Department presents current research in Denver #ICA 2025  [20.05.25]

Source: ICAHQ

Is TikTok draining our attention? In a recent study, Kerria Drüppel, Jana Dombrowski and Sabine Trepte looked into this question. People who have problems concentrating in everyday life actually spend more time on TikTok. However, there is only a connection between the use of short video platforms and attention problems if the users themselves are asked for their assessment. The results therefore also give reason to be optimistic: How many hours we actually spend on short video platforms has no direct influence on how well we can concentrate. Further exciting insights into the project will be presented at the Mobile Communication Division's pre-conference.

In science, there are often differences between men and women, for example in terms of the number of publications or citations. Astrid Jansen, Sabine Trepte and Michael Scharkow examined over 57,000 articles and over 500,000 citations from 85 journals from 2000 to 2022. Their results show that articles by women were cited less frequently than those by men. However, if you look at female authors separately from the articles, they are now cited more frequently. This means that women publish more articles, but this does not automatically mean that they are cited more often. This “citation gap” has persisted over a period of 23 years. Structural changes have not yet been sufficient to achieve equality.

Even though female and male scientists are already equally represented at conferences and almost equally represented in professorships, women and international authors are cited significantly less. This is why many authors, but also journals, pay attention to the national and gender diversity of the sources cited in academic articles. Counting bibliographic sources is tedious. This is why the Diversity X tool enables the quick counting of gender and national diversity. Astrid Jansen will present the database and the calculation model of the tool in a panel of the Computational Methods Division.

People behave differently online than they would offline. The reason for this is often assumed to be that they feel more anonymous on social media. A study from Alexandra Lux's dissertation project shows that this does not always have to be a bad thing. Only a few people behave problematically. Instead, different platform characteristics lead to users being more open and approachable on social media. Which platform characteristics promote or prevent this behavior will be discussed in the presentation on Friday of the conference.

It is often unclear who has access to our data on social media. Leaving social media platforms is no longer an option for many. Given this uncertainty, users only can trust that others will respect their privacy. If this is the case, they are willing to share more. However, if they are concerned or feel they have no control over their data, they actively protect their privacy. This is the result of a recent meta-analysis that summarizes data from a total of 79 studies. The study will be discussed in a panel of the Communication & Technology Division on Saturday.

Whether scrolling through entertaining videos on social media, waiting for the next software update or immersing ourselves in a suspenseful movie - media impacts how we feel time. Sometimes it flies by, sometimes it drags on, sometimes it seems to stand still completely. But can this be measured? On the last day of the conference, Jana Dombrowski will provide exciting insights into her dissertation project. On Monday, she will present a newly developed scale for measuring how users perceive time during media use and discuss what role the feeling of time plays for well-researched media phenomena.

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