Website analytics from Google and other platforms has become the key performance indicators for communication practitioners. The omnipresence of different metrics, mediated through data dashboards, has an important impact on the world of communication. However, little is known of the imaginaries inscribed in these platforms, yet these imaginaries also govern the understanding of digital communication as a professional activity. We work with the theoretical idea of sociotechnical imaginaries, that is, a set of visions sustained by infrastructures, practices, and more or less shared meanings of social life (Jasanoff & Kim, 2015). Similarly, the technical imaginaire (Flichy, 2007), algorithmic imaginaries (Bucher, 2017), and data imaginaries (Tupasela et al., 2020) are emerging as collectively held understandings of what technology, data and algorithms do.

In our paper, we discuss Google’s switch from the analytics platform Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). We conduct a semiotic analysis of the analytics dashboards and map the related environment of instructional pages, videos and tutorials to uncover the imaginaries. While the surface-level argument claims GA4 to be better, the discontinuation of third-party cookies and change of user-tracking possibilities means that Google will often have to operate with much less data about the audiences than in Universal Analytics. The related environment of instructional pages, videos and tutorials demonstrates a diverse ecosystem of actors who are seeking to capitalise on Google's data collection interest and support the imaginary with their promotional materials directed towards communication practitioners.

The data dashboard is imagined as the one-stop site for an overview of the audiences, their interest and engagement; data is supposed to be precise, immediate, and actionable. However, there is also a clear link to imagining the work of the communication – success or failure in digital communication and reaching the audiences is imagined through the data on the dashboard. The role of AI and algorithms as supporting imaginaries related to audiences confirms the expectation of unlimited digital surveillance but also indicates the limitations of the data collection of the GA4. Communication practitioners in different fields rely on the data from Google and other platform players to help them understand the reach of their messages. But we find that in the ecology of complex relationships, messy data and diversity of actors looking to capitalise on the data provisions, the idea of the audiences is diluted and abstract. The research fills the gap in audience studies, demonstrating that despite the promises and fears Google Analytics is still supporting desperately seeking audiences (Ang, 1991).

Public libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) have historically played a pivotal role in the establishment and support of European liberal democracies (Rasmussen, Rydbeck, and Larsen 2023). Ideally, they serve as promoters of democracy, offering reliable information accessible to all, regardless of factors like gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, age, disabilities, political beliefs, or faith. In an ideal scenario, LAMs encourage engaged, well-informed citizens, contributing to a vibrant civil society. However, contemporary Europe faces significant challenges to the underpinnings of deliberative democracy. The region witnesses the growth of anti-globalist movements, widening divides between urban and rural populations, regional conflicts, and nationalism, often driven by populist ideologies disregarding fundamental democratic norms. These factors result in new social and cultural divisions, complicating values of openness, pluralism, tolerance, and non-discrimination. Currently, the existing conceptual tools are insufficient to comprehensively grasp LAMs’ role in these developments.

The panel consists of members from the core group of a recently formed network Libraries, archives, and museums as key pillars of modern European democratic societies. A key ambition of this network is to develop a conceptual model for discussing local LAMs’ role in democracy. The local perspective is critical because previous research on LAMs’ political or social roles typically focuses on large national and pan-national LAM initiatives. The model focuses on democracy as an area of problematization for local LAMs and describes the entanglements and assemblages of resources, processes, and activities as they produce democratic legitimization. We rely on theories of democracy, cultural policy, and legitimacy in the cultural sphere, (e.g. Mouffe 2000; Boltanski and Chiapello 2005; Larsen 2016), and build the model on an agency-oriented approach.

The panel introduces the first iteration of the model based on our research in Sweden and Denmark. We invite our audience to an interactive session in critiquing and refining the conceptual model that addresses the issue of how local LAMs contribute to democracy. We take an iterative and abductive approach, moving between theory and empirical evidence. The model is a work in progress and is part of a creative and experimental method where we invite the audience to think about democracy and LAMs with us. We invite the audience to contribute with global perspectives on the issue.

