In January 2025 a group of us met at the Digital Methods Winter School at the University of Amsterdam to explore how TikTok was used during and after the elections.
We explored ways of playing back election TikTok video collections to understand what happened.
We experimented with formats for retrospective display – drawing inspiration from creative coding, algorithmic composition, multiperspective live action replays, and the aesthetics of forensic reconstruction.
Following research on visual methods for studying folders of images (Niederer and Colombo, 2024; Colombo, Bounegru & Gray, 2023) and analytical metapicturing (Rogers, 2021), these formats display multiple videos simultaneously to surface patterns and resonances across them.
Beyond evaluating informational content, group replay formats can also highlight the everyday situations, aesthetics and affective dimensions of election TikTok videos – from sexualised lip-syncing to rousing AI anthems, sponsored micro-influencer testimonials to post-communist nationalist nostalgia.
We explored two approaches for critically replaying Romanian election videos: making video composites based on viral candidate soundtracks, and making post-election hashtag soundscapes. For the former we used a Python script to display videos by theme and adjust opacity according to play count. For the latter we used soundscaping scripts developed as part of the Forestscapes project.
For the video composites we used as case studies two viral soundtracks associated with ultranationalist Călin Georgescu and the centre-right, pro-EU, Save Romania Union candidate Elena Lasconi.
Our preliminary findings indicate that successful pro-Georgescu propaganda using the “SustinCalin Georgescu” soundtrack relies on memetic imitation of the message and affective resonances of the song. TikTok influencers and everyday users translate these into popular formats such as lipsyncs and ASMR videos effectively blending textual, visual, and audio elements.
Gender, sexuality and race are prominent themes in the most engaged with propagandist videos for both campaigns. In pro-Georgescu content, popular endorsement videos often feature white women in either sexualised roles or domestic family settings. Homophobic and transphobic videos with male characters in dresses parody the opponent’s and her party’s association with LGBTQ issues, fuelling the audience’s strong emotions towards minoritised groups.
For the “Hai Lasconi la Putere” propagandistic song, the most significant finding is its successful appropriation for counter-propaganda to spread racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic content targeting minoritised groups. These videos do not only target Lasconi but more worryingly these groups themselves, amplifying fears and prejudices, as often reflected in the comments.
The second technique we explored was post-election hashtag soundscaping. We examined hashtags such as: #anularealegeri, #aparamdemocratia, #calingeorgescupresedinte, #cg, #cinetaceestecomplice #demisiaccr, #demisiaiohanis, #lovituradestat, #romaniatacuta, #romaniavanduta, #stegarul, #stegaruldac and #votfurat.
For example, in the #stegaruldac soundscape the simultaneous replay of TikTok video soundtracks associated with this hashtag enables a synthetic mode of attending not only to the content of propaganda but also to the various settings in which propaganda unfolds in everyday life (e.g. in the home and on the street) as well as associated affective atmospheres.
You can explore our project poster and some of our video composites and soundscapes here.
We are proud to announce the publication of a special issue for the Sociologica journal, where we take an early stock of the ways in which social scientists have begun to play with so-called “generative artificial intelligence” as both research instruments and research objects.
Because the encounter between AI and social science is still very new, the special issue aims at breadth rather than depth, and hopes to highlight the diversity of the experiments that researchers have been running since the launch of popular chatbots such as ChatGPT or Stable Diffusion. At the same time, it also takes a specific stance inspired by the digital methods approach (Pilati, Munk & Venturini, 2024), its effort to overcome the quali-quantitative divide and its focus on digitally native methods.
The contributions to the special issue investigate how AI — initially developed for tasks like natural language processing and image generation — is being repurposed to meet the specific demands of social inquiry. This involves not only augmenting existing research methods, but also fostering new, digitally native and quali-quantitative techniques.
In his contribution, Gabriele de Seta (2024) introduces the concept of synthetic probes as a qualitative approach to explore the latent space of generative AI models. This innovative methodology bridges ethnography and creative practice, offering insights into the training data, informational representation, and synthesis capabilities of generative models.
