"The report documents the quality and usability of Facebook and YouTube content moderation policies in four languages. It found that the translations of Facebook and YouTube's content moderation policies in these languages are far below a standard that would be considered acceptable by the average u
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ser. Each of the translations showed numerous and systematic errors that impacted readers' ability to understand the policy without referencing the original version in English. The report also discusses how translation impacts the entire value chain of content moderation and platform governance - from end-users' ability to report content to moderators' ability to detect and remove harmful content and to regulators' knowledge about what content is on the platform. The report includes recommendations for improving translation policies and processes, as well as for advancing best practices in translation across the industry." (Publisher description)
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"While social media companies dress their content moderation policies in the language of human rights, their actions are largely driven by business priorities, the threat of government regulation, and outside pressure from the public and the mainstream media. This report demonstrates the impact of c
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ontent moderation by analyzing the policies and practices of three platforms: Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Our evaluation compares platform policies regarding terrorist content (which often constrict Muslims' speech) to those on hate speech and harassment (which can affect the speech of powerful constituencies), along with publicly available information about enforcement of those policies." (Introduction, page 3)
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"YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world, and its algorithm drives 70% of watch time on the platform—an estimated 700 million hours every single day. For years, that recommendation algorithm has helped spread health misinformation, political disinformation, hateful diatribes, and o
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ther regrettable content to people around the globe. YouTube’s enormous influence means these films reach a huge audience, having a deep impact on countless lives, from radicalization to polarization [...] 37,380 YouTube users stepped up as YouTube watch dogs, volunteering data about the regrettable experiences they have on YouTube for Mozilla researchers to carefully analyze. As a result, Mozilla gained insight into a pool of YouTube's tightly-held data in the largest-ever crowdsourced investigation into YouTube's algorithm. Collectively, these volunteers flagged 3,362 regrettable videos, coming from 91 countries, between July 2020 and May 2021. This report highlights what we learned from our RegretsReporter research. Specifically, we uncovered three main findings: 1. YouTube Regrets are disparate and disturbing. Our volunteers reported everything from Covid fear-mongering to political misinformation to wildly inappropriate "children's" cartoons. The most frequent Regret categories are misinformation, violent or graphic content, hate speech, and spam/scams. 2. The algorithm is the problem. 71% of all Regret reports came from videos recommended to our volunteers by YouTube's automatic recommendation system. Further, recommended videos were 40% more likely to be reported by our volunteers than videos that they searched for. And in several cases, YouTube recommended videos that actually violate their own Community Guidelines and/or were unrelated to previous videos watched. 3. Non-English speakers are hit the hardest. The rate of YouTube Regrets is 60% higher in countries that do not have English as a primary language (with Brazil, Germany and France being particularly high), and pandemic-related Regrets were especially prevalent in non-English languages." (Executive summary)
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"In der öffentlichen Debatte wird Online-Videos aus dem Spektrum des radikalen Islam zugeschrieben, einen großen Einfluss auf junge Menschen auszuüben. Doch wie nehmen junge Muslim*innen und Nicht-Muslim*innen diese Videos tatsächlich wahr? Wie stark wird ihre Sicht auf die Inhalte von ihrem Rel
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igionsverständnis, ihrer sozialen Zugehörigkeit und aktuellen politischen und gesellschaftlichen Debatten in Deutschland beeinflusst? Diese qualitative Studie untersucht die Rezeption ausgewählter radikalislamischer Videos von Marcel Krass, Ahmad Armih (bekannt unter dem Pseudonym »Ahmad Abul Baraa«) sowie von Yasin Bala (»Yasin al-Hanafi«)." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This document reports an increase in so-called “hate speech” posts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although dissimilar, such an increase can be observed in the transparency reports of the different platforms and the surge in content moderation since M
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arch 2020. During the same period—as a result of the lockdown measures adopted in most countries around the world—platforms increased the use of AI tools for content moderation. Therefore, we can’t fully say whether the interannual growth is linked to increased posts or changes in monitoring systems." (Executive summary)
