March 15, 2016: Phil Howard speaking @newpolcom on Will the “Internet of Things” set us free or lock us up?

Should we fear or welcome the internet’s evolution? The “internet of things” is the rapidly growing network of everyday objects—eyeglasses, cars, thermostats—made smart with sensors and internet addresses. Soon we will live in a pervasive yet invisible network of everyday objects that communicate with one another. In this original and provocative book, Philip N. Howard envisions a new world order emerging from this great transformation in the technologies around us.
 
Howard calls this new era a Pax Technica. He looks to a future of global stability built upon device networks with immense potential for empowering citizens, making government transparent, and broadening information access. Howard cautions, however, that privacy threats are enormous, as is the potential for social control and political manipulation. Drawing on evidence from around the world, he illustrates how the internet of things can be used to repress and control people. Yet he also demonstrates that if we actively engage with the governments and businesses building the internet of things, we have a chance to build a new kind of internet—and a more open society.

Philip N. Howard is a professor and author of seven books, including Democracy’s Fourth Wave? and The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy.  He is a frequent commentator on the impact of technology on political life, contributing to Slate.com, TheAtlantic.com and other media outlets.

PLACE: FOUNDERS FW101
TIME: 5.15PM
ALL WELCOME!

 

3 March 2016 Media, Peace & Security workshop @GIGA_Institute Hamburg

On Thursday 3 March 2016 Ben O'Loughlin will lead a workshop on "New and Innovative Methods in Peace and Conflict Research" at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg. The goal of the workshop is to share with GIGA researchers an idea of how O'Loughlin and colleagues have been researching the media-security nexus through a series of funded projects since 2004. Analysing at this nexus has involved integrating ethnographic audience research, media text analysis, interviews with news producers, government security policymakers and military leaders, and various forms of digital and big data analysis. O'Loughlin will talk about the opportunities and pitfalls of piecing together such a holistic understanding of how media and security have become intertwined since the 2003 Iraq War, the war on terror and the more recent rise of ISIS. Practically, how do you research across a global multilingual media ecology? And politically, how can such research help show how media can be used to promote peace and dialogue rather than inflame anxiety and anger?

March 1, 2016: Just brainwashed? Domestic reception of Russia’s strategic narrative about the West—Joanna Szostek

On March 1, 2016 Joanna Szostek will present findings from her research in Moscow exploring how Russians interpret the strategic narratives about their country's role in the world offered by Putin, Lavrov and other leaders, and how interpretation is mediated by their presentation in Russian media. Are Russians being brainwashed or are things slightly more complicated? Below are full details of the talk and Joanna's project. 

Time: 5.15pm

Place: FW101

Full abstract:

Over recent years the Russian state media have become notorious for their emotive and partisan coverage of international news. Russian TV channels convey a narrative originating from the Kremlin, which angrily attributes most global problems to Western ‘interference’, ‘aggression’ and ‘double standards’. Negative views of the USA and Europe have meanwhile intensified among the Russian public, a trend widely blamed on the ‘brainwashing’ effect of Kremlin propaganda. Yet the ‘magic bullet’ theory of media messages being wholly and automatically absorbed by a homogeneous audience has long been discredited by communication scholars. Moreover, the majority of Russians now have internet access and are not obliged to rely on state-controlled media for news – alternative sources are only a click away. How, then, should the relationship between news consumption and views of the West in Russia be understood?

This talk will examine the association between news media ‘repertoires’ and support for the Kremlin’s negative narrative about the West, presenting findings from a survey and interviews conducted among Moscow university students. It will demonstrate that research subjects who used at least one state-aligned news source tended to agree more strongly with the Kremlin’s narrative than those who did not use any state-aligned news sources. However, even students who neither used nor trusted the leading Russian state media expressed agreement with much of the Kremlin’s narrative. It will therefore be argued that direct exposure and blind faith in state propaganda are insufficient explanations for sentiments about the West in Russia.

Joanna is currently in the first phase of research in her new Marie-Sklodowska Curie Global Fellowship examining how narratives from Russia are understood and interpreted in Ukraine. Her project website is here. She was previously a postdoctoral research at University College London and completed her PhD at the University of Oxford.

February 24, 2016. O'Loughlin on narratives as a route to global order @SOAS

Ben O'Loughlin presented some of his latest research with Alister Miskimmon on strategic narratives at the Centre for Media Studies research seminar at SOAS on February 24, 2016. Please find the title and details of the talk below. 

