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CFP: Hong Kong, April 2015 -- Global Digital Cultures Conference
by Jack Qiu 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

Just a gentle reminder that abstracts for our conference next April will be due tomorrow (Oct 17). We've got quite some submissions but won't mind receiving more. :-) Cheers, jack On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 3:23 PM, Jack Qiu <jacklqiu(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Dear all, > > Brian Loader and I are organizing this conference, to be held in Hong > Kong. Abstracts are due on October 17 this month. > > Don't ask me how this ongoing political movement in Hong Kong will look > like next April. I have no idea. But my university and WUN (World > Universities Network) have committed to making this a great conference. > We've also got Lee Rainie, Hu Yong, and Saskia Sassen (she's almost > confirmed) as keynote speakers. There's also a high chance to get a panel > on digital activism and this "umbrella revolution" in Hong Kong. > > So consider joining us, and please spread the word! > > Cheers, > jack qiu > > ===== > *Call for Papers: WUN Understanding Global Digital Cultures Conference > 2015. 25-26 April. Hong Kong. CFP deadline:17 October. *http:// > bit.ly/1vvxy8e <http://t.co/YocgU0Yo4H> <http://t.co/YocgU0Yo4H> > > Ever since the Internet developed into a World Wide Web there has been > speculation about its potential to breakdown national cultural barriers. In > the early years of largely western dominance proclamations about the > emancipatory nature of cyberspace were only matched by charges of cultural > colonisation by consumer brands. In more recent times however this > suggestion of the emergence of a homogenous online digital culture has been > significantly challenged. Today at least 40% of Internet users are Chinese > and many more languages and cultures are now online. We have also witnessed > a resurgence of national, ethnic and identity cultures flourishing on the > Internet. Facilitated by social media platforms these new media > technologies have given rise to a much more complex picture of cultural > diversity and multiplicity. What is clear is that the new media ecology is > likely to have a significant influence upon the maintenance, threats, > opportunities and emergence of cultural forms. This two-day conference will > seek to explore the emergence and development of global digital cultures > through a number of themes including, but not limited to the following: > > - influence upon indigenous cultures > - governance of the Internet and how international negotiations might > influence cultural identities > - social media as cultural artefacts > - global branding, resistance and culture jamming > - participatory cultures, new cultural politics > - internet generations > - population mobility and social connectivity > - surveillance and public cultures > - cultural development through social media > - digital archives, narratives and memory. > > Keynote speakers > > Lee Rainie <http://www.pewresearch.org/staff/lee-rainie/>, Director of > the Pew Research Center's *Internet and American Life Project.* > > Professor Saskia Sassen <http://www.saskiasassen.com/>, Sociology > Department, Columbia University & The London School of Economics. > > Professor Hu Yong <http://www.chinafile.com/contributors/hu-yong>, School > of Journalism and Communication, Peking University. > Call for papers > > Papers are now invited that address the topics mentioned above. A > selection of the best papers will be published in a special issue of the > international journal *Information, Communication & Society*. > > Please submit title, abstract and brief biography for consideration to Brian > Loader <%20brian.loader(a)york.ac.uk> by *Friday 17 October 2014*. > Notification of decision will be made by 27 October 2014. > Registration > > Conference registration is £120 (HKD$1511). A reduced registration of £60 > (HKD$755) applies to students. > > Delegates from WUN member institutions receive free registration. > > Conference registration includes catering and symposium dinner. > > Online registration will be available on this website in November 2014. > Venue > > Lecture Theatre 2 > > Yasumoto International Academic Park > > The Chinese University of Hong Kong > Accommodation > > Rooms have been set aside at the Hyatt Sha Tin > <http://www.hongkong.shatin.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html?src=phd_hr_ppc_goog…>, > located a few minutes walk from the conference venue. A discounted delegate > rate of HKD$1420 (incl. breakfast) has been arranged. > > Online registration and hotel reservation portal will be available on this > website in November 2014. > > For more information on visiting Hong Kong, visit Discover Hong Kong > <http://www.discoverhongkong.com/au/index.jsp>. > Conference Convenors > > Brian Loader > <http://www.york.ac.uk/sociology/our-staff/academic/brian-loader/>, > Department of Sociology, The University of York - brian.loader(a)york.ac.uk > <%20brian.loader(a)york.ac.uk> > > Jack Qiu > <http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/en-GB/people/teaching-staff/qiu-jack-l-c>, > School of Journalism & Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong - > jacklqiu(a)gmail.com <%20jacklqiu(a)gmail.com> > http://wun.ac.uk/wun/events/view/globaldigitalculturesconference2015 > -- Jack Linchuan Qiu, Ph.D. Associate Professor School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong http://jack.com.cuhk.edu.hk/

