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[reminder] Call for Applications - SMART Data Sprint 2021 Lisbon
by Smart Inovamedialab 07 Jan '21

07 Jan '21

Hello everyone, We would like to send a reminder for the call for applications of the SMART Data Sprint 2021, organised by iNOVA Media Lab. The deadline is already on January 18 and we have now updated the projects and workshops of the programme (sent below). On behalf of iNOVA Media Lab, Ana Marta M. Flores Elena Pilipets Janna Joceli Omena ******* *Digital Media Winter Institute | SMART Data Sprint 2021* NOVA University of Lisbon 1 - 5 February 2021 | Lisbon, Portugal iNOVA Media Lab invites applications for the SMART Data Sprint 2021, which will be held from 1 to 5 February in a hybrid format — online and in-person, at NOVA University of Lisbon. The Sprint is part of the Digital Media Winter Institute, an annual meeting focused on digital methods. The next edition theme is about The Current State of Platformisation. Participants from around the world will connect to attend keynote lectures, short talks and join applied research projects. This year we will bring even more innovative formats for practical labs, including an exclusive track made for researchers non-familiar with digital methods. Applications open on November 1st and close on January 18, 2021. Main audience: doctoral students and scholars interested in developing research from the perspective of digital methods. See the call for applications on the #SMARTDataSprint research blog https://smart.inovamedialab.org/2021-platformisation SMART Data Sprint | The Current State of Platformisation The deadline for submissions is January 18, 2021. ************************************ Digital Media Winter Institute | SMART Data Sprint 2021 NOVA University of Lisbon 1 - 5 February 2021 | Lisbon, Portugal Keynotes *José van Dijck (Utrecht University) *Anne Helmond (University of Amsterdam and Digital Media Initiative) *Fernando van der Vlist (App Studies Initiative and Digital Methods Initiative) Masterclass *Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández (School of Communication at QUT and Digital Media Research Centre). Projects Participants can elect from different projects to work with. *I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT! Trump spectacle and memetic antagonism on Twitter *#vivasylibresnosqueremos: Digital practices and public debates of feminisms in Latin America *Facebook as a political platform *Investigating cross-platform visual issuefication: the case of Brazil's Pantanal wildfires *How Instagram's algorithm shape controversial issues over time? *#homesofInsta for a #lockdownlife: a digital exploration of everyday aesthetics and mediated domesticity on Instagram Practical Labs // Workshops » Using APIs with Facepager » Webscraping with Facepager » Querying digital platforms & extracting data » Content Analysis on Instagram » Studying memes through platform data spreadsheets » Basic tricks for working with data » Advanced tricks for working with data » Using AI to enrich image data » Mapping gender issue-networks with Wikipedia: from co-word occurrences to topics of interest » Opening up the black-box of mobile apps' traffic » Gephi for Beginners » Mapping Twitter social media networks with NodeXL Pro » Reading Digital Networks If you have questions, contact the organising committee at smart.inovamedialab[at]fcsh.unl.pt. *Ana Marta M. Flores Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, iNOVA Media Lab, Portugal *Elena Pilipets Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria *Janna Joceli Omena Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, iNOVA Media Lab, Portugal -- SMART ˚ ˚ Social Media Research Techniques I #SMARTDataSprint <https://smart.inovamedialab.org/> iNOVA Media Lab <http://inovamedialab.org/> I NOVA FCSH I Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

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ACM UMAP 2021: Second Call for Workshop and Tutorial Proposals
by Oana Inel 07 Jan '21

