Journal articles on the topic 'Human ecology Bangladesh Public opinion'

This paper will explore child health care and treatment seeking behavior of villagers and presents factors that discourage them from using public health facilities. The perspective of human health is not only stay behind in the contact between the disease and the human body and the extermination of the demon by providing few medicines rather it is a complex web where multiple factors are affecting human to live a sound life. The environment has a diverse effect on human life: some indulge humans with it extravaganza while some impose serious theaters but one thing in common, every environment shares basic problems of acquiring and allocating space, food, energy and resources for health. Haor people have endless problems to meet, starting from food to basic human rights. Maintaining a healthy life does end up with some formality of going to some popular and folk treatment though going to professionals is rare. Government and non-Governmental organizations have a variety of scope to improve the situation by providing health infrastructure, awareness building measures, eradicating superstition and including health education in the school curriculum.

ABSTRACTVibrio cholerae, an environmental organism, is a facultative human pathogen. Here, we report the virulence profiles, comprising 18 genetic markers, of 102 clinical and 692 environmentalV. choleraestrains isolated in Bangladesh between March 2004 and January 2006, showing the variability of virulence determinants within the context of public health.

Forecasts based on epidemiological modelling have played an important role in shaping public policy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This modelling combines knowledge about infectious disease dynamics with the subjective opinion of the researcher who develops and refines the model and often also adjusts model outputs. Developing a forecast model is difficult, resource- and time-consuming. It is therefore worth asking what modelling is able to add beyond the subjective opinion of the researcher alone. To investigate this, we analysed different real-time forecasts of cases of and deaths from COVID-19 in Germany and Poland over a 1-4 week horizon submitted to the German and Polish Forecast Hub. We compared crowd forecasts elicited from researchers and volunteers, against a) forecasts from two semi-mechanistic models based on common epidemiological assumptions and b) the ensemble of all other models submitted to the Forecast Hub. We found crowd forecasts, despite being overconfident, to outperform all other methods across all forecast horizons when forecasting cases (weighted interval score relative to the Hub ensemble 2 weeks ahead: 0.89). Forecasts based on computational models performed comparably better when predicting deaths (rel. WIS 1.26), suggesting that epidemiological modelling and human judgement can complement each other in important ways.

Growing concern for the world’s shark and ray populations is driving the need for greater research to inform conservation management. A change in public perception, from one that we need to protect humans from sharks to one where we must protect sharks from humans, has added to calls for better management. The present paper examines the growing need for research for conservation management of sharks and rays by synthesising information presented in this Special Issue from the 2010 Sharks International Conference and by identifying future research needs, including topics such as taxonomy, life history, population status, spatial ecology, environmental effects, ecosystem role and human impacts. However, this biological and ecological research agenda will not be sufficient to fully secure conservation management. There is also a need for research to inform social and economic sustainability. Effective conservation management will be achieved by setting clear priorities for research with the aid of stakeholders, implementing well designed research projects, building the capacity for research, and clearly communicating the results to stakeholders. If this can be achieved, it will assure a future for this iconic group, the ecosystems in which they occur and the human communities that rely on them.

Object and purpose of research. The object of the research is the influence of the world power industry on the ecology and safety of human and nature. The purpose is to identify ways of energy industry development based on the basic criterion of "harmony with nature". Materials and methods. Analysis of regulatory documents, literature, Internet sources, calculation systematization and classification of statistical data. Main results. A convincing evidence base has been provided for the vector of world power engineering development based on the active replacement of hydrocarbons by nuclear energy. Conclusion. Conclusion. Global warming and the energy crisis are just around the corner, and only nuclear power can solve these problems, providing humanity's increasing energy needs in harmony with nature. The main question today is not related to technology, but to psychology. The task is to systematically form public opinion about the safe operation of nuclear power.

Ecological and environmental problems have become increasingly prominent in recent years. Environmental problems represented by haze have become a topic that affects the harmonious ecology of human beings. The trend of this topic is on the rise. People’s perception of the environment after the impact of haze has also changed. A real-time grasp of the dynamic public environment perception of emotions is often an important basis for environmental management departments to effectively solve environmental problems through public opinion. This article focuses on the problem of the public perception of emotional changes, which is caused by fog and hazy weather, proposes an environmental emotion perception model, using Weibo comment data about fog and haze as environmental perception data, and analyzes the impact of fog and haze on the public in four seasonal time dimensions. The post-environment perception of emotion changes: the results show that in spring, the public’s environmental perception of emotions is mainly negative emotions at the beginning of the season; in summer, positive emotions become dominant emotions; in autumn, the public’s environmental perception of emotions is dominated by negative emotions that increase substantially; and in winter, the dominant environmental perception of emotions of the public is still negative. This theory provides support for research on social emotions and public opinion behavior.

Based on an author’s survey of citizens living in different countries, the hypothesis of low demand for the public good «clean environment» for developing countries and for high demand – for developed countries was tested. The attitude of representatives of different nations to the environment as a public good was studied based on the results of a survey of 564 respondents from different countries (228 from Ukraine and 336 from abroad). k-means method was used for clustering, which allows the creation k-groups from a set of data. It was determined that the respondents of the 1st cluster are more satisfied than others with the level of personal awareness of the state of the environment in their countries than the respondents of the 2nd cluster. Most of the population in all surveyed groups receives information about the environmental situation from the Internet. Representatives of both clusters are aware of environmental human rights at the average level (65-75%). Representatives of both clusters are ready to take an active part in solving environmental problems, but among the representatives of the 1st cluster there are much more people who know about the existence of international environmental organizations. Only about half of the respondents from both clusters believe in the threat of a global environmental crisis. Representatives of the 2nd cluster and Ukrainians see the greatest threat to the environment in the transport and manufacturing spheres, while representatives of the 1st cluster pay considerable attention to other factors. Approximately the same number of respondents in both clusters acknowledge that corruption affects the environment. The situation in the survey on the destructive impact of financial-industrial groups on the environment is similar. About 90% of respondents in the 1st cluster and over 95% of Ukrainians consider environmental protection a public good, while in the 2nd cluster only 75% hold a similar opinion. The analysis of the survey results confirms the hypothesis about the sociality of the choice of the public good «clean environment», important for the design of environmental policy tools in the long run. Underestimation of the public good «clean environment» indicates a potentially weak public pressure to form a model of economic policy that corresponds to the modern understanding of sustainable development.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) constitute a global problem, affecting aquatic ecosystems, human health, fisheries and local economies. The Bay of Bengal, along the Bangladesh coast, is exceedingly suffering from pollution or anthropogenic nutrification that influences frequently occurring HAB species. The progression of climate change and eutrophication invigorate HAB trends and responses that in turn affect the respective coastal livelihood and economic growth. Tripos spp., Dinophysis spp., Protoperidinium spp., Chaetoceros spp., and Pseudo-nitzschia spp. are the common bloom-forming HAB species in the coastal waters of Bangladesh. Despite having huge potentiality for regional and global perspectives, the coastal region of Bangladesh remains relatively unexplored compared to other regions in the context of HABs and their pernicious effects. As a result, harmful algal blooms and the accumulation of algal toxins may interrupt fisheries, aquaculture, aquatic ecosystems and public health in the country. Therefore, proper research on the biology and ecology of harmful algae, biotoxins and their relationship with environmental factors need to be adequately understood to minimize their adverse effects on the noted marine resources of the Bay. This review focused on an overview of the HAB related issues – causes of HABs, their occurrences and abundances, associated environmental factors and adverse effects in the coastal zone of Bangladesh.

Modern man, community, and humanity as a whole have become apprehensive about their future. Globally, there is a particular concern about the paradoxical tying of the Gordian knot, which is essentially triggered by contradictions caused by antagonistic problems in the fields of ecology, demography and economics. There are several ways to overcome the challenge that the world and man face. Firstly, radical, when one of the spheres is given in for the sake of one or two others. Secondly, the systematic distraction of the masses from critical issues. Thirdly, alternative, the shift of attention from popular methods and means of solving the current critical problems in favor of non-linear ones, i.e. those related to unconventional views on a given problem and approaches to its solution. Understanding of the human situation can lead to some encouraging results by means of focusing attention of the significant majority of the humankind represented by the so-called leaders of public opinion. Basically, under given circumstances, the principle, according to which real change starts with the people themselves, their intention to change, will be effective. In this case, in contrast to violence, coercion, manipulation, bribery and blackmail, the modus operandi of maintaining social interaction will be responsibility, meaningfulness, respect, a sense of proportion and tact.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic represents a massive impact on human health, causing sudden lifestyle changes, through social distancing and isolation at home, with social and economic consequences. The aim of the study was to determine both of community and gender-based distribution of perception, attitude, preventive measures, changing lifestyle regarding COVID-19 and to help the Government and policymakers to take indispensable steps. This cross-sectional survey self-administered online-based study was carried out after the declaration of strict initial lockdown enforced in Bangladesh. The study was conducted in Rajshahi district from 30 March 2020 to 31 August 2020, a very critical time of mental suffering and lockdown. A total of 651 respondents from Rajshahi district in Bangladesh participated in the survey, and by a self-administered questionnaire, designed in the language of English. Among the collected responses, 535 were considered for the analysis, which largely belonged to Rajshahi’s middle to upper socio-economic status (SES). The data analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel 2019 and SPSS version 25.0 (Chicago, IL, USA). The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistic, chi-square test and z-proportional test. In this empirical study, 278 males and 257 females participated. More than one-tenth of males and 35% of females were not conscious of the type of Coronavirus. A lot of misperception about the incubation period of COVID-19 existed among participants. The research observed that 34.2%, of males and 25.3% of the female study population had no opinion about the treatment of COVID-19 and 27.3% of males and 21.8% of females gave a verdict that COVID-19 had no available treatment. The study discovered more surprisingly that females (67.3%), greater than males (65.5%) did not want to stay at home during the lockdown. Positively 87.8% of males and 70.4% of females washed their hands with soap or used sanitizer after coming back from outside. The consumption of a balanced diet increased by males and females was 13.3% and 6.7% respectively. Z-proportional test showed that regarding COVID-19, there were significant difference between male and female’s conception and precaution (p<0.0001). The study has used the first-time data based on the population’s lifestyle and eating habits during the COVID-19 lockdown, which will give assistance to the policy makers to develop the situation. J Bio-Sci. 30(1): 33-48, 2022 (June)

The article deals with the problems belonging to the scientific field of social ecology, which is the branch of sociological knowledge. In particular, issues of the state of the city environment and public opinion regarding ecological problems are considered, on the example of the city of Dnipro. The basic methodological principles of research: the principle of co-evolution and the key positions of structuralist constructivism. On the basis of a thorough analysis of scientific sources, the definition of the environment of the human being is operationalized as a space consisting of the components: the biosphere, technosphere and artificial space (physical) - a place (city, village), housing, as well as a society represented by three levels: socio-etal (culture , political power), institutional (institutions of society, unifying statuses and roles of individuals) status-role. It is established that public opinion is highly concerned about the environmental situation of the environment, however, environmental values are far from the first place in the status-hierarchical structure of social values, which impedes the ecologization of social practices and the institutionalization of environmental interests. According to the results of a sociological survey of residents of the city, it was established that among the existing environmental problems in the city leaders are: pollution of water bodies; atmospheric air pollution; deterioration of drinking water quality; the state of garbage dumps. It was clarified that the effects of the representation of the ecology of the spatial organization of the city are in a state of awareness both from the side of society and the authorities. The emphasis is on key principles and actors in solving environmental problems of the city.

The causative agent of cholera, Vibrio cholerae, has been shown to be autochthonous to riverine, estuarine, and coastal waters along with its host, the copepod, a significant member of the zooplankton community. Temperature, salinity, rainfall and plankton have proven to be important factors in the ecology of V. cholerae, influencing the transmission of the disease in those regions of the world where the human population relies on untreated water as a source of drinking water. In this study, the pattern of cholera outbreaks during 1998–2006 in Kolkata, India, and Matlab, Bangladesh, and the earth observation data were analyzed with the objective of developing a prediction model for cholera. Satellite sensors were used to measure chlorophyll a concentration (CHL) and sea surface temperature (SST). In addition, rainfall data were obtained from both satellite and in situ gauge measurements. From the analyses, a statistically significant relationship between the time series for cholera in Kolkata, India, and CHL and rainfall anomalies was determined. A statistically significant one month lag was observed between CHL anomaly and number of cholera cases in Matlab, Bangladesh. From the results of the study, it is concluded that ocean and climate patterns are useful predictors of cholera epidemics, with the dynamics of endemic cholera being related to climate and/or changes in the aquatic ecosystem. When the ecology of V. cholerae is considered in predictive models, a robust early warning system for cholera in endemic regions of the world can be developed for public health planning and decision making.

Dengue is the most common mosquito-borne, viral disease in the world. Dengue virus is a single stranded positive polarity RNA virus, belongs to the family Flaviviridae. It is transmitted through the bite of an infected female mosquito of Aedes species - mainly the species Aedes aegypti and, to a lesser extent, Aedes albopictus. This mosquito also transmits Chikungunya, Zika and Yellow fever viruses.1-4 There are 4 distinct, but closely related, serotypes of the virus (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4). Recovery from infection by one serotype provides heterotypic or cross-immunity to the other serotypes. This is only partial and temporary, lasts only a few months, but homotype immunity is lifelong. For this reason, a person can be infected with a dengue virus as many as four times in his or her lifetime. Subsequent infections (secondary infection) by other serotypes increase the risk of developing severe dengue.1-5 The fifth variant DENV-5 has been isolated in October 2013. DENV-5 has been detected during screening of viral samples taken from a 37 year old farmer admitted in a hospital in Sarawak state of Malaysia in the year 2007.6 The first record of a case of probable dengue fever reported in a Chinese medical encyclopedia from the Jin Dynasty (265–420AD).The first recognized dengue epidemics occurred almost simultaneously in Asia, Africa, and North America in the 1780s, shortly after the identification and naming of the disease in 1779. The first confirmed case report dates from 1789 and is by Benjamin Rush, who coined the term "breakbone fever" because of the symptoms of myalgia and arthralgia.7 Haemorrhagic dengue was first recognised in the 1950s during dengue epidemics in the Philippines and Thailand. 8 The incidence of dengue has grown dramatically around the world in recent decades. A vast majority of the cases are asymptomatic and hence the actual numbers of dengue cases are underreported and many cases are misclassified. Dengue is common in more than 100 countries around the globe, with its endemicity in Asia, the Pacific, Africa and the Latin American countries. Forty percent of the world’s population, about 3 billion people live in the areas with a risk of dengue. Annually, some 400 million people get infected with dengue, with an occurrence of 100 million clinically apparent infections, and 22,000 die from severe dengue across the globe. The increasing incidence, severity and frequency of dengue epidemics are linked to trends in human ecology, demography and globalisation, and may have been influenced by climate change. 8,9 In Bangladesh, dengue occurred sporadically since 1964.10 Literature shows, the first documented case of dengue like fever occurred in 1964, popularly known as "Dacca fever" which later on serologically proved as dengue fever.11 Bangladesh has been experiencing episodes of dengue fever in every year since 2000. All four serotypes have been detected, with DENV-3 predominance until 2002.12,13 After that, no DENV-3 or DENV-4 was reported from Bangladesh. During 2013-2016, DEN2 was predominant followed by DEN-1 in circulation. Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control & Research (IEDCR) predicted that as the serotypes DENV-3 and DENV-4 are in circulation in the neighbouring countries, they may create epidemics of secondary dengue in the near future in Bangladesh.14 In 2017, reemergence of DENV-3 was identified; subsequently there was a sharp rise in dengue cases from the beginning of the monsoon season in 2018.15 In 2000, dengue attacked 5,551 individuals and the number of deaths was 93. Since 2003, the death rate has declined gradually, with zero fatalities in subsequent couple of years, but a devastating turn with 10,148 cases and 26 deaths in 2018. In 2019, during January to July, number total cases were 18,484, with 57 deaths.16 Directorate General of Health Services conducts periodical (Pre-monsoon, Monsoon and Post- monsoon) Aedes survey to estimate the vector density of the mosquito. The monsoon survey (18-27 July 2019) of 100 sites of 98 wards in Dhaka city both North and South revealed that the number of adult aedes mosquito was increased by 13.52 folds, in compare to the pre-monsoon (3-12 March 2019) survey.17 The aedes larvae were also increased by 12.5 folds in this period. Breteau Index (BI) was considered in the study. Report shows that the BI was more than 20 in 57% and 64% of total wards in Dhaka North and Dhaka South respectively. Furthermore, in terms of House Index (HI) or percentage of houses infested, 75% and 83% of total wards in North and South city respectively having HI more than 5.17 Furthermore, recent studies show that mosquitoes have grown resistant, and how certain insecticides are completely ineffective against them.18 Considering the situation, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has taken commendable steps including training on case management for nurses and doctors across the country, review of the national guidelines on case management, expansion of dengue services along with increasing bed capacities in hospitals, strengthened mass awareness with special attention to the school children and the community people, ensuring availability of dengue diagnostic kits, diagnostic services at free of cost in public health facilities and fixed and reduced rate in private sectors, strengthening collaboration with city corporations, municipalities and other agencies both in public and private sectors and development partners. Prevention and control of dengue in Bangladesh, is not a sole responsibility for any single ministry and or its agencies. It needs effective and timely coordination, collaboration and partnership, among all the concerned ministries and their agencies, led by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Furthermore, strengthening of the existing efforts including capacity building and resource mobilisation, and integrated surveillance, sustainable vector control, optimum and active community participation, and adequate monitoring and periodic evaluation throughout the year across the country, considering it an endemic disease, are strongly recommended. Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2019; 45: 66-68

Anthropologists have mediated between discriminated communities and outsiders, helping to influence public opinion through advocacy work. But can anthropological advocacy be applied to the case of violence against nonhumans? Ethical inquiries in anthropology also engage with the manifold ways through which human and nonhuman lives are entangled and emplaced within wider ecological relationships, converging in the so-called multispecies ethnography, but failing to account for exploitation. Reflecting on this omission, this article discusses the applicability of engaged anthropology to the range of issues from the use of nonhumans in medical experimentation and food production industry, to habitat destruction, and in broader contexts involving violence against nonhumans. Concluding that the existing forms of anthropological engagement are inadequate in dealing with the massive scale of nonhuman abuse, this article will suggest directions for a radical anthropology that engages with deep ecology, animal rights, animal welfare, and ecological justice.

