bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
BLIND SPOTS OF INFORMATION OPERATIONS: OF MICRO PROPAGANDA, ALGORITHM GAMING & HOW TO PROFIT FROM IT
Authors: Neudert Lisa-Maria , Bradshaw Samantha , Lewis Rebecca , Yin Leon , Woolley Samuel , Joseff Katie , Metaxa Danaë , Hogan Alexander
Published: August 2020

Techniques designed to manipulate public opinion and undermine information ecosystems are rapidly evolving while research lags behind technological innovation and strategic expertise. As a more sophisticated generation of information operations is fast to mature, the papers in this panel shed light on some of the blind spots of scholarly inquiry making visible new thematic strategies, technical infrastructures and both political and economic incentives.

The first two papers examine the progression from general political propaganda geared towards influencing elections to highly issue-specific micro-propaganda. The first paper presents an analysis of anti-Semitic disinformation campaigns and harassment during the 2018 US midterms on Twitter and offers rich evidence from interviews with Jewish American opinion leaders about their impact. Drawing on data from Twitter’s Election Integrity Initiative, the second paper examines the gender dimensions of foreign influence operations and how hostile state actors frame and discuss gender identity & politics. The third paper presents an analysis of search engine optimization strategies that extremist YouTubers use in an attempt to game the algorithm and increase their visibility in the network. The fourth paper investigates the relationship between partisan bias associated with Google Search results and the success of political candidates associated with the search queries during elections and finds that partisan search media is a predictor for election outcomes. The fifth paper examines the emergence of a global political economy for manipulation and offers a grounded typology of the vendors, marketplaces, services, and products that are designed to turn a profit from swaying public opinion.
'FASCISM IS THE NEW HIP': ONLINE ANTI-PUBLICS AND POST-NORMATIVE DEMOCRACY
Authors: Davis Mark Raymound
Published: August 2020

In this paper I draw connections between two emergent phenomena of the recent past: the growing influence of online ‘anti-publics’ on democratic debate and the emergence of ‘post-normative democracy’. The paper draws on work by McKenzie Wark (1997) and Bart Cammaerts (2007) to further theorise the rise of online anti-publics. It demonstrates how groups such as white supremacist groups, ‘men’s rights’ groups, anti-climate science groups, and ‘neoreactionary’ or ‘Dark Enlightenment’ groups, among others, can be understood as belonging to a loose-knit, diverse online ‘anti-public sphere’. This is a heterogenous space of often fractious social interaction where discourse routinely flouts traditional democratic norms, such as normative ‘public sphere’ conventions of rational-critical deliberation, rules of evidence and argumentation, and requirements for truthfulness, reciprocity, mutuality, and so on, over and above the ways in which democratic debate is properly passionate (Papacharissi, 2016). The paper uses a case studies approach based in discourse analysis of five different groups to theorise their activities in light of their influence on the emergence of a post-normative democratic politics. This includes the normalisation of race politics across the west, attacks on human rights conventions, attempts to undermine legal processes, attacks on the media and journalists, attempts to shore up subvert gains made by marginalised groups, and systematic attempts to undermine trust in institutions. The paper will show how, to advance their cause, right groups have sought to flip established political logic and to reposition fascism as ‘the new hip’.
CALL ME MAYBE: SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS AND TRUST ASSOCIATED WITH TELEPHONY
Authors: Einarson Pérez Cecilie , Leong Lorian
Published: August 2020

This article focuses on the management and sentiments of telephony calling on smartphone among Swedish youth. Based on 47 semi-structured interviews and focus groups with youth aged 12-22 from 2016-2017, this study finds that decaying levels of trust in the medium of telephony has resulted in distinctions in hierarchies of intimacy and functionality. Youth expressed both high levels trust and distrust in traditional telephone calling in relation to impromptu calling. Unknown impromptu calls were associated with telemarketers, creating high levels of distrust in the medium of telephony. Impromptu calls from known contacts indicated a level of urgency and seriousness. Informants revealed complex system of norms in relation to impromptu and planned telephony calling from known callers, expressing specific temporal and spatial expectations for both short and long calls.
SPODIFY AND NETFLIX AS INNOVATIONS: STREAMING MEDIA HISTORY IN THE LIGHT OF INNOVATION THEORY
Authors: Fagerjord Anders
Published: August 2020

Streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix have taken over large portions of the market for music and audiovisual entertainment worldwide. Some have described our current time as the “age of streaming», but the events that led us here has not yet been charted. Most writers who have studied streaming services have included some parts of their history, but the different industries have not yet been compared.This paper is a study of the history of streaming media services under the lens of innovation theory. In this ongoing study, we collect and systematize the findings of earlier published histories of streaming technology. These are contextualised with other genral histories of computer development. We find that streaming media is not one innovation, but a collection of many. Two of the most important events are Steve Jobs' ability to negotiate with all major record companies, and the introduction of "pirate" networks such as Napster, Gnutella and Pirate Bay. Counter to many popular characterisations, streaming services are not examples of disruptions in Christensen's terms, but long awaited systemic changes involving technology, economy, rights management and user patterns, including piracy practices.
ALGORITHMIC COPYRIGHT ENFORCEMENT ON YOUTUBE: USING MACHINE LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING AT SCALE
Authors: Gray Joanne , Suzor Nicolas
Published: August 2020

