Salient deliberative norm types in comment sections on news sites

Civil and argumentative public discussions are considered crucial for functioning democracies. Among other factors, the quality of user discussions of political issues on news sites depends on prevalent discussion norms. We integrate injunctive and descriptive norms into news comment research, assuming that the degree of salience of the respective norm influences the commenting behavior. Furthermore, we discuss how technical affordances such as default comment sorting determine the comment visibility and thus the salience of norms. Using data from a content analysis of 8162 comments on eight German news sites, we investigate how the two norm types influence deliberative forms of commenting. The results show that different types of salient injunctive and descriptive norms promote norm-compliant commenting. Furthermore, the default comment sorting can determine which comments are more or less salient. The results underline the importance of distinguishing different norm types in analyzing the quality of user comments in comment sections.

Audience size, moderator activity, gender, and content diversity: Exploring user participation and financial commitment on Twitch.tv

User participation has long been recognized as a cornerstone of thriving online communities. Social live-streaming service (SLSS) communities are built on a subscription-based model and rely on viewers’ participation and financial support. Using the collective effort model and heuristics of social influence, this study examines the influence of streamer and viewer behaviors on viewers’ participation and financial commitment on the SLSS, Twitch.tv. Findings from behavioral data collected over 7 weeks show larger audiences diminish individual participation and financial commitment while moderation may encourage more. Female streamers benefit from increased moderation, earning two to three times more in financial commitment compared to men, who streamed more frequently and for longer durations but attracted much smaller audiences. Viewers’ participation and financial commitment did not differ across streams with more content diversity. Our results demonstrate how group factors influence individual participation and financial commitment in newer subscription-based media.

No trade-offs between news and entertainment: Evidence from online engagement data

In today’s high-choice media environment, some scholars are concerned that people selectively consume media content based on personal interests and avoid others, which might lead to audience fragmentation across different content genres. Individually, there might be trade-offs between those genres, especially entertainment versus news. This study analyzed a large user engagement dataset (~40,000 users’ comments) collected from the Chinese information application Toutiao, one of the most popular information distribution platforms in China. The results showed that (1) the commenters were not fragmented between content genres, and (2) the users’ news engagement was positively associated with their entertainment engagement. The findings indicate that the availability of high media choices will not reduce the news engagement of those who have strong interest in entertainment. Instead, news engagement might increase alongside the augmentation of the sum of information engagement. Finally, we discussed the differences between relative news engagement and absolute news engagement.

Social media literacy: A conceptual framework

Concerns over the harmful effects of social media have directed public attention to media literacy as a potential remedy. Current conceptions of media literacy are frequently based on mass media, focusing on the analysis of common content and evaluation of the content using common values. This article initiates a new conceptual framework of social media literacy (SoMeLit). Moving away from the mass media-based assumptions of extant approaches, SoMeLit centers on the user’s self in social media that is in dynamic causation with their choices of messages and networks. The foci of analysis in SoMeLit, therefore, are one’s selections and values that influence and are influenced by the construction of one’s reality on social media; and the evolving characteristics of social media platforms that set the boundaries of one’s social media reality construction. Implications of the new components and dimensions of SoMeLit for future research, education, and action are discussed.

Deletion discussions on Hebrew Wikipedia: Negotiating global and local ideologies

Much research has documented how global technologies and platforms are part of specific cultures and reflect local values. In this study, I examine the case of Hebrew Wikipedia as representative of localization that is neither top-down (producer-driven) nor bottom-up (user-driven); but rather, it is implemented by mid-level, self-selecting bureaucratic administrators in an ongoing process that is driven by their own perceptions of Wikipedia’s mission. Through an analysis of Hebrew Wikipedia’s deletion discussion pages—in which editors decide what information should be excluded from Wikipedia—I demonstrate how national ideology customarily triumphs over the global, communitarian ethos of the Wikipedia project. Even when decisions are aligned with a more “global” agenda, editors still portray their choices as congruent with the national cause through strategic use of depersonalized discourses about Wikipedia’s policies. I thus argue that global, seemingly “neutral” policies can provide a discursive framework that conceals questions about the power of local ideologies.

“If you didn’t take a selfie, did you even vote?”: Embodied mass communication and citizenship models in “I voted” selfies

After participating in US elections, voters have begun to share “I voted” selfies, or networked self-portraits that display their political participation. “I voted” selfies exist at the intersection of competing ideals of citizenship, including dutiful citizenship, which centers civic duty and voting, and self-actualizing citizenship, which focuses on individualized and expressive forms of political participation. I argue that these images can be understood through historically resonant communication practices, namely, as a mediated manifestation of 19th-century political congregations that I term embodied mass communication. To trace how voters perform embodied visions of citizenship through shared practices of digital self-representation, I conducted a content analysis of “I voted” selfies posted to Twitter on US Election Day 2016. In these selfies, voters present their bodies as civic evidence, frame individual representations to signify visual collectives, and creatively contextualize their political participation. Their selfies suggest how representational rituals can reflect and reconstitute citizenship models.

A battle for truth: Islam-related counterpublic discourse on Scandinavian news media Facebook pages

In this article, I aim to contribute to existing literature on counterpublics by analysing the extent to which competing counterpublics regarding Islam appear in mainstream news outlets’ comment sections on Facebook. By utilising, and slightly modifying, Toepfl and Piwoni’s pioneering theoretical framework for analysing (counter)publics, I identify an Islam-hostile counterpublic and an Islam-sympathetic counterpublic that operate in the examined comment sections. I conducted a quantitative content analysis of Facebook posts (and associated articles) published by 15 established Scandinavian news outlets in 2018 ( N = 599) and the comments written by ordinary Facebook users in response ( N = 6797). I found the majority of the comments mirrored the views presented in the established media posts, but a substantial minority of the comments engaged in counterpublic discourses, contesting the bounds of established discourse around Islam in the Scandinavian public spheres.

The affective embeddings of gacha games: Aesthetic assemblages and the mediated expression of the self

This article argues that the motivations for investing money in gacha games can be a function of the affective embedding of players within the game, and the game within broader circuits of cultural affinity and appeal. While research on gacha games – and the specific role of loot boxes therein – has emphasised their associations with gambling, I contend that affect is another trigger that can motivate seemingly irrational playing behaviours. The affective embeddings of gacha games motivate players to curate aesthetic assemblages of virtual content that enable the mediated expression of the self. Drawing on qualitative data generated among young Singapore-based players of gacha games, I explore how the acquisition of characters, skins and collections can be motivated by the emotional payoff that comes from relationality rather than gambling.

Elevators as media objects manipulating information in time

We investigate elevators as media. Our central argument is that elevators manipulate information in time. Time manipulation of elevators (movement data + genetic algorithms) produces temporal order. Elevators have become media objects because they produce data that are digitally manipulated to optimize movement. We conducted an empirical study in a multinational corporation that manufactures elevators, including 4 months of field research at multiple locations and interviewed 64 people. We show how time manipulation changes with the information architecture: first, time manipulation took place inside and during the movement of elevators by pushing the buttons. Second, time manipulation took place in the cloud by statistical mathematics. The latest development is toward decentralized social application where elevators as independent media objects manipulate time using genetic algorithms and communicate with each other. We reveal how largely hidden media affects our temporality and argue that media theory should study its implications in contemporary society.