Hi Daniel (and others), Great topic. I agree with many of the pieces mentioned. Especially Brighenti as a good foundational paper. With the risk of being overly self-promoting, I though you might perhaps also be interested in some of the following work, we have done on the topic in TANTLab: 1) Madsen (2015). Tracing Data -Paying Attention: Interpreting digital methods through valuation studies and Gibson's theory of perception, In Making Things Valuable (link: https://www.academia.edu/19768480/_Tracing_Data_Paying_Attention_-_Interpret... ) --> This paper would fall under visibility as it discusses how, for instance, the UN has been experimenting with Twitter as a source for making crisis-signals visible. Based on readings of pragmatist theories about perception, the paper discusses what it means to see the world through such digital methods. This argument is further developed in my PhD entitled 'Web-visions - repurposing digital traces to organize social attention. 2) Birkbak & Carlsen (2016). The world of edge rank: Rhetorical justifications of face books news feed algorithm. --> Would fall under invisibility as it addresses the algorithm layer of Facebook and the way this backbone is justified 3) Flyverbom & Madsen (2015). Sorting Data Out. (link: https://www.academia.edu/19768604/Sorting_Data_Out_-_unpacking_big_data_valu... ) --> A paper trying to unpack the production of big data revolves around multiple processes of sourcing, organizing and visualizing. It tried to tries to make a typologi of the social practices involved in making things visible though big data. Hope it is of any help, Anders 2016-09-08 14:02 GMT+02:00 Steffen Albrecht <steffen.albrecht@berlin.de>:
Dear Daniel,
Though it's been published some years ago, I'd highly recommend
Brighenti, Andrea (2007): Visibility. A category for the social sciences. In: Current Sociology 55(3), pp. 323-342
with regard to the category
..."classical" approaches and authors that do NOT explicitly talk about today's political (social) media contexts, but which you would consider highly applicable to understand such phenomena.
Best, Steffen
----- ursprüngliche Nachricht ---------
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Reading list on (media) politics of visibility/invisibility Date: Do 08 Sep 2016 13:09:34 CEST From: Ansgar Koene<Ansgar.Koene@nottingham.ac.uk> To: Daniel Kunzelmann<kunzelmann.daniel@yahoo.de>, air-l@listserv.aoir.org<air-l@listserv.aoir.org>
Hi Daniel, sounds like a really interesting topic to assemble a reading list for. One article I recently read that could fit in the invisible category, under 'influence of algorithms' would be Zeynep Tufekci, “Algorithmic Harms beyond Facebook and Google: Emergent Challenges of Computational Agency”, J. on Telecomm. & High Tech. L., 203, 2015
Cheers, Ansgar
Dr. Ansgar Koene Senior Research Fellow: Horizon Policy Impact, CaSMa & UnBias Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute University of Nottingham http://casma.wp.horizon.ac.uk/ http://unbias.wp.horizon.ac.uk/ http://www.horizon.ac.uk/ https://sites.google.com/site/arkoene/
________________________________________ From: Air-L [air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] on behalf of Daniel Kunzelmann [kunzelmann.daniel@yahoo.de] Sent: 08 September 2016 10:55 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] Reading list on (media) politics of visibility/invisibility
Dear all,
I felt like starting another list of literature :) Here is the question/thesis at stake: We live in a hyper-mediated world, in which the *speed and sheer amount of media posts *(Facebook, your favorite newspapers, Twitter, blogs, you name it...) suggest that political impact, relevance and importance is connected to "being visible" or "making something visible". Vice versa, *if something is **not visible**in today's social-media-democracy it does not exist, thus has no meaning, thus has no political power/impact/relevance**.*
Yet, I feel - and so far it's only really a feeling - that *these invisible spaces and actions enable, generate and allocate as much political power as their visible twins.* Against the backdrop of "social-media-everywhere" and the *dominant daily narrative of the visible* (which we all experience when we look at our smartphone), I'm now looking for *authors and concepts that explore/reflect/challenge/*
- that either the *politics of the visible* - or the *politics of the invisible* - or even the *relationship between visibility and invisibility* with regards to political power.
It might be *authors and concepts that already reflect on today's (hyper) social media worlds**, as well as "classical" approaches on visibility/invisibility of power.* To give you two examples:
Thinking about today's social media, we could have a closer look at the power of images (e.g. a meme) on our interfaces (visible) or at the algorithmic structures that sort and "deliver" these images (invisible). Both layers of power are real, in the sense that they affect us in our daily live, but one is visible and one is invisible. And of course, they are certainly connected.
Same goes for something that existed before social media, let's say party politics. There have always been official press releases and interviews about how well e.g. a party congress went and what wonderful values this party now stands for (transparency, inclusion, etc.), but at the same time, at the congress in question, there also existed back-room meetings and private phone calls to influence internal party currents (opacity, exclusion, etc.). Again, both spaces and actions are real, in the sense that they have power effects on the party's members and/or possible voters, but one (media) space is visible and the other one invisible. And, here too, both layers work together perfectly.
So, anyone wants to share their must-read with me?
*...on "new" Cultural and Social Anthropological approaches and authors that already reflect on the politics of visibility/invisibility against today's backdrop of "social-media-everywhere". ** ** **...and/or "classical" ***approaches and authors* that do NOT explicitly talk about today's political (social) media contexts, but which you would consider highly applicable to understand such phenomena.
*Either directly drop your recommendations in here: *https://danielderkunzelmann.piratenpad.de/airl-mediaoverload-politics- visibility-invisibility* or reply to this message via the list or a pm :)* * Of course, when the literature list is done, I will be sharing it with all of you!
kind regards, Daniel
*Daniel Kunzelmann, Ph.D.c / Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich / Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology twitter @der_kunzelmann <https://twitter.com/der_kunzelmann> blog http://transformations-blog.com/daniel-kunzelmann/ web http://unibas.academia.edu/DanielKunzelmann linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-kunzelmann/7b/426/9a5*
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/ listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it.
Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.
This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/ listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
---- ursprüngliche Nachricht Ende ---- _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/ listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/