christinexx

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Short-Answer Quiz #3: Due 11/20

ETHICAL MODEL FOR AN ALGORITHM

1. Determine what kind of social media site you are creating. Then answer the following questions, explaining your decisions. (Remember the key here is to create an ethical algorithm model).

The social media site I am making is a blog but also a portfolio showcase website for artists. It would be visually set up like Tumblr except it’s where people can post their art or other creative skills online. The format of the website would also welcome a space to blog, almost like a mix between Twitter, a blogging space and Behance, a portfolio networking website.

2. What will you measure? (ex: likes, hashtags, how long someone stays on a page, etc) Be sure to explain all your decisions.

One thing that I would measure would be hashtags so posts can be organized and easy to find. Another thing I would measure would be likes and who the user is following so that similar posts can be recommended to a person and enrich the website experience. How much time is spent on the app will be recorded to see how much traffic accumulates throughout the day and where it is accessed, such as devices, will be noted for security protection. 

3. How will you weight these factors? (rank factors from most important to least important)

The most important factor will be likes because of how it will be used to personalize feed.

4. What factors will not be measured? (what will not be measured in your algorithm and why)

A feature I would not want to be measured would be the location of the user to help with security of the account. How long the user spends on a post will not be measured either because it is not too much of a necessity to include. 

5. How will the model learn or adapt to new information? (this can include changes in language, etc)

New information would be recognized by the system and would be welcomed since the entire website is also a blog. Art with nudity would be alright but any explicit content would need to be tagged and would be age restricted. 

6. What biases will be built into the model? How will this change the algorithm’s outcome?

A few biases will be built into the algorithm such as highlighting smaller accounts, especially people of color who plan to earn financial gain by selling their art online. It will also highlight posts made by new or small artists instead of based on how many likes it has because it will overshadow smaller creators who might not have a big platform as some others do.

7. How will the model live out the (un)ethical practices we have discussed?

This model will surpass algorithm such as Twitter and Instagram because it will not tolerate any forms of hate speech or discrimination to groups of people and will uplift people of minority’s voices.

[christinexx]

Week 12: Blog Post Due 11/11

1. Is it right for EOCs to make a quick buck over their users?

    It’s not a bad thing if the people who manage those communities are doing it with good intentions. I also believe that minorities should be heading EOC spaces because it doesn’t look too well if a white person is profiting off of marginalized people. Websites like BlackPlanet.com, a community for African-Americans, are in a grey area because although it used an African American holiday to market a collaboration it had with Ford, a well-known car company, it also held charities to give back to the community.

2.  List reasons why it is unfair for black people to be told to change their hair.

Black people are told to change their hair almost all the time. Some are even suspended from their schools or kicked out of their jobs because of their “unprofessional” hairstyle. They’re being asked to change it into a more “tame” one which already has racist connotations to it already. This is unjust because a genetically dominant trait in black people is having kinky or frizzy hair. Asking them to change it is telling them to conform to Western ideals of what it means to look “appropriate”, even though their hair might serve as a sense of identity. Hairstyles such as dreads and bantu knots are unfairly associated with crime and poverty, especially when things like redlining set them up to be placed in neighborhoods of poverty. America’s workforce should be more open with their idea of what it means to be professional because not all black people can afford to invest more time or money to straighten their hair or appear more “white”.

3.  Should  mental illness representation and gender issues be left out of games?   

No because as a student in the art field, I know that video games are considered an art and a form of self-expression. For centuries, art has been used for propaganda, storytelling, political views, personal use, and more. Video games shouldn’t be restricted for the sake of only being fun especially since at this point in the industry, we should be exploring various topics. The reason why there are video games that include issues we see in real life is because it was most likely created for a call of change. If people have an issue with this, then they should know that there are plenty of games out there made for the sake of having fun then criticize other games with a different approach. 

4.  Why should we care or not care for representation in video games?

We should care so that things like the Quinn thing never happen again. I strongly believe that the whole #gamergate movement was an act of misogyny. Quinn was attacked because of accusations about her personal life that weren’t even confirmed by Quinn herself. Representation matters in the media especially if it is about minority groups as it may call attention to what these groups struggle with everyday.

