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Video gaming is a popular youth pastime that has prompted scholarship into its relationship with psychological well-being. However, sexual and gender diverse youth (SGDY) who play video games are largely overlooked in this research. SGDY experience significant mental health challenges, but utilize coping strategies mediated by digital technologies, necessitating an examination of their video game playing and its effects on well-being. This literature review synthesizes the emerging evidence base by identifying key constructs related to SGDY well-being and video gaming. Five themes were derived from the literature: (a) SGDY identity development and self-expression in video games; (b) SGDY video gaming and coping skills; (c) Social support in SGDY video gaming communities; (d) SGDY digital microaggressions in video gaming; and (e) SGDY civic engagement through video gaming. The findings establish multiple risks and opportunities for harnessing video games to support SGDY's well-being. Recommendations for practice, research, and industry collaborations are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Much of the research on ethnic enclaves in the United States has focussed on physical, geographic spaces or brick‐and‐mortar establishments that foster community building and provide shared resources for immigrant groups, such as those from Latin America, Asia and Europe. These studies often highlight the benefits and challenges enclaves provide, with only a limited discussion of how immigrant women use these spaces. Using survey data drawn from Kenyan women residing in the United States, this study aimed to answer two research questions: (1) Does membership in social media groups comprised of Kenyan female immigrats vary (e.g. by age, immigration status)? (2) Do age and immigration/citizenship status influence Kenyan female immigrants' reasons for joining social media groups? The bivariate results show that older women and those who migrated to the United States for school or through the Green Card lottery programme were likelier to join Tumaini and other immigrant‐specific social media groups. Regarding factors influencing their reasons for joining these groups, the regression results revealed that US citizens and permanent residents were less likely to join the group for solidarity/support. Furthermore, those who migrated for school or to join family members were likelier to join the Tumaini group for support/solidarity. This finding suggests that older women, being more likely to belong to physical social groups, have a relatively stronger attachment to such groups. Consequently, their willingness to join the Tumaini group, despite it being an online community, may be stronger than that of their younger counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Media Research / Zeszyty Prasoznawcze is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The emergence of internet-based communities, popularly known as social media, has transformed communication drastically. Due to its importance, scholars have written on the subject within the Ghanaian context. However, the literature remains fragmented without knowledge of its current state, gaps, and opportunities for future research. To address this, we synthesised 29 peer-reviewed articles in academic databases from 2013 to 2023. Through a systematic literature review, we observed that social media research in Ghana had been underpinned by the quantitative approach at the expense of the others. Likewise, the most explored theme is Social Media and Politics, whereas the least is Health Communication and Social Media. Based on the gaps identified, we made recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last few years have seen the development of a new line of research around the relationship between digital platforms and activism. The influence of the internet and social media on the civic and political engagement of young people in particular has become clear. Digital platforms perform in this regard a set of functions crucial to activism in terms of communication, mobilization, and logistics. These are indispensable tools, especially to young people belonging to informal structures. Digital platforms have also been shown to facilitate emotional and solidarity networks thus fostering a sense of community and a strengthening of collective identities. In this article we aim at examining this aspect based on in-depth interviews with young activists conducted in Portugal during a three-year project (2020–2022). We have concluded that, especially in certain activism contexts involving social groups of neglected or non-normative identities, digital platforms function as a crucial empowerment tool. These are linked to the emotional support for and recognition of the identities of these young people, incentivizing the creation of fields of political and social intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasingly ubiquitous digital communities have become dynamic online social hubs for netizens to proliferate internet memes. While there have been an abundance of studies of memes, a dearth of investigations have examined how an internet user becomes an active producer of memes. Hence, we explored the narratives of two Filipino netizens, whom we call "memeifiers," as we identified them as constant generators of memes. Based on the semi-structured interview data and analysis of their memes, we metaphorically posit that digital communities can be likened to online gardens where butterflies (memeifiers) dynamically engage in producing and pollinating memes. Using narrative configuration, we labelled their experiences into metamorphic narratives with three stages: (1) the cocoon stage, in which meme literacy is formed through active memes consumption; (2) the metamorphosis stage, in which meme-literate netizens vigorously generate memes then metamorphose into memeifiers; and finally, (3) the pollination stage, when memeifiers, akin to butterflies, continuously become cultural pollinators as they spread cultural artifacts through memes in various online communities. With these findings, we lay down some recommendations for future meme studies, such as that the metamorphic narrative of memeifiers be investigated in other geographical contexts since a memeifier's story may vary due