Journal Articles by Aya Yadlin
Media, Culture & Society, 2021
Israel, traditionally known as a nation-in-arms, has been undergoing processes of securitization ... more Israel, traditionally known as a nation-in-arms, has been undergoing processes of securitization and militarization from its inception to the present day. While several countries have employed surveillance technologies to tackle the spread of coronavirus, Israel was the only country in the world to authorize its internal security agency to track citizens' cellphones to deal with this civil-medical crisis. Employing a reflexive thematic analysis to news media outlets, this study examined coverage of Israel Security Agency (ISA) surveillance by four leading Israeli news sites, inquiring into the socio-cultural imageries, and motifs that informed their reports. While two of the sites were mostly supportive and the other two were critical, the coverage as a whole was informed by national security imageries reminiscent of Israel's nation-in-arms tradition. Our discussion contextualizes these findings within a three-decade tension that has prevailed in Israeli society and culture between securitization/militarization and democratization/ demilitarization.
This study focuses on nationality and ethnicity in the context of diaspora and media studies. By ... more This study focuses on nationality and ethnicity in the context of diaspora and media studies. By exploring the ways members of the Persian community in Israel (migrants from Iran to Israel) negotiate their ethnic Persian identification, I discuss the unique role online spaces play in the community's cultural, political, and social life. I draw on the case study to propose the term "Lived Ethnicity" as a digitally mediated identity construction process that works towards sociopolitical inclusion on two levels. First, as a user-based participatory process, this type of self-articulation pushes against cultural and political oppressions on a local-national level, within dominant oppressive discourses of nationality. Second, as a process performed via global online platforms, this type of self-articulation becomes a unique catalyst for communal expressions that are based on trans-national cultures and identifications. The study's novelty is its focus on the ways online platforms allow ethno-national minorities to both subvert oppressive national structures and maintain them, all while taking part in global political and cultural discussions that were relatively closed to them thus far.
This study explores global journalistic discussions of deepfake applications (audiovisual manipul... more This study explores global journalistic discussions of deepfake applications (audiovisual manipulating applications based on artificial intelligence (AI)) to understand the narratives constructed through global coverage, the regulatory actions associated with these offered narratives, and the functions such narratives might serve in global sociopolitical contexts. Through a qualitative-interpretive narrative analysis, this article shows how journalists frame deepfakes as a destabilizing platform that undermines a shared sense of social and political reality, enables the abuse and harassment of women online, and blurs the acceptable dichotomy between real and fake. This phenomenon is tied to discussions of dis/misinformation, manipulation, exploitation, and polarization in the media ecosystem these days. Based on these findings, the article then provides broader practical and theoretical insights about AI content regulation and ethics, accountability, and responsibility in digital culture.
The purpose of this article is to highlight important research-related ethical issues and provide... more The purpose of this article is to highlight important research-related ethical issues and provide researchers with guiding questions for producing ethical research of digital contexts. We also suggest that research ethics can be understood as a bridge between the seemingly distinct subfields across digital media studies. The article discusses three empirical case studies that reflect three main subfields and three research methodologies-ethnography and cultural media studies, critical discourse analysis and digital humanities, and user experience (UX) methods and mobile media studies. These cases critically engage with three main ethical issues related to digital media research: privacy, ownership, and compensation. Based on the ethical dimensions discussed through the three case studies, the article inductively articulates a set of questions pertaining to research data and to the relationship between the researcher and the user/participant of digital media. These can help facilitate more scholarly collaborations and wider conversations between academic silos in the field of digital media studies, and lead an ethical internet research.
This article focuses on selfies and empowerment of individuals with physical disabilities. By exp... more This article focuses on selfies and empowerment of individuals with physical disabilities. By exploring the #FSHDselfies campaign as a case study, I discuss the role affect plays in mediated advocacy for the representation of non-normative bodies, allowing disabled individuals to gather as a community and disrupt contemporary beauty standards. I draw on the case study to re-articulate the term " community of affect " (Climo, 2001) as the socio-political structure that promotes marginalized groups' negotiation of collective identity and communal action geared towards cultural, social, and political change. This community can be seen as a subsection or a specific discursive space categorized under " affective publics " (Papacharissi, 2014). I show in this context how participatory forms of representation open a space for negotiation and criticism of marginalized groups on the one hand, while oversimplifying the complex and diverse lives of minority groups on the other hand.
This article explores social media users' circulation of a Twitter hashtag #IranJeans as it refle... more This article explores social media users' circulation of a Twitter hashtag #IranJeans as it reflects a complex transnational dialogue about Iranian identity markers in a globalized mediascape. By conducting a thematic analysis of 140 tweets and photos shared under #IranJeans, this study draws attention to the ways in which social media provide users a unique space to address global political discourse, reconstruct their identities, and refute cultural misconceptions on a transnational level. The study presents this transcultural dialogue as an " affirmative opposition, " focusing on identity construction processes that simultaneously critique and rearticulate existing cultural binaries. This, in turn, expands the discussion of identity construction from older generations of mass media to new, online, media platforms.
This article reviews digital methodologies in the context of
digital religion. We offer a tripod ... more This article reviews digital methodologies in the context of
digital religion. We offer a tripod model for approaching digital
methods: (a) defining research within digital environments, (b)
the utilization of digital tools, and (c) applying unique digital
frames. Through a critical review of multiple research projects,
we explore three dominant research methods employed within
the study of digital religion, namely, the use of textual analysis,
interviews, and ethnography. Thus, we highlight the opportunities
and challenges of using digital methods.
Bellar, W., Campbell, H.A., Cho, J., Terry, A., Tsuria, R., Yadlin-Segal, A., and Ziemer, J. (2013). Reading Religion in Internet Memes. Journal of Religion, Media & Digital Culture, 2(2).
Book Chapters by Aya Yadlin
Yadlin-Segal, A. (2015). Communicating Identity through Religious Internet Memes in the "Tweeting... more Yadlin-Segal, A. (2015). Communicating Identity through Religious Internet Memes in the "Tweeting Orthodoxies" Facebook Page. In: H. Campbell (Ed.), Digital Judaism: Jewish Negotiations with Digital Media and Culture (pp. 110-124). Routledge.
Encyclopedia Entries by Aya Yadlin
Book Reviews by Aya Yadlin
Uploads
Journal Articles by Aya Yadlin
digital religion. We offer a tripod model for approaching digital
methods: (a) defining research within digital environments, (b)
the utilization of digital tools, and (c) applying unique digital
frames. Through a critical review of multiple research projects,
we explore three dominant research methods employed within
the study of digital religion, namely, the use of textual analysis,
interviews, and ethnography. Thus, we highlight the opportunities
and challenges of using digital methods.
Book Chapters by Aya Yadlin
Encyclopedia Entries by Aya Yadlin
Book Reviews by Aya Yadlin
digital religion. We offer a tripod model for approaching digital
methods: (a) defining research within digital environments, (b)
the utilization of digital tools, and (c) applying unique digital
frames. Through a critical review of multiple research projects,
we explore three dominant research methods employed within
the study of digital religion, namely, the use of textual analysis,
interviews, and ethnography. Thus, we highlight the opportunities
and challenges of using digital methods.