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post-editing of news stories in online environments
by Philippa Smith 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

Hi Everyone, I'm interested in finding any published research about how online news organisations respond to readers comments to the extent that they will change words in a published story or a headline. This may follow criticism that certain words used in a story are inaccurate, racist or simply have the potential to be interpreted differently to what the journalist intended. Online platforms enable news organisations to alter a story immediately, but does the pressure to respond with speed also mean that alterations might occur to simply pacify one reader when others might not view the same words in the same way? Is there a safety net at work here for news organizations - just how common is it to change material? and what does this mean for journalistic practice in the digital age when reader criticism can be so immediate and visible? Any links to academic research in the area of the post-editing of news stories already published online would be appreciated. Kind regards Philippa Smith Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication Auckland University of Technology Auckland NEW ZEALAND

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new emotional database of a half million hours of television news
by kalev leetaru 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

Apologies for cross-posting. I thought many of you would find of interest the latest GDELT Project (http://www.gdeltproject.org/) release. All 540,000 hours of English-language American television broadcasts held by the Internet Archive's Television News Archive were processed to extract the complete list of people, organizations, disambiguated locations, and more than 2,238 emotions and themes from each broadcast. The complete dataset (only the extracted metadata, not the broadcasts themselves) is available for download, along with an interactive viewer timeline that allows you to visualize a particular emotion or theme over the last four years of American television news: http://blog.gdeltproject.org/visualizing-the-emotions-of-american-televisio… http://analysis.gdeltproject.org/cgi-bin/iatvemotions/iatvemotions As an example, here is the plot of the intensity of "Anxiety" over time - notice the huge surge around the government shutdown last October and in June 2012 with the massive derecho storm: http://analysis.gdeltproject.org/cgi-bin/iatvemotions/iatvemotions?var=c8.3… While the extracted metadata is currently only at the level of a entire broadcast, it offers an enormous range of possibilities in terms of a first exploration of the emotions and themes of American broadcast news. Everything from mapping the geography of television ( http://blog.archive.org/2013/12/13/mapping-400000-hours-of-u-s-tv-news/) to building emotionally-weighted cooccurance networks is possible with this dataset. The ability to infuse cooccurance graphs with emotional, geographic, and thematic context layers opens some particularly interesting doors. A second dataset of possible interest applies the same coding to English translations of 101 speeches given by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from 2000 to present and a comparison dataset of 21,295 presidential documents from The American Presidency Project for Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama: http://blog.gdeltproject.org/leader-speeches-assad-vs-american-presidents/ In the next few days we will be debuting this emotional/thematic coding for all global news media monitored by the GDELT Project, meaning that you will shortly be able to assess these dimensions live over the world's news media: http://blog.gdeltproject.org/introducing-the-global-content-analysis-measur… ~Kalev

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archiving web pages?
by Bryan-Mitchell Young 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

I've been using a combination of httrack, the scrapbook extension for firefox, and print-to-pdf to archive web sites but some of the more complex sites are difficult to save with these so I was wondering if anyone knows of other, more powerful, ways to archive modern web sites that use a lot of javascript or don't display the full page until you go to the bottom of the page or things like that. Thanks Bryan-Mitchell Young

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CfP: The Materiality of the Immaterial: ICTs and the Digital Commons (tripleC Special Issue)
by Vasilis Kostakis 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

