Rebecca Scharlach
Biographic Data
| ID | 4266506 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rebecca Scharlach |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rebecca |
| FAMILY NAME | Scharlach |
| SIGNATURE | SCHARLACH R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3033-5795 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
How to do things with a keyword
While people regularly employ the term values in mundane interactions and political debates on social media, little is known about its function in public communication. Approaching values as a keyword in everyday communication, we asked: In what contexts do Twitter users invoke the term values? What discursive functions does the term serve? How do these contexts and functions differ across languages? To address these questions, we analyzed approx…
The expression of values on social media
Social media is a central arena for the articulation of values, shaping what people around the world deem important and desirable. However, traditional value typologies struggle to capture the dynamic nature of value expression in digital spheres and overlook new communication-related values prevalent in these environments. Addressing these gaps, we developed an analytical framework for investigating value expression on social media, comprising t…
The Collective Individualism of Youtube Makeup Reviews
Beauty is one of the most popular and lucrative segments on YouTube, with broad transnational appeal, making it an ideal site to investigate the relationship between commercialization, globalization, and digital platforms. We focus on makeup reviews to utilize established research on cross-cultural differences in reviewing and ask how cultural repertoires of evaluation compare across multiple languages. We collected popular makeup reviews using k…
Broadcasting the good mom
With the rise of social media, mothers around the world publicly share their experiences with raising children, shaping broader notions of what motherhood is and should be. While scholars have documented this phenomenon’s importance, we know little about the values this online discourse expresses or how it varies across cultures. Addressing this gap, we compared the values invoked by moms in morning routine videos on YouTube. Using a novel codebo…
Priorities and exclusions within Trust and Safety industry standards
Platform governance is simultaneously a matter of public concern and a professional calling for Trust and Safety, the nascent field tasked with setting and enforcing standards of acceptable behavior on digital platforms. Yet we know little about how the growing professionalization of platform governance shapes content moderation practices. Using the schema of content abuse from the Trust & Safety Professional Association, we analyzed the Communit…
Global creator culture? Converging values and generic practices in YouTube reviews
Social media facilitates new forms of cultural production from professionalized and commercialized users known as creators. While some have posited the emergence of a global creator culture, others have identified substantial gender differences and local variation. To assess how these factors influence content production, we focused on the critical case of YouTube review videos, a successful genre that is both internationally popular and heavily …
Liking without borders? Authenticity and the evaluation of Instagram photo genres
While authenticity has been identified as pivotal on social media, it has not been studied as part of a broader value ecology shaping content evaluation. Addressing this gap, we investigated users’ evaluations of prominent Instagram genres in relation to perceptions of authenticity. A survey of 1,000 users from the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Korea revealed transnational similarities in value-related interpretations of genres,…
How to Spark Joy
Despite social media companies' public commitments to do good, they regularly face international criticism. This article explores how platforms engage in corporate public relations campaigns to negotiate social and political responsibilities. Through a qualitative analysis of the values promoted in the social initiative TikTok for Good, I show how TikTok promotes messages that amplify positivity, minimize negativity, and focus on individual well-…
“I love this photo, I can feel their hearts!” How users across the world evaluate social media portraiture
Portraits on social media are value-laden constructs. Whether documenting graduation or flexing in the gym, users express what they care about and present it for others to evaluate. Since “global” portrait genres are produced and consumed in different locales, their interpretation and evaluation may vary. We thus ask: What values do people identify in different types of social media portraits? Which evaluative criteria do they use when judging th…
“I Love This Photo! I Can Feel Their Hearts”. How Users Across the World Evaluate Social Media Portraiture
Personal portraits on social media are value-laden constructs. Whether documenting graduation or flexing in the gym, users express what they care about and present it for others to evaluate. Since “global” portrait genres are produced and consumed in different locales, their interpretation and evaluation may vary. We thus ask: What values do people identify in different types of social media portraits? Which evaluative criteria do they use when j…
Platform Pr – The Public Moderation of Platform Values Through Tiktok for Good
TikTok wants to “inspire creativity” and “spark joy,” Meta aims to “bring the world closer together,” and YouTube aspires to “give everyone a voice and show them to the world.” Platforms claim that they want to do $2 . However, they regularly get international attention for being $2 instead. Social media data scandals are a prominent point of research. Yet initiatives to counterbalance these backlashes, such as YouTube’s Black Voices Fund or TikT…
How to Do Things With “Values”
