Some last #SCMS24 posts:
The Boston Logan Airport is using the new facial recognition process in the TSA checkpoint. Just like other US airports that use this tech, you can and (in my opinion, should) decline to participate.
The entire program is opt-out, and they don't make it very clear that you're allowed to decline.
But just say "I'm opting out of the facial recognition" and then they'll check your ID and boarding pass manually. No intrusive image recognition.
Conferences really are such a marathon. But also feel like you’re sprinting the entire time.
But there have so many great ideas I’ve heard today, and so many amazing people (both old friends and new) that make it all worthwhile.
Liz Ellcessor’s great presentation draws connections between imaginations of the “home of the future” to modern smart home tech, including its problematic aspects (assumed ability to control a space, security as implying normalcy, etc.), but an interesting tension still where individuals can (and do) use tech to specifically serve their own needs.
@JessRauchberg makes a really important point in this presentation, that disability has not been adequately incorporated or considered within internet studies, which is a real detriment to the field.
Crip Data as a way to study online platforms seems incredibly promising (and useful), and also carves out some optimism for the future of the internet. I often fall into pessimism about the online world, so this work is always refreshing to see
An interdisciplinary book needs an interdisciplinary team behind it. Come by the Ideas on Fire booth in the #SCMS24 exhibitor hall to chat with Cathy Hannabach and learn how our team of developmental editors, copyeditors, book indexers, and publishing consultants can help get your book out into the world.
#SCMS2024 #MediaStudies #DigitalStudies #CommunicationStudies #FeministMediaStudies #QueerMediaStudies #TransMediaStudies
Look who stopped by the Ideas on Fire booth at #SCMS24! Big congrats to #IoFAuthors Johanna Brewer with Real Life in Real Time, Juan Llamas-Rodriguez with Border Tunnels, Liz Ellcessor with In Case of Emergency, and Josef Nguyen with The Digital Is Kid Stuff.
#SCMS2024 #IoFAuthorShelfie #MediaStudies #DigitalStudies #IdeasOnFire #ReadUP
Oops was respondent on a panel on Resisting Platformatization and went on a rant about if scholars really care about resistance they should leave X. #scms24
If you’re seeing all the #SCMS24 and #PCAACA2024 posts and battling #FOMO, don’t fear: you can totally participate in conferences from afar! Here are tips on how to stay engaged and active at conferences and other events you are interested in but can’t attend: https://ideasonfire.net/conference-participation/
Very cool to hear from Pranathi Diwakar about JQBX (jukebox), a music listening app that I’d never heard of before, but which offers a unique online “space” for social listening and community formation
Very interested to hear Olivia Sadler present her work examining how music listeners make sense of algorithmically personalized playlists. Things like Spotify’s DJ and “daylists” are relatively new, and many listeners (not just researchers) are working out what these new levels of personalization mean for individual experiences of music
Hesmondhalgh lays out Critical Platform Interface Analysis (CPIA) and compares the interfaces of major music streaming apps. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the apps look basically identical - which brings together the functional and aesthetic modes of engaging with music directly into contact with one another
Zhongwei Lei gives a great overview of the platformization of music in the Chinese context, describing the competing regimes of infrastructure driving music apps and websites. It’s an important aspect of history that isn’t always directly engaged with. Challenging the implicit narratives of “Spotification”, the Internet was never as open as we may have thought.
Early morning* #SCMS24 panel, with lots of interesting presentations
*not actually that early. But with a small time zone change plus recent DST shift, I’m going to let myself have this one
#SCMS24 folks looking ahead to tomorrow's schedule, please consider making your way to the fifth floor during the 3:15 session. I'm hoping that our panel on platforms and user resistance will be interesting and spark interesting conversation!
Day 1 of #SCMS24 is done and wow was that a great way to kick things off here in Boston. Thought-provoking presentations on caring for media archives, queer TV analysis, algorithm politics, environmental sensing, and so much more. Looking forward to tomorrow!
Whether you’re here in person or participating from home, check out our virtual conference hub with media studies books, conference resources, and podcast interviews.
https://ideasonfire.net/scms
Really appreciating the thorough and specific analyses of how the expansion of the data center industry is experienced and shaped within specific nations. It’s easy to point out the enormous energy demands of data centers and cooling them, but to begin building more sustainable networks means we need to look beyond the borders of the single node (individual facilities) to consider larger supply chains, extraction, and specific policies
Really thought-provoking discussion from Nicole Starosielski and Hunter Vaughan about what it’s been like to work alongside and within the undersea cable industry to promote sustainability efforts. Forming distinct relationships and fostering connections with “the industry” is not necessarily as taboo as many may think.
Always good, I think, when a talk leaves us thinking “what the hell are we even doing here?” and “what is the humanities trying to do anyway?”
