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Adaption to data-driven practices in civil society organizations: A case study of Amnesty International
Abstract
Digital membership organizations assert that their innovative use of data-driven practices is at the heart of their people-powered decision-making models. These data-driven practices, and associated values, have become aspirational to other organizations. However, there are growing concerns that data practices reinforce the decision-making power of the data collector at the expense of the rights of the data subject. This research considers how traditional membership organizations adapt to these new data-driven practices, while addressing these concerns. This paper demonstrates how the political communication theory of the trustee, delegate, and responsible leadership models resolves the tension in the discourse surrounding data practices by exploring the positives and negatives of both decentralized decision-making and centralized decision-making. The framework is then explored in practice through an ethnographic case study of Amnesty International. The results show how the use of data to be people-powered is a powerful discourse, but ultimately new data practices are only used to centralize power, as is purported by critical literature.
... Bu çalışmada, STÖ'nün sosyal medya kanallarını aktif kullanmasının etkileşim ve takipçi/destekçi kitlesi ile bağları güçlendirme amaçlı olarak faydalı olduğu ve yeni çevrimiçi aktivizm biçimlerinin oluşumunda belirleyici olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Macintyre (2020) ise, STÖ genel merkezini örnek olarak incelediği çalışmasında yeni iletişim teknolojilerine adaptasyonun dijital üyelik/gönüllülük imkanlarını yükselttiği sonucuna ulaşmıştır. Bernabé Fraguas (2021), STÖ'nün İspanya merkezinin Facebook, Twitter ve Instagram kullanımını incelediği araştırmasında, STÖ'nün tüm sosyal medya kanallarını insan hakları ihlallerine yönelik kamuoyunu bilgilendirme, toplumun farkındalık düzeyini arttırma, kitleleri mobilize etme gibi amaçlarla kullanmakla birlikte, Twitter'ı güncel gelişmeleri paylaşma ve gündem belirleme, Instagram'ı genç hedef kitleye kolay erişimle birlikte uluslararası kampanyalara ve hareket ağlarına aktif katılım amacıyla kullandığını saptamıştır. ...
... Analiz platformu olarak Instagram'ın seçilmesinin nedenleri ise, mecranın görsel ağırlıklı yapısı ve etkileşime açıklığı olup; bu özelliklerin Instagram'da paylaşılan içeriklerin dikkat çekicilik ve etkileşim düzeyini yükseltebilme potansiyelidir (Yetkin Cılızoğlu ve Çetinkaya, 2016). Ayrıca çalışmanın alan yazın taramasında detaylı olarak irdelendiği üzere insan hakları alanında hak savunuculuğu gerçekleştiren Uluslararası Af Örgütü'nün Instagram'ı genç hedef kitleye erişim, dijital takipçi/üye ağını genişletme, birlikte farklı dijital aktivizm stratejilerini hayata geçirebilme ve hak ihlallerine yönelik olarak uluslararası kamuoyu oluşturma amacıyla etkin kullanması (Selander ve Jarvenpaa, 2016;Macintyre, 2020;Bernabé Fraguas, 2021) gibi faktörler, bu incelemede araştırma platformu olarak Instagram'ın seçilmesinde belirleyici olmuştur. ...
... However, the studies examining the use of social media and Internet technologies by Amnesty International as one of the most important organizations in the field of human rights advocacy in the context of the human rights movement are limited in the literature. The studies in this field include Selander and Jarvenpaa's (2016) research which focuses on the Swedish center of the NGO in the digital activism basis, Macintyre's (2020) research about the adaptation level of Amnesty International Center to new technologies for gaining members and volunteers, and Bernabé Fraguas' (2021) study that focuses on the use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram of Spanish Amnesty. However, the lack of a research that comparatively examines Amnesty International's use of social media within the new possibilities provided by these channels constitutes the main starting point of this analysis. ...
