Browsing by Subject "online communication"
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(2022)Climate change is increasingly influencing young people’s reproductive decisions, and more and more people are hesitant to have children due to climate change and climate anxiety. In contrast, the hegemonic reproduction discourse in the West, pronatalism, portrays having children as universally desirable and fulfilling and stigmatises childfreedom. Consequently, childfreedom is inherently situated in resistance to pronatalism and it is examined here as a counter-discourse. This study aims to contribute to research about the interconnection of reproduction and the climate crisis from a critical discourse analytic perspective, as linguistically oriented studies are currently lacking in what is already an under-researched field. This study examines how a childfree subreddit is challenging the hegemonic pronatalist reproductive discourses from the perspective of the climate crisis and environmentalism. The question is answered by examining (1) the main themes in the discourse and (2) the linguistic resources that are utilised. The material is collected from a subreddit r/childfree, a discursive space where pronatalist ideology is contested and consists of 11 threads where the interconnection of reproduction and climate change are discussed. An online environment was chosen because they can enable solidarity, offer respite from hegemonic ideologies and discourses, legitimize and normalize alternative discourses and even formulate strategies of resistance. I conducted a critical discourse analytic study using content analysis as a method. Critical discourse analysis was chosen because it enables one to examine how discourse structures reproduce or challenge relations of power. Content analysis, on the other hand, is a systematic and transparent way to classify text into categories. The results not only showed that the people who post on the subreddit use the climate crisis strategically and deliberately to counter pronatalism, but also that they deploy linguistic resources creatively and playfully in the interests of their own ideologies. The posts demonstrate awareness of pronatalist discourse and behaviour, which are often collectively analysed. Interestingly, both childfree and pronatalist discourses use climate change rhetoric to accommodate to the changing cultural context, and the constant negotiation between the discourses is evident in the data. On the one hand, climate change is used to create a reflective, selfless, and morally superior childfree subject. On the other hand, it is employed to portray all “breeders” not only as irresponsible, selfish, hypocritical, susceptible to external pressure, but also as in denial of climate change. “Breeders’” naivety and denial are contrasted with the seriousness of the climate crisis. Although children are mainly portrayed in a negative light, some posts use child-centred rhetoric to justify why having children is immoral in the age of climate change, thus challenging pronatalism. Regardless of how the topic is framed, the different categories identified in this study all work to deconstruct the parenthood mandate.
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(2021)The purpose of this research is to study how informal communication and information flow changed when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to transfer from working at the office to remote work at home. In the pre-pandemic world, informal communication occurred at the workplace on a daily basis, thus creating more opportunities for information exchange, whereas in the present, the new remote work mode has erased informal communication from the equation nearly completely. This research studies how the flow of information was impacted by the sudden lack of informal communication, and whether these changes were seen in the basic workflow of organization members. The study is conducted in collaboration with CSC – ICT Center for Science Ltd. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were used as the research method in this study. All interviewees worked in specialist positions, and the sample represented all units in CSC. The interviews were analyzed with qualitative content analysis, which was based on the coding frame built on themes that arose in the interviews. Such themes were meetings, silos, communicational environment and information flow. The results show that without informal communication, the organization members do not have as good of a comprehension of the organization’s projects and daily operation as they did before the pandemic. Furthermore, the individuals’ informal communication networks have reduced during the pandemic, and they no longer communicate with anyone who they do not work with consistently. The reduced communication network and informal communication have impacted the information flow to have become more formal and focused on the substance at hand. Information has become more difficult to access without informal communication to maintain an understanding of who works with what information. The results are corresponding with what is known by previous research. However, this study elaborates more on not only the relationship between informal communication and information sharing, but also on how the dynamics of that relationship works in a changing environment. Without informal communication, individuals are unaware of the information that is flowing elsewhere in the organization. This creates uncertainty and feelings of missing out on potentially relevant information.
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(2022)Continuous development of urban areas poses challenges for sustainable use of resources and the management of complex waste streams. Recycling is seen as a solution for promoting sustainability, especially at the individual-level where waste sorting creates preconditions for successful material recovery operations. Behavior change strategies aim to encourage individuals to implement recycling practices in their daily lives. The effectiveness of behavior change strategies is achieved by broadly influencing capability, opportunity, and motivation to recycle, however, studies claim that many existing strategies are unable to do so. This study aims to gain an understanding in how extensively a municipal recycling service provider’s online communication on social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube) enhances capability, opportunity, and motivation to recycle by communicating about means to overcome recycling barriers. Specifically, the study is interested in examining what types of recycling barriers are addressed in online communication and through which means it aims to deliver assistance for overcoming these barriers. Lastly, this study aims to explore the role of social media platform-based online communication as a channel to promote individual recycling behavior. This study focuses on social media materials published by a municipal service provider in the European Green Capital of 2021. The empirical material builds on a set of data collected from public and locatable online sources. The analysis includes 96 different types (pictural, textual, video) of recycling-themed online content. The data was analyzed by conducting qualitative content analysis. The results indicated that online communication addresses a broad range of recycling barriers. The most common means to overcome these was information provision through which the company aimed to increase knowledge and understanding of recycling practices. Although information provision alone is claimed to be insufficient to profoundly change behavior, results showed that it could serve as a means to generate a broad influence on areas behind behavior formation. The result of this study suggests that social media platforms as channels for online communication have the potential to create preconditions for overcoming recycling barriers especially through the means of information provision. The development of more profound recycling behavior, however, needs to include a broader range of collaborative information, motivation, and engagement elements that could engage and encourage people to implement more profound recycling behavior. This calls for future research that discovers means to stimulate behavior formation widely to support overcoming recycling barriers and the implementation of profound recycling behavior in everyday lives.
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