DIGITAL MEDIA FUTURES
INHOUD
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
May You Live In Interesting Times .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Media backends .............................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Big Critique ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Examples of news articles about AI ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Techno-solutionism......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
1. Thinking About (better) futures for digital media ........................................................................................................................... 7
1.1. There is something going on with digital media and communication technologies… ............................................................ 7
1.1.1. Case Frances Haugen Facebook is being accused to choose profit before tackling disinformation, and the harm it is
doing to children and young people .......................................................................................................................................... 7
1.1.2. The future by Nick Montfort: ............................................................................................................................................ 8
1.2. Key concepts to understand the development of digital media and communication technology ......................................... 9
1.2.1 Continuity/discontinuity .................................................................................................................................................... 9
1.2.2. Media power= symbolical and material .......................................................................................................................... 10
1.2.3. The social shaping of technology .................................................................................................................................... 10
1.3. The importance of imagination to understand technology and the future ........................................................................... 11
1.3.1. Computing the human, an influential essay by professor N. Katherine Hayles published in 2005 in Theory, Culture
and Society ................................................................................................................................................................................ 11
1.3.2 Future Literacies (horst&Gladwin, 2022) ......................................................................................................................... 11
1.3.3. Science fiction and ubiquitous computing ...................................................................................................................... 12
1.4. Conclusion: how to impact digital media futures .................................................................................................................. 13
1.4.1. How? ............................................................................................................................................................................... 13
2. Key theories: Digital media and the shaping of society ................................................................................................................ 13
Last week & this week .................................................................................................................................................................. 13
2.1. The computer becomes a book ............................................................................................................................................. 13
2.2. Digital/technology/media +technology ................................................................................................................................. 14
2.2.1. Technology ...................................................................................................................................................................... 14
2.2.2. Defining Digital media and society.................................................................................................................................. 16
2.2.3. Digital media affordances ............................................................................................................................................... 16
2.3. Computing/ algorithms/automation + society ...................................................................................................................... 17
2.3.1. The digital/ computing .................................................................................................................................................... 17
2.3.2. algotirhms/automation ................................................................................................................................................... 17
2.4. Evolution/change/crisis ......................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.4.1. Evolution ......................................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.4.2. Change? .......................................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.4.3. Crisis? .............................................................................................................................................................................. 18
2.5. A global network of computers.............................................................................................................................................. 18
, 2.5.1. Internet ........................................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.6. Media ecology/life ................................................................................................................................................................. 19
2.6.1. Media ecology ................................................................................................................................................................. 19
2.6.2. Media life/mediatization ................................................................................................................................................ 19
2.7. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................................................. 19
3. How to imagine governance, policy and public service digital media? ........................................................................................ 20
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 20
3.1. Media policy in times of digital disruption............................................................................................................................. 20
3.1.1. Digital disruptors and media policy ................................................................................................................................ 20
3.1.2. What is media policy ....................................................................................................................................................... 20
3.2. Evolutions in the relation media, politics and society ........................................................................................................... 21
3.2.1. MEdia are key to society ................................................................................................................................................. 21
3.2.2 How the relation media, politics and society evolved ..................................................................................................... 21
3.3. Principles and values of media policy .................................................................................................................................... 23
3.4. how to guarantee principles of media policy in times of digital disruptors........................................................................... 26
3.4.1. Media policy and digital disruption................................................................................................................................. 26
3.5. Towards a public service digital media? ................................................................................................................................ 27
3.5.1. What is europe doing? .................................................................................................................................................... 27
3.5.2. Future challenges ............................................................................................................................................................ 27
4. What can mobile dating apps teach us about data justice? ......................................................................................................... 28
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 28
4.1. Question and concerns about data justice ............................................................................................................................ 28
4.2. Living with data-driven media................................................................................................................................................ 29
4.3. Critical data studies and data justice ..................................................................................................................................... 30
4.4. Mobile dating apps as data-drive media ................................................................................................................................ 33
4.4.1. The datafication of intimacy ........................................................................................................................................... 33
4.5. The future of data-driven media and data justice? ............................................................................................................... 34
4.5.1. The future?...................................................................................................................................................................... 34
5. Digital AI systems and how to govern them ................................................................................................................................. 35
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 35
