tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/digital-culture-13978/articlesDigital culture – The Conversation2023-09-19T05:56:49Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120012023-09-19T05:56:49Z2023-09-19T05:56:49ZVirtual influencers: meet the AI-generated figures posing as your new online friends – as they try to sell you stuff<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549012/original/file-20230919-17-htk4s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C3%2C2203%2C1191&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Instagram / @lilmiquela/ @shudu.gram</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The future of influence is here: a digital avatar that captivates millions of adoring fans while offering unparalleled customisation and round-the-clock availability. </p>
<p>Virtual influencers are transforming the way content is created, consumed and marketed online. They represent an electrifying dance between cutting-edge technology and our desire for connection. But, at the same time, they are yet another product being peddled by marketers that want our money.</p>
<p>Upon close inspection, we can see the risks that emerge with these blurred realities. </p>
<h2>What are virtual influencers?</h2>
<p>While virtual influencers aren’t a particularly new concept – virtual Japanese popstar <a href="https://ew.com/article/1997/05/16/kyoko-date-worlds-first-virtual-pop-star/">Kyoko Date</a> has been around since 1996 – recent advances in technology have thrust them into the spotlight. </p>
<p>Also called digital influencers or AI influencers, these digital personalities have a social media presence and interact with the world from a first-person perspective. </p>
<p>They’re created by 3D artists using CGI (computer-generated imagery), motion-capture technology and AI tools. Creators can make them look and act exactly how they want, and their personas are thoughtfully developed to align with a target audience.</p>
<p>There are three main <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3492862">types of virtual influencers</a>: non-humans, animated humans and life-like CGI humans. Each one provides an innovative way to connect with audiences. </p>
<h2>Why do virtual influencers exist?</h2>
<p>Advancements in AI, the rise of social media and visions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-metaverse-a-high-tech-plan-to-facebookify-the-world-165326">the metaverse</a> (in which the real and virtual worlds are blended into a massive immersive digital experience) are synergistically fuelling the growth of virtual influencers.</p>
<p>Their popularity has prompted marketing agencies to embrace them as a cost-effective promotional strategy. </p>
<p>While real influencers with millions of followers may demand <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/28/18116875/influencer-marketing-social-media-engagement-instagram-youtube">hundreds of thousands of dollars</a> per post, one <a href="https://www.onbuy.com/gb/blog/the-highest-earning-robot-influencers-on-instagram%7Ea243/">2020 estimate</a> suggested virtual influencer Lil Miquela charged a more reasonable £6,550 (currently about A$12,600). </p>
<p>Virtual influencers have clear benefits when it comes to online engagement and marketing. They don’t age, they’re free from (real) scandals and they can be programmed to speak any language. It’s no surprise a number of companies and celebrities have caught onto the trend.</p>
<p>In 2019, supermodel Bella Hadid posed with Lil Miquela in ads for Calvin Klein in what one columnist dubbed a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/21/bella-hadid-lil-miquela-terrifying-glimpse-calvin-klein">terrifying glimpse of the future</a>”. </p>
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<p>Since then, virtual influencers have become even more popular.
In 2021, Prada <a href="https://www.virtualhumans.org/article/prada-creates-first-virtual-muse-candy">introduced</a> a CGI ambassador for its perfume Candy. More recently, Lil Miquela has popped up in a number of high-profile brand campaigns and celebrity interviews. Even rapper Timbaland <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/29/timbaland-lil-miquela-ai-music">has said</a> he is considering a collaboration.</p>
<h2>The transparency issue</h2>
<p>Virtual influencers have a unique cultural dimension. They exist in a murky space between our world and the virtual which we’ve never quite explored. How might they impact us?</p>
<p>One major concern is transparency. Many virtual influencers already present as human-like, and it may become increasingly difficult to distinguish between them and real people. This is particularly problematic in an advertising context. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Virtual influencers often feature alongside real celebrities.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As the market for virtual influencers grows, we’ll need clear guidelines on how this content is used and disclosed. </p>
<p>India has taken the lead on this. In January, its Department of Consumer Affairs <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/20/india-social-media-influencers-guidelines/">made it mandatory</a> for social media influencers, including virtual influencers, to disclose promotional content in accordance with the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.</p>
<p>Similarly, TikTok has updated its <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/community-guidelines/en/overview/?cgversion=2023">community guidelines</a> to say:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Synthetic or manipulated media that shows realistic scenes must be clearly disclosed. This can be done through the use of a sticker or caption, such as ‘synthetic’, ‘fake’, ‘not real’, or ‘altered’.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A Messi way to make money</h2>
<p>The emergence of virtual replicas of real people (including deepfakes) has led to new discussions about how a person’s likeness may be used, with or without their consent. </p>
<p>On one hand, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/07/22/the-best-and-scariest-examples-of-ai-enabled-deepfakes/?sh=467d61422eaf">celebrity deepfake porn</a> is on the rise. On the other, celebrities are including “simulation rights” in their contracts so their likeness may be used in the future. Take global football star Lionel Messi, who allowed PepsiCo to use a digital version of him to promote <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/celebrities-like-messi-are-all-for-ai-deepfakes-but-why-are-they-signing-their-image-rights-away-12884992.html">Lay’s potato chips</a>.</p>
<p>While this might introduce opportunities for talent expansion, it also raises exploitation risks. People may unwittingly or desperately sell off their digital likeness without consent or adequate compensation.</p>
<h2>Will the virtual replace the human?</h2>
<p>For now, the relationship between virtual and human influencers seems more poised for coexistence than a total replacement. For now, virtual influencers can’t connect with people the way a real person can (although it’s hard to say how this might change in the future).</p>
<p>As for human content creators, virtual influencers are both inspiration and competition. They’re transforming what it means to be creative and influential online. Whether they like it or not, human creators will need to work with them – or at least alongside them – in whatever ways they can.</p>
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<p><em>The Conversation is commissioning articles by academics across the world who are researching how society is being shaped by our digital interactions with each other. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/social-media-and-society-125586">Read more here</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212001/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mai Nguyen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Virtual influencers have relationships, explore the world and take risks. The web is their playground – but they don’t exist.Mai Nguyen, Lecturer in Marketing, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1657672021-09-30T18:57:49Z2021-09-30T18:57:49ZCGI influencers: when the ‘people’ we follow on social media aren’t human<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421309/original/file-20210915-20-1q4tz8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C994%2C556&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-render-abstract-mannequin-female-head-1362712421">Shanvood/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Social media influencers – people famous primarily for posting content online – are often accused of presenting artificial versions of their lives. But one group in particular is blurring the line between real and fake.</p>
<p>Created by tech-savvy teams using computer-generated imagery, <a href="https://www.insider.com/cgi-influencers-what-are-they-where-did-they-come-from-2019-8">CGI</a> or <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2020/03/20/even-better-the-real-thing-meet-the-virtual-influencers-taking-over-your-feeds">virtual influencers</a> look and act like real people, but are in fact merely digital images with a curated online presence.</p>
<p>Virtual influencers like Miquela Sousa (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/lilmiquela/">known as Lil Miquela</a>) have become increasingly attractive <a href="https://www.balmain.com/gb/balmain/balmains-new-virtual-army">to brands</a>. They can be altered to look, act, and speak however brands desire, and don’t have to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-10-29/lil-miquela-lol-s-seraphine-virtual-influencers-make-more-real-money-than-ever">physically travel</a> to photo shoots – a particular draw during the pandemic. </p>
<p>But what can be a lack of transparency about who creates and profits from CGI influencers comes with its own set of problems. </p>
<p>CGI influencers mirror their human counterparts, with well-followed social media profiles, high-definition selfies, and an awareness of trending topics. And like human influencers, they appear in different body types, ages, genders and ethnicities. A closer look at the diversity among CGI influencers – and who is responsible for it – raises questions about colonialism, cultural appropriation, and exploitation.</p>
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<p>Human influencers often have teams of publicists and agents behind them, but ultimately, they have control over their own work and personality. What happens then, when an influencer is created by someone with a different life experience, or a different ethnicity?</p>
<p>For centuries, black people – especially women – have been objectified and exoticised by white people in pursuit of profit. While this is evident across many sectors, the fashion industry is particularly known for appropriating and commodifying black culture in ways that elevate the work and status of white creators. The creation of racialised CGI influencers to make a profit for largely white creators and white-owned businesses is a modern example of this.</p>
<h2>Questions of authenticity</h2>
<p>The sheen of CGI influencers’ surface-level image does not mask what they really symbolise – demand for marketable, lifelike, <a href="https://qz.com/quartzy/1375838/dont-call-balmains-cgi-models-diversity/">“diverse” characters</a> that can be easily altered to suit the whims of brands. </p>
<p>I recently gave evidence to a UK parliamentary inquiry into <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1126/influencer-culture/news/156518/experts-to-appear-before-mps-examining-impact-on-popular-culture/">influencer culture</a>, where I argued that it reflects and reinforces structural inequalities, including racism and sexism. This is evident in reports of <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a35352031/race-inequality-influencer-pay-gap/">racial pay gaps</a> in the industry, and the relentless <a href="https://www.colorlines.com/articles/new-study-confirms-black-women-are-most-abused-group-twitter">online abuse and harassment</a> directed at black women.</p>
<p>CGI influencers are not exempt from such issues – and their existence raises even more complex and interesting questions about digital representation, power, and profit. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1527476420983745">My research</a> on CGI influencer culture has explored the relationship between racialisation, racial capitalism and black CGI influencers. I argue that black CGI influencers symbolise the deeply oppressive fixation on, objectification of, and disregard for black people at the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/11/10/778015473/lauren-michele-jackson-on-white-negroes">core of consumer culture</a>.</p>
<p>Critiques of influencers often focus on <a href="https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/44850/1/influencer-era-over-evolving-instagram-bloggers">transparency</a> and their <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22323961/meghan-markle-fakery-piers-morgan-authenticity">alleged “authenticity”</a>. But despite their growing popularity, CGI influencers – and the creative teams behind them – have largely escaped this scrutiny.</p>
<p>As more brands <a href="https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/126357/24/Woke-washing%20-%20%27Intersectional%27%20femvertising%20and%20branding%20%27woke%27%20bravery%20%28Francesca%20Sobande%29%20-%20PDF%20-%20v3.pdf">align themselves</a> with activism, working with <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/3/18647626/instagram-virtual-influencers-lil-miquela-ai-startups">supposedly “activist”</a> CGI influencers could improve their optics without doing anything of substance to address structural inequalities.
These partnerships may trivialise and distort actual activist work. </p>
<p>When brands engage with CGI influencers in ways <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/social-justice-cgi-advertising-brud/">distinctly tied</a> to their alleged social justice credentials, it promotes the false notion that CGI influencers are activists. This deflects from the reality that they are not agents of change but a byproduct of digital technology and consumer culture.</p>
<h2>Keeping it real</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.thediigitals.com/">The Diigitals</a> has been described as the world’s first modelling agency for <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/lifestyle/article/the-diigitals-virtual-models">virtual celebrities</a>. Its website currently showcases seven digital models, four of whom are constructed to appear as black through their skin colour, hair texture, and physical features.</p>
<p>The roster of models includes <a href="https://www.thediigitals.com/shudu">Shudu</a> (@shudu.gram) who was developed to resemble a dark-skinned black woman. But it has been argued that Shudu, like many other CGI models, was created through the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/shudu-gram-is-a-white-mans-digital-projection-of-real-life-black-womanhood">white male gaze</a> – reflecting the power of white and patriarchal perspectives in society.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-diigitals-and-daz-3d-release-nfts-of-shudu-the-worlds-first-digital-supermodel-301258380.html">Shudu’s</a> kaleidoscope of Instagram posts include <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B3m-8gbBvOL/?hl=en">an image of her</a> wearing earrings in the shape of the continent of Africa. </p>
<p>One photo caption <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BztB82SBvjg/?hl=en">reads</a>: “The most beautiful thing about the ocean is the diversity within it.” This language suggests Shudu is used to show how Diigitals “values” racial diversity – but I argue the existence of such models shows a disrespect and distortion of black women.</p>
<p>Creations like Shudu and <a href="https://www.thediigitals.com/koffi">Koffi</a> (@koffi.gram), another Diigitals model, I would argue, show how the objectification of black people and the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1527476420983745">commodification of blackness</a> underpins elements of CGI influencer culture. Marketable mimicry of black aesthetics and the styles of black people is apparent in <a href="https://bricksmagazine.co.uk/2020/06/29/black-culture-in-fashion-a-brief-history-of-trends-that-originated-from-black-communities/">other industries</a> too.</p>
<p>CGI influencers are another example of the colonialist ways that black people and their cultures can be <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/5/20995415/lauren-jackson-white-negroes-cultural-appropriation">treated as commodities</a> to be mined and to aid commercial activities by powerful white people in western societies.</p>
<p>Since I began researching this topic in 2018, the public-facing image of The Diigitals has notably changed. Its once sparse website now includes names of <a href="https://www.thediigitals.com/muse">real-life muses</a> and indicates its ongoing work with black women. This gesture may be meaningful and temper some critiques of the swelling number of black CGI influencers across the industry, many of which are not apparently created by black people.</p>
<p>A more pessimistic view might see such activity as projecting an illusion of racial diversity. There may conceivably be times when a brand’s use of a CGI influencer prevents a real black influencer from accessing substantial work. The Diigitals working with actual black people as “muses” is not the same as black people creating and directing the influencer from its inception. However, it is important to <a href="https://www.thediigitals.com/muse">recognise the work of such real black people</a> who may be changing the industry in impactful ways that are not fully captured by the term “muse”. </p>
<p>To me, many black CGI influencers and their origin stories represent pervasive marketplace demand for impersonations of black people that cater to what may be warped ideas about black life, cultures, and embodiment. Still, I appreciate the work of black people seeking to change the industry and I am interested in how the future of black CGI influencers may be shaped by black people who are both creators and “muses”. </p>
<p><em>The Conversation approached The Diigitals for comment, and founder Cameron-James Wilson said: “This article feels very one-sided.” He added: “I don’t see any reference to the amazing real women involved in my work and not having them mentioned disregards their contributions to the industry”. The Diigitals did not provide further comment. The article was expanded to make a more substantial reference to the real women The Diigitals works with.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesca Sobande does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The creation of social media accounts based on fictional models raises pointed questions about race, representation and commodification.Francesca Sobande, Lecturer in Digital Media Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1673282021-09-10T12:29:59Z2021-09-10T12:29:59ZHow ‘sissy men’ became the latest front in China’s campaign against big tech<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420304/original/file-20210909-17-sxy7bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C5%2C3982%2C2712&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Workers congregate in a meeting room at the headquarters of BlueCity, the parent company of Blued, China's most popular dating app for gay men.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-picture-taken-on-december-10-2020-shows-employees-at-news-photo/1230472609?adppopup=true">Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Chinese government <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-bans-sissy-men-tv/">has recently taken action</a> against what it calls “sissy men” – males, often celebrities, deemed too effeminate.</p>
