Clare Southerton
Biographic Data
| ID | 245270 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Clare Southerton |
| GIVEN NAMES | Clare |
| FAMILY NAME | Southerton |
| SIGNATURE | SOUTHERTON C |
| AFFILIATIONS | UNSW Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5812-9785 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 53 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
AI and Aesthetic Alienation: The Image and Creativity in Contemporary Culture
In this comment piece, we argue that mass-produced generative AI (GenAI) images, commonly referred to as “AI slop” should be considered a form of aesthetic alienation. Specifically, we focus on GenAI images of fall, arguing that GenAI images alienate not only artists from their art, but produces an alienating aesthetic in and of itself. Closely attending to the aesthetic registers of GenAI images opens up important sociological questions about th…
Re-authorising Colonialism or re-authorising Indigenous perspectives: The Risks of Generative AI in Indigenous Education contexts
I feel like I get something else to think about: How do Australian young people see their relationship with TikTok
Understanding digital period pedagogies: Exploring how young people navigate menstruation through embodied experience
Objective: This paper examines the ways in which young people in Eastern Canada learn about menstruation and construct personal period pedagogies through embodied experiences and encounters with digital and social media. Design: A qualitative exploratory approach was undertaken to elicit the stories and voices of young people who menstruate. Menstruation is conceptualised as a deeply bio-social phenomenon and knowledge was understood as created, …
Young people and TikTok use in Australia: Digital Geographies of Care in Popular Culture
The short-form video-sharing app TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform globally, particularly among young people, and the app is attracting significant academic interest. However, the voices of young people have been mostly absent from these debates. This article offers a qualitative study of how young people are using TikTok to make care-full digital worlds in and around Sydney, Australia, drawing on interviews with sixteen young p…
Commentary & Reflections from the TikTok Methodologies Discussion Forum
As methodologies for studying TikTok continue to develop, deliberation among research communities can offer valuable insights to incorporate different approaches and iterate on emerging research designs. In July 2021, the TikTok Cultures Research Network held a public research forum on TikTok methodologies that was attended by over two-hundred researchers and members of the public from around the world. The discussion-based event featured two pan…
Special Issue: What do misinformation practices feel like? Embodiment, health and digital spaces
This editorial explores how misinformation is expressed across a range of health practices and contexts
Situated Talk: A method for a reflexive encounter with #donorconceived on TikTok
There is a pressing need to facilitate sensitive conversations between people with differing or opposing views. On video-sharing app TikTok, the diverse experiences of donor-conceived people and recipient parents sit uneasily alongside each other, coalescing in hashtags like #donorconceived. This article describes a method 'Situated Talk' which uses TikToks to facilitate a reflexive encounter, drawing on three areas of scholarship: media ethnogra…
Obgyns of TikTok and the role of misinformation in diffractive knowledge production
Health misinformation on social media has largely been examined from a harms-focused perspective, with scholars seeking to identify what impacts misinformation has on public health and a popular focus on removing it from platforms. The act of debunking is one response wherein misinformation is corrected with knowledge from scientific sources. To date, little research exists examining how experts and the public engage with misinformation beyond a …
FreeBritney and the Pleasures of Conspiracy
Introduction There are many competing explanations for why people are drawn to conspiracy theories. Increasingly, conspiracy theories are mainstream sites of cultural engagement (Barkun). Conspiracy theorising, then, is part of, or at least brushes up against, people’s daily sense-making practices. However, many still think of conspiracy theorising and the communities that form around them as deviant, pathological or deficient (Swami et al.). In …
Conspiracy
Conspiracies have been a cultural mainstay for decades (Melley). While often framed as an American problem (Melley), social media has contributed to their global reach (Gerts et al.). Bruns, Harrington, and Hurcombe have traced the contemporary movement of conspiracy theories into the cultural mainstream from fringe conspiracist groups on social media platforms such as Facebook through their greater uptake in more diverse communities and to subst…
Digital self-tracking, habits and the myth of discontinuance: It doesn’t just ‘stop’
Digital self-tracking devices increasingly inhabit everyday landscapes, yet many people abandon self-trackers not long after acquisition. Although research has examined why people discontinue these devices, less explores what actually happens when people unplug. This article addresses this gap by considering the embodied and habitual dimensions of self-tracking and discontinuance. We consider the potential for digital data – and their unanticipat…
The Face Mask In Covid Times: A Sociomaterial Analysis
