Mobile Journalists as Traceable Data Objects: Surveillance Capitalism and Responsible Innovation in Mobile Journalism
This article discusses how Shosana Zuboff’s critical theory of surveillance capitalism may help to understand and underpin responsible practice and innovation in mobile journalism. Zuboff conceptualizes surveillance capitalism as a new economic logic made possible by ICT and its architecture for extracting and trading data products of user behavior and preferences. In Europe, the framework of responsible research and innovation is promoted as an approach that should inform practice and policy for research and innovation to align with societal values and democratic principles. While the adoption of smartphones as a key tool for producing and consuming news has great potential for innovation, it can also feed behavioral data into the supply chain of surveillance capitalism. The article discusses how potentially harmful implications can be met on an individual and organizational level to contribute to a more responsible adoption of mobile technologies in journalism.
Salzmann, Anja; Frode Guribye and Astrid Gynnild. 2021. “Mobile Journalists as Traceable Data Objects: Surveillance Capitalism and Responsible Innovation in Mobile Journalism” Media and Communication 9 (2) In press.
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Remote Female Fixation—A Grounded Theory on Illegal Sharing of Nude Imagery Online
The classic grounded theory of remote female fixation provides new knowledge on the illegal sharing of sexualized images of young girls in networked online communities. This sharing occurs without consent and usually without the girls knowing about it. The data were gathered from 20 different online comment sections of the Norwegian branch of a global, anonymous community with a reputation for extensive sharing of nude images of young women. It emerged from the data that the forum's users had an ongoing need to master their own female fixations, which they satisfied through the process of remote female fixation. In this process, forum users engaged in four interdependent strategies: continuous competing, loyal including, irregular rewarding,and tactical negotiating. By identifying the forum users' shared concern, this study may help explain the increasing presence of sexual abuse in digital environments.
Otteren, Hilde and Astrid Gynnild. 2021. “Remote Female Fixation—A Grounded Theory on Illegal Sharing of Nude Imagery Online” FQS: Forum Qualitative Social Research, 22 (2) in press.
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Adopting a mojo mindset: Training newspaper reporters in mobile journalism
Due to the visual turn in journalism and the emergence of mobile journalism, many newspaper journalists have had to change the way they work. News organizations apply different strategies to increase staff competencies in using new production tools and creating innovative content in new formats. In this paper, we investigate how such a training was experienced by 40 print editors and journalists in a German publishing house. The journalists were introduced to audio-visual storytelling and reporting with smartphones in a 2-week training course. The training arrangements were studied using participant observation and in-depth interviews, followed by a thematic analysis of the data. The study indicates that for print journalists and editors, the transition from the print to the mojo mindset depends on three dimensions: (i) mastering mojo skills, (ii) adopting visual thinking and (iii) integrating ethical and legal awareness.
Salzmann, Anja; Frode Guribye and Astrid Gynnild
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884921996284.
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What to do about deepfakes?
Synthetic media technologies are rapidly advancing, making it easier to generate nonveridical media that look and sound increasingly realistic. So-called "deepfakes" (owing to their reliance on deep learning) often present a person saying or doing something they have not said or done. The proliferation of deepfakes creates a new challenge to the trustworthiness of visual experience and has already created negative consequences such as nonconsensual pornography, political disinformation, and financial fraud. Deepfakes can harm viewers by deceiving or intimidating, harm subjects by causing reputational damage, and harm society by undermining societal values such as trust in institutions. What can be done to mitigate these harms? It will take the efforts of many different stakeholders including platforms, journalists, and policymakers to counteract the negative effects of deepfakes. Technical experts can and should play an active role, the authors point out.
