Public denunciations occur on a global scale, but are also embedded in local cultural practices. Local grievances risk going viral, being decontextualized and diffused beyond the control of anyone initially involved. Mediated shaming brings cascading effects that risk unjust and disproportionate harm to those under scrutiny. This book addresses digitally mediated visibility, specifically the production of the ‘court of public opinion’ to denounce targeted individuals. It offers a conceptually driven mapping of mediated shaming, building on recent scholarship on surveillance, visibility and reputation, along with recent cases in public discourses. We consider the role of unaffiliated individuals, but also prominent content creators, media platforms as well as state involvement. These cover a range of cases in English-speaking, Dutch, Chinese and Russian contexts that includes responses to Covid-19, political polarisation, social justice movements, as well as in daily struggles among commuters. This book advances a cross-contextual and multi-actor account of practices like ‘cancel culture’, ‘doxing’ and ‘status degradation ceremonies’.

Televised men’s football (soccer) is a key source for entertainment reaching millions of people. It is also one of the most visibly mixed ethnic cultural practices. Numerous studies have shown how football journalists draw on a discourse of ‘enlightened racism’: Black footballers are associated with bodily qualities but not with domains that require intelligence. It remains unknown, though, how these discourses come about. We therefore need to shift the research focus towards the journalists who produce the football coverage. The research question guiding the project is: How do discourses of race/ethnicity play a role in televised football production and how are these discourses articulated at the nexus of televised football content and audience receptions? The vast majority of football journalists is white but little is known about the intersection of whiteness and the meanings journalists give to racial/ethnic diversity of players. The project will supplement a focus on the production process with an examination of televised football content and audience receptions This three-fold focus will provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of televised football in meanings given to race/ethnicity. This is especially relevant in current times when discussions about race/ethnicity dominate policy and media discourses. A combination of observations, interviews, content analyses and online discussions will be used. The study will be conducted across four European countries and is innovative in three ways: - The combination of content, production and reception in one project across different European countries gives important new theoretical insights. It does so through a focus on an important domain where discourses surrounding race/ethnicity are naturalized: televised football. - The project combines various methods and research fields within one study providing a new perspective for media researchers. - The project advances conceptual and empirical understanding of whiteness in media in a European context.

This application is to request funding for Professor Greg Elmer of Ryerson University to spend 6 weeks at Erasmus University department of Media and Communication. He will participate and respond to two ongoing projects, one of Daniel Trottier and the other of Jason Pridmore.

Public Safety is vital for the functioning of societies: Without safety there is no freedom, no happiness, and no prosperity. The public good of safety matters to all of us, and therefore needs to be jointly shaped and maintained by all societal partners. Data generated by multiple agents play an increasingly important role in the prevention, preparedness and mitigation of harm or disaster. The development of an ecosystem of trust regarding AI assisted public safety promotion is central to this ELSA Lab application. In a variety of use cases benefits and safeguards are analyzed against the private-public-machine agency backdrop.

In addition to benefits such as fun, convenience and efficiency, developments in mobile technologies also bring global privacy and surveillance challenges. The way users, organisations, and governments approach these challenges varies based on cultural norms around privacy. This project evaluates how mobile users in the Netherlands and the U.S. think about and make decisions about their privacy and personal data. The projects primary goal is to inform ways of thinking about privacy in the digital age, with an emphasis on tensions between privacy, disclosure, mobility and surveillance. Furthermore, this study highlights important implications for policy decisions regarding privacy.