The article considers the key media policy objective of enhancing cultural diversity and explores one of the possible paths towards it in the digital media space – namely, by addressing the new intermediaries that have an increasingly critical role in contemporary media experiences. It...

This paper examines how Internet ventures operate as intermediaries serving both upstream sources of content and applications as well as downstream consumers. Alibaba, Baidu, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Tencent and other Internet “unicorns” have exploited “winner take all”...

In 2020, the French Parliament passed an amendment that put the country at the forefront of attempts by democratic states to restrict young people’s access to legal online pornography. This study examines the necessity for and potential efficacy of the amendment through a comparative analysis...

In the wake of high profile and recent events of blatant privacy violations, which also raise issues of democratic accountability as well as, at least potentially, undermining the legitimacy of current local and international governance arrangements, a rethinking of the justification of the...

Based on data from surveys conducted in Japan, this paper attempts to examine the effect of social capital on individuals’ views about suicide as conveyed via the Internet. Furthermore, this paper compared the effects of social capital accumulated in respondents’ residential areas at 15...

Since its conceptualisation, the construction of privacy has been deeply gendered, as women and gender and sexual minorities are often at the receiving end of forms of privacy that are subordinating, rather than equalising. In this essay, I argue that, as a result of pervasive datafication, we...

Bloggers devote significant time not only producing content for others to read, watch or listen to, but also paying attention to and engaging in interactions with other bloggers. We hope to throw light not only on the factors that gain bloggers significant readership and lively interactions with...

Oft wird unterstellt, dass die intensive Nutzung des Internets die Menschen in der realen Welt zu kontaktarmen Sonderlingen macht. Auf Vertrauen basierende Kontakte erleichtern aber in vielerlei Hinsicht den Austausch zwischen Individuen und haben daher greifbare ökonomische Konsequenzen. Ein...

This paper examines how socio-economic characteristics, changes in the technology of political communication and their interactions affect the sentiments of the electorate and favor the spread of populist ideas in Europe. Using both European-wide and national surveys we find a significant...