Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Local News Deserts In China: The Role Of Social Media And Personal Communication Networks, Zixue Tai, Bai He, Jianping Liu

Journalism and Media Faculty Publications

The field of local news is often associated with news deserts, commonly defined as geo‐based communities without news‐ papers or other legacy media as providers of locally oriented news and civic information. This phenomenon is expanding in global society due to the diminishing presence of newspapers at moments of accelerated digitization. This study examines the multiplex nature of news deserts in rural and suburban areas in China. Data were collected through a multi‐methods approach combining two focus groups and 44 semi‐structured in‐depth interviews. Patterns of engagement among inter‐ viewees reveal that smartphone‐based social media applications and digital platforms function as …

Social Media And Contentious Action: The Use And Users Of Qq Groups In China, Zixue Tai

Journalism and Media Faculty Publications

This article presents an analysis of a netnographic study of QQ groups engaged in contentious activities in China. Informed primarily by semi‐structured in‐depth interviews of 34 participants and field observations through years of grounded research, the findings shed light on the communicative dynamics and mobilization strategies of QQ groups in nurturing contentious action and motivating mass participation in social protest. In‐group communication stays highly focused on the respective mission of the groups, and it cultivates a sense of shared awareness conducive to collective action. There is also a noticeable contagion effect that transfers the spirit of contestation in terms of …

The Geopolitics Of Infrastructuralized Platforms: The Case Of Alibaba, Hong Shen, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Contemporary digital platforms have become increasingly infrastructuralized, and started to raise geopolitical tensions with their global expansion. Amidst the heightened geopolitical competition between the US and China, the growing power of Chinese infrastructuralized platforms has made them the center of recent geopolitical dynamics. Drawing from an exploratory case study, this paper discusses Alibaba, one of the most prominent Chinese Internet giants, as an infrastructuralized platform, and highlights its geopolitical struggles. Often perceived as an e-commerce company, Alibaba has become ‘infrastructuralized’: its now-massive digital empire has moved beyond e-commerce, expanding into almost every aspect of China’s and global digital economy such …

Rise Of Social Media Influencers As A New Marketing Channel: Focusing On The Roles Of Psychological Well-Being And Perceived Social Responsibility Among Consumers, Jihye Kim, Minseong Kim

Integrated Strategic Communication Faculty Publications

This empirical research investigated the structural relationships between social media influencer attributes, perceived friendship, psychological well-being, loyalty, and perceived social responsibility of influencers, focusing on the perspective of social media users. More specifically, this study conceptually identified social media influencer attributes such as language similarity, interest similarity, interaction frequency, and self-disclosure and examined the respective effects of each dimension on perceived friendship and psychological well-being, consequently resulting in loyalty toward social media influencers. The authors collected and analyzed data from 388 social media users in the United States via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk with multivariate analyses to test the hypothesized associations …

Smartphone Use And Psychological Well-Being Among College Students In China: A Qualitative Assessment, Cheng Dai, Zixue Tai, Shan Ni

Journalism and Media Faculty Publications

Background: Problematic smartphone use is widespread, and college-age youth faces an especially high risk of its associated consequences. While a promising body of research has emerged in recent years in this area, the domination of quantitative inquiries can be fruitfully and conceptually complemented by perspectives informed through qualitative research. Toward that end, this study aimed to interrogate the myriad behavioral, attitudinal, and psychological tendencies as a side effect of college students’ engagement with the smartphone in their everyday lived experience through in-depth interviews.

Methods: We recruited 70 participants from seven college campuses hailing from different geographic regions in China, and …

Dating App Use Among Rural Men Who Have Sex With Men And Its Relationship To Hiv Prevention And Risk Behaviors: A Mixed-Methods Analysis, Lauren Bineau, Danielle Lambert, Natalia Truszczynski, Nathan Hansen, Carolyn Lauckner

Center for Health Equity Transformation Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Men who have sex with men (MSM) in rural areas have limited access to HIV prevention and education resources. Given the growing usage of mobile dating apps among the wider MSM population, this research sought to explore their use among MSM in rural areas and their potential for delivering HIV prevention information.

