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This article analyses how the use of artificial intelligence shapes the way news gets produced and distributed, based on 143 interviews with news workers at 34 leading publishers in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. Drawing on gatekeeping theory and the concept of rationalisation, it describes and explains the use and effects of the technology in the news. Artificial intelligence (AI)

Discussions of risk in qualitative research tend to focus on risks to research participants. However, qualitative researchers also face risks—or uncertainties with potential for harm—because they serve as the research instrument. Communication researchers are uniquely suited to problematize the meaning of risk and extend theory about what risk is by noting that risk is subjective and communicatively

Social media communication of government agencies should ideally be truthful and impartial to sustain public trust in government and support democratic goals. However, the politicization of agencies may harm the benefits that impartial and engaged communication brings. In this study, we provide a linguistic framework for analyzing how agency politicization is reflected in the language of government

This article investigates the development and deployment process of QUIC, a new standard of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that is fostering momentous architectural change in the ways in which communication and data packets transport happens on the Internet. We present QUIC’s standardization process as an analytical site to capture recent evolutions in the balance of power between the so-called

Relational labour has become a critical concept for understanding the consequences of the ongoing relationship between creators and their audiences on social media. This article draws on this discussion to address Brazilian erotic content creators’ perceptions of the impact of relational labour on their sense of self and subjective identity. Combining the concept with the idea of recognition as conceived

In recent years, gender scholars have begun to examine the various costs and benefits of hierarchically arranged femininities. These cultural ideals are particularly appealing in the context of growing digitally mediated interactions, as the symbolic and relational boundaries between these femininities are becoming more fluid. Drawing on 32 in-depth interviews with Romanian content creators on TikTok

The present paper examines the emotional labour of love in algorithmic romance, as represented by Replika, the world’s most popular artificial intelligence companion application, and its implications for ethical artificial intelligence development through the conceptual frame of deep acting . Emotional labour, the theoretical umbrella under which deep acting falls, is introduced as a scope through

This mixed-methods study examined various ways Internet-enabled factors may contribute to problem gambling. A four-wave longitudinal survey was collected at 6-month intervals from Finnish adults ( N = 1530). Fixed-effects regression analyses were based on all available data across the four waves ( n = 4827 observations). Semi-structured interviews ( N = 18) included recovering problem gamblers. Quantitative

Social media influencers (SMIs) are ordinary people who rise to fame via social media. These individuals have repeatedly been labeled as opinion leaders, but often without in-depth theoretical reflection. We fill this gap by introducing a novel typology that allows for greater scrutiny in the identification of different types of opinion leaders in the modern media environment. Using this typology,

Using data from the 2012–2020 European Social Survey and Schwartz’s theory of basic values, this article maps the values of tech-workers, in order to assess and understand their uniqueness and homogeneity. Consistent with prior, mostly US-focused research, we find that European tech-workers hold a liberal worldview, which values openness to change, individualism, and universalism and devalues conservatism

What are the data protection policies in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region? The developments over the last two decades on massive data collection, as well as the developments in computational power and data science methods appropriate for extracting insights from digital trace databases, have led to increased importance on the protection of the data of citizens, particularly sensitive

This study unpacks the implicit and explicit political functions nostalgia takes in incel discussions on the past on the incels.is forum. By combining a discourse theoretical approach with the theoretical framework of fantasy, the study demonstrates how an imagined ideal past is used to construct community and collective identity in an incel-specific, antagonistic way. Nostalgic fantasies articulated

Politicians on social media curate the flow of information their followers are exposed to, and they share news as a way to do so. Previous research has shown that they are strategic in their selection of news stories—they select specific news items and outlets to appeal to their online audiences. The reach of politicians’ news-sharing posts and their possible effects, are, however, influenced by the

Immersive multi-user virtual reality (VR) enables users to embody a first-person avatar and through them enact agency over their virtual self-representations and identities. Moreover, these visual representations can profoundly impact users’ thinking and behaviour. Despite this, there is a dearth of understanding of how opportunities to create an avatar versus using a preassigned one might affect users

While social media optimistically holds the potential to ameliorate political divides by increasing cross-cutting political talk, numerous studies suggest that social media has instead exacerbated political polarization. Yet, social media is incredibly heterogeneous and variation in platform affordances may result in markedly different democratic outcomes. In this article, we turn to the principles

