Examining (Political) Content Consumption on Facebook Through Data Donation

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Couto, Joao, Garimella, Kiran
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Couto, Joao
Garimella, Kiran
author_facet Couto, Joao
Garimella, Kiran
contents This paper investigates the usage patterns of Facebook among different demographics in the United States, focusing on the consumption of political information and its variability across age, gender, and ethnicity. Employing a novel data donation model, we developed a tool that allows users to voluntarily share their interactions with public Facebook groups and pages, which we subsequently enrich using CrowdTangle. This approach enabled the collection and analysis of a dataset comprising over 1,200 American users. Our findings indicate that political content consumption on Facebook is relatively low, averaging around 17%, and exhibits significant demographic variations. Additionally, we provide insights into the temporal trends of these interactions. The main contributions of this research include a methodological framework for studying social media usage in a privacy-preserving manner, a comprehensive dataset reflective of current engagement patterns, and descriptive insights that highlight demographic disparities and trends over time. This study enhances our understanding of social media's role in information dissemination and its implications for political engagement, offering a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers in a landscape where direct data access is diminishing.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_08171
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Examining (Political) Content Consumption on Facebook Through Data Donation
Couto, Joao
Garimella, Kiran
Social and Information Networks
This paper investigates the usage patterns of Facebook among different demographics in the United States, focusing on the consumption of political information and its variability across age, gender, and ethnicity. Employing a novel data donation model, we developed a tool that allows users to voluntarily share their interactions with public Facebook groups and pages, which we subsequently enrich using CrowdTangle. This approach enabled the collection and analysis of a dataset comprising over 1,200 American users. Our findings indicate that political content consumption on Facebook is relatively low, averaging around 17%, and exhibits significant demographic variations. Additionally, we provide insights into the temporal trends of these interactions. The main contributions of this research include a methodological framework for studying social media usage in a privacy-preserving manner, a comprehensive dataset reflective of current engagement patterns, and descriptive insights that highlight demographic disparities and trends over time. This study enhances our understanding of social media's role in information dissemination and its implications for political engagement, offering a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers in a landscape where direct data access is diminishing.
title Examining (Political) Content Consumption on Facebook Through Data Donation
topic Social and Information Networks
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.08171