"The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Media and Communication in the Middle East and North Africa stands as an authoritative and up-to-date resource on the critical debates, research methods and ongoing reflections on how gender and communication intersect with the economic, social, political, and cultu
...
ral fabrics of the countries in the MENA region. The handbook comprises thirty chapters written by both established and rising scholars of gender, media, and digital technologies, and will rely on fresh data which seeks to capture the dynamic and complex realities of MENA societies, as well as the tensions and contradictions in the politics of gender and uses of communication technologies. The Handbook is split into six sections: Gender, Identities and Sexualities; The Gender of Politics; Gender and Activism; Gender-Based Violence; Gender and Entrepreneurship; and Gender in Expressive Cultures." (Publisher description)
more
"Annekathrin Kohout und Wolfgang Ullrich versammeln Beiträge, die sich verschiedenen Aspekten der zeitgenössischen visuellen Kultur widmen: Was zeichnet die Kommunikation über Memes aus, und warum sind sie so beliebt? Wie funktionieren GIFs, und wie haben sich das Dateiformat und seine Nutzung ü
...
ber die Zeit verändert? Was bedeutet der zunehmende Einfluss von Influencerinnen und Influencern für die Rezeption und Verbreitung von Mode? Und welche Konsequenzen hat es, dass die Allgegenwart von Bildern mit der zunehmenden Verbreitung von Software einhergeht, die in der Lage ist, automatisiert Gesichter zu erkennen? Die Beiträge nehmen unterschiedliche Facetten eines tiefgreifenden kulturellen Wandels in den Blick und zeigen seine Grundlagen, Potenziale und Ambivalenzen auf." (Buchrücken)
more
"This study examines the use of social media by individuals during protests in China (Hong Kong), Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon. Method: Surveys in the four countries assess the relationship between people's attitudes toward the protests and their selection bias on social media, manifested through selecti
...
ve sharing and selective avoidance. Findings: Regardless of the different political and media systems in each country, social media usage was largely similar. Overall, our findings established that people's attitude strength toward the protests was associated with their selective sharing behavior; those who scored high on supporting the protests were more likely than those who scored high on opposing the protests to share news that supports the protests, and vice versa. As for selective avoidance, social media protest news use emerged as the strongest predictor. The more individuals followed and shared protest news on social media, the more likely they were to engage in selective avoidance by hiding or deleting comments, unfriending or unfollowing people, and blocking or reporting people for posting comments with which they disagreed." (Abstract)
more
"The pandemic made inequality, discrimination, exclusion and structural inequity more palpable, and rather than stagnating in indignation, it reactivated a sense of rebellion and contestation. The strength and sharpness with which we connect social justice, gender justice, environmental justice, eco
...
nomic justice and racial justice with the potentials and limitations of digital technologies is undeniable. Using this intersectional lens, we need to document and build our own narratives about the challenges that we face related to the impacts of the pandemic and reflect on how our advocacy priorities as well as the ways we do advocacy are changing and keep being modified and adjusted. At APC we have strengthened capacity to design and implement collective and contextual community responses to the multiple challenges and crises that we face, while having a greater awareness of the kind of global responses that should be prioritised, based on shared but differentiated responsibilities [...] GISWatch 2021-2022 focuses on responses to some of the fundamental questions brought by the pandemic to inform civil society’s advocacy around digital technology issues and their potential to shape future horizons. As illustrated on our cover, a sustained struggle will be necessary in the years ahead, but not only in the public spaces. A nuanced approach to advocacy will be essential to open multiple ways to bring about positive change." (Preface, page 6)
more
"This study uses TikTok as a novel medium to extend the literature on online activism. It adds to the emergent body of knowledge about playful political participation among youth. It also explores how creative micro-videos can be a force to create momentum and shape opinions around social and politi
...
cal topics. A content analysis of 203 TikTok videos reflecting the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict that took place in Sheikh Jarrah in 2021, was used to understand the extent to which TikTok's platform's affordances were used and examine the message frames that emerged when online users disseminated messages of affect and solidarity with the Palestinians during the Sheikh Jarrah incident. Findings: The study showed that TikTok affordances encourage virality and creative crafting of direct and indirect political content, making the platform a space for political expression, mobilization, and online activism. The affordances used during the TikTok Intifada were visibility, editability, association, and persistence. The two most prominent frames were the use of hashtags to promote the cause, followed by direct political content. Practical implications: Researchers are given guidance on how TikTok design elements are now allowing a very young segment of users to become producers of political content in a way where messages are creatively crafted using the platform's affordances." (Abstract)
more
"Iranian Feminism and Transnational Ethics in Media Discourse explores how U.S. news and social media discourse hierarchies overshadow transnational feminist politics and reinforce femonationalist narratives, thereby unpacking how protesters' voices on the ground are obscured in favor of elite sourc
...
