295 research outputs found

    Copyright and cultural work: an exploration

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    This article first discusses the contemporary debate on cultural “creativity” and the economy. Second, it considers the current state of UK copyright law and how it relates to cultural work. Third, based on empirical research on British dancers and musicians, an analysis of precarious cultural work is presented. A major focus is how those who follow their art by way of “portfolio” work handle their rights in ways that diverge significantly from the current simplistic assumptions of law and cultural policy. Our conclusions underline the distance between present top-down conceptions of what drives production in the cultural field and the actual practice of dancers and musicians

    Infrastructures of empire: towards a critical geopolitics of media and information studies

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    The Arab Uprisings of 2011 can be seen as a turning point for media and information studies scholars, many of whom newly discovered the region as a site for theories of digital media and social transformation. This work has argued that digital media technologies fuel or transform political change through new networked publics, new forms of connective action cultivating liberal democratic values. These works have, surprisingly, little to say about the United States and other Western colonial powers’ legacy of occupation, ongoing violence and strategic interests in the region. It is as if the Arab Spring was a vindication for the universal appeal of Western liberal democracy delivered through the gift of the Internet, social media as manifestation of the ‘technologies of freedom’ long promised by Cold War. We propose an alternate trajectory in terms of reorienting discussions of media and information infrastructures as embedded within the resurgence of idealized liberal democratic norms in the wake of the end of the Cold War. We look at the demise of the media and empire debates and ‘the rise of the BRICS’ (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) as modes of intra-imperial competition that complicate earlier Eurocentric narratives media and empire. We then outline the individual contributions for the special collection of essays

    Marx’s "Capital"in the Information Age

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    This article argues that a media and communication studies perspective on reading Marx’s Capital has thus far been missing, but is needed in the age of information capitalism and digital capitalism. Two of the most popular contemporary companions to Marx’s Capital, the ones by David Harvey and Michael Heinrich, present themselves as general guidebooks on how to read Marx, but are actually biased towards particular schools of Marxist thought. A contemporary reading of Marx needs to be mediated with contemporary capitalism’s structures and the political issues of the day. Media, communications and the Internet are important issues for such a reading today. It is time to see Marx not just as a critic of capitalism but also as a critic of capitalist communications

    Digital technology and governance in transition: The case of the British Library

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    Comment on the organizational consequences of the new information and communications technologies (ICTs) is pervaded by a powerful imagery of disaggregation and a tendency for ?virtual? forms of production to be seen as synonymous with the ?end? of bureaucracy. This paper questions the underlying assumptions of the ?virtual organization?, highlighting the historically enduring, diversified character of the bureaucratic form. The paper then presents case study findings on the web-based access to information resources now being provided by the British Library (BL). The case study evidence produces two main findings. First, radically decentralised virtual forms of service delivery are heavily dependent on new forms of capacity-building and information aggregation. Second, digital technology is embedded in an inherently contested and contradictory context of institutional change. Current developments in the management and control of digital rights are consistent with the commodification of the public sphere. However, the evidence also suggests that scholarly access to information resources is being significantly influenced by the ?information society? objectives of the BL and other institutional players within the network of UK research libraries

    Communications and Transport: The mobility of information, people and commodities

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    In a context where the study of communications tends to focus only on the mobility of information, to the neglect of that of people and commodities, this article explores the potential for a closer integration between the fields of communications and transport studies. Against the presumption that the emergence of virtuality means that material geographies are no longer of consequence, the role of mediated ‘technologies of distance’ is considered here in the broader contexts of the construction (and regulation) of a variety of physical forms of mobility and the changing modes of articulation of the virtual and material worlds

    Geografia e saĂșde: o lugar como premissa da atividade informacional da Atenção BĂĄsica do Sistema Único de SaĂșde

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    Resumo O presente artigo visa chamar a atenção para a necessidade de se considerar o lugar como uma variĂĄvel importante da atividade de informação em saĂșde na Atenção BĂĄsica do Brasil. Enquanto processo normatizado e fundamentado no centralismo do Estado e numa metodologia restrita de se enxergar a saĂșde, a atividade informacional, como Ă© concebida hoje, acaba por minar novas possibilidades de compreender os lugares do paĂ­s de uma maneira emancipatĂłria, autĂŽnoma e que dĂȘ voz Ă s forças ascendentes que habitam o cotidiano. Nesse sentido, alertamos para a necessidade de se compreender a saĂșde na sua relação com os lugares e da influĂȘncia destes em todos os processos da vida social. Uma nova atividade informacional deve, entretanto, ser capaz de capturar as realidades locais e suas geografias, sendo assim mais susceptĂ­vel de sucesso, no que diz respeito a garantir a saĂșde e a vida de todos

    Communication, development, and social change in Spain: A field between institutionalization and implosion

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    This paper renders an account of the rapid institutionalization of the academic field of Communication for Development and Social Change (CDCS) in Spain in recent years following a period of neglect and marginalization. The ongoing expansion of the field of CDSC in the Spanish context is understood as a process of implosion, i.e. a collapse inwards, which results from the inconsistencies and weaknesses of fast and late institutionalization. The methodological approach for this inquiry is a documental review of both academic literature and research and institutional reports produced in Spain between 1980 and 2010. Based on this review, the paper contrasts the trajectory of the field in Spain with the debates at the international level, establishing relevant continuities and differences.This article is part of the Research Project (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain) CSO2014-52005-R titled ‘Evaluation and Monitoring of Communication for Development and Social Change in Spain: design of indicators to measure its social impact’ (2015–2017)17 página

    MĂ­dia, saĂșde e poder: um jogo de representaçÔes sobre dengue

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    O objetivo desta pesquisa foi construir discursos que representem como a primeira epidemia de dengue em RibeirĂŁo Preto-SP foi abordada pela mĂ­dia impressa e trazer para reflexĂŁo desdobramentos sobre mĂ­dia e poder. Foram reunidas 126 reportagens de novembro de 1990 a março de 1991 dos jornais Folha de S. Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo e A Cidade, e das revistas Veja e Revide. Utilizou-se o mĂ©todo do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo, fundamentado na Teoria das RepresentaçÔes Sociais. A mĂ­dia polemizou com a discussĂŁo sobre quem seria o grande vilĂŁo da epidemia em vez de esclarecer sobre a epidemia em si. Comprovou-se a defasagem da informação disponibilizada. O jogo de representaçÔes e a relação mĂ­dia/poder ficaram nĂ­tidas. Temos como problema nĂŁo somente a possibilidade de acesso adequado e suficiente Ă s informaçÔes produzidas, mas, tambĂ©m, a dificuldade de decidir o que deve ser discutido nos jornais diĂĄrios para enriquecer, de fato, o arcabouço informacional da população. Para isso, os profissionais que lidam com informação e comunicação em saĂșde, na mĂ­dia impressa, precisam ser capacitados para provocar a aproximação da linguagem tĂ©cnica Ă  linguagem popular. Para que haja circulação e apropriação da informação em SaĂșde PĂșblica, Ă© necessĂĄrio abrir a discussĂŁo para a comunidade e capacitĂĄ-la para que consiga se expressar. É importante discutir a qual tipo de informação o cidadĂŁo tem acesso durante os processos epidĂȘmicos: Informação polĂ­tica ou epidemiolĂłgica? QuestĂ”es polĂ­ticas nĂŁo podem se sobrepor a questĂ”es prioritĂĄrias de saĂșde nos meios de comunicação presentes no cotidiano das famĂ­lias brasileiras
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