White’s Three Disciplines and Relative Valuation Order: Countering the Social Ignorance of Automated Data Collection and Analysis [full paper pdf]
2010 International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining
Proceedings Paper Publication on IEEE Computer Society
Odense, Denmark
August 09-August 11
ISBN: 978-0-7695-4138-9
Steven McDermott
DOI Bookmark: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/ASONAM.2010.16
Abstract
This paper asks which of White’s (2009) three disciplines and relative valuation orders does the Singapore blogosphere adhere to. Analysing not just the hyperlink connections but the textual discourse; and in doing so attempts to highlight certain limitations of using automated data mining and analysis software. Using the Singapore blogosphere, described by Lin, Sundaram, Chi, Tatemura, and Tseng, (2006) and Hurst (2006), as an isolated and distinct network with no theme or focus, I have targeted blogs using social network analysis uncovering the key players, with higher levels of ‘betweenness centrality’ (de Nooy & Mrvar et al., 2005) and the themes and discipline of the Singapore blogosphere. This case study will help highlight the analytic framework, benefits and limitations of using social network analysis and an ethnographical approach to networks. This paper also highlights the use of various software technology; blogs, IssueCrawler, HTTrack, NetDraw, and Leximancer while using an ethnographic approach to counter the social ignorance of automated electronic software.
Index Terms:
social network analysis, semantic network analysis, social ignorance, data mining, disciplines
Citation:
Steven McDermott, “White’s Three Disciplines and Relative Valuation Order: Countering the Social Ignorance of Automated Data Collection and Analysis,” asonam, pp.72-79, 2010 International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, 2010
—————————————————————————–
Arbitrarily Combining the Social Network Approach with the Ethnographic Approach
The presentation made at the Communication Networks on the Web, 18-19 Dec 2008 in Amsterdam by me. The two day workshop was sponsored by the European Science Foundation.
by Steven McDermott
Abstract
Simply combining the ethnographic approach to the structural approach of network analysis is said to be fraught with, at the same time, dangers and potentiality (Knox et al., 2006). Using hyper link analysis and textual data gathered during a situation on the Singapore blogosphere as a case study I ask, can a combination of the two create a ‘better’ picture or will it result in the metaphor being mistaken for the ‘real’ social structure? Lin et al. (2006) using the structural social network analysis approach have defined the Singapore blogosphere as a “community with no obvious central topic”, and stated that it was a rather closed network, or rather closed off from the wider global network of bloggers. The ethnographic approach tends to take a very different position arguing that “It is rarely that we find a community that is absolutely isolated, having no outside contact. At the present moment of history, the network of social relations spreads over the whole world, without any absolute solution of continuity anywhere (Radcliffe-Brown, 1940:224).” This paper addresses the inadequacies of using hyper link analysis or the ethnographic approach alone when uncovering online networks. Arbitrarily combining the two approaches will highlight the theoretical problems, benefits and limitations. Using a situation in 2006 I extracted a corpus of 29 blog posts. Using the social network approach I ask which blogs are the keyplayers? Using the ethnographic approach I ask what discourses and styles of discourse appear in the Singapore blogosphere?
Download the complete paper…
Arbitrarily Combining the Social Network Approach with the Ethnographic Approach
Download the Powerpoint Presentation
Arbitrarily Combining the Social Network Approach with the Ethnographic Approach
—————————————————————————–
—————————————————————————–
A HyperLink Network Analysis of the UK Mobile Porn Industry
Paper presented at the Globalisation, Media and Adult/Sexual Content: Challenges to Regulation and Research Conference in Athens 2008
Abstract
The Internet is optimistically regarded as a force for democracy and at the same time another mechanism by which the poor and weak become further disempowered (Calhoun, 1998). Computer mediated communication enhances the current power structures while reinforcing the exploitation of those who are most vulnerable. By recognising the dominance of online pornography, Internet Service Providers and the communications industry are willing to accept the profits generated in working with the porn industry while ignoring the price being paid by the most visible, and yet voiceless agents. In doing so the Internet is awash with easily accessible pornographic imagery with mobile phones viewed as an even bigger market. With the demand for such material being the driving force for broadband usage and with the expansion of the use of mobile phones for downloading videos, I will ask; ‘which United Kingdom companies are the keyplayers? Are there structural holes within the networks, ensuring ‘deniability’ for the larger industrial players?’ I target online websites of the ‘adult entertainment’ industry in the UK using HyperLink analysis in order to extract the social network. This then enables me to conduct social network analysis uncovering the keyplayers of the UK porn industry with higher levels of “closeness centrality” and “betweenness centrality” (de Nooy et al., 2005). Closeness centrality and betweenness centrality are regarded as measures of power within a given network. This paper is an exploratory analysis of the dominant players shaping the UK mobile porn industry, searching for tentative links between the providers and the industrial players that have enabled the distribution of the material via the Internet and mobile phones.
Results of crawl of 171 seed URLs resulted in a network of 970 nodes.
UK Mobile Porn Industry, 135 nodes with paths
Steven McDermott
Institute of Communications Studies
University of Leeds
cssem@leeds.ac.uk
The Singapore Blogosphere: Is it a Habermasian Public Sphere?
For those very few out there who might be interested I thought it only polite to inform you of what I have been up to for the last few months. Well I have provided a summary below and at the end of the article you can get the address to email me if you want access to the entire document. You might have to wait a few days so please be patient.