The term _values_ is prominent in political discourse. Yet its ubiquity is matched by its vagueness, especially when considering usage among different cultures. Twitter provides a promising venue for exploring the contested political discourse surrounding this term. In this paper, we study the use of the term values on Twitter across different language communities. We ask: _what meanings do users ascribe to the term “values”?_ and _what are the s…
The Value Affordances of Social Media Engagement Features
Like, Comment, and Share are ubiquitous features and central elements of engagement on social media platforms. Yet the values promoted by such features remain an open question. We propose the concept of value affordances, defined as the set of ethical, aesthetic, and relational principles that emerge from the interaction between different stakeholders and technological infrastructures. We develop a novel method for studying value affordances thro…
The value(s) of social media rituals
2000), we compare discursive topics, modes of ritual participation, and the values expressed in resolutions. Our findings indicate both that the ritual crosses cultures and that there are language-specific dynamics that do not map neatly onto established divisions between 'Eastern' and 'Western' value orientations. Instead, we identify three underlying tensions organizing the articulation of values: self-acceptance vs. self-improvement, public vs…
Governing principles
As sites where social media corporations profess their commitment to principles like community and free speech, policy documents function as boundary objects that navigate diverse audiences, purposes, and interests. This article compares the discourse of values in the Privacy Policies, Terms of Service, and Community Guidelines of five major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok). Through a mixed-methods analysis, we identi…
The value affordances of social media engagement features
Social media engagement is ubiquitous but contested, simultaneously framed as an everyday form of support and an urgent societal risk. To make sense of these competing claims, we introduce the concept of value affordances, defined as the set of ethical, aesthetic, and relational principles that emerge from the interaction between different stakeholders and technological infrastructures. We develop a novel method involving focus groups and value c…
What Does #Freedom Look Like? Instagram and the Visual Imagination of Values
Instagram is the place for the visualization of everything, from travel and food to abstract concepts such as freedom. Over the past decade, the platform has introduced a bottom-up process where users co-produce image repertoires that shape the boundaries of the imaginable. Drawing on an epistemology of social constructionism, we ask which visual repertoires are associated with value-related terms on Instagram. We studied 20 widely used value has…
The Cheshire Cat of Social Media
Value is fundamental for social media platforms, not only in the economic sense but also in the sense of normative principles like community and free speech. Policy documents are pivotal sites for the expression of values and present a public-facing account of the roles and responsibilities assigned to various actors, including individual users, third parties, governments and social media corporations. While prior research has examined the constr…
Mapping the transnational imaginary of social media genres
This article presents a transnational study of the classification and evaluation of social media content. We conducted a large-scale survey ( N = 4770) in five countries (Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United States) with open-ended questions about the types of content people like and dislike. Through iterative and inductive coding, we identified 29 topics, or broad areas of interest, and 213 recurrent genres, or narrower categories …
Beyond Neutrality
Social media platforms are prominent sites where values are expressed, contested, and diffused. In this article, we present a conceptual framework for studying the communication of values on and through social media composed of two dimensions: scale (from individual users to global infrastructures) and explicitness (from the most explicit to the invisible). Utilizing the model, we compare the communication of two values—engagement and authenticit…
What Does #Freedom Look Like? Instagram and the Visual Imagination of Values
Instagram is the place for the visualization of everything, from travel and food to abstract concepts such as compassion or freedom. While visualizing the abstract is not new, the platform has introduced a bottom-up process where users co-produce image repertoires that shape the boundaries of the imaginable. In this paper, we address an unexplored question about this process: which visual repertoires are associated with value-related terms on Ins…
Beyond Neutrality
Social media platforms are prominent sites where values are expressed, contested, and diffused. In this article, we present a conceptual framework for studying the communication of values on and through social media composed of two dimensions: scale (from individual users to global infrastructures) and explicitness (from the most explicit to the invisible). Utilizing the model, we compare the communication of two values—engagement and authenticit…
The value affordances of social media engagement features
Social media engagement is ubiquitous but contested, simultaneously framed as an everyday form of support and an urgent societal risk. To make sense of these competing claims, we introduce the concept of value affordances, defined as the set of ethical, aesthetic, and relational principles that emerge from the interaction between different stakeholders and technological infrastructures. We develop a novel method involving focus groups and value c…
Governing principles
As sites where social media corporations profess their commitment to principles like community and free speech, policy documents function as boundary objects that navigate diverse audiences, purposes, and interests. This article compares the discourse of values in the Privacy Policies, Terms of Service, and Community Guidelines of five major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok). Through a mixed-methods analysis, we identi…
The expression of values on social media
