Universidade Nova de Lisboa | NOVA FCSH | iNOVA Media Lab
Digital Media Winter Institute I SMART Data Sprint 2021
The current state of platformisation I 01 – 05 February 2021 I 9:00 – 18:00 (Lisbon time) #SMARTdatasprint | Research Blog | Facebook Group: SMART Data Sprint | @iNOVAmedialab
SLACK: SMARTDataSprint 2021
iNOVA Media Lab ˚ ˚ SMART
iNOVA Media Lab is an applied research laboratory devoted to an interdisciplinary convergence of digital media and emerging technologies. The lab is coordinated by:
Paulo Nuno Vicente works as an Assistant Professor at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where he founded in 2016 and since then coordinates iNOVA Media Lab, a research and development laboratory dedicated to the study of immersive and interactive narrative, human interface technologies, innovation and digital transformation, new media literacies, science communication, social media and information visualization. He started his career as a non-fiction multimedia storyteller. As a journalist, multimedia documentary filmmaker, producer and director, he has worked extensively across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. As a digital entrepreneur, in 2013, he founded Bagabaga Studios, an interdisciplinary co-op dedicated to digital media production and advanced training. He holds a PhD on Digital Media (UT Austin Portugal) and he is an honored recipient of the prestigious German Marshall Fund of the United States Fellowship (2016) and Calouste Gulbenkian Prize – Knowledge (2019).
SMART is a group of researchers from iNOVA Media Lab who develop social media research techniques and research tools for media studies and software studies. We conduct exploratory and empirical research advanced by digital methods. By taking media methods and the web environment into account, we build tried-and-tested research techniques to digital social sciences and digital humanities, while engaging with (and learn from) the technicity-of-the-mediums.
Janna Joceli Omena is a digital media doctoral researcher at UT Austin I Portugal Program (NOVA FCSH), Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She develops her work at iNOVA Media Lab where she founded the SMART Data Sprint // Digital Media Winter Institute and coordinates the group Social Media Research Techniques (SMART). Besides theorising and practising digital methods, her current research interests are the processes of building/interpreting computer vision-based networks and the role of the technicity-of-the-mediums in digital research. Homepage: https://thesocialplatforms.wordpress.com Twitter: @JannaJoceli.
Ana Marta M. Flores holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in journalism from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) with a partial completion at the University of Lisbon (Portugal). Is an integrated doctoral researcher at ICNOVA/iNOVA Media Lab and an invited professor at Information Management School, both at NOVA University of Lisbon (Portugal). Currently works with digital methods as an approach to identify trends and understand the relationship between social platforms and journalism.
Elena Pilipets is a postdoc researcher at the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria, and SMART (Social Media Research Techniques) researcher with iNOVA Media Lab, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal. Her teaching and research interests are media cultural studies, internet research, digital methods, affect, and actor-network theory.
Jason Chao is a technologist and human rights activist. He has backgrounds in political activism, LGBT+ advocacy and software development. Chao is currently researching the development of digital method tools as a doctoral researcher at the University of Siegen. He received an MSc in Big Data and Digital Futures from the University of Warwick and an MA in Human Rights Law from SOAS, University of London.
Rita Sepúlveda is a doctoral researcher in Communication Science (ISCTE-IUL) whose work focuses on the transformation of intimacy in the context of online dating platforms appropriation. She is a researcher at CIES-IUL collaborating with MediaLab_ISCTE on projects in the scope of misinformation and part of SMART (Social Media Research Techniques) team. She developed a particular interest in methodologies, namely digital methods, to study collective and dynamic expressions in digital space.
Speakers ˚ ˚
José van Dijck is a distinguished university professor at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands); before moving to Utrecht University, she was Chair and Dean at the University of Amsterdam. In 2015, she was elected president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and served until 2018. She was a visiting professor at ten universities, including UC Santa Cruz (USA), University of Toronto (CAN), Stockholm University (SWE) and University of Technology, Sydney (AUS). She received an honorary doctorate from Lund University (SWE). Van Dijck’s academic field is media studies and digital society. Her work covers a wide range of topics in media theory, media and communication technologies, social media, and digital culture. She is the (co-)author and (co-editor of ten books and over one hundred journal articles and book chapters. Van Dijck’s book The Culture of Connectivity. A Critical History of Social Media (Oxford UP, 2013) was distributed worldwide and was translated into Spanish, Chinese and Farsi. Her latest book, co-authored by Thomas Poell & Martijn de Waal is titled The Platform Society. Public values in a connective world (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Anne Helmond is Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. She is a member of the Digital Methods Initiative and App Studies Initiative research collectives where she focuses her research on the history and infrastructure of social media platforms and apps. Her research interests include digital methods, software studies, platform studies, platformization, app studies, and web history. Anne’s work has been published in highly-ranked peer-reviewed journals such as New Media & Society, Theory, Culture and Society, Media, Culture & Society, Social Media + Society, Internet Histories, First Monday, and Computational Culture. She currently holds a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for the project ‘App ecosystems: A critical history of apps’ (2017–2020). In this project she develops novel digital methods for writing app histories on three interrelated levels – individual apps, app stores, and platforms – to understand the emergence of this new cultural form by employing web archives. In Spring 2019, she was Comenius Professor of Digital Methods and Web History at the University of Siegen, Germany.