METHODS: Participants were recruited from different areas of the rural Southern USA. This mixed-methods study consisted of an online survey (n=85) and follow-up qualitative phone interviews with 20 survey respondents. The survey assessed dating app use, sexual behaviors, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) awareness, usage, and attitudes among …

Beyond Hours Of Video Gameplay: Connections Between Verbal Aggressiveness, Genre Preference, And Technology Used, William T. Howe, Ioana A. Cionea

Communication Faculty Publications

This research examined how multiple factors (i.e., hours of gameplay, types of gameplay, preferred genre of video games, technology used to play games, and biological sex) were associated with both trait and situational verbal aggressiveness. Cross-sectional data were collected from 435 undergraduate students via an online questionnaire. Results indicated similar patterns to previous literature in that video gameplay hours were positively related to verbal aggressiveness. However, we extended research by also showing that a preference for certain genres and technology used to play video games were also related with both situational and trait verbal aggressiveness. Based on these results, we …

Effects Of Website Interactivity On Skin Cancer-Related Intentions And User Experience: Factorial Randomized Experiment, Zhaomeng Niu, Jessica Fitts Willoughby, Elliot J. Coups, Jerod L. Stapleton

Health, Behavior & Society Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Digital media technologies provide users with the ability to interact with content and to receive information based on their preferences and engagement.

OBJECTIVE: We used skin cancer and sun protection as a health topic to explore how modality interactivity, interface tools that afford users greater activity, resulting in greater depth and breadth of mentally representing and experiencing mediated content, and message interactivity, the extent to which the system allows users to exchange messages back and forth on health websites, influenced users' attitudes, knowledge, behavioral intentions, and experience.

METHODS: We employed a 2×2 (modality interactivity: high vs low; message interactivity: …

Podcasting, Jennifer A. Bartlett

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Podcasts seem to be everywhere these days, on every topic including current events, games, entertainment, education, business, financial management and more.

As podcasts have now become a recognized source of entertainment, news, and information, how can we become familiar with listening to podcasts and integrating them into our work in libraries? The following resources offer a few places to get started. Given the nature of the medium, some sites are optimized for viewing and listening on mobile devices.

An Experimental Investigation Into Promoting Mental Health Service Use On Social Media: Effects Of Source And Comments, Zhaomeng Niu, Lun Hu, David C. Jeong, Jared Brickman, Jerod L. Stapleton

Health, Behavior & Society Faculty Publications

Mental health is an increasingly prevalent topic of public interest, but remains a complex area requiring focused research that must account for negative perceptions surrounding mental health issues. The current work explores the roles of social media information source credibility and valence of social media comments on health outcomes in such a mental health context. We used a 2 (message source: professional vs. layperson) × 3 (valence of comments: positive vs. negative vs. mixed) online experiment to examine the effects of source and valence of comments on trust, attitudes and intentions related to mental health information and services among 422 …

Differences Between Teacher-Focused Twitter Hashtags And Implications For Professional Development, Spencer P. Greenhalgh

Information Science Faculty Publications

Twitter hashtags may serve as valuable means for teachers' professional development. However, given the diversity of hashtag spaces and teacher needs, teachers must assess a given hashtag and compare it to their learning needs and preferences before determining whether it would be helpful. To support this reflection, I examine data associated with 60 Regional Educational Twitter Hashtags (RETHs) during the first six months of 2016 to begin describing the variety of teacher learning-focused Twitter spaces and make distinctions between them. My results indicate that these RETHs vary according to their relative focus on sharing, intimacy of personal connection, and volume …

Adolescents' Attitudes And Intentions To Use A Smartphone App To Promote Safe Driving, Caitlin N. Pope, Emre Sezgin, Simon Lin, Nichole L. Morris, Motao Zhu

Graduate Center for Gerontology Faculty Publications

Purpose

Designing effective driving safety interventions is imperative as traffic crashes are the leading cause of injury and death for adolescents. Using concepts from the Integrated Behavioral Model, we investigated adolescents' attitudes and intentions towards engaging in safe driving practices and using smartphone-based driving safety technology.