Dear all, I think that the following call might be of interest to some members of the Air-L mailing list: Call for Papers: The Materiality of the Immaterial: ICTs and the Digital Commons http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/announcement/view/23 Special issue of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique ( http://www.triple-c.at) Abstract submission deadline: January 15, 2015 Guest editors: Vasilis Kostakis, Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), P2P Lab (Greece); Andreas Roos, Human Ecology Division, Lund University (Sweden) With an escalating environmental crisis and an unprecedented increase of ICT diversity and use, it is more crucial than ever to understand the underlying material aspects of the ICT infrastructure. This special issue therefore asks the question: What are the true material and socio-environmental costs of the global ICT infrastructure? In a recent paper (Fuchs 2013) as well as in the book Digital Labour and Karl Marx (Fuchs 2014), Christian Fuchs examined the complex web of production relations and the new division of digital labour that makes possible the vast and cheap ICT infrastructure as we know it. The analysis partly revealed that ICT products and infrastructure can be said to embody slave-like and other extremely harsh conditions that perpetually force mine and assembly workers into conditions of dependency. Expanding this argument, the WWF reported (Reed and Miranda 2007) that mining in the Congo basin poses considerable threats to the local environment in the form of pollution, the loss of biodiversity, and an increased presence of business-as-usual made possible by roads and railways. Thus ICTs can be said to be not at all immaterial because the ICT infrastructure under the given economic conditions can be said to embody as its material foundations slave-like working conditions, various class relations and undesirable environmental consequences. At the same time, the emerging digital commons provide a new and promising platform for social developments, arguably enabled by the progressive dynamics of ICT development. These are predominantly manifested as commons-based peer production, i.e., a new mode of collaborative, social production (Benkler 2006); and grassroots digital fabrication or community-driven makerspaces, i.e., forms of bottom-up, distributed manufacturing. The most well known examples of commons-based peer production are the free/open source software projects and the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia. While these new forms of social organisation are immanent in capitalism, they also have the features to challenge these conditions in a way that might in turn transcend the dominant system (Kostakis and Bauwens 2014). Following this dialectical framing, we would like to call for papers for a special issue of tripleC that will investigate how we can understand and balance the perils and promises of ICTs in order to make way for a just and sustainable paradigm. We seek scholarly articles and commentaries that address any of the following themes and beyond. We also welcome experimental formats, especially photo essays, which address the special issue's theme. Suggested themes Papers that track, measure and/or theorise the scope of the socio-environmental impact of the ICT infrastructure. Papers that track, measure and/or theorise surplus value as both ecological (land), social (labour) and intellectual (patent) in the context of ICTs. Understanding the human organisation of nature in commons-based peer production. Studies of the environmental dimensions of desktop manufacturing technologies (for example, 3D printing or CNC machines) in non-industrial modes of subsistence, e.g. eco-villages or traditional agriculture, as well as in modern towns and mega-cities. Suggestions for and insights into bridging understandings of the socio-economic organisation of the natural commons with the socio-economic organisation of the digital commons drawing on types of organisations in the past and the present that are grounded in theories of the commons. Elaboration of which theoretical approaches can be used for overcoming the conceptual separation of the categories immaterial/material in the digital commons. References Benkler, Yochai. 2006. The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press. Fuchs, Christian. 2014. Digital labour and Karl Marx. New York: Routledge. Fuchs, Christian. 2013. Theorising and analysing digital labour: From global value chains to modes of production. The Political Economy of Communication 1 (2): 3-27. http://www.polecom.org/index.php/polecom/article/view/19. Kostakis, Vasilis and Michel Bauwens. 2014. Network society and future scenarios for a collaborative economy. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Reed, Erik and Marta Miranda. 2007. Assessment of the mining sector and infrastructure development in the congo basin region. Washington DC: World Wildlife Fund, Macroeconomics for Sustainable Development Program Office, 27. http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/congobasinmining.pdf Schedule Submission of abstracts (250-300 words) by January 15, 2015 via email to vasileios.kostakis(a)ttu.ee Responses about acceptance/rejection to authors: February 15, 2015. Selected authors will be expected to submit their full documents to tripleC via the online submission system by May 15, 2015: http://triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions Expected publication date of the special issue: October 1, 2015. About the journal tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique is an academic open access online journal using a non-commercial Creative Commons license. It is a journal that focuses on information society studies and studies of media, digital media, information and communication in society with a special interest in critical studies in these thematic areas. The journal has a special interest in disseminating articles that focus on the role of information in contemporary capitalist societies. For this task, articles should employ critical theories and/or empirical research inspired by critical theories and/or philosophy and ethics guided by critical thinking as well as relate the analysis to power structures and inequalities of capitalism, especially forms of stratification such as class, racist and other ideologies and capitalist patriarchy. Papers should reflect on how the presented findings contribute to the illumination of conditions that foster or hinder the advancement of a global sustainable and participatory information society. TripleC was founded in 2003 and is edited by Christian Fuchs and Marisol Sandoval.

