Digital platforms such as social media are big part of people's everyday life and social network. Recent studies shows that the ability to act anonymously on social media has increased harassment behaviors online. For marginalized groups, digital platforms are important for the act of freedom of speech and harassments online can limit these groups in the digital environment. Within the framework of this study we found, that there is a lack of studies that specifically research sexual harassments online and what different factors that may have an impact on the problem. Therefore, the aim for this study was to research what values, attitudes and emotions users of social media services experiences online. We wanted to research, from a user perspective, what existing counter-strategies options are provided on social media against sexual harassments online, and if there are other technical design solutions for social media interfaces. Within the framework of this essay we have conducted a focus group interview and a participatory design workshop. The empirical data that was collected has been analysed with different theories such as power, resistance, empowerment in design, master suppression techniques in social media, feminist HCI and social norms and participatory design. The study also use previous research on harassment on social media to further understand the empirical data for the analysis. In this study there are findings from the focus group that has been placed in three different themes. 1) The importance of social relationships for counter-strategies against sexual harassment online. 2) Social norms and normalization of sexual harassment online. 3) The importance of technical aspects for dealing with sexual harassment online. Our study shows that the counter-strategies options on social media services today are not sufficient enough for these different aspects. The participatory design workshop in this study resulted in eight possible technical design solutions. These solutions can be implications for design on social media interfaces and can work as counter-strategy tools against sexual harassments online. This study only research one focus group, therefore the study can be used as a basis for further research. By including users with participatory design methods, values made from users of social media in relation to sexual harassments online can unfold and hopefully decrease the problem.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-34561 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Ahlström, Sofia, Hansson, Sofie |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för naturvetenskap, miljö och teknik, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för naturvetenskap, miljö och teknik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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