Methods

Two-hundred and seven adolescents aged 14–18 (M = 16.1, SD = 0.8) completed a safe driving survey. A path model testing the associations between individual scores of attitudes, perceived norms, and perceived behavioral control with intentions controlling for demographic covariates was conducted.

Results

Greater intentions to drive safely was associated with greater …

Attentional Social Media: Mapping The Spaces And Networks Of The Fashion Industry, Ate Poorthuis, Dominic Powers, Matthew Zook

Geography Faculty Publications

In this article we use big data methods to analyze the attention paid to the fashion industry on social media. The article argues that for the fashion industry, like many industries, the core product is a form of knowledge that is dependent on gaining and holding people’s attention. To understand this attentional economy, social media offers a unique window because it is increasingly a central space within which fashion knowledge is created and shared. Using long-term, geotagged big data from Twitter, we analyze the hitherto difficult-to-explore spaces and places of the global fashion industry. The article suggests that the data …

Exploring Crisis Communication And Information Dissemination On Social Media: Social Network Analysis Of Hurricane Irma Tweets, Xianlin Jin

Communication Graduate Research

This study utilized social network analysis to identify the top 10 Twitter influentials during the Hurricane Irma crisis period and examined the relationship between social media attributes and the bridge influence of controlling information flow. The number of a user’s followers and tweets significantly predicted one’s control of information. Crisis information tended to be shared in scattered subgroups. Social network boundaries impeded information diffusion, and the communication pattern was largely one-way. The findings partially supported the opinion leader argument while indicating that influentials can directly generate information, which is consistent with the social-mediated crisis communication model. Such findings will contribute …

Ict Aid Flows From China To African Countries: A Communication Network Perspective, Rong Wang, François Bar, Yu Hong

Communication Faculty Publications

The challenge in evaluating China’s foreign aid has always been the unavailability of reliable data sets. This study constitutes the first analysis of the AidData data set from a communication network perspective. It examines China’s development aid to Africa in the ICT sector from 2000 to 2014. Combining data mapping, network modeling, and regression, it uncovers general trends of aid allocation, central players, and collaboration patterns among aid agencies. The results demonstrate the variability in the distribution of China’s foreign assistance to 44 African countries. In particular, African countries with less population, worse economic development, but higher oil rents are …

Surveilling Strangers: The Disciplinary Biopower Of Digital Genre Assemblages, Lauren E. Cagle

Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies Faculty Publications

This article identifies and names the digital visual genre of strangershots: photographs of strangers taken without their knowledge or consent and then shared online, accruing derogatory comments as they circulate through online networks. By closely describing a specific strangershot posted on Reddit and then connecting it to further examples, I aim to demonstrate that strangershots constitute a genre identifiable by the recurring social actions they accomplish by producing similar responses to recurring social situations. After identifying the genre, I apply actor-network theory to demonstrate how this genre is produced by assemblages of humans and non-human technologies. Following that, I …

Fraud Detection Protocol For Web-Based Research Among Men Who Have Sex With Men: Development And Descriptive Evaluation, April M. Ballard, Trey Cardwell, April M. Young

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: Internet is becoming an increasingly common tool for survey research, particularly among “hidden” or vulnerable populations, such as men who have sex with men (MSM). Web-based research has many advantages for participants and researchers, but fraud can present a significant threat to data integrity.

Objective: The purpose of this analysis was to evaluate fraud detection strategies in a Web-based survey of young MSM and describe new protocols to improve fraud detection in Web-based survey research.

