bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Charlotte and UNC Charlotte: Growing Up Together
Authors: Sanford Ken
Published: September 2021

Charlotte might have built the nation’s first tax-supported university had an institution begun in 1771 survived the American Revolution, but it did not. Over the years, other efforts to establish a public college or university also failed. By the end of World War II when thousands of returning veterans sought an education on the GI Bill, the city found itself without a public institution to accommodate them. This is the story of visionary citizens and their valiant effort to fill that void. It is the story of Bonnie Cone and the other community leaders who shared her dream: Elmer Garinger, Woody Kennedy, Murrey Atkins, and many others. It is also the story of how Charlotte and UNC Charlotte grew up together: Charlotte from a city of 120,000 to a metropolitan hub of over one million, and UNC Charlotte from a community college to one of North Carolina’s leading universities. It is almost certain that neither would have realized such potential without the other. Many state and local leaders provided crucial support. Bill Friday, president of The University of North Carolina, and his assistant Arnold King, recognized the rising needs of the state’s largest metropolitan region. At key moments, Governors Terry Sanford, Dan Moore, and Robert Scott played pivotal roles. In succession, Chancellors Dean Colvard, E. K. Fretwell, Jr., and James H. Woodward arrived to accept the challenge of building a great university. Throughout, it is the story of dedicated professors, administrators, staff members, students, and generous friends who shared the vision and worked to make it a reality. It is also a story of struggle: first for existence, then for facilities and public support, and finally for state and national recognition. Above all it is a story of success--of triumph over apathy, of startling growth, of rapid progress, of entrepreneurial verve, and of increasing excellence.
COVID-19 Pandemic: A review of economic package of India using Sentiment and Emotional Analysis
Authors: Bharadwaj Sarla , Bharadwaj Piyush
Published: September 2021

COVID-19 global pandemic has created an unprecedented crisis and the entire global community passing through turbulent times. With the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases growing exponentially, the entire world has come to a standstill. This Covid-19 global pandemic has created stressful unsettling circumstances for the whole world. It has completely disrupted the normal socio economic activities. Most of the countries have enforced a complete lockdown and taking several pro-active measures and necessary precautions to ensure health and safety of its citizens. There is a huge loss in business sector leading to another recession around the world. Every country is coming out with a plan to save their economy. India is the fifth largest economy in the world and to save their economy, the Indian government has announced an economic package of Rs. 20 lac crore for its economic revival. People have flooded their social media accounts with their opinion on this economic package. In this paper, 1.8 lac tweets are extracted and analysed from different states and UT’s of India. The findings show that more than 50% of people are positive about the economic package. Around 50,000 people are neutral about the economic package and around 30,000 people are negative regarding the economic package. The paper also analysis state-wise tweets and concludes that all states have a majority of positive tweets for the economic package. The study also analysis that north west India has most positive tweets and neutral tweets and north India has most negative tweets.
Parameterising cloud base updraft velocity of marine stratocumuli
Authors: Ahola Jaakko , Raatikainen Tomi , Alper Muzaffer Ege , Keskinen Jukka-Pekka , Kokkola Harri , Kukkurainen Antti , Lipponen Antti , Liu Jia , Nordling Kalle , Partanen Antti-Ilari , Romakkaniemi Sami , Räisänen Petri , Tonttila Juha , Korhonen Hannele
Published: September 2021

Abstract. The number of cloud droplets formed at the cloud base depends both on the properties of aerosol particles and the updraft velocity of an air parcel at the cloud base. As the spatial scale of updrafts is too small to be resolved in global atmospheric models, the updraft velocity is commonly parameterised based on the available turbulent kinetic energy. Here we present alternative methods through parameterising updraft velocity based on high-resolution large eddy simulation (LES) runs in the case of marine stratocumulus clouds. First we use our simulations to assess the accuracy of a simple linear parametrisation where the updraft velocity depends only on cloud top radiative cooling. In addition, we present two different machine learning methods (Gaussian process emulation and random forest) that account for different boundary layer conditions and cloud properties. We conclude that both machine learning parameterisations reproduce the LES-based updraft velocities at about the same accuracy, while the simple approach employing radiative cooling only produce on average lower coefficient of determination and higher root mean square error values. Finally, we apply these machine learning methods to find the key parameters affecting cloud base updraft velocities.
A new local meteoric water line for Inuvik (NT, Canada)
Authors: Fritz Michael , Wetterich Sebastian , McAlister Joel , Meyer Hanno
Published: September 2021

Abstract. The paper presents a new local meteoric water line (LMWL) of precipitation stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes from Inuvik in the Western Canadian Arctic. Data were obtained over 37 months between August 2015 and August 2018 resulting in 134 measurements of the isotopic composition of both types of precipitation, snow and rain. For 33 months of the sampling period each month is represented at least two times from different years. The new LMWL from Inuvik is characterized by a slope of 7.39 and an intercept of –6.70, and fills a data gap in the Western Arctic where isotopic composition data of precipitation are scarce and stem predominantly from before the year 1990. Regional studies of meteorology, hydrology, environmental geochemistry and paleoclimate will likely benefit from the new Inuvik LMWL.
Producing hydrologic scenarios from raw climate model outputs using an asynchronous modelling framework
Authors: Ricard Simon , Lucas-Picher Philippe , Anctil François
Published: September 2021

