DOCSLIB.ORG

Safety, Risk and Wellbeing on Dating Apps: Final Report

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Safety, Risk and Wellbeing on Dating Apps: Final Report December 2019 Prof. Kath Albury Prof. Kane Race Tim Wark Dr. Paul Byron The University of Sydney ACON Health A/Prof. Anthony McCosker Tinonee Pym Doreen Salon Dr. Jessica Botfield Jarrod Walshe Family Planning NSW Family Planning NSW Swinburne University of Technology Daniel Reeders Christopher Dietzel DNM Consulting / Swinburne McGill University / Swinburne University of Technology University of Technology Safety, Risk and Wellbeing on Dating Apps: Final Report is an output from the Australian Research Council Linkage Project ‘Safety, Risk and Wellbeing on Digital Dating Apps’ (LP160101687) For inquiries, contact the Lead Chief Investigator Professor Kath Albury [email protected] This report is released subject to a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license (License). This means, in summary, that you may reproduce, transmit and distribute the text, provided that you do not do so for commercial purposes, and provided that you attribute the extracted to the authors of this report: Safety, Risk and Wellbeing on Dating Apps: Final Report. You must not alter, transform or build upon the text in this publication. Your rights under the License are in addition to any fair dealing rights which you have under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). For further terms of the License, please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ © Swinburne University of Technology, 2019 Report layout and logo design: Stephanie Luk, Hannah Bacon and Anh Huynh. We pay respects to the traditional custodians of all the lands on which we work, and acknowledge their Elders, past, present and emerging. ISBN: 978-1-925761-18-4 DOI: 10.25916/5dd324c1b33bb Recommended citation: Albury, K, Byron, P, McCosker, A, Pym, T, Walshe, J, Race, K, Salon, D, Reeders, D, Wark, T, Botfield, J & Dietzel, C 2019, Safety, Risk and Wellbeing on Dating Apps: Final Report, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acronyms 4 Acknowledgements 4 Foreword: Partner Organisations 5 Glossary: Apps and Platforms 6 Executive Summary 7 Introduction 9 Background and Research Approach 10 Research on Dating Apps and Sexual Health 13 Findings 15 1. Using Apps and Connecting through Social Media 15 1.1 App Use 15 1.2 Installing and Deleting Apps 15 1.3 Linking Dating/Hook-Up Apps with Other Social Media Accounts 15 2. Negotiating Safety 18 2.1 Strategies for Assessing Profiles 18 2.2 Establishing Safety through Chat 18 2.3 Meeting Up and Hooking Up Safely 19 2.4 Experiences of Discrimination and Harassment 20 3. Mental Health and Wellbeing 23 3.1 Finding Friendship, Making Connection and Feeling Confident 23 3.2 Managing Feelings of Rejection 24 3.3 Taking Breaks, Deleting Apps and Turning Off Notifications 25 4. Sexual Health 27 4.1 Approaches to Safe Sex Differed According to Sex, Gender and Sexuality 27 4.2 Negotiating Consent 28 4.3 Sexual Behaviours and Testing for STIs 28 4.4 Survey Respondents Accounts of Safe Sex and Contraception 30 4.5 Finding Sexual Health Information through Apps 30 Discussion / Conclusions 32 Recommendations 34 Appendices 35 Appendix 1: Reference Group Overview 35 Appendix 2: Workshop Outline 36 Appendix 3: Qualitative Demographics 37 Appendix 4: Research Literature on Dating Apps and Sexual Health 38 Appendix 5: Dating and Hook-Up App Use 44 Appendix 6: Perceptions of Top Three Apps 45 References 46 ACRONYMS ACON: ACON Health, formerly known as the MSM: Men who have sex with men (commonly AIDS Council of NSW used in sexual health research) BDSM: Bondage, domination, submission and NSW: New South Wales masochism, also commonly referred to as 'kink' STI/HIV: Sexually transmissible infections / CALD: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Human Immunodeficiency virus LGBTQ+: A commonly-used acronym for PrEP: Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (an oral drug Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer used to prevent the transmission of HIV) people that is not limited to these identities but can include Pansexual, Asexual, Questioning, and a range of other identity groups beyond a cisgender and heterosexual identity. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful for the support and assistance • Bec Neufeld, Nepean Blue Mountains of staff and volunteers at our Partner Local Health District organisations, particularly Jane Estoesta and • Jessica Wilms, Nepean Blue Mountains Rob Hardy (Family Planning NSW) and Brent Local Health District Mackie, Brandon Leith-Bear, Félix Delhomme and Caitlin Bainbridge (ACON Health). Special App user reference group participants (as they thanks to all the app users who took part in our wish to be named): research. • Dominic • Eleni Gabrielides Professional reference group: • Andrew Horne • Paula Convery, Health Promotion • Elissa James Coordinator, University of Newcastle • Heather Kate • Andrew Cummings, Andrew Cummings • Hannah Kelly Training & Consultancy • Salvin Kumar • Erin Donnelly, Family Planning NSW • Noel Lam • Will Doran, The Centre @ Kurri Kurri • Zoe Lewis • Marty Janssen, Ministry of Health • Natalie Veper (NSW STI Programs