Showing papers in "New Media & Society in 2017"
TL;DR: The ways in which Reddit’s karma point system, aggregation of material across subreddits, ease of subreddit and user account creation, governance structure, and policies around offensive content serve to provide fertile ground for anti-feminist and misogynistic activism are considered.
Abstract: This article considers how the social-news and community site Reddit.com has become a hub for anti-feminist activism. Examining two recent cases of what are defined as “toxic technocultures” (#Gamergate and The Fappening), this work describes how Reddit’s design, algorithm, and platform politics implicitly support these kinds of cultures. In particular, this piece focuses on the ways in which Reddit’s karma point system, aggregation of material across subreddits, ease of subreddit and user account creation, governance structure, and policies around offensive content serve to provide fertile ground for anti-feminist and misogynistic activism. The ways in which these events and communities reflect certain problematic aspects of geek masculinity are also considered. This research is informed by the results of a long-term participant-observation and ethnographic study into Reddit’s culture and community and is grounded in actor-network theory.
660 citations
TL;DR: It was revealed that risky information and communications technology (ICT) use, moral disengagement, depression, social norms, and traditional bullying perpetration were the main predictors of cyberbullying perpetration, while risky ICT use andTraditional bullying victimization were the major contributors of cyberBullying victimization.
Abstract: Cyberbullying has become a critical social issue, which severely threatens children and adolescents’ physical and psychological health. The current research systematically examined the predictors of cyberbullying from the social cognitive and media effects approach. Specifically, this study identified 16 predictors of cyberbullying perpetration and victimization and examined the magnitude of the effects of these predictors by meta-analyzing 81 empirical studies, which represented a total sample of 99,741 participants and yielded 259 independent correlations. The results revealed that risky information and communications technology (ICT) use, moral disengagement, depression, social norms, and traditional bullying perpetration were the main predictors of cyberbullying perpetration, while risky ICT use and traditional bullying victimization were the major contributors of cyberbullying victimization. According to the moderator analyses, country of the sample, sampling method, age, and media platform were sign...
272 citations
TL;DR: There remains little evidence that specific instruments to safeguard children’s rights in relation to dataveillance have been developed or implemented, and further attention needs to be paid to these issues.
Abstract: Children are becoming the objects of a multitude of monitoring devices that generate detailed data about them, and critical data researchers and privacy advocates are only just beginning to direct ...
238 citations
TL;DR: Wendy M. Grossman reviews Sherry Turkle's most recent book, Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age, which explores how human connection has changed and how families must negotiate how they allow technology to disrupt their lives.
Abstract: Wendy M. Grossman reviews Sherry Turkle’s most recent book, Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age. Wendy explores how human connection has changed and how families must negotiate how they allow technology to disrupt their lives. She writes about the border wars between cyberspace and real life. She is the 2013 winner of the Enigma Award and she has released a number of books, articles, and music. [Header image credit: Peggy, CC BY 2.0]
221 citations
TL;DR: Both general and sexual harassment predict women’s withdrawal from online games, and the path from sexual harassment to withdrawal was mediated by organizational responsiveness, indicating the video game industry plays a key role in whether women continue to participate after harassment occurs.
Abstract: Online video games can be a toxic environment for women. A survey assessed women’s (N = 293) experiences with general harassment and sexual harassment in online video games, including frequency of harassment, rumination about the harassment, perceptions of organizational responsiveness (i.e. efforts the gaming company made to address harassment), and withdrawal from the game. Women reported coping strategies to mitigate harassment, including gender bending or gender neutralization through screen name or avatar choice, avoiding communication with other players, and seeking help or social support inside and outside the game. Both general and sexual harassment predict women’s withdrawal from online games. Sexual harassment, but not general harassment, leads to rumination and subsequent withdrawal. The path from sexual harassment to withdrawal was also mediated by organizational responsiveness, indicating the video game industry plays a key role in whether women continue to participate after harassment occurs.
