Rebecca Scharlach

My 2nd PhD article, written with @blakeplease is now out in JCMC! We developed the new concept of value affordances of social media engagement features, which we define as the set of ethical, aesthetic, and relational principles that emerge from the interaction between different stakeholders and technological infrastructures.

https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/28/6/zmad040/7326084?searchresult=1&login=false#421922698

The value affordances of social media engagement features

Abstract. Social media engagement is ubiquitous but contested, simultaneously framed as an everyday form of support and an urgent societal risk. To make sense o

OUP Academic
Oct 24, 2023 at 2:29pmWeb
Show threadRebecca ScharlachOct 24, 2023
Engagement can be a blessing and a curse, functioning as a source of status, a tool of democratic participation, or is seen as a threat to democracy, contributing to disinformation and political polarization. What to make of these conflicting accounts?
Show threadRebecca ScharlachOct 24, 2023
While it is tempting to try and determine which line of research correctly identifies the value, or better, values, of social media engagement, we contend that it is more productive to read the conflicting accounts as an indicator of the broader tradeoffs of social media.
Show threadRebecca ScharlachOct 24, 2023
We examined engagement features through a novel method involving focus groups and value cards to explore how users attribute values to Like, Comment, and Share buttons of TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Show threadRebecca ScharlachOct 24, 2023
We asked each focus group to focus on either TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, but participants talked about the features in broadly consistent ways. When we zoom in on specific features, we find distinctive values that each engagement feature promotes or hinders.
Show threadRebecca ScharlachOct 24, 2023
To determine values associated with a feature, participants often started from their own experience or the imagined experience of someone like them. Typical practices of use reveal the value affordances of a feature and reinforce a belief in personal responsibility.
Show threadRebecca ScharlachOct 24, 2023
Broadening our understanding of value affordances could ultimately shift perspectives of the responsibility for the enactment of platform values by bringing the tensions of various stakeholders and technological infrastructures to the surface.
Show threadRebecca ScharlachOct 24, 2023

Big thanks to the anonymous reviewers, Nicole Ellison
and the JCMC editorial team; @tommytrillo and @reynoldscj for their feedback on earlier versions of this article and our participants for sharing their insights with us. And finally, we would like to thank @limor_shifman for her support throughout the development of this article and beyond.

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