Social Media Commons^™

A Content Analysis Of Social Media Posts Among Recreational Cyclists: A Gender Perspective, Eunjung Kim, Kijung Choi, James Lappeman, Jari Salo

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Recreational cyclists are pertinent but rarely studied leisure and tourism segment. Recreational cycling has traditionally been considered as a ‘masculine stereotyped’ sport. The purpose of the research is to better understand a gendered consumer view of recreational cycling and to possibly promote recreational cycling to women and men in countries like South Africa with keen interests of recreational cycling in the form of sport tourism. This research employs a content analysis of social media posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as a research method. Specifically, the gendered nature of recreational cycling is focused upon. In total, 2,504 posts from 1,598 …

The Curious Cases Of Cancel Culture, Loydie Solange Burmah

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Cancel culture is a complex phenomenon that challenges our notions of civic practices, perpetuates surveillance practices amongst individuals who encourage digital public shaming and obscures communal ideas regarding accountability. Hence, it is imperative to complicate and nuance “cancel culture” to understand the different meanings derived from its diverse mechanizations. Other matrices such as power, platform governance, decoloniality, and more bolster ideas about the phenomenon’s extensive sociocultural reach. Using a critical digital ethnographic approach, I exemplify with the analysis two cancel culture cases uncovering themes such as selective cancelations, cancelation effectiveness, performative activism, performative wokeness, hypocrisy, victimization, and empathy. This study …

Corporate Social Advocacy On The Blm Movement: A Content Analysis Of Corporate Responses Via Instagram, Oromidayo Racheal Tunji-Ajayi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black Lives Matter (BLM) has been a concern in the US since 2013, thereby becoming an increasing interest. Several US corporations’ attention has been drawn to BLM due to its radical strategy on social media to facilitate engagements. Research shows that a company's engagement in activism by taking a stance on socio-political issues often records growth. Also, scholars have focused on corporate responses to BLM through the lenses of the implications or intentions of the brand’s engagement. This study, however, analyzes 236 corporate Instagram BLM posts through the lenses of the attributes of their responses. It is assumed that brand …

Public Sentiment Is Everything: Host-Country Public Sentiment Toward Home Country And Acquisition Ownership During Institutional Transition, Daphne W. Yiu, William P. Wan, Kelly Xing Chen, Xiaocong Tian

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Under strict scrutiny of public governance primed by international relation tensions, geopolitics, and the rise of social movements and public activism in the globalized economy, public sentiment is exerting increasing pressure on multinational corporations (MNCs). Utilizing the context of inward acquisition, a sensitive cross-border action that often triggers sentiment of host-country nationals, we theorize from the public sentiment perspective and the public thermostat analogy that foreign acquirers will adjust their ownership levels in target firms according to how they perceive to be acceptable and legitimate as expressed by host-country nationals' public sentiment toward their home country. Using a sample of …

The Challenges Facing Press Freedom In The West Bank After June 2007: A Study On A Group Of Communicators In The Palestinian Media, Saib Nasr Allah, Dr. Mohammed Ahmad A Dawabsheh

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

This study aims to identify the powers given by the Palestinian Press and Publication Law to the administrative authority in the West Bank in restraining the media content, recognize the procedures and the constrains imposed on the media by the Palestinian Press and Publication Law and identify the media laws regulating the freedom of press in the Palestinian Territories.

This study is descriptive, which use surveys and e-mail investigation as tools to collect data from a 90-communicator group in the West Bank. The subjects work for the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. The study concluded that the Palestinian Press and Publication Law …

Media And Social Media Best Practices For Feminist Activist Groups And Organizations, Arien Rozelle

The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal

Feminist organizations and activist groups from the Women’s Suffrage movement to the Women’s March have utilized media relations tactics and techniques to share organizational messages. Over time, the art of media relations has evolved from a tactical role to a strategic necessity, one that is vital to the success of any activist organization or group as they seek to inform, educate and/or persuade their intended audience through the use of media and social media.

