PRISM :: Browsing by Author "Shepherd, Tamara"

Browsing by Author "Shepherd, Tamara"

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Open Access
‘App’y Little Dieters: Neoliberalism, Post-Feminism and Genomics in Fitness and Nutrition Apps
(2021-06) Brown, Tessa J'Nan; Hogan, Mél; Rudd, Annie; Shepherd, Tamara; Edwards, Meaghan
The discourse around health and wellness can be tied to neoliberal fixations on optimization, self-discipline and personal responsibility. Health and fitness apps promise to simplify this constant work, but their effect is a further responsibilization of individuals living under neoliberal capitalism, as they both profit from and reinforce the idea that each of us is uniquely responsible for our own health outcomes, regardless of social, cultural or relational factors that may impact our well-being. This health-related responsibilization, or “healthism” creates a context wherein we must work constantly to optimize ourselves, or be held at fault for any illness or infirmity we may experience. In this piece, I consider three apps—Lose It!, Fitbit and the Pam app--which offer users advice on health-related subjects including nutrition, “fitness” and sleep quality. This advice is often framed as scientifically backed, and in the case of Lose It!, even tied to the user’s unique genetic code. This scientific framing takes advantage of what Kaushik Sunder Rajan (2006) has described as “fetishes” both around science and genetic determinism, relying on our faith in science to convince us of the validity of their claims, whether those claims are truly backed by research or not. In the case of apps like Lose It! and Fitbit, collecting data on an ever-growing array of “health” metrics, and furthering the push towards the “quantified self” (Elias & Gill 2018). This quantification pushes individuals, and women in particular, to go to ever-greater lengths to surveil themselves and demonstrate their subjectivity through self-discipline, which they must show at least in part by maintaining or achieving thinness (Guthman & DuPuis 2006). Apps like the Pam app rely on the image of an influencer who performs ideal neoliberal subjectivity, which involves constant productivity, a positive affect, and of course a thin body, to attract users. All of these apps both rely on and reinforce neoliberal ideology, adding to our ongoing responsibilization and distracting us from broader cultural problems which require collective action and solidarity rather than the rampant individualism neoliberalism inculcates in us all.
Open Access
Between Nationalism and Neoliberalism: Problematizing Immigration in Canada and Australia
(2018-04-26) Karim, Natasha; Shepherd, Tamara; Keller, Jessalynn; Shepherd, Tamara; Banjernee, Pallavi
Through conducting a critical discourse analysis of Canada’s and Australia’s immigration policies and national news media framing of immigration, informed by an intersectional and Foucauldian foundation, this thesis exposes and challenges the fundamental assumptions associated with the ideologies of nationalism and neoliberalism that underlie the way the notion of immigration has been conceptualized and problematized within these discourses. Furthermore, by deconstructing the structures of policy and media and the underlying principles, this study demonstrates how personal identifiers are incorporated into the dominant understanding of what it means to be an immigrant in juxtaposition to what it means to be Canadian or Australian on several levels of identification. Lastly, the findings of this study demonstrate the implications that result from how the concept of immigration has been problematized and the role that personal identifiers play for those whose existence had been framed as an issue.
Open Access
“But You’re Female!”: Discourses of Queer Gender and Sexuality Across BioWare’s Mass Effect Trilogy
(2018-01-26) Thai, Tina; Carruthers, Lee; Shepherd, Tamara; Leblanc, Jean-René; Carruthers, Lee
BioWare’s highly successful Mass Effect trilogy is one of the most lauded examples of mainstream video games that have incorporated prominent queer representation. In a media landscape that is still navigating marginalized representation in a meaningful way, BioWare has made strides in terms of their depth and quality of queer inclusion since its release. The ways that this inclusion is constructed in all levels of design – from formal game qualities to its storytelling choices – can tell researchers much about how discourses of queerness function, using the game space as a site of discursive operations. Utilizing theory from Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, in tandem with concepts from film studies and queer studies, my research investigates the discursive operations at work throughout the Mass Effect games, with focus on what discourses of queer gender and sexuality are produced, circulated, and subverted though a critical discourse analysis of the games’ text and content. I examine the role of the player at the crux of it all, the specificities that arise from player choice and interactivity, and how they work to create something that demonstrates a nuanced and complex showcase of queer representation.
