Information and Communication Studies Research Collection
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Browsing Information and Communication Studies Research Collection by Type "Journal Article"
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- Publication3WS of Data Journalism Education: What, Where and Who?This paper explores data journalism education, with a particular focus on formal training in the higher education sector globally. The study draws on data from: (1) the 2017 Global Data Journalism Survey, to study the state of data journalism education and the requirements in terms of training and (2) a dataset of 219 unique modules or programmes on data journalism or related fields that were curated and examined in order to understand the nature of data journalism education in universities across the world. The results show that while journalists interested in data are highly educated in journalism or closely related fields, they do not have a strong level of education in the more technical areas of data journalism, such as data analysis, coding and data visualisation. The study further reveals that a high proportion of data journalism courses are concentrated in the United States, with a growing number of courses developing across the world, and particularly in Europe. Despite this, education in the field does not have a strong academic underpinning, and while many courses are emerging in this area, there are not enough academically trained instructors to lead and/or teach such interdisciplinary programmes in the higher education sector.
1352Scopus© Citations 34 - PublicationAging, Privacy, and Home-Based Computing: Developing a Design FrameworkApplications for "aging in place" focus on supporting elders and informing the caregiver but often at the risk of abrogating privacy. The authors developed and tested various prototypes to create a privacy framework for designing home-based computing for seniors.
999Scopus© Citations 29 - PublicationAlgorithmic governance: Developing a research agenda through the power of collective intelligenceWe are living in an algorithmic age where mathematics and computer science are coming together in powerful new ways to influence, shape and guide our behaviour and the governance of our societies. As these algorithmic governance structures proliferate, it is vital that we ensure their effectiveness and legitimacy. That is, we need to ensure that they are an effective means for achieving a legitimate policy goal that are also procedurally fair, open and unbiased. But how can we ensure that algorithmic governance structures are both? This article shares the results of a collective intelligence workshop that addressed exactly this question. The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary group of scholars to consider (a) barriers to legitimate and effective algorithmic governance and (b) the research methods needed to address the nature and impact of specific barriers. An interactive management workshop technique was used to harness the collective intelligence of this multidisciplinary group. This method enabled participants to produce a framework and research agenda for those who are concerned about algorithmic governance. We outline this research agenda below, providing a detailed map of key research themes, questions and methods that our workshop felt ought to be pursued. This builds upon existing work on research agendas for critical algorithm studies in a unique way through the method of collective intelligence.
569Scopus© Citations 126 - PublicationThe application of RFIDs in libraries : an assessment of technological, management and professional issuesThis paper starts by outlining the technologies involved in RFIDs and reviews the issues raised by their general application. It then identifies their potential application areas within the library sector based on a generic process view of library activities. Finally it highlights the issues that are raised by their application in libraries and provides an assessment of which of these issues are likely to raise ethical concerns for library professionals. The purpose is to provide an overview of the technology within the context of the library process and to highlight issues which may raise ethical concerns for the profession. A second paper will focus specifically on these concerns within the context of the professional obligations of the librarian.
731Scopus© Citations 22 - PublicationA bibliometric study of video retrieval evaluation benchmarking (TRECVid) : a methodological analysis(Sage, 2011-12-19)
; ; ; This paper provides a discussion and analysis of methodological issues encountered during a scholarly impact and bibliometric study within the field of computer science (TRECVid Text Retrieval and Evaluation Conference, Video Retrieval Evaluation). The purpose of this paper is to provide a reflection and analysis of the methods used to provide useful information and guidance for those who may wish to undertake similar studies, and is of particular relevance for the academic disciplines which have publication and citation norms that may not perform well using traditional tools. Scopus and Google Scholar are discussed and a detailed comparison of the effects of different search methods and cleaning methods within and between these tools for subject and author analysis is provided. The additional database capabilities and usefulness of “Scopus More” in addition to “Scopus General” is discussed and evaluated. Scopus paper coverage is found to favourably compare to Google Scholar but Scholar consistently has superior performance at finding citations to those papers. These additional citations significantly increase the citation totals and also change the relative ranking of papers. Publish or Perish (PoP), a software wrapper for Google Scholar, is also examined and its limitations and some possible solutions are described. Data cleaning methods, including duplicate checks, expert domain checking of bibliographic data, and content checking of retrieved papers are compared and their relative effects on paper and citation count discussed. Google Scholar and Scopus are also compared as tools for collecting bibliographic data for visualisations of developing trends and, due to the comparative ease of collecting abstracts, Scopus is found far more effective.1824 - PublicationBrokerage or friendship? politics and networks in IrelandStudies of Irish politics have often emphasised clientelist relations between voters and politicians. A survey carried out in the 1970s indicates that the importance of politicians has been overstated. A significant percentage of people chose non-political figures as brokers between themselves and the state. Differences in urban and rural community social structures, which are not reflections of age, education, or socio-economic status, correlate with different brokerage choices. Such findings cast doubt on both modernization and dependency explanations of brokerage. Further research on social networks of friendship and exchange are necessary, since informal personal networks emerge as important links between individuals and the state.
