bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
HISTORICIZING FEMINIST DATA ACTIVISM: A MEDIA GENEALOGY OF THE WOMEN’S SAFETY AUDITS
Authors: Le Trang
Published: February 2025

This paper historicizes feminist data activism, particularly as it relates to the use of grassroots data by feminist activists to address gendered violence in public spaces. It seeks to address the following question: How did grassroots data become widely accepted as a legitimate means to combat gendered violence in public spaces? This historical perspective allows us to unpack what seems to be a novel action repertoire within contemporary feminist activism.

I use media genealogy to trace the history of a particular grassroots data type: the Women's Safety Audit (WSA). The data for this study come from historical records published by the feminist organisation that pioneered the WSA and different UN agencies, spanning four decades since the emergence of the WSA in the 1980s (n=41). I also drew upon modern data initiatives' documents and interviews with data activists and stakeholders who funded data activism efforts.

This paper reveals three significant forces that have shaped the WSA and how it came to be accepted as a means to address gendered violence in public spaces: the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design approach, the dominance of evidence-based practices, and the imperative of scalability. Rather than signalling the emergence of innovative epistemic cultures as some scholars suggest, this genealogy of the WSA showed that grassroots data approach has indeed been folded into other hegemonic interests throughout the history. Grappling with this entanglement and the hierarchy of power/knowledge it enacts is crucial for feminist activism to not reproduce the power relations they seek to address.
FROM _NEIJUAN_ TO _BUJUAN_: CHINESE IT PROFESSIONALS' CHANGING PHILOSOPHY TOWARDS WORKING
Authors: Liang Boyang
Published: February 2025

Since 2017, IT professionals have held the highest average salaries in China and are engaged in diverse roles spanning various levels of tech work. Despite their wage advantages, they face intense job market competition and opt to switch jobs to leverage their value or pursue higher salaries in an industry characterized by high uncertainty and mobility. To gain a competitive edge, many individuals turn to “ $2 .” Unlike its interpretation in the agricultural context as involution, $2 in the workplace refers to internal cut-throat competition. However, given the inherent uncertainty of the IT industry, the outcome of $2 does not necessarily guarantee success, prompting some professionals to abandon it. Existing research on $2 primarily examines it as a social phenomenon, with limited focus on employees’ perspectives regarding their practices and perceptions of the term, as well as their reasons for embracing $2 (not $2 ). By conducting 30 semi-structured interviews in Beijing, a city where the IT industry is highly concentrated, the research investigates how IT professionals perceive $2 from an insider perspective and how some navigate work uncertainties by embracing $2 . Using a qualitative approach, this study contributes to academic discourse by providing an empirical perspective distinct from media narratives. Findings reveal that both $2 and $2 are adaptive responses to the commercialization of labour in the Chinese IT sector. This research highlights the nuanced dynamics of competition and withdrawal in contemporary Chinese workplaces.
THE POLITICS OF MACHINE-LEARNING EVALUATION: FROM LAB TO INDUSTRY
Authors: Luitse Dieuwertje Maria Rebecca , Schjøtt Hansen Anna
Published: February 2025

Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications are today implemented across various societal sectors, ranging from health care and security to taking part in shaping the media environment we encounter online. In the last decade there has been a significant shift in the field of AI, as the development of AI applications is no longer confined to the laboratory, but rather widely used and tested in and on societies. With this rapid industrialisation of AI, there is an increased need to understand the implications of both the development and deployment of these systems. While critical scholars have started to scrutinize different components of AI development, the study of evaluative practices in AI has received limited attention. A few studies have highlighted the importance of benchmarking practices and how these methods become integral in establishing the validity of the system and its success, which then enables widespread application. This paper presents a research agenda that outlines how to study machine-learning evaluation practices that move beyond the laboratory into industry applications and standardised validation practices. Based on emerging research and illustrative empirical examples from recent fieldwork, we argue to study machine-learning evaluation as a sociotechnical and political phenomenon that requires multi-level scrutiny. Therefore, we provide three analytical entry points for future research that address the political dynamics of (1) standardised validation infrastructures, (2) the circulation of evaluation methods and (3) the situated enactment of evaluation in practice.
“A.I. IS HOLDING A MIRROR TO OUR SOCIETY”: LENSA AND THE DISCOURSE OF VISUAL GENERATIVE AI
Authors: Miltner Kate
Published: February 2025

This paper analyzes the global English-language press coverage of generative AI app Lensa and finds that it echoes existing technological discourses, focusing on the app’s predatory data practices, the biased content it produced, and the user behaviors associated with it. I argue that this coverage provides evidence of discursive closure (Deetz, 1992; Leonardi & Jackson, 2003; Markham, 2021) around both the risks and the potential of visual generative AI in a manner that supports the maintenance of the status quo. I also suggest that the press coverage of Lensa, which both articulates key AI-related harms and frames those harms as intractable and insolvable, creates a discourse of inevitability (Leonardi & Jackson, 2003; Markham, 2021) that has implications for how these issues are understood by the public, and for the approaches that are taken to address them.
RESEARCH GENAI: SITUATING GENERATIVE AI IN THE SCHOLARLY ECONOMY
Authors: Mitchell Peta , Riedlinger Michelle , Goldenfein Jake , Snoswell Aaron , Burgess Jean , Witzenberger Kevin
Published: February 2025

This paper charts the emergence of a distinct category of research-dedicated GenAI platforms, which we term Research GenAI or RGAI. These platforms are explicitly marketed to a cross-disciplinary academic audience, promising to automate research discovery and writing tasks, such as identifying/summarising published research, writing literature reviews, conducting data analysis, and synthesising findings. RGAI platforms (e.g., Consensus, Elicit, Research Rabbit, Scholarcy, Scite, SciSpace) are rapidly being adopted, in a context of experimentation, uncertainty, and controversy.

