Culture, Identity, and Inclusion

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/107453

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Social Media as Fragile State
(2024-01-03) Haythornthwaite, Caroline; Mai, Philip; Gruzd, Anatoliy
Social media platforms are grappling with how to respond to hate speech, misinformation, and political manipulation in ways that address human rights, free speech, and equality. As independent ‘states’, they are enacting their own rules of conduct, deriving their own ‘laws’, convening their own extrajudicial self-regulatory institutions, and making their own interpretations and enactments of human rights. With the rise of social states such as Facebook, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit, how fragile are they in their ability to achieve outcomes of fair, equitable and consistent application of their own laws? Could an assessment of the fragility of these social states help identify areas of focus for stability in design, use and operation of social media platforms? What indicators would measure such fragility? This paper draws on the Fund For Peace Fragility State Index for parallels in social media to detail, measure and understand issues of platform precariousness, governance, and support of human rights.
Facilitating group work skills in online environment: experiences from developing a course assignment
(2024-01-03) Ilvonen, Ilona; Ylinen, Maija; Kari, Sonja
Online environments have become a major study environment for universities in the past years. This has put teachers in a new challenging position where they need to teach skills such as groupwork and collaboration in new types of virtual working environments. As the working environment has become increasingly virtual, the ability to communicate and work together also in virtual environments has become more important. This paper presents experiences from developing a groupwork initiation assignment to facilitate online groupwork skills and neighbourness competencies of university students. The findings indicate that although the assignment was experienced positively by many students, care needs to be taken on how the assignment is instructed and motivated, to promote the development of self-reflection and groupwork skills.
Getting Anxious while Retouching Photos? Exploring the Relationships between Affordances of Photo Retouching Applications and Appearance Anxiety
(2024-01-03) Zhu, Dongyuan; Huang, Vincent
Appearance anxiety, or the fear of others' negative evaluation of their body shape or physique, has become an increasing concern. The development of mobile devices and photo retouching applications have made it easier to create flattering photos. However, little research explores how they contribute to appearance anxiety. Drawing on the agency model of customization, this study explores how the affordances of photo retouch applications affect appearance anxiety. Using Meitu, a popular photo retouch application in China, as an example and drawing on results from an online survey among its users (N=136), this study showed that the interactivity, modality, and navigability affordances of Meitu were positively correlated with the feeling of self as source, which contributed to people's negative emotions about appearance. These findings add to understanding the mechanisms underlying the potential effects of photo retouching software use on appearance anxiety.
Exploring the Impacts of Virtual Role Identification on Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities: A Perspective of Structural Symbolic Interactionism
(2024-01-03) Zhou, Chengxi; Sun, Yongqiang; Zhang, Yiwen
Knowledge sharing is crucial to the operation and sustainability of virtual communities. Against this background, this study aims to investigate whether and how users’ virtual role identification influences their knowledge sharing behavior. Theoretical insights from structural symbolic interactionism and identity economics are synthesized and used as a basis for proposing the mechanism by which virtual role identification influences knowledge sharing behavior. We collected data to test the research model from 250 community users via an online survey. The results suggest that virtual role identification can facilitate users’ knowledge sharing behavior by increasing role utility and perceived role expectations. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of this study are also discussed.
WeChat Culture in Transition: Navigating Platform, User, and Tradition
(2024-01-03) Sun, Yinan; Suthers, Dan
This qualitative study examines recent cultural changes on WeChat resulting from the interplay between the platform, users, and Chinese culture. Employing a three-dimensional theoretical framework of cultural affordances, the research investigates the dynamics of cultural transformations within the WeChat ecosystem. Data collection involves 31 semi-structured in-depth interviews, follow-up discussions, and observations, analyzed using the grounded theory approach. Four main cultural shifts are identified: a transition from a personal and intimate culture to a more formal and professional one, an increased emphasis on immediate satisfaction and rewards, the emergence of an “everything-looks-fine” culture, and a reinforced high-context culture for self-presentation. The study also discusses the influential roles played by the platform, users, and cultural norms in shaping cultural change on WeChat.
Introduction to the Minitrack on Culture, Identity, and Inclusion
(2024-01-03) Levinson, Nanette; Trevisan, Filippo; Cogburn, Derrick

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