Pub Date : 2022-10-01DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2128599
Hong Shen, Yujia He
ABSTRACT Contemporary digital platforms have become increasingly infrastructuralized, and started to raise geopolitical tensions with their global expansion. Amidst the heightened geopolitical competition between the US and China, the growing power of Chinese infrastructuralized platforms has made them the center of recent geopolitical dynamics. Drawing from an exploratory case study, this paper discusses Alibaba, one of the most prominent Chinese Internet giants, as an infrastructuralized platform, and highlights its geopolitical struggles. Often perceived as an e-commerce company, Alibaba has become ‘infrastructuralized’: its now-massive digital empire has moved beyond e-commerce, expanding into almost every aspect of China’s and global digital economy such as logistics, finance, offline retailing, and cloud computing. This paper traces three highly visible cases in Alibaba’s global journey – its failed deal with MoneyGram in 2017, the uneven global journey of Alibaba Cloud, and the construction of the electronic World Trade Platform – to illustrate three key dimensions of the geopolitics of infrastructuralized platforms – namely, the geopolitics of everyday data, the geopolitics of the visibility-invisibility tension, and the geopolitics of modularity. By doing so, it contributes to the following two areas of scholarship. On the one hand, it contributes to the growing literature on ‘infrastructures and platforms’ by foregrounding the geopolitical dimensions of Chinese infrastructuralized platforms. On the other hand, it adds to the literature on the ‘geopolitics of infrastructures’ by bringing in a new type of infrastructure, complementing previous discussions on the geopolitics of traditional material infrastructures.
{"title":"The geopolitics of infrastructuralized platforms: the case of Alibaba","authors":"Hong Shen, Yujia He","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2128599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2128599","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Contemporary digital platforms have become increasingly infrastructuralized, and started to raise geopolitical tensions with their global expansion. Amidst the heightened geopolitical competition between the US and China, the growing power of Chinese infrastructuralized platforms has made them the center of recent geopolitical dynamics. Drawing from an exploratory case study, this paper discusses Alibaba, one of the most prominent Chinese Internet giants, as an infrastructuralized platform, and highlights its geopolitical struggles. Often perceived as an e-commerce company, Alibaba has become ‘infrastructuralized’: its now-massive digital empire has moved beyond e-commerce, expanding into almost every aspect of China’s and global digital economy such as logistics, finance, offline retailing, and cloud computing. This paper traces three highly visible cases in Alibaba’s global journey – its failed deal with MoneyGram in 2017, the uneven global journey of Alibaba Cloud, and the construction of the electronic World Trade Platform – to illustrate three key dimensions of the geopolitics of infrastructuralized platforms – namely, the geopolitics of everyday data, the geopolitics of the visibility-invisibility tension, and the geopolitics of modularity. By doing so, it contributes to the following two areas of scholarship. On the one hand, it contributes to the growing literature on ‘infrastructures and platforms’ by foregrounding the geopolitical dimensions of Chinese infrastructuralized platforms. On the other hand, it adds to the literature on the ‘geopolitics of infrastructures’ by bringing in a new type of infrastructure, complementing previous discussions on the geopolitics of traditional material infrastructures.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"25 1","pages":"2363 - 2380"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45085081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-01DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2129270
Riccardo Nanni
ABSTRACT (How) are Chinese actors contributing to increased state influence in Internet standard-making? In its open and private-based dimension, the Internet is possibly the twenty-first century’s epitome of the liberal international order in its global spatial dimension. Therefore, many see deep normative challenges deriving from the rise of powerful, non-liberal actors such as China. In particular, China and Chinese stakeholders are often portrayed as supporters and promoters of a multilateral Internet governance model based on digital sovereignty aimed at completely replacing the existing multistakeholder, private-based model. Academic views on this topic have become less dichotomous throughout the years, especially as China’s position on it has become more nuanced. However, this academic and policy debate is still open. This article analyses Chinese stakeholder actions in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the key venue for Internet standard-making. Through network analysis, this article maps the engagement of Chinese stakeholders in selected working groups of the IETF over time. Through expert interviews, this article interprets the drivers, evolution, and impact of such engagement. This research yields two main findings: first, it shows that the Chinese government does not have full control of its domestic private actors, among which there is both collaboration and conflict. Second, it concludes that Chinese stakeholders have increasingly accepted the existing functioning of IETF standard-making as they grew influential within it.
