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Gina Sipley

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Lurking as Digital Literacy Practice

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Gina Sipley

Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Conclusion

Keywords:: digital literacy; Facebook; lurker; lurking; media literacy; social media

Global Social Challenges:: Society, Culture and Arts, Technology, Data and Society

Notes

Author:

Gina Sipley

Publication Date:: 28 May 2024

Pages:: 112–136

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.51952/9781529227307.bm001

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We all sometimes ‘lurk’ in online spaces without posting or engaging, just reading the posts and comments. But neither reading nor lurking are ever passive acts. In fact, readers of social media are making decisions and taking grassroots actions on multiple dimensions. Unpacking this understudied phenomenon, this book challenges the conventional perspective of what counts as participatory online culture. Presenting lurking as a communication and literacy practice that resists dominant power structures, it offers an innovative approach to digital qualitative methods. Unique and original in its subject, this is a call for internet researchers to broaden their methods to include lurkers’ participation and presence.

Introduction

The now defunct online Jargon Dictionary contains one of the earliest uses of the word delurk, stating that ‘[w]hen a lurker speaks up for the first time, this is called “delurking”’. A reference to this post on delurking can be found in R.B. Nonnecke (2000) Lurking in Email Based Distribution Lists. [Dissertation] Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=55fb98dc5295dd7c6b3e95f5202fe7c7b6f2809e [Accessed 7 December 2022]. Since that time, delurking has become a standardized term within scholarship on lurking to describe the transition from lurker to participant, often within a binary view of participation.

Wishing someone a happy birthday on social media, Facebook in particular, has been the site of interdisciplinary scholarship on social norms, etiquette, and expectations. Among the many studies of the decision whether or not to wish someone a happy birthday, see E. Bryant and J. Marmo (2009) Relational maintenance strategies on Facebook, Kentucky Journal of Communication, [online] 28(2), pp 129–150. Available at: https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=hct_faculty [Accessed 7 December 2022] for a nuanced discussion of the choices one makes in whether to post or withhold from posting. Although Bryant and Marmo do not use the term lurk, their lens of relational maintenance is helpful in destigmatizing and humanizing the complex decision-making calculus one considers before they decide whether or not to lurk.

M. Sullivan (2014) Zuckerberg reiterates: You have to use your real name on Facebook, VentureBeat [online]. Available at: https://venturebeat.com/social/zuckerberg-reiterates-you-have-to-use-your-real-name-on-facebook/ [Accessed 7 December 2022].

Context collapse was first described in J. Meyrowitz (1985) No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, New York: Oxford University Press. Meyrowitz relied on foundational analysis by Erving Goffman to explore how emerging broadcast technologies like radio and television create a flattened and narrow experience for the audience. Goffman has previously used the term ‘audience segregation’ to describe how one, as a social actor, performs differently depending upon the audience. Context collapse was later applied to digital spaces in d. boyd (2001) Faceted Id/entity: Managing Representation in a Digital World. [Doctoral dissertation], Brown University. Available at: http://www.danah.org/papers/Thesis.FacetedIdentity.pdf [Accessed 5 November 2023].

For a glimpse at the picquote, see PictureQuotes.com (nd) You can’t be neutral on a moving train [online]. Available at: http://www.picturequotes.com/you-cant-be-neutral-on-a-moving-train-quote-442732 [Accessed 7 December 2022]. The original source for Howard Zinn’s quotation comes from his memoir, of the same name: H. Zinn (2002) You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History, Boston: Beacon Press.

For some of the structural reasons, see A. Romano (2018) How Facebook made it impossible to delete Facebook, Vox [online]. Available at: https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/3/22/17146776/delete-facebook-how-to-quit-difficult [Accessed 5 November 2023]. For information on the struggles and the benefits, if successfully quitting Facebook, see H. Allcott, L. Braghieri, S. Eichmeyer, and M. Gentzkow (2020) The welfare effects of social media, American Economic Review, 110(3), pp 629–676. M. Tromholt (2016) The Facebook experiment: Quitting Facebook leads to higher levels of well-being, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(11), pp 661–666.

This was in the early days before it was fashionable to leave Facebook in a dramatic flourish over privacy concerns. See coverage of the #DeleteFacebook movement: A. Perrin (2018) Americans are changing their relationship with Facebook, Pew Research Center [online]. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/05/americans-are-changing-their-relationship-with-facebook/ [Accessed 5 November 2023]. Also see Facebook co-founder and former employee Chris Hughes’ op-ed for the New York Times: C. Hughes (2019) It’s time to break up Facebook, The New York Times [online] 9 May. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/opinion/sunday/chris-hughes-facebook-zuckerberg.html [Accessed 9 May 2019].

N. Sun, P.P.L. Rau, and L. Ma (2014) Understanding lurkers in online communities: A literature review, Computers in Human Behavior, 38, pp 100–117; S. Honeychurch, A. Bozkurt, L. Singh, and A. Koutropoulos (2017) Learners on the periphery: Lurkers as invisible learners, European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 21(1), pp 192–211; and N. Edelmann, R. Krimmer, and P. Parycek (2017) How online lurking contributes value to e-participation: A conceptual approach to evaluating the role of lurkers in e-participation, Fourth International Conference on eDemocracy & eGovernment (ICEDEG) IEEE, Quito, Ecuador, pp 86–93.

S. Fox and L. Rainie (2014) Part 1: How the internet has woven itself into American life, Pew Research Center [online]. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2014/02/27/part-1-how-the-internet-has-woven-itself-into-american-life/ [Accessed 5 November 2023].

R. Lindsey (1983) Computer as letterbox, singles bar and seminar, The New York Times, 2 December. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/02/us/computer-as-letterbox-singles-bar-and-seminar.html [Accessed 5 November 2023].

J. Katz (1998) Luring the lurkers, Slashdot. Available at: http://slashdot.org/features/98/12/28/1745252.shtml [Accessed 5 November 2023].

B. Nonnecke and J. Preece (2001) Why lurkers lurk, in paper presented at the Americas conference on information systems conference, Boston. Nonnecke, J. Preece, and D. Andrews (2004) What lurkers and posters think of each other, Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Science. Available at: http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/whylurk.pdf [Accessed 5 November 2023]. B. Nonnecke, J. Preece, D. Andrews, and B. Voutour (2004) Online lurkers tell why they lurk, in paper presented at the 10th Americas conference on information systems, New York. Available at: http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/OnlineLurkersTellWhy.pdf [Accessed 5 November 2023].

There will be further discussion of Rosenblatt’s theory of efferent and aesthetic reading experience in Chapter 3. L.M. Rosenblatt (1994) The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

P. Kollock and M. Smith (1996) Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities, in S.C. Herring (ed) Computer Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social, and Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp 109–128.

H. Jenkins, M. Itō, and d. boyd (2016) Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics, Cambridge: Polity, p 112.

Jenkins does later go on to explore the potential value of lurking in further depth in H. Jenkins, S. Ford, and J. Green (2013) Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, New York: New York University Press.

J. Preece, B. Nonnecke, and D. Andrews (2004) The top five reasons for lurking: Improving community experiences for everyone, Computers in Human Behavior, 20, pp 201–223.

D. Barton and M. Hamilton (2000) Literacy practices, in D. Barton, M. Hamilton, and R. Ivanic (eds) Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context, London: Routledge, pp 7–15.

H.J. Graff (1988) The legacies of literacy, in E. Kintgen, B. Kroll, and M. Rose (eds) Perspectives of Literacy, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, pp 137–172.

Chapter 5 will discuss these ideas in greater depth utilizing the research by W. James Potter. See W.J. Potter (2022) Analysis of definitions of media literacy, Journal of Media Literacy Education, 14(2), pp 27–43; and W.J. Potter (2010) The state of media literacy, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54(4), pp 675–696.

d. boyd (2018) What hath we wrought? danah boyd SXSW EDU Keynote [online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=0I7FVyQCjNg [Accessed 13 January 2023].

This is a starting point for some of the robust scholarship on the effect of media literacy on shaping election results: H. Jenkins, M. Itō, and d. boyd (2016) Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics, Cambridge: Polity; W. Phillips and R.M. Milner (2017) The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online, Cambridge, MA: Polity; W. Phillips and R.M. Milner (2021) You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polluted Information, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

K. Swisher (2021) If you were on Parler, you saw the mob coming, The New York Times [online] 7 January. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/opinion/sway-kara-swisher-john-matze.html [Accessed 7 December 2022]. The Parler app has since met with its own uncertain future when it was implicated as an autogolpe organizing tool in the attacks on the US Capitol. The app was initially removed from Apple’s App store and the Google Play store. Amazon has also removed web hosting privileges for Parler’s web-based application, a decision upheld by the U.S. District Court in Western Washington state, see E. Culliford and J. Stempel (2021) Parler loses bid to require Amazon to restore service, Reuters [online] 21 January. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-parler-idUSKBN29Q2T3 [Accessed 19 January 2023]. At the time of this writing, Parler has recently been reinstated on Apple’s App store, the Google Play store, and through web-based hosting with Amazon.

W. Phillips (2022) The Oxygen of Amplification. Report. Data & Society [online]. Available at: https://datasociety.net/library/oxygen-of-amplification/ [Accessed 5 November 2023].

