September 2025 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Groypers, Fuentes, and America First
by stustu12＠student.ubc.ca 15 Sep '25

15 Sep '25

Groypers, Fuentes, and America First These are three of 12 short data documentaries from a series about the so-called "America First" movement on Twitter made a few years ago. Since the Groyper-in-Chief Nick Fuentes now claims his group is being framed for the Kirk murder, it seemed like a good time to surface these data. The underlying data is available for replication studies. It is quite troubling to see public figures and administration officials vowing revenge and retribution against "Antifa" (or anyone using the word fascist in a U.S. context) when it appears the most likely explanation is that this was an unhinged far-right ideologue assassinating Mr. Kirk for not being fascist enough...lately. The Groypers v. Kirk saga began in 2019. I asked a variety of people at APSA, occurring this week in Vancouver, whether they knew about the Groyper movement. Almost nobody did. The APSA theme this year is: "Reimagining Politics, Power, and Peoplehood in Crisis Times." Little fringe movements agitating for racist violence should be documented and understood. History speaks to this. Groypers https://vimeo.com/1118493710 Fuentes https://vimeo.com/1118493637 America First https://vimeo.com/1118493816 [https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/2058717421-5f2983d1d644c02d8b73e3cb3517fe0d3a2…]<https://vimeo.com/1118493816> Recent America First Identity Claims on Twitter<https://vimeo.com/1118493816> This is "Recent America First Identity Claims on Twitter" by Stuart Shulman on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them. vimeo.com -- Stu Shulman MLIS Student University of British Columbia https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stuart-Shulman

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Comic Book, Other Tech Worlds Are Possible, with Homeless Workers' Movement in Brazil
by Rafael Do Nascimento Grohmann 14 Sep '25

14 Sep '25

Hi AoIR, We are happy to announce the launch of the first comic book of the project Other Tech Worlds Are Possible, in partnership with the Tech Sector of the Homeless Workers’ Movement in Brazil (MTST). It is available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. English: https://digilabour.com.br/comic-book-other-tech-worlds-are-possible-with-ho… Spanish: https://digilabour.com.br/lanzamiento-de-la-historieta-otros-mundos-tecnolo… Portuguese: https://digilabour.com.br/pt/lancamento-da-hq-outros-mundos-tecnologicos-sa… https://www.nucleodetecnologia.com.br/hq <https://www.nucleodetecnologia.com.br/hq> Description of the Comic Follow Carolina’s journey, a resident of a housing occupation in Brazil, and discover how technology transforms her life. In this first volume of the series Other Tech Worlds Are Possible, you will learn about the work of the Tech Sector of the Homeless Workers’ Movement, which develops technologies grounded in local communities, in critical, creative, and empowering ways. About the Project Other Tech Worlds Are Possible uses artistic comic-book storytelling to share the experiences of worker collectives across Latin America who broaden the meaning of technology while fighting for social justice. These stories highlight the power of political, social, technological, and artistic imagination to create alternative narratives about technology that go beyond Silicon Valley’s ideology. The project is funded by the University of Toronto through the UTSC Departmental Research Fund (Department of Arts, Culture and Media) and by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant, as part of the Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP)<https://digilabour.com.br/report-launch-worker-owned-platforms-and-intersec…> <https://digilabour.com.br/report-launch-worker-owned-platforms-and-intersec…> project. The second volume will highlight the work of the Argentine Federation of Technology Cooperatives (FACTTIC) and will be published at the end of the year. The project features a script by Natália Sierpinski, illustrations by Germana Viana, and is produced under the direction of Rafael Grohmann. best, Rafael -- dr. Rafael Grohmann Assistant Professor of Media Studies Department of Arts, Culture and Media<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/rafael-grohmann> Faculty of Information<https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/rafael-grohmann/> University of Toronto Leader, DigiLabour<https://digilabour.com.br/> Research Associate, University of Oxford<https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/rafael-grohmann/> Founding Editor, Platforms & Society<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/PNS> Principal Investigator, Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP)<https://digilabour.com.br/worker-owned-intersectional-platforms-woip/> Co-Lead, Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF)<https://criticaldigitalmethods.ca/creative-labour-critical-futures/> Researcher, AI Policy Observatory for the World of Work<https://www.essex.ac.uk/research-projects/ai-policy-observatory-for-the-wor…> Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society<https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/> <https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/>

