Hackathons as affective circuits: Technology, organizationality and affect

Technology invites a re-consideration of organization and organizing by calling attention to mediated forms of value production among loose social collectives outside formal organizational boundaries. While the nascent concept of organizationality holds potential for such a re-conceptualization, the processes through which loose social members become invested in co-orientation and collective effort require further empirical and theoretical exploration. In this paper, we link organizationality research with critical media studies on affect and technology to theorize how affect holds provisional collectives together while promoting new modes of value extraction. Empirically, we draw from an ethnographic study of hackathons – transdigital innovation spaces where participants act with and through technology – and suggest three intertwined processes as part of an affective circuit that stokes and directs affect. The paper’s contribution is threefold. First, by analyzing how affective circuits bind, integrate and co-orient action among loose members, we contribute to understanding organizationality as affectively constituted. Second, by showing how hackathons leverage desire for community, we offer a critical perspective on affective capture and argue that organizationality involves novel modes of value production. Third, we complement theorizing of hackathons by exploring them as sites of organizationality, focusing on the provisional, relational and affect-rich nature of new forms of organizing in the digital age.

Musik für Maschinen?! – Wo sich die Wissenschaft der Medien, des Computers und der Musik treffen und wie sie zusammenarbeiten könnten

Musicology and computer science do not only come together in areas such as the use, analysis and performance of digitized data, but also meet in unexpected places such as in context of critical media studies and inquiries about the material and aesthetic conditions of digitality. Such „exploratory interactions“ with computers and their aesthetics might resonate well with musicology. This mini-contribution firstly presents a historical situation in which for a short period in the 20th century the machinic music of digitality became audible. It then formulates, just as briefly and sketchily, the socio-critical potential of music-oriented approaches, especially rhythm analysis, still to be tested, when it comes to grasp and understand digitality in as many facets as possible (socio-technological, aesthetic, historical and epistemic). Thereby, a fourth partner might be of importance: pedagogy.

Traducción: Ernesto Laclau and Critical Media Studies: Marxism, Capitalism and Criticism

El discurso teórico post-marxista de Ernesto Laclau se utiliza cada día más dentro de los estudios de los medios para investigar los discursos que circulan sobre, dentro y a través de los medios. La teoría del discurso ha probado en sí misma ser una activa productora de teoría, que puede proporcionar ideas empíricas importantes en la solidificación y neutralización de regímenes discursivos particulares. Todavía, las potencialidades críticas del trabajo teórico de Laclau han sido muchas veces minimizado o descuidado. En lugar de ofrecer una teoría crítica completamente formada, Laclau ha sido muchas veces relegado a ofrecer una herramienta descriptiva, en la cual se ha pasado por alto o se ha olvidado las implicaciones críticas subyacentes. Este documento busca reflexionar sobre los potenciales y obstáculos dentro del trabajo de Laclau, para un estudio crítico de los medios al vincularse con el rol del marxismo, el capitalismo y la crítica. Primero, el documento se dirige sobre la relación entre marxismo y post-marxismo, al sostener que, en lugar de abandonar el marxismo, Laclau sitúa activamente su trabajo como un diálogo a favor y en contra de su tradición. Segundo, este documento señala la relación entre el análisis del así llamado capitalismo globalizado de Laclau y la lucha política, lo cual lleva a una discusión de relaciones de clases y economía política. Tercero, el artículo examina la noción de ideología crítica de Laclau y discute cómo esta debe ser vista en el sentido de una explicación simultánea, normativa y de perspectiva práctica. Basado en estas discusiones, la idea central de este artículo señala que es insuficiente apropiarse simplemente de la teoría del discurso como un formato de investigación descriptiva, sino que debe ser visto como enfatizado por una crítica radical de las estructuras existentes de dominación y de subordinación capitalista. Además, el artículo discute que hay partes del trabajo de Laclau que son problemáticas para este propósito y que necesitan recibir profunda atención por futuras investigaciones. Al brindar una discusión extendida del propio trabajo de Laclau, este documento busca contribuir a la aplicación critica de la teoría del discurso dentro del área de los estudios de los medios y contribuir, con el dialogo en curso entre marxismo, post-marxismo y los estudios críticos de los medios.

A tale of two cities: A comparative study of media narratives of the battles for Aleppo and Mosul

The battles for Aleppo (2012–2016) and Mosul (2016–2017) were two intense and brutal sieges, which resulted in 31,000 and 40,000 largely civilian casualties, respectively, as well as hundreds of thousands of refugees. Even though both campaigns were similar in many ways, they received an entirely different media echo. While Aleppo in its final phase was covered almost daily, detailing the suffering of civilians and the brutality of the Syrian government and its Russian allies, while ignoring actions of rebels, Mosul received much sparser treatment, mostly relating to atrocities committed by the Islamic State (backgrounding casualties inflicted by coalition forces). In both cases, the respective governments claimed to be fighting terrorists, but only in the case of Mosul was this narrative naturalized by the media. Drawing on various methods from critical media studies, this article analyses how and why the two battles were reported on differently by British mainstream media across the ideological spectrum. The purpose is to show how systemic bias based on a binary us vs them distinction leads to distortion and a reinforcement of dominant, populistic and partisan narratives that may threaten to background or ignore uncomfortable but important facts that would challenge people in power.

Queer Bioethics for Everyday Medical Technologies

Multimodal tools and systems form the foundations of knowledge: the design of the tools, systems, and databases used everyday form what is known and how it is known. The health humanities can be energized by integrating a humanities-based approach to these tools so as to help students understand the politics such systems enact. In this chapter, the author presents a how-to guide for incorporating technologies as critical bioethical method into course pedagogy, including a short syllabus. The essay is oriented, in other words, to help those with little background in multimodal methods use it in their courses in a way that goes beyond only the instrumental. It articulates how to use such methods as critical inquiry about tools and systems themselves, by centering its example in the intersections between queer theory, critical media studies, and bioethical knowledges.

Afterword II

Mara Mills and Jonathan Sterne, leading scholars of media technologies who have long incorporated disability into their analyses, propose “dismediation” as one avenue for the cross-pollination of media and disability studies. Referencing current scholarship in both fields, and engaging with a rich tradition of critical media studies, they argue that “dismediation” understands disability and media as mutually constitutive and thus enables new directions for the study of media and technologies.

(De)Centralization of the Global Informational Ecosystem

Centralization and decentralization are key concepts in debates that focus on the (anti)democratic character of digital societies. Centralization is understood as the control over communication and data flows, and decentralization as giving it (back) to users. Communication and media research focuses on centralization put forward by dominant digital media platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and governments. Decentralization is investigated regarding its potential in civil society, i.e., hacktivism, (encryption) technologies, and grass-root technology movements. As content-based media companies increasingly engage with technology, they move into the focus of critical media studies. Moreover, as formerly nationally oriented companies now compete with global media platforms, they share several interests with civil society decentralization agents. Based on 26 qualitative interviews with leading media managers, we investigate (de)centralization strategies applied by content-oriented media companies. Theoretically, this perspective on media companies as agents of (de)centralization expands (de)centralization research beyond traditional democratic stakeholders by considering economic actors within the “global informational ecosystem” (Birkinbine, Gómez, & Wasko, 2017). We provide a three-dimensional framework to empirically investigate (de)centralization. From critical media studies, we borrow the (de)centralization of data and infrastructures, from media business research, the (de)centralization of content distribution.