186 citations
TL;DR: This study employed focus groups to examine the ways Syrian refugees living in a large refugee camp in Jordan are using cell phones to cope with information precarity, a condition of information instability and insecurity that may result in heightened exposure to violence.
Abstract: This study employed focus groups to examine the ways Syrian refugees living in a large refugee camp in Jordan are using cell phones to cope with information precarity, a condition of information instability and insecurity that may result in heightened exposure to violence. These refugees are found to experience information precarity in terms of technological and social access to relevant information; the prevalence of irrelevant, sometimes dangerous information; inability to control their own images; surveillance by the Syrian state; and disrupted social support.
169 citations
TL;DR: The dualities underpinning memes’ structure lead to their performance as contested cultural capital, and when memes are used as jabs at the most intense points of arguments, they function simultaneously as signifiers of superior authoritative status and as reminders of common affinity.
Abstract: This article explores the workings of memes as cultural capital in web-based communities. A grounded analysis of 4chan’s /b/ board reveals three main formulations of memes as capital, delineating them as subcultural knowledge, unstable equilibriums, and discursive weapons. While the first formulation follows well-documented notions about subcultural knowledge as a basis for boundary work, the latter two focus on the dualities intrinsic to Internet memes. The contradiction between following conventions and supplying innovative content leads to memes’ configuration as unstable equilibriums, triggering constant conflict about their “correct” use. Paradoxically, this struggle highlights collective identity, as it keeps shared culture at the center of discussion. Similarly, when memes are used as jabs at the most intense points of arguments, they function simultaneously as signifiers of superior authoritative status and as reminders of common affinity. Thus, the dualities underpinning memes’ structure lead to ...
169 citations
TL;DR: This article foregrounds the ways in which members of the Quantified Self ascribe value and meaning to the data they generate in self-tracking practices, and suggests that it makes more sense to view these practitioners as “quantifying selves.”
Abstract: This article foregrounds the ways in which members of the Quantified Self ascribe value and meaning to the data they generate in self-tracking practices. We argue that the widespread idea that what draws self-trackers to numerical data is its perceived power of truth and objectivity—a so-called “data fetishism”—is limiting. Using an ethnographic approach, we describe three ways in which self-trackers attribute meaning to their data-gathering practices which escape this data fetishist critique: self-tracking as a practice of mindfulness, as a means of resistance against social norms, and as a communicative and narrative aid. In light of this active engagement with data, we suggest that it makes more sense to view these practitioners as “quantifying selves.” We also suggest that such fine-grained accounts of the appeal that data can have, beyond its allure of objectivity, are necessary if we are to achieve a fuller understanding of Big Data culture.
160 citations
TL;DR: It was found that Twitter helped rumor spreaders circulate false information within homophilous follower networks, but seldom functioned as a self-correcting marketplace of ideas.
Abstract: Social media can be a double-edged sword for political misinformation, either a conduit propagating false rumors through a large population or an effective tool to challenge misinformation. To understand this phenomenon, we tracked a comprehensive collection of political rumors on Twitter during the 2012 US presidential election campaign, analyzing a large set of rumor tweets (n = 330,538). We found that Twitter helped rumor spreaders circulate false information within homophilous follower networks, but seldom functioned as a self-correcting marketplace of ideas. Rumor spreaders formed strong partisan structures in which core groups of users selectively transmitted negative rumors about opposing candidates. Yet, rumor rejecters neither formed a sizable community nor exhibited a partisan structure. While in general rumors resisted debunking by professional fact-checking sites (e.g. Snopes), this was less true of rumors originating with satirical sources.
144 citations
133 citations
TL;DR: It is found that Facebook status updates and private messaging are independently associated with perceived support, arguing that these affordances are an outcome of the “pervasive awareness” provided by social media.
Abstract: Existing research suggests that social media use is associated with higher levels of social capital—the resources contained within a person’s network of friends, family, and other acquaintances. However, in predicting access to these resources, it has been impossible to distinguish the affordances of social media from the underlying advantage of maintaining a favorable social network of relationships on- and offline. Based on data from a representative, national survey, we compare the relationship between social network structure and various activities on Facebook for one type of resource: informal social support in the form of companionship, emotional support, and tangible aid. In addition to a positive association between number of close ties, overall network size and diversity and social support, we find that Facebook status updates and private messaging are independently associated with perceived support. We argue that these affordances are an outcome of the “pervasive awareness” provided by social media.
