Twitter or Radio Revolutions? The Central Role of Açık Radyo in the Gezi Protests of 2013

Radio has been employed as a communication tool during all the social movements and protests of the last decades of the past century, from the student movements of May 1968 in Paris and Mexico City to the 1999 Seattle WTO protests, while the political protests and uprisings at the beginning of the twenty-first century have mostly been supported by social media (Howard and Hussain, 2013). Is Twitter the radio of the twenty-first century? Another, more complex, reality lies beyond the surface of the representation of the protests shaped by the mainstream media: the mediascape in which political movements such as Occupy, the Arab Spring and the Indignados have emerged is a mixed one, a mediascape where old and new, mainstream and underground media co-exist, interact and shape each other. In this paper, we will focus on the case of Açık Radyo, the only independent and listener-supported radio station based in Istanbul, and the role it played in the Gezi Park protests of June 2013. This study is based on an ethnographic investigation undertaken between December 2014 and January 2015 that used a mix of participant observation (Spradley, 1980) and in-depth interviews (Patton, 2001) with 15 Açık Radyo workers and volunteers and 10 Açık Radyo listeners. We will show how radio has not lost the value that it gained as a tool for political and social change during the twentieth century, but how it has only repositioned itself within the changing digital mediascape of the twenty-first century, mixing itself with social media in order to continue amplifying radical political discourses and networking protesters together

A convivial-agonistic framework to theorise public service media platforms and their governing systems

This article addresses the need to find alternative ways to envision, develop and govern public service media’s (PSM) online services and data-driven systems. By critically discussing both opportunities and shortcomings of how European PSM organisations developed their online services and personalisation systems, we argue that in their own platformisation processes, PSM have partially lost their distinctiveness and have not been able to provide viable alternatives to the dominant audiovisual media platforms. Thus, building on Mouffe’s agonistic theory and Illich’s conviviality theory, this article proposes a theoretical framework to radically rethink the guiding principles and rationales driving public service platforms, in order to develop viable alternatives to the currently dominant models. By doing so, we envision the development of such services as convivial tools that are based on three principles, namely, symmetry of power (intended as hackability, openness and algorithmic conviviality), independence and environmental sustainability

Interfacing the space of flows and the space of places in the platform society: ten years of Airbnb in Florence

Questo articolo prende in prestito i concetti di spazio dei flussi e spazio dei luoghi avanzati da Castells (1996) per sostenere che le piattaforme digitali svolgono il ruolo chiave di interfaccia, di medium, tra lo spazio dei luoghi e lo spazio dei flussi. Le piattaforme digitali, come Airbnb, possono infatti essere considerate come ‘orchestratori di reti’ che gestiscono i flussi di dati e informazioni prodotti dagli utenti (ospiti e Host) attraverso la piattaforma stessa. Per dimostrare come la combinazione di reti e luoghi impatti lo spazio urbano, abbiamo analizzato Airbnb come “un’interfaccia tra comunicazione elettronica e interazione fisica” e dimostrato l’utilità delle idee di Castells per esplorare l’impatto della piattaforma alla scala intra-urbana. Il contributo sviluppa un’analisi spazio-temporale di 12.126 annunci georeferenziati e 651.515 recensioni lasciate dagli utenti di Airbnb sulla piattaforma dal 2010 al 2019 a Firenze (Italia). In questo contesto, le recensioni agiscono come una camera d’eco per lo spazio dei flussi, forgiando alcune aree specifiche della città che soddisfano i requisiti della comunità Airbnb. Inoltre, la progressiva trasformazione di appartamenti privati in nodi della rete turistica globale crea una divisione spaziale sempre più frammentata tra porzioni di città connesse a livello globale e altri spazi geograficamente contigui ma non connessi. Tale processo è geograficamente disomogeneo e riproduce modelli ben noti di concentrazione del valore, in cui i simboli creano una realtà urbana virtualmente contraffatta, destinata ad imitare il luogo proiettato nella piattaforma

Participatory Design and Critical Media Studies:A Convivial Conversation

Nell'era della società delle piattaforme, i Critical Media Studies si trovano di fronte alla sfida di sviluppare non solo proposte teoriche in grado di affrontare criticamente il potere esercitato sulla società dalle piattaforme digitali di proprietà della GAFAM, ma anche di immaginare una prassi capace di cambiare l'economia politica di questo ecosistema mediatico digitale guidato dalle aziende. Per fare questo, crediamo che il Participatory Design e i Critical Media Studies debbano dialogare quando si tratta di quadri teorici e pratiche di intervento. In questo articolo proponiamo di iniziare questo dialogo partendo dal lavoro di Ivan Illich, in particolare dal suo libro Tools for Conviviality. Riteniamo che per immaginare un possibile processo di progettazione dei media digitali in grado di evitare la creazione di monopoli radicali, sia necessario adottare un approccio di Convivial Participatory Design in cui le questioni relative alla scala, ai bisogni delle persone e alle disuguaglianze di potere siano considerate dai designer in collaborazione con gli utenti.In the age of platform society, Critical Media Studies are faced with the challenge of developing not only theoretical proposals capable of critically addressing the power exerted on society by GAFAM-owned digital platforms, but also of envisioning a praxis capable of changing the political economy of this corporate-driven digital media ecosystem. To do this, we believe that Participatory Design and Critical Media Studies should dialogue when it comes to theoretical frameworks and intervention practices. In this paper we propose to start this dialogue building upon the work of Ivan Illich, especially his book Tools for Conviviality. We find that in order to imagine a possible digital media design process able to avoid the creation of radical monopolies, it is necessary to adopt a Convivial Participatory Design approach where issues related to scale, people needs and power inequalities are considered by designers in collaboration with the users

