To Know Is to Compare: Studying Social Media across Nations, Media, and Platforms
Abstract
How systematic comparative research can unlock the potential of social media scholarship.
Though diverse and fruitful, social media scholarship too often focuses on single platforms in single countries, disconnected from other media that people use. Mora Matassi and Pablo J. Boczkowski's alternative approach offers a framework based on the epistemological principle that everything we know emerges from comparing two or more entities. Drawing on a wealth of real-life cases, Matassi and Boczkowski examine key aspects of social media from three comparative dimensions (nations, media, and platforms) and two topics (history and language) to propose a blueprint that encourages researchers and lay readers alike to think about social media from new perspectives.
Matassi and Boczkowski illustrate their theoretical points with examples that link multiple media, illuminate an array of platforms, cover different countries and eras, and address various languages and both textual and non-textual signifiers. The result is an original conceptual account that allows for the study of social media in ways that are global, de-westernized, transmedia, and multiplatform. In addition, the authors review the major texts that use a comparative treatment and suggest topics, theories, and methods for engaging in comparative studies in the future.
... This study offers a comparative analysis of similarities and differences in topics, deception strategies, and types of misinformation across eight countries in Europe and Latin America, as examined by various fact-checking organizations (n = 23). It addresses a gap in systematic comparative analysis in the field (Matassi and Boczkowski, 2023) and broadens the geographical scope of disinformation literature, responding to calls from scholars (Broda and Strömbäck, 2024). The contributions of this analysis to the disinformation literature are multifaceted. ...
... Here resides the third contribution of this study, i.e. the attempt to connect disinformation studies with media systems analysis and digital indicators, a linkage still relatively rare in the literature (Hardy, 2021) with some exceptions (Humprecht, 2019;Humprecht et al., 2020). In the same vein, as Matassi and Boczkowski (2023) argue regarding social media studies, analyses of disinformation primarily focus on a single country without connecting the phenomena to other forces impacting media systems and technologies. ...
... Nonetheless, we believe that despite using the perspective of factcheckers to assess misinformation trends in the studied countries, our research still offers valuable regional insights. Fact-checkers continuously monitor various platforms simultaneously, unlike studies that have often focused on trends associated with one platform at a time, typically Facebook or Twitter (Matassi and Boczkowski, 2023). Recent studies have even noted a shift in fact-checking practices toward more extensive monitoring of social media rather than direct verification of statements made by public figures and politicians (Matassi and Boczkowski, 2023). ...
In a quantitative content analysis of 3,154 debunking articles from 23 fact-checking organizations, this study examines global misinformation trends and regional nuances across eight countries in Europe and Latin America (UK, DE, PT, SP, AR, BR, CL, and VZ). It strives to elucidate commonalities and differences based on political and media system indicators. Notably, countries with a substantial online presence of far-right parties avoid disclosing (fake) ordinary accounts to evade engaging in inauthentic coordinated actions. While entirely fabricated stories are infrequent, they stand out in Brazil and Spain, the two countries with higher political polarization. Despite variations, aggregated forms of fabrication (invented, manipulated, imposter, or decontextualized content) are more prominent in Latin America due to high social media use for news and low reliance on public media. Conversely, in Europe, countries are more impacted by misleading (cherry-picked, exaggerated, and twisted) information.
... For example, in their submission, Russmann et al. (2024) consider Facebook user engagement in 2014 (which was restricted to the thumbs-up/like button) versus 2019 (which includes a range of responses). Matassi and Boczkowski (2023) also encourage historical comparisons in cross-platform research (see Chapter 5). ...
... In 2018, Political Communication published a special issue on cross-media comparisons (Bode & Vraga, 2018). Beyond political communication, Matassi and Boczkowski (2023) published an aptly titled book, To Know Is to Compare: Studying Social Media across Nations, Media, and Platforms. ...