<p>On Sept. 2,2021, government <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-bans-sissy-men-tv/">regulators banned their appearance</a> on both television and video streaming sites. Using the Chinese derogatory slur “niang pao” – literally, “girlie guns” – Chinese cultural authorities <a href="https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/content-regulation/">explained that they were rolling out a rule</a> to purge “morally flawed celebrities” in order to “correct aesthetics” in “performing styles” and “wardrobes and makeups.” </p>
<p>Technically this is a rule, not a law. But thanks to the strong control the Chinese government exerts over industry, the tech companies that give these celebrities a platform <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/business/china-bts-kpop-fans.html">have quickly fallen in line</a>.</p>
<p>The international community may view the rule as yet another example of Chinese repression <a href="https://qz.com/630159/chinas-new-television-rules-ban-homosexuality-drinking-and-vengeance/">centered on LBGTQ communities</a>.</p>
<p>And this could be true, to an extent. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=PUBDsVIAAAAJ&hl=en">as someone who studies China’s queer cultures</a>, I’m also attuned to the way pronouncements made by the Chinese government often cloak a hidden agenda. </p>
<p>To me, it’s no coincidence that the ban has come during the intense national campaign against China’s domestic big tech giants, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/beyond-security-crackdown-beijing-charts-state-controlled-data-market-2021-07-20/">which the government increasingly sees as a threat</a> to its ability to keep tabs on its citizens.</p>
<h2>The rise of effeminate male ‘traffic stars’</h2>
<p>In the mid-2010s the Chinese government’s grip on the country’s entertainment sector began to weaken after decades of control over <a href="https://time.com/4247432/china-tv-television-media-censorship/">who could star on TV and what sort of stories could be told</a>. TV dramas, films and talent shows produced by private tech companies started to take off, while <a href="http://www.nrta.gov.cn/art/2018/10/20/art_2178_39216.html">ratings and ad revenues of state-owned television stations tumbled</a>.</p>
<p>Beginning in 2016, the government <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1918020/china-tightens-censorship-online-tv-programmes-days-after">started to censor web videos with the same criteria it had been using for television</a>. However, the restrictions seemed to only inspire more creative and subversive expressions of sexuality on video streaming sites. </p>
<p>For example, images of two men kissing and holding hands were banned. So creators simply used dialogues and gestures, like intense eye contact, to convey homosexual intimacy. Furthermore, these rules didn’t regulate the physical appearance of characters.</p>
<p>Since 2017, shows produced by the country’s leading video streaming platforms – many of which mimic the basic format of shows like “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-most-american-pop-culture-phenomenon-of-them-all-56555">American Idol</a>” and “<a href="https://www.nbc.com/the-voice">The Voice</a>” – have launched the careers of a number of effeminate male celebrities. </p>
<p>These shows include “The Coming One” and “CHUANG 2021,” which appear on Tencent Video, a streaming site owned by Tencent, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/business/Tencent-WeChat-China.html">the Chinese technology conglomerate that also owns WeChat</a>. Meanwhile, “Idol Producer” and “Youth With You” appear on another video service provider, iQiyi, a subsidiary of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/18/baidu-launches-robocar-and-ai-chip-in-bid-to-diversify-business.html">Baidu</a>, the Chinese equivalent of Google. The male participants in these shows are often young, dress in unisex clothing, and apply orange-red eye shadow and lipstick, along with heavy makeup that whitens their skin and thickens their eyebrows.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Contestants compete on ‘CHUANG 2021.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the past, female audiences would clamor for masculine looks or physiques in their male celebrities. Today’s young Chinese people, on the other hand, are more open to <a href="https://hkupress.hku.hk/pro/1614.php">challenging gender stereotypes</a>. Within online fan communities, femininity in male celebrities isn’t stigmatized; instead, it’s celebrated. They’ll call their female idols “brother” or “husband” and their male idols “wife” – names meant more as compliments than insults. </p>
<p>This shift can be traced, in large part, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3133459/why-china-cracking-down-reality-tv-shows-k-pop-inspired">to the influence</a> of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/16/16915672/what-is-kpop-history-explained">K-pop</a>, the South Korean pop music phenomenon in which many of the singers reject traditionally masculine ideals.</p>
<p>An easy way for male actors to achieve stardom is to appear in adaptions of “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1754626">boys’ love novels</a>,” an online fiction genre originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between men. </p>
<p>Take the actor <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7757091/">Zhang Zhehan</a>. For years, he played masculine characters in several TV shows. Still, he remained largely unknown until he appeared in the adaption of the boys’ love novel “Word of Honor,” which appeared in early 2021 on Youku, a streaming service owned by the tech giant Alibaba. </p>
<p>His female fans <a href="https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%E5%8D%81%E5%B9%B4%E7%A1%AC%E6%B1%89%E6%97%A0%E4%BA%BA%E7%9F%A5%20%E4%B8%80%E6%9C%9D%E8%80%81%E5%A9%86%E5%A4%A9%E4%B8%8B%E9%97%BB">even invented a meme</a> to describe Zhang’s rapid rise to fame: “manning up for a decade failed, but [he] succeeded as a wife overnight.” </p>
<h2>Reasserting control</h2>
<p>Despite their perceived effeminate mannerisms, these male celebrities have amassed a huge following among female viewers. Typically, their shows can generate <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/international/8487693/idol-producer-winner-kun-china-interview-cai-xukun-nine-percent">billions of views and considerable ad revenue</a>.</p>
<p>Celebrities whose fame emerged out of shows like “The Coming One” and “Idol Producer” are called “<a href="https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1008245/for-chinas-traffic-stars%2C-a-sudden-crash">traffic stars</a>” because they’re more dependent on their massive followings than on any specific skill such as singing, acting or dancing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men wearing jewelry and makeup pose on a bed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420310/original/file-20210909-21-6ocn9z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420310/original/file-20210909-21-6ocn9z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420310/original/file-20210909-21-6ocn9z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420310/original/file-20210909-21-6ocn9z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420310/original/file-20210909-21-6ocn9z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420310/original/file-20210909-21-6ocn9z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420310/original/file-20210909-21-6ocn9z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ten and YangYang are two members of the Chinese boy band WayV, whose sound and style are heavily influenced by K-pop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2021/09/03/0b2701c5-85b9-4207-b4b3-debab3c1a540_a84036f8.jpg">SM Entertainment</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since views, shares and likes have become the dominant metric for a celebrity’s popularity and market value, fans will organize to actively manipulate social media features such as ranking lists and trending topics in support of their idols. This “<a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1232634.shtml">data worship</a>” – to use the terminology of the Chinese authorities – ultimately boosts the revenue of the big tech companies that promote and host the stars.</p>
<p>Therefore, the profits of tech companies and the proliferation of internet influencers, movie stars and TV personalities have become increasingly intertwined.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-tech/2021/08/18/china-seeks-greater-control-over-its-own-big-tech-797224">For a country seeking to rein in the power of big tech companies</a>, these effeminate idols become an obvious target. </p>
<h2>Possible ramifications</h2>
<p>Although it could be argued that everyday LGBTQ people aren’t the real target of the most recent policy, I believe it will almost certainly have a pernicious effect on China’s marginalized gender groups and LGBTQ communities. </p>
<p>In China, the government has long exploited gender and sexuality in the service of political needs. During the first three decades of the People’s Republic of China – from 1949 to 1978 – <a href="https://www.niaspress.dk/book/queer-comrades/">homosexuality was portrayed as the epitome of capitalist vice</a> and was, therefore, seen as incompatible with the values of the Communist party-state.</p>
<p>After China’s market reforms in 1978 and the “opening up” of the country, people – especially in China’s cities – <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/Desiring-China">became more comfortable calling themselves gay</a>.</p>
<p>In the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the state-run Xinhua News agency even <a href="https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=553a17f6-7c90-48ac-b3be-a7fd82d6670a">published articles championing the gay website Danlan</a> – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/magazine/blued-china-gay-dating-app.html">a precursor to Blued</a>, the most popular gay dating app in the world – in order to portray China as an inclusive and diverse place and to deflect international criticism of China’s poor record on human rights.</p>
<p>Thanks to digital technology and the growth of online subcultures, China has achieved some real progress in the acceptance of gender and sexual minorities over the past decade. Young women often speak of having a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460718773689">gay confidant</a>” (“gaymi” in Chinese), while young straight men are keen to call their male friends “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2016.1253393">good gay buddies</a>”(“hao jiyou”).</p>
<p>So it’s a bit surprising to see a gender slur – “girlie guns” – being written into government policy and repeated throughout the country’s mainstream media outlets.</p>
<p>And it isn’t difficult to envision more anti-LGBTQ bullying, harassment and violence in schools and workplaces as a result.</p>
<p>After all, if the government condones a slur, who’s to say it’s wrong to use it to attack others?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shuaishuai Wang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pronouncements made by the Chinese government often cloak a hidden agenda.Shuaishuai Wang, Lecturer of New Media and Digital Culture, University of AmsterdamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1559742021-02-25T15:08:50Z2021-02-25T15:08:50ZApple’s new emojis are more ammunition for the online generation wars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386448/original/file-20210225-23-1hng3vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C1%2C968%2C597&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/first-look-217-new-emojis-in-ios-14-5/">Jeremy Burge/Emojipedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I saw the news that Apple would be releasing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/17/vaccine-syringe-and-flaming-heart-iphone-reveals-more-than-200-new-emojis">217 new emojis</a> into the world, I did what I always do: I asked my undergraduates what it meant to them. “We barely use them any more,” they scoffed. To them, many emojis are like overenthusiastic dance moves at weddings: reserved for awkward millennials. “And they use them all wrong anyway,” my cohort from generation Z added earnestly.</p>
<p>My work focuses on how people use technology, and I’ve been following the rise of the emoji for a decade. With <a href="https://emojipedia.org/apple/">3,353 characters</a> available and 5 billion sent each day, emojis are now a significant language system. </p>
<p>When the emoji database is updated, it usually reflects the needs of the time. This latest update, for instance, features a new vaccine syringe and more same-sex couples.</p>
<p>But if my undergraduates are anything to go by, emojis are also a generational battleground. Like <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/middle-part-skinny-jeans-tiktok-b1804294.html">skinny jeans and side partings</a>, the “<a href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/is-the-laughing-crying-emoji-cancelled-heres-what-we-know/">laughing crying emoji</a>”, better known as 😂, fell into disrepute among the young in 2020 – just five years after being picked as the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151201223617/http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/11/word-of-the-year-2015-emoji/">Oxford Dictionaries’ 2015 Word of the Year</a>. For gen Z TikTok users, clueless millennials are responsible for rendering many emojis utterly unusable – to the point that some in gen Z barely use emojis at all.</p>
<p>Research can help explain these spats over emojis. Because their meaning is interpreted by users, not dictated from above, emojis have a rich history of creative use and coded messaging. Apple’s 217 new emojis will be subjected to the same process of creative interpretation: accepted, rejected or repurposed by different generations based on pop culture currents and digital trends. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two emojis of a syringe - one dripping with blood, one with clear liquid" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Previously, the syringe emoji suggested blood extraction. The new, updated emoji looks more like a vaccine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/vaccine-emoji-comes-to-life/">Apple/Emojipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Face the facts</h2>
<p>When emojis were first designed by Shigetaka Kurita in 1999, they were intended specifically for the Japanese market. But just over a decade later, the <a href="https://home.unicode.org/">Unicode Consortium</a>, sometimes described as “the UN for tech”, unveiled these icons to the whole world. </p>
<p>In 2011, <a href="https://instagram-engineering.com/emojineering-part-1-machine-learning-for-emoji-trendsmachine-learning-for-emoji-trends-7f5f9cb979ad">Instagram</a> tracked the uptake of emojis through user messages, watching how 🙂 eclipsed :-) in just a few years. Old-style smileys, using punctuation marks, now look as outdated as Shakespearean English on our LED screens: a sign of fogeyness in baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) or an ironic throwback for the hipsters of gen Z.</p>
<p>The Unicode Consortium now meets each year to consider new types of emoji, including emojis that support inclusivity. In 2015, a new range of skin colours was added to existing emojis. In 2021, the Apple operating system update will include mixed-race and same-sex couples, as well as men and women with beards.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1361983113849667591"}"></div></p>
<h2>Bitter boomers?</h2>
<p>Not everyone has been thrilled by the rise of the emoji. In 2018, a Daily Mail headline lamented that “<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5628765/Emoji-ruining-English-language.html">Emojis are ruining the English language</a>”, citing research by Google in which 94% of those surveyed felt that English was deteriorating, in part because of emoji use. </p>
<p>But such criticisms, which are sometimes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/17/why-i-hate-emojis">levelled by boomers</a>, tend to misinterpret emojis, which are after all informal and conversational, not formal and oratory. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10862960802695131">Studies have found</a> no evidence that emojis have reduced overall literacy.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/emoji-arent-ruining-language-theyre-a-natural-substitute-for-gesture-118689">Emoji aren't ruining language: they’re a natural substitute for gesture 🔥🔥🔥</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>On the contrary, it appears that emojis actually <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118771952.ch13">enhance</a> our communicative capabilities, including in language acquisition. <a href="https://www.languageatinternet.org/articles/2019/gawne">Studies</a> have shown how emojis are an effective substitute for gestures in non-verbal communication, bringing a new dimension to text. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17470919.2013.873737?journalCode=psns20#.VLadY2TF871">A 2013 study</a>, meanwhile, suggested that emojis connect to the area of the brain associated with recognising facial expressions, making a 😀 as nourishing as a human smile. Given these findings, it’s likely that those who reject emojis actually impoverish their language capabilities.</p>
<h2>Creative criticism</h2>
<p>The conflict between gen Z and millennials, meanwhile, emerges from confused meanings. Although the Unicode Consortium has a definition for each icon, including the 217 Apple are due to release, out in the wild they often take on new meanings. Many emojis have more than one meaning: a literal meaning, and a suggested one, for instance. Subversive, rebellious meanings are often created by the young: today’s gen Z.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://emojipedia.org/eggplant/">aubergine</a> 🍆 is a classic example of how an innocent vegetable has had its meaning creatively repurposed by young people. The <a href="https://thetab.com/uk/2021/02/11/brain-emoji-tiktok-194766">brain</a> 🧠 is an emerging example of the innocent-turned-dirty emoji canon, which already boasts a <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/irl/sexting-emoji/">large corpus</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three emojis, one blowing out air, one with spiral eyes, one in clouds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These three emojis will also hit iPhones with Apple’s latest update. Their meaning is yet to be decided.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/first-look-217-new-emojis-in-ios-14-5/">Emojipedia/Apple</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And it doesn’t stop there. With gen Z now <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/julianvigo/2019/08/31/generation-z-and-new-technologys-effect-on-culture/">at the helm of digital culture</a>, the emoji encyclopedia is developing new ironic and sarcastic <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/14/tech/crying-laughing-emoji-gen-z/index.html">double meanings</a>. It’s no wonder that millennials can’t keep up, and keep provoking outrage from younger people who consider themselves to be highly emoji-literate.</p>
