Social Media Commons^™

"The Only Disability In Life Is A Bad Attitude": So-Called "Inspirational" Media In The Age Of Trump, Eve Bohakel Lee

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

This study explores the reactions of ideologically divergent social media users to so-called “inspiration porn,” or mediated images of physically disabled persons doing ordinary—or extraordinary—activities, relegating those depicted to vehicles for the emotional or spiritual gratification of nondisabled or typically able (or, among disabled observers, differently so) persons. This is important because although a quarter of American adults identify as living with a disability themselves, ableism remains very internalized; others’ experience is still very voyeuristic when presented in this medium. The objective of this study is to describe an approximate correlation—either positive or negative—between the popularity of inspiration porn and …

Setting The Future Of Digital And Social Media Marketing Research: Perspectives And Research Propositions, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Elvira Ismagilova, D. Laurie Hughes, Jamie Carlson, Raffaele Filieri, Jenna Jacobson, Varsha Jain, Heikki Karjaluoto, Hajer Kefi, Anjala S. Krishen, Vikram Kumar, Mohammad M. Rahman, Ramakrishnan Raman, Philipp A. Rauschnabel, Jennifer Rowley, Jari Salo, Gina A. Tran, Yichuan Wang

Marketing and International Business Faculty Research

The use of the internet and social media have changed consumer behavior and the ways in which companies conduct their business. Social and digital marketing offers significant opportunities to organizations through lower costs, improved brand awareness and increased sales. However, significant challenges exist from negative electronic word-of-mouth as well as intrusive and irritating online brand presence. This article brings together the collective insight from several leading experts on issues relating to digital and social media marketing. The experts’ perspectives offer a detailed narrative on key aspects of this important topic as well as perspectives on more specific issues including artificial …

Patterns Of Population Displacement During Mega-Fires In California Detected Using Facebook Disaster Maps, Shenyue Jia, Seung Hee Kim, Son V. Nghiem, Paul Doherty, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The Facebook Disaster Maps (FBDM) work presented here is the first time this platform has been used to provide analysis-ready population change products derived from crowdsourced data targeting disaster relief practices. We evaluate the representativeness of FBDM data using the Mann-Kendall test and emerging hot and cold spots in an anomaly analysis to reveal the trend, magnitude, and agglommeration of population displacement during the Mendocino Complex and Woolsey fires in California, USA. Our results show that the distribution of FBDM pre-crisis users fits well with the total population from different sources. Due to usage habits, the elder population is underrepresented …

Social Media In Business-To-Business Marketing And Sales: Review Of Literature & Research Recommendations, Daniel Bello Manjarrez

University Honors Theses

Social media usage in business to business marketing and sales has been steadily rising since its advent in the late 2000s. Similarly, research surrounding social media in this context has increased, with specific focus on its usage, influence, and adoption from B2B marketers and salespeople. This focus has resulted in gaps in the literature, especially when regarding small and medium B2B enterprises. This review of literature provides a systemic understanding of the research landscape by identifying the theory, methods, context, and results of twenty-one peer-reviewed business marketing articles concerning social media. This review also proposes five key recommendations to inform …

I-O Can Has Meme? Using Memes To Engage Others With I-O Psychology Content, William P. Jimenez, Lisa M. Kath, Sayeedul Islam, Gordon B. Schmidt

Psychology Faculty Publications

Memes are ubiquitous, and they have become a major part of online interactions (Kitchener, 2018). Memes may be an accessible medium that organizations can use to connect with potential employees, customers, and the general public. Not only have memes been used by companies for marketing (e.g., Murray et al., 2014), but they also have been used for outreach by organizations as diverse as academic libraries (e.g., Woodworth, 2018), government influence campaigns (e.g., Zakem et al., 2018), and political campaigns (e.g., Graham, 2020). In this paper, we discuss the current state of Internet memes in the I-O psychology community as well …

Lexical Borrowings In The Use Of Singlish By Bloggers, K. Panneerselvam Vilashiiney

Student Works (2020-2029)

Singapore English is among the many new Englishes which have emerged across the world. It is divided into two forms; Standard Singapore English and Colloquial Singapore English also known as Singlish. The colloquial variety of this English is viewed as crippling the Standard English and has led to the initiation of the Speak Good English Movement by the Singapore government. Recently, linguists such as Wee (2014) have stated that Singlish should be allowed to be used as it reflects the true cultural identity of Singaporeans and this has led to the initiation of the Speak Good Singlish Movement. Singapore’s bilingual …

