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Media Resistance: Protest, Dislike, Abstention

April 2017

DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-46499-2

License
CC BY 4.0

Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
ISBN: 978-3-319-46498-5

Authors:

Trine Syvertsen

University of Oslo

DOWNLOAD FREE FROM PALGRAVE WEBSITE http://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319464985#otherversion=9783319464992 The media have always been disliked, despised and resisted. Protests have been grounded in claims that the media destroy culture, morality, enlightenment, democracy, community and health. The book explores media resistance as an integrated part of culture, instead of seeing it as incidents of moral or media panic. Drawing on political and organizational sources, personal testimonies, fiction and non-fiction bestsellers as well as dystopian films, the book shows how the media are placed in a villainous and disruptive role The book takes a historical perspective, looking at early resistance to books, print, cinema, radio and comics in the 1800s and 1900s; resistance to television in the late 1900s; and resistance to online and social media from around 2000

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Media Resistance: Connecting the Dots

Full-text available

Chapter

Feb 2017
Media Resistance
pp.1-14

The chapter introduces the analysis of media resistance and presents the research questions: What is at stake for resisters, how did media resistance inspire organized action and how is media resistance sustained? Media resisters are often seen as moralists, Luddites, laggards or cultural pessimists, but this book argues that media resistance is grounded in broadly shared values: Morality, culture, enlightenment, democracy, community and health.

Resistance to Early Mass Media

Full-text available

Chapter

Feb 2017
Media Resistance
pp.15-33

Media resistance was shaped by industrialization and urbanization, and the debates over mass society and mass culture. The chapter reviews resistance to early mass media: print and books, serial fiction, cinema, radio and comics, and show how these media were seen to undermine morality, culture, enlightenment, democracy, community and health. The chapter discusses campaigns and protests against early mass media and shows that a common feature was a struggle for political and institutional control, prohibition or censorship.

Evil Media in Dystopian Fiction

Full-text available

Chapter

Feb 2017
Media Resistance
pp.35-53

Media resistance is a recurring theme in contemporary culture, and comprises familiar concerns that can be used to create speculative and readable stories and plots. The chapter discusses key works of dystopic fiction that have inspired media resistance until today: Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953). All three novels portray authoritarian societies where the growth of mass media represents a danger to civilization. The screen media (cinema and television) are depicted as particularly bad, whereas print culture and books are depicted as representing hope for humanity.

“Get a Life!” Anti-Television Agitation and Activism

Full-text available

Chapter

Feb 2017
Media Resistance
pp.55-76

No modern medium has been detested as much as television. The chapter reviews key works by Mary Whitehouse, Marie Winn, Jerry Mander and Neil Postman deeming television to be a cause of social ills in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Television was seen to undermine democracy, community and enlightenment, obstructing a moral lifestyle, and impairing mental and physical health. The chapter discusses collective action against television through movements such as TV-Free America, the British White dot and Adbusters. While anti-television activism did not inspire a general rejection of television, TV-Turnoff Week from the mid-1990s became a way for organizations, professions, communities and individuals to demonstrate their resentment and point to television as an explanation for social change to the worse.

“Caught in the Net”: Online and Social Media Disappointment and Detox

Full-text available

Chapter

Feb 2017
Media Resistance
pp.77-97

Internet was eagerly awaited as a liberation from television. Yet, a decade into the new century, warnings about the negative consequences of online and social media proliferated. Critics claim that social and online media undermine broadly shared values: morality, culture, enlightenment, democracy, community and health. With increasingly ubiquitous media, the chapter argues that it is difficult to propose political measures to restrict media. However, a parallel development is the emergence of self-help guides, websites and confessionals inspiring users to media detox and abstention.

What if Resisters were Right? Speculations about Bad Media in Popular Films

Full-text available

Chapter

Feb 2017
Media Resistance
pp.99-117

Media resistance is a recurring theme in contemporary culture, and inspire fiction writers as well as film-makers. This chapter discusses dystopian films where media are portrayed as evil, dangerous or bad in other ways. Being there (1979), Videodrome (1983), The Truman Show (1998), Disconnect (2012) and Her (2013) reflect criticism of network television, video and cable, reality television, social and online media, and virtual reality. The films aid the discussion in the book by providing speculative answers to the question: What if resisters were right? What would our world look like if their warnings came true?

