digital media and society

Here are some of my papers about digital media and society, and some of the abstracts to give you an idea of the kind of work I do.  I have included links to PDFs of pre-publication drafts where the publisher allows (this is a work in progress).

Journal Papers

Griffiths, M. and Light, B. (2008) Social Networking and Digital Media Convergence: Classification and its Consequences for Appropriation, Information Systems Frontiers  20(4), 447-459.

Light, B. Fletcher, G. and Adam, A. (2008) Gay Men, Gaydar and the Commodification of Difference, Information Technology and People, 21(3), 300-314. PDF

Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2007) Going Offline: An Exploratory Cultural Artifact Analysis of an Internet Dating Site’s Development Trajectories, International Journal of Information children-and-privacy, 27(6), 422-431.  PDF

Light, B. (2007) Introducing Masculinity Studies to Information Systems Research: the Case of Gaydar, European Journal of Information Systems, 16(5), 658-665.

Conference and Workshop Presentations

Ferneley, E., Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Access All Areas? The Evolution of SingStar from the PS2 to PS3 Platform, Association of Internet Research Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Griffiths, M. and Light, B. (2008) Social Networking and Digital Gaming Media Convergence: Consequences for Appropriation in Habbo Hotel, Under the Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer Conference, the Research Institute for Media, Art and Design, University of Bedfordshire.

Griffiths, M., Light, B. and McGarrie (2008) Antisocial Behaviour Orders: Unanticipated Directions in Social Network Site Development, European Conference on IS, Galway, Ireland.

Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Tech’s, Drugs and Rock and Roll: Technological Complicity in the Domestication of Gaming, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology/Society for Social Studies of Science Joint Meeting.

Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Making the Game work? Lessons from Ethnographies of SingStar, CITASA workshop, American Sociological Association, Boston, U.S.A.

Fletcher, G. and B. Light (2007). Gaydar on the Radar: Sexualities, Technologies and Cultures. Paper Presented at The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Conference Montreal, Canada.

Light, B. (2007) (Social) Construction Workers on the Net: Gaydar and the Shaping of Masculinities, Gender, Work and Organization, Keele, UK.

Abstracts

Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Tech’s, Drugs and Rock and Roll: Technological Complicity in the Domestication of Gaming, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology/Society for Social Studies of Science Joint Meeting, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Although a stereotypical view of digital games is that they are isolating technologies, contemporary gaming research shows that gamers are actually incredibly social beings who see collaboration and socialisation as a necessary and integral part of game play.  In recent years, digital games have increasingly become a way of mediating social activity involving several members of a household (and beyond) in much the same way as earlier board games like Monopoly.  However, it has recently been suggested that there is little in the way of understanding the gaming experience which goes beyond the playing of the game itself (Crawford and Rutter 2007).  Tied to this, we believe is somewhat of an implicit attachment to the design fallacy whereby game developers are positioned as determining the possibilities for the enactment of such technologies a-priori.  In this paper, our starting point is to conceptualise games as configurational technologies that require further interventions post production to make them work.  Through multiple intersecting ethnographies of Singstar, a game for the PlayStation console which references Karaoke, we attend to processes of domestication.  In particular, we pay attention to role of the genre of ‘the technology’ as complicit in its domestication.  In this case, the particular genre of the game references back to Karaoke and the things associated with this activity.  An implication of this is that even though the developers have disembedded particular technologies associated with Karaoke, such as the consumption of alcohol, the connotation of such relationships is so strong that these are reembedded by users as they domesticate the game.  Furthermore, we consider how one particular group of technologies (alcohol and recreational drugs) further shapes the possibilities of domestication activity because of their complicit nature.  Thus, although we know that existing technologies might continue to be important in domesticating configurational technologies and that such technologies display variety in malleability – through the concept of technological complicity we are able to identify why this might be the case.
 
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Making the Game work? Lessons from Ethnographies of SingStar, CITASA pre-conference workshop, American Sociological Association, Boston, U.S.A.
Embedded within discourses of the enactment of information and communications technologies (ICTs) at work is often a tightly constrained range of legitimate application areas of study, a rather thin concept of user-developer relations and a context of use that precludes simultaneity, multiplicity and informality. In doing this, there is the potential to overlook other capabilities of ICTs including the facilitation of experiences that are fun, enjoyable, pleasurable or loving. Moreover, notions of the ‘user’ are tied very much tied to organizational settings implying almost synonymous meanings to that of ‘worker’. This constructs an implicit set of employment relations and technology ownership conditions. This situation persists despite the increasing relocation of work to informal settings beyond the traditional boundaries of the work organization.  In this paper we argue for the consideration of digital games as premier and hallmark examples of socially rich ICTs. Through two intersecting ethnographies of the use of the Sony PlayStation console game, SingStar we provide an account of ICT mediated experiences associated with playing the game. We consider SingStar in particular as socially rich as it invites us to think about: the wider capabilities of ICTs beyond work-orientated organisations; the expansion of conditions of ICT appropriation, extended collaboration practices and the co-production of sociotechnical arrangements in situ.  We argue that SingStar can be thought of as glue technology that assists in crafting and strengthening social linkages amongst players. Our examination of the play and experience of this game provides a fuller account of the inter-relationships of people to socialising technologies that reaches beyond traditional discourses regarding organizational usage and work practices. In moving beyond an organisationally based notion of ICT appropriation, we are able to, arguably, more readily witness ICT capabilities that go beyond process improvement and the like. In our case, evaluation criteria coalesce around how much fun the game produces in a number of ways, whether this is through allowing competition, performance, gaining pleasure from the act of using the ICT in for its own sake or giving pleasure to others. Expanding the conditions of appropriation also brings to the fore new user relationships – this may include colleagues as friends, but also we are given the opportunity to witness families and friends enact ICTs. Moreover, we are able to attend to the everyday of domestic life as key ingredients of such enactments and such as food, drink and prior experiences of popular culture and contemporary politics. Such combinations produce collaborations that lead us to witness the shared usage of a set of sociotechnical arrangements in an incredibly interactive fashion. Within such collaborations we are able to gain insights into how people support each other in technology use, such as the cases teaching new players how to play and encouraging shy people to sing. However, we also see how people are drawn into situations when they might not want to be. Finally, we are able to very clearly articulate the notion of the incomplete nature of technologies at the end of the formal design stage and signify the importance of the ongoing work and experiences of users post-production.
 
