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In the last decade, Hugh Grant has been going through something resembling a career revival. After retreating from his roles as an English gentleman and romantic lead during the mid-2000s, Grant has recently re-emerged to garner critical acclaim in productions, such as Paddington 2 (2017), The Gentlemen (2019), and The Undoing (2020). What these roles have in common is that Grant has abandoned his days as prince charming in favour of a series of unlikeable characters and morally complex villains. This article analyses how this turn to villain signifies a renegotiation of Hugh Grant’s star image and how this career revival stands into contact with his previous persona. Combining a close reading of some of Grant’s recent films, together with a discussion of press discourse and interviews, I account for how Grant’s villain performances are shaped and mediated by different artistic, commercial, and discursive forces. As such, I elucidate how Grant’s renegotiation of his image helps distances himself from his previous career phase, is utilised by filmmakers to subvert audience expectations, and invites us to question the patriarchal and English imperialist attitudes that lay embedded in his previous performances.

Tashbih, in Syrian vernacular, has long referred to a diverse constellation of practices and acts—invariably illegal and often articulated with violence or the threat of violence—perpetrated by individuals and groups, the Shabbiha, with deep (often kin-based) ties to the Baathist regime of President Hafez al-Assad and later his son, Bashar al-Assad. The ebb and flow of the role played by the Shabbiha since then and the meaning of Tashbih in Syria’s political culture has followed closely the fortunes of their patron, the Assad regime. This article will sketch the origins of the term, its underlying practices and antagonisms, and trace the fluctuation and diffusion of its meaning and application particularly following the 2011 uprising in Syria.

The political economy of post-2011 emerging independent media in the MENA region is intricately entangled with the growth in media development (or assistance) flows to the region following the Arab uprisings. This chapter will take stock of the growing literature examining these media development interventions and the complex relationships they have built with local media producers in the region. Building on recent fieldwork at the newsroom of Enab Baladi, a Syrian online publication operating from Istanbul, Turkey, it will illustrate how some of the underlying (political and institutional) logics built into such interventions are negotiated and understood from the perspective of their local interlocutors. Finally, it will also argue for the value of recentering the voices of these local media actors in current scholarship.

This chapter analyzes how four Belgian newspapers represented the discourse on refugees, migrants and migration in the span of 2 years between 2015–2017, and how coverage in the Dutch- and French-language media differed. Our main hypothesis was that coverage was not significantly different, but that the Dutch- and French-language newspapers contextualized events in relation to regional politics and debates. We focused on the broadsheet and tabloid newspapers with the largest circulation in each linguistic community: De Standaard and Het Laat- ste Nieuws for the Dutch-language corpus (DLC), Le Soir and La Dernière Heure for the French-language corpus (FLC). Four sub-hypotheses were developed to explore the main question in-depth: 1) the lexical repertoire of the newspapers in each community is different; 2) Dutch- and French-language newspapers anchored the events in local topo- nyms to contextualize the crisis; 3) each linguistic community referred more to their respective politicians and local political parties than to those of the other linguistic community; 4) the selection and treatment of politicians’ quotes in Dutch- and French-language newspapers reflects the stronger presence of right- wing nationalist political forces in Flanders. The corpus was processed using the lexical software TXM. Although the repertoire of common nouns in each subcor- pus was similar, the differences lay in the use of toponyms and politicians’ names, as well as the political quotes chosen to contextualize the crisis, confirming our leading hypothesis that the coverage was localized. Indeed, news outlets mainly focus on how the international so-called “refugee crisis” affects the local context focusing on regional toponyms, politicians and events. Consequently, Belgium’s institutional division influences the content and tone of the coverage.

Although previous research focused on how governments use advertising to control news media, this study expands the literature on media capture not only by examining how state actors and dominant political parties control the advertising sector in a transitional democracy such as the Kurdistan Region of Iraq but also by exploring the (in)direct impact of various social actors, including corporations, political candidates in election periods, and international nongovernmental organizations. It reports on the findings from 19 in-depth interviews with media professionals and officials from media regulatory authorities. The findings show that advertisers are driven not only by the motivation to influence media content but also by economic interests, such as the colonization of state resources, personal gain, and crony capitalism. We conclude by discussing how precarious socioeconomic conditions lead media professionals to develop informal networks with advertisers-in turn, allowing powerful social actors to use advertising for either capturing news media or expanding their networks with authorities-and how this impacts on journalism practice.

In early 2019, following the example of the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, youth-led climate movements around the world demonstrated massively and persistently for a more ambitious climate policy. News media gave extensive coverage to the climate activists; given that the demonstrations were mostly on school days, public debates on young people’s rights, obligations and political agency were tense and polarized. In this article we take Belgium as a case study and discuss how the Youth for Climate movement was framed in four Dutch-speaking newspapers. Based on an inductive and deductive frame analysis of 126 newspaper articles, we found six frames. Most of the frames tend to challenge persistent views of young people’s political agency, whereas remarkably few support the idea that young people are unfit for politics.

