Social Media Commons^™

The Rise Of Agenda Diversity In America: Its Cause And Consequences, John K. Wagner

Political Science ETDs

More than ever, Americans disagree on what issues are important. This diversity in the public agenda has received scant attention in recent years. Consequently, our understanding of why agenda diversity developed relies on a single analysis method, and we know next to nothing about the consequences for the American polity. Using a novel approach to measuring agenda diversity and an advanced experimental design, this dissertation demonstrates the causal connection between issue-based selective exposure to news and higher agenda diversity. Concerning its consequences, this work investigates congressional responsiveness. Results from a complex analysis of constituency public opinion, Congress bill sponsorship, and …

Effects Of Stereotypes On Black Women Audiences, Darian M. Shorts

LSU Master's Theses

This study focuses on the effects that televised racial stereotypes have on the self-perception of viewers who identify as Black women. This paper lists three commonly used stereotypes for Black women in television and provides detailed background and analysis of each. There were three goals that I wanted to achieve with this study. The first goal of this study was to measure the amount of stereotyped entertainment these specific viewers consume. The second goal of this study was to understand the positive and negative effects that racial stereotypes have on Black women. The last goal of this study was to …

Watching Sports Online: Evaluating The Viewing Motivations Of Sports Streaming Service Users, Jordan Dove

LSU Master's Theses

With millions of viewers tuning in to sporting events each year, there are many different motivations to analyze as to why there are such a large amount of people involved. More recently, sports streaming services have become a second option for viewers to watch sporting events, creating even more popularity for the sports market. New highs of streaming viewers have been seen with each passing year, as new media continues to take over old traditional media like network television. In 2022, for instance, streaming service viewership surpassed cable tv and broadcasts (Nielsen, 2022), creating a turning of the tide. Many …

And The Oscar Goes To... Tiktok, Dawson Bley

Senior Honors Theses

Companies have been forced to take note of the emerging social media app, TikTok, which has attracted more than a billion users to its platform and invited businesses into an uncharted market ready to be exploited. By seeking to understand and employ the unique features which have led to TikTok’s far-reaching success, many companies can similarly improve their position. In particular, traditional movie companies, which have recently suffered blows at the box office due to factors such as competition with online streaming, could benefit from an analysis of this tech to restore lost engagement and revenue. Specifically, how can the …

#Blackatuark: Digital Counterpublic Memories Of Anti-Black Racism On Campus, T. Jake Dionne, Joe Hatfield, Gabrielle Willingham

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

After #BlackLivesMatter protests in summer 2020, many leaders in the US South reevaluated monuments dedicated to the confederate and segregation eras. Black affiliates of the University of Arkansas used the Twitter hashtag #BlackatUARK to demand the removal of memorials commemorating a segregationist senator and share their experiences of anti-Black racism on campus. We argue that #BlackatUARK provides a counterpublic memorial of campus life that opposes and transforms dominant public memories, geographies, and subjectivities. Our analysis of the hashtag expands the conceptual boundaries of the kairos/metanoia partnership to show how digital counterpublic memories gain momentum and produce tangible rhetorical effects across …

The Covid-19 Pandemic And International Students: A Mixed-Methods Approach To Relationships Between Social Media Use, Social Support, And Mental Health, Hyunjin Seo, Yuchen Liu, Husain Ebrahim, Muhammad Ittefaq, Donghwa Chung

School of Communication Studies - Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic and international students: A mixed-methods approach to relationships between social media use, social support, and mental healthThe COVID-19 pandemic has added significant stress to international students in the U.S. who already facemyriad challenges in adjusting to their host country. We used a mixed-method approach combining surveyand interview research involving international students enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs at aU.S. university to analyze how their social media use and perceived social support and social adjustmentare associated with their sense of mental well-being when taking into account demographic and socialpsychological characteristics. Our findings show that international students spent an …

Tiktok Battlefield: Comparative Analysis Of English And Arabic Language Representations Of The 2022 Russian Ukrainian Conflict On Tiktok, Dina Magdeldin Mahmoud Elhawary

Theses and Dissertations

This study extends the growing political communication research on TikTok platform through studying the representation of a major political conflict in modern history; the 2022 Russian Ukrainian conflict. The study is providing a cross cultural comparison by studying the perspectives of English and Arabic speakers about the conflict. The study is based on the analysis of the 500 most liked TikTok videos - in one month duration that starts with the day of the Russian invasion - with top hashtags about the conflict in order to find the common message themes. The study uses a multi-dimensional analysis approach of connective …

Impact Of Social Media  On Public Perception Of Government Covid-19 Response Efforts, Taher Taher

Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to understand this phenomenon to provide insights into how governments can perform better in times of crisis regarding social media and its impact on public opinion. This research aims to understand how social media impacts public perception of government COVID-19 response efforts by studying Facebook comments, likes, and reactions (emoticons).

