DIALECTICS OF NORMS IN MODERNIZATION

The frequently lamented weakening of wakening of social and law norms in modern societies is examined. After some concern about norm erosion in classical sociology, empirical social research on mass communication, industry, the military, and urban life soothed earlier concerns. Yet criminological evidence on late modern and rapidly modernizing societies, qualitative research in the sociology of culture, and quantitative lifecourse research attest to a weakening of normative standards during the second half of the twentieth century. Their findings are propelled by communitarian discourses. However, long-term historical research and some studies in the sociology of law demonstrate the growing strength of norms that regulate interpersonal violence. Contradictory evidence thus suggests replacing one-dimensional and unidirectional ideas about the impact of modernization on the strength of legal and social norms by a dialectic understanding. A set of hypotheses is developed, based on diverse literatures on organizations and the economy, culture of life course, political and social movements, and crime and the law. The hypotheses concern the dialectic consequences for the strength of norms, of the growing size of social units, growing participation in labor markets. transition of economic forms, formal rationalization of law, and the shift from a noninterventionist state to an interventionist welfare state.     

Computer mediation vs. dialogic communication: How media affordances affect organization-public relationship building

The ontological conflict between computer mediation and dialogic communication—a normative ideal for ethical organization-public relationship building rooted in interpersonal literature—has attracted much scholarly attention, and in particular has generated the notion that mediated dialogue is a self-contradictory concept. In this study, we question this argument and provide empirical evidence by conducting a survey that links media channels’ affordances to their capability to carry organizations’ dialogic orientations. Results show that bandwidth and social presence affordances facilitate dialogic communication while anonymity slightly inhibits it, whether the communicative context is proactive or reactive. Social presence exerts the greatest impact on how publics perceive organizations’ dialogic orientations, and anonymity’s negative role was overstated by previous studies. Assessing media channels’ dialogic affordances, we found video conferencing and instant messaging to be the most dialogic channels for mediated organization-public communication.     

Towards a theory of digital media

This article puts forward a theory of the role of digital media in social change. It begins by criticizing three theories that currently dominate our understanding of digital media and of media generally: network theory, mediatization theory and actor-network theory. It also identifies a gap in current communication theory, namely, that digital media mostly do not fit the divide into mass and interpersonal communication. A further problem is that insufficient attention is given to the difference between political communication and popular culture or everyday life. The article develops an alternative, focusing on four countries that provide a range of relationships between media and society; the U.S., Sweden, India and China. In all four countries, despite their differences, digital media, in contrast to traditional broadcast and interpersonal media, have led to a more differentiated media landscape. Greater complexity in political communication nevertheless runs up against the continuing dominance of elite agenda-setting. In terms of popular culture, all four countries have experienced a proliferation of media offerings and greater tetheredness between people. Hence, new divides are emerging between more active and variegated as against more passive and restricted media uses. The article concludes with implications of digital media for understanding media generally: with new digital media, there is now a need to rethink media theory in terms of fundamental debates about how media transform or preserve the social order.     

Social software and internal communicators’ gatekeeping sense of self

Social software creates opportunities for internal communication. Public relations literature suggests it affords more two-way internal communication that can meet the ideal of symmetry as promoted in the excellence theory (Grunig, 1992). This study involved in-depth interviews with internal communication professionals at 54 companies. Our findings indicate that these professionals tend to view social software positively, often stimulating its use among employees. Additionally, we found that they appropriate social software in such ways as to maintain and even strengthen their gatekeeping role identity. More specifically, our data reveal that traditional gatekeeping, which characterizes mass media systems based on the centralized production and distribution of information, is complemented with networked forms of gatekeeping in decentralized digital media environments. Furthermore, our data suggest that an underlying management ideology hampers the symmetric potential of social software.     

Towards a European public sphere?

In this paper we address the alleged communication or public sphere deficit of the EU. We develop a systematic approach to the Europeanization of public spheres, which distinguishes three forms of Europeanized political communication: supranational, vertical and horizontal. We propose that the spatial reach and boundaries of public communication can be determined by investigating communicative flows and assessing the relative density of public communication within and between different geopolitical spaces. We apply this model to data on political claim making in seven issue fields in German print media in the year 2000. We find that the degree and forms of Europeanization of political communication vary considerably among policy fields. These differences are strongly linked to the extent and type (supranational or intergovernmental) of competencies of the EU in these fields. Contrary to the hypothesis of a public sphere deficit, the German mass media seem to quite accurately reflect the Europeanization of policy making, at least in those policy fields where a clear‐cut transfer of competencies to the supranational EU level has taken place.     

