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Freja Wedenborg - Journalist and author, Denmark
Digital self-defense
Freja Wedenborg is a Danish journalist and author of the book ‘Cryptoguide for journalists’. She teaches digital self-defense for journalists at the Danish School of Media and Journalism and is also a board member of the Danish Union of Journalists.
E-mails, online research, chats, texts and calls – today almost all of our work and digital communication can be surveilled and accessed by third party companies, authorities, it-criminals or others. What does this mean for the working conditions for journalists and media workers, who has an obligation to keep sources and material confidential? And how do we ensure that we are the ones in charge of what we share from our computers and phones? In this talk Freja Wedenborg covers how to get started on digital security for journalists and media and why it is a necessity in 2019.
Turo Uskali - University of Jyväskylä, Finland
The Next Frontiers of Aerial Storytelling
Using drones in visual storytelling is already ubiquitous.
Drone imagery have enriched fiction as well as factual narratives and provides overviews and data of great news value. Due to altitude limitations (about 120 meter) and short battery life, drones tend to be mostly used in local or hyper-local reporting, while satellites are on the rise for news coverage of events in remote places. Satellites provide new options for the verification of visual data. In this talk, Turo Uskali will discuss pitfalls and obstacles in the emerging era of satellite journalism.
PRESENTATION: See Turo’s PowerPoint presentation here.
Nicholas Diakopoulos - Northwestern University, USA
Transparency and the Ethics of AI
What does it mean for algorithms and AI to be transparent, and how does that contribute to AI ethics?
In this talk Nicholas Diakopoulos will detail the various aspects of AI systems that can be made transparent, and then discuss a range of considerations on how transparency is applied to AI including the types of audience(s) for the transparency information, the nature of the AI decision and how it fits into human behavior, the degree of technical complexity of the system, the role of people operating the AI, cost and other business concerns such as trade secrecy, and legal access and legitimacy in governmental contexts. He will then present the case for and against transparency as an approach to AI ethics and provide examples of where he thinks there is an ethical mandate for transparency in some AI systems.
PRESENTATION: See Nicholas’ PowerPoint presentation here.
Deborah G. Johnson - University of Virginia, USA
Sex with Robots and the Promises and Perils of New Technologies
In the last several years, humanoid sex dolls have become available, robot brothels have opened, and an abundance of research and development is now underway targeted both to make robots more humanoid and to equip them for intimate behavior.
In order to achieve the goal of achieving robots that can be used for sex, the robots must look more and more like humans. This means less and less transparency with regard to the nature of the entities (robots) with which humans will interact. In her presentation Deborah G. Johnson zooms in on how this new area of development challenges and weakens the distinction between humans and machines. She discusses how this happens and the negative consequences of weakening the distinction. When journalists write about this new technology, they will influence how it is understood. They may, intentionally or unintentionally, support the illusion of machines that are human.
PRESENTATION: See Deborah’s PowerPoint presentation here.
Duc Tien Dang Nguyen - University of Bergen, Norway
Multimedia Verification
Most of today’s communication and social interaction happens over the Internet, enabling immediate distribution of digital content, with a wealth of visual stimuli facing us online. In this myriad of online information, untrustworthy sources become intertwined with credible ones, and the human capacity to process the context and validity of the content is quickly overloaded. Trust in media is declining, particularly for online news and social media. Duc Tien Dang Nguyen will demonstrate how researchers seek to advance methods that help publishers and citizens to avoid, be-made-aware-of and detect disinformation. He also looks at technologies that detect and reveal modified and manipulated images and building up trust in online media based on advanced image verification algorithms.
Lars Nyre - University of Bergen, Norway
Technology Takeover. What if Technological Determinism is the Best Theory of Reality?
Developments in computers, big data and artificial intelligence are just the latest instances of an ongoing accumulation of human competencies in technology.
Technology always works by taking over tasks that humans used to do. However, it no longer seems true to say that humans control the takeover process. What if technological determinism is becoming the best theory of technology? This theory says that slow accumulation processes are more decisive than the effort of humans, and that technology’s physical qualities determine what humans can achieve. Professor Nyre conducts a reading of Martin Heidegger’s famous essay «The question concerning technology» (1954) in support of his perspective. Heidegger's gloomy vision of modern technology is just as relevant for the internet as for the hydro-electric dams on the Rhine that he was concerned with."
PRESENTATION: See Lars’ PowerPoint presentation here.
Øyvind Vågnes - University of Bergen, Norway
Black Mirror and the Culture of Surveillance
While words such as “surveillance state” and “surveillance society” have served well in describing how surveillance is done to individuals and groups, David Lyon suggests that contemporary surveillance is better understood in terms of “surveillance culture,” in which “user-generated content engenders the data by which daily doings are monitored” and “watching has become a way of life”. What is it about the anthology serial narrative that enables the speculative fiction of Black Mirror to capture the workings of surveillance culture so uniquely? In this talk Øyvind Vågnes provides a few possible answers, with reference to several of the episodes of the TV hit.
PRESENTATION: See Øyvind’s PowerPoint presentation here.
Paul C. Adams - University of Texas, USA
The Case of the Missing Cookies: Impacts of the GDPR on European Online News
Virtually all newspaper websites contain bits of code that facilitate data exchange with advertisers and social media companies.
The use of such "third party" cookies is explained in newspaper privacy agreements as a way to serve people "better ads," however it also contributes to pervasive digital surveillance practices, linking newspapers to social media, target marketers, and political strategists. The implementation of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation of 2016 (GDPR) provides insight into the functions of these cookies because it led to a 22% reduction in the number of third party cookies on EU news websites. A critical reading of the privacy agreements from 25 online newspapers of the United States and Europe permits reflection on this change and more generally on the ways in which journalism is becoming embedded in what Shoshana Zuboff calls "surveillance capitalism."
PRESENTATION: See Paul’s PowerPoint presentation here.
Panel debate leader
Hilde Sandvik - Editor, Broen.xyz, Norway
Power journalist Hilde Sandvik will lead the panel debate. She is a Norwegian journalist and former Debate editor in Bergens Tidende.
She works as a moderator, host and speaker all over Scandinavia. Sandvik has written several books and is the Editor in chief and founder of Broen.xyz.
“I bingewatch Marvel-shows and love super heroes, but I still believe that McGyver is the ultimate hero. Everything can be fixed with ductape.”
— HILDE SANDVIK