The qualities of flourishing digital spaces
A project of
From the team at
Research Overview
Last Updated: Jan 11, 2021
Summary
01_
Public spaces knit societies together.
01 _ Summary
Public spaces – places like parks, libraries, and town squares – are an essential part of functioning pluralistic societies.
In these spaces, we see each other, encounter and learn to appreciate those who are different from us, recognize and address inequalities, and build a sense of community and identity.
Without spaces where the public comes together, societies become unstable and pull apart into tribal conflict.
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Public life is happening in new places.
Public spaces have existed since the first human settlements. Over the last century, though, more of our public life has moved into electronic media (radio, TV, cable, websites), and recently into digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok.
In some ways, these forums act like public spaces, but they weren’t built to prioritize public goals – and in many cases, they’re not up to the task.
Meanwhile, our physical public spaces are often underfunded, and not always welcoming and safe for everyone.
01 _ Summary
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Our question: What are the critical qualities of flourishing digital public spaces?
Understanding harms in digital spaces is important work, and thanks to scholars like Safiya Noble, Ruha Benjamin, Siva Vaidhyanathan and Virginia Eubanks, we are gaining a clearer understanding.
Our project seeks to compliment that work by better understanding what “good” looks like. What are the qualities that successful, flourishing spaces tend to have?
Answering this question can help clarify how well or poorly our existing digital platforms meet critical public needs.
And it can help inform the roadmap for new efforts to build better digital public spaces.
01 _ Summary
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What we found:
The building blocks
01 _ Summary
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To answer our core question, we conducted extensive literature reviews, talked to hundreds of experts from around the world and with a range of ideological viewpoints, including sociologists, political scientists, philosophers, activists, and technologists. Then we conducted focus groups and a 20-country survey to broaden our understanding.
In the end, we found that the key qualities – what we’re calling the signals – of digital public space group in four “building blocks.”
A flourishing digital public space should be welcoming and safe for diverse publics, help us understand and make sense of the world, connect people near and far across divides and hierarchies, and enable us to act together.
We hope this research will...
01 _ Summary
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01 _ Summary
We hope this work can help inspire public imagination.
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Throughout history, societies have reacted to social tensions by imagining new types of institutions – libraries, public schools, parks systems, and even the internet itself.
It seems challenging for even the best private platforms to serve all of the public functions we identify.
Nonetheless, we hope this work will inform efforts at existing platforms and inspire the creation of new public platforms that are built around these functions.
01 _ Summary
Who we are
We are a community of designers, builders, and thinkers. We share research, inspiration, and visions of public friendly digital spaces to create a better online experience. Learn more at newpublic.org.
In addition to our co-directors, our core New_ Public team includes Chief of Staff Neelam Sakaria, Creative Lead Romy Nehme, and Editor-in-Chief Marina Garcia-Vasquez, as well as Project Lead Research Associate Tamar Wilner and Faculty Researcher Gina Masullo at the Center for Media Engagement. �
About our Co-directors:
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Eli�Pariser
Eli Pariser is an author, activist, and entrepreneur focused on how to make technology and media serve democracy. He ran MoveOn.org, co-founded Avaaz, and wrote bestselling book The Filter Bubble. He is currently Co-Director of Civic Signals at the National Conference on Citizenship.
Talia�Stroud
Talia Stroud is a professor and the founding and current director of the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin and Co-Director of Civic Signals. She has received numerous awards for her research, including the Outstanding Book Award from the International Communication Association for her book Niche News.
Advisory Board
01 _ Summary
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Danielle Allen - Professor at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.
Rich Benjamin - Cultural anthropologist, author of Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America.
Munmun De Choudhry - Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech.
Sarah Drinkwater - Director and Lead of the Tech and Society Solutions Lab at Omidyar Network.
Catherine Gicheru - Kenyan journalist, ICFJ Knight Fellow and director, Africa Women Journalism Project.
Tristan Harris - former Google design ethicist and Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology.
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen - Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
Eric Klinenberg - Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University.
Francis L.F. Lee - Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
During this research, we’ve benefited from the advice and council of a remarkable group of scholars and advisors. We’re grateful for everything they’ve added, and also note that any flaws are ours alone.
Mary Madden - Research Lead at the Data & Society Research Institute in New York City.
Pia Mancini - Co-Founder of OpenCollective and Co-Founder of The Democracy Earth Foundation (DemocracyOS).