Are social networks technologically embedded?: How networks are changing today with changes in communication technology

Communication mediated by various technologies (from ordinary mail to today's Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)) provides important evidence for the study of social networks. Given that networks generate the possibility of interpersonal communication, data on technology use can provide important information on sociability. However, it is also true that personal networks not only shape, but also are shaped by technological means for communication, since these entail the re-constituting of social ties and the re-drawing of social boundaries. We use material from empirical studies carried out over the last 3 years to develop our hypothesis of the way forms of relationship change with technology. In particular, we try to understand the relationship between social networks (a set of social ties possessing one or more relational dimensions), exchanges between actors (made up of a succession of embodied gestures and language acts) and the various technical means for communication available today, which enable an exchange to be completed. Each of these three poles poses constraints on interaction, and provides resources for it, and thus all three shape the form relational practices take. Empirical data show how technological means of communication allow people to re-negotiate the constraints of individual time rhythms, and of who one communicates with. They also illustrate how the relational economy (and power) is affected by the deployment of communication technologies. Tools of communication provide new resources to negotiate individual timetables and social exchanges, making it possible to adjust roles, hierarchies and forms of power in relational economies. We argue that the general change observed over the last 20 years is from established roles to mutual reachability. The traditional communication model, where tele-communication is used to connect people who are physically separated from each other, is gradually being supplanted with a new pattern of “connected presence”. In this new mode other people are telephoned, “SMSed”, seen and mailed in alternated way and small gestures or signs of attention are at least as important as the message content itself.     

Protest,Cyberactivism and New Social Movements: The Reemergence of the Peace Movement Post 9/11

This paper examines ways in which the Internet and alternative forms of media have enhanced the global, yet grassroots, political mobilization in the anti-war effort in the post 9/11 environment. An examination of the role of cyberactivism in the peace movement enhances our understanding of social movements and contentious politics by analyzing how contemporary social movements are using advanced forms of technology and mass communication as a mobilizing tool and a conduit to alternative forms of media. These serve as both a means and target of protest action and have played a critical role in the organization and success of internal political mobilizing.     

An Interactional Space of Permanent Observability: WeChat and Reinforcing the Power Hierarchy in Chinese Workplaces

Does digital media empower or disempower workers? In existing studies on how information and communication technologies influence work, researchers investigate work–life boundaries and how workers use digital media to obtain more control. This article focuses on how digital media influences daily interpersonal interactions in the workplace: how does social media use influence workplace hierarchies and power dynamics? Based on 56 in‐depth interviews with WeChat users in Chinese workplaces, I find that lower‐ranked individuals were compelled to constantly express loyalty and appreciation, and publicly submit to their superordinates by clicking “like” or commenting on their WeChat posts. They also had to provide immediate and polite responses to their superordinates in WeChat group chats after work hours or to non‐work‐related issues. The distinctive features of online interaction—lack of physical interaction spaces, recordability of past conversations, and n‐adic nature of online disclosures—created an environment where past encounters were omnipresent and accessible, and placed workers under permanent observability. This social interaction environment leaves little room for forms of resistance and, in response, employees retreat into cynical performances of submission. This study finds that, under certain circumstances, WeChat use actually intensifies workplace hierarchies and power dynamics, thereby sharpening social inequality, rather than eliminating it.     

Understanding the Client/Social Worker Relationship in a Multicultural Setting:

As social work professionals, we need to be senstitive to the communication exchanges we engage in with our clients. At the best of times, cross-cultural communication has its difficulties and is even more problematic when interpreters are used. We need to understand the nature of these relationships and the lifetime of socialization that our clients have experienced which shape these relationships. The temptation of dismissing the difficulties as simply "a culture gap" reflects poorly on our individual practice and our profession as a whole. This paper examines the types of social bonding as they are applied to the client/social worker relationship. Two distinct forms of social bonding, interpersonal reciprocity and interdependency contract relationships, are examined and analyzed from a multicultural perspective in the social work setting. The role of interpreters is reviewed in relation to these communication patterns. The role of trustworthiness and the behaviors that enhance it are reviewed in light of the types of relationships professionals engage in with their clients. The paper then examines two classes of interventions, "changing" versus "supporting" the client, and how these intervention strategies relate to the ethno-cultural background of the client. The paper concludes with the suggestion that there are some very serious limitations on the professional's relationship in the cross-cultural setting. The professional may need to adjust his/her expectations of the relationship and adapt to more effective and realistic types of interventions.     

