Patrick McCurdy

Connecting Participant Observation Positions Toward a Reflexive Framework for Studying Social Movements

In this article, we argue for the importance of considering participant observation roles in relation to both insider/outsider and overt/covert roles. Through combining key academic debates on participant observation, which have separately considered insider/outsider and overt/covert participant observation, we develop a reflexive framework to assist researchers in (1) locating the type of participant observation research; (2) identifying implications of participant observation for both the research and the subjects under study; and (3) reflecting on how one’s role as participant observer shifts over the course of fieldwork and considering the implications of this. To illustrate these dynamics, we draw on two examples from our own ethnographic research experiences in direct action anticapitalist movements.

Towards a Method for studying Affect in (micro)Politics: The Campfire Chats Project and the Occupy Movement

In their introduction to A Postcapitalist Politics, J.K. Gibson-Graham quotes artistactivist John Jordan stating, ‘When we are asked how we are going to build a new world, our answer is, “We don’t know, but let’s build it together”’. This ethos of building together underlies the micropolitics of protest camps in which people must not only work, but also live together as they struggle toward a common goal. In relation to theorizations of affect, what differentiates the protest camp from other place-based or space-based social movement gatherings and actions is the sustained physical and emotional labour that goes into building and maintaining the site as simultaneously a base for political action and a space for daily life. At a protest camp people’s perspectives toward others, as well as towards objects and ideas, are largely shaped through communal efforts to create sustainable (if ephemeral) infrastructures for daily life. Camps are frequently home to infrastructures such as DIY sanitation systems, communal kitchens, educational spaces, cultural festivals and performances, as well as media, legal and medical operations.

Protest Camps and Repertoires of Contention

Protest camps have become a prominent feature of the post-2010 cycle of social movements and while they have gripped the public and medias imagination, the phenomenon of protest camping is not new. The practice and performance of creating protest camps has a rich history, which has evolved through multiple movements, from Anti-Apartheid to Anti-war. However, until recently, the history of the protest camp as part of the repertoire of social movements and as a site for the evolution of a social movements repertoire has largely been confined to the histories of individual movements. Consequently, connections between movements, between camps and the significance of the protest camp itself have been overlooked. In this research profile, we argue for the importance of studying protest camps in relation to social movements and the evolution of repertoires noting how protest camps adapt infrastructures and practices from tent cities, festival cultures, squatting communities and land-based autonomous movements. We also acknowledge protest camps as key sites in which a variety of repertoires of contention are developed, tried and tested, diffused or sometimes dismissed. To facilitate the study protest camps we suggest a theory and practice of ‘infrastructural analysis’ and differentiated between four protest camp infrastructures: (1) media & communication, (2) action, (3) governance and (4) re-creation. We then use the infrastructures of media and communications as a brief example as to how our proposed infrastructural analysis can contribute to the study of repertoires and our understanding of the rich dynamics of a protest camp.

Conceptualising celebrity activists: the case of Tamsin Omond

Research into celebrity and environmentalism has largely focused on studying how someone who is already famous – who is a ‘celebrity’ – uses this status to advance an activist agenda. However, there is a second category of celebrity activist which has, thus far, largely been overlooked. Inspired by Street (2004), this article considers the conceptual utility of differentiating between the celebrity activist (CA1) – defined as an entertainer or other prominent figure who uses their celebrity status to undertake activism – and the celebrity activist (CA2), who is defined as an individual who gains celebrity status as result of their activism. Against a backdrop of other efforts to categorise celebrity activists, this article presents an exploratory, qualitative media frame analysis of British climate activist Tamsin Omond. The primary focus is on three articles, two from tabloid newspapers (The Daily Mail and The Sun) and one from a broadsheet newspaper (The Sunday Times). It shows that, despite coming to notoriety through her activism, Omond’s media’s framing still drew upon her privileged background, but that how this was done depended on the politics and orientation of the newspaper. The article concludes by arguing that the representation of celebrity activists (CA2), like traditional celebrities (CA1), ultimately reinforces the codes of hyper-individualisation promoted by consumer culture. It points to the need for further research into these changing political media and activist landscapes whereby not only do celebrities become activists, but activists themselves become celebrities.

The ‘story’ in a risk society: A case study of the BBC and the ‘riskiness’ of journalism

ABSTRACT This article argues that one way the ‘story’ has changed is that it has become a source of potential ‘risk’ (Beck 1992; Giddens 1990) for media organizations operating in a globalized media environment. Through applying a ‘risk’ perspective to the practice of journalism, this article argues that the news story is not only a site where risk is represented and contested but also a source of risk for journalists and media organizations. This conceptual argument is made by reflecting on the significance of the external scrutiny and internal reflection of the BBCs coverage of the Middle East crisis. Attention is also given to the BBCs 2009 decision to deny a Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal for Gaza and how this management decision may be understood in ‘risk’ terms. A larger theoretical objective is to illustrate the utility of a ‘risk’ approach as a new theoretical lens to critically explore the practice of journalism.