Purpose Through investigating how Belgian LGBTQ people evaluate gay-themed print and television advertising in mainstream media, the purpose of this study is to explore how gay-themed advertising strategies are evaluated in relation to context. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 Flemish self-identified lesbian, gay male and bisexual people. Findings Findings of this research demonstrate the importance of the situated context in which LGBTQ people receive and evaluate gay-themed advertisements. By offering a common stock of social knowledge and experience, context creates a framework against which LGBTQ people evaluate gay-themed advertisements. In this specific research that was conducted in a Western-European LGBTQ-friendly society (Belgium), critical evaluations of gay-washing and the dirty laundry effect were found. The positive evaluations of explicit gay-themed and inclusive advertisements also highlighted the importance of advertising an inclusive society. Research limitations/implications In considering how gay-themed advertising evaluations relate to context and lived experiences, this research contributes to current knowledge on gay-themed advertising and its reception within LGBTQ groups. Practical implications This research offers valuable insights to marketers on how to target sexual minorities in LGBTQ (un)friendly societies. Social implications Findings highlight the social importance of minority-oriented advertising. Not only can such advertising promote civic inclusion and social recognition of minority groups, it also has the potential to play a key role in the construction and normalisation of identities. Originality/value In an effort to reinvigorate current marketing debates on gay-themed advertising, this study builds on theoretical insights gained via reception research and LGBTQ studies. In doing so, this research yields a more nuanced and contextualised understanding of LGBTQ people’s engagement with various gay-themed advertisements. Considering within a Western European society the relevance of context when researching gay-themed advertisement reception, the results add to primarily US-based research on this topic.

De relatie tussen mens en dier loopt als rode draad doorheen de filmische ontdekkingstochten van Werner Herzog. Of het gaat om mensen die hun beestachtige impulsen omarmen, of Herzog gebruikt de mysteriën van het dierenrijk om te polsen naar de onbegrijpelijke wreedheid van de kosmos. Suïcidale pinguïns, angstige aapjeskolonies en slapende zwijnen zijn hier steevast de poortwachters der entropie die de kijkers gidsen doorheen de zinloosheid van het bestaan. Maar wat voor dier is Herzog zelf? Eentje dat beelden maakt voor andere dieren. Is de filmmaker geen bodemvoeder die teert op de overlevingsstrijd van een ander? Dit stuk poogt de rollen om te draaien en Herzog zijn menagerie aan het woord te laten over de spanning tussen romantiseren, vernielen en overheersen die Herzogs werk kenmerken.

This article presents the experience of Viaje de ida y vuelta (Round Trip, 2018–2020), an audiovisual workshop whose aim is to produce a collective documentary in which adolescents of various nationalities and backgrounds reflect on their diasporic identity. The activity was conducted in conjunction with the educational project 12Nubes, an initiative that collaborates with schools in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country, Spain) to explore integral education as a tool for social transformation in contexts of exclusion. Framing communication technologies as a source of community-based self-expression, we explore the processes of adolescents’ audiovisual materialization of life stories and family memory during the two-year workshop, as well as their subsequent projection in cultural circuits and social networks as a form of agency. Based on this experience, we advocate the need for cooperation among public institutions (secondary schools, city councils, universities and conservatories, among other centres) and the development of a decolonial pedagogy focused on the life experiences of young migrants and/or descendants of migrants with the aim of enhancing intercultural education both inside and outside school.

In this study, both performance and polymedia serve as important conceptual lenses to examine how university students in the Global South handle the social media landscape in enacting cultural identity. Based on 17 focus groups with 105 students from Bolivian universities, we argue that in performing their multiplex identities, this group of Bolivian young people navigate social media as polymedia environments, taking advantage of its possibilities and testing its constraints. The research generated three key findings: (1) students mainly reported examples of cosmopolitan and national identity performances; (2) performances of national belonging showed an ambiguous mixture of self-glorification and self-reflexivity; (3) indigenous identities were rarely performed on the platforms used.

This chapter examines the evolution of the Fast Saga’s treatment of spectacle and narrative by providing a longitudinal analysis of how the franchise’s use of action sequences has changed since the release of The Fast and The Furious in 2001. It argues that action sequences are narrative units with a diverse range of functions that have changed in duration, tone, and complexity over the Fast Saga’s many installments. This chapter addresses the lack of critical attention paid to both the shifting nature of the contemporary action sequence and Fast Sage itself. By combining a quantitative-oriented longitudinal analysis that times and measures the action sequences in the Fast Saga with a close reading of how said sequences relate to narrative developments, thematic arcs, and genre conventions within the films themselves, I offer a more in-depth understanding of the multi-facetted nature of action sequences within the franchise.

