Digitale Märkte und Öffentlichkeiten auf Plattformen

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A centrality analysis of the Lightning Network
(2023) Zabka, Philipp; Förster, Klaus-T.; Decker, Christian; Schmid, Stefan
Blockchain technology has a huge impact on our digital society by enabling a more decentralized economy and policy making. This decentralization is also pivotal in payment Payment channel networks (PCNs), including the Lightning Network, have emerged as a promising solution to the scalability challenges that many blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, grapple with. These PCNs, while innovative, also inherit the rigorous dependability demands of the blockchain. A pivotal aspect of this dependability is the need for a high degree of decentralization, essential for mitigating liquidity bottlenecks and on-path attacks.
A Common Effort: New Divisions of Labor Between Journalism and OSINT Communities on Digital Platforms
(2024) Charlton, Timothy; Mayer, Anna-Theresa; Ohme, Jakob
This article explores the interactions between journalistic actors and emerging open-source intelligence and investigation (OSINT) communities. It employs qualitative content analysis of discourse from two OSINT communities surrounding three events following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which received substantial coverage in news media. OSINT practices are rapidly becoming a mainstay of the contemporary political process by allowing ordinary citizens to verify information shared through digital platforms, which is traditionally the societal task assigned to journalism. In doing so, they provide a timely factual baseline for opinion formation and political decision-making. This research explores the role constellations resulting from this shift in verification duties from journalistic actors to amateur online communities on digital platforms and maps the fundamental dynamics involved in OSINT. We analyze how information is received and processed in OSINT communities, how digital platforms facilitate the fact-checking process, and how journalism and OSINT interact. Based on our findings, we develop a theoretical framework that distinguishes between the input, throughput, and output phases of OSINT. Our model contributes to a baseline understanding of the crucial and novel partnership between citizens and journalists on digital platforms.
Algorithmically Curated Lies: How Search Engines Handle Misinformation about US Biolabs in Ukraine
(2024) Kuznetsova, Elizaveta; Makhortykh, Mykola; Sydorova, Maryna; Urman, Aleksandra; Vitulano, Ilaria; Stolze, Martha
The growing volume of online content prompts the need for adopting algorithmic systems of information curation. These systems range from web search engines to recommender systems and are integral for helping users stay informed about important societal developments. However, unlike journalistic editing the algorithmic information curation systems (AICSs) are known to be subject to different forms of malperformance which make them vulnerable to possible manipulation. The risk of manipulation is particularly prominent in the case when AICSs have to deal with information about false claims that underpin propaganda campaigns of authoritarian regimes. Using as a case study of the Russian disinformation campaign concerning the US biolabs in Ukraine, we investigate how one of the most commonly used forms of AICSs - i.e. web search engines - curate misinformation-related content. For this aim, we conduct virtual agent-based algorithm audits of Google, Bing, and Yandex search outputs in June 2022. Our findings highlight the troubling performance of search engines. Even though some search engines, like Google, were less likely to return misinformation results, across all languages and locations, the three search engines still mentioned or promoted a considerable share of false content (33% on Google; 44% on Bing, and 70% on Yandex). We also find significant disparities in misinformation exposure based on the language of search, with all search engines presenting a higher number of false stories in Russian. Location matters as well with users from Germany being more likely to be exposed to search results promoting false information. These observations stress the possibility of AICSs being vulnerable to manipulation, in particular in the case of the unfolding propaganda campaigns, and underline the importance of monitoring performance of these systems to prevent it.