This paper presents the results of an investigation of algorithmic copyright enforcement on YouTube. We use digital and computational methods to help understand the operation of automated decision-making at scale. We argue that in order to understand complex, automated systems, we require new methods and research infrastructure to understand their operation at scale, over time, and across platforms and jurisdictions. We use YouTube takedowns as a case study to develop and test an innovative methodology for evaluating automated decision-making. First, we built technical infrastructure to obtain a random sample of 59 million YouTube videos and tested their availability two weeks after they were first published. We then used topic modeling to identify categories of videos for further analysis, and trained a machine learning classifier to categorise videos across the entire dataset. We then use statistical analysis (multinomial logistic regression) to examine the characteristics of videos that are most likely to be removed through DMCA notices, Content ID removals, and Terms of Service enforcement. This interdisciplinary work provides the methodological base for further experimentation with the use of deep neural nets to enable large-scale analysis of the operation of automated systems in the realm of digital media. We hope that this work will improve understanding of a useful and fruitful set of methods to interrogate pressing public policy research questions in the context of content moderation and automated decision-making.
LASTING IMPACTS OF 1990S ON INTERNET GOVERNANCE
Authors: Grosse Meghan Leigh
Published: August 2020

Over the past few years, Facebook has found itself mired in out controversy after the next. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the company received criticism when it was revealed that Russian groups had created fraudulent social media accounts on their site in order to interfere with the elections – creating anti-Hillary groups, groups stoking fears of minority populations, and materials accusing the Democratic Party of voter fraud in an attempt to discourage voter turn-out. The question is, how did we get to this point; the point where foreign entities are affecting political outcomes in other countries through a website created by a private American corporation on a media platform wherein the lines between the cultures and legal systems of different countries is sometimes difficult to draw? To answer this, I look to the policies written by the U.S. Government in the 1990s on the issue of internet governance. I argue that the focus on including commercial interests in these early governance structures has had a lasting impact on the ways in which the internet operates to this day. In considering recent controversies that stem from the blurring lines of online sovereignty, wherein commercial and governmental interests become interwoven without a clear sense of who bears the responsibility when the system operates against the interests of its users, it becomes essential to consider the historical foundations which may have led to this moment.
ASSESSING ETHICAL AI-BASED DECISION-MAKING: TOWARDS AN APPLIED ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
Authors: Henman Paul
Published: August 2020

Globally there is strong enthusiasm for using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in government decision making, yet this technocratic approach is not without significant downsides including bias, exacerbating discrimination and inequalities, and reducing government accountability and transparency. A flurry of analytical and policy work has recently sought to identify principles, policies, regulations and institutions for enacting ethical AI. Yet, what is lacking is a practical framework and means by which AI can be assessed as un/ethical. This paper provides an overview of an applied analytical framework for assessing the ethics of AI. It notes that AI (or algorithmic) decision-making is an outcome of data, code, context and use. Using these four categories, the paper articulates key questions necessary to determine the potential ethical challenges of using an AI/algorithm in decision making, and provides the basis for their articulation within a practical toolkit that can be demonstrated against known AI decision-making tools.
DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ONLINE ADVERTISEMENTS FOR A PREVENTION CAMPAIGN: MISTRUST AND OTHER BARRIERS
Authors: Henry Claire
Published: August 2020

This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a research project that is investigating the potential for online advertisements to reduce the incidence of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) consumption on the internet. First time or novice offenders often use search engines to look for CSAM, which presents an opportunity to use display advertisements (for a 24-hour sexual harm helpline) on search results for early intervention. This approach—currently being piloted in New Zealand—aims to decrease the number of potential/novice offenders accessing CSAM, and increase the number seeking help and self-referring for treatment. However, achieving these outcomes crucially depends upon the use of effective images and advertisements, and yet limited research has been undertaken on the characteristics of effective media-based interventions in this context. These outcomes also crucially depend on a two-way relationship of trust: on the one hand, the advertiser’s trust in primary prevention as a strategy, in the potential of online advertising to encourage behavioral change, and in the users’ likelihood of users self-referring contacting the helpline; and on the other hand, the users’ trust—or overcoming of mistrust—in both display advertising targeted at them and in the advertisers themselves (when engagement with both may involve overcoming fears about privacy, surveillance, prosecution, or stigmatization). This paper discusses the pivotal role of trust in informing the development of CSAM prevention display advertisements, arguing that facilitating this two-way relationship of trust is core to the success of a prevention campaign and must be embedded into its design.
TROLLING FOR ENGAGEMENT: AUSTRALIAN LEGACY NEWS OUTLETS SEEKING AUDIENCE INTERACTION METRICS ON FACEBOOK THROUGH DELIBERATELY DIVISIVE CONTENT
Authors: Hurcombe Edward
Published: August 2020

