The non-anthropocentric informational agents: Codes, software, and the logic of emergence in cybersecurity

Many theoretical approaches to cybersecurity adopt an anthropocentric conceptualisation of agency; that is, tying the capacity to act to human subjectivity and disregarding the role of the non-human in co-constructing its own (in)security. This article argues that such approaches are insufficient in capturing the complexities of cyber incidents, particularly those that involve self-perpetuating malware and autonomous cyber attacks that can produce unintentional and unpredictable consequences. Using interdisciplinary insights from the philosophy of information and software studies, the article counters the anthropocentrism in the cybersecurity literature by investigating the agency of syntactic information (that is, codes/software) in co-producing the logics and politics of cybersecurity. It specifically studies the complexities of codes/software as informational agents, their self-organising capacities, and their autonomous properties to develop an understanding of cybersecurity as emergent security. Emergence is introduced in the article as a non-linear security logic that captures the peculiar agential capacities of codes/software and the ways in which they challenge human control and intentionality by co-constructing enmity and by co-producing the subjects and objects of cybersecurity.

ANALYZING PLATFORM POWER IN THE CULTURAL INDUSTRIES

Across cultures and contexts, digital platforms like YouTube, TikTok/Douyin, WeChat, and Spotify are fundamentally reshaping both the processes and products of cultural production—from music and news to entertainment and advertising. But, despite considerable attention to the perverse power of algorithms in various spheres of social and economic life, we contend that existing political economic frameworks fail to account for the distinctiveness of the cultural industries. Challenging essentialist theories of platform dominance, this paper argues that claims of platform power need to be qualified in the context of industry- and culture-specific inquiries. Building on research in science and technology studies (STS), software studies, political economy, business studies, and media industries studies, the paper presents a new analytical framework to analyse the evolving power relationship between platforms and cultural producers. It is argued that the decision space of cultural producers in their role as platform complementors is shaped by three key variables: 1) platform evolution, 2) cultural industry segments, and 3) stages of production. The proposed framework makes clear that, while the relationship between platforms and cultural producers is staggeringly uneven and, at times, highly volatile, it should be understood as one of mutual dependence. That is, platforms exert mechanisms of power over the phases of the creation, distribution, monetization, and marketing of culture; but they also furnish space for negotiation and contestation. Acknowledging this requires a framework that is less deterministic and sensitive to the nuance inherent in cultural production.

The Concept of Ocularcentrism & Photographic Models of Vision From the Perspectives of Software Studies and Cultural Analytics Methods of Social Media Images and the Consumer Society Theory

Scientific objective: The concept of ocularcentrism as the dominant ideology acts as a very important role within visual shaping photographic models of vision used by social media and photographic images. The paper focuses on the concept of ocularcentrism as the dominant effect of sight in visual culture, the problems of “ocularcentric discourse,” presented in forms of the “phono-logo-centrism” paradigm, and ocularcentric ways of seeing, or scopic regimes: “Cartesian perspectivalism,” the “Art of Describing,” “baroque vision,” and photographic models of vision that have been discussed in two theoretical contexts: Lev Manovich’s Software Studies and Cultural Analytics methods and Zygmunt Bauman’s consumer society theory that can be understood as the “embodied eye” and the “armed eye” concepts. Research methods: I suggest use of critical methods of Martin Jay’s Visual Studies in the perspective of the history of visuality from the ancient Greek to the philosophical, twentieth-century French thought, undertaking Software Studies and Cultural Analytics methods, in an analysis of the research project of Manovich’s “Phototrails,” as well as Bauman’s consumer society theory in an analysis of the photographic project of Alain Delorme’s “Totems.” Results and conclusions: I hope that exploring theoretical problems of visual culture will allow researchers to open a new field of reciprocal correspondence between the concept of ocularcentrism, photographic models of vision, Software Studies, and Cultural Analytics methods, as well as Bauman’s consumer society theory, based on possibility of coming to conclusions, posing questions, and hypotheses. Cognitive value: The paper is an attempt to make a contribution to the hitherto unexplored research on the concept of ocularcentrism as the dominant effect of sight, subjecting to analysis the research project of Manovich’s “Phototrails,” in the perspective of Software Studies and Cultural Analytics methods within “media visualizations,” as well as the photographic project of Delorme’s “Totems,” in the perspective of Bauman’s consumer society theory, consumerism, consumption, and social exclusion.