Abstract. Statistical post-processing of climate model outputs is a common hydroclimatic modelling practice aiming to produce climate scenarios that better fit in-situ observations and to produce reliable stream flows forcing calibrated hydrologic models. Such practice is however criticized for disrupting the physical consistency between simulated climate variables and affecting the trends in climate change signals imbedded within raw climate simulations. It also requires abundant good-quality meteorological observations, which are not available for many regions in the world. A simplified hydroclimatic modelling workflow is proposed to quantify the impact of climate change on water discharge without resorting to meteorological observations, nor for statistical post-processing of climate model outputs, nor for calibrating hydrologic models. By combining asynchronous hydroclimatic modelling, an alternative framework designed to construct hydrologic scenarios without resorting to meteorological observations, and quantile perturbation applied to streamflow observations, the proposed workflow produces sound and plausible hydrologic scenarios considering: (1) they preserve trends and physical consistency between simulated climate variables, (2) are implemented from a modelling cascades despite observation scarcity, and (3) support the participation of end-users in producing and interpreting climate change impacts on water resources. The proposed modelling workflow is implemented over four subcatchments of the Chaudière River, Canada, using 9 North American CORDEX simulations and a pool of lumped conceptual hydrologic models. Forced with raw climate model outputs, hydrologic models are calibrated over the reference period according to a calibration metric designed to function with temporally uncorrelated observed and simulated streamflow values. Perturbation factors are defined by relating each simulated streamflow quantiles over both reference and future periods. Hydrologic scenarios are finally produced by applying perturbation factors to available streamflow observations.
Analysis of high streamflow extremes in climate change studies: How do we calibrate hydrological models?
Authors: Majone Bruno , Avesani Diego , Zulian Patrick , Fiori Aldo , Bellin Alberto
Published: September 2021

Abstract. Climate change impact studies on hydrological extremes often rely on the use of hydrological models with parameters inferred by using observational data of daily streamflow. In this work we show that this is an error prone procedure when the interest is to develop reliable Empirical Cumulative Distribution Function curves of annual streamflow maximum. As an alternative approach we introduce a methodology, coined Hydrological Calibration of eXtremes (HyCoX), in which the calibration of the hydrological model is carried out by directly targeting the probability distribution of high flow extremes. In particular, hydrological simulations conducted during a reference period, as driven by climate models’ outputs, are constrained to maximize the probability that the modeled and observed high flow extremes belong to the same population. The application to the Adige river catchment (southeastern Alps, Italy) by means of HYPERstreamHS, a distributed hydrological model, showed that this procedure preserves statistical coherence and produce reliable quantiles of the annual maximum streamflow to be used in assessment studies.
Early history of sudden commencement investigation and some newly discovered historical facts
Authors: Sano Yasuharu , Nagano Hiroshi
Published: September 2021

Abstract. The history of the research on the SC (sudden commencement) of magnetic storms before World War II is studied in this paper. Since geomagnetic research activities before World War II are still not yet fully known, this paper aims to reveal some historical facts related to SC investigation at that time. The first conclusion of this paper is the possible first discoverer of the simultaneity of SC at distant locations. We show that a Portuguese scientist had already pointed it out 16 years
earlier than believed. The second conclusion is the role and
activities of Aikitu Tanakadate as the reporter of the SC investigation committee of STME (Section of Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity) and IATME (International Association of Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity) in the IGGU (International Geodetic and Geophysical Union) or IUGG (International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics). Very little was known about his activities as the reporter of this committee. Our investigation at the Tanakadate Aikitu Memorial Science
Museum disclosed how he acted and what he thought of SC, based on his frequent letters to and from other scientists. The third conclusion concerns SC research carried out by Japanese scientists during the period of the Second International Polar Year (1932–1933). Not only Tanakadate but also many other Japanese scientists participated in SC research during this international project. This formed a traditional basis of SC investigation in Japan, prompting a number of Japanese scientists to study SC after World War II.
EFEKTIVITAS BALANCE EXERCISE DAN GAIT TRAINING DALAM MENINGKATKAN KESEIMBANGAN DAN KECEPATAN BERJALAN PADA KASUS STROKE ISKEMIK
Authors: Pratama Aditya Denny , Furqonah Aisyah Aji
Published: September 2021