{"title":"Digital sovereignty and Internet standards: normative implications of public-private relations among Chinese stakeholders in the Internet Engineering Task Force","authors":"Riccardo Nanni","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2129270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2129270","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT (How) are Chinese actors contributing to increased state influence in Internet standard-making? In its open and private-based dimension, the Internet is possibly the twenty-first century’s epitome of the liberal international order in its global spatial dimension. Therefore, many see deep normative challenges deriving from the rise of powerful, non-liberal actors such as China. In particular, China and Chinese stakeholders are often portrayed as supporters and promoters of a multilateral Internet governance model based on digital sovereignty aimed at completely replacing the existing multistakeholder, private-based model. Academic views on this topic have become less dichotomous throughout the years, especially as China’s position on it has become more nuanced. However, this academic and policy debate is still open. This article analyses Chinese stakeholder actions in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the key venue for Internet standard-making. Through network analysis, this article maps the engagement of Chinese stakeholders in selected working groups of the IETF over time. Through expert interviews, this article interprets the drivers, evolution, and impact of such engagement. This research yields two main findings: first, it shows that the Chinese government does not have full control of its domestic private actors, among which there is both collaboration and conflict. Second, it concludes that Chinese stakeholders have increasingly accepted the existing functioning of IETF standard-making as they grew influential within it.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"25 1","pages":"2342 - 2362"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44586791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-01DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2128848
Vincent Huang, Yuexin Lyu
ABSTRACT Using an example of China’s environmental data activism, this study explores the state–society interactive mode of socialization in the politics of open government data. Drawing on an interactionist approach, this study argues that in this intermediate situation, NGOs are relatively autonomous, organizing their campaigns and initiatives independently instead of partnering with the state. However, these two sides both spur and exploit each other, shaping an ‘interactive field.’ Data actors use the state’s open data agenda as an opportunity to initiate spin-off data activism to counteract the deficiencies of data disclosure by the government. In response, state agencies adjust and enhance their data disclosure practices, thus performing reactive data governance. We identified several dynamics of this interactive field: (1) It involves multiple grassroots data actors in the form of NGOs that attempt to expand the autonomy of their data advocacy by forming activist networks to bargain with state bureaucracy. (2) The interactive strategies mainly involve tactics of ‘rightful resistance’ but are hybridized with other boundary-spanning strategies that straddle the demarcation of confrontation and non-confrontation. (3) Although the state and nonstate actors are not partnered, they exert mutual influence over each other’s actions and strategies. The shrinking of institutional space has caused NGOs to reorganize interactive strategies. Our study also highlights the local geopolitical dynamics that condition such interactions: besides the inter-administrative dynamics that afford political opportunities, the trans-local advocacy network coordinates actors and resources to exercise data counterpower. Also, the selection of advocacy strategies is varied with targeted government agencies.
{"title":"The interactive field of open government data: inter-administrative dynamics, trans-local networks, and local geopolitics of environmental data activism in China","authors":"Vincent Huang, Yuexin Lyu","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2128848","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2128848","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Using an example of China’s environmental data activism, this study explores the state–society interactive mode of socialization in the politics of open government data. Drawing on an interactionist approach, this study argues that in this intermediate situation, NGOs are relatively autonomous, organizing their campaigns and initiatives independently instead of partnering with the state. However, these two sides both spur and exploit each other, shaping an ‘interactive field.’ Data actors use the state’s open data agenda as an opportunity to initiate spin-off data activism to counteract the deficiencies of data disclosure by the government. In response, state agencies adjust and enhance their data disclosure practices, thus performing reactive data governance. We identified several dynamics of this interactive field: (1) It involves multiple grassroots data actors in the form of NGOs that attempt to expand the autonomy of their data advocacy by forming activist networks to bargain with state bureaucracy. (2) The interactive strategies mainly involve tactics of ‘rightful resistance’ but are hybridized with other boundary-spanning strategies that straddle the demarcation of confrontation and non-confrontation. (3) Although the state and nonstate actors are not partnered, they exert mutual influence over each other’s actions and strategies. The shrinking of institutional space has caused NGOs to reorganize interactive strategies. Our study also highlights the local geopolitical dynamics that condition such interactions: besides the inter-administrative dynamics that afford political opportunities, the trans-local advocacy network coordinates actors and resources to exercise data counterpower. Also, the selection of advocacy strategies is varied with targeted government agencies.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"25 1","pages":"2427 - 2446"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47238794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-01DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2128598
Min Tang
ABSTRACT The rise of transnational cloud platforms poses challenges to cross-border data governance, an understudied area in mainstream global Internet governance studies. Another gap is a critical political economy approach that contributes to a more historical, contextual and dialectical understanding of policy frameworks and their enacting actors, the state. Filling these gaps, this article uses the cloud computing development in China as an example to unpack the geopolitics of the cloud and tensions in data governance models. It argues that the state, neither obsolete nor irrelevant, is the core architect of the varying approaches that reflect the changing dynamics in information geopolitics.
