Why Voice Matters: Culture and Politics After Neoliberalism
Abstract
For more than thirty years neoliberalism has declared that market functioning trumps all other social, political, and economic values. In this book, Nick Couldry passionately argues for voice, the effective opportunity for people to speak and be heard on what affects their lives, as the only value that can truly challenge neoliberal politics. But having voice is not enough: we need to know our voice matters. Insisting that the answer goes much deeper than simply calling for more voices, whether on the streets or in the media, Couldry presents a dazzling range of analysis from the real world of Blair and Obama to the social theory of Judith Butler and Amartya Sen. Why Voice Matters breaks open the contradictions in neoliberal thought and shows how the mainstream media not only fails to provide the means for people to give an account of themselves, but also reinforces neoliberal values. Moving beyond the despair common to much of today's analysis, Couldry shows us a vision of a democracy based on social cooperation and offers the resources we need to build a new post-neoliberal politics.
... The qualities of voice go beyond what is said: extralinguistic elements of voice express affective and political dimensions (Kanngieser, 2012). These dimensions gain increasing importance for top-down processes of datafication, thereby extending the "crisis of voice" discussed in recent scholarly work (Chouliaraki and Zaborowski, 2017;Couldry, 2010;Georgiou, 2018). Voice is considered in this literature as a process for giving an account of oneself (Butler, 2005). ...
... Voice is considered in this literature as a process for giving an account of oneself (Butler, 2005). Voice allows individuals to narrate their world from their embodied position (Couldry, 2010). We refer to this understanding of voice as "the narrative voice." ...
... Following Nick Couldry (2010), we define voice as the process of giving an account of oneself, of narrating one's sense of the self, one's experience of the world and the conditions under which one lives. A democratic system that values voice provides the conditions for such an account not only to be expressed, but to be also taken into consideration (Couldry, 2010). Couldry argues that contemporary neoliberal democracies are oxymoronic forms of democracy because they do not set the conditions for particular voices to be taken into consideration. ...
The voice biometrics industry is promised today as a new center of digital innovation. Tech companies and state agencies are massively investing in speech recognition and analysis systems, pushed by the belief that the acoustics of voice contain unique individual characteristics to convert into information and value through artificial intelligence. This article responds to this current development by exploring the under-researched datafication of the auditory realm to reveal how the sound of voice is emerging as a site for identity construction by both states and corporations. To do so, we look at two different case studies. First, we examine a patent granted to the streaming service Spotify, which aims to improve the platform's music recommendation system by analyzing users’ speech. Second, we discuss the use of voice biometrics in German asylum procedures, where the country of origin of undocumented asylum seekers is determined through accent analysis. Through these seemingly distinct case studies, we identify not only the common assumptions behind the rationale for adopting voice biometrics, but also important differences in the way the private sector and the State determine identity through the analysis of the sounding voice. These two entities are rarely examined together and are often conflated when addressing practices of auditory surveillance. Thus, our comparative and contrastive approach contributes to existing scholarship that questions the claimed efficiency and ethics of voice biometrics’ extractive practices, further defining the operations and assumptions of the private sector and the State.
... Because organizations are often made up of different individuals and interest groups with enduring differences vying for scarce resources, the contested nature of organizational politics and power dynamics creates an unavoidable condition for conflicts and coalitions at the center of their day-to-day operations (Bolman & Deal, 2021;Shahinpoor & Matt, 2007). For organizational democracy to be effectively enacted in the daily interactions among members through regular contests of democratic conditions, participation, and equality (Cheney, 1995), the expression of the people's voice is crucial for its effective functioning (Capizzo, 2023;Capizzo & Feinman, 2022;Couldry, 2010). In sum, organizational communication and listening are political processes. ...
... In this sense, organizational politics tend to hinder genuine listening that seeks differences in perspectives and opinions for organizational learning and taking corrective actions. Particularly, listening as an organization-level construct should consider the politics of power embedded in the organizational hierarchy and norms that influence whose voices get to be expressed and whose voices are listened to (Couldry, 2010). Couldry (2010) noted, "Valuing voice then involves particular attention to the conditions under which voice as a process is effective, and how broader forms of organization may subtly undermine or devalue voice as a process" (Couldry, 2010., p. 2). ...
... Particularly, listening as an organization-level construct should consider the politics of power embedded in the organizational hierarchy and norms that influence whose voices get to be expressed and whose voices are listened to (Couldry, 2010). Couldry (2010) noted, "Valuing voice then involves particular attention to the conditions under which voice as a process is effective, and how broader forms of organization may subtly undermine or devalue voice as a process" (Couldry, 2010., p. 2). Power dynamics are also related to how employees perceive their voices as fairly heard by their organization (Budd, 2014). ...
... Students were able to impactfully communicate a range of perspectives and atmospheres of their urban vertical schools to school leaders and teachers in their own schools, and educational and design leaders whose work in other vertical and horizontal schools is being informed by student voice. This reflects Couldry's (2010) work 'positioning voice as something with value, extending beyond a process, and committing to voice that matters' (p. 3). ...
... Considered together, the layers of voice engagement encourage researchers to position student voice work beyond a process, but also as something with value (Couldry, 2010). Future researchers may find additional ways to support student exploration and communication of their perspectives through different modes and mediums that may also capture the atmospheres of diverse student experiences. ...
