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

CFP Policy & Internet Special Issue – The Regulation Turn?
by Jonathon Hutchinson 16 Apr '21

16 Apr '21

**With apologies for cross-posting** Dear Friends and Colleagues, Please find below the Call for Papers for the upcoming Policy & Internet Special Issue in the Internet Regulation Turn. For any additional information, please contact me at jonathon.hutchinson(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:jonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.au>. Policy & Internet Journal Special Issue – Issue 1, 2022 Special Issue Editors: Jonathon Hutchinson, University of Sydney Milica Stilinivoc, University of Sydney The Internet Regulation Turn? Policy, internet and technology With the recent media focus on the regulation of social media platforms within our society, users, citizens, human rights advocacy groups, policymakers and content producers have all questioned the validity of these communication technologies. Do these technologies offer ease of connectivity, or do they have the potential to be weaponised and misappropriated to further political agendas, disrupt democratic processes, and abuse an individual's right to (or assumption of) privacy? Recently, we have observed governments calling on platforms to account for their misalignment with local media markets. Regulators are asking platform providers for increased transparency into their distribution processes. Advocacy groups are asking for increased visibility. The custodians of the internet (Gillespie, 2018) are asking for better tools to manage their communities. At the same time, users are questioning the uses of their data. Nonetheless, our societies are enjoying the benefits of our contemporary communication technologies for a variety of reasons. We see new markets emerging based on platform economic models, increased connectivity in times of physical isolation, new trends and connections are emerging, new cultural conventions are being forged between disparate individuals, and friends and families enjoy the increased ease and connectivity of communicating with their loved ones. To say ‘if you do not pay for the product, you are the product’ (Orlowski, 2020) grossly misrepresents the entirety of the social dilemma we have found ourselves in – a hyper- commercialised and politicised internet of the 2020s. To combat this, we are observing several versions of a ‘Balkinized splinternet’ (Lemley, 2020) emerging, where nations and users are designing and creating their own version of what was conceived as a way to share and enjoy information across a connected and networked infrastructure. These new internet formations are accompanied by a variety of emerging economic models, such as cryptocurrency for example, to signify a moment of change has arrived (Swartz, 2020). By looking backwards, we are sometimes able to understand how we will move forward. This special issue of Policy & Internet calls on scholars, practitioners, policymakers and students of the internet to rethink our internet, its policy and the surrounding communication technology of our contemporary society. We are looking for papers that examine the current social and communication dilemmas of the internet, and that map out the trajectory of Policy & Internet for the next five years. What will internet researchers be examining in three years? Has the idea of the ‘nation state’ returned within the debates surrounding ‘big tech’ giants? What will the civil society look like in five years? What does effective policy consider for the future of ourselves and our data in the several emerging versions of the internet? Topics can be related, but not limited, to: * Internet studies * Platformisation * Everyday social media * Algorithmic media * Internet governance * The ‘regulation turn’ of the internet * News distribution * Platform accountability * Critical race studies * Civil unrest and the internet * Queer internet * The Internet of Things (IoT) * Smart Devices/Smart Cities * Robots and/or automation * E-surveillance and e-governance * Design, coding and development of the internet and its protocols Please send through your title and 150-200 word abstract to Jonathon Hutchinson [jonathon.hutchinson(a)sydney.edu.au] and Milly Stilinovic [milica.stilinovic(a)sydney.edu.au] with the subject line: Policy & Internet Special Issue by May 15 2021. Timeline May 15 – Abstracts due May 31 – Notification of Accepted Papers September 30 – Full Papers Due November 30 – Final Revisions Due DR JONATHON HUTCHINSON | Senior Lecturer Online Communication and Media Department of Media and Communication | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Postgraduate Research Coordinator Editor, Policy & Internet Journal [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19442866] Treasurer of Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) Secretary of International Association of Public Media Research (IAMPR) THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Rm N233, John Woolley Building (A20) | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 T +61 2 9351 2821 | F +61 2 9351 2434 | M +61 421 178 971 E jonathon.hutchinson(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:jonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.au> | W sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au> | W jonathonhutchinson.com.au<http://www.jonathonhutchinson.com.au/>

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Submission deadline (cont..)
by Plothe, Theo 16 Apr '21

16 Apr '21

I understand this information may have appeared elsewhere, but in looking back at the email announcing the deadline extension, that the deadline would be at the hard and fast UTC time stamp seems a bit of an oversight, again, especially considering the deadline as previously established in prior conferences. Again, just disappointed. Best, Dr. Plothe -- Theo Plothe, PhD Assistant Professor Journalism and Mass Communication Savannah State University

