scholarly journals THE AFTERLIVES OF MEMORIAL MATERIALS: DATA, HOAX, BOT

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjorn Nansen ◽  
Larissa Hjorth ◽  
Stacey Pitsillides ◽  
Hannah Gould

The study of death online has often intersected with questions of trust, though such questions have evolved over time to not only include relations of trust between individuals and within online communities, but also issues of trust emerging through entanglements and interactions with the afterlives of memorial materials. Papers in this panel attend to the growing significance of the afterlives of digital data, the circulation of fake deaths, the care attached to memorial bots, and the intersection of robots and funerals. Over the last twenty years the study of death online developed into a diverse field of enquiry. Early literature addressed the emergence of webpages created as online memorials and focused on their function to commemorate individuals by extending memorial artefacts from physical to digital spaces for the bereaved to gather (De Vries and Rutherford, 2004; Roberts, 2004; Roberts and Vidal, 2000; Veale, 2004). The emergence of platforms for social networking in the mid-2000s broadened the scope of research to include increasingly knotted questions around the ethics, politics and economics of death online. Scholars began investigating issues like the performance of public mourning, our obligations to and management of the digital remains of the deceased, the affordances of platforms for sharing or trolling the dead, the extraction of value from the data of the deceased, and the ontology of entities that digitally persist (e.g. Brubaker and Callison-Burch, 2016; Gibbs et al., 2015; Karppi, 2013; Marwick and Ellison, 2012; Phillips, 2011; Stokes, 2012). Scaffolding this scholarship are a number of research networks, including the Death Online Research Network and the DeathTech Research Network, who encourage international collaboration and conversation around the study of death and digital media, including supporting this AoIR panel. This panel contributes to the growing field of research on death and digital media, and in particular poses challenges to focus on the commemoration of humans to encompass broader issues around the data and materiality of digital death. Digital residues of the deceased persist within and circulate through online spaces, enrolling users into new configurations of posthumous dependence on platforms, whilst at the same time digital afterlives now intersect with new technologies to create emergent forms of agency such as chatbots and robots that extend beyond the human, demanding to be considered within the sphere of digital memorialisation. Questions of trust emerge in this panel through various kinds of relationality formed with and through digital remains. These extend from relations of trust in the digital legacies now archived within platform architectures and how we might curate conversations differently around our personal data; to the breaking of trust in the internet when creating or sharing a hoax death; to the trust involved in making and caring for a posthumous bot; to the trust granted to robots to perform funerary rites. It is anticipated that this panel will not only appeal to scholars interested in the area of death and digital media, but also engage with broader scholarly communities in which questions of death now arise in larger debates around data, materiality, and governance on and of the internet. References Brubaker, J. R. and Callison-Burch, V. (2016) Legacy Contact: Designing and Implementing Post-mortem Stewardship at Facebook. Paper presented at CHI Workshop on Human Factors in Computer Systems, San Jose California. de Vries, B. and Rutherford, J. (2004) Memorializing Loved Ones on the World Wide Web. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 49(1), 5-26. Gibbs, M., Meese, J., Arnold, M., Nansen, B., and Carter, M. (2015) #Funeral and Instagram: Death, Social Media and Platform Vernacular. Information Communication and Society, 18(3): 255-268. Karppi, T. (2013) Death proof: on the biopolitics and noopolitics of memorializing dead Facebook users. Culture Machine, 14, 1-20. Marwick, A. and Ellison, N. (2012) “There Isn’t Wifi in Heaven!” Negotiating Visibility on Facebook Memorial Pages. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 56(3), 378–400. Phillips, W. (2011) LOLing at Tragedy: Facebook Trolls, Memorial Pages and Resistance to Grief Online. First Monday 16(12). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org Roberts, P. (2004) The Living and the Dead: Community in the Virtual Cemetery. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 49(1), 57-76. Stokes, P. (2012) Ghosts in the Machine: Do the Dead Live on in Facebook? Philosophy and Technology, 25(3), 363-379. Veale, K. (2004) Online Memorialisation: The Web as a Collective Memorial Landscape For Remembering The Dead. The Fibreculture Journal, 3. Retrieved from http://three.fibreculturejournal.org  

