Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

This study deals with the phenomenon of online data collection by political and economic actors by analyzing the conditions in which humans share personal data. It is questioned how the self is transformed with regards to the relationship between the person herself and her personal data, assuming that personal data can also be seen as an articulation of self. The results show how data and the meaning ascribed to them can vary over time und thus create distortions and fragmentations in relation to how the self is presented. While data is often ascribed an acclaimed level of truth, a loss of agency for the subjects can be found as the freedom of expression is jeopardized or at least challenged between the risk of self-censorship and the risk of being rendered irrelevant. The paper opens an interdisciplinary perspective between media and communication studies and educational sciences on questions of agency and self. The research discusses these perspectives using empirical examples and relates them to the theoretical framing of modernizing theories.