Social media is a central arena for the articulation of values, shaping what people around the world deem important and desirable. However, traditional value typologies struggle to capture the dynamic nature of value expression in digital spheres and overlook new communication-related values prevalent in these environments. Addressing these gaps, we developed an analytical framework for investigating value expression on social media, comprising t…
Mapping the transnational imaginary of social media genres
This article presents a transnational study of the classification and evaluation of social media content. We conducted a large-scale survey ( N = 4770) in five countries (Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United States) with open-ended questions about the types of content people like and dislike. Through iterative and inductive coding, we identified 29 topics, or broad areas of interest, and 213 recurrent genres, or narrower categories …
Liking without borders? Authenticity and the evaluation of Instagram photo genres
While authenticity has been identified as pivotal on social media, it has not been studied as part of a broader value ecology shaping content evaluation. Addressing this gap, we investigated users’ evaluations of prominent Instagram genres in relation to perceptions of authenticity. A survey of 1,000 users from the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Korea revealed transnational similarities in value-related interpretations of genres,…
What Does #Freedom Look Like? Instagram and the Visual Imagination of Values
Instagram is the place for the visualization of everything, from travel and food to abstract concepts such as compassion or freedom. While visualizing the abstract is not new, the platform has introduced a bottom-up process where users co-produce image repertoires that shape the boundaries of the imaginable. In this paper, we address an unexplored question about this process: which visual repertoires are associated with value-related terms on Ins…
What Does #Freedom Look Like? Instagram and the Visual Imagination of Values
Instagram is the place for the visualization of everything, from travel and food to abstract concepts such as freedom. Over the past decade, the platform has introduced a bottom-up process where users co-produce image repertoires that shape the boundaries of the imaginable. Drawing on an epistemology of social constructionism, we ask which visual repertoires are associated with value-related terms on Instagram. We studied 20 widely used value has…
The Cheshire Cat of Social Media
Value is fundamental for social media platforms, not only in the economic sense but also in the sense of normative principles like community and free speech. Policy documents are pivotal sites for the expression of values and present a public-facing account of the roles and responsibilities assigned to various actors, including individual users, third parties, governments and social media corporations. While prior research has examined the constr…
Mapping the transnational imaginary of social media genres
This article presents a transnational study of the classification and evaluation of social media content. We conducted a large-scale survey ( N = 4770) in five countries (Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United States) with open-ended questions about the types of content people like and dislike. Through iterative and inductive coding, we identified 29 topics, or broad areas of interest, and 213 recurrent genres, or narrower categories …
Beyond Neutrality
Social media platforms are prominent sites where values are expressed, contested, and diffused. In this article, we present a conceptual framework for studying the communication of values on and through social media composed of two dimensions: scale (from individual users to global infrastructures) and explicitness (from the most explicit to the invisible). Utilizing the model, we compare the communication of two values—engagement and authenticit…
“I love this photo, I can feel their hearts!” How users across the world evaluate social media portraiture
Portraits on social media are value-laden constructs. Whether documenting graduation or flexing in the gym, users express what they care about and present it for others to evaluate. Since “global” portrait genres are produced and consumed in different locales, their interpretation and evaluation may vary. We thus ask: What values do people identify in different types of social media portraits? Which evaluative criteria do they use when judging th…
“I Love This Photo! I Can Feel Their Hearts”. How Users Across the World Evaluate Social Media Portraiture
Personal portraits on social media are value-laden constructs. Whether documenting graduation or flexing in the gym, users express what they care about and present it for others to evaluate. Since “global” portrait genres are produced and consumed in different locales, their interpretation and evaluation may vary. We thus ask: What values do people identify in different types of social media portraits? Which evaluative criteria do they use when j…
Platform Pr – The Public Moderation of Platform Values Through Tiktok for Good
TikTok wants to “inspire creativity” and “spark joy,” Meta aims to “bring the world closer together,” and YouTube aspires to “give everyone a voice and show them to the world.” Platforms claim that they want to do $2 . However, they regularly get international attention for being $2 instead. Social media data scandals are a prominent point of research. Yet initiatives to counterbalance these backlashes, such as YouTube’s Black Voices Fund or TikT…
How to Do Things With “Values”
The term _values_ is prominent in political discourse. Yet its ubiquity is matched by its vagueness, especially when considering usage among different cultures. Twitter provides a promising venue for exploring the contested political discourse surrounding this term. In this paper, we study the use of the term values on Twitter across different language communities. We ask: _what meanings do users ascribe to the term “values”?_ and _what are the s…
The Value Affordances of Social Media Engagement Features
