Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big Data between scientific paradigm and ideology

Abstract

Metadata and data have become a regular currency for citizens to pay for their communication services and security—a trade-off that has nestled into the comfort zone of most people. This article deconstructs the ideological grounds of datafication. Datafication is rooted in problematic ontological and epistemological claims. As part of a larger social media logic, it shows characteristics of a widespread secular belief. Dataism, as this conviction is called, is so successful because masses of people — naively or unwittingly — trust their personal information to corporate platforms. The notion of trust becomes more problematic because people’s faith is extended to other public institutions (e.g. academic research and law enforcement) that handle their (meta)data. The interlocking of government, business, and academia in the adaptation of this ideology makes us want to look more critically at the entire ecosystem of connective media.

Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft in datengetriebenen Zeiten

“…22 Auch wenn der Schwerpunkt dann auf öffentlicher Kommunikation liegt, bleibt die theoretische 21 Siehe hierzu beispielsweise boyd und Crawford (2012); Couldry et al (2016); van Dijck (2014);Lohmeier (2014). 22 Diese implizite Grundannahme durchzieht mehr oder weniger alle deutschsprachigen Einführungen in das Fach, angefangen von Hanno Beth und Harry Pross (1976) bis hin zu heutigen Einführungen (u. a. Beck 2015;Pürer 2003;Stöber 2008). Basis für ihre Beschreibung doch als "gedachter Nullpunkt" die direkte Erfahrung der Face-to-Face-Kommunikation.…”

De platformsamenleving. Strijd om publieke waarden in een online wereld

“…Een combinatie van enkele cruciale elementen en praktijken, die voor een belangrijk deel ontwikkeld zijn in de eerste jaren na 2000, onderscheidt onlineplatformen van willekeurig andere websites. Ten eerste verzamelen platformen automatisch grote hoeveelheden data over gebruikers (Driscoll 2012;Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier 2013;Turow 2012; Van Dijck 2014). Deze data komen in de vorm van content data en gebruikersdata.…”

Social Media, Mass Media and the 'Public Sphere'. Differentiation, Complementarity and Co-Existence

“…This is because the development, provision and operation of free of charge usable services and platforms is costly as well; the survival in the rapidly changing market for communication and information technologies requires continual investments in research and development and; last but not least, Google and Apple, or Facebook and Twitter, are for-profit companies that must, for reasons of self-preservation, remain true to that mandate. Thus, to maintain their core business and to remain competitive, information technology companies must continually enhance their products and services and cater to user preferencesand for this they are heavily dependent on mining and analysing user data (Shelanski 2013;Gerlitz & Helmond 2013;Van Dijck 2014).…”