Ariadna Matamoros-Fernandez is a Lecturer in Digital Media in the School of Communication at QUT, and chief investigator of the Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC). Matamoros-Fernández is setting up a research agenda around platform governance in relation to memes and other controversial content, which includes cross-disciplinary collaborations with scholars from law and computational science. She has extensive experience in building digital methods to study digital platforms, and is currently working on research projects examining end-to-end encrypted and ephemeral communication in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Fernando van der Vlist (MA University of Amsterdam) is a PhD candidate at the Media and Culture Studies department at Utrecht University and a research associate with the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre ‘Media of Cooperation’ at the University of Siegen. He coordinates the App Studies Initiative, is a member of the Digital Methods Initiative, and is connected to Utrecht University’s focus area ‘Governing the Digital Society’. His research interests include social media and platform studies, digital methods, app studies, software studies, and critical data studies.
Collaborators ˚ ˚
Bernhard Rieder is Associate Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam and a collaborator with the Digital Methods Initiative. His research focuses on the history, theory, and politics of software and in particular on the role algorithms play in the production of knowledge and culture. This work includes the development, application, and analysis of computational research methods and the investigation of political and economic challenges posed by large online platforms.
Density Design Lab I https://densitydesign.org/ I Italy
Andrea Elena Febres Medina is a communication designer, currently conducting her Master Degree Thesis in Communication Design at Politecnico di Milano. She is investigating the connection between Internet of Things and personal data. Andrea is currently teacher assistant at Density Design Final Sintesi Studio. She has a bachelor in Industrial Design from the Politecnico di Milano.
Antonella Autuori is a communication designer, currently conducting her Master Degree Thesis in Communication Design at Politecnico di Milano on the theme of video summarisation, trying to develop new methodologies for summarising and analysing video content from the web. Antonella is also currently Teacher Assistant at Density Design Final Sintesi Studio and Data Visualisation Designer at Accurat Studio. She has a bachelor in Interior Design from the Politecnico di Milano.
Federica Laurencio Tacoronte My name is Federica Laurencio Tacoronte and I am a Communication Designer based in Milan. I graduated from the Bachelor’s program in Communication Design at the Polytechnic University of Milan in 2019 and enrolled in the Master’s program in the same year. I worked in a design position at Omnicom PRGroup for a semester while attending my first year of the Master’s program. My design process is analytical and logical, however I always try to implement this approach with refined and quirky graphics. I especially enjoy designing complex artifacts and believe that limitations push me to think more creatively. I also like to illustrate and I try to implement this skill in my design work.
Federico Pozzi is a communication designer currently in the final year of his master’s degree. He just finished The Density Design course where he developed an interest and passion for data visualization and its ability to speak to everyone in different levels of depth. He is fascinated by the possibility of working in different environments thus enriching my professional experience.
Marija Nikolic I am a multidisciplinary artist, web designer and developer form Serbia. I finished Bachelor’s (2016) and Master’s (2016) degree from a New media department at Faculty of Fine Art in Belgrade, Serbia. I am currently enrolled as regular student in the 2nd year of PhD studies at the same University, and as 2nd year student of Master of Science at Communication Design course at Politecnico di Milano. I worked for two e-commerce companies in Serbia and one startup from Italy in the roles of a Web designer intern in duration of 3 months, and as a Junior Front end developer for one year and 9 months. From 2017, I started actively to participate Hackathons organized in Serbia and Milan, and won several of them. During my studies in Serbia, I participated in various group exhibitions organised in Belgrade and Novi Sad, as well as two solo exhibitions in Belgrade – “Horizons” (2016) in Remont gallery and “Three head analogies” (2018) in U10 gallery.
Matteo Bettini is a human being that has been existing for 24 years now. Born in the north of Italy, nearest to Milan, he studied for five years at Politecnico di Milano approaching and mastering communication skills, editorial design and data visualisation practices. The curiosity has brought him to develop an interest for various and multiple aspects of his work. The approach is based on questioning every topic from different perspective using doubt as a research method and mistakes as a way to reach unexpected results.
