Proxy of democracy? : metaphors of connection as arguments against representation

This paper aims to assess the arguments that claim representative democracy may be enhanced or replaced by an updated electronic version. Focusing on the dimension of elections and electioneering as the core mechanism of representative democracy I will discuss: (1) the proximity argument used to claim the necessity of filling the gap between decision-makers and stakeholders; (2) the transparency argument, which claims to remove obstacles to the publicity of power; (3) the bottom-up argument, which calls for a new form of legitimacy that goes beyond classical mediation of parties or unions; (4) the public sphere argument, referred to the problem of hierarchical relation between voters and their representatives; (5) the disintermediation argument, used to describe the (supposed) new form of democracy following the massive use of ICTs. The first way of conceptualizing e-democracy as different from mainstream 20th century representative democracy regimes is to imagine it as a new form direct democracy: this conception is often underlying contemporary studies of e-voting. To avoid some of the ingenuousness of this conception of e-democracy, we should take a step back and consider a broader range of issues than mere gerrymandering around the electoral moment. Therefore I shall problematize the abovementioned approach by analyzing a wider range of problems connected to election and electioneering in their relation with ICTs

Exploring the Subaltern Voices: A Study of Community Radio Reporters (CRR\u27s) in Rural India

Despite India’s remarkable communication media revolution the rural subalterns remained uninformed, unheard and voiceless, who asks the question: Whose Media, Whose Voice? This created a space for community radio (CR) because it is of, for, and by the community. However, in spite of the alternative, counter-hegemonic, and participatory communication ethos, the contribution of CR’s and CRR’s lingered unexplored and unacknowledged. To bridge this gap, within the theoretical framework of alternative-media-theory this study has been undertaken. Based on case studies of India’s pioneer CR’s (Sangam Radio and Radio Bundelkhand) using media ethnography tools a qualitative inquiry was carried out. Findings suggest that CR’s can be seen as means of developing capabilities among the subalterns through equitable inclusion not merely as participants but as active producers, partners and managers. The dialectical, dynamic, non-hierarchical and citizen controlled journalism of CRR’s reflects antagonisms of reality and high level of community belongingness and responsibility that created fundamental distinctiveness-challenges to mainstream media. Finally, providing platform for expression enlarges the voices of the subalterns which will ultimately facilitate community dialogs and deliberations around local issues and helps to redefine their community identity in their own way and might lead to positive social change

Campus Art Museums in the 21st Century: A Conversation

In the summer of 2012, the authors of this study brought together a group of campus art museum directors and outside experts to 'think out loud' about the changes already occurring at campus museums and where new opportunities and roles may be emerging. We hope the resulting paper will further the field's larger, continuing exploration of its roles and potentials through dialogue, research, and experimentation -- an exploration that contributes to the continued healthy evolution of campus art museum practice

Symbolic capital and the production discourse of The American Music Show: a microhistory of Atlanta cable access

The American Music Show, an Atlanta cable public access television show that ran from 1981 to 2005, is not only a forgotten piece of production history but also a fertile case study. This article—situated in both local Atlanta and national cable access contexts in which the show began—uses the tools of production studies to construct a microhistory of local cable access, analyzing the hopes, ideals, ethos, and actual production practices that surrounded the show. The producers of The American Music Show refl ect on their work in the initial years of the show as creatively avant-garde but ultimately limited within the commercial structures of television. It is that tension that has enabled them to claim part of the show’s symbolic capital.Published versio

Chaos and context : speculations about the prominence of participatory art since the mid 1990s

