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The global reality of the COVID-19/Corona pandemic paradoxically boosted national politics, broadcasting and citizenship. Media coverage, especially initially, praised citizen solidarity and the creative solutions that were pioneered to care for each other. A year later, a lasting social learning curve throughout and after this crisis seems illusory. The pandemic, this paper argues, needs to be understood in a longer timeframe as the working through and coming to terms with neo-liberal governmentality. The (often hilarious) early responses on social media provide a strong entry to do so. Our focus will be on the Netherlands which had a so-called 'intelligent' lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. Using the authors' own sharing back and forth of toilet paper memes as a starting point, we aim to explore the notion of collective self-reflection and citizen co-education underlying both heated and simply ridiculous posts. Using previous discussion of cultural citizenship, this paper inquires into how pandemic citizenship played out as a vast exercise in disciplining and distinction through jokes and anger. The material suggests a nostalgic turn that might point to an implicitly voiced critique of neoliberal governmentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent media ecologies are often characterized by their apparent excess and availability of information, in which elites have lost power to a multitude of citizen users. The 2010s, however, are marked by a new information battlespace, as governments, militaries and news organizations have arrested the initial chaotic free-for-all of the Internet. It was into this environment that the ‘Panama Papers’ were leaked in April 2016. We employ this story to illuminate some of the workings of information warfare in the contemporary Russian media ecology. We reveal the sophisticated gatekeeping work undertaken by a range of actors (state, journalists, news publics) in this ecology and their treatment of information across its historically established (television) and emergent (social) media forms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focusing on the online fandom of a Thai Boys Love (BL) drama in Japan, called tai-numa, this exploratory study examines its background, fan practices and experiences, and negotiations between fandoms and the mass media and within the fandom. Through interviews with 19 fans active in the fandom, which was shaped by external and internal factors, such as mediascape, characteristics of consuming BL, and the global pandemic, this research argues that the fandom is a transnational, transcultural, and trans-subcultural contact zone, enabling fans to create, learn, reflect, negotiate, and update each other's values. Fandom activity was facilitated because it was equal and non-hierarchical, allowing for the engagement of a heterogeneous mix of fans from different subcultural backgrounds, and it offered a sense of simultaneity. Through fan voice and discussion, this paper suggests the potential impact of fandom activities on real life and what is needed for such fandoms to be established and sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common for the media to cast young people as dangerous and delinquent, particularly when those young people derive from marginalized backgrounds. Moral panics are fuelled and sustained by the media in their role as agents of moral indignation. Additionally, the media represent a powerful source of moral regulation, often working against the interests of young people. In this paper, a recent media focus on the 'youth crime crisis' in Queensland, Australia is examined to consider potential ways in which public discourse might move beyond deficit tropes to develop more nuanced and productive conceptualizations of youth. We draw on emergent theorizations of the 'figurations' that define the ways in which 'youth' is understood in public discourse to consider how mediated social imaginaries work to produce representations of young people and frame possibilities for thinking about their place in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the author's view about the issue concerning everyday transformations. He notes that the special issue papers collected in this issue of the journal proceed from the annual conference of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia held in Perth, Western Australia in December 2004. The papers in the issue are a combination of established voices in the field and emerging work. This grouping reveals the diverse approaches and applications of everyday life research as well as the broader approaches within cultural studies.