Are Campaigns Getting Uglier, and Who Is to Blame? Negativity, Dramatization and Populism on Facebook in the 2014 and 2019 EP Election Campaigns
(2023) Klinger, Ulrike; Koc-Michalska, Karolina; Rußmann, Uta
Relating to theories of dissonant public spheres and affective publics, we study negativity, dramatization, and populist content in political party Facebook posts across 12 countries during the 2014 and 2019 European Parliament Election campaigns. A quantitative content analysis of 14,293 posts from 111 (2014) and 116 (2019) political parties shows that negative emotion, negative campaigning, dramatization, and populist content has increased over this time. We show that political parties sought to evoke more negative emotions and generate more dramatization, engaged more in negative campaigning, and included more populist content in their Facebook posts in the 2019 EP election than in 2014. Further, we show that posts evoking negative emotions and dramatization and involving negative campaigning yield higher user engagement than other posts, while populist content also led to more user reactions in 2014, but not in 2019. Negative, exaggerated, and sensationalized messaging therefore makes sense from a strategic perspective, because the increased frequencies of likes, shares, and comments make parties’ messages travel farther and deeper in social networks, thereby reaching a wider audience. It seems that the rise in affective and dissonant communication has not emerged unintentionally, but is also a result of strategic campaigning.
Augmenting Data Download Packages – Integrating Data Donations, Video Metadata, and the Multimodal Nature of Audio-visual Content
(2024) Wedel, Lion; Ohme, Jakob; Araujo, Theo
This research explores the potential of augmented Data Download Packages (aDDPs) as a novel approach to analyze digital trace data, using TikTok as a use case to demonstrate the broader applicability of the method. The study demonstrates how these data packages can be used in social science research to understand better user behavior, content consumption patterns, and the relationship between self-reported preferences and actual digital behavior.We introduce the concept of aDDPs, which extend the conventional Data Download Packages (DDPs) by augmenting the collected data with survey data, metadata, content data, and multimodal content embeddings, among other possibilities - rendering aDDPs an unprecedentedly rich data source for social science research. This work provides an overview and guidance on collecting, augmenting DDPs, and analyzing the resulting aDDPs.In a pilot study on 18 aDDPs, we use the combination of data components in aDDPs to facilitate research on user engagement behavior and content classification. We showcase the potential of the information breadth and depth that aDDPs depict by exploiting the combination of multimodal content embeddings, the users’ watch history, and survey data. To do so, we train and compare uni- and multimodal classifiers, classify the 18 aDDPs’ videos, and investigate the extent to which user engagement behavior impacts future content suggestions. Furthermore, we compare the users retrieved content with the users’ self-reported content consumption.
Blame It on the Algorithm? Russian Government-Sponsored Media and Algorithmic Curation of Political Information on Facebook
(2023) Kuznetsova, Elizaveta; Makhortykh, Mykola
Previous research highlighted how algorithms on social media platforms can be abused to disseminate disinformation. However, less work has been devoted to understanding the interplay between Facebook news curation mechanisms and propaganda content. To address this gap, we analyze the activities of RT (formerly, Russia Today) on Facebook during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. We use agent-based algorithmic auditing and frame analysis to examine what content RT published on Facebook and how it was algorithmically curated in Facebook News Feeds and Search Results. We find that RT’s strategic framing included the promotion of anti-Biden leaning content, with an emphasis on antiestablishment narratives. However, due to algorithmic factors on Facebook, individual agents were exposed to eclectic RT content without an overarching narrative. Our findings contribute to the debate on computational propaganda by highlighting the ambiguous relationship between government-sponsored media and Facebook algorithmic curation, which may decrease the exposure of users to propaganda and at the same time increase confusion.
Book review: Schützeneder, Jonas & Graßl, Michael. (Eds.). (2022). Journalismus und Instagram. Analysen, Strategien, Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft und Praxis [Journalism and Instagram. Analyses, strategies, perspectives from science and practice]. Springer Fachmedien.