Of the many solutions to address political misinformation spreading on social media, user correction holds special promise for connective democracy given its emphasis on prioritizing user autonomy and fostering communication and connections across lines of disagreement. But for the connective democratic benefits to be realized, these user corrections should ideally come from those who express strong

This article introduces the analytical approach of practice mapping , using vector embeddings of network actions and interactions to map commonalities and disjunctures in the practices of social media users, as a framework for methodological advancement beyond the limitations of conventional network analysis and visualization. In particular, the methodological framework we outline here has the potential

Conflict and disagreement are integral to healthy democracies, but the extreme polarization observed on many social media platforms poses a serious risk to the core functions of public communication. This theoretical article draws on the concept of connective democracy, further theorizing it to bridge the gap between empirical online deliberation and polarization research. It introduces and refines

Mindful of the spread of negative sentiments toward journalism, scholars have been paying increased attention to audience perceptions of the news media and expectations from journalists (driving an “audience turn” in journalism studies). Adding to this body of knowledge, this study examines audience beliefs on journalistic autonomy, exploring which factors are perceived as influencing journalists.

Facebook groups hold civic potential as fora for connective democracy. Exploring this claim, we offer a contribution to ongoing debates concerning the democratic value of digital communication. Through a mixed-methods approach, including quantitative mapping of approximately 9,000 Danish Facebook groups, netnographic field studies of select groups, and interviews with group moderators, we investigate

In the era of digital communication, social media have often been considered a bastion of freedom of speech, both at national and global levels. However, in Myanmar, the military government has imposed strict control over social media since its coup in 2021, while using them to disseminate authoritarian propaganda. Civilians who have voiced opposition against the regime have been arrested, and foreign

TikTok and the associated technologies for recording and editing short-form video constitute a large and growing portion of online communication. Previous modalities of social media, including static images and especially text, engendered significant attention to the facticity of the communication: was a statement true or false? Did an event actually take place? For a certain genre of stylized, highly

This paper examines how aspirational content creators (ACCs) on the r/NewTubers subreddit forum understand and discuss YouTube’s algorithm. This study employs thematic analysis of 144 r/NewTubers posts that explicitly mentioned algorithms. The analysis reveals four main themes: mythologizing and anthropomorphism, demystification of the algorithm, platform gossip, and community backlash. NewTubers often

Chatbots have become a mundane experience for Internet users. Public sector institutions have recently been introducing more advanced chatbots. In this article, we consider two cases of public sector chatbots, one in Estonia and one in Sweden, seeking to challenge the seemingly coherent understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sector. The aim is to both question the “thingness” of

This article asks how our capacities to conduct critical research on digital power are influenced by depending, empirically and methodologically, on powerful market actors controlling the underlying research infrastructure. Building on discussions at the intersection between digital methods, political economy and infrastructure studies, we zoom in on three cases of widely used commercial data tools

This article critically examines the social implications of data infrastructures designed to moderate contested content categories such as disinformation. It does so in the context of new online safety regulation (e.g. the EU Digital Services Act) that pushes digital platforms to improve how they tackle both illegal and ‘legal but harmful’ content. In particular, we investigate and conceptualise X’s

This article introduces a special issue exploring emerging empirical approaches to studying infrastructures for datafication and their social, political, and economic implications. The merits of empirical research on infrastructures for datafication are drawn out across seven articles offering diverse methodological entry points to develop our understanding of how datafication processes operate across

We outline the concept of ‘architectures of assetization’ as a way to get at the political-economic configuration of datafication in higher education through the layering of educational technology (‘edtech’) onto existing, legacy infrastructures. Edtech provides a useful empirical object of study because of the increasing deployment of new digital technologies in educational organizations; our focus

This article presents a novel methodology to examine the tracking infrastructures that extend datafication across a sample of 14 menopause-related applications. The Software Development Kit (SDK) Data Audit is a mixed methodology that explores how personal data are accessed in apps using ChatGPT4o to account for how digital surveillance transpires via SDKs. Our research highlights that not all apps

This article calls for systematic analysis of the accumulation and exercise of institutional platform power in the digital economy. We examine how the relatively open mobile advertising ecosystem is nevertheless dominated by a handful of platform conglomerates, most prominently Google, Facebook, and Apple. Although extant scholarship acknowledges the concentration of corporate power in digital advertising