Johnson, Deborah G. and Nicholas Diakopoulos. 2021. “Communications of the ACM” 64 (3), 33-35 DOI: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3447255
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Anticipatory Ethics and the Role of Uncertainty
Making conjectures about future consequences of a technology is an exercise in trying to reduce various forms of uncertainty. Both to produce and reason about these conjectures requires understanding their potential limitations. In other words, we need systematic ways of considering uncertainty associated with given conjectures for downstream consequences. In this work, we frame the task of considering future consequences as an anticipatory ethics problem, where the goal is to develop scenarios that reflect plausible outcomes and their ethical implications following a technology's introduction into society. In order to shed light on how various forms of uncertainty might inform how we reason about a resulting scenario, we provide a characterization of the types of uncertainty that arise in a potential scenario-building process.
Nanayakkara, Priyanjka; Nicholas Diakopoulos, and Jessica Hullman
https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.13170
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Digital Transparency and Accountability
Tradition is not a safe haven in late modernity, in general and in the press in particular. There is a need for justification and updated legitimation of journalistic practice. In the age of digital journalism, accountability and transparency have been radicalized, and as journalism faces new challenges and undergoes severe reorientations, questions of accountability and transparency are essential. The basic idea that journalism must hold those in power accountable has been well established, but it is similarly imperative that journalism itself is held accountable by an informed citizenry. The thriving industry of digital transparency and accountability instruments bear witness to how serious the situation appears for agents in the journalistic field.
Eide, Martin. 2017. “Digital Transparency and Accountability” in Franklin, Bob and Scott Eldridge || (eds) The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies: 253-262. Routledge.
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Diffusion of Drone Journalism: The Case of Finland, 2011-2020
This article details Finnish news organizations’ adoption of drones for journalistic purposes from 2011 to 2020. The theoretical starting point of the article is Rogers’ (1962) diffusion of innovations theory, which explains how new ideas and technologies spread in societies. The main empirical data for the study were derived from a phone survey conducted among the 80 most popular newspapers in Finland. The findings reveal that drone journalism in Finland has already diffused from a few pioneering organizations to a large number of newsrooms, including regional, mid-sized newspapers. Most of the newspapers are either using in-house drones, buying commissioned images, or using both strategies. The frequency of use was found to be much higher for those newsrooms using their own drones. Finally, the article ponders possible explanations for different trajectories in the adoption of drones in various countries based on the Finnish case.
Uskali, Turo; Pasi Ikonen, Ville Manninen and Hokkanen Jere. 2020. “Diffusion of Drone Journalism: The Case of Finland, 2011-2020” Media and Communication 8 (3): 75-84. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i3.3075
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Agreeing to Surveillance: Digital News Privacy Policies
The shift toward digital distribution has led newspapers to adopt data collection and sharing practices with unexplored ethical consequences. Analysis of the privacy policies of the 15 largest U.S. newspapers reveals what is permitted with regard to the capture of newsreader data and the sharing of such data with advertisers, affiliated companies, and social media. These practices and the related news metrics and analytics are critiqued in light of journalism’s democratic role and traditional support of citizenship. The conclusion offers six recommendations to begin to address these ethical dilemmas through greater transparency and more reader control over data handling.
Adams, Paul. 2020.“Agreeing to Surveillance Digital News Privacy Policies.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699020934197
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Digital Creativity Support for Original Journalism
This article examines the digital tool INJECT, that helps journalists discover new story angles by offering insight, not search results. The analysis highlighted three important results. (1) That journalists identified more with digital tools to support them when discovering and generating new angles on stories more quickly than now, (2) different creative search algorithms applied to news informations operationalized the strategies for discovering new angles and (3) evaluations of the INJECT digital tool in three newsrooms revealed that it increased the novelty of stories written by journalists, but younger journalists more open to new technology and working more autonomously were more likely to use the tool.
