This guide intends to provide you with a list of the major conceptual questions you should be able to reply to each week. Be aware that the list is not extensive and that you are also expected to apply the concepts in a critical manner during the tutorials and in the exam. As a tip, try to come up with your own examples when defining or working with a concept. Jeronimo Gil Sato Summary Week 1 – Communication as a Social Force What does the theory of mediatization entail? The duality of media as an independent institution and intertwined with other institutions. It investigates the complex relations between media and other institutions. What does the theory of mediatization offer when compared to previous theories on media effects and usage? Mediatization theory recognizes that media are increasingly intertwined with various social institutions, such as politics, education, and religion, and that this integration has farreaching implications for society. What are the different possibilities of mediatization according to Schulz? Media can… ● Extend human communication ● Substitute activities, face-to-face becomes mediated ● Amalgamate activities, mediated+face-to-face ● Force activities to adapt to media’s format What is weak and strong mediatization? Strong: online banking Weak: going to the bank Weak mediatization refers to situations where the impact of media is limited and largely confined to specific domains or contexts. For example, media may have a limited impact on traditional cultural practices that are deeply ingrained in local communities. Strong mediatization, on the other hand, refers to situations where the influence of media is pervasive and extends to all aspects of social life. This can occur in highly mediated societies where media are deeply embedded in all social practices and institutions, such as in the case of contemporary Western societies. How can you use Field Theory and Structuration Theory to understand mediatization? 1. Field theory: Fields are formed by autonomous and heteronomous poles; autonomous poles - fields act according to their own logic; heteronomous poles fields act under the influence of other fields. 2. Structural ion theory: Structures formed by rules and resources, are modified by agents and agents act within the frames of structures What is media logic? The various needs associated with the production processes for a particular medium: ● Rules and codes of media ● Frame of reference in the production of media culture ● Visions, conventions styles and affordances of media ● Party of media’s power to affect society comes from the adjustments people make when interacting with media, adapting their actions to anticipate the media’s logic ● Specific production practices of the media industries ● Conventions and commercial logic ● 4S model: Sex, Sports, sensation and scandal ● Short and snappy ● Serial and viral How can you measure/observe mediatization in society? Through media logic for example: ● Rules and codes of media ● Frame of reference in the production of media culture ● Visions, conventions styles and affordances of media Week 2 - Media & Digital Activism How do scholars define digital activism and what are the problems with the current definitions? ● Digitally mediated social activism ● Contentious activities associated with the use of the internet and other new communication technologies ● Activities and protests organized in digital network beyond representational politics Very few agreements: the digital as helping traditional form of activism (eg e-petition) or spurring new forms of activism (eg hacktivism) What are the elements of destructive activism? How can they be applied to digital activism? ● Blocking access ● Destroying and defacing virtual property ● Organizing malicious activity ● Misusing information ● Attacking critical infrastructure Few arguments in favor: 1. Legislative system is an unfair judge on the ethics of activists actions 2. The positive effects of the action outrank its negative implications 3. The destructive action is in fact not bad and therefore requires no justification. What does it mean to have digital activism as a discursive construction? It is shaped and understood through language, narratives, and discourse. The way in which digital activism is discussed and talked about in public discourse can influence the way it is perceived by society, including its goals, strategies, and efficacy. Discursive constructions have significant implications for the practice of digital activism, as they can shape public opinion, policy decisions, and the actions of activists and other social actors. Therefore, it is important to critically examine the discourse around digital activism in order to understand its construction, identify the potential opportunities and challenges associated with different discursive constructions, and effectively engage in digital activism. What are the three tropes that associate technology and democracy? Can you define the three of them? 1. Technological determinism: Construct technological innovation as independent of social forces; views technology itself as a driver of progressive social change; assigns agency for socio-technical change to technology itself, while also inscribing change with the connotations of both inevitability and progress. 2. Technological sublime: The overwhelming sense of wonder experienced in connection to technological process; limitless technological potential as a path to the country’s progress; ‘digital sublime’,’computational sublime’. 3. Technological mysticism: Technology as magical, flawless, supernatural force that drives the course of humanity; construct scientists, designers and engineers as ‘wizards’ whose actions can neither be fully understood nor challenged; little room for human agency or social change - reinforcing the political status - quo The lecture and the reading explained the five discursive clusters used by media to talk about digital activism: technologies of last resort, the digital witness, the doubleedged sword, the vernacular creativity of digital activism, and the enablers of horizontalism. Can you explain each cluster and provide an example supporting your explanation? 