Richard Rogers, Otherwise Engaged: Critical Analytics and the New Meanings of Engagement Online. Opening Lecture, Digital Methods Winter School, 11 January 2916

1. Otherwise
Engaged
Critical Analytics and the New
Meanings of Engagement
Online
Digital Methods
WINTER SCHOOL 2016
11 - 15
JANUARY
2016
Prof. Richard Rogers

2. Otherwise
Engaged
1. Distracted modes of engagement &
‘solutions’ (interface)
2. Distracted engagement metrics &
‘solutions’ (analytics)
Digital Methods
WINTER SCHOOL 2016
Structure of the
opening talk

3. [image contextual to
the content]
Otherwise Engaged
The story of an educated man trying
to listen to opera music
Listening to Wagner’s Parsifal, Simon Hench
is repeatedly interrupted by his tenant, his
friends, family and aspiring writers, all of
whom want something from him.
He appears to be the one and only sane
character. Gradually, this façade is stripped
away, and he is revealed as unable to
connect emotionally with others, and unable
to care.
- Adapted from Wikipedia plot summary
Theater, 1975
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

4. [image contextual to
the content]
1. Distracted modes of
engagement
Conditions associated with social
media use:
‘Flickering man’ (Carr, 2007)
‘Ambient awareness’ (Thompson,
2008)
‘Continuous partial attention’
(Stone, 2008)
Simon Gray’s works
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

5. [image contextual to
the content]
Solutions to distracted
engagement: Interface work
From the ‘excitement of interaction’ to
‘calm technology’
“A method for smoothly capturing a
user’s attention only when necessary,
while calmly remaining in the
background” (Case, 2015)
“[calm technology] is that which informs
but doesn't demand our focus or
attention” (Weisner & Brown, 1976)
Goal: Encalm the interface
Jodi, 2015
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

6. 2. Distracted engagement
metrics
Social media as social networks for
the purposes of:
‘success theater’ (Wortham, 2012);
productive ‘networking’; and
‘consumer futurism’
[Particular] statistics as forms of ‘wish
fulfillment’ (J. Baudrillard, Cool
Memories, 1990) aka ‘Vanity metrics’
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

7. Distracted engagement
metrics
‘Vanity metrics’ (such as Klout) embody the valuation of
measures such as:
Celebrity – well-known-ness
Influence – strategic in-between-ness
Trend(ing) – rising relative novelty;
coolhunting
Metrics follow from seeing social media as social networks for the
purposes of ‘success theater’, productive ‘networking’ and ‘consumer
futurism’
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

8. Solutions to distracted engagement metrics
(aka vanity metrics)
‘Critical analytics’ (as alternative to ‘vanity
metrics’)
First, there is a shift from the study of self-presentation to the
study of causes in authoritative or expert spaces
Engagement metrics:
~ dominant voice
~ concern
~ commitment
~ positioning
~ alignment
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

9. New Meanings of
Engagement Online
Critical Analytics
Point of departure is the study of causes is the expert issue
network or authoritative space rather than one’s social network
or all big data
The study engagement metrics through:
~ dominant voice – source hierarchy as credibility measure
~ concern - actor presence or absence in the issue space
~ commitment - the longevity of concern; persistence
~ positioning - the purposive deployment of a keyword
~ alignment - the other company a keyword keeps
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

10. Critical Analytics
Dominant voice {Source hierarchy as credibility measure}
Given an authoritative space, which sources and terms are
allowed to speak, and may dominate,
and which are marginal?
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016
US government awareness campaign,
Aids.gov, HIV awareness day 2014

11. [full screen image]

12. Critical Analytics
Concern {Actor presence or absence in the issue space}
To whom (and whom not) is it a matter of concern?
That is, given authoritative spaces, which ones give expression
to an issue and which are silent or relatively quiet?
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016
Fukushima water radiation
spread, ASR, 2013

13. [full screen image]

14. Critical Analytics
Commitment {the longevity of concern; persistence}
To whom (and whom not) is it a matter of concern, and for how
long?
That is, given authoritative spaces, which ones continue to give
expression to an issue and which continue to be silent or
relatively quiet?
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016
Two Greenpeace
issue areas (and
banners), forest
and nuclear from
Indonesia (2014)
and Jordan (2011),
respectively.

15. Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016
Analysis by Anne Laurine
Stadermann

16. Critical Analytics
Positioning {The purposive deployment of a keyword}
Who joins the program, and who joins the anti-program? Who
makes effort to cast oneself as neutral?
That is, given authoritative spaces, which ones position
themselves using the language of one set of actors, which the
language of another, and which neither?
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016
Reactions to
U.S. Supreme
Court ruling on
same-sex
marriage, 2014

17. Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016
DMI Summer School ’15
project, ‘Does love win?’

18. Critical Analytics
Alignment {The company a keyword keeps}
Who else is joining the program, and who else is joining the anti-
program? Who additionally makes effort to cast oneself as
neutral?
That is, given authoritative spaces, which sets of actors position
themselves with others by using certain?
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

19. Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

20. New Meanings of
Engagement Online
Critical Analytics
Point of departure is the expert issue network or authoritative space
rather than a social network or all big data
The study engagement metrics through:
~ dominant voice - source hierarchy as credibility measure
~ concern - actor presence or absence in the issue space
~ commitment - the longevity of concern; persistence
~ positioning - the purposive deployment of a keyword
~ alignment - the other company a keyword keeps
Otherwise Engaged
DMI Winter School 2016

21. Otherwise
Engaged
1. Distracted modes of
engagement & encalming
2. Distracted engagement
metrics & critical analytics
Digital Methods
WINTER SCHOOL 2016
Concluding
remarks

22. Otherwise
Engaged
Critical Analytics and the New
Meanings of Engagement
Online
Digital Methods
WINTER SCHOOL 2016
11 - 15
JANUARY
2016
Prof. Richard Rogers