84 - PublicationCommunities of Practice or Communities of Trust? global culture and information technologyLet me begin by noting what will soon be obvious in any event -- the paper that follows has a strong polemic element. Anthropologists in Ireland are dispersed thinly, and this journal provides an opportunity to encourage debate and discussion of issues that might concern anthropologists who either study Ireland or reside in Ireland. Hopefully, this working paper will spark further discussion; it is certainly intended to do so!
71 - PublicationCommunity and inclusion: The impact of new communications technologiesCan new information and communications technologies increase citizen participation in civic life and promote community development? Worldwide studies of community information systems demonstrate that new technologies can enhance the effectiveness of activists, However, there has been little evidence that they bring in new participants. This article argues that e-government systems can, if properly designed and implemented, involve citizens who have not previously been active in local community life, and describes an Irish pilot project which has this capacity. The success of such systems depends not only on design issues, but also on the willingness of government to respond to the resulting policy inputs by citizens.
327Scopus© Citations 10 - Publication
144 - Publication‘The COVID-19 crisis is not the core problem’: experiences, challenges, and concerns of Irish academia during the pandemicThis article, drawing on data from an international survey – distributed in the summer of 2020 – explores the experiences and concerns of academic staff (n = 167) working in universities in Ireland and their perceptions of their institutions’ early response to the pandemic. Concerns related to transitioning to remote online working, impact on research productivity and culture, and work intensification, as intersected by enhanced managerialism, are ubiquitous to their accounts. As some respondents wrote of potential positive changes, particularly in the delivery of teaching, we conclude by suggesting potential avenues for building on successes in coping with the pandemic with some recommendations for mitigating some of the harms.
67Scopus© Citations 11 - PublicationCreating an Evidence-Based Digital Curation Curriculum for Ireland: Case Study at University College DublinDigital curation is an ongoing set of processes for selecting, preserving, archiving describing, and sharing born-digital and digitised resources, such as documents, data, photos, sound, and film. The importance of digital curation for identifying and preserving digital materials for the future is of increasing importance to cultural and commercial institutions. Although digital curation as a profession is still in its infancy, library and information professionals are increasingly tasked with meeting these demands. In this article, the authors briefly outline digital curation as a practice, discuss digital curation in the Irish context, and describe how University College Dublin's School of Information and Communication Studies new educational initiatives in digital curation are addressing these challenges.
612 - PublicationThe Culture of Paper, Information and Power: An Irish ExampleThe analysis of electronic versus paper documents, especially in the context of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), has often focused on affordances, issues of design and implementation and work practices. Issues of culture are often understated in such studies. Yet, like any object of material culture, the use of paper files, as well as an aversion to electronic information sharing, is conditioned by the cultural and political background of a society. This article will suggest that the persistence of paper files in a section of the Irish civil service during the 1990s had much to do with issues of accountability and a cult of expertise, in which papers files, as material objects, were deployed on behalf of claims of expertise and power. This intertwining of power, politics and information is a feature of Irish society, and the discourse of expertise and power is a theme that permeates many aspects of Irish culture.
214 - PublicationDesigning a Digital Research Accelerator Programme for the Social Sciences at UCD: Preliminary results of a faculty-library collaboration(Routledge, 2020-05-13)
; ; ; ; Alongside calls in the literature for research skills development for undergraduates, University College Dublin’s College of Social Sciences and Law (CoSSL) has identified a need for research skills education for its new Bachelor of Social Sciences programme. In collaboration, academics and the library have created a new course, the Social Sciences Research Accelerator, designed to provide foundational learning of research skills for students transitioning to conduct research projects in their final year. Preliminary testing of the course, which included a small user-testing group of undergraduates who engaged with course activities and then completed a survey evaluation, has been positive. This paper details the partnership between academics and library staff toward a common scholarship goal, including the creation of learning materials, early testing of content, and future work.309 - PublicationA dialectical approach to information retrievalPurpose:The paper explores the question of whether the often paradoxical and conceptually contradictory discipline of information retrieval (IR) can be understood more clearly when it is analysed from a dialectical perspective. Methodology/Approach:Conceptual analysis and literature review. Findings:A dialectical understanding of meaning can assist in clarifying some aspects of the complex nature of current IR theory. Research Implications:Philosophy has the potential to explore the conflicts and contradictions in IR and should not be used just as a means of synthesis and resolution. The use of the philosophy of meaning should include a broader understanding of the philosophical oppositions which lie behind the nature of meaning. Originality/value of paper:This paper suggests a new perspective on the role of meaning in IR: the dialectical model.
470Scopus© Citations 11 - PublicationDigital curation on a small Island: a study of professional education and training needs in IrelandIn this paper, we use the case study method to understand digital curation knowledge, skills, needs and challenges in Ireland, in order to direct the development of postgraduate digital curation educational programmes. Data was collected in three intervals over a two-year period: a web questionnaire about digital curation knowledge and skills and interest in continuing professional development (CPD); nine interviews with individuals who engaged in digital curation work about workplace challenges and CPD education; and a final online questionnaire about preferences for digital curation CPD education. Findings suggest that Ireland-specific issues emerged: (a) because there is so little understanding about digital curation in Ireland, even among information professionals, individuals were not always sure when they were doing digital curation work and if they needed to learn more and; (b) individuals were often the only ones in their institutions with digital curation skills and found themselves struggling to educate supervisors and colleagues about the necessity of their work as well as the resources needed to conduct their work. Considering these findings, comprehensive postgraduate digital curation education in Ireland would need to include a focus on these issues.
