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This is an environmental survey my supervisor and I conducted pertaining to the landscape of government engagement with Community Engaged Learning in Canadian Universities. Community Engaged Learning (CEL) is a valuable type of experiential learning characterized by collaboration between student and community partner/ stakeholder for the creation of a mutual outcome. Given the relations between provincial governments and their influence over publicly funded universities, compounded by a recent uptick in CEL programs across Canada, we wanted to survey government rhetoric, policy, and legislation across the country to create a picture of the interactions between provincial governments and CEL in the context of Canadian universities.

Cyberbullying is a problematic social-digital phenomenon impacting individuals at varying stages of the life course, bringing with it negative and potentially damaging consequences (e.g., increased depression and anxiety, suicide ideation). Despite this, the literature has been plagued by gaps, which have made a complete understanding of cyberbullying out of reach. For instance, cyberbullying scholars have overlooked the digital context (e.g., what aspects and features of digital media help facilitate cyberbullying; the overlap of the digital context with the individual and societal contexts). Also, limited research has investigated cyberbullying occurring among young adults, particularly from their own points of view (e.g., young adults’ perceptions and evaluations of cyberbullying; cyberbullying prevention and response strategies). Thus, this dissertation seeks to remedy these oversights, thereby making three central contributions. First, I present the social-ecological model of cyberbullying, which is based on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (EST) and Swearer’s and Espelage’s social-ecological model of bullying. This new model fully integrates the digital context, highlighting how the digital heavily intertwines with the individual, social, and communal contexts, so much so that the boundaries are blurry. By building the social-ecological model of cyberbullying, cyberbullying scholars are provided with a theoretical model that they can test, finetune, and expand to evaluate cyberbullying more effectively and holistically. Second, drawing from data collected via 21 semi-structured interviews with second-, third-, and fourth-year undergraduate students, I uncover post-secondary students’ perceptions and evaluations of cyberbullying. Alternative to the academic criteria posited in the literature (e.g., repetition; intentional/willful; experienced harm; an imbalance of power), this work reveals a set of key dimensions young adults use to classify cyberbullying behaviours and their corresponding level of severity. These include who was involved, the scope of harm, the context in which the behaviour occurred, and the platform on which the behaviour occurred. Third, again drawing from young adults’ perspectives of cyberbullying, I identify key barriers young adults perceive as impacting the development and implementation of cyberbullying prevention and response initiatives on their institution’s campus. To remedy these barriers, young adults offered several solutions for how cyberbullying could be taken more seriously and be better handled by post-secondary institutions (e.g., increased cyberbullying-specific awareness and education).

In April 2019, the Canadian Premier League (CPL), a professional domestic soccer league, launched in Canada, making it the first top-tier league in North America to begin operations in the modern digital era. The CPL represents a unique and timely opportunity to examine how a new professional sports league cultivates ties with fan-consumers via sport nationalism, digital media, and fandom. As yet, there are very few academic works on the CPL, and there is also a paucity of scholarly publications on the launch of new professional sports leagues in the 21st century. For this study, two types of qualitative data were collected: semi-structured interviews with league officials and voices on the Canadian soccer scene; and various primary and secondary sources, most often news articles, along with works on sports sociology and marketing. Despite soccer’s status as the “global game,” Canadian sport nationalism has historically revolved around hockey. While professional soccer leagues in Canada have largely failed in the past, several key factors—changing national demographics, high rates of youth participation in soccer, and groups of willing investors—have altered the landscape, contributing to the formation of the CPL. As traditional television and sports viewing shifts towards streaming providers, the CPL’s presence on OneSoccer, a digital platform, endows it with increased authenticity and a more loyal following, particularly as the league is targeting younger “digital natives.” Supporters’ groups, which enrich fan culture and engagement, are also a key ingredient of the upstart league. The CPL is being promoted as an authentic Canadian product, as seen with team names reflecting local or regional identities and Canadian player quotas that enhance the league’s national bone fides on the pitch.

This report describes findings from research on networking activities and strategies among women in executive and leadership positions in Canadian organizations. The project was carried out by graduate student researchers in collaboration with the Women's Executive Network. Networking is defined as the creation and maintenance of a community of diverse interests, through in-person and online engagements, that can be mobilized for the benefit of oneself or other members of one’s network. We found that the shift to primarily online networking activities due to COVID-19 removed some existing barriers related to age, gender and location, while introducing others related to family status and technology. Participants indicated that they engaged more frequently in online networking activities but found in-person networking to be more effective. We offer nine recommendations for supporting women's professional success through networking based on analysis of 6 interviews, 85 survey responses and observation of online networking activities and events.

