Professor Ranjana Das - Parents talking algorithms: Stories of parenthood in an algorithm age

Parents talking algorithms: Stories of parenthood in an algorithm age
 
This seminar presents a detailed overview of a new book – Parents talking Algorithms – where Ranjana Das uses think-aloud interviews and vignettes with 30 parents of children aged 0 to 18, across England, to investigate transformations to parenting culture in an algorithm age. Specifically, the seminar will touch upon key findings in each of the book’s chapters on negotiating algorithmically shaped searches, newsfeeds and recommendations in parenthood, alongside parents’ approaches to algorithms in their children’s lives, parents’ algorithm literacies and their imaginations, anxieties and expectations about algorithms, tomorrow. The book takes forward research in user-centric algorithm studies by intersecting the field with the study of parenthood and parenting and demonstrates how algorithmic shaping and user agency produce, disrupt and maintain parenting cultures in an algorithm age. 
 
The speaker will also circulate 3 chapters – Chapter 1 (introduction), Chapter 6 (algorithm literacies), and Chapter 7 (algorithms, tomorrow) – for a more detailed discussion with those who are able to read these drafts.
 

The talk is open to everyone - no preparation is needed! But if you would like to read a chapter draft beforehand and prepare comments, please let Brita know and you will be included in a feedback session immediately after the seminar. 

About: 

Ranjana Das is a Professor in Media and Communication, in the Department of Sociology, at the University of Surrey. Her research interests span families, parenting and parenthood, mental health, digital technologies, media audiences, and users.