April 2020 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

2 academic jobs in the School of International Communications at the University of Nottingham's China campus
by Andrew White 09 Apr '20

09 Apr '20

The University of Nottingham's China campus has the following 2 vacancies in the School of International Communications *Assistant/Associate Professor in Digital Humanities [181025]* *https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BZS998/assistant-associate-professor-in-digital-humanities <https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BZS998/assistant-associate-professor-in-digital-…> * *Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Mobile Studies [181028]* *https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BZS993/assistant-professor-lecturer-in-mobile-studies <https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BZS993/assistant-professor-lecturer-in-mobile-st…> * Closing date: 10 May 2020 *Join a unique British University in China**.* The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) was the first Sino-foreign University to open its doors in China. This award-winning campus offering a UK style education has grown to establish a student body of over 8,000 in just 15 years. A pioneer in Sino-foreign tertiary education, UNNC is rapidly expanding as part of the University of Nottingham’s Global University. The institution seeks ambitious, talented academics with a flair for research and a passion for teaching to join its team of experts, offering unique teaching and research opportunities in a highly dynamic economy. The School of International Communications is the largest school in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and is affiliated to the Department of Culture, Media and Visual Studies at the Nottingham UK campus. Our BA (Hons) in International Communications is a provincial level accredited degree which includes a dedicated programme of study for a European or East Asian language. Its sister programme, BA (Hons) in International Communications with Chinese, has proved successful in attracting high quality international students to the school. We currently run an MA programme in International Communications and also have one of the most successful PhD programmes in the university. The post-holders will be expected to teach across the full range of our programmes, undertake supervision of BA and MA dissertation students and PGR students, and conduct research and external engagement in the school’s main research areas. More details of the school and its teaching and research activities can be found here: *https://www.nottingham.edu.cn/en/internationalcommunications/about-the-school.aspx <https://www.nottingham.edu.cn/en/internationalcommunications/about-the-scho…>* These posts are expected to begin from 1 September 2020 and will initially be offered on a fixed-term contract with the University of Nottingham Ningbo China for a period of up to five years. This contract may be extended on an indefinite basis by mutual agreement, subject to revised terms and conditions. All applicants are required to formally apply online for these positions. An attractive package, including accommodation allowance, flights and insurance, will be provided to all successfully appointed candidates. All posts will be based in Ningbo and contracts will be with the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China. Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr. Filippo GILARDI, head of School of International Communications email: Filippo.Gilardi(a)nottingham.edu.cn. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

1 0

Re: [Air-L] Definition of technology?
by Neal Thomas 09 Apr '20

09 Apr '20

Hi Ana; Here are some more suggestions to help you develop a general position towards technology in your work. Best, Neal ___________ Neal Thomas CAS Instructor | Dept. of Communication Studies Laurier University | Waterloo, ON Canada Out in 2018 with Routledge: Becoming-Social in a Networked Age Twitter: @lathemason Culture and Technology: A Primer Jennifer Daryl Slack, John Macgregor Wise The social shaping of technology Donald A. MacKenzie, Judy Wajcman Shaping Technology/building Society Studies in Sociotechnical Change Wiebe E. Bijker, John Law The Social Construction of Technological Systems New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology Wiebe E. Bijker, Thomas Parke Hughes, Trevor J. Pinch Philosophy of Technology The Technological Condition - An Anthology Robert C. Scharff, Val Dusek Questioning Technology Andrew Feenberg Technosystem Andrew Feenberg Meaning in Technology Arnold Pacey Technics and Civilization Lewis Mumford Technics and Time: The fault of Epimetheus Bernard Stiegler Technics and Time: Disorientation Bernard Stiegler, Stephen Barker The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology Langdon Winner Materialist Media Theory: An Introduction Grant Bollmer Exceptional Technologies A Continental Philosophy of Technology Dominic Smith Gilbert Simondon Information, Technology and Media Simon Mills Control: Digitality as Cultural Logic Seb Franklin Reassembling the Social An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory Bruno Latour Human-Machine Reconfigurations Plans and Situated Actions Lucy Suchman Bodies in Technology Don Ihde Transforming Technology A Critical Theory Revisited Andrew Feenberg How We Became Posthuman Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics N. Katherine Hayles We Have Never Been Modern Bruno Latour Technology and the lifeworld: from garden to earth Don Ihde Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry Albert Borgmann Autonomous Technology Technics-out-of-control as a Theme in Political Thought Langdon Winner Dear AoIRs, I am a migration and border studies scholar researching how technologies (from mobile phones to drones to databases) affect migration journeys. I am not familiar with STS scholarship and I was hoping you could help by pointing me to some (seminal?) works that might help me formulate an all-encompassing definition of technology (or a theoretical approach to it), beyond ICTs?i.e. one that includes biometrics, information exchange databases, but also material objects like drones, and/or one that addresses both technology ?used by? as well as technology ?used on.? Many thanks in advance, Ana

