Universitat Oberta de Catalunya I 22 November 2019 . Play with Data Conference: new methods for digital media researchers.

1. UNPACKING DIGITAL METHODS
Universidade Nova de Lisboa I NOVA FCSH I ICNOVA
iNOVA Media Lab ˚ @jannajoceli ˚ thesocialplatforms.wordpress.com
Janna Joceli Omena
Play with Data Conference: new methods for digital media researchers.
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya I 22 November 2019

2. Engines of Order
A Mechanology of
Algorithmic Techniques
Bernhard Rieder
University of Amsterdam
(forthcoming book)
Latour, B., Jensen, P., Venturini, T., Grauwin, S. & Boullier, D. (2012), The whole is always smaller than its parts - a digital
test of Gabriel Tardes’ monads. The British Journal of Sociology, 63, 590-615.
Latour, B. (2010). Tarde’s idea of quantification. In M. Candea (Ed.), The social after Gabriel Tarde: debates and
assessments (pp.145-62). London: Routledge.
SITUATING THIS TALK

3. Google
Apple
Facebook
Amazon
Microsoft
------------------→ “the need for a new philosophical horizon
in which technicity is at the heart of transindividuation”
(Bernard Stiegler, 2006, p.35)
------------------→ Cultural Reform – reintroducing an understanding of
the nature of machines and the values involved in their mutual
relationship (machine-machine) as well as their relationship with man
(machine-man). (Gilbert Simondon, 2009)
------------------→ Another culture of knowledge – one built on
with, in and through digital technologies and software, one
that must be interdisciplinary. (Noortje Marres, 2017; Bernhard Rieder, forthcoming
book)
SITUATING THIS TALK
DIGITAL METHODS
Social enquiry through and about the digital
Functional & Practical notions of knowledge
Learn-analyse-critique by understanding & repurposing
the methods-of-the-medium

4. 1 The misconceptions
2 The doing
3 The basis
4 The foundations
UNPACKING DIGITAL METHODS

5. What methods do you use?
Digital methods.
Ok. I rely on more qualitative methods.
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT DIGITAL METHODS

6. Images retrieved from blog.optimalworkshop.com
1. A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH
Misconceptions about digital methods .

7. The covers of every issue of Time magazine published from 1923 to summer 2009.
Total number of covers: 4535 (by Jeremy Douglass and Lev Manovich, 2009)
2. DIGITIZED OBJECTS & METHODS
Misconceptions about digital methods .

8. 2. DIGITIZED OBJECTS & METHODS
Misconceptions about digital methods .
Images retrieved from quicktapsurvey.com & smartcashdollar.com.

9. 3. PUSH THE BUTTON,
SOFTWARE WILL DO THE REST
Misconceptions about digital methods .
Gif retrieved from giphy.com

10. 4. PLATFORM DATA IN THE SERVICE OF
COMPUTING & STATISTICS
Misconceptions about digital methods .
Gifs retrieved from giphy.com

11. 5. (RANDOM/ARBITRARY) PLATFORM
DATA GATHERING AS BASIS FOR
TRADITIONAL CONTENT ANALYSIS
Misconceptions about digital methods .

12. The doing of digital methods
requires particular starting points.
Do I have a list of words that have
became keywords or issue language?
See Rogers 2017; 2018, Akrich & Latour, 1992
THE DOING OF DIGITAL METHODS

13. Fora Dilma
[get out Dilma]
Não Vai Ter Golpe
[there won´t be a coup]
Context: few months before the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.
Keywords: representations of those in favour vs. those against the impeachment.
The political polarization in Brazil, March 2016

14. Pro-impeachment protests, 18 March 2016.
#foradilma
[get out Dilma]
#impeachmentjá
[impeachment right now]
#vemprarua
[come to the street]
#forapt
[get out Labour Party]
#tchauquerida
[goodbye darling]
Anti-coup protests, 13 March 2016.
#todospelademocracia
[everyone for democracy]
#nãovaitergolpe
[there won't be a coup]
#globogolpista
[globo scammer]
#marchadoscorruptos
[corrupt march]
#coxinha
[chicken drumstick]
When hashtag engagement become issue networks
“What is a program and antiprogram is relative to the chosen observer”
(Akrich & Latour 1992)

15. Pro-impeachment protests, 18 March 2016.
(those in favour of the impeachment)
Anti-coup protests, 13 March 2016
(those against the impeachment process)
The political polarization in Brazil, March 2016