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Call for Abstracts: Open Research Infrastructures and Resources for Communication and Media Studies
by Christian Strippel 13 Sep '25

13 Sep '25

Last chance to submit your abstract! (Deadline: 15 Sept 2025) Special Issue @ Media and Communication "Open Research Infrastructures and Resources for Communication and Media Studies" https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/futureissues#i504 Academic Editor(s): Silke Fürst (University of Zurich), Johannes Breuer (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences), Erik Koenen (University of Bremen), Dimitri Prandner (Johannes Kepler University of Linz), Christian Schwarzenegger (University of Bremen), and Christian Strippel (Weizenbaum Institute) Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2025 Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2026 Publication of the Issue: July/December 2026 Many scholars and initiatives in communication and media research have called for a "cultural shift" in our discipline toward more open, reproducible, and replicable research practices and better access to infrastructures and shared research resources. However, when we look at the main forums in our field, we still see a lack of opportunities to share information on and experiences with such infrastructures and resources. Typically, this information is limited to brief references in articles, documentation scattered across the web, and informal exchanges among colleagues. A growing, but still limited number of journals have started to provide dedicated space for in-depth presentations or discussions of tools, datasets, or other resources. This thematic issue aims to contribute to these efforts by providing a forum for debate and exchange on open research infrastructures for communication and media research, with a focus on non-commercial resources following open science principles. Hence, we particularly welcome submissions which: Present, compare, or evaluate datasets, databases, and archives that provide research material and instruments for data analysis or data collection in the field of communication and media research; Present, compare, or evaluate research software, models (e.g., classifiers), training data, dictionaries, or other resources, taking into account the specific requirements in the field of communication and media research; Assess the extent to which open research infrastructures and resources are created and (re)used in communication and media research, discuss the factors that enable or constrain their adoption, and provide suggestions for ways forward; Discuss the implications of creating, maintaining, and using reusable research data, archives, and tools for both quantitative and qualitative research practices in communication and media studies with regard to research inequalities between the Global North and the Global South or the English language hegemony. -- Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin (Germany) Group Lead "Weizenbaum Panel" and "MethodsLab" https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/portrait/p/christian-strippel/ https://panel.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/ https://methodslab.weizenbaum-institut.de/ Recent Publications: – Ethics of Data Work: Principles for Academic Data Work Requesters <https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/media/Publikationen/Weizenbaum_Discussio…> – Weizenbaum Report 2025: Political Participation in Germany <https://doi.org/10.34669/wi.wr/6.1> – Data, archives, and tools: Introducing new publication formats on infrastructures and resources <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-023-00806-7> – “The Boundaries are Blurry…”: How Comment Moderators in Germany See and Respond to Hate Comments <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2021.2017793> – From Insult to Hate Speech: Mapping Offensive Language in German User Comments on Immigration <https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3399>

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Petition against ICA Exec Comm vis-a-vis Gaza
by Saif Shahin 13 Sep '25

