Media Whatever

In the final episode of this academic year, hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli talk to Sebastián Lehuedé about the environmental costs of AI. AI’s data centres generate carbon emissions and burn through rare minerals, but these hidden environmental costs are often ignored, offshored to remote locations. At the same time, hubristic claims that AI can solve environmental problems from Google and other big tech companies don’t quite measure up. Perhaps we need a more humble yet ambitious approach to AI, recognising its limitations and costs as well as its undoubted benefits. Sebastián Lehuedé is a lecturer in Ethics, AI and Society at Kings College London. He examines AI from a social justice perspective and has published extensively on data colonialism, the ethics of data extraction and the relationship between AI, ‘technology for good’ and the environment.You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Link⁠

In a wide-ranging discussion of digital culture and the future of work, your hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli talk with sociologist Alessandro Gandini about how digital media have transformed our experience of work and our sense of self, especially in the years since the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst this has led to some nostalgia for pre-digital communities of place, for most of us platformisation has been a process of adaptation and intensification as we seek to negotiate ‘a self that works’ in the online world. Alessandro Gandini is an Associate Professor in the Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Milan. His research centres on digital labour, platformisation and digital culture. His books include Zeitgeist Nostalgia: on Populism, Work and the Good Life(2020) and The Reputation Economy: Understanding Knowledge Work in Digital Society (2016).You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Link⁠

n this episode your hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli talk with curator and author Valentina Tanni about how artists and creative technologists are subverting the tech logic of digital media by creating weird memes, vapour trails and remixes of online culture. Valentina guides us through the backrooms and counter-cultures of web culture and AI art, suggesting that the online world might not be as rational or logical as we thought. Valentina Tanni is an art historian, curator and academic, interested in the hidden corners of web cultures. She is the author of multiple books and articles exploring memes and AI art, including Exit Reality (Nero, 2024).You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Link 

In this episode your hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli talk to AI policy expert Tommy Shaffer Shane about the descriptive affordances and architecture of AI – how does AI reinforce biases and norms, and how far do humans create or challenge those biases? And how does ‘Artificial Intelligence’ reproduce certain assumptions about the meaning and value of ‘intelligence’? Can the ‘object’ of AI become a ‘subject’, like the robots in the Terminator movies? And should we – really – be worried that AI is going to ‘go rogue’ and destroy the world?  Tommy is currently an AI Policy Advisor at the Centre for Long Term Resilience. Previously he has led an investigation of online disinformation for the UK government, and acted as an AI consultant with WHO, Stanford University, Unicef, the UN and Google. He is currently working part-time on a PhD at Kings College London on AI safety incidents.You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠⁠Link

Our hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli are joined by Adam Arvidsson who talks to us about ‘industriousness’ in the new digital economy from ‘bullshit jobs’ to entrepreneurial content creators on TikTok and Instagram. Who belongs in this ‘neo-plebeian’ class of precarious, entrepreneurial creative workers? What drives them, where are they from and what will they do next? Adam Arvidsson is Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes at the University of Napoli. Adam writes about digital media, brands, creative industries and new forms of digital economy. His books include Changemakers: The Industrious Future of the Digital Economy (2019) and The Ethical Economy (2013).You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠Link

Our hosts Chris Bilton and guest host Cecilia Ghidotti  are joined by Ellen Charlesworth from Durham University to discuss how museums, often with very limited resources, attempt to use social media and online collections to engage audiences – and how these efforts can sometimes misfire or distract. Ellen’s current research looks at the invisible absences in museums’ digital collections – and she offers some tips on how museums can engage their audiences more effectively.You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠Link

Our hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli are joined by graphic designer, artist and activist Marco Ugolini. How can designers do ‘good work’ outside the commercial logic of advertising and branding? What are the politics of visual communication? How can designers apply ethical decisions to everyday tasks and projects? And how are creative workers connected to a longer history of material labour and radical politics?You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠Link

Our hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli are joined by guest Emiliano Treré (Cardiff University) to talk about everyday forms of resistance against platform power. Emiliano will draw on his new book Algorithms of Resistance (MIT, 2024) co-authored with  Tiziano Bonini.You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - Link

Our hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli are joined by guest Elif Buse Doyuran (University of Edinburgh) to discuss how online platforms use ‘nudge theory’ to challenge and channel our habitual behaviour. You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠Link⁠

Our hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli are joined by guest Ludmila Lupinacci (University of Leeds) to talk about how platforms are not anymore concerned with thoughts and opinion but rather with the (re)production of moods and vibes. You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠Link⁠

Our hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli are joined by guest Rachel O'Neill (London Shool of Economics) to talk about the rise of medical influencers and the wellness culture on social media.You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠Link⁠

Our hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli are joined by guest Cecilia Ghidotti (University fo Warwick) to talk about how and why creative workers may well quit their jobs. You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠Link⁠

Welcome to Media Whatever, the new podcast from the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies at the University of Warwick.The podcast is about research from the Media and Creative Industries, and each episode will feature guests from CCMPS and the wider research community. You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠Link⁠