Mediated Interfaces: The Body on Social Media

Description

Images of faces, bodies, selves and digital subjectivities abound on new media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, and others–these images represent our new way of being online and of becoming socially mediated. Although researchers are examining digital embodiment, digital representations, and visual vernaculars as a mode of identity performance and management online, there exists no cohesive collection that compiles all these contemporary philosophies into one reader for use in graduate level classrooms or for scholars studying the field. The rationale for this book is to produce a scholarly fulcrum that pulls together scholars from disparate fields of inquiry in the humanities doing work on the common theme of the socially mediated body. The chapters in Mediated Interfaces: The Body on Social Media represent a diverse list of contributors in terms of author representation, inclusivity of theoretical frameworks of analysis, and geographic reach of empirical work. Divided into three sections representing three dominant paradigms on the socially mediated body: representation, presentation, and embodiment, the book provides classic, creative, and contemporary reworkings of these paradigms. Cover Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction to Mediated Interfaces: The Body in Social Media Katie Warfield, Carolina Cambre, and Crystal Abidin An Anecdote (or how not to title a book) Origin of the book Focus of book Contributors and politics of the book On the becoming of the body Each part and summaries of chapters 1. The body mediated 2. The body politicized 3. The body felt Conclusion References Part 1 The body mediated Introduction 1 ‘Find love in Canada’: Distributed selves, abstraction, and the problem of privacy and autonomy Vincent Miller Abstraction and the separation of information from people Informaticization Commodification Depersonalization, dividuals, and data Decontextualization: Big data Dematerialization The self, data, and autonomy Extension and distributed selves Conclusion Notes References 2 Embodied verification: Linking identities and bodies on NSFW Reddit Emily van der Nagel Identity documents: Linking a person with identifying information Twitter and Weibo: Linking an account with identity documents Embodied verification on Reddit Gonewild: Linking an account with a body Reconnecting, and playing with, the virtual and the material Conclusion References 3 #ILYSM*: Instagram as fan practice Hattie Liew Introduction Method Fan practices on Instagram Self-presentation on social media Communicating status: The anatomy of a fan Instagram account Drawing borders: Games on Instagram Documenting my fandom: Instagram as archive Conclusion References 4 Ethan’s Golden YouTube Play Button: The evolution of a child influencer Maha Abdul Ghani and Carolina Cambre Introduction Children’s engagement with the commercial world Advocates of children agency and empowerment The celebrification and commodification of children on social media Ethan: The child vlogger, gamer, and influencer Analysis of Ethan Channels as a figuration Ethan Channels as a figuration The dimensions of the figuration Relevance-frames Actor-constellations Communicative practices Datafication and social knowledge Conclusion Notes References Part 2 The body politicized Introduction 5 Performing visibility: Representing the Palestinian Freedom Riders through non-violent protest and visual activism Gary Bratchford The Freedom Riders The limitations of seeing and the pitfalls of representation The context Circulating images: Freedom rides and multiple witnesses Acts of exposure and concealment Notes References 6 #WhoNeedsFeminism? Mapping leaky, networked affective feminist resistance Jessica Ringrose and Kaitlynn Mendes Introduction Leaky and creepy social media: Theorizing and researching networked feminist affectivisms Tumblr as a ‘safe space’ for feminist activism? #WhoNeedsFeminism?: A discursive, material, and affective analysis The transferring of a platform vernacular: Mediating an institutional ecosystem Conclusions Notes References 7 ‘Smart is the nü (boshi) sexy’: How China’s PhD women are fighting stereotypes using social media Jing Zeng Introduction Smart is the new sexy? Smart was always sexy! Freedom to not love Counter-strike of nü boshi Nü boshi broadcasters Conclusion References 8 Online ajumma: Self-presentations of contemporary elderly women via digital media in Korea Jungyoun Moon and Crystal Abidin Introduction An economic history of ajumma ‘Digital ppal-let-ter’ as ajumma’s communal spaces Media portrayals of ajumma Online ajummas Momjjang ajumma Park Mak-rye Hal-meo-nee Conclusion References Part 3 The body felt Introduction 9 Naked and unafraid: Nudity in reclaiming witchcraft rituals Emma Quilty Introduction Background to this study Methodology #witchynipples Ritual nudity in witchcraft Nudity in mixed-gender spaces Performing the sacred Carnivals of cultural madness Witchy carnivals Conclusion References 10 ‘It’s like a rush of “man” feeling’: Analysing sexuality and felt-sense in men’s digital media communications Kathleen A. Hare Sexual sensations Collective meaning-making Sexual sensations and language Pulling threads Analysing threads Describing threads Thread 1: Bluelight.org Thread 2: Partyvibe.org Thread 3: Grasscity.com Cross-thread 1: Gendered sexuality ideologies and bodies Cross thread 2: The highest power Cross thread 3: What is unspeakable … Wrapping up Notes References 11 Agential hysterias: A practice approach to embodiment on social media Katrin Tiidenberg, Ane Kathrine Gammelby, and Lea Muldtofte Olsen Introduction Hegemonic articulations of bodies Slut Size Hypochondriac Be(com)ing body with the internet The dialectics of socially mediated embodiment Conclusion Notes References 12 Picture me naked: Embodying images on and off screen Tobias Boll Introduction Bodies on display(s) Camming: Visualizing bodies and embodying images in real-time Getting the body on screen Losing connection, losing touch Showing the belly Sexting: Temporary embodiments of transsituational images Taking (yet) a(nother) dick pic This is (was) me, then (and now) Conclusion: Body images, embodying images,mediated bodies Notes References Index