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104 Nw. U. L. Rev. 593 (2010)
User Information Regimes: How Social Media Shape Patterns of Consumption

handle is hein.journals/illlr104 and id is 597 raw text is: Copyright 2010 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A. Northwestern University Law Review Vol. 104, No. 2 USER INFORMATION REGIMES: HOW SOCIAL MEDIA SHAPE PATTERNS OF CONSUMPTION James G. Webster IN TRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 593 I. THE DIGITAL M EDIA M ARKETPLACE .................................................................... 594 II. M ODEL OF THE M EDIA M ARKETPLACE ................................................................. 595 A. Media Users ........................................... 596 B. Media Providers .................................................. 598 C. Information Regimes....... ........................ ..................................... 599 III. SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE EMERGENCE OF USER INFORMATION REGIMES ............... 601 A. Methods .............................................. 602 B. Biases .................................... ............ 605 IV. How SOCIAL MEDIA SHAPE PATTERNS OF CONSUMPTION .................................... 608 A. The Dynamics of Fragmentation ...... . .. ............................. 608 B. The Dimensions ofPolarization.............................................. 610 C ONCLUSION ................................................................................. 612 INTRODUCTION Patterns of consumption evolve with changes in the digital media mar- ketplace. Recently, a rather broad new category of websites and networks, loosely referred to as social media, has emerged to challenge our notions of what media are, how they operate, and how they impact society. Despite receiving a good deal of attention in the popular press, social media are not well integrated into social scientific theory. Particularly notable is social scientists' failure to consider the user information regimes that social media produce. Search and recommendation systems have become indispensable tools for consumers navigating the marketplace. These systems have the power to focus public attention on certain things while condemning others to obscurity. This Essay analyzes user information regimes and the role they play in shaping media consumption. First, it describes the essential characteristics of the digital media marketplace. Second, it presents a theoretical model of Professor of Communications Studies, Northwestern University; Ph.D, Indiana University. This Essay is the result of an ongoing program of research and writing that has benefited from input by many of my colleagues at Northwestern, as well as anonymous reviewers. 593

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