This thesis investigates from a phenomenological perspective how it is that I am able to share a space with my brother, Kyle, by way of the videocalling application FaceTime. While the thesis uses the personal as a starting point, it then draws on Merleau-Ponty, the tradition of critical phenomenology, and Media Studies to argue that the one and the other can share a ‘space’ through the screen, despite that they ostensibly only have mutual access to their auditory and visual environments. Drawing heavily on Merleau-Ponty and other contemporary phenomenologists, the thesis takes space and communication to be two different sides of the same phenomenon of intercorporeality, of being in a world with others, and proposes that communication and space are not superpositional (subsequent and/or antecedent to one another; causally related), but coeval and coterminous. I argue that contrary to some recent and canonical media studies paradigms, the screen is phenomenologically neither a flattening of presence or being through the institution of a transcendental ocularcentirsm, nor the portal to another (virtual) world, and thus not emblematic of an exposure to or display of pure presence. Rather, I suggest that the screen of the videocall is the ongoing surfacing of what Lisa Guenther calls intercorporeal depth, the manifest “vision of another vision, complimentary to mine and yet irreducibly different”; indeed, I see myself as “one among other” seers, and “not as a solitary subject of experience,” even if the videocall nonetheless heightens one’s experience of geographical distance (Guenther: 2013). Ultimately, the thesis regards the computer screen as a surface that might provoke us to hesitate in the reenactment of sedimented (ocularcentric and egocentric) ways of seeing and proposes instead that a sense of sharing space can be thought through in terms of the pre-thetic, operative intentionality of Merleau-Ponty's "sensory life”. Drawing on the media theory of Laura Marks and the critical phenomenology of Alia Al-Saji, I conclude that the videocall is an instance of haptic visuality and, as such, represents an ‘affective’ or ‘rhythmic’ instance of lived ontological non-coincidence that is nonetheless a communion.

The connective turn marks the contemporary memory boom. The omnipresence of digital media is a provocation that makes us wonder about the relationships and connections of memory with the past, present and future in the digital world (Hoskins 9). Using a conceptual analysis based on the idea of the connective turn, this thesis shows how the National Center of Historical Memory of Colombia has been addressing the message of memory of the armed conflict through the case study of the digital narratives of the "Digital Specials", and how the message is transmitted in their Instagram profile. The study reflects the understanding of the new ecological behaviour of memory in digital spaces. Furthermore, it clarifies the different perspectives considered when making digital content related to memory studies. It also exposes the importance of conceiving web products related to the digital strategy of social networking channels. Finally, as a methodological proposal, the circular visualization exposes a way to help analyze the digital ecosystems of memory institutions.

How do cultural producers square customary understandings of what it means to be authentic and autonomous creators in new contexts characterized by digital-era entrepreneurial pressures and online platform-mediated financial opportunities? This study examines how heavy metal recording artists experience these pressures; how some of them engage in platform-based crowdfunding, argue over its legitimacy, and rationalize varying degrees of acceptance and dependence. First, my analysis centers on a case study which follows the experiences of a progressive metal band as they navigate a new financial relation in conjunction first with the fundraising platform Pozible and then the patronage-based crowdfunding platform Patreon. Second, I undertake a political-economic analysis of the Patreon platform, interpreting it as a rent-seeking technology company situated in the broader context of platform capitalism. I suggest that Patreon perpetuates long-standing power disparities in the culture industries by concentrating the risks and duties of production, marketing and retailing more squarely upon its fundraisers. Third, I examine recording artists’ interpretations of the neo-patronage relation based on data culled from interviews with Patreon users. The results indicate that online crowdfunding remains an ideologically contested practice among cultural producers stamped with late twentieth-century masculinist “rock values.” The cultural weight of the older “recording contract”-based institutional model poses a problem for heavy metal recording artists who struggle to validate their participation in more entrepreneurial, platform-mediated work.

This thesis examines Spotify, the world’s most popular music streaming service, and its usage of music as a data extraction tool. I position Spotify as a surveillance capitalist firm that puts music at the centre of an enclosed environment designed to condition users’ affective responses and behaviors and reorient production of music. I analyze three features of the platform: a campaign in which Spotify invites users and producers to share the data it collects about them, the arrangement of the platform’s architecture into mood-based playlists, and its penchant for music that is “Chill.” I show how each serves the surveillance machine’s goals of collecting and contextualizing data from music and music consumption that it claims can quantify, predict, and condition behaviour. Using a framework of social and economic theory alongside data and musical analysis, I position Spotify and its exploitation of music within broader implications of life under surveillance capitalism.

