Linguistic instrumentalism and national language policy in Mainland China’s state print media coverage of the Protecting Cantonese Movement

This article examines the Chinese government’s use of the print media to justify the national language policy and address individuals’ concerns about the vitality of regional varieties of the Chinese language (i.e., Cantonese) in its coverage of the Protecting Cantonese Movement (July 2010) in Guangzhou. The analysis revealed that the Chinese government adopted a relatively reconciliatory response to the Movement, which apparently contested the relevant language policy. However, the media texts maintained the national policy of promoting Putonghua as inviolable, whereas they assigned Cantonese the role of the carrier of cultural tradition and stressed that the rise or fall of particular regional language depended on regional socioeconomic developments. Such media discussions showed that the state carefully managed relevant discussions about the vitality of regional Chinese varieties within the discursive space defined by legalistic, cultural, and socioeconomic development discourses. These discursive boundaries reflect the dominance of linguistic instrumentalism in the Chinese government’s language policymaking.     

(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.     

Feminine or feminist? Women’s media leadership

This paper presents a small-scale qualitative case study of five women’s experiences of leadership roles in Irish media industries. Relational Leadership Theory is used to examine whether there is a gendered dimension to women’s leadership and to explore why women’s participation in leadership has not resulted in significant feminist gains or changes to media organisations. The article finds that: the women saw their leadership as relational and simultaneously as socially constructed in a gendered manner. Moreover, the women led organisational change towards greater gender equality in the norms of media work. However, while the women’s leadership was relational and feminine, it was not necessarily feminist; it did not aim to generate systemic changes within the gendering of the media as an institution. The changes that the women wrought incorporated women into a system of production that remained nonetheless masculinist.     

Supporting students to use social media and comply with professional standards

Student social workers live in a world where sharing of information seems to be straightforward and unproblematic. However, data sharing is a contentious issue in practice that raises ethical issues. There is a focus on this aspect of practice in social work education particularly in the context of data storage, confidentiality and multi-disciplinary work. There have been examples of qualified workers being sanctioned by the Health Care Professions Council for breaching professional standards related to inappropriate use of social media. Understanding the advantages and potential pitfalls of social media is crucial for social workers. The aim of this research was to develop an understanding about how student social workers use social media during their time at university as a tool for continuing professional development whilst balancing the need to present a professional persona. This paper reports on four themes that emerged from a study that considered social media and social work training: changing/securing profiles; using social media to support learning and development; university support; replicating earlier behaviour in the professional setting. The findings suggest student social workers are ambivalent about the use of social media both during training and as a way to support ongoing development beyond the university setting.     

The Othering of Muslims: Discourses of Radicalization in the New York Times, 1969–2014

In this article, I engage with Edward Said's Orientalism and various perspectives within the othering paradigm to analyze the emergence and transformation of radicalization discourses in the news media. Employing discourse analysis of 607 New York Times articles from 1969 to 2014, this article demonstrates that radicalization discourses are not new but are the result of complex sociolinguistic and historical developments that cannot be reduced to dominant contemporary understandings of the concept or to singular events or crises. The news articles were then compared to 850 government documents, speeches, and other official communications. The analysis of the data indicates that media conceptualizations of radicalization, which once denoted political and economic differences, have now shifted to overwhelmingly focus on Islam. As such, radicalization discourse now evokes the construct radicalization as symbolic marker of conflict between the West and the East. I also advanced the established notion that the news media employ strategic discursive strategies that contribute to conceptual distinctions that are used to construct Muslims as an “alien other” to the West.     

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.     

Examining signs of recovery: How senior crisis communicators define organizational crisis recovery

Interviews with senior crisis communicators explore how crisis recovery is defined and what role publics and organizational communication and characteristics play. Findings reveal recovery is measured operationally and short-term. Effective communication proactively addresses failures, is transparent and honest while positive, focuses on future directions, and rebuilds and repairs symbolic damage. Organizational best practices include tested values and crisis leadership. Publics can facilitate healing, highlight victims’ voices, and provide recovery evidence.     

Dialogic communication in the health care context: A case study of Kaiser Permanente's social media practices

This case study examines how one of the largest not-for-profit health care organizations in the US, Kaiser Permanente, uses social media to communicate with its stakeholders. Through content analysis and interviews, this study identifies the communication models reflected in a sample of social media posts and examines the organization's approach to using social media. The study finds evidence of both one-way and two-way communication models, as well as principles of dialogic communication. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

试论传媒多元化的政策逻辑

传媒多元化具体落实了媒体服务于民主的使命,已成为西方传媒政策一个无可争议的准则和目标。由于民主概念的多义性以及对传媒、市场等主体角色的不同理解,西方传媒政策在"何谓多元"以及"如何多元"等问题上意见殊异。无论将传媒多元化视为意见的自由市场,还是公共领域,抑或主张自由竞争的市场机制,或者主张积极干预的传媒政策,目前西方传媒多元化政策的设计都主要是基于一种结构/内容区分的逻辑。现行这种以市场为中心、强调结构决定内容的实用主义至上的政策逻辑值得我们省思。     

城市文化软实力构建的“网都”范式

当前全球数字网络化的发展浪潮和历史背景下,"网都"型文化中心城市建设成为转变城市文化发展方式、提升城市文化软实力的新的战略路径和城市设计愿景。城市发展的"网都"形态具有多元文化范式,要根据不同城市的特点和文化基础,推进网络媒介城市(media city)、网络文化产业高地、网络文化名城、互联网总部基地、文化科技融合的创新引领中心、网络文化宜居之都、互联网枢纽城市等不同类型的"网都"建设。不同的网都范型(paradigm)关切到城市文化软实力的不同层面,存在着从硬文化实力向软文化实力的渐变和过渡谱系;既可以单独构建特色网络文化城市的核心性格与差异化竞争力,也可以综合构建城市文化软实力的体系化架构。