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Terms of engagement: Analyzing public engagement with organizations through social media
... Immersion is a broad and complicated phenomenon to conceptualize and define. It can be associated with general states of cognitive involvement or with more specific psychological states such as narrative engagement or presence (Behm-Morawitz et al., 2016;Denisova et al., 2016;Martínez, 2014;Smith & Gallicano., 2015). In this study, immersion is understood as the blending or blurring of identities and/or experiences between the actual and mediated worlds (Snodgrass et al., 2013;Martinez, 2014). ...
... To investigate the relationship between the two facets of immersion in video games, the current study approached sensory immersion as physical/spatial presence in the simulation (Behm-Morawitz et al., 2016;Smith & Gallicano., 2015) and mental immersion as narrative engagement (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2008;Martínez, 2014), comprised of transportation and/or various relationships with characters. Methodologically, this study utilized an interview-based design to capture the subjective meaningful experiences of eight players who consistently played between one and three video games of their choice, which they enjoyed, as this helped to elicit immersive experiences (Tamborini & Skalski, 2006). ...
... Sense of presence can be considered as a major form of sensory immersion (Behm-Morawitz et al., 2016;Smith & Gallicano., 2015) if understood as a perceptual illusion of non-mediation (Lombard & Ditton, 1997) and/or non-simulation (Kukshinov, 2024). Video games, as a form of technological simulation, naturally afford presence experiences, e.g., players may feel to some extent that their actions in the game are not simulated. ...
Immersion in video games is a complex psychological process often defined as a unitary phenomenon, but it actually takes at least a dual form, as video games encompass both narratives and simulations. This study aimed to understand the relationship between sensory and mental immersive experiences in video game play. A mixed-methods, interview-based study was conducted with eight dedicated players. Phenomenological analysis revealed a dynamic relationship between sensory and mental immersion, with one type sometimes becoming dominant or both combining and transitioning throughout gameplay. Recognizing and measuring these distinct experiences is crucial for advancing video game scholarship and understanding the effects of gameplay.
... Mirbagheri and Najmi (2019) conceptualized and developed a scale to measure consumers' engagement with social media activation campaigns. Complementarily, a comprehensive analysis conducted by Smith and Gallicano (2015) scrutinized public engagement with organizations via social media channels, highlighting the importance of two-way communication between public institutions and citizens. The distinctive role of platform type concerning engagement with social media and its corresponding advertising was examined meticulously by Voorveld et al. (2018). ...
... It encapsulates various forms of participation, from comments and shares to likes and views (Mirbagheri & Najmi, 2019). Smith and Gallicano (2015) argue that engagement helps in establishing profound relationships with users, and it can vary according to the type of platform (Voorveld et al., 2018). Dahlgren (2012) observes that social media can have negative effects on alternative politics due to the prominence of 'solo sphere' participation. ...
... The present research undertook a detailed exploration to examine public engagement across an array of social media platforms implemented by the European Commission, with particular attention dedicated to the influence of emotional resonance within the disseminated content. The paramount role of social media within the communication strategies of public institutions has been extensively acknowledged (Smith & Gallicano, 2015), thus underscoring the exigency for a profound understanding of the intricacies of engagement dynamics. ...
Introduction: The rise of social media has changed public institution communication, increasing dialogue with citizens and presenting challenges like privacy and misinformation. Aims/Objectives: To study how emotional resonance in communications from the European Commission on social media affects public engagement. Methodology: Analysis of the Commission's social media data (Feb 2019 - Apr 2023) using Fanpagekarma, evaluating participation metrics and sentiments with R. Results: Different emotional tones on platforms impact engagement; both positive and negative emotions correlate with increased interaction. Discussion: Emotional resonance enhances engagement, varying according to the platform, indicating the need for specific communication strategies. Conclusions: Emotional resonance and adaptation to platform norms are key in public engagement. Understanding these dynamics improves communication between the European Commission and the public.
... Social media engagement behaviours comprise two key elements, namely, social media and consumer engagement behaviour (Cao et al., 2021). The term social media refers to online tools designed to facilitate collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and ideas through social interaction between individuals, groups and organisations using Internet and Web technologies (Alt, 2018;Smith and Gallicano, 2015;Go and You, 2016). According to Barrot (2021), social media is related to internet-based applications used for image sharing (e.g., Instagram), information organisation (e.g., Pinterest), photo or video messaging (e.g., Skype), instant messaging (e.g., WhatsApp), or a combination of all (e.g., Facebook). ...
... To Smith and Gallicano (2015), engagement is a state of mind and emotion, a level of engagement that comprises social media activities, but is simultaneously distinct from those activities. Interactive engagement involves an interchange of information and responsiveness between two or more online users that are not necessarily in real-time (Camilleri and Kozak, 2022). ...
