New Media & Society

This article foregrounds the ways in which members of the Quantified Self ascribe value and meaning to the data they generate in self-tracking practices. We argue that the widespread idea that what draws self-trackers to numerical data is its perceived power of truth and objectivity—a so-called “data fetishism”—is limiting. Using an ethnographic approach, we describe three ways in which self-trackers attribute meaning to their data-gathering practices which escape this data fetishist critique: self-tracking as a practice of mindfulness, as a means of resistance against social norms, and as a communicative and narrative aid. In light of this active engagement with data, we suggest that it makes more sense to view these practitioners as “quantifying selves.” We also suggest that such fine-grained accounts of the appeal that data can have, beyond its allure of objectivity, are necessary if we are to achieve a fuller understanding of Big Data culture.

The study examines how persons in a close relationship with a gamer of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) perceive relationship problems caused by the gaming hobby. Revisiting the concept of pure relationships by Anthony Giddens, we analysed eight deep interviews with persons who claim their relationship with the gamer had ended or turned downhill due to the volume of the gaming. The study formulates a conception of the clashes of interest in areas of (1) situational clashes in everyday choreography, (2) shifts in long view prioritizing, (3) deficient communication and (4) understandings of self and autonomy in relation to gaming and relationship. These conceptual paths serve to understand the problems from a sociological perspective. On a more general level, the study demonstrates the timeliness in devoting attention to the premises under which intimacy and commitment are negotiated in offline and online relationship constellations.

Drawing from the stereotype content model, we examine how people respond to likeminded and counter-attitudinal political comments appearing after a news article. We experimentally test how citizens behave when they are able to click on one of three different buttons posted next to others’ comments—“Like,” “Recommend,” or “Respect.” In the experiment, political attitudes predicted button clicking, but the button label affected the strength of the relationship. In some instances, people clicked on fewer buttons associated with likeminded comments and more buttons associated with counter-attitudinal comments when the button was labeled with “Respect” as opposed to “Like” or “Recommend.” The pattern of results for the “Recommend” button differed across two issues. The results suggest that political comments can trigger stereotypical reactions. Although the “Like” button is well known, news organizations interested in promoting less partisan behaviors should consider using a “Respect” button rather than the “Like” or “Recommend” button in comment sections.

In ‘secular’ Western societies, religious topics permeate media texts of books, films, series and games and such texts even inform several religious-spiritual movements. Critically expanding on theories about ‘fiction-based religion’, ‘invented religion’ or ‘hyper-real religion’, this article studies if, how and why players of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft reflect on religious narratives in the game world and what influence it has on their personal perspective on religion. Based on interviews with 22 international players, three forms of ‘religious reflexivity’ are distinguished: (1) religious performance, an acting out of offline experiences with religion through online role-playing; (2) religious relativism, a shift from dogmatic atheism to a tolerant attitude towards religion; and (3) religious quests, an increased interest in religion and active ‘bricolage’ of online religion and official religion to create personal systems of meaning. Online games, it is concluded, can serve as laboratories where youngsters freely experiment with religion outside the established churches.

This article examines academic and popular examples of a “cyborg hoax”—an articulation of gender, dis/ability, and technology that is deceptive, reinforces an ideology of ability, and prevents users and scholars alike from seeing the value of disability for digital media cultures. The article uses cyborg theory, cyberculture studies, literature on online deception, and critical disability studies to argue that cyborg hoaxes are a dominant but stereotypical representation. This is contrasted with ethnographic data about disabled peoples’ online experiences, which suggest that alternative linkages of disability, gender, and technology can provide valuable insights into the critical study of online cultures.

This study explores the use of Facebook for collective coping in the immediate aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever recorded on Earth, which hit the Philippines in November 2013. When traditional communication channels became non-operational, non-traditional information sources and communication platforms, such as Facebook, became salient. Drawing from interviews with 29 individuals from various groups—government officials, local journalists, and residents—this study found three collective coping strategies facilitated by Facebook. First, social media became a platform for survivors to tell their friends and family they survived. Second, social media provided a means for residents to participate in the social construction of their experience. Finally, social media also became a venue for survivors to manage their feelings and memories by documenting—and memorializing—what they experienced and how they are moving on.