Considering the probable health risks due to radioactivity input via drinking tea, the concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th,40K and 137Cs radionuclides in the soil and the corresponding tea leaves of a large tea plantation were measured using high purity germanium (HPGe) γ-ray spectrometry. Different layers of soil and fresh tea leaf samples were collected from the Udalia Tea Estate (UTE) in the Fatickchari area of Chittagong, Bangladesh. The mean concentrations (in Bq/kg) of radionuclides in the studied soil samples were found to be 34 ± 9 to 45 ± 3 for 226Ra, 50 ± 13 to 63 ± 5 for 232Th, 245 ± 30 to 635 ± 35 for 40K and 3 ± 1 to 10 ± 1 for 137Cs, while the respective values in the corresponding tea leaf samples were 3.6 ± 0.7 to 5.7 ± 1.0, 2.4 ± 0.5 to 5.8 ± 0.9, 132 ± 25 to 258 ± 29 and <0.4. The mean transfer factors for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K from soil to tea leaves were calculated to be 0.12, 0.08 and 0.46, respectively, the complete range being 1.1 × 10−2 to 1.0, in accordance with IAEA values. Additionally, the most popularly consumed tea brands available in the Bangladeshi market were also analyzed and, with the exception of 40K, were found to have similar concentrations to the fresh tea leaves collected from the UTE. The committed effective dose via the consumption of tea was estimated to be low in comparison with the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) reference ingestion dose limit of 290 μSv/y. Current indicative tea consumption of 4 g/day/person shows an insignificant radiological risk to public health, while cumulative dietary exposures may not be entirely negligible, because the UNSCEAR reference dose limit is derived from total dietary exposures. This study suggests a periodic monitoring of radiation levels in tea leaves in seeking to ensure the safety of human health.

Eastern brownsnakes (Pseudonaja textilis) are large (to 2 m), slender, dangerously venomous elapid snakes that cause significant human mortality. We recorded the responses of free-ranging brownsnakes to 455 close encounters with a human observer, using 40 snakes implanted with miniature radio-transmitters, plus encounters with non-telemetered animals. Our study area (near Leeton in south-eastern Australia) is typical of many of the agricultural landscapes occupied by P. textilis. Contrary to public opinion, the snakes were rarely aggressive. About half of the encounters resulted in the snake retreating, and on most other occasions they relied on crypsis. Snakes advanced towards the observer on only 12 occasions (<3% of encounters) during initial approach, and only three of these advances were offensive. The snakes’ responses to an approach depended on the observer’s appearance (e.g. snakes were more likely to ignore an observer wearing light rather than dark shades of clothing) and behaviour (e.g. snakes were more likely to advance if approached rapidly, and touched immediately). Snakes were more likely to retreat if they were sub-adult rather than adult, if they were warm, or if they had been moving prior to an encounter. Weather conditions (air temperature, wind velocity and cloud cover) also influenced the snakes’ responses, as did season and time of day. The snakes’ response was relatively predictable from information on these factors, enabling us to suggest ways in which people can reduce the incidence of potentially fatal encounters with brownsnakes. ‘Snakes are first cowards, next bluffers, and last of all warriors’ (Pope 1958)

Целью статьи является всесторонний анализ роли молодежных сообществ в развитии человеческого капитала на базе образовательных организаций. Научной новизной выступает формирование базиса методики выработки молодежной политики и ее последующей реализации в части регулирования деятельности указанных объединений на базе образовательных организаций с целью обеспечения развития человеческого капитала с использованием наиболее эффективных практик. Новизна исследования заключается в синтезе функциональных границ деятельности молодежных организаций и выявлении актуального вектора развития указанных форм студенческой активности в качестве якорного драйвера социально-экономического роста. Возврат к модели единой молодежной организации, какой была организация комсомола в прошлом, маловероятен, поскольку данная идея не найдет отклика среди молодежи и будет противоречить современным общественным устоям. Молодежные общественные организации на современном этапе могут реализовывать свою деятельность в самых разнообразных направлениях: спорт, творчество, экология, патриотизм. Политические трансформации современной России сформировали новое поколение российской молодежи, отличием которой является разобщенность и, как следствие, расколотость на различные социальные и экономические группы, эффективное взаимодействие между которыми зачастую ограничено. Так, социальная составляющая функционирования студенческих организаций, способствующая непосредственному становлению личности, сегодня не находит полноценного отражения. Именно поэтому вопрос организации деятельности студенческих молодежных объединений нуждается в детальной проработке, которая должна включать анализ опыта осуществления программ по объединению молодежи на базе образовательных организаций и моделей реализации различных векторов социальной политики. В статье рассматриваются модели кооперации представителей молодежи на базе образовательных организаций, а также исследуется мнение представителей данной группы населения, касающееся текущих условий формирования, функционирования и обеспечения молодежных организаций и объединений в рамках Финансового Университета при Правительстве Российской Федерации. В результате анализа даны методические рекомендации по дальнейшему развитию студенческих организаций с учетом специфического мнения их участников. The purpose of the article is a comprehensive analysis of the role of youth communities in the development of human capital on the basis of educational organizations. The scientific novelty is the formation of a basis for the methodology for developing youth policy and its subsequent implementation in terms of regulating the activities of these associations on the basis of educational organizations in order to ensure the development of human capital using the most effective practices. The novelty of the study is to synthesize the functional boundaries of the activities of youth organizations and identify the actual vector of development of these forms of student activity as an anchor driver of socio-economic growth. A return to the model of a single youth organization, as the Komsomol organization was in the past, is unlikely, since this idea will not find a response among young people and will contradict modern public foundations. Youth public organizations at the current stage can realize their activities in a wide variety of directions: sports, creativity, ecology, patriotism. The political transformations of modern Russia have formed a new generation of Russian youth, whose distinction is disunity and, as a result, split into various social and economic groups, the effective interaction between which is often limited. Thus, the social component of the functioning of student organizations, contributing to the direct formation of the person, today does not fully reflect. That is why the issue of organizing the activities of student youth associations needs a detailed study, which should include an analysis of the experience of implementing programs to unite youth on the basis of educational organizations and models for implementing various vectors of social policy. The article considers models of cooperation between youth representatives on the basis of educational organizations, and also examines the opinion of representatives of this group of the population regarding the current conditions for the formation, functioning and provision of youth organizations and associations within the framework of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. As a result of the analysis, methodological recommendations for the further development of student organizations were given, taking into account the specific opinion of their participants.

The mass media in the sphere of work include the production of information, communication, and the creation of public opinion in all areas of social life, including the areas that belong to the social and natural sciences, where ecology also belongs. They have become the basis for initiating social action in the field of environmental protection, which is necessary for the existence of raised ecological awareness, which is also expressed through knowledge about the threat to the balance in biodiversity and nature. The protection and preservation of biodiversity, as a significant part of the human environment, deserves more attention from the mass media, but also from the members of a social community. A modern man lives in an era of information abundance. It on many occasions disorients the modern consumer. For these reasons, a person, who already lives in a kind of "new media order", is recommended to adopt fundamental knowledge about the so-called media literacy, as well as biodiversity protection. This paper considers how the mass media should influence the raising of environmental awareness in the field of biodiversity conservation, taking into account all the dynamics and drama of information technology development and emerging forms of environmental and biodiversity threats.

Caribou ( Rangifer tarandus (L., 1758)) play a central role in the ecology and culture of much of Canada, where they were once the most abundant cervid. Most populations are currently declining, and some face extirpation. In southern Canada, caribou range has retreated considerably over the past century. The ultimate reason for their decline is habitat alterations by industrial activities. The proximate causes are predation and, to a lesser extent, overharvest. The most southerly populations of “Mountain” caribou are at imminent risk of extirpation. Mountain caribou are threatened by similar industrial activities as Boreal caribou, and face increasing harassment from motorized winter recreational activities. Most populations of “Migratory Tundra” caribou are currently declining. Although these caribou fluctuate in abundance over decades, changing harvest technologies, climate change, increasing industrial development and human presence in the North raise doubts over whether recent declines will be followed by recoveries. The Peary caribou ( Rangifer tarandus pearyi J.A. Allen, 1902), a distinct subspecies endemic to Canada’s High Arctic, has suffered drastic declines caused by severe weather, hunting and predation. It faces an increasing threat from climate change. While some questions remain about the reasons for the decline of Migratory Tundra caribou, research has clearly identified several threats to the persistence of “Boreal”, Mountain, and Peary caribou. Scientific knowledge, however, has neither effectively influenced policies nor galvanized public opinion sufficiently to push governments into effective actions. The persistence of many caribou populations appears incompatible with the ongoing pace of industrial development.

Abstract There is ongoing public debate about the best course of action to take when wildlife are affected by oil spills. Critics of wildlife rehabilitation suggest that the cleaning and release of oiled animals is a waste of resources focused on individual animals (not populations); thus, the most responsible course of action is to immediately euthanize affected animals. These critics claim that survival of rehabilitated animals is poor, and that the funds spent on rehabilitation would benefit wildlife more if spent on other conservation efforts. In this opinion piece, with a focus on birds, we review reasons for engaging in a coordinated response to oiled wildlife that includes cleaning and rehabilitation. The reasons for responding to oiled wildlife in any capacity include ethical, human safety, and legal aspects. Our rationale for proposing that responders attempt to rehabilitate wildlife, rather than planning on immediate euthanasia, includes financial, scientific, and additional ethical reasons. Financially, costs for wildlife rehabilitation are typically a very small portion of overall oil-spill response costs, and are typically independent of postspill enforcement and funds used to restore injured natural resources. Scientifically, we review recent studies that have shown that animals cleaned and rehabilitated after oil spills can often survive as well as nonoiled control animals. Ethically, some people would consider individual animals to have intrinsic value and that we, as consumers of petroleum products, have an obligation to reduce suffering and mitigate injuries associated with such accidents. For these reasons, we suggest that, although humane euthanasia should always be considered as an option for animals unlikely to return to normal function after rehabilitation, response to oil spills should include a coordinated effort to attempt wildlife rehabilitation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented demand on the global healthcare system. Remarkably, at the end of 2021, COVID-19 vaccines received approvals for human use in several countries worldwide. Since then, a solid base for response in the fight against the virus has been placed. COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective drugs. Nevertheless, all kinds of vaccines may be associated with the possible appearance of neurological complications, and COVID-19 vaccines are not free from neurological side effects. Neurological complications of COVID-19 vaccination are usually mild, short-duration, and self-limiting. However, severe and unexpected post-vaccination complications are rare but possible events. They include the Guillain-Barré syndrome, facial palsy, other neuropathies, encephalitis, meningitis, myelitis, autoimmune disorders, and cerebrovascular events. The fear of severe or fatal neurological complications fed the “vaccine hesitancy” phenomenon, posing a vital communication challenge between the scientific community and public opinion. This review aims to collect and discuss the frequency, management, and outcome of reported neurological complications of COVID-19 vaccines after eighteen months of the World Health Organization’s approval of COVID-19 vaccination, providing an overview of safety and concerns related to the most potent weapon against the SARS-CoV-2.

Status and diversity of animals are the important indicators for a healthy habitat of animals. We conducted a survey on ecology and status of herpeto-mammalian fauna from November 1995 to October 1996 in the Padma river and its adjacent areas, Rajshahi. To achieve the objectives direct field observation and interviewing local people were made by employing standard methods. A total of 50 species of herpeto-mammalian fauna was recorded from the study area. Of these, 5(10%) were amphibians, 20 (40%) reptiles and 25 (50%) mammals. In the amphibians, 3 species were common, rest one species was fairly common and one few. In the reptiles, 5 species were very common, 4 common, 7 fairly common, 3 few and only one species was occasionally found. Of the mammals, 2 species were very common, 5 common, 10 fairly common, 6 few and 2 species were occasional. Among the total species, 3 species of amphibians were vulnerable nationally, 4 species of reptiles were critically endangered, 4 endangered and 4 vulnerable and one species of mammals were critically endangered (Lutra lutra), 6 endangered and 4 species were vulnerable nationally. Group discussion with the local people indicated that species diversity of herpetomammalian fauna has been decreased day by day in the study area. This might be due to the results of highly disturbance by human. Meanwhile, increase of human population, destruction of habitat, expansion of agricultural activities, illegal hunting and trade are the main causes for declining herpeto-mammalian fauna in the study area. The study suggests that creation of public awareness, improvement of ecological condition and implementing a management action plan are necessary to conserve the herpeto-mammalian fauna in the study area DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjz.v40i1.12903 Bangladesh J. Zool. 40(1): 135-145, 2012

The development of national and international biotechnology law in the context of new constitutional priorities, threats and challenges to life, public health and safety, is one of the current and yet under-researched topics in the scientific legal literature. Unfortunately, pro-gress in the life sciences is proceeding faster than the legal thinking that should accompany them. Breakthroughs in biology and medicine dictate the corresponding development of law, which today unfortunately lags chronically behind, resulting in gaps and contradictions between existing legal norms. As contemporary researchers have noted, and as is also evident in judicial practice, the issues of regulating the objects of bio-law - the body, life, procreation, self-identification, and ecology - mirror the contradictions of our society. The need to legally regulate the application of biotechnology has led to the formation of bioclaw as a new, integrated set of laws and, in the long term, as a branch of law of a new generation. As a response to the rapid introduction of advances in biotechnology into human life, we believe that bio-law must take into account the benefits and challenges associated with the impact of new technologies on the human body that may fundamentally alter the human condition as a physical individual. In this case, ethical issues, i. e. the requirements of bioethics, lead to a reflection on the content of bioethics in contemporary democracies and legal states. In particular, the introduction of technologies associated with gene editing, cloning, surrogacy, transplantation medicine, sex reassignment surgeries and other interventions into human nature, the consequences of which are not fully understood and threaten the physical and mental health of individuals, can cause irreparable harm to the spiritual, social, moral and ethical foundations of individuals, families, society, states and humanity as a whole. In our opinion, in the next few decades, bio-law will emerge as a global, integrated branch of law that simultaneously incorporates the norms of international law and national law. The main purpose of bio-law as a new branch of law is to counteract the global threat to humanity which consists in the emergence of a trend toward mass, large-scale changes to human nature and its unique natural qualities through the use of biotechnological advances. Therefore, the object of regulation and, accordingly, protection by this branch of law is not only the individual, his or her physical and spiritual health, but humanity as a whole, current and future generations. The uniqueness of bio-law as a new branch of law also lies in the fact that the individual, humanity, present and future generations are both the objects and subjects of law. The integrated nature of bioprinciples is manifested in the close connection of public and private interests with the obvious predominance of the public significance of their legal norms.

The topic "Community Perception Towards Sehat Sahulat Programe (Ssp) Availed By Families In Union Council Thand Koi, Tehsil & District Swabi" is a significant effort to assess the socioeconomic and demographic status of the patients in Peshawars public hospitals and to learn about the facilities offered by public hospitals in the Sehat Sahulat Program (SSP). The current study was conducted in the district and tehsil Swabi, Village Council Kaddi, to investigate public opinion about the SSP programme in Swabis public and private hospitals. Village Council Kaddi, district and tehsil Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, was the focus of the research. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample size of 50 respondents from the study population. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The studys findings revealed that patients were satisfied after treatment, that the hospital has a strict security system, and that registration for the Sehat Sahulat Program (SSP) is simple and easy to do, despite the fact that there is a large crowd in the registration area.

A problem of the notion natural science education (NSE) exists (English Science; Russian Естествознание /Естественнонаучное образование/, природоведение, окружающий мир, latvian Dabaszinatniskâ izglitiba/Dabas maciba, German Naturwissenschaft, French Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre, Norwegian Naturvitenskap/naturfag etc.). The concept is not properly and appropriately defined and this is a future task of didactics. On the other hand, in discussion on primary school this concept is not very suitable. Therefore, less complicated concepts basically defining natural science education such as The World Science, Me and the World, Nature and Human Being, Environment Study, We and the World, etc. are frequently applied. The most frequent and widely used term in Lithuania is natural science education. In the Lithuanian language – gamta (nature) + mokslas (science) + ugdymas (education) make one compound „gamtamokslinis“ and together with a term „ugdymas“ – „gamtamokslinis ugdymas“. Analogically the term is built in the Latvian language – daba (nature) + zinâtne (science) + izglitiba (education) – „dabaszinatniskâ izglitiba“. It should be emphasized that the present day educational terminology holds many obscurities. It is difficult to precisely choose an equivalent of the term in English. Researchers are expected to work hard as adjusting terminology is a very complex job in this field. I suppose that the explanation of the concept of natural sciences in a broad sense is logical. The concept „natural science education“ is the most appropriate in this context. The present natural science knowledge is related to the processes taking place in technical and social life, in the fields of ecology, health service, hygiene, demography, natural resources, etc. From this point of view, a term „natural science and technology education“ /NSTE/ seems to be reasoned today. The researchers’ communities have even certain problems in the field (for example, they have different attitudes towards natural science education and its place in the system of general education). In our opinion, natural science education is a field of social sciences (primarily educology). Public society approach to natural science education (general needs, general level of culture, traditions in the light of interaction with nature, the need to have society and the young generation of a privileged natural science background, etc.), its optimal conditions of implementation (the standards of natural science education and material, human, etc. resources undertaking their success), the development of the needs and motivation of nature study (in a broad sense) (improving the need to perceive nature throughout all studies in comprehensive school, enhancing cognitive relation with nature, etc.), natural science results: knowledge, abilities, relations (studying natural sciences, etc.) are the crucial components of natural science education. Secondary comprehensive education is the only stage for the young generation creating an opportunity to receive fundamental systemic natural science-technological education. Received NSTE (natural science-technological education) for the majority will be the only form to acknowledge this field as they will not have such a possibility for many reasons in the future. Having assessed the produced and expected changes of the educational system it is essential to stress that natural science education feels a lack of attention in the structure of the educational system (formal, informal). Key words: science education, concept, structure, technology education.

Resumen:El trabajo que presentamos trata de contemplar como la erosión del sistema representativo de partidos políticos ha deteriorado gravemente la confianza de los ciudadanos en su efectividad y responsabilidad, hasta el extremo de que nuevos movimientos sociales y políticos propugnen retornar a modelos de democracia directa. Defendemos aquí que ello no es posible, ni deseable precisamente en un momento en el que los nuevos medios técnicos hacen más posible que nunca la aparición de populismos articulados sobre bases tecnológicas que son de una extraordinario peligro para las democracias del siglo XXI. Para ello estudiamos algunas de las ideas centrales de la democracia representativa y de la democracia directa, poniéndolas en conexión con elpoder que las nuevas tecnologías como el Big Data, la propaganda cognitiva electoral y otras técnicas de comunicación electrónica virtual están desplegando sobre nuestras modernas democracias de opinión. Tratamosde poner en evidencia algunos de sus riesgos más relevantes sugiriendo, también, algunos instrumentos para mejorar la siempre perfectible tanto como necesaria democracia representativa, basada en partidos políticos más responsables donde el mandato imperativo de partido sea atemperado por instituciones como el Recall de cada vez mayor uso en el marco del Derecho Constitucional comparado. Aspectos como el rediseño de la privacidad forman parte, brevemente, de la investigación ya que en una ecología de nuevos medios técnicos de procesamiento de la información sólo una intensificación normativa del respeto de la privacidad puede ser la única estrategia de contención de un futuro que sin ella afectaría gravemente a la dignidad humana.Summary:1. A democracy of excessively discontinuous exercise 2. The new media as mirrors where formal democracy reflects. 2.1 Direct democracy and representative democracy, the insufficiency of an unveiled fiction. 2.2. Citizens in advanced democracy wish to participate. 2.3. From a class society to a classified society, the role of big data, 2.3.1. The psychometric profiles, 2.3.2. Electoral cognitive advertising and microtargeting. 2.4 Powers private public powers. 3. The new forms of communication include new ways of participation and control as the recall. 4. Political parties have deteriorated the confidence of citizens in democracy.Abstract:The work that we present tries to contemplate how the erosion of the representative system of political parties has seriously deteriorated the confidence of the citizens in their effectiveness and responsibility, to the extent that new social and political movements propose to return to models of direct democracy. We argue here that this is neither possible nor desirable at a time when the new technical means make more possible than ever the emergence of populisms articulated on technological bases that are an extraordinary danger for the democracies of the 21st century. To this end, we study some of the central ideas of representative democracy and direct democracy, linking them to the power that new technologies such as Big Data, electoral cognitive propaganda and other virtual electronic communication techniques are deploying on our modern democracies of opinion. We try to highlight some of its most relevant risks, suggesting also some instruments to improve the always perfectible as much as necessary representative democracy based on more responsible political parties where the imperative party mandate is tempered by institutions like the Recall at a time greater use within the framework of comparative Constitutional Law. Aspects such as the redesign of privacy are briefly part of the research since in an ecology of new technical means of information processing, only a normative intensification of respect for privacy may be the only strategy to contain a future that without It would seriously affect human dignity.