... These patterns of social interaction are governed by platform affordances (Evans et al., 2017) or digital architectures (Bossetta, 2018), which simultaneously constrain and enable the actions possible to users. Indeed, Matassi and Boczkowski (2023) describe the importance of platform comparison alongside crossnational work, as they write, "Platforms are deployed and used all over the world, with information flows connecting accounts located in multiple countries via reactions, comments, and shares" (p. 3). ...
Comparative communication research needs to catch up to other disciplines. In this special issue and the associated International Communication Association preconference, we focus on comparative work related to digital political communication. This introduction argues that comparative digital political communication needs to consider comparisons across various dimensions, including countries, platforms, and time, whereas existing comparative communication research focuses on country or territorial comparison. We highlight the six submissions’ approaches to comparative work. Each submission provides at least one of these three dimensions of contrast. We conclude with a discussion of enduring gaps in this field of research, such as the lack of studies using time as a dimension of comparison. Time is crucial for understanding ever-changing digital media platforms. We also conclude by discussing some ongoing challenges in political communication research.
... Second, those studies we do have are generally focused on a single platform, using that platform to stand in for digital advertising as a whole. Matassi and Boczkowski (2023), writing about the study of digital platforms more broadly, note that "most scholarship has tended to concentrate on patterns related to a single platform at a time-usually Facebook or Twitter" (p. 3). ...
... Different platforms feel different. As Matassi and Boczkowski (2023) explain, "People often sense that certain ways of communication and self-presentation are socially acceptable on some platforms and not on others" (p. 67). ...
When it comes to the study of the messaging of online political campaigns, theory suggests that platform divergence should be common, but much research finds considerable convergence across platforms. In this research, we examine variation across digital and social media platforms in the types of paid campaign messages that are distributed, focusing on their goals, tone, and the partisanship of political rhetoric. We use data on the content of paid election advertisements placed on YouTube, Google search, Instagram, and Facebook during the 2020 elections in the United States, examining all federal candidates who advertised on these platforms during the final 2 months of the campaign. We find that YouTube is most distinct from the other platforms, perhaps because it most resembles television, but convergence better describes the two Meta platforms, Facebook and Instagram.
... Qualitatively analyzing discourse can highlight how societal narratives and structures evolve to establish norms and ideologies [67,68]. When examining textual data, a discourse approach allows scholars to view communication as more than information exchange or diffusion [125]. Instead, a discourse lens centers the meaning and interpretation of texts and language, supporting the evaluation of social media as a community discourse platform and cross-cultural dialogue [14,141]. ...
Recovering from crises, such as hurricanes or wildfires, is a complex process that can take weeks, months, or even decades to overcome. Crises have both acute (immediate) and chronic (long-term) effects on communities. Crisis informatics research often focuses on the immediate response phase of disasters, thereby overlooking the long-term recovery phase, which is critical for understanding the information needs of users undergoing challenges like climate gentrification and housing inequity. We fill this gap by investigating community discourse over eight months following Hurricane Ida in an online neighborhood Facebook group and Town Hall Meetings of a borough in the New York Metropolitan region. Using a mixed methods approach, we examined the use of social media to manage long-term disaster recovery. The findings revealed a significant overlap in topics, underscoring the interconnected nature of online and offline community discourse, and illuminated themes related to the long-term consequences of disasters. We conclude with recommendations aimed at helping designers and government leaders enhance participation across community forums and support recovery in the aftermath of disasters.
... Labeling these diverse movements collectively under "Southeast Asia" offers a useful framework for identifying shared strategies and regional trends in digital activism, grounded in the epistemological principle that knowledge emerges from the comparison of different entities (Matassi & Boczkowski, 2023). However, this approach has limitations, as it can obscure the distinct political, social, and cultural factors that shape each case. ...
