Pub Date : 2023-08-18DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2082880
Sarah Geber, S. Ho
ABSTRACT Contact-tracing applications (CTAs) have been introduced as part of the COVID-19 containment strategy worldwide. In most countries, however, their uptake has been too low to realize their full potential. This study contributes to the understanding of CTA adoption by investigating the influence of public perceptions on adoption and the role of media in forming these perceptions in Singapore and Switzerland. In a comparative approach, online surveys in both countries (Singapore: N = 998; Switzerland: N = 1,022) and multigroup structural equation modeling reveal national differences. First, attention to media was associated more strongly with app-related perceptions in Singapore than in Switzerland, with news media attention correlating positively with favorable perceptions in both countries (i.e., perceived usefulness of the CTA, perceived social norms of adoption) and social media attention correlating negatively with these perceptions in Singapore. Second, regarding the influence of these perceptions on CTA adoption, perceived usefulness was associated with CTA adoption in Switzerland but not in Singapore; conversely, perceived social norms were more important in Singapore than in Switzerland. These results suggest that the communicative formation of public perceptions and their behavioral relevance are contingent on media systems (authoritarian vs. democratic media system) and cultural values (collectivism vs. individualism), highlighting the theoretical value of a country-comparative approach and the practical need for a culturally sensitive implementation of health technologies.
{"title":"Examining the cultural dimension of contact-tracing app adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-country study in Singapore and Switzerland","authors":"Sarah Geber, S. Ho","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2082880","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2082880","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Contact-tracing applications (CTAs) have been introduced as part of the COVID-19 containment strategy worldwide. In most countries, however, their uptake has been too low to realize their full potential. This study contributes to the understanding of CTA adoption by investigating the influence of public perceptions on adoption and the role of media in forming these perceptions in Singapore and Switzerland. In a comparative approach, online surveys in both countries (Singapore: N = 998; Switzerland: N = 1,022) and multigroup structural equation modeling reveal national differences. First, attention to media was associated more strongly with app-related perceptions in Singapore than in Switzerland, with news media attention correlating positively with favorable perceptions in both countries (i.e., perceived usefulness of the CTA, perceived social norms of adoption) and social media attention correlating negatively with these perceptions in Singapore. Second, regarding the influence of these perceptions on CTA adoption, perceived usefulness was associated with CTA adoption in Switzerland but not in Singapore; conversely, perceived social norms were more important in Singapore than in Switzerland. These results suggest that the communicative formation of public perceptions and their behavioral relevance are contingent on media systems (authoritarian vs. democratic media system) and cultural values (collectivism vs. individualism), highlighting the theoretical value of a country-comparative approach and the practical need for a culturally sensitive implementation of health technologies.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"2229 - 2249"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47223423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-09DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2239890
I. Gagliardone, Matti Pohjonen, S. Diepeveen, Samuel Olaniran
ABSTRACT This article investigates what is at stake in decolonising the study of conspiracy theories online. It challenges the confidence with which conspiracy theories are often dismissed as aberrations and negative externalities of digital ecosystems. Without reifying conspiracy theories, we identify as problematic how alternative forms of knowledge production are dismissed and colonial tropes reproduced. Contributing to conversations around ‘decolonising the internet’, we offer additional and sharper tools to understand the role and implications of conspiracy theorising for communicative and political practices in different societies globally. Empirically, we analyse a conspiracy theory circulating in Nigeria between 2018 and 2019 purporting that Nigerian President Buhari had died and the man in office was his ‘clone’. Conceptually, our analysis intersects with Achille Mbembe’s work on power in the postcolony, to illustrate how it is possible to adopt alternative forms of normativity that eschew the stigmatisation and exclusion that has prevailed, but still offer evaluative frameworks to locate conspiracy theories in contemporary digital environments. We engage with Mbembe’s ideas about how humorous and grotesque forms of communication can result in the zombification of both the ‘dominant’ and those ‘apparently dominated’. We argue that zombification as a theoretical intervention provides a useful addition to the conceptual and normative repertoire of those studying conspiracy theories, between the poles of dismissal/condemnation and pure curiosity/acceptance of what is said.
