LGBTIQ Discrimination Exposing Service

Post 10 by Zhengzhi Chen

I presented my draft proposal to my group and my tutor and received quite some useful feedback:

• An infographic or video that proves LGBTIQ’s capability to make the same amount of contribution to businesses and the society does not quite tackle the issue of discrimination against LGBTIQ in employment. The problem is not business owners’ unawareness of LGBTIQ’s talents or skills but the social outlook and the pressure they receive from their conservative clients.
• Josh shared a news article on Gay News Network called ‘Not so Diverse: Report Reveals Homophobia Still Rife in the Workplace’. It is mentioned in the article that 60% people in Australia experience verbal homophobia and that 20% even experience homophobic violence (Busby 2016). When LGBTI staff are openly out, businesses witness a 15-30% increase in productivity and retention rates improve by 10%. Even though diversity in staff is evidently beneficial to business, LGBTIQ discrimination still occurs in the workplace.
• Transgender youth experience additional challenges when trying to secure employment, such as the difficulty in safe access to workplace restroom facilities on the basis of gender identity, transphobia that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to successfully perform one’s job, and legal name and ID not matching gender expression, name or pronouns (The 519 2016).

After hearing the feedback, I decided to propose a service design aimed at the exposure of LGBTIQ discrimination in the workplace and in employment. Then I thought it would be a better idea to broaden the range of LGBTIQ discrimination exposed in the service design. The following is my proposition for this service design:

Project Title

LGBTIQ Discrimination Exposing Service

Practice Type

Service Design

The Issue

LGBTIQ experience discrimination in different scenarios and various places. The use of homophobic language like ‘fag’ and ‘dyke’ and the use of ‘gay’ to describe negative judgment on things are still part of social media vocabulary. Same-sex couples still find it difficult to publicly display their affection for each other, due to the discrimination they might receive because of PDA, in the form of either verbal abuse or a warning from a shop owner ‘because an old lady you don’t even know finds your PDA offensive’. A business might reject an LGBTIQ job seeker because ‘your personality doesn’t suit the culture of our company’. 60% people in Australia experience verbal homophobia and that 20% even experience homophobic violence.

The Possible Change

• an increase in the social pressure for businesses and individuals to stop LGBTIQ discrimination
• a decrease in the amount of discrimination against LGBTIQ
• the addition of LGBTIQ cultural competency training to the training of employees
• the inclusion of the education about LGBTIQ in curricula of primary and secondary schools
• peer education about LGBTIQ among parents with new babies
• better social acceptance for LGBTIQ

The Design Action to Support Change

This service design is used to expose LGBTIQ discrimination thus creating social pressure for individuals and businesses to stop this kind of behaviour. The service can be offered via an online platform, a website, a mobile phone app, a hashtag on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Vine, Snapchat or YouTube, a reality TV program, infrastructure in public space, or an installation at bus stops, railway stations or airports.

It can be an Instagram trend where people post photos of discriminatory behaviour against LGBTIQ using a particular hashtag. It can be a website with a list of different categories of LGBTIQ discrimination documented in various forms like photos, short videos, audios and text. It can be a whisper app where people anonymously share their experience of LGBTIQ discrimination. It can be an installation in railway stations that is sensitive to verbal abuse on LGBTIQ and that can react to this kind of verbal abuse. It can be a reality TV program that broadcasts real-life LGBTIQ discrimination, which can be reported by the viewers and submitted to the program.

 

References

The 519 2016, LGBTQ2S Barriers to Employment and Training, viewed 25 September 2016, <http://www.the519.org/education-training/lgbtq2s-youth-homelessness-in-canada/lgbtq2s-barriers-to-employment-and-training >.

Busby, C. 2016, Not so Diverse: Report Reveals Homophobia Still Rife in the Workplace, Gay News Network, viewed 24 September 2016, <http://gaynewsnetwork.com.au/news/national/not-so-diverse-report-reveals-homophobia-in-the-workplace-still-rife-22104.html >.

Post 10: Reflection and proposition

Kathy Ngo

On week 7, my design proposition was to create a school stationery platform. These stationeries such as notebooks, pencils, pack bags, etc. would be decorated with motivative slogans to help young LGBTIQ be more confident.

My design mockup for Stationery website

However, after the discussion with our tutor, Kate, she explained that my idea wasn’t quite focused on the target range of age: 18-24 as well as it was not a service design since it didn’t bring service to the young LGBTIQ rather than general public. It was very helpful when she explained more detailed about what the differences between Service Design and Generative Design. Thus, I had a clearer idea of what I should do in the next few weeks before the final submission.

During the week, I have spent a lot of time on going back to my blog posts and pulling out quotes and insights. Although my previous design proposition was focusing on Queer teens’ mental health due to sexual discrimination, unexpectedly, I realized that Sexuality Education was much more important and emergent. Everything could be solved if we have a better Sexuality education when the future generation is more respectful of diverse sexual ordination. This topic was highlighted significantly throughout my nine blog posts.

My keywords from the research: 

• Sexuality education *****
• Discrimination ****
• Abuse: from family, schools, friends, society ****
• They concern about sexuality education more than same-sex marriage. ****
• ‘sick’, ‘western disease’, ‘your parents didn’t teach you right’ **
• Social media and internet influence strongly on the online community perspective towards any topic. *
• The gulf of language and culture
• Attacks on freedom
• A place of solidarity and empowerment, they come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds and to advocate for their civil right.
• ‘To be gay is to be in mortal danger, to embrace love is to court death’
• Use the state court to protect LGBT community
• Take more seriously the needs of LGBT groups

 

Project name: BeU

Practice type: Website service Design

The target user: 

• Students from 16-24 years old in high schools and universities
• Queer young people who find difficult to come out and overcome sexual harassment and discrimination.

The issue: 

• A lot of young LGBTIQ experience sexual discrimination
• 74% of young LGBT experience homophobic abuse at school and the number increases up to 85% between 14 and 17 age.
• Frequent sexual discrimination in schools is due to poor educational outcomes and high rate of dropout.

The possible change:

• Decrease the rate of self-harm, suicide and sexual abuse in Australian LGBTIQ youth community.
• A network for young queers to rely on and share their thoughts and emotion.
• Higher educational outcome in diverse sexual orientation
• To help young queer come out of the closet and get acceptance easier from their family and friends.

The design action to support change:

• Provide a service to support young queers, how to come out of the closet, to motivate them to decrease the self-harassment and suicide attempts.

• A platform to communicate with young queers and be their supporter and friends.
• A shoulder for them to rely on and share their thoughts and feelings

Design concept:

• A very fun, crazy and engaging platform.
• Simple, clean and youthful design.
• Easy access.

POST 10: Reflection and proposition

Drawing back from the brainstorming session in week 6, I have expressed to my colleagues and tutor that I wanted to focus on creating a service design that actively aims to resolve the issues occurring around Safe Schools Program. The issues include; negative outlook, bias opinion and expression towards the Safe School Program. My initial draft proposal was to create a service design that can impact the community, and especially the ones that are against the program by creating a booklet on “how LGBTIQ feels when…” for families and friends. The aim of this initial draft was to make Safe Schools Program more aware for wider public and to also promote the beneficial impact it has on schools in a personal level.

After I presented this draft proposal the feedback I got from my tutor was that I should remember that our focus age group is 18 to 25. Furthermore my colleagues also commented about my design proposal being too out of our focus age group and maybe consider adopting the issues that I saw from safe schools but applying a design proposal suitable for 18 to 25 age group.