The development of information technologies has led non-governmental organizations to use social media channels in
order to fill the public’s lack of information, mobilize the masses and create an organized social reaction in different areas
where they are advocating for rights actively. In this context, the starting point of this study is that Amnesty International,
which is a main organization in the field of human rights advocacy, effectively uses social media to create a global
social reaction towards the prevention of rights violations on a global scale, and the ways of using the channels may
vary according to the country. In this study, the Instagram posts shared by Amnesty International’s centers in Turkey,
England and the United States of America in the period between 1 July and 31 December, 2021 were analyzed in terms
of subject, national/international campaigns, projects and protests, public relations, activism, interactional activities,
message tone/associations, formal structure and interaction level variables through quantitative and qualitative content
analysis method. As a result, it was determined that three centers of Amnesty used this channel mostly to convey
human rights violations in different countries to the global public opinion and to build an international reaction, but topics
handled on Instagram accounts differed, depending on the problems in the specific country’s
Keywords: Human Rights Movement, Social Media, Non-Governmental Organizations, Instagram
... AI üzerine alanda çeşitli akademik çalışmalar yapılmıştır (Baehr, 1994;Macintyre, 2020;Russell, 2002;Vestergaard, 2008 (Leech, 1985, s. 9-20). ...
In the development of digital visual culture, data emerges as the most important tool. Especially when the
role of digital visual data in the construction of the virtual world is considered, it is seen that it is at the
center of all digital processes. The actions and contents of the individual in the virtual environment develop
depending on the management of the data.
When digital content processes are evaluated in the digital world, it is seen that data density increases at an
exponential rate. In this framework, new scientific initiatives should be revealed in order for these contents
to be defined as digital footprints and managed by the individual. It is important to define new concepts
and processes for the management of data in digital communication processes, especially by considering
the design area of the digital footprint and the contact points. In this context, new approaches have been
tried to be put forward by considering the subject.
In this study, the subject has been dealt with descriptively in order to contribute to the literature, and it has
been tried to reveal the expansions for the management of the digital footprint created through the design
discipline in the formation of digital visual culture. In the research, it has also been tried to explain how the
digital footprint affects the digital communication processes with examples.
... AI üzerine alanda çeşitli akademik çalışmalar yapılmıştır (Baehr, 1994;Macintyre, 2020;Russell, 2002;Vestergaard, 2008 (Leech, 1985, s. 9-20). ...
Dijital görsel kültürün gelişiminde veri en önemli araç olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Özellikle dijital görsel verinin sanal dünyanın kurgulamasındaki rolü ele alındığında, dijital süreçlerin tümünde merkezde yer aldığı görülmektedir. Bireyin sanal ortamda gerçekleştirdiği eylem ve içerikler verinin yönetilmesine bağlı bir şekilde gelişim göstermektedir. Dijital dünyada dijital içerik süreçleri değerlendirildiğinde üstel bir hızla veri yoğunluğunun arttığı görülmektedir. Bu çerçevede bu içeriklerin dijital ayak izi olarak tanımlanarak birey tarafından yönetilebilmesi için bilimsel yeni açılımların ortaya konması gerekmektedir. Özellikle dijital ayak izinin tasarım alanı ile temas noktaları ele alınarak, dijital iletişim süreçlerinde verinin yönetilmesine yönelik yeni kavram ve süreçlerin tanımlanması önem arz etmektedir. Bu çerçevede konu ele alınarak yeni yaklaşımlar ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu çalışmada konu literatüre katkı sağlaması için betimsel olarak ele alınarak, dijital görsel kültürün oluşumunda tasarım disiplini üzerinden oluşturulan dijital ayak izinin yönetilmesine yönelik açılımlar ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. Araştırmada ayrıca dijital ayak izinin dijital iletişim süreçlerini nasıl etkilediği de örneklerle açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır.
... AI üzerine alanda çeşitli akademik çalışmalar yapılmıştır (Baehr, 1994;Macintyre, 2020;Russell, 2002;Vestergaard, 2008). Bu çalışmalar içerisinde: ...
