Social Inquiry
Asynchronous Session
Perception of Media Change: Analyzing Media Biographies of Older People View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Christian Oggolder, Caroline Elisabeth Roth-Ebner
Digitalization and its impact on societies is a broad field of current research. Much of this research focuses on children and adolescents. Older people, on the other hand, are underrepresented. However, the diffusion and societal appropriation of both digital media and mobile devices are also having a huge impact on seniors. Therefore, this paper asks from a media and communications perspective how media change is perceived by older people and what significance media have had in their everyday lives. To answer these research questions, media biography interviews with 21 seniors were conducted. These are qualitative semi-structured interviews that research media use against the biographical context of the interviewees. As the data reveals, conventional media such as TV, newspapers, and the radio with the prevailing motive of information still dominate the media repertoires of older people. Yet, digital media in the form of smartphones, especially with instant messenger applications, are also used to stay connected to the family. The current media change as a result of digitalization has ambivalent effects on the seniors. On the one hand, they feel overwhelmed by the complexity of applications. On the other hand, they profit from their benefits. The results point to the desideratum to take older people’s media practices seriously and to draw more attention to this less-researched group.
Towards a Critical Theory of Artificial Intelligence: Hyper-intelligence in Science-fiction Films View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Harry Dahms
Artificial intelligence comes in many conceivable forms. This paper addresses the prospect of hyper-intelligence and identifies key parallels between depictions of its rise and related consequences in three science-fiction films (Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Sargent’s Colossus: The Forbin Project, and the Wachowskis’ The Matrix, along with its sequels, and The Animatrix), and how classical social theory and the classical critical theory of the early Frankfurt School have examined the underlying logic and social formations of the machine age: industrialization in combination with the logic of capital. In paradoxical ways, hyper-intelligence often is designed to transcend regressive patterns of societal life and constitutes a threat not to society in general, but to regressive aspects of modern societies that are embodied in persistent structures of inequality and systems of power and in contradiction with the images modern societies project of themselves to encourage members to acquiesce to destructive constellations of economics, technology, and organizations and how they conflict with society’s purported social-value orientation. The impossibility to predict the future impact of AI, while hypothetical, is unsettling for two reasons. First, the development especially of highly sophisticated forms of non-human intelligence (hyper-intelligence) is in danger of overreaching and fraught with uncertainty, beyond our direct control, and connected to myriad processes and aspects of societal and technological change in the twenty-first century. Secondly, for humankind as it defines itself because of its purported superior intelligence, the rise of another, artificial kind of intelligence in its midst, will be disconcerting and threatening.
Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace: Challenges for Human Resource Management View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shani Kuna
Increasing evidence suggests the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) for human resource management (HRM) as well as its threats to the future of work and employment. Fewer studies, however, have explored AI challenges for HR managers, considering the ethical and legal issues at stake in the design and implementation of AI-enabled HRM applications. This study addressed this gap in the literature by exploring the opportunities and challenges of AI applications for HRM from the perspective of experienced HRM professionals. In depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 prominent Israeli HRM professionals from varied business organizations. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach was utilized for the qualitative analysis of the data. Although the participants in this study acknowledge that AI has benefits, there is a dramatic controversy among HRM professionals whether organizations should allow AI to make judgements concerning employees. The findings suggest that senior HRM professionals have significant concerns and doubts regarding the impact of AI utilization in their daily practices on responsible management and decent work. In sum, this study, which reflects current societal and technological controversies, aims to make a contribution to the critical theorizing of AI and advance our understanding of the future of work.
The Meaning and Cultural Preservation of Indigenous Weaving Patterns: The Study of the Pinuyumayan, an Indigenous People of Taiwan View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fei Yeh Lee
Most ethnic groups have developed written language systems to record their lives, habits, and rituals in writing. In Taiwan's indigenous people, each group has its own language and has not developed a written writing system. Recording life and culture through architectural sculptures, objects and fabric patterns. The purpose of the study is to explore the cultural significance and preservation possibility of Taiwan's indigenous peoples. Regarding the research method, first, we focus on the culture of weaving through documentary analysis, and second, we use the field research to study the Likavung and Kasafakan tribes of the Pinuyumayan in Taiwan, to gain a deeper understanding of the cultural significances of Pinuyumayan culture. This research centers on the Pinuyumayan weaving patterns, exploring the tribe, noticing and evaluating the weaving patterns of males and females. The study categorizes Taiwan’s indigenous patterns into symbolic and decorative. The symbolic pattern has a cultural significance, while the decorative pattern is simply ornamental without any deeper meaning. Using the pattern shows the thinking logic and knowledge system of the community, and is a thoughts expression and a cultural symbol. These patterns hold a record of its function and cultural importance. The tribes pass on and continues its culture through the textiles and patterns in the changing society.
