Digitally Mediated Protest: Social Media Affordances for Collective Identity Construction

Many scholars discuss the role of social media in the context of social movements, but there remain major disagreements regarding the precise role that social media plays. One area that deserves more in-depth study is the affordances of social media for constructing collective identity. This article examines the case of an Iranian women’s rights campaign page on Facebook, “My Stealthy Freedom,” using an analysis of textual and visual content. The article examines how online campaign pages on Facebook contribute to the formation of collective identity and the construction of a campaign narrative. Following the analysis, the authors discuss how photobiographic campaigns—social media users sharing personal photos and adjoining personal narratives in support of a cause—illustrate two affordances of social media for construction of collective identity: affordances for discourse and affordances for performance. Affordances for discourse contribute to the collective action framing process through sharing of grievances and collectively negotiating meaning. These affordances also contribute to a collectively and incrementally constructed narrative by sharing personal stories that resonate with the group. Affordances for performance focus on the enactment of protest through transgressive photobiographies deliberately staged to convey the movement message to broader audiences. Here, transgressive photobiographies are defined as modular performances that can be adopted for the repertoires of contentious politics through protesting of laws and norms, such as the mandatory hijab. These transgressive performances create group solidarity through engagement in risk, thereby contributing to the formation of group identities

Textbook Alternative Program (TAP) Grant Support Workshop

This workshop is for TAP applicants interested in learning more about free or low-cost textbook alternatives. We will discuss the benefits of using affordable and accessible materials even beyond saving students money, and bust some common myths about alternatives to traditional textbooks. We will also provide practical strategies for multiple methods of implementing alternatives, with realistic estimations of the time and effort required for each, and demonstrate how to find and evaluate pre-existing materials using library resources and on the open web. If you provide the subject area you are looking to choose or make an alternative for, we can provide targeted resources for your project. Please join us for ideas to get started with replacing the textbook for your course

Farmers and Social Security Reform

Agricultural Finance,

Generation "Undecided": Millennial Discourses and Media Reactions to Changing Political Behaviors

When a generation comes of age in America, their journey to political adulthood is narrated by the media. This study explores the how the millennial generation’s civic and political engagement is described by digital and televised political news. Further, through a journal analysis, a study of millennials reactions to these media discourses expands academic understanding of the relationship between the group and the news system. A discourse analysis of 199 episodes of popular cable news programs from the 2012 Presidential Election including Hardball, The Rachel Maddow Show, The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report produced four discourses. These include: Connecting millennials to minority groups, reflecting on youth turnout and demographic shifts, describing youth and entitlements, and interviewing youth for humor. A discourse analysis of the 2,097 most popular articles from the 2012 Presidential Election produced three discourses. These include: Referencing millennials as technologically driven, connecting millennials to minority groups through polls, and the use of humor to convey information to millennials. The digital and televised news analyses suggest that there are many perspectives used to describe the role of the millennial generation in the election and the media is divided in its approach to the group. A discourse analysis of 1,122 journal entries collected from millennials reacting to the same digital and televised news coverage produced three discourses describing the millennial relationship to political news. These include: Recognition of bias and framing, a challenge to the descriptions of millennial identity, and a variety of perspectives on the usefulness of humor in political news coverage. Similarly, this analysis suggests there are a variety of ways millennials describe and relate to political coverage. Presented in this study is an expansion on Hall and Jefferson’s (2007) representation model, proposing a secondary model that takes place as a generation comes of age and replaces a previous control culture. This study details the relationship between the changing contemporary American media system and the country’s largest and most politically and civically engaged generation in its history, with implications for future work in political communication, media studies, and communication and technology.Ph.D., Communication, Culture, and Media -- Drexel University, 201

The ambivalence of gentrifiers

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning; and, (S.M. in Real Estate Development)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, Center for Real Estate, 2006.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections."September 2006."Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-110).This thesis explores the paradox faced by 25-34 year-old, White, well-educated persons who choose to live in predominantly low-income neighborhoods. In particular, this thesis asks if gentrifiers are aware of gentrification and their role in it, and then how they navigate that paradox. The thesis is grounded in interviews with residents of three Boston neighborhoods that are in various stages of gentrification: the South End, Jamaica Plain, and Dorchester. The interviews are framed within a synthesis of academic theory, a description of the introduction of the term "gentrification" to the United States, and common perceptions of gentrifiers as portrayed in academic and popular cultural. This framework is meant to expose the difficulty of using the term consistently, and its emotional power. Readers who are not familiar with the term or its complex background should find this framework helpful in forming a basic and thoughtful understanding. More advanced readers should use this thesis to critically explore their own position and build a more sophisticated understanding. Though the core meaning of the term "gentrification" has not changed substantially from its original definition in 1964, a wide variety of qualifiers have been attached to the term resulting in highly positive and highly negative connotations.(cont.) One explanation for these wildly varying perspectives is that gentrification is a topic that reflects larger human issues such as self and group identity, as well as socio-economic class. The result is twofold. One, these issues are so fundamental that discussions involving them have highly emotional stakes. Two, the topic brings together interdisciplinary academics and practitioners who often have conflicting paradigms and perspectives. Many of the gentrifiers reported that they live in their neighborhood due to practical matters, such as affordable homeownership, as well as less easily defined concerns, such as the sense of belonging to a diverse community. Nearly all of the gentrifiers expressed inner conflict over being a potentially negative force in the neighborhood, and a large number described ways they attempted to mitigate or explain away that force. Using the reflections of this group of gentrifiers to better understand their motivations and concerns, should enable community planners and real estate developers to work more successfully in gentrifying neighborhoods by tapping into the human, social, and economic capital brought by gentrifiers. Planners and developers are encouraged to take a mutual gains approach, emphasizing opportunities for connection rather than polarization.by Alison Elizabeth Novak.S.M.in Real Estate DevelopmentM.C.P

