ECREA16-Abstract

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Saturday, November 12

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PP 580

The Aesthetics of Net-Activism in Portuguese Digital Social Networks

M. Magalhães De Morais

New University of Lisbon, Social Communication, Lisbon, Portugal

In times of social media, the space for protests - being it past, present of future - has ironically become distant from the big communication corporations

and from political and state control, existent in traditional media. Via digital social-networks, such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, net-activists from dif‑

ferent parts of the world develop their network actions in order to defend their causes. The range of causes is wide and include: ecological concerns, gender

issues, criticism of the political and economic system, consumer rights, demands for free software or other metalinguistic causes regarding internet itself.

In order to understand the net-activism scene and the collaborative actions in contemporary network, the aim of this article is to analise this phenomena

in the context of Portuguese digital social networks. We intend to investigate forms of net-activism developed around the aesthetic nature theme, related

to the field of arts and expressions of subjectivities of the members of the digital activism networks selected. Thereunto, we will make a historical overview

of net-activism stages in the world, followed by a current mapping of net-activism cases in the country in which the research is developed. For this pur‑

pose, an exploratory research will be developed in the digital social networks mentioned above, dedicated to list the four most relevant cases of aesthetic

net-activism in Portugal, between October 2012 and February 2016. The cases selected for the study will be investigated based on a typology of atopic

dynamics of network interaction (DI Felice, 2012) in order to verify if the quality of the actions approaches to a frontal interaction model, immersive,

dialogical or ecosystemic. According to the typology, the levels of interactivity proposed can range from minimal developer interaction with information

published on network until a key role in building a collaborative model, more ecologic, that integrates living and non-living beings, technologies and infor‑

mative territoriality, in a reticular and connective form. In sum, compared to the theoretical-methodological perspective presented, this article questions:

what is the net-activist aesthetics in Portuguese digital social networks? From an overview of activist movements in the current most relevant network,

the research intends to focus on the aesthetic, artistic or subjective nature of net-activism - among many existing issues in the huge Global Village that

net-activists helps to build in every post.

PP 581

“We Hear You”: Social Media and Celebrity-Driven Social Change?

Y.K. Tse

Goldsmiths- University of London, Media and Communications, London, United Kingdom

Social media have become a relatively direct platform (compared to the“traditional”media outlets such as magazine interviews) through which celebrities

communicate with the public. Focusing on this form of celebrity-based social media practices, this paper explores how celebrity’s functions as reference

points in society is formed and spread through media as a part of mediatization. Specifically, this paper looks at the dispute between the American Singer

Taylor Swift and Apple in 2015 over the tech company’s policy on not paying artists royalties during the free trial period of its newly launched music

streaming service, Apple Music. As her action against this policy, Swift posted an open letter directly addressed to Apple on her social networking sites, and

argued that she was withholding her latest album from the service. Within 20 hours, Apple announced, on its senior executive’s Twitter, that it had decided

to amend its policy and thereby would pay artists during the free trial period. Apple’s policy change in turn led to Swift’s prompt decision to release her

album on the service, as well as to the exclusive partnership between both sides month later. This paper examines how Swift’s celebrity capital (Driessens,

2013) is employed, accumulated and converted into other forms of capital and different media’s functions in this incident.While Swift urged Apple, through

her social media accounts, to change its policy, she framed her action as“the echoed sentiments”of the music industry rather than as personal complaints

(“not about me”). Ironically, however, the way the singer exploited her public self and public private self (Marshall, 2010) in her employment of social media

seemed to make her action in effect as much individualistic as collective. By announcing“we hear you @taylorswift13 [Swift’s Twitter handle]”, Apple made

its policy change appear (individual) celebrity-driven, and in turn contributed to Swift’s own gain of celebrity capital. This is most evident in the following

three aspects: 1. The way in which the incident was widely described and simplified by media not so much as “musicians vs. Apple”but as “Taylor Swift vs.

Apple”and the singer’s triumph over Apple; 2. How Swift and Apple partnered in releasing the singer’s concert film months later, as Apple Music’s biggest

exclusive deal to date; 3. The way in which the Taylor-Apple dispute and reconciliation was turned into an exclusive interview with Swift being released on

Apple Music for the company to promote its platform as well as the singer’s concert film. Together these aspects enhanced the symbolic power of Swift and

Apple as to their capacities in constructing a social value that defines a seems-to-be-morally-proper model for the future music industry (“the platform

that gets it right”quoting Swift). Moreover, while mass media undoubtedly helped draw the public attention to, and widen the debate on, the Taylor-Apple

negotiation, their function as the mediated center on this matter was inevitably challenged by the fact that the dispute, negotiation and reconciliation were

initiated and largely performed and unfolded on social media.

PP 582

Migrants as Translocal Political Actors: Digital Public and Political Media Practices of Spanish Migrants in Berlin

M.J. Martínez Martínez

, M. Lünenborg

Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Berlin, Germany

Nowadays, we are witnessing the emergence of a new intra-European demographic process: a new, highly skilled labor migration to Germany. As a result

of the financial crisis that shakes Europe, young and highly qualified population from the most vulnerable areas of the continent is moving towards Euro‑

pean regions with enhanced professional development. In this context, we look at the new Spanish migration to Germany (González-Ferrer 2013), char‑

acterized by its high qualification and media literacy. In a period of profound social, economic and political instability in Europe, the Spanish case provides

a great example of translocal belonging with an increasingly politicized population (i.e. emerging plattforms and citizen activism since the 15M-Movement,

Marea Granate or rising political parties such as Podemos (Toret Medina 2015; Cano Cuenca 2015)). With regard to these new types of migration and their

communication infrastructures, we will develop the concept of‘digital migrants’to describe the newmodes of translocal embeddedness. Our paper is based