Global Media, Biopolitics, and Affect: Politicizing Bodily Vulnerability

179 Pages·2015·2.46 MB·English

by  Britta Timm Knudsen

Global Media, Biopolitics and Affect
Global Media, Biopolitics and Affect shows how mediations of bodily
vulnerability have become a strong political force in contemporary socie-
ties. In discussions and struggles concerning war involvement, health care
issues, charity, democracy movements, contested national pasts, and cli-
mate change, performances of bodily vulnerability are increasingly used
by citizens to raise awareness, to create sympathy, to encourage political
action, and to circulate information in global media networks. The book
thus argues that bodily vulnerability can serve as a catalyst for affectively
charging and disseminating particular political events or issues by means of
media. To investigate how, when, and why that happens and to evaluate the
long-term social impacts of mediating bodily vulnerability, the book offers
a theoretical framework for understanding the role of bodily vulnerabil-
ity in contemporary digital media culture. Likewise, it presents a range of
close empirical case studies in the areas of illness blogging, global protests
after the killing of Neda Agda Soltan in Iran, charity communication, green
media activism, online war commemoration, and digital witnessing related
to conflicts in Sarajevo and Ukraine.
Britta Timm Knudsen is Associate Professor in the Department of Aesthetics
and Communication at Aarhus University, Denmark. Her previous books
include Enterprising Initiatives in the Experience Economy (co-edited with
Dorthe Refslund Christensen, and Per Blenker, 2014) and Re-investing
Authenticity, Tourism, Place and Emotions (co-edited with Anne Marit
Waade, 2009).
Carsten Stage is Associate Professor in the Department of Aesthetics and
Communication, ARTS at Aarhus University, Denmark. His previous publi-
cations include ‘Online A-liveness’, a chapter in M ediating and Re-Mediating
Death (2014), and ‘Contagious Bodies’ (co-authored with Knudsen) in the
journal E motion, Space and Society. He is co-editor of Conjunctions. Trans-
disciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation.
Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture
1 Cyberpop 9 Mobile Technology and Place
Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Edited by Gerard Goggin and
Culture Rowan Wilken
Sidney Eve Matrix
10 Wordplay and the Discourse of
2 The Internet in China Video Games
Cyberspace and Civil Society Analyzing Words, Design, and
Zixue Tai Play
Christopher A. Paul
3 Racing Cyberculture
Minoritarian Art and Cultural
11 Latin American Identity in
Politics on the Internet
Online Cultural Production
Christopher L. McGahan
Claire Taylor and Thea Pitman
4 Decoding Liberation
12 Mobile Media Practices,
The Promise of Free and Open
Presence and Politics
Source Software
The Challenge of Being
Samir Chopra and Scott D. Dexter
Seamlessly Mobile
Edited by Kathleen M. Cumiskey
5 Gaming Cultures and Place in
and Larissa Hjorth
Asia-Pacific
Edited by Larissa Hjorth and
13 The Public Space of Social
Dean Chan
Media
Connected Cultures of the
6 Virtual English
Network Society
Queer Internets and Digital
Thérèse F. Tierney
Creolization
Jillana B. Enteen
14 Researching Virtual Worlds
7 Disability and New Media Methodologies for Studying
Katie Ellis and Mike Kent Emergent Practices
Edited by Ursula Plesner and
8 Creating Second Lives Louise Phillips
C ommunity, Identity and Spatiality
as Constructions of the Virtual 15 Digital Gaming Re-imagines the
Edited by Astrid Ensslin Middle Ages
and Eben Muse Edited by Daniel T. Kline
16 Social Media, Social Genres 22 Locative Media
Making Sense of the Ordinary Edited by Rowan Wilken and
Stine Lomborg Gerard Goggin
17 The Culture of Digital Fighting 23 Online Evaluation of Creativity
Games and the Arts
Performances and Practice Edited by Hiesun Cecilia Suhr
Todd Harper
24 Theories of the Mobile Internet
Materialities and Imaginaries
18 Cyberactivism on the
Edited by Andrew Herman,
Participatory Web
Jan Hadlaw, and Thom Swiss
Edited by Martha McCaughey
25 The Ubiquitous Internet
19 Policy and Marketing Strategies
User and Industry Perspectives
for Digital Media
Edited by Anja Bechmann and
Edited by Yu-li Liu and Robert G.
Stine Lomborg
Picard
26 The Promiscuity of Network
20 Place and Politics in Latin Culture
American Digital Culture Queer Theory and Digital Media
Location and Latin American Net Robert Payne
Art
Claire Taylor 27 Global Media, Biopolitics and
Affect
21 Online Games, Social Politicizing Bodily Vulnerability
Narratives Britta Timm Knudsen and Carsten
Esther MacCallum-Stewart Stage
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Global Media, Biopolitics and
Affect
Politicizing Bodily Vulnerability
Britta Timm Knudsen and
Carsten Stage
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of Britta Timm Knudsen and Carsten Stage to be identified as
author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Timm Knudsen, Britta.
Global media, biopolitics, and affect : politicizing bodily vulnerability /
by Britta Timm Knudsen, Carsten Stage.
pages cm. — (Routledge studies in new media and cyberculture ; 27)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Human body in mass media. 2. Human body—Political aspects.
3. Mass media—Political aspects. 4. Communication in politics—
Technological innovations. 5. Biopolitics. I. Stage, Carsten.
II. Title.
P96.B64T56 2014
302.23—dc23
2014032637
ISBN: 978-1-138-01906-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-77917-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: Politicising Bodily Vulnerability 1
1 Illness Blogs and Online Crowding 28
2 Global Assemblages of Suffering and Protest 45
3 Charity, Seduction, and Productive Publics 66
4 Green Activist Bodies and the Sublime 88
5 War Commemoration and Affective Media Rhythms 108
6 Media Witnessing from Chora 131
Epilogue: Vulnerable Power 153
Index 159
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Figures
1.1 Picture of Eva for the #4Eva campaign 32
1.2 Screenshot from Facebook of Reddy for a Cure
participants imitating Eva 39
2.1 Screenshot from main page of http://nedaspeaks.org 54
2.2 The statue Neda ‘Angel of Iran’ 58
2.3 One of the most disseminated images of Neda 58
2.4 Neda Mask Action in Paris, 25 July 2009 60
3.1 Screenshot from www.dr.dk of the 2014 show with
boarding school students in front 74
3.2 Screenshot from YouTube video by pupils from
Bøvling Boarding School 77
3.3 Screenshot from YouTube video by pupils
from Skals Boarding School 78
3.4 Screenshot from a YouTube video showing Wafande,
Pharphar, and local musicians at the Good Governance
Festival in Kibera 2012 83
4.1 Julia Butterfly Hill in Luna 97
4.2 The Weld Angel 101
5.1 Screenshot from I n memory of . . . 119
5.2 Screenshot from I n memory of . . . 120
5.3 Screenshot of géno-textual excerpt 123
6.1 Entrance to the Tunnel Museum, Sarajevo 139
6.2 Screenshot from S arajevo Sniper Alley (standup sample) 141
6.3 Screenshot from Снайпер стреляет 145
6.4 Screenshot of Alexey Yaroshevsky witnessing from Kiev 148