Researching social media as if the social mattered

The institutions we have come to call “media” have been involved for over a century in providing an infrastructure for social life and have invested in a quite particular and privileged way of re-presenting the world as “social.” The dialectic between “media” and “social” has become more urgent to understand in an era when media and information infrastructures have expanded, converged, and become embedded more deeply in the texture of everyday life, while at the same time the claims of “media” to be social have become explicit, indeed insistent. This article asks what it would mean to address this new social/media dialectic head on—as if the social mattered. The word “social” is our necessary term for thinking about the complex interdependencies out of which human life really is made and the claims to represent that interdependent reality made from particular positions of power. All forms of power have invested in certain representations of the social. This battle matters, and now “social media”—the infrastructures of web 2.0—are at the heart of that battle. The article seeks to offer a plausible agenda for a collaborative program of research to address this struggle over the definition of “the social.

Ver a floresta por suas árvores: visualizando plataformização e sua governança

As complexidades das plataformas estão cada vez mais em desacordo com os conceitos jurídicos e econômicos rígidos que fundamentam sua governança. Este artigo busca analisar a plataformização através da lente metafórica de uma árvore para entender os ecossistemas de informação como estruturas hierárquicas e interdependentes. Adotando uma abordagem holística à plataformização, essa metáfora visual pode inspirar um conjunto de princípios para remodelar o ecossistema de plataformas ao interesse da sociedade e do bem comum.The complexities of platforms are increasingly at odds with the narrow legal and economic concepts in which their governance is grounded. This article aims to analyze platformization through the metaphorical lens of a tree to make sense of information ecosystems as hierarchical and interdependent structures. Taking a holistic approach to platformization, this visual metaphor may inspire a set of principles that reshapes the platform ecosystem in the interest of society and the common good

In data we trust? The implications of datafication for social monitoring

Hoje há uma notável tolerância ao Big Brother e ao Big Business acessando rotineiramente as informações pessoais do cidadão, também conhecidas como Big Data. Parte da explicação para isso pode ser encontrada na gradual normalização da datificação como um novo paradigma na ciência e na sociedade. A datificação está se tornando um princípio central, não apenas entre os adeptos da tecnologia, mas também entre os acadêmicos. Este artigo desconstrói as bases ideológicas da datificação, argumentando queela baseia-se em reivindicações ontológicas e epistemológicas problemáticas. A ideologia do dataísmo mostra características de crença generalizada na quantificação objetiva do comportamento humano, por meio das tecnologias de mídia on-line.Today there is a remarkable tolerance for Big Brother and Big Business routinely accessing citizens’ personal information also known as Big Data. Part of the explanation for this may be found in the gradual normalization of datafication as a new paradigm in science and society. Datafication is becoming a leading principle, not just amongst techno-adepts, but also amongst scholars. This article deconstructs the ideological grounds of datafication arguing that in many respects datafication is rooted in problematic ontological and epistemological claims. The ideology of dataism shows characteristics of a widespread belief in the objective quantification of human behavior through online media technologies

Creating Public Spaces : Centering Public Values in Digital Infrastructures

Institutions like public broadcasters and universities face conflicts of values when using surveillant digital tools: organizations bound to protect the privacy and respect their autonomy of their constituents - which we term "values-led organizations" - find those values undermined by tools they must use to conduct business online. A Dutch nonprofit, Public Spaces, has developed a self-audit method for documenting dependencies on such tools and working to find values-consistent alternatives. The Public Spaces Digital Power Wash is a method applicable to other tensions between organizational values and values embedded in digital tools. We expand from this specific case study to consider the larger challenge of tensions between organizational values and the behavior of digital tools and examine the possibility that values-led organizations could take the lead in building digital public infrastructures that value the autonomy and privacy of citizens

Climate Communication: How researchers navigate between scientific truth and media publics

Recent attacks on scientific authority have intensified calls for climate scientists to seek out a more active stake in public engagement. Yet, today’s media landscape presents scientists with the challenge of gaining the epistemic trust of diverse audiences. This article qualitatively investigates how publicly engaged academic climate researchers imagine the public as they partake in various science communication practices. It finds that scientists’ strategies for securing public trust in their epistemic authority and defining their own public role vary with the media public they are addressing. Their communications reflect an oscillation between filling a “knowledge deficit” and communicating complex “truth tensions.

Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma Types and the Coexistence of Ovarian Tumor Conditions

Objective. Ovarian carcinomas are presumed to arise within ovarian inclusion cysts or from a coexisting epithelial lesion in the ovary. Insight may be gained by relating different subtypes of ovarian cancer with the presence of coexisting tumor-like conditions. Methods. The Dutch nation-wide pathology database PALGA (Pathologisch Anatomisch Landelijk Geautomatiseerd Archief) identified the various histopathological subtypes of ovarian cancer in 824 patients diagnosed in 1996–2003, and recorded the presence of epithelial tumor conditions around the ovarian tumors. In addition, a PALGA database of all 153 consecutive patients referred to the Nijmegen University Medical Centre in 2007 for histopathological work-up was analyzed. Results. The prevalence of coexisting ovarian tumor conditions was 16.4% (135 out of 824 patients, (95% CI: 8.4%–24.4%)). The coexistence was highest for endometrioid, mucinous, clear cell, and borderline malignancies. The referral group revealed 35% (54 out of 153 patients, (95% CI: 28%–42%)) of coexisting epithelial ovarian tumor conditions. Conclusion. One in six patients with a malignant ovarian tumor has a coexisting epithelial tumor condition in the ovary, which is also rather frequently observed in the diagnostic work-up practice

Platformisation

Este artigo contextualiza, define e operacionaliza o conceito de plataformização. A partir de insights vindos de diferentes perspectivas acadêmicas sobre plataformas – estudos de software, economia política crítica, estudos de negócios e estudos culturais – desenvolvemos uma abordagem compreensiva em relação a esse processo. A plataformização é definida como a penetração de infraestruturas, processos econômicos e estruturas governamentais das plataformas digitais em diferentes setores econômicos e esferas da vida. Ela também envolve a reorganização de práticas e imaginários culturais em torno dessas plataformas. A partir do exemplo de app stores, mostramos como essa definição pode ser empregada em pesquisas empíricas.Palavras-chave: Plataformas. Plataformização. Dataficação. Mercados multilaterais. Economia política. Governança.This article contextualises, defines, and operationalises the concept of platformisation. Drawing insights from different scholarly perspectives on platforms—software studies, critical political economy, business studies, and cultural studies—it develops a comprehensive approach to this process. Platformisation is defined as the penetration of infrastructures, economic processes and governmental frameworks of digital platforms in different economic sectors and spheres of life, as well as the reorganisation of cultural practices and imaginations around these platforms. Using app stores as an example, we show how this definition can be employed in research.Keywords: Platforms. Platformisation. Datafication. Multi-sided markets. Political Economy. Governance

Deplatformization and the governance of the platform ecosystem

This article analyzes deplatformization as an implied governance strategy by major tech companies to detoxify the platform ecosystem of radical content while consolidating their power as designers, operators, and governors of that same ecosystem. Deplatformization is different from deplatforming: it entails a systemic effort to push back encroaching radical right-wing platforms to the fringes of the ecosystem by denying them the infrastructural services needed to function online. We identify several deplatformization strategies, using Gab as an example of a platform that survived its relegation and which subsequently tried to build an alternative at the edge of the mainstream ecosystem. Evaluating deplatformization in terms of governance, the question that arises is who is responsible for cleansing the ecosystem: corporations, states, civil society actors, or all three combined? Understanding the implied governance of deplatformization is imperative to assess the higher stakes in future debates concerning Internet governability

Understanding Data Professionals in the Police: A Qualitative Study of System-Level Bureaucrats

Through the introduction of algorithmic systems into police organizations, a new employee emerged: the data professional. Contrary to street-level officers, little is known of the discretionary power of these system-level bureaucrats. Our qualitative research into the Netherlands Police provides a first empirical and theoretical understanding. The study shows that data professionals exert discretion and are aware of public values, but their value-sensitivity often does not translate into responsible practices. Data professionals use a variety of arguments to dissociate themselves from, or downplay, their responsibilities. We conclude that this distancing hampers the connection between the discretion and responsibility of data professionals

Admixed Portrait: Design to Understand Facebook Portrayals in New Parenthood

We report on a design-led study of the photographic representation of self and family on Facebook during and after becoming parents for the first time. Our experience-centered, research-through-design study engaged eight participants across five UK homes, in a month-long deployment of a prototype technology -- a design research artifact, Admixed Portrait, that served to prompt participant reflection on first-time parenthood. In addition to pre- and post-deployment interviews, participants kept diaries capturing personal reflections during the deployment, on daily social media use and interactions with Admixed. Our qualitative insights on social media representations of transitional experience and identity for new parents, reveal how their online 'photowork' related to self-expression and social functioning. We contribute design considerations for developing tools to support photographic expression in social media use, and methodological insights about design-led inquiry for understanding transitional experiences