07 Jan '21

— Apologies for cross-posting — 29th ACM International Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (ACM UMAP 2021) Utrecht, Netherlands, and Online June 21-25, 2021 https://www.um.org/umap2021/ CALL FOR WORKSHOPS Important Dates: Proposals due: January 15, 2021 Notification to proposers: January 29, 2021 Workshop Day(s): June TBA, 2021 Submission email: umap2021-workshop(a)um.org<mailto:umap2021-workshop@um.org> ACM UMAP 2021 is pleased to invite proposals for workshops to be held in conjunction with the conference. ACM UMAP is the premier international conference for researchers and practitioners working on systems that adapt to individual users or to groups of users, and which collect, represent, and model user information. The workshops provide a venue to discuss and explore emerging areas of User Modelling and Adaptive Hypermedia research with a group of like-minded researchers and practitioners from industry and academia. Information about Hybrid Conference Format ACM UMAP 2021 is planned to be a hybrid event, which welcomes everyone who is willing, able and allowed to travel in Utrecht, the Netherlands. However, there will also be an opportunity to attend the conference and the workshops online. Please check the conference website for updates: https://www.um.org/umap2021/ Workshops can therefore be held by the presenters at Utrecht (with synchronous online streaming), or designed as fully virtual workshops. The workshops will most probably be scheduled to start in the mornings or evenings local time (UTC+1). Workshop Format In this edition, our goal is to have a balanced workshop program comprising different workshop formats, combining newly emerging, currently evolving and established research topics. Different full-day and half-day workshop schemas are possible, such as: • Working group meetings around a specific problem or topic; participants may be asked to submit a white paper or position statement • Mini-conferences on specialized topics, having their own paper submission and review processes • Mini-competitions or challenges around selected topics with individual or team participation • Interactive discussion meetings focusing on subtopics of the UMAP general research topics. • Joint panels for different workshops Instructions for Proposers Workshop proposals should not exceed 5 pages and should be organized as follows: • Workshop title and acronym • Workshop chair(s), including affiliation, email address, homepage, and experiences in organizing such events • Abstract (up to 300 words) and topics of interest • Motivation on why the workshop is of particular interest at this time • Workshop format, discussing the mix of events such as paper presentations, invited talks, panels, and general discussions • Intended audience and expected number of participants • List of (potential) members of the program committee • Requested duration (half day or full day) • Proposed workshop format (e.g. hybrid or fully virtual) • When available, past editions of the workshop, including URLs, a brief statement on the development of the workshop series, e.g., in terms of topics, number of paper submissions and participants, post-workshop publications over the years and acceptance statistics Submission and Review Process Workshop proposals should be submitted in PDF by email to: umap2021-workshop(a)um.org<mailto:umap2021-workshop@um.org> We encourage both researchers and industry practitioners to submit workshop proposals. Researchers interested in submitting a workshop proposal are invited to contact us in advance, so we can help to design successful proposals. In particular, for workshop proposals with novel interactive formats, we are happy to assist in further developing and implementing the ideas. We strongly suggest involving organizers from different institutions, bringing different perspectives to the workshop topic. We welcome workshops with a creative structure that may attract various types of contributions and may ensure rich interactions. The organizers of accepted workshops will prepare a workshop web site containing the call for papers and detailed information about the workshop organization and timeline. They will be responsible for their own publicity and reviewing processes. There will be a conference adjunct proceedings published by ACM where all the workshop papers will be published. Hence, the workshop organizers will need to adhere to the adjunct proceedings publication timeline. Schedule • Proposal submission: January 15, 2021 • Notification of proposal acceptance: January 29, 2021 • Send the workshop description & website URL: February 15, 2021 • (Suggested) 1st call for papers: February 20, 2021 • (Suggested) 2nd call for papers: March 2, 2021 • (Suggested) paper submission: March 26, 2021 • (Suggested) notification to authors: April 19, 2021 • Workshop