Pub Date : 2025-08-14DOI: 10.1177/20563051251363216
Ryan McGrady, Kevin Zheng, Ethan Zuckerman
This study presents a comparative analysis of language-specific random samples of YouTube videos, focusing on English, Spanish, Hindi, and Russian. We produce a large random sample, retrieve metadata, calibrate and deploy language-detection software, and extract four high-confidence language samples. Through an analysis of upload dates, popularity, duration, and category metadata, we highlight patterns and anomalies among our samples. For example, English YouTube has the smallest proportion of videos categorized as “News & Politics,” and Spanish videos have a longer median duration. The most salient contrast, however, is between Hindi YouTube and the other three languages. Hindi videos are much shorter and much newer, with sharp growth since 2020 and more than half of the sample uploaded in 2023 alone. The Hindi sample also exhibits a different pattern of liking, with the lowest percentage of videos with just zero or one like even while it has the highest percentage of videos with just zero or one view. These findings may help to quantify the migration of India’s short-form video culture, based around TikTok, to YouTube when TikTok was banned in the country in 2020. This study underscores the necessity of multilingual and culturally specific approaches to platform research by drawing attention to the heterogeneity of YouTube. We propose this method as a starting point to understand linguistic communities on YouTube, surfacing trends and exceptions while providing cues for more content-focused study.
{"title":"One Platform, Four Languages: Comparing English, Spanish, Hindi, and Russian YouTube","authors":"Ryan McGrady, Kevin Zheng, Ethan Zuckerman","doi":"10.1177/20563051251363216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251363216","url":null,"abstract":"This study presents a comparative analysis of language-specific random samples of YouTube videos, focusing on English, Spanish, Hindi, and Russian. We produce a large random sample, retrieve metadata, calibrate and deploy language-detection software, and extract four high-confidence language samples. Through an analysis of upload dates, popularity, duration, and category metadata, we highlight patterns and anomalies among our samples. For example, English YouTube has the smallest proportion of videos categorized as “News & Politics,” and Spanish videos have a longer median duration. The most salient contrast, however, is between Hindi YouTube and the other three languages. Hindi videos are much shorter and much newer, with sharp growth since 2020 and more than half of the sample uploaded in 2023 alone. The Hindi sample also exhibits a different pattern of liking, with the lowest percentage of videos with just zero or one like even while it has the highest percentage of videos with just zero or one view. These findings may help to quantify the migration of India’s short-form video culture, based around TikTok, to YouTube when TikTok was banned in the country in 2020. This study underscores the necessity of multilingual and culturally specific approaches to platform research by drawing attention to the heterogeneity of YouTube. We propose this method as a starting point to understand linguistic communities on YouTube, surfacing trends and exceptions while providing cues for more content-focused study.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144899005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-12DOI: 10.1177/20563051251359493
Sanna Spišák
This article examines how Finnish young people (ages 16–19) navigate digital intimacy through voice, privacy, and platform use. Drawing on reflexive thematic analysis of asynchronous focus group discussions conducted on Discord, the study explores how participants manage exposure and vulnerability in digital spaces through selective boundary work. Voice, in particular, emerges as a key marker of intimacy and privacy: a conduit for affective connection, yet also a site of corporeal risk. The study proposes a relational framework, where privacy, intimacy, and voice are co-constitutive and introduces the concept of ‘intimacy architectures’ to describe how young people calibrate access and proximity across platforms. Findings show that youth strategically favour ephemeral, history-free communication tools, avoid sharing phone numbers, and resist voice-based interaction depending on cultural and linguistic context. These practices illustrate a nuanced negotiation of digital embodiment, identity, and control. The study contributes to emerging scholarship on sonic intimacy and offers new insights into youth digital culture in a datafied society.
