[Fis] Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter
Book Launch: “Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter” by Christian Fuchs Thursday 1 March 2018 19:00 – 21:00 117 Boardroom 309 Regent Street University of Westminster London W1B 2HW Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digital-demagogue-authoritarian-capitalism-in-the-age-of-trump-and-twitter-tickets-41214808602?aff=erelexpmlt WIAS, CAMRI and Pluto Press are pleased to invite you to the book launch of “Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter” by Christian Fuchs. Christian Fuchs will be giving an introduction to “Digital Demagogue”, a timely and topical study of the expressions of ideology, nationalism and authoritarianism in the age of big data, Trump and social media. We are all familiar with the ways that Donald Trump uses digital media to communicate, from the ridiculous to the terrifying. This book digs deeper into the use of those tools in politics to show how they have facilitated the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, and right-wing ideologies around the world. Digital Demagogue Competition: Books for Memes https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/announcement/view/32 ___ Fis mailing list Fis@listas.unizar.es http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
[Fis] Digital Labour and Karl Marx (Christian Fuchs): New paperback
Digital Labour and Karl Marx (Christian Fuchs): New paperback Fuchs, Christian. 2014. Digital Labour and Karl Marx. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-71615-4. More information about the book: http://fuchs.uti.at/books/digital-labour-and-karl-marx/ Participate in the journal tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique (http://www.triple-c.at)’s Karl Marx-lottery and win one of 6 copies of the book (see the instructions at the end of this e-mail) How is labour changing in the age of computers, the Internet, and “social media” such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Weibo and Twitter? In Digital Labour and Karl Marx, Christian Fuchs attempts to answer that question, crafting a systematic critical theorisation of labour as performed in the capitalist ICT industry. The book ''Digital Labour and Karl Marx'' shows that labour, class and exploitation are not concepts of the past, but are at the heart of computing and the Internet in capitalist society. It argues that we therefore need an engagement with Karl Marx’s theory to understand digital and social media today. The work argues that our use of digital media is grounded in old and new forms of exploited labour. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Weibo and other social media platforms are the largest advertising agencies in the world. They do not sell communication, but advertising space. And for doing so, they exploit users, who work without payment for social media companies and produce data that is used for targeting advertisements. The book presents case studies that show that users’ activities on corporate social media is just one form of digital labour. Their usage is enabled by the labour of slaves and other highly exploited workers extracting minerals in developing countries, hardware assemblers in China, California and other parts of the world who face extremely hard working conditions that remind us of the industrial labour that Karl Marx described in 19th century Britain, low paid software engineers and information service workers in developing countries who provide labour for t! ransnatio nal ICT companies in the West, highly paid and highly stressed software engineers at Google and other Western ICT companies, or e-waste workers who disassemble computers under toxic conditions. The case studies in Fuchs’ book show that the profitability of ICT companies is built on the lives and deaths of a global class of exploited workers whose labour is anonymously connected an international division of digital labour. Christian Fuchs, ''Production and use of digital media are embedded into multiple forms of exploitation. The information society is first and foremost a capitalist class society. The only solution is that we become conscious as a new working class and find ways to overcome the realities of exploitation''. CONTENTS PART I Theoretical Foundations of Studying Digital Labour 1. Introduction 2. An Introduction to Karl Marx’s Theory 3. Contemporary Cultural Studies and Karl Marx 4. Dallas Smythe and Audience Labour Today 5. Capitalism or Information Society? PART II Analysing Digital Labour: Case Studies 6. Digital Slavery: Slave Work in ICT-Related Mineral Extraction 7. Exploitation at Foxconn: Primitive Accumulation and the Formal Subsumption of Labour 8. The New Imperialism’s Division of Labour: Work in the Indian Software Industry 9. The Silicon Valley of Dreams and Nightmares of Exploitation: The Google Labour Aristocracy and Its Context 10. Tayloristic, Housewifized Service Labour: The Example of Call Centre Work 11. Theorizing Digital Labour on Social Media PART III Conclusion 12. Digital Labour and Struggles for Digital Work:The Occupy Movement as a New Working-Class Movement? Social Media as Working-Class Social Media? 13. Digital Labour Keywords Participate in the journal tripleC’s (http://www.triple-c.at) Karl Marx-lottery and potentially win one of 6 copies of “Digital Labour and Karl Marx”: send the 2 answer of the following 2 questions, your name and postal address to off...@triple-c.at How often can the term “means of communication” be found in a) Marx’s “Capital, Volume 1” (excluding the index, the editor’s and translator’s introductions, as well as excluding the “Results of the Immediate Process of Production” included in some editions; including footnotes) and b) Marx’s “Grundrisse” (including the table of contents and footnotes; excluding the index, editor’s or translator’s introductions, including footnotes) Closing date: Thursday, May 15. 18:00 BST The winners will be drawn among the correct answers. If less than 6 sent-in answers are correct, then those answers whose guess is closest will be considered. ___ Fis mailing list Fis@listas.unizar.es http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
[Fis] Sign the Freedom of Information and Expression-Declaration!
