Media & Communication
Material Media-Making in the Digital Age
There is now no shortage of media for us to consume from streaming services and video-on-demand to social media and everything else besides. This has changed the way media scholars think about the production and reception of media. Missing from these conversations though is the maker: in particular the maker who has the power to produce media in their pocket.
How might one craft a personal media-making practice that is thoughtful and considerate of the tools and materials at one's disposal? This is the core question of this original new book. Exploring a number of media-making tools and processes like drones and vlogging as well as thinking through time editing sound and the stream Binns looks out over the current media landscape in order to understand his own media practice.
The result is a personal journey through media theory history and technology furnished with practical exercises for teachers students professionals and enthusiasts: a unique combination of theory and practice written in a highly personal and personable style that is engaging and refreshing.
This book will enable readers to understand how a personal creative practice might unlock deeper thinking about media and its place in the world.
The primary readership will be among academics researchers and students in the creative arts as well as practitioners of creative arts including sound designers cinematographers and social media content producers.
Designed for classroom use this will be of particular importance for undergraduate students of film production and may also be of interest to students at MA level particularly on the growing number of courses that specifically offer a blend of theory and practice. The highly accessible writing style may also mean that it can be taken up for high school courses on film and production.
It will also be of interest to academics delivering these courses and to researchers and scholars of new media and digital cinema.
A critical inquiry into the discourses of war and occupation in the wake of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza
The aim of this article is to use one central assumption of Wittgenstein’s philosophy – language games – to review some important aspects of communication and language issues that typically have arisen in the aftermath of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. I draw specifically on a critical inquiry of purposefully selected samples of discursive and linguistic practices accompanying the war in Ukraine and the occupation of its territory by Russia and the war in Gaza and the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel. References will also be made to the types of language games used by mainstream western media to categorize other wars and occupations discursively and socially such as those of Iraq Yemen and Afghanistan. I argue that the use of language is crucial for the understanding and representation of these wars and occupations and a cause of failure in intercultural interaction. The central argument is as follows: While language games have different senses and not all people attach the same meaning to them in case of conflict and controversy those with power attach additional or different interpretations to them in a way they think is reasonable to change or at least rearrange their meanings. According to Wittgenstein’s deliberations of language games the meaning of each of the various linguistic utterances like words sentences or symbols is defined in terms of its setting and use. To unravel how and why certain linguistic practices are reinforced and others are thwarted the article supplements Wittgenstein’s deliberations of language with Hollihan and Baaskes’ definition of rhetorical source credibility Thomas Hobbes’ ‘Leviathan discourse’ and Foucault’s notion of discourse and power.
Virtual Facades: Exploring the Relationship Between Self-Presentation on Facebook and Social Anxiety Among Egyptian Generation Z Users
This study investigates the correlation between the ‘false-self’ – the persona presented to the public that may not accurately reflect one’s true identity – and social anxiety among Generation Z Facebook users in Egypt. An integrated methodology approach was used to explore the connection between Facebook usage false self-presentation and social anxiety levels. Data were collected by administering a questionnaire targeting 420 Facebook users belonging to Egypt’s Generation Z demographic. The study findings demonstrate a strong positive correlation between higher Facebook usage intensity and false self-presentation. Furthermore false self-presentation was found to be positively correlated with social anxiety. Significant gender differences in self-congruence on Facebook were revealed supported by theories related to social norms and gender roles. These findings illustrate the potential influence of social media on gender identity and self-presentation underscoring the need to take gender differences into account when studying the effects of social media on mental health. Additionally significant differences in Facebook intensity and attachment between genders were revealed. This study adds to our understanding of the intricate relationship between social media use self-presentation and mental health outcomes among Generation Z by providing insight into the risks associated with false self-presentation and high Facebook usage intensity.
Solutions for Tech Companies, Government, and the Public
Effective Journalism
This book provides journalists and the public with a broad overview of all the ways modern communication technologies and information approaches make it difficult for people to effectively find and interpret information and what they can do about it. The public may have a general awareness that things like confirmation bias content algorithms and the backfire effect exist and can influence their behaviour but this book will explain them in one place in plain language. Journalists likewise know that their audiences are dealing with some of these issues but continue to operate under the assumption that if they just publish facts the truth will win out in the court of public opinion.
The central argument of the book is that journalists and audiences can no longer afford to pretend that all information is competing on an even playing field and that it is enough for journalists to simply publish “the facts.” Just as behavioural economics provided a new way of thinking about economics one that understood people as non-rational actors this book attempts to explain the reality rather than the ideal of how people seek and process information and what journalists and their audiences can do to try to create an informed public in the face of that reality.
For many American journalists their work and their responsibility to the public is grounded in the concept of a marketplace of ideas. Journalists believe they should just report the facts as neutrally as possible and let the public judge those facts and put them in context. The marketplace of ideas requires individuals to rationally consider the information that is presented to them and weigh it against other available information. Through this process bad ideas will be judged and dismissed and good ideas will win out. We might like to believe that we are all capable of carefully and rationally evaluating information but the evidence is clear that it is simply not true. If it were true we would not observe such things as the continued persistence of flat-Earthers and moon-landing sceptics and others who champion backward social ideas that were dismissed decades or even centuries ago. The fact that these ideas continue to persist tells us that the public is not engaging in a clear-eyed rational consideration of all the available verified facts.