... Interactive engagement involves an interchange of information and responsiveness between two or more online users that are not necessarily in real-time (Camilleri and Kozak, 2022). While engagement requires social media interactivity, that interactivity may not be enough to be engaged (Smith and Gallicano, 2015). The term social engagement is used to refer to sharing individual or social information with the closest social environment, such as family and friends, using virtual social media platforms (Alt, 2018). ...
... Social media engagement behaviours comprise two key elements, namely, social media and consumer engagement behaviour (Cao et al., 2021). The term social media refers to online tools designed to facilitate collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and ideas through social interaction between individuals, groups and organisations using Internet and Web technologies (Alt, 2018;Smith and Gallicano, 2015;Go and You, 2016). According to Barrot (2021), social media is related to internet-based applications used for image sharing (e.g., Instagram), information organisation (e.g., Pinterest), photo or video messaging (e.g., Skype), instant messaging (e.g., WhatsApp), or a combination of all (e.g., Facebook). ...
... To Smith and Gallicano (2015), engagement is a state of mind and emotion, a level of engagement that comprises social media activities, but is simultaneously distinct from those activities. Interactive engagement involves an interchange of information and responsiveness between two or more online users that are not necessarily in real-time (Camilleri and Kozak, 2022). ...
... Interactive engagement involves an interchange of information and responsiveness between two or more online users that are not necessarily in real-time (Camilleri and Kozak, 2022). While engagement requires social media interactivity, that interactivity may not be enough to be engaged (Smith and Gallicano, 2015). The term social engagement is used to refer to sharing individual or social information with the closest social environment, such as family and friends, using virtual social media platforms (Alt, 2018). ...
... • Many to Many (Various Companies to customer Communities) (Smith & Gallicano, 2015) explore digitalization in Value Creation between customers and providers on the online services in the hijab clothing corporates. According to Nambisan and Baron (2007), They investigate diverse inspirations to value Value Creation between a consumer in the computer-generated framework of the fashion sector. ...
... The (Duffett, 2015) analyzed the have an impact on regarding Facebook likes then apportionment regarding customer buy intention. (Smith & Gallicano, 2015) in contrast YouTube, Twitter, then Facebook, or discovered up to expectation Facebook and Twitter are extra husky associative media structures so much no longer only have interaction together with the customer, however ...
This objective of the study the social media techniques and cocreation in the textile sector, together with the particular objective concerning analysis of the Value Creation and innovative techniques and that that connection together with consumers choice advance affectivity and efficiency among decision. The research is qualitative in nature and it was conducted oversea via by interviews in details of the relevant sector. A theoretical model used to be suggested. This model assimilates worth Value Creation and other variables. Analysis conducted in this research is relevant; however, studies beside the textile sector's perspective are much less frequent between the literature. This lesson contributes thoughts because the method about co-participation along consumers to enhance the exercise and administration regarding fashion companies.
... Additionally, the current study's identification of various interactions and engagements aligns with a call for research to explicate the concepts of interaction and engagement (Smith and Gallicano, 2015). Previous social media research has exclusively examined the number of likes, shares, and comments on social media posts to assess audience engagement, reactions, and interactions (e.g., Chen, 2012;Lipsman et al., 2012). ...
... Our results show that jobseekers and customers tend to engage with organizations' posts in multiple ways (asking questions, tagging friends, and expressing positive emotions), but many organizations underutilize interaction and engagement components on Instagram. We also found that audiences tend to engage more than organizations do, both quantitatively (types of interaction) and qualitatively (percentage of interaction), but social media users desire dialogic interactions with organizations (Smith and Gallicano, 2015;Taylor and Kent, 2014). Thus, based on the findings that Instagram posts that offer a high level of affordance (i.e., visibility and association) generate more likes and comments, we suggest that organizations strategically leverage different types of interactions to enhance engagement with their social media audiences. ...
● Purpose: This study aims to understand how organizations use social media for recruitment by identifying (a) what type of information is promoted and (b) what type of engagement and interaction occurs in hiring-related Instagram posts. Moreover, drawing on the social media affordance approach, this study further examines whether certain information and interactions in Instagram posts lead to better outcomes.
● Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a hashtag-based sampling strategy, we conducted a content analysis of 274 hiring-related Instagram posts by organizations to identify different types of information and interaction and then conducted a series of t-tests to examine the impact of the observed information and interactions on outcomes.
● Findings: We found four types of hiring-related information and identified 10 types of interactions driven by both organizations and audiences. Additionally, we found that hiring-related Instagram posts with a high degree of visibility and association led to more likes and comments.
