Narrowmobilization and Tea Party Activism: A Study of Right-Leaning Alternative Media

Past research concerning the theoretical framework of Resistance Performance (RP) has been based on observations of liberal organizations and activists. In the following essay, we engage in a qualitative content analysis of alternative media utilized by conservative “Tea Party” activists to build on the concept of RP. Overall, we discovered that the dominant theme found in much of the content focuses on “purity,” which is considerably different from past RP research that found broad themes of “human rights,” “democracy,” “be the media,” and “principles of unity” embedded within liberal alternative media content. We conclude that the theme of “purity” gives rise to narrowmobilization, which constructs very focused protest communities within right-leaning politics.     

Negotiating Postmodern Democracy,Political Activism,and Knowledge Production: Indymedia's Grassroots and e-Savvy Answer to Media Oligopoly

A grassroots-based and technologically sophisticated effort to counteract media oligopoly, online Indymedia (www.indymedia.org) enables activists to appropriate technologies of globalization, thereby promoting democratic access to citizen-produced knowledge. Combined with the efforts of some 150 Independent Media Centers (IMCs) worldwide, the Indymedia movement as a whole illustrates how citizenship is both global and local. This essay uses examples from online Indymedia and my local IMC to address questions of new media and democratic access, corporate media reform, postmodern resistance, and alternative news production. I argue that Indymedia's citizen-generated news production is a powerful response to corporate media consolidation.     

Networked Activism and the Broken Multiplex: Exploring Fractures in the Resistance Performance Paradigm

The current research explored a new social movement network in the northeastern United States in order to build on past research concerning a Resistance Performance Paradigm (RPP). In particular, I found that the network in the northeastern community displayed characteristics of RPP but did not construct a “multiplex” of coordinated resistance as had emerged in past RPP research. I interviewed 20 activists in order to assess how the northeastern network was different from previous RPP research, and whether such differences accounted for the lack of a multiplex of coordinated resistance. The interviews revealed that the network was fractured over (a) what issues to address and (b) how to approach/protest any such issues. Further data analysis revealed that the fractures stemmed in part from activists' uncertainty about a listserv used by all of the activists in the network. Such findings constitute an additional characteristic of RPP: the capacity of a network to efficiently circulate narratives to all points in a network.     

Turning Silence into Speech and Action: Prison Activism and the Pedagogy of Empowered Citizenship

Based on almost 50 years of combined experience as prison activists and prison teachers, the authors offer three case studies of prison activism and pedagogy in action. The first case study, by Hartnett, details the “artistry of agency” as enacted in poetry workshops in prison and in public poetry events, thus illustrating artistic communication. The second, by Wood, examines how friendship becomes political in the epistolary communication between free and imprisoned correspondents, thus addressing interpersonal communication. The third, by McCann, addresses web-based communication as a tool for advocacy for condemned prisoner/activists on Texas’s death row, and hence political communication. Taken as a whole, the three case studies celebrate different communication strategies as avenues of enlightenment and empowerment while offering powerful arguments for abolishing the prison–industrial complex.     

Social Media for Social Change: Social Media Political Efficacy and Activism in Student Activist Groups

Social media activism has become very relevant for many student activist groups. How can political use of social media be motivated? The concept of Social Media Political Efficacy was proposed to resolve inconsistencies in prior theories of social media activism. A survey (n = 222) of members of 3 student activist groups showed that social media political efficacy was positively related to successful experiences using social media for activism. The relationship between social media political efficacy and social media activism was stronger than that between the concept of political efficacy employed in prior research and social media activism. Theory and social media activism implications are discussed.     

转型中国环境报道的功能分析——“新社会运动”中的社会动员

本文运用新社会运动相关理论,针对2005年以来中国重大环境事件中的媒介表现,描述并阐释了环境报道在转型社会中的作用。本文认为,环保在转型中国面临极其特殊的社会状况,开展新社会运动是必要而有效的方式,进行环保运动的社会动员是当前中国环境报道应当承担并加强的功能。     

“陌生人”视角下社会化媒体与网络社会“不确定性”研究

本研究通过社会心理学的"陌生人"视角,分析了网络陌生人的人际不确定性和情感正向性特征,讨论了陌生人复杂互动如何导致社会化媒体内舆论领袖和议题涌现,并实现情感和信息的极化与放大;再通过"不确定性"的理论视角,讨论这种陌生人复杂互动如何通过社会化媒体间共振、潮涌,导致社会化媒体传播和动员能力的突生性和意外效果,进而生成网络社会的不确定性。     

应对消费者行动主义者的策略模式

行动主义是现代公共关系理论中的一个重要概念,如何有效地应对消费者行动主义者,现已成为企业公共关系面临的一大挑战。“双向对称模式”从理论上为我们提供了一个应对消费者行动主义者的策略模式,但仍需更多的实践验证。另一方面,现代博弈论的研究成果也为我们提供了一个与“双向对称模式”相呼应的应对消费者行动主义者的新思路,对其进一步的探讨有助于我们对“双向对称模式”进行更深层次和更全面的思考。     

When Corporate Social Responsibility Messages Enter the News: Examining the Effects of CSR-Framed News on Product Purchasing Intentions and the Mediating Role of Company and Product Attitudes

