[Air-L] Reading list on (media) politics of visibility/invisibility

Bryce Newell bcnewell at gmail.com
Fri Sep 9 04:05:38 PDT 2016


This is turning into a wonderful list, I can't wait to see the final
(working) draft with all these incorporated. The reference to Thompson also
prompted me to share two papers:

Andrew Goldsmith's "Policing's New Visibility" in the British Journal of
Criminology a few years ago draws on Thompson and applies it to the
increasing visibility of police officers due to citizen video and the
internet, etc.


I also have a forthcoming paper in the *Indiana Law Journal* that develops
the concept of "collateral visibility" as forms of unintended visibility
that flow as consequences from public disclosure of state surveillance
(e.g. police body camera) footage that contains personal information about
civilians that was never intended to be publicly accessible (it could also
apply to disclosure of other types of public records under FOI laws). I
draw on the ideas of Thompson and Goldsmith, and focus on the confluence of
citizen video of police conduct and publicly-disclosed police body camera
video getting uploaded and shared on YouTube, Facebook, etc.

Newell, Bryce Clayton, "Collateral Visibility: A Socio-Legal Study of
Police Body Camera Adoption, Privacy, and Public Disclosure in Washington
State." *Indiana Law Journal *(forthcoming, May 2017). The paper is
available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2740377.


Best,
Bryce

On Fri, Sep 9, 2016 at 12:40 PM, Anne Kaun <annekaun at gmx.de> wrote:

