Michael Latzer
Biographic Data
| ID | 277119 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Latzer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Latzer |
| SIGNATURE | LATZER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1237-8863 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 105 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Cyborg Imaginaries: A Computational Grounded Theory of Online Pioneer Community Discussions on Human Augmentation
Human Augmentation (HA) technologies, such as Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs), neurostimulation devices, and microchip implants, are increasingly discussed in online pioneer communities, where early adopters shape imaginaries of technologically mediated human futures. As part of the broader process of digitalization, HA technologies contribute to the platformization of the human body. While these technologies remain experimental, transhumanists …
How need- and norm-based motives for digital communication mitigate the chilling effects of dataveillance
Perceiving dataveillance, the pervasive collection and analysis of digital traces, as salient can increase internet users’ sense of dataveillance and expectations of negative consequences from digital communication, leading to self-inhibited online use. This process, known as chilling effects of dataveillance, can limit participation in today’s digital society, where being online is a need and norm. Given these potential consequences, the conditi…
The Transhumanist Anthropocene: From the climate crisis to upgrading humanity
This paper identifies a significant shift in the current dynamics of the Anthropocene driven by transhumanism. While the Anthropocene has traditionally emphasized humanity’s impact on Earth’s systems, transhumanist visions now direct this transformative force toward the biological and cognitive constitution of the human. This has two main implications for the Anthropocene dynamics: first, it marks an expansion of human action toward the technical…
Enchanted sensemaking among content creators
The content creator industry is growing and evolving, with creators assuming increasingly prominent roles in society through the generation and circulation of content that impacts audiences’ online and offline lives. This expansion is occurring regardless of the precarious and uncertain nature of content creation. Against this backdrop, this study explores creators’ sensemaking approaches and their characteristics. In this paper we focus on two a…
Dataveillance inhibits legitimate communication: Causal evidence for chilling effects
Chilling effects are an undesirable consequence of the datafication of communication: people may refrain from entirely lawful online activities due to fear of negative repercussions based on their digital traces. Our preregistered, longitudinal online field experiment randomly exposed 827 participants to accounts of dataveillance at 19 prompts across six weeks. Within individuals, this reduced comfort with online opinion sharing, information seek…
Digitalization, AI and the rise of techno-religion: Transhumanist promises and the challenge to Enlightenment
Digitalization, currently spearheaded by artificial intelligence, not only disenchants but also re-enchants societies, giving rise to a transhumanism-shaped techno-religion that contests prevailing interpretations of the Enlightenment project in Western societies. This article draws on a long-term perspective on media change and a sociotechnical conception of the digitalization of societies as the Digital Trinity: the co-evolutionary interplay of…
Temporal Dynamics of Chilling Effects of Dataveillance: Empirical Findings From a Longitudinal Field Experiment
Digital traces generated by internet users are automatically collected, stored, and analyzed by public and private actors. This dataveillance becomes salient to users through repeated exposure over time to triggers of a sense of dataveillance. This can lead to a range of consequences including democratically concerning responses such as the self-inhibition of legitimate digital communication behavior, known as the chilling effects of dataveillanc…
When corporate dataveillance brings beneficial experiences: Service-specific qualitative evidence for YouTube
Entertainment, information seeking, socialization: internet users are constantly dataveilled when relying on various online services to meet their diverse needs. Yet research that considers online-service peculiarities in shaping personal experiences in response to corporate data collection and analysis is scarce. This study investigates young adults’ dataveillance imaginaries, sense of dataveillance, and behavioral responses on YouTube, which ex…
Qualitative Evidence on Chilling Effects—how Users’ Imaginaries of Dataveillance Lead to Inhibited Digital Behavior
Our everyday life has become highly digitized, and all our online actions leave digital data traces that are automatically collected, aggregated, and analyzed. Emerging research shows that this dataveillance can lead to chilling effects on mundane and legitimate information and communication behaviors. However, the extent to which a sense of dataveillance deters individuals from freely engaging in legitimate digital behaviors remains empirically …
Dataveillance imaginaries and their role in chilling effects online
The automatic tracing and analysis of personal data on the internet is a common occurrence. So far, the extent of internet users’ sense of such dataveillance and reactions to it remain obscure. This article explores 1) internet users’ dataveillance imaginaries and 2) the role they play for self-inhibited digital communication behaviors in relation to other behavioral responses to a sense of dataveillance. To address these questions, we apply them…