This essay identifies best practices for feminist activist groups and organizations to help begin or improve their media relations efforts, ranging from initial hiring, to media …

Operating The Digital Space In The Age Of Protest Participation, Kyle Stanley

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines young African American adults’ usage of social media and other digital spaces as tools to build community given the rise in protest participation in North American (U. S.) society while at the height of a global health pandemic. Since early adulthood is a time where African Americans are most active online, this study will examine how and why those African Americans are turning to digital spaces to find social connections. Racism and racial injustice are two of the most pressing issues in the African American community, and it is clear that it can be an emotionally laborious …

Communication Outside Of The Home Through Social Media During Covid-19, Natalie Pennington

Communication Studies Faculty Research

This study explored, through quantitative and qualitative survey analysis (N = 307), the role of communication through social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected in April 2020 to understand how individuals engaged with their network through social media and the subsequent relationship with subjective well-being, conceptualized as loneliness, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect. Results identified that passive social media use contributed to greater loneliness and a decrease in life satisfaction. Some active use of social media contributed to an increase in positive affect. However, other active uses increased feelings of loneliness. Results also spoke to …

#Omg - Omissions As Media Gaffes: Endorsements In Social Media Advertisements And Influencers' Disclosure Obligations, Maximillian Plail

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

Court decisions in Germany tend to draw little media interest, but an exception to this comes in the form of decisions relating to disclosure obligations on social media, such as the recent case involving Cathy Hummels. Due to enforcement issues and the paucity of damages awarded to individual and companies, there is a significant lack of literature on this field of law. As a consequence, this study, which compares the U.S. and Germany while also proposing how, exactly, the law needs to change, is unique. Hardly any other area of law is home to this much ambiguity that affects such …

Spread Like Wildfire: Assessing The Utility Of Local Facebook Groups To Inspire Citizen Communication During A Disaster, Colby Riehl

Dissertations and Theses

As traditional sources of local news and information decline, community-oriented social media services (e.g. Nextdoor, Facebook groups) are expanding (Masden, Grevet, Grinter, Gilbert, and Edwards, 2014). Thus far, community-oriented social media use remains relatively understudied. Not only do we not understand how citizens utilize these resources, we are also generally unaware of the content that they create and access using them. A survey of residents of Oregon City, OR and its environs, which were impacted by the Oregon wildfires of 2020, was conducted to assess the differences among citizens who use a local Facebook group & those who do not. …

The New Editors: Refining First Amendment Protections For Internet Platforms, Mailyn Fidler

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

This Article envisions what it would look like to tailor the First Amendment editorial privilege to the multifaceted nature of the internet, just as courts have done with media in the offline world. It reviews the law of editorial judgment offline, where protections for editorial judgment are strong but not absolute, and its nascent application online. It then analyzes whether the diversity of internet platforms and their functions alter how the Constitution should be applied in this new setting. First Amendment editorial privilege, as applied to internet platforms, is often treated by courts and platforms themselves as monolithic and equally …

Towards A Large-Scale Intelligent Mobile-Argumentation And Discovering Arguments, Controversial Topics And Topic-Oriented Focal Sets In Cyber-Argumentation, Najla Althuniyan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

User-generated content (UGC) platforms host different forms of information, such as audio, video, pictures, and text. They have many online applications, such as social media, blogs, photo and video sharing, customer reviews, debate, and deliberation platforms. Usually, the content of these platforms is provided and consumed by users. Most of these platforms, mainly social media and blogs, are often used for online discussion. These platforms offer tools for users to share and express opinions. Commonly, people from different backgrounds and origins discuss opinions about various issues over the Internet. Furthermore, discussions among users contain substantial information from which knowledge about …

Live The Local: Exploring The Relationship Between Local News Media And Cities Undergoing Downtown Revitalization, Allison Wise

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rise in suburban development has caused many downtowns across the United States to lose residents, businesses, attractions and community engagement. City officials and planners work to create policies, designs and urban development that help to revitalize downtowns. However, how do we bring people into our downtowns to live, work and play? That is where local news coverage can have an impact. The question arises: What can city officials, event organizers, business leaders do to foster a vibrant downtown? News outlets (e.g., television, print, digital) and their corresponding social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, can act as " …

Online Review Solicitations Reduce Extremity Bias In Online Review Distributions And Increase Their Representativeness, Hülya Karaman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Representative online customer reviews are critical to the effective functioning of the Internet economy. In this study, I investigate the representativeness of online review distributions to examine how extremity bias and conformity impact it, and explore whether online review solicitations alter representativeness. Past research on extreme distribution of online ratings commonly relied solely on observed public online ratings. One strength of the current paper is that I observe the private satisfaction ratings of customers regardless of whether they choose to write an online review or not. I show that both extremity bias and conformity exist in unsolicited online word-of-mouth (WOM) …

A Remote Environment’S Effect On The News Consumption Of College Students, Amelia R. Webb

Anthós

This study investigates how PSU Honor Students' news interactions have changed with the shift to a remote environment. After conducting four interviews, it found that students' news exposure increased in a remote environment. This change caused students to be more aware of the news's mental health impacts, and they adjusted their news interactions accordingly.