potentials created by access to information and public knowledge are hampered. In many countries and at a transnational level we lack adequate laws for the transparency of corporate and state power and citizens’ access to information about it in order to hold those in power accountable. A particularly alarming development of the limitation of freedom of information can be found in the world of libraries: large corporate publishers tend to license access to academic and literary works only in expensive bundles and make the access to easy-to-use e-books difficult and expensive. The result is a limit of public access to cultural works so that people have more and more to rely on purchasing books and articles, which is a matter of purchasing power that disadvantages many citizens. The corporate power of publishing houses thereby limits the public’s right to inform itself. We consider that the right of access to information can promote citizens’ civic and political participation by raising their levels of trust in political and policy-making institutions, while it can fight phenomena such as lobbying and corruption. Open access to public and digitised knowledge and scholarly research is also crucial for the continuous education of the broader public and professionals, the promotion of cultural production and diversity and the preservation of the historic and collective memory. New social media, libraries and archives can and should play an important role in this field. We are convinced that freedom of information is a value worth struggling for and that the current framework and developments strongly threaten freedom, democracy and basic civil liberties. A free culture, a free economy of information and a free polity of information are possible! First signees: Antonis Broumas (Attorney at law, Digital Liberation Network, Greece) Arne Hintz (Lecturer, University of Cardiff, UK) Augustine Zenakos (Journalist, UNFOLLOW magazine, Greece) Barbara Trionfi (Press Freedom Manager, International Press Institute) Christian Fuchs (Professor of Social Media, University of Westminster, UK) Dimitris Tsapogas (Researcher, University of Vienna, Austria) Gerfried Sperl (Journalist, PHOENIX, Austria) Gill Phillips (Director of Editorial Legal Service, The Guardian, United Kingdom) Joachim Losehand (Scholar, VIBE!at, Austria) Kostas Arvanitis (Journalist and Director, Sto Kokkino Radio, Greece) Kostas Efimeros (Publisher, The Press Project, Greece) Lisa Schilhan (VÖB, University of Graz, Austria) Mariniki Alevizopoulou (Journalist, UNFOLLOW magazine, Greece) Minas Samatas (Professor, University of Crete, Greece) Miyase Christensen (Professor, Stockholm University, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, London School of Economics, UK) Nikolaus Hamann (Vienna Public Libraries, KRIBIBI, Austria) Paloma Fernández de la Hoz (Catholic Social Academy, Austria) ___ Fis mailing list Fis@listas.unizar.es http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
[Fis] CfA: Conference "Critique, Privacy, and Democracy in 21st Century information Society. Towards Critical Theories of Social Media"
Call for Contributions/Abstracts Critique, Democracy, and Philosophy in 21st Century information Society. Towards Critical Theories of Social Media. The Fourth ICTs and Society-Conference Uppsala University. May 2nd-4th, 2012. http://www.icts-and-society.net/events/uppsala2012/ http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/CfA.pdf A unique event for networking, presentation of critical ideas, critical engagement, and featuring leading critical scholars in the area of Critical Internet Studies and Critical Studies of Media & Society. Confirmed Keynote Speakers * Andrew Feenberg (Simon Fraser University, Canada): Great Refusal and Long March: How to Use Critical Theory to Think About the Internet. * Charles Ess (Aarhus University, Denmark): Digital Media Ethics and Philosophy in 21st Century Information Society * Christian Christensen (Uppsala University, Sweden): WikiLeaks: Mainstreaming Transparency? * Christian Fuchs (Uppsala University, Sweden): Critique of the Political Economy of Social Media and Informational Capitalism * Graham Murdock (Loughborough University, UK): The Peculiarities of Media Commodities: Consumer Labour, Ideology, and Exploitation Today * Gunilla Bradley (KTH, Sweden): Social Informatics and Ethics: Towards a Good Information Society * Mark Andrejevic (University of Queensland, Australia): Social Media: Surveillance and Exploitation 2.0 * Nick Dyer-Witheford (University of Western Ontario, Canada): Cybermarxism Today: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in 21st Century Capitalism * Peter Dahlgren (Lund University, Sweden): Social Media and the Civic Sphere: Perspectives for the Future of Democracy * Tobias Olsson (Jönköping University, Sweden): Social Media Participation and the Organized Production of Net Culture * Trebor Scholz (New School, USA): The Internet as Playground and Factory * Ursula Huws (University of Hertfordshire, UK): Virtual Work and the Cybertariat in Contemporary Capitalism * Vincent Mosco (Queen’s University, Canada): Marx is Back, but Will Knowledge Workers of the World Unite? On the Critical Study of Labour, Media, and Communication Today * Wolfgang Hofkirchner (Vienna University of