Van Dijck Research Articles

Review of Marysa Demoor, Cedric Van Dijck, and Birgit Van Puymbroeck, eds, <i>The Edinburgh Companion to First World War Periodicals</i> (2023)

Review of Marysa Demoor, Cedric Van Dijck, and Birgit Van Puymbroeck, eds, The Edinburgh Companion to First World War Periodicals (2023)

Por uma pedagogia do arquivo: produção e disseminação do conhecimento na cultura digital

Abstract Today, the archive is no longer limited to a physical space controlled by those who own the production and reproduction of knowledge, since it becomes a kind of cultural impulse, to the extent that people archive themselves by means of an incessant flow of information sharing in social media. Following this line of thought, it is the purpose of this article to reflect on the philosophical-educational presuppositions of the pedagogy of the archive, in the society in which surveillance capitalism determines the ubiquitous digitization of human relationships and, therefore, the production of the information that will (or will not) be archived and propagated on the Internet. To that end, the methodological approach that was chosen involved analyzing texts of researchers such as Featherstone, Livingstone, Kellner & Share, Beer, Van Dijck, Poell, De Vall, Buckingham, Zuboff, Flynn and Manofich, whose studies focused on resignifications of self-archiving in contemporary society. In the society of digital memory, in which it becomes possible to remember everything, new forms of forgetting are produced as compiled information is decontextualized to the point of becoming fake news. Given this scenario, it becomes imperative to conduct the historic contextualization of digitally produced information. More than ever, it becomes necessary to recover and understand the causes of events digitally disseminated, particularly in order to foment moral engagements aligned with the act of self-archiving as an augmented formation ( Bildung) experience in the digital culture.

Pedagogical documentation in the era of digital platforms: Early childhood educators’ professionalism in a dilemma

The so-called logic of datafication and platformisation, as a consolidated business model for the BigTech industry with applications to education (van Dijck et al., 2018), can also reach (and affect) early education and care. In a kid’s culture that values documenting and sharing with parents, social media and instant messaging are widely used. Educators feel overloaded with the challenges posed by digital platforms, but contextual issues are relevant to finding ways for resistance and engagement in political actions to transform the edtech platforms’ dominance. Investigating the specific discourses and approaches to platformisation from early education professionals appears relevant to promoting not only awareness but also ways to rethink professional and political agency. Our preliminary study is based on 14 individual interviews and one group interview with educators in the Italian region of Veneto. The results of our thematic analysis indicate that achieving a balance between technology-based documentation and children’s privacy is not straightforward. Also, educators are calling for policies and further support for technology-driven services and activities that make thoughtful and conscious use of technology to avoid harming children. On these bases, we advance recommendations to deepen early childhood educators’ professional development requirements in a data-driven and post-digital society.

Ghost-Stitching American Politics

Ghost-Stitching American Politics

BUILDING POWER AND TRUST

This paper falls within a conjunction of translation studies, crisis communication, and social media communication. It sheds light on the critical role of translation in crisis management, with a focus on how the aforementioned elements of scrutiny converge and collaborate in the milieu of the outraging global pandemic. Likewise, the paper seeks to reveal the way translating information and information exchange enhances public trust. Therefore, it emphasizes how discourse can heavily contribute to building trust during a global health emergency and how translation can offer power to the source language/culture by relocating its emanating knowledge to the rest of the world. Likewise, the paper seeks to discuss the way translating information and information exchange enhances public trust. The present paper is a qualitative study that recovers data from selected translated discourses imparted by organizations as well as a questionnaire inquiring about the communicative content disseminated through social media networks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article scrutinizes the data in terms of content, based on communication content analysis to shed light on how translation could be a powerful tool of relocating meaning production in establishing trust and the extent to which social media is effective as a crisis management mechanism. The further aim of this study is to demonstrate how internet communities and networking technologies can influence deep-rooted forms of communication adopted by governments and the way social media dynamics enhance or undermine the information-translation process at times of crisis. The preliminary data, contrary to what has been assumed, shows that non-expert reactions, attitudes, feelings, experiences, and trends are transmitted via social media and algorithmically analyzed, influencing the information cycle in real time. The networked-translation paradigm focuses less on a one-to-many communication style that uses language, context, and reasoning to persuade receivers and more on a many-to-many communication style that uses audiovisual means to mobilize crowds. (Van Dijck & Alinejad, 2020)