Coping with Algorithmic Risks: How Internet Users Implement Self-Help Strategies to Reduce Risks Related to Algorithmic Selection
Algorithmic selection is omnipresent in various domains of our online everyday lives: it ranks our search results, curates our social media news feeds, or recommends videos to watch and music to listen to. This widespread application of algorithmic selection on the internet can be associated with risks like feeling surveilled (S), feeling exposed to distorted information (D), or feeling like one is using the internet too excessively (O). One way …
The Digital Trinity-Controllable Human Evolution-Implicit Everyday Religion: Characteristics of the Socio-Technical Transformation of Digitalization
How can the ubiquitous digitalization in the early twenty-first century be grasped and characterized? A media-change perspective that focuses on innovation-driven, complex co-evolutionary processes distinguishes two phases of digitalization and points to the following characteristics of its second phase: digitalization is an intertwined bundle of socio-technological transformation processes that reveals itself as a trinity of datafication, algori…
The Chilling Effects of Digital Dataveillance: A Theoretical Model and an Empirical Research Agenda
People's sense of being subject to digital dataveillance can cause them to restrict their digital communication behavior. Such a chilling effect is essentially a form of self-censorship in everyday digital media use with the attendant risks of undermining individual autonomy and well-being. This article combines the existing theoretical and limited empirical work on surveillance and chilling effects across fields with an analysis of novel data to…
Promoting Self-Help—how Internet Users Protect Themselves Against Algorithmic Risks
In today’s digitized society, internet users increasingly rely on online services that apply algorithmic selection, like for instance Google Search or the Facebook News Feed. The algorithms that are implemented in these services automatically select information sets and assign relevance to them. This entails societal risks such as privacy breaches, surveillance, manipulation, or overuse. One way for internet users to cope with these risks, is the…
Algorithmic Self-Tracking for Health: User Perspectives on Risk Awareness and Coping Strategies
Self-tracking with wearable devices and mobile applications is a popular practice that relies on automated data collection and algorithm-driven analytics. Initially designed as a tool for personal use, a variety of public and corporate actors such as commercial organizations and insurance companies now make use of self-tracking data. Associated social risks such as privacy violations or measurement inaccuracies have been theoretically derived, al…
It’s still a thing: Digital inequalities and their evolution in the information society
Internet diffusion has prompted research into differences in internet access, use and consequences. Exploiting the full potential of the ongoing digital transformation in all spheres of life-a proclaimed goal of governments and international organizations-requires ensuring equal opportunities and supporting disadvantaged individuals in their internet use. Using representative, population-level survey data from Switzerland spanning nearly a decade…
The relevance internet users assign to algorithmic-selection applications in everyday life
The rapidly growing academic and public attention to algorithmic-selection applications such as search engines and social media is indicative of their alleged great social relevance and impact on daily life in digital societies. To substantiate these claims, this paper investigates the hitherto little explored subjective relevance that Internet users assign to algorithmic-selection applications in everyday life. A representative online survey of …
Who Remains Offline and Why? The Evolution of Individual Factors Influencing Internet Non-Use From 2011 to 2019 in a Highly Digitised Society
Switzerland is one of the countries with the highest internet penetration rates worldwide. Nevertheless, 600,000 people or 8% of the population remain offline. Being digitally excluded is problematic as internet use yields many advantages in everyday life. Obtaining real-time traffic information, applying for jobs, buying things or being an informed citizen increasingly requires internet use. Offline alternatives are often inferior, more expensiv…
The Relevance People Assign to Algorithmic-Selection Applications in Everyday Life
The fast-growing academic and public attention to algorithmic-selection applications such as search engines and social media is indicative of their alleged great social relevance and impact on daily life in digital societies. To substantiate these claims, this paper investigates the hitherto little explored subjective relevance that Internet users assign to algorithmic-selection applications in everyday life. A representative online survey of Int…
Digital Overuse and Subjective Well-Being in a Digitized Society
In modern everyday life, individuals experience an abundance of digital information and communication options, and pressure to use them effectively and constantly. While there are many benefits attainable through the use of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs), digital overuse needs to be explored as it may impair individual well-being. A nationally representative survey explored the extent of perceived digital overuse (PDO) …
Caring is not enough: The importance of Internet skills for online privacy protection
This article explains Internet users’ self-help activities in protecting their privacy online using structural equation modeling. Based on a representative survey of Swiss Internet users, it reveals past experiences with privacy breaches as a strong predictor of current protective behavior. Further, in line with the ‘privacy paradox’ argument, caring about privacy (privacy attitudes) alone does not necessarily result in substantial self-protectio…
