-
Moral orders of pleasing the algorithm New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-09-14 Jesse Haapoja, Laura Savolainen, Hanna Reinikainen, Tuukka Lehtiniemi
This article examines how ‘pleasing the algorithm’, or engaging with algorithms to gain rewards such as visibility for one’s content on digital platforms, is treated from a moral perspective. Drawing from Harré’s work on moral orders, our qualitative analysis of Reddit messages focused on social media content creation illustrates how so-called folk theories of algorithms are used for moral evaluations
-
The production of destruction: How employee values shape platform afterlives New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-09-14 Frances Corry
This article addresses how platform closure is produced by drawing on interviews with former employees of MySpace, the social media platform popular in the mid-2000s. Focusing on how staff grappled with user-generated content and user data while sunsetting an old version of the MySpace platform in 2011 to make way for a newly configured MySpace platform that debuted in 2013, it chronicles the decisions
-
Disrupting deliberation? The impact of the pandemic on the social practice of deliberative engagement New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-31 Martin King, Graham Smith
The coronavirus pandemic disrupted established ways of doing democracy. This was particularly the case for citizens’ assemblies that have been increasingly commissioned by public authorities to help tackle complex policy problems. The social restrictions adopted in response to the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the ‘deliberative wave’, making the in-person participation of citizens’ assemblies unviable
-
User-generated accountability: Public participation in algorithmic governance on YouTube New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 CJ Reynolds, Blake Hallinan
Despite opaque automated systems and few formal channels for participation, YouTubers navigate algorithmic governance on the platform through a strategy we call user-generated accountability: the generation of publicity via content creation to reveal failures, oversights, or harmful policies. Through an analysis of 250 videos, we identify common strategies, concerns, and targets of accountability.
-
Feminist automation: Can bots have feminist politics? New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Annika Richterich, Sally Wyatt
This article examines ‘feminist chatbots’ as tools for activism through automation. Such bots aim to engage users in automated communication on feminist concerns. The article starts from the assumption that chatbots, like all technologies, have politics and that automation, including the automated communication of chatbots, is a feminist issue. We investigate how feminist chatbots mobilise automation
-
Algorithms as conversational partners: Looking at Google auto-predict through the lens of symbolic interaction New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Annette Markham
This article showcases a speculative methodology for recreating interactions between a human and Google Search’s Auto-Predict interface as conversations, to explore how AI-based systems are both persuasive and deeply personal. Using ethnomethodology tools and a symbolic interactionist lens, the paper presents three versions of a single Google search, each variation building a slightly different angle
-
Why Am I Seeing This Ad? The affordances and limits of automated user-level explanation in Meta’s advertising system New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Jean Burgess, Nicholas Carah, Daniel Angus, Abdul Obeid, Mark Andrejevic
Against the backdrop of calls for greater platform transparency, this exploratory article investigates Meta’s ‘Why Am I Seeing This Ad’ (WAIST) feature, which is positioned as a consumer-level explanation of Meta’s advertising model. Drawing on our own walkthroughs of Facebook and Instagram and data from the Australian Ad Observatory, we find the feature falls short in two ways. First, the explanations
-
Smart Ellis Island? Tracing techniques of automating border control New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Philipp Seuferling
The buzzword “smart borders” captures the latest instantiation of media technologies constituting state bordering. This article traces historical techniques of knowledge-production and decision-making at the border, in the case of Ellis Island immigration station, New York City (1892–1954). State bordering has long been enabled by media technologies, engulfed with imaginaries of neutral, unambiguous
-
Conjuring algorithms: Understanding the tech industry as stage magicians New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Peter Nagy, Gina Neff
In this article, we introduce the term “conjuration of algorithms” to describe how the tech industry uses the language of magic to shape people’s perceptions of algorithms. We use the image of the magician as a metaphor for how the tech industry strategically deploys narrative devices to present their algorithms. After presenting a brief history of the Western European and North American understanding
-
The social construction of datasets: On the practices, processes, and challenges of dataset creation for machine learning New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Will Orr, Kate Crawford
Despite the critical role that datasets play in how systems make predictions and interpret the world, the dynamics of their construction are not well understood. Drawing on a corpus of interviews with dataset creators, we uncover the messy and contingent realities of dataset preparation. We identify four key challenges in constructing datasets, including balancing the benefits and costs of increasing
-
The sound of disinformation: TikTok, computational propaganda, and the invasion of Ukraine New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Marcus Bösch, Tom Divon
