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Fairwork Ecuador Ratings 2023: Working Conditions in Unsafe Contexts

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 39 pp.

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Societal Divides as a Taxable Negative Externality of Digital Platforms: An Exploration of the Rationale for Regulating Algorithmically Mediated Platforms Differently

Helena Puig Larrauri

Ashoka's Tech & Humanity (2023), 22 pp.

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Digital Platform Governance and the Challenges for Trust and Safety. Part 1: Why Lies and Hatred Proliferate on Digital Platforms

Research ICT Africa; UNESCO (2023), 21 pp.

"Online and platform content that may cause harm through the breach of human rights is sufficiently widespread to have raised concerns about the potentially severe implications for the future of trust, safety, democracy and sustainable development. A certain amount of this content is curbed by the d ... more

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Gender and Platform Work: Beyond Technosolutionism

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 47 pp.

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Fairwork Colombia Ratings 2023: The Mobilities of Gig Work in Colombia

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 39 pp.

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‘Push-and-pull’ for visibility: How do fans as users negotiate over algorithms with Chinese digital platforms?

Yiyan Zhang, Shengchun Huang, Tong Li

Information, Communication & Society, volume 26, issue 2 (2023), pp. 321-339

"In the algorithmic era, both users and the platform battle for visibility. Chinese fans are savvy users who explore the hidden algorithms behind platform functions. With the collectively developed algorithmic imaginary, digital fandom communities negotiate with the platform over algorithms to optim ... more

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Fairwork Tanzania Ratings 2023: Towards Improving Platform Work in Tanzania

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 39 pp.

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Fairwork Morocco Ratings 2023: Assessing Working Conditions in the Moroccan Platform Economy

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 35 pp.

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Fairwork Uganda Ratings 2023: A Need for Pro-Worker Change

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 33 pp.

"In 2023, Fairwork conducted the first year of research in Uganda among twelve selected digital platforms. The selected platforms are in the sectors of ride hailing and food delivery. The research and rating of platforms was done as per the five Fairwork principles." (Executive Summary)

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Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Kirsten Eddy, Craig T. Robertson, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2023), 158 pp.

"Across markets, only around a fifth of respondents (22%) now say they prefer to start their news journeys with a website or app – that’s down 10 percentage points since 2018. Publishers in a few smaller Northern European markets have managed to buck this trend, but younger groups everywhere are ... showing a weaker connection with news brands’ own websites and apps than previous cohorts – preferring to access news via side-door routes such as social media, search, or mobile aggregators. • Facebook remains one of the most-used social networks overall, but its influence on journalism is declining as it shifts its focus away from news. It also faces new challenges from established networks such as YouTube and vibrant youth-focused networks such as TikTok. The Chinese-owned social network reaches 44% of 18–24s across markets and 20% for news. It is growing fastest in parts of Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. • When it comes to news, audiences say they pay more attention to celebrities, influencers, and social media personalities than journalists in networks like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. This contrasts sharply with Facebook and Twitter, where news media and journalists are still central to the conversation. • Much of the public is sceptical of the algorithms used to select what they see via search engines, social media, and other platforms. Less than a third (30%) say that having stories selected for me on the basis of previous consumption is a good way to get news, 6 percentage points lower than when we last asked the question in 2016. Despite this, on average, users still slightly prefer news selected this way to that chosen by editors or journalists (27%), suggesting that worries about algorithms are part of a wider concern about news and how it is selected. • Despite hopes that the internet could widen democratic debate, we find fewer people are now participating in online news than in the recent past. Aggregated across markets, only around a fifth (22%) are now active participators, with around half (47%) not participating in news at all. In the UK and United States, the proportion of active participators has fallen by more than 10 percentage points since 2016. Across countries we find that this group tends to be male, better educated, and more partisan in their political vie ws. • Trust in the news has fallen, across markets, by a further 2 percentage points in the last year, reversing in many countries the gains made at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. On average, four in ten of our total sample (40%) say they trust most news most of the time. Finland remains the country with the highest levels of overall trust (69%), while Greece (19%) has the lowest after a year characterised by heated arguments about press freedom and the independence of the media." (Summary, page 10) more

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Fairwork Mexico Ratings 2022: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy

Mexico; Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 39 pp.

