Development and Evaluation of a Website for Ephemeral Data Donation in the Form of Instagram Stories

While persistent content on social media platforms has been widely studied, research on ephemeral content, such a s stories, is still limited. This is mainly because th is content is only available for a short time and then disappears. For exam ple : In a study from 2019 , researchers archived the stories of selected news providers every day at the same time over a one month period [1]

With the introduction of the GPDR, users in the EU got the ability to download their collected content as a ZIP-file from social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram.[2] This also provides researchers with a new way to gain user data. This process relies on voluntary data donations from users. The goal of this study is to develop a website for data donation with the help of interviews and prototyping. The website should ensure secure use of the donated data while being easy and quick to use. By using this methodology, the study aims to overcome the obstacles of ephemeral content like Instagram stories and make it easier to use for researchers.

• Literature research
• Interviews with stakeholders
• Implementing a prototype
• User studies
• Analyzing the collected data

Keine

[1] Vázquez-Herrero, J., Direito-Rebollal, S., & López-García, X. (2019). Ephemeral Journalism: News Distribution Through Instagram Stories. Social Media + Society, 5. [2] Complete guide to GDPR compliance. Available online at https://gdpr.eu/ [3] Pfiffner, N., & Friemel, Thomas. N. (2023). Leveraging Data Donations for Communication Research: Exploring Drivers Behind the Willingness to Donate. Communication Methods and Measures, 17(3), 227–249. [4] Lin, J. S. E. (2022). Exploring uses and gratifications and psychological outcomes of engagement with Instagram Stories. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 6, 100198. [5] Ohme, J., Araujo, T., Boeschoten, L., Freelon, D., Ram, N., Reeves, B., & Robinson, T. (2023). Digital Trace Data Collection for Social Media Effects Research: APIs, Data Donation, and (Screen) Tracking. Communication Methods and Measures, 18, 124 - 141.