{"title":"On the ontology and epistemology of visual legal evidence: Interview with Jennifer L. Mnookin","authors":"Jennifer L. Mnookin, Sandra Ristovska","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i7.13229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i7.13229","url":null,"abstract":" ","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"92 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75725349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Legal and policy considerations about the mechanisms driving visual attention, perception, and interpretation have not always kept pace with the ever-increasing use of video as evidence. Discussing existing and emerging challenges with the authentication and interpretation of video as evidence, this article argues that a critical understanding of visual epistemologies across law and policy domains remains a critical task. Drawing on research presented in each of the articles in this special issue, it suggests that sound policy, guidance, and education on the wide-ranging evidentiary functions and limitations of video may be especially important at this critical juncture when generative AI threatens to exacerbate existing challenges with visual meaning making more broadly.
{"title":"Ways of seeing: The power and limitation of video evidence across law and policy","authors":"Sandra Ristovska","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i7.13226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i7.13226","url":null,"abstract":"Legal and policy considerations about the mechanisms driving visual attention, perception, and interpretation have not always kept pace with the ever-increasing use of video as evidence. Discussing existing and emerging challenges with the authentication and interpretation of video as evidence, this article argues that a critical understanding of visual epistemologies across law and policy domains remains a critical task. Drawing on research presented in each of the articles in this special issue, it suggests that sound policy, guidance, and education on the wide-ranging evidentiary functions and limitations of video may be especially important at this critical juncture when generative AI threatens to exacerbate existing challenges with visual meaning making more broadly.","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81959523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Video evidence is proliferating in the courtroom, outpacing the incremental advances in policies governing its use. Psychological research on attention and perception indicates that people are vulnerable to numerous biases in how they interpret video. The dynamic format of such evidence directs attention in distinct ways, and the visual system selectively captures some pieces of information at the expense of others. Thus, perceivers who must make decisions about video evidence are vulnerable to overweighting the information they see, underweighting the information they do not see, and being overconfident about their interpretation of what they see. We marshal emerging research on attention and cognition to consider perceivers’ vulnerabilities to video evidence. Further, we ask whether instruction interventions may disrupt biases in decision-making about video evidence. We present pilot data suggesting that instructions to consider information missing from a scene might bridge the gap between disparate perceptions of body camera and dashcam footage of the same scene.
{"title":"Psychological perspectives on the presentation of video evidence: How perceivers weight what is seen and unseen","authors":"Yael Granot, D. Igliozzi","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i7.13236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i7.13236","url":null,"abstract":"Video evidence is proliferating in the courtroom, outpacing the incremental advances in policies governing its use. Psychological research on attention and perception indicates that people are vulnerable to numerous biases in how they interpret video. The dynamic format of such evidence directs attention in distinct ways, and the visual system selectively captures some pieces of information at the expense of others. Thus, perceivers who must make decisions about video evidence are vulnerable to overweighting the information they see, underweighting the information they do not see, and being overconfident about their interpretation of what they see. We marshal emerging research on attention and cognition to consider perceivers’ vulnerabilities to video evidence. Further, we ask whether instruction interventions may disrupt biases in decision-making about video evidence. We present pilot data suggesting that instructions to consider information missing from a scene might bridge the gap between disparate perceptions of body camera and dashcam footage of the same scene.","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72554606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Researchers thinking about visual evidence in the legal system address quite a variety of empirical questions but share an absorption in the ways in which the evidentiary problem is rooted in the blurring of genres. The blurring is plural: between illustration and proof, between interpretation and requiring an interpretation, between knowledge and perception, and between argument and evidence. Because genres are an intimate and essential part of the functioning of legal processes, such blurrings in turn problematize long-standing practices and the design of governance processes. Their findings are important theoretically, as well, in three ways. They show that the model of fact production processes must begin a step earlier than does the Lockean model of the fact upon which “western” and “modern” society and “science” have relied. The model must continue on beyond where Locke and those who think about the social construction of reality, such as Berger and Luckmann, stop. And “contextual” matters such as warranting, provenance, and authority must be incorporated into our model of the information production chain itself. In combination, what we are learning from research on visual evidence is thus not only invaluable for addressing the profound real-world problems identified by the authors assembled by Sandra Ristovska in this special issue of First Monday and others, but for our understanding of challenges being presented to the nature of governance itself both within and beyond the formal legal system.
