What "Real" Women Want: Alt-Right Femininity Vlogs as an Anti-Feminist Populist Aesthetic

This article suggests that one reason for the resurgence of populism we see in the digital age is its resonance as a political aesthetic with the style and aesthetics of online culture. Influencers on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram rely on style to attract viewers and identify themselves with a community. This makes fertile ground for far-right populist movements like the alt-right, who can package extremist politics in attractive content that appears to represent viewers' everyday concerns. A growing alt-right community on YouTube known as traditional or "trad" wives create videos about femininity, beauty, and relationships. However, viewers who seek out these channels for clothing or hair styling tips leave with another kind of styling: populist messaging that frames feminism as an elitist threat to the "real" femininity of everyday women. Through rhetorical analysis, I find that trad wife vloggers’ videos stylistically suture alt-right anti-feminism to the broader online influencer culture through repeated aesthetic displays of the feminine self, home, and family. I argue that this visuality acts as an aesthetic mode of veridiction for the anti-feminist message that is uniquely powerful on image-based social media platforms. It creates the appearance of broad support as similar aesthetics are repeatedly performed by many trusted influencers. I conclude by calling scholars of populism and rhetoric to attend to the way multi-layered conventions of aesthetics on social media platforms can spread extremist messaging through ambiguous content within and beyond online communities

Palabras que liberan: Identidad y expresión de jóvenes en contexto de encierro

Este Trabajo Integrador Final de Reflexión de Prácticas en Comunicación surge de la necesidad de realizar un análisis colectivo sobre una experiencia concreta que transitamos como estudiantes, a partir de una intervención de comunicación en una institución de encierro. Al comenzar esta práctica, enmarcada en la cursada de una materia de la Orientación Planificación Comunicacional de la Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación (UNLP), pudimos observar que la Unidad Penitenciaria N°45 no ofrece espacios para promover procesos de comunicación interpersonales en lxs jóvenes allí alojados. Es por esto que, a partir de nuestro trabajo como talleristas, decidimos intervenir generando el Taller “Cultura y Expresión”, como un espacio de gestión de la comunicación entre lxs jóvenes, entendiendo a la comunicación como una herramienta de construcción de nuevos sentidos y prácticas sociales. Al mismo tiempo, comprendiendo que la cultura es inseparable de la comunicación y a esta relación como un proceso histórico-social. A partir de la práctica, entendemos a lxs jóvenes que se encuentran en contexto de encierro como personas que están atravesadas por diversas vulnerabilidades y discursos estigmatizantes que se generan desde las instituciones penitenciarias, educativas,los medios de comunicación y demás sectores de la sociedad, que influyen en los modos de construir sus identidades y que ponen en tensión la situación y el destino de lxs mismos desde diferentes tipos de discriminación: desde lo social, lo laboral, y el acceso a los derechos como salud, educación y alimentación. En este sentido, como comunicadorxs consideramos que es importante que la comunicación sea también, en contexto de encierro, una herramienta emancipadora, que puedan poner en práctica mientras se encuentran dentro del sistema carcelario, como así también, para su vida cotidiana al recuperar la libertad. Por lo tanto, a partir del Taller, generamos un espacio de encuentro, de escucha, de circulación de la palabra, de estimulación de la expresión y de problematización de temas de interés desde la realización de debates y de diferentes actividades. Decidimos afrontar este Trabajo Integrador Final (TIF) de Reflexión de Prácticas con el objetivo de sistematizar la práctica y analizar las producciones discursivas realizadas por lxs jóvenes para reconocer modos de construir sus identidades. Al mismo tiempo, decidimos optar por esta modalidad de TIF, con el propósito de que la experiencia pueda ser recuperada,no sólo como un objeto de análisis y reflexión, sino también como un material teórico y práctico. Al respecto, producimos un documento descriptivo con la intención de aportar una herramienta para futuras intervenciones en territorios similares. Creemos que esta práctica pre-profesional fue necesaria para pensar desde qué lugar queremos posicionarnos como comunicadorxs sociales. Además, creemos que la carrera en Comunicación Social con orientación en Planificación Comunicacional nos brinda las herramientas teórico-metodológicas necesarias para lograr identificar los discursos identitarios que circulan entre lxs jóvenes y, por lo tanto, nos posibilita su análisis y reflexión crítica.Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Socia

Product lifecycle management and distributor contribution to new product development

