Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture - Volume 13, Issue 1, 2022

Clubhouse is an invitation only social media app where users communicate in real-time audio chat rooms that accommodate up to five thousand users per room. It became popular among Egyptians during the COVID-19 pandemic who actively participated in various discussions – including politics. This exploratory study asks whether the app performed functions that might form the basis for an emerging public sphere in Egypt, filling a gap in society where freedom of expression via traditional media is under state control, through satisfying a need for connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study first introduces Clubhouse and its uses in Egypt within the context of that nation’s politics during 2021, then moves on to conceptualizing the public sphere within the context of the current hypermedia age, identifying the conditions which might allow Clubhouse to cut through in ways other platforms have failed in a range of contexts. The study argues that Clubhouse facilitated the creation of what may appear as a proto-public sphere by facilitating connections between a large number of Egyptian citizens with different political affiliations, and by offering an insight into what issues circulate within Egyptian society. Yet, the app presented structural barriers which limited participation beyond access to technology, and there were limited means for the discussions to have a positive impact on society.

This article explores the narratives embedded in the public discourse that surrounds knitting in the United Kingdom today. Knitting, a process by which a fabric or 3D object is made, is a familiar concept to most. Using a single end of yarn, a four-way stretch fabric is created. Despite this versatility and the abundance of applications it brings, the general public’s understanding of knitting places it firmly in the domestic sphere. Through the analysis of discourse within articles featuring the term ‘knitting’ published in The Guardian in 2021, I analyse how and why particular representations of knitting still dominate and direct cultural attitudes towards the discipline. To provide further context, I will compare the language used in articles from the same source and timeframe featuring an alternative term: painting. This comparison provides a means through which narratives concerning both disciplines become more clearly visible. With applications spanning the medical, construction and automotive industries, knitting, a process that can be zero waste, is very well suited to tackling the environmental challenges we face today. This paper illustrates, however, that there remains a particular narrative that surrounds knitting in sections of the British media: one centred on the domestic, the female and increasingly, mental health. I suggest that this prevents knitting from being contextualized in more broadly innovative ways. This article aims to uncover the explicit and implicit ways in which language used in this identified section of the British media influences and shapes the public’s understanding of knitting.

This article presents the results of a research project that is methodologically organized into two bases articulated through theory and praxis. The first one consists of theoretical dialectic research on the concept of engagement and its implication towards the generation of hegemony within a mediatization and platformization context. The second one, which is this article’s main focus, involves exploratory, empirical research and critical discourse analysis of the popular organization Via Campesina and the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) of social movements’ international networks, aiming at identifying similarities, differences, goals and ways of understanding and articulating the common.

Social media use has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and a proliferation of conspiracy beliefs about the pandemic has been seen on these platforms. We investigate (1) the extent to which people use social media to find health information, hold conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 and engage in preventive behaviours; (2) whether belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories mediated the relationship between using social media for health information and engaging in preventive behaviours and (3) whether differences exist in social media use between those who hold and those who do not hold COVID-19 pandemic conspiracy beliefs. Participants (N = 262; M age = 28.61, SD = 10.33) completed an online questionnaire with measures of social media use, conspiracy beliefs and engagement in COVID-19 preventive behaviours. We found participants used social media for over thirty minutes per day for health information and that approximately one in three people hold at least one conspiracy belief about COVID-19. Belief in conspiracy theories mediated the relationship between social media use and engagement in preventive behaviours. Furthermore, people who used Instagram for health information and those who primarily turned to influencer and personal accounts for health information were more likely to hold conspiracy beliefs.