Media & Communication

Narrative Interplay in the Digital Era
Generative AI, Alternate Reality Games, and the Future of Interactive Pedagogy
This anthology explores the current evolution of interactive storytelling across digital as well as physical spaces by examining how games digital narratives and participatory art can reshape creative expression and learning at fundamental levels.
The contributors propose that interactive fiction is best examined by combining social literary and technical analyses together. Used independently each modality provides an insufficient picture of the deeply merged social technical and artistic media environments we currently inhabit. We focus instead on the nature of the social interactions involved when engaging in digital storytelling emphasizing that an interactive narrative is perpetually constructed and reconstructed each time it is experienced.
The collection provides in depth analysis organized into three distinct sections the first two based on the key modalities of alternate realities and digital interactive fiction. The third section then provides an important political critique of gaming ideologies. Contributors with expertise and experience in each section topic provide diverse and timely analyses on how interactive narratives function in educational contexts community engagement and human-machine collaboration. The authors also investigate both theoretical frameworks and practical applications from live-action role-playing to AI-assisted writing while considering the significant social and political implications of gaming culture in general.
The collection's strength remains on its unique bringing together diverse perspectives from game designers educators artists and theorists to examine how new forms of storytelling emerge at the intersection of analog and digital realms with particular attention to the role of play and interactivity in contemporary learning environments.

Media Materialities
Form, Format, and Ephemeral Meaning
Provides new perspectives on the increasingly complex relationships between media forms and formats materiality and meaning. Drawing on a range of qualitative methodologies our consideration of the materiality of media is structured around three overarching concepts: form – the physical qualities of objects and the meanings which extend from them; format – objects considered in relation to the protocols which govern their use and the meanings and practices which stem from them; and ephemeral meaning – the ways in which media artefacts are captured transformed and redefined through changing social cultural and technological values.
Each section includes empirical chapters which provide expansive discussions of perspectives on media and materiality. It considers a range of media artefacts such as 8mm film board games maps videogames cassette tapes transistor radios and Twitter amongst others. These are punctuated with a number of short takes – less formal often personal takes exploring the meanings of media in context.
We seek to consider the materialities which emerge across the broad and variegated range of the term’s use and to create spaces for conversation and debate about the implications that this plurality of material meanings might have for the study of study of media culture and society.

Shaping Global Culture through Screen Writing
Women Who Write Our Worlds
This book tells inspirational stories of women who have worked with and within communities to bring stories to life through screenwriting. As such the book evidences that women’s work is important; that ‘films can change lives’. The collection divides the chapters according to worlds in recognition of the fact that though we live on one planet the conditions of existence are vastly different between first and third worlds; between the wealthiest and the poorest.
Each chapter shows how attitudes have shifted policies have been rewritten and life experiences and horizons have been altered for specific communities through these instances of screenwriting. The themes touched upon include gender race disability culture war colonization labour relations political ideologies to name a few. The parallels found amongst these themes across national religious and cultural divides are also telling. The book is wide in its scope considering screenwriting a skill which can apply to games social media music videos virtual reality … in fact any of the burgeoning formats alive on our devices and through constantly evolving platforms. All are considered screenwriting.
The book is a celebration of the female writers who have told screen stories that educate and heal.
The book suits readers across disciplines including screenwriting filmmaking women’s studies history sociology and many other areas.

Well-Being and Creative Careers
What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick
There is a well-documented mental health crisis among media professionals around the world - in journalism advertising/marketing/PR film and television digital games music (recording and performance) and online content creation.
This book documents what is particular about well-being in creative careers in the media offers an analysis of systemic issues throughout the media industries that explain why so many practitioners get sick on the job and shows what can be done. The health crisis in the media industry consists of mental issues – with extraordinary high instances of anxiety trauma burnout and depression; physical ailments - prevalent substance abuse unhealthy living sleep problems and exhaustion; and spiritual problems – including people experiencing moral injury at work and suffering from a loss of morale.
At the same time most media professionals claim to be happy doing what they do suggesting that what makes people happy can also make them sick. What ends up causing work-related stress disorders is a combination of a lack of reciprocity between what people bring to the job and what the industry offers in return organizational injustice as people perceive policies and decisions at work to be discriminatory and unfair and persistent high workloads.

Understanding Video Activism on Social Media
What political power do videos on social media have? In what ways do they exert influence shape publics and change political life? And how can committed civil society actors in this field assert themselves against hegemonic discourses commercial interests anti-democratic agitation and authoritarian propaganda? These questions are being debated intensely as social media increasingly dominate global information flows and videos increasingly dominate social media.
Understanding video activism seems particularly relevant at a time when the internet is undergoing fundamental disruptions. The forms practices and opportunities of activism depend on its media environment which now is changing rapidly and profoundly in terms of its technological basis ownership legal regulations and governmental control.

Publishing public service media on demand: A comparative study of public service media companies’ editorial practices on their VoD services in the age of platformization
This article contributes to the emerging empirical research on the editorial practices of video-on-demand (VoD) publishing in European public service media (PSM). It presents results from a comparative study of the editorial practices visible on the VoDs from ten PSM companies across six countries: United Kingdom Belgium Poland Italy Canada and Denmark. The aim of the article is to map and compare the editorial practices in the ‘prime space’ of the VoD services and the ‘prime time’ of the companies’ main linear channels. The analysis is based on data from a sample week of 13–19 November 2023. The article contributes to research addressing the key issue of universality in terms of content and discusses the conceptualizations of the audience that seem to be at work in the transition towards an online PSM identity.

