New Media & Youth Identity. Issues and Research Pathways

Media have held a considerable and growing place in the social environment of industrial society in recent decades, transforming the perception that a people have of their place in the world and of their memberships and belonging, creating new paths for social relations, affecting lifestyles, socialization, and communication processes, and the construction of identity itself. The relationship between young people (especially teenagers and adolescents) and new media shows some peculiarities which are worth further reflection to understand the extent and outcomes of these social changes. This article aims to investigate the discourse on youth identity and new media in the social science literature, determining which are the key trends and exploring the more relevant research questions about this theme and the way these topics relate to one another. Titles and abstracts of articles published during the period 2004 \u2013 2013 were selected from the Scopus social sciences database and they were analysed using different content analysis techniques supported by the T-Lab software. The international literature on these topics presents a certain liveliness and heterogeneity in themes and its perspectives on theoretical and empirical research. Nevertheless, it has been possible to identify some key trends, focusing mainly on the idea of active identity construction by new media

Music making, teaching, and learning in Chiptune communities

Music education has long identified “life-long and life-wide” musicianship within community contexts as a primary goal of formal music instruction in and outside of public schools. In music education research, scholars often seek out (and study) musical communities to inform formal curricula and pedagogy, with the goal of better preparing students to participate in musical communities outside of formal institutions. In this study, I explore music learning practices at play in one corner of contemporary musicianship—chiptune. Chiptune is music that references videogame sounds and videogame music. Some chiptune artists make music for videogames, others release albums and play live shows. Some use digital tools, like VSTs and digital synthesizers to produce their music, while others use videogame consoles running after-market software on game cartridges. The purpose of this study is to better understand music making and learning in chiptune communities by addressing four questions: what does musicianship in chiptune communities look like? What role does community play? What are the music learning practices of chiptune musicians? What, if anything, can be learned about contemporary musicianship by inquiring into chiptune culture? To address these questions, I make use of an auto/ethnographic method, drawing on online ethnography (Hine, 2015) and autoethnographic inquiry (Ellis & Bochner, 2011). Findings take the form of a dialogic, performative text which embodies the fractured nature of online communities. I adopt a rhizomatic (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) heuristic which highlights how chiptune community is flat, center-less, and facilitates mapping as learning. I offer implications for music education research and practice, and suggestions for future research into relationships among communities and nonhuman actants

Trabajo Social y activismo digital: sororidad, interseccionalidad, homofilia y polarización en el movimiento #MeToo

Introducción. El Trabajo Social se enfrenta actualmente al importante desafío de lidiar con las redes sociales –que se han convertido en un universo paralelo de socialización– en las que se está produciendo un activismo digital cada vez mayor. El movimiento #MeToo se destaca como un referente mundial. Se ha consolidado como un movimiento feminista digital global que lucha contra el acoso y el maltrato a las mujeres. Metodología. Adoptando una perspectiva de Trabajo Social, se realizó un análisis longitudinal del movimiento #MeToo en Twitter entre 2018-2019, basado en el análisis de redes sociales y la netnografía, junto con algoritmos específicos. Resultados. Los resultados mostraron patrones significativos de sororidad, homofilia y polarización afectiva a través de las cámaras de eco y de los filtros burbuja que se identificaron en las comunidades de Twitter detectadas. Además, estas comunidades en línea reflejaban características reales fuera de línea (ubicación geográfica, afinidades, similitudes). Discusión y conclusiones. El efecto global y la durabilidad del movimiento #MeToo han llevado a una nueva comprensión de los movimientos sociales en la era digital. Los trabajadores sociales no deben desaprovechar las oportunidades que surgen de la digitalización. Deben combatir la homofilia y la polarización de la sociedad global en las redes sociales, promoviendo valores orientados a la tolerancia de la diversidad. Los profesionales deben mostrar conciencia e intervenir de manera proactiva en las esferas digitales globales para comprender, reflejar y promover la justicia social, la igualdad de derechos y el empoderamiento de las personas desfavorecidas, vulnerables y oprimidas.Introduction. Social Work is currently facing the significant challenge of dealing with social networking sites – which have become a parallel universe of socialisation – in which ever-increasing digital activism is taking place. The #MeToo movement stands out as a global benchmark. It has established itself as a digital-global feminist movement, fighting harassment and the abuse of women. Methodology. Adopting a social work perspective, a longitudinal analysis was performed of the #MeToo movement on Twitter between 2018-2019 based on social network analysis and netnography, in conjunction with specific algorithms. Results. The results showed significant patterns of sorority, homophily and affective polarisation through the echo chambers and filter bubbles that were identified in the detected Twitter communities. Furthermore, these online communities reflected real offline characteristics (geographical location, affinities, similarities). Discussion and conclusions. The #MeToo movement’s global effect and durability has led to a new understanding of social movements in the digital era. Social workers must not be blind to the exciting digital opportunities arising from digitalisation. They must combat homophily and the polarisation of global society on social networking sites, promoting values oriented towards tolerance of diversity. Practitioners must show awareness and intervene proactively in global digital spheres to understand, reflect and promote social justice, equality of rights and the empowerment of disadvantaged, vulnerable and oppressed people