TL;DR: This is a review of Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Updating to remain the same: Habitual new media.
Abstract: This is a review of Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Updating to remain the same: Habitual new media. The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 2016; ISBN: 9780262034494. This paper was accepted for publication in the journal New Media and Society and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816683947a
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the child represents a limit case of adult normative discourses about both rights and digital media practices, and harness the radical potential of the figure of the child to rethink (human and children's) rights in relation to the digital.
Abstract: Rights-based approaches to children’s digital media practices are gaining attention offering a framework for research, policy and initiatives that can balance children’s need for protection online with their capacity to maximize the opportunities and benefits of connectivity. But what does it mean to bring the concepts of the digital, rights and the child into dialogue? Arguing that the child represents a limit case of adult normative discourses about both rights and digital media practices, this article harnesses the radical potential of the figure of the child to rethink (human and children’s) rights in relation to the digital. In doing so, we critique the implicitly adult, seemingly invulnerable subject of rights common in research and advocacy about digital environments. We thereby introduce the articles selected for this special issue and the thinking that links them, in order to draw out the wider tensions and dilemmas driving the emerging agenda for children’s rights in the digital age.
TL;DR: Social Media offers a succinct summary option for instructors who are likewise weighing tradeoffs in interrogating this always-evolving, ever-popular object of study, and Sheldon's offering gathers a wide-ranging swath of empirical work in one place.
Abstract: Culture of Connectivity. In contrast, Sheldon’s offering gathers a wide-ranging swath of empirical work in one place. As an appendix, Social Media offers a very short history of social media. What it needs more, though, is a section dedicated to its future. Reading about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest (and throwbacks like LiveJournal, SixDegrees, and MySpace) makes one wonder how much platform-specific work will date. Perhaps alternative approaches, such as Eveland’s (2003) mix-of-attributes, could be discussed in the context of a larger debate about abstraction and generalizability in social media research. Likewise, the structure of Social Media—and again, the fact that it addresses a moving target—means it overlooks some of the unique phenomena currently consuming scholars’ interest, such as algorithmic filtering, social bots, and “fake news.” A chapter devoted to understanding social media through the lens of network analysis is even more sorely missed. Overall, though, Sheldon offers a succinct summary option for instructors who are likewise weighing tradeoffs in interrogating this always-evolving, ever-popular object of study.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that motivations for being offline changed between 2005 and 2013 among non- and ex-users in two high-diffusion European countries, and that non-user populations became more concentrated in vulnerable groups.
Abstract: Research into reasons for Internet non-use has been mostly based on one-off cohort studies and focused on single-country contexts. This article shows that motivations for being offline changed between 2005 and 2013 among non- and ex-users in two high-diffusion European countries. Analyses of Swedish and British data demonstrate that non-user populations have become more concentrated in vulnerable groups. While traditional digital divide reasons related to a lack of access and skills remain important, motivational reasons increased in importance over time. The ways in which these reasons gain importance for non- and ex-user groups vary, as do explanations for digital exclusion in the different countries. Effective interventions aimed at tackling digital exclusion need to take into consideration national contexts, changing non-user characteristics, and individual experience with the Internet. What worked a decade ago in a particular country might not work currently in a different or even the same country.
TL;DR: This article investigates the metaphor of the Quantified Self as it is presented in the magazine Wired (2008–2012), finding a knowledge system that remains flexible in its aims and can be used as a resource for epistemological inquiry and in the formation of alternative paradigms.