Torture is considered a violation of human rights worldwide according to the Declaration of Human Rights. Many countries accept torture as a crime and aim to prevent torture with various penal sanctions. In addition, Amnesty International (AI) tries to raise awareness against torture in the international public opinion by giving various messages against torture through public service announcements in its campaigns. In the study, the messages that AI wanted to give for the prevention of torture in the anti-torture campaigns carried out in various countries. For this purpose, the public service announcements used by AI in anti-torture campaigns were analyzed semiotically through British linguist Geoffrey Leech's Seven Types of Meaning (conceptual, connotative, social, affective, reflected, collocative, thematic meaning) in this study. In the light of the findings obtained within the scope of the study, it was revealed that messages that torture can be prevented by actively participating in the anti-torture struggle through the visual and written indicators in the public service announcements in the anti-torture campaigns. In this way, it was concluded that the number of anti-torture activists in the international community is sought to be increased through the campaigns carried out by AI.
... Carson's activist work contributed to the ban on DDT in many countries. Activist communication conducted by the global NGO, Amnesty International has long employed scientific findings in campaigning [Thomsen, Helweg-Larsen and Rasmussen, 1984] and scientific methods to mobilize political attention [Macintyre, 2020]. The environmental NGO, Greenpeace, drew criticism from the scientific community for its (mis)use of science in their campaign against genetically modified organisms (GMO); 156 Nobel laureates signed a letter urging Greenpeace to end its opposition to GMOs [Achenbach, 2016]. ...
For many decades, NGOs and social movements have acted as “alternative” science communicators. They have made strategic use of science to promote their ideological stances, to influence political and/or economic decision-making and to motivate civic action. To date, however, our understanding of science communication in activism has received little critical attention. This set of commentaries acts as a starting point for further research and reflection. The different cases and perspectives urge readers to consider the impact, democratic legitimacy, and relevance of alternative science communication, and the challenges that alternative science communicators pose for science communication and society.
This study explores the operational model of development partnerships between smaller emerging NGOs from lesser-known developed countries and their partners in the Global South countries. In particular, the subject of this investigation is the operations of an Estonian NGO in rural Northern Ghana. Ethnographic case study design is applied to gather data from both Ghana and Estonia through interviews, observation, and document reviews. A total of thirty two
interviews were conducted over a nine-month cumulative period between 2018 and 2019. Data were analyzed using ethnographic content analysis (ECA) for triangulation and to establish relationships in the development cooperation. The study reveals, firstly, the influence of some pioneering NGOs on the emerging ones, and secondly, the different nature of the emerging NGOs. The new players use historical experience of the old ones to better their operations. The projects are guided by the use of professionals as their volunteers in project execution leading to notable success. Small NGOs make a positive difference by empowering and strengthening all parties and offer new ways in development cooperation through more solidarity and humble operational approaches. The study highlights different dynamics of new strategies and toolboxes introduced into the NGO workspace by the emerging organizations. The investigation has
enlarged the map of origins and destinations of international development cooperation. We put forward an argument that new NGOs have proven their potential in helping to solve difficult global challenges in a new way.
ABSTRACT: This article draws on the thorny topic of the Social Innovation (SI). Particularly, it revolves around the role of those social movements promoting the Basque language not only in relation to their organisational models but also to their holistic strategy to tackle inevitably digital, urban, and political challenges surfaced by the disruptions stemming from the post-COVID society. Beyond the prescriptive, normative, or dogmatic standpoints, by contrast, this article actually aims to reflect upon and spark a fruitful debate on the current momentum by applying an amalgamation of SI concepts to the reality of the Basque Country. It employs ‘Action Research’ methodology to gather information and carry out fieldwork research as follows: (i) The invitation made by Euskaltzaleen Topagunea (as the main body for coordinating civic groups) to deliver a conference in the Symposium called Topaldia 2020 was the point of departure of this article. (ii) Consequently, Soziolinguistikako Klusterra (as the main body of research for the Basque language social development) through its scientific journal Bat, disseminates within this article the main findings of this ‘Action Research’ process. Thus, the article is structured in five sections: (i) first, it develops the SI concept and applies through its lenses a re-interpretation of the current momentum for the Basque language in the techno-political parameters (social entrepreneurship, activism, and co-operativism); (ii) second, in the backdrop of the post-COVID society, this article argues that, more than ever before, ‘liquid’ social movements are required to lead niche experiments; (iii) third, as a result of the digital, urban, and political transformations, the basque language, euskara, should be articulated as a ‘commons’, beyond the binary terms of the public and private; (iv) fourth, this article adopts as a case study the social experimentation project entitled ‘Euskaraldia’ taking place once every two years, in which people related to the Basque language, Euskara—though the profiling of two interdependent roles, active speakers as ‘ahobizi’, and early-adopters, practitioners, and listeners as ‘belarriprest’—in all seven provicinces and the Diaspore of the Basque Country, are encouraged to speak more intensively Euskara over an 11-day period (www.euskaraldia.eus) by overcoming motivational, contextual, and psycho-sociological boundaries and threats imposed by the diglosic lock-in effect. This section, therefore, slightly outline a prototype from the Digital SI perspective called ‘Euskaraldia, as a Digital Panopticon’; ultimately (v), this article concludes with a decalogue and five questions by further encouraging active reflection and social experimentation among stakeholders.
