@article{karlsson_building_2026,

title = {Building and Maintaining Trust in AI Chatbots: Introducing Generative Information Retrieval Accountability Assessment Framework (GIRAAF)},

author = {Michael Karlsson and Joanne Kuai and Cornelia Brantner and Haiqing Yu and James Meese},

url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08838151.2026.2751043},

doi = {10.1080/08838151.2026.2751043},

issn = {0883-8151, 1550-6878},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-10-01},

urldate = {2026-10-23},

journal = {Journal of Broadcasting \& Electronic Media},

pages = {1\textendash22},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{parker_right_2026,

title = {The right to a healthy online environment: Corporate food advertising, digital platform regulation and algorithmic determinants of health},

author = {Christine Parker and Madeleine Stirling and Hope Johnson},

url = {https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/food-advertising-platform-regulation},

doi = {10.14763/2026.4.2126},

issn = {21976775},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-10-01},

urldate = {2026-10-21},

journal = {Internet Policy Review},

volume = {15},

number = {4},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{lupton_critical_2026,

title = {Critical collaging as an AI resistance strategy},

author = {Deborah Lupton},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-026-01446-z},

doi = {10.1007/s43681-026-01446-z},

issn = {2730-5961},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-10-01},

urldate = {2026-10-15},

journal = {AI and Ethics},

volume = {6},

number = {6},

pages = {594},

abstract = {Academic scholarship and community activism initiatives are beginning to challenge and resist the incursion of commercial generative AI applications into everyday life and alleviate their impacts on people and the planet. This essay discusses using collage as a critical research practice to visualise the language of generative AI and to challenge the generic automated images produced by AI models. With these collages, I am attempting to provoke thought about how linguistic and visual rhetorical devices are used to describe generative AI. By pairing images with words in the collages, I am aiming to surface these meanings and feelings and examine what they reveal about the current moment in which a huge amount of hype but also critical responses to generative AI are circulating in popular culture and social and philosophical inquiry. My intention is not to provide a more ‘realistic’ visual portrayal of generative AI. Rather, it is to use a different, surprising, sometimes mordant or absurd, and more compelling visual language to trouble assumptions, disrupt the reductive stock imagery on which industry and popular culture rely and bring to visual life the rhetoric used in critical analyses of AI.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{nguyen_earning_2026,

title = {The earning web: Informal automation and the moral economy of platform earning in Vietnam},

author = {Dang Nguyen},

url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/29768624261492972},

doi = {10.1177/29768624261492972},

issn = {2976-8624, 2976-8624},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-09-01},

urldate = {2026-09-29},

journal = {Platforms \& Society},

volume = {3},

abstract = {This paper examines the moral economy of ‘Make Money Online’ (MMO) practices in Vietnam and introduces the concept of the earning web to describe the distributed infrastructures through which informal platform earning is organised. MMO refers to a heterogeneous field of online income-generating practices that operate across advertising networks, e-commerce platforms, social media systems, payment channels and automation tools. Drawing on discourse analysis of MMO4ME, Vietnam's largest MMO forum and ethnographic fieldwork with phone farmers, the paper analyses three practices: content arbitrage, dropshipping and phone farming. It shows how participants monetise attention, time, connectivity, discarded devices and platform loopholes by navigating unstable rules, automated thresholds, volatile payout systems and uncertain boundaries of legitimacy. Rather than treating these practices as scams, marginal gig work or technical workarounds, the paper argues that they constitute a form of informal automation assembled from below. MMO practices are sustained not only by scripts, devices, accounts and monetisation flows but also by shared moral evaluations of effort, risk, reward and acceptable conduct. The paper contributes to debates on platform economies, digital labour and ICT infrastructures by showing how informal actors govern value within systems that offer monetisation without stability, participation without protection and automation without accountability.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{sparrow_ai_2026,

title = {AI and Promethean shame},

author = {Robert Sparrow},

url = {https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00146-026-03371-5},

doi = {10.1007/s00146-026-03371-5},

issn = {0951-5666, 1435-5655},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-09-01},

urldate = {2026-09-23},

journal = {AI \& SOCIETY},

pages = {s00146\textendash026\textendash03371\textendash5},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{cohen_knowers_2026,

title = {Knowers and others: Indigenous representation in search (and answer) engines},