Open Access
Children and Privacy in Microcelebrity Apology Videos
(2022-09) Kardal, Jenna; Shepherd, Tamara; Keller, Jessalynn; Elliott, Charlene
In recent years, family YouTube channels have gained popularity, and have raised a number of concerns about children, privacy, and exploitation in the context of sharenting and microcelebrity. Sometimes, viewers’ concern about children’s well-being leads to backlash against microcelebrity parents. In response, these parents often release apology videos on YouTube in order to repair their image and maintain good standing with their audience. My thesis examined such apology videos to investigate how microcelebrity parents employ children’s privacy in order to repair their image and further their brand according to the ethos of calibrated amateurism. I performed a textual and visual analysis on four YouTube apology videos from two family channels, Myka Stauffer and DaddyOFive, that found themselves at odds with their viewers when their sharenting practices resulted in significant controversy. I employed both Benoit’s (2014c) theory of image repair and Abidin’s (2017) notion of calibrated amateurism as my theoretical perspectives to identify some key conventions of apology videos. In accounting for the comments on these videos, I further analyzed how apology videos are received when microcelebrity parents deploy notions of their children’s privacy as part of this image repair. I found that the conventions of these family apology videos manifested calibrated amateurism while the microcelebrity parents used the language of privacy to protect their brand image in a way that contradicted some of their previous sharenting practices.
Open Access
Confronting Obstacles Like Olympic Champions: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the SK-II VS campaign
(2024-04-29) Pan, Xia; Shepherd, Tamara; Chan, Julia Sze Hang; Keller, Jessalynn Marie; Taylor, Gregory AK
This thesis examines the “VS” videos launched by skincare brand SK-II, which attempt to intervene in various forms of societal pressure imposed on women. The thesis uses a multimodal discourse analysis approach to examine the visual, verbal, and aural elements present in these videos. Discourse is viewed through a theoretical framework that combines neoliberalism, postfeminism, popular and neoliberal feminism, and globalization to support the interpretation of the videos. The study is guided by the research question: how do the “VS” videos construct a form of contemporary feminized subjectivity through the lens of Olympic athletics? The discussion identifies three discourses which together structure construction of the subjectivity in these videos: the discourse of confidence, the celebration of imperfection, and the representation of universalism. The findings are used to support my argument that the “VS” videos universalize women’s struggle through constructing a form of powerful femininity through the lens of athletics in a global context, yet they still maintain traditional beauty ideals and structural gender inequalities underpinned by postfeminism and neoliberalism. Despite their intention to promote SK-II’s inclusive brand commitment to women’s empowerment, the videos ultimately pose an extra constraint for women, implying that women have to constantly cultivate inner confidence because they are inherently inadequate. This analysis contributes to the discussion of postfeminist culture and neoliberalism with a focus on the particular domain of Olympic athletics.
Open Access
Digital Policy Dynamics: International Relations Theory and the Challenge of Global Platform Politics
(2024-04-24) Trithara, Dakoda; Franceschet, Antonio; Hiebert, Maureen; Policzer, Pablo; Shepherd, Tamara; Grant, J. Andrew
We live in a world of unprecedented connection, where we can retrieve and disseminate information nearly instantaneously at almost any time or place. This revolution in the ability to access and spread information has altered the political sphere. Not only do traditional political actors like policymakers and civil society actors have new tools to conduct politics, but the firms that own and operate this technology have gained immense cultural, economic, and political power, with the means to project such power across the globe. To better understand some challenges presented by this new global platform politics, this dissertation asks: How can international relations (IR) theory contribute to our knowledge of platform governance? I argue that IR theories offer substantial utility in examining how and why governments, firms, and civil society contest, frame, and shape the governance of and governance by online platforms. These dynamics of digital policymaking are examined in-depth through three case studies that represent challenging political problems. Drawing on securitization theory, the first case study investigates the securitization of disinformation in the United Kingdom, where the spread of election disinformation represents a real conundrum considering democracies by definition favor the unencumbered flow of ideas and information. In the second case, the concept of weaponized interdependence helps make sense of the tensions that form between entertainment companies and political forces, particularly for video game developers like Blizzard Entertainment, when deciding to (not) address political speech in virtual spaces they control. The last case leverages the Governance Triangle from the global governance literature to understand how the dynamics of civil society work to influence content moderation policy, as illuminated through the experiences of U.S. civil society practitioners. The cases’ insights point to the need for robust governance frameworks that safeguard democratic values, preserve freedom of expression, and maintain a healthy balance between security measures and the open exchange of ideas. In addressing such techno-political challenges, digital policies should prioritize transparency, inclusivity, and accountability to ensure that decisions affecting public discourse and democratic processes reflect the interests and values of a diverse range of stakeholders.
