Digital Contention in a Divided Society, Manchester University Press 2024.
This month the paperback version of Digital Contention in a Divided Society (featuring a new afterword) is published. It can be ordered on the Manchester University Press website here.
I will be having three book launch events in England, Scotland and Germany over the next three weeks. Details of each are below.
Leicester
I am delighted to be back in Leicester for a book talk on 24 April, hosted by John Coster (Documentary Media Centre). There is no need to register for this free event. Details are below.
Venue:237 Advanced Research Centre (ARC), University of Glasgow, 11 Chapel Lane, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Join Paul Reilly (University of Glasgow) and host, Dave Scott (Nil by Mouth), to celebrate the paperback launch of Paul’s book, Digital contention in a divided society: Social media, parades and protests in Northern Ireland.
They will discuss the role of social media in protests and civil unrest in Northern Ireland, followed by a Q&A session. There will be a drinks reception afterwards.
With thanks to Dr. Giuliana Source, I will be delivering a lunchtime talk at the Institut für Medienwissenschaft at Tübingen University. Details on the talk can be found here.
This morning I am an invited participant at the WSIS and Academia roundtable organised by the World Summit on the Information Society.
The semi-structured open roundtable will include stakeholders from academia and WSIS to discuss opportunities for collaboration and mutual support on ICTs and the sciences (between academic stakeholders, ITU, and the WSIS forum). This will, for example, include research partnerships, innovation-sharing, critical debate, networks and collaboration, and student involvement. Following the session, key points will feed into the creation of a pathway for academic involvement.
Many thanks to the moderator Suay Ozkula for the invitation and for organising this event.
More details on the roundtable and the participants can be found here
Last week I spoke to Dr. Hakan Karahasan, Head of the Department of Advertising Design and Communication as part of the seminar series at the Arkin University of Creative Arts and Design (ARUCAD). Many thanks to Hakan and his colleagues for hosting this talk.
Many thanks to Emily and the PSA MPG organisers for the opportunity to participate in the series. Details on how to register for the event can be found here
The NTU Research Centre for the Study of Inequality, Culture and Difference is delighted to welcome Dr Paul Reilly from the University of Sheffield 2-3pm BST on Wednesday 28th April, who will be giving a talk on Social media, parades and protest in a Divided Society: Reflections from post-conflict Northern Ireland.
Abstract:
How are platforms such as Facebook and Twitter used by citizens to frame contentious parades and protests in ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland? What do these contentious episodes tell us about the potential of information and communication technologies to promote positive intergroup contact in the deeply divided society? In this paper, I will explore these issues through the first in-depth qualitative exploration of how social media were used during the union flag protests (December 2012-March 2013) and the Ardoyne parade disputes (July 2014 and 2015). I examine the extent to which affective publics, mobilised and connected via expressions of solidarity on social media, appear to escalate or de-escalate sectarian tensions caused by these hybrid media events. I conclude by examining whether citizen activity on these online platforms has the potential to contribute to peacebuilding in divided societies such as Northern Ireland. Bio: Dr. Paul Reilly is Senior Lecturer in Social Media & Digital Society at the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on social media sousveillance, digital activism and the use of digital media to promote better community relations in divided societies. He has written two books on the role of digital media in conflict transformation in Northern Ireland (Framing the Troubles Online and Digital Contention in a Divided Society, both with Manchester University Press). His work has also been published in a number of journals including First Monday, Information, Communication & Society, Journalism, New Media & Society, and Policy & Internet.
There is no registration for the seminar, and you can access it using the link below:
Peace on Facebook, University of Westminster seminar, 4 March 2021 (17:00-19:00)
I am giving an invited seminar at the Communication and Media Research Institute at the University of Westminster tomorrow. Full details on the event are below:
Paul Reilly (University of Sheffield) – Problematising Social Media as Spaces for Intergroup Contact in Divided Societies
Peace on Facebook? Problematising Social Media as Spaces for Intergroup Contact in Divided Societies
As far back as the late sixties, renowned peace theorist Johann Galtung (1967) predicted that the rapid growth of new media technologies would favour associative rather than dissociative approaches towards peacebuilding. The assumption was that strategies to keep antagonists apart would likely fail due to the development of more efficient means of communication bringing them closer together. This resonates with the rhetoric employed by Peace on Facebook, a project created by the social media giant in partnership with Stanford University, which claimed that the platform provided space for dialogue between social groups traditionally divided along ethnic or sectarian lines. This contribution critically evaluates these claims by examining the potential contribution of social media platforms to peacebuilding in divided societies. It does so by reviewing the literature on social media peacebuilding initiatives and assessing whether these platforms constitute shared spaces in which positive relationships between members of antagonistic groups can be built in deeply divided societies.
