Pub Date : 2023-11-11DOI: 10.1177/13548565231209673
Hasnain Bokhari, Evans T Awuni
The term digital divide refers to disparities in digital access, infrastructure, and opportunities. However, it is important to recognize that information and communication technologies (ICTs) do not operate in isolation. They are influenced by social and structural factors. This study focuses on Tunisia and Morocco to examine access to and usage of digital technologies, factors shaping these patterns, and the impact of unequal access and usage on employment and socioeconomic well-being in the post-Arab Spring era. Using Afrobarometer household surveys from 2013 to 2022, encompassing 9595 respondents, we construct a digital inclusion index and disaggregate results to illustrate the dynamics of digital inequalities. We employ pooled logistic regression to explore the determinants of digital inclusion and examine how disparities shape well-being. Findings show improved digital inclusion in Morocco and Tunisia from 2013 to 2022, yet over 80% of their populations remain partially or entirely excluded. We confirm previous studies suggesting that digitalization mirrors or exacerbates preexisting inequalities, with gender, age, education, and socioeconomic status significantly influencing digital inclusion, indicating persistent inequalities and barriers. Our findings also have broader implications for the MENA region, emphasizing the need to address the complex interactions among sociodemographic factors, including gender, age, education, and socioeconomic disparities, in order to achieve equitable digital inclusion.
{"title":"Digital inequalities in North Africa: Examining employment and socioeconomic well-being in Morocco and Tunisia","authors":"Hasnain Bokhari, Evans T Awuni","doi":"10.1177/13548565231209673","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231209673","url":null,"abstract":"The term digital divide refers to disparities in digital access, infrastructure, and opportunities. However, it is important to recognize that information and communication technologies (ICTs) do not operate in isolation. They are influenced by social and structural factors. This study focuses on Tunisia and Morocco to examine access to and usage of digital technologies, factors shaping these patterns, and the impact of unequal access and usage on employment and socioeconomic well-being in the post-Arab Spring era. Using Afrobarometer household surveys from 2013 to 2022, encompassing 9595 respondents, we construct a digital inclusion index and disaggregate results to illustrate the dynamics of digital inequalities. We employ pooled logistic regression to explore the determinants of digital inclusion and examine how disparities shape well-being. Findings show improved digital inclusion in Morocco and Tunisia from 2013 to 2022, yet over 80% of their populations remain partially or entirely excluded. We confirm previous studies suggesting that digitalization mirrors or exacerbates preexisting inequalities, with gender, age, education, and socioeconomic status significantly influencing digital inclusion, indicating persistent inequalities and barriers. Our findings also have broader implications for the MENA region, emphasizing the need to address the complex interactions among sociodemographic factors, including gender, age, education, and socioeconomic disparities, in order to achieve equitable digital inclusion.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"32 23","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135041989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-09DOI: 10.1177/13548565231214184
Madis Järvekülg, Indrek Ibrus, Ulrike Rohn
Blockchains have inspired imaginaries of a new iteration of the internet, hailed as Web3, where the power of centralized platform companies would be limited and the ownership of personal data and content could be retained by their individual owners and creators. Web3 is expected to facilitate the emergence of novel protocols and platforms that enable decentralized coordination of data and digital assets. This article examines critically the experiences and imaginaries of creators working on two blockchain-based video-sharing platforms: Theta.tv and Odysee. Building on the studies of creator culture and institutionalist blockchain economics and based on open-ended interviews with the early adopters of these platforms, the paper investigates how the creators experience these decentralized social media applications in terms of their processes of governance, community creation, and career development. We show how the affordances of blockchains and creator expectations can result in further convergence of community management and career-building functions potentially benefiting creators. We also show that the new wave of decentralization, against optimistic blockchain visions, has not yet led to the distributed ‘ownership’ of social media networks. Rather, while blockchains seem to have increased creator autonomy and added career opportunities, novel forms of platform governance and power have also introduced new perceptions of precarity among creators.