This paper empirically investigates how two prominent Australian legacy news outlets – ABC News and News.com.au – operate according to what I term a social media logic of “engagement”, a concept which builds upon van Dijck & Poell’s notion of a social media logic of “popularity”. By a logic of engagement, I mean the necessity to maximize social media attention and interaction metrics. Rather than just valuing “popularity”, platforms instead place value on content that maximizes a multitude of feelings, sentiments, and reactions. Without sufficient engagement, outlets dependent on platforms such as Facebook are threatened by invisibility in the newsfeed. I specifically focus on the operations of ABC News and News.com.au on Facebook from 21 March 2018 – 10 April 2018. Within this period, I collected all the posts from each page, which amounted to 44 posts in total. From these posts, I strategically selected six posts of varying levels of engagement for closer qualitative analysis, with an emphasis on language and imagery. My findings in this paper suggest that the drive for monetizable and algorithmically-valued audience metrics on Facebook can encourage divisive and provocative news content that arouses strong negative feelings and promotes conflict. Trolls are those that deceive other users of their intentions, and seek to sow discord for their own purposes. Thus, it is beneficial to think about a potentially emerging practice of news “trolling”, as it appears that news outlets are adopting faux-naïve, and deliberately incendiary, practices when pursuing engagement.
THE RETURN OF MEDIEVAL SOCIETY – CONTROL, SURVEILLANCE AND NEO-FEUDALISM IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET
Authors: Jensen Jakob Linaa
Published: August 2020

In this paper the medieval period is used as a prism to analyze and contextualize the intersection of mutual surveillance, corporate capitalism and information control. It is claimed that the interplay between big tech companies, nation states’ battle for control and citizens’ participatory surveillance, for instance exercised through social media, resembles medieval principles of feudalism and tight social control. As such, this is basically a paper discussing power related to the Internet, as it turns 50 years.

The main argument is that apparently distinct social phenomena related to the dominance of Internet technologies share the same logics of control, surveillance and power as the feudalism that dominated medieval society. The states and big corporations both compete and cooperate, just like the states and the church in Middle Ages.
PUNCHING UP OR TURNING AWAY? WHEN PALESTINIANS UNFRIEND JEWS IN ISRAEL
Authors: John Nicholas , Agbarya Aysha
Published: August 2020

We present the first study of Facebook unfriending in the context of the relations between a social minority and majority. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 ‘48 Palestinians (Palestinian citizens of Israel) that explored their unfriending of Jewish Israeli Facebook friends. Nearly all of the interviewees reported unfriending a Jewish Israeli against a background of racist hate speech. For the more politically-oriented interviewees, unfriending was a kind of punching up, an expression of power in a context where they are structurally disadvantaged. These interviewees reported more positive feelings about the act of unfriending (e.g. relief) and active feelings about the behavior that caused the unfriending (especially anger). Politically inactive interviewees showed more negative and passive feelings (disappointment in their Jewish Facebook friends, and fear). For them, unfriending was more like walking away from troubling interactions (because of anti-Arab racism), or withdrawing from social surveillance that could lead to trouble with employers or their college/university. Where dyadic pairs on Facebook enjoy more or less equal social standing, then there may be something to Facebook’s belief that connecting people across the world can improve cross-cultural understanding. However, when one social group enjoys power over another, it would seem that the positive potential of online ties is limited. This study thus sheds new light on online tie management in the context of structural inequality.
MAKING THE UNSEEN VISIBLE: EXPLORING CROSSCUTTING SOCIAL MEDIA PUBLICS AND THEIR SOCIOPOLITICAL TRAITS
Authors: Kristensen Jakob Bæk
Published: August 2020

This paper proposes an approach for studying the sociopolitical traits of multiple publics on Facebook that emerge in the network of interactions between users and public pages. The study is based on a survey of 1697 Danish citizens whose responses are coupled with their public Facebook activity.This is used to make predictions about a selection of sociopolitical features for a random sample of 50.000 Facebook users across more than 20.000 public pages. The interactions of the 50.000 users are modeled as a network and a clustering algorithm is used to find groups that arise naturally within said network. This allows for the study of how certain sociopolitical features cut across different congregations of the public in a way that retains a lot of the complexity of the digital trace data.

Results show that voting intention overlaps most strongly with the clusters in the network, followed by gender and geo-location. Additionally they show that the so-called political echo-chambers consist only of smaller subsections of the entire network with many users' interactions mainly being identified by interests that can be attributed to gender, geo-location or other. Although, results also show that the political alt. right are very dominant on hot button political issues such as immigration and religion.

