Keynote speakers
Niva Elkin-Koren: Proofing Content Moderation for Democracy
Abstract:
In recent years, regulators around the world have faced increasing pressure to strengthen accountability in the digital sphere. This pressure stems from the growing realization that the minimalist regulatory approach developed during the early days of the internet, is no longer sufficient to address the current challenges to liberal democracies. While Europe’s recently adopted digital strategy may addresses some concerns, it leaves many critical issues unresolved, which could weaken democracy. This talk will highlight key gaps in the current regulatory approach to content moderation and propose a new framework to address these challenges.
Bio:
Niva Elkin-Koren is a Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. She is the academic director of the Chief Justice Meir Shamgar Center for Digital Law and Innovation, a co-director of the Algorithmic Governance Lab at TAU Innovation Lab (“TIL”) and a member of the Academic Management Committee of TAU Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Before joining Tel-Aviv University, she served as the Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Haifa, and was the founding director of the Center for Cyber, Law and Policy (CCLP) and of the Haifa Center for Law & Technology (HCLT). Her research is located at the intersection between law and information technology, focusing on values in design, intellectual property, governance by AI and governance of AI.
Laura Vandenbosch: Filtered Realities: Changing bodies in the era of Likes
Abstract:
Although academics debate about the effects of social media uses on young users’ well-being outcomes, such as depressive symptoms, they generally agree that social media use has small, yet consistent effects, in the development of negative and positive body image components of young people. Early work in this area focused only on direct links between time spend on social media uses and users’ body image. Yet, more recent research has started to unravel the complexities that determine the links between social media uses and body image. The current talk discusses five recent trends in research which move the field beyond a traditional media approach and help to understand when and why which social media users are empowered vs hindered in their development of a healthy body image. These trends relate to (a) finding differences in short vs long term social media effects, (b) changing dynamics in differential social media platforms, (c) understanding how social media activities such as liking and commenting uniquely play a role in users’ body image, (d) considering how different users respond differently to appearance focused social media contents, and (e) being aware of the mixed effects that come from social media contents that have potential to do good: fitspiration, disclaimer labels, and body positivity. These trends help to understand how parents, educators and policymakers can help young users to show resilience and empowerment in the era of Likes and combat algorithmic driven social media appearance pressures.
Bio:
Laura Vandenbosch is an associate professor (BOF-ZAP research professorship grant) and Coordinator at the Media Psychology Lab . The relationship between media and well-being is the core subject of her research, leading to international publications in several fields including developmental psychology, sexology, body image, social relationships and communication theory. In 2015 she was elected as the secretary of the Children, Adolescents and Media Division of the International Communication Association (2015-2018). Laura is currently also an editorial board member of ISI-ranked journals Human Communication Research, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Media Psychology, Journal of Children and Media, and Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research. Currently, she is involved in several (international) research projects aimed to study how media may affect well-being by focusing on factors that have not been understood well, such as the role of social relationships, cultural background, sexualization, media literacy and malleability beliefs. Part of these projects are embedded within the international network she has built throughout the years by spending periods abroad at, for instance, the U of Michigan, the U of Toronto and the U of Vienna. Her work has led to several awards, such as the Top Paper, Top Article and Top Dissertation Awards from the Children, Adolescents and Media (CAM) Division of the International Communication Association (2013-2016) and the Research Council Award in the Humanities (Prijs Onderzoeksraad, 2016). In 2020, she received the early career scholar award of the International Communication Association. In 2019, she received an ERC starting grant for the project “Malleability in mediated ideals: A paradigm to understand effects of contemporary media in adolescents’ well-being. ” More information on the MIMIc project can be found at : http://www.projectmimic.eu/ .