Sources:

Hathaway, J. (2014). What is gamergate and why? An explainer for non-geeks. Gawker.

Lee, L. (2015). Virtual homeplace: (re)constructing the body through social media. 91-111.

McLaine, S. (2003). Ethnic online communities: between profit and purpose. 233-254.

[christinexx]

Week 11: Blog Post Due 11/04

1. How effective is Black Twitter?

     “Black Twitter, a subculture within the Twitter platform, materializes through the creation of hashtags,” (Lee, 2019). These hashtags are usually found in posts that comment and criticize events and discriminatory systems based in the U.S. Some notable acts that this subculture of Twitter has done was call out inaccurate information by the Associated Press (AP). The AP reported a case where a man shot Regina McBride, a woman of color, and the headline was written in a way that sided the man, claiming he had done it out if fear for his life. It completely ignored the high possibility that it was more likely a hate crime, causing an uproar in social media. In response, black Twitter began posting relevant headlines relating to issues in today’s world that were dripping with satire and using the #APHeadlines to show how ridiculousness the AP sounded in their last tweet. In the course of three hours, the AP noticed the backlash and changed their headline into a neutral tone, showing the power of the Web.

2.  Now that everything is online, can we have social revolutions on places like Twitter and Facebook?

“The Internet is a techno-social system consisting of social networks that make use of a global network of computer networks (Fuchs, 2014). The Internet is used as a tool to exchange and spread information about social issues. I wouldn’t consider it to be a place where we would have a revolution, but as one of the most effective methods to stir social unrest as a mean to transform corrupt systems in the outside world.

3.  What are some cons to solely participating to online activism?   

One down side of solely engaging to activism online is that we won’t ever know how serious the situation is just by reading it. Now that this world has been transitioning to digital, our minds are over-saturated with information nearly everyday. The information we process becomes passive because we are reading instead of watching and experiencing what is going on in different sides of the world. We also are used to receiving information instantly, thanks to social media, so reading the headline sounds just as good to the most of us when it’s actually the worst method of information-gathering.  Another down side is believing we are activists just by retweeting or sharing one post about a social awareness issue. Spreading information is great, but there is so much more left to be done. 

4.  How is technology used in digital warfare between different sides?

Technology can raise social awareness to thousands of people in a second, but it can endanger others. For example, there were many recordings of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that happened this year. People were posting it online to show active action against racially-oppressive systems as well as for justice against unruly murders of countless black people. Videos were also posted to show the world how U.S. forces were attacking peaceful protestors, openly showing how flawed America is. To discourage these protests, the U.S. government used facial recognition technology to identify and arrest these people. In response to this, BLM supporters encouraged everyone to either to take video without any visible faces in the frame or to blur out faces using video-editing apps on our phone before posting any footage. This is how technology is used to fight and protect on a digital battleground between opposing sides.

Sources:

Fuchs, C. (2014). Social media and communication power. In Social media: A critical introduction (pp. 69-94). London: SAGE Publications Ltd doi: 10.4135/9781446270066.n4

Lee, L. (2017). Black Twitter: A Response to Bias in Mainstream Media. Social Sciences, 6(1), 26. doi:10.3390/socsci6010026

Vegh, S. (2003). Classifying Forms of Online Activism The Case of Cyberprotests against the World Bank.

[christinexx]

Week 10: Blog Post Due 10/28

1. Who are we supposed to be when we are on the Internet?

     When we are on social media, we construct our own identities. It can range from who you are in real life to different sides of yourself. Your identity is made visible by people who view your profile from the things you post and the things you say or like.  Your face doesn’t even need to be visible when you interact with other users so at the same time it keeps a sense of anonymity. This gives people the option to explore themselves as they would like and to interact with people as the identity they are most comfortable in.

2.  Why would trolling be so popular? 

The act of trolling on the Web has been first recorded in 1992, even before we could give it the term we know it as today (Phillips, 2015). When we go on the Web, we know that we have the opportunity to hide under anonymity throughout spaces of the Internet. Since it is so easy to get away with, self-proclaimed trolls do it to fight boredom. Trolling has turned into a pastime possibly due to the minimal consequences it has, such as being ignored or blocked by users. Whatever happens on the Web stays in the web as what they say will not affect their real life reputation but their throw-away account on the Web. It’s popular because they get to post whatever they choose to post like things as an act of mischief without facing the real life consequences.