The critical feedbacks that I received from my colleagues were incredible beneficial. They encouraged me not to change the issue but instead strip back, and tweak it in a way to suit our target age group. This was an excellent reminder for me, as I came to realisation that I was going off-track. After the feedback, I decided to cross out safe schools program as being my core problem and instead draw on the issues that I’ve gathered from researching into safe schools program that can be relatable for 18 to 25. The reconsideration of my problem brought me to focus on general publics negative outlook and bias opinion on LGBTIQ in general. The revised draft proposal I came up with is a service design that filters undesirable mentioning towards an LGBTIQ related topic in the Internet.

 

During my research on safe schools program I found many news articles and posts on social media that were very strongly opinionated and aggressive towards the program. I found these sources incredibly hurtful and bigoted. Therefore I decided that I wanted to make a service design to filter these sources on Internet warning the readers about the harsh content. The service design would be a downloadable add-on available on chrome/safari/fire-fox that can act as option to filter LGBTIQ discrimination on the Internet. The unique selling point of this add-on is that the filtered LGBTIQ discrimination sources would be highlighted or categorised into the core motive, such as religious, cultural or ideology cause.

I hope my service design bring awareness of discrimination towards LGBTIQ online and ultimately educate the public about the essential affiliation all LGBTIQ discrimination is motivated by. I hope my rainbow window extension can be a service to clearly understanding the affiliation behind all negative comment on LGBTIQ. As for LGBTIQ community, I hope my service design can reduce their stress level and pressure they receive from being/going online.

 

By April Bae

Brainstorming on the Issue of Hidden Discrimination Against LGBTIQ in Employment

Post 9 by Zhengzhi Chen

 

All the insights documented in my Post 8 were gained from the brainstorming session.

Issue Statement

Brainstorming Issues

Brainstorming on Hidden Discrimination Against LGBTIQ in Employment

Issue Statement of Hidden Discrimination Against LGBTIQ in Employment

Brainstorming Possible Design Solutions

Possible Design Solutions to the Hidden Discrimination Against LGBTIQ in Employment, created by Kathy Ngo, April Bae, Josh Parker, Calvin Thy and me

Strengths

• My strength in logical thinking definitely helped me in the brainstorming session.
• I knew exactly what this issue was so it was easy for me to come up with the who, what, when, where and why of the issue.
• In the group session of brainstorming possible design solutions, all our brains ran wild so we came up with amusing keywords that might or might not be relevant to the issue.
• My group clearly think more visually than I do, which made my brainstorming solution map more visually understandable than my personal maps.

Weaknesses

• My logical thinking was not visually presented in a clear way.
• I understood the issue too well to come up with an effective design solution.
• The time constraint of this brainstorming session limited the variety of the design solutions devised by my group.
• I think better while typing than writing, which explains why my Post 8 has more content than my brainstorming maps.
• Our wild ideas did not land or become anything useful for possible design solutions.
• Similar ideas kept popping up in the solution brainstorming session.

Hidden Discrimination Against LGBTIQ in Employment: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How

Post 8 by Zhengzhi Chen

Inspired by an infographic about LGBT2S employment in my Post 3 and the location map for the controversy between LGBTIQ right advocates and those who think only heterosexuals are normal in my Post 7, I decided to brainstorm on the issue of hidden discrimination against LGBTIQ in employment. The questions that I asked myself were who, what, when, where, why and how.

Who are Involved in the Issue?

• LGBTIQ who are seeking for jobs, especially the ones who get rejected after their interviews;
• LGBTIQ employees;
• LGBTIQ who are fired from their jobs;
• Businesses that are hiring;
• The HR in these businesses;
• The LGBTIQ employees in these businesses;
• The clients of these businesses;
• LGBTIQ’s co-workers;
• Charity groups that help the unemployed LGBTIQ;
• Lawyers;
• Media;
• Strangers on the Internet who might be triggered by the ridiculousness of the issue.

What is the Issue?

• HR of a business turn down a possible LGBTIQ employee. The HR might not tell the possible employee why s/he got rejected, or might just say that it is due to his/her lack of skills. ‘You do not fit in the culture of our business’ is another excuse the HR might use to cover the true reason behind the rejection – the discrimination against LGBTIQ.
• HR of a company fire an LGBTIQ employee after finding out about his/her LGBTIQ identity. The excuses mentioned in the first scenario will definitely be used in this situation: ‘We are disappointed in your performance in this company for the past two months and the financial cost you have caused for this company.’
• An LGBTIQ employee who was sent to deal with a client is suddenly switched and a straight employee takes his/her job, because the client is a conservative person or has issues with LGBTIQ.

What will Happen when the Issue is Fixed?

• The true quality will be realised.
• Some conservative clients might get upset and leave the company.
• Charity groups aimed to solve this issue will disappear or move on to solve other issues.
• An increase in the number of LGBTIQ employees will relatively raise the respect of the society for LGBTIQ, making people realise that LGBTIQ is nothing but a label about a person’s gender identity or sexuality, which has nothing to do with their personality, talents or competence of working. It might also contribute to the decline in the amount of verbal and physical violence against LGBTIQ.
• LGBTIQ job seekers will not be insecure because of their gender identity or sexuality.

What will Happen when the Issue is not Solved?

• It will be difficult for LGBTIQ victims in this situation to seek legal help because of the lack of evidence, because there is no objective judgement or assessment on the reason why a business turns down a job seeker after an interview.
• The unemployment of some talented LGBTIQ will cause waste of talent, which sometimes will be a loss for the society, even the human kind.
• The increase in unemployment will (slightly) increase the burden of the government to feed unemployed LGBTIQ, and unemployment causes social problems.

When does the Issue Occur?

• When businesses are hiring;
• When graduates are faced with the challenge of employment;
• When either the employers or the clients of the companies are LGBTIQ-phobic;
• When a lawyer fails to save his/her LGBTIQ client from the unfair treatment given by the company or the society.

Where does the Issue Occur?

• In the HR offices where decisions are made;
• In businesses with conservative clients;
• In the places where Donal Trump can get away with his LGBTIQ-phobic views;
• In religious communities.

Why does the Issue Occur?

• Because the law can not solve all the unfairness in the world;
• Because the company is pressured by some conservative clients;
• Because it is still a world where the voice of the majority counts and LGBTIQ are a minority;
• Because some people rather believe a book that was written a long time ago than educate themselves with truth, reality and science;
• Because businesses survive on money and benefits not fairness or love;
• Because of the lack of knowledge of LGBTIQ;
• Because the hiring/interviewing process is private and all due to the employers’ judgement.

Issue Statement

When businesses are hiring new employees, they might turn down LGBTIQ job seekers due to the business owners’ personal points of view or extreme religious belief or their concern with their conservative clients. However, under the pressure of the law or regulations that forbid businesses from rejecting or firing employees because of their gender identity or sexuality, they claim the reason of their rejection to be the job seekers’ lack of competence in the jobs or the noticeable difference between the job seekers’ personalities and the culture of the businesses. The dearth of credible evidence in this kind of situations because of the lack of transparency in the hiring process makes it difficult for LGBTIQ job seekers to seek legal help.

How could this Issue be Solved?