(2023) Mayer, Anna-Theresa
Instagram spielt heute eine wichtige Rolle in der digitalen Medienlandschaft. Laut ARD/ZDF-Onlinestudie 2023 (vgl. Koch, W.: Soziale Medien werden 30 Minuten am Tag genutzt – Instagram ist die Plattform Nummer eins. Ergebnisse der ARD/ZDF-Onlinestudie 2023. Media Perspektiven, 2023, 26, S. 1–8) greifen 25 % der deutschsprachigen Bevölkerung täglich auf die Social-Media-Plattform zurück, 35 % mindestens einmal wöchentlich. Besonders in der jüngeren Altersgruppe ist ihre Beliebtheit erkennbar (täglich: 63 %; mindestens einmal wöchentlich: 79 %). Auch journalistische Inhalte sind längst auf Instagram verfügbar. Während man bereits im internationalen Kontext erste empirische Ansätze zur Erforschung und in der Praxisliteratur einige Reflektionen über das Zusammenspiel von Journalismus und Instagram findet, sind systematische Übersichtswerke zum (deutschen) Journalismus auf Instagram noch rar. Hier setzt der Sammelband „Journalismus und Instagram. Analysen, Strategie, Perspektive aus Wissenschaft und Praxis“ mit der übergreifenden Fragestellung an, „wie sich Journalismus und Instagram aus kommunikationswissenschaftlicher Perspektive analysieren lassen und welche praktischen Beispiele hierzu dienlich sind“ (S. 2–3). Das Ergebnis sind 17 Beiträge von insgesamt 27 Autorinnen und Autoren, die sich in drei Zugänge einteilen lassen.
Can Fighting Misinformation Have a Negative Spillover Effect? How Warnings for the Threat of Misinformation Can Decrease General News Credibility
(2023) Van Der Meer, Toni G. L. A.; Hameleers, Michael; Ohme, Jakob
In the battle against misinformation, do negative spillover effects of communicative efforts intended to protect audiences from inaccurate information exist? Given the relatively limited prevalence of misinformation in people’s news diets, this study explores if the heightened salience of misinformation as a persistent societal threat can have an unintended spillover effect by decreasing the credibility of factually accurate news. Using an experimental design (N = 1305), we test whether credibility ratings of factually accurate news are subject to exposure to misinformation, corrective information, misinformation warnings, and news media literacy (NML) interventions relativizing the misinformation threat. Findings suggest that efforts like warning about the threat of misinformation can prime general distrust in authentic news, hinting toward a deception bias in the context of fear of misinformation being salient. Next, the successfulness of NML interventions is not straight forward if it comes to avoiding that the salience of misinformation distorts people’s creditability accuracy. We conclude that the threats of the misinformation order may not just be remedied by fighting false information, but also by reestablishing trust in legitimate news.
Cascades or salmons? Longitudinal upstream and downstream effects of political participation
(2024) Ohme, Jakob; Azrout, Rachid; Moeller, Judith
Digitally networked and new, unconventional activities allow citizens to participate politically in activities that are low in the effort and risks they bear. At the same time, low-effort types of participation are more loosely connected to democratic political systems, thereby challenging established modes of political decision-making. This can set in motion two competing dynamics: While some citizens move closer to the political system in their activities (upstream effects), others engage in political activities more distant from it (downstream effects). This study investigates non-electoral participation trajectories and tests intra-individual change in political participation types over time, exploring whether such dynamics depend on citizens’ exposure to political information. Utilizing a three-wave panel survey (n = 3490) and random intercept cross-lagged panel models with SEM, we find more evidence for downstream effects but detect overall diverse participation trajectories over time and a potentially crucial role of elections for non-electoral participation trajectories.
Challenges of and approaches to data collection across platforms and time: Conspiracy-related digital traces as examples of political contention
(2024) Heft, Annett; Bühling, Kilian; Zhang, Xixuan; Schindler, Dominik; Milzner, Miriam
Taking the example of conspiracy-related communication online as one form of contentious politics, this study examines the data collection challenges for multidimensional comparative research across platforms, time, and cultural embeddings. It compares the architectures and features relevant to data collection, access regimes, and use cultures for a set of digital platforms and communication venues. Differentiating between actor- and content-based strategies, this study discusses the potentials and limitations of these approaches, considering differences in platforms, temporal dynamics, and cultural embeddings as well as several layers of equivalence. The discussion highlights crucial insights into designing data collection strategies in multidimensional comparative studies.
