Week 7 Communication and Technology Flashcards
Historians of technology emphasize that technologies are imagined, developed, and implemented through a complex sequence of ___________ and _________, often unspoken
social practices; negotiations
What is technology?
- Discloses and transforms natural order
- Is a transformational process
- Embodies knowledge
- Is a certain kind of knowledge
Basically an invention with function
Rather than isolate the isolate the “effects” of technology upon a society, the goal for this approach is to unravel __________ upon the development of a technology and to illuminate the social contexts in which it operates. Technology undoubtly produces some effect on society, but the overall relationship is __________, not one-sided
the influence of society; dialectical
Marvin: When Old Technologies Were New:
[This study] argues that the early history of _______ is less the evolution of technical efficiencies in communication than a series of arenas for ___________________; among them, who is inside and outside, who may speak, who may not, and who has authority and may be believed. Changes in the speed, capacity, and performance of communication devices tell us little about these questions. At best, they provide cover of functional meanings beneath which social meanings can elaborate themselves undisturbed
electric; negotiating issues crucial to the conduct of social life
The features of technology that direct us– not force us— down a certain path are what scholars of technology often call _________, the opportunities for action that a particular thing or particular environment provides
affordances
Algorithmic oppression is not just a glitch in the system but, rather, is __________
fundamental to the operating system of the web
There is a missing ________________ in some types of
algorithmically driven decision making, and this matters for
everyone engaging with these types of technologies in everyday life
social and human context
While we often think of terms such as “big data” and
“algorithms” as being benign, neutral, or objective, they are
anything but. The people who make these decisions hold all
types of values, many of which openly promote ____________, which is well documented in studies of Silicon Valley and other tech corridors
- Racism
- Sexism
- False notions of meritocracy
What goes into an algorithm?
- Scientists’ prior belief of what data should look like
- Computing the relationship between each observation
- Mathematical equation representing relationship
- Updating framework as more data is integrated
Algorithm as a recipe:
what is the dish? what are the ingredients?
- Ingredients: data
- Dish: model that can make predictions about the future
What is algorithmic bias?
A __________ in predictive computation. In some contexts, the term bias describes ___________ that predictive models make because of code bugs, poor model selection, inappropriate optimization metrics, or suppressed data.
systematic error; statistical mistakes
What is algorithmic bias?
_____________ whereby unfair outcomes privilege one arbitrary group of people over another. In this definition, the focus is on
the disparate impact technology may have that reinforces social biases based on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, and disability
computational discrimination
Types of biases
- Pre-existing
- Technical
- Emergent
Pre-existing bias
Roots in social institutions, practices, and attitudes
Technical bias AKA statistical bias
Technical constraints of consideration
Emergent bias
Arise in a context of use, which could also be included in societal bias. Is introduced when a machine learning model is used inappropriately or outside the context for which it was intended
Intersectional Social Justice Framework
We are arguing that any algorithms that perpetuate the status
quo and do not improve social equity for people of color,
women, the poor and working class, those with disabilities, and
other marginalized groups are biased. Further, we hold that any
attempt to do data science in an “apolitical” way is ________________, because data science as currently practiced has shown time and time again to harm vulnerable communities. In other words, we center justice in our definition of algorithmic bias. Machine learning and AI should not only work equally well for all people, but all software should also aspire to support a larger struggle for economic, racial, and gender equity.
inherently politically conservative
What are the types of algorithmic biases?
- Historical
- Representation
- Measurement
- Aggregation
- Evaluation
- Deployment
Historical bias: arises when there is misalignment between what two objects to be encoded and propagated into a model
the world as it is and values or objectives
It is a normative concern with the state of the world. It exists even with perfect sampling and feature selection
Measurement bias: arises when _________________ . Variables
themselves are often proxies for the desired quantities, not
a pure measurement of a construct
choosing and measuring features and labels to use
Variables themselves are often proxies for the desired quantities, not
a pure measurement of a construct
Representation bias: arises while _____________ on which you will train a model
defining and sampling a population
It occurs when the training population under-
represents, and subsequently fails to generalize well, for some
part of the use population.
Aggregation bias: arises during ___________,
when distinct populations are inappropriately
combined
model construction
Evaluation bias: occurs during _____________
It can arise when the testing or external benchmark populations _________________ or from the use of __________ that are
not appropriate for the way in which the model will be
used
model iteration and evaluation
do not equally represent the various parts of the user population
performance metrics
Deployment bias: occurs after model deployment, when_______________
a system is used or interpreted in inappropriate ways
Vaidhyanathan: Antisocial Media
What are the basic criticisms?
- Spreading misinformation without accepting editorial responsibility
- Fires up emotion by design; doesn’t offer checks and balances
- Creates filter bubbles and echo chambers
Bottom line: “Facebook makes it harder for diverse groups of people to gather and conduct calm, informed, productive conversations.”
“If you wanted to build a machine that would distribute propaganda to millions of people, distract them from important issues, energize
hatred and bigotry, erode social trust, undermine journalism, foster
doubts about science, and engage in massive surveillance all at once,
you would make something a lot like
Facebook.” (p.19)
What issue is this quote describing?
Individual Gain –Collective Damage
Problems with techno-fundamentalism
- Technology as singular cause for societal change (both good and bad)
- Neglect social, economic, and political factors
- Code is shaped by people and people are shaped by code
- Media systems shape human relations as much as human relations shape media
- Technology is embedded in culture; culture is shaped by technology
What concept is illustrated here?
Reflexivity