summary camera-ready deadline: May 7, 2021 • Workshop papers camera-ready deadline: May 7, 2021 • Workshop Date: June TBA, 2021 Proceedings and Registration Policy Workshop papers will be included in the Adjunct Proceedings published by ACM. To be included in the Proceedings, at least one author of each accepted workshop paper must register for the conference or the workshop and present the paper there. Student registration fee is allowed to students who present a student paper. A "Workshop/Tutorial Only” fee will be available as well. CALL FOR TUTORIALS Important Dates: Proposals due: January 15, 2021 Notification to proposers: January 29, 2021 Tutorial Day: June TBA, 2021 Submission email: umap2021-workshop(a)um.org<mailto:umap2021-workshop@um.org> ACM UMAP 2021 is pleased to invite proposals for tutorials to be given in conjunction with the conference. ACM UMAP is the premier international conference for researchers and practitioners working on systems that adapt to individual users or to groups of users, and which collect, represent, and model user information, Tutorials are intensive instructional sessions aimed to provide a comprehensive introduction to established or emerging research topics of interest for the UMAP community. Information about Hybrid Conference Format ACM UMAP 2021 is planned to be a hybrid event, which welcomes everyone who is willing, able and allowed to travel in Utrecht, the Netherlands. However, there will also be an opportunity to attend the conference and the tutorials online. Please check the conference website for updates: https://www.um.org/umap2021/ Tutorials can therefore be held by the presenters at Utrecht (with synchronous online streaming), or designed as fully virtual tutorials. The tutorials will most probably be scheduled to start in the morning or evening local time (UTC+1). Tutorial Topics Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: • new user modeling technologies, methods, techniques, and trends (e.g. exploiting data mining and big data analytics for user modeling, evaluation methodologies, data visualization, etc.) • user modeling and personalization techniques for specific domains (e.g., health sciences, e-government, e-commerce, cultural heritage, education, internet of things, mobile, music, information retrieval, human-robot interaction etc.) • application of user modeling and personalization techniques for information retrieval and recommender systems • eliciting and learning user preferences by taking into account users’ emotional state, physical state, personality, trust, cognitive factors Instructions for Proposers An ideal tutorial should be broad enough to provide a basic introduction to the chosen area, but it should also cover the most important topics in depth. Tutorial presenters can have one page in the adjunct proceedings. Tutorial proposals should not exceed 5 pages and should contain the following information: • Title and abstract of the tutorial for inclusion on the ACM UMAP 2021 website (200 words maximum) • Tutorial description: • learning objectives of the tutorial and relevance to ACM UMAP 2021 • targeted audience (introductory, intermediate, advanced) and prerequisite knowledge or skills • a brief outline of the tutorial structure • Information about potential practical sessions • Tutorial length: full (6 hours) or half day (3 hours) • Other venues to which the tutorial or part thereof has been or will be presented, in addition to explaining how the current tutorial differs from the other editions • Proposed tutorial format (hybrid or fully virtual) • Name, email address, affiliation and brief professional biography of the tutorial instructor(s), indicating previous training and speaking experience Submission and Review Process Tutorial proposals should be submitted in PDF by email to: umap2021-workshop(a)um.org<mailto:umap2021-workshop@um.org> All proposals will be reviewed by the tutorial chairs. The features that will be evaluated are: • ability of the tutorial to contribute to strengthening the foundations of UMAP research • clarity of the tutorial, which should emerge from its description • organization, as appearing from the outline • background/experience of tutorial instructor(s) in teaching the target topics Timeline • Proposals due: January 15, 2021 • Notification of acceptance: January29, 2021 • Adjunct proceedings camera ready: May 7, 2021 • Tutorial Day: June TBA, 2021 Proceedings and Registration Policy A “Workshop/Tutorial Only” fee will be available, as well as the option for student registration. Workshop and Tutorial Chairs Berardina Nadja De Carolis, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Italy berardina.decarolis(a)uniba.it<mailto:berardina.decarolis@uniba.it> Dietmar Jannach, University of Klagenfurt, Austria dietmar.jannach(a)aau.at<mailto:dietmar.jannach@aau.at>

