[Air-L] Metrics, Media, & Race: October 6, 3PM ET

[danah boyd]

::wave:: One of my favorite things as a scholar is to put books in conversation in my head, pretending like authors can talk to each other. I decided it might be even more fun to try this out in practice. Next week, I'm hosting Angèle Christin and Joe Torres in a conversation about the relationship between metrics, news media, and race. This is a conversation between two books - one old, one new - and two amazing authors who are asking hard questions about the role of news journalism in our society. Perhaps this conversation between books might be of interest to you too? 



What: Metrics, Media, and Race
When: October 6, 3-4PM ET
Where: Zoom, sign up here: https://datasociety.net/events/metrics-media-and-race/ <https://datasociety.net/events/metrics-media-and-race/>


Metrics, Media, and Race

Does the current metrics-driven news landscape emerge from, and potentially reinforce historical racial inequality? On October 6 from 3 – 4 p.m. ET, join Angèle Christin, author of the new book Metrics at Work: Journalism and the Contested Meaning of Algorithms <https://press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/9780691200002/metrics-at-work> and Joseph Torres, author of the classic News For All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media <https://www.versobooks.com/books/1185-news-for-all-the-people> (co-authored with Juan González) to analyze racial divisions in mediamaking and its interplay with data-centric technology. This conversation is hosted by Data & Society Founder and President danah boyd.

Sign up here: https://datasociety.net/events/metrics-media-and-race/ <https://datasociety.net/events/metrics-media-and-race/>

About the Speakers
Joseph Torres, Free Press’ Senior Director of Strategy and Engagement, advocates in Washington to ensure that our nation’s media policies serve the public interest, and builds coalitions to broaden the movement’s base. Joseph writes frequently on media and internet issues and is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media. He is the 2015 recipient of the Everett C. Parker Award, which recognizes an individual whose work embodies the principles and values of the public interest. Before joining Free Press, Joseph worked as deputy director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and was a journalist for several years.

Angèle Christin is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University. She studies how algorithms and analytics transform professional values, expertise, and work practices. Her book, Metrics at Work: Journalism and the Contested Meaning of Algorithms (Princeton University Press, 2020) focuses on the case of web journalism, analyzing the growing importance of audience data in web newsrooms in the U.S. and France. Drawing on ethnographic methods, Angèle shows how American and French journalists make sense of traffic numbers in different ways, which in turn has distinct effects on the production of news in the two countries. Angèle is currently a Visiting Researcher with the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research New England. She is an affiliate at Data & Society Research Institute.