The media go-along:Researching mobilities with media at hand

This article contributes methodologically and theoretically to Christine Hine’s call for a mobilities oriented internet ethnography. First, a ‘media go-along’, combining interviews and observations of a personal communication service at hand, is developed. Research participants give verbal and visual tours, framed by the researcher’s discursively constituted invitations for orientation. Then, a theoretical framework integrating an analysis of media environment mobilities is developed. From research material on hook-up and dating apps targeting non-heterosexual men, it is shown how 1) research participants’ navigation is materially contingent upon the medium and subject to momentary purposes and styles, 2) researcher presence and access must regularly be re-inscribed discursively, and 3) mobile media analysis, based on the media go-along’s representations of verbal, material, affective, and kinetic aspects of social interaction, is useful in the analysis of socially-conditioned access to, and production of, single media practice and experience

The media go-along: Researching mobilities with media at hand

This article contributes methodologically and theoretically to Christine Hine’s call for a mobilities oriented internet ethnography. First, a ‘media go-along’, combining interviews and observations of a personal communication service at hand, is developed. Research participants give verbal and visual tours, framed by the researcher’s discursively constituted invitations for orientation. Then, a theoretical framework integrating an analysis of media environment mobilities is developed. From research material on hook-up and dating apps targeting non-heterosexual men, it is shown how 1) research participants’ navigation is materially contingent upon the medium and subject to momentary purposes and styles, 2) researcher presence and access must regularly be re-inscribed discursively, and 3) mobile media analysis, based on the media go-along’s representations of verbal, material, affective, and kinetic aspects of social interaction, is useful in the analysis of socially-conditioned access to, and production of, single media practice and experience

Hedging and Cash Flows in the Presence of Taxes and Expenses in Life and Pension Insurance

In investment and insurance contracts, certain stipulated payments may depend on the hedging strategy. We study the problem of calculation, hedging and valuation of such cash flows, by considering a payment process in a setup with taxes and investment costs that are functions of the investment returns or the current value of the hedging strategy. We determine the market value of the combined liability and decompose the value into the tax part, the investment cost part and the benefit part, and we determine the associated hedging strategies. Moreover, we identify the expected future tax payments and investment cost cash flows. Our results show that the current Danish insurance accounting practice for taxes is in general conservative, when considered in an idealized setting with symmetric and continuously-paid taxes. Finally, we consider the special case of affine interest rates, where explicit results can be obtained, and study some numerical results

Flirting and friendship at the periphery of hook-up app research

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; The everyday intimacies of friendship and flirting are not typically exploredin hook-up app research, nor is there much reflection on the intimacies of researching these media. This paper considers flirting and friendship as practices and methods that broaden the scope of current hook-up app research. We ask what these intimacies can produce to expand research approaches (and thus knowledge) of hook-up apps. As users and researchers of these apps, we consider negotiations of flirting and friendship between researchers and research partici- pants by exploring what it means to research with intimacy. Attention is given to the connections, conversations, and intimate encounters within hook-up research that are mostly absent from existing presentations of research findings. We sug- gest that greater attention to peripheral and intimate communication between researchers and participants can offer valuable methods for queering otherwise stabilised ways of knowing, using, and researching these platforms. Adding to the queer ethnographic tradition, we demonstrate how a processual and affective approach to hook-up app use encourages researchers to make visible our connec- tions to the media we research, and how these connections relate to the intima- cies that hook-up apps foster.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; </jats:p