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David E. Morrison and Michael Svennevig. The Defense of Public Interest and the Intrusion of Privacy: Journalists and the Public. Journalism, February 2007; vol. 8, 1: pp. 44–65.

The article examines the relationship between the public interest and the right to privacy, with the focus on journalistic practice and new values, and the general growth of social surveillance. The article then draws on a series of in-depth interviews with UK media regulators and media interest groups. These were in turn followed by a series of focus groups, leading to the development of a UK national sample survey. The research offers the basis for a more complex analysis of the factors involved in judging the relative rights of the media to intrude and individuals’ rights to be protected from intrusion. Central to this analysis is the development of a new concept – “social importance.” Unlike the established concept of “public interest,” social importance is readily operationizable, scalable in terms of intensity, in its potential applications.

Sabine Trepte. Social Media, Privacy, and Self-Disclosure: The Turbulence Caused by Social Media’s Affordances. Social Media + Society, April–June 2015; vol. 1, 1: 2056305115578681.

This article discusses the struggle currently perceived in terms of social media privacy may be the result of the incompatible natures of “warm” and “cold” affordances. Whereas social media’s warm affordances reflect long-standing privacy routines and expectations, cold affordances seem to challenge and sometimes violate them. Sharing under the realm of warm affordances means sharing according to the routines and habits we know. Sharing under the realm of cold affordances means understanding social media’s terms and conditions and how they reflect on our relationships and experiences – similar to assimilating to a new culture that seems opaque and constantly in flux.