{"title":"Day of Rage: Forensic journalism and the US Capitol riot","authors":"K. Gates","doi":"10.1177/01634437231188449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231188449","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how video journalism produced by the elite press is using forensic techniques and aesthetics as part of the effort to reinvent journalistic authority in a fragmented media and political sphere. I first discuss some earlier moments in which news coverage of events adopted a media-forensic epistemology and style, and then turn to the formation of the New York Times Visual Investigations team, a group at the leading-edge of this type of journalism today. I provide an analysis of one of the team’s investigative reports, a 40-minute account of the January 6 Capitol riot assembled from vernacular video, surveillance footage, police bodycam video, and other non-news source materials. In both its formal aspects and its subject matter, the piece represents an important example for understanding an emerging form of forensic journalism. While the January 6 Capitol riot was not the first time news coverage of a violent event adopted a forensic style and epistemology, the forensic-media coverage of the riot represents a unique conjuncture. A new convergence of media-technological developments and journalist practices shaped how the storming of the Capitol was experienced, investigated, and covered as a media event.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123991559","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":"Moderating for a friend of mine: Content moderation as affective reproduction in Chinese live-streaming","authors":"Fan Xiao","doi":"10.1177/01634437231188465","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231188465","url":null,"abstract":"Bridging the theory of affective labor and reproductive labor, this paper proposes “affective reproduction” as a critical framework to analyze the unpaid work of volunteer content moderation. Findings from this study problematize the one-sided focus on streamers in the extant literature on platform labor vis-à-vis live-streaming. It contends that fan moderators help streamers reproduce the live-streaming atmosphere as friendly, pleasant, and relevant, facilitating Internet celebrities’ money-making. This study contributes to studies of digital labor in two ways: 1) it expands the labor and work perspective to the study of content moderation and discloses the indirect value-generating nature of this work; 2) the designation of moderator in Chinese live-streaming platforms reveals a new form of work organization that exploits digital intimacy, transforming platform users into non-professional, secondary cultural workers. The proposed framework is applicable to various forms of participatory media, in which users are encouraged to manage and regulate their peers.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126290278","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":"‘You’re too smart to be a publicist’: Perceptions, expectations and the labour of book publicity","authors":"A. Dane, Millicent Weber, C. Parnell","doi":"10.1177/01634437231188447","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231188447","url":null,"abstract":"The representation of publicists in popular culture appears to have a direct relationship with how publishing sector publicity staff are perceived by their colleagues and peers, having a distinct knock-on effect to work practices and labour conditions. In this article, we explore these perceptions and, through interviews with eight publicists working in publishing houses in Australia, explore how the work of publicity is commonly misrecognised and undervalued. In framing publicists as cultural intermediaries who contribute to the shaping of cultural tastes, we further illuminate the significant gap between the common gendered perceptions of publicists and the realities of their professional practice.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129065282","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}
Gerhard Schnyder, Marlene Radl, Fanni Tóth, Melek Kucukuzun, Tjaša Turnšek, Burçe Çelik, M. Pajnik
{"title":"Theorizing and mapping media ownership networks in authoritarian-populist contexts: a comparative analysis of Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey","authors":"Gerhard Schnyder, Marlene Radl, Fanni Tóth, Melek Kucukuzun, Tjaša Turnšek, Burçe Çelik, M. Pajnik","doi":"10.1177/01634437231179366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231179366","url":null,"abstract":"This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussions on authoritarian populism and the media, from the lens of the political economy of ownership. In contrast to studies that consider the link between media and authoritarian populism by focusing on the discursive structures of populist communication, this study analyses changes in the structure of news media ownership in four European countries that have been subject to authoritarian populism. By employing social network analysis, a methodology rarely used in media ownership research, we reveal how news media ownership concentration as well as changes in ownership structures have provided favorable conditions for the rise and endurance of authoritarian populism. Our study covers ownership developments during the period 2000 to 2020, in Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey where authoritarian populist tendencies have been evident, albeit to varying degrees. Conclusions are drawn to illustrate how authoritarian populist actors in the sample countries not only capitalize on prevailing news media ownership structures, but also proactively intervene in ownership relations in order to increase influence over the diffusion of information.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"72 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116934279","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":"Media practice and class-making: The anticipation of stigma and the cultural middle-class habitus","authors":"Johan Lindell, Aleksandra Dominika Kas","doi":"10.1177/01634437231185966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231185966","url":null,"abstract":"The relationship between media practices and social inequality has been studied within a range of sub-disciplines in media and communication studies and cultural sociology. In various, more or less direct, ways these studies point to the fact that habitus – the socially formed class specific relations to the social world – generates certain tastes, lifestyles, practices and preferences. When social groups form relatively distinct media practices, and distance themselves from the practices of other groups, they reproduce their social position, and ‘make’ their class. By analysing in-depth interviews with members of an emerging cultural middle-class, this study shows how class-making also manifests in the ways in which people expect that others would ‘look down’ on their media practices. By anticipating stigma from imagined others, the cultural middle-class stays in line with class-specific lifestyles and media practices, thus cementing their distinct character in the social space.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"92 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127051892","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":"“An out gay man in the parliament”: New aspects in the study of LGBTQ politicians’ media coverage","authors":"G. Greenwald, Sharon Haleva-Amir, Amit Kama","doi":"10.1177/01634437231185946","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231185946","url":null,"abstract":"This study identifies how three prominent Israeli online newspapers frame gay Members of Knesset (Israeli parliament) and cabinet ministers. 2019 was chosen since the number of gay MKs reached a historic milestone of representation. The study employed a mixed-methods design, combining descriptive statistics, based on a quantitative content analysis, with a thematic qualitative analysis. 1015 retrieved news items constituted the initial database. They were divided into two categories: “Gay relevant” (items explicitly referring to, or mentioning the politician’s sexual orientation); or “Gay irrelevant” (all other items), to thematically focus on the Gay relevant items ( N = 159). Six themes were then identified: Novelty; LGBTQ Political Representation; Private Sphere; Homophobia; Community Recognition and Rights; and Incongruity. Findings revealed that elite newspaper coverage is similar to popular ones; cabinet ministers’ framing is more neutral compared to junior MKs; and liberal MKs are framed differently than conservative ones.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134177532","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}
