Weizenbaum Digital Science Center

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https://www.weizenbaum-library.de/handle/id/311

Deutsch Das WDSC ist eine Forschungseinheit, die die Digitalisierungsforschung am Weizenbaum-Institut unterstützt, indem sie die Forschungsgruppen über methodenorientierte Weiterbildung vernetzt, in Kooperation mit den Forschungsgruppen Dateninfrastrukturen bereitstellt und Grundfragen der Digitalisierungsforschung systematisiert und synthetisiert. An dieser Stelle sind die Publikationen, Materialien und Daten zugänglich, die von den vier Forschungseinheiten des WDSC – Weizenbaum Panel, Forschungssynthesen, Metaforschung, Methodenlab – erstellt werden.

English The WDSC is a research unit that supports digitization research at the Weizenbaum Institute by networking the research groups through method-oriented training, providing data infrastructures in cooperation with the research groups, and systematizing and synthesizing fundamental questions in digitization research. The publications, materials and data produced by the four research units of the WDSC—Weizenbaum Panel, Research Syntheses, Meta Research, Methods Lab—are accessible here.

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Algorithm dependency in platformized news use
(2023) Schaetz, Nadja; Gagrčin, Emilija; Toth, Roland; Emmer, Martin
Previous research has highlighted the ambiguous experience of algorithmic news curation whereby people are simultaneously comfortable with algorithms, but also concerned about the underlying data collection practices. The present article builds on media dependency theory and news-finds-me (NFM) perceptions to explore this tension. Empirically, we analyze original survey data from six European countries (Germany, Sweden, France, Greece, Poland, and Italy, n = 2,899) to investigate how young Europeans’ privacy concerns and attitudes toward algorithms affect NFM. We find that a more positive attitude toward algorithms and more privacy concerns are related to stronger NFM. The study highlights power asymmetries in platformized news use and suggests that the ambivalent experiences might be a result of algorithm dependency, whereby individuals rely on algorithms in platformized news use to meet their information needs, despite accompanying risks and concerns.
Algorithmic media use and algorithm literacy: An integrative literature review
(2024) Gagrčin, Emilija; Naab, Teresa K.; Grub, Maria F.
Algorithms profoundly shape user experiences on digital platforms, raising concerns about their negative impacts and highlighting the importance of algorithm literacy. Research on individuals’ understanding of algorithms and their effects is expanding rapidly but lacks a cohesive framework. We conducted a systematic integrative literature review across social sciences and humanities (n = 169), addressing algorithm literacy in terms of its key conceptualizations and the endogenous, exogenous, and personal factors that influence it. We argue that existing research can be framed in terms of experiential learning cycles and outline how this approach can be beneficial for acquiring algorithm literacy. Finally, we propose a future research agenda that includes defining core competencies relevant to algorithm literacy, standardization of measures, integrating subjective and factual aspects of algorithm literacy, and task- and domain-specific approaches.
Between Individual and Collective Social Effort: Vocabularies of Informed Citizenship in Different Information Environments
(2023) Gagrčin, Emilija; Porten-Cheé, Pablo
Information disorder and digital media affordances challenge informed citizenship as an ideal and in practice. While scholars have attempted to adapt the normative ideal to contemporary changes and challenges by introducing new metaphors and normative benchmarks, this study investigates citizens’ ideals and practices of informed citizenship by deploying the concept of citizenship vocabularies. Drawing on interviews with citizens from different information environments—Germany and Serbia—we offer a conceptual outline of informed citizenship as an individual and collective social effort. Our findings illustrate the role of the information environment in shaping citizenship vocabularies. We advance the idea of informed citizenship as a relational practice, arguing for a social ontological approach to theorizing informed citizenship today.