Open Access
Doing well by doing good? Normative tensions underlying Twitter's corporate social responsibility ethos
(2014) Busch, Thorsten; Shepherd, Tamara
This paper examines the rhetoric of Twitter.com in order to gain insight into the company’s normative self-understanding, or ethos. From a business ethics perspective, we analyze Twitter’s ethos in relation to debates around democratic communication and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Partly thanks to its CSR strategy, Twitter has acquired the critical mass of users necessary to successfully establish a robust and financially viable social network. Despite its success, however, we argue that Twitter does not sufficiently address three ethical implications of its strategy: (1) from an ethical perspective, Twitter mainly seems to employ an ‘instrumental CSR’ ethos which fails to properly recognize the moral rights, responsibilities, and strategic challenges of corporate actors with regards to their stakeholders; (2) this issue becomes all the more pressing because online social networks to a certain extent have taken on the role of quasi-governmental bodies today, regulating what their users can and cannot do, thus raising questions of accountability and legitimacy; and (3) in Twitter’s case, this leads to normative tension between the site's rhetoric, which is centered around civic motives, and the way its Terms of Service and licensing policies seem to favor its commercial stakeholders over its non-commercial ones.
Open Access
Figuera: Traversals of Gender in Interactive Fiction
(2017-12-15) Osborne, Heather; Forlini, Stefania; Lai, Larissa; Camara, Anthony; Shepherd, Tamara; Mohanraj, Mary Anne
Figuera, a speculative interactive fiction game, uses the digital authoring system Twine to build a multilinear narrative. This work emerges from a tradition of feminist and queer authors, including New Wave science fiction writers Samuel Delany and Ursula K. Le Guin, and Twine digital game creators Anna Anthropy and Porpentine. Figuera acts as a critical fiction by joining what bell hooks terms a community of resistance: the Twine revolution, a school of queer and trans digital game creators who express their lived experiences of marginalization through digital games. Playfully transgressing the connection between the material body and gender identity/expression, I work to decenter dominant narratives by disrupting default novel-reading strategies. My game depicts a secondary world in which families assign their children’s gender at age fifteen, a world inspired by Judith Butler’s theories of gender performativity. Three narrative strands follow young people whose queered gender expression clashes with their families’ wishes. In contrast with the non-linearity of postmodern hypertext fiction, Figuera uses digital constraints to maintain continuity and promote narrative closure. Unlike traditional interactive fiction, Figuera guides readers with links rather than text input. The work’s visual design echoes the aesthetic of the Twine revolution, while my invitation to readers to intervene creatively with the text matches the Twine revolution’s goals of accessibility and open expression. Readers may perform multiple traversals of the text; the different narrative strands act as motifs for the work’s themes. The text offers the reader meaningful choices: the reader can navigate to discrete endings. Each narrative line contains deliberate gaps, such that multiple readings are required for a richer understanding of the characters and the world; the game’s structure rewards playful, explorative, and repeated readings. In form and content, Figuera expresses a feminist and queer politics through creative intervention.
Open Access
"Follow the World's Creators": Negotiating the Value of GIF Art and Artists
(2017) McCutchin, Carla; Eiserman, Jennifer; Shepherd, Tamara; Keller, Jessalynn; Hogan, Mél
This study employs Adam Arvidsson’s (2009) ethical economy theory to examine how the value of GIF art and artists is negotiated on the social media platform Tumblr.com. According to Arvidsson corporations generate value by guiding the development of social relations through the construction of a collaborative ethos. On Tumblr, this ethos is manifested through their business model and brand identity which invites users to “Follow the World’s Creators.” Through its business model and brand, Tumblr discursively positions itself as a site where creators and creative activity obtain cultural value, but also supply the platform with reputation value. By conducting a series of interviews with 15 GIF artists over email, my study shows that the value of GIF art and artists is predominantly conferred through circulation, a method of sharing that is afforded by Tumblr’s reblog function.
