tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique  

Ekaterina Petrovna Netchitailova

In this paper, based on the development of the ‘empathic’ badaud in France at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, I draw some parallels with a Facebook user. The experience of Facebook’s users is explored through the juxtap... see more

Jernej Amon Prodnik, Janet Wasko

This paper presents an interview with Janet Wasko. She is a Professor and Knight Chair in Communication Research at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication and widely considered as one of the key authors working in the tradition ... see more

Astrid Mager

This article conceptualizes “algorithmic ideology” as a valuable tool to understand and critique corporate search engines in the context of wider socio-political developments. Drawing on critical theory it shows how capitalist value-systems manifest in se... see more

Kane Xavier Faucher

The purpose of this article will be in reading acts of prosumer behaviour in social networking environments through a Veblenian lens, supported in part by the post-Marxist insights of Guy Debord, especially with respect to the issue of celebrity emulation... see more

Christian Fuchs

Social media has become a key term in Media and Communication Studies and public discourse for characterising platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Blogspot, Weibo, Pinterest, Foursquare and Tumblr. This paper discu... see more

Nicholas Garnham, Christian Fuchs

This tripleC contribution is based on a  research seminar that took place at the University of Westminster on January 22, 2014. It featured a conversation with Nicholas Garnham that was chaired by Christian Fuchs. We publish here both the audio-recording ... see more

Jernej A. Prodnik

The main goal of this paper is to conceptualize a seeping commodification. The author of the paper claims we are in the midst of a considerable qualitative transformation in the processes of commodification that is, in large part, owed to an overwhelming ... see more

Artur Matos Alves

Jacques Ellul's thoughts on the increasingly conspicuous role of persuasion techniques bring to the fore the persuasive and normative effects of new communication techniques at the core of contemporary consumer/citizen culture, as well as the limits of th... see more

Peter Ludes, Winfried Nöth, Kathrin Fahlenbrach

The studies selected for publication in this special issue on Critical Visual Theory can be divided into three thematic groups: (1) image making as power making, (2) commodification and recanonization, and (3) approaches to critical visual theory. The app... see more

Fernando Andacht

Is it possible or plausible to represent horror and evil persuasively or authentically in these internet-multi-distributed times? And how can we account for a vast, belligerent reaction of public opinion when the representation of horror or evil is watche... see more

Rodrigo Ferrada Stoehrel, Simon Lindgren

The focus of this paper is on different but connected areas of power – relating to things such as economic globalisation, surveillance, censorship/freedom, ‘terrorism’ and/or specific military activity – visually represented through online media, and inte... see more

Stefka Hristova

A meme, conceived as the cultural equivalent of the biological gene by Richard Dawkins, spread through culture like a virus – quickly and widely. Its viral power is in turn understood as product of nature, rather than culture – or rather as threatening to... see more

Keval Joseph Kumar

The roots of popular visual culture of contemporary India can be traced to the  mythological films which D. G. Phalke provided audiences during the decades of the ‘silent’ era (1912-1934).  The ‘talkies era of the 1930s ushered in the ‘singing’ /musical g... see more

Nathalie Casemajor

Since 1948, the Government Press Office of Israel has been collecting and producing an extensive archive of photographs representing the birth and development of the Israeli nation state. Digitized and published online, this archive functions as a visual ... see more

Matthew P. McAllister, Lauren J. DeCarvalho

This article applies the “male consumer gaze” – integrating work influenced by Erving Goffman and Laura Mulvey – to two branded televised events: the 2011 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and the 2012 Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant. Critiqued elemen... see more

Joaquin Zerené Harcha, Paula Cardoso Pereira

Digital technologies have profoundly transformed the process of production and transmission of visual information and images. From a critical perspective on visual culture this article proposes an analysis of low-resolution digital images, here treated as... see more

Lynete Lusike Mukhongo

New media platforms, particularly social networks act as vehicles for visual representation of a nation’s political discourse among the youth. Web 2.0 has created online spaces (private and public) that have been appropriated by Kenyan youth, locally, and... see more

Jianxiu Hao

Beneath the “Chinese successful story”, social stratification, class polarization, and cultural displacement have been accelerated. The Chinese Communist Party has not found a coherent solution to the challenges of reconciling social interests, since Comm... see more

Michel Bauwens, Vasilis Kostakis

Two prominent social progressive movements are faced with a few contradictions and a paradox. On the one side, we have a re-emergence of the co-operative movement and worker-owned enterprises which suffer from certain structural weaknesses. On the other, ... see more

Stefan Meretz

This article is a critical reflection on Michael Bauwens and Vasilis Kostakis’ paper “From the Communism of Capital to Capital for the Commons: Towards an Open Co-operativism” (tripleC 12 (1): 356-361)

Scott Timcke

This article plots the complex historical interplay between state formation and militarized technology. What emerges is a portrayal of distributional consequences of particular means of rule and particular modes of warfare. I apply this framework to the N... see more

Jakob Rigi

This article agrees with Meretz (2014) that the peer producing cooperatives which are proposed by Bauwens & Kostakis (2014) will become parts and parcels of the capitalist economy. Further, it argues that the so called Peer Production Licenses (PPL), orig... see more

Christos Boikos, Konstantinos Moutsoulas, Charalambos Tsekeris

Social media, as the heart of Web 2.0, is a relatively novel theoretical notion and social phenomenon, pertaining to a long series of academic subjects, such as digital culture, virtual communication, e-democracy, technological convergence, and online int... see more

Christian Fuchs

Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century has resulted in a sustained political and academic debate about capitalism in the 21st century. This article discusses the relevance of the book in the context of Karl Marx’s works and the politica... see more