This study examines the use of TikTok as a platform for youth activism in Southeast Asia, focusing on Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Through a mixed-methods approach that includes qualitative content analysis, semi-structured interviews, systematic fact-checking, and digital trace data, the research explores how activists leverage TikTok’s unique features to promote social justice and mobilize political participation amid democratic backslidings. The findings reveal that activists skillfully adapt to TikTok’s attention economy, using strategies like trend-jacking and meme creation to reach broad audiences. However, they also face significant challenges, including rampant harassment and the precarious nature of algorithmic visibility. The study highlights the complexities of digital activism, where the pursuit of virality can sometimes undermine the depth of political movements. While the research counters the prevalent narrative that digital activism is rife with misinformation, it underscores the importance of maintaining accuracy to protect credibility. The study concludes by calling for further research on integrating online activism with offline organizing and exploring how platform governance can be reformed to better support activists. The insights from this study contribute to a deeper understanding of TikTok’s role in contemporary social movements and the challenges faced by youth activists in the digital age.
... And again, digital media provide a forum for expression in China which is relatively untrammeled compared to tradition media. Pinning down the scope of how digital media extend the public arena and how they are constrained is a major agenda for comparative research (Matassi & Boczkowski, 2023). ...
The social sciences, and especially theories about communication and digital media, have been dominated by the Global North. This paper attempts to redress this imbalance by reference to two major countries that have also been models in other parts of the world, India and China. In both countries, the autonomy of the public sphere of media is constrained, though less so in India’s half-democracy than in China’s authoritarian party state. Still, a lively and diverse online part of the public sphere which lacks the gatekeeping function of traditional news can contribute to the autonomy of media. Media reflect society imperfectly, but there is much to learn from two countries where the un-gatekept online public sphere is relatively more important than the traditional gatekept public sphere.
... Por otra parte, Twitter, como espacio sociodigital, presenta una serie de características y posibilidades que impacta directamente la forma en que las prácticas de comunicación pública de la ciencia son llevadas a cabo (como se vio en el desarrollo de esta investigación). Futuras investigaciones podrían llevarse a cabo en otras plataformas sociodigitales para ver las características de dichas prácticas de comunicación pública de la ciencia e, incluso, poder hacer comparaciones con el propósito de hacer tipologías más robustas entre plataformas sociodigitales (Matassi & Boczkowski, 2023). ...
En la actualidad, es innegable el papel central que se le ha otorgado a la ciencia en la sociedad. Una práctica popular que busca establecer puentes entre este conocimiento y el público lego es la comunicación pública de la ciencia. Esta práctica se ha establecido en años recientes como un campo académico en desarrollo por lo que por parte de investigadores y académicos ha habido mucho interés en los distintos tipos de prácticas relacionadas, los espacios en donde se dan, así como los ejercicios que buscan promover el desarrollo de habilidades comunicativas. En esta tesis el foco analítico está en la observación de prácticas de comunicación pública de la ciencia en plataformas sociodigitales (específicamente en Twitter) realizadas por doctorandos y recién doctores en el marco del concurso “Tu tesis doctoral en un hilo de Twitter: #HiloTesis” llevado a cabo en los años 2021, 2022 y 2023. Para el análisis de dichas prácticas hago uso de la teoría de la estructuración de Anthony Giddens con el propósito de ponderar cuestiones relacionadas a la agencia y la estructura y cómo estas dimensiones configuran dichas prácticas de comunicación pública de la ciencia. En los resultados y conclusiones del documento se exploran diferentes aspectos, tanto agenciales como estructurales, de las prácticas de comunicación pública de la ciencia. En la parte de la agencia, se describen dichas prácticas y se explora la significatividad para los entrevistados; además, se destacan aspectos como la motivación y consecuencias que configuran a estas prácticas comunicativas. Finalmente, en la parte de la estructura, se exploran dos condiciones estructurales que tienen un impacto en la forma en que se llevan a cabo las prácticas de comunicación pública de la ciencia: la plataforma y los procesos de algoritmización, y las instituciones educativas.
... The first set of social media platforms was launched in the late 20th century, and this transformed the lives and culture of people (Ajani et al., 2022;Matassi & Boczkowski, 2023). The rapid rise of TikTok (since 2016, when it was launched) in the digital advertising industry is attributed to its pioneering technologies and distinctive approach to short-form video content (Li, 2022). ...