Governance by algorithms: Reality construction by algorithmic selection on the Internet
This article explores the governance by algorithms in information societies. Theoretically, it builds on (co-)evolutionary innovation studies in order to adequately grasp the interplay of technological and societal change and combines these with institutional approaches to incorporate governance by technology or rather software as institutions. Methodologically, it draws from an empirical survey of Internet-based services that rely on automated a…
Handbook on the Economics of the Internet
Modeling the second-level digital divide: A five-country study of social differences in Internet use
Based on representative surveys on Internet use, this article advances comparative research on the second-level digital divide by modeling Internet usage disparities for five countries with narrowing access gaps. Four core Internet usage types are constructed and predicted by sociodemographic variables in a structural model. Overall, the findings confirm the recently identified shift in the digital divide from access to usage in five further coun…
Mediamatik -- Die Konvergenz Von Telekommunikation, Computer und Rundfunk
Modeling the second-level digital divide: A five-country study of social differences in Internet use
Based on representative surveys on Internet use, this article advances comparative research on the second-level digital divide by modeling Internet usage disparities for five countries with narrowing access gaps. Four core Internet usage types are constructed and predicted by sociodemographic variables in a structural model. Overall, the findings confirm the recently identified shift in the digital divide from access to usage in five further coun…
Governance by algorithms: Reality construction by algorithmic selection on the Internet
This article explores the governance by algorithms in information societies. Theoretically, it builds on (co-)evolutionary innovation studies in order to adequately grasp the interplay of technological and societal change and combines these with institutional approaches to incorporate governance by technology or rather software as institutions. Methodologically, it draws from an empirical survey of Internet-based services that rely on automated a…
The Chilling Effects of Digital Dataveillance: A Theoretical Model and an Empirical Research Agenda
People's sense of being subject to digital dataveillance can cause them to restrict their digital communication behavior. Such a chilling effect is essentially a form of self-censorship in everyday digital media use with the attendant risks of undermining individual autonomy and well-being. This article combines the existing theoretical and limited empirical work on surveillance and chilling effects across fields with an analysis of novel data to…
Digital Overuse and Subjective Well-Being in a Digitized Society
In modern everyday life, individuals experience an abundance of digital information and communication options, and pressure to use them effectively and constantly. While there are many benefits attainable through the use of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs), digital overuse needs to be explored as it may impair individual well-being. A nationally representative survey explored the extent of perceived digital overuse (PDO) …
Information and communication technology innovations: Radical and disruptive
Information and communication technology innovations (ICT) are considered to be of central importance to social and economic developments. Various innovation theories offer classifications to predict and assess their impact. This article reviews the usefulness of selected approaches and their application in the convergent communications sector. It focuses on the notion of disruption, the comparatively new distinction between disruptive and sustai…
The Digital Trinity-Controllable Human Evolution-Implicit Everyday Religion: Characteristics of the Socio-Technical Transformation of Digitalization
How can the ubiquitous digitalization in the early twenty-first century be grasped and characterized? A media-change perspective that focuses on innovation-driven, complex co-evolutionary processes distinguishes two phases of digitalization and points to the following characteristics of its second phase: digitalization is an intertwined bundle of socio-technological transformation processes that reveals itself as a trinity of datafication, algori…
It’s still a thing: Digital inequalities and their evolution in the information society
Internet diffusion has prompted research into differences in internet access, use and consequences. Exploiting the full potential of the ongoing digital transformation in all spheres of life-a proclaimed goal of governments and international organizations-requires ensuring equal opportunities and supporting disadvantaged individuals in their internet use. Using representative, population-level survey data from Switzerland spanning nearly a decade…
Switzerland on the Internet: An overview of diffusion, usage, concerns and democratic implications
Leibniz's Conception of Metaphysical Evil
Analyse de la doctrine leibnizienne du bien et du mal et de sa classification des maux developpees dans les section 20 et 21 de la « Theodicee »
Mediamatik — Die Konvergenz von Telekommunikation, Computer und Rundfunk
Einfuhrung - Entwicklungsschritte im elektronischen Kommunikationssektor - Mediamatik: Ausgangsbedingungen und politisch-okonomische Strategien - Der Mediamatik-Baukasten: Technik- und Dienste-Entwicklung - Mediamatik-Analyse: Herausforderungen und Ansatzpunkte - Mediamatik-Politik: Grundzuge und Optionen - Resumee.
