In the context of increasing conflicts over material heritage around the world, this article examines the role digital media play in battles over monuments. The rise of digital media brought significant changes to the cultural dynamics of heritage conflicts, which have not been adequately addressed in existing literature. Bringing together work on monuments, (digital) memory conflicts, and digital activism, we identify three key dimensions of monument battles in which the impact of digital media is most clearly visible: (a) participation, democratization, and deterritorialization; (b) reframing and contestation; and (c) mobilization and the online-offline movement of heritage battles. We illustrate these arguments drawing on a critical discourse analysis of monument battles on the messaging application Telegram in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, using a sample of 940 posts from both pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian channels. We demonstrate that despite potentially providing space for alternative memory interpretations, online memory contestations over heritage contributed to the construction of polarized and mutually exclusive worlds.
{"title":"When Monument Battles Go Digital: Russian–Ukrainian Conflicts over Material Heritage on Telegram","authors":"Anastasiya Pshenychnykh, Alena Pfoser, Sabina Mihelj","doi":"10.1177/20563051241242788","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241242788","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of increasing conflicts over material heritage around the world, this article examines the role digital media play in battles over monuments. The rise of digital media brought significant changes to the cultural dynamics of heritage conflicts, which have not been adequately addressed in existing literature. Bringing together work on monuments, (digital) memory conflicts, and digital activism, we identify three key dimensions of monument battles in which the impact of digital media is most clearly visible: (a) participation, democratization, and deterritorialization; (b) reframing and contestation; and (c) mobilization and the online-offline movement of heritage battles. We illustrate these arguments drawing on a critical discourse analysis of monument battles on the messaging application Telegram in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, using a sample of 940 posts from both pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian channels. We demonstrate that despite potentially providing space for alternative memory interpretations, online memory contestations over heritage contributed to the construction of polarized and mutually exclusive worlds.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140818100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-30DOI: 10.1177/20563051241247924
Kyounghwa Yonnie Kim, Kana Ohashi, Larissa Hjorth
This article explores the self-presentation strategies of young Japanese people (aged 19–21) on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on their creative resistance to social constraints. Drawing from ethnographic investigations conducted with Japanese college students, we delve into the creative practices undertaken by these individuals to carve out “safe places” within the digital sphere amid the prevailing peer pressure in Japanese culture to rigidly adhere to quarantine rules. Our findings illuminate the diverse strategies employed by Japanese youth to not only project a “socially responsible” self-presentation during the pandemic but also strategically navigate the boundaries between public and private spheres while challenging dominant structures on media platforms and societal norms to assert their agency and autonomy through creativity. These tactics ranged from the management of self-expression on social media to overt acts of defiance against societal expectations. By examining individual cases of Japanese youth, we shed light on the nuanced ways in which individuals leverage hyperconnectivity across various social media platforms to manage their identities and challenge societal norms, thus shaping their experiences of the pandemic. This article also contributes to understanding the dynamic interplay between culture, virtual social networks, and individual agency in times of crisis.
{"title":"Creating “Safe Places” in Social Media: Japanese Youth’s Tactics of Self-Presentation During the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Kyounghwa Yonnie Kim, Kana Ohashi, Larissa Hjorth","doi":"10.1177/20563051241247924","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241247924","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the self-presentation strategies of young Japanese people (aged 19–21) on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on their creative resistance to social constraints. Drawing from ethnographic investigations conducted with Japanese college students, we delve into the creative practices undertaken by these individuals to carve out “safe places” within the digital sphere amid the prevailing peer pressure in Japanese culture to rigidly adhere to quarantine rules. Our findings illuminate the diverse strategies employed by Japanese youth to not only project a “socially responsible” self-presentation during the pandemic but also strategically navigate the boundaries between public and private spheres while challenging dominant structures on media platforms and societal norms to assert their agency and autonomy through creativity. These tactics ranged from the management of self-expression on social media to overt acts of defiance against societal expectations. By examining individual cases of Japanese youth, we shed light on the nuanced ways in which individuals leverage hyperconnectivity across various social media platforms to manage their identities and challenge societal norms, thus shaping their experiences of the pandemic. This article also contributes to understanding the dynamic interplay between culture, virtual social networks, and individual agency in times of crisis.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"107 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140818110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-27DOI: 10.1177/20563051241248591
Amber van der Wal, Patti M. Valkenburg, Irene I. van Driel
The aim of this qualitative study was to uncover homogeneity (commonalities between adolescents), heterogeneity (differences between adolescents), and duality (differences within adolescents) in the relationship between adolescents’ social media use and well-being. To do so, 8 focus groups with 55 adolescents aged 14–17 were conducted. Anchored in the differential susceptibility to media effects model, we examined adolescents’ (1) individual motives and (2) moods leading to social media use, (3) the nature of this use, (4) their affective responses, and (5) perceived longer-term effects. Through deductive thematic analysis, we noted large homogeneity in motives for social media use but heterogeneity in moods leading to social media use. In addition, our findings revealed heterogeneity and duality in the affective responses and the perceived long-term effects of social media use. This duality, where the same individual is affected in both positive and negative ways by social media use, appeared in various forms: concurrently, when adolescents experience conflicting feelings simultaneously, such as feeling both envy and inspiration; alternately, when adolescents shift between experiences, such as feelings of connection and isolation; and sequentially, for example, where initial enjoyment gradually turns into boredom. Furthermore, duality appeared across different cognitive and affective aspects of well-being. Directions for future research are provided on how to examine the role and meaning of various forms of homogeneity, heterogeneity, and duality in the relationship between adolescents’ social media use and well-being.