Beyond Filter Bubbles and Echo Chambers: The Integrative Potential of the Internet
(ifpuk - Institute for Media and Communication Studies at FU Berlin, 2019) Mahrt, Merja
Are online audiences today fragmented into echo chambers or filter bubbles? Do users only see what digital platforms (like search engines or social media) let them see? And if so, what are the consequences for the cohesion of a society? Concerns like these abound in recent years. They attest to widely held assumptions about a negative influence of digital media or even the Internet in general on society. Empirical studies on these phenomena are, however, not as unequivocal. To understand why results from previous research are so far inconclusive, this study investigates the role of the Internet for social integration from a more general point of view. The integrative potential of the Internet is assessed to compare it with other media and ultimately better understand to what degree and due to which factors the Internet may or may not help bring society together. Using survey data, clickstream data on actual usage of websites, and data on content structures, the present work investigates how user behavior and structural features of the Internet determine its positive or negative effects on social integration. The results reveal that the Internet in general is not as bad as popular accounts of digital fragmentation may suggest. How much integrative potential can be realized via online offerings, however, depends on numerous factors on the side of the users as well as content and platform providers.
Bittersweet Symphony: Nostalgia and Melancholia in Music Reception
(2023) Toth, Roland; Dienlin, Tobias
Listening to music can cause experiences of nostalgia and melancholia. Although both concepts are theoretically related, to date they have not been analyzed together regarding their emotional and cognitive profiles. In this study, we identify their theoretical underpinnings and determine how they can be measured empirically. We analyze how listening to music causes nostalgia and melancholia, and whether both experiences are related to different behavioral intentions. To this end, we conducted an online experiment with 359 participants who listened to music they considered either nostalgic, melancholic, or neutral. Afterward, participants answered 122 questionnaire items related to nostalgia and melancholia. Using Structural Equation Modeling, and more specifically Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes Modeling, we first developed two new scales: the Formative Nostalgia Scale and the Formative Melancholia Scale. Both scales consist of five items each. Results showed that listening to music indeed increased nostalgia and melancholia. Although considerably different, the concepts are related. Listening to nostalgic music increases melancholia, whereas listening to melancholic music does not increase nostalgia. Also, both experiences are related to different behavioral intentions. Whereas experiencing nostalgia was associated with a stronger intention to share the music and to listen to it again, experiencing melancholia revealed the exact opposite relation.
Editorial: Volume 2, Issue 1
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2022) Emmer, Martin; Krasnova, Hanna; Krzywdzinski, Martin; Metzger, Axel; Schimmler, Sonja; Ulbricht, Lena
This second issue of the Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society brings together four contributions that examine the role of actors and regulation in processes of digitalization from the perspective of different disciplines. The topics include the role of the Silicon Valley discourse on entrepreneurship in legitimizing a specific model of work in the IT industry, the particularities of the European platform regulation approach, the development and enforcement problems of copyright liability regulation in Germany, and the development and regulation of automation processes in the workplace.
Feminist Identity and Online Activism in Four Countries From 2019 to 2023
(2024) Boulianne, Shelley; Heger, Katharina; Houle, Nicole; Brown, Delphine
The COVID-19 pandemic heightened burdens on caregivers, but also the visibility of caregiving inequalities. These grievances may activate a feminist identity which in turn leads to greater civic and political participation. During a pandemic, online forms of participation are particularly attractive as they require less effort than offline forms of participation and pose less health risks compared to collective forms of offline activism. Using survey data from four countries (Canada, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom) collected in 2019 (prior to the pandemic), 2021 (during the pandemic), and 2023 (post-pandemic), we examine the relationship between self-identifying as a feminist and signing online petitions ( n = 18,362). Our multivariate analyses show that having a feminist identity is positively related to signing online petitions. We consider the differential effects of this identity on participation for men, women, non-binary people; caregivers versus non-caregivers; and respondents in different countries with varying levels of restrictions due to the pandemic. A feminist identity is more important for mobilizing caregivers than non-caregivers, whether or not the caregiver is a man or a woman. While grievance theory suggests differential effects by country and time period, we find a consistent role of feminist identity in predicting the signing of online petitions across time and across countries. These findings offer insights into how different groups in varying contexts are mobilized to participate.
Feminist women’s online political participation. Empowerment through feminist political attitudes or feminist identity?
