[Commlist] CfP: Datafication of media (and) audiences, Special issue of MedieKultur

*** Call for Papers ***

*Datafication of media (and) audiences*

Special issue of MedieKultur: Journal of media and communication research

Guest editor: David Mathieu (Roskilde University)

Theme editor: Ana Jorge (Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Universidade 
Nova de Lisboa, Instituto Superior Miguel Torga)

Academic knowledge built over the last five decades on media audiences 
may be called into question by algorithmic recommendations, machine 
learning, platform design and new metrics that describe, anticipate and 
shape the audience’s every move. While we hold that audiences are 
selective in their choice of content (Katz et al., 1974), form 
communities of interpretation (Fish, 1980) and are freely giving their 
attention to public issues (Warner, 2002), it would appear that they are 
now increasingly being selected, calculated, interpreted and anticipated 
by media on the basis of a wide range of data provided more or less 
willingly and consciously. This datafication of media (and) audiences – 
i.e. the quantification of audience mediated experiences – is not to be 
understood simply as a new form of knowledge, but also as a new era in 
the commodification of audiences, challenging our understanding of 
audiences as an agentic and autonomous subjects.

*This special issue invites contributions that:*

  * explore critically the tensions between, on the one hand, attempts
    at control and commodification made possible by the datafication of
    media (and) audiences, and on the other hand, the reactions and
    agentic possibilities of audiences to comply, avoid or cope with
    these attempts at control;
  * provide empirical basis to answer broad and worrying questions about
    the democratic and societal consequences of datafication, about its
    impact on media consumption, everyday and cultural life, by
    operationalizing media audiences as a key actor in mediated
    processes of datafication;
  * shed light on and theorise new forms of relation and mutual
    influence that link media with their audiences in the age of
    datafication.

*Contributions can address, but are not limited to, these topics:*

  * Type, nature and origin of data collected on media audiences and
    their purposes in media production and practice
  * Media practices made possible by data that contribute to the
    quantification, objectification and commodification of audiences
  * Coping strategies and reactions of resistance or appropriation to
    datafication from the part of media audiences
  * Audiences’ experiences of normalization, trust, comfort, compliance,
    numbness, resignation, anxiety in the face of datafied media
  * Implications of data collection, aggregation, analysis, prediction,
    profiling and brokering on audience agency
  * Consequences of the quantification of human experience, the
    transformation of subjective experience into ‘objective’ knowledge,
    the algorithmic personalization and recommendation of media content
    on the mediated experiences and everyday life of audiences
  * The transformation of news practice, public connection and audience
    engagement in the age of datafication
  * The (lack of) transparency and accountability of data practices in
    media industries, and especially the challenges this poses for
    audiences’ capacity to read the media (their media literacy)
  * The new asymmetries and power relations that data practices may
    bring between media institutions and audiences, or between different
    segments of audiences
  * Cultural specificities of the processes of datafication of media and
    the reception by audiences, including cross-cultural variations
  * Impact of datafication on theories and methodologies in media and
    audience research

*References:*

Fish, S. (1980). /Is There A Text in This Class/, Cambridge, Mass.: 
Harvard U. Press.

Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (1974). Ulilization of mass 
communication by the individual. In J. G. Blumler, & E. Katz (Eds.), 
/The uses of mass communications: Current perspectives on gratifications 
research/ (pp. 19–32). Beverly Hills: Sage.

Warner, M. (2002). Publics and counterpublics (abbreviated version). 
/Quarterly Journal of Speech/, /88/(4), 413–425.

*Call for contributions and key dates:*

Interested contributors to this special issue are first invited to 
provide an extended abstract of 500 words (excluding references) to 
(mathieu /at/ ruc.dk) <mailto:(mathieu /at/ ruc.dk)>with the subject ‘Datafication of 
media (and) audiences’. Following a first review process, invitations 
will be sent to provide a full paper of 6000-8000 words (including 
references) through the Open Journal System, which will then go under 
peer review following the usual procedure of the journal /MedieKultur/. 
Invitation to submit a full paper does not guarantee acceptance for 
final publication in the journal. Accepted languages of contribution are 
English and Danish.

January 15^th 2020: Deadline for abstract submission

February 1^st 2020: Invitation to submit a full paper

June 1^st 2020: Submission of full paper

July 31^st 2020: Notification of acceptance and/or revisions

August-October 2020: Revision period

October 31^st 2020: Final submission

*About the editors:*

David Mathieu is associate professor at the Department of Communication 
& Arts at Roskilde University, Denmark. He chairs the /Audience and 
Reception Studies /section of the /European Communication, Research and 
Education Association/ and is leader of the research group /Audiences & 
Mediated life/. His current work focuses on audience and reception 
research in the context of social media, digitalisation of communication 
and datafication of society.

Ana Jorge is Guest Assistant Professor at Universidade Católica, 
Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Instituto Superior Miguel Torga, 
Portugal. She is Vice-Chair of the Digital Culture and Communication 
section of ECREA.

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