It is proposed that by eliciting sociopolitical trends while considering the full network of interactions might lead researchers to overlook and overestimate fewer features when studying the formation of social media publics.
TRUST IN DECONSTRUCTED RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS. CASE STUDY: NEWS RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS
Authors: Martens Marijn , De Wolf Ralf , Berendt Bettina , De Marez Lieven
Published: August 2020

Increasingly, algorithms play an important role in everyday decision-making processes. Recommender systems, specifically, are algorithms that serve to influence end-users’ decision-making (e.g. what to read, who to befriend, who to rent to…). However, the companies that develop and produce these systems are not neutral, but have an economic goal and specific vision on how society should operate. These algorithms should thus never be trusted blindly.

An algorithm consists of collective human practices and consequently warm human and institutional choices. Therefore, they should be perceived as culture. Despite the many academics that are joining the debate to denounce the bias, opaqueness and unfairness often found in these algorithms, little empirical research has invested in treating algorithms in its socio-technical assembly as culture.

To better understand how end-users perceive these algorithmic systems, we strive to understand how they imagine and (dis)trust the different components of the socio-technical assembly. We are demystifying the imagined processes incorporated in these algorithmic systems in the minds of the end-user using a deconstructed version of Buchers’ (2017) algorithmic imaginary.

Currently, companies put ever more effort into personalizing news, using news recommender systems (NRS). NRS organize, select and aggregate news to influence the decision-making of an end-user without a transparent explanation on the process. Therefore, we focus our study on the end-users of these NRS.

In this qualitative study, we are interviewing 25 end-users of NRS to understand the assumptions and apprehend the (dis-)trust people have about the different elements of the socio-technical assembly of news recommender systems.
COMMUNICATING A TRUSTWORTHY ONLINE ORGANISATIONAL IDENTITY WITH CHATBOTS
Authors: Mckie Indra Ayu Susan , Narayan Bhuva
Published: August 2020

Conversational bots, otherwise known as chatbots, operate within the fourth industrial revolution as a client facing form of AI. They are communicative interfaces that mimic human conversation to deliver information in a highly personalised way. The user experience of chatbots can change the way individuals, groups and organisations define themselves online (Whitley, Gal & Kjaergaard, 2014). This paper discusses the opportunities in building an online identity via chatbots, with emphasis on harnessing the properties of chatbots to develop trust with users. Currently, organisations are limited to the properties and affordances of web browsers, search engines and social media to communicate a “shared symbolic representation” (Gioia, 1998). This paper focuses on organisational identities on the Internet, and details both opportunities and vulnerabilities in establishing trust with users through chatbots.
BOTS AMONG US: PREVALENCE, INFLUENCE, AND ROLES OF AUTOMATED ACCOUNTS IN THE GERMAN TWITTER FOLLOW NETWORK
Authors: Münch Felix Victor , Puschmann Cornelius , Thies Ben , Bruns Axel
Published: August 2020

Social bots are undermining trust in social media. They spread low-credibility content, fake news, and spam. However, most research is based on bots that actively share links or keywords, rather than assessing the longer-term presence of bots as an integral part of platforms. To address this gap, we present what to our knowledge is the first study that assesses the prevalence, influence, and roles of automated accounts in a Twitter follow network on a national scale. This allows us to analyse the potential impact of bots beyond the context of single events and topics.

To collect a follow network of the most central accounts in the German-speaking Twittersphere, we have adapted the rank-degree method, a graph exploration method that is able to identify the most influential spreaders within complex networks, as a data mining method using the cost-free standard Twitter API. To identify bots, we employ the Botometer API. Both methods combined allow us to localise bots within topical clusters, to estimate their potential influence, and to assess the roles of the most central bots.

Our findings indicate that bots have only a low negative impact on the German-speaking Twittersphere. However, the most sophisticated bots will likely remain absent from our study, as false negatives. Similarly, trolls and semi-automated accounts necessitate further research. Our new sampling approach combined with Botometer is promising, for example, for Twitterspheres based on other languages. The study itself opens further avenues of enquiry, such as a long-term monitoring of automated accounts in the German Twittersphere.
“ALEXA, CAN I TRUST YOU?”: SMALL SISTERS AND FRIENDLY POWER
Authors: Munn Luke
Published: August 2020

How is trust fabricated today? This paper argues that the persona of ‘Alexa’ bypasses concerns around surveillance and privacy, defusing anxieties not via the rationality of a convincing argument but through the relationality of Alexa as a singular presence.

In many respects Alexa is actually more invasive than other technologies. Amazon has encroached into the very heart of the home. Moreover, the company’s patents delve further into the subject through voice identification, mood monitoring, and health detection. But this encroachment is carried out by her, rather than it, a warm and welcoming persona. The team’s aim is to develop something that is friendly, can turn off your lights, chat about anything, and empathize when you’re having a bad day (McGirt 2018). The goal is to construct something chattier, more affective and emotionally attuned. In doing so, Alexa embodies what theorist Byung-Chul Han (2017) has called “friendly power.”