Disconnessione digitale e resistenza tra i rider dell industria del food delivery online

In this paper, we draw on extensive ethnographic work in Italy, China, India, Mexico and Spain (conducted between 2020 and 2021) to illustrate the different digital disconnection practices developed by riders in the online food delivery industry. First, we conduct a review of the emerging literature on digital disconnection. We then go on to illustrate the individual and collective disconnection dynamics enacted by online food delivery riders, analysing the meanings these actors attribute to these practices. In the conclusion, by critically confronting these practices, we further reflect on the promising area of enquiry at the intersection of digital disconnection, resistance and platform labour studies

The emergence of algorithmic solidarity: unveiling mutual aid practices and resistance among Chinese delivery workers

This study explores how Chinese riders game the algorithm-mediated governing system of food delivery service platforms and how they mobilize WeChat to build solidarity networks to assist each other and better cope with the platform economy. We rely on 12 interviews with Chinese riders from 4 platforms (Meituan, Eleme, SF Express and Flash EX) in 5 cities, and draw on a 4-month online observation of 7 private WeChat groups. The article provides a detailed account of the gamification ranking and competition techniques employed by delivery platforms to drive the riders to achieve efficiency and productivity gains. Then, it critically explores how Chinese riders adapt and react to the algorithmic systems that govern their work by setting up private WeChat groups and developing everyday practices of resilience and resistance. This study demonstrates that Chinese riders working for food delivery platforms incessantly create a complex repertoire of tactics and develop hidden transcripts to resist the algorithmic control of digital platforms

La radio, la memoria y el digital

Esta contribución reflexiona sobre el estado del arte de los procesos de digitalización de los archivos de radio, examinando las diversas formas de digitalización de los archivos de radio existentes en Europa. Analizamos los modelos holandés, español y británico, los casos de los archivos informales y, por último, prestamos especial atención al caso italiano, en el que en 2010 la Rai inauguró una webradio dedicada a la restauración, digitalización y transmisión de material de sus archivos históricos. El caso de la Rai representa una iniciativa única en la escena europea y un modelo de apertura al público que también podría ser reproducido por otras empresas de servicio público

Automatización inteligente en la gestión de la comunicación

Las nuevas tecnologías han permitido el desarrollo de la industria, transformándola así desde la 1.0 hasta la actual, denominada industria 4.0, que avizora un rápido crecimiento por la penetración de la inteligencia artificial y sus diversas tecnologías que prometen sorprendernos a todos e invadir el mercado y transformar el mundo. Muchas de estas tecnologías, van de la mano de la automatización inteligente que proyecta una transformación a gran escala. Frente a esta metamorfosis, en el presente artículo se profundiza sobre la automatización inteligente y de manera especial en la gestión de la comunicación de las organizaciones, repasando la bibliografía existente y profundizando sobre ella. Como conclusión se propone un estado de la cuestión mucho más clarificado y un aporte a la escasa bibliografía referente a la temática de estudio que pueden servir de conector entre las citadas teorías y una proyección de la automatización en el campo de la comunicación

Twitter as a public service medium? A content analysis of the Twitter use made by Radio RAI and RNE

Twitter seems to be, among the other social media, one of the best new media for drawing back the audience from internet to radio and to improve the engagement with listeners. This paper analyses the practices of public radio in Social Media focusing on the use of Twitter by two European public broadcasters: RAI (Italy) and RNE (Spain). PSM role in society is being questioned and asked to extend its service to include a new media strategy. The study aims to understand how public service operators adapt themselves to the new multi platform scenario which should drive them to change the relationship with their listeners.Entre los diversos medios sociales, Twitter se muestra como uno de los mejores para llevar la audiencia de internet a la radio y para una mejor relación con los oyentes. Este artículo analiza las prácticas de la radio pública en los medios sociales. El análisis se centra en el uso de Twitter por parte de dos radiodifusores públicos europeos: RAI (Italia) y RNE (España), en un contexto en el que el rol de los medios públicos está siendo cuestionado. Este estudio pretende comprender cómo los operadores públicos se adaptan a un nuevo escenario multiplataforma que exige nuevos modos de relación con los oyentes