presentation given by Prof. Mirko Schäfer at the Big Data & Society conference held at RTBF on 13 Dec 2016

1. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
by mlhradio
Datafying the public sphere?
Fragmented audiences, media and democracy
Mirko Tobias Schäfer @mirkoschaefer
Assistant Professor for New Media & Digital Culture,
Utrecht University
Principal Investigator, Utrecht Data School

2. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Various degrees of connectedness, publicness
and privacy
Direct personal sphere
Extended networked sphere
Trans/national public sphere

3. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Low threshold for participation
- often gratis (free as in 'free beer')
- easy to use interfaces
- social graph & social lock-in
- implicit participation explicit participation→

4. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
by Marcin Wichary
Datafying audiences and interactions

5. Utrecht Data School is a platform for research with
and about data. We investigate datafication, and
analyze and visualize data.
UDS connects teaching, hands-on practice and scholarship.
www.dataschool.nl

6. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Collecting, selling & using data

7. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Every click you make, every Tweet you send...
Wherever people are talking, clicking, typing
about our brand,
Mission Control is here to listen...
(Gatorade)

8. Utrecht (fragmented Twitter audiences)
Thomas Boeschoten, 2013

9. Utrecht (fragmented Twitter audiences)
Thomas Boeschoten, 2013
Public Service Announcement:
Just because they look like
bubbles, does not mean
they are filter bubbles!

11. NL Refugee debate onTwitter NL, P.Verhaar &T. Boeschoten, 2015

12. NL Refugee debate onTwitter NL, P.Verhaar &T. Boeschoten, 2015
Right-wing →
Media →
← Centre/ left wing
Belgium centre / left
Belgium right-wing

13. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Prototype of aTwitter Monitor, 2014

14. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Challenges of a datafied public sphere
1) new 'quality' of captured conversations, views, opinions
2) data (context, ownership, re-use)
3) analysis (models and algorithms)

15. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Defending the open society!

16. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Revisiting data practices and their impact
→ how is our understanding of the 'public' changing?
→ how inform technologies our knowledge development?
→ how to defend or further democratic values?

17. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
What can Public Service Media do?
- stop talking about the “big data revolution”,
start explaining data practices!
- inform the electorate about models, algorithms
and their social impact
- stimulate and host society-wide & political debate
on datafication & algorithms

18. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Whose to blame for Trump?
Filter bubbles
Fake news
Algorithms

19. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
People in this country have had enough of experts
(Former UK Justice Secretary Michael Gove, June 2016)

20. by Gage Skidmore
We brought fact checkers to a culture war.
Time to get serious
(Clay Shirky, 22.7.2016)

21. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Where is the European public sphere?
- translating national media (print, radio,TV)
for EU-wide distribution & commentary
→ creating pan-European media platforms
→ (public) European social media?

22. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
@mirkoschaefer
www.mtschaefer.net

23. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Tweets & viewing figures;Van Es, Boeschoten,Van Geenen, 2015

24. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
Overlapping audiences onTwitter;Van Es, Boeschoten,Van Geenen, 2015

25. Participatory Culture& New Media 2013
A few recommendations (introductory level)