Zachary P Devereaux | University of Alberta (original) (raw)
Papers by Zachary P Devereaux
Nexalogy examined millions of social media documents over the last month tracking Chinese involve... more Nexalogy examined millions of social media documents over the last month tracking Chinese involvement in the online debate surrounding the COVID-19 coronavirus. Nexalogy found significant attempts by both Chinese authorities and news agencies to manipulate the media and shift the blame for the COVID-19 outbreak to the United States. Additional attempts at media manipulation and narrative shaping included attempts to frame dialogue from US President Trump as racist and show the Trump administration as an impediment to the worldwide recovery from the pandemic while framing Chinese President Xi as a strong leader on the world stage.
Canadian Journal of Communication, 2009
Through three case studies of online political activism on Facebook, this article conceptualizes ... more Through three case studies of online political activism on Facebook, this article conceptualizes the deployment of issue publics (Lippmann, 1993; Marres, 2005) on Facebook. We argue that issue publics on Facebook come into being through a specific set of double articulations of code and politics that link and reshape informational processes, communicational constraints and possibilities, and political practices in different and sometimes contradictory ways. Using Maurizio Lazzarato’s exploration of immaterial labour (2004), we demonstrate the need to further understand the networking of publics and their issues by considering how online platforms provide the material, communicational, and social means for a public to exist and therefore define the parameters for assembling issues and publics and circumscribe a horizon of political agency.
Draft Version: Not for quotation or citation without the authors ’ permission. The issue here is ... more Draft Version: Not for quotation or citation without the authors ’ permission. The issue here is not gun control. And it’s not even astronomical cost overruns, although those are serious. What’s really inexcusable is that Parliament was in the dark. I question why the Department continued to watch the costs escalate without informing Parliament and without considering alternatives.
Online issue mapping uses interactive network or topic maps to relate information sources to each... more Online issue mapping uses interactive network or topic maps to relate information sources to each other and to their respective uses of key terms. This strategy prioritizes the ability of visualization systems to show complex data that change over time. Our research applies combinations of software in a cross-disciplinary technique well suited to the information dynamics of the modern world. In an attempt to combine network maps over time, turning them from snapshots to a chronologically sensitive visualization system, we have undertaken two projects:
The claim that traditional political participation has been steadily declining (Wilkins 2000) nee... more The claim that traditional political participation has been steadily declining (Wilkins 2000) needs to be re-evaluated in light of the rise of Internet-related means of social engagement. Ian Angus holds that democratic spaces, including new web spaces, are central to the health of a democracy (Angus, 2001). What are the democratic spaces and practices enabled by Web 2.0 in the context of Canadian political culture? How, if at all, has the recent proliferation of new media technology and techniques changed the nature of political agency and participation in Canadian politics? In particular, how do Canadian political leaders and established parties use Web 2.0? This paper uses cases from the recent provincial election in Ontario to explore how Canadian politicians structure public participation and political processes. Canadian politicians have recently engaged in Web 2.0 politics with videos and social networking sites to lampoon opponents and recruit supporters. These constructions shape the agency of the user and the public within their informational political campaigns. The paper examines the role of money, publicity, video satire, surveillance, and recruitment into overtly political associations on an Ontario Liberal video satire site called Torytube.ca. Politicians chose in this election to use the Internet as a back room for more controversial and viral campaigning, a strategy that allowed them to disavow dirty tactics in the mainstream media. Theoretically this paper compares the case of the Ontario Election to Philip N. Howard's notion of "thin citizenship" and Wendy Chun's notion of "software as ideology." How do the Web 2.0 developments of the recent Ontario election indicate the promotion of thin citizenship and appeal to default ideologies in Web practice?
What can hyperlinkage analysis tell us about advocacy networks? This paper examines the pro and a... more What can hyperlinkage analysis tell us about advocacy networks? This paper examines the pro and anti gun control movements in North America using hyperlinkage analysis. Hyperlinks benefit “issue-networks” because they represent the connections of one group to another. We use the Issue Crawler software to determine how gun advocacy networks are linked on-line. In examining the gun control community online we follow Noortje Marres’s definition of an “issue-network” (2006), rather than the original “issue people” definition (or lobbyists) derived from Hugh Heclo in 1978, to help address the deficiencies of hyperlinkage analysis on its own. We argue that hyperlinkage analysis of the pro gun control movement indicates that its strongest resources are not found, and its “issue-work” does not occur, online. Online there are not as many groups linked into the pro network, as the anti gun control groups. Therefore, a mixed methodology is required to determine the work being done that hyperli...