In their contribution, Jacomy & Borra (2024) provide a critical examination of LLMs’ limitations and misconceptions, particularly focusing on their knowledge and self-knowledge capabilities. Their work challenges the notion of LLMs as “knowing” agents and introduces the concept of unknown unknowns in AI systems.
Studying model outputs can also focus on validation. Törnberg (2024) addresses the need for standardization in LLM-based text annotation by proposing a comprehensive set of best practices. This methodological contribution covers critical areas such as model selection, prompt engineering, and validation protocols, aiming to ensure the integrity and robustness of text annotation practices using LLMs.
Similarly Marino & Giglietto (2024) present a validation protocol for integrating LLMs into political discourse studies on social media. Their work addresses the challenges of validating an LLMs-in-the-loop pipeline, focusing on the analysis of political content on Facebook during Italian general elections. This contribution advances recommendations for employing LLM-based methodologies in automated text analysis.
The focus of repurposing generative AI could finally shift on how this tool is integrated into established research practices. Omena et al. (2024) thus introduce the AI Methodology Map, a framework for exploring generative AI applications in digital methods-led research. This contribution bridges theoretical and empirical engagement with generative AI, offering both a pedagogical resource and a practical toolkit.
Rossi et al. (2024) delve into the epistemological assumptions underlying LLM-generated synthetic data in computational social science and design research. Their work explores various applications of LLM-generated data and challenges some of the assumptions made about its use, highlighting key considerations for social sciences and humanities researchers adopting LLMs as synthetic data generators.
All of these approaches go beyond mere criticism of AI, and recognize that AI can have an astonishing broad range of useful research applications provided that social sciences learn to understand their perspectives and biases and actively shape and repurpose these technologies for their research needs.
Marino, G., & Giglietto, F. (2024). Integrating Large Language Models in Political Discourse Studies on Social Media: Challenges of Validating an LLMs-in-the-loop Pipeline. Sociologica, 18(2), 87–107. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/19524
Omena, J.J. (2024). AI Methodology Map. Practical and Theoretical Approach to Engage with GenAI for Digital Methods-led Research. Sociologica, 18(2), 109–144. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/19566
Pilati, F., Munk. A.K., & Venturini, T. (2024). Generative AI for Social Research: Going Native with Artificial Intelligence. Sociologica, 18(2), 1–8.
Rossi, L., Shklovski, I., & Harrison, K. (2024). Applications of LLM-generated Data in Social Science Research. Sociologica, 18(2), 145–168. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/19576
This roundtable fosters dialogue about the current state of digital methods for Internet research in Brazil. We seek to celebrate emerging research practices and kick off a Global South network, situating them within a transitional methodological moment in which digital methods and methodologies have been built with, in and about AI, web platforms and data visualisation. This roundtable does not provide an exhaustive overview of digital methods in Brazil. Instead, it focuses on approaches specifically developed within the Brazilian context, offering unique perspectives on the field. 🇧🇷
🔗You are welcome to join the Digital Methods Global South Network by collaborating with us to map Digital Methods in Brazil (click here!) The results of this form will be displayed here and updated continuously 🤓.
Join us in person or online! ✨👩🏻💻❣️
What Digital Methods are we talking about?
The digital methods we discuss are known as a means to repurpose the functioning of dominant web platforms, search engines and online data for social research. Also, considering the technicity of AI and computational medium, these methods invite researchers to (re) think and create new ways of designing and implementing research methods. Digital Methods have been used to advance social media research, media and OSINT studies, and digital investigation.
Digital methods are crucially situated in the technological environments they utilise and build on: the web environments, data, technologies and practices, and software for data curation, analysis and visualisation. In this sense, designing and implementing digital methods integrates i) the technical aspects of web environments, technologies, objects, and AI but also respects ii) online (sub) cultures of use while iii) actively and critically engaging withcapturing, analysis and visualisation software in their own language. These pillars not only inform, (re)shape and add new layers of meaning to the object of study but also form the epistemological foundation of knowledge central to digital methods.
