Program

Dr. Lenin Martell

Lenin Martell Gámez (PhD, National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM) is an Associate Professor in the School of Political and Social Sciences as well as coordinator of the “Center for Writing and Digital Culture” at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM). He appears regularly as a media and public affairs commentator in both national and international media outlets and is the National Audience-Ombudsperson at the Mexican Public Broadcasting System (SPR). He co-directs the narrative-journalism “Heart of Mexico” program, organized by UNT and UAEM in various remote villages of Mexico. He has co-authored several books and published more than 20 academic articles on media and cultural studies.

 Connecting with communities through audience engagement:
Mexico as a case study 

Friday, Sept 22 at 6pm | DMC 2.106

The economic, social, and emotional consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the devastation caused by climate change in Hawaii and New England, and the authoritarian immigration policies in Texas and Florida, among other global issues, provide compelling reasons for scholars to reflect deeply on how to counterbalance and resist these major changes. It is especially true when Communication, as a scientific field, could provide plausible means to solve most of the world’s problems. As a scholar, I am increasingly interested in examining how media platforms, especially public media in Mexico, can connect and engage with audiences to ignite new public conversations and provide more accurate information. This can empower citizens to adopt a more critical stance towards public affairs on both local and international levels. In this address I will explain how I have developed a new methodology for this purpose that draws upon critical pedagogies, Cultural and Audience studies, as well as Literacy Studies, and situated knowledge. This has led me to pose not only questions concerning the cultural practices we should be researching in our discipline, but on how we should approach them, and render them more meaningful to contribute to society in a broader way. 

Location: Lobby on DMC 2nd Floor

Light Breakfast and coffee / tea.

Location: Lobby on DMC 2nd Floor

STREAMING MEDIA IN INDIA

Panel Chair: Shanti Kumar, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.204

Of Saas-Bahu Sagas and Feminine Expression: Televisual Flows Between India and Turkey
Swapnil Rai, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Star Sports and Localizing the English Premier League in India
Kathryn Hartzell, PhD Student, University of Texas at Austin

Female Filmmakers in the Age of Netflix
Zeltzyn Rubi Sanchez Lozoya, University of Texas at Austin

Regional-language Streaming Media in India
Shanti Kumar, University of Texas at Austin

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Panel Chair: Clemencia Rodrigues, Temple University | DMC 3.206

Chautari - A Place to Connect
Jeewasmi Gouli & Rolando Gonzalez Torres (Southern Illinois University)

Harajuku Fashion: A Model for Sustainable Style Culture In Resistance to Consumerism
Ikera Olandesc (Denison University)

Agonism through Khadi in Karnataka: Fabricating pluralism and multivocality in sustainable development discourse
Mackenzie Schnell (University of Texas at Austin)

Mediatization of Doom: Climate, Disability, and Pandemic Twitter at the End of the World
Kristin Shamas (Independent researcher)

GLOBAL BORDERS AND MEDIA

Panel Chair: Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.210

Impacts and Roles of Ukrainian Citizen Media regarding the Russian Invasion
Heeyoung Chae (Denison University)

Documenting Cardboard Scavenging on the U.S.-Mexico Border    
Marcela Morán (Texas A&M University)

When the Media Owner is Accused of Murder: Media ownership influence on Intentional and Unintentional Gatekeeping
Kazi Hasan (Southern Illinois University)

The Challenges of Mapping Exiled Journalists: A Core-Periphery Approach
João Ozawa & Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante (University of Texas at Austin)

RESISTANCE, ACTIVISM AND MEDIA I

Panel Chair: Assem Nasr, Purdue University-Fort Wayne | DMC 3.204

Digital Connectivity and Gender-Based Violence: A Literature Review of Revenge Porn in Romantic Relationships
Sumeyya Akdilek (Texas Tech University)

Lebanese Resilience (or the Neoliberal Panacea)
Assem Nasr (Purdue University-Fort Wayne)

Journalistic conventions of protest coverage in Accra, Ghana
Nii Kotei Nikoi (College of Wooster)      

Silenced Sounds from the Mena Region
Emilie Pons (Independent researcher)

DEVELOPMENT, WOMEN, HEALTH AND MEDIA

Panel Chair: Patrick Burkart, Texas A&M University | DMC 3.206

Anti-Vaccination Meta-Analysis: Adding Longitudinal Information
Patrick Burkart & Donna Janes (Texas A&M University)

Attitudes of Bangladeshi Users towards Sexual Education Information on Facebook
Mahedi Hasan; Sheikh Salman & Sabbir Hossain (Texas Tech University)

Media Portrayal of Postpartum Mental Well-being in South Asian Countries
Anika Tahmin Tanni; Mahedi Hasan & Imran Hussain (Texas Tech University)

Assistance on the Agenda: A Comparative Thematic Analysis of the Syrian and Ukrainian Refugee Crises
Carolina Perez & Brittany Potter (Texas Tech University)

GLOBAL TV AND STREAMING

Panel Chair: Silvia DalBen Furtado, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.210

Platform Imperialism vs. Media Imperialism: Tracking Critical Divergences in Model through Netflix’s Vertical Integration Struggles
Stuart Davis (City University of New York)

Streaming the Nation: Commercial Nationalism and Discourses of the TV Showrunner-Auteur
Cale Epps (University of Southern California)

Regional Markets Enter the Streaming Wars: New Directions for Television in Latin America
Melissa Santillana (Texas Tech University); Silvia DalBen Furtado & Joseph Straubhaar (University of Texas at Austin)

Boxed lunch will also be provided to all participants.