North American Expatriates In Mexico: A Discourse Analysis Of Facebook Groups, Liliana Carolina Brock

University Honors Theses

North American expatriates in Mexico often live in enclaves or affluent communities at a fraction of what it would cost in the US or Canada. Despite living in Mexico for years, many expatriates are poorly integrated into Mexican culture and society. This integration is made more difficult because many are unable to speak Spanish fluently. Instead, expatriates rely on English language Facebook groups to help them navigate life in Mexico. While scholars have explored the intersections of communication and interculturalism in expatriate communities, comparatively few have explored how the internet and the presentation of self on social media (specifically Facebook) …

Building A Leader's Identity On Social Media, Morningstar Dickson

University Honors Theses

How can leaders use social media effectively to shape their identity as a leader? Based on previous scholarship, this paper argues that using an authentic leadership approach to social media usage, would balance a leader’s true identity as well as maintaining their relationship with their followers. Which would allow the leaders’ influence to be more effective. This paper consists of a literature review on authentic leadership, and trust, and then builds a conceptual model that will break down how a leader should build and present their identity on online formats. The model shows how identity on social media is a …

How To Escape 130 Years Of Being Unnatural, Incompetent, And Unviable: American Women Presidential Candidates Take To Social Media, Izabella Becherer

University Honors Theses

For 130 years, American media coverage on women in presidential races remains unchanged despite the drastic difference in women's rights. While male candidates receive commentary on their policy, women often fall into discussions about their hair, their hemline, or their husband. Three core narratives about women then stem from their media characterization: unnatural, incompetent, and unviable. Unnatural, in that women, by nature, are not meant to be in political office. Incompetent, implying women are not smart enough for political office. Unviable, arguing that America is not ready to elect a female or females are "unelectable". The key to escaping this …

The Impact Of The Media Coverage Of Sexual Violence On Its Victims/Survivors, Jaidaa Taha

Theses and Dissertations

As part of their daily routine, journalists are often assigned to cover accidents or traumatic events to keep the public updated. With the high competition and the constant deadline pressure, reporters are usually pressured to talk to the subjects of these traumatic accidents too soon to publish their stories. This in turn leaves limited room for them to think about how this coverage is affecting their interviewees. This study aims to examine the impact of the media’s coverage of sexual assault on the victims/survivors of the assault themselves. Media outlets often follow stories of sexual violence, tackling a lot of …

Testing Social Media Water Conservation Messages That Convey Extension Evaluation Results, Laura A. Warner, Colby Silvert, Jamie Loizzo, Jarred A. Shellhouse

Journal of Extension

In this study, we tested frames Extension professionals could use to promote residential water conservation through social media. We randomly assigned Florida residents to view one of six visual messages with water conservation facts or stories and then measured willingness to engage with education programs and conservation behaviors. There were clear differences in message frame performance, but better performance was highly dependent on outcome metrics used. Therefore, we were unable to identify a preferred frame. These findings need to be further examined in an authentic social media environment to inform best practices in social media message framing for Extension professionals.

How Should We Regulate The Internet? A Proposal, Natalie Petruzelli

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

With the invention of the internet providing newfangled methods of spreading information around the world, misinformation has also found home in these pathways, disrupting the general public’s ability to discern fact from fiction and creating divides in society. Regulation must be enacted to stop the effects of misinformation, but the efforts of technology companies and the general public have been insufficient thus far. Regulatory control of the internet and its content should be the responsibility of the government, based on their constitutional right to intervene under certain circumstances and the fact that previous efforts by other parties to mitigate misinformation …

Leveraging Social Network Analysis And Supervised Machine Learning To Study Coordination In Online Information Campaigns, Tuja Khaund

Theses and Dissertations

Online social networks (OSNs) are a major component of societal digitalization. OSNs alter how people communicate, make decisions, form or change their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Thus, they can now impact financial systems and political communication at scale. As one type of OSN, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. serve as outlets for users to convey information to an audience as broad or targeted as the user desires. Over the years, these social media platforms have been infected with automated accounts, or bots, that are capable of hijacking conversations, influencing other users and manipulating content dissemination. Although …

How Social Media And Embedded Recommender Algorithm Fostered Political Issues, Yan Shi

School of Professional Studies

Social media plays a significant role in social communication and interaction, connecting people from different continents and facilitating information flaws worldwide. Meanwhile, along with the evolution of embedded recommender algorithms that clustering people with similar demographic features, social media has become the most important means of communication for modern society. However, the prosper of interconnecting platforms also have potential flows alongside. One of the major issues is the unexpected political consequence. This paper delivers the first comprehensive analysis of the political impacts posed by social media and embedded recommending algorithms. The article identifies three major political concerns through literature review, …