Mediamatik: Die Konvergenz von Telekommunikation, Computer und Rundfunk
Selbst- und Ko-Regulierung im Mediamatiksektor. Alternative Regulierungsformen zwischen Staat und Markt
Selbst- und Ko-Regulierung im Mediamatiksektor: Alternative Regulierungsformen Zwischen Staat und Markt
Europäische Öffentlichkeit und medialer Wandel
Die Entwicklung einer europäischen Öffentlichkeit ist eine zentrale Herausforderung im europäischen Integrations- und Erweiterungsprozess, denn Form und Ausmaß europäischer Öffentlichkeit sind mitbestimmend für die demokratische Qualität der Europäischen Union und für den sozialen Zusammenhalt in Europa. Wie eine europäische Öffentlichkeit idealtypisch aussehen soll, wie sie entsteht, auf welcher Stufe des Weges sich Europa derzeit befindet und w…
Europäische Öffentlichkeit und medialer Wandel: Eine transdisziplinäre Perspektive
Europäische Öffentlichkeit und Medialer Wandel: Eine Transdisziplinäre Perspektive
Information and communication technology innovations: Radical and disruptive
Information and communication technology innovations (ICT) are considered to be of central importance to social and economic developments. Various innovation theories offer classifications to predict and assess their impact. This article reviews the usefulness of selected approaches and their application in the convergent communications sector. It focuses on the notion of disruption, the comparatively new distinction between disruptive and sustai…
The allocation of the digital dividend in Austria
The digital dividend is the amount of spectrum that is freed up by the switchover from analogue TV to digital terrestrial TV in the ultra high frequency band. Drawing from a research project (Braulke et al. 2010) commissioned by the Austrian regulator Rundfunk und Telekommunikations Regulierungs GmbH, this article prioritizes, analyses and evaluates the options of use of the 790–862 MHz frequency band – the so-called ‘upper digital dividend’ in A…
Public service broadcasting put to test: Ex post control of online services
Online services of public service broadcasters (PSBs) in Europe are disputed because they directly compete with online activities of the private media. In recent regulatory responses, European countries have taken a path of proactive control comprising specific regulations as well as formal and systematic procedures. Regulatory challenges do not end with the enactment of such rules, however. After rule-making, questions of how to ensure and contr…
Mediamatik -- Die Konvergenz Von Telekommunikation, Computer und Rundfunk
Media convergence
ëConvergenceí is an ambiguous term used by various disciplines to describe and analyse processes of change toward uniformity or union. Its application in the communications sector, often referred to as ëmedia convergenceí, also encompasses valuable approaches and insights to describe, characterize and understand the digital creative economy. A certain amount of fuzziness combined with the broad, multipurpose character of convergence leads to both…
Switzerland on the Internet: An overview of diffusion, usage, concerns and democratic implications
Modeling the second-level digital divide: A five-country study of social differences in Internet use
Based on representative surveys on Internet use, this article advances comparative research on the second-level digital divide by modeling Internet usage disparities for five countries with narrowing access gaps. Four core Internet usage types are constructed and predicted by sociodemographic variables in a structural model. Overall, the findings confirm the recently identified shift in the digital divide from access to usage in five further coun…
Handbook on the Economics of the Internet
Caring is not enough: The importance of Internet skills for online privacy protection
This article explains Internet users’ self-help activities in protecting their privacy online using structural equation modeling. Based on a representative survey of Swiss Internet users, it reveals past experiences with privacy breaches as a strong predictor of current protective behavior. Further, in line with the ‘privacy paradox’ argument, caring about privacy (privacy attitudes) alone does not necessarily result in substantial self-protectio…
Governance by algorithms: Reality construction by algorithmic selection on the Internet
