Samenvatting New Media Challenges
Lecture 01: Introduction | Martin
Changes in the media landscape: utopian vs. dystopian perspective
Utopia → A community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its
citizens.
Functions:
● Optimism about the future
● Strong belief in technological development
● Push to invest in technological developments
● Cultural change toward individuation and individual empowerment
○ Technology has made our lives easier
○ Winning time that you can invest in free time
Dystopia → A community or society that is undesirable or frightening.
Lecture 02: Introduction to privacy | Martin
Main questions:
● What is privacy?
● How does this relate to sharing of information?
Privacy is:
- Defined by culture: Every country has its own social norms, rules and procedures.
Nederland = open culture, less privacy.
- Defined by time: AVG-wetgeving is new. Protects us in which information we want to share.
Nude beaches used to be very common, not anymore.
- Defined by individuals: Everyone has a different opinion of privacy and how much they care
about it.
Three theoretical perspectives
1. Political-scientific approach → Westin: Privacy is a basic need
● Privacy helps us adjust to day-to-day interpersonal interactions.
● Privacy is a dynamic process: We can regulate privacy to momentary needs and
role requirements.
● Privacy is non monotonic: More privacy isn’t always better, you can have too much
or too little.
Four purposes of privacy
1. Personal autonomy → not being manipulated
○ Realisation of individual choices
○ We must be in control: what and how do we want to share
, 2. Emotional release → freedom from roles and outside expectations
○ Privacy helps us ventilate emotions → You should be able to do this
without anyone judging (private)
3. Self evaluate → Freedom to think, process information and make plans
○ Process and evaluate on your own, make your own plans
4. Limited and protected boundaries → Ability to limit who has access to what
information
○ What to share, with who and when
○ We should be in control of who knows what about me
Four states of privacy
1. Solitude (eenzaamheid) → No observation from others
2. Intimacy → Small group of people with a strong bond
3. Reserve → The right to decide what to share and what not.
4. Anonymity → The right to not be identified
2. Psychological approach → Altman: why is the regulation for human beings so
important
● Privacy regulation theory: Understanding why individuals alternate between states
of sociality
● Privacy is a selective control of access to the self or to one’s group.
Five elements of privacy
1. Dynamic process: Every individual regulates what they do / do not want to share,
depending on the situational or social context.
2. Individual vs group levels: How we regulate our privacy as individuals, is also
possible on a group level. BUT can be different.
3. Desired vs actual level: Desired level of privacy might be higher or lower than
individuals have in a given context → Juice channels are way higher than desired.
4. Non-monotonic: There is such a thing as too much as not sufficient privacy.
Individual ability to regulate your privacy. Think about strangers on the train: it can
be easier to share information with a complete stranger. Also the sauna principle
5. Bi-directional (inwards and outwards): Individuals might have different sensitivities
for their actions towards others.
● Parents can feel comfortable to come in kids room
● Parents can feel uncomfortable with their kids in their own room
, 3. Communication approach → Petronio: Privacy as information ownership and sharing
● Introduces the idea of thinking about privacy in terms of boundaries
● Privacy is the selective control of access to the self
● We need to regulate boundaries between ourselves and others
Context Collapse → Who is our audience?
● Phenomenon where technology flattens multiple audiences into one
○ Both having friends and colleagues in your insta followers: People from different
contexts become part of a singular group of message recipients.
○ Boundaries (Petronio) are more difficult online
■ Real life → Aware of your audience
■ Online → Unaware of your audience
● While audiences online are diverse and complex, the information users share tends to
present a single, individual identity
○ We don’t always realise what audience we are speaking to online
○ We underestimate the reach of things we post → Not only friends and family see
this.
Article 1: Walther (2011) → Privacy online
Most important:
● Misplaced presumption that online behavior is private
● Nature of the internet is quite incommensurate (onevenredig) with privacy
● Expectation of privacy does not constitute privileged communication by definition
Article 2: Bazarova & Choi (2014) → Self-disclosure in social media
Most important:
People are aware of what they are doing and sharing (where) on FB. They choose where they
share certain information, because they are aware of who will be able to see their information,
depending on where they post it.
Main findings / conclusion
● People have a clear idea of what they want to achieve online (in terms of self-disclosure)
→ What is the goal and what is their source of value/reward sought?
● Mediation model (Derlega and Gzelrak’s and Omarzu)
○ Every situational cue has a disclosure characteristic, because we want to achieve a
desired disclosure goal
, Lecture 03: Personalization, privacy & surveillance | Martin
Main questions:
● What is the privacy paradox?
● Are we entering a surveillance economy?
Physical privacy to information privacy
Privacy as a right → privacy as a commodity (handelsware)
↳ Privacy is a basic human right (Westin) → we are more likely to consider it a commodity (like time
or money)
The Privacy Trade-off → information sharing or keeping information private?
Examples:
● Dokter: het heeft hier geen zin om persoonlijke/privé informatie achter te houden want
dan kan een arts je niet/minder goed helpen.
● Apps: vragen om toegang tot fotogallerij, terwijl het geen foto-gerelateerde app is. Het
delen van deze informatie heeft voor jou geen voordelen want het verbetert je ervaring op
de app niet → app genereert alleen maar data die ze kunnen doorverkopen.
Management of private information
1. Anonymity create a fake identity online,
to keep personal information
private
2. Secrecy sharing as less information as
possible and knowingly share
misinformation
3. Confidentiality only sharing much-needed
information
4. Transparency All information open and
sharing a lot
Privacy Calculus → “Individuals are assumed to behave
in ways they believe will result in the most favourable net levels of outcomes” (Stone & Stone,
1990)
Lecture 01: Introduction | Martin
Changes in the media landscape: utopian vs. dystopian perspective
Utopia → A community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its
citizens.
