Academic conversations with... Keely Blanch

by Keely Blanch 

This is the start of a new mini-series, this time we turn to the page instead of beyond it. Inspired by our conversations that we have with other postgrads, with academic staff, and even family members, these academic conversations explore the varied, complex and interesting research that is being produced by the Postgrad Community. Keely begins the conversation with...

Looking at Digital Citizenship

I'm a full-time PhD Candidate based at UOCE and part-time tutor/lecturer. This year I am teaching in two papers at the 100 and 200 level. I'm also a member of the NZ Ethics Committee which offers ethical review and advice to community organisations and others not covered by institutional ethics review. When you combine my study and research interests with my social media habit, I spend entirely too much time on computers!

 
My PhD research is looking at how young people understand the concept of digital citizenship. As part of that, I'm looking at how young people (aged 16-25) discursively construct citizenship, how they construct digital citizenship, and how they construct their online practices as digitally-mediated citizens.

I came across the term 'digital citizenship' when I was undertaking my MA research (which looked at the use of Facebook to extend classroom learning). To be honest, I wasn't sure what the term meant when I first heard it. I was also a bit surprised when the few teachers and students I asked seemed equally unsure about the meaning, especially when I found the concept of digital citizenship was included in CORE Education's Top Ten Trends for several years, and was included in the Ministry of Education's e-Learning Framework. Google came to the rescue, but there's so much out there on the internet about digital citizenship, and a lot seemed to be focussed on cybersafety or cybersecurity practices. That led me to question whether the term was at all meaningful for young people.

When I started my thesis, I approached it with the view that online spaces, which are often described using terms like 'cyberworld', or 'virtual' world, are not separate from offline spaces. Instead I argued that the way we act online is a digitally-mediated representation of how we act offline. So it made sense to start with looking at how citizenship was understood if I wanted to understand digitally-mediated citizenship. That was an eye-opener. I came across many authors who started their work with words to the effect of 'citizenship is complex' and they were right! 

It was a chance comment by a fellow postgraduate that shaped the way I eventually looked at my data. As a result, one of the interesting things I've found is that young people were describing citizenship and digital citizenship in similar ways, but with different emphases. So for instance, in the interviews, the most common way to describe citizenship was in social or collective terms as membership of a group, but the most common way to describe digital citizenship was in terms of participation. So my participants are emphasising their individual digital practices over social or community-based feelings of belonging in online spaces. That small difference in emphasis can lead to different ideas of acceptable online behaviours towards identifiable individuals compared to 'faceless others' or corporate interests. I found that an interesting aspect, and it's one that has sparked a lot of discussion when I've presented it in more detail.

My take away message from all that? Talk about your research with anyone who will listen - when you're grabbing coffee, in the staff room having lunch, at seminars, conferences, etc. Then jot down those random comments that others make, because that may just spark a new line of thought that leads you into interesting places.  

Images from: 
1. CDC/ Amanda Mills acquired from Public Health Image Library (Website)
2. https://pixabay.com/en/binary-null-digital-silhouette-1023866/