Michele Martini | University of Cambridge (original) (raw)

Papers by Michele Martini

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

Problemi dell'informazione, 2019

Journal of Media and Religion

Dataset resulting fomr the analysis of the entire production of papal Encyclicals, Apostolic Exho... more Dataset resulting fomr the analysis of the entire production of papal Encyclicals, Apostolic Exhortations and World Communication Day addresses from 1967 to 2020. This included two phases. Firstly, texts were studied through a corpus linguistics software to identify and quantify the presence of terms that refer to mass media and new media technologies. Subsequently, an in-depth study around the evolution of the term "media" was conducted, including the selection and categorization of the term's correlated verbs and their ethical characterization.

Ocula, Sep 1, 2017

Questo articolo intende esaminare il significato della pratica di cancellazione dell'opera da par... more Questo articolo intende esaminare il significato della pratica di cancellazione dell'opera da parte dell'artista di strada come reazione ad un tentativo di museificazione. Partendo dal presupposto che la street art abbia, nella sua natura e nella sua storia, un rapporto conflittuale con l'autorità e dialogico con lo spazio urbano, l'articolo intende investigare limiti e criticità di tali relazioni. La massiccia opera di cancellazione dei murales di Blu a Bologna offre infatti, nella sua radicalità, un esempio totale. Che cosa ha scatenato tale reazione? Si può attribuire ad un simile "eccesso" un significato semplicemente politico? E se no, all'interno di quale sistema valoriale tale reazione trova la sua giustificazione? Tramite l'analisi di una delle più celebrate opere di Blu a Bologna, #OccupyMordor, cercherò di tracciare l'universo culturale dell'artista e mettere in evidenza come il tentativo di musealizzare le sue opere da parte delle istituzioni abbia potuto mettere in crisi definitamente una delicata forma di conflitto urbano. This article investigates the role and meaning of practices of erasure in contemporary Italian street art culture. Taking Blu's choice of cancelling all his graffiti in the city of Bologna as a case study, I will investigate the limits and possibilities of this artistic performance in both political and social terms. Given the antagonist yet dialogic and dynamic relationship that connects street artists, civic institutions and urban spaces, I will argue that practices of erasure are a key component of the particular form of communication occurring among these actors. Through the analysis of #OccupyMordor, one of Blu's most famous works, I will describe the relationship the author entertained with the city of Bologna highlighting, at the same time, the structural problems raised by institutional museification projects.

Visual Studies, 2017

Germany 1925: Ernst Friedrich, a young anarchist and anti-militarist activist, publishes one of t... more Germany 1925: Ernst Friedrich, a young anarchist and anti-militarist activist, publishes one of the first independent books composed only of photographs and captions: War against War! His stated goal is to employ classified pictures of the First World War (WWI) to unmask nationalistic propaganda and expose the false narratives of militaristic rhetoric. Published on the eve of the golden age of photojournalism, this book is the first grassroots attempt to use photography as a means of social and cultural change on a large scale. Through in-depth analysis of some key pictures, I will investigate the relation this series of images establishes with the beholder and the role it plays in shaping his visual experience. Emphasis will be placed on 24 close-ups of disfigured faces which constitute the last set of this visually driven narrative. As I will seek to demonstrate, the complex array of pictures created by Ernst Friedrich testifies to a fundamental yet still embryonic change in the social perception of photography in the post-WWI Europe.

New Media & Society, 2018

Since its formal approval, the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project raised public concern about ... more Since its formal approval, the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project raised public concern about environmental sustainability and security. Thanks to the systematic use of Internet and communication technologies (ICTs), the nonviolent resistance organized by the Sioux tribes of Standing Rock Reservation to oppose the planned construction rapidly attracted public attention. In view of their strategic use of online video-sharing for documentation and counter-surveillance purposes, this study aims at describing how diverse modes of user activity are triggered by two different forms of distant witnessing: online video and live streaming. To this aim, this study analyzes the user activity which took place on the Digital Smoke Signals Facebook page, one of the most widely followed information outlets of the NO DAPL movement. Findings suggest that online video and live streaming trigger different forms of connective activity. The highlighted differences reflect the ways in which synchronou...

The Communication Review, 2018

This study questions how religious webmasters view the objectives of their webcasting in relation... more This study questions how religious webmasters view the objectives of their webcasting in relation to pilgrimage. Findings uncovered four facets: (1) mediation of the holy sites and experience; (2) bonding between Holy Land communities and global believers; (3) cultivating agents; (4) media experiences as a pilgrimage surrogate. Drawing on Walter Benjamin, the study elucidates how online videos evoke proximity to the sacred, thus connecting holy sites and believers, while affirming webmasters as secondary actors of religious authority.

