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.

‘Dude … stop the spread’: antagonism, agonism, and #manspreading on social media

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 459-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma A Jane
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Naming And Shaming ◽  
Agonistic Pluralism

Feminist campaigns on social media platforms have recently targeted ‘manspreading’ – a portmanteau describing men who sit in a way which fills multiple seats on public transport. Feminists claim this form of everyday sexism exemplifies male entitlement and have responded by posting candid online photographs of men caught manspreading. These ‘naming and shaming’ digilante strategies have been met with vitriolic responses from men’s rights activists. This article uses debates around manspreading to explore and appraise some key features of contemporary feminist activism online. Given the heat, amplification, and seemingly intractable nature of the argument, it investigates the usefulness of Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic pluralism to unpack the conflict. Ultimately, however, agonistic theory is found to have limits – in terms of this case study as well as more broadly. Some final thoughts are offered on how feminists might best navigate the pitfalls of online activism – including the problem of ‘false balance’ – going forward.

‘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 Degrees of Freedom: Exploring Agency, Narratives, and Technological Affordances in the #TakeAKnee Controversy

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630511982612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith E. Rosenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
American National Identity ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Narratives ◽  
Technological Affordances

This study extends current research into social media platforms as counterpublic spaces by examining how the social media narratives produced by the #TakeAKnee controversy negotiate technological affordances and existing discourses surrounding American national identity. Giddens’ Structuration Theory is used to explore the nature of user agency on social media platforms and the extent to which this agency is constrained or enabled by the interplay between the systems and structures that guide social media use. Exploratory qualitative content analysis was used to analyze and compare tweets and Instagram posts using the #TakeAKnee hashtag shared in September 2017. Results showed that narratives are dominated by four themes, freedom, unity, equality and justice, and respect and honor. Users actively employ technological affordances to create highly personalized meanings, affirming that agency operates at the intersection of reflexivity and self-efficacy.

scholarly journals “Stumbling Upon Feminism”

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crystal Kim ◽  
Jessica Ringrose
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Online Content ◽  
Teenage Girls ◽  
Recent Growth ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Peer Responses

In this article, we discuss a case study of a feminist society in a girls’ secondary school in England, highlighting how teenage girls use social media to combat sexism. Considering the recent growth of feminist societies in UK schools, there is still a lack of research documenting how young feminists use social media’s feminist content and connections. Addressing this gap, we draw on interviews and social media analyses to examine how girls navigate feminisms online and in school. Despite their multifaceted use of social media, the girls in our research undervalued digital feminism as valid or valued, in large part because of dismissive teacher and peer responses. We conclude by suggesting that schools need to cultivate social media as a legitimate pedagogical space by developing informed adult support for youth engagement with social justice-oriented online content.

scholarly journals Social Media Activism. Water as a Common Good

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Cernison
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Geographical Scale ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
Movement Organizations

<div>What happens when hundreds of social movement organizations give life to a diffused online campaign? Focusing on the referendums against water privatization in Italy, this book explores how the activists colonized social media thanks to a very wide set of communication practices that convinced 27 million citizens to vote.</div><div><br></div><div>This book focuses on the referendums against water privatisation in Italy and explores how activists took to social media, ultimately convincing twenty-seven million citizens to vote. Investigating the relationship between social movements and internet-related activism during complex campaigns, this book examines how a technological evolution-the increased relevance of social media platforms-affected in very different ways organisations with divergent characteristics, promoting at the same time decentralised communication practices, and new ways of coordinating dispersed communities of people.</div><div>Matteo Cernison combines and adapts a wide set of methods, from social network analysis to digital ethnography, in order to explore in detail how digital activism and face-to-face initiatives interact and overlap. He argues that the geographical scale of actions, the role played by external media professionals, and the activists' perceptions of digital technologies are key elements that contribute in a significant way to shape the very different communication practices often described as online activism.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

scholarly journals The populist allure of social media activism: Individualized charismatic authority

