Preliminary Conference Agenda

This study investigates what information that was spread the most on Twitter regarding #BlackLivesMatter during the Black History Month of February 2022. We distinguished political affiliation through a series of interpretations of network structure and content. In doing so, we observed different political groups offering unique curated information flows on Twitter. Using qualitative coding, our findings confirmed that opinion leaders affiliated with different political groups or movements tend to curate different kinds of messages. Our findings also show that opinion leaders on the political left discuss #BlackLivesMatter in a clear supportive way towards the movement, while the ones on the political right describe the movement in a more provocative way. Further, we observed that opinion leaders in the political right group have more dense connections than the political left group. This work contributes to the bodies of literature using the theory of curated logics, the influence of opinion leaders, viral information, and the empirical work around #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter.

The popularity of social media has made meme culture more popular than ever. As a result, memes have become a digital language that extends beyond digital culture within information societies. Unfortunately, recent studies have not examined diverse factors of meme communication in interactive contexts. This study investigates how memes are used for interactive forum-based communication as cybersecurity groups interact in cyberspace. More specifically, we examine synchronous meme communication between hackers and cyber defender groups from the 2022 Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Qualification Competition. We adopt the theoretical lens of information domains to examine interactive meme communication scripts in fo-rum-based interactions. Collective identity and characteristics representing each information society tend to appear in synchronous meme communication between these two groups. This study also identifies unique information representation systems endemic to cyber security society. Moreover, this study interestingly finds that memes describing individual participants’ emotions and attitudes are actively used in synchronous communication. These memes reflect individuals’ emotions, and also describe the attitudes of the participants such as looking down at the opposite team. This phenomenon has rarely been observed in previous studies about meme communication in asynchronous situations.

In this article perspectives are offered by an instructor, author, and researcher involved in the open textbook Humans R Social Media and resulting OEC (Open Educational Collection) developed at a large southwestern university. The iVoices OEC is described as the unplanned fruit of teaching in connection with Open Educational Practices. OECs in general are discussed as logical outcomes of pedagogical theories including open pedagogy in general, and the theories of Funds of Knowledge and Universal Design for Learning as well as user privacy protection strategies in particular. Lessons learned are offered as recommendations for planning future OEPs and OECs including changes in memoranda language, budgeting for collection management assistance, and clearer partnerships with institutional repositories. This case study of an open textbook and accompanying OEC is offered to deepen understanding of open pedagogy in praxis.