3.  Should accounts like Grampa Wiggly be considered a troll?     

Grampa Wiggly only meets a few criteria to be considered a troll. The account gave bad advice and the only time he caused distrust was when he was found out to be fake. The person behind Grampa Wiggly claimed that the account was a creative writing exercise (Bergstrom, 2011). I believe that Grampa Wiggly isn’t a troll because although he did give a bad piece of advice, he mostly minded his own business. The author also had no malicious intent towards anyone or any group using the account. Grampa Wiggly should instead be considered a roleplay account but debate still goes on all because there was no fine indication in Grampa Wiggly’s About Me page or his texts that he was, indeed, a fake account.

4.  Were the people attacking Leslie Jones considered to be done by trolls? 

Leslie Jones is a well-known public figure and was attacked to the point where it is considered she was verbally harassed back in 2016. It started due to the fact she was announced as one of the leading roles of the revamped Ghostbusters (2016) (Silman, 2016). The movie trailer itself received a lot of backlash due to the all-women main cast which was different from the all-male leading cast in the original 1984 version. People were upset because it ruined the nostalgia that the remake was potential of all because the directors chose a “liberal feminist propaganda” route. I believe what happened to Leslie surpassed trolling and can be considered real life harassment done through written texts posted on the Web. Not to mention that she was threatened as well. I even believe that people took advantage of the hate train to make not only misogynistic remarks towards her, but to be racist on top of that. As the only black women in the leading cast, Leslie most likely received the most negative comments and was used as a punching bag from the public, venting their frustrations on her over Hollywood’s “feminist” movie trend.

Sources:

Bergstrom, K. (2011). “Don’t feed the troll”: Shutting down debate about community expectations on Reddit.com. First Monday, 16(8).

Phillips, W. (2015), "Defining Terms: The Origins and Evolution of Subcultural Trolling”. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. pp.55-57.

Silman, A. (2016). A Timeline of Leslie Jones's Horrific Online Abuse.

[christinexx]

Week 8: Blog Post Due 10/14

1. How does female depictions in technology reflect gender norms?

     Right now, the most popular depictions of women in technology are those created by men. Huge technology-based corporations reinforce these stereotypes by using a women’s voice as virtual assistants built within the device. Examples of this includes Siri, created by Apple or Cortana, developed by Microsoft. This labels women as overly friendly, nice, and submissive (O’Riordan, 2006) . It even sets expectations to what a women should sound like and how they should act. Once again, male-dominated corporations use gender stereotypes to their advantage without knowing the harmful effects it will have on women.

2.  Compare print-only era of white supremacy and with the digital era in the Western world. How has the transition from one to the other transformed the world?

     In the print-only age, white supremacy was straightforward. Both men and women took part of it. With the advancements into the digital age, expression of white supremacy has further complexed itself. Just like in the print-only age, people can publish articles like they would a newspaper to the public. In addition to that, usernames can be used to express such ideals as part of your identity online as well as more opportunities to participate and interact with people think the same way (Daniels, 2009). The digital age and the Internet is a double-edged sword as much as we think it’s great.

3.  Why does Haraway claim that  “ ‘being’ female” does not exist?

     Haraway means that gender doesn’t exist because it was constructed by society and I agree. In 2016, I volunteered in a daycare center at my local church where a little boy was playing with the princess dolls there. When his mom came back, she told him that he should be playing with the cars because dolls were for girls. A man can do whatever a woman can do and vice versa. It is our society that sets invisible boundaries as to how we should act, think, and feel. 