Unit) • Katy Wedderburn • Bronwyn Leece, Nepean Blue • Annie Wylie Mountains Local Health District • Haojun Zhang • Angus Megarrity, Youth Action NSW • Tanya Montoya, Family Planning NSW • Thomas Munro, Sydney Sexual Health Centre Safety, Risk and Wellbeing on Dating Apps: Final Report 4 FOREWORD: PARTNER ORGANISATIONS Family Planning NSW has been involved in this ACON is NSW’s leading health organisation project in a partner investigator capacity over specialising in community health, inclusion and the past two years. It has already provoked HIV responses for people of diverse sexualities internal conversations about updating our key and genders. Established in 1985, ACON works messaging around digital technologies and to create opportunities for people in our healthy relationships with plans to write new communities to live their healthiest lives. ACON community education sessions and resources. has been a partner investigator in this important study for the past two years. We value this involvement because it allows us to translate research findings immediately into The study provides key insight and evidence for evidence-based health promotion programs how people of diverse genders and sexualities that are relevant to young people. Existing understand and engage with dating app healthy relationships education programs for cultures. The outcomes of this study are young people in schools and the community extremely valuable for ACON’s work, as this will be enhanced with the addition of evidence- study provides a deeper understanding of how based key messages around the use of dating people in our communities use hookup apps apps alongside other digital technologies topics and social media in their everyday lives in such as sexting, pornography and social media. relation to friendship, building relationships and engaging in sex and sexual intimacy. Our existing relationships resource for young people You&Me=Us will be updated with the These outcomes will be used to better inform second edition including new and and tailor our health promotion campaigns, contemporary strategies relating to the use of resource development, prevention health dating apps. These new findings also open the programs and services. In particular, the possibility for innovative digital health findings on how people in our communities promotion programs such as social media negotiate app safety have sparked internal campaigns and in-platform messaging that discussions around incorporating the findings promote the health, wellbeing and safety of into our workshops targeting young people, HIV dating app users. and STI prevention campaigns, online resources and a broad range of other programs and Rob Hardy, Manager Health Promotion, services. Family Planning NSW Brent Mackie, Associate Director Policy, Strategy and Research, ACON Safety, Risk and Wellbeing on Dating Apps: Final Report 5 GLOSSARY: APPS AND PLATFORMS Bumble is a dating and social networking app, Hornet is a dating app marketed as a ‘gay social primarily targeting straight and bisexual users. network’ for gay/bi/queer men. It includes Bumble offers connections for dating, functions which are more commonly associated friendship, and professional networking, but is with social media platforms, such as following primarily used for dating. It is promoted as a other users and posting ‘stories’. ‘safer’ dating app for women, as only women can initiate chat. Instagram is a picture and video-sharing social networking platform owned by Facebook. Facebook is a commonly used social Many dating app users choose to link their networking service, which allows users to Instagram account to their dating app profile. create profiles, ‘friend’ and follow other users, share pictures and join public, private or secret Jack’d is a location based dating app which bills (unsearchable) interest groups or forums, and itself as ‘the most diverse community for gay, chat via the Messenger application. Until bi, trans and queer guys around the globe.’ recently, a range of dating apps (including Tinder and Bumble) required users to sign up OKCupid is a dating app that invites users to via their Facebook account as a form of identity populate a detailed profile and answer a series verification (and data linkage). of questions that generate algorithmic matches. Due to the flexibility of its profile FetLife is a social networking website that format, it is popular with users seeking non- serves people interested in BDSM, fetishism, normative dating and/or sexual arrangements. and kink. While the site has personals forums, it is primarily used for chat, event promotion and Only Women is a geolocative dating app for picture and video sharing. lesbian and bisexual women. Grindr is a dating app used mostly by gay men. Plenty of Fish is a dating app that allows users The app makes geographically proximate users to populate a profile and answer questions. visible to each other via a grid. It is the most common app used by gay/bi/queer men in RedHotPie is an Australian dating and hook-up Australia. Grindr now offers a range of gender, app most commonly used for ‘alternative’ sexuality and pronoun options.
Recommended publications
  • Crystal Methamphetamine and Latinos in New York City: One Organization's Perspective

