"A growing empirical scholarship examines the rise of Chinese digital nationalism. This scholarship remains scattered across disciplinary and area studies journals, making it difficult to systematize findings and identify knowledge gaps. We review N = 71 peerreviewed articles and book chapters (1990
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–2021) to map the empirical findings on the (re)production and circulation of official and everyday Chinese nationalist discourses. We note the dominance of single-case textual analyses of online data, the underdeveloped theoretical frameworks, and the unclear research designs across this scholarship. In China, the online (re)production of official nationalism remains driven by the Party state, with netizens’ everyday forms of nationalism generally reinforcing or being co-opted by official nationalism. We call for a fuller picture of the ecosystem of state-driven digital nationalism and its influence as well as more attention to the challenges to official nationalism online mounted by everyday nationalism." (Abstract)
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"This article investigates harmful political content in public WhatsApp and Facebook groups of the radical Right in Brazil. Considering harmful political content as that which generates direct damage to the quality, reasonableness, and plurality of public discussion, we investigate the enunciative a
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spects of four specific types of discursive action (uncivil, conspiratorial, hateful, and dangerous) and the non-enunciative aspects used for harmful types of communication and interaction. The database consists of 3,503,540 messages propagated in 1,676 public groups during the electoral process. Through a quantitative approach to a sample of 2,201 unique messages, we found, among other things, that (1) harmful content was more present on Facebook than on WhatsApp; (2) messages about the elections were associated with uncivil speech; (3) uncivil speech was usually associated with dangerous speech and opposed to conspiratorial speech. The results allow for more nuanced reflections on the actions and strategy of the Far Right in the digital public debate." (Abstract)
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"As the literature aimed at defining and explaining media capture has grown in recent years so has the interest in documenting the impact of capture in greater depth. There is still a relatively wide gap between the literature focused on defining and describing the concept, which is rich and increas
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ingly sophisticated, and the body of research aimed at measuring the impact of capture, which now consists of a collection of disparate analytical papers primarily focused on case studies. This paper aims to contribute to this second body of knowledge: building on existing research, it looks to identify the changes that media capture leads to in three key areas: journalism (with a focus on the impact of capture on professional standards and the performance of journalists), market (with a focus on the effects of capture on free competition, market health and viability of investments), and audience (analysing the content limitations that audiences are faced with in environments where propaganda media is dominant)." (Abstract)
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"Saad Mohseni, chairman and CEO of Moby Group, Afghanistan's largest media company, charts a twenty-year effort to bring a free press to his country after years of Taliban rule, and how that effort persists even after the Taliban's return to power in 2021. In the heady early days of the American occ
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upation, Mohseni returns to Kabul which he had last seen as a child before the Soviet invasion. Casting about for ways to be involved in the dawn of a new Afghanistan, Mohseni makes what seems like a quixotic decision to leave the comforts of a career in international banking to start a Kabul radio station with his three siblings. This unlikely venture quickly blossoms into a burgeoning television empire, bringing Mohseni and his family and employees into sometimes uncomfortable contact with everyone who has a stake in the country-from the government of Hamid Karzai to White House officials. Moreover, their radio and television networks soon become a necessary beacon for millions of Afghans, who rely on them not just for independent news but for joyful pleasures like soap operas and Afghan Star, a beloved national singing competition in a country whose previous rulers had banned (and would again ban) music. Mohseni's position at Moby affords him unique insights into this extraordinary yet troubled country, the youngest in the world outside of Sub-Saharan Africa, and his powerful account captures the spirit and resilience of the Afghan people-notably the hundreds of men and women still working in Moby's Kabul office today, who, once again under Taliban rule, create programs, report the news, and educate the public. Radio Free Afghanistan is a stunning, vibrant portrait of a nation in turmoil, poised between despair and hope." (Publisher description)
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"In the second decade of the 21st century, Bulgaria earned the unsavory reputation of having the least media freedom in the EU’s (Reporters Without Borders). This paper examines the current state of Bulgarian media based on two research concepts: for instrumentalization, respectively the capture o
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f media. The latter, especially when talking about the specifics and consequences of political-oligarchic pressure on media, is more appropriate for countries with serious deficits in their democratic development. The main purpose of the paper is to study media capture in Bulgaria at a structural level: regulatory capture, control of public service media, use of state financing as a control tool, ownership takeover (based on concepts by Dragomir, 2019, IPI, n. D.), including appropriate cases. The analysis makes use of material from to scientific articles, media publications, other publicly available sources, expert interviews." (Abstract)
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"Affective polarization has been a persistent feature of Afghanistan’s society and politics in the past decades. However, with the instantaneous collapse of the republic’s government and the return of the Taliban, the country has witnessed heightened affective polarization along ethnic and ideol
