Journal description
“Not only a key resource for keeping up to date in this fast-moving field, this journal is proving a vital resource for wide-ranging, insightful analyses of the social contexts and consequences of new information and communication technologies.” Sonia Livingstone
New Media & Society is an international journal that provides an interdisciplinary forum for the examination of the social dynamics of media and information change.
New Media & Society engages in critical discussions of the key issues arising from the scale and speed of new media development, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and on both theoretical and empirical research.
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Journal Feed
- by Melanie HirschNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. Political microtargeting practices aim at exposing social media users to political content that aligns with their preferences and interests. Hence, such exposure becomes a personal experience, dependent on individual perceptions. So far, research has rarely investigated young social media users’ personal experiences with targeted political advertising (TPA). In the present study, five qualitative focus group interviews with 20 young social media users (Mage = 19.30, SD = 1.59) were conducted to descriptively explore young social media users’ experiences with TPA. The insights indicated little intuitive reflection about TPA and targeting disclosures on social media. Participants often based […]
- by Marta Fernández-RuizNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. The gig economy has been explored recently in the media through videos, films, and series. Similarly, different video games have shown the ideology, values, and mechanisms that govern the gig economy. This article applies six mechanisms of algorithmic control at work to achieve a dual objective: to analyze how platform workers experience algorithmic control and to examine the extent to which video games, as a medium for raising critical awareness, reflect these workers’ experiences. We analyzed interviews with 42 platform workers in different sectors and six video games that address this topic. Our […]
- by Errol SalamonNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. This article examines how social media creators in the United Kingdom navigate regional labor dynamics in small urban cities and towns and their perceptions of potential resistance strategies. Grounded in a creator workers’ inquiry and thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with creators (N = 53), it expands the notion of peripheral creator labor. It reveals how digital factors and historically entrenched regional disparities exacerbate the global platform precarity experienced by different types of peripheral creators and the relative privilege of peripheral English-language Western-based creators. The study introduces the concepts of regional monetization precarity and localized […]
- by Limor ShifmanNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. Social media is a central arena for the articulation of values, shaping what people around the world deem important and desirable. However, traditional value typologies struggle to capture the dynamic nature of value expression in digital spheres and overlook new communication-related values prevalent in these environments. Addressing these gaps, we developed an analytical framework for investigating value expression on social media, comprising three general value orientations (Do well, Do good, and Feel good) and four communicative value orientations (Inform, Influence, Bond, and Express). We drew on extensive cross-national research to construct the framework […]
- by Heather Hensman KettreyNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. Scholars have argued that college hookup culture is facilitated by the unique physical and social context of college campuses and that young adults are increasingly using dating apps to initiate hookups. This has inspired calls for researchers to examine the digital interactions that precede face-to-face hookups. In this study, we used a “sexual market” framework to investigate the processes by which college hookups are “digitally brokered” via dating apps. Using data from focus groups conducted with 49 college students representing diverse sexual identities, we analyzed dating app users’ stories of their transitions from […]
- by Roland VerwiebeNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. Algorithmic systems wield substantial influence in contemporary society. Since it is mostly unknown how algorithms specifically work, content creators (CCs) on YouTube who rely on them for economic reasons are in a constant state of sensemaking regarding the characteristics and perceived preferences of the algorithm. To understand these perceptions, we draw from previous research on technological agency and examine the ways in which CCs view the algorithm as an independent entity with agentic features. We do this by conducting a thematic analysis of 30 interviews with German CCs on YouTube. We find that […]
- by Mikael AndéhnNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. Advances in information and communication technologies present remarkable potential for globally dispersed people to connect and engage around a variety of interests. While online communities seemed to initially offer vast potential for social cohesion, their ephemeral nature continues to raise doubts about their ability to facilitate meaningful togetherness. It has also been suggested that the largely automated nature of commercially driven social media can excite aggression and polarisation and thus bring about far-reaching negative social outcomes. Drawing from a long-term immersive online ethnography of the Red Pill, a conspiratorial collective battling their conception […]
- by Ziying MengNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. Social media content creators and influencers increasingly use multiple platforms to mitigate the risk of (in)visibility in the volatile algorithmic environment. This article focuses on transnational creators’ algorithmic knowledge and practices across Chinese and US-based platforms. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant-led walkthroughs and online observation with transnational creators, this research finds that creators learn each platform’s algorithmic preferences through ‘cross-platform sensitivity’, which also informs their practices of ‘algorithmic adaptability’ in the ever-changing platform environment. Creators’ cross-platform sensitivity and algorithmic adaptability show forms of everyday resistance to survive and cope with algorithmic power in […]
- by Yirgalem A HaileNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. This study explores the theoretical fusion of computational propaganda and information operations in the Tigray war, centering on algorithmic manipulation techniques. Utilizing theoretical frameworks of agenda-setting theory, framing, and information ecology, the study formulates three hypotheses. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, it integrates qualitative and quantitative methods, leveraging tools such as Twitter API (X), twerc, NVivo, Botometer, and Rstat within the Netnographic method. The analysis reveals temporal dynamics of new account infiltrations on Twitter during war, emphasizing their engagement in hashtag campaigns for information/influence operations. A surge in new account creation coinciding with the […]
- New Media & Society, Volume 27, Issue 1, Page 545-592, January 2025.