Chapter 1

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S. Heaney (trans) (1982) Names of the hare, in S. Heaney and T. Hughes (eds) The Rattle Bag: An Anthology of Poetry, London: Faber & Faber, pp 305–306.

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P. Kollock and M. Smith (1996) Cooperation and conflict in computer communities, in S.C. Herring (ed) Computer-Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social, and Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp 109–128, at p 109.

Unlike Kollock and Smith, Morris and Ogan use free riders as two separate words. See M. Morris and C. Ogan (1996) The internet as mass medium, Journal of Communication, 46(1), pp 39–50.

Discretionary database is a term first used by T. Connolly and B.K. Thorn (1991) Discretionary data bases: Theory, data, and implications, in J. Fulk and C. Steinfield (eds) Organizations and Communication Technology, Newbury Park: SAGE, pp 219–233.

B. Wellman and M. Gulia (1999) Netsurfers don’t ride alone: Virtual communities as communities, in Barry Wellman (ed) Networks in the Global Village, New York: Routledge, pp 331–366.

R.B. Nonnecke (2000) Lurking in Email Based Distribution Lists. [Dissertation], p 95. Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=55fb98dc5295dd7c6b3e95f5202fe7c7b6f2809e [Accessed 7 December 2022].

R.B. Nonnecke (2000) Lurking in Email Based Distribution Lists. [Dissertation] Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=55fb98dc5295dd7c6b3e95f5202fe7c7b6f2809e [Accessed 7 December 2022].

B. Nonnecke and J. Preece (2000) Lurker demographics, Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – CHI ’00. doi:10.1145/332040.332409.

B. Nonnecke and J. Preece (2001) Why lurkers lurk, in paper presented at the Americas conference on information systems conference, Boston http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/whylurk.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023]; B. Nonnecke, J. Preece, D. Andrews, and B. Voutour (2004) Online lurkers tell why, in paper presented at the 10th Americas conference on information systems, New York Available at: http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/OnlineLurkersTellWhy.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023].

J. Preece, B. Nonnecke, and D. Andrews (2004) The top five reasons for lurking: improving community experiences for everyone, Computers in Human Behavior, 20(2), pp 201–223, at p 201.

See C. Fullwood, D. Chadwick, M. Keep, A. Attrill-Smith, T. Asbury, and G. Kirwan (2019) Lurking towards empowerment: Explaining propensity to engage with online health support groups and its association with positive outcomes, Computers in Human Behavior, 90, pp 131–140; C.F. van Uden-Kraan, C.H. Drossaert, E. Taal, B.R. Shaw, E.R. Seydel, and M.A. van de Laar (2008) Empowering processes and outcomes of participation in online support groups for patients with breast cancer, arthritis, or fibromyalgia, Qualitative Health Research, 18(3), pp 405–417.

S.A.A. Kasuma and D. Wray (2015) An informal Facebook Group for English language interaction: A study of Malaysian university students’ perspectives, experiences and behaviours, paper presented at the 5th Annual International Conference on Education & e-learning (Eel 2015). Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301406262_An_informal_Facebook_group_for_English_language_interaction_A_study_of_Malaysian_university_students'_perspectives_experiences_and_behaviours [Accessed 6 November 2023].

A. Webster (2016) Review: The ‘trolls’ embark on a high-haired rescue mission, The New York Times [online] 3 November. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/movies/trolls-review.html [Accessed 19 January 2023].

W. Phillips (2016) This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, p 24.

W. Phillips (2016) This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, p 25.

M. Wills (2017) Popcorn: From ancient snack to movie standby, JSTOR Daily [online]. Available at: https://daily.jstor.org/popcorn-from-ancient-snack-to-movie-standby/ [Accessed 6 November 2023].

M. Nänny and O. Fischer (2001) The Motivated Sign: [A Selection of Papers Given at the Second International and Interdisciplinary Symposium], Amsterdam: Benjamins.

J. Lacan and J.-A. Miller (1988) The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, New York: Norton.

Lave and Wenger use the term legitimate peripheral participant to describe lurkers in J. Lave and E. Wenger (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nonnecke suggests the term Non Public Participant in R.B. Nonnecke (2000) Lurking in Email Based Distribution Lists. [Dissertation]. Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=55fb98dc5295dd7c6b3e95f5202fe7c7b6f2809e [Accessed 7 December 2022].

Chapter 2

Versions of Der Bücherwurm can be found at https://en.dopl3r.com/memes/dank/me-at-3am-reading-all-388-comments-of-two-strangers-arguing-on-facebook-classical-art-memes-facebookcomclassicalartmemes/982491 and https://www.verbub.com/i/336088/me-at-3am-reading-all-388-comments-of-two-strangers-arguing-on [Accessed 6 November 2023].

C. Schleicher (1900) Der Bücherwurm. Oil on panel.

R. Barthes (1977) Image-Music-Text: Roland Barthes, translated by S. Heath, Glasgow: Collins.

L.M. Rosenblatt (1969) Towards a transactional theory of reading, Journal of Reading Behavior, 1(1), pp 31–49.

H. Jenkins, S. Ford, and J. Green (2018) Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, New York: New York University Press, p 155.

See Marwick’s work on the networked audience: A. Marwick (2013) Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Jean Lave and Etiene Wenger describe online participation as either central or peripheral. J. Lave and E. Wenger (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Robert Blair Nonnecke describes participation as a fluctuating positionality between public and non-public. R.B. Nonnecke (2000) Lurking in Email Based Distribution Lists. [Dissertation] Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=55fb98dc5295dd7c6b3e95f5202fe7c7b6f2809e [Accessed 7 December 2022]. Jay Bolter describes online participation as a mixture of participants and consumers. J. Bolter (2001) Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print, Routledge: New York. Sanna Malinen gives an overview of the descriptors of active and passive online participation and their limits. S. Malinen (2015) Understanding user participation in online communities: A systematic literature review of empirical studies, Computers in Human Behavior, 46, pp 228–238. Although I am listing a few examples of places where these binary terms originate, they continue to persist in blog posts and influencer marketing on how to build digital audiences.

J. Luiten van Zanden, J. Baten, M. Mira d’Ercole, A. Rijpma, and M. Timmer (2014) How Was Life? Global Well-being since 1820, OECD iLibrary [online]. Available at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/how-was-life_9789264214262-en [Accessed 6 November 2023].

I. Watt (1957) The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding, Berkeley: University of California Press.

See R. Barthes (1977) The death of the author, in Image, Music, Text, translated by S. Heath, Hill & Wang. London: Fontana, pp 142–148; M. Foucault (2006) What is an author?, in James D. Faubion (ed) Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology, New York: New Press; M. Bakhtin (1997) Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

M. Bakhtin (1997) Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

J.D. Bolter (2001) Writing Space, New York: Routledge.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics Database and the United Nations (2020) Literacy for Life, Work, Lifelong Learning and Education for Democracy: Report of the Secretary General (A/75/188), New York: UN, cited in United Nations Educational Scientific Organization (2021) International Literacy Day 2021, UNESCO [online]. Available at: https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ild-2021-fact-sheet.pdf [Accessed 18 January 2023].

H. Rheingold (1993) The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, New York: Perseus Books, p 36.

K.S. Goodman and P.H. Fries (2016) Reading – the Grand Illusion: How and Why People Make Sense of Print, New York: Routledge.

See L. Masterman (1980) Teaching about Television, New York: Palgrave; L. Masterman (1989) Teaching the Media, New York: Comedia.

Center for Media Literacy (2013) Len Masterman and the big ideas of media literacy. Available at: https://www.medialit.org/sites/default/files/connections/len-masterman-and-the-big-ideas-of-media-literacy.pdf [Accessed 13 January 2019].

L. Masterman (1995) 18 principles of media education, Mediacy – Newsletter of Ontario’s Association for Media Literacy, 17(3), pp 2–4.

R. Barthes (1957) Mythologies, translated by A. Lavers [1972], New York: Hill & Wang.

R. Hobbs (2016) Exploring the Roots of Digital and Media Literacy through Personal Narrative, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

R. Barthes (1977) Image-Music-Text: Roland Barthes, translated by S. Heath, Glasgow: Collins, p 148.

R. Barthes (1977) Image-Music-Text: Roland Barthes, translated by S. Heath, Glasgow: Collins, p 148, emphasis in original.

R. Barthes (1975) S/Z, translated by R. Miller, New York: Hill & Wang.

L.M. Rosenblatt (1994) The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, p 169.

J. Katz (1998) Luring the lurkers, Slashdot. Available at: http://slashdot.org/features/98/12/28/1745252.shtml [Accessed 6 November 2023]. M. Muller (2012) Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition? Lurking and contributing in enterprise social media, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, pp 253–256; J. Antin and C. Cheshire (2010) Readers are not free-riders: Reading as a form of participation on Wikipedia, Proceedings of the 2010 ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1718918.1718942; B. Nonnecke, J. Preece, D. Andrews, and B. Voutour (2004) Online lurkers tell why they lurk, in paper presented at the 10th Americas conference on information systems, New York. Available at: http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/OnlineLurkersTellWhy.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023].

G. Beenen, K. Ling, X. Wang, K. Chang, D. Frankowski, P. Resnick, and R.E. Kraut (2004) Using social psychology to motivate contributions to online communities. Proceedings of the 2004 ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ’04). doi:10.1145/1031607.1031642.

H. Jenkins, S. Ford, and J. Green (2018) Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, New York: New York University Press.

