ABSTRACT. I argue that a material-discursive construction of women’s bodies by neoliberal digital culture has given rise to transgender exclusionary radical feminism (TERF) in South Korea. Navigating the vulnerability and empowerment over women’s bodies offered by a visibility that is catalyzed by digital media and neoliberalism, some self-identifying Korean radical feminists construct the boundaries of what it means be to a woman by positioning trans women as a constitutive outside. Digitally networked social interactions that shape bodies as communicative and performative encourage cisgender women to juxtapose their bodies with those of trans women who have gained more visibility. I examine the self-identifying radical feminists’ online community Womad and the publishing company Yeolda Books’ Instagram to address how their juxtaposition is made to ease the body instability that cisgender women experience. I focus on their interactive, conversational performance of femininity, including their campaigns for the Escape the Corset movement and against the first openly trans woman soldier and the first openly trans woman student to be admitted to a woman’s university, as well as on their networked connections with global TERF organizations. Their campaigns and networking promoted the fantasy of self-control over their bodies, reproduced the myth of empowering women by making bodily visibility a qualifier for a politics, and boosted the self-affirmation of a global feminist leader respected by Western White feminists. This interactive body-making was supported by postulating trans women as failures of self-control, as grantees of undeserving visibility and opportunities, and as a spearhead for “morally corrupted” intersectional feminism.

ABSTRACT. Social media have provided a wider space for female discourse, as well as brought menstruation and related topics into public space. Current research on menstrual shame focuses on the manifestations of menstrual shame and its relationship to women’s behaviour, with less attention paid to women’s own subjective expressions of menstrual shame. As one of the most popular social media platforms in China, Weibo provides an open space for female discourse, as well as improves the visibility of issues pertaining to women in the public discourse area. In the discussion of menstrual shame related topics in Weibo, participants recounted their experiences, expressing their rejection of menstrual shame and reflecting on the phenomenon of menstrual stigma and menstrual shame in various of ways. This study applies discourse analysis to the content of menstrual shame related discussion in Weibo. This study explores the characteristics of menstrual shame discourse, how it is constructed, and what kind of female discourse it constructs. Menstrual shame discourse in Weibo shows the female-centralized narratives of experiences and feelings, and the positive expression of menstruation. The discourse also represents the interaction between female discourse and social structure. Female discourse has expressed questioning and resistance towards social structure, while existing social structure has inevitably affected female discourse. This article argues that the discourse on menstrual shame reflects the subjective agency of women, who are able to empower themselves in the social media space. However, the discourse and practice also face certain challenges.

ABSTRACT. In 2023 Oprah Winfrey announced she was adding menopause to the content of the Oprah Daily ‘The Life You Want’ curriculum via an exclusive filmed celebrity round-table, adopting a familiarly forthright, interventionist style. Menopause has been ‘shrouded in stigma and shrouded in shame’ she rightly observed, while in the conversation that follows she candidly discloses she came perilously close to depression in her menopause transition, before starting HRT, which proved transformative. She correctly notes too that the frank admissions her guests are exchanging would have been unimaginable in a broadcast space even a few years ago, all this presented in the kind of bold and aspiring terms that have become synonymous with Winfrey. However, this addition to her portfolio of self-help styled interventions can also be understood as part of a growing culture in which observers regard the rise of menopause awareness to be encouraging, and simultaneously heightening anxiety and trepidation around menopause. Further, scholars have underlined how seemingly progressive moves to embed greater menopause legislation and cultural responsiveness in the UK are entwined with regressive postfeminist and neoliberal discourses (Jermyn, 2023; Orgad & Rottenberg, 2023). This paper examines how Oprah’s promise to ‘give you the tools to [navigate perimenopause and menopause]’ must also navigate this troubling path, in which the imperative to ‘live your best life’ all too readily positions menopause as an entrepreneurial and makeover opportunity (Gill, 2021) and chimes with the kind of appeal to resilience that has become indicative of an era beset by a ‘permacrisis'.

ABSTRACT. This paper evaluates film practice methods developed in the research project 'Forest Ecologies: multispecies storytelling and industries of rewilding', partnered with and located at rewilding charity Trees for Life’s pioneering Dundreggan estate and tree nursery in the Highlands of Scotland. Through process-led observational camera and sound recording practices aligned with and seen through the lens of Tsing’s ‘arts of noticing’ (2015) as a tool for reimagining life beyond the Anthropocene, the research seeks to develop observational documentary methods as approaches to sensory and embodied labour in the work of rewilding, situating human endeavour within a relational flow of life. An experimental form of nature conservation, rewilding’s open-ended ‘future nature’ emphasis on ecological integrity and sustainable people-nature values facilitate scaled-up and connective approaches to landscape-scale forest regeneration necessary in the Highlands, where just 1% of its ancient forest survives. Drawing on multispecies humanities and new materialist approaches to documentary film, the research seeks to entangle sensory and material active world-making processes in the evolving forest ecosystem, exploring tensions between the spectacular and the fragile, the pictorial ‘view’ of the Highlands landscape and its flow of life, and the everyday labour of rewilding at Dundreggan’s tree nursery in parallel with the microscopic and often unseen rhythms of the forest.

ABSTRACT. One of my first tasks at the creative arts tertiary institution where I work was to examine the existing ethics processes and policy. As a result, I delved into the growing literature on creative practice research ethics to examine the ways in which academic ethics and creative practice research interact. A particular focus of this paper is the human research ethics process, with its underlying principle of reduction of harm by the researcher on the individual researched person. I investigate this by reflecting on the experiences of researchers as documented in the literature, as well as reflecting on my own experience. This paper examines the tensions that arise between the underlying assumptions of university ethics that emerged from the medical science’s Nuremberg Code, the realities of interreacting with participants in creative practice research, and existing creative industry moral codes. In particular, I explore whether ethics can be discipline specific; the potentially harmful effect of participant anonymity; using a rolling consent process to allow for changing circumstances and understanding; who the consent is between, for instance, a researcher and a community; and self-care of the researcher. As a result of the discussion, I challenge existing university research practices as directing researchers into a colonial relationship with the researched. This research has implications for how universities manage their human research ethics and audit research.

ABSTRACT. Machair is an acousmatic geolocative soundwalk that explores the agricultural traditions and ecology of the machair in the Western Isles of Scotland through spoken word, song, music, and field recording. Developed in collaboration with local community groups, the soundwalk is mapped to a machair walking trail on the island of Benbecula, responding directly to the landscape and traditions of the machair. Intergenerational spoken narratives structure the soundwalk with contemporary and archive field recordings that span over 70 years of tradition.

‘Machair,’ a Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) word for ‘fertile and low-lying grassy plain,’ is one of Europe’s rarest and most species-rich habitats; only occurring on the exposed west-facing shores of Scotland and Ireland. Generations of low-intensity farming have shaped this unique landscape and encouraged wildlife over millennia (Love, 2009). Today, these practices are sustained through crofting (a form of low-intensity subsistence farming particular to Scotland), carried forward through ‘oral transmission from generation to generation, preserving indigenous knowledge without recourse to written code’ (Sheridan, 2011). Land reforms have played a key part in sustaining these traditions, wrestling control of the machair from unscrupulous landlords and bringing the land into public ownership. As such, the machair is a cultural and political landscape, that represents a resistance to privatisation, and is an important part of Gàidhlig culture (Welstead 2014).

Utilising audio excerpts, I will outline the methodology and approach in realising Machair, namely ethnographic fieldwork, field recordings, social arts practice, and the use of sound archives. I will then reflect on the creative potential of soundwalks to provide culture-led placemaking that gives space for indigenous/autochthonous knowledge, and opens new avenues to investigate place, identity, and community through sound.

• Love, J. A. (2009) ‘Oh, dear! What can the Machair be?’. The Glasgow Naturalist 25 3-10 • Sheridan, M. et el. (2011) ‘Gaelic Singing and oral tradition’. International Journal of Music Education 29(2) 172–190

ABSTRACT. Ancient woodland and natural habitats in the United Kingdom are declining despite their vital role in tackling the ecological climate crisis. This project explores how individual creative practice can respond to this collective issue and focuses on the development of the Havant Thicket Reservoir by Portsmouth Water and Southern Water. Although the reservoir aims to relieve issues of water scarcity, the construction has destroyed over 14 hectares of irreplaceable ancient woodland and reduced the community's access to wild spaces.

Researching the impact before the start of the construction, artist and early career academic at Solent University, Frankie Knight (aka Frankie Murdoch), interviewed and photographed 11 members of the ‘Stop the Chop’ (now known as Havant Thicket for Nature) campaign group and recorded the landscape by using medium format film and developed the images using seaweed collected locally.

The project demonstrates the benefits of working in a natural environment and working with natural materials and aims to be used as an example for future projects that can help build resilience within communities against the effects of climate change.

The project can be presented as an installation of 16 A2 photographs printed on hemp paper, named after the location where they were taken using What3Words, and presented with a 7-minute audio piece that includes sounds from the landscape, clips from the interviews and music composed by Frankie Knight. The work can be viewed digitally here: https://frankieknight.photography/ and could also be presented as an individual presentation.

ABSTRACT. Since the Uxbridge byelection win by the Conservatives in 2023, the UK government and much of the popular press has represented the work required to address climate change as expensive and unpopular with 'ordinary people' (Gerard, 2023). However, opinion polls (YouGov, 2023) suggest another story - namely that climate change is a pressing issue for many ordinary people. Indeed, it is so pressing that many ordinary people are doing something to address their own and their community's carbon footprint. Their voices remain badly underrepresented (Weissmann and Tyrrell, 2023), with exceptions coming only in the form of short reports in Gardeners' World and other programmes championing issues of climate change. In this paper, I will examine some of these representations and compare them to representations that emerged out of a British Academy funded project on Sustainable Futures in Liverpool. The comparative approach of analysing documentary inserts in established television programmes and short programmes made about community projects in Liverpool brings into sharp focus that climate action is culturally positioned and sits within larger social contexts where other priorities, such as the cost of living crisis, overlap. It is therefore important that media researchers and makers recognise the different cultural registers connected to climate action and provide spaces for representation of environmental activism that reflects the wide variety of climate work that is actually conducted in the UK by ordinary people. The presentation will include an element of screening of one of the programmes we made in Liverpool.

ABSTRACT. With reference to factual broadcast output on “everyday life” in Scottish island and remote rural communities, interdisciplinary insight to a “permacrisis” discourse and its mediatized place-based context is explored. Explicit and nuanced tendencies of mediatization as either locally or non-locally aware, or critically embracing of ‘deep’ place histories, complicities and narratives are considered; including how talent and production is expressed as variously “expertly” informed. In reference to what constitutes current UK public sector broadcast mediatization narratives of “the Permacrisis”, the paper reflects on how relevant critical agenda (such as climate adaptation, transformational wellbeing, and UN sustainable development goals) are mediatized. In drawing on televisual data featuring the Scottish Hebrides in particular, the paper examines more especially how discourse is framed as situated, demonstrating the positioned place-based mediatization of knowing and not knowing places. It considers the textual framing of Scotland's island places and their tangible and intangible materiality, their hyperlocal and global connectivity, and the televisual reflexive formations that inform and embed “everyday” cultural practice of permacrisis adaptation. Textual examples include clips from An Lot (The Croft)- MacTv; Scotland’s Sacred Islands with Ben Fogle - Tern TV/Open University, and other related digital platform media discourse content. With reference to textual data from both Gaelic and English language media television, the paper presents a case for ongoing analysis as informing of interdisciplinary media education, industry good practice and the utility of a collaborative showcasing of community located, locally expert and collectively invested solutions to longer-view challenges.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores representational issues in subsea environments, based on ethnographic work with ocean activists. From home aquariums and sea monsters on medieval maps to underwater photography and remotely operated vehicles documenting deep sea terrain – subsea habitats have long fascinated publics and scholars alike. In recent years, media and cultural studies as well as ‘blue humanities’ scholars already produced important work regarding how subsea environments are communicated and imagined (see Champion, 2022; Jue, 2020; Elias, 2019; Hackett and Harrington, 2018).