    Crystal Methamphetamine and Latinos in New York City: One Organization's Perspective

    Crystal Methamphetamine and Latinos in New York City: One Organization’s Perspective A Publication of the Latino Commission on AIDS 24 West 25th Street, 9th Floor New York, NY 10010-2704 Telephone: 212-675-3288 www.latinoaids.org CRYSTAL METHAMPHETAMINE AND LATINOS IN NEW YORK CITY: ONE ORGANIZATION’S PERSPECTIVE page 1 Acknowledgements The Latino Commission on AIDS Latino Crystal Meth Initiative would not have been possible without the support of New York City Council Member Margarita Lopez and the New York City Department of Health. The Latino Commission on AIDS would like to also gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the individuals listed below. These individuals assisted in the writing and during the information gather- ing process that became the basis of this report. Wesley Tahsir-Rodriquez MPH Director, Health Policy Latino Commission on AIDS Juan Carlos Sandoval Crystal Meth Project Coordinator Latino Commission on AIDS New York City Don McVinney, MSSW, M.Phil., Ph.D. Candidate Director of Education and Training Harm Reduction Coalition New York City Perry N. Halkitis, PhD Co-Director, Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies & Training New York University Dennis deLeon, Esq. President Latino Commission on AIDS New York City Miriam Vega PhD Director of Behavioral Science Manos Unidas Latino Commission on AiDS Andres Duque Director, Mano a Mano Latino Commission on AIDS We are ultimately indebted to the Latino gay and bisexual community for participating in focus groups, key informant interviews and for just being willing to converse with us about this important topic. CRYSTAL METHAMPHETAMINE AND LATINOS IN NEW YORK CITY: ONE ORGANIZATION’S PERSPECTIVE page 1 Alberto was very successful back in South America.
  • Experiences of Transgender Men Who Joined National Pan-Hellenic Council Sororities Pre- Transition" (2020)

    Experiences of Transgender Men Who Joined National Pan-Hellenic Council Sororities Pre- Transition" (2020)

    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School November 2020 Experiences of Transgender Men Who Joined National Pan- Hellenic Council Sororities Pre-Transition Sydney Epps Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Educational Sociology Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Organization Development Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, and the Work, Economy and Organizations Commons Recommended Citation Epps, Sydney, "Experiences of Transgender Men Who Joined National Pan-Hellenic Council Sororities Pre- Transition" (2020). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 5425. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/5425 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. EXPERIENCES OF TRANSGENDER MEN WHO JOINED NATIONAL PAN-HELLENIC COUNCIL SORORITIES PRE- TRANSITION A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The School of Education by Sydney A. Yvonne Epps B.A. Ohio University, 2012 B.S. Ohio University, 2012 M.A., Embry-Riddle
  • Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook

    Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook

    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Marketing Papers Wharton Faculty Research 1-2018 Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook Dokyun Lee Kartik Hosanagar University of Pennsylvania Harikesh Nair Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/marketing_papers Part of the Advertising and Promotion Management Commons, Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Business Analytics Commons, Business and Corporate Communications Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Marketing Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Social Media Commons, and the Technology and Innovation Commons Recommended Citation Lee, D., Hosanagar, K., & Nair, H. (2018). Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook. Management Science, http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2902 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/marketing_papers/339 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook Abstract We describe the effect of social media advertising content on customer engagement using data from Facebook. We content-code 106,316 Facebook messages across 782 companies, using a combination of Amazon Mechanical Turk and natural language processing algorithms. We use this data set to study the association of various kinds of social media marketing content with user engagement—defined as Likes, comments, shares, and click-throughs—with the messages. We find that inclusion of widely used content related to brand personality—like humor and emotion—is associated with higher levels of consumer engagement (Likes, comments, shares) with a message. We find that directly informative content—like mentions of price and deals—is associated with lower levels of engagement when included in messages in isolation, but higher engagement levels when provided in combination with brand personality–related attributes.
  • CDC Social Media Guidelines: Facebook Requirements and Best Practices