The Power Of Video Games: How Celeste And Hellblade Address Mental Health, Victor M. Ortiz

Communication Studies

The media has the power to educate audiences on topics through effective storytelling. This paper shows how video games as a medium possess unique potential to affect players through interactive experiences. Two video games titled Celeste and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice serve as examples of social cognitive learning through media exposure. This paper conducts a content analysis on the two titles. From the analysis, we learn the stories in Celeste and Hellblade aim to help those who play them learn how to cope with mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. The literature review section discusses past research done on …

How-To Present News On Social Media: A Causal Analysis Of Editing News Headlines For Boosting User Engagement, Kunwoo Park, Haewoon Kwak, Jisun An, Sanjay Chawla

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To reach a broader audience and optimize traffic toward news articles, media outlets commonly run social media accounts and share their content with a short text summary. Despite its importance of writing a compelling message in sharing articles, the research community does not own a sufficient understanding of what kinds of editing strategies effectively promote audience engagement. In this study, we aim to fill the gap by analyzing media outlets' current practices using a data-driven approach. We first build a parallel corpus of original news articles and their corresponding tweets that eight media outlets shared. Then, we explore how those …

Remaking Cinema: Black Hollywood Films, Filmmakers, And Finances, Kiana A. Carrington

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The goal of my project was to create a dataset of black film that can be used for analysis of fiscal trends in black film. It includes the estimated budget, domestic and worldwide box office numbers for over 700 American black films. I defined black films as those that centered on African American stories and African American characters, or were made by Black filmmakers. I also included movies embraced by African American audiences that were made by non-Black filmmakers like Bad Boys, Django Unchained, and The Color Purple. I used a combination of Box Office Mojo, The Black Cinema Database, …

Visual Messages Of Conflict Reporting On Twitter: Visual Frames And Ethical Standards, Hasan Karademir

Theses and Dissertations

This comparative study employs the theoretical frameworks of framing and hierarchy of influences model to analyze the ethical forces affecting journalists on Twitter and simultaneously their visual frames constructed in their images on Twitter. It investigates the portrayal of the Yemen conflict in the personal Twitter accounts of Yemeni journalists who were affiliated with the United States (US) and Qatari news organizations. Several studies have pointed out the graphic war coverage of Arab news organizations whereas scholars argue that US news organizations provide sanitized coverage on war zones (Johnson & Fahmy, 2007; Silcock, Schwalbe, & Keith, 2008; Karniel, Lavie-Dinur, & …

On Predicting Personal Values Of Social Media Users Using Community-Specific Language Features And Personal Value Correlation, Amila Silva, Pei Chi Lo, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Personal values have significant influence on individuals’ behaviors, preferences, and decision making. It is therefore not a surprise that personal values of a person could influence his or her social media content and activities. Instead of getting users to complete personal value questionnaire, researchers have looked into a non-intrusive and highly scalable approach to predict personal values using user-generated social media data. Nevertheless, geographical differences in word usage and profile information are issues to be addressed when designing such prediction models. In this work, we focus on analyzing Singapore users’ personal values, and developing effective models to predict their personal …

"Airbnb Go Home:" Tourism Frictions And Short-Term Rentals In New Orleans, Madeline R. Fussell

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the concerns and conflicts around short-term rental (STR) properties in New Orleans neighborhoods. Using data from collected from critical discourse analysis, semi-structured interviews and social media posts, this paper analyzes the ways the city of New Orleans, residents of the city, STR hosts, and platforms like Airbnb discuss issues of safety, displacement, rising costs of living, as well as responsible STR practices. To understand the complexities of the issues people, have with short-term rental properties, this project approaches STRs from a housing and gentrification lens to understand the role these properties play within in the daily atmospheres …

Building False Trust During Covid-19: How Health Information Is Circulating Differently In The South, Cristy Kennedy

Symposium of Student Scholars

Building False Trust During COVID-19: How Health Information is Circulating Differently in the South

During COVID-19, African Americans in the United States have seen hospitalization rates 3x higher than the national average (Kulke, 2020; Burton, 2020; Soucheray, 2020). Furthermore, African American communities tend to rely heavily on social media sites such as Twitter for health information, (Brown, 2019) carrying this trend into the COVID-19 pandemic. While Twitter has potential to reach diverse audiences through its state and health organizations, it also has potential to spread misinformation regarding important health matters (Hope, 2020; Kouzy et al., 2020; Walwema, 2020). For example, …