Mass media have long provided general publics with science news. New media such as Twitter have entered this system and provide an additional platform for the dissemination of science information. ...Based on automated collection and analysis of >900 news articles and 70,000 tweets, this study explores the online communication of current science news. Topic modeling (latent Dirichlet allocation) was used to extract five broad themes of science reporting: space missions, the US government shutdown, cancer research, Nobel Prizes, and climate change. Using content and network analysis, Twitter was found to extend public science communication by providing additional voices and contextualizations of science issues. It serves a recommender role by linking to web resources, connecting users, and directing users’ attention. This article suggests that microblogging adds a new and relevant layer to the public communication of science.
Algorithmic profiling has become increasingly prevalent in many social fields and practices, including finance, marketing, law, cultural consumption and production, and social engagement. Although ...researchers have begun to investigate algorithmic profiling from various perspectives, socio-technical studies of algorithmic profiling that consider users' everyday perceptions are still scarce. In this article, we expand upon existing user-centered research and focus on people's awareness and imaginaries of algorithmic profiling, specifically in the context of social media and targeted advertising. We conducted an online survey geared toward understanding how Facebook users react to and make sense of algorithmic profiling when it is made visible. The methodology relied on qualitative accounts as well as quantitative data from 292 Facebook users in the United States and their reactions to their algorithmically inferred 'Your Interests' and 'Your Categories' sections on Facebook. The results illustrate a broad set of reactions and rationales to Facebook's (public-facing) algorithmic profiling, ranging from shock and surprise, to accounts of how superficial - and in some cases, inaccurate - the profiles were. Taken together with the increasing reliance on Facebook as critical social infrastructure, our study highlights a sense of algorithmic disillusionment requiring further research.
With the permeation of digital media into all spheres of life, individual-level efforts to manage information abundance and constant availability have become more common. To date, information on the ...prevalence of the motivations and strategies for such disconnection practices and how different sociodemographic groups experience digital disconnection is scarce. We surveyed a national sample of 1163 Swiss Internet users in November 2020. Thematic coding of open-text responses demonstrated people’s understandings of “balanced digital media use” as primarily concerned with subjectively appropriate amounts of use, purposeful use, social connections, non-addiction, and time for “real life.” Through principal components analysis, we provide a classification of the types of motivations people have for disconnecting and strategies people use to disconnect. Persistent age differences suggest that life-span approaches to studying digital disconnection are imperative. We formulate implications for disconnection research in the context of digital inequality and provide an outlook for evolving digital habits in future digital societies.
Purpose
This conceptual contribution is based on the observation that digital inequalities literature has not sufficiently considered digital footprints as an important social differentiator. The ...purpose of the paper is to inspire current digital inequality frameworks to include this new dimension.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature on digital inequalities is combined with research on privacy, big data and algorithms. The focus on current findings from an interdisciplinary point of view allows for a synthesis of different perspectives and conceptual development of digital footprints as a new dimension of digital inequality.
Findings
Digital footprints originate from active content creation, passive participation and platform-generated data. The literature review shows how different social groups may experience systematic advantages or disadvantages based on their digital footprints. A special emphasis should be on those at the margins, for example, users of low socioeconomic background.
Originality/value
By combining largely independent research fields, the contribution opens new avenues for studying digital inequalities, including innovative methodologies to do so.
Increasing Internet use is changing the way individuals take part in society. However, a general mobilizing effect of the Internet on political participation has been difficult to demonstrate. This ...study takes a digital inequality perspective and analyzes the role of Internet expertise for the social structuration of online political participation. Analyses rely on two nationally representative surveys in Switzerland and use cluster analysis and structural equation modeling. A distinct group of political online participants emerged characterized by high education and income. Further, online political participation is predicted by political interest and Internet skills, which increasingly mediated the effects of social position. Digital information policies should therefore consider Internet skills and effective use, particularly in marginalized social groups, to avoid reinforcing traditional participatory inequalities in the digital society.
In this article, we provide an overview of the literature on chilling effects and corporate profiling, while also connecting the two topics. We start by explaining how profiling, in an increasingly ...data-rich environment, creates substantial power asymmetries between users and platforms (and corporations more broadly). Inferences and the increasingly automated nature of decision-making, both based on user data, are essential aspects of profiling. We then connect chilling effects theory and the relevant empirical findings to corporate profiling. In this article, we first stress the relationship and similarities between profiling and surveillance. Second, we describe chilling effects as a result of state and peer surveillance, specifically. We then show the interrelatedness of corporate and state profiling, and finally spotlight the customization of behavior and behavioral manipulation as particularly significant issues in this discourse. This is complemented with an exploration of the legal foundations of profiling through an analysis of European and US data protection law. We find that while Europe has a clear regulatory framework in place for profiling, the US primarily relies on a patchwork of sector-specific or state laws. Further, there is an attempt to regulate differential impacts of profiling via anti-discrimination statutes, yet few policies focus on combating generalized harms of profiling, such as chilling effects. Finally, we devise four concise propositions to guide future research on the connection between corporate profiling and chilling effects.
Digital media have permeated all spheres of life in many world regions and drastically changed how people seek information to satisfy their everyday knowledge needs. Successfully fulfilling these ...needs can impact subjective well-being and life outcomes. This is pronounced in transition-al phases with increased knowledge needs such as emerging adulthood. These needs and their fulfillment are socially structured, for example through skills differences. Simultaneously, how knowledge can be acquired through digital media is also dependent on their structure and governance. This paper contributes first to a better understanding of how sociotechnical infrastructures change, how and where they can be shaped by whom, and what is ultimately required for a future web of knowledge (epistemic web); and second, to making the effects of individual information seeking practices on life outcomes and well-being empirically addressable. Equitable digital societies require understanding and governing how digital media enable access to which knowledge. Considering the knowledge needs and dynamic life trajectories in the digital society, research is needed that can provide critical empirical and theoretical insights for the future of human communication and well-being.
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