A phenomenology of risks and trust in datafied media

Abstract

As data collection and analysis have become essential to digital media, citizens are left with the task of evaluating the risks associated with their consumption. Drawing on Schütz and Giddens, this paper develops a phenomenological framework to explain how citizens assess risks regarding the datafication of their media experiences and give their trust to datafied media in the context of everyday life. We identify a continuum of four zones of relevance (from control, concern, distance to irrelevance) in which risks are moved around, documenting three main responses by which citizens assess risks of datafied media. The findings show that while citizens are encouraged to make a variety of risks relevant, they go through a process of ‘distanciation’ when they do not have the agency to control and mitigate these risks. We discuss these findings in relation to the development of data literacy and regulation.