Psychological reactance theory is an important theoretical framework that explains resistance to persuasive messages. However, research has shown inconsistencies regarding the effects of reactance on persuasion, the operational treatment of reactance, and the manipulation of threatening language. This meta-analysis (k = 35, combined N = 10,658) consolidates findings from research on psychological reactance

Political influencers use YouTube to share political media, a practice that has proven integral in the curation of alternative influence networks among the political right. This study examines how Black conservative influencers express Black conservative thought within the broader conservative ecosystem, examining their topics of discussion and comparing these narratives to those of other conservatives

Hate speech is widespread in digital media, and such incidents can harm individuals and fuel hostile discourses. Therefore, understanding the factors that shape bystander intervention is crucial. Despite frequent calls for more research, there is a need for greater understanding of how perceived political and digital media literacy are related to the frequency of various forms of online bystander intervention

Using African Technocultural Feminist Theory (ATFT), this study explored how Nigerian Igbo women fashion designers use Instagram to perform digital identities. While there is extensive literature on self-presentation on social media, there is limited research on African women’s self-presentation from a feminist perspective. The Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) of Instagram posts and

In October 2019, widespread protests began in Chile after the government announced an increase in transport fare, which gave way to several social demands. A month later, politicians from different sectors reached an understanding that would open the possibility of writing a new Constitution. Two clear sides emerged: those in favor (Approve) and those against (Reject) the new constitutional project

The use of social media by terrorists for live broadcasts can orchestrate a disruptive media event. The conceptualization of viewing as a ritual reveals its social functions. This study examines the emotional reception of the Jewish majority and Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel to the documented Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Data were collected via a questionnaire distributed to 432 participants

This article uses the dashboard camera (commonly, dashcam) to consider platformed logics of injury. Installed in cars, dashcams are often purposed to arbitrate accidents. In Singapore, however, dashcams have fostered huge communities on social media, who regularly post and comment on dashcam footage. Furthermore, due to the nature of their work, food delivery riders also constitute common subjects

Platformization’s elsewheres refers to other locations and places where platformization as a process takes place. This article focuses on the franchised Japanese convenience store as a particularly salient site from which to understand platformization in Japan. It is also crucial for thinking the platform economy historically and regionally within Asia where Japanese-style convenience stores abound

This article examines how digital platforms construct imperialism in the Asian cultural markets. It discusses the increasing role of global digital platforms in cultural production, referring to the production and circulation of cultural content in Asia. It articulates how global digital platforms in the audio-visual sector, including broadcasting, film, and popular music, have expanded their market

In an era of increasing attention to media trust, some have argued that differentiating between media cynicism and media skepticism (as both attitudinal and behavioral concepts) can advance a more nuanced understanding of media trust and its implications. While previous efforts conceptualized cynicism and skepticism as separate discrete phenomena, this allows the seemingly illogical possibility that

This special issue explores connective democracy, a new theoretical approach to fighting and understanding political polarization and divisiveness online. Connective democracy asks scholars to think about solutions that bridge societal and political divides, particularly on social media. Our collection of six articles theorizes connective democracy and applies the theoretical concept to global situations

The Twitter Moderation Research Consortium is a database of network propaganda and influence operations that includes 115,474 unique Twitter accounts, millions of tweets, and over one terabyte of media removed from the platform between 2017 and 2022. We probe this database using Google’s Vision API and Keras with TensorFlow to test whether foreign influence operations can be identified based on the

Health information behaviors are situational and dynamic in nature. Being confronted with illness-related uncertainty in a specific situation, certain individuals might consistently or temporarily seek, scan, or avoid information and combine these strategies. Relying on an Experience Sampling Method Design study repeatedly querying N = 383 acutely or chronically ill individuals, the study provides

Whether perceived message effectiveness (PME) can be diagnostic for the differences of actual message effect (AME) in campaign message pretesting and how the diagnosticity of PME should be tested have been controversial. To address these issues, we conducted a survey involving 19 campaign messages (N = 760) and statistically analyzed the multilevel relationships among the between-message, within-message

