"Most scholars focus on the prevalence and democratic effects of (partisan) news exposure. This focus misses large parts of online activities of a majority of politically disinterested citizens. Although political content also appears outside of news outlets and may profoundly shape public opinion,
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its prevalence and effects are understudied at scale. This project combines three-wave panel survey data from three countries (total N = 7,266) with online behavioral data from the same participants (over 106M visits). We create a multi-lingual classifier to identify political content both in news and outside (e.g. in shopping or entertainment sites). We find that news consumption is infrequent: just 3.4% of participants’ online browsing comprised visits to news sites. Only between 14% (NL) and 36% (US) of these visits were to news about politics. The overwhelming majority of participants' visits were to non-news sites. Although only 1.6% of those visits related to politics, in absolute terms, citizens encounter politics more frequently outside of news than within news. Out of every 10 visits to political content, 3.4 come from news and 6.6 from non-news sites. Furthermore, exposure to political content outside news domains had the same – and in some cases stronger - associations with key democratic attitudes and behaviors as news exposure. These findings offer a comprehensive analysis of the online political (not solely news) ecosystem and demonstrate the importance of assessing the prevalence and effects of political content in non-news sources." (Abstract)
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"This book departs from the universalising and rescue narratives of poor children and technologies. It offers complex stories on how children's social identities (gender, caste, and religion), cultural norms, and personal aspirations influence their digital experiences. How do children challenge, ci
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rcumvent, or reinforce the dominant sociocultural norms in their engagements with digital technologies? What can we learn about digital technologies and poor children's jugaad and aspirations in the urban sprawls of India? This book explores these questions ethnographically by focusing on how children in three urban slums in India access technologies, inhabit online spaces, and personalise their digital experiences, networks, and identity articulations based on their values and aspirations. It utilises insights from studies on jugaad, expression, and sociality to argue that poor children's material realities, community relations, and aspirations for leisure, class mobility, and belongingness profoundly shape their engagements with digital technologies." (Publisher description)
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"This multi-disciplinary study aims to explore the diverse effects of social media on Afghan youth, focusing on usage patterns, mental health implications, entertainment-driven time allocation, financial expenditures, exposure to explicit content, and academic performance. Methods: A cross-sectional
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online survey was conducted between September and December 2023, gathering responses from 1556 participants (67% males, 33% females) through various social media platforms. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0, employing statistical tests such as ANOVA and Chi-Square to examine relationships between social media usage and its impacts. Results: The study reveals significant links between social media usage and demographic, behavioral, and mental health factors. Key findings include Facebook as the most used platform (83.6%), with the majority of participants spending 1–3 hours daily on social media. Age differences in time spent were significant (F=15.64, p<0.001). Entertainment was the primary use (45.5%), with gender differences in engagement levels. High anxiety (78.5%) and moderate depression (38.3%) were reported. Significant associations between social media use and mental health were found (eg, x2=591.87, p<0.001 for nervousness). Excessive use negatively impacted study habits, with 25.7% feeling it hindered their academic performance. Conclusion: This study highlights the multifaceted impacts of social media on Afghan youth, including both positive aspects like enhanced communication and empowerment and negative aspects such as mental health issues and academic challenges. The significant relationships between social media usage and various life aspects underscore the need for targeted interventions to promote healthy digital habits and mitigate adverse effects. Further research is recommended to explore long-term impacts and effective strategies for managing social media use among Afghan youth." (Abstract)
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"Dieser Report bietet einen Überblick über die im NOTORIOUS Projekt entwickelten und angewandten Methoden und Strategien zur Erhebung und Analyse von Mehrplattform-Social-Media-Daten mit einem Schwerpunkt auf der Aufdeckung von Desinformationsnarrativen. Zur Datensammlung erwiesen sich explorative
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Ansätze, basierend auf Akteur*innen, Inhalten und extern verlinkten Inhalten als notwendig und wurden entsprechend entwickelt und implementiert. Zur Datenaufbereitung und -analyse liegen die Vorteile der von uns entwickelten und vorgestellten Daten-Analyse-Methoden in ihrer Fähigkeit mit vergleichbar geringem Konfigurations-Aufwand, ausreichender Validität und hoher Effizienz große Textmengen zu verarbeiten und komplexe semantische Beziehungen zu erfassen. Hier hat sich die Verwendung semantischer Einbettungen von Texten als sehr effektiv herausgestellt, um Themen und Themenströmungen zu identifizieren. Auch die Erstellung von Ähnlichkeitsnetzwerken aus semantischen Einbettungen erwies sich als leistungsfähige Methode zur Visualisierung der Beziehung zwischen Themen und Akteur*innen. Semantische Ähnlichkeitsnetzwerke ermöglichten darüber hinaus eine Komplexitätsreduktion für Analyst*innen durch die Identifizierung von Clustern, die wir über einen semantischen Abgleich mit Fact-Check-Datenbanken mit bestimmten Desinformationsnarrativen in Verbindung bringen konnten. Mögliche zukünftige Entwicklungen basierend auf unseren Erkenntnissen sind die Integration multimodaler Ansätze und die Erschließung weiterer Datenquellen im Sinne einer kontinuierlichen Verbesserung der Erkennung und Bekämpfung von Desinformation." (Zusammenfassung)