Author(s):  
Khoerul Umam

The spread of digital media on the internet was very broad, fast, and cannot be monitored in a structured manner about what media has been uploaded and distributed on the internet network. The spread of digital media like this was very difficult to detect whether the media that shared was privately owned or that of others that is re-shared by media theft or digital media piracy. One step to overcome the theft of digital works is to give them a watermark, which is an identity that is placed on top of the work. However, this is still considered unsafe because the identity attached can be cut and manipulated again until it is not visible. In addition, the use of Steganography method to hide messages in an image can still be manipulated by adding messages continuously so that it accumulates and damages the original owner of the image. In this article, the author provides a solution called Digital Watermarking, a step of encrypting the data of the original owner of the work and putting it into the image of his work. This watermark cannot be seen clearly, but actually in the media there is encrypted data with a strong Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) method. As a result, a tool that can improve the security of media owner data by combining the AES and Steganogaphy methods in the formation of new media that cannot be changed anymore. So, when the media is stolen and used by others and has been edited, the owner's personal data can never be changed.


2019 ◽  
pp. 281-292
Author(s):  
Gina Neff

The Internet and digital media are increasingly seen as having enormous potential for solving problems facing healthcare systems. This chapter traces emerging “digital health” uses and applications, focusing on the political economy of data. For many people, the ability to access their own data through social media and connect with people with similar conditions holds enormous potential to empower them and improve healthcare decisions. For researchers, digital health tools present new forms of always-on data that may lead to major discoveries. Technology and telecommunications companies hope their customers? data can answer key health questions or encourage healthier behavior. At the same time, Gina Neff argues that digital health raises policy and social equity concerns regarding sensitive personal data, and runs a risk of being seen as a sort of silver bullet instead of mere technological solutionism.


Author(s):  
Katarzyna Borawska-Kalbarczyk

The article presents selected aspects of the process of cognitive functioning of the users of contemporary technologies and the Internet, with special consideration of the negative effects of being immersed in the digital culture. The introduction synthetically characterizes the digital world, focusing on the most active users of the virtual space. In the body of the text, the author analyzes the negative effects of an individual’s functioning in the Internet space, especially those related to the change in the way of information acquisition and processing. The conclusions refer to implementing educational postulates connected with helping students develop the culture of behavior in the virtual space, involving as major elements the ability to distance oneself from digital media, to engage in deep reflection, and to organize and sort the acquired information. These skills are treated as crucial, ensuring the rational use of digital technologies. Focusing educational activities on the formation of youths’ media competence offers them an opportunity of fuller intellectual development, the sense of security in the context of expansion of the media, and active participation in the information society by structuring the available information and the knowledge constructed on its basis.