Contributing to this growing body of literature, this paper contributes a novel perspective, namely that of “undersea activists”. Empirically, the paper draws on data collected in the context of a wider, ongoing 4-years-long ethnographic research project, which explores what it means for civil society to act politically at sea (Scharenberg, 2022, 2024). In this paper, I focus in particular on the case of community-led seagrass conservation projects across the UK, discussing findings that emerged from qualitative interviews with marine environmental activists, participant observation and qualitative analysis of the campaigns’ alternative media texts about subsea environments.

Drawing on theories of representation (e.g. Hall, 1997) and visibility (e.g. Brighenti, 2007), the paper discusses how representational issues are negotiated in the struggle of “undersea activists” and wider marine conservation politics. Ultimately, the paper argues that scholarly attention to subsea environments matters particularly in a time of permacrisis, because thinking media from an underwater realm hold the potential to shift our epistemic foundations (see Jue, 2020) and develop radically new perspectives on environmental politics.

ABSTRACT. As a catch all term for the unsettled times we live in, Sherwood (2022) defines permacrisis as “an extended period of instability or insecurity” leading to a "sense of impending doom." Sounds familiar.

On a somewhat more trivial level than matters such as Brexit, Covid and war in Ukraine and the Middle East - and yet nevertheless significant for those employed in the business of news - permacrisis can be applied to ongoing flux in the journalism industry and, at a micro-level, football coverage as the UK’s foremost prominent area of sports journalism.

It is telling that Wiske and Horky (2022) talk of the “concomitant loss of importance for sports journalists” alongside the increasing influence of new producers of sports media content in recent years. Digitalisation, they state, has led to “new and substantial challenges on the communicating of sports” that in turn has altered the relationship between sports reporters and coverage with new working processes and routines and greater demand across “a multiplicity of altered distribution channels.”

It is here where this paper will explore the juncture from polycrisis to permacrisis in the context of football coverage whereby, on the one hand, Turnbull (2022) implies that we now see our crises as situations that “can only be managed, not resolved.” And yet, in the long term, a crisis may not necessarily be disastrous but instead “prove a necessary and beneficial corrective.”

With that, this paper asks whether digitalisation has led to a permacrisis for football journalism or, indeed, will prove to be its saviour?

ABSTRACT. Chinese press faces heightened uncertainty post-COVID, with economic recession and increasingly tightened media controls compounding challenges for newspaper firms already grappling with digital disruption. This paper delves into the organizational behaviours of Chinese newspaper firms as they navigate this uncertainty. Through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders – including journalists, editors, marketing personnel, and advertisers – this study identifies a discernible rise in “lying-flat” sentiment among practitioners. This sentiment reflects a collective state of resignation and a diminished desire for media innovation. While interviews reveal shared expectations for change, caution in media management has led to a reluctance to undertake transformative actions.

This paper contributes empirical evidence and insights into how uncertainties, particularly in an authoritarian context like China, are managed by news publishers. By shedding light on the implications of growing change aversion cultures within Chinese newspaper organizations, this research provides a nuanced understanding of the organization-based response to the permacrisis in China.

ABSTRACT. Any debate about the future of public media must involve the public, but how the public is involved is critically important. While media organizations and regulatory authorities gather public opinions through surveys and other methods, people usually lack opportunities to deliberate together about public media as a public good. By analysing discussions within an online deliberative assembly about the future of the public service media (PSM) in the UK, this paper explores how participants reflected on and reasoned about its public purposes. In the process, we seek to clarify the value of public deliberation for media policymaking and regulation. Because PSM is a contested issue, public deliberation is not likely to result in a consensus on which all agree. However, deliberation is valuable for determining which justifications warrant reflective public support, and weeding out justifications that can be ‘reasonably rejected’ because they are not ‘shareable’ (Forst 2001, 2014).

ABSTRACT. On October 7, 2023, Hamas and Israel engaged in a new confrontation. These events have reopened the public debate on historical and territorial tensions. It has captured worldwide attention among international audiences and news agencies. This study delves into the Hamas-Israel conflict, focusing on the first month of the conflict.

Employing a multimodal discourse analysis approach, it scrutinizes the headlines of Aljazeera (English). By examining textual, visual, and linguistic elements within these headlines, the research aims to unearth underlying narratives, representations, and discursive strategies utilized to frame and interpret the ongoing conflict. Based on framing theory and news values, the study seeks to uncover how Hamas and Israel are portrayed, the language employed to describe their actions, and the broader socio-political implications embedded within these representations.

According to Van Dijk (2011), production processes shape a cognitive structure. The author distinguishes three elements in discourse analysis: cognition (norms, values, and activities); context; and discourse (the relationship with societal structures). Thus, allusions to the elements that shape everyday reality intervene in the crafting of the narrative.

The results show that the 'human interest' frame predominates over the 'diplomatic' frame. Similarly, prominent social actors' references show recurrent allusions to Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. Through an examination of the multimodal discourse, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the role media plays in shaping perceptions, constructing identities, and perpetuating or mitigating conflict narratives.

ABSTRACT. Talk details tbc. 

ABSTRACT. Credit rating agencies hold a pivotal position in international financial markets, and fulfil it primarily as discursive actors: communicating specialist financial information to, and seeking to legitimate and reproduce their views within, elite networks of financial media, corporations, banks, policy-makers, and governments. Through rating the creditworthiness of borrowers, including countries, they perform a gatekeeper role: facilitating or impeding borrowers’ access to international financing. But their influence runs deeper than this. In evaluating states against rating criteria, which are framed within a neo-liberal, free-market paradigm, the agencies exert performative effects on the behaviours, decision-making, and policies of governments, and foster the internalisation of financial market values and discourses within public life (Paudyn, 2013; Smyth et al., 2020). The agencies’ performative effects on governments are strongest when states are facing national crises and need to borrow on international markets to fund budget deficits. This was illustrated starkly during the financial crisis, and more recently during the pandemic when governments borrowed ‘record’ amounts of money to fund welfare, healthcare, and economic supports (OECD, 2020: 5). In the context of the permacrisis, the presentation will consider the performative effects of the agencies, as specialist communication organisations, on governments’ responses to past crises, including UK and Irish governments’ responses to the financial crisis, Brexit, and the pandemic. From a political economy perspective, the presentation will then consider the agencies’ potential to restrain and shape governments’ responses to current and future challenges, such as immigration, the rise of populism within social democracies, and climate change.

ABSTRACT. It explores the unique representation of the ‘Islamic State’ in Chinese state-controlled media, contrasting the prevailing focus on Western media portrayals within existing scholarship. It acknowledges that news media in different regions generate distinct representations of terrorism, influenced by their respective media systems and ideological positions. This study specifically addresses the gap in understanding how the ‘Islamic State’ is depicted in the Chinese media landscape, governed by a communist regime.

The Chinese government perceives the ‘Islamic State’ as a threat to the country’s internal security and stability, particularly in northwestern regions such as Xinjiang. This perception is further complicated by the potential impact on China’s ambitious ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative. Given the extensive state control over China’s news media, encompassing both structure and ideological orientation, this research posits that the representation of the ‘Islamic State’ in Chinese media is distinctly different from Western depictions, reflective of the unique role of news in a communist context.

This study employs an instrumental approach to multimodal discourse analysis to investigate how the 'Islamic State' is portrayed in key state media outlets, namely Xinhua News Agency and CCTV.com. It combines corpus-based critical discourse analysis for textual content and visual discourse analysis for imagery, aiming to elucidate the social ideologies underlying these representations. Three central questions guide this research: 1) How has the representation of the 'Islamic State' in Chinese state media evolved from 2014 to 2019? 2) What discursive strategies are employed by these media to shape the narrative around the 'Islamic State'? 3) To what extent do these portrayals align with China's national interests and policy goals, both domestically and internationally?

ABSTRACT. This presentation will report on an on-going research project (AHRC funded) that explores an unavoidable challenge of our posthuman times: our fears and hopes in relation to Generative AI and our uncertainities and anxieties around navigating appropriate terms of engagement. The project is currently working with 10 young people (16-18 years) in the East of England, through four workshops that employ playful and speculative methodologies to both develop digital skills in participants, while engendering a critical and questioning relationship with technology. While themes of privacy, algorithmic bias, ownership, etc. emerge as current concerns, in subsequent workshops, young people will work with a community digital artist to produce creative outputs using GenAI software and technology. The research team will share their methodological reflections on these encounters with young people, including the process (& ethics) of creating digital outputs using GenAI software. The presentation will also report on the discussions about possibilities and challenges of speculative learning contexts and lives in the far future (a hundred years from now). We will critically reflect on each of the workshops and overall, on the project’s intentions for equipping/supporting young people to face accelerating technological futures with agency and an awareness of the challenges they pose. In relation to the theme of the conference, we consider how our contemporary concerns about Gen AI in particular and technology in general, are indicative of a permacrisis and, whether the principle of creative and crtical co-production in learning contexts may offer insights as a useful tool of engagement.

ABSTRACT. The ongoing Permacrisis Poses significant challenges to individuals and society leading to a Mental Health crisis. Therefore, this PhD research project deals directly with the mental health crisis, a consequence of the permacrisis faced by individuals and society at large. By exploring innovative methods to enhance resilience and be a method used for suicide prevention. The primary focus is on leveraging Virtual Reality (VR) Documentary as a tool for intervention and understanding that ultimately would result in suicide prevention through an empathetic approach. The project adopts a multi-faceted approach, combining elements of psychology, technology, and media studies.

Approach : By immersing individuals in real-world scenarios through VR, the project aims to create an empathetic understanding of suicide ideations and its impact on mental health. This approach is rooted in the belief that immersive experiences can foster greater empathy, understanding, and, consequently, resilience.

This research builds upon existing studies in the fields of psychology, virtual reality, and documentary filmmaking. Psychological theories related to resilience, coping mechanisms, and trauma recovery form the foundation. Additionally, insights from the rapidly advancing field of virtual reality and its applications in mental health interventions contribute to the project's methodology. The use of documentary storytelling techniques ensures a nuanced and authentic portrayal of the permacrisis, promoting a deeper connection with the target audience.

The presentation will showcase the development process, key findings, and the potential implications of the research. It will include demonstrations of how existing VR documentaries, highlighting their role in using Magical Realism, Prosopopoeia and Psychology in Storytelling. Moreover, the presentation will discuss the project's limitations, ethical considerations, and recommendations for future research in the intersection of virtual reality, documentary filmmaking, and mental health interventions and storytelling.

ABSTRACT. There is considerable catastrophising about the recent dramatic advances in machine learning and so-called Artificial Intelligence. Amidst all the scaremongering and doomsday scenarios there are of course very real concerns regarding the dominance of global north perspectives shaping the majority of AI dataset training. This builds in systemic bias with potentially far reaching consequences for minority groups. Women, LGBTQ+ communities and indigenous groups are broadly excluded from these processes and are most likely to be the ones most vulnerable to the harms which arise from these biases. These groups are also those most likely to be subjected to AI supported forms of surveillance, harassment and even violence. There is much to feel gloomy about indeed. However, this talk will reflect on the hopeful interventionist work of feminists such as Mary Flanagan (US) who has designed Grace, a feminist AI; Joana Varon (Brazil) and Paz Pena (Chile) who have collaboratively developed a card game, ‘Oracle for Transfeminist Technologies’. I will consider how these very different initiatives mobilise playful and creative methodologies as a key element of their critical practice and interventionist strategies. Building on these compelling examples, I will also report back on “pAIdia” a series of collaborative creative and inclusive workshops we are curating for artists and performers in Nottingham through which to advance an ethical, critical and responsible engagement with AI.