The simple fabric face mask is a key agent in the fight against the global spread of COVID-19. However, beyond its role as a protective covering against coronavirus infection, the face mask is the bearer of powerful symbolic and political power and arouses intense emotions. Adopting an international perspective informed by social theory, The Face Mask in COVID Times: A Sociomaterial Analysis offers an intriguing and original investigation of the …
Boy crazy, but not in a straight way: The ‘truth’ about Larry in the One Direction fandom
This article explores the queer practices of a subgroup of One Direction fans known as Larries. The Larries believe that former One Direction boyband members Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson (referred to by the portmanteau ‘Larry Stylinson’) were, or are, in a relationship. This article draws on a digital ethnography with the Larry fandom conducted on Twitter across 2018 and argues that their digital practices involve queer reading strategies to …
Face Mask in Covid Times: A Sociomaterial Analysis
Introduction: The Shifting Meanings and Practices of Face Masks
The thing-power of the Facebook assemblage: Why do users stay on the platform
Facebook is the most used social media platform globally, despite frequent and highly publicised criticism of some of its practices. In this article, we bring together perspectives from vital materialism scholarship - and particularly Jane Bennett's concept of 'thing-power' - with our empirical research on Australian Facebook users to identify what they find important and valuable about the platform. Findings are presented in the form of seven ca…
Restricted modes: Social media, content classification and LGBTQ sexual citizenship
In the context of recent controversies surrounding the censorship of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer online content, specifically on YouTube and Tumblr, we interrogate the relationship between normative understandings of sexual citizenship and the content classification regimes. We argue that these content classification systems and the platforms’ responses to public criticism both operate as norm-producing technologies, in which th…
Playing Recognition Politics: Queer Theoretical Reflections on Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Youth Social Policy in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s
Habitual Disclosure: Routine, Affordance, and the Ethics of Young Peoples Social Media Data Surveillance
Drawing on findings from qualitative interviews and photo elicitation, this article explores young people's experiences of breaches of trust with social media platforms and how comfort is re-established despite continual violations. It provides rich qualitative accounts of users habitual relations with social media platforms. In particular, we seek to trace the process by which online affordances create conditions in which 'sharing' is regarded a…
Repetitions of Desire
Like other fangirls, fans of former boyband One Direction (“Directioners”) have often been represented in media discourse as obsessive and hysterical, with fan behaviour interpreted as longing for heterosexual intimacy with band members. Subverting this heteronormative framing, a group of Directioners known as “Larries” have built a sub-fandom around imagining a relationship (“ship”) between two of the band members, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlins…
Restricted modes: Social media, content classification and LGBTQ sexual citizenship
In the context of recent controversies surrounding the censorship of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer online content, specifically on YouTube and Tumblr, we interrogate the relationship between normative understandings of sexual citizenship and the content classification regimes. We argue that these content classification systems and the platforms’ responses to public criticism both operate as norm-producing technologies, in which th…
Young people and TikTok use in Australia: Digital Geographies of Care in Popular Culture
The short-form video-sharing app TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform globally, particularly among young people, and the app is attracting significant academic interest. However, the voices of young people have been mostly absent from these debates. This article offers a qualitative study of how young people are using TikTok to make care-full digital worlds in and around Sydney, Australia, drawing on interviews with sixteen young p…
Digital self-tracking, habits and the myth of discontinuance: It doesn’t just ‘stop’
Digital self-tracking devices increasingly inhabit everyday landscapes, yet many people abandon self-trackers not long after acquisition. Although research has examined why people discontinue these devices, less explores what actually happens when people unplug. This article addresses this gap by considering the embodied and habitual dimensions of self-tracking and discontinuance. We consider the potential for digital data – and their unanticipat…
Obgyns of TikTok and the role of misinformation in diffractive knowledge production
Health misinformation on social media has largely been examined from a harms-focused perspective, with scholars seeking to identify what impacts misinformation has on public health and a popular focus on removing it from platforms. The act of debunking is one response wherein misinformation is corrected with knowledge from scientific sources. To date, little research exists examining how experts and the public engage with misinformation beyond a …
The thing-power of the Facebook assemblage: Why do users stay on the platform