The Natural City: Re-Envisioning the Built Environment.Edited by INGRID LEMAN STEFANOVIC and STEPHEN BEDE SCHARPER. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. $35.00Reviewed by Madison Van WestEditors Ingrid Leman Stefanovic and Stephen Bede Scharper believe that there is something unnatural about our cities, but not for the reasons you might think. It is not the concrete, or the high-rises, or the cars—at least not necessarily. Our cities are unnatural because individuals within them lack a sense of place. They lack a spiritual connection to the built environment, and they lack an understanding that our cities are as much a part of the ecological system as trees and meadows. The task of The Natural City: Re-Envisioning the Built Environment is to begin the work of reconnecting the urban to the natural so that individuals might live more fulfilling and sustainable lives. It is an essential read for anyone involved in city-building, or for city-dwellers looking to gain a new perspective on their role in the urban environment.Each of the volume’s four sections takes a different theoretical approach to “natural city.” The first section lays the philosophical groundwork for the reader to better understand the natural/urban divide and the pervasive sense that cities are somewhere other than nature, as are the humans that live within them. This viewpoint is an appropriate starting place for the collection, and a theme that runs throughout, as it informs how we approach environmental issues generally and how we build our cities specifically. Technocracy and expert opinion reigns in planning and architecture, usually at the expense of meaning and purpose within our urban spaces that responds to our needs as human beings. Peter Timmerman, in his chapter, is not surprised by this separation, as our literary and philosophical history has been preoccupied with the urban and human mastery over the natural for some time.In the second section, we see that temples, mosques, churches, and other sacred spaces are not the only built forms imbued with spiritual meaning. In the natural city, the entire city would reflect and respond to the spiritual needs of its inhabitants. This does not presume a single cosmological understanding shared by all, but instead a common understanding that the city is more than its physical composition. Vincent Shen explains that this is logical for Daoists, who view the Dao as being embodied in the way we create and navigate cities. In his chapter, Stephen Scharper argues that religion is not a necessary element of this shift. He cites Aldo Leopold’s land ethic as means to facilitate this ideological shift in urban planning to focus on the integrity of the biotic community rather than solely the human community. This perspective is, in my view, among the most important contributions to literature on urban planning, which is notably lacking in discussions of religion and spirituality in the built environment.The third section focuses on the role of society in the natural city, both as creator and inhabitant, with an eclectic group of authors whose connection to one another is not always readily apparent. For example, Richard Oddie’s work on acoustic ecology and soundscapes in cities bumps up against Trish Glazebrook’s ecofeminist approach to engaging the cityzenry (her term to distinguish residents of a city vs. residents of a nation). This section also offers an international perspective through John B. Cobb, Jr.’s case study of China and Shubhra Gururani’s of India, which describes the challenges of sustainable development and the impact of development on society’s ability to access the necessities of life, respectively. The chapters in this section may appear dissimilar, but they find common ground in themes of politics, citizenship, quality of life, and urban development.To close, the final section considers praxis, or the linking of theory and practice in building the natural city. William Woodsworth makes explicit the fact that the City of Toronto is built on the land of Aboriginal communities, and their legacy remains in both the artifacts still under the ground and the modern architecture that channels the spirit of the city’s former inhabitants. Complementing this historical approach, Robert Mugerauer writes of city-building that reflects ecological systems within nature; healthy cities with clean air and soil and thriving watersheds. Above all, this section highlights the fact that cities are always changing, and it is our responsibility to guide that change in a way that reflects the human need for creativity, the biological need for adaptability, and the need for all life to thrive into the future.Though only a few chapters were mentioned above, it is clear that this collection is truly interdisciplinary; offering works in the field of philosophy, anthropology, theology, engineering, architecture, and more. This breadth exposes readers to many fields of study that may not always be in communication with each other. The virtues of interdisciplinary learning have been widely espoused, especially in environmental studies, but in this context it is especially important, as the task of creating the natural city will involve the collaboration of entire societies. The collection also manages the challenge of discussing complicated concepts in clear language, successfully balancing a depth of analysis and accessibility of concepts.So, what does the natural city look like, and how do we get there? In the end, the answer is not explicitly clear. What is clear from the collection is that to discover the natural city requires a paradigm shift; a change in thinking that will compel individuals to view urban environments not as cold or devoid of life, but instead as natural spaces full of inherited spirit, meaning, and potential. This collection starts the dialogue on reintegrating the natural with the urban; an essential topic for the survival of human and non-human alike. ~MADISON VAN WEST is a Masters in Environmental Studies and Planning Candidate at York University. She is currently working to uncover new forms of public involvement and community engagement in city building.

Climate change induced sea-level rise (SLR) is on its increase globally. Regionally the lowlands of China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and islands of the Malaysian, Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos are among the world’s most threatened regions. Sea-level rise has major impacts on the ecosystems and society. It threatens coastal populations, economic activities, and fragile ecosystems as mangroves, coastal salt-marches and wetlands. This paper provides a summary of the current state of knowledge of sea level-rise and its effects on both human and natural ecosystems. The focus is on coastal urban areas and low lying deltas in South-East Asia and Vietnam, as one of the most threatened areas in the world. About 3 mm per year reflects the growing consensus on the average SLR worldwide. The trend speeds up during recent decades. The figures are subject to local, temporal and methodological variation. In Vietnam the average values of 3.3 mm per year during the 1993-2014 period are above the worldwide average. Although a basic conceptual understanding exists that the increasing global frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones is related with the increasing temperature and SLR, this relationship is insufficiently understood. Moreover the precise, complex environmental, economic, social, and health impacts are currently unclear. SLR, storms and changing precipitation patterns increase flood risks, in particular in urban areas. Part of the current scientific debate is on how urban agglomeration can be made more resilient to flood risks. Where originally mainly technical interventions dominated this discussion, it becomes increasingly clear that proactive special planning, flood defense, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and flood recovery are important, but costly instruments. 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Rapid urbanization rates impact significantly on the nature of Land Cover patterns of the environment, which has been evident in the depletion of vegetal reserves and in general modifying the human climatic systems (Henderson, et al., 2017; Kumar, Masago, Mishra, & Fukushi, 2018; Luo and Lau, 2017). This study explores remote sensing classification technique and other auxiliary data to determine LULCC for a period of 50 years (1967-2016). The LULCC types identified were quantitatively evaluated using the change detection approach from results of maximum likelihood classification algorithm in GIS. Accuracy assessment results were evaluated and found to be between 56 to 98 percent of the LULC classification. The change detection analysis revealed change in the LULC types in Minna from 1976 to 2016. Built-up area increases from 74.82ha in 1976 to 116.58ha in 2016. Farmlands increased from 2.23 ha to 46.45ha and bared surface increases from 120.00ha to 161.31ha between 1976 to 2016 resulting to decline in vegetation, water body, and wetlands. The Decade of rapid urbanization was found to coincide with the period of increased Public Private Partnership Agreement (PPPA). Increase in farmlands was due to the adoption of urban agriculture which has influence on food security and the environmental sustainability. The observed increase in built up areas, farmlands and bare surfaces has substantially led to reduction in vegetation and water bodies. The oscillatory nature of water bodies LULCC which was not particularly consistent with the rates of urbanization also suggests that beyond the urbanization process, other factors may influence the LULCC of water bodies in urban settlements. Keywords: Minna, Niger State, Remote Sensing, Land Surface Characteristics References Akinrinmade, A., Ibrahim, K., & Abdurrahman, A. (2012). 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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the human rights dimensions of COVID-19 responses in Bangladesh through a viewpoint methodology in four critical areas: freedom of opinion and expression; access to information; protection of health-care workers; and marginalized populations’ access to health care. However, these responses remain non-aligned with the international human rights law obligations of Bangladesh, which undermines the human rights and dignity of its population. Based on the responses shaping and aggravating the situation, this paper concludes with some recommendations, which can be helpful for Bangladesh for better human rights responses in these areas, should a parallel situation emerge in the future. Design/methodology/approach This paper scrutinizes the human rights dimensions of COVID-19 responses in Bangladesh through a viewpoint methodology. Findings The responses of Bangladesh remain non-aligned with international human rights law obligations of Bangladesh, which undermines the human rights and dignity of its population. Originality/value This paper concludes with some recommendations, which can be helpful for Bangladesh for better human rights responses in these areas, should a parallel situation emerge in the future.

In this era of modern technologies, our social life is surrounded by various electronic devices and pieces of equipment. These generated electromagnetic fields and cause electromagnetic radiation. As a result, modern technologies are one of the major sources of electromagnetic pollution. Human-made electromagnetic pollution is far greater and powerful than the radiation made from any natural electromagnetic fields source. Electromagnetic pollution is becoming more serious by the day, due to the rapid advancement of electronic technology and especially by the mobile phone base transmitter stations (BTS). As a result, many countries have paid attention to it, and it has been added to the list of public hazards that must be addressed through an effective regulatory framework. In that context, the objective of this paper is to find the cause of electromagnetic pollution in Bangladesh, measuring the impact and providing recommendation for effective regulation to mitigate the pollution.

Abstract Aim To report possible academic experiences as strategic contributions to help manage reservoirs ensuring multipurpose uses. Methods In this opinion article, we point out and discuss academic activities that are usually developed to assess environmental studies in reservoirs. Results Experience shows that various contributions can be highlighted in reservoir management, as well as direct contributions for decision-making of the environmental authorities involved, such as: i) development of experimental procedures to solve specific problems; ii) sampling planning activities; iii) analysis, integration and synthesis of data; iv) qualification of human resources, etc. It is important to mention that all academic activities reported in this article are potentially publishable in scientific journals (knowledge areas: environmental management, limnology, sanitation, public health and aquatic ecology). Conclusions According to the related activities, we identified strong academic orientation (water quality determination, greenhouse gas inventories and water quality simulation using mathematical models, aquatic macrophyte decomposition and growth experiments) for reservoir management.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between quality education and human resource management practices of faculty supervisor’s support, job autonomy and working condition in the private universities. Specifically, how does the working atmosphere in the private universities in Bangladesh play a mediating role in the links between faculty supervisory support and job autonomy toward excelling quality education? Design/methodology/approach To answer this question, a theoretical framework using the strategic contingency theory as its basis was established. Data (n = 515) were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings The findings of the study indicate that faculty supervisor’s support and working condition have significant positive relations with quality education and the working condition has an important mediating role in the links between supervisor’s support, job autonomy and quality education in the private universities in Bangladesh. Research limitations/implications First, the study used faculty as respondents from only 19 private universities in Bangladesh where more than 100 universities are in active operation at present. Second, the study included only top-ranking private universities and ignored other low-grade local private universities ranked by the university grant commission and they should be included in the study. Third, this study did not include public universities in the survey. Fourth, only two antecedents to the working environment toward quality education were included. Finally, this study collected data only from the faculty of the school of business and economics for examining their opinion. Practical implications From an academic and practical perspective, as a cumulative body of study on the relationship between different HRM practices and quality education, this paper will be better able to advise concerned authorities of higher education intuitions on the elements they need to address to ensure quality teaching and learning in their institutes. Social implications Several factors that directly and indirectly influence quality education through pleasant working environments appear to the surface. Thus, to create a vital working condition in private universities, academic leaders or authorities should be aware to make some improvements. Originality/value The study reveals a paramount finding that can help academicians and authorities of private higher education institutes.

AbstractPumas (Puma concolor) were eliminated from most of the eastern USA a century ago. In the past couple of decades, their recovery in the West has increased puma dispersal into the Midwest, with some individuals even traveling to the East Coast. We combined published expert opinion data and a habitat suitability index in an analysis that identified 17 areas in the Upper Midwest, Ozarks, Appalachia, and New England that could potentially host puma populations in the future. Thirteen of these were larger than 10,000 km2 and so likely to ensure a puma population’s long-term genetic health. Further, we quantified patch size, human density, livestock density, percent public land, and a sociocultural index reflecting wildlife values for comparing patches, as well as present a summary of current legislation relevant to puma management in the East. Our work may be useful in identifying suitable areas to restore pumas based not only on the quality of their biophysical habitat, but also on social values conducive to puma-human coexistence.

AbstractThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has devastated every sphere of human society. Governments around the world implemented unprecedented policies designed to slow the spread of the disease and assistance to cope with its impacts. Such policies, however, are short-term and debates have ensued about what broader policies are needed in the post-COVID-19 era to ensure societies are better prepared for future pandemics. Public opinion concerning COVID-19 and the post-COVID-19 era is diverse, and the patterns in opinion are not well documented. Here we synthesized the opinions of 3731 research scholars throughout the world based on a survey. The highest consensus among respondents concerned the need for improving public health infrastructure and delivering economic support, whereas agreement concerning ecological aspects was low. The survey revealed three dimensions of thinking about COVID-19. The first dimension relates to public health and has widespread support. The second dimension relates to science-led policy development focusing on social justice and environmental governance, covering components of both ecology and economy. The third dimension covers the role of nature conservation in reducing the risk of pandemics. Although opinions differed with age, country of citizenship, and level of education, there is strong agreement on the need for global health equity and science-led public policy.

Decisions about dams, like other environmental conflicts, involve complex trade-offs between different water uses with varying human and ecological impacts, have significant impacts on public resources, and involve many stakeholders with diverse and often conflicting interests. Given the many upcoming dam decisions in New England and across the United States, an improved understanding of public preferences about dam decisions is needed to steward resources in the public interest. This research asks (1) What does the public want to see happen with dams? and (2) How do public preferences regarding dam removal vary with demography and politics? We address these questions using data from three random sample statewide telephone polls conducted in New Hampshire over 2018 that asked people for their preferences concerning dam removal versus maintaining dams for specific benefits—property values, hydropower generation, industrial history, or recreation. Respondent age, education, gender, and political party were tested among the possible predictors. We find that majorities (52% or 54%) of respondents favor removing dams rather than keeping them for industrial history or property values, and a plurality (43%) favor removal over keeping them for recreation. A plurality (46%) prefer keeping dams, however, if they are used to generate hydropower. Respondent background characteristics and political identity affect these preferences in ways resembling those for many other environment-related issues: women, young or middle-aged individuals, and political liberals or moderates (Democrats or independents) more often support dam removal. Education, on the other hand, has no significant effects. The results quantify levels of general public support for dam removal in New England, illustrating the use of public opinion polling to complement input from public meetings and guide decisions. More broadly, they contribute a new topic to existing scholarship on the social bases of environmental concern.

Chicken eggs contain all the essential components such as proteins, lipids, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and growth factors required by the human being. Despite of their nutritional values eggs can cause health problems through consumption of contaminated eggs with pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to identify Escherichia coli isolated from chicken eggs with their antibiogram assay in Rajshahi district of Bangladesh. E. coli was isolated from 180 chicken eggs collected from different areas of Rajshahi district and identified based on cultural, staining, and biochemical characteristics. Antibiogram assay of all the isolates were done by disk diffusion method. The overall prevalence of E. coli was 38.89% in chicken eggs of which 27.78% was on egg shells and 11.11% was in egg content. The prevalence of E. coli was 58.33% in commercial layer farm eggs, 41.66% in whole seller eggs, and 16.67% in retailer eggs. In antibiogram study, isolated E. coli showed 64.28% to 92.85% sensitivity to chloramphenicol, gentamycin, and ceftriaxone. The highest sensitivity was found to meropenem (100%). Isolated E. coli showed resistance to ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, amoxicillin, ampicillin, and erythromycin ranging from 50% to 71.42%. Judicious use of antibiotics and public awareness will help to reduce the development of antibiotic resistance. J. Bio-Sci. 29(1): 123-133, 2021 (June)

AbstractLandforms are spaces for human life, habitats for animals and plants, and areas that provide various ecological services. However, human development has undermined landform where it should be kept as an important human asset. In South Korea, to reduce this damage, a system was created to evaluate the conservation value of landforms, and either designate them as conservation areas or obtain permission for their development in advance. However, the general public, who demands the development of landforms continuously, have frequently questioned the subjectivity of the evaluation criteria used for the conservation of landforms. National Institute of Ecology (NIE) in South Korea was carried out a project which was to increase the reliability of these criteria by modifying the conservation evaluation system into a quantitative system. This paper aims to introduce the geomorphological survey as a part of the Investigation of National Environment (INE), and an improved evaluation system via the Delphi, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), on-site verification, etc. As a result of this quantitative evaluation using detailed scoring indicators, specific criteria, and weights for evaluation, there is a low correlation between the indicators, and this confirmed that each indicator was evaluated correctly. In addition, as the quantitative evaluation results and the experts’ opinions generally coincided with the final evaluation grades and values, this indirectly confirmed that the experts who participated in the 4th INE agreed with the evaluation results. This research demonstrates a method that can be used to improve the objective assessment of landforms by experts’ opinion surveys. Future research could use the assessment system developed in this research and apply it to other surveys or countries.

L’autore esamina brevemente i concetti di natura, materia, “cosa” nel corso della storia dell’uomo rilevando la graduale perdita della “sacralità” attribuita alla natura mano a mano che si sviluppa la conoscenza scientifica della struttura e delle modalità di origine delle “cose” stesse. Descritti gli effetti che tale evoluzione ha prodotto sulla biologia ad opera della tecnica (definita da Tommaso d’Aquino come rapporto fra manualità e ragione, specifico naturale dell’uomo) si sofferma ad illustrare l’importanza crescente dell’ecologia, alla quale tuttavia si contrappone una sempre più spinta tendenza manipolatoria dell’esistente. Ciò avviene – ad esempio – in taluni progetti di realizzazione di entità organiche elementari dotate di capacità riproduttiva non esistenti in natura mediante moduli di DNA (biologia c.d. “sintetica”). Discute infine le applicazioni pratiche di alcuni programmi, l’impatto sulla ecologia, il quadro etico-giuridico in situazione di incertezza e timore per i risultati. Controllo democratico dei programmi, applicazione del principio di precauzione e adeguata formazione degli operatori sono sollecitati dall’opinione pubblica, ma fondamentale è l’esercizio della responsabilità dei ricercatori. ---------- The author briefly analyses the concepts of nature, matter, “thing” during human history, noting the gradual loss of “sacredness” of nature once scientific knowledge of origins is increased. More, he illustrates the growing importance of ecology, against which a more manipulative tendency is opposed, for example within some projects for the realization of elementary organic entities with non natural reproductive capacity by DNA modules (the so called “synthetic” biology). Finally, he debates around the practical applications of some programs, the impact on ecology, legal and ethical framework within uncertain and dangerous situations concerning with the results. Public opinion demands democratic control of the programs, application of the precautionary principle and adequate training for operators, but research responsibility is fundamental.