(2022) Heger, Katharina; Hoffmann, Christian
Citizens in modern democracies have a continuously expanding set of tools at their disposal through which they seek to exercise influence on politics, including digital modes of participation. However, the usage of these tools is still gendered to the disadvantage of women. Feminist attitudes have been shown to have a positive impact on women’s political participation, yet this effect is deeply interwoven with the empowering effect of a feminist identity. Based on an online survey of more than 300 German female Internet users self-labeling as feminists, we develop a comprehensive measure of a feminist identity and analyze the interplay of three distinct sets of feminist attitudes and a feminist identity on online political participation. To gain a fine-grained understanding of the impact of feminist cognitions on online political participation, we differentiate general political online behaviors from those geared toward women’s rights and feminist objectives. We find a feminist identity to be a strong predictor of both types of online political participation, with a stronger effect on feminist online participation. Our findings provide important insights into the empowering role of a feminist identity on women’s political behavior on the Internet.
Media Use and Political Engagement: Cross-Cultural Approaches| Media Use and Green Lifestyle Politics in Diverse Cultural Contexts of Postmaterialist Orientation and Generalized Trust: Findings From a Multilevel Analysis
(2023) Leißner, Laura
In lifestyle politics, citizens take political action by adapting their everyday lives to address transnational challenges, such as climate change. An important driver of lifestyle politics is exposure to media—both mass media, serving as important information sources, and social media, enabling discussion and expression. To explore how elements of culture shape this relationship, this study examines (a) the link between media use (measured by mass media and social media use) and lifestyle politics across 28 European countries and (b) how cultural context factors (measured by national levels of postmaterialist orientation and trust) moderate this relationship. Results of a multilevel analysis support the positive link between mass media use and lifestyle politics across all countries. However, the results also suggest that the relationship between social media use and lifestyle politics is positive only in countries with postmaterialist orientations and high levels of trust, underscoring the importance of cultural context factors.
Multidimensional Measurement of Mobile Media Use
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2021) Toth, Roland
Just like all types of media use, mobile media use is usually measured using retrospective, self-reported indications of quantity in the form of duration and frequency. This is not only problematic due to the fact that people misjudge their own use to a great extent, but also because theoretical approaches predominantly suggest that mere contact is not sufficient for the description of media use. This especially holds for mobile media use, as specific contact episodes are not easily distinguishable anymore due to their short duration and high frequency. Mobile media use is rather characterized by circumstances surrounding the contact itself - they are used for countless purposes, in a habitual manner, and in various situations. In this paper, I am proposing a renewed, multidimensional measure of mobile media use that takes into account these characteristics in addition to well-known measures of quantity and suggest methods for assessing its convergent and content validity.
Notable enough? The questioning of women’s biographies on Wikipedia
(2024) Martini, Franziska
This study focuses on biographies nominated for deletion in the German-language Wikipedia and the encyclopedia’s core principle of notability. Results are presented from quantitative content analyses of deletion nominations, discussions, and decisions from the year 2020. It shows that women’s biographies are more often called into question but not deleted more often than men’s biographies. Additionally, women’s biographies are discussed more controversially. Neither a lack of notability criteria, a lack of external sources, nor individual misogynistic users seem to cause this increased questioning. Instead, the results suggest that the notability of women is collectively surveilled and contested with higher intensity due to biased perceptions. This can be explained by the fact that the concept of notability is not value-free or gender-neutral in the first place—even though it is based on rational discourse. The gender gap in biographies is contentiously discussed by users themselves, too, while overt sexism and gender-based devaluations are effectively countered by engaged users.
One App to Assess Them All: Combining surveys, experience sampling, and logging/data donation in an Android and iOS app
(2023) Toth, Roland
Smartphones have become popular tools for data collection in the social sciences due to their high prevalence and mobility. Surveys, experience sampling (ESM) and tracking/logging are among the most used smartphone data-collection methods. However, existing apps are either commercial solutions, require programming skills, collect sensitive data, or do not handle all three methods simultaneously. When two or more data collection methods are used simultaneously, it further burdens both researchers and participants. This paper introduces the app MART (Mobile Assessment Research Tool) that solves these problems and is available for Android and iOS devices. Content and data collection settings can be customized dynamically via a web interface without the need to compile a new version of the app when changes are made. While the logging functionality is only supported on Android devices, data donation via the app Screen Time is requested on iOS devices. MART is already functional, and the source code is open-source and available on GitHub. The necessary long-term revisions for its use in custom projects without reprogramming are currently under development.