New Queer Television
From Marginalization to Mainstreamification
Though queer critics and queer theory tend to frame queer identities as marginal this edited volume draws attention to a dynamic field in which a wide variety of queer identities can be put on display and consumed by audiences. Cementing a foundational understanding of queerness that is at odds with current shifts in media production contributors present a broad variety of queer identities from across a range of televisual shows and genres to reconsider the marginalization of queerness in the twenty-first century. Doing so challenges preexisting notions that such “mainstreamification” necessitates being subsumed by the cisheteropatriarchy. This project argues the opposite showing that heteronormative assumptions are outdated and that new queer representations lay the groundwork for filling gaps that queer criticism has left open.
Thomas Brassington is a researcher whose work explores intersections of queerness and the Gothic in contemporary popular culture. Debra Ferreday is a feminist cultural theorist whose research concerns gender feminist theory sexuality critical race theory queer theory and embodiment. Dany Girard is a queer researcher whose work primarily explores representations of gender asexualities and queer theory in television and film.

Speed, demon! Accelerationism’s rhetoric of weird, mystical, cosmic love
Accelerationism offers a theoretical stance towards capitalism that takes shape in various rhetorical guises. In general these writings attempt to push through the boundaries imposed by capital while speeding off into unknown possible futures. While some articulations of this philosophy rely on traditional scholarly argumentation others proceed along more obscure paths to envision a post-capitalist (and usually post-human) future. In this article I focus on the latter approach by examining how some accelerationist works embrace occult poetics and subsequently align with what Brad Baumgartner identifies as a communicative praxis of Weird Mysticism. In contrast to more pragmatic approaches Weird Mysticism provides a worthwhile rhetorical perspective for contemplating accelerationist works that embrace a nihilistic inclination to imagine a world without us.

Safety and security of journalists in Ghana: Policies and journalists’ perception of stakeholders, issues and practices
This study examines the safety and security of journalists in Ghana assessing their satisfaction with key media stakeholders and the state of press freedom through the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) journalists’ safety indicators. Using a predominantly quantitative integrative mixed-method approach it surveyed 80 journalists from broadcast print and online outlets conducted ten in-depth interviews and analysed two policy documents. The findings reveal widespread dissatisfaction with stakeholders such as law enforcement politicians regulatory bodies and journalists’ associations. The independent t-test shows that the editors and reporters did not differ significantly in their assessment of their satisfaction with stakeholders in the media landscape. Only the online media journalists reported satisfaction with their management’s efforts to ensure safety. The absence of formal safety policies and the frequent closure of broadcast outlets signal a decline in press freedom. This study highlights a concerning gap between Ghana’s democratic credentials and the unsafe working conditions for journalists. Recent press freedom rankings align with these challenges affirming UNESCO’s indicator as a predictive tool.

Global streaming and media franchises: Strategies of control and development
This article addresses the link between the rise of global streaming and the significance of media franchises by analysing the implementation of different strategies of control and development of media franchises employed by four of the main video streaming platforms worldwide: Disney+ Max Prime Video and Netflix. The article identifies and discusses three different strategies regarding the control and development of media franchises in streaming platforms. The expansion strategy seeks to enlarge well-established franchises through streaming releases. While the incorporation strategy involves acquiring entire studios or adaptation rights to integrate already-developed franchises into a streaming service’s catalogue. Finally the creation strategy aims to develop and consolidate franchises from the outset with the purpose of endowing a streaming platform with its own intellectual property. I conclude that the conjunction between global streaming and media franchises reveals the economic and cultural significance that both elements represent for the media industry. Through various strategies of control and development such as those identified in this article streaming platforms are established as an important medium for the exploitation of media franchises.

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on public relations roles: Perspectives of Malawian practitioners
The public relations (PR) function in Malawi was passing through a period of growth when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. For the first time a professional body – the Public Relations Society of Malawi (PRSM) – was established and commended for improving media and stakeholders’ relationships with various organizations and institutions. However the pandemic accompanied by an infodemic increasingly affected the role of practitioners in disseminating effective communication. Previous literature indicates that environmental factors force companies and institutions to redirect resources away from PR activities forcing PR practitioners to adjust some practices to accommodate the new circumstances. This study explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the role of PR practice and the function’s prospects in Malawi. Drawing on the excellence theory the PR function can be of value if the department is empowered through practitioners’ inclusion in the coalition of the dominant. Data were collected from fourteen selected PR practitioners who were also members of the PRSM using in-depth interviews. The findings indicated that PR practitioners in Malawi were brought closer to the centre of power in organizations but somehow excluded from the coalition of the dominant. Most of the practitioners served as technicians. However the pandemic forced organizations to direct more resources to PR activities due to the practitioners’ increased workload of disseminating information working from home and adopting information and communication technology in PR activities. PR practitioners’ efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic made the function a necessity in many organizations a development that signalled a bright future for the industry in the country.

Government-funded productions in ecological civilization: Promulgating environmental terms, deflecting blame and sending visual instructions in China’s green campaign
This article delves into two types of government-funded video productions within China’s Ecological Civilization movement: eco-documentaries produced at the highest level and eco-feature films produced at the provincial and sub-provincial levels. Both types of productions focus on environmental topics but environmental awareness and behaviours are often not prioritized. This article aims to situate China’s green campaign in a centre-local relation and to demonstrate how this campaign is portrayed through government-funded moving images. The article concludes that moving images are utilized by different levels of government to promulgate new green terms shift blame among different levels of authorities and individuals and guide grassroots officials’ behaviours in the nation’s brand-new environmental vision.

Boosting global sales and transnational circulation: Public financing of film and TV fiction and animation in Flanders and Denmark
This article examines the role of public financiers in the context of digital distribution and the increased involvement of global streamers in financing local content. Through a comparative analysis it explores how screen policy mixes aimed at funding fiction and animation films and series in two small European markets Denmark and Flanders adapt to and influence the transnational orientation in response to globalization and the rise of online distribution. Based on interviews in Denmark and Flanders combined with data analysis the article shows that in the context of rising production budgets transnational production and intense international competition screen agencies and other public financiers have also become more transnationally oriented. Both in Flanders and Denmark screen agencies put increased emphasis on enabling international financing and distribution opportunities for fiction and animation films and series. How to regulate and co-finance with global streamers has become an important question for policy stakeholders. As echoed in the interviews producers in Flanders and Denmark agree that outward-looking policies for attracting commercial financing are becoming more important for strengthening the financing base of local works. It is significant to outline that policies fostering transnational financing and distribution do not stand in opposition to cultural protectionism. For example investment obligations for global streamers can have the dual function of safeguarding the production ecology while promoting transnational sale and distribution. In smaller markets such as Denmark and Flanders aligning policy tools is essential given that public funding for fiction and animation is crucial lever for achieving ambitious budgets and attracting private financing.