The analysis presented in this seminar suggests that the prospects for peace and positive intergroup contact in such societies are unlikely to be advanced through unstructured citizen activity on social media. These platforms amplify content that reinforces tribalism and political partisanship, thus making it harder to promote reconciliation between antagonists in divided societies. Drawing primarily on the case of Northern Ireland, a society still transitioning out of a thirty-year ethno-nationalist conflict, Paul Reilly suggests that the negative stereotyping of outgroups on social media militates against one of the key tenets of reconciliation, namely that citizens treat each other as individuals rather than anonymous members of the ‘other’ community. Therefore, ‘supervised’ online contact projects, revolving around the use of non-commercial platforms and culminating in face-to-face communication, are much more effective in building peace than the contact facilitated by online platforms such as Facebook.
I have been given a discount code which I can share, so please email me (p.j.reilly@sheffield.ac.uk) or DM me on Twitter (@PaulJReilly) if you want to purchase a copy.
Digital Contention in a Divided Society was published a few weeks ago. I have been given a discount code which I can share, so please email me (p.j.reilly@sheffield.ac.uk) if you want to purchase a copy.
Sheffield University have recently published a piece highlighting some of the book’s key findings here
I will be doing a book talk today (25 February), as part of the Interdisciplinary Digital Research Group‘s seminar series at Dublin City University. Many thanks to Tanya Lokot for the invitation and organising the talk. Full details are provided below:
Speaker: Dr Paul Reilly (University of Sheffield)
Book talk: Digital Contention in a divided society: social media, parades and protests in Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2021)
Date/time: 25 February, 2021, 4:00-5:00pm GMT
How are platforms such as Facebook and Twitter used by citizens to frame contentious parades and protests in ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland? What do these contentious episodes tell us about the potential of information and communication technologies to promote positive intergroup contact in the deeply divided society?
I am also giving an invited seminar at the Communication and Media Research Institute at the University of Westminster next week. Full details on the event are below:
Paul Reilly (University of Sheffield) – Problematising Social Media as Spaces for Intergroup Contact in Divided Societies
Peace on Facebook? Problematising Social Media as Spaces for Intergroup Contact in Divided Societies
As far back as the late sixties, renowned peace theorist Johann Galtung (1967) predicted that the rapid growth of new media technologies would favour associative rather than dissociative approaches towards peacebuilding. The assumption was that strategies to keep antagonists apart would likely fail due to the development of more efficient means of communication bringing them closer together. This resonates with the rhetoric employed by Peace on Facebook, a project created by the social media giant in partnership with Stanford University, which claimed that the platform provided space for dialogue between social groups traditionally divided along ethnic or sectarian lines. This contribution critically evaluates these claims by examining the potential contribution of social media platforms to peacebuilding in divided societies. It does so by reviewing the literature on social media peacebuilding initiatives and assessing whether these platforms constitute shared spaces in which positive relationships between members of antagonistic groups can be built in deeply divided societies.
The analysis presented in this seminar suggests that the prospects for peace and positive intergroup contact in such societies are unlikely to be advanced through unstructured citizen activity on social media. These platforms amplify content that reinforces tribalism and political partisanship, thus making it harder to promote reconciliation between antagonists in divided societies. Drawing primarily on the case of Northern Ireland, a society still transitioning out of a thirty-year ethno-nationalist conflict, Paul Reilly suggests that the negative stereotyping of outgroups on social media militates against one of the key tenets of reconciliation, namely that citizens treat each other as individuals rather than anonymous members of the ‘other’ community. Therefore, ‘supervised’ online contact projects, revolving around the use of non-commercial platforms and culminating in face-to-face communication, are much more effective in building peace than the contact facilitated by online platforms such as Facebook.
Digital Contention in a Divided Society was published on 19 January 2021.
Digital Contention in a Divided Society was published a few weeks ago. I have been given a discount code which I can share, so please email me (p.j.reilly@sheffield.ac.uk) if you want to purchase a copy.
Sheffield University have recently published a piece highlighting some of the book’s key findings here
I will be doing a book talk on 25 February, as part of the Interdisciplinary Digital Research Group‘s seminar series at Dublin City University. Many thanks to Tanya Lokot for the invitation and organising the talk. Full details are provided below:
Speaker: Dr Paul Reilly (University of Sheffield)
Book talk: Digital Contention in a divided society: social media, parades and protests in Northern Ireland(Manchester University Press, 2021)
Date/time: 25 February, 2021, 4:00-5:00pm GMT
How are platforms such as Facebook and Twitter used by citizens to frame contentious parades and protests in ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland? What do these contentious episodes tell us about the potential of information and communication technologies to promote positive intergroup contact in the deeply divided society?
Dr Paul Reilly 