A hybrid round-table at King’s College London
This hybrid round table will discuss the current status of digital methods research in Brazil and what one can understand as “methods” when advancing research with the web as a methodological landscape. Rather than defining an exhaustive landscape of the practice, it aims to open up discussions about the role of digital methods in humanities and social sciences and their broad societal impact from a Brazilian perspective. What are the emerging creative methods developed in Brazil that leverage the web, its technologies and data to address research questions starting online/offline? Which digital methods are being implemented, and what for? What are their relevance and broader implications for studying digital media and culture in the country? Who is developing digital methods and research software? How are Brazil’s gender and race-diverse perspectives advancing the field?
In this celebrative encounter, panellists will discuss: a mapping of initiatives and labs across five Brazilian regions within this context, the convergences and possibilities of connecting digital methods with traditional (Digital) Media and Communication Studies schools, and the history of software development for digital methods research in Brazil and its challenges.
A quick-and-dirty Historical Context of Digital Methods in Brazil
⚠️ Spoiler Alert: This is a simplified and brief overview rather than a comprehensive introduction to digital methods and their historical context in Brazil.
In early 2011, three women started the first steps of digital methods in Brazil with the book “Métodos de Pesquisa para Internet” (2011), published by Sulina in Porto Alegre, Brazilian South Region. Suely Fragoso, Raquel Recuero and Adriana Amaral introduce methodological approaches that account for the Internet as an object of research (the subject being studied), a research environment (the setting where research is conducted) and a research instrument (e.g., a tool for data collection on a specific topic). Examples are network visualisation using online data, hyperlinks and ethnographic analysis for internet studies. In 2012, Fernanda Bruno founded the MediaLab.UFRJ at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazilian Southeast Region. Based in the School of Communication, the lab focuses on techno-politics, subjectivities, and visibilities, using digital methods for data analysis and visualisation in the humanities.
In 2013, in the “golden” era of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram APIs, research labs such as Labic in Espirito Santo advanced digital methods for social media research to monitor and study the 2013 protests in Brazil, also known as June Journeys. This series of nationwide demonstrations claimed to stop corruption and improve public services, among other grievances. The lab, constituted by a multidisciplinary team of coordinators, has significantly contributed to the growth of digital methods in Brazil by showing the impact and relevance of repurposing web data and technologies in a societal context. The book “A Comunicação das Coisas: Teoria Ator-Rede e Cibercultura” (2013) by André Lemos became an early influence on the methodological thinking that emphasises the agency of media and their mediations in shaping digital phenomena. Lemos’ research lab LAB404 (founded in 2006) at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Brazilian Northeast Region, and work, drawing from Science and Technology Studies (STS), while being characterised by a conceptual framework, his advocacy for addressing the technical affordances of media in communication studies laid foundational groundwork aligned with the principles of digital methods and their development in Brazil.
In 2016, the data journalism Coda.BR event in São Paulo emerged to provide training for journalists, researchers, and data enthusiasts in Brazil, and it later became known as the Brazilian Conference on Data Journalism and Digital Methods. Everton Zanella Alvarenga, then-executive director of Open Knowledge Brazil, and journalists Natália Mazotte and Marco Túlio Pires, were instrumental in implementing the project in Brazil. In the same year, the Brazilian Institute of Research and Data Analysis (IBPAD) and the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) played pivotal roles in advancing digital methods in Brazil. The former is by offering courses and publications covering techniques for monitoring and researching social media. The latter is through the Department of Public Policy Analysis (DAPP Lab), which developed methodologies to meet academic needs and produced reports to serve the public through multidisciplinary research. In 2017, the Advanced Studies Center on Digital Democracy (CEADD) of UFBA became the central laboratory of the National Institute of Science and Technology for Digital Democracy (INCT.DD). This initiative has focused on understanding how media and networks shape political and social phenomena, such as the rise of the far-right, misinformation, and electoral campaigns.
In 2019, Métodos Digitais: Teoria-Prática-Crítica (2019), edited by Janna Joceli Omena, marks the launch of the first book in Portuguese on digital methods, gathering seminal and original texts authored by key Brazilians and International researchers in the field. The book addresses digital methods from a theoretical, practical, and critical perspective and has been adopted by several Brazilian universities to introduce these methods. Since 2019, research groups and labs have been established in the country, including the principles and practice of digital methods. For instance, the R-EST research group of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), under Carlos D’Andrea’s coordination, investigates how digital platforms mediate political and social interactions.