583Scopus© Citations 4 - PublicationDilemmas in information science (IS) and information retrieval (IR): recurring challenges or new solutions?Purpose: This paper analyses the extent to which understanding IS and IR as disciplines characterised by intractable dilemmas is a useful conceptual framework through reviewing and re-evaluating an important contribution to the field (Neill, 1987, 1992) in light of more recent developments. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reviews the discussion of central dilemmas within information science (IS) and information retrieval (IR), through literature review and conceptual analysis. It assesses the extent to which they remain intractable problems or whether improved solutions have been developed and discusses the implications of these ongoing challenges. The main problem addressed is, in Neill’s (1987, 1992) terminology “the dilemma of the subjective in information organisation and retrieval” which is understood as the problem of how the meaning of documents can be represented to meet the needs of the user. Findings: Many of the dilemmas discussed within IS and IR remain fairly intractable primarily because information and meaning have both subjective and objective qualities which often have a complex relationship. Recent technological developments have, however, altered the nature of some of these dilemmas and also created some new dilemmas for the subject. Research implications/limitations: Historical perspectives within IR and IS should be used when discussing theoretical and technological developments in the subject. The conceptual framework of dilemmas remains a useful theoretical tool for IS and IR in terms of examining the nature of problems in research and practice. Originality/value: This paper re-visits an important theme in IS and IR and provides an updated perspective on some central issues.
411Scopus© Citations 2 - PublicationDisaffection Anger and Sarcasm: Exploring the Postrevolutionary Digital Public Sphere in EgyptThis article explores the digital public sphere in Egypt through a 3-pronged investigation. First, we examine the media sphere from an institutional point of view. Second, we undertake a qualitative analysis of comments left on popular news pages on Facebook. Third, we discuss the findings of 30 semistructured interviews with young people in Cairo. Our results indicate that the media system is characterized by increasing control that has now extended online, whereas the social media space is dominated by religious personalities and entertainment. Turning to the public, we found that most comments mobilized anger and insults or were ironic and sarcastic. Finally, the interviews point to a disillusionment with both the political sphere and the role of social media. Disaffection is therefore taken to represent the specific structure of feeling found in the postrevolutionary Egyptian mainstream digital public sphere, with publics appearing alienated and unwilling to engage politically.
196 - PublicationDo RFIDs (radio frequency identifier devices) provide new ethical dilemmas for librarians and information professionals?Abstract: This paper provides an analysis of the current and potential ethical implications of RFID technology for the library and information professions. These issues are analysed as a series of ethical dilemmas, or hard-to-resolve competing ethical obligations, which the librarian has in relationship to information objects, library users and the wider social and political environment or state. A process model of the library is used as a framework for the discussion to illustrate the relationship between the different participants in the library system and it is argued that ethical analysis should involve the identification of future developments as well as current issues. The analysis shows that RFIDs do currently pose some dilemmas for librarians in terms of the conflicts between efficient service, privacy of users and an obligation to protect the safety of society as a whole, and that these are likely to become more problematic as the technology develops. This paper is part 2 of a series of papers on RFIDs and the library and information professions.
4989Scopus© Citations 17 - PublicationE-participation and Governance: Widening the netAs a solution to declining political and civic participation, many governments are seeking to increase the number of citizens who participate in policy-making and governance. Contrary to early expectations, recent research suggests that new information and communications technologies (ICTs) may not increase participation rates in formal organisations, and so may not improve participation rates. The Mobhaile project in Ireland is an example of a local government initiative which combines service provision (‘e-government’) functions and facilities for voluntary, community and business organisations that enhance social capital in local communities, while also enabling civic participation functions (‘egovernance’), in a single web-based geographical interface. Such projects enable citizens to access government services and encourages them, as part of this process, to also participate in local activities that build social capital in the community. The resulting mix can be an effective basis for greater political and civic participation.
476 - PublicationEditorial: Virtual research environments: Issues and opportunities for librariansPurpose: This editorial aims to introduce a special issue of Library Hi Tech on "Virtual research environments: issues and opportunities for librarians". It defines the concept of the virtual research environment (VRE), describes its relationship both to the virtual learning environment and to Web 2.0, and proposes that librarians play a central role in VRE development and use. Findings: The VRE is likely to have a huge impact on many aspects of research and, thus, on the role of the academic and the research librarian. If VREs are to fulfill their potential as useful and usable artifacts, librarians need to have a central role in their development and application. Practical implications: Librarians need to be proactive in identifying and advocating for their potential roles in VRE development and use. These roles need to be taken into account in the curricula of schools of library and information studies. Originality/value: This is an ideal time for librarians to explore the potential of VREs because there is still time to influence their eventual form.
176Scopus© Citations 10