Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek discusses in his paper “New Media Technology, Interculturalism, and Intermediality” the importance of new media technology and the concept of intermediality with regard to the relevance of interculturalism in today's society. Intermediality refers to the blurring of generic and formal boundaries among different forms of cultural practices and in the field of pedagogy. The trajectories of intermedial spaces, actions, and processes of types of new media including the world wide web, hypertextuality, (...) online publishing, blogs, interactive media, etc., suggest possibilities and potentials to work toward interculturalism. Interculturalism is understood as a practice of social life including government at all levels, education and pedagogy, as well as all instances of every-day life towards active recognition and inclusion of the Other and a commitment against essentialisms. In this process, the potential roles of new mediasuggest as of yet un-tapped resources and possibilities. (shrink)

The times are progressing and the demand for opera performance talents is gradually increasing. In the new media environment as well as the technological environment, the teaching of opera performance in colleges and universities has ushered in the challenges of the new era, and the teaching staff of colleges and universities need to continuously improve their abilities. This paper explores the use of intelligent devices to explore the professional curriculum and teaching research in the new media environment.

With an increasing number of international schools, traditional EFL teaching methods may not satisfy students’ needs. This study aims to investigate perceptions of social media technologies and willingness to adopt such technologies to collaborate and communicate in multicultural classrooms among novice EFL schoolteachers in the Czech Republic. The participants were 100 novice EFL schoolteachers in Prague and the South Moravian regions of the Czech Republic. The study used a mixed research method consisting of a survey and a semi-structured interview. (...) The survey examined the participants’ appraisal and concerns of using social media technologies to collaborate and to communicate as well as the level of willingness to use social media technologies. A hierarchical cluster analysis using participants’ responses regarding their attitudes and behavioural tendency towards using Web 2.0 social media technologies in language classrooms identified three clusters of teachers. The teachers who were most likely to adopt social Web 2.0 technologies were those who had the highest ratings on both appraisals and concerns regarding the use of social media in language classrooms. The results from the semi-structured interviews were consistent with those from the survey. Together, the results from the two stages demonstrated that most pre-service teachers favoured using Web 2.0 technology for collaboration and communication among colleagues and stakeholders in a broader community, but they displayed contrasting levels of appraisal of and concerns towards using social media technologies. Participants believed that this might be due to their different levels of ICT proficiency, workload, and working environment. The political and practical implications in K-12 education in the Czech context are also discussed. (shrink)

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the perceptions, acceptance, usage and access to social media by students and academics in higher education in informatics programs in Malaysia. A conceptual model based on Connectivism and communities of practice learning theory was developed and were used as a basis of mapping the research questions to the design frameworks and the research outcomes. A significant outcome of this study will be the development of a design framework for implementing social media (...) as supporting tools for student engagement and teaching and learning of informatics programs in higher education institutions in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-method research methodology with a significant survey research component was employed for this research. This methodology focused on collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data to better understand the research problems. For this study, a mixed-method sequential transformative research strategy based on a QUAN-Qual model was used in the data collection process. Mixed-method research methodology is considered to be most appropriate for this study, as it allows the researcher to gather multiple forms of data from diverse audiences such as educators, administrators and students. Findings – The findings show the close matched of the ownership, amount of hours spent online, types of social media technologies used and pattern of usage between informatics and non-informatics students. It also shows that many students and instructors have started to explore and accept the use of SMTs as a tool for engaging with their institution and their peers as well as for teaching and learning purposes. Innovative institutions need to understand the critical success factors and the barriers that restrict the implementation of SMTs within the HEI to take advantage of the opportunities offered by SMTs in higher education. Research limitations/implications – The surveys and interview participant, in part, are self-selecting, so the data collected cannot be claimed to be representative of the population. However, because of the relatively large number of participants, it can be considered that the findings are indicative. Other limitation includes the depth of data that can be collected using this methodology. Practical implications – There is wide range of social media usage in educational settings now being reported, but many issues are still unexamined. Limited studies have been focusing on the educators’ readiness, acceptance or refusal in integrating social media into their courses, the perceived effectiveness of the tools and student outcomes for their learning. The central outcome of this research will be the development of a design framework that will be used as a guide for Malaysian HEIs and informatics academics to engage students using SMTs in creating effective learning communities for informatics programs. Social implications – The framework will have implication for the social interaction and engagement of students with their institution. Originality/value – Very little work has been reported on student and academic engagement, their perspectives and perceived effectiveness of social media usage in higher education, especially in the Malaysia context. Most of the research focused only on the quantitative research with students from universities in the USA and Australia, with an emphasis mainly on student’s perception and acceptance. There are calls for more research to examine how social media is perceived and accepted by students and academics for teaching and learning, especially in Malaysia. (shrink)

The reign of paper files would seem to be over once files are reduced to the status of icons on computer screens, but Vismann's book, which examines the impact of the file on Western institutions throughout history, shows how the creation of order in medieval and early modern administrations makes its returns in computer architecture.

