scholarly journals Topological and networked visibility: Politics of seeing in the digital age

Semiotica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (231) ◽  
pp. 259-277
Author(s):  
Michele Martini
Keyword(s):  
Visual Communication ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Live Streaming ◽  
Centralized Control ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
Social Existence ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Digital Landscape ◽  
Visibility Politics

Abstract Today, the convergence of video-based Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs) is challenging centralized control over cultural topologies. Accordingly, this paper proposes a theoretical prism for the analysis of the sociopolitical impact of online audio-visual communication. More precisely, this study discusses how topological visibility (i.e. culture-based, highly centralized and spatially organized visibility structures) and networked visibility (i.e. occurrence-based, decentralized and network organized visibility structures) interact in today’s digital landscape. To this aim, four examples divided into two clusters will be discussed. The first cluster (i.e. Occupy Movement and BlackBerry Riots) will describe the functioning of topological visibility, while the second cluster (i.e. NO DAPL drone activism and Aleppo residents’ live-streaming) will illustrate how technology-enhanced mediability may create networked spaces of appearance. The paper concludes by arguing that networked visibility does not neutralize the relational nature of the human gaze but rather forces and expands the culturally-defined boundaries of its legitimate social existence.

Persuasion and Non-Party Groups in the Digital Age

2019 ◽  
pp. 320-339
Author(s):  
Deana A. Rohlinger
Keyword(s):  
Political Change ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Grassroots Organizations ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Change Projects ◽  
Movement Organizations

Non-party groups increasingly go after the electorate in their efforts to force politicians to take up their issues. Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs), which allow non-party groups to communicate with voters directly, aid in their efforts. How non-party groups try to tip the political scales in their favor is the topic of this chapter. This chapter outlines three ways that non-party groups, or groups that are not affiliated with, based on, or representing a political party, influence politicians and political parties in the digital age: framing issues; mobilizing consensus among a broad swatch of the populace; and mobilizing some subset of the electorate to action. The chapter begins by distinguishing three types of non-party groups—grassroots organizations, social movement organizations, and astroturf organizations—which vary in resources and capacity. It argues that these differences affect not only how groups use mass media, and ICTs specifically, to affect political change, but also how they frame issues and mobilize the electorate to action. The chapter concludes with a call for additional research. Social scientists need to pay close attention to astroturf groups, which seem to coopt legitimate political change projects for their own purposes.

Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Liu
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Communicative Practice ◽  
Political Contention ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Everyday Resistance

Over the past decades, waves of political contention involving the use of information and communication technologies have swept across the globe. The phenomenon stimulates the scholarship on digital communication technologies and contentious collective action to thrive as an exciting, relevant, but highly fragmentary and contested field with disciplinary boundaries. To advance the interdisciplinary understanding, Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age outlines a communication-centered framework that articulates the intricate relationship between technology, communication, and contention. It further prods us to engage more critically with existing theories from communication, sociology, and political science on digital technologies and political movements. Given the theoretical endeavor, Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age systematically explores, for the first time, the influence of mobile technology on political contention in China, the country with the world’s largest number of mobile and Internet users. Using first-hand in-depth interview and fieldwork data, it tracks the strategic choice of mobile phones as repertoires of contention, illustrates the effective mobilization of mobile communication on the basis of its strong and reciprocal social ties, and identifies the communicative practice of forwarding officially alleged “rumors” as a form of everyday resistance. Through this ground-breaking study, Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age presents a nuanced portrayal of an emerging dynamics of contention—both its strengths and limitations—through the embedding of mobile communication into Chinese society and politics.

