Communication and the Public

This article contributes a framework for understanding the convergence of two ‘transactional ecosystems’ or, put differently, the convergence of two types of currency: money and attention. The former is represented in the push to make commercial transactions ubiquitous and seamless (e.g. as in mobile payment systems), while the latter is represented by theories of the ‘attention economy’ and subsumed in the ‘attention and engagement’ metrics that currently shape the production and distribution of content on digital and mobile platforms. The means of communication and commerce, of payment and attention, are increasingly wedded together in the same device or platform implying that how we pay for things is bound up with ‘the things to which we attend’. Drawing on literature on the political economy of media, this article provides historical and theoretical contexts for this convergence, offers some paradigmatic examples alongside industry analysis and concludes by raising potential concerns emerging from its current trajectory.

Easy internet access and ubiquitous smart phones have augmented the number of images produced and accelerated the speed by which they are circulated (and likely also forgotten). By contrast to the great quantity of pictures disseminated in today’s connective media, a few photographs gain momentum and are declared to be “icons”. They stand out from the image abundance, grasp the attention of a broad, transnational public, and stir emotional reactions and heated debates. Usually, these iconic images are related to major news events and represent an ongoing conflict or crisis in society in a simple, univocal manner. They quickly turn into standard frames of reference in news and popular culture, seem to require no particular explanation, and are often proclaimed to “speak for themselves”. This article proposes the term “instant news icon” to define and gain a fuller understanding of the role performed by iconic images in today’s connective media, distinguished by convergence between platforms and blurred boundaries between media production and media consumption. First, the article builds a framework based on the concept instant news icon and then applies quantitative and qualitative analyses to study the processes of distribution and meaning-making involved in the emergence of one instant news icon, news photographs from 2015 of a young refugee girl playing with a police officer on a Danish motorway.

This article engages with two key concepts that have come to define our digital cultures: the ‘network’ and ‘big data’. It critically considers how these concepts have largely been framed by techno-utopian or techno-dystopian political understandings of historical transformation. In the last few years, the relationship between technological discourses and political visions has led to the emergence of critical research in the field. This research has shown that we cannot fully understand digital discourses without considering the very Western belief that technological innovation necessarily leads to new political possibilities. By drawing on the findings of a cross-cultural ethnographic research among three different political groups in Europe, this article argues that current research in the field has focused too long on how digital discourse is shaped by Western meta-narratives of technological progress. This is to the detriment of a careful consideration of the fact that different political actors discursively construct digital technologies with reference to different political visions. Understanding these contested visions, as this article shows, is of central importance as it could enable us to appreciate that digital discourses have become today ‘empty signifiers’, which define the basis of contemporary hegemonic struggles.

The traditional configuration of content on top and comments on the bottom on most websites often dismiss comments as of secondary importance to content. This article looks at how comment culture(s) in China operate outside of the top-bottom dichotomy where comments are increasingly supplanting content as the main form of consumable media. Through case studies of two types of Chinese comment cultures—gailou culture and danmu culture—I explore how user-generated comments can work to subvert established hierarchies in a highly visible and public manner. I invoke traditional Chinese aesthetic perspectives to visualize the multiple layers of interactions that enable the reconfiguration of the temporal/spatial order contesting the unitary narrative. In doing so, I seek to shed light on not only these distinct modes of commenting practices but also the creation of a new aesthetic of consumption that is inseparable from the formation of the Chinese postmodern subjectivity.

This study explores Chinese journalists’ discursive practices of nostalgia in the context of transition and “crisis” of media and the journalism profession in order to understand how the journalistic community looks back and forward at such a historical juncture. I conduct a textual analysis of writings of nostalgia produced by journalists and media commentators in a wide range of settings: the commemoration of diseased journalists, resignation letters by former journalists, celebration of media organizations’ anniversaries, and reflections on scandals and crises in the media. The analysis reveals that golden ages emerging from such writings refer to the period of the press reform and the rise of market-oriented media in the mid-1990s and through the early 2000s. Within the interpretive community, the ideal of golden age is constructed to serve as a benchmark for critiquing the state of journalism, enhance the legitimacy of those journalists who embrace the new practices in the new media era, and chant a requiem for both the press reform and the decline of traditional media.

How is journalism practiced in the social media era? What are the values and significance of journalistic professionalism in the changed situation? This article addresses these issues through a case study. It takes The Paper, an online news outlet in Shanghai, as a case and analyzes its coverage of the capsizing accident of the cruise, The Oriental Star, on Yangtze River in June 2015. This case shows that news production in the social media era is taking the form of dynamic interactions that involve both professional journalists and the public; media organizations are no longer the primary authoritative interpreter of news events; the values and significance of news are constantly reconstructed with public’s participation; the accelerated pace of news production and circulation subverts the institutionalized news production procedures and routines; and there is an intense tension between journalists who value professional control and the general public who cherish instant participation. Drawing inspiration from Bauman’s work, the authors strive to not only characterize the changes in journalism as “liquid journalism” but also explore the contemporary significance of the ideas and discursive practices of journalistic professionalism.

Internet studies research often concentrates on mainstream platforms, practices, and users at the expense of people and technologies at the margin. This article introduces a collection of essays that addresses the gap in research, taking a number of different approaches. Indeed, arguing for a diverse and multi-faceted understanding of digital technologies can take a number of forms, including studying platforms that are incredibly common yet rarely investigated, looking at practices that fall outside the scope of mainstream communication research, and investigating communities that are non-Western, non-urban, and/or non-heteronormative. Research in these areas is crucial in developing a broader understanding of online platforms, and for expanding theoretical frameworks related to technology, media, and communication.

The hyper-concentration of research on mainstream social media sites like Facebook and Twitter comes at the cost of lesser emphasis on, if not the exclusion of, other platforms and practices. How might our conceptualizations of social media and social interaction change if we were to explore a wider range of systems to enrich our theorizing? This piece considers three examples of how looking beyond the usual suspects may broaden our understanding of how social media sites play into privacy management, identity work, and interpersonal relationships. I argue that our theorizing of social media and the practices that surround them gains strength from exploring varied sites of study.

The study focuses on the WeChat usage and WeChat group activities of a group of Pumi youngsters in order to investigate their self-expression and interaction. This is done by adopting methods of online ethnography and offline fieldwork, which explains how the new medium gets involved in their daily lives and is used to construct multiple narrations. In this article, WeChat is regarded to be a kind of self-processed cultural description and practice. Meanwhile, WeChat builds one’s daily life through double articulation as mentioned by Roger Silverstone. Thus, WeChat connects reality and virtual space, interweaves individual minds with ethnic beliefs and achieves a tighter interaction between the inside and the outside of a village.

This article discusses how LGBT activists in China employ different ICTs for their causes and the challenges that they face. The discussion is based on a review of relevant studies and some preliminary results from an ethnographic study of an LGBT organization Shen Lan in Tianjian, a major port city in northeastern China. The study suggests that in a heavily regulated political environment, many civil rights organizations such as the Shen Lan group takes a non-confrontational approach in their online and offline advocacy work, demonstrating a type of activism with Chinese characteristics.