Open Access
Gendering the Commodity Audience in Social Media
(Routledge, 2014) Shepherd, Tamara
Open Access
How do You Watch? Defining Audience in the Era of Internet-Mediated Television
(2019-10-31) Chiang, Angela; Mitchell, David; Johnston, Dawn Elizabeth B.; Leblanc, Jean Rene; Shepherd, Tamara; Tinic, Serra A.
Television content and its consumption have experienced radical changes since the turn of the century which have yet to be systematically explored and theorized. As we head into this new era of television, study of this rapidly evolving audience begs continued research and a repositioning in a new context. The claim that the present-day audience is more interactive than in eras past has surfaced as one of the defining topics in the current literature, namely due to the prevalence of social media and the production of tangible markers of spectatorship that can be accessed and analyzed online. Discussed as a ‘highly participatory viewer’, the visible viewing practices posted online have come from a fairly influential portion of the television audience, however the focus on this particular group’s habits cannot be generalizable to the audience as a whole. ‘Interactivity’ is therefore best conceptualized not in monolithic terms, but as a concept that encompasses a spectrum of activities, from the interpretative to the physical actions of the viewers. A redefinition of the viewer in the age of internet-mediated television is needed, one that encompasses these activities, which may be more commonplace and less ground-breaking and that may not be readily observed online. This project explores the patterns of television spectatorship in a digital age, examining the multidimensional link between the widespread use of the internet and its surrounding technologies, the relationship between the findings of audience reception studies of the past and the psychology behind the motivations of television viewing. Through discussion with self-identified television viewers, the findings in this research indicate that television consumption is invariably linked to online access and online practices, the viewer appears to exercise additional agency in comparison to eras past, and that ultimately, internet-mediated television research must account for offline practices of viewing in addition to online to garner a truly representative understanding of the audience of the current age. This study was designed in the hopes that the behaviours identified would provide insight into the makeup of media consumption in a digital era, and perhaps the notion of how the influence of leisure may be manifested in other social arenas.
Open Access
In the Blacklight of Media: An Analysis of Black Celebrity Anti-Racist Activism
(2020-07-08) Moghtader, Shabnam; Keller, Jessalynn; Thrift, Samantha C.; Shepherd, Tamara
This thesis examines black celebrity anti-racist activism as a significant part of contemporary popular culture. Using Beyoncé’s 2016 Superbowl 50 halftime show and NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s 2016 “Take a Knee” protest as case studies, I employ discursive textual analysis to thematically unpack how these celebrities and their political activism is articulated and debated within mainstream news media. My analysis reveals multiple competing discourses that situate Beyoncé and Kaepernick as both inspiring political leaders and dangerous, militant figures. Based on this analysis, I argue that news media coverage of Beyoncé and Kaepernick function as a site for negotiation over meanings around historical and contemporary racial politics, pointing to the important work that black celebrity activism does within media cultures today.
Open Access
Internets: The changing role of Internet Protocols in evolving broadband technologies
(2021-07) Cramer, Dana Louise; Taylor, Gregory; Shepherd, Tamara; Hawkins, Richard William
This study, drawing from Langdon Winner’s theory, which identifies the ways in which technology and infrastructure have the embedded politics of their designers, asks questions related to the power of the transport layer of the internet’s infrastructure. I use a mixed methods approach to study the transport layer including media history, primary document analysis, and utilize data derived from a network protocol reader called Wireshark. The findings show that traditional scholarly framings of the transport layer of the internet dubbed as a set of ‘dumb pipes,’ passive, and everything interesting happening at the internet’s edges (Lessig, 2006; Pickard & Berman, 2019), may soon be out of date following the introduction of ManyNets by Chinese corporation, Huawei from 2018-2020, through an introduction for a New Internet Protocol (New IP). I challenge the concept of ManyNets with ‘internets’ as a historic analysis of the development of the transport layer of internet infrastructure shows a pattern in this concept of multiple internets, opposed to the newly introduced ManyNets. As this study finds, developments in the transport layer have been changing due to the ways citizens use the internet (e.g., shifts from text-based platforms to live-streamed content). This study shows that the transport layer of the internet’s infrastructure is a growing politicized space in constant flux.