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Access as Responsible Technology - JUST AI Event, 21 April 3 pm BST
by Alison Powell 15 Apr '21

15 Apr '21

The JUST AI network <https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/just-ai/>presents a conversation with Sara Hendren, author of What Can a Body Do?: How We Meet the Built World(2020, Penguin, Random House), and Sarah Drinkwater, Director of Responsible Technology at the Omidyar Network, to explore ‘access’, with a focus on disability-led access, as a way to rethink the meaning and potential of responsible technology. Please join us! Date: Wednesday, 21 April 2021 Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm BST Register here: https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/event/access-responsible-technology/ This conversation is chaired by Louise Hickman (JUST AI) and introduced by Alexa Hagerty (University of Cambridge). About the speakers: Sara Hendren is an artist, design researcher, writer, and professor at Olin College of Engineering. She is the author of What Can A Body Do? How We Meet the Built World <https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Can-Body-Do-Built-ebook/dp/B082H35TV9>, a book which considers the lived experience of disability and the ideas and innovations that emerge from disability-led design. Sara’s work includes collaborative public art, social design, and writing that engages the human body and technology, much of it around the condition of disability. Her work has been widely exhibited and is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York; her writing and design have been featured on NPR, in Fast Company, and in the New York Times. Sarah Drinkwater coleads Omidyar Network's Responsible Technology team, pushing for a tech ecosystem that's equitable as well as innovative. Previously, she built community products at Google and led Google's London space for early-stage founders working to democratise access to entrepreneurship. Through Atomico's angel program, she invests in community-driven solutions. As part of this conversation, participants will engage with Hendren’s new book, What a Body Can Do?: How we Meet the Built World <https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Can-Body-Do-Built-ebook/dp/B082H35TV9>(2020, Penguin, Random House), to consider the lived experience of disability and the ideas and innovations that emerge from disability-led design. Hendren’s work turns our attention to a social model of disability, in which ‘the interaction between the conditions of the body and the shapes of the world that makes disability into a lived experience, and therefore a matter not only for individuals but also for societies.’ -- Dr Alison Powell Associate Professor, Director of MSc in Data & Society Department of Media and Communications London School of Economics and Political Science Director: JUST-AI Network on Data and AI Ethics Ada Lovelace Institute Twitter: @a_b_powell

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New Book - Streaming Culture
by Arditi, David M 15 Apr '21

15 Apr '21

Colleagues, My latest book, Streaming Culture: Subscription Platforms And The Unending Consumption Of Culture<https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Streaming-Culture/?k=978183982…>, just published by Emerald in their SocietyNow series. This is a great book for classes exploring media, culture, and technology. I'd be happy to give book talks for departments or guest lectures for anyone who teaches it. If you would like to write a book review, let me know and I will get you a copy. For those interested in purchasing, use the code STREAM30 for a 30% discount on the Emerald website<https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Streaming-Culture/?k=978183982…>. >From the cover: The explosion of services such as Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, Apple Music, Amazon Prime and YouTube, which allow us to access content at the click of a button, has turned the norms surrounding cultural consumption upside down. How has this shift to an apparently unending supply of content affected the way we consume our favourite binge-worthy show, blockbuster movie or hot new album release? Positioning streaming alongside a major shift to contemporary capitalism, David Arditi demonstrates that streaming platforms have created an economy where consumers pay more for the same amount of consumptive time. Encouraging us to look beyond the seemingly limitless supply of multimedia content, Arditi calls attention to the underlying dynamics of instant viewing - in which our access to content depends on any given service's willingness, and ability, to license it. Best, David Dr. David Arditi Associate Professor of Sociology Director of the Center for Theory University of Texas at Arlington Author of Getting Signed: Record Contracts, Musicians and Power in Society<https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030445867> And Streaming Culture: Subscription Platforms And The Unending Consumption Of Culture<https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Streaming-Culture/?k=978183982…>

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CFP: Teaching and learning about misinformation and disinformation
by Oltmann, Shannon M. 15 Apr '21