13 Sep '25

Dear friends, The Executive Committee of the International Communication Association, perhaps the largest organization of communication scholars, recently dismissed a proposal by an Arab scholar for a forthright statement against the genocide in Gaza and the killing of Palestinian journalists by Israel. Some colleagues have put together a petition condemning the undemocratic manner in which the ICA EC acted, which we believe undermines its own policies and principles. We are inviting scholars and educators, especially from the fields of communication, media, and journalism studies, to join our petition. Please read it if you have a few minutes to understand what happened and sign on if you agree with our stance. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeYztVWAovpQ6-vegiWspdjoY9p6f9_xgO… Yours sincerely, Saif Shahin _____ *Saif Shahin, Ph.D.* Assistant Professor <https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/staff/s-s-shahin> of Digital Culture MA Thesis Co-ordinator, Dept. of Culture Studies Director, Digital South Research Lab <https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/humanities/digital-south-lab> Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences Tilburg University, Netherlands Associate Editor <https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/witp20/about-this-journal#editorial-bo…> Journal of Information Technology & Politics Google Scholar <https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pzy87iEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao> | ResearchGate <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Saif-Shahin>

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A child rights audit of GenAI in EdTech: Learning from five UK case studies
by Sonia Livingstone 12 Sep '25

12 Sep '25

Apologies for cross-posting A child rights audit of GenAI in EdTech: Learning from five UK case studies A new report by the Digital Futures for Children centre by Ayça Atabey, Kim Sylwander and Sonia Livingstone uses sociolegal techniques to determine whether five GenAI tools used in the classroom - Character.AI, Grammarly, MagicSchool AI, Microsoft Copilot and Mind's Eye - uphold key rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Key findings Some AI tools empowered and helped children, supporting their right to participate. But all five AI tools were found to share children's data in ways that do not comply with GDPR, exposing children to commercial exploitation. Some AI tools were providing misleading or out-of-context information, leading to significant safeguarding concerns. For example, when children in the UK shared their mental health struggles, they were given US helpline numbers they couldn't call. Other problematic instances included: MagicSchool AI (marketed as "best for safety") exposes children as young as 12 to tracking by erotic and friend finder websites. Character.AI shares inconsistent information and is known to trigger severe dependencies. Grammarly falsely accuses students of plagiarism while allowing companies like Facebook and Google to track their activity. For more information Read the report at https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/our-work/genai-edtech For the DFC, please visit https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/home For our ongoing EdTech research, visit https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/our-work/edtech-future Sign up for our newsletter at https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/contact-us All the very best, Sonia Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE, FBA, FAcSS, FBPS, FRSA FAW.7.01M, Department of Media and Communications London School of Economics and Political Science London WC2A 2AE

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The 33rd IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER 2026): First Combo Call for Workshop Papers
by Announce 12 Sep '25

12 Sep '25

*** First Combo Call for Workshop Papers *** The 33rd IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER 2026) 17 March, 2026, 5* St. Raphael Resort and Marina, Limassol, Cyprus https://conf.researchr.org/track/saner-2026 SANER 2026 will feature the following workshops. Please visit the workshops' websites and/or contact their organisers for more details. SQA4AI – Software Quality Assurance for Artificial Intelligence https://sqa4ai-ws.github.io Greenvolve – The Green Software Evolution Workshop https://greenvolve.github.io Fairness 2026 – 2nd International Workshop on Fairness in Software Systems https://fairnessworkshop.github.io F-TRANSFER – Facilitating Continuous Education and Training Through AI in SE https://www.cs.ubbcluj.ro/~avescan/f-transfer-2026/ IWBOSE 2026 – Ninth International Workshop on Blockchain Oriented Software Engineering https://www.agile-group.org/iwbose2026/ VST 2026 – 9th Workshop on Validation, Analysis and Evolution of Software Tests https://vstworkshop.github.io/vst2026/ MSR4P&S 2026 – 4th International Workshop on Mining Software Repositories Applications for Privacy and Security https://msr4ps.github.io SUBMISSION LINK https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=saner2026 IMPORTANT DATES • Abstract Submission: 12 December, 2025 • Paper Submission: 18 December, 2025 • Notification: January 14, 2026 • Camera-Ready: 20 January, 2026 All dates are 23:59h AoE (anywhere on Earth). ORGANISATION General Chair • Georgia Kapitsaki, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Local Organizing Chair • George Angelos Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Workshops and Tutorials Co-Chairs • Marcelo De Almeida Maia, Federal University of Uberlandia, Brazil • Juri Di Rocco, University of L'Aquila, Italy

