Browsing by Author "Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria"
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- Affective visual rhetoric and discursive practices of the far-right across social media
A3 Kirjan tai muun kokoomateoksen osa(2022-03-04) Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Hokka, Jenni; Nelimarkka, Matti; Nikunen, KaarinaSupported by social media, political discourses are increasingly expressed and shared in different visual formats from photographs to videos, infographics and memetic image macros. This chapter discusses the growing yet varying role of visual communication for the far-right movement. Building on our previous empirical studies in the context of the so-called European refugee crisis in 2015-2017, and a related, more general circulation of racist discourses in society, we explore the uses of still images and videos in the communication of Finnish anti-immigration and far-right movements, as well as the broader patterns of circulation of those visuals in the media system. We illustrate how the visual rhetoric of the far-right is central to the technology-mediated affective economy of the political immigration question and digital racism - Anatomy of Viral Social Media Events
A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2018) Pöyry, Essi; Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Kekkonen, Arto; Pääkkönen, JuhoDiscussion topics go sometimes viral in social media without a seemingly coherent pattern. Existing literature shows these discussions can reach a very high level, but, notably, they prevail to varying degrees. This paper investigates the anatomy of viral social media events using a dataset of 960 viral social media discussion topics that have been identified by an algorithm from a variety of social media sources over two years’ time. A negative binomial regression shows that the average daily amount and the relative change in the daily amount of social media platforms at which the event has been discussed has a positive effect on the duration of the event. Average or relative amount of posts or authors has no or very little effect on event duration. The results suggest that viral social media events last longer when people using different social media platforms get exposed to them. This finding contributes to the literature on social media events, virality, and information diffusion. - Bitit ja politiikka: Tervetuloa laskennallinen yhteiskuntatieteen tutkimus
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2018) Nelimarkka, Matti; Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria - Clowning around a polarized issue: Rhetorical strategies and communicative outcomes of a political parody performance by Loldiers of Odin
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2022-08-01) Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Koivukoski, Joonas; Porttikivi, MerjaFor decades, political activist groups have used humor for ridiculing their opponents and attracting media attention. This study analyzed the online presence of the Loldiers of Odin, a clown-disguised activist group created as a parody of the anti-immigration group Soldiers of Odin. By analyzing the rhetorical strategies of Loldiers’ performance, we show how absurd and naïve parody stunts were used to criticize anti-immigration street patrolling, distort radical right-wing discourses, and mobilize like-minded progressives. Furthermore, by analyzing Facebook commentary of the performance, we trace its communicative outcomes: support and legitimization, but also problematization and delegitimization. Our results highlight the unpredictable and ambivalent nature of humor in facilitating a political protest. We argue that while humor offers a compelling way for citizens to discursively engage with political issues such as the immigration question, the polysemic nature of parody paradoxically works to amplify and support existing polarized positions in online discussions. - The Datafication of Hate: Expectations and Challenges in Automated Hate Speech Monitoring
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2020) Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Haapoja, Jesse; Kinnunen, Teemu; Nelimarkka, Matti; Pöyhtäri, ReetaHate speech has been identified as a pressing problem in society and several automated approaches have been designed to detect and prevent it. This paper reports and reflects upon an action research setting consisting of multi-organizational collaboration conducted during Finnish municipal elections in 2017, wherein a technical infrastructure was designed to automatically monitor candidates' social media updates for hate speech. The setting allowed us to engage in a 2-fold investigation. First, the collaboration offered a unique view for exploring how hate speech emerges as a technical problem. The project developed an adequately well-working algorithmic solution using supervised machine learning. We tested the performance of various feature extraction and machine learning methods and ended up using a combination of Bag-of-Words feature extraction with Support-Vector Machines. However, an automated approach required heavy simplification, such as using rudimentary scales for classifying hate speech and a reliance on word-based approaches, while in reality hate speech is a linguistic and social phenomenon with various tones and forms. Second, the action-research-oriented setting allowed us to observe affective responses, such as the hopes, dreams, and fears related to machine learning technology. Based on participatory observations, project artifacts and documents, interviews with project participants, and online reactions to the detection project, we identified participants' aspirations for effective automation as well as the level of neutrality and objectivity introduced by an algorithmic system. However, the participants expressed more critical views toward the system after the monitoring process. Our findings highlight how the powerful expectations related to technology can easily end up dominating a project dealing with a contested, topical social issue. We conclude by discussing the problematic aspects of datafying hate and suggesting some practical implications for hate speech recognition. - Digitaalinen vaaliteltta: Twitter politiikan areenana eduskuntavaaleissa 2015