Vertical schools are a new type of school in Australia, with little research available to guide designers and school leaders how to address the physical and social challenges that density and interiority add to the students’ schooling experience. As students capably communicate their experiences and perspectives about school spaces for wellbeing, pioneering students in three new vertical schools demonstrated the power of student voice in the Thriving in Vertical Schools project, a 3-year mixed-methods Australian Research Council Linkage project. Young people showed adults how their school spaces enable them to be, feel, and do activities where they feel capable, and how the vertical school environment contributes to wellbeing. Students communicated their voice through multiple layers: the student voice processes (methods), stories with sensory atmospheres (experience), and participating in impactful discussions with adults (action/influence). Adult designers and education leaders were interviewed several weeks after listening to students, identifying how student perspectives had influenced their work. This paper demonstrates how the combination of participatory voice-inclusive methods enabled students to communicate immersive experiences that brought light to interactions for school wellbeing at a level of granularity that adults had not had access to before to influence future designs. This paper argues for the value of attending to student voice and sensitivity in providing choice and options when doing so, so that students are supported to express themselves and their rich experiences in ways of their choosing and ways comfortable to them.
... The centrality of entrepreneurial self-making to therapeutic culture has dominated attendant scholarship in from the 1990s onwards, in the context of broader sociological debates about individualisation (Giddens, 1991) and the atomisation of social life under conditions of hegemonic neoliberalism (Couldry, 2010). It is against this backdrop of neoliberal social life that Anthony Elliott (2013: 5f.) argues that we now live in a 'reinvention society', predicated upon the global economy's demand for flexibility, adaptability, and continuous self-transformation on the part of individuals. ...
... Since the 1980s, the UK has been a central site for the implementation of neoliberal programmes of socio-economic development (Harvey, 2007), which have been bound up with the dismantling of long-established bonds of community and social solidarity, rising socioeconomic inequality, and the far-reaching individualisation and fragmentation of social life (Dorling, 2014). Couldry's (2010) work on the socio-cultural consequences of neoliberalism in the UK captures this fragmentation evocatively, as he shows how the decline of traditional community ties, the destabilisation of work, and the loss of stable and predictable employment trajectories have entailed a loss of 'voice' for many. By this, Couldry means that the decline of stable communal bonds has been bound up with an atomisation of everyday experience, which makes it inconceivable to see personal troubles simultaneously as social problems and injustices, which can be addressed on a collective and political level. ...
In this article, I analyse constructions of the self in bestselling self-help books in the United Kingdom. In doing so, I offer a re-appraisal of contemporary therapeutic culture. Therapeutic culture has long been associated with neoliberal governance, and scholars have argued that popular therapeutic narratives promote neoliberal accounts of an autonomous, masterful ‘entrepreneurial self’, able to thrive in the world on its own. However, beginning with the international financial crisis of 2008, neoliberalism has entered a period of serious and accelerating crisis and contestation. The question therefore arises to what extent popular therapeutic narratives might have changed during this period. In response, I analyse narratives of the self and self-improvement in UK self-help bestsellers between 2008 and 2022. Given their high sales and consumption, self-help books are prominent in the constitution of popular therapeutic discourse. I focus on the UK as an emblematic case, given its history of neoliberal politics, the latter’s recent crisis, and the salience of therapeutic culture in the country. Across the analysed period, my findings point to the emergence of alternative, survivalist and spiritual, therapeutic discourses that move beyond the model of the entrepreneurial self, while ultimately retaining its core assumptions about rational, autonomous behavioural modification.
... Apart from journalists, for example people in power and citizen activists with a voice that counts (Couldry 2010) often have an interest in managing the visibility of controversial issues. According to Hilgartner and Bosk (1988), they may strive to keep their preferred topics in headlines of the news media through "issue dramatization". ...
Narrativity and transparency in news journalism can be seen as responses to the changing mediascape where various actors compete for claims to truth. However, the relationship of narrativity, transparency, and truth, is complex, and there is a need for studying their relations from the perspective of narrative persuasion. This article explores a form of narrative persuasion through which non-journalist participants may affect news discourse by importing content from outside the primary “news frames” and cueing into culturally recognizable “framing narratives”. It introduces a conceptual model for assessing narrative transparency and applies it to a case study of a political interview.
... The process of engaging development invites attention to the potential for participation in determining concerns, reserving resources, and directing response. Participatory approaches to development are designed to enhance the effectiveness of intervention as well as to build on ethical foundations for community engagement, raising attention to access and voice (Couldry 2010). Although participatory communication has been inspired by concerns with overly hierarchical and deterministic intervention, its potential has been challenged by the contexts of power in which it is engaged. ...
A critical appraisal of the field of feminist approaches offers a valuable critical lens to help reshape our conceptualizations of development and the roles communication may play in constructive intervention. Development communication has shifted over time from ignoring and obscuring women to recognizing gendered differences in experiences. Development approaches have also brought participatory processes into focus. However, our strategic initiatives still fall short, both in effectiveness and in ethics. At this juncture, we need to take next steps more seriously in order to promote a more humanitarian approach that would guide institutional practices in programs and research. In this article, I aim to critique the discourse that celebrates digital technologies as tools to promote participatory governance, entrepreneurship, and collective activism through a feminist gaze that privileges the political and economic contexts that condition access to voice, the capacity to listen, and potential for dialog. This analysis builds on an understanding of mediated communication as a prism rather than as a projected mirror, structuring our potential as well as our challenges in creating constructive social change. We need to be accountable toward social justice, relying on our critical appraisals and informed dialogs to create paths to stronger and more impactful communication for social change.
