Following on from last week, this week I will be building and extending my 3 epiphanies and what I’ve uncovered through my auto-ethnographic data.
If you missed last weeks blog about my epiphanies click HERE to read or listen to the summary!
Let’s jump into it
Expanding epiphany 1
As I’m sure your well aware, differing view, opinions, morals and experiences can create a divide between 2 people. But in this case, Abbie’s pro-vax podcast’s create a divide between an entire niche community.
Investigating this epiphany further I was able to understand more deeply why some of Abbie’s audience members response defensively and aggressively towards her opinion sharing podcast’s. Engaging with Todd Kashdan’s research article “Curiosity enhances the role of mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to existential threat” (2011), he concluded from his research that
“Mindful people show a willingness to consider new information about… their world without reflexive judgments. In the absence of curiosity, mindfully attentive people appeared to be defensive, rejecting ideas and disparaging people that challenge…”
I found this extremely interesting considering after I engaged with participant observation within these particular podcast’s, a lot of the members were not open to suggestions or ideas from other members as much as they weren’t with Abbie.
My online persona responded to this epiphany by:
- Not posting directly about COVID-19 or vaccination
- Post podcast’s/content that will appeal to the majority of the niche
- Create a space free of judgment
Exploring epiphany 2
A troll aims to inflict pain, ridicule, or humiliate a targeted person. This happens on many occasions within Abbie Chatfield’s social media within her online community – with the ultimate aim of getting a response from her. To put the actual threat of trolling into perspective, consider that 26.67 % of the 2018 cohort of Superstars of STEM (who are trained and urged to expand their profile through social media) encountered trolling online, whereas 73.33 % did not. While 26.67% doesn’t seem like a lot, keep in mind that the digital world should be a space to freely express yourself and in fact, a large majority end up becoming trolled for the expression of opinion.
As for my tik tok account, I haven’t received any sort of trolling within which could be suggested that the trolls are more directed at Abbie herself, than her podcasts?
Expressing Epiphany 3
Much like ‘The Guilty Feminist podcast, feminism topics within Abbie’s podcasts, the central topic is explored through conversation, stand-up comedy and a panel discussion, which a range of guests participate in – but particularly her producer Elise.
Explored within Raechel Tiffe’s article ‘Taking up sonic space: feminized vocality and podcasting as resistance’ (2017) I can draw on how feminists in society are often ridiculed for their way of expression, Tiffe suggesting that “We find it especially interesting that the voices of women on podcasts often reflect the exact qualities that are policed and criticized by contemporary society.” This concept can be related to both epiphany 1 and 2 in terms of within Abbies Podcast’s there are always multiple comments/reviews who describe her podcast’s as “un-interesting” or “mean” due to her outspoken nature.
So with these epiphanies in mind, ill be able to apply these findings to my DA and online persona in hopes to create more content that is suitable for my niche’s audience.
References
- Tiffe, R. and Hoffmann, M., 2017. Taking up sonic space: feminized vocality and podcasting as resistance. [online] D1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2017.1261464 [Accessed 9 September 2021].
- Scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au. n.d. HOW-TO DEAL WITH HARASSMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA – PERSONAL ACCOUNTS. [online] Available at: <https://scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/STA_HTG011-Dealing-with-Harassment-on-Social-Media.pdf> [Accessed 9 September 2021].
3. Kashdan, T., 2011. Curiosity enhances the role of mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to existential threat. [online] Science Direct. Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886911000900> [Accessed 9 September 2021].
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