Browsing by Author "Baniya, Sweta"
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- Civil Disobedience as a Radical Flank in the Mountain Valley Pipeline Resistance MovementBaller, Cameron Reid (Virginia Tech, 2023-05-19)Communities of resistance are increasingly turning to radical tactics, including acts of civil disobedience, to fight back against encroaching fossil fuel infrastructure. The fight against the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is no exception. The MVP is a 303-mile long proposed fracked gas pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia. I apply radical flank effect (RFE) theory and the theory of movement dynamism to understand the role of civil disobedience, as a radical flank, in the MVP resistance movement. I contribute to the literature on RFEs by focusing primarily on how the radical flank of this movement has affected within-movement social dynamics, like trust, unity, and interpersonal relations. I rely on 15 semi-structured interviews with pipeline fighters, both those who have and have not participated in acts of civil disobedience, to gain insight into the use of civil disobedience, as a radical flank in the movement. This movement has used diverse tactics to challenge construction of the MVP, making it a strong case for understanding the role of radical tactics, and their relationship to moderate tactics. I find several positive RFEs (energizing effects, connecting effects, engaging effects, uniting effects, and movement outcome effects) and some potential negative RFEs (conflict/alienation, fear of consequences and organizational risks). I also find evidence of movement dynamism in the form of an ecosystem of tactics which emerged in the MVP resistance movement. Movement actors kept moderate and radical flanks publicly separate for strategic reasons while overlapping membership bridged the social dynamics of the movement, encouraging cohesion and collective movement identity.
- Institutional Global Maternal Nutrition Communication: Unblackboxing Rhetorical Power Dynamics in Transnational SpacesGanguly, Priyanka (Virginia Tech, 2024-05-13)Grounded at the intersection of rhetorics of health and medicine (RHM), technical and professional communication (TPC), and transnational institutional communication, my study aimed to explore the transnational issues of negotiation and power and (mis)articulations within the realm of global maternal nutrition (MN) communication design. Specifically, I sought to demystify the behind-the-scenes interactions and negotiations among funders (in this case, USAID headquarters), contractors (global health designers for a project called "Advancing Nutrition"), and local partners (Global South program implementers). To achieve this goal, I conducted a rhetorical analysis of twenty-eight publicly available Advancing Nutrition MN artifacts, including program guides, worksheets, toolkits, and multimedia discourses. Additionally, I performed fifteen episodic narrative interviews with key informants from the Advancing Nutrition team, USAID, and local implementing agencies in India, Kyrgyz Republic, and Ghana. Through the theoretical lenses of power as assemblage and articulation, my findings suggested a continual flux of (re)articulation tension within global MN communication design. This tension stemmed from power assemblages—a confluence of historical-political-ideological forces at the production site in the Global North and the rigid socio-cultural framework at the implementation site in the Global South—in transnational content creation spaces. This tension manifested in maternal-child nutrition indicators, temporally bound MN program design, community narratives in local implementation sites, and an emphasis on normative views of women's nutrition. Despite the power differentials among funders, contractors, and implementers, global health designers employed tactical technical communication approaches, including coalitional actions and reconstructive moves, to empower women and mothers in the Global South. Thus I conclude that technical and health communication scholars can help global institutional actors create socially-inclusive communication design and foster intentional community-engaged interventions by both attuning themselves to and exposing globalized power structures in the context of public health document creation.
- International Service Learning in Technical Communication during a Global PandemicBaniya, Sweta; Brein, Ashley; Call, Kylie (2021-12-06)In this article, we explore the innovative practice of initiating global engagement by incorporating international service learning in an online TPC class to address the issue of the digital divide in the post-pandemic context. By presenting an analysis of 10 student interviews, 15 reflections, and two community member interviews, we reimagine the TPC programmatic future within the virtual classroom and rethink service learning in TPC by (a) presenting an example of serving the global community and (b) providing specific ways of creating a sustainable and meaningful partnership in post-pandemic classes.
- Making Sense of Digital Content Moderation from the MarginsFernandes, Margaret Burke (Virginia Tech, 2022-06-10)This dissertation, Making Sense of Digital Content Moderation from the Margins, examines how content creators who are marginalized by race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and disability understand their experiences of content moderation on the social media platform TikTok. Using critical interface and narrative-based inquiry methods with six marginalized content creators on TikTok, I argue that marginalized creators navigate the opaque content moderation infrastructure of TikTok by drawing on their embodied experiences. The key research questions ask how these content creators interpret TikTok's platform policies and processes through their interactions on the app and how these interpretations influence content creation on TikTok and how creators feel about moderation in the absence of platform transparency about how content is moderated. To answer these questions, I conducted narrative-driven interviews with six TikTok creators and analyzed these stories alongside online testimonials in eight Change.org petitions. My analysis revealed that lack of transparency around TikTok's algorithmic curation and moderation contributes to content creators feeling alienated, exploited, frustrated, and unwelcome on the platform and influences content creators to adapt their content to avoid moderation, oftentimes by self-censoring themselves and aspects of their marginalized identities. Over time, the accumulation of content moderation micro-interactions diminishes the ability of marginalized content creators to trust content moderation processes. My analysis also shows how TikTok's user experience design and opaque content moderation practices contribute to an affective platform environment in which creators are compelled to speak out and across creator networks about such gaps in experience and platform policy. I conclude with a discussion of how my findings about content moderation and transparency contribute to conversations in writing-related scholarship, especially as it pertains to writing assessment, technical communication, and algorithmic research methodologies.
- Mapping Methodologies When the Platform is on FireJones, Dave; Trice, Michael; Potts, Liza; Baniya, Sweta (ACM, 2023-10-26)This extended abstract focuses on the methodologies used to research, examine, and understand content moderation policies on social media platforms during times of crisis.