... There is no point in "giving" voice if these voices are not made to matter (Fairey, 2018). The concept of voice calls on a politics of recognition, requiring 'political listening' and making voices matter (Couldry, 2010;Fairey, 2018). Thus, to make the voices in this research matter and work towards social justice, the generated representations (images and texts) needed to be enacted by distributing published materials to relevant audiences. ...
This thesis examines whether participatory arts practices can be deployed in changing urban contexts without getting co-opted into that change and, instead, help to resist its uneven aspects. It presents a participatory arts and research project which responds to the politics and aesthetics of 21st century state-led gentrification, with a specific focus on Deptford, south-east London (UK). The project challenges dominant gentrification narratives by making visible and audible a variety of alternative perspectives that highlight the lived experiences of gentrification-induced displacement. It proposes a novel art and research methodology that, while emphasising participation and ethical practice, pays attention to the politics and aesthetics of creative research. It is underpinned by feminist participatory action research and the radical tradition of community arts and activism. Combining sociological research with a community arts project and the production, publication and launch of a book, this research offers rich understandings of the lived experiences of gentrification-induced displacement while also enacting these representations in the public sphere to support local housing activism. Therefore, my practice not only counters widespread depoliticised participatory practices that make community artists complicit in uneven urban change, it also offers a counterpoint to urban research that, while critically describing processes of change, does little in the way of actively engaging with those processes.
This research is an example of public sociology, engaging with non-academic and academic audiences. Publishing the research data on alternative media under the title Deptford is Changing to encourage public debate also challenges traditional modes of dissemination. It offers space for a multiplicity of voices and forms of representations with the aim of addressing a wide and varied audience. It is recommended to read the accompanying book of the same title alongside this thesis (The book can be downloaded here: https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/34788/). The thesis argues for a creative activist sociological imagination, a Radial Visual Sociology which gets actively and creatively involved in working towards social justice.
... Through digital appropriations, creative reinterpretations, and critiques of dominant cultures, Olaleye brings platformization and this complex relationship with platforms into sharp focus. His textual productions may be read as satirical and humorous materials stressing the cultural netizen's capacity for voice and agency (Couldry, 2010). ...
The Instagram content of Nigerian digital creator Olalekan Olaleye illustrates how cultural netizenship stresses the centrality of platformization to the articulation of new genres of African popular representations. This article develops the argument by examining how platform aesthetics shape the trajectories and performative acts of cultural producers, something Olaleye's Nigerian context also modulates. By lingering on the digital and aesthetic labors of the cultural netizen, the article pinpoints the interactions between creative adaptations and social media texts. Olaleye's Instagram content demonstrates the way digital platforms have become integral to the production and circulation of popular forms and genres and the artistic responses everyday digital subjects make to institutions of the state.
... Recent studies on voice (e.g., Eidsheim and Meizel 2019) have developed the aforementioned arguments by underscoring how sonic and visual materialities are integrated parts of political discourses and debates. Kunreuther and Kohl (2020) and Couldry (2010) further emphasize how the notion of voice, as affective, political and performed, invites us to recognize the uniqueness of the others' narratives and the multiplicity of different voices that make up the polis (Arendt 1958). Along these lines, Kunreuther and Kohl (2020) redefine voice as a metaphor for public and political participation. ...
The Elovena maiden is, for some, one of the most important cultural symbols of the Finnish identity. This character has traditionally been portrayed as a blond, blue-eyed white woman and repeatedly used in artistic and commercial contexts. In this article, we explore how a Finnish-Ghanaian rapper Yeboyah’s ‘Elovena’ music video, as part of the Elovena visual EP (2019), constructs and negotiates race, belonging, and community. Moreover, we investigate the ways in which these themes, taken together, contribute to the video’s affective politics vis-à-vis Finnish cultural identity, right-wing nationalism, and white normativity of Finnishness. Through their ‘Yebovena’ character, Yeboyah reinterprets and updates the iconic Elovena maiden, while surrounded by Finnish nature and a diverse dancing community of mostly black and brown people. We argue that the music video contributes to new understandings of Finnishness as multicultural and critiques and challenges growing xenophobia and racism in the Finnish society. Moreover, Yeboyah’s engagement with Finnish national symbolism intertwines with the rising need for more discussion on decolonization and antiracism in Finland. Theoretically and methodologically, we draw on affective politics and racial politics in music studies, with a specific focus on hip hop, to conduct a contextualized, close cultural analysis of the video. Our main data consist of the music video and visual EP, supported and contextualized by an interview with the artist.
... We grouped these capabilities into seven clusters by recognizing common denominators among the capabilities expressed. Some of these capabilities had been previously identified in the literature as such, including: 'being secure', 'pleasurable entertainment' (Nussbaum, 2011), 'civil participation' (Hesmondhalgh, 2017), 'voicing' (Couldry, 2010), and 'being informed' (Shomron & Schejter, 2020). ...