We define the contours of Research GenAI by mapping the history and development of RGAI platforms and developing a preliminary typology of RGAI. We situate RGAI platforms within the scholarly economy and ongoing processes of platformisation and automation of academic work. We make a case for the need to understand RGAI platforms as complex sociotechnical systems that intersect with social, ethical, institutional, and legal questions, and demonstrate this approach through an STS-informed walkthrough of two notable RGAI platforms: Consensus and Elicit. In this presentation we present our findings generated from these walkthroughs and explore the implications of the technologies for the academic publishing industry.
ARTIFICIAL AUDIO: EMERGING USES OF AI IN PODCASTING
Authors: Morris Jeremy Wade
Published: February 2025

Like other media industries (e.g. music, film, TV), the podcasting industry has spent the last year coming to grips with the impact that generative artificial intelligence tools will have on the future of podcast production and consumption. Several high-profile examples of AI-generated podcasts have raised questions about the ethics, legality, and creativity of AI for creating podcast scripts, voices, and sound design. These in turn raise larger concerns about ownership and the economics of the platforms that distribute podcasts (like Spotify). In this paper, I survey the state of artificial intelligence in the podcasting industry to address the following two questions: How is AI being used by podcasters and other actors in the podcasting industry? How is the use of AI in podcasting framed in articles and writing about the industry? By sampling a number of podcasts that employ AI during the production and consumption process (e.g. AI scriptwriting, AI voiced hosts, AI sound design, etc.), my paper explores how podcasters and others in the podcasting industry are using AI as part of their everyday work. I develop a typology for the different ways AI is currently being used in podcasting in order to explore the anxieties around the use of artificial intelligence in the cultural industries as well as the everyday, and more mundane, impact AI is having on workflows, production capabilities and notions of creativity in the creative industries.
TAMING THE ALGO: GRAB BIKERS GRAPPLING WITH PLATFORM LOGICS FROM BELOW
Authors: Nguyen-Thu Giang , Munn Luke
Published: February 2025

How do workers conceptualize a platform’s algorithm and adjust their practices to its logic? To pursue this question, we draw on an ethnography of Grab, the leading rideshare platform in Southeast Asia, composed of 60+ trips talking to drivers on the back of bikes in Hanoi, and in-depth interviews with 10 drivers. From this rich material, we identify a strategic cluster of practices that we term “taming the algorithm.”

Taming requires three key moves: iteratively adapting behaviors to algorithmic pressures (improvisation), juggling competing demands to deliver a productive performance at bodily limits (scrambling), and repeating these activities over time until they become a baseline in the system (enduring). If done successfully, these moves establish routinized productivity, a pattern of algorithmically ideal labor that means the platform will consistently delegate tasks to the worker. Taming is inherently double-edged, an exhausting form of self-exploitation that nevertheless provides some predictability and agency to workers.

Taming the algorithm offers a contribution on two fronts. First, it allows us to prise the ontological and the technical aspects of platform labor apart: these moves are risky, brutal, and chaotic for workers but are smoothed into desirable integers and patterns by the algorithm. Secondly, it articulates a minor freedom between the twin poles of Freedom and Unfreedom as conventionally understood, showing how workers achieve some agency and some perception of power without fundamentally disrupting the systemic inequalities maintained by platform logics.
WHERE MY AI APPS AT? A HISTORIOGRAPHIC APPROACH TO ANALYZING PLATFORM TOOLS
Authors: Nieborg David , Mahetaji Kaushar
Published: February 2025

The popular short-form video app TikTok is mainly discussed as a discrete app or in relation to its parent company ByteDance. This view neglects how TikTok and other ByteDance apps maintain and advance ByteDance’s highly complex app ecosystem. This paper, therefore, positions ByteDance-owned apps as both apps and “platform tools.” TikTok allows end-users to watch videos, allows creators to make and distribute content, advertisers to endorse products, and developers to build app features. As a platform tool, TikTok is a software-based resource that mediates “platformization,” extending TikTok’s economic, infrastructural, and governmental data-centric logic within and beyond ByteDance’s app ecosystem. Increasingly, ByteDance’s platform tools rely heavily on AI technology because of ByteDance’s early investments in AI technology and the growing interest such tools within the cultural industries. We survey ByteDance’s AI-powered platform tools alongside non-AI ones using systematic financial and infrastructural analysis, uncovering how ByteDance’s platform tools expand ByteDance as a “multi-sided,” “multi-layered,” and “multi-situated” platform. Platform tools, thus, facilitate growth along these three dimensions by encouraging platform dependence; interoperability and interdependence within ByteDance’s app ecosystem; and platformization, including “parallel platformization.” Our empirical work ultimately shows how ByteDance uses platform tools to accrue and operationalize infrastructural and economic power, and how apps have moved from discrete objects to interconnected clusters of platform tools.
TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF CHILLING EFFECTS OF DATAVEILLANCE: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS FROM A LONGITUDINAL FIELD EXPERIMENT
Authors: Odermatt Céline , Kappeler Kiran , Festic Noemi , Latzer Michael
Published: February 2025