In this 2020 CITAMS special issue of Information, Communication & Society, we bring together an important body of work that draws on the sociological imagination to ask critical questions of our times. We selected nine papers that represent both the breadth of sociological work taking place within CITAMS as well as the diversity of its members. CITAMS is welcoming of a range of perspectives in more than one way. We welcome studies of a range of tools and practices. For example, Kadylak and Cotten (this volume) study the willingness of older adults to use six different emerging technologies in a single study including autonomous vehicles (AVs), assistive robots, Internet connected home appliances, Internet connected cameras for home monitoring, a smart home with a built-in personal digital assistant, and virtual reality (VR). Hoang, Blank, and Quan-Haase (this volume) deconstruct platform work and examine nine different types: “rideshare driving”, “delivery”, “online tasks”, “house/laundry cleaning”, or “other platform work”, “selling used goods”, “selling homemade goods”, “selling consumer brands”, and “selling other goods”. The special issue also showcases in-depth qualitative work. Brause and Blank (this volume) conduct in-depth interviews to learn about the role of Smart Speaker Assistants (SSAs) in the home. And Orr and Davis (this volume) conduct interviews with practitioners to find out about the ethics of artificial intelligence practitioners. Hargittai and colleagues develop a protocol for studying people’s awareness and understanding of algorithms in their interactions with online services including voice assistants, such as Alexa and Google Home. A key theme through all papers is a critical lens. Dodel and Mesch (this volume) look at automation. Boulianne, Koc-Michalska, and Bimber (this volume) examine the Facebook, Twitter, and television in protests. And finally Li and Luo (this volume) examine the roles of news media and Weibo in gender bias. Overall, the special issue provides theoretically-grounded, empirically-sound, and cutting-edge research and analysis.

Digital technologies have become enmeshed in everyday life causing the public to become exposed to potential privacy risks through data collection and aggregation practices. Further, the upsurge in use of social networking platforms has also created opportunities for privacy violations through institutional and social surveillance. Employing a qualitative thematic analysis, this study explores how adults (N=101) living in East York, Toronto, navigate privacy through their use of the internet and digital services. Participants expressed feelings of mistrust, loss of control, resignation, and perceived self-unimportance with regards to their digital data. Importantly, others noted their desire and attempts to gain agency when using online services. This study provides support for the rich and developing body of literature on the sociology of resignation; as such, it challenges the notion that digital users are unconcerned about their data online and argues for a re-evaluation of the "informed" and "empowered" actor metaphor at the heart of the privacy paradox debate.

This qualitative case analysis of Starbucks (US) Coffee Company seeks to develop an understanding of corporations and their engagement in social activism, through the use of “wokewashing” advertisements, to identify the consequences that result from corporations becoming involved in activism related to marginalized identities. Generally, this inquiry is concerned with how corporate wokewashing creates ideas of “legitimate” victims. The objective of this research is to contribute to pre-existing literature that speaks to the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by introducing wokewashing as an evolutionary practice of this concept, and one that reinforces Peter Drucker’s (1984) conceptualization of CSR. Given such an objective, I propose two research questions attending specifically to Starbucks, inquiring: Does Starbucks use wokewashing relating to marginalized identities as a method to promote their brand? And if so, who is their focus? The theoretical framework used here was that of Becker's "Moral Entrepreneurship" (1963), and a grounded theory analysis of 366 Starbucks Facebook posts over five years (2014-2019) were examined to assess how and to what extent our research questions transpire online. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel, coded by themes relating to brand promotion: product advertisement, community relations, employee relations, disaster relief, and wokewashing. Findings reveal that Starbucks (US) engages in wokewashing with a focus on marginalized sexual identities (LGBTQ+), and implications are discussed. This paper concludes with an effort to situate this conversation within a pragmatic understanding of corporate behaviour and emphasize the inherent self-interest that drives corporate behaviour.