• Conduct a series of experiments to compare the results of the interviews of the same people pretending to have two different gender identities or sexual orientations by the same companies and document the experiments to show the social prejudice.
• Promote a symbol that can be adopted by companies to imply their LGBTIQ-friendliness and that can also be marked on CVs to create a secret language between LGBTIQ and LGBTIQ-firendly companies.
• Create a mobile phone app via which LGBTIQ can look up if a company is LGBTIQ-friendly and on which LGBTIQ-phobic companies are exposed.
• Design a video-sharing platform where LGBTIQ can upload their interviews after which they do not get the jobs to let other professionals or employers in the same industry to judge whether the rejection is based on their competence or their sexuality.
• Create a data visualisation of the comparison of the benefits brought to their companies or the contribution to the society made by people with different sexual orientations and different gender identities from the same industry.

Design Proposal Draft

Among the five possible design solutions listed above, the most effective one to justify LGBTIQ and education the population is the data visualisation project of the financial achievements and the social contribution of the people from the same industry but with different gender identities or different orientations. One way of scraping data for this project is to explore Forbes lists. Either a series of infographics or a motion graphic video can be an effective format to showcase the results of the research.

POST 9: Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

In this group exercise every member in the group had to state their problem statement then allow the members in the group to ideate design solutions for your chosen problem. This was a brilliant exercise to explore the various potential design solutions. It allowed us to share our creativity without judgment, whilst encouraging one another to stay focused on ones chosen problem statement.

In class, each member was given a butchers paper to write down their problem statement in the centre of the paper then explain the problem to the group. The image below shows brainstorming on my chosen problem statement. The image shows group members initiation in coming up with wild ideas that encouraged me to generate and develop a unique design for my problem statement.

After each member participated in writing down a design idea they then explained their idea to me. The circled text indicates the ideas that I was most interested in. The ideas that I thought I could develop on were:

• Generative design: Indicating when a LGBTIQ student/youth comes out or embrace their identity on social media.
• Data visualization: Schools that have implemented safe schools program vs. schools that have not, and map of suburbs with LGBTIQ community.
• Service design: Creating a service design that can impact the community about the positive outlook and result of safe schools program. Use students from a school that initiates safe schools program to educate the seniors about why they think the program is effective and beneficial for schools.
• Service design: Creating a space at school for friends and family to experience and immerse into the benefits of safe schools programming.
• Service design: Implementing ‘I stand up for minority/LGBTIQ’ leadership program at school that allows members to become public supporters in their school. They could wear badges to identify themselves as leaders.

The visual brainstorming allowed us to generate ideas more actively and quickly in this exercise. It didn’t matter how bad the idea could have been, it was all about getting the ideas on the paper as much as you can. The result of this strategy leads us to having vast amount of solid ideas to build on. This significant group exercise immensely allowed us to recognize the importance of collaboration and brainstorming.

By April Bae

Post 10: Reflection and proposition

In week 7, I was a bit confused about what I should do for my proposition. I was also confused about the different practice type as well. I thought of making a data visualisation to let people be aware of how same-sex couples have to go through. However, after long hours of research, it is not possible to find enough data on how many same-sex couples had gone oversea to marriage or where do they go.

In week 8, everything is kind of fall into places. I had ideas for my 3 visuals which was really useful for this tutorial. I got a really good solution for me to go with that direction and here is the details.

Project: One Way Ticket

Practice Type: Data Visualisation

 

The Aim:

• To create an awareness for people to understand how same-sex couples had to get married oversea
• To maybe change perspective of people who against marriage equality
• To give a general knowledge of countries that have legalised same-sex marriage
• To show how much they have travelled and spent to find home where they are accepted

 

The Issue:

• Same-sex couples could not get married in their own country (Australia) so significant number of couples have immigrated to oversea where same-sex marriage is accepted to married and live.

• They have to travel for very long distances and spend a lot of money to get to their destination.
• Some of their families cannot join their special day because of varies of issues.

 

The Design:

• Data that will need to be collected (countries where same-sex marriage is legal, distance from here to there, one-way plane ticket price, hours to get there)
• Design will be in boarding pass form to give a feeling of a plane ticket
• Data will be on the back of the boarding pass
• Some facts
• Will be printed out and give out to people.

 

The Possible Change:

• Support same-sex couples who have gone through a big decision and go oversea
• Support LGBTIQ community emotively
• Change anti-same-sex marriage people views on Same-sex couples
• Hopefully a PLEBISCITE.

Calvin

---

 

POST 9: Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

Josh Parker

As a group we created a mind map for each individual’s chosen issue based on their problem statement. It was easy and difficult at the same time to come up with ideas for each other. Some of us had taken completely different directions and it was difficult to generate propositions off the top of our head based on our lack of research in that area. However it was also helpful in receiving some refreshing perspectives and ideas.

 

  

After noting down as many ideas as possible we highlighted the most significant 5 propositions from which we would then choose one. I thought I didn’t have 5 great ideas on the page however I used this as a chance to research a little further. I was able to narrow my research a little bit further away from the Safe Schools program and look specifically into the way LGBTIQ is taught in schools.

POST 8: Brainstorming possibilities for a design response

Josh Parker

 

Initially I was still confused as to which specific direction I was interested in taking as I had done research on a range of areas within LGBTIQ including transgender identity and the Safe Schools program. However I undertook this brainstorming session focussing on the Safe Schools Program. I brainstormed the program focussing on what is working well for the program including the differences being made in the community as well as some of the arguments against the program by church groups about what exactly is being taught.

Possibilities identified by the group in the brainstorming session:

1. Visualise the number of schools where the program is working successfully, using infographics to highlight the number of people who are benefiting from the program noting the different age groups of those identifying as LGBTIQ.
2. A play or show (at schools or in communities) which highlights the ‘normal’ lives of LGBTIQ people and the discrimination which exists, played by LGBTIQ and non-LGBTIQ students.
3. Utilising the school environment to visualise the issues associated with LGBTIQ people, rights and discrimination or to use the school environment to visually create a solution to providing equally e.g.: transgender bathrooms.
4. To highlight the issues caused by bullying in schools, there is the potential to create an alarm app used to ask for help when someone is getting bullied.
5. The final possibility which arose was the visualisation of the ‘spectrum of sexual identity’. The spectrum of sexual identity addresses and opposes the idea of the binary and that everyone sits somewhere different on this spectrum, not always 100% homosexual, 100% heterosexual, everyone is different.

From these five, I have begun proposing a design for option 2. I would like to use data visualisation to highlight statistics and data from the LGBTIQ community around schools and communities. In deciding this, there has been a cross over into service design in that there is potential to design a service moment or a means of change through interaction or something similar particularly in the education of LGBTIQ matters.

POST 8: Brainstorming possibilities for a design response

In week 6 we were asked to come up with a potential design response by writing out a problem statement that we’ve come up with from the issue research task. To write our problem statement we had to follow the; who, what, when, where and why. These cues profoundly allowed us to identify our problem in a cohesive manner.

From week one I found myself constantly going back to the LGBTIQ issues revolved around youth, and eventually became my main focus area of this issue. Along the way I came across a significant controversy in this issue that I wanted to dig into. It was the safe schools coalition program. Therefore in my problem statement exercise I decided to uncover the problems and issues recurring around safe schools program.

 

Who is affected?

• Schools that has implemented safe schools program
• Students
• Staff
• Families

What is the problem?

• Lack of support from the community
• Lack of awareness of safe schools program
• Families and community that are strongly against the program denies that this will be beneficial for schools.
• Safe school aims to promote more inclusive school community and fair education and without it students are less likely to understand the diversity in our society, leading to discrimination and isolation in schools.
• LGBTIQ students will be at risk and will less likely to come out.

When does the problem occur?

• This problem occurrence does not have a significant time or date. It is an on going problem and debate amongst the community.
• For LGBTIQ students the stress and anxiety they go through is 24/7. However they are most likely to be in an uncomfortable and difficult situation during school hours and at home if their families are against their nature.

