Author: Julia Andén

Online battle against online violence against women and girls

Bullying, harassments and threats are no new phenomenon. But the degree to which these are directed towards girls and women have made civil society and academia raise awareness about it.

Forms of online harassment can vary widely, from name-calling and trolling to stalking and shaming to outright sexual and death threats. Women harassed online are many times expected to either ignore or feel flattered in response to the harassments. Continue reading “Online battle against online violence against women and girls”

Technological development from its’ darkest side – online child abuse

This is not a pleasant subject to discuss, but I aim to do so in solidarity to all children over the world who suffered or in this moment is a victim of commercial sexual exploitation online. The question is if we have gone too far in the technological development to ever be able to eradicate this atrocious criminality? This post is a simply reminder that ICTs are not inherently good.

I probably do not even need to mention how information and communication technologies (ICT’s) and social media have impregnated modern life. As I discussed  my first and second posts, ICT’s has an enormous potential to cultivate solidarity and digital activism. Unfortunately social movements and activists are not the only ones taking advantage of Internets’ potential for connection and sharing. Continue reading “Technological development from its’ darkest side – online child abuse”

How sociology can help us to create stronger online dialogue

I consider New Media to mainly be about connection and connecting people and information, but lately I have thought about the circumstances and felt the need to investigate how it allows us or not as activist to work collectively and with courage.

As a student I’m always interested in interdisciplinary investigations and my favourite discipline to involve in my communication studies is sociology. This connection between new media and sociology might not seem obvious at first glance, but during this research I have found more and more academic and journalistic writing on how we engage as humans through social media, both as individuals and in collective.
Continue reading “How sociology can help us to create stronger online dialogue”

Is new media activism an illusion of new solidarity?

New Media generates opportunities for people to share and exchange experiences, discuss ideas and opinions, learn languages etcetera in a new pace and through new tools. So what is the potential of this new media when used for development and social change?

As we have mentioned in the introduction post, many of us think of social media when we talk about new media activism, which is adequate as social media on a societal level creates exceptional opportunities for information flow, emotional expression, and social influence or advocacy (Lewis et al, 2014:1). For me, the deduction of this is solidarity.

A unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a  common interest; mutual support within a group. Continue reading “Is new media activism an illusion of new solidarity?”