Author(s):  
Ana Clara Lima Rodrigues

Considerando-se o letramento e sua relação com as mídias digitais, entendendo que essa discussão tem encontrado espaço no uso da internet e na multimodalidade contemporânea, são necessárias as investigações acerca do letramento nas escolas e as possibilidades de utilização das tecnologias, o que justifica social e academicamente este trabalho. Assim, o presente artigo objetivou apontar possiblidades de uso das mídias e tecnologias digitais em sala de aula como ferramenta auxiliar na construção do conhecimento, partindo da aplicabilidade do Stop Motion. A metodologia utilizada é qualitativa, na medida em que, primeiro, explora, bibliograficamente, informações trazidas por diversos estudiosos dos campos de conhecimento abordados; e, em segundo lugar, realizou-se uma oficina com professores, na intenção de duplicar a metodologia de utilização do Stop Motion. Além disso, foram respondidos questionários pelos participantes da oficina, cujas respostas aportam um panorama em torno da problematização aqui apresentada. Os resultados da realização da oficina foram satisfatórios, haja vista que trouxeram um novo horizonte para os educadores, além de ter levantado entre eles discussões em torno da utilização das novas tecnologias em sala de aula como suporte no desenvolvimento autônomo dos estudantes, em suas relações com a construção do conhecimento e do pensamento crítico. Concluiu-se que, por um lado, o uso das tecnologias ainda é moderado e, muitas vezes, visto como um mecanismo de ilustração, não como formador do sujeito; e, por outro lado, que a técnica de Stop Motion é aplicável e não envolve problemas incontornáveis enquanto suporte e incentivo à investigação autônoma dos alunos. Palavras-chave: Educação. Multimodalidade. Tecnologias. Letramento. AbstractConsidering literacy and its relationship with digital media, understanding that this discussion has found space in the internet and in contemporary multimodality, it is necessary to investigate literacy in schools and the possibilities of using technologies, which justifies the elaboration of this work socially and academically. Thus, the present article aimed to point out possibilities of using digital media and technologies in the classroom as an auxiliary tool in the construction of knowledge, starting from the applicability of Stop Motion. The methodology used is qualitative in the means that, first, it explores, bibliographically, information brought by several authors from the fields of knowledge addressed; and, secondly, a workshop was held with teachers, with the intention of duplicate the methodology of using Stop Motion. In addition, questionnaires were answered by workshop participants, whose answers provide an overview of the problem presented here. The results of the workshop were satisfactory, as they brought a new horizon for the educators, besides having raised among them discussions about the use of the new technologies in the classroom as support in the autonomous development of the students, in their relations with the construction of knowledge and critical thinking. It was concluded that, on the one hand, the use of technologies is still moderate and often seen as a mechanism of illustration, not as a person trainer; and, on the other hand, that the Stop Motion technique is applicable and does not involve inescapable problems as support and encouragement for the students' autonomous research. Keywords: Education. Multimodality. Technologies. Literacy.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscilla Ulguim

We live in the information age, and our lives are increasingly digitized. Our quotidian has been transformed over the last fifty years by the adoption of innovative networking and computing technology. The digital world presents opportunities for public archaeology to engage, inform and interact with people globally. Yet, as more personal data are published online, there are growing concerns over privacy, security, and the long-term implications of sharing digital information. These concerns extend beyond the living, to the dead, and are thus important considerations for archaeologists who share the stories of past people online. This analysis argues that the ‘born-digital’ records of humanity may be considered as public digital mortuary landscapes, representing death, memorialization and commemoration. The potential for the analysis of digital data from these spaces could result in a phenomenon approaching immortality, whereby artificial intelligence is applied to the data of the dead. This paper investigates the ethics of a digital public archaeology of the dead while considering the future of our digital lives as mnemonic spaces, and their implications for the living.Ulguim, P. F. 2018. Digital Remains Made Public: Sharing the Dead Online and Our Future Digital Mortuary Landscape. AP: Online Journal in Public Archaeology 8(2):153. https://doi.org/10.23914/ap.v8i2.162


Communication ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Howard

Cyberpolitics is a domain of inquiry into the role of new information technologies in contemporary political life. It is an exciting domain of inquiry because not all of the things that communication scholars learned by studying mass media systems and interpersonal communication hold up in digital media environments. Studying cyberpolitics usually means one of two things. It can mean investigating the ways in which political actors use new technologies in creative—and sometimes problematic—ways. Some voters use digital media to improve their knowledge of public affairs, others use the same media to limit the flow of news and information. The Internet allows some journalists to do more research and track down more sources, but such digital media has had a significant impact on the organization of the newsroom and the features of the news market. Politicians and candidates for elected office use the Internet to reach out to new voters, but they also use it for data mining and manipulating public opinion. But studying cyberpolitics can also mean investigating the less overt political machinations that go into setting telecommunications standards and making decisions about how to engineer information infrastructure. Allocating the public spectrum, setting privacy standards into law, building universal broadband access, or deciding which information packets may be more important than others are technical issues with significant implications for political life.


