Our team consists of five students from the MA in Communication for Development at Malmö University. This blog aims to explore the key interest points of each team member. Keep reading to learn more about us!
Charles: Born and raised in Hong Kong, Charles is fascinated by the legitimacy of Western democratic systems. During his economics studies in Switzerland, he saw many social issues that arose from global inequality and wanted to take small steps to make a change. Besides his PR/Comms work, Charles actively promotes rights for migrants and refugees in Switzerland. He is particularly interested in privacy and ethical concerns within datafied societies.
Isabelle: Isabelle is a Swedish-American based out of Sarasota, Florida. With a background in International Affairs, she is currently working in the food insecurity field with a specialization on child food insecurity. Throughout her work interacting with the local community, Isabelle saw many issues in today’s schools and societies with the exploitation of women and young peoples through social media and artificial intelligence. Her focus throughout the blog will tone into the key issues that artificial intelligence poses for these groups today.
Liene: Liene is passionate about creativity, diversity, and communication for good. Be it a digital literacy education program for children, IT marketing or a digital social entrepreneur initiative, she likes to try and pivot new ideas when working on projects in the field of communication. Liene is interested in how digital footprints and the power of society can work together to support the most vulnerable and create a better world for everyone. On the blog, she will focus on datafication and social media related to disinformation and conflict.
Lena: Lena is at the start of her career in a large Development Cooperation organisation and is passionate about using the postcolonial lens and discourse to critically analyse her own contributions to ‘development’ as well as the notion of development cooperation in a wider sense. Her aim through this blog is to look at the negative and often unintended consequences of datafication and machine learning. As per Newton’s third law, every action will have an equal or opposite reaction and managing the risks in these consequences has not been paid enough attention by the development sector. Therefore, Lena challenges the be all, end all attitude society has taken towards using data to address our issues through specific examples of individual exploitation and reduced well-being among communities. This includes the moral and ethical underpinnings of using software such as AI for ‘development’ in the first place.
Malin: Based in Stockholm with a background in defence and research communication, combined with a few stints in a range of organisations working with human-, and animal’s rights. Malin holds special interest in the implications and ethics of artificial intelligence and cutting-edge technology in society and communications. Her focus throughout the blog will be on practical applications of AI and datafication, and ethical concerns of its use.