This article develops a political economy of Indymedia practice. After reviewing other current approaches to the Indymedia phenomenon, democratic media activism, and traditions of dissent, I draw upon Pierre Bourdieu's unique sociological perspective to offer an analysis of the Ontario Independent Media Centre as a website of social struggles against neo-liberalism. This study reveals that Indymedia practice is a simultaneously structured and spontaneous form of collective media work on the margins of the political and journalistic fields. Whether such experiments in democratic communication will survive and develop will depend on whether Indymedia centres can become more central to the educational field.Résumé : Cet article développe une économie politique des pratiques propres aux « Indymedia » (médias indépendants en ligne). Après avoir passé en revue d'autres approches courantes de ce phénomène, du militantisme médiatique démocratique et des traditions de contestation, j'utilise la perspective sociologique singulière de Pierre Bourdieu pour analyser comment le site Internet du Centre de média indépendant d'Ontario aide à lutter contre le néolibéralisme. Cette étude montre que les pratiques Indymedia sont une forme de travail média-tique collectif à la fois structuré et spontané qui existe à la lisière des champs politiques et journalistiques. La survie et le développement de ces expériences en communication démocratique ne sont pas assurées, cependant, et dépendront de la capacité des centres Indymedia à occuper une place plus centrale dans le domaine éducatif.
This article argues that Maurizio Lazzarato’s (2014) book Signs and Machines: Capitalism and the Production of Subjectivity is useful for apprehending the employment of contract faculty. After setting the scene of the university, I examine the mixed semiotics of the York University budget. I then look inside CUPE Local 3903’s history and politics, and focus on the video This Is Contract Faculty Time: York Faculty in Support of Contract Faculty. In the next section I describe how mixed semiotics operates at the bargaining table. Finally, I review the outcome of collective bargaining with respect to job security, political action, and truth-telling. This case of academic labour struggle shows that semiotization and subjectivation need to be better understood. I conclude with some remarks on challenges, academic freedom, and ways of reforming the faculty employment system.Cet article soutient que Signs and Machines: Capitalism and the Production of Subjectivity (« Signes et machines : le capitalisme et la production de la subjectivité », 2014) de Maurizio Lazzarato est utile pour comprendre le travail des enseignants intérimaires. Après avoir décrit la situation actuelle à l’université, je considère la sémiotique mixte du budget de York University. J’examine ensuite l’histoire et la politique du Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique, section locale 3903, ainsi que le vidéo This Is Contract Faculty Time: York Faculty in Support of Contract Faculty (« C’est le moment de parler des enseignants intérimaires : le corps professoral de York à leur appui »). Dans la section suivante, je montre comment la sémiotique mixte peut aider à mieux comprendre la table de négociation. Enfin, j’évalue les résultats de la négociation collective par rapport à la sécurité d’emploi, l’action politique et l’honnêteté. Cette lutte pour le travail académique montre qu’on a besoin de mieux comprendre la sémiotisation et la subjectivation. Je conclus par quelques remarques sur les défis, la liberté académique et quelques façons de réformer le système d’emploi pour le corps professoral.
This article presents a case study of a televised encounter between representatives of the fields of television, journalism, and academic media study. The article moves from a description of what was, and could be, said during Moses Znaimer's A Colloquium on TVTV to an analysis of invisible fields of cultural production and their effects.
This essay develops a technocultural studies approach to political elections and polling. First, I shift our attention from polling as a cultural form to developments in polling technology that are transfi guring this form. I then examine the production and circulation of political opinion during the 2004 and 2006 Canadian elections in order to expose the limits of the media's criticism of polling and to contend that published preelection polls contribute to the formation of suspicious subjects. I go on to argue that political campaign communication is open to information accidents so that politicians get elected not just because of what they
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