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Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://www.weizenbaum-library.de/handle/id/1111

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From permanent campaign to permanent communication: parliamentarians’ cross-media practices in routine and election times
(2025-04-14) Severin-Nielsen, Majbritt Kappelgaard; Kruikemeier, Sanne; Ohme, Jakob; Gade Kjelmann, Kristian
With the advent of social media, politicians must navigate an increasingly complex and fast-paced political communication landscape. Scholars have argued that the development pushes politicians to be in permanent campaign mode and that this, in turn, weakens their engagement in other policy-making tasks. In this study, we examine parliamentarians’ cross-media behaviors and strategies in a hybrid media environment in light of the theory of permanent campaigning. Through cluster analyses of parliamentarians’ media behaviors and interviews with them about their media strategies during a routine and election period in the most likely case, Denmark, we contribute to the conceptual development of the permanent campaign in a hybrid media context.
Attenuating the crisis: the relationship between media use, prosocial political participation, and holding misinformation beliefs during the COVID-19 pandemic
(2021-06-15) Ohme, Jakob; Hameleers, Michael; Brosius, Anna; Van der Meer, Toni
In a global crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world are dependent on voluntary support of their citizens. Based on a four-wave panel survey conducted in the Netherlands between April and July 2020 (n = 1742), this study investigates the development of citizens’ engagement in prosocial political activities and what motivates such acts of political participation. With previous research indicating strong relationships between news as well as social media use and political participation, we test whether these types of information consumption drive participation over time. The spread of misinformation during the COVID-19 crisis, however, was described as an “infodemic”. The study therefore explores how holding misinformation beliefs directly and indirectly affects participation in COVID-19 related activities.
Algorithmic social media use and its relationship to attitude reinforcement and issue-specific political participation – The case of the 2015 European immigration movements
(2020-09-02) Ohme, Jakob
Selective exposure to likeminded political viewpoints on algorithmic social media platforms is considered a potential source of polarization of public opinion. We still know little about the proposed mechanism or how potential reinforcement of specific attitudes affects citizens’ political behavior, especially in a nonelectoral context. Focusing on the issue of immigration during the refugee influx to Europe in autumn 2015, this study investigates the effects of social media usage on attitude reinforcement, connecting it to political participation in refugee-related activities. A panel study conducted among Danish citizens (n = 847) reveals that frequent social media usage reinforces existing attitudes and mobilizes political participation. However, citizens who become more extreme in their attitude toward immigration over time are found to be less likely to become politically active regarding this specific issue.
Beyond the Buzz: Investigating the Effects of a Notification-Disabling Intervention on Smartphone Behavior and Digital Well-Being
(2024-03-28) Dekker, Cynthia A.; Baumgartner, Susanne E.; Sumter, Sindy R.; Ohme, Jakob
Turning off push notifications is a common recommendation to reduce smartphone screen time and to improve daily experiences of digital well-being. As only little empirical evidence exists, this study aims to test the effectiveness of this strategy. Based on a preregistered randomized controlled trial (N = 205), including objectively logged smartphone behavior data and daily mobile diary assessments of subjective experiences, we found that a one-week notification-disabling intervention did not affect smartphone behavior (i.e. checking frequency and screen time). This pattern was not dependent on people’s trait fear of missing out. In addition, we found no effects on perceived control, overuse, smartphone vigilance, productivity, and smartphone-related distraction. The intervention did, however, result in a decrease in perceived checking habit strength, indicating that users experienced their smartphone use to be more intentional. The absence of notifications also led to increased fear of missing out, suggesting that disabling notifications results in drawbacks rather than improvements in digital well-being. Together, these findings challenge the assumption that notifications play a prominent role in driving smartphone use and influencing user experiences. Findings are discussed in light of the complex interplay between device features and digital well-being.
Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment
(2019-06-30) Mothes, Cornelia; Ohme, Jakob
Contemporary democracies are increasingly shaped by a surge of populism, posing serious threats to the idea of liberal democracy. Particularly in the run-up to elections, knowledge of such threats is essential for citizens to cast an informed vote. Against this background, the present study examined the likelihood of media users to engage with political news providing critical perspectives on populist movements in a 24-hour social media field experiment during the 2017 federal election campaign in Germany (N = 210). Based on two selective exposure measures, findings suggest that exposure to critical news is contingent upon the conceptualization of populist partisanship as a political orientation of either high commitment (i.e., voting intention) or high affinity (i.e., sympathy for a party). While high commitment triggered a rather classic confirmation bias, especially regarding click decisions, high affinity caused selection patterns to be more strongly guided by informational utility, particularly during newsfeed browsing, with counter-attitudinal information receiving more attention. When public sentiment cues were present, however, attitudinal patterns disappeared. These findings imply that partisan news use in times of political upheaval is best gauged by taking a closer look at the particular type of partisanship that guides selective exposure, as both types of partisanship caused contrary exposure patterns, and that today’s news environments potentially override attitudinal influences by providing additional social monitoring cues.
