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New paperback: Critique, Social Media and the Information Society (ed. Christian Fuchs, Marisol Sandoval)
by Christian Fuchs 03 May '14

03 May '14

New paperback: Fuchs, Christian and Marisol Sandoval, eds. 2014. Critique, Social Media and the Information Society. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-72108-0. http://fuchs.uti.at/books/critique-social-media-and-the-information-society/ This book is an outcome of the 4th ICTs and Society Conference “Critique, Democracy, and Philosophy in 21st Century Information Society: Towards Critical Theories of Social Media” (May 2-4, 2012, Uppsala Univeristy, Sweden) Read the introduction: Christian Fuchs and Marisol Sandoval - Critique, Social Media and the Information Society in the Age of Capitalist Crisis http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/intro.pdf In times of global capitalist crisis we are witnessing a return of critique in the form of a surging interest in critical theories (such as the critical political economy of Karl Marx) and social rebellions as a reaction to the commodification and instrumentalization of everything. On one hand, there are overdrawn claims that social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc) have caused uproars in countries like Tunisia and Egypt. On the other hand, the question arises as to what actual role social media play in contemporary capitalism, crisis, rebellions, the strengthening of the commons, and the potential creation of participatory democracy. The commodification of everything has resulted also in a commodification of the communication commons, including Internet communication that is today largely commercial in character. This book deals with the questions of what kind of society and what kind of Internet are desirable, how capitalism, power structures and social media are connected, how political struggles are connected to social media, what current developments of the Internet and society tell us about potential futures, how an alternative Internet can look like, and how a participatory, commons-based Internet and a co-operative, participatory, sustainable information society can be achieved. With contributions by Andrew Feenberg, Catherine McKercher, Christian Fuchs, Graham Murdock, Gunilla Bradley, Jernej Amon Prodnik, Margareta Melin, Marisol Sandoval, Mark Andrejevic, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Peter Dahlgren, Robert Prey, Sebastian Sevignani, Thomas Allmer, Tobias Olsson, Verena Kreilinger, Vincent Mosco, Wolfgang Hofkirchner. Contents 1. Christian Fuchs and Marisol Sandoval Introduction: Critique, Social Media and the Information Society in the Age of Capitalist Crisis Part I: Critical Studies of the Information Society 2. Christian Fuchs Critique of the Political Economy of Informational Capitalism and Social Media 3. Wolfgang Hofkirchner Potentials and Risks for Creating a Global Sustainable Information Society 4. Sebastian Sevignani, Robert Prey, Marisol Sandoval, Thomas Allmer, Jernej Amon Prodnik and Verena Kreilinger Critical Studies of Contemporary Informational Capitalism: The Perspective of Emerging Scholars 5. Gunilla Bradley Social Informatics and Ethics: Towards the Good Information and Communication Society Part II: Critical Internet- and Social Media-Studies 6. Andrew Feenberg Great Refusal or Long March: How to Think About the Internet 7. Graham Murdock Producing Consumerism: Commodities, Ideologies, Practices 8. Marisol Sandoval Social Media?: The Unsocial Character of Capitalist Media 9. Nick Dyer-Witheford The Global Worker and the Digital Front 10. Mark Andrejevic Alienation’s Returns 11. Peter Dahlgren Social Media and Political Participation: Discourse and Deflection 12. Tobias Olsson “The Architecture of Participation”: For Citizens or Consumers? Part III: Critical Studies of Communication Labour 13. Catherine McKercher Precarious Times, Precarious Work: A Feminist Political Economy of Freelance Journalists in Canada and the United States 14. Margareta Melin Flight as Fight: Re-Negotiating the Work of Journalism 15. Vincent Mosco Marx is Back, But Will Knowledge Workers of the World Unite?: On the Critical Study of Labour, Media and Communication Today

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ICA preconference: Sharing - A keyword for the digital age
by Nicholas John 03 May '14

03 May '14

** Apologies for cross-posting ** ICA preconference: Sharing - A keyword for the digital age If you're attending the ICA conference in Seattle, you may be especially interested in the preconference, Sharing: A keyword for the digital age. A bunch of internet scholars (but not only) will be presenting a fascinating range of papers that interrogate the rich and evocative concept of sharing. You can view the program here: http://sharing2014.wordpress.com You can sign up here: https://www.icahdq.org/shopping/Default.asp (attending a preconference doesn’t obligate you to attend the main ICA conference) Some details: Cost - $70, which includes coffee breaks, lunch and transport to and from the Sheraton Seattle Hotel Date - Thursday, 22 May, 2014, from about 9-5 Location - University of Washington ____________ Nicholas John Department of Communication, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Tel: +972-54-7906073 @nicholasajohn https://sites.google.com/site/smarthuji/people/faculty/dr-nicholas-john