Facebook is the most used social media platform globally, despite frequent and highly publicised criticism of some of its practices. In this article, we bring together perspectives from vital materialism scholarship - and particularly Jane Bennett's concept of 'thing-power' - with our empirical research on Australian Facebook users to identify what they find important and valuable about the platform. Findings are presented in the form of seven ca…
Situated Talk: A method for a reflexive encounter with #donorconceived on TikTok
There is a pressing need to facilitate sensitive conversations between people with differing or opposing views. On video-sharing app TikTok, the diverse experiences of donor-conceived people and recipient parents sit uneasily alongside each other, coalescing in hashtags like #donorconceived. This article describes a method 'Situated Talk' which uses TikToks to facilitate a reflexive encounter, drawing on three areas of scholarship: media ethnogra…
Playing Recognition Politics: Queer Theoretical Reflections on Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Youth Social Policy in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s
Repetitions of Desire
Like other fangirls, fans of former boyband One Direction (“Directioners”) have often been represented in media discourse as obsessive and hysterical, with fan behaviour interpreted as longing for heterosexual intimacy with band members. Subverting this heteronormative framing, a group of Directioners known as “Larries” have built a sub-fandom around imagining a relationship (“ship”) between two of the band members, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlins…
AI and Aesthetic Alienation: The Image and Creativity in Contemporary Culture
In this comment piece, we argue that mass-produced generative AI (GenAI) images, commonly referred to as “AI slop” should be considered a form of aesthetic alienation. Specifically, we focus on GenAI images of fall, arguing that GenAI images alienate not only artists from their art, but produces an alienating aesthetic in and of itself. Closely attending to the aesthetic registers of GenAI images opens up important sociological questions about th…
Habitual Disclosure: Routine, Affordance, and the Ethics of Young Peoples Social Media Data Surveillance
Drawing on findings from qualitative interviews and photo elicitation, this article explores young people's experiences of breaches of trust with social media platforms and how comfort is re-established despite continual violations. It provides rich qualitative accounts of users habitual relations with social media platforms. In particular, we seek to trace the process by which online affordances create conditions in which 'sharing' is regarded a…
Repetitions of Desire
Like other fangirls, fans of former boyband One Direction (“Directioners”) have often been represented in media discourse as obsessive and hysterical, with fan behaviour interpreted as longing for heterosexual intimacy with band members. Subverting this heteronormative framing, a group of Directioners known as “Larries” have built a sub-fandom around imagining a relationship (“ship”) between two of the band members, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlins…
Restricted modes: Social media, content classification and LGBTQ sexual citizenship
In the context of recent controversies surrounding the censorship of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer online content, specifically on YouTube and Tumblr, we interrogate the relationship between normative understandings of sexual citizenship and the content classification regimes. We argue that these content classification systems and the platforms’ responses to public criticism both operate as norm-producing technologies, in which th…
Playing Recognition Politics: Queer Theoretical Reflections on Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Youth Social Policy in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s
Habitual Disclosure: Routine, Affordance, and the Ethics of Young Peoples Social Media Data Surveillance
Drawing on findings from qualitative interviews and photo elicitation, this article explores young people's experiences of breaches of trust with social media platforms and how comfort is re-established despite continual violations. It provides rich qualitative accounts of users habitual relations with social media platforms. In particular, we seek to trace the process by which online affordances create conditions in which 'sharing' is regarded a…
The Face Mask In Covid Times: A Sociomaterial Analysis
The simple fabric face mask is a key agent in the fight against the global spread of COVID-19. However, beyond its role as a protective covering against coronavirus infection, the face mask is the bearer of powerful symbolic and political power and arouses intense emotions. Adopting an international perspective informed by social theory, The Face Mask in COVID Times: A Sociomaterial Analysis offers an intriguing and original investigation of the …
Boy crazy, but not in a straight way: The ‘truth’ about Larry in the One Direction fandom
This article explores the queer practices of a subgroup of One Direction fans known as Larries. The Larries believe that former One Direction boyband members Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson (referred to by the portmanteau ‘Larry Stylinson’) were, or are, in a relationship. This article draws on a digital ethnography with the Larry fandom conducted on Twitter across 2018 and argues that their digital practices involve queer reading strategies to …
Face Mask in Covid Times: A Sociomaterial Analysis
Introduction: The Shifting Meanings and Practices of Face Masks
The thing-power of the Facebook assemblage: Why do users stay on the platform
