Islam is a hotly debated topic on YouTube, comprising approximately a half-million videos, tagged with this word. The study presents empirical material regarding three aspects of Islam's representation: (a) how Islam is framed in user-created videos; (b) how it is visualized; and (c) what are the motivations of the YouTubers who create these videos. The theoretical framework of the study is based on two pillars. The concept of valence framing was employed to identify positive/negative patterns of representation. The motivations to videoblog about Islam were examined from the perspective of the Uses and Gratifications Theory. Data comprised a content analysis of 120 videos and 15 in-depth interviews with content producers. Despite a number of extremely attacking videos about Islam, the overall tone of the coverage appeared to be balanced. However, images and ideas that are inappropriate for broadcasting on mainstream media repeatedly appear on this website.

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The study aims to explore effects of navigational augmented reality (AR) apps on the users’ perception of their surroundings, and to analyze in which ways these effects are enabled as well as limited by the performance of AR apps on currently available devices. To answer these questions, an exploratory quasi-experiment has been conducted, consisting of three groups of participants, each group differing in their method for obtaining location information as well as the frequency with which this information is consumed. Semistructured pre- and postexperiment interviews with participants, questionnaires that were filled out by the participants after every app usage, and expert interviews with navigational AR app developers are employed in combination with analyzing the effect of augmented reality on the user’s perception of space. Surprisingly, it was found that AR users actually became less aware of their surroundings than non-AR navigational app users. This is mainly due to the comparatively worse performance of AR apps on currently available smartphones: The overall quality regularly suffers from a cluttered and confusing presentation, leading to considerable amounts of time spent “deciphering” the layout and functionality of the presented results. Erratic result behavior, caused by frequent movement delays and unexpected lag of the virtual objects further decreases the quality of the overall experience. Finally, some initially unexpected issues related to the social acceptability of augmented reality app usage in public places were encountered during the experiment, which are explained by the physically very involved method of interacting with AR apps, namely having to point and hold the device into the direction information is being sought over. Nevertheless, augmented reality was found to have a number of distinct advantages over other navigational apps, namely the ability to improve the users’ understanding of proximity, directions, and spatial relations.

Through this paper, we convey a comparative analysis of how Google Inc. and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) discursively construct and contest Android, a dominant mobile operating system. Methodologically, we use political discourse theory to engage in the textual analysis; identify and compare key signifiers and nodal points across the exemplary texts from the two actors, and interpret their meaning vis à vis contextual insights about the political economy of Android's production. Albeit being marketed as 'the first truly open platform' for mobiles, through our analysis we find Google's definition of open source practices strictly conditional. We argue that Google's usage of compatibility rhetorically as well as techno-legally justifies the conglomerate's control over the platform. By contrast, the discursive moment by free software activists, through a campaign 'Free Your Android' deconstructs the discourse on open source and attempts to politicize the access to code in the mobile domain. This is done by extending from the well-known developer's four freedoms onto users' privacy, due to personal character of mobile devices. Such articulation of free software in relation to privacy of user data is a new development and arguably has a potential to contribute to widening support to the movement.