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The Politics & Aesthetics of Posthumanism conference 16-20 May 2014 Tel Aviv, Israel
by Carmel Vaisman 03 May '14

03 May '14

Dear Colleagues, A few months ago I posted our CFP here and now i am excited to present the program of our posthumanism conference. As you will see, digital media is represented in a few panels in various ways and in discussion with various disciplines: http://oh-man-oh-machine.com/ If any of you happen to be "around" or know people that this might be relevant to them, please let them know - attendance is free of charge. Best Regards, Carmel Vaisman, PhD. http://www.absolutecarmel.com Twitter: @carmelva

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Webinars & discussions about qualitative online research
by Janet Salmons, Ph.D. 02 May '14

02 May '14

I am hosting an interactive, global online multi-platform extravaganza to celebrate the release of Qualitative Online Interviews, including free webinars, discussions and tweetchats about using e-interviews in research. Topics will include strategies for teaching online qualitative research methods, designing and conducting online studies, and e-research ethics. SCoPE, an online community of students and academics interested in educational technology research and practice, will host the Qualitative Online Interviews seminar from May 1 to 16. The SCoPE Moodle forum will be home base, a place to post and share resources, and have asynchronous dialogue. Visit SCoPE at http://bit.ly/1i7W73j for free registration, webinar log-in information and related resources. . Asynchronous Discussion Forum May 1-16: Teaching Digital Qualitative Interview Methods Designing an (Approvable) Study with Digital Qualitative Interview Methods Open Discussion with Q & A Webinars, May 5 and 12, and June 7: Monday, May 5, 2014 at 17:00:00 Fair and Good? Ethics and Quality in Online Interview Research Monday, May 12, 2014 at 17:00:00 See, Share, Create: Visual E-Interviews Saturday, June 7, 2014 at 15:00 Online Interviews for Active Online Learning Tweetchat, May 8: Thursday, May 8, 2014 at 14:00:00 5 Tips for Teaching E-Interview Methods (Tweet to #NSMNSS) e/merge Africa Events, July 21-25: Use What You Have: Online, Hybrid and Low-Bandwidth Options. Details TBA Vibrant Exchange with Event Partners! Collaborative partners will extend the reach and scope of global dialogue about potential and practices related to qualitative online interview research. They include the following. - e/merge Africa, an educational technology network that offers professional development and exchange for educators and students throughout Africa. - Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning, or IT4ALL, offers professional development and exchange for global educators who use online technologies. - New Social Media, New Social Science or NSMNSS, a collaboration of the NatCen, Oxford Internet Institute and Sage Publications, addresses questions related to the implications of and methods for using social media in research. See you online! Janet *Janet Salmons Ph.D.* *Capella University School of Business and Vision2Lead* Site- http://www.vision2lead.com Follow Twitter @einterview Coming soon from Sage!* Qualitative Online Interviews* PO Box 943 Boulder, CO 80306-0943 jsalmons(a)vision2lead.com

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Looking for SurveyMonkey Users
by Shulman, Stu 02 May '14

02 May '14

We are looking for a few SurveyMonkey users with large surveys completed and stored that include open ended questions. We have just completed an integration that allows DiscoverText users to connect to SurveyMonkey to import data to perform text and metadata analytics. If you are willing to be a beta tester of the integration, we will sponsor your DiscoverText account for three months. Participants will be asked for periodic feedback about how well the integration works. One question might be: what is 'large' in this context? If you have 1,000+ responses, I'd call that large enough. It would be nice to find 1-2 folks with >5,000 responses. Thanks! ~Stu -- Dr. Stuart W. Shulman http://people.umass.edu/stu Founder and CEO, Texifter http://texifter.com LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartwshulman Twitter https://twitter.com/StuartWShulman

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The Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research New England is hiring a Research Assistant
by Nancy Baym 01 May '14