{"title":"Clones and zombies: rethinking conspiracy theories and the digital public sphere through a (post)-colonial perspective","authors":"I. Gagliardone, Matti Pohjonen, S. Diepeveen, Samuel Olaniran","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2023.2239890","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2023.2239890","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article investigates what is at stake in decolonising the study of conspiracy theories online. It challenges the confidence with which conspiracy theories are often dismissed as aberrations and negative externalities of digital ecosystems. Without reifying conspiracy theories, we identify as problematic how alternative forms of knowledge production are dismissed and colonial tropes reproduced. Contributing to conversations around ‘decolonising the internet’, we offer additional and sharper tools to understand the role and implications of conspiracy theorising for communicative and political practices in different societies globally. Empirically, we analyse a conspiracy theory circulating in Nigeria between 2018 and 2019 purporting that Nigerian President Buhari had died and the man in office was his ‘clone’. Conceptually, our analysis intersects with Achille Mbembe’s work on power in the postcolony, to illustrate how it is possible to adopt alternative forms of normativity that eschew the stigmatisation and exclusion that has prevailed, but still offer evaluative frameworks to locate conspiracy theories in contemporary digital environments. We engage with Mbembe’s ideas about how humorous and grotesque forms of communication can result in the zombification of both the ‘dominant’ and those ‘apparently dominated’. We argue that zombification as a theoretical intervention provides a useful addition to the conceptual and normative repertoire of those studying conspiracy theories, between the poles of dismissal/condemnation and pure curiosity/acceptance of what is said.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"2419 - 2438"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85199900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-11DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2230262
Amber Marshall, Kim Osman, Jessa Rogers, Thu Pham, H. Babacan
ABSTRACT Digital inclusion research explores the complex inequalities among different societal groups that affect people’s ability to fully participate in social, economic, and cultural life. Globally, digital inequalities exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and this paper contributes to a growing body of literature focused on Indigenous digital inclusion in Australia. This paper outlines how a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers developed an Indigenous research methodology to investigate the digital inclusion challenges, and opportunities, for Aboriginal families living in a remote community on Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. This methodology applies principles of decolonisation, through Indigenous yarning and photography, to foreground the voices of Indigenous people in articulating barriers and solutions to low levels of digital inclusion in their community. The findings detail the everyday and novel ways Indigenous families use the internet and digital devices, and how these insights might inform Indigenous-focused policy, practices and programs.
{"title":"Connecting in the Gulf: exploring digital inclusion for Indigenous families on Mornington Island","authors":"Amber Marshall, Kim Osman, Jessa Rogers, Thu Pham, H. Babacan","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2023.2230262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2023.2230262","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Digital inclusion research explores the complex inequalities among different societal groups that affect people’s ability to fully participate in social, economic, and cultural life. Globally, digital inequalities exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and this paper contributes to a growing body of literature focused on Indigenous digital inclusion in Australia. This paper outlines how a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers developed an Indigenous research methodology to investigate the digital inclusion challenges, and opportunities, for Aboriginal families living in a remote community on Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. This methodology applies principles of decolonisation, through Indigenous yarning and photography, to foreground the voices of Indigenous people in articulating barriers and solutions to low levels of digital inclusion in their community. The findings detail the everyday and novel ways Indigenous families use the internet and digital devices, and how these insights might inform Indigenous-focused policy, practices and programs.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"31 1","pages":"2376 - 2397"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86099442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-21DOI: 10.1080/1369118x.2023.2227687
Guanqin He
{"title":"Digital Working Lives: Worker Autonomy and the Gig Economy","authors":"Guanqin He","doi":"10.1080/1369118x.2023.2227687","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2023.2227687","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136355347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-26DOI: 10.1080/1369118x.2023.2216769
Sal Hagen, Tommaso Venturini
In this article we propose a new theoretical framework to conceptualise Internet memes and to trace their temporal variation on 4chan/pol/. We draw from literature on primary and secondary orality to conceptualise the repetition-with-variation of Internet memes as a form of memecry, which we argue is specifically pertinent to the collectivity of online subcultures. We operationalise its study through formulas: mnemonic phrases that encapsulate important elements of oral cultures, which have arguably regained prominence in ephemeral and fast-paced online environments. While Internet memes have often been studied as single images or words, formulas provide a more complex unit for tracing variation and not only circulation. We offer a quali-quantitative protocol to investigate memecry and visualise the spread and variability of 65 prominent formulas on 4chan/pol/, a far-right space known for its reliance on memes. By discussing several cases, we demonstrate how 4chan’s collective identity indeed features typical of secondary oral cultures, while revealing how the memecry of its formulas is entwined with reactionary sentiments and a subcultural struggle for distinction.