Where does the problem occur?

• Problems can occur at school, such as act of bullying and harassment towards an outsider. These experiences will have serious consequences towards the victimized student’s health and wellbeing and academic achievement.
• Home can be another place that this problem can occur, particularly the home of LGBTIQ student. This could be because the student’s family could be in denial or against the idea of their child’s gender or sexual identity. Many LGBIQ students’ even experience homophobic and transphobic behaviour back at home.

Why is it important to fix this problem?

• It is crucial to fix this problem for the sake of making our schools a better place for all kinds of students.
• It is important that we encourage students, families and staffs the right to be safe, happy and respected at all times by understanding and open minded of safe schools program’s initiation.
• We need to give minority students the opportunity to feel safe, secure and included in their school.

 

Five-point summary possibilities:

• Online platform that can share student’s positive experience on the program. A guide for communities that are against the safe schools coalition program.
• Data visualisation of the happiness level of LGBTIQ students in a school that runs safe schools program vs. students in schools that does not implement safe schools program.
• Data visualisation of the time that LGBTIQ students are most disheartened vs. when they are the happiest.
• Data visualisation of anti safe schools programs comment and showing a negative impact on the children.
• Data visualisation of what the negative comments are affiliated with. To showcase the self-centred and closed-minded understanding of the program.

 

By April Bae

Post 9: Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

Kathy Ngo

Advantage:

The IDEO 5 methodologies brought a very good structure to the group brainstorming activity. As following these 5 rules, we were much more creative and wilder in generating potential solutions. However, it also made sure we all stay focused on the topic and paying full attention and listen to the individual.

Surely, for the next group projects, I will apply these IDEO steps when we need to brainstorm ideas. These steps are definitely practical and easy to follow, also they help us to stay focused but also to be WILD at the same time.

 

Brainstorm Rules – IDEO.org

 

 

A map answering IDEO’s 5Ws

 

My collaborative map solving the Social acceptance and exclusion of Young LGBTIQ

Disadvantage:

Because the amount of time we spent to research the issue was too long, we haven’t been focused on design solutions. I was overwhelming with the big amount of information I got from research and I was lost of how to use these resources for design practice.

Our group has 5 members. Thus, we had less time to generate ideas than others. We were not quite clear about Service design and Generative Design. That was the main reason why our ideas were not really in-depth or related to the options. As we all have similar issues, our ideas were crossing over each other and duplicated. Some ideas were very interesting but either impossible to make or not really a design solution (again, we didn’t understand what the Service design and Generative design meant!)

I feel like we should have done this exercise earlier as it would’ve been more helpful for me to actually know what we need to research and what areas of data I should take and analyze. The mind mapping exercises were helpful but quite repetitive. There should have been a clear direction for us in the first place to guide us what to do during the rest of the semester instead of not actually showing us what the outcomes would be achieved (last year work examples). I believe the subject design could’ve been done much better and clearer for us as it had been a lot of confusion between the design brief, tutors and students.

 

Post 8: Brainstorming possibilities for a design response

Kathy Ngo

In this week, we had a brainstorming session to find a solution proposal. I was a bit of confused about the purpose of mind-mapping as we were constantly doing this for the past few weeks, I still didn’t understand why we kept mapping the stakeholders (humans and non-humans). Those activities, personally, haven’t helped me to form any potential ideas for my design response. This led to a lot of confusion and  losing the research direction.

LGBTIQ is such a big issue that to focus on only one aspect is quite difficult. Throwing back to the beginning of the assignment, what motivated me to dig into this issue was to help my LGBITQ friends back in Vietnam who were finding extremely difficult to fit in the society environment where there were still many negative thoughts about homosexual. The mind mapping exercise this week was quite better. It was much more defined and structured. Finally, we can start discussing the potential design solution which all the research data begins to make more sense and helpful.

My mind-mapping of 5Ws

 

IDEO brainstorming tips 5Ws are to generate ideas for a proposal. My focus is about the Safe School Programs and Anti-Gay. Though these two topics might sound irrelevant but they are related very closely to each other.

WHO does the problem affect: 

The main actors are young homosexuals: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexual and queer who are suffering from sexual discrimination and social acceptance. These main actors are mostly being isolated from their families, schools, universities and society. I focus this group of actors in Sydney, Australia.

WHAT are the boundaries of the problem:

• Nature: Most common gay stereotypes: “IT’S NOT NATURE”
• Religion: References to the Bible, same-sex marriage/relationship seems to be “sinful” and against their religious beliefs.
• “What about Procreation?” (This is the question what I often hear)  Opponents argue that marriage is for procreation.
• Redefinition – Cultural norms: Anti-gays argue that we must not redefine the institution.
• It will harm the children
• Mental illness

WHEN does the problem occur?

The problem occurs when young LGBTIQ try to ‘come-out’, to get acceptance from their family and friends. They often get bullied in schools by their school mates or biased by teachers. They find difficult to be themselves and be listened. This isolation would let to depression and stress.

WHEN does it need to be fixed?

As this is the global issue, it is important to solve this problem around the as soon as possible.

WHERE is the problem occurring?

As the main actors are students, young generation, the issue often occurs where they normally spend most time with such as:

• Schools, universities and institutions.
• Family
• Workplace
• Social and community events
• Accessing services

WHY is it important that the problem is fixed?

This is the infographic made by the Australian Human Rights Commission which shows the facts of LGBITQ people life:

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People in 2014 – Australia Human Rights Commission

The facts show us that Queer young people are more likely to experience depression which causes self-harm and suicide. It is important to take action to stop sexual discrimination and abuse.

Problem statement:

“LGBTIQ youth has experienced negative challenges such as high rates of physical and emotional bias and violence, being ignored by their family and peers, less support from the government and society. This leads to occurs stress, self-harm, suicide and so on. Therefore, it is important to strengthen the connection to protect them from risks and social acceptance.”

5 possibilities:

• Service design: A video of LGBTIQ everyday life to show that they have a normal life as heterosexuals have. This will be an online social platform  (similar to YouTube) for LGBTIQ community who are fighting for their rights.
• A data visualisation of youth suicide in a certain period to raise awareness.
• An interactive data visualisation of how 100 young LGBTIQ spend their day. Also included both emotional and physical activities.
• Service design: A list of ways young LGBTIQ might harm themselves
• Generative design: What in young LGBTIQ mind? Portrait their emotions poetically and show it in public (shopping mall) or in exhibition

Design Proposal (Service Design)

WHAT:

My design proposal is to design a series of school stationary. They will be decorated with LGBTIQ symbols and illustrations. The illustrations bring encouragement to be themselves, to be brave and to be happy with who you are. This service can help them think more positive and avoid self-harming or suiciding.

This service wouldn’t be totally an issue solution but rather than focus on helping young LGBTIQ overcome their mental depression, self-harm and suicide when facing cases such as verbal abuse, physical abuse and bullies at schools.

WHY:

Narrowing down the issue has helped me define the non-human actors better. In this case, non-human actors are school stationary such as notebooks, books, pencil cases, laptops…all things that connect closely with young LGBTIQ.

WHO can help/involve in this service:

• Students (from 14-25 years old): use this design without getting too much attention from others. By interacting with the object frequently, they will get
• Family:
• Activists: can also give their support by sharing their design to this platform in order to funding money to help those young homosexuals.