01 May '14

Microsoft Research (MSR) is looking for a Research Assistant for its Social Media Collective in the New England lab, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Social Media Collective consists of Nancy Baym, Mary Gray, Jessa Lingel, and Kevin Driscoll in Cambridge, and Kate Crawford and danah boyd in New York City, as well as faculty visitors and Ph.D. interns. The RA will be working directly with Nancy Baym, Kate Crawford and Mary Gray. An appropriate candidate will be a self-starter who is passionate and knowledgeable about the social and cultural implications of technology. Strong skills in writing, organisation and academic research are essential, as are time-management and multi-tasking. Minimal qualifications are a BA or equivalent degree in a humanities or social science discipline and some qualitative research training. Job responsibilities will include: - Sourcing and curating relevant literature and research materials - Producing literature reviews and/or annotated bibliographies - Coding ethnographic and interview data - Editing manuscripts - Working with academic journals on themed sections - Assisting with research project and event organization The RA will also get to collaborate on ongoing research and, while publication is not a guarantee, the RA will be encouraged to co-author papers while at MSR. The RAship will require 40 hours per week on site in Cambridge, MA, and remote collaboration with the researchers in the New York City lab. It is a 1-year only contractor position, paid hourly with flexible daytime hours. The start date will ideally be in late June, although flexibility is possible for the right candidate. This position is ideal for junior scholars who will be applying to PhD programs in Communication, Media Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Information Studies, and related fields and want to develop and hone their research skills before entering a graduate program. Current New England-based MA/PhD students are welcome to apply provided they can commit to 40 hours of on-site work per week. To apply, please send an email to Nancy Baym (baym(a)microsoft.com) with the subject "RA Application" and include the following attachments: - One-page (single-spaced) personal statement, including a description of research experience, interests, and professional goals - CV or resume - Writing sample (preferably a literature review or a scholarly-styled article) - Links to online presence (e.g., blog, homepage, Twitter, journalistic endeavors, etc.) - The names and emails of two recommenders We will begin reviewing applications on May 12 and will continue to do so until we find an appropriate candidate.

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See what our friends at NJEDge.Net have to say about the ELD Conference
by AJ Kelton 01 May '14

01 May '14

Less than a month until the 2014 Emerging Learning Design Conference. Check out what our Gold Partner NJEdge.net has to share about the event. http://njedge.net/emerging-learning-design-conference-2014/ -- ----- AJ Kelton Director of Emerging & Instructional Technology College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Montclair State University Doctoral Candidate Educational Communication and Technology - New York University ---------- Emerging Learning Design 2014 http://eld.montclair.edu Twitter: @ELDConf <http://twitter.com/ELDConf> ---------- http://www.ajkelton.net Twitter: @aj_kelton <http://twitter.com/aj_kelton>

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Social Media Analysis course, Brisbane 7-11 July
by Robert Ackland 01 May '14

01 May '14

Dear List, I am running a 5-day course on Social Media Analysis at the ACSPRI Winter Program, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 7-11 July. More details are available here: https://acspri.org.au/node/1240 Please note that the cut-off for Early Bird discounts is *Wednesday 7th May* (i.e. in 5 days time). This course will provide students with an introduction to social media analysis in the context of social research. The course is designed for social researchers interested in social media, and covers methods of accessing and analysing digital trace data from websites, blogsites, Twitter and Facebook. While there is emphasis on social networks (e.g. WWW hyperlink networks, follower networks in Twitter, friendship networks in Facebook), analysing text content from social media is also covered. There will also be an introduction to using Virtual Worlds (e.g. Second Life and Massively Multiplayer Online Games) and online experiments for social research. Analytic approaches include social network analysis and text content analysis. The course also provides practical training in software tools that can be used for social research using social media data: VOSON (for hyperlink network construction and analysis), NodeXL (Excel 2007/2010 template for social media network analysis), Gephi (network visualisation tool). Notes will include excerpts from my book Web Social Science (SAGE). Please contact me if you would like more details on the course. Regards, Rob -- Assoc. Prof. Robert Ackland Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute Australian National University New book: Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools for Social Scientists in the Digital Age <http://www.amazon.com/Web-Social-Science-Concepts-Scientists/dp/1849204810> (SAGE Publications) e-mail: robert.ackland(a)anu.edu.au <mailto:robert.ackland@anu.edu.au> homepage: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/ackland-rj project: http://voson.anu.edu.au <http://voson.anu.edu.au/>

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Final call for New Media & Society special issue on hacking & making due 5/1
by Andrew Schrock 01 May '14

01 May '14

Final reminder, deadline is 5/1. CFP: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/178651/NMS-hacking.txt A Andrew Schrock USC Annenberg Doctoral Candidate aschrock(a)usc.edu 714.330.6545