The study was based on data gathered from Facebook comments on the daily infographic COVID-19 statistics from the official site of the Ministry of Health and Population. The sampling frame is the 52 weeks of 2020, January to December, through random sampling resulting in 546 comments. The …

The Impact Of Gender Differences And Geographic Locations On Social Media Literacy Among Public Universities Students, Heba Tallah Moustafa Helmy

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of both gender difference and geographic location on social media literacy levels among undergraduate students in public universities in Egypt. Four aspects related to social media literacy were considered in the Likert-scale survey, including basic technical skills, digital interactions, information evaluation, and privacy and security practices. A total of 520 students participated in this exploratory research, of which 265 males and 255 females enrolled at four public universities in different geographic locations. Cairo University and Ain Shams University represent the urban areas. The other two universities are located in center-periphery …

Artificially Intelligent Communication: An Exploratory Study On Replika Mobile Application, Nouran El-Ashry

Theses and Dissertations

This paper aims to address artificial intelligence from a communication perspective by looking at the usage of Replika, an AI-based platform. A quantitative survey was conducted to analyze the frequency of usage, attitude toward the application and the level of attachment to it. Moreover, qualitative questions were developed to get in-depth understanding of the type of relationship users have with their Replika application and reasons behind their usage. Results show no significant relationship between demographics and the application consumption except for age where older users communicate more frequently with the application than younger ones. Moreover, attachment levels were related to …

Media Literacy In Public Education: A Mixed-Method Exploration, Jessica Wyers

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

You have to know where you are to know where you’re going. This is the approach I attempt to take to understand next steps in media literacy education and policy. Little research has been done to understand the current state of media literacy education, what is actually happening in the classrooms and education system, to better judge more intentional interventions in the future.

This dissertation explores the current issues in media literacy education in our public schools. I combine the strengths of a qualitative investigation of published public school media literacy curricula with survey data measuring the perceptions of students’ …

A Systematic Literature Review Of Research From 2010 To 2020 Addressing User-Generated Online Comments Related To Health Issues And Recommendations For Future Research, Muhammad Ittefaq, Mauryne Abwao, Ioana A. Coman, Waqas Ejaz

School of Communication Studies - Faculty Scholarship

This systematic literature review was conducted to provide insights into how online readers’ comments have been studied in the context of health over a 10-year span. About 593 studies published between 2010 and 2020; of these, 34 met the research criteria for inclusion. Our findings reveal that 60% of the studies focused on the United States, and a qualitative method was used in 74.3% of these studies. About 23.5% of the studies explored vaccine-related issues. Our results reveal that among the selected studies, 76.5% and 20.6% had female and male first authors, respectively. Textual analysis of abstracts shows that the …

Partisan Selective Exposure On Social Media During The 2020 Presidential Election, Grayce Lemon

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study examines selective exposure and selective avoidance on social media during the 2020 presidential election. 147 voters participated in the survey conducted using Qualtrics. The purpose of this study was to understand whether selective exposure and avoidance behaviors differed based on voting outcome (Trump or Biden), and to test whether political ideological polarization was reflected in news consumption through social media. Taken together, the results indicate that although both voting bases engaged in selective exposure and avoidance, the propensity was the same between Trump and Biden voters. Additionally, results confirm existing hypotheses that the strength of political ideology positively …

The Negative Impact Of Social Media's Algorithms On Society, Julia S. Tucker

Emerging Writers

The tools utilized by social media, including algorithms and curation of media feeds, contribute to media phenomenon such as filter bubbles and confirmation biases. These agents transfer from the digital world to the real world, negatively affecting our society, and changing our behaviors. Some examples include political polarization, imposter syndrome, and extremism. These attributes of social media also promote the spread of mis and dis- information, which can negatively impact our social and personal health.

