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Queering Social Media Research - ICWSM Workshop
by Myles, David 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

***CALL FOR PARTICIPATION*** In occasion of the International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), we invite position papers and statements of interest for the workshop QUEERING SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH – ENGAGING WITH SEXUAL, GENDER, AND RELATIONAL DIVERSITY. This full-day workshop will take place on May 15, 2017 in Montreal, Canada. The deadline for application is March 4, 2017. For more information, please visit the workshop webpage: http://queeringsocialmediaresearch.blogspot.ca/2016/12/workshop-queering-so… Please send papers and questions at this address: qsmr2017(a)gmail.com For more information about the ICWSM, please visit: http://www.icwsm.org/2017/index.php We hope to see you in Montreal this Spring! The organizing committee: Mélanie Millette, Université du Québec à Montréal David Myles, Université de Montréal Anna Lauren Hoffmann, University of California, Berkeley

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new research tool for searching two million hours of television news
by kalev leetaru 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

Apologies for cross-posting. I thought many of you might find of great interest my latest collaboration with the Internet Archive - this time to create a new research visualization tool that allows you to visualize two million hours of television news programming spanning the last 7 years. In particular, there are all kinds of fascinating questions that can be explored here re how a topic is being discussed online versus on MSM television news. You can specify any keyword and/or context keywords (allowing you to run a "near" search like "clinton NEAR email) and create a timeline charting by day how it has appeared in American television news over time and what networks focus the most on it. Unlike the Archive's primary Television News interface, which returns results at the level of an hour or half-hour "show," the interface here reaches inside of those six years of programming and breaks the more than one million shows into individual sentences and counts how many of those sentences contain the given keyword. Thus, instead of reporting that CNN had 24 hour-long shows yesterday that mentioned Donald Trump one or more times, this tool counts how many sentences uttered on CNN yesterday mentioned his name - a vastly more accurate metric for assessing media attention. CSV and JSON output are also available to make it easy to import the timeline into the analytic package of your choice like R or simply Excel for further analysis. More features will be coming over the next few months. http://blog.archive.org/2016/12/20/new-research-tool-for-visualizing-two-mi… http://television.gdeltproject.org/cgi-bin/iatv_ftxtsearch/iatv_ftxtsearch Kalev http://kalevleetaru.com/ http://blog.gdeltproject.org/

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Human-Machine Communication Pre-Conference at ICA
by Andrea Guzman 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