Visualidades ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lurdi Blauth ◽  
Alexandra Eckert Nunes

O estudo aborda conceitos relacionados à mediação e à convergência de novas tecnologias, mídias digitais e fenômenos socioculturais presentes em produções da arte atual. Trata da interação de formas de comunicação e de informação operada pela internet e redes sociais, enfocando nos meios de troca de ideias e conceitos antecipados pela Mail Art ou Arte Postal.AbstractThe study approaches concepts related to mediation and to the convergence of new technologies, digital media and socio-cultural phenomena that can be found in present days art productions. It is also about the interaction of communication forms and of information operated through the internet and social media, focusing on ways of exchanging ideas and concepts that were anticipated by Mail Art or Postal Art.ResumenEl estudio aborda conceptos relacionados con la mediación y la convergencia de nuevas tecnologías, medios digitales y fenómenos socioculturales presentes en producciones del arte actual. Se trata de la interacción de formas de comunicación e información operadas por Internet y en las redes sociales, centrándose en los medios de intercambio de ideas y en los conceptos anticipados por el Mail Art o Arte Postal.


Lex Russica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. I. Soldatova

In recent years, the application of legislation in the field of personal data has become the focus of attention of legal scholars. With the development of digital technologies, the problem of protection of personal data becomes especially urgent. The importance of personal data is so great that some scholars treat them as intangible goods. In order to protect the interests of citizens, our State takes measures to localize citizens’ personal data by statutory regulation of the Russian segment of the Internet. Such remedies as the right to be forgotten and personal data anonymization are also applied.However, the practice, including judicial practice, shows that the available means of protection of personal data are insufficient in the context of new technologies. However, the practice of application of laws on personal data reveals a number of problems that need to be addressed. The attribution of specific information about natural persons to personal data leads to a number of questions with regard to the practice of the activities of state bodies. Under currently effective Article 3 of the Federal Law, the term personal data refers to any information relating directly or indirectly to a certain or definable natural person (subject of personal data). At the same time, the law does not specify which data about an individual refers to personal data. Due to this broad understanding of personal data, questions arise concerning the attribution of paticular information about an individual to personal data. In this regard, the definition of criteria for the attribution of specific information about a person to personal data becomes an important theoretical task.The issues of primary concern include: 1) strengthening of responsibility for violation of personal data legislation; 2) giving priority to the issue of neutrality of the Internet, 3) solving the problem of the balance between direct access to publicly available data and the need to protect personal data. In the author’s opinion, it is necessary to ensure by means of comprehensive measures the priority of protection of personal data of citizens. This problem is of particular importance in connection with the elaboration of new laws on the digital profile of citizens.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Priscilla Ulguim

We live in the information age, and our lives are increasingly digitized. Our quotidian has been transformed over the last fifty years by the adoption of innovative networking and computing technology. The digital world presents opportunities for public archaeology to engage, inform and interact with people globally. Yet, as more personal data are published online, there are growing concerns over privacy, security, and the long-term implications of sharing digital information. These concerns extend beyond the living, to the dead, and are thus important considerations for archaeologists who share the stories of past people online. This analysis argues that the ‘born-digital’ records of humanity may be considered as public digital mortuary landscapes, representing death, memorialization and commemoration. The potential for the analysis of digital data from these spaces could result in a phenomenon approaching immortality, whereby artificial intelligence is applied to the data of the dead. This paper investigates the ethics of a digital public archaeology of the dead while considering the future of our digital lives as mnemonic spaces, and their implications for the living.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Rebekah Tromble

In the early years, researchers greeted the internet and digital data with almost wide-eyed wonder and excitement. The opportunities provided by digital media such as websites, bulletin boards, and blogs—and later by social media platforms and mobile apps—seemed nearly endless, and researchers were suddenly awash in data. The bounty was so great that it required new methods for processing, organizing, and analysis. Yet in all the excitement, it seems that the digital research community largely lost sight of something fundamental: a sense of what all these data actually represent. In this essay, I argue that moving forward, researchers need to take a critical look into, be more open about, and develop better approaches for drawing inferences and larger meaning from digital data. I suggest that we need to more closely interrogate what these data represent in at least two senses: statistical and contextual. In the former instance I call for much greater modesty in digital social research. In the latter, I call for heuristic models that permit bolder, more robust comparisons throughout our work.


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