Digital culture and communication is built on data. The Digital Culture and Communication section was set up with the claim that “digital culture and communication is one of the newest topics within the realm of media and communication research.” To some, it appears that the data paradigm has arrived as a self-evidently unifying concept for the Section. For others, whether positively or negatively, a focus on data might be fundamentally disruptive to the way that we understand our research and disciplines in Digital Culture and Communication.
In response to this – and in addition to addressing broader questions pertinent to the study of digital culture and communication – this Symposium invites papers that will address specific issues around data in digital media and culture:

• To what extent do we experience data qua data in our everyday use of digital media?
• What demands does the pervasiveness of data in digital culture make of our conceptual and theoretical tools to analyse communication?
• Empirically, what perspectives on data can be used to augment and diversify our research approaches?

At the same time it is important to recognise the hegemonic position that data has taken in academia and the wider world. As such, papers that challenge this paradigm or aim to show alternative or complementary ways to address digital culture and communication are equally important to the DCC Section meeting.

Abstract deadline: 20 May 2017

Keynote speakers:

• Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University, Republic of Ireland
• Helen Thornham, University of Leeds, UK

Contact: brightondcc@gmail.com
Call for papers: https://dccecrea.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/call-for-papers-ecrea-dcc-conference-2017/