{"title":"The challenge of the cloud: between transnational capitalism and data sovereignty","authors":"Min Tang","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2128598","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2128598","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The rise of transnational cloud platforms poses challenges to cross-border data governance, an understudied area in mainstream global Internet governance studies. Another gap is a critical political economy approach that contributes to a more historical, contextual and dialectical understanding of policy frameworks and their enacting actors, the state. Filling these gaps, this article uses the cloud computing development in China as an example to unpack the geopolitics of the cloud and tensions in data governance models. It argues that the state, neither obsolete nor irrelevant, is the core architect of the varying approaches that reflect the changing dynamics in information geopolitics.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"25 1","pages":"2397 - 2411"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47773242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-23DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2118545
Wenhong Chen
ABSTRACT Drawing on theories on transnationalism and organizational crisis communication, this research uses the lens of glocalized networks with both global and local connections to examine how Zoom, as a transnational tech firm, responds to geopolitics and technopolitics during the volatile times of a global pandemic. Based on digital, text, and video data, corporate documents, media interviews, and coverage, the research traces Zoom's trajectory before and during the pandemic. I first describe how glocalized networks enabled Zoom's birth and growth, especially taking advantage of cross-border talent flow and fundraising. Second, I assess how the same glocalized networks become a liability, forcing the firm to zoom in and out along the hardening physical and digital borders, due to shifting geopolitics and technopolitics in and between the United States and China. Results shed light on the transnational logics shaping Zoom's network reconfiguration to defend and restore its image that has been threatened by national security accusations.
{"title":"Zoom in and zoom out the glocalized network: when transnationalism meets geopolitics and technopolitics","authors":"Wenhong Chen","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2118545","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2118545","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Drawing on theories on transnationalism and organizational crisis communication, this research uses the lens of glocalized networks with both global and local connections to examine how Zoom, as a transnational tech firm, responds to geopolitics and technopolitics during the volatile times of a global pandemic. Based on digital, text, and video data, corporate documents, media interviews, and coverage, the research traces Zoom's trajectory before and during the pandemic. I first describe how glocalized networks enabled Zoom's birth and growth, especially taking advantage of cross-border talent flow and fundraising. Second, I assess how the same glocalized networks become a liability, forcing the firm to zoom in and out along the hardening physical and digital borders, due to shifting geopolitics and technopolitics in and between the United States and China. Results shed light on the transnational logics shaping Zoom's network reconfiguration to defend and restore its image that has been threatened by national security accusations.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"25 1","pages":"2381 - 2396"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46092812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-13DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2085615
Wei Peng, Sue Lim, Jingbo Meng
ABSTRACT A proliferation of a variety of health misinformation is present online, particularly during times of public health crisis. To combat online health misinformation, numerous studies have been conducted to taxonomize health misinformation or examine debunking strategies for various types of health misinformation. However, one of the root causes – strategies in such misinformation that may persuade the readers – is rarely studied. This systematic review aimed to fill this gap. We searched Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Communication and Mass Media Complete for studies published between 2011 and 2021 on 29 May 2021. Peer-reviewed studies that discussed persuasive strategies in online misinformation messages were included. Of 1,700 articles identified, 58 were eligible and 258 persuasive strategies were extracted. Following the affinity diagraming process, 225 persuasive strategies in online health misinformation were categorized into 12 thematic groups, including: fabricating narrative with details, using anecdotes and personal experience as evidence, distrusting government or pharmaceutical companies, politicizing health issues, highlighting uncertainty and risk, inappropriate use of scientific evidence, rhetorical tricks, biased reasoning to make a conclusion, emotional appeals, distinctive linguistic features, and establishing legitimacy. Possible antecedents for why and how these persuasive strategies in online health misinformation may influence individuals were discussed. The findings suggest that media literacy education is essential for the public to combat health misinformation.
