David Myles | Institut national de la recherche scientifique (original) (raw)

Papers by David Myles

Sexualities, 2022

In March 2019, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) identified Grindr... more In March 2019, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) identified Grindr, a hookup app that predominantly caters to men who have sex with men, as a "national security threat" and compelled the Chinese conglomerate Kunlun Tech to divest from it entirely. The CFIUS-Grindr ruling is indicative of larger regulatory debates over increasing datafication trends in the dating app industry. Through a political economy approach to communication, this paper examines how this ruling was predominantly constructed by various stakeholders as a public controversy in light of the ongoing US-China trade conflict. This interpretation of the controversy relies on a prejudicial trope that construes queer dating app users as vulnerable targets of potential blackmail schemes operated by Chinese intelligence agencies. Through the Lavender Scare, a historical period referring to state-led investigations into the presence of LGBTQ+ employees in Western federal workforces, this paper historicizes this blackmail trope to highlight how the politicization of queer vulnerabilities amid global hegemonic conflicts is a tactic that predates the US-China trade conflict. It argues that the CFIUS-Grindr ruling weaponizes Grindr's queer data publics as threats against which the US government should protect itself, while failing to fully recognize the urgency for the state to protect the data privacy rights of the LGBTQ+ communities in the digital economy. In light of the CFIUS-Grindr ruling, this paper examines the implications that datafication raises for the LGBTQ+ communities whose sexual lives and identities are increasingly being datafied and exploited by digital media platforms.

New Media & Society, 2022

The coronavirus disease-19 pandemic introduced a crisis of safety and relevance for dating apps, ... more The coronavirus disease-19 pandemic introduced a crisis of safety and relevance for dating apps, as their affordances for facilitating in-person encounters posed the risk of viral transmission. This article examines how eight apps primarily catering to heterosexual markets responded to the pandemic through changes to socio-technical arrangements, new user prescriptions, and the curation of corporate data and success stories. By analyzing corporate social media and promotional materials alongside in-app developments, we find that these companies reimagined app affordances to promote “virtual dating,” a set of practices and symbolic meanings that prioritize visual, synchronous digital interaction as the most responsible, reliable, and successful dating approach to the pandemic. Virtual dating centers apps as databases of potential partners while prescribing modes of use aimed toward affective relief, displays of authenticity, and romantic courtship. This reimagining counters moral pan...

La multiplication sur le web des plateformes collaboratives consacrées à des savoirs spécialisés,... more La multiplication sur le web des plateformes collaboratives consacrées à des savoirs spécialisés, comme la médecine ou la botanique, suscite de nombreux débats sur la place des spécialistes et des profanes dans chacun de ces domaines. Ces débats mettent en lumière des asymétries concernant la production de savoirs qui peuvent être destinés ou non à guider l’action publique

This chapter examines how international dating app companies responded in the early months of the... more This chapter examines how international dating app companies responded in the early months of the pandemic. Dating apps were popularised in the early 2010s and result from the digitisation of dating services that began in the 1990s. Dating apps are also associated with important health-related issues. Health researchers and practitioners have quickly identified dating apps as potential tools that could be leveraged to reach target populations. The Coronavirus disease (COVID) pandemic is a uniquely rich case study for examining the role of dating apps as responsive to digital health. Like many popular social media platforms, dating app companies started communicating with their users about the risks related to the novel coronavirus by mid-March 2020. Dating apps that cater to queer men were particularly active in health communication. In-app communications were not exclusively used to engage in digital health but were also mobilised in marketing ploys. © 2021 selection and editorial ...

The development of digital technology has led to the emergence of new types of citizen security i... more The development of digital technology has led to the emergence of new types of citizen security initiatives. This article explores four forms of online citizen contributions to crime governance, derived from the social sciences and humanities: non-institutionalized surveillance work, crowdsourced policing, online vigilantes, and civilian policing. The issues raised by each of these forms of contribution shed light on the results of an exploratory observation process within the Reddit Bureau of Investigation, an internet forum for citizens wishing to solve crimes. The results point to the key role played by digital and surveillance technology in the emergence of these practices and of new conceptions of the role of citizens in the governance of crime, to the construction of a common identity in reaction to the figure of vigilantism, and to the deployment of laypersons’ investigative expertise.

