Abstracts

ECREA Digital Culture & Communication (DCC) Section Workshop

Abstracts

Panagiota Alevizou, LSE Fellow, London School of Economics, UK

Collective intelligence and the cult of open production: critical reflections on theory and methodology

One of the renowned, and most recently influential, philosophers of cyberculture, Pierre Lévy (1998; 2001) offers a metaphorical conceptualisation of cyberspace in terms of ‘cosmopaedia’, a space that is not ordered by pre-determined taxonomies, but by limitless global cultural formations. Lévy argues for a new/revised relationship between technology and knowledge, a relationship that allows the cultivation of a mutually developed and enhanced knowledge space through collective intelligence and interactive potentialities. Inspired by Lévy, Henry Jenkins argues that collective intelligence can be seen as an ‘alternative source of media power’ and as a means for understanding ‘consumption as a collective process’ – a process that involves ‘learning how to use that power through our day-to-day interactions with convergence culture’ (2006: 4). Taking further Lévy’s utopian track, Lessig (e.g. 2004; 2006) and Benkler (e.g. 2006) offer prescriptive accounts of how ‘architecture’ and ‘governance’ structures of FLOSS movements and specific collaborative formations in the Web 2.0 cyberspace, also function as sources of alternative media power.

This paper offers a critical approach to such theorisations to argue for a need to conceptualise the heterogeneous spaces of Web 2.0 by considering their ‘historical emergence’ and by combining the ‘material specificity’ of such formations with the discursive frameworks that enable participation and reception. It firstly considers how critical traditions that range from Actor Network Theory (e.g. Latour, 1993; Latour and Woolgar, 1984; Latour and Serres 1995; Serres, 1983), critical and post-hermeneutical theories of technology (e.g. Kittler, 1990; Feenberg, 1999) to post-Marxist approaches on labour value (e.g. Terranova, 2000; 2004), may challenge utopian and prescriptive theorising outlined above. Secondly, it proposes how a critical reconsideration in theoretical approaches to the sociology of genre may address the methodological challenges for researching the heterogeneity of contemporary spaces of communication, representation and participation enabled by social software.

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Frauke Behrendt, University of Sussex

Mobile Sonic Experience: Methodological Concerns

This paper considers the methodological implications of studying the aesthetic and aural experience of using mobile, networked media in works of art. The "sonic turn" (Porcello, 2007) and "spatial turn" (Falkheimer, & Jansson, 2006) in humanities, social sciences and media studies could be paralleled with an increased interest in sound (Motte-Haber, 2006), space (De Oliveira, Oxley, & Petry, 2003) and mobile media (Hemment, 2006) in the arts and digital media art since the mid-eighties. At the intersection of these developments an increasing number of artists explore new ways of sonic and spatial interaction for the audience turned participants (Gaye, Holmquist, Behrendt, & Tanaka, 2006). One example is "Aura" by Steve Symons (2007) where participants equipped with headphones and a GPS-enabled backpack explore a park in Cambridge, listening to generative sounds that depend on their movement and location as well as on how many people have been in the same location before. "Aura" serves as case study for this paper.

How can we study the experience of participating in mobile sound art? How does this relate to everyday use of mobile sound technology such as ipods or mobile phones? To start a methodological discussion and develop a toolkit of methods, I draw on digital art and musicology. Attempts to document performances, installations and digital art have been a driving force behind methodological discussions in media and contemporary art history. In addition to a written and visual description, artist interviews have become a key method (Depocas, Ippolito, & Jones, 2003) that I also use in this case study. Musicology informs how the sonic dimension of "Aura" is studied (Clarke, & Cook, 2004) and also shifts the focus to the audience: with unstructured interviews with participants directly after experiencing the "Aura", recording my own comments while taking part in the sound walk, and field notes.

A critical discussion of the case study "Aura" identifies the difficulty of verbalising sonic and spatial experiences as key concern. To open up the discussion I propose to introduce 'less verbal' methods from HCI (Costello, Muller, Amitani, & Edmonds, 2005) and media studies 2.0 (Gauntlett, 2007) to the toolkit for future case studies exploring the sonic and mobile experience of participating in mobile sound art; these will also be relevant for studying everyday mobile media and sound use.

References:

Clarke, E. & Cook, N. (Eds.). (2004). Empirical Musicology: Aims, Methods, Prospects. Oxford University Press Inc, USA.

Costello, B., Muller, L., Amitani, S., & Edmonds, E. (2005). Understanding the experience of interactive art: Iamascope in Beta_space. Proceedings of the second Australasian conference on Interactive entertainment. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 123. (pp. 49 - 56 ). Sydney: Creativity & Cognition Studios Press.

De Oliveira, N., Oxley, N., & Petry, M. (2003). Installation art in the new millennium :the empire of the senses. New York: Thames & Hudson.

