Social Media Commons^™

Make History Accessible: The Case For Youtube, Rohit Kandala

Honors Scholar Theses

Public interest in history is alarmingly low, and this thesis aims to help reverse that trend by recommending the adoption of YouTube as history’s community tool. The majority of this thesis assesses YouTube’s merits as a suitable platform for enthusiasts and professionals alike to share their interests and thereby grow the public’s interest in history. This paper also includes other authors' sentiments on digital history and incorporates it into the argument.

Using The Theory Of Emotional Stakeholders To Experimentally Test The Influence Of Proxy Communicators About Organizational Crises In Digital News Reports, Alicia Mason, Elizabeth Spencer, Kelley Macek, Alison Smith, Stephanie Potter

Faculty Submissions

The emergence of new and social media has transformed the way that stakeholders and organizations interact between and amongst each other. Online news consumers are now able to directly respond to crisis news reports by offering their own interpretation, thus expanding the diversity of viewpoints audiences are exposed to (Carpenter, 2010; Springer, 2014). Using the Theory of Emotional Stakeholders framework our study aims (1) to understand how positive and negative user-generated comments in response to online news reports of crisis events impacts audience perceptions of organizational blame; (2) to examine the persuasive effects of user comments when expert or official …

User's Ability To Detect Fake News In Online Environments., Aleeza N. Gardner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Technology has drastically changed the way people consume news. Due to the rise of online spaces built for users to share content, there has been a rise in the spread of false information. Social media platforms, Facebook specifically, provide their users with personalized content based on their interests. The ease of spreading information online coupled with the anonymity of the Internet, creates a breeding ground for potential misuse of information. This study sought to examine how users view themselves and others were influenced by fake news on social media if the post is denoted as fake, or if the post …

Political Speech On Twitter: A Sentiment Analysis Of Tweets And News Coverage Of Local Gun Policy, Mohamed Lemine M'Bareck

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the gun debate has been one of America’s most politically contentious issues, Twitter has become, in recent years a popular venue for politicians to carry out the debate. The present thesis is aimed at better understanding of political speech on Twitter, as well as the ways in which political frames and sentiment on Twitter differ from those of news media coverage regarding gun policy in the state of Arkansas.

The study uses framing theory, which assumes that both news media and individuals use frames to construct perceptions and narratives about issues. Adopting an automated content analysis as a method, …

Communication & The Body Positivity Movement, Alyssa Cannaday

Student Scholar Showcase

The Body Positivity Movement has gained a presence on social media. In this study, social media outlets were examined (such as Twitter and Instagram) to explore the communication within the movement, both from those advocating body positivity and from individuals responding in the comments. A variety of respondents, most of whom were women, give a broad perspective of the movement as a whole. Some respondents who contribute their viewpoints have educational backgrounds in counseling or work in the field. Themes uncovered in this study reveal the Body Positivity Movement to be welcoming, open minded, and expressive of messages of self-love …

Toxic Culture: An Emotion And Sentiment Analysis Of College Football Fans In Relation To Controversy And Win-Loss Records, Joshua R. Jackson

LSU Master's Theses

Fans of certain college football teams will experience a wide array of emotions when their team is involved in a scandal. This study examined the fan bases of three university football teams as they learn about and react on social media to their schools and head coaches becoming implicated in controversies. Under the protection of those with similar likes and the secrecy of social media, users can voice opinions in favor of and against the football team’s firing of a coach or handling of an investigation. Fan bases analyzed in the study are Ohio State University, Maryland University, and Baylor …

Ua12/2/2 2019 Talisman: Paradise, Wku Student Life

WKU Administration Documents

2019 Talisman yearbook.

• Good, Hannah. Paradise
• Morgan, Chelsea. What’s Your Paradise – Caden Dosier, Kenny Ott, Renesha Griffin, Jade Grabeel
• Rzayeva, Manzar. Don’t Wake Me Up Yet
• Fletcher, Griffin. Meet the Parrot Heads – Jimmy Buffett
• McCormick, Dillon. The Birds & the Bees – Sex Education
• Mohr, Olivia. The Gods Aren’t Dead – Samantha Williams, Paganism
• Robb, Hayley. Beyond the Rep – John Huffman, Buddy House, CrossFit
• Frodge, Jordan. Darkness Has Enveloped Me
• Baumgarten, Alex. Make Room – Bedrooms
• Brett, Amelia. A Place to Grow – Baker Arboretum
• Gordon, Zora. Backyard Attractions – Lost River Cave, Flea Land, Historic Railpark …