J. Nathan Matias - Assistant Professor, Cornell University’s Department of Communication. Director, Citizens and Technology Lab.
José van Dijck - Distinguished Professor of Media and Digital Society at Utrecht University (Netherlands).
Nicco Mele - Managing Director, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and faculty member at Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Taberez Ahmed Neyazi - Assistant Professor of New Media & Political Communication and a Principal Investigator at the Centre for Trusted Internet and Community, National University of Singapore.
Kathy Pham - Affiliate at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center, where she leads the Ethical Tech working group
Paul Resnick - Associate Dean and Director of the Center for Social Media Responsibility at the University of Michigan School of Information.
Deb Roy - Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, Director of the Laboratory for Social Machines.
James Rucker - Co-Founder of Color of Change and the Citizen Engagement Laboratory.
Micah L. Sifry - Co-Founder and former president of Civic Hall, NYC’s community center for civic tech, and author of The Connector, a newsletter on democracy, movements, organizing and tech.
Kamal Sinclair - Executive Director of the Guild of Future Architects.
Ramesh Srinivasan - Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Claire Wardle - Co-Founder and US Director of First Draft.
Ethan Zuckerman - Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Director, Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure.
Elsewhere in this slide deck
We’ve tried to pack everything you need to know about the Civic Signals into this deck. Below, you’ll find:
01 _ Summary
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Theory
02_
02_ Theory
Our digital challenges aren’t mainly about information… they’re about relationships.
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We started this project by asking, what might a news feed optimized for a healthy pluralistic democracy look like?
This seemed like an interesting question, but it led us in the wrong direction. Thinking in terms of content-ranking reinforces an underlying metaphor of digital life that focuses on the exchange of information.
We believe the most important digital functions platforms perform are relational, not informational. Information is contextualized by how people know, see, and relate to each other.
02_ Theory
What if we look at digital life through the lens of physical space?
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Instead of thinking about ranking and feeds, we wondered what might happen if, as scholars like Judith Donath have done, we conceptualized digital platforms as spaces.
Thinking this way is helpful because when we think of people interacting in space, we tend to think not just of what they say to each other, but also their non-verbal cues and their behaviors. There’s a richness of interaction that immediately comes to mind.
It’s also helpful because when approached this way, many of the design questions become less novel. Humans have designed spaces for public life for millennia – and there are lessons here that can be helpful for digital life.
Lessons from physical public spaces
Spaces affect how people interact with one another. We act differently in a football stadium than a library. The same is true in digital space, where we act differently on LinkedIn than WhatsApp.
When we examine flourishing and equitable physical public spaces, they often...
02_ Theory
Digital => Physical Example: Twitter
02_ Theory
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To see how this metaphor can be useful, let’s try playing it out, using Twitter as an example.
What would Twitter be like if it was a physical space?
First, let’s consider the dynamics of the online space. Speech and behavior are relatively unstructured, and most interactions are brief. Many different groups are mixed together with little ability to form boundaries. Enforcement of central rules is scarce.
When we imagine a physical space that has these qualities, we might imagine a crowded parking lot on a busy shopping day, with many people talking at once about a lot of different topics. Some people get to use loudspeakers – that’s algorithmic amplification. There are lots of arguments among strangers, and little ability to form small groups and set standards of behavior.
In physical terms, large groups of strangers who are gathered without a shared purpose aren’t very adept at having thoughtful conversations or forming group cohesion. We then might ask, if we wanted to pursue these goals, what physical spaces might we use as inspiration?
02_ Theory
Physical => Digital Example: Memphis Fireplaces
Conversely, let’s say that we want to take inspiration from a physical space to inform the design of virtual space. We could think of a physical space that acts as a bridge between communities that don't often connect or relate to each other.
One example comes from research that the Memphis River Parks Partnership did with Black and white Memphians living near the same riverfront park, in otherwise very segregated lives.
After considering and piloting a number of different possibilities, the parks department found that outdoor fire pits, with benches around them, were well-suited to this purpose. They brought different families into proximity in a calm and convivial way, without having to immediately jump into conversation.
This prompts a useful design question: How might we build digital features that have these bridging qualities? Projects like My Country Talks and SpaceShip Media offer some potential examples. .
There’s no universal solution to public space.