16. Anti-coup protests, 13 March 2016.
#todospelademocracia
[everyone for democracy]
#nãovaitergolpe
[there won't be a coup]
#globogolpista
[globo scammer]
#marchadoscorruptos
[corrupt march]
#coxinha
[chicken drumstick]
Pro-impeachment protests,
18 March 2016.
#foradilma
[get out Dilma]
#impeachmentjá
[impeachment right now]
#vemprarua
[come to the street]
#forapt
[get out Labour Party]
#tchauquerida
[goodbye darling]
The definition of keywords:
→ the act of search as research
→ monitoring and following
→ to navigate through and engage
with the subject of study

17. Keywords as Hashtag Engagement, Lists of URLs, ids, account names as
ISSUE SPACES AND
MEANS OF RESEARCH
starting point number 1

18. Tracing automation on Instagram through Bolsonaro non-official campaign accounts
Image profiles of BolsoBots following network .

19. Discrete bots
Red as a critique to
the Workers Party (PT)
The colours of Brazilian Flag

20. The colours of Brazilian Flag
Red as a critique to the Workers Party

21. Discrete bots

22. The various facets of Bolsonaro

23. Arrows as indicators of right-leaning

24. Gays & Women movements with Bolsonaro

25. 26 account names
15 accounts via Instagram recommendation system [when searching for Bolsonaro]
4 accounts based on previous exploratory study
7 accounts via Instagram recommendation system [when searching for Bolsonaro & Women]
grammars
[account names]
Google Spreadsheet + PhantomBuster (Instagram Following Network)
→ List of profiles image URLs + Chrono Sniffer
22.351 image profiles
Data capture
[API calling]
Analysis software
Google Spreadsheet + ImageSorter
Visual Research Protocol
IMPORTANT: TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE + THE RECOGNITION OF PLATFORM RESTRICTIONS AND AFFORDANCES

26. Platform Grammatisation

27. 1h API call per day
Software to study online activity which is delineated, inscribed and rearranged by digital platforms.

29. .gdf
.gexf
.tab
.csv
.jason
.html
.pdf
.py
.png

30. After collecting datasets based on keywords,
the doing of digital methods requires:
→ a degree of technicity
→ technical and practical knowledge on
platform grammatisation and software
starting point number 2

31. Data sprints make the doing of & learning
from digital methods complete.
THE DOING OF DIGITAL METHODS

32. starting point number 3

33. ˚ ˚Call for applications˚ ˚
2017
What is the data journalism
debate on social media?
2018
Interpreters of Platform Data
2019
Beyond Visible Engagement
Digital Media Winter Institute
https://smart.inovamedialab.org/
starting point number 3

36. Query design → to search as research
KEYWORDS on the doing of digital methods .
Technical-Practical Knowledge → invest time and energy!
Trajectory → what precedes and takes place, visual research protocol, descriptions matter!
Data Sprints → to learn from doing and to collectively achieve
concrete outcomes in a interdisciplinary environment.
See smart.inovamedialab.org I wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/DmiSummerSchool

37. Digital methods propose a medium-specific
research that follows and repurposes the
methods-of-the-medium & platform data;
evolving with them overtime.
See Rogers 2013, 2017, 2019
THE BASES OF DIGITAL METHODS

38. Algorithmic information ordering, machine learning, AI

39. Ranking & Recommendation systems

40. Selecting & Curating content via trends or most relevant topics

41. Capturing & Rearranging activity via Graph APIs

42. The methods of Internet platforms
ARE NOT STATIC,
BUT CONTINUALLY UPDATED;
GETTING BETTER OR WORSE
THE MORE/HOW PEOPLE USETHEM
O´Reilly 2005

43. Repurposing the methods-of-the-medium

44. [Computer VISION APIS & DIGITAL METHODS]
1. Machine learning & image-face recognition for studying institutional communication.
Repurposing Facebook Page timeline images: the case of Portuguese Universities.

45. The history of Portuguese Universities’ visualities according to Facebook timeline images.

46. Computer vision for seeing the mood
of Portuguese Universities over the
years: from 2010 to 2018.
Omena & Granado, forthcoming

47. The presence of the president of
Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, is
synonymous of joy and a series of
pictures featured in the Facebook
Pages of Portuguese Universities.
Omena & Granado, forthcoming

48. [VISION APIS & DIGITAL METHODS]
1. Machine learning & image-face recognition for studying institutional communication.
Repurposing Facebook Page timeline images: the case of Portuguese Universities.
2. Machine learning & web detection (full matching images) for image circulation studies.
Tracing bot engagement across social media platforms.

49. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/SummerSchool2019Botsandtheblackmarket
Reading image circulation through computer vision API-based network.

