Concepts And The Impact Of Digital Communication On Identities: Big Data

Question 1

Volume

Answer 1

• refers to the excessive amount of data that are now stored
• information bout online communications, purchases, and transaction contributes to this large volume, and unstructured data from social media is another significant source
• while storing large volumes of data used to be a challenge, the reduced cost of digital storage has shifted the focus to determining the relevance of data

Question 2

Velocity

Answer 2

• indicates the unprecedented speed at which data is being streamed and the necessity to process it promptly
• digital data is now transported at very high speeds

Question 3

Variety

Answer 3

• Modern data comes in various formats including structured numeric data in traditional databases, as well as unstructured text documents, emails, videos, audio files, stock market data, and financial transactions

Question 4

Variability

Answer 4

• data flows can be highly inconsistent eg. When an event or an idea becomes trending on social media, leading to sudden and significant peaks in data loads
• managing these daily, seasonal and event triggered peaks, especially with unstructured data, can be challenging

Question 5

Complexity

Answer 5

• today’s data is gathered from multiple sources
• linking, matching, sorting and transforming data across different systems, as well as identifying and correlating relationships between them, remains a significant undertaking

Question 6

Fuchs

Answer 6

• explains the importance of Marxism in the information age
• states there has been a rise in ‘Big Data capitalism’ - Where even data has been commodified (a product to be bought) and explains that surveillance occurs where companies collect, store, control and analyse ‘Big Data’ of internet users
• discusses the importance of the work carried out by Snowden, stating that it revealed the existence of a ‘global surveillance system’ that secret services use to monitor communication between individuals in real time
• The companies implicated in this surveillance system included internet companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google/YouTube, Microsoft, Skype

Question 7

The great hack/ the social dilemma

Answer 7

• The Great Hack shows how big data was used to influence political outcomes, like the Brexit vote and U.S. elections, by harvesting personal information to target voters with personalized messages.
• The Social Dilemma highlights how social media platforms collect and analyze user data to manipulate behavior, increase engagement, and generate profit, revealing the powerful impact of big data on individuals and society

Question 8

The snowdon report

Answer 8

• Although The Snowden Report does not directly link to the internet and digital communication, similar effects / phenomena can be seen through the running of the internet.
• There are just a few global corporations are the largest earning companies on the internet, that dominate it.
• There is a lack of de-regulation
• Facebook is a good example of a company who collects and has abused ‘big data’ similar to what was revealed in The Snowdon Report