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Crisis and the Media: Narratives of crisis across cultural settings and media genres
Edited by Marianna Patrona
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 76] 2018
► pp. 33–56

Chapter 2
Reconceptualizing crisis

‘Doing crisis’ as a (recontextualized) social practice

As a major socially significant phenomenon, crisis has been variously understood as an event, a moment of history, a turning point, a problem, a set of challenges, a paradox and so on. Drawing on third-generation practice theory and a range of case studies, the present study explores the possibility of reconceptualizing crisis as a social practice, i.e. as ‘doing crisis’. In addition, it considers whether a social practice approach can inform the analysis of crisis-related media practices and discourses. It is argued that a crisis-as-practice perspective is possible and also directly relevant to media discourse analysis, and that it can offer new and fresh insights.

Keywords: crisis, social practice, media discourse, recontextualization, sociomateriality
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Social practices
  • Crisis as a social practice
    • Crisis practice
    • Elements of crisis practice
      • Materials
      • Competences
      • Meanings
  • Crisis-as-practice, the media and media discourse
    • Crisis-as-practice and the media
      • Integration
      • Monitoring
      • Connections across practices
    • Crisis-as-practice and media discourse
      • Media discourse as a source of information
      • Media discourse as recontextualization
  • Concluding remarks
  • References
Published online: 22 February 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.76.03der
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