Keywords: Social Innovation; Liquid Social Movements; Commons; Euskaraldia; Digital Panopticon; Technopolitics; Data; Urban Transformations; Digital Transformations; Political Transformations; Post-COVID Society; Social Entrepreneurship; Activism; Co-operativism
To cite this article/Artikulua erreferentziatzeko erabili honako zita:
Calzada, I. (2020), Gizarte Mugimenduen Rola Gizarte Berrikuntzan (GB): Euskaraldia, Panoptiko Digital Gisa // The Role of Social Movements in the Social Innovation (SI): Euskaraldia as a Digital Panopticon. BAT Aldizkaria 115(2): 85-114.
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35980.05763/5. CC BY-NC 4.0
This special issue explores how digitally-native advocacy organizations evolve and whether they influence the organizational norms of other NGOs and advocacy groups. The volume offers three contributions to the literature on digital advocacy groups. Firstly, we argue that different periods of ‘internet time’ influence the tactics, strategies, and structural form of political organizations. Secondly, we examine different ways that organizations empower members and/or the broader public to make decisions using digital technology. Thirdly, we trace the diffusion of digital engagement practices, as well as how legacy advocacy groups have adapted these practices. Finally, we provide an agenda for future research. Specifically, research is needed on changes in digital organizing in Africa, Asia, and Latin Amerca, and center-right and far-right advocacy organizations. Further work is also necessary to identify the conditions that lead to innovation in digital advocacy.
International relations (IR) scholars have recognized the importance of technology in enabling nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to build transnational networks and enhance their influence. However, IR scholars have typically focused on elite networks across NGOs, states, and international organizations. This article considers how digital technologies generate new types of networked power between NGOs and their members. Digital tools allow for fast feedback from supporters, rapid surges in mobilization, and more decentralized campaigns. Importantly, in the digital era, NGOs must decide not only which digital platforms to use, but also whether to devolve decision-making to their supporters. Two questions arise: First, do NGO staff or supporters primarily define and produce advocacy content? Second, is the goal of digital activism to broaden or intensify participation? Answers to these questions generate four digital strategies: proselytizing, testing, conversing, and facilitating. These strategies change advocacy practices, but only facilitating strategies open up new forms of networked power based on supporter-to-supporter connections. Digital strategies have profound ramifications for individual organizations, the nature of the advocacy sector, and its power in relation to states, corporations, and other nonstate actors. Digital adoption patterns shape how NGOs choose campaigns, how they legitimate their claims, and what strategies they rely on.