The development of digital technology participates in the emergence of new types of citizen secur... more The development of digital technology participates in the emergence of new types of citizen security initiatives. This article explores four forms of online citizen contributions to the governance of crime derived from the social sciences and humanities: non-institutionalized surveillance work, crowdsourced policing, online vigilantes and the civilian police. The issues raised by each of these forms of contribution shed light on the results of an exploratory observation process within the Reddit Bureau of Investigation, an Anglophone Internet forum for citizens who wish to solve crimes. The results point to the key role played by digital and surveillance technology in the emergence of these practices and of new conceptions of the role of citizens in the governance of crime, to the construction of a common identity in reaction to the vigilante figure, and to the deployment of laypersons’ investigation expertise.

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021

Tinder’s swipe feature operates algorithms that have influenced a new generation of dating apps. ... more Tinder’s swipe feature operates algorithms that have influenced a new generation of dating apps. In this paper, we argue that the mystique surrounding Tinder’s algorithms is as productive for the dating app industry as the actual technical operations they perform. We seek to understand how actors in the dating industry construct matchmaking algorithms as strategic unknowns that can be harnessed to reach commercial objectives. To do so, we mobilize the notion of ‘algorithmic blackboxing’ – how actors strategically construct algorithms as black boxes to reach certain goals – to analyze a corpus of 48 online dating guides that offer ‘best advice’ to exploit Tinder’s matchmaking algorithms. Our analysis shows that dating guides overwhelmingly construct Tinder’s algorithms as black boxes whose secrets must be unlocked for users to generate matches and, therefore, find love. The alleged unintelligibility and opacity of Tinder’s algorithms allow self-proclaimed ‘dating experts’ to sell the...

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020

This presentation examines the social media campaign #SupportIslandWomen that was undertaken by r... more This presentation examines the social media campaign #SupportIslandWomen that was undertaken by reproductive rights activists in Prince Edward Island (PEI). The initiative gained popularity in 2016 due to both the off- and online circulation of posters throughout PEI landmarks depicting the Green Gables-like image of a young girl (“rogue Anne”) wearing red braids and a bandana. These posters showcased specific hashtags that encouraged debates on various online platforms. For this study, we underline how human actors invoked the symbolic ‘figure’ of rogue Anne to give weight to their own arguments by speaking or acting in her name. By ‘figure’, we mean any symbolic entity that is materialized through interaction and that possesses agency, or the ability to make a significant difference in interaction. Hence, our study examines the processes through which rogue Anne was made present in interaction, the role of digital (online) and physical (offline) affordances in the materialization ...

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020

The objective of this panel is to examine the analytical and empirical relevance of the “visibili... more The objective of this panel is to examine the analytical and empirical relevance of the “visibility lens” for Internet research. In the past decade, researchers have started to take a specific interest in the constitutive role of online visibility in the organization of social reality. Studies have underlined the fundamental role of visibility afforded by digital technologies in the social recognition or exclusion of individuals, groups, and communities. They have also identified visibility and its management as being constitutive of social identities, relations, and practices among actors in a variety of fields. So far, Internet researchers have provided various definitions and operationalizations of online visibility. For example, visibility can be apprehended as both a political lever for individuals and collectives or as a conceptual category for researchers to make sense of social reality. Visibility is also frequently associated with digital materiality. As such, it is sometim...

Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 2019

In this paper, we investigate the role that mourning and commemoration practices play in contempo... more In this paper, we investigate the role that mourning and commemoration practices play in contemporary trans rights activism. Drawing from visual politics, digital activist culture, as well as media and communication, we analyse how trans rights movements construct injustice symbols that are used for sociopolitical mobilisation and expression. We contend that these symbols are constructed through shared communicative practices, which produce and circulate visuals that possess important memetic qualities (pictures, slogans, hashtags, graffiti, posters, etc.). To do so, we analyse three case studies where the unjust death of a trans person was collectively mobilised for political purposes: Jennifer Laude (Philippines, 1988-2014), Hande Kader (Turkey, 1993-2016), and Marsha P. Johnson (United States of America, 1945-1992). While each case study points to local or national specificities, our comparative analysis also underlines transnational trends in the production of posthumous visuals...

