Books by Iginio Gagliardone
Indiana University Press, 2021
OPEN ACCESS book: https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/projects/digital-hate
Scroll down the web... more OPEN ACCESS book: https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/projects/digital-hate
Scroll down the webpage to find the full pdf to download under "Resources".
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Book description
The euphoria that has accompanied the birth and expansion of the internet as a "liberation technology" is increasingly eclipsed by an explosion of vitriolic language on a global scale.
Digital Hate: The Global Conjuncture of Extreme Speech provides the first distinctly global and interdisciplinary perspective on hateful language online. Moving beyond Euro-American allegations of "fake news," contributors draw attention to local idioms and practices and explore the profound implications for how community is imagined, enacted, and brutally enforced around the world. With a cross-cultural framework nuanced by ethnography and field-based research, the volume investigates a wide range of cases—from anti-immigrant memes targeted at Bolivians in Chile to trolls serving the ruling AK Party in Turkey—to ask how the potential of extreme speech to talk back to authorities has come under attack by diverse forms of digital hate cultures.
Offering a much-needed global perspective on the "dark side" of the internet, Digital Hate is a timely and critical look at the raging debates around online media's failed promises.This book brings together leading anthropologists and communication scholars to offer a much needed global critical perspective on vitriolic exchange and aggressive speech enabled by the Internet. Drawing on cutting-edge case studies from around the world—from China, India, Philippines, Denmark and Kenya to Chile, Turkey, US, Pakistan and Indonesia, the book investigates online extreme speech with a global approach nuanced by ethnography and field-based research.
Contributors:
David Boromisza-Habashi, Gabriele de Seta, Sal Hagen, Nell Haynes, Jonas Kaiser, David Katiambo, Max Kramer, Amy Mack, Carol Mcgranahan, Jonathan Corpus Ong, Indah Pratidina, Erkan Saka, Juergen Schaflechner, Mark Tuters.
Sahana Udupa, Iginio Gagliardone & Peter Hervik (eds.)
"Timely, original, and powerful, this anthology is packed with new insights about digital media and political cultures. Contributors comprise an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars grounded predominantly in anthropology and media studies. Their diverse studies in the global north and south approach extreme speech online as a cultural practice situated within wider social struggles. The collection reveals the dynamics of exclusionary politics that paradoxically thrive in the age of digital connectivity."
~Victoria Bernal, author of Nation as Network: Diaspora, Cyberspace, and Citizenship, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine
"This superb collection contains a number of stimulating contributions by authors from around the world. The introduction lays out the book's unique intellectual re-reading of online extreme speech, civility, and rationality. It offers insightful and innovative ways of understanding these issues from decolonial and ethnographically grounded approaches. This is the only book to connect history, colonial formations, and coloniality in the study of extreme speech in the digital age".
~Sarah Chiumbu, Associate Professor, Department of Communication & Media, University of Johannesburg
"How is the term 'hate speech' mobilized to further specific political ends, so deepening rather than alleviating inequalities in the public domain? This is the question that this highly sophisticated collection of essays addresses, drawing on a wide range of cases from Kenya to Chile, the Philippines to Germany. These deeply contextualized studies constitute a huge step forward in our understanding of the cultural and technological underpinnings of extreme speech on a global scale—a landmark study."
~Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science
As more Africans get online, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly h... more As more Africans get online, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly hailed for their transformative potential. Yet, the fascination for the possibilities of promoting more inclusive forms of development in the information age have obfuscated the reality of the complex negotiations among political and economic actors who are seeking to use technology in their competition for power. Building on over ten years of research in Ethiopia, this book investigates the relationship between politics, development, and technological adoption in Africa's second most populous country and its largest recipient of development aid. The emphasis the book places on the 'technopolitics' of ICTs, and on their ability to embody and enact political goals, offers a strong and empirically grounded counter-argument to prevalent approaches to the study of technology and development that can be applied to other cases in Africa and beyond.
The material shared here is an excerpt from the book, following CUP Green Open Access Policy. This version is free to view and download for personal use only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. ©Iginio Gagliardone 2016
The book can be accessed on the CUP website, following the link http://bit.ly/2wahAW3
This study examines key trends that have characterized global media in the period between 2012 an... more This study examines key trends that have characterized global media in the period between 2012 and 2017, from the rise of new forms of “algorithmic pluralism” to the interactions between “media capture” and “fake news”. It combines regional and global perspectives to chart how different areas of the globe have interacted with the changes occurred in the media sphere, including the decline of the printed press and the contradictions of “zero rating”, which ostensively allows those at the margin to have access to the Internet, but presents them with a much less diverse portion of it. The study develops through four main chapters, analyzing trends in freedom of expression, pluralism, independence, and safety.