1 0

WEBCAST TODAY 11:00 UTC: Kids, the Internet & COVID-19: How to keep our children safe online
by Joly MacFie 09 Apr '20

09 Apr '20

This is today. The main presentation will be by *Aftab Siddiqui*, ISOC's Technical Engagement Manager. There will be an extra 30 mins for Q&A. There will be closed captions on zoom, open captions on the livestreams. ISOC Live posted: "On Thursday 9 April at 16:30 IST (11:00 UTC) the Internet Society Asia Pacific Regional Bureau presents a webinar -'Kids, the Internet & COVID-19: How to keep our children safe online'. With self-isolation measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, chi" [image: livestream] <http://livestream.com/internetsociety/onlinesafety>On *Thursday 9 April* at *16:30 IST* (11:00 UTC) the *Internet Society Asia Pacific Regional Bureau <https://www.internetsociety.org/regions/asia-pacific/>* presents a webinar -'*Kids, the Internet & COVID-19: How to keep our children safe online <https://www.internetsociety.org/events/kids-the-internet-covid-19-how-to-ke…>* '. With self-isolation measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, children are spending more time than ever online. This 30 minute webinar will cover: - How kids are using the Internet during self-isolation - Risks and threats for children online - Easy ways and tools to help keep your kids safe online *LIVESTREAM: http://livestream.com/internetsociety/onlinesafety <http://livestream.com/internetsociety/onlinesafety>* *FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/InternetSociety/live/ <https://www.facebook.com/InternetSociety/live/>* *REAL TIME TEXT**: **https://www.streamtext.net/text.aspx?event=CFI-ISOC <https://www.streamtext.net/text.aspx?event=CFI-ISOC>* *PARTICIPATE: https://isoc.zoom.us/j/425349234 <https://isoc.zoom.us/j/425349234>* *TWITTER: #onlinesafety <https://bit.ly/3e39rtY> | @ISOCapac <https://twitter.com/ISOCapac>* Comment <https://isoc.live/11948/#respond> See all comments <https://isoc.live/11948/#comments> *Permalink* https://isoc.live/11948/ - -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +2185659365 -------------------------------------- -

1 0

NYT: The Virus Changed the Way We Internet
by Joly MacFie 09 Apr '20

09 Apr '20

Lots of charts! https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/technology/coronavirus-inter… -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +2185659365 -------------------------------------- -

1 0

New open access book - Dark Side of Digital Platforms
by Philippa Smith 09 Apr '20

