Rasmus Helles
Biographic Data
| ID | 296704 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rasmus Helles |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rasmus |
| FAMILY NAME | Helles |
| SIGNATURE | HELLES R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Copenhagen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1746-4755 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Algorithmic agenda-setting
As news media strive to enhance their data science capabilities to compete with digital platforms, news recommender systems (NRSs) provide viable solutions for enhancing relevance, engagement, and cost efficiency. However, emulating the filtering practices of digital platforms raises concerns about democratic implications, including audience fragmentation and diminished editorial control. This study contributes to the existing literature on algor…
Datafying citizens
Scandinavians are among the most datafied citizens in the world. With its digitalised welfare states, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish e-governance infrastructures collect massive amounts of data about citizens as they search for jobs, apply for building permits, and check school calendars. In this article, we analyse the use of third-party trackers ( n = 2,761) on Scandinavian municipal websites ( n = 745) between 2007–2023. Mobilising the theoret…
Comparing Communication Systems
The social uses of the Internet
This Special Section takes stock of a shift toward an integrated and global digital media environment with a set of articles comparing and contrasting the social uses of the Internet in China, Europe, and the United States. Departing from James Lull’s typology of the social uses of television, the articles address both general media use patterns and the specific private and public uses to which the Internet is put in these different social and cu…
Converging cultures of communication
Global Internet use is circumscribed by local political and economic institutions and inscribed in distinctive cultural practices. This article presents a comparative study of Internet use in China, the United States, and five European countries. The empirical findings suggest a convergence of cultures, specifically regarding interpersonal communication, alongside characteristic national and sociodemographic configurations of different prototypes…
Digital methods for media and communication research
This chapter discusses some of the digital methods most commonly used in media and communication research, with a particular emphasis on their application to digitally born media, for instance, social media, websites, and digital interpersonal communication. The potential of digital methods rests on the creation and capture of data that have come to permeate every aspect of private and public, political and commercial life in the developed world.…
Personal media in everyday life
From the late 1980s, a number of new media technologies began to emerge. During most of the twentieth century, the number of media for interpersonal communication in the Western world remained relatively constant. In theoretical terms, the technological mediation of interpersonal communication allows human agents to exercise trans-situational agency. Trans-situational agency involves new degrees of freedom in the management of everyday communicat…
A Division of Labor
In recent years, large-scale analysis of log data from digital devices - often termed ""big data analysis"" (Lazer, Kennedy, King, & Vespignani, 2014) - have taken hold in the field of internet research. Through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and commercial measurement, scholars have been able to analyze social media users (Freelon 2014) and web audiences (Taneja, 2016) on an uprecedented scale. And by developing digital research tools…
Infrastructures of tracking
Today, websites operate in a modular fashion, outsourcing the surveillance and datafication of users to outside companies, along with security functions, video hosting, and so on. These third-party services (TPSs) function as key enablers of the web, with respect to functionality and the monetization of user activity. Departing from critical data studies and media systems analysis, the article contributes to understanding TPS infrastructures by p…
Big data and explanation
In the article, we argue that the advent of data mining techniques and big data in media and communication studies present problems that involve fundamental methodological questions, requiring us to revisit existing ways in which the link between theory, operationalization and data are explained and justified. We note that the discourse of instrumental optimization that surrounds big data clouds epistemic debates about their appropriate integrati…
Meshes of Surveillance, Prediction, and Infrastructure
Digital platforms like Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube rely on mass data collection, algorithmic forms of prediction, and the development of closed digital systems. Seemingly technical and trivial, such operational and infrastructural features have both commercial and cultural consequences in need of attention. As with any other kinds of infrastructure, the surveillance practices and digital ecosystems that are now installed and solidified will hav…
Datafied knowledge production
Framing datafication as new form of knowledge production has become a trope in both academic and commercial contexts. This special theme examines and ultimately rejects the familiar grand claims of datafication, to instead pay attention to emergent conversations that seek to take a more nuanced stock of the status and nature of datafied knowledge production. The articles in this special theme thus engage with datafied knowledge production through…
Transnational European Television Drama
Speaking into the system