Factors Influence Small Medium Enterprises in Penang Island Reluctant to Use e-Commerce : A Research Proposal

2013 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Chee Lim ◽  
Ahmad Suhaimi Baharudin
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
World Class ◽  
Potential Factors ◽  
The Government ◽  
Small Medium Enterprises ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
Ict Companies

The powerful of Internet has changed the world. The successful story from Amazon.com has encouraged some business owners to switch their business model to e-business model. In year 1997, Malaysia's government allocated some budget to setup Internet infrastructure and introduce Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) to public. The main objective is to transform current practice to service based platform, and to attract world class companies while grooming local Internet communication technologies (ICT) companies. Besides that, the government had put efforts to increase Internet user population such as taxes deduction for family who purchase computers, educate the public the importance of master Internet technologies. After a decade of implementation, the e-Commerce adoption response from the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) still do not reach the considerable level, based on Association Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industries of Malaysia SME's survey it shows 28% of the respondents involve into e-Commerce activities. Small Medium Enterprises contribute 99.2% to Malaysia's economic. This study intends to find out the level of e-Commerce adoption among SMEs in Malaysia, and potential factors that hindrance to the e-Commerce adoption.

Youth and Citizenship in the Digital Age: A View from Egypt

2012 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Herrera
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Biographical Research ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
Generational Consciousness ◽  
Active Generation

Youth are coming of age in a digital era and learning and exercising citizenship in fundamentally different ways compared to previous generations. Around the globe, a monumental generational rupture is taking place that is being facilitated—not driven in some inevitable and teleological process—by new media and communication technologies. The bulk of research and theorizing on generations in the digital age has come out of North America and Europe; but to fully understand the rise of an active generation requires a more inclusive global lens, one that reaches to societies where high proportions of educated youth live under conditions of political repression and economic exclusion. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), characterized by authoritarian regimes, surging youth populations, and escalating rates of both youth connectivity and unemployment, provides an ideal vantage point to understand generations and power in the digital age. Building toward this larger perspective, this article probes how Egyptian youth have been learning citizenship, forming a generational consciousness, and actively engaging in politics in the digital age. Author Linda Herrera asks how members of this generation who have been able to trigger revolt might collectively shape the kind of sustained democratic societies to which they aspire. This inquiry is informed theoretically by the sociology of generations and methodologically by biographical research with Egyptian youth.

scholarly journals The Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere, Its Features in the Context of Various Political Regimes, and Its Possible Influence on Political Processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 149-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey Salikov
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

The question of how the digital transformation of the public sphere affects political processes has been of interest to researchers since the spread of the Internet in the early 1990s. However, today there is no clear or unambiguous answer to this question; expert estimates differ radically, from extremely positive to extremely negative. This article attempts to take a comprehensive approach to this issue, conceptualizing the transformations taking place in the public sphere under the influence of Internet communication technologies, taking their political context into account, and identifying the relationship between these changes and possible transformations of political regimes. In order to achieve these goals, several tasks are tackled during this research. The first section examines the issue as to whether the concept of the public sphere can be used in a non-democratic context. It also delineates two main types of the public sphere, the “democratic public sphere” and the “authoritarian public sphere,” in order to take into account the features of public discourse in the context of various political regimes. The second section discusses the special aspects of the digital transformation of the public sphere in a democratic context. The third section considers the special aspects of the digital transformation of the public sphere in a non-democratic context. The concluding section summarizes the results of the study, states the existing gaps and difficulties, outlines the ways for their possible extension, and raises questions requiring attention from other researchers.

scholarly journals The shift of media processes to internet communication and computer-assisted language learning as a high-risk factor of inter-group interaction in applied linguistic space

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3D) ◽  
pp. 494-501
Author(s):  
Evgeny A. Slizsky ◽  
Vladimir V. Plotnikov ◽  
Andrey P. Tyun ◽  
Ekaterina I. Khubuluri
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Group Interaction ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
High Risk Factor

The issue of inter-group social conflicts development is one of the most acute problems of modern society. Within the framework of this article (on the example of inter-ethnic interaction) there is considered the question of modern communication technologies in the field of inter-group interaction. The study proves that with the intensive development of modern means of communication, there takes place a significant intensification of social risks associated with inter-group conflicts (intensity of aggravation factors and increase in the scale of inter-group confrontations). At the level of inter-ethnic interaction, all that is primarily due to the negative stereotypes of different ethnic groups, as well as to the replication of negative interaction experiences in different ethnic groups (with an emphasis on ethnicity).