TikTok has emerged as a powerful platform for the dissemination of mis- and disinformation about the war in Ukraine. During the initial three months after the Russian invasion in February 2022, videos under the hashtag #Ukraine garnered 36.9 billion views, with individual videos scaling up to 88 million views. Beyond the traditional methods of spreading misleading information through images and text
-
Active and passive social media use: Relationships with body image in physically active men New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-28 Chris Bell, Adam J Cocks, Laura Hills, Charlotte Kerner
Little is known about how different types of engagement with social media (active vs passive) relate to body image in men. This study explored relationships between social media use (active and passive), body image, and drive for muscularity in physically active men. A questionnaire containing measures of body image (appearance valence, appearance salience), drive for muscularity, and social media
-
“Track every move”: Analyzing developers’ privacy discourse in GitHub README files New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-28 Keren Levi-Eshkol, Rivka Ribak
We adopt a socio-material perspective to examine how developers translate privacy, as a social value, into user applications. Our comprehensive survey of the research on developers’ privacy highlights their key position as privacy mediators and their forums as productive settings for unobtrusive studies of their discourse. The open-source code-sharing platform GitHub contains both discourse and code;
-
Offline connections, online votes: The role of offline ties in an online public election New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-27 Nicole Schwitter
Building democratic communities and fostering inclusive participation is challenging, especially in participatory organisations where governance and sustained contributions are critical. This study explores the dynamics of election participation within the peer-production project Wikipedia, a prime example of an online collaboration model of democratic organisation where democratically elected administrators
-
The mediatization of work? Gig workers and gig apps in Sweden New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-27 Henrik Örnebring, Elizabeth Van Couvering, David Regin Öborn, Robert MacKenzie
This article presents a study of how and to what extent gig workers in Sweden experience a mediatization of work. We contend that previous mediatization research has assumed extensive and unified effects of mediatization, and that previous gig work research has focused on users of large-scale, transnational platforms. We conducted a set of qualitative, semi-structured interviews (N = 28) with Swedish
-
A moment of turbulence: Privacy considerations in the pivot to distance learning during COVID-19 in higher education in Estonia, France, and Israel New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-22 Dmitry Epstein, Nicholas John, Carsten Wilhelm, Andra Siibak, Christine Barats
The rapid adoption of digital technologies during COVID-19 lockdowns offers a unique perspective on differences in privacy cultures. In this study, we compare how cultural predisposition and identities relate to privacy during the transition to remote learning in higher education in Estonia, France, and Israel. We conducted 83 in-depth interviews with academics, who talked about their adoption of communication
-
Facing blockchain’s double bind: Trustless technologies and “IRL friends” in Berlin’s NFT community New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-22 Spencer Kaplan
How does a community remain committed to an imagined digital future despite that future’s inherent contradictions? This article analyzes such a challenge as it was faced by Berlin’s NFT (non-fungible token) enthusiasts. Dominant narratives about NFTs and other blockchain technologies envision a virtual and ostensibly trust-free future, but these enthusiasts’ pursuit of such “trustless technologies”
-
Structures that tilt: Understanding “toxic” behaviors in online gaming New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-19 Friedrich Donner
Destructive or “toxic” behaviors in online gaming have received increased attention in recent years. These are forms of verbal harassment or behavioral misconduct which disrupt another’s experience of the game. While previous explanations have explained toxic behaviors as intentional acts of deviant individuals or a larger online “trickster” culture, this article provides empirical support for a recent
-
In and against the platform: Navigating precarity for Instagram and Xiaohongshu (Red) influencers New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-15 Jiali Fan
Existing scholarly discussions of the influencer industry often take a critical stance, marked by a narrow, westernised and homogenised theme of precarity. This raises the need to explore the empirical dynamics of precarity—how it is understood, managed, and ultimately lived for influencers from different social and cultural contexts. Based on in-depth interviews with 15 Instagram influencers and 12
-
“Is it time for me to be authentic?”: Understanding, performing, and evaluating authenticity on BeReal New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-15 Annika Pinch, Floor Fiers, Jeremy Birnholtz, Justine Fisher, Brigid Reilly
On social media, people often value authenticity and realness, yet the ways in which platforms promote authenticity may conflict with people’s goals to present an idealized self. Launched in 2020, the social media app BeReal encourages authenticity by prompting users to post unfiltered front and back camera photos at a particular time, thereby limiting control over their online self-presentation. We
-