Abstract: The significant and reciprocal link between Terrorism and News Media reportage was iden... more Abstract: The significant and reciprocal link between Terrorism and News Media reportage was identified in the 1990s by the convergence of security and media studies (Picard, 1993). Working in the tradition of content analysis early studies examined the way Terrorism was framed in major news accounts with implications for the Huntington-Fukuyama hypothesis (Nacos, 2002). However these early studies mainly pre-dated both the War on Terror and the rise of the Internet as a major (political) news source. This paper reinvigorates this early framing research on Terrorism by examining key frames over time in online news media via software-assisted media mapping. Key frames identified in the 1990s are examined in the online news environment under the George W. Bush administration (2005) and the current Barak Hussein Obama administration (2009). The resulting news mapping allows for a comparative analysis of the way frames, such as "insurgent" have changed (if at all) over time in...
We examine two technologies for harvesting web information—issue crawling and web scraping—and ap... more We examine two technologies for harvesting web information—issue crawling and web scraping—and apply them to the question of how the information design and visualization research communities can be understood through their presence online. We note the participation of the military-industrial complex, as well as the changing appearance of the academic community at different times of the year. The text analysis component suggests a significant difference between the way this group is discussed in typical web sites as compared to its presence in the weblogs. We also look at how these research technologies, which are currently in their infancy, might be extended in directions that would be more useful. These suggestions for enhancement examine in detail the functionality that is available and might be made available, and constitute a potential area for future research by information designers and visualization researchers.
scan.net.au
With the proliferation and increased accessibility of online news aggregators, RSS news subscript... more With the proliferation and increased accessibility of online news aggregators, RSS news subscription-like feeds, online versions of newspapers, and information news databases, comes new possibilities for news analysis. In this paper we propose the use of new software tools and methods of analysis to determine the manner in which political leaders and social issues were covered in online news stories during the Canadian federal election (December 2005 to January 2006). In so doing we point out the biases of online news aggregators ...
ABSTRACT This article examines the Scientific, Journalistic, and Social Media publications about ... more ABSTRACT This article examines the Scientific, Journalistic, and Social Media publications about Nanotechnology in Canada via scientometric analysis to identify the top authors, institutes, and themes taking place in 2008 around the subject. The report was presented to the OECD working party on Nanotechnology http://www.oecd.org/sti/nano/42326281.pdf
ABSTRACT Abstract: Object-oriented programming was a major revolution in software coding that ena... more ABSTRACT Abstract: Object-oriented programming was a major revolution in software coding that enabled graphic user interfaces and encapsulation of functions within programming objects. Bruno Latour importantly asked "What would an object-oriented democracy look like?" This paper takes the question seriously and evaluates how object-orientation relates to political communication on and through social media in Canada, namely YouTube in the Ontario 2007 provincial election. The quantitative and qualitative research presented examines political communication, particularly the way that web-objects online encapsulate political issues. In this regard social media represents a rupture with past and is the locus of important changes to online political communication that influence agency and political outcomes between humans and nonhuman actors and software. Political communication and marketing in Canada on and through social media is neither as amateur nor as democratic as might be expected, showing that the way political relationships are formed has changed, as has the context for political communication. This has significant implications in relation to the question "Who governs?" as new political spaces and actors come into play within an over-arching digital regime of signification.
This article examines the Scientific, Journalistic, and Social Media publications about Nanotechn... more This article examines the Scientific, Journalistic, and Social Media publications about Nanotechnology in Canada via scientometric analysis to identify the top authors, institutes, and themes taking place in 2008 around the subject. The report was presented to the OECD working party on Nanotechnology http://www.oecd.org/sti/nano/42326281.pdf
Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 2009
ABSTRACT This article builds upon current hyperlink mapping research to determine the degree of p... more ABSTRACT This article builds upon current hyperlink mapping research to determine the degree of party loyalty and partisanship in the Canadian political blogosphere. The article develops a hyperlink-based method of determining blogger endorsements as a means of tracking cross-party recommendations. The article concludes that bloggers affiliated with the governing Conservative Party of Canada exhibit the most cohesive ideological and party loyal set of blog recommendation links.