● Practical Implications: This study’s results can benefit organizations that use Instagram to attract jobseekers and potential applicants, as different types of information and interaction lead to different outcomes.
● Originality: Since this is the first study to content analyze Instagram posts associated with hiring, it will provide important implications for both practice and research.
... Engage Users and Make $ | BigCommerce, n.d.). Social media engagement is a complex concept, encompassing a psychological state of mind (Syrdal & Briggs, 2018) and involving cognitive and emotional immersion (Smith & Gallicano, 2015). Social media advertising is a form of digital advertising that uses social media platforms to serve paid ads to a target audience (What Is Social Media Advertising? ...
Social media has become a powerful tool among marketers to sell their products. The increase in the number of internet users in India is also proving to be an added
factor in this aspect. Social media platforms are increasingly popular among the young generation of the country. This research aims to find the contributions of
social media advertising and social media engagement to online purchase intention among the target audience. The region of the study was the State of Kerala,
which has a tech-savvy population growing every year. Along with demographic analysis and investigation of social media advertising among the target group, the
study used statistical techniques, which include correlation and multiple regression, to arrive at the required outcomes. The results of the study would enable social
media marketers to realign their strategies to reach the target population.
... The data was collected in two phases. The first phase occurred from 2021 to 2022, we collected through Netlytic web software with some category such as twitter content with two way interaction between society member and Semarang local government; the citizen twitter account/user has fair highly engagement based on information consumption, sense of presence, interest immersion, and social interaction (Smith & Gallicano, 2015). ...
Introduction: This study tries to explores the significant roles of Twitter in creating leverage community participation as part of community empowerment in urban context. Twitter’s characters encourage people to informalize current issue in easy digestive forms. This study argues that Twitter practice will improve urban community for better life in every aspects. Also this study focusing on how urban community utilize Twitter to participate in city issues.Methods: This research used several data collection and processing including online data mining through Netlytic, online observation and semi structured interview within time period from 2021–2022.Findings: The research’s finding portrayed results in three achievements. First, Twitter significantly created leverage empowerment in a form of community participation to improve the city quality of life. Second, community empowerment was gained through holistic process and come. Third, using Twitter as appropriated and integrated strategy is a design of community empowerment. Twitter, in particular #laporhendi can be alternatives space for community discussion and participation amongst residents and local government and lead to community empowerment. Practically, urban community has the same opportunity to access Twitter and creates dynamically interaction and communication in Twitter in many direction, one to one ways, or two ways.Originality: Although research about social media and community empowerment has been studied for decades, many research tends to explore and focus on rural and marginal community. There were few studies emphazise and discusses from the urban community point of view.
... It is conducive to finding out the remaining problems or new problems and provides a reference for similar situations in the future. It seems that in many cases, the opinions of the general public are not taken into account when implementing most social events carried out by certain organizations (Smith & Gallicano, 2015). In fact, this is very necessary for the future sustainable development of corporations and even the prosperity of the industry. ...
... Along with a general agreement on the beneficial effects brought on students by feelings related to a sense of community and inclusion (Allen et al., 2021) and their capacity to lessen disparities and ethnic matters among students during their academic experiences (Gopalan and Brady, 2020), researchers are still debating the most effective way to generate engagement among users and how to measure it (Smith and Gallicano, 2015). ...
Since educational institutions have reported higher performances in terms of both students and organizational wellbeing, contemporary academic life has been increasingly boosting communication in multiple ways. Moreover, the interplay between higher educational context and student engagement seems to promote the connection with positive attitudes, which are required to facilitate the learning process and critical thinking development.
... same experience of the visit but also generated a proactive process in discovering new settings of feasible engagement within the learning context (Kuh, 2001). At this point, it is not ideal to address all types of reactions shown on social media by our audience as a result of an engagement feeling and demonstration of a collaborative attitude; while researchers are still debating what engagement is and are questioning whether it is possible to give a clear and scientific definition based on social network metrics (Lund, 2019;Rogers, 2018), what is quite accepted is the fact that this sort of individual involvement is related to personal will and refers to how people perceive themselves as sympathetic to something or someone (Smith and Gallicano, 2015;Cai et al., 2023). Social interactions on social media are not enough to explain what engagement is, specifically for millennials, who are naturally comfortable developing digital relations, regardless of specific situations (Lupton et al., 2022); moreover, recent studies have highlighted the emerging question that young generations are also modifying how they learn as digital natives pushing teachers and trainers to rethink traditional educational methods (Davidson and Goldberg, 2009;Fructuoso, 2015). ...
