This article investigates the ramifications of search engine algorithms for journalism practice and its professional commitment to serving the public interest. Taking a discipline-transcending approach that combines quantitative data analysis with an exploration of the social forces shaping knowledge production in journalism, we examine a case study involving New Zealand media’s coverage of economic recession. This inquiry addresses the question of how journalists navigate the terrain of algorithms and respond to the challenges posed by programme-based news production in relation to their professional norms. Our study highlights the significant role of search engines, particularly Google, in shaping the journalistic newsgathering process and, consequently, public understanding of social issues. The computer-assisted analysis of Google’s ‘recession’ news selection revealed distinct patterns in the distribution of news content and geographical bias towards the United States within the selection algorithm. Ethnographic research at one Auckland newsroom revealed that Google Search is a fundamental tool for journalists, albeit used primarily for basic information-gathering and fact-checking rather than in-depth investigative work.
This study explored the disability representations found in Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot from January to March 2024. The content analysis examined Google’s Bard and Gemini’s story structure – which evolved over the weeks – in creating stories with disabled main characters. Findings discovered themes such as supercrip, inspiration porn and pity. Disabled boys tended to be associated with the supercrip stereotype, centring on adventure-type stories. Disabled girls were more commonly portrayed as sources of inspiration, tasked with improving the world. Physical disabilities (e.g. using a wheelchair, crutches or a donkey) were prominent in 71 per cent (n = 55) of all stories.
This article aims to contribute to a wider discourse on the implications of technologies on notions of selfhood, identity, social constructs and power dynamics by delving into the literary representation of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) in selected science fiction (SF) tests. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that synthesizes phenomenology and identity politics theories, this article explores the intricacies of BCI in two SF texts: The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton and ‘The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling’ by Ted Chiang. The analysis hinges on the multifaceted implications of its integration of concepts of identity and selfhood. Bestowing an agential identity on machine, mind–machine interfaces, as this argument contends, proposes the machine as a figure of defiance in the texts being analysed – challenging traditional notions of identity, consciousness, agency and freedom, and facilitating a shift towards an alternative world-view where human agency is decentred in an Anthropocene era. Embracing Jameson’s view of SF texts as sites of imagination, ‘symbolic acts’ and ‘archaeologies of the future’, the analysis highlights how these texts employ mind–machine interfaces to challenge and subvert a world-view, which grants human beings special rights and a privileged status over other beings and entities.
The artificial general intelligence (AGI) narrative, which posits that artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to benefit all of humanity while threatening to destroy all of humanity, is an apocalyptic narrative that has become increasingly dominant in debates around AI ethics. This article (1) constructs an analogy between the transhumanist AGI narrative and Christian apocalypticism through which we can (2) constitute the transhumanist AGI narrative as a rhetorical strategy that invokes a state of exception to (3) endow AI with auctoritas, an intangible form of power that grants the legitimacy to decide on exceptional situations. The article concludes with reflections on the implications of this rhetorical transfer of power’s coupling with transhumanist eugenic goals on human rights and AI ethics.
Much has been made of the role artificial intelligence (AI) can have in the creative processes of advertising agencies. Not only can it be used to automate tasks and assess the success of advertising on audiences, but it can also alter the relationship between creatives and the work they produce, with computational creativity opening new opportunities to engage in creative and innovative practice. In fact, recent research has emphasized that creative people believe AI technologies will revolutionize the development, execution and dissemination of advertising. Yet, the potential of AI is not without its detractors because of the threat of job losses and ethical conundrums, leading advertising creatives to feel cautious and concerned about the place of this new technology in the industry. Of particular concern is how AI will influence the relationships between clients and agencies. Using data gained from five focus groups held in Aotearoa, New Zealand, with advertising creatives, this research article illuminates the perspectives of current practitioners on the role and potential influence of AI on creative production processes. It finds that most of those attending the focus groups believed that the speed of AI in creating content would increase the pressure placed on agencies to meet the needs of clients, that clients may opt to engage in their own computational creativity costing agencies money and reputation and that aesthetic considerations of agencies and clients may come into conflict.