The theoretical development of the concept of diaspora accounts for almost any transnational population that maintains strong emotional ties based on nostalgia and memory with their territories of origin, but also affects and ties with their territories of destination. These processes are generated through intrinsically diverse experiences that are constructed in-between both social realities. The emergence of digital technologies has provided these populations with a new scenario wherein the past and present homes are connected by immediate communication, which currently reduces distances, and uprootedness. However, few investigations have analyzed the frequent communication paradoxes that occur within these communities based on not only the need to be connected but also the failure to meet family expectations. Most studies have focused on the experience of mothers and the role they play in maintaining traditions linked to their places of origin, leaving behind the experience of daughters and their mutual relationship. This article addresses this gap while exploring the challenges that these contradictions present for the Sahrawi digital diaspora in Spain. Specifically, it investigates relationships between mothers and daughters and their impact on the social media practices of the latter. Through a social media ethnography that was developed between 2016 and 2018 together with Sahrawi refugees in Spain, this research examines how aspects such as the maintenance of family honor and the need to build one’s own life plan constantly clash in relationships between mothers and daughters with respect to cultural preservation, the emergence of new forms of belonging, emotional relations, and community expectations. El desarrollo teórico del concepto de diáspora describe hoy a casi cualquier población transnacional que mantiene fuertes vínculos emocionales basados en la nostalgia y la memoria con sus territorios de origen, pero también afectos y vínculos con sus territorios de destino. Estos procesos se generan a través de experiencias intrínsecamente diversas que se construyen en el intermedio de ambas realidades sociales. La aparición de las tecnologías digitales ha dotado a estas poblaciones de un nuevo escenario donde el hogar pasado y el hogar presente se conectan, reduciendo distancias y desarraigos a través de la comunicación inmediata. Sin embargo, son pocas las investigaciones que han analizado las frecuentes paradojas comunicativas que se dan dentro de estas comunidades basadas, por un lado, en la necesidad de estar conectadas, y, por otro, en no alcanzar las expectativas familiares. La mayoría de los estudios se han centrado en la experiencia de las madres y el papel que desempeñan en el mantenimiento de las tradiciones vinculadas a sus lugares de origen, dejando de lado la experiencia de las hijas y la relación entre ambas. Este artículo aborda esta brecha, al mismo tiempo que examina los desafíos que presentan estas contradicciones para la diáspora digital saharaui en España. En concreto, analiza las relaciones entre madres e hijas y el impacto de las redes sociales en su cotidianeidad. A través de una etnografía de redes sociales desarrollada entre 2016 y 2018, esta investigación explora cómo aspectos como el mantenimiento del honor familiar y la necesidad de construir su plan de vida propio chocan constantemente entre madres e hijas en esa relación continua entre la preservación cultural, el surgimiento de nuevas formas de pertenencia, las relaciones emocionales y las expectativas de la comunidad.

This chapter aims to re-examine the complex relationship between social media and contentious politics following the 2011 uprisings in Egypt and Syria. The chapter explores the contingent, differentiated, and contradictory roles that social media played in each of these cases. The authors combine critical theoretical approaches to the internet and situated ethnographic accounts to make sense of this issue along the different phases of mobilization and its aftermath. They argue that the alternative hierarchies of power and visibility engendered by digital activism and facilitated by social media are an essential vehicle when it comes to establishing an effective connection between the street and the networked public sphere in the mobilization phase. In the post-mobilization phase, however, the logics of social media begin to hinder the ability of social movements to coalesce and transform the energy of the street into political decisions or leverage. Finally, they also argue that in the aftermath of mobilization, these alternative online hierarchies of power and visibility tend to quickly lose their legitimizing function, which rested upon their, now severed, connection with the street.

The breaking of speech taboos by populist radical right (PRR) parties and the resulting talk scandals have received considerable attention, with provocative statements being seen as playing a central role in generating media attention and in shifting the boundaries of what is sayable. In Germany, breaches of taboos by the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have caused public outrage, with some claiming that the AfD follows a deliberate provocation strategy. This study examines the reactions to the AfD’s breaches of taboos as they play out in mainstream media. Focusing on reactions to five of the AfD’s most controversial statements, the study analyses 340 articles from the daily quality newspapers Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Welt. The analysis zooms in on identifying (1) reactions to the taboo-breaking statements and how the boundaries of the respective taboos are being negotiated by the AfD and its critics, and (2) reflexive discourse on the role of breaches of taboos in the AfD’s political strategy and on the role of the media in responding to them.

