Navigating the technology-media-movements complex

Abstract

In this article we develop the notion of the technology-media-movements complex (TMMC) as a field-definition statement for ongoing inquiry into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social and political movements. We consider the definitions and boundaries of the TMMC, arguing particularly for a historically rooted conception of technological development that allows better integration of the different intellectual traditions that are currently focused on the same set of empirical phenomena. We then delineate two recurrent debates in the literature highlighting their contributions to emerging knowledge. The first debate concerns the divide between scholars who privilege media technologies, and see them as driving forces of movement dynamics, and those who privilege media practices over affordances. The second debate broadly opposes theorists who believe in the emancipatory potential of ICTs and those who highlight the ways they are used to repress social movements and grassroots mobilization. By mapping positions in these debates to the TMMC we identify and provide direction to three broad research areas which demand further consideration: (i) questions of power and agency in social movements; (ii) the relationships between, on the one hand, social movements and technology and media as politics (i.e. cyberpolitics and technopolitics), and on the other, the quotidian and ubiquitous use of digital tools in a digital age; and (iii) the significance of digital divides that cut across and beyond social movements, particularly in the way such divisions may overlay existing power relations in movements. In conclusion, we delineate six challenges for profitable further research on the TMMC.     

Affective networks: how WeChat enhances Tencent’s digital business governance

An emerging body of literature has revealed that social media enhance digital business governance to facilitate Internet companies in generating profit throughout regulating the everyday lives of users. However, although existing debates are often contextualized in the West, little attention has been paid to China, where social media are widely used. To fill this knowledge gap, this article investigates the digital business governance practiced by Chinese Internet companies such as Tencent. Specifically, I employ an affective lens to analyze how WeChat, the most popular social media application launched by Tencent, allows this Internet company to influence users for its own business purposes. Chinese college students, which constitute a representative group of young people, were early adopters of WeChat, and they have led the trend of social media use in China. Based on a yearlong netnographic study of Chinese college students, the results reveal that the affective design of WeChat captured their attention and influenced their everyday practices. These results provide insight into how digital business governance operates in the Chinese context, in which authoritarianism and capitalism work closely together.     

Managing Serials in an Institutional Repository: An Interview With Kay Teel

ABSTRACT

In this interview from March 2017, Kay Teel, metadata librarian for serials and arts resources at the Stanford University Libraries, discusses the issues involved in providing access to serials through an institutional repository.     

(Un)ethical practices: intimacy and Internet in the media coverage of the Ashley Madison hack

In the summer of 2015, the “cheating website” known as Ashley Madison came under scrutiny, as a group calling itself the Impact Team revealed users’ private information. This case study explores the controversy’s Canadian media coverage and sheds light on the main discourses about intimacy and the Internet that were made visible during this event. It interrogates how cheaters, hackers, and the company were represented. To varying degrees, the mainstream press condemns the cheaters, the hackers, and the company for their behaviour. The article also addresses the ways intimate practices are politicized and commercialized in the digital context, including a discussion of the emphasis on “privacy.” To conclude the article, I discuss the transparency and privacy issues implicated in digital intimacies and the power–knowledge (im)balance implied by hackers’ online anonymity.     

iConstruct: virtual disabilities in online settings

The present study focused on cultural constructions of disability in virtual settings, examining specifically how cultural constructions of disability were mediated through the use of online technology. This was accomplished by identifying and analyzing Greek Cypriot online news media articles and online readers’ posts in response to these articles. Findings indicated that disability in these online settings mainly reproduced traditional models of disability, with the charity model being more prevalent. However, there were instances in which dominant discourses of disability were ruptured through the introduction of counter-narratives in users’ posts which echoed the human rights model of disability. Implications for the fields of media, education and disability studies are discussed in relation to the possibility of using digital media to contribute to the challenge of critical media literacy to address issues of diversity and disability.     

In search of African history: the re-appropriation of photographic archives by contemporary visual artists

The digital revolution has fundamentally changed our relationship to archives, by accelerating their “dusting off” and their re-appropriation, particularly in the art world. This article will show the ways in which some contemporary visual artists use new digital technologies to provide new ways of storing, reading and retrieving contemporary African history. Such artists do so by revisiting diverse forms of archives that are mainly photographic, and which were produced during the colonial and independence eras.     

基于家庭网络的数字融合及其影响分析

在描述家庭网络的重要性的基础上对基于家庭网络的数字融合及其影响进行分析和研究。随着信息技术和产品逐步由多标准向标准融合过渡,网络、通信、软件、硬件和消费电子产品等生产厂家通过成立联盟,推动家庭网络技术和产品相互兼容。于是产业融合得到促进,家庭网络市场逐步扩大。家庭网络推动服务融合和创新,促进形成新的价值链。在新的价值链中,新的商业模式促进网络运营、应用和服务的改变和融合,合作和协同不可或缺,并得到了政策和资源方面的支持。对于家庭网络业的发展来说,技术是基础,内容是源泉,应用是动力,协同是关键。     

论数字化技术发展与著作权法律制度创新

主要探讨了数字化技术发展及数字化作品的界定、数字化作品与著作权客体的创新、数字化作品创作中的著作权冲突和网络传输与数字化作品传播权等问题,指出我国应在扩大著作权保护客体、建立著作权集体管理体制、确认网络传输的公开传播权属性等方面予以创新,并充分关注著作权国际保护的基本趋势,采取积极应对措施,以增强我国著作权保护制度在数字化时代的适应性。     

高校档案部门立卷制度初探

部门立卷是高等学校档案工作的基本制度 ,1 989年国家教委颁布的《普通高等学校档案管理办法》对此作了明确规定。时隔十余年 ,这项制度在我省一些高校迟迟得不到落实。针对我省高校部门立卷工作的状况 ,部门立卷制度难以落实的原因 ,提出了保证部门立卷制度实施的有效方法主要应从实行岗位责任制 ,改进高校档案工作模式和局部文件由档案室立卷等方面入手。     

数字多声束形成技术

医用超声诊断设备中存在两种声束形成技术。近年来在少数几个高档设备中使用了数字声束形成技术。正交分解是获得复包络信号的幅度和相位的关键，而数字延迟是数字电子聚焦所必须的。文中介绍了数字多声束形成的原理及应用。