Editorial: Populism in and Through Online Communities

This editorial introduces the thematic issue of Online Communities and Populism. I begin by laying out the justification for taking up this topic and then articulate why Media and Communication is the ideal location to hold this discussion. Then I introduce the articles in this issue by listing the questions these articles take up, the four major themes these articles take on, and preview each article

Ethical Frameworks and Ethical Modalities: Theorizing Communication and Citizenship in a Fluid World

This article examines fan-based citizenship performances and theorizes two terms necessary to understanding these emerging civic practices. In the article, I argue that fan-based citizenship performances question the assumed relationship between citizenship performances, civic groups, and ethics. Communication scholars have traditionally understood civic actions as deeply connected to social institutions, such as family and church, and civic groups, like the Democratic Party, Green Peace, or the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I argue that economic, social, and political shifts since the late 1970s have made the membership in those social institutions and civic groups more fluid than ever before. In a fluid world, citizens may easily choose Harry Potter over the Republican Party to guide their civic action on same-sex marriage. A fluid world that enables citizens to choose popular culture media texts to authorize civic actions demands new theoretical terms. I offer ethical framework and ethical modality as terms to enable researchers to investigate this shift and the civic actions it enables. Through processes of pairing and unpairing, fan-based citizenship performances combine noncivic ethical frameworks from popular culture with civic ethical modalities, civic actions such as voting, petitioning, and so on. These terms allow researchers to examine fully a wide range of fan performances of citizenship, including performances that are emancipatory and problematic, effective and ineffective, and grassroots and industry organized. In this article, I use the example of the HPA’s “Not in Harry’s Name” campaign to illustrate how these terms can be used to investigate fan-based citizenship performances

Creating and curating an archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon past

This contribution explores the mechanisms by which the Benedictine foundation of Bury St Edmunds sought to legitimise and preserve their spurious pre-Conquest privileges and holdings throughout the Middle Ages. The archive is extraordinary in terms of the large number of surviving registers and cartularies which contain copies of Anglo-Saxon charters, many of which are wholly or partly in Old English. The essay charts the changing use to which these ancient documents were put in response to threats to the foundation's continued enjoyment of its liberties. The focus throughout the essay is to demonstrate how pragmatic considerations at every stage affects the development of the archive and the ways in which these linguistically challenging texts were presented, re-presented, and represented during the Abbey’s history

Framing the Video Essay as Argument

When first incorporating video essays into my classes, I struggled to conceptualize what role the video essay would play in my teaching. How do I justify assigning a video essay to students and colleagues? How do I teach or coach video essays for my students? How can I teach the video essay in a way that is just as rigorous as a written essay? And how do these questions fit together? Are my answers consistent? Do they contradict each other? In pursuit of answers to these questions, I have borrowed concepts from Internet studies, communication, rhetoric, and composition, which have helped create a framework for teaching video essays. While the other essays in this collection offer specific recommendations about how to teach students production skills or how to grade video essays, here I aim to offer an overarching framework that brings each piece together—whether the assignment is a vlog in an introductory media class or a video game walk-through in a new media class. I begin by detailing the “video essay as argument” framework, then describe one of my video essay assignments utilizing this frame, and lastly identify the advantages this framework offers

Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom

Students often assume that digital media making is drag-and-drop; a series of well-laid out, linear, and standard steps; and a guaranteed working product at the end with little risk of failure. For most students, these assumptions not only match their understanding of digital media, but also match their understanding of school. In K-12 and higher education, students learn through following the steps. They create the product that the teacher wanted — that counts as the right answer. Worksheets, templates, and multiple-choice tests are often at the heart of this kind of learning. Even when we leave behind worksheets and templates and take up technologies that encourage exploration, open-endedness, and experimentation, the assumptions and expectations of those worksheets and templates linger on in the classroom, affecting students’ expectations of and approaches to learning. As critical digital pedagogues, we often analyze the technologies in our classroom, the structure of our lesson plans, and our relationships with our students — how the desks and tables are arranged or how our learning management system controls learning. We don’t often turn our attention to the technologies that are absent from our classrooms. Shortcut/template platforms and websites, even when absent from our classrooms, affect student learning. Instead, we should help students move from users of shortcut/template platforms to makers, creators, and speakers in their own rights