QUEER LIVES, PARTICIPATORY CULTURE, AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Question 1

Broadcast model

Answer 1

a one-way flow (i.e. the TV, radio, newspaper)
• Central source (aka the broadcaster), shoves info out at its audience
• Interaction structure was limited

Question 2

Web 2.0 characterized by:

Answer 2

• Interactivity
• Social media
• Multiple flows of interaction and communication

i.e. Take Twitter for example → how its completely decentralized, open, public, not one centralized hub, tweet as one node among many
• On social media, everyday people are CONTENT PRODUCERS, not simply content consumers

Question 3

Henry Jenkins defines participatory culture as having 5 features:

Particularly interested in fandom (i.e. slash fanfiction)

Answer 3

1. Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
   a. Everything goes, accessibility (easy to work Instagram)
   b. Fairly easy to get your hands on it (i.e. barriers that stop you from creating feature film)
2. Strong support for creating and sharing creations with others
   a. Some kind of support system
3. Some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices
   a. Older people helping the newer ones get into that community
4. Members who believe that their contributions matter
   a. Post stuff bc you think other ppl care
5. Members who feel some sense of a group

Question 4

Social media does not equal participatory culture

Answer 4

Interested in the extent to which social media facilitates participatory culture

Question 5

“From the bottom”

Answer 5

Marginalized groups are allowed to engage in social media; grass roots
Interesting negotiation b/t the corporate ownership (capitalist sense) but they’re used by everyday people; think about this tension
Two levels on Youtube/or even intagram
• The slick stuff vs sitting in the bedroom and talking to a camera (homemade)

What does this mean for visual culture?

Question 6

“As we discuss our research into and active participation”

Answer 6

• The tension: so much of social media is corporately mediated
o Sites have a policy of what you can do and post
o Tumblr vs tumblr
• Corporate identity, keep things a certain way vs the way users want to use it
• i.e. beastiality, violent sex, nonconsensual sex
• people are hired (local and overseas) and their job is to go through this stuff and censor to fit the user guidelines
 almost always related to visual culture text
 women breastfeeding

Question 7

Self-representation, Identity, and Queer Lives on Social Media

Answer 7

• We’re in a really contradictory moment

* Transition videos and coming out videos

Question 8

As with other marginalized communities, mainstream representation of queer people, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, 2 spirit, transgender people, can range from ______ to ______

Answer 8

• Institutional → i.e. filling out a form with male or female (who to identify with) or assumption that spouse is of opposite gender

heteronormative (the presumption that everyone is heterosexual of that opposite-sex attractions and relationships are the norm and therefore, superior) to homophobic (or the range of negative attitude and feelings towards LGBTQ people)

Question 9

For many people in the queer diaspora, community and context of identity come from places outside one’s home or community of origin

Answer 9

• A lot of queer kids have straight parents
• Institutions of socialization (school, social media, family, religion) – how we learn about how to be a community in the world
• Often for young queer people there is a lack of this kind of environment so the internet has become a way to get information and connect with similar people
o The internet is a central part of how many queer people connect with others, establish their identity, and their community

Question 10

“As a venue for self-representation, Tumblr points to the potential as well as to the limitations of digital cultures in moving sexuality out of the fetishized realm of the obscene and into more productive conversations of how desire funcitons”

Answer 10

• make talking about sexuality less taboo
• how this matters to understanding tumblr and in relation to visual culture
o Do the videos constitute participatory culture? Think of Jenkin’s points 3 – 5
o Mostly positive comments; phenomenon (as opposed to crude negative comments normally on outube videos)
o People sharing their stories
o Sharing his story shaping a safe space
o Transition video → making the process more realistic, marvel at that, fetishized guessing gender identity may be hostile

Alisha Lim
• Creating positive representations of queer people