Expanded places: Redefining media and violence in the networked age

Abstract

This article focuses on the relationship between violence and visibility as redefined by the combined action of warfare and networked communications technologies. Drawing on an ethnography of Syrian popular culture conducted at the theme park the Damascene Village, it proposes the concept of ‘expanded places’ to reflect on sites that have been physically violated, while at the same time they have been granted a new online life as a result of the manipulation and redistribution of their images on Web 2.0. The article investigates the dynamic of expansion by relating it to key practices that define internet participatory cultures, such as remixing; and to the theoretical framework of remediation, proposing to repurpose the latter in a networked media context. It discusses expansion in relation to the performance of violence, and reflects on the implications of involving the participatory dimension of Web 2.0 in replicating the latter.

Keywords

Arab Spring Bab al hara conflict digital cultures internet media Middle East popular culture Syria violence Web 2.0

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