New Media & Society, 2018

In the emerging context of hashtag feminism, this article explores the #SupportIslandWomen pro-ch... more In the emerging context of hashtag feminism, this article explores the #SupportIslandWomen pro-choice initiative in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. The movement gained visibility by using the altered image of Anne of Green Gables (rogue Anne) on posters and graffiti throughout PEI and on social media. Drawing from organizational discourse theory, we analyse how rogue Anne was invoked by activists who spoke in her name, thus enacting the polyphonic nature of discourse. Our case study was built by performing non-participant observation online and by conducting a search in Canadian blogs and newspapers. First, we detail the discursive practices developed within the #SupportIslandWomen movement and underline their constitutive effects, namely, by focusing on the organizing properties of the hashtag feature. Then, we investigate the benefits and limitations of using rogue Anne as a unifying symbol and reflect on the discursive struggles that led to and were generated by her usurpation.

Qualitative Inquiry, 2019

In the past decade, social media have put mourning practices at the forefront of daily life in wa... more In the past decade, social media have put mourning practices at the forefront of daily life in ways that challenge assumptions made about the public disclosure of information often construed as being highly intimate. This article examines how researchers conceive online mourning in empirical studies and how such conceptions inform (or not) methodological and ethical decisions. Through a scoping review, we identified 40 empirical papers addressing online mourning. Our analysis shows that, while online mourning practices have overwhelmingly been problematized in terms of privacy and publicness within the current literature, ethical issues relating to their analysis have been scarcely addressed in empirical research. In line with Foucault’s work on the dispositif, we then examine the performative role of privacy and data sensitivity in the context of online mourning research (notably in relation to consent procurement) and discuss our findings in light of emerging trends in context-bas...

Ce memoire porte sur l'usage de l'application de groupe Facebook en situation de deuil. N... more Ce memoire porte sur l'usage de l'application de groupe Facebook en situation de deuil. Notre problematique s'articule autour de deux notions-cles : celle de deuil et de sa dimension interactionnelle, ainsi que celle de reseau socionumerique (RSN) et de ses affordances. La question qui sous-tend cette etude est celle-ci : comment les usagers utilisent-ils l'application de groupe Facebook en situation de deuil et dans quelle mesure le dispositif participe a la structuration des interactions en ligne? Afin d'y repondre, nous mobilisons deux approches complementaires. D'abord, nous retenons la sociologie des usages qui s'interesse a la mediation entre l'usager et son dispositif technique. Ensuite, nous faisons appel a l'ordre de l'interaction qui traite des normes regissant les rapports humains. La methodologie retenue dans le cadre de ce memoire est de nature mixte et consiste en une observation d'inspiration ethnographique d'un groupe Facebook et l'analyse de son contenu. Les resultats de cette etude montrent que les usages de l'application de groupe sont regis par des normes, a la fois sociales et techniques, et varient d'un usager a l'autre. Plus specifiquement, nous notons la presence de contenus recurrents qui temoigne d'une forme de ritualisation. Nous illustrons le role structurant que joue le dispositif technique dans les interactions par l'evolution de l'expression de soutien au sein du groupe. Finalement, quatre formes d'usage du groupe Facebook en situation de deuil sont degagees : la carte de souhaits, le journal intime, la priere et la mnemotheque. Nous concluons ce memoire en proposant une reflexion sur la possible disparition des groupes Facebook dedies a un defunt. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLES DE L’AUTEUR : Facebook, deuil, reseau socionumerique, interactions, usages.

Memory in a Mediated World, 2016

Communiquer. Revue de communication sociale et publique, 2012

Revue de communication sociale et publique 7 | 2012 Varia Enjeux éthiques de la recherche sur les... more Revue de communication sociale et publique 7 | 2012 Varia Enjeux éthiques de la recherche sur les forums Internet portant sur l'utilisation des médicaments à des fins non médicales Ethical issues in the research on online discussion forums concerning the use of drugs for non-medical purposes

Social Media + Society, 2017

This article examines the constitutive role of mediated visibility in the emergence of contempora... more This article examines the constitutive role of mediated visibility in the emergence of contemporary vigilante initiatives. Here, visibility is conceptualized as a “heuristic device” to understand social phenomena, as well as a lever for organizations to acquire various forms of capital. The article uses the case of The Judge Beauce—a Canadian organization created in 2015 to fight against child abusers—to understand how vigilante collectives can lever mediated visibility, and online visibility in particular, to acquire specific forms of policing capital (economic, social, political, and cultural). Results show that mediated visibility was indeed crucial for raising funds, constituting vigilant/e publics, and defining vigilante identities, relations, and practices. Yet, as a “double-edged sword,” mediated visibility brought on public scrutiny that simultaneously resulted in a series of liabilities. Finally, this article contends that vigilantism in the digital age should be defined as...

