September 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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Research: Short exercise on disguising online sources
by Joseph Reagle 26 Jan '22

26 Jan '22

Hello all, I'm researching the necessity, methods, and efficacy of researchers altering (i.e., “fuzzing”) prose to disguise their online sources. I have a brief instrument where I ask you to alter three quotes and then judge three alterations. It's very simple and shouldn't take more than 10--15 minutes. The short URL below takes you to a consent form and then the exercise. https://reagle.org/disguise Thank you to those that participate! -- Joseph Reagle, Communication Studies, Northeastern University

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Conversations with Journal Editors
by Rafael Grohmann 17 Nov '21

17 Nov '21

Hello, Brazilian Association of PostGraduate Programs on Communication Sciences (Compós) invites you to livestream conversations with journal editors. We will talk about editorial practices, internationalization, impact, open science, among other issues. COMPÓS' Youtube Channel: [1]https://youtube.com/compos_oficial August 19, 5PM EST [2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1wP9ojulFM Speakers: Larry Gross (International Journal of Communication) and Fábio Pereira (Brazilian Journalism Research) September 16, 1PM EST [3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVjlhvWsgvc Speakers: Monika Chibita (Journal of African Media Studies) and José Luiz Aidar Prado (Galaxia Journal) Please join us! best, Rafael Grohmann References 1. https://youtube.com/compos_oficial 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1wP9ojulFM 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVjlhvWsgvc

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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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Registration Open - PhD Symposium The Future of the Platform Economy and Platform Work
by Rafael Grohmann 22 Oct '21

22 Oct '21

PhD Symposium, The Future of the Platform Economy and Platform Work October 27-28, 2021 Free and open event Hosts: DigiLabour Research Lab, Unisinos University, and Dimmons,IN3, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya REGISTRATION LINK: https://digilabour-br.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MX_10ZCdSfCXNBP chWNkTA Check your time zone: https://www.timeanddate.com/ October 27 08AM BRT/GMT-3 – 1 PM GMT+2 – Opening Session Rafael Grohmann, Unisinos University Melissa Renau Cano, Open University of Catalonia 08:15AM BRT/GMT-3 – 1:15 PM GMT+2: Content Creation: Evidence From China, Europe, the US and West Africa Yin Liang (Durham University) – A typology of content creative platforms: evidence from the UK, the US and China Jordan Duran (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) – Centering the platform in content creation: the role of monetization in creators’ relational work and identity Tugce Bidav (Maynooth University) – Global platform, local labour: YouTube Creators in Ireland and Turkey Godwin Simon (Queensland University of Technology) – Adapting to platform logics: platform practices among YouTube-centric Nollywood filmmakers Discussants Taina Bucher (University of Oslo) Arturo Arriagada (Adolfo Ibáñez University) 10:30AM BRT/GMT-3 – 3:30 PM GMT+2- Platform Work Across Different Sectors Konstantinos Floros (IT University of Copenhagen) – Danish housecleaning platforms: producing, governing and resisting flexibility in the platform economy Lan Li (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) – Online