Press funding and strategies in online and offline business: The Portuguese case
Media managers are facing a variety of profound and disruptive challenges generated by the impact of digitization and platformization on the production distribution and consumption of media goods. Interestingly platforms provide users with the opportunity to become providers of information (‘produsers’). The technological ecology requires publishing organizations to constantly rethink and adjust their competitive strategies and business models to achieve financial sustainability. Based on interviews with media industry players this article intends to understand Portuguese newspaper companies’ funding models business challenges in a pre-pandemic period and how managers were reacting and adapting their practices. This study has found that the companies demonstrated the predominant implementation of management practices aimed at exploring mixed revenue sources – that is through the traditional activity of selling advertising and newspapers and the support of paper and the sale of digital advertising content. Companies where the main source of revenue came from a mixed-model ended up for the most part investing more or having more participation in digital with a few exceptions.

Qatar vs. Germany: An analysis of Qatari reactions to western discursive othering during the 2022 FIFA World Cup
Massive sports events always attract international attention. However for attention-seeking countries this is a double-edged sword because it is difficult to remain in control of the images produced by foreign media outlets. Since Qatar is eager to boost its image internationally hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup was supposed to be a major step in the country’s comprehensive strategy to achieve this. However Qatar faced strong criticism from western countries in the run-up to and during the World Cup exemplified here by a cursory investigation of German media. Taking a postcolonial lens we analysed the reactions to this criticism in Qatari media in opinion articles of three different sets of media one focusing on the national Qatari public (Al-Sharq) one targeting the pan-Arab public (Al-Jazeera) and one targeting the western English-speaking public worldwide (Al-Jazeera English). Two distinct discursive patterns were identified – one that aims to construct a particular identity mix of an Arab Global Southern and Islamic ‘us’ against the ‘West’ as a kind of positively turned self-othering and another that actively deconstructs what is perceived as western hypocrisy. While the first pattern is exclusive to the Arab-speaking media the second pattern was addressed in all three sets of media albeit with different lines of argumentation depending on the target audience. While for example in Qatari national media reactions to the allegation of Qatar violating or neglecting the rights of LGBTQ people are connected to an emphasis on a different ‘conservative’ or ‘Islamic’ value system Al-Jazeera Arabic and English presented their arguments in a more sophisticated manner and highlighted the double standards used by the West by including references to a neo-liberal world order and the remnants of a colonial past that continue to shape the West’s policies.

Counter-hegemonic digital environmental communication to survive the extinction internet: The Environmental Ideologies Map website
Digital screen cultures play a fundamental role in shaping ways of thinking about the environment. Yet digital media are highly problematic not just for the massive footprint of technological development server maintenance e-waste and the reproduction of the colonial extractive relationship but also for an increasing web architecture monopolized by the big-tech platforms in content creation. Nonetheless several scholarly and activist digital practices are creatively dealing with the urgency posed by the environmental crisis showing massive potential in challenging anthropocentric global ecoculture. Through a discourse theoretical approach to digital communication this article offers an interpretation of selected experiences of digital communication practices as counter-hegemonic tactical communication that dislocates anthropocentric ideologies shrouded in the web informational overload. Through a narrative of the construction of one of these digital experiences the Environmental Ideologies Map (EIDmap) website the article discusses and calls for the multiplication of creative art-based research practices able to dislocate dominant environmental ideologies circulating in the ‘extinction internet’.

Silencing the voices of discontent: How the new digital communication environment reinforces the spiral of silence in the Yemeni crisis
This study examines the impact of the new digital communication environment on the spiral of silence mechanisms in the context of the current Yemeni crisis. The research focuses on three controversial topics related to the crisis: the role of the Arab coalition in Yemen the legitimacy of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and the call to disengage the Yemeni southern governorates from the unified Yemeni state. The sample for this study consisted of 438 respondents selected using the snowball sampling method. The findings suggest that despite the changes in communication conditions the mechanisms of the spiral of silence remain effective in the new digital communication environment. The study found that respondents emphasized their awareness of the severity of controversy disagreement hostile reactions from the other side and their fears of the threat of social isolation which affected their desire to express their opinions towards the three political issues. The results demonstrated that the respondents with the highest fear of isolation tended to exclude expressing an opinion in the new communication environment or prefer adhering to neutrality. The results confirmed that what impedes the expression of opinion in conflict environments is not the inability of individuals to access media and publishing platforms but rather the same psychological and social mechanisms of the spiral of silence – as identified by Neumann. The study proposes a new model of the spiral of silence theory that incorporates the transformations of the communication field and the inhibitors of opinion expression on social media.

Register of male and female Arabic language teachers on YouTube channels: A gender analysis in sociolinguistics
Language and gender have a strong connection especially in a social context. This study examines register in Arabic by looking at the language used by male and female teachers who utilize the YouTube media platform to provide basic Arabic tutorials. From these videos the language characteristics of male and female Arabic language teachers can be observed in terms of gender. In general this study investigates the registers of male and female Arabic language teachers. Specifically it elaborates on the significant differences between the language used by male and female Arabic language teachers based on a register analysis. The research question is thus divided into two: (1) what is the typical character of male teachers and female teachers of Arabic on YouTube channels; (2) how do male and female Arabic teachers use register on YouTube channels. The method used in this research can be divided into three stages. The first stage was the data collection which was carried out by viewing and observing Arabic language learning videos uploaded onto YouTube channels by male and female teachers. The second stage was the data analysis which used the model of Miles and Huberman consisting of data reduction data display and data conclusion. The final stage was the reporting of the results using illustrative quotes in the form of descriptions and narratives related to the language registers of male and female teachers in terms of a sociolinguistic study. The gender-based language characteristics can be identified from aspects of gesture word choice greeting pronunciation and the mention of personal names. This research contributes to the development of the study of language learning in terms of gender based on an online social media platform.