- by Steve JonesNew Media & Society, Volume 27, Issue 1, Page 3-4, January 2025.
- by Paolo GerbaudoNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. The rise of TikTok has sparked a debate on the consequences of algorithmic content curation for social experience. My thesis is that TikTok represents a second generation of social media, which differs from first-generation social media in the way users are exposed to content. While first-generation social media revolved around ‘networked publics’ formed by explicit interpersonal connections, second-generation social media introduces ‘clustered publics’. These are statistically constructed ‘neighbourhoods’ of users, in which people are brought together based on their past online behaviour and their similarity in interest and taste. Clustering users around shared […]
- by Toby HoppNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. This study developed and tested a model interrelating Nextdoor use and support for aggressive policing. The results of an online survey (n=1806) suggested that Nextdoor use is positively associated with crime concern; that crime concern is positively associated with support for aggressive policing; and that Nextdoor use is both indirectly and directly associated with support for aggressive policing. The results also indicated that social trust may play a complex role in the relationship between Nextdoor use and support for aggressive policing.
- by Maja NordtugNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. In this article, we explore how a very simple telepresence robot avatar becomes a technology multiple when interacting with humans. Based on Mol’s notion of the body multiple, we explore how AV1 – a social telepresence robot avatar designed to act as a substitute in schools for homebound students – becomes a technology multiple. The analysis is based on 105 interviews, including interviews with homebound students and kindergarteners in Norway using AV1 and/or their guardians, interviews with school workers, and focus group interviews with classmates. In the analysis, we explore AV1 as a […]
- by Megan A BrownNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. Early career researchers (ECR) in communication and media research face increasing problems and stressors due to systemic challenges in academia, including the precarity of being an ECR and the politicization of research and targeting of researchers. For researchers studying harmful content online (HCO), research-related trauma (RRT) can compound these stressors. In this study, we present results from interviews with 18 ECRs from communication studies and adjacent disciplines studying HCO. We find researchers frequently experience RRT from harmful content, pressure from superiors to conduct research on harmful content, and outside harassment related to their […]
- by Rébecca S FrancoNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. This article examines the role of payment intermediaries in regulating the platformized adult industry and demonstrates how the adult industry responds to their power and the rules they set. Based on 16 expert interviews, fieldwork at 3 industry conferences, and document analysis of rules, content guidelines, terms, and conditions, the author teases out the intricate interplay between credit card networks, payment processors, and adult platforms. Visa and Mastercard’s rules, enforced by payment processors and implemented by platforms, create a selective, private ordering of permissible content that surpasses legal requirements. This process is impelled […]
- by Yngvar KjusNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. Recent decades have seen the proliferation of digital music production technologies, led by digital audio workstations (DAWs) such as Pro Tools and Live. The companies behind them, including Avid and Ableton, resemble music distributors in their ongoing process of platformization—that is, in making themselves the foundation of an increasing range of interactions and transactions. The article discusses economic, social, and cultural aspects of platformization before zooming in on key DAW enterprises and the ways in which they have extended their presence across adjacent markets, including record production, live performance, audiovisual media, instrument manufacturing, […]
- by Yu-Leung NgNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. People use social media to gratify various needs, one of which is the need to affiliate with mediated nature. By combining the uses and gratifications approach and the biophilia hypothesis, this study coins this gratification as biophilia gratification. We computationally analyzed three million Facebook posts to test whether user reactions (likes, shares, loves, and cares) reflect biophilia gratification derived from human-created nature on social media, that is, mediated nature. Ten percent of posts that are image-based (approximately 170,000) were also randomly selected and analyzed. The results showed that social media users were more […]
- by Cynthia A DekkerNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. This six-wave longitudinal survey study investigated associations between perceived smartphone overuse and the use of technology-based disconnection strategies. The sample was representative of the Dutch population regarding age, gender, and education level (N = 1674). Linear mixed models showed that perceived overuse was positively related to self-reported screen time and motivations to reduce screen time. People with higher perceived overuse were more likely to adopt disconnection strategies in the following 2 months. Yet, surprisingly, at the within-person level, we found that when someone experienced more overuse than they normally do, they were not more likely to […]
- by Mohamed BelamghariNew Media & Society, Ahead of Print. This research adopts a tripartite methodology, by combining qualitative, quantitative, and case study approaches, to examine the underexplored issue of cyberviolence against Moroccan female academics. With three key research questions, the study explores the prevalence, characteristics, effects on mental well-being and professional fulfillment, and the coping strategies employed by the victims to counteract cyberviolence. The study concludes by stressing the urgency of targeted and efficient interventions and evidence-based policies to address the gendered nature of online harassment. In spite of its limitations, the research lays the ground for further studies and collaboration to […]