UCLA Ed&IS Magazine, Fall 2019

BEHIND THE SCREEN Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media

SARAH T. ROBERTS is an assistant professor of information studies in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. She is a 2018 Carnegie Fellow and a 2018 winner of the EFF Pioneer Award. As a social media scholar, Roberts offers the first extensive ethnographic study of the commercial content moderation industry. Based on interviews with workers from Silicon Valley to the

Photo: Stella Kalinina

Philippines, at boutique firms and at major social media companies, the book contextualizes this hidden industry and examines the emotional toll it takes on its workers. This revealing investigation of the people “behind the screen” offers insights into not only the reality of our commercial internet but the future of globalized labor in the digital age. In this excerpt from “Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media” (Yale University Press, 2019), we are introduced to a content moderator named Melinda, as interviewed by Professor Roberts. Sarah T. Roberts 10 UCLA Ed&IS FALL 2019

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UCLA Ed&IS Magazine, Fall 2019

Published on Jan 23, 2020

UCLA Ed&IS

The UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies’ magazine highlights the public scholarship of our faculty. In this issue, we look at the work of Professor Daniel Solarzano in “My Critical Race Journey to Racial Microaggressions and Microaffirmations—1969 to 2019.” We dig into research on preservation principles and studies of Native American featherwork and the findings of a recent UCLA Civil Rights Project study, “Harming our Common Future: America’s Segregated Schools 65 Years after Brown”. You can read an excerpt from the new book, “Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media” by Sarah T. Roberts. We also talk with Jeff Share and Douglas Kellner about critical media literacy and the urgent need for a greater awareness of both media’s benefits and threats to culture and society and explore how UCLA Community School is helping immigrant children dream and thrive in “A Path Forward: Finding Educational Success with Immigrant Students.”