Mediated Youth Culutres

I meant to post this at the end of May when this was first released, but better late than never! The special issue of Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies that I have been working on with my supervisor, Andy Bennett, is now online. This issue brings together 13 articles that make visible an international and cross-disciplinary research agenda concerned with mediated youth cultures: 

Contents:

1. "‘Connect and create’: Young people, YouTube and Graffiti communities" by Ben Light, Marie Griffiths & Siân Lincoln
2. "The pedagogy of regret: Facebook, binge drinking and young women" by Rebecca Brown and Melissa Gregg
3. "‘Individuality is everything’: ‘autonomous’ femininity in MySpace mottos and self-descriptions" by Amy Shields Dobson
4. "Leaving MySpace, joining Facebook: ‘Growing up’ on social network sites" by Brady Robards
5. "Female Pressure: A translocal feminist youth-oriented cultural network" by Rosa Reitsamer
6. "From Punks to Post-Hipsters: Exploring Subcultural Models Of A Youth Net-Radio Hierarchy" by Andrea Baker
7. "To Write Love through the indie imaginary: The narrative argument of a mediated movement" by Ryan M. Milner
8. "The Outlaws of Psytrance in the Time of the Vibe-Tribes" by Graham St John
9. "Breaking expectations: Imagined affinities in mediated youth cultures" by Mary Fogarty
10. "Sexting, Consent and Young People’s Ethics: Beyond Megan’s Story" by Kath Albury and Kate Crawford
11. "The landscape of keitai shôsetsu: Mobile phones as a literary medium among Japanese youth" by Kyoung-hwa Yonnie Kim
12. "A Generational Thing? The Internet and New Forms of Social Intercourse" by Fredrik Miegel and Tobias Olsson
13. "Mediating culture in transnational spaces: An example of young people from refugee backgrounds" by Raelene Wilding

My co-editor, Andy Bennett and I would like to thank all of the above contributors for their work. We would also like to thank the many reviewers who provided valuable, constructive feedback on earlier versions of these articles. We hope you enjoy!

a 2011 retrospective

What a year! I'm coming to the end of my one year full-time contract at Griffith now (filling in for Dr B while she was on research leave) and I'm heading back in to life as a sessional while I finish off my PhD. It was a busy year with its ups and downs, where I tried to develop my profile in a few areas for the job hunt ahead.

In terms of teaching, I'm very happy with how all of my courses went in 2011. The teams involved in Youth & Society and Social Sciences in Australia did a fantastic job, and it was a pleasure working alongside my friends and colleagues: Adele, Bob, Chris, Raphael and Shanene. In Social Sciences in Aus, it was a great pleasure to use the new textbook 'Think Sociology', which I collaborated on with Dr B and a team of sociologists from around Australia. The smaller course Youth Culture and Subculture, which I delivered myself, was also a joy, and it was great to work with the third-years on their small-scale ehtnographies. This course is a tribute to Dr B's marvellous skills in designing an advanced course. It ran like a dream! In addition to positive anecdotal evidence and feedback from students, all our courses performed very well in their formal evaluations, ranking highly in comparison to other courses in the academic group.

Social Sciences in Aus team - Bob, myself, and Raphael (rent-a-fence not included)

My service in 2011 was dominated by my role as First Year Advisor to the School of Humanities, which was thoroughly enjoyable. From fielding timetabling questions before matriculation at the beginning of my contract through to helping students heading in to their second year with selecting majors right up until Christmas, it has been a very busy and rewarding role. I'm proud of the retention strategies we've implemented (with my colleague from Nathan campus, Wendy), along with the various steps we've taken to improve the first year experience in all three of our programs - the Bachelor of Communications, Bachelor of Journalism and the Bachelor of Arts.

I've met and built relationships with so many inspiring scholars over the past year, both nationally, at events like the Griffith Uni Cultural Research Postgraduate Symposium and the annual meeting of The Australian Sociological Association, and internationally, at my first Internet Researchers conference in Seattle, IR12.

Dr Erika in Seattle, with friendly cushion

New #ir12 buddies!

I'm very excited about progress made on two projects I'm working on with my supervisor Andy Bennett, the first being a special issue of Continuum on 'Mediated Youth Cultures' featuring thirteen thoroughly fascinating articles on topics including YouTube graffiti communities, MySpace mottos, youth net-radio, sexting, Japanese novels consumed on mobile phones, and transnational youth refugee networks. One of my own articles, titled "Leaving MySpace, joining Facebook: ‘Growing up’ on social network sites", will also be in the special issue. It has been such a pleasure working with Andy, the contributors and the external reviewers on this project. More on this when it is published hopefully in June. The other project is a book proposal for an edited collection on the same topic, again featuring an international assortment of fantastic scholarship, but the proposal is still under review so more on that front at a later date.