Considering the increasing use of TikTok among young generations, this study examines the role of TikTok influencers in shaping the image of advertised brands, the influence of TikTok advertisements on brand image, and best practices for optimizing TikTok advertising strategies. A descriptive cross-sectional research design was employed to collect quantitative data from 367 students at a private university in Nigeria via a purposive cluster sampling technique, and the data were analysed via descriptive analyses at the univariate, bivariate and multivariate levels. The results show that social media influencers play major roles such as creativity and innovation, humour and entertainment, use of popular influencers, appeal to followers" emotions, visual aesthetics, and clear messaging to shape the perceptions of advertised brands. Additionally, there is a statistically significant association between the frequency of TikTok usage and the enhancement of brand image [φ c = 0.21, χ 2 (8) = 66.38, p<0.001] and between the awareness of brand advertisements on TikTok and the enhancement of brand image [φ c = 0.21, χ 2 (2) = 15.36, p<0.01]. In addition, the frequency of TikTok usage significantly predicts brand image enhancement, t(364) = 22.29, p < .001. Finally, user-generated content on TikTok, product demonstrations, influencer collaboration, and behind-the-scene videos are the most effective content for enhancing brand image. The study concludes that TikTok advertisements influence brand image and that social media influencers play key roles in shaping the perceptions of advertised brands. It is recommended that brand companies advertise their brands through TikTok to enhance their brand image and for maximum impact.
... La pandemia de covid-19 modificó sustancialmente la vida cotidiana y la experiencia escolar. La digitalización de la vida cotidiana performó distintas prácticas en relación con la socialización y el acceso a la información (Boczkowski y Matassi, 2023). Los grupos de WSP de familias de las escuelas no fueron ajenos a estos cambios y, más bien, al virtualizarse la educación las interacciones a través de aplicaciones, blogs y correos electrónicos se profundizaron. ...
Este artículo analiza las formas de interacción en los grupos de WhatsApp de familias de escuelas primarias de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (CABA), durante el aislamiento causado por la pandemia de coronavirus. Registramos dinámicas de consenso y de polarización en torno a tópicos políticos que se activaron a causa de las restricciones a la presencialidad escolar en el marco de la pandemia. Para ello, se estudian las conversaciones en grupos de WhatsApp de cuatro escuelas de CABA durante 2021. La metodología de este trabajo se basó en la observación participante en algunos grupos de dicha plataforma de mensajes y en el análisis documental de las conversaciones en grupos en los que no participamos; también se realizaron entrevistas en profundidad con sus miembros. Los hallazgos muestran que en distintas escuelas tuvieron lugar dinámicas similares, como por ejemplo que se conformaron nuevos grupos de WhatsApp entre personas ideológicamente afines, para compartir estrategias sobre la presencialidad escolar. Pero también se muestra que, incluso en esos nuevos grupos de afinidad, la conversación se polarizó y emergieron conflictos tras los cambios en la situación sanitaria de mediados de 2021. Por último, también se muestra cómo en otras escuelas las conversaciones estuvieron fuertemente estructuradas alrededor de algunas “voces autorizadas”, por caso las de las madres médicas.
... This implies that to understand how PHAs communicated with the public via social media during the pandemic, it is necessary to consider how each platform's unique characteristics influenced communication strategies. By comparing communication patterns across platforms and nations, we can obtain a more nuanced view of how crisis communication was perceived and disseminated (as suggested by Liu et al., 2020;Matassi & Boczkowski, 2023). Notably, Facebook and Instagram tend to appeal strongly to younger generations and women (Danmarks Statistik, 2023;Ipsos, 2023;Ohlsson, 2023). ...