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12 Streams 2020 #12 - The Internet After 2020
by Joly MacFie 07 Jan '21

07 Jan '21

Organizational members are a vital component, along with Chapters and Staff, of the ISOC community, whether through the OMAC Advisory council, project partnerships, IETF participation, or other activities. At the end of the year they convened for this forward looking webinar. ISOC Live posted: "Today, Wednesday January 6 2021, at 7:00pm EST (00:00 UTC) in the tweltth and final instalment of the Internet Society Livestreaming‘s ‘12 Days of Streams‘ 2020 highlights, we feature a webinar 'The Internet After 2020' that was attended by the Internet S" [image: livestream] <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/12streams2020-12>Today, *Wednesday January 6 2021*, at *7:00pm EST* (00:00 UTC) in the twelth and final instalment of the *Internet Society Livestreaming <https://isoc.live>*‘s ‘*12 Days of Streams <https://isoc.live/?s=%2312streams>*‘ 2020 highlights, we feature a webinar '*The Internet After 2020 <https://www.internetsociety.org/events/the-internet-after-2020/>*' that was attended by the Internet Society's *Organizational Members <https://www.internetsociety.org/about-internet-society/organization-members/>* on December 7 2020. *SPEAKERS* *Azeem Azhar*, Founder, Exponential View *Vint Cerf*, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google *Nnenna Nwakanma*, Chief Web Advocate, Web Foundation *Andrew Sullivan*, President and Chief Executive Officer, Internet Society MODERATOR *Jane Coffin*, Senior Vice President, Internet Growth, Internet Society *VIEW ON LIVESTREAM: https://livestream.com/internetsociety/12streams2020-12 <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/12streams2020-12>* *TWITTER #12STREAMS <http://bit.ly/2t12HX2J> #ISOCvirtual @azeem @vgcerf @SullivanISOC @nnenna @JaneCoffin* *SIMULCASTS* *https://www.pscp.tv/ISOC_Live/ <https://www.pscp.tv/ISOC_Live/>* *https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive <https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive>* *https://www.facebook.com/InternetSociety/live <https://www.facebook.com/InternetSociety/live>* *ARCHIVE* *https://archive.org/details/12streams2020-12 <https://archive.org/details/12streams2020-12>* *ORIGINAL STREAM* *https://isoc.box.com/s/cc1b6eb0zp8cda7yuox5ejud7tp1azsh <https://isoc.box.com/s/cc1b6eb0zp8cda7yuox5ejud7tp1azsh>* *Permalink* https://isoc.live/13347/ -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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INC Longform: Teaching Into the Void by Donatella Della Ratta
by Geert Lovink 06 Jan '21

06 Jan '21

Student responses to Zoom Fatigue and the Drama of ‘Blended’ Learning Essay by Donatella Della Ratta <ddr(a)mediaoriente.com> This essay combines the experiences of teachers and students* in the turn to ‘blended learning’ during the Covid-19 pandemic, to build prefatory theories of new, emergent phenomena—from the exhaustion produced by constant ‘self-gazing’ and its role in ‘zoom fatigue’, to the anxieties and oppressions of the dominant interfaces (The Tyranny of the Rectangle) and their consequential resistance techniques (Camera On, Or Camera Off: That is the Question). Through anecdotes and personal accounts, we will enter a founding critique and examination that aims to walk these interactions and isolations with both compassion and criticality, towards a counter-politics reliant on exposure, as well as poesis. A counter-politics that finds and forms itself in the aural rather than the visual (Intimacy Out of the Void), one that is most present (and most potent) in the ‘awkward moments’ of lags, lapses, glitches, bandwidth failures and frozen frames (In Praise of Awkwardness). The emphasis lies throughout on withstanding naturalization and remaining in defiance of the ‘normalization’ efforts and narratives that pertain to all of the above. There is an urgency here. This is a direct account, examination, and rebuttle, of what it means to be a teacher and a student during the techno-determinist moment of ‘the Corona Crisis’—a crises of education, embodiment, and alienation, in more ways than one. https://networkcultures.org/longform/2021/01/06/teaching-into-the-void/

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ACM IUI Workshop on Exploratory Search and Interactive Data Analytics (ESIDA) - Deadline extended
by omokryn＠univ.haifa.ac.il 06 Jan '21