{"title":"Shifting from Web2 to Web3: The adaptive creator experiences on blockchain-based video-sharing and streaming platforms","authors":"Madis Järvekülg, Indrek Ibrus, Ulrike Rohn","doi":"10.1177/13548565231214184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231214184","url":null,"abstract":"Blockchains have inspired imaginaries of a new iteration of the internet, hailed as Web3, where the power of centralized platform companies would be limited and the ownership of personal data and content could be retained by their individual owners and creators. Web3 is expected to facilitate the emergence of novel protocols and platforms that enable decentralized coordination of data and digital assets. This article examines critically the experiences and imaginaries of creators working on two blockchain-based video-sharing platforms: Theta.tv and Odysee. Building on the studies of creator culture and institutionalist blockchain economics and based on open-ended interviews with the early adopters of these platforms, the paper investigates how the creators experience these decentralized social media applications in terms of their processes of governance, community creation, and career development. We show how the affordances of blockchains and creator expectations can result in further convergence of community management and career-building functions potentially benefiting creators. We also show that the new wave of decentralization, against optimistic blockchain visions, has not yet led to the distributed ‘ownership’ of social media networks. Rather, while blockchains seem to have increased creator autonomy and added career opportunities, novel forms of platform governance and power have also introduced new perceptions of precarity among creators.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":" 20","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135192308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-09DOI: 10.1177/13548565231211117
Yang Huang, WeiMing Ye
Chinese creators and Douyin (a prominent Chinese short-video platform) are building a strong relationship in cultural production. Based on the social exchange theory, this study tries to explore the process and mechanism of monetization in Chinese platforms. Using the app walkthrough method and in-depth interviews with 19 full-time creators, we contend that Chinese creators and Douyin engage in a repetitive but unequal exchange with the common goal of earning income. Douyin works with creators to cultivate their thirst for revenue over time, while mastering the creative labor, before finally tying them to monetary gains. Douyin not only binds exposure and allocates Internet traffic to new creators, but also develops Dou+, a traffic marketing tool that leverages the affordances of creative work visibility. Douyin first enhances the creators’ income expectations through this step. The platform then directs creators through the Star-Chart content trading system, and establishes the platform-advertiser-creator transaction chain. When the exchange between Douyin and creators becomes stable, the platform sets up an uncertain revenue mechanism. Douyin’s commitment to creating a standardized assembly line of production and financial benefit for creators has established an exchange mode between the platform and creators at the expense of innovation and diversity. We argue that this standardized labor process eliminates the autonomy of cultural production.
{"title":"‘Traffic rewards’, ‘algorithmic visibility’, and ‘advertiser satisfaction’: How Chinese short-video platforms cultivate creators in stages","authors":"Yang Huang, WeiMing Ye","doi":"10.1177/13548565231211117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231211117","url":null,"abstract":"Chinese creators and Douyin (a prominent Chinese short-video platform) are building a strong relationship in cultural production. Based on the social exchange theory, this study tries to explore the process and mechanism of monetization in Chinese platforms. Using the app walkthrough method and in-depth interviews with 19 full-time creators, we contend that Chinese creators and Douyin engage in a repetitive but unequal exchange with the common goal of earning income. Douyin works with creators to cultivate their thirst for revenue over time, while mastering the creative labor, before finally tying them to monetary gains. Douyin not only binds exposure and allocates Internet traffic to new creators, but also develops Dou+, a traffic marketing tool that leverages the affordances of creative work visibility. Douyin first enhances the creators’ income expectations through this step. The platform then directs creators through the Star-Chart content trading system, and establishes the platform-advertiser-creator transaction chain. When the exchange between Douyin and creators becomes stable, the platform sets up an uncertain revenue mechanism. Douyin’s commitment to creating a standardized assembly line of production and financial benefit for creators has established an exchange mode between the platform and creators at the expense of innovation and diversity. We argue that this standardized labor process eliminates the autonomy of cultural production.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":" 23","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135291819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-09DOI: 10.1177/13548565231210984
Ambar Reyes
In this article, I argue that indigenous Latin American food delivery workers organize to defy information and knowledge asymmetries by utilizing technology built to mediate online social interactions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper investigates transnational modes of community-building and network formation and examines how these networks are instrumental for delivery workers in New York City to exercise agency, forge their narrative, and resist platform control by resisting, pushing, and extending a variety of digital and communication technologies. I analyze how public and private means of communication facilitate and constrain social forms of organization by mapping how delivery workers communicate and engage collectively both in the physical and the digital worlds. My research reveals two platforms that workers use to share information: one that operates inwards (WhatsApp) and another that operates outwards (Facebook). These channels represent opposite sides of the spectrum between public and private and synergize to form a transnational distributed knowledge network to shape and interpret the collective identity of Latin American delivery workers. Overall, this article sheds light on how the flow of information through different spaces and times enables delivery workers to construct a place for subversion and negotiation with roles assigned to them by broader socio-political forces.
