The Journal of Social Media in Society
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Penalties Off the Field: Exploring Social Media Policies for Student Athletes at Universities
Get PDFUniversity student-athletes and their teams rely on social media to communicate with their fans, and these interactions may be beneficial for teams and athletes alike. But social media use also carries risk if an offensive photo or statement goes viral. Using frameworks from social cognitive, privacy, and uses and gratification theories, this article captures the status of university social media policies for athletes through content analysis and interviews. The findings outline strategies for monitoring, penalizing and rewarding athletes for their online interactions
Collegiate Student-Athletes’ Privacy Management Strategies and Their Impact on Twitter Usage Behaviors
Get PDFThis study examines collegiate student-athletes’ privacy management strategies and the impact on their Twitter usage behaviors from Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM). A questionnaire was used to recruit student-athletes from a national sample of NCAA Division 1 universities in the United States. Three hierarchical regression analyses conclude that collegiate student-athletes’ privacy management strategies would affect their Twitter usage behaviors, such as frequency of checking Twitter, minutes spent on the platform and tweet content . This research extends CPM to the collegiate sports context. Implications are discussed
Age and Online Social Media Behavior in Prediction of Social Activism Orientation
No full textThe purpose of this study was to describe the largely unexplored relationship between chronological age, displays of activism on social networking sites, and differences in orientation toward engaging in future social activism. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Activism Orientation Scale (A0S; Corning & Myers, 2002), and the Online Social Activism Scale (OSAS). Two regression models were used in the prediction of participants’ orientation toward conventional activism behavior and high-risk activism behavior by chronological age and displays of activism on social networking sites. Both models were statistically significant. The data revealed that increased displays of activism on social networking sites were associated with a decreased orientation toward future conventional and high-risk activism behaviors. Increased age was associated with a decreased orientation toward high-risk activism behavior. Findings from this study highlight important considerations related to the expansion of activism participation from social media based platforms
Effects of Facebook News Reception on Threat Perceptions and Personality Traits in German Speaking Countries
No full textBased on the dual process motivational model (Duckitt, 2001) and cultivation research (Gerbner, 1969), this study analyzes news reception on Facebook and its consequences for the recipient’s world view, right-wing authoritarianism, and threat perceptions in Germany. An online survey was completed by 429 Facebook users. Results demonstrate that Facebook news reception is relatively low but as predicted influenced by duration and intensity of Facebook use. No correlation occurred with general interest in news, which supports the idea that people find news coincidentally. Regression analyses revealed significant positive influences of duration on perceived economy-based threat and negative world view. The effects of news reception partly correspond to the findings of cultivation research; however, contrary findings appear with right-wing authoritarianism
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Posts: An Exploratory Examination of Personality Traits and Profile Picture Content
No full textDespite significant interest in the Big Five personality traits and their association with Facebook, research on the Big Five personality traits and profile picture content, and gender differences in those associations, has been overlooked. We hypothesized that personality traits will be associated with the content of the individual’s profile pictures, and that this association will differ between men and women. Participants (n = 158) were first asked to log into their Facebook account, access their profile pictures, and categorize the content of their profile pictures. Participants then completed an online personality survey at a later date. The results showed that having a high proportion of profile pictures of oneself with a close other was associated with high levels of extraversion and agreeableness. Gender differences also existed in the association of agreeableness and openness with high proportions of pictures of oneself only as well as high proportions of pictures of close others only
User Perceptions About Self-efficacy, Features and Credibility as Antecedents to Flow on Social Networking Sites
Get PDFIncreasing engagement with other users and online content is an important goal for digital and social media managers. Through such involvement educators, brands, and organizations seek to achieve desired outcomes. Thus, in the current study, the concept of flow (intense involvement and engagement) is of interest as the focal dependent variable. An online survey (N = 888) was used to measure three potential antecedents to flow: perceptions about self-efficacy, social networking site credibility and site features. The findings indicated that self-efficacy predicted flow for social networking site users when they experienced positive perceptions about site features and credibility. This outcome underscores the value of user-friendly site features, and beliefs about site credibility in facilitating optimal involvement with social networking site content
Audience Preferences of News Stories on Social Media
Get PDFThis study aims at understanding the kind of news stories social media users mostly like and comment on by examining 10 Arabic language Facebook pages run by different news organizations that posted over 85,000 news stories, generating over 26.4 million likes and 1.9 million comments. The top 100 most commented on and liked news stories from each news organization are categorized into 22 news topics. The examination of 2,000 news stories shows that there are no significant differences between liking and commenting on Facebook news. Online users mostly prefer to read news topics on local order, politics, human interest, and international politics stories when it comes to liking stories. In relation to commenting on news stories, the results show that online users mostly prefer news topics on local and regional politics, local order, and human interest.
Self-Presentation Techniques Used by Local Television Sports Broadcasters on Twitter
Get PDFUsing self-presentation theory as a guide, this study examined if local sports broadcasters in the United States were more likely to write about their work life (front stage) or their personal life (backstage) when on Twitter. A content analysis of 19,649 tweets from 201 sportscasters throughout the United States revealed that the majority of tweets (77.4%) demonstrated front stage personas (a work-related tool), with the remaining 22.6% categorized as backstage personas (giving details about their personal lives). This illustrates that sportscasters’ interactions with followers online are, in essence, not much different from their interactions with them on television, in that they are simply giving them scores and news. Additional analysis addressed the difference in tweet content based on gender and what size city the broadcaster worked in. Theoretical implications regarding self-presentation theory and practical implications for sports media members are discussed.
How do we Tweet? The Comparative Analysis of Twitter Usage by Message Types, Devices, and Sources
Get PDFFacing the growing importance of social media in the marketing field, this study is intended to build a better understanding of Twitter usage. A total of 73,192 tweets were examined by message types, devices and platforms used. Instead of relying on the audience’s response (e.g., survey or experiment) or traditional content analysis, this study used a data-mining approach and software that are widely used in the computer science field. Overall findings indicate that individual users prefer mobile devices to desktops and use more official web pages or mobile applications provided by Twitter when they tweet, and their most popular message type was the Singleton, an undirected message with no specific recipient. However, we also found that tweets generated through business sources were different from those through official sources in terms of message type, devices, and the nature. The implications of these findings were discussed
Engagement and Likeability of Negative Messages on Facebook during Israel's 2013 Elections
Get PDFTo contribute to the mapping of negative campaigns effects, this study examines the engagement (shares and comments) and likeability (likes) effects of negative campaigning strategies on Facebook during Israel's 2013 elections. The analysis shows that attacks, contrasts, and responses to negative messages are highly shared and commented on, illustrating the engaging nature of negative campaigning in Israel. In terms of likeability, results were mixed, as responses to negative messages were more liked than other messages, but attacks and contrasts were not. The 20 most-liked posts were analyzed and responses of the leader of the religious party Habayit HaYehudi to alleged attacks against modern orthodoxy attracted likes in dramatic numbers, riling followers who objected to the growing tensions between religious and secular Jews in Israel. The study provides the first mapping of the effects of an online negative campaign in Israel and illuminates the relevance of its political and religious context, particularly Israel’s polarized multi-party system and religious, democratic nature.