The social shaping of media technologies´ multiple uses: the case of Mídia NINJA in Brazil

in: Information, Communication & Society 23 (2), 288-303

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1500623
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How can we explain the multiple uses that media organizations make of media technologies across the world? This paper proposes a hybrid conceptual framework that synthesizes ideas from the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse with science & technology studies concepts (i.e., script and technological frame) in order to emphasize the importance of policy and organizational discourses in shaping multiple uses of media technologies by media organizations. We apply the conceptual framework to study the case of Mídia NINJA, a Brazilian alternative media that gained popularity due to its innovative coverage of the 2013 riots in the country through collaborative practices and digital media technologies. Based on interviews and participant observation, we found that policy discourses to change the media structure influenced in time the discourse and practices of this alternative media in Brazil, leading to new uses of digital media technologies unintended by its designers. Thereby illustrating the importance of discourses to shape within certain boundaries the multiple uses of media technologies.

About the author

Hornidge, Anna-Katharina

Development and Knowledge Sociology

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