author = {Tegan Cohen},

url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X261484730},

doi = {10.1177/1329878X261484730},

issn = {1329-878X, 2200-467X},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-09-01},

urldate = {2026-09-10},

journal = {Media International Australia},

pages = {1329878X261484730},

abstract = {Aboriginal knowers and knowledges have historically been sidelined in accounts of ‘authoritative’ information about us across a range of knowledge institutions. This epistemic exclusion catalysed struggles to self-represent and counter dominant images and stories, critically reread histories, and reframe the way issues that concern us are understood and discussed. Google is a powerful epistemic actor. Through design choices, Google can facilitate self-representation or reinforce the authority claimed by others to represent Aboriginal peoples. The integration of large language models into search systems is reshaping how users encounter and engage with information online, raising urgent questions about online visibility and representation. What representations are prioritised in Google's direct answers? Which knowers are treated as authoritative? What does this mean for Indigenous representation? This paper contributes to the empirical basis for reflection on these critical questions with a case study of Google AI overviews. Using thematic and close textual analysis of a corpus of question-direct answer pairs, the study offers insights into how AI overviews reinforce or accommodate challenges to dominant discourses, and more generally how ubiquitous, everyday applications of AI are affecting Aboriginal self-representation. The article argues that the shift to AI-generated search results severs links between knowers, knowledge and context in different and subtle ways, with serious implications for Indigenous representation, rereading and reframing.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{kasianenko_searching_2026,

title = {Searching for the truth? search engines and their AI affordances’ responses to conspiratorial search practices},

author = {Kateryna Kasianenko and Caroline Gardam and Katherine M. FitzGerald and Ashwin Nagappa and Axel Bruns and Shir Weinbrand and Daniel Angus and Samantha Vilkins and Abdul Karim Obeid},

url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X261481856},

doi = {10.1177/1329878X261481856},

issn = {1329-878X, 2200-467X},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-09-01},

urldate = {2026-09-03},

journal = {Media International Australia},

pages = {1329878X261481856},

abstract = {Search engines are a common pathway to conspiracy theories, and producers of conspiratorial narratives actively encourage users to search for particular terms. Understanding how search engines respond to different information-seeking practices is therefore essential for explaining the dynamics of online conspiracy theories. Existing audits of search engines rarely account for systematic variation in query formulation arising from users’ differing levels of engagement with conspiratorial beliefs, nor do they consider recently introduced AI-powered search features. To address this gap, we developed search query sets informed by conspiratorial and non-conspiratorial information-seeking practices of online forums, using the chemtrails and 15-minute cities conspiracy theories as case studies. We performed algorithmic audits of Google's first-page search results and AI Overview responses. Our findings show substantial differences in the information returned for queries representative of general public information seeking compared with those reflecting conspiratorial perspectives. These differences appear to arise partly from Google's efforts to moderate sensitive topics, but also from the limitations of those interventions in recognising and responding to conspiratorial modes of query formulation. AI Overviews likewise vary according to query framing and generally attempt to debunk conspiratorial claims. However, these responses are often brief, provide limited supporting evidence, and are less effective for the newer 15-minute cities conspiracy theory, suggesting that current AI-mediated search guardrails remain uneven and require further development.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{wilken_assessing_2026,

title = {Assessing early uptake and impacts of 5G mobile services for Australian consumers},

author = {Rowan Wilken and James Meese and Catherine Middleton and Kieran Hegarty},

url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X251319053},

doi = {10.1177/1329878X251319053},

issn = {1329-878X, 2200-467X},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-08-01},

urldate = {2026-10-06},

journal = {Media International Australia},

volume = {200},

number = {1},

pages = {175\textendash190},

abstract = {The introduction of the fifth generation of mobile standards (5G) has promised faster speeds, greater network capacity and lower latency. 5G has only recently rolled out in many countries, so there is little empirical data on what individual consumers are doing with the speed, capacity and lower latency that 5G promises to offer. To examine early consumer take-up of 5G, we conducted a series of small-group discussions with individual users of 5G mobile services in Melbourne and regional Victoria, Australia. We found that coverage, connectivity and reliability of network connection remain live issues for many consumers, especially (but not exclusively) those in regional areas. Despite this, there is some evidence of incremental improvements in performance, even with a weakened 5G signal. Significantly, in cases where there's strong connectivity and reliability, there is also evidence that 5G provides consumers with an additional or alternative connectivity option to home broadband. Investigating this unique moment in the rollout of fifth-generation mobile standards is crucial in grasping the continuing challenges as well as the emerging and evolving economic and cultural possibilities of 5G services and applications in Australia.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{chesher_mobile_2026,