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Adolfo Estalella, Elisenda Ardèvol, Edgar Gómez, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Internet Interdisciplinary Institute

Media as practice: Introducing symmetry on the Internet ethnographies

This article discus how the theorization of media as practice may be useful to solve one of the main problems faced by many Internet studies: the inclusion of the materiality in the theorization and analysis of the social and cultural Internet phenomena. Our discussion is placed on the recently growing interest on theories of practice that has emerged in social sciences (Reckwitz, 2002). This interest has been translated to the field of media studies where instead of understanding media as texts, symbolic objects or structures of production, the possibility of theorizing media as practice has been proposed (Couldry, 2003, 2004).

One of the social theories that can be ascribed to this new sociological branch of theories of practice is the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), one of the main lines of reflection in the field of Science, Technology and Society (STS). The ANT reformulates the classical categories of society and technology in a way that disregards the a priori distinction between what is social and what is technological. One way for introducing this formulation is the principle of symmetry that demands to consider in the same way humans and non-humans actors when studding a phenomenon; that is to say, we should use the same type of causes and explanations for any actors, be it human or non-human (Callon, 1986).

Translating to media studies the ANT theoretical proposals has been suggested along the years by different scholars (Escobar, 1994; Miller and Slater, 2000; Hine, 2001) as a way for introducing the materiality that has been absent in many analysis of Internet social interactions. Though theorizing media and developing ethnographic fieldwork from the ANT arise some difficulties (Couldry, 2004), we explore in this article how applying the principle of symmetry in a Internet ethnography not only allow to introduce the material dimension through the introduction of artefacts, but led us to focuses on the analysis of practices.

Callon, M. (1986). Some elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay. In J. Law (Ed.), Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? (pp. 196-223). London.: Routledge.

Couldry, N. (2004). Theorising media as practice. Social Semiotics, 14(2), 115-132.

Couldry, N. (2004). Actor Network Theory and Media: Do They Conect and on What Terms? In A. H. e. alt. (Ed.), Cultures of Connectivity (2004).

Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a Theory of Social Practices A Development in Culturalist Theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243–263.

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Fonta Group, Spain (Formation in New Technologies of the Audiovisual)

La Teoría De Los Enjambres En Los Modelos De Organización De Las Empresas Audiovisuales De Televisión Digital

Las hormigas, los pájaros, las abejas, los peces, resuelven sus problemas, se mueven, se relacionan, etc., de manera colectiva aunque formen enjambres de miles de individuos. Esta forma de inteligencia basada en leyes simples sirve para que cada ejemplar se comporte de forma óptima, y así lograr un objetivo colectivo. Esta teoría ha servido como base para la aplicación en resolución de problemas humanos complejos como la conducta de los peatones, situaciones de pánico o, incluso, para robots de inteligencia artificial que, mediante acciones coordinadas entre varios, solucionen situaciones complejas. La clave del movimiento coherente del grupo está en la armonización de cada individuo con sus vecinos.

El grupo FONTA (Formación en Nuevas Tecnologías de lo Audiovisual) ha tomado este principio como hipótesis inicial de su investigación sobre organización, gestión y formación de los medios humanos dentro de un sistema de producción audiovisual. Para ello, centra su investigación en VEO TV, cadena de televisión con licencia de TDT, con un número de trabajadores adecuada para poder llevar a cabo un análisis pormenorizado de las necesidades de cada uno y aplicar, de manera precisa, la hipótesis inicial de la teoría de los enjambres.

En trabajos anteriores, como el poster presentado en FIRST EUROPEAN COMMUNICATION CONFERENCE celebrado del 24-26 November en Ámsterdam y titulado “Process of conversion to digital technologies: changes in professional tasks and new curricula for communication sciences”, hemos tenido siempre presente que los medios digitales introducen una metodología de trabajo similar a una red neuronal, en el que todos los elementos que la componen deben estar interconectados. Pero, si profundizamos en esta idea, es necesario que todos esos elementos tiene que funcionar bajo tres premisas fundamentales:

Cada elemento no debe interferir en el trabajo de los demás
Cada elemento debe conocer el campo de trabajo de los elementos cercanos
No deben existir elementos aislados que impidan la interacción entre los elementos circundantes

A partir de aquí, tratamos de sistematizar modelos de funcionamiento que impliquen un mayor aprovechamiento de los recursos tecnológicos digitales que consigan una optimización de los contenidos y servicios de valor añadidos que se le presupone a la televisión digital.

El modelo europeo de empresa audiovisual tiene que replantearse la producción de contenidos para integrar un mercado común del audiovisual, para llegar a crear contenidos competitivos frente a las potentes industrias norteamericanas. Cuando un grupo actúa con inteligencia consigue mejores resultados que benefician a un mayor número de individuos.

The Theory Of The Swarms In The Models Of Organization Of The Audio-Visual Companies Of Digital Television

Ants, birds, bees, fish, solve their problems, move, relate, etc., in a collective way though they form swarms of thousands of individuals. This form of intelligence based on simple laws serves in order that every specimen behaves of ideal, and like that form to achieve a collective aim. This theory has served as base for the application in resolution of human complex problems as the conduct of the pedestrians, situations of panic or, even, for robots of artificial intelligence that, by means of actions coordinated, solve complex situations. The key of the coherent movement of the group is in the harmonization of every individual with their neighbours.