Chatting about the unaccepted: Self-disclosure of unaccepted news exposure behaviour to a chatbot
(2023) Ischen, Carolin; Butler, Janice; Ohme, Jakob
Conversational technologies such as chatbots have shown to be promising in eliciting self-disclosure in several contexts. Implementing such a technology that fosters self-disclosure can help to assess sensitive topics such as behaviours that are perceived as unaccepted by others, i.e. the exposure to unaccepted (alternative) news sources. This study tests whether a conversational (chatbot) format, compared to a traditional web-based survey, can enhance self-disclosure in the political news context by implementing a two-week longitudinal, experimental research design (n = 193). Results show that users disclose unaccepted news exposure signiﬁcantly more often to a chatbot, compared to a traditional web-based survey, providing evidence for a chatbots’ ability to foster the disclosure of sensitive behaviours. Unlike our hypotheses, our study also shows that social presence, intimacy, and enjoyment cannot explain self-disclosure in this context, and that self-disclosure generally decreases over time.
Comparative Digital Political Communication: Comparisons Across Countries, Platforms, and Time
(2024) Boulianne, Shelley; Larsson, Anders O.
Comparative communication research needs to catch up to other disciplines. In this special issue and the associated International Communication Association preconference, we focus on comparative work related to digital political communication. This introduction argues that comparative digital political communication needs to consider comparisons across various dimensions, including countries, platforms, and time, whereas existing comparative communication research focuses on country or territorial comparison. We highlight the six submissions’ approaches to comparative work. Each submission provides at least one of these three dimensions of contrast. We conclude with a discussion of enduring gaps in this field of research, such as the lack of studies using time as a dimension of comparison. Time is crucial for understanding ever-changing digital media platforms. We also conclude by discussing some ongoing challenges in political communication research.
Conditions of Campaigning in Dissonant Public Spheres and Crisis of Democracy
(2023) Pfetsch, Barbara
Political campaigns have always been closely related to the technical conditions of media infrastructures, the social conditions of voters, and the political opportunities within which parties and movements compete. As campaigning has developed through the four ages of political communication (Blumler, Citation2015; Norris, Citation2002), it is now shaped by the affordances of digital platforms and networked communication ecologies in addition to legacy media infrastructures. In the environment of hybrid media systems (Chadwick, Citation2013), campaigning has also become hybrid – a task divided between the use of conventional information subsidies and the dynamics of social media and digital platforms (Azari, Citation2016; Wells et al., Citation2016). What is more, contemporary political communications and voter mobilization are taking place under two significant context conditions: dissonant public spheres (Pfetsch, Citation2018) are coinciding with a profound crisis of liberal democracy (Bennett & Livingston, Citation2018). The communication ecology and the state of democracy have produced a style of campaigning that is no longer geared toward a consensus among the established political elites and parties to engage in civilized speech, to conduct fair competition, and to stay within the limits and norms of democracy. In this essay, I shall discuss some of the features and consequences of these contextual conditions. I shall further argue that the coincidence of disrupted democracy and dissonant public spheres is related to profound structural changes in the party organization, campaigning and political leadership.
COVID-19 and the Internet: Lessons Learned
(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2023) Stocker, Volker; Lehr, William; Smaragdakis, Georgios; Whalley, Jason; Stocker, Volker; Lehr, William
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the ‘real’ world and substantially impacted the virtual world and thus the Internet ecosystem. It has caused a significant exogenous shock that offers a wealth of natural experiments and produced new data about broadband, clouds, and the Internet in times of crisis. In this chapter, we characterise and evaluate the evolving impact of the global COVID-19 crisis on traffic patterns and loads and the impact of those on Internet performance from multiple perspectives. While we place a particular focus on deriving insights into how we can better respond to crises and better plan for the post-COVID-19 ‘new nor- mal’, we analyse the impact on and the responses by different actors of the Internet ecosystem across different jurisdictions. With a focus on the USA and Europe, we examine the responses of both public and private actors, with the latter including content and cloud providers, content delivery networks, and Internet service providers (ISPs). This chapter makes two contributions: first, we derive lessons learned for a future post- COVID-19 world to inform non-networking spheres and policy-making; second, the insights gained assist the networking community in better planning for the future.