Information, Communication & Society, 2019

Recent research highlights the growth of alternative religious leadership on a global scale. In r... more Recent research highlights the growth of alternative religious leadership on a global scale. In response, social media have emerged as platforms to compete for religious primacy. Accordingly, the study asks how is online religious authority constructed, reaffirmed and implemented by religious organizations? We contend that through online means, religious organizations are nowadays working to construct a public image to spark charismatic attraction towards institutional leaders. To investigate, we developed a grounded study that captured the full Instagram production of Pope Francis' official account (429 images). Drawing on construal theory, findings demonstrated the strategic management of social, spatial, affective and hypothetical distance, simultaneously corresponding with uncovered facets: hierarchical positioning; geographical locales, haptic engagement, and leaders' visual focus. Thus, we suggest introducing a concept of image-mediated-charisma, and its theoretical framing through digital distance. Concepts that were observed in the religious realm yet can be extended and applied to political or cultural leaders.

Information, Communication & Society, 2017

ABSTRACT From the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to the Kaaba of Mecca, many religious sites are webca... more ABSTRACT From the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to the Kaaba of Mecca, many religious sites are webcasting in live-streaming. This study inquires how religious institutions act to shape users’ worldviews and negotiate meanings via live-streaming-mediated communication. Ethnographic fieldwork accompanied a case study of 25 in-depth interviews of the Canção Nova and the Franciscan Order’s recent media operation in the Holy Land. Findings uncovered three facets: (1) Evangelizing youth. (2) Establishing affinity towards the Holy Land. (3) Maintaining constant presence of the transcendental. Drawing on Walter Benjamin, proximity between believers and the divine via live-streaming is discussed and its implication for transforming the religious experience, establishing secondary authority in the Catholic world and propelling religious change in the information society.

Media, Culture & Society, 2017

This study examines the discursive and semantic patterns underpinning the collective mourning act... more This study examines the discursive and semantic patterns underpinning the collective mourning activity on the digital memorial for Aaron Swartz (hacker/software developer/activist). More specifically, it questions if and how online mourning for hacktivists might result in a cultural reconfiguration of cyberspace through the grassroots and collective redefinition of the limits of users’ agency. To this end, all the comments present on Swartz’s digital memorial are collected, coded and, subsequently, analysed to detect their narrative and semantic structures. The results of this linguistic analysis are interpreted through a topological information model. Accordingly, the study discusses (1) the hero-making processes underlying online mourning for hacktivists and (2) the related redefinition of the Internet as the domain of a value-based community of users.

International Journal of Communication, 2020

In recent years, online audiovisual communication has become a key medium to circulate religious ... more In recent years, online audiovisual communication has become a key medium to circulate religious content. Videos have become an emergent platform for religious movements to connect far-flung publics with foundational tenets of the faith. Given religious videos’ growing popularity, we focus on the centrality of holy places and ask, how do religious video makers construct the legitimacy and centrality of devotional sites via online videos? Investigating the entire production of a religious channel on Holy Land pilgrimage, and drawing on Umberto Eco’s theory of indexicality, the study uncovered how the online mediation of holy sites is constructed as legitimate through four interlocking facets: scriptural, experiential, journalistic, and ritual. Findings shed light on contemporary Catholic discourse regarding the biblical landscape and highlight the emergent practice of religious videos to not only supplement the religious experience but also to reengage users to historically well-esta...

Recently, users and religious entrepreneurs are expanding the meaning of authentic experiences of... more Recently, users and religious entrepreneurs are expanding the meaning of authentic experiences of faith to the digital realm. These innovators are challenging well-established forms of representation and authority for believers. Given these developments, we ask: how is the authentic relation to the divine negotiated by users through their engagement with digital technologies? Drawing on Boyd (2010) and Papacharissi (2014), this panel proposes that collective faith-based use of social networking sites (SNSs) can construct what we deem as a “religious networked public”. We contend that this public formation advances an online sense of imagined belonging by users, as well as restructures existent religious communities through socio-technological affordances. In this panel, we aim to present current data on ways of approaching traditional and established religious practices (i.e Hijaab head coverings, Catholic confession, Pilgrimage) as they are reorganized on internet tracts. Through t...