Global misinformation trends: Commonalities and differences in topics, sources of falsehoods, and deception strategies across eight countries New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-14 Regina Cazzamatta
In a quantitative content analysis of 3,154 debunking articles from 23 fact-checking organizations, this study examines global misinformation trends and regional nuances across eight countries in Europe and Latin America (UK, DE, PT, SP, AR, BR, CL, and VZ). It strives to elucidate commonalities and differences based on political and media system indicators. Notably, countries with a substantial online
-
Young people’s ‘post-digital’ relationships during COVID-19 ‘lockdowns’ in England New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-10 Emily Setty, Emma Dobson
The lockdown imposed in England in response to the COVID-19 pandemic involved an unprecedented ‘shift to digital’, including in relationships between non-cohabiting individuals. This article examines young people’s perspectives on and experiences of using networked communication technologies (NCTs) in romantic relationships during lockdown, based on 14 focus groups (n = 80) and interviews (n = 38)
-
-
Corrigendum to “Friction in the Netflix machine: How screen workers interact with streaming data” New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-07
-
Smarter homes, smarter surveillance? Exploring intimate surveillance practices in modern day households New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-31 Julie Dereymaeker, Janneke M Schokkenbroek, Marijn Martens, Ralf De Wolf
Smart home technologies (SHT) are becoming more and more widespread. The commodification of the household and the surveillance of family life by companies have understandably sparked numerous questions. It should not be forgotten, however, that SHT also bring family members convenient tools to surveil each other. Parental and partner surveillance, further referred to as intimate surveillance, have
-
The psychology of volunteer moderators: Tradeoffs between participation, belonging, and norms in online community governance New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-30 Beril Bulat, Hannah Wang, Stephen Fujimoto, Seth Frey
Online communities rely on effective governance for success, and volunteer moderators are crucial for ensuring such governance. Despite their significance, much remains to be explored in understanding the relationship between community governance processes and moderators’ psychological experiences. To bridge this gap, we conducted an online survey with over 600 moderators from Reddit communities, exploring
-
Faking, optimising and conceding to power: Social movement understandings of social media power New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-30 Irene Blum, Julie Uldam
This article examines how social movement actors understand the role of social media in their activism. Concerns about commercialisation, individualisation and surveillance have replaced much optimism about the potential of social media for progressive activism. Therefore, we examine social movement actors’ theories and assumptions about social media, focusing on climate activism and criticism of unsustainable
-
A scoping review of studies on self-tracking for weight management: Social contexts and experiences of a practice New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-30 Mathilde Huillard, Ilse Hartmann-Tews
The market for self-tracking tools and apps for weight management has been growing over the last two decades. The aim of this scoping review is to identify social science studies that explicitly focus on the actual practices and experiences of users of these tools and the social contexts in which they take place. Searching four databases in April 2021, we identified 15 peer-reviewed articles published
-
Being and becoming in the culture of immediacy: An existential-ethical approach New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-27 Jan Jasper Mathé, Jo Bauwens, Karl Verstrynge
In this article we employ an Interpretative Phenomenological Approach to explore online immediacy from an existential-ethical perspective. While existing literature already accounts for the socio-cultural and psychological impact of constant connectivity, we venture to reveal its underlying existential-ethical implications. Our findings show the often contradictory ways in which young adults cope with
-
Opportunity structures for user acceptance of news recommender systems (NRS): A multi-country survey study of relationships between individual-level factors and evaluations of NRS New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-27 Edina Strikovic, Sina Blassnig, Eliza Mitova, Aleksandra Urman, Frank Esser, Claes de Vreese
Digitalization of the media is often discussed in terms of effects on the user. What is often overlooked are the motivations from users, on the individual level, for the acceptance of new technologies. This study explores what individual-level factors make up favorable opportunity structures for the implementation of news recommender systems (NRS). We conduct a cross-sectional survey ( n = 5073) in
-
The quest for meaningful connections: Navigating scripted sexuality on Instagram amid Grindr and Tinder fatigue New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-27 Facundo N Suenzo
In the contemporary digital age, the experience of intimacy, sex, and love has been profoundly transformed, in part due to technological transformations. How do individuals navigate the evolving landscape of dating in the digital age to seek meaningful connections? To answer that, I conducted 30 individual, in-depth interviews with queer men in Argentina. Drawing on the conceptual apparatus of the
-
Digital Mary: Religious Mediatization and the Re-Enchantment of a Mega Symbol New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-27 Oren Golan, Nurit Stadler