Location: Lobby on DMC 2nd Floor

GLOBAL TV, STREAMING AND DIGITAL DIVIDE

Panel Chair: Joseph Straubhaar, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.204

Revising the Asymmetrical Interdependence of Global Television: Netflix Adds Multiple New Layers of TV Flow
Joseph Straubhaar  & Silvia DalBen Furtado (University of Texas at Austin)

Netflix’s Global Marketing: Rome as a Streaming City
Lisa Patti (Hobart & William Smith Colleges)

We were not born with it: Older users’ relationship to technology in two communities across of the globe
Fabienne Darling-Wolf (Temple University)

MISINFORMATION, FACT-CHECKING AND FREE SPEECH

Panel Chair: Rosental Alves, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.206

“That’s young news” How to rebuild Gen Z’s trust and engagement with news in the current media environment
Alejandro Hernandez (University of Texas at Austin)

Crowdsourcing Fact-checking in Bulgaria: Problems and Opportunities
Christopher Karadjov (California State University)

Media Accountability in Mexico: The Role of the Ombudsperson and Civil Society
Lenin Rafael Martell Gamez (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México)

College Students’ Attitude Towards the Media and COVID-19 Visual Misinformation: Focus Group Discussions and Thematic Analysis.
Yvonne Okoro (Texas Tech University)

GENDER IDENTITIES

Panel Chair: Caitlin Marie Miles, Denison University | DMC 3.210

Materializing the Immaterial: Building Intersectional Queer Spaces through Global Media
John Francis (Temple University)

Transnational Nomadic Storytelling: Queering Sedentarist National Imaginaries
Alina Haliliuc; Caitlin Marie Miles (Denison University)

“You Can Be Anything”: STEMinist Barbie through the eyes of real-life women-scientists
Camden Smith; Sydney Brammer, Ch’Ree Essary & Kristi Gatto (Texas Tech University)
    
Bearded Girls; Passing to Watch Soccer Matches (Top paper)
Mehri Yavari (Texas A&M University)

ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL POLARIZATION

Panel Chair: Vanessa de Macedo Higgins Joyce, Texas State University | DMC 3.204

The Rhetoric of Political Campaigns: An Assessment of the 2023 Nigerian General Elections
Nwoko Onyinyechi Beatrice (Texas Tech University)

Social Connections through Digital News in Polarized Societies in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia
Vanessa de Macedo Higgins Joyce (Texas State University)

Does Polarization Affect Agenda Diversity? The Effect of Media Choice and Partisanship on Agenda Diversity and Media Trust Using 2012-2020 ANES Data
Kazi Hasan (Southern Illinois University)

Seeing Double: Two Texas Journalists and Russian Disinformation in the 2014 and 2022 Russo-Ukrainian Wars
Lyombe Eko (Texas Tech University)

LOCAL COMMUNITY AND CULTURE

Panel Chair: Shiv Ganesh, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.206

El Conejo Engañoso: A Place-Making Oral Tradition of the Youth of La Bonga
Valentina Aduen (Texas A&M University)

No Concessions?: Moroccan Independent Media and the Cultural Politics of Ambivalence    
Annemarie Iddins (Fairfield University)

The Sob Story of the Onion: News Discourse Analysis and Framing of Onion Crisis in India
Bhoopali K Nandurkar (University of Texas at Austin)

The Transformations of Salam Farmandeh: Adaptations and reinterpretation through the mnemonic imagination
Fatima Bahja (University of Texas at Austin)

IDENTITY AND MEDIA

Panel Chair: Samantha James, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.210

Role of ethnic media on the social identity construction of British Bangladeshi immigrants
Ashraful Goni (Texas Tech University)

Ambiguous Identification and “Latinx”: Young Mexican Americans, Social Media, and the Uncertainty over Labels
Stephanie M. Mancha & Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez (Texas A&M International)

Why does hybridity still matter? Lessons from diaspora communities online
Natalia Rabahi (Temple University)

Using participatory communication and solution journalism to shift harmful narratives in North Philly black communities
Caroline Suarez (Temple University)    

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ENGAGEMENT

Panel Chair:  Sheila B. Lalwani, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.204

Media Convergence and Increase in Demand for Content Creation: A Case Study of Nigeria Union of Journalists
William Adebayo Aderanti (Independent researcher)

Digital Mundane Across Time and Space: Precarity, Relationality, and Becoming in the International Student Assemblage
Hong-Anh Nguyen (Denison University)

Western microcelebrities as internet Orientalists: Intercultural short video production in Chinese digital media (Top paper)
Feng Yi Yin (Temple University) 