International Journal of Latin American Religions

In the last decade, macro religious institutions have undergone a process of digitalisation that ... more In the last decade, macro religious institutions have undergone a process of digitalisation that enabled them to incorporate Internet Communication Technologies in their organisational infrastructure. Stemming from digital religion scholarship, the research presented in this paper relate to a study of the philosophy and functioning of an innovative Catholic media enterprise called Christian Media Center (CMC). Based in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the CMC was established through the cooperation between the long-standing Franciscan Order and the technology-savvy Brazilian community of Canção Nova. Accordingly, this paper asks: which forms of interdenominational negotiation are involved in the functioning of the CMC? Drawing on interviews conducted during three years, this research will outline the process of internal negotiation required by the development of this Catholic new media project and propose possible directions for future research.

Semiotica

Today, the convergence of video-based Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs) is challenging c... more Today, the convergence of video-based Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs) is challenging centralized control over cultural topologies. Accordingly, this paper proposes a theoretical prism for the analysis of the sociopolitical impact of online audio-visual communication. More precisely, this study discusses how topological visibility (i.e. culture-based, highly centralized and spatially organized visibility structures) and networked visibility (i.e. occurrence-based, decentralized and network organized visibility structures) interact in today’s digital landscape. To this aim, four examples divided into two clusters will be discussed. The first cluster (i.e. Occupy Movement and BlackBerry Riots) will describe the functioning of topological visibility, while the second cluster (i.e. NO DAPL drone activism and Aleppo residents’ live-streaming) will illustrate how technology-enhanced mediability may create networked spaces of appearance. The paper concludes by arguing that networ...

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies

The rise of YouTube as a means of social struggle is progressively reshaping the relationship bet... more The rise of YouTube as a means of social struggle is progressively reshaping the relationship between macro-level international organizations and local actors who adopt media-based resistance strategies. Accordingly, this article addresses the following issue: how has the evolution and expansion of YouTube redefined the political relevance of viewership? To answer this question, the transforming role of the viewer will be examined through the comparison of diverse human rights videos which sparked national and international outrage. This comparison will shed light on how the development and transnational diffusion of new forms of online video-mediated communication have changed the social perception of everyday media practices and experiences. Ultimately, the recent use of camera-drones and live-streaming technologies will be discussed in relation to pioneering forms of collective digital witnessing and their implications in the contemporary political landscape.

Semiotica, 2019

Today, the convergence of video-based Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs) is challenging c... more Today, the convergence of video-based Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs) is challenging centralized control over cultural topologies. Accordingly, this paper proposes a theoretical prism for the analysis of the sociopolitical impact of online audio-visual communication. More precisely, this study discusses how topological visibility (i.e. culture-based, highly central-ized and spatially organized visibility structures) and networked visibility (i.e. occurrence-based, decentralized and network organized visibility structures) interact in today’s digital landscape. To this aim, four examples divided into two clusters will be discussed. The first cluster (i.e. Occupy Movement and BlackBerry Riots) will describe the functioning of topological visibility, while the second cluster (i.e. NO DAPL drone activism and Aleppo residents’ live-streaming) will illustrate how technology-enhanced mediability may create net-worked spaces of appearance. The paper concludes by arguing that networked visibility does not neutralize the relational nature of the human gaze but rather forces and expands the culturally-defined boundaries of its legitimate social existence.

The Making of Contemporary Papacy: Manufactured Charisma and Instagram, 2019

Recent research highlights the growth of alternative religious leadership on a global scale. In r... more Recent research highlights the growth of alternative religious leadership on a global scale. In response, social media have emerged as platforms to compete for religious primacy. Accordingly, the study asks how is online religious authority constructed, re-affirmed and implemented by religious organizations? We contend that through online means, religious organizations are nowadays working to construct a public image to spark charismatic attraction towards institutional leaders. To investigate, we developed a grounded study that captured the full Instagram production of Pope Francis’ official account (429 images). Drawing on construal theory, findings demonstrated the strategic management of social, spatial, affective and hypothetical distance, simultaneously corresponding with uncovered facets: hierarchical positioning; geographical locales, haptic engagement, and leaders’ visual focus. Thus, we suggest introducing a concept of image-mediated-charisma, and its theoretical framing through digital distance. Concepts that were observed in the religious realm yet can be extended and applied to political or cultural leaders.