This study examines how sacred sites and their agents construct the mediatization of Mary. A qualitative analysis of Instagram postings of four European holy sites of the Virgin combined with ethnographic fieldwork identified three primary ways in which webmasters manage Marian sites to amplify her charismatic appeal and inspire awe: (1) Marycentrism: Situating Mary as the all-encompassing focal protagonist
-
‘Babies are a massive money spinner’: Data, reproductive labour and the commodification of pre-motherhood in fertility and pregnancy apps New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-26 Josie Hamper
This article investigates how users of self-tracking apps evaluate the imperative to share intimate data. Through 42 interviews with 24 women in the United Kingdom who had used fertility and pregnancy tracking apps with the hope of giving birth to a baby in the future, this article empirically examines the lived experiences of sharing, withholding and managing intimate data. Research participants perceived
-
Parental mediation of children’s online risks: The role of parental risk perception, digital skills and risk experiences New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-26 Ellen Johanna Helsper, Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri, Sonia Livingstone
This article advances the understanding of parental mediation of children’s online activities by examining the roles of parental perceptions of risk and parent and child digital skills. Analysis of a survey of European parents distinguishes parental perceptions of the likelihood of risk and the severity of harm before testing the linearity of their relation to digital skills. Results show that parents
-
How youth define, consume, and evaluate news: Reviewing two decades of research New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-26 Sophie Duvekot, Camila Melícia Valgas, Yael de Haan, Wiebe de Jong
This article offers an overview of 94 scientific studies (published between 2006 and 2022) to examine how young people (ages 10–36) define, consume, and evaluate news. Research on news and youth has exploded over the past decades, but what can we conclude from it, and how should journalism scholars move forward? The systematic literature review reveals that while young people remain interested in news
-
Taming the algorithm: The platform realism of GrabBike delivery workers New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-26 Giang Nguyen-Thu, Luke Munn
How do workers conceptualize a platform’s algorithm and adjust their practices to its logic? To pursue this question, we draw on an ethnography of Grab, the leading rideshare platform in Southeast Asia, composed of 60+ trips talking to drivers on the back of bikes, and 10 in-depth interviews. We identify a distinct set of moves that workers perform to survive on the platform, a strategic cluster of
-
Feel local, post local: An ethnographic investigation of a social media-based local public New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-26 Krisztina Burai, Ábel Solti, Márton Bene
Using an ethnographic approach, this study examines the social media-based local public sphere during a by-election campaign in Jászberény, a medium-sized city in Hungary. We conducted online observations and interviews with local actors to explore the construction and functioning of the communication arena on Facebook, the central social media platform of local politics. We show that there is a vibrant
-
“Check this out! ”: Collective functions of instant messaging about media content New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-26 Johanna Schindler, Anne Bartsch, Christal Bürgel, Carla Rockenstein
People regularly use and discuss media content with others, such as partners, family, and friends. Such conversations increasingly occur virtually. However, few studies have examined the content and characteristics of mobile messenger communication about media content. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of 128 messenger chats about media content donated by 49 diverse groups. Based on the theoretical
-
Social media platforms for politics: A comparison of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-26 Shelley Boulianne, Christian P. Hoffmann, Michael Bossetta
Citizens have increasingly diversified their use of social media platforms, raising questions about which platforms are adopted and for what purposes. We use survey data from four countries (Canada, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom) gathered in 2019 and 2021 ( n = 12,302) about Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. Political ideology predicts the adoption
-
Record, revise, reinvent, and resist: The politics of social media self-representation during the COVID-19 pandemic New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-23 Chelsea P. Butkowski
When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everyday social life on a global scale, it also destabilized social norms for sharing life online and, potentially, broader understandings of selfhood and identity. This study investigates how the unique conditions of pandemic life re-colored normative practices of self-representation—the process of producing and circulating personal media texts—on popular social
-
Justice behind the virtual mask: The influence of race of the virtual influencer and the creator on promoting the Black Lives Matter movement New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-23 Joo-Wha Hong, Ignacio Fernandez Cruz, Donggyu Kim
The rise of virtual influencers is reshaping the landscape of social media, extending even to the promotion of social causes. Yet, lingering doubts persist regarding the authenticity of their motives. This research delves into the impact of both the racial identities of virtual influencers and those of their creators when linked to the support of racial movements. In terms of source credibility, results
-
