Eco Media Footprints - workshop

The main aim of the project ‘Eco Media Footprints: an ecological reboot for digital media’ is to bring together international researchers working in the area of eco media footprints, a new line of scientific research on the ecological footprints of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), including carbon footprints of data and energy use, digital devices and infrastructures and sustainable solutions to mitigate harm to the environment.

The workshop aims to:

1. Establish new lines of thinking for eco media footprints;

1. Critically analyse methodologies, concepts and empirical data for an eco media footprints research in interconnected areas of eco media studies, cultural studies, critical infrastructure studies, and science and technology studies.

The intended outcomes of the workshop include the establishment of an academic network and a peer reviewed academic publication in the form of a special issue of an international peer reviewed journal (e.g. Media+Environment, Media, Culture and Society). These concrete outputs will:

1. Forge an international network of researchers on eco media footprints with further funding plans for the continuation of such a network in scientific fields (e.g. MSCA Staff Exchange);
2. Generate knowledge exchange between established and emerging international scholars working on eco media footprints across various fields of study.

Streaming (content delivered to digital devices via the internet) accounts for 80 per cent of internet traffic globally and is estimated to contribute to 1% of greenhouse gas emissions (The Shift Project 2019). With the expansion of streaming, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT), some engineers predict Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) will constitute 14% of global electricity consumption by 2030 (Andrae 2020, Marks et al 2021).

The project advances international scientific knowledge on the sustainability of infrastructures and devices for digital media in the context of an expanding range of data and energy intensive applications (AI, IoT). The sustainability of ICTs is connected to concerns raised by the European Union for the environmental footprint made by the ‘digital decade’ of the 2020s (EU N/A, The Swedish Energy Agency 2023a).

Scientists and engineers have established and debated the intensive and harmful impact of high energy use for streaming media on the environment (e.g. Marks et al 2021, Lopez et al 2024). In particular, scholars in eco media studies call for an ‘ecological reboot’ (see Cubitt 2005, Lopez et al 2024) which can drive research on cultural and mediated representations of the carbonization of streaming media and ICTs, people’s experiences and political struggles for sustainable digitalisation.

This project advances research on eco media footprints as one response to an ecological reboot for digital media. Eco media footprinting research is a means of recognizing the relations between infrastructures, devices and design, citizen experiences and environmental sustainability (Walker 2024, Starosielski, Vaughan, Pasek & Silcox, 2024). In particular, this type of research critically analyses the material conditions of connected infrastructures for data and energy use, and differential resources for local, national and global streaming media which needs resources from the Global North and South, e.g. waste, labour and minerals.

The project builds on work by Marks (2024) and Pasek et al (2023) on decarbonization of streaming media and ICTs. A key theme is that of deconstructing the industrial logics of data and energy centres, e.g. uniform visions of data centres and renewable energy as smooth modern structures in vast, wild Northern territories with no human presence (Johnson 2019, Taylor 2019, Willim 2024); narratives of data and energy infrastructures as energy efficient (Upham et al 2023); and industry led campaigns about the benefits of data centres in Europe (Mayer & Velkova 2023). By deconstructing dominant narratives that mainly benefit industry and business stakeholders, the project makes interconnections between eco media studies and critical infrastructure studies to address the socio-ecological implications of carbonization of ICTs.

Another key theme is that of applying a cultural lens of theory and practice to eco media footprints. For example, work by Willim on mundane digitalization (2024) and Larkin (2017) on cultural forms that infrastructures take is useful to empirically investigate the cultural work of data and energy infrastructures and streaming media experiences in the context of environmental matters. By applying a cultural lens of theory and practice to research on infrastructures, devices and people’s experiences the project addresses the contingencies of eco media footprints and socio-cultural factors that shape and delimit sustainable digitalization.

Day One

9.00-11.00 Panel 1 Eco Media Studies

Chair Prof Annette Hill

Speaker Presentations Prof Laura Marks

11.00-12.00 Workshop 1 Eco Footprints Roundtable

Chair Prof Laura Marks

Lunch

13.00-15.00 Panel 2 –Infrastructures

Chair Prof Göran Bolin

Speaker Presentations Dr Julia Velkova, Dr Katherine Harrison, Dr Robert Willim

Coffee

15.30-16.30 Workshop 2 Media, Data and Energy Relations Roundtable

Chair Dr Julia Velkova

19.00-21.00 Dinner

Day Two

9.00-11.00 Panel 3 Carbonisation of Streaming Media

Chair Prof Annette Hill

Speaker Presentations Prof Laura Marks, Prof Annette Hill, Dr Susanne Almgren, Otto Hedenmo and Yuliya Lakew

11.00-12.00 Workshop 3 (Un)Sustainable Streaming Roundtable

Chair Prof Renira Gambarato

Lunch

13.00-15.00 Panel 4 Developing Eco Media Footprints

Chair Dr Robert Willim

Speaker Presentations Prof Göran Bolin, Prof Annette Hill

Coffee

15.30-16.30 Workshop 4 Funding and Publishing Roundtable

Chair Prof Annette Hill

19.00-21.00 Dinner

Susanne Almgren Lecturer Jönköping University focuses on methods for sustainable digitalization.

Göran Bolin Professor Södertörn University focuses on digital generations.

Renira Gambarato Professor Jönköping University focuses on transmedia studies.

Yuliya Lakew lecturer Jönköping University focuses on sustainable communications.

Katherine Harrison Docent Linköping University focuses on ethics and AI, gender, emotion and ICTs.

Otto Hedenmo PhD student Jönköping University focuses on sustainable ICTs and society.

Laura Marks Professor University of focuses on carbonization of streaming and small file media.

Julia Velkova Docent Linköping University focuses on critical infrastructures.

Robert Willim Docent Lund University focuses on mundane digitalization.

Travelling by train: take the SJ train to Gothenburg or Nässjö, depending on your route of travel, and then take the local train to Jönköping. To book your train go to https://www.sj.se/

Travelling by bus: take the Flixbus or Vybuss to Jönköping Resecentrum. To book your bus go to https://www.flixbus.se/ or https://www.vybus4you.se

Travelling by plane: Gothenburg Landvetter Airport is the main airport, with regular bus and trains to Jönköping (e.g. Vybuss goes ten times per day direct from the airport to Jönköping Resecentrum). Linköping City Airport has a regular shuttle plane with KLM, via Schiphol Amsterdam. VyBuss and Flixbus go from Linköping Central Station to Jönköping Resecentrum.

Gamla Rådhuset is the main venue for the Eco Media Footprints workshop. It is located on Hovrättstorget, a beautiful square in the centre of the city. Gamla Rådhuset has a coffee shop located on the ground floor and on the first floor the workshop venue for the keynote panels and roundtables.

The venue is a ten minute walk from Jönköping Resecentrum. If you come out of the train and bus station, go right to a central pedestrian shopping street, and it is a short walk to the square where the hotel is located.

Please inform us of any allergies (email Otto Hedenmo, otto.hedenmo@ju.se)

There will be catering provided for the two days, including tea, coffee and cold drinks, a morning snack, a sumptuous lunch, and an afternoon snack, and evening meals.