News automation, materialities, and the remix of an editorial process

Software studies is a research field that focuses on the social and cultural implications of the software. They are grounded by interdisciplinarity, borrowing to digital humanities, cultural studies, or new media studies. Their application domains are as heterogeneous as software can be, from interfaces to new digital mediatic forms. This paper examines the relevance of software studies for journalism studies in the context of automated news production, where technological artifacts can also be understood as being shaped by professional values and cultural practices. It also explores methods nourished by software studies’ theories to tackle news automation through a process-oriented approach. The cursor is placed on the materiality of the upstream components of automated news production: the data that feed the systems and the process that will make the news. Automated news production appears as a remixed editorial process nourished by previous editorial experiences that will be standardized through a some-how imitation game where technological and human mediation interplay. This paper addresses the issue of transparency with the flattening of the processes at work, relying on theories and methodological tools based on software studies.

Broken Games and the Perpetual Update Culture: Revising Failure With Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Unity

This article explores tensions between producers and audiences over the growing trend of broken games as developers rush error-ridden titles to market and update them after their release. Through the lens of software studies, it examines development norms among major game companies, noting important connections with contingent commodities and perpetual beta development. Focusing on the discourse surrounding Ubisoft’s notoriously broken Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014), it highlights how digital producers and audiences negotiate failure in a digital environment that increasingly relies on updates, revisions, and patches. It argues that digital industry producers foster an indefinite beta atmosphere within the context of a purchase and recontextualizes audience outrage as free labor by encouraging customers to report on faulty code. Ultimately, industry producers then engender a perpetual update culture in which digital commodities mediate failure through the rhetoric of constant improvement, and producers leverage the instability of digital distribution against its audience.

‘Build a future champion’: exploring a branded activity-tracking platform for children and parents

This article explores a specific – but highly plastic – activity-tracking platform. Marketed to parents, ‘Milo Champions’ encourages the monitoring and rewarding of children, based on their activities and behaviours. The platform incorporates a popular Australian food brand – Nestlé’s Milo – and is designed for children aged between 6 and 12. Utilising walkthrough and software studies methodologies, the platform is traced by analysing app interfaces and online promotional material. Milo Champions is a niche example in the growing category of children’s activity-tracking apps: one that wraps masculinised logics of self-tracking around a multitude of parenting practices and envisages them, being deployed through feminised practices of caregiving. This article adds to prescient discussions about the ‘datafied child’ of the 21st century, and how health and wellbeing informatics are entangled with corporate interests.

A Systematic Overview of Issues for Developing EFL Learners’ Oral English Communication Skills

The objective of this systematic review is to present a critical overview of current studies to explore issues such as the factors causing EFL learners’ poor oral performance and the teaching and assessment methods of oral English communication skills (OECSs) for developing tertiary level learners’ OECSs in EFL contexts. For this purpose, 51 empirical studies of the 2907 retrieved from SpringerLink, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and the Google Scholar database that were published between 2010 and 2019 in different EFL contexts were analyzed. This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and was analyzed thematically using NVIVO 12, followed by the Mendeley reference management software. Studies that were conducted in native English contexts and non-empirical studies were excluded from consideration for this study. The findings showed that the environmental factor was the primary factor for learners’ poor OECS performance in EFL contexts. For the method of teaching and assessment of learners’ OECSs, the use of technology is rapidly increasing in different EFL contexts. This study suggests some implications for both future researchers and academics for developing EFL learners’ oral English communication skills dealing with environmental, psychological, and linguistic factors along with teaching and learning resources at the tertiary level in EFL contexts.

Social Robots as the Bride? Understanding the Construction of Gender in a Japanese Social Robot Product

This study critically investigates the construction of gender on a Japanese hologram animestyle social robot Azuma Hikari. By applying a mixed method merging the visual semiotic method and heterogeneous engineering approach in software studies, the signs in Azuma Hikari’s anthropomorphized image and the interactivity enabled by the multimedia interface have been analyzed and discussed. The analysis revealed a stereotyped representation of a Japanese “ideal bride” who should be cute, sexy, comforting, good at housework, and subordinated to “Master”-like husband. Moreover, the device interface disciplines users to play the role of “wage earner” in the simulated marriage and reconstructs the gender relations in reality. It suggests the humanization of the objects is often associated with the dehumanization and objectification of the human in reverse.

Critically Analyzing the Online Classroom: Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, and the Pedagogy They Produce

Working from the crossroads of critical pedagogy and software studies, this study analyzes the means by which teaching technologies—in particular the popular learning management systems (LMS) Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas—support a transmission model of education at the expense of critical learning goals. I assess the effect of LMSs on critical aims via four key critical pedagogy concepts: the banking system, student/teacher contradiction, dialogue, and problem-posing. From software studies, I employ the notion of affordances—what program functions are and are not made available to users—to observe how LMSs naturalize the transmission model. Rather than present a deterministic look at teaching technology, this study calls for closer examination of these tools in order to rework teaching technologies toward critical ends.