ABSTRACT. The methodological route of my research, aiming at a reinterpretation of the notion of noise, takes recourse to early information theories. Noise here, positioned as entropic contingency, was regarded essential for enabling the transference of and the transformation into information. General discourse, however, favours the cybernetic definition of negentropy as the exclusion of noise and, thus, the enabler of information, which delimitates the original counterintuitive understanding of the role of noise. Contingency is necessary for cognitive invention, openness, and information transmission. When reconsidered as potential informants, the incommunicative and miscommunications broaden the spectrum of what noise can account for and thus possibly contribute—reviving hiss and other miscommunications in their co-constitutive role in information transmission. Hence, not only positive interpretations of noise but also glitchy miscommunication come to the fore. The intent is to revive the hiss and other miscommunications, recognizing their co-constitutive role in information transmission. More generally, the argument posits the need for a changed listening attitude to what is typically deemed incommunicative. It addresses the alarmingly increased noise levels (especially concerning intercultural themes and environmental aspects) that especially 'we' in the hemisphere coined by western-universalist-modernity are not hearing. In this moment, characterized by the urgency of addressing multiple crises with innovative approaches, the imperative lies in opening communication channels for strategies that transcend current interpretations. The indispensable necessity involves actively seeking avenues to communicate the unknown, the unforeseen and novelty in thought. My presentation will be a lecture performance that is accompanied by noisy interferences.

ABSTRACT. In her recent book, Keetley (2023) has usefully distinguished the Folk Gothic from folk horror, arguing that works in the former category tend to articulate an affect of dread rather than horror, tend towards temporal and narrative indeterminacy and emphasise the agency of the more-than-human. Central to both forms, however, is the concept of a dark nostalgia towards that which has been lost, through which the problematic present becomes re-enchanted without being sentimentalised; this appears not just on screen, but in contemporary land rights protests, environmental activism, and in the third wave folk- dance and music revival. I discuss three recent Folk Gothic feature films which, in differing ways, explore themes of eco crisis and eco anxiety, long-term components of the permacrisis, and how their framing of their themes transforms them through re-enchantment. In both Enys Men (2023) and In the Earth (2022), scientific detachment becomes fragmented and its technologies absorbed as the boundaries between the human and more-than-human crumble, while the Welsh-language The Feast (2021) reworks the myth of Blodeuwedd as a female revenge narrative, tackling extractivism, carbon capitalism and rural gentrification. I finish by discussing the writing of my short film screenplay The Rewetting of Red Ball Mire, which develops archival research into Devon heathland to explore competing and gendered conceptions of land use, tradition and stewardship, and idealisations of common land.

ABSTRACT. This paper addresses the possible role of algorithmic technologies for collective reflections on the possibilities of transcending today’s state of permacrisis. Amidst a reality marred by climate change, political instability and unreliable truths, artistic explorations rooted in software practices have allowed audiences to engage and connect with more-than-human existences and alternative scales of computation, opening up new types of understandings and foregrounding possibilities of existing outside the rigid frameworks of our techno-capitalist present. Increasingly, media practitioners are experimenting with bending and re-framing the algorithmic structures that scaffold contemporary technological infrastructures, in an attempt to think about ways in which computation can be done otherwise, in ways that are reflective, affective and community-focused. Volumetric technologies, sensing practices, slow Ai and independent digital infrastructures can offer valuable insights into other modes of existence through software storytelling.

Approaching software-mediated storytelling as a framework for the production of an alternative cultural politics, this paper combines feminist STS, software studies, esoteric knowledge, futuring and design fiction methodologies in order to reflect on ways in which storytelling and speculative dreaming can contribute to ways in which the permacrisis can begin to be felt, processed and addressed through a collective effort of communal and entangled experience that runs across human and non-human entities in its exploration of new ways of resilience and resistance to extractivist frameworks. Ultimately, it aims to explore the question: how can software technologies enable us to think outside ourselves and explore ways of being otherwise, aligned with Zylinska’s call for a ‘minimal ethics’ (2014) for the Anthropocene?

Zylinska, J. (2014). Minimal Ethics for the Anthropocene. Open Humanities Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/ohp.12917741.0001.001

ABSTRACT. The current ecological crisis necessitates a profound rethinking of our relationship with the environment, emphasizing the need for compassion and partnership as key survival strategies. This paper explores whether immersive art experiences can reshape environmental perceptions and foster an embodied learning that transforms these experiences into conscious, affective responses. Specifically, it questions the potential of immersive arts to fundamentally alter how participants view themselves as socio-environmental beings and whether such ephemeral experiences can act as effective agents of change. A case study central to this exploration is "Octopuses and other Sea Creatures," a large-scale immersive audio-visual installation. Set in Portsmouth, a city intrinsically linked to the sea, the installation uses the octopus as a metaphor to examine human-nature relationships. Drawing on Haraway's concepts, it investigates how a narrative connection between humans and octopuses can lead to an ethical and political stance that promotes the thriving of 'significant otherness.' Challenging the traditional portrayal of the octopus as monstrous, akin to Lovecraft's Cthulhu, the installation aims to cultivate a more empathetic interaction between nature and culture. Its primary goal is to alter audience perceptions, moving away from seeing the octopus as a fearsome, alien entity, and towards recognizing it as a companion species, with whom humans share a bond of significant difference. This experience is designed as a catalyst, seeking to induce a shift in the participants' subjectivity, thereby contributing to broader environmental consciousness. In conclusion, this paper aims to demonstrate how immersive art might foster a transformative shift in environmental consciousness.

ABSTRACT. Air pollution is the greatest threat to human health in India, reducing life expectancy, on average, by 5 years. New Delhi is one of the world’s most polluted capital cities with levels of air pollution nearly 15 times the specified WHO limit (5μg/m3) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Media narratives about air pollution are of vital significance in shaping public understanding, framing political discourse, and generating attitudinal, behavioural and policy changes needed to mitigate the problem (Singh and Thachil 2023). This presentation will share insights from an ongoing British Academy funded project, ‘Storytelling for Environmental Change’(www.pollutionstories.org) which seeks to identify and overcome limitations in existing media narratives around the issue. The presentation will firstly draw on findings from a large-scale qualitative content analysis to reveal the limited media framing of air pollution in mainstream Indian news media, focussing in particular on the episodic, fragmented, and hyper-partisan nature of the storytelling. The presentation will then share insights from the practice-based strand of the project which has developed three new film narratives around air pollution. The discussion will use concrete examples from these new films to illuminate new storytelling pathways that address questions of justice, inclusion and complexity around the issue of air pollution. Overall, the presentation responds to the conference theme by reflecting upon key tensions in media storytelling around the air pollution crisis and highlighting pathways for restoring public trust and generating transformative policy action.

ABSTRACT. From #hustling to #quietquitting, labour is a hotly discussed topic on social media. In the current 4th wave of feminism, these mediations often take on a gendered dimension. This is evident in the supposedly empowered #girlboss, and the women who claim to consciously withdraw from the pressures of the capitalist labour market as tradwives or stay-at-home-girlfriends (SAHGs). Labour is fundamental to understandings of being a woman in the 21st century, and these social media trends are part of our contemporary visual media governmentality (McRobbie, 2020). Under postfeminism, this often took the form of ‘having it all’, where women seemingly effortlessly combined full-time work with being a wife and mother. In the popular feminist media environment, we see this myth continued in the #girlboss, but also encounter disillusionment with the impossibilities of these demands. This paper explores the ways in which the social media trend of the SAHG engages with discourses of labour and feminism. Analysing posts from the #stayathomegirlfriend hashtag on Instagram and TikTok, this paper explores how SAHGs mobilise feminist and postfeminist tropes in their discussions of labour (domestic and paid). While the tradwife celebrates joy in domestic labour and is often explicitly conservative (Proctor, 2022), the SAHG highlights the often repetitive and unglamorous nature of domestic labour (not unlike their descriptions of the labour market from which they are withdrawing) and mobilises the language of social critique to eventually reinforce traditional gender stereotypes, including dependence on precarious romantic relationships.

ABSTRACT. Subscription-based platforms like Patreon and Substack, where audiences can be charged a monthly subscription fee in exchange for paywalled content and services, are quickly growing in popularity among content creators and others working in the digital sphere. While the motivations behind this shift vary, they often relate to a crisis of funding: with the precarity of platform revenue and waning funding opportunities for the cultural and creative industries. However, subscriptions also develop audiences into paying consumers, and this gives rise to several tensions. In this paper, I reflect on findings from interviews and workshops with feminist individuals providing subscriptions as a way of building community and sustaining feminist work, and those paying for them. What emerges is that subscriptions ostensibly provide a form of care and support among otherwise uncaring funding models, but at the same time generate powerful tensions between building forms of voluntary, participatory communities, and the kinds of relationships that emerge. Namely, participants felt they were owed a service, ‘buying’ their way out of mainstream social media but also opting out, through paying for a service, of the labour that is required to build a community resource and space – consumer demands and expectations with ultimately reproduce the forms of precarity, scrutiny and uncertainty subscription providers seek to escape. Building on scholarship which explores the relationship between entrepreneurialism, consumption, community and care more broadly, participants’ experiences offer a compelling example of the effects of monetisation and consumption within feminist spaces and the inherent contradictions and tensions that emerge.

ABSTRACT. Our research investigating girls' ideas about leadership via their engagements with women in the public eye was conducted in cultural contexts that exhort (some) girls and women to voice and visibility, and economic conditions of neoliberal austerity in which youth services and spaces enabling girls’ community engagement are greatly reduced. We found that girls: - view ‘voice’ and visibility as key to leadership, but have few opportunities to acquire skills and experience, and fear the misogyny that accompanies visibility -recognise problems and inequalities in their communities and beyond, but feel ignorant of the processes and institutions that would enable them to make changes. - desire to make decisions collaboratively for ethical reasons and to cushion exposure to misogyny

This presentation describes our knowledge exchange partnership with the social enterprise Sex Ed Matters, developing a free online ‘Tools for Change’ course for girls. It aims to provide knowledge of processes and development of skills that will support them in working together to effect change in their communities. We consider the development, delivery and evaluation of the project, and challenges in preserving critical perspectives.

ABSTRACT. This ‘exploratory practice-based research’ (Epstein and Dodd, 2012, p38) is an ontological enquiry in photography and music informed by primary data analysis and critical reflective evaluation.  Although my enquiry starts from personal reflection, it is timely and global because we humans find ourselves approaching potential environmental transformation that could be catastrophic for human occupancy. In this research, photography is an ‘information gathering technique’ (Epstein and Blumenfiled, 2001, p17), ‘an elicitation device’ (Mathison, 2009, p184) for exploring continuity of identity in changing conditions of human occupancy. I use music to translate insights gained from my photographs into three stages. I took the photographic technique of superimposition as inspiration, importing a stave over two photographs and comparing their musical characteristics. For the second musical experiments, I took the musical findings from the first experiments as a guide and extended the music in a more imaginative way based on my re-environed Yin-Yang symbol. The combination of the two compositions supports my hypothesis and presents a problem of incompatibility between distinct Yin-Yang. In the third experiment, I found musical solution to the problem by creating ‘interdependent music’. My photographs and music allow participants and I to see and hear representations of natural growth and citification. I seek felt and reflective responses to my work because human occupancy is affected by how the world appears to us and our perception changes our behaviour.