Collaborative water governance deals with diverse actors under participatory systems of decision making. This form of water governance involves stakeholders with fundamentally different values and premises about water resources, as well as different understandings of the problem and how to approach it. Thus, one of the major challenges of collaborative water governance relies on the diversity of frames carried by stakeholders involved and the shift from hierarchical decision-making to a more collaborative and participative process. The fragmentation of frames can represent an obstacle, impede mutual understanding, and negatively influence decision making and policy outcomes. Based on participative observation, interviews, and document analysis, we explored the drivers behind the framing process in the multi-actor platform of the Katari River Basin, located in Bolivia. The results highlight a participatory process design favoring the fragmentation of frames and a unidirectional decision-making process, where public authority, scientific–technical expertise, and the local community’s knowledge are insulated, and communication among actors is asymmetrical. At the same time, this research reveals the influence of the political context in the framing process.

Through a sensemaking lens, this article investigates the concrete appropriation of the so-called transdisciplinary learning communities-approach (TLC for short) as part of a Flemish–Bolivian university cooperation project for development. The article has its empirical basis in ethnographic research conducted between 2017 and 2020 on four campuses of the Bolivian university UCB. The primary data is the so-called organisational talk, gathered through interviews, participant observations, and meetings with Bolivian university staff members who are the main players involved in the Flemish–Bolivian university cooperation project. The analysis suggests that an informal, horizontal, and symmetrical style of organisational communication between organisational members seems to have a positive impact on the appropriation of TLC, which in turn leads to more successful experiences of cooperation with communities and other external partners in the social environment.

Studies that analyse people's perceptions of their living environment as an explanatory factor for residential mobility are scarce at best. The study presented in this article addresses this deficit by investigating how people's perceptions of cities as living environments influence their relocation behaviour within metropolitan areas. After gathering information on relocation behaviour from 1,056 survey respondents in the Brussels Capital Region, we analysed the data using our self-developed ‘resonance analysis’ methodology. Our findings indicate that the variability of residential mobility is greatly influenced by people's perceptions of the city. They also demonstrate the ways in which qualitative data on people's perceptions and subjective experiences can be combined with quantitative data to improve statistical predictions of relocation behaviour.

L’image extrêmement négative de Bruxelles dans la presse, souvent citée comme un facteur expliquant le manque d’attrait de la ville en tant que lieu de vie, fait rarement l’objet de recherches. Cette étude porte sur la façon dont les journaux belges présentent la vie bruxelloise, ainsi que sur la façon dont ces représentations sont corrélées à des schémas culturels plus généraux qui influent sur les perceptions de la population. Une analyse des correspondances multiples nous a permis de constater que dans l’ensemble, la presse regroupe des concepts pour forger deux représentations diamétralement opposées : la première correspond à une perception « phobique » de Bruxelles, centrée sur les aspects négatifs de la vie citadine, tandis que la seconde traduit une vision « cosmopolite » de la capitale, l’accent étant mis sur son dynamisme et sur d’autres atouts qui lui sont propres. En outre, en matière de description de la vie bruxelloise, les différences entre les journaux tiennent davantage à leur orientation (élitaire ou populaire) qu’à la langue de publication (néerlandais ou français). De zeer negatieve afschildering van Brussel in de pers wordt vaak aangehaald als factor in de verklaring waarom de stad niet zo’n aantrekkelijke plek is om te wonen, maar is amper empirisch onderzocht. Deze studie onderzoekt hoe het stadsleven wordt beschreven in Belgische kranten en hoe de gehanteerde frames resoneren met bredere culturele schema’s die de percepties van mensen over Brussel beïnvloeden. Aan de hand van een meervoudige correspondentie analyse ontdekten we dat de krantenberichtgeving twee tegenovergestelde frames gebruikt: het eerste frame stemt overeen met een fobische perceptie van Brussel, waarbij de focus ligt op de negatieve aspecten van de stad, en het tweede met een kosmopolitische kijk op de hoofdstad, die gericht is op het bruisende karakter en andere troeven van de stad. Bovendien hebben de verschillen tussen kranten in hun afschildering van het leven in Brussel meer betrekking op hun oriëntering (elitair versus populaire) dan op de taal waarin ze artikelen publiceren (Nederlands versus Frans). Brussels’ overwhelmingly negative depiction in the press is a frequently mentioned but little researched factor in explaining its lack of appeal as a place to live. This study examines how city life is framed in Belgian newspapers as well as how said frames resonate with broader cultural schemes that influence public perceptions. Using multiple correspondence analysis, we found that the press by and large groups concepts into two diametrically opposed frames: the first corresponding to a phobian perception of Brussels that centres on the negative aspects of city life and the second to a cosmopolitan view of the capital that focusses on its vibrant nature and other inherent advantages. Furthermore, differences between newspapers in their portrayal of life in Brussels relate more so to their orientation (elite versus popular) rather than to their language (Dutch versus French).