In April 2020, the Civic Imagination Project at the University of Southern California, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, asked participants around the world to share some of their reflections on what the world of 2060 might look like, and what roles the COVID-19 pandemic may have played in transforming how we live and relate to each other. For the past six years, the Civic Imagination Project has been conducting world-building workshops with groups across America and around the world. Our workshops encourage participants to imagine together what the future might look like under the premise that before we can change the world, we have to be able to collectively imagine what a better world looks like. For this paper, our team draws tools from speculative fiction to create a process where communities come together and propose what an alternative world might look like. While it is still too early for any preliminary analysis, we anticipate being able to map responses from many different parts of the world, and in particular, across different regions in the United States. We are interested in the tensions amongst utopian, dystopian, protopian and heterotopian visions at a time of enormous anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death is one of the most significant human events and rites of passage, fundamentally shaping the life course of individuals, families and social networks. For this reason, recognizing that someone has died and ritualizing this loss requires forms of communication and mediation between individuals and families in relation to wider social networks. Media has always played a significant part in how people are informed of a death, enabling rituals to proceed such as death notices and obituaries in newspapers. Today, information communication technologies (ICTs) and social media are routinely part of how people are informed about death, and enact a range of socially shared mourning and remembrance processes. This paper explores the current deployment of ICTs and social networking within practices and rituals of mourning, applying media theory. It focuses on the temporality of mourning in a culture of speed and the activation of mourning from the announcement of death to the cycles of anniversaries via social networking culture and through technological forms of automation. The question of how the bereaved (those significantly effected by a death) take or lose control of when and how they mourn and remember the dead in a technologically networked culture is this paper's central concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Singapore's technological prowess as one of the most networked cities, societies and nations is reflected in most statistical data. In its latest Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) master plan, Singapore plans to integrate all aspects of info-communications into a single ultra-fast broadband platform that will be capable of delivering ultra-fast Internet. This paper provides a brief update on the extent of technological and Internet deployment. More importantly, it looks at how the Internet has further developed by analysing the events surrounding the 2006 general elections in Singapore. Each election in Singapore is arguably a key regulatory milestone for the Internet because new rules are either invoked via new or revised legislation or new warnings are issued to keep a lid on the effectiveness of new technologies. While Singapore has been unique in its regulatory approaches with censorship of racial, religious, pornographic and terrorist-related websites, it has also enabled its citizens in acquiring and developing credible technological competencies. This paper examines the impact of the regulatory landscape on the explosion of the Singapore blogosphere scene and considers whether the regulatory landscape has been altered following pressures brought about by blogs and other alternative websites. It argues that the implementation of both overt and subtle controls of alternative political websites as well as heavy-handed actions by the authorities to rein in errant Internet users and bloggers, along with the occasional talking-down of the significance of the Singaporean blogosphere, have accentuated the ambivalence that the Internet in Singapore has (re)presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that a study of Diaspora's engagement with the media, especially that of 'conflict-generated Diasporas' is imperative to understand the dynamics of the conflict in the homeland in order to devise ways and means for conflict resolution. In the light of arguments that Diasporas often contribute to the prolonging and sustenance of a conflict, the paper takes up the example of the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Australia and makes a case for exploring the members' engagement with media, particularly online media, to understand the dynamics and the trajectory of the conflict. This is significant, firstly, in the context of the Sri Lankan Diaspora's role in the two-decade-long civil strife in Sri Lanka that is currently poised to enter another phase,1 and secondly in the context of websites having been and continuing to be one of the most sought after sources of information on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. The paper argues that the study of the reception of information on Tamil Eelam online by members of the Diaspora is imperative for an understanding of the 'reconfiguration and remaking' of Tamil Eelam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the representation of theory of history in television dramas of the 1990s and early 2000s. History and historical themes are commonly addressed in television programming. The usual image that one has of this topic is period dramas or historical documentaries. However, programs of this kind are usually concerned with the content of history and do not commonly address the issues of historical theory that underpin historical knowledge. This paper will look at those occasions when television dramas do address historical theory. Surprisingly, this often seems to occur in shows that are not ostensibly about history at all. Theory of history is often discussed in such diverse genres as science fiction and detective shows as well as comedies and 'quality' dramas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and policy on media and cultural diversity routinely emphasize speaking or 'voice', whether in mainstream, community or diaspora media. An established tradition also examines representation and critiques examples stereotyping and racialization. This paper extends these discussions to focus on questions of 'listening'. Attention to listening provokes important questions about media and multiculturalism: how do media enable or constrain listening across difference? Drawing on recent work in postcolonial feminism and political theory, this paper explores the productive possibilities of a shift beyond the politics of voice to explore 'listening across difference' in media studies and media advocacy work. To highlight listening shifts some of the focus and responsibility for change from marginalized voices and on to the