HOW:

• An online social platform (website and mobile app based) for people to upload their designs.
• The good designs will be chosen to be printed and delivered to schools and universities.
• For notebooks: texts inside are friendly, engaging and encouraging the readers without being too straight forward.
• Few tips how to overcome sexual discrimination and self-harm.

REFERENCE:

 Lipp, M. 2013, "The Top 10 Arguments Against Gay Marriage: All Receive Failing Grades!", The Huffinton Post, viewed 19 September 2016, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/murray-lipp/the-top-10-arguments-agai_b_3337249.html>

Post 9: Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

The week 6 studio was pretty intense compared to others. It was a really great time to gain a lot of knowledge and it also helped me understand the brief of the subject a little bit more as well. It was a very great experience to gain from the exercise we collaboratively did in the group, especially the 5W (WHO/WHAT/WHEN/WHERE/WHY).

By doing this exercise, it helped me finding my focusing issue and framing my proposition well. I can see how this mapping exercise has fallen into one piece which is amazing. We got to talk and listen to each other proposition whether it is a good direction we should aim. Everyone’s opinion was very good. We got to brainstorm on each other proposition and find a design solution to propose. Everyone was giving their best ideas and write it down the paper and it was very interesting to see other’s opinion. Collaboratively, we have brainstormed quite strong ideas.

On the other hand, due to our number of group members, there were a bit short of time which holds us back from getting out ideas and expanse it in detail. Moreover, our situation on LGBTIQ is quite a complicated issue to solve. We were kind of just getting everything on the paper even if it is not even possible in real time. There were quite a lot of issues raised during the brainstorming as well. One the issue was about the same-sex marriage and how they will live without kids of their own. That is a very important issue for me to look at as well since I am the only one who focusing on same-sex marriage. We were also a little bit confused at the same time since the lack of time and also the misunderstanding of the brief. There was a problem with one of the group members which is about the safe-school program and we were stuck and could not really give her anything she really wanted.

I think the exercise was pretty advantage me but it has its negative as well. However, it was a very great experience and I got a better understanding of the subject brief as well.

Post 8: Brainstorming possibilities for a design response

In the past week (week 6), my group and I have been discussed on our own issues that we are focusing. We brainstormed ideas for each other. It is very interesting to see people’s ideas on other issues. We have generated 5 possible design solution on my issue of Same-sex marriage. My issue is kind of targeting Australian LGBTIQ who immigrate oversea to get married because Australia does not accept same-sex marriage.

 

Here are the 5 design solutions:

• Exhibition: Showcasing LGBTIQ couples stories of their journey to the decision of marrying in another country.
• Data Visualisation: Emotional expression from the most inspirational to least, when same-sex marriage was legalised in their area.
• Virtual Reality: Marriage ceremony which allows people to experience same-sex marriage and influences people’s views about marriage equality.
• Data Visualisation: Countries that have legalised same-sex marriage and countries that have not / Countries that people migrate to married.
• Campaign: Portraying the idea of LGBTIQ who go oversea to get married as asylum seekers.

 

After consideration of the 5 design solutions, I think Exhibition is a very strong idea and solution to let people see and know LGBTIQ stories of how they went through and how heartbreaking they have to go get married oversea rather than their own country which does not allow them to get married by law.

Here are the 5 W to a better understanding of the problem.

 

WHO does the problem affect?

This problem affects people who are LGBTIQ from the age of 18 and over who decide to get married. They are immigrating oversea to get married where they are allowed to get married legally. It also affects their parents and family as well.

 

WHAT are the boundaries of the problem?

This is representational. If the issue is fixed which is to legalised same-sex marriage in Australia, those people who affected by the problem will be happy. The marriage rate will be raised because people can marry whoever they want to marry. However, those people who are against LGBTIQ will start protesting against the marriage equality laws.

On the other hand, if the problem is not fixed, it will be the same as the current situation. People are disappointed and angry because they cannot marry people they love. There will still be a protest for marriage equality. What’s more is that there will be more people who migrate oversea to get married.

 

WHEN does the problem occur? When does it need to be fixed?

The problem occurred when LGBTIQ who tried to marry who they love, however, the society and government won’t accept their commitment. Due to marriage equality, this issue needed to be fixed as soon as possible to prevent people from migrating to another country.

 

WHERE does the problem occur? Where does it need to be fixed?

This problem is happening where marriage equality is not taking place such as Australia where same-sex marriage is not legalised.

 

WHY is it important?

The reason that the issue of same-sex marriage is important is people have the same equality rights to marry whoever they want even if they are same-sex couples or straight couples. The ban on same-sex marriage is part of discrimination which leads to gender equality where male and female have the same rights. This problem can lead LGBTIQ to depression and stress. It can be more serious and lead to suicide.

 

Calvin

---

 

Post 7: Issue Mapping

Kathy Ngo

Since the week 3, I have been collaborating with other 4 members in the group to expose our thoughts, insights and diverse perspectives and in order to develop further my understanding on the LGBTIQ rights topic.

On week 3, we came up with 100 words relevant to the topic within a very short amount of time. This exercise helped us expose the topic in various perspectives. After that, we went around the class to vote other groups’ best words related to the issue. It was very interesting to see others’ understanding of this issue whose didn’t know or research about the LGBT issue.

Our 100 words

Most voted words out of 100.

This exercise has helped me a lot for blog 6: scraping the web as I had a great source of words to collect relevant data from Twitter and analyse the result.

Map 1: Actors and Stakeholders

Following by was mapping actors and stakeholders exercise in week 5. These were designed to help us develop further the related human and non-human actors and stakeholders as well as the controversies between.

Map 2: Polemic: Controversies, Emotions and Motivations

Map 3: Polemic: Supporting LGBTIQ rights Vs Only Heterosexuals are normal

Map 4: Locations of the controversy

 

Reflection:

By collaborating with our group members, I have had a clearer understanding of this problem and the importance of its stakeholders in helping change the issue. It was very interesting to notice that other members have also paid attention to the Safe Schools Program. Until now, all the exercises I have taken are making more sense for me.

Mapping the Key Words, Actors and Controversies of LGBTIQ Issues

Post 7 by Zhengzhi Chen

To gain an insight into LGBTIQ issues, my group (Kathy Ngo, April Bae, Josh Parker, Calvin Thy and me) drew several mind maps to share our knowledge.

100 Words

100 Words created by Kathy Ngo, April Bae, Josh Parker and Calvin Thy

My group came up with 100 words relevant to LGBTIQ issues.

Actors and Stakeholders

Actors and Stakeholders of LGBTIQ Issues, created by Kathy Ngo, April Bae, Josh Parker, Calvin Thy and me

We also created a mind map of the actors and stakeholders of LGBTIQ issues based on the first participant map we created (I personally refined the first participant map and included it at the beginning of my Post 3).

Polemic: Controversies, Emotions and Motivations

Polemic: Controversies, Emotions and Motivations, created by Kathy Ngo and me

We then listed out some controversies involved in the polemic of LGBTIQ issues and the emotions and motivations of the both parties of every controversy.

The Controversy Between LGBTIQ Right Advocates and Those who Think Only Heterosexuals are Normal

The Controversy Between LGBTIQ Right Advocates and Those who Think Only Heterosexuals are Normal: Actors, Emotions and Motivations, created by Kathy Ngo and me

The Controversy Between LGBTIQ Right Advocates and Those who Think Only Heterosexuals are Normal: Locations and Attitudes, created by Kathy Ngo and me

We picked the controversy between LGBTIQ right advocates and those who think only heterosexuals are normal from the polemic chart we created and mapped out the actors, emotions, motivations, locations and attitudes involved in this controversy, coming up with the above two maps. The first one includes the actors, emotions and motivations, while the second one includes the locations and the attitudes showcased in each location (positive + and negative -).