First Monday, 2007
Abstract This paper discusses early findings and methodological pitfalls of a study of a hyper���... more Abstract This paper discusses early findings and methodological pitfalls of a study of a hyper���mediated election campaign in Canada. Web logs���or ���blogs������serve as the primary object of study. The paper focuses on possible sources of large scale data (aggregated blogger posts) and methods of determining the political influence of bloggers. A series of methodologies are proposed to resolve the over���reliance upon information aggregators and blog search engines provided by Google and Technorati.
ead.verhaag.net
We examine two technologies for harvesting web information-issue crawling and web scraping-and ap... more We examine two technologies for harvesting web information-issue crawling and web scraping-and apply them to the question of how the information design and visualization research communities can be understood through their presence online. We note the participation of the military-industrial complex, as well as the changing appearance of the academic community at different times of the year. The text analysis component suggests a significant difference between the way this group is discussed in typical web sites as compared to its presence in the weblogs. We also look at how these research technologies, which are currently in their infancy, might be extended in directions that would be more useful. These suggestions for enhancement examine in detail the functionality that is available and might be made available, and constitute a potential area for future research by information designers and visualization researchers.
First Monday, 2007
Abstract This paper discusses early findings and methodological pitfalls of a study of a hyper���... more Abstract This paper discusses early findings and methodological pitfalls of a study of a hyper���mediated election campaign in Canada. Web logs���or ���blogs������serve as the primary object of study. The paper focuses on possible sources of large scale data (aggregated blogger posts) and methods of determining the political influence of bloggers. A series of methodologies are proposed to resolve the over���reliance upon information aggregators and blog search engines provided by Google and Technorati.
Object-oriented programming was a major revolution in software coding that enabled graphic user i... more Object-oriented programming was a major revolution in software coding that enabled graphic user interfaces and encapsulation of functions within programming objects. Bruno Latour famously asked "What would an object-oriented democracy look like?" This dissertation takes the question seriously and demonstrates how object-orientation relates to political communication in two different political campaigns fought on and through the online video sharing site YouTube. In the Ontario 2007 and Federal 2008 Canadian elections original quantitative and qualitative research shows that object-orientation is a major factor in digital political communication today, particularly in the way that web-objects online encapsulate political issues. In terms of theory the dissertation argues that the circulation of issue-objects as part of political communication online can best be understood as taking place within a digital regime of signification. Within this digital context object/subject an...
The significant and reciprocal link between Terrorism and News Media reportage was identified in ... more The significant and reciprocal link between Terrorism and News Media reportage was identified in the 1990s by the convergence of security and media studies (Picard, 1993). Working in the tradition of content analysis, early studies examined the way terrorism was framed in major news accounts with implications for the Huntington-Fukuyama hypothesis (Nacos, 2002). These studies pre-dated both the War on Terror and the rise of the Internet as a major (political) news source. This paper reinvigorates this early research by examining key frames in online news media via software-assisted media mapping. Frames are examined under the George Bush administration and then the current Barak Obama administration. The comparison contributes to understanding of the potential shift from the rhetoric of clash of civilizations towards discourse networks of the dignity of difference by rendering visible shifts in frames associated with terrorism that arguably are necessary for the advancement of the n...
Conference paper, Politics: Web, 2008
The claim that traditional political participation has been steadily declining (Wilkins 2000) nee... more The claim that traditional political participation has been steadily declining (Wilkins 2000) needs to be re-evaluated in light of the rise of Internet-related means of social engagement. Ian Angus holds that democratic spaces, including new web spaces, are central to the health of a democracy (Angus, 2001). What are the democratic spaces and practices enabled by Web 2.0 in the context of Canadian political culture? How, if at all, has the recent proliferation of new media technology and techniques changed the nature of political agency and participation in Canadian politics? In particular, how do Canadian political leaders and established parties use Web 2.0? This paper uses cases from the recent provincial election in Ontario to explore how Canadian politicians structure public participation and political processes. Canadian politicians have recently engaged in Web 2.0 politics with videos and social networking sites to lampoon opponents and recruit supporters. These constructions shape the agency of the user and the public within their informational political campaigns.