5.1. What is AI? ............................................................................................................................................................................. 35
5.1.1. Artificial intelligence ....................................................................................................................................................... 35
5.2. What are AI ‘foundation models’ and why are they important? ........................................................................................... 36
5.2.1. Foundation models ......................................................................................................................................................... 36
5.3. How can AI be understood as an observable object for governance?................................................................................... 38
5.3.1. EU’s AI act ....................................................................................................................................................................... 38
5.3.2. Making AI observable...................................................................................................................................................... 39
5.3.3. Inspecting AI .................................................................................................................................................................... 39
5.4. What are the problems with ‘lock-ins’ and ‘ dependencies’ commonly observed in how AI industries operate?................ 40
5.4.1. Lock-in and dependency ................................................................................................................................................. 40
, 5.5. What are alternatices for how ‘big AI’ sees the future of societies? ..................................................................................... 41
5.5.1. Creativity ......................................................................................................................................................................... 41
6. How To imagine social media and human flourishing .................................................................................................................. 41
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 42
6.1. Social media, content moderation, and over-moderation .................................................................................................... 42
6.2. What social media mean to society ....................................................................................................................................... 43
6.2.1. Social media are double- edged ...................................................................................................................................... 43
6.2.2. Social media extend the realm of the social ................................................................................................................... 43
6.3. How can social media contribute to human flourishing? ...................................................................................................... 44
6.3.1. Human flourishing ........................................................................................................................................................... 44
6.3.2. Human flourishing and media ......................................................................................................................................... 44
6.4. Content moderation and social media ................................................................................................................................... 45
6.4.1. What is content moderation? ......................................................................................................................................... 45
6.4.2. Tenrsions in content moderation ................................................................................................................................... 45
6.5. Recent European policy initiatives ......................................................................................................................................... 46
6.5.1. Digital services act (DSa) (16 november 2022) ............................................................................................................... 46
7. Guest lecture Scarcelli: young people, sex and digital culture (19/04/2024) ............................................................................... 46
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 46
7.1. Digital media and sex ............................................................................................................................................................. 46
7.1.1. An explosive mix ............................................................................................................................................................. 46
Sexuality and sex ....................................................................................................................................................................... 47
7.3. Sexuality and media ............................................................................................................................................................... 47
7.3.1. Digital media and sex ...................................................................................................................................................... 48
7.4. Young people and social media ............................................................................................................................................. 48
7.5. different approaches.............................................................................................................................................................. 48
7.5.1. The effect paradigm ........................................................................................................................................................ 48
7.5.2. Risk and opportunities .................................................................................................................................................... 48
7.5.3. Cultural studies ............................................................................................................................................................... 48
7.6. porn and sexting .................................................................................................................................................................... 49
7.6.1. Porn ................................................................................................................................................................................. 49
7.6.2. Sexting ............................................................................................................................................................................. 49
8. Guest Lecture Kirbaç: Toward an agent- agnostic transmission model ........................................................................................ 49
Outline .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 49
8.1. The Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication .................................................................................................................. 50
8.2. Approaches Towards the Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication ................................................................................ 50
8.2.1. Anthropocentric Paradigm .............................................................................................................................................. 50
8.2.2. Technocentric Paradigm ................................................................................................................................................. 51
8.3. Towards an Agent- Agnostic Paradigm .................................................................................................................................. 51
8.3.1. Why not an Anthropocentric Approach? ........................................................................................................................ 51
8.3.2. Why not a Technocentric Approach? .............................................................................................................................. 51
, 8.3.3. What about an Agent-Agnostic Paradigm? ..................................................................................................................... 51
8.4. Shifts in communication processes ........................................................................................................................................ 52
8.4.1. Operational shifts- How agents work? ............................................................................................................................ 52
8.4.2. Phenomenological shifts- How agents are experienced by others? ............................................................................... 52
8.4.3. Ontological Shifts- What do the agents actually look like? & How do the agents actually act?..................................... 52
8.4.4. Therefore.. ...................................................................................................................................................................... 53
8.5. Functions as Criteria for Transmission Model Consideration ................................................................................................ 53
8.5.1. Agency ............................................................................................................................................................................. 53
Interactivity ............................................................................................................................................................................... 53
Influence ................................................................................................................................................................................... 53
Closing discussion ......................................................................................................................................................................... 53