The era of Big Data has begun. Computer scientists, physicists, economists, mathematicians, political scientists, bio-informaticists, sociologists, and other scholars are clamoring for access to the massive quantities of information produced by and about people, things, and their interactions. Diverse groups argue about the potential benefits and costs of analyzing genetic sequences, social media interactions, health records, phone logs, government records, and other digital traces left by people. Significant questions emerge. Will large-scale search data help us create better tools, services, and public goods? Or will it usher in a new wave of privacy incursions and invasive marketing? Will data analytics help us understand online communities and political movements? Or will it be used to track protesters and suppress speech? Will it transform how we study human communication and culture, or narrow the palette of research options and alter what ‘research’ means? Given the rise of Big Data as a socio-technical phenomenon, we argue that it is necessary to critically interrogate its assumptions and biases. In this article, we offer six provocations to spark conversations about the issues of Big Data: a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon that rests on the interplay of technology, analysis, and mythology that provokes extensive utopian and dystopian rhetoric.
Public opinion polls are everywhere. Journalists report their results without hesitation, and political activists of all kinds spend millions of dollars on them, fueling the widespread assumption that elected officials "pander" to public opinionâthat they tailor their policy decisions to the results of polls. In this provocative and engagingly written book, the authors argue that the reality is quite the opposite. In fact, when not facing election, contemporary presidents and members of Congress routinely ignore the public's policy preferences and follow their own political philosophies, as well as those of their party's activists, their contributors, and their interest group allies. Politicians devote substantial time, effort, and money to tracking public opinion, not for the purposes of policymaking, but to change public opinionâto determine how to craft their public statements and actions to win support for the policies they and their supporters want. Taking two recent, dramatic episodesâPresident Clinton's failed health care reform campaign, and Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America"âas examples, the authors show how both used public opinion research and the media to change the public's mind. Such orchestrated displays help explain the media's preoccupation with political conflict and strategy and, the authors argue, have propelled levels of public distrust and fear of government to record highs. Revisiting the fundamental premises of representative democracy, this accessible book asks us to reexamine whether our government really responds to the broad public or to the narrower interests and values of certain groups. And with the 2000 campaign season heating up, Politicians Don't Pander could not be more timely. "'Polling has turned leaders into followers,' laments columnist Marueen Dowd of The New York Times. Well, that's news definitely not fit to print say two academics who have examined the polls and the legislative records of recent presidents to see just how responsive chief executives are to the polls. Their conclusion: not much. . . . In fact, their review and analyses found that public opinion polls on policy appear to have increasingly less, not more, influence on government policies."âRichard Morin, The Washington Post
Political Research: Methods and Practical Skills provides a practical and relevant guide to the research process for students. It equips readers with the knowledge and skills needed to evaluate research findings and successfully carry out independent study and research. Taking a helpful step-by-step approach, the chapters guide the reader through the process of asking and answering research questions and the different methods used in political research, providing practical advice on how to be critical and rigorous in both evaluating and conducting research. Topics include research design, surveys, interviewing and focus groups, ethnography and participant observation, textual analysis, quantitative analysis, bivariate analysis, and multivariate analysis. With an emphasis throughout on how research can impact important political questions and policy issues, the book equips readers with the skills to formulate significant questions and develop meaningful and persuasive answers.
The diffusion and rapid evolution of new communication technologies has created a pressing need to understand the complex forces reshaping media and politics. Who is emerging as powerful in this new context? Written by a leading scholar in the field, this book provides a new, holistic interpretation of how political communication now works. In The Hybrid Media System Andrew Chadwick reveals how political communication is increasingly shaped by interactions among older and newer media logics. Organizations, groups, and individuals in this system are linked by complex and ever-evolving relationships based on adaptation and interdependence. Chadwick shows how power is exercised by those who create, tap, and steer information flows to suit their goals, and in ways that modify, enable, and disable the agency of others across and between a range of older and newer media settings. The [CE1][NN2]book examines a range of examples of this systemic hybridity in flow in political communication contexts ranging from news making in all of its contemporary “professional” and “amateur” forms, to parties and election campaigns, to activist movements and government communication. Compelling stories bring the theory to life. From American presidential campaigns to WikiLeaks, from live prime ministerial debates to hotly contested political scandals that evolve in real time, from historical precedents stretching back five hundred years to the author’s unique ethnographic data gathered from recent insider fieldwork among journalists, campaign workers, bloggers, and activist organizations, this wide-ranging book maps the emerging balance of power between older and newer media technologies, genres, norms, behaviors, and organizational forms.