A3 Kirjan tai muun kokoomateoksen osa(2016) Marttila, Mari; Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Kekkonen, Arto; Tuokko, Mari; Nelimarkka, Matti - From hate speech recognition to happiness indexing: critical issues in datafication of emotion in text mining
A3 Kirjan tai muun kokoomateoksen osa(2023-11) Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Pääkkönen, Juho; Öhman, EmilyOne prominent application of computational methods is the identification of affectivity and emotions in textual data, commonly known as sentiment analysis. In this chapter, we explore the datafication of affective language by focusing on operationalization and translation involved in the analysis processes behind common methods to identify affectivity or specific emotions in text. We draw examples from popular cases and from our own empirical studies that apply and develop sentiment and hate speech analysis. We suggest that sentiment analysis is a fruitful case for discussing the role of and the tensions involved in applying computational techniques in the automated analysis of meaning-laden phenomena. We highlight that any application of sentiment analysis techniques to investigate emotional expression in texts amounts to an effort of constructing sentiment measurements - a process essentially driven by judgments made by researchers in an attempt to reconcile diverging conventions and conceptions of good/proper research practices. - Gaming Algorithmic Hate-Speech Detection: Stakes, Parties, and Moves
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2020-04) Haapoja, Jesse; Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Lampinen, AiriA recent strand of research considers how algorithmic systems are gamed in everyday encounters. We add to this literature with a study that uses the game metaphor to examine a project where different organizations came together to create and deploy a machine learning model to detect hate speech from political candidates' social media messages during the Finnish 2017 municipal election. Using interviews and forum discussions as our primary research material, we illustrate how the unfolding game is played out on different levels in a multi-stakeholder situation, what roles different participants have in the game, and how strategies of gaming the model revolve around controlling the information available to it. We discuss strategies that different stakeholders planned or used to resist the model, and show how the game is not only played against the model itself, but also with those who have created it and those who oppose it. Our findings illustrate that while “gaming the system” is an important part of gaming with algorithms, these games have other levels where humans play against each other, rather than against technology. We also draw attention to how deploying a hate-speech detection algorithm can be understood as an effort to not only detect but also preempt unwanted behavior. - Johdanto: Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja informaatioteknologian rajapinnoilla
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2021) Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Haapoja, Jesse; Olsson, ThomasInformaatioteknologian kehitys ja yhteiskunnan digitalisoituminen ovat kannustaneet tutkijoita eri tieteenaloilta tarkastelemaan erilaisten sosioteknisten järjestelmien ja digitalisoituvien käytäntöjen merkitystä yhteiskunnassa. Teknologiavälitteisyys muun muassa määrittää sosiaalista, poliittista ja kaupallista kanssakäymistä sekä muokkaa yhteiskunnan instituutioita kouluista mediaan. Samalla digitalisoituva yhteiskunta tuottaa uusia ihmis- ja yhteiskuntatieteiden tutkimuskohteita, aineistoja ja menetelmiä. Tämän monitieteisen teemanumeron artikkelit kartoittavat ja pohtivat digitaalisen ihmis- ja yhteiskuntatieteen nykytilaa ja tulevaisuutta erityisesti muuttuvien aineistojen luomien haasteiden ja mahdollisuuksien näkökulmasta. Teemanumero on toimitettu yhteistyössä digitaalisen yhteiskuntatieteen tutkimuksen yhdistyksen Rajapinta ry:n kanssa. - A User-Centered Lens into Digital Excess : Exploring the Superfluity and Environmental Burden of the Digital World
A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2023-06-14) Olsson, Thomas; Pyyhtinen, Olli; Rantasila, Anna; Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Vigren, Minna; Ylipulli, Johanna; Sawhney, NitinThis article seeks to take a new view on the environmental burden of information and communication technology through the concept of digital excess. Our notion of digital excess draws from Georges Batailleʼs argument that the main problem of any economy is excess rather than scarcity. We take a user-centric lens into this concept and discuss various aspects of our digital lives that could be perceived not to carry meaningful value but appear as wasteful and superAluous, while also harming individuals, society, or the planet. We provide examples from digital media services where digital excess may be regarded as, for example, accumulation of self-created content with redundant copies or inattentive consumption of highbandwidth streaming services. In consonance with related work in the Sustainable Human-Computer Interaction community, we encourage follow-up empirical investigations of the practical manifestations of this concept, which could help to further understand, problematize, and possibly also mitigate the growing energy use of ICT. For the design of digital services, focusing on digital excess offers a lens through which designers could simultaneously optimize multiple quality criteria that conventionally require trade-offs (e.g., environmental sustainability vs. lively user experience vs. economic viability). - Working the fields of big data: Using big-data-augmented online ethnography to study candidate–candidate interaction at election time
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2017) Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria; Nelimarkka, Matti; Tuokko, Mari; Marttila, Mari; Kekkonen, Arto; Villi, Mikko