Conclusion: The Persistence of Media Resistance

Full-text available

Chapter

Feb 2017
Media Resistance
pp.119-131

The final chapter compares and contrasts media resistance across media, historical periods and national borders. While there is strong continuity in the values that resisters perceive to be at stake, there are also profound changes. One important change is that media resistance increasingly has moved from the political to the personal domain. Three explanations are offered for how media resistance is sustained as a strong cultural current: media resistance is flexible and adaptable, media resistance is connected with other great narratives of hope and decline, and media resisters keep a distance from (empirical) media research.

Stay focused and grow a Forest: The design and paradoxes of gamified digital disconnection

Chapter

Full-text available

Sep 2024

Yukun You

In this chapter, I explore the multifaceted gamified digital disconnection within the technology-driven context. Forest, as a productivity app pioneering a gamified approach to foster focused work, embodies a paradox of using apps infused with game design elements to aid users in their quest for digital disconnection. Employing the app walkthrough method, drawing on disconnection and gamification research, in this chapter I critically examine Forest’s game design elements, and the paradoxical role disconnection plays in a hyperconnected context. Three primary game design elements – game feedback, social connectivity, and real-life contribution – are identified as facilitators of disconnective practices in the app. These game design elements encourage users not only to optimise their own disconnective experiences but to compete with peers and contribute to nature. The indicated work may, at times, seem to contradict the app’s intended goals, making distractions, fostering social connections, and potentially greenwashing rather than blocking distractions, promoting individual disconnection, and greening the environment.

Revisiting the past, being in the present, preparing for the future: Making sense of a digital-free holiday camp for adults

Chapter

Full-text available

Sep 2024

In this chapter, we explore how participants experience disconnection in practice at a digital-free summer camp for adults. Underleir is an annual week-long camp originating from discussions on the Norwegian social network Underskog and draws inspiration both from Silicon Valley disconnectionist ideology and Scandinavian traditions of friluftsliv [outdoor recreation]. When the camp was first organised in 2014, digital detoxing was not a well-known concept in the Norwegian context, and such camps are still rare in Scandinavia. The study is based on fieldwork, interviews, and online material. In the chapter, we discuss how camp experiences relate to the participants’ life course along three temporal dimensions: the past (nostalgia, play), the present (freedom from status games, relaxation), and the future (survivalism, utopianism). The study contributes to the disconnection literature by moving beyond the media-centred issue of how users relate to their gadgets. Instead, the chapter explores how being digital-free is made meaningful within a concrete and unusual holiday setting and relates to the societal and personal values of those attending.

Overcoming Forced Disconnection Disentangling the Professional and the Personal in Pandemic Times

Chapter

Full-text available

Nov 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic radically altered the work-life dynamics of the global workforce, particularly in the Global North, as the abrupt shift to remote work blurred the boundaries between professional and personal spaces. This chapter explores the concept of "forced disconnection," where physical distancing mandates disconnected individuals from co-present social interactions and enforced a deeper reliance on digital communication technologies to maintain professional and social connections. Through qualitative interviews with knowledge workers using Workplace from Facebook, the study reveals the challenges of spatial, temporal, and contextual boundary management in the home-work environment. Forced disconnection, it is argued, paradoxically intensified connectivity through digital media, thereby entrenching workers further in the digital landscape of self-optimization and productivity. The findings underscore the complexities of boundary work, exacerbated by the pandemic, as individuals strive to maintain a semblance of normality while navigating the ever-present demands of work and life within the same physical space. This study contributes to ongoing discussions in media studies on digital disconnection and reconnection, highlighting the need for critical examination of remote work practices and the role of enterprise social media in shaping future work environments.

Media quiteracy: Why digital disconnection belongs in the media literacy curriculum

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2025

In this essay, we introduce media quiteracy, which we use to conceptualize and describe the valuable learning that can happen through the refusal to take up new media or the act of pausing or ceasing its use. We see media quiteracy as an active and generative approach to learning and argue for its inclusion in the media literacy curriculum. We trace the history of critical engagement with technologies within education and then articulate what media quiteracy can look like in practice. We surface and discuss three potential obstacles to teaching media quiteracy, which include the ways in which it problematizes assumptions around participation, progress, and efforts to limit tech use. Ultimately, we argue that media quiteracy can be an act of not only individual learning but of collective action and social transformation in a heavily mediatized, commercialized, and digitized information environment.