Stroke merupakan hilangnya fungsi otak secara mendadak dan memicu kelumpuhan unilateral yang dapat mengurangi kontrol postur dan keseimbangan sehingga pasien kesulitan untuk berjalan. Tujuan studi kasus ini adalah mengetahui efektivitas balance exercise dan gait training terhadap peningkatan keseimbangan dan kecepatan berjalan pada pasien stroke menggunakan parameter Timed Up and Go Test (TUGT) dan 10 Meter Walk Test (10MWT). Metode yang digunakan adalah evidence-based case report dengan pertanyaan klinis, “Bagaimana efektivitas balance exercise dan gait training terhadap peningkatan keseimbangan dan kecepatan berjalan pada kasus stroke iskemik?” dengan penelusuran bukti pada 3 database, yaitu Pubmed, science direct, dan scopus. Setelah dilakukan 6 kali evaluasi terdapat peningkatan keseimbangan dan kecepatan dimana pada evaluasi pertama didapatkan hasil pengukuran TUGT sebesar 14,14 detik, self selected velocity 0,63m/s dan fast velocity 0,66m/s. Pada evaluasi keenam didapatkan hasil sebesar 09,50 detik, self selected velocity 1,34m/s dan fast velocity 1,40m/s sehingga dapat disimpulkan bahwa balance exercise dan gait training efektif dalam meningkatkan keseimbangan dan kecepatan berjalan pada pasien stroke dengan nilai minimal detectable change (MDC) TUGT sebesar 2,9 detik dan 10MWT pada self selected velocity sebesar 0,18m/s dan fast velocity sebesar 0,13m/s serta nilai minimally clinically important difference (MCID) TUGT sebesar 3,4 detik dan 10MWT sebesar 0,16m/s.
DIGITAL SITES OF PROTEST: FARMERS’ PROTEST IN INDIA AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COLLECTIVE IDENTITY ON FACEBOOK
Authors: Badola Anand
Published: September 2021

In September 2020, the Indian government passed a set of farm laws, which have a pro-market leaning. While the nature of the passing of the bills is debated, largely it is seen as a controversial move, as the bills were passed without proper consultation with the farmers' community. The farmers' community, to create a sympathetic narrative to their own cause, set up a Facebook page called $2 in November. The Facebook page has around five hundred thousand followers and gives daily updates via photos, statuses, and videos about the farmers' protests. This paper looks at digital sites of protest and platform affordances, through which un-informed or unaware hyper-individualised publics are brought in by the protest community to help construct a collective identity. It examines the ongoing farmers’ protest in India and a Facebook page that was specifically created by the protest community called, $2 , and how it is able to create a common collective identity despite the cultural and linguistic differences in India. Using textual and visual analysis, the paper focuses on audio-visual posts on this page with extended captions describing personalised experiences of the farmer protests and helping in the construction of the collective identity.
'IF YOU CAN WORK FROM ANYWHERE, WHY WORK ANYWHERE ELSE?': FLEXIBLE
CITIZENSHIP, REGIMES OF MOBILITY, AND THE DISCOURSE OF DIGITAL NOMADISM
Authors: Edwards Sarah Elizabeth
Published: September 2021

Digital nomadism is a term that has entered the cultural lexicon
relatively recently to describe a lifestyle unbound from the traditional structures and
constraints of office work (Makimoto and Manners, 1997; Cook, 2020; Thompson, 2018). This
identity is organized around the digital technologies and infrastructures that make “remote
work” possible, allowing digital nomads to claim “location independence” and granting them
the freedom to travel while working (Nash et al., 2018). Largely employed as freelancers or
as self-styled entrepreneurs, digital nomads assert their independence from the traditional
strictures of work through the digital technologies they use at the same time that they
remain “plugged in” to the infrastructures, economies, and lifeworlds of Silicon Valley
(McElroy, 2019, p. 216). As such, the digital nomad represents a key site to examine
privileged transnationalism and the enduring forms of coloniality that inform contemporary
“regimes of mobility” (Hayes and Pérez-Gañán, 2017; Glick Schiller and Salazar, 2013, p.
189). This paper considers how discourses of digital nomadism have been constructed,
circulated, and leveraged by governments offering “digital nomad visas,” “remote work
visas,” or “freelancer visas” to examine how regimes of mobility have been imagined and
enacted. Utilizing discourse analysis to examine popular press articles, Instagram posts
from the official accounts of tourism boards, and governmental websites, I examine the ways
digital nomadism was constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic and consider how this
lifestyle has been formalized and institutionalized. I argue that mobility itself has become
a central resource through which nations compete for global capital accumulation.
THE ANATOMY OF DIGITAL CLOUT(CHASING): BLACK AESTHETICS, ONLINE VISIBILITY AND RELATIONAL LABOR AMONG DIY HIP-HOP MUSICIANS ON CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE
Authors: Evans Jabari Miles
Published: September 2021

Prior literature has suggested that it is through popular music that the social, professional and technological aspirations of Black youth often come together. Nowhere is this more evident than in the context of Hip-Hop music, where Black youth inventiveness with digital tools is celebrated and valued far more than any other genre of media entertainment. Though many scholars have theorized on the centrality of authenticity and masculinity to the communication of Hip-Hop artists in digital spaces, little academic work has paid very little attention to artist perspective of how this relational labor and visibility strategy helps them cultivate viable careers as influencers. Using interviews with artists, artist managers and independent label executives, I detail the career potentials for Hip-Hop artists engaging in social media self-branding strategies. I explore the content and character of their work on social media toward acquiring “clout”- a digital form of influence rooted in Hip-Hop that allows marginalized youth to leverage digital tools in build social status, maintain authenticity, cultivate connections with fans, connect to friends and other cultural producers. In this study, I detail examples of three relational strategies that our respondents utilized to acquire “digital clout:” a) Corralling b) Capping and, c) Co-Signing. To conclude, I argue Chicago’s Hip-Hop scene provides an example of why formal institutions need to rethink how race, class, gender and geography influence the digital practices of young people and how their practices add significantly to the understanding of the cultural and communicative diversity arising from globalizing social media.
INTERNET GOVERNANCE FOR WHOM? CIVIL SOCIETY, REPRESENTATION, AND DIGITAL RIGHTS
Authors: Grover Rohan
Published: September 2021