... The concepts of personal branding, authenticity, the fusion of public and private lives, and the shifting power struggle between interactive and conventional media are key elements in comprehending this metamorphosis. [11] ...
This essay examines the changes in the public persona of celebrities in the era of digital media. It uses Noel Gallagher, a prominent musician who has established himself in both the pre-Internet and Internet eras, as an in-depth case study. By analyzing the interplay between traditional and interactive media in shaping the image of celebrities, this study offers valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of authenticity, interactivity, challenges, and opportunities that celebrities encounter. Gallaghers journey serves as a pertinent example, as it charts the progression of authenticity, from unguarded expressions to skillfully concocted personae.The article emphasizes the significant role of interactivity in transforming public perception by providing direct engagement and narrative control through social media platforms. The challenges and opportunities in the digital era are analyzed, taking into account the crucial balance between accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and image management. Additionally, the research underscores the wider sociocultural impacts of this transformation, including the impact on identity construction and the boundary between public and private lives.Noel Gallaghers narrative provides a perspective for comprehending the evolving facets of celebrity, genuineness, and self-representation in the contemporary era.
... In this light and considering how diligently the average member of the public avoided anything to do with economics before, the unprecedented amount of public debates over the global economy, especially in the social media and online mainstream media platforms, all over the world, is fascinating (c.f. Couldry, 2010). In this framework, the historian and philosopher of economic thought, Philip Mirowski, remarked back in 2010 that ''[...] suddenly it seemed like everyone with a web browser harboured a quick opinion about what had gone wrong with economics and was not at all shy about broadcasting it to the world'' (Mirowski, 2010:30). ...
The main focus of this article is to map the field of the dominant discourses fabricated, promoted and cultivated in the field of Mass Media, in terms of the decade-long Greek crisis. What will be supported is that, during the whole period, the Mass Media have played a definitive role in comprehending and dealing with the crisis, in the implementation of economic, political and social policies, but also in the expression of opinions regarding its causes, consequences and management. The absence though, of critical and radical discourses, as will be supported, apart from not having contributed towards a deeper understanding, by remorselessly espousing the neoliberal dogma, they have also hindered the creation of the required objective terms for collective action and effective resistance. In that respect, I urge for the need of a critical approach of the crisis which, bypassing the politics of the mainstream media and bourgeois ideologisms, would kaleidoscopically conceptualise it, while placing central focus on the exploitation of labourers and the ongoing class struggle. In this direction, I also consider imperative the examination of how people engage with the media discourses of crisis and how these operate in the co-construction of their realities.
... Media that represent multiple viewpoints, cultures, and experiences foster inclusivity in public discourse and promote critical thinking among citizens (Downey & Fenton, 2003). Such diversity can contribute to informed decision-making, ensuring that citizens have various perspectives on key issues (Couldry, 2010;Entman, 2012;Mutz, 2008). According to McQuail (2005), pluralistic media is crucial for democracy as it allows for a better understanding of societal issues and encourages meaningful participation in democratic processes. ...
Flera forskare har betonat vikten av att lärarutbildningen behandlar ämnen
som mångkultur och interkulturalitet, eftersom den spelar en betydande roll
i att forma framtida medborgare (Banks, 2021). Inom ramen för
utbildningen men också i sin kommande yrkesutövning möter lärarstudenter
och lärare elever med olika språkbakgrunder och många elever läser på
svenska som ett andraspråk. I detta kapitel fokuseras därför läsutveckling
på såväl ett första- som ett andraspråk. Elever som läser ämnet svenska som
andraspråk har ökat de senaste åren. Internationella undersökningar visar
att elever som läser svenska som andraspråk har sämre läsförståelse på
svenska än elever som läser svenska efter de inledande åren i grundskolan.
Vi ville studera detta närmare och har genomfört en tvärsnittsstudie med
över 46 000 elever där vi kan konstatera att elever som läser ämnet svenska
som andraspråk, som grupp betraktat, har sämre förmåga att avkoda ord
och förstå text, än elever som läser ämnet svenska redan i årskurs 1–3.
Studien visade också att många elever som läser ämnet svenska som
andraspråk behöver stöd för att utveckla god läsförmåga. Behovet av att
skolan stödjer dessa elever med utgångspunkten att alla elever ska ges
möjlighet att utveckla fungerade läsförmåga diskuteras. Vi beskriver också
en studie där vi genomfört en satsning med läsning under sommarlovet i en
kommun med stor andel elever som har svenska som andraspråk. Teoretiskt
bygger vårt kapitel på modellen ”The Simple View of Reading” som visar
att läsförståelse på såväl ett förstaspråk som på ett andraspråk är produkten
av att kunna avkoda ord och att förstå dem.
... Media that represent multiple viewpoints, cultures, and experiences foster inclusivity in public discourse and promote critical thinking among citizens (Downey & Fenton, 2003). Such diversity can contribute to informed decision-making, ensuring that citizens have various perspectives on key issues (Couldry, 2010;Entman, 2012;Mutz, 2008). According to McQuail (2005), pluralistic media is crucial for democracy as it allows for a better understanding of societal issues and encourages meaningful participation in democratic processes. ...
