Convergence, Volume 29, Issue 5, Page 1262-1282, October 2023.
The research addresses whether adolescents are increasing their self-sexualisation on TikTok through content analysis. It has studied the type and number of sexualising features present in the videos that Spanish and British teenagers share on the social network TikTok, offering a comparative view. A total of 447 videos from 12 British and 12 Spanish tiktokers aged 11 to 17 have been analysed, considering their gender and age and comparing both nationalities. A high level of self-sexualisation has been found in the videos of adolescents of both genders and nationalities. The results show that age and gender determine the sexualising characteristics included in their videos and that British and Spanish minors do not use the same sexualising codes, although neither nationality is more sexualised than the other. It has been confirmed that boys and girls self-sexualise in similar proportions. Age determines sexualising characteristics they incorporate in their audio–visual productions, which indicate the blurring of traditional stereotyped roles and the unification of sexual codes that have traditionally been considered a female domain.
Category Archives: SAGE Publications Ltd: Convergence:
Re-enacting machine learning practices to enquire into the moral issues they pose
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
As the number of ethical incidents associated with Machine Learning (ML) algorithms increases worldwide, many actors are seeking to produce technical and legal tools to regulate the professional practices associated with these technologies. However these tools, generally grounded either on lofty principles or on technical approaches, often fail at addressing the complexity of the moral issues that ML-based systems are triggering. They are mostly based on a ‘principled’ conception of morality where technical practices cannot be seen as more than mere means to be put at the service of more valuable moral ends. We argue that it is necessary to localise ethical debates within the complex entanglement of technical, legal and organisational entities from which ML moral issues stem. To expand the repertoire of the approaches through which these issues might be addressed, we designed and tested an interview protocol based on the re-enactment of data scientists’ daily ML practices. We asked them to recall and describe the crafting and choosing of algorithms. Then, our protocol added two reflexivity-fostering elements to the situation: technical tools to assess algorithms’ morality, based on incorporated ‘ethicality’ indicators; and a series of staged objections to the aforementioned technical solutions to ML moral issues, made by factitious actors inspired by the data scientists’ daily environment. We used this protocol to observe how ML data scientists uncover associations with multiple entities, to address moral issues from within the course of their technical practices. We thus reframe ML morality as an inquiry into the uncertain options that practitioners face in the heat of technical activities. We propose to institute moral enquiries both as a descriptive method serving to delineate alternative depictions of ML algorithms when they are affected by moral issues and as a transformative method to propagate situated critical technical practices within ML-building professional environments.
As the number of ethical incidents associated with Machine Learning (ML) algorithms increases worldwide, many actors are seeking to produce technical and legal tools to regulate the professional practices associated with these technologies. However these tools, generally grounded either on lofty principles or on technical approaches, often fail at addressing the complexity of the moral issues that ML-based systems are triggering. They are mostly based on a ‘principled’ conception of morality where technical practices cannot be seen as more than mere means to be put at the service of more valuable moral ends. We argue that it is necessary to localise ethical debates within the complex entanglement of technical, legal and organisational entities from which ML moral issues stem. To expand the repertoire of the approaches through which these issues might be addressed, we designed and tested an interview protocol based on the re-enactment of data scientists’ daily ML practices. We asked them to recall and describe the crafting and choosing of algorithms. Then, our protocol added two reflexivity-fostering elements to the situation: technical tools to assess algorithms’ morality, based on incorporated ‘ethicality’ indicators; and a series of staged objections to the aforementioned technical solutions to ML moral issues, made by factitious actors inspired by the data scientists’ daily environment. We used this protocol to observe how ML data scientists uncover associations with multiple entities, to address moral issues from within the course of their technical practices. We thus reframe ML morality as an inquiry into the uncertain options that practitioners face in the heat of technical activities. We propose to institute moral enquiries both as a descriptive method serving to delineate alternative depictions of ML algorithms when they are affected by moral issues and as a transformative method to propagate situated critical technical practices within ML-building professional environments.