to cultural differences. Moreover, we recommend that the scope of participants be broadened, employing similar or other qualitative research designs and even quantitative perspectives to further scrutinize the metamorphosis of memeifiers and their roles as cultural pollinators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The current market is determined by the influence of the entrepreneurial professional and the client's perception of value, regarding the professional's positioning in their business. Objective: The objective of this study was to validate the PRO Method by applying phases 1 to 5 with members of the DentistaPRO Digital Community. Methods: Over the course of one year, the community members were trained through recorded content and live digital mentoring sessions held weekly. These contents were divided into dental knowledge (technical), development of non-technical skills (digital communication, positioning, and influence), and entrepreneurship. After this period, a digital social movement was conducted through the Instagram social network, with a campaign aimed at raising awareness among dentists and their patients, titled "Recession is a Disease." Results: The participation of the dentists was voluntary, with a participation rate of 84.4%, and a sample of 10.3% of the participating members submitted data obtained from the Insights tool of their respective Instagram profiles, 7 days before and 7 days after the campaign. A total of 17 criteria were analyzed. Overall, the data obtained in this study confirmed growth in the analyzed criteria, ranging from 22% to 16,000%. The results obtained in this study validated the applied method, as all participating members showed growth in most of the evaluated criteria and the impact of the campaign's theme on the dental market. Conclusion: Within the limits of this study, it can be concluded that digital communities are powerful networks of influence that form local influencers as agents of change, with positive impacts on careers, the market, and the social sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What distinguishes real-world communities from their online counterparts? Social and cognitive neuroscience research on social networks and collective intentionality will be used in the article to answer this question. Physical communities are born in places. And places engage "we-mode" neurobiological and cognitive processes as behavioral synchrony, shared attention, deliberate attunement, interbrain synchronization, and so on, which create coherent social networks of very different individuals who are supported by a "wisdom of crowd." Digital technologies remove physical boundaries, giving people more freedom to choose their activities and groups. At the same time, however, the lack of physical co-presence of community members significantly reduces their possibility of activating "we-mode" cognitive processes and social motivation. Because of this, unlike physical communities that allow interaction between people from varied origins and stories, digital communities are always made up of people who have the same interests and knowledge (communities of practice). This new situation disrupts the "wisdom of crowd," making the community more radical and less accurate (polarization effect), allowing influential users to wield disproportionate influence over the group's beliefs, and producing inequalities in the distribution of social capital. However, a new emergent technology—the Metaverse—has the potential to reverse this trend. Several studies have revealed that virtual and augmented reality—the major technologies underlying the Metaverse—can engage the same neurobiological and cognitive "we-mode" processes as real-world environments. If the many flaws in this technology are fixed, it might encourage people to engage in more meaningful and constructive interactions in online communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the precipitous changes of the platform formerly known as Twitter, brought on by the change of ownership in late 2022, many networked educators sought, and continue to seek, new digital spaces to continue fostering and developing their digital practice. The authors of this article had all been actively networked on Twitter, and wanted to explore these changes in their professional worlds. As we sought out these spaces we critically began to interrogate our own practices on this platform to gain a deeper understanding of our practice going forward. We've approached this exploration through three vectors: an examination of the terms we use to describe movement from platform to platform, digital identity formation and disruption, and building human connection in digital spaces. The findings from our exploration yielded the following conclusions: (1) With regard to metaphors of movement (i.e., "migration") we leave space open as to which metaphor to use as no metaphor is a perfect fit to explain the complexity of this phenomenon. (2) Digital identity/ies are multifaceted and sometimes place-specific, but some networked affordances seemed to encourage an ever-evolving digital identity more than other spaces. (3) Finally, digital spaces afford us the ability to carve out our own communities from the wider academic community, in the process developing a more owned and voiced identity. However as social media platforms are fleeting, those connections – and identities – are in danger of getting co-opted or deleted as platforms rise and fall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psyke & Logos is the property of Dansk Psykologisk Forlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyses a case study for which an asset-based community development (ABCD) orientation was used to conduct community-based research (CBR). The community in question is, unusually, a digital community comprised of people who sell handmade crafts and vintage goods through digital marketplace platforms. This project, headed by a team of one academic and one community organiser, demonstrates a process by which CBR can be initiated by a community itself in order to effect change in the structural inequalities with which they are faced. To do so, we argue that community members’ expertise is a key asset, both individually and when collectivised through the research process. Involving community members in research on