Right Turn At Reality: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Right Wing Negotiations On Race And Masculinity In Online Spaces, Andrew R.J. Hart

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The effects of right wing politically charged violence are more visible now than at any other point in recent American history. The Internet, and social media more specifically, has become a crucial nexus point in the dissemination of decentralized Alt-Right propaganda. The visual nature of social media has increased the importance of images a means of communication. Through this thesis, I analyze artifacts coming out of these spaces representing a conversation between creators and audiences, and how they work dialogically to introduce and reify symbols of white masculine supremacy within this subgroup. Through this process, I find multiple recurring patterns …

Women Play Football Too: Feminist Theory And Uk Football, Mikayla Kummer

Capstone Showcase

Women's Football in the UK has constantly overshadowed by Men's Football and with the popularity of social media it may have complicated the issue. The way women have been treated in the media has always been different to how men were treated. Gender can be considered a performance and how women are treated by the press demands a performance from them. Through Offside, a play by Hollie Poetry and Sabrina Mahfouz, this essay explores the relationship between feminist theory, women's football and social media. Women athletes have consistently been asked about their personal lives, bodies, relationships and anything besides the …

Presidents And Media During Initial Federal-Level Hurricane Relief: A Study Of Presidential Crisis Communication Efforts, Emily A. Ball

Honors College Theses

Public relations serves a huge role in almost every sector, including politics. Crisis communication, a subset of public relations, is very important in a setting that constantly undergoes crises. The response to these crises matters a great deal on the federal level because the outcomes can affect such a wide variety of policies and even elections. Because of this, I wanted to focus on one type of crisis that every president is almost guaranteed to face: hurricanes. To examine the effectiveness of federal-level crisis communication, I look at Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden’s responses to the worst hurricane during their …

Enabling Customization Of Discussion Forums For Blind Users, Mohan Sunkara, Yash Prakash, Hae-Na Lee, Sampath Jayarathna, Vikas Ashok

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Online discussion forums have become an integral component of news, entertainment, information, and video-streaming websites, where people all over the world actively engage in discussions on a wide range of topics including politics, sports, music, business, health, and world affairs. Yet, little is known about their usability for blind users, who aurally interact with the forum conversations using screen reader assistive technology. In an interview study, blind users stated that they often had an arduous and frustrating interaction experience while consuming conversation threads, mainly due to the highly redundant content and the absence of customization options to selectively view portions …

An Event-Without-Witness: A Nietzschean Theory Of The Digital Will To Power As The Will To Temporalize, Talha Issevenler

Publications and Research

This article offers a Nietzschean theory of digital will to power to conceptualize the temporality of social media feeds run by algorithms. Stylistic and methodological temporalities of Nietzsche are discussed as well as their influence in subsequent social theory of political technologies. The paradox of heavy investment in both subjective expression and nonhuman temporalization in social media milieus is addressed with the concept of an event-without-witness drawn from Nietzsche’s account of himself as the solitary thinker of catastrophe of nihilism and psychoanalytical and deconstructive literatures on the catastrophes of the 20th century. Nietzsche’s fundamental resistance to and fascination with the …

Reconnecting With The Truth: Conspiracies, Perspective Taking, And Misinformation, Scott Sellnow-Richmond, Mili Pinski

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

“I’ve done my research.” Misinformation has become a prevalent topic in communication courses, particularly those focused on argumentation, public speaking, or even interpersonal and family communication. Students thus benefit from adapting public speaking-focused assignments to illuminate how to understand - and thus combat- disinformation in their own lives. This assignment works toward this goal in two stages, allowing students to argue not just against misinformation and conspiracies, but also to argue for them as an act of empathy and understanding. The applied nature of this exercise also empowers instructors with a way to concretely address this issue in the classroom. …

“People Don’T Always Show Up The Way You Want Them To”: Utilizing The Hunger Games To Differentiate Between Persuasion, Coercion, Propaganda, And Manipulation, Nancy Bressler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The ability to define and conceptualize persuasion and its nuances without engaging in coercion, propaganda, and/or manipulation can be difficult for students at first. This activity centralizes the fine points among these persuasive concepts. Students also recognize the role of their audience in the persuasive messages that they create. Rather than only having a conversation about the common characteristics of these terms and how they differ, students can observe them within the fictional movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Lawrence, 2014). After discussing these ideas with their classmates, students then apply what they have learned by creating persuasive messages …

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.

You Need This: Global Fast Fashion, Environment, And Consumption Culture, Alexandra Lamm

Student Work

In looking at how global production of clothing has increased and shifted, we see the impacts in places like workers rights, environmental issues and cultural consumption. Although vastly different, through examination we will see how all are intrinsically linked. We have reached a truly global economy, and even when threatened with negative consequences of mass consumption in our daily lives, the road to actual change in the fashion industry becomes harder in time due to our dependency on the industry as a whole.

