Twitter Campaigning Strategies in Australian Federal Elections 2013–2019

This special issue of Social Media + Society develops a cross-national, longitudinal perspective on the use of social media in election campaigns. Australia, where leading social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were adopted early and widely by the general population, and where federal election cycles are unusually short (often less than 3 years), provides a particularly suitable environment for observing the evolution of social media campaigning approaches. This article extends our analysis of previous federal election campaigns in Australia by examining Twitter campaigning in the 2019 election; to allow for a direct comparison with previous campaigns, it builds on a methodological and analytical framework that we have used since the 2013 election.

Los medios, el espectador y la narración: Poderes sutiles.

Since the proliferation of the mass media, society has experienced drastical changes, one of them in regards of power. In this essay I analize the power relationships between the mass media and their spectators, as well as their mechanisms and consecuences. I sustain that this mechanism is the narrative understood as a way of deliberately choosing information with the purpose to provide aesthetic feelings to the events on the world. This manipulation of reality generates a power relation as far as the citizen lacks alternative ways of knowing complex social realities, generating an information monopoly, information that can be manipulated both in its content (facts) and in its form (narrative) to show the spectator something that is not always the case. This would generate changes in public opinion which could be easily instrumentalized.

Los medios, el espectador y la narración: Poderes sutiles.

Since the proliferation of the mass media, society has experienced drastical changes, one of them in regards of power. In this essay I analize the power relationships between the mass media and their spectators, as well as their mechanisms and consecuences. I sustain that this mechanism is the narrative understood as a way of deliberately choosing information with the purpose to provide aesthetic feelings to the events on the world. This manipulation of reality generates a power relation as far as the citizen lacks alternative ways of knowing complex social realities, generating an information monopoly, information that can be manipulated both in its content (facts) and in its form (narrative) to show the spectator something that is not always the case. This would generate changes in public opinion which could be easily instrumentalized.

Local Government Respond to COVID-19 Pandemics: A Study of South Tangerang City

This study aims to analyze local governments' efforts in promoting and implementing policies issued during COVID-19. It can also be seen what instruments are used by the government in the socialization of the policy, and the communication between local government officials and the media, society, and business can be seen. The method used in this research is descriptive with a qualitative approach to see the stages of communication in their role in socializing the Tangerang City Government's policies. The results showed that a policy's socialization had gone very well through various socialization of communications such as online media, print media, and electronic media. This type of socialization media is the main instrument of the Tangerang local government in disseminating policies. Another type of socialization is direct media or outreach to each village. It is recommended that the Tangerang City Government improve its performance in disseminating policies to achieve the resulting policy objectives to build public order towards the policies taken.

Fragmentation and Audience Activity on Video-on-Demand Platform: Netflix and the ‘Binge-watching’

One of digital transformation of television systems is an interactive service called video-on-demand (VOD). VOD provides full control to its users, by allowing viewers to enjoy, choose, store, and even download the desired audio-visual content anytime and through any electronic communication device. The presence of Netflix and other VOD service providers is transforming people's behavior patterns in watching television. People are beginning to switch to watching audiovisual content and episodes the same televisions or programs known as binge-watching through online streaming. This study focused on the concept of audiences’ activities based on Levy and Windahl’s typology model. The study also explored the motivation that was a part of uses and gratification theory. This new audience habit and motivation were explored by qualitative approach. The interview was conducted to the Netflix subscribers in Jakarta to discover the behavior activities and motivation of binge-watching. The thematic analysis was applied to analyze the process of fragmentation and audience activity that occurs in a very active new media society.

Below the Radar: Private Groups, Locked Platforms, and Ephemeral Content—Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue of Social Media + Society originates from the first AoIR Flashpoint Symposium, entitled “Below the Radar: Private Groups, Locked Platforms and Ephemeral Content.” The aim of this conference was to investigate platform-driven changes and emerging practices of everyday-life content production occurring “below the radar” of internet research, or outside of previous standards of data visibility and accessibility on which most internet studies have been based over the last decade. In the current context, online spaces seem to be heading toward more circumscribed and unsteady forms of publicness, which contrast with the platform affordances upon which the theorization of networked publics has been built. Private groups, locked platforms, and ephemeral contents are some of the challenges that require the development of new perspectives and research tools capable of adapting to this shifting environment. In this introduction, we will illustrate how the theme of “below the radar” has evolved since the initial call thanks to the confrontation with the researchers who participated in the conference, and this special issue, and we will introduce the nine articles that make up the collection. These articles, which combine different research disciplines and techniques, provide a map of some of the most urgent theoretical, ethical, and methodological issues concerning the current transformations of the visibility regimes of online social action.

Surgeon, Media, Society, Patient

For many, cosmetic surgery holds the promise that one can reshape his or her body to remove perceived defects and thus have a more perfect body. However, the decision to undergo elective cosmetic surgery is not made in a vacuum, and it is easy to overlook the full range of ethical considerations surrounding cosmetic surgery. Many medical ethicists subscribe to an ethical code that centers mainly on the relationship between the doctor and patient, with a focus on respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. This chapter builds on this framework by extending the scope of actors to include not only the surgeon and the patient but also the media and the overall society. To illustrate this framework, the author uses the example of actress Heidi Montag, who underwent 10 different plastic surgery procedures in one day. The chapter concludes with a discussion of potential correctives for ethical failures in each of these areas.