Programme
Opening14:00 – 14:15
Welcome & What digital methods are we talking about?
Janna Joceli Omena (in person)
This opening statement unpacks digital methods from conceptual and practical perspectives. It will focus on how the practice of digital methods enables researchers to conduct digital fieldwork and gain a deeper understanding of their study topic through the lens of three distinct yet interconnected pillars: (i) platform grammatisation, (ii) online (sub)cultures of use, and (iii) the affordances and limitations of computational media necessary for implementing the method.
Mapping research groups and labs developing digital methods across five Brazilian Regions: North, Northeast, Central-West, Southeast, South
Alan Angeluci (in person)
This presentation shares the findings of a bibliometric study that identifies Brazilian researchers and institutions from all five regions of the country who have published scientific works employing or focused on digital methods.
14:30 – 14:45
Digital Methods and Schools of (Digital) Media and Communication Studies: Convergencies and Possibilities in Brazil
Elias Bitencourt (online)
This talk briefly revisits key research schools and agendas within the field of media and communication studies in Brazil that have created favourable conditions for the emergence of initiatives focused on the research and development of digital methods in the country.
14:45 – 15:00
A brief history of software development for digital methods research in Brazil
Giulia Tucci (online)
This talk explores tools and methodologies developed in Brazil that are (or could be) used in digital methods research, highlighting innovative practices and localized contributions. Examining key projects and software initiatives showcases Brazil’s role in advancing digital research techniques and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.
Tea break
15:00 – 15:15
Discussant Commentary and Q&A Panellists
15:15 – 15:30
Critical commentary and insights
Richard Rogers (in person)
15:30 – 15:40
Q&A Panelists
📣You can join this Miroboard to ask questions 🙋🏿♀️🙋🏻🙋🏽♂️
This moment fosters dialogue about the current state of digital methods for Internet research in Brazil. We will use a shared document to promote dialogue, networking, and the launch of a Global South network.
📣You can join this Miroboard to engage in collective discussion and networking ✨
Alan is a Productivity Research Fellow (PQ-2) of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). Senior Lecturer at the Department of Information and Culture, School of Communications and Arts, University of São Paulo (ECA/USP), and at the Graduate Programs in Information Science and Communication Sciences (PPGCI and PPGCOM ECA/USP). Leader of the Smart Media and Users Research Group (SMU/CNPq) (smartmediausers.org). Conducted postdoctoral studies at ECA/USP and the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Holds a PhD from the Polytechnic School of USP, with a doctoral exchange period at the University of Brighton, England. Earned a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Architecture, Arts, Communication, and Design at São Paulo State University (UNESP). Main areas of teaching, research, and outreach include Data Visualisation, Digital Methods, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Digital Culture, and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
Elias Bitencourt
Elias is an Associate Professor in the Design Undergraduate Program at the State University of Bahia (UNEB), with a Ph.D. in Communication from FACOM/UFBA and a Master’s in Culture and Society from IHAC/UFBA. Visiting researcher at the Milieux Institute in Canada in 2019. Lead of Datalab/Design (CNPq) at UNEB, a research and development lab dedicated to data visualization and digital methodologies. Research interests include data visualization, digital methods, platform studies, digital imaginaries, and the social impacts of algorithmic mediation. Background in Design, Applied Social Sciences, Information Science, Digital Humanities, STS, Digital Methods.
Giulia Tucci
Giulia Tucci has a Ph.D. in Information Sciences (2023) from the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT) and the School of Communication at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She has a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from COPPE/UFRJ (2011) and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from PUC-Rio (2006). Since 2017, she has focused her studies on the information flow on digital platforms. Her doctoral research investigated the flow of information (and disinformation) on Telegram during the 2022 electoral campaign in Brazil. Her expertise spans computational social sciences, political studies, and digital methods. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher in a joint program between IBICT and UFRJ, as well as a visiting researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, contributing to the CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security program.
Richard Rogers
Richard Rogers is Professor of New Media and Digital Culture, Media Studies and Director of the Digital Methods Initiative, Humanities Labs, University of Amsterdam. He is author of Information Politics on the Web, Digital Methods (both MIT Press) as well as Doing Digital Methods (Sage).
