Theme: communicating through chaos: emerging research

ABSTRACT

In 2022, ‘permacrisis’ was declared word of the year. A portmanteau of ‘permanent’ and ‘crisis’, the term aptly summarises the collective fatigue felt globally following years of COVID-19 lockdowns, environmental disasters, and political upheaval. The result is a world that communicates through a high degree of chaos. While many would synonymise ‘chaos’ with instability and confusion, the word also lends itself to a reading of evolutionary possibility. This special themed issue, ‘Communicating through Chaos’ of Communication Research and Practice highlights the work of Higher Degree Research students and Early-Career Researchers from the ANZCA 2022 conference. The articles that follow reflect the necessity of novel approaches for interrogating connections and disruptions that have transpired as part of the permacrisis, and their innovative perspectives on the significant changes of the last few years.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication
• permacrisis
• chaos
• upheaval
• COVID-19

In 2022, ‘permacrisis’ was declared word of the year (Turnbull, 2022). A portmanteau of ‘permanent’ and ‘crisis’, the term aptly summarises the collective fatigue felt globally following years of COVID-19 lockdowns, environmental disasters, and political upheaval. Many, including Davis (2023) have traced our collective sense of trepidation to the political ruptures of 2016, including Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, while others cite the 2021 US Capitol insurrection, 2022’s invasion of Ukraine, and the 2023 War in the Gaza Strip as further codifiers of the permacrisis era. However we determine its origin, it is undeniable that we are living in a period of significant upheaval. Established institutions and power dynamics are being challenged, global trust in sovereign entities is both porous and at risk of collapse, and inclusive ways of living and being are coming into conflict with the privilege bestowed to those beholden to old systems. The result is a world that communicates through a high degree of chaos.

While many would synonymise ‘chaos’ with instability and confusion, the word also lends itself to a reading of evolutionary possibility. Seeking unity through the chaos allows new communication formations to emerge and novel paradigms to reify. To cite the COVID-19 pandemic once again, its disruption of global and national communities via social distancing and lockdowns prompted fundamental change to every aspect of our lives, and yet was particularly visible in the way we communicate. Schoolwork and some forms of employment made the shift to Zoom (Joia & Lorenzo, 2021). Dungeons and Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game traditionally played at a table with friends, was digitised into the realm of webcams and microphones and became an avenue both for community and therapy online (Eisenman & Bernstein, 2021; Henrich & Worthington, 2021). Video games similarly reinforced their use as hubs of communal engagement, with examples such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons offering not just diversions from the permacrisis of the pandemic but also the ability to substitute life events and activities – up to and including weddings and funerals – in a world where such things were temporarily impossible (Comerford, 2020). On a larger, more impactful scale, government operating procedure shifted, sometimes permanently, to facilitate clearer communication with the citizenry; as one example, the Australian government’s formation of National Cabinet expedited states’ and territories’ responses to the pandemic and became a permanent fixture of the government as the pandemic eased (Menzies, 2020; Russell, 2020). While the pandemic’s onset caused significant problems in every strata of life – many of which are still in effect – it also elicited new means of communication or adapted embedded methods with renewed purpose. The chaos of the permacrisis offers as many sociocultural, political, and humanitarian catastrophes as it does opportunities to navigate them.

Against this troubled backdrop of conflict, change and uncertainty, ANZCA held its 2022 conference at the University of Wollongong, the first in-person ANZCA conference since the easing of COVID-19 protocols in Australia. The conference theme, ‘Communicating through Chaos’, reflects the necessity for novel approaches to interpret and begin to tackle the contemporary challenges of the permacrisis. Such approaches were in evidence across the conference, with an array of international scholars engaging with topics across digital media, health studies, political science and journalism. Themes of the deepening digital divide, avenues of civic participation, revised methods of audience research in the digital turn, and the dramatic social, cultural, and political transformations of communication emerged as timely discourse. Papers and panels articulated new ideas around how communication methods can best weather the winds of change – or, in some cases, be eroded by them entirely. By considering questions of human creativity and communication challenges in an era of unprecedented change prompted by the permacrisis, the conference yielded an extraordinary array of academic interventions.

