Impersonal efficiency and the dangers of a fully automated securities exchange

This report identifies impersonal efficiency as a driver of market automation during the past four decades, and speculates about the future problems it might pose. The ideology of impersonal efficiency is rooted in a mistrust of financial intermediaries such as floor brokers and specialists. Impersonal efficiency has guided the development of market automation towards transparency and impersonality, at the expense of human trading floors. The result has been an erosion of the informal norms and human judgment that characterize less anonymous markets. We call impersonal efficiency an ideology because we do not think that impersonal markets are always superior to markets built on social ties. This report traces the historical origins of this ideology, considers the problems it has already created in the recent Flash Crash of 2010, and asks what potential risks it might pose in the future

Ethical guidelines for nudging in information security & privacy

There has recently been an upsurge of interest in the deployment of behavioural economics techniques in the information security and privacy domain. In this paper, we consider first the nature of one particular intervention, the nudge, and the way it exercises its influence. We contemplate the ethical ramifications of nudging, in its broadest sense, deriving general principles for ethical nudging from the literature. We extrapolate these principles to the deployment of nudging in information security and privacy. We explain how researchers can use these guidelines to ensure that they satisfy the ethical requirements during nudge trials in information security and privacy. Our guidelines also provide guidance to ethics review boards that are required to evaluate nudge-related research

Designing for trust in news media: Encouraging digital literacy through product design

Fake news, or false information in the media, is likely as old as legitimate news, but gained newfound attention in the months before and after the 2016 United States presidential election. The prominence of widespread false content in the media has converged with existing critiques of the media industry related to biased and misleading content, in an environment marked by the notable decline of trust in the industry. This represents a shift in media industry dynamics which negatively impact media consumers, who rely on information in the media to form and adapt their individual worldview. Due to advances in technology, consumption of news media is rapidly shifting to mobile device-based experiences, which are primarily the domain of digital product designers. These designers are responsible for the user experience (UX) on mobile devices. Thus, they are tasked with ensuring consumers are able to access reliable news media content and build a better understanding of this media content through improved media and digital literacy. To do so, digital product designers need resources and framing to support them to this end. Through the lens of design inquiry, this research-based thesis explores themes related to media industry dynamics, critical thinking, and the future of false information. This enables the creation of a research base and development of a preliminary set of product design guidance to support designers in building better media consumption experiences for people. A literature review is conducted to understand the media industry trends that have led to the current situation. Models and visual schemas are constructed to aid designers in comprehension of this situation. These models show how false information and digital product design affect consumers’ ability to form an accurate worldview. The projected evolution of false information and its impact are assessed. To understand different methods of addressing the trend of false information from a product design perspective, existing implementations developed by technology platforms are reviewed. The culmination of this research is future-oriented product design guidance which emphasizes presenting consumers with accessible, effective contextual information and encouraging critical thinking capabilities while consuming media content. The guidance provides practical, adaptable recommendations for designers along with the research foundations, and should serve as an effective resource for digital product designers to enhance and augment the user’s experience consuming media

Death masks and professional masks: community, values and ethics in legal education

This article is a case-study of simulation as a way of learning values and ethics, an approach implemented curriculum-wide within a postgraduate, professional legal educational programme, the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice, in Scotland. It involves learning face-to-face using conventional print resources, and also involves online digital resources. While the use of the web to simulate a professional environment is nothing new in itself, the implementation of it (first in the Glasgow Graduate School of Law and then Strathclyde Law School) and on this scale is fairly unique. The article explores the genesis of this approach, its interdisciplinary bases, and its use in various law schools, its effects in building learning communities and facilitating ethical self-revelation

Communication perspectives on social networking and citizen journalism challenges to traditional newspapers

Communication perspectives are presented on the challenges posed to traditional newspapers by social media and citizen journalism, with special reference to the United States. This is an important topic given the critical role investigative reporting, long the domain of newspapers, plays in fostering democratic practices. New Media and social networking technology are evaluated in terms of their impact on the newspaper enterprise. Alternative scenarios for future developments are examined as are the implications for social values and the role of an informed citizenry in democratic society. Strategic management issues are analyzed, and the possibility is considered that social media can fulfill much of the democracy-enhancing role served traditionally by newspapers. --Newspapers,news industry,social media,social networks,democracy,journalism

Antichrist in the Oval Office: the Rhetoric of \u27antichrist\u27 in Online Discourse Surrounding Donald Trump

This thesis examines how people compare the president to the Antichrist online, specifically during the Trump administration. Looking at digital Antichrist comparisons as distinct communicative practices, I argue that the digital affordances and logics that allow for the rapid spread of ideas online work synergistically with the historical weight of the Antichrist as a concept, helping the comparisons to spread further and faster than they could have through other mediums while simultaneously being more impactful than other digitally-spread content due to the wealth of sources, both within religion and pop culture, which can be drawn on. In examining a Twitter trend that compared Donald Trump to The Omen\u27s Antichrist, Damien Thorn, I argue that the Antichrist was used as an apt metaphor for violence connected to religion and politics, which was then able to expand the idea of Trump as the Antichrist to other moments of Trump\u27s presidency through contamination and remix practices. From there, I look at a digital conspiracy archive that details a variety of different ways that Donald Trump could be connected to the Antichrist, where the structure of the archive allows visitors to gravitate toward the elements that are most useful to them, all of which is more effective due to the invisible presence of information about the Antichrist that has infiltrated cultural awareness. Whether public or hidden, these case studies demonstrate how well an ancient political idea continues to thrive within the digital landscape

Distributed Cinema: Interactive, Networked Spectatorship In The Age Of Digital Media

Digital media has changed much of how people watch, consume and interact with digital media. The loss of indexicality, or the potential infidelity between an image and its source, contributes to a distrust of images. The ubiquity of interactive media changes aesthetics of images, as viewers begin to expect interactivity. Networked media changes not only the ways in which viewers access media, but also how they communicate with each other about this media. The Tulse Luper Suitcases encapsulates all of these phenomena

Antichrist in the Oval Office: The Rhetoric of ‘Antichrist’ in Online Discourse Surrounding Donald Trump

This thesis examines how people compare the president to the Antichrist online, specifically during the Trump administration. Looking at digital Antichrist comparisons as distinct communicative practices, I argue that the digital affordances and logics that allow for the rapid spread of ideas online work synergistically with the historical weight of the Antichrist as a concept, helping the comparisons to spread further and faster than they could have through other mediums while simultaneously being more impactful than other digitally-spread content due to the wealth of sources, both within religion and pop culture, which can be drawn on. In examining a Twitter trend that compared Donald Trump to The Omen’s Antichrist, Damien Thorn, I argue that the Antichrist was used as an apt metaphor for violence connected to religion and politics, which was then able to expand the idea of Trump as the Antichrist to other moments of Trump’s presidency through contamination and remix practices. From there, I look at a digital conspiracy archive that details a variety of different ways that Donald Trump could be connected to the Antichrist, where the structure of the archive allows visitors to gravitate toward the elements that are most useful to them, all of which is more effective due to the invisible presence of information about the Antichrist that has infiltrated cultural awareness. Whether public or hidden, these case studies demonstrate how well an ancient political idea continues to thrive within the digital landscape