Hello everyone, Please see below for information regarding a Human-Machine Preconference as part of ICA 2017 in San Diego. Also, in case you have not heard, we have a Human-Machine Communication listserv: https://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=HMC-SCHOLARS Communicating with Machines: Interventions with Digital Agents Date & Time: Thursday, 25 May 2017; 8:30 - 16:00 Venue: San Diego Hilton Bayfront **ON-SITE** Organizers: Autumn Edwards, Western Michigan U; Chad Edwards, Western Michigan U; Andrea L. Guzman, Northern Illinois U; David J. Gunkel, Northern Illinois U; Steve Jones, U of Illinois at Chicago; U; Austin Lee, Northern Kentucky U; Seth C. Lewis, University of Oregon; Jake Liang, Chapman U; Patric Spence, U of Kentucky Cost of Registration & Attendance: Faculty $75 USD/ Student $50 USD Sponsors: Northern Illinois U, Department of Communication Northern Kentucky U, College of Informatics U of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Communication U of Kentucky, College of Communication & Information, School of Information Science U of Oregon, Shirley Papé Chair In Electronic Media, School of Journalism and Communication Western Michigan U, Communication and Social Robotics Lab Deadline for submissions: 31 January 2017 Digital interlocutors are increasingly standing in for humans in communication contexts. This pre-conference focuses on communication with and between humans and digital interlocutors that has the potential to engage, alter, and disrupt “normal” events, practices, and phenomena. We invite scholars from across ICA’s divisions and a variety of epistemological and methodological backgrounds to discuss their work related to Human-Machine Communication (HMC) interventions, which encompasses Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Robot Interaction, and Human-Agent Interaction, in this full-day pre-conference. We seek to raise awareness of and further develop HMC research and the scholarly community surrounding it. Notification of acceptance: 15 February 2017 Participant Acknowledgment: Accepted participants will be listed along with the titles of their presentations in both the ICA Conference and the HMC Preconference programs. Preconference Focus: As artificial intelligence, robotics, and ICTs continue to develop and merge, we are increasingly interacting with digital interlocutors such as voice-based agents, robots, and social bots. We also are sending and receiving messages to and from wearable devices. We directly interact with the technologies surrounding us, and digital entities have been and continue to stand in for humans in everyday communication contexts. The recent surge of digital interlocutors into quotidian routines has been accompanied with questions – voiced by leading scientists as well as the average person – regarding the ramifications of these technologies and our interactions with them. In concert with the conference theme of "Intervention," our pre-conference focuses on communication with and between humans and digital interlocutors that has the potential to engage, alter, and disrupt “normal” events, practices, and phenomena. We invite scholars from across ICA’s divisions and a variety of epistemological and methodological backgrounds to discuss their work related to HMC interventions, which encompasses Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Robot Interaction, and Human-Agent Interaction, in this full-day pre-conference. We will focus on the individual, cultural, and philosophical implications of the various ways in which we interact with machines. Possible topic areas for participant presentations include, but are not limited to, communicative practices between humans and digital interlocutors, the integration of artificial entities into private, professional, and political spaces, the incorporation of AI into journalism and other media industries, cultural discourse surrounding these technologies, relationship dynamics between humans and machines, reinterpretations and representations of humans as digital entities, and intercultural aspects of HMC. We invite scholars from ICA’s many divisions to discuss their work regarding the individual, cultural, and philosophical implications of machine/digital interventions. We seek to raise awareness of and further develop HMC research and the scholarly community surrounding it. We hope to continue the conversation from last year’s post-conference in Japan. Preconference format: Our goal is to provide a space for participants to present their research and engage in conversation with one another. We