While the conference was strengthened by the wisdom of experienced scholars, including keynote speakers Lev Manovich and Amanda Lotz, in this issue of Communication Research and Practice we have chosen to highlight the work of emerging and aspiring academics interested in interrogating new communication developments, connections, and disruptions that have transpired as part of the permacrisis. The work of Higher Degree Research students and Early-Career Researchers in this issue reflects research that offers innovative perspectives on communication changes of the last few years.

First, the paper by Elaine Xu, Tania Lim, and Howard Lee provides a much-needed study of the health measures implemented by the Singaporean government during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak in foreign-worker dormitories. In their incisive qualitative analysis, Xu, Lim, and Lee highlight the contrasting, confusing, and collaborative narratives produced by three key stakeholders (Singaporean government; local media; and local non-profit organisations). In turn, they propose ‘chaotic narrative spaces’ as a conceptual framework for understanding issues and decisions made during this unprecedented public health crisis, and the potential for application of this framework in future crises.

Next, a timely exploration of Australian politics and participatory culture in Kellie Macnaughtan’s article that unpacks the success of Julia Gillard’s ‘misogyny speech’ on TikTok. Macnaughtan observes that the speech has found a second life on TikTok by fashioning a bespoke form of political fandom. Via qualitative analysis, the article suggests the platform affordances of TikTok are as crucial to the formation of this fandom as to fans themselves. The shared affinity for Gillard’s speech thus marries a community with aligned cultural, social and political beliefs to a platform infrastructure ideal for disseminating and spreading the speech as a form of political engagement. The article suggests fascinating new insights for how social media platforms and connected fan communities help explore politics online.

Cameron McTernan’s article also utilises content analysis of Australian politicians on social media, and their appeals to voters in the lead up to the 2019 Federal election. Applying Fieschi’s (2019) concept of ‘politics of the gut’, McTernan explores the overlap between populist political figures and parties in Australia and appeals to ‘authenticity’. An analysis of Facebook posts from a sample of Australian politicians across the political divide leads to McTernan’s argument that politicians’ use of social media as a more direct way to speak to constituents has increased the prevalence of appeals to authenticity and populist rhetoric during this period.

Continuing the theme of Australian politics on social media, Susan Grantham proposes the Australian Labor Party’s use of TikTok during the 2022 Federal election as representing a novel example of ‘civic imagination’ (Jenkins, Shresthova, Gamber-Thompson, Kligler-Vilenchik, & Zimmerman, 2016; Literat & Kligler-Vilenchik, 2021). Through employing memes, popular culture references and appeals to Australian cultural quirks, Grantham argues that the ALP fashioned a campaign that engaged new voters – particularly young people – and illustrated useful avenues for political parties to pursue when attracting those voters in future. On top of this, Grantham’s article joins a larger body of work articulating the potent power of social media platforms that could otherwise be dismissed as frivolous sites of minimal engagement, framing TikTok as a handy tool in the political arsenal.

Closing out this issue, Samantha Vilkins underscores new pressures being placed upon public interest data collection in Australia following the COVID-19 pandemic. Vilkins’ article draws from a rich body of data collected from forty-nine interviews across political, academic, media and public service spaces. In doing so, Vilkins presents a range of reflections suggesting some of the temporary solutions intended to deliver faster, upscaled impressions of data that informed major health decisions during the pandemic, have since become de rigueur at the risk of destabilising broader measures of public data collection. If such data collection is to continue being seen as a valuable Australian resource, Vilkins’ article and the professionals interviewed within it advocate for a reassessment of how this collection is properly resourced.

Permacrisis may be a term associated with uncertainty and existential dread, but those who research in this space have risen to the challenge of mastering the permacrisis as an aperture for innovation in communication research. If one silver lining is to be found within the past several years of upheaval, the emergence of new scholars who explore rich interdisciplinary fields in communication ensures that, even as the future is uncertain, the future of the discipline in responding to these challenges is bright.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).