Freelancing for Data Scientists Julian Posada (University of Toronto) – Support Networks in Platform Work Pedro Veiga de Almeida (University of Massachusetts – Amherst) – Rethinking Digital Consumption Ruth Livier Nuñez (University of California, Los Angeles – UCLA) – Injustice by Design: A Chicana/Latina feminist analysis of Amazon’s ACX labor platform Discussants Julie Chen (University of Toronto) Julia Ticona (University of Pennsylvania) Maria Clara Aquino (Unisinos University) 12:30PM BRT/GMT-3 – 5:30 PM GMT+2 Gamers, Streamers, Subtitlers, and Cosplayers: Work Conditions and Platform Practices Christine Tran (University of Toronto) – Pink-Collar playbour: the digital housework of video game livestreaming Beatriz Blanco (Unisinos University) – Visibility labor and feminist activism among gaming streamers in Brazil Suryansu Guha (University of California, Los Angeles – UCLA) – Scribes for hire: the work of subtitling and the changing contours of precarity in the Indian creative industries Beatrys Rodrigues (Cornell University) – “Becoming Waifu” – Cosplayers’ commodification of digitally mediated intimacy Discussants Michael Siciliano (Queen’s University) Angèle Christin (Stanford University) Adriana Amaral (Unisinos University) 3PM BRT/GMT-3– 8 PM GMT+2 – Workshop 1: Co-designed strategic planning and agile project management for PhD candidates Enric Senabre Hidalgo (Dimmons Research Group, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya/ Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire, Université de Paris) October 28 08AM BRT/GMT-3 – 1 PM GMT+2 – Platform Cooperativism: current challenges in the platform economy and platform work Chenai Chair (Mozilla Foundation), Salonie Muralidhara Hiriyur (SEWA Cooperative Federation), Denise Kasparian (University of Buenos Aires), and Vera Vidal (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) – Building feminist platform cooperatives: initial reflections from the fields Damion Bunders (Rotterdam School of Management) – Member participation in digital cooperatives: Silicon law of oligarchy or democratic disruptor? Lorena Vilarins (University of Brasília) – Platform cooperativism and the challenge of confronting the hegemonic political economy Rashid Owoyele (The Weizenbaum Institute) – Design for Economic Transformation — cooperativist futures Discussants Francesca Martinelli (Fondazione Centro Studi Doc) Rafael Grohmann (Unisinos University) 10:30AM BRT/GMT-3 – 3:30 PM GMT+2: Algorithmic Management and Feminist Approaches in Last-Mile Delivery and Ride-Hailing Platforms Kalle Kusk Gjetting (Aarhus University) – Lenient algorithmic management: Ethnographic research on a food delivery platform in Scandinavia Onat Kibaroglu (National University of Singapore) – Gojek as City Pallavi Bansal (Erasmus University Rotterdam) – Feminist approaches to ride-hailing sector in India Francesco Bonifacio (Catholic University, Milan) – Resistance or expertise? Reframing riders’ interaction with algorithms, exploring workers’ distinctions. Discussants: Noopur Raval (AI Now Institute, New York University) Gavin Mueller (University of Amsterdam) 1PM BRT/GMT-3 / 6 PM GMT+2 – Workshop 2: Dissemination of Research Beyond Journals Rafael Grohmann (DigiLabour Research Lab, Unisinos University) and Adriana Amaral (CultPop Lab, Unisinos University) 3PM BRT/GMT-3 – 8 PM GMT+2 – Closing Keynote: Lilly Irani (University of California, San Diego) “Turkopticon: From Software to Worker Organization” If you have any queries or doubts, send an email to hello(a)digilabour.com.br Best, Rafael Grohmann

