Shouting from the rooftops : Queer digital storytelling for social impact

This chapter explores some of the practical and theoretical obstacles and opportunities for self-expression experienced by a group of Queer Dig- ital Storytellers who primarily make and distribute their stories online. “Queer” in this chapter encompasses a diverse range of gender and sexual identities and perspectives on same, including the heterosexual children of queer parents and heterosexual parents of queer children. As such it is also used as a unifying moniker by participants in the Rainbow Family Tree case study that is examined in this chapter. The Digital Storytellers in this case study are largely motivated by a desire to have an impact on social attitudes towards gender and sexuality, both in their personal province of friends and family, and in public domains constituted of unknown or invisible audiences. The privacy and publicity dilemmas that will be considered arise out of positioning personal stories in the public domain and the quandaries that emerge from an activist desire to speak truth to power that is located across a wide cross section of audiences.

Teaching porn

This article gives an account of my experiences as a student and teacher of pornography in the UK university context. From my time as a student at Glasgow University in the late 1970s, to my classes on sexual transgression at Strathclyde in the 2000s, I trace changing attitudes to the pornographic, against the background of changing political and technological environments. The article considers the pedagogy of porn against the backdrop of pro- and anti-porn feminism, the rise of gay rights, and the impact of the internet. Under these influences, and over a period of three decades, pornography was destigmatized and redefined in a variety of contexts, from the irony of lad culture to the postmodern humour of the Graham Norton Show and the pro-porn feminism of the post-Madonna era.

That Blackfella Bloodsucka Dance!

"That Blackfella Bloodsucka Dance!" A novel in which a part-blood Aboriginal Australian becomes a full-blood vampire (see the above pdf for the first 50 pages FREE!). Synopsis. In this bold and cheeky meditation on religion, middle-aged muscleman, uncertain Catholic and wanna-be academic Sterling de Bortoli is a self-described Octaroon: a one eighth Aboriginal Australian. Neither black nor white this part-blood Blackfella struggles with concepts of identity, moving between the two worlds but not really belonging to either. Thus he pursues a frustrated, anarchic, homeless existence in Canberra and Melbourne, until, through the influence of the Anti-Christ, his Dark Lord Maria, he travels to Islamic Morocco. It's a land completely foreign to his Dreamtime totem, and it's where de Bortoli learns to be a full-blood vampire ... a monster who never says sorry. ISBN: 978-3-8454-4518-2 Available in hard copy and E-book.

Research in action for community informatics : A matter for conversation (editorial introduction)

This special issue of the Journal of Community Informatics brings together people from a diverse range of disciplines to discuss how academic researchers and community practitioners and activists can work together to explore the use of information and communication technologies, social media, augmented reality, and other forms of network technologies for research and action in pursuit of social responsibility. The aim is to connect people with ideas, ideas with research projects, and harness new media to further inquiry into socially just outcomes in our community. Some of the papers are based on presentations given at the "Research for Action: Networking University and Community for Social Responsibility" workshop chaired by Matthew Allen and Marcus Foth, at the Making Links 2010 conference in Perth, WA on 15 Nov 2010.

The borders that law sets on entertainment

It is natural for those involved in entertainment to focus on the art. However, like any activity in even a free society, those involved in entertainment industries must operate within borders set by the law. This article examines the main areas of law that impact entertainment in an Australian context. It contrasts the position in relation to freedom of expression in Australia with that in the United States, which also promotes freedom of expression in a free society. It then briefly canvases the main limits on entertainment productions under Australian law.

A review of the acculturation experiences of international students

Universities in Western countries host a substantial number of international students. These students bring a range of benefits to the host country and in return the students gain higher education. However, the choice to study overseas in Western countries may present many challenges for the international student including the experience of acculturative stress and difficulties with adjustment to the environment of the host country. The present paper provides a review of current acculturation models as applied to international students. Given that these models have typically been empirically tested on migrant and refugee populations only, the review aims to determine the extent to which these models characterise the acculturation experience of international students. Literature pertaining to salient variables from acculturation models was explored including acculturative stressors encountered frequently by international students (e.g., language barriers, educational difficulties, loneliness, discrimination, and practical problems associated with changing environments). Further discussed was the subsequent impact of social support and coping strategies on acculturative stress experienced by international students, and the psychological and sociocultural adaptation of this student group. This review found that the international student literature provides support for some aspects of the acculturation models discussed, however, further investigation of these models is needed to determine their accuracy in describing the acculturation of international students. Additionally, prominent acculturation models portray the host society as an important factor influencing international students’ acculturation, which suggests the need for future intervention.