Expanding the magic circle: Immersive storytelling that trains environmental perception
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
Scholarship on immersion in simulated environments often emphasizes cognitive immersion, or the suspension of disbelief that takes place in an illusionistic space that simulates reality, making the fact of mediation disappear in the experience. Marie-Laure Ryan writes that: “immersivity can be understood in two ways: in a properly VR sense, as the technology-induced experience of being surrounded by data, and in a narrative sense... as being imaginatively captivated by a storyworld” (230). Both of these definitions rest on the notion of cognitive immersion. Grounded in the field of post-dramatic multimedia performance, this paper will focus instead on immersive storytelling that activates the senses in a phenomenological experience. Rather than transporting the spectator into a fictional imaginary space, post-dramatic multimedia performance aims to make participants aware of their presence in the here and now (Klich and Scheer, 128). This paper will describe an immersive storytelling project that integrates virtual reality (VR) into live participatory performance events that take place outdoors. The paper is co-authored by an artist-researcher and two students who are working as research assistants on this project. We recount our creative research process in developing a pervasive game, which Montola defines as a “game that has one or more salient features that expand the contractual magic circle of play socially, spatially or temporally” (2005, 3). This game is played in a park and at key moments, inside VR environments that simulate that same park. The purpose of the game is to attune participants to the species in that particular environment.
Scholarship on immersion in simulated environments often emphasizes cognitive immersion, or the suspension of disbelief that takes place in an illusionistic space that simulates reality, making the fact of mediation disappear in the experience. Marie-Laure Ryan writes that: “immersivity can be understood in two ways: in a properly VR sense, as the technology-induced experience of being surrounded by data, and in a narrative sense... as being imaginatively captivated by a storyworld” (230). Both of these definitions rest on the notion of cognitive immersion. Grounded in the field of post-dramatic multimedia performance, this paper will focus instead on immersive storytelling that activates the senses in a phenomenological experience. Rather than transporting the spectator into a fictional imaginary space, post-dramatic multimedia performance aims to make participants aware of their presence in the here and now (Klich and Scheer, 128). This paper will describe an immersive storytelling project that integrates virtual reality (VR) into live participatory performance events that take place outdoors. The paper is co-authored by an artist-researcher and two students who are working as research assistants on this project. We recount our creative research process in developing a pervasive game, which Montola defines as a “game that has one or more salient features that expand the contractual magic circle of play socially, spatially or temporally” (2005, 3). This game is played in a park and at key moments, inside VR environments that simulate that same park. The purpose of the game is to attune participants to the species in that particular environment.
Streaming demand for eSports: Analysis of Counter-strike: Global offensive
Convergence, Volume 29, Issue 5, Page 1369-1388, October 2023.
The eSports industry is growing at a rapid pace. The expansion of streaming services such as Twitch and YouTube Live played an important role in this leap and greatly contributed to the rise in popularity of electronic sports. Despite this success, there is no research on the topic of streaming demand of eSports to date. This paper aims to fill this gap using a demand approach of traditional sports to analyze the streaming demand of an eSports discipline, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The dataset comprises 865 matches between 2018 and 2021. Multiple Linear Regressions are taken as econometric tools. Main findings indicate that eSports enthusiasts value factors such as quality of tournament, match quality, and individual skill of the athletes when watching matches. In addition, the obtained results reveal that the Uncertainty of Outcome plays a significant role at streaming broadcasts of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, where viewers prefer to watch those games in which there is a high level of competitiveness between the participants. Current research contributes to the existing eSports literature with a new framework for analyzing streaming demand. The empirical findings could be of the interest of tournament organizers as well as streaming platforms for maximizing audiences.
The eSports industry is growing at a rapid pace. The expansion of streaming services such as Twitch and YouTube Live played an important role in this leap and greatly contributed to the rise in popularity of electronic sports. Despite this success, there is no research on the topic of streaming demand of eSports to date. This paper aims to fill this gap using a demand approach of traditional sports to analyze the streaming demand of an eSports discipline, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The dataset comprises 865 matches between 2018 and 2021. Multiple Linear Regressions are taken as econometric tools. Main findings indicate that eSports enthusiasts value factors such as quality of tournament, match quality, and individual skill of the athletes when watching matches. In addition, the obtained results reveal that the Uncertainty of Outcome plays a significant role at streaming broadcasts of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, where viewers prefer to watch those games in which there is a high level of competitiveness between the participants. Current research contributes to the existing eSports literature with a new framework for analyzing streaming demand. The empirical findings could be of the interest of tournament organizers as well as streaming platforms for maximizing audiences.
Book review: Left to our own devices: Coping with insecure work in a digital age
Convergence, Volume 29, Issue 5, Page 1411-1414, October 2023.