Corporate messaging around generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the communications and culture domain focuses upon the reduced labour and democratization of creativity that supposedly comes with the adoption of these systems. From this emerges a dominant narrative that glorifies the productivity benefits of AI adoption, such as how copywriters can facilitate the creation of more copy by querying ChatGPT and proofing its output rather than writing everything from scratch. This article focuses on an underreported element of this narrative, which is how AI companies are changing the underlying structures of these types of creative tasks and remoulding them in the image of modern bureaucracy. This argument follows the work of David Graeber on meaningless labour, where increasingly the system of the world is founded upon the propagation of busy work. Similarly, I draw upon the work of Ivan Illich on ‘radical monopoly’, where he proposes that the most dangerous monopoly is not the economic one that companies such as OpenAI overtly seek but instead identifies the monopoly over how things are done as the more significant hazard. Together, these conceptual frames plot out a unique institutional critique of AI as it is currently sold. This article demonstrates how this is already affecting practice in communications professions and culture industries while also theorizing upon possible ways forward using Graeber and Illich’s counterstrategies to modern institutional monopoly.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the visual effects (VFX) industry has significant implications for creativity, workflow efficiency and ethical considerations. AI offers benefits in automating labour-intensive tasks and enhancing creative processes, yet it raises concerns about intellectual property, job displacement and the overall impact on artistic integrity. Through semi-structured interviews with nine experienced VFX artists, the study captures current attitudes towards AI and its potential to reshape the industry. The findings reveal a complex interplay of optimism for technological advancements and apprehension about the ethical and practical challenges posed by AI. This pilot study provides a foundational understanding of VFX artists’ perceptions of AI, highlighting the need for ongoing dialogue and careful integration of these emerging technologies.
The advent of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies has opened new avenues for qualitative research, particularly in visual data analysis. This pilot study introduced computer-assisted qualitative visual analysis (CQVA), leveraging GPT-4 Turbo and Google Cloud Vision to automate the thematic analysis of visual datasets. Traditional methods, relying on manual coding, are time-consuming and labour-intensive. CQVA addresses these challenges by providing an efficient, scalable and cost-effective alternative. This study had two objectives: developing the CQVA method and applying it to analyse the top 1000 advertisements from the ‘adPorn’ subreddit, offering insights into Reddit users’ advertising preferences. A clear preference was identified for ads utilizing visual metaphors, as these were the most common. Additionally, the importance of engaging visual communication was underscored, with themes employing visually striking and easily comprehensible imagery being favoured by Reddit users. Despite its promise, CQVA required human intervention to guide AI outputs and validate clusters and themes. However, the findings demonstrated CQVA’s potential to revolutionize qualitative visual analysis by significantly reducing time and cost, while maintaining the richness of insights typically achieved through manual methods, thus enabling more efficient and comprehensive analysis of large visual datasets, highlighting the method’s scalability and practicality for future research.
This article explores the transformative potential of large language models (LLMs) in understanding and engaging with the typical customer, referred to as µ C (mean by customer). Utilizing OpenAI’s ChatGPT, specifically the GPT-3.5 Turbo model, this research demonstrates how LLM completions can capture and reflect linguistic trends, reflected by utilization of established distant reading practices, providing valuable insights into consumer behaviour. Through linguistic vectorization and detailed analysis, the study validates the LLM’s capacity to encapsulate central tendencies in customer data embodied within the corresponding training data set of the LLM. The derived µ C profile reveals a socially conscious, self-aware millennial audience prioritizing individuality and ethically sourced products. The article concludes that integrating LLMs into business strategies enhances marketing effectiveness, product development and customer engagement, offering a comprehensive understanding of consumer trends and driving improved business outcomes.
Social media use has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and a proliferation of conspiracy beliefs about the pandemic has been seen on these platforms. We investigate (1) the extent to which people use social media to find health information, hold conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 and engage in preventive behaviours; (2) whether belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories mediated the relationship between using social media for health information and engaging in preventive behaviours and (3) whether differences exist in social media use between those who hold and those who do not hold COVID-19 pandemic conspiracy beliefs. Participants (N = 262; M age = 28.61, SD = 10.33) completed an online questionnaire with measures of social media use, conspiracy beliefs and engagement in COVID-19 preventive behaviours. We found participants used social media for over thirty minutes per day for health information and that approximately one in three people hold at least one conspiracy belief about COVID-19. Belief in conspiracy theories mediated the relationship between social media use and engagement in preventive behaviours. Furthermore, people who used Instagram for health information and those who primarily turned to influencer and personal accounts for health information were more likely to hold conspiracy beliefs.