The section (Dis)agreements brings together four projects and an association engaged with the preservation, generation and remediation of archives, especially audiovisual archives, connected with migratory phenomena and subaltern communities. The dialogue with the researchers of these initiatives—based in Canada, Italy, UK and Belgium—looks at the origins of these projects and explores their goals, theoretical and ethical positions, their relations with grassroots communities, their outreach activities and the preservation difficulties of the materials included in their archives in the digital era. In general, these projects take a critical approach to traditional archives, and function, by building alliances with institutions and organizations, like facilitators.

Since 2011, tens of new small-scale associative media organisations have sprung up in different towns and regions of Tunisia. Their proliferation has allowed for new voices to emerge both on a local and a national (collective) level. They have also come to represent a coherent third sector in the Tunisian media sphere alongside public and private media. This paper aims to investigate how these new actors position themselves within Tunisia’s changing media landscape. What roles do they espouse for themselves, and what practices and values structure their work? By using Nick Couldry’s notion of voice (2010), as both a value and a concrete process, we analyse how these roles and practices are performed in the Tunisian context. Firstly, by mapping the openings and closures in the Tunisian system that are straddled and negotiated by these actors, namely: regulatory reform, changes in the structure of the media and regional inequalities. Secondly, by analysing their practices and strategies, including their limitations, at both a national and local level. We argue that associative media’s collective work at the national level, through sectoral-representative associations, aims at stabilising and entrenching this emerging sector by lobbying and pressuring state organs, organising collective responses to its structural weaknesses, and creating ad-hoc networks of solidarity and mobilisation with other civil society actors. While at a local level, associative media actors attempt to grapple more directly with the challenges of recognising, facilitating, and extending marginalised voices from their communities.

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the precarisation of journalistic work by looking at the case of Syrian exiled journalists in Turkey, whose professional and personal lifeworlds are underpinned by multiple layers of precarity. The article builds on data collected during a 3-month-long period of participant observations at the newsroom of Enab Baladi, a Syrian news outlet based in Istanbul, Turkey. It develops a relational notion of precarity through insights from the growing body of work on precarity in the journalistic field, as well as research on precarity and migration. It proposes a multidimensional understanding of the ‘precarious newsroom’ that takes into account the people, organisation and place, as a way to map how different layers of precarity, and responses to them, are articulated, experienced and negotiated. Our research underlines the complex anatomy of the precarious newsroom as a paradoxical place and an amalgamation of precarity and agency.

Conflict and adversity form an essential component of many American action films. Not only are these spectacular blockbuster films often grafted on forms of contemporary geopolitical warfare, moreover, the violent deaths of the film’s villains arguably form one of the genre’s key pleasures. Utilizing Laclau and Mouffe’s concept of antagonism, this article deconstructs how within the action film, discursive articulations of enemyhood attempt to structure heroic violence as just and the lives of villains as ungrievable. The action films Lone Survivor (2015) and London Has Fallen (2017) will operate as case studies in elucidating how antagonistic frontiers between the hero self and the enemy other are cinematically drawn and strengthened.

This article studies the role of the material in four Prague-based zines. The analysis is theoretically embedded in the model of the discursive-material knot, which is a non-hierarchical articulation of the discursive and the material, and it is contextualized by a reflection on post-digital culture, which allows revalidating the role of the material in zine production and distribution more. The case study combines the analysis of personal interviews and zine content with an ethnography of the production and distribution processes, including zine fairs. This analysis shows how the alternative media discourse, with its focus on particular aesthetics and amateurism, intersects with networks of bodies, spaces, paper and related objects, many different machines and scarce capitals. This allows arguing that the material is omnipresent in zine production and distribution, also in intermaterial and transmaterial ways, but also that zines then use the particularity of this material component to signify their cultural specificity.

This article assesses the current state of play of the poststructuralist and post-Marxist discourse theory associated with Laclau and Mouffe and the ‘Essex school’, and identifies ways forward at the level of theory development, research practice and critique. The article starts by disentangling the different meanings of the notion of ‘discourse’ in ‘discourse theory’, clarifying the specificities of discourse theory as a theoretical and analytical framework and situating discourse theory in, but also beyond, critical discourse studies. It then moves to an assessment of the current state of discourse theory, its main contributions, and the identification of shortcomings and ways forward. This discussion is organized around five topics: methodology and the theory-analysis dialectic; the logics approach; the discursive-material relation; the role of fantasy and other psychoanalytic categories; and populism.