Technology, Austria): Potentials and Risks for Creating a Global Sustainable Information Society Conference Topic This conference provides a forum for the discussion of how to critically study social media and their relevance for critique, democracy, politics and philosophy in 21st century information society. We are living in times of global capitalist crisis. In this situation, we are witnessing a return of critique in the form of a surging interest in critical theories (such as the critical political economy of Karl Marx, critical theory, etc) and revolutions, rebellions, and political movements against neoliberalism that are reactions to the commodification and instrumentalization of everything. On the one hand there are overdrawn claims that social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, mobile Internet, etc) have caused rebellions and uproars in countries like Tunisia and Egypt, which brings up the question to which extent these are claims are ideological or not. On the other hand, the question arises what actual role social media play in contemporary capitalism, power structures, crisis, rebellions, uproar, revolutions, the strengthening of the commons, and the potential creation of participatory democracy. The commodification of everything has resulted also in a commodification of the communication commons, including Internet communication that is today largely commercial in character. The question is how to make sense of a world in crisis, how a different future can look like, and how we can create Internet commons and a commons-based participatory democracy. This conference deals with the question of what kind of society and what kind of Internet are desirable, what steps need to be taken for advancing a good Internet in a sustainable information society, how capitalism, power structures and social media are connected, what the main problems, risks, opportunities and challenges are for the current and future development of Internet and society, how struggles are connected to social media, what the role, problems and opportunities of social media, web 2.0, the mobile Internet and the ubiquitous Internet are today and in the future, what current developments of the Internet and society tell us about potential futures, how an alternative Internet can look like, and how a participatory, commons-based Internet and a co-operative, participatory, sustainable information society can be achieved. Questions to be addressed include, but are not limited to: * What does it mean to study the Internet, social media and society in a critical way? What are Critical Internet Studies and Critical Theories of Social Media? What does it mean to study the media and communication critically? * What is the role of the Internet and social medi
[Fis] New MA Programme in Digital Media & Society at Uppsala University
Dear colleagues, We have a new MA programme in Digital Media & Society at Uppsala University. Please help us to spread information about it by informing your students about the existence of this programme or forwarding them this message. Thank you for your help. With kind regards, Christian Fuchs *** New MA Programme in Digital Media & Society at Uppsala University Uppsala University has introduced a new master programme in Digital Media & Society as part of the Social Science Master. It is a 2-year-programme that will start at the end of August 2012 with its first year of students. The programme's teaching language is English. The application period for students starts now and lasts until January 16, 2012. The goal of this programme is that students acquire skills to critically study the role of digital media in society. Students study the economic, political, cultural, social and practical impacts of digital media. This programme focuses on teaching theoretical, empirical, ethical, critical and practical skills for studying digital media in the information society. European Union students do not pay fees for studying in Sweden. Uppsala University is among the 100 best universities in the world (Times Higher Education University Ranking 2011: #87). Every year 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students enroll for classes. Uppsala University offers some 30 international master programmes and 300 single-subject courses taught in English. It is the oldest university in the Nordic countries - founded in 1477. Programme The programme consists of one semester of advanced core courses (30 credits) that focus on theoretical knowledge, empirical skills and ethical reasoning required for understanding and analyzing digital media & society. 