“My Word Is My Bond”: A Primer for Information Scholars on Accountability and Misinformation
by William Aspray
p. 221-245
Abstract
This article surveys several academic literatures that discuss accountability with the intention of introducing these literatures to information scholars who may want to bring them into their arsenal as they address the role of misinformation in the world. I begin with a definition of accountability and several closely related correlates and discuss what key Western philosophers have had to say about the concept. I discuss accountability in professional life, in the health care field, and in politics and governance. I also discuss accountability in private life and examine two examples of the social construction of accountability.
William Aspray is senior research fellow at the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He writes regularly on misinformation from a historical and information studies perspective.
The Construction of the Virtual Museum in the Forbidden City of China
by Du Dalong
p. 246-265
Abstract
This article analyzes the digital dissemination mode of cultural heritage within museums from the perspectives of interactivity, experiential experience, and practicality, and explores the development relationship and value embodiment between digitization and museum and cultural dissemination. Finally, based on the establishment of emotional bonds between users and museums, a design proposal is proposed for the interaction mode of digital museums. This article uses the QEM algorithm. The practical results can be useful for website developers in the process of creating online exhibitions for the Palace Museum. Museum personnel can also turn to this article to find strong and weak points of exhibition organization.
Du Dalong previously served as the vice president of the Art College of Jilin University with a graduate degree mainly focused on art design. The author has published more than ten journal articles, participated in four provincial-level projects, completed multiple horizontal projects, and compiled two textbooks.
Readerly Cartography: Finding Fictional Places and Actual Readers on Digital Maps
by Jennifer Burek Pierce
p. 266-284
Abstract
Maps that provide pragmatic geographic and location information can also be used to document and describe fictional places. Readers have used the affordances of Google Maps to add settings from favorite books to this online information resource, demonstrating a complex form of reader response that I call readerly cartography. This practice aligns with an interdisciplinary scholarship on maps as culturally constructed texts. The effect of readerly cartography is to document and collocate communities of actual readers.
Jennifer Burek Pierce is professor and associate director in the School of Library & Information Science at the University of Iowa, where she also is appointed as faculty with the University of Iowa’s Center for the Book.
Identity for Sale: Authenticity, Commodification, and Agency in YouTube Influencers
by Aysha M. Vear and Judith E. Rosenbaum
p. 285-308
Abstract
Social media influencers’ popularity can be attributed to their ability to balance appealing to an audience with the need to sell a brand. However, this also raises questions about their agency. Relying on structuration theory, field theory, and the principle of profilicity, this research examines how YouTube influencers negotiate between the need to appear as authentic and their need to perform for financial gain and how these needs interact to impact user agency. Interviews, observations, and content analysis were used to explore the relationship between agency, commodification, and perceived authenticity in influencers’ performances. The findings show that perceived authenticity and agency are inexorably linked and constrained by the commodification inherent in influencers’ performances, pointing to a need to reconceptualize structures as emergent and embodied, and highlighting how influencers face a hierarchy of choices that both enable and constrain their agency.
Aysha M. Vear conducted this research as part of her master’s thesis at the University of Maine in 2020 with her advisor, Dr. Judith Rosenbaum. Vear currently studies information privacy law at the University of Maine School of Law.
Judith E. Rosenbaum is associate professor in and chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine. Her research examines the impact of people’s engagement with media content.
The Affect Lab: The History and Limits of Measuring Emotion by Grant Bollmer (review)
Sakshi Chanana
p. 309-310
The Affect Lab: The History and Limits of Measuring Emotion
by Grant Bollmer
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, 2023, 290 PP.
PAPERBACK, $28.00
ISBN: 978-1-517-91545-2
Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighborhoods, and a New Politics of Recognition by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (review)
Bea Wohl
p. 311-313
Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighborhoods, and a New Politics of Recognition
by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
MIT PRESS, 2021, 344 PP.
HARDCOVER, $27.95
ISBN: 978-0-262-54852-6
Writing the Revolution: Wikipedia and the Survival of Facts in the Digital Age by Heather Ford (review)
Steve Jankowski
p. 314-316
Writing the Revolution: Wikipedia and the Survival of Facts in the Digital Age
by Heather Ford
MIT PRESS, 2022, 184 PP.
PAPERBACK, $25.00; E-BOOK, $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-262-04629-9
Data and Democracy at Work: Advanced Information Technologies, Labor Law, and the New Working Class by Brishen Rogers (review)
Christine T. Wolf
p. 223-224
Data and Democracy at Work: Advanced Information Technologies, Labor Law, and the New Working Class
by Brishen Rogers
MIT PRESS, 2023, 288 PP.
PAPERBACK, $50.00
ISBN: 978-0-262-54513-6
The Secret Life of Data: Navigating Hype and Uncertainty in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance by Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert (review)
James J. Brown, Jr.
p. 320-322
The Secret Life of Data: Navigating Hype and Uncertainty in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance
by Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert
MIT PRESS, 2024, 312 PP.
HARDCOVER, $29.95
ISBN: 978-0-262-04881-1
Repairing Play: A Black Phenomenology by Aaron Trammell (review)
Lindsay Grace
p. 227-228