{"title":"Discernment: Blurring and visual evidence","authors":"Sandra Braman","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i7.13245","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i7.13245","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers thinking about visual evidence in the legal system address quite a variety of empirical questions but share an absorption in the ways in which the evidentiary problem is rooted in the blurring of genres. The blurring is plural: between illustration and proof, between interpretation and requiring an interpretation, between knowledge and perception, and between argument and evidence. Because genres are an intimate and essential part of the functioning of legal processes, such blurrings in turn problematize long-standing practices and the design of governance processes. Their findings are important theoretically, as well, in three ways. They show that the model of fact production processes must begin a step earlier than does the Lockean model of the fact upon which “western” and “modern” society and “science” have relied. The model must continue on beyond where Locke and those who think about the social construction of reality, such as Berger and Luckmann, stop. And “contextual” matters such as warranting, provenance, and authority must be incorporated into our model of the information production chain itself. In combination, what we are learning from research on visual evidence is thus not only invaluable for addressing the profound real-world problems identified by the authors assembled by Sandra Ristovska in this special issue of First Monday and others, but for our understanding of challenges being presented to the nature of governance itself both within and beyond the formal legal system.","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"109 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89018569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than one million Russian citizens have left Russia. This Russian migration is a political protest against Vladimir Putin’s regime — people are leaving due to their opposition to the war, persecution by authorities, and fear of mobilization — and are writing about this migration online. Despite fulfilling the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Refugee Convention or the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951) conditions, these Russian migrants have not yet received international recognition, and most live in total uncertainty in poor countries in the South Caucasus and Central Asia with temporary visas and no possibility of entering Europe. This paper has two purposes. The first is to describe this group of migrants that challenges the definition of who is a refugee, in the context of this specific military conflict. The second purpose is to examine digital narratives published by these Russian migrants, characterized by a sense of living in uncertainty.
{"title":"\"Living in limbo\": Digital narratives of migrants fleeing Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine","authors":"Anna Prashizky","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i6.13174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i6.13174","url":null,"abstract":"Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than one million Russian citizens have left Russia. This Russian migration is a political protest against Vladimir Putin’s regime — people are leaving due to their opposition to the war, persecution by authorities, and fear of mobilization — and are writing about this migration online. Despite fulfilling the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Refugee Convention or the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951) conditions, these Russian migrants have not yet received international recognition, and most live in total uncertainty in poor countries in the South Caucasus and Central Asia with temporary visas and no possibility of entering Europe. This paper has two purposes. The first is to describe this group of migrants that challenges the definition of who is a refugee, in the context of this specific military conflict. The second purpose is to examine digital narratives published by these Russian migrants, characterized by a sense of living in uncertainty.\u0000 ","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"67 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86760200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study aims to assess the difficulty of maintaining the interpretative autonomy of communication professionals and citizens, in the face of information about the global pandemic. At the same time, this research analyzes critically the World Health Organization’s accusation of an ’infodemic’; was it confirmed or should it be regarded as political exaggeration? An analysis was made of 15,000 tweets around the world, with more than 1,000 RTs for each one, that circulated from 6 February to 18 March 2020. The results demonstrate that it is not so much possible to speak of infodemic but of a remarkable difficulty in interpreting information, together with a preponderant weight of opinion and emotionality. Academia is responsible for disseminating concepts; corporations, for filtering ethically their content; the political class, for not hiding behind the infodemic to lower the challenge of managing the pandemic.