Navigating LGBTQ+ and Disabled Intersections Online: Social Support and Identity Construction in the Age of Social Media

There is a lack of research about the lived experiences of self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and otherwise-identified (LGBTQ+) young adults with disabilities who use the Internet to achieve particular social aims. Using open-ended survey questions, the researcher applied multidimensional and overlapping frameworks of intersectionality, feminist-disability theory, and social work to answer the following: What are the lived experiences of disabled, LGBTQ+ young adults who use social media for social support and identity construction? Using secondary data, fifteen (N=15) cases of LGBTQ+ disabled young adults aged 18 to 31 living in the United States were selected, and data was analyzed using a phenomenological thematic analysis. The research revealed salient themes, such as community/belonging, access to “others like me,” positive identity formation and protective mental health factors to name a few, each of which respectively facilitated or complicated participants’ motives to use social media platforms. Implications of v the research findings for social science scholars and suggestions for future research are discussed

Online Feminisms: Feminist Community Building and Activism in a Digital Age

This thesis explores both what feminism looks like in a digital age, as well as how the Internet and technology inform the ways in which feminists interact, build communities, and form identities. I found that online feminist spaces are built as communities of validation and support, education and empowerment, as well as spaces of radicalization and contention. Ultimately my thesis leads toward a new understanding of feminist activism that incorporates the unique characteristics and abilities of online feminism

The mobile internet in the wild and every day: Digital leisure in the slums of urban India

The wild and the everyday point at once to twinned aspects of life and, in this article, to a technological imaginary drawing upon the use of the mobile internet in urban slums of India. The article responds to the rathe

Mediated commemoration, affect alienation, and why we are not all Charlie: solidarity symbols as vehicles for stancetaking

Public mourning and collective displays of solidarity after terrorist violence are established cultural practices that bring people together at times of tragedy and loss. While it remains common to gather at the site of tragedy, to construct temporary memorials of candles and flowers in memory of the victims and to come together as community, mediated practices of commemoration have become equally important. Sharing solidarity symbols facilitating connective participation is one of the most prevalent and visible ways of joining in public mourning in digital spaces. One of the most popular solidarity symbols to date is #JeSuisCharlie, created after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, 2015. It has since inspired numerous renditions, including #JeSuisMuslim that emerged after the Christchurch mosque attacks in March, 2019. This media-ethnographic study focuses on solidarity symbols circulating on Twitter after four terrorist attacks: Paris in January, 2015, and again in November, Beirut in November, 2015, and Christchurch in March, 2019. The study draws on Appraisal analysis to examine the interpersonal dimension of solidarity symbols, specifically, how stance as interpersonal orientation is constructed in solidarity symbols. When the normative reading of solidarity symbols as vehicles for alignment and solidarity is interrupted, they are experienced as alienating or excluding. Approaching solidarity symbols as vehicles for evaluative practices of stance-taking, the paper explores how solidarity symbols function, first, as bonding icons able to construct affective alignment and a sense of community, and second, how these bonding icons construct the reader as aligned with specific ideology, contributing simultaneously to community-building and alienation, where not sharing the dominant frame of mourning manifests as contestation. The findings reveal, first, how solidarity symbols have the capacity to serve as templates of affect for subsequent tokens; in addition to the iterations replicating the function and form of popular solidarity symbols (like #JeSuisCharlie), there is also a transmission of affect and stance. Second, as individual commemorative acts are always embedded in wider socio-cultural imagination, and therefore cannot escape significations regarding grievability of life, solidarity symbols contribute to affect alienation and not only affective communion. Third, as circulation of solidarity symbols contributes to the visual representation of “us” with an implicit presence of the Other, solidarity symbols can be viewed as struggles for recognition. Solidarity symbols operate within wider regimes of visibility where issues of recognition speak to issues of grievability. It is therefore important to consider the ways in which the meanings embedded in solidarity symbols are constructed and what these meanings are