April 2021 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Polymedia
by Traci Belanger 11 Jul '25

11 Jul '25

Hi everyone, does anyone have suggestions for articles on "polymedia" or specifically how polymedia interacts with media ecology? Thanks so much! Traci Belanger --- May all winds at your back inspire you, and may you have harmony and peace today.

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For my US colleagues: an 8 minute survey, where your input might make a difference
by Patricia Aufderheide 08 May '25

08 May '25

I know, exactly what you don't need to do at this crazy point in the semester. At AU, Profs. Aram Sinnreich, Joseph Graf and I have been working with Electronic Frontier Foundation and New Media Rights to design a survey about DMCA exemption language and its accessibility. Would you be interested in taking, sharing with your students and networks, including putting on social media the survey link <http://bit.ly/2nEfY8j>? Here it is again: *http://bit.ly/2nEfY8j <http://bit.ly/2nEfY8j>* Your generosity much appreciated! 👏 -- Patricia Aufderheide, University Professor, School of Communication Founder, Center for Media & -- Patricia Aufderheide, University Professor, School of Communication Founder, Center for Media & Social Impact American University 4400 Massachusetts Av., NW American University, Washington, DC 20016-8017 McKinley Hall 323 @paufder @cmsimpact cmsimpact.org paufder(a)american.edu 202-885-2069 office <202-643-5356> 240-643-4805 mobile <202-643-5356> "The world we have received also belongs to those who follow us." --Pope Francis

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Non-software uses of GitHub
by Jim Herbsleb 16 Apr '25

16 Apr '25

I’m looking for GitHub repositories that are used for things other than software, especially where users are actively collaborating rather than just putting together static collections. So far, we have found a few books being written, some musical transcriptions being error-checked, and some policy documents maintained online. Does anyone know of any examples of these or other categories? Any pointers much appreciated. Happy to share what we find with anyone interested. Jim ---- Jim Herbsleb Carnegie Mellon University http://herbsleb.org/ Google Scholar profile: https://goo.gl/sv3p7l

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Funded PhDs on Social Research in "Just" (as in justice) Technology with ESC at the University of Michigan
by Christian Sandvig 05 Nov '21

05 Nov '21

Dear AoIR colleagues, I decided to go to grad school when one of my profs suggested it. I was not very clear about what a PhD was. That conversation changed my life. I'm writing to ask you to consider having this conversation with your promising students right now. It's that time of year. It's a little personally embarrassing, but in order to improve our outreach to prospective students I've been experimenting with video. My video is a little bit like a late-night TV ad for a used-car lot, except I'm advertising getting a PhD in Information OR Communication & Media with my lab group. Here it is: https://lab.csandvig.people.si.umich.edu/join/ Some additional details: Infra.Lab is a multi-disciplinary research group at the University of Michigan dedicated to “just” technology (as in justice) at the ESC Center. We investigate the intermingled social and technical aspects of computing and digital media technologies and their implications for society. Our approaches include human-computer interaction; science and technology studies; policy research on politics, laws, and institutions; design; software development; artistic practice; and more. Our recent work has focused on racial and gender discrimination by algorithmic systems, negative consequences of targeted advertising, inequality and social media use, and the future of technology policy. We are recruiting prospective Ph.D. students with interests in tech and human rights, civil rights, social justice, racial justice, and inequality. We are building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community. We particularly want applications from people who are interested in addressing the perspectives or needs of groups that have been historically underserved by academic research, computing, and digital media. - The deadline is usually December 1 every year. - The GRE exam isn’t required. - If the application fee (US$70-90) is a barrier to your application, we will waive the fee. Write to the relevant graduate program’s email address (see link above) for help with this. - The Ph.D. is full-time. Part-time degrees are not possible. - The Ph.D. takes about 4 years to complete. Usually the first 2 years involve mostly coursework, the last 2 years involve mostly research. - You do not have to pay tuition to get a Ph.D. Successful applicants are paid for 4 years as apprentice teachers and/or researchers. During this time you will make about US$45,000 per year for about 8 months of work each year. Summer funding is also possible. You also receive health, life, and dental insurance. - You don’t need a master’s degree to apply, but it may help you stand out from other applicants. - You DO need a bachelor’s degree to apply, but it does not have to be in these particular fields. You can apply with any bachelor’s degree if you make the case that you have some relevant background or experience. - We offer additional funding and incentives to those students whose admission will reduce disparities in graduate education. You do not need to apply separately for this funding, you will automatically be considered. - You do not need to be a US Citizen to be admitted, or to receive the funding described here. International students are common. - Either qualitative or quantitative skills/interests are relevant to us. - You do not need to be a computer programmer. - You do not need to have gone to a fancy school for your undergraduate degree. There is more information at the URL above. Please feel free to forward this email. Sincerely, Christian -- Christian Sandvig Director, Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) H. Marshall McLuhan Collegiate Professor Information, Communication & Media University of Michigan http://esc.umich.edu/ -- http://umich.edu/~csandvig/

