International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 6, Page 768-784, November 2023.
This article explores Facebook's role in how Filipino migrants negotiate their diasporic chronotopes, that is, spatio-temporal constructions of their past/homeland and present/hostland. Specifically, focus group and digital ethnographic data with Filipino migrants in Germany are analysed using ethnography and discursive psychology approaches. Findings illustrate how Facebook enables Filipinos to re-enact and challenge past/homeland practices, which in turn help create a more meaningful present/hostland life. Facebook further facilitates the capture of conflicting yet socially consequential chronotopes – or irony chronotopes – that traverse and impact both offline and online dimensions of diaspora relations. Capturing such spatio-temporal interplays in migrant realities through social media provides a nuanced and dialogical view into migrants’ lifeworlds, looks beyond the communication role that social media play therein, and contributes to the digital media and temporal turns in diaspora studies.
Digital transformations in a platform society: A comparative analysis of European football leagues as YouTube complementors
Convergence, Volume 29, Issue 5, Page 1330-1351, October 2023.
The prevalence of digital technologies and emerging social media platforms in the 21st century has altered the ways in which individuals and groups produce and consume elite football (soccer). Elite football is no longer consumed merely through ‘traditional’ media as television or radio. By comparing the ‘big five’ football leagues (the first divisions in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain), this article examines how these leagues have adapted to an algorithm logic (monetization strategies/content strategies) on YouTube. Drawing from data collected (64,247 YouTube videos) using YouTube Data Tools, we argue that the ‘big five’s’ content creation on YouTube work in a complementary manner to ‘traditional’ platforms, allowing for the testing and adaption of their content practices based on instant consumer feedback. This article makes a contribution to the literature on the symbiotic media/sport relationship with its analysis and insights into the digital transformations occurring in a ‘platform society’.
The prevalence of digital technologies and emerging social media platforms in the 21st century has altered the ways in which individuals and groups produce and consume elite football (soccer). Elite football is no longer consumed merely through ‘traditional’ media as television or radio. By comparing the ‘big five’ football leagues (the first divisions in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain), this article examines how these leagues have adapted to an algorithm logic (monetization strategies/content strategies) on YouTube. Drawing from data collected (64,247 YouTube videos) using YouTube Data Tools, we argue that the ‘big five’s’ content creation on YouTube work in a complementary manner to ‘traditional’ platforms, allowing for the testing and adaption of their content practices based on instant consumer feedback. This article makes a contribution to the literature on the symbiotic media/sport relationship with its analysis and insights into the digital transformations occurring in a ‘platform society’.
Postcyberpunk dystopian cityscape and emotion artificial intelligence: A spatio-cognitive analysis of posthuman representation in Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Convergence, Volume 29, Issue 5, Page 1199-1225, October 2023.
Within visual culture, postcyberpunk films are best approached as places of Otherness whereby human identity and agency are downplayed and posthumans are magnified in highly technopolic societies marked with scientific determinism. Postcyberpunk treats the posthuman enclave as a heterotopic site, oscillating between utopian and dystopian spaces, potentially and optimistically, creating a space for humanity to be reassessed and renegotiated. Against this backdrop, the current research endeavor proposes a Spatio-Cognitive Model of Posthuman Representation focusing attention on heterotopic ‘spaces’ and ‘bodies’ in hyperconnected environments. While the model owes a substantial debt to Foucault’s writings on heterotopia and the utopian body, in tilting the focus of enquiry, this paper is informed by the tenets of polyrhythmia, hypermimesis, spatial repertoires, semiotic assemblages and cognitive embodiment as insightful interventions. Blade Runner 2049 is taken as a fertile case study grounded in paradoxes and ambiguities around the contradiction between humans and replicants, artificial intelligence and super-large enterprises. The hybridity pertinent to the postcyberpunk film genre and the inner and outer topographies of posthuman representation proved to be insightful investigative vantage points of multimodal inquiry for the socio-political and technocratic implications they underlie. With technology seamlessly integrated into social spaces and posthuman bodies, Blade Runner 2049 is arguably structured as an emotional journey composed of multiple heterotopias (spatial layers, ruptures and bifurcations expressed through socio-political capitalist projections). The article adamantly argues for new philosophical perspectives and praxis in redefinition of the social relationship between human and posthuman.