this basis helps change the way they look at themselves and their situation, and strengthens the bonds of this virtual community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the precipitous changes of the platform formerly known as Twitter, brought on by the change of ownership in late 2022, many networked educators sought, and continue to seek, new digital spaces to continue fostering and developing their digital practice. The authors of this article had all been actively networked on Twitter, and wanted to explore these changes in their professional worlds. As we sought out these spaces we critically began to interrogate our own practices on this platform to gain a deeper understanding of our practice going forward. We’ve approached this exploration through three vectors: an examination of the terms we use to describe movement from platform to platform, digital identity formation and disruption, and building human connection in digital spaces. The findings from our exploration yielded the following conclusions: (1) With regard to metaphors of movement (i.e., “migration”) we leave space open as to which metaphor to use as no metaphor is a perfect fit to explain the complexity of this phenomenon. (2) Digital identity/ies are multifaceted and sometimes place-specific, but some networked affordances seemed to encourage an ever-evolving digital identity more than other spaces. (3) Finally, digital spaces afford us the ability to carve out our own communities from the wider academic community, in the process developing a more owned and voiced identity. However as social media platforms are fleeting, those connections – and identities – are in danger of getting co-opted or deleted as platforms rise and fall.

Digital communities have gained increasing popularity in the past decade. However, they have put users at security risks, especially when they neglect to pay attention to the privacy statement and privacy settings. Therefore, digital community platforms must provide clear privacy statements and usable privacy settings. This research aims to evaluate the usability of privacy on WhatsApp and Telegram from the perspective of young Saudis. A total of 51 young Saudis participated in remote usability testing, followed by questionnaires and interviews. The results showed some privacy concerns in the two apps. Specifically, there are differences in the youths' evaluation of the perceived privacy of the participants, with females seeing WhatsApp as more secure than the Telegram App. In the end, some recommendations for improving the privacy policy and settings for each app are discussed to ensure the safety and confidentiality of users' information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Something Awful Let's Play subforum is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of the Let's Play (LP) media phenomenon. LPs typically involve people recording themselves playing games while providing commentary. LPs are an important media form in themselves as well as being an important antecedent to many contemporary and popular media forms such as live streaming, esports and speed-running. An examination of the Something Awful LP subforum can contribute to an understanding of the origins of LPs and the community that created them. In this paper, we report on a study of the Something Awful LP subforum and describe the kinds of engagement the community participates in the top threads, as well as looking to see if there are specific individuals responsible for guiding the subforum overall. We collected data from the thousands of public threads posted in the LP subforum, from its inception in 2007 to the end of 2020. The analysis of these postings presented in this paper draws on previous understandings of the behavioral roles, forms of engagement, and policing of practices that often occur on internet forums as part of the regulation and organization of associated online communities. Our results show that the LP subforum was not dominated by a small minority of users that dictated the community's LP posting, recording and commentary practices, and that the content of the specific threads was much more important in determining what forms of LPs became popular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of an empirical study on the assessment of digital communications management with target groups of Russian universities in social media. A sample of universities is based on the «QS World University Ranking by Subjects 2021: Social Sciences and Management 2021». Among the cases of applied research: National Research University «Higher School of Economics», Russian University of Economics, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, MGIMO University, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. The results of a comparative analysis has been carried out using the method of graph with the use of a special software based on determining the structural links of the most significant digital communities of selected universities, as well as social media analysis aimed at determining the key parameters of user activity. The method proposed by the authors makes it possible to assess the scale and nature of communication between universities and selected target groups. Based on the data obtained, we have developed recommendations for improving the digital management of universities, increasing the density of connections and the integration of users within the online communities of universities as one of the conditions for effective management of a university brand in the modern network space.

Ethnographic practice in the form of fieldwork, its importance as well as changes in approach and method over time within the HFRC has been the subject of several analyses, particularly during the most recent period. The successive confinements and the various limitations to sociability during the pandemic period made it difficult to practice the ethnographic encounter, which was even suspended. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have noticed the formulation of digital communities which refer to public activities by publishing material (photos, videos etc.). Interesting questions arise on the construction of collective identities, collective memory, the conception of time on the basis of lived experiences but also on narratives of the more distant past of communities.

