Creating Pseudonymous Publics with Squirt: An Expansion of the Possibilities for Networked Publics

Ben Light, QUT, Brisbane, Australia.

Description

Enrolling work from media, communications and cultural studies, I contribute to the growing literatures on social media and information systems and the significant absence of work regarding men and sexuality within information systems. Through an actor-network theory (ANT) led analysis of the hook up site Squirt, I will demonstrate how, in a UK context at least, networked social media and digital devices inform, and allow for, the co-existence of a broad spectrum of sexual politics, sexual preferences and sexual practices. Such an analysis suggests a need for a deepening of our understanding of the potentials of networked publics and the assumptions of publicness that are often attached to them. In order to do this, I put forward the concept of pseudonymous publics.

 
Dec 15th, 12:00 AM

Creating Pseudonymous Publics with Squirt: An Expansion of the Possibilities for Networked Publics

260-057, Owen G. Glenn Building

Enrolling work from media, communications and cultural studies, I contribute to the growing literatures on social media and information systems and the significant absence of work regarding men and sexuality within information systems. Through an actor-network theory (ANT) led analysis of the hook up site Squirt, I will demonstrate how, in a UK context at least, networked social media and digital devices inform, and allow for, the co-existence of a broad spectrum of sexual politics, sexual preferences and sexual practices. Such an analysis suggests a need for a deepening of our understanding of the potentials of networked publics and the assumptions of publicness that are often attached to them. In order to do this, I put forward the concept of pseudonymous publics.