Nexalogy examined millions of social media documents over the last month tracking Chinese involve... more Nexalogy examined millions of social media documents over the last month tracking Chinese involvement in the online debate surrounding the COVID-19 coronavirus. Nexalogy found significant attempts by both Chinese authorities and news agencies to manipulate the media and shift the blame for the COVID-19 outbreak to the United States. Additional attempts at media manipulation and narrative shaping included attempts to frame dialogue from US President Trump as racist and show the Trump administration as an impediment to the worldwide recovery from the pandemic while framing Chinese President Xi as a strong leader on the world stage.
Canadian Journal of Communication, 2009
Through three case studies of online political activism on Facebook, this article conceptualizes ... more Through three case studies of online political activism on Facebook, this article conceptualizes the deployment of issue publics (Lippmann, 1993; Marres, 2005) on Facebook. We argue that issue publics on Facebook come into being through a specific set of double articulations of code and politics that link and reshape informational processes, communicational constraints and possibilities, and political practices in different and sometimes contradictory ways. Using Maurizio Lazzarato’s exploration of immaterial labour (2004), we demonstrate the need to further understand the networking of publics and their issues by considering how online platforms provide the material, communicational, and social means for a public to exist and therefore define the parameters for assembling issues and publics and circumscribe a horizon of political agency.
Draft Version: Not for quotation or citation without the authors ’ permission. The issue here is ... more Draft Version: Not for quotation or citation without the authors ’ permission. The issue here is not gun control. And it’s not even astronomical cost overruns, although those are serious. What’s really inexcusable is that Parliament was in the dark. I question why the Department continued to watch the costs escalate without informing Parliament and without considering alternatives.
Online issue mapping uses interactive network or topic maps to relate information sources to each... more Online issue mapping uses interactive network or topic maps to relate information sources to each other and to their respective uses of key terms. This strategy prioritizes the ability of visualization systems to show complex data that change over time. Our research applies combinations of software in a cross-disciplinary technique well suited to the information dynamics of the modern world. In an attempt to combine network maps over time, turning them from snapshots to a chronologically sensitive visualization system, we have undertaken two projects:
The claim that traditional political participation has been steadily declining (Wilkins 2000) nee... more The claim that traditional political participation has been steadily declining (Wilkins 2000) needs to be re-evaluated in light of the rise of Internet-related means of social engagement. Ian Angus holds that democratic spaces, including new web spaces, are central to the health of a democracy (Angus, 2001). What are the democratic spaces and practices enabled by Web 2.0 in the context of Canadian political culture? How, if at all, has the recent proliferation of new media technology and techniques changed the nature of political agency and participation in Canadian politics? In particular, how do Canadian political leaders and established parties use Web 2.0? This paper uses cases from the recent provincial election in Ontario to explore how Canadian politicians structure public participation and political processes. Canadian politicians have recently engaged in Web 2.0 politics with videos and social networking sites to lampoon opponents and recruit supporters. These constructions shape the agency of the user and the public within their informational political campaigns. The paper examines the role of money, publicity, video satire, surveillance, and recruitment into overtly political associations on an Ontario Liberal video satire site called Torytube.ca. Politicians chose in this election to use the Internet as a back room for more controversial and viral campaigning, a strategy that allowed them to disavow dirty tactics in the mainstream media. Theoretically this paper compares the case of the Ontario Election to Philip N. Howard's notion of "thin citizenship" and Wendy Chun's notion of "software as ideology." How do the Web 2.0 developments of the recent Ontario election indicate the promotion of thin citizenship and appeal to default ideologies in Web practice?
What can hyperlinkage analysis tell us about advocacy networks? This paper examines the pro and a... more What can hyperlinkage analysis tell us about advocacy networks? This paper examines the pro and anti gun control movements in North America using hyperlinkage analysis. Hyperlinks benefit “issue-networks” because they represent the connections of one group to another. We use the Issue Crawler software to determine how gun advocacy networks are linked on-line. In examining the gun control community online we follow Noortje Marres’s definition of an “issue-network” (2006), rather than the original “issue people” definition (or lobbyists) derived from Hugh Heclo in 1978, to help address the deficiencies of hyperlinkage analysis on its own. We argue that hyperlinkage analysis of the pro gun control movement indicates that its strongest resources are not found, and its “issue-work” does not occur, online. Online there are not as many groups linked into the pro network, as the anti gun control groups. Therefore, a mixed methodology is required to determine the work being done that hyperli...