G. Hayes (2007) Web 2.0 and the myth of non-participation, Personalize Media [online]. Available at: https://www.personalizemedia.com/the-myth-of-non-participation-in-web-20-social-networks/ [Accessed 8 December 2022].

N. Ellison, P. Triệu, S. Schoenebeck, R. Brewer, and A. Israni (2020) Why we don’t click: Interrogating the relationship between viewing and clicking in social media contexts by exploring the ‘non-click’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(6), pp 402–426.

L.M. Rosenblatt (2004) The transactional theory of reading and writing, in R.B. Ruddell and N.J. Unrau (eds) , 5th edition, Newark, DE: International Reading Association, Article 48, p 1367.

F. Saussure (1916) Course in General Linguistics, translated by W. Baskin [1959], New York: McGraw Hill.

C.S. Peirce (1931–1936) The Collected Papers, Volumes 1–6, edited by C. Hartshorne and P. Weiss, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

L.M. Rosenblatt (2004) The transactional theory of reading and writing, in R.B. Ruddell and N.J. Unrau (eds) Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, 5th edition, Newark, DE: International Reading Association, Article 48, pp 1363–1398.

L.M. Rosenblatt (1969) Towards a transactional theory of reading, Journal of Reading Behavior, 1(1), pp 31–49.

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L. Rosenblatt (1995) Continuing the conversation: A clarification, Research in the Teaching of English, 29(3), pp 349–354.

I am choosing the word encounter rather than describing the event as the moment the eyes meet the page in an attempt to be inclusive of those whose disabilities require alternate ways of reading a text. For example, blind or visually impaired readers who utilize screen readers.

M. Knobel and C. Lankshear (2007) A New Literacies Sampler, New York: P. Lang.

D.E. Alvermann and R.K. Sanders (2019). Adolescent literacy in a digital world. The International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy, pp 1–6.

It is political organizations and the ways that they include state-sponsored education that seek to have limits on language. Think of monolingual policies or efforts to suppress reading lists or genre, etc. B.V. Street (2020) New literacies, new times: Developments in literacy studies, Encyclopedia of Language and Education [online], pp 418–431.

J. Sosnoski (1999). Hyper-readers and their reading engines. In G. Hawisher and C. Selfe (eds) Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st Century Technologies. Urbana: Utah State University Press, pp 161–177.

Chapter 3

Know Your Meme (2020) Conspiracy Keanu, Know Your Meme [online]. Available at: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/conspiracy-keanu [Accessed 15 January 2023].

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) Orion Pictures, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, Embassy Pictures.

Template varieties for Conspiracy Keanu can be found here: Imgflip (nd) Conspiracy Keanu meme generator, Imgflip [online]. Available at: https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/Conspiracy-Keanu [Accessed 16 January 2023].

D. Barton and M. Hamilton (1998) Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in One Community, London: Routledge; and B. Street (2003) What’s ‘new’ in New Literacy Studies? Critical approaches to literacy in theory and practice, Current Issues in Comparative Education [online], 5(2), pp 77–91. Available at: https://www.tc.columbia.edu/cice/pdf/25734_5_2_Street.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023].

M. Hamilton (2000) Expanding the new literacy studies, in D. Barton, M. Hamilton and R. Ivanic (eds), Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context, London: Routledge, pp 18.16–18.29.

S. Heath (1982) Protean shapes in literacy events, in D. Tannen (ed) Spoken and Written Language: Exploring Orality and Literacy, Norwood: Ablex, pp 91–118.

M. Hamilton (2000) Expanding the new literacy studies, in D. Barton, M. Hamilton and R. Ivanic (eds) Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context, London: Routledge, pp 1816–1829.

E. Gross (2020) Underlying America’s unrest is structural racism, The Hill [online]. Available at: https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/500869-underlying-americas-unrest-is-structural-racism/ [Accessed 18 January 2023].

A. Costello (2012) Long Island Index releases study on school segregation. Long Island Herald [online]. Available at: https://www.liherald.com/stories/long-island-index-releases-study-on-school-segregation,40918 [Accessed 14 January 2023].

J. Kucsera and G. Orfield (2014) New York state’s extreme segregation: Inequality, inaction, and a damaged future, The Civil Rights Project [online]. Los Angeles: UCLA. Available at: https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/ny-norflet-report-placeholder/Kucsera-New-York-Extreme-Segregation-2014.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023].

J.C. Mead (2003) Memories of segregation in Levittown, The New York Times [online] 11 May. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/nyregion/memories-of-segregation-in-levittown.html [Accessed 6 November 2023].

United States Census (2021) Average household income US 69560, United States Census Bureau [online]. Available at: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=average+household+income+us+69560&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 [Accessed 16 January 2023].

M. Hicks (2010) Facebook tips: What’s the difference between a Facebook page and group? Facebook, 24 February. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook/facebook-tips-whats-the-difference-between-a-facebook-page-and-group/324706977130/ [Accessed 6 November 2023].

B. Nonnecke and J. Preece (2003) Silent participants: Getting to know lurkers better, in C. Lueg and D. Fisher (eds) From Usenet to CoWebs: Interacting with Social Information Spaces, New York: Springer, pp 110–132.

B. Nonnecke, J. Preece, D. Andrews, and B. Voutour (2004) Online Lurkers tell why, in paper presented at the 10th Americas conference on information systems, New York. Available at: http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/OnlineLurkersTellWhy.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023]; and B. Nonnecke, J. Preece, and D. Andrews (2004) What lurkers and posters think of each other, Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Science. Available at: https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.ezproxy.hofstra.edu/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1265462 [Accessed 6 November 2023].

D. Coughlin and M. Brydon-Miller (2014) Community mapping, in D. Coughlin and M. Brydon-Miller (eds) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research, London: SAGE.

U.S. Constitution, Second Amendment, Library of Congress. Available at: https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-2/ [Accessed 14 March 2023].

S. Wineburg and S. McGrew (2019) Lateral reading and the nature of expertise: Reading less and learning more when evaluating digital information, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 121(11), pp 1–40.

E. Lim, G.M. Sipley, L.S. Mohamed, F.B.T. Tripodi, and V. Perez (2021) Declarations of interdependence: How media literacy practices are developed, negotiated, rejected, and exploited across social media platforms, AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12298; G.M. Sipley (2020) ‘Lurker’ literacies: Living in/through neighborhood Facebook Groups, AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2020i0.11331.

R. Rogers (2018) Otherwise engaged: Social media from vanity metrics to critical analytics, International Journal of Communication, 12, pp 450–472. Available at: https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=e7a7c11b-b199-4d7c-a9cb-fdf1dd74d493 [Accessed 20 February 2019].

J. Wortham (2012) Digital diary: Facebook poke and the tedium of success theater, Bits Blog [online]. Available at: https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/digital-diary-facebook-poke-and-the-tedium-of-success-theater/ [Accessed 15 January 2023].

A. Arad, O. Barzilay, and M. Perchick (2017) The impact of Facebook on social comparison and happiness: Evidence from a natural experiment, SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2916158; and E. Kross, P. Verduyn, E. Demiralp, J. Park, D.S. Lee, N. Lin, H. Shablack, J. Jonides, and O. Ybarra (2013) Facebook use predicts declines in subjective well-being in young adults, PLoS ONE [online], 8(8).

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) funding did increase during the years corresponding to Trump’s presidency. President Trump tried several times to defund the NEA, but bipartisan congressional support sustained the organization and expanded its funding from US$149.8 million (2017) to US$162.3 million (2020). See G. Bowley (2021) Trump tried to end federal arts funding. Instead, it grew, The New York Times, 15 January. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/arts/trump-arts-nea-funding.html [Accessed 6 November 2023].

E. Wilbekin (2022) The fear of the hoodie, The Cut [online]. Available at: https://www.thecut.com/2022/01/trayvon-martin-hoodie-fear.html [Accessed 6 November 2023].

A. Lieb and L Lieb (Hosts). (2020). Real estate opportunities by location in 2020 and 2021. (No. 49, 17 May). In The LIEB Cast. Available at: https://www.listentolieb.com/876124/3756257-real-estate-opportunities-by-location-in-2020-and-2021 [Accessed 6 November 2023]

A. Lieb and L. Lieb (Hosts). (2020). Real estate opportunities by location in 2020 and 2021 (No. 49, 17 May). In The LIEB Cast. Available at: https://www.listentolieb.com/876124/3756257-real-estate-opportunities-by-location-in-2020-and-2021 [Accessed 6 November 2023].

A. Lieb and L. Lieb (Hosts). (2020, May 17). Real estate opportunities by location in 2020 and 2021 (No. 49, 17 May). In The LIEB Cast. Available at: https://www.listentolieb.com/876124/3756257-real-estate-opportunities-by-location-in-2020-and-2021 [Accessed 6 November 2023].

M. Popovac and C. Fullwood (2019) The psychology of online lurking, in A. Attrill-Smith, C. Fullwood, M. Keep, and D.J. Kuss (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Cyberpsychology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp 285–305; and J. Preece, B. Nonnecke, and D. Andrews (2004) The top five reasons for lurking: Improving community experiences for everyone, Computers in Human Behavior, 20(2), pp 201–223..

A. Giddens (2013) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Hoboken: Wiley; and A. Giddens (1990) The Consequences of Modernity, Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, p 64.