INHOUD
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
May You Live In Interesting Times .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Media backends .............................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Big Critique ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Examples of news articles about AI ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Techno-solutionism......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
1. Thinking About (better) futures for digital media ........................................................................................................................... 7
1.1. There is something going on with digital media and communication technologies… ............................................................ 7
1.1.1. Case Frances Haugen Facebook is being accused to choose profit before tackling disinformation, and the harm it is
doing to children and young people .......................................................................................................................................... 7
1.1.2. The future by Nick Montfort: ............................................................................................................................................ 8
1.2. Key concepts to understand the development of digital media and communication technology ......................................... 9
1.2.1 Continuity/discontinuity .................................................................................................................................................... 9
1.2.2. Media power= symbolical and material .......................................................................................................................... 10
1.2.3. The social shaping of technology .................................................................................................................................... 10
1.3. The importance of imagination to understand technology and the future ........................................................................... 11
1.3.1. Computing the human, an influential essay by professor N. Katherine Hayles published in 2005 in Theory, Culture
and Society ................................................................................................................................................................................ 11
1.3.2 Future Literacies (horst&Gladwin, 2022) ......................................................................................................................... 11
1.3.3. Science fiction and ubiquitous computing ...................................................................................................................... 12
1.4. Conclusion: how to impact digital media futures .................................................................................................................. 13
1.4.1. How? ............................................................................................................................................................................... 13
2. Key theories: Digital media and the shaping of society ................................................................................................................ 13
Last week & this week .................................................................................................................................................................. 13
2.1. The computer becomes a book ............................................................................................................................................. 13
2.2. Digital/technology/media +technology ................................................................................................................................. 14
2.2.1. Technology ...................................................................................................................................................................... 14
2.2.2. Defining Digital media and society.................................................................................................................................. 16
2.2.3. Digital media affordances ............................................................................................................................................... 16
2.3. Computing/ algorithms/automation + society ...................................................................................................................... 17
2.3.1. The digital/ computing .................................................................................................................................................... 17
2.3.2. algotirhms/automation ................................................................................................................................................... 17
2.4. Evolution/change/crisis ......................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.4.1. Evolution ......................................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.4.2. Change? .......................................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.4.3. Crisis? .............................................................................................................................................................................. 18
2.5. A global network of computers.............................................................................................................................................. 18
, 2.5.1. Internet ........................................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.6. Media ecology/life ................................................................................................................................................................. 19
2.6.1. Media ecology ................................................................................................................................................................. 19
2.6.2. Media life/mediatization ................................................................................................................................................ 19
2.7. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................................................. 19
3. How to imagine governance, policy and public service digital media? ........................................................................................ 20
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 20
3.1. Media policy in times of digital disruption............................................................................................................................. 20
3.1.1. Digital disruptors and media policy ................................................................................................................................ 20
3.1.2. What is media policy ....................................................................................................................................................... 20
3.2. Evolutions in the relation media, politics and society ........................................................................................................... 21
3.2.1. MEdia are key to society ................................................................................................................................................. 21
3.2.2 How the relation media, politics and society evolved ..................................................................................................... 21
3.3. Principles and values of media policy .................................................................................................................................... 23
3.4. how to guarantee principles of media policy in times of digital disruptors........................................................................... 26
3.4.1. Media policy and digital disruption................................................................................................................................. 26
3.5. Towards a public service digital media? ................................................................................................................................ 27
3.5.1. What is europe doing? .................................................................................................................................................... 27
3.5.2. Future challenges ............................................................................................................................................................ 27
4. What can mobile dating apps teach us about data justice? ......................................................................................................... 28
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 28
4.1. Question and concerns about data justice ............................................................................................................................ 28
4.2. Living with data-driven media................................................................................................................................................ 29
4.3. Critical data studies and data justice ..................................................................................................................................... 30
4.4. Mobile dating apps as data-drive media ................................................................................................................................ 33
4.4.1. The datafication of intimacy ........................................................................................................................................... 33
4.5. The future of data-driven media and data justice? ............................................................................................................... 34
4.5.1. The future?...................................................................................................................................................................... 34
5. Digital AI systems and how to govern them ................................................................................................................................. 35
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 35
