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Dominika Betakova

@dbetakova.bsky.social

950 followers 450 following 44 posts

She/her | First-gen 🎓🏳️‍🌈 | Postdoc at the Centre for Journalism @sdu.dk | PhD from @ipk-univie.bsky.social‬ | news use & avoidance ❌📰 constructive journalism 🌱🗞️ climate change 🌎 polcom & journalism studies

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

🚫📰 Can we use nudges to mitigate news avoidance?
Yes and no — it depends on what nudges we use!
Together with @hajoboo.bsky.social & @solecheler.bsky.social I wanted to test whether nudges can reduce news avoidance as limited news consumption—and to do so beyond established Western democracies. 🧵👇

The Role of Choice Architecture in Mitigating News Avoidance

News avoidance has become more common and is associated with negative democratic outcomes. However, only a handful of studies have explored solutions to reduce news avoidance, with nudges offering ...

www.tandfonline.com

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Reposted by Dominika Betakova

Digital Journalism @digitaljournalism.bsky.social · 9d

ONLINE FIRST! This article by Dominika Betakova et al. uses a comparative online experiment to test whether nudges could help with #news avoidance. Available with OPEN ACCESS.
➡️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

Additionally, big thanks goes to everyone who engaged with this paper at conferences, provided feedback, or just cheered me up on the way 🎉

Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

And if you've made it this far, I want to share that I am super happy about this publication. Not only did I get a chance to include my (understudied!) country of origin, but it’s also the second publication from my recently defended dissertation😊

Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

thank you Jakob 🤗

Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

This highlights the role of technological affordances in news use, and their interaction with the automatic cognitive system of information processing that nudges typically leverage. 📄 The paper is published open access 🔑 in @digitaljournalism.bsky.social

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

🔎 TL;DR: Unlike news topics, country differences, or civic duty nudges, choice architecture emerged as the sole significant factor influencing news avoidance behavior.

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

This indicates that the civic duty to keep informed is a rather stable trait, likely formed early through education or socialization, making it hard to influence artificially on digital platforms.

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

This small change in choice architecture could increase incidental news exposure—and thus learning effects—even among news avoiders. However (!) such a nudge needs to be used transparently (more information in the paper).
2️⃣ In contrast, the civic duty nudge did not affect participants’ behavior.

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

👉 In practice, when setting up a personalized newsfeed, news outlets or social media platforms could pre-select categories like international or local news by default, prompting people to opt out of what they are not interested in rather than opt in.

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

1️⃣ Results in both countries are strikingly similar: Asking people to opt-out of news instead of opt-in was effective in reducing news avoidance during the initial phase of newsfeed setup.

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

2️⃣ A civic duty nudge, reminding people of their civic duty to keep informed, as previous research suggests that this duty is one of the strongest predictors of news avoidance.
📊 What did we find? 👇

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

Therefore, we conducted a pre-registered online comparative experiment (2×2) in Austria and Slovakia.

We tested two types of nudges:
1️⃣ A choice architecture nudge (default effects: opting-in and opting-out effects, where a default option is assigned to those not making a decision).

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 13d

The Role of Choice Architecture in Mitigating News Avoidance

www.tandfonline.com

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · 19d

Hi both, the game sounds super cool 😎 I am not surprised Jakob is interested 🃏

Reposted by Dominika Betakova

LSE Methodology @lsemethodology.bsky.social · 27d

We're hiring an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science ❗

📚 jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Apply before 26 October and join an internationally outstanding group of social science methodologists 🌎

we're hiring assistant professor in computational social science, applications close 26/10/2025

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Reposted by Dominika Betakova

Digital Democracy Centre @ddc-sdu.bsky.social · Sep 4

🎓Introducing *DR.* Rasmus Schmøkel 🎓

Today, our incoming Postdoctoral Researcher / former PhD student @rasmusschmokel.bsky.social expertly defended his thesis...

The Impact of Algorithms on News Consumption:
The Power of Social Media as Democratic Infrastructure and its Potential for Public Value

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Reposted by Dominika Betakova

Digital Democracy Centre @ddc-sdu.bsky.social · 29d

🎓 DDC DISSERTATION UPDATE 🎓
Please welcome ✨Dr.✨ Emil Bakkensen Johansen, who today expertly defended his PhD Thesis on...

Complex Dynamics in Digital News Ecosystems: Collaboration and Imitation in the Age of Al

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Reposted by Dominika Betakova

Fabienne Lind @fabiennelind.bsky.social · Sep 3

🎙️ New @ccspod.bsky.social episode!
I unpack how computational methods transform the study of opinionated communication + share insights from my work on studying climate change campaigns on social media with @cidape.bsky.social

Listen here 👉 aboutccs.net/opinion/

Observing Opinions – What is it about CCS

aboutccs.net

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · Sep 2

In case you are an ECR and you are already in Innsbruck 🏔️ for ECREA PolComm section conference, consider attending this preconference organized by the ECR representatives @amplanitzer.bsky.social & Andreea Stancea 🙂

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Reposted by Dominika Betakova

Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · Aug 29

People in Denmark have varied concerns about tech giants:

- Impact on young people's development (83.5% concerned)
- Role in spreading misinformation (81%)
- Ability to influence public opinion (79.5%)
- Economic power (79%)
- Collection of personal data (78%)
- Impact on social cohesion (75%)

Digital Democracy Centre @ddc-sdu.bsky.social · Aug 29

Danes are concerned about Big Tech’s influence on both their everyday lives and society as a whole – but few are willing to change their habits to limit the companies’ impact.
Read the new report from DDC to gain insights into Danes’ attitudes & actions:
portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/publicati...

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Reposted by Dominika Betakova

aytalina @aytalina.bsky.social · Aug 28

Presented the @what-if-horizon.bsky.social project today at #SSC2025 in Delft 🙌 Very grateful for the helpful feedback from the social simulation community! Looking forward to implementing it w/ @anniewald.bsky.social and Taehee Kim ✨

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Reposted by Dominika Betakova

Ahrabhi Kathirgamalingam @ahrabhikat.bsky.social · Aug 26

In beautiful Thessaloniki to talk about salience and patterns of racist language in German news media (yeah… 🥳) at #ecpr25

Catch the last chapter of my PhD work in this exciting panel put together by @stefaniewalter.bsky.social on Thursday, 3.45pm

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Reposted by Dominika Betakova

dr courtney tabor @academiuhhh.bsky.social · Aug 25

New week, new school year, new publication!

In this paper, @antoniskalog.bsky.social, @patyrossini.bsky.social, & I develop a scale to measure how audiences feel alienated by the provision of news and what implications this has for inequalities. 🧵

Open access: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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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Reposted by Dominika Betakova

Digital Democracy Centre @ddc-sdu.bsky.social · Aug 21

We are thrilled to announce that Josephine (“Jo”) Lukito will join the DDC as Professor in Digital Communication and DIAS Chair!
@jolukito.bsky.social is a leading expert in the fields of political communication & computational methods, & will join us starting Feb 1, 2026.
Velkommen til DCC Jo! 🤗🎉

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Dominika Betakova @dbetakova.bsky.social · Aug 22

Congratulations Johannes!! 🎉🎉

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