Situated data analysis: a new method for analysing encoded power relationships in social media platforms and apps

This paper proposes situated data analysis as a new method for analyzing social media platforms and digital apps. A case study of the fitness tracking app Strava illustrates the method, analyzing how data is constructed, framed, and processed for different audiences and purposes. The analysis recognizes data's inherent partiality and situatedness, examining both data representations (like visualizations) and data operations (algorithmic processing). The continuum between representational and operational data use is linked to power relationships between platforms, users, and society, ranging from disciplinary power and technologies of the self to environmental power.

Jill Walker Rettberg