scholarly journals COMMUNICATION SKILLS AS A KEY TO CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN THE DIGITAL AGE

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 227-231
Author(s):  
Palle Manohar ◽  
G. Chenna Reddy
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Collaborative Activities ◽  
Crucial Ingredient ◽  
Historical Necessity

The postmodern phenomenon of globalization has launched digitalization as an outcome and the part of communication technologies by which the world has been brought together transcending the barriers of countries and cultures. The increase of global trade and the necessity of close and interlinked association among the nations at various stages of development have become imperative today as a historical necessity for future survival. Communication skills, especially in English, have become a crucial ingredient in all most all activities of life as communication channels are the arteries through which information flows and circulates to sustain any activity without disruption. Besides, to that the growth of coordination and collaborative activities in all spheres of life both public and private. Acquisition of and master over communication skills are the intellectual tools by which one’s competence is measured and career is enhanced. In the age of specialization and hierarchal structures of large organizations, communication is the link connecting and synergizing all activities and ability to communicate clearly and effectively is of immeasurable significance, to assume an important place in any organization. Every field of activity has its own specific vocabulary, specialized jargon and modes of communication which should be mastered by all participants to maintain the overall activity, especially in the age of digitalization. To rise effectively in one’s career and contribute satisfactorily and successfully, special packages of communication skills should be designed and imparted to all potential candidates who are ambitious of to rise high in one’s career. The inauguration of digital age made it both convenient to choose ones place and time for learning and also challenging as to how to utilize the recent technologies to enhance and extend ones communicative reach to become successful in one’s career. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the various programs and strategies of communication necessary to enhance ones career prospects by training the participants to equip themselves with right competitive communication skills in tandem with contemporary digital technology available.

E-Transformation in Higher Education and What It Coerces for the Faculty

2019 ◽  
pp. 355-378
Author(s):  
Ela Akgün-Özbek ◽  
Ali Ekrem Özkul
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Faculty Development ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Impact

With the phenomenal developments in information and communication technologies, higher education has been facing an unprecedented challenge that affects all the stakeholders. Faculty is no exception. The authors synthesize the demographic, economic, and pedagogical factors that lead to a paradigm shift in higher education and the global trends in digital technologies that impel digital transformation in higher education. They then provide a snapshot of how higher education institutions respond to this challenge and change, and the impact of these factors on the roles and competencies of faculty that need to be covered in faculty development initiatives in the digital age. Finally, examples of faculty development programs and initiatives that address the digital competencies of faculty are provided along with a summary of faculty development models for teaching and learning in the digital age.

The Language of Cyberspace

2006 ◽  
pp. 396-403
Author(s):  
Leah P. Macfadyen ◽  
Sabine Doff
Keyword(s):  
Salient Feature ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Human Interface ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Many ◽  
Computer Mediated Communications

Amid the many published pages of excited hyperbole regarding the potential of the Internet for human communications, one salient feature of current Internet communication technologies is frequently overlooked: the reality that Internet- and computer-mediated communications, to date, are communicative environments constructed through language (mostly text). In cyberspace, written language therefore mediates the human-computer interface as well as the human-human interface. What are the implications of the domination of Internet and computer-mediated communications by text? Researchers from diverse disciplines—from distance educators to linguists to social scientists to postmodern philosophers—have begun to investigate this question. They ask: Who speaks online, and how? Is online language really text, or is it “speech”? How does culture affect the language of cyberspace? Approaching these questions from their own disciplinary perspectives, they variously position cyberlanguage as “text,” as “semiotic system,” as “socio-cultural discourse” or even as the medium of cultural hegemony (domination of one culture over another). These different perspectives necessarily shape their analytical and methodological approaches to investigating cyberlanguage, underlying decisions to examine, for example, the details of online text, the social contexts of cyberlanguage, and/or the social and cultural implications of English as Internet lingua franca. Not surprisingly, investigations of Internet communications cut across a number of pre-existing scholarly debates: on the nature and study of “discourse,” on the relationships between language, technology and culture, on the meaning and significance of literacy, and on the liter

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