conventions, institutions and privileges which shape who and what can be heard in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that everyday media practices are foundational to regulation on social media platforms. Beginning from a practice theory perspective, supported by qualitative research conducted on Facebook and Reddit, this paper shows how individual interactions with the platform and with other people on the site shape central regulatory norms on these sites. We suggest that our focus on practice complements existing studies that consider how regulation operates on social media platforms and shows how both practices and algorithms operate in conversation with one another in order to govern these sites. This research sets out an alternative trajectory of regulation, which is not based in law or privately established processes (such as EULAs, ToS or ‘flags’) but instead one grounded in the everyday practices of sociality, reciprocity, and perhaps even the maintenance of a particular community ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While mobile media, such as low-cost mobiles, smartphones, tablets, and mobile Internet, are being taken up widely around the globe, we have little understanding about their implications for media geographies. In this paper, we take up the question of mobile media geographies via a case study of the 2012 Mexican election – and the student movement called #yosoy132. In this paper, we examine the political and cultural stakes of online and mobile media #yosoy132 entails, arguing for the need to appreciate the specific histories of politics, culture, and technology in which mobile screens unfold in Mexico and its diasporic communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Internet brings about ‘new media power’, which transforms the power dynamics associated with traditional mainstream media. This form of power has largely been associated with a (co)producer perspective, which stresses that ordinary Internet users are able to participate in news production. In many cases, however, Internet users merely read news online and may leave comments. Instead of contributing to news production, these comments are likely to reflect how news is consumed. Does online news consumption also have power implications? Using a case study from China, this paper examines newsreaders' consumption of online news in a network consisting of news websites, discussion forums and blogs. It argues that this networked consumption gives active readers a strong voice and thus power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the topics discussed concerning mass media and cultural studies. Emphasis of an account of the emergence of dance music culture and the traveling political-activist sound systems and events; Deconstruction of contemporary celebrity in the popular British celebrity gossip magazine heat; Analysis of the male rock rebel.

We have become increasingly aware of the importance of addressing diversity across media landscapes. Whilst we are still far from a genuine appreciation for difference, media outlets that view themselves as progressive understand the value of appearing diverse. This has meant that a number of Muslim voices have risen to prominence in recent years. Often these voices have attracted the title of ‘moderate Muslim’ as they are thought to represent a non-radical politics. This paper examines how the voice of this ‘moderate Muslim’ has been co-opted by the White mainstream as a sign of inclusion and commitment to multiculturalism but emphasizes that the moderate is never truly permitted to speak. In exploring how divergent voices have been publicly disciplined and how the right to speak has been positioned as a ‘privilege’, we show how Islamophobia permits a religious population to speak only via a select few voices, denying the spectrum of narratives, ideas and dissent. We argue that one troubling consequence of this dynamic is the chilling and marginalizing effect it has on dissenting Muslim voices who seek to destabilize efforts to produce and reproduce Islamophobia’s good/bad, moderate/radical dichotomies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following current literature on public and mobile screens, this paper discuses the relevance that screens have in our everyday lives by focusing on the combination of mobile and temporary screen-based practices in the digital mediation of a single public commemorative event. We present an ethnographic account of different screen practices at the Anzac Day dawn Service, an annual Australian commemorative ceremony on a public holiday, 25 April. By focusing our analysis in a single place for a limited time, we analyse how people relate to screens in different ways, from media reception to spatial organization to online connection. We suggest that screens form a fundamental element of the entanglement between public space and political narrative that needs further investigation because this relationship holds implications for both urban life and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One topic covered in Australian queer university student print media is the legalization of same-sex marriage. The legalization of same-sex marriage is currently generating much debate in Western queer communities. This paper explores Australian queer university student activists' media representation of same-sex marriage, and the debates surrounding its legalization. It uses discourse analysis to examine a selection of queer student media from four metropolitan Australian universities, and the 2003 and 2004 editions of the national queer student publication Querelle. This paper thus contributes to the history of queer activism, documenting what one group of young people say about the legalization of same-sex marriage, and furthers research on queer perspectives of marriage and same-sex relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops the concept of listening as a metaphor for paying attention online. Pejorative terms such as 'lurking' have failed to capture much detail about the experience of presence online. Instead, much online media research has focused on 'having a voice', be it in blogs, wikis, social media, or discussion lists. The metaphor of listening can offer a productive way to analyse the forms of online engagement that have previously been overlooked, while also allowing a deeper consideration of the emerging disciplines of online attention. Social media are the focus of this paper, and in particular, how these platforms are changing the configurations of the ideal listening subject. Three modes of online listening are discussed: background listening, reciprocal listening, and delegated listening; Twitter provides a case study for how these modes are experienced and performed by individuals, politicians and corporations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within this issue including "A New Environmental Design: Sustainable Place Making in Postcolonial Australia,' by Emily Potter, "The Pink Palace, Policy and Power: Home-making Practices and Gentrification in Northcote," by Rosemary Overell, and "Understanding Eelam through the Diaspora's Online Engagement," by Maya Ranganathan.