Methods: This study involved a cross-sectional Web-based survey that examined individual- and network-level risk factors for HIV transmission and substance use among young MSM …

Live Ambience And Homestead Away From Home: Social Media Use And Dependency By Visiting Chinese Students In The United States, Zixue Tai, Jue Lu, Fengbin Hu

Journalism and Media Faculty Publications

This study investigates social media dependency relations among Chinese college students during their three-month study abroad sojourn in the United States. Data were collected using a multimethod approach of ethnography, field observation, and in-depth interviews. Inspired by the lens of media system dependency (MSD) theory, the analysis focuses on the diverse goals and motivations that drive student behavior in social media engagement, as well as various contextual factors leading students to adapt and transition to the U.S. social networking sites (SNS), and the subsequent outcomes. The findings indicate that task-driven and assignment-centered goals dominate social media use, and that multidimensional …

A Stress Management App Intervention For Cancer Survivors: Design, Development, And Usability Testing, Elin Børøsund, Jelena Mirkovic, Matthew M. Clark, Shawna L. Ehlers, Michael A. Andrykowski, Anne Bergland, Marianne Westeng, Lise Solberg Nes

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Background: Distress is prevalent in cancer survivors. Stress management interventions can reduce distress and improve quality of life for cancer patients, but many people with cancer are unfortunately not offered or able to attend such in-person stress management interventions.

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop an evidence-based stress management intervention for patients living with cancer that can be delivered electronically with wide reach and dissemination. This paper describes the design and development process of a technology-based stress management intervention for cancer survivors, including the exploration phase, intervention content development, iterative software development (including design, development, and formative …

Spatial Distribution Of Partner-Seeking Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Geosocial Networking Apps: Epidemiologic Study, Angel B. Algarin, Patrick J. Ward, W. Jay Christian, Abby E. Rudolph, Ian W. Holloway, April M. Young

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: Geosocial networking apps have made sexual partner-seeking easier for men who have sex with men, raising both challenges and opportunities for human immunodeficiency virus and sexually transmitted infection prevention and research. Most studies on men who have sex with men geosocial networking app use have been conducted in large urban areas, despite research indicating similar patterns of online- and app-based sex-seeking among men who have sex with men in rural and midsize cities.

Objective: The goal of our research was to examine the spatial distribution of geosocial networking app usage and characterize areas with increasing numbers of partner-seeking men …

"Participant" Perceptions Of Twitter Research Ethics, Casey Fiesler, Nicholas Proferes

Information Science Faculty Publications

Social computing systems such as Twitter present new research sites that have provided billions of data points to researchers. However, the availability of public social media data has also presented ethical challenges. As the research community works to create ethical norms, we should be considering users’ concerns as well. With this in mind, we report on an exploratory survey of Twitter users’ perceptions of the use of tweets in research. Within our survey sample, few users were previously aware that their public tweets could be used by researchers, and the majority felt that researchers should not be able to use …

Creative Writing In Digital Spaces: Digital Story Book, Christian Tipton

Oswald Research and Creativity Competition

Christian Tipton has been working with Dr. DaMaris Hill for multiple semesters now, and a majority of their projects emphasize making literature accessible for the digital generation. The Digital Storybook is a personal favorite of the two of them. This project combines the visual techniques of a traditional comic book with the contextual elements of free verse poetry. The aim for this particular project was to present poetry in a way that would capture non-traditional poetry readers and present the comic book genre in a way that would capture non-traditional comic readers.

"When Words Become Unclear": Unmasking Ict Through Visual Methodologies In Participatory Ict4d, Caitlin M. Bentley, David Nemer, Sara Vannini

Information Science Faculty Publications

Across the globe, our work and social lives are increasingly integrated with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), yet massive disparities in the values, uses and benefits of ICT exist. New methods are needed to shed light on unique and integrative concepts of ICT across cultures. This paper explores the use of visual methods to facilitate critical engagement with ICT—defined as situational awareness, reflexive ICT practice and power and control over ICT. This definition of critical ICT engagement is informed by a cultural identity lens, and intends to improve participatory methods in ICT for Development (ICT4D) and community technology design and …

Tweeting The Anthropocene: #400ppm As Networked Event, Lauren E. Cagle, Denise Tillery

Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies Faculty Publications

Social media platforms have been widely available for over 10 years, and communication research has responded in part by exploring how Facebook and other social media sites are used for advocacy and public discourse. Environmental issues, including climate change, have also been the focus of recent work on social media, including Environmental Communication's 2015 special issue on Climate Change Communication and the Internet. Bruno Latour's actor-network theory allows people to account for the roles played by users, links, hashtags, and other actants in the effort to move information through a larger network. The high percentage of tweets in the dataset …

