Sarah T. Roberts

Sarah T. Roberts (born September 2, 1975) is a professor, author, and scholar who specializes in content moderation of social media.[1] She is an expert in the areas of internet culture, social media, digital labor, and the intersections of media and technology. She coined the term "commercial content moderation" (CCM) to describe the job paid content moderators do to regulate legal guidelines and standards.[2] Roberts wrote the book Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media.[3]

For the epidemiologist, see Sarah T. Roberts (epidemiologist).
Sarah T. Roberts
Born (1975-09-02) September 2, 1975
Madison, Wisconsin U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
OccupationProfessor
Known forBehind the Screen
Websiteillusionofvolition.com

Early life and education

Roberts grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and attended Madison West High School.[1]

In 1997, Roberts received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she double-majored in French and Spanish language and literature. She also earned a certificate of Women's Studies.[4][5] In 2007, Roberts received an M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's iSchool.[5] In 2014, Roberts earned a PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[5] Her dissertation, directed by Linda C. Smith, was titled Behind the Screen: The Hidden Digital Labor of Commercial Content Moderation.[6]

Career

From 2013 to 2016, Roberts was an assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario's Faculty of Information & Media Studies.[7]

In 2016, Roberts became an assistant professor at University of California, Los Angeles's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.[8][9] She was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor in 2020.

Roberts' research focuses on commercial content moderation (CCM), the information work and workers, and on the social, economic, and political impact of the widespread adoption of the internet in everyday life.[10] Her work has raised public awareness around issues of social media platform moderation.[11][12] Roberts' research has been featured in various media outlets including Wired,[10][11] The New Yorker,[3] The Guardian,[13] The New York Times,[14] among others.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

As part of her work, Roberts consulted on the 2018 documentary The Cleaners, which focused on content moderators and the challenges they face.[22]

In 2019, Roberts' book Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media was published by Yale University Press.[23][24][25] It is the first book-length ethnographic study of the work commercial content moderators. The book received positive reviews by publications including the Los Angeles Review of Books.[26]

Along with longtime collaborator Safiya Noble, Roberts is co-director of the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2) at UCLA.[27] In 2019, Roberts was awarded an NSF grant to further her research on CCM.[28]

Awards

Select works and publications

Selected works
  • Roberts, Sarah T. (2014). Behind the Screen: The Hidden Digital Labor of Commercial Content Moderation (PDF) (Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Science). Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. OCLC 932133294. hdl:2142/50401
  • Noble, Safiya Umoja; Roberts, Sarah T. (2016). "Chapter 9 - Through Google-Colored Glass(es): Design, Emotion, Class, and Wearables as Commodity and Control". In Tettegah, Sharon Y.; Noble, Safiya Umoja (eds.). Emotions, Technology, and Design. London: Academic Press. pp. 187–212. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-801872-9.00009-0. ISBN 978-0-12-801872-9. OCLC 933581174.
  • Roberts, S.T. (2016). "In/visibility". In Letters & Handshakes (ed.). Surplus3: Labour and the Digital. Toronto: Letters & Handshakes.
  • Roberts, Sarah T. (2016). "Commercial Content Moderation: Digital Laborers' Dirty Work". In Noble, Safiya Umoja; Tynes, Brendesha M (eds.). The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Class and Culture Online. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. pp. 147–159. ISBN 978-1-433-13001-4. OCLC 973733465.
  • Roberts, Sarah T. (2016). "Aggregating the unseen". In Byström, Arvida; Soda, Molly; Kraus, Chris (eds.). Pics or It Didn't Happen: Images Banned from Instagram. Munich: Prestel Verlag. pp. 17–21. ISBN 978-3-791-38307-1. OCLC 987198486.
  • Roberts, Sarah T. (2019). Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-24531-8. OCLC 1103320164.

