The closure of ERT: public service broadcasting and austerity politics in Greece

Opinion piece on the closure of the Greek Public Service Broadcaster (PSB

[Review] David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer (2015) Understanding national identity

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Book review: popular representations of development: insights from novels, films, television and social media edited by David Lewis et al.

This collection sees development as something that can be understood through studying literature, films, and other non-conventional forms of representation. Chapters focus on development issues on blogs and social media, Band Aid and populist humanitarianism, and teaching international studies with novels. Eleftheria Lekakis finds this a great read for scholars of development studies, media and communications, sociology, anthropology and geography at all levels

Alternative media ecology and anti-austerity documentary: The #greekdocs archive

This paper presents the digital archive #greekdocs, a researcher-initiated practice. This work has both a theoretical and a practical aim: theoretically, it critically analyses and situates alternative media such as independent documentaries within media ecology in times of austerity and argues that in the context of Greek austerity these operate as both journalist and activist practice. Practically, it aims to offer a media resource of independent productions of various themes, all of which aim to redress narratives of the crisis and its impact on society. Diverse and inventive in their reframing of the crisis, they have addressed questions of its impact on media, politics and society. This paper theorises #greekdocs within media ecology, mediatization and media culture in Greece, and argues that independent documentaries produced under conditions of austerity are at the intersection of journalism and activism

Culture jamming and brandalism for the environment: the logic of appropriation

This article explores creative activism for environmentalism through an examination of culture jamming. Specifically, it looks to the action of the Brandalism project during COP21. This was the replacement of bus stop advertising with original artworks. This form of creative activism is unique in that it addresses the advertising industry as a key battlefield over cultural meaning and environmental sustainability. Through its use of the logic of appropriation inherent in culture jamming, this case challenges critiques about the incorporation of culture jamming within consumer culture. This work theorizes the case through the new politics of consumption, political consumerism, and culture jamming. It argues for the logic of appropriation, before it introduces the case study and explores the visual narratives of environmentalism: corporate greed, inadequate politicians, consumer saturation, Earth in mourning, and public commitment to the environment. Finally, it evaluates the contribution of Brandalism as a form of creative activism for environmentalism

[Review] Tim Bartley, Sebastian Koos, Hiram Samel, Gustavo Setrini and Nik Summers (2015) Looking behind the label: global industries and the conscientious consumer

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Politics in the Pocket?: Coffee Activism, Political Consumerism and the Internet

This thesis examines coffee activism III the UK in order to discuss the possibilities and hindrances for civic engagement within the wider debates on the decline of political participation and the mediation of politics online. Coffee activism is an umbrella term for the fair trade movement and actors beyond the official network. This research is based on the analysis of selected activists' websites, online and offline interviews with activists and citizens, as well as events observation and survey questionnaires. I interrogate the landscape of coffee activism through spaces which allow political expression and participation to emerge, and question the possible colonisation of such spaces by consumer narratives and mobilisation calls. By portraying the online growth of both civic and consumer-related information, as well as communication and consumption flows, I argue that the internet has served mostly as an enhancer of a neoliberal consumer-driven rationale. Such narratives and directions belong in the repertoire of political consumerism, which has signalled a distance from previous types of civic engagement. There is a shift in the placement of personal experiences of political engagement from public to private spaces. Civic engagement here consists of mostly individual acts, which become politically meaningful on a collective level. This is discussed as collective individualism, signifying a mass scale of individual acts of citizenship. Distance from civic habits of the past assisted by liquid politics online and offline and infiltrated by consumer culture and the politics of neoliberalism allows for both optimism and scepticism for a politics within the capitalist modus operandi. Concurring with literature on the prolific, though fragmented, nature of citizenship and the politics of political consumerism, I argue for the restrictive enactment of forms of participation and the restrained use of the internet for political revival