scholarly journals Gender, Bodies and Cyberstalking: Embodying Theory, Developing Methodology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rachel Elizabeth McKenzie Williams

<p>The exponential growth of advanced communication technologies has corresponded with diverse opportunities for criminal offending within this arena. New forms of deviance are supported by the unique characteristics of the Internet environment, whilst pre-existing crimes are also paralleled online. Research indicates that content related offences, including cyberstalking and online sexual harassment, mirror offline gender disparities, although research addressing this disparity is minimal. The disparate victimisation of women, and the characteristics of cyberstalking, facilitates the recognition of this offence as a gendered form of harassment and the development of a theoretical framework responsive to this disparity. However, current theories addressing the Internet often display concepts concurrent with what is commonly referred to as the online disembodiment thesis. These concepts, namely the promotion of an absolute demarcation between the online and offline environment and the notion that bodies can be transcended online, are problematic when addressing the online victimisation of women as feminist theorists have located much of women's power in the centrality of the body. To inform the development of a gendered framework appropriate for an assessment of cyberstalking this thesis rejected the online disembodiment thesis, alternatively employing the theories of the body to develop a theoretical framework appropriate for an examination of cyberstalking. Criminologists are currently in an exploratory research era in regards to cybercrime, the growth of which has thus far not been matched by criminological scholarship. Consequently, there currently exists little methodological precedent for the researcher intending to qualitatively examine the online victimisation of women. The lack of methodological precedent prioritised the development of a methodological framework suitable for researching the online victimisation of women. The development of an alternative theoretical framework that recognised the immutability of bodies online subsequently informed the development of two key methodological considerations. The methodological considerations developed in this thesis lay the foundations for additional research on cyberstalking and prioritise a gendered assessment of this crime.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rachel Elizabeth McKenzie Williams

<p>The exponential growth of advanced communication technologies has corresponded with diverse opportunities for criminal offending within this arena. New forms of deviance are supported by the unique characteristics of the Internet environment, whilst pre-existing crimes are also paralleled online. Research indicates that content related offences, including cyberstalking and online sexual harassment, mirror offline gender disparities, although research addressing this disparity is minimal. The disparate victimisation of women, and the characteristics of cyberstalking, facilitates the recognition of this offence as a gendered form of harassment and the development of a theoretical framework responsive to this disparity. However, current theories addressing the Internet often display concepts concurrent with what is commonly referred to as the online disembodiment thesis. These concepts, namely the promotion of an absolute demarcation between the online and offline environment and the notion that bodies can be transcended online, are problematic when addressing the online victimisation of women as feminist theorists have located much of women's power in the centrality of the body. To inform the development of a gendered framework appropriate for an assessment of cyberstalking this thesis rejected the online disembodiment thesis, alternatively employing the theories of the body to develop a theoretical framework appropriate for an examination of cyberstalking. Criminologists are currently in an exploratory research era in regards to cybercrime, the growth of which has thus far not been matched by criminological scholarship. Consequently, there currently exists little methodological precedent for the researcher intending to qualitatively examine the online victimisation of women. The lack of methodological precedent prioritised the development of a methodological framework suitable for researching the online victimisation of women. The development of an alternative theoretical framework that recognised the immutability of bodies online subsequently informed the development of two key methodological considerations. The methodological considerations developed in this thesis lay the foundations for additional research on cyberstalking and prioritise a gendered assessment of this crime.</p>


Author(s):  
N.V. Kopteva

Phenomenon of disembodiment of users of information technologies in virtual reality, in particular as a special form of self-alienation, was already noted by the first representatives of cyber culture. However, psychologists have not properly analyzed it yet, perhaps, due to the usual peripheral position of the problem of disembodiment of a physical body in psychology. In the present study we continue to develop our theoretical and empirical construct of the Disembodiment on the Internet (N.V. Kopteva, A.Yu. Kalugin, L.Ya. Dorfman) as a psychological impact of the use of contemporary information technologies in areas related to self-alienation and alienation. The construct is based on the conception of unembodiment of the mental self from the body by a British psychiatrist R. Laing, which is considered to be one of the fundamental psychiatric conceptions of disembodiment of the physical self. R. Laing’s description of the ‘detachment’ of schizoids from their own body helps understand the specifics of existential positions of embodiment - disembodiment determined by sociocultural, technological factors and choices made by individuals themselves. Our study was performed on a sample of active Internet users - students of humanitarian institutes of higher education (aged from 17 to 25 years) - with the use of the Disembodiment on the Internet diagnostic procedure. We revealed groups that differentiated in the severity of disembodiment and created their psychological portraits according to patterns of disembodiment, which include experience of unbodiliness of the virtual self, incompleteness and secondariness of the technological way of being limited by the Internet environment and Internet addiction. We also empirically detected the effects of disembodiment on the alienation of students in different aspects of their life (from who they are, from their families, in interpersonal communication, from their studies and the society) ranging from ‘vegetativeness’ to adventurism.