{"title":"In Their Own Words: How Adolescents Use Social Media and How It Affects Them","authors":"Amber van der Wal, Patti M. Valkenburg, Irene I. van Driel","doi":"10.1177/20563051241248591","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241248591","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this qualitative study was to uncover homogeneity (commonalities between adolescents), heterogeneity (differences between adolescents), and duality (differences within adolescents) in the relationship between adolescents’ social media use and well-being. To do so, 8 focus groups with 55 adolescents aged 14–17 were conducted. Anchored in the differential susceptibility to media effects model, we examined adolescents’ (1) individual motives and (2) moods leading to social media use, (3) the nature of this use, (4) their affective responses, and (5) perceived longer-term effects. Through deductive thematic analysis, we noted large homogeneity in motives for social media use but heterogeneity in moods leading to social media use. In addition, our findings revealed heterogeneity and duality in the affective responses and the perceived long-term effects of social media use. This duality, where the same individual is affected in both positive and negative ways by social media use, appeared in various forms: concurrently, when adolescents experience conflicting feelings simultaneously, such as feeling both envy and inspiration; alternately, when adolescents shift between experiences, such as feelings of connection and isolation; and sequentially, for example, where initial enjoyment gradually turns into boredom. Furthermore, duality appeared across different cognitive and affective aspects of well-being. Directions for future research are provided on how to examine the role and meaning of various forms of homogeneity, heterogeneity, and duality in the relationship between adolescents’ social media use and well-being.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"191 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140808574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-22DOI: 10.1177/20563051241242797
Yvonne M. Eadon
Rumors about Taylor Swift’s sexuality have persisted since the early days of her career. They have coalesced into an online subculture known as “Gaylor.” Gaylor is a novel kind of conspiracy theory known as a “Closeting Conspiracy Theory” (CCT). CCTs involve speculating about a public figure’s sexuality, gathering pertinent evidence, and producing fan knowledges, often informally, on social media. Like shipping and slash fiction (which they often involve) CCTs are largely feminized. Through a qualitative content analysis of 200 TikTok videos, this article situates Gaylor as a CCT that has developed into a kind of knowledge culture. Analyzing this knowledge culture using Emily Coccia’s notion of too-close reading and José Muñoz’s queer utopianism reveals specialized practices of knowledge production, including informal boundary work. As Gaylors get “too close” to Swift’s star text, triangulating lyrics and music videos with images and videos from Swift’s life, they produce folk literary criticism. Muñoz’s queer utopianism saturates Gaylor discourses, with many Gaylors engaging in a specific type of conspiracy-inflected queer utopianism: the doomsday coming-out. The doomsday coming-out pushes the date of the Swift’s purported coming out back further and further after each anticipated album or music video release, not unlike the date of the apocalypse in a doomsday cult. Ultimately, the function of producing CCT knowledge in the Gaylor community is propelled forward by imagining queer futures, reflecting on personal identity, building community, and pushing back against heterosexist consensus.
