Simeon Yates keynote #cpci_napier

Ways of Being in a Digital
Age
(Or how we are all boiled frogs)
Professor Simeon J. Yates
Director Centre for Digital Humanities and Social Science
University of Liverpool

Topics I’m going to indulge in talking about
• ESRC Project
• A bit of history and why we are boiled frogs
• Anthropology, discourses and disciplines
• Some recent (and old) research or why social science should take this
stuff seriously

Project team
• The project team represents 16
universities from the UK, EU, USA
and Singapore.
• The core team of co investigators
from eight UK universities will
provide expertise across a range of
social science, arts, engineering
and science backgrounds.
• The team also includes a broader
international steering group.
3

Social science challenges
• Society has been dealing with the ever increasing and substantive impact of digital technologies
for more four decades
• One consistent finding is that many of the challenges society faces are not technical, and require
sociological, economic, political or economic analysis.
• In many cases they need a combined interdisciplinary approach, often in collaboration with
colleagues from computer science, engineering or other science disciplines.
• Some examples of such challenges include, but are certainly not limited to:
• digital exclusion • automation of work
• on-line politics • trust in online systems
• long-tail economics • cybercrime
4

Project foci
• The project will focus on seven ‘domains’:
1.Citizenship and politics
a) How digital technology impacts on our autonomy, agency and privacy – illustrated by the paradox of
emancipation and control
b) Whether and how our understanding of citizenship is evolving in the digital age – for example whether
technology helps or hinders us in participating at individual and community levels
2.Communities and identities
a) How we define and authenticate ourselves in a digital age
b) What new forms of communities and work emerge as a result of digital technologies – for example new forms
of coordination including large-scale and remote collaboration
3.Communication and relationships
a) How our relationships are being shaped and sustained in and between various domains, including family and
work
5

Project foci
• The project will focus on seven ‘domains’:
4. Health and wellbeing
a) Whether technology makes us healthier, better educated and more productive
5. Economy and sustainability
a) How do we construct the digital to be open to all, sustainable and secure?
b) What impacts might the automation of the future workforce bring?
6.Data and representation
a) How we live with and trust the algorithms and data analysis used to shape key features of our lives
7.Governance and security
a) What are the challenges of ethics, trust and consent in the digital age
b) How we define responsibility and accountability in the digital age
8. We also ran workshops on Work Automation, Digital Health and Robots in
Social Care
6

Methods
• For each domain, the project will undertake:
• A Delphi panel review of international experts’ opinions on the state of the
art in digital-facing social research.
• A ‘concept mapping’ of identified literature using digital humanities tools
• A systematic review of a sample of the literature
• Engagement events with non-academic stakeholders from the public and
private sectors
• An assessment of the theory and methods applied in each domain
7

What hath God wrought
First steps in the digital age…
La société numérique as the French say

Human communication in a technological age 2007
A long time ago in a world far, far way...
• Marshall McLuhan (1964-1968)
• The medium is the message...
• The global village…

A long time ago in a world far, far way...
• No internet…
• No mobile phones…
• No satellite TV…
• No fax machines…
• No text messages…
• No social media…

Numbers of communications media from pre-
history to the present
WritingLanguage
200,000 years
PrintWriting
8,000 years
Telegraph
Print
700 years
TelegraphPrint
700 years
Telegraph
Print
200 years
Telephone Internet
TV
“Social
Media”
150 years
Mass Newspapers

Global communication? Global village? Global culture?
New media 'destroy space and time'
New media create 'global culture'
New media allow global control and
communication in business and politics
New media will make us part of a
'global village'

Old communication? Old global village? Old global culture?
The telegraph will 'destroy space and time'
The telegraph will create 'global culture'
The telegraph will allow global control and
The telegraph will make us part of a
'global village'

The telephone will 'destroy space and time'
The telephone will create 'global culture'
The telephone will allow global control and
The telephone will make us part of a
'global village'

The television will 'destroy space and time'
The television will create 'global culture'
The television will allow global control and
The television will make us part of a
'global village'

Understanding digital society –
an interdisciplinary problem
Its all about purity and danger…
Digital is dangerously impure…

Third cultures and interdisciplinarity UKAIS 2015
Popper and the anthropologist…

Methodology and epistemology
Are certain problems inherently
interdisciplinary
and multidisciplinary?
What are the implications
of multi/inter disciplinarity?
What should
be a single discipline?
What are the core
features that define/
delineate approaches
to interdisciplinary research
The questions
What epistemological
positions are taken up in
interdisciplinary research?
What methodological
positions are taken up in
interdisciplinary research?
How are the material,
social, cultural and
technological constructed
in interdisciplinary
research?
What concepts and
theories can help us
assess these questions?