Within visual culture, postcyberpunk films are best approached as places of Otherness whereby human identity and agency are downplayed and posthumans are magnified in highly technopolic societies marked with scientific determinism. Postcyberpunk treats the posthuman enclave as a heterotopic site, oscillating between utopian and dystopian spaces, potentially and optimistically, creating a space for humanity to be reassessed and renegotiated. Against this backdrop, the current research endeavor proposes a Spatio-Cognitive Model of Posthuman Representation focusing attention on heterotopic ‘spaces’ and ‘bodies’ in hyperconnected environments. While the model owes a substantial debt to Foucault’s writings on heterotopia and the utopian body, in tilting the focus of enquiry, this paper is informed by the tenets of polyrhythmia, hypermimesis, spatial repertoires, semiotic assemblages and cognitive embodiment as insightful interventions. Blade Runner 2049 is taken as a fertile case study grounded in paradoxes and ambiguities around the contradiction between humans and replicants, artificial intelligence and super-large enterprises. The hybridity pertinent to the postcyberpunk film genre and the inner and outer topographies of posthuman representation proved to be insightful investigative vantage points of multimodal inquiry for the socio-political and technocratic implications they underlie. With technology seamlessly integrated into social spaces and posthuman bodies, Blade Runner 2049 is arguably structured as an emotional journey composed of multiple heterotopias (spatial layers, ruptures and bifurcations expressed through socio-political capitalist projections). The article adamantly argues for new philosophical perspectives and praxis in redefinition of the social relationship between human and posthuman.
Politics of fun and participatory censorship: China’s reception of Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This paper discusses China’s ban of the hit Japanese video game Animal Crossing: New Horizon. Situating the ban in the context of Chinese digital economy, this paper investigates the politics of fun as it intersects with censorship and popular nationalism in China today. Drawing on user-generated content and social media discussions of the game and its ban, the paper discusses two outcomes deriving from China’s precarious environment for gameplay, where fun could be easily confiscated by authorities: the first is the emergence of participatory censorship where netizens voluntarily and collectively set the limit for self-expression in an effort to depoliticize gameplay; the second is the convergence between fun and nationalism, which transforms gameplay into a vessel for expressing and strengthening official ideology. In doing so, the paper reconsiders the thesis of digital democratization by shedding light on the regulated processes of digital self-making.
This paper discusses China’s ban of the hit Japanese video game Animal Crossing: New Horizon. Situating the ban in the context of Chinese digital economy, this paper investigates the politics of fun as it intersects with censorship and popular nationalism in China today. Drawing on user-generated content and social media discussions of the game and its ban, the paper discusses two outcomes deriving from China’s precarious environment for gameplay, where fun could be easily confiscated by authorities: the first is the emergence of participatory censorship where netizens voluntarily and collectively set the limit for self-expression in an effort to depoliticize gameplay; the second is the convergence between fun and nationalism, which transforms gameplay into a vessel for expressing and strengthening official ideology. In doing so, the paper reconsiders the thesis of digital democratization by shedding light on the regulated processes of digital self-making.
TikTok’s ‘Republicansona’ trend as cross-party cross-dressing: Legible normativity, (in)dividual representation and performing subversive ambiguity
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
In the early months of 2021, a curious trend began to emerge on TikTok: left-leaning TikTokkers engaging in lampoonish performances of cross-party cross-dressing to re-present themselves as their alter-ego ‘Republicansonas’. Fascinatingly, the most profuse and popular engagements with this trend have been to cannily recode BIPOC and queer self-presentations through a sardonic pantomime of a legibly centrist normativity generated by strategically ambiguous performances of ‘whitewashing’ and ‘straightifying’. Deploying affect theory, Deleuzian critiques of neoliberalism, affordance theories of algorithmic culture, critical race theory, queer epistemologies of discursive space and textual analysis of Republicansona content, this article interrogates the operations of not just TikTok but of an increasingly right-leaning America. The central questions in this article are to examine the utility and ideology of this memetic mimesis trend while examining what this trend reveals about TikTok’s infrastructure and the potential for revolution from within the apparatus. This analysis of the mindful sardonicism of the Republicansona trend reveals its disruptive potential to call attention to the impacts of neoliberalism on expression. The act of simulating legible normativity generates a subversively ambiguous depth where testimonies of survival in the face of image-violence are shared as a second layer to the trend’s inside joke modality.