The North African Ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus), also known as the red-necked ostrich, disappeared from Niger 15 years ago but preliminary work completed in 2011 has shown that the species has not vanished from the collective memory in the Koutous. Using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, this study combines the results of questionnaire surveys and local market monitoring conducted between October 2017 and January 2020, in order to document the ethnozoological knowledge of the communities living in the surroundings of the ostrich breeding centre of Kellé (Zinder). It fits within the wider framework of the species reintroduction program. A total of 120 people were interviewed individually to evaluate their knowledge about the species and their opinion about its possible return in the Koutous. The results emphasized that the ostriches were mainly sources of food (meat or eggs) and traditional medicines (topical pain killers), and to a lesser extent, of ornament objects. Additionally, wildlife products trade still occurs in three of the four weekly markets monitored and one stallholder still had an ostrich bone to sell. Entailing either animal hunting or disturbance, these uses could represent limiting factors to the re-establishment of wild populations. No mention was made of cultural, natural or religious heritage or source of incomes, suggesting the value was limited to subsistence. However, with eight usable products listed, the value of a single animal is relatively high since it can fulfil various demands. Most of the interviewees had limited knowledge about the species’ ecology but they anticipated a lack of suitable habitat. No other cause than lack of water (low rainfall, climate change, desertification...), habitat encroachment by human activities (urbanisation and agriculture) and hunting was thought to have caused the extinction. Habitat restoration was indeed the most-cited prerequisite for successful restoration of wild populations; however the need to ensure the animals’ security (fences, patrols, regulations, anti-poaching campaigns...) was also put forward. The confidence rate in the reintroduction initiatives was mitigated: none of the people interviewed was confident it would be a success in the current context but 56.66% of them were optimistic if preliminary requirements are met. The interpretation of the answers to the open-ended questions suggests underlying risks of illegal hunting and human-wildlife conflict but the request for public awareness campaigns and regulations gives hope for the return of free-ranging North-African ostriches in the future. This study provides key baseline data about the local communities’ perception of ostrich conservation and key elements in a Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA) approach (also known as “Méthode Active de Recherche et Planification Participative” - MARP) in any conservation project. In particular, this work will contribute to the development of feasibility plan for future North African ostrich reintroduction in the Koutous.

