Tool criticism and the computational turn: A 'Methodological Moment' in Media and Communication Studies

As ever more data becomes available to work with, the use of digital tools within thehumanities and social sciences is becoming increasingly common. These digital tools areoften imported from other institutional contexts and were originally developed for otherpurposes. They may harbour concepts and techniques that stand in tension with traditionsin the humanities and social sciences. Moreover, there are many easy-to-use tools for thecollection, processing and analysis of data that require no knowledge of their limitations.Problematically, these tools are often assigned such values as reliability and transparencywhen in fact they are active mediators caught up in the epistemic process. In this paper,we highlight the need for a critical, reflexive attitude toward the tools we use in digitalmethods. It is a plea for what we call “tool criticism” and an attempt to think throughwhat this mode of criticism would entail in practice for the academic field. The need fortool criticism is contextualised in view of the emerging ideological and methodologicalcritique toward digital methods. Touching on the so-called science wars we exploreknowledge as a construction and consider the importance of accounting for knowledgeclaims. These considerations open up an assessment of the accountability measures thatare being discussed and developed in our field by individuals and institutions alike. Inconclusion, we underscore the urgency of this endeavour and its vital role for media andcommunication scholars