_Quod non est in actis, non est in mundo_. Once files are reduced to the status of stylized icons on computer screens, the reign of paper files appears to be over. With the epoch of files coming to an end, we are free to examine its fundamental influence on Western institutions. From a media-theoretical point of view, subject, state, and law reveal themselves to be effects of specific record-keeping and filing practices. Files are not simply administrative tools; they mediate (...) and process legal systems. The genealogy of the law described in Vismann's _Files_ ranges from the work of the Roman magistrates to the concern over one's own file, as expressed in the context of the files kept by the East German State Security. The book concludes with a look at the computer architecture in which all the stacks, files, and registers that had already created order in medieval and early modern administrations make their reappearance. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the characteristics of immersive media technology and the advantages, problems and solutions in applying this technology to improve the teaching effectiveness of ideological and political theory courses in colleges and universities. Firstly, it introduces the current development and characteristics of immersive media technology. Secondly, it analyzed the outstanding advantages of immersive media technology in teaching from the following perspectives: virtual reality and augmented reality; sensory stimulation and emotional experience; and (...) human-computer interaction and self-harmony. Thirdly, it puts forward the ways to improve the teaching effectiveness based on immersive media technology from the aspects of theoretical study, history study, and practical study of ideological and political theory courses in colleges and universities. Finally, it discusses the problems in applying immersive media technology to teaching the above courses and puts forward some solutions. (shrink)

The advent of the new media technology introduces many ways to cultivate sexual connections between and among individuals across boundaries and geographical territories. Various forms of relationships, which several decades ago would not have been possible, have been cultivated. These apparent changes in sexuality and/or relationships brought implications and ramifications to modern social lives. Aggressions and exploitations among men and women of various nationalities, including Filipinos, have been observed by scholars and academics in the past 10 years. To (...) explore this situation, this research paper had the following objectives: (1) Describe the phenomenology of virtual relationships through the testimonies of Filipino women and men who are indulging themselves in this kind of relationships; 2. Explore the motivations and drives of Filipino men and women in indulging in virtual relationships; 3. Describe and classify sexual deviations and sexual neurosis that may likely develop from virtual relationships; and 4. Explain the possible exploitations of Filipino men and women that may be caused by these sexual interactions through the digital and internet technology. (shrink)

Since the mid-2000s, a number of Western countries have witnessed an increase in the number of children born into ‘alternative’ or ‘queer’ families. Parallel with this queer baby boom, online media technologies have become intertwined with most people’s intimate lives. While these two phenomena have appeared simultaneously, their integration has seldom been explored. In an attempt to fill this gap, the present article explores the ways in which contemporary queer reproduction is interwoven with online media practices. Importantly, the (...) article does not understand online media as a technology that simply facilitates queer kinship; rather, it argues that online media technology is a reproductive technology in its own right. Drawing on empirical examples of media practices of kinning, such as online shopping for donor sperm and locating ‘donor siblings’ via online fora such as Facebook, the article analyses the merging and intersection of online media and queer kinship. These analyses serve as a foundation for an exploration of contemporary kinship and the development of a new theoretical framework for contemporary queer reproduction. Empirically, the examples are from single women’s (i.e. solo mothers) and lesbian couples’ family making. Using Weston's work on ‘chosen families’ as a backdrop for discussion, the article describes families of choice in light of new online kinship connections. In particular, the article focuses on online-initiated connections between donor siblings and how such connections can re-inscribe biology as important to queer kinship. Furthermore, it closely examines how media technology guides queer reproduction in particular directions and how technology causes becoming as a family. (shrink)