Considering that universities follow trends closely in worldwide digital innovation, this community case presents how organizational communication examined and implemented new ways of connecting people in digital environments. A new official Meta profile at the university that was created as part of an innovative communication plan at the department level was utilized for this purpose. The results of a 12-month trial revealed that social connections between people fit with digital connections. In this experimental design of organizational communication, the following two paths were followed: planning social experiences to stimulate student engagement and promoting these initiatives through social networks (i.e., Facebook and Instagram). To connect the students and instill the feeling of belonging to their institution, a specific design was also implemented to restructure the traditional approach to social media dialogue, considering that students, teachers, and academic staff are all part of the same community; instead of a conventional style based on informational language, a more conversational style was used, with the audience being involved as much as possible through questions, surveys, mentions, and collaborative posts to foster their sense of inclusion. As we managed the organization of an educational visit abroad for our students, they were invited to share their feelings, perceptions, and comments via social media with photographs and videos of this experience. This methodology, which focused on social activities linked to digital connections, proved to be a great opportunity for building a type of combined institutional storytelling, embedded in a natural sense of community. Moreover, this joint vision of the academic community, fulfilled by real-life events and not only stories displayed through social networks, is fundamental to creating a brand identity that fosters a sense of belonging.
... The processes of public engagement have significantly improved and generated a new category of users called digital citizens or e-citizens via social media (Guidry et al., 2017). Public engagement on social media is defined as an effective state of psychological motivation that results in extra-role behaviors (Huang et al., 2021;Kang, 2014) and how individuals' respond to social media content and what they do with it (Smith & Gallicano, 2015). Previous research claimed that public engagement on social media reflects the public's attitudes and behaviors towards online content, including activities such as posting, searching, and liking (Tsai & Men, 2018). ...
... Engagement with influencers is critical because of the relationship effects, which include loyalty, commitment, trust, and brand attachment (Brodie et al., 2013). According to earlier studies conducted in the context of social media (Smith & Gallicano, 2015;Yang & Kang, 2009) there is a related process of interacting with influencers where awareness of a business's social media activities serves as the starting point (thinking) for online engagement behaviors (like comments and user-generated content behavior intentions). ...
In today's marketing landscape, social media influencers influence consumer perceptions, emotions, and purchasing decisions. This study seeks to delve into how the attributes of food influencers, such as perceived enjoyment, professionalism, and credibility, impact consumer engagement and behavioral intentions towards food products. The current study employed an empirical design, utilizing an online questionnaire survey. 386 participants took part in the survey, yielding 298 valid responses. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The survey results indicate that perceived enjoyment and perceived professionalism significantly impact engagement with influencers, which, in turn, positively influences behavioral intentions. Additionally, perceived credibility did not affect substantially the followers' behavioral intentions. This study adds to the understanding of food influencers, exploring how consumer engagement with food influences their behavioral intentions. Specifically, food influencers' personality attributes have not been thoroughly examined in the context of food influencer behavior until now. This research employs the principles of uses and gratification theory to shed light on this previously unexplored area. This study explains that food influencers must try to engage consumers emotionally with professional content to influence purchase intentions emotionally.
... The results of this study indicate a significant correlation between social media use and perception of information about femicide. This observation is consistent with the findings of Smith & Gallicano, (2015), who also found a strong relationship between frequency of social media use and awareness of social issues. However, unlike the work of Hynes et al., (2023), who suggested a limited influence of specific platforms, this study highlights a distinct impact of different platforms on news perception. ...
... Social media engagement is a complex procedure referring to a state of cognitive and emotional immersion in the use of social media tools (Smith & Gallicano, 2015), involving users' feelings about social media content and their reactions towards it (Bennett et al., 2011). From this perspective, the role played by the posting agent's credibility in how digital users evaluate information online and obtain willingness to express their reactions should be considered reasonably pivotal, since in the platform era netizens have proved frequently reliant on groupbased means and "cognitive heuristics", enabled by web-based tools (social networking sites, online ratings and reputation systems), to implement their assessments regarding the credibility of online information and sources (Metzger et al., 2010). ...
Traditional news media have long been the primary source of information on environmental issues, influencing public perceptions and shaping discourse on ecological sustainability. Media representations play a central role in forming public opinion, especially on climate change, which has become a highly politicized and polarized topic, both offline and online. Political ideologies, economic interests, and government agendas significantly shape how the public discusses and responds to strategies for addressing climate change. This study focuses on the most engaging environmental content posted on social media and explores whether climate change is the dominant topic in these discussions. It also examines which actors (e.g., politicians, institutions, citizens) and sources (legacy media or alternative media) are featured in the most popular content. The aim is to identify the factors that drive user engagement on platforms like Facebook, Twitter (now X), and YouTube, and to investigate how social media users contribute to the plurality and diversity of voices shaping the discussions on environmental issues. The study considers whether these platforms support the democratic potential of public debate. Over a three-month period (Sept.–Nov. 2021), the study monitored social media and compared non-professional user’s posts with professional content from legacy media. The findings show that institutional actors dominate the online debate on environmental issues and climate change. Facebook engagement largely revolves around content from organizations and politicians, while Twitter users refer to organizational sources. On YouTube, however, local and regional media content is more prominent. This is surprising since surveys suggest that Greeks mistrust legacy media and prefer social media for information, viewing traditional outlets as corrupt and biased towards the dominant class.