Internet governance institutions embrace a multistakeholder approach, which calls for civil society organizations (CSOs) to represent community interests. How well do digital rights CSOs fulfill these expectations of “community representation”? Through a case study of the Internet Freedom Foundation, an Indian digital rights organization, this paper evaluates community engagement mechanisms through the lens of equity and democratization, and identifies a gap between expectations and observed practices. It concludes that evaluating representation in digital-native CSOs should account for both socioeconomic and technological dynamics in both transnational and national contexts. This paper offers a contribution to an emergent understanding of civil society’s role in internet governance, grounded in a postcolonial critique of representation and legitimacy, in order to understand whose voices are heard, and whose are still excluded, from internet governance processes.
NÜZHUBO AND HER “BROTHERS”: STREAMING LIFE AND MEDIATING INTIMACY AT SCALE
Authors: Gu Jingyi
Published: September 2021

In this paper, I consider live/life streaming as a mediated venue for making social relationships and a mediatized world constituted of diverse livelihoods. Drawing from my digital ethnography on two Chinese live streaming platforms Inke and Huajiao, I document the emergence of narratives, performances, and interactions that are either sexually suggestive or have gendered implications. I identify patterns of emotional expression and self-disclosure that lie within these interactions and analyze their alignment with and distinction from those that have been considered within the existing theorization of intimacy. In doing so, I examine how live/life streaming constructs scalable “mediated intimacy,” in the one-versus-many semi-public setting, through nurturing gendered performances and building subtle sexual tension between its participants.
THE MERGING OF MUSIC CRITICISM AND MUSIC PROMOTION: CONVERGED MUSIC INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS ON FACEBOOK
Authors: Järvekülg Madis
Published: September 2021

This paper explores the changing socio-cultural dynamic between local music entrepreneurs and journalists/critics on Facebook in Estonia. Through the analysis of 32 semi-structured interviews with music industry professionals and experts and observations of their activities on Facebook, the study identifies the decreasing distance between music criticism and music promotion. On the one hand, the music critics once envisioned as ‘autonomous gatekeepers’ (Hirsch, 1972) find it increasingly hard to transfer their musical authority, expertise and perceived independence to the commercially driven social media environment. As a result, some of them have taken up entrepreneurship themselves, converged their various identities by mixing their critical/evaluative practices as critics and business-oriented practices as entrepreneurs. On the other hand, some niche music entrepreneurs are stepping into the role of cultural authorities by mobilizing and catering to specific taste cultures and genre communities by becoming expert gatekeepers in their own right, despite being compromised by their business interest. In this context, it is no more useful to talk about the ‘mutual dependency’ of the music press and industry PR (Forde, 2001; Negus, 1992). Rather, among the tightly interwoven music scenes like the ones in Estonia, where many players adopt a variety of different and often conflicting roles (especially on Facebook), we should recognize the complete convergence of music promotion and music criticism and the loss of critical distance and autonomy altogether.
INSTAGRAM AND THE MEMED SELF
Authors: Keye Wade
Published: September 2021

The irreverent, bizarre and deeply political work of Instagram meme artists serves as a potent rejoinder to the claim that “the left can’t meme” In their commitment to a constantly moving mix of politics and absurdism, IG memers have something in common with the Alt-Right despite their completely opposed politics. Many of these well-followed accounts have developed a signature brand of humor and aesthetics while cultivating loyal fans. These “meme lords” are part of a recent wave in online culture I’m calling “weird Instagram.” Named for Facebook precursor, weird Instagram might best be differentiated by the much greater inclusion of self in meme production. In this paper I’ll discuss this phenomenon in its platform specificity, using the work of two prominent meme artists to exemplify the phenomenon.
“CLIMATE JUSTICE IS RACIAL JUSTICE”: THE YOUTH CLIMATE MOVEMENT AND
INTERSECTIONAL MEDIA ORGANIZING IN AN ALGORITHMIC SOCIETY
Authors: Lee Ashley
Published: September 2021

Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the world saw unprecedented
levels of youth mobilization. From Black Lives Matter to March for Our Lives to the Youth
Climate Strikes, the past decade saw young people leveraging social media to build movements
around the world. Existing studies have shown how young people use social media to build
movements in liberal democracies under the conditions of free assembly and association.
However, since the global pandemic hit, young people (and others) have had to face various
constraints to street mobilization. During the pandemic, as youth movements come to depend
heavily on digital tools for organizing, social media platforms and algorithms may further
complicate the process by which young people’s exercise political power. Using the broader
youth climate movement as a case study, I examine how youth movements shift their tactics in
response to the pandemic, and what the implications of shifting to the digital space are for
the youth climate movement. This study draws on in-depth interviews with youth climate
activists, along with digital ethnography and surveys, conducted between 2019 and 2021.
Findings show that young climate organizers galvanized social media to shift to remote and
hybrid organizing tactics. At the same time, inequalities introduced by social media
platforms and algorithms became more acute for the youth movement.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU: INVESTIGATING THE USE OF ALGORITHMIC NEWS
RECOMMENDATION IN THE SCANDINAVIAN DAILY PRESS
Authors: Møller Lynge Asbjørn
Published: September 2021

This paper investigates the Scandinavian daily press’ efforts in and
perspectives on algorithmic news recommendation. News recommender systems provide news
organisations with new opportunities to offer more relevant and personalised news
experiences, but their increasing use has also raised several concerns about whether and how
algorithms should undertake important editorial decisions. Current literature offers only
limited empirical insight into the actual use of these technologies in journalism, and this
paper is the first to map the use of news recommender systems in the Scandinavian media
system. Drawing on interviews with all 19 national newspapers within the Scandinavian daily
press, the findings reveal that 17 newspapers use news recommender systems and 14 of these
use personalisation. Most newspapers expressed positive attitudes toward the technologies,
highlighting increased relevance and better opportunities to drive subscriptions. The extent
of the use of news recommendation at the specific news media organisations is still limited
due to concerns about algorithms interfering with journalistic priorities and a reluctance
to jeopardise the brand value of the front page. Some newspapers address these concerns by
allowing for editorial control through subjectively estimated journalistic input, revealing
that journalistic norms and ideals affect the design and implementation of algorithms in
journalism.
SELL YOUR CARDS TO WHO: NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS AND DIGITAL TRADING CARD
GAMES
Authors: Murray Jack Anthony
Published: September 2021

The remediation of analog trading card games into digital platforms
troubles notions of ownership and highlights the flows of capital through the ecologies of
TCGs that previously relied on material artifacts. $2 is a digital trading card game that
utilizes Non-Fungible Tokens to address concerns over ownership. However, in the wake of the
sale of a $69 Million dollar NFT at Christie's art auction, crypto-art has been embroiled in
discourse with respect to artist exploitation, environmental, and other concerns endemic to
blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. This paper examines the implications of NFTs in
digital card games via the material histories of trading card games and the way digital TCGs
accelerate the extraction of capital from player communities by bypassing traditional
secondary markets. $2 proposes to solve these issues of ownership and assure players their
cards will retain their value. However, the game relies on the continued existence of the
publisher's platform, blockchain infrastructure, and player interest. The game also ignores
how cards become valuable. Despite mimicking the artificial scarcity associated with TCGs,
it does not take into account the impact metagame trends have on the value of cards. By
looking at NFT implementations in games such as $2 we can identify several issues with the
technology that might otherwise be overlooked in favor of more common critiques. This also
highlights several implications remediation and adaptation herald for digital versions of
analog games.
WHY FACEBOOK IS NOT A GATEWAY TO NEWS CONTENT
Authors: Palmer Marie
Published: September 2021

Over the past fifteen years, the emergence of intermediaries has
transformed the circulation of news content. Social media platforms and news aggregators
have become main gateways to news content. However, they don't circulate news but snippets
of existing news content. This article focuses on why those snippets are identified by users
as news. Drawing on social semiotics, this study uses the concept of genre - as a tacit and
conventional system of categorisation of texts or discursive practices (Neale, 1980), which
provides clues regarding how to interact with a text in a specific cultural situation
(Martin, 1984)- to understand the complex nature of the snippet. Using a multimodal analysis
of a series of over 150 Facebook news posts, this article argues that the design of Facebook
posts uses horizontal and vertical intertextuality, to generate a socially endorsed comment
on news. Therefore, Facebook cannot really by defined as a gateway to news content but
rather as an intertextual commenter.
CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AS A PRACTICE OF RESISTANCE TO ALGORITHMS
Authors: Pronzato Riccardo
Published: September 2021

Today using the Internet implies primarily using digital platforms,
that actively participate in the co-construction of social life. In this scenario, users
have often been depicted as powerless, subjected to exploitative commercial practices, and
as having internalized their condition of surveilled and datafied individuals. However,
little attention has been paid to how individuals make sense of algorithms in their everyday
life and how exert their agency while using platforms. Furthermore, little is known
regarding how researchers can actively elicit critical reflections regarding structures of
datafication, thereby helping individuals increase their awareness and data literacy. This
paper contends that auto-ethnographic diaries, elaborated following a critical pedagogical
approach, can be valuable to investigate user practices and how algorithms are enacted in
everyday life by those practices. Furthermore, a critical pedagogy approach can raise
awareness among individuals regarding processes of pervasive datafication and surveillance,
thereby being a way to redistribute social value to the public while doing social research
and a practice of independence and resistance to algorithmic surveillance.
INFLUENCER CULTURE & ALGORITHMIC APARTHEID ON GAY INSTAGRAM
Authors: Quick Tyler
Published: September 2021

