Sponsored by The Danish National Research School in Media, Communication and Journalism (FMKJ), the Department of Information- and Media Studies (IMV), Aarhus University, and the (U.S.) National Science Foundation, Project number 0924604.

Organizer: Charles Ess

October 25-26.  Conference Center, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.

Contact: Charles Ess <imvce@hum.au.dk>: Beatrice Gamborg (workshop administrative assistant) <imvbg@hum.au.dk>

The rapid development of computer-based / networked games in all their forms has inspired growing research into a range of questions, from concerns about potential social impacts (e.g., violence in games such as Grand Theft Auto) to interest in how player groups in such MMOGs as World of Warcraft resemble and differ from other online communities.

At the same time, computer games thus evoke new sorts of ethical challenges for researchers.  For example, a central research ethics question – especially in Europe with its strict laws protecting personal information – is: What are the obligations, if any, of the researcher to protect the identity and confidentiality of her research subjects? This concern becomes especially tricky, say, for an ethnographer who records voice chats of guild players in a MMOG.  While texts from a text chat may be paraphrased so as to protect the identity of their authors in a published research report – manipulating voice recordings in analogous ways may not be so easy.  Can the ethnographer safely publish these as part of her research, or is she ethically obliged to disguise or conceal this part of her research for the sake of protecting the confidentiality of her subjects?

The goal of the workshop is to explore the novel ethical difficulties facing those undertaking games research – and this in a two-fold way. One, the course includes two panels of presentations – open to interested internet researchers and scholars, including participants in the AoIR conference in Gothenburg the previous week – by leading scholars and researchers on games and games research ethics: Elizabeth Buchanan (Director, Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR), and chair, AoIR ethics working group) Mia Consalvo (Visiting Professor, MIT, and current President, AoIR) Malin Sveningsson (University of Skövde, Sweden) Annette Markham (Senior Research Fellow, Internet Research Ethics, CIPR, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), and Miguel Sicart (IT-University, Copenhagen, and author of The Ethics of Computer Games, MIT Press, 2009). These presentations will provide an overview of contemporary understanding and reflection on central ethical and methodological issues in games research.

Two, the workshop encourages PhD students (who attend the workshop under the sponsorship of FMKJ) to contribute their current research and specific ethical challenges in an “extended master class,” constituted by an informal paper/poster-session designed to catalyze dialogue and debate with the invited presenters. PhD students will be asked to submit either a paper or poster. Students will be assigned to a working group of no more than 3 students plus one or two of the senior workshop presenters.  Each student will have 10 minutes to present his/her paper/poster, followed by comments from a designated respondent. The attending senior scholar(s) will then offer additional comments and continue open discussion, for a total time of 1.5 hours. If enough students participate, you will also be able to attend / audit a second such class. In these ways, we anticipate that PhD students will receive useful advice and guidance – and that you in turn will contribute your work from the praxis of your research to the reflections and frameworks continuously being developed by the invited presenters.

Course registration

In order to register for the course, you should send an email to Beatrice Gamborg (workshop administrative assistant) <imvbg@hum.au.dk> by October 1 2010. You should also attach a 1-page description of your PhD project. Phd students wishing to present a paper or poster must also submit their paper/poster by this date.

You are welcome to contact either Charles Ess (<imvce@hum.au.dk>) or Kirsten Frandsen, Head of PhD study programme, (<imvkf@hum.au.dk>) for additional information. Maximum number of PhD participants: 20.

* The morning presentations on Monday and Tuesday (25-26. October – see preliminary schedule below), are open to interested scholars and researchers, including those attending the AoIR annual conference the previous week in Gothenburg, Sweden.  Registration for general audience Those interested in attending the open presentations are required to register via email with Beatrice Gamborg (workshop administrative assistant) <imvbg@hum.au.dk> by October 1 2010.  Registrants will be assessed a fee to cover catering costs (fee to be determined).

Course Requirements

Participation in the course requires two kinds of preparation: readings that address each of the presentations in the course, and a 10-page paper or poster-session equivalent that you must submit by October 1 2010. The paper / poster presentation should outline your doctoral project, with particular reference to the research design and its methodological challenges. The course readings will be available by late September 2010.

