دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی آلودگی هوای آنلاین: اطلاعات روزانه محیط در سایت رسانه اجتماعی سینا ویبو - امرالد 2018

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how information on air pollution is shaped online on an everyday basis, with a particular emphasis on digital devices and digital representations as constitutive of environmental information practices. Furthermore, this research highlights an understudied aspect of air pollution – the digital flow of multimodal representations that citizens encounter and produce in their everyday life. Design/methodology/approach – The information gathering was carried out on an everyday basis during February-March 2017. The study is based on 403 microblog posts from the social media site Sina Weibo, and netnographic fieldwork, including the observation of news, advertisements, and diary writing. The collected data were mapped in clusters based on the interrelations of objects, agents, and activities, and analyzed in depth using qualitative multimodal analysis. Findings – Information enacted through specific socio-materialist configurations depicts air pollution as self-contained and separated from human action. Air quality apps are central in connecting a wider nexus of representations and promoting such perceptions, illustrating the role of digital devices in an everyday information context. Social implications – The study reveals a schism between Chinese political environmental visions and everyday environmental information practices, which raises questions of how the battle against air pollution can be sustained in the long term. Originality/value – This study suggests that digital material aspects – inbuilt applications of digital devices and digital representations of objects – are interrelated with physical experiences of air pollution, and thus constitute elements of practice in their own right.

The digital materiality of air pollution

In order to create a sustainable society, researchers need to understand how unsustainable practices are sustained (Pink, 2012). An integrated information system pays attention to different elements and their subsequent interrelationships (Shove et al., 2012), enabling a study of practices and the elements that sustain them. We asked what types of elements are central in shaping understandings of air pollution online, and this study shows how perceptions of air pollution among microbloggers evolve in configurations of everyday elements such as air quality apps, facemasks, and activities of avoidance and comparisons. Furthermore, fusions of elements mix practices with each other, further shaping perceptions of air pollution. The perceptions these configurations contribute to forming are arguably not conducive to improving the air quality. Humans are pictured as passive receivers of hazardous air, and agency to improve the situation is instead deferred to natural forces such as the wind and the rain. As the Chinese authorities have taken measures to improve the air quality (Shapiro, 2016) and pushed for the creation of an eco-civilization (Ma, 2015b), it is interesting that several objects, activities, and perceptions of air pollution that figure online on an everyday basis do not encourage human agency. This raises questions about how sustainable practices and perceptions can be encouraged. Given citizens’ willingness to commit to environmental improvement ( Jiang et al., 2017), government agencies may benefit from paying closer attention to everyday settings, mundane objects, and media representations that encourage, instead of discourage, environmental agency.