Avatars, sockpuppets and ventriloquists’ dummies: Selves and others online

When web users express themselves they often borrow others’ bodies, faces and words to do so. YouTubers roleplay as their videogame avatars; users of Musical.ly mime to stars’ songs; Tumblr devotees punctuate their anecdotes with GIFs of Rihanna winking or Orson Welles clapping defiantly; trolls conscript cartoon frogs into campaigns of racist abuse. What do these acts of ventriloquism, citation, mimicry and impersonation say about digital culture, and about identity more generally?

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Music video survey – win £350

Researchers at the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies at the University are exploring parent […]

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Tags: children, family, money, music, online, parent, survey, video, voucher

Free online course – ‘Shale Gas and Fracking: the Politics and Science’

Led by Professor Sarah O’Hara from the School of Geography and Mathew Humphry, Head of the […]

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Tags: course, fracking, Mathew Humphrey, MOOC, online, politics, Sarah O'Hara, School of Geography, School of Politics and International Relations