Crisis Communication on Twitter: Differences Between User Types in Top Tweets About the 2015 “Refugee Crisis” in Germany
(2023) Kapidzic, Sanja; Frey, Felix; Neuberger, Christoph; Stieglitz, Stefan; Mirbabaie, Milad
The study explores differences between three user types in the top tweets about the 2015 “refugee crisis” in Germany and presents the results of a quantitative content analysis. All tweets with the keyword “Flüchtlinge” posted for a monthlong period following September 13, 2015, the day Germany decided to implement border controls, were collected (N = 763,752). The top 2,495 tweets according to number of retweets were selected for analysis. Differences between news media, public and private actor tweets in topics, tweet characteristics such as tone and opinion expression, links, and specific sentiments toward refugees were analyzed. We found strong differences between the tweets. Public actor tweets were the main source of positive sentiment toward refugees and the main information source on refugee support. News media tweets mostly reflected traditional journalistic norms of impartiality and objectivity, whereas private actor tweets were more diverse in sentiments toward refugees.
Datafication Markers: Curation and User Network Effects on Mobilization and Polarization During Elections
(2023) Gagrčin, Emilija; Ohme, Jakob; Buttgereit, Lina; Grünewald, Felix
Social media platforms are crucial sources of political information during election campaigns, with datafication processes underlying the algorithmic curation of newsfeeds. Recognizing the role of individuals in shaping datafication processes and leveraging the metaphor of news attraction, we study the impact of user curation and networks on mobilization and polarization. In a two-wave online panel survey (n = 943) conducted during the 2021 German federal elections, we investigate the influence of self-reported user decisions, such as following politicians, curating their newsfeed, and being part of politically interested networks, on changes in five democratic key variables: vote choice certainty, campaign participation, turnout, issue reinforcement, and affective polarization. Our findings indicate a mobilizing rather than polarizing effect of algorithmic election news exposure and highlight the relevance of users’ political networks on algorithmic platforms.
Delegated Regulation on Data Access Provided for the Digital Services Act
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2023) Klinger, Ulrike; Ohme, Jakob
Response to the Call for Evidence DG CNECT-CNECT F2 by the European Commission
Die Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur – eine Lösung infrastruktureller Bedarfe für die Inhaltsanalyse?