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Instagram Posts and Discussion Data Gathering Tool
by DeNel Rehberg Sedo 29 May '21

29 May '21

Hello all, can you recommend a data collection tool that is more dynamic than rss.app? One of my graduate students wants to capture images, videos, and discussions on two separate accounts during the fall election season. I would very much appreciate any advice you can give, DeNel DeNel Rehberg Sedo, PhD (she/her) Professor Department of Communication Studies Mount Saint Vincent University McCain Centre 306C, Box M64, 166 Bedford Hwy Halifax, NS B3M 2J6 Canada dr_rehberg_sedo on Twitter denelrehbergsedo.info

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CFP: Information Overload? Music Studies in the Age of Abundance (8-10 Sept 2021)
by Christopher Haworth 07 May '21

07 May '21

Information Overload? Music Studies in the Age of Abundance 8-10 September 2021, University of Birmingham Keynote Speakers: Robin James (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) Nick Seaver (Tufts University) More speakers TBA For those investigating any musical activity after about 1994, the main sources of research data will not be print archives or discrete media—they will be World Wide Web media. The Internet Archive, the web’s library, today holds over 525 billion archived web pages, while API and post-API archiving initiatives make social web platforms accessible as research databases. At first glance, no other archive is more inclusive in terms of whose voices it represents, and none more comprehensive in terms of the insights it provides into the thoughts, desires and musical tastes of ordinary people. To paraphrase the web historian Ian Milligan, whose recent book provides the title and framing for this conference, we might suggest that in its scale, granularity and plurality, the web represents the music historian’s dream. Yet there is good cause to be sceptical of claims to a more ‘democratic’ archive in an age of surveillance capitalism. Contrary to early hopes that the internet would bring about greater egalitarianism, Shoshana Zuboff argues that the political economy of contemporary digital communications is characterised by ‘radical indifference’ in the service of maximising data flows. The harms that algorithms perpetuate through biased and incomplete training data suggest that visibility within the archive remains strongly patterned according to race, gender, prosperity, ability and geography. Intersecting with these concerns is a question of how the superficial ‘abundance’ of stories to be told about music in the last twenty-five years impacts on questions of historical theory. Is it possible that a surfeit of available paths through the data compensates for a lack of meaningful historicity over the same period? With this conference we seek to gather researchers who are interested in the epistemological, methodological, ethical, and disciplinary problems that arise when studying music in the age of abundance. The below questions are intended to be indicative rather than exhaustive: What skills and literacies are required to treat web media as primary sources? Does treating web media as music literature prompt a further call for musicology to reflect on its disciplinary and medial borders? How might music historians and other researchers work with one another towards the curation of shared datasets, mutually agreed best practices, and a culture of collaboration? What are the barriers to these ways of working in music studies? What ethical and epistemological questions are raised when ordinary (and often anonymous) people and everyday activities take centre stage in the writing of music history? How should music researchers navigate a ‘post-Cambridge Analytica’ world in which platform APIs are increasingly restrictive in terms of what data they make available? Is it necessary to work within the ‘Realpolitik’ of social media data access, or should scholars consider the active breach of platform rules in the public interest? Does the World Wide Web necessitate new thinking around matters of history and historiography? How helpful are recent attempts to periodise the last 30+ years in cultural-political terms (‘the long 1990s’, ‘the contemporary’, etc)? Do generational politics inflect our understanding of recent music history in new ways, or our perspectives on history as music researchers? Paper titles and abstracts of no more than 250 words, together with a 100-word bio, should be sent to muscon2021(a)contacts.bham.ac.uk by Friday 7th May 2021. Notification of acceptance will be sent via email by Monday 7th June. Full preparations are being made for an in-person conference, however online participation via Zoom will also be possible. Organising committee: Christopher Haworth Danielle Sofer Edward Spencer This conference is funded by the UKRI AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellowship, Music and the Internet: Towards a Digital Sociology of Music. Further updates will be posted to the conference website: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/lcahm/departments/music/events/2021/in…