15 Apr '21

New Special Issue Call for Papers: Teaching and learning about misinformation and disinformation Information and Learning Sciences https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/ils/new-special-issue-call-p… Co-editors: Denise Agosto and Shannon M. Oltmann Issues of information bias and accuracy are growing concerns around the world across disparate educational contexts and settings. A growing consensus definition proposes that misinformation is inaccurate and misleading, while disinformation is deliberately so (e.g. Cooke, 2017; Oltmann, Agosto, & Froehlich, 2018). Both types of false information are being rapidly created and disseminated across multiple information and communication technologies and platforms in our present society. Because the term “fake news” has become highly politicized, and because it offers a limited framework for analysis, in this proposed special issue, we seek to move beyond partisan arguments about sources and causes of misleading, inaccurate, false, and satirical information, toward more nuanced discussions of misinformation and disinformation in teaching and learning, and how we as educators can help student learners, as well as publics, become more discerning in their interactions with information across many mediated and socio-technical contexts. In this call for papers, we seek contributions that address teaching and learning related to misinformation and disinformation at the K-12 or undergraduate levels, in formal or informal educational contexts and among learners and publics, of all ages. We welcome papers addressing theories, methods, research findings, or frameworks for action in teaching practices, across a wide range of disciplines and domains. Research based on original data is welcome, as are inquiries, observational reports and case studies written among collaborative researcher and practitioner co-authors. As examples, contributions could problematize the concepts of misinformation and disinformation within education, discuss evidence-based approaches on how students learn about these ideas, or share practical guidance on teaching information discernment and critical literacies. We also welcome discussion of educational approaches that bring in critical pedagogy; critical informatics analyses of socio-technical systems infrastructures and their relations to power, politics and publics; considerations of propaganda in media literacy education; approaches that teach youth about platform content moderation and its growing automation and related algorithmic bias; constructionist learning approaches aiming to bring about deeper understanding of systems by design; evidence based accounts of news literacy efforts engaged by organizations such as non-profits, media literacy associations and media education funding agencies, and the like. These are suggested ideas, but authors should feel free to think beyond these prompts. Information and Learning Sciences is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes interdisciplinary research within information science and the learning sciences / education sciences. For author guidelines and additional journal information, see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/ils https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/ils#author-guidelines Submission deadline: August 31, 2021 Acceptance decisions based on peer review: November 30, 2021 Revised drafts due: January 31, 2022 Issue publication: May/June, 2022 Shannon M. Oltmann, Ph.D. Pronouns: she/her/hers Associate Professor School of Information Science College of Communication & Information University of Kentucky shannon.oltmann(a)uky.edu<mailto:shannon.oltmann@uky.edu> Editor, Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy Associate Editor, Library Quarterly

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CfP | Queer Cultures in Digital Asia | Deadline 30th June
by Lik Sam Chan (COM) 15 Apr '21