By developing the model, we aim to get a richer understanding of the expectations and responsibilities that are ascribed to libraries, archives, and museums in relation to political transformation, and the roles they themselves take on. We will also provide knowledge on processes of legitimization and responsibilization in cultural policies in Sweden and Denmark.

While a substantial body of research has explored the intricate relationship between journalists and metrics, there remains a notable gap in systematically understanding how evolving metrics over time influence journalists’ use of data as feedback. This study addresses this gap by investigating how alterations in the most valued metrics influence the utilisation of audience data for reflection and feedback in national and local newsrooms. The study spans multiple waves from 2012 to 2023 and comprises 72 interviews with Estonian journalists. It employs the Data Loop framework to analyse the circulation of audience data among media institutions, audiences, newsrooms, and individual journalists’ reflexive actions. Examining data reflexivity within newsrooms involves considering the interplay between newsroom culture, metrics-gathering technology, external pressures from changing business models, and journalistic agency. Over time, the metrics valued by newsroom managers have shifted – from prioritising clicks as a measure of audience interest to rewarding journalists based on minutes spent on stories or the acquisition of subscriptions. In this article, we argue that instead of considering the audiences behind the data, journalists and editors mostly use the data offered by metrics to reflect on their work. Noteworthy trends include journalists conforming to data dominance and shaping their work to align with prevailing metrics, particularly in the context of paywalls where individual article readership can be linked with direct income through subscriptions. Contextualising newsroom data within the Data Loop, this study illustrates how data serves as a source for reflections at both the individual and newsroom culture levels. Despite assertions of an audience turn, our findings indicate that a focus on metrics does not necessarily signify a focus on the audience but rather an unwavering interest in journalistic production.

This article explores the intricate dance between desire and distance in ethnographic research and creativepractice, advocating for the inclusion of love letters as a methodological tool for critically articulatingindividual and collective desires. Grounded in the authors’ experiences at a workshop held during the 2023PARSE conference, the text delves into the genealogy of desire in research, situating love letters within aframework of intimacy and vulnerability. Drawing on diverse academic backgrounds, the authors reflect onthe intersections of personal and professional realms, emphasizing the ethical imperative of acknowledgingresearchers’ subjective experiences. Through a deep dive into the workshop’s planning process and itsenactment, the article elucidates the transformative potential of love letters as a means of fosteringconnection and understanding within academic and creative communities. This article invites readers toreconsider traditional research methodologies and embrace the tender work of love letter writing in theirown practice.

As museums face conflicting demands on maintaining and caringfor their collections, opening for visitor engagement, and beingmore inclusive in their practice, new approaches are needed tomuseum work. This article introduces a democratic and inclusiveapproach focusing on the relational properties of the artefact–the Method of the Thing (Tigenes Metode). We use interviewswith different museum professionals in Sweden. The methodallows knowledge to emerge from the convergence of differentactors within and outside the museum who negotiate theirexpertise, (professional) roles and technical infrastructure of themuseum by foregrounding the object rather than the curators’story. We use the encoding/decoding model to discuss thestrengths and weaknesses of the method where centring theobject allows for a process of democratisation and polyvocality totake shape, thus allowing divergent narratives to emerge.

The Impact Canvas and the visualised guidelines to fill out the impact canvas are outcomes of the research project Me-Mind. The aim of these visual materials is to support the self-assessment of cultural and creative organisations to understand their potential impact and to identify the necessary data to measure the impact of a cultural and creative industry organisation.

Museums are participating in the capturing of global data for the perceived benefit of improved relationships with the public. This article proposes a framework for critically analyzing the ratification of museum visitors and visitor engagement, combining a critical lens from data studies with a social view of datafication as practice—a set of practices within a sociotechnical assemblage that is continuously reproduced by the choices made within and outside the museum. Museums are situated at the intersection of PierreBourdieu’s economic, cultural, and political fields; thus, I highlight some of the external social and technological pressures driving datafication in museums. Relying on public accounts and previous case studies, I argue that datafication of visitor engagement is made to work through data loops: circular processes between institutional practices of museums and social practices of audiences where data are collected, processed, and decided upon.