Chou Wen Chung, Tan Dun, and John Cage are among noted composers who have explored Yin-Yang. Hiroshima Sugimoto, Christophe Jacrot, and Meng Lulu are among noted photographers who have explored Yin-Yang. My research contributes original discussion about the philosophical and technical aspects of music and photography focused on Yin-Yang. Crucial to the definition and originality of my research is comparison between transformation as a process of natural growth and transformation as a process of citification (human construction). The central enquiry addressed photographically, musically, and philosophically is continuity and belonging during permacrisis.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents the learning from an applied research project to develop and test ViewfindR, an innovative XR camerawork simulator designed for teaching creative decision-making skills to students in the field of documentary and visual journalism.

Leveraging gaming technology, ViewfindR enables students to develop their director's eye by immersing them in virtual 3-D indoor and outdoor environments populated with static and moving characters as well as fully adjustable cameras and lights. It empowers them to make creative decisions simulating the filmmaking process, prepare storyboards, and share output with instructors for feedback and assessment. Unlike traditional methods, this interactive and experiential learning environment liberates foundational visual training from cumbersome professional equipment and logistical barriers. The tool is made available to users over ordinary web browsers. It provides students with a safe space to experiment with a diverse range of scenarios not easily replicated in real-life instruction.

This presentation introduces the ViewfindR Mark 4 prototype and discusses its development, user feedback and potential impact on visual journalism education. This research contributes to the evolving landscape of pedagogy, demonstrating the transformative potential of XR technology in enhancing creative skill development. This interdisciplinary applied research project has been supported by Cardiff University, the Research Wales Innovation Fund, AHRC, and ESRC.

ABSTRACT. Articulations of listening and sound in an ontological register are frequently deployed in support of a dispersal of the sovereign subject. On this view, attending to the non-conscious, pre-subjective dimensions of sound is to access a realm of affect anterior to rational and abstract cognition.

While such ideas have circulated widely over the past decade or more, they have been especially prevalent amongst environmental field recording practitioners and critics. Artist Peter Cusack invokes listening as a “relational frame”, Andrea Polli describes it as an “immersive” act that “provokes emotional reaction”, Chris Watson says listening brings forth “sublime stillness” and Leah Barclay asserts it engenders “embodied connections with the environment.” To claim the environmental field recording operates at the level of affect in this way is to hold out for it a capacity to cultivate ‘entanglement’ with complex ecological infrastructures.

But the relation of immediacy to non-human nature evoked here is contingent on a whole series of mediations disregarded by such an approach: technological, economic and political. This paper will attend to the relationship between the cultural form of the environmental field recording and the political economy of the recording industry, developments in mobile microphone technologies, and intellectual property regimes in order to offer a critique of idealised presentations of the immediacy of nature as a response to ecological crisis.

ABSTRACT. This panel brings together four papers from the early stages of enquiry of the AHRC-funded project ReCARETV (2023-2026). The project holistically investigates care across the UK reality television (RTV) sector through a multidimensional analysis of policy, production and participation. Recent years have seen growing public scrutiny of the sector, including a Parliamentary Inquiry in 2019; here, attention has focussed on ‘duties of care’ towards individual participants. At the same time, new regulatory protocols are changing the landscape for RTV production, where broadcasters and production companies must ensure that participants – particularly those deemed as ‘vulnerable’ – are adequately informed and protected. While these approaches are focussed on individual psychology and risk avoidance, this panel puts the intersecting relations and structural contexts of policy guidelines, working practices and the experiences of RTV participants, in dialogue for the first time. Working with a feminist framework for care, we detail some early findings from the first stage of data collection across our work packages. The final paper discusses how we seek to embed care in our research and asks how we can move beyond an ‘extractive’ approach to the collection of data towards a more generative and caring approach to our research practice. Key words: reality television, policy, labour, care, method

Producing policy for care: Reality television, ‘duties of care’ and the problem of mutual indebtedness. Mhairi Brennan and Helen Wood (Aston University) Following the 2019 UK Parliamentary Inquiry into the welfare of participants in reality television, Ofcom, the regulatory body responsible for broadcasting, made changes to the Broadcasting Code to establish better protocols for their protection. This paper explores the discursive landscape which surrounded the inquiry and Ofcom’s consultation process. Through a discourse analysis of the evidence submitted to the 2019 Parliamentary Inquiry and the 2020 Ofcom consultations, this paper outlines the dominant discourses which provided the backdrop to eventual policy changes in 2021. This evidence shows the competing interests of broadcasters - their protection of creativity within the limits of financial constraints - against participants’ concerns about issues of consent and poor treatment on reality tv shows. Whilst a number of mental health professionals exhibit concerns over mental health outcomes, notably absent are the voices of production workers, despite subsequent reports evidencing a ’culture of fear’ in unscripted production. (State of Play 2020) In this paper, we reflect upon the nature of policy production in this arena and the impact of the Broadcasting Code as tool for change. By utilising Ahearne’s (2009) consideration of ‘implicit’ and ‘explicit’ policy, this paper considers the difficulties in addressing the nature of care through a process in which ‘fixes’ are identified and isolated through risk management, when a core principle of care insists upon the benefits of mutual indebtedness. It broadly asks whether a feminist approach to policy could initiate more extensive reform.

Care work in UK reality TV production Dr Jack Newsinger and Dr Nina Willment (University of Nottingham) Policy and public concerns into care in the UK’s reality TV (RTV) sector have tended to focus upon the harm done to participants and audiences. This paper extends the analysis of care in RTV production to include workers, the people who actually make RTV. It argues that understanding working conditions and labour processes is essential if we are to understand the production of care and the lack of care within UK RTV, and by extension many other, similar, complex organised creative industries. The paper presents initial findings from the AHRC-funded ReCARE TV project. It is based upon data gathered from an ongoing programme of qualitative research with UKTV production workers, in partnership with the trade union BECTU. The findings illuminate how the now well-established conditions of UKTV production – precarity, long-hours, highly pressurised working environments, lack of diversity and so on – work to militate against the development of strong caring interrelationships. The paper also explores the capacity for workers to organise and implement informal care practices in order to support one another. Finally, the paper reflects on what an ethics of care (Held) approach might do to improve working conditions for UKTV and other creative workers.

Reality celebrity, work, and inequality (Jilly Kay and Eleanor Kilroy, Loughborough University)

This paper presents emergent findings from a study of the media visibility of reality television (RTV) participants in the UK, particularly focussing on questions of labour. Journalistic framings of reality celebrity careers focus on spectacular successes, as in the ‘reality TV rich lists’ detailing the wealth of celebrities such as Love Island’s Molly Mae. This sits alongside a tendency to see reality celebrity labour as ‘illegitimate’, and motivated by narcissism rather than the material need for income (Wood, Kay and Banks 2017). By tracking the media visibility of a wide range of participants following their RTV appearance, however, we are able to see the variety and subtle gradations of the less lucrative work that is more typically undertaken; we can also see how intersectional inequalities shape these work opportunities. Finally, the paper considers why RTV celebrity is so seldom understood as work; and how this ideological obfuscation of labour is frequently propagated through the media visibility of the RTV celebrities themselves. We consider what this might mean for the recent calls to unionise RTV participants, as well as the implications for precarious and ‘illegitimate’ media work more broadly.

Researching care and moving beyond data ‘extraction’ - towards a caring methodology. (Jilly Kay, Jack Newsinger, Helen Wood). The final paper of this panel draws out the progress made towards a feminist theoretical model of care for conceptualising, as well as intervening in, a competitive creative industry like unscripted TV. It considers how we can integrate our theoretical and methodological frameworks from across the project, as well the potential utility of this theoretical approach for future research in the media and cultural industries more broadly. Feminist theoretical work centres the role of interdependency, relationality, and mutual indebtedness and we discuss how this informs our approach to methods and data collection, which involve complex and intersecting dynamics, actors and interests. By implementing a ‘trauma-informed’ approach to research we ask how we can move beyond ‘extracting’ an understanding of care towards insisting that we embed care in and through our research practice. Drawing on our own ongoing reflections, we make some suggestions towards more generative and caring approaches to research design.

ABSTRACT. Danmei culture, a Chinese literary genre that foregrounds male-male romance and erotica, has received significant attention in academia. Studies have investigated how it enables women to resist heteronormativity or forms the escapist route for women to express their desires. Danmei culture has evolved into a transmedia landscape and cultural industry, exploited by the logic of capital. However, to date, danmei writers have not been considered as affective laborers living with precariousness in the cultural industry. Drawing on data from interviews with danmei writers, foregrounding the datafication of qing (affects and desires), this paper examines the writers’ ambivalent affective labor. The findings illustrate the emergence of an increasingly formulaic writing: by searching, selecting, appropriating and combining elements from the qing database, danmei writers generate a male homoerotic love story that invokes readers’ affects and desires for better monetization. Pleasure and pain mingle, consolidating the precariousness of the labor. However, affects and desires cannot be fully manipulated, for qing embodies transformative momentum. Rather than unilaterally mapping out how danmei writers are exploited, managed, and disciplined by capitalist logic in their affective production, I also attend to the transformative potential of affective labor: the unalienated affective agency of danmei writers, which exceeds capitalist control and regulation.

ABSTRACT. Since China's 2020 announcement of comprehensive poverty alleviation and the deployment of information and communication technology in rural areas, China's rural cultural production has entered the digital age. The representative rural cultural scene now revolves around rural short videos, primarily created and widely disseminated by rural youth producers (RYPs) in the mainstream short video media Douyin. Despite being central to these cultural scenes, RYPs' cultural production experiences are often overlooked by mass media and research. Additionally, the complex power structure of Douyin, a crucial aspect of digital intermediation, is seldom discussed. I conducted in-depth interviews with 25 RYPs, and let them critically narrate their valuable experiences within complex power structures. Their narratives highlight sensitivity and perception to the guidance of the government’s positive energy ideology and the power intervention of the algorithm. These interventions permeate the entire digital intermediation process, creating a continuous crisis for RYPs' subjectivity and diversity in maintaining cultural production. I argue that these interactions represent the approaches of "consent" and "resistance," enabling RYPs to retain their subjectivity. For instance, they use humour to dissolve public discourse and resist the guidance of the country’s positive energy ideology or play with tags to resist censorship by platform algorithms. Considering ongoing challenges, this “consent” and “resistance” to national ideology and platform algorithms reveal important means for RYPs to accumulate personal capital and serve as an allegory for the future direction of the rural cultural scene on the Douyin platform and the dynamic crisis in the rural short video ecology.

ABSTRACT. In the global state of permacrisis, Turkey faces a prolonged economic collapse and social upheaval, with soaring inflation and unemployment contributing to heightened poverty. Escalating challenges, including complex immigration issues from Middle East conflicts, compound political and social problems. Amid universal challenges like the pandemic, populism and rising prices, Turkey grapples with a new normal marked by corruption, political clientelism, cronyism, and censorship, leading to a divisive class structure and discriminatory practices impacting citizens' lives.

Despite the urgent need for an educated youth to rejuvenate democracy and restore economic stability, experts highlight pervasive uncertainty, resulting in a surge of mental health issues among young people. Ministry of Health data reveals a 70% increase in antidepressant usage over the past 11 years (Simsek, B, 2022), with suicides concentrated in the 15-39 age group (Istanbul Youth Research Center, 2023). Post-pandemic, a notable rise in psychology and mental health accounts on social media platforms reflects growing public discourse. Notably, the top two Spotify podcasts in Turkey last year focused on mental health (Simsek, B, 2022).