This article is the English translation of a text originally published by Ernesto Laclau in French in 1981 as part of the proceedings of the colloquium Materialités Discursives held in Nanterre on 24–26 April 1980. In this text, Ernesto Laclau reflects on the subject of hegemony as a discursively constructed phenomenon. Building on research on the discursive construction of the acceptability of popular front politics in 1935 during the Seventh Congress of the Komintern, the author proposes a number of broader arguments on the notion of antagonism and on some of the problems related to the Marxist conception of totality.

This chapter examines the videos created by eight Sub-Saharan migrants on their experience of physical, affective and symbolic immobility during their attempts to go to Europe. Based on long-term collaborative research that includes active participation and in-depth interviews, the chapter analyzes different sets of videos recorded from 2015 to 2020 along the European external borders in Northern Africa. By framing some of the procedures that the EU border regime employs for the contention, detention, deportation, dispersal and dispossession of Sub-Saharan migrants in the area, the videos offer an account of institutional alegal practices intended for their physical immobility, but also for producing symbolic and affective immobilization that lead to feelings of being stuck, asynchronized or misrepresented. By exploring the functionalities and narrative patterns displayed in the videos, the chapter contributes to the discussion about how these media manifestations crystallize different scales of (im)mobility as bordering practices against black-skinned migrants in the North of Africa through a complex techno-legal, affective and symbolic mechanism of securitization of migration

This article evaluates the concept of ‘emotivescapes’ as a way of addressing digitally emotional processes of belonging among conflict-generated diasporas. It examines the empirical potential of the concept based on the Sahrawi refugee diaspora in Spain and Mauritania and the connection of its members with their ‘home-camps’ in Algeria. To this end, the article explores everyday digital media practices that reveal the circulation of emotions among the Sahrawi community outside of the refugee camps at the intersection of intimate, community, and national spheres. The research focuses on the experiences of 32 women, considers Sahrawi gender roles, and argues for enriching emotional debates in the diaspora space. The findings demonstrate how female media practices in protracted situations of displacement are negotiated through emotional attachments in not only direct social interactions but also memories and imaginations that are reformulated from the intimate to the national levels.

Brussels is struggling with a negative image as a living environment. This converges with an outward migration of economically better-off inhabitants, which has a negative effect on tax revenues. Improving the image of Brussels has thus become a policy priority. This paper investigates perceptions about Brussels within three subpopulations: Brussels residents, commuters and non-residents. By applying cluster analysis to 180 interviews, distinctive patterns in the perceptions are found. These findings suggest that beliefs about Brussels are both mediated by people’s affinity with the city and resonate with ingrained urban and anti-urban ideologies. Lessons for policy and place marketing are drawn.

In this entry the academic debates centred around the male action hero and the racialized body are discussed. Being known as a genre in which mostly hyperbolic male white bodies are on display, issues of gender and race representation are evidently of great importance in studying the action film. How different racial identities, such as black, white, Asian, and multiracial bodies function within the genre, and how these bodies interact with discourses of masculinity, will foremost be discussed. On the one hand, the different authors contributing to these debates navigate between a type of appreciation for how the genre has succeeded in giving non-white bodies a more prominent place in the Hollywood landscape. On the other, a rightfully critical attitude to these representations is adopted, since still too often these non-white bodies are positioned as inferior into racial hierarchies favouring a form of symbolic whiteness.

This article aims to investigate the regulatory, financial and political environment negotiated by oppositional Syrian media operating in exile in Turkey, as well as to identify the main tactics used by them in negotiating between these constraints to ensure their survival in an increasingly difficult environment. As the war in Syria increased in intensity, many oppositional media chose to move their centres of operations into Turkey ‐ forcing them to adapt to a completely foreign regulatory environment, and an unstable political context. Furthermore, and in parallel, their institutional links with the media development sector were being deepened as well. The study draws on in-depth interviews with Syrian media professionals in Turkey, as well as with their interlocutors in international media development organizations. Using Michel de Certeau’s model of strategies and tactics, the study aims at arriving at a better understanding of the complex system of choices made by exilic media organizations to guarantee their survival and achieve their objectives. Within the strategic universes circumscribed by the powerful institutional actors of the Turkish state and the international media development sphere, one can locate the agency of Syrian media actors in their responsive tactical manoeuvrings. The article contends that the tactics employed are also reflective of the identity of these media actors located at the intersection of the alternative, exilic and oppositional.

ispartof: International Journal Of Communication vol:16 pages:4380-4403 status: published