New Media & Society, 2018

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

Problemi dell'informazione, 2019

Journal of Media and Religion

Ocula, Sep 1, 2017

Visual Studies, 2017

New Media & Society, 2018

The Communication Review, 2018

Information, Communication & Society, 2019

Information, Communication & Society, 2017

Media, Culture & Society, 2017

International Journal of Communication, 2020

International Journal of Latin American Religions

Semiotica

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies

Semiotica, 2019

Today, the convergence of video-based Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs) is challenging c... more Today, the convergence of video-based Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs) is challenging centralized control over cultural topologies. Accordingly, this paper proposes a theoretical prism for the analysis of the sociopolitical impact of online audio-visual communication. More precisely, this study discusses how topological visibility (i.e. culture-based, highly central-ized and spatially organized visibility structures) and networked visibility (i.e. occurrence-based, decentralized and network organized visibility structures) interact in today’s digital landscape. To this aim, four examples divided into two clusters will be discussed. The first cluster (i.e. Occupy Movement and BlackBerry Riots) will describe the functioning of topological visibility, while the second cluster (i.e. NO DAPL drone activism and Aleppo residents’ live-streaming) will illustrate how technology-enhanced mediability may create net-worked spaces of appearance. The paper concludes by arguing that networked visibility does not neutralize the relational nature of the human gaze but rather forces and expands the culturally-defined boundaries of its legitimate social existence.

The Making of Contemporary Papacy: Manufactured Charisma and Instagram, 2019

Recent research highlights the growth of alternative religious leadership on a global scale. In r... more Recent research highlights the growth of alternative religious leadership on a global scale. In response, social media have emerged as platforms to compete for religious primacy. Accordingly, the study asks how is online religious authority constructed, re-affirmed and implemented by religious organizations? We contend that through online means, religious organizations are nowadays working to construct a public image to spark charismatic attraction towards institutional leaders. To investigate, we developed a grounded study that captured the full Instagram production of Pope Francis’ official account (429 images). Drawing on construal theory, findings demonstrated the strategic management of social, spatial, affective and hypothetical distance, simultaneously corresponding with uncovered facets: hierarchical positioning; geographical locales, haptic engagement, and leaders’ visual focus. Thus, we suggest introducing a concept of image-mediated-charisma, and its theoretical framing through digital distance. Concepts that were observed in the religious realm yet can be extended and applied to political or cultural leaders.

New Media & Society, 2018

Published on Apr 11, 2016 No Country for Old Men is a 2007 movie directed, written, and edited by... more Published on Apr 11, 2016
No Country for Old Men is a 2007 movie directed, written, and edited by Joel and Ethan Cohen. Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. Its enigmatic title actually comes from the first stanza of William Butler Yeast’s poem "Sailing to Byzantium", first published in the 1928 collection The Tower.

This film has been defined as a “neo-western movie” a description which fits it well. Except perhaps that the term neo might suggest that the Western genre is dead and buried.

In this video, I am going to analyse No Country for Old Men from both a narrative and visual point of view. This analysis will allow us to understand the meaning of that ending which has been unjustly defined as disappointing, arbitrary, strained and soulless.

Il tema che affronteremo in questo articolo si colloca, in un certo senso, ai margini della teori... more Il tema che affronteremo in questo articolo si colloca, in un certo senso, ai margini della teoria classica delle passioni. Se da un lato il riferimento a tale modello d'analisi sarà pressoché costante, dall'altro la sua applicazione a dei testi contemporanei ci permetterà di mettere in evidenza alcuni problemi. Il primo decennio del nuovo millennio è stato infatti padrino di una grande quantità di produzioni artistiche che, sebbene assai eterogenee nelle forme espressive, trovano il loro trait d'union nel portare le marche dell'avvento di una profonda rivoluzione socioculturale. All'interno di un simile contesto la scelta di un case study proveniente dal mondo del cinema ci è sembrata particolarmente adeguata sia per la massiccia diffusione dei film permessa dalle nuove tecnologie che, più in generale, per l'importanza ricoperta dall'audiovisivo nella nostra società. Nel corso dell'analisi di Non è un paese per vecchi (Coen, 2007) cercheremo quindi d'individuare in primis quali problemi esso ponga al modello classico delle passioni e, a partire da questi, quali nuove ipotesi interpretative possano essere avanzate per rileggere un testo che, come altri della sua epoca, ci parla di una rottura radicale con il passato.

Proceedings of the 10th Congress of the International Association of Visual Semiotics AISV-IAVS 2012

Germany 1925: Ernst Friedrich, a young anarchist, publishes a book composed only of photos and c... more Germany 1925: Ernst Friedrich, a young anarchist, publishes a book composed only of photos and
captions: “War against War!” His goal is to employ the horrors of the war against the war itself,
against the false narratives of the militaristic rhetoric. The choice of using the photographic language
has a double purpose: on the one hand it allows the author to avoid the translation related problems
and, on the other hand, it was considered to be an intrinsically truthful medium. In this article I
analyze the structure of this visual route through the horrors of the war highlighting the peculiar
semantic dynamics which produce its unmasking effect. In particular I examine the inner structure of a
set of 24 close-up of disfigured faces which constitutes the last and the main section of the whole
sequence.