För att barn ska kunna följa med i undervisningen i förskola och senare i skola behöver de behärska det svenska skolspråket. I dagens förskolor med stor mångfald finns det grupper av barn som av olika skäl inte är motiverade att lära sig svenska som andraspråk (SvA), utan i stället visar hög motivation för att lära sig engelska. Den låga motivationen för SvA gör det svårt för förskolans personal att säkerställa att barnen får de förutsättningar de behöver för att senare kunna lära sig på svenska i skolan. I detta kapitel ger vi en kort bakgrund om motivation och språkinlärning, och presenterar därefter resultaten från ett digitalt frågeformulär med fokus på SvA och motivation. Målet med kapitlet är att väcka lärarstuderandes intresse för olika aspekter av och motivationen till svenska som andraspråk.
Celem niniejszego tekstu jest opis fenomenu uczestnictwa mężczyzn w czarnych protestach w Polsce z perspektywy andragogicznej. Autor artykułu korzysta z opracowanej przez Petera Alheita metody biograficznej, w której występuje rozróżnienie między „biografizacją” i „biograficznością”. Przedmiotem analizy są narracje dwóch mężczyzn uczestniczących w tzw. czarnych marszach. Tekst koncentruje się na sposobach rozumienia udziału w tej mobilizacji, a także na społeczno-kulturowych i instytucjonalnych kontekstach uczenia się osób dorosłych. Czarny protest traktowany jest przez osoby badane jako ruch oddolny, spontaniczny i etyczny. Znaczącymi kontekstami uczenia się badanych podmiotów są działalność instytucji Kościoła katolickiego i polskiego rządu, a także planowane zmiany prawne w zakresie aborcji. Dla badanych podmiotów ważna jest też wspólnota osób protestujących. Analiza materiału empirycznego pozwala na wyłonienie kwestii tożsamości protestujących (zarówno indywidualnych, jak i zbiorowych) oraz szeroko pojmowanej problematyki obywatelskości, w tym polityczności (polityka widoczności, polityka głosu) protestu.
The contribution explores the contested relationship with media among young Russian-speaking Estonians from migrant family backgrounds since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Our analysis sheds light on how the war context, characterized by the securitization of Russian state-controlled media usage and ideological tensions within the Estonian Russian-speaking community, impacts the media-related perceptions and practices of young Russian-speaking Estonians. We also investigate media professionals’ views on building relationships with their audience. Our investigation reveals an existing gap in connectivity between Estonian local Russian-language media outlets and their young audience. This gap is rooted in the production logic of these media platforms, which has previously hindered effective engagement. The context of Russia’s war against Ukraine exacerbates this disconnect. Improving the currently poor professional practices of audience engagement, particularly production-oriented approaches, would enhance connectivity and the epistemic power of Estonian Russian-language media and motivate young Russian-speaking Estonians to use it as a vehicle for their social agency.
This study focuses on a new trend in journalism, which we conceptualize as transnational citizen journalism. We argue that the diasporic and transnational production and consumption of alternative and counter-hegemonic information by nonprofessional individuals have sparked fresh imaginations and opened up new spaces for journalism, particularly in authoritarian contexts. We specifically examine several prominent transnational citizen journalism projects that played a significant role in the large-scale protests against China’s stringent Covid-zero policy in late 2022. Through a content analysis of the multimodal content posted on these projects’ Instagram accounts, and semistructured interviews with account creators, we argue that these transnational citizen journalism projects have built a solidarity infrastructure, connecting individuals and communities who share the value of challenging authoritarianism but come from different localities and backgrounds. Its foundation rests on the passion of diasporic creators for their native country, the engagement of a largely youthful audience with public affairs, and a global platform enabling transnational information flow. This network also extends to international communities opposing oppression in nations such as Iran and Russia.
The first volume concentrates contributions defined by the key concepts of otherness, reactionary politics, and the class gaze. Departing from the watershed event of the Greek economic crisis and its long-term effects in the Greek socio-political life during the last fifteen years, the contributions of the volume focus on media practices that we frame as reactionary, such as demeaning representations of ethnic and class others, conspiracy theories in mass media, historical revisionism, as well as far-right media content and discourses, which are nowadays proliferating in the Greek public sphere. Additionally, a notion of the self-as-other emerges in some of the volume’s contributions, in which the histories and cultures of Greek refugee and migrant as a classed and gendered subject are outlined in classical cinema, and experiences of working-class migrant women are narrated through self ethnography.
This article underscores the transformative impact of victim–survivor voices in reshaping public discourse on child sexual abuse (CSA). The research project took as the backbone for analysis the Malka Leifer case that spanned 15 years and is linked to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse's report of Case Study 22, which examined responses in ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools to child sexual abuse. Adopting a mixed methods research approach, this study combines qualitative media analysis of 102 news articles and 8 in-depth focus groups to investigate the impact of media outlets in amplifying victim voice and influencing public discourse, and how this impacts the subjects of mediatised public crises. Drawing on the theorising of Couldry and Cottle, the article considers the capacity and limitations of survivor-advocates to leverage media power in the contemporary media system. By exploring the ‘Privileging Victim Voice’ frame, this paper sheds light on how victim–survivor advocates utilised mainstream, local religious, and social media to solidify their central place in the narrative and its reportage. The media analysis served as the foundation for a ‘peer conversation’ style of focus groups with Jewish community members to investigate local impacts of the case's media reportage. The focus group methodology sought to represent this diverse community as wholly as possible. Findings reveal the significant power of journalists’ framing and sourcing practices, and how Jewish institutional child sexual abuse is framed by media outlets within the Australian media landscape. Further, it showcases the broader implications of public inquiries, such as Australia's Royal Commission, in empowering victim–survivors and centreing their narratives in media reportage.
