Department of Communication and Media Research

In recent years, the institution of marriage in Muslim Central Asia has undergone profound transformations in terms of religious dynamics, migration patterns, and the impact of globalization. In Kazakhstan between 2014 and 2019, every third marriage ended in divorce. By examining how Muslim Kazakhs’ support for divorce and casual sex is related to their consumption of information obtained on the Internet, mobile phone, and social media, this study contributes to the growing body of literature on the transformative forces of information and communication technology (ICT) in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. It uses a mixed-method approach that contrasts wider statistical trends from the World Values Survey Wave 7 country dataset on Kazakhstan with empirical data from focus groups conducted in five different regions of the country in 2019, involving a total of 96 respondents. The findings from the statistical and non-statistical analysis show that frequent exposure to information online in...

What is the mobilizing and meaning-making potential of information and communication technologies (ICT s) in non-democratic regimes? This question has been studied globally, with the Arab Spring heightening the urgency and the stakes for social science theories of digital mobilization. In the semi-authoritarian regimes of Central Asia, where access to the internet has risen dramatically in the last decade, various online platforms have served as stages for state-sponsored identity construction and grassroots debates about memory and belonging. The central aim of this special issue is to advance the region-specific debate about the mobilizing potential of ICT s through detailed case studies and thick descriptions of how these technologies are used by state and non-state actors alike.

In this introductory article, the editorial team provides a brief analysis of the existing social science literature on the internet’s role in state–society relations in Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This essay has two goals: to define the scope of the special issue and to lay out the three key contributions/themes that emerged from the collection of papers in this special issue.

In recent years, the institution of marriage in Muslim Central Asia has undergone profound transformations in terms of religious dynamics, migration patterns, and the impact of globalization. In Kazakhstan between 2014 and 2019, every third marriage ended in divorce. By examining how Muslim Kazakhs’ support for divorce and casual sex is related to their consumption of information obtained on the Internet, mobile phone, and social media, this study contributes to the growing body of literature on the transformative forces of information and communication technology (ICT) in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. It uses a mixed-method approach that contrasts wider statistical trends from the World Values Survey Wave 7 country dataset on Kazakhstan with empirical data from focus groups conducted in five different regions of the country in 2019, involving a total of 96 respondents. The findings from the statistical and non-statistical analysis show that frequent exposure to information online in...

Apart from some rare personal accounts where researchers reflect on doing fieldwork in Russia and China, the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting research "under surveillance" are rarely discussed in published form because they may raise unwanted attention from the authorities, and this could create barriers for scholars wishing to access the region in the future. Nevertheless, reflections on how to navigate the quandaries that might arise when doing fieldwork under the watchful eyes of the authorities are useful, especially for first-time fieldworkers. While collecting data for my postdoc project in Central Asia, I experienced both labor-intensive and technology-intensive surveillance. My reflections presented here should serve as a reminder that while they are watching us, we are watching them too. As such, it is not them, but us who have the last word.

Apart from some rare personal accounts where researchers reflect on doing fieldwork in Russia and China, the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting research “under surveillance” are rarely discussed in published form because they may raise unwanted attention from the authorities, and this could create barriers for scholars wishing to access the region in the future. Nevertheless, reflections on how to navigate the quandaries that might arise when doing fieldwork under the watchful eyes of the authorities are useful, especially for first-time fieldworkers. While collecting data for my postdoc project in Central Asia, I experienced both labor-intensive and technology-intensive surveillance. My reflections presented here should serve as a reminder that while they are watching us, we are watching them too. As such, it is not them, but us who have the last word.

Despite Chinese smartphone vendors' track record in successfully developing and selling communication technologies to the Global South, the potential of Chinese communication technologies to boost the China's image remains underexplored in academic literature. Drawing on the responses from focus groups and individual interviews conducted with the wider public in Almaty, Bishkek, Dushanbe and Tashkent in 2022, this article will contribute to our understanding of China's image in Central Asia and the role of Chinese smartphones in this regard. I find that competitive pricing, localised marketing, and corporate social responsibility have so far helped Chinese smartphone vendors to improve the Central Asian public's attitudes towards Chinese technologies and China more broadly.

Increasing Internet use is changing the way individuals take part in society. However, a general mobilizing effect of the Internet on political participation has been difficult to demonstrate. This study takes a digital inequality perspective and analyzes the role of Internet expertise for the social structuration of online political participation. Analyses rely on two nationally representative surveys in Switzerland and use cluster analysis and structural equation modeling. A distinct group of political online participants emerged characterized by high education and income. Further, online political participation is predicted by political interest and Internet skills, which increasingly mediated the effects of social position. Digital information policies should therefore consider Internet skills and effective use, particularly in marginalized social groups, to avoid reinforcing traditional participatory inequalities in the digital society.

Based on representative surveys on Internet use, this article advances comparative research on the second-level digital divide by modeling Internet usage disparities for five countries with narrowing access gaps. Four core Internet usage types are constructed and predicted by sociodemographic variables in a structural model. Overall, the findings confirm the recently identified shift in the digital divide from access to usage in five further countries. Results show that sociodemographics alone account for up to half of the variance in usage in these high-penetration countries, with age being the strongest predictor. Measurement invariance tests indicate that a direct comparison is only valid between three of the five countries explored. Methodologically, this points to the indispensability of such tests for unbiased comparative research.