 4.  How has the marketing world found a new way of advertising products using gender through digital media?

     Nowadays, companies use avatars or fictional characters to advertise and sell their products. Instead of using a representative spokesperson, they hire a team of artists to create visually charming characters that are designed to pull in possible consumers. This engages the consumer because of how real a character may look while maintaining “perfect” features. For example, Ananova is an online newscaster created in the 2000s and was often referred to as a “cyberbabe” because of all her feminine features (Haraway, 1991). We can also see this in a lot of mainstream games like League of Legends (LoL) where a lot of the female characters are thin, big-breasted, and wear over-exposing, tight clothing. It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of the girls in the game are light-skinned. These characters are created to be idealistic gender norms targeting men at the expense of ruining gender norms even further, specifically women, for profit.

Sources:

Daniels, J. (2009). Gender, White Supremacy, and the Internet. Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights (pp. 61-86). Rowman & Littlefield.

Haraway, D. (1991). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (pp. 149-181). Routledge.

O’Riordan, K. (2006). Gender, Technology, and Visual Cyberculture. Critical Cyberculture Studies (pp. 243-252). New York University Press.

[christinexx]

Week 7: Blog Post Due 10/6

 1. How has “white invisibility” affected us as a society?

     White invisibility is part of the “...privilege Whites have to render themselves raceless,” (Senft & Noble, 2014). White invisibility is an idea created by the fact that systems and institutions in America were built by white people and for white people. Being white is considered normal or neutral and is reflected when we compare how unjustly minorities are treated by systems here in America compared to white people.

2.  Should “Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls” be considered “reverse racism”?

     I don’t think that this video is “reverse racist” because it is simply a callout towards white people who do this. It cannot be considered reverse racism especially if it did nothing but to bring attention to the way certain white people treat black people. As mentioned in the reading, one of Philosopher Joshua Shaw’s theories as to what makes people laugh is because it makes us feel superior to others (Senft & Noble, 2014) . I think white people who thought this was racist towards them got offended because the joke was ultimately themselves since the white person in the video was portrayed as insensitive and blind to their own privilege. No economical advantages or systemic benefits came to black people after that video was posted either so it shouldn’t be blown out of proportion if we are still living in a world where white people dominate other groups.

3.  What is the problem when companies market themselves as “progressive”?

     The problem with companies is that they see “progressiveness” more as a marketing plan rather than an idea to normalize different expressions of different identities. For example, one of Disney and Pixar’s marketing strategies to promote their movie, “Onward” (2020), was by focusing on a character that was lesbian and was by voiced by black actress, Lena Waithe, who also identifies as part of the LGBT+ community. 

These huge corporations failed to understand that it looks like they’re pointing out the character and saying, “Look! An LGBT+ character! Now go watch the movie,”. This is an example of negative interpellation, which is when we “feel uncomfortably noticed and made visible” (Senft & Noble, 2014) which was certainly felt by the public. When people say they want more representation in media, they mean it in a subtle way. Media where different expressions of gender and sexuality can coexist and be seen as “invisible” is what is craved. In Onward, no one in the movie or storyline directly pointed out that Specter was gay, but the fact that Onward’s team pointed out that she was ruined the movie’s magic to many even before the movie came out as it was easy to see that they were attempting to make a quick buck off of the LGBT+ community.

To everyone’s dismay, the character was only on screen for less than ten seconds. I’m sure that huge animation studios like Disney and Pixar avoid LGBT+ leads since they don’t want to completely lose their audience or avoid boycott but it is wrong to bait people another group like this.

  4.  How powerful are algorithms?

    Now that we’ve been entering an age in science where technology is advancing by the minute, I would say that algorithms are part of what control our society today. Algorithms have previously been used by banking systems and other corporations to discriminate towards groups of people. It essentially has the power to control a person’s life. As mentioned in the reading, Jason Mars, a Black computer scientist, said that back when he worked at Microsoft, their first priority was to make money rather than include an AI tool in his software that is  inclusive towards Black people (Benjamin, 2019). It’s sad how we this world today is using algorithms to manipulate the masses for profit rather than to create a balanced, fair system of living.

Sources:

Benjamin, R. (2019). Race after technology: Abolitionist tools for the new Jim code. Cambridge: Polity, 41-88.

Senft, T., Noble, U. N. (2014). Race and Social Media. The Social Media Handbook, 107-125.    

