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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
No full textIn 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
Arbeit und Qualifizierung 2030 – Essentials. Eine Momentaufnahme aus dem Maschinenraum der dualen Transformation von Digitalisierung und Elektromobilität: Transformationserleben – Transformationsressourcen – Transformationsbereitschaft bei Volkswagen
Get PDFEditorial: Volume 3, Issue 1
No full textThe five papers in this issue of the Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society examine processes of digitalization from a perspective that encompasses political economy, political science, psychology, and communication science. In turn, the contributors explore the relationship between digitalization and capitalism, the role of civic tech initiatives, the regulation of political micro-targeting on social media, the use of fictive accounts of historical figures on social media, and concepts for the participatory development of research agendas.The Weizenbaum Institute is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF
Making Arguments with Data
Get PDFWhether we are discussing measures in order to "flatten the curve" in a pandemic or what to wear given the most recent weather forecast, we base arguments on patterns observed in data. This article presents an approach to practicing ethics when working with large datasets and designing data representations. We programmed and used web-based interfaces to sort, organize, and explore a community-run archive of radio signals. Inspired by feminist critique of technoscience and recent problematizations of digital literacy, we argue that one can navigate machine learning models in a multi-narrative manner. We hold that the main challenge to sovereignty comes from lingering forms of colonialism and extractive relationships that easily move in and out of the digital domain. Countering both narratives of techno-optimism and the universalizing critique of technology, we discuss an approach to data and networks that enables a situated critique of datafication and correlationism from within.This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII111, 16DII112, 16DII113, 16DII114, 16DII115, 16DII116, 16DII117 – „Deutsches Internet-Institut“
TechDo Digest 1x1: March 2023
No full textThe TechDo Digest is the literature overview of the research group "Technology, Power and Domination" at the Weizenbaum Institute. Every two to three months, the group curates a list of relevant new publications within their field, focussing on analyses of structures of power and domination in digitalized societies, changes to democratic processes, regulation of and through technology, and the contestation of digital technologies. This edition features articles that appeared between January and February 2023.The Weizenbaum Institute is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF
Mainstreaming civic tech and citizen sensing: a research agenda on co-creation methods, data interfaces, and impact pathways
Get PDFIn this perspective article, we propose an interdisciplinary research agenda that addresses citizen science approaches embedded in civic tech initiatives and citizen sensing scenarios. The proposed agenda builds on the multi-level perspective framework (Geels, 2004; Geels, 2019) to inform research on how such ‘niche innovations’ like citizen sensing become mainstreamed in broader socio-technical systems and modes of governance. To support research across use case scenarios and make analyses more comparable internationally, we identify three core areas of interdisciplinary future research and practice development: 1) uses of co-creation methods to develop project objectives and align stakeholders; 2) designs of interfaces for gathering, communicating, and archiving civic data for different types of users; and 3) modeling impact pathways of individual projects that include civic tech activists and citizen scientists, academic researchers, journalists, and policymakers. For impact pathways, we highlight the importance of collaborations with data-driven approaches in journalism
Purple Code – With Armaghan Naghipour
No full textOur guest Armaghan Naghipour is a lawyer specializing in migration and anti-discrimination law and the deputy chairwoman of DeutschPlus (https://www.deutsch-plus.de). Most recently, she was State Secretary for Science, Research and Equality in the State of Berlin. Prior to that, she held various advisory positions in Berlin state politics, including helping to draft Berlin’s state anti-discrimination law. In the wonderful atmosphere of the Grüner Salon at the Volksbühne Berlin, we talk about Armaghan’s experiences as a political advisor and State Secretary, about what it is like to take on responsibility as State Secretary and to shape society in these specific political structures, but also about the hesitation and the feeling of being an impostor, and what it is like to jump in at the deep end. We talk about the responsibility that comes with such an appointment, about discrimination characteristics of AI from a legal perspective and how legal frameworks shape our everyday lives. We touch upon the anti-discrimination law in Germany and specifically the Berlin anti-discrimination law, upon how Armaghan’s parents fled Iran in the 1980s when she was 1 year old, and how the topic of migration is a recurring theme in her professional work as well as in this podcast. Last but not least, we talk about the power that comes from these kinds of conversations
Mapping a Dark Space: Challenges in Sampling and Classifying Non-Institutionalized Actors on Telegram
Get PDFCrafted as an open communication platform characterized by high anonymity and minimal moderation, Telegram has garnered increasing popularity among activists operating within repressive political contexts, as well as among political extremists and conspiracy theorists. While Telegram offers valuable data access to research non-institutionalized activism, scholars studying the latter on Telegram face unique theoretical and methodological challenges in systematically defining, selecting, sampling, and classifying relevant actors and content. This literature review addresses these issues by considering a wide range of recent research. In particular, it discusses the methodological challenges of sampling and classifying heterogeneous groups of (often non-institutionalized) actors. Drawing on social movement research, we first identify challenges specific to the characteristics of non-institutionalized actors and how they become interlaced with Telegram’s platform infrastructure and requirements. We then discuss strategies from previous Telegram research for the identification and sampling of a study population through multistage sampling procedures and the classification of actors. Finally, we derive challenges and potential strategies for future research and discuss ethical challenges
Politicization and Right-Wing Normalization on YouTube: A Topic-Based Analysis of the “Alternative Influence Network”
Get PDFScholarship has highlighted the rise of political influencer networks on YouTube, raising concerns about the platform’s propensity to spread and even incentivize politically extreme content. While many studies have focused on YouTube’s algorithmic infrastructure, limited research exists on the actual content in these networks. Building on Lewis’s (2018) classification of an “alternative influencer” network, we apply structural topic modeling across all text-based autocaptions from her study’s sample to identify common topics featured on these channels. This allows us to gauge which topics appear together and to trace politicization over time. Through network analysis, we determine channel similarities and evaluate whether deplatformed channels influenced topic shifts. We find that political topics increasingly dominate the focus of all analyzed channels. The convergence of culture and politics occurs mostly about identity-driven issues. Furthermore, more extreme channels do not form distinct clusters but blend into the larger content-based network. Our findings illustrate how political topics may function as connective ties across an initially more diverse network of YouTube influencer channels.This study was supported by grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Grant Nos. 16DII114, 16DII125, and 16DII135 in the context of the Weizenbaum Institute. Carsten Schwemmer acknowledges support from the Weizenbaum Institute (research fellowship)
Remote Work: New Fields and Challenges for Labor Activism
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic has altered how and when we work. Suddenly, organizations had to grant the possibility of working from home to all employees whose presence on-site was not necessary, independent of rank and job. In light of this experience, a return to permanent presence in the office for all has become unlikely. As remote work has both positive and negative implications for employees, their organizations, and workplace institutions, this contribution seeks to answer the following questions: First, what are the challenges for workplace equity and employee well-being that arise from the increased use of remote work? Second, what can be done to ensure that remote work actually benefits employees? Third, what are the implications of the increased use of remote work for the labor movement