Strategic narrative panels at the International Studies Association (ISA) convention in Toronto this week

For those at the ISA annual convention in Toronto on 27-31 March, there will be a number of panels exploring the role of strategic narrative in international affairs, including a debate about whether framing and narrative research can be unified in a productive way. Please find details below. There are also a range of other political communication-themed panels and talks, many of them convened by the International Communications (ICOMM) Section of ISA - find them on the official programme here.

TC13: Strategic Narratives, News Coverage, and Russia-U.S. Relations

Thursday, March 28, 1:45 PM - 3:30 PM Willow Centre, Sheraton Centre Toronto

Strategic Narratives, News Coverage, and Russia-U.S. Relations

• Chair: Philip Seib (University of Southern California)

• Participant: Alister Miskimmon (Queen's University, Belfast)

• Participant: Ben O'Loughlin (Royal Holloway, University of London)

• Participant: Laura Roselle (Elon University)

In their seminal work on strategic narratives, Miskimmon, O’Loughlin, and Roselle write, “Narratives are central to the identity and behavior of actors in the international system, the structures of the system itself, and how ideas, issues, and policies are contested.” Major powers, including Russia and the United States, rely heavily on strategic narratives to establish and maintain their influence within the arena of international relations. News media provide important venues for the communication of these narratives to global and domestic publics, and studying news coverage can provide insights about the construction and effectiveness of narratives. This roundtable will examine Russian and American strategic narratives as they are reflected in the two countries’ news media and will analyze ways that these narratives are affected by the evolution in media technologies and audience news consumption patterns.

FA24: Strategic Narratives and Frame Contestation: Unifying a Fractured Paradigm 

Friday, March 29, 8:15 AM - 10:00 AM Provincial South, Sheraton Centre Toronto

• Chair: Steven L. Livingston (George Washington University)

• Discussant: Carola Weil (McGill University, School of Continuing Studies)

Frames and Narratives: Conceptualizing Cultural Congruence

• Author: Natalia Chaban (University of Canterbury)

Theorizing Narratives of Revolution in the Russian and Global Media Download the Paper

• Author: Ben O'Loughlin (Royal Holloway, University of London)

RT Online Coverage of US Election 2016: Analyzing Strategic Narratives Related to Presidential Candidates Download the Paper

• Author: Laura Roselle (Elon University)

Inverting Cascades: Network Framing Contestation Following Chemical Weapons Attacks in Syria

• Author: Steven L. Livingston (George Washington University)

• Author: Jack Nassetta (The George Washington University)

Framing in a Fractured Paradigm: Impacts of Digital Technology on Ideology, Power and International Affairs

• Author: Robert Entman (George Washington University)

• Author: Nikki Usher (University of Illinois)

Recent years have witnessed an explosion in the number of non-peer reviewed investigations of digital network “disinformation” campaigns and “fake news.” The political exigencies of the times have prioritized often richly empirical though atheoretical demonstrations of probable links between particular narratives and their sources (often Russian trolls and bots) and amplifiers (often state-sponsored media and extremist websites and social media users). In many instances, this work has been remarkably insightful and highly relevant to the urgent need to understand emergent threats to the integrity of Western Liberal institutions and norms. Missing from this work is the development of a political communication theory of “disinformation.” Such is the purpose of this panel. The papers presented here focus on the development of theoretical constructs that help us explain politically intentional global information flows. The papers are anchored by Entman’s cascade activation model of frame contestation (2005) and Miskimmon, Roselle, O’Loughlin (2013) strategic narratives framework. In this way, the panel coheres around a discrete intellectual challenge (theory building) and similar empirical research questions.

SA18: Stickiness and Silence: Explaining the Failures and Successes of Strategic Narrative

Saturday, March 30, 8:15 AM - 10:00 AM Chestnut East, Sheraton Centre Toronto

• Chair: Alister Miskimmon (Queen's University, Belfast)

• Discussant: Ben O'Loughlin (Royal Holloway, University of London)

The Belt and Road Initiative and Central Asia: A Success Story? Download the Paper

• Author: Carolijn van Noort (University of the West of Scotland)

Narrative Stickiness or Narrative Resilience? Learning from the Clinton Administration’s Strategic Narratives and Varying Congruence in Multilateral Peace Operations Download the Paper

• Author: Raphaël Zaffran (University of Geneva)

Trump’s Greatest Sticks: Covfefe, Witch Hunt, and Beyond. Narrative Stickiness, for Better or Worse, and Approaching the Formula for Narrative Success Download the Paper