Actors in Controversies

Actors in LGBTIQ Controversies, created by Kathy Ngo, April Bae, Josh Parker and me

In the above chart, we categorised all the actors of LGBTIQ controversies into 13 categories: causes, people, objects, emotions, behaviours, identity, laws & regulations, assistance, networks, representations, politics, emotional climate and barriers.

Analyses of the Actors in the Controversy of Safe School Programs

Each of my group picked an actor in the controversy of Safe School Programs and did some analysis on the actors we chose. I picked the LGBTIQ community and three of them picked children, Christian fundamentalists and school teachers. Every actor was analysed in terms of capacities, hierarchies, politics, associates, value alignments, issues and challenges.

Reflection

• The group mapping exercises really allowed me to obtain more information on LGBTIQ issues than my individual research. I had the opportunity to hear others’ viewpoints, what they are concerned about this issue, and what they have learned from their research.
• I am a rational person who tends to have a clear logic in my thinking processes, but I lack some visualisation skills that my group members possess. This became really clear while I was creating the maps of the controversy between LGBTIQ right advocates and those who think only heterosexuals are normal with Kathy Ngo. My proposal for our visual approach was to have a clear division between the two opposing parties in the controversy, but Kathy suggested we should do it like a casual mind map for aesthetic reasons. While mapping the locations of the controversy, Kathy came up with the idea of using icons to represent locations and using symbols to represent their attitudes towards LGBTIQ rights. Because of Kathy’s visualisation ideas and skills, the outcome looked prettier than the individual version I would make. I learned to always have visuals in your mind while creating a mind map.
• The knowledge of Safe School Programs Josh and April have really helped enrich my research on the importance of education on LGBTIQ issues and how the education can be conducted.

Data Scraping on Gay PDA, Use of Homophobic Language and Vulnerable Masculinity

Post 6 by Zhengzhi Chen

Besides scanning through news, reading scholarly articles, mind-mapping, searching for meaningful visuals, looking at design projects and interview someone, another way of gaining knowledge and information about an issue is data scraping. Data scraping is also the most high-tech method among these researching methods, and a considerably useful one in our future career.

At the outset of my data scraping research, I simply used Twitter Archiver in Google Sheets and created a search rule about ‘LGBT’. The result was not satisfactory so I decided to use a mind-map to summarise all the key words related to LGBTIQ featured in my research so far, including the articles, the images, the design and the interview. The interesting keywords I discovered are: ‘gay PDA’ (public display of affection), ‘vulnerable masculinity’, ‘against the nature’, ‘religion’ (its impact on LGBTIQ issues), ‘binary sexual identity’ and ‘internalised homophobia’. So I decided to try these keywords on Twitter Archiver, Twitter Sentiment Visualization and Brand 24. Twitter Archiver allows users to create a data set of all the relevant tweets to a search in an Excel format. Twitter Sentiment Visualisation provides a series of visual analyses on the sentiment of all the tweets in the past 10 days related to the keyword. Brand 24 enables professional analysis on a certain topic covered in a various of social media.

#gayPDA (Gay Public Display of Affection)

I created a search rule about ‘gay PDA’ in Twitter Archiver and found 103 tweets. The following four charts were created via Twitter Sentiment Visualization about 74 tweets posted in the past 10 days related to ‘gay PDA’:

The Affinity chart of ‘gay PDA’ on Twitter Sentiment Visualization

The Sentiment chart of ‘gay PDA’ on Twitter Sentiment Visualization

The Tag Cloud chart of ‘gay PDA’ on Twitter Sentiment Visualization

In the Sentiment chart, it is easy to see that pleasant sentiment rules over unpleasant sentiment. In the Tag Cloud chart, it is discovered that the negative comments related to  gay PDA include ‘uncomfortable’, ‘illness’ and ‘weird’. The following is the infographic of the topic ‘gay PDA’ covered in various social media platforms in the last three months created via Brand 24:

gay PDA buzz (Brand 24 2016b), an infographic of the topic ‘gay PDA’ in the last 3 months created via Brand 24

From the research results created by the above three tools, two hot topics were discovered related to gay PDA. One is this following Google+ post:

a Google+ post by G Boyd (2016)

In this post, G Boyd promotes his point of view on non-binary and asexual kids, transsexuals and gay PDA. It proves that there are still some positive voices out there about the sensitive trans issue and gay PDA. It is presented in an informal way, though. The fact that he began a totally politically correct message with ‘no offense’ ironically reflects that LGBTIQ issues are still sensitive for quite a large population even in this second decade of the 21st Century.

The other hot topic is a popular tweet with a link to You Being Uncomfortable With Gay PDA Isn’t My Problem, an article written by Michael Lee (2016) on Elite Daily about his personal experience about gay PDA. Even Lee believes that his PDA with his boyfriend should not be judged by strangers, he still admits that gay PDA is still considered inappropriate by some people, especially the ones with lower levels of education.

After scraping data about gay PDA, I discovered that LGBTIQ was still quite an issue, which totally crushed my previous belief before conducting any research that the majority of the population had a positive attitude towards LGBTIQ. The data scraping also reinforced the importance of education in dealing with LGBTIQ issues.

#fag (Use of Homophobic Language)

the chart on the homepage of No Homophobes Dot Com (2016)

No Homophobes Dot Com is dedicated to showcase the reality of homophobia, by visually presenting the numbers of tweets featuring ‘faggot’, ‘no homo’, ‘so gay’ and ‘dyke’ since 5 July 2012. Even though an apparent decline can be witnessed in the chart, the use of these offensive words is still not seldom enough to be ignored.

Inspired by No Homophobes Dot Com, I created a search rule about ‘fag’ in Twitter Archiver and found 12,095 tweets. The following is the infographic of the topic ‘fag’ covered in various social media platforms in the last 30 days created via Brand 24:

fag buzz (Brand 24 2016a), an infographic of the topic ‘fag’ in the last 30 days created via Brand 24

An interesting discovery about ‘fag’ is that there are more photo posts than Twitter posts. The following Instagram post is one of the search results because it has some comments with ‘fag’ in them:

an Instagram photo posted by Gays of Thronez (2016)

The post is clearly a screenshot of a Tumblr post and the message in the Tumblr post is quite inspirational. As learned a few times from previous research, education is really important when it comes to the elimination of discrimination towards LGBTIQ. To force someone to think about why they think of certain things in a certain way is such a smart way of education of breaking outdated notions. Another interesting post I found through this research is the following:

a tweet posted by Jesse (2016)

The above screenshot shows a tweet posted by Jesse, who is boy into wearing make-up. In the post, he lists out several homophobic comments he receives on a daily base. It reveals a major issue of the present society, i.e. the fixed notion of binary sexual identity. Like sexual orientation, sexual identity is a spectrum and different people fall into different parts of the spectrum, so the notion that someone’s gender is either male or female is totally outdated.