This article presents the results of a research project that is methodologically organized into two bases articulated through theory and praxis. The first one consists of theoretical dialectic research on the concept of engagement and its implication towards the generation of hegemony within a mediatization and platformization context. The second one, which is this article’s main focus, involves exploratory, empirical research and critical discourse analysis of the popular organization Via Campesina and the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) of social movements’ international networks, aiming at identifying similarities, differences, goals and ways of understanding and articulating the common.
Clubhouse is an invitation only social media app where users communicate in real-time audio chat rooms that accommodate up to five thousand users per room. It became popular among Egyptians during the COVID-19 pandemic who actively participated in various discussions – including politics. This exploratory study asks whether the app performed functions that might form the basis for an emerging public sphere in Egypt, filling a gap in society where freedom of expression via traditional media is under state control, through satisfying a need for connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study first introduces Clubhouse and its uses in Egypt within the context of that nation’s politics during 2021, then moves on to conceptualizing the public sphere within the context of the current hypermedia age, identifying the conditions which might allow Clubhouse to cut through in ways other platforms have failed in a range of contexts. The study argues that Clubhouse facilitated the creation of what may appear as a proto-public sphere by facilitating connections between a large number of Egyptian citizens with different political affiliations, and by offering an insight into what issues circulate within Egyptian society. Yet, the app presented structural barriers which limited participation beyond access to technology, and there were limited means for the discussions to have a positive impact on society.
This article analyses, through a case study approach, the environmental documentary film Gállok, which narrates the struggles over the proposal to operate an iron ore mine in Gállok (Sámi) or Kallak (Swedish), in Northern Sweden. The analysis is transdisciplinary, anchored in the environmental studies work on anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, combined with discourse theory, geography and the scholarly work on space, place and time. These different disciplines and fields are activated to examine how space, place and time become articulated in the discursive assemblages of anthropocentrism and ecocentrism that feed the discursive – material struggles around the operation of the Gállok mine. As the analysis shows, the anthropocentric view favours an instrumentalist and geo-reductionist approach to space and the use of land that promotes presentism, space–place and space–time dualism. Ecocentrism, on the other hand, articulates holism and geo-pluralism, supporting ideas of deep time, space–place and space–time.
This editorial examines historical and artistic contexts within which Prince’s Sign o’ the Times box set reissue might be viewed and heard, while also considering the overall posthumous output from the Estate. The discussion therefore explores the commercial and other functions of box sets in general and Prince’s reissued recordings in in particular, potential symbolic signification, and the critical polarization that often accompanies such releases. Moreover, the box metaphor is employed to address academic partitioning and intellectual conservatism in Prince historiography.
With 2020’s deluxe release of Prince’s magnum opus Sign o’ the Times, fans were reintroduced to the era’s distinct sartorial blueprint of peach and black, denim and fringe. Unexpectedly, the Sign o’ the Times signature look is largely regarded as the oversized customized denim jacket worn by Prince throughout the concert film and live performances. Not just your typical denim jacket, the garment is adorned with decorative safety pins, buttons, graphic appliqués, fringe and various glittering embellishments. Like Purple Rain’s studded trench coat, the denim jacket is now forever affiliated with Sign o’ the Times, active throughout our shared popular culture conscious. Within the expansive wardrobe of the musician, the denim jacket remains a unique cultural artefact, not only for the unexpected utilitarian fabric choice but also for the garment’s coded signifiers of the counterculture, liberation and community. An object study of the denim jacket will examine the strategies employed in Prince’s shared visual language, transmedia storytelling and fan-generated clothing. Through an interdisciplinary investigation informed by theoretical work in fashion, media, film and cultural studies, the article seeks to examine how Prince’s bespoke denim jacket both fuels consumption and facilitates placemaking and community building both in physical and digital contexts still to this day.