Priscila Yoshihara Since I enjoy studying and practicing design projects, to dedicate time and effort has always been a natural characteristic. I constantly tried to surround myself with brilliant colleagues, which incentivized me to continue giving my best. Joining pleasure in doing what I like with dedication, effort, and discipline were key to achieving great goals and made me the professional I am today
Valentina Pallacci 24-year-old student from Milan, Italy. I graduated from ISIA of Florence in Communication and Product Design in 2019 and I’m currently studying Communication Design at Politecnico di Milano. I’m an Amnesty activist since 2019, I’m in charge of communication for the Tuscan section and I participated in the collection and analysis of data for three editions of the “Barometro dell’odio”. I love giving order and meaning to what would otherwise be uninterpreted, I love transforming complexity into something simple and meaningful. That’s why I’m always looking for unknown social issues to analyse and study through data.
Social Media Research Foundation I https://www.smrfoundation.org/ I USA
Marc Smith is a sociologist specializing in the social organization of online communities and computer-mediated interaction. Smith leads the Connected Action consulting group and lives and works in Silicon Valley, California. Smith co-founded and directs the Social Media Research Foundation, a non-profit devoted to open tools, data, and scholarship related to social media research.
Facepager Developers I https://github.com/strohne/Facepager I Germany
Jakob Jünger is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Political Science and Communication Studies in Greifswald, Germany, and at the Digital Academy of Sciences in Mainz, Germany. His work focuses on online platforms, publicness and privacy, and computational methods.
R-EST – estudos redes sociotécnicas (UFMG) I Brazil
Gracila Vilaça is a Ph.D researcher in Contemporary Communications and Sociability at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Current thesis focus on the entanglements of online platforms and the Brazilian political scenario through the lenses of feminisms. Master’s degree granted by UFMG in the above research field. Master’s thesis focused on the tensions of female empowerment advertising campaigns and feminists movements and theories. Researcher at R-EST – studies on socio-technical networks, UFMG.
Leonardo Melgaço is responsible for Curricular Units “Data Analysis and Big Data” and “Multiplatform Projects” at the University Center UNA in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Master’s degree in Contemporary Communications and Sociability (PPGCOM / UFMG) with CAPES scholarship. His master’s thesis focused on digital methods and methodological protocol’s for online investigation. Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication – Public Relations qualification by the same institution. Researcher at R-EST – studies on socio-technical networks, UFMG.
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) Technologists I Brazil
Fábio Castro Gouveia is a Public Health Technologist at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) – Brazil, leader of the Science, Data, Networks and Metrics Research Group – (Scimetrics) and a researcher at the Zika Social Sciences Network (https://fiocruz.tghn.org/zikanetwork/). Biologist, master in Microbiology and Immunology and DSc in Biological Chemistry (Education, Management and Diffusion of Biosciences), did a short post-doctorate as Visiting Fellow at Katolieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) selected in the 2009 call for proposals from the Coimbra Group Scholarships Program for Young Professors and Researchers from Latin American Universities. Together with Elaine Teixeira Rabello, won the Altmetric Research Award for Promising Altmetrics Research in 2020. Develops research in Information Sciences with emphasis on Information Metric Studies (Scientometrics, Webometrics, Altmetrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators), Digital Methods, Science and Technology Studies, Data Science and Blockchain Technology, and in the area of Science and Health Communication, with emphasis on studies on internet and social media.
Participants ˚ ˚
Alda Telles Assistant Professor in the Communication Sciences Department at NOVA FCSH, where she teaches at the graduate and post-graduated levels the courses “Theory of Corporate Communication” and “Organisational Communication”. PhD researcher at ICNOVA, currently integrated in the funded research project “PINBook PT: Political Interest Networks in Facebook Portugal”. Interested in political communication and public relations, especially in the digital platforms.
Alicia Takaoka has a Masters in English (Scientific & Technical Writing) from Bowling Green State University and is a PhD candidate at University of Hawaii at Manoa. Alicia’s doctoral research project is a community-based case study that evaluates perceptions about stigmatized individuals in local and global communities. As an instructor at University of Hawai`i at Hilo, Alicia teaches writing across disciplines, gender and women’s studies, university skills, and experiential learning. Areas of specialization within human-computer interaction and social informatics are communicative memory, women in STEM, ethics, information literacy, stigmatization, online education, asynchronous communication, network analysis, and digital humanities.
Anna Schjøtt Hansen I am a recent graduate of the Master’s in Techno-Anthropology at Aalborg University in Denmark and I now work full time as a research assistant on the project ‘DataPublics’ at Roskilde University who I wrote my master thesis in collaboration with. My thesis and the work in the project centres on the datafication and platformisation of journalism and my research interest are predominately linked to the role of algorithms in the distribution of information in society and how they partake in shaping the formation of publics. Theoretically, I am highly inspired by STS and particularly ANT in my approach.