<p>Emojis remain powerful means of emotional and creative expression, even if some in gen Z claim they’ve been made redundant by misuse. This new batch of 217 emojis will be adopted across generations and communities, with each staking their claim to different meanings and combinations. The stage is set for a new round of intergenerational mockery.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155974/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Brill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millennials’ favourite 😂 is the latest casualty of gen z’s emoji snobbery.Mark Brill, Senior Lecturer, School of Games, Film and Animation, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1456402020-09-07T14:00:48Z2020-09-07T14:00:48ZTikTok Holocaust trend shows that we need to teach the ethics of remembrance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356804/original/file-20200907-16-1knj71c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5381%2C3584&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/auschwitz-poland-july-11-2017-holocaust-742482232">BONDART PHOTOGRAPHY/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some used makeup to simulate bruises or burns. Others dressed in imitations of the striped uniforms of the concentration camps or wore a yellow star imprinted with the word “Jude” (Jew) – a reference to the symbol that Jewish people were forced to wear in Nazi Germany. </p>
<p>The TikTok Holocaust trend saw users – for the most part, teenagers – uploading videos of themselves pretending to be Holocaust victims entering heaven. Many were outraged, <a href="https://www.insider.com/tiktok-trend-shows-people-pretending-to-be-holocaust-victims-heaven-2020-8">describing the videos</a> as “trauma porn” or even antisemitic. In contrast, creators stressed their intentions to <a href="https://livewire.thewire.in/gender-and-sexuality/holocaust-tiktok-trend-trauma-appropriation/">educate or spread awareness</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://auschwitz.org/en/">Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum</a> (ABMM) said that the videos were “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-53934500">hurtful and offensive</a>”. But it <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-53934500">noted that</a> for some, they represented a “need to find some way of expressing personal memory”. </p>
<p>As this suggests, the trend sparks questions about what the right way to respectfully remember traumatic events in the past, and how first-person accounts can be used to achieve that. </p>
<h2>Digital remembrance</h2>
<p>First person accounts by someone who lived the experience they are retelling are known as “testimonies”. Testimony <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13642529.2019.1620909">circulates through culture</a> in multiple ways. Alongside the live accounts by survivors of mass violence, we find it in video archives, autobiographical writing and <a href="https://www.holocaust.org.uk/foreverproject1">innovative digital forms</a>. It is incorporated into poetry, theatre, fiction and art. </p>
<p>As interviewers, artists and audiences engage with these testimonies from survivors. They become witnesses to the witness and part of a larger community of remembrance. If the memory of the Holocaust is to continue, recording those stories in different media <a href="https://theconversation.com/auschwitz-75-years-on-preserving-survivors-voices-and-listening-to-those-of-their-children-129477">is essential</a>.</p>
<p>The young people making the TikTok videos draw from accounts about the Holocaust circulating in their cultural environment, such as films like Steven Spielberg’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxphAlJID9U&ab_channel=UniversalPictures">Schindler’s List</a>. The videos are part of the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bj9qq5/this-meme-explains-why-tiktok-isnt-like-any-other-social-media">“point-of-view” (POV)</a> meme, in which the creator positions the viewer as the main character in the story. We can understand this as an attempt by the creator to foster empathy on the part of the viewer.</p>
<p>Holocaust literature scholar <a href="https://memoscape.net/the-holocaust-on-tiktok-the-importance-of-context/">Carmelle Stephens</a> notes that kneejerk reactions against the use of new media for representations of the Holocaust are common. What we need to ask is if the medium fulfils the aim to educate and commemorate. These questions are in essence about ethics and education. Despite the (potentially) good intentions on the part of the TikTok creators, I would argue that they fail on both counts.</p>
<h2>Appropriation, authenticity and empathy</h2>
<p>In terms of ethics, there are two key issues: appropriation and authenticity. The creators of the TikTok videos are performing violent and traumatic experiences that are not their own. This is also true of artistic representations that are not produced by survivors themselves. However, the POV format in a 15 second video does not provide the reflective space to do justice to what creators seek to present, unlike mediums like theatre, film, poetry or art. </p>
<p>The creators attempt to simulate the victim experience through makeup and clothing. The impression is one of a particularly macabre form of “<a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cosplay">cosplay</a>”, rather than a critical or commemorative engagement with the past. </p>
<p>When we talk about <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13642529.2017.1305726">authenticity concerning testimony</a>, we do not necessarily mean that an account is completely accurate in its relaying of historical facts. What we mean is that a survivor conveys the historical events as they experienced them and that they are genuine in their commitment to retelling the truth of that experience. In this way, <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/poetics-today/article/27/2/261/20893/History-Memory-and-the-Genre-of-Testimony?searchresult=1">testimony can tell us</a> about the impact of mass violence on the individual. </p>
<p>Secondary witnesses, those engaging with the testimony of others, have an ethical duty to reflect that aspect of testimony. The subjective response of survivors to what they have experienced is difficult and challenging. It might be addressed through thoughtful artistic practice, but cannot be reduced to a 15-second meme.</p>
<p>It is also questionable whether this form of engagement can educate. The POV format attempts to engage the viewer in a kind of roleplay. The aim appears to be to promote empathy to help the viewer better understand the experience of the victim. Memory studies academic Alison Landsberg developed the concept of “<a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/prosthetic-memory/9780231129275">prosthetic memory</a>” to explain how empathy gained through engagement with immersive media might foster political action on behalf of others. Empathy can thereby play an important role in the aim of Holocaust education to prevent discriminatory practices and violence against minorities.</p>
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<p>But empathy is not a straightforward concept. Drawing on the work of philosopher <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.2041-6962.2011.00056.x">Amy Coplan</a>, I have developed a <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/lcahm/departments/languages/research/projects/culture-as-testimony.aspx">model of empathy</a> for engaging with testimony in the classroom that is based on the idea that it should be “other-oriented” if it is to be politically effective in this sense. </p>
<p>Students should feel with the survivors of mass violence and recognise the emotions they are conveying (fear, anger). But they should recognise and imagine those experiences from the perspective of the other person. They should try to understand what it was like for “them”, not what would it have been like for “me”. This kind of engagement requires critical distance, which is rarely achieved through simplistic roleplaying.</p>
<p>These criticisms do not mean that the young creators of these videos deserve to be shamed or vilified. It does mean that we need to ensure that alongside teaching the historical facts of the Holocaust (which remains crucial), we need to educate young people about the ethics of commemoration. </p>
<p>We do not need to ban any particular medium. The very successful <a href="https://echoeternal.uk/">Echo Eternal project</a>, which began in West Midlands schools in 2018 and 2019, shows how young people can work with survivor testimony to produce sensitive and ethical engagements across different art forms, including dance, textiles and rap.</p>
<p>But we need to encourage reflective practice about the medium in which testimony is delivered. This requires a joined-up approach, which addresses these issues in history, English, drama, religious studies and PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education). A broad understanding of testimony allows us to see the connections across the curriculum and ensure that young people are fully supported in their wish to remember.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145640/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Jones has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for two projects related to the subject of this article: Culture and its Uses as Testimony (2016-2019) and Testimony in Practice (2019-2020).</span></em></p>A recent TikTok trend involved people impersonating Holocaust victims. This has sparked questions about how to ethically use testimony in digital media.Sara Jones, Professor of Modern Languages and German Studies, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1382072020-06-05T01:47:25Z2020-06-05T01:47:25ZThere is no easy path out of coronavirus for live classical music<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338469/original/file-20200529-51471-7cn7u6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2009%2C1512&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/blnensemble">Berliner Ensemble/@blnensemble</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coronavirus pandemic has silenced the world’s concert halls and opera theatres.</p>
<p>Organisations specialising in live performance face an existential crisis under current restrictions on social gatherings, with up to <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-3-in-4-australians-employed-in-the-creative-and-performing-arts-could-lose-their-jobs-136505?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton">75% of people</a> employed in the creative and performing arts expected to lose work.</p>
<p>Online digital content has emerged as an immediate option for some. This has taken the form of ephemeral, light-hearted and quirky <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-9NGomJ3zy/">social media offerings</a>, more weighty <a href="https://tv.opera.org.au/">archival content</a>, or <a href="https://melbournedigitalconcerthall.com">live-streamed concerts</a>.</p>
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<p>These technological solutions are stopgaps rather than long-term substitutes for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-neuroscience-of-loneliness-and-how-technology-is-helping-us-136093">close human contact</a> provided by live performance. </p>
<h2>Digital offers some possibilities …</h2>
<p>While digital delivery has the possibility to extend reach geographically and demographically, it can prove a difficult task for groups who cater for audiences accustomed to the ritual of the concert hall – available online viewer numbers in Australia, such as on YouTube videos, are far off comparable live-audience numbers. </p>
<p>Small scale streamed concerts can generate revenue better than larger ones. Percussionist <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/intimacy-trumps-facebook-likes-for-sanity-saving-concert-20200421-p54lnl.html">Claire Edwardes</a> of Ensemble Offspring has been holding live Zoom concerts. Tickets cost A$50 per person and streams are limited to around 20 per gig to facilitate smooth communication both technically and personally. </p>
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<p>“Everyone is seeing isolation as an opportunity that forces us to ask: how do we spread the word outside of our core supporters, and how do we actually expand our reach?,” asks Edwardes.</p>
<h2>… but livelihoods depend on a comeback</h2>
<p>Work for online audiences comes with significant costs – high quality streaming technology, as well as fees for artists, production teams and administration – but revenue can be minimal. </p>
<p>While Opera Australia is expanding its digital offerings, staff are being stood down. Chief executive officer Rory Jeffes tells me 475 staff members are on partial wages through Jobkeeper, but an additional 338 staff, mostly casuals, were not eligible and have been stood down.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It's not that simple</a>
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<p>Local organisations cannot compete for online audience numbers with music streaming giants like Spotify, and institutions with long-established digital offerings: the Metropolitan Opera has nearly 150,000 YouTube subscribers; Opera Australia has 8,000.</p>
<p>Even for companies with established digital footprints, numbers online do not necessarily translate to income. The National Theatre in London (650,000 YouTube subscribers) is considering large-scale <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/may/21/national-theatre-may-shed-30-of-its-staff-without-more-support">staff redundancies</a> despite its popular streaming performances. </p>
<p>And as concert halls are able to reopen, there is a long road ahead in rebuilding audience numbers.</p>
<p>The Berliner Ensemble has <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/27/what-theatres-look-like-when-reopen-lockdown-12763155/">removed</a> most of its seats in what may be a glimpse into future nights out. Others are promoting <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/a32292017/micrashell-social-distancing-concert-suit/">protective suits</a> for concertgoers. Opera Australia is discussing <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/arts-fund-the-show-must-go-on/news-story/9e6e2fa745bc0ffc82f00e510d8c29b1">temperature checks</a> – the company stills hopes to stage the <a href="https://opera.org.au/ring?gclid=CjwKCAjw5cL2BRASEiwAENqAPiB2YRXIioEgy1bTBzfxmiNOR47CrMKNlK6JNHXfiGNbw2VdLEQr8RoC2H8QAvD_BwE">Ring Cycle</a> in the 2,000 seat Lyric Theatre in Brisbane, in November. </p>
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<p>Some companies are hoping for permission to open up to bigger audience numbers, even while social distancing rules remain. Melbourne Theatre Company executive director Virginia Lovett <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/theatre/let-us-open-our-theatres-companies-ask-government-20200602-p54ysp.html">told The Age</a> she hopes the government will allow performance companies to “open at a capacity that works for us” by knowing the seating details and contact information for every audience member.</p>
<p>But it is not just risks to the audience that will need to be considered. Virus transmission risks posed by <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-song-in-your-heart-shouldnt-lead-to-an-infection-in-your-lungs-reasons-to-get-with-online-choirs-137705">singing</a> and playing <a href="https://medium.com/@SixtoFMontesinos/wind-instruments-may-not-be-as-contagious-as-we-thought-b821e590b29a">wind instruments</a> will need to be taken into account in safety guidelines for performers, too.</p>
<p>Compact units like Ensemble Offspring are keen to lead the way back. Unless the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/3-step-framework-for-a-covidsafe-australia">government’s plan</a> for lifting restrictions is revised, concert venues will first be allowed to admit just 20, then 100, patrons.</p>
<p>“We hope that because of the smaller size of our audiences and our performances, intimacy will be part of the gradual opening up,” says Edwardes.</p>
<h2>And still, optimism remains</h2>
<p>The musical performing arts face a lengthy process of dealing with threats to sustainability. Nevertheless, shock has brought on solidarity and support among organisations and venues.</p>
<p>David Rowden, artistic director of Omega Ensemble, expects we will see “more organisations collaborating because there is going to be more need to co-present and to share costs.” </p>
<p>Despite everything, he remains optimistic. “Coming out of this on the other side, maybe people will have an even greater appreciation for the arts,” he says.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138207/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Keller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Concert halls may slowly be able to reopen – but difficulties will remain.Peter Keller, Professor of Cognitive Science, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1329352020-03-09T17:04:48Z2020-03-09T17:04:48ZDon’t blame dating apps for your terrible love life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319340/original/file-20200309-118960-11a84wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sad-woman-dining-luxury-restaurante-alone-1190181997">Iakov Filimonov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dating apps are killing dating, or so some people would have you believe. Some journalists have argued that Tinder, Grindr and all the rest have not only <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/tinder-changed-dating/578698">“ushered in a new era in the history of romance”</a> but that they are even leading to a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/tinder-hook-up-culture-end-of-dating">“dating apocalypse”</a> by making dating an unpleasant competition for mates instead of a fun search for a partner.</p>
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<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>But we can’t solely blame dating apps for the way people use them. Technology has always played a role in courtship rituals, from lonely hearts ads in newspapers to the cars and cinemas that helped shape the romantic trope of taking a date to see a movie. From the emergence of the telephone through to social media, dating culture is bound up and has always <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/9781433139567/xhtml/chapter21.xhtml#ch_54">coexisted with technology</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, apps have added new experiences to dating and helped lead to a <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2019/08/21/online-dating-popular-way-u-s-couples-meet/">huge shift</a> in the way people first meet potential partners. But technology’s impact depends on the surrounding culture.</p>
<p>The problem with an incessant focus on apps as the main force pushing us to new frontiers in dating, is that it tends to swipe aside the dating differences among different communities, such as what actually counts as a date. Indeed, it completely ignores the role of people in shaping what dating apps are used for and how.</p>
<h2>Context is vital</h2>
<p>Anthropologist Daniel Miller and his colleagues addressed this point in their 2016 <a href="https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/83038">study</a>, How the World Changed Social Media, which looked at social media use in nine different locations around the world. Unsurprisingly, it found different cultural contexts led to completely different uses of social media. The apps didn’t alter how people were behaving but rather people changed and repurposed the way the platforms worked for them.</p>
