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Despite pushback from regulatory and non-governmental entities, Meta’s control over the public narrative remains consistent. Using a method of corpus analysis, this study investigated the company’s sociotechnical imaginary as it circulates in media artifacts (428) responding to Zuckerberg’s 2021 Metaverse announcement. Analysis of how these artifac...
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... are listed in ranking order with some tokens removed to show the most relevant themes. For each of the motive terms, we present the top ten collocates (by "likelihood") in Tables 1-3 and offer qualitative analysis of the top five. Table 1 shows the top 10 collocates attached to the motive term "connecting," which was selected over "connect" due to conflicts with the conference name itself (Connect!). ...Context 2
... each of the motive terms, we present the top ten collocates (by "likelihood") in Tables 1-3 and offer qualitative analysis of the top five. Table 1 shows the top 10 collocates attached to the motive term "connecting," which was selected over "connect" due to conflicts with the conference name itself (Connect!). Most frequent are the tokens "people" followed by "frontier," "worlds," "networking," and "shared." ...Citations
... Another online attention study investigated the socio-technical imaginary of the Meta company and the Metaverse as it circulates in media artifacts (428) and after Zuckerberg's announcement of the Metaverse in 2021 (Brent et al., 2023). The results show that most of the mentions related to identity, security and connectivity reinforce Meta's corporate messages, strengthening the elite discourse and solidifying the company's socio-technological power, while fewer mentions were identified referring to journalists' discourses that challenge Meta's rhetoric due to the company's stance on the privacy of its users (Brent et al., 2023) Other studies also list the online attention that AI receives more broadly in different areas of knowledge, such as Ophthalmology, Medicine and Plastic Surgery (Bogdanovich et al., 2024;Bui et al., 2022;Wu & Zhang, 2021). ...
... Another online attention study investigated the socio-technical imaginary of the Meta company and the Metaverse as it circulates in media artifacts (428) and after Zuckerberg's announcement of the Metaverse in 2021 (Brent et al., 2023). The results show that most of the mentions related to identity, security and connectivity reinforce Meta's corporate messages, strengthening the elite discourse and solidifying the company's socio-technological power, while fewer mentions were identified referring to journalists' discourses that challenge Meta's rhetoric due to the company's stance on the privacy of its users (Brent et al., 2023) Other studies also list the online attention that AI receives more broadly in different areas of knowledge, such as Ophthalmology, Medicine and Plastic Surgery (Bogdanovich et al., 2024;Bui et al., 2022;Wu & Zhang, 2021). The results indicate that online attention occurs for a variety of reasons, but the motivations and reasons for mentions make it possible to identify phenomena such as communities of interest, the thematic aspects of greatest interest for each area of knowledge and also journals, researchers and countries strongly related to the topic (Bogdanovich et al., 2024;Bui et al., 2022;Wu & Zhang, 2021). ...
It maps the online attention received by scientific production related to DeepSeek, through tracking carried out by Altmetric.com. It aims to characterize the online attention received by the topic through an analysis of mentions on the channels covered by the platform, as well as to assess the most common types of production, which journals or collections this production is linked to, the period in which the mentions occurred and which productions are most relevant in this context. Exploratory research with altmetric analysis, using the Altmetric.com platform in its Altmetric Explorer advanced search option, with an institutional key previously provided. The following filters were used: publisher, journal, affiliation, DOI, Orcid, funding agency, subject area, keywords, etc. The collection was carried out on February 11, 2025, with a survey carried out using keyword queries with the term "deepseek". The results obtained were exported in xls format and the data was analyzed for general altmetric impact information, such as the number of outputs tracked, the total number of mentions, the journals and repositories in which the most mentioned articles were published, the highest number of mentions, the period in which these mentions took place and the channels with the highest number of mentions. The results showed 45 research outputs since the first publications were tracked (January 2024). A total of 5,237 mentions were tracked by the platform, an average of 116.3 mentions for each search output. The first mention was in January 2024, on X, the channel where the topic began to receive attention online and remained the most relevant throughout the period. It was found that the topic has at least one mention in a variety of channels on the social web, demonstrating a significant interest from different audiences in the topic, both scientific and non-scientific. The most traditional journals are the main vehicles for publishing research, with arXiv being the first repository with the highest number of mentions (2987), followed by Nature (1498). The three most mentioned articles had at least 1000 mentions, and the first most mentioned article was published in December 2024, while the other two were published in January 2025. The conclusion is that DeepSeek has gained significant attention online, reflecting its growing relevance in the contemporary scientific and technological landscape.