Digital traces generated by internet users are automatically collected, stored, and analyzed by public and private actors. This dataveillance becomes salient to users through repeated exposure over time to triggers of a sense of dataveillance. This can lead to a range of consequences including democratically concerning responses such as the self-inhibition of legitimate digital communication behavior, known as the chilling effects of dataveillance. Such chilling effects are expected to subtly accumulate over time. Hence, longitudinal in-situ studies are required to capture the temporal dynamics of individuals’ perception of dataveillance and the resulting behavioral changes. Relying on a longitudinal online field experiment with a representative sample of Swiss internet users, this study investigates how chilling effects accumulate over time and aims to capture the temporal dynamics of chilling effects. Preliminary results reveal that the experimental treatment successfully heightened participants' sense of dataveillance over time. Time significantly predicted this increase, aligning with the notion of accumulating chilling effects. Furthermore, the comfort levels of the digital communication behaviors, including information searching, opinion voicing, and information disclosing, were over time lower for the experimental treatment than control condition, supporting the chilling-effects hypothesis. Accumulating chilling effects were found for information disclosing as the experimental treatment and time predicted a decrease in participants’ comfortability level. This article provides an innovative contribution to the growing research on the chilling effects of dataveillance and adds to the empirical understanding of the nature of chilling effects.
DE-CONSTRUCTING ‘GENDER IDEOLOGY’ MYTHS ON REPRODUCTION AND DIGITAL STORYTELLING THROUGH CDA: A CASE STUDY OF WOMEN’S NGOS SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK”
Authors: Oliveira Matos Carolina
Published: February 2025

This research explores the findings on the social media engagement and advocacy activities of 52 women’s health NGOs from across the world during the year of 2019, amid an environment of hostility and attacks of far-right groups against women’s rights, and particularly in areas such as women’s sexuality and female bodies. These findings are only a small part of a larger four year study, funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), which examined the advocacy communication activities of NGOs working on women’s health in the US, Europe, Latin America, Brazil and India.

Questions included how NGOs’ communication strategies reflect on their communication activities, and how they combine offline and online media to advocate on SRHR. The research made use of a mixed methods approach which included in depth interviews with 50 CEOs from the organizations as well as a short survey applied to the communication directors of these NGOs, including from Care International UK to Anis Brazil. This was combined with critical discourse analysis (CDA) of their institutional websites, as well as their social media engagement on social network platforms. This paper focuses on the CDA results of the social media engagement of the organizations conducted during the months of March and April 2019, when a total of 1.505 tweets were collected. Findings show an emphasis on ‘hard fact’s, including NGO journalism devices such as ‘fact checking’, however with a growth in use of more human interest stories, particularly making use of storytelling, to reach out to larger audiences.
FIRST GLASS OF WINE IN 8 MONTHS!: AN EXAMINATION OF SOBER CURIOUS COMMUNITIES ON TIKTOK
Authors: Orton Johnson Kate
Published: February 2025

This paper presents findings from an ongoing project focused on sober curious communities on TikTok. In this paper I argue that these communities offer a haven from in ‘intoxigenic’ digital spaces for individuals navigating the complexities of sobriety.

This research examines the implications of TikTok's emergence as a locus of sociality for the sober curious movement, both in terms of individual well-being and broader societal attitudes towards addiction and recovery. Central to this is an exploration of the creative and expressive practices employed by individuals within sober curious communities and the attitudes and experiences of those who follow them.

The paper draws on qualitative data from interviews with 28 sober curious TikTok users and a systematic content analysis of 800 TikTok videos.

Emergent findings reveal insights into the role of TikTok in destigmatizing addiction, fostering empathy and promoting positive representations of abstinence and resilience.

Three key themes with be explored: the value of digital storytelling, the nature of TikTok accountability, and the visibility of failures or relapses. These themes underscore TikTok's significance as a platform for personal expression, accountability, and community-building within the sober curious movement.

