Abstract
This paper conducts a critical discourse analysis of a recent Canadian adolescent digital literacy resource to show that selfies are treated primarily as discursive objects. This paper suggests that by rethinking selfies as both discursive and important material and affective entanglements—a frequent proposal in recent scholarship on this phenomenon—and by redesigning learning resources accordingly, teachers could encourage students to think in a material, affective, embodied, and more complex way about the experiences of sharing images of bodies online.
Highlights
Learning outcomes Students will: (...) -create a media product (MediaSmarts, 2016)I aim adult content towards Fetlife and a particular Tumblr account, so sexually explicit selfies go there
Returning to recent scholarship on selfies and digital images of the body shared on social media, I rethink the teaching resource—adding activities that inquire into the material and affective forces at play in selfie production and sharing
This paper began by revealing the gap between Canadian digital literacy resources and contemporary empirical work on digital self-imaging practices by youth on social media
Summary
Learning outcomes Students will: (...) -create a media product (my emphasis) (MediaSmarts, 2016). Digital Images of Bodies in Canada: Some Context The discourse on selfies, or digital self-imaging—often shared via social media— is fairly well known and permeates mass media, governmental policy and, most recently, educational curricula and resources. This discourse considers selfies to be evidence of vain, narcissistic, and often gendered practices of young women (Senft & Baym, 2015; Warfield, 2015); it frequently links to discourses around moral panic, threats of violence, and online bullying (Burns, 2015). The final section, Assessment and Evaluation: Selfie de Milo, asks students to choose a self-portrait from art history that is at least 50 years old and, using contemporary filtering programs or apps, edit it to “selfie standards” (MediaSmarts, 2015)
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