Citizen science has established itself as an important approach to the co-production of knowledge and public participation in scientific research. Combined with digital technologies and online tools, the approach has been celebrated as a path toward the democratization of science. However, only a few studies have investigated the role digital technologies play in shaping interactions between people and nature. Additionally, the role of context in shaping online and face-to-face participation in citizen science projects has yet to receive much attention. This article takes a citizen science initiative in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest in the state of São Paulo as an illustrative case of the emergence of unanticipated consequences of digital technologies. The emergence of a socio-material practice of animal identification through a popular instant-messaging app is described, allowing a better understanding of the role of digital technologies and the context framing citizen participation in challenging environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeking continuous development, a modern community must also be able to adapt to future possible challenges using constrained or limited resources. As a revolutionary communication paradigm, the Internet of Things (IoT) empowers the cutting-edge and emerging applications which enable manifold new intelligent services towards a smart community. The sophisticated ecosystem of a digital community is made feasible by the IoT infrastructure, which also provides community control with access to a wealth of actual data. In addition, IoT platforms empower the ubiquitous computing ability, providing more potentials to the actuators in perception layer in the IoT architecture. With more and more population in the urban areas, sustainability issues have become a key factor to consider in the development of a digital community. We give a modern survey in this study on the most recent developments in IoT for sustainable digital communities. After carefully examining the most recent literature, we specifically highlight the various smart digital community application scenarios, such as smart buildings, energy management, green transportation, trash management, etc. We also look into a number of major issues facing the use of IoT technology in digital communities. Furthermore, we discuss potential future applications and future research areas for IoT, the critical component of sustainable digital communities.

The kind of twenty-first-century poetry that contains the language of late capitalism, products and brands, and resembles the syntax of text messaging, Instagram comments and memes, is a result of the collective rhetoric of a Millennial group of writers that came of age on the Internet. Online communities and publications that emerged between 2010 and 2016 such as Alt Lit, Internet Poetry, Illuminati Girl Gang, and others, have in fact paved the way for provocative multimodal poetry books such as Rachel Rabbit White’s Porn Carnival (2019). These groups of writers, now many in their early to mid-thirties, are the founders of new digital discourse communities, online journals, and digital reading series, which experienced renewed relevance during the Covid-19 crisis when in-person readings were not possible. This paper discusses the aesthetic and social effects of online discourse communities on the production of poetry books, emphasizing how digital communities function as a continuous and collective writing project on their own.

Copyright of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación is the property of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseno y Comunicacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Etnolog is the property of Slovene Ethnographic Museum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociology & Technoscience / Sociología y Tecnociencia is the property of Universidad de Valladolid, Escuela Universitaria de Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Whilst frequently dismissed as "cliché, banal, derivative, portentous, repetitive, and manipulative" (Hodgkinson), offering little other than "fidget-spinner" distractions to appease the masses (Roberts), Instapoetry is a slippery, intricate mode. The simplicity of its aesthetic belies its complex political manoeuvrings, marked by an imperative towards a progressive ideology that contests the sexism and racism of dominant culture. Indeed, despite its "byte-sized" accessibility (Bresge), Instapoetry is deceptive, evoking discourses of 'outsiderness' that locate the genre within an often-problematic logic of rebellion. Examining black feminist Instapoets such as Aja Monet, Yrsa Daley-Ward, and Nayyirah Waheed, as well as 'superstars' of the genre, including Rupi Kaur, Atticus, and Nikita Gill, this paper argues that there is a persistent disjuncture between the extra-textual commentary surrounding Instapoetry, particularly by way of interviews and artistic statements, and the content of works which repeatedly reinscribe conservative, patriarchal, and heteronormative worldviews. Whilst the pithy convenience of new media poetries has undoubtedly helped magnify oppressed voices and perspectives, it has also, more cynically, fostered an insistence on universality that erases complexity and difference in the (largely aesthetic) interests of harmony, and the appeasement of both dominant and minority cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reassesses comparisons of online Chinese networks to the Habermasian public sphere through a dialogue between sinology and ludology. Play has long been considered an integral component of public activity and of the Chinese internet. Researchers emphasised the importance of playful behavior and creative self-expressions for various purposes, including the formation of community ties and identities. However, studies tend to scrutinise the socio-political effects of playing rather than the fundamental connections between play and cultural life. This paper investigates the underlying cultural elements of play that are absent from or underdeveloped