J. Dewey (1933) How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

After Amazon’s decision to remove offensive and sexist merchandise, including T-shirts with the phrase ‘Vote Joe and the Ho’ sold by third-party providers, the ‘Vote Joe and the Ho’ memes quickly disappeared. See C. Duffy (2020) Amazon removes vulgar anti-Biden and Harris shirts, CNN [online]. Available at: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/19/tech/amazon-removes-anti-biden-products/index.html [Accessed 6 November 2023]. The meme from my research can be found in my dissertation: G. Sipley (2021) Literacy Practices of Lurkers in Facebook Groups. [Dissertation]. Hofstra University.

Chapter 4

S. Tibbette (2018) Condescending Wonka/creepy Wonka, Know Your Meme [online]. Available at: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/condescending-wonka-creepy-wonka [Accessed 14 January 2023].

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) Wolper Pictures.

Scholars who study lurking have routinely cited learning communities and health-based communities as places where lurking is beneficial. For an overview of sources see M. Popovac and C. Fullwood (2019) The psychology of online lurking, in A. Attrill-Smith, C. Fullwood, M. Keep, and D.J. Kuss (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Cyberpsychology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp 285–305.

A. Correal (2016) Pantsuit Nation, a ‘secret’ Facebook hub, celebrates Clinton, The New York Times [online] 8 November. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/politics/facebook-pantsuit-nation-clinton.html [Accessed 8 December 2022].

N. Woolf (2016) ‘Nasty woman’: Trump attacks Clinton during final debate, The Guardian [online] 20 October. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/20/nasty-woman-donald-trump-hillary-clinton [Accessed 8 December 2022].

D. Chugh (2018) Person You Mean to Be: Confronting Bias to Build a Better Workplace and World, New York: HarperCollins.

L. Michelle (2022) The White Allies Handbook, New York: Dafina.

Food and Nutrition Service (2021) SNAP retailer reminder: Allowable items, Food and Nutrition Service [online] 26 October. Available at: https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/snap-retailer-reminder-ineligibles [Accessed 14 March 2023]; and Food and Nutrition Service (2022) WIC frequently asked questions (FAQs), Food and Nutrition Service [online] 2 August. Available at: https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/frequently-asked-questions [Accessed 6 November 2023].

M. Popovac and C. Fullwood (2019) The psychology of online lurking, in A. Attrill-Smith, C. Fullwood, M. Keep, and D.J. Kuss (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Cyberpsychology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp 285–305; C.F. van Uden-Kraan, C.H. Drossaert, E. Taal, B.R. Shaw, E.R. Seydel, and M.A. van de Laar (2008) Empowering processes and outcomes of participation in online support groups for patients with breast cancer, arthritis, or fibromyalgia, Qualitative Health Research, 18(3), pp 405–417; C. Fullwood, D. Chadwick, M. Keep, A. Attrill-Smith, T. Asbury, and G. Kirwan (2019) Lurking towards empowerment: Explaining propensity to engage with online health support groups and its association with positive outcomes, Computers in Human Behavior, 90, pp 131–140; J. Preece, B. Nonnecke, and D. Andrews (2004) The top five reasons for lurking: Improving community experiences for everyone, Computers in Human Behavior, 20(2), pp 201–223.

S. Fox and M. Duggan (2013) Part two: Sources of health information, Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech [online]. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/11/26/part-two-sources-of-health-information/ [Accessed 8 December 2022].

See J.Y. Han, J. Hou, E. Kim, and D.H. Gustafson (2013) Lurking as an active participation process: A longitudinal investigation of engagement with an online cancer support group, Health Communication, 29(9), pp 911–923; and J. Preece, B. Nonnecke, and D. Andrews (2004) The top five reasons for lurking: Improving community experiences for everyone, Computers in Human Behavior, 20(2), pp 201–223.

C. Fullwood, D. Chadwick, M. Keep, A. Attrill-Smith, T. Asbury, and G. Kirwan (2019) Lurking towards empowerment: Explaining propensity to engage with online health support groups and its association with positive outcomes, Computers in Human Behavior, 90, pp 131–140.

Studies in healthcare use sensemaking as one word, whereas internet-based studies of healthcare tend to use it as a singular term. See E.M. Goering and A. Krause (2018) From sense making to decision making when living with cancer, Communication & Medicine, 14(3), pp 268–273; A.B. Anderson (2019) It doesn’t make sense, but we do: Framing disease in an online metastatic breast cancer support community, Qualitative Research in Medicine and Healthcare, 3(2); and A. Anderson (2019) Walking Each Other Home: Sensemaking of Illness Identity in an Online Metastatic Cancer Community. Dissertation, University of South Florida. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9200&context=etd [Accessed 6 November 2023].

C.W. Choo and N. Bontis (2002) The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge, New York: Oxford University Press; and C.W. Choo (2001) Sensemaking, Knowledge Creation, and Decision Making [online]. Available at: http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/OUP/chooOUP/ [Accessed 8 December 2022].

K.A. O’Brien (2018) I can’t jump ship from Facebook yet, The New York Times [online] 14 April. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/opinion/sunday/delete-facebook-parenting-special-needs.html [Accessed 15 January 2023].

J.T. Child and S.C. Starcher (2016) Fuzzy Facebook privacy boundaries: Exploring mediated lurking, vague-booking, and Facebook privacy management, Computers in Human Behavior, 54, pp 483–490.

Mediated lurking of romantic partners and close relations has been studied by B. McEwan (2013) Sharing, caring, and surveilling: An actor–partner interdependence model examination of Facebook relational maintenance strategies, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16(12), pp 863–869; D. Trottier (2012) Interpersonal surveillance on social media, Canadian Journal of Communication [online], 37(2); and A. Lee and P.S. Cook (2014) The conditions of exposure and immediacy: Internet surveillance and Generation Y, Journal of Sociology, 51(3), pp 674–688.

L. Hammond Gerido (2022) Interview with Lynette Hammond Gerido, 20 May 2022, Zoom.

A. Downing (2019) Our cancer support group on Facebook is trapped, Medium [online]. Available at: https://tincture.io/our-cancer-support-group-on-facebook-is-trapped-f2030a3c7c71 [Accessed 14 January 2023].

The Light Collective (2020) Peer support group: Moderation best practices, The Light Collective [online]. Available at: https://lightcollective.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Online-Peer-Support-Moderation-Best-Practices-Final-2.pdf [Accessed 8 December 2022].

J. Constine (2022) Facebook changes mission statement to ‘bring the world closer together’, TechCrunch [online]. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/22/bring-the-world-closer-together/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAK-aAsbLkpIL07n52AVcuE5_5MIF3WEV37kGY5yuS9z4MPmSYz3qc_wM-SNacvnvMe14k1915pQ4PM1e6-3F_XvUzClaNnPKqyg9cwjNhryR5IqM1lX8NGWe2fUNor94ScmbFMFI5muBjTl7UvkFlORSNq136YkPPFBukzNXcRG [Accessed 14 January 2023].

Facebook (2020) We’re launching new engagement features, ways to discover groups and more tools for admins, Facebook Community [online]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/community/whats-new/facebook-communities-summit-keynote-recap/ [Accessed 14 January 2023].

V. Elliott (2023) TikTok and Meta’s moderators form a united front in Germany, Wired [online] 13 March. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-and-metas-moderators-form-a-united-front-in-germany/ [Accessed 18 March 2023].

S.T. Roberts (2019) Behind the Screen, New Haven: Yale University Press, p 209.

Chapter 5

Imgur (2020) Surely I’m not the only one …, Imgur [online]. Available at: https://imgur.com/gallery/vDsfgzX [Accessed 14 January 2023].

K.S. Goodman and E. Clearinghouse (1981) Miscue Analysis: Applications to Reading Instruction, Urbana: Ncte.

Many US companies traditionally offer two weeks paid vacation; however, workers are often encouraged and rewarded for not taking the full time. In an economy where there is much precarity and gig work, it is challenging to find positions that will even offer the corporate base of two weeks. There is a move towards more flexible vacation time particularly with the ability for a greater number of workers to perform their roles remotely, but this does not apply to the vast majority of US workers. See the Harvard Business Review article that inspired a lot of think pieces in US media about this pre-pandemic: N. Pasricha and S. Nigam (2017) What one company learned from forcing employees to use their vacation time, Harvard Business Review [online]. Available at: https://hbr.org/2017/08/what-one-company-learned-from-forcing-employees-to-use-their-vacation-time [Accessed 6 November 2023].

K.S. Goodman and Y.M. Goodman (2014) Making Sense of Learners Making Sense of Written Language, New York: Routledge.

Meme Generator (nd) How can you read this? There’s no pictures! memegenerator.net [online]. Available at: https://memegenerator.net/instance/72375234/gaston-reading-how-can-you-read-this-theres-no-pictures [Accessed 14 January 2023].

Know Your Meme (2023) The more you know: Image gallery (list view), Know Your Meme [online]. Available at: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-more-you-know/photos [Accessed 14 January 2023].

K. Goodman, P.H. Fries, and S.L. Strauss (2016) Reading – the Grand Illusion: How and Why People Make Sense of Print, New York: Routledge.

National Center for Education Statistics (2018) Exhibit 1. Description of PISA reading literacy proficiency levels: 2018, National Center for Education Statistics [online]. Available at: https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2018/pdf/ReadingProfLevelDescriptionV2.pdf [Accessed 14 January 2023].