Screening for monkeypox virus infections in men who have sex with men in a sexual health clinic in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

Screening for monkeypox virus infections in men who have sex with men in a sexual health clinic in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

Emotions in political discourse and social narratives: sociological reflections on traditional and new media

Emotions have re-emerged as a central topic of sociological interest, especially today, in a complex social and political historical moment. Even politics and events narration is not exempt from the emotional compartment. New technologies and social media (including social networks) have changed communication, relationship processes, and social interaction, moving from a vertical to a horizontal narrative. We live in a “platform society” (Van Dijck, 2018) as online sites and social networks specialized for discussion were also come up with the organization of decision-making processes and the activation of democratic practices in their different “onlife” manifestations. However, one thing should be emphasized: platforms reproduce the social structures in which individuals live between participation, freedom of expression and the elaboration of public political debate. The article aims to synthetically reconstruct the sociological discourse on emotions in political discourse and social narrative and communication through traditional and new media.

Mpox: What Practicing Gastroenterologists Need to Know

Mpox: What Practicing Gastroenterologists Need to Know

Platform Logic: Understanding the Influence of AI on Information Dissemination Mechanisms of Chinese New Media Platforms

The development of technologies in the field of artificial intelligence is redefining the modes of information dissemination. However, it is hard to understand its influence from the perspective of the platform alone. Based on “platform logic” defined by José van Dijck, this article analyzes information dissemination from perspectives of underlayer platform, mid-layer monitoring, and upper-layer application and explores the influence of artificial intelligence and the changes in the patterns of information dissemination of Chinese new media platforms. In this paper, CiteSpace software is used to analyze the literature on artificial intelligence information dissemination on CNKI and the development trend of artificial intelligence information dissemination is summarized and discussed.

INSTAGRAM : A MEDIUM IN IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING

Instagram is a popular social media among young people, particularly students. It can be used for students to share their most memorable moments and improve their writing skills. The students may compose a narrative and publish it on Instagram. The teacher can then evaluate their creative writing. This study aims to analyze how Instagram digital poster projects can help students improve their writing skills. To support this analysis, the researchers utilized a qualitative methodology and applied the Teaching by Principle theory by H. Douglas Brown and Heekyong Lee and the New Media theory by J. Van Dijck and T. Poell. The scope of the study was derived from the writing of SMK Binakarya Mandiri Bekasi students and some supporting articles. There were three participants included in this study. This study's findings show that students can improve creative digital poster project on their Instagram accounts.

The sociotechnical walkthrough – a methodological approach for platform studies

The increasing use of platforms and the availability of data are driving the media and communication transformation in society. Platformization, namely “the penetration of infrastructures, economic processes, and governmental frameworks of platforms in different economic sectors and spheres of life” (Poell, Nieborg, & van Dijck, 2019, p. 5), poses enormous challenges for communication research which deals with data flows, data usage, and the media practices intertwined with platform use. Against the background of the change in digital communication brought about by datafication and platformization, we turn to previous research on platforms and studies applying walkthroughs. We discuss the application of the walkthrough approach at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and social semiotic technology research (SST), raising methodological questions for the future study of adaptive learning platforms for illustration. We illustrate the sociotechnical walkthrough as a methodological approach, using our analysis of an adaptive learning platform (Area9) and the associated usage practices. Our analysis features the application of different research personae in order to grasp algorithmic personalization. We conclude with a critical reflection on how the sociotechnical walkthrough approach could fit into a toolkit of traditional and digital methods for future interdisciplinary communications research.