Sharing is Caring - Addressing shared issues and challenges in hate speech research
(Digital Communication Research, 2023) Strippel, Christian; Paasch-Colberg, Sünje; Emmer, Martin; Trebbe, Joachim
This book is the result of a conference that could not take place. It is a collection of 26 texts that address and discuss the latest developments in international hate speech research from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. This includes case studies from Brazil, Lebanon, Poland, Nigeria, and India, theoretical introductions to the concepts of hate speech, dangerous speech, incivility, toxicity, extreme speech, and dark participation, as well as reflections on methodological challenges such as scraping, annotation, datafication, implicity, explainability, and machine learning. As such, it provides a much-needed forum for cross-national and cross-disciplinary conversations in what is currently a very vibrant field of research.
Smartphone Use in Germany in 2023: A Mixed-Method Investigation
(SocArXiv, 2024) Toth, Roland; Parry, Douglas A.; Emmer, Martin
Our understanding of typical smartphone behavior has only recently begun to advance due to the accessibility of increasingly valid data sources. Beyond analysing the frequency, duration, and content of smartphone activities, there is substantial value in understanding when people engage in particular forms of mobile media use, and data collection methods that go beyond simple retrospective self-reports provide the means to do so. This paper contributes to our understanding of contemporary smartphone usage patterns and their temporal dynamics by employing a mixed-method dataset obtained through Android logging, iOS data donation, and mobile experience sampling methods. This dataset captures both the quantity and quality of smartphone use among a large, quota-targeted sample of German adults (n = 2032). The findings provide a comprehensive view of smartphone use, examining both overall trends and daily rhythms. They reveal that smartphone usage is typified by frequent, short interactions, with younger users displaying more fragmented patterns compared to older counterparts, alongside variations in the gratifications derived across age groups. These findings lay the groundwork for further theorization about the causes, nature, and consequences of the observed usage patterns, while also offering essential contextual and methodological insights for researchers employing intensive longitudinal approaches to evaluate smartphone usage.
Somebody's Watching Me: Smartphone Use Tracking and Reactivity
(2021) Toth, Roland; Trifonova, Tatiana
Like all media use, smartphone use is mostly being measured retrospectively with self-reports. This leads to misjudgments due to subjective aggregations and interpretations that are necessary for providing answers. Tracking is regarded as the most advanced, unbiased, and precise method for observing smartphone use and therefore employed as an alternative. However, it remains unclear whether people possibly alter their behavior because they know that they are being observed, which is called reactivity. In this study, we investigate first, whether smartphone and app use duration and frequency are affected by tracking; second, whether effects vary between app types; and third, how long effects persist. We developed an Android tracking app and conducted an anonymous quasi-experiment with smartphone use data from 25 people over a time span of two weeks. The app gathered not only data that were produced after, but also prior to its installation by accessing an internal log file on the device. The results showed that there was a decline in the average duration of app use sessions within the first seven days of tracking. Instant messaging and social media app use duration show similar patterns. We found no changes in the average frequency of smartphone and app use sessions per day. Overall, reactivity effects due to smartphone use tracking are rather weak, which speaks for the method's validity. We advise future researchers to employ a larger sample and control for external influencing factors so reactivity effects can be identified more reliably.
Toward a stronger theoretical grounding of computational communication science. How macro frameworks shape our research agendas
(2021) Waldherr, Annie; Geise, Stephanie; Mahrt, Merja; Katzenbach, Christian; Nuernbergk, Christian
Computational communication science (CCS) is embraced by many as a fruitful methodological approach to studying communication in the digital era. However, theoretical advances have not been considered equally important in CCS. Specifically, we observe an emphasis on mid-range and micro theories that misses a larger discussion on how macro-theoretical frameworks can serve CCS scholarship. With this article, we aim to stimulate such a discussion. Although macro frameworks might not point directly to specific questions and hypotheses, they shape our research through influencing which kinds of questions we ask, which kinds of hypotheses we formulate, and which methods we find adequate and useful. We showcase how three selected theoretical frameworks might advance CCS scholarship in this way: (1) complexity theory, (2) theories of the public sphere, and (3) mediatization theory. Using online protest as an example, we discuss how the focus (and the blind spots) of our research designs shifts with each framework.