- Representing Diversity in Digital Research: Digital Feminist Ethics and Resisting Dominant NormativesBaniya, Sweta; Hutchinson, Les; Kumari, Ashanka; Larson, Kyle; Lindgren, Chris A. (The WAC Clearinghouse, 2019)In this paper, the authors consider how their engaged practices of feminist ethics have come up against specific dominant normatives. Privileging the experiences of women of color, they question the embodied relationship they have with their research participants, and offer their methodological approaches for addressing ethical challenges that have surfaced through conducting their research in both digital and non-digital spaces and places. Collectively, they collaborate to develop newfound strategies and methodologies for negotiating the often mundane, micro-level moments of friction that prevents intersectional phronesis. Overall, they pitch ethical research practices for digital and non-digital research with diverse subjects of different races, backgrounds, and cultures such that voice(s) are not compromised during research.
- Rethinking Access: Recognizing Privileges and Positionalities in Building Community LiteracyBaniya, Sweta (2023-03-23)This article rethinks digital access and community literacy by sharing aspects of intentional engagement informed by social justice frameworks to establish community partnerships that empower communities both local and global with digital literacy. The article explores access, privileges, and positionalities that the author strategically utilizes to support the communities within her current locality and in her hometown Nepal. By showcasing multiple intentional and equitable partnerships informed via social justice frameworks, the article argues that we require a transnational context to redefine digital literacy and our students need to understand these contexts better given the demands of the current workplace.
- Rethinking Access: Recognizing Privileges and Positionalities in Building Community LiteracyBaniya, Sweta (Florida International University, 2022-09)This article rethinks digital access and community literacy by sharing aspects of intentional engagement informed by social justice frameworks to establish community partnerships that empower communities both local and global with digital literacy. The article explores access, privileges, and positionalities that the author strategically utilizes to support the communities within her current locality and in her hometown Nepal. By showcasing multiple intentional and equitable partnerships informed via social justice frameworks, the article argues that we require a transnational context to redefine digital literacy and our students need to understand these contexts better given the demands of the current workplace.
- Role of Translation in Disaster ResponseBaniya, Sweta; Potts, Liza (2024-01-29)In this article, we highlight and discuss in detail the role of translation transnational during and in response to a crisis. Translation practices and readiness are critical for multilingual and transnational communities to survive during and respond to disasters (Marlowe, 2020). The translation of information is crucial to the survival of the communities that are marginalized within their own countries due to their linguistic diversity. And yet, this is not an area often studied or considered, even though we understand its importance (O’Brien, 2019; Gonzales, 2018; Agboka, 2013). Hence, we present an analysis of the work of “knowledge workers” (Baniya & Potts, 2021) during the current Russia-Ukraine war to showcase how translation work happens at an intersection of digital platforms, multilingualism, and social justice.
- Settler Colonialism in U.S. Popular Media as Influencing Perceptions of Material Culture and Museum EthicsPatrick, Cara Rose (Virginia Tech, 2024-06-12)The everyday person living in the United States does not first encounter ethics of material culture and collecting solely by visiting a museum. This MA Thesis seeks to look at how action-adventure "treasure-hunting" media introduces people to fields such as archaeology, anthropology, and museum studies through entertainment media. Frameworks of settler colonialism are used to understand the intentionality behind and subsequent impact of these films in a US-based context. Media effects theories of cultivation, framing, and agenda setting are also applied to understand how messages are facilitated through media such as the Indiana Jones (1981-2024), National Treasure (2004-2023), and "Outer Banks" (2020- ) franchises. The core aim for future thought and research is to understand how museums and filmmakers alike may more ethically and equitably represent people and material culture.
- Thriving in the Academy: Thai Students' Experiences and PerspectivesInthajak, Atinut (Virginia Tech, 2022-06-21)In this dissertation, I investigate how Thai doctoral students adapt to and navigate academic expectations in their nonnative language. Through coded semi-structured interviews with eight participants from six different universities across the U.S., I analyze the lived experiences, stories, and challenges faced by Thai doctoral students in Humanities disciplines as students in Humanities are believed to rely more on writing as a mode of inquiry than students in STEM. I explore how, and to what extent, they cultivated agency to meet the expectations of the academy and how they assimilated into the U.S. academic culture. I initially hypothesized that writing was the most challenging skill, given that composition program and classrooms are virtually nonexistent in Thai curricula and students coming into the U.S. academy from such educational backgrounds would have limited exposure to formal writing instruction. Interestingly, through thematic coding schemes, I found that, while writing was challenging, there were other significant factors impacting their education. In my analysis, I found that students also had to navigate academic reading, participation in active classroom discussions, and acculturation into U.S. academic setting, all of which challenged their learning experiences. I argue in the dissertation that these complex social negotiations, not accounted for in most pedagogical structures in U.S. education, result in inequitable access to curriculum and undo hardships on students. By amplifying the voices of Thai students, this project highlights the ways that Thailand's educational system, deeply entrenched discourses of loyalty to Thailand's monarchy and the Criminal Code Act 112, impacts Thai students' formation and navigation of academic identity while encountering the U.S. Academy.
- Transnational Assemblages in Disaster Response: Networked Communities, Technologies, and Coalitional Actions During Global DisastersBaniya, Sweta (Routledge, 2022-01-01)In this article, I argue that local disasters are a global concern and that various transnational assemblages emerge during a disaster that support the suffering communities and help in addressing the issues of social justice in post-disaster situations. The transnational assemblages that emerge on social media create innovative practices (via non-western and decolonial ways) of creating communities across the world via crisis communication and distributed work to address social injustices during the disaster.