02_ Theory
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Like any metaphor, the spatial metaphor has limits. One apparent challenge is that flourishing physical public spaces are always context-specific, imbued with a sense of local character and community, as well as often local governance. Digital platforms, in contrast, are typically built for scale, simplicity, and replicability.
Upon deeper investigation, we believe this underscores an important point: It’s very hard to build strong social fabric without these context-specific qualities.
And thinking in terms of physical spaces demonstrates the difficulty of the task for our current platforms: When creating public spaces, no single algorithm or design will work for everyone.
There a number of elements – signals – that recur in flourishing public spaces.
We’ve focused our work on identifying what we call the signals – measurable qualities – of flourishing digital space.
Because each space is different and unique, no healthy space prioritizes all of these signals. But many of these elements are at work in spaces where people find value. Conversely, spaces where a number of these elements are absent tend to be less successful and open the door to more harms.
02_ Theory
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Why public space? How do you define that?
02_ Theory
As scholars like Nancy Fraser have argued, official public spaces haven’t always been welcoming to many groups – especially marginalized ones. Private, closed spaces have played a critical role in supporting the development of communities.
For this project, we’ve decided to limit our scope to quasi-public spaces where anyone is ostensibly welcome to enter and engage. (This includes digital spaces that allow people to form subgroups.)
Many of these spaces – the Twitter news feed for example – are not public in the sense of being owned by the public. We include them because they are places where public interaction happens – and we think they’re worthy of more public-friendly design.
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User-friendly
design
Helps users accomplish goals easily, efficiently, and elegantly.
Public-friendly
design
Helps the public (and specific publics) gather and achieve goals easily, efficiently, and elegantly.
02_ Theory
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User-friendly design and public-friendly design are sometimes in tension.
02_ Theory
Conclusion�Maximizing every individual’s well-being is not the same as maximizing group well-being.
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“Let’s optimize for individual well-being”
What behaviors measurably increase well-being?
Having digital conversations with people �you know well
What do �some people talk about �with friends �and family?
Polarizing, racially �charged �content
More tribalism �and polarization
02_ Theory
An absence of harms doesn’t indicate the presence of goodness.
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Spaces that are filled with harassment, hate, or disinformation are not desirable.
We focus on positive indicators because we believe that while reducing harms is necessary, it’s not sufficient.
Just as exercise is as important to heart health as cholesterol medication, increasing the positive qualities of a space can help mitigate the negative ones.
02_ Theory
We also took issue with some of the common language around this topic.
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Research Approach
03_
To identify the most critical, broadly supported categories for flourishing digital space, we:
Throughout this research, we’ve made efforts to include diverse perspectives from different contexts, although there is always more work to be done in this regard.
02_ Theory
Research approach
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03_ Research Approach
Criteria for Inclusion
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Public-friendly�design
Principles for
strong societies
Things platforms
can affect
Research Partners
01 _ Summary
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Daniel Aldrich - Professor of Political Science, Public Policy, and Urban Affairs and Director of the Security and Resilience Studies Program, Northeastern University
Christopher Ali - Assistant Professor in Media Studies at the University of Virginia, Tow Center Fellow at Columbia University.
Roy F. Baumeister - Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland and Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar at Florida State University.
Michael C. M. Chan - Associate Professor, School of Journalism & Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Caitlin Chase - Independent Content Strategy Consultant.
Alex Curry - Faculty Research Associate, Center for Media Engagement, University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Earl - Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona and Director Emerita of the Center for Information Technology and Society at UC Santa Barbara.
Casey Fiesler - Assistant Professor of Information Science, University of Colorado-Boulder.
Delaney Harness - Graduate Research Assistant, Center for Media Engagement, University of Texas at Austin.
We are grateful for the work from researchers at the Center for Media Engagement and NCOC and for the commentary and feedback we received from experts on these topics. We’re grateful for their insights and partnership.
Nick Haslam - Professor and Head of the School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne.
Jay Jennings - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for Media Engagement, University of Texas at Austin.
Taeyoung Lee - Graduate Research Assistant, Center for Media Engagement, University of Texas at Austin.
Arthur Lupia - Hal R. Varian Collegiate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan.
Gina Masullo - Associate Director of the Center for Media Engagement and Associate Professor in the School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin.
Caroline Murray - Senior Research Associate, Center for Media Engagement, University of Texas at Austin.
