Prompted by recent events in Syria and Iraq and British media representation of stories about them, this polemic asks what is meant by each of the terms in the notion of “the global crisis”: is there a singularity, a “the”? who defines crisis? how global is global? British media stories concerning ISIS sympathisers raise deep concerns over agency, engagement and compassion and over the invoked norm of a ‘we’ that seems to not include British or other muslims. The displacement of peoples as refugees from ISIS and from other crises plays out with altogether diverse and ­disproporationate consequences across the world and yet is reported in very ­sporadic and partial ways in the UK. What are we to make of all this? The academic fields of media and cultural studies are suffering from intense ­fracturing and over-specialization. Yet to understand such multi-faceted ­contemporary issues we need to reassemble the relevant elements of our field and include insights from other disciplinary areas, including gender studies, ­international relations, technology and social media studies and studies of specific urban communities. This moment represents a context where counternarratives to both ISIS abroad and to austerity politics at home are urgently needed. The decades of the 1930s, 1950s, 1980s all produced new theoretical approaches and political formations. The current moment is best described as a crisis of complexity and a crisis of politics. We need to produce a new politics of inclusivity, solidarity and resistance that engages with these disturbingly plural and difficult global realities embedded within colonial and sectarian histories.

中文翻译：

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ISIS是“危机”吗？媒体研究作为当代历史–挑衅

在叙利亚和伊拉克最近发生的事件以及英国媒体对有关它们的故事的报道的提示下，这一争论提出了“全球危机”概念中各个术语的含义：是否存在奇异之处？谁定义危机？全球范围有多大？英国媒体关于ISIS同情者的故事引起了人们对代理，交往和同情心以及所谓的“我们”的规范的深切关注，“我们”似乎不包括英国或其他穆斯林。从ISIS和其他危机中流离失所的人们流离失所，在世界范围内造成了种种多样，不合比例的后果，但在英国却有非常零星的报道。这一切我们要做什么？媒体和文化研究的学术领域正在遭受激烈的分裂和过度专业化。然而，要了解这种多方面的当代问题，我们需要重新组合本领域的相关要素，并包括其他学科领域的见解，包括性别研究，国际关系，技术和社交媒体研究以及特定城市社区的研究。这一刻代表了一个迫切需要国外的ISIS和国内的紧缩政治的叙述的背景。1930年代，1950年代和1980年代的几十年都产生了新的理论方法和政治形态。最好将当前时刻描述为复杂性危机和政治危机。我们需要产生一种包容性，团结性和抵抗性的新政治，将其与殖民地和宗派历史中所蕴含的这些令人不安的多元和困难的全球现实联系起来。