Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://www.weizenbaum-library.de/handle/id/1111
Collection of articles, reviews, preprints
Browse
16 results
Search Results
Item Differential social media affordances: an actor type-centric, intermediate-level approach using the case of social movements(2025-11-10) Baden, Christian; Heft, Annett; Vaughan, Michael; Pfetsch, BarbaraSocial media have profoundly changed social communication practices across a vast range of contexts. To theorize these changes, numerous authors have proposed digital affordances as a conceptual lens. Yet, to date, most accounts of digital affordances either gloss broadly over cross-platform or use-dependent differences in practices; or they are highly context-specific, obstructing theoretical integration. In this article, we conceptualize social media affordances on an intermediate level of abstraction that foregrounds consequential differences in how digital social media platforms structure social communication practices. Focusing on the characteristic communication needs of social movements as an exemplary case, we identify how social media platforms present users with differential affordances for articulating public claims, building collective identities, and mobilizing contentious performances. We examine how key contextual conditions alter the value of differential affordances, potentially resulting in differential communication practices and platform preferences. We conclude by discussing key opportunities of our approach for comparative research and theory building.Item ‘They don’t like us in the global movement’: The experiences of youth activists at the periphery of worldwide Fridays for Future(2025-11-24) Levi, Dganit; Baran, Zozan; Stoltenberg, Daniela; Assan, Thalia Thereza; Kligler-Vilenchik, Neta; Pfetsch, BarbaraWhile global movements are often lauded for the ability to unite action worldwide, this study foregrounds the hindrances and conflicts that may emerge between a global movement and its local chapters – particularly those at the periphery – that may even evolve into disconnection. To investigate such tensions, we focus on two national chapters of the youth climate action movement Fridays for Future, whose members perceive themselves as being on the periphery of the global movement: Israel and Turkey. The study builds on 41 semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 Israeli and Turkish youth activists, aged 12–23. Our analysis of the interviews reveals that transnational connections may face difficulties when navigating different local conditions and differing movement priorities. Youth activists may choose to favor a commitment to local priorities over weak transnational ties – particularly when faced with interpersonal tensions. Thus, in contrast to the focus in much of the connective action literature on how digital technologies afford transnational connections, our research emphasizes the human aspect of connective and disconnective action. We show that, due to the weak ties they are built on, transnational movements may not always be able to withstand the ideological and political tensions that arise from the different lived experiences of their members.Item Leaning in or turning away? Differential effects of the early pandemic lockdown on Twitter use(2024-09-28) Stoltenberg, Daniela; Kligler-Vilenchik, Neta; de Vries Kedem, Maya; Gur-Ze'ev, Hadas; Pfetsch, Barbara; Waldherr, AnnieThe COVID-19 pandemic raised interest in the question of digital participation and expression during crises. Our study contributes to this debate through a deep dive into differential effects the pandemic had on the social and political expression of Twitter users. We report results from a mobile experience sampling method survey of intense users from Jerusalem, Israel. As the study was in the field when lockdown measures were implemented, it can trace changes in expressive behaviors as the crisis emerged. Our data demonstrate differential patterns in use intensity and communication about the pandemic. Many people intensified their Twitter use, but some turned away. Compared with younger users, older people used Twitter less and communicated about the pandemic less. More educated users intensified their use, compared with less educated users. Rather than causing complete realignments of expression, the pandemic intensified existing differential patterns. Our study demonstrates how, in a moment of uncertainty, a situation-specific information elite formed within a set of intense Twitter users, one that could gain disproportionate power in shaping public understanding of the pandemic.Item Translocal networked public spheres: Spatial arrangements of metropolitan Twitter(2024-11) Waldherr, Annie; Stoltenberg, Daniela; Maier, Daniel; Keinert, Alexa; Pfetsch, BarbaraIn this study, we theoretically conceptualize and empirically investigate translocal spatial arrangements of networked public spheres on social media. In digital communication networks, actors easily connect with others globally, crossing the borders of cities, nations and languages. However, the spatial notions evoked in public sphere research to date remain largely territorial. We propose a theoretical framework drawing on Löw’s sociology of space, which highlights the relational and translocal nature of spatial arrangements. In a case study of the translocal interaction network of Berlin Twitter users, we demonstrate how this framework can be leveraged empirically using network analysis. Despite the overall network of Berlin’s Twittersphere spanning the whole world, we find territorialized as well as deterritorialized translocal communities. This points to the simultaneity of territorial and networked spatial logics in digital public spheres.Item Value orientations