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Livestreaming at AOIR
by Alice E. Marwick 14 Oct '14

14 Oct '14

Hi all, I'm one of the participants in the selfie events (pre-conference workshop, panel, and fishbowl), and we're trying to figure out how we can best allow non-attendees to participate. We'd like to livestream the events and include some sort of participation from watchers (a chat channel, at least). I was looking at UStream but they have "pivoted" to enterprise use and if there's another possibility I'd like to explore that. Any ideas? What have people used for streaming that has worked well for them? We'll probably just bring an extra laptop with a webcam and use that to stream the events, but other suggestions are welcome. Warmly, Alice -- Alice E. Marwick, PhD Director, McGannon Center Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Media Studies Fordham University amarwick(a)fordham.edu http://www.tiara.org Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity & Branding in the Social Media Age available from Yale Press http://bit.ly/StatusUpdateBook

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Berkman Center Accepting Fellowship Applications for the 2015-2016 Academic Year
by Rebecca Tabasky 14 Oct '14

14 Oct '14

Good morning AoIR friends, The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University has opened its annual call for fellowship applications. This opportunity is for those who wish to spend the 2015-2016 academic year in residence in Cambridge, MA as part of Berkman's community of pioneers, and who seek to deeply engage in the collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and cross-sectoral exploration of some of the Internet's most interesting, challenging, and compelling issues. Applications will be accepted through Friday December 12, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, and applications will be **submitted online through our Application Tracker tool at: http://brk.mn/1516app We invite applications from folks around the globe working on a broad range of opportunities and challenges related to Internet and society, which may overlap with ongoing work at Berkman or will expose us to new opportunities and approaches. We encourage applications from a diverse group of scholars, practitioners, innovators, engineers, artists, and others committed to understanding and advancing the public interest who come from -- and have interest in -- countries industrialized or developing, with ideas, projects, or activities in all phases on a spectrum from incubation to reflection. More information about this call for applications may be found below and at http://brk.mn/fellows1516. More information about the Berkman Center Fellowship Program may be found at http://brk.mn/fellows. A Fellowship Program FAQ may be found at http://brk.mn/fellowsfaq. Through this annual open call, we seek to advance our collective work and give it new direction, and to deepen and broaden our networked community across backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, and nations. We welcome you to read more about the program below, to share this announcement with your networks, and to apply! With thanks, Becca --- ** * <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/opencall20142015>*Open Call for Fellowship Applications, Academic Year 2015-2016 <https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/opencall20152016>*** About Berkman's Fellowship Program* "The Berkman Center's mission is to explore and understand cyberspace; to study its development, dynamics, norms, and standards; and to assess the need or lack thereof for laws and sanctions. We are a research center, premised on the observation that what we seek to learn is not already recorded. Our method is to build out into cyberspace, record data as we go, self-study, and share. Our mode is entrepreneurial nonprofit." Inspired by our mission statement, the Berkman Center's fellowship program provides the opportunity for some of the world's most innovative thinkers and changemakers to hone and share ideas, find camaraderie, and spawn new initiatives. The program aims to encourage and support fellows in an inviting and rigorous intellectual environment, with community activities designed to foster inquiry and to identify and expose the common threads across fellows' individual activities. Fellows actively participate in exchanges through a weekly fellows hour, fellows-run working groups, and a wide-range of Berkman Center events and interactions. While engaging in both substance and process, much of what makes the fellowship program rewarding is created each year by the fellows themselves to address their own interests and priorities. These entrepreneurial, collaborative ventures -- ranging from goal-oriented to experimental, from rigorous to humorous -- are what ensure the dynamism of the fellows, the fellowship program, and the Berkman community. Additionally, with Berkman faculty, students, staff, and other affiliates, fellows help to develop and advance their own work and Berkman Center projects, and they learn and teach through courses, skill sharing, hacking and development sessions, cultural productions, and other gatherings. Fellows are essential to the Berkman Center as nodes of intelligence, insight, energy, and knowledge-sharing. From their diverse backgrounds and wide-ranging physical and virtual travels, Berkman Center fellows bring fresh ideas, skills, passion, and connections to the Center and its community, and from their time spent in Cambridge help build and extend new perspectives and initiatives out into the world. Current fellows have shared reflections on their experiences here, and provide great insights and specifics from an insider's view. Sara Watson writes <http://www.saramwatson.com/blog/the-year-at-berkman>, "Berkman became a supportive community of people I can count on to a read a draft of something I write before I post it, or to talk through a difficult decision and urge me to find my own voice. Parts of my work this year were challenging in unexpected ways, and I'm thankful to have had the support of this inspiring and encouraging group." Nathan Matias says <https://civic.mit.edu/blog/natematias/why-you-should-apply-to-be-a-berkman-…>, "As a fellow, you'll be part of an amazing, supportive network of people who will help you, challenge you, and work with you to make your work more socially conscious, more visible, more effective, and more awesome."* About Berkman Fellowships* An appointment that defies one-size-fits-all description, each Berkman fellowship carries a unique set of opportunities, responsibilities and expectations. All fellows engage issues related to the fairly limitless expanse of Internet & society issues, and are committed to the intellectual life of the Center and fellowship program activities. Some fellows work as researchers directly on Berkman Center projects. Other fellowships consist of independent work, such as the research and writing of a manuscript or series of papers, the vision and planning of an action-oriented meeting, or the development and implementation of an initiative or a study on issues related to the Berkman Center's areas of inquiry. Fellowship terms typically run the course of the academic year, roughly from the beginning of September through the end of May. In some instances, fellows are re-appointed for consecutive fellowship terms. While we embrace our many virtual connections, spending time together in person remains essential. In order to maximize their engagement with the community, during their fellowship terms fellows are expected to routinely spend time in and conduct much of their work from Cambridge, in most cases requiring residency. Tuesdays hold particular importance as it is the day the fellows community meets for a weekly fellows hour, in addition to it being the day Berkman hosts our public luncheon series; as such, we ask that fellows commit to spending as many Tuesdays at the Center as is possible.