Begin forwarded message: > > Call for papers: Workshop leading to an edited book > > Social media as politics by other means: > > How architecture and algorithms affect online political discourse > > Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, April 11, 2011 > > The rise of social media platforms, coupled with powerful search engines and a new economy of web-based advertising, is driving change across a variety of social sectors, but most especially in politics. To better understand this situation, and develop an edited book manuscript, a small group of scholars will be assembling at Rutgers University on April 11, 2010. > > Issue > > Media and political institutions seek to harness the power of algorithms to better predict the interests of readers, citizens, customers and supporters. Most of these data and algorithms exist behind firewalls or within a black box unavailable for public inspection. Hence, little is known about the way in which content seems to appear on political blogs and websites, and how political alerts and solicitation e-mails and other forms of political communication are designed and to whom they are dispatched. In a sense, a circle is closing in upon itself: what people find available to read on blogs is influenced by what people read previously; the messages that people receive from political or commentary sites are strongly influenced by what they and like-minded people have already responded to or, in some cases, even simply opened. > > The technologies of content selection and message emission are powerfully influencing what the politically engaged and attentive public sees, thinks about and discusses. Yet for most people, these technologies are invisible: they seem to think that the issues to which they attend, such as those highlighted on their favorite blogs and other outlets, is a result of human judgment and editorial selection. By contrast, it appears that architecture and algorithms are often responsible for these seeming judgments. > > Our interest is in understanding how these architectural and algorithmic technologies affect social media content and messaging concerning politics. We also wish to understand how the results of the operation these technologies are perceived by the attentive public. Although much interest has been devoted to questions of political campaigns, our focus is on ordinary political discourse. That is, we want to understand how technologies of system architecture and behavioral metering affect political process of the public on a daily basis. As such, we step outside the campaign mode and examine important, but often overlooked, processes concerning the use of social media and political socialization and influence as a backdrop of daily life. > > Workshop logistics > > To explore these issues in depth, our workshop will bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines to share research and foster discussion around the social and political impacts of the new "analytics"-based data environment. The workshop is scheduled for April 11, 2011 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (New Brunswick is easily accessible by train from Manhattan, Philadelphia, or Newark Liberty International Airport.) > > Papers will be distributed in advance, and then presenters will gather to discuss and debate each other’s work. The papers will then be developed into an edited volume on the subject. We plan to invite a small number of additional scholars besides those who will be contributing papers to serve as discussants. Due to space limitations, the workshop itself will not be open to the public. > > Invitation > > We have already invited some chapter authors and are now soliciting a small number of additional papers on subjects related to social media, online data, and changing political and media institutions for publication as book chapters. We would like to hear from potential participants/chapter authors interested in contributing empirical papers covering a range of topics, including: > > -political news-reporting in the new media environment > -the political economy of new media organizations > -interest groups and social movement organizations > -politicians and political actors on twitter, Facebook, blogs and YouTube > -new media tools relying on the novel data environment > -the social implications of the data algorithms themselves > -collective action, online and offline > > We are particularly interested in works that cover both the political left and the political right from a dispassionate and data-driven perspective. We are also primarily interested in papers that look beyond elections to understand social media and politics in daily life. > > Organizers > > Co-organizers: James E Katz and Dave Karpf > School of Communication and Information > Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 USA > Karpf: www.davidkarpf.com > Katz: http://cmcs.rutgers.edu/director/index.html > > Contact > > David Karpf email: dkarpf@rutgers.edu > > >