{"title":"The porous boundaries of public and private messages: Solidarity networks of Latin American food delivery workers in NYC","authors":"Ambar Reyes","doi":"10.1177/13548565231210984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231210984","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I argue that indigenous Latin American food delivery workers organize to defy information and knowledge asymmetries by utilizing technology built to mediate online social interactions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper investigates transnational modes of community-building and network formation and examines how these networks are instrumental for delivery workers in New York City to exercise agency, forge their narrative, and resist platform control by resisting, pushing, and extending a variety of digital and communication technologies. I analyze how public and private means of communication facilitate and constrain social forms of organization by mapping how delivery workers communicate and engage collectively both in the physical and the digital worlds. My research reveals two platforms that workers use to share information: one that operates inwards (WhatsApp) and another that operates outwards (Facebook). These channels represent opposite sides of the spectrum between public and private and synergize to form a transnational distributed knowledge network to shape and interpret the collective identity of Latin American delivery workers. Overall, this article sheds light on how the flow of information through different spaces and times enables delivery workers to construct a place for subversion and negotiation with roles assigned to them by broader socio-political forces.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":" 11","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135290812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-07DOI: 10.1177/13548565231208919
Andreas Gregersen, Jacob Ørmen
In January 2021, the shares of the brick-and-mortar video games retail chain GameStop exploded in value. At the same time, billboards on highways and ads in Times Square in New York City used cryptic visuals and seemingly meaningless emojis with diamonds and rockets. Mainstream media soon had an explanation: This was the story of how the subreddit r/wallstreetbets had mobilized thousands of retail investors in a fight against evil hedge funds. Based on a case study of r/wallstreetbets and the GameStop incident, we analyze how idiosyncratic internet culture was incorporated into a broadly resonant and emotionally inflected narrative that lionized the ‘little man’, focusing on both individual profits and collective grievances. Through a theoretical framework combining sociological theories of internet culture and framing analysis, we identify an overall communication structure that drew on three interconnected discursive layers: idiocultural memes, investment-specific information, and a moralized, collectivized injustice frame with heroes and villains. We further argue that the GameStop (GME) incident instantiates a case of the politicization of personal finance, where the investment practices and strategies of ordinary people were transformed into a political issue. As such, the article makes two contributions to the existing literature. First, we contribute to the nascent literature on internet cultures related to personal finance by looking at a specific subreddit devoted to stock trading and investing. Second, we show how idiocultural elements, such as emojis and memes, can function both as contested and exclusionary material aimed at insiders and as flexible components of communications framed for broad mobilization through emotionally resonant notions of grievance and injustice.