30 credits (= 4 courses, one semester study time) is made up of basic social science skills courses that are taught together with the other specialties in the Social Science Master. Another 30 credits are elective courses that the students choose from various courses taught at Uppsala University. Also an internship at a company or a research internship at a university department are options for the elective courses. The master’s thesis (30 credits) is the final stage in the programme. The four core courses are: * Introduction to Information Society Studies (semester 1) * Internet, Social Media and Society (semester 1) * Cyberculture and Politics (semester 2) * Organizations and Communication in Global Society (semester 2) The four skills courses are: * Quantitative Methods * Qualitative Methods * Science Theory and Methodology * Social Science Methods and Research Design Further information for students: Flyer (PDF) http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/uploads/DM&S_flyer.pdf Programme site: http://www.uu.se/en/education/courses_and_programmes/selma/program/?pKod=SSV2M&lasar=12/13 Facebook-Group http://www.facebook.com/pages/Master-in-Digital-Media-Society/156723914419506 Application Application site: www.antagning.se/intl/search?period=HT_2012&freeText=UU-P2052 All applicants need to verify English language profiency. This is normally attested by an internationally recognised test such as TOEFL or IELTS. Eligibility Bachelor’s degree equivalent to a Swedish degree of at least 180 ECTS credits (i.e. three years of full-time studies), including at least 90 ECTS credits of studies in social sciences or a comparable field that qualifies for studies on the specilisation in Digital Media & Society. Selection and Application Letter Selection will be based on previous academic studies and degrees with emphasis on grades in relevant fields and degree project (if any), a summary in English (1–2 pages) of a previous degree project (if any), and a statement of intent (3–5 pages). Students should accompany their application with a statement of intent, in which they engage with each of the following questions: * Please describe the undergraduate (bachelor) studies that you completed. * What were your favourite topics, main interests, favourite courses in your undergraduate (bachelor) studies and why? * Why are you interested in studying in the master’s programme focusing on Digital Media & Society? * What do you expect to learn studying Digital Media & Society? * What qualifies you for studying in the field of Digital Media & Society? * What are your future plans and goals after you have finished your studies and how can a social science master’s degree focusing on Digital Media & Society support you in achieving your goals? * Why do you want to study in Sweden and at Uppsala University’s Department of Informatics and Media? Contact Department of Informatics and Media Uppsala University http://www.im.uu.se Director of Studies Göran Svensson goran.svens...@im.uu.se Tel +46-18-4711514 -- Prof. Christian Fuchs Chair in Media and Communication Studies Department of Informatics and Media
[Fis] New Book: Internet and Surveillance: The Challenges of Web 2.0 and Social Media
Fuchs, Christian, Kees Boersma, Anders Albrechtslund and Marisol Sandoval (Eds.). 2011. Internet and Surveillance: The Challenges of Web 2.0 and Social Media. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-89160-8. EU COST Publication. 332 pages. http://fuchs.uti.at/books/internet-and-surveillance-the-challenges-of-web-2-0-and-social-media/ With contributions by: Anders Albrechtslund, Thomas Allmer, Mark Andrejevic, David Arditi, Roberto Armengol, Kees Boersma, Miyase Christensen, Christian Fuchs, David W. Hill, André Jansson, Deborah G. Johnson, David Lyon, Thomas Mathiesen, Marisol Sandoval, Iván Székely, Monika Taddicken, Daniel Trottier, Kent Wayland, Rolf H. Weber The publication has been supported by EU COST – European Cooperation in Science and Technology and the EU COST Action IS0807 “Living in Surveillance Societies“. This book is the first ever published volume that is dedicated to Internet surveillance in the age of what has come to be termed “social media” or “web 2.0″ (blogs, wikis, file sharing, social networking sites, microblogs, user-generated content sites, etc). The Internet has been transformed in the past years from a system primarily oriented on information provision into a medium for communication and community-building. The notion of “Web 2.0”, social software, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have emerged in this context. With such platforms comes the massive provision and storage of personal data that are systematically evaluated, marketed, and used for targeting users with advertising. In a world of global economic competition, economic crisis, and fear of terrorism after 9/11, both corporations and state institutions have a growing interest in accessing this personal data. Here, contributors explore this changing landscape by addressing topics such as commercial data collection by advertising, consumer sites and interactive media; self-disclosure in the social web; surveillance of file-sharers; privacy in the age of the internet; civil watch-surveillance on social networking sites; and networked interactive surveillance in transnational space. This book is a result of a research action launched by the intergovernmental network COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). -- Prof. Christian Fuchs Chair in Media and Communication Studies Department of Informatics and Media Uppsala University Kyrkogårdsgatan 10 Box 513 751 20 Uppsala Sweden christian.fu...@im.uu.se Tel +46 (0) 18 471 1019 http://fuchs.uti.at http://www.im.uu.se NetPolitics Blog: http://fuchs.uti.at/blog Editor of tripleC: http://www.triple-c.se Book "Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies" (Routledge 2011) Book "Internet and Society" (Paperback, Routledge 2010) ___ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
