Digial Media

ABSTRACT
This paper begins from the basic premise that in considering digital
media and its multifarious relations with forms of protest and
political mobilization, we are interested in social change. Yet, too often, the key ingredient of protest and political mobilization – the radical politics itself – is left out of our analyses. How can we begin to tackle the challenges posed to democratic politics if we do not talk about actual politics as part of our research? This problem is both conceptual and practical. A politics requires a practice. We cannot understand the nature of the practice without understanding its politics; we cannot understand the politics without appreciating its processes and organization. Yet, so many
studies do just this. This paper argues that a fugitive politics limits
our abilities to take progressive thought and action forward. By ignoring the actual politics, we end up depoliticizing counter politics because we offer precious few suggestions as to how we can do democratic politics better. Without an understanding of the conditions under which a Left progressive politics could develop then the politics itself threatens to remain ill defined. What might it mean then to put the development of a counter politics at the heart of our analyses? What are the conditions required (including the communicative conditions) for radical political organizations/collectives to endure, build capacity and effect social change?

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1109698

This paper is the first of two parts which considers the idea of Meta-Immersion in context to new narrative by examining cinematic contributions framed through Metamodernism. The design of this will consider the films ​ Blade Runner 2049 ​ (dir:Villeneuve, 2017), ​ Hard to be a God ​ (dir:German, 2013), ​ The Turin Horse ​ (dir:Tarr, 2011) and the VR film ​ The Deserted ​ (dir:Ming-Liang, 2017) by establishing a conceptual working model using Meta-Tonic Design which attests to the indicators of new narrative with the additives of Metamodernism. The results of this method will be analysed and discussed in the​ ​ second​ ​ paper​ ​ ​ Modelling​ ​ Meta-Immersion​ ​ for​ ​ Cinematic​ ​ New​ ​ Narrative.

How to infer the digital media literacy competences of office workers related to distant teamwork from the observation of collaborative practices? This paper presents a qualitative method that combines deductive and inductive approaches to analyze interviews and observations carried out in ten organizations. From a deductive standpoint, our analysis is anchored in a review of the literature in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. From an inductive standpoint , our analyses use principles from phenomenography and grounded theory to abstract a theoretical understanding of the studied experiences. The combination of these approaches allows us to examine the way workers experience distant teamwork activities and to consider how their competences reside in their ability to frame the work situations they encounter, and to develop responses accordingly.

Depuis le début de la révolte en Syrie en 2011 et sa transformation en conflit armé, il est devenu impossible de se rendre sur place à moins de se conformer à un encadrement rapproché du régime de Bachar al-Assad dans les zones sous son contrôle, ce que de nombreux chercheurs refusent. Depuis lors, les travaux menés se délocalisent au sein des territoires de l’exil, à partir d’enquêtes menées dans les pays limitrophes de la Syrie ou en Europe. Cet éloignement forcé du terrain se relocalise également dans l’espace numérique et plus particulièrement sur le vaste territoire audiovisuel constitué par les nombreuses vidéos mises en ligne par des manifestants, des activistes et des groupes armés.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become an
essential part of contentious politics and social movements in contemporary
China. Although quite a few scholars have explored ICTs, contentious politics,
and collective action in China, they largely focus on the event-based analysis
of discrete contentious events, failing to capture, reflect, and assess most of
the political ferment in and around the routine use of digital media in people’s
everyday lives. This study proposes a broader research agenda by shifting the
focus from contentious events – ‘moments of madness’ – to ‘the politics of
mundanity’: the political dynamics in the mundanity of digitally mediated,
routine daily life. The agenda includes, first, the investigation of the dynamics
underlying the mundane use of digital media, which not only places the use
of ICTs in contentious moments into ‘a big picture’ to understand the political
potential of mundane use of ICTs, but also reveals ‘everyday resistance,’ or less
publicly conspicuous tactics, as precursors of open, confrontational forms
of contentious activity. Second, the agenda proposes the examination of
mundane experiences to understand the sudden outburst of contention
and digital media as the ‘repertoire of contention.’ Third, the agenda
scrutinizes the adoption of mundane expressions of contentious challenges
to authoritarian regimes, as they allow for the circumvention of the heavy
censorship of collective action mobilization. Mundane expressions have
thereby emerged as a prominent part of the mobilization mechanism of
contention in China. Addressing ‘the politics of mundanity’ will provide a
nuanced understanding of ICTs and contentious collective action in China.