15 Apr '21

================================================================== Queer Cultures in Digital Asia A symposium hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong 10 December 2021 (Planned as f2f) ================================================================== ===Call for Papers=== Digital media have transformed the cultures and practices of LGBTQ+ communities worldwide. Sexual minorities explore and express their identities, look for belonging and build communities, seek multiple types of intimate relationships, and undertake collective action on and through both old and new digital media. Extensive research has been conducted to examine the influences and implications of digital and social media platforms, such as Grindr, Her, Reddit, Tumblr, and more, on the social, political, and personal lives of sexual minorities. Meanwhile, digital media also facilitates the flourishing of subcultures that challenge normative conceptions of gender and sexuality and promote creative forms of gender expression through online literature, video production, and other forms of fandom (e.g. slash/yaoi/Boys’ Love/Girls’ Love communities). While increasing attention has been paid to new and digital media in Asia (Cabañes & Uy-Tioco, 2020; Dasgupta, 2017; Yue & Zubillaga-Pow, 2012), most contemporary studies of digital queer cultures still focus on North American and European contexts. Inspired by Mobile Cultures: New Media in Queer Asia (Berry, Martin, Yue, & Spigel, 2003), this full day symposium aims to foster a critical interrogation of the intersection between queerness and Digital Asia. Digital Asia has been a topic for many previous articles, edited collections, and conferences (e.g., 2018 Digital Asia event at QUT and Baulch, Flew, and Li, 2019; 2019 Digital Asia conference organized by NIAS and Lund University). Being the continent with the most Internet users in terms of absolute numbers, Asia has a range of diverse digital infrastructures. While China’s digital media ecology operates as an entirely closed system, in other countries like India, a wide array of both Western and local digital media is available. Hence, in previous works on Digital Asia, issues covered have related primarily to infrastructures, governance, commerce, smart cities, nationalism, and so on. Voices from and about queer communities are underrepresented in this conversation. We understand “queer” as “definitional indeterminacy” (Jagose, 1996, p. 1). Queerness taps into a zone of possibilities regarding our sex, sexuality, gender, and intimacy. Asia also provides a complicated context for the development and survival of queer communities as social norms and laws regarding homosexuality and transgenderism vary across regions. There are regions where governments are taking measures to grant some rights to sexual minorities (e.g., Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in 2019; Pakistan recognized transgender as a separate gender category in 2017); there are also places where homosexuality is still considered illegal (e.g., Iran, Singapore) or is not legally protected from discrimination (e.g., Hong Kong). As Chen (2010) advocates, “using the idea of Asia as an imaginary anchoring point, societies in Asia can become each other’s points of reference” (p. 212). This symposium takes “Asia as method” as a foundation to provincialize Euro-American knowledge production. This critical vision of Asia has also been taken up in two special issues related to the intersection of transgender studies and Asia studies (Martin & Ho, 2006; Chiang, Henry, & Leung, 2018). In this symposium, we extend this approach to focus on the digital, giving equal significance to the triple concepts of “digital,” “Asia,” and “queer.” We welcome contributions that empirically examine queer digital cultures, platforms, practices, and communities from one Asian region or compare these across several Asian territories. We expect interdisciplinary contributions from the fields of media and cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, regional studies, and related disciplines from the humanities and social sciences. ===Themes=== Broad themes might include, but are not limited to: • Politics of queer digital cultures • Digital intimacies • Digital circulation and/or economy of queer content • Intersections of sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, and more in digital cultures • Online activism • Emerging digital practices and communities • Queer digital health and wellbeing ===Submission Process and Key Dates=== Please submit paper proposals to digitalqueerasia(a)gmail.com by 30 June, 2021. Proposals should include an abstract of 250–400 words along with a brief bio of no more than 100 words. Presenters will be notified of acceptance by 16 July, 2021. Draft papers (3000–4000 words) of accepted presentations are to be submitted by 17 November, 2021 for sharing and discussion among symposium participants. We are planning for a face-to-face symposium in Hong Kong on 10 December, 2021. Modest subsidies will be provided to symposium participants to cover airfare; two-night’s accommodation and meals on the day of the symposium will be provided. The symposium will convert to an online event as required in line with COVID-19 health and safety considerations or should travel restrictions remain in place. Following the symposium, presenters will be invited to submit full-length papers to be considered for publication as part of a themed collection. We are approaching major international media and/or cultural studies journals with a proposal for a special issue on the symposium theme. ===Organisers=== Lik Sam Chan (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Elija Cassidy (QUT Digital Media Research Centre) Jia Tan (Chinese University of Hong Kong) ===Supported by=== Improvement on Competitiveness in Hiring New Faculties Fund, CUHK The School of Journalism and Communication, CUHK The Centre for Chinese Media and Comparative Communication Research, CUHK The Centre for Cultural Studies, CUHK

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Book Release - The Politics of Dating Apps: Gender, Sexuality, and Emergent Publics in Urban China
by Lik Sam Chan (COM) 15 Apr '21

15 Apr '21

Hi colleagues, I am very excited about the publication of my first book - The Politics of Dating Apps - with MIT Press and I am even more excited that it is available via Open Access! Here is a short description of the book: In this exploration of dating app culture in China, Lik Sam Chan argues that these popular mobile apps are not merely a platform for personal relationships but also an emerging arena for gender and queer politics. Chan examines the opportunities dating apps present for women's empowerment and men's performances of masculinity, and he links experiences of queer dating app users with their vulnerable position as sexual minorities. He finds that dating apps are both portals to an exciting virtual world of relational possibilities and sites of power dynamics that reflect the heteronormativity and patriarchy of Chinese society. Drawing on in-depth interviews with urban users of such dating apps as Momo, Tantan, Blued, Aloha, Rela, and Lesdo, Chan proposes “networked sexual publics” as a unifying concept to capture the dynamics of dating app culture. Devoting a chapter to each of four publics—straight women, straight men, queer men, and queer women—Chan documents how relationships are shaped and transfigured by this emerging technology. He considers whether dating apps can be a feminist tool; explores straight men's self-presentation on the apps and their interactions with women they meet there; discusses the constant cycle of deleting and installing the same apps seen among queer men; and examines how popular lesbian dating apps may connect queer women to their communities. Finally, Chan maps possible paths for future intersectional, queer, and feminist scholarship on emerging communication technologies. You can find details here: https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/5048/The-Politics-of-Dating-AppsGender-Se… Regards, Sam - - - - - - Lik Sam CHAN, Ph.D. Pronouns: he/him/his<https://www.mypronouns.org/> Assistant Professor | Coordinator, Global Communication B.S.Sc. program School of Journalism and Communication The Chinese University of Hong Kong International Liaison 2020-2022, LGBTQ Studies Interest Group International Communication Association Author of The Politics of Dating Apps<https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/politics-dating-apps> (MIT Press, 2021)