Meet the Moderators
Janna Joceli Omena
Janna is from Northeast Brazil, Pernambuco, Recife, and has a PhD in Digital Media from NOVA University Lisbon. She is the author of Métodos Digitais: Teoria-Prática-Crítica (2019), the first edited collection on digital methods in Portuguese, bringing together seminal and original texts. In Lisbon, Portugal, she founded the SMART Data Sprint (2016-2023), an initiative that provided a platform for teaching and developing digital methods, benefiting hundreds of participants and collaborators. Sheis a Digital Methods Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at King’s College London. Janna’s work focuses on understanding the epistemological dimensions of AI, web technologies, digital objects, and research software in designing and implementing methods and their role in research and knowledge production. Her research explores the practice and theory of digital methods, where she investigates the technicity of computational media from conceptual, technical, and empirical perspectives. She applies this knowledge to develop accessible and reproducible methodologies, supporting collaborations that build research software for analysing visual media content and online data.
Thais Lobo
Thais Lobo holds an MA in Digital Humanities from King’s College London and is currently engaged in ERC-funded research projects within the Departments of Digital Humanities and War Studies (Digisilk and Security Flows, respectively). As a media researcher and practitioner, she combines data analysis and research outreach to disseminate critical insights into digital platforms and online cultures. She has applied digital methods to explore social issues like health disinformation, political bots, greenwashing, climate change denial, datafication and digital surveillance in interdisciplinary projects collaborating with external organisations in the UK. Her experience includes roles in the media and research fields in Brazil.
Contact
Janna Joceli Omena, J.J.Omena@kcl.ac.uk
Thais Lobo, thais.matias@kcl.ac.uk
Acknowledgements
Janna Joceli Omena led the ideation of the event and authored this page, with contributions from Thais Lobo, Elias Bitencourt, Giulia Tucci and Alan Angelluci to the overall discussion and editorial work, bringing their experience on the Brazilian academic landscape. Bitencourt has also contributed to the section A Quick-and-Dirty Historical Context of Digital Methods in Brazil. Many thanks to Charlotte and Iryna for providing event logistics support, and special thanks to Jonathan Gray and Liliana Bounegru for their support in making this event possible.
The Media of Cooperation Research Centre at the University of Siegen is hiring a Digital Methods Research Associate. Further details can be found here and copied below.
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Job title: Research Associate – Digital Methods / Scientific Programmer (SFB 1187)
Area: Faculty I – Faculty of Philosophy | Scope of position: full-time | Duration of employment: limited | Advertisement ID: 6274
We are an interdisciplinary and cosmopolitan university with currently around 15,000 students and a range of subjects from the humanities, social sciences and economics to natural sciences, engineering and life sciences. With over 2,000 employees, we are one of the largest employers in the region and offer a unique environment for teaching, research and further education.
In Faculty I – Faculty of Philosophy, SFB 1187 Media of Cooperation, we are looking for a research assistant in the field of Digital Methods/Scientific Programming as soon as possible under the following conditions:
100% = 39.83 hours
Salary group 13 TV-L
limited until December 31, 2027
YOUR TASKS
Support in the development and teaching of digital research methods within the framework of the SFB Media of Cooperation and teaching in the media studies courses.
Development, implementation and updating of software tools for working with digital research methods, as well as further development of existing open source research software, such as 4CAT.
Support in the collection, analysis and visualization of data from online media within the framework of the research projects of the SFB Media of Cooperation, especially in the area of social media platforms, audiovisual platforms, generative AI, apps and sensory media.