How to praxis after the end of the world with more than so-called humans?
This article is a meditation on the relations between praxis art and posthumanism. Particularly it is an attempt at a kind of practice of meaning-making that entangles multiple theoretical fields with my own critical creative practice. The article utilizes the feminist methodology of diffraction to read multiple frameworks through each other without privileging one over the other. It explores a speculative potential in relation to meaning-making and utilizes three specific examples of my artworks that examine what it means to practise concepts that perform change. These artworks – and the theoretical orientations I argue for – take a posthumanist view of media crude oil water and sheep. I call this work ‘Heliotechnics/Heliotechniques’: solar practices. These include my recent work Carbon Loops (2022) a dual 16-mm projection installation of crude oil film loops that were soaked in crude oil for one month; and a revisiting of the experimental videos Signal Works (2017) and grass wool signal scan (2016). I build a kind of relation to posthumanist practices through the feminist philosopher River (Karen) Barad. While I emphasize the artworks it is the kinds of non-representational practices and concepts that I explore in this meditation. My goal is to think through words and doings to enact concepts that perform change.

ENGOs and environmental communication: Examining communication strategies of one Brazilian and one US American ENGO
This cross-national study draws from the GPDS framework to explore the outreach strategies of two environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) – one in Ohio United States and the other in Paraná Brazil. The study examined and compared ENGOs’ targeted communication practices and their efforts to engage with racial/ethnic and socio-economic minorities within charged political climates. Semi-structured qualitative interview results with ENGO employees and board members show similarities in public outreach strategies challenges operating in politically charged environments and intentions to address the needs of low socio-economic and minority members of local communities. Many of the communication strategies described as being used by participants correspond to the social marketing theory (SMT) framework. However ENGO employees reported low levels of confidence in effectively engaging their audience mostly due to lack of strategic communication training and resources.

Unveiling the global hijab discourse on Instagram: A multi-layered analysis of narratives, communities and sentiments
This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the global discourse on the hijab on Instagram a key platform for cultural and fashion expressions. Employing a mixed-methods approach it examines a dataset of 100000 Instagram posts to explore representations and discussions of the hijab in online communities. The study includes temporal analysis of discourse evolution text classification of narratives using advanced natural language processing (NLP) techniques like topic modelling and sentiment analysis and network analysis of community interactions. Key findings reveal the multifaceted nature of the hijab discourse encompassing themes of fashion religion and community. The temporal analysis uncovers peaks in hijab-related posts from October 2021 onwards and between May and July 2022 coinciding with Islamic events and the rise of modest fashion. Sentiment analysis indicates a generally positive and neutral perception of the hijab while emotion analysis highlights joy anticipation and trust as dominant emotions. Text classification identifies five main topics: hijab styles and fashion sizing and shipping colours and product types religion and spirituality and product orders. Network analysis visualizes the interconnected nature of these themes and communities. The study makes original contributions by shedding light on the ‘hijabista’ phenomenon representing Muslim women who blend fashion with modesty on Instagram and by demonstrating Instagram’s role in shaping contemporary hijab discourse related to identity empowerment and cultural representation. The findings enhance understanding of social media’s impact on cultural discourses and offer valuable insights into the social and cultural implications of these online narratives for scholars businesses and policy-makers.

Digital Migration, Koen Leurs (2023)
Review of: Digital Migration Koen Leurs (2023)
Los Angeles CA: Sage Publications 240 pp.
ISBN 978-1-52970-653-6 h/bk $107.50
ISBN 978-1-52970-652-9 p/bk $39.31

New media and the Language Charter: Protecting regional or minority languages in the digital age
The twenty-first century saw the rapid rise of new media increasing its share within the media mix and becoming a crucial platform for democratic debate and cultural consumption. Meanwhile provisions related to the media in the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages merely refer to traditional forms of media. This article tries to answer the question whether the Charter with its unchanged provisions can continue to fulfil its function of protecting endangered languages integrating the different forms of new media for the fulfilment member states’ obligations. Based on an analysis of the most recent monitoring reports of the Charter’s Committee of Experts this research arrives at the conclusion that the Charter is indeed fit for the digital age with both traditional and new media coming to play an important role in protecting and promoting minority and regional languages.

Exile, work-related emotions and trauma among Burundian journalists in Belgium
In 2015 many journalists left Burundi following the outbreak of violence caused by President Nkurunziza’s candidacy for a third presidential term. From abroad several managed to continue their journalistic activities through social media. In this article we present the findings of a study conducted among fifteen Burundian exiled journalists in Belgium supported by the association Ensemble-Groupe d’Aide aux Journalistes Exilés (En-GAJE). We observe how journalists understand and manage the emotions provoked by exposure to social media content in exile and we analyse their knowledge of and attitude towards post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and secondary traumatic stress (STS). Our study highlights that while emotions are acknowledged by Burundian exiled journalists emotional detachment remains a professional principle of reference for them; avoiding inactivity results to be the main coping strategy used to deal with work-related emotions and possible trauma and this allows them to maintain their journalistic identity and authority on social media.