The Overlooked and the Overstudied: A Scoping Review of Qualitative Research on Pursuing Sexual, Romantic, and Loving Relationships Through Online Dating

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2025

This paper presents a scoping review of the qualitative research (N = 125) on the use of online dating sites and applications for adults pursuing relationships, including sex, love, and romance, from 2014 to 2023. Our review supports previous literature reviews’ findings, which reveal that research on the topic is predominantly focused on young, well-educated, ethnic-majority, and primarily female heterosexuals or men seeking men in Western societies. Hence, a sample-selection bias shapes our scientific understanding of online dating, leaving other user groups underrepresented. Despite the diversity of scientific fields involved in qualitative research, the methods used are notably similar, indicating a relatively narrow scope in both demographic variables and research approaches. Although the researched themes and perspectives appear diverse at first glance, the research often centers on problem-oriented topics, such as the risks and emotional aspects of online dating, insecurities in self-presentation, negative technological communication traits, and the de-romanticization of society. We conclude that, despite the growing body of research on online dating, significant areas of the topic remain unexplored. There is a need for broader, more inclusive research to fully understand the complexities of online dating in the digital age.

Komunikasi Kesehatan Detoks Media Sosial Pada Remaja Yang Terkena Gangguan Psikologis Kecamatan Legok

Article

Nov 2024

Gangguan psikologis akibat media sosial menjadi ancaman baru yang hadir pada perkembangan zaman dan teknologi. Kurangnya kesadaran para pengguna terus memperparah fenomena yang terjadi. Detoks media sosial menjadi media pengobatan untuk meminimalisir dan mengatasi fenomena ini. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apa saja gangguan yang terjadi, bagaimana proses yang dilakukan, mengetahui dampak detoks, dan hambatan yang terjadi. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus dan teori resistensi media. Data yang diperoleh melalui wawancara, observasi, pencarian internet, studi kepustakaan, dan dokumentasi. Hasilnya paparan berlebih akibat media sosial dapat memengaruhi pikiran, perilaku, dan perasaan sehingga menyebabkan gangguan psikologis. Detoks memberikan dampak yang signifikan bagi para korban sehingga mampu keluar dari gangguan psikologis yang terjadi. Hambatan yang dialami berupa hambatan internal dan eksternal, berupa rasa bosan, takut tertinggal kabar terkini, kecanduan media sosial, tuntutan pekerjaan, serta menuntut ilmu. Penelitian ini mengungkapkan bahaya paparan media sosial yang berlebihan, cara mengatasi gangguan serta meminimalisir dampaknya dengan pengobatan detoks media sosial.Kata Kunci: Detoks Media Sosial; Gangguan Psikologis; Ketergantungan; Media Sosial; Resistensi Media.

Kritisch detoxen?: Digital Disconnection zwischen Medien, Bildung und kritischer Praxis

Article

Nov 2024

Moritz Tischer

‚Digital Detox‘ und ‚Digital Disconnection‘ eröffnen einen Zugang zur gegenwärtigen Wahrnehmung des digitalen Wandels. Ihr Potenzial für politische Auseinandersetzungen an der Schnittstelle von Medien, Bildung und Kritik wurde bisher nicht systematisch bestimmt. Der Beitrag verfolgt daher das Ziel, den Diskurs über Disconnection zu ordnen und die Frage zu diskutieren, unter welchen Bedingungen es sich bei Disconnectionformen um kritische Praktiken handelt.

Twitter: A necessary evil? Journalistic responses to Elon Musk and the denormalization of social media

Article

Dec 2023
Journalism

Annina Claesson

The normalization of social media (notably Twitter) into journalistic routines has been well documented in research, even as social media use sometimes remains a source of conflict with traditional journalistic values and norms. In 2022, after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the normative implications of social media use came into sharp focus for journalists, as Musk ushered in a series of platform changes perceived as unfavorable for the journalistic profession. Focusing on the French media sector in 6-month period after Musk’s takeover, this study aims to explore what happens when journalistic digital tools are disrupted. Through a combination of semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and content analysis of French news articles, I show that Musk’s actions as CEO prompted journalists to question the broader legitimacy of social media as a journalistic tool. However, rather than abandoning Twitter entirely, journalists employed strategic disconnection in order to reconcile their continued Twitter use with their normative discomfort. These findings not only provide empirical evidence on the effects of Musk’s takeover, but also showcases how strategic disconnection can be used as a method of resistance to unwelcome influences in the media sector.

