Marta Fernández-Ruiz, Martina Piña, Júlia Vilasís-Pamos
{"title":"Video games as spaces for providing information and awareness of algorithmic control in the gig economy","authors":"Marta Fernández-Ruiz, Martina Piña, Júlia Vilasís-Pamos","doi":"10.1177/14614448241307036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241307036","url":null,"abstract":"The gig economy has been explored recently in the media through videos, films, and series. Similarly, different video games have shown the ideology, values, and mechanisms that govern the gig economy. This article applies six mechanisms of algorithmic control at work to achieve a dual objective: to analyze how platform workers experience algorithmic control and to examine the extent to which video games, as a medium for raising critical awareness, reflect these workers’ experiences. We analyzed interviews with 42 platform workers in different sectors and six video games that address this topic. Our findings reveal that these games consistently mirror the dynamics and experiences arising from platform control. Furthermore, through specific elements of their meaningfulness (such as narrative, rules systems, and mechanics, among others), video games simulate situations and processes, sometimes opaque to workers, portraying the reality of the gig economy more explicitly and transparently.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142925115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The expression of values on social media: An analytical framework","authors":"Limor Shifman, Tommaso Trillò, Blake Hallinan, Saki Mizoroki, Avishai Green, Rebecca Scharlach, Paul Frosh","doi":"10.1177/14614448241307035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241307035","url":null,"abstract":"Social media is a central arena for the articulation of values, shaping what people around the world deem important and desirable. However, traditional value typologies struggle to capture the dynamic nature of value expression in digital spheres and overlook new communication-related values prevalent in these environments. Addressing these gaps, we developed an analytical framework for investigating value expression on social media, comprising three general value orientations ( Do well, Do good, and Feel good) and four communicative value orientations ( Inform, Influence, Bond, and Express). We drew on extensive cross-national research to construct the framework and examined its utility through a study of TikTok videos related to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Our analysis shows how value orientations enable the identification of patterns that underpin complex discourses. Ultimately, our framework offers a pathway to understand what people present as valuable on social media, as well as the broader value ecosystem platforms cultivate.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142917098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Peripheral creator labor: Navigating regional marginalization and resistance in social media entertainment","authors":"Errol Salamon","doi":"10.1177/14614448241308520","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241308520","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how social media creators in the United Kingdom navigate regional labor dynamics in small urban cities and towns and their perceptions of potential resistance strategies. Grounded in a creator workers’ inquiry and thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with creators ( N = 53), it expands the notion of peripheral creator labor. It reveals how digital factors and historically entrenched regional disparities exacerbate the global platform precarity experienced by different types of peripheral creators and the relative privilege of peripheral English-language Western-based creators. The study introduces the concepts of regional monetization precarity and localized production space and networking precarity to capture the unique challenges creators face in small urban cities and their shared strategic resistance strategies to effect change, combining professional support and unionization. This study contributes to theoretical understandings of creator labor by challenging a binary notion of “center-periphery” relations and a homogeneous Western user experience in creator economies.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142917099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Heather Hensman Kettrey, Summer Quinn, Monika Nwajei, Madison Leslie, Elizabeth Paradise, Devyn Wishon
{"title":"“Why are you on Tinder if this isn’t what you wanted?” Dating apps as digital brokers of sexual activity in the college hookup sexual market","authors":"Heather Hensman Kettrey, Summer Quinn, Monika Nwajei, Madison Leslie, Elizabeth Paradise, Devyn Wishon","doi":"10.1177/14614448241308521","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241308521","url":null,"abstract":"Scholars have argued that college hookup culture is facilitated by the unique physical and social context of college campuses and that young adults are increasingly using dating apps to initiate hookups. This has inspired calls for researchers to examine the digital interactions that precede face-to-face hookups. In this study, we used a “sexual market” framework to investigate the processes by which college hookups are “digitally brokered” via dating apps. Using data from focus groups conducted with 49 college students representing diverse sexual identities, we analyzed dating app users’ stories of their transitions from digital interactions to face-to-face meetups with matches. Participants discussed three types of consent that matches attempt to digitally broker: app-implied consent, colloquial consent, and (re)negotiated consent. We discuss problems that arise when users attempt to redeem these forms of digitally brokered consent during face-to-face meetups and make recommendations for sexual assault prevention efforts.