GRSJ224/Gender Discrimination in Social Media

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History

In a certain extent, the problem of gender-based online harassment should dates back to the Internet early time. Telecommunications Act of 1996, as an example, is the first piece of legislation to address Internet access in the United States, allowing a greater competition with progressive deregulation in the telecommunication sector. [1] [2]

The use of new technologies such as social media and smart phone, can potentially create dramatic changes in promoting greater connectivity and new form of social interactions. [3]In other words, new communication technologies have become fresh sources of power and force to the topic of social relations and gender inequality. [4]

Misrepresentation of Women

Elements that can be found in social media include advertisement, official post, tweet and so on. They might continue to present both men and women in a stereotyped way like most medias did in general. [5] Moreover, a significant number of cases show a representation of women as victims and sex objects for men. [6] Besides that, in a certain level, social media with advertisements could contribute to abuse of and violence against women (i.e. physical and sexual), by persuading and shaping people’s behaviors. [7] [6] Thus, different forms of gender discrimination in social media should be considered.

Forms of Gender Discrimination in Social Media

Online harassment

The use of new technologies for the facilitation of online sexual harassment is a growing phenomenon. [7] The gender inequality in larger society become an unsolvable problem due to the cause of online harassment. [8] Forms of online harassment can vary widely, from cyberbullying to gender based shaming to outright sexual threat. [2] Social media enables the distribution of sexual image, footage, message and other contents of gender discrimination to be shared around the world without geographic boundaries, resulting in an unpredictable outcome to the society as well as the victim, as each individual has different level of impact after experiencing gender-based shaming and humiliation online. [7] Due to the complex dynamics and the large volume of data, many social media companies struggle to enforce and generalize standards. With many uncontrolled aspects, about 40% of internet users experienced harassment while females were significantly more likely to be a victim of online sexual harassment, cyberbullying and insulting comments. Also, women in particular age indicated a significantly higher rate of threat, as stalking and sexual harassment are more prevalent among young women than among young men. [7] [8] Study found that women ages 18-24 are two to three times as likely to have stalked online and have experienced online sexual harassment than women ages 25-29. [2]Moreover, women are more likely to be upset by online harassment by indicating “extremely” or “very” upsetting, representing a greater negative impact for female when they experienced online harassment. However, it is also important to take gender-based sexual harassment against males into account, as harassment and other forms of discrimination (i.e. “trolling”, “flaming” and cyberpornography) are also equally significant and growing problems. [7] [9] [10]

Derivative Work

The rise of derivative work in social media can be another form of gender discrimination, as social media allows a high degree of freedom for people to re-create and re-design other people’s work. The rising number of derivative work indicates the phenomenon of self-complacency for the creators as well as their audiences, as they are satisfied with what they do and receive in social media without a consideration of other's opinion and attitude. Without limitation, a great amount of gender-based derivative work with gender discrimination content can be found in social media. In fact, more regulations are being introduced by different countries in order to protect people’s property and indirectly eliminate social problems such as gender discrimination in social media. [11]


Commercial Ads

Commercial advertisements (i.e. digital ads) are the powerful tool used for creating influences, attitudinal and opinion changes, as they can be effectively and efficiently shaped receivers’ opinions. [12]Containing dominant characteristics of the reality are often seen in advertisement text, leading to the phenomenon of gender stereotypes is being used in advertisements. [5] For example, delivering messaging through sexual jokes in advertisement can be labelled as online sexual harassment. Persuasion by advertisements in social media can arguably be more effective in the 2000s, as there are more than 2 billion monthly active users only on Facebook, representing a huge potential for digital advertisements in social media to dominate the commercial market and the digital world. [13]


Others

Recruitment

Gender-based online harassment and the effect of it on women can be found in their personal lives as well as their professional careers [8]. The growth in the popularity of social media accounts has become a platform for managers with the purpose of hiring. Before arranging a face-to-face meeting with candidates, managers can access candidates’ social media profiles and make judgments on them. [14] In fact, study indicates that both male and female tended to judge the female candidate primarily based on their appearances, while they tended to form an opinion about the male candidate based on the content of their profile page. Moreover, about 40% of recruiters were using social media to evaluate candidates, and one third of managers admitting that social media will be used on the future recruitment and hiring process. [14]

Transgender discrimination

Transgender-related issues were popular in the field of gender discrimination. The jokes about transgender are profound in different social media websites. However, social media such as Facebook and YouTube also became an important network and space for transgender individuals to interact with each other. [15] [16] More people around the world might begin to notice transgender people and their willingness in a snowball effect by using social media as a platform. [17]

