Emma Stanley is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate studying Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media at North Carolina State University. Center director Adriana de Souza e Silva is her dissertation advisor.

Stanley’s research focuses on mobile and locative media (apps and items that use GPS/GIS), and she’s interested in how our interactions with these media impact our experiences with the physical spaces around us. 

For this edition of the Scholar Spotlight series, CTM Communications Specialist Claire Ogden interviewed Stanley about her dissertation research and its implications on the current social media landscape. 

Center for Transformative Media: How did you first get affiliated with the Center? 

Emma Stanley: So this goes back to 2020. When I was applying to doctoral programs, Adriana was at NC State at that time, and I realized that my research aligned perfectly with what Adriana does. 

And I realized that working with her would allow me to intersect my interest in not only narratives, but also in data analysis and mapping and all of these dynamic stories that I wanted to be able to tell about people living in different areas. 

I was affiliated with her Networked Mobilities Lab and the Mobile Gaming Research Lab here. 

As I finish my dissertation,  I’m very excited to continue working with Adriana and see what happens in this new journey with the Center.

CTM: That’s great. By the way, what does your dissertation focus on?

Emma Stanley: So I’m specifically looking at the city of Raleigh as a case study to look at how COVID impacted the ways in which we navigate our city and communicate. 

This could be through locative media, such as Uber, or even things like Yelp, which sort of influence us to go to different locations or Instagrammable places, so to speak. So it’s looking at this large level overview of what location-based social media and social applications have impacted, specifically with relation to what ordinances came about post-COVID. 

There was a lot of shakeup in the city of Raleigh during that time, and I realized that while there had been books written on other major cities, Raleigh had not been looked at for the ways in which communication and location-based apps influence urban mobility. 

CTM: What do you find most exciting about studying urban mobilities? 

Emma Stanley: Yeah, so urban mobility really excites me because it’s essentially a very interdisciplinary intersection of items. 

It essentially looks at this narrative of people moving through a space, and also things that impact them both societally as well as politically. Especially, you know, in the political climate that we’re in now, sort of looking at this larger sphere, with regard to I.C.E. being deployed to major cities like sanctuary cities, which Raleigh is one. 

It’s interesting to pin that to urban mobilities in terms of: do people feel safe moving through a space? How do they communicate within that space? And how are they impacted by politics, society, all of the social discourse surrounding them? And it goes further than just people moving through a space. 

But a concrete example that I really like is actually from China, where in order to organize protests, they were utilizing apps such as Tinder, and putting keywords within their profile so that they could match with people who were also interested in the same sort of activism that they were interested in. And so of course, that’s location-based. So they were able to essentially use that to organize protests. And so it’s things like that that I find really interesting. 

CTM: Absolutely. In terms of emerging technologies and emerging media, what excites you and what concerns you?

Emma Stanley: What I’m currently most interested in is how major social media platforms and the people who own them are responding to the Trump administration. For instance, we have Zuckerberg, who has completely changed perspectives on  not only their DEI policies, but the ways in which they are moderating or policing language on their platform.

Or compared to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X), and the ways in which community notes came about. And this new dynamic of community notes being a more prominent thing. 

It’s interesting to me just how significant seemingly small executive orders are impacting this larger sphere of technological development. And the way in which we navigate social spaces through digital media as well as the impact on the people who work for those organizations.

CTM: So in terms of the media you use, what location-based apps are some of your favorites, or what do you find the most interesting? 

Emma Stanley: I definitely use Doordash entirely too much, because there’s my favorite Thai restaurant right down the street. It’s top tier, and they always have really good discounts. And so that’s another thing I think is interesting. The sort of ways in which my use of locative media connects me to the space around me. 

That ties back to the core of my research question:. How do our interactions with these digital media impact our relationship with physical spaces? 

And just the ways in which I feel connected to my community around me, I’ve made so many friends. I work at a barn now doing therapeutic horseback riding because of people I met through apps. And that’s become a significant part of my life. 

