Communication technologies in the study environment: institutional and personal media as a reflection of organisational structure

In this article, I will analyse and discuss two qualitative case studies concerning ICT in the study environment at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. I will place special focus on the way in which organisational perspectives as well as technological affordances shape how communication technologies are integrated into organisational structures and practices on campus. This involves a comparison between course management systems on the one hand and students’ personal media (mobile phones, e-mails) on the other hand, with regard to how these are used on campus. On the basis of this analysis, I will argue that the ways in which these technologies are used reflects two different perspectives on the interplay between communication technology and organisational structure: organisational structure as an anticipation of communication patterns implied in course management system’s design and implementation as well as organisational structure as a product of the use of personal media

Intimitet og visuel kommunikation i sociale medier: En samtale med Louise Kjølsen og Liva Manghezi

Hverdagens intime og seksuelle relationer er flyttet ind i sociale medier og på digitale platforme. Vi hører mest om det, når det går galt og skandalerne ruller, men hvis vi skal forstå disse enkeltstående og ekstreme sager, må vi også forstå konteksten: Digitale medier og visuel kommunikation som en naturlig del af hverdagens intime og seksuelle relationer, en måde at være kærester, gøre tilnærmelser og lege med sin seksualitet på. Derfor kredser dette temanummer om intimitet og visuel kommunikation i sociale medier. Artiklerne er alle på engelsk og adresserer et internationalt forskningsmiljø, men nummeret tager samtidig direkte afsæt i en specifik dansk debat og nogle specifikke danske sager. Derfor har vi inviteret Liva Manghezi og Louise Kjølsen ind i en samtale intimitet og visuel kommunikation i sociale medier der måske kan danne bro mellem den danske debat og den internationale forskning på området

Intimacy and visual communication in social media: Editorial

Sharing (intimate) photos has become an integral part of close relationships in the ageof social media. Most young people use social media as a way to establish and main-tain strong social ties rather than as a way of connecting to public life. This pattern ofuse includes the sharing of photos and videos with intimate and sexual content, suchas nudes, intimate situations, and other types of self-disclosure. Given that the primary public and academic interest has been related to situations where the process has gone wrong and people have been hurt, these photos and videos are often associated with risk, worries, and moral disdain. However, these cases are part of a broader range of social practices, which are for the most part unproblematic and mundane. The sharing of inti- mate photos should be acknowledged as part of a more general act of (mutual) self-dis- closure to establish trust as well as an non-patalogical exploration of sexuality and social identities. In both cases, the sharing of intimate photos becomes part of more general processes of intimacy and close relationships that we should be careful not to reject or problematize as a whole. Accordingly, in this themed issue we would like to move beyond the stories of problem youth and move instead towards a more empirically grounded and systematic analysis of the complex ways in which the sharing of intimate photos becomes part of everyday life practices, including friendship, courtship, trust, and intimacy