Reading Recovery, an early intervention national literacy programme developed by Marie Clay in New Zealand in the 1970s, was adopted by schools in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the United States in the 1980s. Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell built upon Clay’s work to create a levelled literacy intervention system more popularly known as Fountas and Pinnell’s levelled reading that tiers books to grade levels and in the late 1990s developed a robust catalogue of books and curricular materials targeted to each tier, which continue to be purchased by schools and families worldwide. Other commercial-oriented educational endeavours, most notably by Lucy Calkins’ Columbia University Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop, produce additional goods and services that integrate Fountas and Pinnell. Cognitive scientists have disproven the basic tenets of Clay’s work and by extension the work of Fountas and Pinnell and Calkins. Despite the concerns raised by scholars, levelled literacy products continue to be sold worldwide by their publisher, Heinemann. This Reading Recovery Community (nd) International Connections, Reading Recovery Council of North America [online]. Available at: https://readingrecovery.org/reading-recovery/training/international-connections/ [Accessed 14 January 2023]; Fountas and Pinnell Literacy (2023) Fountas and Pinnell Information and Teacher Community, Fountas and Pinnell [online]. Available at: https://www.fountasandpinnell.com [Accessed 6 November 2023]. The Reading and Writing Project: Teachers College Columbia University (2023) Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, readingandwritingproject.org [online]. Available at: https://readingandwritingproject.org [Accessed 14 January 2023].

Y.M. Goodman, D.J. Watson, and C.L. Burke (2005) Reading Miscue Inventory: From Evaluation to Instruction, Katonah: Richard C. Owen Publishers.

K.S. Goodman and Y.M. Goodman (2014) Making Sense of Learners Making Sense of Written Language, New York: Routledge.

d. boyd (2018) What hath we wrought? danah boyd SXSW EDU Keynote [online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=0I7FVyQCjNg [Accessed 13 January 2023].

W.J. Potter (2010) The state of media literacy, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54(4), pp 675–696.

W.J. Potter (2010) The state of media literacy, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54(4), pp 675–696, at p 679.

R. Hobbs (2011) The state of media literacy: A response to Potter, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 55(3), pp 419–430, at p 420.

W.J. Potter (2022) Analysis of definitions of media literacy, Journal of Media Literacy Education, 14(2), pp 27–43. Potter writes: ‘There are some scholars who believe that there is a high degree of agreement about what media literacy means (Aufderheide, 1997; Livingstone, 2003; Redmond, 2012; Scharrer, 2009; Scharrer & Cooks 2006; Schmidt, 2013; Torrent, 2011). there are other scholars who claim that there is great diversity in what people mean when they use the term (Brown, 1998; Christ, 2004; Fedorov 2003; Hobbs & Jensen 2009; Iaquinto & Keeler, 2012; Lantela, 2019; Maksl, Ashley, & Craft, 2015; Martens, 2010; Palsa & Ruokamo, 2015; Potter 2010; Rogow, 2004). Perceptions of diversity of meaning are not limited to the United States but instead seem to be the case globally (Hipeli, 2019; Parola & Ranieri, 2010; Zylka, Müller, & Martins, 2011).

W.J. Potter (2022) Analysis of definitions of media literacy, Journal of Media Literacy Education, 14(2), pp 27–43.

D. Kellner and J. Share (2005) Toward critical media literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 26(3), pp 369–386.

R. Hobbs (1998) The seven great debates in the media literacy movement, Journal of Communication, 48(1), pp 16–32; and R. Hobbs (2011) The state of media literacy: A response to Potter, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 55(3), pp 419–430.

R. Hobbs (2011) The state of media literacy: A response to Potter, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 55(3), pp 419–430.

D. Kellner and J. Share (2005) Toward critical media literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 26(3), pp 369–386, at p 377.

National Association for Media Literacy Education (2015) About NAMLE, 11 April. Available at: https://namle.net/about-namle/namles-history/ [Accessed 13 January 2019].

Action Coalition for Media Education (nd) Mission and vision. Available at: https://acmesmartmediaeducation.net/ [Accessed 13 January 2019].

National Association for Media Literacy Education (2007) Core principles of media literacy education in the United States. Available at: https://namle.net/publications/core-principles/ [Accessed 6 November 2023].

D.C. Moore and E. Bonilla (2014) Media literacy education and the common core state standards. Available at: https://namleboard.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/namlemleccssguide.pdf [Accessed 13 January 2019].

W.J. Potter (2010) The state of media literacy, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54(4), pp 675–696, at p 679.

See D. Adams and M. Hamm (2001) Literacy in a Multimedia Age, Norwood: Christopher-Gordon Publishers; D.E. Alvermann, J.S. Moon, and M.C. Hagood (1999) Popular Culture in the Classroom: Teaching and Researching Critical Media Literacy, Newark, DE: International Reading Association; J.A. Brown (1991) Television ‘Critical Viewing Skills’ Education: Major Media Literacy Projects in the United States and Selected Countries, Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; M. Mackey (2007) Literacies across Media, 2nd edn, New York: Routledge; P. Messaris (1998) Visual aspects of media literacy, Journal of Communication, 48(1), pp 70–80; D. Sholle and S. Denski (1994) Media Education and the (Re)Production of Culture, Westport: Bergin & Garvey; and A. Silverblatt, J. Ferry, and B. Finan (1999) Approaches to Media Literacy: A Handbook, Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.

See J. Meyrowitz (1998) Multiple media literacies, Journal of Communication, 48(1), pp 96–108; R. Pattison (1982) On Literacy: The Politics of the Word from Homer to the Age of Rock, Oxford: Oxford University Press; A. Silverblatt (1995) Media Literacy: Keys to Interpreting Media Messages, Westport: Praeger; H. Zettl (1998) Contextual media aesthetics as the basis for media literacy, Journal of Communication, 48(1), pp 81–95.

See C. Bazalgette (1997) An agenda for the second phase of media literacy development, in R. Kubey (ed) Media Literacy in the Information Age: Current Perspectives, Information and Behavior, Volume 6, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, pp 69–78; R. Hobbs (1996) Media literacy, media activism, Telemedium, The Journal of Media Literacy, 42(3), p iii; and W.J. Potter (2004) Theory of Media Literacy: A Cognitive Approach, Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

P. Mihailidis (2008) Are we speaking the same language? Assessing the state of media literacy in U.S. higher education, SIMILE: Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education, 8(4), pp 1–14.

M. Payne and J.R. Barbera (2013) A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, p 313.

R. Hobbs (2011) The state of media literacy: A response to Potter, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 55(3), pp 419–430, at p 423.

P. Mihailidis (2008) Are we speaking the same language? Assessing the state of media literacy in U.S. higher education, SIMILE: Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education, 8(4), pp 1–14.

M. Bulger and P. Davison (2018) The Promises, Challenges, and Futures of Media Literacy, Data & Society [online]. Available at: https://datasociety.net/library/the-promises-challenges-and-futures-of-media-literacy/ [Accessed 6 November 2023].

Pinterest and Etsy are two sites where ‘Reading is a Window to the World’ merchandise abounds. Some of these products are attributed to novelist Lyn Butler. The phrase, ‘Reading is a Window to the World’ is a sentiment that appears in slight variations across posters, T-shirts, notebooks, and other merchandise marketed to young children and the teachers who guide them.

Within the first financial quarter of 2023, Barnes & Noble reported record financial gains by prioritizing book sales. It will be interesting to track whether this renewed focus on bookselling will persist in coming financial quarters. See M. Hiltzik (2023) Barnes & Noble saved itself by putting books first. Imagine that, Los Angeles Times [online] 1 February. Available at: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-02-01/barnes-noble-survived-a-near-death-experience-and-its-now-growing-again [Accessed 6 November 2023].

See F. Douglass, J.R. Mckivigan, P.P. Hinks, and H.L. Kaufman (2016) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, New Haven: Yale University Press.

history.house.gov (nd) Suffrage for 18-year-olds, US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives [online]. Available at: https://history.house.gov/Records-and-Research/Listing/c_016/ [Accessed 6 November 2023].

The world literacy rankings look beyond standardized assessment and holistically include the newspaper circulation, internet and library availability, years of schooling, and the number of bookstores. See J.W. Miller and M.C. McKenna (2016) World Literacy, New York: Routledge. A quick overview of Iceland’s unique literacy culture can be found in A. Twomey (2016) Iceland: A country of bibliophiles, Book Riot [online]. Available at: https://bookriot.com/iceland-a-country-of-bibliophiles/#:~:text=Perhaps%20due%20to%20their%20geographical [Accessed 12 January 2023]. Iceland is also not an isolated example. Other Nordic nations like Finland as well as Japan regularly rank highly.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics and Global Education Monitoring Report Team (2017) Reducing Global Poverty through Universal Primary and Secondary Education, Unesco.org [online]. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000250392 [Accessed 12 January 2023].

W. Shakespeare, W.H. Sherman, and P. Hulme (2004) The Tempest: Sources and Contexts, Criticism, Rewritings and Appropriations, New York: Norton.

B. Ashcroft (2009) Caliban’s Voice, New York: Routledge.

G. Spivak (2010) Can the Subaltern Speak? Reflections on the History of an Idea, New York: Columbia University Press.

A. Karuza (2022) Council post: Make the most of the creator economy, Forbes [online]. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2022/07/18/make-the-most-of-the-creator-economy/?sh=1cebe99f16e9 [Accessed 12 January 2023].