When new data practices are being deployed at cultural heritage organisations, a new set of apprehensions and insecurities emerge. We invite participants to the interactive session where we employ monsters to explore what is happening with data practices in cultural heritage organisations. The participants will confront/get to know their data monsters through interactive exercises: depicting the monster, naming the monster and addressing the monster.

As contemporary research conceptualizes the agency of technology and data through the figure of the monster, our workshop aims to explore the monstrous aspects of data practices so that we might learn to live (differently) with our monsters. In the three-part exercises, the participants will explore the mutuality of agency in relation to data practices as monsters.

The workshop is intended for people who are working with data in the cultural heritage organisations – through collections’, management’, visitors’ or other kinds of data. In this workshop, we will experiment with monster making as a collaborative inquiry into data practices. Data and activities around it are often very elusive, and we hope that after the workshop, participants will be better aware of their own ideas about data practices or will be equipped to conduct a similar workshop at their home institution with concerned and wary colleagues to discuss data monsters and their care.

As an academic researcher, I have proposed that the way we celebrate metrification and numbers as measures of our work has implications in the misinformation and fake news. If we think things that have lots of likes or shares are indicators of great engagement - what are we missing out on our understanding of engagement 

The one-page infographic gives a basic visual introduction to the data in cultural and creative industries. The image is available in three languages - English, Italian and Estonian. 

Illustrated guideline #2:Data collection methods for CCIs.  The one-page visual overview will give a basic introduction to cultural and creative industries to the following questions:

1. How to collect data? What are the advantages of the various techniques?

2. Data is everywhere, even where we don’t expect it!

Data-based Cultural and Creative Industry organisation. On the one-page visual guide will find answers to:

1. Why are data-driven decisions important?

2. What is the role of data in the organisational processes?

3. Does data help measure impacts?

Museums have always used different media to communicate, widen perspectives and bring new knowledge, but in the era of digital media, their various offerings are increasingly part of the media ecosystem. Our research interventions explored the possibility of reusing existing digitised material in a participatory setting. The aim was to explore the object-centred audience participatory method in digital settings. We held a series of digital and in-person workshops that invited the participants to “imagine” narratives about the provenance of the museum’s objects and journeys to Sweden in a playful and creative exploration. We could observe how the virtual workshop setting supported focused discussions, and allowed zooming, drawing and remixing of digital photographs to facilitate conversation. The workshop participants on-site worked with the museum objects on display to remediate them through photos, drawings, clay modelling, and writing down thoughts and questions about the objects on discussion postcards. The participants’ contributions were included in the virtual collection database (Carlotta), under the same collection as the other museum objects, making the remediation process circular. We argue that object-centred methods enable audience participation in digital media ecosystems both in museums and with other media makers. The audience’s expectations and experiences from using other media bring them to the digital museum platforms with a willingness to explore, remix and integrate.

The talk will give a brief overview from experiences from Me-Mind project, where we have worked with the idea of how to experience data and make culture count. Starting with the assumption that cultural and creative industries have an impact, we will discuss how we can think about data and measurement to understand that impact. Considering the challenges of identifying indicators, distinguishing between outputs and outcomes, and identifying indicators, data and data analysis opportunities, the presentation addresses briefly the questions of what is data about impact, what can be done with the data, and finally, what is needed for a creative, but also critical understanding of data about cultural industries.

When we interrogated audience studies in the context of reimagining communication, we noted a backward moving trend where previous critical and constructivist understanding of audiences has increasingly been reduced to the (post)positivist views of audiences as data in the media industry (Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt & Meyer zu Hörste, 2020). The datafication trend has reduced audiences to clicks, likes, comments. It has thus removed the diversity and complexity of the lived experiences that have characterised audience research in the constructivist epistemologies. This presentation introduces an analytical framework of Data Loop (Mathieu & Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, 2020), which shows how audience data circulates between the audiences and media institutions, showing that there are formatting and transformative moments in which engagement with data is translated into action. This presentation will unpack how the formation and transformation of actions are influenced by the individual, technological, social and contextual assemblages. Inspired by Derek Layder’s work on entangled social domains: psychobiography, situated activity, social networks and contextual resources (1997, 2021), we will discuss how the positivist, numerical representation of the audience data is handled in the media industry. We argue that audience data is negotiated within the framework of multiple influences. For instance, individual and collective skills, data encounters, organisational and professional culture, technological platforms, competitors practices form a complex network of factors that frame the process of translating positivist data into actions. As such, the pragmatist approach (Creswell & Creswell, 2018) taken to the audience data in the media industry ignores the positivist assumptions ingrained in the audience data and instead is concerned with the application. We will use the data loop model and the social domains to pinpoint some of the translation moments and open the discussion of the potential consequences of such translations. 

