AI: Limits and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence

The emergence of artificial intelligence has triggered enthusiasm and promise of boundless opportunities as much as uncertainty about its limits. The contributions to this volume explore the limits of AI, describe the necessary conditions for its functionality, reveal its attendant technical and social problems, and present some existing and potential solutions. At the same time, the contributors highlight the societal and attending economic hopes and fears, utopias and dystopias that are associated with the current and future development of artificial intelligence

Disciplining news practices in the age of metric power: a networked ethnographic study of everyday newswork in a Spanish media group

This thesis investigates the encounter of journalists with metrics in the quantified newsroom. Drawing on scholarship on news production, the critical political economy of media, the sociology of quantification and the Foucauldian approach to power and resistance, the thesis asks who decides which metrics matter in news production and what is the role of metrics in the newsroom. Drawing on a networked ethnography, the study examines the production and circulation of metrics within the Spanish media group Atresmedia and in particular in the news department of the television station La Sexta. In so doing, the thesis follows the flow of metrics into the newsroom and identifies the nodes that determine the repackaging of metrics. Finally, the thesis interrogates the journalists' consumption, interpretation and use of metrics. Empirically, the thesis is based on a 17-week networked ethnography, including 44 semi-structured interviews with journalists, data analysts and executives. The empirical data are presented in four levels: (1) The data ecosystem, (2) the institutional stage of metrics production, (3) the news team practices in the lights of metrics, and (4) the individual professional consumption of metrics. Drawing on the empirical analysis, the thesis argues that the metrics that arrive at the newsroom are crafted, re-packaged and re-signified to subtly convey disciplinary techniques that permeate the process of news production whilst also engendering resistance, with consequences for news products, news programming, audiences, and journalistic autonomy. Ultimately, the research contributes to understanding of the relationship between journalism and metrics. It also provides insights into the debates about the future of journalism in a challenging economic, social and political climate

Enhancing the user-centred design of mobile location servies through the application of value

This thesis is concerned with the problem of designing Mobile Location Services (MLS) - also commonly termed Location-Based Services - that meet user needs. MLS are applications that users access via a portable device such as a mobile phone. They provide services (i.e. information or other functionality) to end-users based on knowledge of the location of individuals and other entities within the environment. The market failure of many mobile services, including MLS, has been attributed in part to failing to provide `value' to the end user. This thesis reviews different theoretical approaches to help understand the notion of `value', and how value may be used to inform design (Chapter 2). Research methods are also discussed, including the particular challenges with doing `mobile' research (Chapter 3). A survey of UK consumers( Chapter4 ) demonstratesa current lack of use, and lack of awarenesso f most forms of MLS in the UK. llowever, overall positive attitudes,a nd a range of behavioural and demographic data, suggest that MLS have the potential to be successful if they can be designed to meet user needs. A qualitative study of users' travelling behaviour (Chapter 5) then demonstrates how effective mobile information delivery can provide considerable value within a dynamic, uncertain and location-varying environment. This added value is highly dependent on contextual and situated factors, including existing information sources, variances in possible outcomes and the intrinsic qualities of information provision. The thesis then focuses on a particular application domain for MLS - drivers navigating in an unfamiliar environment. A literature review (Chapter 6) investigates how drivers navigate, and what their information needs are. Three experimental studies (Chapters 7 to 9) then investigate what information adds value within a navigation context, the impact of contextual influences on driving and navigation performance, and the impact of the quality of the navigation cue on task performance. Good landmarks (such as traffic lights) are shown to add value for drivers navigating an unfamiliar route, depending on the context at particular manoeuvres. This thesis discusses( Chapter 10) how a multi-disciplinary perspectivec an help maximise the acceptance and effectiveness of MLS. 'Value' can be used to design specific services for users, based on offering new freedoms to the individual within a mobile context, employing time and location sensitivity to maximise relevance, taking into account user knowledge, existing information sources and contextual factors, and ensuring impact on real-world outcomes. In conclusion (Chapter 11), specific contributions and avenues for future work are highlighted.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Media Representation and Democracy in Africa: Why there are no skyscrapers in Nigeria -A critical analysis of UK news media's representation of Nigeria's democracy, 1997- 2007