B.E. Duffy (2018) (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media, and Aspirational Work, New Haven: Yale University Press.

More recent studies show that although the pay gap for Black macroinfluencers is widening, it is narrowing for Black microinfluencers. See S. Bishop (2021) Influencer management tools: Algorithmic cultures, brand safety, and bias, Social Media + Society, 7(1), 205630512110030; A. Pei, Y. Bart, K. Pauwels, and K. Chan (2022) Racial pay gap in influencer marketing, papers.ssrn.com [online]. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4156872 [Accessed 10 November 2022]; and MSL (2021) MSL study reveals racial pay gap in influencer marketing, www.prnewswire.com [online]. Available at: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/msl-study-reveals-racial-pay-gap-in-influencer-marketing-301437451.html?tc=eml_cleartime [Accessed 6 November 2023].

W. Safire (2009) Pay-to-play, The New York Times [online] 3 March. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/magazine/08wwln-safire-t.html [Accessed 11 January 2023].

See J. Zote (2019) 65 social media statistics to bookmark in 2019. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-statistics/; and L.H. Ferreira (2019) Does organic content still work on social media? 15 March. Available at: https://www.socialbakers.com/blog/marketer-luigi-henrique-ferreira-organic-social-media-content, cited in K.R. Place and E. Ciszek (2021) Troubling dialogue and digital media: A subaltern critique, Social Media + Society, 7(1), 205630512098444.

Ali, C. (2021) Farm Fresh Broadband the Politics of Rural Connectivity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

J. Lanier (2018) Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, London: Random House.

E. Johnson (2018) If you can quit social media, but don’t, then you’re part of the problem, Jaron Lanier says, Vox [online]. Available at: https://www.vox.com/2018/7/27/17618756/jaron-lanier-deleting-social-media-book-kara-swisher-too-embarrassed-podcast [Accessed 8 December 2022].

R.J. So and G. Wezerek (2020) Just how white is the book industry? The New York Times [online] 11 December. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/11/opinion/culture/diversity-publishing-industry.html [Accessed 6 November 2023].

The 2019 Authors Guild survey finds that the median author income for part-time authors in the United States is US$6,250, for full-time authors it is US$20,300 This salary is drastically below the US median earnings for both families and individuals. Author income is not exclusively from book sales. Authors must also earn income through speaking engagements, book reviewing, and teaching – gigs that require a social media presence to obtain. See: S. Nicolas (2021) How much do authors make per book? Book Riot [online]. Available at: https://bookriot.com/how-much-do-authors-make-per-book/ [Accessed 11 January 2023]; A. Renard (2022) How to make money through social media without being an influencer, Jane Friedman [online]. Available at: https://www.janefriedman.com/make-money-through-social-media/ [Accessed 11 January 2023].

A. Brock (2020) Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures, New York: New York University Press, p 5.

S.U. Noble (2018) Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, New York: New York University Press, p 175.

Camri Policy Briefs and Reports (2018) Misinformation policy in sub-Saharan Africa: From laws and regulations to media literacy [online]. Available at: https://library.oapen.org/viewer/web/viewer.html?file=/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/50175/9781914386053.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y [Accessed 8 December 2022].

D.O. Vicol (2020) Who is most likely to believe and to share misinformation? Full Fact. Available at: https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/who-believes-shares-misinformation.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023].

See N. Tannous, P. Belesiotis, N. Tchakarian, and R. Stewart (2019) Public engagement with politics, information and news – Nigeria, Africa Check [online]. Available at: http://africacheck.org/how-to-fact-check/fact-checking-studies [Accessed 8 December 2022]; and S. Kolawole and E. Umejei (2018) Nigeria, Media Landscapes [online]. Available at: http://medialandscapes.org/country/nigeria [Accessed 8 December 2022].

I. Aguadad, Y. Sandoval-Romero, and R. Rosell (2016) Media literacy from international organizations in Europe and Latin America. Journal of Media Literacy. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305475789_Media_literacy_from_international_organizations_in_Europe_and_Latin_America [Accessed 6 November 2023].

R. Morduchowicz (2017) Media literacy in Latin America: The Argentine experience, in B. De Abreu, P. Mihailidis, A. Lee, J. Melki, and J. McDougall (eds) International Handbook of Media Literacy Education, New York: Routledge, pp 33–42.

S. Roy (2017) Significance of media literacy education in India, International Journal of Education & Applied Sciences Research, 4(3), 1–8.

UNESCO (2013) Global media and information literacy assessment framework: Country read-iness and competencies, UNESCO. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000224655 [Accessed 6 November 2023].

See A. Fedorov and A. Levitskaya (2019) Media literacy in Russia, in The International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, pp 1–7; I.A. Bykov and M.V. Medvedeva (2020) Media literacy in the system of the secondary education in Russia, Espacios, 41(48), pp 393–401; and A. Fedorov (2015) Russian media education literacy centers in the 21st century, The Journal of Media Literacy, 57(1&2).

There are costs associated with the in-person National Association for Media Literacy Association conferences, but there is often free or reduced pricing for virtual events. See National Association for Media Literacy Education (2020) Events, NAMLE [online]. Available at: https://namle.net/events/ [Accessed 11 January 2023].

This issue is not exclusive to media literacy. Teachers in the United States pay out-of-pocket for most of their own resources and tangible supplies. The US government offers a small federal tax deduction of US$250 to teachers in acknowledgement of these additional costs. See Internal Revenue Service (2022) Topic no. 458 educator expense deduction, Internal Revenue Service [online]. Available at: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc458 [Accessed 8 December 2022].

Media Smarts: Canada’s Centre For Digital And Media Literacy (2012) What we do, MediaSmarts [online]. Available at: https://mediasmarts.ca/about-us/what-we-do [Accessed 8 December 2022].

Australian Media Literacy Alliance (2022) Australian Media Literacy Alliance research reveals urgent need for a national media literacy strategy, Australian Media Literacy Alliance [online]. Available at: https://medialiteracy.org.au/australian-media-literacy-alliance-research-reveals-urgent-need-for-a-national-media-literacy-strategy-3/ [Accessed 8 December 2022].

T. Notely, S. Chambers, S. Park, and M. Dezuanni (2021) Adult media literacy in Australia: Attitudes, experiences and needs, Western Sydney University [online]. Available at: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1824640/Australian_adult_media_literacy_report_2021.pdf [Accessed 11 January 2023].

UNESCO (2022) There is still no unifying idea for adult education in the digital age, Institute for Lifelong Learning [online]. Available at: https://www.uil.unesco.org/en/articles/there-still-no-unifying-idea-adult-education-digital-age?hub=39 [Accessed 8 December 2022].

L.M. Siad (2022) Interview with Ladan Mohammad Siad, 8 August, Zoom.

L. Russell (2020) GLITCH FEMINISM: A Manifesto, s.l.: Verso.

NAMLE (2019) Snapshot 2019: The state of media literacy education in the United States, NAMLE [online]. Available at: https://namle.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SOML_FINAL.pdf [Accessed 7 December 2022].

d. boyd (2018) What hath we wrought? danah boyd SXSW EDU Keynote [online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=0I7FVyQCjNg [Accessed 13 January 2023].

E. Lim (2021) #DefundThePolice – Black Lives Matter: Radical algorithmic literacy, AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12298.

This strategy is outlined in the report by the 21st Century Working Group (New Zealand) (2014) Future-focused learning in connected communities, New Zealand Ministry of Education [online]. Available at: https://d1pf6s1cgoc6y0.cloudfront.net/7f9576aea1a444409cf972003a6cb5e9.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023]. Applications of this report can be found at the National Library of New Zealand (nd) Digital literacy and the New Zealand curriculum [online]. Available at: https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/digital-literacy/understanding-digital-literacy/digital-literacy-and-the-new-zealand-curriculum [Accessed 11 January 2023].

C. Michael (2019) SIFT (The Four Moves), Hapgood [online]. Available at: https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/ [Accessed 7 December 2022].

See A. Quan-Haase and A.L. Young (2010) Uses and gratifications of social media: A comparison of Facebook and instant messaging, Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 30(5), pp 350–361; B. Gülnar, Ş. Balci and V. Çakir (2010) Motivations of Facebook, YouTube and similar website users, Bilig, 54, pp 161–184; N. Park, K.F. Kee, and S. Valenzuela (2009) Being immersed in social networking environment: Facebook groups, uses and gratifications, and social outcomes, CyberPsychology Behavior, 12, pp 729–733; C.M.K. Cheung and M.K.O. Lee (2009) Understanding the sustainability of a virtual community: Model development and empirical test, Journal of Information Science, 35(3), pp 279–298.

Chapter 6

Know Your Meme (2020) See? Nobody cares, Know Your Meme [online]. Available at: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/see-nobody-cares [Accessed 8 December 2022].

Jurassic Park (1993) [Film] Universal Pictures Ambling Entertainment.

M. Crichton (2012) Jurassic Park, New York: Ballantine Books.

In conversations with interview participants the perception of internet research as possibly predatory was raised by two participants.

P. Kollock and M. Smith (1996) Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities, in S. Herring (ed) Computer Mediated Communication, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp 109–128.