* Qualifications* We do not have a defined set of requirements for the fellows we select through our open call; we welcome applications from a wildly diverse range of people. Fellows come from across the disciplinary spectrum and different life paths, and are at all stages of career development. Some fellows are academics, whether students, post-docs, or professors. Others come from outside academia, and include lawyers, philosophers, activists, technologists, entrepreneurs, journalists, and other types of practitioners. The commonality among all Berkman fellows is an interest in the intersections of the Internet and related emergent technologies, social change, and policy and regulatory developments, as well as a commitment to spending their fellowship exploring those dynamics in concert with others. To learn more about the work and interests of our current community of fellows, you can read their bios <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/fellows>and find links to their outstanding work, check out their blogs <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/planet/current/>, and <https://twitter.com/berkmancenter/current-people-projects>find them on twitter <https://twitter.com/berkmancenter/lists/current-people-projects>.* Commitment to Diversity* The work and well-being of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society are strengthened profoundly by the diversity of our network and our differences in background, culture, experience, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and much more. We actively seek and welcome applications from people of color, women, the LGBTQIA community, and persons with disabilities, as well as applications from researchers and practitioners from across the spectrum of disciplines and methods. The roots of this deep commitment are many and, appropriately, diverse. We welcome your inquiries, comments, and ideas on how we may continue to improve.* Stipends, Benefits, and Access to University Resources*/ Stipends/: Fellowships awarded through the open call for applications are rarely stipended. Some fellows receive partial stipends --the award of such a stipend is based on the nature of the responsibilities the applicant would assume while a fellow, and their relation, relevance, and application to Berkman's funded projects. Most fellows receive no direct funding or stipend through the Berkman Center, but rather have obtained funding through other means, such as an outside grant or award, a home institution, or other forms of scholarship./ Benefits/: Fringe benefits do not routinely accompany Berkman fellowships. Fellows must make their own housing, insurance, childcare, and transportation arrangements./ Office Space/: Most Berkman fellows work out of the greater-Boston area and spend a significant amount of time at the Berkman Center. There are many desks and workspaces available for flexible use at the Berkman Center, though few fellows are given their own permanent desk or office. We endeavor to provide comfortable and productive spaces for fellows to work, even if it is not the same space each day. Fellows are welcome to host small meetings and gatherings at the Center and on the Harvard campus./ Access to University Resources/: Fellows are allowed physical access into Langdell Library (the Harvard Law School Library), and fellows are able to acquire a Special Borrower Card <http://hcl.harvard.edu/info/admittance/#special_borrower>for privileges with the Harvard College Libraries. At present, we do not routinely provide remote access to the University's e-resources, however access is available within the libraries. Fellows do not have the ability to purchase University health insurance or get Harvard housing. Berkman fellows often audit classes at Harvard University, however must individually ask for permission directly from the professor of the desired class.* Additional Information about the Berkman Center* The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. Founded in 1997, through a generous gift from Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman, the Center is home to an ever-growing community of faculty, fellows, staff, and affiliates working on projects that span the broad range of intersections between cyberspace, technology, and society. To learn more about Berkman's current activities and interests, consider watching a video of a Fall 2014 lunch talk <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2014/09/openhouse> led by Berkman's Faculty Director Jonathan Zittrain. * Frequently Asked Questions* More information about fellows selection and the application process can be found on our Fellows Program FAQ <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/faq>.* Required Application Materials* 1.) A current resume or C.V. 2.) A personal statement which should a) frame your motivation for applying for a Berkman Center fellowship and b) outline the work you propose to conduct during a fellowship. This statement should be roughly 1,000 -- 1,500 words or should be a multi-media equivalent. 3.) A copy of a recent publication or an example of relevant work. For a written document, for instance, it should be on the order of a paper or chapter - not an entire book or dissertation - and should be in English. 4.) Two letters of recommendation, sent directly from the reference. In addition to the above materials, we ask applicants to share some additional information in a form as part of the application. 1.) Disciplinary background: Up to three disciplines in which you have been trained and/or have worked. 2.) Tags: Five tags that describe or represent the themes, issues, or ideas you know about and on which you propose to conduct work during a fellowship at Berkman; and five tags that represent work, themes, issues, or ideas that you do not currently know much about, but would like to explore and learn more about during a fellowship year. Each tag should be one- to three- words or terms. 3.) Berkman projects of interest. * To Apply for a 2015-2016 Academic Year Fellowship Through Our Open Call* Applications will be submitted online through our Application Tracker tool at: http://brk.mn/1516app<https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/apply/jobs/11?apptracker_id=3> Applications will be accepted through Friday December 12, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Instructions for creating an account and submitting an application through the Application Tracker may be foundhere <https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/9392>. Note related to recommendation letters: Recommendation letters will be captured through the Application Tracker, and will require applicants to submit the names and contact information for references in advance of the application deadline. References will receive a link at which they can upload their letters. We recommend that applicants create their profiles and submit reference information in the Application Tracker as soon as they know they are going to apply and have identified their references - this step will not require other fellowship application materials to be submitted.

