Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

The Downplayed Debt Attributes Of Bnpl: A Thematic Content Analysis Of Tiktok, Hongwei Ma

Major Papers

This research employs Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) to examine the downplayed debt attributes of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services, focusing specifically on the contrast between official narratives and critical discourse on TikTok. The study investigates how BNPL companies in North America employ promotional strategies on their official websites and in press conferences to downplay the debt aspect of their services. It further explores the role of TikTok as a platform for public discourse that challenges these dominant narratives surrounding BNPL debt attributes and breaks knowledge hegemony. By analyzing samples from BNPL service providers' websites and press conferences, the study …

Amending Amendments: Digital Colonialism, Bill C-11, And Assessing The Call For Improvement, Kayla Victoria Destiny Clarke

Major Papers

Media scholars Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias (2019) define digital colonialism as the “term for the extension of a global process of extraction that started under colonialism and continues through industrial capitalism, culminating in today's new form: instead of natural resources in labor, what is now being appropriated is human life through its conversion into data” (p. 22). This research will critically analyze the Canadian government’s ill-received Bill C-11: the Amended Consumer Privacy Protection Act by using digital colonialism as a conceptual framework to reveal the Bill’s essential limitations. It will consist of two sections: 1) an in-depth exploration of …

A Critical Investigation Of Bell Let’S Talk, Jasmine Vido

Major Papers

In September 2010, Bell created the Bell Let’s Talk campaign to help lessen the stigma of mental health illnesses in Canada. The objective of this paper is to tease out the “ambivalences” (see Banet-Weiser, 2012) surrounding a massive corporation’s leadership in mental health awareness by analyzing both the importance and controversy surrounding Bell Let’s Talk.

The first component of this paper is a literature review that seeks to answer the research question: “how may components of Bell Let’s Talk Day be understood as both progressive and regressive?” Although “social media is the next step in the war against silence” (Campbell, …