Mass media have long provided general publics with science news. New media such as Twitter have entered this system and provide an additional platform for the dissemination of science information. Based on automated collection and analysis of >900 news articles and 70,000 tweets, this study explores the online communication of current science news. Topic modeling (latent Dirichlet allocation) was used to extract five broad themes of science reporting: space missions, the US government shutdown, cancer research, Nobel Prizes, and climate change. Using content and network analysis, Twitter was found to extend public science communication by providing additional voices and contextualizations of science issues. It serves a recommender role by linking to web resources, connecting users, and directing users' attention. This article suggests that microblogging adds a new and relevant layer to the public communication of science.

Purpose This conceptual contribution is based on the observation that digital inequalities literature has not sufficiently considered digital footprints as an important social differentiator. The purpose of the paper is to inspire current digital inequality frameworks to include this new dimension. Design/methodology/approach Literature on digital inequalities is combined with research on privacy, big data and algorithms. The focus on current findings from an interdisciplinary point of view allows for a synthesis of different perspectives and conceptual development of digital footprints as a new dimension of digital inequality. Findings Digital footprints originate from active content creation, passive participation and platform-generated data. The literature review shows how different social groups may experience systematic advantages or disadvantages based on their digital footprints. A special emphasis should be on those at the margins, for example, users of low socioeconomic bac...

In modern everyday life, individuals experience an abundance of digital information and communication options, and pressure to use them effectively and constantly. While there are many benefits attainable through the use of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs), digital overuse needs to be explored as it may impair individual well-being. A nationally representative survey explored the extent of perceived digital overuse (PDO) and tested its relation to social digital pressure, digital coping skills, and, to assess everyday offline relevance, to individual subjective well-being. Results indicated that 28% of Swiss Internet users pereived digital overuse, which was strongly and negatively associated with well-being. Social pressure was positively related to overuse. Differences in experiencing and dealing with digital overabundance are highly relevant to general well-being and need to be further researched in light of social change and ICT innovations.

How predictable are life trajectories? We investigated this question with a scientific mass collaboration using the common task method; 160 teams built predictive models for six life outcomes using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a high-quality birth cohort study. Despite using a rich dataset and applying machine-learning methods optimized for prediction, the best predictions were not very accurate and were only slightly better than those from a simple benchmark model. Within each outcome, prediction error was strongly associated with the family being predicted and weakly associated with the technique used to generate the prediction. Overall, these results suggest practical limits to the predictability of life outcomes in some settings and illustrate the value of mass collaborations in the social sciences.

With every digital interaction, individuals are increasingly subject to algorithmic profiling, understood as the systematic and purposeful recording and classification of data related to individuals. Large Internet firms, such as Facebook and Google/Alphabet, as well as third-party data brokers collect and combine detailed personal data to create sophisticated profiles for predictive purposes. Research has started to look into people’s perception and engagement of algorithms, showing that many users are unaware of the existence of algorithms, for example those which curate news feeds, and that a majority feels uncomfortable with algorithmic profiling on Facebook. In our research, we investigate perceptions of algorithmic profiling on Facebook by addressing the following questions: What user narratives of profiling on Facebook exist? What reactions do users have when confronted with Facebook’s inferred profiles? What are the social implications of user perceptions of profiling? Drawi...

How can we live a good life both thanks to and despite the constant use of digital media? The presented framework describes the nature of and connections between three relevant phenomena – digital media practices, harms/benefits, and well-being – and creates a blueprint for explanatory theories.

Testing communication theories requires a valid empirical basis, yet especially for usage time measures, retrospective self-reports have shown to be biased. This study draws on a unique data set of 923 Swiss internet users who had their internet use tracked for at least 30 days on mobile and desktop devices and took part in a survey covering internet usage as well as person-level background variables. The analysis focuses on active usage time overall and on the major services Google Search, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and the online newspaper 20 Minuten. The results showed that overall internet usage time was lower for older and higher-educated users based on both the tracking and survey data, and the reported usage time was consistently higher than the tracked usage time. The tracking data further revealed that internet users in all social groups spent the majority of their time online on a mobile device. The number of users of the major services varied mainly between a...

Digital inequalities have real consequences for individuals' everyday lives-this basic assumption drives digital inequality research. Recent efforts have focused on tangible benefits of online engagement, yet subjective quality of life measures also matter as Internet outcomes. This article contributes to closing this gap. First, it theoretically introduces subjective social well-being-the appraisal of one's functioning in society-as a consequence of digital participation, potential, and perception differences. Second, it tests the dependence of social well-being on these three dimensions using structural equation modeling with nationally representative survey data. Results reveal that the perception of digital belongingness directly increases social well-being, and Internet skills as digital potential do so indirectly. The net effect of digital participation is insignificant. These findings lead to recommendations for policies targeting digital inequalities and future research directions.

Algorithmic profiling has become increasingly prevalent in many social fields and practices, including finance, marketing, law, cultural consumption and production, and social engagement. Although researchers have begun to investigate algorithmic profiling from various perspectives, socio-technical studies of algorithmic profiling that consider users' everyday perceptions are still scarce. In this article, we expand upon existing usercentered research and focus on people's awareness and imaginaries of algorithmic profiling, specifically in the context of social media and targeted advertising. We conducted an online survey geared toward understanding how Facebook users react to and make sense of algorithmic profiling when it is made visible. The methodology relied on qualitative accounts as well as quantitative data from 292 Facebook users in the United States and their reactions to their algorithmically inferred 'Your Interests' and 'Your Categories' sections on Facebook. The results illustrate a broad set of reactions and rationales to Facebook's (public-facing) algorithmic profiling, ranging from shock and surprise, to accounts of how superficialand in some cases, inaccuratethe profiles were. Taken together with the increasing reliance on Facebook as critical social infrastructure, our study highlights a sense of algorithmic disillusionment requiring further research.