Affective Politics of Digital Media: Propaganda by Other Means

by Megan Boler (Editor), Elizabeth Davis (Editor)

Overview

This interdisciplinary, international collection examines how sophisticated digital practices and technologies exploit and capitalize on emotions, with particular focus on how social media are used to exacerbate social conflicts surrounding racism, misogyny, and nationalism.

Radically expanding the study of media and political communications, this book bridges humanities and social sciences to explore affective information economies, and how emotions are being weaponized within mediatized political landscapes. The chapters cover a wide range of topics: how clickbait, "fake news," and right-wing actors deploy and weaponize emotion; new theoretical directions for understanding affect, algorithms, and public spheres; and how the wedding of big data and behavioral science enables new frontiers of propaganda, as seen in the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal. The collection includes original interviews with luminary media scholars and journalists.

The book features contributions from established and emerging scholars of communications, media studies, affect theory, journalism, policy studies, gender studies, and critical race studies to address questions of concern to scholars, journalists, and students in these fields and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367510657
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/03/2020
Pages:	378
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Megan Boler is Professor in the Social Justice Education Department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Her research focuses on philosophy and politics of emotion; critical studies of affect, social media, and propaganda; and digital media practices within social movements. Her books include Feeling Power: Emotions and Education (1999), Democratic Dialogue in Education (2004), Digital Media and Democracy (2008), and DIY Citizenship (Ratto and Boler, 2014).

Elizabeth Davis is a PhD candidate in the Social Justice Education Department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Her research focuses on histories and structures of feeling drawing on materialist, feminist, critical race, disability, media, and cultural studies approaches. Her articles can be found in Theory & Event, Emotion, Space and Society, and The Senses and Society.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations x

List of contributors xi

Foreword Holly Bradshaw xiii

Introduction: Growth Following Adversity in Sport: A Mechanism to Positive Change Ross Wadey Melissa Day Karen Howells xvi

Part 1 Conceptual, Theoretical, and Methodological Perspectives 1

1 Growth Following Adversity: A Conceptual Perspective Ross Wadey Melissa Day Karen Howells 13

2 Growth Following Adversity: A Theoretical Perspective Karen Howells Ross Wadey Melissa Day 19

3 Growth Following Adversity: A Methodological Perspective Melissa Day Karen Howells Ross Wadey 34

4 "It's Impacted Me Too": Where Does Vicarious Growth Fit In? Laura Martinelli Melissa Day 47

5 Growth, Resilience, and Thriving: A Jangle Fallacy? Daniel J. Brown Mustafa Sarkar Karen Howells 59

Part 2 Cultural, Organizational, and Relational Perspectives 73

6 A Cultural Perspective on Growth Following Adversity: Using Autobiography to Understand Addiction Recovery through Sport Kerry R. McGannon Jenny McMahon McKenna L'Estrange 75

7 Can Sport Organizations Benefit from Adversity?: A Sensemaking Approach Christopher R. D. Wagstaff 88

8 Can Adversity Promote Team Functioning in Sport? Michael T. Chapman Daniel F. Gucciardi 107

9 Stress-Related Growth within Youth Sport: The Parent-Child Relationship Sam N. Thrower Chris G. Harwood Kacey C. Neely 120

10 Taking an Embodied Approach to Posttraumatic Growth Research and Sport Kate Hefferon Hanna Kampman 131

Part 3 Population Perspectives 145

11 Adversity- and Growth-Related Experiences of Elite Sport Performers Karen Howells 147

12 Gender Differences in Athletes' Experiences of Adversity and Growth Kacey C. Neely Katherine A. Tamminen Nicholas L. Holt 160

13 Posttraumatic Growth in Disability Sport Following Spinal Cord Injury: A Narrative Approach James Brighton 174

14 Sport Injury-Related Growth: A Conceptual Foundation Ross Wadey Ciara Everard 189

15 Adverse Experiences of Children and Youth: Can Sport Play a Role in Growth Following Psychologically Traumatic Events? William V. Massey Meredith A. Whitley 204

Part 4 Applied Perspectives 217

16 Nurturing Growth in the Aftermath of Adversity: A Narrative Review of Evidence-Based Practice Karen Howells Ross Wadey 219

17 Multilevel Adversity and Growth in Sports Teams: A Professional Practice Perspective Stephen D. Mellalieu 235

Part 5 Conclusion 255

18 Taking Stock and Making Hay: Growth Following Adversity Research in Applied Sport Psychology Ross Wadey Melissa Day Karen Howells 257

Index 275

Editorial Reviews

"This is an invaluable guidebook to the affective landscape of our political moment, packed with contributions from original and groundbreaking thinkers. It counters the pace and tone of online propaganda with a crucial critical intervention, contributing to our understanding of the fate of understanding itself—and the consequences for political life."

Mark Andrejevic, Professor of Communications & Media Studies, Monash University

"This collection presents the state of the art for investigating affective politics. Importantly, it outlines the risks posed to our democratic institutions if we don’t ensure the technical and legal fixes required to delimit social media firms capitalizing on emotional appeals and cognitive biases."

Philip N. Howard, Director, Oxford Internet Institute and Professor, Oxford University, author of Lie Machines (2020)

"This is an invaluable guidebook to the affective landscape of our political moment, packed with contributions from original and groundbreaking thinkers. It counters the pace and tone of online propaganda with a crucial critical intervention, contributing to our understanding of the fate of understanding itself—and the consequences for political life."

Mark Andrejevic, Professor of Communications & Media Studies, Monash University

"This collection presents the state of the art for investigating affective politics. Importantly, it outlines the risks posed to our democratic institutions if we don’t ensure the technical and legal fixes required to delimit social media firms capitalizing on emotional appeals and cognitive biases."

Philip N. Howard, Director, Oxford Internet Institute and Professor, Oxford University, author of Lie Machines (2020)

"Affective Politics of Digital Media is a body of work that demonstrates just how central affective dynamics are to the political realities generated in an increasingly mediatized world...any chapter of this book stands as a useful entry point for scholars interested in the affective politics of digital media, with each offering a unique perspective and potential avenue for further exploration. It is therefore an important collection for anybody working in the fields of technology, media, journalism, political communications, and policy, and for those seeking to become attuned to the affective dynamics of digital media more broadly."

Rachel Billington, New Media and Society 24(6)

From the Publisher