Media HistoryPub Date : 2021-12-09DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.2010524
Betto van Waarden
{"title":"‘His Political Life Story Told in Pictures’: The Visual Construction of the Political Persona of Joseph Chamberlain","authors":"Betto van Waarden","doi":"10.1080/13688804.2021.2010524","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2021.2010524","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that the increasing use of press images around 1900 contributed to the construction of the political persona of the British Statesman Joseph Chamberlain. These images fused scenes from his public and private life and, paradoxically, the new focus on his private characteristics reinforced his public role. His private life did not replace his public side, nor was the private unrelated to politics as celebrity scholarship suggests, but these projected private characteristics widened the scope of what it meant to be a politician in a mass mediated environment. This argument is made through an analysis of the media context in which Chamberlain matured as a politician and the press images of his public and private life. Particularly the many (re)published images of Chamberlain during the ‘media event’ of his death in 1914 are used methodologically to trace the evolution of the visual depiction of politics through time.","PeriodicalId":44733,"journal":{"name":"Media History","volume":"28 1","pages":"27 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47014091","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}
Media HistoryPub Date : 2021-08-06DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.1961575
H. Kokko
{"title":"From Local to Translocal Experience","authors":"H. Kokko","doi":"10.1080/13688804.2021.1961575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2021.1961575","url":null,"abstract":"The phenomenon of letters to newspapers developed into a nationwide and pervasive culture of local letters in the mid-1800s Finnish-language press. A characteristic feature of this culture was that the readers’ letters published in the press were written in the names of local communities. Thus, the writer of the letter claimed to represent the entire local community. This interaction between different locations via the press transformed local into societal and societal into local. The culture of local letters had decisive influence on the development of Finnish society, nationalism and civic society in the nineteenth century.","PeriodicalId":44733,"journal":{"name":"Media History","volume":"28 1","pages":"181 - 198"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13688804.2021.1961575","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47611575","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}
Media HistoryPub Date : 2021-07-29DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.1958672
Clelia Clini, J. Hornabrook, Emily Keightley
{"title":"Televising the Partition of British India","authors":"Clelia Clini, J. Hornabrook, Emily Keightley","doi":"10.1080/13688804.2021.1958672","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2021.1958672","url":null,"abstract":"2017 marked the 70th anniversary of the end of colonial rule in British India and of the division of the country into the two independent states of India and Pakistan. To commemorate the event, in August 2017, the BBC broadcast a series of programmes focused specifically on Partition. Focusing on My Family, Partition and Me: India 1947, this article analyses the programme’s structure and rhetorical strategies, with particular reference to its representation of the empire and of contemporary postcolonial Britain. We argue that the show, by merging personal and national histories, successfully promotes an inclusive perspective on Britishness, in line with the BBC’s inclusivity remit, which also emphasises the multicultural character of Britain as a result of its colonial history. The emphasis on individualised account of suffering and resilience, however, leaves Partition circumscribed within the ‘temporary madness’ narrative, thus limiting the show’s engagement with the politics of colonialism and decolonisation.","PeriodicalId":44733,"journal":{"name":"Media History","volume":"28 1","pages":"543 - 559"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44652400","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}
Media HistoryPub Date : 2021-07-26DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.1958671
Johanna Sumiala, L. Lounasmeri, G. Lukyanova
{"title":"Almost Immortal?","authors":"Johanna Sumiala, L. Lounasmeri, G. Lukyanova","doi":"10.1080/13688804.2021.1958671","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2021.1958671","url":null,"abstract":"This article sheds theoretical and empirical light on the ritual media events constructed around the deaths of three Cold War political leaders in the 1980s: the Finnish president, Urho Kekkonen (1900–1986), the Swedish prime minister, Olof Palme (1927–1986), and the Soviet Union general secretary, Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982). Investigating news articles published in the first days after the news of each death broke, as well as news articles on the funeral for each and the immediate aftermath, this study utilises historical news television and print media