Abstract: This article investigates the metaphor of the Quantified Self (QS) as it is presented in the magazine Wired (2008–2012). Four interrelated themes—transparency, optimization, feedback loop, and biohacking—are identified as formative in defining a new numerical self and promoting a dataist paradigm. Wired captures certain interests and desires with the QS metaphor, while ignoring and downplaying others, suggesting that the QS positions self-tracking devices and applications as interfaces that energize technological engagements, thereby pushing us to rethink life in a data-driven manner. The thematic analysis of the QS is treated as a schematic aid for raising critical questions about self-quantification, for instance, detecting the merging of epistemological claims, technological devices, and market-making efforts. From this perspective, another definition of the QS emerges: a knowledge system that remains flexible in its aims and can be used as a resource for epistemological inquiry and in the formation of...
TL;DR: It is argued that the gender binary has regulated Facebook’s design strategy while the co-existence of binary and non-binary affordances has enabled the company to serve both users and advertising clients simultaneously.
Abstract: A February 2014 iteration of Facebook’s software upgraded the number of options for gender identification from 2 to 58. Drawing on critical theoretical approaches to technology, queer theory, and insights from science and technology studies, this iteration is situated within a 10-year history of software and user modifications that pivot around gender. I argue that the gender binary has regulated Facebook’s design strategy while the co-existence of binary and non-binary affordances has enabled the company to serve both users and advertising clients simultaneously. Three findings are revealed: (1) an original programming decision to store three values for gender in Facebook’s database became an important fissure for non-binary possibilities, (2) gender became increasingly valuable over time, and (3) in the deep level of the database, non-binary users are reconfigured into a binary system. This analysis also exposes Facebook’s focus on authenticity as an insincere yet highly marketable regulatory regime.
TL;DR: The topic of how personal digital data and their circulations can be made more perceptible and therefore interpretable to people with the use of three-dimensional materialisations is explored.
Abstract: People’s encounters and entanglements with the personal digital data that they generate is a new and compelling area of research interest in this age of the ascendancy of digital data. Masses of pe...
TL;DR: Results drawn from multinomial regressions indicate that attitudes play at least as large a role as socio-economic factors in determining the likelihood of belonging to specific (non-user categories) in Internet use.
Abstract: Research into digital inequalities has shifted from a binary view of Internet use versus non-use to studying gradations in Internet use. However, this research has mostly compared categories of users only. In addition, the role of attitudes in digital inequalities has been largely overlooked. This article addresses these limitations by performing a systematic analysis of factors that distinguish low Internet users from non-users, regular users, and broad users. In addition to socio-demographic characteristics, we examine attitudinal variables. Results drawn from multinomial regressions indicate that attitudes play at least as large a role as socio-economic factors in determining the likelihood of belonging to specific (non-)user categories. This identifies positive attitudes toward technologies and the Internet as a crucial step toward Internet adoption. Hence, digital inequality research needs to consider factors other than traditional socio-economic ones to draw a complete picture.
TL;DR: Focusing on how youth use material, embodied, and visual texts to reinforce, challenge, combat, and/or resist identities of difference, this article considers how the so-called visual vernaculars and material texts of youth lifestreaming offer alternative conceptions to contemporary new media writing and storying of the self.
Abstract: Drawing from a subset of data from a multi-year connective ethnographic study with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth, this article explores the scriptural counter-economy of composing new media narratives across online/offline contexts. Combining theoretical constructs from “multi-” literacy studies alongside visual and textual analysis, this article describes the influences of Web 2.0 technologies and photo-based composing tools on contemporary configurations of LGBTQ youth identity making. Giving visuality a place of primacy, this article focuses on two larger thematic findings: snapping selfies as sedimentary identity texts and curating lifestreams as operationalizing community. Focusing on how youth use these material, embodied, and visual texts to reinforce, challenge, combat, and/or resist identities of difference, this article considers how the so-called visual vernaculars and material texts of youth lifestreaming offer alternative conceptions to contemporary new media wr...
TL;DR: The logic of big data analytics, which promotes an aura of unchallenged objectivity to the algorithmic analysis of quantitative data, preempts individuals’ ability to self-define and closes off any opportunity for those inferences to be challenged or resisted.
