Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · Jun 26

YouTube's API search function is "not adequate for robust academic research, especially concerning Digital Services Act requirements".

Clear and problematic conclusions by @riederb.bsky.social Adrian Padilla & Oscar Coromina

#commsky #DSA #dataacess #youtube

arxiv.org/abs/2506.11727

Forgetful by Design? A Critical Audit of YouTube's Search API for Academic Research

This paper critically audits the search endpoint of YouTube's Data API (v3), a common tool for academic research. Through systematic weekly searches over six months using eleven queries, we identify m...

arxiv.org

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Barbara Prainsack @bprainsack.bsky.social · Jun 21

🚨 Call for Papers: Tech Oligarchy Forum 🚨
Science as Culture invites contributions on how digital elites shape science, tech, and society—from AI monopolies to platform power

🗓️ Deadline: 31 July

Details: think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...
#TechOligarchy #ScienceAsCulture #STS

Science as Culture Forum on “Tech Oligarchy”

think.taylorandfrancis.com

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Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Jun 17

two papers have just come out that evaluate the consistency and temporal coverage of the search endpoint of YouTube's API from a research perspective; both found pretty big problems; arxiv.org/abs/2506.11727 and arxiv.org/abs/2506.04422

Forgetful by Design? A Critical Audit of YouTube's Search API for Academic Research

This paper critically audits the search endpoint of YouTube's Data API (v3), a common tool for academic research. Through systematic weekly searches over six months using eleven queries, we identify m...

arxiv.org

2

Fernando van der Vlist @fvandervlist.bsky.social · May 21

We’re hiring: Lecturer in Cultural Data & AI and Archival & Information Studies (Media Studies, @uvahumanities.bsky.social)! Join @tpoell.bsky.social, @riederb.bsky.social, myself, & other wonderful colleagues in the Critical Data & AI team. Applications due 28 May. werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Vacancy — Lecturer in Cultural Data & AI and Archival & Information Studies

Would you like to teach on cutting-edge theories, methods, and questions in Cultural Data & AI and Archival & Information? Then we have the perfect challenge for you!

werkenbij.uva.nl

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Platforms & Society @platformsnsociety.bsky.social · Apr 8

Sharing an opportunity to publish in our journal. Check out this call for papers led by @silvertje.bsky.social Rianne Riemens Donya Alinejad @juikei.bsky.social "Greening the Digital Society: Platforms, Sustainability & the Climate Crisis." Deadline: 23.05 journals.sagepub.com/page/pns/cal...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

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Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Feb 26

Lecturer in Social Data Science at the University of Helsinki jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

University Lecturer in Social Data Science

jobs.helsinki.fi

2

Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Feb 20

we are hiring a PhD candidate for the project "Interface of Intelligence: How Generative AI Reshapes Knowledge, Media, and Interpretation"; details here: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Vacancy — PhD on Interface of Intelligence: How Generative AI Reshapes Knowledge, Media, and Interpretation

Are you looking for a challenging position in a dynamic setting? ASCA currently has a vacant PhD position as part of the Starting Grant project Interface of Intelligence: How Generative AI Reshapes Kn...

werkenbij.uva.nl

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Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Feb 5

Postdoctoral Researcher in OSINT & Information Disorder at Amsterdam University werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Vacancy — Postdoctoral Researcher in OSINT & Information Disorder

Do you want to join the European Union-funded project Social Media for Democracy (SoMe4Dem) focusing on the role of social media in democracy? Then this position is for you!

werkenbij.uva.nl

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Niels van Doorn @nielsvdoorn.bsky.social · Feb 5

Some new and really great articles have been published in Platforms & Society recently, one of which is this eye-opening study by Zhen Ye on the complex and compromised role of multichannel networks in China’s livestreaming industry:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Multichannel networks in China's livestreaming industry: Failing industrial lore and limited intermediary roles amidst platformization - Zhen Ye, 2025

In this article, I offer a critical view of the significance of studying multichannel networks as a renewed form of cultural intermediaries, with the conceptual...

journals.sagepub.com

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Karin van Es @kfvanes.bsky.social · Feb 5

Hurray my new publication with Dennis Nguyen is out in open access: www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcomm...