The study provides a global overview of the dynamics characterizing hate speech online and some o... more The study provides a global overview of the dynamics characterizing hate speech online and some of the measures that have been adopted to counteract and mitigate it, highlighting good practices that have emerged at the local and global levels. While the study offers a comprehensive analysis of the international, regional and national normative frameworks developed to address hate speech online, and their repercussions for freedom of expression, it places particular emphasis on social and non-regulatory mechanisms that can help to counter the production, dissemination and impact of hateful messages online.
Papers by Iginio Gagliardone
The Researching Attitudes towards Peace and Conflict in Darfur project seeks to inform the ongoin... more The Researching Attitudes towards Peace and Conflict in Darfur project seeks to inform the ongoing peace process in Darfur by providing the various institutions involved in the mediation efforts with a deeper understanding of Darfurians' perspectives on the causes of the conflict, its impact on their lives, and the role of the international community in its resolution.
How to Analyze Online Hate Speech and Toxic Communication
The Mapping Digital Media project examines the global opportunities and risks created by the tran... more The Mapping Digital Media project examines the global opportunities and risks created by the transition from traditional to digital media. Covering 60 countries, the project examines how these changes affect the core democratic service that any media system should provide: news about political, economic, and social affairs. The Horn of Africa is one of the least connected regions in the world. Nevertheless, digital media play an important social and political role in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia (including South-Central Somalia and the northern self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland). This paper shows how the development of the internet, mobile phones, and other new communication technologies have been shaped by conflict and power struggles in these countries. It addresses some of the puzzles that characterize the media in the region: for example, how similar rates of penetration of media such as the internet and mobile phones have emerged in Somalia, a state which has n...
This report introduces findings from ten digital rights landscape country reports on Zimbabwe, Za... more This report introduces findings from ten digital rights landscape country reports on Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Cameroon. They analyse how the openings and closings of online civic space affect citizens’ digital rights. They show that: (1) when civic space closes offline citizens often respond by opening civic space online; (2) when civic space opens online governments often take measures to close online space; and (3) the resulting reduction in digital rights makes it impossible to achieve the kind of inclusive governance defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We know far more about openings and closings of online civic space in the global North than we do in the global South. What little we do know about Africa is mainly about a single country, a single event, or single technology. For the first time, these reports make possible a comparative analysis of openings and closings of online civic space in Africa. Th...
Speech and Society in Turbulent Times
It approaches the topic from the standpoint of developments on the ground in those regions and is... more It approaches the topic from the standpoint of developments on the ground in those regions and is intended for an audience interested primarily in media assistance rather than for experienced China watchers. CIMA is grateful to Douglas Farah, a veteran foreign correspondent in Africa and Latin America, and Andy Mosher, a long-time newspaper editor and consultant for CIMA, for their research and insights on this topic. We hope that this report will become an important reference for international media assistance efforts.
China is changing Africa’s media sphere. The country supports African broadcasters with loans, tr... more China is changing Africa’s media sphere. The country supports African broadcasters with loans, training, and exchange programmes and has set up its own media operations on the continent, creating an African arm of the state-run broadcaster CCTV and expanding existing initiatives, such as the state news agency Xinhua. In the telecommunications market China is helping national governments, both democratic and authoritarian, to expand access to the Internet and mobile telephony, and it offers export credits to Chinese companies willing to invest in African markets. For China, media expansion in Africa is a part of its “Going Out” and “soft power” strategies to extend the country’s influence in new sectors and locations. Yet for some this process represents a move in an “information war” in terms of which Chinese-built telecommunications infrastructure is a cybersecurity concern and the tendency of Chinese media to promote “positive reporting” is a threat to independent watchdog journal...
Policy Research and Practice in the Face of Conflict: A Case Study of Public Opinion Research in Darfur
This report introduces findings from ten digital rights landscape country reports on Ethiopia. Th... more This report introduces findings from ten digital rights landscape country reports on Ethiopia. They analyse how the openings and closings of online civic space affect citizens’ digital rights. They show that: (1) when civic space closes offline citizens often respond by opening civic space online; (2) when civic space opens online governments often take measures to close online space; and (3) the resulting reduction in digital rights makes it impossible to achieve the kind of inclusive governance defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
International Journal of Communication, 2019
Following Sahana Udupa and Matti Pohjonen's invitation to move the debate beyond a normative ... more Following Sahana Udupa and Matti Pohjonen's invitation to move the debate beyond a normative understanding of hate speech, this article seeks to build a foundation for conceptual and empirical inquiry of speech commonly considered deviant and disturbing. It develops in three stages. It first maps the public lives of terms that refer to online vitriol and how they have been used by different communities of researchers, politicians, advocacy groups, and national organizations. Second, it shows how different types of “haters” have been interpreted as parts of “swarms” or “armies,” depending on whether their violent potential emerges around critical incidents or whether they respond to longer-term strategies through which communities and their leaders tie their speech acts to explicit narratives. The article concludes by locating “extreme speech” within this broader conceptual tapestry, arguing that the paternalistic gaze that characterizes a lot of research on online hate speech is...
The Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR), launched in late 2009, draws together experts, ... more The Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR), launched in late 2009, draws together experts, practitioners and policymakers from the University of Cambridge and far beyond to think critically and innovatively about pressing governance and human rights issues throughout the world, with a special focus on Africa. The Centre aims to be a world-class interdisciplinary hub for fresh thinking, collaborative research and improving practice. The CGHR Working Papers Series is a collection of papers, largely peer-reviewed, focussed on cross-disciplinary research on issues of governance and human rights. The series includes papers presented at the CGHR Research Group and occasional papers written by CGHR Associates related to the Centre's research projects. It also welcomes papers from further afield on topics related to the CGHR research agenda.
Perspectives on Politics, 2019
Digital Journalism, 2018
I n our role as a laboratory of ideas, and in fulfilment of our role to promote international und... more I n our role as a laboratory of ideas, and in fulfilment of our role to promote international understanding, UNESCO is pleased to now have the third edition of our Report titled World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development. This draws the portrait of a world where change is happening at breakneck speed, affecting societies across the board, with deep impacts on freedom of expression and media development. Readers will find in these pages a global review unlike any other study. It examines press freedom comprehensively in four key dimensions: Media freedom, Media Pluralism, Media Independence, and the Safety of Journalists. As in our previous reports, the analysis includes strong attention to issues of gender equality in these four aspects. Further, this Report is built on regional sub-reports, presenting a global overview of the major trends of our times. Significantly, this study is published during the early years of the UN's 2030 Development Agenda, which, with the agreement of all UN Member States, recognises the importance of "public access to information and fundamental freedoms" amongst the targets of Sustainable Development. This is why this Report matters -it gives us the co-ordinates to know where we are in terms of the public and access to information, and what the state is of free expression as a fundamental freedom. This in turn is a precondition for us to advance the interdependent objectives of protecting freedom of expression and developing an informed public as integral elements for global progress. The General Conference resolution that underpins this World Trends Report also called on UNESCO to foster dialogue as part of the building of enabling environments for freedom of expression, freedom of information and independent, gender-sensitive media. In this light, I strongly encourage our Member States to step forward and use this Report as a platform for dialogue in your country. The World Trends Report is a resource that can help inform the building of national environments for progress. Press freedom and the safety of journalists are are measures of, and conditions for, getting to our agreed development goals. This Report helps to show us what needs to be done.
Mechachal: Online Debates and Elections in Ethiopia. Report One: A Preliminary Assessment of Online Debates in Ethiopia
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
This working paper is the first of a series of three and examines how Ethiopians in Ethiopia and ... more This working paper is the first of a series of three and examines how Ethiopians in Ethiopia and the diaspora are using social media to talk about politics, religion, and ethnicity. After illustrating the methodological choices that have been made to understand engagement and antagonism in the Ethiopian online sphere, the report suggests how and to which extent, despite the limited penetration and polarization that has characterized the media in Ethiopia, social media seems to have offered new opportunities for experimentation across divides.
Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 2013
China, in seeking greater engagement with African audiences, has dramatically boosted its potenti... more China, in seeking greater engagement with African audiences, has dramatically boosted its potential to shape narratives in ways that can favour its image or interests abroad. Focusing on CCTV Africa, China's flagship efforts to win hearts and minds on the continent, the article explains how this strategy has been pursued not by directly offering an alternative image of China, but by advancing new ways of looking at Africa. The article offers insights into the innovations and contradictions associated with China's increased presence in African media. It examines how the concept of 'positive reporting' is making inroads in Africa, tapping into the narrative of a 'rising Africa' and challenging the Western conception of the media as watchdogs. The article also highlights how CCTV is adapting to liberal journalistic standards, embracing a more aggressive style of reporting to compete for loyalty in a market which is becoming increasingly crowded.
The Politics of Technology in Africa
As more Africans get online, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly h... more As more Africans get online, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly hailed for their transformative potential. Yet, the fascination for the possibilities of promoting more inclusive forms of development in the information age have obfuscated the reality of the complex negotiations among political and economic actors who are seeking to use technology in their competition for power. Building on over ten years of research in Ethiopia, Iginio Gagliardone investigates the relationship between politics, development, and technological adoption in Africa's second most populous country and its largest recipient of development aid. The emphasis the book places on the 'technopolitics' of ICTs, and on their ability to embody and enact political goals, offers a strong and empirically grounded counter-argument to prevalent approaches to the study of technology and development that can be applied to other cases in Africa and beyond.
