Vacancies | Two PhD Positions in ‘Public Values in the Algorithmic Society’ (ASCA)
Are you looking for a challenging position in a dynamic setting? The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) currently has a vacant PhD position as part of the Gravitation program Public Values in the Algorithmic Society (algosoc), led by principal investigator Prof. dr. Natali Helberger. The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis is one of the five Research Schools within the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research.
ASCA is home to more than 100 researchers and more than 140 PhD candidates and conducts world-leading research in Cultural Analysis. ASCA researchers share a commitment to studying culture in all its forms and expressions within an interdisciplinary framework, and to maintaining a close connection with contemporary cultural and political debates.
PhD | New Players, Power Structures, and Automated Decision-making in the News Media
Institute: Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), Department of Media Studies
Starting date: 1 April 2023
Application Deadline: 16 January 2023
More information here.
This project examines the new players and evolving power structures that have emerged in the contemporary European news ecosystem, specifically focusing on the Netherlands. Over the past two decades, news organizations have increasingly datafied their operations and implemented automated decision-making (ADM). In this process, these organizations have become deeply entangled with digital platforms–from Facebook and Google Search to Amazon Web Services and the Apple App Store,–as well as with a wide variety of data intermediaries and technology providers. Consequently, new relations of dependence have developed, affecting the distribution of power in the news ecosystem. While a lot of research has been done on the metrification and automation of news production, still missing is a comprehensive analysis of these shifts in power and dependence.
PhD | Transforming Democratic Values in Algorithmic Media
Institute: Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), Department of Media Studies
Starting date: 1 April 2023
Application Deadline: 16 January 2023
More information here.
The growing role of algorithms in media has brought fundamental advantages for democratic procedures and democratic values, for instance regarding political information and certain kinds of political communications. On the other hand, some values might be under threat, such as privacy and civic participation.
This project analyses which democratic, public values are at stake when algorithms play an ever-growing role in the media. These might include privacy, agency, autonomy, equality, non-discrimination, and others. Which democratic values are particularly under threat in a technological democracy? How might they be safeguarded? And which values only come to the fore as a constitutive element of democratic procedures through technological advances? The project will draw on the ongoing empirical research on new media technologies and their impact on democratic procedures, and connect these insights to debates in political philosophy.
It will address questions such as: In what ways have these procedures been transformed (or could they have been)? How should the values at stake, and their changes in time, be contextualized? How can we bring out impediments for citizens’ autonomy, new forms of discrimination through algorithmic racism, and the values specific to the profession of journalism? And how should we deal with potential conflicts of values?