Cyberspace Studies

The internet is at a crossroads today. Whence once viewed as a borderless domain, today it is spoken of in alarmist terms that warn against its demise in the context of growing government censorship programs and powerful commercial interests. This essay reviews the literature on cyberspace and sovereignty, showing the emergence of pro-sovereigntist perspectives and predictions of cyberspace Balkanization in recent decades. It further links the conceptual debate over cyber-sovereignty to real-world geopolitical conflicts and struggles over the future of Internet governance, showing how different conceptions of cyberspace are functions of the geopolitical interests of different powers. Drawing on recent literature on cyber espionage, this essay provides a review of the defensive and offensive practices of state powers in and through cyberspace to argue that while impulses towards re-territorialization of cyberspace are undeniable, such attempts are ultimately frustrated by operations aiming to use common protocols for external security and internal surveillance. Such practices illustrate a more nuanced depiction of sovereignty in cyberspace that goes beyond the borderless versus Balkanized dichotomy.

Recent studies on financial markets have demonstrated that technical analysis can help us effectively predict the stock market index trend. Business systems are widely used for stock market analysis. This paper uses a genetic algorithm (GA) to develop a stock market trading optimization system. Our proposed system can generate a decision-making strategy for buying, holding, and selling stocks for each day and generate high returns for each stock. The system consists of two stages: removing restricted stocks and producing a stock trading strategy. Accordingly, evolutionary computation, like GA, is highly promising because of its intelligence, flexibility, and search strength (fast and efficient). The multiple-objective nature of the utilized algorithm can be regarded as the center of gravity of the research question. The proper functioning or malfunctioning of the resulting portfolio management can be employed as a benchmark for selecting or discarding the algorithm. On the other hand, the research question is focused on the application of technical analysis indicators. Therefore, both aspects of the research question, namely the multiple-objective nature of the algorithm in terms of the analysis method and technical indicators in terms of features selected for analysis, must be taken into account.

Sports organizations use social media to create opportunities to increase productivity, market share, market value and profitability. Mass media, especially cyberspace, play a major role in the field of social change in the present era. One of the best features of cyberspace marketing for today's businesses and job creation in the field of sports is that there is not much barrier to entering and using their facilities. Therefore, the present study focuses on the role of social media in the revenue development of sports businesses. The study population in this study is PhD students in sports management and sports media experts in Iran in this field. Samples were identified purposefully using random sampling. Data collection tools were interviews, and data analysis tools were customary content analysis and paradigmatic grounded theory. Based on the findings of interviews with participants, there are a number of factors in sports that act as requirements or barriers to the use of social media in the revenue development of the sports industry. Factors such as; Experiences in the field of using social media, scientific view on the use of social media, paying attention to the interests and standards of common professions in the world and activities in the virtual world and social media play an important role in generating revenue through the use of social media in industry. They have exercise. The results of the present study showed that the development of appropriate cultural programs can increase knowledge and awareness, improve the intellectual and cultural level of the audience. Also, based on the analysis of the results, marketing through social media has potentials that can enable economic development in the sports industry. Social media marketing through revenue generation and cost reduction can be an effective step towards improving financial problems and the sports industry.

Social control of cyberspace is a necessity to restrict online transgressions (non-normative behaviors), and reduce their disruptive effects. The current study aimed at examining the factors affecting social control of cybercultural transgressions. A questionnaire was administered to Iranian social media users, and 989 participants have filled it out. A path analysis model was constructed testing the effects of Low Self-Control, Depression, Negative Interpersonal Relationships, Computer/ Internet Self-Efficacy, Netiquette, and Normative Beliefs on Transgressive Behaviors, and Transgressive Content Consumption. The results showed that Low Self-Control increased both criterion variables, and fully or partially mediated the effects of other variables on them, except for Negative Interpersonal Relationships. The important contribution of the current study was the recognition of the role of self-control as a mediator among examined variables. The findings of this study can be employed to devise new policies and initiatives to socially control the cybercultural transgressions, without applying coercion.   

This analysis identifies the problem of the media saturation of people’s lives as a reason for developing programs teaching media literacy. It argues that the basic or foundational disciplines found in cultural studies, such as applied semiotics, psychoanalytic theory, sociological theory, and Marxist analysis, are the proper way to teach media criticism and media literacy (See Berger, A.A., Media Analysis Techniques, 6th edition, 2019). The methods by themselves are not adequate, which means that teaching media literacy also involves providing exercises and learning games that show students how to apply the theories they learn to their analyses of media texts (See Berger, A.A., Games and Activities for Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies Students,2004). Finally, it is suggested that media literacy should be taught at all educational levels. 

Synopsis Although research has shown that nowadays we are less likely to have a lifelong love partner, the media industry has increasingly incorporated 'love' as a guarantor of success for media products of all kinds. My argument is that, in order to sell more, the media industry has constructed a false notion of love. Worse than that, we the audiences have adopted this notion; since this is a false construct, many people have come up with unrealistic expectations of their love life. The results can be seen in the ever-increasing rate of divorce. I argue that we need something that I would call "love literacy" to appropriately respond to one evolutionary intention that exists in all of us.

SynopsisWe are living in a media-saturated world. Not only we receive information, we have become prosumers and are able to communicate with the ‘world.’ This has been widely reflected in the academic texts. But is there a dark side to this ‘age of information freedom?’ My argument in this paper is that although we have gotten rid of one sort of tyranny and can more freely speak up, a more suppressive and widespread process of control and surveillance is underway. Worse than that, we the users seem to be comfort with that.

The pseudo-events -events that are created through and for the media- are one of the main opportunities to increase the visibility of micro-celebrities and to grow and maintain their audiences. This study aims to find what happens behind the scenes of pseudo-events that micro-celebrities organize. The primary purpose of this article is to study pseudo-events on social media accounts of Iranian female micro-celebrities on Instagram. Therefore, we aim to answer the following questions: What are pseudo-events on Instagram and what are their characteristics? How do Iranian female micro-celebrities create these pseudo-events? And What are the motivations behind creating these events and the way they are held? The methodology of this research is online ethnography and to answer the questions, we conducted unstructured interviews with 16 micro-celebrities and informants on micro-celebrities’ personal lives. Then, raw data were analyzed using the content analysis method. Based on the analysis, the central theme was fake events whose characteristics are: 1. participants (present and absent), 2. time (event occurrence time, event receipt time), 3. location (in real space, on virtual space), 4. etiquettes and form of performance (type of gifts, music, food, and the well-staged nature of events). The findings also showed that in these events, the represented image is more important than the event itself. In fact, these events are designed and performed for filming and display.