<p>Something that seemed mundane and normal in one context was almost impossible to fathom when transplaced somewhere else. For example, ethnographer Elisabetta Costa talked to <a href="https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/anthropology/products/83107">women in southeast Turkey</a> about how they used Facebook. Her participants were amazed to discover that people in some countries commonly had only one Facebook account and that it would contain their real details. “Don’t they use pseudonyms or fake profiles?” said one respondent. “I can’t believe it. How could it be possible?”.</p>
<p>I am making similar discoveries as part of my ongoing research in Berlin looking at the local cultural context behind dating app use. For example, one Lithuanian interviewee suggested to me that arranging a Tinder date in Berlin had completely different cultural connotations than doing so in Vilnius. The former might entail grabbing a casual beer while the latter would not be seen as a date unless it ended in dinner at a restaurant.</p>
<p>We should treat dating apps with the understanding that it is the users, and their particular cultural circumstances, who drive the impact of the technology. You can introduce the same piece of technology to 100 different communities and it will be used in 100 different ways. As such, dating apps are a tool embedded in the culture of a particular location. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319341/original/file-20200309-57209-1fppjyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319341/original/file-20200309-57209-1fppjyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319341/original/file-20200309-57209-1fppjyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319341/original/file-20200309-57209-1fppjyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319341/original/file-20200309-57209-1fppjyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319341/original/file-20200309-57209-1fppjyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319341/original/file-20200309-57209-1fppjyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chatting online is just as much a part of real life as meeting in person.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/smiling-african-american-friends-meet-together-1069186610">Wayhome/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Also, dating apps are not an isolated phenomenon. They have blossomed from a culture that already involves a large number of our daily interactions with other people taking place online. And the idea that meeting virtually is a distinct way of interacting, that it is separate and different from “real life”, is itself incorrect, because these interactions are now simply <a href="https://ee.openlibhums.org/article/id/822/">a facet of our everyday lives</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/83038">Daniel Miller argues</a>, we wouldn’t say that a telephone call is not part of “real life”. And so talking to people via email, instant message, social media and dating apps are all just different aspects of our broader sphere of communication.</p>
<p>It is certainly not the case that technology is driving people apart. There is <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-024-1790-6_7">mounting evidence</a> to counter the idea that social media and dating apps are contributing to the problem of social ties in human relations weakening. Instead, we should think about technology rearranging how social ties are maintained, based on how culture influences the way we use the technology. The medium may change but the end product is not drastically different.</p>
<p>A couple in Berlin may meet via a dating app instead of through friends or work. But whether this couple are after friendship, sex or love, the odds are that their first date will still see them getting a drink at a neighbourhood bar, because that’s what people in Berlin have done for the past 30 years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132935/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fabian Broeker receives funding for his PhD from the Arts & Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Research suggests the impact of dating apps depends on your local dating culture – and that varies hugely around the world.Fabian Broeker, PhD Candidate in Culture, Media and Creative Industries, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1215392019-08-08T21:04:16Z2019-08-08T21:04:16ZWhy do we keep having debates about video-game violence?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287385/original/file-20190808-144851-1ohc3tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=74%2C141%2C4899%2C3080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Donald Trump visits the El Paso Regional Communications Center after meeting with people affected by the El Paso mass shooting, Aug. 7, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After the series of tragic mass shootings in El Paso, Tex., and Dayton, Ohio, and shocking murders <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/07/29/markham-quadruple-murder-suspect-posted-messages-in-online-game-after-deaths/">in Ontario</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/bodies-found-manhunt-fugitives-1.5239053">British Columbia</a>, all on the heels of the horrific events in Christchurch, New Zealand, we once again are having debates about the effects of video-game violence on society. We need to stop.</p>
<p>For police investigators, the presence of video games in the online habits of perpetrators may be one relevant piece of information. But for the rest of us, it’s another example of our <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/sports/trump-violent-video-games-studies.html">emotional reaction trumping</a> (and I don’t use that word lightly) evidence-based research. </p>
<p>I study emerging technologies and digital culture. In our field it’s well-established: <a href="https://www.grandtheftchildhood.com/GTC/Research_Papers_files/OJP%20final%20report%202006.pdf">major studies</a> show <a href="https://div46amplifier.com/2017/06/12/news-media-public-education-and-public-policy-committee/">no link</a> between violent criminal action and violent video games. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://div46amplifier.com/2017/06/12/news-media-public-education-and-public-policy-committee/">some evidence</a> for a possible increase in aggressive tendencies after playing games for a period of time. Surveys of children find <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673605179525">similar short-term aggressive play</a> when kids watch any violent media (like a Marvel action film) — yet all of this falls radically short of criminal behaviour and violence. </p>
<p>I don’t want to be an apologist for popular-culture media. We can and should make space to talk about the representations of gender-based violence and the representation of people of colour in video games (and in movies and on television). We should have a conversation about the online misogyny of <a href="https://time.com/3512896/gamergate-misogyny-men-anita-sarkeesian/">Gamergate</a>, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/26/racism-misogyny-death-threats-why-cant-booming-video-game-industry-curb-toxicity/">game voice-chats</a>, as experienced by anyone who spends time in those online spaces. </p>
<p>But our conversations and our actions should be based on the <a href="https://med104exp.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/2-4-jenkins.pdf">real needs</a> of society for representation and inclusion. They should be based on actual evidence, rather then a scapegoat used to score quick political points.</p>
<h2>Trying to make sense of a violent world</h2>
<p>When we hear about mass shootings in public spaces, we want something tangible to blame, so that we can feel that the world isn’t unpredictable and unsafe. We want to feel like there’s something we can do (as long as that “something” doesn’t seem complicated). </p>
<p>We don’t want to blame systems or cultures of violence, or talk about public health. Those seem unimaginably complicated, intractable and therefore won’t make us feel better. </p>
<p>In the United States, it’s hard to get funding to say anything real. Congress <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-02/quietly-congress-extends-ban-cdc-research-gun-violence">bans the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from conducting research into gun violence</a>. This type of control leaves scholars worried that researching the wrong topic may destroy their careers.</p>
<p>And so journalists, politicians and pundits are left with a demonization of sub-cultures — <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/4/20753725/el-paso-dayton-shootings-video-games-gop-mccarthy">in this case video-gaming</a> — instead of talking about systemic issues.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287386/original/file-20190808-144838-1sbjl7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287386/original/file-20190808-144838-1sbjl7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287386/original/file-20190808-144838-1sbjl7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287386/original/file-20190808-144838-1sbjl7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287386/original/file-20190808-144838-1sbjl7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287386/original/file-20190808-144838-1sbjl7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287386/original/file-20190808-144838-1sbjl7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Call of Duty, a long-running video game military shooter series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Activision</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I collect stories about media panics. In the 1800s, <a href="https://archive.org/details/viewofnervoustem1807trot/page/88">some demonized the novel,</a> fearing it would drive women to ruin. And, going way back, Plato critiqued the <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedrus.1b.txt">invention of writing itself</a>, fearing it would injure our memory. The earliest crusade against video-game violence I know of dates from the ‘70s, for the game Death Race. If your stomach is strong, <a href="https://www.museumofplay.org/blog-wp-images/chegheads-uploads/2012/05/Death-Race-Screenshot-from-ign.com_-300x225.jpg">go online to see the game</a> as archived at the Museum of Play.</p>
<p>But now video games are mainstream. <a href="https://www.theesa.com/esa-research/2019-essential-facts-about-the-computer-and-video-game-industry/">Three-quarters of U.S. households</a> have at least one gamer resident. This is no longer a fringe activity. Pay attention, politicians: those kids who played Death Race? They grew up to be parents and voters. And many still play games.</p>
<p>So if we can’t blame video games, what’s next? </p>
<h2>Looking for solutions</h2>
<p>We have to look deeper and with more focus. Rather than <a href="https://theconversation.com/allowing-mentally-ill-people-to-access-firearms-is-not-fueling-mass-shootings-89336">stigmatizing the mentally ill</a>, researchers at <a href="https://www.theviolenceproject.org/">The Violence Project</a> are studying <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-04/el-paso-dayton-gilroy-mass-shooters-data">what we do know</a> about mass shooters, looking at actual data from people and events. They identified four commonalities on the part of the shooters: previous trauma (abuse, neglect, bullying), a recent crisis (loss of a job or a relationship), social contagion (studying the actions of other shooters) and access to weaponry.</p>
<p>To fight the problem, The Violence Project suggests we should:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>End</strong> the practice of media-attention/notoriety (discourage press coverage; don’t share or view videos or manifestos from the scene of a violent act).</li>
<li><strong>Prevent</strong> the normalization of this behaviour (perhaps rethinking <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/business/bulletproof-backpack.html">bulletproof backpacks</a>).</li>
<li><strong>Reduce</strong> access to the type of guns used in these tragedies. </li>
</ul>
<p>Finally, the team found that most mass public shooters telegraphed their intentions in some way — perhaps on a message board, probably via social media. This seems like an area we can actively work to improve. If someone discloses violent action, people online might be uncertain about how dangerous the disclosure is. They may treat it as a joke or worry about damaging their social standing if they speak out. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287389/original/file-20190808-144873-19tz3jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287389/original/file-20190808-144873-19tz3jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287389/original/file-20190808-144873-19tz3jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287389/original/file-20190808-144873-19tz3jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287389/original/file-20190808-144873-19tz3jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287389/original/file-20190808-144873-19tz3jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287389/original/file-20190808-144873-19tz3jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman leans over to write a message on a cross at a makeshift memorial at the scene of a mass shooting at a shopping complex, Aug. 6, 2019, in El Paso, Texas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/John Locher)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We need more ways to refer people to help without punishment. Users could flag an online post for follow-up by moderators without thinking it will immediately result in a SWAT team being called. A paid trained expert, able to approach people without criminalizing them until deemed necessary could make that determination.</p>
<p>If we start with a community-based public-health approach to people in need, as expensive as that may be, we can perhaps help a wealth of issues at the same time.</p>
<h2>Invest in mental health supports</h2>
<p>While not easy, these are findings we can act on. We can change the way we cover mass-shootings stories in the press. We can name and combat racist, gender-based and anti-immigrant rhetoric where we find it. We can critique, not ban, a culture that supports violence, with our kids, friends and co-workers. </p>
<p>And finally, we can provide long-term interventions across a variety of contexts (in-person, online, international) to connect people with the mental and social resources they need. </p>
<p>Ultimately, a path ahead doesn’t exist solely in the realm of criminalization (<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/05/politics/red-flag-gun-law-explainer-donald-trump/index.html">red flag laws</a>) and restriction (video-game bans), but rather, includes pro-social actions like public health policies and affordable, accessible, community-based mental health supports. </p>
<p>I’m one of the wrong set of experts to call when investigators discover that a mass-shooter played video-games. Bring in those studying mass violence or public health, and let’s put this red herring to rest.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Lachman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stop blaming video games for violent acts, a digital culture expert says. Instead, look to the link with public health to help us deal with a complicated culture of violence.Richard Lachman, Director, Zone Learning & Associate Professor, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/481502015-10-07T01:14:51Z2015-10-07T01:14:51ZExplainer: what is fanfiction?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96123/original/image-20150924-17092-19s69hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fanfiction: all it takes is to imagine a story beyond the canonical work.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kristina Alexanderson/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Consider yourself a stranger to <a href="http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanfiction">fanfiction</a>? It’s unlikely.</p>
<p>If you’ve read E.L. James’ <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10818853-fifty-shades-of-grey">50 Shades of Grey</a> (2011) then you already have at least one title under your belt. If you caught Robert Downey Jr’s turn as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0988045/">Sherlock Holmes</a> (2009), that’s another.</p>
<p>So what is it? At its most basic, fanfiction is a genre of amateur fiction writing that takes as its basis a “canon” of “original” material.</p>
<p>This original material is most often popular books, television shows and movies – but can expand to almost anything, from the lives of celebrities to the travels of inanimate objects like the Mars rover.</p>
<p><a href="http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanwork">Fanworks</a>, including fanfiction and fanart, are created by fans who are invested in the source material. They seek to expand the narrative universe and share their personal creations with other fans for free.</p>
<h2>Fanfiction in other guises</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alice in Wonderland fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/randar/10830360545/in/album-72157637616324065/">Mary Blair/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The main impulse behind fanfiction has always been a playful desire to engage with original works. Yet authors are still subject to modern copyright laws. In Australia, the US and the EU, copyright exists for the lifetime of the author plus seventy years.</p>
<p>Many early Disney film adaptations were derivative works based on out-of-copyright novels – think <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043274/">Alice in Wonderland</a> (1951) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061852/">The Jungle Book</a> (1967). In a way this could be considered a form of fanfiction.</p>
<p>Today, existing restrictions mean those interested in “remixing” copyrighted material create online communities to discuss and distribute their work freely. One of the aims of the fan-led <a href="http://transformativeworks.org/">Organisation of Transformative Works</a> is to fight for the validity of <a href="http://transformativeworks.org/projects/legal">fair use laws</a>.</p>
<p>Still, the amateur status copyright law forces on fanworks is one of the reasons fanfiction as a whole is regarded with some derision.</p>
<p>This is one reason why the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-literary-pilgrimage-from-bronteites-to-twihards-43465">Twilight</a> fanfiction origins of <a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-shades-of-grey-is-just-an-old-fashioned-romance-thats-the-problem-37440">50 Shades of Grey</a> were obscured. Due to residual textual and thematic similarities, the question of <a href="http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/02/14/50-shades-copyright-infringement/">copyright infringement</a> remains open.</p>
<p>Still, canonical works have remained a source of creative inspiration.</p>
<p>Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/188572.The_Complete_Sherlock_Holmes">Sherlock Holmes</a> (1887-1927) series has spawned a veritable industry of derivative works, both sanctioned and <a href="https://theconversation.com/free-sherlock-holmes-the-copyright-battle-of-baker-street-18544">unsanctioned</a>. Many successful novelists, including Colleen McCullough with <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3919195-the-independence-of-miss-mary-bennet">The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett</a> (2009), publish literary <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/jane-austen-fanfiction">reimaginings of Jane Austen’s novels</a>.</p>