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"By examining Russian YouTube, this article has attempted to show how in this particular digital environment a shift in social attitudes and the emergence of counterpublics are likely to occur, thus advancing a bottom-up approach to social change. The paper has proceeded in three steps. The first se
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ction reviewed and linked three distinct, yet interrelated theoretical terrains: social-political change, social attitudes change, and the public sphere. This section advanced the claim that a change in social attitudes must precede any bottom-up social change, and that the former is contingent upon the public’s ability to develop a reflective agency, that is, a capacity to reflect upon one’s previously held beliefs. The four conditions under which such reflective agency is likely to emerge were outlined and then linked to the emergence of counterpublics. On the basis of the theoretical discussion, the ensuing methodological and empirical sections have shown that all four conditions obtain to different degrees on Russian YouTube, thereby allowing for counterpublics to emerge. These four conditions are: a non-institutionalised environment, exogenous shocks, presence of difference and exposure to difference." (Conclusion, page 28)
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"The issue of ‘China colonizing Africa’ received significant attention in both traditional and social media in the periods before, during and after the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) 2018 meeting. This study traces these discourses on YouTube [...] The study finds that the themes and
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the sentiments reflect the dominance of pessimistic and optimistic perspectives on the Africa–China relationship. Furthermore, the study shows that the themes discussed have not offered new perspectives but instead the discussions have repackaged old narratives as part of agenda building efforts by the protagonists. The study, therefore argues that social media have become important platforms for activation of issues on the Africa–China relationship, hence the persistence of these old narratives is attributed to lack of effective responses to issues on social media by both African countries and Chinese officials." (Abstract)
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"Esta es una obra miscelánea que se adentra, desde múltiples perspectivas, en las interacciones entre educación y comunicación por medio de la influencia global de las redes sociales. En un contexto hiperconectado, pero no necesariamente ‘empoderado,’ resulta esencial la formación en compet
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encias mediáticas para que la ciudadanía pueda responder de forma inteligente, crítica y creativa ante el gran reto de la ‘pantalla global.’ El texto es resultado de los trabajos de la Red Interuniversitaria Euroamericana «Alfamed» en el V Congreso Internacional de Competencias Mediáticas: «Redes sociales y ciudadanía: Hacia un mundo ciberconectado y empoderado», celebrado en dos modalidades: versión virtual del 14 al 16 de octubre de 2020, y versión presencial del 5 al 7 de mayo de 2021 en Quito (Ecuador)." (Cubierta del libro)
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"This study investigates how three young Arab influencers negotiate their identities in cyberspace. Abdallah Al Maghlouth, Abdulrahman Mohammed, and Laila Hzaineh were selected for this study because they were listed among the top MENA influencers by the Arab Social Media Summit (2015) or by Stepfee
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d.[1] The article draws on the cultural hybridity perspective to demonstrate how these influencers articulate cultural identity across three themes: human engagement, women’s empowerment, and cultural revivalism. Cultural hybridity gained prominence within a range of cultural and social theories beginning in the 1980s. Recently, it has come to be interchangeably used with Robertson’s notion of ‘glocalization’ (Robertson 2012). Hybridity is a dynamic process necessary for cultural co-existence, continuity and for reconciling global sets of values with local (dominantly Arab-Islamic) social norms. Identity is informed by aspects of belonging or not to social groups; cyberspace is a new frontier for shaping and renewing social identities in the Middle East, with the majority of the population under 25 years and great levels of internet penetration, it is important to examine emerging sense of self and groups amongst Arab youth in cyberspace." (Abstract)
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"In Deutschland nutzen laut ARD/ZDF-Online-Studie von 2018 zwei Drittel der 14- bis 29-Jährigen täglich YouTube, bei Kindern dürfte der Anteil sogar noch höher liegen. Sie wollen sich damit in erster Linie zerstreuen. Die Auswertung der deutschen Top-100-Kanäle ergab: über ein Drittel bietet U
