Our class will be in conversation with Facebook's Sam Freeman about how platforms can police harms

On 22 March 2021 our MSc students will take part in a conversation with Sam Freeman from Facebook. Sam is Production Engineer in the Integrity Foundation team. He works on integrity systems to fight abuse at scale across all platforms; Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and others. Specifically, he helps ensure that these systems are reliable, scalable, and efficient when dealing with billions of users. Sam will give a short opening and then he will take your questions.

This conversation comes about because of talk in our Media, War & Conflict seminar this term about how social media platforms are trying to police users from posting content that could make conflict more likely. We know Facebook itself is implicated in action that brought ethnic cleansing in Myanmar (story here). We may know friends or family who have received hostile messages from anonymous users. Many of you will be familiar with the role of social media in other conflicts, terrorism and other atrocities, often close to home. We will ask Sam about how they are trying to manage that.

Thanks to our MSc student Abigail Swindlehurst for making this event happen.

Amber Macintyre - PhD success

Dr. Amber Macintyre has passed her PhD, titled, Campaigning by Numbers: The Role of Data-Driven Practices in Civil Society Organisations. Amber used ethnographic research to explore how campaign organisations Amnesty International and Tactical Tech follow what Amber calls 'data logic' despite their openly critical stance on the use of big data. Amber's thesis was examined by Dr. Alison Powell (LSE) and Prof. Karin Wahl-Jorgensen (Cardiff). Her supervisors were Ursula Hackett, Ben O’Loughlin, and Cristian Vaccari. You can read the abstract of her thesis below.

Congratulations!

Abstract

This research examines common claims about how personal data is used in political communication, focusing on civil society organisations (CSOs). Two ethnographic case studies are carried out to investigate the differences between an older membership-run CSO, Amnesty International, and a younger grant-funded CSO, Tactical Technology. The findings are threefold. Firstly, new civil society organisations, such as Avaaz, 38 Degrees and Change.org, assert that data-driven technologies support their efforts to decentralise strategy-setting power from their staff to their audience. However, both organisations in this research engage in data practices to persuade the audience to support the strategy set by organisational staff, corroborating the critical claims that data practices centralise power. Secondly, rhetoric around the uptake of new data practices has been based on the assumption that distinct data-driven ways of working have become normalised. The findings show, however, that these two CSOs still rely on face to face discussions, intuition, and relationships to make strategic decisions. Finally, decision-making surrounding data practices can be influenced by the opaque role of data scientists and the data technologies. The technology-era organisation was more likely to understand how to involve these agents in decision-making processes than the older organisation, which affected their ability to manage personal data. The research is significant in understanding the complexity and nuance in the adoption of new data practices. Further, the research makes a case for practitioners and researchers alike to be cautious about claims that data practices can support the decentralisation of strategy-setting power.

O'Loughlin publishes new book on EU-China strategic narratives

Ben O’Loughlin has published a new book, One Belt, One Road, One Story? Towards an EU-China Strategic Narrative. The book is with the prestigious Palgrave Studies in European Politics series and co-edited by Alister Miskimmon and Jinghan Zeng. In their previous work on strategic narrative, Ben and Alister have shown that when countries have alignment on how they view the past, present and future, then cooperation becomes possible. In this book they explore whether such alignment exists between the EU and China, two great powers that are seeking to manage world order. Through its Belt and Road Initiative China has expanded its relationships across several continents, while the EU and its member states also have long-standing ties in Africa and Asia. The result is a degree of competition and each pitching a direction for international relations to take — a direction that they hope other countries, companies and organisations will buy into.

This book show how central communication is to international relations. Anybody trying to understand how world order is changing should check out this book.

Collignon and O'Loughlin testify to Belgian Senate on fake news

On 27 November 2020 Sofia Collignon and Ben O’Loughlin were keynote speakers testifying to the Belgian Senate, presenting evidence of their research on digital politics. The Committee for Transversal Affairs of the Belgian Senate is currently preparing an information report on the necessary cooperation between the Belgian federal and regional governments in the fight against fake news.

Collignon talked to the Senate about how there is a fine line between misinformation, smear campaigns and intimidation. Her data show smear campaigns have strong emotional consequences for candidates. She has also found Important variations on the causes of smear campaigns depending on the kind of politician that is being targeted.