We can no longer be certain whether the central terms and conceptual matrix that the Italian Autonomist Marxist tradition richly develops and draws on--the common, the general intellect, immaterial labour, psychopolitics, cognitariat--are able to survive unscathed the theoretical problems that the epoch of the Anthropocene poses. In an attempt to push this conceptual matrix to its political and ontological limits, I expose a series of “ecological deficits” at the core of Autonomist thought and make the argument that semiocapitalism is a geological operator just as much it is a cognitive, financial or linguistic one. This has a plethora of paradoxical implications that are constellated throughout the three chapters. The first chapter explores the non-mediatic conditions of possibility behind “mediation”: following Jussi Parikka and Matteo Pasquinelli, the first “ecological deficit” emerges due to conflating the mediasphere with the subjective operations of the “sign” (semiotic flows of labour, knowledge, information) and “desire” (creative flows, libidinal energy, affects) as well as over-valuing the “general intellect” (the productive powers of the social brain) and its exclusive relation to the infosphere (knowledge transmission, big data, linguistic networks of communication), the cognitariat (social subjectivity, value-producing labour) and the technosphere (machines, fixed capital). The second chapter critiques Antonio Negri’s ontological theory of value: following Silvia Federici and Jason W. Moore, the second “ecological deficit” emerges due to Autonomism’s negligence of socially necessary unpaid work, non-human relations of reproduction and cheap nature that make possible value-producing labour; this chapter also, following Bernard Stiegler, critiques an ontology of the sign that privileges expressionism (immaterial semiotic productivity, meaning and epistemics) over impressionism (retentional systems of incarnation, reproduction and energetics). The third chapter develops a critique of representational eco-politics or the spectacular Anthropocene: following Jean Baudrillard and Yves Citton, the final “ecological deficit” emerges due to the hyperplasia of images, data and simulacra of the Anthropocene itself, whereby the referent is spectralized by the luminescent aura of the sign, resulting in complicated forms of irrelevance, boredom and attentional scarcities. Each chapter in its own way develops the speculative leitmotif of a “transcendental geology"--i.e. the claim that the earth is a condition of possibility for thought.

This thesis critically analyzes Twitch.tv, a gaming-oriented, online live-streaming site. Viewing the site as a ‘lean platform’ (Srnicek, 2017), it analyzes many aspects of Twitch’s business operations, including ownership structure, video game industry affiliations, use of data, and the monetization of user activity. This analysis then identifies three major areas of concern arising from these operations: the tendency toward monopolization in the gaming industry and its peripheral activities; the intensification of audience commodification; and, the tendency to turn professional streamers into precarious creative labourers. All of these implications point to a growing need for concerted labour organization. The goal of this thesis is to address gaps in the existing literature about Twitch and to provide a foundation for future critical inquiries into the site.

In contemporary marketing, corporations often work to induce consumers to participate in co-creating their brand value. Consumers, therefore, can be considered marketers, who are then used by marketing managers to create competitive advantage and market opportunities. Through processes of co-creation, companies also obtain valuable information about consumer preferences and values, which, in turn, can lower production costs. This thesis uses Coca-Cola as a case study to explore the ways international companies work to incorporate elements of Chinese culture and employ Chinese social media platforms in their promotional messages and activities in order to encourage Chinese consumers to co-create their brand value. The thesis contends that the brand value co-creation process has many implications for Chinese society, including accelerating transformations in Chinese consumers’ cultural values and identities.

Seeking out prey, laying traps, targeting the ‘weak’, and being proud of their ‘latest kill’ are some of the behaviours that are often associated with hunters. However, through this research, it can be argued there is a new type of predatorthat society, mainly youth, ought to consider – the cyberbully. Cyberbullies are a distinct subculture associated with the youth phenomenon of cyberbullying. Through this research, cyberbullying is constructed as a deviant youth internet phenomenon that emerges and affects youth as a result of increased usage and reliance on social media platforms, technology, and the Internet. As a result of a qualitative popular film analysis, using the tools of textual and thematic analysis, various metaphors are constructed that allow a reconceptualising of the term ‘cyberbully’ in order to better understand the behaviours, activities, and characteristics of such youth who fall into this subculture. As a result, it is argued that cyberbullies are the hunters of the online world, as they use a set of specific tactics to target their victims online. This research explores a new way to construct an understanding of those classified as cyberbullies and explores the characteristics they exude to lead to a better understanding of how to conceptualize cyberbullies and their behaviours, which can, in turn, lead to more effective policies and approaches to addressing cyberbullying behaviour. Keywords:cyberbullying, youth culture, deviancy, cyberbullies, social media, online predator

When’s the last time you checked your digital footprint? With the increasing prevalence of threats to our digital privacy and the security of personal data, it is more important now than ever before to learn what you can do to protect yourself online. This workshop will delve into who is watching and what they may be able to find. It will also provide an overview of the shortcomings of Canadian privacy legislation and walk you through practical steps to reclaim your digital privacy.

