Media Personalization Research Articles

Lower Quantity, Higher Quality: Auditing News Content and User Perceptions on Twitter/X Algorithmic versus Chronological Timelines

Social media personalization algorithms increasingly influence the flow of civic information through society, resulting in concerns about "filter bubbles'', "echo chambers'', and other ways they might exacerbate ideological segregation and fan the spread of polarizing content. To address these concerns, we designed and conducted a sociotechnical audit (STA) to investigate how Twitter/X's timeline algorithm affects news curation while also tracking how user perceptions change in response. We deployed a custom-built system that, over the course of three weeks, passively tracked all tweets loaded in users' browsers in the first week, then in the second week enacted an intervention to users' Twitter/X homepage to restrict their view to only the algorithmic or chronological timeline (randomized). We flipped this condition for each user in the third week. We ran our audit in late 2023, collecting user-centered metrics (self-reported survey measures) and platform-centered metrics (views, clicks, likes) for 243 users, along with over 800,000 tweets. Using the STA framework, our results are two-fold: (1) Our algorithm audit finds that Twitter/X's algorithmic timeline resulted in a lower quantity but higher quality of news --- less ideologically congruent, less extreme, and slightly more reliable --- compared to the chronological timeline. (2) Our user audit suggests that although our timeline intervention had significant effects on users' behaviors, it had little impact on their overall perceptions of the platform. Our paper discusses these findings and their broader implications in the context of algorithmic news curation, user-centric audits, and avenues for independent social science research.

Vladimir Putin on Channel One, 2000–2022

ABSTRACT Drawing on transcripts from the television network Channel One, a popular news source in Russia, this article addresses the question: “How was Vladimir Putin covered by state-controlled media while the regime became increasingly centralized?” The literature on the subject is scarce and inconclusive. Dictators create different images of themselves, and the portrayals of present-day spin dictators — those who primarily rely on the power of propaganda to persuade rather than dominate — are understudied. While some analysts point to Putin’s omnipresence in mass media, others uncover the lack of media personalization and relatively neutral coverage. Using 385,981 news transcripts from 2000–2022 and relying on techniques from natural language processing, I examine how a present-day autocrat attempts to optimize the intensity of state-controlled propaganda. I uncover three main tendencies. First, during all the years in power, the ruler has been more frequently referred to through positive stories. Second, there is only partial evidence that the relative references to Putin on Channel One have significantly increased over time. Third, during all his years in power, Putin has been more frequently mentioned in domestic news rather than in stories about foreign affairs. However, I also demonstrate that the share of news about foreign affairs and events abroad that mentions the ruler has been increasing every year since 2013. By focusing on the supply side of propaganda, this article contributes to the literature on autocratic resilience and spin dictators.

Digital media entertainment technology based on artificial intelligence robot in art teaching simulation

The combination of digital media entertainment technology and artificial intelligence robots provides new possibilities for art teaching, providing students with a richer and more personalized learning experience. The aim of this study is to explore the application of artificial intelligence based digital media entertainment technology in art teaching simulation. By designing an intelligent digital media system, the interactivity, personalization, and effectiveness of art teaching can be improved. Research the use of digital media interactive technology to create an immersive art learning environment. Applying artificial intelligence recommendation algorithms to recommend personalized art teaching resources to students based on their learning history, interests, and abilities, in order to improve learning efficiency and outcomes. Combining artificial intelligence recommendation algorithms, intelligently recommend suitable art teaching resources for different students’ needs and levels. Through teaching interaction simulation testing, evaluate the interaction effect and user experience of the system in simulated art teaching scenarios, identify and fix potential problems. By utilizing digital media interaction technology and personalized recommendation algorithms, designing an intelligent digital media system can effectively enhance the interactivity, personalization, and effectiveness of art teaching, providing students with a better learning experience.

Personalized Politics in Traditional and Social Media: The Case of the 2019 Finnish Parliamentary Elections

Personalization of politics is a well-established field of research, yet not much is known about how the phenomenon has been influenced by the increased use of social media as a tool for political communication. In this research we analyze media personalization in newspapers and on social media posts of parties and party leaders during the 2019 Finnish parliamentary elections. Combining quantitative and qualitative content analysis, we find that a) personalized content was more common in newspapers than on social media, and b) the contexts of personalized content were largely similar regardless of media type, suggesting it may be more relevant to speak of “hybrid media personalization” rather than “traditional media personalization” and “social media personalization”. These findings are linked to broader discussions on personalization of politics and the use of social media as a political communication tool.