Introduction Since December 2010 the dramatic spectacle of the spread of mass uprisings, civil unrest, and protest across North Africa and the Middle East have been chronicled daily on mainstream media and new media. Broadly speaking, the Arab Spring—as it came to be known—is challenging repressive, corrupt governments and calling for democracy and human rights. The convulsive events linked with these debates have been striking not only because of the rapid spread of historically momentous mass protests but also because of the ways in which the media “have become inextricably infused inside them” enabling the global media ecology to perform “an integral part in building and mobilizing support, co-ordinating and defining the protests within different Arab societies as well as trans-nationalizing them” (Cottle 295). Images of mass protests have been juxtaposed against those of individuals prepared to self-destruct for political ends. Video clips and photographs of the individual suffering of Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation and the Bahraini Abdulhad al-Khawaja’s emaciated body foreground, in very graphic ways, political struggles that larger events would mask or render invisible. Highlighting broad commonalties does not assume uniformity in patterns of protest and media coverage across the region. There has been considerable variation in the global media coverage and nature of the protests in North Africa and the Middle East (Cottle). In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen uprisings overthrew regimes and leaders. In Syria it has led the country to the brink of civil war. In Bahrain, the regime and its militia violently suppressed peaceful protests. As a wave of protests spread across the Middle East and one government after another toppled in front of 24/7 global media coverage, Bahrain became the “Arab revolution that was abandoned by the Arabs, forsaken by the West … forgotten by the world,” and largely ignored by the global media (Al-Jazeera English). Per capita the protests have been among the largest of the Arab Spring (Human Rights First) and the crackdown as brutal as elsewhere. International organizations have condemned the use of military courts to trial protestors, the detaining of medical staff who had treated the injured, and the use of torture, including the torture of children (Fisher). Bahraini and international human rights organizations have been systematically chronicling these violations of human rights, and posting on Websites distressing images of tortured bodies often with warnings about the graphic depictions viewers are about to see. It was in this context of brutal suppression, global media silence, and the reluctance of the international community to intervene, that the Bahraini-Danish human rights activist Abdulhad al-Khawaja launched his “death or freedom” hunger strike. Even this radical action initially failed to interest international editors who were more focused on Egypt, Libya, and Syria, but media attention rose in response to the Bahrain Formula 1 race in April 2012. Pro-democracy activists pledged “days of rage” to coincide with the race in order to highlight continuing human rights abuses in the kingdom (Turner). As Al Khawaja’s health deteriorated the Bahraini government resisted calls for his release (Article 19) from the Danish government who requested that Al Khawaja be extradited there on “humanitarian grounds” for hospital treatment (Fisk). This article does not explore the geo-politics of the Bahraini struggle or the possible reasons why the international community—in contrast to Syria and Egypt—has been largely silent and reluctant to debate the issues. Important as they are, those remain questions for Middle Eastern specialists to address. In this article I am concerned with the overlapping and interpenetration of two ecologies. The first ecology is the ethical framing of a prison hunger strike as a corporeal-environmental act of (self) destruction intended to achieve political ends. The second ecology is the operation of global media where international inaction inadvertently foregrounds the political struggles that larger events and discourses surrounding Egypt, Libya, and Syria overshadow. What connects these two ecologies is the body of the hunger striker, turned into a spectacle and mediated via a politics of affect that invites a global public to empathise and so enter into his suffering. The connection between the two lies in the emaciated body of the hunger striker. An Ecological Humanities Approach This exploration of two ecologies draws on the ecological humanities and its central premise of connectivity. The ecological humanities critique the traditional binaries in Western thinking between nature and culture; the political and social; them and us; the collective and the individual; mind, body and emotion (Rose & Robin, Rieber). Such binaries create artificial hierarchies, divisions, and conflicts that ultimately impede the ability to respond to crises. Crises are major changes that are “out of control” driven—primarily but not exclusively—by social, political, and cultural forces that unleash “runaway systems with their own dynamics” (Rose & Robin 1). The ecological humanities response to crises is premised on the recognition of the all-inclusive connectivity of organisms, systems, and environments and an ethical commitment to action from within this entanglement. A founding premise of connectivity, first articulated by anthropologist and philosopher Gregory Bateson, is that the “unit of survival is not the individual or the species, but the organism-and-its-environment” (Rose & Robin 2). This highlights a dialectic in which an organism is shaped by and shapes the context in which it finds itself. Or, as Harries-Jones puts it, relations are recursive as “events continually enter into, become entangled with, and then re-enter the universe they describe” (3). This ensures constantly evolving ecosystems but it also means any organism that “deteriorates its environment commits suicide” (Rose & Robin 2) with implications for the others in the eco-system. Bateson’s central premise is that organisms are simultaneously independent, as separate beings, but also interdependent. Interactions are not seen purely as exchanges but as dynamic, dialectical, dialogical, and mutually constitutive. Thus, it is presumed that the destruction or protection of others has consequences for oneself. Another dimension of interactions is multi-modality, which implies that human communication cannot be reduced to a single mode such as words, actions, or images but needs to be understood in the complexity of inter-relations between these (see Rieber 16). Nor can dissemination be reduced to a single technological platform whether this is print, television, Internet, or other media (see Cottle). The final point is that interactions are “biologically grounded but not determined” in that the “cognitive, emotional and volitional processes” underpinning face-to-face or mediated communication are “essentially indivisible” and any attempt to separate them by privileging emotion at the expense of thought, or vice versa, is likely to be unhealthy (Rieber 17). This is most graphically demonstrated in a politically-motivated hunger strike where emotion and volition over-rides the survivalist instinct. The Ecology of a Prison Hunger Strike The radical nature of a hunger strike inevitably gives rise to medico-ethical debates. Hunger strikes entail the voluntary refusal of sustenance by an individual and, when prolonged, such deprivation sets off a chain reaction as the less important components in the internal body systems shut down to protect the brain until even that can no longer be protected (see Basoglu et al). This extreme form of protest—essentially an act of self-destruction—raises ethical issues over whether or not doctors or the state should intervene to save a life for humanitarian or political reasons. In 1975 and 1991, the World Medical Association (WMA) sought to negotiate this by distinguishing between, on the one hand, the mentally/psychological impaired individual who chooses a “voluntary fast” and, on the other hand, the hunger striker who chooses a form of protest action to secure an explicit political goal fully aware of fatal consequences of prolonged action (see Annas, Reyes). This binary enables the WMA to label the action of the mentally impaired suicide while claiming that to do so for political protesters would be a “misconception” because the “striker … does not want to die” but to “live better” by obtaining certain political goals for himself, his group or his country. “If necessary he is willing to sacrifice his life for his case, but the aim is certainly not suicide” (Reyes 11). In practice, the boundaries between suicide and political protest are likely to be much more blurred than this but the medico-ethical binary is important because it informs discourses about what form of intervention is ethically appropriate. In the case of the “suicidal” the WMA legitimises force-feeding by a doctor as a life-saving act. In the case of the political protestor, it is de-legitimised in discourses of an infringement of freedom of expression and an act of torture because of the pain involved (see Annas, Reyes). Philosopher Michel Foucault argued that prison is a key site where the embodied subject is explicitly governed and where the exercising of state power in the act of incarceration means the body of the imprisoned no longer solely belongs to the individual. It is also where the “body’s range of significations” is curtailed, “shaped and invested by the very forces that detain and imprison it” (Pugliese 2). Thus, prison creates the circumstances in which the incarcerated is denied the “usual forms of protest and judicial safeguards” available outside its confines. The consequence is that when presented with conditions that violate core beliefs he/she may view acts of self-destruction—such as hunger strikes or lip sewing—as one of the few “means of protesting against, or demanding attention” or achieving political ends still available to them (Reyes 11; Pugliese). The hunger strike implicates the state, which, in the act of imprisoning, has assumed a measure of power and responsibility for the body of the individual. If a protest action is labelled suicidal by medical professionals—for instance at Guantanamo—then the force-feeding of prisoners can be legitimised within the WMA guidelines (Annas). There is considerable political temptation to do so particularly when the hunger striker has become an icon of resistance to the state, the knowledge of his/her action has transcended prison confines, and the alienating conditions that prompted the action are being widely debated in the media. This poses a two-fold danger for the state. On the one hand, there is the possibility that the slow emaciation and death while imprisoned, if covered by the media, may become a spectacle able to mobilise further resistance that can destabilise the polity. On the other hand, there is the fear that in the act of dying, and the spectacle surrounding death, the hunger striker would have secured the public attention to the very cause they are championing. Central to this is whether or not the act of self-destruction is mediated. It is far from inevitable that the media will cover a hunger strike or do so in ways that enable the hunger striker’s appeal to the emotions of others. However, when it does, the international scrutiny and condemnation that follows may undermine the credibility of the state—as happened with the death of the IRA member Bobby Sands in Northern Ireland (Russell). The Media Ecology and the Bahrain Arab Spring The IRA’s use of an “ancient tactic ... to make a blunt appeal to sympathy and emotion” in the form of the Sands hunger strike was seen as “spectacularly successful in gaining worldwide publicity” (Willis 1). Media ecology has evolved dramatically since then. Over the past 20 years communication flows between the local and the global, traditional media formations (broadcast and print), and new communication media (Internet and mobile phones) have escalated. The interactions of the traditional media have historically shaped and been shaped by more “top-down” “politics of representation” in which the primary relationship is between journalists and competing public relations professionals servicing rival politicians, business or NGOs desire for media attention and framing issues in a way that is favourable or sympathetic to their cause. However, rapidly evolving new media platforms offer bottom up, user-generated content, a politics of connectivity, and mobilization of ordinary people (Cottle 31). However, this distinction has increasingly been seen as offering too rigid a binary to capture the complexity of the interactions between traditional and new media as well as the events they capture. The evolution of both meant their content increasingly overlaps and interpenetrates (see Bennett). New media technologies “add new communicative ingredients into the media ecology mix” (Cottle 31) as well as new forms of political protests and new ways of mobilizing dispersed networks of activists (Juris). Despite their pervasiveness, new media technologies are “unlikely to displace the necessity for coverage in mainstream media”; a feature noted by activist groups who have evolved their own “carnivalesque” tactics (Cottle 32) capable of creating the spectacle that meets television demands for action-driven visuals (Juris). New media provide these groups with the tools to publicise their actions pre- and post-event thereby increasing the possibility that mainstream media might cover their protests. However there is no guarantee that traditional and new media content will overlap and interpenetrate as initial coverage of the Bahrain Arab Spring highlights. Peaceful protests began in February 2011 but were violently quelled often by Saudi, Qatari and UAE militia on behalf of the Bahraini government. Mass arrests were made including that of children and medical personnel who had treated those wounded during the suppression of the protests. What followed were a long series of detentions without trial, military court rulings on civilians, and frequent use of torture in prisons (Human Rights Watch 2012). By the end of 2011, the country had the highest number of political prisoners per capita of any country in the world (Amiri) but received little coverage in the US. The Libyan uprising was afforded the most broadcast time (700 minutes) followed by Egypt (500 minutes), Syria (143), and Bahrain (34) (Lobe). Year-end round-ups of the Arab Spring on the American Broadcasting Corporation ignored Bahrain altogether or mentioned it once in a 21-page feature (Cavell). This was not due to a lack of information because a steady stream has flowed from mobile phones, Internet sites and Twitter as NGOs—Bahraini and international—chronicled in images and first-hand accounts the abuses. However, little of this coverage was picked up by the US-dominated global media. It was in this context that the Bahraini-Danish human rights activist Abdulhad Al Khawaja launched his “freedom or death” hunger strike in protest against the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations, the treatment of prisoners, and the conduct of the trials. Even this radical action failed to persuade international editors to cover the Bahrain Arab Spring or Al Khawaja’s deteriorating health despite being “one of the most important stories to emerge over the Arab Spring” (Nallu). This began to change in April 2012 as a number of things converged. Formula 1 pressed ahead with the Bahrain Grand Prix, and pro-democracy activists pledged “days of rage” over human rights abuses. As these were violently suppressed, editors on global news desks increasingly questioned the government and Formula 1 “spin” that all was well in the kingdom (see BBC; Turner). Claims by the drivers—many of who were sponsored by the Bahraini government—that this was a sports event, not a political one, were met with derision and journalists more familiar with interviewing superstars were diverted into covering protests because their political counterparts had been denied entry to the country (Fisk). This combination of media events and responses created the attention, interest, and space in which Al Khawaja’s deteriorating condition could become a media spectacle. The Mediated Spectacle of Al Khawaja’s Hunger Strike Journalists who had previously struggled to interest editors in Bahrain and Al Khawaja’s plight found that in the weeks leading up to the Grand Prix and since “his condition rapidly deteriorated”’ and there were “daily updates with stories from CNN to the Hindustan Times” (Nulla). Much of this mainstream news was derived from interviews and tweets from Al Khawaja’s family after each visit or phone call. What emerged was an unprecedented composite—a diary of witnesses to a hunger strike interspersed with the family’s struggles with the authorities to get access to him and their almost tangible fear that the Bahraini government would not relent and he would die. As these fears intensified 48 human rights NGOs called for his release from prison (Article 19) and the Danish government formally requested his extradition for hospital treatment on “humanitarian grounds”. Both were rejected. As if to provide evidence of Al Khawaja’s tenuous hold on life, his family released an image of his emaciated body onto Twitter. This graphic depiction of the corporeal-environmental act of (self) destruction was re-tweeted and posted on countless NGO and news Websites (see Al-Jazeera). It was also juxtaposed against images of multi-million dollar cars circling a race-track, funded by similarly large advertising deals and watched by millions of people around the world on satellite channels. Spectator sport had become a grotesque parody of one man’s struggle to speak of what was going on in Bahrain. In an attempt to silence the criticism the Bahraini government imposed a de facto news blackout denying all access to Al Khawaja in hospital where he had been sent after collapsing. The family’s tweets while he was held incommunicado speak of their raw pain, their desperation to find out if he was still alive, and their grief. They also provided a new source of information, and the refrain “where is alkhawaja,” reverberated on Twitter and in global news outlets (see for instance Der Spiegel, Al-Jazeera). In the days immediately after the race the Danish prime minister called for the release of Al Khawaja, saying he is in a “very critical condition” (Guardian), as did the UN’s Ban-Ki Moon (UN News and Media). The silencing of Al Khawaja had become a discourse of callousness and as global media pressure built Bahraini ministers felt compelled to challenge this on non-Arabic media, claiming Al Khawaja was “eating” and “well”. The Bahraini Prime Minister gave one of his first interviews to the Western media in years in which he denied “AlKhawaja’s health is ‘as bad’ as you say. According to the doctors attending to him on a daily basis, he takes liquids” (Der Spiegel Online). Then, after six days of silence, the family was allowed to visit. They tweeted that while incommunicado he had been restrained and force-fed against his will (Almousawi), a statement almost immediately denied by the military hospital (Lebanon Now). The discourses of silence and callousness were replaced with discourses of “torture” through force-feeding. A month later Al Khawaja’s wife announced he was ending his hunger strike because he was being force-fed by two doctors at the prison, family and friends had urged him to eat again, and he felt the strike had achieved its goal of drawing the world’s attention to Bahrain government’s response to pro-democracy protests (Ahlul Bayt News Agency). Conclusion This article has sought to explore two ecologies. The first is of medico-ethical discourses which construct a prison hunger strike as a corporeal-environmental act of (self) destruction to achieve particular political ends. 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Introduction Scholars, journalists, conspiracists, and public-facing groups have employed a variety of analogies to discuss the role that misleading content (conspiracy theory, disinformation, malinformation, and misinformation), plays in our everyday lives. Terms like the “disinformation war” (Hwang) or the “Infodemic” (United Nations) attempt to summarise the issues of misleading content to aide public understanding. This project studies the effectiveness of these analogies in conveying the movement of online conspiracy theory in social media networks by simulating them in a game. Building from growing comparisons likening conspiracy theories to game systems (Berkowitz; Kaminska), we used game design as a research tool to test these analogies against theory. This article focusses on the design process, rather than implementation, to explore where the analogies succeed and fail in replication. Background and Literature Review Conspiracy Theories and Games Online conspiracy theories reside in the milieu of misinformation (unintentionally incorrect), disinformation (intentionally incorrect), and malinformation (intentionally harmful) (Wardle and Derakhshan 45). They are puzzled together through the vast amount of information available online (Hannah 1) creating a “hunt” for truth (Berkowitz) that refracts information through deeply personal narratives that create paradoxical interpretations (Hochschild xi). Modern social media networks offer curated but fragmented content distribution where information discovery involves content finding users through biased sources (Toff and Nielsen 639). This puzzling together of theories gives conspiracy theorists agency in ‘finding the story’, giving them agency in a process with underlining goals (Kaminska). A contemporary example is QAnon, where the narrative of a “secret global cabal”, large-scale pedophile rings, and overstepping government power is pieced together through Q-drops or cryptic clues that users decipher (Bloom and Moskalenko 5). This puzzle paints a seemingly hidden reality for players to uncover (Berkowitz) and offers gripping engagement which connects “disparate data” into a visualised conspiracy (Hannah 3). Despite their harmful impacts, conspiracy theories are playful (Sobo). They can be likened to playful acts of make-belief (Sobo), reality-adjacent narratives that create puzzles for exploration (Berkowitz), and community building through playful discovery (Bloom and Moskalenko 169). Not only do conspiracies “game the algorithm” to promote content, but they put players into in a self-made digital puzzle (Bloom and Moskalenko 17, 18). This array of human and nonhuman actors allows for truth-spinning that can push people towards conspiracy through social bonds (Moskalenko). Mainstream media and academic institutions are seen as biased and flawed information sources, prompting these users to “do their own research” within these spaces (Ballantyne and Dunning). However, users are in fragmented worldviews, not binaries of right and wrong, which leaves journalism and fact-checkers in a digital world that requires complex intervention (De Maeyer 22). Analogies Analogies are one method of intervention. They offer explanation for the impact conspiracy has had on society, such as the polarisation of families (Andrews). Both conspiracists and public-facing groups have commonly used an analogy of war. The recent pandemic has also introduced analogies of virality (Hwang; Tardáguila et al.). A war analogy places truth on a battleground against lies and fiction. “Doing your own research” is a combat maneuver for conspiracy proliferation through community engagement (Ballantyne and Dunning). Similarly, those fighting digital conspiracies have embraced the analogy to explain the challenges and repercussions of content. War suggests hardened battlelines, the need for public mobilisation, and a victory where truth prevails, or defeat where fallacy reigns (Shackelford). Comparatively, a viral analogy, or “Infodemic” (United Nations), suggests misleading content as moving through a network like an infectious system; spreading through paths of least resistance or effective contamination (Scales et al. 678; Graham et al. 22). Battlelines are replaced with paths or invasion, where the goal is to infect the system or construct a rapid response vaccine that can stymie the ever-growing disease (Tardáguila et al.). In both cases, victorious battles or curative vaccinations frame conspiracy and disinformation as temporary problems. The idea of the rise and falls of a conspiracy’s prominence as link to current events emulates Byung-Chung Han’s notion of the digital swarm, or fragmented communities that coalesce, bubble up into volatile noise, and then dissipate without addressing the “dominant power relations” (Han 12). For Han, swarms arise in digital networks with intensive support before disappearing, holding an influential but ephemeral life. Recently, scholarship has applied a media ecology lens to recognise the interconnection of actors that contribute to these swarms. The digital-as-ecosystem approach suggests a network that needs to be actively managed (Milner and Phillips 8). Tangherlini et al.’s work on conspiracy pipelines highlights the various actors that move information through them to make the digital ecosystem healthy or unhealthy (Tangherlini et al.). Seeing the Internet, and the movement of information on it, as an ecology posits a consideration of processes that are visible (i.e., conspiracy theorists) and invisible (i.e., algorithms etc.) and is inclusive of human and non-human actors (Milner and Phillips). With these analogies as frames, we answer Sobo’s call for a playful lens towards conspiracy alongside De Maeyer’s request for serious interventions by using serious play. If we can recognise both conspiracy and its formation as game-like and understand these analogies as explanatory narratives, we can use simulation game design to ask: how are these systems of conspiracy propagation being framed? What gaps in understanding arise when we frame conspiracy theory through the analogies used to describe it? Method Research-Creation and Simulation Gaming Our use of game design methods reframed analogies through “gaming literacy”, which considers the knowledge put into design and positions the game as a set of practices relating to the everyday (Zimmerman 24). This process requires constant reflection. In both the play of the game and the construction of its parts we employed Khaled’s critical design framework (10-11). From March to December 2021 we kept reflective logs, notes from bi-weekly team meetings, playtest observations, and archives of our visual design to consistently review and reassess our progression. We asked how the visuals, mechanics, and narratives point to the affordances and drawbacks of these analogies. Visual and Mechanical Design Before designing the details of the analogies, we had to visualise their environment – networked social media. We took inspiration from existing visual representations of the Internet and social media under the hypothesis that employing a familiar conceptual model could improve the intelligibility of the game (figs. 1 and 2). In usability design, this is referred to as "Jakob's law" (Nielsen), in which, by following familiar patterns, the user can focus better on content, or in our case, play. Fig. 1: “My Twitter Social Ego Networks” by David Sousa-Rodrigues. A visual representation of Sousa-Rodrigues’s social media network. <https://www.flickr.com/photos/11452351@N00/2048034334>. We focussed on the networked publics (Itō) that coalesce around information and content disclosure. We prioritised data practices that influence community construction through content (Bloom and Moskalenko 57), and the larger conspiracy pipelines of fragmented data (Tangherlini et al. 30). Fig. 2: "The Internet Map" by Ruslan Enikeev. A visual, 2D, interactive representation