"Comprising 41 chapters by a team of international contributors, the companion is divided into three parts: histories; approaches; thematic considerations. The chapters offer wide-ranging explorations of how forms of mediation influence communication, social relationships, cultural practices, partic
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ipation, and social change, as well as production and access to information and knowledge. This volume considers new developments, and highlights the ways in which anthropology can contribute to the study of the human condition and the social processes in which media are entangled." (Publisher description)
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"This collection considers how digital images and social media reconfigure the way conflicts are played out, represented and perceived around the globe. Devoted to developing original theoretical frameworks and empirical insights, the volume addresses the role of user images and social media in rela
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tion to urgent subjects such as public opinion and emotion, solidarity, evidence and verification, censorship and fake news, which are all central to the ways current conflicts are represented and unfold. Essays include a unique range of case studies from different regional and political contexts (Middle East, Europe, Asia, North America) and in connection with different conflict types (war, terror, riots, everyday resistance, etc.). They also consider performative genres such as memes, selfies and appropriations as well as images conforming to the realism and authenticity of conventional photojournalism. In this way, the collection responds to the challenges of swiftly evolving image genres as well as to the continually shifting policies and algorithms of commercial digital platforms." (Publisher description)
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"This report investigates the political economy of covert influence in the 2022 Philippine Elections, with a focus on social media influencers involved in covert political campaigning. This interdisciplinary research (1) examines political influencers and peripheral actors in the field engaged in po
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litical campaigning using qualitative field research methods, (2) maps and evaluates evidence of their participation in covert influence operations through computational social science methods, and (3) estimates political spending on the presumed commissioned influencers through economic modeling. Our research is the first empirical work to produce an assembly of data-informed approximations of the scope and scale of the political economy of covert influence operations. Specifically, it is the first to estimate the economic ‘cost’ of commissioned influencers for electoral influence operations in the Philippines. It also provides a complex but nuanced account of influencers as ‘gray’ political actors who exercise agency in their complicity to covert political campaigning given commensurate economic and political incentives. Amidst undocumented transactions and opaque operations, our research establishes multiple, cross-platform proxy measures of malicious political influencing, beyond established detection mechanisms. We find that thousands of political influencers are presumed to be commissioned to perform covert political campaigning in the 2022 Philippine Elections for top national positions, funded by massive financing by political intermediaries in a largely unstructured and unregulated economic market characterized by asymmetrical political relations." (Executive summary, page 11)
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"Professional and liberal-oriented news media in Hong Kong have been under severe political pressure since the establishment of the National Security Law in 2020. Journalists now have to navigate a more dense and uncertain legal minefield. Self-censorship has intensified. This article argues that se
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lf-censorship and other media responses can be better understood under the broader framework of risk culture. Drawing upon 43 in-depth interviews with journalists from 12 organizations, this article reconstructs how news organizations and journalists have developed methods to assess and manage risk and describes the characteristics of their risk assessment and management and the changing character of self-censorship. The emerging risk cultures have helped maintain organizational stability and journalistic professional identity. The concluding discussion elaborates on the implications of the analysis for understanding self-censorship and press freedom in Hong Kong, briefly compares Hong Kong’s situation with mainland China’s, and reflects on the possible development of risk cultures in other institutional contexts." (Abstract)
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"How has the Philippine disinformation landscape evolved since 2016? How different was the 2022 presidential election from previous electoral cycles? And what lessons can we learn from electoral triumphs and defeats often associated with disinformation? This report goes to the heart of these questio
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ns. Our aim is to understand the evolving character of disinformation—the tactics used, actors involved, the wider context in which disinformation unfolds, and the responses of the government, tech platforms, and civil society to these trends. In doing so, we hope to generate actionable insights on impactful responses to disinformation, with a view of preparing for the 2025 midterm election." (Introduction)
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"Through interviews with women journalists in the Philippines, this study documents and examines their experiences with online harassment. Three main themes stand out. First, we find that online harassment against journalists follows a systematic process that starts from the top, is followed through
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by a network of social media personalities and an army of trolls, and then completed by ordinary social media users. Second, cases of harassment impact journalists across multiple levels: individually, interpersonally and professionally. Finally, the participants referred to different ways of coping with what they experienced and identified three sources of support: their peers, their organizations and the public. Harassment against journalists has always been gendered, with women journalists finding themselves at the receiving end more often than do their male counterparts, and this has spilled over into digital platforms." (Abstract)
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"This book observes and analyses transnational interactions of East Asian pop culture and current cultural practices, comparing them to the production and consumption of Western popular culture and providing a theoretical discussion regarding the specific paradigm of East Asian pop culture. Drawing
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on innovative theoretical perspectives and grounded empirical research, an international team of authors consider the history of transnational flows within pop culture and then systematically address pop culture, digital technologies, and the media industry. Chapters cover the Hallyu—or Korean Wave—phenomenon, as well as Japanese and Chinese cultural industries. Throughout the book, the authors address the convergence of the once-separated practical, industrial, and business aspects of popular culture under the influence of digital culture. They further coherently synthesize a vast collection of research to examine the specific realities and practices of consumers that exist beyond regional boundaries, shared cultural identities, and historical constructs." (Publisher description)