Abstract: This article looks at how the logic of big data analytics, which promotes an aura of unchallenged objectivity to the algorithmic analysis of quantitative data, preempts individuals’ ability to self-define and closes off any opportunity for those inferences to be challenged or resisted. We argue that the predominant privacy protection regimes based on the privacy self-management framework of “notice and choice” not only fail to protect individual privacy, but also underplay privacy as a collective good. To illustrate this claim, we discuss how two possible individual strategies—withdrawal from the market (avoidance) and complete reliance on market-provided privacy protections (assimilation)—may result in less privacy options available to the society at large. We conclude by discussing how acknowledging the collective dimension of privacy could provide more meaningful alternatives for privacy protection.
TL;DR: A 35-item instrument for measuring gratifications of photo-tagging on Facebook is developed and validated and offers nine gratifications: likes and comments, social influence, peer pressure, gains popularity, entertainment, feels good, social sharing, affection, and convenience.
Abstract: Using a multi-stage investigation, this study developed and validated a 35-item instrument for measuring gratifications of photo-tagging on Facebook. The questions were developed based on open-ended responses of 141 people who use photo-tags on Facebook. From their answers, 58 items were extracted and then tested on 780 people. This resulted in a 35-item scale that was re-examined with 313 adolescents and 186 adult photo-taggers. The 35-item instrument offers nine gratifications: likes and comments, social influence, peer pressure, gains popularity, entertainment, feels good, social sharing, affection, and convenience. The factorial structure and instrument validity and reliability were high and fairly stable over time. The findings are discussed in relation to the uses and gratifications theory, and the practical implications of this new instrument are explored.
TL;DR: The relationship between the use of SNSs and involvement in discussions with politically similar and dissimilar others among a sample of US Democrats and Republicans is examined, indicating that Republicans participate more frequently than Democrats in cross-cutting exchanges on S NSs.
Abstract: Disagreement persists as to whether social networking sites (SNSs) are used more frequently to facilitate cross-cutting or like-minded discussions. We examine the relationship between the use of SNSs and involvement in discussions with politically similar and dissimilar others among a sample of US Democrats and Republicans. Affective polarization is negatively related to involvement in cross-cutting discussions, suggesting that individuals extend their dislike of the opposing political party to out-party members within their online social networks. Moreover, political discussion with one’s friends on SNSs plays a mediating role in involvement in both cross-cutting and like-minded discussions. Finally, party identification moderates the relationship between SNS use and involvement in cross-cutting discussions, indicating that Republicans participate more frequently than Democrats in cross-cutting exchanges on SNSs. In the light of these findings, we discuss the contribution of SNSs to the ideals of deliber...
TL;DR: It is shown that a relatively low number of online exemplars considerably influence perceived public support for the eviction of violent immigrants and supporters of eviction were less willing to speak out on the issue online and offline when confronted with exemplars contradicting their opinion.
Abstract: In modern media environments, social media have fundamentally altered the way how individual opinions find their way into the public sphere. We link spiral of silence theory to exemplification research and investigate the effects of online opinions on peoples’ perceptions of public opinion and willingness to speak out. In an experiment, we can show that a relatively low number of online exemplars considerably influence perceived public support for the eviction of violent immigrants. Moreover, supporters of eviction were less willing to speak out on the issue online and offline when confronted with exemplars contradicting their opinion.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define governance as reflexive coordination, focusing on those critical moments when routine activities become problematic and need to be revised, thus, when regular coordination itself requires coordination.
Abstract: Following recent theoretical contributions, this article suggests a new approach to finding the governance in Internet governance. Studies on Internet governance rely on contradictory notions of governance. The common understanding of governance as some form of deliberate steering or regulation clashes with equally common definitions of Internet governance as distributed modes of ordering. Drawing on controversies in the broader field of governance and regulation studies, we propose to resolve this conceptual conundrum by grounding governance in mundane activities of coordination. We define governance as reflexive coordination – focusing on those ‘critical moments’, when routine activities become problematic and need to be revised, thus, when regular coordination itself requires coordination. Regulation, in turn, can be understood as targeted public or private interventions aiming to influence the behaviour of others. With this distinction between governance and regulation, we offer a conceptual framework...