... The study found a positive and significant relationship between social media usage and purchase intention, supporting Hypothesis 1. This finding aligns with previous research that underscores the power of social media in brand communication, relationship building, and ultimately driving purchase decisions (Khan et al., 2024;Smith & Gallicano, 2015). Additionally, the quality, quantity, credibility, and overall electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on TikTok positively influence information usefulness, supporting Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4. ...
This study investigates the influence of social media usage and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on consumer purchase intentions for local fashion products on TikTok. Conducted among 385 TikTok users familiar with Indonesian fashion brands, the research employs Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze data. The results reveal significant positive relationships between social media engagement, eWOM, information quality, usefulness, information adoption, and purchase intention. Findings highlight the pivotal role of TikTok in enhancing brand equity through interactive content and direct consumer interaction. The study contributes insights into consumer behavior in the digital age, offering practical implications for businesses aiming to optimize marketing strategies on social media platforms.
... It is also feasible to describe social media as online communities where users may build private or public profiles, communicate with friends in daily life, and associate with others based on shared interests (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011a). Social media, as a term, refers to the wide range of online activities that people may engage in (Smith & Gallicano, 2015) and can be broadly described as programs, platforms, and other tools that let users produce, rearrange, and share material (Junco, 2014). In this framework, the abundance of opportunities provided by social media has led to a rapid increase in the number of users, especially among young people, and a tendency to spend a lot of time (Aini, Rahardja, Tangkaw, Santoso & Khoirunisa, 2020). ...
The aim of this study is to determine the digital literacy skills of secondary school students and their social media addictions and attitudes towards social media use. Descriptive survey model was used in the study. Convenient sampling method was used to determine the study group. The research was conducted on 327 volunteer middle school students within the borders of Amasya province in the 2022-2023 academic year. Data were collected using the digital literacy scale, social media addiction scale and social media attitude scale. Descriptive analysis, independent sample t test, one-way analysis of variance, correlation test and simple linear regression analysis were used in data analysis. According to the results of the analysis, it was seen that students' digital literacy skills and attitudes towards social media were at a medium level, and their social media addiction levels were at a low level. It was concluded that social media addiction was predicted by attitudes towards social media use and digital literacy skills.
... Similarity, as a factor that attracts people to one another, it fosters intangible emotional connections while strengthening perceptions of intimacy or bond strength. Therefore, the perception of similarity can help counter the uncertainty of information sources in network environments [70]. Furthermore, similarity has positive effects on the usefulness and trust perceived by online users. ...
Social commerce blurs the boundary between online social interaction and online shopping. The emergence of video streams introduces novel marketing modalities to social commerce. However, there is a paucity of comprehensive studies investigating the impact of emerging marketing techniques such as short videos and live streaming on consumer purchase intention. This study employs Bourdieu’s conceptual framework to construct a Field Theory-based model, investigating the impact of atmospheric and capital characteristics of social commerce platforms on consumer purchase intention through affective and rational pathways, respectively. A survey involving 515 Chinese social commerce consumers demonstrates that atmospheric characteristics (emotion and social presence) and capital characteristics (information quality and quantity) in video streams enhance similarity and power. Both similarity and power are associated with an increase in consumer purchase intention. This study validates the dual-path influence of social commerce characteristics and discusses theoretical and managerial implications.
... Social media engagement is a construct that describes how users interact cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally with online content (Smith and Gallicano, 2015). Users are no longer passive recipients of media messages. ...
This comparative study explores the vulnerability/resilience visual framing pattern in the survivors-related visuals tweeted by 16 media outlets and 18 non-governmental organizations during the 2023 Morocco earthquake. The study proposes a vulnerability/ resilience framework and investigates its potential impact on X engagement metrics. The results indicate discrepancies between media outlets and non-governmental organizations in their vulnerability/resilience perspectives as well as their gendered representations of the survivors. Theoretical and practical implications of visual framing and strategic crisis communication are further discussed.
... It is proposed that presence, being a product of immersive technologies, like VR (Cummings & Bailenson, 2016), or other simulation and media technologies, can be recognized as an immersive state (Behm-Morawitz et al., 2016;Smith & Gallicano, 2015) but only as a sensory one (see more details in chapters below). These technologies, that can induce presence, provide simulations, or systems of signs that reproduces some behavior, environment, or entity, which is fundamentally different from narratives that represent sequences of signs. ...
