This thematic issue presents the outcome of the 2015 ECREA Communication and Democracy Section Conference " Political Agency in the Digital Age " that was held at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. It problema... more abstractThis thematic issue presents the outcome of the 2015 ECREA Communication and Democracy Section Conference " Political Agency in the Digital Age " that was held at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. It problematizes changes in the configurations of political agency in the context of digital media. The articles represent a shift from an exclusive focus on political elites to the interrelation between institutionalised politics and political processes in other societal spheres in the field of media and politics research. Political agency as the main notion of the thematic issue draws attention at the (media) practices through which social actors reproduce, reorganise and challenge politics. At the same time, the issue poses questions about the structures—economic, political and social—that allow for, define and also limit these practices. The contributions gathered here suggest an understanding of agency as constituted through the use of knowledge and resources, themselves embedded within structural contexts; at the same time, agency is transformative of the structures within which it is embedded by making use of knowledge and resources in creative and often radical ways. In that context the development of digital media marks a rupture or critical juncture that allows and requires a rethinking of conditions of political agency. Accordingly the contributions critically scrutinize the role of digital media moving beyond celebratory accounts of democratizing potential of digital media. The rethinking of the grammar of political agency is at the heart of this thematic issue.

Social Movements, Digital Media, and Politics

As a major global media event, the Eurovision Song Contest attracts million of viewers around the world every year. The contest has been studied both in terms of the construction of a European common space and with re... more abstractAs a major global media event, the Eurovision Song Contest attracts million of viewers around the world every year. The contest has been studied both in terms of the construction of a European common space and with regard to national politics. This articles explores the contest from the perspective of the fans inside the media event. We argue that for the fans attending the ESC national belonging is expressed in a playful way tied to the overall camp aesthetic of the competition. At the same time, they experience the media event as a 'cosmopolitan bubble', a space open and diverse, albeit exclusive to those that can afford participation and isolated from everyday life. Ultimately, the paper argues that exploring fan engagement inside media events can provide us with further insights about the significance of those events at a global level.

Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, Eurovision Song Contest, Politics of, Eurovision Song Contest, and Media Events

This article critically engages with the concept of cosmopolitan memory, and it provides an empirical contribution to the relevant debate by drawing upon a study of focus group discussions with Greek audiences remembe... more abstractThis article critically engages with the concept of cosmopolitan memory, and it provides an empirical contribution to the relevant debate by drawing upon a study of focus group discussions with Greek audiences remembering global disasters. The article argues that focus group participants' memories of these events place them within a global community of viewers simultaneously witnessing the same events. However, their framing of these events does not necessarily challenge the primacy of the nation as a moral community, therefore lacking the moral dimension implicit in the concept of cosmopolitan memory.

Audience and Reception Studies, Cosmopolitanism, Memory Studies, and Distant Suffering

This article aims at demonstrating the relevance of the concept of ‘media witnessing’ as an analytical lens for the study of audience engagement with media reports of distant suffering. Drawing upon existing theoret... more abstractThis article aims at demonstrating the relevance of the concept of ‘media witnessing’ as an analytical lens for the study of audience engagement with media reports of distant suffering. Drawing upon existing theoretical work on the concept, the article approaches media witnessing as a distinct modality of audience experience and constructs an analytical framework for its study. Applying this framework on an empirical study of Greek audiences, the article provides a typology of witnessing, consisting of four different types of audience engagement with media stories of human suffering. This typology illustrates the complexities inherent in the practice of watching suffering on television, as well as the limitations of mediated cosmopolitan imagination.

Audience and Reception Studies, Cosmopolitanism, Media Ethics, Globalization and Media, Distant Suffering, and 1 more

Social Movements, Civic Engagement, Euro-Zone Crisis, Protest Movements, and Indignados

Audience and Reception Studies, Cosmopolitanism, Memory Studies, and Distant Suffering

Media Studies, Globalization, Discursive Psychology, Audience and Reception Studies, Cosmopolitanism, and 3 more

Publisher: etheses.lse.ac.uk

Publication Date: Jan 1, 2011

Publisher: gsj.cgpublisher.com

Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008

Publication Name: Global Studies Journal

Publisher: snap3.uas.mx

Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008

Publication Name: … , Journalism and Technology: New Developments in …

Publisher: Wiley Online Library

Publication Date: Jan 1, 2009

Publication Name: Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism

Immigration

Media Studies, Public Service Broadcasting, Modern Greece, Freedom of Information, and Austerity Measures

Media Studies, International Political Economy, Freedom of Information, Economic Crisis, Eurozone, and 2 more

Football (soccer), International Political Economy, Diplomacy, Economic Crisis, Eurozone, and 2 more

International Political Economy, Modern Europe, Economic Crisis, Eurozone, Austerity Measures, and 1 more

Media Studies, International Political Economy, Political Economy of the Media, Economic Crisis, Eurozone, and 2 more

Humanitarianism, Representation of Others, Distant Suffering, and Media Coverage of Disasters

Stereotypes and Prejudice, Greece, Press, and Eurozone crisis