Combined, these themes speak to TikTok as an important platform for the sober curious. TikTok allows the messy, unpredictable, embodied and digital practices and experiences of sobriety to play out. Reframing sobriety beyond medicalised narratives of addiction to provide a more nuanced and freeing set of practices and contexts that enable respondents to rethink and re-evaluate their relationship with alcohol.
A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF VIRTUALHUMANS.ORG AND ITS ROLE IN VIRTUAL INFLUENCER RESEARCH, 2019 TO PRESENT
Authors: Park/Parke Jul
Published: February 2025

In this paper, I conduct a systematic review of the use of VirtualHumans.org in academic studies of the virtual influencer industry. To do this, I analyze all references to and use of content from the Virtual Humans website in relevant published research from 2019 to 2024 (n=189), including the website’s database of existing virtual influencers, interviews with virtual influencer creators and virtual influencer characters themselves, articles on the state of the virtual influencer industry, and profiles of each listed virtual influencer. I pair this analysis with a brief history of VirtualHumans.org from a political economy perspective, noting the factors which went into the website’s creation; its acquisition by Offbeat Media Group, a digital marketing agency; and its organizational shifts following the sudden departure of its founder in 2023. Ultimately, I question whether academic viewpoints of the emergent virtual influencer industry, many which refer to the Virtual Humans website as a valuable resource for grasping a sense of the size and scope of the virtual influencer phenomenon, adequately consider the rooted biases and commercial interests represented by the website as not only a database but a powerful broker within the industry. Moreover, by narrating the organizational development of VirtualHumans.org as an enterprise, I contribute detailed context into the formation of these biases and commercial interests which inform its position in the virtual influencer scene.
BEAUTY BRANDS ONLINE: VISUALITY, LABOUR, AND REPRESENTATION
Authors: Premika Anuja
Published: February 2025

Engagement with beauty has historically been seen as inherently consumptive and (perhaps therefore) inherently feminine and trivial. Popular discourse today would suggest, however, that beauty is increasingly seen as creative, and no longer assumed to be the domain of any one gender, particularly in online spaces. Amidst celebrations of the democratisation of beauty on one end, and cries of an appearance-obsessed culture on the other, what does a situated feminist examination of online beauty culture tell us today? This paper maps the practices of beauty brands online by analysing 545 Instagram posts made by the five most followed beauty brands in India to examine whom they represent and how, but also how these images are produced at the intersection of techno-aesthetic choices, platform affordances, market considerations, and the modes of gendered identity privileged by culture at a given point in time. In the Indian context, where gendered labour precarity has been baked into the social system, and the promise of transformation through digital democratisation runs loud in socio-political discourse, the beauty brand on Instagram offers a site to examine new modes of gendered precarious labour and economic insecurity. At the same time, it also points to the new ecology of beauty media today: the actors and technologies that make it possible, the opportunities it presents, and the new aesthetics and production modes it affords. This work speaks to broader cultures around appearance and gendered self-presentation, and the nebulous nature of labour and influence in today’s media environment.
“TO BE QUEER, TO BE IN DATING APPS, TO BE QUEER IN DATING APPS”: THE ON-LIFE INDUSTRIOUSNESS OF CREATING STRATEGIES BEHIND STIGMAS AND FEARS OF ONLINE DATING OF ITALIAN AND AUSTRALIAN QUEER YOUNG ADULTS
Authors: Reschiglian Rachele , Robards Brady , Scarcelli Cosimo Marco
Published: February 2025

The multifaced nature of online dating practices and experiences highlights both its empowering potential and the challenges it poses, including stigma and violence, particularly within the contexts of queer and LGBT+ communities and the subjectivities they contain. This paper aims to explore perceptions and responses to risks and fears in online dating experiences among queer young adults in Italy and Australia, utilising a qualitative approach through focus groups (15 in total, 8 in Italy and 7 in Australia). Initial findings from Italy reveal concerns about outing, appearance-based judgments, and hierarchies of intimacies, with participants employing various strategies for safety. Similar strategies for risk mitigation during offline encounters are observed across both contexts. As the analysis of Australian focus groups remains ongoing, anticipation mounts for further elucidation of the nuanced dynamics at play within this cultural setting. Overall, the study underscores the resilience and resourcefulness of queer individuals in navigating online dating complexities while emphasizing the need for safer and more inclusive digital spaces for these communities.
UNDERSTANDING PERCEPTIONS AND EFFECTS OF ONLINE INTOLERANCE: A FOUR-COUNTRY EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Authors: Rossini Patricia , Vaccari Cristian , Theocharis Yannis , Tromble Rebekah
Published: February 2025

Research on online political discourse has long been concerned with the pervasiveness of incivility across various digital arenas. However, most of this work has focused on discourse that is rude in tone, but not necessarily harmful in substance. Consequently, there remains a significant gap in understanding the true impact of harmful online speech on both its targets and bystanders. Addressing this gap, this four-country experimental study examines perceptions and reactions to intolerant online discourse. We focus on Brazil, Germany, the UK, and the US, democracies with high internet use and notable increases in online intolerance. We manipulate three types of intolerance (discrimination, hateful speech, violent threats), tone (civil, uncivil), and target (women, LGBT) to examine how these factors influence both perceptions and reactions to intolerance. For instance, hateful and threatening speech is expected to elicit stronger responses compared to discriminatory content. Additionally, the study explores how the tone of discourse influences support for content moderation practices and engagement in political discussions, particularly among targeted identity groups. Ultimately, this research endeavors to deepen understanding of the nuanced dynamics of online intolerance and its repercussions on democratic discourse in diverse socio-political landscapes.
THE ELITE AMONG USERS: IDENTITY FORMATION OF VENDORS AND CUSTOMERS ON DARKNET DRUG TRADE SITES
Authors: Siuda Piotr
Published: February 2025