Kinwork revisited: The gendered work of keeping up with family through communication technology
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
Kinwork is the maintenance of cross-household kin and family ties through both physical and mediated means and is a type of unpaid labour historically performed by women. However, changing gender norms, new communicative practices such as networked individualism, and internet and communication technologies are changing how kinwork is done. This study explores how these changes affect the gendered nature of kinwork. Swedes from multigenerational, cross-household families residing in Sweden and the United States took part in primarily home-based interviews (n=40). This empirical study explores current practices of kinwork, focusing on three empirical cases, Christmas cards for seasonal greetings, phone calls for birthday well-wishes, and digital communication for everyday contact. Results highlight how kinwork in the sample is performed by both men and women through a wide range of communication technologies. The study shows that due to new gendered norms, women in the younger generations are less willing to do kinwork for men than older generations in the same kinship networks, indicating generational differences rather than family differences. In the study, men use new internet and communication technology to both do and sometimes take responsibility for kinwork while older communication technologies retain a feminine coding, sometimes resulting in abandonment. Contemporary digital communication technology supports a shift to individual communication rather than group-based which further supports men’s increased engagement in kinwork. The study concludes that kinwork in the studied sample is performed by both men and women and that contemporary kinwork can only be understood by looking at the complex entanglements of evolving gender equality norms, trends towards more individual communication patterns, and affordances of communication technology. Together these result in new ways and opportunities for doing kinwork, which becomes less the work of women and more the work of networked individuals, whatever gender.
Kinwork is the maintenance of cross-household kin and family ties through both physical and mediated means and is a type of unpaid labour historically performed by women. However, changing gender norms, new communicative practices such as networked individualism, and internet and communication technologies are changing how kinwork is done. This study explores how these changes affect the gendered nature of kinwork. Swedes from multigenerational, cross-household families residing in Sweden and the United States took part in primarily home-based interviews (n=40). This empirical study explores current practices of kinwork, focusing on three empirical cases, Christmas cards for seasonal greetings, phone calls for birthday well-wishes, and digital communication for everyday contact. Results highlight how kinwork in the sample is performed by both men and women through a wide range of communication technologies. The study shows that due to new gendered norms, women in the younger generations are less willing to do kinwork for men than older generations in the same kinship networks, indicating generational differences rather than family differences. In the study, men use new internet and communication technology to both do and sometimes take responsibility for kinwork while older communication technologies retain a feminine coding, sometimes resulting in abandonment. Contemporary digital communication technology supports a shift to individual communication rather than group-based which further supports men’s increased engagement in kinwork. The study concludes that kinwork in the studied sample is performed by both men and women and that contemporary kinwork can only be understood by looking at the complex entanglements of evolving gender equality norms, trends towards more individual communication patterns, and affordances of communication technology. Together these result in new ways and opportunities for doing kinwork, which becomes less the work of women and more the work of networked individuals, whatever gender.
Book review: Understanding Collegiate Esports: A Practitioner’s Guide to Developing Community and Competition
Convergence, Volume 29, Issue 5, Page 1409-1411, October 2023.
Gig workers, critical visuality and humour in a digital context: The graphic representation of riders as a form of social criticism
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This article studies social perceptions of gig work and its conditions through the lenses of visual humour created and shared in digital environments. Food delivery services have thrived in cities, and riders – gig workers associated with such services – have become popular urban figures, easily recognisable through light means of transport and backpacks. These iconic elements have spread to forms of visual humour like memes and cartoons in social media. We aim to analyse the depiction of food delivery services and riders through graphic humour in digital environments, and its role as critical stances of gig work conditions. We draw from the literature on gig work, as well as critical humour in the workplace, approaching the phenomenon from the perspective of critical visualities and the memetic qualities of digital visual humour. Thus, we have conducted an analysis of rider memes, and carried out a focus group with Spanish cartoonists to better understand each form. From our analysis, we have observed that a) memes showcase less explicit critical stances but reflect a shared understanding of the hurdles associated to rider work; b) cartoons place riders in a contextualised, wider critique of platform economy and capitalism; c) while most graphic humour on riders takes an external, observational position, there is also an ‘inner look’ to the rider work, emphasising the promises and deceptions associated with the gig economy.