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"Social media platforms have become crucial channels for radical right populist leaders to broadcast anti-immigrant views. These politicians employ various rhetorical appeals, such as pathos (emotional language), logos (logical arguments), and ethos (speaker credibility), to sway public opinion. Thi
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s study considers the anti-immigrant rhetoric of prominent European populist radical right leaders across X, Instagram, and Facebook, analysing the prevalence of these rhetorical strategies across different platforms. From the perspective of mediatization theory, politicians can adjust their messages to fit with the design and formats of various social media platforms. Party leaders often resort to emotional appeals on X, with its limited space for communication, as well as on Facebook, where emotional interaction buttons and discussion features can encourage emotional rhetoric as well. Logical appeals (logos) are common on platforms such as Facebook and X, which offer options to easily share information in the form of texts and links. Additionally, ethos, associated with speaker’s credibility, is common in posts on platforms that facilitate closer engagement with the party leaders’ constituents, such as Facebook and Instagram. These findings underscore the importance of considering platform design when shaping political communication strategies." (Abstract)
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"Feelings of collective victimhood have been demonstrated to have a strong effect on ingroup bias, outgroup hostility and support for violence. The use of narratives stirring these feelings in far-right communications is especially concerning given their inclusion in the manifestos of several mass k
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illers across Europe and North America. However, scholars still have little knowledge on the reach of such narratives as well as the extent to which major salient events increase attention to collective victimhood messaging among far-right followers. To address these gaps, we analyze the use of collective victimhood narratives on the popular secure instant messaging service, Telegram, which has exploded in popularity in response to mainstream platforms’ attempts to moderate extremist speech. We develop a supervised machine learning algorithm to predict the presence of these discourses in text from over 18.5 million messages that were extracted from 1,870 far-right Telegram channels. We then use these data to test what impact the George Floyd protests and the storming of the US Capitol had on the frequency of collective narrative discussions on far-right Telegram. Our findings suggest that both events coincided with a significant increase in the use of victimhood narratives, thus providing insight into the radicalization process of far-right communities online." (Abstract)
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"A crucial element of TikTok consumption is the act of sharing TikTok videos with others, such as friends. In this article, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork with young adult TikTok users based in the United Kingdom to investigate this practice. I show how people use TikTok’s “For You” page as
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a resource to facilitate social relationships at a distance and in settings of physical copresence. I highlight how TikTok clips are shared in a phatic manner to activate social relationships, for example, by communicating messages such as “thinking about you” or relating to others by referencing TikTok memes in conversations. Attending to sharing practices, I argue, provides a fruitful way to understand how selfidentities and interpersonal relationships are articulated in social media environments increasingly organized around the logic of personalization." (Abstract)
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"The TikTok self-deprecating (SD) cyberculture is built on the exchange of SD memes among users who deprecate aspects of themselves on a daily basis. Predominantly composed of young people, SD memes on Indonesian TikTok reflect discourses on the daily struggles faced by young Indonesians. To explore
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and categorize the discourses, our research conducted a 6-month virtual ethnography, analyzing 786 videos observed through a conditioned TikTok’s For You Page. This study disclosed persistent discourses in the lives of young Indonesians. The article further discusses the aspects that support TikTok’s SD cyberculture in revealing private struggles that young people might hesitate to share with whom they have daily interactions." (Abstract)
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"This study investigates some of the communicative practices displayed by readers of vertically scrolling digital comics known as webtoons. A big-data emotion detection technique is used to identify, categorize, and analyze the contents of more than 14 million comments posted during the first year o
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f the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors explore the technical affordances of the self-publishing CANVAS section of the Webtoons.com site to demonstrate how an expanding cohort of readers use CANVAS as a chamber for communicating feelings, sharing commiserations, and offering collegial support. In so doing, they contribute to the improvement of participants’ well-being and differentiate themselves from other digital platform users who comment solely on stories, characters, and aesthetics. As such, their parasocial interaction transforms the webtoon format, which has yet to be fully investigated, into a communication platform where the “co-creating engagement” of readers generates a sense of intimacy at a distance. The conclusion highlights theoretical implications surrounding this communal digital technology of the self in the context of artificial intelligence." (Abstract)