摘要：网络上出现了各种各样的健康错误信息，尤其是在公共卫生危机时期。为了打击网上的健康错误信息，已经进行了大量研究，对健康错误信息进行分类，或检查各种类型的健康错误消息的揭穿策略。然而，其中一个根本原因——这种错误信息中可能说服读者的策略——很少被研究。这项系统的审查旨在填补这一空白。我们在Web of Science、Scopus、PsycINFO和Communication and Mass Media Complete上搜索了2021年5月29日发表在2011年至2021年间的研究。同行评审研究讨论了网络错误信息中的说服策略。在确定的1700篇文章中，58篇符合条件，258篇有说服力的策略被提取出来。根据亲和性诊断过程，225种在线健康错误信息的说服策略被分为12个主题组，包括：编造细节叙事，利用轶事和个人经历作为证据，不信任政府或制药公司，将健康问题政治化，突出不确定性和风险，科学证据的不当使用，修辞手法、有偏见的推理得出结论、情感诉求、鲜明的语言特征以及确立合法性。讨论了为什么以及如何在网上健康错误信息中使用这些有说服力的策略来影响个人的可能前因。研究结果表明，媒体素养教育对公众打击健康错误信息至关重要。
{"title":"Persuasive strategies in online health misinformation: a systematic review","authors":"Wei Peng, Sue Lim, Jingbo Meng","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2085615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2085615","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A proliferation of a variety of health misinformation is present online, particularly during times of public health crisis. To combat online health misinformation, numerous studies have been conducted to taxonomize health misinformation or examine debunking strategies for various types of health misinformation. However, one of the root causes – strategies in such misinformation that may persuade the readers – is rarely studied. This systematic review aimed to fill this gap. We searched Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Communication and Mass Media Complete for studies published between 2011 and 2021 on 29 May 2021. Peer-reviewed studies that discussed persuasive strategies in online misinformation messages were included. Of 1,700 articles identified, 58 were eligible and 258 persuasive strategies were extracted. Following the affinity diagraming process, 225 persuasive strategies in online health misinformation were categorized into 12 thematic groups, including: fabricating narrative with details, using anecdotes and personal experience as evidence, distrusting government or pharmaceutical companies, politicizing health issues, highlighting uncertainty and risk, inappropriate use of scientific evidence, rhetorical tricks, biased reasoning to make a conclusion, emotional appeals, distinctive linguistic features, and establishing legitimacy. Possible antecedents for why and how these persuasive strategies in online health misinformation may influence individuals were discussed. The findings suggest that media literacy education is essential for the public to combat health misinformation.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"2131 - 2148"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46834341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-10DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2096475
Renzhong Peng, Chen-Tzu Wu
{"title":"The Narrative Subject: Storytelling in the Age of the Internet","authors":"Renzhong Peng, Chen-Tzu Wu","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2096475","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2096475","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"2363 - 2365"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43300434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-08DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2096476
Rohan Grover
complex narrations of today’s young adults and adolescents. On the one hand, it presents a direct analysis and categories based on the contents of each participant. On the other hand, it makes an integrated analysis according to the theoretical framework proposed by the author. However, it would be better to include more quantitative data in this study. For example, corpus-assisted discourse analysis of their narrations and interviews might provide more convincing and solid evidence for the analysis of the narrative subjects. In a nutshell, this book does explore the uncharted academic territory of online narrations and the subjects, as it finds a new perspective to study narrations of online communication through specific subjects’ personal true feelings, self-portraits, and the sociocultural contexts. Without hesitation, the book is a must-read for different groups of people. It is a good resource for researchers in linguistics, sociology, and psychology who would benefit from updated knowledge and theory about intercultural communication and discourse analysis in the context of the Internet. In addition, it is also a valuable book for all young adults and adolescents as it provides practical ways they can use to harmoniously and safely communicate online and adequately deal with the conflicts they face. Furthermore, it offers valuable practical implications for intercultural professionals based on the participants’ experience. It could help psychologists understand the inner feelings of online users, help public policy workers make regulations to avoid possible misunderstandings, or help business managers take advantage of the function of the network to operate effective online business activities.