André Mintz is an assistant professor of art and technology of the Fine Arts School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He holds a PhD and a masters degree in Social Communication from the same university, and also an M.A. in Media Arts Cultures from Aalborg University, Denmark. His research interests spread across the realms of art and media, specifically aiming to contribute to the development of an STS approach to art and to images, through the means of digital methods and platform studies.
Angeliki Tzouganatou studied Archaeology and History of Art at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and completed the MSc in Digital Heritage at the University of York. For her MSc dissertation she designed, created and evaluated a chatbot for the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük, as part of the EMOTIVE Project. Currently she is working at the Institute of Anthropological Studies in Culture and History at the University of Hamburg, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD fellow at the Horizon 2020 POEM (Participatory Memory Practices), where she is doing research on Internet ecologies of open knowledge for inclusive memory making.
Carlos d’Andréa is a professor at the Graduate Program in Communication Studies at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. Coordinator of the research group R-EST (estudos redes sociotécnicas). In 2017/2018, worked as a visiting scholar at the Media Studies department at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Among his topics of interest are social media platforms, digital methods, controversies, science and sports. His current research project is named “Measuring uncertainties, sharing controversies: contemporary dynamics of the platformation of science” (2020-2023).
Catarina Ferraz I am an anthropology graduate from NOVA FCSH, currently pursuing a Masters’s Degree in Information Management at NOVA IMS. One of my main goals is to maintain an interdisciplinary approach to my academic journey. For that matter, I focused my curricular plan on joining anthropology, communication sciences, and contemporary culture, questioning how anthropological methods of research would allow me to pursue studies in visual digital culture. I am very hardworking, but also a “people person” who loves to learn and teach others; I am a human who loves to experiment, explore, and innovate. As an anthropologist, I would gladly bring the approaches I have been taught and search for new points of view.
Caterina Foà PhD candidate in Communication Science, lecturer in media economics and marketing for creative industries, integrated member of CIES/MediaLab research centre ; Obercom and OPAC Portuguese observatories. Research interests focus on economic, social and intellectual value-creation forms and exchanges on platform ecosystems, particularly on crowdfunding, business models and social media. Previous academic production concerns platformization of cultural production, strategies for monetization of social interactions and creative contents, power relations and bargaining positions of agents (both individuals and platforms) performing production and intermediation roles across networked value systems.
Catherine Baker I am currently a final year doctoral researcher with the Online Civic Culture at Loughborough University. My current research looks at the growing online incel movement, an extreme misogynist discourse community. The focus of this work is exploring the creation of elaborate infrastructures of meaning, identity and rhetoric within this extremist online community. My research interests include online misogyny, online communities, the far-right and online platforms.
Charis Papaevangelou, born in Athens in 1994, is an Early Stage Researcher and PhD candidate at LERASS (Laboratory of Studies and Applied Research in Social Sciences) at the University Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier, where he is studying the political economy of digital platforms’ regulation. He is part of the European project for journalism, JOLT, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. He obtained his first degree from the Panteion University of Athens and his master’s degree from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. His main field of study is communication, media and politics.
Clara González Tosat I am pursuing my PhD in Communicat at the University of Navarra’s Center for Internet Studies and Digital Life. I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN Early Stage Researcher at the JOLT – “Harnessing Digital and Data Technologies for Journalism” project. I completed my BA in Journalism at San Jorge University and obtained my MA in Hispanic Studies at Boston College. Before that, I worked for the Observatory of Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures of Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University researching Spanish-language digital media in the United States.
Claudia Pedraza Bucio Professor-Researcher at La Salle Cdmx University. PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Specialist in gender issues, journalism and communication.
Cristian Ruiz is a PhD candidate in Complexity Sciences (ISCTE-IUL/Lisbon University), developing his thesis on Complex Systems and Innovation Dynamics at IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research. He also holds a MA in Communication Science, specialization area in Contemporary Culture and New Technologies from Nova University of Lisbon. In the last years he was awarded with two grants to research in projects like LLMCP (ESCS-IPL), which studied web tracking systems and online panel as methods for Social Sciences, and e4Value (IN+), a project which explored Innovation Dynamics inside the Aeronautics Industry of Portugal. He also collaborated with SMART (iNova Media Lab), in the 2018 and 2019 SMART Data Sprints editions.
Daniel Loiola is a media researcher at R-EST Sociotechnical Network Studies at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). Earned a master’s degree in communication (2018) studying online filter bubbles on YouTube at the same university. Has work experience as a software developer, creating tools for data visualization and web scraping for digital methods and humanities research, as well as digital marketing and app and game development. Obtained a postgraduate degree in Digital Communication at The Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (2016).