Methodology and epistemology
Is IS Research
interdisciplinary
and multidisciplinary?
What are the implications
of multi/inter disciplinarity?
Should IS Research
be a single discipline?
What are the core
features that define/
delineate approaches
to IS Research?
The questions
What epistemological
positions are taken up
in IS Research?
What methodological
positions are taken up
in IS Research?
How are the material,
social, cultural and
technological constructed
in IS Research?
What concepts and
theories can help us
assess these questions?

Its culture - stupid
(Care of James Carville/Bill Clinton, 1992)

Doing gender in 160 characters

Culture and SMS
• Women interacting with women
• ff436 Hi "name" how r u? Hows uni? Have u got your results yet? How did u do? We
get ours next wed. Take care luv "name" xx
• ff456 Hi "name" hope ur havin fun makin pancakes. If u want 2 o monsters inc we r
goin 2moro. My housemates r callin me coz they want 2 leave but im not ready!
Luv H.
• ff466 Hiya how was ur weekend? Is the puppy ok? Have u got ur results yet? If so
how did u do? What time r u goin 2 the cinema 2nite? Let me no + ill be ready. "name" xx
• ff476 Hi m8, puppy is lovely so tiny. I got results got social p.49, equal opp 54 +
survey 62. How did u do? "name" cant go 2nite but said we should go start 8.30 I come 2u
8.
• ff486 Hi r u feelin better? "name" is coming 2 london + she has told "name". R u
definitely goin 2 drive from MK coz we r gonna but our coach tickets 2day. Let me no asap.
X.
• ff496 hi hows u? im good + feelin much better thanx! Just told my mum that I wood be
drivin to hatfield sat-she was not 2 impressed but it will grow on her! Hows sheff?

Culture and SMS
• ff436 Hi "name" how r u? Hows uni? Have u got your results yet? How did u do? We
get ours next wed. Take care luv "name" xx
• ff456 Hi "name" hope ur havin fun makin pancakes. If u want 2 o monsters inc we r
goin 2moro. My housemates r callin me coz they want 2 leave but im not ready!
Luv H.
• Men interacting with men
• mm32334 In headingley r u at home? Tripod srorry I'm late.
• mm32434 phoned matthew
• mm32534 PROJECTOR SORTED!
• mm32634 CHEERS WOT WOZ IT?
• mm32734 INTERNAL FUSE
• mm32834 Just playing a match call you in a bit
• mm32934 Its 2 loud, missed your call, am in club til 2.

Culture and SMS
• ff436 Hi "name" how r u? Hows uni? Have u got your results yet? How did u do? We get ours next wed. Take care luv "name" xx
• ff456 Hi "name" hope ur havin fun makin pancakes. If u want 2 o monsters inc we r goin 2moro. My housemates r callin me coz
they want 2 leave but im not ready! Luv H.
• Men interacting with men
• mm32334 In headingley r u at home? Tripod srorry I'm late.
• mm32434 phoned matthew
• Mixed gender interactions
• fm507 Morning gorgeous hows it going this morning? ( :
• mf517 Pissing down with rain feel a tad full from last night and missing you like hell. Whats it like up there?
• fm527 cold and raining but luckily I don’t have to go out. Missing you to like mad.
• mf537 And your up early again. Still should be able to get loads done. I aint got much to do today at the mo so time not going
well. Less than 2 weeks to go
• fm547 yeh hopefully its freezing up here put the heating on and waiting for it to heat up before I have a shower and get started.
Its not long really just seems like it.
• mf557 Your telling me. Its only been four days seems like forever.
• fm567 I know keep thinking I've been here at least a week and a half.

But it’s the economy - stupid
(Properly care of James Carville/Bill Clinton, 1992)
Well actually its Bourdieu – but that’s not as catchy…

Approaches to social class
• Measurement
• UK government and media industry measures
• NSSEC socio-economic scales
• NRS socio-economic-status scales
• Broader social theory
• Bourdieu
• Class and culture
• Habitus
• Hoggart – uses of literacy

Types of digital inequality
• Different types of divide/inequality
• Access to digital technology
• Access or not
• Different levels of access
• Differences in levels of use
• Some people use digital technology more than others
• Differences in types of use
• People use digital technology for different things
• Differences in benefits from use
• Some people get more value out of using digital technology
• Differences in hazards from use
• Some people suffer more harm than others form using the technology