50. [Computer VISION APIS & DIGITAL METHODS]
1. Machine learning & image-face recognition for studying institutional communication.
Repurposing Facebook Page timeline images: the case of Portuguese Universities.
2. Machine learning & web detection (full matching images) for image circulation studies.
Tracing bot engagement across social media platforms.
[RECOMMENDATION SYSTEMS & DIGITAL METHODS]
3. Platform recommender algorithms for perceiving the dominant and marginal frames.
Mapping the spheres and publics that remember Srebrenica on YouTube.

51. Network of YouTube video recommendation. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/SummerSchool2018MappingWarAtrocities
Dutch news media
Serbian news media

52. Like-Share buttons & related metadata as representations of activity-positioning-opinion

53. Like buttons & related metadata as representations of activity-positioning-opinion

54. Hashtags & Hashtag Engagement
Image retrieved from https://neilpatel.com/br/blog/como-usar-hashtag/

55. Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) & ID attributes as means of research
[channel, playlist, video]
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtxGqPJPPi8ptAzB029jpYA
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcGiWiKtsR0-NixqFGMQ_PE5lmurVBCIH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrM3nunCuXQ&list=PLcGiWiKtsR0-NixqFGMQ_PE5lmurVBCIH&index=3&t=5s
[image]
https://66.media.tumblr.com/5a752e0e7a855b02cfe4d905c650f19b/tumblr_p0ttavZFoA1vwo6cso6_250.jpg
[FB page]
https://www.facebook.com/913068012121624
[post]
https://www.facebook.com/331782250179584/posts/1375410369150095
[tweet]
https://twitter.com/jack/status/1189634360472829952

56. .imperial.ac.uk
acorianooriental.pt
advocatus.pt
afro.who.int
aovivo.slbenfica.pt
appsp.org
arte-factos.net
beachcam.sapo.pt
biblioteca.fct.unl.pt
bibliotecaunl.blogspot.com
bibliotecaunl.blogspot.pt
bit.ly
blog.fcsh.unl.pt
boasnoticias.sapo.pt
briefing.pt
calltoaction.pt
cenimat.fct.unl.pt
challenge.fraunhofer.pt
cidadeinformacao.pt
cienciahoje.pt
Link domains as paths to social enquiry
cienciapt.net
cienciaviva.pt
cmjornal.xl.pt
comecoucomumaideia.com
computerworld.com.pt
congressos.abreu.pt
crup.pt
df.fct.unl.pt
diariodigital.sapo.pt
dinheirodigital.sapo.pt
dinheirovivo.pt
distritonline.pt
dn.pt
e-cultura.sapo.pt
e-konomista.pt
easseportugal.org
ec.europa.eu
economico.sapo.pt
em-a.eu
emissao.canalsuperior.pt
emissao.canalsuperior.pt
emprego.unl.pt
encuestas.universia.net
ensp.unl.pt
eventbrite.pt
eventos.fct.unl.pt
exameinformatica.sapo.pt
executiva.pt
exercito.pt
expresso.sapo.pt
expressoemprego.pt
fabricadestartups.com
famelab.pt
fcm.unl.pt
fcsh.unl.pt
fct.unl.pt
flickr.com
formadevida.org
fox.canais-fox.pt
ft.com
futuralia.fil.pt
gandaia.info
giphy.com
ihmt.unl.pt
imedconference.org
informatics-europe.org
ionline.pt
ireg-observatory.org
isegi.unl.pt
issuu.com
itqb.unl.pt
jm-madeira.pt
jn.pt
jornaldenegocios.pt
jornalmedico.pt
jpn.up.pt
justnews.pt
kazan2013.ru
legofoundation.com
letshelp.pt

57. Public & Suspicious username accounts
https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/SummerSchool2019Botsandtheblackmarket
IMAGES SHARED BY DIFFERENT BOTTED ACCOUNTS

58. Reimagining the grammars of web platforms

59. [Computer VISION APIS & DIGITAL METHODS]
1. Machine learning & image-face recognition for studying institutional communication.
Repurposing Facebook Page timeline images: the case of Portuguese Universities.
2. Machine learning & web detection (full matching images) for image circulation studies.
Tracing bot engagement across social media platforms.
[RECOMMENDATION SYSTEMS & DIGITAL METHODS]
3. Platform recommender algorithms for perceiving the dominant and marginal frames.
Mapping the spheres and publics that remember Srebrenica on YouTube.
[THE GRAMMARS OF WEB PLATFORMS & DIGITAL METHODS]
4. Hashtag engagement as means for studying political polarisation
The case of pro-impeachment & anti-coup protests in Brazil 2016 + Presidential Elections 2018.

60. Seeing shifts in meaning through a double-sense hashtag.
Omena, Rabello & Mintz (forthcoming).
#nãovaitergolpe co-tag network.
Protests in Brazil, March 2016.