This study delves into the digital identity formation of vendors and customers on darknet drug trade sites, focusing on Cebulka, the largest Polish-language cryptomarket. Recently, we have seen a rise in interest in studying online drug trade. Despite this growing attention, research on how individuals present themselves online and construct their identities in dark web environments remains relatively scarce. Through a dual-stage methodology combining conventional content analysis (CCA) of 8170 posts and in-depth interviews with users (n=10), this study explores how Cebulka’s users curate their online personas. The findings reveal that vendors employ sophisticated marketing strategies, emphasizing product quality to build brand identity. Consumers, in turn, contribute by sharing detailed feedback. All these practices foster a community of informed users who view themselves as superior to traditional street-level traders and clear web (social media) users. This self-perception extends to a belief in their enhanced knowledge and quasi-expertise concerning drugs, a distinction from conventional drug users, and a separation between their online and real-life identities. The study illustrates that these digital personas are collectively shaped, drawing on social identity theory and performance theories to understand the platform’s behavior and interactions. This research not only bridges a gap in understanding the complex dynamics of darknet drug trading but also offers insights into the broader subculture of drug users, suggesting distinct identifications and identities among those active on the dark web. It challenges traditional views of drug traders and has implications for harm reduction and policy development.
TRANSPHOBIC MEMES IN THE QUEBEC ALTERNATIVE NEWS INDUSTRY
Authors: Stewart Michelle Robin , Laperle Samuel , Gagnon Dominique
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we explore transnational discursive campaigns that use online popular culture to consolidate a “countercultural” vision of hard to extreme right politics. Hyperpartisan sites form a “mirror universe” or alternate news industry, counterposing their passionate partisanship against what they deem the fraudulent objectivity of mainstream media. In our preliminary study, we noted that “anti-woke” hashtags and memes were heavily freighted with transphobic images and messages and co-occurred with a range of other far-right content (with strong currents of anti-immigration, misogynist, “anti-system,” and conspiracy themes). Presented in mocking tones and mobilized by hyperpartisan sites, transphobic memes participate in consolidating far-right hegemony via online countercultural forms. In mapping the distribution patterns of this content, we observed 1) the extent to which a range of seemingly “independent” sites distribute the same content within a short period of times; 2) how “anti-woke” hashtags and memes served to consolidate a far-right worldview and package it as countercultural; 3) and finally, how transphobic content came to constitute something of a “federating” theme – an ideological entry point into or representative of a larger ensemble of sociopolitical arguments. In this sense, transphobia works as a federating meme, creating information cascades that promote alt-right ideologies. Information cascades describe patterns of online conformity (Lemieux 2003) on social media platforms like Twitter. By tracking a range of Quebecois right-wing influenceurs, we aim to ascertain the opportunistic mobilisation and reach of transphobic content in this Quebecois alternative influence network.
EXPLORING SURVEY INSTRUMENTS IN ONLINE HATE SPEECH RESEARCH: A COMPREHENSIVE SCOPING REVIEW
Authors: Šubelj Živa , Vehovar Vasja , Wisteria Avis , Bartol Jošt , Petrovčič Andraž
Published: February 2025

Research on online hate speech is burgeoning, highlighting its significant negative consequences on individual and societal levels. Still, there is a lack of attention directed towards understanding the perceptions and experiences of individuals in the general population toward this phenomenon. Such insights could significantly help decision-makers and scholars in formulating initiatives to inform and educate the public, thereby preventing further harm. Therefore, quality insight into the understanding and perceptions of hate speech, as well as related experiences and behaviour is needed. In the absence of established survey instruments and given the fragmented and limited nature of the existing data, the primary objective of this scoping review is to systematically identify online hate speech survey measures, as well as the topics and populations the associated research addressed. Preliminary findings reveal a disproportionate focus on students and young adults and the predominant use of non-representative sampling methods, leaving older population groups under-researched and raising concerns about results’ generalizability. Broad research scopes are predominant; in order to better understand real-world experiences, scholars should aim for more detailed research scopes, including studying OHS in specific online contexts and within specific groups. In terms of topics, existing survey measures mostly cover the topics of direct exposure/perpetration of OHS, neglecting the whole hate speech ecosystem; what comes before and after the dissemination of hate speech online. In terms of question types, ordinal scales are most common, but the lack of standardized scales results in fragmented findings that are difficult to compare.
ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL: NEWS INFLUENCERS AND AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT IN LOCAL AND STATE POLITICS DISCOURSE DYNAMICS ON TIKTOK
Authors: Svegaard Sebastian , Vilkins Samantha
Published: February 2025