I do feel like I’ve backed off of things like TikTok and Instagram a little bit, solely because of the political implications. I’ve just taken a step back from using those and just been watching what’s unfolding. 

But I definitely find myself shifting more toward meeting new people, specifically meeting friends through apps, and that’s been fun for me.

CTM: Do you think that there’s this sort of move away from traditional social media and toward more local, discussion-style platforms like Reddit or Nextdoor? 

Emma Stanley: For sure. I’ve definitely found myself using Reddit exponentially more than I did even last year. Specifically the Raleigh subreddit or the Durham one, because they just connect you to the people around you. And there’s super niche subreddits that find people around you who are interested in this super specific thing you’re interested in.

And I’ve realized that emerging from that, people are forming Discord groups or Facebook groups or Whatsapp groups to bring that connection a step further, and have this more intimate connection and do local meetups. 

I’ve seen a lot of this interesting trend of women wanting to find places in which they feel safe. And they’re turning to social media for that. Specifically, with regard to the creation of “Ladies of [X city]” where there’s this self moderation and so everyone’s holding everyone accountable. They’re scheduling events and making sure that everyone is polite and respectful, you know, all of those things. 

Women have always needed safe spaces, right? We’ve always needed places in which we can connect with other women or other like-minded people. So it’s been a really interesting outlet, you know, seeing that sort of trend. And another sort of funny thing like on that note as an example, here is.

I’ve noticed the sort of influx of things that are related to a specific city. And it’s like, “Are we dating the same guy?” for every different city. 

CTM: That last one is fascinating. And that defamation lawsuit that members of those groups have faced for what they’ve posted—what could be a better example of social media having consequences in the “real” world? 

Emma Stanley: It really is. And oh my God! There’s so much on there. There’s lots of spilling of peoples’ authentic social anxieties, since you can post anonymously.  People turn to social media so that they feel they can get a slightly more objective or at least unbiased answer.

It really is interesting sort of seeing the flux of the ways in which we utilize social media. Right now, we’re pushing back on a lot of the more government regulated applications and things like that. We’re kind of coming back to message boards. We’re coming to Reddit. We’re coming back to things that make us feel more directly connected rather than just that parasocial relationship that we might have with like a TikTok, you know.

CTM: Yeah, totally. We’re refusing the self-marketing aspect of it, I guess. As a last question, I’m wondering what you’re excited for this year, like in terms of your research or teaching, is there anything that is really giving you a lot of creative or intellectual energy? 

Emma Stanley: I am actually really looking forward to the Center launch next month, because I do have tickets for that. I plan to come to Boston to visit you all. I’m very excited about that in terms of myresearch and teaching. 

Also, I’m actually teaching freshmen for the first time in many years. And it’s been interesting for me to engage with the students just coming out of high school, and just how different that generation and social sphere is, because there’s well over a decade of age difference between me and them now. 

And wow, it’s different! I feel like I learn new words from them all the time. And that has really sparked my curiosity in terms of: What are new ways to connect to my students? 

I know that seems like a simple question, but often it leads to some level of supreme complexity, because wow, like the generational difference, it’s just crazy. But I’ve had a lot of fun with that. And it’s been really inspiring to see that despite all of the many differences that we may have, at the end of the day they really are intellectually curious. 

It’s been inspiring for me, not only in teaching, but also for my research, because they’ll come up to me and ask me questions about the academy as a whole, especially since the Trump administration has put the spotlight on the academy, and what we’re doing inside of the academy, and the bad rap. 

So I get to make it more transparent in saying, like, here’s a lot of what we do. It’s research-based. It’s teaching-based. It’s community service-based, and all of the good that we’re putting out into the world. 

I feel like I’ve been able to go back to the fundamentals and just explain and express that more. And I feel really excited this year for that.

CTM: Yeah, totally. Helping kind of bust those misconceptions of the academy and fighting for the work we do here. It’s never been more important. 

This interview is part of the Center for Transformative Media’s Scholar Spotlight Series. Learn more about Emma by visiting her NCSU webpage.