Stability: International Journal of Security and Development, 2016
The Internet in Africa has become an increasingly contested space, where competing ideas of devel... more The Internet in Africa has become an increasingly contested space, where competing ideas of development and society battle for hegemony. By comparing the evolution of the Internet in Ethiopia and Rwanda, we question whether policies and projects emerging from two of Africa's fastest growing, but also most tightly controlled countries, can be understood as part of a relatively cohesive model of the 'developmental' Internet, which challenges mainstream conceptions. Our answer is a qualified yes. Ethiopia and Rwanda have shared an overarching strategy which places the state as the prime mover in the development of Internet policy and large-scale ICT projects. Rwanda, however, appears to have developed a more open model which can accommodate a greater variety of actors and opinions, and incorporate them within a relatively coherent vision that emanates from the centre. Ethiopia, in contrast, has developed a more closed model, where all powers rest firmly in the hands of a government that has refused (so far) to entertain and engage with alternative ideas of the Internet. In the case of Rwanda, we argue, this approach reflects broader strategies adopted by the government in the economic domain but appears to counter the prevailing political approach of the government, allowing for a greater degree of freedom on the Internet as compared to traditional media. While in the case of Ethiopia, the opposite is true; Ethiopia's Internet policies appear to run counter to prevailing economic policies but fit tightly with the government's approach to politics and governance.
Uploads
Books by Iginio Gagliardone
Scroll down the webpage to find the full pdf to download under "Resources".
***
Book description
The euphoria that has accompanied the birth and expansion of the internet as a "liberation technology" is increasingly eclipsed by an explosion of vitriolic language on a global scale.
Digital Hate: The Global Conjuncture of Extreme Speech provides the first distinctly global and interdisciplinary perspective on hateful language online. Moving beyond Euro-American allegations of "fake news," contributors draw attention to local idioms and practices and explore the profound implications for how community is imagined, enacted, and brutally enforced around the world. With a cross-cultural framework nuanced by ethnography and field-based research, the volume investigates a wide range of cases—from anti-immigrant memes targeted at Bolivians in Chile to trolls serving the ruling AK Party in Turkey—to ask how the potential of extreme speech to talk back to authorities has come under attack by diverse forms of digital hate cultures.
Offering a much-needed global perspective on the "dark side" of the internet, Digital Hate is a timely and critical look at the raging debates around online media's failed promises.This book brings together leading anthropologists and communication scholars to offer a much needed global critical perspective on vitriolic exchange and aggressive speech enabled by the Internet. Drawing on cutting-edge case studies from around the world—from China, India, Philippines, Denmark and Kenya to Chile, Turkey, US, Pakistan and Indonesia, the book investigates online extreme speech with a global approach nuanced by ethnography and field-based research.
Contributors:
David Boromisza-Habashi, Gabriele de Seta, Sal Hagen, Nell Haynes, Jonas Kaiser, David Katiambo, Max Kramer, Amy Mack, Carol Mcgranahan, Jonathan Corpus Ong, Indah Pratidina, Erkan Saka, Juergen Schaflechner, Mark Tuters.
Sahana Udupa, Iginio Gagliardone & Peter Hervik (eds.)
"Timely, original, and powerful, this anthology is packed with new insights about digital media and political cultures. Contributors comprise an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars grounded predominantly in anthropology and media studies. Their diverse studies in the global north and south approach extreme speech online as a cultural practice situated within wider social struggles. The collection reveals the dynamics of exclusionary politics that paradoxically thrive in the age of digital connectivity."
~Victoria Bernal, author of Nation as Network: Diaspora, Cyberspace, and Citizenship, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine
"This superb collection contains a number of stimulating contributions by authors from around the world. The introduction lays out the book's unique intellectual re-reading of online extreme speech, civility, and rationality. It offers insightful and innovative ways of understanding these issues from decolonial and ethnographically grounded approaches. This is the only book to connect history, colonial formations, and coloniality in the study of extreme speech in the digital age".
~Sarah Chiumbu, Associate Professor, Department of Communication & Media, University of Johannesburg
"How is the term 'hate speech' mobilized to further specific political ends, so deepening rather than alleviating inequalities in the public domain? This is the question that this highly sophisticated collection of essays addresses, drawing on a wide range of cases from Kenya to Chile, the Philippines to Germany. These deeply contextualized studies constitute a huge step forward in our understanding of the cultural and technological underpinnings of extreme speech on a global scale—a landmark study."
~Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science
The material shared here is an excerpt from the book, following CUP Green Open Access Policy. This version is free to view and download for personal use only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. ©Iginio Gagliardone 2016
The book can be accessed on the CUP website, following the link http://bit.ly/2wahAW3
Papers by Iginio Gagliardone