Open Access
Justice in networked publics: How platform affordances shaped the discourse around Making a Murderer
(2018-05-15) Carey, Alaxandra Amelia; Shepherd, Tamara; Tepperman, Charles; Hogan, Mél
When the documentary series Making a Murderer was released on Netflix, people analyzed and discussed the details of the case through social media platforms. These platforms acted as networked publics where users were afforded the ability to discuss larger social issues like class and racial inequality, and the effectiveness and fairness of the criminal justice system. This thesis explores how networked publics are established by the affordances of specific social media platforms in relation to discussions about criminal justice that were performed as part of the reception of Making a Murderer. Specifically, I use critical technocultural discourse analysis to examine how Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Tumblr acted as facilitators of networked public spaces for the circulation of specific discourses about criminal justice. I argue that studying multiple platforms is an appropriate approach to understand how the series’ reception constituted a networked public that opened up public discourse about criminal justice issues beyond the scope of the series
Open Access
Mediated Film Tourists’ Experiences: Navigating Anne with an E-inspired Travelogues on Social Media
(2022-06) Jeong, Hanseul; Tepperman, Charles; Shepherd, Tamara; Taylor, Gregory
This thesis explores film tourists’ experiences associated with a popular Canadian TV series, Anne with an E (2017-2019). Situating Anne with an E in the narrative of L.M. Montgomery's original text, Anne of Green Gables, this research follows the trajectory of Anne-inspired trips to Prince Edward Island and Anne with an E filming locations. It draws upon Urry and Larsen’s arguments (2011) on “tourist gaze” to understand the tourists’ practices in actual places (film locations) and virtual places (online). Within this framework, this research focuses on film tourists’ experiences to illuminate their performative and embodied practices. Visual and social features are central to this study, so it pays particular attention to Anne with an E film tourists’ mediation on YouTube and Instagram due to their visual and social user experience. By analyzing the travel accounts from the platforms, this research demonstrates how film tourists reflected Anne-text in their embodied experiences, and how their mediation facilitated the fans’ re-engagement with the text.
Open Access
Memory Stones, Corpse Art, and Digital Media Activism: Multimedia Projects to Address Gender-Based Violence in Canada
(2022-07) Little, Nicolette; Keller, Jessalynn; Bakardjieva, Maria; Shepherd, Tamara; Dean, Amber; Thrift, Samantha
Gender-based violence (GBV) media activism is understudied in the Canadian context. This leaves consequential contributions unexplored in the literature on grassroots callouts of rape culture. To add to the field, my research explores five media projects that raise awareness about GBV and challenge problematic discourses about it. I incorporate poststructuralist feminist theories of discourse and theories of “counter-memory” (Bold et al., 2002; Young, n.d.) to explore my cases: namely, the REDress Project by Jaime Black, Disposable Red Woman by Destin Running Rabbit and Iman Bukhari, the Memory Stones Project by Leah Parsons, Farrah Khan’s annually tweeted obituaries for femicide victims, and the documentary Slut or Nut (2018) by Mandi Gray and Kelly Showker. I first outline how North America’s culture is a rape culture, in which troubling narratives about GBV circulate and hamper official interventions. Then, I interrogate the ways the activists above respond with (counter)discourses of their own. My examination of the five interventions above reveals these projects uniquely combine media forms to amplify their messaging, draw citizens of different generations into their anti-violence feminisms, and even ensure—in part through the technical specificities of modern digital technologies—that the activists’ anti-violence projects won’t be forgotten. Further, while each activist seems to strike out on their own to address rape culture, frustrated by society’s lack of attention to it, each activism is in fact strikingly collaborative—not only as feminists work together, but as citizens support advocates, to address GBV. These activisms use everyday objects, such as dresses, rocks, bedsheets, and social media, to call out gendered violence. The everydayness of these items makes GBV advocacy seem “doable,” which is attractive for participants who wish to help, but feel overwhelmed by violence’s gravity. This, along with the activists’ inclusive approach to advocacy—in which they invite people to borrow their ideas, for example, to produce modified projects of their own—spurs engagement. This study also shows that memorializing is an ineluctable part of GBV activism. By shoring up survivors’ and victims’ narratives against erasure, often adapting traditional Western commemorative genres to feminist ends to do so, activists challenge Canada’s masculinist memory-scape and usher in new awareness of gender inequity and related traumas. While the multimedia projects studied in this research are creative, dynamic, and resonant for citizens, however, they still bear the markings of the dominant (patriarchal) discursive context they seek to unsettle.