Framing the wild: A qualitative analysis of environmental news coverage during the 2020 coronavirus lockdowns
News media coverage of the natural world frames perceptions and policies related to the environment. Studying its reporting brings insight for how meaning is assigned to humanity’s relationship with nature and wildlife. Through qualitative content analysis this study examines digital articles on the environment published from March to December 2020 amidst mass lockdowns due to the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Claims about the impact of humanity being locked down were analysed using framing theory. Findings revealed four major frames generated in connection to (1) wildlife behaviour (2) a new normal post-COVID (3) climate change being displaced and (4) human–nature symbiosis. The results of qualitative inquiry offer a more nuanced understanding of how media frames the complex human–nature relationship which tends to feature negative and hostile associations. This furthers the notion that such framing can limit perspectives even if unintended and arguably weakens viewing our relationship with nature as symbiotic.
Politics of phygital protests: Palestinian #GreatMarchofReturn discourse on Twitter
Twitter aids public discourse hashtag activism and sociopolitical advocacy. In terms of Palestinian resistance discourse against Israel the hashtag #GreatMarchofReturn represents a peaceful digital protest by the Palestinian refugees based in Gaza. We identified 13000 tweets related to #GreatMarchofReturn which we analysed using content analysis and descriptive analysis followed by a visualization of the findings. We argue that hashtag activism facilitates the collective Palestinian protest discourse on Twitter about Israel’s oppressive diplomacies in Palestine. The activism endorses Palestinian nationalism and the mobilization of civilian rights. Moreover the micro-blogging site becomes a significant platform for politicizing Israel’s punitive populism and subsequent subjugation of Palestinian refugees especially in Gaza. The psycho-politics of phygital protests affects the socio-emotional mobilization of the Great March of Return in both virtual and physical public spheres.
Planetary health: Sickness, the environment and air in film
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that human and more-than-human health is connected to environmental (un)health. This article explores the linkages between health and the environment in cinema. It draws on such issues as pandemics pollution and air to illustrate how films like Wolfgang Petersen’s Outbreak (1995) Todd Haynes’s Safe (1995) M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening (2008) Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion (2011) and Colm McCarthy’s The Girl with All the Gifts (2016) each in their unique ways address the problem of planetary health. Airborne zoonoses monstrous plants toxic fungi and pollution – the films tackle all these issues to emphasize invisible danger toxicity and sickness that surround humans and more-than-humans alike. Connecting the ideas of health and well-being to the environment and illustrating how this nexus becomes visible in film specifically through air this article calls for justice consideration and care of planetary health. Explicating the tight linkages between pandemics climate change and environmental degradation at large as depicted in the selected cinematic examples this article claims that the recognition of humanity’s dependence on and responsibility for more-than-humans is crucial in times of environmental and health crises.
Status of women in the Ghanaian media: Are women conscious of their own inequalities?
Historical and contemporary scholarship paint a picture of women in media as under-represented misrepresented and lacking the opportunity to influence what happens in media and their own status in media. This is despite years of interventions – including pushing for affirmative action – targeted at improving their status and working conditions. In this study we argue that part of the solution lies in conscientizing women in media to become more aware of the inequalities they face. Through a nationwide survey of women in the Ghanaian media and premised on feminist media theory we show that though progress is visible in the status of women inequalities persist. Respondents were ambivalent about status parity with males pointing to the possibility that they acquiesce to unfair practices because they are unaware of the embedded inequality. We discuss these findings and their implications for scholarship and practice.
The Middle East is watching: Iranian and Saudi Arabian newspaper framing of the 2020 US presidential elections
Despite its importance there has been little research into how Middle Eastern news outlets cover American politics. This content analysis uses framing theory to explore coverage of the 2020 US presidential election in two Middle East dailies Iranian Hamshahri and Saudi Arabian Al-Watan. Because Iran and Saudi Arabia are rivals and take different approaches to American politics hypotheses predicted meaningful framing differences. While some findings were consistent with researcher expectations most findings were not. As predicted Al-Watan was less likely to frame Trump negatively. However contrary to expectations the examined newspapers did not differ in terms of how they framed Biden the 6 January breach of the Capitol or allegations of voter fraud. The newspapers also did not differ in terms of how likely they were to use pro-Trump and pro-Biden sources. The unexpected findings suggest a cautious approach by Al-Watan which may not have wanted to show strong support for a US president Trump who was likely outgoing. More generally and as the ‘Discussion’ section explains Al-Watan’s approach likely reflected the Saudi government’s perceptions about ongoing developments on the US political scene. In one sense then Al-Watan’s editorial line was an extension of Saudi foreign policy towards the United States. The ‘Discussion’ section also attempts to make sense of Hamshahri’s framing patterns which seemed to reflect larger Iranian distrust in the American political system.