1. Technologies of last resort: Digital technologies as the only remaining option for political intervention, crucial for awareness raising of extreme circumstances, spurring immediate and global reactions to local events 2. The digital witness: A voice to the voiceless, a place to be heard, the megaphone of the internet. Technological abilities can amount collective pressure on political structures, enabling citizen voice to gain political significance. 3. The double edged sword: Technologies affording the same means for action to both activists and the power that be, balances advantages and pitfalls. Overall negative framing, risk outweigh the benefits What are the issues with the current discursive constructions that media provide for digital activism? ● Little agreement among scholars, focus too much on activities or too much on technology Week 3 - Media and Climate Change How does Ulrich Beck define the “Risk Society”? A systematic way of dealing with hazards and the insecurities induced and introduction by modernisation itself. Why are media important in the construction of risk? Media is vital in constructing climate change as a global risk and fostering ecological citizenship. However, this construct doesn’t not come with free of risks In the lecture, we studied three approaches to climate change communication: symbolic politics, representational politics, and cultural politics. Taking into consideration the different approaches, re-cap the following: Symbolic Politics Symbolic politics: two visual rethortics: Visualization of nature and threat (iconic, symbolic and spectacular); Visualization of the ‘relations of definition’ (Science, politics and activists/NGOs) How do Lester and Cottle (2009) classify the images they found in their dataset? Iconic visual (Represent the cause discussed), Symbolic Visuals (broad representation) and spectacular visuals (incite emotions). What are the two visual rhetorics Lester and Cottle (2009) discovered when observing the Symbolic Politics? Visualization of nature and threat Visualization of the ‘relations of definition Representational Politics Representational politics: Methodology and results. Contested framing (climate change as something that elites have to handle) & Distant framing(climate change as far away from citizens). Grows awareness increasing media coverage. What does O’Neill (2020) mean by visual synedoches of climate change when it comes to Representational Politics? Visual synecdoche is a figure of speech which portrays part of something to represent the whole issue or vice versa. What are the Contested and the Distancing Visual Frame and what are the consequences of those frames for climate change representation? Contested framing are images that make climate issues as something that elites have to handle Distant framing are images that make climate issues as far away from citizens. They grow awareness increasing international events media coverage and protest coverage. Cultural Politics Salient images and self-efficient images. Salient images can raise awareness & inspire action but they can also paralyze & demobilize (Compassion fatigue). Self efficient images give the feeling that people can do something about climate change & also they promote ecological citizenship Ecological citizenship: Ecological citizens are conscious & willing to change private behavior for public collective good Images can rarely promote science and self-efficacy at the same time What is a salient image in terms of climate change and how do people react to it? An example could be an image of a forest being burned and it can raise awareness and inspire action but it can also raise compassion fatigue. What kind of image can lead to self-efficacy and promote ecological citizenship? An image of a kid helping with climate change for example. Week 4 – Media & Fashion How can you explain the Mediatization of Fashion across time? Overall, the mediatization of fashion across time can be explained as the result of the increasing influence of media technologies in shaping and transforming the fashion industry, creating new opportunities and challenges for fashion designers, brands, and consumers. What are the technologies of the self and how do they relate to the fashionable self? Mediatization of the fashionable self: In a selfie, she writes, one is both a model and “a selfreflecting embodied subject with a mirror”. It is a subject that “is negotiated, performed and mediated”, or rather mediatized, in that it is a self that is practiced to appear online, as an image to be shared and circulated on a digital screen. What are mediatized mobilities and how are they used to explain the mediatization of fashion? Mediatized mobilities refer to the ways in which media technologies and cultural flows shape and mediate mobility in the fashion industry. Rocamora argues that the fashion industry is characterized by a high degree of mobility, including the movement of people, goods, and ideas. Mediatized mobilities are used to explain how media technologies, such as social media and e-commerce, have transformed and mediated these movements, creating new forms of fashion consumption and production. What are the three different layers used by Rocamora (2017) to address the mediatization of fashion? ● Production: Designers and fashion shows adapting to media logic ● Retail: Strong presence of mediatized mobilities ● Everyday consumption: The fashionable self What is the flattening of fashion and how is it connected to mediatization? Social media and digital screens have flattened fashion. Elba’s is embracing a technological determinism that fails to capture the complexities of the relationship between the technological and the social What is meant with the idea of liquid fashion and how can we connect it to media technologies? In the context of fashion, liquid fashion refers to a shift away from fixed, stable fashion systems towards more dynamic, flexible, and ephemeral ones. This includes the rise of fast fashion, the increasing influence of social media, and the use of digital technologies in fashion production, distribution, and consumption. Week 5 – Media & Politics How can you explain the mediatization of politics across time? 1. Mass media become the main source of information (XVII-XX centuries) 2. Mass media become independent from political power (1920-1970) 3. Political and social actors adapt to media logic (1970-1990) 4. Social and political actors internalize media logic (1990-now) What is evaluated by each of the four dimensions of the mediatization of politics, especially the third and fourth dimensions? 