This paper focuses on Tavi Gevinson, the teenage fashion blogger-turned-editor in chief of the online magazineRookie, as a case study with which to interrogate the production and circulation of feminist politics within a ‘post-girl power’ era. Drawing on theories of performativity, I employ a discursive and ideological textual analysis of Gevinson's self-produced media and media coverage to map how she uses the opportunities afforded by digital media to rearticulate narratives of ‘girl power’ and perform a feminist girlhood subjectivity that makes feminism accessible to her many readers. While I argue that Gevinson's ability to do so is positive and demonstrates the porous nature of postfeminist media culture, I also suggest that we must be critical of the ways in which her feminism functions as part of her self brand that reproduces feminism as white, middle-class, and ‘hip’. Thus, I conclude by questioning a larger cultural trend towards the branding of feminism and advocating the need for an intersectional approach to understanding the resurgence of feminism within contemporary popular media culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, the massive devastation and suffering caused by global-scale disasters has fuelled intense flows of Web-based media and communicative exchange. Where studies of traditional broadcast disaster media have often sought to identify the frames that position victims and viewers, this paper focuses on those forms of emerging media that operate outside of and to some extent work to de-frame institutional coverage through modes of affect. A heightened affectivity can be identified in the modality of ‘rawness’ that characterizes contemporary social and mobile production of media from zones of disaster. The analysis engages specifically with some key forms of raw media circulating after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. Ultimately, in the context of post-disaster media, new modes of visual witnessing and distributed encounter facilitate the de-framing of disastrous events in a way that tethers global engagement and attention directly to the flow of affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While divided media attention predates our era, ‘multitasking’ arose only recently as a named behaviour within cultural consciousness. The growth in media multitasking – especially among adolescents and white-collar workers – runs parallel to intensified efforts by scientists, popular critics, and self-help gurus to dictate techniques of efficient media use. Drawing from Michel Foucault's writings on governmentality and lectures on neoliberalism, this paper investigates these attempts to govern multitasking habits as central to work and play in late capitalist society. Specifically, I examine how multitasking acts as self-work under neoliberalism, as more individuals draw from market logic to rationalize themselves as social beings. My goal is to alert scholars within media and cultural studies – who habitually theorize media attention as undivided – to the emergence and importance of ‘multitasking’ in understanding contemporary mediated subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For much of its history in the twentieth century, television was conceived mostly in national terms. American television, British television, Australian television and so on were thought of as distinct systems, even if they frequently displayed significant degrees of overlap. Such a notion has always been a convenient simplification. Television exists at a series of different spatial levels and the nationwide tier is only one of these. Recent interest in the notion of media capital draws attention to the role played by broadcasting hubs in larger television formations, not only in the industrial sense of resource accumulation and density but also in terms of colonizing larger media environments. This paper addresses this matter in terms of the role that a Sydney metropolitan television service has played in the life of the Australian nation. It surveys the material and ideological dimension of this service as a means of further problematizing the connection of television and nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I extend the notion of franchise nations, borrowed from Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk novel Snow Crash (1993), in order to employ it as a device for thinking about the future of the nation. I argue the concept to be particularly well suited for such contemplation because of its sound grounding in the historical intermesh of economic, political and cultural motivations intrinsic to the concept as well as lived experience of the nation. I illustrate this very briefly by casting (mainland) China as the master franchisor and the overseas Chinese as franchisees. Specifically, I discuss the media events concerning China that took place during 2008, such as the protests and counter-protests that occurred at various legs of the Olympic Torch Relay, the Sichuan earthquake of 12 May and the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on 8 August, and reactions to these happenings from overseas Chinese located variously in Australia, Canada and the United States. I argue that employing the notion of franchise nations lays bare the commercial and political instrumentalism behind the promotion and courtship of diasporas by home nations but, crucially, also aids in the understanding of the reciprocal processes by which franchisees are fashioned out of these communities. Finally, I suggest that, aside from China, franchise nations may also be a useful approach for thinking about how nations like India and Singapore are expanded, exported and explained into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blogs or weblogs are online journals that are regularly updated, and cover thousands of topics. In a way blogs