CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Epistemic Challenges and Democratic Accountability in European Media 24-25 October 2024, University of Helsinki

The transformative changes in communication infrastructures intersecting with multiple social, political, and ecological crises put societies to the test. Today, a handful of multinational platform corporations dominate global markets in social media, cloud infrastructure, digital search, digital advertising, mobile operations, and digital messaging. Opaque algorithms exacerbate the problem of epistemic injustice and increase social distrust. How democracies and welfare states respond to the challenges depends on their epistemic capacity: citizens’ ability to access reliable information and their right to participate in knowledge production and be recognized in public discussion. It also refers to the epistemic authority and accountability of key democratic institutions and their ability to provide legitimate, shared knowledge that serves decision-making and supports policy choices. This demands new insights on how datafied media systems and infrastructures intersect with existing societal and epistemic risks and vulnerabilities; and on the options and obstacles for effective policy. 

Epistemic Challenges and Democratic Accountability in European Media brings together an interdisciplinary community of scholars and experts to take stock of the current challenges. Two intensive days of invited lectures, paper sessions, and panel discussions zoom in on the new conditions of knowledge production, the responsibility of digital platforms, and the intersection of inequalities and technologies in a datafied and polarized communication landscape. How can employing the notion of the epistemic help us understand and mitigate harms and support epistemic justice and agency?

Confirmed speakers include: Hilde van den BulckAdrienne Russell, and Mike Ananny

We welcome abstract submissions related to the following three themes. 

Knowledge production, equality, and digital technologies [E.g., Epistemic rights and agency; Professional journalism and other epistemic authorities in datafied, algorithmic infrastructures; Changing networked knowledge from search engines to language models]

Digital platforms and accountability in the era of polycrisis [E.g., Digital platforms and inequalities; Digital technologies and environmental sustainability; Platform regulation and policies]

Democracy and artificial intelligence technologies [E.g., Public response to AI; Algorithms, political communication, and epistemic harms; European and global governance of AI; Epistemic infrastructures and methodological innovations]

Important days and information

The deadline for submissions of abstracts (max 400 words): March 29, 2024

Contact and abstract submission: Veera Koskinen, veera.koskinen@helsinki.fi

Notification of acceptance:  April 26, 2024

The entire programme will be released:  May 31, 2024.

Registration Fees: 40 € per attendee: includes lunch and coffee.

Visit the conference webpage for more information! 

The conference is organized together with the research consortium The Democratic Epistemic Capacities in the Age of Algorithms (DECA), research project Media platforms and social accountability: Dynamics, practices and discourses (MAPS) at the University of Helsinki, and the The Euromedia Research Group.

Epistemic Challenges and Democratic Accountability in European Media – Conference in Helsinki on 24-25 October 2024

Epistemic Challenges and Democratic Accountability in European Media conference will take place on 24-25 October 2024 at the University of Helsinki. 

The two-day conference seeks to address the relations between knowledge production, technologies and inequalities in a datafied and polarised communicat

ion landscape. How could new technologies be steered towards more equitable and responsible outcomes? How can employing epistemic frameworks help us to identify, understand and mitigate algorithmic harms and support epistemic justice and agency?

MAPS project organizes the conference together with the research consortium Epistemic Democratic Capacities at the Era of Algorithms (DECA) and the The Euromedia Research Group.

Call for abstracts will be published at the beginning of 2024.

Important dates:

– The deadline for submissions of abstracts will be March 28th

– The acceptance notifications will be provided by April 26

– The full programme will be released at the end of May

Stay tuned for more information!

Did the era of neutral platforms end with the war in Ukraine?

Did the era of neutral platforms end with the war in Ukraine? Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned the world political situation chaotic in only a few weeks. War always involves information influencing, but for the first time – at least in the West – the war in Ukraine is also visible to a large extent in the information technology sector and in the activities of companies. Digital media platform giants have also taken action against Russia.

Salla-Maaria Laaksonen reflects the development in a blog post on Rajapinta (in Finnish):

Media Platformisation and Small Nations podcasts

https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-1FXHiPz4c4He3aGj-26QUhQ-t500x500.jpgThe event Media Platformisation and Small Nations was an event organized in October 2021 jointly by the EuromediApp network and two Finnish Academy-funded research projects, CORDI (“Communication Rights in the Age of Digital Disruption”) and MAPS (“Media platforms and social accountability: Dynamics, practices, and discourses”). The programme consisted of two days. The first day focused on academic research on the theme and the second day was dedicated to an international panel as well as a stakeholder roundtable on Finland.

You can listen to the series of podcasts produced as a part of the event HERE. 

MAPS project launched

We are glad to announce that the MAPS-project has been launched beginning of November, 2020.   Dr Matti Pohjonen started work on global and comparative dimensions of platform accountability.  His work will be looking especially at the role of platform accountability around extreme speech and conflict, with the first case study looking at Ethiopia.