[christinexx]

Week 6: Blog Post Due 9/30

1. Would it ever be possible for racism to be nonexistent online?

     It is common to think that we can forget about race online but it is not possible. The Internet is a realm where we dump information on from the real world. As long as ideas of white supremacy and discrimination exist in the real world, we can’t pretend it’s not online. We can’t run away from it either.

2.  Can media affect the real world?

      Yes, I do believe that media can influence the real world.  Reading a funny tweet can make people laugh or reading an upsetting post on Reddit can people feel angry or argumentative. Media can influence society for the better or for the worse. In Daniels’ article, I read that there was a case where a man hurt five people because he was inspired from white supremacist websites (Daniels, 2009). This is an example of how powerfully dangerous media is and why people need to be mindful about releasing things publicly. 

3.  Why is Shadow Warrior by 3D Realms and other games similar to it harmful?

     Shadow Warrior meshes Asian culture together into what it seems like generic Asian stereotypes jumbled into one game. 3D Realms explained that the game was a satire of “all the bad kung-fu movies on the 60's-80's” (Ow, 2000). The problem with this is the fact that the Shadow Warriors team had to explain that the game was a mockery of an outdated genre. A successful piece of satire can explain itself but here 3D Realms had to speak out on it. This means that the concept of the game itself wasn’t obvious and it failed to reveal its own purpose to the public. There are probably people around now that have played it and still don’t know that it was a parody. Instead, it reinforced ignorance of Asian culture in America. Games like these are harmful because they pretend to be progressive but backfire or have underlying controversial motives. 

Another game that I know of that tries to be progressive but fails to do so is Detroit: Become Human by David Cage.

4.  Are video games worth analyzing even if it’s all fiction?

     A lot of people think that analyzing video games “shouldn’t be that deep”, but I do. Almost every game is done by scratch from the coding, to the art, and to the storyline if there is one. There’s most certainly going to be an underlying message and it starts with the characters you can play as. Shadow Warrior places us in the eyes of a “colonizer who rapes, pillages and kills” (Ow, 2000) while Detroit: Become Human places us in the point of view of those oppressed by society. The position your main character is in the video game is important because that is the lens you will look throughout the entire time you are playing it. The game might say something good, bad, or leave a certain feeling within you about real life or the team that created it. This is why I like looking deeper into video games.

Sources:

Daniels, J. (2009). White Supremacy in the Digital Era. Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights (pp. 3-16). Rowman & Littlefield.

Kolko, B. E., Nakamura, L., & Rodman, G. B. (2000). Race in Cyberspace: An Introduction. Race in Cyberspace (pp. 1-13). Routledge.

Nakamura, L. (Director). (n.d.). TEDxUIllinois - Dr. Lisa Nakamura - 5 Types of Online Racism and Why You Should Care [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT-G0FlOo7g&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Ow, J. A. (2000). The Revenge of the Yellowfaced Cyborg Terminator: The Rape of Digital Geishas and the Colonization of Cyber-Coolies in 3D Realms’ Shadow Warrior. Race in Cyberspace (pp. 51-68). Routledge.

[christinexx]

9/16 blog post

Are Algorithms meant to be neutral?

Algorithms are meant to be neutral but as Noble points out, ‘algorithms’ and ‘big data’ are anything but. Algorithms are made by people who hold all types of values which they openly promote racism, sexism and these ideals transfer to their work. We cannot believe that these people with openly negative world views are developing search algorithms that are meant to be neutral or objective decision making tools. While algorithms can be updated repeatedly there would still be digital traces of such issues.

Is a name not only a brand but a business?

Benjamin touches upon how having a ‘bland’ name comes with power because it’s plainness which can be seen as invisibility and regards to Whiteness, offers a person immunity. A bland name comes attached with benefits such as escaping responsibility for their role in an unjust system. Names are a brand because the parents decision follows their child for a lifetime and come attached with certain benefits because of histories conflict and simulation and signal fierce political struggles. Names will either open door that lead to largescale employment or shut doors because of racism.

Is the Internet a social experiment?  

A social experiment tests people’s reaction to certain situations or events. Noble dives into this subject by emphasizing how algorithms that make up search engines, negatively effect people. The only positive impact that the internet has is for those who aren’t people of color because people of color are the ones that are having negative stereotypes being reinforced through search engines.