{"title":"Sonic Intimacies and Digital Boundary Work: Navigating Privacy, Voice and Connection Among Finnish Youth","authors":"Sanna Spišák","doi":"10.1177/20563051251359493","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251359493","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how Finnish young people (ages 16–19) navigate digital intimacy through voice, privacy, and platform use. Drawing on reflexive thematic analysis of asynchronous focus group discussions conducted on Discord, the study explores how participants manage exposure and vulnerability in digital spaces through selective boundary work. Voice, in particular, emerges as a key marker of intimacy and privacy: a conduit for affective connection, yet also a site of corporeal risk. The study proposes a relational framework, where privacy, intimacy, and voice are co-constitutive and introduces the concept of ‘intimacy architectures’ to describe how young people calibrate access and proximity across platforms. Findings show that youth strategically favour ephemeral, history-free communication tools, avoid sharing phone numbers, and resist voice-based interaction depending on cultural and linguistic context. These practices illustrate a nuanced negotiation of digital embodiment, identity, and control. The study contributes to emerging scholarship on sonic intimacy and offers new insights into youth digital culture in a datafied society.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144899004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-31DOI: 10.1177/20563051251358529
Carlos Entrena-Serrano
Social media’s transition into algorithmic content recommendations, accelerated by TikTok’s entry into the ecosystem, has reshaped platforms’ consumptive curation affordances, reducing users’ ability to curate their feeds directly. While previous research has explored user experiences with TikTok’s algorithmic recommendations, there has been limited attention to how its interface shapes these interactions. This article interrogates the role of TikTok’s interface design in shaping these new consumptive curation affordances. Drawing on Davis’s concept of consumptive curation – users’ selective engagement with vast pools of content – and literature on social media affordances and mediation theory, I present consumptive curation affordances as relational: shaped by the interplay between platforms’ technological design, user practices and social arrangements. TikTok’s interface is central in this interplay, mediating consumptive curation practices with algorithmic recommendations through several affordance mechanisms. I analyse TikTok’s interface through a walkthrough method, organised according to the algorithmic experience framework, where I operationalise the concepts of friction levels and affordance mechanisms. Findings reveal the dominant role of the For You Page, where TikTok strongly encourages users toward passive consumptive curation – watch, scroll, repeat – while refusing to provide enough transparency about how interactions curate recommendations and discouraging users from disabling data collection. As a result, TikTok’s interface discourages users from strategising consumptive curation practices, demanding reliance on opaque algorithmic recommendations. This study offers a theoretical foundation for understanding how interface design influences consumptive curation affordances. Grounded in a relational view of affordances, future studies can explore how socially situated users strategise interactions with TikTok’s algorithmic environment.
TikTok进入生态系统加速了社交媒体向算法内容推荐的转变，重塑了平台的消费管理能力，降低了用户直接管理自己的信息流的能力。虽然之前的研究探索了TikTok算法推荐的用户体验，但对其界面如何塑造这些交互的关注有限。本文探讨了TikTok的界面设计在塑造这些新的消费策展能力方面所起的作用。借鉴Davis的消费性策展概念——用户对大量内容的选择性参与——以及关于社交媒体启示和中介理论的文献，我提出消费性策展启示是一种关系：由平台的技术设计、用户实践和社会安排之间的相互作用形成。TikTok的界面是这种相互作用的核心，它通过几种功能机制，将消费管理实践与算法推荐协调起来。我通过一种根据算法经验框架组织的演练方法分析了TikTok的界面，在这种方法中，我操作了摩擦水平和提供机制的概念。调查结果揭示了For You Page的主导作用，TikTok强烈鼓励用户进行被动的消费管理——观看、滚动、重复——同时拒绝提供足够的透明度，说明互动如何管理推荐，并阻止用户禁用数据收集。因此，TikTok的界面不鼓励用户制定消费性策展实践的战略，要求用户依赖不透明的算法推荐。本研究为理解界面设计如何影响消费策展能力提供了理论基础。未来的研究将以能力的关系视角为基础，探索处于社会地位的用户如何与TikTok的算法环境进行互动。