Daniel Issl I am currently working on my Dr. thesis, in which I analyze the Business Influencer as archetype of neoliberalism in an ideology critical manner. Hence my research interests are authoritarianism, capitalism, neoliberalism, machismo and solutionism
Danielle Sanches Researcher at the Public Policy Analysis Directorate at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV DAPP). Associate Researcher at the Digital Humanities Laboratory, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. PhD in History of Sciences by École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS / Paris) in co-operation with Casa de Oswaldo Cruz / FioCruz, with CAPES and CNPq scholarships, Master in Social History from the University of São Paulo (USP) and Bachelor and Degree in History from the Federal Fluminense University (UFF). My research areas include History of Scientific Knowledge and Practices, Environmental Humanities, Biodiversity and Digital Humanities. From the perspective of Digital Humanities I have been working with the application of digital methodologies linked to Spatial Analysis, Network Analysis and Text Analysis through the application of Natural Language Processing and Text Mining. Currently develops research in Digital Methods, focusing on the influence of algorithmic culture on social practices.
Daria Dergacheva 4th year PhD student at the UAB, Department of Communication Sciences and Journalism. Received a Chevening scholarship and graduated from the School of Media at the University of Westminster. Before that, worked in the Russian media for over 10 years. Research interests: political communication, social networks, democratic theory, journalistic practice, media systems.
Débora Salles, PhD in Information Science, is a post-doc researcher at the School of Communication of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), acting as a research fellow at NetLab/ECO-UFRJ (http://www.netlab.eco.ufrj.br/). Her research focuses on digital media, computational propaganda, social media platforms and disinformation. She received a CAPES scholarship for her Master’s in Communication and Culture (2013-2015, ECO-UFRJ) and Doctorate (2016-2020, Information Science, UFRJ). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6698
Dorismilda Flores-Márquez is associate professor of Communication at the Universidad De La Salle Bajío (León, México). PhD in Social-Scientific Studies (ITESO, 2016). Member of the National System of Researchers of the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt, México); chair of the Seminar on Internet Studies (México), and co-chair of the Participatory Communication Research Section (IAMCR), and the research group on New Media, Internet and Information Society (AMIC, México. She does research on digital culture and communication, communication for social change, and intercultural communication. Author of Imaginar un mundo mejor: La expresión pública de los activistas en internet (ITESO, 2019).
Elias Bitencourt is an associate Professor of Design and new media at The State University of Bahia (UNEB, Brazil) and also an Adjunct Professor of Communication Undergraduate Program at Department of Communication – Federal University of Bahia (Brazil). Elias holds a doctorate in communication and contemporary cultures at POSCOM / UFBA with a partial completion at Milieux Center / Concordia University (Canada) and has a master’s degree in culture and societies from the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil). He is a member of the Digital Media and Networks Research laboratory (LAB404 / UFBA) where he develops researches focused on algorithmic performativity, cultural data practices, and digital platforms. Theoretical framework: Actor-Network Theory, New materialism, digital methods, digital humanities.
Erec Gellautz is University Assistant and PhD Candidate at the Visual Culture Unit of the University of Klagenfurt (Austria). In his research he focuses on the reflections of networked image cultures in contemporary art. He worked in different curatorial positions in museums such as the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Germany) or Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland). He holds a degree in Art History of the University of Cologne (Germany).
Fabrizio Defilippi I’m a PhD candidate in Communication Studies at Université Paris Nanterre, I work on a dissertation entitled “Technological Imaginaries of the Future Between Posthuman and the End of a World” with the supervision of Professor Marta Severo and François-David Sebbah. I’m interested in digital methods, both qualitative and quantitative, to analyze the way in which platforms as Twitter shape our way of conceiving the future and our way of debating about controversial issues. My main research interests are the opposition between transhumanist perspectives and pessimistic visions about ecological and social collapse, philosophy of technology and Actor-Network Theory.
Gabriela Sued is Phd in Humanities. She is researcher at UNAM and teacher at Tecnológico de Monterrey, both main universities in Mexico. His research interests are: digital cultures, digital methods and sociotechnical systems. She has quite academic work published and available at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gabriela_Sued2/research
Gabriela Gruszynski Sanseverino PhD Reseacher at the LERASS at University Paul Sabatier – Toulouse III, as part of the JOLT Project, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Training Network funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020, with a research project focused on the Politics and Ethics of User Generated Content in Journalism. The work seeks a critical understanding of the integration of UGC into the news making process in a digital context, as well as the management of public participation online, in an effort to contribute to the discussion about the changing practices of the profession with new technologies, digital media and the internet. Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication – Journalism and Master’s Degree in Communication and Information from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), in Brazil.
Geraldine Bengsch is a postdoctoral researcher at King’s College London, UK. She is especially interested in new research methods and is currently undertaking a full stack software developing boot camp to learn more about technologies and how they can be applied to modern research.