In the early months of 2021, a curious trend began to emerge on TikTok: left-leaning TikTokkers engaging in lampoonish performances of cross-party cross-dressing to re-present themselves as their alter-ego ‘Republicansonas’. Fascinatingly, the most profuse and popular engagements with this trend have been to cannily recode BIPOC and queer self-presentations through a sardonic pantomime of a legibly centrist normativity generated by strategically ambiguous performances of ‘whitewashing’ and ‘straightifying’. Deploying affect theory, Deleuzian critiques of neoliberalism, affordance theories of algorithmic culture, critical race theory, queer epistemologies of discursive space and textual analysis of Republicansona content, this article interrogates the operations of not just TikTok but of an increasingly right-leaning America. The central questions in this article are to examine the utility and ideology of this memetic mimesis trend while examining what this trend reveals about TikTok’s infrastructure and the potential for revolution from within the apparatus. This analysis of the mindful sardonicism of the Republicansona trend reveals its disruptive potential to call attention to the impacts of neoliberalism on expression. The act of simulating legible normativity generates a subversively ambiguous depth where testimonies of survival in the face of image-violence are shared as a second layer to the trend’s inside joke modality.
The Underrepresented ‘Other’: Portrayal of Religious Minorities in Hindi Language Cartoon Shows
Journal of Creative Communications, Ahead of Print.
Media are sites of struggle for representations, and cartoon shows on television can immensely impact the psyche of young viewers. Drawing upon Bandura’s social cognitive theory, George Gerber’s cultivation theory and symbolic annihilation, this study investigates how the symbolic annihilation of minorities takes place in Hindi language cartoon shows. We examine how Hindi language cartoon shows produced in India methodically underrepresent characters belonging to minority communities using qualitative content analysis of four such shows. In this article, we question the positioning of these characters in secondary, antisocial roles identifying them either as ‘other’/foreigner or ‘other’/negative. This symbolic annihilation of religious minorities in Hindi language cartoon shows resembles the symbolic annihilation of racial minorities in the English language cartoon shows.
Media are sites of struggle for representations, and cartoon shows on television can immensely impact the psyche of young viewers. Drawing upon Bandura’s social cognitive theory, George Gerber’s cultivation theory and symbolic annihilation, this study investigates how the symbolic annihilation of minorities takes place in Hindi language cartoon shows. We examine how Hindi language cartoon shows produced in India methodically underrepresent characters belonging to minority communities using qualitative content analysis of four such shows. In this article, we question the positioning of these characters in secondary, antisocial roles identifying them either as ‘other’/foreigner or ‘other’/negative. This symbolic annihilation of religious minorities in Hindi language cartoon shows resembles the symbolic annihilation of racial minorities in the English language cartoon shows.
Generation Y and Brand Love: Understanding the Effects of Individual Cultural Values and Religious Commitment
Journal of Creative Communications, Ahead of Print.
Given the lack of research into the link between the individual cultural values of the millennial generation mediated by religious commitment (RC) and brand love (BL), this research intends to the following: (a) identify the individual cultural values of the millennial generation and (b) explain how these values influence BL when mediated by RC. A quantitative methodology with structural equation modelling is used. Data were collected from members of the millennial generation in Portugal by survey questionnaire. The main findings of the data analysis showed that independence, power and tradition are the predominant individual cultural values of Portuguese millennials. The results showed that the independence individual cultural value negatively influences intrapersonal and interpersonal RC; power and tradition positively influence intrapersonal and interpersonal RC; only interpersonal RC positively influences BL. The study concludes with some insights that managers might use to address consumer-brand communications. Guidelines for further research are presented.
Given the lack of research into the link between the individual cultural values of the millennial generation mediated by religious commitment (RC) and brand love (BL), this research intends to the following: (a) identify the individual cultural values of the millennial generation and (b) explain how these values influence BL when mediated by RC. A quantitative methodology with structural equation modelling is used. Data were collected from members of the millennial generation in Portugal by survey questionnaire. The main findings of the data analysis showed that independence, power and tradition are the predominant individual cultural values of Portuguese millennials. The results showed that the independence individual cultural value negatively influences intrapersonal and interpersonal RC; power and tradition positively influence intrapersonal and interpersonal RC; only interpersonal RC positively influences BL. The study concludes with some insights that managers might use to address consumer-brand communications. Guidelines for further research are presented.
Revisiting Public Relations Profession in India: A Systematic Literature Review
Journal of Creative Communications, Ahead of Print.
The public relations (PR) industry in India is a multi-billion industry, and various global and national players are part of it. This article, by analysing the existing literature in this field, aims to understand the current state of the profession in India and identify possible issues and challenges. Based on a systematic literature review, 95 published academic works were identified from academic databases. Of 95, 27 were selected for analysis to answer the research questions and identify research gaps in the field. The study finds that although PR practice had a firm footing in the pre-independence era, progress was seen after 1947, especially with initial support from the government and public sector organisations. The profession is still evolving and has much scope for development. Poor reputation of the profession, scarcity of talent, limited scope for professional education and training, lack of measurement methods to demonstrate its value and competing for public and private sector philosophies pose a serious challenge to its growth. The study offers valuable insights for the practitioners and researchers and suggests future research areas to improve the professional discipline.