es who reaffirm U.S Islamophobia." (Publisher description)
more
"¿Cuáles son las principales herramientas comunicativas de los movimientos feministas en Iberoamérica? ¿Qué papel juega la comunicación en la cuarta ola? ¿Cómo se articulan las contranarrativas a los discursos del odio digitales contra activistas y comunicadoras? Las investigaciones en comun
...
icación y género de este libro permiten observar cómo se están produciendo avances a ambos lados del Atlántico, que dialogan sobre el espacio digital como un lugar de disputa discursiva y el rol fundamental de los movimientos feministas y las profesionales de la comunicación en la actualidad." (Cubierta del libro)
more
"This Open Access book examines the ambivalences of data power. Firstly, the ambivalences between global infrastructures and local invisibilities challenge the grand narrative of the ephemeral nature of a global data infrastructure. They make visible local working and living conditions, and the reso
...
urces and arrangements required to operate and run them. Secondly, the book examines ambivalences between the state and data justice. It considers data justice in relation to state surveillance and data capitalism, and reflects on the ambivalences between an “entrepreneurial state” and a “welfare state”. Thirdly, the authors discuss ambivalences of everyday practices and collective action, in which civil society groups, communities, and movements try to position the interests of people against the “big players” in the tech industry." (Publisher description)
more
"Beyond supporting coalition-building, campaigning and lobbying, online campaigns aim to achieve specific goals such as the implementation of gender-based violence laws (#NiUnaMenos), or the removal of taxes on menstrual supplies (#HappytoBleed). More than just ‘slacktivism’, this report traces
...
how the rise of online activism is generating real-world transformations in gender norms and where in a matter of seconds, a social media campaign can go viral and affect offline life in many ways. This research also examines the role of social media in spreading misogyny and other forms of hate, with online gender-based violence a real risk to women’s rights. From anti-rights movements, to anti-feminist and anti-gender content promoted on the Manosphere, online misogyny is explored in some detail as a barrier to digital activism on gender norms." (https://www.alignplatform.org)
more
"The volume analyses the ambivalent relationship between human rights and modern technologies since 1945. Tools of suppression or agents of emancipation? Modern technologies have become a major subject of human rights policy. Surveillance technology, the military use of drones, and the possibilities
...
of Big Data analysis pose new challenges for the international human rights movement. At the same time, these techniques offer new ways to document and denounce violations of human rights and to promote mass mobilization. The volume analyses this ambivalent relationship between human rights and technological change in a historical perspective. Showing how the spread of modern technologies both challenged and served human rights policies, the volume focuses on four key areas of technological change: 1) development politics, infrastructures and large technical systems, 2) population politics and demographical knowledge, 3) media cultures and communication technologies, and 4) the societal impact of computerization. By sketching these debates since 1945, the volume adds a historical perspective to current debates about the political and ethical challenges of new technological developments." (Publisher description)
more
"This qualitative feminist study sheds light on women’s shifting identities, struggles, and resistances in the most conservative Gulf state, Saudi Arabia, unpacking the shifting socio-political and mediated environments in this country and their impact on gendered activism. Through conducting in-d
...
epth interviews with ten Saudi women activists, journalists, and writers, this study investigates Saudi women’s multiple feminisms and activisms, as they are expressed and enacted by different women using the phenomenon of “cyberactivism”, and its sister phenomenon of “cyberfeminism”, to participate in the waves of socio-political transformation in the volatile Gulf region. In discussing how Saudi women are leveraging social media to advance their agendas, amplify their voices, highlight their demands, and enact new forms of leadership, agency, and empowerment, the double-edged sword effect of social media is unpacked. Adopting a postcolonial feminist approach, this study examines the potentials, challenges, and paradoxes of using social media to advance Saudi women’s rights in a rapidly shifting state." (Abstract)
more
"La aparición de las redes sociodigitales a mediados de la primera década de 2000 fue recibida con entusiasmo y recelo por diversos sectores sociales. Los ciudadanos vieron en espacios como Facebook, Twitter y, más recientemente, Instagram, una consolidación de la autocomunicación de masas plan
...
