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42. Anonymous in Context: The Politics and Power behind the Mask
- Author:
- Gabriella Coleman
- Publication Date:
- 09-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- Since 2010, digital direct action, including leaks, hacking and mass protest, has become a regular feature of political life on the Internet. The source, strengths and weakness of this activity are considered in this paper through an in-depth analysis of Anonymous, the protest ensemble that has been adept at magnifying issues, boosting existing — usually oppositional — movements and converting amorphous discontent into a tangible form. This paper, the third in the Internet Governance Paper Series, examines the intersecting elements that contribute to Anonymous' contemporary geopolitical power: its ability to land media attention, its bold and recognizable aesthetics, its participatory openness, the misinformation that surrounds it and, in particular, its unpredictability. Anonymous signals the growing importance of what I call “weapons of the geek,” a modality of politics exercised by a class of privileged and visible actors who are often at the centre of economic life. Among geeks and hackers, political activities are rooted in concrete experiences of their craft — administering a server or editing videos — skills channelled toward bolstering civil liberties, such as privacy.
- Topic:
- Security, Crime, Intelligence, Science and Technology, Communications, and Mass Media
43. The Abductions Issue in Japan and South Korea: Ten Years after Pyongyang's Admission
- Author:
- Celeste Arrington
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Journal of Korean Studies
- Institution:
- International Council on Korean Studies
- Abstract:
- Nearly all foreign nationals allegedly abducted by North Korea (DPRK) were Japanese or South Korean citizens. Suspected abductees' families mobilized in Japan and South Korea in the late 1990s to raise awareness of the abductions, seek information about their loved ones, and hold their own governments responsible for not having protected citizens. But public and political concern for abductee and their families has differed greatly in Japan and South Korea (ROK). The abductions have dominated Japanese public consciousness and policymakers' decisions regarding North Korea for the past decade, since the late Kim Jong-il admitted North Korean involvement in the abductions of thirteen Japanese nationals. Although more than five hundred South Korean abductees remain detained in North Korea, the abductions issue has received less attention in South Korea. What accounts for such variation in the trajectories of the abductions issue and related activism in Japan and South Korea? This article posits that the divergence in the efficacy of families' activism in Japan and South Korea is the product of families' interactions with each country's distinctive media and activist spheres. Thus, this article elucidates key features of the Japanese and Korean public spheres that affect each country's North Korea policy.
- Topic:
- Mass Media and Political Activism
- Political Geography:
- Japan and Korea
44. Mission Impossible - Why Crisis Management Missions Do Not Increase the Visibility of the European Union
- Author:
- Stephanie B. Anderson
- Publication Date:
- 12-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- The European Union's (EU) Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and its accompanying Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) missions are tools used to increase the international profile of the EU. Using three different databases, this study features a content analysis that evaluates how much and what kind of media coverage CSDP missions receive. In general, the news coverage is positive, but limited. This article argues that the problem is structural: the very nature of the missions themselves, whether EU or NATO, makes them poor vehicles for EU promotion for political, institutional, and logistical reasons. By definition, they are conducted in the middle of crises, making news coverage politically sensitive. The very act of reporting could undermine the mission. Institutionally, all CSDP missions are intergovernmental; therefore, the member states control the coverage. Logistically, the missions are usually located in remote, undeveloped parts of the world, making it difficult and expensive for European and international journalists to cover. Moreover, these regions in crisis seldom have a thriving, local free press. The author concludes that although a mission may do good, CSDP missions cannot fulfill their primary political function of raising the profile of the EU.
