#AoIR2024 Industry

Session Chair: Jessica Ringrose
 
Presentation 1
 
A Minimum Digital Living Standard For UK Households With Children
Simeon Yates⁽¹⁾, Katherine Hill⁽²⁾, Chloe Blackwell⁽²⁾, Emma Stone⁽³⁾, Abigail Davis⁽²⁾, Matt Padley⁽²⁾, Gianfranco Polizzi⁽¹⁾, Jeanette D'Arcy⁽¹⁾, Rebecca Harris⁽¹⁾, Elinor Carmi⁽⁴⁾, Alexander Singleton⁽¹⁾, Supriya Garikipati⁽⁵⁾, Paul Sheppard⁽⁶⁾, Zi Ye⁽¹⁾
1: University of Liverpool, United Kingdom; 2: University of Loughborough, United Kingdom; 3: Good Things Foundation, United Kingdom; 4: City University, United Kingdom; 5: University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland; 6: Critical Research, United Kingdom
 
"What is the minimum basket of digital goods, services, and skills households need to live and participate in the digital world?"
This paper presents the overall results of the ‘Minimum Digital Living Standard’ (MDLS) project which addresses this question using a novel household-based assessment of digital *needs*. The project:
- Drew on the Minimum Income Standard methodology to develop a definition of MDLS through four rounds of deliberative focus groups that established a ‘minimum basket of digital goods, services, and skills’ that households with dependent-age children need to be digitally included.
- A UK-wide national survey (n=1582 households) with statistical and geographic evaluations of MDLS to explore correspondence with other social, economic, cultural, and digital measures.
- Undertook multiple in-depth interviews and group consultations with stakeholders representing a variety of communities at risk of digital exclusion, to explore the relevance of the standard regarding key dimensions of lived experience and intersectionality, such as disability, ethnicity, rurality, and poverty.
- Involved ongoing engagement with government, regional, public and third-sector organisations to explore the use of MDLS as a tool to inform policy development.
Findings: 45% of UK households with children lack either the equipment and/or skills needed to meet the MDLS. That is 3.69M households with children. The key predictors of *not meeting* the MDLS are household deprivation, social class, household composition (single parent, and/or 2+ children), ethnicity, chronic health or disability, urbanity, unemployment, and receipt of benefits.
This UK nationwide project was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, Nominet and the Welsh Government.
 
 
Presentation 2
 
WhatsApp, diaspora youth and ‘digital brokerage’ in transnational family and community contexts
Amelia Faith Johns
University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia
 
The paper employs Worrell’s concept of “digital brokering” (Worrell, 2021) to argue, firstly, that diasporic youth play a key role in sustaining and maintaining transnational family connections, using their digital literacy skills to negotiate literacy barriers of older family members, and that WhatsApp is a key site for these negotiations. Secondly, the paper will offer insights into how these brokering activities were extended beyond the family to transnational community contexts, where examples of WhatsApp digital brokering ranged from: building and participating in transnational networks and movements, addressing COVID-19 misinformation and educating community about COVID-19 safety in cross-border digital campaigns. Finally, we argue that these digital brokering practices constitute novel practices of digital citizenship.
 
 
Presentation 3
 
DECOLONISING THE INTERNET: EXPERIENCES OF (CYBER)BULLYING AND DEVELOPING COLLECTIVE CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS FOR YOUTH OF AFRICAN DESCENT IN ATHENS
Kainaat Maqbool, Tsaliki Liza
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
 
This study explores the intricate convergence of Afrophobia and its projection through (Cyber)Bullying for youth of African descent in Greece. It aims to comprehensively document the critical intersectional narratives on the factorial reasons, underlying causes, potential online continuances, and their collective impact on youth growing up with Cyber(Bullying) Furthermore, the study acknowledges the perpetuation of racism through technology and experiments with the idea of _Collective Critical Consciousness_ and its application to transform the internet into a race-sensitive industry.
In an effort to overcome Euro-centric biases in scholarship, the study advances the concept of Critical Consciousness through the use of Creative Participatory Action Research. By involving those affected as Knowledge-holders, it collaboratively designs effective remedial measures and interventions, utilizing arts-based approaches. Thus, this study bridges the gap in racially sensitive, decolonial research on (Cyber)Bullying and its manifestations via the internet as an industry and results in the creation of a youth-directed *Anti-Bullying Collective*.
The output strives to advance knowledge and address real-world challenges by endeavouring to unravel the complexities of the multifaceted issues faced by the African descent youth in Greece and by actively involving the community in the creation of impactful interventions, thereby contributing to a more inclusive and informed societal framework.
 
 
Presentation 4
 
GENDER, INTIMACY, AND DIGITAL PRACTICES: INSIGHTS INTO ITALIAN TEENAGERS' EXPERIENCES
Francesca Comunello⁽¹⁾, Cosimo Marco Scarcelli⁽²⁾, Lorenza Parisi⁽³⁾, Vittoria Bernardini⁽²⁾
1: Sapienza University of Rome; 2: University of Padova; 3: Link Campus University
 
The relationship between digital practices, gender, and intimacy in teenagers’ everyday life is gaining growing attention. We can look at digital media as environments that offer young people agency and spaces where they can construct and perform their identity (boyd 2014) through bricolage practices (Willett 2008) and by experimenting with their own selves, also with regard to gender and intimacy (Ferreira 2021; Metcalfe & Llewellyn 2020; Scarcelli 2015; De Ridder 2017; Livingstone & Mason 2015). Studies have also devoted attention to communicative interactions (e.g.,“sexting”), investigating both the incorporation of and resistance to specific gender and sexual ideologies (Ringrose et al. 2013; Scarcelli 2020).
The aim of our paper is to analyse how Italian teenagers (aged 15-18) (re)define their understanding of gender and intimacy by engaging with digital media and incorporating it into their daily lives. In the first step of our research we are conducting six focus groups with students (15-18) from secondary schools in six cities located in three Italian regions. In the second step, we will carry out in depth semi-structured interviews with teenagers. The combination of these methods will allow to explore topics such as teenagers' digital practices in relation to performing gender identities and sexual orientation on different platforms; teens’ interaction with others in relation to intimate practices; the use of specific platforms for homosocial interaction; use of digital resources to seek information about gender; digital media representations. Results cover a wide set of digital practices, organised along three (interrelated) dimensions: gender, sexuality and intimate relationships.