David F. Treagust : congenial soul, science educator, and international research leader

For almost a half century David F. Treafust has been an exemplary science educator who has contributed through his dedication and commitments to students, curriculum development and collaboration with teachers, and cutting edge research in science education that has impacted the field globally, nationally and locally. A hallmark of his outstanding career is his collaborative style that inspires others to produce their best work.

YouTube

Originally launched in 2005 with a focus on user-generated content, YouTube has become the dominant platform for online video worldwide, and an important location for some of the most significant trends and controversies in the contemporary new-media environment. Throughout its very short history, it has also intersected with and been the focus of scholarly debates related to the politics, economics, and cultures of the new media—in particular, the “participatory turn” associated with “Web 2.0” business models’ partial reliance on amateur content and social networking. Given the slow pace of traditional scholarly publishing, the body of media and cultural studies literature substantively dedicated to describing and critically understanding YouTube’s texts, practices, and politics is still small, but it is growing steadily. At the same time, since its inception scholars from a wide range of disciplines and critical perspectives have found YouTube useful as a source of examples and case studies, some of which are included here; others have experimented directly with the scholarly and educational potential of the platform itself. For these reasons, although primarily based around the traditional publishing outlets for media, Internet, and cultural studies, this bibliography draws eclectically on a wide range of sources—including sources very closely associated with the web business literature and with the YouTube community itself.

Porn and the mediasphere

The history of public discourse (and in many cases, academic publishing) on pornography is, notoriously, largely polemical and polarised. There is perhaps no other media form that has been so relentlessly the centre of what boils down to little more than arguments “for” or “against”; most famously, on the basis of the oppression, dominance or liberation of sexual subjectivities. These polarised debates leave much conceptual space for researchers to explore: discussions of pornography often lack specificity (when speaking of porn, what exactly do we mean? Which genre? Which markets?); assumptions (eg. about exactly how the sexualised “white male body” functions culturally, or what the “uses” of porn actually might be) can be buried; and empirical opportunities (how porn as media industry connects to innovation and the rest of the mediasphere) are missed. In this issue, we have tried to create and populate such a space, not only for the rethinking of some of our core assumptions about pornography, but also for the treatment of pornography as a bona fide, even while contested and problematic, segment of the media and cultural industries, linked economically and symbolically to other media forms.

How to pick a fight : Visualisation and sharing in catastrophic times

In a post September 11 era “the fight”, as a cultural construct, could hardly be more pertinent. We are seemingly forever poised on the edge of controversial U.S. led attacks on wayward Middle Eastern states and unexamined oppositions between the concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are evoked as valid justifications for battle. Our leaders muster us into wars of vigilance and national cohesion against unseen, unknown and uncomprehended terrorists hiding where communists once lurked under our beds. The articles in this issue examine fights in terms of media strategies and cultural divides in a range of contexts.

Rethinking regulatory design : The Australian National Classification Scheme review

This paper considers issues of methodological innovation in communication, media and cultural studies, that arise out of the extent to which we now live in a media environment characterised by an digital media abundance, the convergence of media platforms, content and services, and the globalisation of media content through ubiquitous computing and high-speed broadband networks. These developments have also entailed a shift in the producer-consumer relationships that characterised the 20th century mass communications paradigm, with the rapid proliferation of user-created content, accelerated innovation, the growing empowerment of media users themselves, and the blurring of distinctions between public and private, as well as age-based distinctions in terms of what media can be accessed by whom and for what purpose. It considers these issues through a case study of the Australian Law Reform Commission's National Classification Scheme Review.