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, health- and civil-contingency agencies—referred to here as public health authorities (PHAs)—in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark turned to social media to disseminate pandemic recommendations and information. This study explores the social media crisis management strategies employed by Scandinavian PHAs. Specifically, we apply a multiplatform research approach to assess communication objectives (Instruct, Support, Manage Reputation, and Solicit Interaction) across three social media platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (currently known as X). Introducing a series of hypotheses based on previous scholarship, we detail the prevalence of different objectives across platforms and countries. The results indicate prominent use of reputational management, particularly on Twitter, while instructive information emerged as a highly used communication objective in Sweden and Denmark. Overall, the communicative trends remained parallel across nations, despite Sweden implementing a more relaxed crisis management strategy. The main distinction in Sweden’s approach manifested in a relatively lower emphasis on the pandemic by its PHAs compared to Denmark and Norway. National differences in crisis communication objectives indicate that Norwegian PHAs stand out in terms of using reputational management, while Sweden stands out in employing more supportive information on Instagram.
... Postdigital art education critically analyzes contemporary digital technologies (Tavin et al., 2021), and looking toward the future of art education and implementation of artificial intelligence, the bricolaging of digital content reflects a movement toward remixing visual elements via assistive technology (Gaskins, 2021). Rooted in the epistemological principle that what is known stems from the comparison of two or more entities, Matassi and Boczkowski (2023) pointed out that users come to understand by way of comparing multiple social media sites. In this vein, new mechanisms of data-driven DIY content exposure on social media heighten the need for cross-referencing and visual literacy to empower creative agency in digital realms saturated with misinformation and persuasive media. ...
... When researching young citizens' digital access to information, it is important to consider their online information repertoires. Despite the increasing diversity of platform uses, research centers on a handful of platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter (Matassi & Boczkowski, 2023). In this regard, research output does not align with actual adoption rates. ...
Social media platforms are a critical source of civic and political information. We examine the use of Instagram to acquire news as well as civic and political information using nationally representative survey data gathered in 2019 in the US, the UK, France, and Canada ( n = 2,440). We investigate active curation practices (following news organizations, political candidates or parties, and nonprofit organizations or charities) and passive curation practices (liking friends’ political posts and those from parties or politicians and nonprofits or charities). Young adults (18 to 24 years) are far more likely to curate their Instagram feed than older adults in all four countries. We consider two possible explanations for this behavior: political interest and an understanding of how algorithms work. Young adults have more (self-assessed) knowledge of algorithms in all four countries. Algorithmic knowledge relates to curation practices, but there are some cross-national differences. Algorithmic knowledge is theoretically relevant for passive curation practices and the UK sample provides support for the stronger role of algorithmic knowledge in passive than active curation. In all four countries, political interest positively relates to active and passive curation practices. These findings challenge depictions of young adults as news avoiders; instead, they demonstrate that algorithmic knowledge can help curate the flow of information from news organizations as well as civic and political groups on Instagram. While algorithmic knowledge enables youth’s digital inclusion, for older adults, the lack of knowledge may contribute to digital exclusion as they do not know how to curate their information flows.
... Known for the works on digital media and journalism, P. Boczkowski (2021) and his colleagues (Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2021;Boczkowski & Matassi, 2023) have explored various aspects of online news consumption, including the impact of sensationalism and attention-grabbing strategies. W. Phillips and R. M. Milner (2018) focus on internet culture, online misinformation, and how sensationalism and provocative content operate in a digital environment. ...
In this highly developed technological world, newspapers and news shows have mostly been replaced by online news. The world-renowned news agencies, as well as social media platforms, report their news online, providing information to the public. However, readers are sometimes disappointed to find a misleading headline with quite different web content. This deceiving technique called clickbait uses ambiguity to provoke the user into clicking a link. The present article explores the sociolinguistic strategies employed in Armenian and English clickbait headlines by bloggers, vloggers, and news reporters. The study aims at revealing how language is manipulated to engage and persuade users in online media. The exploration conducted from a sociolinguistic perspective unveils the intricate interplay between language, culture, and societal norms in English and Armenian clickbait headlines. The findings contribute to the understanding of how linguistic styles, word choices, and persuasive techniques vary across different languages and cultures. It also emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between clickbait and regular headlines, as well as the potential impact of clickbait on trust and reader engagement in the digital media landscape.