O’Loughlin began by noting the lack of large scale evidence about digital politics across multiple platforms, the problems of transparency when handling such data, and how citizens now require media literacy about how data is produced, circulated, shaped by algorithms, and other dimensions that make media literacy far more than simply knowing if a fact is true or false. He then gave a set of recommendations to policymakers and journalists.

NPCU expects the report to be published in 2021.

New article by O'Loughlin on the positive side of the disinformation panic

Ben O’Loughlin has published a new article arguing that debates about disinformation actually open a wider discussion about politics and democracy that can have positive consequences for public life. The article is Media Regime Disruption and the Conditions of Public Reflexivity, in International Journal of Communication. It is free to read and available here.

Ben shows that while disinformation gets attached to geopolitics, scandal and manipulation, it forces all to think about how connectivity can be better organised in a digital era and how the social can be better organised so that people have an understanding of the data they encounter. These are fundamental questions in this historical period. The transition from one media regime to another is just a part of that.

International Journal of Communication is ranked #3 in communication and #5 in the humanities. The article was written while Ben was Thinker in Residence at the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences in Brussels.

O'Loughlin review of the book Strategic Conspiracy Narratives is published

International Journal of Communication has published a book review by Ben O’Loughlin of Strategic Conspiracy Narratives by Mari-Liis Madisson and Andreas Ventsel. The review is free to read. If you want to know how citizens in different countries create conspiracy narratives about George Soros whenever anything is in the news, this is a good book. If you want to know how conspiracy narratives are constructed and used politically in the first place, this is an even better book.

New article by O'Loughlin on the role of visuality in the Iran nuclear deal

Ben O’Loughlin has published a new article, The visual politics of the Iran deal: narrative, image and verification. The article is in Cambridge Review of International Affairs, co-authored with Alister Miskimmon. In it, the authors argue that leaders in Iran and the US made deliberate attempts to orchestrate a shared narrative that it would suit all sides to reach a deal for Iran to have nuclear power and the international community to monitor Iran’s facilities. However, there was much visual evidence of efforts by Iran or by those against Iran to paint Iran in a good or bad light, respectively. Why? For an actor in international relations to be trusted by others, there should be visual evidence that they are behaving as others would desire. To have a credible identity requires others to “see” your character, and international relations provides a lot of each character or country to see. Despite these difficulties, the authors illustrate how Iran, the US and other leading powers agreed a deal.

The article should stimulate readers to think about how narrative and visuality are linked, and how actors try to do this strategically to build a positive impression of themselves, or, sometimes, a negative impression of others. Foreign policy involves some careful communication.

Ben is grateful to the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Bologna, where much of this research was conducted in 2016 while Ben was Visiting Professor there.

O'Loughlin talk on EU-Ukraine-Russia relations at #virtualBISA

Ben O’Loughlin gave a paper on 10 July 2020 at the British International Studies Association (BISA) annual conference, held digitally due to Covid-19. He and Alister Miskimmon presented analysis of interviews in the Baltic states and Ukraine concerning whether the Baltics can act as a bridge between Ukraine and the EU. Ukrainian membership of the EU has been discussed in Kiev and Brussels. It is a theme to talk about. However, it looks far from happening. Nevertheless, elites interviewed in Baltic states are enthusiastic about bringing Ukraine westward. Miskimmon and O’Loughlin looked at some of the ways self-interest drives competing narratives of a happy resolution to this process. Ultimately, whatever bridges the Baltic states and Ukraine build, their data suggests the real question is how the EU and Russia manage their relationship.

This paper was part of ongoing research in the E-Youth project funded by the Jean Monnet group.

Is a cyber-attack a message? New chapter on communication and cyber-security

NPCU’s Ben O’Loughlin and recent PhD Alexi Drew have published a chapter in Bill Dutton’s new volume, A Research Agenda for Digital Politics. They explore how security acts — like taking down a country’s bank services — can serve as a direct tool of communication. This shows that strategic narratives often only count if they follow decisive action and attribution of responsibility.

This is Alexi’s first published book chapter! Congratulations!

In the book, experts from several fields consider how digital politics is working. It is a great collection by Bill and features many former NPCU staff and guests. If you need an overview of the big questions experts are raising now, take a look.