Staying Informed and Bridging “Social Distance”: Smartphone News Use and Mobile Messaging Behaviors of Flemish Adults during the First Weeks of the COVID-19 Pandemic
(2020-01) Ohme, Jakob; Vanden Abeele, Mariek M. P.; Van Gaeveren, Kyle; Durnez, Wouter; De Marez, Lieven
The authors explore patterns of smartphone use during the first weeks following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Belgium, focusing on citizens’ use of smartphones to consume news and to communicate and interact with others. Unique smartphone tracking data from 2,778 Flemish adults reveal that at the height of the outbreak, people used their smartphone on average 45 minutes (28 percent) more than before the outbreak. The number of smartphone pickups remained fairly stable over this period. This means that on average, users did not turn to their smartphones more frequently but used them longer to access news (54 percent increase), social media apps (72 percent increase), messaging apps (64 percent increase), and the voice call feature (44 percent increase). These smartphone use patterns suggest that smartphones are key instruments that help citizens stay informed, in sync, and in touch with society during times of crisis.
Mobile data donations: Assessing self-report accuracy and sample biases with the iOS Screen Time function
(2021-05) Ohme, Jakob; Araujo, Theo; de Vreese, Claes H.; Piotrowski, Jessica Taylor
With digital communication increasingly shifting to mobile devices, communication research needs to explore ways to retrieve, process, and analyze digital trace data on people’s most personal devices. This study presents a new methodological approach, mobile data donations, in which smartphone usage data is collected unobtrusively with the help of mobile log data. The iOS Screen Time function is used as a test case for gathering log data with the help of screenshots. The study investigates the feasibility of the method, sample biases, and accuracy of smartphone usage self-reports on a general population sample of Dutch citizens (n=404). Importantly, it explores how mobile data donations can be used as add-ons or substitutes for conventional media exposure measures. Results indicate that (a) users’ privacy concerns and technical skills are crucial factors for the willingness to donate mobile log data and (b) there is a strong tendency for underreporting of smartphone usage duration and frequency.
Following politicians on social media: Effects for political information, peer communication, and youth engagement
(2020-05-19) Marquart, Franziska; Ohme, Jakob; Möller, Judith
Young citizens increasingly turn to social media platforms for political information. These platforms enable direct communication between politicians and citizens, circumventing the influence of traditional news outlets. We still know little about the consequences of direct contact with politicians on such platforms for citizens’ political participation. Here, we argue that the interplay of different actors in the political news diet of citizens should be investigated from a networked communication perspective. Relying on a cross-sectional survey of young Danes (15–25 years old, n = 567), we investigate the relationship between following politicians on social media and: (a) the composition of young citizens’ political media diet; and (b) their civic messaging and campaign participation. Following political actors on social media relates to increased campaign engagement and can be a catalyst for young people’s exposure to campaign news, but their friends and followers function as the main node of their political online networks. We document a process of the de-mediation of politics on social media: Established news media lose influence as primary information sources for young citizens. We discuss these results in the context of users’ active curation and passive selection of their political social media diet.
Longitudinal Data Donation Behavior and Data Omission across Four Social Media Platforms
(2026-01-01) Wedel, Lion; Ohme, Jakob
This research article presents insights from a two-wave, longitudinal data donation study across four major social media platforms: TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. We investigate a critical yet underexplored aspect of data donation: allowing participants to delete specific data traces before submission. Our analysis quantifies the impact of this selective omission on data completeness and, consequently, the analytical power of the resulting datasets. Furthermore, leveraging a longitudinal design, we examine the stability of donation and deletion behaviors over time in a panel setting. Findings reveal an overall increase in the platform donor rate in the second wave. However, we also observe substantial donor attrition. Notably, the omission of data traces is predominantly observed among first-time donors.Our results suggest the feasibility of longitudinal data donation research designs. For allowing participants selective data omission, a careful weighing of the trade-offs is necessary, as this practice—when utilized—significantly compromises data completeness.
D[X]IM—the Dynamic Intermediary Model of communicative transaction on digital platforms in a networked public sphere
(2025-10-31) Ohme, Jakob; Mayer, Anna-Theresa; Charlton-Czaplicki, Timothy; Gaisbauer, Felix; Wedel, Lion; Fan, Yangliu; Neuberger, Christoph
This study introduces the Dynamic Intermediary Model (D[X]IM) to address how knowledge processes have evolved with digital platforms by shifting from a dyadic to a triadic communication model of content flow with a potential intermediary. This intermediary, which can be a journalist, influencer, artificial agent, or another platform actor, provides services to the source and recipient of a message, thereby transforming traditional direct communication. It aims to better understand information diffusion in the networked public sphere by recognizing the intermediary’s role in altering source-recipient dynamics. The D[X]IM applies across different communication levels (macro, meso, and micro) and is designed for empirical research using diverse methodologies. It focuses on single instances of platform communication to explore the impact of intermediated communication. The article concludes with a research agenda and examples of how D[X]IM can be applied in empirical research.

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