Information, Communication & Society

Sexualities, 2022

New Media & Society, 2022

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020

Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 2019

New Media & Society, 2018

Qualitative Inquiry, 2019

Memory in a Mediated World, 2016

Communiquer. Revue de communication sociale et publique, 2012

Social Media + Society, 2017

Information, Communication & Society

Méthodes de recherche en contexte numérique : Une orientation qualitative, 2020

Intimités et sexualités contemporaines: changements sociaux, transformations des pratiques et des représentations, 2020

La multiplication sur le web des plateformes collaboratives consacrées à des savoirs spécialisés,... more La multiplication sur le web des plateformes collaboratives consacrées
à des savoirs spécialisés, comme la médecine ou la botanique,
suscite de nombreux débats sur la place des spécialistes et
des profanes dans chacun de ces domaines. Ces débats mettent en
lumière des asymétries concernant la production de savoirs qui
peuvent être destinés ou non à guider l’action publique

This case study relies on the analysis of a commemorative Facebook group to understand the ways i... more This case study relies on the analysis of a commemorative Facebook group to understand the ways in which mourners use the Facebook group application (FGA). Four forms of use are identified. First, the ‘wish card’ refers to a phatic use of the FGA which allows group members to exchange wishes in various timelines. Second, the ‘personal diary’ is characterised by the use of the FGA as a way to communicate with the deceased to express emotions and share life updates. Third, the use of the FGA as a ‘place of prayer’ is illustrated by the ways members sporadically address requests to the deceased. Last, the ‘mnémothèque’ refers to a collective remembrance process in which group members select, share and consult commemorative content regarding the deceased.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur l'usage de l'application de groupe Facebook en situation de deui... more Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur l'usage de l'application de groupe Facebook en situation de deuil. Notre problématique s'articule autour de deux notions-clés : celle de deuil et de sa dimension interactionnelle, ainsi que celle de réseau socionumérique (RSN) et de ses affordances. La question qui sous-tend cette étude est celle-ci : comment les usagers utilisent-ils l'application de groupe Facebook en situation de deuil et dans quelle mesure le dispositif participe à la structuration des interactions en ligne? Afin d'y répondre, nous mobilisons deux approches complémentaires. D'abord, nous retenons la sociologie des usages qui s'intéresse à la médiation entre l'usager et son dispositif technique. Ensuite, nous faisons appel à l'ordre de l'interaction qui traite des normes régissant les rapports humains. La méthodologie retenue dans le cadre de ce mémoire est de nature mixte et consiste en une observation d'inspiration ethnographique d'un groupe Facebook et l'analyse de son contenu. Les résultats de cette étude montrent que les usages de l'application de groupe sont régis par des normes, à la fois sociales et techniques, et varient d'un usager à l'autre. Plus spécifiquement, nous notons la présence de contenus récurrents qui témoigne d'une forme de ritualisation. Nous illustrons le rôle structurant que joue le dispositif technique dans les interactions par l'évolution de l'expression de soutien au sein du groupe. Finalement, quatre formes d'usage du groupe Facebook en situation de deuil sont dégagées : la carte de souhaits, le journal intime, la prière et la mnémothèque. Nous concluons ce mémoire en proposant une réflexion sur la possible disparition des groupes Facebook dédiés à un défunt.

Ce livre fait le point sur les avancées et les enjeux de la méthodologie qualitative en contexte ... more Ce livre fait le point sur les avancées et les enjeux de la méthodologie qualitative en contexte numérique. Il offre un panorama des méthodes de recherche les plus récentes pour l’étude des phénomènes en ligne par les sciences sociales – communication, sociologie, anthropologie. Cet ouvrage foisonnant présente des textes allant des fondements épistémologiques aux méthodes visuelles pour l’étude d’objets numériques, en passant par les stratégies ethnographiques, la collecte et l’analyse de traces d’activités en ligne. Au-delà du manuel, l’ouvrage se distingue par son actualité, sa cohérence entre la théorie et la pratique ainsi que par sa résonance interdisciplinaire.