represent the free speech philosophy of the early days of the Internet in that they allow users to distribute opinion on an enormous variety of topics, and in some countries relatively uncensored opinion, though potentially they can be monitored everywhere. The blogosphere creates a new space in which public discourse can be expanded and viewed. Indeed, my research for this paper relied heavily on an excellent blog called EastSouthNorthWest, where a variety of articles from China's media are translated and posted, with some comment and analysis. During the Burma protests in September 2007 blogs were one of the few sources of information about the unrest not directly controlled by the Junta. Reporters without Borders claim on their website that 'Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure' ('Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents'). However, in the People's Republic of China (PRC) the emergence of blogs and the development of the Internet in general have been used to reinforce the central authority of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory paper posits 'listening' as a rubric for reframing contemporary media theory and practice. We propose moving beyond questions of voice, speaking and representation to focus on often-ignored questions of listening as the 'other side' of communication. This article sets out the ways in which it may be possible to address the neglected question of listening, not in isolation but rather, following Susan Bickford's notion of 'pathbuilding', through explorations of speaking and listening, voice and hearing, logos and interpretation/deconstruction. The article argues for more receptive forms of public discourse and media practice, while seeking to place the recent problematization of listening in a critical framework. Through a survey of theorizations of listening and explication of their research agenda, the authors consider listening in relation to conflict and inequality in diverse practices of citizenship. A central aim is to push discussion of listening practices beyond individual, personal, and private forms of discourse and to identify a spectrum of listening practices that complicate the speaking/listening binary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Listening as the act of aural consumption has commonly been the moment in cultural practice around which analysis has cohered. This has certainly been the case with the cultural objects of popular music and radio broadcasting. Where young people have been brought into the frame of such analyses, the impact of listening on the formation of the self has been highly pronounced - leading at times to public panic around particular musical genres and their associated socio-cultural practices, for instance around hip-hop, heavy metal and emo music. This paper investigates the combination of radio broadcasting and young people from the perspective of cultural production as a redemptive process. The taxonomy of a reflexive 'listening to oneself '; collaborative 'listening to others'; and the empowering and responsibilizing process of 'being listened to' grounded in an ethnography of radio production is employed to explore the social processes of 'learning to listen' undertaken by the YouthWorx Media program that engages disadvantaged young people in media creation, while setting a scene for the project's evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the re-imag(in)ing of the action figure in contemporary Hollywood cinema, employing The Matrix as a case study into hardwired hardbodies. I argue that the modern action body appropriates the design and capabilities of external technologies, such as the mobile phone, that have made mobility and the rapid transmission of information the definitive attributes for survival. In the separation of the digitalised new world order from its outdated past of clunky mechanics, this requires an evolution of the body to keep pace with technological innovation which has necessitated that it become remarkable and spectacular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article's modest goal is to introduce uninitiated readers to the emerging, interdisciplinary field of law-and-film, while presenting them with the framework of one formulation of this new area of research. The article's first part opens with a brief overview of law-and-film scholarship and proceeds to outline my own suggested conceptualization of the law-and-film terrain. This framework defines three distinct perspectives on law-and-film that, I believe, capture much of the law-and-film enterprise. These perspectives rely on three fundamental premises: that some films' modes of social operation parallel those of the law and legal system; that some films enact viewer-engaging judgment; and that some films elicit popular jurisprudence. Parts B, C and D of this article present and explore these perspectives in more detail, illustrating them with specific law-film examples. The paper concludes with a brief reference to the benefits of using law-and-film in teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an introduction to the issues that are addressed in the journal "Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies." The authors venture into new territory for the journal, with six papers around the theme of global communication governance. It notes that the convergence of technologies seems to have produced an equally important social and cultural convergence where nongovernmental organizations, governments, business and civil society groups come together to find a satisfactory means of governing the flows of information in an information society.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Aleardo Zanghellini on Anime and Manga, one by James Flanagan on the "Andy Griffith Show," and another by Andrew Selth on the exotic in motion pictures.

