300301 Web Communication (S) (WiSe 2017/2018)

Recent developments on the web (particularly Machine Learning and Big Data) are progressively shifting the focus from technological issues to communicative issues. Can algorithms communicate, how and with whom? What are the consequences of automated information processing on forms and practices of communication?
The workshop will analyze and discuss some of the open issues of web communication, and in particular the following points:
- identity and social relations at the age of the internet
- algorithmic intelligence and communication
- memory and forgetting on the web
- algorithmic prediction: promises and threats
- personalization and generalization of communication
- consequences on public opinion and privacy.

4 Dezember 2017, morning session. Communication and electronic media:
- Niklas Luhmann 1995. Was ist Kommunikation? Pp. 109-120 in Soziologische Aufklärung 6. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften
- Niklas Luhmann 1997. Elektronische Medien. Pp. 302-315 in Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

4 Dezember 2017, afternoon session. Communication through algorithms:
- Gillespie, Tarleton 2014. The Relevance of Algorithms. Pp. 167-194 in T. Gillespie, J. Boczowki and K. A. Foot (eds.), Media Technologies. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press.

5 Dezember 2017, morning session. Big Data 1
- Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor and Cukier, Kenneth 2013. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 in Big Data. A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. London: Murray.

5 Dezember 2017, afternoon session. Big Data 2
- Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor and Cukier, Kenneth 2013. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 in Big Data. A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. London: Murray.

11 Dezember 2017, morning session. Web forgetting
- Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor 2009. Chapters 1 and 3 in Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, Princeton U.P., Princeton.

11 Dezember 2017, afternoon session. Personalization and generalization
- Eli Pariser 2011. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 in The Filter Bubble. What the Internet Is Hiding from You, Viking, London.

The workshop, articulated in three block sessions, requires active involvement of the participants in presentations and discussion. The reading list and the detailed program will be announced to the participants by the end of August.