Factor Analysis
Table 1: Pattern and structure matrix for factor analysis
Pattern Matrix Structure Matrix Communalities
Factor Media Information Politics Formal Social Media Information Politics Formal Social
YouTube 0.709 0.136 -0.017 0.065 0.107 0.791 0.338 0.195 0.283 0.439 0.669
TV or films 0.696 0.115 0.075 0.123 -0.014 0.755 0.333 0.273 0.312 0.336 0.618
Music 0.676 0.007 -0.044 0.104 0.184 0.762 0.228 0.145 0.282 0.48 0.628
Games 0.647 -0.042 -0.09 -0.082 0.099 0.643 0.069 0.034 0.039 0.313 0.438
Radio 0.493 0.122 0.234 0.025 -0.039 0.559 0.293 0.37 0.2 0.226 0.394
Software 0.4 0.035 0.061 0.327 0.177 0.555 0.307 0.239 0.479 0.447 0.483
Health Information 0.022 0.729 -0.045 0.009 -0.019 0.168 0.722 0.151 0.284 0.156 0.523
Public services 0.039 0.718 0.063 0.086 0.026 0.238 0.783 0.28 0.393 0.242 0.629
News 0.203 0.644 0.09 -0.01 -0.042 0.345 0.699 0.295 0.285 0.198 0.535
Leisure time 0.152 0.568 -0.117 0.093 0.232 0.363 0.66 0.113 0.388 0.436 0.554
Holidays -0.219 0.515 -0.117 0.321 0.053 -0.047 0.573 0.038 0.473 0.16 0.461
Politics and campaigns 0.055 0.464 0.448 -0.128 0.065 0.253 0.559 0.567 0.165 0.218 0.520
Local news 0.092 0.451 0.284 0.039 0.037 0.274 0.57 0.434 0.295 0.228 0.425
Contact politician -0.115 -0.049 0.813 0.055 0.062 0.081 0.176 0.794 0.181 0.128 0.645
Sign a petition 0.132 0.05 0.641 0.092 -0.015 0.291 0.28 0.697 0.251 0.161 0.519
Banking and paying bills 0.046 -0.006 0.086 0.782 -0.095 0.177 0.31 0.226 0.778 0.157 0.619
Buying and selling 0.143 -0.064 -0.017 0.686 0.093 0.295 0.252 0.135 0.712 0.328 0.543
Government processes 0.135 0.199 0.105 0.585 -0.183 0.241 0.442 0.27 0.656 0.098 0.514
Email -0.177 0.119 -0.012 0.499 0.199 0.023 0.318 0.101 0.566 0.297 0.374
Chat and IM 0.122 -0.055 -0.127 0.073 0.631 0.35 0.114 -0.019 0.232 0.671 0.479
Twitter 0.07 -0.039 0.185 -0.039 0.622 0.342 0.154 0.265 0.171 0.654 0.467
Job or studies -0.153 0.271 0.062 0.048 0.591 0.166 0.409 0.188 0.304 0.614 0.475
Job opportunities 0.129 0.134 0.008 -0.127 0.582 0.369 0.251 0.124 0.118 0.63 0.434
Social networking sites 0.256 -0.026 -0.132 0.08 0.539 0.454 0.152 0.002 0.249 0.64 0.477
Website or blog 0.067 -0.148 0.324 0.182 0.473 0.327 0.133 0.395 0.332 0.56 0.455

Media Use
Predicted solely by Age

Information Seeking
Predicted by Age difference between 55+ and rest, or class
split by ABC1 vs C2DE

Political action
Predicted by class split by AB vs C1C2DE

Formal Transactions
Predicted by class across all categories

Social Use
Predicted by Age or by class split by ABC1 vs C2DE

Total Use
Predicted by age or class across all categories

Cluster analysis
Table 16: Seven potential user type clusters
Cluster
Factor mean
z-scores for
cluster
centroids 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Media Use -0.638 1.122 -0.693 0.899 0.775 0.465 -0.750
Information
seeking -0.698 0.505 -0.851 -0.460 0.946 0.804 0.801
Political
action -0.327 -0.016 -0.181 -0.501 2.889 0.465 -0.422
Formal
transactions 0.561 0.795 -1.154 -0.691 0.711 0.631 0.169
Social uses -0.328 1.275 -0.781 0.458 0.980 -0.722 0.035
Potential
descriptor
Formal
transaction
limited user
Non-
political
extensive
user
Limited
user
Social
media users
Political
extensive
user
Non-social
media
general
user
Information
seeking
limited
user

Digital Cultural Capital: Class and practice

Digital social and cultural capital
• Digital Arts Space? Space of Digital
Inequity
• A complex and stark clash of:
• Material difference and inequality
• Social difference in access to
networked institutional resources
• Knowledge, experience and status
• Between:
• ‘performer/player’ and homeless
man
• the digital social networks online and
the material context of deprivation
• highly contrasting ‘lifeworlds’
(Lebenswelt) and ‘Habitus’

Digital cultural capital
• There clearly exist major differences in embodied cultural capital
• There are also likely major differences in linguistic capital – not maybe
in the sense originally defined by Bourdieu – but in ability with the
forms and content of digital discourses.
• Clearly there are major differences in the objectified cultural capital
of the objects both physical and digital between.
• Institutionalized cultural capital may be
of less overt relevance to date, but as digital
networks become central life it may.