This article studies social perceptions of gig work and its conditions through the lenses of visual humour created and shared in digital environments. Food delivery services have thrived in cities, and riders – gig workers associated with such services – have become popular urban figures, easily recognisable through light means of transport and backpacks. These iconic elements have spread to forms of visual humour like memes and cartoons in social media. We aim to analyse the depiction of food delivery services and riders through graphic humour in digital environments, and its role as critical stances of gig work conditions. We draw from the literature on gig work, as well as critical humour in the workplace, approaching the phenomenon from the perspective of critical visualities and the memetic qualities of digital visual humour. Thus, we have conducted an analysis of rider memes, and carried out a focus group with Spanish cartoonists to better understand each form. From our analysis, we have observed that a) memes showcase less explicit critical stances but reflect a shared understanding of the hurdles associated to rider work; b) cartoons place riders in a contextualised, wider critique of platform economy and capitalism; c) while most graphic humour on riders takes an external, observational position, there is also an ‘inner look’ to the rider work, emphasising the promises and deceptions associated with the gig economy.
Cooperative solidarity among crowdworkers? Social learning practices on a crowdtesting social media platform
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
The paper analyzes social interactions among crowdworkers on Discord. The explored crowdtesting platform uses this social media platform to offer their crowdworkers various opportunities for work-related and private communication and to host events that encourage learning practices. The paper investigates to what extent the interactions on Discord can be analyzed as social learning practices and can be understood as a specific form of solidarity among crowdworkers. In an explorative online ethnographic study, two learning related channels of the platform company’s Discord server were observed: the question channel in which testers can ask for help, and the quiz channel in which a testing related quiz event takes place. Additionally, interviews with moderators and crowdtesters were conducted. The observation of learning practices on Discord makes clear that the social media tool is mostly used by testers for situational and functional information exchange like helping each other with bug classifications or solving technical problems. Testers mostly provide each other with brief information that can directly be applied in the work context. Further information are mainly shared by moderators that offer supplementary explanations as a possibility to self-help. The study highlights that a form of weak cooperative solidarity emerges among testers as they support each other via Discord to fulfill individual work tasks. This differs from resistant solidarity in other contexts of platform work, because in the observed case, platform workers’ solidarity is not directed against the platform company.
The paper analyzes social interactions among crowdworkers on Discord. The explored crowdtesting platform uses this social media platform to offer their crowdworkers various opportunities for work-related and private communication and to host events that encourage learning practices. The paper investigates to what extent the interactions on Discord can be analyzed as social learning practices and can be understood as a specific form of solidarity among crowdworkers. In an explorative online ethnographic study, two learning related channels of the platform company’s Discord server were observed: the question channel in which testers can ask for help, and the quiz channel in which a testing related quiz event takes place. Additionally, interviews with moderators and crowdtesters were conducted. The observation of learning practices on Discord makes clear that the social media tool is mostly used by testers for situational and functional information exchange like helping each other with bug classifications or solving technical problems. Testers mostly provide each other with brief information that can directly be applied in the work context. Further information are mainly shared by moderators that offer supplementary explanations as a possibility to self-help. The study highlights that a form of weak cooperative solidarity emerges among testers as they support each other via Discord to fulfill individual work tasks. This differs from resistant solidarity in other contexts of platform work, because in the observed case, platform workers’ solidarity is not directed against the platform company.
Partners or workers? Mexican app deliverers on YouTube and TikTok
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
This article seeks to understand how app delivery workers construct their collective identity through the digital platforms of YouTube and TikTok. Said identity construction occurs in the context of the social controversy surrounding their status as workers without labor rights or as independent partners of digital platforms. To this end, we collected 977 videos and their metadata and analyzed them via cross-platform digital methods. The findings reveal that app delivery workers construct their collective identity through the interplay of two factors. The first is the identity narratives created by delivery workers as video bloggers. The second is the recognition narratives created by different associated actors, such as accountants, media, universities and research centers, and content creators. Through these interactions, the narrative of delivery workers as independent partners acquires more algorithmic strength and visibility than those that discuss their status as employees and their lack of labor rights. Audiovisual technology also works as an instrument to reach individual agency and face the precariousness of daily life.
This article seeks to understand how app delivery workers construct their collective identity through the digital platforms of YouTube and TikTok. Said identity construction occurs in the context of the social controversy surrounding their status as workers without labor rights or as independent partners of digital platforms. To this end, we collected 977 videos and their metadata and analyzed them via cross-platform digital methods. The findings reveal that app delivery workers construct their collective identity through the interplay of two factors. The first is the identity narratives created by delivery workers as video bloggers. The second is the recognition narratives created by different associated actors, such as accountants, media, universities and research centers, and content creators. Through these interactions, the narrative of delivery workers as independent partners acquires more algorithmic strength and visibility than those that discuss their status as employees and their lack of labor rights. Audiovisual technology also works as an instrument to reach individual agency and face the precariousness of daily life.