Social Media Commons^™

What Do You Meme? An Analysis Of How College Students At Central Washington University Use Memes, Skyler Smith

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Memes have become a key part of modern living on the Internet. However, it is still unclear who is creating, sharing and interacting with memes. This study examines meme use in college students at Central Washington University while also examining the definition of a meme within the population. Data were collected via questionnaire and interviews resulting in 14 responses and 18 total interviews conducted with 6 participants. Analysis suggests that college students use memes as an important component of private conversations and to reiterate their public identities. On the other hand, meme making is not as prevalent as other types …

The Technology Transfer Network Dynamic In The Information Technology Industry Of Yucatan, Mexico, Francisco Cima, Pilar Pazos, Ana Maria Canto

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The present paper explores the technology transfer linkages among universities, research centers, and private companies in Yucatan, Mexico's information technology industry. Social network analysis (SNA) was used as a method to identify the structural characteristics of the technology transfer collaborations, and the changes in the patterns of interactions among institutions over the years. Data were obtained from the National Council for Science and Technology repository (CONACYT). Associations formed to enhance technology advancement and innovation practices between 2010 and 2018 were analyzed in this study. Network transitivity, the patterns of triadic configurations, and heterophily were compared to uncover the evolution of …

Teaching And Learning News Media In Politically Unsettled Times, H. James Garrett, Mardi Schmeichel, Joseph Mcanulty, Sonia Janis

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

Our research explores and elaborates the ways preservice teachers come to know and begin conceptualizing ways of teaching about news media. We report on what we interpret as their understandings and, perhaps more importantly, their misunderstandings of media literacy as they relate to their emerging ideas about what it means to teach others about crucial social and political issues of our time. The students with whom the authors worked demonstrated problematic misperceptions and misunderstandings about important media concepts and topics. These preservice teachers misunderstood the ways in which news media is different from other media genres. Additionally, they often indicated …

Entertainment-Education Behind The Scenes: Case Studies For Theory And Practice, Lauren B. Frank, Paul Falzone

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Open Access book tracks the latest trends in the theory, research, and practice of entertainment-education, the field of communication that incorporates social change messaging into entertaining media. Sometimes called edutainment, social impact television, narrative persuasion, or cultural strategy, this approach to social and behavior change communication offers new opportunities including transmedia and digital formats. However, making media can be a chaotic process. The realities of working in the field and the rigid structures of scholarly evaluation often act as barriers to honest accounts of entertainment-education practice. In this collection of essays, experienced practitioners offer unique insight into how entertainment-education …

Youtube Sebagai Arena Produksi Dan Reproduksi Kultur Hip-Hop, Edra Ramadhan Praliansyah

Antropologi Indonesia

This article discusses the so-called YouTube rapper phenomenon, a new subgenre of hip-hop music whose emergence was caused by YouTube. Rap or hip-hop, which has a long history of intergroup resistance from stage to stage, has now moved to YouTube as a new battleground, producing the YouTube rapper subgenre. This article shows that the hip-hop community was very responsive to YouTube, which was their new stage, alongside Discord and Facebook as more textual media employable for debate and discussion. This article argues that YouTube has the capacity to become a center of hip-hop capitalization in Indonesia, as in elsewhere, because …

The Sound Of Identity: Audios And Hashtags As Nexuses Of Practice On Tiktok, Lindsey Wright

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study investigates TikTok audios and hashtags through the lens of digital literacy studies, using Ron Scollon's nexus of practice as a theoretical framework. The researcher sought to investigate literacy practices on TikTok, such as how lurkers and posters interact with the app in ways that both define and are defined by their individual identities. Relative to other social media platforms, there is a dearth of research on TikTok. This study contributes to the gap while also building off the findings of Kaye et al., who investigated authorship and (mis)attribution on the app, and Sachs et al.'s claim that Goffman's …

The "Information Pandemic": Technical Communication And False Information On Social Media In The Age Of Covid-19, Mia M. Stephens

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The goal of this thesis is to explore the various forms of rhetoric utilized in digital communities pertaining to COVID-19. The body of this thesis synthesizes social media data with original human subjects research, supplemented by a review of the literature surrounding digital communication. The analysis of these freestanding communities highlights the differences in communication throughout these spaces, as well as discusses their differences in reaction to disordered information. Through rhetorical analysis of the language employed by COVID-19 denialist communities on Twitter and a review of the experiences of COVID-19 “long-haulers” in COVID-19 related online communities (such as Facebook and …

