Tel.: +41(0) 44 635 20 47 

Office: AND 3.40

n.festic@ikmz.uzh.ch

Noemi Festic has been a Senior Research and Teaching Associate in the Media Change & Innovation Division, Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ), University of Zurich since February 2022.

Her research focuses on how individuals engage with new digital technologies and the implications of this use across various areas of life. A central theme of her research has been how people use digital media - especially in dataveilled societies - for health-related purposes and how this relates to their physical and mental well-being. Currently, another focus of her research is on the theoretical conceptualization and empirical testing of the chilling effects of dataveillance. 

In her doctoral dissertation, Noemi Festic investigated how internet users navigate their (digital) lives in an online environment increasingly dominated by algorithmic selection applications: What significance do AS applications have for different life domains in Switzerland? How aware are internet users of specific algorithmic modes of operation and associated risks, and what do they do to cope with them? How can a harms- and benefits-based model depict implications of internet use on quality of life? How can the application of new "computational" methods contribute to a better empirical understanding of internet use in general and algorithmic selection in particular?

Selected Recent and Upcoming Presentations

• Festic N, Büchi M, Latzer M, Odermatt C (2025, May). Causal evidence for the chilling effects of dataveillance: A longitudinal field experiment and focus-group study. Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research Annual Conference. Chur, Switzerland.
• Festic N, Büchi M, Latzer M, Odermatt C (2025, June). Causal evidence for the chilling effects of dataveillance: A longitudinal field experiment and focus-group study. International Communication Association Annual Conference 2025. Denver, Colorado.
• Latzer M, Festic N (2025, July). Artificial intelligence tools: use, skills & attitudes. Selected results from Switzerland 2023–2025. Biennial World Internet Project Conference. Berlin, Germany.
• Daoust-Braun S, Festic N, Latzer M (2025, October). How need- and norm-based motives for digital communication mitigate the chilling effects of dataveillance. Navigating Algorithmic Society: Audiences’ tactics to understanding the world – ECREA Audience and Reception Studies 2025. Huddinge, Sweden.
• Daoust-Braun S, Festic N, Latzer M (2025, October). How need- and norm-based motives for digital communication mitigate the chilling effects of dataveillance. 25th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.