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Winner of the 2025 Nancy Baym Book Award
by AoIR Association Coordinator 11 Sep '25

11 Sep '25

The AoIR Nancy Baym Annual Book Award committee is happy to announce the winner of this year’s award. We received nearly 30 nominations for 2025 and the decision was not an easy one. The winner of the 2025 Nancy Baym Book Award is T*he Secret Life of Data: Navigating Hype and Uncertainty in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance* by Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert (The MIT Press). This book makes a distinctive and timely contribution to the study of data and, more importantly, a critical intervention in how we understand the cultural, political, and social significance of data in contemporary life. The book addresses one of the most pressing issues in internet research and public policy today: the ways in which data circulate, mutate, and elude fixed meaning, shaping—and being shaped by—human interpretation across systems, societies, and time. In advancing their argument, Sinnreich and Gilbert develop a compelling and eclectic theoretical base and deploy a variety of methods to reveal the “secret life” of data as both concept and asset. The book identifies the core tension at the heart of datafied life: rather than merely entailing numerical values, data have become deeply entangled with what it means to be human, yet remain profoundly unstable in meaning and resistant to technological control. What distinguishes *The Secret Life of Data* is also its side-door approach to a subject that might otherwise be well-worn. Its global perspective—global not in geographic scope alone, but in its capacity to offer a contextualized, aerial view of post-digital immersion—sets it apart from much of the literature. Finally, Sinnreich and Gilbert’s writing style strikes a careful balance between accessibility and complexity. The book is firmly grounded in solid scholarship, yet it is engaging and approachable for both academic and non-academic audiences. In today’s data-saturated environment, *The Secret Life of Data* is both timely and transformative—revealing the hidden dimensions of data that shape our lives and giving readers the tools to see beyond its surface into its secret life. The committee would also like to recognize,* Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight Against Platform Power* by Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Treré (The MIT Press) with an Honorable Mention. This book makes an innovative and timely contribution to the saturated research field on the role of algorithms in society. By focusing on the precarious labor force of delivery drivers, Trere and Bonini shed new light on the micropolitics of “gaming the algorithm” and the interfaces through which algorithmic power is experienced, negotiated, and resisted. This perspective, reminiscent of Weapons of the Weak, highlights how human and strategic agency can influence, reshape, and even subvert what platforms produce. International in scope, Algorithms of Resistance further offers a fresh comparative angle and provides a rich foundation for future research. AoIR is very grateful for the work of this year’s committee: Jun Liu, Committee Chair (University of Copenhagen); Nancy Baym, (Microsoft); Dr Niki Cheong (King’s College London); Dr Helton Levy (London Metropolitan University); Robert Tynes (Bard College); John McNutt (University of Delaware); Sarah Murray, (University of Michigan).

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CFP: Technology, Inequality, Media & Arts - Poetics
by Ticona, Julia 11 Sep '25