Indigenous peoples are addressing the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism through a variety of expressions of community resurgence. Among these initiatives are those leveraging digital technologies. In the emergent network society, digital infrastructures, and information and communication technologies are powerful tools that can support self-government. In this context, we document the development of digital data management in the Mohawk community of Kahnawà:ke. Data is the digital information generated by a community, encompassing areas like research, education, finance, health, membership, housing, lands, and resources. As self-determining political entities, each First Nation determines how this data is interpreted and used, supported by tools like data management platforms and information-sharing protocols. In this article, we show how local practices regarding the collection, use, and sharing of digital data in Kahnawà:ke provides a clear example of Indigenous resurgence.

Currently, there is a lack of research investigating how the unique structural conditions of cyberspace may influence the expression of ‘dark’ personality and the role of such e-personality in explaining instances of online misconduct. Using a theoretical framework of context-dependent personality, this study seeks to fill a gap in the literature by using self-report survey data to explore whether the internet may decrease, increase, or intensify the expression of psychopathy. Quantitative data analysis in this study shows that when controlling for social context, internet users exhibit higher levels of psychopathy online than offline, which is especially pronounced in male subsamples. Further multivariate models examine the role of this ‘cyber-psychopathy’ in understanding misconduct behaviours on the internet, such as cyber-stalking, trolling, flaming, and digital piracy. Results demonstrate that primary cyber-psychopathy is positively correlated with one’s level of acceptability toward online misconduct behaviours, while both primary and secondary cyber-psychopathy are positively associated with one’s tendency toward engaging in such transgressions. This study serves to highlight the potential impacts of heightened psychopathic personality online, while suggesting practical implications that emphasize the need to foster empathy and close psychological distance between internet users in online communities.

This dissertation argues that class composition, as defined and theorised by Operaismo and Autonomist thinkers, has had both a major and a minoritarian form. In fact class composition in its major form has always been subtended by a minor current. I examine both historical (the 1905 Russian Soviets, the 1919 Turin factory councils, the Italian social movements of the 1970s) and contemporary examples (the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt, the Indignados movement in Spain, and Occupy Wall Street in 2011, as well as the 2012 Quebec student strike) of class composition. From these examples I then argue that the minor current of class composition is rooted in social reproduction – both its crisis and its recuperation. And further that this minor current expands throughout history, growing to command greater attention within social and labour movements. Further, this dissertation argues that contemporary social movements appear today as an assemblage, a human-machinic assemblage, which enact social reproduction in crisis and recuperation through both embodied and technologized forms. I demonstrate the ways in which technologies of communication are implicated in forms of securitised and commodified social reproduction, but also open up new and powerful possibilities for autonomous and liberatory social reproduction. This dissertation relies on a merger of conceptual, theoretical, and field research and benefits from the author’s direct involvement in social and political struggles.

This study explores how emerging adults (Arnett, 2000) in their first- and second-year of undergraduate study make use of social networking sites (SNSs) for their day-to-day sociality. This study compares emerging adults’ use of Facebook, which is the most popular and widely used SNS among this particular demographic, to increasingly popular SNSs Twitter and Instagram. This project seeks to discover how the use of different SNSs supplements, changes, or replaces the use of Facebook, considering social capital exists on each platform, and if and how each sites’ uses and gratifications differ. This study employs face-to-face semi-structured interviews to pursue the proposed research questions, using a grounded theory approach informed by social capital and uses and gratifications theory.

Big data research is currently split on whether and to what extent Twitter can be characterised as an informational or social network. We contribute to this line of inquiry through an investigation of digital humanities scholars' uses and gratifications of Twitter. We conducted a thematic analysis of 25 semistructured interview transcripts to learn about these scholars' professional use of Twitter. Our findings show that Twitter is considered a critical tool for informal communication within DH invisible colleges, functioning at varying levels as both an informational network (learning to 'Twitter' and maintaining awareness) and a social network (imagining audiences and engaging other digital humanists). We find that Twitter follow relationships reflect common academic interests and are closely tied to scholars' preexisting social ties and conference or event co-attendance. The concept of the invisible college continues to be relevant but requires revisiting. The invisible college formed on Twitter is messy, consisting of overlapping social contexts (professional, personal, and public), scholars with different habits of engagement, and both formal and informal ties. Our research illustrates the value of using multiple methods to explore the complex questions arising from big data studies and points toward future research that could implement big data techniques on a small scale, focusing on sub-topics or emerging fields, to expose the nature of scholars' invisible colleges made visible on Twitter., Quan-Haase, A., Martin, K., & McCay-Peet, L. (2015). Networks of digital humanities scholars: The informational and social uses and gratifications of Twitter. Big Data & Society, January-June, pp. 1-12

