Presenting a series of forthcoming posts related to the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, an introduction is made to the investigation whilst recording its aims ahead.

The scandal involving Cambridge Analytica’s apparent miss-use of Facebook data is an especially relevant piece of current affairs for an investigation of contemporary civic issues. It belongs to the wider issues surrounding data regulations, the economic foundations of web 2.0 and normative democratic ideals.

I won’t bother in going over all the exact story details here, for a point of reference here Is probably a good start with a whole collection of related articles here.

The plan

Instead of cramming everything in a single post like what has been done previously, this article will be split into four parts. This will develop a more in-depth sustained inquiry, giving at least one full article for reflection.

The sections planned, including this current post, can be outlined and summarised as follows:

Part 1: Introduction

You are here. This will be whatever this page is right now.

Part 2: Twitter reactions to Facebooks ‘data leak’

Initial reactions made via twitter will be studied whilst experimenting with word embedding’s. This aims to map contextual relationships within the response.

Part 3: Analysis of The Guardian’s content

This will detail investigations into content created by the Guardian, a key player in the dissemination of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica story. It will use computational methods such as keyword extraction, also making comparisons with the previously collected data from Twitter.

Part 4: Reflections Discussions will be made in relation theories of digital privacy, also reviewing the regulatory conditions for Facebook and the underlying logic of web 2.0. It will finish by assessing some normative implications for democracies and the roles different forms of media play in addressing such issues.

Additional resources