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Media, Culture & Society special section: "Digital media - social memory" is out!
by Christian Pentzold 14 Oct '14

14 Oct '14

Publication announcement: For those interested in the intersection of social media and social memory, Media, Culture & Society has just published a special section with papers studying different field sites in Singapore, Cambodia and Australia as well among Cuban-Americans in Miami where digitally networked technologies were used in and for processes of social remembering. *Media, Culture & Society (September 2014 issue, no. 36(6)) special section: Digital media - social memory* Guest editors: Christian Pentzold and Christine Lohmeier Find the special section here: http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/36/6.toc Background: In times when all walks of live seem to be mediated, in the ubiquitous presence of communication devices and ever more ways to produce, store, remix and distribute messages, the special section assembles research and thinking on the relationship of social media and social memory and to ponder on key themes of current as well as future research. Memory and media are inseparable. Since the very beginnings of human culture, media have been employed to fix, share and store expressions and impressions of individual and collective experiences. Remembrance thus lives and sustains itself in mediated memorable objects and symbolic representations that become enmeshed and activated in memory work such as colloquial conversation, ritual ceremonies, retrospectives or reminiscences. Moreover, from wall paints and cuneiforms via manuscripts and prints to the rise of networked electronic infrastructures and digital media, socio-technical innovations reassemble the practices and materials of individual and collective commemorations. Taking this continuing twin relation, the special section captures empirical research that studies the interplay of current media and social changes and the acts and artefacts of memory. Given the swift appearance, broad diffusion and profound impact of novel connective and mobile services and applications, the special section considers how social media relate to the ways we ‘do’ memory. TOC: Media, Culture & Society (September 2014, issue 36, no. 6: pp. 745-809). Special section: Digital media - social memory. Guest editors: Christian Pentzold and Christine Lohmeier Emily Keightley and Philip Schlesinger Digital media – social memory: remembering in digitally networked times Media, Culture & Society September 2014 36: 745-747, doi:10.1177/0163443714532985 Anna Reading Seeing red: a political economy of digital memory Media, Culture & Society September 2014 36: 748-760, doi:10.1177/0163443714532980 Kai Khiun Liew, Natalie Pang, and Brenda Chan Industrial railroad to digital memory routes: remembering the last railway in Singapore Media, Culture & Society September 2014 36: 761-775, 2014 doi:10.1177/0163443714532984 Christine Lohmeier and Christian Pentzold Making mediated memory work: Cuban-Americans, Miami media and the doings of diaspora memories Media, Culture & Society September 2014 36: 776-789, 2014 doi:10.1177/0163443713518574 Stephanie Benzaquen Looking at the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes, Cambodia, on Flickr and YouTube Media, Culture & Society September 2014 36: 790-809, 2014 doi:10.1177/0163443714532983 -- Dr. Christian Pentzold Lecturer Technische Universität Chemnitz, Institute for Media Research Associate Researcher Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society, Berlin Fon: +49-(0)371-531-38798 Fax: +49-(0)371-531-27429 christian.pentzold [at] hiig.de www.christianpentzold.de

