The ways in which the Internet can facilitate the expression and spread of racist views and ideologies have been the subject of a growing body of research across disciplines. To date, however, there ...has been no systematic reviews of this research. To synthesise current knowledge on the topic and identify directions for future research, we systematically review a decade of research on cyber-racism as perpetrated by groups and individuals (i.e., according to the source of cyber-racism). Overall, the cyber-racism research reviewed shows that racist groups and individuals use different communication channels, are driven by different goals, adopt different strategies, and the effects of their communication are distinctive. Despite these differences, both groups and individuals share a high level of skill and sophistication when expressing cyber-racism. Most of the studies reviewed relied on qualitative analyses of online textual data. Our review suggests there is a need for researchers to employ a broader array of methods, devote more attention to targets' perspectives, and extend their focus by exploring issues such as the roles of Internet in mobilising isolated racist individuals and in enabling ideological clustering of supporters of racist ideologies.
•The sources of cyber-racism can be divided into groups and individuals.•Groups and individuals use different channels to communicate cyber-racism.•They have different goals driving them and adopt different communication strategies.•Most cyber-racism research uses qualitative analyses of online textual data.•There is a need for research to focus more to targets' perspectives.
When and how do social movements form to mobilize action across national boundaries? In the context of the 2015 movement to support Syrian refugees, we develop an integrative model of transnational ...social movement formation shaped by pre‐existing world‐views (social dominance orientation and right‐wing authoritarianism) and social media exposure to iconic events, resulting in an emergent group consciousness (“we are”, “we believe”, “we feel”). Group consciousness is, in turn, the proximal predictor of solidarity with refugees. Participants were from six countries: Hungary (N = 267), Romania (N = 163), Germany (N = 190), the United Kingdom (N = 159), the United States (N = 244) and Australia (N = 344). Multi‐group structural equation models confirmed that group consciousness, shaped by individual differences and exposure to events through social media, was the proximal predictor of solidarity. The subjective meaning of group consciousness varied across samples, reflecting national differences. Results support the importance of considering individual and national differences, and group processes in understanding emergent social movements.
The use of online learning technologies in experiences of inquiry is increasingly ubiquitous in university contexts. In blended environments, research into university experiences suggests that ...student approaches to learning are a key determiner of the quality of outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop relevant measures which help understand the interplay between student approaches to inquiry (SAI) and their approaches to using online learning technologies (SAOLT) in blended environments. Based on a first-year university sample (n=238), two questionnaires exploring qualitative variations in the SAI and SAOLT were developed. Each questionnaire had two subscales, that is, deep and surface approaches, and their construction was informed by existing research identifying qualitatively different approaches to inquiry and learning technologies. Our results indicate that the two questionnaires show satisfactory validity and reliability in measuring SAI and SAOLT. Furthermore, our findings show that deep approaches to inquiry were positively and logically related to deep approaches to online learning technologies (while surface approaches to inquiry were related to surface approaches to online learning technologies), and participants cluster in distinct groups according to their qualitatively different approaches to inquiry and online technologies. These outcomes have tangible implications for teaching and design, in particular for teachers aiming to support students to develop effective learning strategies when engaging in blended environments where students need to integrate their experiences and ideas across face-to-face and online contexts. Author abstract
Learning through inquiry is a widely advocated pedagogical approach. However, there is currently little systematic knowledge about the practice of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in higher education. ...This study examined descriptions of learning tasks that were put forward as examples of IBL by 224 university teachers from various disciplines in three Australian universities. Data analysis uncovered the principal forms of IBL, the features of each form, their characteristic educational objectives, and possible disciplinary variations. The findings show that underlying the diversity of language and tasks regarded as IBL there is a limited number of distinct task forms and a broad conception of inquiry that is shared by university teachers. The findings also indicate that IBL is practiced in a wide range of disciplines, in both undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programs, in smaller and larger classes, and in universities which are more and less research intensive.
Literature on intergroup contact shows that in the absence of the required structural conditions, contact is not necessarily always a positive experience and that when it is negative, it can lead to ...heightened conflict and increased prejudice toward outgroups. Therefore, this article examines intergroup contact between Muslims and non-Muslims. Specifically, we examine the experiences of intergroup contact involving young Muslims in Australia and ask how these encounters impact their experiences of discrimination and perceptions of Australian society. We conducted face-to-face, semi-structured interviews to collect rich, qualitative data from young Muslim Australian participants who live in Melbourne, a major cosmopolitan hub, where intergroup contact experiences are likely to be diverse and occur daily. Our findings show that even when met with prejudice and discrimination, young Muslim Australians were able to critically engage with and change the views of non-Muslim Australians through dialogue and creative exchanges about circulating public discourse.
In the context of addiction research, positive recovery outcomes are affected by the quality of people's social interactions and perhaps to an even greater extent, by the defining norms of the groups ...they identify with—that is, using versus recovery groups. Here, we examine the role of online supportive networks in the process of recovery from alcohol addiction. We analyse the relationship between negative and positive aspects of recovery capital (i.e., self‐stigma, and respectively, positive recovery identity and self‐efficacy) as they relate to well‐being outcomes among alcohol users in an online recovery support group. Based on a computerised linguistic analysis of the naturally occurring data extracted from an online recovery support group (i.e., 257 posts made by 237 group members), we found that self‐stigma negatively predicts self‐efficacy and well‐being, and social identification with a recovery identity mediates these relationships. Overall, these findings highlight that positive engagement with supportive recovery networks is central to an effective and sustainable recovery.
In this article, we argue that progress in the study of collective action rests on an increasingly sophisticated application of the social identity approach. We develop the view, however, that the ...application of this theoretical perspective has been limited by theoretical and empirical difficulties in distinguishing between social categories and psychological groups. These problems have undermined the ability of researchers to correctly specify the collective identities that actually underpin many instances of collective action. As a partial solution to this problem we focus on collective identities based on shared opinion (opinion‐based groups). We develop the proposition that much collective action reflects the crystallization or instantiation of opinion‐based groups. We also outline an intervention aimed at stimulating commitment to collective action through group‐based interaction involving opinion‐based group members. We conclude by emphasizing that opinion‐based groups tend to be most successful when they present themselves as being representative or aligned with dominant, positively valued social categories such as nations.
Racist views expressed on the Internet have damaging consequences for social harmony and well-being. This article examines how and why individuals express support or opposition to racist behaviour in ...a prominent online medium: comments on news websites. Specifically, we examine how supporters and opponents of racist behaviour use a particular type of subtle discursive strategies known as moral disengagement in their online responses to three notable racist incidents that occurred in Australia in 2013. Moral disengagement strategies allow individuals to avoid distress, self-condemnation, and social-sanctions when supporting or engaging in harmful behaviour by making that behaviour appear moral and acceptable. We show that supporters, but not opponents, of racist behaviour consistently use moral disengagement strategies in their rhetoric, and demonstrate that moral disengagement provides a powerful theoretical framework through which racist rhetoric on online news websites can be understood.
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