Social media have been associated with the coming of many-to-many forms of communication, but they also depend on many-to-one communication: bit trails or metadata that the users of digital media leave behind and which serve to structure future communications. Departing from a communicative rather than a technical understanding of metadata, this article discusses the place of many-to-one communication in the modus operandi of social media. Speaki…
Travelling or not? A content analysis mapping Danish television drama from 2005 to 2014
The article presents a quantitative content analysis of the first episode of the 32 Danish drama series produced between 2005 and 2014. Some of these, such as Borgen (2010-2013) and Forbrydelsen (The Killing) (2007-2012), have experienced unprecedented, international success. The article shows that there are systematic differences in terms of formal characteristics, themes and characters' communicative style between the series that travel and tho…
Flow, Broadcasting
The concept of flow is commonly used to describe the unique character of television as compared to other media. Flow highlights that television does not primarily consist of a progression of individual programs, but of a flow of content, in which the temporal order of programs is broken up by commercials, trailers for upcoming shows, etc. Debates about flow have concerned the ontological claim that flow is an essential consequence of the technolo…
Communication Types
Communication has given rise to a whole range of typologies that seek to capture central aspects of the practice of communication and of the media that carry communication. This entry notes two varieties within communication theory—exhaustive and nonexhaustive typologies. While the aim of nonexhaustive typologies is to highlight a particular empirical area of study—for example, interpersonal or mass communication—exhaustive typologies typically d…
The marketplace of attention
The big head and the long tail
This paper discusses how the advent of big data challenges established theories in Internet studies to redevelop existing explanatory strategies in order to incorporate the possibilities offered by this new empirical resource. The article suggests that established analytical procedures and theoretical frameworks used in Internet studies can be fruitfully employed to explain high–level structural phenomena that are only observable through the use …
Introduction to the special issue 'Making data - Big data and beyond
[None]
Mobile communication and intermediality
The article argues the importance of intermediality as a concept for research in mobile communication and media. The constant availability of several, partially overlapping channels for communication (texting, calls, email, Facebook, etc.) requires that we adopt an integrated view of the various communicative affordances of mobile devices in order to understand how people choose between them for different purposes. It is argued that mobile commun…
Technology, power and the political economy of new media
Recent developments in digital communication technologies have challenged commonly held notions of media systems and the power and production relations that they involve.The networked, global nature of new media has challenged previously well-known orders of business.For example, the introduction of new platforms (smartphones, tablets) not only makes content available to consumers in new ways, but also undermines existing constellations of power …
The internet as a cultural forum
Twenty-five years ago, Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch proposed a model for studying television as a cultural forum, as the most common reference point for public issues and concerns, particularly in American society. Over the last decade, the internet has emerged as a new communicative infrastructure and cultural forum on a global scale. Revisiting and reworking Newcomb and Hirsch’s classic contribution, this article: first, advances a model of t…
Hverdagslivets nye medier
Artiklen diskuterer spørgsmålet om, hvilke konsekvenser det har for hverdagslivet, at de fleste danskere inden for de seneste 10-15 år har fået både mobiltelefon, SMS og e-mail, og er begyndt at bruge dem flittigt. Artiklen bestemmer de personlige medier teoretisk med udgangspunkt i de typer af kommunikation, de understøtter og introducerer livsførelsesbegrebet som hverdagssociologisk ramme for analysen af, hvordan de personlige mediers potential…
The internet as a cultural forum
Twenty-five years ago, Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch proposed a model for studying television as a cultural forum, as the most common reference point for public issues and concerns, particularly in American society. Over the last decade, the internet has emerged as a new communicative infrastructure and cultural forum on a global scale. Revisiting and reworking Newcomb and Hirsch’s classic contribution, this article: first, advances a model of t…
Meshes of Surveillance, Prediction, and Infrastructure
Digital platforms like Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube rely on mass data collection, algorithmic forms of prediction, and the development of closed digital systems. Seemingly technical and trivial, such operational and infrastructural features have both commercial and cultural consequences in need of attention. As with any other kinds of infrastructure, the surveillance practices and digital ecosystems that are now installed and solidified will hav…
Speaking into the system
Social media have been associated with the coming of many-to-many forms of communication, but they also depend on many-to-one communication: bit trails or metadata that the users of digital media leave behind and which serve to structure future communications. Departing from a communicative rather than a technical understanding of metadata, this article discusses the place of many-to-one communication in the modus operandi of social media. Speaki…