have adopted a two-tiered format in which some scholars will be invited to deliver a paper presentation while others will be invited to take part in a poster session. More details are forthcoming. Papers: (750-1,000 words excluding references). Papers should detail what the scholar plans to present and how it relates to the overall focus of the preconference on human-machine communication. We are interested in all forms of scholarship (theoretical, empirical, etc). Papers should be submitted as an attachment to Autumn Edwards: autumn.edwards(a)wmich.edu _____ Andrea L. Guzman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Dept. of Communication Northern Illinois University alguzman(a)niu.edu

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New book (again): The Age of Sharing by Nicholas John
by Nicholas John 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

Hello AoIR I know I did this already, but that was the before the book was published in the US. It has now been published in the US, so I’m doing it again… I’m delighted to announce the publication of my book, The Age of Sharing. Culture Digitally has put up an excerpt: http://culturedigitally.org/2016/11/the-age-of-sharing-by-nicholas-john-an-… <http://culturedigitally.org/2016/11/the-age-of-sharing-by-nicholas-john-an-…> And there’s also a dialogue piece in which some of your favourite internet researchers respond to that excerpt: http://culturedigitally.org/2016/12/dialogue_nikjohn/ <http://culturedigitally.org/2016/12/dialogue_nikjohn/> Polity also has a short blog post: http://politybooks.com/the-age-of-sharing/ <http://politybooks.com/the-age-of-sharing/> If you order it from polity, you can use the code PY794 to get a 20% discount, or order an examination copy. Or there’s always Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Age-Sharing-Nicholas-John/dp/074566251X <https://www.amazon.com/Age-Sharing-Nicholas-John/dp/074566251X> (though how they’re offering 2nd hand copies already is beyond me…) The blurb on the back says: Sharing is central to how we live today: it is what we do online; it is a model of economic behavior; and it is also a type of therapeutic talk. Sharing always comes with a warm glow around it, embodying positive values such as empathy, communication, fairness, openness and equality. The Age of Sharing shows how and when sharing became caring, and explains how its meanings have changed in the digital age. Sharing, though, is also a word used to camouflage commercial or even exploitive relations, leading many to bemoan that ‘It isn’t really sharing’. Websites say they share data with advertisers, though actually they sell it, while parts of the sharing economy look much like rental services. But The Age of Sharing ultimately argues that practices described as sharing and critiques of those practices have common roots. Consequently, the powerful metaphor of sharing now constructs significant swathes of our social practices and provides the grounds for critiquing them; it is a mode of participation in the capitalist order and a way of resisting it. Taking in nineteenth century literature, Alcoholics Anonymous, the American counterculture, reality TV, hackers, Airbnb, Facebook and more, The Age of Sharing offers a rich account of a complex contemporary keyword. Nancy Baym said this: “The word ‘sharing’ has become so ubiquitous that we rarely stop to inquire into its meanings, let alone the ideological work it does in the diverse contexts of its use. John’s engaging historical analysis of ‘sharing’ across three domains is essential reading, offering deep insight into the implicit values that shape our interactions and economies.” And Russell Belk, groundbreaking scholar of consumption, said: “The Age of Sharing is an insightful and careful excavation of the concept and practice of sharing both material and immaterial things. It broadly interrogates primates and early humans to the latest social media and “sharing” apps, for clues about our basic human nature.” Consider giving yourself this book as a gift! Enjoy, Nik Nicholas John Department of Communication The Hebrew University of Jerusalem T +972 54 7906073 @nicholasajohn <http://www.twitter.com/nicholasajohn> nicholasjohn.huji.ac.il <http://nicholasjohn.huji.ac.il/> Check out my new book,The Age of Sharing, at Amazon <https://www.amazon.com/Age-Sharing-Nicholas-John/dp/074566251X> or directly from Polity <http://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9780745662503> Read an excerpt at Culture Digitally <http://culturedigitally.org/2016/11/the-age-of-sharing-by-nicholas-john-an-…>.