Facebook is the most used social media platform globally, despite frequent and highly publicised criticism of some of its practices. In this article, we bring together perspectives from vital materialism scholarship - and particularly Jane Bennett's concept of 'thing-power' - with our empirical research on Australian Facebook users to identify what they find important and valuable about the platform. Findings are presented in the form of seven ca…
FreeBritney and the Pleasures of Conspiracy
Introduction There are many competing explanations for why people are drawn to conspiracy theories. Increasingly, conspiracy theories are mainstream sites of cultural engagement (Barkun). Conspiracy theorising, then, is part of, or at least brushes up against, people’s daily sense-making practices. However, many still think of conspiracy theorising and the communities that form around them as deviant, pathological or deficient (Swami et al.). In …
Conspiracy
Conspiracies have been a cultural mainstay for decades (Melley). While often framed as an American problem (Melley), social media has contributed to their global reach (Gerts et al.). Bruns, Harrington, and Hurcombe have traced the contemporary movement of conspiracy theories into the cultural mainstream from fringe conspiracist groups on social media platforms such as Facebook through their greater uptake in more diverse communities and to subst…
Digital self-tracking, habits and the myth of discontinuance: It doesn’t just ‘stop’
Digital self-tracking devices increasingly inhabit everyday landscapes, yet many people abandon self-trackers not long after acquisition. Although research has examined why people discontinue these devices, less explores what actually happens when people unplug. This article addresses this gap by considering the embodied and habitual dimensions of self-tracking and discontinuance. We consider the potential for digital data – and their unanticipat…
Commentary & Reflections from the TikTok Methodologies Discussion Forum
As methodologies for studying TikTok continue to develop, deliberation among research communities can offer valuable insights to incorporate different approaches and iterate on emerging research designs. In July 2021, the TikTok Cultures Research Network held a public research forum on TikTok methodologies that was attended by over two-hundred researchers and members of the public from around the world. The discussion-based event featured two pan…
Special Issue: What do misinformation practices feel like? Embodiment, health and digital spaces
This editorial explores how misinformation is expressed across a range of health practices and contexts
Situated Talk: A method for a reflexive encounter with #donorconceived on TikTok
There is a pressing need to facilitate sensitive conversations between people with differing or opposing views. On video-sharing app TikTok, the diverse experiences of donor-conceived people and recipient parents sit uneasily alongside each other, coalescing in hashtags like #donorconceived. This article describes a method 'Situated Talk' which uses TikToks to facilitate a reflexive encounter, drawing on three areas of scholarship: media ethnogra…
Obgyns of TikTok and the role of misinformation in diffractive knowledge production
Health misinformation on social media has largely been examined from a harms-focused perspective, with scholars seeking to identify what impacts misinformation has on public health and a popular focus on removing it from platforms. The act of debunking is one response wherein misinformation is corrected with knowledge from scientific sources. To date, little research exists examining how experts and the public engage with misinformation beyond a …
Understanding digital period pedagogies: Exploring how young people navigate menstruation through embodied experience
Objective: This paper examines the ways in which young people in Eastern Canada learn about menstruation and construct personal period pedagogies through embodied experiences and encounters with digital and social media. Design: A qualitative exploratory approach was undertaken to elicit the stories and voices of young people who menstruate. Menstruation is conceptualised as a deeply bio-social phenomenon and knowledge was understood as created, …
Young people and TikTok use in Australia: Digital Geographies of Care in Popular Culture
The short-form video-sharing app TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform globally, particularly among young people, and the app is attracting significant academic interest. However, the voices of young people have been mostly absent from these debates. This article offers a qualitative study of how young people are using TikTok to make care-full digital worlds in and around Sydney, Australia, drawing on interviews with sixteen young p…
AI and Aesthetic Alienation: The Image and Creativity in Contemporary Culture
In this comment piece, we argue that mass-produced generative AI (GenAI) images, commonly referred to as “AI slop” should be considered a form of aesthetic alienation. Specifically, we focus on GenAI images of fall, arguing that GenAI images alienate not only artists from their art, but produces an alienating aesthetic in and of itself. Closely attending to the aesthetic registers of GenAI images opens up important sociological questions about th…
Re-authorising Colonialism or re-authorising Indigenous perspectives: The Risks of Generative AI in Indigenous Education contexts
I feel like I get something else to think about: How do Australian young people see their relationship with TikTok
Sociology (15 works) · Aesthetics (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Political science (10 works) · Art (8 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Internet privacy (6 works) · Media studies (6 works)