Social Media Commons^™

Topics Of Historical Memory In The Pr Activities Of Religious Organizations In Present-Day Ukraine, Vadym Sluysar, Yuliia Kondratiuk, Iryna Vitiuk, Oleksandr Mosienko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the role of religious organizations in Ukraine in shaping and preserving historical memory in the context of their PR activities. The article examines the contribution of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), Protestant denominations, and Muslim organizations to the popularization of objective historical narratives. Through participation in memorial events, restoration of monuments, organization of scientific conferences, exhibitions, lectures, and publication of historical materials, religious organizations contribute to the formation of national and civic identity. Particular attention is paid to the coverage of tragic events such as the Holodomor, the deportation of Crimean …

Surviving And Thriving In The Hybrid Cloud: A Review Of The Current Cloud Computing Landscape, Peter Munsch, Alison Munsch

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Background and Purpose

Both academic and industry institutions have increasingly migrated essential services to public cloud providers (e.g., Microsoft, AWS, Google) with mixed outcomes. Some industry leaders attempted to fully replace their on-premises data centers with public cloud services, a move not advised without thorough performance and cost analyses (Potel, 2023). Despite some organizations pulling back from the “Cloud First” strategy, the public cloud services market continued to grow, with revenue increasing by approximately 20% year-over-year since 2020 and surpassing half a trillion dollars in 2022 (IDC Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker, 2H 2022). Cloud technologists suggested that hybrid …

An Integrated Machine Learning Approach For Identifying Emergency Rescue Messages On Social Media During Natural Disasters, Wael Khallouli, Jiang Li, Jingwei Huang, Ghaith Rabadi, Samuel Kovacic

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

During large-scale disasters, emergency call centers are often overwhelmed by the large volume of rescue requests and calls for help. Consequently, people are turning to social media platforms to seek assistance. Rescue information posted on these platforms is extremely valuable for first responders to make informed rescue decisions. Therefore, the automatic identification of these requests from the vast amount of data posted on social media during crises is critical yet challenging. This work presents our ongoing research on applying deep learning techniques to extract actionable rescue information from social media during crises. We proposed a novel deep learning model that …

An Overview Of The Special Issue, Rachel Gibson, Trent Buskirk

Data Science Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Across the quantitative social sciences, researchers increasingly face significant challenges and opportunities prompted by the arrival of new sources of very rich, highly granular, and often unstructured digital data. While traditional methods such as surveys and content analysis tools remain indispensable for measuring individual attitudes, behaviors, demographic characteristics, and media messaging online, they often struggle to capture the complex multimodal information streams and metadata generated by social media platforms, mobile devices, sensors, and tracking applications. Collecting and analyzing these diverse new forms of content, dynamic moment-to-moment behaviors, and naturally occurring interactions has become a pressing and exciting research task-one …

Characterizing Language Use In Online Accessibility Discussion Forums, Nithiya Venkatraman, Anand Ravi Aiyer, Yash Prakash, Sampath Jayarathna, Hae-Na Lee, Vikas Ashok

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Discussion forums are one of the favored platforms for knowledge sharing. Given their popularity, copious research exists on understanding the linguistic and behavioral characteristics of forum conversations, so as to inform the design of many downstream applications including discourse visualization, sentiment analysis, and question answering. However, prior investigations have mainly focused on general forums designed primarily for sighted users, and as such the applicability of their findings to dedicated accessibility discussion forums frequented by blind screen reader users remains unanswered. To bridge this knowledge gap and facilitate the development of better-informed assistive technologies for blind people, we investigated language use …

A New Deepfake Detection Method With No-Reference Image Quality Assessment To Resist Image Degradation, Jiajun Jiang, Wen-Chao Yang, Chung-Hao Chen, Timothy Young

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Deepfake technology, which utilizes advanced AI models such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), has led to the proliferation of highly convincing manipulated media, posing significant challenges for detection. Existing detection methods often struggle with the low-quality or compressed press, which is prevalent on social media platforms. This paper proposes a novel Deepfake detection framework that leverages No-Reference Image Quality Assessment (NRIQA) techniques, specifically, BRISQUE, NIQE, and PIQUE, to extract quality-related features from facial images. These features are then classified using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) with various kernel functions. We evaluate our method under both intra-dataset and cross-dataset settings. For …

Perceptions Of Stem Education And Artificial Intelligence: A Twitter (X) Sentiment Analysis, Demetrice Smith-Mutegi, Yoseph Mamo, Jinhee Kim, Helen Crompton, Matthew Mcconnell