Microsoft gadget records your life. (CNN.com 2004) Your cinematic deathbed flashback will already be uploaded to your hard drive. (Scheeres 2002) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses importance of the online digital context developed by blogger Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Pearl-McPhee known as Yarn Harlot has created a knitting Olympics scheme that attracts an interactive and collaborative online community. The conjunction of knitting and the blogosphere has fascinated the scholars of cultural studies due to its ordinary practices, new media and audience. It also indicates the connection between textuality and social relations of social softwares. The blog of Yarn harlot also shows how a certain aesthetic quality assists the generation of a certain social outcome.

The article discusses the professional and policy impact of media representations. The journalists view on the disinterests of the young people in news and politics due to their lack of civic responsibility and critical engagement has threatened the popular culture mindless entertainment. Journalism and cultural studies are the only way to fully appreciate and understand the true nature of media consumption patterns. Journalism as profession is hoped to adopt to the changes predicted by the youthful consumption habits.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Jane Simon on home movies and another by Jean Burgess on digital storytelling.

In this article I revisit the distinction between criticism and reviewing in cultural and film studies. I focus on three attempts to tackle this distinction. The first comes from Colin McArthur, who published 'British Film Reviewing: A Complaint' in Screen in 1985. The second is from Meaghan Morris, and her seminal 1988 article, 'Indigestion: A Rhetoric of Reviewing'. The third is from more recent work by Tom O'Regan and Huw Walmsley-Evans, which is redefining the terms upon which we encounter the review around the concept of 'media containers' and aesthetics. Through discussion of these three attempts I examine the extent to which reviewing is constructed as a form of media practice in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a potentially volatile policy environment as Mainland China, Korean Wave (hallyu) has penetrated into and continued survival in China through a new pattern of remakes in the context of bilateral tensions. Through a comparative examination of the Korean variety television programme Running Man and its Chinese remake Hurry up, Brothers, as a case study of the remakes, I explore how hallyu has become an amnyu (undercurrent) in the Chinese context. In this article, I conceptualize screen-capitalism to analyse and theorize emergent challenges and possibilities in a global context where collaborations flourish while conflicts remain, arguing for 'transplantability' as a rhizomatic quality that allows one screen culture to be connected or plugged into others outside of it, and that can be efficiently compatible with heterogeneous elements—other cultural, political, ideological, and linguistic communities—in diverse modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan’s whaling in the Southern Ocean has been a contentious issue in Australia, typified by a systematic and widely supported anti-whaling campaign. This resistance came to a head on 15 January 2008 with the advent of two events; the boarding of a whaling ship by protestors, and the ruling of the Australian Federal Court that Japan’s whaling breached Australian Law. Our comparative discourse analysis of Australian and Japanese media reportage of these events illustrates how each country has constructed alternative realities reflective of their respective pro or anti-whaling agendas. The constructs in each discourse are distinct; the former full of heroes and villains, the latter filled with scientific researchers. Not only does this underscore the depth of the ideological divide, but it raises the issue of journalistic objectivity and the role that journalism plays in influencing public affairs. We suggest that journalists need to think carefully about the consequences of their (mis)-representations and either acknowledge their partisanship and be held to account, or strive for more balance in reporting events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is substantial literature on media representations of asylum seeker policy in Australia from a number of theoretical standpoints, namely moral panic theory, whiteness studies and belonging and citizenship. While many of these studies use discourse analysis of textual media as a methodology, there is scant attention to the contribution of manipulative silences in media texts on asylum seeker children. Using a form of discourse analysis to explore the idea of manipulative silences, we demonstrate how media representations may steer public attention towards asylum seeker children in two dominant ways: (i) in discourses of deviancy by association with adults and (ii) the rights of boat children in association with immigration detention. Both generate confusion between rights, compassion and deviancy and, by shifting public attention, they serve to silence more essential concerns for the children. We seek to analyses these manipulative silences in the context of Australian asylum seeker policies of the Abbott government. In elucidating the use of textual silences to manipulate discourse, it is possible to see how Australian media representations may be skewing dialogue in the public sphere away from core political, legal and humanitarian