    CDC Social Media Guidelines: Facebook Requirements and Best Practices

    Social Media Guidelines and Best Practices Facebook Purpose This document is designed to provide guidance to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees and contractors on the process for planning and development, as well as best practices for participating and engaging, on the social networking site Facebook. Background Facebook is a social networking service launched in February 2004. As of March 2012, Facebook has more than 901 million active users, who generate an average of 3.2 billion Likes and Comments per day. For additional information on Facebook, visit http://newsroom.fb.com/. The first CDC Facebook page, managed by the Office of the Associate Director for Communication Science (OADC), Division of News and Electronic Media (DNEM), Electronic Media Branch (EMB), was launched in May 2009 to share featured health and safety updates and to build an active and participatory community around the work of the agency. The agency has expanded its Facebook presence beyond the main CDC profile, and now supports multiple Facebook profiles connecting users with information on a range of CDC health and safety topics. Communications Strategy Facebook, as with other social media tools, is intended to be part of a larger integrated health communications strategy or campaign developed under the leadership of the Associate Director of Communication Science (ADCS) in the Health Communication Science Office (HCSO) of CDC’s National Centers, Institutes, and Offices (CIOs). Clearance and Approval 1. New Accounts: As per the CDC Enterprise Social Media policy (link not available outside CDC network): • All new Facebook accounts must be cleared by the program’s HCSO office.
  • Narcissism and Social Media Use: a Meta-Analytic Review

    Narcissism and Social Media Use: a Meta-Analytic Review

    Psychology of Popular Media Culture © 2016 American Psychological Association 2018, Vol. 7, No. 3, 308–327 2160-4134/18/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000137 Narcissism and Social Media Use: A Meta-Analytic Review Jessica L. McCain and W. Keith Campbell University of Georgia The relationship between narcissism and social media use has been a topic of study since the advent of the first social media websites. In the present manuscript, the authors review the literature published to date on the topic and outline 2 potential models to explain the pattern of findings. Data from 62 samples of published and unpublished research (N ϭ 13,430) are meta-analyzed with respect to the relationships between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism and (a) time spent on social media, (b) frequency of status updates/tweets on social media, (c) number of friends/followers on social media, and (d) frequency of posting pictures of self or selfies on social media. Findings suggest that grandiose narcissism is positively related to all 4 indices (rs ϭ .11–.20), although culture and social media platform significantly moderated the results. Vul- nerable narcissism was not significantly related to social media use (rs ϭ .05–.42), although smaller samples make these effects less certain. Limitations of the current literature and recommendations for future research are discussed. Keywords: narcissism, social media, meta-analysis, selfies, Facebook Does narcissism relate to social media use? Or introverted form) narcissism spend more time is the power to selectively present oneself to an on social media than those low in narcissism? online audience appealing to everyone, regardless (b) Do those high in grandiose and vulnerable of their level of narcissism? Social media websites narcissism use the features of social media (i.e., such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram can adding friends, status updates, and posting pic- sound like a narcissistic dream.
  • Selling Sex, Negotiating Identity

    Selling Sex, Negotiating Identity

    Selling Sex, Negotiating Identity(ies): Gendered Dimensions of The Whore Stigma and Strategies of Stigma-Resistance Jane Elizabeth Nolan BSc (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in August 2015 School of Political Science and International Studies Abstract The importance of stigma in the lives of sex workers has been increasingly recognised by academic research over the last two decades. However, the existing literature has not satisfactorily addressed a number of vital questions about gender and the whore stigma. There has been almost no research which has explored the gendered nature of the stigma associated with sex work, and very little research which has recognised and compared the experiences of differently gendered sex workers. Almost all of the published research in this area, has focused upon the experiences of cisgender female sex workers, and/or has not compared these with the experiences of male and transgender sex workers. Thus, existing research has failed to examine the whore stigma as a gendered experience. This thesis explores and interrogates the gendered dimensions of the ‘whore stigma’, and whether transgender and cisgender male and female sex workers experience and negotiate this stigma differently. Key to the research is the extent to which differently gendered sex workers internalise and/or develop strategies to manage and resist stigma, and whether this is mediated by the experience of stigma(s) other than and/or in addition to the ‘whore stigma’ including, for example, stigma relating to racism, homophobia and transphobia. In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with 30 sex workers in Queensland and New South Wales, Australia.
  • Implementation on Social Media Platforms