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Call for Papers - ECPR General Conference Oslo (6-9 Sept. 2017) "Political Sciences and the Big Data Challenge From Big Data in Politics to the Politics of Big Data"
by Elena Pavan 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

*** Apologies for cross-posting.. and Merry Christmas!!*** In occasion of the next ECPR General Conference (Oslo 6-9 September 2017) we invite papers for any of the panels in the section "Political Sciences and the Big Data Challenge From Big Data in Politics to the Politics of Big Data". More detailed info on panels and the overall section can be found below. Please submit paper proposals to elena.pavan(a)sns.it <mailto:elena.pavan@sns.it> and alice.mattoni(a)sns.it <mailto:alice.mattoni@sns.it> by *January the 15^th 2017* including the following info: - papers titles and abstracts (no more than 500 words) - institutional affliliation - institutional email address We will then arrange the selected papers in panels and submit them to the ECPR via their electronic platform. Please note that paper authors must be registered in the ECPR electronic platform with the email address they will include in the paper proposals. All the best Alice Mattoni and Elena Pavan *** *CALL FOR PAPERS* *ECPR General Conference – 6-9 September 2017, Oslo* ** *Section title* * * *Political Sciences and the Big Data Challenge From Big Data in Politics to the Politics of Big Data* * * *Section organizers* Chair: Elena Pavan, Scuola Normale Superiore Co-chair: Alice Mattoni, Scuola Normale Superiore * * *Section outline and themes* This section aims to open a much-needed space for developing within the ECPR context a critical and informed reflection on the multi-faceted nexus between Big Data and political science. It understands Big Data not solely in terms of large-scale datasets of textual or digital data that require us to tune our research practices. More radically, it starts from a conceptualization of Big Data as a complex set of cultural, political and scientific knowledge practices that challenge the traditional modes in which research questions are posed and framed, analyses are performed, as well as the ways in which results are communicated to the public and thus affect public discourse and debates. Consistently, the section comprises a set of panels that aim to investigate two interrelated aspects. On the one hand, panels will engage with how Big Data are leveraging our understanding of political dynamics within complex societies. In this respect, the section will consider applications of Big Data in connection to public opinion and institutional politics (party dynamics, political communications, etc.) as well as in relation to the study of contemporary forms of collective action and unconventional political participation (social movements, digital activism and the like). On the other, panels will develop a specific take on Big Data, considering how they become a contested research and political terrain, and thus inviting critical reflections on methodological and epistemological implications but also on the power dynamics that entwine with the increased datification of our societies. In this sense, this Section offers a unique occasion to foster the convergence of scholars and researchers currently working on the value of Big Data for studying politics but also on the politics of Big Data themselves. With this aim in mind, the panels in this Section will welcome papers employing different theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches on Big Data, with a single-case or a comparative multinational and/or multiplatform perspective. More specifically, the Section will welcome papers on the following topics. * * *Big data, public opinion and institutional politics* Digital social behaviors and, particularly, social media communications and interactions are increasingly considered a fundamental component of electoral campaigns, governmental and legislative dynamics as well as of the relationships and the interactions between party members and political leaders with their constituencies. Thus, it is in the online public discourse unravelling on social media platforms that politicians and policy-makers lean to an increasing extent to have the pulse of ongoing and ever evolving political trends and public opinions. This panel invites papers that apply Big Data to the study of contemporary political institutional and/or public opinion dynamics with national or comparative perspectives thus providing a space to inquiry about how this type of data and related methodological and analytical practices can leverage our understanding of traditional political science topics. * * *Big data and unconventional political participations* The rapid diffusion and increased use of social media platforms in grassroots politics has relevant consequences for the organization of social movements and their forms of protest. While more traditional forms of collective actions still exist, grassroots politics often follows a logic of connective action according to which collective actors are less central than in the past for the success of mobilizations. Moreover, activists lean increasingly on web-based platforms and internet services that produce Big Data flows worldwide. This panel invites papers that investigate to what extent Big Data are changing the way in which activists organize and protest with national or comparative perspectives thus providing a space to inquiry about how this type of data and related methodological and analytical practices can leverage our understanding of grassroots political participation today. * * *A paradigm shift for political science? Discussing Big Data epistemology and its implication for political studies* Recent events, such as the last USA Presidential elections, have clearly shown the potentials and, perhaps, even to a larger extent, the criticalities of predictive analytical practices in the study of political dynamics. The time seems more than ripe to begin re-addressing the methodological practices that underpin our understanding of sociopolitical dynamics – in particular in relation to our extensive use of large-scale digital and textual datasets which are deemed to be “representative” of citizens’ political preferences, desires, and priorities. Consistently, this panel invites papers that address, theoretically or empirically, the potentialities and the criticalities of Big Data as a new epistemological practice for producing valid and socially relevant scientific knowledge in the field of political science. * * *Big data as a political terrain: deconstructing and approaching critically datification* Big Data are not a neutral field of practice and knowledge, in particular when it comes to politics. Political actors, economic actors and media actors understand in different ways the concept of big data. More precisely, when political parties and social movements engage with Big Data, they often evoke specific, and contrasting, understanding of what datification processes means in and for politics. This panel invites papers that deconstruct and approach critically processes of datification in contemporary politics by looking at the intersections between different political cultures and (big) data cultures, focusing on the discourses and imaginaries that political actors develop around Big Data, and investigating the media practices related to the construction, manipulation and subversion of Big Data within the political realm. * * *How to submit a paper* Please submit paper proposals to elena.pavan(a)sns.it <mailto:elena.pavan@sns.it> and alice.mattoni(a)sns.it <mailto:alice.mattoni@sns.it> by January the 15^th 2017 including the following info: - papers titles and abstracts (no more than 500 words) - institutional affliliation - institutional email address We will then arrange the selected papers in panels and submit them to the ECPR via their electronic platform. Please note that paper authors must be registered in the ECPR electronic platform with the email address they will include in the paper proposals. -- Elena Pavan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali Scuola Normale Superiore Palazzo Strozzi - Piazza degli Strozzi, 1 50123 Firenze email: elena.pavan(a)sns.it telephone: +39 055 2673330 Adjunct Professor Dipartimento Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale Università di Trento via Verdi 26 38122 Trento email: elena.pavan(a)unitn.it telephone: +39 (0)461 28 1378 --- Questa e-mail è stata controllata per individuare virus con Avast antivirus. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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New book: Socialbots and Their Friends
by Robert W. Gehl 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

