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Making curation algorithms apparent : a case study of ‘Instawareness’ as a means to heighten awareness and understanding of Instagram's algorithm

Thibault Fouquaert (UGent) and Peter Mechant (UGent)
(2022) INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY. 25(12). p.1769-1789
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Abstract
Despite the increasing prevalence of curation algorithms on everyday social network sites (SNSs), they often are imperceptible and difficult to become knowledgeable about since little insight in the actual working of these algorithms is given. To address this, we developed an online interface as a visual feedback tool to decrease the ignorance about the Instagram curation algorithm, named ‘Instawareness’ (https://instawareness.ugent. be/). As such, the goal of this article is to validate the actual effectiveness of Instawareness and to demonstrate how people can be made aware of the Instagram curation algorithm using a quasi-experiment. Validating the actual effectiveness of Instawareness allowed us to connect additional findings about the influence of awareness and understanding of Instagram’s curation algorithm to our primary validated findings about achieving such awareness. These show that it is not cognitive understanding about Instagram’s algorithms but solely awareness about them that appears to be sufficient for people to indicate increased critical concerns towards SNSs. Furthermore, Instawareness proved to be efficient in increasing cognitive media literacy (CML) and in indirectly stimulating critical concerns towards SNSs.
Keywords
Algorithm awareness, media literacy, social network sites, Instagram

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Citation

Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:

MLA
Fouquaert, Thibault, and Peter Mechant. “Making Curation Algorithms Apparent : A Case Study of ‘Instawareness’ as a Means to Heighten Awareness and Understanding of Instagram’s Algorithm.” INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY, vol. 25, no. 12, 2022, pp. 1769–89, doi:10.1080/1369118X.2021.1883707.
APA
Fouquaert, T., & Mechant, P. (2022). Making curation algorithms apparent : a case study of “Instawareness” as a means to heighten awareness and understanding of Instagram’s algorithm. INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY, 25(12), 1769–1789. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1883707
Chicago author-date
Fouquaert, Thibault, and Peter Mechant. 2022. “Making Curation Algorithms Apparent : A Case Study of ‘Instawareness’ as a Means to Heighten Awareness and Understanding of Instagram’s Algorithm.” INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY 25 (12): 1769–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1883707.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Fouquaert, Thibault, and Peter Mechant. 2022. “Making Curation Algorithms Apparent : A Case Study of ‘Instawareness’ as a Means to Heighten Awareness and Understanding of Instagram’s Algorithm.” INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY 25 (12): 1769–1789. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2021.1883707.
Vancouver
1.
Fouquaert T, Mechant P. Making curation algorithms apparent : a case study of “Instawareness” as a means to heighten awareness and understanding of Instagram’s algorithm. INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY. 2022;25(12):1769–89.
IEEE
[1]
T. Fouquaert and P. Mechant, “Making curation algorithms apparent : a case study of ‘Instawareness’ as a means to heighten awareness and understanding of Instagram’s algorithm,” INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY, vol. 25, no. 12, pp. 1769–1789, 2022.
@article{8698458,
  abstract     = {{Despite the increasing prevalence of curation algorithms on
everyday social network sites (SNSs), they often are imperceptible
and difficult to become knowledgeable about since little insight
in the actual working of these algorithms is given. To address
this, we developed an online interface as a visual feedback tool
to decrease the ignorance about the Instagram curation
algorithm, named ‘Instawareness’ (https://instawareness.ugent.
be/). As such, the goal of this article is to validate the actual
effectiveness of Instawareness and to demonstrate how people
can be made aware of the Instagram curation algorithm using a
quasi-experiment. Validating the actual effectiveness of
Instawareness allowed us to connect additional findings about
the influence of awareness and understanding of Instagram’s
curation algorithm to our primary validated findings about
achieving such awareness. These show that it is not cognitive
understanding about Instagram’s algorithms but solely awareness
about them that appears to be sufficient for people to indicate
increased critical concerns towards SNSs. Furthermore,
Instawareness proved to be efficient in increasing cognitive
media literacy (CML) and in indirectly stimulating critical concerns
towards SNSs.}},
  author       = {{Fouquaert, Thibault and Mechant, Peter}},
  issn         = {{1369-118X}},
  journal      = {{INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY}},
  keywords     = {{Algorithm awareness,media literacy,social network sites,Instagram}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  pages        = {{1769--1789}},
  title        = {{Making curation algorithms apparent : a case study of ‘Instawareness’ as a means to heighten awareness and understanding of Instagram's algorithm}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1883707}},
  volume       = {{25}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}

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