{"title":"The COVID-19 infodemic in social media: Political exaggeration and communicative autonomy","authors":"C. Ferré-Pavia, Karen Abrego, R. Ricardez","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i6.12470","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i6.12470","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to assess the difficulty of maintaining the interpretative autonomy of communication professionals and citizens, in the face of information about the global pandemic. At the same time, this research analyzes critically the World Health Organization’s accusation of an ’infodemic’; was it confirmed or should it be regarded as political exaggeration? An analysis was made of 15,000 tweets around the world, with more than 1,000 RTs for each one, that circulated from 6 February to 18 March 2020. The results demonstrate that it is not so much possible to speak of infodemic but of a remarkable difficulty in interpreting information, together with a preponderant weight of opinion and emotionality. Academia is responsible for disseminating concepts; corporations, for filtering ethically their content; the political class, for not hiding behind the infodemic to lower the challenge of managing the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"78 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84059034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We present a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities in social bot detection in the context of the rise of sophisticated AI-based chatbots. By examining the state of the art in social bot detection techniques and the more salient real-world application to date, we identify gaps and emerging trends in the field, with a focus on addressing the unique challenges posed by AI-generated conversations and behaviors. We suggest potentially promising opportunities and research directions in social bot detection, including (i) the use of generative agents for synthetic data generation, testing and evaluation; (ii) the need for multimodal and cross-platform detection based on network and behavioral signatures of coordination and influence; (iii) the opportunity to extend bot detection to non-English and low-resource language settings; and, (iv) the room for development of collaborative, federated learning detection models that can help facilitate cooperation between different organizations and platforms while preserving user privacy.
{"title":"Social bot detection in the age of ChatGPT: Challenges and opportunities","authors":"Emilio Ferrara","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i6.13185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i6.13185","url":null,"abstract":"We present a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities in social bot detection in the context of the rise of sophisticated AI-based chatbots. By examining the state of the art in social bot detection techniques and the more salient real-world application to date, we identify gaps and emerging trends in the field, with a focus on addressing the unique challenges posed by AI-generated conversations and behaviors. We suggest potentially promising opportunities and research directions in social bot detection, including (i) the use of generative agents for synthetic data generation, testing and evaluation; (ii) the need for multimodal and cross-platform detection based on network and behavioral signatures of coordination and influence; (iii) the opportunity to extend bot detection to non-English and low-resource language settings; and, (iv) the room for development of collaborative, federated learning detection models that can help facilitate cooperation between different organizations and platforms while preserving user privacy.","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"243 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77260095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 2021, there were over 1,516 street protests across Thailand, with government forces deployed to disperse protests over 60 times nationwide. Twitter, like the physical protest sites, became an extremely active platform. This paper aims to understand key content with the highest number of retweets during the call for democracy in Thailand in 2021, specifically under the hashtags #28FebMob, #18JulMob, and #7AugMob, through thematic analysis. The findings indicate five key themes conveyed through tweets, namely information dissemination, grievance expression, moral support, mobilization, and calls for action. The study also shows that most of the content conveyed frustration against state power and was highly subjective rather than stating protest objectives or calling for more forces. The characteristics of the tweets were also related to ongoing circumstances of the actual protests at the time, which differed widely depending on the specific event.
{"title":"Twitter and the protest movement in Thailand: A thematic analysis of highly retweeted tweets during the pro-democracy protests","authors":"Tanaporn Charoenthansakul, Wannarat Natee","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i6.12666","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i6.12666","url":null,"abstract":"In 2021, there were over 1,516 street protests across Thailand, with government forces deployed to disperse protests over 60 times nationwide. Twitter, like the physical protest sites, became an extremely active platform. This paper aims to understand key content with the highest number of retweets during the call for democracy in Thailand in 2021, specifically under the hashtags #28FebMob, #18JulMob, and #7AugMob, through thematic analysis. The findings indicate five key themes conveyed through tweets, namely information dissemination, grievance expression, moral support, mobilization, and calls for action. The study also shows that most of the content conveyed frustration against state power and was highly subjective rather than stating protest objectives or calling for more forces. The characteristics of the tweets were also related to ongoing circumstances of the actual protests at the time, which differed widely depending on the specific event.","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90929793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper uses visual network analysis (VNA) to do an exploratory data analysis of instapoetry, focusing on the use and co-occurrences of hashtags connected to Scandinavian instapoetry. The goal was to reveal and explore some of the networked patterns and processes connected to the production and distribution of instapoetry, by using digital methods. Through descriptive measurements of metadata of instapoetry and a visual network analysis, this paper has been able to identify characterizations of such patterns. Findings reveal that the Scandinavian instapoetry community is small and Norwegian dominant, with an established use of semantically close words related to poetry being used as tags to organize and make the poetry findable. In addition, the hashtags also reveal larger popular themes and topics. Reoccurring themes are emotions, interpersonal relations, and mental health. While they at one scale state something about the content of the poems, some of these tags bring instapoetry into other communities and interest spheres on Instagram, with prominent examples being interest spaces of specific mental illnesses, but also, by way of one high-visibility instapoet, into the interest sphere of nature photography and Norwegian tourism promotion.