Giuliander Carpes da Silva As a PhD researcher, I study the impact of platforms on journalism within the EU-funded JOLT project, a Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions initiative which aims to understand how the media is attempting to harness digital and data technology. My thesis will focus on the political economy of news content distribution in messaging applications. Since 2014, I research how the platformization of the Internet affects the business models of news organizations, the professional practices of journalists and the traditional values of the profession. I completed a MA in Media and Business at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2015.
Hantian Zhang Lecturer in Media at Sheffield Hallam University, with a PhD in Digital Media and Communication awarded by the University of Edinburgh. My research covers multiple aspects of Digital Media including social media, participatory culture, audience engagement and network analysis. My current research explores social media networks, audience engagement with YouTube video blogs (vlogs), and gamification elements on online streaming apps. Outcomes of my research have been recently published in and presented at peer-reviewed international journal and conferences in Internet, Social Media and Human-computer Interaction (HCI) studies including First Monday (2018) and HCI International (2020).
Henry Mainsah is a senior researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO), Oslo Metropolitan University. He was previously an Associate Professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and he holds a PhD in Media and Communication from the University of Oslo. His research interests include interdisciplinary research methods, digital and social media, design, literacies, and youth culture
Inês Amaral is an Associate Professor at Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra. Researcher at Communication and Society Research Centre of University of Minho and Collaborator Research at Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. Her research interests are audiences, digital inclusion and active ageing, social networks, participation and social media, media and digital literacy, gender and media She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences – Interactive Media (UMinho). Current Projects: SMaRTEU – Social Media Resilience Toolkit (LC-01563446), Violência online contra as mulheres: prevenir e combater a misoginia e a violência em contexto digital a partir da experiência da pandemia de COVID-19 (FCT GENDER4COVID nº 58), DecoDeM – (Des)Codificar Masculinidades: para uma melhor compreensão do papel dos media na construção de perceções de masculinidades em Portugal (PTDC/COM-CSS/31740/2017), and Oportunidades y Retos del Periodismo en los Entornos Abiertos: Estudio de las Voces de la Sociedad en Torno a los Medios Tradicionales y los Sitios Participativos de Nueva Generación (CSO2016-80703-R). Member of SOPCOM and ECREA. Co-coordinator of the Journalism and Society section of the Portuguese Association for Communication (SOPCOM) Member of the COST Actions CCA18230 – Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations, and CA17135 Constitution-making and deliberative democracy. Member of ObCiber, MILOBS and NIP-C@M
Jahnnabi Das Being a researcher and teacher in the area of climate change communication, I aspire to to extend my existing research interest in the broader field of digital culture. I am particularly interested in looking at the agency of users in the intersection of natural ecology and media ecology.
Joan Ramon Rodriguez-Amat PhD – Principal Lecturer in the Department of Media, Arts and Communications at Sheffield Hallam University. His main area of research revolves around the communicative spaces; the cultural constructions of time and space, and citizenship and power (see http://communicativespaces.org). This triple discussion emerges in the intersection of media governance research, cultural production, and democratic debates; and the communities and identities -among them sexual, national, and cultural identities- growing from the geopolitics of social media platforms and communication technologies.
João Guilherme is a post-doc researcher on Internet and Politics at INCTDD (the Brazilian National Institute of Science and Technology for Digital Democracy). He is also ahead of INCT.DD’s Data Science for Digital Communication Laboratory. Main research interests: Politics, Digital Democracy, Disinformation, Misinformation, Fake News and network analysis.
Jorge Martins Rosa is an associate professor in the Communication Sciences Department of NOVA FCSH, where he teaches, at the post-graduate level, the courses «Cyberculture» and «Pop Culture» (Master), and «History and Trends of Digital Media» (PhD). Researcher at ICNOVA, where he currently is the principal investigator of the funded research project «PINBook PT: Political Interest Networks in Facebook Portugal».
José Candeias I have a degree in Communication Science from FCSH – NOVA University of Lisbon, and I’m pursuing a Master’s Degree in the same area, specializing in Contemporary Culture and New Technologies. I’m also currently an intern in the Rutter Project, working on and learning about digital humanities. Among my areas of interest are diverse areas like cultural history, history of ideas and contemporary culture – more specifically, the relationship between technology, ideas and narratives.
Kaitlynn Mendes is a feminist scholar whose work sits at the intersections of media, sociology, education and cultural studies. She has written widely around representations of feminism in the media, and feminists’ use of social media to challenge rape culture. She is particularly interested in the everyday experiences of using digital technologies to speak about feminist issues and has written about the #MeToo movement and other relevant feminist campaigns. More recently, she have been interested in issues of online sexual harassment in school settings, and translating her research findings to impactful resources for schools and young people. She is author or editor of five books including the award winning SlutWalk: Feminism, activism and media (2015), Feminism in the News (2011) and Digital Feminist Activism: Girls and Women Fight Back Against Rape Culture (2019, with Jessica Ringrose and Jessalynn Keller).