This research explores challenges faced by young people (15-39) in Turkey through semi-structured interviews. In a media landscape shaped by government control and censorship, the study aims to uncover how and why these individuals use which social media, news media, video games, or podcasts to navigate, address, find solutions to, or escape from the challenges they face. It is also aimed to share the videos of the participants who have permitted with the audience at the presentation.

References

Simsek, B. (2022) Is the increase in antidepressant sales in Turkey an indicator of deteriorating mental health in society? BBC Türkce. 10 October. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/ckd1ql4q8v1o (Accessed 30 January 2023).

Istanbul Youth Research Center (2023) Youth Suicides in Turkey Report. December. Istanbul. Available at: https://93b051ca-29f9-4e97-811e-22b6df3935be.usrfiles.com/ugd/93b051_36d858820df147b5beaddb152e43c9d7.pdf (Accessed 30 January 2023).

ABSTRACT. South africa is characterised by a troubled past, by high levels of violence and inequality and by one of the highest Internet penetrations in Africa. As in other parts of the World, the recent COVID-19 pandemic led to increased public concern about mental health issues. In the South African context, a particularly high prevalence can be explained in part by the trauma resulting from endemic violence, widespread poverty and natural disasters, to name a few. On traditional and digital media, this is often referred to as the mental health crisis. In this paper I qualitatively analyse a sample of 30 purposively selected online texts from various sources (social media, online newspapers, websites etc) associated with this topic. The goal is to explore and problematise narratives of mental health as a crisis by combining two different theoretical frameworks. On the one hand, the socio-cultural model of disability recognises the narrative construction of mental health conditions as deviations from the "norm". On the other, decolonial scholars recognise epistemological categorisation and pathologisation as a quintessential tool of coloniality, i.e. the persistant legacy of institutionalised past inequalities in the present. Both perspectives share a concern with heteronormative power dynamics enacted, entrenched and reinforced to a large extent through (digital) media. By normalising such long-standing dynamics, online narratives may contribute to perpetuate a mental health crisis which can be understood in part as their result and/or reflection.

ABSTRACT. The significance of magic and mysticism within sci-fantasy has emerged more widely an interest in cultural discourses regarding technology and the body. The ability to transcend the physical realm, access multiverses, or communicate with ancestral spirits, guides protagonists to see what is beyond their current knowledge and abilities. These experiences are often in response to existing crises and the attempt to maintain stability whilst enabling growth and new ways of looking at the world. The expansion of consciousness doubles with the possibility of physical prowess, whether studied and practised or gained from a technological or mystical source. The recognition of women attaining their ‘magical’ skills is often portrayed as they reach their teenage years and begin menses or when they experience the menopause. In addition to these representations there is a broader representation of women experiencing the ability to challenge their existing lives, break out of the status quo and make alliances or gain understandings that are beyond their known capacity. These affinities depict parents and children, sisters, and women of different ages who encounter technology or/as magic. These events can develop over time after an initial intensive experience which empowers the protagonists. Examples of these representations include Doctor Who, The Silent Sea, The OA and Echo. The latter also considers the ways in which disabilities are addressed and reconsidered. These narratives portray eco- crisis, attempt to seek the truth and challenge corruption as well as forge alignments in ways which can move beyond physical barriers.

ABSTRACT. This presentation is about ongoing research into disability, agency, and resistance in Games of Truth (Foucault). The work takes the form of an autoethnography that documents one disabled player’s failed attempts to avoid losing the Games of Truth staged by a Local Authority in London between 2020 and the present. Games of Truth involve ‘a set of rules by which truth is produced’ (Foucault 1997 p 297). When played by institutions, these games generate results that construct participants as valid (winners) or invalid (losers). It will be argued that such games have the capacity to engage the player in reiterative cycles that generate losing states at multiple stages. This multiplicity complicates attempts to win, end, or leave the game, and it complicates attempts to move into the position of autoethnographic subject: It is difficult to extricate yourself sufficiently from the game, to articulate the experience of playing the game. It is proposed that a focus on strategy can help generate the necessary distance. The strategy discussed in this presentation involves the Local Authority’s use of the phrase ‘grey area’ as a kind of discursive holding zone – a limbo within which subjects, acts, and agency could be decoupled from credulity, consequence, resistance, and accountability. This ludic autoethnography documents the researcher’s experience of being relegated to limbo, by combining Game Studies perspectives on contingency, consent, agency, and procedure, with insights from Cultural Studies (Ahmed, Halberstam, Berlant) and Critical Disability Studies.

ABSTRACT. This paper will illustrate through case studies how production design (mise-en-scène) and authorship (cinema d’auteur) have shaped depictions of gay characters on screen. While looking at case studies by writer-director Yousry Nasrallah, writer-director Youssef Chahine, writer Wahid Hamed, director Marwan Hamed and director Inas al-Degheidy. I argue that Youssef Chahine and Yousry Nasrallah are the only two Egyptian directors who depicted male homosexual characters with emotional integrity while others depicted homosexuality in an unrealistic way. The paper will also explore two types of directors in Egypt. The first type is what I would call the “crowd pleaser,” one that panders to the crowd’s expectations, leaning into stereotypes, making little to no effort to sincerely develop the complexities that a character, homosexual or not, deserves. Their films align with the so-called ‘Al-cinema al-Nazefa’/‘Clean Cinema’, a definition used by many directors and actors that means cinema without any kind of erotic sexual content or sexually related scenes that could promote or awaken any sexual behaviour and instincts. This type of director follows censorship rules and is being complacent with the expectations of the audience and Egyptian society as a whole, intentionally framing homosexual characters as ‘deviants’ in films – even when such directors believe themselves to be portraying such ‘deviant’ characters with sympathy. The second type of director is a mirror opposite of this. They creatively find ways to breach censorship rules, brazenly representing homosexual characters with emotional integrity, as real humans, such as Yousry Nasrallah and Youssef Chahine.

The presentation will include the screening of my doctoral research documentary. Documentary Link: https://vimeo.com/771143541 Password: ECC@LO-2022-pFeM

ABSTRACT. One of the biggest crises to hit British television in recent years has been (as with many other areas of society) the revelations about sexual abuse and misconduct in the industry, particularly cases involving high-profile presenters such as Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Russell Brand. TV is often regarded as an intimate medium due to its presence in the home; and presenters are typically associated with ideals of ‘ordinariness’ and ‘authenticity’ (Bennett, 2011). Therefore, the transgressions of these stars represent a severe violation of the trust contract between TV and its audience. In this paper I analyse several documentaries and dramas broadcast on the major UK public service broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4) who themselves each hosted shows by presenters caught up in such scandals. It is unsurprising that broadcasters attempt to win back the audience’s trust through programming such as this that at least notionally acts as an admission of, and apology for, the broadcasters’ own part in these crises. However, I argue that much of this content reiterates the way the presenters were able to act undetected, tempering the TV industry’s accountability with a sense it being at worst an unwitting accomplice - and potentially even a victim - of these predators.

References Bennett, J. (2011) Television Personalities: Stardom and the Small Screen. London, Routledge. Biography Ruth Deller is a Reader in Media and Communication at Sheffield Hallam University UK, where she is also Ethics Chair for the Culture and Creativity Research Institute. She is on the editorial board of Celebrity Studies journal and has published extensively on reality and factual television, celebrity, ethics and social justice and fan/audience studies.

ABSTRACT. Plant-based treaty is a UNFCCC/ Paris agreement grassroot companion that puts “food systems at the heart of combating the climate crisis”. Part of this agenda is a transformation of eating habits from meat-based to plant-based diet. In this presentation I will focus on how the British Press reported on discussions around implementation of this treaty in Scotland, where the treaty has been endorsed by the City of Edinburgh in January 2023 as “the first capital city in Europe” to do so. In particular, the presentation will look at how these discussions are framed as well as what argumentation strategies are used to support/dismiss ideas that surround the treaty in the three months following the announcement of the City of Edinburgh Council. Methodologically, I will engage in qualitative analysis of newspapers available via Proquest International Newsstream (15 Jan-15 Feb 2023). Depending on the newspaper in which they appear, the claims around the treaty and Scotland, are either dismissed as leftist radicalism by a government that wants to dictate people what to eat (and destroy agriculture) or as a step in the right direction in an inclusive, progressive Scotland. Often framed as economic or identity issues, newspapers often present reasons against such initiative as a threat to established agriculture, traditional ways of living and individual freedom, and as a common-sense view. Through this, this presentation discusses challenges in communicating the changing diets to the general public, especially as they are wrapped in complex questions of national identity, economy and common sense.

ABSTRACT. In the UK, the last decade has been marked by nationalist challenges, relative political instability and two referendums on the political UK’s future, which have contributed to near constant campaigning and a shift to more participatory politics. While both plebiscites promoted popular participation, their evaluations in the media have differed significantly: the 2014 Scottish independence referendum’s “revival of democracy” (Mitchell 2016, 13) starkly contrasts with a “crisis of democracy” attested to the EU membership (Brexit) referendum in 2016 (Schnapper 2016).

Against this backdrop, this paper explores how notions of democracy were mobilised during the respective referendum campaigns. It suggests that the term “democracy” was discursively used as an “empty” or “floating signifier” (Morrison 2022), which was mobilised by the political left and right to fit their respective agendas. By comparing how the notion of democracy was used to advocate for political change by the Scottish progressive left-wing (Harvey 2020; Introna 2016) and the populist rhetoric (Higgins 2013) of the British right-wing in media coverage of the referendum campaigns, this paper touches on the role of uncertainty in political communication. Specifically, it suggests that coverage of these referendums indicates that political uncertainty was more easily mobilised by populist, right-wing politics.

To critically analyse how notions of democracy were wielded in public debate, this paper examines newspaper representations during the respective referendum campaigns. It considers how these practices link to wider concerns about the mediation of populist politics and the extent to which these were (re-)claimed via public participation on Twitter/X.

ABSTRACT. The internet and social media have been hailed as vehicles for enhancing opportunities for democratic participation in the public sphere, as well as providing space to otherwise excluded voices. They are, however, also increasingly being used for enabling and propagating disruptive claims, messages, or ideologies such as tribalism, xenophobia, neo-Nazism, nationalism and right-wing populism, among others. Apart from enabling and propagating disruptive voices, messages, or ideologies, there is also significant focus in the West on social media aspects that may negatively affect democratic deliberation, such as polarisation, disinformation, echo chambers, bots, hate speech, and political advertising, among others. The anti-democratic potential of digital technology is also recognised in the geographical Global South where it is feared that elections might, in the foreseeable future, be focal points for networked hate speech, disinformation, external interference, and domestic manipulation. This paper will analyse 100 purposively selected Facebook posts and comments relating to tribe in the run-up and aftermath of the 2021 elections in Zambia. These elections were the first to be held in a context where social isolation and limitations on movement in response to the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the use of social media as a source of information and a forum for discussion. Preliminary investigation suggests that behind a facade of unity and non-tribalism, ethnic tensions which have persisted throughout Zambia’s recent history partly overlap with new political cleavages around emerging neotribes.

ABSTRACT. This paper considers digital inclusion through regular experiences of instability and looks at technological systems generally understood to deliver convenience and to overcome long-standing impediments and inequities. These considerations are made against the contemporary background of disruption—the intentional, glamorized disruptions of the high-tech, globalized economy and the unexpected disruptions of ongoing calamities such as a global pandemic and climate crisis.

This paper is drawn from preliminary findings of doctoral fieldwork completed in three locations outside the global North. This research considers digital inclusion through the window of libraries, knowledge institutions on the front lines of information/media access for diverse groups that include elite organizations, underprivileged communities, and disconnected individuals. Findings emerge from a close examination of the practical realities of digital inclusion and contribute insight into how a digital divide manifests and persists.