• Author: Devon Simons (Aberystwyth University)

Understanding How Citizens Narrate International Affairs - The Case of the UK Download the Paper

• Author: Thomas Colley (King's College London)

Narrating Russia in Times of Information Warfare: How Sweden, France and the UK Mediate Response to Russian Disinformation Campaigns

• Author: Maria Hellman (Swedish Defence University)

This panel seeks to describe and explain cases of strategic narrative success and failure. Why do some narrations of events stick for audiences while others fall silent? The panelists use a series of conflict-based case studies and theoretical approaches to discuss different measures and conceptualisation of success and failure, the conditions and temporalities of success and failure, and the ways in which success and failure exist independently of their narration of their own efficacy. This discussion builds directly on the Re-narrating Conflict: Media, Military and Public Translations of Strategic Narratives panel of ISA 2018. These panelists found surprising instances of narrative stickiness and silence: that UK audiences have forgotten 9/11 was related to the Afghanistan War; that elites in Kazakhstan tactically engage with the China’s Belt and Road strategic narratives to develop their own national identity narrative; that a hostile domestic press ignore Trump’s narrations yet with one curious exception; and that even when states achieve narrative congruence with multilateral allies there can be risk to clarity of mission. The new panel addresses a mix of old and new cases, making a distinct contribution to development forms of explanation and interpretation in the growing field of strategic narrative study.

Welcome to Visiting Scholar Prof. Øyvind Kalnes

Prof. Øyvind Kalnes is visiting us on a sabbatical from Inland Norway University and will be based in the New Political Communication Unit. He will spend this time writing various articles about the representation of global risks in news and entertainment media. He has recently published on crisis communication and pandemics, documentary film and peace facilitation, and social media between hate politics and cosmopolitanism. His new work will examine the Ukraine crisis in Norwegian mass media, narrative layers of the 22 July memory in Norway, and the challenges Ebola of the new media ecology for risk communication.

He took his Cand.polit.-degree at the University of Bergen in 1990, specializing in Comparative Politics. After that he started academic work as assistant professor at the Institute for Comparative Politics in Bergen, and got his present position in 1995. In 1997-99 he was Dean and Vice Dean at the Faculty of Cultural, Media and Social Sciences; in 2003-04 Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences; and in 2015-18 Head of Section for International Studies and History.

In the fall of 2007 he was visiting scholar at the University of Wollongong and visited the University of California, Berkeley during Winter 2014/15. At the present time he is on sabbatical and a visiting scholar at Royal Holloway from Mid-March to late May 2019.

A warm welcome to Øyvind and we hope you have a productive stay with us!

Ben O'Loughlin - Thinker in Residence, 2019, Flemish Royal Academy, on Democracy & Disinformation

Ben O’Loughlin has been appointed Thinker in Residence for 2019 by the Flemish Royal Academy of Sciences and the Arts. Alongside Anja Bechmann, Ben will spend time in Brussels, Leuven and other venues in the coming months discussing disinformation with a range of business, government, civil society and technology groups as well as university scholars and students.

Youthquake and young cosmopolitans - James Sloam talk this Wednesday 20th March 4.30pm

This Wednesday 20th of March at PIR Research Seminar we are very happy to have Dr James Sloam giving his talk “Youthquake 2017: the Rise of Young Cosmopolitans in Britain since the Financial Crisis'?” Please join us for a discussion of this fascinating topic. The event will take place in FW101 and starts at 4.30 pm.

You can find and abstract and bio below. 

Abstract:

James will discuss the reasons behind the 2017 youthquake – which a significant increase in youth engagement, and an unprecedented gap in youth support for Labour over the Conservative Party. The talk explores changes in youth political participation in the UK since the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis – from austerity, to the 2016 EU referendum, to the rise of Corbyn – up until the June 2017 General Election. He identifies the rise of cosmopolitan values and left-leaning attitudes amongst Young Millennials, particularly students and young women. The situation in the UK is also contrasted with developments in youth participation in other established democracies, including the youthquakes inspired by Obama in the US (2008) and Trudeau in Canada (2015). The book, Youthquake 2017: The Rise of Young Cosmopolitans in Britain, from which the research is taken can be accessed free here:https://www.palgrave.com/it/book/9783319974682#aboutBook

Bio

James Sloam is reader in politics at Royal Holloway University, and founding convenor of the UK Political Studies Association (PSA) specialist group on young people’s politics. James has published widely in the area of youth, citizenship and politics in Europe and the United States, including articles inWest European Politics, Comparative Political Studies and New Media and Society. James is currently leading a project for the Greater London Assembly and the London Mayor’s Office (with the NGO, Bite the Ballot) investigating the key policy issues for young Londoners and ‘youth voice’ (with reference to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals). He is a fellow of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democratic Participation, and authored the chapter on ‘electoral participation’ for the 2016 United Nations World Youth Report. 