Brendan Nyhan - Professor, Department of Government, Dartmouth College.
Joe Phua - Associate Professor of Advertising, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia.
Martin Riedl - Graduate Research Assistant, Center for Media Engagement, University of Texas at Austin.
Karen Renaud- Professor of Cybersecurity at Abertay University, Dundee
Patrícia Rossini - Derby Fellow in the Department of Communication and Media, University of Liverpool, England.
Neelam Sakaria - Chief of Staff for New Public at the National Conference on Citizenship.
Dhavan V. Shah - Maier-Bascom Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jennifer Stromer-Galley - Professor in the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University.
Ori Tenenboim - Faculty Research Associate, Center for Media Engagement, University of Texas at Austin.
Michael Ungar - Founder and Director of the Resilience Research Center, Dalhousie University.
Sebastián Valenzuela - Associate Professor, School of Communications, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Jan A.G.M. van Dijk - Professor of Communication Science, Department of Communication, University of Twente.
Emily Van Duyn - Faculty Research Associate, Center for Media Engagement, University of Texas at Austin.
Tamar Wilner - Project Lead Research Associate, Center for Media Engagement, University of Texas at Austin.
Before we jump in...
This framework is intended to be discussed, updated, and revised. We’d love to hear your thoughts and suggested improvements – please email us at signals@newpublic.org.
03_ Research Approach
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Findings
04_
The building blocks
04_ Findings
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We grouped our 14 design principles (signals) into four key building blocks: Welcome, Connect, Understand, and Act.
These four building blocks and the 14 signals they represent don’t work on their own. A truly thriving, mutually beneficial digital public space will build on many, if not all, of them.
The Civic Signals framework is intended to highlight these important qualities so that we can bring more of them to our digital spaces.
So what does a public-friendly digital space look like when the four building blocks work in harmony?
A flourishing digital public space should be welcoming and safe for diverse publics, help us understand and make sense of the world, connect people near and far across hierarchies and divides, and enable us to act together.
How can platforms be designed to keep people safe and be inclusive, especially for marginalized populations?
04_ Findings
Welcome
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04_ Findings
Connect
How can platforms foster communities and bridge social divides?
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04_ Findings
Understand
How can platforms help us better communicate about our world and the ways we can improve it?
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04_ Findings
Act
Online spaces mirror our real lives, and shape them as well. How can platforms help us organize and take action to affect our everyday lives?
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04_ Findings
Superuser evaluations
To learn what platform users thought about the signals, we conducted survey research in 20 countries.
We asked superusers, those who use particular social, search, and messaging platforms most frequently, whether they thought:
We focused on 15 popular platforms in the countries where we did our research.
It is important to keep in mind that one platform’s superusers are different from another platform’s superusers.
Public opinion is only one of many possible ways to assess platform performance.
YouGov fielded the survey 11/27-12/27/19
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Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Malaysia
Mexico
Norway
Poland
Romania
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
Countries Represented:
04_ Findings
Hierarchy of Building Blocks
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Across the platforms, Welcome emerges as an important building block, followed by Understand and Connect, and then Act:
Signals ranked as relatively less important may be seen as such because none of the platforms we assessed currently focus on them, or because other signals must first be established.
We propose a hierarchy of building blocks (a loose riff on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs), where Welcome signals need to be established before others are possible.
Welcome: the foundation for rewarding digital experiences
Understand and Connect: important building blocks
Act: comes after other signals
04_ Findings
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Signals rated as most important by Facebook superusers — Keep people’s information secure and Show reliable information — also receive the lowest performance ratings.
Cultivate belonging appears among the most important signals and earns the platform’s highest performance rating.
10,565 superusers
04_ Findings
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
For two of its most important signals — Cultivate belonging and Invite everyone to participate — Instagram superusers also award their highest performance ratings.
For Keep people’s information secure, however, the platform is rated a 1.0 by its superusers.
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2,858 superusers
04_ Findings
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Make power accessible was the fourth most important signal (30%), whereas the signal was ranked much lower by superusers of other platforms. LinkedIn superusers gave the platform an above average rating (1.1) on this signal.
The platform also received a 1.1 rating for both Show reliable information and Strengthen local ties, two of its most important signals according to superusers.
359 superusers
04_ Findings
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
The lowest importance score of any platform’s superusers was given by Pinterest superusers for Boost community resilience — only 9% thought that it was important for the platform.
