Mass Communication Commons^™

Elements Of Instagram Influencer Posts That Drive Follower Engagement, Yishan Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Influencers are now becoming more popular on social media as a way for brands to promote products and services. The relationship between influencers’ post content and follower engagement deserves more attention. Through a content analysis, this research examines how influencer posts drive follower engagement. The results showed that emojis, campaign hashtags, frequency, and sponsored tags had a significant relationship with follower engagement. The present study sheds light on future research to explore other content variables of influencers’ posts.

Womenpreneurs In A Digital Environment: Utilizing Instagram To Build A Personal Brand, Michelle N. Nuñez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Personal branding on social media is a growing and expanding field. The present research works to uncover the processes and practices of womenpreneurs and the ways in which they utilize social media, specifically Instagram, to build and maintain their personal brands. Grounded theory is used to underpin the research and provide a basis of which the study is conducted. The review of literature provides the context necessary to support the methods of a content analysis and semi-structured interviews. There is a gap in research as it pertains to the conceptualization of personal branding practices on Instagram and the present study …

Relationship Management Communications By Nhl Teams On Twitter, Kelsey M. Baker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The sports industry is massive, bolstered by its relationship with media. A recent development in the sport industry is the advent of social media, which offers the potential for two-way communication between sports organizations and their relevant stakeholders. Relationship management theory helps cultivate an understanding of social media as a vehicle for value creation for an organization and its stakeholders. This thesis is a content analysis of relationship communications strategies on Twitter using the accounts of five National Hockey League teams.

This study builds upon existing literature by identifying stakeholder groups targeted on Twitter by NHL teams, defining subcategories in …

Newsroom Narratives And Newsroom Solutions: Local Print Media In The Digital Age, John Pendygraft

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks solutions to vexing problems facing media institutions today by exploring media narratives n the context of established anthropological theory. It is based in one local newsroom, the Tampa Bay Times, where I have worked for 22 years. The ethnography is a personal journey that draws on those decades of newsroom experience, social science theory, participant observation, interviews with journalists, and personal reflections. It examines dangerous historic periods of social dehumanization to put the political nature of today’s local print media crisis in context, and concludes that the greatest modern challenges to legacy journalism’s broken business model …

The Influence Of Instagram Selfies On Female Millennials’ Appearance Satisfaction, Diliara Bagautdinova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have proved negative effects of social network sites on women’s body image caused by social comparison processes. However, only a few studies have examined the effects of Instagram on women’s appearance satisfaction and no selfies were taken into consideration in regard to that issue. The purpose of this research was to examine the social comparison theory through the lens of Instagram selfies and determine the effects of selfies on women’s appearance satisfaction. In-depth interviews with 26 female millennials, ages 18 to 32, reveal the re-defined standard of an ideal body image, shifting away from being skinny to becoming fit, …

The Cultivation Of Eating Disorders Through Instagram, Kendall O'Brien

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A profusion of research has been dedicated to the effects of new media on body image. In an attempt to explain the inflation of eating disorders, several researchers have turned to the cultivation theory, postulating that increased interaction with these medias will lead to internalizations of the messages they disseminate. The over presence of extremely thin models and actresses can create a new reality for media users, who begin to equate thinness with beauty, power, femininity and happiness. While an abundance of research has delved into the impact of this thin ideal through television and magazines, the Internet as a …

Speaking Their Language: Textisms In Today's Communication, Adam Lloyd Drum

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is an exploratory look into the use of text-based slang, or textisms, in modern communication. People use textisms in multiple media of communication, whether it is in text messages, emails, and various types of social media. This study asked a focus group about their uses and gratifications from textisms. The focus group delved into their appreciations as both users and receivers. Participants reflected on their personal experience and preferences with textisms for their personal communications as well as their opinion for various types of businesses using them in their larger message design efforts.

The participants were comprised of …

Social Media Use During The College Transition, Kevin J. Yurasek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Starting college is an exciting and pivotal time for students. During this time, the student will be faced with challenges of his or her social identity and will need to develop or modify identities based on new social situations. Previous research shows that social media play a role in identity development, but there is little information regarding the extent. Are new college students using Facebook during their transition to communicate their new identity/social group to new peers? Are they using Facebook to maintain nostalgia for previous identities/social groups? This information will be valuable to higher education professionals working with these …

Facebook Users' Feedback Of Restaurants: Does It Affect Other Users?, Lauren Rose Webber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to the popularity of social media and an increase in the engagement of social care, traditional word-of-mouth communications has been replaced by electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Facebook, the most popular website in the United States, is home to nearly 18 million brand or business pages and may be accessed by social media-users aiming to engage in social care, which is customer service via social media. Extending existing research, this study employed in-depth interviews to determine whether or not social media-users are affected by the feedback of other users on restaurants' Facebook pages. The results of this study suggest that Facebook …

Communicating During An Organizational Crisis: Using Facebook As A Relationship Management Tool, Vjollca Hysenlika

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how organizations communicate on Facebook during a crisis, from a relationship management perspective, and how their interactivity, responsiveness, and transparency affect their Fan page's relevance, importance, and appeal. In this study, the researcher conducted a controlled experiment to examine if a strategized Facebook Fan page that contained a high level of interaction, responsiveness, and transparency contributed to long-lasting relationships with fans or helped organizations recover/prevent a crisis. The researcher created eight different conditions (Facebook Fan Pages) presenting a crisis message, and recruited 200 students (25 participants per condition) from the University of …