This thesis investigates the representation of Nigeria in the British news media. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, it examines the interplay of culture, race, ideology and geo-political power relations in the production of news. It interrogates the influence of sources, the impact of sources-media relations and their direct consequences on the construction as news of Nigeria’s socio-economic and human development indices, which further signpost the direction of representation of the world’s most populous black nation. By considering the coverage of Nigeria in the UK news media between 1997 and 2007, a period which marked a watershed in the democratic evolution of Nigeria, this thesis contributes to the on-going debates regarding cultural understanding in a globalized community. First, the research is based on a content analysis of the coverage of Nigeria in five UK quality newspapers at a period marking the end of the political logjam that engulfed the country following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections; the return to democratic rule and the early years of democracy, which witnessed the successful transfer of power from one civilian administration to another for the first time in Nigeria’s history. Second, a critical discourse analysis of a sample of the coverage of the most mentioned issues in the reportage, and third, on a small set of interviews with some of the journalists involved in the coverage. As a framework for its analysis, this thesis focuses on the theories of cultural politics, representation and news discourse. It finds that the coverage of Nigeria does not just follow the pattern of a distant and differentiated ‘Other,’ but is also significantly influenced by pre-colonial cum colonial history and geo-political power relations. Though news media outlets and individual journalists do try, within their own powers, to make a difference but the fact that the myths supporting these assumptions have been institutionalised over time presents a huge challenge. The issues in the coverage are discursively constructed from western point of view with greater access to shape the news clearly domiciled in the pouch of European or western sources rather than the Nigerians who should have a better appreciation of their local circumstance. This kind of coverage informs the idea of applying western solution to Africa’s problem, which further compounds the crisis. The fact that this manifest pattern of representation obfuscates the real issue behind Africa’s situation and presents imminent dangers to our common humanity are the core concerns contextualized within the thesis. It is negotiated with references to relevant dimensions of culture, politics, news discourse and interpreted in the light of geo-political power relations

The struggle over, and impact of, media portrayals of Northern Ireland

This thesis examines the process of mass communication from media strategies to audience belief in relation to the conflict in Ireland. It documents the media strategies used by the various actors and participants in the conflict, from the Northern Ireland Office, Royal Ulster Constabulary, Foreign Office and Army to Sinn Fén and the Irish Republican Army, via the Ulster Defence Association, other political parties, Civil liberties and human rights organisations and many others. It reveals the continuing disinformation efforts of the British government, examines how source organisations interact with journalistsw, how journalists and their editors operate and looks at the outcome of their endeavours by analysing international coverage of the Northern Ireland conflict. Finally, the research examines the reception of media information amongst people living in Northern Ireland and Britain. Key questions here included the extent to which `violence' acted as a key organising category in British perceptions of the conflict and the effectiveness of propaganda in structuring public (mis)understandings

Theatricalizing Dissent: An Examination of the Methodology and Efficacy of Performance in Contemporary Political Protest

Activists and artists are consciously bringing theatre to the forefront of contemporary protest interventions. This thesis examines the efficacy of performative modes in acts of theatrical dissent. My research is based on case studies from the UK, Paris, Belgium, and the United States which staged interventions, often experimenting with different democratic models of relationships and often prefiguratively, and which campaigned on social, economic, and political issues: against austerity, climate injustice, and consumerism. They employed diverse performative modes: Rough Music, Guerrilla Performance, Play and Gaming, and the creation of a Temporary Autonomous Zone. The Practice as Research component provided the perspective of an insider through my participation in theatrical dissent organized by artists and activists, and through my own work, HOUND (2016), which incorporated a variety of performative modes previously identified as efficacious. Activists seek to expose, through their own performances, the performances of power and legitimacy staged by corporations and governments; and to advocate the necessity for change. Some elements of these modes may militate against political efficacy, whilst others contribute towards it by working to avoid a crude and heavy-handed didacticism by encouraging spectators to collaborate in the performance. I identify and analyze the elements of performance modes which may be conducive in supporting and sustaining activists; and those which may ignite an interest in a cause in spectators. To be a dissenter, to some extent, is to be an outsider, one who questions society’s norms and mores. I argue that theatrical devices (such as ‘making strange’ the everyday), provide the necessary distancing for audiences and participants alike to question the ‘normal’. This is the first step in an exploration of dissent provided by theatre’s ability, when staged as dissent, to create new political realities

The age of interactivity: An historical analysis of public discourses on interactivity in Ireland 1995 - 2009.

Interactivity is integral to media and communications and yet is a contested concept in the literature. There is little agreement on its meaning not least because of its multidisciplinary nature. Previous research, concerned with finding a single definition of interactivity, has focused narrowly on specific contexts of communication using limited methodologies. This thesis argues that several meanings of interactivity are in circulation and that the search for one bounded definition constrains understanding of its role and fails to recognise its analytical potential. The study makes an original contribution to research by presenting findings from an analysis of public discourses on interactivity, a valuable source of material neglected in research to date. It shows that at least nine thematic representations of interactivity are in circulation representing different aspects of its role in communicative events. These are identified as the Empowering, Commercial, Pedagogical, Aesthetic, Ludological, Futuropia, Hula-hoop, Sceptical and Information Society themes. The results are based on a longitudinal content and discourse analysis of fifteen years of newspaper coverage in Ireland, an original methodological addition to research, reflecting both a unique national perspective on the concept and the flow of influential international discourses within a small state. The content analysis draws a detailed quantitative picture of how and where interactivity arises in news coverage while the discourse analysis examines qualitative aspects of the dominant, overlapping and conflicting discourses around interactivity and the discourse communities operating behind the talk. The analysis illustrates how thematic representations of interactivity coexist both in discourse and in individual communicative events, suggesting the potential for layered interactivities in communication. The ‘age of interactivity’ describes a wide range of discourses from hype and myths around interactivity to its potentially transformative role in communication. Overall this thesis highlights the value of interactivity as a communication concept and analytical tool with rich research potential