in the rational-critical framework and discourses of the public sphere. Building upon this ludological tradition, and specifically focusing on the autotelic, contextual, and appropriative nature of play, we conduct an exploratory, inductive thematic analysis of three case studies that garnered significant domestic and international attention – the abolishment of term limits in China, the #MeToo movement, and the COVID-19 pandemic – to understand the role of play in public communication. Our analysis reveals insights into the creative structural dynamics that underpin the Chinese internet – rules, reciprocity, and irrationality – three aspects that broaden discussions of online activity and engagement. The paper centers itself at the nexus of three separate strands of histories – the public sphere debate, ludology, and the Chinese internet – that have rarely been in dialogue with one another and, in doing so, examines and explains the Chinese cybersphere's current formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate children's out-of-school learning in digital gaming communities. This was achieved by exploring girls' participation in Minecraft communities. Data were generated through interviews, video-recorded play sessions and video-stimulated recall. Multimodal interactional analysis was applied in order to analyze children's mediated actions. The components of Wenger's Social Theory of Learning were used as a basis when exploring learning in children's out-of-school digital gaming communities. Five significant themes of what characterizes learning in digital gaming communities were identified: learning through experiencing, learning through belonging, learning through performing, learning through struggling and learning through enacting participatory identities. The main findings are presented in a tentative conceptual framework that can support teachers, school leaders and policymakers who are interested in connecting children's out-of-school learning experiences with their learning in school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic has affected (among other organizations) universities, because their usual activities have been modified. Social networks, in particular Twitter, have experienced an increase in use. The aim of this research is to analyze the behavior of Spanish universities on Twitter during the period between 1 January and 30 April 2020. The corporate accounts of all Spanish universities were monitored, the most relevant key performance indicators (KPIs: commitment, followers, tweets, favorites, and retweets) were analyzed, and finally, a sentiment analysis of the tweets with the greatest impact was carried out. In addition, this study proposes the ECCD model (educational, cooperative, corporate and informative), which is capable of categorizing the type of information issued by universities in crisis situations. This article shows the relevance of Twitter as a communication channel in critical situations, as well as the increased commitment of the digital community to university accounts. It also demonstrates how the positive polarity of messages issued by privately owned universities increases in crisis situations. Finally, this article highlights different behavior between the pre-Covid-19 compared with the pandemic stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Itobiad: Journal of the Human & Social Science Researches / İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Itobiad: Journal of the Human & Social Science Researches and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS) was an infrastructure program designed to facilitate communication and sharing of research ideas and methodologies among researchers in the social and behavioral sciences. The CSISS approach to integrating knowledge across disciplines and paradigms was achieved by broadening the user base of spatially integrated social science (SISS)—cartographic visualization, geographic information systems (GIS), pattern recognition, spatially sensitive statistical analysis, and place-based search methodologies. The Center’s programs made use of Web technologies to promote accessibility to these tools and to related information, foster opportunities for scholars to learn about and master spatial methodologies, and provide intellectual foci for engaging a broad range of scholars in intensive discussion and program development.CSISS was founded in 1999 with the aid of a five-year award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), under its program of support for the development of research infrastructure in the social and behavioral sciences. This report to NSF summarizes the contributions made by the center from its inception until December, 2005, at the end of a one-year no-cost extension.

Career professionals who serve as adjunct faculty at the university level are expected to engage in continual research and publishing to maintain their status as adjunct (part-time) faculty, to be considered for potential advancement, and to qualify for additional compensation. One way of meeting this objective is to participate in online collaborative research projects benefiting from a set of multiple lenses, multiple insights, and a multitude of considerations in regard to design, methodology, data interpretations, and broader reaching implications. A narrative inquiry approach was applied to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of adjunct faculty working in online collaborative research teams. Data was gathered through phone interviews where adjunct faculty shared their personal experiences and reflections about working as collaborative researchers in an online environment. Using an inductive process, themes were drawn from the responses of the participants to address the research question. The dominant themes found were organizational skills, interpersonal skills, and personal growth and development. The results of the study led to recommendations for supporting adjunct faculty in online collaborative research for building a sense of scholarly community and expanding opportunities for personal professional growth.