Research on social media influencers has concluded that influencers’
status is always contingent upon meeting followers’ demand for specific
“performances-of-self,” as well as making themselves and their content available and
visible. However, few scholars have addressed the role that algorithms play in determining
which influencers might be made visible, and therefore the manner by which platform design
predetermines who may attain influencer status. This project seeks to address this gap in
this research by providing critical ethnographic insights into what is colloquially referred
to as “gay Instagram.” Throughout a three-year period, I maintained an Instagram account
through which I observed trends in the production and consumption of homoerotic content
utilizing a variety of methods. Of these, “algorithmic audits” provided the most insight
into the manner by which algorithmic and social biases compound one another to
hyper-visibilize a small minority of homoerotic content creators. Once Instagram has
determined that a user is interested in homoerotic content, that user can expect the
overrepresentation of white, mostly American Instagays on their “explore” page, in the
promoted content featured on their feed, and so on. In effect, determinations of the most
desirable homoerotic content are made through a variety of selection biases that make access
to visibility an unequal enterprise on Instagram. Through these biases, white elites in
Western metropolises are made more visible to Instagram users, even when others could
conceivably fulfill their same representational function, troubling the notion that
influencer status can be attained through an individual’s “labor” without algorithmic
assistance.
TECHNOLOGICAL AGNOSTICISM AND CLIMATE CHANGE: PLATFORM CULTURE ON
TECHNOLOGY FORUM WHIRLPOOL
Authors: Rodriguez Aleesha Joy
Published: September 2021

This paper explores the (limited) discussion of climate change within
energy debates on Australian technology forum Whirlpool. These discussions are characterised
by $2 , which is an attitude that no technology is $2 or $2 than any other because different
technologies have different applications depending on the requirement. By completing a
thematic analysis of all Whirlpool replies within four threads centred on energy debates (n
= 3,101), I observed Whirlpool contributors depoliticise energy technologies by removing
climate change as a factor when considering technology choices. Overall, I found that when
technological agnosticism was expressed within these debates, it intersected with issues
concerning the $2 , $2 , $2 , and $2 of technology and pushed against concerns regarding
climate change. I argue that the prevalence of technological agnosticism within these
debates is not an example of climate change denial per se but a reflection of Whirlpool’s
platform culture which valorises traits of $2 such as rationality and neutrality (Massanari,
2017). I conclude by comparing Whirlpool’s platform culture to Reddit and suggest that
future research ought to explore how particular platform cultures shape energy debates and
ultimately, attitudes and action towards climate change.
“I STARTED THE DAY JUST CRYING FOR 2 HOURS STRAIGHT.” ECHO-LOCATING THE
VULNERABLE SELF ON INSTAGRAM.
Authors: Schreiber Maria
Published: September 2021

Building on previous online-ethnographic fieldwork on the
#strokesurvivor-community on Instagram, this contribution dives deeper into practices of
echo-locating (Markham 2020) the vulnerable self on Instagram. This paper aims to
reconstruct practices of adapting to a new body, identity and self through communicating on
Instagram from a symbolic-interactionist perspective. I build on Goffman’s concept of
stigma, Charmaz’ studies on adapting to illness and impairment and use the lens of Markham’s
(2020) concept of echo-locating the self through online connection, Based on close readings
and interpretations of postings, including pictures, captions and comments, as well as
interviews with active community members, two critical antipodes of sense- and self-making
in the #strokesurvivor-community emerged: First, mourning the loss of the familiar body,
self, and identity and related identity goals. Users seek permission to mourn and also
validation for their grief through their postings and comments. Second, and probably
oppositional, perseverance, or in its extreme form, toxic positivity - this concept refers
to a (more or less forced) attitude of optimism while ignoring valid reasons to actually not
be positive, a mindset that seems to be embedded in a “contemporary cult of happiness”
(Wright 2014) and cruel optimism (Berlant 2010). In the #strokesurvivor-community, a
positive mindset and belief in the possibility of regaining physical and mental functions is
a recurring theme and strong imperative. The contribution focuses on the reconstruction of
patterns and practices of mourning and perseverance and their relevance to the echo-location
of the vulnerable self.
LEAVING HOME TO COME HOME: REBUILDING JOURNALISTIC GATE-KEEPING ONE FACT
AT A TIME
Authors: Todd Paula Joy
Published: September 2021