Freedom of Movement in Datafied Spaces - Elinor Carmi talk next Monday at 5pm

We are delighted to be welcoming back Dr. Elinor Carmi on Monday 25th March 2019 who will give a talk, ‘I want to break free: Freedom of movement in datafied spaces’. Please find details below. Elinor was a Teaching Fellow at NewPolCom in 2017-18 and we look forward to hearing about her latest research. This is the latest seminar organised by Dr. Matthew Hall as part of his ESRC Postdoc project Citizens 3.0.

I want to break free: Freedom of movement in datafied spaces

Monday 25th March 5pm – Room: Windsor 0-04

Dr. Elinor Carmi, Postdoc Research Associate - Digital Media & Society, Liverpool University, UK

As people's everyday lives are mediated by algorithmic and datafied spaces, it is difficult to know how much agency people can perform. Do people have the 'freedom' to make decisions and behave as they want? This talk will explore multi-layered datafied environments and how they manipulate the way people engage with them. The talk focuses on the way platforms and advertisers try to influence the way people behave by modifying the algorithmic architecture they use. This is conducted with a practice I call rhythmedia, which draws on the concepts of Henri Lefebvre rhythmanalysis and Raymond Williams' planned flow.

Introduction to investigative journalism workshop

Led by: Dean Starkman(ICIJ) and Peter Geoghegan(openDemocracy)

13 April 2019, Birkbeck University, room 540 Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London, 10.30am-5pm

Convened by Yoav Galai and Ben O’Loughlin, Royal Holloway New Political Communication Unit

Tickets just £35 for whole day of training, available here.

The job of the investigative journalist is to uncover facts the public should know about - but aren't allowed to. This workshop will explore the context for investigative reporting in the digital age and new models to allow its practice today. The workshop will show you where to find hidden information, how to access documents and data, and how to use investigative skills in your practice. 

During this intensive one-day seminar curated by Dean Starkman, senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and Peter Geoghegan, investigations editor at openDemocracy will present cutting edge investigations and show you how to cut through the spin to get to the story.

The workshop will show you how to use investigative skills with useful tools for academics, bloggers, campaigners, activists, charities and anyone with an interest in holding the powerful to account. As well as getting the inside track on key stories like the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers, the seminar will include hands-on instruction in how to use investigative approaches and resources in your work and an opportunity to discuss your work with the trainers.

The workshop will have the following format:

Session 1 (morning): Global challenges to public interest journalism - 10.30-12.15pm

Pulitzer prize winner Dean Starkman talks through some of the key stories in his career, including the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism’s recent investigation into how health authorities failed to protect millions from poorly tested implants. Dean will show how the ICIJ’s unique collaborative model works and also talk in-depth about how to identify investigative targets and how to structure and run an investigation. 

12.15-1pm Lunch (provided)

Session 2 (after lunch): Investigative skills – accessing and processing information - 1pm-3pm

In this hands-on session, Peter Geoghegan will teach you how to access and process information. Participants will be shown how to file Freedom of Information requests and how to access public registers of information. In the second half of the session, Peter will show participants how to use Excel to process data and how to use data journalism in investigative story-telling. 

3-3.30pm Refreshments (provided)

Session 3 (wrap up): Pitch the trainers - 3.30-5pm

In the final session of the day, participants will have the chance to discuss their own work with the trainers. Ideas for investigations will be debated and discussed, both in theory and in practice. Participants will also have the change to ask follow-up questions based on their experience at the workshop and their interests. 

Dean Starkman is also a fellow at Center for Media, Data and Society and a visiting lecturer at the School of Public Policy at Central European University, Budapest (See: https://people.ceu.edu/dean_starkman). 

Congratulations to Dr. Simon Collister!

Congratulations to Dr. Simon Collister, whose PhD revisions have been approved following his viva last year. Details of his PhD are below. His examiners were Lee Edwards (LSE) and David Berry (Sussex). Simon was supervised by Prof. Andrew Chadwick. 