TikTok has rapidly established itself as a fixture for debate on the state of the web and society at large. The platform serves as a primary generator of trends and viral content, and as a locus for political concerns around globalisation, surveillance and privacy. What is considerably understudied is how TikTok is forging connections in political discourses more locally. We present an exploration of political discourses on TikTok through the case study of local city council elections, and later state elections, for Brisbane in the state of Queensland, Australia. Video metadata was recorded using the Zeeschuimer (Peeters, 2023) tool. We focus on the discursive dynamics of the broader local community both separately and in response to the communication of candidates. We draw on research on the social news landscape and the role of ‘newsfluencers’ and community narratives amidst changing audience expectations (Hurcombe, 2022), and clustering of cross-ideological ties in social media news sharing over time (Angus et al, 2023). Through this, we contrast the topic-selective engagement across various actors, from mainstream and national news outlets, local or alternative media, businesses, organisations, political campaigners, and unaffiliated individual users. As such, we focus on how local TikTok users respond to, remix, engage with, and disseminate political communication on TikTok, as well as how they create their own political content, such as advocating for/against a candidate, an issue, or engaging in commentary on the wider election process.
NAVIGATING THE DIGITAL WAVE: THE UNIQUE CHALLENGES OF ORDINARY ELDERLY SHORT VIDEO CREATORS IN CHINA
Authors: Wang Yingwen
Published: February 2025

Concerns about the aging of the Chinese population (Y. Wang & Su, 2024), and with the Chinese government's acknowledgment of the silver-haired economy's significant development, there is an urgent need for research into the social media engagement of the elderly. Short videos, representing a novel form of information dissemination and social engagement, offer the elderly a means to connect across time and space (Zhang & Xiang, 2023). Short form video is dynamic and intuitive, making audio-visual information and public communication particularly accessible to older audiences. Notably, On 15th January 2024, the General Office of the State Council of China published the "Opinions on Developing the Silver Economy and Enhancing the Well-Being of the Elderly." This document marks the inaugural national policy directive specifically addressing the “Silver Economy” by the Chinese Government (Huang, 2024). The issuance of the Opinions policy underscores the critical role of the elderly demographic within the ambit of China's contemporary digital and cultural milieu, highlighting the government's commitment to integrating this segment of the population into the broader socio-economic framework.

However, existing research, both domestically and internationally, has predominantly examined the participation of older adults in short video platforms from the user perspective, often overlooking the significant number of older individuals actively contributing as content creators within the short video culture. Consequently, this research addresses this gap and is dedicated to examining the involvement of Chinese elderly individuals in the realm of short-form video culture, specifically as content creators.
RESEARCHING THE EDTECH INDUSTRY FOR CHILDREN: METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON A DESIGN-BASED APPROACH
Authors: Zhao Xinyu , Ng Rebecca , Zomer Chris , Duffy Gavin , Sefton-Green Julian
Published: February 2025

Digital platforms and services are making inroads into the everyday lives of even very young children. As with many other domains of life, children’s learning and education are increasingly digitised through ‘educational technology’ software, or more commonly EdTech. The rise of the EdTech industry provokes new questions about children’s education in the digital age. Methodologically, studying the EdTech industry for children largely falls in the field of the political economy of digital childhood, an interdisciplinary research agenda underpinned by an overall interest in understanding the critical roles of institutions, especially companies and governments, in producing and distributing digital services that shape children’s and families’ everyday consumption of digital technologies. This paper focuses on the methodological offerings of a design-based method for researching the political economy of digital childhood. We explore how a design-based approach is compatible with the research interests of a political economy perspective by drawing on the processes and findings of a collaborative design intervention study which aimed to conceptualise and build a database of EdTech companies and products for young children living in Australia. Based on the findings of the Database, this paper illustrates how the design-based approach employed in this study enabled the researchers to identify the key EdTech industry trends and characteristics, surfaces the power asymmetry between EdTech corporations and individual users, and provoke new ideas and imaginaries among parents and educators to address these challenges.
SEXTECH INDUSTRIES AND CULTURES: TOWARDS MEDIATED PLEASURES AND DATA JUSTICE
Authors: Stardust Zahra , Albury Kath , Sundén, Jenny , Kennedy Jenny , Van der Nagel Emily , Learmonth Caitlin
Published: February 2025

The industry of sextech is on the rise. But while the term sextech has been applied to a wide range of intimate technologies, it is often understood in terms of technologies that enhance or improve sex in an individualist manner. This panel instead furthers an understanding less concerned with sexuality as a question of technological optimisation, and more invested in sextech as technologies, not only for pleasure and health, but also for regulation, surveillance, and biopolitical management. We explore the growth of the sextech industry and its relationships to surveillance capitalism, artificial intelligence, data governance, and politics of pleasure. Drawing from empirical data with sextech users, retailers, developers, and founders as well as collaborations between industry and academia, the papers explore how sextech industries outsource labour, upscale automation, and shape intimate connections through digital technologies. While we consider the interplay of sextech and public health, we do not seek to evaluate the therapeutic utility of sextech use. Instead, we adopt a sociotechnical approach, reflecting on how cultural assumptions around gender, sexuality, health, and pleasure guide and inform sextech markets. The panel is structured by moving from broad interrogations of the issues within the sex tech industry to case studies of specific platforms, before finishing with a consideration of user experiences of queering sextech to explore some possible futures. In these case studies, focusing on industry practices allows us to see how sextech is marketed as simultaneously sexually empowering, a source of self-knowledge, and a solution for social inequality and injustice.
VIRTUAL CELEBRITY INDUSTRIES IN EAST ASIA
Authors: Berryman Rachel , Abidin Crystal , Kim Do Own Donna , Hwang Seol , Miyake Esperanza
Published: February 2025