issues that are imperative for the well-being of asylum seeker children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The advent of social media has profoundly altered star construction. While ordinary fans are allowed to produce and circulate texts and images of stars on the Web, stars and their personnel also join the cyber fan circuit to exercise persona management and manipulation. This essay explores the online persona of Jackie Chan, a celebrated transnational Chinese star whose stardom has expanded from cinema to goodwill, on the photo-sharing site namedFlickr. Through the analysis of three photo albums onFlickr, I argue that fans as well as Chan's publicity teams participate in cyber discourse, redressing any ill-reputed images and promoting a preferred persona that presents Chan as a cosmopolitical martial arts star and ambassador. This collaborative constructing of Chan's online persona exemplifies a new star–fan dynamic, causing his star image to oscillate between nationalistic allegiance and cosmopolitical consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given the widely circulated anxieties about the consumption of pornography and its presumed effects on adults and youngsters, as well as the intensification of moral, social and feminist campaigns to counter its spread, especially through online technologies, this article wishes to offer a country-specific contextualization of the pornography debate in Greece. Taking into account the pro-effects reading of the culture of pornography that permeates the Greek context, and a media agenda that mainly concentrates public discussion on children who are ‘at risk’ from the consumption of porn, we wish to argue that it is the legacy of the Greek erotic cinema of the mid-seventies and the particular way the feminist movement developed in the country which account for the public debate on pornography in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This discussion of three cases of filicide reported and reviewed extensively by the Australian news media between 2010 and 2014 is concerned with the politics of representation and its links to material violence. Moving through the architecture of the coverage rather than focusing on it this article observes popular, if mostly tacit, assumptions about masculinity and femininity in representing ‘family violence’. It locates coverage patterns to illustrate perceptions of violence against women and children and inaccurate stereotyping of such family violence as the extraordinary consequences of mental illness, which are mostly reproduced by the Australian media. It is suggested that such media representations are part of a downplaying of family violence as a public issue of urgency.Note – It is acknowledged that those who have survived violent crimes or have personal experience with the trauma and loss associated with such crimes might read this article. While every effort has been made to reproduce media reporting of the cases discussed here with sensitivity and mindfulness, it is advised that some readers might find some of the content of this article distressing.I joined the ranks of the mother who had her three children driven into a lake. I joined the ranks of the mum whose little girl was thrown over the Westgate Bridge. I'm one of those worst things that have ever happened.2 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Indie rock came of age in the 1990s, transitioning from its status as an industrial classification, a set of stylistic markers and a form of sub-cultural identification to a recognisable branding tool for major labels and mass media. In Perth, Western Australia, this process was framed through specific geographical and socio-cultural circumstances including the city's isolation and the existence of a strong middle class, which gave rise to a regionalized articulation of specific identity politics. Utilizing interviews with artists, promoters, managers and industry personnel who occupied key roles in the Perth music industry in the 1990s, this article discusses the various factors that contributed to the popularity of indie rock in Perth throughout the decade and explains the prominent role that the city played in articulating and influencing Australia's national music culture during this time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In May 2013, New Zealand's Parliament allowed same-sex marriage, adding Australia's neighbour to the list of countries legalizing same-sex marriage. While the two nations share much in common, as yet Australia has no intention of changing the law. The New Zealand legislation has been widely reported in mainstream Australian newspapers, and this study analyses those reports to understand Australian attitudes towards same-sex marriage. It finds that Australia has a sense of lagging behind the trend; that Australian marriage is most closely linked to religion which plays an important part in explaining the reform; that the issue of same-sex marriage is seen as a legislative and therefore as a political issue; and, finally, given that opinion polls show majority support for the issue that a change is required in Australian political leadership before same-sex marriage will be legalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of alternative media is confronted with endless discussions about its key features and practices, which allow academics and media practitioners to differentiate alternative media from mainstream media. This article critically contributes to this debate by deconstructing and complicating the dichotomy between alternative and