Framing the Big Data Debate

The final speaker in this session at ECREA 2014 is Christian Pentzold, whose focus is on the discussions around the 2013 affair about the use of protesters' mobile phone data by police in Saxony. There is a discursive social construction of the term 'big data', and different frames of big data have emerged so far.

Transmedia discourse is combining a number of different conceptualisations, and this enables a number of different analytical perspectives and approaches; the speed of the dynamic reconfiguration of these different modes also affects how analysis may proceed.

How can we use slower analytic methods to make more sense of these discussions around big data, then? Christian takes a grounded theory approach that engages in frame analysis to reconstruct reliable frame structures; frames are relational structures that are activated by key words and themes. Media frames are visualised patterns of collective knowledge; the represent issues, relations, and the composition of modal aspects.

Christian's project examined the media coverage of the handygate affair, and derived a number of key concepts from the data. It then examined the framing dynamics around such concepts, in both written text and images used. Key frames were the justification of the surveillance activities as appropriate and measured, especially by police and politicians; the criticism of these activities as inappropriate and illegal; the resignation to big data analysis as a fact of contemporary life; and the failure of protesters to avoid having their data protected.

The presence of these frames across different communicative actors can also be further studied, as can the graphic depiction of surveillance issues (largely through photos of technology, government buildings, and insignia).