06 Jan '21

Fourth IUI Workshop on Exploratory Search and Interactive Data Analytics (ESIDA) https://sites.google.com/view/esida2021/home April 13, 2021, Virtual Important Dates (submission deadline extended): Submission deadline: January 15, 2020 (midnight Hawaii time) Acceptance notification: February 15, 2021 Final manuscript due: March 5, 2021 Workshop: April 13, 2021 Workshop Description: This workshop will be part of the ACM Intelligent User Interfaces 2021 Conference (http://iui.acm.org/2021/) The workshop focuses on systems that personalize, summarize, and visualize the data to support interactive information seeking and information discovery, along with tools that enable user modeling and methods for incorporating user needs and preferences into both analytics and visualization. Our aim is to bring together researchers and practitioners working on different personalization aspects and applications of exploratory search and interactive data analytics. This will allow us to achieve four goals: (1) propose new strategies for systems that need to convey the rationale behind their decisions or inference, and the sequence of steps that lead to speciﬁc (search) results; (2) develop new user modeling and personalization techniques for exploratory search and interactive data analytics; (3) develop a common set of design principles for this type of systems across platforms, contexts, users, and applications; (4) develop a set of evaluation metrics for personalization in exploratory search. The workshop aims to solicit submissions in the following areas of personalized interactive data analytics and exploratory search: Personalized interactive exploration via interactive data analytics: – personalization aspects in systems for exploratory search. – cross-domain/ context-aware/ cross-platform exploratory search systems. – interactively modeling the user’s information needs for high-recall information retrieval. – new applications of exploratory search and interactive data analytics. Data analytics: – interactive interfaces for data-intensive platforms. – interaction degrees of freedom. – preprocessing vs. online processing. – interactive data visualization evaluation of interactive systems for exploratory search and data analytics. Metrics for explainable intelligent systems: – metrics for explainable exploratory search. – explainability and transparency in expert vs. non-expert systems. – human-in-the-loop analytics systems. – efﬁcient vs. explainable analytics. – user perception of explainability and transparency in interactive intelligent systems. Organizers: Dorota Glowacka, Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki (Finland), glowacka[at]cs.heelsinki.fi<http://cs.heelsinki.fi/> Evangelos Milios, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University (Canada), eem[at]cs.dal.ca<http://cs.dal.ca/> Axel J. Soto, Institute for Computer Science and Engineering, UNS - CONICET (Argentina), axel.soto[at]cs.uns.edu.ar<http://cs.uns.edu.ar/> Fernando V. Paulovich, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University (Canada), paulovich[at]dal.ca<http://dal.ca/> Denis Parra, Department of Computer Science, Pontificia Universidad Católica (Chile) , dparra[at]ing.puc.cl<http://ing.puc.cl/> Osnat (Ossi) Mokryn, Department of Information Systems, University of Haifa (Israel), omokryn[at]univ.haifa.ac.il<http://univ.haifa.ac.il/> Submission Information: We encourage submissions of work in progress, concept papers, case studies, ongoing research projects, reports on recently completed Ph.D. dissertations or recently accepted journal papers and general material that will stimulate discussion, generate useful feedback to the authors, encourage research collaborations and vigorous exchange of ideas on promising research directions, in one of the following formats: -full papers (up to 8 pages in ACM sigconf format), which will be presented either as contributed talks or posters -extended abstracts (up to 4 pages in ACM sigconf format), which will be presented as posters with a possibility to be accompanied by a demo. Papers can be submitted through EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=esida21 Osnat (Ossi) Mokryn, PhD Information Systems University of Haifa Office: Jacob 504 | +972-48240612 | x2612 SCANLab:http://scan.haifa.ac.il<http://scan.haifa.ac.il/>

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12 Streams 2020 #11 - Strengthening the Internet - Joseph Lorenzo Hall & Theorose Elikplim Dzineku
by Joly MacFie 06 Jan '21