This ethnographic work illuminates multidimensional asymmetries in digital inclusion. One asymmetry is in the labor required to gain and maintain digital connection. Gonzales’ (2016) notion of technology maintenance exposes the constant work of keeping devices and connections operational. Another asymmetry is in the diversity of options for attaining inclusion. These options have geographic and temporal elements; inclusion may be temporary, periodic, precarious, localized, expensive, laborious to maintain. The preliminary findings shared in this paper illustrate precarious connectivity and the “dependable instability” (Gonzales, 2016, p. 235) of digital inclusion.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we draw inspiration from participatory action research (PAR) and the work of Latin American thinkers such as Freire (1972) and Fals Borda (1987) to interrogate artificial intelligence (AI). We propose a South-North flow by utilising PAR approaches from Latin America, challenging how the North’s centrality is taken for granted regarding AI epistemologies and experiences. In a context of living in permacrisis, we ask: which insights can PAR approaches offer when applied in Global North contexts with participants who are not as affected by issues of marginalisation?

Conducting workshops in London with a diverse group of students, tech workers and activists, we argue that PAR can not only empower marginalised communities in the Global South; we can also learn more from its application in the Global North, in contexts where people deal with different struggles. Our analysis delves into three concepts around AI and data (in)justice: autonomy, empathy and dialogue.

First, inspired by PAR, participants problematised what they called an empty interpretation of empathy, establishing parallels with transnational dynamics of data capitalism, which disadvantage marginalised communities. Second, PAR offered a critical lens to analyse issues of AI and autonomy in ways that are less individualistic and politically engaged. Third, PAR’s dialogical spirit enabled participants to locate various intersections between AI and dialogue. Critiquing the idea of a superior AI, participants were reminded of the possibilities offered by human intelligence and the combination of thinking, making and feeling or what Fals Borda (2003) calls our sentipensante nature.

ABSTRACT. Charity has long been a topic of interest for critical thinkers concerned that the model offers little solution to social and environmental problems and may in fact perpetuate injustices by hindering meaningful change. Nevertheless, mainstream political, media and public discourses continue to largely praise the work of the non-profit sector, limiting their critique to specific instances of malpractice rather than questioning whether its intention is to fundamentally resolve injustices. This paper will present data and analysis from 52 semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted by the author with charity executives during 2021 and 2022. These conversations sought to test the critical understanding of those holding senior positions within non-profit organisations around the world. Over half of these were UK based though. One of the most interesting findings was that, while many interviewees had a robust critical understanding of the problems associated with neoliberalism, few then carried this knowledge forward into their leadership roles. Indeed, many discussed their scepticism of the ability and/or intention of the charity industries to affect change in this way, but had limited capacity to introspect on their own complicity to this state of affairs. The conclusion of the research is thus that the situation of permacrisis is contributed to by the actions and inactions of charities and the wider socio-political perception that charity work, in its different forms, resides at the perimeter of what can be done to create meaningful change.

ABSTRACT. Digital-born media have surged significantly in the last twenty years and are known for their in-depth coverage of overlooked issues, amplifying underrepresented voices, and connecting with a younger audience not as attached to legacy media (Nicholls et al., 2016). Yet, despite its increasing significant influence, there is still a lack of clarity in conceptualising and understanding digital-born media in transitional democracies.

In transitional democracies, digital native media significantly disrupts the media oligarchy, which has survived authoritarian regimes such as Indonesia and Malaysia (Tapsell, 2014). The transitional democracies here refer to countries that have broken away from authoritarian regimes but retain anti-democratic elements within them, forming hybrid democracies (Voltmer et al., 2021).

This study utilises a systematic literature review to provide an overview of digital-born media, focusing on the period from 2010 to 2023 registered in the Web of Science database. The systematic literature review involves three stages: sampling, screening the literature, and extracting data (Fink, 2010). This study aims to map the landscape of digital news media in a transitional democracy on core elements such as the socio-political context, theories, and the objects of study, which have still been heavily focused on Europe (Cushion, 2021) and Latin and North America (Harlow, 2022; Nicholls et al., 2017).

Thus, this study will shed light on the evolving nature of such media in these regions and in other regions, such as in Asia and seek to provide theoretical insights that could inform the future trajectory of studies on digital-born media in transitional democracies.

ABSTRACT. Health and social care in the UK are under severe strain and have been for some time, with declining resource for large portions of the population facing health and wellbeing challenges. In this context, NHS integrated care boards have been seeking efficient ways to embed public health approaches in communities, including social prescribing that links people to community resources. Among these are public libraries, who possess deep understanding of and strong relationships within their communities (Sanderson, 2023).

Within the creative sector, interest in extended reality applications that promote wellbeing is growing; many applications with proven efficacy have been built, but developers lack a route to the public (Kilkelly, O’Brien and Ticho, 2021). To bridge this gap, the 2023 StoryFutures demonstrator project, ConnectXR, commissioned and piloted a creative storytelling art and health virtual reality application in the Maidenhead public library for two weeks, as a collaboration between the app’s developers, Hatsumi, the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead library staff, the Frimley Integrated Care Board, and Royal Holloway’s Department of Health Studies. The research evaluated the user experience and audience journey, the feasibility of the library as a setting for this activity, the impact on participants’ wellbeing, and detected different benefits for different population groups. This paper will describe these, concluding that the benefits of this type of collaborative approach, within the complex regulatory and administrative context of UK health and social care, has untapped potential to promote public health for a broader population in the time of permacrisis.

References:

Kilkelly, F., O’Brien, R. and Ticho, S. (2021) The Growing Value of XR in Healthcare. Available at: https://www.xrhealthuk.org/the-growing-value-of-xr-in-healthcare.

Sanderson, B.E. (2023) An independent review of English public libraries. Policy paper. London: Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-independent-review-of-english-public-libraries-report-and-government-reponse/an-independent-review-of-english-public-libraries.

ABSTRACT. News representations of emerging technologies can impact the public’s expectations, perceptions, and their desire to adopt such technologies (Dourish and Bell, 2014; Scheufele and Lewenstein, 2005). Examining this coverage uncovers the role of journalism in the social construction of new technologies. Moreover, the user experience of technologies further influences each user’s perception and adoption choices (Rogers, 2003, Zabel and Telkmann, 2021). Studying user experience highlights the areas that require further development to support successful innovation diffusion. Relating this to media discourse, disparities between media coverage and user experience can lead to Lucia, Vetter and Solberg’s (2023) “sociotechnical imaginaries” where media rhetoric diverges from the actual experience. Thus, comparing them can reveal the accuracy of media representations and the interplay between news, expectations, experience and technological diffusion.

This paper scopes academic literature in both of these areas, specifically focusing on extended reality (XR) technologies, highlighting key themes and gaps. The paper demonstrates that, while there is substantial literature examining the XR user experience, there is a scarcity in examining its media coverage, particularly in comparing user experience to media coverage. We therefore end by presenting a methodological approach, based on framing theory (Entman, 1993; Goffman, 1974), to compare the media coverage of XR to its user experience. This interdisciplinary enquiry has implications for the disciplines of journalism studies, user experience and innovation diffusion, as well as for practitioners developing and employing XR technology.

References Dourish P and Bell G (2014) ‘Resistance is futile’: reading science fiction alongside ubiquitous computing. Personal Ubiquitous Computing 18: 769-778. Entman RM (1993) Framing: Towards Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm. Journal of Communication 43(4): 51-58. Goffman E (1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Lucia B, Vetter MA and Solberg DA (2023) “I Feel Like I’m in a Box”: Contrasting Virtual Reality “Imaginaries” in the Context of Academic Innovation Labs. Technical Communication Quarterly. DOI: 10.1080/10572252.2023.2245442. Rogers EM (2003) Diffusion of Innovations. 5th edn. New York: Free Press. Scheufele DA and Lewenstein BV (2005) The Public and Nanotechnology: How Citizens Make Sense of Emerging Technologies. Journal of Nanoparticle Research 7: 659-667. DOI: 10.1007/s11051-005-7526-2. Zabel C and Telkmann V (2021) The adoption of emerging technology-driven media innovations. A comparative study of the introduction of virtual and augmented reality in the media and manufacturing industries. Journal of Media Business Studies 18(4): 235-266. DOI: 10.1080/16522354.2020.1839172.

ABSTRACT. A recent international study reports alarming levels of climate anxiety and eco-anxiety in youth from around the world (Hickman et al., 2021). The present study employs XR technology prototypes to reduce the levels of anxiety and increase knowledge about environmental issues and strategies, as well as resilience in a sample of K-12 school children. The two XR prototypes we are showing to the students are based on previous research on Sustainability and Educational Digital Tools. Using a pre-post experimental design in which students are encouraged to interact with AR, VR or to watch a video containing the same information, the study assesses the different levels of efficacy of the mediated communication strategies in reducing anxiety and improving knowledge and climate resilience in youth. We will conclude by discussing the potential of XR tools in educating audiences on sustainable practices in domestic environments and the risks that Climate Change have on the sustainable development of our society.

ABSTRACT. The Spanish Civil War was reported in student newspapers across Ireland and debates on the conflict demonstrated an acute awareness of the political situation and propaganda in Ireland. There was a stark difference between the highly polarized newspaper reportage from across the island and the perceptions of the conflict by student writers in the publications. What was published depicted an apathetic student body which, regardless of whether it was in Belfast, Dublin or Cork, mocked the belligerents in Spain, and the reportage newspapers throughout Ireland. To date, there has been no scholarly research dedicated to student newspapers. My paper examines the reportage in National Student (University College Dublin), the Quarryman (University College Cork), T.C.D. A College Miscellany (Trinity College, Dublin), Pro Tanto Quid (Queens University Belfast) and the New Northman (Queens University Belfast) and argues Irish students, unlike their fellow students in Europe and the United States, were detached from the schism in Irish society, despite the outpouring of propaganda from both sides in Irish publications during the Spanish Civil War.

ABSTRACT. The Korean War (1950-53) was the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s first international crisis after its establishment in 1949. During the war, the Chinese government adopted various forms of propaganda to construct a specific political culture to unite the people to build the ‘New China’ while facing both domestic and international crises. Chinese performing arts were a crucial part of this political culture. This paper draws on work in progress as well as previous examinations of selected genres of Chinese performing arts during the Korean War, namely crosstalk (xiangsheng)/comic dialog, revolutionary song, and regional opera, as they represent the wartime propagandistic strategies pertaining to Chinese political culture that transformed the nation into a propaganda state in the early 1950s. Through archival research of historical documents and ethnographic interviews of oral history, my study explores how the new government strategically shaped Chinese performing arts to consolidate its power while cultivating a collective spirit of resistance and self-sacrifice among the general population. With a case study of Mulan in Chinese opera, my paper also traces the changing significance of the Mulan story in twentieth-century China and modern China, since the story acts as a barometer for the cultural and political climate at the time of its production.

ABSTRACT. News domestication generally refers to the framing of a foreign news event within the perceived national or local context of the audience (Clausen, 2004). As a complex international conflict involving geopolitical and religious conflicts, the reporting of the Israel-hamas war has been widely reported worldwide. The remoteness and uncertainty of conflict drives people to rely on the second-hand reality framed and domesticated by the media (Godefroidt et al., 2016). When a remote conflict takes place, geopolitical stances play a pivotal role in framing because of the political impact on the conflict coverage (Wolfsfeld, 1997). To understand how geopolitical powers like China and the United States depict a conflict in the Middle East to their domestic populations, this study collected 150 textual reports on the Israel-hamas war from both Chinese and American sources. Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA) was applied, summarizing the news frames and domestication strategies employed by each. It was found that Chinese media tended to cite statements from domestic government officials, while American media utilized more diverse sources. Emotionally, Chinese media emphasized national narratives, whereas American media focused on racial and ethnic narratives. Regarding news frames, Chinese media reflected a peace-building construct akin to the Soviet communist system, while American media predominantly featured themes of conflict, economic impact, and attribution of responsibility. Using the Israel-hamas war as a case study, this research illustrates how media from geopolitically distinct or even adversarial nations depict regional conflicts.