Attendance MJCA analysis – Overall results

Attendance MJCA analysis – Internet use

Attendance MJCA analysis – Popular and high
culture

Attendance MJCA analysis – Overall analysis

The challenges not everyone gets to play –
online and offline
• 68% of social classes D&E are non-
users or limited users of digital
media
• 50% of social class A&B are
extensive users of the internet
• 80% of social classes D&E are
limited cultural consumers (single
format)
• 55% of social classes A&B are
extensive cultural consumers
(multiple formats)

MJCA Analyses of Social Media and SE Class –
Ofcom Data

MJCA Analysis of Social Media and Cultural Capital
– DCMS Taking Part data

MJCA Analysis of Social Media and Cultural
Capital – DCMS Taking Part data

Types of social media use and SE class –
Ofcom data

Types of social media use and SE class –
Ofcom data
• Clear distinction by class in the
variety of SNS sites used

SNS usage forms are markers of class
• Level of social media use is still predominantly determined by age:
• But also class
• Proportion of users who are social media only is higher in lower SE class
groups
• But their levels of use are lower than higher socio-economic groups
• Social media use clusters with popular rather than “high” culture
attendance in MJCA
• = Lower cultural capital
• Social media use levels map onto vector for performative participation in
MJCA
• Variety of social media use closely follows SE class groups

Its Politics - stupid
(Or why trump was inevitable…)

Frame, A., & Brachotte, G. (eds). (2015). Citizen Participation and
Political Communication in a Digital World. New York: Routledge.
Frame, A., Mercier, A., Brachotte, G., & Thimm, C. (eds). (2016).
Tweets from the Campaign Trail: Researching Candidates’ Use of
Twitter during the European Parliamentary Elections. Frankfurt:
Peter Lang.
Useful books – EU perspective

Political establishment bubbles - France
Monitoring Interacting Disseminating
Reading Writing
Journalists
Politicians

Astruc
Nataf
Langlade
Cornudet
People who
follow all four
journalists
Relational Networks on Twitter: Followers of the
journalists – France

Mini-publics: Polarized debates in social media
Mini-publics in US
Facebook discussion
of budget

Mini-publics in EU elections - Germany

Media shared on twitter – US election
http://www.cjr.org/analysis/breitbart-media-trump-harvard-study.php

Media shared on Facebook – US election
http://www.cjr.org/analysis/breitbart-media-trump-harvard-study.php

Political differences and media use

Political differences and social media use
http://www.journalism.org/2014/10
/21/political-polarization-media-
habits/

It’s all the machines fault – stupid?
Actually its not the technology – it is our behaviour

Automation and augmentation
• Automation
• Replacement of a person with a computer program or machine that does the
same job:
• Algorithm
• Robot (originally a Czech word for ”forced labour”)
• Augmentation
• Supplementing human capacity
• All telecommunications systems – from phone to Facebook – augment our ability to
communicate
• VR/AR
• Most software – e.g. Excel augments our ability to do mathematics

Jobs likely to be automated
• First wave:
• Semi-skilled and skilled manual jobs
• Standardized factory work
• Second wave: routine administrative, mathematical and regulated decision
making jobs:
• Administration
• Legal
• Accountancy
• Routine medical
• Relatively safe – but likely “augmented”:
• ‘People’ work – service, health care
• Complex environments – digging the road, complex medical
• Creative – from arts to science

(Anti?)Social Algorithms – Encoded inequality
• https://vimeo.com/145335290

(Anti?)Social Algorithms - Different Internets
Families with kids By ethnicity

The uses of digital
• Digital literacy, culture and everyday life…

Conclusion
• There have been previous communication
technology revolutions – but current rates of
change are far, far greater
• These changes will impact home lives, work
lives, business and governments, but as with
previous technologies we may not know the
details of 'how' until afterwards
• We do have to rethink the discipline of
communication studies, but we may not
need to throw out older theories – though
they do need reviewing, and some even
need dusting off and re-using.
• As for the future we can only speculate...

Simeon Yates keynote #cpci_napier

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