{"title":"Watch, Scroll, Repeat: How Interface Design Shapes Consumptive Curation Affordances on TikTok","authors":"Carlos Entrena-Serrano","doi":"10.1177/20563051251358529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251358529","url":null,"abstract":"Social media’s transition into algorithmic content recommendations, accelerated by TikTok’s entry into the ecosystem, has reshaped platforms’ consumptive curation affordances, reducing users’ ability to curate their feeds directly. While previous research has explored user experiences with TikTok’s algorithmic recommendations, there has been limited attention to how its interface shapes these interactions. This article interrogates the role of TikTok’s interface design in shaping these new consumptive curation affordances. Drawing on Davis’s concept of consumptive curation – users’ selective engagement with vast pools of content – and literature on social media affordances and mediation theory, I present consumptive curation affordances as relational: shaped by the interplay between platforms’ technological design, user practices and social arrangements. TikTok’s interface is central in this interplay, mediating consumptive curation practices with algorithmic recommendations through several affordance mechanisms. I analyse TikTok’s interface through a walkthrough method, organised according to the algorithmic experience framework, where I operationalise the concepts of friction levels and affordance mechanisms. Findings reveal the dominant role of the For You Page, where TikTok strongly encourages users toward passive consumptive curation – watch, scroll, repeat – while refusing to provide enough transparency about how interactions curate recommendations and discouraging users from disabling data collection. As a result, TikTok’s interface discourages users from strategising consumptive curation practices, demanding reliance on opaque algorithmic recommendations. This study offers a theoretical foundation for understanding how interface design influences consumptive curation affordances. Grounded in a relational view of affordances, future studies can explore how socially situated users strategise interactions with TikTok’s algorithmic environment.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144766142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-29DOI: 10.1177/20563051251357271
Anna Wickenkamp, Frederic R. Hopp, Michael Hameleers, Linda Bos
Social media have transformed political campaigning by enabling direct interaction between politicians and voters, becoming a key tool for shaping public opinion. Moral language is pivotal in this dynamic as it captures attention in an overly information-saturated social media environment and wields significant influence over political opinions. Populists thrive on social media by fostering distrust in elites, using emotional language, and reducing complex issues to simple “us vs. them” binaries. We argue these factors are rooted in moral underpinnings, which may play a significant role in the appeal of populist parties and have thus far received limited scholarly attention. Consequently, this paper addresses the research question: To what extent, and in what ways, do populist parties exhibit a distinct moral-rhetorical profile on social media that sets them apart from mainstream politicians? Using Moral Foundations Theory, natural language processing, and a computational semantic network approach, we analyzed 11,205 social media posts from Dutch political parties and leaders during the 2023 Dutch election campaign across X, Facebook, and Instagram. Our findings reveal that populist parties emphasize Care and Authority over other moral foundations, while mainstream parties exhibit a different moral foundation distribution. These results align with the part of populist communication logic that frames populist actors as defenders against corrupt elites and external threats, as well as representatives of the people’s demand for sovereignty. Moreover, we found populist parties exhibit less internal consistency in their moral rhetoric across platforms than mainstream parties, suggesting a potentially higher adeptness at tailoring messages to different platforms and their affordances.
