The Digital Trinity—Controllable Human Evolution—Implicit Everyday Religion

How can the ubiquitous digitalization in the early twenty-first century be grasped and characterized? A media-change perspective that focuses on innovation-driven, complex co-evolutionary processes distinguishes two phases of digitalization and points to the following characteristics of its second phase: digitalization is an intertwined bundle of socio-technological transformation processes that reveals itself as a trinity of datafication, algorithmization and platformization. On the industry and politics side, this co-evolutionary trinity is driven by the belief in a scientifically and technologically controllable human evolution, reflected in the pursuit of nano-bio-info-cogno convergence, and accordingly linked to a transhumanism standing for this belief. On the users’ side, the digital trinity is characterized and driven by the convergence of digital technology and religion in the form of an implicit everyday religion. These hallmarks of digitalization lead to a digitally transformed social order, shaped by the interplay of governance by and of this digital trinity, and challenged by growing complexity

Medien- und Telekommunikationspolitik: Unordnung durch Konvergenz – Ordnung durch Mediamatikpolitik

Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts wird ein Kernstück des über viele Jahrzehnte hinweg gelehrten und praktizierten Ordnungsmodells im Kommunikationssektor brüchig: Die technikorientierte Unterteilung in Medien und Telekommunikation, in Individual- und Massenkommunikation, die sich in unterschiedlichen Regulierungsmodellen und in getrennten politischen Zuständigkeiten für Medienpolitik einerseits und Telekommunikationspolitik andererseits manifestiert. Das Internet ist das Symbol der als Konvergenz bezeichneten Disruption in Politik und Analyse, aber gleichzeitig nur die Spitze des Eisberges, auf den das schwer manövrierbare Regulierungssystem aufgelaufen ist. Seither wird an der Schadensbegrenzung und an einem neuen Kurs der Kommunikationspolitik gearbeitet. Das reformierte Ordnungsmodell soll dem durch Konvergenz veränderten Kommunikationssystem, der Mediamatik, gerecht werden. Der Beitrag zeichnet vorerst die Genese und Grundzüge der traditionellen Ordnungsmodelle der Medien-und Telekommunikationspolitik nach und thematisiert das Verhältnis von Kommunikationswissenschaft und Politik (Abschnitt 1). Anschließend wird die durch Konvergenz verursachte Unordnung in Wirtschaft, Politik und Wissenschaft herausgearbeitet (Abschnitt 2). Die Analyse von Reformvorschlägen und Reformschritten in Reaktion auf den Konvergenztrend verdeutlicht die Grundzüge einer Neuordnung. Sie wird mittels einer integrierten Mediamatikpolitik angestrebt, die den Sektor nicht mehr vertikal nach technologischen Kriterien oder Industriegruppenzugehörigkeit unterteilt (Abschnitt 3). Im Resümee wird auf den möglichen Bedeutungsgewinn kommunikationswissenschaftlicher Forschung für eine integrierte Mediamatikpolitik hingewiesen (Abschnitt 4).Medienpolitik, Telekommunikationspolitik, Konvergenz, Governance, Regulierung, Mediamatik

The European Policy Response to Convergence with Special Consideration of Competition Policy and Market Power Control. IWE Working Paper No. 1

This paper addresses the controversial subject of convergence in the communications sector and analyzes the regulatory implications of this phenomenon, in particular the leading role and steps taken by the European Commission with regard to media and telecommunications policies. Special attention will be given to the implications of convergence for European competition policy and market power control, as these policy aspects are at the very center of the debate while Europe moves towards the "information society". In liberalized and converged markets competition policy is a very important, but also a very contentious area of concern. It is a prime example of the clash between the telematics and the media side, of the clash between economic rationales and cultural concerns. We start with a brief description of the changed societal communications system of the information society, called mediamatics (media & telematics), followed by an outline of the policy challenges it involves and a rough delineation of a suitable mediamatics policy. This will be followed by a description and analysis of the European Commission's initiatives in response to the convergence phenomenon. We will then turn to the analysis of competition policy and market power issues, highlighting some major characteristics of the European competition policy framework, analyzing the challenges posed by convergence and offering some conclusions regarding the reform of these policy fields

