Today’s mobile technology and mobile professions mean that people are nearly always either in, or connected to someone who is in motion. And yet, communities persist in the face of this constant motion. This is a qualitative study of a mobile labor group—taxi drivers in Chicago. Similar to Wallis’s (2011) conclusions, I found that access to and use of a mobile phone does not automatically imbue taxi drivers with power and autonomy from forces that seem to be working against them. However, access to mobile phones does help to shake up the hierarchy of control in the taxi industry. This study has also identified another type of community where the theory of polymedia (Madianou & Miller, 2012) applies, that is, labor communities, and has shown that while choice of technology may offer some sense of power, access to mobile communication technology does not necessarily result in significant changes in power structures within and surrounding a community.
This study examines the material, spatial, and temporal implications of mobility discourses in the viral #deleteuber hashtag and the affective public that emerged in response to the Trump administration’s so-called ‘Muslim ban’ in January 2017. A thematic analysis of 3611 tweets suggested that the hashtag produced various mobility discourses debated among an affective public disgusted at the company’s actions or the call to action implied by the hashtag. These discourses were framed by the spatial qualities of mobility discourses and this moment of halted movement, the timing of this hashtag and hashtivism generally, and #deleteuber’s material, real-world implications. Our research reveals how mobility discourses can be used to understand mobility topics beyond transportation, and it provides a glimpse into the consciousness of some social media users reeling from significant political change.
Television is a significant socialization tool for children to learn about their social worlds. The children's brand, Thomas & Friends, targets preschool audiences with manifest messages about friendship and utility as well as troubling, latent messages about race, ethnicity, and difference. Through critical visual and verbal discursive analyses of the film, Hero of the Rails, we expose Thomas & Friends' investment in racial hierarchies despite its broader message of friendship. We identify four ways that Hiro is “othered” in the film: (1) his glamorized description as “strange,” (2) his consistently heavily accented voice, (3) his Japanese origin story, and (4) his pigmentation and powerlessness. Using theories of “othering,” we argue that the representation of cultural difference to the preschooler audience is fearful and propagates racist discourses of yellow peril and Orientalism.
In a developing economy it is important for organizations from the Global South to stake claim on their unique positions in the international marketplace. India's handicrafts industry is an integral part of the national economy and claims a place of pride as a marker of regional culture and heritage. For localized handicraft nonprofit organizations (NPOs) that want to reach global consumers, branding their products is critical to their long-term sustainability and success. Today, the most common way for organizations to reach aesthetically eclectic, global-not to mention, urban-consumers is through the Internet. How an NPO creates and negotiates its digital identity and product branding are important considerations within the domains of technical, professional, and intercultural communication, particularly when establishing a digital presence to reach desired consumers. Creating an aura of authenticity around the products, their representations, and their artisans is an important element of digital branding of handicrafts. Heightened global-local encounters (Wherry, 2006) and intercultural technical communication research adopting a cross-cultural focus on social justice, economic inequities and globalization (Agboka, 2014) provide the context of this research. We performed a thematic analysis of two Bengal (Indian) handicraft NPOs' websites focusing on handicraft authenticity, global-local tensions, and digital presentation. Three themes organize our findings: authenticity of place and production, desire for global reach, and socioeconomic consciousness. Our analysis highlights the 92 key role of digital technology in marketing authenticity, contemporizing traditional arts, while balancing organizational commitment to social justice. As our analysis indicates, visually and textually establishing handicraft authenticity is easily accomplished in an online environment, but taking advantage of online marketing to achieve global reach still seems a struggle for these NPOs.
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