Towards a Theory of Media Power in a Networked Communication Environment: Case Studies of #Demo2012, Adidas, and #AskSnowden

This thesis contributes to the debate about media power by advancing a new theoretical perspective. I critique existing theories of media power and argue that media power as it operates in today’s complex media environment can be understood as being based on interactions between the culturally and communicatively symbolic components of media communication and the material features and processes of media through which such symbolic communication occurs. I develop and apply an analytical model capable of spanning these two domains and their complex qualities. To develop the model I adopt a neo-materialist ontology based on Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of rhizomatic assemblages, Hertog and McLeod’s multi-perspectival frame analysis and DeLanda’s theory of the assemblage. I argue that this approach can capture both the symbolic and the material dimensions of media that function through networked, complex and emergent interactions. My analytical model is based on four pillars: hybridity, materiality, choreography and coding. I used the model to guide my empirical fieldwork investigation of three case studies: a public demonstration, an animal rights protest aimed at undermining a well-known brand and the high-profile leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013. Ethnography, content analysis and interview data were used to assess my model’s suitability for making sense of these three cases. Finally, in the conclusion I propose four future themes that this thesis reveals are significant for research on media power: the importance of institutional adaptation, the role of emotion and affect, the significance of computation and the materiality of technology.

Reconsidering rights and ethics in the era of digital security - Pete Fussey, Tuesday 12 March at 5pm

We are delighted to be hosting this week a seminar led by Prof. Pete Fussey from Essex University, entitled ‘Reconsidering rights and ethics in the era of digital security’. This is the latest in the seminar series The Politics of Freedom in Data Times organised by NewPolCom postdoctoral fellow Dr. Matthew Hall.

All welcome!

Reconsidering rights and ethics in the era of digital security

Tuesday 12th Mar 5pm – Room: Founders West 101

Professor Pete Fussey, Department of Sociology, University of Essex, UK

 Recent years have seen a growing digitalisation of human societies. Digital technology has become increasingly ubiquitous and progressively integral to virtually all aspects of our lives. Companioning these developments has been the increased importance of digital data, now generated in unparalleled quantities and analysed with unprecedented speed and depth. These changes hold particular implications for the commission of, and responses to crime. Regarding the latter, the law enforcement uses of AI, predictive technologies, merged data hubs, algorithmic decision-making and advanced video analytics have generated significant attention and commentary. The speed and character such change brings many new ethical challenges. This includes a tension between state’s duty to uphold the security of its citizens – demanded by Article 3 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights – and obligations to uphold other rights such as privacy, expression and freedom from harassment. Yet it is arguable that whilst such debates have generated significant heat, they have produced little light. Based on initial findings from a five-year ESRC funded project analysing the human rights implications of big data and ICT this paper explores a range of ethical issues generated by the use of such technologies. Extending beyond the standard, and limited, ‘privacy versus security’ frame, the paper considers a range of additional concerns, including issues of efficacy, proportionality, utility and harm, collateral intrusion, consent, accountability, oversight and regulation.

Congratulations to Ellen Simpson - from MPPA to PhD programme

Congratulations are due to 2017-18 Media, Power & Public Affairs student Ellen Simpson, who has accepted a fully funded graduate assistantship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. There she will build upon her MSc work with the NewPolCom Unit on online community formation and branch out into a study of how marginalized groups utilize platform design to create resilient online communities. She will be working with Bryan Semaan.

New issue of Media, War and Conflict published!

The latest issue of Media, War and Conflict journal has been published. Please find below the table of contents and click on the titles to be taken to the article (subscription required).

Articles

Patriotic journalism: An appeal to emotion and cognition Avshalom Ginosar and Inbar Cohen

The impact of political context on news coverage: Covering Qatar in the Israeli press Moran Yarchi, Tal Samuel-Azran, Yair Galily, and Ilan Tamir

Portraits of the enemy: Visualizing the Taliban in a photography studio Jenifer Chao

The UK Justice and Security Bill 2012–2013: Using secrecy to legitimize the securitization of the law Mark Pope

Journalism under pressure in conflict zones: A study of journalists and editors in seven countries Marte Høiby and Rune Ottosen

Telling NATO’s story of Afghanistan: Gender and the alliance’s digital diplomacy Katharine AM Wright

Newspaper coverage of the herdsmen–farmers conflict in central Tiv Land, Benue State, Nigeria Celestine Verlumun Gever and Coleman Fidelis Essien

Book review

Book review: Janet Harris and Kevin Williams, Reporting War and Conflict Gretchen Dworznik

The journal’s co-editors are NewPolCom’s Ben O’Loughlin along with Sarah Maltby (Sussex), Katy Parry (Leeds) and Laura Roselle (Elon).