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"This study explores the construction of distributed trust under today’s networked environment. Focusing on diaspora micro-influencers’ COVID-19-related videos on Bilibili, this study aims to explore: How platform-specific features of Bilibili enhance the construction of distributed trust; the d
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ynamics among a diversity of sources on trust building; and the ways in which the content of uploaders’ videos and users’ comments contribute to the formation of distributed trust. The results show that user participation, particularly participatory surveillance enabled by platform-specific features, plays a key role in the construction of distributed trust. Although it has new characteristics, we can also see that the formation of distributed trust is not a replacement of the old model but only an outcome of its transformation and evolvement." (Abstract)
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"In this special edition of ITU's Facts and Figures series, we explore the impressive progress and ongoing obstacles SIDS encounter amid the digital revolution. On the occasion of the fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4), our goal is to provide stakeholders with
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accurate data to inform their decisions. The connectivity challenge has grown more complex over the last decade. It's insufficient to simply connect the unconnected. Universal and meaningful connectivity – the possibility for everyone to enjoy a safe, satisfying, enriching, productive and online experience at an affordable cost – is the new policy imperative to harness the potential of connectivity and enable digital transformation.
SIDS share common issues: remoteness, limited markets, narrow economic bases, and high costs for energy and infrastructure. Moreover, they are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, threatening their existence. Digital connectivity is crucial in mitigating these challenges by enabling access to information, facilitating communication, and creating economic opportunities. It can improve disaster response, management, and access to critical services, often constrained by geographic and resource limitations in SIDS. This publication offers a current view of SIDS connectivity and highlights gaps in our understanding, underscoring the urgent need for investment in data infrastructure and statistical capabilities as part of their development strategies." (Foreword)
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"The survey findings reveal that 25 per cent of those aged between 15 and 74 have at least basic digital skills, with 7.8 per cent having above basic digital skills and 17.3 per cent having basic digital skills. The study also found that over a quarter (26.5%) of respondents below the basic level of
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digital skills conduct digital activities in four out of five skill areas. This group, already equipped with devices and Internet access, and familiar with a range of online activities, presents an opportunity for targeted training, particularly in the skills area of safety, to elevate them to the basic level of digital skills.
Moreover, 45 per cent of Azerbaijanis aged between 15 and 74 only possess activities in zero to three skill areas out of five. Even if this group of people is active online, without basic digital skills and rudimentary knowledge of digital technologies, they not only lack the skills to benefit from digitalization but they may face online risks as a consequence. For this group, upskilling will reduce and mitigate any negative impact.
The most important skill areas include safety, digital content creation and problem-solving, and major upskilling interventions and training programmes should be built around these three areas, preferably with targeted upskilling activities for different segments of the population. Moreover, getting a better understanding of why 3.4 per cent of people aged from 15 to 74 have not used the Internet in the past three months will be an important step in getting them online.
The survey recommendations will serve as the basis for designing and planning relevant future government interventions, policies or strategies for digital upskilling at national and regional levels. A number of recommendations, both short and long-term, are outlined by age group. Connections with education institutions are made as formal education offers a structured context to implement digital upskilling strategies to guarantee at least basic digital skills as part of learners’ exit profile from education and training." (Exeuctive summary)
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"Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube wield substantial influence over digital information flows using sophisticated algorithmic recommender systems (RS). As these systems curate personalized content, concerns have emerged about their propensity to amplify polar
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izing or inappropriate content, spread misinformation, and infringe on users’ privacy. To address these concerns, the European Union (EU) has recently introduced a new regulatory framework through the Digital Services Act (DSA). These proposed policies are designed to bolster user agency by offering contestability mechanisms against personalized RS. As their effectiveness ultimately requires individual users to take specific actions, this empirical study investigates users’ intention to contest personalized RS. The results of a pre-registered survey across six countries – Brazil, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and the USA –involving 6,217 respondents yield key insights: (1) Approximately 20% of users would opt out of using personalized RS, (2) the intention for algorithmic contestation is associated with individual characteristics such as users’ attitudes towards and awareness of personalized RS as well as their privacy concerns, (3) German respondents are particularly inclined to contest personalized RS. We conclude that amending Art. 38 of the DSA may contribute to leveraging its effectiveness in fostering accessible user contestation and algorithmic transparency." (Abstract)
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