The Ecology of (dis-)Engagement in Digital Environments

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2024
Topoi

Emanuele Arielli

This paper explores some features of the epistemic environment in social media and online communication. We argue that digital environments differ from offline ones in at least two ways: (a) online environments are thoroughly structured and programmed. Every action is defined and limited by the underlying code created by the system’s developers, providing the tools users need to navigate the online space. In contrast, offline environments are open to chance and unpredictability, allowing for events and actions that the system has not predetermined; (b) every action is traced and used to evaluate levels of engagement with content and posts, with significant epistemic consequences. This creates a “dense” environment in which users are deeply entangled. In this regard, the concept of purely passive engagement is challenged, since activities such as just watching a video or reading a post can alter the epistemic landscape and promote specific content with which a person interacts. As a result, online social environments facilitate a variety of indirect communicative and epistemic activities across the network. Given this, the paper suggests that in such settings, attentional disengagement and avoidance should be considered a potential proactive way to modulate self-exposure. This strategy is aimed not only at protecting individuals from harmful content but also at actively shaping the information flow and knowledge structure within the environment. Managing one’s own attention can thus significantly influence how information is perceived and disseminated, essentially controlling the personal and collective epistemic environment.

From permissive to resistive tactics: How audience members engage with and make sense of datafied journalism

Article

Sep 2024

Liisa Ovaska

While audience data are pivotal to producing journalism, audiences’ perspectives on the issue have received relatively little attention. Addressing this gap, the paper examines audience members’ tactics for making sense of and engaging with the datafied journalism into which they contribute with their data. Empirically grounded in group interviews and instant-messaging group chats with 21 readers of prominent Finnish tabloid Iltalehti, the author identified four tactics, along a continuum from permissive to resistive: an audience member may 1) happily benefit from datafied journalism; 2) be resigned to it yet reflect critically on it; 3) act to prevent effects on personal news-consumption patterns, by curating the content; or 4) entirely restrain themselves from engaging with it. Awareness of these tactics, which help individuals cope with and navigate the datafied-journalism landscape, facilitates grasping the factors in audiences’ relations to datafied journalism and, thereby, understanding their consumption of news and their relationship with journalism.

Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched

Book

Jan 2004

Mark Andrejevic

Drawing on cultural theory and interviews with fans, cast members and producers, this book places the reality TV trend within a broader social context, tracing its relationship to the development of a digitally enhanced, surveillance-based interactive economy and to a savvy mistrust of mediated reality in general. Surveying several successful reality TV formats, the book links the rehabilitation of 'Big Brother' to the increasingly important economic role played by the work of being watched. The author enlists critical social theory to examine how the appeal of 'the real' is deployed as a pervasive but false promise of democratization.

Controversial Cinema: The Films That Outraged America

Book

Jan 2008

Kendall R. Phillips

At the heart of any history of controversial films is a strange paradox: while films, especially popular and mainstream films, are often portrayed as meaningless products of popular culture, those popular films involved in public controversies become the focal point of enormous cultural energy, political attention, and profoundly conflicting sets of principles. The ongoing culture wars continue to shape the American political landscape, and controversial films continue to be a major point of conflict. Controversial Cinema: The Films that Outraged America traces the history of controversial films and offers insights into why it is that certain films spark controversies, and how Americans typically react to controversial moviemaking. Since the widespread banning of DW Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, the American film industry has found itself embroiled in one political controversy after another. These controversies have centered on everything from the portrayal of the past, as in Griffith's film, to depictions of sex and sexuality, to the use of graphic violence, and issues of race, religion, and politics. In turn, segments of the American public have been driven to boycott, picket, and even censor those films they felt challenged their sense of decency. At the heart of this history of controversial films is a strange paradox: while films, especially popular and mainstream films, are often portrayed as meaningless products of popular culture, popular films involved in public controversies become the focal point of enormous cultural energy and political attention. The ongoing culture wars thus continue to shape the American political landscape, and controversial films continue to be a major point of conflict. In the course of this wide-ranging work, Kendall Phillips offers insights into the kinds of films that spark controversies, and the ways that Americans typically react to them. Organized around broad controversial themes and with particular attention to mainstream films since the dissolution of the Motion Picture Production Code in the mid-1960s, Controversial Cinema explores why films spark broad cultural controversies, how these controversies play out, and the long-term results. The four broad areas of controversy examined in the work are: Sex and Sexuality, Violence, Race, and Religion. Each chapter offers a broad overview of the history of these topics in controversial American films as well as more in-depth examinations of recent examples, including The Silence of the Lambs, Natural Born Killers, Do the Right Thing, and The Passion of the Christ. A final section of the book considers the broader issues of cultural politics in light of the long history of controversial cinema.

