Big Data and Communication Theory

The
Department of Communication Studies
is proud to present, Ralph Schroeder, Director of the Master’s degree in Social Science of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute in the UK on Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 2:30 – 3:45 p.m. – Big Data and Communication Theory (Argyros Forum, Room 202).

Publications about big data currently fall into two camps: on the one hand are those which announce new discoveries about online social behavior based on regularities in large-scale digital data. On the other hand, there are those which criticize the social implications big data applications and also the epistemological validity of big data research. This talk will address a related but hitherto unexplored question: how do big data fi ndings fi t into and advance communication theory? The main advances in how big data contributes to communication research will take place when it makes sense of the main objects from which the data are derived and how they shed light on the role of media in society.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Schroeder’s recent books are Rethinking Science, Technology and Social Change (Stanford University Press, 2007) and, co-authored with Eric T. Meyer, Knowledge Machines: Digital Transformations of the Sciences and Humanities (MIT Press 2015). He is the author of six books, editor and co-editor of four volumes, and has published more than 125 papers. Recent projects have focused on big data, including ‘Accessing and Using Big Data to Advance Social Science Knowledge’ (2012-2014), funded by the Sloan Foundation, and ‘Data-driven Approaches to Evidence-informed Policymaking’ for the European Commission (2015).

This event is sponsored by the Department of Communication Studies and the Organizing, Communication, & Technology (OCT) Group at Chapman University.