References:

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (5th edition). SAGE Publications, Inc.

Layder, D. (1997). Modern social theory: Key debates and new directions. UCL Press.

Layder, D. (2021). Social sciences, social reality and the false division between theory and method: Some implications for social research. SN Social Sciences, 1(2), 47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-020-00052-y

Mathieu, D., & Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, P. (2020). The Data loop of media and audience. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, 36(69), 116–138. https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v36i69.121178

Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, P., & Meyer zu Hörste, H. (2020). Reimagining audiences in the age of datafication. In M. Filimowicz & V. Tzankova (Eds.), Reimagning Communication: Experience (Vol. 2, pp. 179–195). ROUTLEDGE. http://hdl.handle.net/2043/30973

The increased demand for information during the Covid-19 pandemic inspired projects todescribe the pandemic’s progress via data visualization. Critically analyzing the publisheddata visualization projects (DVPs) contributes to establishing a framework that supportsboth understanding and composing DVPs that evolve over time. Drawing upon constructedgrounded theory, we develop an analytical model for creating DVPs in a journalistic or public communication context. For our analysis, we selected Covid-19 public service media DVPsin the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden and Estonia as well as DVPs created by global andlocal data activists. The analysis of these examples provides an understanding of (1) theimplied agency standing of the authors of the visualizations, (2) the kinds of editorial layer(data, visual representation, annotation or interactivity) that inform the creation processand (3) what newsrooms and data visualizers can learn from this practice to create understandable, meaningful and engaging DVPs of (critical) events that evolve over an extendedperiod. Our model supports data visualization practitioners in making informed choiceswhen creating data stories. 

The article explores how academic and arts-based research have been combined in curating the contemporary, media-rich exhibition The Time of Freedoms, which is part of the permanent exhibition of the Estonian National Museum. The article shows how the success of exhibition-making practice depends on the skill of switching codes from the more strictly procedure-oriented sociological/ethnological, to an arts-based approach that relies on being processual and performative. After contextualizing the exhibition and positioning the curatorial team, the article discusses three parts/exhibits of The Time of Freedoms exhibition: The Sacrifice Stone and ATM, the Synthesiser of Freedom and the Stories about Freedom. These vignettes are then used to discuss the roles of arts-based research in this exhibition design process and outcome.

This article discusses how different forms of autoethnographic production prompted by diverse forms of academic self-expression can lead to different types of knowing. Utilizing five examples from the Massive_Microscopic project, where participants responded to 21 different prompts inviting autoethnographic reflections about COVID-19 global pandemic, the article explores the responses from the perspective of alternative ways of knowing, reflecting on questions of motherhood, self-care, and performance in academia. Whether visual, rhythmic, or text produced from the perspective of things, the different modalities of the prompts allowed unexpected knowledge to emerge and supported deeper and more colorful reflections. Exploring the personal experience with the pandemic is expanded by the qualitative inquiry supported by different (self-)expression formats.