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142886901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Becoming Red-Pilled: Affective production in online countercultural collectives","authors":"Mikael Andéhn, Joel Hietanen, Alice Wickström","doi":"10.1177/14614448241305420","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241305420","url":null,"abstract":"Advances in information and communication technologies present remarkable potential for globally dispersed people to connect and engage around a variety of interests. While online communities seemed to initially offer vast potential for social cohesion, their ephemeral nature continues to raise doubts about their ability to facilitate meaningful togetherness. It has also been suggested that the largely automated nature of commercially driven social media can excite aggression and polarisation and thus bring about far-reaching negative social outcomes. Drawing from a long-term immersive online ethnography of the Red Pill, a conspiratorial collective battling their conception of feminine power in society, we adapt Bernard Stiegler’s philosophy of technology to assess its production of affect and social cohesion. Our findings reframe online counterculture, emphasising how its expressions are predicated on a techno-affective overdetermination that forecloses the possibility of meaningful participation and community-building.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142886900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Roland Verwiebe, Claudia Buder, Sarah Weissmann, Chiara Osorio-Krauter, Aaron Philipp
{"title":"“The algorithm is like a mercurial god”: Exploring content creators’ perception of algorithmic agency on YouTube","authors":"Roland Verwiebe, Claudia Buder, Sarah Weissmann, Chiara Osorio-Krauter, Aaron Philipp","doi":"10.1177/14614448241307931","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241307931","url":null,"abstract":"Algorithmic systems wield substantial influence in contemporary society. Since it is mostly unknown how algorithms specifically work, content creators (CCs) on YouTube who rely on them for economic reasons are in a constant state of sensemaking regarding the characteristics and perceived preferences of the algorithm. To understand these perceptions, we draw from previous research on technological agency and examine the ways in which CCs view the algorithm as an independent entity with agentic features. We do this by conducting a thematic analysis of 30 interviews with German CCs on YouTube. We find that CCs do perceive agentic qualities of the algorithm and that their assessment depends on their experience and exposure to it. Four key themes were identified: The algorithm is perceived as (1) non-transparent and largely unpredictable; (2) intentional, autonomous, and human-like; (3) number-based and communicating through metrics; and (4) exerting a great deal of power while constantly reinforcing hierarchies.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142886904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The theoretical wedding of computational propaganda and information operations: Unraveling digital manipulation in conflict zones","authors":"Yirgalem A Haile","doi":"10.1177/14614448241302319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241302319","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the theoretical fusion of computational propaganda and information operations in the Tigray war, centering on algorithmic manipulation techniques. Utilizing theoretical frameworks of agenda-setting theory, framing, and information ecology, the study formulates three hypotheses. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, it integrates qualitative and quantitative methods, leveraging tools such as Twitter API (X), twerc, NVivo, Botometer, and Rstat within the Netnographic method. The analysis reveals temporal dynamics of new account infiltrations on Twitter during war, emphasizing their engagement in hashtag campaigns for information/influence operations. A surge in new account creation coinciding with the war’s onset is identified, along with the strategic deployment of political bots within these accounts for algorithmic manipulation. The findings affirm that the theoretical intertwining of computational propaganda and information operations manifests through social media’s agenda-setting and framing effects. The study significantly contributes to the discourse on information warfare in contemporary conflicts by unraveling the intricate web of digital manipulation during the Tigray war.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"113 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142879634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"TikTok and the algorithmic transformation of social media publics: From social networks to social interest clusters","authors":"Paolo Gerbaudo","doi":"10.1177/14614448241304106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241304106","url":null,"abstract":"The rise of TikTok has sparked a debate on the consequences of algorithmic content curation for social experience. My thesis is that TikTok represents a second generation of social media, which differs from first-generation social media in the way users are exposed to content. While first-generation social media revolved around ‘networked publics’ formed by explicit interpersonal connections, second-generation social media introduces ‘clustered publics’. These are statistically constructed ‘neighbourhoods’ of users, in which people are brought together based on their past online behaviour and their similarity in interest and taste. Clustering users around shared interests has proven very effective in driving online engagement, leading other platforms to mimic TikTok, in what can be described as ‘TikTokification’. However, this transformation of online publics carries a series of problematic implications: the depersonalisation of online experience; a growing opacity of the structures of online communication; and the further subcultural fragmentation of an already divided digital public sphere.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142869914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nextdoor use and support for aggressive policing","authors":"Toby Hopp, Pat Ferrucci, Hunter Reeves","doi":"10.1177/14614448241303114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241303114","url":null,"abstract":"This study developed and tested a model interrelating Nextdoor use and support for aggressive policing. The results of an online survey ( n=1806) suggested that Nextdoor use is positively associated with crime concern; that crime concern is positively associated with support for aggressive policing; and that Nextdoor use is both indirectly and directly associated with support for aggressive policing. The results also indicated that social trust may play a complex role in the relationship between Nextdoor use and support for aggressive policing.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142869916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}