Strategies,tactics and the question of un lieu propre : what/where is “media theory”?

This paper uses the work of Michel de Certeau (1988 de Certeau M 1988 The practice of everyday life Berkeley: University of California Press  [Google Scholar]) to argue that it is possible to distinguish between “expert” or “authorised” approaches to media theory, construed as existing “strategically” within the “proper place” of the academy, and “tactical” appropriations of media theory operating in audience discourses. It takes media fan audiences as one case study in relation to this process, arguing that fans should be viewed as “poaching” from “official” media theory as well as from “official” media texts. It then goes on to suggest that we should not univocally celebrate or romanticise fans' uses of media theory, but should remain alert to the sociological and cultural reproductions that otherwise “tactical” media theory can participate in. This means rethinking fans' “tactics” not merely as the “arts of the weak” (de Certeau 1988 de Certeau M 1988 The practice of everyday life Berkeley: University of California Press  [Google Scholar], 37), but simultaneously as forms of appropriation that might enact forms of (sub)cultural power for fans.     

Servicing a heavy metal fandom posthumously: a sociosemiotic account of collective identity formation in Dio's memorial

This study is positioned in the burgeoning research field of collective memory and identity by offering a sociosemiotic account of the formation of fandom identity in the context of Ronnie James Dio's memorial. By drawing on the three major categories whereby collective memory is formed – that is artifacts, processes, places, as well as on the three key sociosemiotic metafunctions which are responsible for shaping a cultural event as sign system – the study scrutinizes the key semiotic resources that shape the experiential event of a memorial. This paper contributes to the extant literature on memory and identity by offering a nuanced, sociosemiotically informed reading of a heavy metal legend's memorial, while attending to the bespoke semiotic resources that comprise it.     

论“饭圈”的法律规制

当下“饭圈”呈现出频繁投诉与举报、非理性消费、数据造假以及组织性的行为失范现象。“饭圈”负面行为的产生与资方控制及平台打榜的主导、艺人与“饭圈”组织者的推动、粉丝的参与及沉浸密切相关。“饭圈”的负面行为违背公序良俗,须进行综合治理。应合理设置平台的内容管理义务、调整刑法对巨额逃税的处罚规则、完善网络举报制度、明确艺人及经纪公司或工作室对粉丝的引导义务。此外,应区分“饭圈”组织者雇主责任、教唆及帮助侵权规则的适用、赋予粉丝组织民事主体身份、家庭内部弘扬优良家风。     

‘Who are ya?’ The national identities and belongings of British Asian football fans

British Asian men and women are known to be passionate followers of football, travelling far and wide to support the England men's team. Yet, despite evidence to support this, it is popularly thought that they cannot be authentic supporters of the nation as their loyalties are divided between England and their ancestral places of ‘home’. The findings of Ratna's research are mainly based on the oral testimonies of British Asian male and female football players/fans. Using their stories about following the game, her paper unpacks notions of national belonging by specifically exploring the interconnections of race, ethnicity, religion and gender. She argues that national inclusiveness is not guaranteed for British Asian fans; the changing articulations of race, ethnicity, religion and gender may lead to contingent, contradictory and complex patterns of national inclusiveness and exclusiveness.     

“I Would Hate To See Our Good Name Tarnished”: Twitter Users Respond to Sexual Assault in Football

ABSTRACT

Sexual violence in football has been reported and debated across mainstream and social media platforms since it first become “newsworthy” in 2004, when two cases broke involving footballers from the National Rugby League and Australian Football League. Previous feminist research has identified some problematic trends in mainstream media representations of the cases, identifying rape myths and stereotypes that portray women as liars and provide excuses for footballers’ behaviour. However, none has yet considered the ways in which social media users engage with the issue of footballers and sexual violence online.

This article focuses on tweets (140-character microblogs from social media platform Twitter) about a rape case involving two players from the Hawthorn Football Club, which occurred shortly after the club won its third successive AFL Grand Final. Content analysis will identify major themes and the key preoccupations of social media users in a rape case involving athletes. Through discourse analysis, the article will explore the ways in which these users rely on or challenge gendered stereotypes and misconceptions about rape, and thus the relative prevalence of feminist understandings of sexual violence. It considers the role of sports fandom in the preoccupations of Twitter users about athlete sexual assault, and how prioritising sports fandom intersects with the way the interests of alleged footballer perpetrators and/or alleged female victims are privileged or marginalised. The article thus highlights the possibilities and limitations of social media as a platform for productive communication about athletes and sexual violence.