The result is that Alexa feels different. Instead of an algorithmic bundle of technologies, Alexa is experienced as an affective persona. Alexa thus delves deeper into the inner life of the subject while shrugging off the anxieties associated with cold, command-and-control technologies. Rather than an all-seeing eye, she is an always listening voice, a friendly companion. And rather than emanating from a central agency, she is co-located with the user. If Big Brother no longer characterizes contemporary power (Harcourt 2015), Alexa might be described as a “small sister.” Small sisters work alongside instead of above. Small sisters are multiple, sited, and supple.
#RESISTHUDUMANAMBA: KENYAN GOVERNMENT AT A CROSSROAD
Authors: Mwaura Job
Published: August 2020

In the past few years, Kenya’s digital landscape has transformed and this has been made possible by proliferation of the usage of digital technologies, particularly - mobile phones. Due to increased access to digital technologies, faster internet speeds, increased securitization among other issues, data on individuals in online spaces has also increased. Recently, the government rolled out a National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) which is meant to capture biometric data but this has generated a huge debate online in Kenya under the hashtag #ResistHudumaNamba. This paper will therefore examine the following issues: What has contributed to the decline of trust between the government and its citizens when it comes to internet technologies? What are the actual sentiments given for and against in the introduction of Huduma Number? What are the underlying reasons for continued registration of individuals in Kenya? This research will be a qualitative research study. Data will be generated from social media sites (Twitter and Facebook), as well as blog posts and newspaper articles. A discourse analysis of the events around #ResistsHudumaNamba in these sources will be done so as to answer the research questions. This research has the potential to contribute to literature on trust in sub-Saharan Africa as well as establish trust issues between government and citizens when digital technologies are involved.
THE ECOLOGY OF LATINX TWITTER
Authors: Oquendo Jacqueline , Porter Lance
Published: August 2020

Twitter is a conduit of culture. A miscellany of networked communities where participants reinforce and/or dismantle socially constructed ideas and narratives. For nearly a decade, studies on the uses and gratifications, and sociality of ethnic-centered networks in the U.S. have emerged. The body of literature is interdisciplinary and largely discusses Black Twitter (Brock, 2012; Florini, 2013; Sharma, 2013; Clarke, 2014; Lee, 2017), and to a lesser extent, Asian-American Twitter (Lopez, 2016). Conversely, research on Latinx Twitter is scarce (Novak, Johnson, & Pontes, 2016; Slaughter, 2016; Rosenbaum, 2018). As the second largest Spanish speaking country in the world, Latinx make up 18% of the U.S. population – the nation’s largest minority group (Pew Research Center, 2017). Often described in monolithic terms, Latinx epitomizes diversity. The pan-ethnicity represents over 21 nationalities, and a host of European and Indigenous languages, in which regional dialects are blended with African tongues to varying degrees. We take the position that prior to conducting behavioral focused analyses on Latinx Twitter, the network’s ecology must be defined. This means, to understand how the network of tens of ethnicities and heritages has self-organized. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to augment existing scholarship by exploring its ecology. Through a content analysis and interviews with six Latinx and Afro-Latinx women (18-24 years old) attending a Predominately White Institution (PWI) in U.S. South, we identified three major ecological themes: (1) Seeking Latinx Twitter; (2) Mega Network versus Sub-Networks; and (3) Implications for Monolithic Narratives.
“I STILL WANT TO KNOW THEY’RE NOT TERRIBLE PEOPLE”: NEGOTIATING TRUST, PLEASURE AND QUEER ETHICS IN LGBTQ+ YOUNG PEOPLE’S DATING APP USE
Authors: Pym Tinonee , Albury Kath , Byron Paul , McCosker Anthony , Race Kane
Published: August 2020

Dating and hook-up apps constitute spaces of intense negotiation around issues of sex, identity and intimacy, in which norms are tested and reinforced. This paper examines discussions of ‘ideal app use’ which emerged in qualitative workshops conducted in 2018 with 23 LGBTQ+ app-users aged 18-35 in urban and regional New South Wales. We explore how a reading of in-app practices - such as messaging, picture-sharing and blocking - through a lens of queer ethics can inform LGBTQ+ young people’s ‘rules’ for app use. Participants were invited to create 'how-tos' for ideal app use, and describe the ways they distinguished ‘good’ (or trustworthy) profiles from ‘bad’ (untrustworthy) profiles via creative design activities. In their discussions, participants articulated their ‘rules’ for filtering matches in relation to particular design features of apps which enabled (sexed and gendered) cultures of accountability to others. As in Duguay’s (2017) research on queer women’s deployment of in-app affordances as ‘identity modulation’, participants interacted with other users and interpreted their profiles in relation not only to sexual desires, but also queer politics and identity. In many instances, this was expressed through a heightened sense of responsibility for self-knowledge and self-disclosure, and a need to connect with ‘good people’ with a shared political sensibility. At other times, participants acknowledged the challenges of negotiating politicised responsibility to others while simultaneously pursuing the kinds of pleasurable connections they sought on apps, and limiting their own self-disclosure as a means of guarding their physical and emotional safety.
TRUST UNDER TRIAL: THE EFFECT OF SURGE PRICING ON TRUST TOWARD RIDE-HAILING PLATFORMS IN MANILA
Authors: Ramizo Godofredo Jr
Published: August 2020

