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Lectures by Ana Makhashvili, Débora Medeiros and Margreth Lünenborg for DACH21 conference are online

News from Apr 28, 2021

Ana Makhashvili and Margreth Lünenborg present results of their case study on #Chemnitz and its polarized, affective publics. Based on an empirical analysis of the Twitter discourse around the far-right protests in Chemnitz in 2018, this paper discusses how far-right publics invoke emotions to challenge the legitimacy and authority of journalism as an institution. „Affective publics” (Papacharissi, 2015) are key in this process, forming around the expression of emotions such as anger directed at perceived elites, including the press (Wahl- Jorgensen, 2017). Social media platforms lay grounds for such contestation as they provide the space and the technological means for publics to make „affective claims to agency” (Papacharissi, 2015, p. 119).

„#Chemnitz and its polarized affective publics“ can be found on the website of the collaborative research center as well as on its vimeo-channel.

Débora Medeiros and Margreth Lünenborg provide insights into their idea of “Journalism as an affective Institution”. With the emergence of hybrid media systems (Chadwick, 2017), questions around changes in journalism have grown in relevance and urgency, especially with regards to digital communication. Many studies have focused on how journalism faces challenges to its social function of mediating discussions among the general public through information on current events (e.g. Bennett & Livingston, 2018; Dickinson et al., 2013), but few take affective aspects into account. Drawing on new institutionalism and affect theory, this paper contributes to this literature by providing theoretical grounding for understanding how journalism changes with regards to the articulation and circulation of emotion in the public sphere.

“Journalism as an affective Institution” can be found on the website of the collaborative research center as well as on its vimeo-channel.

Both presentations were part of the Three-Country Conference on Communication Science organized by DGPuK, ÖGK, and SGKM.

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