... Srnicek (2017: 11) calls this paradigm "platform capitalism," which is characterized by "the rise of large monopolistic firms." A defining aspect of platform capitalism is these firms' ability to circulate commodified imaginaries of digital technology that serve their interests (Mager and Katzenbach, 2021;Lucia et al., 2023). More recently, Narayan (2024) highlights the need within platform studies to examine intersections between critical organizational theory and capitalist political economy. ...
Interoperability has become a prominent topic in contemporary discourses around digital infrastructures in fields as diverse as security, finance, health, and communication. Common to these discourses are two views: first, that interoperability encompasses desiloization, i.e. the breaking down of barriers between disjoint data silos, and second, that interoperability is de facto good for users of digital platforms. This commentary challenges the techno-optimistic narratives often underlying this imaginary of interoperability, instead providing a perspective of the political economy of interoperability. First, it traces the historical emergence of the conceptual coupling between interoperability and data silos in which the latter presents an impediment to the realization of the former. Second, it situates imaginaries of interoperability in the paradigm of platform capitalism, highlighting that already dominant platform companies are prominent proponents of interoperability discourses, expanding what we here refer to as interoperability capitalism . Last, it shows that such platform companies, by advocating for interoperability via desiloization, often produce “platformed silos” that enable them to further entrench their power. We conclude by arguing that questions of political economy ought to remain front and center in studies of the techno-political imaginaries and infrastructures of interoperability.
... Much of the media's response, at least in English-speaking, US centric geographies, depicted a dystopian world, reinforcing these fears in their ChatGPT coverage. Dystopian visions often conflict with the more typical Silicon Valley imaginaries, advocated aggressively by Big Tech companies that promote techno-solutionism, self-regulation, and neoliberalism (Lucia et al., 2023;Marwick, 2015). While such imaginaries portray techno-solutionism as the answer to socio-economic struggles, they effectively mask Big Tech's market power and influence, and the unequal neoliberal capitalism sustained by Silicon Valley (Ferrari, 2020;Popiel, 2018). ...
... By examining their rhetorical features, we can understand the dynamics in emerging technologies and locate the contrasting visions within these discursive communities (Dourish and Bell, 2011;Liao, 2019). For example, previous communication scholarship has examined the discursive construction of Facebook futures, investigating Zuckerberg's speeches over time and noticing strategies in the company forecasting (Haupt, 2021), certain rhetorical moves in the company's core mission (Hoffmann et al., 2018), or recognizing how Meta's rhetoric situates itself into elite discourse (Lucia et al., 2023). Meta is just one example of how Big Tech strategizes through future imaginaries, making 'bids about what the future might be like…in the context of other expectation bids' (Berkhout, 2006: 450). ...
... This study was designed to examine dystopian imaginaries that emerged in the wake of the release of ChatGPT via targeted corpus creation and analysis. Corpus analysis allows for the identification of usage patterns across multiple texts (Froehlich, 2015) and has been used previously in studies on technological power, sociotechnical imaginaries, and emergent technologies (Lucia et al., 2023;Haupt, 2021;Hoffmann et al., 2018). To build the corpus, the authors engaged two tools: BootCat, which extracts text and creates simple text documents from URLs, and AntConc, which enables corpus creation and quantitative and qualitative analytical functions. ...
The advent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022 catalyzed a wave of excitement and apprehension, but especially fear. This article examines the dystopian narratives that emerged after ChatGPT’s release date. Through a critical analysis of media responses, we uncover how dystopian imaginaries discussing ChatGPT become rhetorically constructed in popular, journalistic discourse. The article locates prevalent anxieties surrounding ChatGPT’s unprecedented text-generation capabilities, and identifies recurrent fears regarding academic integrity, the proliferation of misinformation, ethical dilemmas in human-AI interaction, and the perpetuation of social biases. Moreover, the article introduces the concept of ‘fear cycles’ – recurring patterns of dystopian projections in response to emerging technologies. By documenting and dissecting these fear cycles, we offer insights into the underlying rhetorical features that drive societal reactions to technological advancements. The research ultimately contributes to a nuanced understanding of how ChatGPT dystopian imaginaries develop particular futures, while grounding the present in predictable anxieties related to technological innovation.
... Facebook came under intense scrutiny for its role in amplifying misinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The platform's algorithms prioritized sensational and false stories, contributing to their virality and widespread dissemination (Mihelj et al., 2022;Lucia et al., 2023). Initially, Facebook's response was criticized as slow and inadequate, failing to effectively mitigate the impact of fake news on public discourse and electoral processes. ...
