Communication, Digital Conversation, and Media Technologies
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Item Conversations with Data: How Data Journalism Affects Online Comments in the New York Times(2025-01-07) Kantor, Avner; Rafaeli, SheizafUsers in the data age have access to more data than ever before, but little is known how they interact with it. Using transparency and multimedia, data journalism (DJ) lets users explore and interpret data on their own. This study examines how DJ affects online comments as a case study of user interactions with data. The corpus comprises 6,400 stories and their comment sections from the DJ and other sections of the New York Times, from 2014-2022. Results indicate that DJ is positively associated with higher level of interactivity between the users. This relationship is mediated by statistical information, information sources, and static visualizations. However, there is a low level of interactivity with the content; consequently, only part of the users use it. The results demonstrate how data accessibility through DJ engages the users in conversation. According to deliberation theory, this creates a conducive environment for democratic processes.Item Let’s Choir-laborate: Designing a Multisensory Technology that Supports Real-Time Interaction in Digital Environments(2025-01-07) Hacker, Janine; Schöbel, Sofia; Carôt, AlexanderThe need to translate collaborative activities beyond work and education into online environments has become increasingly urgent following disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study identifies the requirements and explores the challenges associated with designing a multisensory technology that requires real-time audiovisual interaction, using the case of online group singing. Using a design science research methodology, initial requirements were derived from the literature and translated into a technology solution. The solution was demonstrated in online choir rehearsals and evaluated in interviews with choir members. Our findings highlight the need for synchronous audiovisual cues and social connection between the users to achieve an effective collaborative experience. Our work contributes to the information systems discipline by identifying specific requirements for collaborative multisensory online activities and suggesting improvements for digital collaboration tools in general. Furthermore, online collaborative musicmaking solutions can increase cultural participation and inclusion.Item Self-exposure as a Way of Life. Privacy Tradeoff and Datafied Citizenship(2025-01-07) Nowak, Jakub; Siuda, PiotrThis empirical research-based paper, grounded in media sociology, seeks to advance how datafication transforms citizenship by reconstructing practices and accompanying tensions of “doing” privacy. Upon the analysis of 31 in-depth interviews with activists, we ask how privacy is approached and done by people who perceive it as both important and vulnerable and who compromise their privacy with public outreach. To encapsulate two strands of media research—on privacy and social media visibility—in the context of scholarship on datafied citizenship, we introduce the theoretical concept of self-exposure as a way of life. The concept, we argue, highlights ongoing tradeoffs between securing privacy and being visible in digital environments, and by this, helps to learn the complex status of datafied citizenship.Item From Ads to Addiction: The Role of Online Gambling Advertising Spend in Problem Gambling Search Trends over a Decade(2025-01-07) Vargo, Chris; Hopp, Tobias; Gangadharbatla, Harsha; Pritha, AgarwalThis study examines the impact of online gambling companies’ ad expenditures on Google search behaviors related to gambling problems, using a decade of data (2014 – 2024). We contextualize the rise of problem gambling as a public health issue and discuss the limited, conflicting research on the effects of legalization and advertising. By analyzing Google Trends data as a proxy for gambling addiction, we find that problematic gambling-related searches have increased over time. Although the legality of gambling does not significantly influence search behaviors, increased advertising expenditures are positively correlated with higher search volumes for gambling problems, particularly following the 2018 legalization of sports betting. This relationship strengthens over time, suggesting that sustained exposure to gambling ads may contribute to rising problem gambling behaviors.Item An integrated view of Quantum Technology? Mapping Media, Business, and Policy Narratives(2025-01-07) Suter, Viktor; Ma, Charles; Pöhlmann, Gina; Meckel, Miriam; Steinacker, LéaNarratives play a vital role in shaping public perceptions and policy on emerging technologies like quantum technology (QT). However, little is known about the construction and variation of QT narratives across societal domains. This study examines how QT is presented in business, media, and government texts using thematic narrative analysis. Our research design utilizes an extensive dataset of 36 government documents, 165 business reports, and 2,331 media articles published over 20 years. We employ a computational social science approach, combining BERTopic modeling with qualitative assessment to extract themes and narratives. The findings show that public discourse on QT reflects prevailing social and political agendas, focusing on technical and commercial potential, global conflicts, national strategies, and social issues. Media articles provide the most balanced coverage, while business and government discourses often overlook societal implications. We discuss the ramifications for integrating QT into society and the need for well-informed public discourse.Item Understanding Supporters Response to Online Petitions: A Value System Moderated Perspective(2025-01-07) Owusu, Gabriel; Andoh-Baidoo, Francis; Ayaburi, EmmanuelUnderstanding