El artículo se acerca a la caracterización de lo breve a partir de dos temporalidades diversas: lo breve definido desde su duración como elemento de una cadena de acontecimientos y lo breve como irrupción en dicha cadena de contecimientos, que permite pensar otra temporalidad, la de las repercusiones de lo breve. Para definir la temporalidad de las repercusiones de lo breve, el artículo se apoya en la teoría psicoanalítica de Jacques Lacan, particularmente en la definición de la interpretación psi-coanalítica como acto analítco. Para contraponer las repercusiones de lo breve con el tiempo de duración el artículo refle-xiona acerca de Internet como un espacio privilegiado para la transmisión de conocimientos y mensajes, pero también, como obstáculo a la fuerza transformadora de lo breve, cuyo potencial está en surgir entre lo masivo al producir un efecto único. En este sentido, ambas temporalidades, aunque diversas, resultan interdependientes en tanto, lo breve como irrupción surge de lo continuo que puede ser entendido como elementos breves articulados en una cadena metonímica. The article analyses the conceptualization of brevity from two different perspectives: brevity defined as part of a chain of events and brevity as a break in the chain of events that suggests an-other temporality, one that derives from the repercussions of brevity. In order to define the temporality of the repercussions of brevity, the article drawn from the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, particularly regarding the definition of psychoanalytic interpretation as an analytical act. To differentiate the repercussions of brevity from the temporality of the duration of brevity, the article analyzes the role of internet, on one hand, as a space of communication and transmission of knowledge, but also as an obstacle to the transforming power of brevity, of which its potential remains in its capacity to raise from the massive by producing a unique effect. In this sense, both temporalities of brevity, although different, are interdependent, where brevity, as irruption, arises from the continuous that can be understood as brief elements articulated in a metonymic chain.

This study is concerned with articulating a valid community-building role that the virtual Eucharistic Mass could play within the Roman Catholic Church. I undertake this task in view of those unable to attend a real world Mass because of physical and geographical impediments or for fear of violence. According to the Pontifical Council of Social Communications’ document, “The Church and the Internet,” Eucharistic Mass celebrated through the internet is invalid. The first chapter of this study contextualizes and explains the Church’s stance in this document. The remaining two chapters are framed by the Pontifical study’s two main objections to virtual Mass, namely, the absence of (1) Christ’s presence and (2) interpersonal community. Ultimately, I suggest that it is doctrinally possible to promote participation in the virtual Mass as a sign of solidarity with marginalized Christians as long as it is in view of making real the fully embodied communal Eucharist.

The hacktivist collective Anonymous has been known to follow nonhierarchical, amorphous and sometimes contradictory strategies for online activism. This may weaken their potential to become a populist movement, as out-group members may find Anonymous’s politics obscure and out of reach. Anonymous’s communiqués compensate for this by enabling direct communication with the public. But as a critical discourse analysis finds, the communicative strategies employed deviate from logics of difference and non-identity. They express rigid beliefs, even at times under the banner of universal truth. However, these findings do not suggest Anonymous inevitably embraces identity. By adopting a Deleuzian concept of minor politics, this thesis proposes that Anonymous’s texts are strategic appropriations of molar identities, emphasizing how the minor never fully exists outside the molar. Rather, the minor is always a movement within or across immanent molar configurations. The tensions and contradictions within Anonymous are thus exemplary of a minor political struggle.

This thesis explores the marketing, branding, and fundraising activities of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and critically examines promotional texts used to communicate with the public. This thesis is multidisciplinary, combining scholarly work on the topics of history, humanitarianism, marketing, branding, commercialization, representation, and consumer culture. By adopting market logic and corporate strategies from the private sector, both organizations have increased revenue and created a strong identifiable brand. Each organization attempts to balance between the moral foundation or grassroots origins of the organization and the need to raise immediate revenue to sustain operations. This money-morals dilemma is also at play within the promotional material of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as each promotional text inadvertently seeks donations while also addressing the organizations’ desire to mobilize shame to aid sufferers. Humanitarian action has been dramatically redefined by both organizations to include the act of consumption and speech-acts. It is concluded that some forms of corporate-inspired marketing and fundraising efforts have changed the nature of donor involvement with the cause. Virtuous action has been made easy and thoughtless, disconnecting donors from the potential benefactors of their actions and divorcing action from duty and sacrifice (Eikenberry 2009). This notion is propagated in the promotional material of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as the technologization of action has enabled on-the-spot interventions that have simplified the spectator’s mode of engagement with the cause (Chouliaraki 2010). The promotional material of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also engage spectators in playful acts of consumerism, emphasizing the brand values of each organization (Chouliaraki 2010).