Maiden, Neil et.al. 2020. “Digital Creativity Support for Original Journalism.” Communications of the ACM 63 (8) : 46-53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3386526
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Anticipating and Addressing the Ethical Implications of Deepfakes in the Context of Elections
New media synthesis technologies are rapidly advancing and becoming more accessible, allowing users to make video and audio clips (i.e. deepfakes) of individuals doing and saying things they never did or said. Deepfakes have significant implications for the integrity of many social domains including that of elections. Focusing on the 2020 US presidential election and using an anticipatory approach, this article examines the ethical issues raised by deepfakes and discusses strategies for addressing these issues. Eight hypothetical scenarios are developed and used as the basis for this analysis, which identifies harms to voters who view deepfakes, candidates and campaigns that are the subjects of deepfakes, and threats to electoral integrity. Four potential forms of intervention are discussed with respect to multi-stakeholder responsibility for addressing harms, including education and media literacy, subject defense, verification, and publicity moderation.
Diakopoulos, Nicholas, and Deborah Johnson. 2020. “Anticipating and Addressing the Ethical Implications of Deepfakes in the Context of Elections.” New Media & Society : 1-27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820925811
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Engineering Ethics: Contemporary and Enduring Debates
Deborah G. Johnson has written the first engineering ethics textbook to use debates as the framework for presenting engineering ethics topics, this engaging, accessible survey explores the most difficult and controversial issues that engineers face in daily practice. Written by a leading scholar in the field of engineering and computer ethics, Johnson approaches engineering ethics with the premise that engineering is both a technical and a social endeavor and that ethical issues arise in the social practices of the profession that are often intertwined with technical decision making.
Johnson, Deborah G. 2020. Engineering Ethics: Contemporary and Enduring Debates. New Haven, London, Yale University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10sm953
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Reimagining Journalism and Social Order in a Fragmented Media World
A research article by Paul Adams that originally appeared in Journalism Studies (2018, V.19, n.4) has been re-published as a book chapter. It appears in Reimagining Journalism and Social Order in a Fragmented Media World, edited by Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. and Kristy Hess (Routledge, 2020), and is Chapter 4, entitled: “Migration Maps with the News: Guidelines for ethical visualization of mobile populations.” The book includes fourteen chapters that explore the intersection between journalism studies and “critical scholarship on social order and social control, nationalism, social media, geography, and the function of news as a social sphere.”Publication facts:Adams, P.C. 2020. “Migration Maps with the News: Guidelines for ethical visualization of mobile populations.”
Gutsche, Robert E., Jr and Kristy Hess. 2020. Reimagining Journalism and Social Order in a Fragmented Media World. New York and London, Routledge
ISBN-13: 978-0367366056
ISBN-10: 0367366053
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“We in the Mojo Community”: Exploring a Global Network of Mobile Journalists
In this article published in Journalism Practice, Anja Salzmann, Frode Guribye and Astrid Gynnild explore a global network of mobile journalists and media practitioners. The Mojo Community is dedicated to exploring, learning and keeping track of mobile technologies to create multimedia content for journalistic purposes. Based on a qualitative approach the study identifies the community`s domain, structure and role in the context of journalism innovation and change. The core group of "mojo pioneers" comprise "tech-savvy" journalists affiliated with Western legacy broadcast organizations. Members´ mojo engagement is mainly driven by perceived organizational reluctancy towards fast-evolving technological advancements and uncertain job prospects.
Salzmann, Anja, Frode Guribye and Astrid Gynnild. 2020. “We in the Mojo Community: Exploring a Global Network of Mobile Journalists”. Journalism Practice : 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1742772
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Immersive Journalism as Storytelling: Ethics, Production and Design. 1st Edition.
This book sets out cutting-edge new research and examines future prospects on 360-degree video, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) in journalism, analyzing and discussing virtual world experiments from a range of perspectives.Featuring contributions from the ViSmedia team and a diverse range of scholars, Immersive Journalism as Storytelling highlights both the opportunities and the challenges presented by this form of storytelling. The book discusses how immersive journalism has the potential to reach new audiences, change the way stories are told, and provide more interactivity within the news industry.
Uskali, Turo, Astrid Gynnild, Sarah Jones and Esa Sirkkunen. 2020. Immersive Journalism as Storytelling: Ethics, Production and Design. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429437748
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Have You Shared the News Today?
