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The increasing use of platforms and the availability of data are driving the media and communication transformation in society. Platformization, namely “the penetration of infrastructures, economic processes, and governmental frameworks of platforms in different economic sectors and spheres of life” (Poell, Nieborg, & van Dijck, 2019, p. 5), poses enormous challenges for communication research which deals with data flows, data usage, and the media practices intertwined with platform use. Against the background of the change in digital communication brought about by datafication and platformization, we turn to previous research on platforms and studies applying walkthroughs. We discuss the application of the walkthrough approach at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and social semiotic technology research (SST), raising methodological questions for the future study of adaptive learning platforms for illustration. We illustrate the sociotechnical walkthrough as a methodological approach, using our analysis of an adaptive learning platform (Area9) and the associated usage practices. Our analysis features the application of different research personae in order to grasp algorithmic personalization. We conclude with a critical reflection on how the sociotechnical walkthrough approach could fit into a toolkit of traditional and digital methods for future interdisciplinary communications research.

The paradigmatic transformations, rapid and in continuous acceleration, of the organization and communication of knowledge in contemporary reality make it necessary to reflect on the principles on which models and methods of the bibliographic tradition are based. This paper examines these topics: a) the elementary entities that constitute the “objects” of the representation of knowledge, from “books” to “data”; b) the description of some of the essential characteristics of the models of representation of these “objects”; c) the ways in which the perception of representations is carried out and communicated, through the recordings, giving rise to the different interfaces of bibliographic mediation, in the classic frame of the Bibliographic universe; d) the relational and holistic nature that characterizes the empirical phenomena referred to knowledge of objects, bibliographic and extra-bibliographic; e) the model profile of a possible Bibliographic multiverse; e) the general lines of a “point of view” with which to hypothesize the integration, following Michel Foucault, of “words” and “things”.

The paper deals with some problems linked to Human-Centred Design (HCD) methods, namely Personas, that may mislead the designers to create distorted and stereotypical representations of users. These archetypal models of ‘human’ are questioned in favour of a data processing approach, that better responds to the needs of the projects contextualised in our hyperconnected society. The core value of this approach is the ability to adapt, based on algorithms capable of matching the product to the activity of each user. These considerations aim to balance the important benefits of the HCD design methods with necessary caution on the introduction of new tools still in verification. The integration of the well-established HCD methods with the new possibilities given by datafication originates a design process integrating the two aspects and that is presented at the end of the paper.

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This article engages with the interplay between data-driven surveillance and contemporary social imaginaries, using research based on the aftermath of the Snowden leaks. Drawing on Mark Fisher’s use of the term “realism” in relation to capitalist realism, I advance the argument here that public debate and response to the Snowden leaks indicate a similar ‘‘pervasive atmosphere” that comes to regulate thought and action, in which the active normalization of surveillance infrastructures limits the possibilities of even imagining alternatives – a condition I describe as “surveillance realism”. In so doing, the article posits a way to reveal the contingency and construction of our current digital environment, advancing a critique suitable for an emancipatory politics.

Over the past three years, we have witnessed how online digital platforms have deeply penetrated every sector in society, disrupting markets, labor relations and institutions. Five American tech companies (Google-Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft) are now dominating the western world, not just transforming social and civic practices, but affecting the very core of western democratic processes. The digitization of society involves intense struggles between competing ideological systems and contesting societal actors – market, government and civil society – raising an important question: Who is or should be responsible and accountable for anchoring public values in an online world? This article describes and analyzes the European challenge to govern “platform societies” which are increasingly dependent on global commercial infrastructures – ecosystems that are privatized and whose mechanisms are hidden from public view.

Future scenarios foresee a city as a fragmented and uneven system in relation to rapidly evolving environmental, economic and social phenomena. The traditional urban planning tools, based on a theoretical-predictive approach, adapt poorly. We need to rethink how to govern the transformations of a city, which can be described by models of urban metabolism. City Sensing has changed the way a city is explored and used. With the transition from digitisation to datafication, through a computational approach, one can process georeferenced datasets within algorithms in order to achieve a higher quality of the project. This process exploits data provided by public administrations, companies and citizens taking part in inclusive and adaptive urban planning.

New emerging technologies and the continuous process of digitisation around the globe means a new model of civilization is emerging where society is “digitized” or “datafied”. This paper analyses to what extent we have undergone the process of digitisation and datafication through understanding concepts of the surveillance society, spectacle society, our digital footprints and the amount of data gathered by government agencies, individuals and companies and its utilisation; and how this process has led to the development of a “global digital civilization”. Disparity between levels of digitisation in different regions in a globalised world are addressed to determine if certain regions contend hegemony over others within digital realms. To further understand how globalisation itself is perceived in a digitised world, a software called “Mention” was used to collate data in relation to the terms “globalization”, “global” and “globalisation” on digital platforms such as Twitter, blogs, news, websites and forums over a month’s time period. Online rhetoric in relation to this term and the locations from which data was mostly surfacing in higher amounts has greatly added to the findings.

Today there is a remarkable tolerance for Big Brother and Big Business routinely accessing citizens’ personal information also known as Big Data. Part of the explanation for this may be found in the gradual normalization of datafication as a new paradigm in science and society. Datafication is becoming a leading principle, not just amongst techno-adepts, but also amongst scholars. This article deconstructs the ideological grounds of datafication arguing that in many respects datafication is rooted in problematic ontological and epistemological claims. The ideology of dataism shows characteristics of a widespread belief in the objective quantification of human behavior through online media technologies.

Aim of the paper is to investigate the role of large databases in social research, with particular reference to the educational field. In the text, following the theoretical tracks of the social construction of knowledge and the Science and Technology Studies (STS), is investigated how the big data - the datasets produced by the international survey with the support of information infrastructure and multidisciplinary expert knowledge - are changing the cultural and educational policies at national and international level, producing the phenomenon of datafication of education. The OECD-PISA survey (Programme for International Student Assessment) is presented in the article as an emblematic case of the emergence of such processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]