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"This article discusses the emergence of Turkish serial dramas as a site for contestation over the impact of Islamic modernity on Malay women in contemporary Malaysia. Despite its popularity among Malay women, Turkish serial drama has been criticized for misleading and confusing the audience about I
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slamic history, faith, culture and civilization. The controversy over this television genre raises the question of how Malay women, constrained within their position of being female subjects of the state, manage to circumvent the authorities and watch this Turkish serial drama. They are not supposed to challenge social norms, moral propriety, cultural identity and the state vision of modernity. Therefore, this article argues that although Malay women exhibit excitement towards this television genre, they consistently use Islamic knowledge to develop watching skills and become more sceptical as well as competent in interpreting popular Islamic texts. The findings also show that Islam in the Malay world is culturally diverse, progressive and flexible." (Abstract)
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"Mixed Methods Perspectives on Communication and Social Media Research addresses the need for a discipline-cum-methodology-tailored book that navigates the current research spectrum of communication and social media ("CommSocMed"). It examines contemporary and relevant issues that intertwine the exp
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ansive spheres of CommSocMed. Authored by professionals with extensive academic and in-depth research and industry experience, the book highlights research-based themes that mirror qualitative and quantitative methodologies vis-à-vis socio-cultural, political, educational, and organisational issues and challenges. The first two sections present the mutually interwoven disciplines of CommSocMed where research works cover a comprehensive range of designs such as narrative analysis, case study, recombinant memetics, discourse analysis, visual semiotics, ethnography, content analysis, feminist theory, descriptive-survey, descriptive-correlational, model-building/testing, experimental, and mixed methods. The third section is a concluding segment which synthesises all the scholarly contributions in this volume." (Publisher description)
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"This edited collection seeks to better understand how journalism across cultures differs, presenting an in-depth exploration of global practices that departs from the typical Western-centric approach. Journalists across the world are trained, generally speaking, within Western models of reporting a
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nd are taught to do so as a practice where reporters need to aspire and aim for. Yet what such training is short of achieving is teaching reporters how to 'do' journalism within their own environments. In turn, what is required is a method of journalistic training and practice that is reflective of the actual practice reporters encounter on the ground. In order to do so, a better understanding of how journalism is practised in different parts of the world, the context surrounding such practices, the issues and challenges associated, and the positive practices that Western journalism can offer, is necessary. Promoting and deploying a culturally-specific and politically-relevant journalism, this book provides just that." (Publisher description)
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"By the summer of 2020, when the coronavirus had fully entered our everyday vocabulary and our lives, religious communities and places of worship around the world were already undergoing profound changes. In Asian and Asian diaspora communities, diverse cultural tropes, beliefs, and artifacts were m
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obilized to make sense of Covid, including a repertoire of gods and demons like Coronasur, the virus depicted with the horns and fangs of a traditional Hindu demon. Various kinds of knowledge were invoked: theologies, indigenous medicines, and biomedical narratives, as well as ethical values and nationalist sentiments. CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age follows the documentation and analysis of the abrupt societal shifts triggered by the pandemic to understand current and future pandemic times, while revealing further avenues for research on religion that have opened up in the Covidian age. Developed in tandem with the research blog CoronAsur: Religion and COVID-19, this volume is a “phygital” publication, a work grounded in empirical roots as well as digitally born communication. It comprises thirty-eight essays that examine Asian religious communities—Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Daoist, and Christian as well as popular/folk and new religious movements, or NRMs—in terms of the changes brought on by and the ritual responses to the Covid pandemic." (Publisher description)
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"Combining an innovative mix of traditional chapters, autoethnography, case studies, and dialogue within an intercultural framework, the handbook focuses on the future of media education and provides a deeper understanding of the challenges and affordances of media education as we move forward. Topi
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cs range from fighting disinformation, how vulnerable communities coped with disadvantages using media, transforming educational TV or YouTube to reach larger audiences, supporting students’ wellbeing through various online strategies, examining early childhood, parents, and media mentoring using digital tools, reflecting on educators’ intersectionality on video platforms, youth-produced media to fight injustice, teaching remotely and providing low-tech solutions to address the digital divide, search for solutions collaboratively using social media, and many more." (Publisher description)
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"Throughout the twenty-first century, genocide denial has evolved and adapted with new strategies to augment and complement established modes of denial. In addition to outright negation, denial of genocide encompasses a range of techniques, including disputes over numbers, contestation of legal defi
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nitions, blaming the victim, and various modes of intimidation, such as threats of legal action. Arguably the most effective strategy has been denial through the purposeful creation of misinformation. Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century brings together leading scholars from across disciplines to add to the body of genocide scholarship that is challenged by denialist literature. By concentrating on factors such as the role of communications and news media, global and national social networks, the weaponization of information by authoritarian regimes and political parties, court cases in the United States and Europe, freedom of speech, and postmodernist thought, this volume discusses how genocide denial is becoming a fact of daily life in the twenty-first century." (Publisher description)
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"This study examines the authoritarian conditioning of political expression on social media in three Chinese societiesby analyzing three parallel surveys comprising 6942 respondents from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Results demonstrate that the use of social media to gather political infor
