The body as a brand in social media : analyzing digital fitness influencers as product endorsers

New social actors have emerged with the social media. Among them, we highlighted the digital influencers, people who have millions of online followers, and induce them in favor or against products and brands to be consumed. Therefore, we aimed to analyze this endorsement process carried out by digital influencers in their online profiles, having as research field the fitness market that encourages people to evaluate and work tirelessly in their bodies. We used the Semiotic Image Analysis to investigate the postings of three Brazilian digital fitness influencers and identified four categories that configure the post format: body exposure, body extension, interaction between influencer and brand/product, and interaction between influencer and followers. By means of these categories, we identified that these influencers act as brand avatars, creating an intense link with these products, exposing their bodies in advertisements and extending the meanings of their good shape to endorsed goods and services

Factors that Influence Mobile Bully-victim Behaviour on Mobile Social Networks: The Case of Facebook

Mobile bullying on social networks is a growing problem in South African public high schools. It is described as a fairly new form of cyber bullying which is conducted using a mobile phone through communication channels such as text messages, emails, Instant messaging and other chat rooms such as social networks. Excessive usage of mobile phones in schools has elevated the delinquency of bullying in school grounds and challenged how school policies are executed when it comes to mobile bullying. While mobile technology is more widely use than conventional methods to commit antisocial behaviours today, our understanding of mobile bullying is still limited in the South African context. Although studies on bullying in general have been conducted, there has been limited focus on one type called bully-victims. Bully-victims are adolescents that swing between being a bully and a victim and are difficult to identify. The present study aims to bridge the gap by examining the factors that influence the behaviour of mobile bully-victims on Facebook in South African public secondary schools. Children who are greatly exposed to violence and victimisation at an early age tend to struggle when they become adults and experience emotional trauma, perform poorly in their academics and at times commit suicide. Cyberbullying has similar negative impacts whereby the intention is to frequently harm another person using virtual platforms. Research shows that there is rapid growth in suicidal cases which is one of the leading causes of death among adolescents in South Africa. While suicide has not been associated with bully-victims in South Africa, international studies link adolescent suicidal tendencies with bully-victim behaviour. Facebook has been chosen because it is the most popular and commonly use social network by adolescents. Extensive literature on the potential causes of mobile bully-victim behaviour has been reviewed and a conceptual model (Mobile Bully-victim Model) of the influencing factors identified. This model aims at assisting schools understand the nature of mobile bully-victims, potential causes of bully-victim behaviour and guide the development of appropriate interventions for this form of aggression. A total number of 457 school learners participated on the quantitative survey both from Gauteng and Western Cape provinces. The study population is based on learners from Western Cape and Gauteng public schools because there are more school violence cases occurring in communities where there is a high crime rate. These two provinces fall under four provinces including Limpopo and Free State that are leading in high crime rate in South Africa. Due to unavailability to participate from other provinces, only Western Cape and Gauteng public schools were available and willing to participate in the study. 319 of those learners were found to be mobile bully-victims. The degree to which mobile bully-victim behaviour occur was examined in relation to Anonymity, Collective behaviour, Power, Facebook usage and Emojis and Facebook features. After various tests including spearman correlation, T-tests, and regression analysis were run, the results confirmed that adolescents who have anonymous profiles that follow collective behaviour of public pages, possess power and who are frequent Facebook users are likely to be mobile bully-victims and they demonstrate bully-victim behaviour on Facebook. However, Emoji and features showed an inverse relationship with bully-victim behaviour on Facebook. Therefore, the study confirms that these factors do indeed influence mobile bully-victim behaviour on Facebook except for Emoji and Facebook features

Translanguaging engagement: Dynamic multilingualism and university language engagement programmes

This thought piece reflects on the implications of the author’s research on translanguaging for university language engagement work with children and young people in schools and colleges. It presents the LangScape Curators project as an example of possible directions for research and practice in this area

Meaningful Hand Gestures for Learning with Touch-based I.C.T.

The role of technology in educational contexts is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, with very few students and teachers able to engage in classroom learning activities without using some sort of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Touch-based computing devices in particular, such as tablets and smartphones, provide an intuitive interface where control and manipulation of content is possible using hand and finger gestures such as taps, swipes and pinches. Whilst these touch-based technologies are being increasingly adopted for classroom use, little is known about how the use of such gestures can support learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate how finger gestures used on a touch-based device could support learning