Reconstruction of diversity, Iranian inclusion, Kurdish exclusion and fictions of diasporic agency: An unhyphenated citizenship in Daughters of Smoke and Fire
This article explores Ava Homa’s novel Daughters of Smoke and Fire (2020) examining how the Islamic government of Iran has stifled religious and linguistic minorities within the constructed national identity. Amidst this context authors like Homa challenge the Aryan race as the foundation of Iranian national identity striving to carve out a diasporic space within Iranian–Canadian literature that embraces Iran’s marginalized ethnicities with a particular focus on Iranian–Kurdish identity.

Material Media-Making in the Digital Age
There is now no shortage of media for us to consume from streaming services and video-on-demand to social media and everything else besides. This has changed the way media scholars think about the production and reception of media. Missing from these conversations though is the maker: in particular the maker who has the power to produce media in their pocket.
How might one craft a personal media-making practice that is thoughtful and considerate of the tools and materials at one's disposal? This is the core question of this original new book. Exploring a number of media-making tools and processes like drones and vlogging as well as thinking through time editing sound and the stream Binns looks out over the current media landscape in order to understand his own media practice.
The result is a personal journey through media theory history and technology furnished with practical exercises for teachers students professionals and enthusiasts: a unique combination of theory and practice written in a highly personal and personable style that is engaging and refreshing.
This book will enable readers to understand how a personal creative practice might unlock deeper thinking about media and its place in the world.
The primary readership will be among academics researchers and students in the creative arts as well as practitioners of creative arts including sound designers cinematographers and social media content producers.
Designed for classroom use this will be of particular importance for undergraduate students of film production and may also be of interest to students at MA level particularly on the growing number of courses that specifically offer a blend of theory and practice. The highly accessible writing style may also mean that it can be taken up for high school courses on film and production.
It will also be of interest to academics delivering these courses and to researchers and scholars of new media and digital cinema.

The dialectical relationship between the authorial and the collaborative in contemporary documentary: Perspectives from three case studies
This article discusses the intersections between authorial and collaborative work in the scope of ethnographic documentary departing from three case studies: two research projects and one citizen collective of participatory media. All case studies were developed in Porto Portugal between 2013 and 2020 focusing on the city’s invisibilities and everyday experiences searching for alternative narratives to the mainstream media when portraying its people and places. This article aims to reflect on how authorial documentary work followed by self-criticism and self-reflection can be incorporated into participatory media frameworks in productive ways. The challenges faced by the three cases are intrinsically related and have influenced each other throughout this period addressing issues related to the representational crisis; the legitimation of subjectivity and the exploration of different styles within documentary; as well as the relationships between the filmmaker the camera the subject/character portrayed and the audience. These themes are explored through a series of first-person field reports and the study of authors and directors in the field of documentary filmmaking.

Practice of networked content self-regulation in Malaysia: From industrial players to media users
Information and communication technology is reshaping the world faster than ever. In parallel with the growth of content production and publishing tools the volume of digital content has increased drastically. Malaysian authorities have established and authorized Content Forum to create a Content Code for imposing self-regulating standards on networked content. The Content Code served as the guiding principle for content creators in managing their content better. Industry players were early adopters of the Content Code. However there has not been a strong awareness of the Content Code amongst the public. This research aimed to provide insights into the extent concerning how Malaysians are empowered in making an informed selection when consuming content across multiple screens and platforms. Thus this research conducted focus group discussions and questionnaire distribution to fill this gap. The results showed that most people are aware of the Content Code but not in detail. Instead they have been selecting content intuitively based on their common sense and general knowledge. The findings of this study can provide insights to the authorities in increasing the awareness of Malaysians to exercise informed content selection when consuming networked content therefore increasing the welfare of internet users.

Filmic construction of regional Islamophobia: Rendering Kashmiri Muslims in Hindi cinema
This article examines the representation of Kashmir and its people in Hindi cinema particularly Kashmiri Muslims. Cinematic representation has contributed to a harmful perception of Muslim identity and Islam. Given the contemporary global religio-political scenario it is crucial to examine this phenomenon in promoting such perceptions about Kashmir which is often referred to as South-Asian Palestine. The methodology employs survey dialogical deconstruction and narrative analysis to unearth the implicit significances within three selected films Haider Mission Kashmir and Roja depicting the Kashmiri Muslim subjects and their effect on the youth. A survey of university youth was also conducted at three central universities in Delhi. The investigation reveals a prevalent theme of violence in these films often giving negative and biased portrayals of Kashmiris. Such conscious constructions of negative characters and narratives perpetuate Kashmirophobia – the fear or prejudice against Kashmir and its people among the youth. The portrayal of Kashmiri Muslims in Bollywood aggravates communal narratives and reinforces discriminatory views about the community affecting the perception of the audience towards Kashmiri Muslims.

Ethical communication: Exploring representations of Bedoon and migrant workers in the Kuwaiti TV show From Haram Street
This research aims to provide a critical analysis of the portrayal of migrant workers and the Bedoon in the popular Kuwaiti TV series From Haram Street (Haram Street). The research methodology employs the use of a diasporic critique to explore to what extent have TV and popular culture as technologies of power allowed workers to submit to a certain degree of domination and how television reinforces this script of dominance. Using diasporic critique the author highlights how labour migrants are displaced in reality but framed differently through popular culture. The key findings indicate that the series provides a highly stereotypical portrayal of the Bedoon and migrant worker communities. The findings also indicate that the diasporic nature of these communities – that of migrant workers and that of the Bedoon – allows for a privileged and hegemonic rhetoric that excludes domestic workers and Bedoon communities. Along with providing an insight into the feminist vernacular discourse in present-day Kuwait Haram Street series also sets in motion hegemonic rhetorics meant to keep migrant workers and Bedoon communities disciplined and excluded through technologies of domination. Particular attention in this article is paid to how Haram Street shapes our understanding of the migrant workers’ and stateless individuals’ situation in Kuwait.