{"title":"“You Could Hear a Hair Pin Drop”: Queer Utopianism and Informal Knowledge Production in the Gaylor Closeting Conspiracy Theory","authors":"Yvonne M. Eadon","doi":"10.1177/20563051241242797","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241242797","url":null,"abstract":"Rumors about Taylor Swift’s sexuality have persisted since the early days of her career. They have coalesced into an online subculture known as “Gaylor.” Gaylor is a novel kind of conspiracy theory known as a “Closeting Conspiracy Theory” (CCT). CCTs involve speculating about a public figure’s sexuality, gathering pertinent evidence, and producing fan knowledges, often informally, on social media. Like shipping and slash fiction (which they often involve) CCTs are largely feminized. Through a qualitative content analysis of 200 TikTok videos, this article situates Gaylor as a CCT that has developed into a kind of knowledge culture. Analyzing this knowledge culture using Emily Coccia’s notion of too-close reading and José Muñoz’s queer utopianism reveals specialized practices of knowledge production, including informal boundary work. As Gaylors get “too close” to Swift’s star text, triangulating lyrics and music videos with images and videos from Swift’s life, they produce folk literary criticism. Muñoz’s queer utopianism saturates Gaylor discourses, with many Gaylors engaging in a specific type of conspiracy-inflected queer utopianism: the doomsday coming-out. The doomsday coming-out pushes the date of the Swift’s purported coming out back further and further after each anticipated album or music video release, not unlike the date of the apocalypse in a doomsday cult. Ultimately, the function of producing CCT knowledge in the Gaylor community is propelled forward by imagining queer futures, reflecting on personal identity, building community, and pushing back against heterosexist consensus.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140636633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-22DOI: 10.1177/20563051241245666
Anna-Theresa Mayer, Jakob Ohme, Ewa Maslowska, Claire M. Segijn
Scrolling through a social media newsfeed has become almost ubiquitous. Yet, it remains unknown what specific post elements people pay attention to and whether this varies depending on how they access social media newsfeeds. In an eye-tracking experiment among university students ( N = 201), we compare user attention to specific post elements like source, title, or picture, in a dynamic Facebook newsfeed by device (desktop vs. mobile) and smartphone usage environment (private vs. public). Significant attentional differences occur at the level of the newsfeed post elements. Users pay less attention to visual information on the mobile newsfeed and more attention to textual post elements in a public setting.
{"title":"Headlines, Pictures, Likes: Attention to Social Media Newsfeed Post Elements on Smartphones and in Public","authors":"Anna-Theresa Mayer, Jakob Ohme, Ewa Maslowska, Claire M. Segijn","doi":"10.1177/20563051241245666","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241245666","url":null,"abstract":"Scrolling through a social media newsfeed has become almost ubiquitous. Yet, it remains unknown what specific post elements people pay attention to and whether this varies depending on how they access social media newsfeeds. In an eye-tracking experiment among university students ( N = 201), we compare user attention to specific post elements like source, title, or picture, in a dynamic Facebook newsfeed by device (desktop vs. mobile) and smartphone usage environment (private vs. public). Significant attentional differences occur at the level of the newsfeed post elements. Users pay less attention to visual information on the mobile newsfeed and more attention to textual post elements in a public setting.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140636187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-22DOI: 10.1177/20563051241245668
Emma Östin, Simon Lindgren
The use of hashtags has become an effective tool for activists to mobilize public support. This study explores whether, and in what ways, such hashtags have been adopted by politicians in power. Conducting a systematic, cross-national analysis, we examine how politicians use, what we call, activism-related hashtags. Using data from the Twitter Parliamentarian Database, we analyze the hashtagging practices of politicians in 10 countries: Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The analysis explores what types of hashtags politicians use, and to what extent these tags are activism-related. We also analyze what activist causes hashtags used by politicians are related to, to better understand what causes are the most palatable to politicians. We further analyze qualitatively how the activism-related hashtags are used by the politicians. Through a combination of thematic analysis and frame analysis, we find that, in relation to the wide range of hashtags that politicians use, activism-related hashtags constitute a limited share. Our analysis also indicates that although politicians do indeed use activism-related hashtags, this can be for many different reasons and purposes, beyond merely supporting the cause or position of the original activist initiative. We find that politicians may join in with the key contention behind the hashtag, renegotiate the meaning of the hashtag to be able to align party-political ideologies with it, or engage with it by questioning or subverting it.