Governed by Edtech? Valuing Pedagogical Autonomy in a Platform Society

In this essay, Niels Kerssens and José van Dijck discuss the implications of platformization on the key public value of pedagogical autonomy in K–12 education. They focus on two interconnected concerns: how the integration of education into a global digital infrastructure contests the institutional pedagogical autonomy of schools and how the integration of digital platforms with educational practices in classrooms challenges the professional pedagogical autonomy of teachers. The authors engage with the symposium contributions by Williamson, Gulson, Perrotta & Witzenberger on the Amazon infrastructure and by Pangrazio, Stornaiuolo, Nichols, Garcia & Philip on platform practices at the classroom level. With this dual focus, Kerssens and van Dijck explore how critical research in the emerging field of platform studies in education pertains to both the political-economic level of building educational platform infrastructures and the social-technical level of how teaching and learning are (re)shaped by digital platforms. The essay concludes with a brief discussion of recommendations for the future governance of edtech to serve the pedagogical interest of schools and teachers.

Deplatformization, platform governance and global geopolitics: Interview with José van Dijck

In this interview, José van Dijck distinguishes the concept of deplatformization from deplatforming and platformization. It describes the phenomena of the systematic pushing back of controversial platforms and their communities to the edge of the platform ecosystem, dominated by mainstream platforms (such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft). Deplatformization further demonstrates the hierarchical power relations within the global platform ecosystem and the complexity of platform governability. From the European perspective, van Dijck argues that public values and public institutions should play more active role in platform governance. The recent Russia–Ukraine war also indicates the vulnerability brought by such co- and inter-dependence on American platforms.

Review essay: Perils of aggregating a global zeitgeist

This essay reviews the works ‘The Digital Frontier: Infrastructures of Control on the Global Web’ (Indiana University Press) by Sangeet Kumar and ‘The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World’ (Oxford University Press) by José van Dijck, Thomas Poell, and Martijn de Waal as recent contributions to the field of global internet studies. The essay explores how each book formulates the interplay between technological infrastructures and the social architecture that guide human behavior in contemporary digital ecosystems.

Sizing up the body: Virtual fit platforms in fashion e-commerce

Dress is an embodied experience which is dematerialized online. In a fashion e-commerce website, clothes cannot be touched, nor worn prior to purchase and delivery; this engenders issues of fit and thus, returns. To solve this issue, fashion companies are turning to size recommendation and virtual fit service platforms. Simply put, virtual fit systems algorithmically match customer body data to fashion items which are potentially the right size and fit. This process aims to create value for all parties involved: for brands, by improving customer satisfaction and reducing returns; for customers, by facilitating choices; and for platform providers, by the sale of services and tools. However, as research in online platforms in other fields suggests (: 197; ), virtual fit services are driven by mechanisms of datafication, curation and commodification of fashion consumers’ bodily data – which in turn raise issues related to privacy and inclusivity. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, virtual fit platforms and their effects on the datafication of dress embodiment have heretofore not been discussed in fashion studies literature. This article spotlights the growing phenomena, opening avenues for further research in the field.

FINCA syndrome-Defining neurobehavioral phenotype in survivors into late childhood.

We report for the first time a novel missense variant in NHLRC2. We extend the NHLRC2 gene associated neuropsychological and neuroimaging phenotype, and propose that the NHLRC2 gene should be considered in patients with symptoms of atypical Rett syndrome. We also summarise currently available literature on neuropsychological symptoms in children with FINCA who survived into late childhood.

Majke na Instagramu - strategije reprezentacije majki male dece

The use of internet-based social networks intertwines with the mundane, and the practices and contents originating from the networks are a crucial part of individual identity constructions (Van Dijck 2013). Instagram is a social network on which users post images and short videos of users, and therefore identity and social constructs are built using visual means (Serafinelli 2018). Stemming from the theoretical framework of culture studies which focus on the social-contextual specifics of using social networking sites, the aim of this research is to offer an insight into the way one specific group - mothers of young children (from new-borns to five-year-olds) builds and presents their identity on Instagram. This research has attempted to answer the questions of how mothers of young children describe the practice of using Instagram, the way they present themselves and their children, how they establish the border between (semi-)public and private, how they observe their audience on Instagram. The basic research method consists of individual in-depth interviews with twenty mothers of young children who are active users of the internet-based social network Instagram. It has been determined that the mothers of young children use Instagram in order to present their way of life after founding a family and the challenges they face. They emphasize that their children are a crucial part of their identity, and that a photo without them is, therefore, pointless. The mothers are cautious when it comes to the content they post on their profiles, as their children's safety comes first. Due to the presence of photos of their children, most decide to make their profiles private and allow access to the photos only to certain people. The method employed to analyse the transcripts was discourse analysis.

