The capacity of modern computers to capture and store traces of human behavior along an unprecedented number of dimensions has created something of an epistemological shift in society, with datafication emerging as a newly dominant paradigm for making sense of the world. With the move towards datafication—and the attendant algorithmic logics used to make sense of it—everyday life has become mediated in new ways. For media studies, this presents a challenge to figure out where our discipline fits. What does this mean for our objects of study? Our research questions? Our methods?

This miniconference will bring together graduate students and faculty from the University of Michigan community with invited guests whose work grapples with the impact of data on media studies in order to grapple with these questions. This daylong mini-conference will feature three panel discussion, each kicked off by a guest speaker who will give a 30 minute presentation about their work and the provocations it introduces about what datafication means for media studies. Three members of the university of Michigan community will give 5 minute responses, and then all four panelists will participate in a group discussion. These panels will be open to the public.
#DataTurn

9AM: Coffee

9:15AM: Introductory Remarks

9:30-11AM: Panel 1:The Interpretive Uncertainty of Data
Keynote: Caitlin Petre, Rutgers University

11-11:15AM: Break

11:15AM-12:45PM: Panel 2: Decentering Data Futures
Keynote: Anita Say Chan, UIUC

12:45-1:15PM: Lunch

1:30-3PM: Panel 3: The Data Agenda in Media Studies
Keynote: John Cheney-Lippold, UMich