This research challenges dominant understandings of ubiquity, mobility, and connectivity and explores the limits ICTs through a qualitative study of a collaborative capacity‐building initiative to localize the repair of medical devices and equipment in the Gaza Strip. Dominant perceptions of ICT affordances rely upon taken‐for‐granted political, economic, and social systems that are neither universal nor guaranteed. Using a thickly descriptive, interpretivist approach, this research shows how ICTs are fundamentally insufficient to support team collaboration and meet the affective and material requisites of collaborative work under conditions of occupation. Digital networked technologies are particularly limited in their ability to create, simulate, and/or foster the interdependent conditions of presence , flow , and coordination required for cooperative work to succeed. Geopolitical borders and concomitant conditions of occupation continuously disrupt the logics of time and space between those living and working in Gaza and the “outside world”. Arbitrary and capricious fluctuations in tolerance, temporality, persistence, and permeability wrought by the ongoing siege of Gaza result in pernicious harms that are difficult or impossible to account for or correct with technical “solutions.”
Education is increasingly infiltrated by technology and datafication. This techno-data amplification is entangled with neoliberalism and the emphasis on calculation and measurement it brings, often through metrics. This article critically examines how metrics are shaping discipline practices in schools through ClassDojo, a popular platform for managing student behaviour. Little is known about how ClassDojo is implemented in schools, and how its dependence on metrics is impacting school discipline practices. Through a critical qualitative inquiry, we examined teachers’ practices with ClassDojo, and found they operate
via techniques of control, and that metrics are central to these techniques. We draw on the concept of ‘metric power’ to understand how these school discipline practices manifest as forms of power. We argue ClassDojo’s metrics operate as powerful narrowing pedagogical devices that fixate on measurement and lead to practices which operate via neoliberal governing rationalities that reshape school discipline.
To what extent does the notion of the public sphere serve to assess Latin America in networked times? The debate over the modern condition of the region and the contradictions of enlightenment values shaping a land conquered by the sword provides the backdrop for evaluating the pertinence of Habermas’s The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in the region, specifically regarding the chances the subaltern has to speak. Acknowledging its modern imprint and the varied criticisms it has received, the notion of the public sphere a la Habermas, offers a set of criteria for assessing the processes and outcomes of media and public communication development in Latin America. In this sense, this article connects the colonial imprint of Latin American nations, its struggles over media power, the meaning of communication, and the arrival of the Internet and Web 2.0 in the region through the notion of the public sphere. This overview exposes the features of the Internet in Latin America that perpetuate inequality, injustice, and the lack of voice while raising questions about the actual life of the “public” as a concept in the region.
Al observar la sociedad chilena desde una perspectiva crítica de justicia social, es posible identificar que la mayoría de las injusticias radican en una opresión institucionalizada (Young, 2011) y una falta de reconocimiento (Honneth, 1995) ejercida por las élites económicas hacia el resto de la población, facilitada por una cultura neoliberal que ha debilitado el interés de las personas por los asuntos públicos y fomentado su pasividad como sujetos políticos. Si bien el estallido social de octubre del 2019 ha favorecido un ambiente de mayor discusión política cotidiana en la sociedad chilena, la falta de formación política no ha sido subsanada. Este artículo propone explorar la relación entre el concepto de analfabetismo político (Giroux, 2016) y justicia social, como camino para comprender la generalizada indiferencia política que ha caracterizado a la sociedad chilena durante décadas frente a las injusticias que ha vivido, y valorar el papel que la educación podría jugar en desarrollar alfabetización política como una dimensión de agencia, contribuyendo con ello a desarrollar una sociedad más autónoma y protagonista de su propio destino.
This paper examines the way ambiguous grief related to terminal illness is mediated through a blog titled Glioblastology and via social media engagement with its content and author. Building from the psychology framework of ambiguous loss, this paper positions ambiguous grief as a salient lens through which to discover how users in need of coping spaces are engaging digital space as a medium for meaning making and coping during the diagnosis of a terminal illness.
Community centred disaster risk reduction (DRR) is viewed as the gold standard, linking local networks, skills, capacities and knowledges together with government and nongovernment supports. However, despite the best of intentions young adults still experience exclusion due in part to adult centrism because initiatives are largely curated by adults. While research has sought to address this bias, outmigration by young adults at key life-stages creates an additional barrier. This paper identifies the need to pair life-stage with DRR objectives to improve understandings of what counts as ‘inclusion’ and ‘participation’. Interviews (N=14) with young adults aged 18–30 in a bushfire affected area of Australia were conducted three years after disaster. Findings suggest participation is an essentially contested concept among adults and young adults, leading to tension and entrenched age-based exclusion. Further, young adult’s geographic mobility, seen as a rite of passage, compounds exclusion, despite it developing their maturity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the conditions for creating age-inclusive DRR, including the need for social infrastructure catering to young adults and the importance of communities acknowledging young adults’ diverse, age-specific interests.
