Social Media, Communities, & Networks Conference 2026: Semester 1 & SP1

Comments

3 responses to “Disabilities, Paralympics and Social Media – Teresa Williams”

1. 

   howard22

   29/04/2026

   Hi Tessy, your presentation was great with a strong example talking about your idea throughout the whole process. With the example in mind, I can always on the track about what your perspectives about the disabled and their existence on social media platforms. It’s true that there are many inequality on social media platforms and these can also lead to the happening of disrespect behaviours from some of the social media users, which you also gave a discussion in the video, about the disrepectful music used in Paralympic video.
   Generally speaking, I think your presentation shows a strong perspective as well as the clear perspectives from you.

   As for the question, I would like to hear something from you about following aspects:
   1. Based on your understanding about your selected topic, which one do you think is the most dominant or influential factor in this example, that led to the discussion about disabilities and paralympic. Could it be the reputation of Anastasia or the selection of this platform, or is there any other possible reason?
   2. You also talked about the use of hashtags, which I really loved, in this presentation. Therefore, I would like to hear from you that do you think the use of hashtags when publishing videos on social media platforms will lead to a huge different from not using any hashtags?
   3. According to one of the readings in the unit, Redifining humour and creativity: meme culture strengthens disabled voices. What’s your thoughts about the use of those kind of memes?

   Reply
2. 

   James

   30/04/2026

   Hi Teresa,
   This is a very well put together presentation. I enjoyed learning about this topic.

   Reply
3. 

   domenicrossi

   30/04/2026

   Hi Teresa, really interesting presentation about disbility on TikTok. I have some questions that might advance the discussion:
   1. I would love to see some more examples of pure community building on TikTok. How do users use inluential peers, like those mentioned in Byron & Demanjee (2025), to create communities? Do you have screenshots that show networks forming on TikTok.
   2. What affordances does specifically TikTok give the disabled community on TikTok, rather than just features? Like social or political affordances outlined in Bucher & Helmond 2018?
   3. Could online harrassment driven by users in this community (Marwick, 2021) have the potential to break communities? How has the disability community on TikTok responded to ‘hate’?

   Reply