Administration and maintenance of the digital research infrastructure for data collection, archiving and analysis
Participation in the planning and implementation of media science research projects
Technical support for workshops and events
Networking with developers of research software, also internationally
Teaching obligation: 4 semester hours per week
YOUR PROFILE
Completed academic university degree (diploma, master’s, magister, teaching qualification, comparable foreign degree) in computer science, business informatics, media studies or a related discipline
Experience with system administration and support of server environments (Linux) as well as the operation of web-based applications (e.g. 4CAT)
Very good knowledge of developing applications with Python and database systems (MySQL or similar) or willingness to deepen this
Basic knowledge of web development with JavaScript, PHP, HTML, CSS, XML or willingness to acquire this
Affinity for working with data from platforms, apps, web or other data-intensive media, for example using scraping or API Retrieval
Ability to work in a team, creativity and very good communication skills
Fluent written and spoken English
Experience in the conception and development of research software and interest in supporting the research of the SFB Media of Cooperation
OUR OFFER
Promotion of your own scientific or artistic qualification in accordance with the Scientific Temporary Employment Act
Various opportunities to take on responsibility and make a visible contribution in the field of research and teaching
A modern understanding of leadership and collaboration
Good compatibility of work and private life, for example through flexible working hours and place of work as well as support with childcare
Comprehensive personnel development program
Health management with a wide range of prevention and advice services
We look forward to receiving your application by December 24, 2024.
Please only apply via our job portal (https://jobs.uni-siegen.de.) Unfortunately, we cannot consider applications in paper form or by email.
German language skills are nice to have, but not required.
How are digital objects such as hashtags, links, likes and images involved in the production of forest politics? This chapter explores this through collaborative research on the dynamics of online engagement with the 2019 Amazon forest fires. Through a series of empirical vignettes with visual materials and data from social media, we examine how digital platforms, objects and devices perform and organise relations between forests and a wide variety of societal actors, issues, cultures – from bots to boycotts, agriculture to eco-activism, scientists to pop stars, indigenous communities to geopolitical interventions. Looking beyond concerns with the representational (in-)fidelities of forest media, we consider the role of collaborative methodological experiments with co-hashtag networks, cross-platform analysis, composite images and image-text variations in tracing, eliciting and unfolding the digital mediation of ecological politics. Thinking along with research on the social lives of methods, we consider the role of digital data, methods and infrastructures in the composition and recomposition of problems, relations and ontologies of forests in society.
Here’s the book blurb:
Digital ecologies draws together leading social science and humanities scholars to examine how digital media are reshaping the futures of conservation, environmentalism, and ecological politics. The book offers an overview of the emerging field of interdisciplinary digital ecologies research by mapping key debates and issues in the field, with original empirical chapters exploring how livestreams, sensors, mobile technologies, social media platforms, and software are reconfiguring life in profound ways. The collection traverses contexts ranging from animal exercise apps, to surveillance systems on the high seas, and is organised around the themes of encounters, governance, and assemblages. Digital ecologies also includes an agenda-setting intervention by the book’s editors, and three closing chapter-length provocations by leading scholars in digital geographies, the environmental humanities, and media theory that set out trajectories for future research.
The annual Digital Methods Winter School in Amsterdam will take place on 6-10th January 2025 with the theme “Chatbots and LLMs for Internet Research?”. The deadline for applications is 9 December 2024. You can read more on this page (an excerpt from which is copied below).
The Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), Amsterdam, is holding its annual Winter School on ‘Chatbots for Internet Research?’. The format is that of a (social media and web) data sprint, with tutorials as well as hands-on work for telling stories with data. There is also a programme of keynote speakers. It is intended for advanced Master’s students, PhD candidates and motivated scholars who would like to work on (and complete) a digital methods project in an intensive workshop setting. For a preview of what the event is like, you can view short video clips from previous editions of the School.Chatbots and LLMs for Internet Research? Towards a Reflexive ApproachPositions now are increasingly staked out in the debate concerning the application of chatbots and LLMs to social and cultural research. On the one hand there is the question of ‘automating’ methods and shifting some additional part of the epistemological burden to machines. On the other there is the rejoinder that chatbots may well be adequate research buddies, assisting with (among other things) burdensome and repetitive tasks such as coding and annotating data sets. They seem to be continually improving, or at least growing in size and apparent promise. Researcher experiences are now widely reported: chatbots have outperformed human coders, ‘understanding’ rather nuanced stance-taking language and correctly labeling it better than average coders. But other work has found that the LLM labeling also has the tendency to be bland, given how the filters and safety guardrails (particularly in US-based chatbots) tend to depoliticise or otherwise soften their responses. As researcher experience with LLMs becomes more widely reported, there are user guides and best practices designed to make LLM findings more robust. Models should be carefully chosen, persona’s should be well developed, prompting should be conversational and so forth. LLM critique is also developing apace, with (comparative) audits interrogating underlying discrimination and bias that are only papered over by filters. At this year’s Digital Methods Winter School we will explore these research practices with chatbots and LLMs for internet research, with an emphasis on bringing them together. How to deploy and critique chatbots and LLMs at the same time, in a form of reflexive usage?