{"title":"Memecry: tracing the repetition-with-variation of formulas on 4chan/pol/","authors":"Sal Hagen, Tommaso Venturini","doi":"10.1080/1369118x.2023.2216769","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2023.2216769","url":null,"abstract":"In this article we propose a new theoretical framework to conceptualise Internet memes and to trace their temporal variation on 4chan/pol/. We draw from literature on primary and secondary orality to conceptualise the repetition-with-variation of Internet memes as a form of memecry, which we argue is specifically pertinent to the collectivity of online subcultures. We operationalise its study through formulas: mnemonic phrases that encapsulate important elements of oral cultures, which have arguably regained prominence in ephemeral and fast-paced online environments. While Internet memes have often been studied as single images or words, formulas provide a more complex unit for tracing variation and not only circulation. We offer a quali-quantitative protocol to investigate memecry and visualise the spread and variability of 65 prominent formulas on 4chan/pol/, a far-right space known for its reliance on memes. By discussing several cases, we demonstrate how 4chan’s collective identity indeed features typical of secondary oral cultures, while revealing how the memecry of its formulas is entwined with reactionary sentiments and a subcultural struggle for distinction.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135996327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-04DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2195902
D. Kidd, Timothy Recuber, Matthew N. Atwell, Tyler Burgese, Andrew Chelius, Jaggar DeMarco, Dana Gallant, Benjamin Guidry, Glen Hartenbaum, C. Joyce, Ye Ju Ki, Kyle McDonald, Lindsay Metzker, Julia Scheffler, Victoria Vazquez, J. Walsh, FengYi Yin
ABSTRACT This special issue of Information, Communication, and Society (ICS) is edited by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section of the American Sociological Association and includes papers that were first presented at either the 2021 or 2022 ASA meetings or Media Sociology Symposia. For this special issue, an innovative editorial approach was taken that brought the editing process into a graduate classroom. That process is described below along with a brief introduction to themes of the selected articles. Key themes for this special issue include content analysis, ethics, privacy, new economy, and digital inequality.
{"title":"Beyond myopia in communications and the sociology of media","authors":"D. Kidd, Timothy Recuber, Matthew N. Atwell, Tyler Burgese, Andrew Chelius, Jaggar DeMarco, Dana Gallant, Benjamin Guidry, Glen Hartenbaum, C. Joyce, Ye Ju Ki, Kyle McDonald, Lindsay Metzker, Julia Scheffler, Victoria Vazquez, J. Walsh, FengYi Yin","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2023.2195902","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2023.2195902","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This special issue of Information, Communication, and Society (ICS) is edited by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section of the American Sociological Association and includes papers that were first presented at either the 2021 or 2022 ASA meetings or Media Sociology Symposia. For this special issue, an innovative editorial approach was taken that brought the editing process into a graduate classroom. That process is described below along with a brief introduction to themes of the selected articles. Key themes for this special issue include content analysis, ethics, privacy, new economy, and digital inequality.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"877 - 880"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46254218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-26DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2166364
Toni Rouhana
ABSTRACT This paper analyzes all the articles and corresponding comments of Al-Jazeera Arabic's coverage of the Syrian war from 2011 to 2017. I propose a multilayered Critical Discourse Analysis Guided Topic Modeling method that includes context of social structures and processes in the analysis of topics. This article shows that the employment of topic modeling without Critical Discourse Analysis does not unravel the power relations embedded within the platform. Two different applications of this method are used to demonstrate how a guided topic modeling method can lead to more nuanced results that can unravel important social dynamics which would have remained unperceived if applying traditional computational methods.