{"title":"The Moral Foundations of Populist Communication: A Semantic Network Analysis of Political Parties’ Social Media Discourse in a Multiparty System","authors":"Anna Wickenkamp, Frederic R. Hopp, Michael Hameleers, Linda Bos","doi":"10.1177/20563051251357271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251357271","url":null,"abstract":"Social media have transformed political campaigning by enabling direct interaction between politicians and voters, becoming a key tool for shaping public opinion. Moral language is pivotal in this dynamic as it captures attention in an overly information-saturated social media environment and wields significant influence over political opinions. Populists thrive on social media by fostering distrust in elites, using emotional language, and reducing complex issues to simple “us vs. them” binaries. We argue these factors are rooted in moral underpinnings, which may play a significant role in the appeal of populist parties and have thus far received limited scholarly attention. Consequently, this paper addresses the research question: To what extent, and in what ways, do populist parties exhibit a distinct moral-rhetorical profile on social media that sets them apart from mainstream politicians? Using Moral Foundations Theory, natural language processing, and a computational semantic network approach, we analyzed 11,205 social media posts from Dutch political parties and leaders during the 2023 Dutch election campaign across X, Facebook, and Instagram. Our findings reveal that populist parties emphasize Care and Authority over other moral foundations, while mainstream parties exhibit a different moral foundation distribution. These results align with the part of populist communication logic that frames populist actors as defenders against corrupt elites and external threats, as well as representatives of the people’s demand for sovereignty. Moreover, we found populist parties exhibit less internal consistency in their moral rhetoric across platforms than mainstream parties, suggesting a potentially higher adeptness at tailoring messages to different platforms and their affordances.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144766143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-29DOI: 10.1177/20563051251357872
Yunfei Xing, Justin Zuopeng Zhang
Human trafficking, a grave human rights violation with far-reaching global consequences, serves as a compelling case study for analyzing multifaceted polarization dynamics in online discourse and the influence of social media on public perceptions and responses. Drawing on social identity theory and self-categorization theory, this article aims to elucidate both group polarization and opinion polarization surrounding human trafficking on social media. Through an integrated approach that combines clustering, social network analysis, text mining, and topic modeling, this study provides a comprehensive examination of community formation, influential actor identification, topic classification, and semantic analysis. The similarity between user-generated content from clustered groups and the topics identified is calculated to quantify the degree of multifaceted polarization. The findings reveal a robust community structure within the network and uncover divisions and structural characteristics across each subgroup. Utilizing the BERTopic model, thematic clusters such as vulnerable groups, persecution experiences, incident areas, law and politics, public awareness, contraband, and case events are identified, reflecting the primary public concerns regarding human trafficking. This research enhances our understanding of multifaceted polarization shaped by social identity in digital conversations about critical social issues and holds significant implications for policymakers, advocacy groups, and practitioners navigating public opinion regarding human trafficking in the digital realm.
{"title":"Shadows and Light: Unveiling Multifaceted Polarization in Social Media Discourse on Human Trafficking","authors":"Yunfei Xing, Justin Zuopeng Zhang","doi":"10.1177/20563051251357872","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251357872","url":null,"abstract":"Human trafficking, a grave human rights violation with far-reaching global consequences, serves as a compelling case study for analyzing multifaceted polarization dynamics in online discourse and the influence of social media on public perceptions and responses. Drawing on social identity theory and self-categorization theory, this article aims to elucidate both group polarization and opinion polarization surrounding human trafficking on social media. Through an integrated approach that combines clustering, social network analysis, text mining, and topic modeling, this study provides a comprehensive examination of community formation, influential actor identification, topic classification, and semantic analysis. The similarity between user-generated content from clustered groups and the topics identified is calculated to quantify the degree of multifaceted polarization. The findings reveal a robust community structure within the network and uncover divisions and structural characteristics across each subgroup. Utilizing the BERTopic model, thematic clusters such as vulnerable groups, persecution experiences, incident areas, law and politics, public awareness, contraband, and case events are identified, reflecting the primary public concerns regarding human trafficking. This research enhances our understanding of multifaceted polarization shaped by social identity in digital conversations about critical social issues and holds significant implications for policymakers, advocacy groups, and practitioners navigating public opinion regarding human trafficking in the digital realm.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144766144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-29DOI: 10.1177/20563051251337404
Steve Borchardt, Matteo Trane, Stefano Cisternino, Luisa Marelli
Launched in December 2019, the European Green Deal (EGD) represents the European Union’s (EU) ambitious policy framework to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This study employs a sentiment analysis of 582,156 tweets from the beginning of 2020 to April 2024 to understand the evolution of public sentiment toward the EGD. Grounded in Social Representations Theory and Framing Theory, we analyze sentiment trends, topic distributions, and the impact of key policy and external events (e.g. COVID-19 spread) on public sentiment. The results reveal predominantly neutral sentiment (61.68%), with more positive (28.26%) than negative (10.06%) sentiment overall and a substantially stable trend over time. EU-affiliated accounts showed higher positive sentiment compared to non-EU-affiliated accounts. Sentiment trends were correlated with key policy announcements and global events, demonstrating the intricate relationship between policy communication and the formation of public opinion. The study identified key themes and specific initiatives driving positive sentiment, including those linked to the first EU climate law and climate targets, Farm to Fork, and New European Bauhaus. Conversely, economic concerns, challenges in policy implementation challenges, ecosystem conservation status, and food system, and energy security issues appeared as associated with negative sentiment. The findings highlight the importance of targeted communication strategies, transparent response to skepticism, communication of policy processes, and stakeholder feedback collection tool enhancement to leverage public sentiment in support of the EU green transition, paving the way for future research to explore regional nuances and sentiment monitoring.