The concept of virtual celebrity realises the ambition of manufactured pop idols that inspired Japan’s idol industry in the 1970s, and spread across East Asia soon thereafter. Today, the term encompasses a variety of genres with local histories and applications, including Vocaloids, virtual idols, vTubers, virtual anchors, and virtual influencers. Although virtual celebrity was once considered a niche interest reserved for $2 and dedicated fans of ACG (Anime, Comics and Games), recent shifts in government priorities, technological innovations, and heightened capital investment have brought virtual celebrity into mainstream view. This panel considers the various organisations, technologies, platforms, labour, and stakeholders involved in East Asia’s flourishing virtual celebrity industries. Its five papers explore the commercial, cultural, and symbolic value of virtual celebrities across and beyond East Asia, examining historical antecedents; cross-industry collaborations; processes of cultural commodification; industrial practices; and emergent media discourses. Introducing cases from Japan, Korea, and China, the panel's regional focus draws attention to the “transnational” (Iwabuchi, 2014) flows of virtual celebrity across borders, languages, industries, platforms, and technologies.
Pengaruh Metode Jarimatika Terhadap Hasil Belajar Perkalian Siswa Kelas III SD
Authors: Rahayu Meli Fajar , Hasim Wahit , Herniyanti Herniyanti
Published: February 2025

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pengaruh metode jarimatika terhadap hasil belajar perkalian siswa kelas III di SDN 5 Kampung Baru. Beberapa siswa merasa bahwa matematika itu sulit dan membosankan sehingga mereka kurang termotivasi untuk memahami materi perkalian dengan baik. karena guru masih menggunakan metode ceramah dan menghafal. Metode jarimatika adalah teknik berhitung yang memanfaatkan jari sebagai alat bantu visual dan kinestetik untuk membantu siswa memahami operasi perkalian. Penelitian ini menerapkan metode penelitian kuantitatif tipe survei pra-eksperiment dengan desain penelitian sekelompok (one grup) untuk mengukur pre-test sekaligus post-test. Di penelitian teknik pemerolehan sample yang digunakan ialah sampling jenuh karena populasi penelitiannya relatif kecil, yaitu 30 siswa. Data terkumpul melalui observasi, tes, beserta dokumentasi. Data tersebut dianalisis melalui uji instrumen tes beserta uji hipotesis. Berdasarkan hasil analisis, uji normalitas Shapiro-Wilk memperlihatkan bahwa nilai pretest sebesar 0,060 beserta nilai posttest sebesar 0,103. Hasil uji paired sample t-test menghasilkan nilai 0,000 < 0,05. Maknanya, hipotesis nol (H0) ditolak, sementara hipotesis alternatif (Ha) diterima. Kesimpulannya, penerapan metode jarimatika berpengaruh terhadap peningkatan hasil belajar perkalian siswa kelas III di SDN 5 Kampung Baru.
Association Between HIV Viral Load and Mental Health Outcomes in ART Patients at Chipata Central Hospital, Zambia
Authors: Mzyece Patrick
Published: February 2025

Background: Mental health disorders are common among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), yet the relationship between HIV viral load and mental health outcomes remains underexplored in resource-limited settings like Zambia. This study aims to examine the association between HIV viral load and mental health disorders among ART patients at Chipata Central Hospital, Zambia.
Method: A cross-sectional study design was employed to examine the association between HIV viral load and mental health disorders. 405 participants met the inclusion criteria picked using systematic random sampling. Viral load was categorized as high (>1000 copies/ml) or suppressed (<1000 copies/ml), and mental health outcomes were assessed using a Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) tool.
Results: Results showed a significant association between high viral load and mental health disorders (χ² = 103.55, p < 0.001), with 25.4% of high viral load patients presenting mental health orders compared to 0.6% with suppressed viral load. Multivariable logistic regression model after adjusting confounders, high HIV viral load (≥1000 copies/mL) was significantly associated with an increased likelihood of mental health disorders (OR = 2.53, 95% CI: 1.75–3.66, p-value < 0.001). This suggests that patients with high HIV viral load are 2.53 times more likely to experience mental health disorders compared to those with low viral loads, after controlling for other factors.
Conclusion: These findings underscore the importance of integrating routine mental health screening into HIV care services to facilitate early intervention and improve ART adherence and overall patient outcomes.

Key words: Viral load, Mental health disorders, Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) and Chipata Central Hospital
Het Rijksmuseum voor Moderne Kunst van Willem Steenhoff. Werkelijkheid of utopie?
Authors: Heijbroek J. F. , Henkels H.
Published: February 2025

In het Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 39 (1991), p. 164 moet in de rechterkolom in de vierde regel van onderen fratersschool i.p.v. patersschool staan. Verder is op p. 165 in de rechterkolom een hinderlijke fout geslopen. Vanaf regel 18 (van boven) dient men te lezen: Over het onderwijs van zijn leermeester schreef hij in 1905: ....
Gerbrand Ban
Authors: Ekkart R. E. O.
Published: February 2025

