Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

From Conspiracy To Normalcy: The Mainstreaming Of Qanon In “Disney Grooming” Messages Online, Daniela Peterka-Benton, Bond Benton, Joel Penney

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

In March of 2022, The Walt Disney Company voiced opposition to Florida’s "Parental Rights in Education" (“Don’t Say Gay”) in support of LGBTQ+ stakeholders within in the company and the public. This research studied a dataset of 68,481 tweets where the company’s stance was constructed as “grooming” children, i.e. manipulating children for sexual abuse. Tweets were collected from March 13, 2022 to May 16, 2022 representing a two month period from Disney’s stance against "Parental Rights in Education.” As grooming is a term often associated with human trafficking and Disney is a major media company, this study is interested in …

#Pumpkinspice Report: On The 20th Anniversary Of Its Pumpkin Spice Latte, Starbucks Still Dominates The Social Media Conversation Around The Polarizing Fall Cultural Phenomenon, Jin-A Choi, Yi Luo, Bond Benton, Keith Green

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

The mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves has produced a magical combination that changed the world. Like Einstein or Col. Sanders, a powerful formula was found in the right combination of elements- in this case pumpkin spice. It might be assumed that pumpkin spice has a history and tradition dating back well into previous centuries, but pumpkin spice is a relatively new construct. Nosowitz (2022) contends the pumpkin spice trend was largely created by Starbucks’ introduction of the famous pumpkin spice latte in 2003.

To explore how social media users have discussed topics related to pumpkin spice, researchers …

Hate Speech Spikes On Twitter After Elon Musk Acquires The Platform, Bond Benton, Jin-A Choi, Yi Luo, Keith Green

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

Unmoderated social media platforms frequently become a haven for misinformation, extremism, and hate. There are challenges unique to unmoderated social media platforms that make the removal of such content and the users who spread it particularly difficult (Artime et al., 2020). When a platform’s focus is unrestricted expression from users, those looking to share and spread antisocial content will presumably use such spaces to share perspectives that would likely be restricted on other platforms. Historically, examples of such “free speech absolutist” spaces suggest that this threat is very real. Specifically, 4chan serves as a space where online anonymity coupled with …

A Preview Of Post Amnesty Twitter: Analysis Of “Groomer” On Twitter After The Colorado Springs Shooting, Bond Benton, Yi Luo, Jin-A Choi, Keith Strudler, Keith Green

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

On November 24, 2022 Elon Musk stated that “general amnesty” would be given to Twitter accounts previously suspended for violent threats, harassment and misinformation. This appears to reflect Musk’s previously stated intent to run the platform as a “free speech absolutist.” The question in many people’s minds is what such an incarnation of Twitter will look like. The tragic shooting at an LGBTQIA+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Nov. 19-20 and the reaction the event generated on the platform provide a case that demonstrates the tensions that will come with reduced platform moderation. “Groomer,” a previously Twitter restricted slur …

Marketing And Outreach Program Showcase, Gary Marks, Hilary Westgate, Denise I. O'Shea, Kim Reamer, Tara Maharjan, Allison Piazza, Kate Hossain

Sprague Library Scholarship and Creative Works

As marketing and outreach increasingly become core values for librarians, we are always looking for fresh ideas on how to best reach our users. Come and hear from a varied panel of academic librarians about ways to market your resources, services, and events/programs. Each panelist will be discussing a specific marketing or outreach program that their library has initiated recently. We hope to showcase the great work that NJ academic libraries are doing and inspire you to try something new at your library!

A Novel Surveillance Approach For Disaster Mental Health, Oliver Gruebner, Sarah R. Lowe, Martin Sykora, Karen Shankardass, S V. Subramanian, Sandro Galea

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Background

Disasters have substantial consequences for population mental health. Social media data present an opportunity for mental health surveillance after disasters to help identify areas of mental health needs. We aimed to 1) identify specific basic emotions from Twitter for the greater New York City area during Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, and to 2) detect and map spatial temporal clusters representing excess risk of these emotions.

Methods

We applied an advanced sentiment analysis on 344,957 Twitter tweets in the study area over eleven days, from October 22 to November 1, 2012, to extract basic emotions, …

Understanding Variations In User Response To Social Media Campaigns: A Study Of Facebook Posts In The 2010 Us Elections, Michael A. Xenos, Timothy Macafee, Antoinette Pole

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Political candidates increasingly have incorporated social media tools like Facebook into their campaigns. Such tools enable supporters to interact directly and easily with campaigns, creating an immediate and relatively informal way for users to respond to candidate messages and publicly display their support. Previous research has explored how campaigns have used social media, or how the use of social media may be related to political engagement. In this study, we provide a systematic analysis of variations in user response to candidate messaging through Facebook. Our results shed new light on the dynamics of online campaigning through social media and engagement …