Voice Assistants in Private Homes - (Media in Action) by Stephan Habscheid & Tim Hector & Dagmar Hoffmann & David Waldecker (Paperback)

About the Book

This book discusses voice assistants and how they have transformed everyday linguistic, media, and data practices thanks to platformized conditions and new interfaces.

Book Synopsis

Voice Assistants such as Amazon's Alexa populate private homes as well as smartphones, TVs and cars. While suggesting easy living with smart devices, these assistants are criticized as the next step of corporate and state surveillance of the private home, or as harbingers of new and simplified linguistic practices. The contributors to this volume focus on the transformation and persistence of everyday linguistic, media and data practices under platformized conditions and new interfaces. This collection thus brings together perspectives from media sociology, media studies, media linguistics and domestication research.

About the Author

Stephan Habscheid (Prof. Dr.) is a professor of German studies and applied linguistics at Universität Siegen. He is principal investigator of the interdisciplinary project »Un/desired Observation in Interaction: Smart Environments, Language, Body and Senses in Private Homes« at the Collaborative Research Center 1187 »Media of Cooperation«, Universität Siegen (together with Dagmar Hoffmann). His research interests include media linguistics, linguistic praxeology, language in institutions and organizations as well as small talk and conversation.
Tim Hector (M.A.) works as a research assistant at the Collaborative Research Center 1187 »Media of Cooperation« in the project »Un/desired Observation in Interaction: Smart Environments, Language, Body and Senses in Private Homes« at Universität Siegen. He did a PhD in applied linguistics on the linguistic domestication of voice assistants in private homes. His research is focussed on media linguistics, conversation analysis and linguistic praxeology.
Dagmar Hoffmann (Prof. Dr.) is a professor of media sociology and gender media studies at Universität Siegen, Germany. She is principal investigator in the interdisciplinary project »Un/desired Observation in Interaction: Smart Environments, Language, Body and Senses in Private Homes« at the Collaborative Research Center 1187 »Media of Cooperation«, Universität Siegen (together with Stephan Habscheid). Her research is focused on media and cultural sociology, digital literacy, and political participation.
David Waldecker (Dr.) is a sociologist and an academic librarian in training at Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt. He was a post-doc at the Collaborative Research Center 1187 »Media of Cooperation«, Universität Siegen, and published his dissertation on Adorno in the recording studio in 2022.