{"title":"Perceptions of the European Green Deal: Understanding Public Sentiment","authors":"Steve Borchardt, Matteo Trane, Stefano Cisternino, Luisa Marelli","doi":"10.1177/20563051251337404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251337404","url":null,"abstract":"Launched in December 2019, the European Green Deal (EGD) represents the European Union’s (EU) ambitious policy framework to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This study employs a sentiment analysis of 582,156 tweets from the beginning of 2020 to April 2024 to understand the evolution of public sentiment toward the EGD. Grounded in Social Representations Theory and Framing Theory, we analyze sentiment trends, topic distributions, and the impact of key policy and external events (e.g. COVID-19 spread) on public sentiment. The results reveal predominantly neutral sentiment (61.68%), with more positive (28.26%) than negative (10.06%) sentiment overall and a substantially stable trend over time. EU-affiliated accounts showed higher positive sentiment compared to non-EU-affiliated accounts. Sentiment trends were correlated with key policy announcements and global events, demonstrating the intricate relationship between policy communication and the formation of public opinion. The study identified key themes and specific initiatives driving positive sentiment, including those linked to the first EU climate law and climate targets, Farm to Fork, and New European Bauhaus. Conversely, economic concerns, challenges in policy implementation challenges, ecosystem conservation status, and food system, and energy security issues appeared as associated with negative sentiment. The findings highlight the importance of targeted communication strategies, transparent response to skepticism, communication of policy processes, and stakeholder feedback collection tool enhancement to leverage public sentiment in support of the EU green transition, paving the way for future research to explore regional nuances and sentiment monitoring.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144748222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-27DOI: 10.1177/20563051251358748
Hui Lin, Rafal Zaborowski
This article examines Douyin’s gamified features to investigate whether and how they facilitate online sociality. Drawing on literature on online sociality and gamification, this study demonstrates how Douyin’s gaming elements introduce a playful dimension to social interactions and examines the implications of transforming sociality into a game. Using a mixed-method approach comprising the walkthrough method and diary-interview technique, the study finds that gamified features—such as friendship badges, quantified levels, and virtual pets—can encourage social behavior and strengthen interpersonal bonds. However, these effects are primarily confined to small, strong-tie friendship groups and do not extend to larger, weak-tie networks. The findings suggest that Douyin users often display heightened awareness of how algorithms exploit their social behaviors, prompting them to adopt cautious and critical digital practices. The article makes both empirical and methodological contributions by offering a case study of gamification in socialization and demonstrating the utility of the diary-interview approach for analyzing user interactions.