06 Jan '21

This is the companion to 12 Streams 2020 #5 <https://isoc.live/13290/>, and represents the second major prong of ISOC's 2020 Action plan - Strengthening the Internet. While Joe Hall gives an overview, Theorose Dzineku gives a specific example - Chapter capacity building via the training program. ISOC Live posted: "Today, Tuesday January 11 2021, at 7:00pm EST (00:00 UTC) in the tenth instalment of the Internet Society Livestreaming‘s ‘12 Days of Streams‘ 2020 highlights, we feature two presentations from the fifth Intercommunity call in 2020, a 'Special Edition' wi" [image: livestream] <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/12streams2020-11>Today, *Tuesday January 11 2021*, at *7:00pm* EST (00:00 UTC) in the tenth instalment of the *Internet Society Livestreaming <https://isoc.live>*‘s ‘*12 Days of Streams <https://isoc.live/?s=%2312streams>*‘ 2020 highlights, we feature two presentations from the fifth *Intercommunity <https://www.internetsociety.org/intercommunity>* call in 2020, a 'Special Edition' with the theme '*Stories of Resilience <https://www.internetsociety.org/intercommunity/2020/stories-of-resilience/>*'. In the first presentation *Joseph Lorenzo Hall <https://www.internetsociety.org/author/hall/>*, Senior Vice President, Strong Internet, Internet Society reflects on the year's progress in the *Strengthening the Internet <https://www.internetsociety.org/issues/strong-internet/>* effort. In the second, *Theorose Elikplim Dzineku*, Chair, Programs and Communication, ISOC Ghana, relates her experience taking the *ISOC Chapter Training Program <https://www.internetsociety.org/chapters/2020-training-program/>* encryption module, and its application in the field of journalism. *VIEW ON LIVESTREAM: https://livestream.com/internetsociety/12streams2020-11 <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/12streams2020-11>* *SLIDES https://archive.org/download/12streams2020-11/12streams2020-11_SLIDES.pdf <https://archive.org/download/12streams2020-11/12streams2020-11_SLIDES.pdf>* *TWITTER #12STREAMS <http://bit.ly/2t11HX2J> #StrongInternet @JoeBeOne @InternetSociety @TDzineku @isocghana @ISOC_Community* *SIMULCASTS* *https://www.pscp.tv/ISOC_Live/ <https://www.pscp.tv/ISOC_Live/>* *https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive <https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive>* *https://www.facebook.com/InternetSociety/live <https://www.facebook.com/InternetSociety/live>* *ARCHIVE* *https://archive.org/details/12streams2020-11 <https://archive.org/details/12streams2020-11>* *ORIGINAL STREAM* *https://bit.ly/icomm2020 <https://bit.ly/icomm2020> (EN/FR/ES)* *Permalink* https://isoc.live/13341/ -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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Job advertisement: Assistant Professor in Film (Computer Game Narratives), 0.5 FTE, Trinity College Dublin
by Jennifer O'Meara 05 Jan '21

05 Jan '21

Dear Colleagues, The Department of Film at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, is looking to appoint a four-year, fixed-term contract lecturer in Computer Game Narratives. The candidate will be based in the School of Creative Arts <https://www.tcd.ie/creative-arts/> and will help to develop the Department of Film’s teaching in this area and its strengths in the areas of Digital Storyworlds and Screenwriting. Closing date: February 8th. The successful appointee will start in September 2021. Please see here for further details: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2368467228/?capColoOverride=true Or by searching the Trinity College vacancies page: http://jobs.tcd.ie Best wishes, Jennifer ______________ Dr Jennifer O’Meara Assistant Professor in Film Studies Director of Undergraduate Teachingand Learning, Schoolof Creative Arts Trinity College Dublin, theUniversity of Dublin Dublin 2, Ireland. +353 1 896 3970 jennifer.omeara(a)tcd.ie www.tcd.ie/creative-arts

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CfP: online conference ‘Automation and data-driven journalism beyond the Western world: actors, practices, and socio-political impact’
by Mariëlle W. 05 Jan '21