11 Sep '25

Dear colleagues, We warmly invite abstract submissions of empirical papers on Technology & Inequality in Culture, Media and the Arts for the journal Poetics<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/poetics__…>. Check out the CFP below. Thank you! CfP:Technology and Inequality in Culture, Media, and the Arts<https://www.ias.edu/stsv-lab/platform/poeticstechissue> A Special Issue of Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts Editors: Julia Ticona (University of Pennsylvania), Alondra Nelson (Institute for Advanced Study), Angèle Christin (Stanford University). In the summer of 2023, Hollywood writers and actors went on the longest joint strike since the 1960s, joined not long after by similar actions from voice and video game actors. Bollywood stars have begun including AI clauses in contracts, and the European artists who dub Hollywood movies for audiences on the continent have fought back against the use of automated voiceovers. These organized labor disputes have put a spotlight on the role of generative artificial intelligence technologies in disruptions, both actual and future, to creative and cultural work and cultural industries. The relative success of these union campaigns underscored that labor relations and the evolving conditions of creative and cultural work remain central to any critical analysis of technology-mediated society. However, the technological and social transformations at stake extend far beyond AI-driven automation and strikes to encompass the broader digital infrastructures mediating contemporary cultural life. Technologies that create, curate, distribute, and shape cultural consumption - including but not limited to the rise of platforms that birthed both new kinds of artists, and new forms of fame and influence, to COVID-spurred uses of technologies to accommodate newly home-bound ways of working - are reshaping not only creative industries but also everyday practices of cultural participation and meaning-making. These shifts intersect with platform capitalism’s consolidation of cultural production, while simultaneously reconfiguring cultural hierarchies and creating new forms of social stratification. These shifts can include both paid and unpaid labor, within formal organizations and outside of them. This special issue of Poetics seeks to advance our understanding of how a broad array of intertwining developments in digital and data-intensive technologies are reshaping cultural production across diverse creative fields. We invite submissions that employ robust empirical methods to examine how these technologies are reshaping processes of cultural creation, circulation, and evaluation, with particular attention to their implications for creative labor and social inequalities. Key Areas of Interest This special issue invites interdisciplinary contributions that situate their papers across fields, including but not limited to sociology, media studies, communication, and related social sciences. Substantive research questions may address a range of topics; however, we expect all submissions to engage conceptually with the themes of both inequality and technology. This special issue invites theoretically informed empirical contributions using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies. Empirical abstracts should include a clear description of the methods employed and a theoretical framing that situates the paper within or across the scholarly disciplines and literatures within the scope of the special issue. Abstracts should also indicate what scholarly literatures the paper aims to draw on and contribute to. Gatekeepers & Inequalities: How are traditional cultural gatekeepers responding to challenges raised by new ways of working with technologies? What new forms of gatekeeping status and taste have emerged alongside new means of cultural production and consumption? How have these shifts affected the hierarchies that sort high from low-brow forms of art and entertainment? Privileged and marginalized cultural workers and organizations? Technologies-in-use: How are practicing artists and media-makers using, refusing, or working around different configurations of technologies and other artistic tools? How do practices of daily use, unconstrained by platform or media type, blend and bend technologies to meet diverse artistic ends or subvert constraints imposed by material constraints? How are media makers embodied relationships to their work and tools shaped by changing work practices? How do artists and media-makers understand the power of tech companies and their position within media ecosystems? Work & Value: How are collective understandings of the value of creative work shifting? How are AI and other technologies interacting with existing political economies of precarity? Including, the shifting boundaries between paid and unpaid labor? This may include creatives' own understandings of their work, as well as analyses of the “back-end” of these technologies, including the creative works used to train AI systems. How does the integration of these technologies into creative practice raise issues surrounding ideas of intellectual property, theft, and fair use? Culture(s) of Governance: How are the institutions that sell and evaluate art, fund and train artists, and regulate art worlds reshaping hierarchies and understandings of the rules of art and media? What are the legal, cultural, and political frames shaping contests between states, sectors, and institutional actors surrounding the creation or reformation of rules surrounding art and media? International & Cross-Cultural Dynamics: How do these technological shifts play out differently across national, regional, or cultural contexts? How do they work to reconfigure geopolitical hierarchies and/or solidarities? What are the implications for cultural imperialism, local creative economies, or national cultural practices? Timeline & Considerations: Abstracts should be emailed to poeticstechissue(a)gmail.com<mailto:poeticstechissue@gmail.com> by December 1st 2025, by 11:59pm EST. Abstracts (750-1000 words, excluding references) due by December 1st 2025, by 11:59pm EST. Decisions will be communicated by March 1st 2026, by 11:59pm EST. Full papers are due by June 5th 2026, by 11:59pm EST, in advance of a virtual workshop. Virtual Workshop will be held in late June/early July - Participation in the virtual workshop is mandatory for inclusion in the resulting special issue, final date will be sent to all authors upon abstract acceptance. All participants will be expected to read and offer constructive feedback to a small number of fellow participants and will receive feedback from special issue editors. Full revised papers due by October 31st, by 11:50pm EST, for peer-review. Each author will be expected to peer-review a paper for the special issue. Note: If your article is selected and you’d like to publish Open Access, Elsevier (Poetics’ publisher) charges an article processing fee of $3730. Some universities/colleges have agreements with some publishers to cover or discount this fee. Please check with the librarians at your institution to understand if your fees may be covered. If needed, the editorial team will assist authors with up to $1865 of this fee. Depending on the final manuscripts accepted and author needs, we may be able to provide further assistance. You may choose for your article to be published for subscription only, and there is no article processing fee. Julia Ticona Assistant Professor Annenberg School for Communication Department of Sociology, by Courtesy University of Pennsylvania juliaticona.com