Journalists are frequently reporting about new and innovative products in news articles. Oftentimes, journalists use specific company and product information provided by enterprises that highlight a corporation’s social responsibility (CSR) activities. Based on framing theory and theory of reasoned action, an experiment was conducted to examine how types of CSR-framed news (either highlighting ethical, ecological, or philanthropic responsibilities of a company) affect news recipients’ product purchasing intentions. A mediation analysis showed that CSR-framed news indirectly and positively affected individuals’ purchasing intentions via company and product attitudes. No relevant differences could be detected for the specific type of CSR frame. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Social Media,Subjectivity, and Surveillance: Moving on From Occupy,the Rise of Live Streaming Video

This article seeks to critically examine the practical application of live streaming video at use in contemporary resistance movements, particularly the work of CUTV during the Quebec Student Strike of 2012. With a brief comparison to the use of social media—and even live streaming—in the Occupy movement, this article demonstrates the differences, and sophistication, of live streaming video in the Quebec Spring. Specifically, this article seeks to understand the ways in which political actors and digital technologies form unique assemblages (in the Deleuzian sense), which can both operate as mechanisms of power as surveillance technologies for police forces or, if used carefully and critically, can open up nodes of counter-power, disrupting state surveillance, surveilling the police themselves, and providing the space for the construction of subjectivity on the part of political actors in the streets.     

Rethinking the Globalization Movement: Toward a Cultural Theory of Contemporary Democracy and Communication

How can we understand and evaluate the relationship between democracy and recent global protests in response to economic globalization? Criticisms of this type of activism understand democratic communication to be primarily a public process. I argue that instead, we need to develop a more fully cultural understanding of democracy and communication, one which would take into account important characteristics of contemporary democratic practice and experience. That is, as a resonant but unstable compound of meanings, democracy is integrated into individual subjectivities and collective identities through a whole variety of lived experiences, particularly in relation to mediated and symbolic practice.     

Frame Diversity and Citizen Competence: Towards a Critical Approach to News Quality

This article identifies two basic models of citizen competence (the ignorant citizen and the rational citizen) in which normative theories of journalism and standards of news quality are grounded. I propose the interpreting citizen as an alternative view of citizen competence. According to this model, the availability of diverse interpretive frames in the public realm, particularly in the news media, is an important precondition for enhancing citizen competence. Given flaws in existing standards for evaluating journalism quality, the news media should be judged in terms of their performance in presenting diverse interpretive frames, rather than in terms of informational goals.     

Can a non-Muslim Mass Shooter be a “Terrorist”?: A Comparative Content Analysis of the Las Vegas and Orlando Shootings

ABSTRACT

This study used the 2017 Las Vegas and 2016 Orlando mass shootings as case studies to explore alleged double standards in reporting of events featuring Muslim and non-Muslim mass perpetrators of violence. The study used framing theory and content analysis to examine Los Angeles Times and New York Times coverage of the shootings during the one week immediately following each event. Findings are consistent with previous literature and the researchers’ expectations. The Orlando shooting, carried out by a Muslim, was allotted more coverage despite the fact that it produced nine fewer fatalities than the Las Vegas shooting, perpetrated by a white non-Muslim. The analysis also showed that the examined newspapers were more likely to employ a “terrorism” frame in their coverage of the Orlando shooting than in their coverage of the Las Vegas shooting; link the Orlando mass shooting with the global war on terrorism; and to humanize Stephen Paddock, the white perpetrator of the Las Vegas shooting. Framing differences found in this study may contribute to downplaying the threat of white male gun violence, and to reinforcing fears of Islam and Muslims.     

Building a Social Compact for Preserving E-Journals

In the shift of scholarly publishing from the print environment to online, the preservation of the scholarly record has become more complex, difficult, and uncertain. Current efforts are not adequate. Core criteria and certification processes have been developed for digital preservation repositories. Broad library support is crucial to the sustainability of third-party preservation archives. Publisher participation in third-party archives has grown, but coverage is incomplete and uneven, leaving some categories of materials well-covered and others vulnerable. Preservation programs need to coordinate their efforts and view themselves as collaborators rather than competitors. The task of preserving the digital scholarly record cannot fall to libraries alone—it requires a social compact among all involved parties.     

Implications of Stealing Thunder for the Impact of Expressing Emotions in Organizational Crisis Communication

This study examines if and when spokespersons of an organization in crisis can express their genuine emotions as opposed to appearing rational. The impact of emotional (sadness) versus rational message framing on perceptions of an organization in crisis is studied by means of a 2 (crisis timing strategy: ex-antecrisis timing strategy vs. ex-postcrisis timing strategy)×2 (message framing: rational vs. emotional) between-subjects factorial experimental design with 168 participants. The findings first show that organizations can restore their reputation in times of crisis better by means of an ex-antecrisis timing strategy than by means of an ex-postcrisis timing strategy. In addition, the study illustrates that an ex-antecrisis timing strategy leads to more effective use of organizational message framing. In the case of an organizational self-disclosure, expressing sadness as a discrete negative emotion results in a better postcrisis reputation than rational message framing, whereas no impact of message framing is found for an ex-postcrisis timing strategy. Finally, the results indicate that organizations can benefit from allowing their spokespersons to express sadness because consumers will consider them more sincere.