Must Stay Woke: Black Celebrity Voices Of Dissent In The Post Post-Racial Era, Lily Kunda

Institute for the Humanities Theses

In today’s racially charged climate there is an expectation that black celebrities cry out #BlackLivesMatter, get on the field to #TakeAKnee and be #UnapologeticallyBlack whenever they are in the spotlight. This climate transcends what was once seen as a post-racial America— a time where the media portrayed race as no longer being an issue— and encourages black celebrities to address racism. Prior research on black celebrities by Sarah J. Jackson, Ellis Cashmore, bell hooks, James Baldwin and others acknowledges the historical burden placed on black celebrities to publicly discuss racism and represent blackness in order to challenge dominant narratives. Today, …

Initiatives To Counter Fake News In Selected Countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Peter Roudik, Graciela Rodriguez-Ferrand, Edouardo Soares, Tariq Ahmad, Laney Zhang, George Sadek, Nicolas Boring, Jenny Gesley, Ruth Levush, Sayuri Umeda, Hanibal Goitom, Kelly Buchanan, Norma C. Gutiérrez, Astghik Grigoryan, Elin Hofverberg, Clare Feikert-Ahalt

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Comparative Summary by Peter Roudik, Director of Legal Research

This report examines the legal approaches of fifteen countries, representing all regions of the world, to the emerging problem of manipulation with “fake news” using mass and social media, especially the impact of fake news on ongoing political processes and elections, and the legislative measures undertaken to counteract the dissemination of false information. Fake news as a phenomenon is not new and has been known since ancient times, but the present-day proliferation of digital and social media platforms, which allow for much broader distribution of information to a global audience, makes …

The Unfree Space Of Play: Emergence And Control In The Videogame And The Platform, Logan Brown

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This article attempts to understand the economic and informatic ramifications of the convergence between increasingly connective games and massive online platforms by considering recent trends in both that center around designing for emergence. Scholarship on emergence as a property of games overwhelmingly treats emergent design as a liberating force that privileges player agency in a virtual space. Yet, as games fuse with surrounding platform ecosystems like Steam, Facebook, and Google, those emergent behaviors are subject to vast systems of inscription that analyze user behavior in order to reshape the free space of emergence and extract greater social and financial capital. …

Key Users, Hashtags, And Topics: Network Analyses Of Twitter During Natural Disasters, Rui Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

During natural disasters, social media can play prominent roles in how publics learn and communicate about disasters, as well as improve disaster communication and operations. The open and flat structure of Twitter platform makes Twitter a suitable platform for disaster communication.

The purpose of this study is to explore the key users, hashtags, and topics in the Twitter networks of natural disasters. In doing so, this study takes a multi-method approach including big data mining and a series of network analyses. This study has collected 9,716,677 tweets during five natural disasters: Louisiana Flood 2016, Hurricane Florence 2018, Hurricane Michael 2018, …

Revenge Pornography: An Analysis Of Privacy, Obscenity, And The First Amendment, Kamrin Baker

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

An important issue in modern communication law and policy is the emergence of harassment via the Internet and social media. One form of such harassment is revenge pornography, the sharing of sexual images or videos without the consent of the individual depicted, usually at the hands of an ex-lover. In punishing the posters and purveyors of revenge pornography, perpetrators are often convicted of unrelated crimes such as identify theft or fraud, furthering the silence of revenge pornography. This new challenge in law raises some serious questions about the intersections of obscenity, privacy and the First Amendment in the effort to …

Missing The (Turning) Point: The Erosion Of Democracy At An American University, Anthony Fucci, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

On August 25, 2017, student members of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing conservative organization who advocates for smaller government and free market enterprise, recruited on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) campus. Members of the UNL community protested nearby. Part of the protest was recorded on video and released to social media leading to harsh public criticism that accused the university of restricting free speech and being an unsafe environment for conservative students. Drawing on cognitive linguistics (e.g. metonymy, framing) and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), this paper explores how the TPUSA incident at UNL was recontextualized in local and …

미투 운동은 성매매도 포함하여야 한다 (#Metoo Must Include Prostitution), Melissa Farley

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Political Communication, Marita Gronnvoll

Syllabi

The purpose of this course is to explore various aspects of political communication in the UnitedStates. Our first topic will be presidential rhetoric and the rhetorical presidency. As we explorethis topic, we will investigate the historical development of presidential communication and themajor genres which help shape and structure that communication. Our second topic will bepolitical campaigns and the evolution of the “long campaign,” particularly its inescapableconnection to mass media. Our third topic will be grassroots and resistance politicalcommunication. Here, our focus will be on the nontraditional approaches taken by ordinarycitizens and citizen groups as they strive to have their voices …

Persuasion, Marita Gronnvoll

Syllabi

This class will study symbolic communication intended to influence beliefs, attitudes, values, andbehaviors. The course will focus on the critical assessment of persuasive messages, with additionalattention to the theories and research behind persuasive message construction.