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nterhaltung (Comedy, Streiche, Wettkämpfe, Video-Tagebücher); ein Viertel sind reine Musikkanäle; 15 % der Angebote sind primär durch Spiele (Gaming) geprägt; knapp zehn Prozent der Videokanäle sind dem Bereich Beauty & Lifestyle zuzuordnen; gerade einmal vier Kanäle beschäftigen sich im weiten Sinne mit Politik und Wissen. Eine herausragende Stellung als Akteure nehmen dabei die so genannten Influencer ein. Diese digitalen Meinungsführer spielen in 56 der Top-100-Kanäle die Hauptrolle, unter den Top 20 sind allein 15 Influencer vertreten. Influencer wollen und sollen auf ihr Publikum „authentisch“ wirken, in jedem Fall haben sie Einfluss auf die Identitätsbildung von Jugendlichen und vor allem Kindern. Häufig auf sehr einseitige Weise und – nimmt man die Bildungsansprüche der Aufklärung als Bewertungsgrundlage – meist nicht zum Guten. Während Umfragen zeigen, dass die ‚Jugend von heute‘ weltoffen, pragmatisch und bis zu einem gewissen Grade auch postmaterialistisch eingestellt ist, predigt die große Mehrheit der digitalen Meinungsführer einen ungezügelten Konsum und führt dem jungen Publikum tradierte Rollenbilder von Mann und Frau vor. Auffällig ist zudem die hohe Quote (43 %) von Influencern mit Migrationshintergrund bei den deutschen Top-100-Kanälen – ein Hinweis darauf, dass migrantische Publizisten so einen leichteren Zugang zum Mediensystem als über die klassischen Medien finden. Insgesamt zeigt sich, dass die implizit gesellschaftspolitischen Botschaften tendenziell neoliberalen (Konsumismus) oder konservativen Charakter (tradierte Geschlechterrollen) haben." (Zusammenfassung, Seite 6-7)
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"El texto se inicia con un trabajo estelar del maestro Ismar de Oliveira-Soares (Brasil), un referente latinoamericano e internacional sobre la Educomunicación durante más de cuatro décadas. Su trabajo “Educomunicación universal: Derechos y deberes ante las pantallas” hace una profunda refle
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xión basada en su sabiduría sobre la necesidad de fomentar una ciudadanía inteligente ante el macrocosmos de imágenes y pantallas que nos rodean. El bloque central de este trabajo se centra en “Investigaciones” realizadas en Europa y América de investigadores de Alfamed, en el que se analizan múltiples enfoques y ángulos de un tema complejo que requiere infinitas respuestas. Posiblemente no hay una realidad social tan acuciante que requieran tantas y necesarias alternativas desde la investigación y la academia. Este bloque de “Investigaciones” se distribuye en cuatro secciones: la primera sobre “Enseñanza-aprendizaje”, la más numerosa por la trascendencia de la educación formal en el proceso de alfabetización mediática; en segundo lugar, “Comunicación digital: Creación de contenidos”, por la creciente importancia del “prosumidor” (prosumer) en los procesos de educación en medios; en tercer lugar, “Empoderamiento”, en línea con el gran objetivo de reflexión de este texto que, a su vez, supone un reto social e irremplazable; y finalmente “Acceso y uso” con un análisis sobre las interacciones actuales con los medios. La primera sección “Enseñanza-aprendizaje” se compone de 11 interesantes trabajos provenientes de Europa (España, Italia y Portugal) y América (Bolivia, Brasil, Canadá, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador y Venezuela) [...] El segundo bloque dentro de “Investigación”, titulado “Comunicación digital: Creación de contenidos”, se centra en la nueva comunicación interactiva, bidireccional y multidireccional que permite a cualquier consumidor convertirse en un “prosumidor” (prosumer). La sección se compone de cuatro trabajos firmados por investigadores americanos de Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador y México [...] La segunda parte de este amplio y variado bloque se titula “Buenas prácticas” y se ha diseñado como un complemento de la primera, ya que investigación y acción se retroalimentan y no pueden existir una sin la otra, so pena de perder el necesario contexto teórico-práctico que ha de tener la investigación en competencia mediática y digital." (Prólogo, página 12-14)
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"Since the 1970s, Syrian cinema masters played a defining role in avant-garde filmmaking and political dissent against authoritarianism. After the outbreak of violence in 2011, an estimated 500,000 video clips were uploaded making it one of the first YouTubed revolutions in history. This book is the
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first history of documentary filmmaking in Syria. Based on extensive media ethnography and in-depth interviews with Syrian filmmakers in exile, the book offers an archival analysis of the documentary work by masters of Syrian cinema, such as Nabil Maleh, Ossama Mohammed, Mohammed Malas, Hala Al Abdallah, Hanna Ward, Ali Atassi and Omar Amiralay. Joshka Wessels traces how the works of these filmmakers became iconic for a new generation of filmmakers at the beginning of the 21st century and maps the radical change in the documentary landscape after the revolution of 2011. Special attention is paid to the late Syrian filmmaker and pro-democracy activist, Bassel Shehadeh, and the video-resistance from Aleppo and Raqqa against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State." (Publisher description)