Griffiths, M. and Light, B. (2008) Social Networking and Digital Media Convergence: Classification and its Consequences for Appropriation, Information Systems Frontiers, 20(4), 447-459.
Within the field of Information Systems, a good proportion of research is concerned with the work organisation and this has, to some extent, restricted the kind of application areas given consideration. Yet, it is clear that information and communication technology deployments beyond the work organisation are acquiring increased importance in our lives. With this in mind, we offer a field study of the appropriation of an online play space known as Habbo Hotel. Habbo Hotel, as a site of media convergence, incorporates social networking and digital gaming functionality. Our research highlights the ethical problems such a dual classification of technology may bring. We focus upon a particular set of activities undertaken within and facilitated by the space – scamming. Scammers dupe members with respect to their ‘Furni’, virtual objects that have online and offline economic value. Through our analysis we show that sometimes, online activities are bracketed off from those defined as offline and that this can be related to how the technology is classified by members – as a social networking site and/or a digital game. In turn, this may affect members’ beliefs about rights and wrongs. We conclude that given increasing media convergence, the way forward is to continue the project of educating people regarding the difficulties of determining rights and wrongs, and how rights and wrongs may be acted out with respect to new technologies of play online and offline.
 
Griffiths, M., Light, B. and McGarrie (2008) Antisocial Behaviour Orders: Unanticipated Directions in Social Network Site Development, European Conference on IS, Galway, Ireland.
Social network technologies, as we know them today have become a popular feature of everyday life for many people. As their name suggests, their underlying premise is to enable people to connect with each other for a variety of purposes. These purposes however, are generally thought of in a positive fashion. Based on a multi-method study of two online environments, Habbo Hotel and Second Life, which incorporate social networking functionality, we she light on forms of what can be conceptualized as antisocial behaviours and the rationales for these. Such behaviours included: scamming, racist/homophobic attacks, sim attacks, avatar attacks, non-conformance to contextual norms, counterfeiting and unneighbourly behaviour. The rationales for sub behaviours included: profit, fun, status building, network disruption, accidental acts and prejudice. Through our analysis we are able to comment upon the difficulties of defining antisocial behaviour in such environments, particularly when such environments are subject to interpretation vis their use and expected norms. We also point to the problems we face in conducting our public and private lives given the role ICTs are playing in the convergence of these two spaces and also the convergence of ICTs themselves.
 
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2007) Going Offline: An Exploratory Cultural Artifact Analysis of an Internet Dating Site’s Development Trajectories, International Journal of Information Management, 27(6), 422-431.
In this study, we develop a theorisation of an internet dating site as a cultural artifact. The site, Gaydar, is targeted at gay men. We argue that contemporary received representations of their sexuality figure heavily in the site’s focus by providing a cultural logic for the apparent ad hoc development trajectories of its varied commercial and non-commercial services. More specifically, we suggest that the growing sets of services related to the website are heavily enmeshed within current social practices and meanings. These practices and meanings are, in turn, shaped by the interactions and preferences of a variety of diverse groups involved in what is routinely seen within the mainstream literature as a  singularly specific sexuality and cultural project. Thus, we attend to two areas—the influence of the various social engagements associated with Gaydar together with the further extension of its trajectory ‘beyond the web’. Through the case of Gaydar, we contribute a study that recognises the need for attention to sexuality in information systems research and one which illustrates sexuality as a pivotal aspect of culture. We also draw from anthropology to theorise ICTs as cultural artifacts and provide insights into the contemporary phenomena of ICT enabled social networking.

Light, B. (2007) Introducing Masculinity Studies to Information Systems Research: the Case of Gaydar, European Journal of Information Systems, 16(5), 658-665.
I believe that studies of men’s gendered experiences of information systems are needed. In order to support this claim, I introduce the area of Masculinity Studies to Information Systems research and, using this, present an exploratory analysis of an internet dating website for gay men – Gaydar. The information system, which forms part of the Gaydar community, is shown to shape, and be shaped by the members as they accept and challenge aspects of it as related to their identities. In doing this, I show how the intertwined processes of information systems development and use contribute to the creation of diverse interpretations of masculinity within a group of men. In sum, my analysis highlights different kinds of men and different versions of masculinity that can sometimes be associated with different experiences of information systems. The implications of this work centre on the need to expand our knowledge of men’s gendered experiences with information systems, to reflect upon processes of technology facilitated categorisation and to consider the influences that contribute to the roll out of particular software features along with the underlying rationales for market segmentation in the software and software based services industries.