Farmers and Social Security Reform

Deals with the possible effect of the Social Security system reform on farmers. Background on the social security system being implemented; Summary of proposals for reform; Possible cost of implementing the personal savings account system

Stability of a flexible insert in one wall of an inviscid channel flow

A hybrid of computational and theoretical methods is extended and used to investigate the instabilities of a flexible surface inserted into one wall of an otherwise rigid channel conveying an inviscid flow. The computational aspects of the modelling combine finite-difference and boundary-element methods for structural and fluid elements respectively. The resulting equations are coupled in state-space form to yield an eigenvalue problem for the fluid–structure system. In tandem, the governing equations are solved to yield an analytical solution applicable to inserts of infinite length as an approximation for modes of deformation that are very much shorter than the overall length of the insert. A comprehensive investigation of different types of inserts – elastic plate, damped flexible plate, tensioned membrane and spring-backed flexible plate – is conducted and the effect of the proximity of the upper channel wall on stability characteristics is quantified. Results show that the presence of the upper-channel wall does not significantly modify the solution morphology that characterises the corresponding open-flow configuration, i.e. in the absence of the rigid upper channel wall. However, decreasing the channel height is shown to have a very significant effect on instability-onset flow speeds and flutter frequencies, both of which are reduced. The channel height above which channel-confinement effects are negligible is shown to be of the order of the wavelength of the critical mode at instability onset. For spring-backed flexible plates the wavelength of the critical mode is much shorter than the insert length and we show very good agreement between the predictions of the analytical and the state-space solutions developed in this paper. The small discrepancies that do exist are shown to be caused by an amplitude modulation of the critical mode on an insert of finite length that is unaccounted for in the travelling-wave assumption of the analytical model. Overall, the key contribution of this paper is the quantification of the stability bounds of a fundamental fluid–structure interaction (FSI) system which has hitherto remained largely unexplored

Complexity Increases Predictability in Allometrically Constrained Food Webs

All ecosystems are subjected to chronic disturbances, such as harvest, pollution, and climate change. The capacity to forecast how species respond to such press perturbations is limited by our imprecise knowledge of pairwise species interaction strengths and the many direct and indirect pathways along which perturbations can propagate between species. Network complexity (size and connectance) has thereby been seen to limit the predictability of ecological systems. Here we demonstrate a counteracting mechanism in which the influence of indirect effects declines with increasing network complexity when species interactions are governed by universal allometric constraints. With these constraints, network size and connectance interact to produce a skewed distribution of interaction strengths whose skew becomes more pronounced with increasing complexity. Together, the increased prevalence of weak interactions and the increased relative strength and rarity of strong interactions in complex networks limit disturbance propagation and preserve the qualitative predictability of net effects even when pairwise interaction strengths exhibit substantial variation or uncertainty

Assessing the Potential Effects of Fungicides on Nontarget Gut Fungi (Trichomycetes) and Their Associated Larval Black Fly Hosts

Fungicides are moderately hydrophobic and have been detected in water and sediment, particularly in agricultural watersheds, but typically are not included in routine water quality monitoring efforts. This is despite their widespread use and frequent application to combat fungal pathogens. Although the efficacy of these compounds on fungal pathogens is well documented, little is known about their effects on nontarget fungi. This pilot study, a field survey in southwestern Idaho from April to December 2010 on four streams with varying pesticide inputs (two agricultural and two reference sites), was conducted to assess nontarget impact of fungicides on gut fungi, or trichomycetes. Tissues of larval black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae), hosts of gut fungi, were analyzed for pesticide accumulation. Fungicides were detected in hosts from streams within agricultural watersheds but were not detected in hosts from reference streams. Gut fungi from agricultural sites exhibited decreased percent infestation, density and sporulation within the gut, and black fly tissues had elevated pesticide concentrations. Differences observed between the sites demonstrate a potential effect on this symbiotic system. Future research is needed to parse out the details of the complex biotic and abiotic relationships; however, these preliminary results indicate that impacts to nontarget organisms could have far-reaching consequences within aquatic ecosystems