Doing Digital Methods: Some Recent Highlights from Winter and Summer Schools

Doing Digital Methods

27 June 2016, University of Amsterdam Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana

Some Recent Highlights from Winter and Summer Schools

http://lilianabounegru.org

https://twitter.com/bb_liliana

Digital Methods Winter School 2016Otherwise Engaged. Critical Analytics and the New Meanings of Engagement

Online

How may online engagement be understood?

How can engagement metrics be repurposed for social and cultural research?

Digital Methods for Number Critique

Which platform features and aspects of use practices are extended and

reinterpreted through support app ecologies?

II. App Ecologies 1. App-specific: Instagram (likes, followers, tags, reposts, hashtags)

2. Cross-platform: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Tinder

3. Feature/metrics-based: Followers, likes, hashtags, subscribers

4. Alternative approach

MethodologyGet apps per keyword from App Annie.Identify related apps Google Play Similar Apps tool.

Digital Methods for Number Critique (2016). https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2016DigitalMethodsForNumberCritique

https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2016DigitalMethodsForNumberCritique

Instagram - Key Findings

Image editing apps

Dating appsDating apps

Image editing apps





A Critical Cartography ofthe Mediterranean

Refugee Crisis in 2015

Method: Operationalizing critical cartography

Frame analysis of maps: Which places are included on the map? Are the origins of refugees recognized in the journalistic narrative or just the European destination?

Layering and HeatmapsData collection 1:Query design in Google images: [refugees routes] [migrant routes]

Data collection 2:Videos from Arabic media

Zoom-in | zoom-out: From straight lines to journeys.

Framing analysis: Context- what images go with maps? Content- How do maps mean?

Mapping

Content analysis - image coding

A Critical Cartography of the Mediterranean Refugee Crisis in 2015 (2016). https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2016CommunicativeArchitectureOfTheMediteraneanRefugeeCrisis

Frame analysis of mapsWhich places are included on the map? | Are the origins of refugees recognized in the journalistic narrative? | Or, is it just the European destination featured?

A Critical Cartography of the Mediterranean Refugee Crisis in 2015 (2016). https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2016CommunicativeArchitectureOfTheMediteraneanRefugeeCrisis

“Migrant routes” - English. A Critical Cartography of the Mediterranean Refugee Crisis in 2015 (2016). https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/

Dmi/WinterSchool2016CommunicativeArchitectureOfTheMediteraneanRefugeeCrisis

“Migrant routes” - English vs Italian. A Critical Cartography of the Mediterranean Refugee Crisis in 2015 (2016). https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/


“Refugee routes” - English vs Italian. A Critical Cartography of the Mediterranean Refugee Crisis in 2015 (2016). https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/


A Critical Genealogy of the Getty Images Lean In Collection:

Researching the Feminist Politics of Stock Photography across Representation, Circulation and Recontextualisation

The Lean In Collection on Getty Images. http://leanin.org/getty/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/business/leaninorg-and-getty-aim-to-change-womens-portrayal-in-stock-photos.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/business/leaninorg-and-getty-aim-to-change-womens-portrayal-in-stock-photos.html

“Oh salad, you are hilarious.” http://imgur.com/gallery/7wOfG4U

“‘Realistic’ imaging of women in stock photography: Can Getty Images create a more diverse representation of the world?” https://atavist.com/cms/project/236526/preview/

What kind of feminism do the images evoke through their content but also through their

circulation?

How to study the life of an image online?

What kind of feminism do the images evoke through their content?

A Critical Genealogy of the Getty Images Lean In Collection (2016).https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2016CriticalGenealogyGettyImagesLeanIn

https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2016CriticalGenealogyGettyImagesLeanIn



How is the meaning of the collection articulated through its circulation

online?





Digital Engagement and Cultural Heritage

How is the identity of an artwork reinterpreted

through circulation online?

Digital Engagement and Cultural Heritage (2016).https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2016DigitalEngagementAndCulturalHeritage

https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2016DigitalEngagementAndCulturalHeritage

How is the #museumselfie practiced on Instagram? Which

museums are selfie-friendly?





DMI Summer School 2015Post-Snowden Media Empiricism and Secondary Social Media: Data Studies

Beyond Facebook and Twitter

How may we rethink the study of online media post-Snowden?

What value do secondary social media platforms have for research?

Political Memes in a Globalised World:Does Love Win?

Does Love Win? The Mechanics of Memetics (2015). https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/SummerSchool2015DoesLoveWin

https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/SummerSchool2015DoesLoveWin



Can we map the geographies of expressions of support and their

counter-reactions?





#Whomademyclothes - Seeking the Voices of the Workers

“In the ongoing debate about globalization, what's been missing is the voices of the workers themselves.” Chang (2009)

Can we find the voices of the workers online? How can we profile

them?

#FactoryWorkersSpeakOut

Google Scraper

#Whomademyclothes - Seeking the voices of the workers (2015). https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/HTwhomademyclothes

https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/HTwhomademyclothes



Anti-child labor campaign



Meeting to address sexual harassment





Tracking Ecologies

Tracking Ecologies (2015). https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/SummerSchool2015TrackingEcologies

https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/SummerSchool2015TrackingEcologies

Can we identify tracker styles per website type?











Micro-Temporalities of the Web

What is the ‘page weight’ of bugs (trackers, beacons, widgets and other devices) and how can we experience their micro-temporalities differently?

Micro-Temporalities of the Web (2015). http://gauthiier.github.io/www-micro-temporalities/

http://gauthiier.github.io/www-micro-temporalities/

Summer School Tips from Previous Coordinators

• The format is ‘learning by doing’. To get the most out of it be sure to have watched the tool tutorials and done the readings ahead of the event.

• Test hypotheses and tools on small datasets first.

• Don't start with theory but start with the research question, the claims (in the literature or press) and the data;

• Let the data inform theory and let your expectations be challenged and shaped by the data.

• Split big groups into subgroups.

• Keep the last day free to work on the presentation and wiki page report.

• At the final presentation it is better to present one interesting finding than 10 non-findings (findings are more than data description).

• Be persistent - there are always ups and downs.

• Take coffee breaks seriously :-)

Thank you and enjoy the summer school!

Education

Doing Digital Methods: Some Recent Highlights from Winter and Summer Schools