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This volume demonstrates that television comedies are conduits through which we might resist normative ways of thinking about cultural crises. By drawing on Gramscian notion of crisis and the understanding that crises are overlapping, interconnected, and mutually constitutive, the essays in this collection demonstrate that situation comedies do more than make us laugh; they also help us understand the complexities of our social world’s moments of crisis. Each chapter takes up the televisual representation of a modern cultural crisis in a contemporary sitcom and is grounded in the extensive body of literature that suggests that levity is a powerful mechanism to make sense of and cope with these difficult cultural experiences. Divided into thematic sections that highlight crises of institutions and systems, identity and representation, and speculation and futurism, this book will interest scholars of media and cultural studies, political economy, communication studies, and humor studies.
Through a variety of studies in the emerging field of attentional studies, this book examines and seeks alternatives to the current attention economy. Bringing together the work of leading scholars of ‘critical attention studies’ to reflect on issues such as techno-politics, socio-politics, and the politics of distraction, it offers a new and multi-disciplinary conceptualization of attention that emphasizes the connections between attention and curiosity, distraction, decoloniality and care. Above all, The Politics of Curiosity asks us to consider the nature and ambivalence of the curious forms of politics that might be taking shape in the shadow of our current attention economy. The “...
This book exposes the inherent contradictions of neoliberalism. The myth of limitless growth ignores the reality of resource constraints and fuels a global upward transfer of wealth. Meanwhile, a fractured global economy and intensifying class warfare chip away at neoliberalism's foundation. As inequality spirals and social justice crumbles, the model increasingly serves a privileged few at the expense of the majority. This undermines the Enlightenment ideal of using liberal democracy to improve lives in the age of mass politics, threatening neoliberalism's very survival.
How Brazilian favela residents engage with and appropriate technologies, both to fight the oppression in their lives and to represent themselves in the world. Brazilian favelas are impoverished settlements usually located on hillsides or the outskirts of a city. In Technology of the Oppressed, David Nemer draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork to provide a rich account of how favela residents engage with technology in community technology centers and in their everyday lives. Their stories reveal the structural violence of the information age. But they also show how those oppressed by technology don’t just reject it, but consciously resist and appropriate it, and how their experiences wi...
This book focuses on key challenges related to conducting research on mediatisation, presenting the most current theoretical, empirical, and methodological challenges and problems, addressing ignored and less frequently discussed topics, critical and controversial themes, and defining niches and directions of development in mediatisation. With a focus on the under-representation of certain topics and aspects, as well as methodological, technological, and ethical dilemmas, the chapters consider the main critical objections formulated against mediatisation studies and exchange critical positions. Moving beyond areas of common focus – culture, sport, and religion – to emerging areas of study such as fashion, the military, business, and the environment, the book then offers a critical assessment of the transformation of fields and the relevance of new and dynamic (meta)processes including datafication, counter-mediatisation, and platformisation. Charting new paths of development in mediatisation, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of mediatisation, media studies, media literacy, communication studies, and research methods.
Care and Pandemic captures an up-to-the-moment account of COVID-19 and its aftermath by an interdisciplinary network of transatlantic scholars reporting from Brazil, Colombia, and France. Case studies diagnose the problem, revealing socio-demographic dynamics of care labor markets, outlining the impact of online care platforms on the conditions of care work, and providing caring strategies rooted in community solidarity. Creating a robust and more resilient care organization requires a comprehensive understanding of why systems failed to build capacity that can absorb external shocks and address structural changes before, during, and after disasters. Contributors are: Gabriela Alkmin, Marian...
New business models have splintered journalists’ once-monolithic professional culture. Where the organization once had little sway in the newsroom, in today’s journalism ecosystem, owners and management influence newsgathering more than ever. Using rich interviews and participant observation, Patrick Ferrucci examines institutions with funding mechanisms that range from traditional mogul ownership and online-only nonprofits to staff-owned cooperatives and hedge fund control. The variations in market models have frayed the tenets of professionalization, with unique work cultures emerging from each organization’s focus on its mission and the implantation of its own processes and ethical guidelines. As a result, the field of American journalism no longer shares uniform newsgathering practices and a common identity, a break with the past that affects what information we consume today and what the press will become tomorrow. An inside look at a fracturing profession, The Organization of Journalism illuminates the institution’s expanding impact on newsgathering and the people who practice it.
This book provides a systematic description of the key challenges faced by Brazil today, and the main lines of action required to bring the country back on track. Brazil is not a poor country; what it presently produces is sufficient to ensure everyone a dignified and comfortable life. Its problems are not economic in the sense of lack of resources, but rather in terms of social and political organization. With President Lula governing the country as of 2023, structural challenges such as deep inequality, the environmental disaster and the financial chaos have become evident. The present book is not only about Brazil, but about the challenges it has in common with so many third-world countries. Its resources, particularly financial resources, are not going where they are needed. On the contrary, the necessary initiatives are being financially drained or under-funded. Powerful elites, in coordination with the international financial corporations and commodity traders, resist any attempt at building a more balanced society. This book seeks to combat these structural issues.
This book reflects on discourses about the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1985) on social media. It examines entanglements between technological and mnemonic practices regarding this historical period. Following Olick and Robbins’ (1998) Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices, the book analyses more than what social actors say about the past. It explores the externalisation of knowledge about the past based on interactions identified on Facebook. Through this platform, it was possible to map and collect posts, comments, and reactions related to the historical period. This sample reveals perceptions and attitudes of social media users toward the past. The book also discusses socio-technic...
We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical pe...