{"title":"Bridging Activism and Party Politics: Mapping Frame Alignment Processes in Politicians’ Use of Hashtags","authors":"Emma Östin, Simon Lindgren","doi":"10.1177/20563051241245668","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241245668","url":null,"abstract":"The use of hashtags has become an effective tool for activists to mobilize public support. This study explores whether, and in what ways, such hashtags have been adopted by politicians in power. Conducting a systematic, cross-national analysis, we examine how politicians use, what we call, activism-related hashtags. Using data from the Twitter Parliamentarian Database, we analyze the hashtagging practices of politicians in 10 countries: Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The analysis explores what types of hashtags politicians use, and to what extent these tags are activism-related. We also analyze what activist causes hashtags used by politicians are related to, to better understand what causes are the most palatable to politicians. We further analyze qualitatively how the activism-related hashtags are used by the politicians. Through a combination of thematic analysis and frame analysis, we find that, in relation to the wide range of hashtags that politicians use, activism-related hashtags constitute a limited share. Our analysis also indicates that although politicians do indeed use activism-related hashtags, this can be for many different reasons and purposes, beyond merely supporting the cause or position of the original activist initiative. We find that politicians may join in with the key contention behind the hashtag, renegotiate the meaning of the hashtag to be able to align party-political ideologies with it, or engage with it by questioning or subverting it.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140636312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-20DOI: 10.1177/20563051241244674
Hanne M. Stegeman, Carolina Are, Thomas Poell
This article examines how sexual content creators manage their (in)visibility, as they navigate the constraints of online hyper(in)visibility. So far, research has focussed on how creators more generally attempt to enhance their visibility through social media platforms. Yet, especially for sexual content creators, platform visibility is not straightforward. These creators are hyper(in)visible: facing simultaneous risks of erasure and public scrutiny, harassment, and stigmatization. Drawing on 27 interviews with creators—online sex workers; LGBTQ+ activists; and sex educators—this research outlines the harms of hyper(in)visibility and creators’ tactics for strategic invisibility. These interviews showcase how hegemonic norms make socially marginalized content both hypervisible and invisible, as well as how these dynamics are reproduced and institutionalized on platforms. As they are transgressing hegemonic sexual norms, the interviewees discuss risks of platform surveillance, outing, doxxing, harassment, and capping. Yet, within the confines of platforms, these creators find ways to manage and resist these risks and positively engage with strategic invisibility. Taken together, the analysis shows the need to complicate the notion of creator visibility and sensitize research to how creators seek particular types of visibility, as well as strategic invisibility.
{"title":"Strategic Invisibility: How Creators Manage the Risks and Constraints of Online Hyper(In)Visibility","authors":"Hanne M. Stegeman, Carolina Are, Thomas Poell","doi":"10.1177/20563051241244674","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241244674","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how sexual content creators manage their (in)visibility, as they navigate the constraints of online hyper(in)visibility. So far, research has focussed on how creators more generally attempt to enhance their visibility through social media platforms. Yet, especially for sexual content creators, platform visibility is not straightforward. These creators are hyper(in)visible: facing simultaneous risks of erasure and public scrutiny, harassment, and stigmatization. Drawing on 27 interviews with creators—online sex workers; LGBTQ+ activists; and sex educators—this research outlines the harms of hyper(in)visibility and creators’ tactics for strategic invisibility. These interviews showcase how hegemonic norms make socially marginalized content both hypervisible and invisible, as well as how these dynamics are reproduced and institutionalized on platforms. As they are transgressing hegemonic sexual norms, the interviewees discuss risks of platform surveillance, outing, doxxing, harassment, and capping. Yet, within the confines of platforms, these creators find ways to manage and resist these risks and positively engage with strategic invisibility. Taken together, the analysis shows the need to complicate the notion of creator visibility and sensitize research to how creators seek particular types of visibility, as well as strategic invisibility.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140622843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-20DOI: 10.1177/20563051241239295
Piera Riccio, Julien Colin, Shirley Ogolla, Nuria Oliver
Digital beauty filters are pervasive in social media platforms. Despite their popularity and relevance in the selfies culture, there is little research on their characteristics and potential biases. In this article, we study the existence of racial biases on the set of aesthetic canons embedded in social media beauty filters, which we refer to as the Beautyverse. First, we provide a historic contextualization of racial biases in beauty practices, followed by an extensive empirical study of racial biases in beauty filters through state-of-the-art face processing algorithms. We show that beauty filters embed Eurocentric or white canons of beauty, not only by brightening the skin color, but also by modifying facial features.