Dear AoIR Friends, Maria Bakardjieva and I are pleased to announce that our edited collection, Socialbots and Their Friends: Digital Media and the Automation of Sociality, is available: https://www.routledge.com/Socialbots-Digital-Media-and-the-Automation-of-So… Here's the back of the cover description: "Many users of the Internet are aware of bots: automated programs that work behind the scenes to come up with search suggestions, check the weather, filter emails, or clean up Wikipedia entries. More recently, a new software robot has been making its presence felt in social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter – the socialbot. However, unlike other bots, socialbots are built to appear human. While a weatherbot will tell you if it's sunny and a spambot will incessantly peddle Viagra, socialbots will ask you questions, have conversations, like your posts, retweet you, and become your friend. All the while, if they're well-programmed, you won't know that you're tweeting and friending with a robot. Who benefits from the use of software robots? Who loses? Does a bot deserve rights? Who pulls the strings of these bots? Who has the right to know what about them? What does it mean to be intelligent? What does it mean to be a friend? Socialbots and Their Friends: Digital Media and the Automation of Sociality is one of the first academic collections to critically consider the socialbot and tackle these pressing questions." The book features essays by Peggy Weil, Guillaume Latzko-Toth, Andrea L. Guzman, Florian Muhle, Adrienne Massanari, Keiko Nishimura, Grant Bollmer, Chris Rodley, Stefano DePaoli, Leslie Ball, Natalie Coull, John Isaacs, Angus MacDonald, Jonathan Letham, Tim Graham, Robert Ackland, and David Gunkel -- all of whom make the collection awesome. Maria and I pitch in, too. So, no matter if you for one welcome our new robot overlords, or if you grab your decompiler to wage war on the newest software agents, you're going to want to buy this book! - Rob -- Robert W. Gehl Associate Professor, Department of Communication Affiliated Faculty, Department of Writing & Rhetoric The University of Utah www.robertwgehl.org | @robertwgehl www.socialmediaalternatives.org Sent from our OS on our Internet Reverse Engineering Social Media (Temple U P 2014) http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/2275_reg.html Winner of the 2015 Association of Internet Researchers Nancy Baym Book Award Socialbots and Their Friends (Routledge 2016) https://www.routledge.com/Socialbots-Digital-Media-and-the-Automation-of-So…

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FABRIC: an archive for embodied tech
by Andrew Iliadis 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

Hi everyone, I wanted to tell you about a multi-year, SSHRC-funded project we've been working on at UOIT under the direction of Dr. Isabel Pedersen, with the assistance of many academic volunteers and researchers. FABRIC (http://fabricofdigitallife.com/) is an online archive for collecting digital materials related to wearable, ingestible, embeddable?, implantable, and other types of body-centered technologies (something we call "embodied technology"). Currently, the archive hosts over 1400 sorted objects including patents, videos, and news releases that users can browse using customized categories, like which body part or sense is augmented. We are issuing an open call for collaborators who can recommend additions or curate special edited collections. Specifically, we're interested in expanding our curated collections on ethical, social, political, and cultural issues relating to embodied technologies. Contexts might include things like policing and wearables, gender and embodied technology, labor and tracking, quantified self, etc. Feel free to send me an email if you'd like a brief demo or tour of the archive or to discuss your research and how it might be featured in FABRIC. andrew.iliadis(a)uoit.ca Lastly, here's a link to a Medium piece that describes the project in more detail: https://goo.gl/9L7G1d Thanks, and happy holidays! Andrew? ............................... Dr. Andrew Iliadis Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Media, Data, and Culture Faculty of Social Science and Humanities University of Ontario Institute of Technology

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Re: [Air-L] Article on the digital and the real
by Scott MacLeod 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

