The aim of this article is to explore the complexity of the online sex trade and work by analysing sexuality-related commercial websites, with reference to three European states, France, Greece and Slovenia. The article compares websites in each specific sociocultural context, in order to provide insights into the various types of networks and services that emerge, and to explore how they operate, how they communicate, how sex is being merchandised and how gender is represented. We have conducted a two-tier analysis: The first part discusses results of a quantitative macro-analysis exploring 149 websites, while the second part is a micro-analysis analysing the visualisation of egocentric network of three selected websites. The focus is on understanding how gender relations develop in digital environment and how within cyberspace sectorial and national divides are dealt with. While there is evidence to suggest that in some sectors the Internet has opened avenues for sex workers to work independently of the control networks, there are also many forms of exploitation that arise from new media. We observe that sex commerce online is not particularly attentive to the agency of sex workers but is, to the contrary, oriented to provide opportunities and a forum for businessmen and clients.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1057901
Within the book aimed at critical analysis of gender equality in the media in Europe, our chapter focuses on Slovenia, providing an overview of regulatory framework, historical context and relevant research. In the central part of the chapter we present the research findings on share of women in the organisational structure of media in Slovenia, and their representation in programming content of public and commercial TV channel. The research was part of the European study, commissioned by the European Institute for Gender Equality and conducted in 28 European countries. We use the chapter to refer to the analytical framework of the ongoing project Gender Differentiation in Media Industry in Slovenia, presenting it as a promising step of the academic community towards a deeper examination and understanding of the topic.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1157997
Introduction to the translation of E. W. Rothenbuhler’s book Ritual communication: From everyday conversation to mediated ceremony contextualizes his main concepts and emphasizes the importance of the book for media and communication studies. Rothenbuhler's book was first published in 1998 and represents a canonical work in the field of communication research and media studies. This is important work in the field of communication sciences and social sciences in general. It brings a new perspective to the understanding of communication and culture, because it questions the concept of communication as transmission of information and presents a cultural turn in the study and understanding of communication as a ritual act. Rothenbuhler shows the close link between culture and communication, when analyzing the ritual aspect of communication in such diverse social institutions such as family traditions, for example, weddings, funerals, as well as in the media rituals, ceremonies and events, state ceremonies, organizational communication and micro-social rituals, which we constantly perform in everyday life. In all the above mentioned cases, we can talk about a symbolic social action which integrates individuals into the social order and represents both an instrument of consensus and power mechanism
COBISS.SI-ID: 34363997