title = {Mobile AI Service Robots and Everyday Politics of Space},

author = {Chris Chesher and Justine Humphry},

url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20501579261476544},

doi = {10.1177/20501579261476544},

issn = {2050-1579, 2050-1587},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-08-01},

urldate = {2026-08-25},

journal = {Mobile Media \& Communication},

pages = {20501579261476544},

abstract = {This article examines the rise of a new generation of mobile service robots that use AI for navigation and communication in public and semipublic spaces. Reviewing the state of the field of service robots and robot scholarship, this paper is a literature-informed commentary on mobile AI service robots as mobile media and their implications for human workers and the public, shared environments, and regulation in everyday spaces. We examine how mobile AI service robots are increasingly appearing in restaurants, hotels, university campuses, and public streets as service workers, tools, and social actors, introducing new modalities of communication, and reshaping spatial relationships, labour practices and power dynamics. These developments raise critical questions about the effect of robots’ communicative acts of movement, interfacing and emotional expression on others, the organisation of labour, and their role in the privatisation and surveillance of space. Ultimately, we argue that as mobile AI becomes embedded in ordinary life and work settings, it necessitates a renewed focus on who benefits, who is displaced, and how these increasingly agentic actors are governed as they become normalised in shared and public spaces.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{sparrow_slaves_2026,

title = {Slaves to the algorithms? Algocracy and republican liberty},

author = {Robert Sparrow},

url = {https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43681-026-01171-7},

doi = {10.1007/s43681-026-01171-7},

issn = {2730-5953, 2730-5961},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-08-01},

urldate = {2026-08-25},

journal = {AI and Ethics},

volume = {6},

number = {4},

pages = {374},

abstract = {Abstract 

 Increasingly, governments are relying on artificial intelligence to make, or inform, important decisions\textemdasha phenomenon that John Danaher has styled, “algocracy”. Republicanism implies that there are at least four different reasons to be concerned about algocracy. First, decisions made using AI will often be impossible for citizens to contest because the reasons for the decisions will be inscrutable, which calls into question the legitimacy of these decisions. Second, the inability of citizens to contest the outcomes of government decisions made using AI and/or the justification for the use of AI will render these arbitrary and inimical to liberty on a republican account. Third, overreliance on AI is likely to undermine civic virtues that are necessary to the defence of liberty. Fourth, AI is such a powerful technology that it may free governments from any fear of revolution. If we wish to benefit from the use of AI in government without sacrificing liberty, we must: ensure that decisions made by AI can be publicly contested; investigate ways to mitigate the impact of algocracy on the political culture of democracies; and resist the temptation to develop AI for applications that would grant governments too much power over their citizens.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{kuai_great_2026,

title = {The Great Wall of the Press: Layered Boundary Work of AI-Integrated Journalism},

author = {Joanne Kuai and Michael Karlsson},

url = {https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/12504},

doi = {10.17645/mac.12504},

issn = {2183-2439},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-08-01},

urldate = {2026-08-21},

journal = {Media and Communication},

volume = {14},

pages = {12504},

abstract = {As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in journalistic practice, debates often frame it as either a disruptive force or a tool for efficiency. This study moves beyond this dichotomy by examining how journalists themselves interpret, negotiate, and position AI within journalism. Drawing on 19 in-depth interviews with Chinese journalists, and informed by boundary work and boundary object perspectives, the study analyses how AI is selectively integrated, justified, and governed across journalistic processes. The findings show that AI is primarily confined to routine and low-risk tasks, while being excluded from core editorial functions involving judgement, meaning-making, and accountability. The study argues that AI intensifies journalistic boundary work because it challenges journalism not only operationally, but also epistemically and infrastructurally. Journalists therefore engage in layered forms of boundary negotiation that operate across task, discursive, and structural dimensions. At the same time, AI functions as a boundary object mediating relationships among journalists, technology companies, and governance institutions under conditions of asymmetric platform dependency and institutional control.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{catherine_rose_stimming_2026,