{"title":"Diamond hands to the moon: Idiocultural mobilization and politicization of personal finance on r/wallstreetbets","authors":"Andreas Gregersen, Jacob Ørmen","doi":"10.1177/13548565231208919","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231208919","url":null,"abstract":"In January 2021, the shares of the brick-and-mortar video games retail chain GameStop exploded in value. At the same time, billboards on highways and ads in Times Square in New York City used cryptic visuals and seemingly meaningless emojis with diamonds and rockets. Mainstream media soon had an explanation: This was the story of how the subreddit r/wallstreetbets had mobilized thousands of retail investors in a fight against evil hedge funds. Based on a case study of r/wallstreetbets and the GameStop incident, we analyze how idiosyncratic internet culture was incorporated into a broadly resonant and emotionally inflected narrative that lionized the ‘little man’, focusing on both individual profits and collective grievances. Through a theoretical framework combining sociological theories of internet culture and framing analysis, we identify an overall communication structure that drew on three interconnected discursive layers: idiocultural memes, investment-specific information, and a moralized, collectivized injustice frame with heroes and villains. We further argue that the GameStop (GME) incident instantiates a case of the politicization of personal finance, where the investment practices and strategies of ordinary people were transformed into a political issue. As such, the article makes two contributions to the existing literature. First, we contribute to the nascent literature on internet cultures related to personal finance by looking at a specific subreddit devoted to stock trading and investing. Second, we show how idiocultural elements, such as emojis and memes, can function both as contested and exclusionary material aimed at insiders and as flexible components of communications framed for broad mobilization through emotionally resonant notions of grievance and injustice.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"88 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135539606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-07DOI: 10.1177/13548565231214762
Carlos A. Scolari
{"title":"Book Review: The Modem World. A Prehistory of Social Media","authors":"Carlos A. Scolari","doi":"10.1177/13548565231214762","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231214762","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"86 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135539610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-04DOI: 10.1177/13548565231210721
David McGowan
This article proposes a modified reading of Thomas Elsaesser’s theories of cinephilia, taking into account the new viewing practices established by the rise of online media streaming. Elsaesser characterised early film culture (labelled as ‘take one’) as rooted in celluloid and marked by a longing to view films that were not always easily available. By contrast, his characterisation of the later ‘take two’ era is one in which each new distribution technology (television, VHS, and so on) promises greater abundance and convenience, to the point where this new generation of cinephiles – in response to the widespread success of DVD – were perceived as having to deal with the ‘anachronisms generated by total availability’. Amanda D. Lotz argues that streaming services appear to provide an extension of the ‘take two’ ideal, offering assurances of ‘ availability (on-demand libraries with many choices) and reliability (you don’t have to watch it now or it’s gone)’. I suggest, however, that the underlying impermanence of streaming has prompted fears related to both access and ownership, marking a break from the expectations surrounding the DVD (as well as its successors Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD). The impact of content migration – fracturing access between a greater number of paid platforms – and particularly content delisting – the outright removal of access to a given text – can place certain works in a form of limbo. This article proposes the dawn of a new generation of cinephilia – a potential take three – marked by a newfound concern of ephemerality, albeit much more potential and localised than the widespread unavailability of the take one era. In essence, then, take three wrestles with the anachronisms of loss in a media landscape that, in many other ways, offers unprecedented levels of access to film and television content.