the effectiveness of online petitions is vital for social change and inclusion. In recent years, the use of online petitions across various cultural contexts has grown rapidly. Although supporting an online petition is voluntary, individual contextual cultural values can influence supporters’ decision to align with an outcome. We theorize that an individual’s value system amplifies the effectiveness of linguistic persuasive appeals on the success of online petitions. Using dataset on online petitions from Change.org we test our thesis. Overall, our results suggest that persuasive appeals such as cognitive, emotional, and moral appeal cues are influenced by an individual’s harmony, embeddedness, hierarchy, mastery, affective autonomy, intellectual autonomy, and egalitarianism values and that culture, in terms of geographical locations may serve as boundary condition.Item AI Deepfake Interaction, Authentication and Correction in Taiwan: Examining the Roles of Echo Chamber and Conspiracy Mentality(2025-01-07) Lin, Trisha T. C.Before 2024 Presidential Elections, this web study investigates how deepfake interaction experiences influence Taiwanese online video users’ act of authentication and correction. Based on a modified Stimulus-Reasoning-Orientation-Response model, we examine the dynamics of deepfake interaction as the media stimulus (S), mediated by echo chamber, conspiracy mentality (R), deepfake self-efficacy and presumed influence (O), which in turn shapes user responses to deepfake authentication and correction (R). Structural Equation Modeling results show that deepfake interaction experience is negatively associated with echo chamber, but positively related to conspiracy mentality, and such interaction results in proactive responses to deepfake authentication and correction. In addition, users with higher tendency of echo chambers demonstrate lower deepfake self-efficacy, and perceive less presumed influence of deepfakes. Yet, the pronounced conspiracy mentality increases deepfake presumed influence. Moreover, deepfake self-efficacy is positively related to authentication and correction activities, while its presumed influence only influences act of authentication. Implications are discussed.Item Political Campaigning and Social Media Affordances – Mood-setting on TikTok(2025-01-07) Kannasto, Elisa; Pöyry, EssiSocial media has become an essential tool for political communication, particularly during elections. Social media affords politicians to share information on political views, interact with potential voters and present themselves in a favorable light. In addition, social media affords conveying feelings and emotions, which may be essential in creating an effective subtext for political arguments and influence. We refer to this practice as mood-setting. By utilizing the affordance theory and by engaging in quantitative and qualitative content analysis and multiple correspondence analysis, we study six successful newcomer candidates in the Finnish parliamentary elections in 2023 and their posts (N=145) on TikTok – a platform centered around concise audiovisual content. The analysis suggests that mood-setting is highly candidate-specific. Affordances of short-video platforms such as TikTok support mood-setting and creative self-presentation, but platform features are used flexibly to set different kinds of moods for influence.Item Like and Hate by Platform: Exploring How Users’ Reactions to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Posts Vary between YouTube and Instagram(2025-01-07) Chae, Seung Woo; Hwang, JenniferHow users' communication varies by social media affordances, especially in the context of political communication, is underexplored. This study extends the existing literature by observing comments on a politician’s identical messages across two platforms, YouTube and Instagram. Comments on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 18 identical videos on both platforms were analyzed using natural language processing. The research design of this study is three-fold. First, we tested if three engagement metrics—number of views, likes, and comments—are significantly associated between the two platforms. Second, we examined which platform has more positive comments. Lastly, we studied how the extent of offensive language and hate speech varies by platform. Our results showed that (1) user engagement with AOC’s videos is consistent across the two platforms, (2) Instagram had more positive comments than YouTube, and (3) YouTube comments were more likely to contain offensive language, whereas Instagram comments were more likely to include hate speech.Item Beyond Friends: Exploring the Effects of Unknown Users' Social Media Posts on Individuals’ Perceptions and Behaviors(2025-01-07) Wu, Mengke; Chang, Jiyeon; Epstein, Ziv; Rand, DavidIndividuals express themselves on social media, but discrepancies between online content and reality are concerning. Previous research has primarily focused on interactions within people’s social circles, highlighting that exposure to idealized posts can lead to negative effects through social comparison or positive emotions via emotional contagion. This study examines a less-explored scenario: browsing posts from unknown users. 499 participants were randomly assigned to view one of the simulated feed–idealized, harsh, or neutral life posts. The analysis revealed minimal influence from idealized posts, whereas harsh posts significantly worsened participants' mood, life satisfaction, and social self-evaluation. Feed variations had no effect on subsequent posting behavior. These findings suggest that in the short term, emotional contagion is more likely to occur over social comparison after exposure to life moments from people outside one's social circles. This study contributes to understanding the effects of social media feeds and provides insights for improving the social media environment.