New Literacies (Asynchronous - Online Only)
The Political Imaginary of User Democracy : Interrogating Digital Citizenship Pedagogy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Irina Kalinka
Contemporary debates about the political impact of digital platforms in the West often revolve around a central dichotomy: Does digital media revitalize or hurt democracy? This project shifts the focus to show how digital platforms are not only facilitators – of both democratic and anti-democratic tendencies – but also engender their own normative conceptualization of democracy. This includes defining what information is in the public interest, what constitutes “healthy” public discourse, and what are good citizenship practices. What emerges from such efforts is a normative political imaginary I call ‘User Democracy.’ User Democracy is informed by a technocratic understanding of politics, including the valorization of data and automation, predictability, and systematization. Community and popular sovereignty are here imagined as operational and, thus, potentially programmable, which devalues the need for political contestation. Under this framework, democracy is seen as a project of optimization and management, not common struggle. The project explores one aspect of this political imaginary: digital citizenship initiatives, like Google's educational Interland game. Here, students are encouraged to imagine themselves as 'citizen-users' of the service of digital public space, where citizenship is an improvable and quantifiable skill – instead of a shared responsibility. I argue, in contrast, for an emancipatory understanding of democracy rooted in the political ethos of (digital) agonism, which emphasizes that popular sovereignty is not an object to be facilitated from above, but a continuous, collective process of struggle around what it means to be in common with others.
Addressing Body Dissatisfaction through Critical Media Literacy: Why it Mattered in the Past and Why it Matters Now View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lori Bindig Yousman
Prior to the immergence of social media, research had found that popular media had a profound impact on body image and body dissatisfaction—particularly among young women. For instance, studies had found that: the more frequently young women read magazines, the more likely they were to diet and to feel magazines influence their ideal body shape (Chueng et al., 1999); after only 4 minutes 70% of college women felt worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines (Richins, 1991); and the introduction of American television programs to other cultures increased the incidence of dieting and body dissatisfaction (Becker et al., 2002). Although the media landscape has changed drastically since these findings were published, current research suggests that new technologies like social media have a similar impact on body image and mental health. This study explores ways that critical media literacy has been used to addressed body dissatisfaction in the past and offers suggestions for why it is necessary in the current media environment.
Swimming Upstream?: Teaching Media and Political Communication in the Disinformation Age View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bill Yousman
Due to the widespread prevalence of disinformation in the larger culture outside of academia, it is inevitable that disinformation will come into our classrooms. This paper is intended to open up questions about the many challenges this presents for media studies pedagogy in what McIntyre (2018), and others, have called the Post-Truth Society. Drawing on both personal experiences and larger trends, I identify a number of key issues confronting educators including: students who introduce disinformation into classroom discussions, faculty who spread disinformation, the relationship between academic freedom and pedagogical responsibilities, the sometimes blurry distinctions between disinformation and alternative perspectives, and the need for crowdsourcing ideas related to how educators may respond to these challenges.