Re: [Fis] CfP: Marx is Back - The Importance of Marxist Theory and Research for Critical Communication Studies Today
Hello, I believe Shu-Kun is right that there can be different combinations of economic and political systems. But I think the matter gets even more complex because we can have democratic economies and undemocratic economies, depending on how the production process is organized and managed. I think what Marx imagined is what later in political theory was called "participatory democracy", where democracy is extended to the economy in the form of self-management. This was not the reality in the USSR. I think the matter is today what Marx's theory of crisis, labour, capitalism can tell us about the contemporary sitatuon, as well as how one can use his theorization of technology, knowledge production, media, ideology and culture and his concept of dialectics. There is today a big interest in Marx, so if we want to discuss foundations of information (society), we should in my opinion engage with him. tripleC's special issue is a call for such engagements ... I think an excellent foundation for such an engagement is Terry Eagleton's new book "Why Marx was right", which discusses and deconstructs 10 common held prejudices against Marx (that he was in favour of dictatorship, a reductionist, determinist, etc). Best, Christian Am 7/21/11 7:40 PM, schrieb Dr. Shu-Kun Lin: > Dear Igor, > > Dictatorship and democracy is another topic we need to discuss. Maybe > there are 4 combinatorial systems: > > planned/communist + democracy (Is this the most ideal one?) > planned/communist + dictatorship (USSR?, North Korea) > free market/capitalism + dictatorship (China now?) > free market/capitalism + democracy (Most of the Western countries, now) > > Best regards, > Shu-Kun > > On 21.07.2011 17:54, Matutinovic, Igor (GfK Croatia) wrote: >> It is easy to forget some important facts about the presumed >> sustainability of planned/communist, historical and current economies. >> The Soviet block had an immensly polluting industry which paid almost >> no attention to the environemntal nor human health. Citizen protests, >> unlike the NGO acitivity inthe West, were banned. The most >> ecologically destructive economic project recorded so far inthe world >> - the draining of the Aral Sea was done in the USSR - an entirely >> planned disaster! >> >> Under Mao, Chinese population was subject to periodic starvation and >> their economy, despite planning efforts was moving in no direction at >> all. It is after gradually implementing capitalist institutions since >> Deng Xiaoping reforms that China become second world economic power >> and lifted at least a couple of hundred of millions from poverty. In >> the meantime China is destroying its environment - the consequnce of >> joint impact of wild capitalism and communist planning (Three Gorges >> Dam project was initiated under Mao but had economic means for >> realization only under the capitalist institutions). North Corea is >> starving periodically its population and depend on foreign aid. >> >> These former and current communist economies can not be "role models" >> for sustainability in any sense. About the quality of life and human >> rights in former USSR there is a plenty of evidence from those who >> lived there, and very few of them feel pity for its collapse. >> >> Capitalism and free market economy, if not regulated will for sure >> deplete all the nonrenewable resources. >> However, besides planning, which has been very present in the post >> WWII capitalist economies I do not believe that we can learn much from >> the former communist systems. >> >> The solution may lie in the change of the predominat Western wordview, >> which is overconfident in technological fixes and dominated by >> materialist and economic values. Our societies lack substantial >> environental values and we miss the non-material aspects of the >> quality of life. This is a legacy of modernity, and a communist >> ideology pertains to this legacy, and therefore has been equally >> "unfriendly" to environemnt. >> >> Igor Matutuinovic >> >> >> -Original Message- >> From: fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es >> [mailto:fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es] On Behalf Of Dr. Shu-Kun Lin >> Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 4:40 PM >> To: christian.fu...@uti.at; Christian Fuchs >> Cc: fis@listas.unizar.es >> Subject: Re: [Fis] CfP: Marx is Back - The Importance of Marxist >> Theory and Research for Critical Communication Studies Today >> >> Some very quick comments: This is extremely interesting topic. I have >> this idea also since 2008 when I was reading and considering a lot >> about
[Fis] CfP: Marx is Back - The Importance of Marxist Theory and Research for Critical Communication Studies Today