Open Access
The Mobile and Me: Canadian Youth Talk About their Mobile Phones
(Peter Lang, 2012) Shepherd, Tamara; Shade, Leslie Regan
Open Access
Pacts With Demons: Death, Conspiracy and the Internet
(2024-12-23) Chaudhry, Brennan; Bakardjieva, Maria Petrova; Karimi, Ali; Chan, Julia; Karppi, Tero; Shepherd, Tamara
As we have become more connected than ever, we find ourselves becoming less social than ever before. The internet has heralded the corrosion of working time and free time, self and other, and human versus machine. As users confront these different contradictions they are forced to reassess themselves, and try to generate an explanation with limited information and resources. If anything is clear, it seems that the internet is no longer the progressive, democratizing force that it was once promised as. The mutual co-creation of new social worlds has been replaced by duelling paranoia and narcissism, all while our data are bought, sold and analyzed behind our backs. Some users now claim that the internet is dead, populated only by bots, algorithmically generated content, and AI lurking behind a facade of endless feeds and targeted ads. This thesis seeks to understand this perspective, sympathetic to those who find themselves disenfranchised by the internet today, and critical of the infrastructure that enables it. In order to shed light on and describe this phenomenon, it investigates three case studies, each of which represents different instances that are cited as reasons for the supposed death of the internet, and involve artificial intelligence. These are, respectively, the presence of bots on social media platforms, the proliferation of AI generated media, and finally the ubiquity of AI powered algorithms and decision making systems in our lives. In his 1984 cyberpunk classic Neuromancer, William Gibson wrote “For thousands of years men dreamed of pacts with demons. Only now are such things possible” (p.165). This thesis seeks to understand the terms of that pact, what the demons are, and what we are giving up in exchange.
Open Access
Power, Packaging and Preferences: How Children Interpret Marketing on Packaged Food and Its Implications for Communication Scholarship
(2020-09-11) McAlorum, Courtney Alexa; Elliott, Charlene; Stowe, Lisa; Shepherd, Tamara
This thesis explores how children interpret the marketing of child-targeted packaged food and negotiate these interpretations among peers with a specific emphasis on infused character licensing. Infused character licensing food describes instances where the processed food hinges on entertainment content via the use of shape(s). By asking children their opinions on packaged food, this thesis also examines what makes value and meaning for children. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 27 participants between 8- to 12-years-old, and focus group data was approached using paratextual theory. Study results indicate that using promotional characters on packaged food, especially through infused character licensing, is a polarizing marketing approach for children because its effectiveness tends to rest on their assigned value of the specific cartoon under discussion. In conclusion, the outcomes of this thesis divulge that child-targeted packaged food promotes food to children through both the text itself and the paratexts that surround it.
Open Access
Sqwélqwel: A Storybasket of the International Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Calgary
(2018-01-26) Fry, Monique Renee; Shepherd, Tamara; Keller, Jessalynn; Schneider, Barbara
This storybasket contains a Creation Story of the International Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Calgary. Using Indigenous research theories and methods in my own constructed research framework, I have gathered knowledge to determine how the program has endured within a system that has privileged western knowledge and western ways of teaching and learning. As a methodological intervention I have privileged Indigenous ways of knowing, research, and voices to decolonize all entry points of the thesis. Systemic and institutional racism has been the defining barrier that has impacted the growth of the International Indigenous Studies Program. Through it all, there have been some successes due in part to the passionate sessional instructors, courageous students, and relationships that put the holistic needs of learners at the center. In my Give Away (Conclusion) I have offered recommendations that would support the program’s development in the short and long terms. Above all, the need for deeper Indigenous community relationships to support the program at all levels fits into the larger Indigenous Strategy of the University of Calgary, and hopefully creates a space where the holistic, reflexive, and relational needs of all its learners can thrive.