Theoretically Speaking (Asynchronous - Online Only)
Intuition, Ideology, and Rationalist Bias in Communication Theory View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Leonard Shedletsky, Jo Temah Gabrielski
This paper argues that while social intuitionist theory has received a wide range of support from a variety of disciplines, communication theory has totally neglected intuition in its understanding of how we communicate while continuing to present a rationalist bias. It describes social intuitionist theory, some of the supporting evidence for it, and ties together intuition, ideology, and communication. It makes it clear that textbooks in communication theory have presented a rationalist view of communication. It is hoped that social intuitionist theory will spark a fresh body of research in communication.
One Crisis Too Many: On the Hypercrisis Condition of Information Circulation in a Post-Truth Era View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jacob Boivin, Laurence Grondin-Robillard
Culture is inherently linked to dynamics of information circulation. These latter produce foucauldian regimes of truth with their own values and social norms. The current social dynamics are characterized by two dialectical trends: the de-transcendentalization of symbolic mediations (Freitag, 2002)—the lyotardian decline of the “Grand Narratives”—in favor of systemic dynamics of operationality and performance; and the hyperindividualistic subject (Mondoux, 2011) aiming to be “emancipated” of ideologies, institutions and other transcendentally mediated values. Seen as “symbolic misery” (Stiegler, 2004) or “loss of efficiency of the symbolic” (Žižek, 2010), this “crisis of representation” (Bougnoux, 2006) has now extended to affect the regimes of truth themselves, giving way to a society plagued by disinformation, propaganda and fake news. This crisis is particularly noticeable in journalism, where its foundations (the institutional role of a watchdog of democracy) are disrupted by systemic operational logic that make circulation an end in itself (Dean, 2009) and reduce discourses to their circulatory efficiency (virality). Thus, not only are the regimes of truth in crisis, but truth itself is no longer the aim of circulation (post-truth). This state of affairs cannot be interpreted as a simple crisis. Crises (krisis) are defined as a moment of choice and thus lead to a political reflexive moment. The automation of symbolic mediations (Ménard & Mondoux, 2018) and viral circulation conceal the political and therefore constitute a second and more troubling crisis that also affects the epistemological realm. We analyze this “hypercrisis” through the mediatization of the Depp vs. Heard trial.
#DefendPressFreedom: Journalists' Use of Instagram in News Reporting Under Duterte's Populist Administration in the Philippines View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kara Ortiga
Journalists in the Philippines reporting under Rodrigo Duterte's populist regime weather threats and online harassment which dissuade them from performing critical news roles. However, much of the research that examines this chilling effect on press freedom is limited to journalists' perceptions or focuses on traditional news organizations. This paper evaluates news items published on Instagram by the news organization Rappler. I use the journalistic role performance framework to understand the functions of journalists’ reporting on social media—such as the watchdog role or disseminator role—based on the discursive styles and types of news they report. More so, this research looks at how Instagram’s affordances influenced the performance of these roles within a political crackdown on the press. I conducted a content analysis of 554 Instagram posts following the conviction of Rappler's Executive Editor Maria Ressa in June 2020. The results show that journalists performed hybrid news roles such as the adversarial, advocate and mobilising roles in their news towards the Duterte administration. I argue that these roles arise due to the societal needs of the time, and are shaped by Instagram's structure, rhetorical practices, and interactive mechanisms.