{"title":"Flame Badges and Virtual Pets: Gamified Sociality on Douyin","authors":"Hui Lin, Rafal Zaborowski","doi":"10.1177/20563051251358748","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251358748","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines Douyin’s gamified features to investigate whether and how they facilitate online sociality. Drawing on literature on online sociality and gamification, this study demonstrates how Douyin’s gaming elements introduce a playful dimension to social interactions and examines the implications of transforming sociality into a game. Using a mixed-method approach comprising the walkthrough method and diary-interview technique, the study finds that gamified features—such as friendship badges, quantified levels, and virtual pets—can encourage social behavior and strengthen interpersonal bonds. However, these effects are primarily confined to small, strong-tie friendship groups and do not extend to larger, weak-tie networks. The findings suggest that Douyin users often display heightened awareness of how algorithms exploit their social behaviors, prompting them to adopt cautious and critical digital practices. The article makes both empirical and methodological contributions by offering a case study of gamification in socialization and demonstrating the utility of the diary-interview approach for analyzing user interactions.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"91 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144712311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-24DOI: 10.1177/20563051251350975
Adrian Rauchfleisch, Daniel Vogler, Gabriele de Seta
The language used in public debates and in the news can influence how citizens perceive the risks and benefits of technology. While framing effects on technology perception are well understood, few studies have focused on the effects of specific terms used to describe technology. We analyze how the terms deepfake and synthetic media affect risk and benefit perceptions across application fields. Using Switzerland as a case, our manual content analysis ( n = 380 news articles) reveals a focus on risks in news coverage of deepfakes with minimal use of the term synthetic media. We then tested the effects of the terms on risk and benefit perceptions in a preregistered survey experiment (n = 736 participants). Term choice does not change perceived risks, but “synthetic media” significantly increases perceived benefits across application fields. As a theoretical contribution, we link our findings to the concept of euphemism, proposing that term choice should align with application fields to reflect the risks and benefits of technology. Overall, our study shows that the terms we use to label technology matter, especially for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
{"title":"Deepfakes or Synthetic Media? The Effect of Euphemisms for Labeling Technology on Risk and Benefit Perceptions","authors":"Adrian Rauchfleisch, Daniel Vogler, Gabriele de Seta","doi":"10.1177/20563051251350975","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251350975","url":null,"abstract":"The language used in public debates and in the news can influence how citizens perceive the risks and benefits of technology. While framing effects on technology perception are well understood, few studies have focused on the effects of specific terms used to describe technology. We analyze how the terms deepfake and synthetic media affect risk and benefit perceptions across application fields. Using Switzerland as a case, our manual content analysis ( <jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 380 news articles) reveals a focus on risks in news coverage of deepfakes with minimal use of the term synthetic media. We then tested the effects of the terms on risk and benefit perceptions in a preregistered survey experiment (n = 736 participants). Term choice does not change perceived risks, but “synthetic media” significantly increases perceived benefits across application fields. As a theoretical contribution, we link our findings to the concept of euphemism, proposing that term choice should align with application fields to reflect the risks and benefits of technology. Overall, our study shows that the terms we use to label technology matter, especially for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"705 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144701891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-21DOI: 10.1177/20563051251357483
Alice Marwick, Courtlyn Pippert, Katherine Furl, Elaine Schnabel
This article investigates the intersection of identity, power, and knowledge production on U.S. ConspiracyTok, a genre of TikTok videos promoting conspiracy theories ranging from harmless speculation to harmful disinformation. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of 202 highly viewed videos, we examine how identity markers such as race and gender shape who is empowered or undermined in conspiratorial narratives, and how creators construct and circulate “evidence” to support their claims. We find that American ConspiracyTok is populated largely by young, non-White, and/or female creators who challenge the stereotype of the White, male conspiracy theorist. These creators interpellate audiences through visible identity markers, fostering a sense of intimacy and trust. Marginalized groups are often cast as victims, while institutions like science, government, and media are portrayed as villains. Creators construct legitimacy through visual media, personal anecdotes, deep lore, and remixing fictional and mainstream texts—engaging in a form of populist knowledge production within a generous epistemology that welcomes divergent truths and alternative worldviews. These practices blur the lines between entertainment and ideology, often mimicking academic, or journalistic knowledge production while rejecting institutional authority. While ConspiracyTok can serve as a form of standpoint epistemology that empowers minoritized creators and critiques systemic injustice, it can just as easily reinforce bias and spread disinformation. ConspiracyTok is a site of vernacular theorizing where epistemology and identity are deeply entangled, offering both a critique of mainstream power and a cautionary tale about the populist appeal of conspiratorial thinking.