This paper offers a revised conceptualization and categorization of presence, building upon Kwan Min Lee’s framework and reviewing related scholarships. The proposed approach emphasizes the afforded virtual experiences rather than the specific technologies and centers around a core definition of “presence” as the perceptual illusion of non-simulation and/or non-mediation. This revised framework encompasses a wide range of media technologies that reproduce activities, entities, or environments, excluding media narratives. By refining the understanding of presence, this paper aims to provide a more precise comprehension of the concept, its contributing factors, measurements, and the associated outcomes.
... It is often viewed as the active involvement of individuals on social media platforms which includes actions such as posting content, commenting on posts, sharing, liking, and participating in online discussions (McCay-Peet & Quan-Haase, 2016). However, according to Smith and Gallicano (2015), engagement is a state of mind and emotion, a level of involvement that comprises social media activities, but is simultaneously, distinct from them. In simpler terms, being engaged may involve interacting on social media, but mere interactivity may not necessarily indicate engagement. ...
Social media serves as a widely utilized channel for communication between businesses and individuals. Self-engagement on social media is a crucial aspect of online behaviour, shaping both individual experiences and digital communities. Hence, this paper focuses on the layout content and its contribution to cognitive processes in relation to users' self-engagement. The methodology employed in this paper is literature-based, with data collected from numerous sources. The findings suggest that the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) can serve as a theoretical framework, providing an understanding of persuasion mechanisms via peripheral routes. This model holds particular significance in the realm of self-engagement, where users interact with content using diverse cognitive processes. Social media platforms have the capacity to adjust and improve their features to align with user preferences, ensuring a more fulfilling and satisfying user experience. By employing successful tactics grounded in theoretical frameworks such as the ELM, companies and individuals can refine their strategies for engagement and communication on social platforms.
... It is the degree of bringing one's self into the situation (Kahn 1990). Engagement is defined as the emotional and cognitive states individual people have concerning their participation (Calder et al. 2009;Paek et al. 2013;Smith and Gallicano 2015). ...
Due to mounting social and environmental pressures, the demand for efficient and secure urban and rural land uses has noticeably increased. Thus, planners and policymakers are called upon to work with diverse policy and management structures, as well as NGOs, private business actors, issue-oriented interest groups, locally based citizen groups and ordinary citizens. They must also confront shifting and sometimes conflicting territorial interests within the national, regional or local context. Many times, decision-makers tend to focus on specific issues, e.g. climate forecasts, overlooking the mutually entangled socio-economic and political effects. It is becoming clear that there are no “one-size-fits-all solutions” for regions and cities because of the very specific local conditions (location, population density, financial and human resources, and stakeholder interests). Moreover, scientists and decision-makers need to support the communities’ autonomy, since the effectiveness of the planning strategy depends on community participation. Therefore, regional and local communities must have the ability to understand the local impacts of candidate solutions and modify them as needed, while developing their own vision for their future. In terms of hierarchical planning systems and decision-making processes, these policy and management structures can be broadly classified into the “top-down” planning approach, whereas NGOs, private business actors, issue-oriented interest groups, locality-based citizens groups and ordinary citizens constitute the “bottom-up” approach, although these distinctions are often not absolute. In both instances, the stakeholders must negotiate since consensus is crucial to the long-term resiliency of the decision-making process. This book, therefore, brings together researchers across various fields to explore scenario-driven designs and resolve negotiations across different locations.
... The advent of social media has clearly affected the way scientists communicate with other scientists and various publics. Social media allow for different publics to easily find and follow content directly from scientists, opening an avenue for discourse and dissemination of scientific information on specific platforms with the potential for direct interactions, something not available through mass media such as radio and television (Smith and Gallicano, 2015). Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok allow for sharing of scientific results and media engagement through the re-posting of content by followers (Hayes et al., 2020;Jünger and Fähnrich, 2020;Metallo FIG. ...
Although astrobiology is a relatively new field of science, the questions it seeks to answer (e.g., "What is life?" "What does life require?") have been investigated for millennia. In recent decades, formal programs dedicated specifically to the science of astrobiology have been organized at academic, governmental, and institutional scales. Constructing educational programs around this emerging science relies on input from broad expertise and backgrounds. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of this field, career pathways in astrobiology often begin in more specific fields such as astronomy, geology, or biology, and unlike many other sciences, typically involve substantial training outside one's primary discipline. The recent origin of astrobiology as a field of science has led to strong collaborations with education research in the development of astrobiology courses and offers a unique instructional laboratory for further pedagogical studies. This chapter is intended to support students, educators, and early career scientists by connecting them to materials and opportunities that the authors and colleagues have found advantageous. Annotated lists of relevant programs and resources are included as a series of appendices in the supplementary material.