The proliferation of cable television in Israel through independent infrastructures has provided a unique opportunity for a quasi-experimental study on audience response, and Israeli families in particular, to a new media technology. Cable television subscription in Israel differs from non-cable households in the sense that cable television provides more individual viewing situations and encourages solitary TV viewing, and therefore should be considered a new media technology. This study examines various family characteristics and their ability to predict (...) the extent to which families use the new technology for socialization. Data concerning family characteristics, duration of cable TV subscription and the extent families use television for instrumental, integrative and educational purposes, were collected from 254 urban families in 11 neighborhoods in the main cities of Israel. The results support the structural functional theory of communication as opposed to the technological, deterministic theory of communication. Subscription to cable television did not prove to be a significant predictor of the extent to which Israeli urban families use television to fulfill major socialization purposes. Family characteristics were found to influence the socializing role of cable television. The study reveals associations between certain family characteristics and the kind of socialization role that television plays in the family. Cable television, by now a well-established feature in many households, may be considered a test case, and its current uses in the family an indication of the implications regarding the introduction of newer media technologies such as the PC and the Internet, and their potential socialization purposes within families. (shrink)

ABSTRACTAlthough youth of color, youth from lower socioeconomic brackets, and young women are among the heaviest users of social media technologies, their voices are almost entirely absent from cur...

In the twenty-first century, there has been a resurgence of ecologically conscious art among artists using new technologies. Like Eco-art, this recent movement, which might be called Eco-media, is interdisciplinary. Eco-media is heavily influenced by developments in environmental science, in particular developments in remote imaging and other kinds of remote Earth sensing (for example, the widespread use of satellite imaging and GPS) and developments in computer modelling (for example, detailed global models of climate that not only model the (...) physics of the Earth and solar system, but also explore the chemistry and biology of the Earth). This article will discuss developments in media art related to the computerized interpretation of complex data sets describing and modelling the natural world. It will explore work that has historically straddled artistic and scientific development, specifically Marey's work in the nineteenth century in photography and motion pictures and give examples of artists who are working in the area in-between art and science today. It will also discuss connections between this work and the historical Romantic sublime and the political dimension of this work as advocating for the preservation of the natural world, and give examples of some of the author's artworks in this area. (shrink)

With the rapid development of the Internet and smart phone technology, a large number of short videos are shared through social platforms. Therefore, video content analysis is a very important and popular work in machine learning and artificial intelligence currently. However, it is very difficult to analyze all aspects of video content originally produced by large-scale users. How to screen out bad and illegal content from short videos published by a large number of users, select high-quality videos to share (...) with other users, and improve the quality of video on the distribution platform of the entire user is a top priority. Based on this background, this paper focuses on optimizing video auditing to provide basic features for algorithm judgment, supporting original content and increasing the distribution of new content, and strengthening manual intervention combining algorithm recommendation with manual recommendation. Four major aspects of the artificial training algorithm model discuss the optimization effect of artificial intelligence on the algorithm in order to provide some guidance for the sustainable and healthy development of mobile short video. (shrink)

Marshall McLuhan once proposed the concept of “global village,” believing that with the help of electronic media, Earth has become indistinguishable from a community, and there is only one Earth for human beings and one world for all countries. Today, with the continuous development of media technology, the concept of a human destiny community has also gained the general consensus of people around the world. The global value of the human destiny community encompasses the interdependent concept of (...) international power, the concept of common interests, the concept of sustainable development, and the concept of global governance. In particular, the concepts of sustainable development and global governance have been advocated by the public, which in turn has led to extensive public discussions on Socioscientific Issues, in which the teaching of SSI is gradually considered by the international science education community as one of the important goals of science education. The current issues and challenges facing SSI teaching and how immersive media technologies can facilitate SSI teaching have become important issues of keen public interest. (shrink)

