Cybersecurity experts foster a perception of cybersecurity as a gloomy underworld in which the good guys must resort to unconventional tactics to keep at bay a motley group of threats to the... Show moreCybersecurity experts foster a perception of cybersecurity as a gloomy underworld in which the good guys must resort to unconventional tactics to keep at bay a motley group of threats to the digital safety of unsuspecting individuals, businesses, and governments. This article takes this framing seriously, drawing on film studies scholarship that identifies certain aesthetic themes as associated with moral ambiguity in noir films. This article introduces the term “cyber-noir” to describe the incorporation of noir elements in cybersecurity expert discourses. It argues that the concept of cyber-noir helps explain the persistence of practices that blur legal, moral, and professional lines between legitimate and malicious activity in cyberspace. Consequently, changing cybersecurity requires not only institutional and technological measures, but also a re-constitution of cybersecurity identities themselves. Show less
The Jedi Community is a loose confederation of groups and individuals who, inspired by George Lucas’ Star Wars movies, have adopted an identity as Jedi Knights. Contrary to Star Wars fans who may... Show moreThe Jedi Community is a loose confederation of groups and individuals who, inspired by George Lucas’ Star Wars movies, have adopted an identity as Jedi Knights. Contrary to Star Wars fans who may occasionally and temporarily play as Jedi, members of the Jedi Community aim to simply be Jedi Knights – always and everywhere. They will even say that they are the real Jedi – as opposed to the fictional Jedi of the movies. Members of the Jedi Community also believe that the Force, the cosmic power from Star Wars, actually exists in the real world. An important part of the practice as Jedi Knights is thus to study the Force and connect with it in ritual. This article provides the most comprehensive overview to date of the Jedi Community. It sketches the history of the Jedi Community since its emergence from the online Star Wars roleplaying community in the late 1990s, and presents an overview of the Community members’ core beliefs and practices. Throughout, due attention is paid to the divergent views on issues of doctrine, practice, and identity held by the two main factions within the Jedi Community, the Jedi Realists, for whom the Jedi Path is a spiritual way of life, and the Jediists who seek to develop Jediism into a full-fledged and legally recognized religion. Show less
The date 6 July 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the war considered as one of the worst in recent human history, the Nigeria-Biafra war. My paper focuses on the representation of this war in... Show moreThe date 6 July 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the war considered as one of the worst in recent human history, the Nigeria-Biafra war. My paper focuses on the representation of this war in popular culture – with an emphasis on film, fictional and non-fictional literature. It interrogates the role that fictional and non-fictional narration play in the collective and individual memory of Nigerians in general and the Igbos in particular. It also looks at the link between the depiction of the war in popular culture and the renewed agitation for the nationhood of Biafra, as since the 2000s, there has been renewed campaigning by young people of Igbo ethnicity for the creation of the Republic of Biafra. This research particularly concentrates on two organizations that are involved in this struggle: the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). It is my position that popular culture constitutes important material for the study and understanding of historical events and periods of time, while it also enhances our understanding of the ways in which these past events may have an influence in the present. Show less