Summary
This paper analyses the socio-political implications of blogs in Singapore. The study is situated within the wider framework of the internet being heralded as the greatest force for democratisation the world has ever seen (Pitrodi 1993), and at the same time another means of disseminating propaganda, fear and intimidation (Rodan 1997). Pitrodi’s claim that the internet will create democracy is founded on an increase in political participation that it allows. Here it is argued that the increase in political participation that the internet allows does not necessarily result in democratisation. The non-democratic nature of Singapore society inhibits the development of an online Habermasian public sphere. However, rather than acting as a tool for the dissemination of propaganda, fear and intimidation, the internet acts as a means of reinforcing the dominant ideology of social cohesion or survivalism. My specific research questions are: How involved in creating a counter public based on an alternative ideology is the Singapore socio-political blogosphere? Which blogs are central to this process? Which blogs are more interconnected? Are there cliques? What styles of discourse appear in the Singapore socio-political blogosphere?
The ‘authoritarian’ nature of the Singapore regime is outlined by applying non-democratic theory. The normative ideal of the Habermasian public sphere is applied to blogs in general and then to the Singapore socio-political blogosphere. It explores the extent to which the internet is being used by Singaporeans to construct a public sphere open to all.
This ethnography of the Singapore socio-political blogosphere looks in detail at how the social events are experienced and in turn shaped by social actors. As a researcher with extensive experience of living in Singapore and as a member of the Singapore socio-political blogosphere for over four years, I question how the Singapore socio-political blogosphere is developing in relation to the dominant ideology of ‘survivalism’ in Singapore.
The textual data that is analysed is collected using two overlapping approaches. The first is a list compiled by the bloggers within the network and the second approach utilised online software for creating maps of online social networks. The data, analysed using Fairclough’s (2003) critical discourse analysis approach is that of a corpus of twenty-nine articles written about an event that occurred within the Singapore socio-political blogosphere in July of 2006.
Hines (2000) argues that there is a place for an ethnographic approach “as a means to question assumptions inherent in the predictions of radically different futures”. The methodological considerations of doing an online ethnography are investigated including an attempt to overcome the technologically determined focus of previous research. The researcher is clearly visible within the network of bloggers being analysed and also appears in the textual data. The IP addresses and real names of those involved are not made known unless they appear in the textual data. The Singapore socio-political blogosphere in terms of the styles or characters being used by bloggers in their texts are wide and varied with bloggers shifting between styles, akin to a ‘citizen’ style.
Although Singapore socio-political blogosphere is close to the Habermasian ideal of the public sphere, it is a flawed one at present in that it does not provide an alternative to the dominant ideology of ‘survivalism’. I uncovered a total of eight different styles of discourse employed by the various bloggers within the corpus of data. A politician style of discourse occurred 49 times, personal 39, citizen 28, academic 22, journalist 19, activist 10, expert 9 and priest 1. The most dominant form of ideology was that of social cohesion which scored 127 occurrences followed by a discourse of globalism (48) and anti-globalisation (22).
Those blogs that do engage in creating a public based on an alternative ideology are Diary of a Singapore Mind, Heavenly Sword, MrBrown, Xenoboy, Singapore Election, A Writers Blog, i-Speak, Molly Meek, e pur si muove and Post Hoc Ergo. The frequency at which such discourse occurs is very limited. The blogs that are more interconnected with at least 10 or more incoming links from within the Singapore socio-political blogosphere are Singabloodypore, Singapore Angle, Yawning Bread, MrBrown and e pur si muove. Careful scrutiny of the map generated during the data collection period indicates that there are no cliques.
This study of a single event provides limited support to the position that the non-democratic nature of Singapore society inhibits the development of an online Habermasian public sphere. However, rather than acting as a tool for the dissemination of propaganda, fear and intimidation , the internet acts as a means of reinforcing the dominant ideology of social cohesion or survivalism.
To gain access to the complete paper you can either email and I can send you the document or I can provide you with the password to access the document here.
PAPER PRESENTED IN 2006
I recently attended a Postgraduate Conference for the presentation of PhD research on the intersection of power and communication technologies organised by the Institute of Communications Studies (ICS) at the University of Leeds. I presented a paper titled -
The Singapore Blogosphere and Political Participation: An Ethnographic Approach.
Abstract
This paper questions whether or not blogs can help create participatory forms of democracy in non-democratic societies which have suppressed political participation among their citizens. Drawing on an event in July 2006 within a group of websites related to Singapore, this paper asks to what extent do bloggers in Singapore use their blogs for purposes related to politics, and investigates whether the blogosphere facilitates political participation among Singaporean bloggers. The internet has been heralded as a force for democratisation in the world (Pitrodi 1993) and also simply another means of disseminating propaganda, fear and intimidation in Singapore (Rodan 1997). Such predictions of how technology will affect upon futures is not new. This paper accepts Hine’s (2000) position that there is a need for an ethnographic approach to question the assumptions inherent in these predictions of an increased public sphere and at the same time a loss of privacy associated with the technology. Singapore while being regarded by the Chinese Communist State and possibly the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) “as a laboratory for one possible future for the twenty-first century”, (Castells 1998) is regarded as a semi-democratic regime (Brooker 2000). A regime which allows elections but has limits on political and civil liberties and restricts competition between political parties (Brooker 2000). An ethnography of the Singapore blogosphere might help in analysing how the internet is constructed and shaped by social actors in order to overcome the technological focus and the domination of research that focuses on the United States of America. This paper argues that a sustained participant observation within the Singapore blogosphere could illustrate the position that the internet both creates public space to facilitate political participation and also helps to legitimise the semi-democratic nature of the Singapore regime.
The complete paper is available here in pdf format.