Kalliopi Moraiti I was a teacher for many years, but when I completed the master’s study I conducted an Erasmus placement as an assistant researcher at DCU with a research focus on climate change education. Now I am a new doctoral student and my research topic is about teachers´ digital work. My potential studies involve digital technology platforms and how they influence teachers´ practices and working conditions, the walkthrough method and tracking teachers´ computers and mobiles in order to generate time-based logs of the use of applications and platforms.
Lola López Muñoz I am a 2nd year predoctoral student in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). My research is focused on digital transformation of public service media and their adaptation to the European Digital Single Market. I am especially interested in the participation of the audience in public service provider, which can be analyzed using social media interactions.
Luis Junqueira I’m a sociologist with a long standing interest in methodology and a growing interest in digital methods and digital social science. My research interests also encompass STS, energy and environment. I am currently a researcher at the SafeConsume project, hosted by the Institute of Social Sciences – University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), where I am applying a mixed methodology to study food safety learning in schools.
Lucia Mesquita is a Ph.D. candidate at the Dublin City University’s School of Communications and Institute for Future Media and Journalism (FuJo), School of Communications within the JOLT Project, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Training Network funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020. Before joining DCU, she was an MA student at the School of Social and Political Sciences (ISCSP), University of Lisbon. She was also a journalist, having graduated from Universidade Metodista de São Paulo (Brazil) in 2001. She is investigating the changing political economy of digital journalism and its impact on the plurality and the civic role of journalism.
María Concepción is a member of the National System of Researchers, Level 1, and is a research professor in The School of Humanities and Education at the Tecnológico de Monterrey. She has a PhD in the Humanities with a focus on Cultural Studies from the same institution. Her focus of study is the effects of symbolic and structural violence on the bodily existence of subalterns in contemporary societies, and the processes of their resistance that usually involve technology. She is also interested in the study of social transformation through intercultural education that involves processes of social recognition. Her research is developed from a post-structuralist and decolonial feminist approach.
María Ortiz With a background in communication science I study how technology reshapes the ways we communicate, access, generate and share knowledge. My field of work is information and communication technologies, specifically big data and data visualization. Datification, quantification and the widespread use of visualization resulting from the working of algorithms/platforms are changing our perception of ourselves and reality. These processes and the resulting cultural change are my current research interests, the focii of which are the new possibilities for research with big data sets, for reading and representing information through images, the reconfiguration of social discourse in and through social media, and the hidden bias implied in these processes.
Mengying Li is a postdoctoral researcher in the Journalism School at Fudan University, Shanghai, where she is also a member of the Center for Information and Communication Studies. She holds a PhD in Digital Media and Culture from King’s College London and a double master’s degree in Global Media and Communication from Sciences Po and Fudan. Her research focuses on digital activism, digital culture and platform politics. She is currently writing a book on the role of Weibo and WeChat, two most important Chinese social media platforms, in online activism in China.
Monika Skazedonig I’m interested in climate activism, ecofeminism and related affective practices. As like Fridays for Future activists use social media as their media for engaging and connecting participants and spreading their messages this content is used, mashed-up and shared in different sub-networks like climate deniers, misogynists but as well supporters of the movement. I am very new to digital methods and want to learn how to distract the “right” data for my questions, how to handle it, massage it and interpret it.
Nazmiye Gizem Bacaksizlar is a postdoctoral researcher at ICNOVA, working on the funded research project PINBook PT: Political Interest Networks in Facebook Portugal. Before joining her current research team, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D. degree in Software and Information Systems from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2019, with a specialization in complex systems and computational social science. Her research interests include sociopolitical networks, big data analytics, agent-based and system dynamics modeling.
Nohemi Lugo is a researcher and professor in the Media and Digital Culture Department at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Queretaro Campus in Mexico. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from Tecnologico de Monterrey, a Master in Arts by Western Michigan University and a PhD. in Communications by Pompeu Fabra University. Her research connects digital culture studies with an ethnography and design methodology approach. Her goal is to design and develop methods, processes, materials and technologies intended to foster education, social inclusion and health.
Oguz Özgür Karadeniz I am a research associate at KU Leuven DTAI group, working in the DIAMOND project (Diversity and Information Media: New Tools for a Multifaceted Public Debate). I have a background in sociology (Ph.D.) and digital humanities (Advanced Master’s). My research interests are sociology of digital media, computational sociology and cultural studies. I am currently working in the DIAMOND project on the development of Diversity Searcher, a computational tool that gives feedback to users on the diversity of texts in terms of socio-political actors mentioned in them.