본 연구의 목적은 미디어(Media) 기술의 발전이 만든 인공적 환경이 인간의 삶에 어떠한 영향을 미치고 있는지를 연구하는 큰 기획에 따라 이루어졌다. 본 논고를 통해 논자는 현대 미디어 기술이 만든 환경이 인간의 인식 방식을 변화시키고 있다는 주장을 제기할 것이다. 그리고 이 주장에 대한 문제의식을 가지고서, 인간의 인식 방식의 변화에 대한 환경철학적 관점의 비판적 고찰을 시도할 것이다. 이 연구의 과정에서 미디어 환경에 의해 변화 되는 인간의 인식 방식을 우리들이 어떻게 해석해야 할 것인지에 대한 새로운 관점의 담론을 전개할 것이다. 그리고 본 논고에서 논의의 (...) 핵심을 전개하는 데에는 현대의 미디어 기술에 중요한 논의의 틀을 제시한, 마셜 맥루언(Marshall Mcluhan)의 주장과 예시적 설명들을 참고할 것이며, 아울러 그에 대한 해석을 제시할 것이다. 세부적인 연구 내용 및 논의 전개는 크게 다음과 같은 세 단계로 다루어질 것이다. 첫째, ‘환경’에 대한 새로운 연구 관점의 변화가 필요함을 서술할 것이다. 둘째, 미디어 기술이 만든 인공적 환경에 의해 변화되는 인간의 인식 방식에 대한 새로운 담론을 제기할 것이다. 미디어 기술에 대한 마셜 맥루언의 독창적인 문제의식을 함께 고찰 하면서, 이를 그의‘미디어는 메시지이다.’는 명제를 통해 제기할 것이다. 셋째, 미디어 기술에 대한 맥루언의 비판적 관점이 담긴 감각 마비의 가능성에 대해 환경철학적 관점의 비판적 고찰을 전개할 것이다. 위와 같은 논의 전개를 토대로, 결론적으로, 논자는 미디어 기술이 변화시킨 인간의 인식 방식에 대한 실천적․반성적 비판의 중요성을 강조할 것이다. 그리고 ‘지구촌’ 환경 속 인간의 미래에 대한 우리의 관심과 비판적 고찰이 오늘날 강하게 요구된다는 점을 강조할 것이다. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Humans have been thinking with fire since ancient times. In elemental philosophy, fire is considered as one of the most important elemental technologies. Fire has allowed the building of our world by reshaping matter, by making the earth less inhospitable, providing warm shelters and chasing and attracting animals. In the current elemental turn in media theory, the material dimensions of fire as medium have gained importance. Fire, however, also has important epistemological, psychological, and symbolic meaning, captured by Gaston (...) Bachelard in a series of entangled “fire complexes.” This article focuses on these immaterial and subjective aspects of fire exemplified in a range of “matterphors” and combustive imagery of contemporary cinema to address its pyrotechnical dimensions and redefine media as affective fiery messages, interfaces, and environments. (shrink)

The advancement of communication technology has sophisticated all aspects of human lives, including Islamic _dakwah_ (preaching) activities, for Muslim communities in Indonesia. As a result, several Islamic organizations in Indonesia try hard to match this advancement by using digital media for their _dakwah _to reach larger audiences and youth media-savvy generation. This article, by focusing on three Islamic organizations in Indonesia (Nahdlatul Ulama known as NU, Muhammadiyah, and Al Washliyah), addresses the question of how their _dakwah_ activities (...) and strategies respond to advancement of communication technology on a social media platform, YouTube. This study employs digital etnography by collecting the data from YouTube accounts affiliated to the three organizations. By using content analysis for data interpretations, this article finds that each Islamic organization has its own characteristics of virtual _dakwah_ activities and strategies. NU focuses on the teachings of _ahlussunnah wal jamaah_ and religious tolerance, Muhammadiyah emphasizes charity and business, while Al Washliyah aims to strengthen the faith and morals of the society. In addition, their virtual _dakwah_ activities are also in the context of countering transnational Islamic movements that utilize social media for their _dakwah_. (shrink)

In this paper, I wish to show how new technologies come to alter one’s initial enjoyment and comportment towards a hobby. What I show is that new technologies serve to transform leisurely activities into a technique, in the Ellulian sense of the term. I begin from the outside in, as it were, by first articulating what I take a hobby to be. Secondly, I then examine the time-honoured pastime of fishing to show that new technologies, if utilized, either cause the (...) hobby to take on aspects of traditional work or in other cases, causes the hobbyist to quit the activity because the hobby is now deemed undesirable; the technological advancement makes the hobby too easy. Thirdly and finally, I turn my attention to another kind of hobby or leisurely activity, which some have called “Facebooking.” Looking at Facebook through an Ellulian lens, there are, to be sure, some rather unsettling aspects of the activity, but despite this, all is not lost; Facebook may be used as a tool to practice the Ellulian virtue of non-selectivity. (shrink)

Digital Media: Human–Technology Connection examines the technologically textured world through case studies that illustrate the way humans and technology connect with each other and the world. An interdisciplinary array of sources from philosophy, postphenomenology, philosophy of technology, media studies, media ecology, and film studies shows that digital media and its content are not neutral. This technology textures the world in multiple and varied ways that transform human abilities, augment experience, and pattern the (...) world. (shrink)

A philosophical introduction to and interrogation of the work of Gilbert Simondon and its relation to contemporary media technology, communication and information.

