin pro bono publico, meaning “for the public good.” It describes legal work undertaken by legal practitioners without remuneration or at significantly below-market rates as a public service for individuals or organizations who cannot afford to pay. In the South African context, the concept of pro bono must be understood alongside specific constitutional provisions as well as against the structure of the legal profession. In our view, increasing access to justice for the poor, marginalized, and indigent individuals and communities should be seen by members of the South African legal community as an essential component to fulfilling not only their civic duty but also their constitutional obligations. Our understanding of pro bono includes aspirations of access to justice with the legal profession playing a part in its realization. This can only be made real for all people living in South Africa if they have access to legal representation, and much of the private legal profession understands and acknowledges that it has anobligation in this regard. Pro bono practice is therefore a necessary institution for addressing access to justice. It is not, however, sufficient. Pro bono practice must be augmented by the work of paralegals and extended to the particular South African vision of community service, which itself does aspire to implement and achieve access to justice.

Portrayals of Volunteering on U.S. Television: A Textual Analysis

Volunteer managers identify challenging tasks, such as volunteer buy-in, retention, and role matching. Successful management of these tasks is influenced by how volunteers anticipate and perceive their volunteer experience. Volunteers receive and interpret messages about the drivers, rules, and expectations of giving one’s time and expertise from what they observe in the media. Television portrays how society perceives volunteering and compulsory community service. We used textual analysis to interpret portrayals of volunteering in 104 storylines on U.S. television. Television characters portrayed as volunteers were primarily motivated by civic duty, committed on a short-term basis, and had a positive experience. The volunteer manager was often absent. The intended beneficiary need not be present because the volunteer was the ultimate beneficiary. The storylines on TV excluded important components of the volunteer experience, meaning volunteer managers may need to take steps to mitigate problems associated with unrealized expectations of the TV binge-watching volunteers.