The FONTA group (Formation in New Technologies of the Audiovisual) has taken this principle as an initial hypothesis of the research on organization, management and formation of the human resources inside a system of audio-visual production. FONTA centres the research in VEO TV, television channel with DTT's license, with a number of workers adapted to be able to carry out an analysis detailed of the needs of each one and apply, in a precise way, the initial hypothesis of the theory of the swarms.

In previous works, as the poster " Process of conversion to digital technologies: changes in professional tasks and new curricula for communication sciences ", presented in FIRST EUROPEAN COMMUNICATION celebrated in Amsterdam, we demonstrated that the digital means introduce a methodology of work similar to a neuronal network, in that all the elements that compose it must be interconnected. But, if we penetrate into this idea, it is necessary that all these elements it has to work fewer than three fundamental premises:

1. Every element must not interfere in the work of other

2. Every element must know the work camp of the nearby elements

3. There must not exist isolated elements that prevent the interaction between the surrounding elements

From here, we try to systematize models of functioning that imply a major utilization of the technological digital resources that obtain an optimization of the contents and services of value added that it’s presupposed to the Digital Television.

The European model of audiovisual company has to restate the production of contents to integrate a common market of the audio-visual one, to manage to create competitive contents opposite to the powerful North American industries. When a group acts with intelligence, it obtains better results that they benefit to a great number of individuals.

Self-regulatory approaches and media literacy are the two fundamental elements of a new regulatory framework for media and communication technologies across the European Union. The regulatory concept of media literacy, defined in terms of skills, knowledge and understanding required to use new ICTs effectively and safely, shifts policy concern on the individuals who (do not) use today’s new media. This paper examines these user-centred policy perspectives and their implications for social welfare by looking into how older (non) users of new ICTs are positioned in Europe’s media policy discourses. The users of new ICTs are commonly constructed as competent individuals who can decide for themselves how best to use the media in order to participate in a spectrum of social, economic and civil activities: Access public services, perform market transactions, exchange information and contribute content. On the other hand, disadvantaged individuals and social groups who have not developed an adequate level of skills and competencies required to use new media are customarily described by reference to disabling categories, such as ‘older and disabled people’. The paper contends that Europe’s individualistic perspective on the problem of the user, which attributes the consumers of ICTs a high degree of autonomy or dominance, fails to take into consideration and address structural inequities in the development of media literacies. It argues that in a public policy context the users of ICTs are more appropriately understood as relational entities who operate in highly structured fields of social practice, e.g. the workplace, educational and social care establishments. Users develop their media skills through their interactive engagement with people and technologies. Following this perspective, policy provision can play an important role in mediating the use of new, digital media enabled services by all citizens.

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Dr Emma Hemmingway

Actor Network Theory and Media: A new approach to theorising media practice.

Media studies have in the past tended to separate the media process into distinctive and unproblematic units of production, text, and consumption, and thereby disabled analyses that question these separations. The media process however involves a range of interconnected actors – both human and non-human- in which distinctions between production and consumption are certainly blurred and perhaps even become meaningless. Yet media have been far less analysed in terms of either their practical or material aspects, and few attempts made to find ways to read the somewhat haphazard, often problematic and unpredictable constellations of actors that combine sporadically to construct media processes and thereby media products. Indeed, in the insistence of presupposing the media process to be both transparent and unproblematic, the interconnectivities of technological and human actors that together combine to construct media are under researched. The media product becomes in some way hived off or separated from the process, to be analysed in isolation. This has led to a rather philosophically naïve and empirically weak reading of media which is often dominated by a theorising of media products- especially their effects- without theorising media processes themselves. In place of a lack of concern for media as media, media are simply instruments of something else- be they social, cultural or political processes.

With this in mind this paper seeks to revisit the problematic of the materiality of media as a technological practice. And in so doing it seeks a reconsideration of the methodology for reading media practices. It is here that I seek to connect media analysis with actor network theory. I intend to show how one can use ANT as an effective tool kit to explain and explore the practices of news construction, at the micro level of daily news routines. But in addition to this I am also asking broader theoretical questions. To what extent can Actor Network Theory inform media analysis? And what will happen to media studies if it takes on board the challenges offered by Actor Network theory to the social sciences and humanities in general? Finally what developments will Actor Network Theory need to accommodate if it branches out of its laboratory home within Science and Technology Studies, and ventures into the uncharted territory of the newsroom?

Key Words: actor network theory, connectivity, human and nonhuman actors, heterogeneity, materialism, news production and process, digital technologies.

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Dr Maria Sourbati, University of Brighton, m.sourbati@brighton.ac.uk

Europe’s digital media policy discourses and the problem of the user