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ogical lines. Stemming from deep-rooted historical grievances, aggregated conflicts, and over a century of failed struggles for statebuilding and nation-building in Afghanistan, the surge in affective polarization is intricately linked with the elite’s behaviour and social media use. Outbidding strategies by elites result in more extreme positions. Coupled with the dissemination of hate and harmful messages, and divisive online content, this attracts wider attention and social support against a background of dwindling inter-group trust, state failure, and uncertainty over the political prospects. This article attempts to conceptualize the complex causal relations of affective polarization, elite behaviour, and social media platforms in Afghanistan’s fragmented social and political landscape." (Abstract)
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"Guinea-Bissau's media have negotiated their roles and freedoms within the postcolonial national construct since its official independence from Portugal in 1974. While the current media landscape is relatively pluralistic, journalists experience constraints from various sides: political pressures, u
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naccommodating regulations, lack of resources. The concept of media capture (Mungiu-Pippidi & Ghinea, 2012; Mabweazara et al., 2020; Schiffrin, 2021) allows the analysis of complex, subtle and structural constraints limiting media's ability to fulfil their roles. This paper traces the phenomenon on the macro level (context), meso level (organizations) and micro level (journalists) in Guinea-Bissau to interrogate how the concept plays out in a context shaped by fragility. The article draws on a literature review, official documents and semi-structured interviews. Following Dugmore's (2022) idea of precarity as an endogenous condition in many Sub-Saharan contexts, this paper argues that capture is engrained in a fragile system rather than being an exception or disruption. This has implications for international media development action, which can be hindered by or become a part of the capture." (Abstract)
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"L'irruption du numérique et de l'Internet mobile a accéléré la transformation digitale de la société ivoirienne. Et, de plus en plus, des formes d'engagement politique et médiatique s'organisent avec l'utilisation des technologies socionumériques. Face à ces changements, la Côte d'Ivoire
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devra relever les défis de la recherche, du développement des infrastructures digitales et du renforcement du capital humain. Cet ouvrage revient sur l'usage des technologies socionumériques dans les campagnes électorales, les mobilisations citoyennes et les mutations médiatiques, et relève les enjeux de l'Open Data dans la perspective d'une gouvernance transparente. Il s'adresse aux étudiants en communication, aux enseignants-chercheurs, aux professionnels de la communication, aux décideurs politiques ainsi qu'aux lecteurs désireux de comprendre l'intégration évolutive des technologies socionumériques dans les pratiques de communication et, surtout, dans un cadre nécessaire de valeurs et de normes visant leur régulation." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"Despite the increasing number of studies examining the conflicts between the media and populist leaders, understanding how such clashes prompt shifts in journalism norms and practices remains to be thoroughly explored. Based on a literature review and the discussion of an extensive array of example
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s characterizing the Brazilian media setting, this article provides a qualitative assessment of how Jair Bolsonaro's rhetoric and actions have triggered a “critical incident” in our mainstream journalism. We consider four dimensions currently experiencing transformations: the media's (1) institutional responses and campaigns, (2) production of the news, (3) production of editorials, and (4) how media professionals have reacted to populist attacks. There is evidence that journalism has increasingly become a central topic in news texts. We have also cataloged changes in news production routines (e.g., the editors’ hesitancy to send reporters to cover some political events), the use of editorials to reinforce metajournalistic discourses, and shifts in how professionals make sense of their work. Our findings contribute to the broader literature by investigating how traditional borders and values of journalism are renegotiated during institutional crises. In addition, our analytical framework can be applied to other media settings experiencing similar tensions and help underpin the construction of empirical variables to understand meaningful changes in the field. Lastly, this study considers the possible effects that change in norms, routines, and practices can have on the democratic roles of journalism." (Abstract)
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"The article is interested in the role of humour employed in memes on X by the government of Ukraine in the war following the invasion by Russia in 2022. It brings insights from cultural and humour studies as well as psychology into politics and shows how and what kind of humour the government aroun
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d President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a professional comedian, uses in their meme communication via social media in order to communicate with the public, seek global legitimacy and support, as well as depict and attack the enemy. It shows that the government uses a broad set of different humour types, styles and theories while completely avoiding self-deprecation as a humour style and humour which corresponds to relief theory. While this absence may not seem surprising at first in a situation of war in which there is a need to maintain tension towards the enemy, to galvanize support and avoid emphasizing own faults which might make it appear weak, the void of such forms of humour should be reconsidered. While this absence may not seem surprising during a war – a time in which there is a need to maintain tension towards the enemy, to galvanize support and to avoid emphasizing one’s own faults so as not to give the appearance of weakness – the void of such forms of humour should be reconsidered. The article calls for further research on the benefits and limitations of laughter in war. It argues that both relief theory and self-deprecation can be effective tools of crisis communication as these forms of humour can contribute to the portrayal of confidence and strength, while also providing a means of dealing with the difficult and traumatic experiences the population is facing in times of war." (Abstract)
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"This study discusses the relationship among the various dimensions of populism, hate speech, and disinformation within the political discourse on X (formerly Twitter) in India and Pakistan. Employing manual content analysis, we examined 7,141 posts from both populist and non-populist political lead
