[ecrea] [IJoC] New Special Section Published on "Constructing Public Space"

The International Journal of Communication has just published a new Special
Section on "Constructing Public Space."

> From the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa to environmental
protests in China, and from LGBTQ festivals to the Black Lives Matter
movement, we have seen major forms of popular contestation in different
parts of the world. In these protests and festivals, activists and citizens
embrace social media, trying to appropriate these media as public spaces. In
these protests, activists and citizens embrace social media, trying to
appropriate these media as public spaces. This Special Section on
“Constructing Public Space” examines 1) the types of social media
practices involved in such efforts, 2) the particular political
institutional contexts in which these practices are articulated, and 3) the
techno-commercial architectures through which they take shape.

Guest-edited by Thomas Poell and José van Dijck, the Special Section calls
for a shift from public sphere theory to trajectories of publicness as the
main conceptual framework through which relations between popular
contestation, mediated communication and power have been examined. This new
approach aims to trace how moments of publicness are created, sustained, and
dissolved through the mutual articulation of citizen and activist practices,
media infrastructures, and the governing strategies of states.

Exploring how these connections take shape in contemporary protest, the five
original empirical studies featured in this Special Section reveal that not
debate, opinions, nor demands assemble the collective today, but rather the
rapid circulation of emotionally charged images and slogans. Emotional
connectivity allows fundamentally different actors, perspectives, and
identities to temporarily come together as collectives to challenge
domination and injustice.

We invite you to read the following articles from this Special Section that
published January 7, 2016.

Global Perspectives on Social Media and Popular Contestation –
Introduction —Thomas Poell, José van Dijck
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/4984/1535

Participants on the Margins: Examining the Role that Shared Artifacts of
Engagement in the Ferguson Protests Played Among Minoritized Political
Newcomers on Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter — Lynn Schofield Clark
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3843/1536

Rousing the Facebook Crowd: Digital Enthusiasm and Emotional Contagion in
the 2011 Protests in Egypt and Spain — Paolo Gerbaudo
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3963/1537

“Legit Can’t Wait for #Toronto #WorldPride!”: Investigating the
Twitter Public of a Large-Scale LGBTQ Festival — Stefanie Duguay
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3771/1540

New “Danger Zone” in Europe: Representations of Place in Social
Media–Supported Protests — Cornelia Brantner, Joan Ramon Rodriguez-Amat
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3788/1538

Weibo, WeChat, and the Transformative Events of Environmental Activism in
China —Kevin Michael DeLuca, Elizabeth Brunner, Ye Sun
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3841/1539

Larry Gross
Editor

Arlene Luck
Managing Editor
___________________________________________________
International Journal of Communication (IJoC)
USC Annenberg Press
University of Southern California
http://ijoc.org/



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