2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-252
Author(s):  
Deborah Solomon

This essay draws attention to the surprising lack of scholarship on the staging of garden scenes in Shakespeare's oeuvre. In particular, it explores how garden scenes promote collaborative acts of audience agency and present new renditions of the familiar early modern contrast between the public and the private. Too often the mention of Shakespeare's gardens calls to mind literal rather than literary interpretations: the work of garden enthusiasts like Henry Ellacombe, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, and Caroline Spurgeon, who present their copious gatherings of plant and flower references as proof that Shakespeare was a garden lover, or the many “Shakespeare Gardens” around the world, bringing to life such lists of plant references. This essay instead seeks to locate Shakespeare's garden imagery within a literary tradition more complex than these literalizations of Shakespeare's “flowers” would suggest. To stage a garden during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries signified much more than a personal affinity for the green world; it served as a way of engaging time-honored literary comparisons between poetic forms, methods of audience interaction, and types of media. Through its metaphoric evocation of the commonplace tradition, in which flowers double as textual cuttings to be picked, revised, judged, and displayed, the staged garden offered a way to dramatize the tensions produced by creative practices involving collaborative composition and audience agency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Hurcombe

This paper empirically investigates how two prominent Australian legacy news outlets – ABC News and News.com.au – operate according to what I term a social media logic of “engagement”, a concept which builds upon van Dijck & Poell’s notion of a social media logic of “popularity”. By a logic of engagement, I mean the necessity to maximize social media attention and interaction metrics. Rather than just valuing “popularity”, platforms instead place value on content that maximizes a multitude of feelings, sentiments, and reactions. Without sufficient engagement, outlets dependent on platforms such as Facebook are threatened by invisibility in the newsfeed. I specifically focus on the operations of ABC News and News.com.au on Facebook from 21 March 2018 – 10 April 2018. Within this period, I collected all the posts from each page, which amounted to 44 posts in total. From these posts, I strategically selected six posts of varying levels of engagement for closer qualitative analysis, with an emphasis on language and imagery. My findings in this paper suggest that the drive for monetizable and algorithmically-valued audience metrics on Facebook can encourage divisive and provocative news content that arouses strong negative feelings and promotes conflict. Trolls are those that deceive other users of their intentions, and seek to sow discord for their own purposes. Thus, it is beneficial to think about a potentially emerging practice of news “trolling”, as it appears that news outlets are adopting faux-naïve, and deliberately incendiary, practices when pursuing engagement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 00 (00) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Andreas Veglis ◽  
Efthimis Kotenidis

The journalistic profession has long since entered an age where technology and audience participation are two of its most defining factors. Changes that were brought about by the advent of WEB 2.0 transformed journalism – among other professions – fundamentally, and opened the gates to a more connected future, one in which the lines between content producer and content consumer are far less defined than they used to be. One of the more promising technologies of this new era is that of chatbots and conversational agents. These multifaceted programs have proven to be extremely useful in many aspects of modern journalism, with some of them getting used in scenarios that go as far as trying to replace the traditional role of the journalist as we know it. As such, the influence of these programs has also spread to the field of audience interaction and participatory journalism. This article aims to underline the integral role that chatbots play within the confines of the journalistic profession, while at the same time explore the significant effects they have in the field of audience participation and communication between the journalist and the public in general. To achieve this goal a model chatbot was created in order to demonstrate the benefits of automating the process of filing and transferring a report on account of the public to the news organization.


Author(s):  
Anchi Hoh

The Library of Congress houses more than 164 million items in various formats, languages, and subjects. Found among its treasures are the international collections. The Library's four area studies divisions—African and Middle Eastern (AMED), Asian, European, and Hispanic—reading rooms provide access to many of these resources. In 2016, the four area studies divisions launched a collaborative social media program to encourage the use of the library's international collections by domestic and global online audiences. The program adopted the 4 Corners of the World blog and the Library of Congress International Collections Facebook page as interactive social media tools. This chapter will examine the interdivisional initiative through its purpose, target audience, content focus, platform selection, management and operation, audience interaction, and current status. Next, the chapter will discuss challenges and opportunities facing the four divisions. Finally, the chapter will offer recommendations for other libraries that are interested in establishing a similar program.


Author(s):  
Rabia Tas

Science and technology have been developing at a great pace. There are numerous breakthrough innovations and groundbreaking improvements in almost every aspect of life. Undoubtedly, another field experiencing such a fast development is communication. Communication has been following and adapting related technological developments not only in terms of software and hardware but also in terms of targeting the right audience and creating the audience interaction. While developments in science and technology feed communication, communication disseminates the outcomes of innovative studies to the defined target groups. Science communication becomes a part of this mutual relation. This study is focused on research funds, opportunities, and international networks in the field of science communication. Within this context, challenges in research activities and expected impact of research outcomes will be examined in terms of science communication. Also, the role and importance of networks in science communication will be examined in line with research funds and support provided for this field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Zacharenia Pilitsidou ◽  
Nikolaos Tsigilis ◽  
George Kalliris

The purpose of the study was to explore how Greek radio stations utilize social media and Facebook in particular, and to look into factors that influence interaction with their audience. Twenty radio stations broadcasting from the two largest cities in Greece were selected according to their radio profile and number of followers. The duration of the study was two weeks, weekends included, with one month time lag between them. Results showed that the type of content seems to influence audience’s participation. Listeners had higher participation when they were reading information with content of their favourite radio broadcasting. Moreover, it was noticed that a specific time of the day might facilitate communication between radio stations and their listeners. Interaction patterns differ in relation to radio profile and radio stations broadcasting location. This paper represents a first attempt to investigate the ways Greek radio stations utilize social media to accomplish higher participation levels. An interaction index was introduced and used in order to better reflect radio station audience interaction. Given the relatively short observation period present these findings should be considered preliminary and exploratory. Longer data collection period combined with alternative social media such as Twitter, can provide a deeper understanding of the topic. Radio stations can utilize the present findings to develop a more effective strategy communication through social media.


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