#public sphere

[lachidayy]

How Social Media Bridges the Gap Between Stars and Fans in "Mẹ Vắng Nhà, Ba Là Siêu Nhân"?

The future of reality TV is undergoing a significant transformation with the integration of social media (Stefanone, Lackaff & Rosen 2010). Along with that, the carefully constructed personas of celebrities are giving way to real stereotypes of their lives. This article explores this phenomenon through the Vietnamese reality show "Mẹ Vắng Nhà, Ba Là Siêu Nhân" (When Mom's Away, Dad's a Superhero). The show's emphasis on showcasing the real-life challenges of fatherhood, coupled with the transparency of social media, creates a public sphere where the gap between reality TV stars, fans, and the network is narrowed.

The Level of Authenticity in "Mẹ Vắng Nhà, Ba Là Siêu Nhân"

Traditionally, reality TV has often relied on describing celebrities in a glamorous or larger-than-life manner (Nouri 2018). However, "Mẹ Vắng Nhà, Ba Là Siêu Nhân" breaks the tradition by focusing on the everyday struggles and the fatherhood. This reality show challenges male celebrities like rapper Rhymastic and actor Le Duong Bao Lam to care for their children for 48 hours without any help from their wives (Duy 2022). They have to deal with diaper changes, meltdowns, and bedtime routines, offering a refreshingly raw wind and attracting large viewers (Tuoi Tre Newspaper 2024). This shift towards authenticity creates a high connection and empathy between the stars and the audience. Fans see themselves reflected in the on-screen experiences, realizing that celebrities also have the joys and frustrations of raising children.

Social Media: A Window into Unfiltered Lives

Social media acts as a bridge, extending this connection beyond the show. Celebrity fathers use platforms like Instagram and Facebook to share their parenting experiences, offering glimpses into their daily routines, challenges, and successes. Fans gain a full view of their lives and see the messy moments and chaos that wouldn't be shown on the TV. This transparency normalizes the stars, blurs the perception of them as simply entertainers, and reveals them as normal individuals navigating the complexities of parenthood. Therefore, the stars of "Mẹ Vắng Nhà, Ba Là Siêu Nhân" enclose a natural approach, and build trust and loyalty with their audience.

A Redefining Role for Reality TV Stars: Relatable Role Models

The focus on real-life experiences in "Mẹ Vắng Nhà, Ba Là Siêu Nhân" also redefines the role of reality TV stars. They are no longer simply figures of aspiration or entertainment. Instead, they become relatable role models and describe the joys, frustrations, and learning curves associated with fatherhood. This shift is particularly significant in societies like Vietnam, where family values and parental roles hold high importance. By showcasing the challenges and pride of celebrity fathers, the reality show brings a realistic picture of parenthood that is similar to viewers and potentially challenges traditional gender roles.

Recommendation:

Moving forward, reality TV producers in Vietnam can learn valuable lessons from "Mẹ Vắng Nhà, Ba Là Siêu Nhân". Shows that tell authentic stories of celebrity lives, with a strategic use of social media to connect target audiences, are likely to find success in the evolving landscape of entertainment. By promoting authenticity and using social media to connect with viewers, reality TV can actively create real-life content related to audiences's experiences, and open a public sphere for shared experiences and a sense of community.

Comments below the YouTube video create a safe public sphere for audiences to share their opinions about the kids in the reality show.

References:

Duy, L 2022, ‘Mẹ vắng nhà - Ba là siêu nhân’ chương trình tôn vinh những người mẹ, muctim.tuoitre.vn, viewed 2 June 2024, <https://muctim.tuoitre.vn/me-vang-nha-ba-la-sieu-nhan-chuong-trinh-ton-vinh-nhung-nguoi-me-66830.htm>.

Nouri, M 2018, The Power of Influence: Traditional Celebrity vs Social Media Influencer, Scholar Commons.

Stefanone, MA, Lackaff, D & Rosen, D 2010, ‘The Relationship between Traditional Mass Media and “Social Media”: Reality Television as a Model for Social Network Site Behavior’, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 508–525.

Tuoi Tre Newspaper 2024, The baby ‘Dear Pam’ punches his father’s back in Mom’s away from home, Dad is a superhero - Vietnam.vn, Vietnam.vn, viewed 2 June 2024, <https://www.vietnam.vn/en/em-be-pam-yeu-oi-dam-lung-cho-ba-trong-me-vang-nha-ba-la-sieu-nhan/>.

[changingpathsresources]

Undermining Christian hegemony

I think it’s important to challenge the hegemony of Christianity in our culture and promote tolerance of all religions that want to live in harmony with each other and with atheists. The way to get to that point is not by insisting that we should all read the Bible so we can use it to argue with bigots, nor is it by embracing “cultural Christianity”. Continue reading Undermining Christian…

[nhianh]

WEEK 3: How does Tumblr function as a digital community?