>    agree, it is a great topic, especially the link between temporality and
>    visibility would be interesting to explore.
>    Taina Bucher refers in her discussion to Thompson
>    Thompson, John. 2005. `The New Visibility.'Theory, Culture & Society 22
>    (6):31-51
>
>
>    .
>
>
>
>    Gesendet: Freitag, 09. September 2016 um 09:03 Uhr
>    Von: "Anders Koed Madsen" <anderskoedmadsen at gmail.com>
>    An: "Steffen Albrecht" <steffen.albrecht at berlin.de>
>    Cc: "air-l at listserv.aoir.org" <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>,
>    kunzelmann.daniel at yahoo.de
>    Betreff: Re: [Air-L] Reading list on (media) politics of
>    visibility/invisibility
>    Hi Daniel (and others),
>    Great topic. I agree with many of the pieces mentioned.
>    Especially Brighenti as a good foundational paper. With the risk of
>    being
>    overly self-promoting, I though you might perhaps also be interested in
>    some of the following work, we have done on the topic in TANTLab:
>    1) Madsen (2015). Tracing Data -Paying Attention: Interpreting digital
>    methods through valuation studies and Gibson's theory of perception, In
>    Making Things Valuable (link:
>    [1]https://www.academia.edu/19768480/_Tracing_Data_Paying_Attention_-_I
>    nterpreting_digital_methods_through_valuation_studies_and_Gibson_s_theo
>    ry_of_perception
>    )
>    --> This paper would fall under visibility as it discusses how, for
>    instance, the UN has been experimenting with Twitter as a source for
>    making
>    crisis-signals visible. Based on readings of pragmatist theories about
>    perception, the paper discusses what it means to see the world through
>    such
>    digital methods. This argument is further developed in my PhD entitled
>    'Web-visions - repurposing digital traces to organize social attention.
>    2) Birkbak & Carlsen (2016). The world of edge rank: Rhetorical
>    justifications of face books news feed algorithm.
>    --> Would fall under invisibility as it addresses the algorithm layer
>    of
>    Facebook and the way this backbone is justified
>    3) Flyverbom & Madsen (2015). Sorting Data Out. (link:
>    [2]https://www.academia.edu/19768604/Sorting_Data_Out_-_unpacking_big_d
>    ata_value_chains_and_algorithmic_knowledge_production
>    )
>    --> A paper trying to unpack the production of big data revolves around
>    multiple processes of sourcing, organizing and visualizing. It tried to
>    tries to make a typologi of the social practices involved in making
>    things
>    visible though big data.
>    Hope it is of any help,
>    Anders
>    2016-09-08 14:02 GMT+02:00 Steffen Albrecht
>    <steffen.albrecht at berlin.de>:
>    > Dear Daniel,
>    >
>    > Though it's been published some years ago, I'd highly recommend
>    >
>    > Brighenti, Andrea (2007): Visibility. A category for the social
>    sciences.
>    > In: Current Sociology 55(3), pp. 323-342
>    >
>    > with regard to the category
>    >
>    > ..."classical" approaches and authors that do NOT explicitly talk
>    about
>    > today's political (social) media contexts, but which you would
>    consider
>    > highly applicable to understand such phenomena.
>    >
>    > Best,
>    > Steffen
>    >
>    > ----- ursprüngliche Nachricht ---------
>    >
>    > Subject: Re: [Air-L] Reading list on (media) politics of
>    > visibility/invisibility
>    > Date: Do 08 Sep 2016 13:09:34 CEST
>    > From: Ansgar Koene<Ansgar.Koene at nottingham.ac.uk>
>    > To: Daniel Kunzelmann<kunzelmann.daniel at yahoo.de>,
>    > air-l at listserv.aoir.org<air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
>    >
>    > Hi Daniel,
>    > sounds like a really interesting topic to assemble a reading list
>    for.
>    > One article I recently read that could fit in the invisible category,
>    > under 'influence of algorithms' would be
>    > Zeynep Tufekci, "Algorithmic Harms beyond Facebook and Google:
>    Emergent
>    > Challenges of Computational Agency", J. on Telecomm. & High Tech. L.,
>    203,
>    > 2015
>    >
>    > Cheers,
>    > Ansgar
>    >
>    > Dr. Ansgar Koene
>    > Senior Research Fellow: Horizon Policy Impact, CaSMa & UnBias
>    > Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute
>    > University of Nottingham
>    > [3]http://casma.wp.horizon.ac.uk/
>    > [4]http://unbias.wp.horizon.ac.uk/
>    > [5]http://www.horizon.ac.uk/
>    > [6]https://sites.google.com/site/arkoene/
>    >
>    > ________________________________________
>    > From: Air-L [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] on behalf of Daniel
>    > Kunzelmann [kunzelmann.daniel at yahoo.de]
>    > Sent: 08 September 2016 10:55
>    > To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>    > Subject: [Air-L] Reading list on (media) politics of
>    > visibility/invisibility
>    >
>    > Dear all,
>    >
>    > I felt like starting another list of literature :) Here is the
>    > question/thesis at stake: We live in a hyper-mediated world, in which
>    > the *speed and sheer amount of media posts *(Facebook, your favorite
>    > newspapers, Twitter, blogs, you name it...) suggest that political
>    > impact, relevance and importance is connected to "being visible" or
>    > "making something visible". Vice versa, *if something is **not
>    > visible**in today's social-media-democracy it does not exist, thus
>    has
>    > no meaning, thus has no political power/impact/relevance**.*
>    >
>    > Yet, I feel - and so far it's only really a feeling - that *these
>    > invisible spaces and actions enable, generate and allocate as much
>    > political power as their visible twins.* Against the backdrop of
>    > "social-media-everywhere" and the *dominant daily narrative of the
>    > visible* (which we all experience when we look at our smartphone),
>    I'm
>    > now looking for *authors and concepts that
>    explore/reflect/challenge/*
>    >
>    > - that either the *politics of the visible*
>    > - or the *politics of the invisible*
>    > - or even the *relationship between visibility and invisibility* with
>    > regards to political power.
>    >
>    > It might be *authors and concepts that already reflect on today's
>    > (hyper) social media worlds**, as well as "classical" approaches on
>    > visibility/invisibility of power.* To give you two examples:
>    >
>    > Thinking about today's social media, we could have a closer look at
>    the
>    > power of images (e.g. a meme) on our interfaces (visible) or at the
>    > algorithmic structures that sort and "deliver" these images
>    (invisible).
>    > Both layers of power are real, in the sense that they affect us in
>    our
>    > daily live, but one is visible and one is invisible. And of course,
>    they
>    > are certainly connected.
>    >
>    > Same goes for something that existed before social media, let's say
>    > party politics. There have always been official press releases and
>    > interviews about how well e.g. a party congress went and what
>    wonderful
>    > values this party now stands for (transparency, inclusion, etc.), but
>    at
>    > the same time, at the congress in question, there also existed
>    back-room
>    > meetings and private phone calls to influence internal party currents
>    > (opacity, exclusion, etc.). Again, both spaces and actions are real,
>    in
>    > the sense that they have power effects on the party's members and/or
>    > possible voters, but one (media) space is visible and the other one
>    > invisible. And, here too, both layers work together perfectly.
>    >
>    > So, anyone wants to share their must-read with me?
>    >
>    > *...on "new" Cultural and Social Anthropological approaches and
>    authors
>    > that already reflect on the politics of visibility/invisibility
>    against
>    > today's backdrop of "social-media-everywhere". **
>    > **
>    > **...and/or "classical" ***approaches and authors* that do NOT
>    > explicitly talk about today's political (social) media contexts, but
>    > which you would consider highly applicable to understand such
>    phenomena.
>    >
>    > *Either directly drop your recommendations in here:
>    >
>    *[7]https://danielderkunzelmann.piratenpad.de/airl-mediaoverload-politi
>    cs-
>    > visibility-invisibility*
>    > or reply to this message via the list or a pm :)*
>    > *
>    > Of course, when the literature list is done, I will be sharing it
>    with
>    > all of you!
>    >
>    > kind regards,
>    > Daniel
>    >
>    > *Daniel Kunzelmann,
>    > Ph.D.c / Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich / Institute of
>    Cultural
>    > Anthropology/European Ethnology
>    > twitter @der_kunzelmann <[8]https://twitter.com/der_kunzelmann>
>    > blog [9]http://transformations-blog.com/daniel-kunzelmann/
>    > web [10]http://unibas.academia.edu/DanielKunzelmann
>    > linkedin
>    [11]https://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-kunzelmann/7b/426/9a5*
>    >
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> References
>
>    1. https://www.academia.edu/19768480/_Tracing_Data_Paying_
> Attention_-_Interpreting_digital_methods_through_
> valuation_studies_and_Gibson_s_theory_of_perception
>    2. https://www.academia.edu/19768604/Sorting_Data_Out_-_
> unpacking_big_data_value_chains_and_algorithmic_knowledge_production
>    3. http://casma.wp.horizon.ac.uk/
>    4. http://unbias.wp.horizon.ac.uk/
>    5. http://www.horizon.ac.uk/
>    6. https://sites.google.com/site/arkoene/
>    7. https://danielderkunzelmann.piratenpad.de/airl-
> mediaoverload-politics-
>    8. https://twitter.com/der_kunzelmann
>    9. http://transformations-blog.com/daniel-kunzelmann/
>   10. http://unibas.academia.edu/DanielKunzelmann
>   11. https://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-kunzelmann/7b/426/9a5*
>   12. http://aoir.org/
>   13. http://listserv.aoir.org/
>   14. http://www.aoir.org/
>   15. http://aoir.org/
>   16. http://listserv.aoir.org/
>   17. http://www.aoir.org/
>   18. http://aoir.org/
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>   21. http://aoir.org/
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