Hi AoIR friends, Tom, and Traci, Thanks so much for your emails of support, Tom and Traci, for my new actual / virtual Harbin ethnographic book. My 350 page actual-virtual Harbin Hot Springs' ethnography - http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html (September 2016) - is out now in paper and in Kindle versions too (in a new Academic Press at World University and School - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html - which is planned in all 8k languages, with machine translation), and addresses many actual and virtual, digital and real questions theoretically. It's also a very lovely book: "Naked Harbin Ethnography" has about 180 FULL COLOR photos, is 354 pages long and on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper. Discount code on NHE's main web page is EPUEY368 . I'm attaching my holiday greetings' letter for you as well - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2016/12/muir-woods-holiday-greetings-201… ! Happy holiday season! Scott http://www.scottmacleod.com https://twitter.com/scottmacleod http://worlduniversityandschool.org https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html http://bit.ly/HarbinBook https://twitter.com/HarbinBook ~ http://amazon.com/author/scottmacleodworlduniversity ~ On 12/19/16 3:17 PM, Scott MacLeod wrote: > Hi Traci, > > Thanks so much for your email, and for asking. I'm seeking to build > sales of my Harbin ethnography significantly! Glad to have sold one from > Amazon most recently on December 15th! > > I'm attaching my holiday greetings' letter for you! > > Happy holiday season! > Scott > > > http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html > http://www.scottmacleod.com > http://bit.ly/HarbinBook > https://twitter.com/HarbinBook > ~ http://amazon.com/author/scottmacleodworlduniversity ~ On 12/19/16 12:08 PM, Traci Belanger wrote: > Scott how are the sales on the book going??? > Happy holiday season, > Traci > -- > May all winds at your back inspire you, and may you have harmony and > peace today. > On Sat, 2 Jul 2016 11:09:31 -0700, Scott MacLeod > <scott(a)scottmacleod.com> wrote: > Likewise, Traci! >> >> Scott >> >> >> >> On 7/1/16 6:37 PM, Traci Belanger wrote: >>> If you are about, let me know...I would really like to shake your >> hand in person > for being willing to work with me Scott, and for all >> of the amazing work you do! >>>> Traci >>>>> -- >>> May all winds at your back inspire you, and may you have harmony and >> peace today. > > > > > On Fri, 1 Jul 2016 15:21:07 -0700, Scott >> MacLeod <scott(a)scottmacleod.com> wrote: >>>> Thanks for your email, Traci! >>>> Am applying for a MIT Media Lab junior faculty position .. > > >> Meet you in Boston, perhaps! >>>> Scott >>>>>> On 7/1/16 6:19 AM, Traci Belanger wrote: >>>> Great to see this, Scott, looking forward to going through it! >>>> -- >>>> May all winds at your back inspire you, and may you have harmony and >>> peace today. > > >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, 30 Jun 2016 17:10:33 -0700, Scott MacLeod >>> <scott(a)scottmacleod.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Tom (and AoIR), >>>> >>>> Thanks very much, and fascinating! >>>> >>>> My ~550 page actual-virtual Harbin Hot Springs ethnographic book - >>>> http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html (May 2016) - >>>> due out in paper soon (in a new Academic Press at World University >> and >>>> School - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html - >>>> planned in all 8k languages, with machine translation), addresses >> many >>>> related questions. > > >>>> I look forward to reading it closely, and re the "actual" >> anthropologically. > > >>>> All the best, >>>> Scott >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On 6/30/16 4:09 PM, Tom Boellstorff wrote: >>>>> Dear all: my article “For Whom the Ontology Turns: Rethinking >> the Digital >>>> Real” is now out in a pre-print version from Current Anthropology >> and is >>>> open access. Here is the link: >>>>> >>>>> http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/687362 >>>>> >>>>> Even though this is published in an anthropology journal, I’ve >> really >>>> written it to speak to questions of the “real” with regard to digital >>>> technology and culture. I hope you enjoy it! >>>>> >>>>> All the best, Tom Boellstorff >>>>> >>>>> tom boellstorff + professor + department of anthropology + >> university of >>>> california + irvine + website >> <http://faculty.sites.uci.edu/boellstorff/> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >>>>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers >> http://aoir.org >>>>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >>>> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org >>>>> >>>>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >>>>> http://www.aoir.org/ >>>>> -- - Scott MacLeod - Founder & President - http://worlduniversityandschool.org - 415 480 4577 - PO Box 442, (86 Ridgecrest Road), Canyon, CA 94516 - World University and School - like Wikipedia with best STEM-centric OpenCourseWare - incorporated as a nonprofit university and school in California, and is a U.S. 