... Nonetheless, in media organizations, public relations practices are mostly two-way, equally prioritizing audience feedback to further proceed with the production and dissemination of likeable media content (Gimaliev et al., 2020). Similarly, public relations practices are significantly updated today (Gallicano et al., 2021). According to Savič (2016), the more organizations are focused on communication, the more they are likely to improve their PR practices. ...
Public relations practices are widely accompanied by communication and persuasion. Especially today, when new media platforms provide direct accessibility, communication through PR has become more improved. This research focused on media organizations in the UAE, with a special consideration given to their audience content management. The researchers applied the case study method and selected a sample of n = 280 individuals from n = 12 media houses currently working in the UAE. The results obtained by structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that media organizations in the UAE pay significant consideration to public relations practices (p > 0.000) and new media adoption (p > 0.000). Moreover, both these public relations practices (p > 0.000) and new media adoption were also found to significantly focus on two-way communication. Consequently, this two-way communication is significantly affecting content management among these organizations (p > 0.000), leading to the design, evaluation, and alteration of content that is acceptable and liked by their audiences. Thus, it has been concluded that media content and its management is not a simple task. Audience and communication are two basic factors that play an important role in this regard. Furthermore, the role of public relations practices also enhances communication and content management practices, leading to even more constructive outcomes.
This study examines the interplay between Internet of Things (IoT) security awareness, social cognitive factors, and social sharing behaviors. The study applies social cognitive theory (SCT) to examine the cognitive determinants of online security behavior in the context of IoT. Using a survey-based approach, data were collected from 393 social media users. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relationships between IoT security awareness, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, behavioral ability, and social sharing behavior. The results show that IoT security awareness does not have a significant impact on content-sharing behavior. Meanwhile, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and behavioral ability had significant positive effects on sharing behavior. These results suggest that individuals with higher self-confidence in their security skills, a stronger belief in the positive outcomes of safe behavior, and greater practical security knowledge are more likely to share safe content on social networks. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of online safety behavior by extending the applicability of SCT to the digital domain. This highlights the importance of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and behavioral skills in shaping online safety behavior. This study, therefore, highlights the need for tailored educational and technological interventions to promote safe online practices. However, limitations such as the cross-sectional design and regional focus suggest opportunities for future research, including longitudinal studies and the examination of additional variables that influence digital behavior in the evolving IoT and social networking landscape.
Social media or online media is used by its users to communicate, interact, share, network, and learn digitally by utilizing the features available on social media. The purpose of this study is to understand the communication planning process, followers' responses, and the reasons why @neohistoria_id uses Twitter as a medium for digital history education. This research employs a qualitative method with a case study approach and uses Regina Luttrell's Circular Model of SOME. The technique for selecting informants is purposive sampling. The communication planning process carried out by @neohistoria_id involves several stages. The first stage is sharing, where the Twitter account @neohistoria_id participates in sharing historical content. The public who receive this content are connected with @neohistoria_id, so @neohistoria_id must build trust with the public to keep them reading their content. In the optimization stage, @neohistoria_id listens to and learns from the public discussions about their posts. Then, @neohistoria_id takes part in these discussions through replies or Twitter Spaces. In the management stage, @neohistoria_id conducts media monitoring to delve into current issues. Following this, @neohistoria_id must respond quickly to create real-time interaction with the public. In the engagement stage, @neohistoria_id understands how to build relationships with the public (influencer relations). The goal is to identify the target audience of @neohistoria_id, which includes students and professionals. This is important to find a similar audience and encourage positive changes in the image built by the Twitter account @neohistoria_id itself.
Environmental discussions have increased on social media, along with the rising interest in sustainability. This study introduces a modified procedure for a deliberate metaphor analysis of environmental metaphors in two U.S. energy companies’ Twitter (now X) accounts. Its findings suggest that the two U.S. companies used HUMAN, WEALTH, COLOR, JOURNEY, WAR, SPORTS, STEWARDSHIP, EVIL CREATURE, FOOD, and CRIME metaphors to fulfill publicizing, commercial, persuasive, evocative, and interactive functions, as well as to communicate their inherent environmental identities as protectors, stewards, competitors, and collaborators. These findings provide insights into corporate environmental communication and offer new perspectives on the communicative functions of deliberate metaphors.