Purpose: This study presents a qualitative analysis of information posted on the Internet by two communities of French parents promoting the recognition of ADHD in the context of current health and school practices. Method: Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin's approach) was applied to the posted messages, with the aim to discover the main concern and common theme through a constant comparison analysis. Results: Liberating parents from feeling responsible for their child's misconduct was found to be the core category. From this perspective, we account for the commitment of the digital communities to formalize the child's conduct as a consequence of a neurodevelopmental disorder. This approach helps to account for the promotion of behavioural expertise and conditioning strategies (e.g., positive reinforcement) for handling the child's so-called disorder as appropriate parental responses. Giving evidence for parenting struggles was the third main concern of the communities, in the face of perceived skepticism from professionals towards ADHD as a medical condition. Conclusions: By using examples from countries that are found to have a more pro-medical approach to ADHD, the communities aim at improving such medical practices in France. Issues surrounding the claim that ADHD would require a specific style of parenting are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning and teaching on physical university campuses have been enhanced by digital technology both in formally scheduled learning and teaching events and in the less formal spaces in which the higher education experience unfolds. The digital skills and know-how with which students arrive at university will arguably develop throughout the academic journey, though the extent to which they will underpin students' growth into digital citizens, that is, confident and competent participants in a broader range of digitally enhanced social and professional communities, is likely to vary. The present article is the outcome of a research project which explored how students experience learning, teaching and communicating through digital technologies on a range of undergraduate courses at a UK university. Focus groups with fifty-five students in different years of study across twenty-three undergraduate courses revealed a nuanced understanding of the notion of 'digital native', yet a lack of readiness to link participation in digital spaces to digital citizenship and to articulate attributes of an effective participant in digital communities. The focus groups highlighted inconsistent alignment between personal, academic and professional digital spaces. They clearly signalled a need to explore further the commonalities and points of intersection between the three, moving beyond a skills mindset, and paying particular attention to the way in which participants in higher education construct and take up virtual identities, how they negotiate access to digital environments, the degree of control they are able and ready to exercise over digital spaces, and the contribution that universities can make to facilitate the complex developmental journeys towards digital citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As digital interactions become more global, individuals who bring divergent practices 'to the keyboard' must interact with other participants who come to the digital space with different cultural norms and expectations. This study explores the interface between local expectations and global practice through emoji use in online gaming – a venue which brings people from around the globe together on a common 'playing field'. Since emojis were originally designed to tap into universals in human experience and expression, they are a ready-made resource through which individuals can integrate their culture-based expectations with communicative norms that are rooted in the common denominators of the (global) digital environment. Using live chat data from the game streaming platform Twitch, this study examines emojis posted to the open chat room during game streams of one female and one male gamer. The analysis examines the ways that participants use these semiotic images to orient toward gaming communities of practice and claim identities within gaming groups. It also explores whether emoji use is affected by the gender of the streamer. Analysis indicates that participants in the man's stream differ from participants woman's stream in the ways they use emojis to claim community membership and employ emojis as phatic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biafra secessionist agitations in Nigeria continue to generate varied conversations online and offline. This study applies critical discourse analysis and the appraisal framework in examining social actor representations in the ongoing Biafra agitations in Nigeria. It analyses posts produced by interlocutors, as they express variegated stances towards the agitations and its actors, within two vibrant Nigerian digital communities, Nairaland and Nigeria Village Square. This study identifies binary social actor positioning, revealing both negative valence and positive self-representation strategies towards the agitations and principal social actors in the agitations. Expressed within the appraisal resources of attitude, engagement and graduation, these valuations result in the distribution of socially and emotionally constructed identities for the principal social actors in the agitations. Such distribution is socio-cognitive, as there is the likelihood that the representations might evolve into the creation of new ideological orientations or the reinforcement of existing ideological leanings, whose consequences are potentially double-edged for tranquillity in the Nigerian polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a mixed-method quantitative and qualitative content analysis that examined the overlapping presence of agendamelding theory and ingroup out-group formation on the social media platform Reddit. The study looked at the top 10 posts for one month (n = 310) on the pro-Donald Trump subreddit /r/The_Donald. The results show that media choice was used to prove membership to the in-group, often by derogating the media used by the out-group. Specific patterns emerged within the derogative language as well. Links to left-wing and neutral news media sites were often commented on and criticized, while the content of the linked news article was ignored or changed. Right-wing news media sites, which were used as news sources rather than commentary, were typically posted without changes, unlike neutral news media sites, which were often posted in a mocking manner. As agendamelding suggests, participants sought to avoid dissonance by posting media to fit within the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]