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"This book interrogates the possibilities of global thinking from the south in the field of media, communication, and cultural studies. Through lenses of millennial media cultures, it refocuses the praxis of the global south in relation to the established ideas of globalization, development, and con
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ditions of postcoloniality. Bringing together original empirical work from media scholars from across the global south, the volume highlights how contemporary thinking about the region as theoretical framework - an emerging area of theory in its own right - is incomplete without due consideration being placed on narrative forms, both analogue and digital, traditional and sub-cultural. From news to music cultures, from journalism to visual culture, from screen forms to culture-jamming, the chapters in the volume explore contemporary popular forms of communication as manifested in diverse global south contexts." (Publisher description)
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"Teaching the concrete methods needed to use digital devices, search engines and social media platforms to study some of the most urgent social issues of our time, this is the essential guide to the state of the art in researching the natively digital. With explanation of context and techniques and
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a rich set of case studies, Richard Rogers teaches you how to: build a URL list to discover internet censorship; transform Google into a research machine to detect source bias; make Twitter API outputs comprehensible and tell stories; research Instagram to locate ‘hashtag publics’; extract and fruitfully analyze Facebook posts, images and video; and much, much more." (Publisher description)
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"Die Befragung hat gezeigt, dass das Thema Gleichberechtigung durchaus etwas ist, mit dem sich fast alle Nutzerinnen und Nutzer grundsätzlich beschäftigen. Sie hat auch einen klaren Zusammenhang zwischen der Nutzung von Social Media und der persönlichen Einstellung der Userinnen und User hinsicht
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lich der Gleichberechtigung aufgezeigt: Menschen, die Social Media intensiver nutzen, denken weniger gleichberechtigt als solche, die seltener bei Instagram oder YouTube aktiv sind. Wie die Analyse deutlich gemacht hat, hat eine hohe Anzahl der Userinnen und User noch immer sehr klassische Vorstellungen davon, wer für Kindererziehung und Haushalt zuständig ist oder ob Frauen und Männer bei gleicher Arbeit gleich viel verdienen sollen. Social Media scheint dabei ein Verstärker für traditionelle Ansichten hinsichtlich Geschlechterrollen zu sein – unter anderem ausgelöst durch die stereotypen Darstellungen professioneller Influencerinnen und Influencer. Auf diese Weise werden Rollenbilder in den sozialen Medien hochgehalten und immer wieder aufs Neue rekonstruiert und manifestiert. Dadurch tragen Influencerinnen und Influencer – möglicherweise unbewusst – dazu bei, dass Stereotype nicht aufgebrochen werden können und die Entwicklung der Gleichberechtigung ausgebremst wird." (Seite 10)
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"Este número especialmente dedicado a la radio, a sus públicos, las experiencias locales, comunitarias, tiene la característica de visibilizar la pasión de varias generaciones. La RAC también, moviliza para mostrar un objeto vivo en el campo de investigación de la comunicación en sus múltipl
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es dimensiones. Por último, un conjunto de reseñas dan cuenta de que la radio sigue siendo un medio histórico pero a su vez vigente y alternativo que supo sobrellevar con entereza las transformaciones de leguajes, tecnologías y modos de consumo." (Presentación, página 8)
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"The author demonstrates how core concepts from anthropology—participant-observation, reciprocity, and community—apply to sociality on YouTube. Lange’s book reconceptualizes and updates these concepts for video-sharing cultures. Lange draws on 152 interviews with YouTube participants at gather
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ings throughout the United States, content analyses of more than 300 videos, observations of interactions on and off the site, and participant-observation. She documents how the introduction of monetization options impacted perceived opportunities for open sharing and creative exploration of personal and social messages. Lange’s book provides new insight into patterns of digital migration, YouTube’s influence on off-site interactions, and the emotional impact of losing control over images. The book also debunks traditional myths about online interaction, such as the supposed online/offline binary, the notion that anonymity always degrades public discourse, and the popular characterization of online participants as over-sharing narcissists. YouTubers’ experiences illustrate fascinating hybrid forms of contemporary sociality that are neither purely mediated nor sufficient when conducted only in person. Combining intensive ethnography, analysis of video artifacts, and Lange’s personal vlogging experiences, the book explores how YouTubers are creating a posthuman collective characterized by interaction, support, and controversy." (Publisher description)
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