Methods for datafication, datafication of methods: introduction to the special issue

Lomborg, Stine, Dencik, Lina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1982-0901 and Moe, Hallvard 2020. Methods for datafication, datafication of methods: introduction to the special issue. European Journal of Communication 35 (3) , pp. 203-212. 10.1177/0267323120922045

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Abstract

Digital media enable processes of datafication: users' online activities leave digital traces that are transformed into data points in databases, kept by service providers and other private and public organisations, and repurposed for commercial exploitation, business innovation, surveillance -- and research. Increasingly, this also extends to sensors and recognition technologies that turn homes and cities, as well as our own bodies, into data points to be collected and analysed So-called ‘traditional’ media industries, too, including public service broadcasting, have been datafied, tracking and profiling audiences, algorithmically processing data for greater personalisation as a way to compete with new players and streaming services. Datafication both raises new research questions and brings about new avenues, and an array of tools, for empirical research. This special issue is dedicated to exploring these, linking them to broader historical trajectories of social science methodologies as well as to central concerns and perspectives in media and communication research. As such, this special issue grapples with approaches to empirical research that interlink questions of methods and tools with epistemology and practice. It discusses the datafication of methods, as well as methods for studying datafication. With this we hope to enable reflection of what research questions media and communication scholars should ask of datafication, and how new and existing methods enable us to answer them.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Publisher:	SAGE
ISSN:	0267-3231
Funders:	European Research Council
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 June 2020
Date of Acceptance:	1 April 2020
Last Modified:	29 Nov 2024 04:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/132453

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