Cross-cultural adaptation issues and strategies: A study of Nigerian students in China
This article focuses on cross-cultural adaptation issues among international students. Its main focus is on Nigerian students in China coming from one of the leading African countries with a pro-China policy. The increasing number of students from Africa in China is a big shift as such students would in the past prioritize Europe or North America. This new reality provides an important focus for analysing issues raised by cross-cultural exchange between two nations. The findings have wider implications as China pro-actively works not just with Nigeria but all the 54 African countries. The research relied on qualitative and quantitative research methods specifically interviews and questionnaires. It explored five dimensions of cross-cultural adaptation: natural environment and daily life adaptation language adaptation academic adaptation psychological adaptation as well as the character of communication through media between Nigerian students and Chinese people. The overall findings show unique challenges as well as opportunities available to international students in the context of cross-cultural adaptation.

Exploring variations in using emojis in digital communication in the UAE
This research aims to explore how people in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) use emojis on social media and the communicative functions of emojis including gender differences in assessing appropriateness. The study is based on in-depth interviews with fifteen participants representing different gender cultural and age groups. The interviewees include six males and nine females with an age range from 18 to 45 years. The findings emphasize the importance of diversity of perspectives and sensitivities when using emojis in communication raising questions about the role of emojis in reinforcing or challenging traditional gender norms within the UAE and how individuals navigate the intricate balance between self-expression and cultural norms in their digital interactions. Moreover ‘emotional emojis’ were favoured by participants from every generation apart from those in their 20s although the specific emojis that best expressed those emotions varied. The findings also indicate the use of emoji as a cultural barometer within the digital realm of the UAE. The nuances in emoji preferences usage frequencies and interpretations across different cultural groups particularly between Emirati and non-Emirati populations vividly portray how emojis mirror the complex tapestry of cultural identity and interaction. These emojis as digital symbols emerge as profound reflections of the rich cultural dynamics that shape the UAE’s digital landscape. This study adds to the body of research on digitized communication particularly in the Arab context and contributes to understanding how emojis are used to create meaning online.

A critical inquiry into the discourses of war and occupation in the wake of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza
The aim of this article is to use one central assumption of Wittgenstein’s philosophy – language games – to review some important aspects of communication and language issues that typically have arisen in the aftermath of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. I draw specifically on a critical inquiry of purposefully selected samples of discursive and linguistic practices accompanying the war in Ukraine and the occupation of its territory by Russia and the war in Gaza and the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel. References will also be made to the types of language games used by mainstream western media to categorize other wars and occupations discursively and socially such as those of Iraq Yemen and Afghanistan. I argue that the use of language is crucial for the understanding and representation of these wars and occupations and a cause of failure in intercultural interaction. The central argument is as follows: While language games have different senses and not all people attach the same meaning to them in case of conflict and controversy those with power attach additional or different interpretations to them in a way they think is reasonable to change or at least rearrange their meanings. According to Wittgenstein’s deliberations of language games the meaning of each of the various linguistic utterances like words sentences or symbols is defined in terms of its setting and use. To unravel how and why certain linguistic practices are reinforced and others are thwarted the article supplements Wittgenstein’s deliberations of language with Hollihan and Baaskes’ definition of rhetorical source credibility Thomas Hobbes’ ‘Leviathan discourse’ and Foucault’s notion of discourse and power.

Solutions for Tech Companies, Government, and the Public

Effective Journalism
How the Information Ecosystem Works and What Journalists Should Do About It
This book provides journalists and the public with a broad overview of all the ways modern communication technologies and information approaches make it difficult for people to effectively find and interpret information and what they can do about it. The public may have a general awareness that things like confirmation bias content algorithms and the backfire effect exist and can influence their behaviour but this book will explain them in one place in plain language. Journalists likewise know that their audiences are dealing with some of these issues but continue to operate under the assumption that if they just publish facts the truth will win out in the court of public opinion.
The central argument of the book is that journalists and audiences can no longer afford to pretend that all information is competing on an even playing field and that it is enough for journalists to simply publish “the facts.” Just as behavioural economics provided a new way of thinking about economics one that understood people as non-rational actors this book attempts to explain the reality rather than the ideal of how people seek and process information and what journalists and their audiences can do to try to create an informed public in the face of that reality.
For many American journalists their work and their responsibility to the public is grounded in the concept of a marketplace of ideas. Journalists believe they should just report the facts as neutrally as possible and let the public judge those facts and put them in context. The marketplace of ideas requires individuals to rationally consider the information that is presented to them and weigh it against other available information. Through this process bad ideas will be judged and dismissed and good ideas will win out. We might like to believe that we are all capable of carefully and rationally evaluating information but the evidence is clear that it is simply not true. If it were true we would not observe such things as the continued persistence of flat-Earthers and moon-landing sceptics and others who champion backward social ideas that were dismissed decades or even centuries ago. The fact that these ideas continue to persist tells us that the public is not engaging in a clear-eyed rational consideration of all the available verified facts.

LIFE
A Transdisciplinary Inquiry
LIFE: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry examines nature cognition and society as an interwoven tapestry across disciplinary boundaries. This volume explores how information and communication are instrumental in and for living systems acknowledging an integrative account of media as environments and technologies.
The aim of the collection is a fuller and richer account of everyday life through a spectrum of insights from internationally known scholars of the natural sciences (physical and life sciences) social sciences and the arts.
How or should life be defined? If life is a medium how is it mediated? Viewed as interactions transactions and contexts of ecosystems life can be recognized through patterns across the sciences including metabolisms habitats and lifeworlds. The book also integrates discussions of embodiment ecological values literacies and critiques with bioinspired synthetic and historical design approaches to envision what could constitute artful living in an ever-evolving interdependent world.
The volume foregrounds systemic approaches to life drawing on a wide range of disciplines and fields including architecture art biology bioengineering chemistry cinema studies communication computer science conservation cultural studies design ecology environmental studies information science landscape architecture geography journalism materials science media archaeology media studies philosophy physics plant signalling and development political economy sociology and system dynamics.
This is the second volume in the MEDIA • LIFE • UNIVERSE Trilogy. It follows and builds upon the 2021 collection MEDIA: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry ISBN 9781789382655