<p>The “fanfiction” classification usually results from the context of creation and circulation rather than anything inherent to the subject matter or quality of writing.</p>
<h2>It’s fiction, Jim, but not as we know it…</h2>
<p>Popular culture academics in the US and the UK trace the beginnings of an identifiable fan culture and community from the 1970s. These tendencies were first identified by <a href="http://henryjenkins.org/">Henry Jenkins</a> in <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219853.Textual_Poachers">Textual Poachers</a> (1992).</p>
<p>There is early evidence of fans coming together around science fiction television shows like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057765/?ref_=nv_sr_2">The Man From U.N.C.LE.</a> (1964-1968) and the original <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060028/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Star Trek</a> (1966-1969).</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Game of Thrones fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimikaweb/12853096845/in/photolist-bxMryU-bqTTFk-wEeej6-pPfZG3-cARMRA-caNZGo-kzPzRY-kzMtU2-kzMPAV-9Vir2x-iYaAZT-fk6UMe">MiMiKa Z/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Comparable communities formed around anime and manga in Japan during the 1980s. The influential all-female manga artist group <a href="http://myanimelist.net/people/1877/CLAMP">Clamp</a> first came to prominence through <a href="http://www.mangahere.co/doujinshi/">Doujinshi</a> (amateur, self-published works) based on <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294023/">Captain Tsubasa</a> (1983-1986) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161952/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Saint Seiya</a> (1986-1989).</p>
<p>Today, thanks to the internet, connecting to other fans has never been easier. This level of accessibility has lead to a remarkable proliferation of what was once considered an obscure subculture.</p>
<p>In the digital realm, just one popular archival site – <a href="http://www.wattpad.com">www.wattpad.com</a> – currently hosts a staggering 40 million users a month.</p>
<p>It would be difficult to find a pop culture phenomenon today – from the <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe_Wiki">Marvel Cinematic Universe</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/">Game of Thrones</a> (2011-present) to K-dramas (Korean dramas) like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2449910/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Coffee Prince</a> (2012-present) and <a href="http://www.bollywoodnewsworld.com/whatisbollywood/">Bollywood</a> movies – that does not have fanfiction written about it.</p>
<h2>Why do people write and read it?</h2>
<p>Fanfiction enables readers, writers, and sometimes even <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-english-professor-who-taught-fanfic-at-an-ivy-league-university-42664">literary professors</a> to play in an imaginative sandbox, interpreting and reinterpreting events, relationships and characters to flesh out different scenarios.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Game of Thrones fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimikaweb/12853507134/in/photolist-bxMryU-bqTTFk-wEeej6-pPfZG3-cARMRA-caNZGo-kzPzRY-kzMtU2-kzMPAV-9Vir2x-iYaAZT-fk6UMe">MiMiKa Z/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The power of fanfiction stems from the fact that it actively invites writers to break down boundaries considered “natural” in a broader cultural context – primarily around sex, sexuality, and gender.</p>
<p>Fanfiction communities often critically engage with stories not written specifically for them. With doubts swirling over whether Marvel will <a href="http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/the-avengers-why-marvels-refusal-to-make-a-black-widow-movie-is-a-case-of-depressing-hollywood-sexis">ever make a Black Widow movie</a>, is it any wonder female fans feel the need to create their own stories?</p>
<p>These reinterpretations interact with canonical events – actual events from the original text – in different ways, “filling in” unexplored aspects of a scene, or “fixing” things that were dissatisfying or problematic.</p>
<p>Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse’s study, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/186225.Fan_Fiction_and_Fan_Communities_in_the_Age_of_the_Internet">Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet</a> (2006), found that fanfiction is primarily written by women, of all ages and sexual identities, and tends to explore – or “<a href="http://the-toast.net/2015/09/30/a-linguist-explains-the-grammar-of-shipping/">ship</a>” – intimate and romantic relationships between characters.</p>
<p>Fans themselves have attempted to quantify the <a href="http://melannen.dreamwidth.org/77558.html">demographic diversity</a> of readers and writers, with over 10,000 participants taking part in one particular <a href="http://centrumlumina.tumblr.com/post/63208278796/ao3-census-masterpost">survey</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Game of Thrones fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimikaweb/12853163133/in/photolist-bxMryU-bqTTFk-wEeej6-pPfZG3-cARMRA-caNZGo-kzPzRY-kzMtU2-kzMPAV-9Vir2x-iYaAZT-fk6UMe">MiMiKa Z/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Situated within such a demographic, fanfiction becomes a unique space within which a much more fluid approach to ideas of what is “possible” or “realistic” is encouraged. </p>
<p>As a result, fanfiction faces the same criticism as many genres where <a href="https://theconversation.com/sorry-kids-men-are-better-writers-than-women-34348">women</a> predominate, from <a href="https://theconversation.com/bodice-rippers-and-bad-education-do-romance-novels-lead-to-sexual-mistakes-2283">romance novels</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/telling-the-real-story-diversity-in-young-adult-literature-46268">young adult literature</a>. Sarah Rees Brennan, a fanfiction writer who went “pro”, <a href="http://sarahreesbrennan.tumblr.com/post/77926940735/ok-dont-get-me-wrong-because-its-just">writes about her experiences</a> in this context. </p>
<p>Those fans not engaged in fanfiction sometimes <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/sherlock-fanfic-caitlin-moran/">mock</a> fanfiction writers for being “delusional”, questioning the “realism” of the relationships featured in fanworks. Additionally, since a lot of fanfiction is explicitly erotic, it becomes the target of <a href="http://flavorwire.com/380348/the-most-hilariously-disturbing-band-fanfiction-youll-ever-read">parody</a>. </p>
<p>The sheer volume and variable quality of fanfiction makes it an even easier target. Instead, I’d argue that the uneven quality of fanfiction reflects the low barrier of entry to the community rather than an inherent lack of value in the genre.</p>
<h2>What are examples of the pitfalls?</h2>
<p>This is not to say that the potential for subversion is always expressed unproblematically.</p>
<p>While transgressive in some ways, fanfiction writers and readers remain enmeshed within social power hierarchies. These communities <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/diversity-in-fanfic/">do engage in self-critique</a>, but issues of sexism and racism still persist. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coffee Prince fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/48652201@N06/5589672419/in/photolist-9vWwSp-wUZ1uX-4kn3Up-fPzHRX-hobpyC-i73nMh-bH9D8F-dNZ1Uw-ieMyLc-epzSs9-wCmZGh-ibDReg-ieMBz9-uYDJZ7-goYCy-N5BL-f1XMYQ-dGgFPq-hoaM6t-55bWJD-drY8L1-eX6n7w-dyauYM-kdiq5a-nBAtzJ-ew9of7-ffdsF3-f8rVfY-6xauhX-gcvkvn-bjJzF1-feAgow-6PxGnk-2nEkS-dmqVJq-dCzYoB-51mtG8-ddMNZm-vVELg4-vDb8sv-wCkQMo-vRtY6m-mXtoQQ-erndpA-ejqMzf-fPFPre-abhs3C-ejk5Gx-ejqLUY-nBAcY1">Liz Mogollon/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most English language fanfiction, whether it involves straight or queer relationships, remains concerned with white characters.</p>
<p>This is partly a reflection of the racial biases that still plague the production of the (mostly US) popular films and television shows that form the basis of these communities.</p>
<p>However, it is a worrying trend that even when non-white characters have significant roles in a canonical work, fanfiction very often fails to register this – or worse, undercuts it.</p>
<p>In Marvel Cinematic Universe fanfiction, characters of colour receive significantly less attention than their white counterparts. Clearly, interracial pairings (red) receive far less attention.</p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/p0pOa/2/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>It is not surprising that <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Captain_America">Steve Rogers (Captain America)</a> and <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Winter_Soldier">Bucky Barnes’ (Winter Soldier)</a> close canon relationship has prompted a great deal of fanfiction, but the difference concerning the number of stories about <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Falcon">Sam Wilson’s (Falcon)</a> pivotal relationship with Rogers is startling. The fact that there is more fanfiction for Rogers and <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Darcy_Lewis">Darcy Lewis</a>, characters who have never met in canon, is further proof of this imbalance.</p>
<p>Although <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Hawkeye">Clint Barton (Hawkeye)</a> and <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Phil_Coulson">Phillip Coulson</a> barely interact in the films, they have prompted a very significant output of fanworks. <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Iron_Man">Tony Stark’s (Iron Man)</a> close friend <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/War_Machine">James Rhodes (War Machine)</a> is paired with him rarely whereas there are many stories featuring Stark alongside Rogers, <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Pepper_Potts">Pepper Potts</a> and <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Hulk">Bruce Banner (The Hulk)</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, while fanfiction based around non-US media like Bollywood films, anime or K-pop doesn’t have the same problems regarding race and ethnicity, it still must negotiate its own cultural prejudices.</p>
<h2>Disrupting the canon</h2>
<p>As Alexis Lothian, Kristina Busse and Robin Anne Reid <a href="http://queergeektheory.org/docs/Lothian_QFS.pdf">conclude</a>, fanfiction provides a fluid space for (mainly) queer women writers and readers to engage with the various pop cultural narratives that influence their lives.</p>
<p>These negotiations, while messy and problematic, retain the potential to (re)fashion the “canon” to be inclusive of a broader range of human experiences.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hunger Games fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jade_lilly/8267232152/in/photolist-dAxJ6o-84cjzq-6K69Bk-4HXWuW-9yQaka-wEeej6-7YsygX-88qXsb-9D8Rfu-kzPzBu-aaLEbG-63eamZ-6DDz52-5LTVh1-8NCedK-j7hftv-dCL1Wi-5WF7rn-bQknrB-db39s4-nw1ssy-zKDkk-nfX3r7-kzMFKr-ddTcpM-kzMywr-aDAEgd-aDAEfy-kzMdv6-8yBGKw-fteLMX-CtXxR-4vnGgp-eaZ5V3-eAFTh1-dKDLrV-79bw31-eaTvNX-eaZ7wS-eaZ5MC-dwZXq9-6oX5ro-6oSVXH-6oX4Xm-5Vaurd-eaTuec-7YVQSR-nhHmwM-659DCc-7YZ1tU">Jade Lilly/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rukmini Pande does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fanfiction is nebulous, confusing and often mocked. It’s also explosively popular. So what is it?Rukmini Pande, PhD researcher in the fields of Popular Culture and Postcolonialism, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/449822015-08-16T20:25:55Z2015-08-16T20:25:55ZAnxious addict or conscious cowboy? A new view on illegal downloading<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91273/original/image-20150810-11077-lr6nqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New research shows that not all illegal downloaders are created equally. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lee Nachtigal</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Beginning about 20 years ago, the internet placed almost the entirety of human creation in an unguarded window display and said, in effect, help yourself.</p>
<p>The public, presented with an amazing smorgasboard of content, plunged right in.</p>
<p>Ever since, the “content” industries have been running to catch up. They’ve invented rights management systems, experimented with pricing models, created new media windows and, when these haven’t worked, lobbied governments to sanction the free-for-all.</p>
<p>They’ve also pitched into the online infringers – people downloading but not paying for content – calling them pirates and their actions piracy, words freighted with centuries of social disapproval.</p>
<p>The pirates have returned fire, casting the content owners as cigar-chomping moguls, extorting the public.</p>
<p>It’s a very black-and-white dialogue, and not very helpful.</p>
<h2>Taking a step back</h2>
<p>So how should content creators relate to audiences in the digital age? Is it business as usual or has the relationship changed in fundamental ways?</p>
<p><a href="http://screenfutures.org.au">ScreenFutures</a>, a group of established and emerging screen producers (including the authors of this article), makes the case that digital platforms enable a new kind of conversation between creators and audiences, less freighted and more interactive.</p>
<p>In this new conversation, audiences are no longer “couch potatoes” but fans – interested, opinionated, and involved with creators in the act of constructing the social meaning of the work.</p>
<p>Through crowdfunding services such as <a href="http://www.pozible.com">Pozible</a> audiences can help bring the work to fruition and even help distribute it through services such as <a href="https://www.tugg.com">Tugg</a> (which allows people to “book” movies into their local cinema by popular demand).</p>
<p>For creators whose first contact with audiences used to be standing at the back of a cinema and watching the punters file out, this is heady stuff. </p>
<p>They find themselves engaging with audiences much earlier and more fully than was conceivable even 10 years ago. Communication is the key.</p>
<p>So how should they regard fans who don’t or won’t pay? </p>
<h2>ScreenFutures research findings</h2>
<p>Earlier this year the ScreenFutures group commissioned a study by independent media researcher SARA. </p>
<p>The study surveyed nearly 1700 people aged 16-75 years and found that about 33% watched movies and TV shows illegally downloaded from the internet.</p>
<p>The researchers then surveyed more than 900 “direct pirates”, people who acknowledged they had personally downloaded content illegally – probing their attitudes and reasons for downloading.</p>
<p>The results showed there were many different motivations. Among “direct pirates” the chief attraction was that “it’s free” (20%). Others said they didn’t want to wait for legal releases (18%), or the shows they wanted weren’t legally available in Australia (16%). </p>
<p>Still others said they pirated because it was quick and easy (16%), while 10% said legal shows were too expensive.</p>
<p>These findings correlate with <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/departmental-news/new-online-copyright-infringement-research-released">research recently reported by the Department of Communications</a>, which measured illegal downloading in Australia and compared it with the UK (and yes, Australians are bigger downloaders). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91269/original/image-20150810-11091-zg5v1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91269/original/image-20150810-11091-zg5v1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91269/original/image-20150810-11091-zg5v1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91269/original/image-20150810-11091-zg5v1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91269/original/image-20150810-11091-zg5v1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91269/original/image-20150810-11091-zg5v1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91269/original/image-20150810-11091-zg5v1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91269/original/image-20150810-11091-zg5v1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Luca Rossato</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The standout finding</h2>
<p>But the standout finding in the ScreenFutures study was that attitudes to illegal downloading among people who do it are very ambivalent.</p>
<p>Only one-in-five were unambiguously and defiantly in favour of piracy: the study dubbed these the Outraged Outlaws. </p>
<p>They were not worried about the legality or ethics of pirating, nor its effects on content creators. The only thing that might moderate their behaviour, they reported, was fines or other forms of punishment.</p>
<p>The next category was the Conscious Cowboys. These were people who acknowledged the questionable ethics and illegality of their behaviour but felt they were forced into it by the problems of access and pricing.</p>
<p>Their would modify their behaviour, they said, if the content they wanted were more readily available. They might also reconsider their behaviour in response to ads or educational campaigns.</p>
<p>Nearly a third (31%) of respondents fell into this category.</p>
<p>The third category was the Anxious Addicts, roughly a quarter (24%) of respondents. These people said they loved content and felt guilty about downloading it without paying. </p>
<p>They also worried about fines and acknowledged the arguments of anti-piracy campaigners – especially the damage to industry.</p>
<p>Finally, there were the Nervous Newcomers (19%). New to piracy, apprehensive, doing it mainly because other people were, they were very sensitive to the arguments and open to changing their behaviour.</p>
<p>In short, four out of five people who download illegally have doubts about it, feel nervous or guilty, or sense they may be doing the wrong thing.</p>
<h2>Implications</h2>
<p>There is a conflict between creators and audiences over access to works but it is not deep nor is it intractable.</p>
<p>Except for a noisy minority – less than 10% of the overall population – audiences know they should be paying for content and feel bad about it when they don’t.</p>
<p>The data shows that people who download without paying are often genuine fans who readily pay for content at other times.</p>
<p>These facts need to be reflected in the way that we think and talk about piracy. It may be a form of theft but it is also a backhanded form of customer feedback. </p>
<p>What audiences are telling creators through their actions is that content delivery is too slow, too expensive and too complicated. </p>
<p>The content industries need to work at fixing these problems. But equally they need to begin a conversation with audiences, explaining the problems and what they are doing about them.</p>
<p>They also need to understand the different audience segments and respond to them appropriately — not tar them all with the same black-and-white piracy brush.</p>
<p>Content creators in particular should take up this challenge. After all it’s their work, their livelihoods and their audiences. </p>
<p>The ScreenFutures research shows that people are listening.</p>
<p><em>ScreenFutures launched its report, Content You Love: reframing piracy for a sustainable creative industry, at the Australian Film Television & Radio School on August 13</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annie Parnell is affiliated with AACTA, Screenfutures</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chloe Rickard is affiliated with SPA.
