Fixing toxic online discussions – local solutions to global problems?
Social media have created amazing opportunities for communication. But they also contribute to polarization, misinformation, and toxic debates. The large platforms only reluctantly engage in content moderation for the most problematic issues. This leaves managers of pages, channels, or individual accounts to address unwanted comments and uncivil behaviour locally. Some initiatives have formed to help them, for example the #IAmHere movement originating from Sweden. Members of the group intervene in debates to promote civil discussions. I am interested to compare the German, Swedish, and English-speaking branches of this and similar groups. I am curious how they navigate the tensions between local interventions and contexts on the one hand, and global issues and platform mechanisms on the other. I plan to develop a participatory data analysis approach similar to the concept of data sprints (Munk et al., 2019) that is suitable for the distributed and asynchronous participation modes of the groups.
Main Research Topic
- Content moderation
- Digital methods
- Online communities
- Social media
- Partipatory research
Curriculum Vitae
- 2019-2022 Doctoral researcher in Technology, Innovation and Culture; University of Oslo, Norway
- 2016-2019 Associate Researcher in Theory of Science; University of Gothenburg, Sweden
- 2016 M.Sc. Applied Information Technology with Specialization in Learning and Communication; University of Gothenburg, Sweden
- 2016 B.Sc. International Business Administration and Information Technology; Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences, Germany & BASF SE, Germany
Publications and Presentations
Rohden, F. (forthcoming). Exploring online conversations around science – data practices in informal science communication. PhD dissertation.
Rohden, F. (2021). Experts, influencers, and amplifiers—Exploring climate movements’ hyperlinking practices. Journal of Science Communication, 20(7), A09. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.20070209
Rohden, F., Kullenberg, C., Hagen, N., & Kasperowski, D. (2019). Tagging, Pinging and Linking – User Roles in Virtual Citizen Science Forums. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. http://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.181