{"title":"The promise of access: Technology, inequality, and the political economy of hope","authors":"Rohan Grover","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2096476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2096476","url":null,"abstract":"complex narrations of today’s young adults and adolescents. On the one hand, it presents a direct analysis and categories based on the contents of each participant. On the other hand, it makes an integrated analysis according to the theoretical framework proposed by the author. However, it would be better to include more quantitative data in this study. For example, corpus-assisted discourse analysis of their narrations and interviews might provide more convincing and solid evidence for the analysis of the narrative subjects. In a nutshell, this book does explore the uncharted academic territory of online narrations and the subjects, as it finds a new perspective to study narrations of online communication through specific subjects’ personal true feelings, self-portraits, and the sociocultural contexts. Without hesitation, the book is a must-read for different groups of people. It is a good resource for researchers in linguistics, sociology, and psychology who would benefit from updated knowledge and theory about intercultural communication and discourse analysis in the context of the Internet. In addition, it is also a valuable book for all young adults and adolescents as it provides practical ways they can use to harmoniously and safely communicate online and adequately deal with the conflicts they face. Furthermore, it offers valuable practical implications for intercultural professionals based on the participants’ experience. It could help psychologists understand the inner feelings of online users, help public policy workers make regulations to avoid possible misunderstandings, or help business managers take advantage of the function of the network to operate effective online business activities.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"2365 - 2368"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48963731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-30DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2077655
Stefanie Duguay, Anne Trépanier, Alex Chartrand
ABSTRACT Lockdowns and preventative measures during the COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of nightlife venues that have long served as outlets for queer sociality. This article examines queer people’s response to such measures through a study of Club Quarantine (Club Q), a series of online queer club nights established during the early days of Canada’s lockdown in March 2020. It draws on mixed methods to explore Club Q’s negotiation of Zoom videoconferencing software for hosting and animating club nights, combining participant observation with examination of Club Q’s promotion and media coverage as well as applying the walkthrough method to Zoom. Findings show that Club Q appropriated Zoom through redefinition, adaptation, and reinvention of the platform, reorienting its purpose from business solutions to queer representation, connection, and solidarity. We conclude that Club Q merges off-label use, as technological appropriation that negotiates hurdles specific to platform technology, governance, and economic interests, with queer use–activity that establishes queer space. We conceptualize this queer appropriation as ‘off-label queer use’: practices of platform appropriation that release a queer potentiality for challenging heteronormative and marginalizing technosocial structures. Club Q challenged platform features and policies that constrained sexual expression and posed safety risks for queer users while providing a queer space for fostering resilience and solidarity during crisis. This article’s theoretical contribution enables the identification of off-label queer use in other arrangements of users and technology, allowing for an understanding of when platforms facilitate or inhibit queer survival strategies.
{"title":"The hottest new queer club: investigating Club Quarantine’s off-label queer use of Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Stefanie Duguay, Anne Trépanier, Alex Chartrand","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2077655","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2077655","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Lockdowns and preventative measures during the COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of nightlife venues that have long served as outlets for queer sociality. This article examines queer people’s response to such measures through a study of Club Quarantine (Club Q), a series of online queer club nights established during the early days of Canada’s lockdown in March 2020. It draws on mixed methods to explore Club Q’s negotiation of Zoom videoconferencing software for hosting and animating club nights, combining participant observation with examination of Club Q’s promotion and media coverage as well as applying the walkthrough method to Zoom. Findings show that Club Q appropriated Zoom through redefinition, adaptation, and reinvention of the platform, reorienting its purpose from business solutions to queer representation, connection, and solidarity. We conclude that Club Q merges off-label use, as technological appropriation that negotiates hurdles specific to platform technology, governance, and economic interests, with queer use–activity that establishes queer space. We conceptualize this queer appropriation as ‘off-label queer use’: practices of platform appropriation that release a queer potentiality for challenging heteronormative and marginalizing technosocial structures. Club Q challenged platform features and policies that constrained sexual expression and posed safety risks for queer users while providing a queer space for fostering resilience and solidarity during crisis. This article’s theoretical contribution enables the identification of off-label queer use in other arrangements of users and technology, allowing for an understanding of when platforms facilitate or inhibit queer survival strategies.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"2212 - 2228"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48671222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-27DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2077654
Y. Ophir, Meredith L. Pruden, Dror Walter, A. Lokmanoglu, Catherine Tebaldi, Rui Wang
ABSTRACT According to the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, nonwhites, globalists and elites are plotting to eliminate the white race and its dominance through anti-white policies and increased immigration. In that context, abortion among white women is perceived by white nationalists (WN) as a betrayal of their ‘biological’ and ‘traditional’ gender role – procreation of white babies. While WN condemn abortion among white women as a murderous sin, at times they encourage the practice among nonwhites to solve demographic threats to white dominance. In this study, we use mixed methods, combining unsupervised machine learning with close textual analysis of 30,725 posts including the term ‘abortion’ published on the WN website Stormfront between 2001 and 2017. We identify three broad themes: White genocide, focused on the conspiracy theory and detailing the active actors in its alleged execution; political, focused on political agendas and laws; and WN reproductive reasoning, articulating and justifying the contradiction between supporting abortion for nonwhites but not for whites via politics of difference that emphasize nonwhites’ supposed inferior morality. We discuss WN’s unique and explicitly racist discourse around a medical topic like abortion, a staple of the conservative and religious right for decades, and how it is used to alleviate their cognitive dissonance resulting from their dual-stance on abortion. Such discourse could be harnessed to recruit members into the movement and normalize extreme, racist ideologies.
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