Regional Languages on Wikipedia. Venetian Wikipedia’s user interaction over time

Given that little is known about regional language user interaction practices on Wikipedia, this study analyzed content creation process, user social interaction and exchanged content over the course of the existence of Venetian Wikipedia. Content of and user interactions over time on Venetian Wikipedia exhibit practices shared within larger Wikipedia communities and display behaviors that are pertinent to this specific community. Shared practices with\ud other Wikipedias (eg. English Wikipedia) included coordination content as a dominant category of exchanged content, user-role based structure where and most active communicators are administrators was another shared feature, as well as socialization tactics to involve users in online projects. While Venetian Wikipedia stood out for its geographically-linked users who emphasized their regional identity. User exchanges over time spilled over from online to offline domains. This analysis provides a different side of Wikipedia collaboration which is based on creation, maintenance, and negotiation of the content but also shows\ud engagement into interpersonal communication. Thus, this study exemplifies how regional language Wikipedias provide ways to their users not only to preserve their cultural heritage through the language use on regional language Wikipedia space and connect through shared contents of interest, but also, how it could serve as a community maintenance platform that unifies users with shared goals and extends communication to offline realm

Creating Chaos Online

Unmasks the disinformation propagated by Russian trolling in public discours

Non-Standard Typography Use Over Time: Signs of a Lack of Literacy or Symbolic Capital?

New technologies have provoked a debate regarding the role of non-standard typography (e.g. !!!, :-*). Some contend that new technologies undermine literacy while others state that new technologies provide new spaces for expressive writing and signal a form of symbolic capital. While previous research has primarily focused on age and gender to account for non-standard typography, we analyze socio-economic variables – education and income level and the use of NST over time. This study entertains these two competing hypotheses by analyzing non-standard typography in text message exchanges over three and a half months in an underprivileged population: people living in an urban public housing. Data reveal that, within this sample, use of NST increased over time and participants with higher education levels were more likely to use non-standard typography than less educated counterparts. Experience with texting was found to mediate this effect. Findings support a symbolic capital hypothesis of non-standard typography use, suggesting NST is not associated with stigmatizing lack of knowledge or literacy, but rather may signal the knowledge of discourse norms ascribed to texting in a community

Which Tweets 'Deserve' to be Included in News Stories? Chronemics of Tweet Embedding

The use and selection of user-generated social media content, specifically tweets, as a news source has become an integral part of news production practice. Yet, the mapping and the extent of the nature of the practices in which news outlets integrate social media use is still lacking. This study focuses on the pressures of immediacy on the media ecosystems, i.e., as organizational practices of news outlets that make choices related to social media content integration. By analyzing a large corpora of news outlets that have embedded tweets, this study analyzes tweet embedding practices by specifically focusing on the concept of chronemics, conceptualized here as the time needed to embed tweets. Temporal constraints are particularly pressing for journalistic practices, given the continuous pressures of 24/7 news cycle. We ask two main questions: which types of outlets are quicker to embed tweets, and which types of users’ tweets are more likely to be embedded quickly

AI in society and culture: decision making and values

With the increased expectation of artificial intelligence, academic research face complex questions of human-centred, responsible and trustworthy technology embedded into society and culture. Several academic debates, social consultations and impact studies are available to reveal the key aspects of the changing human-machine ecosystem. To contribute to these studies, hundreds of related academic sources are summarized below regarding AI-driven decisions and valuable AI. In details, sociocultural filters, taxonomy of human-machine decisions and perspectives of value-based AI are in the focus of this literature review. For better understanding, it is proposed to invite stakeholders in the prepared large-scale survey about the next generation AI that investigates issues that go beyond the technology.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Creating Chaos Online

Unmasks the disinformation propagated by Russian trolling in public discours

“Stop Kremlin trolls:” Ideological trolling as calling out, rebuttal, and reactions on online news portal commenting

Mainstream media sources have recently heightened public awareness to a phenomenon known as Russian troll farms. This research thematically analyzes “Kremlin troll” use and its variations found in user comments on a leading Lithuanian news portal. The main findings of this study indicate that “Kremlin troll” was used in two oppositional themes. The first one reveals accusations of paid commentators as “Kremlin trolls.” The second, in contrast, counter-argues “Kremlin troll” accusations through rebuttal. Sarcasm and humor, e.g., by emergence of self-identification as a “Kremlin troll” furthermore downplays the “Kremlin troll” accusations and reclaims uncertainty of who is the real troll.Even if the offensive and defensive tactics might seem rather similar to overall Internet troll tactics found in the previous online research, the unique side of “Kremlin troll” use was the emergence of ideological trolling, charged with accusations of some commentators being paid by a foreign government, thus referring to “Kremlin trolling” as a form of astroturfing. We conclude that “Kremlin troll” in this study exemplifies politically charged ideological trolling, rather than the mere subcultural phenomenon that is prevalent in English-language contexts