“How a Facebook Update Can Cost You Your Job”: News Coverage of Employment Terminations Following Social Media Disclosures, From Racist Cops to Queer Teachers

Social media posts and profiles have become a key part of hiring and firing processes, producing a “hidden curriculum of surveillance.” When hiring, employers routinely engage in “cybervetting” job candidates, making judgments based on their social media presence (or absence), and so too can social media disclosures impact (positively and negatively) employment progression and even result in termination. Where is the line between personal social media use and professional identities? What is the difference between holding people in positions of power to account and invading the privacy of everyday people? What kinds of social media posts get people fired? In this article, we report on a study of 312 news media articles that document stories of people being fired because of a social media post. We divide the corpus into posts made by the individuals who are fired (“self-posts,” n = 264) and posts made by others that resulted in the subject of those posts losing their job (“third party,” n = 48). Racism was the most common reason people were fired in these news stories, followed by other forms of discriminatory behavior (such as queerphobia), offensive content, workplace conflict, political content, acts of violence, and abuse. We examine these narratives through the lens of what van Dijck describes as “professional value,” and ultimately seek to question how these stories normalize the “hidden curriculum of surveillance,” putting additional pressure on employees and young people who are called to act on social media through the prism of future employment.

‘My favourite meme page’: Balenciaga’s Instagram account and audience fashion labour online

As fashion ‘goes viral’, adapting to digital popular cultural flows, streams, image aggregations and memes, there is a need for better grasping how these platforms feed into the aesthetics of mediations of fashion. Contemporary digitally mediated fashion is conditioned by what van Dijck and Poell refer to as a new media logic, one that permeates the ‘strategies, mechanisms, and economics underpinning these platforms’ dynamics’. This logic includes audience labour. This article focuses on how the audience is put to work and how such work becomes integral to the mediational aesthetic by using the Instagram account of Paris-based fashion brand Balenciaga as a heuristic device. In connecting perspectives from fashion and media studies, this article discusses how fashion mediation is entangled in processes that harness audience labour on Instagram. Balenciaga takes on communication strategies that expose the aesthetics of user engagement. On Instagram, the brand presents its take on fashion photography in the digital age as part of its visual identity on this platform. Furthermore, in feeding the comments section, users participate in ‘boundary maintenance’, separating Balenciaga insiders from outsiders who lack knowledge of the perpetually changing aesthetic codes of fashion imagery. Online audiences thus find themselves at the crossroads of consumption, production and gatekeeping.

DIGITAL PLATFORMS AND THE DIGITISATION OF GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE

In Europe today, digital platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, provide essential means for millions of people to express themselves, engage in public debate, and organise politically (Poell & van Dijck, 2018). Crucially, governments are leveraging the power of platforms to impose new forms of restrictions on free expression, and engage in surveillance of individuals and online activism. This has profound implications for the rights to freedom of expression, privacy, and data protection. Further, platforms that once refused to cooperate with governments in identifying users responsible for disseminating allegedly illegal or harmful content are now expanding cooperation with authorities, including sharing data about users flagged by law enforcement and other authorities. As civil society organisations warn, this trend is contributing to ‘invasive and unlawful digital surveillance’ (Amnesty International, 2019, p. 24). This paper examines how European governments are leveraging the power of digital platforms to engage in government surveillance online, and assesses the compatibility of these measures with European human rights law. The paper applies a unique interdisciplinary perspective, bringing together law, political communication and surveillance studies. First, the paper examines how platforms’ algorithmic systems shape (and limit) information dissemination. The paper then critically analyses government-platform initiatives that exist to surveil citizens and gather information, including new measures under the EU’s proposed Digital Services Act. Third, it assesses how these measures comply with freedom of expression and the right to privacy, and concludes with recommendations on remedying problematic elements of the role platforms play in digitisation of government surveillance.