Dear all, our special issue with NMS is now live: Automating Communication in the Digital Society. https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/NMS/current Automation is a defining feature of today’s societies—not only since ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence (AI) have accomplished to produce yet another wave of hype. In our new special issue, co-edited by Christian Pentzold and me, we explore how subjectivity, agency, and empowerment become defined and reconfigured in novel human–machine encounters and in societies which in large parts are kept going and sustained by complex digital infrastructures. The contributions, featuring works from Peter Nagy, Gina Neff, Ph.D., Will Orr, Kate Crawford, Annika Richterich, Sally Wyatt, Ngai Keung Chan, Chi Kwok, Christian Greiffenhagen, Xinzhi Xu, Philipp Seuferling, Annette Markham, Marcus Bösch, Tom Divon, CJ Reynolds, Blake Hallinan, Jean Burgess, Nicholas Carah, Daniel Angus, Abdul Karim Obeid, Mark Andrejevic, and Joanne Kuai, span from journalistic innovations to social movements, offering critical perspectives on the growing fusion of human and machine interaction. Thanks to Steve Jones for guidance and trust! Key highlights include: - Lucid analyses of alluring narratives of AI magic and the datasets powering statistical projections (aka AI) - The role of automation in ad serving, propaganda, journalism and copyright, social movements and collectives - Automated tracking technologies in different contexts ranging from hotels to border control - Accountability and social media It's clear that we are in the midst of a fundamental transformation, with profound technical and societal implications. Now is the time to critically examine and shape how these technologies will influence our daily lives. Here’s the amazing line-up with mostly open-access articles: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/NMS/current Let us know if you want to follow up, and let’s chat in Sheffield about this if you like. BTW We are currently hiring 18 PhDs in the field of automation and communication for a new major research cluster in Germany and Austria: https://www.comai.space/jobs.html Best, Christian Katzenbach Christian Pentzold — Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach Professor of Media and Communication Centre for Media, Communication & Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen www.uni-bremen.de/zemki Lab Platform Governance, Media and Technology (PGMT) platform-governance.org Visiting Professor London School of Economics (LSE) www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications Associated Researcher Alexander von Humboldt Institut for Internet and Society (HIIG) www.hiig.de