The nascent literature on platform trust in contexts of the Global South does not yet explain how trust for technology platforms persist or erode in the presence of issues that invite distrust, such as the controversial use of surge pricing in ride-hailing platforms. This paper uses in-depth interviews with 30 users of ride-hailing platforms in Manila to study how attitudes toward surge pricing influence attitudes for ride-hailing platforms. The paper finds that despite respondents’ negative attitudes toward surge pricing amid doubts on its fairness and transparency, trust for ride-hailing platforms persist. Persistence of trust is partly due to users’ rational experiences indicating that ride-hailing platforms provide net benefits despite the possibility of unfair surge pricing, especially when faced with the disagreeable alternative of using Manila’s poor transport infrastructure. However, the persistence of trust was also due to cognitive biases, as reflected in constructs such as _acceptance of limited transparency_, _perceived control_, and the ideational appeal of technological systems. These cognitive biases found in the data increase our understanding why trust in platform technologies may persist even when besieged by distrust. The findings can also increase our vigilance over the various cognitive biases which can be exploited to create trust on less than meritorious grounds, and hold a firm grip on users’ trust even as the latter begin to harbour healthy skepticism over fairness and transparency.
OBSERVING THE TECH, USING MEETUP DATA TO STUDY THE EVOLUTION OF THE DISCOURSE AROUND IOT
Authors: Rossi Luca , Magnani Matteo , Vega D'aurelio Davide , Hanteer Obaida
Published: August 2020

This paper proposes to use MeetUp data to study the emergence and the evolution of the technological trend commonly known as Internet of Things (IoT). Starting from a manually selected sample of 220 European MeetUp groups we used MeetUp's APIs, to retrieve additional information about the events and participating users. The final dataset consists of 220 groups, 32967 members and 2386 events from 2011 until now (Jan 2019). The results suggest the presence of clearly identifiable European hubs for IoT development but a worldwide crowd of users. From a temporal perspective the MeetUp data shows how IoT exploded in 2015 and how it might have peaked in 2017. Within this period of time IoT has not been a “stable technology” but as evolved incorporating, within its area of “related topics” new and emerging technologies such as Cryptocurrency or cloud computing.
A NEW STANDARD OF PROOF? DISCOURSES ON VISUAL DATA AFTER THE 2017 G20-PROTESTS
Authors: Venema Rebecca , Lobinger Katharina
Published: August 2020

A broad body of literature has described contemporary societies as “surveillance societies” or “surveillance cultures” and has expanded on the implications of an increasing “datafication” of society. To date, little attention has been paid to the role of visual data and their analysis in these processes. However, visual data and advancing algorithmic and facial recognition tools can provide particularly rich insights, that may imply both, important potentials and possible tensions. The contribution uses the case of controversial police investigations after the 2017 G20-summit to discuss intersections of datafication, dataveillance and visual communication and to provide insight into how different authorities and stakeholders legitimate and contest the collection of visual data and their algorithmic analysis in the political and public realm. Therefore a qualitative content and discourse analysis of news media articles, tweets, experts’ reports, police statements and minutes of parliamentary debates and committee hearings was conducted. Findings indicate that concrete practices of visual data collection and analysis remained obscure and a critical blind spot in the general media coverage. In turn, they triggered heated debates in the political realm and in specialized media coverage in which trust played a striking key role. Police authorities characterized visual data and algorithmic tools as a "new standard of proof" and thus as particularly powerful, objective and specifically trustworthy. However, indiscriminate practices of visual data collection and analysis also triggered fundamental concerns about the role and the trustworthiness of police authorities in datafied societies.
THE CARRIER WAVE PRINCIPLE
Authors: Sinnreich Aram , Gilbert Jesse
Published: August 2020

In this article, we propose a new theoretical lens through which to explore the relationship between sociotechnical artifacts, the messages they convey, and the cultural meanings derived from them. This premise, which we entitle the "carrier wave principle," holds that there is no theoretical limit to the amount and variety of knowledge that may be derived from a given cultural artifact over time. This axiom can be understood as the result of changes in technological regimes and cultural modalities over time and space, and this has been true throughout history. However, continuing exponential growth in the power and ubiquity of computational processing have accelerated this process to the point where new modalities of knowledge production are now available within the course of a human lifetime. We located our analysis at the intersection of several fields of scholarship, including media studies, information science, cultural studies, science and technology studies, and critical data studies. We conclude with an exploration of the carrier wave principle’s real-world consequences and contexts, including implications for privacy, security, identity and subjectivity.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: WHAT TERMS AND CONDITIONS MODERATING READER COMMENTS TO AUSTRALIAN ONLINE NEWS SITES SAY ABOUT TRUST IN THE AUDIENCE
Authors: Son Catherine Jane
Published: August 2020