Anyway, this post is already a mile too long, but I shall end by saying that I've also made some solid progress on my thesis over what others call 'the break'. I've had a couple of things come out, and I've also got a couple of new journal articles in the pipes too, so I haven't had to sacrifice too much of 'my own' work/research given the above. In all, a productive year, I think!

doing nothing

Inspired by a 'sociological experiment' by Nathan Palmer at Georgia Southern University in the States, Raphael, Bob and I decided to do the same experiment with our first year sociology students today.

The experiment involves doing nothing for five minutes in a public place. No checking phones, no reading, no talking, no fidgeting, just looking around. The idea was to feel the pressure of the many norms that shape our everyday lives, and to highlight one of the most common performative folkways: doing something. Even when we're waiting for a bus or a flight or a class to start, we often busy ourselves with something, even if it's just leaning on a window and doing some people-watching. So what would it feel like to stand in a public place with a bunch of other people and do nothing for five minutes?

These aren't great pictures - didn't want to use any where students were obviously identifiable - but you get the idea. See Palmer's documented experiment for a much better record along with some student reactions and thoughts. 

Next year I might plan things a little better and make a small-scale learning and teaching project out of it. Too much on at the moment though! Still, it was a fun exercise, and it certainly produced some good conversations about norms, deviance and the invisible social forces that shape us. 

The reactions of the from the the other people sharing the space (non-participants) are worth a mention. Many already in the space were initially surprised and curious when we filed out and then froze. Some expected a flash mob, with a dance routine only moments away, while others just went silent and walked through us. Surprisingly, some actually joined us. That they stopped in their tracks and stood alongside us - even if for a moment - was a great examples of how a group of people can modify the norms of a social context. Sociology!

you have mail!

I got some nice things in the mail this week. A hard copy the journal Sociology which includes an article I wrote with my supervisor Andy Bennett, 'MyTribe: Postsubcultural manifestations of belonging on social network sites', and an advanced copy of the introductory sociology textbook I've been working on, Think Sociology, published by Pearson Australia. Progress!

young people, space and conventions

Have a look at this little champion (iTr3vor) letting loose in an Apple store to a bit of Gaga.

Aside from his moves, what I find most interesting here is how the other people in the space pay very little attention to him. Does his youth allow him to transgress the conventions of a social space like this? (Or, would he be asked to leave if he was a bit older?) Or is the Apple store itself imbued with a different kind of social convention that allows for this kind of disturbance? (If this performance took place in another shop, would it have been allowed?) Or is it that this performance is directed at a screen and thus (presumably) intended for an audience other than those physically present that this kind of disturbance is permitted and, in some ways, ignored?

CSAA 2010

A couple of weeks ago I was in Byron Bay at the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA) conference - 'A Scholarly Affair'. It was generally quite an enjoyable experience. The highlight for me was a plenary talk from Dr Katrina Schlunke who did an amazing job. I laughed, I cried. I tried to recall the specifics of her talk over dinner with some colleagues last week, but I failed miserably except to say something along the lines of "well there was this louse metaphor, and an observation that single beds are quite queer... and then she was fighting Engineers!" The resounding take home message was not to forget why we (people in cultural studies) do the things we do, and to go back to those motivations when we feel like giving it up or jumping ship. So, I'll leave it at that, because any further recollection wouldn't do it justice. Hopefully I can track down some reliable record of the talk

(Prof. Raewyn Connell - another wonderful talk)

Some other stand-out conference moments include a paper from Jenny Kennedy (Swinburne) who presented some really interesting and polished thinking, titled: 'Exploring social interactions in networked spaces'. I also enjoyed a paper from Daniel Marshall (Deakin) titled 'Life during wartime: sexuality, recruitment and reality television' where he explored the integration of Australian naval recruitment processes in the 'So You Think You Can Dance' television series. Penny Robinson (Sydney) also had some interesting things to say about how young Australian women engage with contemporary understandings of feminism mediated by popular culture in her paper '"I googled for feminism": creating a postfeminist methodology for cultural research'.

I missed a whole bunch of papers I would've liked to have seen, but you get that with concurrent sessions. It was also great to spend some time with many of my colleagues and friends from Griffith who were able to attend the conference given that it was just down the road.