The platform also received above average ratings on Show reliable information (1.2) and Keep people’s information secure (1.1).
383 superusers
04_ Findings
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Reddit superusers gave the highest rating of any platform and signal with a 1.5 for Cultivate belonging.
The platform earned above average ratings on Invite everyone to participate (1.3) and the highest of any platform based on its superusers for Promote thoughtful conversation (1.2).
This was the only platform where “Promote thoughtful conversation” was seen as the most important signal by its superusers.
219 superusers
04_ Findings
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Twitter superusers gave it the lowest rating of any platform or signal with a 0.8 for Show reliable information.
The platform earned average ratings for Keep people’s information secure (1.0) and above average ratings for Build civic competence (1.2).
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1,214 superusers
04_ Findings
YouTube
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
YouTube receives some of its highest scores on two of the three signals superusers thought were most important. On the third, Show reliable information, the platform’s superusers give it an average rating.
This was the only platform where “Invite everyone to participate” was seen as the most important signal by its superusers.
4,748 superusers
04_ Findings
Facebook Messenger
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Two of the three most important signals for Facebook Messenger superusers — Keep people’s information secure and Ensure people’s safety — are among the platforms’ lowest rated signals.
The third most important, Cultivate belonging, receives the highest performance rating among superusers.
5,331 superusers
04_ Findings
KakaoTalk
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Two of the three most important signals for KakaoTalk superusers — Build bridges between groups and Cultivate belonging — are among the platform’s highest rated signals.
The other most important, Keep people’s information secure, receives the lowest performance rating among superusers.
995 superusers
04_ Findings
Snapchat
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Snapchat superusers rate Cultivate belonging as one of the most important signals, and give the platform its highest performance rating on the signal.
The other two most important signals — Keep people’s information secure and Ensure people’s safety — receive average ratings (1.0) from Snapchat superusers.
921 superusers
04_ Findings
Telegram
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
The two most important signals to Telegram superusers — Ensure people’s safety and Keep people’s information secure — also receive the platform’s highest performance ratings.
The third most important signal to superusers receives an above average rating (1.1).
423 superusers
04_ Findings
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Cultivate belonging is the second most important signal to WhatsApp superusers and the platform receives its highest performance rating on the signal.
The platform also earns above average ratings (1.1) for the other two most important signals, Keep people’s information secure and Ensure people’s safety.
10,791 superusers
04_ Findings
Bing
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Two of the most important signals to Bing superusers — Show reliable information and Build civic competence — also appear on the list of highest performance ratings.
The third most important signal, Keep people’s information secure, receives the platform’s fourth highest performance rating (1.1).
332 superusers
04_ Findings
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Two signals appear among Google superusers’ most important signals and highest performance ratings, Show reliable information and Build civic competence.
The other important signal, Keep people’s information secure -- receives the fourth lowest performance rating from superusers (1.0).
11,726 superusers
04_ Findings
Yahoo
Most Important Signals (% saying important):
Highest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Lowest Performance Ratings (0 to 2):
Two signals appear among Yahoo superusers’ most important signals and highest performance ratings, Show reliable information and Build civic competence.
The other important signal, Keep people’s information secure -- receives an above average performance rating from superusers (1.1).
776 superusers
03_ Findings
Who you are can change how you see the platforms
There were political, demographic, and geographic differences in what superusers thought about the signals and platforms.
Although the differences tended to be small, they are nonetheless important in understanding superusers’ thoughts.
For the five platforms for which we had the most data (Facebook, YouTube, Google, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp), we did 70 different analyses (5 platforms x 14 signals) and looked for patterns across them.
Political leanings
03_ Findings
Signal Importance
Platform Performance
Age
03_ Findings
Signal Importance
Platform Performance
Gender
03_ Findings
Signal Importance
Platform Performance
Education
03_ Findings
Signal Importance
Platform Performance
Country
03_ Findings
Signal Importance
In some cases, a signal was rated as important across countries.
In other cases, there was variation.
Platform Performance
In some cases, there was agreement about a platform’s performance across countries.
In other cases, there was variation.
03_ Findings
What generalizes? What doesn’t? Do all spaces need all of these signals?
Throughout the research, there were signs that the signals we proposed resonated.
Yet there are differences by platform, where some platforms perform better with respect to some signals.