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CFP: What is Research? (2026)
by Janet Wasko 11 Sep '25

11 Sep '25

What is Research? (2026) will bring together scholars to explore various natures, purposes, and roles of research across disciplines, fields, and areas. The event will consider frameworks of systematic and creative inquiry, including methods, designs, analyses, discoveries, collaborations, dissemination, ethics, integrity, pluralism, media/technologies, and information environments. The thirteenth What is…? gathering delves into research in its many forms, including searching, critically investigating, and re-examining existing knowledge, as well as emerging functions and procedures in machine intelligence and computation. It will highlight pluralities of research pathways, examining time-honored approaches and new ways of knowing, precedents, issues, and futures. It considers challenges and possibilities that researchers face in today’s rapidly changing world, and ways to promote ethical, accessible, and impactful research. Scholars, government and community officials, scientists, artists, students, filmmakers, grassroots community organizations, public sector and industry professionals, and the public are invited to collaborate. Proposals that take a transdisciplinary perspective are especially encouraged, drawing on insights and methods from multiple fields to shed new light on research processes. Presentations / panels / installations / experiential art may include these topics (as well as others): • How does research and creative scholarship emerge from inquiry? How do they impact society? • What are relationships between theory, method, and practice in research? • What are qualitative, quantitative, multimethod, multimodal, participatory & arts-based approaches? • What influences research design and data analysis? • What are issues involved in validation (e.g., reproducibility, replicability, and cross-validating)? • What are various modes of collaboration and how can they be organized? • What are some considerations in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research? • How are integrations of natural & artificial intelligence with quantum computing affecting research? • What are environmental considerations of developments in machine learning & large data centers? • How is research disseminated? How does it effectively engage publics and inform policy-making? • How are ethics imbricated in research and how can researchers conduct work with integrity? • What are benefits and challenges of compliance (e.g., privacy, security, review boards)? • How can research address global challenges (e.g., health, inequality, poverty, climate change)? • How is research used to drive solutions-based approaches and what are the challenges involved? • How does research in academia differ from research in industry and/or community? • What are the obstacles involved in translating findings into action? • What issues are involved in targeted, universal, and targeted universal approaches to research? • What are criteria and implications of various forms of research funding? • How are meta-analyses and systematic reviews engaging human-machine collaboration? • How can research education be integrated into teaching and learning? How are next generations of researchers being trained? • CALL FOR PROPOSALS • Send 150-200 word abstracts for papers / panels / art / experiences by NOVEMBER 11, 2025 to: Janet Wasko • jwasko(a)uoregon.edu

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Call for Proposals: What is Research? (2026)
by Janet Wasko 11 Sep '25

11 Sep '25

Please see attached Call for Proposals for What is Research?, rescheduled for April 23-25, 2026, at the University of Oregon Portland. Apologies for cross-listing.

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