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Scholars have long been critical of development agendas where Global North organisations develop aid programmes and resources to address inequalities in the Global South, which tend to reflect Western values, frameworks, and identity. Critical response can be seen in current calls for decolonising the 'resourcing' of LGBTQ+ young people in the Global South. Drawing from the postcolonial lenses of 'Asia as Method' and a reorienting of that paradigm through 'queer Asia as method', we argue for 'queering' approaches to digitally resourcing LGBTQ+ young people in the region by centring the knowledge of local communities. This paper is informed by findings from two research projects involving digital resources on young people's digital citizenship, safety, literacy and participation, and the lived experiences of respondents from 10 countries across the Asia Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we bring together media logics, affordances and affect theory to ask how conspiracy theory moves through WhatsApp groups and moves people through their encounters with these contents towards 'conspiracy thinking'. Firstly, we draw upon media logic theory to examine the extent to which WhatsApp's architecture, design and technical functions 'steer' users' towards particular communication and behaviours. Second, we use affordance theory to examine how communities incorporate platform affordances into their tactics to resist, subvert or circumvent institutional power. Finally, we use theories of affect to understand whether the shared emotions and intensities that arise through encounters between digital environments and bodies of users drive experiences that bypass human cognition and representation to create 'affective atmospheres'. We apply this integrated framework to ask whether WhatsApp's closed infrastructure, end-to-end encryption and social features such as 'Groups' and the 'forward' button – with the embodied practices of users – shape affective environments which normalize conspiracy thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paralympic Games is the largest sporting competition for athletes with an impairment. This competition has, however, had limited news coverage in the past particularly compared to the Olympic Games. This study analyzes newspaper coverage of the 2016 Paralympic Games by two newspapers in 11 countries (China, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom). The coverage period spanned 7-19 September 2016. Text and pictures were coded according to page number, content, gender, sport, and nationality of person. Media content analysis was used to extract coverage of themes. Results are presented using descriptive statistics and frequency counts. Of the 623 articles and 541 photographs analysed, a small percentage (7.3%) were on the front pages of newspapers. Most articles and photographs (78.7%) were about athletes or teams. There was more coverage of male athletes (53.2%) and local athletes (71.6%). The Paralympic Games has historically received less newspaper coverage than the Olympic Games. This study examined newspaper coverage of the 2016 Paralympic Games from 11 countries. For the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, newspaper coverage in most countries was good, lasting nearly the whole duration, and this also included a number of front page reports. The type of coverage and number of reports differ between countries. Generally, the highest medal winning countries gave more media attention to the Games. The news reports focused primarily on their local athletes and teams. Moreover, males had more news coverage than females overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]