Franklin Nii Yartey

This article draws on John Locke’s theoretical conceptualisation of eavesdropping in examining the surgical, representational, and communicative practices of plastic surgeon and celebrity, Dr. Michael Salzhauer (aka Dr. Miami). I draw in part on literature in surveillance and visual studies to critically examine the visual and auditory features of Dr. Miami’s Snapchat stories, which, like reality television, are disseminated to audiences for their consumption. Through a critical visual analysis, I examine how the combination of social media (i.e., Snapchat) and visually documenting surgical practices has helped resurrect the Anatomical Theatres of the 13th to 18th centuries in digital forms through eavesdropping. Five themes emerged from the analysis: Resurrecting the Anatomical Theatre, Cosmetic Theatres, Technologically Mediated Gazes, Clinical Anatomical Objectification (CAO) and Anaesthetic Coma: Digitally Eavesdropping.

This article critically examines the visuals and texts on Kiva.org, using race in cyberspace and the notion of the subaltern as theoretical frameworks (Nakamura, 2002, 2008). The imbalances of the past still exist in digital forms on the Internet. This article argues that, although organizations like Kiva seek to promote social change in low- and middle-income countries, the Web 2.0 technologies they use generate some of the same inequalities they seek to address. These inequalities question the development and social change characteristic of these digital technologies. The study concludes that, although the empowered appear to speak on sociofinancial networks like Kiva.org, paradoxically, their voices are silenced through the same Web 2.0 technologies used to empower them.

Discourse surrounding the Trayvon Martin case spilled over to social media platforms with heated visual and textual exchanges. While supporters for Mr. Martin cried racial profiling, arguing for civil rights violation, others averred that Mr. Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon was justified because he shot him in self-defence. Many people have shared similar sentiments across the United States. Social curation site Pinterest displays thousands of images reflecting some of the national feelings on the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman. Using Lisa Nakamura’s Race in Cyberspace theoretical framework, and drawing in part from semiotics, the present study critically examines some of the images of race, solidarity and dissent on Pinterest. Two themes emerged, performing white privilege and presenting a counter-discourse.

This article provides a critical analysis in examining narratives on Zidisha.org, a microlending site that facilitates loans to the poor, building on media scholar Mark Andrejevic’s conception of the digital enclosure and the critical anthropology of development scholar Anke Schwittay’s theorization of financial inclusion. Online microlending sites like Zidisha have wide-reaching implications for policy and development initiatives. The study’s findings suggest that perceptible signs of the contemporary neo-liberal effort to assemble ordinary people through Web 2.0 communication technologies to participate in the socio-financial enclosure are riddled with issues of control and surveillance, coupled with a paradoxical meaning of the financial inclusion concept.

HIV/AIDS is an epidemic that is still pervasive globally. Through effective health communication campaigns, the disease may be contained. This paper is a rhetorical visual analysis of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and its online presence. Global policy initiatives such as PEPFAR have wide reaching ramifications. Thus, the rhetoric of the George W. Bush administration as reflected in the PEPFAR initiative bears scrutiny. Both visual and discursive tropes reflected in the PEPFAR initiative offer an interesting contradiction. While the Bush administration’s rhetoric purported to offer succor to those stricken with HIV/AIDS, the actual content and substance of PEPFAR belied its surface appearances by undercutting support for those in danger of being infected and those already ill with HIV/AIDS.

This paper examines the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), a non-governmental organization within the larger HIV/AIDS movement. ACT UP is examined through the lens of new social movement network theory (Atkinson, 2009). Using constitutive rhetoric (Charland, 1987), the narrative capacities of the rhetorical strategies that appear to be embodied on ACT UP’s Web site are reviewed. The impact that ACT UP has on health and social policy globally has wide reaching ramifications, making the current investigation into its rhetorical strategies viable and important. The findings suggest ACT UP employs constitutive rhetoric to affect a viable narrative capacity in its network.