Digital Public Sphere

Public discourse changes in the course of digital transformation. New technologies give rise to new media intermediaries – online services providing information – such as search engines, social networks or video platforms. Never have there been more options for participation and influence. In light of this digitalised public sphere, how do we ensure diversity, which is the basis for democratic opinion-forming?

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Dark social – digital communication without publicity?

Dark social media are communication services that cannot be viewed by third parties. They enable private and pseudonymous interactions that can take on public dimensions and change our social discourse.

The formation of public opinion in the digital age

Facebook, YouTube, and Google – digitalisation gave rise to new players in forming opinions. This leads to a shift, or redistribution, of influence on public opinion. The bidt working paper “Meinungsmachtkontrolle und Vielfaltsmonitoring im digitalen Zeitalter“ reflects on terminologies that are inseparably linked to the discussion on the impact of social media.

Gamification

To increase motivation, fun and learning processes, typical elements from games are integrated into processes. These can include systems such as skill trees, guilds, ranking lists or even storytelling. The areas of application also vary: Whether marketing and customer loyalty, health and sport or even employee training, gamification is taking place everywhere. Problems due to the potential for manipulation or lack of consent are discussed.

Metaverse

The concept of the metaverse is the idea of a space beyond the physical world, which, according to a more recent definition, can be imagined as a collaborative online universe. Digital assets are to be perceived and exchanged here with the help of technologies. The cornerstones include cryptocurrencies, blockchain, AR and VR.

Nudging

Findings from psychological and behavioral economics research have shown that human behavior often does not match the predictions of rational economic theories. Heuristics, mental shortcuts or rules of thumb, as a preferred basis for decision-making, enable faster decision-making processes, but are susceptible to cognitive distortions. Nudging instrumentalizes these distortions in order to predictably influence people’s behaviour.

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Experts

Fay Carathanassis

Associated Researcher, bidt

Steliyana Doseva

Researcher, bidt

Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckmann

Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Law and Security in Digital Transformation, Technical University of Munich

Dr. Margret Hornsteiner

Head of Communications and Dialogue, bidt

Prof. Dr. Andreas Jungherr

Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Professor of Political Science esp. Digital Transformation, University of Bamberg

Dr. Jan Schillmöller

former Researcher, bidt

Prof. Dr. Hannah Schmid-Petri

Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Science Communication, University of Passau

Dr. Andreas Wenninger

Research Coordinator and Research Project Leader, bidt