#VulnerableMasculinity

vulnerable masculinity buzz (Brand 24 2016c), an infographic of the topic ‘vulnerable masculinity’ in the last 7 days created via Brand 24

Vulnerable masculinity is the masculinity that is too afraid to show vulnerability. I created a search rule about ‘vulnerable masculinity’ in Twitter Archiver and found nothing. The above infographic is of the topic ‘vulnerable masculinity’ covered in various social media platforms in the last 7 days created via Brand 24. The following is the Tag Cloud chart of ‘vulnerable masculinity’ created via Twitter Sentiment Visualization:

The Tag Cloud chart of ‘vulnerable masculinity’ on Twitter Sentiment Visualization

With the help of Brand 24 and Twitter Sentiment Visualization, I learned that the sentiment towards vulnerable masculinity on social media was more positive than negative, and that the key words associated with it included ‘toxic’, ‘depression’, ‘ashamed’, #manup and #CSAQT.

#CSAQT stands for child sex abuse question time and it is a Twitter chat forum aimed at adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. One interesting comment about #CSAQT is made by Captain Janeway in her retweet of another person’s tweet:

Captain Janeway’s (2016) comment on #CSAQT

The victims of child sex abuse are not only female, and what makes it harder for the male victims to speak out or to seek help is the toxic masculinity created by the social construct of masculinity. This topic was covered in one image in my Post 3. In the traditional Western gender notion, femininity is considered weak while masculinity considered strong, so males are often pressured by the society to hide their vulnerability. Hiding emotions and building up grudges will lead to unhealthy mental state, which is basically common sense in the modern society. Therefore, there is no question that toxic masculinity can lead to mentally unhealthy male population.

#FivePointSummary

• Public display of gay affection is still a sensitive topic for a considerable proportion of the population. The majority of same-sex couples choose not to show PDA due to fear of verbal homophobic bullying.
• To force someone to think about why they think of certain things in a certain way is a smart way to make people realise the flaws in the conventions that they have never questioned before. That can be applied to education of LGBTIQ.
• Sexual identity is a spectrum and there is a need to education the population about the flaws of binary sexual identity.
• The victims of child sex abuse are not only female, and what makes it harder for the male victims to speak out or to seek help is the toxic masculinity created by the social construct of masculinity.
• The fear of showing vulnerability is still an issue for quite a large proportion of the male population. For the sake of their own mental health, men need to know they are allowed to cry.

References

Brand 24 2016a, Fag Buzz, viewed 26 August 2016, <https://brand24.com/panel/infograph/sid/32325875/d1/2016-09-03/d2/2016-10-03/dr/4/va/1/cdt/days/or/0/p/1/ >.

Brand 24 2016b, Gay PDA Buzz, viewed 30 August 2016, <https://brand24.com/panel/infograph/sid/32496346/d1/2016-07-05/d2/2016-10-03/dr/5/va/1/cdt/days/or/0/ssc/1/sis/1/p/1/ >.

Brand 24 2016c, Vulnerable Masculinity Buzz, viewed 31 August 2016, <https://brand24.com/panel/infograph/sid/32300031/d1/2016-09-27/d2/2016-10-04/dr/3/va/1/cdt/days/or/0/p/1/ >.

Captain Janeway 2016, ‘Yep, toxic masculinity dictates that men can’t be emotional, vulnerable or seek help, among a myriad other things. #CSAQT‘, Twitter post, 27 September, viewed 1 September 2016, <https://twitter.com/i/web/status/780463604084666369 >.

G Boyd 2016, ‘like no offense or anything but nonbinary and asexual kids are 100% valid, trans boys are real boys and trans girls are real girls and gay pda is not gross or offensive’, Google+ post, 29 July, viewed 29 August 2016, <https://plus.google.com/108185923989016312977/posts/9726x4mEXok >.

Gays of Thronez 2016, ‘Lately there’s been some hate in the comments on several LGBT community accounts. Mentioning there’s […]’, Instagram post, viewed 25 August 2016, <https://www.instagram.com/p/BLGdPzgDDQS/ &gt;.

Jesse 2016, ‘“Wearing makeup is gay.” “You’re a faggot.” “You’re wearing too much makeup.” “brows are too dark.” “Makeup & facial hair isn’t cute.”’, Twitter post, 24 September, viewed 24 August 2016, <https://twitter.com/Jesse_Arreola/status/779469748979412992 >.

Lee, M. 2016, You Being Uncomfortable With Gay PDA Isn’t My Problem, Elite Daily, viewed 28 August 2016, <http://elitedaily.com/dating/pda-gay-couples-pride/1614360/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=dlvr.it >.

No Homophobes Dot Com 2016, July 5th, 2012 — 27 August, 2016, viewed 27 August 2016, <http://www.nohomophobes.com/#!/all-time/ >.

Post 7: Issue Mapping

Josh Parker

Map 1:

Actors & Stakeholders

Now that the semester is underway, it was really interesting to redesign the actors map in more detail thinking about what we had learnt over the last couple of weeks. We noted specific organizations involved in the fight for marriage equality, schools which are particularly involved in the safe schools program and particular members of parliament who are related in some way to the issues surrounding LGBTIQ. The most beneficial part about this collaboration was to draw together all relevant examples and actors involved which has helped open up research opportunities. Despite the map looking similar to the original stakeholders map we now had clear direction for the next exercise. This is because the different stakeholders provide answers for motivations and emotions behind the issues within our overarching issue.

 

Map 2:

Polemics: Controversies, Emotions & Motivations

The next exercise saw us look deeper into the problems within our chosen social issue. We were able unfold the problem further dividing the polemics we have found into controversies, emotions and motivations. The emotions helped us gain a sense of the tone of the controversy whilst the motivation aided in discovering the root of it. I found that many of the emotions appeared to be related to anxiety, fear and anger as many of the controversies we had noted were about discrimination and those which may lead to anxiety and fear in the future depending on their implementation.

 

Map 3:

Polemic: A detailed look at the Safe Schools Program

As a pair, my partner and I decided to further explore the emotions and motivations surrounding the safe schools program. The motivations such as anti-bullying and a safer and more inclusive school environment can be seen in blue whilst the green highlights the emotions associated with these motivations. To this we linked the stakeholders within the map as these are the people who are experience the emotions and being motivated by specific elements of the polemic. It is important to note the distant range and variety of stakeholders from church organizations, political parties, governments and members of parliament as well as businesses and organization who support the program.

 

Map 3 continued:

Where is the controversy happening?

Furthermore, we connected the stakeholders, emotions and motivations with the location of the controversies. We found the controversies to be occurring in four main places, schools, Canberra and parliament, places of worship for religious groups such as a church as well as online and social media such as SBS News. Looking back on these connections in particular has facilitated the exploration of where my emergent design practice may take place.

 

Reflection

Working in collaboration with others for this task was very beneficial for me as some of the group members have been researching similar parts of LGBTIQ to me including the Safe Schools Program. This meant we were able to draw in all our information to map more details, particularly stakeholders. I found mapping the polemic of the Safe Schools Program the most useful exercise in this way. The emotions helped spark ideas about further stakeholders who may be feeling a particular way such as specific charity organizations and activists and specific members of parliament. It was also interesting to notice the connection made between opposing parties through a general emotion. For example, the LGBTIQ community is feeling angry about the reconsideration of the Safe Schools Program just as the Australian Christian Lobby feels angry about the issues raised by the implementation of the program.

Post 6: Scraping the Web for Data

Josh Parker

My previous blog post concluded with a summary of the importance of social media in creating awareness for the issues surrounding LGBTIQ. I found this to be very fitting with the exploration of web scraping for this blog post.

Web scraping flow chart

 

In my own research of transgender identity, there was one particular hashtag which drew me towards using Twitter for my web scraping and data collection, #MomentsInTransition. This hashtag was started by transgender Canadian, Gabrielle Diana in the hope of sharing the stories and journeys of transgender people around the world. Twitter has allowed Gabrielle to connect people who are trying to understand their gender identity and those who are experiencing the same journey of transitioning. The hashtag is able to group all stories of this common journey together on the one social networking site.