TL;DR: It is revealed that most non-users in the sample deliberately do not use SNSs, and perceive SNS communication as cold and narcissistic and view the usefulness of S NSs to be low, which indicates a generational culture gap in how young versus older people experience SNSS.
Abstract: While there has been a great deal of research on younger people using Social Networking Sites (SNSs), there has been less work on older people and non-users. We present a mixed-methods design with a technology-acceptance survey and focus-group interviews to study older Norwegian non-users’ perceptions of SNSs. Our study reveals that most non-users in our sample deliberately do not use SNSs. They perceive SNS communication as cold and narcissistic and view the usefulness of SNSs to be low. This finding indicates a generational culture gap in how young versus older people experience SNSs. Privacy and security concerns are also prevalent. Non-users, expressing an interest in SNSs, believe SNSs could increase contact with family and friends, but perceive lack of competence to be a barrier.
TL;DR: This study illuminated how CEOs’ responsive and assertive communications induce theCEOs’ followers to perceive the corporate leaders as amicable role models and caring friends, which in turn improve their trust of, satisfaction with, and advocacy for the company.
Abstract: As one of the first empirical analyses focusing on corporate executive officers’ (CEOs) communication style on social media and its impacts, the study aims to advance the theoretical understanding of CEO sociability and the mechanism underneath its effects on the broader public relations outcome of organization–public relationship and public advocacy. Through a quantitative survey with 332 social media users who have followed corporate CEOs on social media, this study illuminated how CEOs’ responsive and assertive communications induce the CEOs’ followers to perceive the corporate leaders as amicable role models and caring friends, which in turn improve their trust of, satisfaction with, and advocacy for the company. Hence, the findings highlight the pivotal role of CEOs as chief engagement officer in developing meaningful interpersonal interactions and relationships with today’s digital savvy publics.
TL;DR: This article examines broadband adoption programs at community-based and public institutions in the United States in order to understand the ways in which privacy and surveillance issues emerge and are engaged in these settings.
Abstract: Increasing broadband adoption among members of underserved populations remains a high priority among policymakers, advocates, corporations, and affected communities. But questions about the risks entailed in the flow of personal information are beginning to surface and shine light on the tension between broadband’s benefits and harms. This article examines broadband adoption programs at community-based and public institutions in the United States in order to understand the ways in which privacy and surveillance issues emerge and are engaged in these settings. While adults who enroll in introductory digital literacy classes and access the Internet at public terminals feel optimistic about broadband “opportunities,” they encounter “privacy poor, surveillance rich” broadband. Users experience myriad anxieties, while having few meaningful options to meet their concerns.
TL;DR: This theoretical essay employs key concepts from existential philosophy to envision an existential media analysis that accounts for the thrownness of digital human existence and posits the "exister" as the principal subject in media studies and inhabitant of the digital ecology.
Abstract: Our digitally enforced lifeworld is an existential and ambivalent terrain. Questions concerning digital technologies are thus questions about human existence. This theoretical essay employs key concepts from existential philosophy to envision an existential media analysis that accounts for the thrownness of digital human existence. Tracing our digital thrownness to four emergent fields of inquiry, that relate to classic themes (death, time, being there, and being-in-and-with-the-world), it encircles both mundane connectivity and the extraordinary limit-situations (online) when our human vulnerability is principally felt and our security is shaken. In place of a savvy user, this article posits the “exister” as the principal subject in media studies and inhabitant of the digital ecology—a stumbling, hurting, and relational human being, who navigates within limits and among interruptions through the torrents of our digital existence, in search for meaning and existential security.
TL;DR: The state of digital inclusion and exclusion, as well as the intersection between children’s rights and disability rights, are considered, and ways to reconceptualize digital and related rights inclusive of all children are suggested.
Abstract: Children with disabilities, especially those from the Global North, often figure into public discourse as beneficiaries of the “digital revolution.” However, if children’s voices and experiences ar...