Structural Decomposition Of Deviant Cyber Flash Mobs On Twitter: Examining Statistical And Network Features Using Focal Structure Analysis, Billy Spann

Theses and Dissertations

Online Social Networks (OSNs) are largely considered a powerful vehicle to disseminate information. It is common to see social media used for propaganda maneuvering, disinformation campaigns, and crowd manipulation. These platforms also provide a method to coordinate and influence behavior. Many crime organizations use social media to coordinate events and then quickly disperse making it difficult to identify the actors. The focus of this study is to advance our understanding of the use of collective action theory measurements in communication networks extracted from Deviant Cyber Flash Mobs (DCFMs). We assess the formation of these cyber collective groups by analyzing the …

A Drawing A Day Keeps The Pandemic Away: Vol 9, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

A Drawing a Day Keeps the Pandemic Away

The project is called A Drawing a Day Keeps the Pandemic Away. We created it on March 17th, which was the day when we realized that we weren’t going to be able to go back into the museum and continue installing the exhibitions we had been planning to open on March 27th. People were asking us what we, as an art museum, were going to do to reach out to the community during the pandemic shutdown and honestly we were wondering that ourselves, so we had an online brainstorming session and came up with the idea of posting a daily …

Becoming Agricultured: Creating An Agriculture Literacy Podcast For Consumers, Madalyn C. Souza

Agricultural Education and Communication

Today’s consumers want to become more aware of where their food comes from. There is a need and a desire to bridge the gap between consumers and production agriculture. One way to reach consumers is through audio podcasts. Podcasts are digital audio recordings that are streamed online. The podcast Becoming Agricultured will be a platform to show the relationship between agriculture and the environment, food, fiber and energy, animals, lifestyle, the economy and technology. The podcast is aimed to tell agriculture's story through factual research and personal accounts of those involved in different sectors of the agriculture industry and cultivate …

“Moderated”; How Facebook And Youtube Recreate The Meaning Of The Societal Public Square, Dylan John Kreisman

Journalism

This study investigates the prevalence of content moderation systems on digital intermediaries and the influence those systems have on the spread of information. It primarily analyzes the content moderation systems of Facebook and YouTube. Since Facebook and YouTube are two of the most used online platforms in the world, the way content is shared and viewed can have implications towards a person’s perspective on a subject. Social media and online intermediaries are growing as people’s source of news, so the primary way people view news in the near future will most likely be from intermediaries such as Facebook or YouTube. …

Talk Like Somebody Is Watching: Understanding And Supporting Novice Live Streamers, Terrance Mok, Colin Matthew Au Yueng, Anthony Tang, Lora Oehlberg

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We built a chatbot system–Audience Bot–that simulates an audience for novice live streamers to engage with while streaming. New live streamers on platforms like Twitch are expected to perform and talk to themselves, even while no one is watching. We ran an observational lab study on how Audience Bot assists novice live streamers as they acclimate to multitasking–simultaneously playing a video game while performing for a (simulated) audience.

“I’M Real I Thought I Told Ya”: Developing Critical Media Literacy Through U.S. Latinx Digital Media Representations, Solange T. Castellar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores how audiences engage with U.S. Latinx media representations through the practice of critical media literacy. I interrogate how media consumers construct critical media literacy through interacting with U.S. Latinx figures on digital media platforms, particularly on the social-media app, Twitter, and the user-generated video content platform, YouTube. Throughout this thesis, I argue that users on these platforms who engage with U.S. Latinx pop culture figures, like Jennifer Lopez and Belcalis Almanzar (Cardi B), read, digest, and comprehend a variety of multimedia images, texts, or videos, and that this engagement becomes an accessible form of critical media literacy, …

Going Viral: Youth And Sexual Assault In The Digital Age, Anna Gjika

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the growing phenomenon of using digital media technologies to capture and perpetuate sexual abuse. Focusing on instances of high-profile juvenile sexual assault, I use case studies, interviews, focus groups, and thematic media analysis to investigate (a) how crime, gender, status and technology intersect for young people growing up digital, and (b) the ways technology intersections with sexual abuse to create new forms of crime, new ways to victimize and perpetuate harm, as well as new opportunities to investigate and address sexual violence both through the criminal justice system and in the public. I argue that young people …

Developing An Online Health Community For Autoimmune Disease Patients Through Self-Managed Diet, Rachel Greene