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"House Arrest" by Dan Bouk
by danah boyd 14 Apr '21

14 Apr '21

Sometimes, algorithms emerge in the strangest of places, even when you didn't expect to find them. Data & Society just published a new paper by Dan Bouk that I think might interest many tech studies folks in surprising ways so I thought I'd share. "House Arrest" is the history of how the US House of Representatives stopped increasing the size of the House during its apportionment processes. Turns out there was a lot of political investment in curbing the people's body house (see: nefarious intentions) and that the key to solving this problem was to define and mandate an algorithm, and enact a bill in 1929 that would automate this part of government. "House Arrest: How an Automated Algorithm Constrained Congress for a Century" by Dan Bouk details this history in a fun way: https://datasociety.net/library/house-arrest/ <https://datasociety.net/library/house-arrest/> For those who are curious about the present too, Dan and I connect this history to present fights over mathematical systems in the census in this essay: https://knightcolumbia.org/content/democracys-data-infrastructure <https://knightcolumbia.org/content/democracys-data-infrastructure> I hope you enjoy! danah

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Communities of Play: A Livestreaming Symposium
by Christopher John Olson 14 Apr '21

14 Apr '21

You are cordially invited to join us for Communities of Play: A Livestreaming Symposium, hosted by Serious Play/the Digital Cultures Collaboratory. The symposium is taking place on April 17-18, featuring online presentations of and about streaming video gameplay and other performative activities, in and out of the academy. The event will feature streamers from around the U.S. and will coordinate with a parallel event in Jyväskylä, Finland. The symposium will take place on Twitch, so please join us in chat! Please visit our website for more information: https://uwm.edu/c21/event/serious-play-live-streaming-symposium/ Christopher John Olson PhD candidate: Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Office: Curtin 392 Email: olson429(a)uwm.edu Reviews Editor, The Popular Culture Studies Journal<http://mpcaaca.org/the-popular-culture-studies-journal/> Author/Co-Author/Co-Editor Normalizing Mental Illness and Neurodiversity in Entertainment Media<https://www.routledge.com/Normalizing-Mental-Illness-and-Neurodiversity-in-…> (Routledge, 2021) The Greatest Cult Television Shows of All Time<https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538122556/The-Greatest-Cult-Television-Shows-of…> (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020) Convergent Wrestling<https://www.routledge.com/Convergent-Wrestling-Participatory-Culture-Transm…> (Routledge, 2019) 100 Greatest Cult Films<https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442208223/100-Greatest-Cult-Films> (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018) Heroes, Heroines, and Everything in Between<https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498539579/Heroes-Heroines-and-Everything-in-Bet…> (Lexington, 2017) Possessed Women, Haunted States<https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498519083/Possessed-Women-Haunted-States-Cultur…> (Lexington, 2016) Making Sense of Cinema <https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/making-sense-of-cinema-9781501320217/> (Bloomsbury, 2016)

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Conference: Racialisation & Media from TV to Twitter
by Cindy Ma 14 Apr '21

14 Apr '21

Hi all, I'm on the organizing committee of the conference Racialisation and the Media: From Television to Twitter<https://twitter.com/RaceMediaConf>: a three-day virtual event (April 20-22) hosted by the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, exploring the nexus between race, technology, and media from the dawn of television to the present day. Our sessions include panel discussions on journalistic objectivity, Black women's journeys in publishing, the media strategies of white supremacist movements, and contesting racial narratives on TikTok. The conference will close with a keynote address from director Cheryl Dunye. You can register on Eventbrite<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/racialisation-and-the-media-from-television-…>, and do share with those in your networks (both in and out of academia) who might be interested! All the best, Cindy -- Cindy Ma DPhil Candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute 2019 Trudeau Scholar Co-organiser: Racialisation & the Media from TV to Twitter<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/racialisation-and-the-media-from-television-…> cindy.ma(a)oii.ox.ac.uk she/her

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