The looming threat posed by climate change-fueled droughts has triggered a slew of projects concernedwith the reuse of treated wastewater for agricultural purposes. Across the globe, there is also a growing interest in the direct consumption of treated wastewater. Whilst the requisite technology is well established and safety can be guaranteed, the instigators of these projects still anticipate consumer resistance. However, there are currently few studies that provide insight into the public acceptance of treated wastewater. Moreover, the results of these studies are often inconsistent or inconclusive, particularly in regard to the relationship between the acceptance of wastewater reuse and environmental concern. Using representative survey data gathered from 300 respondents living in Flanders, Belgium,we show that water conservation behaviour and a sense of environmental group-efficacy positively affect public acceptance. Our study also demonstrates that feelings of disgust and fear of contamination are keydrivers of consumer resistance towastewater reuse and potentially override environmental concern. In the discussion,we propose an alternative approach to better understand consumer's environmental attitudes and their resistance to the use of treated wastewater. In the conclusion, we briefly highlight the relevance of our findings for public communication and policy.

This article attempts to simultaneously connect fiction, emotions, and (im)mobility in migration maps. It presents the works of three cartographers that conceive fictional maps to engage with emotion and subjectivity in the narration of refugee stories. Inspired by non-representational theory, the article reflects on how such fictional maps question the ontological foundations of cartography. The study supports that the case studies challenge three different dimensions of such ontological basis. The map in Im Land der Frühaufsteher problematizes an understanding of cartography as a reproduction that merely attempts to mirror natural realities. The second, Crossing Maps, exemplify a processual understanding of cartography: a means to co-create relationships and human bounds, going beyond the idea of the map as an artifact that has to deliver spatial information. The third, Constellations, shows how cartographies can be considered as objects having no inborn ontological security and that are, on the contrary, constantly recognized and reappraised in a contingent interaction between creators and users.

The decade following the 2010–2011 Arab uprisings saw a flourishing of emerging media organisations across the region. The most recognisable examples of these new independent media actors include Enab Baladi in Syria, Mada Masr in Egypt, and Inkyfada in Tunisia. However, this phenomenon comprises a much more diverse set of actors from small-scale associative radio stations in Tunisia to numerous exilic Syrian media outlets. Building on previous research as well as recent fieldwork in Tunisia and Turkey, this article is an attempt to make sense of the genesis, development, and relevance of this new class of media actors. We argue that these emerging media organisations can be seen to represent specific interventions into the politics of voice in their various national and local contexts, but ones that share similar logics. To elucidate this argument, we propose a multi-dimensional understanding of these interventions that brings together voices (actors, issues, discourses), modalities of voice (organisational models, values, production value), and the underlying political economy of these emerging media (funding, institutionalisation). However, the article also argues that these interventions, and the logics they share, themselves belie a complex interaction between the political and professional agency and precarity of these media organisations and the individuals, and groups, behind them. We believe that combining these two perspectives is a necessary step for a more nuanced understanding of the nature and practice of these emerging media organisations.

Campaigns to encourage return or deter migration have become a prior-ity for European governments, revealing a new way of managing migra-tion flows to Europe. If scholars from social sciences have investigated these campaigns, no study in the field of discourse analysis addressed the argumentative discursive mechanisms at work in shaping migrants’ perceptions. The present research analyses the use of storytelling in migration information campaigns (MICs) by comparing two online Euro-pean campaigns: a dissuasive campaign (tellingtherealstory.org) and a persuasive campaign (retourvolontaire.be). First, the discursive features of each website are described, highlighting the central place given to migrant’s stories. Second, a narrative and lexical analysis is conducted on these stories to investigate the way in which they constitute the ar-gumentative dimension of these campaigns’ discourses. The results show that the stories of both dissuasive and persuasive campaigns converge towards the same moral: migratory projects are doomed to fail. These migration information campaigns can be seen as part of what we call the “Don’t come/Go back home” continuum.

This chapter focuses on the interplay between data visualisation, fiction and cartography in the context of migration. It revolves around a case study of Migration Trail, a website that attempts to provide an original portrayal of human mobility. First, it explores recent literature on each of the three elements interacting on the site. This is followed by an in-depth investigation of their interplay in the overall experience. The study employs a multi-method approach to the content, combining multimodal analysis, that is further validated with a semi-structured expert interview. The research thoroughly maps Migration Trail’s functions, including the dynamic interplay of its different multimedia elements. Ultimately, the chapter reflects on the question: To what extent can fictional narratives and the multimedia approach in a fictional production like Migration Trail successfully challenge stereotypical portrayals of migrants? The analysis shows that there is potential to go beyond the dichotomous, typical representation of migrants, but that it can also fall into the trap of repeating the “deservingness” trope that is part of common imaginaries of migration into Europe.

