Social Media Links
Communication Style of Social Media Communication
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Pieter J Fourie
This paper explores the relative unknown terrain of the communication style of social media communication. After explaining the move from mass communication to network communication in the age of digital mediated communication, the exploration is set against the background of a description of two of the outstanding features of network communication, namely interactivity and interconnectivity. The nature of especially interactivity is explored as the source of what is beginning to emerge as style markers of social media communication, namely: reactivity (including opinionated and provocative communication), ritualistic (rhetorical) communication, fragmentation, personalisation, intertextuality (including ambiguity, repetition, abundance and redundancy), and ideological and stereotyped communication. It is argued that interactivity and inter-connectivity determines the communication style of social media communication.
Social Media Attention in Manhattan and Miami Using Twitter Analytics
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session M. Anthony Kapolka III
Miami has been dubbed "New York South," but how similar is the twitter attention of users in both locales? From archived tweets issued from Miami and Manhattan over a one-year period, an analysis is done in two stages. First, a random sampling from each city is used to compute weekly TRRs (topic related ratios) and perform collective attention analysis to identify hashtags favored in each city for that week. Second, these hashtags are used to retrieve related tweets from each locale, from which Social Media RFV (recency, frequency, value) metrics are computed and message length is examined for contraction trends (indicating excitement). By examining results obtained from each city's dataset, similarities and differences in twitter usage can be obtained, likely reflecting underlying social sentiment in the two cities.
General Anxiety Disorder and Social Media Engagement: Is There a Relationship?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Subir Sengupta
Numerous studies have shown that excessive social media engagement leads to anxiety and depression. This study examines if general anxiety disorder (GAD) can predict social media engagement. Anxiety is a subjective state of internal discomfort. Major symptoms of GAD include excessive anxiety and worry that is not easy to control. A total of 348 subjects participated in the study. A path analysis using AMOS software showed that GAD was unable to directly predict social media engagement, b = .10, p > .05. Fear of missing out (FoMO), defined as a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent, FoMO is characterized by the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing. Since anxiety is an important component of FoMO, as FoMO refers to fears, worries, and anxieties people have about missing out, FoMO was entered as a mediating variable. GAD was able to predict FoMO scores, b = .66, p < .001, and when FoMO was regressed onto social media engagement, the results b = .36, p < .01, showed that FoMO was indeed related to social media engagement. In sum, this study shows that FoMO mediates the relationship between GAD and social media engagement.
Droughtshaming on Twitter During the 2011-2016 California Drought
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Valarie Bell
The 2011-2016 California drought was the region’s most severe in a millennium. State sanctions could have considerably mitigated the disaster's effects by compelling California’s mega-user water consumers, and their entire class of residential over-consumers, to significantly cut water usage. But in the absence of government action, ordinary Californians grew angry and frustrated and turned to social media shaming via Twitter to identify and informally sanction harmful drought deviants by calling them out for their selfish, conspicuous consumption of a scarce community resource, during an historic, epic crisis. This study examines how Californians utilized social media shaming in the interests of their community's well being, at a time when government was impotent and ineffective. Shamers targeted major over-consumers resistant to fines, higher water rates, and other efforts aimed at reducing largely outdoor water over-consumption. By analyzing a sample of historical California droughtshaming tweets from January-August '15, three questions were investigated: 1) who was being droughtshamed - by social class & community type (e.g., privileged vs. disadvantaged) for residents; and organizations (business, government, non-profit) and community type; 2) the statewide distribution of the drought burden of the drought versus those who continued to conspicuously consume; and, 3) shaming's impact on statewide water consumption. Findings include: The very wealthy, businesses, and government agencies responsible for maintaining water resources during the crisis were themselves over-consumers. Shaming patterns show high-status symbols were targets. Poor and working class residents suffered under water restrictions instituted due to wealthier residents' over-consumption. Shaming was a genuine factor in water reduction.