This article draws on research with young NEETs (not in education, employment or training) in Leeds in order to contest the assumption that technological qualities informing new media devices (here mobile phones) simply or transparently translate into social or ontological categories. We draw on a long-term ethnographic study of NEET individuals to argue that one of the underpinning principles of mobile phones – that they pertain to mobility and that mobility is positive and agential – is called into question. Our aim is not only to unpack a number of concepts and assumptions underpinning the mobile phone but also to suggest that these concepts unhelpfully (and even detrimentally) locate mobile phones in relation to the technological possibilities on offer without taking into account what is simultaneously made impossible and immobile, and for whom. Finally, when we set the digital experiences of NEETs alongside the discourses around mobile phones, we find that mobility is restricted – not enabling, and that it is forged in, and articulated as part of an everyday life that is dominated by the social and economic horizons set by the groups status as NEET.

Based on an automated textual analysis of 40,000 film reviews posted by 18,000 French contributors on a web-based platform providing information on cinema, this article examines the relationship between the status of contributors (number of reviews posted, length of time of subscription to the site) and the type of reviews posted (choice of films, date of publication, models of argumentation, and modes of ratings). The study identifies two strongly contrasting reviewing models (film-centered and reception-centered) and shows that the regularity of practice significantly influences reviews, with regard to both form and content. The more often an author posts reviews, the closer the critique will be to the norms and formats of a professional critique. This finding challenges the idea that an online amateur critique can undermine the hierarchies of evaluation of cultural goods.

This article investigates the impact that the initial financialization of the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company (Marconi) had upon its core business model, its relationship with its workers, government, and the bourgeoning investor class (1897–1905). Drawing upon primary sources from the Marconi corporate archives at the University of Oxford, the article investigates how the company used the new financial disclosure requirements of the day to deploy a compelling publicity campaign for wireless communications.

As one of the first empirical analyses focusing on corporate executive officers’ (CEOs) communication style on social media and its impacts, the study aims to advance the theoretical understanding of CEO sociability and the mechanism underneath its effects on the broader public relations outcome of organization–public relationship and public advocacy. Through a quantitative survey with 332 social media users who have followed corporate CEOs on social media, this study illuminated how CEOs’ responsive and assertive communications induce the CEOs’ followers to perceive the corporate leaders as amicable role models and caring friends, which in turn improve their trust of, satisfaction with, and advocacy for the company. Hence, the findings highlight the pivotal role of CEOs as chief engagement officer in developing meaningful interpersonal interactions and relationships with today’s digital savvy publics.

Digital microwork is a type of labor that many—typically poorly paid—workers engage in. In our research, we focus on an experience-based model of digital labor and the nonmonetary benefits derived from such activities. Based on a survey of 701 workers at Amazon Mechanical Turk, we demonstrate that experiences during digital labor sequences generate flow-like states of immersion. We show that reaching flow-like states while performing microwork depends on certain work characteristics, such as the particular worker’s degree of autonomy, the extent to which a worker’s skills are utilized, and the apparent significance of and feedback derived from the task. The results both highlight the importance of flow-like immersion in explaining why individuals engage in digital labor projects and point to avenues that can lead to the design of better digital work experiences.

Much current literature examines ways in which civic norms and practices are being enacted, developed and experimented with in the realm of new media. Yet an open question pertains to the role the new media environment plays in this process: Are changes in civic conceptions reliant on new media, or is it an arena in which such changes are enacted and enhanced? This essay addresses this question by contextualizing citizenship models that theorize the role of new media, as part of a broader paradigm of “alternative citizenship models.” What threads together this paradigm is an argument about a change in what constitutes “good citizenship”; a change seen not as a decline from a previous standard, but as the manifestation of a new citizenship model. This article maps the landscape of alternative citizenship models and investigates the role of new media in reshaping citizenship.