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Fwd: [okfn-discuss] London Oct 23 Event - Social media and local political representation: a game changer or all hype?
by Steven Clift 14 Oct '14

14 Oct '14

Come on along. This should be a very interesting and fresh conversation: http://bit.ly/socmedialocalpolOct23London Here is info on my full trip - http://bit.ly/cliftuk14 - These are my draft slides - http://bit.ly/engagingtimesslides - for an event the *day before* with the Consultation Institute with one "friending for office" teaser slide for case study presentation highlighted below. I understand that a live webcast is planned. Let me know if your e-list wants the details once available. - Steve Join me as I present on the dynamic trend of "friending for office" and present a case study on a new crop of recently elected Facebook "native" local councillors in the Minneapolis who are using Facebook to engage constituents in meaningful exchanges on public issues literally multiple times a day. - Steven Clift ** Social media and local political representation: a game changer or all hype? ** Involve Thursday, 23 October 2014 from 13:30 to 16:30 (BST) London , United Kingdom RSVP from: http://bit.ly/socmedialocalpolOct23London Event Details Digital could mean a real opportunity for local politicians to improve and adapt interaction and engagement with communities so that the public is much more engaged on its own terms, through an approach that is less institutionally-focused and more citizen-driven. But does it? This event explores how new technologies and social media are impacting local democracy and the relationship between the networked councillor and the local community. Developments in social media mean that in principle constituents can now count on many more immediate channels to access their political representatives and put their concerns and ideas directly to them. By the same token, local elected representatives can now use a low cost platform to communicate with their constituency as often as they like. The event is conceived as a facilitated conversation between local policy actors, civil society practitioners and academics to discuss some key questions and draw lessons: - What are the implications of greater use of digital and social media for the relationship between councillors and citizens? Does it change the way representatives work and the way we understand responsiveness? Does it disrupt established practices and institutions? Or is it all hype?! - Will new technologies widen the political space or increase populism? Will they create new forms of inequality in accessing power - whoever shouts (tweets?!) more? - What new types of representatives are empowered? - How does this new unmediated interaction influence constituents’ perception of their local representatives?What lessons can be learnt from case studies in the UK and abroad? Presenters incude: Steve Clift http://stevenclift.com/ Dan Jellinek http://www.danjellinek.com/ and "Wired" councillors sharing their experience: Councillor Tim Cheetham, LGA Improvement and Innovation Board https://www.barnsley.gov.uk/about-us/how-the-council-is-organised/general-i… Councillor Liz Green http://www.kingstonlibdems.org/web/?q=lizgreen Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.org Twitter: http://twitter.com/democracy Tel/Text: +1.612.234.7072 ᐧ ᐧ _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list okfn-discuss(a)lists.okfn.org https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss

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ICA Workshop CFP: Administrative v. Critical Research: Implications for Contemporary Information Policy Studies
by Richard Denny Taylor 14 Oct '14

