Dr. Rebecca Scharlach

Dr. Rebecca Scharlach is a postdoctoral researcher in the Platform Governance Media and Technology Lab. She has received research funding from the University of Bremen for her postdoctoral project (2024-2027) “Values-based Governance”. In this project, Dr. Scharlach will investigate examines how values and ideologies shape the governance of AI systems in the European Union. Since October 2025, she is also a member of the executive committee of the Association of Internet Researchers (Open Chair).

Her work has been published in leading international journals such as New Media & Society, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journal of Communication and Communication Theory.

Rebecca completed her PhD in September 2024 at the Department of Communication & Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation entitled “The Construction of Values by Social Media Platforms” was supervised by Prof. Dr. Limor Shifman as part of the ERC-funded DigitalValues project, in which she worked as a core member from 2019-2024.

Research interests

• Platform Governance
• Social Media Research
• Platform Power
• Values
• Technological Systems

Memberships

• Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)
• International Communication Association (ICA)
• European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)

Publications

• Blake Hallinan, CJ Reynolds, Rebecca Scharlach, Dana Theiler, Noa Niv, Omer Rothenstein, Isabell Knief, and Yehonatan Kuperberg. “Priorities and exclusions within Trust and Safety industry standards.” Online first in New Media & Society. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448251357225?mi=ehikzz
• Taylor Annabell, Robert Gorwa, Rebecca Scharlach, Jacob van de Kerkhof, Thales Bertaglia (2025, Preprint) TikTok Search Recommendations: Governance and Research Challenges. Procceedings ICWSM 2025 The 1st international Workshop on Computational Approaches to Content Moderation and Platform Governance (COMPASS) https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.08385v1
• Tommaso Trillò, Blake Hallinan, Saki Mizoroki, Rebecca Scharlach, Pyung Hwa Park, Avishai Green, Naama Weiss, & Limor Shifman. (Forthcoming) Liking without borders? Authenticity and the evaluation of Instagram photo genres. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
• Viejo Otero, Paloma & Rebecca Scharlach (2025) “‘We do not marshal your feed’: How AltTech platforms conceptualize safety” Platforms & Society. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/29768624251327703
• Shifman, L., Trillò, T., Hallinan, B., Mizoroki, S., Green, A., Scharlach, R., & Frosh, P. (2025). The expression of values on social media: An analytical framework. New Media & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241307035
• Scharlach, R. (2024). How to Spark Joy: Strategies of Depoliticization in Platform’s Corporate Social Initiatives. Social Media + Society, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241277601
• Scharlach, Rebecca and Blake Hallinan (2023). “The Value Affordances of Social Media Engagement Features”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 28(6), 1-11. https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/28/6/zmad040/7326084?searchresult=1&login=false#421922698
• Scharlach, Rebecca, Blake Hallinan, and Limor Shifman (2023). “Governing Principles: Articulating Values in Social Media Platform Policies”. New Media & Society. Online First, 1-20. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448231156580
• Trillò, Tommaso; Hallinan, Blake; Green, Avishai; Kim, Bumsoo; Mizoroki, Saki; Scharlach, Rebecca; Frosh, Paul; Shifman, Limor (2023). “I Love This Photo! I Can Feel Their Hearts”. How Users Across the World Evaluate Social Media Portraiture. Journal of Communication. Online First, 1-22. https://academic.oup.com/joc/article/73/3/235/7078537
• Trillò, Tommaso, Rebecca Scharlach, Blake Hallinan, Bumsoo Kim, Saki Mizoroki, Paul Frosh, and Limor Shifman (2021). “What Does #Freedom Look Like? Instagram and the Visual Imagination of Values.” Journal of Communication 71 (6), 875-897. https://academic.oup.com/joc/article/71/6/875/6358707
• Hallinan, Blake, Rebecca Scharlach, and Limor Shifman (2022). “Beyond Neutrality: Conceptualizing Platform Values.” Communication Theory 32 (2), 201-222. https://academic.oup.com/ct/article/32/2/201/6333289
• Hallinan, Blake, Bumsoo Kim, Saki Mizoroki, Rebecca Scharlach, Tommaso Trillò, Mike Thelwall, Elad Segev, and Limor Shifman (2021). “The Value(s) of Social Media Rituals: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of New Year’s Resolutions.” Information, Communication, & Society. Online First, 1-22. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1983003
• Hallinan, Blake, Bumsoo Kim, Rebecca Scharlach, Tommaso Trillò, Saki Mizoroki, and Limor Shifman (2021). “Mapping the Transnational Imaginary of Social Media Genres.” New Media & Society 25 (3), 875-897. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448211012372
• Ackermann, Judith; Egger, Benjamin and Rebecca Scharlach (2019). “Programming the Postdigital: Curation of Appropriation Processes in (Collaborative) Creative Coding Spaces.” Journal of Postdigital Science and Education (2), 416-441.

Book review

• Scharlach, Rebecca. “Digitale Medien zwischen Transparenz und Manipulation. Internet und politische Kommunikation in der repräsentativen Demokratie.” TV Diskurs.