Confronting Challenges
Asynchronous Session
The “Dark Side” on Social Media View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yang Liu, John Lohmann, John Crawley
With the growth of social media, we are observing a change in peoples’ life. Some people bully others, and some people are bullied by strangers. Some of them end up with depression and some commit suicide. Especially, teenagers are living in a 3D virtual community with limited parents or government control. And parents are facing a harsh situation that they can’t protect nor forbidden their children in this wild world. Teenagers hare died playing dangerous games on TikTok. These situations happen around the world. Unlike film rating system used in filming industry in certain countries, the social media industry hasn’t created any monitoring system to control corporations’ behavior and operation, neither any government. In this paper, we provide a cross-cultural comparison between Western and Eastern countries (US, UK, Japan, South Korea, and China) to analyze the social and behavior change on social media (Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and so on). Furthermore, we discuss the CSR (Corporate Social Response) and internet law involved in these circumstances. In sum, we hope to offer an explanation of the current “dark side” of social media and provide suggestions to social media corporations and governments who may manage and control the situation.
Pragmatic Mistreatment at Work: An Organizational Politics Perspective on Inequality in Working Life View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anneli Matsson
The findings of a single-case study conducted in a large Swedish hospital, where organizational processes of ostracism occurred on many levels, is described in this paper. The method used was organizational ethnography during 8 month of fieldwork in the organization, doing observations, conversations in situ, document analysis, shadowing management and interviews with both employees and management. The paper sheds light on how the organization's governing policies and procedures are utilized as tools to facilitate the exclusion of employees who do not align with its strategic interest. Thus, mistreatment at work could be viewed as a pragmatic organizational strategy. Using organizational politics theory, pragmatic mistreatment is interpreted as a key contributor to inequality in the organization. The findings refute prior explanations for workplace mistreatment in the workplace and demonstrate the value of studying exclusion practice as an interdisciplinary issue because it poses a social risk to employees and is influenced by the fiercer labor market competition and, at the same time, increased demands on employees to be employable and attractive, both of which are seriously threatened by an unethical organizational climate.
Featured Exploring Diffractive Action and Human-Material Entanglements in the “Metagrid” Art Workshop View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Chloe Pare-Anastasiadou
The question of this paper is how the canonicity of knowledge production can be addressed and un-learned through art workshops. This article explores the "metagrid" art installation and workshop, part of "#metttafestival – Who are we on social media?" held at BUoY in Tokyo in October 2022. In this study, I analyze through the position of the artist and facilitator of "metagrid", how reading diffractively can be communicated within art workshops. I created this installation out of hand-recycled paper strips woven into a net and conceptually inspired by new materialist feminisms. In the “metagrid” activation workshop, I invited the participants to answer with their bodies what is their perception of knowledge, how they learn, and how they make. Many of the people who participated drew connections between failing to make outstanding contributions and the practice of solving problems in their lives and this was the central theme for the discussion, a recurring experience. The workshop observations reveal how bodies are directed in certain ways depending on each person's background. Through auto-ethnographic narration and direct observation, I recount and reflect on the material and human agencies, during the workshop and in the aftermath. This article provides insights into the importance of art workshops in exploring complex themes through diffractive lenses and emphasizes the significance of including diverse voices and agencies. Overall, this paper contributes to the growing discourse on the intersection between matter and knowledge production and highlights the potential for transformative learning experiences through embodied practices.
BlackPink in Contested Space of Meaning: A Netnographic Study of Netizens' Perception View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anurak Chandam, Hui Wen Lin
Cultural heritage in conflict is not limited solely to tangible and physical spaces but also encompasses the history and meaning behind it, which can be interpreted and perceived in different ways. These differences can lead to contested spaces of meaning, resulting in the destruction of cultural heritage. This study takes the contested space of meaning surrounding the Supachalasai National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, as a case study. The stadium has a rich history dating back to its construction in 1937, including its role in the People's Party uprising in 1932 and subsequent political changes in Thailand. However, the stadium's meaning and history have been repositioned over time due to political changes. This paper explores how the netizens perceive the stadium and its connection to the People's Party through a netnography approach, analyzing online contents and comments on Facebook related to a controversial BlackPink world tour concert held at the stadium. Data was collected from January 5–15, 2023, resulting in 27 posts and 15,576 comments that were analyzed using NVIVO software to identify themes, patterns, and differences in perception. The study contributes to the understanding of how the contested space of meaning surrounding a cultural heritage has diverse and conflicting online perspectives on the stadium's history, architecture, and connection to the People's Party, reflecting the political repositioning of the heritage site over time.
Uncertain and Unsettled: Muslim Youth and Police Violence in Delhi View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sarfras Ep
This paper focuses on the uncertainties and ambiguities of the young Muslims of Jamia Nagar, a neighborhood in New Delhi, on their everyday interaction with the police force strolling in their neighborhood. Jamia Nagar is a highly Muslim-populated and segregated neighborhood in New Delhi neighboring the Jamia Millia Islamia University has had a history of police violence in 2008, known as the Batla House encounter, and in 2019 during the anti-CAA protests. Currently, the neighborhood is permeated by the presence of police personnel, buses, and police booths that keep the residents of Jamia Nagar in a state of anxiety, uncertainty, and ambiguity about their lived spaces and lives. Through an ethnographic inquiry, these questions will be expanded by listening to the perspectives of the Muslim youth about the constant presence of the police, unsettling rumors, and false alarms that keep them in anticipation of police violence or communal riots. By describing these questions of ambiguity, the paper attempts to expand what Arjun Appadurai has called ‘the ethics of probability’ in doing an anthropology of the future. Overall, the paper offers an understanding of the transformation of a space experienced in terms of safety and belongingness to a space that boasts insecurity and fear instilled by the state towards the Muslim community, especially during the aftermath of the CAA.
Advocacy for Reading Reform in Aotearoa New Zealand: An Auto-ethnographic Examination of Community Building View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jennie Watts
In this study I document and reflect on the advocacy work undertaken by Lifting Literacy Aotearoa, a small volunteer group that was formed in 2020 to advocate for evidence-based practice in literacy instruction in Aotearoa New Zealand. The history of reading instruction under a 'balanced literacy' approach in this country has led to a literacy crisis where learners who have been at school for 10 years do not know how to correctly use capital letters and full stops (periods). The work of Lifting Literacy Aotearoa has brought significant attention and awareness to the issues of reading instruction, and contributed to policy change. The group's work in media engagement is particularly notable, having attracted coverage on national radio, television and print media. This paper explores the building of a community around the issue of reading reform in Aotearoa New Zealand and describes the activities that have made the most impact.
The Role of Parental Unemployment in Children's Internet Use Time in China View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yuhui Peng
Parental unemployment, a typical stressful family event, has been found to have spillover effects on children’s development. However, there is only limited empirical research on the impacts of parental employment on children’s internet use time and most existing studies are conducted on a cross-sectional analysis, which leads to a risk of bias caused by the unobserved variables and thus makes causal inference impossible. This study seeks to determine whether parental unemployment has a significant effect on children’s internet use time, employing a difference-in-differences design combined with a fixed effect to control for unobserved variables. This study utilized data from the 2013-2015 China Education Panel Survey. Based on baseline regression and robustness tests, evidence suggests that it is maternal rather than paternal unemployment that significantly increases children’s internet use time. Moreover, a mechanism analysis shows that the mother-child relationship partly mediates the relationship between maternal unemployment and children’s internet use time.