Analysis of the material properties of the Internet reveals its true weight: the mass of component routers, switches, cables, satellites, cellnet masts, and of course computers, and the vast network of resource extraction, manufacturing, energy generation, and waste in which its functioning is embedded. Equally important is understanding the massless but highly regulated system of software and legislation affecting the ostensibly free and open evolution of network media. The chapter traces some exemplary standards bodies responsible for the design of (...) key features such as protocols and codecs, and discusses the vexed dialectic of intellectual property rights and the notion of an information commons, arguing that the Internet bears the hallmarks of three major types of institutional construction, those proper to the nation-state, to commerce, and to network systems themselves. It concludes with a critical challenge to future archaeology: the ephemerality of digital files. (shrink)

Against the backdrop of an aging world population increasingly affected by a diverse range of abilities and disabilities as well as the rise of ubiquitous computing and digital app cultures, this paper questions how mobile technologies mediate between heterogeneous environments and sensing beings. To approach the current technological manufacturing of the senses, two lines of thought are of importance: First, there is a need to critically reflect upon the concept of assistive technologies as artifacts providing tangible solutions for a specific (...) disability. Second, the conventional distinction between user and environment requires a differentiated consideration. This contribution will first review James Gibson’s concept of “affordances” and modify this approach by introducing theories and methods of Science and Technology Studies and Actor-Network Theory. Then, we present two case studies where we explore the relations between recent “assistive” app technologies and human sensory perception. As hearing and seeing are key in this regard, we concentrate on two specific media technologies: ReSound LINX2, a hearing aid which allows for direct connect with iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, and Camassia, an IOS app for sonic wayfinding for blind people. We emphasize the significance of dis-/abling practices for manufacturing novel forms of hearing and seeing and drawing on sources like promotional materials by manufacturers, ads, or user testimonials and reviews. Our analysis is interested in the reciprocal relationships between users and their socio-technical and media environments. By and large, this contribution will provide crucial insights into the contemporary entanglement of algorithm-driven technologies, daily practices, and sensing subjects: the production of techno-sensory arrangements. (shrink)

In this paper, I discuss some prominent features of our use of social media and what I think are its harms. My paper has three main parts. In the first part, I use a dialogical framework to argue that much of the discursive activity online is manifested as an ethically impoverished other-directedness and interactivity. In the second part, I identify and discuss several reasons that help explain why so much of the discursive activity on social media is ethically (...) lacking. And in the final part, I mention some of the effects these discursive practices have on us even when offline. Specifically, I suggest that the persistent use of digital communication technologies trains its users to adopt these problematic online discursive attitudes and activities into their experiences offline, making it more difficult for them to engage with themselves and others in more dialogically ethical ways. (shrink)

The unfolding of the panorama of images of US prisoner abuse of Iraqis and the quest to pin responsibility on the soldiers and higher US military and political authorities is one of the most intense media spectacles of contemporary journalism. Evoking universal disgust and repugnance, the images of young American soldiers humiliating Iraqis circulated with satellite-driven speed through broadcasting channels, the Internet, and print media and may stand as some of the most influential images of all time.

This article is currently available as a free download on ingentaconnect.

The text elaborates on the relations of objectivity and materiality fiction and those of virtuality produced by new media and digital technologies. It presents and elaborates a critique of the two most relevant debates in contemporary philosophy and theory, the relation of materialism to what is termed the “new materialism,” which is proposed as a substitute for what in the modernist era formed the relation between objectivity, materialism and realism, and then proceeds to expose the difference between thanatopolitics and (...) necropolitics. (shrink)

Writing Technology in Meiji Japan: A Media History of Modern Chinese Literature and Visual Culture. By Seth Jacobowitz. Harvard East Asian Monographs, vol. 387. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard University Press, 2015. Pp. xii + 299. $39.95.

As scholars of technology investigate changes to media alongside the growing popularity of the Internet, video games and other media devices, the descriptive characteristics of media themselves have become stretched further and further to accommodate a raft of new content, technologies and distribution platforms. This stretching becomes a problem when it becomes important to conceptually separate the formerly non-mediated communication devices, such as mobile phones, from their re-emergence as media platforms. A clear separation is important (...) for asking questions about what cultural, social, economic and political effects such media encroachment might entail. The current paper attempts such a conceptual distinction. (shrink)