(2023) Heft, Annett; Jünger, Jakob; Niemann-Lenz, Julia; Possler, Daniel
Obwohl die Inhaltsanalyse eine zentrale Stellung in der Kommunikations- und Medienforschung besitzt, existieren kaum Forschungsinfrastrukturen für diese Methode. Gleichzeitig werden in Deutschland seit 2018 große Dateninfrastrukturen in den 27 Konsortien der Nationalen Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) aufgebaut. In diesem Beitrag gehen wir aus Perspektive der Forschenden der Frage nach, inwiefern die NFDI-Konsortien Lösungen für die infrastrukturellen Anforderungen in Bezug auf Inhaltsanalysen bieten. Zunächst beleuchten wir diese Anforderungen entlang des Forschungsdaten-Lebenszyklus und identifizieren Leerstellen. Dann explorieren wir, welche Bedarfe die NFDI-Konsortien decken können. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf Konsortien, die sich auf die Sammlung und Aufbereitung von Text oder multimodalen Daten konzentrieren: KonsortSWD, BERD@NFDI, Text+, NFDI4Memory, NFDI4Culture und NFDI4DataScience. Unsere Untersuchung zeigt, dass die Konsortien bereits viele der Bedarfe abdecken. Allerdings gibt es weder ein Konsortium, in dem Kommunikationswissenschaftler:innen treibende Kräfte sind, noch wird die Inhaltsanalyse explizit berücksichtigt. Wir diskutieren, wie sich Forschungsinfrastrukturen für die Inhaltsanalyse durch die NFDI-Strukturen weiterentwickeln ließen. , Abstract Content analysis has a central position in media and communication research, yet research infrastructures for the method are still scarce. At the same time, the 27 consortia of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) have started to establish large data infrastructures in Germany since 2018. In this paper, we explore from the perspective of researchers whether the NFDI consortia provide solutions to the infrastructural needs of content analysis. First, we illustrate these needs throughout the research data lifecycle and identify shortcomings. We then explore whether the NFDI consortia can meet these needs. The focus lies on consortia that concentrate on the collection and processing of text or multimodal data: KonsortSWD, BERD@NFDI, Text+, NFDI4Memory, NFDI4Culture, and NFDI4DataScience . Our exploration shows that many of the needs are already being addressed by the consortia. However, there is no consortium in which communication scholars are the driving force and content analysis does not receive explicit consideration. We discuss how research infrastructures for content analysis can be further developed through the NFDI structures.
Digital Inclusion Through Algorithmic Knowledge: Curated Flows of Civic and Political Information on Instagram
(2024) Boulianne, Shelley; Hoffmann, Christian P.
Social media platforms are a critical source of civic and political information. We examine the use of Instagram to acquire news as well as civic and political information using nationally representative survey data gathered in 2019 in the US, the UK, France, and Canada (n = 2,440). We investigate active curation practices (following news organizations, political candidates or parties, and nonprofit organizations or charities) and passive curation practices (liking friends’ political posts and those from parties or politicians and nonprofits or charities). Young adults (18 to 24 years) are far more likely to curate their Instagram feed than older adults in all four countries. We consider two possible explanations for this behavior: political interest and an understanding of how algorithms work. Young adults have more (self-assessed) knowledge of algorithms in all four countries. Algorithmic knowledge relates to curation practices, but there are some cross-national differences. Algorithmic knowledge is theoretically relevant for passive curation practices and the UK sample provides support for the stronger role of algorithmic knowledge in passive than active curation. In all four countries, political interest positively relates to active and passive curation practices. These findings challenge depictions of young adults as news avoiders; instead, they demonstrate that algorithmic knowledge can help curate the flow of information from news organizations as well as civic and political groups on Instagram. While algorithmic knowledge enables youth’s digital inclusion, for older adults, the lack of knowledge may contribute to digital exclusion as they do not know how to curate their information flows.
Digital Trace Data Collection for Social Media Effects Research: APIs, Data Donation, and (Screen) Tracking
(2023) Ohme, Jakob; Araujo, Theo; Boeschoten, Laura; Freelon, Deen; Ram, Nilam; Reeves, Byron B.; Robinson, Thomas N.
In social media effects research, the role of specific social media content is understudied, in part attributable to the fact that communication science previously lacked methods to access social media content directly. Digital trace data (DTD) can shed light on textual and audio-visual content of social media use and enable the analysis of content usage on a granular individual level that has been previously unavailable. However, because digital trace data are not specifically designed for research purposes, collection and analysis present several uncertainties. This article is a collaborative effort by scholars to provide an overview of how three methods of digital trace data collection - APIs, data donations, and tracking - can be used in studying the effects of social media content in three important topic areas of communication research: misinformation, algorithmic bias, and well-being. We address the question of how to collect raw social media content data and arrive at meaningful measures with multiple state-of-the-art data collection techniques that can be used to study the effects of social media use on different levels of detail. We conclude with a discussion of best practices for the implementation of each technique, and a comparison of their advantages and disadvantages.

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