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the digital self-presentation of professional athletes. Central to this purpose was the application of Goffman’s (1959) self-presentation theory to the social media landscape in order to further our understanding of online athlete behavior through a theoretical lens. Study 1 established how professional athletes are presenting themselves on Twitter through the identification of ten focused self-presentation strategies and explored differences in athlete strategy based upon gender. Content analyses compared male and female athlete tweets relayed by all professional tennis players with a verified Twitter account. The analysis suggested that while athlete image construction was largely similar between genders, male athletes spent more time in the role of sport fan while female athletes spent more time in the role of brand manager. Study 2 built upon the framework for athlete self-presentation established in Study 1 by asking sport consumers to identify their level of interest in each self-presentation strategy. A self-administered online survey was created to measure audience interest and sent to a snowball sample of golf consumers (N = 377). The most salient strategy reported was the sport insider. The study suggested that fans may not be as interested in the personal details of an athlete’s life outside of sport as previously suggested. A disconnect between the self-presentation strategies being employed by athletes on Twitter and the strategies sport consumers reported being most interested in was also identified. Study 3 investigated how professional athletes present themselves in their Twitter profile picture and included an interpretation of this photographic self-presentation by a Generation Y audience (N = 141). Participants assessed a sample of profile photos of the most followed male and female athletes on Twitter by providing their first impressions of each athlete’s image and then evaluating photo favorability and effectiveness. This research provided evidence to suggest that individuals invest meaning in the social cues provided in athlete profile pictures. Athletes who highlighted a sport context were consistently ranked most favorably and effectively and were associated with positive word associations. The findings underscore the importance of a strategic alignment between social media profile content, profile photos, and the brand established by athletes.

An instructor tried using connectivism to teach an online graduate Education course called Teaching in a Virtual World. As a way to embody the many connections inherent in the group, all members of the class created and taught modules of their own choosing to each other. The instructor and two former students reflected together online in depth about their experience and coded their joint understandings. Schwab's commonplaces of curriculum emerged in the data, demonstrating that it is still current. They found that the course, however, was not completely connectivist due to limitations emanating from its operation within a traditional university setting.

On March 31, 2010, Access Copyright applied to the Copyright Board to certify a tariff that would govern the relationship between the organization and the members of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) and the Association of Community Colleges of Canada (ACCC). Previously, the relationship had been governed by a series of license agreements between the organizations which had been periodically renewed. But Access Copyright chose not to seek renewal of the licenses, and applied to the Board to certify a general tariff that would cover all post-secondary institutions for the period of 2011 through 2013. Access Copyright was not merely trying to carry forward the terms of previous licensing agreements in the form of a Board certified tariff. Rather, they were seeking a tariff with a much higher rate, wider scope and broader application; one which would place new burdens on the institutions, their staff and students, and which would also jeopardize many of the rights of academic staff and students. This working paper reviews the terms of the Proposed Tariff and its progeny licenses and discusses several of the arguments that have been raised against them. The first general grouping is that many of the provisions are ambiguous, counterintuitive and are based on problematic definitions which attempt to extend the reach of the compensable activities beyond what is authorized by Canadian law. The second broad issue is the lack of value in the Proposed Tariff itself. The third general grouping deals with the audit, reporting, monitoring and survey (ARMS) provisions in the Proposed Tariff and the progeny licenses. With respect to the Proposed Tariff, we argue that several of its terms are also ultra vires the Copyright Act and would not have survived scrutiny had they been fully litigated. While recent developments have cast a new light on these issues, many of the concerns raised in this report about the Proposed Tariff remain unresolved. Despite strong arguments to the contrary, and their previous opposition to the Proposed Tariff at the Board; AUCC, ACCC and several institutions still felt that a license with Access Copyright was needed. In January 2012, Access Copyright announced they had reached licensing agreements with the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario, the terms of which were substantially similar to the proposed tariff. Following the “lead” of UWO and the University of Toronto, AUCC and ACCC have since announced a similar agreement with Access Copyright, resulting in a “Model License,” and they have since dropped their opposition to the Proposed Tariff at the Copyright Board. In this report, we refer to the UWO and University of Toronto agreements and the AUCC/ACCC model licenses as the “progeny” of the Proposed Tariff because despite some differences, they are substantially similar in many respects. To date, some institutions have accepted the Model License, others have rejected it, and many others had not yet announced their intentions as of the end of July 2012. This paper is divided into five sections. Following this introduction, section 2 will address some of the definitional problems in the Proposed Tariff and progeny licenses in more detail. First and foremost are the definitions of “copy” and “course collection” which increase the scope of the statutory reproduction right and create other burdens. These overbroad definitions are foundational problems with the tariff/licenses which not only exceed the scope of owners' statutory rights, but will have the potential to substantially impede the delivery of course materials, adversely impact faculty and student privacy rights, and ultimately threaten academic freedom. The other problematic definition involves the “Secure Network,” along with various limitations that flow from this definition. The third part of this report will ask the question: What value would institutions obtain under the Proposed Tariff and its progeny licences? A review of section 3 of the Proposed Tariff and its progeny indicates that the scope of the permissions does not add very much to what is already permitted under fair dealing and other limitations and exceptions in the Copyright Act. In addition, the scope of Access Copyright's repertoire is ambiguous, and the value of the indemnification clause in the progeny licenses is very limited. The fourth section will turn to the audit, reporting, monitoring, and survey (ARMS) provisions in the Proposed Tariff. We argue that these measures are overbroad and ultra vires the Copyright Act. They should be substantially scaled back if not entirely eliminated from any eventual tariff order. And while these ARMS provisions have been cast in modified terms in the progeny licenses, these corresponding provisions remain highly problematic. The last section will look at the implications of more recent developments (including the UWO and UofT licenses of January 30th, the AUCC and ACCC Model License, and the withdraw of AUCC from objector status at the Board) for the tariff proceedings which are still pending at the Board. It will close with a summary of the recommendations made throughout this report. And while a full treatment of the implications of the passage of Bill C-11 in June and the Supreme Court's historic July pentalogy is beyond the scope of this report, they will also be considered throughout this report. Therefore, the overall purpose of this report is to identify and address some of the key issues that have been raised from the outset about the Proposed Tariff dispute, as they remain largely unresolved. In addition to highlighting flaws with the Proposed Tariff and its progeny licenses, we will offer some suggestions for how an effective and fair tariff or license could be crafted. We are calling this report a Working Paper as it is very much still a work in progress given the fast pace of current developments and the still unsettled state of the issues. Many institutions have yet to announce whether they will accept or reject the model license agreement and the status of the tariff proceedings before the Copyright Board still needs to be addressed.