This article explores the governance by algorithms in information societies. Theoretically, it builds on (co-)evolutionary innovation studies in order to adequately grasp the interplay of technological and societal change and combines these with institutional approaches to incorporate governance by technology or rather software as institutions. Methodologically, it draws from an empirical survey of Internet-based services that rely on automated a…
Digital Overuse and Subjective Well-Being in a Digitized Society
In modern everyday life, individuals experience an abundance of digital information and communication options, and pressure to use them effectively and constantly. While there are many benefits attainable through the use of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs), digital overuse needs to be explored as it may impair individual well-being. A nationally representative survey explored the extent of perceived digital overuse (PDO) …
Who Remains Offline and Why? The Evolution of Individual Factors Influencing Internet Non-Use From 2011 to 2019 in a Highly Digitised Society
Switzerland is one of the countries with the highest internet penetration rates worldwide. Nevertheless, 600,000 people or 8% of the population remain offline. Being digitally excluded is problematic as internet use yields many advantages in everyday life. Obtaining real-time traffic information, applying for jobs, buying things or being an informed citizen increasingly requires internet use. Offline alternatives are often inferior, more expensiv…
The Relevance People Assign to Algorithmic-Selection Applications in Everyday Life
The fast-growing academic and public attention to algorithmic-selection applications such as search engines and social media is indicative of their alleged great social relevance and impact on daily life in digital societies. To substantiate these claims, this paper investigates the hitherto little explored subjective relevance that Internet users assign to algorithmic-selection applications in everyday life. A representative online survey of Int…
Promoting Self-Help—how Internet Users Protect Themselves Against Algorithmic Risks
In today’s digitized society, internet users increasingly rely on online services that apply algorithmic selection, like for instance Google Search or the Facebook News Feed. The algorithms that are implemented in these services automatically select information sets and assign relevance to them. This entails societal risks such as privacy breaches, surveillance, manipulation, or overuse. One way for internet users to cope with these risks, is the…
Algorithmic Self-Tracking for Health: User Perspectives on Risk Awareness and Coping Strategies
Self-tracking with wearable devices and mobile applications is a popular practice that relies on automated data collection and algorithm-driven analytics. Initially designed as a tool for personal use, a variety of public and corporate actors such as commercial organizations and insurance companies now make use of self-tracking data. Associated social risks such as privacy violations or measurement inaccuracies have been theoretically derived, al…
It’s still a thing: Digital inequalities and their evolution in the information society
Internet diffusion has prompted research into differences in internet access, use and consequences. Exploiting the full potential of the ongoing digital transformation in all spheres of life-a proclaimed goal of governments and international organizations-requires ensuring equal opportunities and supporting disadvantaged individuals in their internet use. Using representative, population-level survey data from Switzerland spanning nearly a decade…
The relevance internet users assign to algorithmic-selection applications in everyday life
The rapidly growing academic and public attention to algorithmic-selection applications such as search engines and social media is indicative of their alleged great social relevance and impact on daily life in digital societies. To substantiate these claims, this paper investigates the hitherto little explored subjective relevance that Internet users assign to algorithmic-selection applications in everyday life. A representative online survey of …
Computer Science (20 works) · The Internet (17 works) · World Wide Web (15 works) · Political science (14 works) · Internet privacy (12 works) · Business (11 works) · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection (11 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Social Media and Politics (9 works) · Economics (7 works)