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FW: [MCJ] M/C Journal 'cute' Issue Now Available
by Axel Bruns 01 May '14

01 May '14

G'day ! This may be of interest to some of you. Includes scientific proof that the Internet is indeed made of cats. > -----Original Message----- > From: Axel Bruns [mailto:editor@media-culture.org.au] > Sent: Thursday, 1 May 2014 10:26 > To: Axel Bruns > Subject: [MCJ] M/C Journal 'cute' Issue Now Available > > FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 1 May 2014 > > M/C - Media and Culture > is proud to present issue two in volume seventeen of > > M/C Journal > http://journal.media-culture.org.au/ > > 'cute' - Edited by James Meese and Ramon Lobato > > Cute content is a fundamental but under-researched component of the Internet > economy. Millions of people around the world start their day with videos of > kittens, puppies and meerkats. Recent years have seen the rise of global > animal brands, such as Maru and Grumpy Cat, along with new talent agencies > for this purpose. Online portal I Can Haz Cheezburger has received millions > of dollars in venture capital funding, becoming a diversified media business > in its own right. YouTube channels, Twitter hashtags and blog rolls form an > infrastructure across which a vast amount of cute-themed user-generated > content, as well as an increasing amount of commercially produced and branded > material, now circulates. > > Cute content can also be understood as an aesthetic tradition. Tracing the > history of animal imagery leads us to a range of practices - kitsch > portraiture, stock photography, greeting card imagery - as well as newer > online spaces, such as the 4chan message boards, which have resignified the > captioned cat pic as a geek subcultural practice. Approaching cute content as > a sphere of contemporary cultural production raises a number of questions for > analysis. How can we contextualise digital cute content within a longer > history of mediated human-animal interactions? What is the nature of animal > celebrity and stardom? What textual forms does online cute imagery take in > different national and regional contexts? This issue of M/C Journal explores > 'cute' as a mode of textual production and as a sector of the Internet > economy. > > =========================================================================== > Further M/C Journal issues scheduled for 2014: > > 'persona': article deadline 25 Apr. 2014, release date 25 June 2014 > 'gothic': article deadline 20 June 2014, release date 20 Aug. 2014 > 'illegitimate': article deadline 15 Aug. 2014, release date 15 Oct. 2014 > 'counterculture': article deadline 10 Oct. 2014, release date 10 Dec. 2014 > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > M/C Journal 17.2 is now online: <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/>. > Previous issues of M/C Journal on various topics are also still available. > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit M/C Journal and M/C Reviews at <http://www.media-culture.org.au/>. > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > All contributors are available for media contacts: mc(a)media-culture.org.au. > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > M/C Journal > Vol. 17, No. 2 (2014) - 'cute' > Table of Contents > http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/issue/view/cute > > Editorial > -------- > Kittens All the Way Down: Cute in Context > Ramon Lobato, James Meese > > > Feature > -------- > “It Belongs to the Internet”: Animal Images, Attribution Norms and the > Politics of Amateur Media Production > James Meese > > > Articles > -------- > The Alchian-Allen Theorem and the Economics of Internet Animals > Jason Potts > > Do Cats Know They Rule YouTube? Surveillance and the Pleasures of Cat Videos > Radha O'Meara > > Cute But Relaxed: Ten Years of Rilakkuma in Precarious Japan > Carolyn Shannon Stevens > > “Meng? It Just Means Cute”: A Chinese Online Vernacular Term in Context > Gabriele de Seta > > Cute and Monstrous Furbys in Online Fan Production > Catherine Barbara Caudwell > > Cute-ifying Disability: Lil Bub, the Celebrity Cat > Elaine M Laforteza > > Because Neglect Isn't Cute: Tuxedo Stan's Campaign for a Humane World > Shari Sanders > > I Can Haz Likes: Cultural Intermediation to Facilitate “Petworking” > Jonathon Hutchinson > > > -- > M/C Journal http://journal.media-culture.org.au/ -- Dr Axel Bruns http://snurb.info/ - http://mappingonlinepublics.net/ ARC Future Fellow, 2014-17 http://www.amazon.com/author/axel.bruns/ Associate Professor, Media & Communication a.bruns(a)qut.edu.au ARC Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation http://cci.edu.au/ Creative Industries Faculty, Z1-515, CIP @snurb_dot_info Queensland University of Technology +61 7 31385548 Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove, Qld. 4059, Australia CRICOS No.: 00213J

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