Mommy Blog Lines: Tal(k)ing Care

In the next few weeks we'll hear from two fantastic guest bloggers; Beth and Claire, who are undergraduate students in communication and women's and gender studies, among other subjects. They'll be reflecting on their experiences with online communication and social media.  Each will provide a young adult perspective, yet the 10 year difference in their ages may lead to a range of experiences. We know that unlike us, they're digital natives, having grown up with the internet, interactive screens and social media. We're especially interested in how they know when to turn off phones and their online access -- even to take down a Facebook page in order to protect privacy or to save time. We just read the most beautiful graphic novel called Everywhere Antennas by Julie Delporte   Critics on the site promote it as "A poetic novel that plumbs the depths of self-doubt and technological fatigue." The author never answers the question of whether the girl her

A great turnout on Sept. 30, 2016 to this fascinating talk on girls' privacy and equality on social media by Val Steeves and Jane Bailey, UOttawa. 40 participants enjoyed a lively presentation and good discussion. We are interested in the directions in which these scholars are moving with this project-- emphasizing eQuality.

We are pleased to be hosting Val Steeves and Jane Bailey, authors of eGirls, eCitizens at the University of Winnipeg this Friday, September 30 for a public lecture from 12:30-1:20 in 2M70. The lecture "Living in the Mirror" will draw upon their research on the experiences of girls with social media.

Our concern about the exploitation of children's lived experiences and the lack of respect for their privacy and human rights by parents has been realized with18-year old Austrian child suing parents for posting embarrassing childhood photos and images of her on Facebook. The case will be heading to court in November. In article about the case the daughter says, "They knew no shame and no limit - and didn’t care whether it was a picture of me sitting on the toilet or lying naked in my cot - every stage was photographed and then made public." The report notes that "The photos were shared on Facebook with her parents' 700 friends. Despite her requests, they have refused to delete the photos - prompting her to sue them." She also says, "I'm tired of not being taken seriously by my parents." As other parents have noted, her father believes he has the right to publish the images because he took the photographs.  France has a strict

                The response to mom blogger Josi Denise’s statements on why she chose to end her blogging practice (discussed in the previous post ) from other bloggers was mostly negative with many taking offence to both what she said and how she said it. I’ve selected counter points, from a handful of those that chose to respond with their own posts, that I found to be both interesting and productive as they coincide with the discussion of some of the benefits to online communication and interaction brought up by digital media scholar Mary Chayko in Portable Communities: The Social Dynamics of Online and Mobile Connectedness .                  Many took issue with Denise applying her criticisms to all mom bloggers in general. They felt that although some of what she talks about does happen (and within all blogging genres), lumping mom bloggers together as if they are all the same is unfair. Also stating that they, as well as many others, do not engage in the behaviours s

                 Back in May a hot topic in the mommy blogosphere was a post by blogger Josi Denise explaining why she was shutting down her mom blog “The American Mama” (currently offline). Many found the post inflammatory as Denise explained her reasons for quitting from the perspective of exposing the faults and fallacies of the mom blogging industry with a highly critical and harsh tone. Without delving into the gossip side of things or the resulting spectacle as her post was circulated across the web and picked up by several online news platforms ( such as Time    and the NY Post ) and responded to by other bloggers who strongly disagree with her, in this post I’ll be discussing how a few of her points relate to some of the concerns within critical media theory as presented by political theorist Jodi Dean in “Communicative Capitalism: Circulation and the Foreclosure of Politics” .                  Leaving behind as much of the “ranting” from the post as possible, i