By Ellery Bruns, Tatum Cordy, and Erica Weidner

Militarization of Big Data assesses and investigates the United States military’s use of big data to identify Generation Z individuals for military recruitment. We ask three main questions:

1) How does the military collect and analyze data on potential recruits?

2) How do bias and stereotypes play a role in the use of this data?

3) How does this data influence recruiting practices?

Our project finds that the U.S. military has started to shift away from current recruitment practices to rely instead on big data and information technologies to more effectively recruit American youth. Military personal and pro-military scholarship advocate for a highly concerning increase in data enabled outreach tailored to Generation Z. The U.S. military uses data collected on potential military recruits’ socioeconomic status, race, and gender to influence and inform its recruitment strategies. Further, big data enables the military to manipulate citizens with promises of financial security, educational funding, and medical benefits, all while exploiting marginalized communities. Our project is a prime example of knowledge organization gone wrong, illuminating the concerning implications for younger generations of the U.S. military’s use of data enabled recruitment.

Our bibliography can be found here.

Ellery Bruns

Ellery Bruns

Ellery Bruns (she/her) is a Master of Library and Information Science candidate at the Pratt Institute, an avid romance novel reader, and an advocate who aims to become a collection development or reference and instruction librarian. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Global, Cultural, and Language Studies with a focus on intersectional feminism, prison abolition, and carceral studies which informs her passion for identifying gaps in research and collections. Her research interests align in the intersections of collection development, intersectional and critical librarianship, database design, DEI, and the romance genre. Ellery recently published her 2024 article “Archival Silences and Avenues To Address Them: A Literature Review" in The Serials Librarian, and she is researching best practices in collection development for the romance genre while designing and developing a relational database for her own book collection in her graduate coursework. Ellery’s librarianship is grounded in empathy, criticalities, and a firm belief in building equitable, inclusive, and accessible collections.
Ellery Bruns

Latest posts by Ellery Bruns (see all)

Tatum Cordy

Tatum Cordy

Tatum Cordy is an MLIS student at Pratt Institute School of Information. She aims to empower students and teachers to independently explore their interests using an array of tools such as novels, databases, library resources, research assistance, and data literacy strategies. Tatum's is dedicated to student engagement, literacy, and fostering a culture of inquiry and exploration.
Tatum Cordy

Latest posts by Tatum Cordy (see all)

Erica Weidner

Erica Weidner

Erica Weidner is a recent graduate of Pratt Institute with a master's degree in library and information science and an advanced certificate in digital humanities. Outside of the library sphere, she is a poet, a copyeditor, and the editor-in-chief of a small online literary magazine.

No related posts.