The transnationalization of television production has been examined by studies on formats and multinational media companies, which have often highlighted the resilience of the local in the global. This article investigates transnationalization on the microlevel of television production, drawing on participant observations in a Dutch production company that is partly owned by an American conglomerate. It explores the deep entanglement of the local with the global in different facets of production – including legal, organizational, and market aspects – as manifested in daily practices and decision making in television production. Our analysis reveals an industrial logic of formatting that is not only induced by transnational ownership structures and business models but also deeply ingrained in production routines and programme conventions. Through this logic, transnationalization shapes media professionals’ daily work, the selection of programme ideas, and the process of content development.

TV formats provide an excellent lens to study the transnationalisation of television, but actual format production has rarely been examined. This article discusses three interrelated limitations of current format scholarship: (1) a gap between industrial and textual studies; (2) a selective focus on localisation; and (3) a lack of insight into daily practices of format production. Using the Flemish adaptation of The Great British Bake Off ( 2010 –2016, 2017–present) as a case study and drawing on participant observations, this article analyses transnational power dynamics in the TV industry and the meaning of the format on the micro-level of TV production.

One of the main functions of news media in democracies is informing the citizenry on day-to-day affairs. However, the way in which citizens gather news has changed as nowadays people have more opportunities than ever before to adapt their media consumption based on their preferences. One of the major game changers was the introduction of social media. This raises the question to what extent traditional media still contribute to people’s knowledge of current affairs. Using a time-diary study in the Flemish media context, we investigate the influence of different forms of news consumption on current news knowledge. We conclude that traditional (print and audiovisual) media, including popular outlets, continue to be the major contributors to people’s knowledge about current affairs and that social media hardly contribute at all.

The Sage Handbook of Media and Migration is an edited collection that focuses on new theoretical and empirical perspectives that have emerged from ‘the transdisciplinary junction on media and migra...

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston. Previous research has identified the frames and metaphors used in the reporting on the Euro crisis. War and disease turned out to be the two most frequently used metaphorical frames. Since coverage of the current financial crisis may have a tangible effect on public opinion, research into the effects of metaphorical frames on attitudes is needed. By employing two survey experiments, a student sample (N = 259) and a nonstudent sample (N = 507), this article traces the effects of both metaphorical frames. Our results show that individuals take over the metaphorical frame elements in their evaluation of the Euro crisis. Participants in the war conditions significantly more often referred to war when answering the open questions. Alternatively, when the Euro crisis was framed as a disease, participants were more likely to use words and sentences containing disease frame elements. ispartof: Communications-European Journal of Communication Research vol:44 issue:4 pages:447-468 status: published

Can we think about the role of media and information and communication technologies in the lives of forced migrants through the lens of immobility? The dominant focus in the communication studies literature is on mobility, movement and connectivity. Migration studies and anthropology however offer productive ways to conceptualize the mobility–immobility spectrum as well as the imaginative dimensions of (im)mobility. Building on two studies that were situated at the temporal and geographical edges of the ‘European refugee crisis’ – a 2015 study in a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey and a 2017–2018 study with Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi refugees in Belgium – this article develops a conceptual framework of media and immobility in the context of forced migration. It coins the pair concepts affective immobility and symbolic immobility to highlight and understand practices of disengagement with media and information and communication technologies, agentic disconnectivity and feelings of symbolic fixedness.

Our engagement with social media, smart and mobile technologies is ambiguous and raises existential questions about the naturalness and desirability of hyper-connectivity. On the one hand, we benefit from using these technologies in organizing and socializing our everyday life. On the other hand, they further complicate our lives. Hence, in recent years, more and more people choose to abstain from digital media by taking on a so-called ‘digital detox,’ a period of living without these technologies. In this article, we look at ‘digital detoxing’ from an existential perspective by introducing Kierkegaard’s existential categories of repetition and recollection to tackle the question whether ‘dropping out’ is a meaningful act or a temporary respite. What would it mean, so we ask, to find a proper balance in a world that demands constant connectivity?

While there is increasing scholarly attention given to the impact of digital technologies on forced migration, the points of view and situated experiences of refugees living in the diaspora are understudied. This article addresses Sahrawis refugee diasporas, which have close ties with the Sahrawi political cause. Resulting from the unresolved Western Sahara conflict, Sahrawi forced migrants are at the eye of one of the world’s most protracted refugee situations. While most Sahrawis live in refugee camps in Algeria, some Sahrawis have managed to travel onwards. Social media allows those living elsewhere to maintain connections with contacts living in their original refugee camp. However, Facebook has become a complex environment, particularly for Sahrawi women. Gendered mechanisms of control, such as digital transnational gossip, result in a paradoxical politics of belonging: these women simultaneously desire to keep in touch but do not want to become a subject of gossip. From narratives of Sahrawi young women based in Spain gathered through interviews between 2016 and 2018, as well as a specific Facebook campaign and fan page, the focus is on strategies Sahrawi women develop to avoid and confront digital transnational gossip.