Category Archives: Politics Policy Advocacy

Discussion

Merriam-Websters’ definition can be found here. I frequently use this word as it carries the academic connotation of akin to fight. When I’m talking in person, I usually pause a beat before deciding discussion is the most effective word.

In the GamerGate project, I see the hashtag as more of a record of a fight. But fight doesn’t carry the same academic weight as discussion. Argument is also a probable synonym, but that holds a different meaning in academia. Attack would also probably work, if it did not also carry military and conquest elements. And while these additional elements may meaningfully add to the conversation, I am making the call that it opens the conversation to be directed in unintended ways I wish to avoid.

Politics, Policy, and Advocacy

In my PhD program, I opted to take a Politics, Policy, and Advocacy class. This has been very informative, and challenging (in an incredibly good way). I’m having a great time in the class, and learning a lot about advocacy from a theoretical perspective, which has been helpful in naming some of my past experiences.

But as it’s a PhD class (or really a class in general), I have to create a final paper/project. And I have a great idea for how I’m going to format it! (I’m seriously super excited for my idea to work out; a draft will be posted here, the link to the final will be as well).

As excited for trying a new writing form as I am, I find I am nervous for the content. Because I will be talking about the type of advocacy that is hidden in the fight conversation that is happening at the hashtag gg (if you don’t know what this is, watch this space. All will become clear in the next few weeks. As will the reasons I am hesitant to be clearer).

Beyond sharing this random collection of thoughts, I wanted to have a post explaining why there are going to be a quick flurry of posts that aren’t pushed to my social media forums. I am going to be publishing my final project the week before it’s due on Storify, which might also be how I submit the final project. To make the argument clearer, I feel like there are places where I need footnotes. However, publishing through Storify makes footnotes a little tricky (this could be due to my n00b status with Storify), so I plan to create un-social media linked posts here to function as footnotes. As I think the footnotes are interesting as stand alone thoughts, I won’t have them as hidden links on the site; they will simply be folded into the feed.

So if you’re subscribed for updates, this is my apology for the influx of updates. If you’re not subscribed, then this is just another random post from me 🙂

Please feel free to leave any thoughts on my argument, or gg in general, or really anything else, in the comments on any of the posts. This is not, however, an invitation for harassment of me or a take down of me as a person. I love debating the ideas; I will not debate me as a person. I also will not debate any deconstruction of another person. I will entertain debating other ideas, because that’s the whole purpose of getting a PhD. Comments here are held for approval by me as a default (always). Anything that looks as though it will move the conversation on my site to a debate or take down of a person, will not be approved. Feel free to create your own site, if you feel I am somehow infringing on your right to speak. But I recommend re-reading the U.S. Bill of Rights as you take on the endeavor.

And now, here we go 🙂