and social cohesion in organizational discourses: a civil-society perspective(2025-08-19) Neumann, Rico; Pfetsch, Barbara; Hutter, Swen; Koschut, Simon; Schieferdecker, David; Specht, JuleAgainst the backdrop of political polarization and societal fragmentation, liberal democracy, more than ever, rests on social cohesion. Civil-society organizations (CSOs) are pivotal in fostering this cohesion by building social capital and serving as catalysts of social change. However, civil society is also a space of ambivalence where conflicting values and priorities are negotiated and, at times, contested. Integrating insights from social psychology, political sociology, and communication scholarship, this study seeks to better understand the extent and ways in which values are articulated in the external communication of CSOs, and how these values are linked to their public claims of fostering social cohesion. Combining organizational survey data of nearly 800 CSOs in Germany with a content analysis of their websites, this study finds clear tendencies toward communitarian (vs. individualistic), postmaterialist (vs. materialist), and secular-rational (vs. traditional) values in the CSOs’ self-portrayals. CSOs that view themselves as agents of social change and, to some degree, politically active CSOs tend to invoke values more often, while those focused on sports/leisure and cultural activities were least likely to do so. Finally, for articulating organizational visions of socially cohesive communities, it does not matter much which value orientations in particular are invoked by CSOs as long as values are present in their external communication.Item Attributing Coordinated Social Media Manipulation: A Theoretical Model and Typology.(2025) Thiele, Daniel; Milzner, Miriam; Gong, Baoning; Pfetsch, Barbara; Heft, AnnettSocial media are key arenas for public opinion formation, but are susceptible to coordinated social media manipulation (CSMM), that is, the orchestrated activity of multiple accounts to increase content visibility and deceive audiences. Despite advances in detecting and characterizing CSMM, the attribution problem—identifying the principals behind CSMM campaigns—has received little scholarly attention. In this article, we address this gap by synthesizing existing research and developing a theoretical model for understanding CSMM. We propose a consolidated definition of CSMM, identify its key observable and hidden characteristics, and present a rational choice model for inferring principals’ strategic decisions from campaign features. In addition, we present a typology of CSMM campaigns, linking variations in scale, elaborateness, and disguise to principals’ resources, stakes, and influence strategies. Our contribution provides researchers with conceptual and heuristic tools for attribution and invites interdisciplinary and comparative research on CSMM campaigns.Item Conditions of Campaigning in Dissonant Public Spheres and Crisis of Democracy(2023) Pfetsch, BarbaraPolitical 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.Item Topographies of Local Public Spheres on Social Media: The Scope of Issues and Interactions(2021) Pfetsch, Barbara; Maier, Daniel; Stoltenberg, Daniela; Waldherr, Annie; Kligler-Vilenchik, Neta; de Vries Kedem, MayaFollowing calls for a spatial turn in communication studies, we investigate the reach and topography of Twitter communication in two case studies of Berlin and Jerusalem. We theorize on the spatial dimensions of social media communication and their potential to establish a public sphere that can reach from the local to the global level. Empirically, we investigate the scope of Twitter communication of local users in Berlin and Jerusalem and ask to what degree their interactions and issues indicate a local public sphere or extend beyond the local level. We use a combination of topic modeling and a novel localization index to explore the spatial dimensions of the two Twitterspheres. Our data point to a considerable share of locally rooted conversations, but the majority of communication reaches beyond the local. At the intersection of interactions and issues, we uncover complex, semilocal configurations of public communication.Item Who Are They and Where? Insights Into the Social and Spatial Dimensions of Imagined Audiences From a Mobile Diary Study of Twitter Users(2022) Stoltenberg, Daniela; Pfetsch, Barbara; Keinert, Alexa; Waldherr, AnnieSocial media users hardly know who is reading their posts, but they form ideas about their readership. Researchers have coined the term imagined audience for the social groups that actors imagine seeing their public communication. However, social groups are not the only aspect that requires imagination: In the potentially borderless online environment, the geographical scope and locations of one’s audience are also unknown. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that imagined audiences vary between people and situations, but what explains these variations is unclear. In this article, we address these two gaps—the geographical scope and predictors of imagined audiences—using data from a mobile experience sampling method study of 105 active Twitter users from Berlin, Germany. Our results show that respondents mostly think of a geographically broad audience, which is spread out across the country or even globally. The imagined geographical scope and social groups depend on both the communicator and the usage situation. While the audience’s social composition especially depends on tweet content and respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, the geographical scope is best explained by respondents’ biography and personal mobility, including their experience of living in other countries and local residential duration.