Selected publications

References
  1. Knetter, Dean (26 July 2019). "Listen: How Social Media Moderators Handle The Internet's Worst Content". Wisconsin Public Radio.
  2. "Sarah T. Roberts, Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles". Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Carnegie Corporation of New York. April 2018.
  3. Chotiner, Isaac (5 July 2019). "Q&A: The Underworld of Online Content Moderation". The New Yorker.
  4. "Roberts is 1st Badger in '09 Google Policy Fellowship". College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison. 12 September 2009.
  5. "Sarah Roberts, Assistant Professor". UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSEIS). Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  6. Roberts, Sarah T. (2014). Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media (PDF) (Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Science). Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. OCLC 932133294. hdl:2142/50401
  7. Roberts, Sarah T. "Researcher Spotlight: Sarah T. Roberts. The human cost of keeping your social media streams clear of offensive material". Faculty of Information & Media Studies, Western University. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  8. McDonald, John (25 April 2018). "University News: UCLA professor of information studies named 2018 Carnegie Fellow". UCLA.
  9. Harmon, Joanie (31 July 2018). "Sarah T. Roberts Honored with EFF's Pioneer Award for Content Moderation Research". UCLA GSE&IS Ampersand.
  10. Matsakis, Louise (22 March 2018). "How YouTube Uses Mechanical Turk Tasks to Help Train Its AI". Wired.
  11. Chen, Adrian (23 October 2014). "The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed". Wired.
  12. Fricano, Mike (9 May 2017). "Who watches out for the watchers?". UCLA.
  13. Solon, Olivia (18 March 2018). "Data scandal is huge blow for Facebook – and efforts to study its impact on society". The Guardian.
  14. Hsu, Tiffany (5 March 2018). "Bumble Dating App Bans Gun Images After Mass Shootings". The New York Times.
  15. Weill, Kelly (4 May 2017). "Web's Worst Job? Facebook Hires 3,000 to Watch for Murders So You Don't See Them". The Daily Beast.
  16. Chang, Clio (5 July 2017). "Why Urban Dictionary Is Horrifically Racist". The New Republic.
  17. Powers, Benjamin (9 September 2017). "The Human Cost of Monitoring the Internet". Rolling Stone.
  18. Pierson, DAvid (25 September 2017). "Analysis: Mark Zuckerberg built Facebook into a behemoth whose power he underestimates". Los Angeles Times.
  19. Madrigal, Alexis C. (15 December 2017). "The Basic Grossness of Humans". The Atlantic.
  20. Weber, Lauren; Seetharaman, Deepa (28 December 2017). "The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook". The Wall Street Journal.
  21. "The Logan Paul Suicide Video Shows YouTube Is Facing A Crucial Turning Point". BuzzFeed News. 2 January 2018.
  22. McCreary, Joy (22 January 2018). "Professor featured in documentary that premiered at Sundance Film Festival". UCLA.
  23. Roberts, Sarah T. (2019). Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-24531-8. OCLC 1103320164.
  24. Gerrard, Ysabel (2020-03-01). "Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media". New Media & Society. 22 (3): 579–582. doi:10.1177/1461444819878844. ISSN 1461-4448. S2CID 204372481.
  25. Sobande, Francesca (2020-08-01). "Book Review: Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media". Convergence. 26 (4): 1025–1027. doi:10.1177/1354856519893355. ISSN 1354-8565. S2CID 212804596.
  26. Brock, David C. (25 July 2019). "Our Censors, Ourselves: Commercial Content Moderation". Los Angeles Review of Books.
  27. "UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry Supported by The Knight Foundation".
  28. "Sarah T. Roberts: NSF Grant to Support Study on Online Content Moderation | UCLA GSE&IS Ampersand". ampersand.gseis.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  29. "Pioneer Awards 2018". Electronic Frontier Foundation. 21 June 2018.
  30. Ford, Celeste (25 April 2018). "Carnegie Corporation of New York Names 31 Winners of Andrew Carnegie Fellowships". Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Carnegie Corporation of New York.
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