This book addresses new challenges to the formation of publics in datafied democracies. It proposes a fresh, complex and nuanced approach to understand 'datapublics' by considering datafication and public formation in the context of audience, journalism and infrastructure studies. The tightly woven chapters shed new light on how platforms, algorithms and their data infrastructure are embedded in journalistic values, discourses and practices, opening up new conditions for publics to display agency, mobilize and achieve legitimacy. This is a seminal contribution to debates about the future of media, journalism and civic practices.
Author(s): Jannie Møller Hartley, Jannick Kirk Sørensen, David Mathieu
Edition: 1
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF | Full TOC
Pages: 217
Tags: Mass Media: Political Aspects; Mass Media: Public Opinion; Mass Media: Social Aspects; Technology Studies
Cover
Title
Copyright information
Table of Contents
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: Datapublics Beyond the Rise and Fall Narrative
Introducing datapublics
Datapublics beyond the rise and fall narrative
Publics: the passive victims of datafication
Journalism: the heroic cultivator of publics
Big Tech: the infrastructural villain
Defining datapublics
Situating datafication in relation to public formation
Outline of the book
References
PART I Agentic Publics
2 Deconstructing the Notion of Algorithmic Control over Datapublics
Introduction
The problems with the notion of algorithmic control
Algorithmic control as an extension of audience measurement
The gap between media use and sociocultural practices
Reversing the ontology of data
Communicative agency as mirroring in the data loop
Conclusion
Notes
References
3 Counterpublicness and Hybrid Tactics across Physical and Mediated Spaces
Introduction
Theoretical backdrop: researching publics and public formation
The hybrid nature of the public formation processes
Algorithms, information and datafication in the public formation processes
The good, the bad and what comes in between
A hybrid ethnographic approach
Analytical framework: (media) logics and related tactics
A typology of formation tactics and the hybrid quantification logics
Mobilization tactics
Counter-tactics
Publicity tactics
Conclusion
Notes
References
4 Stratified Public Formation in Mundane Settings
Introduction
A mixed-methods design
Public formation in mundane settings
A Bordieusian approach to publics
Public lifestyles across social strata
Facebook groups as small-scale digital publics
The political within the seemingly mundane
A digital training ground for publicness
Conclusion
Notes
References
PART II Cultivated Publics
5 Imagining Publics through Emerging Technologies
Introduction
Conceptual frame: (re)imagining publics and technologies
A technological drama unfolds: personalizing the New York Times
The users: printed utopias and personalized dystopias
Historization of the technology–audience constructions
The printed press: publics constructed as unknown democratic collectives
The digital press: publics constructed as segmented
The algorithmic press: publics constructed as personalized
Conclusion
References
6 Personalization Logics and Publics by Design
Introduction
‘Personalized logics’ and audience constructions
Logics of personalization
Individualism
Dataism
Binarity and predeterminedness
Publics by design
Users as aggregated datapoints
Finding publics in data
Merging logics and new ‘publics’
Conclusion
Notes
References
PART III Infrastructured Publics
7 Classifying the News: Metadata as Structures of Visibility and Compliance with Tech Standards
Introduction
Categorizing news through metadata
Schema.org and Google structured data
Authoritativeness
Relevance
Freshness
Compliance tags
Metadata use in news organizations
Patterns in the use of Google-specific metatags
Discussion
Conclusion
Notes
References
8 Infrastructuring Publics: Datafied Infrastructures of the News Media
Introduction
Media and the public
Media infrastructures
Mapping the infrastructural components of media websites
Technologies enabling commercial viability of news media
Production and publishing technologies
Distribution technologies
A journey into the forest and underwood of third-party services
Discussion
Public access to information
Public cultivation and formation
Audience construction and journalistic production
Conclusion
Notes
References
9 Conclusion: Datapublics as a Site of Struggles
Introduction
Complexifying datapublics
Datapublics as normative sites of struggle
Final remarks
References
Index
