Embodiment, Endorsement, and Policy: Considerations for Intellectual Freedom in the Library
by Emily J. M. Knox
p. 109-124
Abstract
This article provides some considerations for understanding policies in libraries and how they intersect with intellectual freedom and social justice using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social fields and scale. The article includes a case study on the development of ALA’s meeting room guidelines and considerations for developing institutional policies.
Emily J. M. Knox is an associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Literary versus Nonliterary People: Rhetorical Strategies of Derogation in the Sensitivity Reading Debate
by E. E. Lawrence
p. 125-160
Abstract
Sensitivity reading (SR)—the expert, ameliorative assessment of literary texts for superficial, inaccurate, or degradative depictions of oppressed groups—is a hotly contested service in the book industry, one that some hold is censorious. This article explicates how these detractors’ critiques function as informal suppression, drawing inspiration from Joanna Russ to expose key rhetorical strategies that reinforce a pernicious distinction between “literary” insidersand “nonliterary” out siders. The construction and propagation of this distinction ultimately encodes minoritized editors as “sensitive readers” who constitute a threat to the literary enterprise itself, thereby rationalizing their continued marginalization on aesthetic grounds.
E. E. Lawrence is an assistant professor of library and information science in the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University. His research focuses on issues arising at the intersection of library and information ethics, readers and reading, and aesthetic (in)justice.
Dynamics of Gender Bias within Computer Science
by Thomas J. Misa
p. 161-181
Abstract
A new dataset (N = 7,456) analyzes women’s research authorship in the Association for Computing Machinery’s founding thirteen special interest groups (SIGs), a proxy for computer science. ACM SIGs expanded between 1970 and 2000; each experienced increasing women’s authorship. But diversity abounds. Several SIGs had less than 10 percent women authors, while university computing centers (SIGUCCS) exceeded 40 percent. Three SIGs experienced accelerating growth in women’s authorship; most, including a composite ACM, had decelerating growth. This research may encourage reform efforts, often focusing on general education or workforce factors (across “computer science”), to examine understudied dynamics within computer science that shaped changes in women’s participation.
Thomas J. Misa directed the University of Minnesota’s Charles Babbage Institute (2006–17) and was president of the Society for the History of Technology (2019–20). His most recent book is Leonardo to the Internet (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022, third edition).
How Does Short Video Viewing Influence Young Children’s Everyday Language Practices? A Case Study of China
by Yilu Yang and Tianru Guan
p. 182-202
Abstract
This study offers the first examination of the most widely downloaded short video app, TikTok, in its launching country, China, and the app’s impacts on young children’s language development. The analysis of quantitative data (N = 216) and qualitative data demonstrates significantly positive correlations between time spent watching TikTok and young children’s use of Standard Chinese in verbal communication. This suggests an earlier occurrence of Standard Chinese fluency in young children in dialect-speaking areas of China. The research findings of this study contribute to our understanding of the newly emerging and increasingly popular form of screen media—short-form video clips—and its impacts on young children’s language practices.
Yilu Yang is an associate professor at the School of New Media and Communication, Tianjin University. She received her PhD at the University of Melbourne. Her current research interest lies in new media, intergroup communication, and media effects.
Tianru Guan is an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University. She is the corresponding author of this article. Her academic interests lie in political communication, the public sphere, and public opinion.
Everyday Adventures with Unruly Data by Melanie Feinberg (review)
Hannah Rutledge
p. 203-204
Everyday Adventures with Unruly Data
by Melanie Feinberg
MIT PRESS, 2022, 336 PP. PAPERBACK, $35.00 ISBN: 978-0-262-54440-5
Surveillance Capitalism in America ed. by Josh Lauer and Kenneth Lipartito (review)
Nikita Shepard
p. 205-207
Surveillance Capitalism in America
edited by Josh Lauer and Kenneth Lipartito
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS, 2021, 267 PP. HARDCOVER, $65.00
ISBN: 978-0-812-25335-1
The Private Is Political: Networked Privacy and Social Media by Alice E. Marwick (review)
Sheila B. Lalwani
p. 208-210
The Private Is Political: Networked Privacy and Social Media
by Alice E. Marwick
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2023, 384 PP. HARDCOVER, $32.50
ISBN: 978-0-300-22962-2
Resisting AI: An Antifascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence by Dan McQuillan (review)
Nathan Schneider
p. 211-213
Resisting AI: An Antifascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence
by Dan McQuillan
BRISTOL UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2022, 190 PP.
PAPERBACK, $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-529-21350-8
Electrifying Mexico: Technology and the Transformation of a Modern City by Diana Montaño (review)
Fabian Prieto-Nañez
p. 214-216
Electrifying Mexico: Technology and the Transformation of a Modern City
by Diana Montaño
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS, 2021, 390 PP. HARDCOVER, $50.00
ISBN: 978-1-477-32345-8
Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt by Andrew Simon (review)
Ignacio Moreno Nava and Paul C. Kersey Johnson
p. 217-219