Topics In Media History, Jeffrey Owens

Syllabi

Topics in Media History provides an in-depth study of the history of one particular medium (e.g. film, radio, television, or the internet). It will cover the development of media technology, the structure of media institutions and their regulation, and the social and cultural significance of these media. This class is repeatable with change in topic.

The Visual Presidency Of Donald Trump's First Hundred Days: Political Image Making And Digital Media, Ryan T. Strand

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

From frequent scrum photos of the president holding up signed executive orders in the Oval Office to images of the president energetically sitting behind the wheel of a Mack truck parked outside his back door, like previous administrations, visuals have been central to Donald Trump's presidency. This chapter analyzes the visuals on White House social media accounts (i.e., Twitter and Facebook) in Trump's first 100 days office and explores how his administration used visuals as an essential vehicle for storytelling, image building, and persuading. Building on previous research on the communicative functions of visual symbols in politics, the chapter finds …

Communication & Popular Culture, Marita Gronnvoll

Syllabi

This course examines popular culture and the emergence of mass culture in the United States. Itstarts from the premise that popular culture, far from being a frivolous or debased alternative to“high culture”, is in fact an important site of popular expression, social instruction, and culturalconflict, and thus deserves critical attention. We examine theoretical texts that help us to “read”popular culture, even as we study specific forms and artifacts of popular culture: from televisionshows to Hollywood movies, graphic novels to advertisements, and popular music to fiction.Throughout the course, we ground what we call “culture” in political, economic, and socialcontexts. We pay …

Containing The Jeremiad: Understanding Paradigms Of Anxiety In Global Climate Change Experience, Brian Glaser

English Faculty Articles and Research

This essay uses Bion’s concept of “containing” to read the psychological dynamics of jeremiads about global climate change, arguing that their structure reveals a strategy of communication that may be useful for more broadly raising awareness about this challenging state of the planet. More specifically, I argue that contemporary global climate change jeremiads have a structure that first elicits alarm and then moves to discuss solutions, and that this structure may be beneficial to those who are awakening to the reality of global climate change by rendering anxiety bearable and therefore open to purposive and creative response.

#Metoo And The Politics Of Collective Healing: Emotional Connection As Contestation, Allison Page, Jacquelyn Arcy

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Participants in the #MeToo movement on Twitter expressed emotions like rage, pain, and solidarity in their personal accounts of sexual violence. This article explores the digital circulation of these affects and considers how the outpouring of tweets about sexual harassment and abuse contribute to a feminist politics centered on collective healing. The particular emotions expressed in the #MeToo Twitter archive subvert the logics of quantification and visibility that undergird popular feminism and the attention economy, and produce an affective excess that works toward movement founder Tarana Burke’s original project of “mass healing.” At a moment wherein popular feminism emphasizes individual …

2019 Icrcc Proceedings Table Of Contents, Conference Organizers

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

These proceedings are a representative sample of the presentations given by professional practitioners and academic scholars at the 2019 International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference (ICRCC) held March 11-13, 2019. The ICRCC is an annual event that takes place the second week in March in beautiful sunny Orlando, Florida. The conference hosts are faculty and staff from the Nicholson School of Communication. The goal of the ICRCC is to bring together prominent professional practitioners and academic scholars that work directly with crisis and risk communication on a daily basis. We define crisis and risk broadly to include, for example, natural …

Social Listening During Crises: A Practitioner Guide For Crisis Communication On Social Media, Cory Young, Hunter Simmons, Margaret Stewart

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

Stewart & Wilson (2016) created the STREMII model (pronounced STREAM-ee) as a means to assist institutions and organizations with social media crisis communication using a six-stage cyclical process, including: (1) social listening, (2) targeting audience(s), (3) engaging & responding, (4) monitoring and evaluating, (5) interacting, and (6) implementing changes [1] . Stewart & Young (2017) revisited the model, refining the stages to highlight the need for ongoing social listening and responsive engagement across all levels of crisis [2]. At present, the model is theoretical and applied only within a pedagogical context. In order for the STREMII model to be useful …

