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From documenting human rights abuses to studying online advertising, web archives are increasingly positioned as critical resources for a broad range of scholarly Internet research agendas. In this article, we reflect on the motivations and methodological challenges of investigating the world’s largest web archive, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (IAWM). Using a mixed methods approach, we report on a pilot project centred around documenting the inner workings of ‘Save Page Now’ (SPN) – an Internet Archive tool that allows users to initiate the creation and storage of ‘snapshots’ of web resources. By improving our understanding of SPN and its role in shaping the IAWM, this work examines how the public tool is being used to ‘save the Web’ and highlights the challenges of operationalising a study of the dynamic sociotechnical processes supporting this knowledge infrastructure. Inspired by existing Science and Technology Studies (STS) approaches, the paper charts our development of methodological interventions to support an interdisciplinary investigation of SPN, including: ethnographic methods, ‘experimental blackbox tactics’, data tracing, modelling and documentary research. We discuss the opportunities and limitations of our methodology when interfacing with issues associated with temporality, scale and visibility, as well as critically engage with our own positionality in the research process (in terms of expertise and access). We conclude with reflections on the implications of digital STS approaches for ‘knowing infrastructure’, where the use of these infrastructures is unavoidably intertwined with our ability to study the situated and material arrangements of their creation.

Exhibition Review: Last Supper in Pompeii - too much death not enough food

Recent events related to police brutality and the evolution of #BlackLivesMatter provides an empirical case to explore the vitality of social media data for social movements and the evolution of collective identities. Social media data provide a portal into how organizing and communicating generate narratives that survive over time. We analyse 31.65 million tweets about Ferguson across four meaningful time periods: the death of Michael Brown, the non-indictment of police officer Darren Wilson, the Department of Justice report on Ferguson, and the one year aftermath of Brown’s death. Our analysis shows that #BlackLivesMatter evolved in concert with protests opposing police brutality occurring on the ground. We also show how #TCOT (Top Conservatives on Twitter) has operated as the primary counter narrative to #BlackLivesMatter. We conclude by discussing the implications our research has for the #BlackLivesMatter movement and increased political polarization following the election of Donald Trump.

Despite greater awareness that the American population and workforce are increasingly diverse, there is little appreciation for the persistent and discrepant effect of difference on the lived experiences of social outsider groups. Consistent with a history of preference for able-bodied, well off, White, mature, heterosexual, males, for example, most U.S. institutions continue to be hegemonic. Proffering a road map for managing diversity and equalizing life chances across multiple spaces, this paper articulates an innovative conceptual framework called ACRASH. This powerful analogy and acronym (for ableism, classism, racism, ageism, sexism, and heterosexism) denotes the primary dimensions of difference that spawn discrimination, harassment, and prejudice and shape disparate realities for Americans. As well, attention calling, perpetual proportionate affirmative action, and the use of a progressive syntax are posited as effective means for improved relations and the development of more positive socioeconomic and political outcomes in the U.S. and, perhaps, beyond. In response to scholars like Collins (2005), McWhorter (2000, 2005, 2007, & 2008), Patterson (1997), and Rothenberg (2004) and building on concepts introduced in Turnipseed’s (2009) dissertation, this work urges focused, ongoing, and universal acts of social justice.