I presented my paper titled 'Youth, identity and integrity on social network sites' which was a fairly casual kind of presentation where I discussed some of my findings more generally. I focussed on deploying my own data to resist Zuckerberg's singular model of identity and his insistence that privacy is dead. Good discussion, good suggestions. I was also delighted to contribute part of my argument from this paper to a special issue of a journal - the topic for another post!

Drop the "the". Just "Facebook". It's cleaner.

I went and saw the 'The Social Network' (2010) last night. It's a great film with a strong story-line and solid acting. I'm sure most of it is heavily dramatised, but the part I found most interesting was the deeper social and cultural sentiments the story points towards: we're such social creatures, even when we're bad at communicating with people and full of our own insecurities, which is how Zuckerberg is portrayed.

New technologies and new modes of engaging with eachother have always made this human condition seem more complex, from the advent of language (which probably took a bit longer than six years to hit 500 million adopters) through to the internet. Facebook does articulate, formalise and record these social interactions though, which is pretty awkward. We're definitely still getting used to that.

I'd thoroughly recommend seeing it!

Also, this:

K.C.: Seven different people spammed me the same link. 

KC's Friend: What is it? 

K.C.: I don't know, but I'm really hoping it's cats that look like Hitler 'cause I can never get enough of that. 

Creative Communities 2: Day 2 & 3

The final two days of CC2 were as inspiring as the first. Mary Fogarty kicked us off on Wednesday, day 2, with a very accessible and thoughtful keynote on her doctoral research concerned with breaking. Mary brought together much of the thinking from the previous day, suggesting 'extended families' in various youth cultures as useful mechanisms for inclusion and community.

Mary Fogarty, getting down low

thought bubble: humanities podcast

Let me introduce you to the work of Dr Ann Jones, who puts together a monthly podcast called 'Think Bubble'. Ann asks what is going on in the humanities in Australia, and each month she talks to researchers on her program. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. From issues of language and place through to research on new media, this podcast is a nice little bite-size way to be exposed to some research we might not otherwise hear much about.

I came across the podcast because Ann asked to interview me for the program, which I was more than happy to do. You can find that interview in the current episode. This will conclude the shameless self promotion for this evening. Thank you Ann!

happy monday

Even though I spent my last post whining about it, there are some benefits to an 8AM Monday lecture:

1. At 9AM, I'm finished teaching for the day!!
2. I've already had a cup of tea and have been awake for a while, so I'm fully operational while everyone else is is still sleeping or complaining about their Mondayitis. 

Victory! My to-do list for today consists of the following: mark third-year research proposals, clear email backlog, prepare teaching materials for Wednesday and finish book review. Given that I have the entire day at fully operational status, I think these things are doable. Either that, or I'll crash at 1PM and spend the afternoon nursing my newly developed Mondayitis. 

The review I'm working on at the moment is for a book called 'The Internet: An introduction to New Media' by Leila Green. I'll post some preliminary thoughts over the next few days!

Travel mug - not entirely sure why it's reciting Darth Vader quotes... #mondaymysterites!

posgraduate symposim

Following on from the success of our Postgraduate Symposium last year, we're repeating the event this year. Essentially it's a full day, funded event where postgrads can present whatever they're working on in a friendly and open environment. Last year we had a few first-time presenters which was great, and quite a few people used the platform to test out some ideas they were planning on presenting at a bigger conference.

Many thanks to the Griffith Centre for Cultural Research (GGRS) for funding, and to my fellow organising committee members for all their hard work: Anne Ferguson, Raphael Nowak, Shanene Ditton, Adele Pavlidis, Haya Cohen, Christopher Driver, Patrick Mitchell and Dr Sarah Baker (our academic rep.). Hopefully it'll be a great event! While it's only aimed at local (Griffith) postgrads at this stage, if anyone else would like to come along please let me know!

Call for Papers

‘Mediated: Identity, Subjectivity & Creativity’

‘In the case of identity, as in other cases, the catchword of modernity was creation; the catchword of postmodernity is recycling’ 

(Bauman 1996: 18).

The Griffith Centre for Cultural Research (GCCR) is hosting Griffith’s second annual Cultural Research RHD Symposium, organised by postgraduates for postgraduates. The full-day symposium will include multiple themed sessions where students will present papers-in-progress and a keynote presentation from Professor Graeme Turner, a leading figure in the development of cultural and media studies in Australia. Amongst other responsibilities, Graeme Turner is a professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies and is the President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

There is no cost associated with attending. We are inviting RHD students attached to the GCCR or the School of Humanities, along with invited external participants, to submit abstracts for consideration in the program. The event is also open to interested staff and students. The theme for the symposium will be ‘Mediated: Identity, Subjectivity & Creativity’. We are seeking papers on a wide range of topics from students in various disciplines: from sociologists to creative arts practitioners; from writers to historians. We seek to offer an open and inclusive academic space for emerging scholars to share and develop their work, contributing to a broader discussion on contemporary negotiations with subjectivity, identity and creativity.