61. The appropriation of emojis according to high-visibility
and ordinary groups. Protests in Brazil, March 2016.
Omena, Rabello & Mintz (forthcoming).
[emojis organised according to frequency of use]

62. Hashtag engagement + Computer vision APIs to trace the visual circulation of
#EleSim vs. #EleNão one week before Brazilian Presidential Elections in 2018.

63. #EleSim #EleNão
IMAGE
CIRCULATION
humour, fallacies,
misinformation
and the endorsement
of public figures
Images that hit at least 5 and
at maximum 10 different URLs
---—>
---—>

64. IMAGE CIRCULATION
Instagram & Twitter

65. [Computer VISION APIS & DIGITAL METHODS]
1. Machine learning & image-face recognition for studying institutional communication.
Repurposing Facebook Page timeline images: the case of Portuguese Universities.
2. Machine learning & web detection (full matching images) for image circulation studies.
Tracing bot engagement across social media platforms.
[RECOMMENDATION SYSTEMS & DIGITAL METHODS]
3. Platform recommender algorithms for perceiving the dominant and marginal frames.
Mapping the spheres and publics that remember Srebrenica.
[THE GRAMMARS OF WEB PLATFORMS & DIGITAL METHODS]
4. Hashtag engagement as means for studying political polarisation
The case of pro-impeachment & anti-coup protests in Brazil 2016 + Presidential Elections 2018..
5. Link domains as means for studying the history of climate change images
The case of ‘climate emergency’ visuality over years and its dominant actors.

66. The image-domain network of Climate Emergency
through Google search results: 2008 to July 2019.

69. [Computer VISION APIS & DIGITAL METHODS]
1. Machine learning & image-face recognition for studying institutional communication.
Facebook Page timeline images
2. Machine learning & web detection (full matching images) for image circulation studies.
Instagram Posts & Link domains + Image URLs
[RECOMMENDATION SYSTEMS & DIGITAL METHODS]
3. Platform recommender algorithms for perceiving the dominant and marginal frames.
YouTube Video IDs
[THE GRAMMARS OF WEB PLATFORMS & DIGITAL METHODS]
4. Hashtag engagement as means for studying political polarisation
Lists of hashtags (program vs. anti-program) + Related emojis
5. Link domains as means for studying the history of climate change images
Keyword & Link domains + Image URLs

70. Plotting a collection of images Network Analysis &
Force-directed algorithms
Charts & Graphs
Vision Api-based methods
Image-Label Networks Image-domain Networks
Label-detection Web detection
The mood & emotions
Face detection

71. Natively Digital Methods & Objects
Methods
Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence
Ranking & Recommendation systems
Trends & most relevant topics
Graph APIs, crawling, indexing, scraping
Objects
Like-Share buttons & related metadata
Hashtags & Hashtag Engagement
Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) & ID attributes
Public & Suspicious user name accounts
→ Placed in a given context and period of time.

72. Digital methods are online grounded approaches that look at
hybrid assemblages
- “entanglements of users, algorithms, data, servers, work flows, business plans,
communication protocols and trackers and so forth” (Latour et. al 2012 in Marres 2017), to study both
ONLINE CULTURE & THE
TECHNICITY OF THE MEDIUM
See Rogers 2013, 2019; Rieder et al. 2015; Gerlitz & Rieder, 2018; Omena, Rabello & Mintz, forthcoming

73. To evolve with the medium → interrogating and accounting
for what is permanent or subject of replacement
To handle platform restrictions and changes overtime
To recognise the problems with web data
See Venturini & Rogers, 2019; Rogers 2019; Omena, Rabello & Mintz, forthcoming
NOTES on the basis of digital methods .

74. The realization of research based on
digital methods requires ‘another culture
of’ making research questions;
designing research processes; and
analysing the subject of study.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DIGITAL METHODS
See Omena, 2019 (forthcoming)

75. Query Design
or search as research the technique of building
lists of keywords-URLs-ids as research questions
Platform Infrastructure
affordances of programmability
& data relational nature
Praxis
Platform data collection trials,
exploratory analysis & visualization
Visualization & Analysis
unique actors + timing perspective + context
quali-quanti
THE FUNCTIONAL LOGIC OF DIGITAL METHODS
See Omena, 2019 (forthcoming)

76. See Venturini & Rogers, 2019; Rogers 2019
An inter-dependent position to research processes
Platform sensitive approach, infrastructure matters
Technical & Practical knowledge can inform research questions & practices
Interpretive-quantitative logic, the trajectory matters
4keyFACTORS

77. Obrigada ☺