Professional Practices
Artificial Intelligence and the Threat to Originality: Can Copyright Law Protect the Creative Process? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Robert Greenstreet
As the conference theme outlines, media is rapidly transforming in the Twenty-First Century through digitalization and the internet’s global interconnectivity. However, the relatively recent emergence of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) adds a significant and worrying new perspective to the development of new ideas and their authorship. Much has been written about the rapid encroachment of A.I. into many interdisciplinary fields, particularly where human creativity and communication is an integral component of new ideas. Where the infiltration of A.I. has challenged and replaced original, human-generated work in art, sculpture and music, prevailing copyright laws have provided protection for the authors of the latter. However, legal protection is less clear in other disciplines. The potential impact of A.I. upon architecture has caused relatively little debate, perhaps because of the many inroads already well established through Computer-Aided Design and Building Information Modeling. While these technological innovations are regarded as benign, concern may be looming in possible threats to one of the key foundations of the profession – the originality of design ideas and their legitimate ownership. This paper examines the challenges A.I. poses to the architect’s rights of ownership of creative work and the effectiveness of intellectual property laws to protect them. It questions the future relationship between A.I. and originality and reflects on how it may affect the profession in the future. The summary findings of the research are equally applicable to other interdisciplinary fields of creative endeavor where the expansion of A.I. may compromise originality without legal protection and control.
Rhetorical Approach of Crisis Response: A Case about a Taiwan Public Servant’s Failed Apology
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yu Wei Hu, Jung Chun Chang
Crisis response is a knotty task for government officials. In November 2024, Taiwan’s Ministry of Labour, Miss Hsieh, was accused of bullying her subordinates for two years. One of them even committed suicide. Hsieh’s apology was criticised as a huge failure. The study affirms the importance of rhetorical strategy in crisis management. There are two research questions: 1. Why did the crisis response strategy fail? 2. How should we respond to crises with situational conditions and target audiences? Kenneth Burke’s dramatism and pentad, Aristotle’s rhetorical theory, and Ware and Linkugel’s apologia generic criticism inform the research questions. Hsieh’s response strategy was ‘identification by sympathy’; the pentad’s ratios were agency-act the most, in which the narrative is ‘denying the antecedent.’ Hsieh’s purification strategy is scapegoating. Since the public outcry over this negative statement, redemption was not achieved. Burke proposed another way to reduce guilt, which is mortification. Hence, Hsieh should admit her fault and bear the responsibility. The most significant ratio of the pentad of statements should be agent-act; she is the main subject and bears all responsibilities. Hsieh should advocate anti-bullying, a strategy of identification by inaccuracy, guiding the public’s attention to another perspective, which is a higher morale issue. It is a strategy of ‘bolstering and transcending’. The target audience is the public; Aristotle’s epideictic discourse would be the context. The statement’s purpose is to let the public identify that Hsieh’s apology motivation is not only for herself but for the government’s morale in the future.
Crisis Communication in Indonesia’s Free Nutritious Meal Program: Analyzing Government Narrative Control and Response Strategies
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Stevianita
Indonesia’ free nutritious meals (MBG) program faces serious challenges from food quality, distribution, and public demonstration. The government responses to those issues reveal complex tension between official statements, public perception, and on-the-ground realities. This study examines how the government frames, responds to, and manages cases in MBG. Secondly, an independent survey by Indikator Politik Indonesia reveals that 53.8% of respondents are satisfied with the program. This contradiction highlights a central issue, the gap between perception and lived experience. This research is practically relevant for improving public communication strategies and is theoretically significant for understanding narrative control in diverse cultural contexts. It contributes to the field of crisis communication with thematic relevance to media cultures and government-public media relations. This study applies qualitative methods, using content and discourse analysis. Data was collected from official statements, press releases, and news media coverage and analyzed using the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) to identify narrative patterns and crisis response strategies. Findings indicate that the crisis in MBG falls between accidental and preventable clusters. Authorities used mixed strategies: rebuild, deny, and diminish. Although public satisfaction is high, it likely reflects optimism toward intended goals rather than its actual effectiveness, especially as most survey respondents were not direct beneficiaries. Presenting such trust figures without clarification risks generating misleading narratives. A one-size-fits-all crisis response is not effective in a diverse country like Indonesia. Future strategies should incorporate cultural sensitivity and address deeper structural issues like food security, sustainable agriculture, nutrition education, and community-based food systems.
Pirate State: Shalimar Recording Co. and the Cassette Boom in Pakistan (1974-2005)
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ali Raj
In 1974, the government of Pakistan set up a record label to dilute the monopoly of EMI and protect the interests of the country’s musicians and poets. As a producer of vinyl records, audio cassettes and VHS tapes, Shalimar proved to be an incredibly successful venture, handing out a 500% dividend to its shareholding artists in the very first year of operation. In creating Shalimar, the state indirectly agreed to the impossibility of fully constituting and protecting intellectual property within Pakistani cultural production. Thus, by collectively recognizing artists as an interest group, it attempted to recast their traditional sustenance model of courtly patronage into the financial apparatus of the liberal economic order. In this paper, I trace the background of Shalimar Recording Company’s formation within the context of media institution reform, evaluate its cooperative business model, and show how the company’s recording and production practices paved the way for the emergence of a massive black market of pirated media in the country. I particularly focus on a series of projects initiated by Shalimar to record complete recitations of the Holy Qur’an. In this regard, I inquire into the legal frameworks of intellectual property, theological concerns surrounding Muslim scripture, and the interplay of formal and informal media infrastructures in the Global South.
