Organizer: GET:ORG Communicative Organizing with Generative Technologies project (Research Council of Finland)
Communication scholars have a pressing need to consider the presence of nonhuman communicators in their datasets. The increasing amount of AI-generated and other kinds of synthetic communication demands additional considerations from methodological and epistemological perspectives. First, synthetic communicators and synthetic communication data challenge the selection of theories and methodologies that can be used to study them. Second, as technology advances, the identification of synthetic communicators from humans becomes increasingly difficult, which imposes serious epistemological issues.
In this workshop, we will discuss critical questions related to synthetic communication in empirical data, as well as speculate on various methodological and theoretical options for engaging with such material in the form of a data session. The session includes three datasets from various authors. All VAKKI participants are welcome to join the discussion!