HFMK03503U FM, Research Design and Empirical Methods - Seminar B: Digital Media, Networks and Society: in/visibility and attention

Digital media create ample opportunities for making things and people visible in competitive attention economies or through state and commercial surveillance. At the same time, these technologies often seem invisible or their inner workings impenetrable to us, if we pay attention to them at all. This seminar focuses on how to empirically analyse the many contemporary issues of such in/visibility and attention and the challenges that come with studying them in digital media ecologies. The course will equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills to design, conduct and report on their own empirical project, as well as to critically reflect on research ethics and on their own position as researchers. While we draw on both qualitative and quantitative research, we do not expect or teach advanced statistical skills – instead, we will focus on data literacy and skills for critically assessing, for example, big data studies. Some of the more conventional research designs and methods are included (e.g., content analysis, experiment, eye tracking, comparative research), combined with more recent and, in some cases, digital methods. This includes digital ethnography to study ‘black-boxed’ algorithms and datawalking to examine the supposedly ‘invisible’ digital infrastructures or the sensors and devices that make up Copenhagen as a smart city (we will go on such a walk to see how it can be done). Overall, the seminar sessions range from methodological reflections and explorations of possible research designs for the investigation of in/visibility and attention to discussing and practicing different data collection and analysis methods. We will also include sessions focused on how to write a methods section and to prepare for the exam paper.