Elçin Istif Inci, C. Tinaz, Umit Kuvvetli̇, Nefise Meltem Turgut
{"title":"Media representations of naturalized athletes: Sentiment variations and trends in Turkish media","authors":"Elçin Istif Inci, C. Tinaz, Umit Kuvvetli̇, Nefise Meltem Turgut","doi":"10.1177/01634437231185940","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231185940","url":null,"abstract":"Turkey has received consistent criticism from international media for having many naturalized athletes in its national squad, both in the Olympic Games and other major international sporting events. Similar criticisms have also been a feature of debates for a long time in domestic media, varying in views toward these athletes. This research focuses on media representations of naturalized athletes in Turkey between 2008 and 2020. We investigated the sentiments of news items from four major Turkish newspapers ( Milliyet, Cumhuriyet, Sabah and Fanatik) on their stances toward naturalized athletes over the timespan of 2008–2020. Beside analyzing the sentiment of the media content both cumulatively and fragmentedly, we also identified the yearly trends and most featured sports in this context, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques. Our findings showed that sentiments in Turkish media toward naturalized athletes are mostly neutral and negative as well as with differences varying on the basis of the newspapers and news item types. The most criticism underlined pursuing “shortcut” success with naturalized athletes representing Turkey in the international arena. Among the featured sports, basketball, football, and track and field have been the most discussed ones in the naturalization context.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115923675","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":"Analyzing gender capital in Grand Theft Auto social media conversations","authors":"Steven L. Dashiell, Andrew Phelps","doi":"10.1177/01634437231185949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231185949","url":null,"abstract":"This research looks at the role of gender capital in sensitive topics in game studies. Grand Theft Auto is a game that has been linked to negative portrayals of women and glorification of violence. With the potential release of Grand Theft Auto 6, a rumor was leaked concerning the possibility of a woman as the main playable character. We examine posts on a tweet discussing the potential of the lead character in Grand Theft Auto 6 being a woman ( n=182). We note three ways how masculine gender capital is employed to manipulate masculinity via discourse. When used by men, linguistic gender capital is used to either affirm support or to lament the possibility. For women, masculine gender capital is used to diminish the masculinity of those men who have a problem with the potential of a woman as the lead character. Even those who support the idea utilize homophobic and belittling language to dismiss and ridicule others, weaponizing masculinity. In short, even attacks on a “toxic” masculinity are themselves harmful, demonstrating how the damaging utilization of masculine gender capital – from whatever source – is the crux of the problem.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123461022","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":"Streaming culture and a new wave of institutionalisation of audience measurement in China","authors":"E. J. Zhao","doi":"10.1177/01634437231182017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231182017","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the unfolding re-institutionalisation of audience measurement as the streaming culture reshapes the television industry in China. Following a brief introduction of the institutionalisation of the ratings culture, I examine how streaming platforms are reconfiguring audience measurement by tracing how various metrics are defined, used and valued by different platforms, in different contexts and across time. The analysis reveals continuing and new forms of informalities despite signs of convergence towards the use of algorithmic metrics, which are closely connected to streaming service providers’ self-serving interest in a multi-sided market. Next, I discuss how the disruption of the state’s near-monopoly in audience measurement in the traditional television industry breaks the regulatory inertia. I explain the dual-approach to institutional intervention by the state – the regulation of metric commodities through mandated calibration, and the launch of an official system as market alternative and policy instrument. I argue that the state intervention – through governance of and with algorithms – constitutes adaptive cultural governance serving ‘mass’ audience construction, and the regulation doubles up as a market response to serve the state’s intention to reclaim power in and over the market.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114376061","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":"Innovation through anachronism: the Pony Express, media, and American modernities","authors":"Christina Corfield","doi":"10.1177/01634437231182009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231182009","url":null,"abstract":"Historically, the relationship between innovation and technology has formed an important element of Euro-American identity. However, such a view ignores older or alternative media forms and practices, contributing to a conception of modernity as future-oriented, obscuring the importance of transitional moments during which the value and meaning of new media develop and new senses of community identity can be defined. As we live through a transitional moment with new forms of technological media emerging in shortening cycles of time and with American identity in conflict and flux, re-assessing the relationship between innovation, technological media, and modernity is urgent. The mid-19th century likewise was a time of social, technological, and cultural change. Following a media archeological method, I focus on a messaging system from the 19th century, the Pony Express, which was in operation for only 18 months, but became a media phenomenon whose imaginative influence lasted into the 21st century. The Pony Express’s success as a messenger demonstrates how an anachronistic communications system solved a problem of American modernization – the need for networked connection across long distances – and shows how such a system provided imaginative and iconographic frameworks for maintaining a sense of American identity at a time of change.","PeriodicalId":427430,"journal":{"name":"Media, Culture & Society","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132079138","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}