of the Internet. <http://internet-map.net/>. Our query focusses on how play reciprocated, or failed to reciprocate, these analogies. Sharp et al.’s suggestion that obvious and simple models are intuitively understood allowed us to employ simplification in design in the hopes of parsing down complex social media systems. Fig. 3 highlights this initial attempt where social media platforms became “networks” that formed proximity to specific groups or “nodes”. Fig. 3: Early version of the game board, with a representation of nodes and networks as simplified visualisations for social networks. This simplification process guided the scaling of design as we tried to make the seemingly boundless online networks accessible. Colourful tokens represented users, placed on the nodes (fig. 4). Tokens represented portions of the user base, allowing players to see the proliferation of conspiracy through the network. Unfortunately, this simplification ignores the individual acts of users and their ability to bypass these pipelines as well as the discovery-driven collegiality within these communities (Bloom and Moskalenko 57). To help offset this, we designed an overarching scenario and included “flavour text” on cards (fig. 5) which offered narrative vignettes that grounded player actions in dynamic story. Fig. 4: The first version for the printed playtest for the board, with the representation of “networks” formed by a clustering of "nodes". The movement of conspiracy was indicated by colour-coded tokens. Fig. 5: Playing cards. They reference a particular action which typically adds or removes token. They also reference a theory and offer text to narrativise the action. Design demonstrates that information transmission is not entirely static. In the most recent version (fig. 6), this meant having the connections between nodes become subverted through player actions. Game mechanics, such as playing cards (fig. 5), make these pipelines interactive and visible by allowing players to place and move content throughout the space in response to each other’s actions. Fig. 6: The most updated version of the board, now named "Lizards and Lies". Red regions are initial starting points for conspiracy to enter mainstream social media (purple). Design adaptations focussed on making conspiracy theory dynamic. Player choice (i.e. where to add conspiracy) had to consider a continuously changing board created by other actors to reflect the adaptive nature of conspiracy theories. In this way, analogies came alive or died through the actions of players within a visually responsive system. This meant that each game had different swarms of conspiracy, where player decisions “wrote” a narrative through play. By selecting how and where conspiracy might be placed or removed, players created a narrative distinct to their game. For example, a conspiracy theorist player (one playable character) might explain their placing of conspiracy theory within the Chrpr/Twitter network as a community response to fact-checking (second playable character) in the neighbouring Shreddit/Reddit community. Results War Analogy Initial design took inspiration from wargaming to consider battlelines, various combatants, and a simulated conflict. Two player characters were made. Conspiracy theorists were posited against fact-checkers, where nodes and networks functioned as battlelines of intervention. The war narrative was immediately challenged by the end-state. Either conspiracy overtook networks or the fact checkers completely stymied conspiracy’s ability to exist. Both end-states seemed wrong for players. Battle consistently felt futile as conspiracists could always add more content, and fact-checkers could always remove something. Simply put, war fell flat. While the game could depict communities and spaces of combat, it struggled to represent how fragmented conspiracy theories are. In play, conspiracy theory became stagnant, the flow of information felt compelled, and the actors entered uneven dynamics. Utopia was never achieved, and war always raged on. Even when players did overtake a network, the victory condition (needing to control the most networks) made this task, which would normally be compelling, feel lacklustre. To address this, we made changes. We altered the win condition to offer points at the end of each turn depending on what the player did (i.e., spreading conspiracy into networks). We expanded the number of networks and connections between them (fig. 3 and fig. 6) to include more fluid and fragmented pipelines of conspiracy dissemination. We included round-end events which shifted the state of the game based on other actors, and we pushed players to focus on their own actions more than those of the others on the board. These changes naturally shifted the battleground from hardened battle lines to a fragmented amorphous spread of disinformation; it moved war to virality. Viral Analogy As we transitioned towards the viral, we prioritised the reflexive, ephemeral movements of conspiracy proliferating through networks. We focussed less on adding and removing content and shifted to the movement of actors through the space. Some communities became more susceptible to conspiracy content, fact-checkers relied on flagging systems, and conspiracy theories followed a natural, but unexpected pipeline of content dissemination. These changes allowed players to feel like individual actors with specific goals rather than competing forces. Fact-checkers relied on mitigation and response while conspiracists evaluated the susceptibility of specific communities to conspiracy content. This change illuminated a core issue with fact-checking; it is entirely responsive, endless, and too slow to stop content from having an impact. While conspiracists could play one card to add content, fact-checkers had to flag content, move their token, and use a player card to eliminate content – all of which exacerbated this issue. In this manner, the viral approach rearticulated how systems themselves afford the spread of conspiracy, where truly effective means to stop the spread relied on additional system actors, such as training algorithms to help remove and flag content. While a more effective simulation, the viral analogy struggled in its presentation of conspiracy theory within social media. Play had a tipping point, where given enough resources, those stopping the spread of conspiracy could “vaccinate” it and clean the board. To alter this, our design began to consider actions and reactions, creating a push and pull of play focussed on balancing or offsetting the system. This transition naturally made us consider a media ecology analogy. Media Ecology Replacing utopic end-states with a need to maintain network health reframed the nature of engagement within this simulation. An ecological model recognises that harmful content will exist in a system and aims not at elimination, but at maintaining a sustainable balance. It is responsive. It considers the various human and non-human actors at play and focusses on varied actor goals. As our game shifted to an ecological model, homogenous actors of conspiracists or fact-checkers were expanded. We transitioned a two-player game into a four-player variant, testing options like literacy educators, content recommending algorithms, and ‘edgelords'. Rather than defeating or saving social media, play becomes focussed on actors in the system. Play and design demonstrated how actions would shape play decisions. Characters were seen as network actors rather than enemies, changing interaction. Those spreading conspiracy began to focus less on “viral paths”, or lines of battle, and instead on where or how they could impact system health. In some cases, conspiracists would build one network of support, in others they created pockets around the board from which they could run campaigns. Those stopping the spread came to see their job as management. Rather than try and eliminate all conspiracy, they determined which sites to engage with, what content held the greatest threat, and which tools would be most effective. Media ecology play focussed less on outsmarting opponents and instead on managing an actor’s, and other players’, goals within an evolving system. Challenging Swarms and a Turn to Digital Ecology Using games to evaluate analogies illuminates clear gaps in their use, and the value of a media ecology lens. A key issue across the two main analogies (war and virality) was a utopic endstate. The idea that conspiracy can be beaten back, or vaccinated, fails to consider the endless amount of conspiracy possible to be made, or the impossibility of vaccinating the entire system. As our transitionary design process shows, the notion of winners and losers misplaces the intent of various actors groups where conspiracy is better framed as community-building rather than “controlling” a space (Bloom and Moskalenko 57). In design, while Han’s notion of the swarm was helpful, it struggled to play out in our simulations because fragments of conspiracy always remained on the board. This lingering content suggests that fact-checking does not actually remove ideological support. Swarms could quickly regrow around lingering support presenting them not as ephemeral as Han argued. As design transitioned towards ecology, these “fragments” were seen as part of a system of actors. Gameplay shows a deep interplay between the removal of content and its spread, arguing that removing conspiracy is a band-aid solution to a larger problem. Our own simplification of analogy into a game is not without limitations. Importantly, the impact of user specific acts for interpreting a movement (Toff and Nielsen 640), and the underlying set of networks that create “dark platforms” (Zeng and Schäfer 122) were lost in the game’s translation. Despite this, our work provides directions for scholarship and those engaging with the public on these issues to consider. Reframing our lens to understand online conspiracy as an aspect of digital ecological health, asks us to move away from utopic solutions and instead focus on distinct actors as they relate to the larger system. Conclusion Employing serious play as a lens to our framing of digital conspiracy, this project emphasises a turn towards media ecology models. Game design functioned as a tool to consider the actors, behaviours, and interactions of a system. Our methodological approach for visualising war and viral analogies demonstrates how playful responses can prompt questions and considerations of theory. Playing in this way, offers new insights for how we think about and grapple with the various actors associated with conspiracy theory and scholarship should continue to embrace ecological models to weigh the assemblage of actors. References Andrews, Travis. “QAnon Is Tearing Families Apart.” Washington Post, 2020. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/14/qanon-families-support-group/>. Ballantyne, Nathan, and David Dunning. “Skeptics Say, ‘Do Your Own Research.’ It’s Not That Simple.” The New York Times, 3 Jan. 2022. <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/opinion/dyor-do-your-own-research.html>. Berkowitz, Reed. “QAnon Resembles the Games I Design. But for Believers, There Is No Winning.” Washington Post, 2021. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/qanon-game-plays-believers/2021/05/10/31d8ea46-928b-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html>. Bloom, Mia, and Sophia Moskalenko. Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon. Stanford University Press, 2021. De Maeyer, Juliette. “Taking Conspiracy Culture Seriously: Journalism Needs to Face Its Epistemological Trouble.” Journalism 20.1 (2019): 21–23. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918807037>. Graham, Timothy, et al. Like a Virus: The Coordinated Spread of Coronavirus Disinformation. The Australia Institute, 2020. <https://apo.org.au/node/305864>. Han, Byung-Chul. In the Swarm: Digital Prospects. Trans. Erik Butler. MIT Press, 2017. Hannah, Matthew N. “A Conspiracy of Data: QAnon, Social Media, and Information Visualization.” Social Media + Society, 7.3 (2021). <https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211036064>. Hochschild, Arlie Russell. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. The New Press, 2016. Hwang, Tim. “Deconstructing the Disinformation War.” MediaWell, Social Science Research Council 1 June 2020. <https://mediawell.ssrc.org/expert-reflections/deconstructing-the-disinformation-war/>. Itō, Mizuko. “Introduction.” Networked Publics. Ed. Kazys Varnelis. MIT Press, 2008. Kaminska, Izabella. “The ‘Game Theory’ in the Qanon Conspiracy Theory.” Financial Times 16 Oct. 2020. <https://www.ft.com/content/74f9d20f-9ff9-4fad-808f-c7e4245a1725>. Khaled, Rilla. “Questions over Answers: Reflective Game Design.” Playful Disruption of Digital Media. Ed. Daniel Cermak-Sassenrath. Singapore: Springer, 2018. 3–27. <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1891-6_1>. Milner, Ryan M., and Whitney Phillips. You Are Here. MIT Press, 2020. <https://you-are-here.pubpub.org/>. Moskalenko, Sophia. “Evolution of QAnon & Radicalization by Conspiracy Theories.” The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare 4.2 (2021): 109–14. <https://doi.org/10.21810/jicw.v4i2.3756>. Nielsen, Jakob. “End of Web Design.” Nielsen Norman Group, 2000. <https://www.nngroup.com/articles/end-of-web-design/>. Scales, David, et al. “The Covid-19 Infodemic — Applying the Epidemiologic Model to Counter Misinformation.” New England Journal of Medicine 385.8 (2021): 678–81. <https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2103798>. Shackelford, Scott. “The Battle against Disinformation Is Global.” The Conversation 2020. <http://theconversation.com/the-battle-against-disinformation-is-global-129212>. Sharp, Helen, et al. Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. 5th ed. Wiley, 2019. Sobo, Elisa Janine. “Playing with Conspiracy Theories.” Anthropology News 31 July 2019. <https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/playing-with-conspiracy-theories/>. Tangherlini, Timothy R., et al. “An Automated Pipeline for the Discovery of Conspiracy and Conspiracy Theory Narrative Frameworks: Bridgegate, Pizzagate and Storytelling on the Web.” PLoS ONE 15.6 (2020). <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233879>. Tardáguila, Cristina, et al. “Taking an Ecological Approach to Misinformation.” Poynter 5 Dec. 2019. <https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2019/taking-an-ecological-approach-to-misinformation/>. Toff, Benjamin, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. “‘I Just Google It’: Folk Theories of Distributed Discovery.” Journal of Communication 68.3 (2018): 636–57. <https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy009>. United Nations. “UN Tackles ‘Infodemic’ of Misinformation and Cybercrime in COVID-19 Crisis.” 2020. <https://www.un.org/en/un-coronavirus-communications-team/un-tackling-%E2%80%98infodemic%E2%80%99-misinformation-and-cybercrime-covid-19>. 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Conspiracies have been a cultural mainstay for decades (Melley). While often framed as an American problem (Melley), social media has contributed to their global reach (Gerts et al.). Bruns, Harrington, and Hurcombe have traced the contemporary movement of conspiracy theories into the cultural mainstream from fringe conspiracist groups on social media platforms such as Facebook through their greater uptake in more diverse communities and to substantial amplification by celebrities, sports stars, and media outlets. Consequently, conspiracy theories that were once the product of subcultural groups have increasingly mixed into popular and authoritative media (Marwick and Lewis) and entertainment (Hyzen and van den Bulck; van den Bulck and Hyzen). Over the past five years conspiracy theories, whether they be anti-vaccination, politically motivated, or pop-cultural artefacts, have found their way into mainstream cultural discourse. Increasingly, conspiracy theories, once regarded as the domain of largely harmless eccentrics, are having real, material effects. These real-world harms are evident across a number of domains of social life, from the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 (Moskalenko and McCauley) to the effects of vaccine refusal and resistance which continue to stymie attempts to control the global COVID-19 pandemic (Baker, Wade, and Walsh). Digital spaces and communities have made conspiracy theories more accessible and transmissible. Conspiracies are persistent, resistant, and pervasive. The illusion of neat segmentation between the sites of conspiracy theorising and mainstream media content generation has vanished. However, our understanding of what motivates those engaging with and disseminating conspiracy theories is still partial and incomplete. While there is a large corpus of social psychological research into conspiracies, much of this research is focused on deficits in logic, reasoning, and/or personality traits. The focus of the ‘deficits’ of those draw to conspiracy theories is also reflected in popular discourse, where those believing in conspiracy theories are described within a variety of synonyms for the word ‘stupid’ (Chu, Yuan, and Liu). In this issue, we approach the topic of conspiracy from a different standpoint, exploring the sociological conditions that enable conspiracies to flourish. We have assembled a variety of articles, both empirical and conceptual, from which a more complex social picture of conspiracy emerges. To begin examining the complex social life of conspiracy theories, our feature article by Brownwyn Fredericks, Abraham Bradfield, Sue McAvoy, James Ward, Shea Spierings, Troy Combo, and Agnes Toth-Peter cuts through the conspiracy frame to a very real world example of the consequences of conspiracy. They examine the specific social contexts and media ecologies through which COVID-19 conspiracies have flourished in some (not all) Indigenous communities in Australia. Their analysis highlights the detrimental impacts of unresolved elements of settler colonialism that propagate conspiracist thinking within these communities. Through research conducted with stakeholder participants from the Indigenous health sector (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous) they outline a series of recommendations for how we can constructively address the demonstrated impact of circulating misinformation upon Indigenous communities in Australia. In their recommendations they reinforce the need to centralise Indigenous voices and expertise in our social and political life. Other articles in the issue explore how to theorise conspiracism, present examples of contemporary conspiracism in digital media, unpack methods for how to conduct research in this socially contentious space, and highlight the consequences of conspiracies. They draw examples of communities entangled with conspiracy theories and media environments across the world. Absence and presence (of evidence) are both important elements in conspiracy theorising. In contrast to scholarship that focusses on the spread of conspiracy-style misinformation, Tyler Easterbrook’s examination of dead links or ‘link rot’ online demonstrates how the absence and removal of information can be a powerful motivator of conspiracy rhetoric. Easterbrook’s work demonstrates the potential complexities of moderation models that emphasise the removal of conspiratorial content. The absence of content can be as powerful as its presence. Scott DeJong’s and Alex Bustamante’s article uses novel methods to interrogate the analogies we frequently use when discussing the spread of conspiracy theories online. In designing their own board system to model how conspiracy theories might spread, they speak to a growing body of work that likens conspiracy theories to game systems. DeJong’s and Bustamante’s article highlighted the powerful capacity of creative methods to speak to social problems. Echoing Easterbrook’s warning about the power of content removal to fuel conspiracy theorising, in their simulating DeJong and Bustamante found that there is an “interplay between the removal of content and its spread” and argue that “removing conspiracy is a band-aid solution to a larger problem”. With current attention focussed on the problem of moderating conspiracy and misinformation in digital ecologies, these articles are important considerations about the relative success of such a strategy. In their commentary examining so-called COVID-19 ‘cures’, Stephanie Alice Baker and Alexia Maddox explore how hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin shifted from potential COVID treatments to objects embroiled in conspiracy during the pandemic. Baker and Maddox highlight the interwoven nature of the conspiracy landscape illustrating the roles that public figures and influencers played in amplifying conspiratorial discourse and knowledge about these drugs. Importantly, as with DeJong and Bustamante, and as also highlighted by Easterbrook, they highlight how tackling conspiracy theories is not as simple as providing “accurate” facts to counter false and misleading information. Baker and Maddox argue that, paradoxically, the process of debunking which included mockery and derision “reinforces the audience segmentation that occurs in the current media ecology by virtue of alternative media with mockery and ridicule strengthening in and out group dynamics”. When debunking succumbs to ridicule, they suggest that critics may be strengthening people’s commitment to conspiratorial narratives and alternative influence networks. Tresa LeClerc’s article explores the increasing entanglement of health and wellness with alternative right (or alt-right) conspiracies, focussing on underlying themes of white nationalism within these communities. LeClerc’s piece compellingly traces the ideological underpinnings of purity within the paleo diet that already blend pseudoscience and conspiracy, highlighting the ways wellness spaces have cultivated modes of thinking that are conducive to alt-right conspiracies. Also delving into the intersections of wellness and conspiracy, Marie Heřmanová explores conspirituality and the politicisation of spiritual influencers during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the case of prominent Czech lifestyle Instagrammer Helena Houdová who became an outspoken anti-vaxxer and COVID denialist. In a rich case study, Heřmanová examines the ways Helena blends her feminine aesthetic and aspirational and individualistic take on spirituality with conspiracy messages informed by QAnon and political messaging that speaks to both national history and global trends. Heřmanová astutely observes that the rise of conspirituality reveals the capacity of these influencers to bridge the gap between the everyday and personal, and the collective narratives of conspiracies such as QAnon. Continuing to explore how conspiracy theories intersect with embodied and digital environments, in her article on ‘Coronaconspiracies’ Merlyna Lim examines the role algorithms and users play in facilitating conspiracy theories during the pandemic. Lim contends that social media provides a fertile environment for conspiracies to flourish, while maintaining that “social media algorithms do not have an absolute hegemony in translating the high visibility or even the virality of conspiracy theories into the beliefs in them”. As Lim explains, human users retain their agency online; it is their “choices” and “preferences” that are informed by the algorithmic dynamics of these technologies. Extending research into the relationship between conspiracy and algorithms, the impacts of labelling are foregrounded in the work of Ahmed Al-Rawi, Carmen Celestini, Nicole Stewart, and Nathan Worku. Their article presents a reverse-engineering approach to understanding how Google’s autocomplete feature assigns subtitles to widely known conspiracists. Google’s algorithmic approach to labelling actors is proprietary knowledge, which blackboxes this process to researchers and the wider public. This article provides a technical peek into how this may work, but also raises the concern that these labels do not reflect what is publicly known about these actors. Their work provides an insight into the ways that the Google autocomplete subtitling feature may further contribute to the negative real-world impacts that these conspiracists, and other such toxic actors, have. Stijn Peeters and Tom Willaert take us into the fringes of the online ecosystem to explore ways to research conspiracist communities on Telegram. They extrapolate on Richard Rogers‘s edict to ​​repurpose the methods of the medium and take us through a case-based examination of how to conduct a structural analysis of forwarded messages to identify conspiracy communities. In weighing up the results of applying this technique to Dutch-speaking conspiracist narratives and communities on Telegram they highlight the methodological gains of such a technique and the ethical considerations that doing this style of data gathering and analysis can raise. Moving away from the fringes, Naomi Smith and Clare Southerton take us into the belly of popular culture with their examination of the #FreeBritney movement and raise the proposition of conspiracy as a site of pleasure. They turn on its head the assumption that conspiracy thinking is because of a deficient and deviant understanding and point to the appeal and pleasure of engaging in the chase of partial threads and leads found in social media that could be woven into an explanation, or conspiracy. Drawing from fan studies, they highlight that pleasure is not a new site of motivation and that a lot can be learned by applying it as an explanatory frame for why people engage with conspiracies. The diverse body of scholarship assembled in this special issue illustrates the complex nature of contemporary conspiracies as they find expression in digital spaces and media. There are a variety of approaches to understanding this phenomenon that highlight how strategies of control and technological intervention may not be straightforwardly successful. The contributions to this issue demonstrate, from a range of perspectives, the importance of understanding how and why conspiracy theories matter to the communities that embrace them if we are to address their social consequences. References Baker, Stephanie Alice, Matthew Wade, and Michael James Walsh. "The Challenges of Responding to Misinformation during a Pandemic: Content Moderation and the Limitations of the Concept of Harm." Media International Australia 177 (2020): 103-07. Bruns, Axel, Stephen Harrington, and Edward Hurcombe. “‘Corona? 5G? Or Both?’: The Dynamics of COVID-19/5G Conspiracy Theories on Facebook." Media International Australia 177 (2020): 12-29. Chu, Haoran, Shupei Yuan, and Sixiao Liu. "Call Them Covidiots: Exploring the Effects of Aggressive Communication Style and Psychological Distance in the Communication of Covid-19." Public Understanding of Science 30.3 (2021): 240-57. Gerts, Dax, et al. “‘Thought I’d Share First’ and Other Conspiracy Theory Tweets from the Covid-19 Infodemic: Exploratory Study." JMIR Public Health Surveill 7.4 (2021): e26527. Hyzen, Aaron, and Hilde van den Bulck. "Conspiracies, Ideological Entrepreneurs, and Digital Popular Culture." Media and Communication 9 (2021): 179–88. Marwick, Alice, and Rebecca Lewis. "Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online." New York: Data & Society Research Institute, 2017. 7-19. Melley, Timothy. Empire of Conspiracy: The Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America. Cornell University Press, 2016. Moskalenko, Sophia, and Clark McCauley. "QAnon: Radical Opinion Versus Radical Action." Perspectives on Terrorism 15.2 (2021): 142-46. Van den Bulck, Hilde, and Aaron Hyzen. "Of Lizards and Ideological Entrepreneurs: Alex Jones and Infowars in the Relationship between Populist Nationalism and the Post-Global Media Ecology." International Communication Gazette 82.1 (2020): 42-59.