Daniel Bryan’s WWE Championship reign, from November 13, 2018, to April 7, 2019, provides an interesting case study to analyze the intersection of politics, mediated sport, neoliberalism, and colorblind ideology in professional wrestling storylines. This study conducts uses textual analysis to uncover how WWE utilized Bryan’s reign to communicate ideologies in their weekly programming. The findings suggest that Bryan’s persona as a villainous leftist “heel,” symbolically positions left-wing politics as antagonistic to the neoliberal values exercised in sports media. Bryan’s defeat at the hands of African wrestler Kofi Kingston, reifies colorblind ideology and neoliberalism through the aesthetics of mediated sport.
The LGBT+ movements in China are increasingly in a precarious situation. Queer media spaces are being eroded as numerous digital media platforms run by LGBT+ rights-advocacy groups and individuals have been blocked over the past few years. Given this context, a liberal model of a gay rights movement, resembling those seen in the West, is unlikely to occur in China. Consequently, softer activism approaches are often employed by Chinese LGBT+ organizations. This article leverages ethnographic insights from one of China’s leading LGBT+ community media projects to offer a critical examination of queer media production and the broader LGBT+ movements within the country. Drawing on the Foucauldian concept of ‘resistance’ and the political significance of ‘voice’, the analysis presented herein underscores the intricate relationship between queer media production and its socio-political milieu. It showcases the adaptive strategies of ‘soft’ activism adopted by Chinese LGBT+ organizations, characterized by non-confrontational tactics and a steadfast commitment to amplifying diverse queer voices.
This article examines the tensions between ‘publicness’ and ‘privacy’ in national commissions of inquiry. Through the insights of those who worked deep inside Australia's landmark Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCIRCSA, 2013–2017), and the evidence provided in its final report, we explore the organisational and media logics of the Commission's highly publicised public hearings, and the ‘quiet’ institutional listening practices of its private sessions and engagement with marginalised communities. Royal Commissions are an important mechanism for raising awareness of past crimes on the public agenda. Our research finds that while the revelatory outcomes of the RCIRCSA have been well documented, its private sessions, engagement and research are less well understood. We argue ‘publicness’ is a relatively unchallenged good that is enacted through news media and the royal commission process, but media logics can limit their capacity to address the ongoing causes and impacts of child sexual abuse against the most impacted children. Participants reflected on the media logics that drove strategic decisions to ‘make public’ some cases and institutions, while others remained in the Commission's private realm. The article concludes that the confidential sharing of evidence has been undervalued in inquiry media studies that often centre the journalists’ role in uncovering and publicly revealing previously unheard stories. Drawing on international comparisons we find that while quiet listening risks negating the opportunity to amplify experience, it may also counter the potential silencing effects of unwanted public media scrutiny and protect potential witnesses from further harm.
Social media provide communication and social researchers a lens through which to glean the pressing social justice issues/questions of the day. This chapter illuminates how the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter movement is representative of the collective yearning for economic and political justice in post-colonial Zimbabwe. Read against the backdrop of the BlackLivesMatter movement’s quest for racial justice and the end of white-on-black violence, it contends that the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter activism contests the hypocrisy of African political elites who decry colonial and contemporary white-on-black violence, while instrumentalising black-on-black violence to consolidate their grip on power. Using a decolonial analytical lens, it disrupts the Zimbabwean power bloc’s ideologically self-serving rhetoric of solidarity with diasporic Africans who are victims of racial injustice. The example of Zimbabwe is used to highlight the coloniality of the injustices faced by continental Africans. Against this backdrop, the chapter argues that a focus on interracial injustice, violence/oppression without a corresponding focus on intra-racial injustice/violence/oppression runs the risk of rendering intra-racial injustice invisible. It is on this premise that the chapter reads the Zimbabwean lives matter movement as indicating that the promise of justice and equality that animated the anticolonial movement has not been realised.
The research adds new data regarding the digital divide in Israel, the internet infrastructure, internet uses, and cyber security issues among Arab-Israeli citizens.
Em tempos de crise da democracia, o conceito de esfera pública mostra-se novamente útil para gerar compreensão sobre os desafios que se apresentam. Seja pela fragmentação saturada dos fluxos discursivos em plataformas digitais, pela explosão de fenômenos vinculados à desinformação, pela centralidade adquirida por entidades não humanas na estruturação da opinião pública hodierna, ou pelas lutas sociais e a tematização de problemas públicos como têm se organizado, eis que a noção é retomada, 60 anos após a publicação de Mudança Estrutural da Esfera Pública, para dizer das possibilidades de sobrevivência da democracia. Este livro reúne um conjunto de capítulos que se propõem a mobilizar o conceito de esfera pública e de lentes deliberacionistas, para ler não apenas o quadro mais amplo de erosão democrática, mas também as reconfigurações de práticas comunicacionais e de embates públicos que marcam o contemporâneo.