Reader comments to online news websites have become a critical component of civic engagement and debate since the introduction of digital media. While many online news organisations encourage reader comments to maintain a loyal audience, audience participation is often constrained by the terms and conditions used to govern reader comments. By imposing strict moderation policies, news organisations demonstrate a lack of trust towards the audience. Yet, many organisations continue to demand high levels of public trust in their brands and the institution of journalism. Using critical discourse analysis, this study examines the terms and conditions used to moderate reader comments to four Australian online news sites, and assesses the level of trust afforded to audiences through comment moderation policies. Public statements from each of these organisations about public trust in their organisation or the institution of news are also assessed, to contrast the level of trust these organisations expect with that which is afforded to the audience through moderation policies. This research finds that the moderation policies analysed represent significant impediments to audience expression, and demonstrate a discrepancy between the level of trust afforded to participants and that which the organisations demand from their readers. Despite early hopes that online reader comments may facilitate greater opportunities for democratic participation for citizens, the potential for substantial democratic debate on the online news sites examined in this research remains unrealised.
PERCEPTIONS OF DARKNESS: MOBILE MEDIA AND THE EMBODIMENT OF RISK AND SAFETY IN THE URBAN NIGHT
Authors: Hardley Jess , Richardson Ingrid
Published: August 2020

This paper explores the embodied experience of smartphone users in urban darkness, and considers how the geo-locative and network functionality of mobile media impacts upon the perception of safety and risk at night. City spaces at nighttime are often perceived as less safe, and the habitual trust we place in familiar strangers during the day can become imbued with caution, suspicion and fear. Much of the research in this area neglects the impact of both the networked infrastructure of the city – what de Souza e Silva and Sutko (2009) term “net-local space” – and the place of mobile media in people’s nighttime practices and their experience and perception of the urban dark. This paper draws on original ethnographic data collected in Perth and Melbourne from 2015-2017 to examine how mobile devices as both communicative and location-aware interfaces are used to provide women with a perceived or ‘felt’ sense of bodily safety and security, and the potential implications this has on users’ pedestrian traversal of the urban dark. Throughout the paper, our conceptual and ethnographic approach is informed by Merleau-Ponty’s (1945) work on habituation and proprioception, Ihde’s (1993) postphenomenological take on the cultural specificity of the body-technology relation, and Weiss’s (1999) feminist adaptation of the term intercorporeality. The theme of “trust” runs as a thread through this paper, as we unpack the mistrust city dwellers have of the urban dark and how mobile media perceptually ameliorates this embodied sense of risk by extending users communicative reach via location-aware interfaces.
Metodología para la evaluación de un proyecto educativo universitario para el desarrollo sostenible
Authors: García Reynaud Javier , Estrada Amador Vivian , Oyuela Sánchez Lilian , Ortega Ramos Yajerik , Sandoval Rivas Naomi , Odalis Flores Moncada Odalis
Published: August 2020

La incertidumbre sobre cuánto contribuyen las intervenciones educativas en su comunidad de influencia reduce las posibilidades de optimizar los recursos para la adopción de prácticas sostenibles. Con el objetivo de desarrollar una metodología para evaluar los resultados de Cátedra de la Tierra “Dr. Gonzalo fCruz Calderón”, se definieron indicadores de desempeño y construyeron instrumentos para medir el estado de conocimientos, actitudes, habilidades y prácticas en 234 estudiantes previo a su participación en el proyecto. Se obtuvo una adecuada validez de contenido y consistencia interna. Existe bajo desempeño en cuanto a conocimientos, habilidades y prácticas sostenibles, así como un elevado desempeño en actitudes, reflejándose la necesidad de priorizar en aprendizajes conceptuales y procedimentales, específicamente en lo concerniente a promover la comprensión de la sostenibilidad, desde un enfoque integrador y en el desarrollo de habilidades en gestión de la biodiversidad, adaptación al cambio climático y manejo de cuencas hidrográficas.
Artificial Intelligence and the 2020 Municipal Elections in Brazil
Authors: Jesus Diego Santos Vieira de , Holanda Adriane Figueirola Buarque de
Published: August 2020

The main purpose is to examine the possible role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the uncertain context of the 2020 municipal elections in Brazil. The central argument indicates that, regardless of when the elections are held, the COVID-19 pandemic opened spaces for candidates to build their political platforms on the initiatives to combat the disease, but also the opportunity for the dissemination of fake news and profiles regarding the spread of the new coronavirus and social distancing and quarantine measures with political purposes. The electoral discourse has increasingly used technologies and data such as voters’ concerns, preferences, and oppositions, collected on social networks through AI. New data-based technologies can give rise to an unreal, induced, forged public opinion, in the same way that they can bring greater possibilities of discernment to the voter. The situation requires a more robust regulation for AI, but there are still many unregulated aspects and obstacles for the implementation of an effective regulation of online activities in Brazil, such as the poor adaptation of the legal space to highly volatile phenomena.
Een ontspannen perspectief op residentiële segregatie
Authors: Musterd Sako
Published: August 2020

