{"title":"The Indernet: From Internet Portal to the Social Web","authors":"Urmila Goel","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2016070101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016070101","url":null,"abstract":"The social web creates a different technological environment for natio-ethno-cultural community building than internet portals did. Using a long-term ethnography of the virtual space Indernet, the article pursues the question, why after a relaunch of the former internet portal as a blog and a Facebook page it no longer functioned as a space of the second generation. In particular it analyses which demographic and technological factors had an impact on the capacity for community building. The article argues that the individualised usage of social media and the flow of Facebook make it much harder for ethnic entrepreneurs to create a space of natio-ethno-cultural belonging.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"44 1","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79332159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Food, Photography and the Indian Pastoral","authors":"Aileen Blaney","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2016040101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016040101","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on the relationship between Kheti Badi-a series of images produced by photo-based artist Chinar Shah based on the online Facebook game FarmVille-and the contemporary context of image making, agriculture and food production. In today's digital culture, global perceptions and expectations of food stuffs are grounded less in first-hand knowledge than in images and digital video that circulate on the screens that are now everywhere around us. While photography continues to act in the role of an instrument used to record and classify, it has the power to feed back into the very processes through which science and technology shape food production, going far beyond producing images of a reality that is already out there. In the intersections between a multinational food industry, the global circulation of images of food and the predicaments of people farming the land in India, the author discusses the significance of Kheti Badi's conceptual investigation of photography's role in shaping perceptions of, engagements with and modifications to food.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"30 1","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91269690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Self-Production through the Banal and the Fictive: Self and the Relationship with the Screen","authors":"Y. Ibrahim","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2016040104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016040104","url":null,"abstract":"The self is performed through the banal of the everyday on social media. The banality of the everyday constitutes an integral part of our communication on digital platforms. Taking this as part of our performative lives in the digital economy, the paper looks at ways in which we co-produce the self through the banality of the everyday as well as a wider imagination and engagement with the world. These wider engagements are termed as 'fictive' not because they are unreal but through a conceptual notion of how the self is performed and imagined through wider world events in digital platforms and screen cultures where convergence of technologies allow us to be constantly consumed through the screen as we live out our daily lives. The narration of our lives through the banal and the fictive constantly co-produces the self through a situated domesticity of the everyday and equally through the eventful. In the process it reveals our ongoing relationship with the screen as an orifice for the production of self and the construction of a social reality beyond our immediate domesticity.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"84 1","pages":"51-61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83258019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Women Can't Win: Gender Irony and the E-Politics of The Biggest Loser","authors":"Michael S. Bruner, Karissa Valine, B. Ceja","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2016040102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016040102","url":null,"abstract":"This essay employs irony as a tool to make clearer the workings of one form of the e-politics of food, namely, the structural food oppression linked to the weight and shape of the female body. Arguing that the e-politics of the weight and shape of the female body is one of the most important incarnations of the e-politics of food and one of the most vigorously contested, this study examines the construction of the assumptions, the ideals, and the rules with which women must contend. The case of Rachel Frederickson, the oft-attacked winner of The Biggest Loser 2014, serves as the focus of the study. The critical rhetorical analysis finds some support for the Women Can't Win thesis. Finally, the authors offers some constructive suggestions for helping to escape the Catch-22 of fat-shaming/skinny shaming.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"28 1","pages":"16-36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89447730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Embodying Trust in the Electoral System: The Role of Delegated Transferable Voting for Increasing Voter Choice and Representation of Small Political Parties in the Digital Age","authors":"J. Bishop, M. Beech","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2016040103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016040103","url":null,"abstract":"This paper proposes a new method for distributing votes in democratic elections in such a way that allows for the public to put their trust in independent candidates or those from small political parties. Using the case of a party founded by the authors called The Pluralist Party the paper presents primary data to evaluate the effectiveness of the method-called delegated transferable voting DTV. Using an auto-ethnographical empirical study in which one of the authors plays a significant role as anthropologist, the paper finds that DTV is more likely to lead to the election of independent candidates over party political ones. Pluralism advocates the election of those who are independent of political party whips in order to best represent the people. The election of independent candidates or small parties is a model of pluralism that can achieve this. The empirical study, through investigating the campaigning methods used by The Pluralist Party, shows that putting effort into an election-whether money, materials or labour and however funded-can improve outcomes for political parties. Making use of official government data in addition to the collected data showed that a higher number of votes for the Pluralist Party was associated with a higher education level, more rooms in a household, a lower number of people not in education, employment or training, and a lower 'knol,' which is a unit for measuring brain activity.