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt educational organization, both effective April 2010. On 12/20/16 4:20 PM, Scott MacLeod wrote: > Hi AoIR friends, Tom, and Traci, > > Thanks so much for your emails of support, Tom and Traci, for my new > actual / virtual Harbin ethnographic book. > > My 350 page actual-virtual Harbin Hot Springs' ethnography - > http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html (September > 2016) - is out now in paper and in Kindle versions too (in a new > Academic Press at World University and School - > http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html - which is > planned in all 8k languages, with machine translation), and addresses > many actual and virtual, digital and real questions theoretically. > > It's also a very lovely book: "Naked Harbin Ethnography" has about 180 > FULL COLOR photos, is 354 pages long and on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper. > Discount code on NHE's main web page is EPUEY368 . > > I'm attaching my holiday greetings' letter for you as well - > https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2016/12/muir-woods-holiday-greetings-201… > ! > > Happy holiday season! > Scott > http://www.scottmacleod.com > https://twitter.com/scottmacleod > > http://worlduniversityandschool.org > https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch > > > http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html > http://bit.ly/HarbinBook > https://twitter.com/HarbinBook > ~ http://amazon.com/author/scottmacleodworlduniversity ~ > > > > On 12/19/16 3:17 PM, Scott MacLeod wrote: >> Hi Traci, >> >> Thanks so much for your email, and for asking. I'm seeking to build >> sales of my Harbin ethnography significantly! Glad to have sold one from >> Amazon most recently on December 15th! >> >> I'm attaching my holiday greetings' letter for you! >> >> Happy holiday season! >> Scott >> >> >> http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html >> http://www.scottmacleod.com >> http://bit.ly/HarbinBook >> https://twitter.com/HarbinBook >> ~ http://amazon.com/author/scottmacleodworlduniversity ~ > > > > > On 12/19/16 12:08 PM, Traci Belanger wrote: >> Scott how are the sales on the book going??? >> Happy holiday season, >> Traci >> -- >> May all winds at your back inspire you, and may you have harmony and >> peace today. >> On Sat, 2 Jul 2016 11:09:31 -0700, Scott MacLeod >> <scott(a)scottmacleod.com> wrote: >> Likewise, Traci! >>> Scott >>> >>> >>> >>> On 7/1/16 6:37 PM, Traci Belanger wrote: >>>> If you are about, let me know...I would really like to shake your >>> hand in person > for being willing to work with me Scott, and for all >>> of the amazing work you do! >>>>> Traci >>>>>> -- >>>> May all winds at your back inspire you, and may you have harmony and >>> peace today. > > > > > On Fri, 1 Jul 2016 15:21:07 -0700, Scott >>> MacLeod <scott(a)scottmacleod.com> wrote: >>>>> Thanks for your email, Traci! >>>>> Am applying for a MIT Media Lab junior faculty position .. > > >>> Meet you in Boston, perhaps! >>>>> Scott >>>>>>> On 7/1/16 6:19 AM, Traci Belanger wrote: >>>>> Great to see this, Scott, looking forward to going through it! >>>>> -- >>>>> May all winds at your back inspire you, and may you have harmony and >>>> peace today. > > >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Thu, 30 Jun 2016 17:10:33 -0700, Scott MacLeod >>>> <scott(a)scottmacleod.com> wrote: >>>>> Tom (and AoIR), >>>>> >>>>> Thanks very much, and fascinating! >>>>> >>>>> My ~550 page actual-virtual Harbin Hot Springs ethnographic book - >>>>> http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html (May 2016) - >>>>> due out in paper soon (in a new Academic Press at World University >>> and >>>>> School - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html - >>>>> planned in all 8k languages, with machine translation), addresses >>> many >>>>> related questions. > > >>>>> I look forward to reading it closely, and re the "actual" >>> anthropologically. > > >>>>> All the best, >>>>> Scott >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On 6/30/16 4:09 PM, Tom Boellstorff wrote: >>>>>> Dear all: my article “For Whom the Ontology Turns: Rethinking >>> the Digital >>>>> Real” is now out in a pre-print version from Current Anthropology >>> and is >>>>> open access. Here is the link: >>>>>> http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/687362 >>>>>> >>>>>> Even though this is published in an anthropology journal, I’ve >>> really >>>>> written it to speak to questions of the “real” with regard to digital >>>>> technology and culture. I hope you enjoy it! >>>>>> All the best, Tom Boellstorff >>>>>> >>>>>> tom boellstorff + professor + department of anthropology + >>> university of >>>>> california + irvine + website >>> <http://faculty.sites.uci.edu/boellstorff/> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>> The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >>>>>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers >>> http://aoir.org >>>>>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >>>>> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org >>>>>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >>>>>> http://www.aoir.org/ >>>>>> > > -- - Scott MacLeod - Founder & President - http://worlduniversityandschool.org - 415 480 4577 - PO Box 442, (86 Ridgecrest Road), Canyon, CA 94516 - World University and School - like Wikipedia with best STEM-centric OpenCourseWare - incorporated as a nonprofit university and school in California, and is a U.S. 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt educational organization, both effective April 2010.