David Karp launched the popular microblogging service Tumblr in 2007 so users could share and debate thoughts on a wide range of subjects. Everyone is free to express themselves and be themselves in our online community. Users of Tumblr may keep online diaries or blogs, exchange material related to their hobbies, and reblog articles, images, or videos. Tumblr may not have the same level of visibility as Instagram or Facebook, but it is nonetheless home to a large community of people who are actively working to share essential information and promote political change. This platform is great for online communication since it helps users find others who share their interests and strengthens relationships between them. Moreover, it allows individuals to easily share and circulate images, gifs and text. In 2014 Tumblr was ranked the second largest microblogging service after twitter (Chang et al. 2014)

Unrestricted inclusion and helpful tools that let users discover their "people" on Tumblr are what make the site work as a digital community. "You can be more anonymous, you can really embrace your interests, you can connect over that." (McCracken 2020, pp. 36-37) 

Those whose identities are underrepresented on other social media platforms have also grown to love Tumblr because of the previously described features. Tumblr users have reported feeling better about themselves after visiting the site to learn more about gender and sexual identities, among other things (Byron, Robards, Hanckel, Vivienne, and Churchill, 2019). Because Tumblr places more of a focus on bigger communities than Facebook does on individuals' personal social networks, people have been able to achieve this.

Plus, it's a breeze for people to send and receive text, GIFs, and photos. When it came to microblogging services in 2014, Tumblr was second only to Twitter (Chang et al. 2014). Tumblr has developed into a unique online community where users can join together to share content and create virtual homes for one another with these objectives in mind.

References

Allison McCracken, Chapter 3 ‘Going Down the Rabbit Hole: An Interview with Amanda Brennan, Head of Content Insights and Social, Tumblr’ in a tumblr book: platform and cultures eds Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, and Indira Neill Hoch (University of Michigan Press: 2020), https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11537055

Byron, P., Robards, B., Hanckel, B., Vivienne, S. & Churchill, B. 2019, ‘”Hey, i’m having these experiences": Tumblr use and young people’s queer (dis)connections’, International Journal of Communication, vol. 13, p. 2245.

Chang, Y., Tang, L., Inagaki, Y. and Liu, Y., 2014, What is tumblr: A statistical overview and comparison, ACM SIGKDD explorations newsletter, 16(1), pp. 21-29.

[drdamiang]

SPACE

SPACE

what is different

about this space?

its peaks, its valleys

white

noise, grey silence

the windows and doors

with their secret codes

(beg me, beg me

I may well tell you)

now you have read everything

every smidgen of text

visible or in-

visible

tell me what you have come

to comprehend

so far we

are from the grand muftis

and great principalities

together in collusion

syllable by syllable chipping away at

their stark foundations

sliding door moment for

those believing in change

contriving a space here

where we might

stockpile empathy

dole out kindness

dish to whom-

soever

is in dire need

shelter is needed

shelter is necessary

the song could

not be

clearer on this

come! Let me sing it for you,

then

(change in

tone

different key, switch in

pitch

and so let us

now adopt the pose

of silence

contemplate the world

(if any) beyond

this poem

this poem's afterlife

so to speak

so to spreak

having this very moment

spoken space into existence.

[rjalker]

Flatland: An Adventure in Many Dimensions, a 2024 translation into casual English, is done!

You can read and download it completely 100% for free on the Internet Archive!

When it's done loading, you will be able to read it directly online, and the Internet Archive will automatically generate audiobook versions with text to speech.

You can also download and torrent various versions as PDFs, epubs, and editable documents so you can change the font, paragraph styles, and do anything else you want with it, like give everyone neopronouns or turn them into unicorns!

I will also be making my own audiobook version at some point. but that's gonna take a while since this is around 38,000 words long. You can make your own too! And you can translate this into other languages!

Edit: The "lazy" (unedited) audiobook is now available on youtube! It is in two videos, since my computer wouldn't let me combine them lol.

“https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpFcEwm88RUsMYmhY6DBYZcIvvKv6_ZS3”

Did I mention this is public domain? Because I hate capitalism and I'm poor and I want other people to also be able to enjoy books for free.

Buy the cheapest possible print version for $7.45 (I get $2).

This version is a paperback with no illustrations, no prefaces, a greyscale cover to make it as cheap to print as possible, so that more people can afford to buy it.

Buy the regular print version for $22.17 (I get $5).

This version is a hardpack with illustrations, the preface from the original author, and one from me.

You can also download all the HD illustrations included in this story here on the Internet Archive.

If you enjoy reading it, you can also donate directly to "TinyelFlatland" on paypal!

And if I haven't made it clear yet, this is Public Domain. You are 1million% encouraged to download it, print it, share it, do literally anything you want with it. I am 100% serious.

Now you can all join me in laughing at the narrator :)

Edit: oh wait lol. I realize I wrote this post assuming only people who already know what Flatland is will see it.

