ABSTRACT

Emergency dispatchers who receive 9-1-1 calls and initiate various emergency response services perform media work that produces 9-1-1 as an infrastructural system for the public at large. This should be considered media work because it centres the interpretation of media content and navigation of multimedia systems. While a nontraditional site for the study of media work, emergency dispatch can be studied through methods of media industry and infrastructure studies in order to understand how these workers are shaped by and shaping cultural attitudes toward new media, labour, and emergency itself. Using interviews, observations, job advertisements, and management literatures, this article traces the values and practices of dispatcher culture through the sites of ‘the job’, ‘the console’, and ‘the community.’ Through dispatchers’ media work, the logistical infrastructure of 9-1-1 is gradually transformed.

摘要

接听 9-1-1 呼叫并启动各种应急响应服务的紧急调度员执行媒体工作，将 9-1-1 打造为面向广大公众的基础设施系统。这应该被视为媒体工作因为它以媒体内容的解释和多媒体系统的导航为中心。作为研究媒体工作的非传统网站，应急调度可以通过媒体行业和基础设施研究的方法进行研究，以了解这些工人如何受到新媒体、劳动力和紧急情况本身的文化态度的影响和塑造。本文通过访谈、观察、招聘广告和管理文献，通过“工作”、“控制台”和“社区”三个站点追溯调度员文化的价值和实践。通过调度员的媒体工作，9-1-1的后勤基础设施正在逐步转型。