[ecrea] Call for papers: #turnmeon: the role of humans in automated media systems

#turnmeon: the role of humans in automated media systems
SWARM symposium 2017
Thursday 31st August 2017, Law Lounge, University of Sydney

In 2016, Instagram announced it would alter its news feed, moving from a 
chronological list to “show the moments we believe you will care about 
the most”. This new emphasis on its most influential users and images 
resulted in panicked Instagrammers urging their followers to #turnmeon, 
to ensure a feed notification was triggered whenever they posted. Their 
cry for machine visibility is exemplary of the importance algorithms now 
play in mediating our social relationships, networks and communities. 
The SWARM 2017 symposium will explore how humans now interact with 
software in automated media and communications systems, producing what 
Ted Striphas calls algorithmic culture. Hosted by the Department of 
Media and Communications, University of Sydney, and SWARM 2017, this 
symposium invites papers and presentations from community managers, 
programmers and scholars on the future of human mediation in an age of 
artificial intelligence.

Audience metrics scholar Philip Napoli notes that media industries 
scholarship has historically devoted much time to understanding the 
“organisational norms and structures, environmental cognitions, and 
audience information systems” of media production, but too little 
attention to its epochal algorithmic turn.  Analytics now map media 
output and its consumption, while chat bots manage consumer relations 
with brands. Facebook and Twitter have become our default news 
aggregators, serving up popular topics regardless of their veracity. 
YouTube and Amazon also use our selections and recommendations to serve 
us up content we might like to buy. Many websites and apps now integrate 
natural language processing tools to provide personalisation options, 
sentiment analysis or code that will civilise, categorise and analyse 
our communications. These changes highlight the need for researchers to 
explore the forms and scope of human-machine communicative relations, 
and their consequences for building and managing online communities.

Typically, community managers engage in what the cognitive sciences call 
demonstrations of expertise and experience: engaging and including 
people, negotiating and moderating their interactions, assisting 
expertise transfer, guiding knowledge acquisition and production, and 
managing ethical issues in community building. Where an automated media 
system transfers these tasks to an algorithm assemblage, we might ask: 
to what extent could it fully take over decision-making or conflict 
management? What is an algorithm's register of harm or humour? And how 
might algorithms develop the capacity to build human relationships?

We invite submissions that address any aspect of human-machine relations 
in automated media and communications systems, on topics that include:
• The ethics of algorithmic culture
• Working and playing with chat bots
• Natural language processing and algorithmic moderation
• Programming for inclusion and diversity
• Media analytics and community building
• The role of ex-ante developers in algorithmic systems
• The learned failings of voice recognition and automated systems
• The gendering of machines incl. intelligent personal assistants
• Automating customer service

Please submit abstracts of 600-800 words to Jonathon Hutchinson 
(jonathon.hutchinson /at/ sydney.edu.au) and Fiona Martin 
(fiona.martin /at/ sydney.edu.au) by Monday May 15th. Notification of 
acceptance will be by May 30th. Three small
travel assistance grants will be available for the best proposals (with 
full paper drafts required by July 14th). For further information email 
us, phone +614 2839 1122 or tweet @mediarepublik and @dhutchman




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