The concept of politicisation relates to processes of (in)visibilisation, which involves selecting elements that align with the prevailing hegemonic ideology at a given historical moment, as well as moderating or suppressing disruptive elements. These processes of (in)visibilisation significantly influence public discourse and media narratives, shaping societal perceptions and priorities. Sometimes, gender dynamics, stereotypes, and issues contribute to enhance the (in)visibility. Through a detailed analysis of a case study focused on migrant rescue operations in 2019 and subsequent media coverage in Italy, the chapter illustrates how certain subjects, such as prominent political figures like Matteo Salvini, are emphasised, while others, particularly migrants, are relegated to the sidelines or even rendered invisible. This analysis highlights the underlying mechanisms through which dominant ideologies about gender, race, and power are intertwined to each other in the media coverage, resulting in the perpetuation of social order and the marginalisation of dissenting voices. By unpacking these dynamics, the chapter provides valuable insights into the complex interplay between power, representation, and visibility in contemporary socio-political contexts.
This chapter examines health inequalities, an area subject to considerable prominence, a number of targets, and several government inquiries, but where policy action has been less clear. The long-term effects of the policies enacted by successive New Labour governments over the last 10 years remain uncertain, but the short- to medium-term impact of those policies has been disappointing. The government has been ambiguous and has lacked clarity of vision and transparency on at least two fronts: in assessing the implications of its choice of geographic inequalities as the top priority for government action; and in its persistent claims that overall health and lifestyle improvements would necessarily be accompanied by reductions in health inequalities.
This chapter takes a wider cross-national perspective, asking whether a decade of Labour government has improved the UK's international standing on indicators of poverty, inequality, and child well being. Despite various efforts, in 2007, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) published a report that placed the UK bottom of a child well being league. The first half of the chapter is dedicated to the material well-being domain. The second half examines relative progress in education, risks and behaviours, peer relationships, and subjective well being. At times, discussion is restricted to European Union (EU) member states because of the data available, but, where possible, information for other OECD countries is included.
This chapter pulls together the threads of the book with the aim of reaching an overall assessment of the government's record since it came to power in 1997. It examines whether the evidence of the previous chapters adds up to a picture of substantial change, a serious assault on inherited levels of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. The chapter examines how much of a difference New Labour, after more than a decade in government, can be said to have made and whether Britain is a ‘more equal society’ than it was in 1997. In several key respects, the UK was a somewhat more equal society after 10 years of New Labour government.
This article (Section I) suggests a reformulation of cultural studies' practice in terms of certain general discursive skills rather than particular objects of enquiry. This is offered as the best way of answering the epistemological and ethical doubts that have afflicted all social enquiry in recent decades (especially ethnography) and of reimagining the place of cultural studies in social practice in a way that goes beyond the ‘long dominative mode' of thinking about culture (Raymond Williams, 1961). The reformulation crucially involves the personal position of the analyst. I draw here (Section II) on the work of Elspeth Probyn ( Sexing the Self ) which requires cultural studies to explore not just culture ‘beyond' itself but its own social embeddedness as a voice: ‘self-reflexivity' is not a licence for autobiographical writing but a theoretically informed examination of the conditions for emergence of ‘selves'. But Probyn's argument needs to be expanded (Section III) by an account of how cultural studies' intellectual practice fits into social practice generally: I suggest that cultural studies is best seen as one ‘survival strategy' (among many) which generates new voices in the shadow of wider forces of cultural definition, while interrogating the nature of those forces. As a practice committed to ‘truth-telling', it should be guided by a scepticism in speaking about others that is loyal to the uncertainties each analyst recognizes in the formulations of her or his own identity. This reformulation has implications (Section IV) for the objects and practices which we study and the descriptive language we use. The voice of cultural studies is based on a sense of individual ‘incompleteness' (Section V) which requires a community of questioning (within and beyond the ‘Academy') if it is to find any sense of completion.
Last November in Vienna, fifteen years after the demise of the Soviet Union and well into the third decade of corporate-driven globalization, the international trade union movement was reorganized to eliminate its debilitating cold war political divisions and to enhance coordination across industrial lines made obsolete by globalization. The founding of this new organization, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which represents 168 million workers in 153 countries, was hailed as historic by the few dozen people who follow these things, which it may well be, though you probably missed the coverage in your local newspaper.
Earlier this year AFL-CIO president John Sweeney met with Iraqi trade unionists in Jordan (there being no place secure enough in Iraq to hold such a meeting) to support Iraqi union resistance to an array of Bush administration policies, particularly on the privatization and denationalization of the oil industry; Teamster president James Hoffa and Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern were in China with a delegation of Change to Win (CTW) unions, the group that split from the AFL-CIO, meeting with communists and capitalists to exchange views on worker rights in the global economy. In Ottawa, Steelworker president Leo Gerard announced a merger that would bring together nearly three million American, Canadian, British and Irish workers in one union, and Communication Workers president Larry Cohen was in Athens to raise the visibility of an organizing campaign aimed at the world’s largest cell phone service company, which operates in twenty-five countries on four continents.
This article examines the new phenomenon of blogging and suggests that, rather than being a new tool for politicians to use in spreading their messages, blogs should be seen as democratic listening posts, enabling us to pick up signals of subjective expression which might inform debate in these more reflexively democratic times. The article suggests that blogs are part of a battle for the soul of the internet and represent an extension of media freedom.