The Journal of Social Media in Society
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“A Good Bell is Heard from Far, a Bad One Still Further”: A Socio-demography of Disclosing Negative Emotions in Social Media
Get PDFA survey study was conducted to explore whether certain demographic variables such as age, gender and education, and differences in individuals’ social media activity, explain differences in disclosing negative emotions in social media. The study found a relationship between age and the tendency to express and share negative emotions. The analysis shows that older users were more moderate in disclosing negative emotions than their younger counterparts. Instead, gender and education were not statistically significant factors in explaining social media behaviour. The study also shows that the more active the user is in social media, the more probably he or she also discloses negative emotions. The study underscores the importance of managing of negative social media content, and identifies several avenues for further studies.
Documenting the Emergence of Grassroots Politics on Facebook: the Florida Case
No full textThis study analyzed the message characteristics of U.S. high school and college students’ Facebook political groups to explore how young voters produce and reproduce political content on social network sites. Grounded in communication frame analysis, a quantitative content analysis revealed that the majority of Facebook wall posts focused on politics as a game frame rather than as an issue frame, paralleling findings in traditional news media research. Additional results show that within the interactivity frame, hyperlinks and a call for offline interactions are prevalent, as well as the emotional manifestation frame. When accounted for the election type and partisanship in the context of 2008 presidential and 2010 midterm elections, Democrats dominated the discussion during presidential elections, but Republicans were more active during congressional elections. The results of this research contribute to our understanding of the use of social networking sites for political purposes. Most importantly, it adds to the scarce body of knowledge on the grassroots-style of political discourse.
Who’s Who in That Picture? The Association between Profile Picture Content and Social Well-Being
Get PDFDespite significant interest in social well-being and its association with Facebook use, research on profile picture content has been overlooked. The current study asked participants (n = 158) 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 confirmed hypotheses that a high amount of pictures of oneself with close others will be associated with higher levels of social well-being, and a high amount of pictures involving the self only, strangers (celebrities and fantasy) and distant others (deceased, pet) will be associated with lower levels of social well-being. The study also showed important differences between men and women in the association between social well-being and the use of distant others and strangers as profile pictures
Taking an In-depth Look at Political Parties on Facebook: What they are Saying, How they are Saying it, and How Party Members Respond
Get PDFThis study identifies the various communication tools and content styles political parties use to reach their Facebook constituency, examines the degree to which they are used, and evaluates the effectiveness of their engagement. Three means of analysis are used: number and frequency of posts by the party, types of posts being made, and responses to the posts by the public. This work thus provides a baseline for discussion on the question of how political parties can and have capitalized on online social media networks in order to effect political engagement, participation, and mobilization
Online Personas: Who We Become When We Learn with Others Online
Get PDFAt the beginning of the millennium, Gladwell (2000) introduced the people who “do” the work within networks. These were dubbed connectors, mavens and salesmen. A decade on, Ochman (2013) intriguingly suggested that there were 181,000 social media gurus, ninjas, masters and mavens on Twitter. But who are these unexplained characters or personas? Have connectors, mavens and salesmen translated into contemporary social media and personal learning networks? This paper is therefore about the “who” rather than the “what” and “how” that are typically the focus of investigations into personal learning networks and social media interactions. This paper will contend that connectors, mavens and salesmen are still identifiable and active in network interactions, with the definition of the maven being concatenated into the role of mentor. The findings from an online survey also revealed another set of other discrete personas with characteristics created and affirmed by interactions with others. Interestingly, individuals can adopt different personas dependent on context. Thus “who” we are depends on “where” we are and “who” is with us.
Following the Leader: An Exploratory Analysis of Twitter Adoption and Use Among Newspaper Editors
Get PDFSome media critics say Twitter use by newsroom leaders sends a strong innovation message to the rest of the newsroom. This exploratory study examined Twitter use among 74 editors at top U.S. newspapers to evaluate their adoption and use of the social media tool. A content analysis of Twitter accounts revealed many of them were not frequent users. Those who do are primarily using it as a tool to promote content from their own publications. The similarities between this analysis and similar studies would suggest that if newspapers hope to more effectively use Twitter, their leaders need to be willing to do so as well
Managing Disclosure through Social Media: How Snapchat is Shaking Boundaries of Privacy Perceptions
Get PDFThe rise of online human communication tools commonly referred to as social media apps are changing the dynamics of interpersonal relationships through self-disclosure and privacy management. However, little scholarly research is speaking to the broader role of social media as a method of privacy management in the context of interpersonal relationships. Therefore, this study focuses on Snapchat, a smartphone photo-share app and its influences on privacy management and privacy boundaries centered around the process of building and strengthening relationships through disclosure of private information. Using qualitative interview technique, results from 75 Snapchat users led to the identification and discussion of three categories related to Communication Privacy Management Theory: privacy ownership, privacy control, and privacy turbulence. Finally, this investigation explores and describes a new way in which scholars can view Snapchat through McLuhan’s claim that the medium is the message.
An Exploration into the Brand Personality Traits of Social Media Sites
No full textThe brand personality framework has emerged as a strong predictor of consumers’ feelings toward a brand. Despite its widespread use in other product categories, to date no research has examined the brand personality characteristics of major social media platforms. Major social networking sites (SNSs) are powerful brands and, like other brands, they are at the mercy of consumer perception. With the role SNSs play in marketing communication continuing to grow, an understanding of consumer perception of these platforms may suggest certain platforms have more desirable associations than others. This analysis examines the five brand personality traits of sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness for six prominent social media platforms. Results of this analysis suggest that the social media platform with the most defined personality is Pinterest, which scored highest for sophistication and sincerity while being the least rugged. Using hierarchical regression analysis, we also determined how the Big Five human personality characteristics, combined with brand personality characteristics, influence the use of specific social media platforms.
Do Social Media Facilitate Political Learning? Social Media Use for News, Reasoning and Political Knowledge
No full textThis study examines how using different types of social media for news predicts political knowledge. Drawing on a national survey, the present study finds that blogs and Twitter are positive predictors of political issue knowledge, while Facebook and YouTube are not. Using blogs for news predicts political personalities and process knowledge, but using Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube for news does not. Additionally, the present study reveals that political talk offline and online reinforces the impact of social media use for news on political issue knowledge.
Sharing Political and Religious Information on Facebook: Coworker Reactions
Get PDFThis study is the first to examine links between social media activity and workplace relationship outcomes. The study examines employees’ perceptions of coworkers who share political and religious information on Facebook. Authors piloted a measure of political and religious information sharing on Facebook (the PRISM-F). Results indicate that employees who frequently post political information on Facebook are less liked by their coworkers. In turn, this reduced liking relates to being less trusted, receiving less help, and receiving lower job performance ratings from coworkers. Religious information sharing was unrelated to these outcomes. Political and religious belief similarity did not moderate the effects of information sharing. This study offers evidence that although engaging in political discourse on Facebook can be tempting, it is associated with potentially negative workplace consequences. Furthermore, organizations may be well served by developing social media policies that caution employees about the potentially negative effects of sharing political information on Facebook.