Paulina Sierra Born in sublime and contrasting Mexico, Paulina obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design at Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City). Usually involved with the interactive media art/music scene, she started to experiment with software at different multimedia companies in Mexico City. Tired of the bi-dimensionality the screen provided, she decided to experiment with objects, space and the multiplicity of the media where she graduated with honors from the MFA in Digital+Media department at Rhode Island School of Design. As a former resident of New Orleans, LA, USA for a number of years (under an O1 Visa), today you can find her in Mexico City, teaching in several areas of design in different colleges, freelancing and developing her artistic projects nationally and abroad (paulinasierra.com).
Pernilla Severson holds a PhD in Media and Communication Studies from Uppsala University (2004). She is Associate Professor (Docent) in Media and Communication Studies at the Department of Media and Journalism, Linnaeus University in Sweden. Her research focuses on media development (media innovations), participatory practices and democratic values, media professions and digital methods.
Rosa E. Arroyo is a PhD candidate at the Social and Political Sciences Faculty at the Mexican National University, UNAM. She additionally has a professional background in International Affairs, Public Media and Political Communication due to her 20 years of laboral experience in public affairs, press management and marketing strategies in Mexican Media. Her research interests are data journalism studies, ciber-journalism, digital methods, social media and platform studies and misinformation and hate-speech studies. Her dissertation is focused on the technological construction of misinformation and political propaganda.
Sander De Ridder (PhD, Ghent University) is a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in cultural media studies at Ghent University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. His research focuses on digital media, everyday life, the self and identity. He has published widely on digital youth cultures, intimacy and sexuality.
Sara Leckner holds a PhD in 2007 in Media Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. She is currently working as a senior lecturer at the department of Computer Science and Media Technology at Malmö University in Sweden. Her research focuses on new media devices and services, data access and assessment in the platform economy, and user behaviour and attitudes with regards to media use and perception. With regards to these interests, she is very interested in new methodological approaches and analysis of user data.
Sofía B. Alamo is a university teacher and researcher in media platforms and digital culture at Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad Maimónides and Universidad de San Andrés – Buenos Aires City, Argentina. She teaches Communication Studies, where she approaches innovative contents and methods, such as cultural analytics, data research, critical digital literacies and its impact in the digital age. She offers extension courses regarding web scraping techniques for social sciences researchers and transmedia literacies for teachers. Her fields of interest are the social uses of technologies, digital methods in multimedia and social research, and university teaching based on transmedia game-designed learning projects.
Sofia P. Caldeira has a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences from Ghent University. She is a member of the Centre for Cinema and Media Studies (CIMS) at Ghent University, Belgium. Her research focus on social media, everyday aesthetics, politics of gender representation, and feminist media studies.
Susanna Paasonen is Professor of Media Studies at University of Turku, Finland. She is the PI of the research consortium “Intimacy in Data-Driven Culture”, funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland, and author of e.g. NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media (with Kylie Jarrett and Ben Light, MIT Press 2019), Who’s Laughing Now? Feminist Tactics in Social Media (with Jenny Sundén, MITP 2020) and Dependent, Distracted, Bored: Affective Formations in Networked Media (MITP 2021). Susanna serves on the editorial boards of e.g. New Media & Society, Social Media & Society and International Journal of Cultural Studies.
Silvia Dalben is a Media researcher at R-EST Sociotechnical Network Studies at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) and PhD student at University of Texas at Austin (USA). Professor at UNA University Center (Brazil). Earned a master’s degree in communication (2018) at the Federal University of Minas Gerais researching automated journalism, and the dissertation won Adelmo Genro Filho Award granted by SBPJor – Brazilian Association of Researchers in Journalism.
Svea Kiesewetter I have earned a Master of Education at Bremen University and a graduate degree in the International Master’s Program in IT and Learning at Gothenburg University. Since 2019, I work as a doctoral student at the division for Learning, Communication and IT at the Department of Applied IT and am part of the Graduate Research School in Educational Sciences at the Centre for Educational Sciences and Teacher Research. My research focuses on datafication in schools. Drawing on the theoretical framing of assemblage theory, I investigate datafied processes and enacted practices by unpacking the relational arrangements of policy and data infrastructures.
Tiago Lapa is assistant professor at Iscte, director of the Master’s degree in World Internet Studies at the same institute and an integrated researcher at CIES_Iscte. Develops research and participates in COST and Erasmus + programs and in international scientific networks such as the World Internet Project and the European MediaCoach Initiative, related to internet studies, the digital divide and new media literacy. He is also on the advisory board of the Safe Internet Center of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). His scientific work has been published in books, chapters and articles in national and international journals.