Big Data and Media: Impacts and Implications
Horizontal Integration
Control a significant slice of specific media sectors.
Neoliberalism
Free market ideology.
Cultural Imperialism
The idea that one culture can influence or dominate another.
Raymond Williams
The first analyst to notice that TV isn’t just pictures but flow. TV and drama are built into our daily lives.
McLuhan
Technology is an extension of man.
Media Formats and Their Features
- Web: Multimedia, applications, caller feedback, visuals, audio.
- Call-in TV: Caller feedback, visuals, audio.
- Talk radio: Caller feedback, audio.
- TV: Visuals, audio.
Civic Relevance of New Media Formats
- Political entertainment TV.
- Political talk radio.
- Political call-in TV.
- Electronic town hall forums.
- Internet.
Netwar in the Philippines
Lost power to a smart mob (a group of people who act collectively using mobile phones). Generation Text was born and brought down a government without firing a shot. It was an early eruption of smart mob behavior. The same happened with the WTO in Seattle, where people protested the meeting with phones, websites, etc.
Importance of the Fairness Doctrine
Designed to ensure listeners were exposed to both sides of an issue. Once required radio and TV broadcasters to devote time to public issues. It decreased the possibility of group polarization.
Linear vs. Nonlinear Media Systems
Linear mass media system: Technology access is the first step; users must get the system connection first before accessing any content.
Nonlinear model (interactive internet): Access is a process of content creation.
Constitutional Question: Are We To Be a Free Society?
Every society has resources that are free or controlled.
Freeing Cultural and Intellectual Resources
Is vital to the creation and sharing of new art forms.
Destiny of the Internet
The early promise to establish many-to-many communication eventually turned into a commercialized medium.
Apple Computer Slogan
Rip (copy), mix (reform it), burn (publish it). Rap.
Culture Needs to Combine
Create and share. Communication is all about sharing; keep barriers to creativity as low as possible.
Accountability
Without accountability, openness and freedom are never possible. It’s a fundamental ingredient.
Big Data Ascendancy: Three Shifts
Three shifts represent the way we analyze information and transform how we understand and analyze society:
- More: Analyze a lot of data about one topic rather than smaller sets.
- Messy: Embrace real-world messiness rather than perfection.
- Good enough: Respect for connection rather than looking for something hard to find.
Statistics allow Graunt to infer population size.
More data leads to better results and algorithms.
Google Translate
Microsoft researchers Banko and Brill improved word analysis. They fed more data into the system and got astonishing results. As more data went in, the performance of algorithms improved dramatically. A few years later, Google tested a trillion words and developed Google Translate.
Causality and the Experimental Method
Looking for correlation, the deeper search for causality will take place after big data has done its work.
The End of Theory?
As we transition from a hypothesis-driven world to a data-driven world, we are tempted to think that we no longer need theories.
Datafication
Taking information generated for one purpose and converting it to something else.
Quantification, Standardization, and Collection
We need a method to measure, a standardized way to note the measurements, and an instrument to monitor and record data. Then we can store and analyze location not as a place per se, but as data.
Metadata
Information about information.
Quantified Self
Self-tracking with technology.
Three Ways to Unleash Data’s Option Value
- Basic reuse.
- Merging datasets.
- Twofers.
Data is a platform.
Google vs. Amazon: Data Strategies
Their strategies differ. When Google first set out to collect data, it had secondary uses in mind. Amazon is more focused on the primary use of data.
Secondary use of data: Data that was collected for some other purpose.
“Moneyball”
Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane looked at the game from a new set of metrics. His data-driven approach revealed a dimension to the sport that had always been present but hidden. Data showed that stealing bases was inefficient. Beane used the method of Sabermetrics (baseball statistics that measure in-game activity).
“Minority Report”
Shows the impact of big data and the use of predictions to judge us. It depicts a society in which predictions seem to be so accurate that the police arrest people before they commit crimes since data predicts it. This big data analysis threatens to bring judgments based on predictions of future behavior.
Big Data and Profiling
Find a common association, define a group, and place them under observation. This can lead to discrimination and guilt by association.
Big Data: To Inform, Not Explain
Big data is a resource and tool that points us toward understanding.