Mobile communication and intermediality
The article argues the importance of intermediality as a concept for research in mobile communication and media. The constant availability of several, partially overlapping channels for communication (texting, calls, email, Facebook, etc.) requires that we adopt an integrated view of the various communicative affordances of mobile devices in order to understand how people choose between them for different purposes. It is argued that mobile commun…
Datafied knowledge production
Framing datafication as new form of knowledge production has become a trope in both academic and commercial contexts. This special theme examines and ultimately rejects the familiar grand claims of datafication, to instead pay attention to emergent conversations that seek to take a more nuanced stock of the status and nature of datafied knowledge production. The articles in this special theme thus engage with datafied knowledge production through…
Infrastructures of tracking
Today, websites operate in a modular fashion, outsourcing the surveillance and datafication of users to outside companies, along with security functions, video hosting, and so on. These third-party services (TPSs) function as key enablers of the web, with respect to functionality and the monetization of user activity. Departing from critical data studies and media systems analysis, the article contributes to understanding TPS infrastructures by p…
Hverdagslivets nye medier
Artiklen diskuterer spørgsmålet om, hvilke konsekvenser det har for hverdagslivet, at de fleste danskere inden for de seneste 10-15 år har fået både mobiltelefon, SMS og e-mail, og er begyndt at bruge dem flittigt. Artiklen bestemmer de personlige medier teoretisk med udgangspunkt i de typer af kommunikation, de understøtter og introducerer livsførelsesbegrebet som hverdagssociologisk ramme for analysen af, hvordan de personlige mediers potential…
The internet as a cultural forum
Twenty-five years ago, Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch proposed a model for studying television as a cultural forum, as the most common reference point for public issues and concerns, particularly in American society. Over the last decade, the internet has emerged as a new communicative infrastructure and cultural forum on a global scale. Revisiting and reworking Newcomb and Hirsch’s classic contribution, this article: first, advances a model of t…
The big head and the long tail
This paper discusses how the advent of big data challenges established theories in Internet studies to redevelop existing explanatory strategies in order to incorporate the possibilities offered by this new empirical resource. The article suggests that established analytical procedures and theoretical frameworks used in Internet studies can be fruitfully employed to explain high–level structural phenomena that are only observable through the use …
Introduction to the special issue 'Making data - Big data and beyond
[None]
Mobile communication and intermediality
The article argues the importance of intermediality as a concept for research in mobile communication and media. The constant availability of several, partially overlapping channels for communication (texting, calls, email, Facebook, etc.) requires that we adopt an integrated view of the various communicative affordances of mobile devices in order to understand how people choose between them for different purposes. It is argued that mobile commun…
Technology, power and the political economy of new media
Recent developments in digital communication technologies have challenged commonly held notions of media systems and the power and production relations that they involve.The networked, global nature of new media has challenged previously well-known orders of business.For example, the introduction of new platforms (smartphones, tablets) not only makes content available to consumers in new ways, but also undermines existing constellations of power …
Flow, Broadcasting
The concept of flow is commonly used to describe the unique character of television as compared to other media. Flow highlights that television does not primarily consist of a progression of individual programs, but of a flow of content, in which the temporal order of programs is broken up by commercials, trailers for upcoming shows, etc. Debates about flow have concerned the ontological claim that flow is an essential consequence of the technolo…
Communication Types
Communication has given rise to a whole range of typologies that seek to capture central aspects of the practice of communication and of the media that carry communication. This entry notes two varieties within communication theory—exhaustive and nonexhaustive typologies. While the aim of nonexhaustive typologies is to highlight a particular empirical area of study—for example, interpersonal or mass communication—exhaustive typologies typically d…
The marketplace of attention
Transnational European Television Drama
Speaking into the system
Social media have been associated with the coming of many-to-many forms of communication, but they also depend on many-to-one communication: bit trails or metadata that the users of digital media leave behind and which serve to structure future communications. Departing from a communicative rather than a technical understanding of metadata, this article discusses the place of many-to-one communication in the modus operandi of social media. Speaki…
Travelling or not? A content analysis mapping Danish television drama from 2005 to 2014
The article presents a quantitative content analysis of the first episode of the 32 Danish drama series produced between 2005 and 2014. Some of these, such as Borgen (2010-2013) and Forbrydelsen (The Killing) (2007-2012), have experienced unprecedented, international success. The article shows that there are systematic differences in terms of formal characteristics, themes and characters' communicative style between the series that travel and tho…
