Academic Publications
Ha, L., Rahut, D., Ofori, M., Sharma, S., Harmon, M., Tolofari, A., Bowen, B., Lu, Y., & Khan, A., 2023
Implications of source, content, and style cues in curbing health misinformation and fake news
Bowen, B., 2023
Requirement politics: Poetry as Feminist Response to Institutional Reluctance and Dismissal
Bowen, B., 2023
Towards a Critical Media Ecology: Gender & Media Ecology
Around 2016, a culture of leftism emerged on Facebook, particularly in the form of public pages and groups. These online communities offered spaces to engage with Marxist and socialist ideologies. Despite being often dismissed as meaningless Internet content, these platforms played a significant role in shaping political identities and promoting political discourse. By using humor and satire, counterculture movements effectively critique the status quo and inspire new insights. Memes, in particular, act as a tool for analysis and provide a platform for political identification, activism, and organizing.
The impact of the #MeToo campaign on social and political change is still uncertain. While it has received media recognition, its effectiveness in bringing about concrete action remains to be seen. The role of social media campaigns in driving social change is not well-documented. By analyzing news and social media accounts of the #MeToo campaign, we can gain insights into its potential for catalyzing social action. This paper sought to contextualize #MeToo within the realm of feminist rhetoric and its potential to drive socio-political change concerning sexual abuse, assault, and exploitation. Understanding the role of social media in political activism is crucial in evaluating the effectiveness of such campaigns.
This piece explores the historical and cultural aspects of expressing love and examines the appeal of the Lovebox, a digital love note product. It delves into the concept of owning proof of one's love and investigates if love can be held in the digital age. Additionally, it traces the sociohistorical landscapes that have contributed to the existence of such products in the smartphone era.
This project examines the impact of the U.S. White Flight and its effects on historically and intentionally targeted communities, particularly in redlined and gentrified areas. It discusses how this phenomenon in the algorithmic, and now, envirusment, age continues on to ecologically shape Midwest (sub)urban landscapes, limiting historically and intentionally targeted folks access to essentials in news ways since COVID-19 began. The focus is on the disparities between affluent, predominantly white spaces and deliberately disenfranchised neighborhoods. The project highlights the ongoing effects of these societal and environmental injustices.
To provide human judgment input for computer algorithm development, this study examines the relative importance of source, content, and style cues in predicting the truthfulness ratings of two common types of online health information: news stories and institutional news releases.
This piece "Requirement Politics" utilizes poetic inquiry, interweaving narrative and research with feminist poetry. In it, the author explores their personal journey of dealing with sexual harassment and assault. It reflects on the current political climate, including the #MeToo movement, Title IX policies, and the aftermath of Trump's presidency. Their critical media ecological framework delves into the fleshy consequences of an unjust legal system, employing poetic inquiry as a feminist methodology. Through blurring the line between public and private experiences, this work aims to challenge structures of oppression and shed light on the impact of "requirement politics".
This article explores one scholar-activist's feminist scholarship trajectory and discusses possible theoretical connections to the field of media ecology. It emphasizes the importance of subjective experiences, reveals taken for granted ways even critical academic curricula end up reinforcing biases, and some different paths to understanding feminist theories. The author invites further critical scholarship to challenge societal norms in media ecology and beyond.