Using the 2014 Scottish independence referendum as a case study, this article asks first, to what extent is the use of digital communications technologies, in particular social media, associated with fundamental changes to campaign organizations, specifically to the command and control model? Second, under what conditions are challenges to the model more likely to emerge? Using mixed methods, our analysis of the case demonstrates that radical organizational or strategic change is not inevitable, nor is there a one-size-fits-all approach. Technologies are not ‘just tools’ that any campaign with enough resources will adopt in similar ways. Instead, depending on a number of interdependent factors (i.e. context, resources, strategy, organizational structure and culture), some campaigns – like Better Together – selectively adopt digital tools that fit with the command and control model; in other cases – like Yes Scotland – the application of digital communications technologies and the dynamics created by linking to other (digital-enabled) grassroots organizations can have transformative effects.
This article makes the case for a new era of qualitative research to contribute to the study of political communication at a time of rapid media change. We detail the history of a tradition of mixed-methods research in the United States from the 1920s to the 1960s, and chart the rise of the currently dominant quantitative methodological consensus from the 1970s onward. We examine key works within this older tradition of mixed-methods research for examples of how scholars used field research and other qualitative methods to build theory and analyze social life. We conclude with a discussion of the ways qualitative research, including the articles in this special section, can complement quantitative work and advance the field of political communication. © 2015 (Dave Karpf, Daniel Kreiss, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, & Matthew Powers).
Hacking the Electorate is the most comprehensive study to date about the consequences of campaigns using microtargeting databases to mobilize voters in elections. Eitan Hersh follows the trail from data to strategy to outcomes. Hersh argues that most of what campaigns know about voters comes from a core set of public records. States vary in the kinds of records they collect from voters – and these variations in data across the country mean that campaigns perceive voters differently in different areas. Consequently, the strategies of campaigns and the coalitions of voters who are mobilized fluctuate across the country because of the different ways campaigns perceive the electorate. Data policies influence campaigns, voters, and increasingly, public officials.
The internet is facilitating a generational transition within America's advocacy group system. New "netroots" political associations have arisen in the past decade and play an increasingly prominent role in citizen political mobilization. At the same time, the organizations that mediate citizen political engagement and sustained collective action are changing. They rely upon modified staff structures and work routines. They employ novel strategies and tactical repertoires. Rather than "organizing without organizations," the new media environment has given rise to "organizing through different organizations." This book provides a richly detailed analysis of this disruptive transformation. It highlights changes in membership and fundraising regimes-established industrial patterns of supporter interaction and revenue streams-that were pioneered by MoveOn.org and have spread broadly within the advocacy system. Through interviews, content analysis, and direct observation of the leading netroots organizations, the book offers fresh insights into 21st-century political organizing. The book highlights important variations among the new organizations-including internet-mediated issue generalists like MoveOn, community blogs like DailyKos.com, and neo-federated groups like DemocracyforAmerica.com. It also explores a wider set of netroots infrastructure organizations that provide supporting services to membership-based advocacy associations. The rise of the political netroots has had a distinctly partisan character: conservatives have repeatedly tried and failed to build equivalents to the organizations and infrastructure of the progressive netroots. The book investigates these efforts, as well as the late-forming Tea Party movement, and introduces the theory of Outparty Innovation Incentives as an explanation for the partisan adoption of political technology.
In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA and its partners had been engaging in warrantless mass surveillance, using the internet and cellphone data, and driven by fear of terrorism under the sign of ’security’.
In this compelling account, surveillance expert David Lyon guides the reader through Snowden’s ongoing disclosures: the technological shifts involved, the steady rise of invisible monitoring of innocent citizens, the collusion of government agencies and for-profit companies and the implications for how we conceive of privacy in a democratic society infused by the lure of big data. Lyon discusses the distinct global reactions to Snowden and shows why some basic issues must be faced: how we frame surveillance, and the place of the human in a digital world.