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CfP Disinformation-for-Hire and Click Farming (Social Media + Society Special Issue)
by Rafael Grohmann 06 Oct '21

06 Oct '21

Colleagues, Please consider submitting your abstract. https://journals.sagepub.com/page/sms/collections/cfp On August 18th, 1:30PM EST, Jonathan and I will do a livestream featuring the call for papers. We will send you more information soon. And help us spread the word. Disinformation-for-Hire and Click Farming around the World: Identities, Incentives, Infrastructures Special collection of Social Media + Society (Open Access Journal) Abstract submission deadline: October 15, 2021 Full paper submission deadline: March 1, 2022 Special Issue Editors: Rafael Grohmann (Unisinos University, Brazil) and Jonathan Corpus Ong (University of Massachusetts-Amherst, USA) From state-sponsored propagandists using paid troll armies, to commercially motivated data analytics firms selling their toolkits to politicians, and platform workers producing memes for overseas clients, the global industry of disinformation production has only professionalized and diversified. This special issue for Social Media + Society aims to deepen understanding about the social identities, work arrangements, and political and commercial motivations of an emerging class of digital disinformation workers. We are interested in critical and interdisciplinary research that examines the political economy, specifically the digital and creative industries that propel and produce disinformation. The special issue’s focus on business models and disinformation worker identities in global context aims to expand on disinformation studies’ analysis of “fake news” and hate speech as content that require better policing or fact-checking. It also aims to expand platform studies’ research agenda and consider the range of digital professionals and entrepreneurs who buy and sell engagement on social media–with pernicious political consequences especially in contexts where dissenting voices are suppressed. Thus, we solicit submissions that discuss the diverse worker hierarchies and conditions, outsourced gig arrangements, money politics, and/or regulatory loopholes in the promotional industries that enable the strategic production of disinformation. We are interested in interdisciplinary and ethnographic research that engages with the deep stories of workers in “dark PR” firms (Silverman, Lytyvenko & Kung 2020; Verwey & Muir 2019), data analytics firms (Briant 2021), Latin American and Indonesian Instagram click farms (Lindquist 2021), and “propaganda secretary” offices (Hassan & Hitchen 2019). We are also interested in normative discussions about complicity and collusion in digital industries as well as scholarly self-reflection about the challenges of doing engaged research about disinformation (Ong 2020). We are especially interested in submissions that shed light across these themes: * ethnographic portraits of paid trolls, meme producers, click farm workers, and political strategists * precarity, aspiration, and the tactics of resistance of digital workers / disinformation producers * the ethics of representing perpetrators; whistleblowers as unreliable narrators * participatory disinformation (Starbird 2021) and networked disinformation * the infrastructure, materiality, and “platform trees” (van Dijck 2020) of click farm platforms with mainstream social media * moral justifications of disinformation producers (Ong & Cabañes 2019) * the complicity of advertising and public relations to “organized lying” (Edwards 2021) * legitimacy, respectability, and plausible deniability; the role of intermediaries or brokers in the disinformation industries * mental health of workers in digital shadow economies * the social proximities between content moderators and paid trolls in the global South * regulatory loopholes in political marketing and PR; experiments with self-regulation and codes of ethics in digital campaigning (Udupa 2019) * auto-ethnographic reflections of engaged scholars about their experiences working with governments, platforms, workers, and journalists to shed light on disinformation shadow economies The special issue will include an interview with ProPublica's Craig Silverman and a response to the contributions from Dr Joan Donovan. Timeline 300- to 500-word abstracts should be emailed to rafaelgrohmann(a)unisinos.br and jcong(a)umass.edu by October 15, 2021. The abstract should articulate: 1) the issue or research question to be discussed, 2) the methodological or critical framework used, and 3) the expected findings or conclusions. Feel free to consult with the Special Issue Editors about your article ideas and potential angles or approaches. Decisions will be communicated to the authors by November 1, 2021. Full papers of the selected abstracts should be submitted by March 1, 2022. References Briant, E. (2021). Lessons from the Cambridge Analytica Crisis: Confronting Today’s (Dis)information Challenges. The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare, 3(3), 125–127. https://doi.org/10.21810/jicw.v3i3.2775 Edwards. L. (2021). Organised Lying and Professional Legitimacy: Public Relations’ Accountability in the Disinformation Debate. European Journal of Communication, 36(2), 168–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323120966851 Hassan, I. & Hitchen, J. (2019, April 18). Nigeria’s Propaganda Secretaries. Mail & Guardian. https://mg.co.za/article/2019-04-18-00-nigerias-propaganda-se cretaries/ Lindquist, J. (2021). Good Enough Imposters: The Market for Instagram Followers in Indonesia and Beyond. In: Woolgar, S. et al (eds). The Imposter as Social Theory: Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans. Bristol University Press. Ong, J.C. (2020). "Limits and Luxuries of Slow Research in Times of Radical War: How Should We Represent Perpetrators?" Journal of Digital War 1(1): 1-6. Ong, J. C., & Cabañes, J. V. A. (2019). When Disinformation Studies Meets Production Studies: Social Identities and Moral Justifications in the Political Trolling Industry. International Journal of Communication, 13, 5771–5790. Silverman, C., Lytyvenko, J. & Kung, W. (2020, January 6). Disinformation for Hire: How a New Breed of PR Firms Is Selling Lies Online. Buzzfeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/disinformatio n-for-hire-black-pr-firms Starbird, K. (2021, May 6). Participatory Disinformation: The Big Lie during the 2020 Election and the January 6, 2021 Attack on the US Capitol. Twitter thread. https://twitter.com/katestarbird/status/1390408145428643842 Udupa, S. (2019, January 31). India Needs a Fresh Strategy to Tackle Online Extreme Speech. Engage. https://www.epw.in/engage/article/election-2019-india-n eeds-fresh-strategy-totackle-new- digital-tools. Van Dijck, J. (2020) Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Visualizing Platformization and Its Governance. New Media & Society, 1-19. Online First. Verwey, S., & Muir, C. (2019). Bell Pottinger and the Dark Art of Public Relations: Ethics of individuality Versus Ethics of Communality. Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in Southern Africa, 38(1), 96-116.