After the initial launch of a new product, distributors are frequently among the first to learn about product-related problems through the information they get about how it is perceived and used by customers, and how it might be improved or adapted for broader market coverage. For producers, such information, which has the potential to impact new product development (NPD) activities during the product lifecycle management (PLM) phase that follows launch, can be decisive for ensuring the continued viability of the product in the medium-to-longer term. The goal of this article is to better understand how distributors contribute to producer PLM activities by engaging in product-related information processing. A typology of four distinct scenarios is developed by integrating three conceptual themes: organizational information processing, dynamic capabilities, and task complexity. Each scenario results from the interplay of the distributor’s level (low/high) of capability—specifically, a combination of information coordination and management of inter-organization relations—and of the degree (low/high) of complexity of the product-related problem. The four scenarios are analysed and described in terms of NPD-related information processing. According to the typology, distributors act as ‘problem informers’ (low capability/high complexity), ‘solution advisors’ (low capability/low complexity), ‘solution implementers’ (high capability/low complexity) or ‘solution managers’ (high capability/high complexity). 14 in-depth interviews with distributors and producers in industrial goods provide empirical evidence for the analysis, description and support of each scenario. The article contributes to NPD by shedding light on the role of distributors in terms of incremental innovation in the context of PLM. Developers of new products can use the typology in planning for distributor involvement in PLM activities; distributors can use it to map out their current and future level of engagement in PLM-related activities

Guanxi, IT Systems, and Innovation Capability: The Moderating Role of Proactiveness

In Chinese exporting, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) need to be innovative to develop a competitive advantage. This research explored how these organizations can use two resources: 1) guanxi with customers, distributors, suppliers, and government officials; and 2) IT systems to enhance their innovation capabilities and new product performance. The moderating role of an organization’s proactiveness with respect to new product development is also examined. The resource-based view provides the theoretical support for the research. A conceptual model is developed and tested using survey data gathered from 210 Chinese SMEs in manufacturing industries that were analyzed using SmartPLS 2.0. Results show that IT systems are positively related to innovation capability. The relationship between guanxi and innovation capability is significant for firms that exhibit high levels of proactiveness but not when proactiveness is low

Absorbing customer knowledge: how customer involvement enables service design success

Customers are a knowledge resource outside of the firm that can be utilized for new service success by involving them in the design process. However, existing research on the impact of customer involvement (CI) is inconclusive. Knowledge about customers’ needs and on how best to serve these needs (articulated in the service concept) is best obtained from customers themselves. However, codesign runs the risk of losing control of the service concept. This research argues that of the processes of external knowledge, acquisition (via CI), customer knowledge assimilation, and concept transformation form a capability that enables the firm to exploit customer knowledge in the form of a successful new service. Data from a survey of 126 new service projects show that the impact of CI on new service success is fully mediated by customer knowledge assimilation (the deep understanding of customers’ latent needs) and concept transformation (the modification of the service concept due to customer insights). However, its impact is more nuanced. CI exhibits an “∩”-shaped relationship with transformation, indicating there is a limit to the beneficial effect of CI. Its relationship with assimilation is “U” shaped, suggesting a problem with cognitive inertia where initial learnings are ignored. Customer knowledge assimilation directly impacts success, while concept transformation only helps success in the presence of resource slack. An evolving new service design is only beneficial if the firm has the flexibility to adapt to change

Factors affecting the use of smart mobile examination platforms by universities’ postgraduate students during the COVID 19 pandemic : an empirical study

Recent years have seen an increasingly widespread use of online learning technologies. This has prompted universities to make huge investments in technology to augment their position in the face of extensive competition and to enhance their students’ learning experience and efficiency. Numerous studies have been carried out regarding the use of online and mobile phone learning platforms. However, there are very few studies focusing on how university students will accept and adopt smartphones as a new platform for taking examinations. Many reasons, but most recently and importantly the COVID-19 pandemic, have prompted educational institutions to move toward using both online and mobile learning techniques. This study is a pioneer in examining the intention to use mobile exam platforms and the prerequisites of such intention. The purpose of this study is to expand the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by including four additional constructs: namely, content quality, service quality, information quality, and system quality. A self-survey method was prepared and carried out to obtain the necessary basic data. In total, 566 students from universities in the United Arab Emirates took part in this survey. Smart PLS was used to test the study constructs and the structural model. Results showed that all study hypotheses are supported and confirmed the effect of the TAM extension factors within the UAE higher education setting. These outcomes suggest that the policymakers and education developers should consider mobile exam platforms as a new assessment platform and a possible technological solution, especially when considering the distance learning concept. It is good to bear in mind that this study is initial and designed to explore using smartphones as a new platform for student examinations. Furthermore, mixed-method research is needed to check the effectiveness and the suitability of using the examination platforms, especially for postgraduate higher educational levels