Social Implications of Mobile Telephony: The Rise of Personal Communication Society

The media landscape has changed dramatically in recent decades, from one predominated by traditional mass communication formats to today's more personalized network environment. Mobile communication plays a central role in this transition, with adoption rates that surpass even those of the Internet. This essay argues that the widespread diffusion and use of mobile telephony is iconic of a shift toward a new 'personal communication society', evidenced by several key areas of social change, including symbolic meaning of the technology, new forms of coordination and social networking, personalization of public spaces, and the mobile youth culture. The conclusion speculates on future trends in the sociotechnological climate.     

What is DIstinctive about Mediation? Experience and Expertise in Media

If great material resources and specialist technical knowledge are no longer required for individuals to act as mass communicators, what resources are required? This paper reviews social theories of production that can help to shed light on the matter. It explores the nature of knowledge required in the production of content meant for a mass audience, and the manner of its validation. The paper progressively conceptualizes mass communication or mediation in terms of ‘media experience and expertise.’ It begins by framing the discussion of media production in terms of mediation and symbolic/media power, and teasing out knowledge and competence as problems that merit special attention. It then draws on two parallel areas of scholarship to think through the blurring of formerly neat boundaries between interpersonal and mass communication; producer and audience; and expert and layperson. First, the renewed interest in the lived experience of professional producers that is spurred by media production ethnographers. Second, ongoing debates in Science and Technology Studies (STS) around knowledge production and public participation. The paper concludes with a discussion of outstanding issues with respect to media theory and proposals for future work.     

Children's Understanding of Emotion Communication in Families

SUMMARY

There is a paucity of research on children's awareness of how emotion communication varies within relationships. Indeed, we operate on the assumption that a very significant function of emotion is to regulate interpersonal interaction. In this essay we discuss how children come to understand such phenomena as: (a) emotional-expressive behavior can have powerful interpersonal consequences; (b) relationship dimensions such as degree of power and closeness interact with intensity of emotion in how emotion is communicated; and (c) maintenance of relationship quality (e.g., equilibrium, attenuation, or deepening) requires different strategies of emotion communication. Among the constructs that we address are several that are useful for understanding the dynamics of interpersonal communication; they have also proven their utility over a considerable period of time. However, these constructs derive from social psychology and family systems; they have not been systematically investigated from a developmental perspective     

Seeking sincerity,finding forgiveness: YouTube apologies as image repair

Social media have become important communication tools for organizations and public figures, particularly in times of crisis. Public figures are frequently advised to use social media platforms to apologize to publics, and their apologies are often posted by news outlets or individual social media users. However, evidence suggests social media may function on an interpersonal level, yet traditional image repair strategies are based on a mass media model. Using image repair strategies based in theoretical frameworks from mass mediated and interpersonal communication, this research examined the verbal behaviors and emotions displayed by public figures apologizing on YouTube and the relationships these had to audience perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness as expressed via YouTube comments. Two studies analyzed 335 segments of video from 32 public apologies on YouTube spanning from 2009 to 2014, and 1971 posted responses. The interpersonal strategies and expression of emotions were largely unrelated to the perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness; and the image repair strategies were limited in their relatedness. However, the content of the comments, a majority of which focused on the reputation of the public figure, was associated with perceptions of sincerity. Reducing offensiveness was associated with perceptions of insincerity, as was the combination of reducing offensiveness, denial and evasion. Negative comments regarding the offender’s reputation were also associated with perceptions of insincerity. Audiences were non-forgiving if the apology was perceived as insincere, but forgiving if they perceived the apology as sincere. Implications of these results in relation to the practice and scholarship of public relations are discussed.     

A Contested Identity: Resisting the Category Muslim-Australian

The role of the media in contributing to the construction of identity based groups is both overt and subtle. The term Muslim-Australians has come into prominence in recent media reports, yet an umbrella term which lumps all Australian followers of Islam into a single subset of all Australians ignores the complex diversity of Muslims in Australia. This article reports on a new research project which has recently been undertaken with Australians of Turkish background, in order to untangle some of the complexity involved when a Muslim community which comes from a relatively liberal, secular country finds its Islamic identity being foregrounded by the mainstream media. The research has focused on the ways that Turkish Australians are using traditional and new forms of media and information technology to negotiate a place in a multicultural society which is increasingly perceiving Muslims as ‘the other’.     

