From her story, to our story: Digital storytelling as public engagement around abortion rights advocacy in Ireland

Despite the divisive nature of abortion within the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where access to safe, legal abortion is severely restricted, effecting legislative reform demands widespread public support. In light of a building pro-choice counter-voice, this work contributes to a growing body of HCI research that takes an activist approach to design. We report findings from four design workshops with 31 pro-choice stakeholders across Ireland in which we positioned an exploratory protosite, HerStoryTold, to engender critical conversations around the use of sensitive abortion narratives as a tool for engagement. Our analysis shows how digital storytelling can help reject false narratives and raise awareness of the realities of abortion laws. It suggests design directions to curate narratives that provoke empathy, foster polyvocality, and ultimately expand the engaged community. Furthermore, this research calls for designers to actively support community mobilization through providing 'stepping stones' to activism

“I don’t like it and I think it’s useless, people discussing politics on Facebook”: Young Swedes’ understandings of social media use for political discussion

Western democracies have seen a decrease in political participation, with young people singled out as the most problematic group. But young people are also the most avid users of online media. It has therefore been argued that online media could be used to evoke their interest in politics, and thus contribute to the reinvigoration of democratic citizenship. Using a mixed qualitative methods approach, this article takes a closer look at 26 young Swedes’ experiences and understandings of social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, as used for political discussions. Compared to the average Swedish 17 to 18-year-olds, the participants are relatively interested in civic and political questions. By focusing on this segment, the article mirrors the experiences of an understudied group – young people who are interested in politics but not engaged. The participants were skeptical about social media as used in relation to politics, and expressed doubts about their suitability and usefulness. Four themes were identified, where three have to do with perceived risks: for conflict, misunderstandings and deceit. The participants also expressed the idea of online political activities as being less authentic than their offline equivalents. The idea that young people want and expect something that political organizations cannot live up to is one of the most dominant discourses that characterize the discussion on youth political participation today. However, while some properties of social media fit well into what young people have been found to prefer, for the participants, negative traits seem to outweigh the positive ones, thus discouraging them from participating

“It’s Only a Pastime, Really”: Young People’s Experiences of Social Media as a Source of News about Public Affairs

Western democracies have seen a decreased participation in activities traditionally associated with political participation. One aspect of participating politically is to keep up-to-date with what happens in society, for example, by following the news. Here, youth have been found to be less active than older generations. The decline in young people’s consumption of news media does not necessarily mean that they are disinterested in news or politics; they may get their information from other sources, for example, social media. Using a qualitative multi-method approach, this article investigates how young people who are interested in civic and political issues, and who regularly access news from various sources, experience and understand, specifically, Facebook and Twitter as sources of news about public affairs. The participants appreciated the immediateness of social media news, and felt that it could provide insights into new perspectives and make news stories feel more relevant. However, it was also experienced as one-sided, fragmented, and subjective, giving a biased, or even false, image of what happens in society. The consumption of news was strongly related to the idea of being a “good” citizen. However, since the participants did not regard social media news as “real news,” their image of themselves as citizens suffered. If young people in general resemble our participants in this respect, research that asks about their news consumption runs a risk of getting answers that underestimate it, thus reinforcing the idea that young people are less interested and informed about public affairs than is actually the case

#metoo, byggbranschen och de gröna näringarna

Kampen mot sexuella trakasserier och våld mot kvinnor har alltid varit en central fråga för kvinnorörelsen. Denna rapport går djupare in i förutsättningen för denna kamp inom två olika branscher – byggbranschen och de gröna näringarna – och försöker förstå vilka specifika omständigheter och förutsättningar inom varje bransch som utgör sammanhanget till aktivismen mot sexuella trakasserier. Vi ger här en överblick av den svenska #metoo-aktivismen 2017-2018, samt en mer detaljerad skildring av organiseringen av #sistaspikenikistan samt #skiljagnarnafrånvetet, två av de 77 upprop som organiserades av olika grupper. Data har samlats ihop utifrån en tvärvetenskaplig ansats enligt den enkla principen ”vad hände då, oktober-december 2017, och vad har hänt sedan dess?” Vi har samlat detta högst aktuella, unika men flyktiga datamaterial som återfanns på sociala och i traditionella medier och intervjuat initiativtagare, deltagare och andra centrala personer runt uppropen

#metoo – ett tvärsnitt genom samhället

#metoo activism in Sweden: Development, consequences, strategie

#deadline och sexuella trakasserier bland svenska journalister : Förklaringar, konsekvenser och strategier

#metoo activism in Sweden: Development, consequences, strategie

Att legitimera en feministisk agenda : #metoo-uppropen i svenska nyhetsmedier

#metoo activism in Sweden: Development, consequences, strategie