Freedom of choice and network "echo effects" of information consumption

The mechanisms of media personalization and separation in network communication on the principle of like-mindedness stimulate the formation of "echo chambers" and "filter bubbles". The social network phenomenon indicated by these metaphors is the subject of research, and the concepts themselves are considered as close, but not identical. The purpose of the study is to identify factors affecting the effectiveness of filtering algorithms, the user's ability to make informed choices and self–organization in the process of information consumption. The analysis of the causes and consequences of selective strategies of online information consumption is carried out on the basis of the communicative - activity approach, the theory of virtual reality Zh. Baudrillard, concepts of digital media by K. Sunstein, E. Pariser and R. Fletcher. The results of foreign and domestic studies of communication practices on various social platforms are used as an empirical basis. The research approaches presented in the scientific literature allow us to focus on the technological and logical-semantic perspective of the analysis of stable forms of network communication. According to the authors, the interdependence of filtering algorithms and value dominants of information consumption leaves the user with a chance to independently choose a "consumer basket". The duality in obtaining personalized content is emphasized: on the one hand, it is convenience, saving effort, on the other - the one-dimensionality of the world picture in the information bubble. Based on this, freedom of choice is characterized as the right to active choice and the right not to choose, consciously delegating it to neural network filters. In conclusion, the authors identified internal and external network factors for reducing the effectiveness of filtering algorithms: the interpretation of user behavior by artificial intelligence; the functioning of rational confrontational communication; the opportunistic conceptualization of echo effects; the availability of means of conscious counteraction. Incentives for reasonable information consumption, technological and cognitive ways of protecting and rationalizing user behavior are highlighted.

Gender in Facebook during the Local Electoral Campaign for Bucharest City Hall in 2020. The self-construction of the candidates

Abstract: Romanian politicians have been using Facebook profiles as a digital tool. This study aims to analyze the gender dimension in the local electoral campaign for Bucharest City Hall in 2020 and to establish how the candidates portray themselves on their Facebook pages by going against hegemonic views. One of the focuses of the study in on gender and social media personalization and the second one is on building a personal political brand during the electoral campaign through gender identification. The hypothesis is that new media, (interactive, social, multimodal, user-centered, and circularly networked) play key role in this new communicative paradigm and they may become an important discursive space for redefining gender stereotypes and reproducing (new) social identities. The analysis focuses on the media and digital tools and on to what extent gender influences the self-personalization in digital campaigning. According to the analysis, the woman candidate engages in a particularly gendered form of personalizing by presenting herself through social media in caregiving roles. At the same time, the two candidates (both female and male) for Bucharest City Hall, used a mixed strategy of gender adaptiveness. On the one hand, the candidates use and present gender stereotypes in their self-presentation, in order to benefit from existing voter expectations and norms. On the other hand, they use a bending or overturning stereotype strategy as an alternative one. Keywords: election campaign; female politicians; male politicians; multimodality; social media; new communicative paradigm; gender stereotypes; digital identity, SC-CDS, personalization.

Effect of Social Media Personalization on Brand Strength

Personalization is now used at every corner and position of social media sites. Using Personalization in marketing communication is an effective communication strategy for many businesses to improve customer satisfaction, increase sales in a reduced advertising budget. This research is an attempt to measure the impact of personalized advertisement on customers' social media account. This empirical research develops and tests a conceptual model using the structural modeling technique of the data collected from Facebook users, who have seen any personalized advertisement of the preferred brand on their Facebook account. Results suggest that personalized advertisement of the brand in customers' social media accounts is positively related to brand experience. Brand experience is also positively related to brand equity and mediates the relationship between perceived personalization and customer-based brand equity. Both brand experience and brand equity collectively enhance the brand strength of the brand advertised on Facebook.

Exploring the personalization-intrusiveness-intention framework to evaluate the effects of personalization in social media

Personalization is prevalent in modern social media marketing strategies. However, the users of social media services may perceive that personalized content is intrusive. These two components may influence consumers’ purchase intention in social media personalization campaigns. Thus, this positivism empirical research proposes a theoretical framework named PI2 using the personalization-intrusiveness-intention, as well as a success measurement based upon privacy calculus theory for effective social media personalization campaigns. Further, we investigated digital mnemonics’ potential influences with emotion as social information theory and different degrees of product involvement together with the model. Based upon the analysis of a total of 800 social media users, the results indicated that personalization positively affected but intrusiveness negatively affected the purchase intention. Furthermore, personalization significantly affected purchase intention through intrusiveness and the interaction of personalization with digital mnemonics negatively influenced consumers’ purchase intention on high involvement ads. In the post-hoc analysis, the moderating effect of users’ demographic variables was found to have some influence on the PI2 framework. The findings of this research provide theoretical and managerial implications for researchers and field practitioners in social media personalization.

