Brazil plays a key geopolitical role in global environmental decisions. However, infrastructure projects linked to agribusiness and mining are often promoted under developmentalist rhetoric despite their socio-environmental controversies. In the Amazon, where these projects are concentrated, digital local media serves as a platform for political and economic interests. While other studies highlight local journalism’s role in diversifying news perspectives, Brazil’s case differs due to financial constraints, political influence, and content reproduction. This research examines how digital local media in the Amazon reports on four major infrastructure projects: the resurfacing of the BR-319 highway, the construction of the Ferrogrão railway, oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River, and potassium extraction on Indigenous lands. Using systematic content analysis, we assessed 3,555 articles published by 186 outlets, identifying the positioning of the outlets, actor representation, geographical scales of impact or benefit mentioned, and content reproduction. Findings reveal that digital local media largely supports infrastructure projects, emphasizing the national scale and economic growth over socio-environmental concerns. In articles opposing the projects, mentions of local impacts stand out. The study also shows that 65.2% of the articles were republished, mostly from news agencies, reinforcing content homogenization. Local politicians and agribusiness representatives dominate coverage, while affected communities and environmental voices remain marginalized. This research highlights how local media in the Amazon amplifies elite narratives, neglecting environmental issues. It underscores the journalistic fragility of the region and the urgent need for stronger, independent environmental journalism.

The rise in anti-transgender legislation and violence over the 2020s has made addressing transphobic ideologies increasingly pertinent. This paper outlines an on-going digital ethnography of the anti-trans feminist forum Ovarit, asking what affects, discourses, and desires are produced through the socio-technical relations infrastructured on the forum? We are specifically interested in how anti-trans feminists routinize and legitimize their worldview through the relations and interactions afforded by the sites material design. This study is framed through a Black feminist theoretical lens to remain attentive to the ways race structures gender within anti-trans feminist discourse. Methodologically we first employed a walkthrough of the site to gather data on the structural design and ideological positioning of the forum as constructed by its creators. Following this we are conducting an on-going digital ethnography. This involves engaging with the forum as a non-participatory lurker, i.e., as someone who is heavily engaged with the forum on a daily basis but does not post or comment. Our preliminary findings indicate users posts are primarily interested in sharing instances of alleged trans misdeeds, either by linking to news articles or sharing anecdotes. The repetition and volume of these trans-antagonistic posts creates an environment where trans lives are deemed unlivable in public or private life. Future work will extend these initial findings, plotting out the particular patterns of user interactions. This research will contribute to existing studies exploring online bigotry and explore how anti-trans feminist rhetoric becomes materialized online.

This paper poses several critical queries attendant upon the emergence of airport guest pass programs within the United States and the public sector data infrastructure undergirding them. Specifically, we ask: how are neoliberal imperatives embedded into the historical surveillant social architecture of U.S. airports? In what ways does the dynamic of retrospect permit us to reconsider this transportation hub as a simultaneous ‘site of learning’ (Browne, 2015) and dynamic ‘security theater’ (Schneier, 2009). And, mindful of the work of Salter (2007),, how have municipal aviation executives challenged the long-gestating designs of policymakers and legislators to “federalize” air travel and surveillance procedures (Simmons & Kavanagh, 1995)? By problematizing the received hallmarks of the legitimated subject-in-transit – defined by possession of coterminous state and commercial bona fides - we explore the ways in which overweening neoliberal incentives trump the ostensible permanence of statutorily inscribed bounds of control. Our research leverages two waves of public records requests to burrow down into the making of surveillance regimes within public sector data infrastructure.

References

Browne, S. (2015). Dark matters: On the surveillance of blackness. Duke University Press.

Salter, Mark. Governmentalities of an airport: Heterotopias and confesssion.

International Political Sociology 1(1), 49-66.

Schneier, B. (2009). Beyond security theater. Schneier on Security.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/ 2009/11/beyond_security.html

Simmons, S.A., & Kavanagh, G. (1995). The federalization of flight: Your ticket from hell? Air and Space Lawyer, 9(4), 1-24.

The Internet's growth in popularity over the last century has coincided with advances in artificial intelligence, streaming, and social media. This development has significant implications for internet infrastructure, which must accommodate increasing data usage from these technologies and growing user numbers. This study examines how the global submarine cable infrastructure is owned and controlled. It employs digital methods to collect quantitative data and uses visual network analysis to construct and analyse networks over these cables, their owners, and collaborations.

Based on a political economy approach, the study identifies who owns and controls underwater cables and how this ownership has changed. The analysis concludes that the global network is owned by a diverse group of companies, dominated by older national telecommunications firms. In recent years, American "tech giants" have invested heavily in cable infrastructure, taking over the leading position.

The study's findings contribute to the broader literature on infrastructure studies and offer insights into ownership, control, and power regarding this critical infrastructure. This knowledge can guide monitoring and regulation efforts, ensuring that this essential infrastructure benefits the public rather than private interests.