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Background, context, and purpose of the study: Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prevalent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, holding promising potential for supporting the design and implementation of quality STEM education. However, there is a lack of data-based research studying the diverse perceptions of AI in STEM education as conveyed on social media, the factors that influence those perceptions, or the change in those perceptions over time among public audiences. Results, the main findings: The purpose of this study was to examine public perceptions of AI in STEM education by analyzing X posts (Tweets) between 04/28/2020 …

Echo Chambers On The Left, Echo Chambers On The Right: How Socioideological Identity Emotion Shape Social Interaction Behavior On Social Media, Dean Carl Jackson

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation investigates how echo chambers emerge on social media by shifting the lens from aggregate patterns of information exposure to moment-by-moment, individual level interaction decisions between peers. I theorize that selective exposure online is not only about what content people consume or avoid, but also about selective social exposure—accepting, rejecting, or sharing with the sources of that content—guided by sociopolitical identity, ideological distance (ID), and discrete emotions. To test this, I employ two survey experiments using real tweets varying in ideological extremity and measure user’s likelihood to Block, Follow, Retweet, or reply, alongside self-reported emotional reactions and ID between …

The Past, Present, And Future Of Adaptive Selling: Toward An Integrative Framework, Nawar N. Chaker, Rhett T. Epler, Gabriel Moreno, Dana Amiri, Elizabeth G. Mcdougal

Marketing Faculty Publications

Adaptive selling represents a notable and influential concept in the marketing literature. Despite being discussed in scholarly research and managerial practice for over forty years and mixed findings about its impact, a comprehensive understanding of the construct of adaptive selling remains missing. To remedy this critical knowledge gap, we conduct a comprehensive review of 188 articles across twenty-seven journals. We combine three approaches in our survey of the literature, including a systematic review, a main path analysis, and a bibliographic analysis. Together, this three-prong review offers profound insights into the state of adaptive selling research by (1) mapping the key …

The Kids Aren't Alright: "Indie Sleaze Revival" And The Commodification Of Subcultures On Social Media, Lauren Mar

Scripps Senior Theses

In 2012, the “indie sleaze” subculture is accepted to have “died” — the same year Facebook bought Instagram. Named retroactively by social media in 2021, the “indie sleaze” subculture and its “revival” online provides a rich ground for investigating how and why social media converts subculture into aesthetics. Drawing on Dick Hebdige’s 1979 theory of subculture, this project considers new understandings of the political, aesthetic, and affective relationships between digital media and subcultures. In examining the evolution of “indie sleaze” from its origins and manifestations in an escapist party scene of the aughts to its online simulations from 2021 to …

College Students' Identity Differences In Offline And Online Learning Environment And Their Effects On Achievement Motivation, Sang-Soog Lee, Jinhee Kim, Seung Won Yu, Na Li

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The unprecedented evolution of educational technologies has transformed the learning landscape, creating distinct experiences in offline and online learning environments (OLE). However, little attention has been given to exploring students’ identities in the online learning context and how they can influence academic trajectories, limiting the development of a holistic understanding of the nature, effects, and areas of improvement in students’ identity formation in OLE. This study aims to investigate how students’ identity subcomponents differ among offline and OLE students via propensity score matching (PSM) in China, which allows us to find a doppelganger to estimate the counterfactual situation for making …

Fostering Critically Conscious Lesson Planning In A Generative Artificial Intelligence Era, Derek Riddle, Paula Cristina Azevedo, Catharyn Shelton, Jaime Colwell, Jori Beck

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Teacher candidates (TCs) use digital resources and social media to plan and develop learning material, and with publically accessible generative artificial intelligence (GAI), TCs are able to generate lesson plans within seconds rather than hours or days. While there is research on how to support TCs' evaluation of reliable digital media, there is little known on how to prepare TCs for GAI content. Using the complementary frameworks of Freire’s (1970) critical consciousness and Jonnasen’s (1991) theory of constructivism, this in-progress design based research seeks to develop an adaptable framework that addresses the evolving nature of technology, specifically GAI, and the …

Social Media Through A Binary Lens: The Impact On College Students & Their Mental Health, Piper Mallchok

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

It is important to first understand how individuals use social media so that we can then understand how and why their use will change the individual impact social media will have. Some students experience a decline in their mental health when their social media use changes. There is an abundance of research on college students and social media, respectively, that also addresses gender as a variable. In this review, the research will be studied to further understand the voices of those who are not commonly included in research that operates under a gendered framework. Additionally, these ideas will be compared …