Meshes of Surveillance, Prediction, and Infrastructure
Digital platforms like Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube rely on mass data collection, algorithmic forms of prediction, and the development of closed digital systems. Seemingly technical and trivial, such operational and infrastructural features have both commercial and cultural consequences in need of attention. As with any other kinds of infrastructure, the surveillance practices and digital ecosystems that are now installed and solidified will hav…
Datafied knowledge production
Framing datafication as new form of knowledge production has become a trope in both academic and commercial contexts. This special theme examines and ultimately rejects the familiar grand claims of datafication, to instead pay attention to emergent conversations that seek to take a more nuanced stock of the status and nature of datafied knowledge production. The articles in this special theme thus engage with datafied knowledge production through…
Digital methods for media and communication research
This chapter discusses some of the digital methods most commonly used in media and communication research, with a particular emphasis on their application to digitally born media, for instance, social media, websites, and digital interpersonal communication. The potential of digital methods rests on the creation and capture of data that have come to permeate every aspect of private and public, political and commercial life in the developed world.…
Personal media in everyday life
From the late 1980s, a number of new media technologies began to emerge. During most of the twentieth century, the number of media for interpersonal communication in the Western world remained relatively constant. In theoretical terms, the technological mediation of interpersonal communication allows human agents to exercise trans-situational agency. Trans-situational agency involves new degrees of freedom in the management of everyday communicat…
A Division of Labor
In recent years, large-scale analysis of log data from digital devices - often termed ""big data analysis"" (Lazer, Kennedy, King, & Vespignani, 2014) - have taken hold in the field of internet research. Through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and commercial measurement, scholars have been able to analyze social media users (Freelon 2014) and web audiences (Taneja, 2016) on an uprecedented scale. And by developing digital research tools…
Infrastructures of tracking
Today, websites operate in a modular fashion, outsourcing the surveillance and datafication of users to outside companies, along with security functions, video hosting, and so on. These third-party services (TPSs) function as key enablers of the web, with respect to functionality and the monetization of user activity. Departing from critical data studies and media systems analysis, the article contributes to understanding TPS infrastructures by p…
Big data and explanation
In the article, we argue that the advent of data mining techniques and big data in media and communication studies present problems that involve fundamental methodological questions, requiring us to revisit existing ways in which the link between theory, operationalization and data are explained and justified. We note that the discourse of instrumental optimization that surrounds big data clouds epistemic debates about their appropriate integrati…
The social uses of the Internet
This Special Section takes stock of a shift toward an integrated and global digital media environment with a set of articles comparing and contrasting the social uses of the Internet in China, Europe, and the United States. Departing from James Lull’s typology of the social uses of television, the articles address both general media use patterns and the specific private and public uses to which the Internet is put in these different social and cu…
Converging cultures of communication
Global Internet use is circumscribed by local political and economic institutions and inscribed in distinctive cultural practices. This article presents a comparative study of Internet use in China, the United States, and five European countries. The empirical findings suggest a convergence of cultures, specifically regarding interpersonal communication, alongside characteristic national and sociodemographic configurations of different prototypes…
Comparing Communication Systems
Algorithmic agenda-setting
As news media strive to enhance their data science capabilities to compete with digital platforms, news recommender systems (NRSs) provide viable solutions for enhancing relevance, engagement, and cost efficiency. However, emulating the filtering practices of digital platforms raises concerns about democratic implications, including audience fragmentation and diminished editorial control. This study contributes to the existing literature on algor…
Datafying citizens
Scandinavians are among the most datafied citizens in the world. With its digitalised welfare states, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish e-governance infrastructures collect massive amounts of data about citizens as they search for jobs, apply for building permits, and check school calendars. In this article, we analyse the use of third-party trackers ( n = 2,761) on Scandinavian municipal websites ( n = 745) between 2007–2023. Mobilising the theoret…
Computer Science (19 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Social Media and Politics (13 works) · Political science (10 works) · World Wide Web (10 works) · Business (8 works) · Data science (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Media Studies and Communication (7 works) · Data mining (6 works)