09 Apr '20

Hi Everyone In the spirit of keeping the academic work moving along, even in the midst of the challenges we are facing with most of us in some for of lock down - I'd like to let you know about this open access book just published which I co-edited with Darja Fiser from the University of Ljubljana. Please see below and feel free to circulate. The Dark Side of Digital Platforms: Linguistic Investigations of Socially Unacceptable Online Discourse Practices Intolerant, abusive and hateful speech online has received a lot of attention by researchers in social, media and communication studies, yet its linguistic aspects also require thorough investigation. This book just published - The Dark Side of Digital Platforms - showcases how a linguistic perspective has much to offer in unravelling exactly what is occurring in online environments. With a common goal to interrogate the linguistic aspects of negative online behaviours, which are prevalent on different social media platforms, the book’s authors approach this phenomenon from a range of methodological frameworks. Alongside their efforts to identify, describe and understand various forms of digital discourse, they are motivated by a common belief that their work can inform efforts to contain or mitigate the impact of negative online behaviours. Each chapter interrogates a different communicative practice in a specific modality on a range of online platforms and offers insights into different quantitative and qualitative approaches when it comes to the complexities of the linguistic analysis of negative online behaviours. The range of methodological frameworks and theoretical approaches utilized in the explorations into online discourses of racism, misogyny, homophobia/LGBQT+ rights and islamophobia/anti-immigrant discourses presented in this book contribute a comprehensive understanding of the linguistic landscape of online hate. The studies presented analyse data across three very different countries, cultures and languages – Cyprus, Japan and Slovenia – demonstrating that negative online behaviours are a global problem that should not be ignored. Therefore, the findings of these studies have much wider implications. The e-book available in English is freely available in open access: https://e-knjige.ff.uni-lj.si/znanstvena-zalozba/catalog/book/191 Darja Fišer (University of Ljubljana and Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) Philippa Smith (Auckland University of Technology, NZ) Editors * * * * * Take care and keep safe. Philippa Smith Senior Lecturer - English and New Media School of Language & Culture Auckland University of Technology New Zealand

1 0

AoIR2020 reviews due
by Kylie Jarrett 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

Hi all, This is your AoIR 2020 conference Programme Chair to remind you that reviews are due in by the end of the coming weekend. We really appreciate you taking the time to do these reviews, especially as we are all dealing with added burdens due to the complexities of the Covid-19 pandemic. A special thanks to those of you who have already submitted. Thanks, Dr. Kylie Jarrett Head of Department/Associate Professor Department of Media Studies Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare Ireland Author: Feminism, Labour, and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife Co-author: NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media Google and the Culture of Search

2 1

Definition of technology?
by Ana Visan 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

Dear AoIRs, I am a migration and border studies scholar researching how technologies (from mobile phones to drones to databases) affect migration journeys. I am not familiar with STS scholarship and I was hoping you could help by pointing me to some (seminal?) works that might help me formulate an all-encompassing definition of technology (or a theoretical approach to it), beyond ICTs—i.e. one that includes biometrics, information exchange databases, but also material objects like drones, and/or one that addresses both technology “used by” as well as technology “used on.” Many thanks in advance, Ana +1 519 502 3310

11 10

‘Environmental Media Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic’ CFP for open access supplement of Journal of Environmental Media
by Adi Kuntsman 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