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Embauche de chargées, chargés de cours / Hiring part-time faculty 2021-2022
by Evan Light 30 Apr '21

30 Apr '21

Bonjour tout le monde, hi everybody, Le programme de Communications au Collège Glendon, Université York est à la recherche de plusieurs chargées, chargés de cours pour nous joindre pendant l’année scolaire 2021-2022. Les cours d’automne seront en-ligne tandis que nous avons des éspoirs d'un session d’hiver en personne. * * *Le date limite pour postuler votre candidature est le 5 mai 2021. Email: coms(a)glendon.yorku.ca* The Communications Program at York University’s Glendon College is looking for a number of course directors to join us for the 2021-2022 year. The Fall session will be conducted online while we hope to be able to conduct the Winter term in-person. * * *The deadline to apply is 5 May 2021. Email : coms(a)glendon.yorku.ca* *Session d’automne / Fall Term * COMS 1100 EN – Methods in Communcation Research COMS 1100 FR - Methodes de recherche en communications COMS 2010 FR - Le pouvoir des pixels : jeux et communications COMS 2200 EN - Computer tools and applications for communication COMS 3202 EN - The Hitchhiker?s Guide to Technoculture: Digital Discourse and Design COMS 3203 EN - Practices in Intercultural Communications COMS 3203 FR - Enjeux en communication interculturelle COMS 3208 FR - La theorie peut-elle sauver la planete? Idees emergentes en communications 1 COMS 4208 FR - Rever aux moutons electriques : pratiques emergentes en communications 1 *Session autonme/hiver / Year-long Term * COMS 1910 FR - Introduction aux etudes en communication *Session d’hiver / Winter Term* COMS 2000 EN - Social Media, Marketing and Advertising COMS 2000 FR - Les medias sociaux, la publicite et le marketing COMS 2100 EN - Beyond Words: Communications, Languages and Media COMS 2100 FR - Au-dela des mots: communications, langages et medias COMS 2500 EN - Creating and Promoting Web Content COMS 3201 FR - A travers les frontieres : communications transnationales COMS 3209 EN - The Production of the World Is the Message: Emergent Ideas in Communications 2 COMS 3209 FR - La production du monde est le message : idees emergentes en communications 2 COMS 4202 BI - Boite a outils pour les communications d?aujourd?hui : Advanced Communications Research Methods *(Bilingual Course)* COMS 4209 EN - Another End of The World is Possible: Emergent Practices in Communications 2 COMS 4209 FR - Une autre fin du monde est possible : pratiques emergentes en communications 2 *N**otre programme / Our program* https://www.glendon.yorku.ca/communications/fr/ https://www.glendon.yorku.ca/communications/ *Les affiches York / York postings* https://cupejobs.uit.yorku.ca/ Faites-moi signe par courriel si vous avez des questions. Please email me directly if you have any questions. elight(a)glendon.yorku.ca <mailto:elight@glendon.yorku.ca> -- -- Evan Light, PhD Assistant Professor - Professeur adjoint Program coordinator - coordinateur du programme Communications program - Programme de communications Glendon College, York University - Collège universitaire Glendon, Université York 2275 Bayview Ave. Toronto ON, Canada M4N 3M6 elight(a)glendon.yorku.ca +1 416.736.2100 ext: 88596 Border Probes https://borderprobes.glendon.yorku.ca Algorithmic Media Observatory http://amo-oma.ca --- Secure contact: PGP: 5BD649CF

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two podcast episodes about disinformation and conspiracy theories
by Paul Levinson 30 Apr '21

30 Apr '21

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5THe8mXxtuyWn4IRCI0onF?si=MvzSU9CTR8G_8OWL… and https://open.spotify.com/episode/5A0cijB3YhKvAPt9JM4RN8?si=6SdQ1qL4TISFm8YO… -PL

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CIRN Virtual Conference Call 2021
by Colin Rhinesmith 30 Apr '21