{"title":"Shapeshifters and Starseeds: Populist Knowledge Production, Generous Epistemology, and Disinformation on U.S. Conspiracy TikTok","authors":"Alice Marwick, Courtlyn Pippert, Katherine Furl, Elaine Schnabel","doi":"10.1177/20563051251357483","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251357483","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the intersection of identity, power, and knowledge production on U.S. ConspiracyTok, a genre of TikTok videos promoting conspiracy theories ranging from harmless speculation to harmful disinformation. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of 202 highly viewed videos, we examine how identity markers such as race and gender shape who is empowered or undermined in conspiratorial narratives, and how creators construct and circulate “evidence” to support their claims. We find that American ConspiracyTok is populated largely by young, non-White, and/or female creators who challenge the stereotype of the White, male conspiracy theorist. These creators interpellate audiences through visible identity markers, fostering a sense of intimacy and trust. Marginalized groups are often cast as victims, while institutions like science, government, and media are portrayed as villains. Creators construct legitimacy through visual media, personal anecdotes, deep lore, and remixing fictional and mainstream texts—engaging in a form of <jats:italic>populist knowledge production</jats:italic> within a <jats:italic>generous epistemology</jats:italic> that welcomes divergent truths and alternative worldviews. These practices blur the lines between entertainment and ideology, often mimicking academic, or journalistic knowledge production while rejecting institutional authority. While ConspiracyTok can serve as a form of standpoint epistemology that empowers minoritized creators and critiques systemic injustice, it can just as easily reinforce bias and spread disinformation. ConspiracyTok is a site of vernacular theorizing where epistemology and identity are deeply entangled, offering both a critique of mainstream power and a cautionary tale about the populist appeal of conspiratorial thinking.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144669688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Defining manhood is a critical concern in contemporary politics, especially due to its increasing role in shaping cultural narratives toward gender-based violence—and in particular, toward gender-based technology-facilitated violence and abuse (GBTFVA). In this context, this study investigates how political affiliation influences perceptions of GBTFVA among young Canadian men. To explore this, we draw on a survey of 1297 young Canadian men who align themselves with ideological affiliations across the political spectrum. Overall, our results show that political ideologies matter when understanding who enacts and sustains GBTFVA, as they significantly shape attitudes toward gender-based violence in digital spaces. Moreover, while we note that conservative participants displayed higher acceptance of GBTFVA myths than their liberal counterparts (such as She wanted it and She asked for it ), findings show that these harmful narratives are endorsed in different yet meaningful ways throughout all ideological affiliations. Furthermore, we found that one myth— It wasn’t really gender-based online abuse —is similarly endorsed across all political affiliations, thus highlighting the scope of these narratives that diminish the experience of targets across political discourses. By illuminating these intersections, this study provides valuable insights into the cultural and ideological underpinnings of GBTFVA, offering leverage points for societal change and prevention efforts.
{"title":"“Stop Being so Fkn Soft”: Masculinity, Politics, and the Acceptance of Gender-Based Online Violence Myths Among Young Canadian Men","authors":"Esteban Morales, Jaigris Hodson, Yimin Chen, Kaitlynn Mendes, George Veletsianos, Chandell Gosse","doi":"10.1177/20563051251358754","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251358754","url":null,"abstract":"Defining manhood is a critical concern in contemporary politics, especially due to its increasing role in shaping cultural narratives toward gender-based violence—and in particular, toward gender-based technology-facilitated violence and abuse (GBTFVA). In this context, this study investigates how political affiliation influences perceptions of GBTFVA among young Canadian men. To explore this, we draw on a survey of 1297 young Canadian men who align themselves with ideological affiliations across the political spectrum. Overall, our results show that political ideologies <jats:italic>matter</jats:italic> when understanding who enacts and sustains GBTFVA, as they significantly shape attitudes toward gender-based violence in digital spaces. Moreover, while we note that conservative participants displayed higher acceptance of GBTFVA myths than their liberal counterparts (such as <jats:italic>She wanted it</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>She asked for it</jats:italic> ), findings show that these harmful narratives are endorsed in different yet meaningful ways throughout all ideological affiliations. Furthermore, we found that one myth— <jats:italic>It wasn’t really gender-based online abuse</jats:italic> —is similarly endorsed across all political affiliations, thus highlighting the scope of these narratives that diminish the experience of targets across political discourses. By illuminating these intersections, this study provides valuable insights into the cultural and ideological underpinnings of GBTFVA, offering leverage points for societal change and prevention efforts.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144677268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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