The Microsoft Research Social Media Collective, based in the Cambridge, MA lab location, consists of Nancy Baym, Tarleton Gillespie, and Mary L. Gray, as well as postdoctoral researchers, faculty visitors, and Ph.D. interns affiliated with MSR New England. We are looking for a full-time Research Assistant who will take over from the current RA and …
New book excerpt: The Gentrification of the Internet
Hi SMC friends! Just a quick post to announce a new book, out this month from UC Press. In researching craigslist for an earlier project, I started thinking about changing digital culture as a form of gentrification. With this book, I wanted to think in more depth about how the internet is gentrifying, with the …
Continue reading New book excerpt: The Gentrification of the Internet
2021 Arrivals to the SMC!
UPDATE: One more to add! Muira McCammon is a PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and holds a Master in Law from Penn Law. She studies how information flows through the U.S. administrative state, and her dissertation examines government deletion practices on Twitter. She has published on this work in …
The fragmentation of (digital) well-being
The potential well-being costs of the pandemic are many and harsh. Financial well-being is said to be at risk due to shrinking employment opportunities; physical well-being due to stay-at-home orders; social well-being due to limited interactions with loved ones; digital well-being due to increased reliance on remote communication. The list goes on. Dividing up the …
Digital Time/Power Symposium, April 12 2021
Join panelists Taina Bucher (University of Oslo), Brian Jefferson (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Niall Docherty (Microsoft Research) to discuss digital temporalities as they intersect with apparatuses of power and knowledge. Monday April 12th -- 9am CDT/3pm BST/4pm CEST -- Online Hosted by the Social Media Collective Each speaker will give a ten-minute presentation, followed …
Continue reading Digital Time/Power Symposium, April 12 2021
Update on the MSR SMC PhD Internship, Cycle 2021
LATEST UPDATES: That's a wrap! The 2021 application process is NOW CLOSED. Contact Mary (details below) if you have any problems. On letters of reference: Requests for letters have been sent (automatically, from the submissions portal). Applicants: Your application is considered complete, as long as we have the 6 items listed in the call (the …
Continue reading Update on the MSR SMC PhD Internship, Cycle 2021
Internship Opportunity: (Dis)Trust in Public-Sector Data Infrastructures
The Social Media Collective in the New England Lab has multiple internships for PhD students. See here for more information. This call relates to a NYC Lab internship opportunity so it is separate, but related. This opportunity is more narrowed in scope. Candidates are welcome to apply to both opportunities. Application Link: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/job/940484/Research-Intern-Dis-Trust-in-Public-Sector-Data-Infrastructures Deadline: December 23, …
Continue reading Internship Opportunity: (Dis)Trust in Public-Sector Data Infrastructures
book launch: Sarah Brayne, Predict and Surveil: Data, Discretion, and the Future of Policing
The SMC loves good books. And we especially love books that tackle vital societal problems in a way that's timely but also deeply researched, that ask biting questions of institutions without turning them into straw men, that investigate technology in its real use contexts, and that complicate things that may at first appear simple. And …
SMC is looking for a postdoc. Apply now!
APPLICATION DEADLINE: December 1, 2020 The Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research New England (MSRNE) is looking for a two-year social media postdoctoral researcher. This position is an ideal opportunity for a scholar whose work draws on communication, media studies, anthropology, sociology, and/or science & technology studies to bring empirical and critical perspectives to bear …
More than tools: who is responsible for the social dilemma?
The Social Dilemma has been causing a stir, somewhat ironically, on social media lately. While the film’s topic is timely, and explored with applaudable intentions, its subject matter is mishandled. For all of its values, and all of its flaws, the film’s diagnosis of social media is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of technology. Its …
Continue reading More than tools: who is responsible for the social dilemma?
Social Media Collective 