TY - JOUR

T1 - Datafied female health Sociotechnical imaginaries of femtech in Danish public discourse

AU - Dahlman, Sara

AU - Just, Sine Nørholm

AU - Pedersen, Linea Munk

AU - Lantz, Prins Marcus Valiant

AU - Kristiansen, Nanna Würtz

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © MedieKultur. All rights reserved.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The digitalization of health promises individual empowerment while raising the threat of collective surveillance. Conceptualizing these threats and promises as sociotechnical imaginaries, we explore how issues of datafied female health are articulated in Danish public discourse. Empirically, we work with a large data set of Danish news media coverage of algorithmic technologies in the past 10 years (2011-2021). We locate coverage of femaleoriented health technologies (or femtech) by using the data sprint methodology to track the emergence of such technologies as a topic of public concern. Across the data, we identify two broad sociotechnical imaginaries: one zooming in on individual uses of femtech, the other focusing on the collective benefits of public health initiatives. We conclude that sociotechnical imaginaries of femtech are increasingly entangled in everyday life, making female bodies knowable through algorithms and data. As such, female health becomes subject to instrumental rationality, not lived reality.

AB - The digitalization of health promises individual empowerment while raising the threat of collective surveillance. Conceptualizing these threats and promises as sociotechnical imaginaries, we explore how issues of datafied female health are articulated in Danish public discourse. Empirically, we work with a large data set of Danish news media coverage of algorithmic technologies in the past 10 years (2011-2021). We locate coverage of femaleoriented health technologies (or femtech) by using the data sprint methodology to track the emergence of such technologies as a topic of public concern. Across the data, we identify two broad sociotechnical imaginaries: one zooming in on individual uses of femtech, the other focusing on the collective benefits of public health initiatives. We conclude that sociotechnical imaginaries of femtech are increasingly entangled in everyday life, making female bodies knowable through algorithms and data. As such, female health becomes subject to instrumental rationality, not lived reality.

KW - danish media

KW - data sprint

KW - female health

KW - femtech

KW - sociotechnical imaginaries

KW - Media and communication studies

KW - Management studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85162827412&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.7146/mk.v39i74.133900

DO - 10.7146/mk.v39i74.133900

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85162827412

VL - 39

SP - 105

EP - 126

JO - MedieKultur

JF - MedieKultur

SN - 1901-9726

IS - 74

ER -