How does the digital divide benefit from the decline of minority student’s enrollment at prestigious universities?

Everett touches upon this subject, but first we need to look at the digital divide theory. This theory argues that certain populations, built up of minorities, don’t have equal access to the internet and digital technology due to lack of resources or disinterest in technology. In 1995 the Internet shifted from predominately elite, white masculinist domain to a more public domain. In 2002 the decline of African American and other racial minority students’ enrollments at prestigious universities proves to the regressive consequences of the legal deinstitutionalization of these underrepresents groups access of elite higher education. The role the Internet plays is because of growing technocratic order will inevitably exclude the marginalized black masses from the still-evolving information infrastructure.

Benjamin, R. (2019). Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Cambridge: Polity.

Everett, A. (2002). The Revolution Will Be Digitized: Afrocentricity and the Digital Public Sphere. Social Text, 125-146.

Noble, S. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York University Press.

[christinexx]

Week 4: Blog Post Due 9/16

1. How has the white-dominated society in America affect technology?

     It caused the assumption that the Internet is a world for white men. The concept of black technophobia also stems from this. Black people have been around on the Internet since the late 90s but their presence was neglected. Until later when they were making a huge noticeable impact on the Web, black people were then talked about with a sense of  “...condescension, ghettoization, trivialization, and a general air of dismissiveness” (Everett, 2002). The Internet is used to channel racism and has more consequences when it is posted online as compared if it were published on a newspaper in a local town because nearly anything on the Web has the potential to be seen by the entire world.

2. How do our own names trigger social coding?

     Names are part of our self-identity. Not many people realize it, but your name can be used by everyone to make judgments of what kind of person you are and the background you might have. This becomes a problem when this type of thinking is used in real life situations to discriminate against certain groups of people. It has been found that people in America who have white sounding names have more job opportunities than those with different or “uncommon” names (Benjamin, 2019).  Stereotypes based on which ethnicity our name sounds like cling onto us and we are weighed to how easy we can be dealt with by how “white” we sound.

3. Why is it not correct to assume the Internet is neutral?

     When we go online, it might seem that we are invisible because we have the ability to communicate with others without meeting face-to-face. By doing this, people can’t make judgements as quick as they would in real life by looking at what skin color, ethnicity, or gender you are. This “invisibility” can be used to easily interpret the Internet as a bias-free zone. Another example that would feed into that assumption would be that the Internet is neutral because it is made up by codes on computers, therefore having no feelings or bias towards anything. However, people forget that computers did not create themselves. Everything on a computer was designed by a human as well even algorithms on the Internet. In the reading, Noble talks about how Google has been caught beforehand to have set their algorithm to be racist towards minorities. In 2015, Google got in trouble for their insensitive algorithm because black people showed up in the “ape” section of Google Images (Noble, 2018). This can be dismissed as their “lack of control” over the system but makes us question if it really was an accident or if it was discreetly done on purpose.

4. Why does Noble mention the term “redlining” in the reading?

Redlining is a practice where real estate agents and banks would show non-white families where to live in, which were typically within areas where the neighborhoods would be divided by race (Noble, 2018). Minorities would also be charged more in comparison to white people. Noble talks about redlining because they were making a connection between that and the “algorithmic oppression” that is currently happening. Algorithmic oppression is the new way in which non-white people will continue to keep struggling as the world undergoes technological advances. 

Sources:

Benjamin, R. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. (2019). Polity.

Everett, A. (2002). The Revolution Will Be Digitized: Afrocentricity and the Digital Public Sphere. Social Text, 20, 125 - 146.

Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York University Press.

[christinexx]

Week 3: Blog Post Due 9/9

1. How are the readings from Daniels and Eubanks related?

Daniels explains how the Internet created a new platform for feminism and for self-identified women to express themselves, termed with “cyberfeminism”. The article seems to be aware of troubles of using the Internet, but nonetheless focuses upon the advantages by showing what having an online presence within a social movement can do. On the other hand, the Eubanks reading explains how technology is shamelessly being used against poor communities by people in power that have a higher standard of living rather than it helping them. The main theme here is showing the pros and cons of technology.