The digital navigator programme in the time of COVID-19: A case study on Philadelphia’s programme
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic posed dire challenges for digital inclusion and digital literacy among marginalized communities. This article adopts a case study approach to analyse how the digital navigator programme (DNP) in Philadelphia addresses these challenges. The DNP in this city implements a policy design and governance strategy which presents a novel approach to bolstering universal access to information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure digital inclusion and digital literacy in order to combat the pandemic’s pernicious impact in worsening the digital divide in the city. This policy approach entails collaborative governance and cross-sector partnerships to address digital equity issues exacerbated by the pandemic. This study offers empirical evidence on the demands that the city’s residents placed on the DNP to address their digital inclusion and digital literacy issues. It also provides an understanding of the measures that the DNP’s partners adopted to respond to the citizens’ needs for digital equity.

Reframing Materiality in the Caribbean Diaspora Podcast
This chapter explores the Conversations with the Caribbean Diaspora podcast as a new type of content during the COVID-19 pandemic. The global crisis is posed multiple challenges for world leaders in terms offinances society culture and economy. As digital platforms become more popular migrants abroad rely heavily on virtual spaces to communicate. The Caribbean Diaspora community's online platforms were flooded with panic during the pandemic. In this context the Conversations podcast provided an alternative voice for this community.
With the podcast as an emerging digital space this chapter explores its relationship to notions of materiality. Sondergaard (2011) and Hegel (1998) define materiality differently. Sondergaard emphasises physical matter while Hegel highlights content and creativity. Other theories highlight the abstractness in the term (McLuhan 1964) or define digital materiality asimmaterial (Morizio 2014; Latour 2005). However Lacey (2018) calls for a holistic approach accounting for tangible and intangible layers. These fragmented theories provide a starting point to frame this podcast's materiality. The chapter explores the connectionbetween materiality and podcasts in the Caribbean Diaspora community.

Patch Lead Possibilities
An ordinary patch lead is commonplace in many musical settings particularly with guitarists and electronic musicians. It is something that many take for granted a necessity of their work hardly worth a second thought. For this teenage aspiring musician it came to represent a lifetime of music-making a gateway to an as yet unknown and seemingly unattainable world and the possibility to expand creative horizons. This value of this cheap mass-produced object is in what it represented and continues to represent; an opportunity to connect and make music with seemingly endless possibilities.

‘Press the Start Button’
This short take is a reflective piece that describes the author's personal relationship with a handheld games console in which through thinking of their connection to this material object the author experienced sensations of nostalgia memory and familial ties.

On, Off, and in the Map: Materializing Game Experiences Through Player Cartography
This chapter focuses on maps produced and used by players seeking to understand them as recording devices that capture and preserve narratives and experiences. It takes the position that the materiality of maps emerges both in their very existence and relation to place and in the way they chronicle experience and record a past. For fictional gameworlds this distinction is arguably emphasized because the relation to ‘real’ place is weakened or non-existent.
Cartographic practices in games are however also enmeshed in discussions about colonialism. In many games exploration is connected with conflict and mapping often represents the objectification of space in the service of player narratives. Such objectification surely limits the forms of narrative that can emerge so what narratives – and what pasts – can and do such maps record? How do they offer an account of experience? And what is it that is made material in their materiality?

Conclusion: Shifting Horizons of Possibility
This concluding chapter addresses the materiality of media – devices storage formats platforms – as tied up with feeling; the sense of things. If media technology presents a material ever-shifting horizon of possibility for what can or cannot be done at any given point in time it also gives rise to modes of sensation as sounds and images materialise in different ways and as they become differently experienced.

Materialities and Craft Value
In my research on supporting diversity and expertise development in craft I've been trying to think through craft value and how it is racialized gendered and classed. Why the types of craft promoted by my project partner CraftsCouncil has so much value placed on it and why craft work and objects created as part of craft participation programmes and within communities are considered less valuable and not recognised as aesthetically important.
While value judgements do depend on skill and aesthetic expertise I argue these value judgements are also classed and racialised. There is work on materialities which helps me to think through how value judgements can be reframed for a more equitable and inclusive craft ecology.

Essentially (Not) the Game: Reading the Materiality of Video Game Paratexts
Video games utilise many different forms of materiality to establish game-worlds players are interested in entering and exploring. While games as texts represent these worlds paratexts create various ways into these games. This chapter addresses three kinds of materiality associated with texts and/or paratexts: (1) the physical and digital materiality of games and their paratexts (2) essential and non-essential paratexts and (3) gameplay technological and marketing paratexts. At the end of this chapter the reader will have gained a better understanding of the complex relationships between video game texts and paratexts as well as the particular idea of materiality associated with elements generating unique game-worlds for their players.

Materialities of Television History
This short take reflects on the process and experience of accessing fanzines about television. These fanzines published in the 1970s and 1980s account for the materiality of historical relationships with television in at least three directions: 1) Reflecting on working with paper documents and their digital copies; 2) Noting where collections overlap but the handwritten annotations on archived pieces differ; and 3) Material conditions of watching television are part of fans’ accounts of being an audience.

Thirty-Seven Retweets
Despite its many immaterial qualities the digital world has acquired a certain symbolical authority. In recording and registering all our acts it enacts formal control over what we do. But what is likely to disturb us most is not a lack of control over our digital lives but how we are somehow both passive and instrumental in its symbolic power over us. In this chapter I will argue how the tension resonating between the materiality of the physical and the digital world stems from a difficulty in reconciling how subjectivity emerges from the distance both have from one another. Inevitably as the digital domain leeks further into our physical worlds what we experience is a short-circuiting of subjectivity in which fantasy and reality collide with one another.