Digital technologies have given rise to a new combination of big data and computational practices which allow for massive, latent data collection and sophisticated computational modeling, increasing the capacity of those with resources and access to use these tools to carry out highly effective, opaque and unaccountable campaigns of persuasion and social engineering in political, civic and commercial spheres. I examine six intertwined dynamics that pertain to the rise of computational politics: the rise of big data, the shift away from demographics to individualized targeting, the opacity and power of computational modeling, the use of persuasive behavioral science, digital media enabling dynamic real-time experimentation, and the growth of new power brokers who own the data or social media environments. I then examine the consequences of these new mechanisms on the public sphere and political campaigns.
Source: Democracy Now! JUAN GONZALEZ: When you follow your friends on Facebook or run a search on Google, what information comes up, and what gets left out? That's the subject of a new book by Eli Pariser called The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. According to Pariser, the internet is increasingly becoming an echo chamber in which websites tailor information according to the preferences they detect in each viewer. Yahoo! News tracks which articles we read. Zappos registers the type of shoes we wear, we prefer. And Netflix stores data on each movie we select. AMY GOODMAN: The top 50 websites collect an average of 64 bits of personal information each time we visit and then custom-designs their sites to conform to our perceived preferences. While these websites profit from tailoring their advertisements to specific visitors, users pay a big price for living in an information bubble outside of their control. Instead of gaining wide exposure to diverse information, we're subjected to narrow online filters. Eli Pariser is the author of The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. He is also the board president and former executive director of the group MoveOn.org. Eli joins us in the New York studio right now after a whirlwind tour through the United States.
How are transformations in newswork intersecting with changes in the monitoring of reader behavior and new technologies of audience measurement? How, in short, are journalistic ‘visions of the audience’ shifting in the online era, and how are they enabling particular editorial practices? This article explores a provocative tension between the now common rhetorical invocation of the news audience as a ‘productive and generative’ entity, and the simultaneous, increasingly common institutional reduction of the audience to a quantifiable, rationalizable, largely consumptive aggregate. The first half of article reviews the literature on the relationship between audience understanding and newsroom practices. The second half of the article is comprised of an ethnographic analysis of the manner by which increasingly prominent and widespread techniques of audience measurement and quantification interact with the newsroom rhetoric of the active, generative audience. The article concludes with some thoughts regarding the role played by audience quantification and rationalization in shifting newswork practices. It argues that the underlying rhetoric of the active audience can be seen as laying the groundwork for a vision of the professional reporter that is less autonomous in his or her news decisions and increasingly reliant on audience metrics as a supplement to news judgment.
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The heated controversy over “citizen participation,” “citizen control”, and “maximum feasible involvement of the poor,” has been waged largely in terms of exacerbated rhetoric and misleading euphemisms. To encourage a more enlightened dialogue, a typology of citizen participation is offered using examples from three federal social programs: urban renewal, anti-poverty, and Model Cities. The typology, which is designed to be provocative, is arranged in a ladder pattern with each rung corresponding to the extent of citizens' power in determining the plan and/or program.
Data surveillance is now supplanting conventional surveillance techniques. With this trend come new monitoring methods such as personal dataveillance and mass dataveillance that require more effective safeguards and a formal policy framework.
Social scientists are increasingly interested in the new organizational forms known as epistemic communities, knowledge networks, or communities of practice, depending on the discipline. These forms are made possible by new communication technologies, but they can be difficult to study qualitatively, often because their human, social, cultural, or symbolic capital is transmitted over significant distances with technologies that do not carry the full range of human expressions that a researcher using participant observation or ethnography hopes to experience. Qualitative methods are desirable for rendering rich data on human interaction but alone are ill equipped for studying community life conducted in diverse formal and informal organizations and over many new media. Social network analysis is desirable for rendering an overarching sketch of social interaction but alone is ill equipped for giving detail on incommensurate yet meaningful relationships. I propose `network ethnography' as a synergistic research design that synthesizes these two methods, using the strengths of each to make up for the weaknesses of the other. Network ethnography uses social network analysis to justify case selection for ethnography, facilitating the qualitative study of the varied organizational forms of knowledge networks.
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