Katz is the first to be credited in print with taking on the question of lurkers and his phrase ‘luring the lurkers’ is repeatedly cited or utilized in lurking research. Within creator communities there are several channels devoted to how to lure the lurkers for page views. For example, see Luring the Lurkers (1/3) – SanniHalla [online]. Available at: https://twitchstats.net/clip/AbrasiveBlueEndiveKappaPride-YRstwXrbk6-9m9ne [Accessed 7 December 2022].

I am using the word capture as it is the standard term in the social sciences for data collection. However, I wish to note that I do so fully aware of the colonial context in which this word can also be understood.

M. Binder (2020) Twitter tests asking if you actually want to read an article before retweeting it, Mashable [online]. Available at: https://mashable.com/article/twitter-asks-if-you-want-to-read-before-retweet [Accessed 7 December 2022].

This says nothing of whether or not one might have read the article on another platform or through an off-platform digital subscription or even, in an offline print version.

B. Miller and C. O’Donnell (2013) Opening a window into reading development: Eye movements’ role within a broader literacy research framework, School Psychology Review, 42(2), pp 123–139. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3875174/ [Accessed 30 December 2019].

Although Javal is often credited with being the first one to measure eye movements, he did not measure, but rather observed, the reading process. See N.J. Wade and B.W. Tatler (2009) Did Javal measure eye movements during reading? Journal of Eye Movement Research, 2(5).

N.J. Wade (2015) How were eye movements recorded before Yarbus? Perception, 44(8–9), pp 851–883.

This technique was so painful for participants that they needed to have cocaine administered as a desensitizing agent in order to participate in the study. See M. Mikac (2022) The history behind eye tracking, EyeLogic [online] 2 March. Available at: https://www.eyelogicsolutions.com/history-behind-eye-tracking/ [Accessed 8 December 2022].

L. Itti and C. Koch (2001) Computational modelling of visual attention, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(3), pp 194–203; and Z. Bylinskii, N.W. Kim, P. O’Donovan, S. Alsheikh, S. Madan, H. Pfister, F. Durand, B. Russell, and A. Hertzmann (2017) Learning visual importance for graphic designs and data visualizations, Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. doi:10.1145/3126594.3126653; J. Nielsen and K. Pernice (2010) Eyetracking Web Usability, New York: New Riders.

K. Rayner (1998) Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research, Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), pp 372–422.

G.W. McConkie and K. Rayner (1975) The span of the effective stimulus during a fixation in reading, Perception & Psychophysics, 17(6), pp 578–586; and K. Rayner (1986) Eye movements and the perceptual span in beginning and skilled readers, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 41(2), pp 211–236; and K. Rayner and J. Bertera (1979) Reading without a fovea, Science, 206(4417), pp 468–469.

A.W. Inhoff and K. Rayner (1986) Parafoveal word processing during eye fixations in reading: Effects of word frequency, Perception & Psychophysics, 40(6), pp 431–439; and K. Rayner (1986) Eye movements and the perceptual span in beginning and skilled readers, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 41(2), pp 211–236.

N. Valliappan, N. Dai, E. Steinberg, J. He, K. Rogers, V. Ramachandran, P. Xu, M. Shojaeizadeh, L. Guo, K. Kohlhoff, and V. Navalpakkam (2020) Accelerating eye movement research via accurate and affordable smartphone eye tracking, Nature Communications, 11(1), p 4553.

See N. Ellison, P. Triệu, S. Schoenebeck, R. Brewer, and A. Israni (2020) Why we don’t click: Interrogating the relationship between viewing and clicking in social media contexts by exploring the ‘non-click’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(6).

For Takahashi et al, they write that ‘lurkers can have one of the following roles: The “active lurker as propagator”, who propagates information or knowledge gained from an online community to others outside it; The “active lurker as practitioner” who uses such information or knowledge in their own or organizational activities. The “active lurker candidate” where the online community affects the lurker’s thought; The “persistent lurker” where the online community does not affect the lurker’s thought.’ See M. Takahashi, M. Fujimoto, and N. Yamasaki (2003) The active lurker, ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin, 24(1).

See B.K. AlShebli, T. Rahwan, and W.L. Woon (2018) The preeminence of ethnic diversity in scientific collaboration, Nature Communications, 9(1); and K. Powell (2018) These labs are remarkably diverse: Here’s why they’re winning at science, Nature, 558(7708), pp 19–22.

See J. Mcneil (2021) Lurking: How a Person Became a User, s.l.: Picador.

A robust bibliographic overview of the field of lurking research can be found in N. Sun, P.P.L. Rau, and L. Ma (2014) Understanding lurkers in online communities: A literature review, Computers in Human Behavior, 38, pp 100–117. Some specific articles and papers that I found particularly useful in understanding how to recruit people to patriciate in a study on lurking include S. Honeychurch, A. Bozkurt, L. Singh, and A. Koutropoulos (2017) Learners on the periphery: Lurkers as invisible learners, European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 21(1), pp 192–211; N. Edelmann, R. Krimmer, and P. Parycek (2017) How online lurking contributes value to e-participation: A conceptual approach to evaluating the role of lurkers in e-participation, Fourth International Conference on eDemocracy & eGovernment (ICEDEG) IEEE, Quito, Ecuador, pp 86–93; B. Nonnecke and J. Preece (2001) Why lurkers lurk, in paper presented at the Americas conference on information systems conference, Boston. Available at: http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/whylurk.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023]; B. Nonnecke and J. Preece (2003) Silent participants: Getting to know lurkers better, in C. Lueg and D. Fisher (eds) From Usenet to CoWebs: Interacting with Social Information Spaces, New York: Springer, pp 110–132; B. Nonnecke, J. Preece, D. Andrews, and B. Voutour (2004) Online lurkers tell why they lurk, in paper presented at the 10th Americas conference on information systems, New York. Available at: http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/OnlineLurkersTellWhy.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2023]; M. Popovac and C. Fullwood (2019) The psychology of online lurking, in A. Attrill-Smith, C. Fullwood, M. Keep, and D.J. Kuss (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Cyberpsychology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp 285–305.

R. Calixte, A. Rivera, O. Oridota, W. Beauchamp, and M. Camacho-Rivera (2020) Social and demographic patterns of health-related internet use among adults in the United States: A secondary data analysis of the health information national trends survey, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(18), p 6856.

See A. Park and M. Conway (2018) Tracking health related discussions on Reddit for public health applications, AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, [online], pp 1362–1371. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5977623/ [Accessed 8 December 2022].

E. Sikkens, M.V. San, S. Sieckelinck, H. Boeije, and M.D. Winter (2016) Participant recruitment through social media: Lessons learned from a qualitative radicalization study using Facebook, Field Methods, 29(2), pp 130–139.

E. Sikkens, M.V. San, S. Sieckelinck, H. Boeije and M.D. Winter (2016) Participant recruitment through social media: Lessons learned from a qualitative radicalization study using Facebook, Field Methods, 29(2), pp 130–139.

J.T. Child and S.C. Starcher (2016) Fuzzy Facebook privacy boundaries: Exploring mediated lurking, vague-booking, and Facebook privacy management, Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 483–490.

The Association of Internet Researchers has multiple editions of its guide for ethical research. The second edition is most helpful in terms of lurking scholarship. See A. Markham (2012) Ethical Decision-Making and Internet Research: Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee (Version 2.0), Association of Internet Researchers [online]. Available at: https://aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf [Accessed 7 December 2022].

See the joint international briefing provided by Full Fact, Africa Check, and Chequeado at Full Fact.org (2020) Who is most likely to believe and to share misinformation? [online]. Available at: https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/who-believes-shares-misinformation.pdf [Accessed 7 December 2022].

The Knight Foundation, the philanthropic organization of American journalism magnates and brothers John S. and James L. Knight, offers over 300 grants per year for ‘innovative ideas that advance informed communities’. In 2021, the most recent year for which funding information was available, the Knight Foundation funded 358 grants to the tune of US$3.89 billion dollars. See Knight Foundation (2021) Assets and Grantmaking, Knight Foundation [online]. Available at: https://knightfoundation.org/about/financial-info/ [Accessed 10 January 2023]. In 2015 they were also earlier financiers of what come to be known as CrowdTangle. See S. Kessler (2015) The secret tool that Upworthy, BuzzFeed, and everyone else is using to win Facebook, Fast Company [online]. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/3040951/the-secret-tool-that-upworthy-buzzfeed-and-everyone-else-is-using-to-win-facebook [Accessed 7 December 2022].

R. Brooks (2011) The Occupy Network winning the internet, Netroots Foundation [online]. Available at: https://www.netrootsfoundation.org/2011/11/the-occupy-network/ [Accessed 8 December 2022].

B. Silverman (2019) CrowdTangle for academics and researchers [online]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/formedia/blog/CrowdTangle-for-academics-and-researchers [Accessed 7 December 2022].

K. Roose and F. Giglietto (nd) Facebook’s top 10, Twitter [online]. Available at: https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1402319409343909889%7Ctwgr%5E889d94280b8e830a16111dc6bc62ae18f1f9d486%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2021%2F07%2F14%2Ftechnology%2Ffacebook-data.html [Accessed 7 December 2022].

K. Roose (2021) Inside Facebook’s data wars, The New York Times [online] 14 July. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/technology/facebook-data.html [Accessed 7 December 2022].

