International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics - Current Issue
Volume 20, Issue 1, 2024
- Articles
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No relief from war: The use of humour in memes by the government of Ukraine and the limitation of laughter
Authors: Mariami Ochkhikidze, Jan Wessel and Alexander SpencerThe 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 around 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.
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Come together: Journalism and the desire for community in Turkey
More LessThis article explores the interconnection between journalism, community and embodied experiences of nationalist politics. As journalists in Istanbul, Turkey, navigate political environment shaped by nationalist narratives and policies rooted in ethnic purity, this article asks what role do journalists envision themselves playing in imagining and realizing a more democratic and pluralistic community? To address that question, this study examines how these journalists imagine and conceptualize the idea of community and how such work is impacted by the gendered, ethnic and racialized experiences of their daily and professional lives. I argue that journalists imagine and envision community as an ideal through which to navigate and contend with a highly polarized political climate. I draw evidence from narratives and participant observation gathered from eighteen months ethnographic fieldwork in Istanbul. Through these, I trace how the ethnic, racialized and gendered hierarchies embedded in the history and the contemporary politics of Turkey come to bear on journalism, and how journalism can function as a community-building practice.
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Not all refugees are framed equal: Explaining the difference between the news coverage in the Global North and the Global South
Authors: Eduard Fabregat and Fernando SeverinoThis study analyses 14,854 news articles about refugees from 72 English-language newspapers worldwide in 2016. Using a combination of topic modelling and network analysis, we inductively identify the frames used to depict refugees and then examine the factors that help shape the news framing of the issue between various countries. We unveiled five frames: cultural and everyday life, Global North politics, aid, violence and international conflict. We also identified significant correlations between distance to country of origin and political stability and news frame usage, giving insights into the political, economic and cultural contexts that interact in the frame-building stage of the coverage of refugees in different countries. From a theoretical perspective, this study advances the understanding of news coverage of refugees, particularly the differences emerging between the Global North and the Global South countries.
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Grassroots media in Chile: Public policy proposals on how to strengthen their role as cultural community organizations
By Chiara SáezCommunity broadcasting emerged in Chile at the end of the dictatorship, but so far, there have been no coordinated or consistent public policies aimed at promoting the sector. Using a conceptual framework on the multiple dimensions of sustainability and the social benefit of community communication, this article presents the results of a collective work that systematizes the sector’s demands on state institutions in which I took part as a consultant. The conclusion is that a public policy that promotes and strengthens community broadcasting will only be effective in the current scenario if it is cross-sectoral, with the Ministry of Culture at the head – providing specific support that ensures organizational continuity – and in coordination with other state and government institutions, conceiving these media as cultural community organizations whose particularity lies in their potential to boost and strengthen their communities of reference through a participatory appropriation of multiple media channels.
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Pakistani transgender activists on Instagram: The politics of postcolonial language appropriation and abrogation
Authors: Fatima Zahid Ali, Kevin Smets and Benjamin De CleenThis study examines marginalized communities in postcolonial states, in particular transgender people, and attempts to understand the tension between globalized or transnational ‘queer’ language and local vernacular ‘Indigenous’ language. Drawing upon postcolonial concepts of appropriation and abrogation – typically only limited to the ‘literary studies’ tradition – this article analyses how colonial aesthetics are articulated and rejected on social media by multilingual transgender activists in the Pakistani context. By using the case study of the Indigenous khwajasira – Pakistan’s transgender community – we analyse 600 social media posts from public Instagram accounts of four activists including Mehrub Moiz Awan, Shahzadi Rai, Hina Baloch and Nayyab Ali. Using a multimodal critical discourse analysis combined with the theoretical framework of postcolonial appropriation and abrogation, we find that khwajasira activists deploy innovative linguistic and textual strategies such as code-switching, codemixing, metonymy, interlanguage and neologisms to negotiate their hybrid identities. We argue that contestation between ‘the global’ and ‘the vernacular’ is manifested through code-switching from one language to the other or between formal and informal registers, creating culture-specific neologisms or lexical items, colloquialisms, metaphors and slang. Through deploying visual modality, iconic global symbols, ‘trans’ colours, emojis and clothing artefacts, khwajasiras create new meanings on social media. Lastly, this study critically shows that transgender activists challenge and co-opt normative conventions as they draw on the past, Indigenous knowledge(s), spirituality, religious terminologies and historical allusions in their linguistic repertories to resist and dismantle dominant power relations.
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- Reviews
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Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, Josh Shepperd (2023)
More LessReview of: Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, Josh Shepperd (2023)
Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 244 pp.,
ISBN 978-0-25208-725-7, p/bk, $28
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Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World, Joshua Kurlantzick (2022)
Authors: Li Zhang and Zhaoning LiuReview of: Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World, Joshua Kurlantzick (2022)
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 560 pp.,
ISBN 978-0-19751-576-1, h/bk, £27.99
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Volumes & issues
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Volume 20 (2024)
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Volume 19 (2023)
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Volume 18 (2022)
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Volume 17 (2021)
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Volume 16 (2020)
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Volume 15 (2019)
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Volume 14 (2018)
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Volume 13 (2017)
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Volume 12 (2016)
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Volume 11 (2015)
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Volume 10 (2014)
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Volume 9 (2013)
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Volume 8 (2012)
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Volume 7 (2011)
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Volume 6 (2010 - 2011)
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Volume 5 (2009)
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Volume 4 (2008)
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Volume 3 (2007)
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Volume 2 (2006 - 2007)
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Volume 1 (2005)
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