Black Female Athletes’ Use Of Social Media For Activism: An Intersectional And Cyberfeminist Analysis Of U.S. Hammer-Thrower, Gwen Berry's 2019 And 2021 Podium Protests, Ariel Newell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Much attention has been paid to Black male athlete activism both historically and in the contemporary movement for black lives. Black female athletes have also made historic contributions as activists, and they continue to do so. However, Black female athlete activism has not always been acknowledged or heard. This is a problem, as Black women in American sports and society face overlapping racial and gender inequities and injustices that distinctly marginalize and oppress them. However, some Black female athlete activists (BFAAs) have begun using social media to challenge media narratives about themselves, to redefine what it means to be a …

Examining The Association Between Facebook Marketing And Applications Received In Graduate Programs At One University, Heather Danielle Campbell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the technological world continues to grow and expand, the use of social media marketing continues to increase. Graduate programs looking to increase the number of applications received can turn to Facebook to market their programs. This study looks at the use of self-presentation, from a graduate program level of Facebook use, to create content that reaches their target audience. Self-presentation allows graduate programs to control the types of marketing, posts, and content displayed regarding their program in an effort to be seen in a certain light. This study explores six types of Facebook content perceived as favorable in the …

The Pandemic Is Not Killing Us, The Police Are Killing Us: How The Change In The Subjective Reality Of Nigerian Citizens Brought About The #Endsars Protests, Olabode Adefemi Lawal

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Using the theory of the social construction of reality, I researched the multiple roles of social media in the Nigerian #EndSARS protests. I interviewed 16 Nigerian protesters from the #EndSARS movement for this study: eight participated in-person while eight protested in-person and digitally (hybrid). Participants were asked a series of scripted questions regarding the #EndSARS protests to understand the roles social media played in shaping the subjective reality of Nigerians during that time. Using thematic analysis, this thesis proposes that the change in the subjective reality of some Nigerians contributed to the October 2020 #EndSARS protests. This thesis also compares …

Local Broadcast Reporters Maintaining Social Responsibility And Mental Health While Serving A Community Under Lockdown, Mary-Morgan Ellis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study looks at local broadcast news reporters working in Northwest Arkansas before, at the start, and during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Research for this study includes a content study of the tweets and Twitter accounts of eleven local reporters. This study considers the social responsibility theory and examines how these eleven local reporters use the theory in their everyday work. Research found, though these reporters don’t credit the theory by name, they are still putting its guidelines into effect as a sort of moral compass when creating objective and representative news for their communities. The research also found that …

The Impact Of Media And Information Literacy On Students’ Acquisition Of The Skills Needed To Detect Fake News, Reem M. Al Zou'bi Dr.

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This research investigated the impact of media and information literacy (MIL) on education faculty students’ acquisition of the skills needed to detect fake news. A one-group experimental design was employed with a randomly selected sample of 100 Jordanian undergraduate students. The participants completed one pre-test and two post-tests, each of which consisted of 10 closed-ended questions and one open-ended question on how to detect fake news. The results indicated that studying MIL has an impact on students’ acquisition of the skills needed to detect fake news. The findings also suggested that the methods students employed to identify and detect fake …

Parasocial Relationships With Online Influencers, Sydney Reynolds

LSU Master's Theses

Current research on parasocial relationships has a focus on the media consumer and the media personae in television or film where the media consumer exerts time and emotional energy into the relationship while the character is unaware of their existence. The purpose of this study is to explore the Influencers and further conceptualize the term parasocial relationship to include these online mediated relationships and interactions. This study explores parasocial relationships and what is associated with them in the context of social media with respondents who consistently engage with social media Influencers. Social media Influencers address their audiences personally and share …

Pm Me The Truth? The Conditional Effectiveness Of Fact-Checks Across Social Media Sites, Austin Horng-En Wang

Political Science Faculty Research

People use multiple social media daily. Some platforms feature public interactions like Facebook, others emphasize private communications such as Line. Although misinformation is rampant on all platforms, literature on fact-checks (FC) focuses primarily on public ones. This article provides an integrated psychological model and argues that FC is less effective on private platforms. People expect to encounter “unwelcome” FCs (incongruent with their beliefs) on public platforms, but selectively approach the “welcome” FC on private platforms. An experiment (n = 601) and a national survey (n = 1060) were implemented to test these hypotheses in the 2020 Taiwan Presidential …