Organization ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Gustafsson ◽  
Noomi Weinryb
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Charismatic Authority ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Organizational Consequences ◽  
Connective Action ◽  
Digital Engagement ◽  
Technological Affordances

This article argues that the type of individualized social media activism that has been conceptualized as ‘connective action’ has affinities to populism, and may have detrimental consequences for democratic procedures and the bureaucratic structures that enable them. We trace the normative allure of individualized digital engagement to the libertarian roots of techno-utopianism and argue that this, in combination with a form of mobilization fueled by digital enthusiasm, has potentially dire democratic and organizational consequences. Digital enthusiasm generated on social media platforms entails self-infatuation, here conceptualized as a form of individualized charismatic authority in the Weberian sense. This individualized form of charismatic authority is fundamentally focused on personalized engagement, and simultaneously interconnected through the technological affordances of social media platforms. If individualized charismatic authority becomes institutionalized as a legitimate and predominant manner of organizing, it may have large-scale implications for societal organizing at large by promoting populism. In sum, we argue that digital enthusiasm not only provides democratic opportunities for protest and contention in civil society, but that the fickleness of the individualized charismatic authority it generates may also put democratic procedures and respect for bureaucratic structures at risk.

Social Media for Political Change

2015 ◽  
pp. 55-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamad Alkhouja
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Power Balance ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Inherent Nature ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Firms ◽  
The Impact

This chapter discusses the role of social media in the uprisings of the Arab world. It argues that the seemingly democratizing impact of online activism is not due to the inherent nature of social media as a tool for democracy but rather an outcome of the equilibrium of forces that shaped the use of social media platforms by all three main players. Activists, governments, and social media firms formed a triangle of powers that influenced the use of social media during the Arab movements. In a different context, the outcome of such power balance can arguably inhibit citizens' rights and empower governments. To this end, the chapter first explores the use of social media platforms from the perspective of activists, governments, and social media firms, then presents a framework to understand the impact of all three in shaping the use of social media during the uprisings. The chapter then concludes that the projections of the role of social media on other movements in the world must not be made without understanding the underlying complexities and dynamics of these movements.

Social Media Activism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Cernison
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Technological Evolution ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Geographical Scale ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
The Relationship

This book focuses on the referendums against water privatization in Italy and explores how activists took to social media, ultimately convincing twenty-seven million citizens to vote. Investigating the relationship between social movements and internet-related activism during complex campaigns, this book examines how a technological evolution — the increased relevance of social media platforms — affected in very different ways organizations with divergent characteristics, promoting at the same time decentralized communication practices, and new ways of coordinating dispersed communities of people. Matteo Cernison combines and adapts a wide set of methods, from social network analysis to digital ethnography, in order to explore in detail how digital activism and face-to-face initiatives interact and overlap. He argues that the geographical scale of actions, the role played by external media professionals, and the activists’ perceptions of digital technologies are key elements that contribute in a significant way to shape the very different communication practices often described as online activism.

Social Media for Political Change

2014 ◽  
pp. 26-36
Author(s):  
Mohamad Alkhouja
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Power Balance ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Inherent Nature ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Firms ◽  
The Impact

This chapter discusses the role of social media in the uprisings of the Arab world. It argues that the seemingly democratizing impact of online activism is not due to the inherent nature of social media as a tool for democracy but rather an outcome of the equilibrium of forces that shaped the use of social media platforms by all three main players. Activists, governments, and social media firms formed a triangle of powers that influenced the use of social media during the Arab movements. In a different context, the outcome of such power balance can arguably inhibit citizens' rights and empower governments. To this end, the chapter first explores the use of social media platforms from the perspective of activists, governments, and social media firms, then presents a framework to understand the impact of all three in shaping the use of social media during the uprisings. The chapter then concludes that the projections of the role of social media on other movements in the world must not be made without understanding the underlying complexities and dynamics of these movements.

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