... On average, each Chinese user holds accounts on 7.3 social media platforms and spends 2.5 hours daily on various platforms (We Are Social, 2023, Slide 50). With the diversifying ecosystem of social media, there has been an observed tendency toward technical homogeneity among seemingly divergent platforms, either through syn thesis (e.g., Facebook's adoption of Snapchat's specific features) or acquisition (e.g., Facebook's acquisition of Instagram) (Matassi & Boczkowski, 2023). This raises the question of why, despite such homogeneity, more and more users are not satisfied with constraining their activities within a single platform and thereby choose to maintain active profiles on multiple ones, exploiting a conglomeration of tools and functions from these platforms in a synchronized manner. ...
This study seeks to advance the scholarship on the phenomenon of social media platform-swinging in the context of the polymedia environment in China. Specifically, drawing on the theoretical frameworks of uses and gratifications and channel complementarity theory, we propose that the platform-swinging behavior is driven by users’ various complementary and supplementary needs. Drawing on 32 semi-structured interviews, we identify four distinct types of platform-swinging behavior: social connecting, impression managing, information seeking, and aimless swinging. We further reveal that, depending on various complementary and supplementary needs, each type of platform-swinging behavior has distinct media affordance preferences. By profiling the distinct platform-swinging behaviors and examining their preferred affordances, the study advances our theoretical understanding of the dynamics between the polymedia ecology and users’ gratifications.
Fact-checking journalism challenges procedural norms of objectivity by providing truth verdicts. By actively evaluating statements and online rumors based on evidence weight, fact-checkers aim for robust, scientific objectivity. Despite this trend, there is a lack of studies analyzing evidence types used in verification articles, a gap which this article seeks to address. This comparative research examines types of valid evidence-documentation, digital forensic tools, and statements-employed by fact-checkers across 12 organizations in the UK, Germany, Portugal, and Spain (n = 1976). Results are interpreted using media systems and digital indicators. Notably, Spain, with high political polarization and social media use for news, heavily utilizes digital forensic elements. Germany and the UK, known for high journalistic professionalism and low epistemic vulnerability, predominantly feature 'all-inclusive' evidence combining documents, statements, and forensics. Public service broadcasters exhibit the highest levels of verification complexity (hard fact-checking), contrasting with global news agencies, which generally favor softer fact-checking approaches, except for DPA.
Introduction
Semantic network analysis is an important tool researchers can use to untangle the knots of tension that arise as communities debate and discuss complex issues. Yet words connect not only to each other in community discourse but to larger themes or issues.
Methods
In this paper, we demonstrate the use of multilayer analysis for the study of semantic networks, helping to unravel connections within and between community tensions. In examining knotted tensions that arise in the wake of disaster, this study also spotlights how climate disasters exacerbate issues like housing equity, disproportionately affecting lower-income communities. We examine discourse across eight months of online neighborhood threads about community issues in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. We identify core tensions related to environmental sustainability, overdevelopment, neighborhood identity preservation, and economic vitality. Our within-tension analysis reveals the community's struggle with such dilemmas, while our between-tension analysis shows the interconnectedness of these issues. Our approach highlights which stakeholders are best positioned to address specific community problems.
Results
The findings challenge the conventional top-down disaster response narrative, proposing a theoretically informed method for employing semantic network analysis to examine community crises. Through this work, we extend organizational communication theories of knotted tensions, offering a nuanced lens to community discourse in the face of wicked problems.