From Screen To Shining Screen: Representations Of Youtube As A Democratic Platform For A Community Of Authentic Creators, Emily Tarvin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This dissertation analyzes representations of the social media platform YouTube, as described by its community and the company, in order to understand how the platform fits within American narratives of democratic technology. I argue that throughout different descriptions of YouTube, such as the corporate branding of the platform as democratic and the communal understanding of YouTube as outside of mainstream media, the language of democracy functions as a balancing act. The YouTube company, content creators, and regular viewers use democratic rhetoric to negotiate the ideals of community on the platform and capitalist endeavors, such as advertising and brand deals. I …

How Twitter Exposes Daily Whiteness Practices In Mexico And Argentina, Erika Maribel Heredia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This dissertation questions: How is the social imaginary about the meaning of being white in Mexico produced, reproduced, and problematized in Twitter Discourse? How is the social imaginary about the meaning of being white in Argentina produced, reproduced, and problematized in Twitter Discourse? How are the social imaginaries in Twitter Discourse in Mexico and Argentina related to the cultural and symbolic power exercised by the United States, and does US power influence the structure of privileges built around Whiteness? For doing that, I collected up to 10K tweets using two keywords to identify discourses surrounding Whiteness in tweets from users …

Effects Of Clickbait Headlines On User Responses: An Empirical Investigation, Supavich Fone Pengnate, Jeffrey Chen, Alex Young

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This study investigates the influence of a conventional method of delivering news headlines, clickbait, on online users’ perceptions and responses. An experiment was conducted on two groups of news headlines—traditional news and clickbait—to provide empirical evidence of the effects of clickbait on online users. The findings suggest that clickbait headlines can evoke users’ arousal and curiosity. In addition, the results from structural equation modeling fill the gap in the literature by providing evidence of the factors influencing users’ intention to read and share online news. The results reveal that while the major determinant of users’ intention to read news stories …

Branding Small Businesses In Small Communities, Lacey Jenkins

Masters Theses

Branding has grown into a vital part of communicating a brand to its audience members. Unfortunately, large portions of branding tactics are geared towards large corporations in large communities. Small and mid-sized businesses require different tactics in order to create a brand that effectively communicates its purpose and values to its consumers. Because of this, this thesis is looking at the branding tactics of a small business in Charleston, Illinois. This business, Phoenix Elite, showed weaknesses in multiple areas of its branding package. Using a literature review, the goal is to create a better understanding of what branding is, as …

Assessment Of Cooking Matters Facebook Platform To Promote Healthy Eating Behaviors Among Low-Income Caregivers Of Young Children In The United States: A Pilot Study, Qi Zhang, Jill Panichelli, Leigh Ann Hall

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

How best to deliver healthy-eating education through social media among a low-income population remains understudied. To assess the impact of the Cooking Matters (CM) Facebook page on healthy eating behaviors among low-income caregivers, we conducted a pre–post survey of new CM Facebook followers in early 2020. A convenience sample was recruited at baseline from WICShopper app users and the CM Facebook page. The recruited sample included 397 low-income caregivers of a child younger than 6 who never followed CM Facebook. Among the baseline caregivers, 184 completed the follow-up survey. Paired t-test and McNemar–Bowker tests were conducted to compare the outcomes …

Cultivation Theory: Media Effects Toward Consumer Evaluations Of The Criminal Courts, Lindsey Dale Elliott

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

A substantial body of literature connects media effects to consumer perceptions of the criminal justice system. Research on the topic of cultivation theory has highlighted that an increased fear of crime within the general populace, due to an exaggeration of violence and criminal activity in the mass media, has spurred increased support for punitive policing, harsher sentencing, and positive feelings toward capital punishment. However, no research exists to explicate the cultivation of consumer perceptions toward the criminal courts. This study examines the impact of media consumption through television, the internet, and social media on consumer evaluations of the criminal courts. …

The Consent Of Man: An Examination Of Privacy Awareness, Surveillance, And Privacy Policy (Mis)Use, Will Reilley Silberman

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The problem of privacy is nuanced, pervasive, and requires an elevated approach. Given the lack of consistency with regard to privacy’s conceptualization and operationalization, research is needed that examines variables related to privacy to better understand how privacy operates in the present day. This dissertation aims to better understand nuances of privacy by gauging knowledge of online privacy, technological affordances related to privacy, and knowledge of surveillance. In this study, human subjects from a large southern University were presented with an opportunity to use a privacy-invasive smartphone application. After doing so, they viewed one of three privacy policies. Finally, they …

The Persuasive Power Of Instagram Metrics: Examining How User-Generated Cues Affect Consumer’S Perception Of Influencer Credibility, Madison Lea Wallace

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Since 2019, Instagram has been testing the removal of a visible like count on posts. This change particularly pertains to social media influencers whose popularity is visibly displayed through the number of likes and comments their posts receive. Therefore, the present study experimentally investigated how varying levels of the like (i.e. hidden, approximate, and exact) and comment (hidden and exact) display on Instagram’s Explore page affect user’s credibility evaluations of unknown influencers. Guided by the Heuristic Systematic Model, MAIN Model and Warranting Principle, this study conducted a 3 (like display: hidden likes, approximated number of likes, and exact number of …