Applications: Key Dates
There are rolling admissions and applications are now being accepted. To apply please send a letter of motivation, your CV, a headshot photo and a 100-word bio to winterschool [at] digitalmethods.net. Notifications of acceptance are sent within 2 weeks after application. Final deadline for applications is 9 December 2024. The full program and schedule of the Winter School are available by 19 December 2024.
The @digitalmethods.net Winter School in Amsterdam will take place on 6-10th January 2025 with the theme “Chatbots and LLMs for Internet Research?”. Apply by 9th December. 📝✨ publicdatalab.org/2024/11/29/d… #digitalmethods
Further details can be found here and copied below.
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troubling AI: a call for screenshots 📸
How can screenshots trouble our understanding of AI?
This “call for screenshots” invites you to explore this question by sharing a screenshot that you have created, or that someone has shared with you, of an interaction with AI that you find troubling, with a short statement on your interpretation of the image and circumstances of how you got it.
The screenshot is perhaps one of today’s most familiar and accessible modes of data capture. With regard to Al, screenshots can capture moments when situational, temporary and emergent aspects of interactions are foregrounded over behavioural patterning. They also have a ‘social life’: we share them with each other with various social and political intentions and commitments.
With this call, we are aiming to build a collective picture of AI’s weirdness, strangeness and uncanniness, and how screenshotting can open up possibilities for collectivising troubles and concerns about AI.
This call invites screenshots of interactions with AI inspired by these examples and inquiries, accompanied by a few words about what is troubling for you about those interactions. You are invited to interpret this call in your own way: we want to know what you perceive to be a ‘troubling’ screenshot and why.
Please send us mobile phone screenshots, laptop or desktop screen captures, or other forms of grabbing content from a screen, including videos or other types of screen recordings, through the form below (which can also be found here) by 15th November 202410th December 2024.
There will be a launch event for the Convergence special issue on critical technical practice(s) in digital research on Wednesday 10th July, 2-4pm (CEST). This will include an introduction to the special issue, brief presentations from several special issue contributors, followed by discussion about possibilities and next steps. You can register here.
The special issue explores the pluralisation of “critical technical practice”, starting from its early formulations by Philip Agre in the context of AI research and development to the many ways in which it has resonated and been taken up by different publications, projects, groups, and communities of practice, and what it has come to mean. This special issue serves as an invitation to reconsider what it means to use this notion drawing on a wider body of work, including beyond Agre.
A special issue introduction explores critical technical practices according to (1) Agre, (2) indexed research, and (3) contributors to the special issue, before concluding with questions and considerations for those interested in working with this notion.
The issue features contributions on machine learning, digital methods, art-based interventions, one-click network trouble, web page snapshotting, social media tool-making, sensory media, supercuts, climate futures and more. Contributors include Tatjana Seitz & Sam Hind; Michael Dieter; Jean-Marie John-Mathews, Robin De Mourat, Donato Ricci & Maxime Crépel; Anders Koed Madsen; Winnie Soon & Pablo Velasco; Mathieu Jacomy & Anders Munk; Jessica Ogden, Edward Summers & Shawn Walker; Urszula Pawlicka-Deger; Simon Hirsbrunner, Michael Tebbe & Claudia Müller-Birn; Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra & Stijn Peters; Carolin Gerlitz, Fernando van der Vlist & Jason Chao; Daniel Chavez Heras; and Sabine Niederer & Natalia Sanchez Querubin.
There will be a hybrid event to launch the special issue on 10 July, 2-4 pm CEST.
If you’re interested in critical technical practices and you’d like to follow work in this area, we’ve set up a new mailing list here for sharing projects, publications, events and other activities: https://jiscmail.ac.uk/CRITICAL-TECHNICAL-PRACTICES