{"title":"Critical discourse analysis guided topic modeling: the case of Al-Jazeera Arabic","authors":"Toni Rouhana","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2023.2166364","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2023.2166364","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper analyzes all the articles and corresponding comments of Al-Jazeera Arabic's coverage of the Syrian war from 2011 to 2017. I propose a multilayered Critical Discourse Analysis Guided Topic Modeling method that includes context of social structures and processes in the analysis of topics. This article shows that the employment of topic modeling without Critical Discourse Analysis does not unravel the power relations embedded within the platform. Two different applications of this method are used to demonstrate how a guided topic modeling method can lead to more nuanced results that can unravel important social dynamics which would have remained unperceived if applying traditional computational methods.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"904 - 922"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41740362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-25DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2021.1954228
I. Rega, A. Medrado
ABSTRACT This article discusses activists’ need to reflect on how achieving social media visibility might translate into vulnerability. In order to provide activists with a tool for this reflection, the Stepping into Visibility Model has been developed and applied to two case studies: (a) an activist group in a Brazilian favela using social media for protection against police brutality and (b) a Kenyan photographer, affiliated to an art-ivist (artistic and activist) collective, producing images of Nairobi at night to tackle social anxiety issues. The research draws from sociological insights on the concept of ‘visibility’ and adopts a case study methodology combined with ethnographic approaches. By adopting a Global South perspective, it discusses counter surveillance efforts in ways that go beyond techno-legal solutionism (Dencik et al, 2016) and in periods outside that of big-scale protests (McCosker, 2015). By devising this model, we hope to offer a contribution on how marginalised communities can be better informed when they encounter unintended negative visibility.
{"title":"The Stepping into Visibility Model: reflecting on consequences of social media visibility – a Global South perspective","authors":"I. Rega, A. Medrado","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2021.1954228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1954228","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article discusses activists’ need to reflect on how achieving social media visibility might translate into vulnerability. In order to provide activists with a tool for this reflection, the Stepping into Visibility Model has been developed and applied to two case studies: (a) an activist group in a Brazilian favela using social media for protection against police brutality and (b) a Kenyan photographer, affiliated to an art-ivist (artistic and activist) collective, producing images of Nairobi at night to tackle social anxiety issues. The research draws from sociological insights on the concept of ‘visibility’ and adopts a case study methodology combined with ethnographic approaches. By adopting a Global South perspective, it discusses counter surveillance efforts in ways that go beyond techno-legal solutionism (Dencik et al, 2016) and in periods outside that of big-scale protests (McCosker, 2015). By devising this model, we hope to offer a contribution on how marginalised communities can be better informed when they encounter unintended negative visibility.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"405 - 424"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43036224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-25DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2161831
Stephen D. Reese, Wenhong Chen, Z. Pan
ABSTRACT In this introductory essay, the editors consider the current challenges in understanding a networked China. We consider how the digital media landscape has changed just since an earlier collection of research in 2015, subtitled ‘global dynamics of digital media and civic engagement.’ We take up this orienting concept of civic engagement to explore emerging mediated spaces for cultural production through global connectivities. Beyond an area studies contribution, we focus on China more broadly as a complex global assemblage: an intersection of technology, norms, and socio-cultural structures. Our contributors were invited to consider ‘what’ and ‘where’ is China, and ‘how do we know China?’ Along with logistical challenges of fieldwork involving constraints of geopolitics and pandemic, we encouraged an epistemic reflexivity around reliance on certain paradigms, concepts and kinds of data. This research is further complicated by sensitivities around by the very vocabulary often involved, including public, civil society, and civic engagement itself. In the search for digital China, contributors consider how to think about China and how to locate a digital China. In exploring digital production and performance of and in China, we include analyses of fandom, idols, and the curation of collective pandemic memories. Together, this collection provides a rich set of deeply researched cases and imaginative new strategies to understand how the contradictions of digital China – between connectivity and control – are playing out, with important implications for the changing nature of public life.
