The purpose of the article is to analyse virtual communities in the context of Ray Oldenburg’s third place theory. The author argues that virtual third places are a response to the needs of virtual ...communities and their features are similar to Oldenburg’s third places. The first part of the article presents the basics of Oldenburg’s third place theory while the second one shows the characteristics of virtual communities: a review of definitions, their typology and features. The criteria of collectivity of virtual communities are also discussed in the context of Oldenburg’s third places features.
The article is devoted to the analysis of the role of local Internet communities in public and political communication. The perception of modern student youth of the socio-political role performed by ...local online communities is considered.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the features of an active audience of social media attitude to the idea of the local Internet communities functioning in the context of solving socially significant issues and the sphere of state and municipal government. The aim of the article is to establish the presence or absence of a stable group of users who simultaneously consider local Internet publics and groups, and as a significant and effective mechanism for the development of a particular territory, and an instrument for the implementation of state and municipal policy.
The theoretical basis of the study is the theory of the information society and the concept of “Local Internet Community”. The main empirical method is a sociological survey of student youth. The total sample of respondents is 292 people. The results of the survey have been processed using frequency and cross-sectional data analysis, and the corresponding contingency tables have been constructed.
The results of the survey have showed that the vast majority of respondents agree that local Internet communities help in solving socially significant issues and create new opportunities for direct civic participation in solving such issues. The majority of respondents also has supported the idea that local online communities are an effective tool for implementing state and municipal policies. However, when answering this question, the audience’s opinion has been seriously divided, many survey participants have not agree with this idea or found it difficult to answer. A cross-sectional analysis of the survey data has made it possible to identify the presence of a relatively large group of respondents who are optimistic about the role of local Internet publics and groups both in resolving issues significant to society and in pursuing an effective state and municipal policy. A generalized conclusion has been made about the importance of using local online communities for political and public actors in the performance of their functions.
The Network Society Today Fernández-Ardèvol, Mireia; Ribera-Fumaz, Ramon
The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills),
06/2023, Letnik:
67, Številka:
7
Journal Article
Recenzirano
2021 marked the 25th Anniversary of Manuel Castells’ The Rise of the Network Society, the first volume of the Information Age trilogy. The Trilogy immediately became one of the most influential works ...to understand the societal change in the wake of the digital revolution. More than two decades later, many of the emerging processes theorised and analysed in the Trilogy have reached full maturity, if not evolved in unexpected ways. Also, several theoretical and epistemological trends have developed or consolidated in the social sciences that have either been influenced by or challenged the Trilogy position. In this scenario, is the Network Society Theory still relevant for understanding today’s digitalised society? How should we develop the Network Society approach now? This special issue aims to answer these questions. In particular, in this collection of papers, we identify three interrelated dimensions: new developments in the evolution or disruption of the Network Society, the articulation between network logics and other spatial forms, and the relation of the Network Society with recurrent topics in Castells’ work beyond the Information. The papers are a selection of the contributions to the online workshop The Network Society Today: (Revisiting) the Information Age Trilogy (November 2–30, 2020), in which Prof. Castells also participated. This volume brings together a wide range of established and emerging scholars from a diversity of Social Sciences disciplines with plural theoretically informed papers tackling rich empirical case studies across the world, spanning throughout America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Contributions conclude with a reflection by Manuel Castells on them and his work.
The aim of the article is to explore the theoretical tension between structure and agency as laid out by Manuel Castells, from The Rise of the Network Society (1996) to Networks of Outrage and Hope ...(2012). With agency and structure recognized as the two main axes around which general social theory rotates, Castells’ work appears to be affected by discontinuity rather than continuity. The first part of his theory mainly deals with structure and with the “pre-eminence of social morphology over social action”, while the second is rather based on agency, and namely on the role played by grassroots movements. I will retrace his theoretical evolution while also stressing the point that network and society are not one and the same. Therefore, any all-embracing theoretical perspective is destined to miss the target, considering that technical, political, and social affairs follow different rules and patterns.
In this interview with Thomas Dekeyser, Eugene Thacker elaborates on the central themes of his work. Addressing themes including extinction, futility, human universalism, network euphoria, political ...indecision and scientific nihilism, the interview positions Thacker’s work within the contemporary theoretical conjuncture, specifically through its relation to genres of thought his work is often grouped with or cast against: vitalism, speculative realism and accelerationism. More broadly, however, the interview offers a unique insight into Thacker’s approach to the thinking, doing and writing of ‘philosophy’.
How can constructive journalism subscribe to established standards of journalism and still offer something new to the field? This paper explores the possibility that constructive journalism looks for ...better ways to implement the standards in a changing media environment. A case in point is the partial loss of the gatekeeper role in digital journalism. Here, journalism tries to show that it is still relevant by always finding something to criticize. But this may cause readers to turn away because, even though the news informs them about important points of disagreement, it does not outline how the debate might move on. Constructive journalism can be taken to suggest that journalists should evaluate the merits of the arguments involved so that readers can better assess the situation. This would not require journalists to give up on a negative focus in news, but to broaden their view: They should not confine their reporting to those in power but reflect the productive discourse which is often hidden in digital media.
About Pseudo Quarrels and Trustworthiness Deprez, Annelore; Van Leuven, Sarah
Journalism studies (London, England),
07/2018, Letnik:
19, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Digital technology, the internet and mobile media are transforming the journalism and media landscape by influencing the sourcing process. We combined in-depth interviews and a content analysis of ...the 1424 Twitter "followings" of eight Belgian health journalists to clarify how they use the platform to monitor and use sources. The findings show that top-down actors are overrepresented in the journalists' sourcing practices and that Twitter is not used to reach out to bottom-up actors, especially ordinary citizens. We found that health journalists mainly use Twitter to monitor other media actors, indicating a process of inter-media agenda setting. In line with previous studies, health experts are the second most important group of sources as they play an important role in translating complex health matters. Overall, the interviews suggest that Twitter is used in a basic fashion for news sourcing, mainly to stay up to date and search for story ideas.
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