Kiran Kappeler has been a Senior Research and Teaching Associate in the Media Change & Innovation Division since August 2024. Previously, she worked as a Research and Teaching Associate in the Media Change & Innovation Division. In her dissertation, she focused on Swiss internet users practices with which they negotiate their use of digital technologies, investigating self-help strategies against algorithmic risks, the role that digital skills play for digital technology use, individuals’ dataveillance imaginaries and their role for chilling effects, as well as resistance to digital media. Beyond that, her research interests involve social and digital inequalities in a highly digitized and increasingly algorithmic society.

Peer-Reviewed Publications:
Kappeler, K. (2024). A longitudinal perspective on digital skills for everyday life: Measurement and empirical evidence. Media and Communication, 12, 1–18.  https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.8159

Kappeler, K., Festic, N. & Latzer, M. (2023). ‘A mix of paranoia and rebelliousness’ – Manifestations, motives, and consequences of resistance to digital media. Mediální studia / Media Studies, 2, 125–145. https://medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/03/medialni_studia_2_2023_2.pdf

Kappeler, K., Festic, N. & Latzer, M. (2023). Dataveillance imaginaries and their role in chilling effects online. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103120

Kappeler, K., Festic, N., Latzer, M. & Rüedy, T. (2023). Coping with algorithmic risks: How internet users implement self-help strategies to reduce risks related to algorithmic selection. Journal of Digital Social Research, 5 (1), 23–47. https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v5i1.130

Kappeler, K., Festic, N. & Latzer, M. (2021). Left behind in the digital society–Growing social stratification of internet non-use in Switzerland. In G. Keel & W. Weber (Eds.) Media Literacy (p. 2017–224). https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748920656

Selected Teaching:
Lecture: Privacy in a digital society
Supervision of bachelor theses
Research seminar: Developments of risks and internet use
Research seminar: Against the trend – non-use of social media, online news and Co.
Research seminar: Algorithms everywhere – challenges of a digital society
Research seminar: In algorithms we trust – the societal relevance of algorithms 
Seminar: Changing internet use in an algorithmic age and its consequences