- Topic:
- NATO, Mass Media, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Europe and United Nations
45. Minorities, Media and Intercultural Dialogue
- Author:
- Sabrina Colombo, Federica Prina, Alkistis Zavakou, and Fulvia Ghirardi
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues
- Abstract:
- References to 'intercultural dialogue' are not uncommon in international documents. In particular, Article 6(1) of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (hereinafter FCNM) reads: The Parties shall encourage a spirit of tolerance and intercultural dialogue and take effective measures to promote mutual respect and understanding and co - operation among all persons living on their territory, irrespective of those persons' ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity, in particular in the fields of education, culture and the media.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation, Mass Media, and Minorities
- Political Geography:
- Europe
46. The media and freedom of expression in the Arab world
- Author:
- Jean-Paul Marthoz
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
- Abstract:
- Online media, global TV and social networks played a significant role in the Arab Spring and will be important factors in determining the direction of these “revolutions”.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Science and Technology, Mass Media, Regime Change, and Insurgency
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Arabia
47. Social media in Pakistan: catalyst for communication, not change
- Author:
- Michael Kugelman
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
- Abstract:
- This report surveys social media in Pakistan. It identifies five ways in which Pakistan's social media act as communication tools: they break or give greater attention to stories ignored by traditional media; they play a mobilisation role by disseminating information about protests and other social campaigns; they promote humanitarian efforts by co-ordinating and advertising initiatives; they serve as advocates for social causes; and they stimulate communication between politicians and their constituents.
- Topic:
- Communications, Mass Media, and Sociology
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan and South Asia
48. Bigger Cities, Smaller Screens: Urbanization, Mobile Phones, and Digital Media Trends in Africa
- Author:
- Adam Clayton Powell III
- Publication Date:
- 09-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- Africa will become predominantly urban within 20 years, according to a United Nations report, with cities tripling in size and megacities developing throughout the continent. This suggests significant changes for Africans' consumption of media in general and digital media in particular, with implications for Africa's cities, politics, and civil society.
- Topic:
- Development, Science and Technology, Communications, and Mass Media
- Political Geography:
- Africa and United Nations
49. Battle Lines in the Chinese Blogosphere: Keyword control as a tactic in managing mass incidents
- Author:
- Keegan Elmer
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- This paper explores the role of keyword control, in other words the blocking and unblocking of search keywords, on Sina's popular microblog platform during media campaigns over politically sensitive issues in China. The author examines media campaigns in Chinese newspapers, television, microblogs and other media forms during two separate large-scale protests in December of 2011 in Guangdong province, one in the village of Wukan and the other in the town of Haimen. This paper uses these case studies to examine which acts of keyword control might be part of a set of coordinated directives in a broader media campaign over a particular politically sensitive issue. Observations based on these case studies suggest that changes in keyword control on microblogs might be the earliest detectable sign of shifts in the government's position in their response to politically sensitive issues.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, Science and Technology, and Mass Media
- Political Geography:
- China
50. Grounding the European Public Sphere. Looking Beyond the Mass Media to Digitally Mediated Issue Publics
- Author:
- Lance Bennett
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- The gold standard for discussing public spheres has long been established around mass media, with the prestige print press given a privileged place. Yet when it comes to a European public sphere, the mass media are also problematic, or at least incomplete, in several ways: relatively few EU-wide issues are replicated in the national media of EU countries, the discourses on those issues are dominated primarily by elites (with relatively few civil society voices included in the news), and public attention is seldom paid to EU issues beyond a select few (money, agriculture, political integration, scandals), creating a distant 'gallery public.' At the same time, many important political issues such as trade and economic justice, development policy, environment and climate change policy, human rights, and military interventions, among others, are being addressed more actively by networks of civil society actors both within and across EU national borders. These networks utilize the Internet and various interactive digital media to publicize their issues, engage active publics, and contest competing policy perspectives not only within specific issue networks, but across solidarity networks involving other policy issues, and with political targets at national and EU levels. This dimension of the EU public sphere has received relatively little attention from observers, and when it has been explored, it is often dismissed as less inclusive, and therefore less significant than the somewhat reified mass media model. This analysis compares networked, digitally mediated public issue spheres with the mass mediated model, points out ways in which the two types of public sphere are complementary, and also shows how networked issue spheres may be the sites of greater citizen and civil society engagement in keeping with more classical models of public spheres.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Science and Technology, and Mass Media
- Political Geography:
- Europe