Viral Data

Abstract

We are experiencing a historical moment characterized by unprecedented conditions of virality: a viral pandemic, the viral diffusion of misinformation and conspiracy theories, the viral momentum of ongoing Hong Kong protests, and the viral spread of #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations and related efforts to defund policing. These co-articulations of crises, traumas, and virality both implicate and are implicated by big data practices occurring in a present that is pervasively mediated by data materialities, deeply rooted dataist ideologies that entrench processes of datafication as granting objective access to truth and attendant practices of tracking, data analytics, algorithmic prediction, and data-driven targeting of individuals and communities. This collection of papers explores how data (and their absences) is figuring in the making of the discourses, lived realities, and systemic inequalities of the uneven impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

Studying the COVID-19 infodemic at scale

“…The special theme builds on a successful series of public events and consultations organized by the WHO Information Network for Epidemics (EPI-WIN), including the first technical consultation on responding to the infodemic related to the COVID-19 pandemic held on 7–8 April of 2020, and the first WHO Infodemiology Conference and working group meetings held in June and July of 2020. We are also building on the Big Data & Society symposium called “Viral Data” edited by Leszczynski and Zook (2020) which examined Big Data practices and specifically the notion of data virality as related to the pandemic at the mid-point of 2020. All together the special theme features six research articles and four commentaries by 57 authors from 23 institutions in six countries.…”

Data deprivations, data gaps and digital divides: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Data gaps mean that data is imperfect and may reflect the existing biases and discrimination in a society (Barocas and Selbst, 2016). To remedy data gaps, requires bearing in mind ‘data absences’ (Leszczynski and Zook, 2020), which reflects the absence of power of marginalised groups in society. Pelizza (2020) discusses the dangers of data gaps and data absences in contributing to the spread of ‘pseudoscientific accounts’ and ‘fake news’ about minorities’ immunity to COVID-19 in the USA.…”

GIScience II: Newness and imminence

“…Online storytelling efforts like the Self Evident Project also have created funding drives for relief to the queer community during the pandemic, while groups like The Okra Project continue to find ways to support queer people of color with food, rent, and other resources. Responses in more traditional academic venues have also highlighted the intricate geographies of biopolitics, surveillance, and subjectivation (see special issues organized by Sparke and Anguelov, 2020 and Leszczynski and Zook, 2020). Indeed, as Pase et al (2021) richly document, the cartographic practices of the pandemic have myriad phenomenologies that are productive of affects, solidarities, collectivities, and intimacies amid lockdowns.…”