Expression And Reception: An Analytic Method For Assessing Message Production And Consumption In Cmc, Kang Namkoong, Dhavan V. Shah, Bryan Mclaughlin, Ming-Yuan Chih, Tae Joon Moon, Shawnika Hull, David H. Gustafson

Community & Leadership Development Faculty Publications

This article presents an innovative methodology to study computer-mediated communication (CMC), which allows analysis of the multi-layered effects of online expression and reception. The methodology is demonstrated by combining the following three data sets collected from a widely tested eHealth system, the Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS): (1) a flexible and precise computer-aided content analysis; (2) a record of individual message posting and reading; and (3) longitudinal survey data. Further, this article discusses how the resulting data can be applied to online social network analysis and demonstrates how to construct two distinct types of online social networks—open and targeted …

Isbord: Internet Searching Based On Resource Description, Zhiwei Yan, Sherali Zeadally, Guanggang Geng

Information Science Faculty Publications

Based on the Information-Centric Networking (ICN) concept and the mature model of the current TCP/IP-based Internet, we propose content searching based on universal and scalable resource description, namely ISBORD (Internet Searching based on Resource Description). This novel concept aims to improve the efficiency of content searching and simplifies the end-user functionality to support the evolution of the content-centric Internet.

Perspectives Of Healthcare Practitioners: An Exploration Of Interprofessional Communication Using Electronic Medical Records, Shoshana H. Bardach, Kevin Real, David R. Bardach

Graduate Center for Gerontology Faculty Publications

Contemporary state-of-the-art healthcare facilities are incorporating technology into their building design to improve communication and patient care. However, technological innovations may also have unintended consequences. This study seeks to better understand how technology influences interprofessional communication within a hospital setting based in the United States. Nine focus groups were conducted including a range of healthcare professions. The focus groups explored practitioners’ experiences working on two floors of a newly designed hospital and included questions about the ways in which technology shaped communication with other healthcare professionals. All focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and coded to identify themes. Participant responses focused …

Memes: The Interaction Between Imagery And Subculture: An Analysis Of Situation, Race, And Gender On The Pi Kappa Delta Social Media App, Veronica Scott, Timothy Bill

Oswald Research and Creativity Competition

Collegiate speech and debate participants are committed to performance excellence and organizational unity. Pi Kappa Delta, a central organization for this subculture, annually hosts a national competition, during which competitors can create and post memes via the tournament phone app. While it is well-known that memes are a function of participatory culture, no analysis has yet examined memes exclusively consumed by the same subculture which created them. In this study, we examine the implicit messaging of this memetic imagery, and by doing so, gain insight into both the collegiate forensics subculture, and the function of memes in a small group.

U.S. Newspaper Editors’ Ratings Of Social Media As Influential News Sources, Masahiro Yamamoto, Seungahn Nah, Deborah S. Chung

Information Science Faculty Publications

Social media, as one key platform for citizen journalism, are becoming a useful news-gathering tool for journalists. Based on data from a nationwide probability sample of newspaper editors in the United States, this study investigates the extent to which newspaper editors consider social media an influential news source. Results show that variations in editors’ ratings of social media as a news source were related to multiple levels of influence, including professional journalistic experience, organization size, community structural pluralism, and citizen journalism credibility. Implications are discussed for the roles of social media in news production.

Offline Social Relationships And Online Cancer Communication: Effects Of Social And Family Support On Online Social Network Building, Namkoong Kang, Dhavan V. Shah, David H. Gustafson

Community & Leadership Development Faculty Publications

This study investigates how social support and family relationship perceptions influence breast cancer patients’ online communication networks in a computer-mediated social support (CMSS) group. To examine social interactions in the CMSS group, we identified two types of online social networks: open and targeted communication networks. The open communication network reflects group communication behaviors (i.e., one-to-many or “broadcast” communication) in which the intended audience is not specified; in contrast, the targeted communication network reflects interpersonal discourses (i.e., one-to-one or directed communication) in which the audience for the message is specified. The communication networks were constructed by tracking CMSS group usage data …