There also are political, demographic, and geographic differences in what people think.
The findings underscore that no one platform does it all. Different platforms excel at different signals for different groups.
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04_ Findings
Importance rankings
A guide before you get to the table on the next slide:
The table shows how superusers rated the platforms on each signal. The platforms we analyzed are in each column. The rows represent which signal was ranked as first most important, second most important, etc. For instance, S4 appears at the top of the Facebook column, indicating that Facebook superusers rated S4, "Keep people's information secure" as the most important signal.
We show rankings as opposed to raw numbers to facilitate easy comparisons. This means that the signal ranked as most important for one platform may be seen as important by a substantially smaller percentage of superusers than the signal ranked as most important for another platform. As with all rankings, the difference between the first and second ranked signals could be small or large.
The data represent differences in raw percentages, as opposed to statistically significant differences.
The colors of the signals correspond with the four building blocks: Welcome, Connect, Understand, and Act.
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04_ Findings
Platform Performance Ratings
Theoretically, the platform performance ratings could range from 0, if every superuser said that the platform was performing poorly, to 2, if every superuser said that the platform was performing well.
In actuality, the range is from 0.8 (a rating given by Twitter superusers for the platform’s performance on “Show reliable information”) to 1.5 (a rating given by Reddit superusers for the platform’s performance on “Cultivate belonging”).
As anticipated, social media and messaging apps performed best on Connect signals and search engines performed best on Understand signals.
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Signals Details
05_
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For those interested in a deeper dive, we provide more information about each of the signals here and links to in-depth analysis on each.
How can platforms be designed to keep people safe and be inclusive, especially for marginalized populations?
05_ Signal Details
Welcome
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What it is: The ability and opportunity for all of us to take part in digital society, regardless of background, especially for people who are typically disadvantaged. Also known as “social inclusion.”
Why it matters: When people with a broader range of viewpoints contribute their perspectives, participants learn about new topics and experiences, online resources can be shared more equitably, and tolerance and trust may increase.
Invite everyone to participate
“It doesn’t mean everybody has to [participate], but everyone has the right to.” — James, U.S. focus group participant
Best performing platforms (according to superusers)�
�
Read the full white paper
What it is: The protection of digital participants from harm or danger ranging from malware, identity theft, and harassment to sexual victimization and exposure to violent material.
Why it matters: When people feel safe, they enjoy their online interactions more and are more willing to participate. Online safety is especially important to consider for vulnerable groups, like children, and people who don’t belong to socially dominant groups.
Ensure people’s safety
“Social networks might bring people together but can also pull them away, can bring evilness too, so we have to wise up.” –Miguel, Brazilian focus group participant
Best performing platforms (according to superusers)�
�
Read the full white paper
What it is: The recognition and affirmation of the humanity of other people.
Why it matters: When we see the humanity in others, we’re more likely to treat them justly; dehumanization contributes to discrimination and violence. Humanization also helps drive reconciliation and peacebuilding after social conflicts.
Encourage the humanization
of others
“When you treat people more humanely… you can put yourself in their shoes.” – Adriano, Brazilian focus group participant
Best performing platforms (according to superusers)
�
Read the full white paper
What it is: The preservation of the integrity and confidentiality of people’s private information.
Why it matters: When people can trust that their information is secure, they feel more comfortable sharing about themselves. When information is not secure, people can be blackmailed, embarrassed, defrauded, or attacked.
Keep people’s information secure
“You reveal so many private things about you. And I personally find it absolutely unclear where these data are used and stored.” –Yusuf, German focus group participant
Best performing platforms (according to superusers)�
�
Read the full white paper
05_ Signal Details
Connect
How can platforms foster communities and bridge social divides?
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What it is: The feeling of connection to others.
Why it matters: People who feel like they belong have higher self-esteem; those who feel less belonging perceive daily life as more stressful, act more aggressively and with less self-control, and are at a greater risk of depression and suicide.
Cultivate belonging
“It’s not their [social media’s] role to make you see who you are. However, they can help you… find people who are like you, people who are similar to what you already are.” –Natalia, Brazilian focus group participant
Best performing platforms (according to superusers)�
�
Read the full white paper
What it is: The formation of social connections that allow information, resources, and opportunities to travel between groups that might not ordinarily connect.