Author(s):  
Berrin Kalsin

Local press is defined as a press that serves to introduce and train the public and to provide the public opinion.  Local press gives information about the cases happen around the region that it is published and it forms public opinion about the problems of that region.  New communication technologies havehave an important role in the forming and enhancing the news contents in the media. Changeovers have occurred in the production,  process and distributiondistribution of the news by developing the new media. On the other hand,  Internet journalism used by many press institutions is occurredoccurred as a new concept in mass communication.  National and local newspapers do not remain insensitive to this new mass communication and it attempts the Internet journalism. Firstly,  pressed newspaper had been turned into Web sites as similar but later new application about the transferring the news to the reader have occurred when we look at this application about the transferring of the pressed newspaper to the Internet environment.  In this study, the Internet websites if Adanaher from Adana,  Olay from Bursa and Ege'nin Sesi from Izmir have been compared with each other.  The form, content and interaction of these three newspapers have been discussed and the usage of social media and importance given to the local news have been analyzed.


Author(s):  
Susan M. Miller ◽  
Kenneth L. Miller ◽  
Christine Allison

The goal of this chapter is to explore the formation of online relationships in the dual contexts of adolescent cognitive and psychosocial development and characteristics of Internet communication technologies. Research revealed that teens use the Internet to support existing, offline relationships and that such use is associated with closer relationships. For those who form online relationships, these are viewed as close or even romantic in nature. However, when compared along various dimensions, online relationships demonstrate weaker ties than do offline relationships. In general, extroverted teens are more likely to form online relationships, although, if that is their purpose, so do introverted teens. Forming online relationships may rest with the teen’s awareness of how to present him or herself given the anonymity of the cue-free Internet environment.


Author(s):  
Marissa Silverman

This chapter asks an important, yet seemingly illusive, question: In what ways does the internet provide (or not) activist—or, for present purposes “artivist”—opportunities and engagements for musicing, music sharing, and music teaching and learning? According to Asante (2008), an “artivist (artist + activist) uses her artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression—by any medium necessary. The artivist merges commitment to freedom and justice with the pen, the lens, the brush, the voice, the body, and the imagination. The artivist knows that to make an observation is to have an obligation” (p. 6). Given this view, can (and should) social media be a means to achieve artivism through online musicing and music sharing, and, therefore, music teaching and learning? Taking a feminist perspective, this chapter interrogates the nature of cyber musical artivism as a potential means to a necessary end: positive transformation. In what ways can social media be a conduit (or hindrance) for cyber musical artivism? What might musicing and music sharing gain (or lose) from engaging with online artivist practices? In addition to a philosophical investigation, this chapter will examine select case studies of online artivist music making and music sharing communities with the above concerns in mind, specifically as they relate to music education.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Schmidt ◽  
David Hochmann

AbstractSmall sensor devices like inertial measurement units enable mobile movement and gait analysis, whereby existing systems differ in data acquisition, data processing, and gait parameter calculation. Concerning the validation, recent studies focus on the captured motion and the influence of sensor positioning with respect to the accuracy of the computed biomechanical parameters in comparison to a reference system. Although soft tissue artifact is a major source of error for skin-mounted sensors, there are no investigations regarding the relative movement between the body segment and sensor attachment itself. The aim of this study is to find an evaluation method and to determine parameters that allow the validation of various sensor attachment types and different sensor positionings. The analysis includes the comparison between an adhesive and strap attachment variant as well as the frontal and lateral sensor placement. To validate different attachments, an optical marker-based tracking system was used to measure the body segment and sensor position during movement. The distance between these two positions was calculated and analyzed to determine suitable validation parameters. Despite the exploratory research, the results suggest a feasible validation method to detect differences between the attachments, independent of the sensor type. To have representative and statistically validated results, further studies that involve more participants are necessary.


Author(s):  
Lucy Osler ◽  
Joel Krueger

AbstractIn this paper, we introduce the Japanese philosopher Tetsurō Watsuji’s phenomenology of aidagara (“betweenness”) and use his analysis in the contemporary context of online space. We argue that Watsuji develops a prescient analysis anticipating modern technologically-mediated forms of expression and engagement. More precisely, we show that instead of adopting a traditional phenomenological focus on face-to-face interaction, Watsuji argues that communication technologies—which now include Internet-enabled technologies and spaces—are expressive vehicles enabling new forms of emotional expression, shared experiences, and modes of betweenness that would be otherwise inaccessible. Using Watsuji’s phenomenological analysis, we argue that the Internet is not simply a sophisticated form of communication technology that expresses our subjective spatiality (although it is), but that it actually gives rise to new forms of subjective spatiality itself. We conclude with an exploration of how certain aspects of our online interconnections are hidden from lay users in ways that have significant political and ethical implications.


2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica T. Whitty

AbstractWhile flirting is a relatively underresearched area within psychology, even less is known about how people cyber-flirt. This paper explores how often individuals flirt offline compared to online. Moreover, it attempts to examine how men and women flirt within these different spaces. Five thousand, six hundred and ninety-seven individuals, of which 3554 (62%) were women and 2143 (38%) were men, completed a survey about their flirting behaviour both in face-to-face interactions and in chatrooms. The first hypothesis, which stated that the body would be used to flirt with as frequently online as offline, was partly supported. However, it was found that individuals downplayed the importance of physical attractiveness online. Women flirted by displaying nonverbal signals (offline) or substitutes for nonverbal cues (online), to a greater extent than men. In chatrooms men were more likely than women to initiate contact. It is concluded that cyber-flirting is more than simply a meeting of minds and that future research needs to consider the role of the body in online interactions.


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