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-58).In his essay The Poetics of the Open Work, Umberto Eco suggests that 'open work' of the 1960s, which stressed audience involvement, contingency and an anti-institutional stance, is an expression of a Quantum paradigm. Here, the irrationality and lack of order of Quantum Theory is seen as paralleled in artistic expression. Since the mid 1990s, participatory art has gained prominence, both in terms of current art production and retrospectives of Dadaist and 1960s 'open work'. Using Eco's essay as a model, this could be seen as a result of the progression of a Quantum Theory worldview to a view that is understood in terms of Chaos Theory. The patterns that mathematical models such as natural numbers, Calculus, Statistical Mathematics and Quantum Theory propose have parallels in social and artistic expression. In an extension of this, Chaos Theory is the latest mathematical model that social and artistic trends express. This is suggested by the mirroring of Chaos patterns in current social phenomena such as the Internet and experience economy. The similarity in approach between social phenomena and participatory art suggests that they answer the same social/audience demands. My primary contention is that the environment in which audiences and artists currently operate is such that demands and expectations raised by Chaos Theory are answered by participatory art, just as they are answered by wider social trends. The primary Chaos patterns that can be observed are interconnection, phase change and feedback. This is not a matter of a linear influence of cause and effect. It is not that Chaos inspires certain characteristics which are then expressed in various social phenomena. Rather, encountering Chaos characteristics in daily life raises expectations that these characteristics will be encountered elsewhere. We are thus not speaking of a causative relation between Chaos theory and social phenomena. Rather, there is a complex pattern of escalation which encourages interaction, feedback and phase change in a dynamic, chiasmic system which itself can best be analysed as another Chaos phenomenon

Ampliando el escenario de la narración televisiva en el ecosistema mediático digital del siglo XXI

En aquest article pretenc tornar a examinar des d’una perspectiva crítica alguns temes relacionats amb l’escenari actual de la narrativa televisiva de ficció: els programes de ficció amb una producció, consum i reputació que han estat testimonis de canvis significatius en la dècada dels 2000. El meu interès se centra en el que anomeno «plenitud narrativa», la profusió excepcional de ficcions seriades que ara estan disponibles, en qualsevol moment i a qualsevol lloc, en la miríada de canals i plataformes de l’entorn de mitjans en expansió constant. Referent a això, en l’article es pararà atenció prioritàriament al cas de Netflix. En particular, tractaré de desentranyar la mescla coexistent de guanys i pèrdues com a aspectes clau del modus operandi adoptat per la plataforma de transmissió líder mundial. Després abordaré la disposició problemàtica d’una gran quantitat d’estudis de televisió contemporanis que es concentren únicament en un corpus concret de programes de ficció, que entren dins la categoria de «televisió de prestigi». M’afegeixo a la discussió de l’àmbit d’estudi d’autors que discrepen dels patrons d’elecció basats en gran manera en la dubtosa divisió cultural entre la televisió de nínxol de qualitat i la programació de transmissió en obert. A més, afirmo que aquesta tendència no explica l’amplificació sense precedents de l’escenari contemporani de la narrativa televisiva. Sembla que als estudis de televisió «els arbres no ens permeten veure el bosc».In this paper I intend to revisit from a critical perspective some issues related to the contemporary landscape of fictional TV storytelling: scripted shows whose consumption and reputation have witnessed significant changes in the 21st century. My interest focuses on what I call “narrative plenitude”, the exceptional profusion of serialized fictions that are now available, anytime, anywhere, on the myriad of channels and platforms in the ever-expanding media environment. In this context, priority attention will be given in the article to the case of Netflix. In particular, I will try to unravel the coexisting mixture of gains and losses embodied in key aspects of the modus operandi embraced by the world’s leading streaming platform.Then I will address the problematic readiness of contemporary television studies to concentrate a great deal of scholarship on just a select body of scripted shows, which come under the category of ‘prestige TV’. I join the dialogue among others in the field who take issue with patterns of choice largely based on the questionable cultural divide between quality niche TV and ordinary broadcast programming. Furthermore, I make the claim that this tendency fails to account for the unprecedented amplification of the contemporary landscape of storytelling, as if television studies “can’t see the forest for the trees”. En este artículo pretendo volver a examinar desde una perspectiva crítica algunos temas relacionados con el actual escenario de la narrativa televisiva de ficción: los programas de ficción cuya producción, consumo y reputación han sido testigos de cambios significativos en la década de los 2000. Mi interés se centra en lo que llamo «plenitud narrativa», la profusión excepcional de ficciones seriadas que ahora están disponibles, en cualquier momento y en cualquier lugar, en la miríada de canales y plataformas del entorno de medios en constante expansión. A este respecto, se prestará atención prioritaria en el artículo al caso de Netflix. En particular, trataré de desentrañar la mezcla coexistente de ganancias y pérdidas como aspectos clave del modus operandi adoptado por la plataforma de transmisión líder mundial. Luego abordaré la disposición problemática de una gran cantidad de estudios de televisión contemporáneos que se concentran únicamente en un corpus concreto de programas de ficción, que entran dentro de la categoría de «televisión de prestigio». Me sumo a la discusión del ámbito de estudio de autores que discrepan de los patrones de elección basados en gran medida en la dudosa división cultural entre la televisión de nicho de calidad y la programación de transmisión en abierto. Además, afirmo que esta tendencia no explica la amplificación sin precedentes del escenario contemporáneo de la narrativa televisiva. Parece que en los estudios de televisión «los árboles no nos permiten ver el bosque»