Strategic Narratives and Power Transition: Communicating our Way to a Peaceful Order?

Historically, the transition of power from one hegemon to another has involved an all-out war in the international system. Britain acquired primacy, challenged then by Germany, who in turn was overcome by the US, and now there is a surge in speculation about a post-US order; power transition theory, that underpins conventionalist realist IR and therefore Western foreign policy, suggests that when the challenger reaches parity in material power, a war to define the rules of the international system takes place before a new order is institutionalized (Organski, 1958; Gilpin, 1981). But the rise of China, the rise of ‘the rest’, and the emergence of digital and network power all suggest we are entering a new kind of power transition. While the economic (GDP) power of China and the EU surpass the US, neither is challenging the US in a systemic war or seeking to assume hegemony. Instead, international order is increasingly based on competition for recognition in the context of plural narratives. This places communication central to how international order is constituted. Every country and city has a soft power and branding strategy. Price writes of a ‘marketplace for loyalties’. Each country that seeks recognition as a major power has an international broadcaster. In short, public and cultural diplomacy have become integral to the negotiation of identity and recognition in this new kind of power transition. The stakes again are high. Previous power transitions resulted in total war. Can the strategic narratives of the major players align today? Will a communication-based competition cultivate the conditions for a conflict-free power transition?

Iconoclash - new article on images and Islamic State

As part of its Iconoclash season of debate, the European Union's National Institute for Cultures has published a commentary by Ben O'Loughlin about Islamic State's use of visual media. 

Iconoclash: It's the Clash, Stupid

From 9/11 to the most treasured temple in Palmyra, Islamist destruction reminds us that we have objects and values we hold as untouchable and inviolable. It also makes us question whether we have a strategy to save them. This iconoclash has cycled through the angry pointing cleric clip, the beheading video, the burning man in a cage gif, the vandalism montage, the full-on terrorist attack. It is a clash through the exchange of icons and images, and each ‘side’ in the war on terror has shown trophies of valuable dead people, objects, targets destroyed or being destroyed, a tit-for-tat of shock and awe. We will match your orange Guantanamo jumpsuit with our orange hostage jumpsuit. Yet if we are to properly respond to this iconoclasm, we must understand why it is happening. It is happening in part because of Islamists’ drive to restore pride and dignity and avenge historical humiliation by creating a game of equals. However, this iconoclash is ultimately driven by geopolitical strategy. For Islamic State, the clash is about winning that game on Islamic State’s terms.

Read on here. 

New symposium on Strategic Narratives published

Strategic narratives are an ever-more visible phenomenon in international affairs. NATO has a strategic narrative to overcome Russia. President Obama had a narrative about US interests and attention pivoting to Asia but has recently taken steps to 'reassure' Europe that it still cares about it and is part of its story. What difference do these narratives make, and how can we explain how they work?

A new symposium has been published in Critical Studies of Security in which scholars of varying perspectives and approaches present short essays that engage with the book Strategic Narratives published by Miskimmon, O'Loughlin and Roselle. The symposium concludes with a response from the three authors. The symposium shows how narratives are a feature of political life from the grand strategy of great powers down to local politics where people try to make a difference by getting others to see problems in a new way. The debate also makes clear how difficult it is to establish the intention of actors who communicate narratives and the effect of narratives. Persuasion is not easy and power through communication is a murky process.

We hope you enjoy reading it. Thanks go to Laura Shepherd at the University of New South Wales for organising the symposium.

New article on think tanks and influence by Anna Longhini

Chatham House in London was one of the think tanks in Anna's study.

Chatham House in London was one of the think tanks in Anna's study.

Do think tanks influence government? In a new article (read for free here), Anna Longhini presents research suggesting that we should turn that question around. Comparing the role of foreign policy think tanks in the UK and Italy, Anna finds that the think tanks orient their activities to make the best of the opportunities for influence they face. In the UK, government is relatively open to think tank ideas, holding various open and closed-door briefings to elicit their suggestions. In Italy government is less willing to listen, so think tanks try instead to influence journalists, academics and companies. 

Anna was a visiting researcher at the New Political Communication Unit in 2014. She recently completed her PhD at Scuola Normale Superiore (Firenzi).