title = {Stimming and support assemblages: autistic improvisation, sensory worlds and wellbeing},

author = {Megan Catherine Rose and Deborah Lupton},

url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2026.2715012},

doi = {10.1080/09687599.2026.2715012},

issn = {0968-7599, 1360-0508},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-08-01},

urldate = {2026-08-21},

journal = {Disability \& Society},

pages = {1\textendash25},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{tang_behind_2026,

title = {Behind the “AI slop”: exploring the AI-generated viral short video production in China},

author = {Jiaru Tang and Xiaoting Yu and Patrik Wikstr\"{o}m and Kylie Pappalardo},

url = {https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00146-026-03254-9},

doi = {10.1007/s00146-026-03254-9},

issn = {0951-5666, 1435-5655},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-08-01},

urldate = {2026-08-19},

journal = {AI \& SOCIETY},

abstract = {Abstract 

 As generative AI becomes embedded in platform-based cultural production, new forms of creative labour are emerging that challenge established understandings of what it means to be a “creator.” This article examines AI slop creators in China, a group that uses generative tools to benchmark viral content, test formats, operate matrix account systems, and formalise production, transforming virality from an unpredictable outcome into an object of systematic management. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2023 and 2025 in China, this study shows AI enables a cohort of “Internet entrepreneurs” to enter cultural production, driven by a “money hustling culture” that encourages formerly idle and low-skilled individuals to pursue rapid monetisation. The findings suggest that AI slop creators organise production less around authorship, identity and aspiration, and more around operational mastery, strategic disposability, and algorithmic opportunism. Rather than cultivating personal brands, they prioritise speed, scale and adaptability, pointing toward a post-creator mode of cultural labour in contemporary platform economies.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{markham_unexpected_2026,

title = {Unexpected Encounters With Spot in the Wild: Sensemaking as Communicative Boundary Work With Robots},

url = {https://stars.library.ucf.edu/hmc/vol13/iss1/1/},

doi = {10.30658/hmc.13.1},

issn = {2638602X, 26386038},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-07-01},

urldate = {2026-09-17},

journal = {Human-Machine Communication},

volume = {13},

pages = {7\textendash43},

abstract = {As near-autonomous and AI-embedded robots continue to appear in public settings, their sociality and interactivity is a critical part of the social fabric. This article presents emerging themes from a large-scale ethnographic study of granular-level public interactions between more than 400 people who have an unexpected encounter with Boston Dynamics’ robot “Spot” in a public square in Melbourne. Conceptualizing Spot as a boundary object enables us to highlight patterns of sensemaking as people grapple with ontological disruptions through micro-level interactions; within the self, with other people, or between the self and the robot. Based on thematic analysis of multimedia data collected from this field study, we characterize and offer interpretive vignettes to illustrate this boundary work, including forming and maintaining bodily boundaries, mimicry and mirroring the robot, and testing different ontological frames. A key finding is that this interactive boundary work becomes most evident not in the swift resolution of Spot as a robot or a dog, but in moments of indecision and friction, when people oscillate or struggle with plausible interpretations. By foregrounding sensemaking and the ethnographically inspired question of “How does it happen, when it happens?”, this study extends existing accounts of how embodied and interactive human-machine communication builds relational meaning, engaging with the unexpected moment in public spaces, to enrich our scholarly understanding of the granular aspects of ontologizing in the human-machine communication process.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{andrejevic_critical_2026,

title = {The critical conscience of cultural studies},

author = {Mark Andrejevic},

url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X261456769},

doi = {10.1177/1329878X261456769},

issn = {1329-878X, 2200-467X},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-07-01},

urldate = {2026-09-10},

journal = {Media International Australia},

volume = {200},

number = {1},

pages = {15\textendash20},

abstract = {To suggest that, for those influenced by his work, Graeme modeled the critical conscience of cultural studies is to highlight these key themes in his approach: the relation of theory to meaningful practice, an abiding concern with the power relations that shape everyday life, the intellectual, ethical-moral, and civic role of higher education, and, above all, a contribution to the public good. His contributions are monumental and remain an inspiration to those who share his version of cultural studies and its commitments. There is much work still to do, but we are all better off\textemdashand profoundly grateful\textemdashfor having been fortunate enough to share the place with him for a while.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}