{"title":"Revisiting networked China: challenges for the study of digital media and civic engagement","authors":"Stephen D. Reese, Wenhong Chen, Z. Pan","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2022.2161831","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2161831","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this introductory essay, the editors consider the current challenges in understanding a networked China. We consider how the digital media landscape has changed just since an earlier collection of research in 2015, subtitled ‘global dynamics of digital media and civic engagement.’ We take up this orienting concept of civic engagement to explore emerging mediated spaces for cultural production through global connectivities. Beyond an area studies contribution, we focus on China more broadly as a complex global assemblage: an intersection of technology, norms, and socio-cultural structures. Our contributors were invited to consider ‘what’ and ‘where’ is China, and ‘how do we know China?’ Along with logistical challenges of fieldwork involving constraints of geopolitics and pandemic, we encouraged an epistemic reflexivity around reliance on certain paradigms, concepts and kinds of data. This research is further complicated by sensitivities around by the very vocabulary often involved, including public, civil society, and civic engagement itself. In the search for digital China, contributors consider how to think about China and how to locate a digital China. In exploring digital production and performance of and in China, we include analyses of fandom, idols, and the curation of collective pandemic memories. Together, this collection provides a rich set of deeply researched cases and imaginative new strategies to understand how the contradictions of digital China – between connectivity and control – are playing out, with important implications for the changing nature of public life.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"239 - 252"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43647985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-23DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2166357
Di Di
ABSTRACT Despite extensive studies on ethical data use and algorithms, little is known about the ethical perspectives of tech workers – insiders of a profession that heavily relies on data and algorithms. Nor have there been sufficient cross-national comparisons of their perspectives. Relying on interviews with 98 tech workers in China and the US, this paper is guided by two questions: (1) What are tech workers' perceptions of big data ethics, and (2) what are the cross-national similarities and differences in China and the US? The study found that there are cross-national similarities in tech workers’ cautious enthusiasm about the applications of big data in their work, as well as in their complex and ambivalent ethical perspectives on the use of big data in government digital surveillance. The main cross-national differences occur in tech workers’ perceptions of whether big data may reinforce social inequalities. US-based tech workers are concerned about the reinforcement of race and gender-based inequalities through the use of big data, whereas their colleagues in China are optimistic that the use of big data may reduce income-based inequalities across geographical regions. The study's findings have implications for how to leverage tech workers’ influence and promote the ethical use of data and algorithms.
{"title":"Ethical ambiguity and complexity: tech workers’ perceptions of big data ethics in China and the US","authors":"Di Di","doi":"10.1080/1369118X.2023.2166357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2023.2166357","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Despite extensive studies on ethical data use and algorithms, little is known about the ethical perspectives of tech workers – insiders of a profession that heavily relies on data and algorithms. Nor have there been sufficient cross-national comparisons of their perspectives. Relying on interviews with 98 tech workers in China and the US, this paper is guided by two questions: (1) What are tech workers' perceptions of big data ethics, and (2) what are the cross-national similarities and differences in China and the US? The study found that there are cross-national similarities in tech workers’ cautious enthusiasm about the applications of big data in their work, as well as in their complex and ambivalent ethical perspectives on the use of big data in government digital surveillance. The main cross-national differences occur in tech workers’ perceptions of whether big data may reinforce social inequalities. US-based tech workers are concerned about the reinforcement of race and gender-based inequalities through the use of big data, whereas their colleagues in China are optimistic that the use of big data may reduce income-based inequalities across geographical regions. The study's findings have implications for how to leverage tech workers’ influence and promote the ethical use of data and algorithms.","PeriodicalId":48335,"journal":{"name":"Information Communication & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"957 - 973"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41542456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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