Mental Illness Identity And Social Media Use In Generation Z, Tobey Smith

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The present study investigated factors that predict a high degree of mental illness identity among Generation Z college students. Specifically, the author aimed to evaluate social media use and other psychosocial factors, including social isolation, self-esteem, well-being, discrimination, and attitude toward recovery. Two-hundred and seventeen participants were recruited using SONA and social media. Participants completed scales to measure the variables of interest: Illness Identity Questionnaire - Mental Health, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, Hope and Coping in Recovery Scale, Cornwell Perceived Isolation Scale, Stigma Scale, Social Media Use Scale, and a set of demographic questions. Pearson bivariate correlations, …

Posting About Goals On Social Media: The Unexpected Effect Of Posting Goal-Intention Photos Rather Than Goal-Pursuit Photos On Goal Attainment, Kelly Eunjung Yoon, Cornelia Pechmann

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Can posting photos online help individuals achieve their goals? Past research has generally found that posting about goals on social media increases motivation to achieve those goals. However, little is known about the consequences of posting different types of goal-related content. This research uses real-world Instagram data to test the effects of posting photos about goal pursuit (i.e., goal enactment behaviors) versus goal intention (i.e., goal planning or setting) on goal attainment. Our findings indicate a positive and significant relationship between posting goal-pursuit photos and goal attainment. Conversely, posting goal-intention photos yields no measurable effect. This finding challenges the generalized …

Use Of The Slur “Retard” Triples On X After Elon Musk Shares The Word In A Post, Bond Benton, Daniela Peterka-Benton

College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

A joint study from Montclair State University faculty in the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media and the Department of Justice Studies shows that Elon Musk dramatically increased content containing the slur “retard” on X after using the term in a post. Highlights from the study include:

• A 207.5% increase in posts containing the r-word on X.
• 312,642 posts using the term r-word identified in the period studied.
• Google Trends Analysis showed a similar increase in online search activity related to the r-word.
• Indication of a broader …

“R-Word” Slurs Triple On X After Donald Trump’S Thanksgiving Post Used The Word, Bond Benton, Daniela Peterka-Benton

College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

A joint study from Montclair State University faculty in the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media and the Department of Justice Studies shows a dramatic increase in content containing the slur “retard” on X after Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving Day Truth Social post used the word. Findings showed a 225.7% increase in posts containing the r-word on X with 1,129,438 posts in the studied period. The most viewed, liked, and shared content analyzed enthusiastically endorsed use of the r-word. Results appear consistent with the period after other prominent …

A Theoretical And Empirical Adaptation Of Signaling Theory For Digital Communication: Examining Organizational Brand Identity And Credibility, Victoria Barbeisch

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation adapts signaling theory for digital communication and tests its relevance in strategic communication, specifically concerning unobservable organizational traits like brand identity values. Signaling theory explains how parties with unequal information (senders/signalers and receivers) use signals to bridge knowledge gaps and influence decision-making. While rooted in biology and economics, its application in computer-mediated communication (CMC) remains limited. This research addresses this gap through two primary aims. Aim 1 presents the first comprehensive theoretical adaptation of signaling theory for digital communication, consolidating fragmented research across multiple disciplines. Aim 2 investigates the theory's relevance in strategic communication related to unobservable brand …

No Consistent Evidence For Between- And Within-Person Associations Between Objective Social Media Screen Time And Body Image Dissatisfaction: Insights From A Daily Diary Study, Adalia Y. H. Goh, Andree Hartanto, K. T. A. Sandeeshwara Kasturiratna, Nadyanna M. Majeed

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

With the abundance of social media content that promotes unrealistic beauty standards, there are growing concerns about the potential negative impact of social media use on body image satisfaction. While some studies highlight negative associations, others present null effects, pointing to methodological limitations like biased and unreliable self-reported screen time measures and a focus on singular platforms. Addressing these gaps, our study employed a daily diary method to objectively measure social media screen time across six major platforms (Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook), alongside daily body image dissatisfaction among 252 young adults (Mage = 21.67 years, 67.77% female) …

A Content Analysis Of Doubt: How Latter-Day Saints Interact Online When One Of Their Own Seeks Answers, Leilani Naomi Mascio, Ronald Smith

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This content analysis examines how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) interact with doubting members in online forums, focusing on Facebook and Reddit. Analyzing 1,115 comments from four public posts (August 2024–January 2025), six emergent themes characterize these interactions: (1) normalizing doubt, (2) thought-terminating clichés, (3) bringing back to the fold, (4) hierarchical escalation, (5) attributing doubt to Satan, and (6) emotional reasoning. Findings reveal that LDS members overwhelmingly dominate these discussions, employing doctrinal language, personal narratives, and appeals to authority to reintegrate doubters. Notably, non-member interference was rare, suggesting moderated or self-selected engagement. The …