In an age where misinformation proliferates rapidly, the integrity of journalism is under unprecedented scrutiny. This article critically appraises the role of media ethics in combating fake news and maintaining the credibility of journalism. It briefly piqued the historical background and examined the challenges posed by digital platforms that enable the swift spread of false information and the consequent erosion of public trust in traditional media. By analyzing exemplified experiences and ethical frameworks, the article highlighted the strategies employed by reputable media organizations to uphold journalistic standards. It discussed the importance of fact-checking, transparency, accountability, and adherence to ethical guidelines in preserving the reliability of news reporting. Furthermore, the paper explored the responsibilities of journalists in the digital age, the impact of economic pressures on editorial independence, and the role of media literacy in empowering audiences to discern credible information. Finally, the article suggested that a robust commitment to media ethics is essential for journalism to effectively counteract misinformation and fulfill its role as a cornerstone of democratic society.
... These universities will also be delivered 3D headsets for students to use in the courses. Although such immersive experiences empower student learning and pedagogy, the inexorability of user privacy issues related to corporate surveillance and user protection mechanisms against it will be a critical point of reference [52]. It also leads to the ongoing debate of surveillance capitalism that rapidly encroaches on users' personal and mental space collecting more data on individual behavior and social interaction than previous databases for developing machine learning and other predictive algorithms [53]. ...
Recent years have witnessed a remarkable technology shift with immersive technology applications like Metaverse across industries and sectors. As 3D-based virtual reality environments, these applications create digital pairs of the physical world and provide an immersive experience to users with technological competencies supporting daily and social activities by means of their virtual avatars and with real-virtual environments and human-machine interactions. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, educational systems are actively engaged in integrating modern and emerging technologies with traditional teaching methods. The pandemic has significantly altered the landscape of education by introducing a new era of virtual environments and interactions, which has placed new demands on learning settings. Immersive technologies have added new dimensions to the learning process. This current study delves into the feasibility of incorporating immersive technologies, such as the Metaverse, into education, and it assesses the overall academic experience for both educators and learners. The primary aim is to investigate whether immersive technologies are a suitable choice for contemporary and future digital learning environments. To achieve this, the study conducts: a) a thorough examination of existing knowledge through systematic literature research, b) analysis of case studies from selected educational institutions, and c) an exploration of the benefits, challenges, and potential of the Metaverse in various learning environments. The findings endorse the promising opportunities that the Metaverse and other immersive technologies offer for present and future educational innovations, as well as interdisciplinary research possibilities.
The metaverse is considered by some to be the next big thing in the global economy. Despite technological progress and high expectations, scholars agree that a broader metaverse platform does not yet exist. Instead, it has been suggested that the metaverse exists mainly as an imaginary or a representation in various discursive contexts. However, studies that examine such representations are few, and the present study aims to – through the lens of social representation theory – critically explore how VR technology and the metaverse are discursively represented in Swedish news media. The analysis identifies three underlying themata: (a) The inevitability of technology, (b) The commodification of experience, and (c) The world of male pioneers. It is concluded that the news media’s representation of VR and the metaverse contributes greatly to maintaining the structural status quo. For traditional journalism to fulfill its democratic mission, a pervasive update of media logic is needed.
This article examines the social technology company Meta’s public communication on problematic content, via their official ‘Meta Newsroom’, within the context of growing regulatory scrutiny. For nearly a decade, the Meta Newsroom has been a major outlet for Meta company announcements, and since 2016, the Newsroom has increasingly become a key source for company responses to concerns regarding mis/disinformation and other kinds of problematic content on Meta’s platforms. Using a mixed-methods approach informed by discourse analysis, this article critically examines Newsrooms posts from 2016 to early 2021. It asks: how is Meta framing ‘problems’ on its platforms? How is Meta identifying ‘solutions’ to those problems? And is Meta ‘nudging’ policymakers in specific conceptual directions? Overall, we find that Meta is framing content moderation issues through four key frames – ‘authenticity’, ‘political advertising’, ‘technological solutions’, and ‘enforcement’ – that benefit Meta, as they shift responsibility while also demonstrating that Meta is an active and capable problem-solver.
The Metaverse represents a collaborative virtual realm blending physical and digital realities, fostering limitless avenues for online interaction, discovery and innovation. As technological strides propel immersive virtual worlds to the forefront of social media platforms, scholarly interest in the Metaverse surges, prompting extensive discourse. Drawing from social identity theory, this article introduces a novel framework for analysing online polarisation within discussions on the Metaverse, specifically on X (Twitter). Leveraging a multifaceted approach that integrates clustering, social network analysis, and text mining, our study delves into both group and opinion polarisation dynamics surrounding the Metaverse. Our findings uncover distinct community divisions and network structures, shedding light on prevalent themes, such as ‘Non-Fungible Token (NFTs)’, ‘Virtual Products and Collections’, ‘Blockchain Technology’, ‘Gaming’, and ‘Financial Markets’ that resonate within the public discourse.