We need a clear, unified, and consistent voice to effect the complete dismantling, the abolition, of the mechanisms of animal exploitation.And that will only come from what we say and do, no matter who we are.— Gary L. Francione, animal rights theoristThe history of hashtags is relatively short but littered with the remnants of corporate hashtags which may have seemed a good idea at the time within the confines of the boardroom. It is difficult to understand the rationale behind the use of hashtags as an effective communications tactic in 2019 by corporations when a quick stroll through their recent past leaves behind the much-derided #qantasluxury (Glance), #McDstories (Hill), and #myNYPD (Tran).While hashtags have an obvious purpose in bringing together like-minded publics and facilitating conversation (Kwye et al. 1), they have also regularly been the subject of “hashtag takeovers” by activists and other interested parties, and even by trolls, as the Ecological Society of Australia found in 2015 when their seemingly innocuous #ESA15 hashtag was taken over with pornographic images (news.com.au). Hashtag takeovers have also been used as a dubious marketing tactic, where smaller and less well-known brands tag their products with trending hashtags such as #iphone in order to boost their audience (Social Garden). Hashtags are increasingly used as a way for activists or other interested parties to disrupt a message. It is, I argue, predictable that any hashtag related to an even slightly controversial topic will be subject to some form of activist hashtag takeover, with varying degrees of success.That veganism and the dairy industry should attract such conflict is unsurprising given that the two are natural enemies, with vegans in particular seeming to anticipate and actively engage in the battle for the opposing hashtag.Using a comparative analysis of the #Veganuary and #Februdairy hashtags and how they have been used by both pro-vegan and pro-dairy social media users, this article illustrates that the enthusiastic and well-meaning social media efforts of farmers and dairy supporters have so far been unable to counteract those of well-organised and equally passionate vegan activists. This analysis compares tweets in the first week of the respective campaigns, concluding that organisations, industries and their representatives should be extremely wary of engaging said activists who are not only highly-skilled but are also highly-motivated. Grassroots, ideology-driven activism is a formidable opponent in any public space, let alone when it takes place on the outspoken and unstructured landscape of social media which is sometimes described as the “wild West” (Fitch 5) where anything goes and authenticity and plain-speaking is key (Macnamara 12).I Say Hashtag, You Say Bashtag#Februdairy was launched in 2018 to promote the benefits of dairy. The idea was first mooted on Twitter in 2018 by academic Dr Jude Capper, a livestock sustainability consultant, who called for “28 days, 28 positive dairy posts” (@Bovidiva; Howell). It was a response to the popular Veganuary campaign which aimed to “inspire people to try vegan for January and throughout the rest of the year”, a campaign which had gained significant traction both online and in the traditional media since its inception in 2014 (Veganuary). Hopes were high: “#Februdairy will be one month of dairy people posting, liking and retweeting examples of what we do and why we do it” (Yates). However, the #Februdairy hashtag has been effectively disrupted and has now entered the realm of a bashtag, a hashtag appropriated by activists for their own purpose (Austin and Jin 341).The Dairy Industry (Look Out the Vegans Are Coming)It would appear that the dairy industry is experiencing difficulties in public perception. While milk consumption is declining, sales of plant-based milks are increasing (Kaiserman) and a growing body of health research has questioned whether dairy products and milk in particular do in fact “do a body good” (Saccaro; Harvard Milk Study). In the 2019 review of Canada’s food guide, its first revision since 2007, for instance, the focus is now on eating plant-based foods with dairy’s former place significantly downgraded. Dairy products no longer have their own distinct section and are instead placed alongside other proteins including lentils (Pippus).Nevertheless, the industry has persevered with its traditional marketing and public relations activities, choosing to largely avoid addressing animal welfare concerns brought to light by activists. They have instead focused their message towards countering concerns about the health benefits of milk. In the US, the Milk Processing Education Program’s long-running celebrity-driven Got Milk campaign has been updated with Milk Life, a health focused campaign, featuring images of children and young people living an active lifestyle and taking part in activities such as skateboarding, running, and playing basketball (Milk Life). Interestingly, and somewhat inexplicably, Milk Life’s home page features the prominent headline, “How Milk Can Bring You Closer to Your Loved Ones”.It is somewhat reflective of the current trend towards veganism that tennis aces Serena and Venus Williams, both former Got Milk ambassadors, are now proponents for the plant-based lifestyle, with Venus crediting her newly-adopted vegan diet as instrumental in her recovery from an auto-immune disease (Mango).The dairy industry’s health focus continues in Australia, as well as the use of the word love, with former AFL footballer Shane Crawford—the face of the 2017 campaign Milk Loves You Back, from Lion Dairy and Drinks—focusing on reminding Australians of the reputed nutritional benefits of milk (Dawson).Dairy Australia meanwhile launched their Legendairy campaign with a somewhat different focus, promoting and lauding Australia’s dairy families, and with a message that stated, in a nod to the current issues, that “Australia’s dairy farmers and farming communities are proud, resilient and innovative” (Dairy Australia). This campaign could be perceived as a morale-boosting exercise, featuring a nation-wide search to find Australia’s most legendairy farming community (Dairy Australia). That this was also an attempt to humanise the industry seems obvious, drawing on established goodwill felt towards farmers (University of Cambridge). Again, however, this strategy did not address activists’ messages of suffering animals, factory farms, and newborn calves being isolated from their grieving mothers, and it can be argued that consumers are being forced to make the choice between who (or what) they care about more: animals or the people making their livelihoods from them.Large-scale campaigns like Legendairy which use traditional channels are of course still vitally important in shaping public opinion, with statistics from 2016 showing 85.1% of Australians continue to watch free-to-air television (Roy Morgan, “1 in 7”). However, a focus and, arguably, an over-reliance on traditional platforms means vegans and animal activists are often unchallenged when spreading their message via social media. Indeed, when we consider the breakdown in age groups inherent in these statistics, with 18.8% of 14-24 year-olds not watching any commercial television at all, an increase from 7% in 2008 (Roy Morgan, “1 in 7”), it is a brave and arguably short-sighted organisation or industry that relies primarily on traditional channels to spread their message in 2019. That these large-scale campaigns do little to address the issues raised by vegans concerning animal welfare leaves these claims largely unanswered and momentum to grow.This growth in momentum is fuelled by activist groups such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) who are well-known in this space, with 5,494,545 Facebook followers, 1.06 million Twitter followers, 973,000 Instagram followers, and 453,729 You Tube subscribers (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They are also active on Pinterest, a visual-based platform suited to the kinds of images and memes particularly detrimental to the dairy industry. Although widely derided, PETA’s reach is large. A graphic video posted to Facebook on February 13 2019 and showing a suffering cow, captioned “your cheese is not worth this” was shared 1,244 times, and had 4.6 million views in just over 24 hours (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). With 95% of 12-24 year olds in Australia now using social networking sites (Statista), it is little wonder veganism is rapidly growing within this demographic (Bradbury), with The Guardian labelling the rise of veganism unstoppable (Hancox).Activist organisations are joined by prominent and charismatic vegan activists such as James Aspey (182,000 Facebook followers) and Earthling Ed (205,000 Facebook followers) in distributing information and images that are influential and often highly graphic or disturbing. Meanwhile Instagram influencers and You Tube lifestyle vloggers such as Ellen Fisher and FreeLee share information promoting vegan food and the vegan lifestyle (with 650,320 and 785,903 subscribers respectively). YouTube video Dairy Is Scary has over 5 million views (Janus) and What the Health, a follow-up documentary to Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, promoting veganism, is now available on Netflix, which itself has 9.8 million Australian subscribers (Roy Morgan, “Netflix”). BOSH’s plant-based vegan cookbook was the fastest selling cookbook of 2018 (Chiorando).Additionally, the considerable influence of celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Alicia Silverstone, Zac Efron, and Jessica Chastain, to name just a few, speaking publicly about their vegan lifestyle, encourages veganism to become mainstream and increases its widespread acceptance.However not all the dairy industry’s ills can be blamed on vegans. Rising costs, cheap imports, and other pressures (Lockhart, Donaghy and Gow) have all placed pressure on the industry. Nonetheless, in the battle for hearts and minds on social media, the vegans are leading the way.Qualitative research interviewing new vegans found converting to veganism was relatively easy, yet some respondents reported having to consult multiple resources and required additional support and education on how to be vegan (McDonald 17).Enter VeganuaryUsing a month, week or day to promote an idea or campaign, is a common public relations and marketing strategy, particularly in health communications. Dry July and Ocsober both promote alcohol abstinence, Frocktober raises funds for ovarian cancer, and Movember is an annual campaign raising awareness and funds for men’s health (Parnell). Vegans Matthew Glover and Jane Land were discussing the success of Movember when they raised the idea of creating a vegan version. Their initiative, Veganuary, urging people to try vegan for the month of January, launched in 2014 and since then 500,000 people have taken the Veganuary pledge (Veganuary).The Veganuary website is the largest of its kind on the internet. With vegan recipes, expert advice and information, it provides all the answers to Why go vegan, but it is the support offered to answer How to go vegan that truly sets Veganuary apart. (Veganuary)That Veganuary participants would use social media to discuss and share their experiences was a foregone conclusion. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are all utilised by participants, with the official Veganuary pages currently followed/liked by 159,000 Instagram followers, receiving 242,038 Facebook likes, and 45,600 Twitter followers (Veganuary). Both the Twitter and Instagram sites make effective use of hashtags to spread their reach, not only using #Veganuary but also other relevant hashtags such as #TryVegan, #VeganRecipes, and the more common #Vegan, #Farm, and #SaveAnimals.Februdairy Follows Veganuary, But Only on the CalendarCalling on farmers and dairy producers to create counter content and their own hashtag may have seemed like an idea that would achieve an overall positive response.Agricultural news sites and bloggers spread the word and even the BBC reported on the industry’s “fight back” against Veganuary (BBC). However the hashtag was quickly overwhelmed with anti-dairy activists mobilising online. Vegans issued a call to arms across social media. The Vegans in Australia Facebook group featured a number of posts urging its 58,949 members to “thunderclap” the Februdairy hashtag while the Project Calf anti-dairy campaign declared that Februdairy offered an “easy” way to spread their information (Sandhu).Februdairy farmers and dairy supporters were encouraged to tell their stories, sharing positive photographs and videos, and they did. However this content was limited. In this tweet (fig. 1) the issue of a lack of diverse content was succinctly addressed by an anti-Februdairy activist.Fig. 1: Content challenges. (#Februdairy, 2 Feb. 2019)MethodUtilising Twitter’s advanced search capability, I was able to search for #Veganuary tweets from 1 to 7 January 2019 and #Februdairy tweets from 1 to 7 February 2019. I analysed the top tweets provided by Twitter in terms of content, assessed whether the tweet was pro or anti Veganuary and Februdairy, and also categorised its content in terms of subject matter.Tweets were analysed to assess whether they were on message and aligned with the values of their associated hashtag. Veganuary tweets were considered to be on message if they promoted veganism or possessed an anti-dairy, anti-meat, or pro-animal sentiment. Februdairy tweets were assessed as on message if they promoted the consumption of dairy products, expressed sympathy or empathy towards the dairy industry, or possessed an anti-vegan sentiment. Tweets were also evaluated according to their clarity, emotional impact and coherence. The overall effectiveness of the hashtag was then evaluated based on the above criteria as well as whether they had been hijacked.Results and FindingsOverwhelmingly, the 213 #Veganuary tweets were on message. That is they were pro-Veganuary, supportive of veganism, and positive. The topics were varied and included humorous memes, environmental facts, information about the health benefits of veganism, as well as a strong focus on animals. The number of non-graphic tweets (12) concerning animals was double that of tweets featuring graphic or shocking imagery (6). Predominantly the tweets were focused on food and the sharing of recipes, with 44% of all pro #Veganuary tweets featuring recipes or images of food. Interestingly, a number of well-known corporations tweeted to promote their vegan food products, including Tesco, Aldi, Iceland, and M&S. The diversity of veganism is reflected in the tweets. Organisations used the hashtag to promote their products, including beauty and shoe products, social media influencers promoted their vegan podcasts and blogs, and, interestingly, the Ethiopian Embassy of the United Kingdom tweeted their support.There were 23 (11%) anti-Veganuary tweets. Of these, one was from Dr. Jude Capper, the founder of Februdairy. The others expressed support for farming and farmers, and a number were photographs of meat products, including sausages and fry-ups. One Australian journalist tweeted in favour of meat, stating it was yummy murder. These tweets could be described as entertaining and may perhaps serve as a means of preaching to the converted, but their ability to influence and persuade is negligible.Twitter’s search tool provided access to 141 top #Februdairy tweets. Of these 82 (52%) were a hijack of the hashtag and overtly anti-Februdairy. Vegan activists used the #Februdairy hashtag to their advantage with most of their tweets (33%) featuring non-graphic images of animals. They also tweeted about other subject matters, including environmental concerns, vegan food and products, and health issues related to dairy consumption.As noted by the activists (see fig. 1 above), most of the pro-Februdairy tweets were images of milk or dairy products (41%). Images of farms and farmers were the next most used (26%), followed by images of cows (17%) (see fig. 2). Fig. 2: An activist makes their anti-Februdairy point with a clear, engaging image and effective use of hashtags. (#Februdairy, 6 Feb. 2019)The juxtaposition between many of the tweets was also often glaring, with one contrasting message following another (see fig. 3). Fig. 3: An example of contrasting #Februdairy tweets with an image used by the activists to good effect, making their point known. (#Februdairy, 2 Feb. 2019)Storytelling is a powerful tool in public relations and marketing efforts. Yet, to be effective, high-quality content is required. That many of the Februdairy proponents had limited social media training was evident; images were blurred, film quality was poor, or they failed to make their meaning clear (see fig. 4). Fig. 4: A blurred photograph, reflective of some of the low-quality content provided by Februdairy supporters. (#Februdairy, 3 Feb. 2019)This image was tweeted in support of Februdairy. However the image and phrasing could also be used to argue against Februdairy. We can surmise that the tweeter was suggesting the cow was well looked after and seemingly content, but overall the message is as unclear as the image.While some pro-Februdairy supporters recognised the need for relevant hashtags, often their images were of a low-quality and not particularly engaging, a requirement for social media success. This requirement seems to be better understood by anti-Februdairy activists who used high-quality images and memes to create interest and gain the audience’s attention (see figs. 5 and 6). Fig. 5: An uninspiring image used to promote Februdairy. (#Februdairy, 6 Feb. 2019) Fig. 6: Anti-Februdairy activists made good use of memes, recognising the need for diverse content. (#Februdairy, 3 Feb. 2019)DiscussionWhat the #Februdairy case makes clear, then, is that in continuing its focus on traditional media, the dairy industry has left the battle online to largely untrained, non-social media savvy supporters.From a purely public relations perspective, one of the first things we ask our students to do in issues and crisis communication is to assess the risk. “What can hurt your organisation?” we ask. “What potential issues are on the horizon and what can you do to prevent them?” This is PR101 and it is difficult to understand why environmental scanning and resulting action has not been on the radar of the dairy industry long before now. It seems they have not fully anticipated or have significantly underestimated the emerging issue that public perception, animal cruelty, health concerns, and, ultimately, veganism has had on their industry and this is to their detriment. In Australia in 2015–16 the dairy industry was responsible for 8 per cent (A$4.3 billion) of the gross value of agricultural production and 7 per cent (A$3 billion) of agricultural export income (Department of Agriculture and Water Resources). When such large figures are involved and with so much at stake, it is hard to rationalise the decision not to engage in a more proactive online strategy, seeking to engage their publics, including, whether they like it or not, activists.Instead there are current attempts to address these issues with a legislative approach, lobbying for the introduction of ag-gag laws (Potter), and the limitation of terms such as milk and cheese (Worthington). However, these measures are undertaken while there is little attempt to engage with activists or to effectively counter their claims with a widespread authentic public relations campaign, and reflects a failure to understand the nature of the current online environment, momentum, and mood.That is not to say that the dairy industry is not operating in the online environment, but it does not appear to be a priority, and this is reflected in their low engagement and numbers of followers. For instance, Dairy Australia, the industry’s national service body, has a following of only 8,281 on Facebook, 6,981 on Twitter, and, crucially, they are not on Instagram. Their Twitter posts do not include hashtags and unsurprisingly they have little engagement on this platform with most tweets attracting no more than two likes. Surprisingly they have 21,013 subscribers on YouTube which featured professional and well-presented videos. This demonstrates some understanding of the importance of effective storytelling but not, as yet, trans-media storytelling.ConclusionSocial media activism is becoming more important and recognised as a legitimate voice in the public sphere. Many organisations, perhaps in recognition of this as well as a growing focus on responsible corporate behaviour, particularly in the treatment of animals, have adjusted their behaviour. From Unilever abandoning animal testing practices to ensure Dove products are certified cruelty free (Nussbaum), to Domino’s introducing vegan options, companies who are aware of emerging trends and values are changing the way they do business and are reaping the benefits of engaging with, and catering to, vegans. Domino’s sold out of vegan cheese within the first week and vegans were asked to phone ahead to their local store, so great was the demand. From their website:We knew the response was going to be big after the demand we saw for the product on social media but we had no idea it was going to be this big. (Domino’s Newsroom)As a public relations professional, I am baffled by the dairy industry’s failure to adopt a crisis-based strategy rather than largely rely on the traditional one-way communication that has served them well in the previous (golden?) pre-social media age. However, as a vegan, persuaded by the unravelling of the happy cow argument, I cannot help but hope this realisation continues to elude them.References@bovidiva. “Let’s Make #Februdairy Happen This Year. 28 Days, 28 Positive #dairy Posts. From Cute Calves and #cheese on Crumpets, to Belligerent Bulls and Juicy #beef #burgers – Who’s In?” Twitter post. 15 Jan. 2018. 1 Feb. 2019 <https://twitter.com/bovidiva/status/952910641840447488?lang=en>.Austin, Lucinda L., and Yan Jin. Social Media and Crisis Communication. 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1. A Minor Philosopher According to Guattari and Deleuze's definition, a 'minor literature' is the literature of a minority that makes use of a major language, a literature which deterritorialises that language and interconnects meanings of the most disparate levels, inseparably mixing and implicating poetic, psychological, social and political issues with each other. In analogy, the Japanese media theorist Toshiya Ueno has refered to Félix Guattari as a 'minor philosopher'. Himself a practicing psychoanalyst, Guattari was a foreigner to the Grand Nation of Philosophy, whose natives mostly treat him like an unworthy bastard. And yet he has established a garden of minor flowers, of mongrel weeds and rhizomes that are as polluting to philosophy as Kafka's writing has been to German literature (cf. Deleuze & Guattari, Kafka). The strategies of 'being minor' are, as exemplified by Guattari's writings (with and without Deleuze), deployed in multiple contexts: intensification, re-functionalisation, estrangement, transgression. The following offers a brief overview over the way in which Guattari conceptualises media, new technologies and art, as well as descriptions of several media art projects that may help to illustrate the potentials of such 'minor machines'. Without wanting to pin these projects down as 'Guattarian' artworks, I suggest that the specific practices of contemporary media artists can point us in the direction of the re-singularising, deterritorialising and subjectifying forces which Guattari indicated as being germane to media technologies. Many artists who work with media technologies do so through strategies of appropriation and from a position of 'being minor': whenever a marginality, a minority, becomes active, takes the word power (puissance de verbe), transforms itself into becoming, and not merely submitting to it, identical with its condition, but in active, processual becoming, it engenders a singular trajectory that is necessarily deterritorialising because, precisely, it's a minority that begins to subvert a majority, a consensus, a great aggregate. As long as a minority, a cloud, is on a border, a limit, an exteriority of a great whole, it's something that is, by definition, marginalised. But here, this point, this object, begins to proliferate ..., begins to amplify, to recompose something that is no longer a totality, but that makes a former totality shift, detotalises, deterritorialises an entity.' (Guattari, "Pragmatic/Machinic") In the context of media art, 'becoming minor' is a strategy of turning major technologies into minor machines. a. Krzysztof Wodiczko (PL/USA): Alien Staff Krzysztof Wodiczko's Alien Staff is a mobile communication system and prosthetic instrument which facilitates the communication of migrants in their new countries of residence, where they have insufficient command of the local language for communicating on a par with the native inhabitants. Alien Staff consists of a hand-held staff with a small video monitor and a loudspeaker at the top. The operator can adjust the height of the staff's head to be at a level with his or her own head. Via the video monitor, the operator can replay pre-recorded elements of an interview or a narration of him- or herself. The recorded material may contain biographical information when people have difficulties constructing coherent narratives in the foreign language, or it may include the description of feelings and impressions which the operator normally doesn't get a chance to talk about. The Staff is used in public places where passers-by are attracted to listen to the recording and engage in a conversation with the operator. Special transparent segments of the staff contain memorabilia, photographs or other objects which indicate a part of the personal history of the operator and which are intended to instigate a conversation. The Alien Staff offers individuals an opportunity to remember and retell their own story and to confront people in the country of immigration with this particular story. The Staff reaffirms the migrant's own subjectivity and re-singularises individuals who are often perceived as representative of a homogenous group. The instrument displaces expectations of the majority audience by articulating unformulated aspects of the migrant's subjectivity through a medium that appears as the attractive double of an apparently 'invisible' person. 2. Mass Media, New Technologies and 'Planetary Computerisation' Guattari's comments about media are mostly made in passing and display a clearly outlined opinion about the role of media in contemporary society: a staunch critique of mass media is coupled with an optimistic outlook to the potentials of a post-medial age in which new technologies can develop their singularising, heterogenic forces. The latter development is, as Guattari suggests, already discernible in the field of art and other cultural practices making use of electronic networks, and can lead to a state of 'planetary computerisation' in which multiple new subject-groups can emerge. Guattari consistently refers to the mass media with contempt, qualifying them as a stupefying machinery that is closely wedded to the forces of global capitalism, and that is co-responsible for much of the reactionary hyper-individualism, the desperation and the "state of emergency" that currently dominates "four-fifth of humanity" (Guattari, Chaosmosis 97; cf. Guattari, Drei Ökologien 16, 21). Guattari makes a passionate plea for a new social ecology and formulates, as one step towards this goal, the necessity, "to guide these capitalist societies of the age of mass media into a post-mass medial age; by this I mean that the mass media have to be reappropriated by a multiplicity of subject-groups who are able to administer them on a path of singularisation" (Guattari, "Regimes" 64). Guattari consistently refers to the mass media with contempt, qualifying them as a stupefying machinery that is closely wedded to the forces of global capitalism, and that is co-responsible for much of the reactionary hyper-individualism, the desperation and the "state of emergency" that currently dominates "four-fifth of humanity" (Guattari, Chaosmosis 97; cf. Guattari, Drei Ökologien 16, 21). Guattari makes a passionate plea for a new social ecology and formulates, as one step towards this goal, the necessity, "to guide these capitalist societies of the age of mass media into a post-mass medial age; by this I mean that the mass media have to be reappropriated by a multiplicity of subject-groups who are able to administer them on a path of singularisation" (Guattari, "Regimes" 64). b. Seiko Mikami (J/USA): World, Membrane and the Dismembered Body An art project that deals with the cut between the human subject and the body, and with the deterritorialisation of the sense of self, is Seiko Mikami's World, Membrane and the Dismembered Body. It uses the visitor's heart and lung sounds which are amplified and transformed within the space of the installation. These sounds create a gap between the internal and external sounds of the body. The project is presented in an-echoic room where sound does not reverberate. Upon entering this room, it is as though your ears are no longer living while paradoxically you also feel as though all of your nerves are concentrated in your ears. The sounds of the heart, lungs, and pulse beat are digitised by the computer system and act as parameters to form a continuously transforming 3-d polygonal mesh of body sounds moving through the room. Two situations are effected in real time: the slight sounds produced by the body itself resonate in the body's internal membranes, and the transfigured resonance of those sounds is amplified in the space. A time-lag separates both perceptual events. The visitor is overcome by the feeling that a part of his or her corporeality is under erasure. The body exists as abstract data, only the perceptual sense is aroused. The visitor is made conscious of the disappearance of the physical contours of his or her subjectivity and thereby experiences being turned into a fragmented body. The ears mediate the space that exists between the self and the body. Mikami's work fragments the body and its perceptual apparatus into data, employing them as interfaces and thus folding the body's horizon back onto itself. The project elucidates the difference between an actual and a virtual body, the actual body being deterritorialised and projected outwards towards a number of potential, virtual bodies that can, in the installation, be experienced as maybe even more 'real' than the actual body. 3. Artistic Practice Guattari's conception of post-media implies criss-crossing intersections of aesthetic, ethical, political and technological planes, among which the aesthetic, and with it artistic creativity, are ascribed a position of special prominence. This special role of art is a trope that recurs quite frequently in Guattari's writings, even though he is rarely specific about the artistic practices he has in mind. In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari give some detailled attention to the works of artists like Debussy, Boulez, Beckett, Artaud, Kafka, Kleist, Proust, and Klee, and Chaosmosis includes longer passages and concrete examples for the relevance of the aesthetic paradigm. These examples come almost exclusively from the fields of performing arts, music and literature, while visual arts are all but absent. One reason for this could be that the performing arts are time-based and processual and thus lend themselves much better to theorisation of flows, transformations and differentiations. The visual arts can be related to the abstract machine of faciality (visageité) which produces unified, molar, identical entities out of a multiplicity of different singularities, assigning them to a specific category and associating them with particular social fields (cf. Deleuze & Guattari, Tausend Plateaus 167-91) This semiotic territorialisation is much more likely to happen in the case of static images, whether two- or three-dimensional, than in time-based art forms. An interesting question, then, would be whether media art projects, many of which are time-based, processual and open-ended, can be considered as potential post-medial art practices. Moreover, given the status of computer software as the central motor of the digital age, and the crucial role it plays in aesthetic productions like those discussed here, software may have to be viewed as the epitome of post-medial machines. Guattari seems to have been largely unaware of the beginnings of digital media art as it developed in the 1980s. In generalistic terms he suggests that the artist is particularly well-equipped to conceptualise the necessary steps for this work because, unlike engineers, he or she is not tied to a particular programme or plan for a product, and can change the course of a project at any point if an unexpected event or accident intrudes (cf. Guattari, Drei Ökologien 50). The significance of art for Guattari's thinking comes primarily from its close relation with processes of subjectivation. "Just as scientific machines constantly modify our cosmic frontiers, so do the machines of desire and aesthetic creation. As such, they hold an eminent place within assemblages of subjectivation, themselves called to relieve our old social machines which are incapable of keeping up with the efflorescence of machinic revolutions that shatter our epoch' (Guattari, Chaosmosis 54). The aesthetic paradigm facilitates the development of new, virtual forms of subjectivity, and of liberation, which will be adequate to these machinic revolutions. c. Knowbotic Research + cF: IO_Dencies The Alien Staff project was mentioned as an example for the re-singularisation and the virtualisation of identity, and World, Membrane and the Dismembered Body as an instance of the deterritorialisation and virtualisation of the human body through an artistic interface. The recent project by Knowbotic Research, IO_Dencies -- Questioning Urbanity, deals with the possibilities of agency, collaboration and construction in translocal and networked environments. It points in the direction of what Guattari has called the formation of 'group subjects' through connective interfaces. The project looks at urban settings in different megacities like Tokyo, São Paulo or the Ruhr Area, analyses the forces present in particular local urban situations, and offers experimental interfaces for dealing with these local force fields. IO_Dencies São Paulo enables the articulation of subjective experiences of the city through a collaborative process. Over a period of several months, a group of young architects and urbanists from São Paulo, the 'editors', provided the content and dynamic input for a database. The editors collected material (texts, images, sounds) based on their current situation and on their personal urban experience. A specially designed editor tool allowed the editors to build individual conceptual 'maps' in which to construct the relations between the different materials in the data-pool according to the subjective perception of the city. On the computational level, connectivities are created between the different maps of the editors, a process that is driven by algorithmic self-organisation whose rules are determined by the choices that the editors make. In the process, the collaborative editorial work in the database generates zones of intensities and zones of tension which are visualised as force fields and turbulences and which can be experienced through interfaces on the Internet and at physical exhibition sites. Participants on the Net and in the exhibition can modify and influence these electronic urban movements, force fields and intensities on an abstract, visual level, as well as on a content-based, textual level. This engagement with the project and its material is fed back into the database and influences the relational forces within the project's digital environment. Characteristic of the forms of agency as they evolve in networked environments is that they are neither individualistic nor collective, but rather connective. Whereas the collective is determined by an intentional and empathetic relation between agents within an assemblage, the connective rests on any kind of machinic relation and is therefore more versatile, more open, and based on the heterogeneity of its components or members. In the IO_Dencies interfaces, the different networked participants become visible for each other, creating a trans-local zone of connective agency. The inter-connectedness of their activities can be experienced visually, acoustically, and through the constant reconfiguration of the data sets, an experience which can become the basis of the formation of a specific, heterogeneous group subject. 4. Guattari's Concept of the Machinic An important notion underlying these analyses is that of the machine which, for Guattari, relates not so much to particular technological or mechanical objects, to the technical infrastructure or the physical flows of the urban environment. 'Machines' can be social bodies, industrial complexes, psychological or cultural formations, they are assemblages of heterogeneous parts, aggregations which transform forces, articulate and propel their elements, and force them into a continuous state of transformation and becoming. An important notion underlying these analyses is that of the machine which, for Guattari, relates not so much to particular technological or mechanical objects, to the technical infrastructure or the physical flows of the urban environment. 'Machines' can be social bodies, industrial complexes, psychological or cultural formations, they are assemblages of heterogeneous parts, aggregations which transform forces, articulate and propel their elements, and force them into a continuous state of transformation and becoming. d. Xchange Network My final example is possibly the most evocative in relation to Guattari's notions of the polyvocity and heterogenesis that new media technologies can trigger. It also links up closely with Guattari's own engagement with the minor community radio movement. In late 1997, the E-Lab in Riga initiated the Xchange network for audio experiments on the Internet. The participating groups in London, Ljubljana, Sydney, Berlin, and many other minor and major places, use the Net for distributing their original sound programmes. The Xchange network is "streaming via encoders to remote servers, picking up the stream and re-broadcasting it purely or re-mixed, looping the streams" (Rasa Smite). Xchange is a distributed group, a connective, that builds creative cooperation in live-audio streaming on the communication channels that connect them. They explore the Net as a sound-scape with particular qualities regarding data transmission, delay, feedback, and open, distributed collaborations. Moreover, they connect the network with a variety of other fields. Instead of defining an 'authentic' place of their artistic work, they play in the transversal post-medial zone of media labs in different countries, mailing lists, net-casting and FM broadcasting, clubs, magazines, stickers, etc., in which 'real' spaces and media continuously overlap and fuse (cf. Slater). 5. Heterogenic Practices If we want to understand the technological and the political implications of the machinic environment of the digital networks, and if we want to see the emergence of the group subjects of the post-media age Guattari talks about, we have to look at connectives like Xchange and the editor-participant assemblages of IO_Dencies. The far-reaching machinic transformations which they articulate, hold the potential of what Guattari refers to as the 'molecular revolution'. To realise this revolution, it is vital to "forge new analytical instruments, new concepts, because it is ... the transversality, the crossing of abstract machines that constitute a subjectivity and that are incarnated, that live in very different regions and domains and ... that can be contradictory and antagonistic". For Guattari, this is not a mere theoretical question, but one of experimentation, "of new forms of interactions, of movement construction that respects the diversity, the sensitivities, the particularities of interventions, and that is nonetheless capable of constituting antagonistic machines of struggle to intervene in power relations" (Guattari, "Pragmatic/Machinic" 4-5). The implication here is that some of the minor media practices pursued by artists using digital technologies point us in the direction of the positive potentials of post media. The line of flight of such experimentation is the construction of new and strong forms of subjectivity, "an individual and/or collective reconstitution of the self" (Guattari, Drei Ökologien 21), which can strengthen the process of what Guattari calls "heterogenesis, that is a continuous process of resingularisation. The individuals must, at the same time, become solidary and ever more different" (Guattari, Drei Ökologien 76). References Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. Kafka: Pour une Litterature Mineur. Paris: Ed. de Minuit, 1975. ---. Tausend Plateaus. (1980) Berlin: Merve, 1992. Guattari, Félix. Cartographies Schizoanalytiques. Paris: Ed. Galilée, 1989. ---. Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm. (1992) Sydney: Power Publications, 1995. ---. Die drei Ökologien. (1989) Wien: Passagen Verlag, 1994. ---. "Pragmatic/Machinic." Discussion with Guattari, conducted and transcribed by Charles J. Stivale. (1985) Pre/Text 14.3-4 (1995). ---. "Regimes, Pathways, Subjects." Die drei Ökologien. (1989) Wien: Passagen Verlag, 1994. 95-108. ---. "Über Maschinen." (1990) Schmidgen, 115-32. Knowbotic Research. IO_Dencies. 1997-8. 11 Sep. 1999 <http://io.khm.de/>. De Landa, Manuel. "The Machinic Phylum." Technomorphica. Eds. V2_Organisation. Rotterdam: V2_Organisation, 1997. Mikami, Seiko. World, Membrane and the Dismembered Body. 1997. 11 Sep. 1999 <http://www.ntticc.or.jp/permanent/mikami/mikami_e.php>. Schmidgen, Henning, ed. Ästhetik und Maschinismus: Texte zu und von Félix Guattari. Berlin: Merve, 1995. ---. Das Unbewußte der Maschinen: Konzeptionen des Psychischen bei Guattari, Deleuze und Lacan. München: Fink, 1997. Slater, Howard. "Post-Media Operators." Nettime, 10 June 1998. 11 Sep. 1999 <http://www.factory.org>. Wodiczko, Krzysztof. 11 Sep. 1999 <http://cavs.mit.edu/people/kw.htm>. Xchange. 11 Sep. 1999 <http://xchange.re-lab.net>. (Note: An extended, Dutch version of this text was published in: Oosterling/Thissen, eds. Chaos ex Machina: Het ecosofisch Werk van Félix Guattari op de Kaart Gezet. Rotterdam: CFK, 1998. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Andreas Broeckmann. "Minor Media -- Heterogenic Machines: Notes on Félix Guattari's Conceptions of Art and New Media." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.6 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/minor.php>. Chicago style: Andreas Broeckmann, "Minor Media -- Heterogenic Machines: Notes on Félix Guattari's Conceptions of Art and New Media," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 6 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/minor.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Andreas Broeckmann. (1999) Minor Media -- Heterogenic Machines: Notes on Félix Guattari's Conceptions of Art and New Media. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(6). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/minor.php> ([your date of access]).

