This article discusses the relationship between the use and perception of generative AI among university students as media practices. The study is based on data from a digital survey distributed among students at Södertörn University, which included questions about knowledge, usage, and attitudes towards generative AI, with a particular focus on chatbots (n = 418). The results showed that several students use chatbots in their studies for various purposes, such as getting started with writing, proofreading texts, searching for information, or clarifying difficult concepts and texts. At the same time, a majority of respondents indicated that using AI in exams is cheating, that the results are unreliable, and that usage could negatively impact their own learning. Based on this paradox, the article describes chatbots as “an unreliable teacher” and highlights the importance of supporting students in using AI in a constructive and fair way. This involves developing an understanding about the technology behind AI, as well as broad subject knowledge and critical skills.

Denna artikel diskuterar relationen mellan högskolestudenters användning av och uppfattningar om generativ AI i sina studier som mediepraktiker. Undersökningen bygger på material från en digital enkät som distribuerades bland studenter på Södertörns högskola och som innehöll frågor om kunskaper, användning och attityder till generativ AI, med särskilt fokus på chatbotar (n = 418). Resultaten visade att flera studenter använder sig av chatbotar i sina studier för olika syften som att komma i gång med skrivande, språkgranska texter, söka information eller få svåra begrepp och texter förklarade. Samtidigt uppgav en majoritet av respondenterna att det är fusk att använda AI i examinationer, att resultaten inte är pålitliga och att användningen kan påverka det egna lärandet negativt. Utifrån denna paradox beskriver artikeln chatbotar som ”en opålitlig lärare” och belyser vikten av att stötta studenter i att använda generativ AI på ett konstruktivt och rättssäkert sätt. Detta innebär kunskap om hur tekniken bakom AI fungerar, liksom breda sakkunskaper och kritisk förmåga. 

Contemporary education in Sweden is characterized by two parallel processes: the implementation of digital tools in the classroom, on the one hand, and an increased emphasis on brain-based learning, on the other. Proponents of the latter strand of 'neuroeducation' claim that digital media might have harmful effects on learning and cognitive development. How do they then deal with school digitalization? By examining popular science books by influential neuroscience actors in the Swedish educational context, this study identifies two diverging discourses where digital technologies are discussed both as distractions in the classroom and as promising tools for personalized and self-optimizing learning. This ambiguity reflects a cautious criticism against school digitalization as overhastly, a critique that is also emphasized in recent policy changes in the Swedish school system. The article concludes that the impact of brain-based perspectives on educational digitalization policy have positioned neuroscience actors as a new kind of digital experts.

In the public debate, problems due to excessive use of digital media are often explained with reference to neurological functions and addressed through calls for self-regulation. This digital backlash and the desire to disconnect from the digital environment can be understood as the latest expression of the perennial concern with adverse media effects. For decades, media and communication research has dealt with the question of what the media do to us, pointing out the complex entanglement of social, psychological, technological, political, cultural, and economic aspects that are part of the question. The difficulties involved in reaching any absolute conclusions have motivated critical media studies to formulate different research problems and thus risking missing the opportunity to make an important contribution in one of the more pressing public debates of our time. Drawing on Latour’s distinctions between “matters of facts” and “matters of concern”, in this chapter, we suggest that critical media and communication scholars ought to treat media effects as a matter of concern to remain a relevant actor in the public debate about problematic media use. 

The Scandinavian telecommunication company Telenor recently introduced the notion of Workfulness by adapting digital detox to the workplace. Workfulness is a management program aimed at technology-intensive companies that rely strongly on digital media. The program encompasses strategies of disconnection for employees, including mobile and email-free work hours and technology-free meetings, in order to enhance focus and efficiency. This article investigates Workfulness as one prominent example of managerial approaches that are based on neuroscientific assumptions about human decision-making. Drawing on textual materials and interviews, the analysis shows that Workfulness manages digital distractions in the workplace by establishing a form of stimulus-control rather than appealing to rational self-control. Workfulness alludes to the necessity of making choices, but it considers unconscious behavior, which is explained with reference to preconscious workings of the brain. The human brain becomes a battleground between rational and impulsive decisions, and it is the disobedient brain that needs to be governed in order to become an efficient employee. We situate the Workfulness program as part of and at the same time extending the biopolitical economy by incorporating advances in neurosciences into modes of governance.

This research thesis analyzes the characteristics of communication work in a call centre, by examining the communication work at a Swedish call centre which is outsourced to Latvia. The thesis studies the ways in which communication with the customers is organized, carried out and assigned meaning. Theoretically, the thesis draws on both critical and management-oriented perspectives of work. The empirical investigation combines participant observations at the call centre with individual interviews, mainly conducted with operators and management staff.

The communication work is analyzed both as labour and as communicative activity. The concept of labour focuses upon the relation between employer and employee. Therefore, the analysis is placed within the framework of a capitalistic production system, through a survey of the economic and the organisational working conditions. The communicative activity deals with how the telephone conversations with the customers are enacted. In that part of the analyses, the working routines and the meaning making practices are illuminated.

As examined in the current research, the communication work is indeed constructed in an alienated manner, through high levels of standardization, immobility, and estrangement from both customers and the customers’ culture. Nonetheless, merely being employed has meant significant economic security for the operators of the Latvian call centre. The operators are incumbents of a society affected by deep economic crises with high unemployment rates. In relation to their broader society, the employees have found meaning within their immediate social situation. This may explain why they endure the monotonous work with few opportunities for development.

This chapter presents a survey study on attitudes towards political campaigning in social media. During the national election in Sweden in 2010, a considerable amount of resources was invested in online communication with the constituency, not least in social media. Whereas several studies have focused on e-democracy at a macro level, there is a lack of studies examining the phenomenon of campaigning 2.0 as it is perceived by the actual voters. This chapter, therefore, asks the question whether the voters noticed the political campaigning in social media at all, and if so, how they perceived it. The main findings are that respondents who were already interested and politically engaged considered campaigning 2.0, in line with the politicians' rhetoric, as a way to enhance democracy. Respondents who were neither interested nor engaged in politics, on the other hand, showed little interest in this kind of communication. Consequently, the study confirms assumptions about digital divide and continued fragmentation of the citizenry.