Abstract: The significant and reciprocal link between Terrorism and News Media reportage was iden... more Abstract: The significant and reciprocal link between Terrorism and News Media reportage was identified in the 1990s by the convergence of security and media studies (Picard, 1993). Working in the tradition of content analysis early studies examined the way Terrorism was framed in major news accounts with implications for the Huntington-Fukuyama hypothesis (Nacos, 2002). However these early studies mainly pre-dated both the War on Terror and the rise of the Internet as a major (political) news source. This paper reinvigorates this early framing research on Terrorism by examining key frames over time in online news media via software-assisted media mapping. Key frames identified in the 1990s are examined in the online news environment under the George W. Bush administration (2005) and the current Barak Hussein Obama administration (2009). The resulting news mapping allows for a comparative analysis of the way frames, such as "insurgent" have changed (if at all) over time in...
We examine two technologies for harvesting web information—issue crawling and web scraping—and ap... more We examine two technologies for harvesting web information—issue crawling and web scraping—and apply them to the question of how the information design and visualization research communities can be understood through their presence online. We note the participation of the military-industrial complex, as well as the changing appearance of the academic community at different times of the year. The text analysis component suggests a significant difference between the way this group is discussed in typical web sites as compared to its presence in the weblogs. We also look at how these research technologies, which are currently in their infancy, might be extended in directions that would be more useful. These suggestions for enhancement examine in detail the functionality that is available and might be made available, and constitute a potential area for future research by information designers and visualization researchers.
scan.net.au
With the proliferation and increased accessibility of online news aggregators, RSS news subscript... more With the proliferation and increased accessibility of online news aggregators, RSS news subscription-like feeds, online versions of newspapers, and information news databases, comes new possibilities for news analysis. In this paper we propose the use of new software tools and methods of analysis to determine the manner in which political leaders and social issues were covered in online news stories during the Canadian federal election (December 2005 to January 2006). In so doing we point out the biases of online news aggregators ...
ABSTRACT This article examines the Scientific, Journalistic, and Social Media publications about ... more ABSTRACT This article examines the Scientific, Journalistic, and Social Media publications about Nanotechnology in Canada via scientometric analysis to identify the top authors, institutes, and themes taking place in 2008 around the subject. The report was presented to the OECD working party on Nanotechnology http://www.oecd.org/sti/nano/42326281.pdf
ABSTRACT Abstract: Object-oriented programming was a major revolution in software coding that ena... more ABSTRACT Abstract: Object-oriented programming was a major revolution in software coding that enabled graphic user interfaces and encapsulation of functions within programming objects. Bruno Latour importantly asked "What would an object-oriented democracy look like?" This paper takes the question seriously and evaluates how object-orientation relates to political communication on and through social media in Canada, namely YouTube in the Ontario 2007 provincial election. The quantitative and qualitative research presented examines political communication, particularly the way that web-objects online encapsulate political issues. In this regard social media represents a rupture with past and is the locus of important changes to online political communication that influence agency and political outcomes between humans and nonhuman actors and software. Political communication and marketing in Canada on and through social media is neither as amateur nor as democratic as might be expected, showing that the way political relationships are formed has changed, as has the context for political communication. This has significant implications in relation to the question "Who governs?" as new political spaces and actors come into play within an over-arching digital regime of signification.
This article examines the Scientific, Journalistic, and Social Media publications about Nanotechn... more This article examines the Scientific, Journalistic, and Social Media publications about Nanotechnology in Canada via scientometric analysis to identify the top authors, institutes, and themes taking place in 2008 around the subject. The report was presented to the OECD working party on Nanotechnology http://www.oecd.org/sti/nano/42326281.pdf
Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 2009
ABSTRACT This article builds upon current hyperlink mapping research to determine the degree of p... more ABSTRACT This article builds upon current hyperlink mapping research to determine the degree of party loyalty and partisanship in the Canadian political blogosphere. The article develops a hyperlink-based method of determining blogger endorsements as a means of tracking cross-party recommendations. The article concludes that bloggers affiliated with the governing Conservative Party of Canada exhibit the most cohesive ideological and party loyal set of blog recommendation links.