{"title":"relational hashtag patterns of Scandinavian instapoetry","authors":"C. Soelseth","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i6.12714","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i6.12714","url":null,"abstract":"This paper uses visual network analysis (VNA) to do an exploratory data analysis of instapoetry, focusing on the use and co-occurrences of hashtags connected to Scandinavian instapoetry. The goal was to reveal and explore some of the networked patterns and processes connected to the production and distribution of instapoetry, by using digital methods. Through descriptive measurements of metadata of instapoetry and a visual network analysis, this paper has been able to identify characterizations of such patterns. Findings reveal that the Scandinavian instapoetry community is small and Norwegian dominant, with an established use of semantically close words related to poetry being used as tags to organize and make the poetry findable. In addition, the hashtags also reveal larger popular themes and topics. Reoccurring themes are emotions, interpersonal relations, and mental health. While they at one scale state something about the content of the poems, some of these tags bring instapoetry into other communities and interest spheres on Instagram, with prominent examples being interest spaces of specific mental illnesses, but also, by way of one high-visibility instapoet, into the interest sphere of nature photography and Norwegian tourism promotion.","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79850159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Concerned researchers of user-generated content might want to avoid using, citing, or quoting sensitive content likely to be deleted by their authors, even when pseudonymous or using one-time “throwaway” accounts. At Reddit, how many authors actually delete their submissions, why, and are they concerned if their deletion end up elsewhere? I analyze the three most popular sensitive-topic subreddits (r/Advice, r/AmItheAsshole, and r/relationship_advice) and show that deleting submissions is common. Roughly half of submissions are deleted by their users, most within the first day and week. Interviews with 30 Redditors reveal that their motives for deletion include ensuring the “Internet doesn’t see them,” especially those who might “see it on my Reddit profile,” deciding their issue was resolved, receiving unhelpful or aggressive comments, and concluding their submission was no longer relevant. Most interviewees were not overly concerned about deleted submissions persisting elsewhere (e.g., social media, archives, and datasets) as long as it is not easily connected to their other activity or identity.
{"title":"Even pseudonyms and throwaways delete their Reddit posts","authors":"Joseph M. Reagle","doi":"10.5210/fm.v28i6.13193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i6.13193","url":null,"abstract":"Concerned researchers of user-generated content might want to avoid using, citing, or quoting sensitive content likely to be deleted by their authors, even when pseudonymous or using one-time “throwaway” accounts. At Reddit, how many authors actually delete their submissions, why, and are they concerned if their deletion end up elsewhere? I analyze the three most popular sensitive-topic subreddits (r/Advice, r/AmItheAsshole, and r/relationship_advice) and show that deleting submissions is common. Roughly half of submissions are deleted by their users, most within the first day and week. Interviews with 30 Redditors reveal that their motives for deletion include ensuring the “Internet doesn’t see them,” especially those who might “see it on my Reddit profile,” deciding their issue was resolved, receiving unhelpful or aggressive comments, and concluding their submission was no longer relevant. Most interviewees were not overly concerned about deleted submissions persisting elsewhere (e.g., social media, archives, and datasets) as long as it is not easily connected to their other activity or identity.","PeriodicalId":38833,"journal":{"name":"First Monday","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84181217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}