UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Kelley Cotter, assistant professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), was awarded the Tom O’Regan Visiting Fellowship by the University of Queensland (UQ).
According to the UQ’s School of Communication and Arts website, the fellowship honors a legacy of cross-disciplinary analysis in media, communication and tradition and promotes public lectures, talks and roundtables as the coronary heart of mental life at the college.
In the following Q&A, Cotter mentioned how the fellowship ties in along with her analysis on social media algorithms.
Q: How did this award come to be?
Cotter: I used to be invited because of this of curiosity in my analysis amongst the faculty and college students at UQ’s School of Communication and Arts. Nicholas Carah, who coordinates the fellowship, shared that the invitation was particularly pushed by graduate college students affiliated with the faculty’s Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies, which he directs. The fellowship entails giving a public lecture, main a masterclass for researchers and graduate college students and offering casual consultations with faculty and graduate college students working in associated areas.
Q: How does the fellowship relate to your analysis?
Cotter: It’s awarded to researchers whose analysis in media and cultural research has impressed these at the college’s School of Communication and Arts. My lecture can be given as half of a symposium entitled “Darkness to hyper-visibility: Exploring promotional and creator cultures of social media,” which is hosted by the Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies. The symposium aligns with my work on digital cultures, particularly social media creators and algorithms and the way on a regular basis customers perceive and work together with these programs.
Q: What is the focus of your lecture?
Cotter: I’ll journey to Australia to current a chat titled, “Platform Epistemology: Shaping Algorithmic Knowledge in the Visibility Game.” This work is an element of my forthcoming e book, “Critical Algorithmic Literacy: From Everyday Knowledge to Bottom-Up Governance,” below contract with Oxford University Press. The discuss focuses on how social media influencers study algorithms so as to construct and maintain their audiences. My key argument is that platforms like Instagram don’t simply management who and what will get seen on-line. They additionally form how individuals study algorithms, which deepens their management over inventive work, labor situations and inequality in on-line tradition.
Q: What is the focus of your masterclass?
Cotter: It’s referred to as “Does the Algorithm Know Me Better Than I Know Myself?” Participants will examine how social media platforms and their algorithms form the development of identification, influencing not solely what customers encounter but in addition how they arrive to grasp themselves and others.
Through a mix of conceptual grounding and hands-on actions, contributors will collaboratively analyze social media feeds to contemplate how customers and types leverage platform options to sign identification, how they attune themselves to algorithms and the way algorithmic curation makes sure identification traits salient. The workshop will conclude by specializing in methodological apply to assist contributors domesticate methods for incorporating social media content material and feeds into analysis designs, together with moral concerns.