material, obtained from the national and media archives in Finland, Sweden and Russia. By bringing the study of media culture and history into a dialogue shared with anthropology and political history, this article produces new knowledge on the workings and outcomes of ritual media events in the context of Cold War history. The article places special emphasis on Victor Turner’s ritual analysis and the ways in which power was symbolically transformed in these societies with different political and ideological histories.","PeriodicalId":44733,"journal":{"name":"Media History","volume":"28 1","pages":"261 - 277"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13688804.2021.1958671","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44179787","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}
Media HistoryPub Date : 2021-07-12DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.1947212
Jan Schmidt
{"title":"Just for the Record: Ōkuma Shigenobu and the Mediatisation of 1910s Japanese Politic(ian)S","authors":"Jan Schmidt","doi":"10.1080/13688804.2021.1947212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2021.1947212","url":null,"abstract":"One of the most decisive landslide victories in the political history of Japan was achieved by Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu in March 1915. His election campaign catalysed the mediatisation of Japanese politic(ian)s. In its centre, Ōkuma resided as a carefully crafted political persona and as a populist, charismatic orator. Ichishima Kenkichi, head of the Count Ōkuma Support Association, resorted to a media strategy unprecedented in Japan, which involved the first major case of distributing records of a political speech and speeches held at train stations in dramatic, ‘auratic performances’ (Richard Bauman). The article investigates the campaign in detail and argues that its media strategy was driven by the necessity to counter persistent pork-barrel politics but depended on a charismatic political persona and on time-specific circumstances to such an extent that in its aftermath—for at least a decade—no similar media usage was seen in the political history of Japan.","PeriodicalId":44733,"journal":{"name":"Media History","volume":"28 1","pages":"60 - 84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13688804.2021.1947212","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44480113","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}
Media HistoryPub Date : 2021-07-02DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.1947136
Matthew Corn, Kristen Heflin
{"title":"Remote Control: A Cultural History","authors":"Matthew Corn, Kristen Heflin","doi":"10.1080/13688804.2021.1947136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2021.1947136","url":null,"abstract":"This study provides a cultural-historical analysis of remote control in three stages. In the early 20th century, remote control first emerged as the extension of individual intention across geographic space. Later, remote control became articulated to shifting geopolitical contexts, which placed in tension the reliability and security of the connection between the individual and the outcome. In more recent years, remote control has been articulated as both a geopolitical threat and a domestic blessing. As a result, this study demonstrates the complexity of the concept of remote control and the utility of a cultural historical approach for understanding the mutual constitution of technologies and culture.","PeriodicalId":44733,"journal":{"name":"Media History","volume":"28 1","pages":"244 - 260"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13688804.2021.1947136","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45359209","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}
Media HistoryPub Date : 2021-07-02DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.1947214
Rachel Grant
{"title":"‘The White Side of the Fence:’ Charlotta Bass and the Wesley Robert Wells Case, 1947–1954","authors":"Rachel Grant","doi":"10.1080/13688804.2021.1947214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2021.1947214","url":null,"abstract":"The study examined the leadership role of Charlotta Bass, the editor/publisher of the California Eagle in Los Angeles during the 1950s. Bass helped lead a massive protest campaign in the legal case for Wesley Robert Wells, an inmate sentenced to death row in 1947. During the Cold War, scholars recognized that Black women challenged patriarchal leadership by creating their own paths toward Black radicalism. Bass’ leadership is significant because it adds to pre-Civil Rights Movement activism and protests literature. Her newspaper supported Wells’ campaign targeted at bringing awareness of racism within the prison system. Bass also served as the chairman of the Wesley Wells Legal Defense committee, where she produced a newsletter. Bass played a vital role in the case on several fronts as she brought attention to racism within criminal justice practices, prison violence and capital punishment.","PeriodicalId":44733,"journal":{"name":"Media History","volume":"27 1","pages":"525 - 538"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13688804.2021.1947214","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43971866","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}