1. First dimension evaluates the most important source of information (the media or experiences/interpersonal communication) 2. Second dimension evaluates the dependency of political institutions on media (dependent or independent) 3. Third dimension evaluates who governs media content mainly (political logic or media logic) 4. Fourth dimension evaluates who governs political actors mainly (political logic or media logic) What is media interventionism and what are the different aspects it covers? Indicators that media coverage is shaped by journalistic interventions, reflecting media logic, rather than the wants and needs of political institutions and actors. What concepts can you use to evaluate the fourth dimension of the mediatization politics? How do they differ from each other? ● Connectivity, celebrity politics, personality politics and mediatized leaders. ● Connectivity is ‘with whom the politician appears’ ● Celebrity politics is the ‘celebrity culture applied to politics’ ● Personality politics is ‘the importance of personality and performing the self ● Mediatized leaders is ‘Building an appealing image’ How can we understand cultural convergence when it comes to the mediatization of politics? Cultural convergence refers to the process by which cultural practices, values, and identities become more similar across different cultures or regions. In the context of the mediatization of politics, cultural convergence can be understood as the increasing similarity in political cultures, practices, and values across different countries and regions. How can we discuss the mediatization of politics in terms of fostering (or not) democracy? On the one hand, media can enhance democracy by providing citizens with more information and facilitating greater participation and transparency in political processes. On the other hand, media can also pose challenges to democracy, such as media bias, sensationalism, and the influence of corporate interests. It is important to consider the mediatization of politics in terms of how it affects democratic principles such as transparency, accountability, and public participation, and to promote media literacy and critical thinking skills among citizens to ensure a constructive role for media in supporting democratic processes. Week 6 – Media & Humanitarianism How can we define humanitarianism according to a broad and a narrow definition? ● Narrow definition: human, impartial, neutral and independent assistance to victims of conflict and natural disasters ● Broader definition: any activity intended to alleviate suffering, stop avoidable harm, save lives in danger, and improve the well-being of vulnerable populations What is covered by humanitarian communication? Public practices of meaning-making that represent human suffering as a cause of collective emotion and action. Whether it is an online Action Aid campaign, a celebrity speaking at a UN conference, a human rights film at the movie theatre or a natural disaster tweet, these forms of speech can all be regarded as humanitarian communication insofar as they render vulnerable others into language or image with a view to inviting audiences to act upon their vulnerability - to help alleviate their suffering to protect them from harm What are the challenges of contemporary humanitarian communication? Simplification, polarization, intensification, concretisation, personification and stereotyping Different actors: different levels of resources and context specific What are the different representations strategies in humanitarian campaigns as framed by Ongenaert et al. (2022)? ● Emotional representation: This strategy involves the use of emotional appeals to generate empathy and compassion in the audience. It may include the use of graphic images or personal stories to create an emotional connection with the affected community. ● Rational representation: This strategy uses factual information and statistics to appeal to the audience's rational side. It may include information about the scope and severity of the crisis, as well as the impact of humanitarian interventions. ● Active representation: This strategy emphasizes the role that the audience can play in responding to the crisis, such as through donations or volunteer work. It may include calls to action or specific instructions for how to get involved. ● Contextual representation: This strategy situates the crisis within a broader social, political, or historical context. It may highlight the underlying causes of the crisis, or the historical and cultural context of the affected community. How can we create better humanitarian campaigns by re-positing those who are involved? By repositioning those who are involved in humanitarian campaigns, we can create more ethical and effective campaigns that prioritize the needs and perspectives of affected communities. This can help to build trust, promote community-led solutions, and ultimately support more sustainable and equitable outcomes. Why is media attention important for humanitarianism? media attention is critical for raising public awareness, mobilizing resources, holding actors accountable, and advocating for policy change in humanitarian contexts. Without media attention, many humanitarian crises may go unnoticed or receive inadequate support, which can have devastating consequences for affected communities. How can NGOs generate media attention? ● They increase public scepticism towards governments ● They are more accepted in official circles, viewed as reliable information sources & included in the range of official positions What are the advantages and disadvantages for NGOs in the contemporary media landscape? Advantages: 1. Increased visibility: NGOs can leverage the power of social media and other digital platforms to increase their visibility and reach a wider audience. 2. Enhanced engagement: Social media and other digital platforms can facilitate twoway communication between NGOs and their stakeholders, allowing for greater engagement and interaction. 3. Fundraising opportunities: NGOs can use social media and other digital platforms to fundraise and solicit donations from supporters around the world. 