Apologies for cross-posting , please circulate widely ‘Environmental Media Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic’ Call for papers for open access supplement ofJournal of Environmental Media Guest editors: Becky Alexis-Martin, Adi Kuntsman and Liu Xin Journal editors: Hunter Vaughan (University of Colorado Boulder) and Meryl Shriver-Rice (University of Miami) While immediate global efforts are focused on containing the devastating spread of Covid-19, important conversations are also emerging regarding the immediate and long-term social, political, cultural and environmental implications of the current crisis. Among them are two widely addressed, but rarely intersecting topics. The first is environmental – for example, noting the positive impact of global lockdowns on carbon emissions due to reduced flights and motor travel; or addressing the future of ecological resilience and climate change based on lessons learned during the coronavirus pandemic. The second regards the role of digital media – the rise of remote working, teleconferencing, online education, and in the immediate tackling of the epidemic via contact tracing. Digital media has proven central to sustaining the social fabric of everyday life, accentuating the importance of digital access at times of restricted movement and physical contact, as well as substantially expanding digital surveillance. While each of the two topics – digital media and the environment – are receiving their due media and scholarly attention, they are rarely examined together, leaving unchallenged crucial questions regarding the relations between digital knowledge and technologies, environmental justice and the global pandemic. This special, open access section of theJournal of Environmental Media aims to facilitate a collection of ‘rapid response’ reflections on these questions, by inviting short (2000–3000 words) contributions. The format is flexible and can include reflections on preliminary findings; policy recommendations; commentary; theoretical interventions; or auto-ethnographic accounts to consider one or several of the questions below · What are the hidden environmental challenges and damages of the rapid digitization of healthcare (in and beyond the pandemic monitoring), education, work and everyday life? How do they relate to global inequalities (both digital and environmental)? · What psychological reactions and changes in digital behaviour (such as use of carbon capture apps) have manifested in reaction to quarantine life? · What techno-scientific environmental myths and fake news (5G as culprit of coronavirus; dolphins in Venice etc) have proliferated through social media since the start of the pandemic? · How do we construct virtual environments in an age of a global lockdown? What new modes of care for nature and for each other can they facilitate? What are the relations between ‘virtual green spaces’ and mental health during the pandemic? · How can we rethink the relations between death, digital technologies and the environment? All contributions will be peer reviewed and prepared for the fast-track publication with the support of the guest editors. All accepted pieces will be published in the special supplement to JEM’s 1:2 issue. For consideration, email 200-word abstracts to Adi Kuntsman (a.kuntsman(a)mmu.ac.uk) by30 April. If selected, contributors must submit their full pieces by 5 June. https://www.intellectbooks.com/asset/47350/1/JEM_CfP_april_20.pdf Dr Adi Kuntsman, Senior Lecturer in Digital Politics 2019-2020 Aleksanteri Visiting Fellow | Aleksanteri Institute | University of Helsinki | Finland Programme Leader, MA in International Relations and Global Communications | PhD admissions coordinator Department of Politics | Manchester Metropolitan University | Geoffrey Manton Room 437| Manchester | M15 6LL Tel: +44 (0)161 247 6165 |Web | New article:On dromology, militarisation and the information bomb: a tribute to Paul Virilio,Media Theory New article: Re-thinking Digital Health: Data, Appisation and the (im)possibility of ‘Opting out’ (with Esperanza Miyake and Sam Martin)Digital Health New article:The paradox and continuum of digital disengagement (with Esperanza Miyake),Media, Culture and Society New article:Towards a Paradigmatic Shift in Sustainability Studies: … Environmental (Un)sustainability of Digital Communication (with Imogen Rattle)Environmental Communication

1 0

HICSS G&G CfP
by Nathaniel Poor 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

HICSS CfP: Game Scholars and Hawaii in January! Games & Gaming (Social and Digital Media) 54th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) January 5-8, 2021, at the Grand Hyatt, Kauai For the fifth straight year, the Games & Gaming minitrack at HICSS is looking for research on the social aspects of digital gaming. We feature work related to digital games and sociality: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods papers are welcome, ranging from interviews to big data analyses, or more broadly theoretical papers looking at digital gaming practices in general. Types of games studied may include mobile, social, free to play, AAA, MMOs, PC, console, multiplayer, and indie games. As part of the Digital and Social Media track, papers must contain a social dimension, examining, for example, sociability, social practices, communities (in-game, out-game, across multiple spaces or time), use of social affordances, or some other social dimension. DATES April 20: Submission site opens (see http://hicss.hawaii.edu/authors/ ) June 15: Submission deadline August 17: Decision notification September 22: Camera ready version due October 1: Registration deadline January 5-8: Conference! TOPICS Esports Fantasy sports leagues Streaming gameplay (e.g., Twitch) Game curation via sites like Steam Fans and fan communities Community management Social affordances of games Network analysis of groups and communities in games Social practices (in-game, out-game, both) Player communities Toxicity online Multiplayer games Cooperative and competitive play Multigenerational play Intercultural play URLS HICSS: http://hicss.hawaii.edu/ Author Instructions: http://hicss.hawaii.edu/authors/ Digital and Social Media track: https://hicss.hawaii.edu/tracks-54/digital-and-social-media/ CO-CHAIRS Nathaniel Poor (Primary Contact Co-Chair) Underwood Institute natpoor(a)gmail.com Kelly Bergstrom University of Hawai’i at Mānoa kelly.bergstrom(a)hawaii.edu Kishonna Gray University of Illinois, Chicago unicorn(a)uic.edu ------------------------------- Nathaniel Poor, Ph.D. (he/him/his) http://github.com/natpoor http://natpoor.blogspot.com/ http://sites.google.com/site/natpoor/ http://www.underwood-institute.org/

1 0

CFP: Special Issue of ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories on ‘Esports’
by Partin, William Clyde III 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

