FASS - FENS Interdisciplinary Seminar Series / Asta Zelenkauskaite

Value of user-generated content: Analyzing emergent practices online

Abstract

With the rise of social media and the pervasive use of online tools across various aspects of our lives, the question regarding the value of user-generated content (UGC) remains a central focus of contemporary inquiry. Examining recent instances of UGC applications, encompassing identity projection online and covert online strategies such as dark participation in online spheres, this seminar provides an overview of the significance of UGC within today's platformed social media. It highlights both the potentials and challenges inherent in the meaningful integration of social media into various spheres of life, shedding light on how this integration impacts the current sociotechnical ecosystem. This seminar offers a methodological framework tailored to analyze emerging practices across cross-platform social media content. It aims to address pertinent questions by emphasizing sociotechnical practices specific to emergent practices online.

Short bio

Dr. Zelenkauskaite is an associate professor at Drexel University, USA and senior research at Vilnius Tech University, Lithuania. Her research focuses on emergent practices in online spaces that are traceable through digital meta data and discourses. Her work encompasses computational social science approaches by employing interdisciplinary perspectives that intersect information science, discourse studies, and communication. She serves as a co-chair of the Audience section at International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) conference. Her work has been published in New Media & Society, Social Media & Society, Convergence, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, and First Monday, among others. She is an author of Creating Chaos Online Disinformation and subverted Post-publics (open access https://www.press.umich.edu/12237294/creating_chaos_online University of Michigan Press, 2022).