Religion in the Afrosphere

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Boutros
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Black Atlantic ◽  
Black Diaspora ◽  
Public Address ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Diverse Field ◽  
Technological Affordances ◽  
Race And Religion ◽  
Blog Posts

The Afrosphere is a diverse field of social media marked by a willingness to engage issues of shared or collective concern for inhabitants of the “Black Atlantic” or the “Black diaspora.” By looking at blogs as a form of public address, this analysis examines instances of religion in the Afrosphere as components of strategic identification around what Stephan Palmié terms “black collective selfhood.” Considering both the technological affordances and cultural contexts of blogging, this analysis explores the intersection of race and religion in the Afrosphere as constitutive of digital counterpublic discourse. Building on textual analysis of blog posts, this analysis outlines how meaning is formed, fixed, and contested in discussions of religion in the Afrosphere. This analysis argues that the intersection of race and religion within this digital counterpublic makes particular iterations of the Black diaspora visible.

Fashioning Multiplatform Masculinities

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 645-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimmy Draper ◽  
Andrea M. McDonnell
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Personal Style ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
Representational Practices ◽  
Multiple Audiences ◽  
Technological Affordances ◽  
Men And Masculinity

Scholarly interest in the potential of personal style blogging to intervene in fashion media’s gendered norms has focused on women and femininity. To assess the implications for men and masculinity, this article examines gay male bloggers’ self-representational practices. Through interviews and textual analysis, we find their uses of different digital platforms reproduce and confront the heteronormativity of men’s fashion media in ways that speak to their status as bloggers in the industry. Specifically, their desire to demonstrate recognizable forms of fashion expertise keeps their blogs disciplined by industry norms of masculinity even as the need to self-brand encourages queer self-expression across other social media. We thus argue the ways in which bloggers embrace platforms’ technological affordances to engage multiple audiences are central to theorizing how their labor produces different discourses and depictions of masculinity. This builds on arguments made by gender and sexuality scholars to explain the significance of gay men’s fashion.

Activism in Women’s Sports Blogs: Fandom and Feminist Potential

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dunja Antunovic ◽  
Marie Hardin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Women's Sports ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Women’S Sports ◽  
Dominant Ideologies ◽  
Do So ◽  
Blog Posts

The emergence of social media has provided a space for discourse and activism about sports that traditional media outlets tend to ignore. Using a feminist theoretical lens, a textual analysis of selected blogs on the Women Talk Sports blog network was conducted to determine how fandom and advocacy for women’s sports were expressed in blog posts. The analysis indicated that bloggers enhance the visibility of women’s sports, but their engagement with social issues varies. Some bloggers may reproduce hegemonic norms around sports and gendered sporting bodies, while others may offer a more critical, decidedly feminist view and challenge dominant ideologies. While the blogosphere, and particularly networks such as Women Talk Sports, can serve as a venue for activism around women’s sports and the representation of athletic bodies, its potential to do so may be unmet without a more critical perspective by participants.

scholarly journals From takeover to debacle: An analysis of the Nympghate network using Twitter data

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-150
Author(s):  
Maria Paula Arias
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Organizational Strategy ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Technological Affordances

On January 26, 2018 the painting Hylas and the Nymphs was temporarily removed from the Manchester Art Gallery’s walls and taken underground to its store. The removal was part of a ‘takeover’ event that questioned the relationships between historic works of art and contemporary social-cultural contexts. The following days saw a barrage of online comments accusing the Gallery of censorship, of ‘feminism gone mad’, and of inadequacy. In this article I use Twitter data and Actor Network Theory to explore how a community and a narrative took shape around the takeover. The analysis shows how this Nymphgate network was influenced by a series of human and non-human actors, as well as by Twitter’s technological affordances. This study is part of a larger project, as such it leads to question the potential effects of this mediatized debacle to the Gallery’s organizational strategy — including the roles of, and relationships between, decision-makers, social media, and visitors within it. 

‘Welcome to #GabFam’: Far-right virtual community on Gab

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110245
Author(s):  
Greta Jasser ◽  
Jordan McSwiney ◽  
Ed Pertwee ◽  
Savvas Zannettou
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Social Networking Service ◽  
Shared Experiences ◽  
Funding Model ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Technological Affordances

With large social media platforms coming under increasing pressure to deplatform far-right users, the Alternative Technology movement (Alt-Tech) emerged as a new digital support infrastructure for the far right. We conduct a qualitative analysis of the prominent Alt-Tech platform Gab, a social networking service primarily modelled on Twitter, to assess the far-right virtual community on the platform. We find Gab’s technological affordances – including its lack of content moderation, culture of anonymity, microblogging architecture and funding model – have fostered an ideologically eclectic far-right community united by fears of persecution at the hands of ‘Big Tech’. We argue that this points to the emergence of a novel techno-social victimology as an axis of far-right virtual community, wherein shared experiences or fears of being deplatformed facilitate a coalescing of assorted far-right tendencies online.

scholarly journals “Real Heroes Care”: How Dad Bloggers Are Reconstructing Fatherhood and Masculinities

