The Journal of Social Media in Society
Not a member yet
200 research outputs found
Sort by
Would you Pay for a Facebook Account to Protect Your Privacy?
No full textThe research’s purpose is to determine whether Facebook users would pay for their accounts to protect their privacy and reduce the number of advertisements shown to them by Facebook. Facebook account holders were recruited from Mechanical Turk to complete the survey. Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC) was used to estimate the utility consumers have for price, advertising, and privacy. Facebook users overwhelmingly prefer the no-cost option with the usual number of advertisements, and Facebook owning what is posted. Price is 50 percent more important than the next most important attribute: owning the data on Facebook. The number of advertisements shown on Facebook is about a third as important as price. Privacy concerns on Facebook are overshadowed by the cost of acquiring that privacy. Its contribution is making privacy and the number of advertisements shown a choice in the decision. Through tradeoff analysis, respondents must be explicit about what is important.
I’ll Have What She’s Having: Parasocial Communication via Social Media Influences on Risk Behavior
No full textFrequently people we interact with on social media influence decisions we make in daily life. This study explored the connection between parasocial interaction and imitative buying intentions in blog media space. Using a 2 (Stance: Anti, Pro) X 4 (Risk Behavior: Drinking, E-Cigarette, Product, Control) X 2 (Order) mixed factorial design experiment (N = 63), we focused on the influence of parasocial interaction (PSI) with a blogger on intent to buy products used in a blog post among young women. The research found that those with higher PSI reported greater purchase intention for alcohol than those with lower PSI toward the blogger in the study. These results suggest PSI in social media spaces like blogging can be used to covertly encourage healthy behaviors
Instafame: Graffiti and Street Art in the Instagram Era
No full textInstafame: Graffiti and Street Art in the Instagram Era by Lachlan MacDowall examines the production, display and promotion of the two art forms on the popular social media platform
Social Media and Digital Storytelling for Social Good
No full textThis case study examines the Blue Roots Project, a graduate studies collaboration between Michigan-based, online water journalism organization Circle of Blue and the Center for Emerging Media Design and Development at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. The Blue Roots Project is a community arts and digital storytelling project that uses social media channels to elicit user-generated content focused on the effects of the world’s fresh water crisis. The project uses social media as a tool for the following goals: accessing and connecting with already established communities, meeting the audience where they already gather, creating a dialogue about issues, eliciting user-generated content, creating access points for the project, and creating a relationship with the audience
Place, Prestige, Price, and Promotion: How International Students Use Social Networks To Learn About Universities Abroad
Get PDFThis qualitative study aims to explore the social media component of international student’s college choice process for studying abroad. One of the emerging evidence was that participants applied social media specific criteria, such as the number of “likes”, the number of followers, and the ratio of followers to following to rank Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and measure their prestige. Another emerging finding was that participants with no connections abroad relied exclusively on social media for their college choice decisions and without social media would not even consider an option of transferring abroad. Videos and pictures offered by social network sites (SNS) provided emotional benefits by helping “to see” an unknown reality, develop sense of belonging, diminish apprehensions of moving abroad, and solidify the choice of HEI, while traditional sources of promotion, such as websites, were perceived as not trustworthy. Higher education professionals could hire individuals with proven expertise in social media to create consistent and meaningful content on different social media platforms to connect with potential international candidates.
Follow Me: The Use of Social Media in Recruitment
No full textThe use of social media in the human resource arena continues to increase including a growing use of the internet for prescreening applicants during the recruitment process. With so many diverse social networking websites applicants use today, we explored how the social media phenomena affects employee recruitment. This study explored the effects of an applicant’s use of social media on the recruiter’s perception of the candidate and the overall impact on candidate selection. Using a survey method, information was gathered from human resources professionals from a variety of industries. Results support that social media impacts an applicant’s impression formation in the recruitment process, specifically that organization fit and recruiter perceived interpersonal skills in relation to social networking websites is highly correlated
How are We Really Getting to Know One Another? Effect of Viewing Facebook Profile Information on Initial Conversational Behaviors Between Strangers
No full textPrevious studies have conjectured the positive effects of social network websites (SNSs) on relationship initiation and the development of the acquaintanceship process. The present study provides empirical evidence to support these touted benefits of SNSs by examining the impact of viewing partners’ SNS profile information on initial interactions between strangers, specifically focusing on three conversational behaviors, viś-a-viś, question-asking, self-disclosures, and topics of conversation. 82 unacquainted individuals were paired to form 41 dyads that were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the first condition, 22 dyads viewed their conversational partners’ Facebook profiles before having a text-based online conversation with them, while in the other condition, 19 dyads had a conversation without viewing each others’ Facebook profiles. Results showed that viewing each others’ Facebook profiles led individuals to ask fewer questions but voluntarily share more intimate and personal information on a broader range of topics with each other during initial conversations compared to individuals who did not view each others’ Facebook profiles. Implications of these conversational behaviors on changing the dynamics of the acquaintanceship process and the overall trajectory of relationship development in the novel setting of SNSs are discussed
“Hey guys, check this out! #ad” The Impact of Media Figure-User Relationships and Ad Explicitness on Celebrity Endorsements
No full textThis study examined the extent to which parasocial relationships (PSR) between celebrities and media users impact the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements on social media for various products. A 2 (high/low PSR endorser) x 2 (explicit/implicit endorsement) experiment tested the effects of PSR and endorsement explicitness on media users’ attitudes toward the endorsed product and product purchase intentions. A total of 346 participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 16 Twitter message conditions (i.e., 8 celebrities and 2 types of endorsements). Product purchase intentions were not significantly impacted by the celebrity credibility or source congruence whereas attitudes toward the endorsed product was significantly affected. Media user-figure relationships significantly impacted both attitudes and intentions. PSR and endorsement explicitness had a significant interaction effect on attitudes toward products. Product attitudes were most positive for explicit endorsements from high PSR endorsers and least positive for explicit endorsements from low PSR endorsers. Implications for marketers are discussed in the paper.
“It’s Funny to Hear a Female Talk About Routes”: Social Media Reaction to Cam Newton’s Comments About a Woman Reporter
No full textIn October 2017, NFL quarterback Cam Newton made what many believed to be a sexist comment at woman reporter Jourdan Rodrigue. The next day, racist tweets from Rodrigue’s past were discovered. This research examines the evolution of the social media discourse on Twitter regarding Newton’s comments and then Rodrigue’s past. The order of the events created a conflict between race and gender on Twitter from social media users. Using network framing, results demonstrate that the tone varied based on the gender of the user and the time frame in which it was sent
Political Disagreement and Uncertainty: Examining the Interplay of Political Talk and News Use in Online and Offline Environments
Get PDFContrary to popular arguments about “echo chambers” and “filter bubbles,” evidence shows that social media tend to promote exposure to political disagreement. But if this disagreement has little to no effect on individuals’ attitudes and opinions, the democratic benefits of this increased exposure could be limited. This study empirically investigates whether exposure to political disagreement in social media versus face-to-face settings has differential effects on individuals’ uncertainty about their political opinions and beliefs. In doing so, the paper accounts for the interplay in news use and political discussion in these two settings. The results show (a) differences in the relationship between political disagreement and uncertainty in social media and face-to-face settings and (b) considerable overlap in discussion and reflection processes between these two settings. Results are discussed in light of ongoing conversations about the democratic benefits of political disagreement