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mation triggers politically expressive use of social media and indirectly predicts offline non-institutionalized political participation. Individuals’ authoritarian orientation, however, moderates such indirect effects. Only people who demonstrate low or moderate adherence to authoritarian value systems exemplify this mediation model. Those with high levels of authoritarian orientation are not exemplary. Furthermore, the extent to which social media use interacts with authoritarian orientation to build a relationship with political participation presents two different patterns across three Chinese societies. The moderated mediating effect described here exists in Hong Kong and Taiwan but not in mainland China. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings." (Abstract)
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"The book identifies and explains the unequal power relations in place that limit the possibilities of communication justice, the challenges and difficulties faced by activists and communities, the ways in which communities and movements have confronted power structures through discourse and materia
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l action, and their successes and limitations in creating new structures that promote the right to, and facilitate a future for, communicative justice. The volume features contributions based on experiences of resistance and transformation in the Global South—Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Malawi, and collaborations between the continents of Latin America and Africa—as well as notable studies from the Global North—Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom—that defy hegemonic models." (Publisher description)
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"Is it necessary for journalists to seek refuge with foreign agencies to escape national governmental and policy restrictions? Should journalism education rely on international support, or is it feasible to detach it from foreign development collaboration? Should education be viewed as a business or
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commodity? Is any international development support sustainable within the local context? Is free thinking truly free from the structural constraints of slavery and financial influence? Is absolute freedom a utopian ideal or a tangible reality? These inquiries, coupled with corresponding philosophical methodologies, aim to evaluate the structure, constituents, excellence, and norms of current journalism education programs. The goal is to uncover if and to what extent international media development organizations sway journalism education programs during the transition phase (2011–2021) in Myanmar or beyond.
2011 marked a turning point, as the military-supported government of Myanmar granted media professionals the ability to exercise their fundamental rights to express themselves and access information. The government has taken a number of favorable measures towards the democratic path, such as partially lifting censorship from several news publications, authorizing private daily newspapers, approving new television channels, establishing a press council, and permitting journalist unions and associations. The formation of the quasi-elected government in 2015 brought renewed hope. However, the military coup at the beginning of 2021 has once again impeded progress towards a democratic environment, and fundamental rights such as access to information and freedom of speech. Capacity building facilities for journalists and media professionals remain an important aspect of the democratic process in the country." (Publisher description)
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"This study offers a systematic theory of the institutional solutions to the dictator’s dilemma, which arises from the incapacity to calibrate repression and concessions due to the lack of information about elite and popular discontent. Empirically, the book presents a detailed discussion of the t
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ypes of information-gathering institutions created in autocracies, paying particular attention to the difference between standard mechanisms for the retrospective assessment of overt dissatisfaction and the more sophisticated channels for anticipatory evaluations of latent discontent. The book argues that the creation of institutions for the involuntary collection of information is straightforward, but that only certain regimes successfully promote the voluntary provision of information, which is essential for anticipatory governance. In ethnically heterogeneous countries, compactly settled ethnic minorities present a further obstacle for establishing a panoptical authoritarian vision. These problems notwithstanding, communist regimes are especially adept at developing sophisticated systems that mobilize the party, State Security, and internal journalism to assess levels of discontent. Methodologically, the book demonstrates that documents prepared for regime insiders are more likely to shed light on a secret activity like information collection than officially released materials. Theoretically, the book argues that although the dictator’s dilemma can be solved and abundant information does extend authoritarian lifespans, information cannot ensure the indefinite survival of dictatorships. The book is based on detailed analysis of the origins and evolution of information-gathering systems in communist Bulgaria (1944–1991) and in China (1949–present), supplemented by eight case studies of information collection in the complete range of authoritarian regimes." (Publisher description)
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"This edited collection illuminates the scope with which identities and intimacies interact on a wide range of social media platforms. A varied range of international scholars examine the contexts of very different social media spaces, with topics ranging from whitewashing and memes, parental discou
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rses in online activities, Spotify as an intimate social media platform, neoliberalisation of feminist discourses, digital sex work, social media wars in trans debates and 'BimboTok'. The focus is on their acceleration and impact due to the specificities of social media in relation to identities, intimacies within the broad 'political' sphere. The geographic range of case study material reflects the global impact of social media, and includes data from Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the USA." (Publisher description)
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"This article cross-pollinates environmental media studies with socialist China’s anti-snail fever campaign media, including two 1965 science education films, a 1961 song book, all entitled ‘Song wensheng’ (‘Sending away god of plague’), and a 1970 'Chijiao yisheng shouce' (‘The handbook
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for barefoot doctors’). Through studying popular audio-visual and print media produced to support the socialist state-sponsored campaign against snail fever – the longest anti-zoonotic campaign in China – I adopt a cross-media approach to campaign media. Unpacking the environmental unconscious in campaign media, I advance the concept of compost media to intervene in environmental media studies by going beyond critiquing the Capitaloscene, and revealing socialist campaign media as quintessential to environmental media." (Abstract)
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