Curating the Feed: Who and What Influences Our Social Media Feeds?
The posts that appear on our social media feeds seem to have mostly been compiled randomly. However, the image feeds – which is to say the visual sequences – in the background actually follow very specific criteria and are tailored precisely to each individual user. Which factors influence this composition? From 1 February 2023, researchers will investigate just this question within the interdisciplinary research project on »Curating the Feed« funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and identify and analyse the various factors.
The project is being led by Prof. Dr. Christoph Bareither (Professorship of Empirical Cultural Studies with a focus on digital anthropology, University of Tübingen), Jun.-Prof. Dr. Sabine Wirth (Professorship of Digitale Kulturen/Digital Cultures, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar) and Prof. Dr. Benno Stein (Professorship of Intelligent Information Systems, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar). Over the next three years, the interdisciplinary team of researchers want to use their different approaches and perspectives to implement a multidimensional research design and thus identify and analyse the »curatorial assemblages« – so all of the factors that contribute to the compilation of posts for social media feeds.
»We wish to understand how these digital processes are designed and how they come about. What influence do algorithms and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning have on this? And how exactly do they shape the everyday lives of countless social media users?« explains Dr. Sabine Wirth (Junior Professor for Digitale Kulturen/Digital Cultures, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar).
Prof. Bareither shares details of the empirical and cultural studies part of the project: »Digital anthropology relies on digital ethnography, that’s to say on participant observation, interviews and media diaries. This is how we’ll explore the human-technology relationships relating to these feeds. We’ll focus on young users, as they’re the experts at curating feeds.«
»The media studies research area considers the role that interfaces and design strategies play in the formatting of ›curatorial assemblages‹ within historical and media theoretical contexts,« adds Dr. Wirth.
These two perspectives will be complemented with computer science and media as a third field of work: Professor Stein will contribute expertise from the field of natural language processing and thus shed light on how algorithms curate the feeds. In addition, the project will question how algorithmic interventions critically reflect the one-sidedness of social media and contribute to the future development of more diverse image feeds: How can algorithms gauge bias and help to reduce it?
About the »The Digital Image« priority programme:
The DFG priority programme brings together exemplary projects from a multi-perspective view and addresses the central role that images play in the complex process of digitalising knowledge both in theory and practice. Different questions and approaches will be investigated within twelve sub-projects. Close networking and a productive exchange between the individual research projects will be aimed at.
More information: www.digitalesbild.gwi.uni-muenchen.de
In case of questions, please contact Juliane Seeber (Public Relations and Marketing Officer for the Faculty of Media) via email (juliane.seeber[at]uni-weimar.de) or by telephone (+ 49 (0) 36 43 / 58 37 06).