Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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Subject: search.filters.subject.communication inequality

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    Preventing Violence in the Disability Margins: A Culture-Centered Study in Aotearoa
    (y Oxford University Press on behalf of International Communication Association, 2025-07-13) Dutta MJ; Elers P; Zorn A; Brey S; Metuamate S; Pokaia V; Jayan P; Rahman M; Hashim S; Liu J; Nematollahi N; Sharif ASBM; Teikmata-Tito C; Whittfield F; Holdaway S; Jackson D; Kerr B; Raharuhi I
    Disabled people are overrepresented as victims of sexual violence and family violence, but are often excluded from research and the development of communication campaigns, laws, and interventions. Grounded in the culture-centered approach, we undertook 77 qualitative interviews with predominantly Māori (Indigenous) and low-income disabled individuals to identify primary prevention needs for reducing family and sexual violence. Participants articulated disability as being structural, intersectional, and layered with erasure, contributing to conditions that perpetuate violence. Erasure and the resulting loss of agency were pervasive across diverse disabilities and participant groups, with Māori bearing a disproportionate burden. Emergent in the participants’ narratives were strategies around addressing communication inequalities and grounding prevention resources within local community contexts, set against structural determinants of violence perpetuated by the settler colonial State. This study challenges the hegemonic approach to addressing sexual violence and family violence, revealing a relationship between communicative and material forms of violence.
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    Barriers to adopting digital contact tracing for COVID-19: Experiences in New Zealand
    (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2024-04-01) Elers P; Emery T; Derrett S; Chambers T
    Background Digital contact tracing (DCT) was a central component of the global response to containing COVID-19. Research has raised concerns that DCT could exacerbate inequities, yet the experiences of diverse communities at greater risk from COVID-19 are typically underrepresented. Methods The present study aimed to understand the perceived barriers to the adoption of the app amongst Māori, Pasifika, and disabled people. Focus groups and interviews were undertaken with Māori, Pasifika, and disability sector stakeholders and community participants. Results Participants (n = 34) generally expressed willingness to utilise DCT and support its adoption within the communities. Simultaneously, participants revealed how the app could marginalise community members who struggled with the usability and those distrusting of the government's COVID-19 interventions. Conclusions The findings highlight how addressing communication inequality can assist in the development of contact-tracing responses that are both effective and equitable. The study provides insights about the role of information and communication technologies as health resources. Patient or Public Contribution Consulting with members of the target communities was central throughout the present study, including recommendations for potential participants, participation in interviews and sharing early findings for feedback. This study reports on focus groups and interviews with individuals from Māori and disability sectors.
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    Communication Inequality and the Technopolitical Structure of Platform Work: Aotearoa New Zealand Platform Workers During COVID-19
    (University of Southern California, 2024-01-30) Salter LA; Dutta MJ
    Drawing on the culture-centered approach (CCA), we conducted 25 in-depth interviews with Aotearoa New Zealand rideshare and delivery drivers, demonstrating how the technopolitical structure of platform work intensified communication inequality, and resultingly, precarity, during the COVID-19 crisis. Although literature has recognized that the platform has become the place of employment, less researched is how this makes it the place of information distribution, handing power to the platform operators, while contributing to the precarity of platform workers. The concept of communication inequality has been underapplied to considering the intersections between the structure of platform work and worker precarity. A thematic analysis concentrates on 4 key themes linked to the centralization of information flows through the platform architecture: information restriction, indirect management, unilateral term-setting, and accentuated precarity. We conclude by arguing for more research on platform work from a communication perspective that foregrounds the voices of workers.