Reflections on the Use of DWR in Intercultural Collaboration

This article is a reflection on a Developmental Work Research project focused on the introduction of information and communication technology in schools in Africa. The longstanding project incited us to examine developmental research partnership as a joint mediated activity that takes place in a developing country. The data include several workshops, Change Laboratories (CLs) in three schools, and ethnography from these schools. By tracing the bottom-up approach of CLs, and to capture the complexity of the effects of related activities represented in the partnership, we were led to focus on dialogue where the dialectic of local and global forces evolve.     

Online youth work and eYouth — A guide to the world of the digital natives

Our society is often called the post-modern or information society to differentiate it from earlier structures. This distinction is justified by completely new circumstances which are perceptible on a daily basis. For example, the forms of establishing and maintaining communication have undergone fundamental changes. ICT-aided solutions are playing an ever greater role, replacing interpersonal communication. However, what must never be forgotten is that - although the medium is different - there is always a person behind the digital tools and this is why the tasks of youth work extend into virtual space. The study deals with youth work that can be and is to be carried out in various digital spaces. The authors will introduce the characteristic features of this new area, and focuses on the general rules that define it, as well as the various features of individual media (applications). The author also introduces practical examples, of which success should be followed as models. He will formulate general fundamental rules that are worth maintaining if we wish to pursue youth work in the virtual space.     

Using social media dialogically: Public relations role in reviving democracy

This article explores how technology and our recent access to, and abundance of, information, are affecting democracy, and the role of public relations professionals in a post mass media society. The article reviews pros and cons of new technology, discusses how public relations can improve, democracy using dialogue, communitarianism, and Long Now thinking, and discusses how to actually, use social media dialogically. The article argues that as public relations revives its conceptualization of, relationship, communication professionals also benefit democracy and society as a whole.     

Toward a Model of Political Organization–Public Relationships: Antecedent and Cultivation Strategy Influence on Citizens' Relationships with Political Parties

This study examined the organization–public relationship between citizens and their political parties against the backdrop of the 2008 presidential general election. Employing a telephone survey of registered voters (n = 508), we investigated the interaction of politically relevant relationship antecedents, relationship cultivation strategies used by political parties, perceptions of the organization–public relationship between voters and their party, and outcomes of the relationship to test a model of political organization–public relationships (POPRs). Time, interpersonal trust, mediated communication, interpersonal communication, and dialogic communication emerged as significant predictors of POPR strength. The findings lay the groundwork for further investigation of POPRs.     

MEDIA LOGIC AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

Media logic and formats associated with television programming are shown to contribute to our understanding of the role of reflexive communication in defining a situation, and suggest the relevance of a theory of mediation for clarifying how an agent's communication products can influence the time, place, and manner of activities for us all. Social rules informed by conventional temporal and spatial considerations can be transformed through electronic content and formats. Viewers obtain information from mass media content that can transcend conventional personal experience (e.g., a 10-year-old child can learn how to be a teenager in 1940 or 1990). Materials illustrate how media logic and formats compatible with popular culture increasingly guide the form, content, and scheduling of social interaction. By the same token, certain kinds of experience are recognized for their mediated characteristics (e.g., rhythm, pacing, syntax, and grammar). As these patterns are incorporated into other realms of social life, temporal and spatial features of organized activities will embody the new formats. Viewing mass mediation from this perspective can illuminate a path for development of a theoretic understanding of mediation throughout social life.     

Jaccard-Spline index of structural proximity in contact networks

Network analysts are increasingly being called upon to apply their expertise to groups for which the only available or reliable data is a contact network. With no opportunity to gather additional data, the merits of such applications depend on empirical studies that validate the employment of structural constructs based on contact networks. Fortunately, we possess such studies in abundance. One of the strongest research traditions in social network analysis is the development of formal constructs that may be employed in analyses of networks. I suggest that greater insight into predictive success of network constructs may be acquired by addressing the following question: what features of the contact network in which a dyad is situated allow the prediction of other relations with an accuracy that validates the imputation of the latter given data on the former? In this article, I present findings on the structural contexts of dyads in contact networks and the relationship of these contexts with two fundamental forms of cohesive cognitive relations—accorded interpersonal influence and perceived interpersonal agreement. Based on these findings, I formalize a measure of structural proximity in contact networks with values that correspond to the conditional probabilities of these two forms of cohesive cognitive relations. The substantive settings of this analysis are policy groups with members who are embedded in contact structures based on regular interpersonal communication on policy issues and cognitive structures based on perceived interpersonal agreement and accorded interpersonal influence.