First Monday, 2007
Abstract This paper discusses early findings and methodological pitfalls of a study of a hyper���... more Abstract This paper discusses early findings and methodological pitfalls of a study of a hyper���mediated election campaign in Canada. Web logs���or ���blogs������serve as the primary object of study. The paper focuses on possible sources of large scale data (aggregated blogger posts) and methods of determining the political influence of bloggers. A series of methodologies are proposed to resolve the over���reliance upon information aggregators and blog search engines provided by Google and Technorati.
ead.verhaag.net
We examine two technologies for harvesting web information-issue crawling and web scraping-and ap... more We examine two technologies for harvesting web information-issue crawling and web scraping-and apply them to the question of how the information design and visualization research communities can be understood through their presence online. We note the participation of the military-industrial complex, as well as the changing appearance of the academic community at different times of the year. The text analysis component suggests a significant difference between the way this group is discussed in typical web sites as compared to its presence in the weblogs. We also look at how these research technologies, which are currently in their infancy, might be extended in directions that would be more useful. These suggestions for enhancement examine in detail the functionality that is available and might be made available, and constitute a potential area for future research by information designers and visualization researchers.
First Monday, 2007
Abstract This paper discusses early findings and methodological pitfalls of a study of a hyper���... more Abstract This paper discusses early findings and methodological pitfalls of a study of a hyper���mediated election campaign in Canada. Web logs���or ���blogs������serve as the primary object of study. The paper focuses on possible sources of large scale data (aggregated blogger posts) and methods of determining the political influence of bloggers. A series of methodologies are proposed to resolve the over���reliance upon information aggregators and blog search engines provided by Google and Technorati.
Object-oriented programming was a major revolution in software coding that enabled graphic user i... more Object-oriented programming was a major revolution in software coding that enabled graphic user interfaces and encapsulation of functions within programming objects. Bruno Latour famously asked "What would an object-oriented democracy look like?" This dissertation takes the question seriously and demonstrates how object-orientation relates to political communication in two different political campaigns fought on and through the online video sharing site YouTube. In the Ontario 2007 and Federal 2008 Canadian elections original quantitative and qualitative research shows that object-orientation is a major factor in digital political communication today, particularly in the way that web-objects online encapsulate political issues. In terms of theory the dissertation argues that the circulation of issue-objects as part of political communication online can best be understood as taking place within a digital regime of signification. Within this digital context object/subject an...
The significant and reciprocal link between Terrorism and News Media reportage was identified in ... more The significant and reciprocal link between Terrorism and News Media reportage was identified in the 1990s by the convergence of security and media studies (Picard, 1993). Working in the tradition of content analysis, early studies examined the way terrorism was framed in major news accounts with implications for the Huntington-Fukuyama hypothesis (Nacos, 2002). These studies pre-dated both the War on Terror and the rise of the Internet as a major (political) news source. This paper reinvigorates this early research by examining key frames in online news media via software-assisted media mapping. Frames are examined under the George Bush administration and then the current Barak Obama administration. The comparison contributes to understanding of the potential shift from the rhetoric of clash of civilizations towards discourse networks of the dignity of difference by rendering visible shifts in frames associated with terrorism that arguably are necessary for the advancement of the n...
Conference paper, Politics: Web, 2008
The claim that traditional political participation has been steadily declining (Wilkins 2000) nee... more The claim that traditional political participation has been steadily declining (Wilkins 2000) needs to be re-evaluated in light of the rise of Internet-related means of social engagement. Ian Angus holds that democratic spaces, including new web spaces, are central to the health of a democracy (Angus, 2001). What are the democratic spaces and practices enabled by Web 2.0 in the context of Canadian political culture? How, if at all, has the recent proliferation of new media technology and techniques changed the nature of political agency and participation in Canadian politics? In particular, how do Canadian political leaders and established parties use Web 2.0? This paper uses cases from the recent provincial election in Ontario to explore how Canadian politicians structure public participation and political processes. Canadian politicians have recently engaged in Web 2.0 politics with videos and social networking sites to lampoon opponents and recruit supporters. These constructions shape the agency of the user and the public within their informational political campaigns.