Chloe is a founding member of ScreenFutures.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ester Harding is a founding member of ScreenFutures.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Drinkwater is CEO of Screen Audience Research Australia (SARA). He is a member of ScreenFutures.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bridget Callow-Wright and David Court do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Beginning about 20 years ago, the internet placed almost the entirety of human creation in an unguarded window display and said, in effect, help yourself. But that’s not to say all illegal downloaders are the same.David Court, Subject Leader, Screen Business, Australian Film, Television and Radio SchoolAnnie Parnell, Festival Manager & Film Producer, Australian Film, Television and Radio SchoolBridget Callow-Wright, Masters of Screen Business and Arts Student, Australian Film, Television and Radio SchoolChloe Rickard, Head of Production @ Jungleboys, Australian Film, Television and Radio SchoolEster Harding, Producer, Australian Film, Television and Radio SchoolPeter Drinkwater, CEO of Cowlick Entertainment Group, Film Grit and marketing research agencies Screen Audience Research Australia (SARA) and House of Brand, Australian Film, Television and Radio SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/433882015-06-21T20:19:52Z2015-06-21T20:19:52ZRape threats and cyberhate? Vote no to the new digital divide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85327/original/image-20150617-23343-1iknqs6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blogger and media critic Anita Sarkeesian in a Feminist Frequency video.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://feministfrequency.com/2012/01/30/lego-gender-part-1-lego-friends/">from www.feministfrequency.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/shortcodes/images-videos/articles-democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> with the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.</em></p>
<p><em>WARNING: This article contains graphic language of a violent sexual nature.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Have you noticed that variations on the phrase “as a woman online” are kick-starting more and more conversations in the cybersphere? A recent example involves the writer Alex Blank Millard. </p>
<p>Millard conducted a <a href="http://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/i-was-a-man-on-twitter?utm_source=huffpost_women&utm_medium=pubexchange">Twitter experiment</a> in which she changed her profile photo to that of a man. When Millard tweeted as a woman about rape culture, fat shaming and systemic oppression, the standard response was a deluge of rape and death threats, and a bunch of guys calling her fat. When she tweeted about these exact same things as a straight-looking white man, something incredible happened. Instead of cyberhate, she got retweeted and favourited.</p>
<p>As a woman on the internet, Millard’s tweets resulted in abuse. As a man, they sparked debate.</p>
<p>The phrase “as a woman online” reflects the fact that engaging on the internet has become a very different experience for women as opposed to men. I have certainly noticed that if you express an opinion on pretty much anything, odds are it is just a matter of time before a horde of furious man-trolls tell you that you’re too fat/ugly/gay to rape/maim/kill, but they’ll do it anyway because that’s just the kind of generous individuals they are.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"600636784557608960"}"></div></p>
<p>Gendered cyberhate is not a private problem but a public crisis. Among other ramifications, it poses a challenge for digital citizenship and raises serious questions about how we do democracy in the digital century.</p>
<h2>Feminism, democracy and the digital divide</h2>
<p>The traditional feminist critique of democracy is that – as per George Orwell’s Animal Farm – on paper all genders may be equal, but in practice some are more equal than others. While universal suffrage is a good start, it’s simply not the end of the story with regards to equity of citizenship and political participation. </p>
<p>Political theorist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_Pateman">Carole Pateman</a> begins <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Vlq73L-2T2oC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=For+feminists+democracy+has+never+existed&source=bl&ots=ul6eqnJfS6&sig=qr6qpUsEbQa5dmbDPq5nfffJjuM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAWoVChMI4vjzuPiVxgIV4eKmCh2uYAA6#v=onepage&q=For%20feminists%20democracy%20has%20never%20existed&f=false">Feminism and Democracy</a> with the wry observation that feminists could dispose of this subject extremely briskly.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For feminists, democracy has never existed; women have never been and still are not admitted as full and equal members and citizens in any country known as a “democracy”. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pateman’s point here is that confining “the political” to voting obscures many economic and social inequities. A parallel scenario emerges when we look at issues of equity and citizenship in digital domains. While everyone in a given community may have the raw tools to access the internet – let’s call it the computer version of universal suffrage – people’s actual experiences are not the same.</p>
<p>Gender, class and race are all key markers of difference and inequality in terms of digital citizenship. For many women, this manifests in a stark choice: put up with the deluge of misogynist abuse, withdraw from the internet or find ways of e-engagement that don’t attract attention – like tweeting in drag. </p>
<p>Around this point in the conversation, sceptics often chime in with some variation on “surely it is not that bad”. I have also been called a princess and told to lighten up. Rather than attempting to argue the point in the abstract, my usual response is to suggest they check out some unexpurgated examples. </p>
<h2>But first, an adult content warning…</h2>
<p>One of the big dilemmas when attempting to speak of gendered cyberhate is that so much of it is metaphorically unspeakable. It is often referred to via generic descriptors such as “unpleasant”, “sexually explicit”, “in bad taste” and so on. My concern is that euphemisms do an exceptionally poor job of capturing the toxic nature of what has become a lingua franca in much of the cybersphere. </p>
<p>Compare the difference between the following two sentences:</p>
<p>One: Women online are receiving rape threats.</p>
<p>Two: Women online are receiving rape threats <a href="http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/11/10/but-how-do-you-know-its-sexist-the-mencallmethings-round-up/">such as</a>, “I will fuck your ass to death you filthy fucking whore. Your only worth on this planet is as a warm hole to stick my cock in.”</p>
<p>Call me old-fashioned but version one really doesn’t capture the je ne sais misogyny of version two. To really understand what it’s like to be a woman online in 2015 we must examine actual examples of gendered cyberhate regardless of how unpleasant the experience might be. </p>
<p>So let’s brace ourselves and have a look.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85305/original/image-20150617-12987-mal1rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85305/original/image-20150617-12987-mal1rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85305/original/image-20150617-12987-mal1rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85305/original/image-20150617-12987-mal1rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85305/original/image-20150617-12987-mal1rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85305/original/image-20150617-12987-mal1rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85305/original/image-20150617-12987-mal1rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">GTFO the video game.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">@GTFOthemovie/Twitter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A good place to start is the experience of women in video-game culture. This is the subject of a <a href="http://gtfothemovie.com/">new documentary</a>, GTFO, by Shannon Sun-Higginson. The title stands for “Get The F— Out” and refers to the response many women receive when they participate in the $20 billion gaming industry. This is despite – or maybe because of – half of all gamers being women. </p>
<p>None of this is new. Women in the technology and gaming industries have historically been subjected to an especially noxious version of what I call <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2012.741073">e-bile</a>, or online vitriol. </p>
<p>In 2007, for instance, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/12/4693710/the-end-of-kindness-weev-and-the-cult-of-the-angry-young-man">Kathy Sierra</a>, then one of the most visible women in computing, withdrew from public life after a campaign of harassment. This included the circulation of doctored images of her as a sexually mutilated corpse accompanied by posts <a href="http://www.salon.com/2007/03/31/sierra/">such as</a> “fuck off you boring slut … i hope someone slits your throat and cums down your gob”.</p>
<p>Five years later, feminist blogger and gamer <a href="http://feministfrequency.com/about/">Anita Sarkeesian</a> was targeted after launching a <a href="http://feministfrequency.com/about/">crowd-funding campaign</a> for a series of short films examining sexist stereotypes in video games. Her efforts to expose new media misogyny prompted a <a href="http://feministfrequency.com/2012/07/01/image-based-harassment-and-visual-misogyny/">cyber mob attack</a> that included the usual deluge of ultra-violent “rape rape” and “kill kill” communiqués, plus a dash of “Jew Jew” hate speech for good measure. </p>
<p>The rampant discrimination and sexism in gaming came to the fore again in 2014 thanks to that misogynist-fuelled storm dubbed <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only-guide-to-gamergate-you-will-ever-need-to-read/">Gamergate</a>. Gamergate began when the disgruntled ex-boyfriend of a games designer called Zoe Quinn implied (baselessly) that Quinn had slept with a journalist to secure positive reviews for her game Depression Quest.</p>
<p>Quinn’s attackers used two common e-bile tactics: </p>
<p>1) <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/12/zoe-quinn-gamergate-online-hate-mobs-depression-quest">“doxxing”</a>: publishing personally identifying information to incite internet antagonists to hunt targets in offline domains; and</p>
<p>2) <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/zoe-quinn-on-gamergate-its-not-about-ethical-journalism-its-glorified-revenge-porn-by-my-angry-ex-9829176.html">“revenge porn”</a>: uploading sexually explicit material – usually of a former female partner – without the consent of the pictured subject. </p>
<p>As Gamergate unfolded, both Quinn and Sarkeesian cancelled their public speaking engagements. They left their homes after receiving graphic death threats that included their home addresses. </p>
<p>Female journalists and gamers who publicly defended Quinn and/or who questioned the Gamergate movement were also attacked. In October, for instance, the personal details of American game designer Brianna Wu were posted online. Within minutes she had begun receiving threats such as: “I’ve got a K-bar and I’m coming to your house so I can shove it up your ugly cunt”.</p>
<p>Wu also left her home because she feared for her safety. This was not, she <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/17/brianna-wu-gamergate-human-cost">observed</a> “just casual sexism, it’s angry, violent sexism”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85302/original/image-20150617-18876-tn4uct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85302/original/image-20150617-18876-tn4uct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85302/original/image-20150617-18876-tn4uct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85302/original/image-20150617-18876-tn4uct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85302/original/image-20150617-18876-tn4uct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85302/original/image-20150617-18876-tn4uct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85302/original/image-20150617-18876-tn4uct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85302/original/image-20150617-18876-tn4uct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Results from the 2013 Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’s ‘Effects of Revenge Porn’ Survey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from http://www.endrevengeporn.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Signal characteristics of e-bile</h2>
<p>Four striking features of gendered e-bile can be observed by looking at these examples. </p>
<p>First, e-bile spikes in response to feminist activism and perceived feminist gains.</p>
<p>Second, attempts by women to “call out” online attacks or to support other targets tend to result in an escalation of abuse. </p>
<p>Third, gendered e-bile has a quasi-algebraic quality in that the names of the targets can be substituted infinitely without affecting in any way the structure of the discourse. It always sounds like the exact <a href="http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/11/10/but-how-do-you-know-its-sexist-the-mencallmethings-round-up/">same man talking to the exact same woman</a>. </p>
<p>Fourth, attacks online are more and more frequently moving offline, to the extent that it’s not possible to separate online and offline anymore. This often occurs via the aforementioned practices of doxxing and revenge porn. </p>
<p>Media outlets have also <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/i-live-in-fear-of-anyone-coming-to-my-door/2013/07/14/26c11442-e359-11e2-aef3-339619eab080_story.html">reported an increase</a> in the number of men publishing faux advertisements claiming their ex-partners are soliciting sex. One US man posted a Craigslist ad entitled “Rape Me and My Daughters”. He was sentenced to <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/12/4693710/the-end-of-kindness-weev-and-the-cult-of-the-angry-young-man">85 years in prison</a> after more than 50 men arrived at his ex-wife’s home. </p>
<p>In addition to these attempts at <a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-02-03/news/bs-ed-internet-sexual-assaults-20140203_1_victim-prince-george-jilted-lover">rape by proxy</a>, online abuse has been linked to <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/domestic-violence-online-abuse-half-uk-survivors-experience-trolling-tidal-wave-hate-1438420">offline domestic violence</a> against women. The significance of such studies is not just that violent partners and ex-partners are using the internet as another dimension of their abuse of women, but that violent partners and ex-partners are able to use the internet to incite others to join their attacks. </p>
<h2>Déjà vu</h2>
<p>As with rape, domestic violence and workplace sexual harassment in the 1960s, gendered e-bile is frequently trivialised, mocked, dismissed as a personal matter and framed as legally intractable. In her <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368293">new book</a>, American legal scholar Danielle Keats Citron provides a meticulous survey of the various ways gendered cyberhate, cyber-harassment and cyber-stalking is underplayed, overlooked or ignored by those responsible for law enforcement, policy development and platform management. </p>
<p>Also paralleling more “traditional” forms of sexual assault and harassment is the tendency to blame the female victims. Media commentator Brendan O’Neill <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100115868/the-campaign-to-stamp-out-misogyny-online-echoes-victorian-efforts-to-protect-women-from-coarse-language/">has dismissed</a> female targets as being “peculiarly sensitive”, while another <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/stop-taking-twitter-death-threats-seriously/16895#.VYEEmvmqqko">accuses</a> those complaining about online death threats of indulging in “narcissistic victimhood”. Law-enforcement officers are known to counsel female cyberhate targets to simply “take a break” from the cybersphere. </p>
<p>Such attitudes shift the responsibility for e-bile to targets. What’s more, they penalise women by advising them to withdraw from a domain that is widely acknowledged as being an integral – and essential – part of contemporary life and citizenship.</p>
<p>The cybersphere in 2015 is no longer an optional extra or adjunct to “real” life. As American technology journalist Nilay Patel <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/25/5431382/the-internet-is-fucked">puts it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You don’t do things “on the internet”, you just do things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a woman online, I certainly reject the <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/stop-taking-twitter-death-threats-seriously/16895#.VYEFdvmqqko">suggestion</a> that complaining about gendered e-bile is akin to “jumping into a dustbin and then complaining that you’re covered in rubbish”. I don’t accept that the price of entry to the public cybersphere should include having to endure threats of death, rape, K-barring and so on.</p>
<p>After all, the whole point of it being public is that you don’t tell half the population to GTFO. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Acknowledgement: Many thanks to Nikki Stevens for alerting me to the prevalence of “as a woman online”.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://emmajane.info/">Emma A. Jane</a> is recruiting interviewees for a new, three-year, government-funded <a href="http://www.cyberhateproject.unsw.edu.au">study into gendered cyberhate</a>. If you have experienced rape threats or other hostility online and would like to participate, visit: <a href="http://www.cyberhateproject.unsw.edu.au">cyberhateproject</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma A. Jane is currently receiving funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) under the Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) scheme. </span></em></p>Cyberhate would deny women their full democratic rights as citizens, yet this is trivialised and dismissed – just as sexual violence, discrimination and workplace harassment have been for decades.Emma A. Jane, Senior Lecturer in Media, Journalism and Communication, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/417682015-05-15T01:18:24Z2015-05-15T01:18:24ZWant a radical counter-terrorism strategy? Let’s strengthen trust<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81620/original/image-20150514-28583-1rl7hqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=155%2C239%2C2248%2C1578&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Governments need to focus their counter-terrorism strategies on strengthening community relations and trust.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">. ..</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite significant budgetary constraints, the Australian government announced in Tuesday’s budget that <a href="http://www.budget.gov.au/2015-16/content/highlights/nationalsecurity.html">it will invest</a> a further A$450 million in counter-terrorism strategies. </p>
<p>The arrest of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/20/australian-terror-plot-uk-police-arrest-14-year-old-boy-in-blackburn">several young Australians</a>, who were allegedly planning attacks on Anzac Day and Mothers’ Day, seems to have convinced most Australians that these expensive counter-terrorism measures are essential for national security. </p>
<p>A public expenditure of around A$1.2 billion a year, we <a href="http://www.budget.gov.au/2015-16/content/overview/html/overview-18.htm">are told</a>, is justified in order to prevent the sorts of terror attacks that have been perpetrated in Boston, Sydney, Paris and Copenhagen.</p>
<p>In order to thwart domestic terror attacks, therefore, the vast majority of this money will will be devoted to military deployment in Iraq, and funding for intelligence, surveillance, policing systems and information programs at home.</p>
<p>Various aspects of these counter-terrorism strategies and programs have been questioned by <a href="http://www.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/inslm/14%20-%20Australian%20Lawyers%20for%20Human%20Rights.pdf">civil rights lawyers</a> and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/citizens-not-suspects-getup-and-electronic-frontiers-australia-launch-campaign-against-mandatory-data-retention-20140812-1032x4.html">activists</a>, particularly in terms of data retention and journalistic freedom. </p>