    Implementation on Social Media Platforms

    Implementation on Social Media Platforms Overview The Eko Video Player is whitelisted for the Twitter and Facebook environments. When end viewers share an Eko video to one of these services, they essentially embed the Eko Video Player onto their timeline. Depending on the service (i.e. Facebook or Twitter), the end viewer’s platform, and whether the post is promoted (on Facebook only), the Eko Video Player will either play inline within the social media feed, in a new tab within the social media space, or in a new browser tab. Support for the Eko Video Player within these services is made possible by meta tags that are added to the HTML of the site where the video is hosted. These meta tags enable a Facebook Preview and Twitter Card to display in the feed when the video site url is shared on these services. The cards link directly to the interactive video object, enable playback, and specify the sharing copy for the content (provided by the partner). Direct links to videos hosted by Eko automatically include the meta tags to enable inline playback on shared posts, but for videos embedded outside of helloeko.com on a client’s website, the meta tags will need to be added to the website in the <head> part of the page’s HTML and tested. Facebook Open Graph Meta Tags When someone shares a video project hosted on your site to Facebook, Facebook’s crawler will scrape the HTML of the URL that is shared. On a regular HTML page this content is basic and may be incorrect, because the scraper has to guess which content is important, and which is not.
  • Geosocial Networking Apps Use Among Sexual Minority Men in Ecuador: an Exploratory Study

    Geosocial Networking Apps Use Among Sexual Minority Men in Ecuador: an Exploratory Study

    Archives of Sexual Behavior https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-01921-0 ORIGINAL PAPER Geosocial Networking Apps Use Among Sexual Minority Men in Ecuador: An Exploratory Study Carlos Hermosa‑Bosano1 · Paula Hidalgo‑Andrade1 · Clara Paz1 Received: 20 June 2020 / Revised: 4 January 2021 / Accepted: 15 January 2021 © The Author(s) 2021 Abstract Geosocial networking applications (GSN apps) have become important socialization contexts for sexual minority men (SMM). Despite their popularity, there is limited research carried out in Latin American countries and no single previous study done in Ecuador. To fll this gap, this exploratory study described and analyzed the relationships between the sociodemographic charac- teristics of SMM using GSN apps, their sought and fulflled expectations, profle shared and sought characteristics, and the evalu- ation of their experiences as users including their perceptions of support, and discrimination. We used an online recruited sample of 303 participants enrolled between November 2019 and January 2020. Most respondents used Grindr and reported spending up to 3 h per day using apps. Most common sought expectations were getting distracted, meeting new friends, and meeting people for sexual encounters. The least met expectation was meeting someone to build a romantic relationship with. When asked about their profles, participants reported sharing mainly their age, photographs, and sexual role. Participants also prioritized these characteristics when looking at others’ profles. When asked about their experiences, most reported having been discriminated against, weight being the main reason for it. Some participants also indicated having received emotional support from other users. Correlation analyses indicated signifcant but weak relationships among the variables.
  • Automatic Opioid User Detection from Twitter

    Automatic Opioid User Detection from Twitter

    Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-18) Automatic Opioid User Detection From Twitter: Transductive Ensemble Built On Different Meta-graph Based Similarities Over Heterogeneous Information Network Yujie Fan, Yiming Zhang, Yanfang Ye ∗, Xin Li Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, WV, USA fyf0004,[email protected], fyanfang.ye,[email protected] Abstract 13,000 people died from heroin overdose, both reflecting sig- nificant increase from 2002 [NIDA, 2017]. Opioid addiction Opioid (e.g., heroin and morphine) addiction has is a chronic mental illness that requires long-term treatment become one of the largest and deadliest epidemics and care [McLellan et al., 2000]. Although Medication As- in the United States. To combat such deadly epi- sisted Treatment (MAT) using methadone or buprenorphine demic, in this paper, we propose a novel frame- has been proven to provide best outcomes for opioid addiction work named HinOPU to automatically detect opi- recovery, stigma (i.e., bias) associated with MAT has limited oid users from Twitter, which will assist in sharp- its utilization [Saloner and Karthikeyan, 2015]. Therefore, ening our understanding toward the behavioral pro- there is an urgent need for novel tools and methodologies to cess of opioid addiction and treatment. In HinOPU, gain new insights into the behavioral processes of opioid ad- to model the users and the posted tweets as well diction and treatment. as their rich relationships, we introduce structured In recent years, the role of social media in biomedical heterogeneous information network (HIN) for rep- knowledge mining has become more and more important resentation.
  • A Review on Gay Dating App Studies