A threat to impartiality: Reconstructing and situating the BBC’s denial of the 2009 DEC appeal for Gaza

In January 2009, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) denied a request from the Disaster’s Emergency Committee (DEC) to broadcast an emergency appeal to relieve human suffering in Gaza in the wake of the Israeli ground offensive ‘Cast Lead’. The decision marked the first time in the over 40-year relationship between the two organisations that a request was refused by the BBC, but an appeal went ahead. BBC Executives argued that airing the appeal could pose a threat to public confidence in the BBC’s impartiality. This article, both descriptive and exploratory in scope, first reconstructs a chronology of this ‘impartiality argument’, providing a detailed overview of the key players, the (historical) relationship between them, and the run-up to and aftermath of the BBC’s decision. The second part of the article analyses the BBC’s denial of the DEC request and explores how the BBC’s concerns over impartiality articulate its new ‘wagon wheel’ approach to impartiality. Finally, the authors study the BBC’s decision and the – rekindled – centrality of impartiality within the context of the BBC being increasingly bound by the nature of its brand and the visibility of the Middle East conflict.

Media events and cosmopolitan fandom: 'Playful nationalism' in the Eurovision Song Contest

Academic literature on media events is increasingly concerned with their global dimensions and the applicability of Dayan and Katz’s theoretical concept in a post-national context. This article contributes to this debate by exploring the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) as a global media event. In particular, we employ a perspective from ‘inside the media event’, drawing upon empirical material collected during the 2014 Eurovision final in Copenhagen and focusing on the experiences of fans attending the contest. We argue that the ESC as a media event is experienced by its fans as a cosmopolitan space, open and diverse, whereas national belonging is expressed in a playful way tied to the overall visual aesthetics of the contest. However, the bounded and narrow character of participation render this cosmopolitan space rather limited.

Capitalising on the plasticity of impartiality: the BBC and the 2009 Gaza appeal

This article focuses on the British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC) decision to deny a request to air a Disasters Emergency Committee Appeal for Gaza in January 2009. The BBC argued that airing the appeal would threaten its impartiality. Despite the centrality of impartiality to the BBC, the concepts meaning is anything but unequivocal. An exploration of a media offensive, which BBC executives launched in response to public outrage over the decision, seeks to reconstruct what definition of impartiality is inferred by the BBCs rationale behind not airing the appeal. The analysis illustrates how the BBCs justification engages dialogically with the critical position of others and, by doing so, draws on diverse understandings of impartiality. We argue that this ‘semantic plasticity’ of impartiality does not point at institutional confusion, but rather at BBCs executives capitalising on the rhetorical potential this plasticity affords.

Bearing Witness and the Logic of Celebrity in the Struggle Over Canada’s Oil/Tar Sands

Referred to as “oil sands” by industry proponents and “tar sands” by protestors, this chapter examines how environmental movements against bitumen development have set out to navigate a media-saturated political environment and secure both visibility and legitimacy for their claims. The chapter’s empirical material is based on analysis of 96 acts of political contestation pertaining to bitumen development in Alberta between January 2007 and January 2016. Drawing on della Porta and Diani’s (2006) concept of activist logics, the chapter describes the use of “bearing witness” as a media-orientated and media conscious protest strategy used by environmental groups to contest the bitumen sands. The chapter focuses on the wide use of celebrities in tar sands protests, including celebrity interventions and celebrity site visits, with specific attention paid to the anti-tar sands actions of celebrities Neve Campbell, Neil Young, James Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio. The chapter argues that “the logic of celebrity” must be acknowledged as a fourth activist logic which underwrites, orients, facilitates and constrains political action.

The ghost in the news room: the legacy of Kenya’s 2007 post-election violence and the constraints on journalists covering Kenya’s 2013 General Election

ABSTRACT Domestic journalists covering Kenya’s 2013 General Election worked in an exceptionally challenging media environment; one which was significantly shaped by the 2007 election and post-election violence (PEV). Rooted in literature on peace journalism (PJ), we examine how the PEV of Kenya’s 2007 presidential elections informed and shaped journalists’ practice around the 2013 Kenyan General Election. The article is based on qualitative interviews with 16 Kenyan print journalists and editors at the Daily Nation and Standard newspapers as well as interviews with 6 Kenyan media specialists. Our analysis finds the 2007 PEV significantly constrained journalistic practice in three ways: first, journalists witnessed violence in 2007 which anchored their 2013 coverage; second, interviewees felt a ‘collective guilt’ at journalism’s failure to provide responsible coverage in 2007 creating a ‘culture of restraint’ and third, journalists felt compelled to ‘sanitize’ potentially inflammatory language creating a tension between journalists’ duty to inform and strong desire to avoid contributing to conflict. This article concludes by siding with a growing critical chorus of PJ scholars critiquing its often “individualist” approach and calling for greater attention towards structural factors such as perceived social constraints when conceptualizing and theorizing the agency of journalists working in post conflict environments.