Beneficial roles of Social Media

Social media can play a critical role in affecting changes for preventing and eliminating gender discrimination and in mobilizing communities and individuals. [18] However, there was little evidence that social media alone could be effective in changing a lifetime issue of gender discrimination. It could serve as the starting point and a powerful tool to foster change for the prevention of gender discrimination. Indeed, these fundamental changes of the long-term gender discrimination are challenging and varied. [18] They can be linked to a complex series of actions ranging from community mobilization to attitudinal and behavior change in social relationships, discourses and norms. Therefore, social media can be the most effective tool when connected to other interventions, as another study indicates sexism in social media could improve women’s wellbeing because of the potential of women empowerment and possibility of gaining supports through collective actions. [18] With the growth of social media, geographic boundaries indeed would not limit the possibility to gain supports from the public. [16]

References

  1. ↑ http://raven.stern.nyu.edu/networks/telco96.html
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Wihbey & Kille. (2015).Internet harassment and online threats targeting women: Research review. https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/gender-society/internet-harassment-online-threats-targeting-women-research-review
  3. ↑ Citation: Marwick, A. (2013) “Gender, Sexuality and Social Media.” In Senft, T. & Hunsinger, J. (eds), The Social Media Handbook. New York: Routledge, pp. 59-75.
  4. ↑ Yvette Cooper. (2015). Online sexism is so out of control that we can no longer ignore it. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/16/online-sexism-social-media-debate-abuse
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bailey, J., Steeves, V., Burkell, J., & Regan, P. (2013). Negotiating with gender stereotypes on social networking sites: From “Bicycle face” to facebook. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 37(2), 91-112. doi:10.1177/0196859912473777
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Julia T. Wood. (2014). Gendered Media: The Influence of Media on Views of Gender. https://www.nyu.edu/classes/jackson/causes.of.gender.inequality/Readings/Wood%20-%20Gendered%20Media%20-%2094.pdf
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Henry, N., & Powell, A. (2015). Embodied harms: Gender, shame, and technology-facilitated sexual violence. Violence Against Women, 21(6), 758-779. doi:10.1177/1077801215576581
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Simons & Noelle. (2015). Addressing Gender-Based Harassment in Social Media: A Call to Action. https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/73743 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Addressing Gender-Based Harassment in Social Media: A Call to Action" defined multiple times with different content
  9. ↑ Moor, P. J., Heuvelman, A., & Verleur, R. (2010). Flaming on YouTube. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1536-1546. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.05.023
  10. ↑ Hwang, J., Lee, H., Kim, K., Zo, H., & Ciganek, A. P. (2016). Cyber neutralisation and flaming. Behaviour & Information Technology, 35(3), 210-224. doi:10.1080/0144929X.2015.1135191
  11. ↑ Deneau, K. (2013). The historical development and misplaced justification for the derivative work right. Boston University Journal of Science & Technology Law, 19(1), 68.
  12. ↑ Malgorzata Wolska. (2001). GENDER STEREOTYPES IN MASS MEDIA. CASE STUDY: ANALYSIS OF THE GENDER STEREOTYPING PHENOMENON IN TV COMMERCIALS. http://krytyka.org/gender-stereotypes-in-mass-media-case-study-analysis-of-the-gender-stereotyping-phenomenon-in-tv-commercials/
  13. ↑ Statista. Most famous social network sites 2017, by active users. https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Jermaine Haughton. (2016). IS SOCIAL MEDIA DRIVING GENDER DISCRIMINATION?. http://www.managers.org.uk/insights/news/2016/february/is-social-media-driving-gender-discrimination
  15. ↑ Kathryn Reed. (2015).Social Media and the Transgender Community https://pages.stolaf.edu/inqueeries/2015/05/08/social-media-and-the-transgender-community/
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Suren Ramasubbu. (2016). Does Gender Matter on Social Media?. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suren-ramasubbu/does-gender-matter-on-soc_b_7591920.html
  17. ↑ New York Times. (2016).Transgender people getting acceptance, thanks to social media. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/transgender-people-getting-acceptance-thanks-to-social-media/articleshow/52825092.cms
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Caroline Liou. (2013). Using social media for the prevention of violence against women. http://www.partners4prevention.org/sites/default/files/resources/socialmedia_final.pdf
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