Uh so people who have no clue what Flatland is, here's a quick summary:

The narrator, who hides his identity using the alias "A. Square", is a resident of a world called Flatland, a world that only exists in two dimensions, where every person is a flat geometric shape. A. Square tells us the history and culture of his world, which is rife with bigotry that he buys into without question. Until New Year's Eve, before the first day of the year 2000, when a mysterious stranger claiming to come from the third dimension appears in his living room, and starts saying things that sound absurd, and performing what seem like magic tricks.

The original Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, was published in 1884 by Edwin Abbot Abbot. It is both a scathing political satire criticizing the systems of bigotry in Victorian England, and an entertaining introduction to the concept of more than three dimensions.

Edit: Now there's an itch.io page too!

Edit again: And you can read it here on tumblr now! @flatland-a-2024-translation and on Pillowfort!

[necromeowncy]

♡♡♡

[gummi-stims]

A stimboard for One-One from Infinity Train!

⚪-⚫-⚪

1️⃣- x -1️⃣

⚪-⚫-⚪

[rotzaprachim]

incredible crossover (the crossover is a circle) between people who freak out about milk pasteurization and believe they need to make cereal from Scratch to avoid the dangerous big chemicals and free-market capitalists who believe the FDA or the EU are overstepping Big Government entities for limiting carcinogenic chemicals in food

[muffingnf]

Like genuinely. He was putting his hand on her waist after an hour of reciprocated cuddling. He should have asked for explicit consent but instead read her non verbal cues wrong. Ok that’s on him!! But when she explicitly showed disinterest towards doing anything with him he walked away no bother.

Idk this whole thing has been blown up far too much. Sexual predator, rapist, pedophile … come on to fuck this is so unnecessary 😭 his initial statement was bad which yeah he deserves some lashings for but not doxxing, death threats and reporting him to immigration, losing longterm friends like what the fuck are we doing here. Do these people realise people like Adin Ross and Mizkif are happily raking it in streaming every day?

agree with you 100% anon. his biggest mistake is not getting verbal consent. yes non-verbal consent exists and that’s probably what he was going off of but verbal consent is a must with people you barely know or it ends up like this. though again, he was drunk. and it’s interesting to me how being drunk only seems to matter to people when its her and not him, they were both drunk. two adults who were drunk.

the most important thing to me is that when she showed very clear disinterest by not going with him to his room, he backed off. it makes me feel less crazy to think if she had said she was uncomfortable (if he had freaking asked) he would’ve stopped.

[reshramlove1ob]

I used to color in black and white all the time, so I decided to try it out again!

[misscammiedawn]

I think at a certain point in one's healing journey they reach a point where they feel like they have become boring and uninteresting because they are no longer Activated all of the time and dealing with external or internal crisis.

The hard part is to internalize that this is just a normal part of the healing cycle and not something which requires dramatic action.

This is a crap feeling. But it means getting better.

[bulldog-butch]

the hilarious thing about people who are super anti trans men lesbians is that they consider themselves the arbiters of when someone has become too much of a man to consider themselves a lesbian. like please get over yourself. you can actually just trust people to make that decision for themselves jfc

[wonder-worker]

Angelberga was a peculiarly prominent personality in manifold aspects of European politics [in the late 9th century. Born to the powerful Supponid family of Italy, she married Emperor Louis II and had several opportunities to establish her position as an active and controversial player in the vicissitudes of her husband's reign]. She acted as Louis's regent, accompanied him on expansionary military campaigns in the south of the peninsula and represented him at [congresses, tribunals, and diplomatic negotiations]. Strikingly, she was also the beneficiary of a spectacular collection of charters. Almost one in seven of Louis II’s extant charters were issued in her favour. Angelberga’s conspicuous exploits in the field of charter acquisition did not diminish after the emperor’s death, and this helped her to maintain a position as a key power-broker in Italian politics, control of land [particularly monastic foundations] being a fundamental building-block of power in this period. In the interregnum following 875, during which Charles the Bald of West Francia and Karlmann of Bavaria fought to claim the succession to the heirless Louis, Angelberga herself conducted the negotiations and decided the loyalty of a major sector of the Lombard political community. She maintained this high profile until her death [having supported her son-in-law Boso's quest for power, endured a temporary exile, maintained the support of Pope John VIII, and founded the monastery of San Sisto in the city of Piacenza, where she probably ended her days sometime before 891].

-Simon MacLean, "Queenship, nunneries and royal widowhood in Carolingian Europe"

[huntthemouse]

Sphere Mickey

153/365 #hunt the mouse

what a sickly looking thing. hit it with a pool cue.

I am making 365 new versions of Mickey Mouse for the public domain and releasing them under public domain all year long.

You can join the initiative to #hunt the mouse or suggest a theme yourself via my ask box.

[furbearingbrick]

redesigned my version of A. Sphere so he doesn't look like the 2007 movie version. Also I creature'd him up a bit more lol