本文提出了对托马斯·埃尔萨塞尔(Thomas Elsaesser)的观影理论的修正解读，考虑到在线流媒体的兴起所建立的新的观影实践。Elsaesser将早期的电影文化(被称为“take one”)描述为根植于赛璐珞，并以渴望观看并不总是容易获得的电影为标志。相比之下，他对后来的“take two”时代的描述是，在这个时代，每一种新的发行技术(电视、VHS等)都承诺更丰富、更方便，以至于新一代的影迷——作为对DVD广泛成功的回应——被认为必须应对“完全可用性带来的时代错误”。Amanda D. Lotz认为，流媒体服务似乎提供了“拿两个”理想的延伸，提供了“可用性(有许多选择的点播库)和可靠性(你不必现在就看，否则它就会消失)”的保证。然而，我认为，流媒体的潜在无常引发了人们对获取和所有权的担忧，这标志着人们对DVD(以及它的后继产品蓝光和4K超高清)的期望出现了突破。内容迁移的影响——在更多的付费平台之间分割访问——特别是内容下架——直接删除对给定文本的访问——可能使某些作品处于一种不确定的状态。这篇文章提出了新一代电影爱好者的曙光——一个潜在的三拍时代——以对短暂性的新发现的关注为标志，尽管比普遍不可用的一拍时代更有潜力和本地化。那么，从本质上讲，我们来看看媒体格局中出现的时代错误——在许多其他方面，媒体格局提供了前所未有的影视内容获取渠道。
{"title":"Cinephilia, take three?: Availability, reliability, and disenchantment in the streaming era","authors":"David McGowan","doi":"10.1177/13548565231210721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231210721","url":null,"abstract":"This article proposes a modified reading of Thomas Elsaesser’s theories of cinephilia, taking into account the new viewing practices established by the rise of online media streaming. Elsaesser characterised early film culture (labelled as ‘take one’) as rooted in celluloid and marked by a longing to view films that were not always easily available. By contrast, his characterisation of the later ‘take two’ era is one in which each new distribution technology (television, VHS, and so on) promises greater abundance and convenience, to the point where this new generation of cinephiles – in response to the widespread success of DVD – were perceived as having to deal with the ‘anachronisms generated by total availability’. Amanda D. Lotz argues that streaming services appear to provide an extension of the ‘take two’ ideal, offering assurances of ‘ availability (on-demand libraries with many choices) and reliability (you don’t have to watch it now or it’s gone)’. I suggest, however, that the underlying impermanence of streaming has prompted fears related to both access and ownership, marking a break from the expectations surrounding the DVD (as well as its successors Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD). The impact of content migration – fracturing access between a greater number of paid platforms – and particularly content delisting – the outright removal of access to a given text – can place certain works in a form of limbo. This article proposes the dawn of a new generation of cinephilia – a potential take three – marked by a newfound concern of ephemerality, albeit much more potential and localised than the widespread unavailability of the take one era. In essence, then, take three wrestles with the anachronisms of loss in a media landscape that, in many other ways, offers unprecedented levels of access to film and television content.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"4 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135773544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-30DOI: 10.1177/13548565231211310
Daniela Zuzunaga Zegarra, Thomas Abrams
Platform media are changing the disability charity landscape. This paper employs a hybrid critical disability studies – platform media studies lens to explore the SickKids VS campaign, aiming to ‘fight’ childhood illness and disability. Employing a social media thematic analysis, we analyzed social media content distributed through the campaign, consisting of images, videos, and captions ( n=620). We found three dominant narratives: heroic sick kids, crumbling infrastructure, and informational content. Each trend, we argue, emerges within a changing platform mediascape, whereby charitable audiences must be cultivated and curated over a long-term process, rather than in a single moment, as in telethon fundraising. We ask how disability is framed in each of those narratives, and how disability studies might respond to these formulations in the political economy of platform media. We end by exploring the strategies disability studies can take to combat the marginalizing effects of such charitable campaigns.