Proceedings of the International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference 2013

Aaron Swartz: a Different Kind of Hero. My paper aims to investigate the collective building pro... more Aaron Swartz: a Different Kind of Hero.
My paper aims to investigate the collective building process of the "Hero" in the contemporary
online environment. In a socio-semiotic perspective this peculiar actor is the one who represents an
entire community in front of itself. For this reason, defining the features of net-heroes could be
useful in order to describe an ongoing wide social change. Which skills characterize them? Which
moral values they represent? Who are their enemies? In order to seek an answer to these questions,
I'll analyze the contributions to the online memorial page of Aaron Swartz.
Aaron Swartz was a brilliant computer programmer, a hacker and a political activist. He was a
research fellow at Harvard University and actively involved in the development of Reddit, Creative
Commons and RSS. As an activist, he was co-founder of "Demanding Progress" and one of the
leaders of anti-SOPA protests. In July 2011 a federal grand jury charged him with 13 different
felonies for downloading and releasing for free 5 million academic journal articles. During the night
between the 10th and the 11th of January 2013, he committed suicide in his apartment in Brooklyn.
The death of Aaron represents, on different levels, a crucial point in the ongoing struggle for
freedom of knowledge and participation; the "Freedom to Connect", as Aaron used to call it. The
slippery slide of Mass Media Society in the Internet Age has produced a hybrid situation in which
two totally different communication and power systems coexist in a temporary precarious balance.
Mass Media and Online Media are based on two different technological structures which basically
produce different actors, identities, communities and, above all, practices. To be brief, online social
practices tend to produce and to rely on different semiotic systems. The ongoing effort of powerholders
to control the online environment is, as Aaron himself underlined, a sort of translation
effort: "There's a battle going on right now, a battle to define everything that happens on the internet
in terms of traditional things that the law understands..."
Aaron was one of the activists who truly believed in the rise of a new awareness among internet
users and in the ethical dimension of the struggle against capitalistic communication systems.
Distant form naive optimistic positions and in the meantime aware of the issues at stake, he
promoted the fight against those "powerful people who wanna clamp down on the Internet." His
suicide, closely related to his indictment, provoked a wide range of reactions. From Anonymous to
single academic scholars, a lot of different communities decided to honour his death. In particular,
his parents and his friends decided to open an online memorial place/page. Although the practice of
using personal pages as places to commemorate the death of a friend is rather usual, especially in
the social networks, in this case the website structure seems to suggest a monumental intent.
Nevertheless, the creation of this online monument is completely put in the hands of the users who
can leave a message on the endless scroll page.

Uploading memory: contrattare la storia sul sito di YouTube. Il mio intervento avrà come nucle... more Uploading memory: contrattare la storia sul sito di YouTube.

Il mio intervento avrà come nucleo centrale i nuovi processi identitari che si sviluppano sul sito di YouTube. Il manifestarsi di tali dinamiche, in paricolare per quanto riguarda le siutazioni di conflitto, chiama in causa e spesso rimette radicalmente in discussione sia la narrazione degli eventi contemporanei che la memoria del passato. Lo stesso fenomeno del conflitto, così come le dinamiche memoriali, culturali e identitarie ad esso collegate, sta subendo una profonda mutazione a vari livelli e, di fatto, si presenta oggi come un oggetto di studio la cui comprensione richiede una messa in discussione dei metodi classici d'indagine e rielaborazione dei dati. In particolare le recenti rivolte mediorientali hanno fatto emergere in maniera chiara la centralità del ruolo svolto dai social network e più in generale dalle diverse piattaforme multimediali online nella creazione e gestione di una narrazione complessa e condivisa che va progressivamente a sostituirsi alle tradizionali "versioni ufficiali".
All'interno di un simile panorama ritengo che l'approccio semiotico possa, dialogando con le discipline storiche, condurre a risultati interessanti in termini d'analisi e, contemporaneamente, contribuire all'elaborazione di un orizzonte teorico comune. Il multiforme materiale presente sui siti web ha infatti caratteristiche radicalmente nuove che ci obbligano, pena la futura impossibilità di gestire e archiviare tali fonti "in rete", a ripensare i metodi classici della ricerca storica.
A partire da queste domande cercherò di tratteggiare le principali caratteristiche del materiale prodotto dall'attività degli "youtuber" e, con l'aiuto di alcuni esempi provenienti dal conflitto del Kosovo, cercheremo di capire quali modalità d'approccio analitico possano risultare più efficaci.