    A Review on Gay Dating App Studies

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Received: 12 May 2017 Revised: 15 November 2017 Accepted: 28 November 2017 provided by Erasmus University Digital Repository DOI: 10.1111/soc4.12560 ARTICLE The mediation of gay men's lives: A review on gay dating app studies Shangwei Wu | Janelle Ward Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam Abstract Correspondence A growing body of literature focuses on gay men's use of mobile Shangwei Wu, Woudestein, Department of dating applications or “dating apps.” Running on smartphones and Media and Communication, Erasmus working with GPS, dating apps connect users to others in close University Rotterdam, Van der Goot Building, geographic proximity and often in real time. These apps allow M8‐12, P.O. Box 1738, NL‐3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. users to create profiles to present themselves and interact with Email: [email protected] each other to reach multiple goals, such as casual sex, dating, or Funding information networking. Attending to the dynamics between communication China Scholarship Council, Grant/Award technologies and society, this article reviews gay dating app Number: 201606360116 studies that highlight the communicative practices and social rela- tions mediated by dating apps. Using the mediation framework as a starting point, we examine major themes in these studies, including gay men's online self‐presentation and interactions, gay community in the digital era, and gay men's interpersonal relation- ships. We suggest that future research should pay more attention to the technical development of dating devices and the transforma- tion of gay men's social relations.
  • The UMP - a ‘New’ Party? Findings from Research in Two Federations

    The UMP - a ‘New’ Party? Findings from Research in Two Federations

    The UMP - A `New' Party? Findings from Research in Two Federations PhD Thesis of Pamela Lindsey Schmidt July 2012 Cardiff University School of European Studies Abstract This thesis examines the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) as a political party and an organisation through the examination of two party f´ed´erations: Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines. This is undertaken via a study of the groups within the UMP, as well as by developing a perspective on the history of conflict within the Centre-Right in the French Fifth Republic, retracing the formation of the UMP and conducting questionnaires and interviews with party activists in Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines. The empirical fieldwork is examined within the broad framework of the party system literature. The UMP is a party that has formed out of a variety of political currents and traditions creating an internally diverse party, and this is examined through a look at the political families in the party and the party f´ed´erations of Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines to get a view of the party at the point of time of the fieldwork. The thesis examines the party in these two f´ed´erations through the eyes of the party activists in order to understand the party at the base. This seeks to study what the party is on the ground in these f´ed´erations: what groups exist within the party (both in terms of the former parties and political currents), what sort of organisation the UMP is, how the activists relate to the organisation, as well as the relationship between the lower levels of the party and the national party.
  • Exploring the Mediatization of Gay Cruising in the Philippines Randy Jay

    Exploring the Mediatization of Gay Cruising in the Philippines Randy Jay

    Cruising Through Spaces: Exploring the Mediatization of Gay Cruising in the Philippines Randy Jay. C. Solis The emergence of new communications technologies has provided a new space for initiating ro- mantic and sexual relationships among gays who perceive social and physical places to be a traditional space that largely promotes connection among heterosexuals. Now, mobile networking applications like Grindr have made it easier for gay men to “cruise” and meet other men, and are seen to lead to the increasing number of sexual partners, being exposed to risks like sexually transmitted infections (STI), among others. Thus this study, framed within the theory of Mediatization – which critically analyzes the dialectic process in which both media and communications on one hand, and culture and society on the other, mutually shape and change each other in an interactional process – explores the question: How have gays’ way of cruising, or the initiation of romantic or sexual relations (among others), in the Philip- pines been mediatized across history? Keywords: mediatization, gay cruising, gay men, gay technologies, gay spaces, Philippines It was the first weekend of September 2016 when a friend and I attended a common friend’s photo exhibit held at the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong. My friend Tony and I were introduced to Barbie, a transwoman academic based in Hong Kong. As soon as we were done with the preliminary introductions, Barbie asked my friend: “So, have you turned on your Grindr or Tinder in our university yet?” Tony replied: “Oh yes! On Tinder, I usually get messages from the “daddies” here. They must think I’m a “twink”.” I just shook my head, waiting for them to say more.