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"11 1","pages":"37-50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86173310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conflict as a Barrier to Online Political Participation?: A Look at Political Participation in an Era of Web and Mobile Connectivity","authors":"F. Dalisay, M. Kushin, Masahiro Yamamoto","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2016010103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016010103","url":null,"abstract":"This study extends understanding of conflict avoidance's CA potential of inhibiting online political participation. Specifically, the authors examine whether CA has a direct negative relationship with traditional online political participation and online political expression, and an indirect negative relationship with these two forms of participation as mediated by political interest and internal political efficacy. A survey of young adult college students living in a U.S. Midwestern battleground state was conducted weeks prior to the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Results showed that CA has a direct negative relationship with both traditional online political participation and online political expression. Also, CA is negatively associated with political interest and internal political efficacy, which in turn, are positively associated with traditional online political participation and online political expression. Implications are discussed.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"30 1","pages":"37-53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84569163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Challenger Networks of Food Policy on the Internet: A Comparative Study of Structures and Coalitions in Germany, the UK, the US, and Switzerland","authors":"B. Pfetsch, D. Maier, P. Miltner, A. Waldherr","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2016010102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016010102","url":null,"abstract":"In times of genetically modified food, globalized production and distribution chains, food safety is a major issue in public policy. Although industrial actors have traditionally had remarkable influence on political decision-making in this area, challenger organizations from civil society have gained influence by mobilizing support and shaping public discourse on the Internet. The authors' study analyzes online issue networks concerning food safety in order to assess the actor constellations and coalitions that may serve as an opportunity structure for the mobilization of the issue. By comparing the US, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland, the authors investigate the differences in policy settings between pluralist and corporatist democracies. They find that the mobilization structures related to food safety issues are actively promoted by the challengers themselves. In countries where challengers do not find support within national politics, the challengers' online communication refers to mass media as witnesses to legitimize their concern in public debates.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"1 1","pages":"16-36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76620199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Interacting with Whom?: Swedish Parliamentarians on Twitter during the 2014 Elections","authors":"J. Svensson, A. Larsson","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2016010101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016010101","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores Swedish Parliamentarians' Twitter practices during the 2014 general elections. For individual candidates, the political party is important for positions within the party and on the ballot, especially in a party-centered democracy. A previous qualitative nethnographic research project during the previous elections in 2010, in which one campaigning politician was studied in-depth, found that her social media practices to a large extent were inward-facing, focusing on the own party network. But does this result resonate among all Swedish Parliamentarians? Specifically, the authors ask: is Twitter primarily used interactively, for intra-party communication, to interact with strategic voter groups or voters in general? By analyzing all Parliamentarians tweets two weeks up to the elections the authors conclude that retweeting was done within a party political network while @messaging was directed towards political opponents. Mass media journalists and editorial writers were important in Parliamentarians' Twitter practices, while so-called ordinary voters were more absent.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"30 1","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86067542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Illusion of Democracy in Online Consumer Restaurant Reviews","authors":"Morag Kobez","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2016010104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016010104","url":null,"abstract":"Food has long served as a form of cultural capital, and historically it was an elite few food critics who held the power to ascribe status to dining experiences. The rise of social and digital media arguably allows anybody to adopt the role of critic. Lowered barriers associated with digital technologies, coupled with the contemporary 'foodatainment' boom have opened the floodgates for amateurs to weigh into the critical culinary discourse. The tendency for contemporary high-status dining experiences to include casual, rustic and simple foods suggests that the age of food snobbery is in the past. However, this notion of 'omnivorousness' can be viewed as an alternative means of establishing rules surrounding high-status foods. Johnston and Baumann's US research reveals two frames used in food writing to valorise foods in an omnivorous age: authenticity and exoticism. In this project, Johnston and Baumann's methodology is developed and applied to Australian professional and amateur reviews. Results show that Australian professional reviews frequently employ frames of distinction whereas amateur reviews do not; it concludes that the contribution by amateurs to the critical culinary discourse is limited.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"4 1","pages":"54-65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88137523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
D. B. Ibáñez, C. A. Calderón, Jesús Arroyave, Roxana Silva
{"title":"Influence of Social Networks in the Decision to Vote: An Exploratory Survey on the Ecuadorian Electorate","authors":"D. B. Ibáñez, C. A. Calderón, Jesús Arroyave, Roxana Silva","doi":"10.4018/IJEP.2015100102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2015100102","url":null,"abstract":"The popularization of the Internet and the adoption of social media have brought major changes in the way of doing politics and managing the public arena. There is extensive scientific literature confirming the relationship between the use of new media and electoral political participation Willnat et al, 2013; Lee and Shin, 2014; Ceron et al, 2014.. The aim of this study is to determine the mechanism by which using social networks influences the decision to vote. Ecuadorian citizens n= 3,535 took part in an exploratory survey during the first half of 2013. The authors tested the measures and scales included in the questionnaire for validity and reliability; and they used a moderated mediation model Hayes, 2013 based on regression. Results show that positive influence of using social networks on the decision to vote is not given directly, but rather through the search for information and need for political deliberation. In this mediation process, the indirect effect is in turn negatively moderated by age the effect is stronger in young people. It is argued that despite the influence that networks may have on the behavior of voters, traditional factors related to the search for political information in more conventional means e.g. radio or TV seem to have a more significant effect. The authors explain both theoretical and practical implications. Finally, they address the study's limitations regarding the representativeness of the sample and suggest testing the model in other political and cultural contexts.","PeriodicalId":13695,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. E Politics","volume":"187 1","pages":"15-34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74983544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}