In this chapter I explore the ways media production represents sophisticated identity and cultural work, and therefore complex literacy performances, among youth as they engage in a play of genres and subject positioning in particular social (educational and community) spaces. Two major research projects in which youth participated in media production form the basis for theorizing in this chapter. Four cases illustrate the ways particular youth design new, hybrid multimodal genres, and how they engage in new models of authorship and cultural critique in this process. Although "youth culture" is often referred to as an undifferentiated phenomenon, this work is highly context-specific, revealing multiple and diverse sub-communities in which specific kinds of cultural and critical work are being undertaken. I conclude with a challenge to transform schools and classrooms to reflect the increasingly multimodal landscapes in which youth reside.

Resumen: En los últimos años, el desarrollo de las TIC y sobre todo su introducción e impacto en la vida cotidiana, como argumenta Xavier Berenguer, han producido cambios muy importantes en el modo que tenemos de organizarnos, de aprender, de hablar, de escribir, de pensar... En este contexto y como era de esperar, han surgido y se han consolidado nuevas formas expresivas que, en mayor o menor medida, rompen con las lógicas de producción, creación y recepción de la narrativa tradicional.
Uno de los géneros más interesantes producto de la hibridación entre el medio digital y el audiovisual tradicional es el llamado “documental multimedia interactivo”, que vio la luz a finales del siglo XX y cuyo recorrido hasta nuestros días hace pensar que el futuro del documental pasará en gran medida por esta nueva narrativa no lineal, fragmentada e interactiva, capaz de ofrecer al usuario una experiencia única.
A partir de la conceptualización y reflexión que autores como Gaudenzi, Handler Miller, Gifreu o Berenguer han realizado en torno a este nuevo género y adoptando el modelo de análisis que plantea Arnau Gifreu (2013) para abordar el documental interactivo, nos proponemos en estas páginas realizar un análisis comparativo entre el reportaje lineal En el reino del plomo (En Portada y Lab de RTVE.es, 2013) y su versión interactiva o webdoc. El objetivo que perseguimos con este estudio comparado de caso es, principalmente, aplicar un modelo de análisis ya testado previamente con el fin de determinar las características esenciales de este nuevo género y de comprobar en la práctica cuáles son las semejanzas y diferencias fundamentales que existen entre el documental lineal tradicional y el multimedia interactivo, contribuyendo así a la reflexión en torno a esta nueva narrativa multilineal.

Past research in gender differences in the overall Internet use has been contradictory. Some asserted men used it more than women, while others asserted there were no gender difference. Both camps concluded that men and women differed in their motivation and utilization of time spent online. The purpose of the present research was to take a contemporary look at these gender differences. Using an online survey, we asked participants about their experiences with multiple forms of mediated communication: social networking sites, e-mail, video calls, instant messaging, texting, and phone calls. Our results indicated that women, compared to men, are generally more frequent mediated communication users. Compared to men, women prefer and more frequently use text messaging, social media, and online video calls. These results suggest that the nature of mediated social interaction is changing.

While models for conveying a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are beginning to emerge in the literature, relatively little is known about how a diagnosis is delivered and experienced by families. This study examined the experiences of parents receiving a diagnosis of ASD for their child. Based on a phenomenological approach, a purposive sample of 10 parents (8 mothers, 2 fathers) participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews aimed at understanding their diagnostic experience. Findings revealed a lengthy, complex, and discouraging assessment and diagnostic process that resulted in parents feeling confused, disempowered, and overwhelmed. Identified themes associated with diagnosis comprised: initial recognition that “something is different”; waiting, worry, and uncertainty; preference for diagnostic information in a hopeful tenor; feeling overwhelmed with information and emotion at diagnosis; processes of grief, relief, and making sense of ASD; and becoming an advocate, expert, and case manager. The importance of empowering parents by providing support, information, resources, and tools for navigating the complexity of service/treatments at the time of diagnosis was emphasized within a parent–professional partnership. A protocol for practice, focused on enhanced parental empowerment, is offered including specific clinical guidelines (what to share, how to share, and when to share) for sharing a diagnosis of ASD.