This essay provides an overview of the current state of content moderation on social media platforms. The question the essay addresses is why there are a number of unresolved issues in tackling dysfunctional content. The argument is that there are two intersecting new phenomena which make effective content moderation difficult: one is that social media platforms lack the gatekeeping of content that was characteristic of traditional news media. The second is that the regulation of this un‐gatekept content is still unsettled; it falls between social media companies that span the globe and the regulations or absence thereof bounded by nation‐states. To understand both, an analysis restricted to law and regulation is insufficient. Instead, it is necessary to examine the role of media systems in society in a holistic way, and in a way that distinguishes between gatekept media and the absence of gatekeeping or new forms of gatekeeping. Such a broader account points to why the institutionalization of content moderation is likely to be a protracted and uneven process. The conclusion spells out how the tensions that have arisen with new media could be resolved, but also why they are likely to remain imperfectly resolved.
Grounded in the long tradition of embracing the global in communication and media studies and inspired by feminist standpoint epistemology, we argue that global communication can function as an epistemological standpoint. After summarizing the diverse and rich tradition of understanding the global in communication and media studies and beyond, we theorize that a global communication standpoint is characterized by a combination of four aspects that can be embraced across the discipline: contextualization, historical rootedness, attention to power, and engagement with issues of relationality and comparison. First, we offer examples of the four elements based on existing scholarship. Second, we analyze how these four elements can be embraced in pedagogy. Finally, we survey recent job market dynamics to analyze the definition of the global by professional practice. We conclude by arguing that the embracement of global communication as a standpoint can benefit research across our discipline, regardless of research questions, methods, contexts, or scholars’ identities.
El presente artículo reflexiona sobre las rutinas productivas en los tres sitios de noticias con mayor tráfico en Argentina (Clarín.com, Infobae.com y LaNación.com) y pone el foco en la percepción que editoras y editores tienen respecto de la aplicación de métricas de audiencias y herramientas con lógica algorítmica y el rol predominante que adquirieron las redes sociales y la plataforma Google. El análisis se desarrolló desde un enfoque cualitativo, basado en diez entrevistas en profundidad. Los testimonios de los periodistas coinciden en que seleccionan y jerarquizan información en función de los sistemas de medición de contenido digital. Los roles emergentes vinculados con las audiencias participan cada vez más en el proceso de toma de decisión editorial, lo cual genera tensiones entre aquello que los públicos demandan, los tradicionales criterios de noticiabilidad y los intereses de las empresas para las que trabajan.
Much of the considerable regulatory attention directed at sexual content online focuses on platform content moderation policies, but payment and advertising services play a gatekeeping role on platform content as well. In 2021, OnlyFans cited the difficulties of meeting the policies of payment processors and banks in its announcement that the site would stop hosting sexual content. This decision was subsequently retracted under public criticism of the platform for profiting off sex workers and then removing them from the platform. The case of OnlyFans provided a rare reversal of the moral panics that often surround the governance of sexual content online. This article discusses the deplatforming of sex as a case of contested platform governance identifies how public conflicts over platform governance of sexual content fit within broader “no platform” politics, and draws on research from affected communities to make the case for alternative policy approaches.
The recent resurgence of populism has led to renewed interest in the phenomenon, but it remains unclear how this phenomenon has manifested itself in non-Western settings like China. This article analyses Chinese populism and provides a systematic categorization of online discourses related to this phenomenon, including ideas about “the people,” “corrupt elites,” and “enemies.” The article is based on a collection of more than 100,000 Chinese online posts, collected from both Weibo and Twitter, that were classified as populist or not using natural language processing (NLP) models. We show how populism has manifested itself in Chinese online venues, and how populist discourses on Weibo and Twitter differ in topics, semantic content, and in who posts (agenda setters) and shares posts (audiences). The comparison demonstrates that different Chinese netizens take competing approaches to define the place of a rising China, and this also puts populism into the context of the peculiar Chinese way of rallying “the people” on behalf of the nation. Findings from this study contribute new insights into understanding populism in Chinese cyberspaces and provide a cross-platform perspective for understanding populist discourses in national and transnational contexts. The study also adds to computational methods in empirical research of populism in a comparative perspective.
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