Date:                  Thursday, November 4, 2010

Location:           Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus

Cost:                  Nil

Keynote:            Prof. Graeme Turner

Lunch:               Provided

Dinner:              At delegate’s expense

Abstracts are due September 24 and should not exceed 200 words.  Abstracts should be emailed to Brady Robards (b.robards@griffith.edu.au) in a standard .doc or PDF format.  Successful contributors will be notified via return email by October 8.  All staff and students interested in attending the symposium (open to Honours, Masters and PhD students) are invited to register their interest by September 24 with Brady at the above address.


[Link]

YOUTH 2010

Last week I returned from a one month trip to Europe, hence why I haven't written much for a while. Aside from visiting some good friends of mine, the reason for my trip was to attend a youth studies conference, run by the British Sociological Association (BSA) youth studies group. It was a three day conference (July 7 - 9), organised by Paul Hodkinson, Sian Lincoln and Rachel Brooks. It was a truly fantastic conference and I wanted to recount some of the highlights here.

YOUTH 2010

My paper, a trimmed down version of the article I recently had published called 'Randoms in my Bedroom' was quite early on in the conference which is always a bonus. I spoke about how the young people in my study deployed a coherent spectrum of 'Friending' practices in using their preferred social network sites (primarily Facebook with a smattering of MySpace) and how these practices translated to a kind of practical control over their perceived online spaces. The paper seemed to be well received with plenty of questions and people approaching me afterwards. I was also lucky enough to present my paper in the same session as two other youth studies scholars. First was Liam Berriman from Goldsmiths, who presented his research on Habbo Hotel, a virtual environment pitched at teenagers. Liam discussed how the environment is shaped and inhabited by young people through a model of co-constitution that accounts for users, producers and the space itself. The other presenter in my session was Paula Geldens from Swinburne, who discussed her research into 'Generation Y' discourse in Australia. My own work often claims to resist such discourses (including that implied 'digital native' one, and of course discourses that construct online sociality as inherently counterproductive or wasteful) so Paula's research is definitely something I'll be returning to.

Andy's keynote

There was one other session I attended that had clear intersections with new media/internet-studies, which I chaired, featuring the work of Melissa Avdeeff (Edinburgh) and Helen Davies. Melissa's work actually has some continuities with my own work. While her paper did focus on music and issues of taste, she also considered how social network sites operate as 'invisible' (natural, everyday) technologies of transmission: 'for these youths, the technology is invisible; they must negotiate relationships with each other, through the filter of technology'. Melissa also had some interesting observations on eclecticism, an area of her research I'm particularly keen to read more about in the future.

Although slightly off-track from my own research, there were some other really great papers from the conference. I won't recount them all here in any depth, but for my own memory: I really liked Mark McCormack's (Bath) paper on 'the erosion of homophobia and the softening of masculinity among the boys of an English sixth form' and Michael Whelan's paper on violence amongst young men in London. There was also a great panel of familiar faces titled 'when youth culture meets middle-age', including the work of our own Jodie Taylor on queer culture, the entertaining Mary Fogarty on b-boys/b-girls and the very inspiring work of Paul Hodkinson on ageing goth subcultures.

Left to right: Erik, Melissa, me, Jodie and Mary

Some other highlights included four really great plenary/keynote sessions from Rob MacDonald, our own Andy Bennett, Christine Griffin and finally Les Back. Very motivating stuff. All the 'socialising', networking, learning and preparing took it out of me I must say, but I did manage to sneak in a couple of weeks worth of extra-curricular activities in London and Paris before returning to Australia for classes this week. It's not everyday your University sends you to Europe!

randoms in my bedroom

My first for-reals publication in a for-reals academic journal. Many thanks to the wonderful editor of this special issue, Erika Pearson!

digital narratives

My first-years finished their first major piece of assessment this week. The task was to create a 'digital narrative' in groups that tells the story of transition to University. This is the third year I've taught this course, so I've seen quite a few of these now, but I still think it's a great assignment that the students seem to engage with. It gets them to think critically about why they're at Uni, but it also gives them a platform to contribute. Here are a couple of really creative ones that take pretty novel approaches. If you want to see more, just type 'Youth & Society Digital Narrative' into YouTube. 

And yes, lots of technical errors/timing issues in this one, but it's still neat! (Inner nerd bias?!)