Image Source Identification Using Convolutional Neural Networks In Iot Environment, Yan Wang, Qindong Sun, Dongzhu Rong, Shancang Li, Li Da Xu

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

Digital image forensics is a key branch of digital forensics that based on forensic analysis of image authenticity and image content. The advances in new techniques, such as smart devices, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial images, and social networks, make forensic image analysis play an increasing role in a wide range of criminal case investigation. This work focuses on image source identification by analysing both the fingerprints of digital devices and images in IoT environment. A new convolutional neural network (CNN) method is proposed to identify the source devices that token an image in social IoT environment. The experimental results …

2021 International Crisis And Risk Communication Conference Program, Conference Organizers

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

Program to the to the 11th Annual International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference sponsored by the Nicholson School of Communication and Media.

Free Asynchronous Professional Development By, From, And For Instructional Designers: How Informal Learning Opportunities Shape Our Professional Learning And Design Practices, Pauline S. Muljana, Kristen Austion, Kayla Jutzi, Lora B. Pezzell, Malgorzata (Gosia) Pytel

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Instructional designers (IDs) need to maintain an understanding of the current trends and issues within the field. Pursuing professional learning informally supports IDs’ effort to keep up with current trends and issues because it is not restricted by curriculum and time. Professional development (PD) offered by Professional Development for Instructional Designers (PD4IDs) learning group can address issues related to geographical and funding limitations. This application paper presents the coordination of PD based on the conceptual framework (e.g., Community of Practice and Social Network Knowledge Construction) and reflections of several PD4IDs members with various roles. The reflections indicate the benefits of …

The Role Of The Internet In Intelligence Gathering And Spreading Propaganda, Leila Halawi

Publications

The analysis of American intelligence as an academic discipline exhibits an excellent level of integration regarding subject matter and methods from military history and strategic studies. The knowledge and information revolution steered a different online culture of sharing and oversharing. While the study of intelligence has primarily been associated with historical methods thus far, opportunities for innovation are also afforded by advances in theoretical and conceptual thinking about intelligence. Such revolutions can help intelligence history while concurrently enlightening the disputes on intelligence in the twentyfirst century. The takings from the information age consist of low cost for access to data …

Takin' Care Of Small Business: The Rise Of Stakeholder Influence, William P. Jimenez, Xiaohong (Violet) Xu, Emily D. Campion, Andrew A. Bennett

Management Faculty Publications

In this Exchange, we consider three crucial boundary conditions that Barnett, Henriques, and Husted (2020) overlooked in their model of diminished stakeholder influence. Although we agree that social media platforms have weakened stakeholder influence in certain conditions, such is not the case for all firms, all stakeholders, or all situations. Drawing from socio-cognitive and self-determination theories, we contend that (a) independent, owner-managed small firms present a context wherein information overload is rendered less of an issue because the information about the firm is more salient to locals; (b) stakeholders can be motivated to influence firms via social media platforms, which …

Re-Spatializing Gangs: An Exponential Random Graph Model Of Twitter Data To Analyze The Geospatial Distribution Of Gang Member Connections, Ryan J. Roberts

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Gang studies often use location-based approaches to explain gang members’ interconnectedness. Although this perspective remains consistent with the proximity principle that the smaller the geographic space, the greater the likelihood of observing connections between individuals, location-based studies limit our understanding of gang member connections to narrowly defined geographic spaces at specific points in time. The advent of social media has re-spatialized gang member interconnectedness to unbounded geographic spaces, where the preservation of online activity can extend indefinitely. Despite having an online presence, most research examining the digital footprint of gangs tends to be descriptive. This study collects Twitter data to …

Teaching College Athletes Social Media Appropriateness, Christina Murray

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

It may come as no surprise that Twitter is the most popular social media platform where student athletes, particularly men, post inappropriate content. Male student athletes’ inappropriate tweets have become such a problem for universities, athletic departments, and the NCAA that coaches are forced to place a ban on their players’ social media usage or hire third party monitoring systems. Unfortunately, these reactive responses have not alleviated the problem of athletes differentiating what content is appropriate or inappropriate to tweet on their Twitter accounts. Analysis of the data collected from scholarly journal articles, textbooks, and popular press articles revealed that …

Is Care In The Air?: A Crisis Ethics Case Study Of American Airlines’ Communication During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lily V. Hicks

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research proposes a qualitative case study of American Airlines’ communication during the first month of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Data from the airline’s press releases along with its tweets and a sample of organizational responses to those tweets are offered for proposed analysis using the lenses of Situational Crisis Communication Theory, the Applied Model of Care Considerations, and the body of crisis literature on audience coping and emotions during crises. This in-depth look at a unique communication phenomenon will be a fundamental step in examining how airline communication exhibits ethics or lack thereof and is related to people’s emotions …

Lights, Camera, Activity! A Systematic Review Of Research On Learner-Generated Videos, Bridgette Shade Epps, Tian Luo, Pauline S. Muljana

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Aim/Purpose

The current literature discusses the use and benefits of learner-generated videos (LGVs). However, it rarely addresses any correlation between the types of subjects that are best suited for using these videos or what techniques should accompany the use of LGVs.

