Digital Trust and Security hosted an in-person, cross theme workshop at The University of Manchester, bringing together the Digital Futures Citizens and Democracy and Digital Trust and Security themes. Here, we invited researchers, especially those in the early career stage, to submit abstracts based on their current research related to the topic. We were particularly interested in proposals that focused on the development of new methods to examine the production, re-production and consumption of memes and other types of visual imagery across virtual spaces.
This brought together researchers from a range of disciplines to discuss the ways in which memes and images were studied to spread ideas within society and particularly the methods that are being used and developed to support this research. Our goal was to share current thinking and needs in this area, identify gaps and contribute to solutions.
While the focus was not limited to a particular topic, we were keen to hear from researchers working on the use of images online to foster political insecurity and distrust, through promoting extremist ideas, uncivil speech, conspiracy theories and radicalisation.
The event structure featured 2 sessions:
- Session 1 - A series of short presentations on existing methods (both recent and longer-established) used to examine memes or other visual imagery in digital spaces.
- Session 2 - An interdisciplinary workshop focused on the development of innovative methods.
There will be a follow-up session to this workshop, if interested, please join our DTS mail list to receive future news and updates.
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