Like, Comment, and Share are ubiquitous features and central elements of engagement on social media platforms. Yet the values promoted by such features remain an open question. We propose the concept of value affordances, defined as the set of ethical, aesthetic, and relational principles that emerge from the interaction between different stakeholders and technological infrastructures. We develop a novel method for studying value affordances thro…
The value(s) of social media rituals
2000), we compare discursive topics, modes of ritual participation, and the values expressed in resolutions. Our findings indicate both that the ritual crosses cultures and that there are language-specific dynamics that do not map neatly onto established divisions between 'Eastern' and 'Western' value orientations. Instead, we identify three underlying tensions organizing the articulation of values: self-acceptance vs. self-improvement, public vs…
Governing principles
As sites where social media corporations profess their commitment to principles like community and free speech, policy documents function as boundary objects that navigate diverse audiences, purposes, and interests. This article compares the discourse of values in the Privacy Policies, Terms of Service, and Community Guidelines of five major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok). Through a mixed-methods analysis, we identi…
The value affordances of social media engagement features
Social media engagement is ubiquitous but contested, simultaneously framed as an everyday form of support and an urgent societal risk. To make sense of these competing claims, we introduce the concept of value affordances, defined as the set of ethical, aesthetic, and relational principles that emerge from the interaction between different stakeholders and technological infrastructures. We develop a novel method involving focus groups and value c…
How to Spark Joy
Despite social media companies' public commitments to do good, they regularly face international criticism. This article explores how platforms engage in corporate public relations campaigns to negotiate social and political responsibilities. Through a qualitative analysis of the values promoted in the social initiative TikTok for Good, I show how TikTok promotes messages that amplify positivity, minimize negativity, and focus on individual well-…
The Collective Individualism of Youtube Makeup Reviews
Beauty is one of the most popular and lucrative segments on YouTube, with broad transnational appeal, making it an ideal site to investigate the relationship between commercialization, globalization, and digital platforms. We focus on makeup reviews to utilize established research on cross-cultural differences in reviewing and ask how cultural repertoires of evaluation compare across multiple languages. We collected popular makeup reviews using k…
Broadcasting the good mom
With the rise of social media, mothers around the world publicly share their experiences with raising children, shaping broader notions of what motherhood is and should be. While scholars have documented this phenomenon’s importance, we know little about the values this online discourse expresses or how it varies across cultures. Addressing this gap, we compared the values invoked by moms in morning routine videos on YouTube. Using a novel codebo…
Priorities and exclusions within Trust and Safety industry standards
Platform governance is simultaneously a matter of public concern and a professional calling for Trust and Safety, the nascent field tasked with setting and enforcing standards of acceptable behavior on digital platforms. Yet we know little about how the growing professionalization of platform governance shapes content moderation practices. Using the schema of content abuse from the Trust & Safety Professional Association, we analyzed the Communit…
Global creator culture? Converging values and generic practices in YouTube reviews
Social media facilitates new forms of cultural production from professionalized and commercialized users known as creators. While some have posited the emergence of a global creator culture, others have identified substantial gender differences and local variation. To assess how these factors influence content production, we focused on the critical case of YouTube review videos, a successful genre that is both internationally popular and heavily …
Liking without borders? Authenticity and the evaluation of Instagram photo genres
While authenticity has been identified as pivotal on social media, it has not been studied as part of a broader value ecology shaping content evaluation. Addressing this gap, we investigated users’ evaluations of prominent Instagram genres in relation to perceptions of authenticity. A survey of 1,000 users from the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Korea revealed transnational similarities in value-related interpretations of genres,…
How to do things with a keyword
While people regularly employ the term values in mundane interactions and political debates on social media, little is known about its function in public communication. Approaching values as a keyword in everyday communication, we asked: In what contexts do Twitter users invoke the term values? What discursive functions does the term serve? How do these contexts and functions differ across languages? To address these questions, we analyzed approx…
The expression of values on social media
Social media is a central arena for the articulation of values, shaping what people around the world deem important and desirable. However, traditional value typologies struggle to capture the dynamic nature of value expression in digital spheres and overlook new communication-related values prevalent in these environments. Addressing these gaps, we developed an analytical framework for investigating value expression on social media, comprising t…
Sociology (17 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Social media (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Social Media and Politics (11 works) · Psychology (10 works) · World Wide Web (8 works) · Social and Cultural Dynamics (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works)