Body Image as Strategy for Engagement in Social Media
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.1572331Keywords:
Arab Spring, mobile technologies, body image, face, biopolitics.Abstract
Worldwide, the use of digital communication networks has been a key strategy in activist events involving demonstrations. Its use was evident in the media’s repeated publication of pictures taken on demonstrators’ mobile phones during actions that have overthrown heads of state during the Arab Spring in 2011. In countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, social network websites and mobile communication devices (phones and notebooks) were used widely for organizing participants and for recording events. This work intends to analyze not only how communication technologies have contributed to the emergence of such events but also how image production can be interpreted in such environments. Since the use of social media in protests caught the attention of broadcasting media in 2009 during demonstrations in Iran, a strong connection can be noticed between the content circulating through digital communication technologies and the body. For images produced during the Arab Spring, the same is observed with a series of strategies connecting body image and social mobilization. Our intention is to contribute to the debate of political images, considering the way they have been produced in contemporary society, which deals with a complex environment composed of communication technologies, social organization, and the body itself.
References
Allen, Paddy (2011): ‘Arab and Middle East Revolt – an Interactive Map’, The Guardian, 17 Feb-ruary 2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/feb/17/arab-world-protests-bahrain-map?INTCMP=SRCH (accessed 28 July 2014).
Agamben, Giorgio (2000): Means Without End: Notes on Politics, Minneapolis/London: Universi-ty of Minnesota Press.
Andén-Papadopoulos, Kari (2008): ‘The Abu Ghraib Torture Photographs: News Frames, Visual Culture, and the Power of Images’, Journalism, 9:1, 5-30. doi: 10.1177/1464884907084337
Bales, Elizabeth; Li, Kevin A.; Griswold, William (2011): ‘CoupleVIBE: Mobile Implicit Communication to Improve Awareness for (Long-Distance) Couples’, ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work: http://www.kevinli.net/CoupleVIBE_CSCW_Final.pdf (ac-cessed 22 May 2012).
Barthes, Roland (1984): A Câmera Clara, Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira.
Benkler, Yochai (2002): ‘Coase’s Penguin, or, Linux and The Nature of the Firm’, Yale Law Jour-nal, 112:3: http://www.benkler.org/CoasesPenguin.PDF (accessed 01 March 2011). doi: 10.2307/1562247
Brasil, André G. & César A. Migliorin (2010): ‘Biopolítica do Amador: Generalizações de uma Prática, Limites de um Conceito’, Galáxia Journal, São Paulo, n. 20, 84-94.
Butler, Judith (2004): Precarious Life: the Power of Mourning and Violence, London: Verso Books.
Castells, Manuel (2013): Redes de Indignação e Esperança, Rio de Janeiro: Zahar.
Campbell, David (2011): ‘Thinking Images v.9: Egypt, Revolution and the Internet’, David Campbell, 08 February 2011: http://www.david-campbell.org/2011/02/08/thinking-images-v-9-egypt/ (accessed 20 May 2012).
Deleuze, Gilles (2005): Francis Bacon: the Logic of Sensation, London: Continuum.
Images of Revolution (2011): Production of Ibrahim Hamdam, Al Jazeera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mGLP4lILPM (accessed 27 July 2014).
Feldman, Ilana (2008): ‘O Apelo Realista’, Famecos Journal, Porto Alegre, number 36, 61-68.
Fletcher, Martin (2009): ‘The Face of Abbas Kargar Javid — Man Accused of Killing Neda Soltan’, The Times, 20 August 2009: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6802669.ece (accessed 02 February 2011).
Guerin, Frances (2004): ‘The Energy of Disappearing: Problems of Recycling Nazi Amateur Film Footage’, Screening the Past, number 17: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr17/FGfr17.html (accessed 25 June 2012).
Itu (2010): ‘Mobile Cellular Subscriptions in 2010’, Key 2000-2010 country data: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/material/excel/2010/MobileCellularSubscriptions_00-10-.xls (accessed 22 May 2012).
Kwak, Nojin & Scott W. Campbell (2010): ‘Mobile Communication and Civic Life: Linking Patterns of Use to Civic and Political Engagement’, Journal of Communication, 60:3, 536–555. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01496.x
Lévy, Pierre (1993): As Tecnologias da Inteligência, São Paulo: 34 Press.
Mortensen, Mette (2011): ‘When Citizen Photojournalism sets the New Agenda: Neda Agha Soltan as a Web 2.0 Icon of Post-election Unrest in Iran’, Global Media and Communication, 7:1, 4-16. doi: 10.1177/1742766510397936
Panagia, Davide (2009): The Political Life of Sensation, Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Paterson, Mark (2007): The Senses of Touch: haptics, affects and technologies, Oxford/New York: Berg Publishers.
Rancière, Jacques (2004): The Politics of Aesthetics, London: Continuum.
Rancière, Jacques (2009): Aesthetics and its Discontents, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Rheingold, Howard (2002): Smart Mobs: the Next Social Revolution, Cambridge: Basic Books.
Robins, Kevin (1996): Into the Image: Culture and Politics in the Field of Vision, London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203440223
Shirky, Clay (2009): Here comes Everybody, London: Penguin Books.
Sontag, Susan (2003): Diante da Dor dos Outros, São Paulo: Cia. das Letras.
Stage, Carsten (2011): ‘Thingifying Neda: The Construction of Commemorative and Affective Thingifications of Neda Agda Soltan’, Culture Unbound, volume 3, 419-438. doi: 10.3384/cu.2000.1525.113419
Sutter, John D (2011): ‘The Faces of Egypt´s Revolution 2.0’, 21 February 2011, CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/21/egypt.internet.revolution/index.html# (ac-cessed 21 May 2012).
Yunis, Noria (2007): ‘Interview with Noria Yunis. Interviewed by Noel Hidalgo’ [video], Mobile Active, 10/10/2007: http://www.mobileactive.org/mobileactivism-egypt-NoriaYunis (accessed 22 May 2012).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Torres Silva
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright for all manuscripts rests with the author(s). The editors reserve the right to edit manuscripts. Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions from the copyright owners for the use of quotations, illustrations, tables, etc. Each author must, before final publication fill, in a publishing agreement provided by LiU E-Press.
Since 2021 Culture Unbound uses a Creative Commons: Attribution license for new articles, which allows users to distribute the work and to reform or build upon it without the author's permission. Full reference to the author must be given. For older articles please see each article landing page.