The global spread of political misinformation poses serious challenges to democracies, eroding trust and distorting public discourse. However, research has largely focused on WEIRD countries—Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic—limiting our understanding of how misinformation operates across diverse political, cultural, and technological contexts. This special issue addresses these

Using three U.S. public opinion survey datasets, this study examines whether use of specific social media platforms affects the gaps in factual and perceived knowledge of three wicked science issues among Americans with different racial and socioeconomic makeup. Less-educated Americans are less likely to gain factual knowledge but more likely to gain perceived knowledge from increased social media

Newspapers in most West European countries have historically had strong ties to specific political parties. While formal bonds have vanished, parallelism in news content might still remain; for instance, in a tendency to report more often and more favorably on parties that align with the political leaning of a newspaper. In this article, we ask whether political parallelism exists in newspapers today

This study examines how journalists are grappling with platform migration following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitterin October 2022. Using a mixed-method approach that combines computational analysis of the activities of 861 journalists on Twitter and Mastodon with qualitative interviews of 11 active journalists, this study aims to (1) examine the extent to which journalists have exhibited different

As part of a broader look at the impact of generative AI, this study investigated the emotional responses of journalists to the release of ChatGPT at the time of its launch. By analyzing nearly 1 million Tweets from journalists at major US news outlets, we tracked changes in emotion, tone, and sentiment before and after the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022. Using various computational and natural

Extant research on the gendered dynamics on digital labor platforms and care work is divided in terms of focus: (migrant) men involved in supposedly “masculine” work such as driving and delivery, and home-based repair work, and the feminized invisible work performed by women in home-based care-work such as domestic work and beauty work. While such scholarship has merit, it completely dismisses the

In recent years, the scholarly critique of tech power as a form of digital colonialism has gained prominence. Scholars from various disciplines—including communication, law, computer science, anthropology, and sociology—have turned to this idea (or related ones such as tech colonialism, data colonialism, and algorithmic colonization) to conceptualize the harmful impact of digital technologies globally

This article examines the construction of the ideal influencer across two sites of articulation within the influencer ecology: influencer coaches and platforms. It seeks to make visible the normative model that underpins and regulates influencer identities, practices and monetization, which is tied to the interests and values of different actors. Drawing on a sample of 70 TikTok videos and Instagram

In this article, we extend the concept of “postdigital intimacies” by developing its more-than-human and more-than-digital capacities. We argue that while we have witnessed a gradual flattening out of the digital and non-digital, our institutions, regulations, laws, ethics, and policies still make distinctions between digital experiences and “real life.” This demands a refinement of critical understandings

The ability of informal social media networks to facilitate civic participation is a major topic of political and scholarly debate. Some studies find that social media networks support little, low-cost, periodic, and demographically biased civic participation, while others find the opposite. We argue that many studies do not have an adequate point of comparison to determine the contribution of social

After the Canadian oil corporation Enbridge proposed replacing its Line 3 pipeline in 2014, activists began protesting against its environmental risks and violations of Indigenous rights, among other concerns. As the pipeline’s construction progressed and resistance intensified, a parallel discourse emerged online under the hashtag #StopLine3. This study explores the temporal evolution of that discourse

Social media are becoming a growing presence in our cities, filtering our experience of urban place and enabling locations to “go viral.” This article examines the downstream consequences of this new reality, examining how the urban actors who shape the city consider social media in their work. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with elite investors in S?o Paulo’s gentrifying Centro neighborhood

Public communication change (PCC) is often studied in communication research with a somewhat narrow conceptual focus, for instance, either on the contingency or on the determination of communication development. I argue that instead of considering the various extant theoretical approaches as competing and irreconcilable, the field should strive for a holistic understanding that helps integrate them

This article considers how children’s memeability is entangled with commercial sharenting narratives through two case studies of (mothers) influencers and their daughters in Brazil and Portugal. The Brazilian mother privileges cute aesthetics by enchantment in an inspirational sharenting and does not promote the child’s memeability. In contrast, the Portuguese influencer privileges cringe aesthetics

This article examines children’s digital experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic as a specific aspect of digital divide. Utilizing a survey of 2004 English parents aged 20–55 years, the study explores how various factors – including household living conditions, parents’ sociodemographic status and sociotechnical variables such as children’s usage frequency and intensity, expenditure on technology