{"title":"Sick kids versus whom? Childhood disability and charitable campaigns on Instagram","authors":"Daniela Zuzunaga Zegarra, Thomas Abrams","doi":"10.1177/13548565231211310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231211310","url":null,"abstract":"Platform media are changing the disability charity landscape. This paper employs a hybrid critical disability studies – platform media studies lens to explore the SickKids VS campaign, aiming to ‘fight’ childhood illness and disability. Employing a social media thematic analysis, we analyzed social media content distributed through the campaign, consisting of images, videos, and captions ( n=620). We found three dominant narratives: heroic sick kids, crumbling infrastructure, and informational content. Each trend, we argue, emerges within a changing platform mediascape, whereby charitable audiences must be cultivated and curated over a long-term process, rather than in a single moment, as in telethon fundraising. We ask how disability is framed in each of those narratives, and how disability studies might respond to these formulations in the political economy of platform media. We end by exploring the strategies disability studies can take to combat the marginalizing effects of such charitable campaigns.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136103167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-30DOI: 10.1177/13548565231206504
Sara Van Bruyssel, Ralf De Wolf, Mariek Vanden Abeele
Digital disconnection has risen as a new and necessary act of care that individuals perform to counter the burdens associated with 24/7 connectivity. Resources to perform such caring tasks, however, are known to be unequally distributed. Leaning on feminist theory and digital disconnection studies, this study explores whether this unequal distribution also extends to the realm of digital disconnection by examining who is portrayed to care about digital disconnection in marketing communication of digital disconnection products and services. Through a critical discourse analysis, we find that digital disconnection is foremost presented as an individualized responsibility, meaning that the particular responsibility to (re-) gain control, focus and productivity, lies with the individual user. This responsible individual is feminized in most communications, except for highly masculinized, entrepreneurial-oriented forms of commodified digital disconnection. Overall, our analysis highlights how stereotypical gendered caring roles and processes of individual responsibilization are reinforced in commodified digital products and services. To breach this vicious circle, we argue that it is crucial to bring awareness to the essentialness of digital disconnection care work to ensure that disconnection opportunities and responsibilities are not dictated by social inequalities generated by neoliberal logics.
{"title":"Who cares about digital disconnection? Exploring commodified digital disconnection discourse through a relational lens","authors":"Sara Van Bruyssel, Ralf De Wolf, Mariek Vanden Abeele","doi":"10.1177/13548565231206504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231206504","url":null,"abstract":"Digital disconnection has risen as a new and necessary act of care that individuals perform to counter the burdens associated with 24/7 connectivity. Resources to perform such caring tasks, however, are known to be unequally distributed. Leaning on feminist theory and digital disconnection studies, this study explores whether this unequal distribution also extends to the realm of digital disconnection by examining who is portrayed to care about digital disconnection in marketing communication of digital disconnection products and services. Through a critical discourse analysis, we find that digital disconnection is foremost presented as an individualized responsibility, meaning that the particular responsibility to (re-) gain control, focus and productivity, lies with the individual user. This responsible individual is feminized in most communications, except for highly masculinized, entrepreneurial-oriented forms of commodified digital disconnection. Overall, our analysis highlights how stereotypical gendered caring roles and processes of individual responsibilization are reinforced in commodified digital products and services. To breach this vicious circle, we argue that it is crucial to bring awareness to the essentialness of digital disconnection care work to ensure that disconnection opportunities and responsibilities are not dictated by social inequalities generated by neoliberal logics.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136068355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-30DOI: 10.1177/13548565231200187
Andrea Stevenson Won, Donna Z Davis
In the physical world, choices about self-representation are tied to the body. However, avatar embodiment offers users many more options. These options are often constrained or promoted according to the economic models of the platforms that support different virtual worlds. Still, work on user motivations for avatar embodiment has generally not accounted for these constraints. To help explain users' interest (or lack of interest) in immersive technology, we discuss the mismatch between platform intentions and avatar affordances. We describe how user and platform motivations intersect in the ‘embodied identity economy’, a model in which users either ‘pay’ for access to embodied experiences with data from their physical identity or fund economy with cash payments. We present a framework of avatar embodiment using two dimensions: consistency versus discrepancy with the user’s physical identity, and experiential versus identity-based self-presence. We describe three ways in which avatars can be consistent with the user’s physical body: through appearance, through behavior, and the extent to which avatar data is linked with the user’s identity in the physical world. We relate this concept to recent discussions of a proposed ‘metaverse’ as a hub for life online.
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