R.E.O. Ekkart wrote an addition to this artikel in Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 40 (1992), no. 1, p. 93: Gerbrand Ban. Een aanvulling.
Het onderzoek en de restauratie van de schilderijen uit Boekarest
Authors: Filedt Kok J. P. , Van Gravenstein A. , Van Os H. W.
Published: February 2025

This special issue of the Bulletin is devoted to the restoration and the art-historical and scientific examination of the four paintings from the Art Museum of the Republic of Romania in Bucharest, which were brought to this country at the beginning of 1990 in order to be restored and examined under the auspices of the Rijksmuseum in the context of the aid programme for this badly hit museum. It gives us great pleasure to be able to offer this bilingual publication, scheduled to accompany the presentation of the paintings, which will remain on exhibition for a month in one of the side rooms of the Gallery of Honour.
THE EDITORS
Portret van een man met een ring van Jan van Eyck
Authors: Van Asperen de Boer J. R. J. , Ridderbos B. , Zeldenrust M.
Published: February 2025

This special issue of the Bulletin is devoted to the restoration and the art-historical and scientific examination of the four paintings from the Art Museum of the Republic of Romania in Bucharest, which were brought to this country at the beginning of 1990 in order to be restored and examined under the auspices of the Rijksmuseum in the context of the aid programme for this badly hit museum. It gives us great pleasure to be able to offer this bilingual publication, scheduled to accompany the presentation of the paintings, which will remain on exhibition for a month in one of the side rooms of the Gallery of Honour.
THE EDITORS
Esther voor Haman, toegeschreven aan Rembrandt
Authors: Van Gravenstein A. , Groen K. , Van de Wetering E.
Published: February 2025

This special issue of the Bulletin is devoted to the restoration and the art-historical and scientific examination of the four paintings from the Art Museum of the Republic of Romania in Bucharest, which were brought to this country at the beginning of 1990 in order to be restored and examined under the auspices of the Rijksmuseum in the context of the aid programme for this badly hit museum. It gives us great pleasure to be able to offer this bilingual publication, scheduled to accompany the presentation of the paintings, which will remain on exhibition for a month in one of the side rooms of the Gallery of Honour.
THE EDITORS
Meesters onder het mes
Authors: Van der Heijden P.
Published: February 2025

This special issue of the Bulletin is devoted to the restoration and the art-historical and scientific examination of the four paintings from the Art Museum of the Republic of Romania in Bucharest, which were brought to this country at the beginning of 1990 in order to be restored and examined under the auspices of the Rijksmuseum in the context of the aid programme for this badly hit museum. It gives us great pleasure to be able to offer this bilingual publication, scheduled to accompany the presentation of the paintings, which will remain on exhibition for a month in one of the side rooms of the Gallery of Honour.
THE EDITORS
Een literaire wandeling door het Rijksmuseum
Authors: Heijbroek J. F.
Published: February 2025

Op p. 368 in de rechter kolom, regel 11 (van boven) dient priester gelezen te worden in plaats van abt.
Stichting Cultuurgeschiedenis van de Nederlanders Overzee 1961-1986
Authors: Lunsingh Scheurleer Th. H.
Published: February 2025

De kerk, die door een misverstand op het Bureau van C.N.O. een onjuist bijschrift kreeg (zie Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 35 (1987), p. 8, afb. 4), is de Wolvendaalse kerk te Colombo en niet de Kruyskerk te Jaffna. Volgens mededeling van mevrouw M. P. Wolff moet het juiste bijschrift luiden:
De Wolvendaalse kerk te Colombo, die in 1749 werd gebouwd en die zijn naam ontleent aan de wolven of jakhalzen die hier vroeger huisden. De kerk werd tijdens een hevige storm in 1969 zwaar beschadigd; onder meer werd een groot deel van het dak door de wind afgerukt. Al in 1970 kon de kerk door de tussenkomst van C.N.O. gerestaureerd worden.
Aanwinsten
Authors: Rijksmuseum researchers
Published: February 2025

Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 1972 afl. 4. Blz. 182, afb. 7 (middenkolom onderaan) ‘Museum van Schone Kunsten’ moet zijn: Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis. Blz. 184, afb. 13 ‘Japan, tweede helft 17de eeuw’ moet zijn: Japan, tweede helft 18de eeuw.
De Toren ‘Swijgh Utrecht’ door Rembrandt getekend
Authors: Boon K. G.
Published: February 2025

In het artikel De Toren ‘Swijgh Utrecht’ door Rembrandt getekend in het vorige nummer van dit Bulletin is op pag. 125, noot 7 de mening van F. Lugt verkeerd geïnterpreteerd, doordat op pag. 156, afb. 113 van zijn boek Mit Rembrandt in Amsterdam, Berlin 1920 verwezen wordt naar de Stadspoort van Rhenen, terwijl waarschijnlijk bedoeld werd te verwijzen naar afb. 112, het Gezicht op Rhenen.
De verwijzing naar afb. 2 en 4 op pag. 122, tweede kolom, van ditzelfde artikel moet zijn afb. 4.
Keuze uit de aanwinsten
Authors: Rijksmuseum researchers
Published: February 2025

See also F.G.L.O. van Kretschmar, ‘Aantekening bij het portret van Gerrit van der Pot, door J.B. Scheffer’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 16 (1968), no. 4, p. 186.