This paper by Thomas Wold presents a quantitative analysis of the most shared news stories in on social media in Norway in 2017. Social media is an important platform for news consumption. By sharing links to news stories, the contact network on social media can create its own news agenda.
Wold, Thomas. 2020. “Have you shared the news today?”. Norsk Medietidsskrift 107 (1): 1-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN.0805-9535-2020-01-04
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Constructing the Meaning of Humanoid Sex Robots
Humanoid sex robots seem to challenge the human–machine distinction because one way to engage with them is to entertain the illusion that they are human and appropriate for intimacy. This inclination is intentionally induced by robot designers, and several narratives envision and claim that robots of the future will be indistinguishable from humans. In this article Deborah Johnson is taking an anticipatory ethics approach and using critical discourse analysis, to argue that current discourse about sex robots does not adequately recognize the sociotechnical nature of humanoid sex robot development.
Johnson, Deborah G., and Mario Verdicchio. 2019. “Constructing the Meaning of Humanoid Sex Robots”. Int J of Soc Robotics. 12: 415–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-019-00586-z
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Invisibility in Visual and Material Culture
ViSmedia team member Øyvind Vågenes newest book Invisibility in Visual and Material Culture is filled with exiting essays that’s pioneering and revelatory the insights into the phenomenon of invisibility, forging new and multi-disciplinary approaches at the intersection of aesthetics, technology, representation and politics. The chapters reveal that the invisible affects many cultural domains, from digital communication and operative images to the activism of social movements, as well as to identity, race, gender and class issues. Whether the subject is comic books, photographic provocations, biometric and brainwave sensing technologies, letters, or a cinematic diary.
Grønstad, Asbjørn and Øyvind Vågenes. 2019. Invisibility in Visual and Material Culture. Edited book. Palgrave Macmillan
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Televisual epistemologies and beyond
In this interview by Øyvind Vågnes, media scholar and MIT professor, Lisa Parks shares her reflections on a range of questions that remain central to her research. Including what television is at the present moment and might become in the future; how satellites could be treated as part of an integrated history of media; the compartmentalizations of academia; research on surveillance, and the relationship between surveillance and capitalism; the invisibility and materiality of infrastructure, and the significance of field-based research practices; the entanglement of scholarship and social engagement; the emerging Silicon Valley satellite industry, vertical mediation and political resistance; and the urgency of environmental media studies.
Parks, Lisa. “Televisual Epistemologies and Beyond.” Journal of Visual Culture 18 (2): 234–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412919864309.
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How could deepfakes impact the 2020 U.S. elections?
Nicholas Diakopoulos and Deborah Johnson goals behind this article are to stimulate reflection on the ethics and governance of emerging technologies. Specifically, focused on the use of these technologies in the context of the 2020 U.S. election. With this article Diakopoulos and Johnson seeks to encourage debate about potential responses by various stakeholders, like: social media platforms, journalists, technology developers, and policymakers. To ensure that the outcomes of democratic processes aren’t negatively impacted by deepfakes.
Diakopoulos, Nicholas and Deborah Jonson. 2019. “How could deepfakes impact the 2020 U.S. elections?”. Available at: https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/06/how-could-deepfakes-impact-the-2020-u-s-elections/
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Automating the News: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media
ViSmedia team member Nicholas Diakopoulos reveals how machine learning and data mining have transformed investigative journalism. Newsbots converse with social media audiences, distributing stories and receiving feedback. Online media has become a platform for A/B testing of content, helping journalists to better understand what moves audiences. Algorithms can even draft certain kinds of stories. These techniques enable media organizations to take advantage of experiments and economies of scale, enhancing the sustainability of the fourth estate. But they also place pressure on editorial decision-making, because they allow journalists to produce more stories, sometimes better ones, but rarely both. read more here.
Diakopoulos, Nicholas. 2019. Automating the News: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media. Massachusetts, Harvard University Press
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