This article explores the narratives embedded in the public discourse that surrounds knitting in the United Kingdom today. Knitting, a process by which a fabric or 3D object is made, is a familiar concept to most. Using a single end of yarn, a four-way stretch fabric is created. Despite this versatility and the abundance of applications it brings, the general public’s understanding of knitting places it firmly in the domestic sphere. Through the analysis of discourse within articles featuring the term ‘knitting’ published in The Guardian in 2021, I analyse how and why particular representations of knitting still dominate and direct cultural attitudes towards the discipline. To provide further context, I will compare the language used in articles from the same source and timeframe featuring an alternative term: painting. This comparison provides a means through which narratives concerning both disciplines become more clearly visible. With applications spanning the medical, construction and automotive industries, knitting, a process that can be zero waste, is very well suited to tackling the environmental challenges we face today. This paper illustrates, however, that there remains a particular narrative that surrounds knitting in sections of the British media: one centred on the domestic, the female and increasingly, mental health. I suggest that this prevents knitting from being contextualized in more broadly innovative ways. This article aims to uncover the explicit and implicit ways in which language used in this identified section of the British media influences and shapes the public’s understanding of knitting.
Prince was constantly shifting and evolving. Always the driving agent of perpetual change, he rechristened himself, sonically and stylistically, with every album. At the beginning of his career, ‘Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince’ was fundamental to the story of Prince as boy wonder and musical genius. However, by his third album Dirty Mind, Prince began to deliberately craft an expansive tale of alter egos and fictitious characters, beginning with Jamie Starr. Eventually, he would create an arsenal of artists, commencing with The Time and Vanity 6, soon thereafter. However, this prevailing narrative of autonomy, change and world-building shifted with the releases of Prince’s Purple Rain, 1999 and Sign o’ the Times deluxe editions in 2017, 2019 and 2020, respectively. This article will deconstruct how Prince’s agency as a self-sufficient creator and mastermind behind his own musical realm is being stripped and his narrative arc reshaped.
How do we understand a concert video in the context of a cultural industry’s alternative product? The DVD included in the Super Deluxe box set of the Sign o’ the Times (SOTT) album, released in 2020, has a two-hour-and-fifteen-minute concert video known as Live at Paisley Park and three official music videos. The audio-visual aesthetic was one of the main weapons of a multi-artist who always tried to extrapolate the musical element, not only in his films or his music videos but also in live concerts. Many possible reasons can explain the presence of the New Year’s Eve concert in the package and not the official film directed by the artist himself. The most concrete explanation is that the rights of the film Sign o’ the Times currently belong to a company not involved in this project. It might not be an insurmountable hurdle, but a more accurate comparison between the two audio-visual products can help one understand that the Paisley Park video is more genuine in many senses, and the lighting is one of the most evident signs of it, building a veritable apotheosis of music and dance.
This interview features Todd Herreman who worked for Prince as a general keyboard technician between 1986 and 1987 when material for the Sign o’ the Times album was being recorded. Herreman, credited on the 2020 Super Deluxe edition as an assistant engineer, recalls how he first became involved in working with Prince, the overall nature of his support roles, the challenges of recording a prolific artist and aspects of tracking the sessions for Madhouse, one of Prince’s many side projects. The interview sheds further light on the creative realities surrounding Prince during one of his most productive artistic phases.
Hailed as one of the most versatile artists of his time, Prince is marked in history for his revolutionary music that rendered his appearance as a cultural icon across various music aficionados around the world. The posthumous evolution of Prince’s legacy is largely embedded in the reproduction and (re)release of material that not only presents him as a music artist but a commercial product for the market. This created a new cultural space where the reception of an exceptional creative artist found new dimensions, and the commercial value of his musical life became equally important as its cultural and artistic significance. The release of the Super Deluxe Sign o’ the Times 2020 box set is one of the recent evidence of such a situation in which material enacted as cultural artefacts preserves and transposes Prince to a new generation of musical reception. This article analyses the ideas of marketability and authenticity in the contemporary era reception of Prince and its ongoing attempts to appropriate cultural artefacts through commodification and commercialization. It argues that cultural artefacts do not replicate the authentic lived career of Prince but, on the contrary, they reflect the past legacy of an iconic star to maintain his marketability in a new era of music, performance and cultural activities.