Marx is Back: The Importance of Marxist Theory and Research for Critical Communication Studies Today Call for Papers for a Special Issue of tripleC – Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society. Edited by Christian Fuchs and Vincent Mosco http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/uploads/CfP_Marx_tripleC.pdf For inquiries, please contact the two editors. In light of the global capitalist crisis, there is renewed interest in Karl Marx’s works and in concepts like class, exploitation and surplus value. Slavoj Žižek argues that the antagonisms of contemporary capitalism in the context of the ecological crisis, the massive expansion of intellectual property, biogenetics, new forms of apartheid and growing world poverty show that we still need the Marxian notion of class. He concludes that there is an urgent need to renew Marxism and to defend its lost causes in order to render problematic capitalism as the only alternative (Žižek 2008, 6) and the new forms of a soft capitalism that promise, and in its rhetoric makes use of, ideals like participation, self-organization, and co-operation, without realizing them. Žižek (2010, chapter 3) argues that the global capitalistcrisis clearly demonstrates the need to return to the critique of political economy. Göran Therborn suggests that the “new constellations of power and new possibilities of resistance” in the 21st century require retaining the “Marxian idea that human emancipation from exploitation, oppression, discrimination and the inevitable linkage between privilege and misery can only come from struggle by the exploited and disadvantaged themselves” (Therborn 2008, 61). Eric Hobsbawm (2011, 12f) insists that for understanding the global dimension of contemporary capitalism, its contradictions and crises, and the persistence of socio-economic inequality, we “must ask Marx’s questions” (13). This special issue will publish articles that address the importance of Karl Marx’s works for Critical Media and Communication Studies, what it means to ask Marx’s questions in 21st century informational capitalism, how Marxian theory can be used for critically analyzing and transforming media and communication today, and what the implications of the revival of the interest in Marx are for the field of Media and Communication Studies. Questions that can be explored in contributions include, but are not limited to: * What is Marxist Media and Communication Studies? Why is it needed today? What are the main assumptions, legacies, tasks, methods and categories of Marxist Media and Communication Studies and how do they relate to Karl Marx’s theory? What are the different types of Marxist Media/Communication Studies, how do they differ, what are their commonalities? * What is the role of Karl Marx’s theory in different fields, subfields and approaches of Media and Communication Studies? How have the role, status, and importance of Marx’s theory for Media and Communication Studies evolved historically, especially since the 1960s? * In addition to his work as a theorist and activist, Marx was a practicing journalist throughout his career. What can we learn from his journalism about the practice of journalism today, about journalism theory, journalism education and alternative media? * What have been the structural conditions, limits and problems for conducting Marxian-inspired Media and Communication Research and for carrying out university teaching in the era of neoliberalism? What are actual or potential effects of the new capitalist crisis on these conditions? * What is the relevance of Marxian thinking in an age of capitalist crisis for analyzing the role of media and communication in society? * How can the Marxian notions of class, class struggle, surplus value, exploitation, commodity/commodification, alienation, globalization, labour, capitalism, militarism and war, ideology/ideology critique, fetishism, and communism best be used for analyzing, transforming and criticizing the role of media, knowledge production and communication in contemporary capitalism? * How are media, communication, and information addressed in Marx’s work? * What are commonalities and differences between contemporary approaches in the interpretation of Marx’s analyses of media, communication, knowledge, knowledge labour and technology? * What is the role of dialectical philosophy and dialectical analysis as epistemological and methodological tools for Marxian-inspired Media and Communication Studies? * What were central assumptions of Marx about media, communication, information, knowledge production, culture and how can these insights be used today for the critical analysis of capitalism? * What is the relevance of Marx’s work for an understanding of social media? * Which of Marx’s works can best be used today to theorize media and communication? Why and how? * Terry Eagleton (2011) demonstrates that the 10 most
[Fis] New Book: Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies
New book: Fuchs, Christian. 2011. Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-58881-2. 384 pages. Rouledge Advances in Sociology No. 52. More information: http://fuchs.uti.at/books/foundations-of-critical-media-and-information-studies/ Available from the same author: "Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age" (Paperback 2011) http://fuchs.uti.at/books/internet-society/ Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies lays down foundations for the analysis of media, information, and information technology in 21st century information society, as well as introducing the theoretical and empirical tools necessary for the critical study of media and the information society. Reasons for reading this book * To find out more about critical theory today: The book updates critical theory for 21st century information society. * To acquire tools for critical analyses: The book introduces methodological and theoretical tools for studying media, information technology, and the information society in a critical way. * To read more about a critical theory of media and the information society: The book explains the foundations of a critical theory of media, information, information technology, and the information society. * To find out more about how power structures frame the media and the Internet: The book provides a power structure analysis of the media and the Internet. * To engage with alternative media and the alternative Internet: The book identifies alternative potentials of the media, culture, and the Internet. Contents 1 Introduction PART I: Theory 2 Critical theory today 3 Critical media and information studies 4 Marx and critical media and information studies PART II: Case studies 5 The media and information economy and the new imperialism 6 The new crisis of capitalism and the role of the media and information economy 7 Participatory web 2.0 as ideology PART III Alternatives 8 Alternative media as critical media 9 Conclusion -- Prof. Christian Fuchs Chair in Media and Communication Studies Department of Informatics and Media Uppsala University Kyrkogårdsgatan 10 Box 513 751 20 Uppsala Sweden christian.fu...@im.uu.se Tel +46 (0) 18 471 1019 http://fuchs.uti.at http://www.im.uu.se NetPolitics Blog: http://fuchs.uti.at/blog Editor of tripleC: http://www.triple-c.at Book "Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies" (Routledge 2011) Book "Internet and Society" (Paperback, Routledge 2010) ___ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
[Fis] Special issue tripleC: Capitalist Crisis, Communication & Culture
tripleC (cognition, communication, co-operation): Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society. Vol. 8. No. 2: Special Issue on Capitalist Crisis, Communication & Culture Edited by Christian Fuchs, Matthias Schafranek, David Hakken, Marcus Breen http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/issue/current Suggested citation: Fuchs, Christian, Matthias Schafranek, David Hakken and Marcus Breen. Eds. 2010. Special issue on “Capitalist crisis, communication & culture“. tripleC (cognition, communication, co-operation): Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society 8 (2): 193-309. “Capitalism […] is approaching an apocalyptic zero-point” (Slavoj Žižek). What is the role of communication in the general situation of capitalist crisis? The global economic downturn is an indicator of a new worldwide capitalist crisis. The main focus of most public debates as well as of economic and policy analyses is the role of finance capital and the housing market in creating the crisis, less attention is given to the role of communication technologies, the media, and culture in the world economic crisis. The task of this special issue of tripleC is to present analyses of the role of ICTs, the media, and culture in the current crisis of capitalism. The seven papers focus on the causes, development, and effects of the crisis. Each paper relates one or more of these dimensions to ICTs, the media, or culture. Capitalist Crisis, Communication, & Culture – Introduction to the Special Issue of tripleC Christian Fuchs, Matthias Schafranek, David Hakken and Marcus Breen (Special Issue Editors) pp 193-204 http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/228/189 Computing and the Current Crisis: The Significant Role of New Information Technologies in Our Socio-Economic Meltdown David Hakken pp 205-220 http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/161/193 The Virtual Debt Factory: Towards an Analysis of Debt and Abstraction in the American Credit Crisis Vincent R. Manzerolle pp 221-236 http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/149/192 Calculating the Unknown. Rationalities of Operational Risk in Financial Institutions Matthias Werner and Hajo Greif pp 237-250 http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/184/194 Crisis, What Crisis? The Media: Business and Journalism in Times of Crisis Rosario de Mateo, Laura Bergés, Anna Garnatxe* pp 251-274 http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/212/195 Anglo-American Credit Scoring and Consumer Debt in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis of 2007 as Models for Other Countries? Thomas Ruddy pp 275-284 http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/176/198 Crise, Genre et TIC : Recette pour une Dés-Union Pronon- cée. L’Exemple de l’Afrique du Sud (in French) Joelle Palmieri pp 285-309 http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/141/197 -- - - - Priv.-Doz. Dr. Christian Fuchs Unified Theory of Information Research Group christian.fu...@uti.at Personal Website: http://fuchs.uti.at NetPolitics Blog: http://fuchs.uti.at/blog Research Group: http;//www.uti.at Editor of tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-Operation | Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society http://www.triple-c.at Fuchs, Christian. 2008. Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age. New York: Routledge. http://fuchs.uti.at/?page_id=40 ___ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