Introduction Sharing food is central to culture. Indeed, according to Montanari, “food is culture” (xii). Ways of sharing knowledge about food, such as the exchange of recipes, give longevity to food sharing. Recipes, an important cultural technology, expand the practice of sharing food beyond specific times and places. The means through which recipes, and information about food, is shared has historically been communicated through whatever medium is available at the time. Cookbooks were among the first printed books, with the first known cookbook published in 1485 at Nuremberg, which set a trend in which cookbooks were published in most of the languages across Western Europe by the mid 16th century (Mennell). Since then, recipe collections have found a comfortable home in new and emerging media, from radio, to television, and now, online. The proliferation of cookbooks and other forms of food-related media “can be interpreted as a reflection of culinary inexperience, if not also incompetence—otherwise why so much reliance on outside advice?” (Belasco 46). Food-related media has also been argued to reflect both what people eat and what they might wish they could eat (Neuhaus, in Belasco). As such, cookbooks, television cooking shows, and food websites help shape our identity and, as Gallegos notes, play “a role in inscribing the self with a sense of place, belonging and achievement” (99). Food writing has expanded beyond the instructional form common to cookbooks and television cooking shows and, according to Hughes, “has insinuated itself into every aspect of the literary imagination” (online) from academic writing through to memoir, fiction, and travel writing. Hughes argues that concerns that people are actually now cooking less that ever, despite this influx of food-related media, miss the point that “food writing is a literary activity […] the best of it does what good writing always does, which is to create an alternative world to the one you currently inhabit” (online). While pragmatic, this argument also reinforces the common perception that food writing is a professional pursuit. It is important to note that while cookbooks and other forms of food-related media are well established as a means for recipes to be communicated, recipes have a longer history of being shared between individuals, that is, within families and communities. In helping to expand recipe-sharing practices, food-related media has also both professionalised and depersonalised this activity. As perhaps a reaction to this, or through a desire to re-establish communal recipe-sharing traditions, blogging, and specifically food blogging, has emerged as a new and viable way for people to share information about food in a non-professional capacity. Blogging has long been celebrated for its capacity to give “ordinary” people a voice (Nilsson). Due to their social nature (Walker Rettberg) and the ability for bloggers to create “networks for sharing ideas, trends and information” (Walker Rettberg 60), blogs are a natural fit for sharing recipes and information about food. Additionally, blogs, like food-related media forms such as cookbooks, are also used as tools for identity building. Blogger’s identities may be closely tied to their offline identity (Baumer, Sueyoshi and Tomlinson), forged through discussions about their everyday lives (Lövheim) or used in a professional capacity (Kedrowicz and Sullivan). Food blogs, broadly defined as blogs primarily focused on food, are one of the most prominent means through which so-called “ordinary” people can share recipes online, and can be seen to challenge perceptions that food writing is a professional activity. They may focus specifically on recipes, restaurant reviews, travel, food ethics, or aesthetic concerns such as food styling and photography. Since food blogs began to appear in the early 2000s, their number has steadily increased, and the community has become more established and structured. In my interview with the writer of the popular blog Chocolate & Zucchini, she noted that when she started blogging about food in 2003 there were perhaps a dozen other food bloggers. Since then, this blogger has become a professional food writer, published author, and recipe developer, while the number of food bloggers has grown dramatically. It is difficult to know the precise number of food blogs—as at July 2012, Technorati ranked more than 16,000 food blogs, including both recipe and restaurant review blogs (online)—but it is clear that they are both increasing in number and have become a common and popular blog genre. For the purposes of this article, food blogs are understood as those blogs that mostly feature recipes. The term “recipe blog” could be used, but food bloggers make little distinction between different topic categories—whether someone writes recipes or reviews, they are referred to as a food blogger. As such, I have used the term “food blog” in keeping with the community’s own terminology and practices. Recipes published on blogs reach a wider audience than those shared between individuals within a family or in a community, but are not as exclusive or professional, in most instances, as traditional food-related media. Blogging allows for the compression of time and space, as people can connect with others from around the world, and respond and reinvigorate posts sometimes several years after they have been written. In this sense, food blogs are more dynamic than cookbooks, with multiple entry points and means for people to discover them—through search engines as well as through traditional word of mouth referrals. This dynamism allows food bloggers to form an active community through which “ordinary” people can share their passion for food and the pleasures of cooking, seek advice, give feedback, and discuss such issues as seasonality, locality, and diet. This article is based on research I conducted on food blogs between 2010 and 2012, which used an ethnographic, cultural studies approach to online community studies to provide a rich description of the food blogging community. It examines how food blogging provides insight into the eating habits of “ordinary” people in a more broad-based manner than traditional food-related media such as cookbooks. It looks at how food blogging has evolved from a subcultural activity to an established and recognised element of the wider food-related media ecology, and in this way has been transformed from a hobbyist activity to a cottage industry. It discusses how food blogs have influenced food-related media and the potential they have to drive food trends. In doing so, this research does not consider the Internet, or online communities, as separate or distinct from offline culture. Instead, it follows Richard Rogers’s argument for a new approach to Internet studies, in which “one is not so much researching the Internet, and its users, as studying culture and society with the Internet” (29). A cultural studies approach is useful for understanding food blogs in a broader historical and cultural context, since it considers the Internet as “a rich arena for thinking about how contemporary culture is constituted” (Hine et al. 2). Food Blogging: From Hobbyist Activity to Cottage Industry Benkler argues that “people have always created their own culture” (296); however, as folk culture has gradually been replaced by mass-produced popular culture, we have come to expect certain production values in culture, and lost confidence in creating or sharing it ourselves, for fear of it not meeting these high standards. Such mass-produced popular culture includes food-related media and recipes, as developing and sharing recipes has become the domain of celebrity chefs. Food blogs are created by “ordinary” people, and in this way continue the tradition of community cookbooks and reflect an increased interest in both the do-it-yourself phenomena, and a resurgence of a desire to share and contribute to folk culture. Jenkins argues that “a thriving culture needs spaces where people can do bad art, get feedback, and get better” (140-1). He notes that the Internet has drastically expanded the availability of these spaces, and argues that: "some of what amateurs create will be surprisingly good, and some artists will be recruited into commercial entertainment or the art world. Much of it will be good enough to engage the interest of some modest public, to inspire someone else to create, to provide new content which, when polished through many hands, may turn into something more valuable down the line" (140-1). Food blogs provide such a space for amateurs to share their creations and get feedback. Additionally, some food bloggers, like the artists to whom Jenkins refers, do create recipes, writing, and images that are “surprisingly good”, and are recruited, not into commercial entertainment or the art world, but into food-related media. Some food bloggers publish cookbooks (for example, Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolate & Zucchini), or food-related memoirs (for example, Molly Wizenberg of Orangette), and some become food celebrities in their own right, as guests on high profile television shows such as Martha Stewart (Matt Armendariz of mattbites) or with their own cooking shows (Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman Cooks). Others, while not reaching these levels of success, do manage to inspire others to create, or recreate their, recipes. Mainstream media has a tendency to suggest that all food bloggers have professional aspirations (see, for example, Phipps). Yet, it is important to note that, many food bloggers are content to remain hobbyists. These food bloggers form the majority of the community, and blog about food because they are interested in food, and enjoy sharing recipes and discussing their interest with like-minded people. In this way, they are contributing to, and engaging with, folk culture within the blogging community. However, this does not mean that they do not have a broader impact on mainstream food-related media. Food-Related Media Response As the food blogging community has grown, food-related media and other industries have responded with attempts to understand, engage with, and manage food bloggers. Food blogs are increasingly recognised as an aspect of the broader food-related media and, as such, provide both competition and opportunities for media and other industries. Just as food blogs offer individuals opportunities for entry into food-related media professions, they also offer media and other industries opportunities to promote products, reach broader audiences, and source new talent. While food bloggers do not necessarily challenge existing food-related media, they increasingly see themselves as a part of it, and expect to be viewed as a legitimate part of the media landscape and as an alternative source of food-related information. As such, they respond positively to the inclusion of bloggers in food-related media and in other food-related environments. Engaging with the food blogging community allows the wider food-related media to subtly regulate blogger behaviour. It can also provide opportunities for some bloggers to be recruited in a professional capacity into food-related media. In a sense, food-related media attempt to “tame” food bloggers by suggesting that if bloggers behave in a way that they deem is acceptable, they may be able to transition into the professional world of food writing. The most notable example of this response to food blogs by food-related media is the decision to publish blogger’s work. While not all food bloggers have professional aspirations, being published is generally viewed within the community as a positive outcome. Food bloggers are sometimes profiled in food-related media, such as in the Good Weekend magazine in The Sydney Morning Herald (Karnikowski), and in MasterChef Magazine, which profiles a different food blogger each month (T. Jenkins). Food bloggers are also occasionally commissioned to write features for food-related media, as Katie Quinn Davies, of the blog What Katie Ate, who is a regular contributor to delicious magazine. Other food bloggers have been published in their own right. These food bloggers have transitioned from hobbyists to professionals, moving beyond blogging spaces into professional food-related media, and they could be, in Abercrombie and Longhurst’s terms, described as “petty producers” (140). As professionals, they have become a sort of “brand”, which their blog supports and promotes. This is not to say they are no longer interested in food or blogging on a personal level, but their relationship to these activities has shifted. For example, Dusoulier has published numerous books, and was one of the first food bloggers to transition into professional food-related media. However, her career in food-related media—as a food writer, recipe developer and author—goes beyond the work of a petty producer. Dusoulier edited the first English-language edition of I Know How To Cook (Mathiot), which, first published in 1932 (in French), has been described as the “bible” of traditional French cookery. Her work revising this classic book reveals that, beyond being a high-profile member of the food blogging community, she is a key figure in wider food culture. Such professional food bloggers achieve a certain level of celebrity both within the food blogging community and in food-related media. This is reflective of broader media trends in which “ordinary” people are “plucked from obscurity to enjoy a highly circumscribed celebrity” (Turner 12), and, in this way, food bloggers challenge the idea that you need to be an “expert” to talk publicly about food. Food Blogging as an Established Genre Food blogs are often included alongside traditional food-related media as another source of food-related information. For example, the site Eat your books, which indexes cookbooks, providing users with an online tool for searching the recipes in the books they own, has begun to index food blogs as well. Likewise, in 2010, the James Beard Foundation announced that their prestigious journalism awards had “mostly abolished separate categories based on publishing platforms”, although they still have an award for best food blog (Fox online). This inclusion reflects how established food blogging has become. Over time, food blogs have co-evolved and converged with food-related media, offering greater diversity of opinion. Ganda Suthivarakom, a food blogger and now director of the SAVEUR website, says that “in 2004, to be a food blogger was to be an outsider in the world of food media. Today, it couldn’t be more different” (online). She argues that “food blogs leveled the playing field […] Instead of a rarefied and inaccessible group of print reviewers having a say, suddenly thousands of voices of varying skill levels and interests chimed in, and the conversation became livelier” (Suthivarakom online). It is worthwhile noting that while there are more voices and more diversity in traditional food-related media, food blogging has also become somewhat of a cliché: it has even been satirised in an episode of The Simpsons (Bailey and Anderson). As food blogging has evolved it has developed into an established and recognised genre, which may be nuanced to the bloggers themselves, but often appears generic to outsiders. Food blogging has, as it were, gone mainstream. As such, the thousands of voices are also somewhat of an echo chamber. In becoming established as a genre, food blogs reflect the gradual convergence of different types of food-related media. Food blogs are part of a wider trend towards user-generated, food-related online content. It could also be argued that reality shows take cues from food blogs in terms of their active audiences and use of social media. MasterChef in particular is supported by a website, a magazine, and active social media channels, reflecting an increasing expectation of audience participation and interactivity in the delivery of food-related information. Food bloggers have also arguably contributed to the increasingly image-driven nature of food-related media. They have also played a key role in the popularity of sharing photos of food through platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. Food Blogs and Food Trends Food blogs, like cookbooks, can be seen to both reflect and shape culture (Gallegos). In addition to providing an archive of what “ordinary” people are cooking on a scale not previously available, they have potential to influence food trends. Food bloggers are essentially food enthusiasts or “foodies”. According to De Solier, “most foodies see themselves as culturalists rather than materialists, people whose self-making is bound up in the acquisition of cultural experiences and knowledge, rather than the accumulation of material things” (16). As foodies, food bloggers are deeply engaged with food, keen to share their knowledge and, due to the essential and convivial nature of food, are afforded many opportunities to do so. As such, food blogs have influence beyond the food blogging community. For example, food bloggers could be seen to be responsible, in part at least, for the current popularity of macarons. These sweet, meringue-based biscuits were featured on the blog A la cuisine! in 2004—one of the earliest examples of the recipe in the food blogging community. Its popularity then steadily grew throughout the community, and has since been featured on high-profile and popular blogs such as David Lebovitz (2005), The Traveller’s Lunchbox (2005), and La Tartine Gourmand (2006). Creating and posting a recipe for macarons became almost a rite of passage for food bloggers. At a food blogging conference I attended in 2011, one blogger confided to me that she did not feel like a proper blogger because she had not yet made macarons. The popularity of macarons then extended beyond the food blogging community. They were the subject of a book, I Love Macarons (Ogita), first published in Japanese in 2006 and then in English in 2009, and featured in a cooking challenge on MasterChef (Byrnes), which propelled their popularity into mainstream food culture. Macarons, which could have once been seen as exclusive, delicate, and expensive (Jargon and Passariello) are now readily available, and can even be purchased at MacDonalds. Beyond the popularity of specific foods, the influence of food bloggers can be seen in the growing interest in where, and how, food is produced, coupled with concerns around food wastage (see, for example, Tristram). Concerns about food production are sometimes countered by the trend of making foods “from scratch,” a popular topic on food blogs, and such trends can also be seen in wider food culture, such as with classes on topics ranging from cheese making to butchering (Severson). These concerns are also evident in the growing interest in organic and ethical produce (Paish). Conclusion Food blogs have demonstrably revitalised an interest in recipe sharing among “ordinary” people. The evolution of food blogs, however, is just one part of the ongoing evolution of food-related media and recipe sharing technologies. Food blogs are also an important part of food culture, and indeed, culture more broadly. They reflect a renewed interest in folk culture and the trend towards “do-it-yourself”, seen in online and offline communities. Beyond this, food blogs provide a useful case study for understanding how our online and offline lives have become intertwined, and showcase the Internet as a part of everyday life. 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