Electoral Competitiveness And Social Media Strategies: Who Goes Negative When And Why?, Connor Brown

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Social media is becoming more integrated into every politician’s career. Previous research suggests that throughout an election a challenger is the one who is more likely to use negative campaigning while running for office. I analyze what strategies are being used by challengers and incumbent candidates while running for office. The data I use is provided by Zachary Auter and Jeffrey Fine (2016). Their data looks at both the 2010 election where we began to see politicians use Facebook ads in their campaigns. I find that a challenger is more likely to adopt negative messages while they are running and …

Influencer Marketing: Consumer Responses To Instagram Influencers, Gloriann Schaefer

Senior Honors Theses

Influencer marketing is the promotion of services and products through individuals with a large social media following. The research contained within this thesis will discuss the topic of influencer marketing and the responses of the consumers targeted. This study observed the different types of responses and comments that followers of Instagram influencers left on their posted content.

The themes and characteristics of responses of Instagram influencer followers will be found through a qualitative content analysis. The study is supported by self-presentation theory, which suggests that individuals, in this case social media influencers, present themselves in a way that results in …

Homeland And Ethnic News Consumption Among Ghanaians In The Washington Metropolitan Area, Kwabena Boateng Bediako

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Among the many applications of the Internet is its use for news. Ghanaian immigrants, like others living away from their country of birth, use the Web to access news from home via ethnic media in their host country or homeland media or both. Employing online surveys and telephone interviews, this study explores the daily use of online media by Ghanaians resident in the Washington metropolitan area to obtain news about their native country. It assesses how factors like demography, length of stay abroad and devices used affect time spent daily on the Internet looking for news as well as the …

Personal Integrative Needs And Use Of Social Media Among Information Professionals, Ashfaq Hussain, Dr. Taimoor-Ul-Hassan Prof., Dr. Ghulam Shabir Prof.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This article has been designed to examine personal integrative needs from social media among information professionals in the conceptual framework of uses and gratification theory. Personal integrative type need includes elements of both cognitive and affective needs and relates to firming credibility, respect, status, confidence and stability Gratification sough and gratification obtained are two distinct components of the uses and gratification theory. For this quantitative research, study a self-administered survey questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants of the study. Sample of this study was 700 information professionals necessarily user of social media. Finding of this study testifies …

Tweeting In Public: How Florida's Public Information Officers Use Twitter To Engage The Publics They Serve, Jessica B. Scott

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study expands Twitter interactivity research in the area of public relations. A content analysis of tweets from public information Twitter accounts in Florida counties examines the degree to which county public information officers interact with the publics on Twitter. Engagement on Twitter is examined using a coding scheme adapted from previous research (McMillan, 2002; Otterbacher, Shapiro, & Hemphill, 2012; Parmelee & Deeley, 2017), which is a more sophisticated measure of interactivity than merely counting the presence of replies and retweets. Findings indicate that when public information officers engage in mutual discourse, or the exchange of information in two-way communication, …

The Global Disinformation Order: 2019 Global Inventory Of Organised Social Media Manipulation, Samantha Bradshaw, Philip N. Howard

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Executive Summary

Over the past three years, we have monitored the global organization of social media manipulation by governments and political parties. Our 2019 report analyses the trends of computational propaganda and the evolving tools, capacities, strategies, and resources.

1. Evidence of organized social media manipulation campaigns which have taken place in 70 countries, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in 2017. In each country, there is at least one political party or government agency using social media to shape public attitudes domestically.

2.Social media has become co-opted by many authoritarian regimes. In 26 countries, computational propaganda …

The Legitimation & Networked Unification Of #Nodapl: Diverse Discourses Of Value Validate A Collective Identity, Jacqueline Marie Ouellette

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

NoDAPL was, first and foremost, an Indigenous-led resistance against the construction of a pipeline in North Dakota. It was also a movement that built solidarity, bridging networks between international Indigenous peoples, Black Lives Matter activists, veterans, and feminists. This discourse analysis of social media and digital texts addresses the networked publics, collective identities, social capital, and intersectionality in applying Van Leeuwen’s (2007) understanding of legitimation. In doing so, the practice of reproducing and extending the values, themes, and images of various algorithmic imaginaries will be explored, as they relate to network homophily, identity construction, and mobilization. This study will argue …