Why it matters: Bridges can help diffuse information (like job opportunities), create social capital by exposing people to members of other groups, and increase social trust.
Build bridges between groups
“This is the intention of social media. Different interest groups can group together and network.” –Karla, German focus group participant
Best performing platforms (according to superusers)�
�
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What it is: The connections that people have with the physical places and communities in which they live.
Why it matters: Local connection leads to better health, improves public safety, increases civic involvement, enhances resilience in the face of disaster, and provides crucial resources for civic decision-making.
Strengthen local ties
“There’s a group in my region and people use it to help each other... I lost my ID card, and someone posted there, ‘Your ID was found at this place.’” –Maria, Brazilian focus group participant
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What it is: The degree to which the public is heard by those in power, whether in government, business, or other institutions.
Why it matters: When powerful people and institutions are accessible to the public, the powerful are more likely to understand the full breadth of public needs and to be responsive, and members of the public are more likely to feel empowered and inclined to voice their concerns.
Make power accessible
“It’s extremely important for people who are above us, the people who rule the country… to be accessible and listen to what we would like to get from the government...” –Socorro, Brazilian focus group participant
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05_ Signal Details
Understand
How can platforms help us better communicate about our world and the ways we can improve it?
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What it is: The extent to which issues that are important can be elevated for consideration by society at large, whether by the news media, legislators, interest groups, or other actors.
Why it matters: When an issue is brought to the attention of people who didn’t previously know about it or consider it important, it increases cross-group understanding and the potential for social or political action.
Elevate shared concerns
“If you need information about something special, you always find a group which is knowledgeable. And then you can ask them.” –Sophie, German focus group participant
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What it is: The amount of information shown that is verified based on the best available evidence, and for which the production process is transparently disclosed.
Why it matters: Mis- and disinformation travel faster than true information. False beliefs, once formed, are difficult to change. Reliable information helps to inform members of the public so they can make good decisions, decide how and when to engage politically, and inoculate themselves against attempts to deceive.
Show reliable information
“I mean don’t go spreading lies. That is a waste of everyone’s time. I want to know what is actually happening when it is happening for myself.” –Charné, 20, South African focus group participant
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What it is: The awareness of how to perform one’s particular roles in a democracy, such as the roles of a citizen or a voter.
Why it matters: For democracies to flourish, people need to understand how to engage in public life. Civic competence encourages effective political participation by helping citizens build reasoned opinions and make policy and candidate choices based on them. It also provides insight into how to be involved.
Build civic competence
“There should be a building of civic competence… empowering people with the right type of information so that they become informed citizens… for them to make informed decisions. That is how I interpret it.” –Phumzile, South African focus group participant
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What it is: The interactions among people with differing views that shed light on why people believe what they do, and involve the consideration of others’ perspectives.
Why it matters: Thoughtful conversation leads to a more informed public, boosts cross-group respect and tolerance, and increases the legitimacy of democratic decisions. Deliberative exchanges are often seen as an indicator of democratic health.
Promote thoughtful conversation
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“People look for reflection [on social media] too, sometimes. They’re going through problems, so they’ll look for something related to that on social media.” –Ivo, Brazilian focus group participant
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05_ Signal Details
Act
Online spaces not only mirror our real lives, but shape them as well. How can platforms help us organize and take action to affect our everyday lives?
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What it is: The ability of a community to recover from significant stress or adversity, such as natural disasters, public health emergencies, or violence.
Why it matters: Many communities will encounter an adverse event; resilience allows communities to care for individual citizens more effectively and return to a normal, healthy state more quickly and fully.
Boost community resilience
“...A friend of mine posted the option to donate to this specific organization that was helping [a community near the Amazon fires].. So I posted that to my story and raised $65. ... When people donate, I think that's awesome.” –Brad, U.S. focus group participant
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What it is: Action to address issues of public concern — from volunteering to attending community meetings to co-creating new spaces and institutions.
Why it matters: Not only does civic action make communities more healthy in their own right, it also may increase interpersonal trust and make governments more efficient, responsible, and responsive to citizens’ needs. Communities where people are more civically active tend to be safer, healthier, and stronger economically.
Support civic action
“Reminding people that they have to vote for something... At least it cannot do any harm if people are reminded. Before a vote is forgotten and not enough people take part.” –Sarah, German focus group participant
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Thank You!
Download the entire Signals research package here
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