Functions of Hybrid Media: How Parties and Their Leaders Use Traditional Media in Their Social Media Campaign Communication

Political campaign communication has become increasingly hybrid and the ability to create synergies between older and newer media is now a prerequisite for running a successful campaign. Nevertheless, beyond establishing that parties and individual politicians use social media to gain visibility in traditional media, not much is known about how political actors use the hybrid media system in their campaign communication. At the same time, the personalization of politics, shown to have increased in the media coverage of politics, has gained little attention in the context of today’s hybrid media environment. In this research we analyze one aspect of hybrid media campaign communication, political actors’ use of traditional media in their social media campaign communication. Through a quantitative content analysis of the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts of Finnish parties and their leaders published during the 2019 Finnish parliamentary elections, we find that much of this hybridized campaign communication was personalized. In addition, we show that parties and their leaders used traditional media for multiple purposes, the most common of which was gaining positive visibility, pointing to strategic considerations. The results have implications for both the scholarship on hybrid media systems and personalization of politics.

Individualization or Privatization of the North Korean Leader? Different Types of Media Personalization About Kim Jong-Un

ABSTRACT North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un, until recently an important yet relatively unknown figure in international politics, has begun to receive increased attention in the international media. Based on the concept of media personalization, this study examined whether the news media focused on Kim Jong-Un’s political traits and activities – i.e., media individualization - or on his apolitical characteristics – i.e., media privatization. By content analyzing 2,045 news articles about Kim Jong-Un published in South Korean and U.S. newspapers between 2012 and 2018, this study found that media individualization was more prevalent than media privatization. The number of news articles focusing on Kim’s political traits and activities was about three times greater than articles that emphasized Kim’s apolitical characteristics. Compared to news coverage about his public role, articles about his apolitical aspects were more negative. The results also showed a positive correlation between the political stance of South Korean news organizations toward North Korea and the degree of media privatization of Kim Jong-Un: that is, in South Korea, conservative newspapers were more likely than liberal newspapers to focus on Kim’s personal characteristics and life, and the tone of that coverage was more negative.

The dictator’s screenplay: collective memory narratives and the legitimacy of communist rule in East Asia

ABSTRACT Through a carefully crafted comparison of East Asia's surviving communist regimes (North Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos), this article offers a rare systematic study of how dictatorships manipulate collective memory to their own advantage. I employ methods of narrative analysis to identify different storytelling strategies that may serve to anthropomorphize the regime party as the “hero” in relation to the historical past. Moreover, I rely on quantitative content analysis (N > 2000) to demonstrate that the four communist regimes use propaganda photographs of their respective leaders to communicate collective memory narratives to mass audiences. The article thus makes two original contributions to the literature on autocratic politics. First, I show that narratives provide autocratic regimes with a powerful tool to tap into different sources of legitimacy, including output and identity legitimacy. Second, the findings of the visual content analysis suggest that, contrary to existing views, personalization – at least in terms of media personalization – does not have to come at the expense of the regime party.

Media Personalization during European Elections: the 2019 Election Campaigns in Context*

Media Personalization during European Elections: the 2019 Election Campaigns in Context^*

Driving Success of Youth Creative Business Based on Online Market Using Social Media

The purpose of this research is to discover what factors affect the success of creative youth business by utilizing the development of the technological era. This study used descriptive analysis methods to provide an overview of the facts investigated. The object of this research is Keripik Maicih’ as one of the successful business startups. The results of this study showed that the elements of success in starting a business among the younger generation, especially the use of social media as a channel for promotion and branding. So, with the elements will affect the success of this business because it does not restrict by age. Take advantage of business opportunities by pouring their creative ideas through entrepreneurship in online businesses. The conclusion of this study is that online markets can be made using several social media as a channel for branding. Businessman can achieve success by building the detailed of product images through social media personalization.

Gender novelty and personalized news coverage in Australia and Canada

Are female government leaders more likely than their male counterparts to see their gendered identities and personal lives profiled in news coverage of their ascents? Are non-novel women leaders—those who are the second in their jurisdiction to achieve the top political job—less likely to experience media personalization than did the women who preceded them in office? By analyzing newspaper coverage of 20 Australian and Canadian premiers, ten women and their immediate male predecessors, our study establishes that female premiers were more extensively personalized in news coverage than were male premiers, particularly in the Australian context. However, gender novelty and other factors proved significant. The proposition that an increased presence of women in leadership roles diminishes the salience of private lives and personal characteristics is supported by our study, suggesting that gender stereotyping of female political leaders will decrease over time as more women exercise political power.

