Vol. 3 : No. 3 : 2021

October 2021

About the issue

This issue of JDSR again illustrates the width of possibilities in digital social research, both in terms of topics, theories and methods. First up is Blåsjö et al, with an ethnographic study of digital text sharing in business organizations. The study places this literacy practice in workplaces in the foreground, proposes methods for studying this phenomenon, and highlights issues concerning digital text sharing that should be addressed by organizations. Lundgren et al continue the issue with a study on the cultural dimensions of healthcare apps and the changing notions of what "healthcare" and being a "patient" entail. By analyzing three popular Swedish apps and their marketing material through discursive interface analysis of the apps' affordances, the authors show how the apps contribute to producing a marketable narrative about app health care. This narrative includes accessibility, security/safety and personalisation, and is partly produced as an alternative to what is offered by Swedish public health care, addressing users who are young, busy, urban consumers of care.

In the next contribution, Özkula takes on the phenomenon of digital activism. By illustrating the haziness of the concept and the implications of its openness, her study provides a glimpse into the concept's evolution and an illustration of the myriad of conceptual and epistemological fallacies it entails. Borwell et al then take us into the world of cybercrime and the effect on its victims. Their article points to the importance of understanding whether the impact of cybercrime differs from that of traditional crime. Through a literature review the authors point to important future research directions that can serve to address a current knowledge gap in this field. Moving from online victimization to online learning, the next contribution by Stamm et al reflects upon the combination of crowd science and online teaching, or 'Crowd Science infused Learning'. Using an empirical case where an online platform was developed that provided students with training in using different forms of digital data and the assigning of small-scale research tasks, the article provides a critical discussion of the combination of crowd science and online teaching. The authors points to how, despite significant challenges, Crowd Science infused Learning can be a promising approach. Finally, Couldry ends our issue with a review of two recent books, and a further discussion of a third. He thereby addresses questions of the direction of democracy and the impacts of media circulation and data extraction on democratic culture.