Confusion about modern post-publication fact-checking is dissipating
as the practise nears its 20th anniversary in the United States (where it began in earnest),
and misinformation settles as a resistant and sometimes deadly drag on reality. But a
nuanced analysis of fact-checking’s role in and on the journalistic field (Bourdieu, 1993,
1998; Benson & Neveu, 2010) is troubled by such independent characterizations of post
hoc claim verification as: a revolt against journalism; a professional or social reform
movement; a new genre; an entrepreneurial exercise; a status-seeking ploy; and/or a
psychologically ineffective or damaging reinforcement of falsehoods. Given that accuracy is
an ethical requirement of normative journalism and the defining characteristic of ‘news’(
hence the political duplicity of the oxymoronic term, ‘fake news’), the birth of independent
fact-checking troubles the practice of journalism and, by proxy, political knowledge, and
can thus also be read as critique of the field writ large. While gatekeeping (Lewin, 1947)
is assumed dead, and gate-watching (Bruns, 2003) on life support, modern fact-checkers are
nevertheless culling and privileging information, while simultaneously adjudicating and
assigning blame for public speech, which traditional ‘neutral’ journalism avoids. Using both
both academic and journalistic qualitative and quantitative interview tools, and framed by
field, gatekeeping/watching, and discourse theories (thus emulating the
journalistic-academic hybrid model deployed in fact-checking), I examine the largely
unexplored area of journalistic re-entrenchment and introduce the reverse-gate-keeping
theory of ‘information corralling’ in the era of escalating misinformation.
"HAVE A GREAT, POSITIVE, BEAUTIFUL DAY!": GOOD MORNING MEMES AND THE
CROSS-CULTURAL ARTICULATION OF VALUES
Authors: Trillò Tommaso
Published: September 2021

This paper adopts the lens of social media rituals to study a new
incarnation of ritualized greetings: good morning memes. These are a popular yet
under-studied form of ritualized greeting posted every morning by social media users across
the global. Such memes feature text with a wish for the incoming day paired with elements
such as flowers, food or animals. In this paper, I focus on the ways in which these memes
construct values, broadly defined as guiding beliefs about the desirable. My analysis is
based on a sample of 414 good morning memes posted to Instagram in English and Italian. I
conducted a content analysis examining the posts for content (protagonist and background),
the main values conveyed (e.g. achievement and self-efficacy, happiness and positivity), and
their stance (serious or ironic). A preliminary analysis revealed strong consistency in the
dataset. Overall, good morning memes embed the general mandate for “politeness” that infuses
the communicative genre of greetings, transposing it in the meme format through impersonal
messages and a saccharine aesthetic. Furthermore, the memes voice a shared core of values,
namely: “Happiness and positivity” and “performative kindness.” However, the English and
Italian subsets also diverge in significant ways. The English language version of the meme
upholds the value of “achievement and self-efficacy,” possibly because of the influence of
American values on globalized social media content. Conversely, the Italian-language version
of the meme uses humor to pushback against the idea that the morning is a time to be
energetic and productive.
FINNISH RIGHT TO BE -CITIZENS INITIATIVE CAMPAIGN AND THE “FEELING OF
BEING COUNTED"
Authors: Vähäpassi Valo
Published: September 2021

In this paper, I address the Finnish Oikeus olla- (Right to Be)
citizens initiative campaign (2021) for a new trans law. I address the online campaign from
the point of view of affect, especially the “feeling of being counted” (Coleman 2013;
Papacharissi 2015, 25), in several senses. Through media autoetnography and qualitative
content analysis of online material, I address the campaign as the experience of becoming
part in the counted people, who come to politically matter. Following Sara Ahmed (Smitchz
and Ahmed 2014, 1), I do not separate affect from feeling and emotion. Following scholars
interested in the meanings and emotions attached with numbers in the current culture
(Kennedy and Hill 2018), and the importance of emotions in politics (Coleman 2013;
Papacharissi 2015), I am interested in how meanings and emotion are attached to numbers in
LGBTIQ politics and activism. I concentrate on the affective aspects of taking part in the
initiative and engaging with the online campaign. In this paper, I ask, what work online
signature count and the growing figures shared online do, when combined with the discourses
and action frames of the campaign? How are the anticipation of reaching the required 50 000,
following the increasing count, and reaching the threshold of required amount of signatures,
lived and shared online?
THE GEOPOLITICAL DYNAMICS OF GOOGLE
Authors: Yeo ShinJoung
Published: September 2021

US-based transnational corporation Alphabet-Google controls a
critical entry point to the Internet, dominating over 90% of the global search market.
Google’s global Internet dominance and expansion seem to reaffirm a long-established US-led
global communication order. However, this paper argues that the US position is far from
secure, as geopolitical rivalries continue to animate and reshape the global communication
network.
HOW MOBILE MEDIA ENABLED AND LIMITED ONLINE CIVIC PARTICIPATION AMONG
LOW-INCOME U.S. YOUNG PEOPLE DURING THE PANDEMIC
Authors: Ramirez Johnny , Jimenez Carlos , Clark Lynn Schofield
Published: September 2021