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Teaching Social Media
by Seth C Bradshaw 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

Hi all- Apologies if the following questions have been asked and answered previously: (a) Does anyone have suggested readings for best practices when teaching courses on social media? (b) Does anyone know of a list of programs offering degrees in social media that I can compare ours against? (c) Do NCA, AoIR, or similar organizations have official statements on the study of social media? All insights are welcome! Best, Seth Seth C. Bradshaw Assistant Professor Department of Mass Communication Stephen F. Austin State University Boynton Bldg. Box 13048 SFA Station Nacogdoches, TX 75962 936.468.1265 | Boynton Bldg. 302

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Research on the Web Presence of the Alt-Right in the US
by Thomas Main 20 Dec '16

20 Dec '16

Hi All: I am writing a book on the Alt-Right movement in the US. I am looking at many aspects of the movement including the size and nature of the audience for its websites. The question I wish to address is whether the Alt-Right is such a small fringe movement that it merits no serious attention, or is the movement large enough in some sense to have an impact on American political culture. Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly-among others-has made this argument in a recently aired segment on the Hard Core Alt-Right, or the “white power” movement as he called it. (http://www.politicususa.com/2016/11/29/bill-oreilly-white-power-movement-st…) The gist was that the movement was extremely small. O’Reilly pointed out that a recent Washington DC press conference held by Hard Core Alt-Righter Richard Spencer drew only about 275 participants but 50 journalists; that there are only a few thousand hate crimes committed in the US each year; and that most Trump supporters aren’t racists. O’Reilly’s conclusion: the white power people are idiots but so few in number as to be unimportant; they are getting attention only because the liberal media wants to discredit Trump. In collaboration with Richard D. Holowczak, Associate Professor of Computer Information Systems in the Zicklin School of Business, I have already looked at visits to Alt-Right web sites from May to October 2016. Our analysis suggests that O’Reilly’s claims are correct as far as they go but not to the point. The Hard Core leaders and immediate followers are few in number, but then the core of an intellectual movement is always small; neoconservatism and the New Left are examples. A relatively small “elite” develops ideas, arguments, and research that are passed down through an intellectual food chain to policy entrepreneurs, party operatives, media figures, and finally the public. What counts is not the absolute size of a given elite and its immediate followers, but the depth of the penetration of that core group’s output into mainstream political culture relative to the penetration of rival groups. If we accept that model our analysis of website visits suggests the Alt-Right may have achieved a toe-hold in American political culture. Consider that: ●In terms of recent website visits Breitbart News is far larger and has grown much faster than all mainstream conservative outlets-which include the National Review, the Weekly Standard, and Commentary-combined. From May to October 2016 Breitbart News averaged 82.5 million visits a month and grew by 94.4 percent, while all mainstream conservative sites combined averaged 46 million visits a month and grew by 13.7 percent ●All Hard Core Alt-Right websites combined got on average about 3 million visits a month and grew by about 17.7 percent over the last six months. ●The Hard Core American Renaissance, for example, with a 6-month average of 708 thousand visits and a growth rate of 35.8 is larger than such well-known liberal platforms as the American Prospect, Ms. and The Progressive. These findings are suggestive and may indicate that the Alt-Right, judged in terms of web presence, may be large enough to have some cultural or political impact. But there are obvious limitations to our research so far: ●Our website visit data go back only six months only. Thus we know nothing about longer term trends. ●We have data on website visits only, not unique visitors. If one person accesses a website five times in a day we have five visits but only one unique visitor. Ideally we should look at both visits and visitors. ●So far our sample of websites includes only 60 political opinion sites. We need to look at many more sites and different types of sites including outlets for news media, research centers, and social movements. ●We need a more systematic and objective method for classifying sites by political orientation. ●Our data tell us nothing about demographics and viewing habits of site visitors. Thus we are not able to distinguish between visits by Alt-Right sympathizers, curiosity seekers, and adversaries doing opposition research. I am about to purchase better web-traffic data from SimilarWeb. I would like to correspond with other researchers on ways to overcome the limitations of my work so far. Thanks for your attention. Cheers, Thomas J. Main Professor Marxe School of Public and International Affairs Baruch College, City University of New York One Bernard Baruch Way Box D-0901 New York, NY 10010-5585 T: 646-660-6719 F: 646-660-6701 Office: 135 East 22nd Street, Room 912 thomas.main(a)baruch.cuny.edu<mailto:thomas.main@baruch.cuny.edu> Web Site: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/spa/faculty-and-staff/full-time-faculty/thomas-m…

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