"Modern productivity tools […] are not evaluated on how well they work. They are evaluated on how well they symbolize your membership in the right epistemic tribe."
JA Westemberg writes on credibility in tech: https://www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-cult-of-hard-mode-why-simplicity-offends-tech-elites
It was an honor to organize this panel on Managing Threats to Researchers, for the recent Cambridge #Disinformation Summit. Thanks to my esteemed colleagues @alicetiara @mutalenkonde & @juliaebner for contributing to this insightful dialogue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M9lhTm-7f0 #propaganda #commodon #polcomm
"There are several overlapping groups of people who, probably for different reasons, are more likely to prefer news that shares their point of view:
(a) the ideological and politically engaged;
(b) young people, especially those who rely mainly on social media for news;
(c) women; and
(d) less socioeconomically advantaged groups."
"In markets dominated by fewer brands — often publicly funded ones such as the BBC — respondents in that market also tend to express higher levels of preference for impartiality." In Britain, where respondents use an average of four news brands, the lowest number across the 40 countries studied, 62% of respondents say they prefer news displaying no point of view.
Camila Mont'Alverne et al, 2025: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/23816
U.S. media history is pretty straightforward, honestly.
"The chapters, constructed as 'multispecies stories,' ... consider ecologies & infrastructure together in novel ways that challenge our conceptual separations between the two. Readers will find a theoretically exciting & vibrantly composed read with OIL BEACH" 
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/24661
Thank you for this lovely review, Shelley Tuazon Guyton & IJOC!
Here's the book:
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo185167017.html
#Commodon #STS #EnvHist @ecologies @sts #OilBeach #multispecies #CriticalLogistics
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Today is the deadline for submitting chapter abstracts for the book proposal "Victimhood Identities in Mediatised Politics and Culture".
Follow the link for more information and submit a short 200 word abstract. 
https://affectemotionandmedia.wordpress.com/publications/
#Commodon #mediastudies
Come to Lisbon and let's talk about affect, emotion and media 
Submit your abstract until 28. February to contribute with your research! https://www.icnova.fcsh.unl.pt/call-for-abstracts-2025-ecrea-workshop-of-the-temporary-working-group-affect-emotion-media/
Of the many directions one's thoughts could take in listening to this, I'm thinking most of Andrew McStay's book, "Emotional AI." Quick thread… 1/8
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/podcasts/the-daily/ai-chatgpt-boyfriend-relationship.html
New publication!
Information, Communication & Society just published our study “Mainstreaming and transnationalization of anti-gender ideas through social media: the case of CitizenGO” w/ @nicolarighetti, @Bruna, Zsófia Cseri, Sofia Iriarte, & Kateryna Maikovska 
50 open-access copies are available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/V9SRJQFI5SV5ZNVKZJHZ/full?target=10.1080/1369118X.2025.2470229
This study is particularly relevant in light of the current wave of traditionalist radicalism.
#commodon #computationalsocialscience
'I don’t think an opinion adhering to institutional conventions can be considered an “unpopular take.” Positioning it as unpopular masks a common opinion as marginalised. This type of perception skewing is reminiscent of Christian conservatives claiming God-fearing values are under attack despite Christianity dominating every echelon of American society.'
Inigo Laguda on language and grammar: https://www.yoursinigo.com/p/better-than-you-know-yourselves?open=false#%C2%A7grammar-the-conservative-undercurrent
Link to book, Trans Technologies, by Oliver L. Haimson:
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262551861/trans-technologies/
#OpenAccess as soon as it's officially released! (Feb 25)
@commodon @sts #STS #Commodon #Bookstodon @bookstodon #TransTechnologies #MITPress
Here is the book, Bootlegging the Airwaves: Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution
Publication alert! Actually it's a review, of Bootlegging the Airwaves: Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution by Eleanor Patterson, in Technology and Culture
Good book for folks in media studies, fan studies, distribution studies, also Star Trek & wrestling fans?
I'm (hopefully) finishing my book manuscript this semester and have started a blog where I'll informally post ideas I'm working through. If you're having a particularly boring Saturday night, here's the first post (which gives a big nod to @ftripodi ).
https://unevenly-distributed.ghost.io/distribution-and-procedural-rhetoric/
For anyone bringing #AI into their teaching this term, Tom Haigh just shared the syllabus for a new course titled "A Short History of Artificial Intelligence" (based on his forthcoming book). The supplemental readings offer a nice slice through the literature, from subject area experts to popular perspectives.
As Los Angeles burns, the fossil fuel industry is both on the defensive & turning to some particularly ugly rhetorical behavior to escape scrutiny.
I write about their appropriation of environmental justice advocates' language of civil rights in a brand-new pub:
https://academic.oup.com/ccc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ccc/tcae055/7950795?guestAccessKey=98151a17-ab55-4145-91fe-a4671a94229d
The year is 1927. The Federal Radio Commission (forerunner to the FCC) has just been formed and America's airwaves are still a morass of largely unregulated broadcasters. The Commission must decide which ones are providing quality content.
Commissioner Henry Adams Bellows, already exasperated, gives an early account of the thankless nature of content moderation:
(Quoted in Erik Barnouw's "A Tower in Babel.")
NEW from me: Can academic freedom survive Donald Trump’s plans for thought control?
The president’s aim to remove power from universities and punish so-called “woke” ideology has chilling implications for free speech globally
https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2024/12/academic-freedom-survive-donald-trump-plans-thought-control-universities-colleges-education/ #academicchatter #commodon #education #highered #trump #freespeech #AI
Trump Threatens to ‘Straighten Out’ the Press With More Lawsuits https://www.thewrap.com/donald-trump-threatens-press-media-lawsuits/ #lawfare #trump #commodon #journalism
Less than a month left to submit your paper, panel, or data proposals for #COMPTEXT2025
Don’t miss out! Join us in Vienna on April 24-26, 2025, to discuss computational social science 
Deadline: Jan 15, 2025. Details: shorturl.at/AmocX
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