2. How have feminists or women used the Internet to their advantage?

The Internet opens an entire list of opportunities for feminists and women in general. The online “Safe Space”  gives women a place to freely express themselves from the struggles of everyday life. (Daniels, 2009). It also allows girls to feel in control with their own bodies. Resources and hotlines are shared as well to help women in danger. Organizations that help women in need give charities and fundraisers a platform to spread awareness to their cause.

3. Why can’t we completely disembody ourselves online?

Identity tourism is when people explore different identities that represent us online (Daniels, 2009). This happens very easily as we have the freedom to maintain a presence just through words. Even though we “switch” to another identity, we tend to gravitate towards the things we like and are interested in real life. Things that happen in real life affect our minds, and we use the Internet as a tool to express our thoughts publicly. Essentially, most of what is posted on the Internet is the reflection of a person’s mind. It is because of this that when people convey or directly show themselves on the Internet, they will be judged just like they would outside. We can see this clearly when someone expresses their racial identity online and find themselves in a space “pre-dominated” by white people. Race and gender become a huge part of who we are so it is the reasons why we can’t completely disembody ourselves online.

4.  What is the issue surrounding digital technology particularly towards poor communities?

The progression of technology has always sounded great because of all the medical and ground-breaking research advances that tailed after it. We must consider that with advantages comes disadvantages.  Mechanized systems collect data that is essentially used against the poor. It is the inhumane method set up by people of power to hurt the poor so rich people can keep living the good life.

Sources:

Daniels, J. Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment.  (2009). Women's Studies Quarterly, 37(1/2), pp.101-124. 

Eubanks, V. Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. (2018). St. Martin’s Press.

[christinexx]

Blog Post Due 9/2

1. Why is American media built the way it is?

During the times when newspapers and television were the first go-to sources for news, American press tended to be more shamelessly biased and catered to their own audience. Even though it is a journalists job to report real events, I believe that a lot of journalists findings back then (and even now) were skewed due to their blind view caused by egotistical nationalism. For example, the press would demonize those outside of America which caused harmful stereotypes to people they didn’t completely understand and would even go as far to call these people “savages”. This is the result of ignorance and it would make the audience unrightfully feel superior about themselves for pointing out faults in other people by ethnicity. Although ever since the Internet became the dominant source for news, the public has been pushing for a more progressive approach to show more representation through American media. Social media, in terms of access to the Internet, is now an addition to the many platforms we can use to speak our opinions and thoughts. Even so, with change going all around, there are still traces that American media has been built upon bias and racism.

2. How can social media encourage “slacktivism”?

Blind mob mentality is part of the dangers that can cause “slacktivism” by doing less than the bare minimum. I have seen it first hand myself. It was during the month of June 2020 when the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was heavily covered by the news. I’m not sure who decided this but there was a trend on Instagram and Twitter where you would post a black square with “#Blackout (day of the week)” in the caption. This trend was soon heavily criticized as it proved to be lazy and ineffective since posting a black square on your feed was hardly a poke to the gut from the economic, political, and social system the movement was aiming to reform. If anything, it backfired and made things worse for supporters of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement because so many blank black squares cluttered the BLM tags which were originally used to gather and post important information and additional resources relating to it especially for those attending the rallies. The whole point of this story was to show how mob mentality can encourage slacktivism.

3. When were the beginnings of when minorities would enter mainstream American press?

It was around when blacks and Latinos took a noticeable part of the fight of World War II. Then in the 1970s, the US Commission on Civil Disorders pushed for minorities to take part in television and more.

4. How is the topic of social media and the concept of critical theory related?

Critical theory is used to analyze social media because of how vague and open the term “social media” is.

Sources:

Fuchs, G. (2014). Social Media: A Critical Introduction. Sage.

Gonzalez, J., Torres, J. (2012). News For All The People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media. Verso.

[christinexx]

Introductory Blog : Storytime

One time this year I texted my sister that her package arrived to our house. Immediately after I had sent the text message, I realized that my phone had sent it to my sister as well as an ROTC officer whom I hadn’t contacted since my first year at CSUF. It was really embarrassing and I now I double check the recipients before messaging anyone.