This paper presents comparative research from two youth-centered
interdisciplinary ethnographic research projects in media studies, social work, and
education. Originally designed as in-person interventions meant to provide digital media
literacy and civic leadership development activities for 35 Latinx, Black, Indigenous, Asian
American and White young people between ages 15-20 living in low-income neighborhoods, the
experience of the COVID-19 pandemic forced both projects to take place online. Whereas each
project found some benefits to holding endeavors in an online rather than an in-person
environment, this paper centers on similar patterns that emerged across the projects in how
and why differing participants dropped out over the one-year period between March 2020
through March 2021. The central research question of this paper is: what are the prospects
for and barriers to online civic participation activities in the everyday lives of young
people who, along with their families, are experiencing economic precarity and other forms
of marginalization? The paper explores how mobile media were put to use for coping with
everyday life during the pandemic, revealing some assumptions about both coping and online
civic engagement that were dismantled.The analysis of these experiences force a reckoning
with structural inequities that existed prior to the pandemic and that were further
exacerbated because of it. The paper thus unearths new questions regarding how to design
online civic participation activities involving young people with multiply intersecting
experiences of both marginalization and resilience.
PLATFORM SPECIFICITIES: THE PLATFORM BOOKS PANEL
Authors: Hendry Natalie Ann , Tiidenberg Katrin , Abidin Crystal , Kaye D. Bondy Valdovinos , Zeng Jing , Wikstrom Patrik , Bucher Taina , Highfield Tim , Leaver Tama , Qiu Jack Linchuan
Published: September 2021

Social media platforms shape our lives on micro, meso and macro levels. They have transformed our everyday practices as individuals, or social practices as small and large groups, and have multiple, entangled impacts on rituals of democracy and cultural (re)production, organization of labor and industry. This panel brings together five papers, each by authors of recently published or forthcoming platform books. Together, the papers offer an analysis of TikTok, WeChat, Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook. Because of the book-length analyses preceding the panel, we are able to distill what is distinct and recognizable about these platforms – what we call ‘platform specificities’ and demonstrate how these specificities are shaping not only the experiences of the users of those platforms, but the social media ecosystem more broadly. The panel contributes to the ongoing discussion regarding platform power, social media and ways of making sense of social media, painting in board strokes plausible future developments to keep an eye on. The extended abstract holds a panel rationale and five extended abstracts for each analyzed platform.
THE CONVERSATION, TEN YEARS ON: ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF A UNIQUE SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING INITIATIVE
Authors: Riedlinger Michelle , Fleerackers Alice , Bruns Axel , Burgess Jean , Guenther Lars , Joubert Marina , Osman Kim
Published: September 2021

The Conversation (theconversation.com) represents a unique model for communicating scholarly research to the general public via explanatory journalism. Rather than relying on scholars’ personal networks, the promotional efforts of university press offices, or requests from science journalists for comments on current developments, The Conversation offers a platform for scholars across all disciplines to pitch their own stories, gain support from its in-house journalistic staff to develop those stories for a general audience, and see the resulting articles published under Creative Commons licences, enabling them to be republished by commercial and public service news outlets around the world. The overall success of this model, which may be described as ‘journalism-as-a-service’, is evident: articles from The Conversation are regularly republished by major international news outlets from the New York Times through CNN to The Guardian, as well as by domestic outlets across the eight countries and regions in which The Conversation now operates. This panel provides a broad-ranging and multi-faceted assessment of the status of the Conversation project, in its tenth year of operation. The current COVID-19 crisis has particularly highlighted the crisis of expertise and unevenness of scientific literacy amongst journalists, politicians, and the general public. The panel’s assessment of the successes and failures of one of the leading digital science communication initiatives of the past decade provides an important reality check, and offers new insights on what can be done to increase the visibility and impact of rigorous scholarly perspectives from all disciplines of research in public and political debates.
SPACE, PLACE AND LOCATION IN SEXUAL SOCIAL MEDIA
Authors: Sundén Jenny , Tiidenberg Katrin , Paasonen Susanna , Vihlman Maria
Published: September 2021

Contributing to the swiftly emerging field of the geographies of digital sexualities, this panel explores the geosocial and geopolitical dimensions of digital sexual cultures by zooming in on the connections between sexual practices, geographic imaginaries, and locally embedded social media platforms devoted to sexual expression. Building on case studies of an Estonian platform used primarily by those interested in group sex (LC, est. 2018), a Swedish platform preferred by BDSM practitioners (Darkside.se, est. 2003), and a Finnish platform for nude self-expression (Alastonsuomi.com, est. 2007) we show how these platforms contribute to and shape sexual geographies in digital and physical registers. On the one hand, these platforms operate as spatialized tools which put bodies in motion in the interest of hooking up. They function as digital compasses that allow for orientation of sexual desires in physical spaces. On the other hand, these platforms also assemble localized online places for flirtation, imagination, visibility, and appreciation, which interlink bodies with the visual pleasures and vulnerabilities of seeing and being seen. We approach questions of locatedness and place-making both through the regional and linguistic boundaries within which these platforms operate, as well as through our participants’ sense of comfort and investment in the local as a space of sexual play. As sexual content and communication are increasingly pushed out of large, U.S.-owned social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr, local and (to some extent) independent platforms where sexual expression is less regulated offer an interesting counterweight.
THE CASE ACT: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERNET STUDIES RESEARCH
Authors: Aufderheide Patricia , Sinnreich Aram , Santos Mariana Sanchez
Published: September 2021

Copyright policy is inextricably entangled with the work of academic researchers on Internet culture. This paper examines a new U.S. law, the CASE Act, which creates a new venue for resolving copyright disputes for up to $30,000. We discuss the implications of such a venue for U.S.-based internet studies research.