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey Scheibling
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
North America ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Central Topic ◽  
Involved Fathers ◽  
Blog Posts

“Dad bloggers” are an emerging community of fathers in North America. These men use social media to document and discuss their experiences as parents and gather annually at the Dad 2.0 Summit. A central topic of discussion both online and offline is how involved fathers negotiate and rework gender roles and expectations. This study examines how dad bloggers create and engage with discourse about masculinities. Using blog posts, fieldwork observations, and interviews as data, I present qualitative findings illustrating the ways in which dad bloggers challenge traditional notions of masculinity, construct “caring masculinities,” and adopt a pro-feminist perspective. Despite certain tensions and contradictions within the community, I argue that dad bloggers are reconstructing fatherhood and masculinities in ways that promote care and equality overall.

scholarly journals Textual Analysis for the Protection of Children and Teenagers in Social Media - Classification of Inappropriate Messages for Children and Teenagers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thársis Salathiel de Souza Viana ◽  
Marcos de Oliveira ◽  
Ticiana Linhares Coelho da Silva ◽  
Mário Sérgio Rodrigues Falcão Júnior ◽  
Enyo José Tavares Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Textual Analysis

Internet blackouts in Meghalaya: A case of emerging complexities in the digital age

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110453
Author(s):  
Alexander Lewis Passah
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
The One ◽  
Technological Affordances ◽  
Media Practices

The paper is rooted in the observations from the two internet blackouts witnessed in Meghalaya in 2018 and 2019. The state is located in the North Eastern region of India and this study focuses on the Khasi population residing in the East Khasi Hills District. The study explores the complex role social media has played in information dissemination in the digital age. India currently leads the world in terms of internet blackouts and it has been imposed 538 times in the country. This phenomenon has become a reoccurring trend over the last few years with the rise in digital communications and technological affordances. The paper addresses the dualistic nature of social media and how it can be empowering on the one hand, and can also be a key contributor to mis(dis)information on the other. The study offers a non-digital centric approach by adopting digital ethnographic methods and offers insights into the social media practices and experiences of the Khasi participants as well as delving into the problematic nature of internet blackouts with respect to Meghalaya. Evidently, social media has become a space in which most individuals carry their identity, aspirations, views, history, and opinions.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Melissa Ames
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Television Programming ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
American Television ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Structures Of Feeling ◽  
Entertainment Products

The introduction situates contemporary American television within relevant cultural contexts explaining, for example, the ways in which the post-9/11 and post-social media period impacted the cultural environment and the television programming produced within it. This opening chapter provides an overview of relevant affect and media theory that help to explain the ways in which viewers feel through their screens. It also details three key concepts involving affect that ground the arguments within the book: 1) the affect continuum (the ways in which affects are experienced, such as bodily affect, conscious emotion, and collective structures of feeling); 2) affect object reciprocity (the ways in which emotional states impact the production and reception of texts and vice versa); and 3) affect modulation (the ways in which viewers actively turn to entertainment products to alter or reinforce emotional states or how outside parties attempt to do so).

Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Studying Digital Feminist Activism

2019 ◽  
pp. 24-41
Author(s):  
Kaitlynn Mendes ◽  
Jessica Ringrose ◽  
Jessalynn Keller
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Critical Technology ◽  
Key Terms

In this chapter, we outline our conceptual framework, addressing key theories that underpin our analysis, including, affect and related concepts, including affective solidarity, networked affect, and affective publics. We also introduce key terms from critical technology studies, including platform vernacular and other concepts relevant to the political economy of social media. After providing further information on the six case studies described in the Introduction, including their reason for selection and methods used, the chapter details our unique methodological approach, which draws insights from a range of interdisciplinary tools, including feminist ethnographic methods, thematic textual analysis, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and online observations.

scholarly journals “Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630511986744
Author(s):  
Jessalynn Keller
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
Teenage Girls ◽  
Team Research ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Technological Affordances

As avid social media users, it is perhaps unsurprising that feminist teenage girls use their favorite platforms to engage in various forms of feminist activism. Yet, existing research has not explored how a growing number of social media platforms and their technological affordances uniquely shape how girls engage in online activism. I address this oversight by asking the following: Why are girls using particular platforms for feminist activism? How do certain platforms facilitate distinctive opportunities for youth engagement with feminist politics? and How might this shape the types of feminist issues and politics both made possible and foreclosed by some social media platforms? To answer these questions, I draw on ethnographic data gathered from a group of American, Canadian, and British teenage girls involved in various forms of online feminist activism on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. These data were collected as part of two UK-based team research projects. Using the concept of “platform vernacular,” I analyze how these girls do feminism across these different platforms, based on discursive textual analysis of their social media postings and interview reflections. I argue that teenage girls strategically choose how to engage with feminist politics online, carefully weighing issues like privacy, community, and peer support as determining factors in which platform they choose to engage. These decisions are often related to distinctive platform vernaculars, in which the girls have a keen understanding. Nonetheless, these strategic choices shape the kinds of feminisms we see across various social media platforms, a result that necessitates some attention and critical reflection from social media scholars.

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