A Relaxed Perspective on Residential Segregation

In the Netherlands and surrounding countries, there is reason to ask the question whether levels of segregation according to country of origin (mainly non-western) and in terms of socioeconomic position (mainly social arrears) are sufficiently high to legitimate anti-segregation policy. When will segregation become problematic? If segregation is regarded a problem, what, then, would be the best remedy? Spatial intervention? Or broader societal intervention? In this article developments and mechanisms will be discussed that lead to segregation; also political views on segregation and the framing of segregation will be scrutinized. A confrontation of knowledge, insights, visions, and framings offers material for new perspectives on residential segregation and is reason to argue for a more relaxed attitude towards segregation. We should acknowledge that the process of matching households to residential environments results in some – generally unproblematic – segregation. Only if segregation causes problems that pass certain intensity and/or a certain spatial range, non-spatial or spatial interventions are becoming a necessity. Levels of segregation are relatively moderate still. We ought to be more aware of the fact that strong negative framing actually stimulates segregation, social exclusion, division, discrimination, marginalisation, stigmatisation, fear, estrangement, and the development of first- and second-rate citizens.
De relatie tussen huiselijk geweld en betrokkenheid bij 1%motorclubs
Authors: Vosters Nanne , Janssen Janine
Published: August 2020

The relationship between domestic violence and membership of 1%motorcycle club – (Former) partners of 1%motorcycle club members in shelters

Little is known about (former) partners of 1%motorcycle club members. Social professionals working with victims of domestic violence in shelters have regular encounters with these mostly female (ex-)partners. In this exploratory contribution we wonder what is known about domestic violence amongst people with (ex-)partners of 1%motorcycle club members and the consequences of the involvement of a motorcycle club for tackling this violence. Based on thirteen semi-structured interviews with social professionals working in a shelter, external professionals and (ex-)partners, the link between domestic violence and membership of a motorcycle club could not be verified. What this research does show is that safety is the number one priority in working with these (ex-)partners. Furthermore, it shows how complex it is to assess the seriousness of potential threat coming from these 1%motorcyle clubs. Further research on domestic violence in environments associated with organised crime and the cooperation between the judiciary system and social professionals is needed to improve safety and wellbeing for this specific group.
Medical Malpractice Cases in Kerman Province, Iran (2010 - 2014)
Authors: Hayatbakhsh Abbasi Mohammad Mahdi , Amyan Abbas , Safari Shahryar , Tahghighi Mohammad Mostafa , Karami Robati Fatemeh , Alinaghi Langari Ahmad
Published: August 2020

Background: Medical malpractice is a major cause of patient complaints and dissatisfaction, which is an alarming event for healthcare professional and medical practitioners. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate medical malpractice cases in Kerman province, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional, retrospective study was performed to analyze the complaint cases reported in Kerman Medical Council and Kerman Legal Medicine Organization during 2010 - 2014. Physician data were recorded on age, gender, academic degree, specialty, work experience, place of failure, and type of medical malpractice. Data analysis was performed in SPSS. Results: In total, 551 complaint cases were investigated, 167 of which (31%) were medical malpractice cases. The most common medical malpractices were imprudence (44.31%) and carelessness (41.31%). In addition, most of the medical malpractice cases occurred in governmental hospitals (64.07%). In most of the cases, physicians with specialty degrees were convicted of medical malpractice (73.65%), and the highest number of the medical malpractices was observed in ophthalmology (20.95%). Conclusions: Despite the significant advancement in medical affairs, the rate of patient complaints and medical malpractices has increased noticeably.
Spatial Distribution of Medically Important Scorpions in Iran: A Review Article
Authors: Mohammadi Bavani Mulood , Saeedi Shahin , Saghafipour Abedin
Published: August 2020

Context: There are three families and 66 species of scorpions in Iran, some of these species are medically relevant, and their sting cause public health problems. Thus, producing of the new geographical distribution of scorpions and the new species is very important. The goal of this study was to produce the distribution maps of Iranian scorpions that are medically important according to the latest information. Evidence Acquisition: This present study included a review of all the articles related to Iranian scorpions published in ISI, PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases during 2008 - 2019, using the relevant MeSH keywords. The data were entered in an Excel file, and spatial distribution maps were prepared. Results: From the review of the related published documents, we found that there are 66 scorpion species in Iran, some scorpion names have been changed and new scorpion species have been added to Iranian scorpion fauna and the spatial distribution of some species has become wider. Conclusions: Considering the new distribution maps and data on Iranian scorpions, for scorpion envenomation treatment and control programs, these variations should be regarded.