ECTS points

1.5 ECTS for participation without presenting a paper / poster.

1.5 ECTS for presenting a paper / poster – i.e., 3 ECTS possible.

Costs

The Danish National Research School in Media, Communication and Journalism (FMKJ) will cover all expenses for Ph.D. students who are enrolled in the School. PhD students who are not enrolled in FMKJ will have to pay for their own travel, accommodation, and meals while in Aarhus.

Preliminary Program

Monday 25. October

8:30-9:00   Coffee / tea / refreshments

9:00-9:15   Introduction to workshop – charles

9:15-10:00   Elizabeth Buchanan – Research Ethics 2.0

10:00-10:45   Miguel Sicart – Games and Research Ethics

11:45-11:15   Coffee / tea / refreshments

11:15-12:00   Malin Sveningsson – “Going Native” in World of Warcraft: what’s the problem(s)?

12:00-13:00   Lunch

13:00-16:00   Extended Master Class (Paper/ Poster sessions with individual PhD students in dialogue with senior scholars)  (coffee, tea, refreshments available by 14:00)

16:00-16:15   Coffee / tea / refreshments

16:15-17:00   Closing plenary discussion (charles moderates)

17:00-18:30   Rest / relaxation

18:30-21:00   Dinner

Tuesday, 26. October

8:30-9:00   Coffee / tea / refreshments

9:00-9:15   Reminders / springboards – Charles

9:15-10:00   Annette Markham – methods and ethics in games research

10:00-10:45   Mia Consalvo – Researchers and Developers: Ethical Reflections from the Field

11:45-11:15   Coffee / tea / refreshments

11:15-12:00   Closing plenary discussion: lessons learned, remaining questions, unsolved issues, next steps?

12:00-13:00   Lunch / evaluation / goodbye

Barn, unga och medierat våld. En sammanfattning av forskningens resultat
Cecilia von Feilitzen (red.)
12 s. ISBN 978-91-89471-91-7
Skriften är en kort sammanfattning på svenska av den tidigare utgivna ‘Influences of Mediated Violence. A brief research summary’.
http://bit.ly/do5E6x
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Nordicom_News
facebook: http://bit.ly/bGQVVz

Professor Steve Jones
University of Illinois at Chicago

University of Copenhagen,
Southern Campus
Njalsgade, Building 22
Tuesday April 20, 13:15 – 15:00
Auditorium 22.0.11

Professor Steve Jones is a key figure in the development of internet research, the founding president of the Association of Internet Researchers, Senior Research Fellow at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and co-editor of New Media & Society. Professor Jones is a guest professor of the Danish National Research School for Media, Communication, and Journalism during the spring of 2010, http://fmkj.dk/

Hosting most previous forms of human communication – one-to-one, one-to-many, as well as many-to-many – the internet is a unique kind of medium, a meta-medium (Kay & Richardson, 1977), which users access from stationary as well as mobile platforms. As such, it challenges media and communication studies to think again about relevant and appropriate research methodologies. The internet also provides an opportunity for research to refashion, or reinvent, familiar approaches and instruments.

This PhD course provides an overview of the state of internet research, illustrating the applicability of both new and old methodologies to this field of inquiry. The central contributor to the course will be Professor Steve Jones, University of Illinois at Chicago, the founding president of the Association of Internet Researchers, and a key figure in internet research for more than a decade. Steve Jones is a guest professor of the Danish National Research School for Media, Communication, and Journalism during the spring of 2010. Other contributors to the seminar include key figures in Scandinavian new media studies. Participants will have the opportunity to present and discuss papers on their doctoral projects.

Time: April 14-16 2010
Place: IT University of Copenhagen, http://www1.itu.dk/ (rooms to be announced)
Organizers: Klaus Bruhn Jensen & Gitte Stald
Contact: kbj@hum.ku.dk, stald@itu.dk
Sponsored by The Danish National Research School in Media, Communication and Journalism (FMKJ)

More information, http://fmkj.dk/?p=1735

Professor
DAN L. BURK
University of California, Irvine
School of Law

Professor Burk gives a lecture about

Google Keyword Advertising:
How consumers lose in the fight over Internet trademarks

The presentation will be followed by discussion as well as short presentations by researchers from the Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication, University of Copenhagen and from The IT University.