"An urgent finding of this first Fairwork Mexico report was impact platform work has on the physical and mental health of workers. Indeed, in megacities like Mexico City, and in urban environments marked by traffic congestion, pollution and fast-paced city life, workers’ bodies are being reduced t ... more

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Researching the Evolving Online Ecosystem: Telegram, Discord and Odysee

Henry Tuck, Jakob Guhl, Julia Smirnova, Lea Gerster, Oliver Marsh

London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) (2023), 59 pp.

"Harmful actors use an ever-expanding range of digital spaces to spread harmful ideologies and undermine human rights and democracy online. Understanding their evolving ideas, online networks and activities is critical to the development of a more comprehensive evidence base to inform effective and ... more

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Fairwork Bosnia and Herzegovina Ratings 2023: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 39 pp.

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Fairwork Nigeria Ratings 2023: Advocating for Increased Safety and Security in the Platform Economy

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 39 pp.

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Digital Spaces, Rights and Responsibilities: Towards a Duty of Care Model in Southern Africa

Admire Mare

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (2023), 14 pp.

"In this article, the intersection between digital spaces, rights, and responsibilities in an interconnected platformising world is highlighted. Besides unpacking structural harms and unfreedoms accompanying this platformisation, it also proposes a duty of care model rooted in the African philosophy ... more

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Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Craig T. Robertson, Amy Ross Arguedas, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2023), 167 pp.

"In many countries, especially outside Europe and the United States, we find a significant further decline in the use of Facebook for news and a growing reliance on a range of alternatives including private messaging apps and video networks. Facebook news consumption is down 4 percentage points, acr ... oss all countries, in the last year. • News use across online platforms is fragmenting, with six networks now reaching at least 10% of our respondents, compared with just two a decade ago. YouTube is used for news by almost a third (31%) of our global sample each week, WhatsApp by around a fifth (21%), while TikTok (13%) has overtaken Twitter (10%), now rebranded X, for the first time. • Linked to these shifts, video is becoming a more important source of online news, especially with younger groups. Short news videos are accessed by two-thirds (66%) of our sample each week, with longer formats attracting around half (51%). The main locus of news video consumption is online platforms (72%) rather than publisher websites (22%), increasing the challenges around monetisation and connection. • Although the platform mix is shifting, the majority continue to identify platforms including social media, search, or aggregators as their main gateway to online news. Across markets, only around a fifth of respondents (22%) identify news websites or apps as their main source of online news – that’s down 10 percentage points on 2018. Publishers in a few Northern European markets have managed to buck this trend, but younger groups everywhere are showing a weaker connection with news brands than they did in the past. • Turning to the sources that people pay most attention to when it comes to news on various platforms, we find an increasing focus on partisan commentators, influencers, and young news creators, especially on YouTube and TikTok. But in social networks such as Facebook and X, traditional news brands and journalists still tend to play a prominent role. • Concern about what is real and what is fake on the internet when it comes to online news has risen by 3 percentage points in the last year with around six in ten (59%) saying they are concerned. The figure is considerably higher in South Africa (81%) and the United States (72%), both countries that have been holding elections this year. • Worries about how to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy content in online platforms is highest for TikTok and X when compared with other online networks. Both platforms have hosted misinformation or conspiracies around stories such as the war in Gaza, and the Princess of Wales’s health, as well as so-called ‘deep fake’ pictures and videos." (Executive summary, page 10) more

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Towards Digital Platforms and Public Purpose

Harvard Kennedy School (2023), 35 pp.

"This paper serves as a summary report for the Democracy and Internet Governance Initiative, a two-year joint initiative between Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. It delves into the rationale a ... more

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The New Screen Ecology in India: Digital Transformation of Media

Smith Mehta

London: Bloomsbury; British Film Institute (bfi) (2023), ix, 174 pp.

"New Screen Ecology in India is an open access book that provides an in depth exploration of the digital transformation of the Indian media industry. Smith Mehta takes a deep dive into the world of social media platforms and their impact on contemporary film and television production, arguing that t ... more

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Fairwork Lebanon Ratings 2023: Platform Work in Times of Crisis

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 35 pp.

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Video Conferencing: Infrastructures, Practices, Aesthetics

Axel Volmar, Olga Moskatova, Jan Distelmeyer (eds.)

Bielefeld: transcript Verlag (2023), 372 pp.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has reorganized existing methods of exchange, turning comparatively marginal technologies into the new normal. Multipoint videoconferencing in particular has become a favored means for web-based forms of remote communication and collaboration without physical copresence. Takin ... more