Getting to know you: Social media personalization as a means of enhancing brand loyalty and perceived quality

Social media has become one of the largest environments of human interaction, with more than 80% of Americans using social media and firm spending on social media marketing more than quadrupling in the past decade. Yet, little is known about the effects of ad personalization in the social media context. This research develops and tests a comprehensive model of personalized advertising in the development of consumer's brand perceptions using 242 responses collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Results suggest perceived personalization positively impacts consumer brand engagement and brand attachment, both enhance perceived quality and brand loyalty of brands advertised on Facebook.

Mediated Personalization of Executive European Union Politics: Examining Patterns in the Broadsheet Coverage of the European Commission, 1992-2016.

The personalization of politics is a popular thesis but often challenged when it comes to media personalization. While previous research compared the prominence of different types of political actors across national political contexts, this article situates its research in the context of European Union (EU) politics and, thereby, studies similar reference points across countries. Its focus lies on the European Commission and its members. Personalization is conceptualized as individualization and presidentialization, respectively. The article proposes that the EU integration process provides journalists with the opportunity to report more often about individual politicians, while political developments should further incentivize journalists to personalize their news from Brussels. To test this argument, the article investigates personalization patterns in seven broadsheets from Ireland, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, and Poland. In total, 119,070 articles are analyzed by automated content analysis over a period of twenty-five years. The article finds no pan-European trend toward greater personalization of politics with respect to news coverage of EU executive politics. The findings nonetheless provide important implications for future research. The article particularly discusses the universal applicability of the phenomenon, the time frame for analysis, and journalistic styles in covering European politics.

A Study on the ‘media personalization’ in the 2012 presidential election coverage : focusing on ‘individualization’ and ‘privatization’

A Study on the ‘media personalization’ in the 2012 presidential election coverage : focusing on ‘individualization’ and ‘privatization’

Viewer's Choice: Rethinking Media Personalization in a Multiscreen World

TV as a medium is undergoing two notable trends - dispersion and atomization. Dispersion is the evolution of TV from single screen at-a-time viewing into a rich, distributed viewing experience across multiple screens. Atomization is the transition from linear to non-linear storytelling with substantial user control of the media consumption process. Without a technology solution, these two trends have the potential to adversely affect the economics of TV in increased content costs, increased user experience (UX) complexity, and therefore decreased user participation. This paper proposes a media services architecture that enables the delivery of richer multi-screen media experiences, while still maintaining the coherence of the experience and the cost of service delivery. We share a practical experience in running such a system over a large, globally diverse media corpus. The working system supports a Social Electronic Program Guide (EPG) user experience leveraging both current and emerging (Wearables and IoT) device platforms.

The personalization of politics in comparative perspective: Campaign coverage in Germany and the United Kingdom

In the last few decades personalization has been identified as a defining trend of contemporary political communication. The empirical evidence, however, is mixed and there are very few studies that explore more than a single-case study. This article investigates media personalization in comparative perspective by analysing the press coverage of recent general elections in Germany (2009) and the United Kingdom (2010). Was the reporting in both campaigns (equally) personalized? How and to what extent does the phenomenon vary across the two countries? What does this mean for our understanding of personalization? The analysis shows that there are at least as many differences between the countries as there are similarities; although both campaigns can be considered personalized in some respects, the form it takes is substantially different due to structural variations in the media and political systems, as well as the more transient, but key, impact of the distinctive characteristics of the campaigns and each of the candidates.

Knowledge Management Strategies as a Competitive Advantage for Delivering Professional E-Government Services

Nowadays, organizations emphasize on practicing knowledge management to achieve higher level of efficiencies across delivering professional services, improving accountability, making informed decisions, enhancing partnerships, capturing the knowledge of an ageing workforce and improving overall performance. This paper investigates on a number of new generation Knowledge Management strategies to improve professional e-government service deliveries, which drives competitive advantage of successful horizontal and vertical interaction. Moreover, transformation of e-government to mgovernment (m-government platform) and social media analysis, knowledge sharing and personalization are four main KM strategies those specifically are targeted to attract youth generation to effectively use online governmental services, thus a proposed framework through this paper illustrates how successful integration of KM strategies and professional e-government services drive competitive advantage.