Abstract. Digital objects have controversial roles in the exhibition space [1, 2],ranging from being a vague ‘must be’ element at the exhibitions signifying theircontemporaneity, to being a crucially important design tool shaping museumexperience. Departing from the museum communication studies, this articleseeks to provide an analytical framework about the digital exhibits within theexhibitions. Based on an iterative reflexive process whereby the empirical datain the form of exhibits at the Estonian National Museum and literature are in acircular dialogue with each other, we look at the potential role of the digitalexhibits by using analytical dimensions, which have been strategically, althoughnot always consciously utilized in the exhibition development. We start with 1)Spatiality, involving potentials and limitations of space-bound digital elements,and 2) Temporality, concerning dilemma between stability and changeability ofthe content. Next, approaching digital exhibits from the perspective of 3)private-public dimension as well as 4) single-multi-user aspects allows for abetter understanding of the previously discussed sociability dimension [1, 3]. 5)Increasingly, narrating the past depends on the fusion of fictional-documentaryformats. Finally, considering the critical perspective, we will also look at thedimensions of 6) authoritative-collaborative voice and 7) openness or determinednessof the interpretation. Outlining some of the theoretical underpinningsthrough concrete examples, we argue for the heuristic value of these dimensionsin understanding visitor engagement.

The article aims to enhance the understanding of audience engagement and ways of its shaping in relation to permanent expositions by using the example of Tartu University Natural History Museum. We focus on the role of exhibition curators as content creators in the shaping of audience engagement. The study is informed by constructivist grounded theory and draws upon eleven semi-structured interviews with the curators of the new permanent exhibition of Tartu University Natural History Museum. In order to understand better the curators’ perspectives our analysis relies on the concept of imagined audiences and seeks to answer questions about what kind of engagement modes can be identified from the curators’ comments and what processes the latter were influenced by. The theme of museum audiences and engagement modes should already be familiar to the reader from previous Yearbooks of the Estonian National Museum (Runnel ja Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt 2012; Runnel, Lepik, Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt 2014; Lotina 2014; Rattus 2016). Earlier discussions, however, placed more emphasis to the existence of audiences and engagement modes, and were less concerned with how curatorial considerations can impact the formation of audience engagement and how this formative process may be directed. Furthermore, the earlier in-depth identification of engagement modes and examination of the interrelationships between their various aspects was underpinned by a holistic view on museum activities (Lotina 2016), while the present treatment focuses on the specific context of museum expositions. The concept of imagined audiences (Litt 2012) draws on the study of social media, but for this article we have applied its principles to a museum exposition, which is a far more static communicative environment. 40 The study answered the questions about the kind of audiences the curators who put together the permanent exhibition of Tartu University Museum of Natural History were envisioning and what factors influenced the construction of audiences as well as what engagement modes were designed for the exposition. Individuals and institutions were distinguished among the audiences, both of which were in turn comprised of more detailed groups. Building on Gidden’s theory of structuration (1984) and Litt’s notion of an imagined audience (Litt 2012) the factors influencing the curators were grouped as either structural or agential. The following modes of engagement with the permanent display emerged: teaching, attracting interest, co-operation and provisions for stakeholders. Teaching was closely interlinked with the main objective of renewing the permanent display: the intent is to create a learning environment for non-formal environmental education, and in this respect it resembled the informing mode of audience engagement identified by Lotina (2016). Attracting interest was a mode of engagement which bore similarities to the marketing engagement mode previously described by Lotina (2016). Co-operation where visitors contribute towards the fulfillment of the museum’s objectives offered limited possibilities within the context of the permanent exhibition, but it holds considerable potential in the planning of future developments of the exposition. Providing for stakeholders was reflected in the museum’s consideration of the stakeholders’ needs, and it allows the museum to develop various services. All in all, both museums and their permanent displays offer valuable material for analysing the way in which audiences and their engagement modes are shaped. A better understanding of these processes will help us expand the possibilities of engaging actual audiences. Identifying messages, audiences and activities is a natural part of the planning of any permanent exhibition; however, the content creators’ visions of the upcoming exhibition also merit a detailed examination, and thereby particular factors that favour or constrain curatorial creativity will become clearer.

The chapter looks at the history of audience studies in order to reflect on the datafication turn that is exciting both researchers and practitioners worldwide. By distinguishing six stages in audience research, we discuss what we know of audiences and what we have considered important to study about audiences has changed over time. Now that there is an increasing amount of digital data tracking different aspects of audience actions, there is a sense that we know now more than ever before. However, the argument of the following discussion through the historical phases of audience studies is that we know less than we care to admit. Datafication is seldom connected to the ideas of what kind of questions can we ask about audiences and what the data is actually indicative of. What is collected is not always suitable in answering the questions we might have about the audiences, despite our excitement about the opportunities that the data provides in understanding audiences.

