Rethinking affordance

n/a – Critical survey essay retheorising the concept of 'affordance' in digital media context. Lead article in a special issue on the topic, co-edited by the authors for the journal Media Theory

Algorithmic Transparency: Concepts, Antecedents, and Consequences – A Review and Research Framework

The widespread and growing use of algorithm-enabled technologies across many aspects of public and private life is increasingly sparking concerns about the lack of transparency regarding the inner workings of algorithms. This has led to calls for (more) algorithmic transparency (AT), which refers to the disclosure of information about algorithms to enable understanding, critical review, and adjustment. To set the stage for future research on AT, our study draws on previous work to provide a more nuanced conceptualization of AT, including the explicit distinction between AT as action and AT as perception. On this conceptual basis, we set forth to conduct a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature on AT antecedents and consequences. Subsequently, we develop an integrative framework to organize the existing literature and guide future work. Our framework consists of seven central relationships: (1) AT as action versus AT as perception; factors (2) triggering and (3) shaping AT as action; (4) factors shaping AT as perception; as well as AT as perception leading to (5) rational-cognitive and (6) affective-emotional responses, and to (7) (un-)intended behavioral effects. Building on the review insights, we identify and discuss notable research gaps and inconsistencies, along with resulting opportunities for future research

Pan: conversational agent for criminal investigations

We present an early prototype conversational agent (CA), called Pan, for retrieving information to support criminal investigations. Our approach tackles the issue of algorithmic transparency, which is critical in unpredictable, high risk, and high consequence domains. We present a novel method to flexibly model CA intentions and provide transparency of attributes that is underpinned with human recognition. We propose that Pan can be used for experimentation to probe analyst requirements and to evaluate the effectiveness of our explanation structure

The Datafication of Public Service Media Dreams, Dilemmas and Practical Problems:A Case Study of the Implementation of Personalized Recommendations at the Danish Public Service Media ‘DR’

Historically, public service broadcasting had no quantifiable knowledge about audiences, nor a great interest in knowing them. Today, the competitive logic of the media markets encourage public service media (PSM) organizations to increase datafication. In this paper we examine how a PSM organization interprets the classic public service obligations of creating societal cohesion and diversity in the new world of key performance indicators, business rules and algorithmic parameters.The paper presents a case study of the implementation of a personalization system for the video on demand service of the Danish PSM ‘DR’. Our empirical findings, based on longitudinal in-depth interviewing, indicate a long and difficult process of datafication of PSM, shaped by both the organizational path dependencies of broadcasting production and the expectations of public service broadcasting

The datafication of Public Service Media: Dreams, Dilemmas and Practical Problems A Case Study of the Implementation of Personalized Recommendations at the Danish Public Service Media ‘DR’

Historically, public service broadcasting had no quantifiable knowledge about audiences, nor a great interest in knowing them. Today, the competitive logic of the media markets encourage public service media (PSM) organizations to increase datafication. In this paper we examine how a PSM organization interprets the classic public service obligations of creating societal cohesion and diversity in the new world of key performance indicators, business rules and algorithmic parameters.The paper presents a case study of the implementation of a personalization system for the video on demand service of the Danish PSM ‘DR’. Our empirical findings, based on longitudinal in-depth interviewing, indicate a long and difficult process of datafication of PSM, shaped by both the organizational path dependencies of broadcasting production and the expectations of public service broadcasting

Steps Towards Real-world Ethics for Self-driving Cars: Beyond the Trolley Problem

Research on self-driving cars is transdisciplinary and its different aspects have attracted interest in general public debates as well as among specialists. To this day, ethical discourses are dominated by the Trolley Problem, a hypothetical ethical dilemma that is by construction unsolvable. It obfuscates much bigger real-world ethical challenges in the design, development, and operation of self-driving cars. We propose a systematic approach that connects processes, components, systems, and stakeholders to analyze the real-world ethical challenges for the ecology of socio-technological system of self-driving cars. We take a closer look at the regulative instruments, standards, design, and implementations of components, systems, and services and we present practical social and ethical challenges that must be met and that imply novel expectations for engineering in car industry

Steps Towards Real-world Ethics for Self-driving Cars: Beyond the Trolley Problem

Research on self-driving cars is transdisciplinary and its different aspects have attracted interest in general public debates as well as among specialists. To this day, ethical discourses are dominated by the Trolley Problem, a hypothetical ethical dilemma that is by construction unsolvable. It obfuscates much bigger real-world ethical challenges in the design, development, and operation of self-driving cars. We propose a systematic approach that connects processes, components, systems, and stakeholders to analyze the real-world ethical challenges for the ecology of socio-technological system of self-driving cars. We take a closer look at the regulative instruments, standards, design, and implementations of components, systems, and services and we present practical social and ethical challenges that must be met and that imply novel expectations for engineering in car industry