Dear AoiR-ers, Please see the below CFP for a special issue of ROMchip<https://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal> on esports, co-edited by myself and Iris Bull. A permanent version of the CFP may be found here<https://willpartin.com/special-issue>. Esports has lots of interesting and underexplored links to internet studies and we'd love to get some submissions from folks in this community. Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions. Cheers, Will /// CFP: Special Issue of ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories on ‘Esports’ Over the last decade, esports – the most commonly accepted term for organized video game competition – has grown from a mostly online subculture to a modest media industry in its own right. As a result, scholars in a range of fields have become interested in competitive gaming as a research topic. This special issue of ROMchip both contributes to and challenges the emerging interdiscipline of 'esports studies' by asking the reflexive question, “what is esports history a history of?” Is it a dispassionate record of wins and losses, a hagiography of elite players, or a catalog of the many games that have supported professional play? An investigation into the many technologies — from arcades to living room consoles to digital distribution platforms — that have shaped competitive gaming? Or an accounting of the financial arrangements that have made esports economically viable (or, seemingly just as often, non-viable)? Whose interests do these different constructions of esports history serve, and who or what is excluded by particular orientations towards competitive gaming? The editors of this issue take as a given that all (esports) histories are partial and that no one approach is inherently more valuable than any other. Even so, as critically-engaged scholars, we are conscious of historical inquiry as a site of contestation and we welcome scholarship that addresses professional gaming’s relationship to a range of contemporary ills, from ecological devastation to commercial surveillance to the concentration of corporate power. We are especially eager for contributions from scholars who have expertise in areas with relevance to esports (science and technology studies, critical internet studies, celebrity studies, platform governance, political economy, content moderation, platformization, surveillance, geography, physical cultural studies, infrastructure studies, media theory, etc.), but for whom digital games and esports may not be a primary research area. To support such scholars, we will be offering extensive editorial support both prior to and after the submission of abstracts. This may include suggestions about the objects of research based on scholars’ theoretical interests, primers on the context of particular objects and histories in esports, and, when appropriate, introductions to potential co-authors. In organizing our critical inquiry into esports, we encourage contributors to consider the following sample questions: * How do industry narratives about esports function in the production of esports history? How is “esports history” constructed across the esports industry and beyond? * How do global media infrastructures serve as contexts for practice in esports? In what ways do local cultures and political economies intersect with the planetary computing stack? * In what ways do esports dramatize broader issues of race, class, gender, and nationality? * For what reasons have scholastic esports programs proliferated, and on whose terms have these programs been developed? How do these programs interact with existing organizations, cultures, and infrastructures? What are the implications of educational athletic programs and campus life activities becoming dependent upon game publishers? * In what ways have esports historically been commodified and how have the affordances of particular media technologies shaped the political economies of competitive gaming? What revenue models have different esports stakeholders, from teams to tournaments to publishers, utilized and to what effect? * How do the broadcast structures of platform-native esports competitions influence esports fandom and spectatorship? * In what ways does esports celebrity intersect with or challenge the broader phenomenon of internet celebrity and “influencing” as a whole? * What are the ecological and environmental costs of professional video game competition and how have they changed over time? * What purposes do data serve in esports, and in what ways are data produced, collected, circulated, and monetized? Format Prospective contributors should submit an extended abstract of 1000-1200 words, inclusive of citations. Abstracts should clearly detail the research object, theoretical framework, and method(s) scholars plan to employ; scholars should also indicate whether or not primary data collection has been completed, if relevant. In particular, we ask contributors to be reflexive about how their chosen approaches construct esports as an object of research. We are also open to discussing alternative timelines with scholars whose ability to perform research has been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Please email romchipesports(a)gmail.com<mailto:romchipesports@gmail.com> with all submissions. Please contact co-editors William Clyde Partin (wcpartin(a)live.unc.edu<mailto:wcpartin@live.unc.edu>) and Iris Bull (irbull(a)indiana.edu<mailto:irbull@indiana.edu>) with any and all questions. Important Dates April 6, 2020 – Submissions Open May 31, 2020 – Submissions Close June 15, 2020 – Notifications October 1, 2020 – First Drafts Due July 1, 2021 – Publication

1 0