ABSTRACT. This exploratory paper focuses on the Korean Drama True Beauty in relation to gender, body image, social comparison and impression management. Social comparison theory and impression management are key themes throughout this Netflix show. The drama focuses on a high school girl named Lim who is bullied because of her imperfect skin and the fact that she wears glasses. In the first episode, social media exacerbates this bullying, leading to Lim thinking about committing suicide. However, after learning how to apply make-up she transforms her looks whilst starting a new school. With her newly made-up perfect skin and contact lenses, her peer group now call her a goddess and she becomes the focal point of various love interests. The drama highlights the differences between her backstage and front stage performances with Lim removing her perfect make-up by the end. The television series reveals that there is also some pressure for males to conform to beauty standards and to be ‘cute’ rather than having flawless skin. The drama draws attention to the continual crisis that is reinforced by social media as well society in relation to looks, body image and self-esteem, especially for young people.

ABSTRACT. At a time of recognized permacrisis it is no surprise that Zombie narratives, “a barometer of cultural anxiety” (Dendle, 2007), are on the increase. The recent upsurge in Zombie themed literature, graphic novels, video games, film and TV series such as The Last of Us (2023) reflect the apocalyptic, post pandemic angst of an age dominated by technological, political and environmental uncertainty (Filho, 2020). Although Japanese blockbuster, One Cut of the Dead (Ueda, 2017) and Cannes winning French adaptation, Final Cut (Hazanavicius, 2022) draw upon the cult American Zombie comedy genre, (Romero (1978), Landis (1981), O’Bannon (1981), the reflective metacinematic narrative at their centres directs the audience, towards exposing the stylistic conventions and underlying doxas inherent within the more recent pre and post pandemic culture in which they were produced. Final cut opens with a film-within-a-film metacinematic narrative adopted from the Japanese original showcasing a production teams’ final chaotic and unstable output; a hand-held, guerrilla style Zombie movie where the camera is an active participant in the diegesis (Rødje, 2017). In a dramatic change of style the second and third acts chart the behind-the-scenes crises that led to the final film. Consequently, Final Cut (and the Japanese original) fit loosely into the category of the poly-narrative found footage film (Jones, 2023), with the meta-filmic aspects of Final Cut, reflecting the Japanese original upon which it is based. Finally, Final Cut also poses and makes transparent important considerations in terms of the role of cross-cultural adaptations and the instability of narrative in times of crisis.

ABSTRACT. Despite its tiny budget and formulaic premise, since its release in 1997, Brother has surprisingly become an iconic film in Russia. Its protagonist, reserved and mysterious Danila Bagrov (Sergey Bodrov Jr.), is a Chechen war veteran who becomes embroiled in gangland warfare after joining his hitman brother Victor (Victor Sukhorukov) in Saint Petersburg. The paper examines the protagonist’s paradoxical charisma through the prism of Ivan the Fool’s Russian folk narrative which presents a contradictory combination of resilience, roughness, ruthlessness, wit, righteousness and openness as key, and desirable, components of the national character.

Visually and thematically, Brother is a faithful reflection of the bleakness of the so-called ‘wild nineties’ in Russia with its noir-naturalistic depiction of dirty streets, dingy communal flats, and dark courtyards against the backdrop of organised crime, domestic abuse, poverty, and homelessness. The inhabitants of the film’s world exist in an ideological and spiritual vacuum, powerless and directionless, and betrayed by the crumbling system. This is particularly true of male characters, traumatized by decades of systemic oppression or failure, their only escape routes from the sense of vulnerability being addiction and crime.

Meanwhile, Danila, who is the typical ‘strong, silent’ protagonist, avoids the destructive cynicism and circumvents various historical, social and identity crises by embodying the archetypal characteristics of Ivan the Fool and adopting the folk hero’s resilient-idealistic stance. This emphasises the tension between the film’s genre origins (‘chernukha’) and naturalistic visual style on the one hand, and narrative archetypalism presenting a triumphant action hero, on the other.

ABSTRACT. This paper will consider romantic genre conventions across romance literature and romance screenplays and consider whether they are reflective of contemporary society or support a conservative hegemony. Through consideration of selective contemporary screenplays, it is hoped that new approaches and forms can be considered in order to revaluate the genre or at least engender further debate.

The romance genre is arguably stigmatised undeservedly because of the imperative for a happy ending. It is easy for critics to cast aspersions over a genre if one of the primary plot points, the ending and with it an emotional conceit to instil or illicit joy or familiarity in its audience is sacrosanct. It could be argued that emotional investment in a narrative is tempered when the ending is a foregone conclusion either way, positive or negative. Does a genre need to prescribe specific endings to a potentially infinite amount of stories? What does a genre hope to gain by being recalcitrant? With genres constantly in flux and their patterns, conventions and tropes sensitive to their own cultural and contemporary milieu, is it not conceivable that romances can span the depth and breadth of our capacity to experience and express notions of love in whatever form and to whatever end? Central to this argument are two theorist’s definitions of the romance genre, those of Regis 2006 and Parker 1999, who occupy opposing viewpoints in order to articulate the deeper debate that underpins the genre.

ABSTRACT. In the summer of 1945, the American Jewish Committee funded a study to determine the effectiveness of visual propaganda in fighting prejudice. The study was undertaken at Paul F. Lazarsfeld’s Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University. The study, led by Patricia Kendall and Dr Katherine Wolf, included interviews with some 160 subjects – white working-class men. In the framework of the study, prejudice was always already understood to be situated in these male subjects.

Eighteen female interviewers cruised around Central Park looking for appropriate subjects, ultimately conducting 160 interviews. The transcripts became part of quantitative data, showcasing the effectiveness or lack thereof of visual propaganda to fight prejudice. However, reading these interviews against the grain, they also present white working-class men at a time of crisis.

At the end of World War II, many of these men were striking against their employers for better working conditions; they were already organising against racism; and they were providing an in-depth analysis of the workings of capitalism as a system of divisive exploitation. These ideas, however, did not fit into the dominant pre-existing understanding of the location of prejudice. Interviewers therefore dismissed these men as flamboyant communists.

Yet these men’s voices tell us about the complex and contradictory experience of being a white working-class American man at a time of political and economic crisis. Their voices also point to the presumption of neutrality and progressivism of early communication, as opposed to their research subjects’ imagined prejudice and bigotry.

ABSTRACT. This paper discusses the proliferation of ‘gratitude’ narratives espoused by new migrants towards their host country, as a form of valorised ‘self-regulation’ and assessment with regards to the extent and effectiveness of assimilation — of both themselves and perceived migrant others. As a case study, I conducted a textual analysis of social media posts (Instagram, X) made by Hong Kong migrants in Taiwan in response to the 2024 Taiwanese Presidential elections. One of the central discursive contentions identified was a debate between gratitude for the ruling party’s political stance, the territory’s democratic affordances, and the anxieties from administrative limbo and poor de facto support engendered by the same entities others were grateful to.

Drawing from the intersections of citizenship, media, and migration studies (Isin, 2020; Lazar, 2013), this paper explores how ideas around gratitude function in processes of civic subjectivation (Ong, 1996), whereby migrants are moulded in accordance with images of a particular, valorised national subject through mediated practices. In this paper, I argue that ‘gratitude’ is incorporated into civic practices and duties that define individuals as worthy members of the host society, their entitlement to rights, resources, and collective markers; its lack denotes the abjected — the spoilt, incompatible, individualistic ‘bad egg’ that ruins the prospects of everyone else. Furthermore, I suggest that gratitude is inextricably linked to feelings and experiences of migrant precarity. The perceived need to competitively profess and police gratefulness in on/offline spaces is proposed to draw upon migrants’ affective resources of vulnerability, anxiety, and precarity as positioned by the differential politico-legal citizenship frameworks (Butler, 2012).

ABSTRACT. Over the past decade, the citizenship rights of the so-called “second generation” of immigration has often been at the centre of political debate in Italy. The Italian citizenship law is informed by the jus sanguinis (right of blood) and someone born in Italy to foreign nationals has to wait to turn 18 to apply for an Italian passport. Understandably, this issue reflects a problematic articulation of national belonging in a country which has never properly come to terms with its colonial past, and where foreign nationals constitute 8.5 per cent of the population (13 per cent among the under 18). This study is the first to investigate the role of professionals of immigrant background in Italian media and how their work may challenge dominant narratives of belonging. Through interviews with young (under 35) journalists, authors, video-makers and podcasters, and textual analysis, the study documents their experience in a dynamic but increasingly precarious industry. They work mainly as free-lance journalists, some have set up independent media companies, podcasts or YouTube channels, some publish books while contributing to magazines and newspapers. Issues of racialization and discrimination are relevant to this study, as through the campaigns for a new citizenship law and the Black Lives Matter movement a new generation of young, racialized media professionals has emerged. Drawing on Cultural Studies and post-colonial theories, this paper shows how diversity is perceived within the media and how the work of a new generation of media professionals contributes to transform and enrich Italian society.

ABSTRACT. Advancing an affective-discursive approach, this article explores how distant witnessing constitutes a form of cross-border activism against China’s nationalist politics, using the “great translation movement” (GTM) on Twitter (known as X today) as a case study. The GTM started with dissidents translating China’s official and grassroots pro-Kremlin commentaries into other languages and posting them on Twitter to challenge the regime’s foreign policy in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The research scrutinises GTM Twitter postings to showcase how the GTM has evolved into a participatory project amid battlefield stalemates that have prolonged the war. The campaign is primarily organised around tactically witnessing pro-regime rhetoric from a distance to protest against the nationalist shift within Chinese society and, by extension, the legitimacy of the authoritarian regime. Offering theoretical insights, our analyses of the GTM endorse an affective-discursive approach, highlighting two interlocked affective gestures to explain the tactical rationale behind distant-witnessing participatory projects. The pre-personal gesture is defined by participants' relentless information-sourcing actions, which frequently involve using screenshots or videos to document temporal, first-person experiences of encountering institutional violence insofar as to offer eyewitness accounts. The GTM has broadened the implications of such praxes by repackaging pro-regime grassroots rhetoric as part of their distant-witnessing experiences, using English-language translations to enhance their spreadability on Twitter. This signifies the distinctiveness of the cross-border initiative, deliberately structured to facilitate symbolic sense-making in the transnational digital sphere. The research findings showcase how cross-border participatory projects purposively appropriate the interconnectedness of the global digital infrastructure for Southern-Northern symbolic exchanges and affective communications to tackle the visibility issues often facing dissent in authoritarian contexts.

ABSTRACT. Public service media is said to be in the midst of a ‘crisis of trust’ (Flew 2019). The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in particular has seen a decline in use and trust among whole audience groups, particularly young British Muslims. This group has traditionally expressed disillusionment with BBC News due to its reporting on the ‘Muslim world’, especially the conflict between Israel and Palestine (Ahmad 2006, Gillespie et al 2010, Harb and Bessaiso 2006, Miladi 2006, 2008, Poole 2014). This paper adds to this literature through a qualitative study of how British-Muslims perceive media coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Focus groups and interviews (67 participants) were conducted between 2016 and 2018 in order to explore why this segment of the audience were unlikely to trust the UK’s main public service broadcasting. Results indicate that there was a perceived dominance of Israeli perspectives within BBC coverage of the conflict, with many participants choosing turning to user generated content and alternative outlets such as Al Jazeera instead. Many actively sought out content that challenged the perspectives of mainstream British outlets such as the BBC. The rejection of the BBC coverage by British Muslims was part of a complex negotiation involving pre-existing perceptions of BBC bias, personal experiences and their identification with Palestinians on a cultural and religious standpoint.  The paper concludes by considering the implications of the study for the BBC’s ability to fulfil its public service remit and act in the public interest.