This article aims to provide a coherent and comprehensive theoretical framework of the main socio-epistemic features of social media. The first part consists of a concise discussion of the main epistemic consequences of personalised information filtering, with a focus on echo chambers and their many different implications. The middle section instead hosts an analytical investigation of the cognitive and epistemic environments of these platforms aimed at establishing whether, and to what extent, they allow their users to be epistemically vigilant (...) with respect to their sources and the content recommended to them. Finally, in the last part, of a more exquisitely normative nature, some strategies are proposed and discussed that, by reducing the epistemic opacity of social media, could contribute to greater epistemic justice within social media and, concurrently, to augmenting the epistemic autonomy of users. (shrink)

New technological developments have fundamentally transformed human life. Throughout this process, fundamental questions about human beings have once again been posed. The paper examines how technological change affects understandings of human beings and their bodies, thereby requiring new approaches to anthropology. First, Section 2 illustrates how the use of technology has changed the understanding of human beings and their bodies. A new connection between the human being or the body and technology has emerged. Section 3 then moves onto (...) considering the increasing blurring of the boundaries between organisms and machines, showing how the understanding of humans and bodies is constantly being renegotiated in relation to machines. Based on this, Section 4 explores how the understanding of the human being and the body can be redesigned in the context of modern technology. To this end, approaches for a contemporary anthropology can be derived from critical posthumanism. Section 5 addresses concrete practice and examines the construction of identity in social media platforms such as Instagram. The paper argues that technological processes and social media are places where theology is constructed and appeals for a responsible theological co-creation of these places. It advocates that technology offers the opportunity to question traditional anthropological concepts and to renegotiate understandings of the human being and the body. -- Puzio, Anna: Digital and Technological Identities – In Whose Image? A philosophical-theological approach to identity construction in social media and technology. In: Cursor (2021). (shrink)

This article examines strands of an intellectual history in Media and Cultural Studies and Science and Technology Studies in both of which researchers were prompted to take up ethnography. Three historical phases of this process are identified. The move between phases was the result of particular displacements and contestations of perspective in the research procedures within each discipline. Thus concerns about appropriate contextualization led to the eventual embrace of anthropological ethnographic methods. The article traces the subsequent emergence of (...) a ‘crisis of context’ in the deployment of ethnography within these disciplines. The analysis of these historical changes is informed by a particular depiction of Euro-American knowledge conventions. The article suggests that the limits currently perceived for ethnography are a specific instance of the more general limits now recognized for these knowledge conventions. (shrink)

The presented work examines the features of modern Russian youth and their media behavior in the context of the spread of COVID-19, which contributed to the more active use of information and communication technologies in their daily life. Based on the results of sociological and marketing research, the article examines the most popular information and communication technologies and solutions that contribute to the most effective remote interpersonal and social interaction characteristic of modern Russian youth, examines its features as representatives (...) of generation Z. (shrink)

In the last fifteen years, testing has attracted much attention in science and technology studies. Most researchers have focused almost exclusively on testing in the laboratory, specifically designed test locations, and, for medical technologies, the clinic. What counts as testing has largely been described in terms of the activities of scientific experts. This is not to say that science and technology studies have completely neglected other institutional discourses. Journalistic texts have been a favorite research site for scholars in (...) science and technology studies, particularly those seeking to understand the dynamics of public controversies on science and technology. Although most constructivist studies of science and media relations have treated journalistic texts as secondary to scientific texts, other scholars have dismissed this hierarchy. In this article, scientific texts and journalistic texts are considered equally important locations in which to analyze the testing of technologies. Based on a case study on the testing of a new contraceptive technology for men, the article shows that what counts as successful testing is not solely in the hands of scientific experts. In the case of male contraceptive technologies, journalists have contested the claims of scientific experts, particularly their claims about the cultural feasibility of the new technology. (shrink)

ArgumentThis paper examines self-inscription, a mode of census enumeration that emerged during the nineteenth century. Starting in the 1840s, a number of European states introduced self-inscription as an auxiliary means to facilitate the work of enumerators. However, a decisive shift occurred when Prussian census statisticians implemented self-inscription via individual “Zählkarten”—or “counting cards”—in 1871. The paper argues that scientific ideals of accuracy and precision prevalent in the sciences at the time motivated Prussian census officials to initiate self-inscription as an at-home scenario (...) unmediated by enumerators, in which the census form alone was to yield truthful information from the respondents. By illuminating the bureaucratic means for implementing scientific ideals and practices in gathering personal census data, the paper offers an in-depth analysis of the media, technologies, and manpower that census takers deployed to reveal the epistemic—as well as social and political—impact of being “true to form.”. (shrink)