05 Jan '21

The research project ‘Sustainable journalism for the algorithmic future’ in partnership with the Aleksanteri Institute and Swedish School of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki invite the submission of papers to be presented at the online conference *Automation and data-driven journalism beyond the Western world: Actors, practices, and socio-political impact* Algorithmic systems and other data-driven practices exert increasing influence over today’s societies, reshaping how social and economic systems function (Gillespie 2014). Algorithms are society’s new “power brokers,” dictating the stories that we pay attention to, the activities we participate in, and the people we connect with (Kitchin 2017). The news media is among those industries where artificial intelligence and algorithms are making strides and reordering the playing field as their use diversifies and expands. AI and algorithmic systems are implemented in newsrooms at various stages of the workflow: from smart tools that assist journalists in producing stories to the fully automated production of news articles, and from audience data analysis that informs editorial decisions to algorithmic recommendation systems that match specific content to users. On social media platforms, that form an increasingly central node in news consumption, algorithms not only generate news feeds based on our acquaintances’ actions and advertisers’ preferences (Van Dijck & Poell 2013) but also perform as actors with their own judgment (Carlson 2018). The algorithmic systems employed by social media platforms, news aggregators and other recommender systems can therefore affect the journalistic process and professional practices of media practitioners. Current scholarly debate on these issues prioritizes and builds upon empirical studies conducted in democratic, Western contexts. Much less is known about the drivers of digital innovation uptake and its socio-political impact in other political and cultural contexts, and this is problematic. Countries such as China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa and South Korea do implement global or introduce their own AI-driven tools in their news media This challenges the mediated reality they produce and can, in turn, affect global media agendas (e.g., in the international activities of Chinese Xinhua, Russian RT and Arab Al Jazeera). At the same time, the socio-political impact of news and disinformation amplified through social media is evident across the Global South, where moderation efforts by global platforms lag behind. This online conference strives to place the discussion of automation and data-driven journalism beyond the Western and Anglophone world. We build upon previous research (Hanitzsch et al 2019, Henkel et al 2020) demonstrating that media innovation and its adoption develop differently depending on the specific characteristics of media systems and markets. Understanding the algorithmic turn in journalism as a socially constructed process – dependent on a country’s journalistic culture, news media’s formal and informal institutions , and the societal role of media – we propose an alternative list of questions to be added to the discussion. When the main media outlets are owned or controlled by the state, who benefits from the automation of media processes, and in what way? When censorship and self-censorship are embedded into journalist professional culture, will the implementation of algorithmic systems lead to more freedom and independence of journalists, or vice versa? How does the economic efficiency promised by automation leverage the political/ideological efficiency of media institutions in authoritarian contexts? What is the importance of algorithmic systems in spreading and amplifying propaganda and disinformation in different media systems? We welcome both disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives and studies employing various social scientific methods, including comparative case-studies, ethnography, socio-legal, and STS studies. Submissions could address, but are not limited to, the following areas: · The effects of algorithmic and AI-driven tools on professional practices and routines in newsrooms; · Media interlopers and newcomers to the media industry – from IT developers in newsrooms to the role of big technological companies; · Implications of AI and data-driven journalism on the public value of news media; · Disinformation, fake news and fact checking; · The influence of global social media platforms and their algorithmic recommender systems on media outlets; · Robotised, algorithmic, augmented, computational, data-driven and other innovative forms of journalism: challenges and opportunities across the globe. *We accept two types of submissions:* · Individual paper submissions should be written in English and contain a clear outline of the argument, theoretical framework, methodology and results. Abstracts should be between 250 and 500 words. · Panel proposals should be written in English and consist of a panel rationale (300 words) and abstracts of three papers (max. 250 words per paper). *Please submit your proposal through the submission portal:* https://www.lyyti.fi/reg/Automation_and_datadriven_journalism_beyond_the_We… *Important dates:* Deadline for paper and panel submissions: February 15, 2021 23:59 UTC+2 Selections results: March 15, 2021 The conference will be organized as online event. The hosts will strive to accommodate participants’ respective time zones. *Host and organizers:* The event is hosted by the University of Helsinki and organised by Dr. Olga Dovbysh (Aleksanteri Institute, U Helsinki), Hanna Tuulonen (Swedish School of Social Sciences, U Helsinki) and Dr. Mariëlle Wijermars (Aleksanteri Institute, U Helsinki; Maastricht University). Should you have any questions about the conference, please contact Olga Dovbysh: olga.dovbysh [at] helsinki [dot] fi or check the conference website: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/automation-in-media/