30 Apr '21

Dear colleagues, please see the following announcement for this year's virtual Community Informatics Research network (CIRN) Conference. Communities, Technology, and This Moment 2021 Virtual Conference | 8 - 12 November 2021 https://sites.google.com/view/cirn2021/ <https://sites.google.com/view/cirn2021/> Call for Papers is now Open. Ends 30 June Please see the website for more information on categories of papers refereeing process, conference committee, costs, conference publication and The Journal of Community Informatics, and how to submit an abstract. The theme of the 2021 conference, “Communities, Technology, and This Moment” aims to bring together the rich knowledge, experience, and practice of Community Informatics, Community Archives, and Development Informatics with a focus on data justice, digital equity, and community informatics response to this moment in history. The 2021 CIRN conference will provide a virtual space to explore how researchers and practitioners ethically collect information, including what happens when community information is intentionally left uncollected, and how information systems can be designed in harmony with communities. This year the CIRN conference will be online, and we propose a series of virtual events consisting of keynotes, presentations, and discussions. We hope that this virtual event covers a wide range of themes that reflect the richness and diversity of the fields of Community Informatics, Community Archives, and Development Informatics. #virtualCIRN. As an outcome, there will be conference proceedings, and selected papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Community Informatics in 2022. We also intend, as soon as it is possible to meet physically, to organise a follow up event in Prato Italy at the Monash University Centre. We call for contributions for the following themes, that could be individual or multiple virtual sessions, depending on the response. Sessions will be offered at a range of times in support of participants from different time zones. Themes The conflict or tensions between the individual and collective use of ICT and the implications for design and security issues. What are individual and community rights, responsibilities, and responses to the age of data breaches, manipulation, and social, health, environmental and other crises? Who is left behind from the decision-making processes related to ICTs and information practices and uses? Data justice and digital equity in the age of COVID. What have the past two years (or more) shown us? How can communities have influence upon policy, design, and practice; What will remain of privacy and work-life balance after the last two years of “smart” working? How can we ensure the rights of the digital workforce? How does the pandemic affect different communities differently? Which existent social divisions might be intensified by measures such as lock-downs and social distancing? How can community informatics support people not only to survive but to live and thrive in a time full of uncertainties? Action, agency and technology: Participatory design at this time. The (new/emerging) relationship between face-to-face and action at a (mediated) distance. Has the virtual replaced face-to-face and for what? Has much of our existence in fact become centered around virtual transactions? What has been strengthened? What has been weakened? What happens when people are forced to interact through particular platforms, and the effects on unimpeded communication? What about surveillance? The future of hybrid interactions where some are online, some in person. What are the advantages/disadvantages to hybrid setups, who is marginalized, who is enabled or disabled? Religion, faith, belief. What is the place of religion, faith and belief in the current digital area in the life of communities? How do we deal with what can be materially and socially damaging beliefs, fake news, conspiracy theories and so on? Environmental informatics. Significant environmental actions and decisions are now made at different levels through generating environmental and ecological data and this continues in the COVID-19 era. This is particularly important in the international development context, but in developing countries as well What is the relationship with the community informatics agenda? Can there be a community informatics response to this moment in history? Is it possible to even think theoretically about this moment? Have all the previous paradigms fallen apart? What has been the Community Informatics response to date?' Sponsors: Monash University and Simmons University. — Colin Rhinesmith (pronouns: he/him) Associate Professor and Director Community Informatics Lab School of Library and Information Science Simmons University https://crhinesmith.com Senior Faculty Research Fellow Benton Institute for Broadband & Society https://www.benton.org Editor-In-Chief The Journal of Community Informatics https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/JoCI/index

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Data Justice Conference, 20-21 May
by Lina Dencik 30 Apr '21

30 Apr '21

Civic Participation in the Datafied Society Date: 20-21 May, 2021 Location: Online Host: Data Justice Lab, Cardiff University, UK We are happy to announce the final programme of the 2nd Data Justice Conference on Civic Participation in the Datafied Society, hosted by the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University. The two-day online event will include live sessions, pre-recorded sessions, paper presentations as well as workshops, book launches, a cultural event, and an online social space. Speakers include: Carly Kind (Ada Lovelace Institute), Mark Andrejevic (Monash University, Australia), Nanjira Sambuli (Researcher and Policy Analyst), Natalie Fenton (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK), Rashida Richardson (Rutgers University, US) and Tawana Petty (Data for Black Lives). The conference is free but registration is required. Registration deadline is 10 May! You can find all information on the conference website: https://datajusticelab.org/data-justice-2021/<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdatajusti…> Or download the full conference programme here: https://datajusticelab.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DataJustice2021_Progr…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdatajusti…> We hope to see you in May, Data Justice Lab

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