Materialities of Spatial Confinement: Trefeglwys Meets Beirut
A personal reflection on the materialities of space written during the first lockdown in Trefeglwys Wales and confronting perspectives of confinement between two very different countries (UK and Lebanon) and realities.

‘Because It Is Not Digital’: The Cultural Value of the Analogue Book in the Digital Age
This chapter explores the materiality of the analogue book. It discusses the limited functionality of the analogue book and how this is related to people's experience of reading the digital age. It considers media nostalgia in relation to the analogue book and the significance of book's materiality in this. Lastly it explores the fears of a particular group of readers and authors that analogue books may disappear in the course of digitization.

Making Order Out of Chaos
How a simple solar powered calculator has provided a narrative to my professional career and as a result. The calculator has followed my journey of mathematical development from failed Maths O'Level to managing millions of pounds.

Location, Agency, and Hashtag Activism During the COVID-19 Pandemic
I have always been torn between my physical home in the UK and my sense of home in Africa. I use ‘Africa’ deliberately because in the last few years I have become increasing connected to a continental outlook and not a national one focused solely on Nigeria where I am from. While I continue to reflect on the word to describe my identity I cogitate ‘Afropolitan’ a word coined by Taiye Selasi (2005) and which Eze (2014; 239) describes as a term used in an “effort to grasp the diverse nature of being African or of African descent in the world today”. For me I use it to describe an empowered stance which does not take its starting point from a resistance to the West and that rejects notions of victimhood.

The Solid State of Radio
The ephemerality of radio is one of its defining characteristics. And yet the artefact of a radio is certainly real enough. This chapter explores the interplay between the physicality of radio and its existence as an intangible medium. It reflects on the attachment that can develop between a listener and their radio before considering how modern radio manufacturers have influenced this relationship through design and functionality. While the proliferation of platforms content and station choice provide an inexhaustible supply of radio via a series of simple swipes or clicks for many listeners there remains a preference for the human-machine interface of traditional knobs and dials. Unpicking this nostalgia for the medium's supposed ‘golden age’ and its associated aesthetics provides insight into the bond between the listener and the materiality of the radio.

Still Angry: Still Feeding
This short take is a nostalgic and reflexive account of my nascent and now life long relationship with punk rock and specifically anarcho-punk a more politically focussed sub-genre of punk rock that emerged in the UK in the late 1970s. Through the story of acquiring British anarcho-punk band Crass’ seminal anarcho-punk album Feeding of the 5000 this short take shows the continuing impact that song lyrics and visual imagery can have on an individual 44 years later.

Stamp of Approval: A Prosopography of the English Midlands Videogame Industry
This chapter examines the formation of the UK Midlands Videogames’ Industry within the scope of the political economy of the region. By using prosopography data points from primary data in the form of interviews and archival resources are tessellated to reveal the network of the early videogames’ industry and its relation to factors of production consumption marketing and distribution. The chapter charts how new technologies built on pre-existing practices found in industrial and textile manufacture in the region and the importance of local regional national international and transnational communication links to its early and continued economic success. It concludes by demonstrating how in spite of the deployment of new technologies parochial andtraditional practices remain embedded in theregion and the ramifications this has for workingpractices in the games’ industry in the 21st century.

Media Materialities
Form, Format, and Ephemeral Meaning
Provides new perspectives on the increasingly complex relationships between media forms and formats materiality and meaning. Drawing on a range of qualitative methodologies our consideration of the materiality of media is structured around three overarching concepts: form – the physical qualities of objects and the meanings which extend from them; format – objects considered in relation to the protocols which govern their use and the meanings and practices which stem from them; and ephemeral meaning – the ways in which media artefacts are captured transformed and redefined through changing social cultural and technological values.
Each section includes empirical chapters which provide expansive discussions of perspectives on media and materiality. It considers a range of media artefacts such as 8mm film board games maps videogames cassette tapes transistor radios and Twitter amongst others. These are punctuated with a number of short takes – less formal often personal takes exploring the meanings of media in context.
We seek to consider the materialities which emerge across the broad and variegated range of the term’s use and to create spaces for conversation and debate about the implications that this plurality of material meanings might have for the study of study of media culture and society.

Media Pluralism and Online News
The Consequences of Automated Curation for Society
The book arises from an international research project that explores the future of media pluralism policies for online news. It investigates the latest European policies and techniques for regulatory intervention and examines the consequences of innovative news practices asking ‘How will automation of news affect public opinion in the age of social media platforms and what are the consequences?’
In Media Pluralism and Online News the authors make the argument that there is an urgent need for revitalised thinking for a media policy agenda to deal with the trends to platform power and concentrated media power which is an ongoing global risk to public interest journalism.
In the transition to a media landscape increasingly dominated by broadband internet distribution and the dominance of US-centric new media behemoths Google Facebook Apple Amazon and Netflix the book investigates measures that can be taken to reduce this ongoing march of concentration and the attenuation of media voices.
Securing the public interest in a vibrant and sustainable news media sector will require that merger decisions assess whether there is a ‘reduction in diversity’ -- calling for a new public interest test and a more expansive policy focus than in the past. This would include consideration of the sustainability of local businesses; the encouragement of original and local news content; quality of content in terms of the promotion of news standards; and new modes of delivery and consumption including the ‘automated curation’ of news content by digital platforms.

The concept of ‘new media’ among Jordanian news producers
The aim of this study is to understand how Jordanian journalists view social media networks as being related to the news industry in Jordan and the extent of their dependence on these networks in producing news. It also explores the opinions of Jordanian journalists on the pros and cons of these networks through the lens of the relationship between these networks and professional journalism. This study uses the qualitative approach by conducting interviews with a number of professional journalists. The findings indicate that Jordanian journalists perceive social networks as an essential and beneficial development. There is optimism among journalists about the relationship between professional journalism and social media. Also social networks have brought several benefits to professional journalism. The results also show that journalists firmly believe that social networks cannot be considered a substitute for traditional media.