New Media Monitoring and Data Analytics as Critical Practice
Digital Methods Winter School, Data Sprint and Mini-ConferenceÂ
Digital Methods Initiative |Âhttp://www.digitalmethods.net/
Media Studies | University of Amsterdam
The focus of this year's Winter School is on how online media monitoring is currently done by non-governmental (NGOs) such asÂtreealerts.org, and it seeks to identify practices that could fill in the notion of critical data analytics.ÂFor the occasion we have invited academics to present on the state of the art of online media monitoring by focusing on three areas where there is both innovation as well as repurposing of techniques normally associated with marketing, business intelligence and the work of digital agencies: issue discovery and language placement (who's carrying the conversation), engagement and public fund-raising (when do images and other engagement formats âworkâ?) and crisis communication (who is making the calls when there is a breakdown?). At the Winter School social media analysts and communications specialistsÂfrom NGOsÂwill present on the state of the art of media monitoring, their current analytical needs and what the Internet can continue to add with respect to new data sources as well as monitoring techniques.ÂWe will also ask each of the organizations to show us their dashboards.Â
The theme of the 2015 Winter School furthers the analytical collaboration between the Digital Methods Initiative and NGO media analysts, including Soenke Lorenzen ofÂGreenpeace International.ÂPreviously workshopÂfacilitators and collaborators have included representatives fromÂHuman Rights Watch,ÂAssociation for Progressive Communications,ÂWomen on Waves,ÂCarbon Trade Watch,ÂCorporate Observatory EuropeÂandÂFair Phone. In preparation for the sprint we also have developed how-to worksheets on New Media Monitoring and Tooling that take as their case studies NGO issue mappings with digital methods. Upon conclusion we aim to compile the Sprint projects from the Winter School, and combine them with the how-to sheets to produce an open access publication on NGO media monitoring. All participants are invited to contribute.
Digital Methods Winter School Data SprintÂ
A data sprint is a workshop format for intensive, empirical project work, where analysts, programers, designers and subject matter experts collaborate to output research. This year's data sprintÂis devoted to new media monitoring with data analytics, and particularly its critical practice. Broadly speaking, media monitoring is understood as the process of reading, watching or listening to the editorial content of media sources on a continuing basis, and then identifying, analyzing and saving materials that contain specific themes, topics, keywords, names, forms or formats.ÂMonitoring the editorial content of news sources including newspapers, magazines, trade journals, TV shows, radio programs and specific websites is by far the most common form of media monitoring, but most organizations increasingly monitor social media online, and its impact on the diffusion of news in all media or in online conversation (including the comment space) more generally. Most companies, government agencies, not-for-profit organizations utilize media monitoring as a tool to study the "meaning of mentions" of their organization, its campaigns and slogans, and gain some sense of the composition of their audiences, and what animates them (or keeps them quiet).During the first day of the data sprint academics studying online media monitoring will present the state of the art of the field, focusing on three areas: issue discovery and issue language placement (who is the carrying the conversation, and which voices are continually elided?), engagement and fundraising communication (how are audiences and funders reacting to so-called 'faces of need' and other formats and calls for engagement?) and crisis communication (when there is a breakdown, who makes the calls?). Representatives from leading NGOs will present to the attendees how they practice online media monitoring, the look of their dashboards and the analytical needs that drive them. What are these experts able to accomplish with the techniques available to them, and which questions remain unanswered? What are the critical media monitoring practices and questions that are specific to NGOs? How to conceptualize and operationalize issue discovery, engagement for fundraising and crisis monitoring? We will ask the NGO communications experts to address these questions. We also will ask them what they think digital methods and issue mapping may add to the outputs of media monitoring.
The conversations with the experts will serve as starting points for winter school attendees - including analysts, designers and programmers - to develop into empirical projects that aim to answer research questions, and develop further techniques for media monitoring online.
Digital Methods Mini-Conference at the Winter SchoolÂ
The annual Digital Methods Mini-Conference at the Winter School, normally a one-day affair, provides the opportunity for digital methods and allied researchers to present short yet complete papers (5,000-7,500 words) and serve as respondents, providing feedback. Often the work presented follows from previous Digital Methods Summer Schools. The mini-conference accepts papers in the general digital methods and allied areas: the hyperlink and other natively digital objects, the website as archived object, web historiographies, search engine critique, Google as globalizing machine, cross-spherical analysis and other approaches to comparative media studies, device cultures, national web studies, Wikipedia as cultural reference, the technicity of (networked) content, post-demographics, platform studies, crawling and scraping, graphing and clouding, and similar.
Key datesÂ
The deadline for application is 8 December 2014. To apply please send along a letter of motivation as well as your CV to winterschool [at]Âdigitalmethods.net,ÂwithÂDMI Winter School in the subject header. Notifications will be sent on 9 December. If you are participating in the Mini-conference the deadline for submission of paper titles, abstracts and bios is also 8 December,ÂwithÂDMI Mini-conference & Winter School in the subject header.ÂPlease send your materials to winterschool [at]Âdigitalmethods.netâ. To attend the Winter School, you need not participate in the Mini-conference. Deadline for submission of complete papers (5,000-7,500 words)â is 6 January 2015. The program and schedule are available on 7 January.Fees & LogisticsÂ
The fee for the Digital Methods Winter School 2015 is EUR 295. Bank transfer information will be sent along with the notification on 9 December 2014. The Winter School is self-catered. The venue is in the center of Amsterdam with abundant coffee houses and lunch places. Participants are expected to find their own housing (airbnb and other short-stay sites are helpful). During the week there is an evening at the Royal Academy with Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia. The Winter School closes on Friday with a festive event, after the final presentations. Here is a guide to the AmsterdamÂnew media scene. For further questions, please contact the organizers, Liliana Bounegru, Natalia Sanchez and Saskia Kok, at winterschool@digitalmethods.net.Â
About DMI
The Digital Methods Winter School is part of the Digital Methods Initiative, Amsterdam, dedicated to reworking method for Internet-related research. The Digital Methods Initiative holds the annual Digital Methods Summer Schools (eight to date), which are intensive and full time 2-week undertakings in the Summertime. The 2015 Summer School will take place 29 June - 10 July 2015. The coordinators of the Digital Methods Initiative are Sabine Niederer and Esther Weltevrede (PhD candidates in New Media & Digital Culture, University of Amsterdam), and the director is Richard Rogers, Professor of New Media & Digital Culture, University of Amsterdam. Liliana Bounegru is the managing director. Digital methods are online atÂhttp://www.digitalmethods.net/. The DMI about page includes a substantive introduction, and also a list of Digital Methods people, with bios. DMI holds occasional Autumn and Spring workshops, such as recent ones onÂmapping climate change and vulnerability indexesÂas well as onÂstudying right-wing extremism and populismÂonline. There is also aÂDigital Methods bookÂ(MIT Press, 2013),Âpapers and articlesÂby DMI researchers as well asÂDigital Methods tools.
See you in the winter time in Amsterdam!
Image credit:Â
Online resonance of the international climate change issue agenda, EMAPS data sprint, Amsterdam, April 2014. Â