Co-evolution: Applications and Implications for Governance Research in Communication Studies

A co-evolutionary theoretical framework offers new concepts and methods for communication governance researchers. These concepts and methods are particularly well suited to study problems with strong interdependencies between actors. Such problems often develop in a dynamic, open-ended way and are associated with high levels of uncertainty. Many important, pressing governance tasks in convergent communication sectors, such as efforts to regulate digital platforms, could benefit from integrating insights from co-evolutionary models. For some problems, such as global internet governance, co-evolutionary models may be the only way to develop a robust understanding of the available governance options. This chapter introduces the co-evolution concept, points to applications in communication governance research, and presents models and tools that could enrich future research. It also highlights the implications of its applications for communications governance, summarizes the strengths and limitations of the approach, and gives a brief outlook of further developments

The Chilling Effects of Digital Dataveillance: A Theoretical Model and an Empirical Research Agenda

People's sense of being subject to digital dataveillance can cause them to restrict their digital communication behavior. Such a chilling effect is essentially a form of self-censorship in everyday digital media use with the attendant risks of undermining individual autonomy and well-being. This article combines the existing theoretical and limited empirical work on surveillance and chilling effects across fields with an analysis of novel data toward a research agenda. The institutional practice of dataveillance—the automated, continuous, and unspecific collection, retention, and analysis of digital traces—affects individual behavior. A mechanism-based causal model based on the theory of planned behavior is proposed for the micro level: An individual's increased sense of dataveillance causes their subjective probability assigned to negative outcomes of digital communication behavior to increase and attitudes toward this communication to become less favorable, ultimately decreasing the intention to engage in it. In aggregate and triggered through successive salience shocks such as data scandals, dataveillance is accordingly hypothesized to lower the baseline of free digital communication in a society through the chilling effects mechanism. From the developed theoretical model, a set of methodological consequences and questions for future studies are derived

Dataveillance imaginaries and their role in chilling effects online

The automatic tracing and analysis of personal data on the internet is a common occurrence. So far, the extent of internet users’ sense of such dataveillance and reactions to it remain obscure. This article explores 1) internet users’ dataveillance imaginaries and 2) the role they play for self-inhibited digital communication behaviors in relation to other behavioral responses to a sense of dataveillance. To address these questions, we apply thematic analysis to semi-structured interviews. Our findings show that internet users’ dataveillance imaginaries affect their self-inhibition: Not trusting actors, being aware of advanced workings of dataveillance, being critical of data collecting and monetizing, valuing privacy highly, and evaluating consequences of dataveillance negatively lead to self-inhibition. Such self-inhibition because of a sense of dataveillance, i.e., chilling effects of dataveillance, manifest in not using certain services, not searching for information, and not voicing one's opinion, which is problematic in a democracy. Further behavioral responses to a sense of dataveillance include not changing one's use of services and using privacy enhancing techniques. By shedding light on the role internet users’ dataveillance imaginaries play for their self-inhibition of legitimate digital communication behavior, this article innovatively contributes to the empirical investigation of the chilling effects of dataveillance

Algorithmische Selektion im Internet: Risiken und Governance automatisierter Auswahlprozesse