Functions:
● Optimism about the future
● Strong belief in technological development
● Push to invest in technological developments
● Cultural change toward individuation and individual empowerment
○ Technology has made our lives easier
○ Winning time that you can invest in free time
Dystopia → A community or society that is undesirable or frightening.
Lecture 02: Introduction to privacy | Martin
Main questions:
● What is privacy?
● How does this relate to sharing of information?
Privacy is:
- Defined by culture: Every country has its own social norms, rules and procedures.
Nederland = open culture, less privacy.
- Defined by time: AVG-wetgeving is new. Protects us in which information we want to share.
Nude beaches used to be very common, not anymore.
- Defined by individuals: Everyone has a different opinion of privacy and how much they care
about it.
Three theoretical perspectives
1. Political-scientific approach → Westin: Privacy is a basic need
● Privacy helps us adjust to day-to-day interpersonal interactions.
● Privacy is a dynamic process: We can regulate privacy to momentary needs and
role requirements.
● Privacy is non monotonic: More privacy isn’t always better, you can have too much
or too little.
Four purposes of privacy
1. Personal autonomy → not being manipulated
○ Realisation of individual choices
○ We must be in control: what and how do we want to share
, 2. Emotional release → freedom from roles and outside expectations
○ Privacy helps us ventilate emotions → You should be able to do this
without anyone judging (private)
3. Self evaluate → Freedom to think, process information and make plans
○ Process and evaluate on your own, make your own plans
4. Limited and protected boundaries → Ability to limit who has access to what
information
○ What to share, with who and when
○ We should be in control of who knows what about me
Four states of privacy
1. Solitude (eenzaamheid) → No observation from others
2. Intimacy → Small group of people with a strong bond
3. Reserve → The right to decide what to share and what not.
4. Anonymity → The right to not be identified
2. Psychological approach → Altman: why is the regulation for human beings so
important
● Privacy regulation theory: Understanding why individuals alternate between states
of sociality
● Privacy is a selective control of access to the self or to one’s group.
Five elements of privacy
1. Dynamic process: Every individual regulates what they do / do not want to share,
depending on the situational or social context.
2. Individual vs group levels: How we regulate our privacy as individuals, is also
possible on a group level. BUT can be different.
3. Desired vs actual level: Desired level of privacy might be higher or lower than
individuals have in a given context → Juice channels are way higher than desired.
4. Non-monotonic: There is such a thing as too much as not sufficient privacy.
Individual ability to regulate your privacy. Think about strangers on the train: it can
be easier to share information with a complete stranger. Also the sauna principle
5. Bi-directional (inwards and outwards): Individuals might have different sensitivities
for their actions towards others.
● Parents can feel comfortable to come in kids room
● Parents can feel uncomfortable with their kids in their own room
, 3. Communication approach → Petronio: Privacy as information ownership and sharing
● Introduces the idea of thinking about privacy in terms of boundaries
● Privacy is the selective control of access to the self
● We need to regulate boundaries between ourselves and others
Context Collapse → Who is our audience?
● Phenomenon where technology flattens multiple audiences into one
○ Both having friends and colleagues in your insta followers: People from different
contexts become part of a singular group of message recipients.
○ Boundaries (Petronio) are more difficult online
■ Real life → Aware of your audience
■ Online → Unaware of your audience
● While audiences online are diverse and complex, the information users share tends to
present a single, individual identity
○ We don’t always realise what audience we are speaking to online
○ We underestimate the reach of things we post → Not only friends and family see
this.
Article 1: Walther (2011) → Privacy online
Most important:
● Misplaced presumption that online behavior is private
● Nature of the internet is quite incommensurate (onevenredig) with privacy
● Expectation of privacy does not constitute privileged communication by definition
Article 2: Bazarova & Choi (2014) → Self-disclosure in social media
Most important:
People are aware of what they are doing and sharing (where) on FB. They choose where they
share certain information, because they are aware of who will be able to see their information,
depending on where they post it.
Main findings / conclusion
● People have a clear idea of what they want to achieve online (in terms of self-disclosure)
→ What is the goal and what is their source of value/reward sought?
● Mediation model (Derlega and Gzelrak’s and Omarzu)
○ Every situational cue has a disclosure characteristic, because we want to achieve a
desired disclosure goal
, Lecture 03: Personalization, privacy & surveillance | Martin
Main questions:
● What is the privacy paradox?
● Are we entering a surveillance economy?
Physical privacy to information privacy
Privacy as a right → privacy as a commodity (handelsware)
↳ Privacy is a basic human right (Westin) → we are more likely to consider it a commodity (like time
or money)
The Privacy Trade-off → information sharing or keeping information private?
Examples:
● Dokter: het heeft hier geen zin om persoonlijke/privé informatie achter te houden want
dan kan een arts je niet/minder goed helpen.
● Apps: vragen om toegang tot fotogallerij, terwijl het geen foto-gerelateerde app is. Het
delen van deze informatie heeft voor jou geen voordelen want het verbetert je ervaring op
de app niet → app genereert alleen maar data die ze kunnen doorverkopen.
Management of private information
1. Anonymity create a fake identity online,
to keep personal information
private
2. Secrecy sharing as less information as
possible and knowingly share
misinformation
3. Confidentiality only sharing much-needed
information
4. Transparency All information open and
sharing a lot
Privacy Calculus → “Individuals are assumed to behave
in ways they believe will result in the most favourable net levels of outcomes” (Stone & Stone,
1990)