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ers in both countries. Our findings reveal a significant correlation among these three challenging concepts, indicating that posts exhibiting higher levels of populism also tend to score higher on both hate speech and disinformation. Although certain aspects of populism, such as a pro-people and anti-elite approach, are not inherently harmful, our study emphasizes that Manicheanism is a problematic concept in political discourses because of its close association with hate speech and disinformation." (Abstract)
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"Cet ouvrage propose de comprendre ce qui se joue dans la communication politique. Celle-ci doit laisser place à l'expression des conflits et des désaccords, ce qui permet de renégocier le pacte civil. Dans cette perspective, force est de constater que la démocratie est avant tout un espace dél
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ibératif « polémique » nourri de toutes les formes de contestation. Elle doit donc se penser comme la mise en scène d'une certaine conflictualité. La communication politique est alors le moyen pour les citoyens de la mettre en scène et par là de conférer à leurs relations une certaine stabilité. Ce qui se construit ici, au travers de la délibération publique et de la dispute, c'est bien une pluralité nouvelle qui peut transformer les acteurs-citoyens et leurs façons d'être ensemble. Moins qu'une menace, la délibération publique même et surtout conflictuelle constitue une opportunité, pour la société, d'accéder à la liberté." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"This study examines #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar and attempts to understand the practice of hashtags in the struggle against digital repression. By using descriptive analysis methods and qualitative content analysis, this study argues that #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar is categorized into 4 distinct narrati
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ve forms: Grievance expression, information dissemination, attracting support, and mobilization. Each narrative fulfills different functions within the context of the struggle against digital repression. Grievance expression challenges social manipulation and disinformation. Information dissemination tackles censorship and social manipulation/disinformation. Attracting support helps keep the conversation about Myanmar active on social media even when the Internet is shut down. Finally, the mobilization narrative helps protect protesters and online users from state surveillance and persecution. Through analyzing the hashtag narrative, this study offers resourceful findings on how activists have used social media against digital repression and on the evolution of resistance to struggle against new types of state repression." (Abstract)
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"In this article we theorize a new organizational face of political parties that we term the ‘party-on-the-net’, defined as a set of digital partisan activist roles enabled by the affordances of digital technologies. We first explain the conceptual advantages of understanding parties’ media hy
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bridization as an organizational face rather than as a specific party subtype. Then, we provide a taxonomy of digital partisan roles comprising the party-on-thenet and its links with traditional party bureaucracies and functions. We define and discuss ten roles on the basis of two general organizational variables, namely functional alignment with party structures and influence over core party decisions. Finally, after illustrating each of these roles through examples across different geographical regions, we consider how our framework can help scholars to develop hypotheses for further empirical scrutiny. We focus on the relative prevalence of the party-on-the-net within subtypes of digital parties, its relation to other organizational faces, and its development under different institutional scope conditions." (Abstract)
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"News media continue to play a central role in promoting public debate and the visibility of populist messages. This study discusses how Brazilian television journalism reacted to the populism of Jair Bolsonaro during the COVID-19 crisis. We adopted a content analysis and a framing analysis to ident
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ify the main themes and frames in reports at the beginning of the crisis by the country’s 2main television news programs. The corpus consists of 26 editions of Jornal Nacional (JN) and 26 editions of Jornal da Record (JR). Our hypothesis is that these news programs had significantly different interpretations of the Bolsonaro government’s actions. The data show that JN voiced its opposition to the president, while JR assumed the role of the government’s official voice, creating mechanisms to normalize populism. These results have important implications for understanding how the political positions adopted by traditional media affect how populism is promoted in the public sphere." (Abstract)
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"From US President Donald Trump’s Tweet labeling news media “the enemy of the people” to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s establishment of a politically appointed Media Authority, media freedom is under threat in democracies and nondemocracies alike. According to Freedom House, in 20
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16 media freedom declined globally to its lowest level since 2003, with Europe experiencing the largest regional decrease. We investigate the relationship between government and media in Hungary and Poland and develop a theory that the rise of nationalist sentiment and leaders who leverage this sentiment to encourage censorship from the bottom-up has led to increased media restrictions from the top-down. We posit that bottom-up censorship will erode media credibility and make people more accepting of top-down media restrictions, which could, in turn, lead to nationalism unchecked by the fourth estate. Using a multilevel analysis of World Values Survey, we analyze the relationship between nationalism and media distrust. Using a cross-national time series, we analyze the relationship between nationalist sentiment and media restrictions. We find that increased nationalism is indeed associated with media distrust and media restrictions." (Abstract)
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"Das DiskursGlossar ist ein Online-Lexikon zur strategischen Kommunikation. Auf Basis aktueller Forschung bietet es kompakte und anschauliche Informationen zu Phänomenen diskursiver Kämpfe, wie wir sie in Medien, Politik, Recht und Zivilgesellschaft beobachten können. Das Glossar soll dazu beitra
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gen, kommunikative Strategien in der öffentlichen Praxis besser zu erkennen, zu bezeichnen und zu kritisieren." (diskursmonitor.de/glossar)
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