Algorithmen im Internet prägen zunehmend unseren Alltag und unsere Wahrnehmung der Welt. Sie wählen Informationen aus, weisen ihnen Relevanz zu und helfen, die Informationsflut im Internet zu bewältigen. Gleichzeitig wird die Verbreitung von algorithmischer Selektion von Risiken und regulatorischen Herausforderungen begleitet. Der Beitrag beleuchtet Anwendungszwecke und den Einfluss von algorithmischer Selektion und bietet einen Überblick zu den damit verbundenen Risiken. Die Risiken bilden Ausgangspunkte für etwaige Markteingriffe und die Suche nach adäquaten Steuerungs- und Regelungsarrangements (Governance). Vor diesem Hintergrund analysiert der Beitrag die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von unterschiedlichen Governance-Ansätzen auf dem Kontinuum zwischen Markt und Staat und liefert Grundlagen für die Auswahl von passenden Governance-Optionen. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass sich keine Einheitslösung für die Governance von algorithmischer Selektion anbietet. Die Aufmerksamkeit muss auf mehrdimensionale Lösungsansätze gerichtet werden, in denen Governance-Maßnahmen kombiniert werden, die sich gegenseitig ermöglichen und ergänzen

The relevance internet users assign to algorithmic-selection applications in everyday life

The rapidly growing academic and public attention to algorithmic-selection applications such as search engines and social media is indicative of their alleged great social relevance and impact on daily life in digital societies. To substantiate these claims, this paper investigates the hitherto little explored subjective relevance that Internet users assign to algorithmic-selection applications in everyday life. A representative online survey of Internet users comparatively reveals the relevance that users ascribe to algorithmic-selection applications and to their online and offline alternatives in five selected life domains: political and social orientation, entertainment, commercial transactions, socializing and health. The results show that people assign a relatively low relevance to algorithmic-selection applications compared to offline alternatives across the five life domains. The findings vary greatly by age and education. Altogether, such outcomes complement and qualify assessments of the social impact of algorithms that are primarily and often solely based on usage data and theoretical considerations

It’s still a thing: digital inequalities and their evolution in the information society

Internet diffusion has prompted research into differences in internet access, use and consequences. Exploiting the full potential of the ongoing digital transformation in all spheres of life—a proclaimed goal of governments and international organizations—requi-res ensuring equal opportunities and supporting disadvantaged individuals in their internet use. Using representative, population-level survey data from Switzerland spanning nearly a decade (2011–2019; Ntotal = 5,581), multiple multivariate regression analyses tested the effects of demographic and internet-use related variables on access (general and mobile), on internet skills and on different types of use (information, entertainment, commercial transactions and communication). Results indicated that despite high access rates (92% in 2019), considerable usage inequalities persist in the Swiss information society: in particu-lar, we found an increasing marginalization of older individuals regarding the adoption of the internet and revealed the importance of internet skills, experience and mobile internet use for adopting differentiated types of use. The extreme differences between the highly connected majority and an increasingly marginalized minority raise concerns about the latter group’s opportunities for personal, social and economic benefits in an information society. This study provides unique results on current digital inequalities and their evolu-tion which are crucial for assessing the success, suitability and legitimacy of digitization policies

Coping with Algorithmic Risks

Algorithmic selection is omnipresent in various domains of our online everyday lives: it ranks our search results, curates our social media news feeds, or recommends videos to watch and music to listen to. This widespread application of algorithmic selection on the internet can be associated with risks like feeling surveilled (S), feeling exposed to distorted information (D), or feeling like one is using the internet too excessively (O). One way in which internet users can cope with such algorithmic risks is by applying self-help strategies such as adjusting their privacy settings (Sstrat), double-checking information (Dstrat), or deliberately ignoring automated recommendations (Ostrat). This article determines the association of the theoretically derived factors risk awareness (1), personal risk affectedness (2), and algorithm skills (3) with these self-help strategies. The findings from structural equation modelling on survey data representative for the Swiss online population (N2018=1,202) show that personal affectedness by algorithmic risks, awareness of algorithmic risks and algorithm skills are associated with the use of self-help strategies. These results indicate that besides implementing statutory regulation, policy makers have the option to encourage internet users’ self-help by increasing their awareness of algorithmic risks, clarifying how such risks affect them personally, and promoting their algorithm skills