The perspective of a relationship: Iranian cinema and the audience
Navid Shahinosratabad (Independent Researcher)
 

SOCIAL JUSTICE, INNOVATION AND MEDIA

Panel Chair: João Ozawa, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.206

Global Inequalities in Public Transparency and Journalism Performativity: A theoretical framework
Lindita Camaj (University of Houston)

Hybrid Alternative Digital-Native Media in Latin America during the Pandemic: Two Peruvian Cases of Entrepreneurial Journalism Hosted from Spain
Paul Alonso (Georgia Tech)

Data Colonialism and Generative AI: evaluating de-biasing actions to mitigate harmful content in Large Language Models
Silvia DalBen Furtado; João Ozawa & Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante (University of Texas at Austin)

RESISTANCE, ACTIVISM AND MEDIA II

Panel Chair: Melissa Santillana, Texas Tech University | DMC 3.210

Diffusion Drivers of Black Lives Matter Protest Online: How does Message Design Matter?
Oluwabusayo (Sayo) Okunloye & Kee, Kerk (Texas Tech University)

The Immigrant Protest Songs of M.I.A. and Los Tigres del Norte
Luis Romero (Texas Christian University)

Networked Activism and Mediated Hybrid Spaces in Mexico City
Melissa Santillana (Texas Tech University)

Networked Publics and the Iranian “Woman, Life, Freedom” Movement in Context
Mehdi Semati & Azin Naderi (Northern Illinois University)

Dr. Srivi Ramasubramanian

Dr. Srividya "Srivi" Ramasubramanian is a Professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Her scholarship addresses  global issues relating to media, diversity, and social justice. She is the Founding Director of the Difficult Dialogues Project, CODE^SHIFT (Collaboratory for Data Equity, Social Healing, Inclusive Futures, and Transformation), and Media Rise (a global nonprofit for meaningful media). She did her post-doctoral fellowship at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and has been a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and the National University of Singapore.

AI Empire: Interlocking Systems of Oppression in the Networked Global AI Order

Saturday, Sept 23 at 5:30pm | DMC 2.106

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to captivate the collective imagination through the latest generation of generative AI models such as DALL-E and ChatGPT, the dehumanizing and harmful features of the technology industry that have plagued it since its inception only seem to deepen and intensify. Using the analytical framework of “Empire," we argue that this networked and distributed globalizing AI order is rooted in heteropatriarchy, racial capitalism, white supremacy, and coloniality. It perpetuates its influence through the mechanisms of extractivism, automation, essentialism, surveillance, and containment. Reforming AI from within the same interlocking oppressive systems is futile. Instead, to advance justice, we must radically transform our ideas about technology and data by developing them from the bottom-up, from the perspectives of those who stand the most risk of being harmed.

BREAKFAST

Light Breakfast and coffee / tea.

Location: Lobby on DMC 2nd Floor

BOARD MEETING

Board meeting with the Consortium partners: The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, Denison University, Ohio University, Southern Illinois University, Temple University and University of Virginia.

MUSIC, MEDIA AND CULTURE

Panel Chair: Luis Rivera-Figueroa, University of Texas at Austin | DMC 3.204

Troubling Emergence: COVID-Era Connectivity as the Basis for Industrial Concentration of Global Club Culture
Paxton Haven (University of Texas at Austin)

Did you use the Korean or Global Site?”: Performing Platform Boundaries in K-Pop Fandom
Samantha James (University of Texas at Austin)

The streets are the bass and the base: The transnational networks of Cuban music and contemporary popular identity
Mariela Morales (University of Pennsylvania)

The Latin Music Industry Network: Miami as a Music Production Capital
Luis Rivera-Figueroa (University of Texas at Austin)

EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Panel chair: Kent Wilkinson, Texas Tech University | DMC 3.206

So what Fraser?: Digitalization, Participatory Parity & Competing Subaltern Public Spheres
Sezgi Başak Kavaklı (Temple University)

Renewing a Disconnected World: Toward Connectivity, Equity and Justice
Ana Luisa Ramirez (Laredo College)

The lessons of development: What have we learned from the practice of development and social change over the past 50 years?
Josep Rota (Temple University / Ohio University)

The Role of Media in Peacebuilding: The Case of UN Media in South Sudan
Mikias Sissay (Temple University)

LATIN AMERICAN ISSUES AND MEDIA

Panel chair: José Carlos Lozano, Texas A&M International | DMC 3.210

Humanitarian conditions in Venezuela, in the Osservatore Romano in 2018
Rixio Gerardo Portillo Ríos (Universidad de Monterrey)

Concentration of ownership and control of movie theaters in northeastern Mexico. The case of the Circuito Rodríguez: 1904-1947
José Carlos Lozano (Texas A&M International)

Towards A Bottom-Up Approach to the Digital Divide: Lessons from Latin America
Paloma Rocillo & Pedro H. Ramos (Ibmec / ESPM / FGV)

Beyond Media Systems in Latin America: Corporate-consensus & confrontational media regimes
Mariana Santos (American University)
 

Location: Lobby on DMC 2nd Floor