Since transitioning in 2013, initiating #MomentsInTransition on Instagram and then joining Twitter in February 2015, Gabrielle now has 5 333 Twitter followers. To this, one unique quality about Twitter is the retweet button. This option on the social media site has allowed Gabrielle to retweet many stories and images marked with her hashtag to share with and inspire her many followers and further create awareness of and confidence in people identifying as transgender.

 

Automated Task

To begin the process of web scraping I logged into Twitter and made an advanced search for #MomentsInTransition. From this I was able to grasp a sense of the effect of Gabrielle’s initial hashtag and an understanding of the way trends can spread on Twitter. I scraped data from the last month to keep the information up-to-date.

Immediately, Twitter began loading numerous tweets which contained photographs and positive stories about transgender people transitioning.

Diana, G 2016

 

Eller, E 2016

 

Web scrape of #MomentsInTransition using Brand24 reflects neither explicitly positive nor negative mentions on Twitter.

Interestingly, this mostly positive response to Gabrielle’s hashtag contrasts my web scraping on the website, Brand 24, of the occurrence of the word ‘transgender’ on Twitter. This information has told me that out of the 178 mentions of ‘transgender’ on Twitter, 14 were labelled as negative and 5 were labelled as positive whilst the remaining were labelled neutral. It can be said that out of those labelled with positive or negative there is still a significant swing towards discrimination on social media which reflects traditional views on the issue of transgender identity.

Positive, negative and neutral data scrape of ‘transgender’ on Brand24

 

Sample of web scraping the word ‘transgender’.

 

From here I began to use the method of web scraping to further my understanding of data related to the Safe Schools Program. I have been investigating this program in class activities and thought it would be noteworthy to find out some social media data on the topic.

Firstly I proceeded to make a simple search of ‘Safe schools program’ on Twitter to gauge a sense of the social media landscape with regards to this issue.

General overview of tweets related to ‘Safe Schools Program’ revealing the positive response to the program.

 

The graph above reveals a positive, negative and neutral data scrape of ‘safe schools program’ on Brand24 and the occurrence of the words on Twitter. Towards the end of the last month, the intensity of discussion about the program has increased. This has possibly been due to the Turnbull government’s reconsideration of the program’s funding and the ACT Labor government’s plans to circumvent the federal government and fund the program. One Tweet read, “great to see the act govt follow @danielandrewsmp lead and fully fund the safe schools program” (Baldwin 2016).

Despite more negative than positive mentions of transgender on an international Twitter search, when it comes to the Safe Schools Program, an Australian initiative, there is a lot more positivity. It could be said there can be a lot of negativity and discrimination around the word ‘transgender’ possibly due to the lack of knowledge and understanding. However when it comes to initiatives and programs such as #MomentsInTransition and Safe Schools Program there is a more positive mood arising due to the awareness and education which they bring.

 

Visual Design Responses

Using the data collected in conjunction with the research from my previous blog (post 5) about design-led ethnography, it has been revealed to me the significance of and capability social media has in creating awareness and reducing discrimination of LGBTIQ-identifying people and supporting equality. The most effective campaigns on social media seem to be those which contain personal stories. Through further research into LGBTIQ activism on social media it might be interesting to visualise the different personal stories around the world and the number of times they have been retweeted or a reference has been made to the original initiator of a particular campaign such as Gabrielle Diana and #MomentsInTransition. Data sets can often create a beautiful organic shape which I feel would be effective in highlighting the differences all humans hold. No human is the same and no data set is the same. The potential to create multiple unique data sets would be one way of highlighting encouraging these differences and supporting equality in the world with the possibly of including a few brief references and data visualisations to stories related to different branches of LGBTIQ  and even issues racial and gender equality as a comparison of differences in the world.

 

 

Baldwin, B. 2016, ‘Great to see the ACT Govt follow @DanielAndrewsMP lead and fully fund the Safe Schools Program. #springst @ABarrMLA’, Twiter post, 28 August, viewed 4 September 2016, <https://twitter.com/bbaldwin2016/status/770138681432797184&gt;

Brand24 2016, Projects, Florida, viewed 6 September 2016, <https://brand24.com/panel/&gt;

Cliff, M. 2016. ‘Transgender teenagers share their incredible then and now photos as hashtag #MomentsInTransition sweeps social media’, Daily Mail, 31 March, viewed 3 September 2016

Diana, G. 2016, ‘The hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it was so worth it ❤ August 3^rd 2013. 3 Years. #momentsintransition’, Twitter post, 3 August, viewed 3 September 2016, <https://twitter.com/gabrielledianaa/status/760947252223434752>

Eller, E. 2016. ‘How about a remade #MomentsInTransition bc we remade the photo. #TransAndHappy’, Twitter post, 6 August, viewed 4 September 2016, <https://twitter.com/eeller33/status/762123632478867457&gt;

 

Post 6: Scraping the Web for Data

Social media has become one of the biggest parts of people’s lives. They go through their social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to check breaking news from all around the world, to look through their friends’ timelines to see what their friends are doing or were doing, to express their own opinions on something that they feel right or wrong or even to tell their friends what they are doing, and more. However, every social media platform has its own unique uses and limited features, for instance, Instagram only allows people to post and image or a video, unlike Twitter and Facebook allow users to choose whether they want to post.
I happened to choose to Twitter to be my data scraping platform and I chose Twitter for few simple reasons. Twitter is a social media which allow its users to tweet whether it is an expressive status, an image, a video or a shared tweet from another user. One of the most unique features of Twitter is that it allows only 140 characters in one tweet which is very limited to users. Therefore, Twitter users need to think and write specific keywords to prevent from exceeded character limit.

I have created search rules for few times to get the result and data that I want.

Result: 9969 tweets

 

Result: 102 tweets

 

Result: 9962 tweets

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I felt like this is the result that I need. Most of tweets that used the keyword (same-sex marriage and #marriageequality) are from Australia which is area that I am focusing on.

Result: 128 tweets

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The top retweeted tweet is tweeted by Guardian Australia which is a twitter platform for Guardian Australia to share the latest news and followed by 148541 twitter users. The tweet said “#BREAKING: Nick Xenophon confirms party will block #samesexmarriage plebiscite #marriageequality” and this tweet was posted on 29 Aug 2016 and got retweeted 12 times by others.

The second top retweeted tweet is tweeted by Paul Karp who is a political reporter at Guardian Australia and his twitter profile is verified and followed by 3333 people. It is pretty interesting is that the tweet that he posted is the same news as Guardian Australia posted on 29 Aug 2016, however, the tweet got retweeted 11 times which means in total the news on Nick Xenophon got retweeted 23 times.

The third top retweeted tweet is tweeted by AU Marriage Equality (13024 followers), which posted on the same day as the other on 29 Aug 2016 and got retweeted 7 times. The tweet is also about politician Nick Xenophon, however, this article is written from another perspective.

 

• It has been shown that marriage equality issue is very well aware among Australian politicians.
• Twitter is a platform that is very popular among celebrity, politicians, activist to share their opinions.
• Most of the contents which I found from the archive is about Australia politic which is debating on Marriage Equality Plebiscite.
• I am quite surprised to know and haven’t been aware of the news on Labor position is to block the same-sex marriage plebiscite.
• Not just Australian who tried to fight for LGBTIQ rights on marriage equality in Australia but also from all around the world such as celebrities.

 

Calvin

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