A. Thompson (2020) Why the right wing has a massive advantage on Facebook, Politico [online]. Available at: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/26/facebook-conservatives-2020-421146 [Accessed 7 December 2022].

K. Roose (2021) Inside Facebook’s data wars, The New York Times [online] 14 July. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/technology/facebook-data.html [Accessed 7 December 2022].

M. Allen and D. Nather (2020) Zuckerberg: It’s ‘just wrong’ to consider Facebook a right-wing echo chamber, Axios [online]. Available at: https://www.axios.com/2020/09/09/zuckerberg-facebook-conservatives-algorithm [Accessed 7 December 2022].

See A. Bogle (2022) One of the biggest tools for analysing Facebook is being shut down – by Facebook, ABC News [online] 15 August. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-08-16/facebook-CrowdTangle-meta-disinformation-transparency/101325544 [Accessed 7 December 2022].

D. Alba (2022) Meta pulls support for tool used to keep misinformation in check, Bloomberg.com, [online] 23 June. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-23/meta-pulls-support-for-tool-used-to-keep-misinformation-in-check [Accessed 7 December 2022].

T. Shane (2021) What Facebook gutting CrowdTangle means for misinformation, First Draft [online]. Available at: https://firstdraftnews.org/articles/%E2%80%A8what-facebook-gutting-crowdtangle-means-for-misinformation/ [Accessed 7 December 2022].

J. Cox (2019) Facebook quietly changes search tool used by investigators, abused by companies, Vice [online]. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmpgmx/facebook-stops-graph-search [Accessed 7 December 2022].

T. Scott (2013) Actual Facebook graph searches [online]. Available at: https://actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com [Accessed 6 November 2023].

Conclusion

In a discussion with Jenkins and Itō (2016), danah boyd questions the current emphasis on active participation as a more valuable contribution than passive participation. She asks, ‘What does it mean to always focus on active participation, regardless of the quality of that contribution?’ (p 112). boyd posits these two salient questions: ‘Can someone be a valuable and participatory lurker?’ and ‘What does high quality listening look like?’ (p 112). The discussion among the scholars in this text does not extend into imagining what this might look like. Reading this question is what, in part, prompted me to further explore the possibilities. See H. Jenkins, M. Ito, and d. boyd (2017) Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics, Cambridge: Polity.

For more information on ecoliteracy and the polluted and toxic nature of digital information exchange, see W. Phillips and R.M. Milner (2021) You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polluted Information, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

I am using the term second definition in a purely connotative sense. The Oxford English Dictionary, which organizes definitions by prevalent print usage, determines that the primary definition for the adjective valuable is ‘importance’, with ‘worth a lot of money’ placed in the secondary position.

Statista (2022) Facebook users worldwide 2020, Statista [online]. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ [Accessed 7 December 2022].

N. Srnicek (2017) Platform Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity.

A. Robertson (2021) Facebook employee warned it used ‘deeply wrong’ ad metrics to boost revenue, The Verge [online]. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/18/22289232/facebook-ad-revenue-proposed-reach-inflation-lawsuit-unredacted-filings [Accessed 7 December 2022]; and C. Welch (2018) Facebook may have knowingly inflated its video metrics for over a year, The Verge [online]. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/17/17989712/facebook-inaccurate-video-metrics-inflation-lawsuit [Accessed 7 December 2022]; and R. Todd (2018) Advertiser class action claims Facebook over estimates audience size, The Recorder. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/business/facebook-advertisers-can-pursue-class-action-over-ad-rates-2022-03-29/#:~:text=The%20lawsuit%20began%20in%202018,high%20premiums%20for%20ad%20placements [Accessed 6 November 2023].

D. Meacham (2022) There are an estimated 30 million dead people on Facebook, PopCrush [online]. Available at: https://popcrush.com/facebook-30-million-dead-users-data/ [Accessed 7 December 2022].

See C.J. Öhman and D. Watson (2019) Are the dead taking over Facebook? A Big Data approach to the future of death online, Big Data & Society, 6(1).

See N. Forbes (2020) Lurkers are us: When nothing signifies something, Debating Communities and Networks 11 [online]. Available at: https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2020OUA/2020/04/26/lurkers-are-us-when-nothing-signifies-something/ [Accessed 7 December 2022]; and H. Krasnova, H. Wenninger, T. Widjaja, and P. Buxmann (2013) Envy on Facebook: A hidden threat to users’ life satisfaction? In 11th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI), Leipzig, Germany; and S. Kushner (2016) Read only: The persistence of lurking in Web 2.0, First Monday, 21(6).

Kollock and Smith penned the original analysis, stating that lurkers were selfish free-riders. See P. Kollock and M. Smith (1996) Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities, in S.C. Herring (ed) Computer Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social, and Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp 109–128 and Chapter 1 for more information on why that proposition was later found to be unsound.

Twitter (2001) 3 June “Reader Mode” [online]. Available at: https://twitter.com/premium/status/1400452694649696265 [Accessed 14 August 2023].

In its initial 2021 rollout, the price point was US$2.99 for iOS subscribers. See I. Mehta (2022) “Twitter is increasing the price of Twitter Blue from $2.99 to $4.99 per month. TechCrunch [online]. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/28/twitter-is-increasing-the-price-of-twitter-blue-from-2-99-to-4-99-per-month/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAK-aAsbLkpIL07n52AVcuE5_5MIF3WEV37kGY5yuS9z4MPmSYz3qc_wM-SNacvnvMe14k1915pQ4PM1e6-3F_XvUzClaNnPKqyg9cwjNhryR5IqM1lX8NGWe2fUNor94ScmbFMFI5muBjTl7UvkFlORSNq136YkPPFBukzNXcRG [Accessed 14 August 2023]; and I. Mehta (2023) Twitter Blue is now available on Android at the same price as iOS, TechCrunch [online]. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/18/twitter-blue-is-now-available-on-android-at-the-same-price-as-ios/ [Accessed 14 August 2023]. A more comprehensive list of pricing by geographic location and tier can be found: X (2023). About X Premium. [online] help.twitter.com. Available at: https://help.twitter.com/en/using-x/x-premium#tbpricing-bycountry [Accessed 5 November 2023].

J. Shapero (2023) Twitter limits how many tweets users can see a day, The Hill [online]. Available at: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4077620-twitter-limits-how-many-tweets-users-can-see-a-day/ [Accessed 14 August 2023].

See help.twitch.tv (nd) Customer support [online]. Available at: https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/twitch-affiliate-program-faq?language=en_US [Accessed 7 December 2022].

Streaming Auntie (2022) Interview with Streaming Auntie @itsmadqueen, 21 July, Zoom.

See Twitchstats (2022) Luring the Lurkers (1/3) – SanniHalla [online]. Available at: https://twitchstats.net/clip/AbrasiveBlueEndiveKappaPride-YRstwXrbk6-9m9ne [Accessed 7 December 2022].

See J. Williams, R. Heiser, and S.J. Chinn (2012) Social media posters and lurkers: The impact on team identification and game attendance in minor league baseball, Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 13(4), pp 295–310.

For 2022 pricing, see N. Fulmer (2022) Comparing beer, hot dog, and ticket prices at Major League Baseball parks, WebstaurantStore [online]. Available at: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/628/beer-hot-dog-and-ticket-prices-at-major-league-baseball-parks.html [Accessed 7 December 2022].

See T. Spangler (2019) Facebook to pay $40 million to settle claims it inflated video viewing data, Variety [online]. Available at: https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/facebook-settlement-video-advertising-lawsuit-40-million-1203361133/ [Accessed 10 January 2023]; and J. Stempel (2022) Meta’s Facebook to pay $90 million to settle privacy lawsuit over user tracking, Reuters [online] 15 February. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/technology/metas-facebook-pay-90-million-settle-privacy-lawsuit-over-user-tracking-2022-02-15/ [Accessed 6 November 2023].

Refreshments is defined as one hot dog and two beers per person by N. Fulmer (2022) Comparing beer, hot dog, and ticket prices at Major League Baseball parks, WebstaurantStore [online]. Available at: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/628/beer-hot-dog-and-ticket-prices-at-major-league-baseball-parks.html [Accessed 7 December 2022].

See S. Perez (2022) Facebook is losing its grip as a ‘Top 10’ app as BeReal and TikTok grow, TechCrunch [online]. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/18/facebook-is-losing-its-grip-as-a-top-10-app-as-bereal-and-tiktok-grow/ [Accessed 7 December 2022].

See M. Whitehead (2020) Why people leave Facebook – and what it tells us about the future of social media, The Conversation [online]. Available at: https://theconversation.com/why-people-leave-facebook-and-what-it-tells-us-about-the-future-of-social-media-128952 [Accessed 7 December 2022]; and A. Perrin (2018) Americans are changing their relationship with Facebook, Pew Research Center [online]. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/05/americans-are-changing-their-relationship-with-facebook/ [Accessed 7 December 2022].

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Just Here for the Comments

Lurking as Digital Literacy Practice

Author:

Gina Sipley

Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Conclusion

Keywords:: digital literacy; Facebook; lurker; lurking; media literacy; social media

Global Social Challenges:: Society, Culture and Arts, Technology, Data and Society

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Notes

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Conclusion

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Help and advice

About us

Resources

Headings

Subjects and Keywords

Notes

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Conclusion

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Headings

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Help and advice

About us

Resources