topic 7: impact of digital forms of communication in conflict and change Flashcards
Castells
DIGITAL REVOLUTION: empowers 💪 masses
Arab uprisings: digital social networks helped organise ideas, protests, new forms of info sharing
—> videos of police brutality on youtube
proletariat access more info 🧠 , can organise revolutions
tackles inequalities, more even distribution of power
digital media = tool for change, creating outrage and hope
criticisms of Castells
not everyone has access to digital social networks
Arab Spring still required ftf contacts
contemporary examples of (mainly Western) online social activism
BLM
#RefugeesWelcome
#WomensMarch
#MeToo
Kirkpatrick
digital networks empower 💪 regular people
reduces inequality between big corps and individuals 🟰
power balance has shifted so customers, individuals + employees all can communicate their opinions to the public and big corps/government are forced to reply
e.g. TripAdvisor: customers rate products + services online
Haraway
- new tech 📱 should be EMBRACED by women: solution to misogyny?
—> future tech e.g. cyborgs break down gender dualities - women were previously left behind in AGRICULTURAL 🥕 and INDUSTRIAL 🏭 revolutions due to structural constraints
- if women don’t step out + assert themselves into digital revolution they risk being sidelined
—> Apple 🍎 health app ♥️ doesn’t include menstrual cycle
—> female astronaut couldn’t do spacewalk bc spacesuit was designed for man so she couldnt see out
(MALE STREAM THINKING PERVADES TECH)
Already happened: the pill, fertility treatments
muted voices are amplified
Giddens (detraditionalisation)
— increasing choice = LIBERATING + EMPOWERING 💪
— DETRADITIONALISATION: increased opportunity to discard old oppressive traditions
—> #metoo, #girlsnotbrides ➡️ decline in child marriage + FGM
— postmodernist ideas: increased consumerist choice (from TTT) brings EXPLOSION 💥 OF OPPORTUNITY and HIGHLY PERSONALISED CHOICES
Liberating, exciting, fulfilling.
Kleeman
gender inequality via WIKIPEDIA 📝
— 13% of contributors are women
— female porn star list edited >2,500 times but female poets list edited <100 times
— womens’ status as mother/wife/daughter often prioritised
CIRCULAR MARGINALISATION: ⭕️
Given woman seen as unimportant.
Doesn’t get detailed wiki page.
People see undetailed wiki page and think she’s unimportant.
Walter
LIVING DOLLS: negative impact of media on women.
New sexism: women judged on physical appearance more.
—> HYPERSEXUAL CULTURE, OBJECTIFICATION of women
Internet + media allow:
-pornography, sexualised images of women (UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS)
-emphasis on clothes, plastic surgery (EATING DISORDERS)
Increasing pressure to look GOOD for MEN.
increased by digital tech:
most searched term = porn
ratemygirlfriend.com
Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto
Sarkeesian
Tropes vs Women in Video Games blog series
gaming = male-dominated, objectifying/sexualising/trivialising women e.g. Grand Theft Auto
The Frankfurt School on data harvestation and surveillance
- when using digital media we leave DIGITAL FOOTPRINT 👣
- big data = millions of records bundled together 📊
- data may be used by companies or sold to others
- CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA illegally harvested data from 50 million Facebook accounts to use in election campaigns
ethical issues:
Cambridge Analytica influenced democracy?
lacking consent?
company profits but individual doesnt: who owns the data?
Edward Snowden
Zimmerman
digital social networks used as a conservative force bc tech companies fail to regulate hate speech
— reddit incels (involuntarily celibate) sharing retrogressive views abt wanting to dominate and have sex with women
— white supremacists
— ISIS showing Youtube videos of hostages being beheaded
Caroline Criado Perez (banknotes)
campaigned for women to be shown on British banknotes, received vicious trolling in return (death and rape threats)
—> digital communications COULD be used for social change, but can also promote conservative views
Reena DiReesta
— social media algorithms distort the truth, internet shapes reality
— consensus view won’t be reinforced, but radical extreme views will be given lots of attention so status quo is shifted
—> social change occurs without consensus
e.g. Trump elected in 2016 because of Clinton’s pedophile rumours?