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Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Dec 18

so Google's Tensor Processing Units are actually quite the asset after all

2

Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Nov 28

the "Spotify artist network" tool is no longer working, since Spotify has restricted access to the "related artists" API endpoint (without warning, lots of unhappy devs); I am trying to get access again, but I'm not very optimistic

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Mathias Vermeulen @mathver.bsky.social · Nov 27

Two quick observations after skimming the first 5 DSA audit reports (ranging from 114 pages (Bing) to 344 pages (X).

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klaudia jaźwińska @klaudia.bsky.social · Nov 27

I have a new piece out with @aisvarya17.bsky.social in @columjournreview.bsky.social in which we test how OpenAI's new search feature surfaces and attributes news content. Our findings were not promising for news publishers (1/9) www.cjr.org/tow_center/h...

How ChatGPT (Mis)represents Publisher Content

ChatGPT search — which is positioned as a competitor to search engines like Google and Bing — launched with a press release from OpenAI touting claims that the company had “collaborated extensively wi...

www.cjr.org

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Esther Weltevrede @esthrr.bsky.social · Nov 25

New platform, new paper! Talking about ideal first posts :) The platformization of the follower factory with my co-author Johan Lindquist: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

1 12 41

Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · Nov 22

For the lovely 🦋 folks: #postdoc jobs:

We have exciting post doc positions open in the U of Amsterdam's interdisciplinary research priority area "Human(e) AI".

Applicants from eg communication, law, logic, and philosophy welcome!

🗓️: deadline December 13

Share 🫶

vacatures.uva.nl/UvA/job/Two-...

Two Postdoctoral Research Positions in Human(e) AI

vacatures.uva.nl

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Mirko Tobias Schäfer 🇪🇺 @mtschaefer.bsky.social · Nov 20

Open access & just published:

Collaborative Research in the Datafied Society. Methods and Practices for Investigation and Intervention (Amsterdam University Press 2024) www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

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Digital Methods Initiative @digitalmethods.net · Nov 15

🔔 New version out for Zeeschuimer, our tool for capturing social media data from the browser! This brings it up to speed with Instagram's latest updates, fixing the capture of posts from Location and Tag pages.

💾 Get it here: github.com/digitalmetho...
⬆️ Already installed it? It will auto-update!

GitHub - digitalmethodsinitiative/zeeschuimer: A browser extension to collect social media data with.

A browser extension to collect social media data with. - digitalmethodsinitiative/zeeschuimer

github.com

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Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · May 27

On September 3 we are a hosting a workshop on Internet Research with Foundation Models? in Amsterdam. The call for participation is is open until June 7: cat4smr.humanities.uva.nl/index.php/bl...

News – CAT4SMR

cat4smr.humanities.uva.nl

Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Apr 22

so Sarah Burkhardt and I just published a paper on the political economy of large pre-trained AI models (aka "foundation models"); we are specifically focusing on the role of prompting, how it changes the way AI applications are built, and what that means; journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

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Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Apr 19

Call for Participation: Internet Research with Foundation Models? cat4smr.humanities.uva.nl/index.php/20...

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Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Nov 29

testing the YTDT's new co-commenting module (here: 421 videos for search query [Ukraine]), I am surprised by how strong user "communities" around channels (color) are, with videos connected by up to 100+ users; the network is overall super dense, lots of hyperactive commenters...

Bernhard Rieder @riederb.bsky.social · Nov 7

Following recent changes in the YouTube Data Tools, I made a new overview video as well as detailed videos for each module, which include explanations, parameters, and directions for analysis with GSheets and Gephi; here's the playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

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