5.1. What is AI? ............................................................................................................................................................................. 35
5.1.1. Artificial intelligence ....................................................................................................................................................... 35
5.2. What are AI ‘foundation models’ and why are they important? ........................................................................................... 36
5.2.1. Foundation models ......................................................................................................................................................... 36
5.3. How can AI be understood as an observable object for governance?................................................................................... 38
5.3.1. EU’s AI act ....................................................................................................................................................................... 38
5.3.2. Making AI observable...................................................................................................................................................... 39
5.3.3. Inspecting AI .................................................................................................................................................................... 39
5.4. What are the problems with ‘lock-ins’ and ‘ dependencies’ commonly observed in how AI industries operate?................ 40
5.4.1. Lock-in and dependency ................................................................................................................................................. 40
, 5.5. What are alternatices for how ‘big AI’ sees the future of societies? ..................................................................................... 41
5.5.1. Creativity ......................................................................................................................................................................... 41
6. How To imagine social media and human flourishing .................................................................................................................. 41
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 42
6.1. Social media, content moderation, and over-moderation .................................................................................................... 42
6.2. What social media mean to society ....................................................................................................................................... 43
6.2.1. Social media are double- edged ...................................................................................................................................... 43
6.2.2. Social media extend the realm of the social ................................................................................................................... 43
6.3. How can social media contribute to human flourishing? ...................................................................................................... 44
6.3.1. Human flourishing ........................................................................................................................................................... 44
6.3.2. Human flourishing and media ......................................................................................................................................... 44
6.4. Content moderation and social media ................................................................................................................................... 45
6.4.1. What is content moderation? ......................................................................................................................................... 45
6.4.2. Tenrsions in content moderation ................................................................................................................................... 45
6.5. Recent European policy initiatives ......................................................................................................................................... 46
6.5.1. Digital services act (DSa) (16 november 2022) ............................................................................................................... 46
7. Guest lecture Scarcelli: young people, sex and digital culture (19/04/2024) ............................................................................... 46
Today ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 46
7.1. Digital media and sex ............................................................................................................................................................. 46
7.1.1. An explosive mix ............................................................................................................................................................. 46
Sexuality and sex ....................................................................................................................................................................... 47
7.3. Sexuality and media ............................................................................................................................................................... 47
7.3.1. Digital media and sex ...................................................................................................................................................... 48
7.4. Young people and social media ............................................................................................................................................. 48
7.5. different approaches.............................................................................................................................................................. 48
7.5.1. The effect paradigm ........................................................................................................................................................ 48
7.5.2. Risk and opportunities .................................................................................................................................................... 48
7.5.3. Cultural studies ............................................................................................................................................................... 48
7.6. porn and sexting .................................................................................................................................................................... 49
7.6.1. Porn ................................................................................................................................................................................. 49
7.6.2. Sexting ............................................................................................................................................................................. 49
8. Guest Lecture Kirbaç: Toward an agent- agnostic transmission model ........................................................................................ 49
Outline .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 49
8.1. The Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication .................................................................................................................. 50
8.2. Approaches Towards the Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication ................................................................................ 50
8.2.1. Anthropocentric Paradigm .............................................................................................................................................. 50
8.2.2. Technocentric Paradigm ................................................................................................................................................. 51
8.3. Towards an Agent- Agnostic Paradigm .................................................................................................................................. 51
8.3.1. Why not an Anthropocentric Approach? ........................................................................................................................ 51
8.3.2. Why not a Technocentric Approach? .............................................................................................................................. 51
, 8.3.3. What about an Agent-Agnostic Paradigm? ..................................................................................................................... 51
8.4. Shifts in communication processes ........................................................................................................................................ 52
8.4.1. Operational shifts- How agents work? ............................................................................................................................ 52
8.4.2. Phenomenological shifts- How agents are experienced by others? ............................................................................... 52
8.4.3. Ontological Shifts- What do the agents actually look like? & How do the agents actually act?..................................... 52
8.4.4. Therefore.. ...................................................................................................................................................................... 53
8.5. Functions as Criteria for Transmission Model Consideration ................................................................................................ 53
8.5.1. Agency ............................................................................................................................................................................. 53
Interactivity ............................................................................................................................................................................... 53
Influence ................................................................................................................................................................................... 53
Closing discussion ......................................................................................................................................................................... 53