Little research examines the ways in which Facebook affects breakups. This exploratory study aimed to determine the prevalence of breakup practices unique to Facebook; to gain an understanding of the relationship between Facebook use and distress following a breakup; and to determine what strategies people use to cope with romantic breakups in the Facebook era. This topic was examined using a mixed methods approach that included a survey and semi-structured interviews. Findings show that content on Facebook can be a source of distress for individuals who have recently experienced a romantic breakup. People who engaged in high levels of interpersonal electronic surveillance experienced more breakup distress and Facebook breakup distress than people who did not. Coping mechanisms for dealing with distress caused by content on Facebook following a breakup are complex, as many coping mechanisms can create new distressing situations.

Across Canada, rural and remote First Nations face a significant 'digital divide'. As self-determining autonomous nations in Canada, these communities are building broadband systems to deliver public services to their members and residents. To address this challenge, First Nations are working towards a variety of innovative, locally driven broadband development initiatives. This paper contributes a theoretical discussion that frames our understanding of these initiatives by drawing on the paradigm of the 'First Mile' (Paisley & Richardson, 1998). We argue that broadband development policy in Canada must be re-framed to address the specific needs of First Nations. The First Mile position foregrounds community-based involvement, control, and ownership: a consideration we suggest has particular resonance for First Nations. This is because it holds potential to move beyond the historical context of paternalistic, colonial-derived development policies, in the context of broadband systems development. We argue First Nations broadband projects offer on-the-ground examples of a First Mile approach, and call for more research in this area.

In this article, the recent strategic turn by U.S.-based media corporations toward the use of broadband technologies, particularly online video, is assessed as a turning point in how news is being conceptualized, distributed, and consumed. Using the heuristic tool the integrated news spectacle, and its application to political, economic, and technological developments propelled forward by the 2005 Live 8 concerts, the authors analyze contemporary trajectories concerning the news and their more general implications regarding what Innisians refer to as the annihilation of time. Résumé : Dans cet article, la stratégie récente destinée à diriger les corporations des médias américains vers les technologies “broadband”, la vidéo sur Internet en particulier, est analysée comme un changement majeur en ce qui concerne la conceptualisation, la distribution et la consommation des nouvelles. Pour ce qui est de l’outil heuristique, le spectacle intégré des nouvelles, et de son application aux développements politiques, économiques, et technologiques avancés par les concerts “Live 8” de 2005, les auteurs analysent les trajectoires contemporaines vis- à-vis les nouvelles et les implications générales pour ce que les étudiants d’Innis appellent l’anéantissement du temps.