<p>Questions have also been raised about the actual cost-benefit and effectiveness of many security measures, particularly around airport and aviation security. <a href="https://www.hsaj.org/articles/43">According to</a> Professor Mark Stewart, full passenger body scans are expensive, time-consuming and of marginal security value, while hardened cockpit doors are of optimal cost-benefit.</p>
<p>There’s a reason for the “catch-all” approach of such measures. The cost of close surveillance of a single individual who may be at risk of committing a terrorist act is estimated at around <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/jihadist-watch-to-cost-8m-a-suspect/story-e6frg8yo-1227017233690">A$8 million</a> per year. </p>
<p>If security agencies were to conduct close scrutiny of the 200 individuals most likely to commit a terror act in Australia, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/jihadist-watch-to-cost-8m-a-suspect/story-e6frg8yo-1227017233690">the bill </a>would be well over A$1.5 billion. </p>
<p>If the net were to widen far enough to include people such as Man Monis, a middle-aged Iranian refugee, who was <a href="https://www.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/170215_Martin_Place_Siege_Review_1.pdf">not regarded</a> as a high security risk ahead of perpetrating Sydney’s Martin Place siege earlier this year, then the cost would incalculable.</p>
<p>For that reason, if nothing else, western governments are investing in early intervention counter-radicalisation programs. The Australian government, specifically, is <a href="http://apo.org.au/research/review-programs-counter-narratives-violent-extremism">investing in programs</a> that will generate and distribute “counter-narratives” which will be designed to halt the allure and propaganda of ISIS, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and other Islamist terror groups.</p>
<p>While there are few details about these programs, it is most likely that they will be structured around advertising and social marketing models which target youth audiences.</p>
<p>The problem here, of course, is that the individuals who may be susceptible to the influence of radical and militant Islam are an extremely diverse group. The terrorist profiling which has been produced by security psychologists bears little resemblance to a group which includes Man Monis, <a href="https://theconversation.com/apocalyptic-erotica-now-the-allure-of-islamic-state-online-38782">Jake Bilardi</a> (a bright but disturbed adolescent convert to Islam), the <a href="https://theconversation.com/boston-bombings-were-the-tsarnaev-brothers-driven-by-motives-other-than-the-chechen-conflict-13647">Chechen Tsarnaev</a> brothers who attacked the Boston marathon, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-jihadism-appeals-to-religiously-illiterate-loners-36106">Kouachi</a> brothers - second-generation Algerian migrants who attacked Charlie Hebdo.</p>
<p>This diversity is further confounded by the sorry story of young Australian women – such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/17/body-of-australian-woman-killed-in-syria-unlikely-to-be-repatriated">Amira Karroum</a> – who become radicalised as much through love and desire, as through religious devotion.</p>
<p>In fact, we cannot even say that these radicalised individuals are unquestionably devout, uneducated or poor, making any kind of conventional mass-media program unlikely to connect with a given target audience.</p>
<p>A focus on social media might have greater traction, particularly if designers are able to tag their counter-narratives to militant groups’ websites and Twitter feeds. Unfortunately, and as overseas experience has demonstrated, these sites and feeds are chameleon-like, changing their character, title and URLs as they are constantly closed down by site managers and security agencies.</p>
<p>Moreover, users and followers are themselves extremely adept at moving with the messages and creating their own support networks which continually escape scrutiny. The western adolescents, who have become increasingly wooed by the ISIS imagery and ideas, have appeared to enjoy the cat-and-mouse game as they explore and exploit the limits of public and government authority.</p>
<p>Thus, while security agencies and social marketers may lumber around the internet in search of susceptible adolescents, their target audiences have already moved on.</p>
<p>The greater problem, in fact, is the very nature of the radical Islamist appeal to young western Muslims. ISIS, in particular, has conjured a heroic and ultra-masculinist imagining. This imagining shapes their attack on western global domination into a dark and erotic politics of the body.</p>
<p>The potency of their appeal to receptive adolescents is extremely difficult for state authorities to understand, let alone counter. Paradoxically, this is partly because ISIS has enlisted much of the violent erotica which is a feature of western media culture – a fact the west simply won’t acknowledge. </p>
<p>Rather, western governments deny the parallel, invoking the rationalism and authority which they claim to be their point of difference and enmity. </p>
<p>This denial also affects the ways in which the Australian government is approaching the problem of radicalisation. While paying lip service to the idea of community engagement, there has been far less serious investment in this approach as a primary counter-terrorism strategy. </p>
<p>In particular, there has been far too little attention paid to the nature of adolescence and the ways in which ISIS and others conjure themselves in the imaginary of young people.</p>
<p>This is particularly important as these adolescents seek to consolidate themselves and their identity through their emerging adulthood. These growing pains are especially potent in a modern western world that fetishises freedom and choice as markers of adulthood and sexual maturity.</p>
<p>The internet opens those choices to even broader scales of possibility, including the possibility of self-realisation in radical ideas and an erotic violence which is inscribed by mortal risk.</p>
<p>ISIS provides adolescents and young adults with an identity that heroises this mortal risk. Like drug use, drag-racing or street violence, this heroic aggression proves an irresistible choice for some.</p>
<p>To this end, parents and family remain the critical factor for managing adolescents and their choices. If community engagement means anything, it is surely that there needs to be strong interaction and trust between families, religious bodies, education institutions and government agencies.</p>
<p>It seems essential that parents create a family culture in which young people feel safe enough to discuss their perturbations, politics, ideas and feelings. Where parents sense the radical or militant disaffection of their adolescents, there needs to be a safe space in which they can trust public authorities and systems to provide genuine support and assistance. </p>
<p>This needs to take place before the disaffection becomes amplified as criminal action.</p>
<p>Sadly, this trust is continually strained as security agencies seem to prefer arrest to negotiated family engagement and crime prevention. This is despite the quite simple fact that many adolescents drift away from radicalisation far more often than it evolves as militant action.</p>
<p>In short, governments need to focus their counter-terrorism strategies on strengthening community relations and trust. This is far more than simply controlling the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/police-examine-hate-speech/story-e6frg6nf-1226702443114">hate speech</a> of rogue Imams. </p>
<p>It’s about addressing the complexities of culture and encouraging a whole-of-society approach to managing our tensions and uncertainties.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeff Lewis receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
</span></em></p>Despite significant budgetary constraints, the government announced in Tuesday’s budget that a further A$450 million in counter-terrorism strategies. But something significant is lacking in its approach.Jeff Lewis, Professor of Media and Cultural Politics, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/387802015-03-18T01:14:54Z2015-03-18T01:14:54ZAre you afraid of technology? You shouldn’t be<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75047/original/image-20150317-13671-1pyw3mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many people fear technology, and have great reservations about kids using smartphones and computers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/62337512@N00/3601525070/in/photolist-6ox3Gt-9CjBEt-cVAeFq-eFTweg-qSxuUL-pXQoTQ-6ufKVQ-qniJxt-hzKjWZ-7KPY3o-dugknG-dugusA-dvUKVG-pKxEzD-hLXH8U-dvEGts-9ahvdS-2S6hee-dsKiEn-4ZYQZM-naWx8w-6EsL28-7yTwSm-cxtJaq-cJRmLL-gcDHaa-5vArmA-mkFFdx-prF4ao-b4VTiz-cqrjdh-cswyyf-92XodD-cnp3z9-nRHc4Y-cswyr3-csGJsQ-mWA3ss-5ydn3F-kq4zo6-ackPQ8-dPaWL4-nCm5k-kZYVTi-BwZpG-53F4fx-6cS3TE-ry43F-7AeCkd-4ZvfXo">Anthony Kelly/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nary a week goes by that doesn’t see a new mainstream media story on the dangers of technology use. Just the other day I spotted one talking about how <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/why-your-smartphone-is-making-you-dumber/story-fn6vihic-1227260085141">smartphones are making us dumber</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215001272">original study</a> cited in the news story is actually more about how mobile phones help us to be more intuitive than analytical, and stop us from “overthinking”. But it’s particularly interesting that this study, like many others, gets framed up as a “fear of technology”.</p>
<p>It makes me wonder why many people appear to be so afraid of technology? To answer this question, we need to consider motivations, and perhaps even look at where this argument tends to appear the most, which is in reference to children and education.</p>
<h2>Think of the children</h2>
<p>The ABC caused <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/children-learn-the-abc-of-twitter/story-e6frfro0-1226448686016">some controversy</a> in the mainstream media a couple of years ago when an episode of Play School showed a presenter using a toy computer to send e-mails and a toy smartphone to “tweet” his friends.</p>
<p>The ABC said at the time its intention was to promote items that have now become a part of everyday life. But what is of particular interest is the responses to the episode that express a fear of technology. </p>
<p>For instance, comments on the above-linked article were predominantly negative, with two out of three commenters believing that children shouldn’t be exposed to email and social networking.</p>
<p>I saw a similar phenomenon in 2012 with <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/to-tweet-or-not-to-tweet/story-fn6ck51p-1226244826436">a story</a> by The Courier Mail on research on Twitter in the classroom <a href="http://www.proceedings.com.au/isana/2012.html">that I conducted with my colleague Jeremy Novak from Southern Cross University</a>. The Courier Mail also conducted a survey alongside the story that asked readers “should students be able to tweet questions to teachers in class?”. More than 3,000 people responded to the survey, with more than 90% voting in the negative.</p>
<p>As educators, we see this position from teachers every day. For example, <a href="https://prezi.com/6kycmq7fiq25/icte-uq-inservice-pd/">data from Paul Forster</a> at the University of Queensland notes that more than 40% of teachers he sampled felt “put out” when seeing a mobile phone in their classroom. In fact, Paul said that anecdotal evidence suggested that the most common approach for many staff was to ban mobile phone usage in their classroom, rather than encourage it.</p>
<p>As an educational technologist, I find this type of public reaction to the uptake of technology astounding. Technology is now an integral part of our daily lives. As such, society should not vilify technology, but embrace it as an essential part of life in the information age.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75144/original/image-20150318-2142-2rntsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75144/original/image-20150318-2142-2rntsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75144/original/image-20150318-2142-2rntsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75144/original/image-20150318-2142-2rntsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75144/original/image-20150318-2142-2rntsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75144/original/image-20150318-2142-2rntsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75144/original/image-20150318-2142-2rntsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75144/original/image-20150318-2142-2rntsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children are often fascinated by technology. That’s not necessarily such a bad thing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rahego/5509227208/in/photolist-9oQej1-7WDRJE-8saSzM-7z26e1-dawCCx-7RuUYh-9RYyDm-fDroG2-bR4HfT-8eG7p2-dzvC1Y-bMtoTk-7S3Z9z-888WyG-bC9Qvj-87pvpZ-hQVuQX-819Mx2-86gixi-7T3Yq9-7RrE24-7zCVaE-81Ryga-7RrE6p-9UiHV1-7S7Scw-7Pq2gw-8utK8v-a7Dzg7-898cDd-7zWz8q-bJRoAr-atHwcM-7RuVrQ-9dgRxT-89J1wm-dYPPLV-7TRHJ2-dWKYRS-9sK9yH-7RpM4Q-7z6TyM-9djXEG-mMo7Qe-7XyHAF-9kQG8J-dSAG34-e8H2NE-9pPdsu-8fWHDW">Raúl Hernández González/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Anxiety about the phone in our pocket</h2>
<p>In spite of this, Australian Bureau of Statistics data show that there are almost as <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/8153.0%7EDecember+2012%7EChapter%7EMobile+handset+subscribers?OpenDocument">many active mobile phones in Australia</a> – 17.4 million, as of December 2012 – than <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/3235.0%7E2012%7EMain+Features%7EMain+Features?OpenDocument#PARALINK3">people to operate them</a> – 18.4 million adults aged 15 and above as at June 2012.</p>
<p>The ABS also reports that in 2009, [76% of 12–14 year olds owned a mobile phone](http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/1370.0~2010~Chapter~Children%20and%20mobile%20phones%20(4.8.5.3.2). So it would appear that although almost every adult in Australia has a mobile phone, and three-quarters of children also have one, many people (including teachers) are reluctant for kids to learn about this technology, or use it in the classroom.</p>
<p>Why is this? The answer may involve the culture surrounding technology. It’s been long-documented that the various generations have differing attitudes to technology. And it’s becoming apparent that the typical Generation X’er – a “<a href="http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf">digital immigrant</a>” – not only worries about how to use the technology, but doesn’t necessarily see the benefit of having the technology in the first place. </p>
<h2>Horses for courses means technology for kids</h2>
<p>Henry Ford is (often misquoted) as saying: “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.” And perhaps this is also true of technology in the classroom. While our “digital native” students embrace the technology, maybe our “digital immigrant” teachers continue to search for “a better horse”, all the while ignoring the technology that is already in every student’s pocket or backpack.</p>
<p>So, how do we overcome this? Our research is ongoing in this area, but it would appear that what is needed is a cultural change. Rather than standing up and telling teachers to embed technology into their classroom, we should be working harder to get teachers to embed technology into their everyday lives. </p>
<p>If a teacher learns to use a tablet while they sit on the couch at home, or read tweets on their smartphone on the way to work, they will then start to understand how the technology works. It will then become a part of their culture and they’ll be more likely to want it in their classroom.</p>
<p>Until we can reverse this fear or technology, we can expect to see many more negative comments about children and technology, and how your smartphone is making you dumber. People tend to fear change, and there is a great fear of technology in our generational culture that needs to be conquered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Cowling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many people fear technology is making us dumber, and they have great reservations about children using smartphones or computers. But technology ought to be embraced, particularly by kids.Michael Cowling, Senior Lecturer & Discipline Leader, Mobile Computing & Applications, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/377232015-02-23T12:41:00Z2015-02-23T12:41:00ZThere need not be a digital dark age – how to save our data for the future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72774/original/image-20150223-32232-1o2h8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C104%2C2048%2C1143&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Floppies: storage that's about as reliable as a CD used as a frisbee.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/orangejack/2225888887">orangejack</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“The internet is forever.” So goes a saying regarding the impossibility of removing material – <a href="https://theconversation.com/misogyny-wins-with-hacking-of-intimate-celebrity-pictures-but-you-can-choose-not-to-look-31210">such as stolen photographs</a> – permanently from the web. Yet paradoxically the vast and growing digital sphere faces enormous losses. Google has been criticised for failing to ensure access to its archive of Usenet newsgroup postings that stretch back to the early 1980s. And now internet pioneer Vint Cerf has warned of a “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/google-boss-warns-forgotten-century-email-photos-vint-cerf">digital dark age</a>” that would result if decades of data – emails, photographs, website postings – becoming lost or un-readable.</p>
<p>Millions of paper records more than 500 years old exist today. But your entire family photo collection could be lost forever with just a single hard drive failure. Stone tablets, parchment, paper, printed photographs have all lasted through the centuries. But some of our data may not. What do we do about preserving the digital deluge? </p>
<h2>Cost v value</h2>
<p>Technical solutions already exist, but they’re not well known and relatively expensive. How much are we prepared to pay to ensure that digital stuff today is usable in the future? Because if there’s cost involved, inevitably we have to think about what has value that makes it worth keeping.</p>
<p>How can we calculate that value? As an example, the holdings of the <a href="http://data-archive.ac.uk/">UK Data Archive</a> include machine-readable versions of all of the <a href="http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=4518.">General Household Surveys</a> (GHS) carried out between 1971 and 2011. This was a continuous national survey of people living in private households conducted on an annual basis. The cost of the GHS in 2001 was <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200001/ldhansrd/vo010503/text/10503w01.htm">reported</a> as £1.43m, making the value of the survey and its data at least that. As it was the thirtieth year of this survey the value could be said to be higher as it was part of a series, so we could say they survey was worth more than it cost.</p>
<p>The Office for National Statistics transferred the 2001 data to the UK Data Archive in 2002, where we prepared them for preservation and access and published them. Up until today this survey data has been downloaded by 426 people working in government departments, 759 staff working in education, 1,331 students and 109 others for various uses. So benefits accrue from making the data available even after its creators have exhausted their primary value – re-use is a significant benefit from preserving data and adds value.</p>
<p>But there are also cultural and intellectual and not just economic arguments for preserving data. Survey data like these and their supplementary materials provide a window to the concerns of survey designers and, by extension, society at the time. True, cultural arguments for preservation can be expressed more forcefully for artefacts such as images, films, or written works than survey data. But these data stand a good chance of being included within Britain’s cultural and intellectual heritage precisely because they have been carefully managed and preserved.</p>
<h2>Making digital as long-lasting as paper</h2>