4. Increased advocacy: NGOs can use social media and other digital platforms to advocate for policy change and raise awareness about social and environmental issues. 5. Efficiency and cost-effectiveness: Digital technologies can help NGOs to streamline their operations and reduce costs, improving their efficiency and allowing them to allocate more resources to their core mission. Disadvantages: 1. Information overload: With so much information available online, NGOs may struggle to get their message heard and stand out from the crowd. 2. Misinformation and disinformation: Social media and other digital platforms can be used to spread false or misleading information, which can undermine the credibility of NGOs and their messages. 3. Lack of privacy and security: NGOs may be vulnerable to cyber attacks and other security threats, which can compromise their data and put their operations at risk. 4. Digital divide: Not all communities have access to digital technologies, which can limit the ability of NGOs to reach and engage with certain populations. 5. Ethical challenges: NGOs may face ethical challenges in the use of digital technologies, such as concerns around data privacy, transparency, and accountability. Week 7 – Media Life What are the conditions of living in media? Global connectedness and participation What is the mediapolis? Mediated public space where media support and overarch the experiences and expressions of everyday life What is convergence culture? The blurring boundaries between people as producers and consumers of information, which is disseminated and co-created across multiple media platforms It is more than a technological change, it is also a cultural change What are the major societal trends of living in media as defined by Deuze (2011)? We use media devices everyday We communicate and live the ‘everyday’ through media Media have become invisible deep mediatization What are the components of social media logic discussed in week 7? How do they differ from traditional media? Social media logic: The processes, principles, and practices through which these platforms process information news and communication; how they channel social traffic 1. Programmability: Ability of institution to manipulate content to give audience an experience of flow; platforms can trigger and steer user’s creative and communicative contribution 2. Popularity:Mediagenic/ likeability; Conditioned (but also manipulated) by algorithms and socio-economic components 3. Connectivity: Connect content/advertisements to citizens/consumers; Socio.technical affordance to connect content to user activities and advertisers and human connection 4. Datafication: Reaching mass audience in real time (e.g. the ‘media event’); Quantifying the world! Meta data, demographic, profiling data. How does Bauman associate media and relationships? 1. The fluidity of modern relationships 2. Directly addresses the changes brought by technologies 3. Online relationships as recreational 4. Commodification of relationships What are the interpretations of Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim of relationships in the Risk Society? 1. Endless choices for romantic relations 2. Focus on the self 3. Isolated and autonomous individuals How does Giddens see contemporary relationships? 1. Pure relationships 2. Beyond traditional institutions 3. Intensity 4. Reinterpreting love and relationships Week 8 - Media & the Self-Control Society What was the initial idea of the panopticon and how is it used by Foucault? ● Prison system ● Constant ‘sense of surveillance ● Power is made visible What is a disciplinary society? Who coined the term? What is a control society? Who coined the term? Deleite coined the term control society. ● Breakdown of the importance of physical boundaries of institutions ● Enabled by communication technologies ● We are classified by multiple institutions at the same time without necessarily being in them ● In a control society people are flex-subjects ● Characterized by major flexibility, willing and able to adapt to various standards set by different institutions. Adopting multiple identities. Who are dividuals? Who are flex-subjects? What are the consequences of neoliberalism when it comes to control in contemporary societies? There is a big paradox: 1. Neoliberal logic may be pulling the strings… but we have to do the work 2. We constantly find and create opportunities for learning, transforming and becoming better version of ourselves 3. To become better version of ourselves and media are vital in this process What forms of control coexist in contemporary society? 1. Governmental control: Governments exercise various forms of control over citizens, such as laws, regulations, and policies. This type of control includes the use of police forces, surveillance, and intelligence gathering to maintain social order. 2. Corporate control: Corporations have immense power in contemporary society, which they use to control the economy, manipulate consumer behavior, and influence public policy. They also use various forms of surveillance to monitor employee productivity and ensure compliance with company policies. 3. Technological control: Advances in technology have given rise to new forms of control, such as data collection, monitoring, and manipulation. Social media platforms, for example, collect vast amounts of data on users, which they use to create targeted advertising and manipulate user behavior. 4. Social control: Social norms, values, and beliefs also exert significant control over individuals in contemporary society. These can include gender roles, religious beliefs, and cultural expectations. 5. Self-control: Finally, individuals also exercise self-control over their own behavior. This includes adherence to personal values and moral codes, as well as selfdiscipline and self-regulation. What is the role of media in relation to control in our society? We are not only using media to guide ourselves, but we are also guiding others and being guided by others when functional ing under the logic of media What is meant by interveillance? How does it differ from surveillance? 1. Interveillance is: A consequence of growing prominence of social media. Societal surveillance. Everyday life practices. Mediated monitoring and control. Expectations and anticipation of other people’s mediated gazes. Continuous processes of recognition. Non-systematic practices - ‘keeping an eye’. 2.