Background

This systematic review synthesizes current literature to identify patterns and implications that develop from the use of LGVs so that their future use can be both consistent and effective. This paper also reviews the studies to establish the most consistent educational benefits that emerge from this activity.

Methodology

Employing the Preferred-Reporting of Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses …

Mental Health Consequences Of Covid-19 Media Coverage: The Need For Effective Crisis Communication Practices, Zhaohui Su, Dean Mcdonnell, Jun Wen, Metin Kozak, Jaffar Abbas, Sabina Šegalo, Xiaoshan Li, Junaid Ahmad, Ali Cheshmehzangi, Yuyang Cai, Ling Yang, Yu Tao Xiang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021, The Author(s). During global pandemics, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), crisis communication is indispensable in dispelling fears, uncertainty, and unifying individuals worldwide in a collective fight against health threats. Inadequate crisis communication can bring dire personal and economic consequences. Mounting research shows that seemingly endless newsfeeds related to COVID-19 infection and death rates could considerably increase the risk of mental health problems. Unfortunately, media reports that include infodemics regarding the influence of COVID-19 on mental health may be a source of the adverse psychological effects on individuals. Owing partially to insufficient crisis communication practices, media and news …

Internet Memes: Leaflet Propaganda Of The Digital Age, Joshua Troy Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

Internet memes are one of the latest evolutions of “leaflet” propaganda and an effective tool in the arsenal of digital persuasion. In the past such items were dropped from planes, now they find their way into social media across multiple platforms and their territory is global. Internet memes can be used to target specific groups to help build and solidify tribal bonds. Due to the ease of creation, and their ability to constantly reaffirm axiomatic tribal ideas, they have become an adroit tool allowing for mass influence across international borders. This text explores the link between internet memes and their …

Ranking Influential Nodes Of Fake News Spreading On Mobile Social Networks, Yunfei Xing, Xiwei Wang, Fang-Kwei Wang, Yang Shi, Wu He, Haowu Chang

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

Online fake news can generate a negative impact on both users and society. Due to the concerns with spread of fake news and misinformation, assessing the network influence of online users has become an important issue. This study quantifies the influence of nodes by proposing an algorithm based on information entropy theory. Dynamic process of influence of nodes is characterized on mobile social networks (MSNs). Weibo (i.e., the Chinese version of microblogging) users are chosen to build the real network and quantified influence of them is analyzed according to the model proposed in this paper. MATLAB is employed to simulate …

Uses And Gratification Theory & How Tiktok Affects The Body Images Of Young Adults, Elizabeth Mackey

Capstone Showcase

This essay explains the Uses and Gratification Theory along with the mental effects TikTok has on young adults in terms of body image. It explores the dynamics of why and how young adults continue to utilize the application despite its harmful effects it has on them. Between hateful comments on ones own videos and comparing oneself to others, there is a lot of opportunity for TikTok to decline a persons perception of their body. However, due to the concepts of the Uses and Gratification Theory, we can see the reasoning behind why these qualities are ignored when choosing what media …

“With Facebook, You Have A Voice:” Neoliberalism And Activism In Mark Zuckerberg’S Georgetown Address, Calvin Coker, Ryan Corso-Gonzales

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

In October of 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg streamed a speech from Georgetown University defending the company’s practice of not regulating or rejecting blatantly false political advertisements placed on their site. The speech, part of his “transparency tour” to allay concerns about the growing social power and stunning irresponsibility of Facebook, presents a troubling articulation of “voice” along neoliberal lines that atomizes the individual, separates activism from communities, and conflates activity on Facebook with free expression. In this essay, we use rhetorical scholarship on voice to illuminate how Zuckerberg’s speech both relies on and retrenches neoliberal rationality to flatten difference …

The Dangers Of Free Speech In The Modern World, Katie Yoak

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In our modern day individuals often feel safe being able to say whatever they want from behind a computer. The ability to say whatever we want online has both positive and negative effects. This digital form of communication can bring out both the best and worst in us. Many people in our modern age take this technology and use it to engage in aggressive behavior that may not normally occur or be seen by as many people. In this modern day of internet aggression I wish to explore how the ability to speak freely online and through social media services …