Weizenbaum Panel: Digital Citizenship – Politische Kommunikation und Partizipation in Deutschland 2019, WP1-19 [Fragebogendokumentation]
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2020) Emmer, Martin; Schaetz, Nadja; Leißner, Laura; Porten-Cheé, Pablo; Strippel, Christian
Die hier zum Download bereitstehende Fragebogendokumentation enthält den Fragebogen, welcher in der ersten Befragungswelle im Erhebungszeitraum von Anfang September bis Ende November 2019 verwendet wurde. This questionnaire was used in the first survey wave from the beginning of September to the end of November 2019. --- **Erhebungsmodus:** Computerunterstützte telefonische Befragung (CATI) **Sprache der Befragung:** deutsch **Erhobene Konstrukte:** - – Internet- und Social-Media-Nutzung: Nutzungsmotive/-aktivitäten - – Nachrichtennutzung und politische Diskussionen - – Politisches Interesse, Political Efficacy und Politisches Vertrauen - – Demokratieverständnis und -zufriedenheit - – Wichtigkeit politisches Thema - – Traditionelle und internetbezogene Bürgernormen - – Politische Orientierung und Parteimitgliedschaft - – Politische Partizipation und Partizipationsbereitschaft - – Reaktion auf Hasskommentare und Falschnachrichten im Internet (Online Civic Intervention) - – Soziodemographie
Weizenbaum Panel: Digital Citizenship – Politische Kommunikation und Partizipation in Deutschland 2020, WP2-20 [Fragebogendokumentation]
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2021) Emmer, Martin; Schaetz, Nadja; Leißner, Laura; Porten-Cheé, Pablo; Strippel, Christian
Die hier zum Download bereitstehende Fragebogendokumentation enthält den Fragebogen, welcher in der zweiten Befragungswelle im Erhebungszeitraum von Anfang Oktober bis Anfang Dezember 2020 verwendet wurde. This questionnaire was used in the second survey wave from the beginning of October to the beginning of December 2020. --- **Erhebungsmodus:** Computerunterstützte telefonische Befragung (CATI) **Sprache der Befragung:** deutsch **Erhobene Konstrukte:** - – Internet- und Social-Media-Nutzung: Nutzungsmotive/-aktivitäten - – Nachrichtennutzung und politische Diskussionen - – Politisches Interesse, Political Efficacy und Politisches Vertrauen - – Demokratieverständnis und -zufriedenheit - – Wichtigstes politisches Thema - – Traditionelle und internetbezogene Bürgernormen - – Politische Orientierung und Parteimitgliedschaft - – Politische Partizipation und Partizipationsbereitschaft - – Reaktion auf Hasskommentare und Falschnachrichten im Internet (Online Civic Intervention) - – Soziodemographie
Weizenbaum Panel: Digital Citizenship – Politische Kommunikation und Partizipation in Deutschland 2021, WP3-21 [Fragebogendokumentation]
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2022) Emmer, Martin; Heger, Katharina; Strippel, Christian; Porten-Cheé, Pablo; Leißner, Laura
Die hier zum Download bereitstehende Fragebogendokumentation enthält den Fragebogen, welcher in der dritten Befragungswelle im Erhebungszeitraum von Anfang Oktober bis Mitte Dezember 2021 verwendet wurde. This questionnaire was used in the third survey wave from the beginning of October to mid-December 2021. --- **Erhebungsmodus:** Computerunterstützte telefonische Befragung (CATI) **Sprache der Befragung:** deutsch **Erhobene Konstrukte:** - – Medien- und Social-Media-Nutzung, politische Mediennutzung - – Politisches Interesse, Political Efficacy und Politisches Vertrauen - – Demokratieverständnis und -zufriedenheit - – Internetbezogene Bürgernormen und politische Partizipation - – Wichtigstes politisches Thema und politische Orientierung - – Politische Geschlechternormen und feministische Einstellungen - – Reaktion auf Hasskommentare und Falschnachrichten im Internet (Online Civic Intervention) - – Soziodemographie
Weizenbaum Panel: Politische Partizipation in Deutschland 2019, WP1-19 [Methodenbericht]
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2020) Weizenbaum Panel
Der hier zum Download bereitstehende Methodenbericht enthält zentrale Informationen zur ersten Befragungswelle im Erhebungszeitraum von Anfang September bis Ende November 2019.

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