References:

Ahmad, F. (2006) ‘British Muslim Perceptions and Opinions on News Coverage of September 11’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 32:6, pp961-982.

Flew, T (2019)’Digital Communication, the crisis of trust, and the post-global’, Communication Research and Practice, 5:1, pp4-22.

Gillespie, M., Gow, J., Hoskins, A., O'Loughlin, B., žveržhanovski, I., (2010) ‘Shifting Securities: News Cultures, Multicultural Society and Legitimacy’. Ethnopolitics. 9(10).

Harb, Z., Bessaiso, E., (2006) ‘British Arab Muslilm Audiences and Television after September 11’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32:6, pp1063-1076.

Miladi, N. (2006) ‘Satellite TV News and the Arab Diaspora in Britian: Comparing Al Jazeera, the BBC and CNN’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32:6, pp947-960.

Miladi, N. (2008) ‘Mediating wars and conflict: North African TV audiences in the UK and the changing security landscape’, Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, Vol 1 No 3 pp245-257.

Poole, E. (2014)‘Muslim Media’ and the politics of Representation Media and Cultural Responses to Diversity Issues in Britain,’ Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 7, pp101-118.

ABSTRACT. After the outbreak of the COVID pandemic it was forecasted that suicide rates will rapidly increase. Such assumption was based on wide-ranging evidence from studies on previous crises of the Great Depression from the 1930s, Asian economic crisis of 1997 or global financial crisis and austerity after 2008. There was, however, no evidence of a worldwide increase in suicides during the COVID-19 pandemic. Possibly implemented measures to protect the labour market had an indirect preventative effect as they stabilised the employment condition. Yet, with the high inflation and costs of living crisis the risk of raising suicide rates remains relevant. Literature suggests that the condition of a democratic society can be measured on the number of citizens who decided to take their own life. This paper discuses media discourse on crises – related suicides including politically motivated suicides in public spaces. Suicide has a weakening impact on community, as it distresses the larger group of people than the grieving relatives. Suicide awakes various emotions such as helplessness, victimisation, vulnerability, guilt, grief, protection, pity, shame or dead-end. The analysis includes interviews with journalists and media producers, health professionals, members of helping organisations and political stakeholders.

ABSTRACT. The border between India and Pakistan is impermeable, and yet rivers, birds, gunfire, the smog-filled clouds over Lahore and Delhi, songs and visual culture manage to flow across the world’s most militarised frontiers. The crisis is as old as the countries’ independence in 1947, while the media about the ‘others’, the public across the border can be seeped in hatred, with entertainment from ‘enemy territory’ facing bans (Banaji, 2012, 2018). Departing from prominent analyses of this conflict as intractable, this paper looks at the media that manages to trickle into this permacrisis with the rise of platforms to subvert cultures. I present two case studies that are emblematic of the region's complicated cultural exchanges and regulatory transformations in the region. The first concerns popular musician Ali Sethi, equally heard in India and his homeland Pakistan. Sethi is queer, a rare, dangerous label to embrace for public figures of his stature (Masih, 2023). The second is the case of a corporation, the Indian media giant, the Zee Group, which in 2014 brought Pakistani dramas to Indian TV audiences, and later it took shows off-air citing military tensions (Bhattacharya & Nag, 2016; Pant, 2019). Both Sethi and Zee are tied to environments that they hypothetically shouldn’t be in. That they manage to, I argue, is because of their creative practices of survival and commerce amidst platformisation. In tracing them this work will engage with theories of platformisation (Poell, Nieborg & van Dijck, 2019), nationalism (Anderson, 1983), audiences (Buckingham, 1993; Mette & Scott, 2001) and queerness (Anzaldúa, & Keating, 2009), offering conceptual and empirical insights that South Asia has to offer.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines Forensic Architecture’s video work Shipwreck at the Threshold of Europe (2020) to investigate how the crises produced by Europe’s maritime borders strain at the limits of representation. On 28th October 2015, a boat holding 300 passengers left the coast of Turkey in rough seas hoping to reach Lesvos. It sank in EU waters; at least 43 people drowned, making it the deadliest incident in the ‘long summer of migration’, when over a million refugees and migrants attempted to reach EU shores by sea – numbers that have now been far surpassed.

What happens when a disaster does not register as such, but is rather a structural and predicable condition? In this paper, I examine the difficulties of ‘knowing’ a moment of crisis. I propose the term ‘oceanic aesthetics’ to point towards that which slips beyond the reach of signification. I draw on Matthew Fuller and Eyal Weizman’s theorisation of ‘investigative aesthetics’ (2021) which turns on the Greek root aisthesis meaning that which pertains to the senses. It hints at sensing – the capacity to be impacted or affected – and sense-making. In Shipwreck, Forensic Architecture mobilise the visual language of the state – with its promises of objective ‘truth’ – to construct an account that instead foregrounds the contingency of knowledge. Data from geo-location devices, smart-phone cameras, military-grade thermal cameras and satellite images are held alongside fragments of traumatic memory, recorded sound and the impact held in the sea itself. Shipwreck points to the traces of experience that exceed the representational ‘frame’.

ABSTRACT. There are today 1.83 million OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) around the world. Using comics and visual/textual reportage as an ethnographic methodology, (Causey, 2017) Dr Tom Sykes and Dr Louis Netter have been documenting OFWs’ motives for migrating (economic, educational, familial, etc.) abroad and the challenges facing them when they relocate (lack of employment, discrimination, regionalism, environmental injustice and political instability). We have been interviewing OFWs from all walks of life and capturing their intimate personal testimonies and narratives. The comic form enables visual metaphor, style, and the fluid representation of time and space. (McCloud, 2006) Our approach contests not only the lack of “sense making” (Hamilton, 2012), in which Global Northern journalists provide little explanation of the macro social causes of Global Southern problems, resulting in fallacious conclusions such as these problems being solely the responsibility of their victims, but the tendency of more traditional academic discourses and methodologies to reduce the complex experiences of post-colonial subjects to impersonal and homogenized data sets. (Davies, 2018) Such problematic approaches have been shown to create hierarchies between privileged Global Northern researchers and underprivileged Global Southern subjects; (Canevacci, 2012) our previous, more conventionally academic research has interrogated various discourses of relatively privileged writers and artists all over the world patronizing, belittling and misunderstanding those less fortunate than themselves. (Netter, 2023; Sykes, 2021) Our innovative, arts-based, non-traditional academic methods, which include in-situ writing, drawing and interviewing, have been proven to avoid such power dynamics. (Sykes & Netter, 2023)

ABSTRACT. In our interconnected world, transformed into a “single place” (Robertson, 1992: 6), amid the ongoing era of permacrisis, news agencies, particularly their foreign correspondents, remain pivotal in navigating, communicating, and interpreting multifaceted events impacting societies globally. Within this intricate landscape, the cultural identity of foreign correspondents emerges as a pivotal factor influencing their narration of global events. Positioned as the “first important cultural framers of events” (Papathanassopoulos and Giannouli, 2015: 4), they actively contribute to the “mediated image-building of foreign countries and translating foreign cultures” (Beliveau et al., 2011: 130), aiding audiences in comprehending the intricacies of these events (Beliveau et al., 2011: 130).

This paper aims to explore the cultural identities, citizenship(s) and cosmopolitan stances of European news agency foreign correspondents, examining how these elements shape narratives in a world where interconnected challenges permeate every facet of human life. The research stems from the PhD project titled Mediating – Negotiating – Translating: News Agency Foreign Correspondents’ Role in Communicating Culture, investigating the dynamics underpinning the mediation, translation, and negotiation of cultures and countries in the realm of global news production.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 67 foreign correspondents (status quo) from three European news agencies are supplemented with conclusions drawn from a thematic analysis of their written work, forming the basis of this exploration. Employing a “multilingual approach” (Marschan-Piekkari and Reis, 2005: 224), this research is conducted in five languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French) to align with Hennink’s (2008: 25) assertion that “Language is a window into understanding culture.”

ABSTRACT. We are inevitably witnessing the impact of algorithmic biases and inequalities across the cultural and creative industries, from misrecognition in facial recognition software, the favourability of whiteness in digital avatars, and the programming of large language models (LLMs) reproducing racist discourse. This paper takes findings from a developing project investigating the increasing reliance of social listening tools (SLTs) in the promotional industries, particularly in market research and public relations consultancies. These organisations serve as the intermediary between brands, agencies and audiences, using these tools to research and interpret audience behaviour, delivering strategic recommendations to their clients. Some recent studies on algorithmic biases acknowledge the circular feedback loop on platforms themselves where LLMs relearn and, thus, repeat systematic biases.

This paper takes a critical lens on this developing area of research in media and wider technological studies investigating this supply chain of communication. It argues that the problematic use of data is often manipulated by practitioners and used to further embed systemic inequalities, sustaining the permacrisis of racial inequalities. These preliminary findings suggest that cyclical inequalities continue operate across the industry as it becomes more reliant on digital technologies such as SLTs for gathering quantitative data on audiences. The paper ultimately demonstrates the challenges that the promotional industries face as it relies more on SLTs and datafication, but also the agency and strategic intent of practitioners.

ABSTRACT. Chinese online screen industries have developed a unique content ecosystem distinct from Western counterparts over the past decade. While Western platforms like YouTube and Netflix segregate user-generated content (UGC) from professionally produced content, Chinese platforms integrate both, bringing together amateurs and professionals. With the driving forces of platform features such as algorithmic recommendation, short video, and social media, professionally produced videos have been continuously challenged to find their position and attract audiences on the platforms. This paper examines the transforming production processes of professionally produced content on Chinese video-sharing platforms Douyin and Bilibili, aiming to explore the influence of these platforms on professional video production.

Some scholars have observed the migration of Chinese creative workers from traditional film and TV sectors to online video-sharing platforms. However, very little literature has addressed the changes that these platforms have brought to the professional video production process and video content, and whether video-sharing platforms can provide a sustainable path with good structural conditions for professional video production to create high-quality, diverse, informative and meaningful content. This paper aims to fill the research gap by presenting the initial findings of an ongoing PhD research project. Through a combination of interviews, participant observation, platform interface analysis, and textual analysis, this paper critically discusses the convergence of traditional and new video production processes and the changing production culture in the Chinese online video-sharing industry.

ABSTRACT. A MeCCSA Practice Network Q&A with Professor David Harradine (Central School of Speech & Drama) facilitated by Dr Roy Hanney (Solent University).

Abstract:

In the evolving landscape of academic research, the dissemination and peer-review of creative practice research present unique challenges, particularly when the outputs are not in conventional text or video formats. This Q&A will explore examples of best practice in the field drawing on insights from a Professor David Harradine’s (Central School of Speech and Drama) successful REF BOXES initiative . The session will explore innovative strategies for effective dissemination, and the implications of non-textual or videographic research outputs in the context of the UK's Research Excellence Framework.

The discussion aims to unpack the complexities of peer-reviewing creative works, the need for understanding and navigating non-textual research dissemination, and the importance of ensuring that creative practice research is recognized and valued. The session aims to identify actionable strategies to overcome the invisibility of certain research practices and outputs in peer review processes, and to foster a more inclusive understanding of what constitutes valuable research contributions.

This session promises to be a platform for exchanging ideas, sharing best practices, and charting a course towards more inclusive and effective dissemination and evaluation mechanisms for creative practice research.