mainstream media. In a first part, the defining components of alternative media are discussed, looking at their relationship with the social context, their content and their organizational structure. At the same time, some of the tensions embedded in the concept of alternative media are laid bare. In the second part of the article we present an analysis of three local Czech magazines which are perceived and labelled by their publishers as ‘alternative’, though, as we show, they hardly meet the criteria described by alternative media theory. The ambiguity in the alternativeness of these media organizations not only raises questions about their labels (and whether we should accept their self-definitions), but more importantly also raises the issue how alternative media theory can deal with this type of organization. Instead of describing these media as hybrid, we suggest that they remain positionedwithinthe category of mainstream media, though at the same time they aredifferentfrom the ideal-typical conceptualization of mainstream media. The notion of alternative mainstream media is proposed, together with a plea for alternative media theory to protect the alternative media signifier more and to further unpack the notion of mainstream media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a post-girl power environment, pop celebrities present girls with versions of femininity saturated with porno-chic styling, ‘up for it’ sexuality and ‘sexy’ embodiment. Girls' engagement with these ‘hypersexy’ representations in pop music, and media more broadly, underpins a widespread panic around the globe about the ‘sexualizing’ effects of such media on girls. As consumers of celebrity ‘sexiness’ girls are discursively caught between a postfeminist ‘empowerment’ discourse, accomplished through sexuality, and a ‘sexualized child’ discourse that disempowers through vulnerability and asexual innocence. How then are girls to negotiate their consumption of postfeminist popular culture as subjects who are ideally constituted as sexual innocents? Addressing this question as its pivotal focus, this article examines the ways New Zealand pre-teen girls make sense of the ‘hypersexy’ performances of female pop celebrities. To do so, it analyses focus group material from two studies in which girls talked about representations of female pop celebrities. Analyses identify ways girls draw on Girl Power discourse to disrupt their positioning in sexualization discourse whilst also underscoring the fragility of such agency in contexts where consumption of ‘sexualized’ images is seen by parents and younger children. Findings highlight how the contemporary ‘hypersexualized’ landscape creates a heavy burden for girls in an era of girls' ‘sexualization’ discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines online discourses of innocence and guilt in the Meredith Kercher murder case. One of its protagonists, Amanda Knox, sparked intense discussion across the entire mediascape. We discuss how the two principal online communities in this case deconstructed the forensics of a crime that has continued to divide both social and conventional mass media. Elaborating the concept of the amateur-expert which has echoes of crowdsourcing, fandom, communities of practice and self-help cultures, we argue that online engagement with forensics amounts to a particularly intense form of participation which is neither that of a professional nor that of the casual observer. As for the type of amateur-expert discourse that was produced in order to make sense of the Kercher murder, we observe how notions of purity and contamination, which constitute a prominent source of metaphors for cultural representations of innocence and guilt, purveyed the lexicon with which suspects' culpability and the probity of legal-forensic procedures were scrutinized by online forums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study of the HBO series,Treme, contributes to a growing literature on media and space, and on media cities in particular, that positions media as more than a representational practice. Instead, working from a production studies approach, I theorize how media, particularly in the case of television production, acts as a spatial practice that produces and governs contested urban spaces and spatiality.Treme, through its production practices, adapts to and takes up a position within post-Katrina New Orleans as well as influences spatial practices within the city, more generally, and the neighbourhood, more specifically. I consider how the series' production practices – including on-location shooting and local hiring – are implicated in the production of what I term the ‘media neighbourhood’, where the series plays a material role in the daily struggles over culture and neighbourhood space in post-Katrina New Orleans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand how postfeminism might inform media production, consumption, and media scholarship, this essay explores a set of arguments that circulate around the intersection of postfeminism and media studies. Our discussion begins by tracing the complexity and controversy around the concept of postfeminism to clarify the term and draw out its more productive strands. In surveying the formal properties of postfeminist media texts and ways in which the concept progresses feminist media analysis, we also identify a set of limitations in the concept and this leads us to a cautionary conclusion about the balance between descriptive and analytical tools and political action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]