14 Oct '14

Administrative v. Critical Research: Implications for Contemporary Information Policy Studies An ICA pre-conference co-hosted by the Journal of Information Policy, the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State, the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the LINKS-ICORE project at the Department of Communication Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the ICA Communication Law and Policy Division Tensions, disagreements, differences and disputes of both a methodological and theoretical nature have always been an attribute of communication policy studies. One of the major contributions to this debate is Paul Lazarsfeld's seminal piece "Remarks on Administrative and Critical Communication Research."* The Journal of Information Policy ( <http://www.jip-online.org> www.jip-online.org) the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State, the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the LINKS-ICORE project at the Department of Communication Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the ICA Communication Law and Policy Division are holding a pre-conference in which the relevance of the distinction between "administrative" and "critical" scholarship in light of Lazarsfeld's analysis will be tested when applied to today's information society and the research questions contemporary information policy raises. The Journal will publish a special issue dedicated to the 75th anniversary of this essay in 2016. The pre-conference will be held on May 21, 2015 at one of the two ICA hotels in San Juan. Administrative research, according to Lazarsfeld, which takes its name from the corporate or government funding that supports it, emanates from the notion that the media are "tools handled by people or agencies for given purposes" and therefore the studies themselves focus on making the "tool(s) better known, and thus to facilitate (their) use." Critical research, on the other hand, is guided by the notion that "the general role of our media of communication in the present social order should be studied." Lazarsfeld saw "administrative" research as being focused on questions such as "Who are the people exposed to different media? What are their specific preferences? What are the effects of different methods of presentation?" and "critical" research as asking a different set of questions, such as "How are these media organized and controlled? How, in their institutional set-up is the trend toward centralization, standardization and promotional pressure expressed? In what form, however disguised, are they threatening human values?" Administrative research, explains Lazarsfeld, is criticized for solving only "little problems, generally of a business character, when the same methods could be used to improve the life of the community if only they were applied to forward looking projects related to the pressing economic and social problems of our time." Critical research, however, is opposed by those who believe "that so much of its effort is spent on what might be called 'showing up' things, rather than fact-finding or constructive suggestions." Self-described as one "whose interests and occupational duties are in the field of administrative research," Lazarsfeld called for the development of critical policy research, since he believed it could "contribute much in terms of challenging problems and new concepts." Contemporary society stands, 75 years later, at the same crossroads. The media may have changed, they have assumed new names, they are "digital" and "social", interactive and mobile; however, the social challenges they raise are similar. While media are accessible as never before, the divide among their users is more complex, and on many more levels, than could have been fathomed three quarters of a century ago. The increased pace of technological change also implies that it has become more difficult to undertake the sort of anticipatory "reimagining" of media potentialities with which critical research was tasked. Instead, many of the most radical innovations capitalizing on the affordances of new technologies are taking place in entrepreneurial contexts. Governments, ideologically disinclined or unable to undertake regulation preemptively (as witnessed in the net neutrality debates), are allowing greater play for market forces in media environments. Is there a role for critical research in this new scenario? Further, many policy issues now go well beyond the boundary of nation-states and need to be addressed at the international, the regional or even the global levels. Would a debate originated in the U.S. context shed light on those issues in the age of networked power and global governance? What direction is communication policy research taking? Is it driven by researchers focused on the "tools" or on the context in which the tools are used? What kinds of research should drive policy? How can media researchers, who now have access to vastly improved sources of data and research methods, compared to those in Lazarsfeld's time, most effectively conduct administrative research? What ethical questions are raised by the use of consumer data for administrative research? Should research focus on understanding the media of communications, what they are capable of doing and what their effects may be, or should it focus on the social implications of access or lack of access to these media? This Call for Papers invites submissions that identify the tension between administrative and critical research as it pertains to information and communication policy studies in both national and global contexts. Submissions may focus on, but are not limited to, addressing the following questions: . What are the normative foundations of administrative research? . Can administrative research ethically inform information policy? . How can policy research be made more democratic? . What, if any, is the role of the moral imagination in policy research? . Can empiricism/positivism engage ethical/moral values? . How can scholarly policy researchers (of any kind) avoid being compromised by the dominant agents of influence? . Should critical research have a greater presence in forums directed to administrative research? . Can critical scholarship inform policy? . Is critical scholarship utilized enough by policymakers? . What is and what should be the relationship of social activism to scholarship? . What current policy issues heighten the tension between administrative and critical research? Case studies, which combine these questions with specific examples of contemporary policy issues, are encouraged as well. Abstracts of between 400-500 words and a short bio of the author(s) should be sent to <mailto:pennstateiip@psu.edu> pennstateiip(a)psu.edu by December 19, 2014. Please write IIPCLAPWS: YOUR NAME in the subject line. Abstracts not sent according to the above instructions will not be reviewed. Authors will be notified of their acceptance before January 14, 2015. Up to 8 abstracts will be accepted to the workshop and full papers are expected by May 14, 2015. Each paper will be assigned a respondent, and discussed at length at the workshop in order to help the author develop a paper to be submitted to the Journal of Information Policy. Authors presenting at the pre-conference will be invited to submit their completed papers for review in a special issue of the Journal of Information Policy ( <http://www.jip-online.org/> www.jip-online.org) to be published in 2016 highlighting the 75th anniversary of Lazarfeld's essay. Now in its 5th year, the JIP is an open-access peer-reviewed journal dedicated to timely policy research that addresses contemporary challenges and connects researchers to policymakers. This pre-conference is the 10th workshop of the "Making Policy Research Accessible," project organized by the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State. * Lazarsfeld, P. (1941). Remarks on administrative and critical research. Studies in Philosophy and Social Science, 9, 2-16.

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