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Call for Participation: SmartFarm 2021
by Ayub, Md. Ahsan (mayub42) 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

Hi All, As a member of the Organization Committee, I invite you to submit your research work in the Workshop on Smart Farming, Precision Agriculture, and Supply Chain (SmartFarm 2021, https://sites.google.com/view/smartfarmworkshop/home) This workshop will be held in conjunction with the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (IEEE Big Data 2021, http://bigdataieee.org/BigData2021/) Atlanta, GA, USA, Dec 15-18, 2021. The important dates of the workshop are as follows: - Due date for the full workshop paper submission: Oct 21, 2021 - Notification on paper acceptance to authors: Nov 1, 2021 - Camera-ready of accepted papers: Nov 15, 2021 Research topics of the workshop include, but are not limited to - Big data and data-driven applications - AI supported smart solutions - ML enabled predictive and analytic solutions - Intelligence applications and crop monitoring - Cooperative farming solutions - Ontology and knowledge representation for cybersecurity - Information & knowledge mining from big datasets - Security and privacy in smart farming and related domains - Networking and infrastructure solutions in smart farms - Aerial drones, autonomous vehicles, and collaborative processing of remote and proximity sensor data in farms - Big data supported anomaly detection and security solutions - Cloud and edge assisted applications - Supply chain solutions, security and applications - Data sharing and privacy - Compliance and data ownership - Cost efficient wireless sensor nodes, network architecture and implementation - New environment sensor technologies - Energy harvesting techniques for battery-less IoT node Paper Formatting Please submit a full-length paper (up to 10 page IEEE 2-column format) through the online submission system. Papers should be formatted to IEEE Computer Society Proceedings Manuscript Formatting Guidelines (see the link to "formatting instructions"(http://bigdataieee.org/BigData2020/CallPapers.html)) Submission Link https://wi-lab.com/cyberchair/2021/bigdata21/scripts/submit.php?subarea=S21… Please help to circulate this announcement among your networks or any interested parties. We look forward to receiving your valuable research work. Thanks for your time and consideration. Sincerely Yours, Md. Ahsan Ayub Ph.D. Student and Graduate Research Assistant Department of Computer Science Tennessee Tech University Cookeville, TN 38505, USA

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Breaking Things at Work (Gavin Mueller)
by camrievent 30 Sep '21

30 Sep '21

Please join us at the CAMRI seminar Thursday next week Breaking Things at Work Gavin Mueller (University of Amsterdam) Date: Thursday, 7 October 2021 Time: 17.00-19.00 Location: Online event - Zoom Meeting (please register so that we can send you the Zoom link) Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/breaking-things-at-work-tickets-170527897532 In the nineteenth century, English textile workers responded to the introduction of new technologies on the factory floor by smashing them to bits. For years the Luddites roamed the English countryside, practicing drills and manoeuvres that they would later deploy on unsuspecting machines. The movement has been derided by scholars as a backwards-looking and ultimately ineffectual effort to stem the march of history. For Gavin Mueller, the movement gets at the heart of the antagonistic relationship between all workers, including us today, and the so-called progressive gains secured by new technologies. The luddites weren’t primitive and they are still a force, however unconsciously, in the workplaces of the twenty-first century world. This talk is based on material from the book Breaking Things at Work, published by Verso in 2021. Breaking Things at Work is an innovative rethinking of labour and machines, leaping from textile mills to algorithms, from existentially threatened knife cutters of rural Germany to surveillance-evading truckers driving across the continental United States. Mueller argues that the future stability and empowerment of working-class movements will depend on subverting these technologies and preventing their spread wherever possible. The task is intimidating, but the seeds of this resistance are already present in the neo-Luddite efforts of hackers, pirates, and dark web users who are challenging surveillance and control, often through older systems of communication technology. Biography Gavin Mueller is an Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of Media Piracy in the Cultural Economy: Intellectual Property and Labor under Neoliberal Restructuring (published by Routledge in 2019). He is a Contributing Editor at Jacobin, and a member of the Viewpoint Magazine editorial collective. Further CAMRI Seminars this term: Thursday, 28 October 2021 Benedetta Brevini (University of Sydney) - Is AI Good for the Planet? https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/is-ai-good-for-the-planet-tickets-1705283087… Thursday, 25 November 2021 Taina Bucher (University of Oslo) - Facebook https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/facebook-tickets-172310093127 Thursday, 09 December 2021 Matthew Flisfeder (University of Winnipeg) - Algorithmic Desire and the Ideology of Twenty-First Century Capitalism https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/algorithmic-desire-and-the-ideology-of-twent… The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registration number: 977818 England. Registered Office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW. This message and its attachments are private and confidential. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and remove it and its attachments from your system.

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