‘#hellobrother needs to trend’ : methodological reflections on the digital and emotional afterlife of mediated violence

In March 2019, the first ever act of terrorist violence in New Zealand was live-streamed on social media, making many social media users unwitting witnesses to the massacre on their devices. The Christchurch mosque attacks revealed a particular digital and emotional vulnerability embedded in the digital media infrastructure. The last words of the first victim soon transmorphed into #hellobrother that, as a digital artefact, participated in shaping the emotional landscape. Combining real-time digital media ethnography on Twitter with data science and computational tools, this multi-method study has two aims: first and foremost, to develop and apply new methodology for the study of unexpected, mediated events as they unfold in real time; second, to explore post-death digital artefacts through the concept of digital afterlife that we approach through two complementary perspectives, data afterlife (the technological) and data as afterlife (the emotional). Adopting a relational perspective, we further develop the concept, and highlight the constitutive role of data in the emotional dimension of digital afterlife arising from its capacity to enter affective arrangements. The methodological contributions include development of a conceptual and technological framework for conducting data science as ethnography and the introduction of Tweetboard, a novel artefact for investigating digital afterlife.Peer reviewe

A Peer-reviewed Newspaper About_ Research Values

An interrogation of value and values in contemporary media and digital culture. Publication resulting from research workshop at Brandenburg Center for Media Studies – ZeM, Potsdam, organised in collaboration with Brandenburg Center for Media Studies – ZeM, Potsdam, and transmediale festival for art and digital culture, Berlin

Accelerated Culture: Exploring Time and Space in Cinema, Television and New Media in the Digital Age

This dissertation seeks to understand the impact of speed on the interrelation and the overlapping of the production and consumption of cinematic and televisual texts. It explores the immediacy of digital media and new economic processes, and how they are informing structures of perception, as well as lending themselves to new and different ways of seeing the moving image in the digital age. These visual expressions are evident in the changing perception of the long take; the increasing use of video gaming aesthetics and database narratives; new and variant forms of narrative and visual styles in television; and the speed of new media technology on new voices and avant-garde expressions in independent and DIY cinema (such as the Internet, personal camcorder, mobile screens, and desktop editing). Conversely, VCR, DVD, DVR devices (as well as online streaming and DVD and Blu-Ray rental sites) have transformed the consumption of the moving image. Time-shifting devices allow for halting and controlling the flow of passing time, permitting for greater textual analysis. And, reciprocally, these new perceptions of the moving image inform expressions of filmic time and space. The speed of digital media and new economic formations raise concerns about lived reality and the attenuation of time, place, and community. It brings forth questions of the waning of pastness and memory, the diminishing of critical distance, and the vanishing of slow time. I argue, however, these shifts that are occurring in cinema and television illustrate that processes of speed are not the prime determinant in the production and consumption of moving images. Rather, they are based on a contingent and open-ended model of articulation--sites where disparate elements are temporary combined, unified, and thus, practiced and lived under the ever-changing conditions of existence

Music in the international market : differences and distribution : the case of Italy and China

Historically there has been limited transmission of musical ideas between Italy and China. When music travels between cultures it is subject to change and transformation and this cultural exchange is the foundation for popular music as we know it today. Within this dissertation, we will firstly analyse what makes music enjoyable for people through an analysis of genre. Then, perform a comparative analysis of their respective regional music genres and analyse similarities between them. Through this we can understand the similarities between the two markets and understand possible modes of entry for Italian musicians into the Chinese market. The motivation for this analysis is to ascertain whether there is a space for Italian musicians to find an audience in China. By understand the similarities between the countries we can find elements within Italian musicians’ product that will reduce the amount of alienation within the Chinese market.Tradicionalmente, tem sido reduzida a transmissão de noções e conceitos de música entre a Itália e a China. Quando a música viaja entre culturas está sujeita a mudanças e transformações, sendo este intercâmbio cultural a base da música popular tal como a conhecemos hoje. Com esta dissertação, pretende-se, em primeiro lugar, analisar o que leva a música ter um efeito positivo nas pessoas, através de uma análise de género. De seguida, far-se-á uma análise comparativa entre os diferentes géneros musicais regionais, analisando as semelhanças entre aqueles. Com este estudo, será possível compreender as semelhanças entre os dois países, e perceber como é que a música italiana poderá entrar no contexto chinês. O objetivo desta análise é verificar se existe público na China para os músicos italianos. Ao compreender as semelhanças entre estes dois países, poder-se-á encontrar elementos no espectro musical italiano que contribua para reduzir uma elevada indiferença à música italiana no mercado chinês

Rethinking digital media use for diasporic political participation: An investigation into journalism advocacy, digital activism, and democratic divides (Dissertation summary)

By presenting five studies on connected research questions, this cumulative dissertation develops a novel understanding of the concept of Hybrid Diasporic Public Sphere by examining how three groups of diasporic exiles, including journalists, activists, and ordinary refugees settled in democratic states, use digital media to engage in transnational conflicts and advocate for political and social change in their homelands. The study demonstrates that the roles of the three diasporic political actors are highly interactive, overlapping, and complementary and their digitally-empowered collaborations blur boundaries between their normative role distinctions creating new interchanging political logics, norms, and practices. The novel contribution of this thesis lies at three levels. First, it redefines diaspora journalism in conflict contexts by examining the Syrian journalists’ media advocacy strategies and digital networks that blend activism, human rights advocacy, and social movements. Second, it further identifies five barriers to the digital diasporic political participation of ordinary refugees demonstrating new forms of democratic divides. Third, the study develops the concept of connected diaspora activist identifying the current challenges that undermine the potential of social media use for mobilizing a political change in non-revolutionary times. The dissertation employs four qualitative research methods including digital ethnography, content analysis, metajournalistic discourse analysis, and a total of 94 in-depth interviews

Performing Both Sides of the Glass: Videogame Affordances and Live Streaming on Twitch

This thesis examines the performative dimensions videogame affordances assume within online, live streaming environments. This approach considers how streamers configure their videogame play in terms of a potential audience, drawing on five semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Australian-based Twitch streamers to analyse how streamers leverage videogame affordances to produce “meaningful moments”. Guiding this thesis is the question of how the player-videogame relationship is maintained, fractured or altered within live-streaming environments such as Twitch

Towards a Video Consumer Leaning Spectrum: A Medium-Centric Approach

Purpose: As TV and digital video converge, there is a need to compare advertising effectiveness, advertising receptivity, and video consumption drivers in this new context. Considering the emerging viewing practices and underlying theories, this study examines the feasibility of the traditional notion of differentiating between lean-back (LB) and lean-forward (LF) media, and proposes a revised approach of addressing video consumption processes and associated advertising effectiveness implications. Methodology: An extensive, systematic literature review examines a total of 715 sources regarding current lean-back/lean-forward media research and alternative approaches as by (1) basic terminologies, (2) limitations of lean-back/lean-forward situations, (3) advertising effectiveness implications, (4) video-specific approaches. Findings/Contribution: Key differences between lean-back and lean-forward video consumption are presented. A conceptual integration of video ad receptivity/effectiveness drivers is proposed to guide future media and marketing research and practice. Video consumption today is no longer lean-back or lean-forward, but a “leaning spectrum” with two dimensions: leaning direction and leaning degree. Designing video content today requires focusing on consumption drivers and platform synergies for owning the “leaning spectrum”