teada por Manuel Castells en 1997 que acercaba el poder de la información y la comunicación a las personas del común, mientras los políticos dudaban entre si era un riesgo o una oportunidad en la disputa del poder en la opinión pública. Lo ocurrido en los casi veinte años de vida de las redes sociodigitales ha mostrado su poder de movilización social (Occupy Wall Street, Primavera Árabe, #MeToo) y su impacto político, pero también ha expuesto varios riesgos derivados del uso social y de los algoritmos que controlan la red, entre ellos las cámaras de eco, la espiral de silencio, el contenido engañoso (misinformation), el contenido falso (desinformación), el exceso de información (infodemia) y la presencia de bots que replican información para convertirla en tendencia u ocultar contenidos." (Publisher description)
more
"This open access handbook presents a multidisciplinary and multifaceted perspective on how the 'digital' is simultaneously changing Russia and the research methods scholars use to study Russia. It provides a critical update on how Russian society, politics, economy, and culture are reconfigured in
...
the context of ubiquitous connectivity and accounts for the political and societal responses to digitalization. In addition, it answers practical and methodological questions in handling Russian data and a wide array of digital methods. The volume makes a timely intervention in our understanding of the changing field of Russian Studies and is an essential guide for scholars, advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying Russia today." (Publisher description)
more
"This book investigates the ways in which the mobile telephone has transformed societies around the world, bringing both opportunities and challenges. At a time when knowledge and truth are increasingly contested, the book asks how mobile technology has changed the ways in which people create, disse
...
minate, and access knowledge. Worldwide, mobile internet access has surpassed desktop access, and it is estimated that by 2022 there will be an excess of 6 billion mobile phone users in the world. This widespread proliferation raises all sorts of questions around who creates knowledge, how is that knowledge shared and proliferated, and what are the structural political, economic, and legal conditions in which knowledge is accessed. The practices and power dynamics around mobile technologies are location specific. They look different depending on whether one chooses to highlight the legal, social, political, or economic context. Bringing together scholars, journalists, activists and practitioners from around the world, this book embraces this complexity, providing a multifaceted picture that acknowledges the tensions and contradictions surrounding accessing knowledge through mobile technologies. With case studies from Hong Kong, South Korea, India, Syria, Egypt, Botswana, Brazil, and the US, this book provides an important account of the changing nature of our access to knowledge, and is key reading for students, researchers, activists and policy makers with an interest in technology and access to knowledge, communication, social transformation, and global development." (Publisher description)
more
"Fake News, Hate Speech und Rassismus im Netz: Soziale Medien bieten Menschen und Organisationen auch dafür eine Plattform. Wie kann man gegensteuern und selbst aktiv für Demokratie, Meinungsvielfalt und die Entgiftung des gesellschaftlichen Klimas eintreten? Said Rezek, Politikwissenschaftler und
...
Journalist, bezieht seit Jahren als Blogger Stellung gegen Rassismus und Hass im Netz. In diesem Buch vermittelt er das Handwerkszeug dazu: Was macht einen reichweitenstarken Blog aus? Zu welchen Themen und Anlässen lohnt sich die Positionierung? Welche Beitragsformen – z.B. Tweets, Memes, Listicles oder Offene Briefe - kann man speziell in Social Media einsetzen? Wie arbeitet man selbst gleichermaßen rechtssicher und kompetent und schützt sich vor Verletzungen der eigenen Privatsphäre? Das Buch bietet zahlreiche praktische Beispiele, wie, wann und wofür es sich zu bloggen lohnt, um Gegnern einer vielfältigen, friedlichen und demokratischen Gesellschaft nicht das Feld zu überlassen." (Buchrücken)
more
"The 20 October 2021 marks the first anniversary of the shooting of unarmed protesters by the Nigerian military. The movement pushing to abolish the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has proved how social media can make the voices of the weak heard. However, recent developments surrounding social me
...
dia regulations in the aftermath of the shooting show that the right to freedom of expression is at risk of regression." (Abstract)
more
"This book frames digital sovereignty as a right to be claimed and a process constantly in the making, as a condition of the ability to critically partake in the digital transformation. Emphasizing a political and transformative significance of the term, this interdisciplinary publication gathers sc
...
holars, activists, artists and human rights advocates who develop practices or provide spaces and structures to foster sophisticated means of digital involvement. Its aim is to identify diverse facets of what it means to be digitally sovereign, but also to critically discuss the viability of the term, especially in the light of modern-day crises and for the many future challenges yet to come. The positions assembled in this volume analyze new opportunities for social participation and policy making and recommend alternative technological and social practices utilized by various groups and collectives – both before and after COVID-19." (Introduction, page 13)
more