The public relations (PR) industry in India is a multi-billion industry, and various global and national players are part of it. This article, by analysing the existing literature in this field, aims to understand the current state of the profession in India and identify possible issues and challenges. Based on a systematic literature review, 95 published academic works were identified from academic databases. Of 95, 27 were selected for analysis to answer the research questions and identify research gaps in the field. The study finds that although PR practice had a firm footing in the pre-independence era, progress was seen after 1947, especially with initial support from the government and public sector organisations. The profession is still evolving and has much scope for development. Poor reputation of the profession, scarcity of talent, limited scope for professional education and training, lack of measurement methods to demonstrate its value and competing for public and private sector philosophies pose a serious challenge to its growth. The study offers valuable insights for the practitioners and researchers and suggests future research areas to improve the professional discipline.
Media During Pandemic Crisis in India: An Analysis of People’s Perception During the First Wave of COVID-19
Journal of Creative Communications, Ahead of Print.
In April 2021, India was hit by the second wave of COVID-19 (News18, 2021, Second wave of COVID-19 very similar to first wave: Govt cites data to alleviate fear). People realised that the second wave of COVID-19 is more devastating than the first wave. Different factors might have influenced the perception of people during the first wave of COVID-19. The needful amount of fear among the people was reduced by the end of the first wave and normalcy was gained, which might have triggered the second wave of COVID-19 in India. The research aims to determine the perception of respondents about the COVID-19 crisis and to analyse the influence of media in instilling fear, stress, anxiety, tension, relief and ignorance among them when they read about the pandemic during the first wave of COVID-19. Based on the defined objectives, a questionnaire was prepared and the link to the survey was distributed around the country. According to the study’s findings, people were affected in many ways during the first wave.
In April 2021, India was hit by the second wave of COVID-19 (News18, 2021, Second wave of COVID-19 very similar to first wave: Govt cites data to alleviate fear). People realised that the second wave of COVID-19 is more devastating than the first wave. Different factors might have influenced the perception of people during the first wave of COVID-19. The needful amount of fear among the people was reduced by the end of the first wave and normalcy was gained, which might have triggered the second wave of COVID-19 in India. The research aims to determine the perception of respondents about the COVID-19 crisis and to analyse the influence of media in instilling fear, stress, anxiety, tension, relief and ignorance among them when they read about the pandemic during the first wave of COVID-19. Based on the defined objectives, a questionnaire was prepared and the link to the survey was distributed around the country. According to the study’s findings, people were affected in many ways during the first wave.
Consumer nationalism in digital space: A case study of the 2017 anti-lotte boycott in China
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This study advances the understanding of consumer nationalism through an analysis of a Chinese boycott of South Korean goods. In early 2017, Chinese internet users expressed their strong aversion to the South Korean conglomerate Lotte and coordinated a folk boycott against it on the grounds that Lotte supported South Korea’s deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system, which China considered a threat. We explored the increasing convergence of consumer activities in the form of consumer nationalism with commercial entities’ marketing strategies and also with the state’s interests with respect to security and promoting national pride. The internet and new technologies have facilitated grassroots nationalist activities in terms of the ready circulation of information and mobilization of collective actions. We investigated a digital discursive space in the communicative interactions among stakeholders through which digital media not only amplify the scale and intensity of the mundane and everyday practice of nationalism but also blur the boundaries among the participating actors. Our research documented the multilateral relationships among stakeholders – individual consumers/media users, commercial entities, and the state – in practicing nationalism and reproducing the nation through (non)consumption.
This study advances the understanding of consumer nationalism through an analysis of a Chinese boycott of South Korean goods. In early 2017, Chinese internet users expressed their strong aversion to the South Korean conglomerate Lotte and coordinated a folk boycott against it on the grounds that Lotte supported South Korea’s deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system, which China considered a threat. We explored the increasing convergence of consumer activities in the form of consumer nationalism with commercial entities’ marketing strategies and also with the state’s interests with respect to security and promoting national pride. The internet and new technologies have facilitated grassroots nationalist activities in terms of the ready circulation of information and mobilization of collective actions. We investigated a digital discursive space in the communicative interactions among stakeholders through which digital media not only amplify the scale and intensity of the mundane and everyday practice of nationalism but also blur the boundaries among the participating actors. Our research documented the multilateral relationships among stakeholders – individual consumers/media users, commercial entities, and the state – in practicing nationalism and reproducing the nation through (non)consumption.