<p>How can we improve the chances of something being preserved? Professor <a href="http://www.history.ac.uk/about/michael-clanchy">Michael Clanchy</a>, writing in his seminal <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Memory-Written-Record-England-1066-1307/dp/0631168575">From Memory to Written Record</a>, discusses how the concept of records developed. Owing to the media available to scribes in the Middle Ages they made conscious choices between creating an ephemeral document (on a wax tablet) or a permanent record (on parchment). Today digital media proliferates mainly because it provides the easiest means to transmit a work, and so that distinction has to a point disappeared. </p>
<p>Documents and records are now both digital, but the question remains as to what should be kept for posterity and why. These are hard questions which lead to hard choices, because by their nature the cost of preserving digital materials can be much more expensive than their analogue counterparts. You can’t just put them in a box and walk away – the effort and tools required to read a 100-year-old letter is considerably less than the effort required to read a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2008/dec/11/locoscript">30-year-old LocoScript</a> popular on Amstrad computers in the 1980s-90s.</p>
<p>Most born-digital material is, with the right resources, recoverable. However, the chances of born-digital material being usable in, say, 100 years is considerably improved by actively taking steps to ensure that it will – just as medieval scribes made similar decisions in centuries past. Effective digital preservation relies, to some extent, on the activities of the creator as well as the archivist. Today those decisions include providing context, using standard and <a href="http://opendatahandbook.org/en/appendices/file-formats.html">open file formats,</a> organising material sensibly, and making provision for rights issues to avoid the problem of <a href="http://copyrightuser.org/topics/orphan-works/">orphan works</a>.</p>
<h2>The future starts now</h2>
<p>Organisations can do a better job than individuals, but require a business model and a mandate to do so. Asking someone to pay for something a long time before its value can be realised (if at all) is not an attractive business proposition. What we can do, at a minimum, is <a href="http://www.dpconline.org">try and convince people that it is possible</a>. </p>
<p>Of course neither creator nor archivist can fully understand how future users may approach digital information preserved over time. Social and cultural historians have, by necessity, used records for purposes for which they were not created and often in inventive and interesting ways. Historians are often helped by context, and the digital material we’re creating today needs the same contextual information to ensure its usefulness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37723/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Woollard receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>“The internet is forever.” So goes a saying regarding the impossibility of removing material – such as stolen photographs – permanently from the web. Yet paradoxically the vast and growing digital sphere…Matthew Woollard, Professor and Director, UK Data Archive and UK Data Service, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/358942015-01-21T03:44:02Z2015-01-21T03:44:02ZOnline infringement hurts: interviews with Australian creators<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69080/original/image-20150115-3038-8lnbmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian creators understand that digital distribution is changing their industries – but they're still materially affected by copyright infringement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/MONA</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Music is no longer a treasured experience between artist and audience, people want easy consumption and access – Australian musician/ songwriter.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Australian creators have been severely affected both financially and creatively by the widespread use of digital distribution models. For my research, I conducted interviews with a variety of creators in late 2014 about their attitudes to copyright and digital distribution. (The quoted material in this article is taken from those interviews.) </p>
<p>What I found was that while creators have been prepared to engage with various new models of distribution, such as Spotify and Flickr, they still encounter widespread unauthorised digital copying of their material.</p>
<p>The “safe harbour” regime – a compromise solution introduced in the US to limit the financial liability of online service providers for the illegal postings of their users – resulted in the development of the notice and take-down model of content management. </p>
<p>This “post first and ask questions later” model facilitated the massive growth of the businesses such as YouTube. In turn, this fostered the emergence of remix culture and globally distributed user-generated content. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Artists invest a lot of time and money to deliver a product for consumers to enjoy, but receive no money because consumers feel entitled – Australian songwriter/ music artist.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One issue for copyright owners is the blurring of consumptive uses of copyright material – such as watching a movie or listening to an album – and genuinely creative re-uses of material, such as creating a parody. Much of the current debate surrounding copyright assumes that any and all remixes are good and should be permitted on the basis of creativity. </p>
<p>In turn, this appears to have resulted in an overall downgrading of consumer attitudes to the value of creative works. </p>
<p>Nor does the argument that <em>any</em> use of digital distribution models should give <em>carte blanche</em> to free-range infringement make any sense (see for example, Mark Pesce’s argument <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-12/pesce-studios-take-sharing-hypocrisy-to-the-mad-max/5963340">here</a>. These arguments disregard the thousands of hours that are required to create even small (but valuable) elements of such works (for example, five-and-a-half months for <a href="http://www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/tech/behind-the-incredible-kitchen-scene-from-x-men-days-of-future-past-20141014-288286/">90 brilliant seconds </a> in X-Men Days of Future Past.</p>
<p>The second issue of relevance to this debate is the question of who – if anyone – should be responsible for protecting rights against illegal online uses of copyright material?</p>
<p>In 2014, the Australian Government put forward a series of proposals for public comment aimed at combating online piracy. These included: <br></p>
<ul>
<li>Expanding the scope of the authorisation liability provisions of the Copyright Act<br></li>
<li>Making it easier for copyright owners to obtain injunctive relief to block overseas web sites hosting infringing material <br></li>
<li>Extending the operation of the “safe harbour” scheme.</li>
</ul>
<p>These proposals attracted considerable controversy. In late 2014 the government adopted a modified approach with the announcement that ISPs and rightsholders had a period of 120 days to co-operate in the development of a Code of Conduct detailing how ISPs would deal with repeat infringing downloaders, to be registered with ACMA. </p>
<p>This is in accord with the government’s expressed preference for a “market based” solution to the issue. A mechanism will also be developed to facilitate the granting of injunctions requiring ISPs to block access to overseas websites that host infringing material, such as The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>In the interviews I conducted, creators also acknowledged that in many cases, illegal downloads did not equate directly to lost sales. Illegal downloading may create new audiences and lead to sales of associated merchandise, touring revenue and the like, but those alternative income streams have their limits.</p>
<p>Some musicians are limited in their <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/isps-should-police-web-pirates-tina-arena-20141127-11uhbu.html">ability to tour</a>, and successful tours are <a href="https://medium.com/@jackconte/pomplamoose-2014-tour-profits-67435851ba37">no guarantee</a>) of financial success. Further, the copying of certain content, such as a photograph or a movie, can effectively destroy the value of that content. One veteran photojournalist reported 42,000 unauthorised uses of a single image, many for commercial purposes.</p>
<p>Most creators had also tried various alternative distribution models, such as making free songs available, providing additional or exclusive content or making content available for a period of time. Several had also adopted completely new approaches to their creative works. One author now deliberately produces shorter works, rather than one blockbuster every couple of years. </p>
<p>None of the creators were in favour of suing the end user, and most were against imposing obligations on the ISPs as mere conduits (although several high-profile musos have <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/isps-should-police-web-pirates-tina-arena-20141127-11uhbu.html">supported ISP liability</a>). All were keen to highlight the need to educate consumers that infringement was not in fact a victimless act. The general consensus was that the government (or an independent body) should be invested with the power to investigate and prevent digital piracy.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some music will not be made because creators cannot afford to make a living – Australian producer.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What became very clear from the interviews was that our Australian creative people are under financial pressure. </p>
<p>This is affecting their capacity to create. Many have to supplement their creative work, such as songwriting, with other jobs, such as teaching. While many joked that even if they didn’t receive any money they would still go on creating, those who had been in the industry longest made it clear that significant personal investment was required to do so. </p>
<p>The question we have to ask is, do we want to foster an Australian creative industry and provide a fair reward to those who work in the industry – or are we prepared to sacrifice our culture for cheap downloads?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa de Zwart received funding from the Australian Copyright Council to undertake a project on online copyright infringement.</span></em></p>Music is no longer a treasured experience between artist and audience, people want easy consumption and access – Australian musician/ songwriter. Australian creators have been severely affected both financially…Melissa de Zwart, Professor, Adelaide Law School, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/349592014-12-10T19:33:19Z2014-12-10T19:33:19ZIs Kurt Coleman the future of Australian screen storytelling?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66793/original/image-20141209-32152-1bzyr13.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Critics looking to make sense of Australian screen culture might do well to leave the cinemas and check out YouTube.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Instagram</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Weirdness is one of the most distinctive features of Aussie cinema. From Jim Sharman’s kooky debut feature <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069262/">Shirley Thompson Versus The Aliens</a> (1972) to the sublime spookiness of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073540/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Picnic at Hanging Rock</a> (1975), from Jane Campion’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098725/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Sweetie</a> (1989) to 1990s crowdpleasers like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110598/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Muriel’s Wedding</a> (1994), our films have often marched to a defiantly offbeat drum.</p>
<p>But recently, our cinema has lost its unabashed eccentricity. In its place is a dreary aesthetic, as film-maker Paul Fenech <a href="http://dailyreview.crikey.com.au/how-to-save-the-film-industry-ask-a-working-class-man/16313">describes it</a> – perhaps the result of too many directors trying to make <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/why-wont-we-watch-australian-films-20141024-11bhia.html">statement movies</a>. </p>
<p>When they aren’t being bleak, Australian films often exhibit what director Bruce LaBruce calls “<a href="http://www.natbrut.com/essay-notes-on-campanti-camp-by-bruce-labruce.html">bad straight camp</a>”: the sort of forced exuberance seen in Tropfest shorts or many of our feature-length comedies.</p>
<p>Partly as a result, Australian cinema has experienced one of its <a href="http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/australian-cinema-is-heading-for-one-of-its-worst-performances-in-more-than-35-years/story-e6frfmvr-1227074904582">worst box office performances in over three decades</a>. Recently, there’s been lots of debate about how to overcome this dire situation – even a plea from Margaret Pomeranz to introduce a form of cinematic protectionism, whereby our critics refrain from “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/australian-films-deserve-more-than-cruel-critics-killing-their-chance-at-the-box-office-20141010-113jy5.html">recklessly</a>” pointing out the major flaws in our movies. Others say the problem isn’t <a href="https://theconversation.com/zombie-metrics-why-australian-cinema-just-wont-stay-dead-34808">as bad as it seems</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, however, Aussie screen storytelling is healthier than ever on online platforms like YouTube and Facebook, where it’s gaining huge domestic and international audiences. And while the video quality might be low, and the stars didn’t go to NIDA, these works are often more creatively daring and engaging than conventional cinema.</p>
<p>The volume of digital media being produced is diverse and difficult to categorise (and – fair warning – some of it is definitely not safe for work).</p>
<p>There’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/HowToBasic">How To Basic</a>, which is what an instructional video channel might look like if it was co-produced by Marcel Duchamp and David Cronenberg. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q2UWe4RBFgs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How to Knit. How to Basic.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s Fadia Abboud’s web series <a href="http://iluvubut.tv/">I Luv U But</a>, a bedroom farce about an Arab-Australian lesbian and a gay man living in a sham marriage. </p>
<p>There’s wildly popular <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijgfBwq_vkM&list=UUKHi7M_11VJmLZSq4WNHSkg">comedy vlogs</a>, off-the-wall <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1J_rhquvs&list=UUcKPvm68ygkjFND0QgJqXMA">video art</a>, and weird remixes of pop culture like Mr Doodleburger’s infamous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrUzniIGRus">dubs of Home and Away</a>. </p>
<p>Then there’s viral sensations like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmL72sgVdAQ">Train Station</a> and Nick Boshier’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RjC-vh06_c">Trent from Punchy</a> character (both of which reflect an enduring fascination with, and fear of, Australia’s underclass).</p>
<p>Even weirder are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmedia_storytelling">transmedia</a> projects which involve “content creators” – as they are somewhat unglamorously known – producing material on multiple platforms simultaneously. For example, the storyworld of the indomitable <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/CherylynBarnes">Cherylyn Barnes</a>, who purports to be Jimmy Barnes’s cousin, has been painstakingly constructed across hundreds of YouTube videos, Facebook posts, tweets and Instagram photos. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QtQZ8VnV79M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Welcome to the world of Cherylyn Barnes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And then there are the “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/3775110/Micro-celebrity_and_the_Branded_Self">microcelebrities</a>” who also deploy content across multiple platforms, but whose creative product is themselves. The most notable of these is Gold Coast teenager <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kurt.coleman">Kurt Coleman</a> (main image), whose Instagram and Facebook streams depict him posing for innumerable selfies, taunting his many haters, and holding forth on the perils of spray tan and the importance of self-love. </p>
<p>His wryly camp – or, perhaps, entirely serious – posts on life in the social media age attract more fans than many of our multi-million dollar, taxpayer-supported films.</p>
<p>Of course, this new type of storytelling differs in fundamental ways from cinema or TV. For a start, much of it closely resembles – or is indistinguishable from – the quotidian, autobiographical content that many of us produce every day on social media as part of constructing our online identities. </p>
<p>Another difference is that often this digital content doesn’t employ a conventional storytelling structure with a beginning, middle and end. New media theorist Lev Manovich has <a href="http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2012/10/data-stream-database-timeline-new.html">noted this tendency</a>, suggesting that in the internet age, linear narratives are becoming less dominant. Rather, we choose from a diverse selection of videos on a YouTube channel arranged in no particular order, or else get our content delivered in a time-ordered stream on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eTFCFThbwbo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Remember Muriel’s Wedding?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Is this new kind of storytelling a good thing or a bad thing? Some worry that it represents a major dumbing down of our culture – not least because these new forms of expression are driven by a desire to get ahead in the fast-paced <a href="http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/marginal-utility/fragments-on-microcelebrity/">“attention economy”</a> of the web, where our worth is determined by how many <a href="http://computationalculture.net/article/what-do-metrics-want">likes and shares</a> we get.</p>
<p>Yet while it’s right to question how much the algorithms of tech companies like Google and Facebook are affecting our cultural output, this doesn’t seem like a good reason for dismissing that culture out of hand. Especially since social media is the main tool that young people have for commenting on the conditions of the social media ecosystems they live in.</p>
<p>Regardless, these works are continuing to build large audiences – and that hasn’t escaped the notice of the industry’s big institutional players. YouTube comedy troupe The Janoskians has signed to Sony, while ABC and SBS are embracing web comedy through schemes like <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/freshblood/">Fresh Blood</a> and <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/article/2014/07/22/sbs-comedy-runway-winners">Comedy Runway</a>. </p>
<p>Screen Australia is starting to invest in multiplatform works, including the second season of I Luv U But, and has backed a scheme to support YouTube content creators <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2014/mr_140319_skipahead.aspx">in collaboration with Google</a>.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen if Australian critics are prepared to accept digital content as a legitimate part of our nation’s screen culture, but I think there’s good reason to. Often it is noticeably more diverse – culturally, sexually and stylistically – than our cinema. </p>
<p>This could be where the uncanny tradition in Australian culture is finding a new home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34959/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Rodley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Weirdness is one of the most distinctive features of Aussie cinema. From Jim Sharman’s kooky debut feature Shirley Thompson Versus The Aliens (1972) to the sublime spookiness of Picnic at Hanging Rock…Chris Rodley, PhD candidate in Digital Cultures, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.