Latent profiles of adolescents’ digital skills across six European countries New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-06-24 Lauri Hietajärvi, Giovanna Mascheroni, Natalia Waechter, Jussi Järvinen, Katariina Salmela-Aro
Digital skills are considered critical for functioning in contemporary society, yet there are differences between adolescents’ skills depending on demographic and socioeconomic variables. This study, utilising data from six EU countries ( N = 6221; Mage = 14.5; SD = 1.4), takes a person-oriented approach to examine adolescents digital skill profiles and associations with socioeconomic, digital activity
-
Serial killers and the production of the uncanny in digital participatory culture New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-30 Laura Glitsos, Mark Deuze
Many theorists have expounded on what serial killing says about the social in any given context and the ways in which serial killing and media are entangled, in particular, Mark Seltzer, Jon Stratton and Elliot Leyton. However, in this article, we ask, how is serial killer mythology developing in relation to participatory culture typical of our current digital environment? In scaffolding discourse
-
Followers, fans, friends, or haters? A typology of the online interactions and relationships between social media influencers and their audiences based on a social capital framework New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-30 Gaëlle Ouvrein
Little is known about the characteristics and dynamics within SMI–audience interactions and relationships from the side of SMI. Using interview data from 19 ( N = 19) SMI, this study aims (1) to increase the insights on the development (i.e. predictors and dimensions) and dynamics (i.e. outcomes and feedback loops) of SMI’s social capital and (2) use the social capital framework to develop a typology
-
Gamification towards and alongside equity, diversity and inclusion: Looking back to move forward New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Ana Carolina Tomé Klock, Paula Toledo Palomino, Luiz Antonio Lima Rodrigues, Armando Maciel Toda, Sofia Simanke, Velvet Spors, Brenda Salenave Santana, Juho Hamari
Given the urgent need for environments that enable everyone in fulfilling their fullest potential, many new media innovations have focused on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) actions. Gamification is one of these innovations, becoming a promising avenue to engage people towards effective social change. Yet, the intersection between EDI and gamification is incipient and fragmented, preventing a
-
‘Normal news is boring’: How young adults encounter and experience news on Instagram and TikTok New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Jonathan Hendrickx
Instagram and TikTok constitute the fastest rising social media apps for news consumption. However, very little remains known on how young people encounter and experience news content on these platforms. Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with young adult Belgians, including operationalising the walkthrough method, this qualitative research article fills this existing gap in scholarship. I contextualise
-
Reflective smartphone disengagement as a coping strategy against cyberbullying: A cross-country study with emerging adults from the United States and Indonesia New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-28 Maryam Khaleghipour, Kevin Koban, Anja Stevic, Jörg Matthes
Cyberbullying is a highly prevalent phenomenon among emerging adults, and it may lead to severe psychosocial harm for some targets. Understanding how emerging adults can cope with cyberbullying by altering their media use but without risking one of their crucial social lifelines, mobile social media, during the process is essential. To this end, this study examines a stress-coping process that involves
-
The “Russian bots” between social and technological: Examining the ordinary folk theories of Twitter users New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-27 Dragoș M Obreja
The bots’ activity is already frequently documented in the literature, and the war between Russia and Ukraine accentuated this scholarly interest for users’ sensemaking. Applying folk theories framework on 56 semi-structured interviews with users who tweet about “Russian bots,” I examine how bots might be understood as structural-computational entities, with complex roles in shaping digitally mediated
-
The effects of augmented reality on prosocial behavior intentions in the disaster news context: The mediating role of physical presence and empathy New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-27 Miaohong Huang, Sai Datta Mikkilineni, Jiyoung Lee, Madison Duboise
Despite the increasing adoption of augmented reality (AR) in journalism, there is limited scholarly attention devoted to understanding its effects compared to traditional modalities. This study investigates user engagement with AR-enabled disaster news through a between-subjects experiment ( N = 89), comparing AR, image, or text-only modalities. The results demonstrate that psychological responses
-
What we know and don’t know about deepfakes: An investigation into the state of the research and regulatory landscape New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-22 Alena Birrer, Natascha Just
The emergence of deepfakes has raised concerns among researchers, policymakers, and the public. However, many of these concerns stem from alarmism rather than well-founded evidence. This article provides an overview of what is currently known about deepfakes based on a systematic review of empirical research. It also examines and critically assesses regulatory responses globally through qualitative
-
In/visible hurdles: US collegiate esports participants’ perceived barriers to play and involvement New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-21 Andrew J Wilson, Amanda Cote, Maxwell Foxman, Brandon Harris, Jared Hansen, Onder Can, Md Waseq Ur Rahman