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Part I, Autoimmune Disease Management and the Need for Intervention, discusses current and standard Autoimmune Disease- (AI/AID) management and the shortcomings within. Typical AID-management led by healthcare professionals lacks a holistic, symptom-based approach, thus further contributing to the daily chronic pain of the afflicted. This analysis indicates the need to connect those suffering with AID’s to scientific research that has determined strict dieting can significantly reduce symptoms associated with AID’s. Part II, Synthesizing A Model For Online Health Community Engagement, examines the website prototype of Greenebean, which is an online community developed via user-centric design, in a theoretical, physical, and …

Developing A Conceptual Framework For Research On Social Media And Political Polarization, Audrey C. Sanders

University Honors Theses

Americans in 2020 live in a time of unprecedented political polarization. Scholars often study this trend of increased polarization in conjunction with the use of social media platforms, or social networking sites (SNSs). Despite a nearly twenty-year existence, however, the discourse community surrounding the relationship between SNS use and political polarization has yet to develop past a scattered and largely theoretical body of literature. What follows is a description of the current state of the literature followed by a description of a conceptual framework scholars can use when approaching the field and designing their own research in order to make …

The Effects Of Instagram Influencers And Appearance Comparisons On Body Appreciation, Internalization Of Beauty Ideals And Self Esteem In Women, Juliane K. Bauer

University Honors Theses

The current study investigated how exposure to thin bodies on different (social) media platforms affect body appreciation, internalization of beauty ideals, and self-esteem in female and non-binary participants. The participants (N=116) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: exposure to content from a) Instagram influencers, b) models in magazines, or c) peers. Participants completed an online survey, answering questions about their feelings towards the women depicted in the media content as well as appearance comparison tendencies, body appreciation, self-esteem, internalization of body ideals, and BMI. Overall, significant differences between groups were found for the internalization of body …

2020 Technical Report: A Review Of Age Verification Mechanism For 10 Social Media Apps, Cliona Curley

Reports

This study presents an analysis of the age verification mechanisms in place for 10 popular social media apps used by children: Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Viber, Skype, Facebook, HouseParty, Discord, Messenger, WhatsApp. According to CyberSafeIreland, these are the apps most used by younger children, including underage children, i.e. below the age of 13 which is defined as the minimum age for use of such services (16 years in the case of WhatsApp).

Data collected from CyberSafeIreland’s annual survey of children’s use of social media shows that Snapchat was the most popular app in 2018/19 with 33% of children, aged 8-13, using …

Religious Nationalism And The Coronavirus Pandemic: Soul-Sucking Evangelicals And Branch Covidians Make America Sick Again, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This article investigates the response to the coronavirus crisis by Evangelical Christian nationalists in the USA. The article outlines the curious mediaverse of religious nationalism—its post-truth and fake news aspects in particular—links religious nationalism to American exceptionalism, and analyzes conflicts between secular and religious authorities. Drawing upon some lessons from the past, the article addresses the wider implications of Christian nationalism on American politics, and capitalist ideology, as it has been played out virally in the corporate media. The article shows that the ideological underpinnings of evangelical Christianity prevent its proponents from understanding the virus in an historical and materialist …

Leveraging Volunteer Fact Checking To Identify Misinformation About Covid-19 In Social Media, Hyunuk Kim, Dylan Walker

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Identifying emerging health misinformation is a challenge because its manner and type are often unknown. However, many social media users correct misinformation when they encounter it. From this intuition, we implemented a strategy that detects emerging health misinformation by tracking replies that seem to provide accurate information. This strategy is more efficient than keyword-based search in identifying COVID-19 misinformation about antibiotics and a cure. It also reveals the extent to which misinformation has spread on social networks.

Tweeting During A Crisis: Best Practices For Public Relations (Pr) Professionals For Reputation Management During Racial Bias Cases, Gabrielle Vanadia

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

There are multiple message strategies utilized for public relations (PR) when communicating information on Twitter during a crisis. The purpose of this study was to determine the most effective reputation repair practice(s) used during racially bias related crises surrounding three retail companies. Tweets from the crisis response phase conveying apology, corrective action, denial, evasion of responsibility, and reduce offensiveness were examined in terms of likes, retweets, and replies through a case study and textual analysis approach. Results revealed that the reduce offensiveness strategy yielded the highest overall engagement and produced a best practices guide for future public relations professionals.