The seminar takes place on

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
14.15-17.00
Room 23.0.49, Building 23
University of Copenhagen
Njalsgade, DK-2300 Copenhagen S

The seminar is jointly organized by the Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication, University of Copenhagen and the IT University of Copenhagen.

Contact: Klaus Bruhn Jensen kbj@hum.ku.dk / Gitte Stald stald@itu.dk

MOBILE MEDIA RESEARCH –                    MOVING FORWARD

Day: Friday, March 12, 2010

Time: 13.00-16.00

Location: The IT University of Copenhagen, auditorium 3

At this seminar, researchers from University of Copenhagen, the IT University of Copenhagen, and the National IT- and Telecommunications Agency present up-to-date research in the area of mobile media in Denmark and in an international perspective.

Mobile media are integrated in our everyday lives at all levels from the individual user to workplaces and social institutions. The functions and meanings of mobile media as such and in combination with other means of communication, information, and entertainment play a central role in processes of cultural and social change and in our access to information in local as well as global contexts. Media and communication research monitors these processes and places them in historical perspective – including the history of yesterday and today – in order to evaluate the development of mobile media and their social consequences.

Program

13.00-13.05   Welcome

13.05-13.35    Asbjørn Denkel and Christian Madsen: Measuring the use of mobile phones in Denmark and the EU through official statistics

13.35-14.05    Rasmus Helles: Symbolic domestication

14.05-14.20    Coffee/tea-break

14.20-14.50    Gitte Stald: Mobile youth – retro and innovative

14.50-15.20    Liu Jun: Mobile Communication, Popular Protests and Citizenship in China

15.20-15.50    Rich Ling: Sexting among US teens

15.50-16.00    Klaus Bruhn Jensen: sum up

More information on program:

MOBILE MEDIA RESEARCH SEMINAR 0310 program  and

MOBILE MEDIA RESEARCH SEMINAR Poster

The seminar is open for all interested – but please notify the organizer in case you plan to bring a larger group.

Contact: Gitte Stald,  stald@itu.dk

Tobias Olsson & Peter Dahlgren (eds):
Young people ICTs and Democracy. Theories, policies, identities and websites
This book offers theoretical reflections on the Internets civic potential: analyses of policy concerns connected to its development, and elusive case studies of civic websites as well as young peoples everyday Web practices. Basically, the chapters in this book seek to analyze rather than mythologize the Internets political implications for young people
Läs mer >> http://bit.ly/6Sgv8D

Ulla Carlsson (red):
Barn och unga i den digitala mediekulturen
I boken ingår artiklar av Ingegerd Rydin, Elza Dunkels, Gunilla Jarlbro, Ola Erstad, Sonia Livingstone & Leslie Haddon.
Jenny Wik, Oscar Westlund, Ulrika Andersson, Mathias A. Färdigh, Jakob Bjur och Heidi Nilsson gör nedslag i den digitala mediekulturen.
Läs mer >> http://bit.ly/8uNDy0

Derudover:

Medier i Norden, Nordicoms rapport om medieutviklingen – utgave 1-2010 – er publisert. Temaene for denne utgaven er filmpolitikken i Norden og opphavsrett:

• Rask teknologisk utvikling danner bakteppet for mange av de filmpolitiske beslutninger som er tatt og skal tas i de nordiske landene. Blant annet legges i 2010 grunnlaget for nye filmavtaler i Danmark og Sverige.
• Opphavsrettslovgivningen er under endring og revisjon i alle nordiske land. Det skyldes i stor grad press fra digitaliseringen – og stadig mer avanserte nett.

Medier i Norden – med arkiv for tidligere utgaver – finner du her: http://www.nordicom.gu.se/?portal=mt&main=minletter_info.php&me=4

I ønskes alle en fredelig, glædelig jul og et godt og postivt nyt år

Gitte Stald