Gaming and esports communities possess cultural barriers that exclude potential participants, limiting their access to social, cultural, and economic opportunities. In the United States, for instance, varsity esports players are increasingly supported by scholarships and tournament prizes, but persistent challenges make these benefits accessible to only a limited portion of the student body. Using
-
Curators of digital futures: The life cycle of pioneer communities New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-18 Andreas Hepp
Research typically considers corporate actors such as large tech companies or government agencies as drivers of deep mediatization, the increasing saturation of society by digital media and their infrastructures. This article aims to focus on another group of collective actors: pioneer communities, exemplified by the Maker, Hacks/Hackers, and Quantified Self movements. They are characterized by their
-
Enhancing children’s understanding of algorithmic biases in and with text-to-image generative AI New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-18 Henriikka Vartiainen, Juho Kahila, Matti Tedre, Sonsoles López-Pernas, Nicolas Pope
Despite the growing concerns surrounding algorithmic biases in generative AI (artificial intelligence), there is a noticeable lack of research on how to facilitate children and young people’s awareness and understanding of them. This study aimed to address this gap by conducting hands-on workshops with fourth- and seventh-grade students in Finland, and by focusing on students’ ( N = 209) evolving explanations
-
Trust is key: Determinants of false beliefs about climate change in eight countries New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-17 Waqas Ejaz, Sacha Altay, Richard Fletcher, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
Science has established the human-caused nature of climate change, yet the prevalence of climate-related misinformation persists, undermining public understanding and impeding collective action. Strikingly, existing research on belief in misinformation about climate change has disproportionately focused on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries. To move beyond this
-
Beyond subcultures: A literature review of gaming communities and sociological analysis New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-17 Giulio Pitroso
This article is a critical review of studies on gaming communities. In particular, it analyses the use of subcultural, post-subcultural and postmodern subcultural theorists in relation to video games players. Academic use of sociological concepts to study gaming communities, such as neo-tribe, subculture, lifestyle, and scene, is not always explained and almost all sociological instruments show limits
-
‘Disconnecting from my smartphone is a privilege I do not have’: Mobile connection and disconnection practices among migrants and asylum seekers in three migrant reception centres of Sicily New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-16 Miriana Cascone, Tiziano Bonini
This article investigates online connection and disconnection practices among migrants and asylum seekers. It draws from an ethnography of three Sicilian reception centres that hosted migrants and asylum seekers between September and November 2020. We show how migrants, driven by different migratory motivations, enact different mobile connection and disconnection practices. We argue that these are
-
Countering underproduction of peer produced goods New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-16 Kaylea Champion, Benjamin Mako Hill
Peer produced goods, such as online knowledge bases and free/libre open source software rely on contributors who often choose their tasks regardless of consumer needs. These goods are susceptible to underproduction: when popular goods are relatively low quality. Although underproduction is a common feature of peer production, very little is known about how to counteract it. We use a detailed longitudinal
-
Pseudo-scientific versus anti-scientific online conspiracism: A comparison of the Flat Earth Society’s Internet forum and Reddit New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-14 Federico Pilati, Tommaso Venturini, Pier Luigi Sacco, Floriana Gargiulo
Attitudes of distrust and paranoia toward scientific and political institutions are increasingly identified as major troubles in online communication and often lumped together under the umbrella term of conspiracy theories. However, this term encompasses two distinct communication practices that deserve to be distinguished. Traditional conspiratorial thinking adopts pseudo-scientific arguments, while
-
News participation is declining: Evidence from 46 countries between 2015 and 2022 New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-14 Sacha Altay, Richard Fletcher, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
Digital media are often praised for having offered new ways to participate with news. But how has participation with news changed in recent years? A pre-registered analysis of survey data from 2015 to 2022 in 46 countries ( N = 577,859) shows that participation with news has declined. This decrease is observed in most countries and for most forms of participation, including liking, sharing, commenting
-
*READ**THIS*!! Spam as a threat for open science New Media & Society (IF 4.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-13 Johanna Cohoon
Drawing on multiple sources of qualitative data, I describe a case of open science infrastructure (OSI) abuse. The case illustrates how developers navigated scholarly value tensions and issues of epistemic and platform legitimacy while battling spam on their open science webapp. Notably, their struggle used precious financial resources and drew attention away from other development tasks like feature