Reinterpreting ‘Luddism’: resistance to new technology in the British Industrial Revolution

Chapter

Jun 1995

Adrian Randall

This book compares resistance to technology across time, nations, and technologies. Three post-war examples - nuclear power, information technology, and biotechnology - are used in the analysis. The focus is on post-1945 Europe, with comparisons made with the USA, Japan, and Australia. Instead of assuming that resistance contributes to the failure of a technology, the main thesis of the book is that resistance is a constructive force in technological development, giving technology its particular shape in a particular context. Whilst many people still believe in the positive contribution made by science and technology, many have become sceptical. By exploring the idea that modernity creates effects that undermine its own foundations, forms and effects of resistance are explored in various contexts. The book presents a unique interdisciplinary study, including contributions from historians, sociologists, psychologists, and political scientists.

The Hidden Cinema: British Film Censorship in Action 1913-1972

Book

Aug 2005

Alphabet to Internet: Media in Our Lives

Book

Nov 2014

Irving Fang

When Media Are New: Understanding the Dynamics of New Media Adoption and Use

Book

Jan 2010

"John Carey and Martin Elton are among the most skilled and insightful researchers studying the dynamic changes in technology and the impacts on consumer attitudes and behaviors. Their comprehensive and actionable observations make this a must read for anyone interested in understanding the current (and future) media environment." ---Alan Wurtzel, President, Research and Media Development, NBC Universal "When Media Are New should be read by every media manager faced with disruptive change brought on by new technology. The book transcends the fashionable topics and themes that are here today and gone tomorrow and instead places emphasis on those areas of research and implementation where fatal mistakes are made. They capture something universal, and therefore highly useful, by stripping away the hype and focusing relentlessly on consumers and the ways they adopt or fail to adopt new media products and technologies into their lives." ---Martin Nisenholtz, Senior Vice President, Digital Operations, The New York Times Company "The burgeoning development of the Internet has deflected attention from a wider history of new media innovations that has shaped its success. John Carey and Martin Elton demonstrate that earlier initiatives to launch videophones, two-way interactive cable systems, videotext and other media innovations can teach us much about the present state and future course of information and communication technologies. This is a key reference on the new media, and must reading for students of the Internet---the platform for continuing the new media revolution." ---Professor William H. Dutton, Director, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford The world of communication media has undergone massive changes since the mid-1980s. Along with the extraordinary progress in technological capability, it has experienced stunning decreases in costs; a revolutionary opening up of markets (a phenomenon exemplified by but not limited to the rise of the Internet); the advent of new business models; and a striking acceleration in the rate of change. These technological, regulatory, and economic changes have attracted the attention of a large number of researchers, from industry and academe, and given rise to a substantial body of research and data. Significantly less attention has been paid to the actual and intended users of new media. When Media Are New addresses this research and publishing gap by investigating the human side of the technological changes of the last 50 years and the implications for current and future media. It will find a broad audience ranging from media scholars to policymakers to industry professionals. John Carey is Professor of Communications and Media Management at Fordham Business School and has extensive experience in conducting research about new media for companies such as AT&T, Cablevision, NBC Universal, and the New York Times (among many others) as well as foundations and government agencies. His extensive publications have focused on user adoption of new media and how consumers actually use new technologies. Martin C. J. Elton was Director of the Communication Studies Group in the UK, which pioneered in the study of user behavior with new media technologies, and founded the Interactive Telecommunication Program at New York University. He has published widely on user research, forecasting, and public policy and has conducted extensive research for many prominent foundations, companies, and government agencies in the USA and Europe.

American Science Fiction Film and Television

Book