The next speaker in this AoIR 2018 session is Luke Heemsbergen, whose interest is in the evolution of radical leaking online, after the initial WikiLeaks moment. Originally, circa 2007, the platform suggested the possibility of a new form of radical transparency, yet for WikiLeaks itself that moment subsequently passed because of the way it has evolved further; other, more recent platforms have stepped into that breach to offer alternative models, however.

For transparency to be radical it must be able to subvert or disrupt dominant attitudes, and Luke defines radical transparency as disclosure that uproots expectations across communicative, organisational, and …

The next session at AoIR 2018 starts with Daniel Trottier’s paper on on digital vigilantism. He begins with the story of a video of an elderly woman in the Netherlands who was captured on in-store CCTV pocketing a lost wallet; that video went viral and the woman subsequently took her own life. In such cases, clearly, digital vigilantism against misbehaviour can be amplified well beyond the severity of the original offence, and can produce lasting effects on the initial culprits’ (but potentially also the accusers’) personal standing and reputation, as well as their mental and physical wellbeing. Further, because of …

I am the final speaker in this Social Media & Society 2018 session, presenting a paper co-authored with Christian Nuernbergk and Aljosha Karim Schapals, my colleagues in the Journalism beyond the Crisis ARC Discovery project. Here are our slides:

The third speaker in this Social Media & Society 2018 session is Johan Farkas, whose focus is on the activities of the Internet Research Agency (IRA) in St. Petersburg, described as the Russian ‘troll factory’ and indicted for its involvement in Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

There are three forms of propaganda that have been identified in past literature: ‘white’ propaganda has a known source; ‘grey’ propaganda has an obfuscated source; and ‘black’ propaganda claims to be from a legitimate source but isn’t. Is this a useful classification in this context? Do the processes of propaganda dissemination …

The next presenter in this Social Media & Society 2018 session is Oluwaseun Ajao, who shifts our focus to the question of ‘fake news’ on Twitter. Why is such content circulated on the platform? In part this is because these stories often generate more impact than ‘real’ news stories: this might result in significant shifts in political opinion, financial gains, or other outcomes that are desirable to the operators behind such initiatives.

The present study explores whether the veracity of a set of tweets might be able to be ascertained through automated content analysis. Are there semantic of linguistic …

The first paper session on this last day of Social Media & Society 2018 is Michaël Opgenhaffen, whose interest is in gatekeeping on social media. Gatekeeping is one of the fundamental processes in the news industry: editors and journalists choose what stories end up in the final newspaper, news bulletin, or news Website. But selection processes might now diverge across print and online news publications, and the arrival of social media as a medium for the news further complicates this picture.

On social media, audiences receive deep links to news stories on news Websites; they increasingly bypass the homepage of …

The final speaker in this session at ICA 2018 is Di Zhu, who explores the effects of personal news customisation on user enjoyment. Customisation here is seen as different from personalisation, which is algorithmically driven: customisation involves active, deliberate user choices, for example by choosing specific topics or indicating their interest in the stories they encounter.

Making choices satisfies a basic human need to be in control of our own lives. But having too many choices can be overwhelming and demotivating, as studies of Website and game customisation options have shown. News customisation could similarly enhance users’ enjoyment of their …