Quantifying the Effects of Contact Tracing, Testing, and Containment

Contact tracing has the potential to help identify, characterize, and predict disease-spreading human interactions at an unprecedented resolution. However, to realize this potential, we need to utilize data-driven epidemic models that can operate at a high spatiotemporal resolution and make use of and benefit from contact tracing data of individuals. Such data-driven models are currently missing, and in this work we initiate their development using the framework of temporal point processes. Using an efficient sampling algorithm, we can use our model to quantify the effects that different testing and tracing strategies, social distancing measures, and business restrictions may have on the course of the disease. Building on this algorithm, we use Bayesian optimization to estimate the transmission rate due to infectious individuals at the sites they visit and at their households as well as the mobility reduction due to social distancing from longitudinal case data. Simulations using real COVID-19 case data and mobility patterns from several cities and regions in Germany and Switzerland with a wide range of infection levels until today demonstrate that our model may allow individuals and policy makers to make more effective decisions.Comment: Extensive results and additional analysis; refined parameter estimation

One Good Tweet Deserves Another: Essays on Firm Response to Positive Word of Mouth through Social Media

abstract: In two thematically related chapters, I explore the benefits incurred as companies actively respond to consumers who share positive word of mouth in digital environments (eWOM). This research takes a multi-method approach by first addressing the psychological impact of company response on the sharing consumer, followed by an examination of real behavioral consequences in a social media setting. Across six studies in Chapter 1, I find support for a conceptual model indicating that consumers who receive a company response to their positive eWOM experience greater satisfaction compared to no response, leading to increased intentions to engage in future positive eWOM on behalf of the company, both through social media and online review websites. Furthermore, I find that consumer perceptions of response personalization lead to judgments of company effort and that these two elements mediate the effect of response on consumer satisfaction. In Chapter 2, using a dataset of firm responses to positive consumer feedback on Twitter (tweets) from 79 apparel retailers, I find that company responses to positive consumer tweets can generate consumer engagement behavior in the form of continued interaction. Company responses that use consumer-oriented language increase the likelihood of consumer interactivity. However, this effectiveness depends on whether the consumer's audience is the company or their broader network of followers. I also show that, in some conditions, companies achieve higher consumer engagement by personalizing responses with the consumer's name. Together, the findings from these two chapters point to the need for companies to strategically practice positive eWOM management, both to promote consumer engagement behaviors and to avoid the negative outcomes associated with unresponsiveness.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Business Administration 201

Multimedia information technology and the annotation of video

The state of the art in multimedia information technology has not progressed to the point where a single solution is available to meet all reasonable needs of documentalists and users of video archives. In general, we do not have an optimistic view of the usability of new technology in this domain, but digitization and digital power can be expected to cause a small revolution in the area of video archiving. The volume of data leads to two views of the future: on the pessimistic side, overload of data will cause lack of annotation capacity, and on the optimistic side, there will be enough data from which to learn selected concepts that can be deployed to support automatic annotation. At the threshold of this interesting era, we make an attempt to describe the state of the art in technology. We sample the progress in text, sound, and image processing, as well as in machine learning