{"title":"Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Is the Whitest of All? Racial Biases in Social Media Beauty Filters","authors":"Piera Riccio, Julien Colin, Shirley Ogolla, Nuria Oliver","doi":"10.1177/20563051241239295","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241239295","url":null,"abstract":"Digital beauty filters are pervasive in social media platforms. Despite their popularity and relevance in the selfies culture, there is little research on their characteristics and potential biases. In this article, we study the existence of racial biases on the set of aesthetic canons embedded in social media beauty filters, which we refer to as the Beautyverse. First, we provide a historic contextualization of racial biases in beauty practices, followed by an extensive empirical study of racial biases in beauty filters through state-of-the-art face processing algorithms. We show that beauty filters embed Eurocentric or white canons of beauty, not only by brightening the skin color, but also by modifying facial features.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140622825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-18DOI: 10.1177/20563051241245950
Christine Sowa Lepird, Lynnette Hui Xian Ng, Anna Wu, Kathleen M. Carley
News journalism has evolved from traditional print media to social media, with a large proportion of readers consuming their news via digital means. Through an analysis of over 1.3 million posts across three social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit) pertaining to the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections, this analysis examines the difference in sharing patterns for four types of news sites—Real News, Local News, Low Credibility News, and Pink Slime. Through Platform-Based Analysis, this study observes that users across all platforms share Real and Local News sequentially, and Real News and Low Credibility News sequentially. Through News Type-Based Analysis, this study establishes a Relative Engagement metric, demonstrating a widely varied engagement among the news types. Real News receive the least engagement (defined as the ratio of number of likes a post has vs. the number of followers of the page), while users engage with Pink Slime news the most. Furthermore, this study finds that the sharing of automated local news reporting sites (Pink Slime sites) are divided on political lines. Finally, through a User-Based Analysis, this study finds that automated bot users share a larger proportion of Pink Slime and Low Credibility News, while human users generally share content relating to local communities.
{"title":"What News Is Shared Where and How: A Multi-Platform Analysis of News Shared During the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections","authors":"Christine Sowa Lepird, Lynnette Hui Xian Ng, Anna Wu, Kathleen M. Carley","doi":"10.1177/20563051241245950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241245950","url":null,"abstract":"News journalism has evolved from traditional print media to social media, with a large proportion of readers consuming their news via digital means. Through an analysis of over 1.3 million posts across three social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit) pertaining to the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections, this analysis examines the difference in sharing patterns for four types of news sites—Real News, Local News, Low Credibility News, and Pink Slime. Through Platform-Based Analysis, this study observes that users across all platforms share Real and Local News sequentially, and Real News and Low Credibility News sequentially. Through News Type-Based Analysis, this study establishes a Relative Engagement metric, demonstrating a widely varied engagement among the news types. Real News receive the least engagement (defined as the ratio of number of likes a post has vs. the number of followers of the page), while users engage with Pink Slime news the most. Furthermore, this study finds that the sharing of automated local news reporting sites (Pink Slime sites) are divided on political lines. Finally, through a User-Based Analysis, this study finds that automated bot users share a larger proportion of Pink Slime and Low Credibility News, while human users generally share content relating to local communities.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"100 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140622914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-18DOI: 10.1177/20563051241242799
Yiran Duan, Jeff Hemsley, Alexander O. Smith, Una Joh, LaVerne Gray, Christy Khoury
This study examines what types of messages users posted and spread about #Black/Blue/AllLivesMatter during the Black History Month of 2022. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, about one million tweets were analyzed to test if different levels of opinion leaders tend to spread different kinds of messages related to the context. Using the curation logic of Thorson and Well and Lakoff’s semantic theory as theoretical lenses, we offer some observations about the differences in logics (incentives and norms) that opinion leaders in our dataset might face. We find that different levels of opinion leaders shared different types of messages. The implications of this study call for strategies that foster meaningful discussions on social movements amid polarized views. The study also advocates for refining platform design to encourage the dissemination of factual information over contentious arguments and reaching a societal consensus on critical social issues, such as racial inequality and police brutality. This research contributes to updating the theory of curation logics, virality, and opinion leaders, as well as provides empirical data for the discussions of the #BlackLivesMatter social movement and its related discussions of #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter.
{"title":"Curating Virality: Exploring Curated Logics Within #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter/X","authors":"Yiran Duan, Jeff Hemsley, Alexander O. Smith, Una Joh, LaVerne Gray, Christy Khoury","doi":"10.1177/20563051241242799","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241242799","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines what types of messages users posted and spread about #Black/Blue/AllLivesMatter during the Black History Month of 2022. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, about one million tweets were analyzed to test if different levels of opinion leaders tend to spread different kinds of messages related to the context. Using the curation logic of Thorson and Well and Lakoff’s semantic theory as theoretical lenses, we offer some observations about the differences in logics (incentives and norms) that opinion leaders in our dataset might face. We find that different levels of opinion leaders shared different types of messages. The implications of this study call for strategies that foster meaningful discussions on social movements amid polarized views. The study also advocates for refining platform design to encourage the dissemination of factual information over contentious arguments and reaching a societal consensus on critical social issues, such as racial inequality and police brutality. This research contributes to updating the theory of curation logics, virality, and opinion leaders, as well as provides empirical data for the discussions of the #BlackLivesMatter social movement and its related discussions of #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140622906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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