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Visiting Assistant Professor Job at University of Maryland in Race & Media
by Sarah Ann Oates 05 Jan '21

05 Jan '21

Hi, I'm the search chair for this job -- would love to see applications from people studying social/digital media and race, etc. Just email me at soates(a)umd.edu if you have information questions, etc. Full ad is here: https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/80394 but I'll also paste in our flyer text below as well. Please forward to those you think might be interested -- there is some great work in this area. The Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland seeks a Visiting Assistant Professor to start in August 2021. This is a one-year post with the possibility of renewal for a second year. Merrill College anticipates a search for a tenure-track faculty member once a state hiring freeze is lifted. This individual will be welcome to apply. We seek an active scholar with demonstrated cutting-edge research and innovative teaching interests in journalism/race/social media (both qualitative and quantitative approaches are welcome). Interests can include any of the following: • How media and race intersect with topics such as politics; health inequities; environmental injustice, and social justice. Research could include how race impacts sports; popular culture; protest movements; wealth; poverty, housing, social exclusion, and power structures • Modes and theories of investigation, e.g. Critical Race Theory, systemic racism and institutional racism, including anti-racism movements impacting U.S. culture and politics • Social media and race, including studies of online protests, implicit bias, disinformation and misinformation, racial exclusion, and the cultivation of social media groups divided by race • U.S. media, race, and democracy • Studies of race as a social construct; the language of race; race identity; race politics and the legacy of racial violence, including lynching, racial massacres and genocide, especially as viewed through such lenses as contemporary media theory, deep data sets, visual media, graphic data, or sociology Candidates should have a PhD in journalism, communications, political science, history or a relevant field in the social sciences by August 2021 but ABD candidates will be considered. The University of Maryland, College Park, an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action; all qualified applicants will receive consideration. The UMD is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, creed, marital status, political affiliation, personal appearance, or on the basis of rights secured by the First Amendment, in all aspects of employment, educational activities, and admissions. The University of Maryland, College Park is the state’s flagship institution and is minutes away from Washington, D.C., and the nexus of the nation’s legislative, executive, and judicial centers of power, giving proximity to business and technology leaders, federal departments and agencies, and research entities, embassies, think tanks, cultural centers, and non-profits. The University is committed to attracting and retaining outstanding and diverse faculty and staff that will enhance preeminence in our teaching, scholarship, and full engagement in our community, the state of Maryland, and in the world. For best consideration, please apply by 02/05/2021. Search chair Sarah Oates is happy to answer questions at soates(a)umd.edu To apply, please go to https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/80394 Sarah Oates Pronoun: she/her Professor and Senior Scholar Philip Merrill College of Journalism University of Maryland College Park, MD 20457 Email: soates(a)umd.edu Phone: 301 455 2332 www.media-politics.com Twitter: @media_politics *Support the UMD Student Crisis Fund <https://giving.umd.edu/giving/showPage.php?name=crisis-funding> today. *

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PhD vacancy in Culturally and Socially Responsible AI
by Blanke, Tobias 05 Jan '21

05 Jan '21

Dear all With the usual apologies for cross-posting. Julia Noordegraaf, Natali Helberger and I are looking for a fully funded PhD student in Culturally and Socially Responsible AI in Amsterdam. Deadline is 29/1/2021. Best, Tobias Blanke https://www.illc.uva.nl/People/person/5048/Prof-dr-Tobias-Blanke --- The University of Amsterdam Faculty of Humanities is looking to fill one PhD position in the area of Culturally and Socially Responsible AI. The PhD focuses on research of AI technologies that respect the values central to public institutions in the area of media and culture. The successful candidate will be appointed in UvA’s Department of Media Studies and based in the creative interdisciplinary environment of the CREATE Lab for digital humanities research. They will work within the broader Humane AI community at the University of Amsterdam via the university-wide Research Priority Area Human(e) AI (https://humane-ai.nl/) which synthesises ongoing work and stimulates new research on the societal consequences of AI. Closing date is the 29/1/2021. Further details can be found at: https://www.uva.nl/en/content/vacancies/2020/12/20-785-phd-position-in-cult…

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