As our digital footprints are collected and analysed by the media and fed back at us as new experiences, providing more data to collect, data circulates in a loop from audiences to media and back. This data loop is for media studies an occasion to revisit the media–audience nexus in an age of datafication. We argue that an audience perspective is needed in order to break with the structure–agency linearity in the current understanding of datafication. In this article, we develop a model of the data loop that first presents the fundamentals of data circulation between social actors and digital interfaces, then the moments of agency between actors in a relation of mutual dependence. The article closes with a discussion of previous models within media and communication that have addressed similar ideas, such as audience feedback, mutuality and circularity.

This article relies on auto-ethnography to make sense of the role a closed Facebook group can play in the life of a parent with a child who has rare genetic syndrome, CHARGE. The article will use the concept of affordances as a general framework to make sense of the activities in the Facebook group. For Norman “affordances refer to the potential actions that are possible, but these are easily discoverable only if they are perceivable: Perceived affordances”, thus the Facebook group becomes a sum of imagined possibilities. Previous research has identified the following affordances of social media: identity, flexibility, structure, narration and adaptation. These five affordances will be used to structure the discussion around the parenting experiences.

This study explored the relationship of in-service teacher achievement goal orientation and practices of educational technology use. Semi-structured individual interviews with secondary school teachers in Latvia (N = 16) and Estonia (N = 10) revealed that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in pedagogical work and the ways in which teachers learn ICT-related skills are associated with individual differences in teacher achievement goal orientation. Based on their findings, the authors argue that achievement goal theory is a promising framework for understanding how the integration and application of ICT in teaching happens. Directions for future research and implications for teacher training are discussed.

The museum as an arena for cultural citizenship: exploring modes of engagement for audience empowerment. The article looks at museums as democratic institutions from the perspective of cultural citizenship and cultural representation as well as investigating the notions of participation and engagement. Located in the context of new museology, the article looks at the audience engagement from the museums perspective and investigates participatory and communicative choices for the museum and how the different modes of engagement can be implemented in museums by bringing numerous examples from practice. It also briefly describes barriers to participation in the museum organisation. In investigating the visitors/public's perspective, the article discusses how people switch between the different roles in museums and asks a question about motivations for participating.

This chapter concerns how the Sickboy podcast series uses comedy to present discussions around illness. The chapter discusses podcasts as social media at the intersections of the public and private sphere. The article uses elements from the circuit of culture - production, text, readings and lived cultures to shed light on the phenomenon of humour podcast. The ideas of production are analysed through the lens of collaborative media. Content is looked through elements of seriality, structure, mechanics of comedy and construction of normalcy. The readings of the podcast are tackled through the lens of affordances.

Stemming from the concept of active audiences and from Henry Jenkins’ (2006) idea of participatory culture as the driving force behind the transformation of public service broadcasting into agencies of public service media (Bardoel, Ferrell Lowe 2007), this empirical study explores the attitude and behaviour of the audiences of two crossmedia projects, produced by the public service media of Finland (YLE) and Estonia (ERR). This empirical study aims to explore the behaviour, wants and needs of the audiences of cross-media productions and to shed some light on the conditions that support the dynamic switching of the engagement with cross-media. The study’s results suggest that audiences are neither passive nor active, but switch from one mode to another. The findings demonstrate that audience dynamism is circumstantial and cannot be assumed. Thus, thinking about active audiences and participation as the lymph of public service media becomes problematic, especially when broadcasters seek generalised production practices. This work demonstrates how television networks in general cannot be participatory, and instead, how cross-media can work as a vehicle of micro participation through small acts of audience engagement (Kleut et al. 2017).

The aim of the current article is to provide analysis of information operations of the Russian Federation performed against the Ukrainian state and defence forces from 1 April until 31 December 2014. Russia uses ideological, historical, political symbols and narratives for justifying and supporting their military, economic and political campaigns not only in Donbass but in the whole of Ukraine. The article concentrates on the various means of meaning-making carried out by Russian information operations regarding the Ukrainian state and military structures.