UN peace missions are increasingly becoming victims of deliberate disinformation campaigns. To counter these campaigns, the UN is engaging in strategic communications with the aim to build trust and public support for its peace missions. Digitization opens new possibilities for communication with local populations, and social media provides UN peace missions with new capabilities to share information with their local audiences and to gather public input. Through social media, the UN has been actively engaged in informing the public and influencing public perceptions of its legitimacy; however, little is known about the role social media can play in support of UN peace missions. To assess how social media influences practices of strategic communications of UN peace missions, this chapter draws on the broad theoretical discussion on discursive legitimation efforts by IOs and approaches relating to strategic communications and public diplomacy. The resulting framework is applied in an exploratory case study of social media communication patterns of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Qualitative content analysis is applied to determine how the peacekeeping mission engages with its audience, how it frames and legitimizes its engagement, and what broader topics and discourses are being addressed in the individual posts.
Buku ini membahas secara komprehensif pengaruh media sosial terhadap kinerja akademik mahasiswa, sebuah topik yang semakin relevan di era digital saat ini. Buku ini mengupas berbagai aspek penggunaan media sosial, mulai dari definisi, fungsi, hingga dampaknya dalam konteks pendidikan.
Melalui analisis yang mendalam, buku ini menunjukkan bahwa media sosial dapat berfungsi sebagai alat bantu yang efektif dalam pembelajaran, memungkinkan mahasiswa untuk terhubung, berbagi informasi, dan berkolaborasi. Namun, di sisi lain, penggunaan media sosial juga berpotensi menjadi sumber distraksi yang signifikan, yang dapat mengganggu konsentrasi dan menurunkan prestasi akademik. Penelitian yang disajikan dalam buku ini mengungkapkan bahwa penggunaan media sosial untuk tujuan akademis dapat meningkatkan pemahaman dan kolaborasi, sementara penggunaan untuk hiburan sering kali mengalihkan perhatian mahasiswa dari tanggung jawab akademik.
Buku ini memberikan rekomendasi praktis bagi mahasiswa dan pendidik untuk mengelola penggunaan media sosial secara bijak. Dengan harapan, buku ini dapat menjadi panduan yang bermanfaat bagi mahasiswa, pendidik, dan peneliti dalam memahami dinamika hubungan antara media sosial dan kinerja akademik, serta mendorong diskusi lebih lanjut tentang pengelolaan media sosial yang efektif dalam mendukung kinerja akademik.
The bottom-up spillover theory posits that overall life satisfaction, positioned at the top, is influenced by satisfaction in various life domains at the middle level and specific events at the bottom. However, few studies have explored the relationship between festivals, as specific events, and overall life satisfaction. This study utilizes a mixed methods approach with two main objectives: 1) to examine festivalscapes in the social media era, focusing on how the atmosphere and quality of experience that define the festival environment are perceived from the perspectives of both organizers and visitors; and 2) to apply the bottom-up spillover theory to explore how social media influences the relationship between festivalscapes, flow experience, and life satisfaction. Study 1, using content analysis, identified eight salient dimensions of festivalscape: performance, creative interaction, food, exhibition sales, festival atmosphere, staff service, layout/design, and security. Study 2, using partial least squares modeling (PLS-SEM), revealed that festival atmosphere, layout/design, safety, creative interaction and food in festivalscapes have a significant positive impact on flow experience, and a significant positive correlation exists between flow experience and visitors’ life satisfaction. The results demonstrated that social media usage and engagement moderated relationship between flow experience and life satisfaction. Our findings can help organizers leverage social media to design festivalscapes that enhance visitors' life satisfaction.
In recent times, the internet is considered to be one of the most powerful resources which connect people all over the globe. The advancement in social network sites also made the source more familiar and popular that it is now treated as a basic necessity of life, hence its absence impacts individuals' daily routine. However, the emerging trend of SNs usage in the context of connecting people is creating a gap in their family lives as well. This major impact on families not only shrinks healthy family time but also shrinks socialization and face-to-face interaction among siblings and parents. Thus, the study advances its knowledge by analyzing the perception, attitude, and behaviour toward social media with the assumption that it may hamper the quality of time with family. The current study chose a convenience sampling technique to sample the university students of Karachi. By using time displacement theory as a theoretical lens, the study confirms the excessive usage of social media decrease family socialization. Results also indicate that with excessive
This study explores whether the emphasis of science news websites on dissemination over dialogue corresponds to the actual preferences of their science-oriented audiences. Based on interviews with science news website administrators ( n = 8) and readers ( n = 20) and two reader questionnaires ( n = 89; n = 55), we found that readers favor dissemination, yet certain readers may also desire interactive discussions. Readers perceive the ability to comment as beneficial for readers and administrators; however, they do not expect administrators to engage in dialogue. Younger audiences showed a somewhat greater preference for online dialogic communication than their older counterparts.
With the development of the information age, social media has become an important channel for students to communicate, interact and obtain information online. This research combines analyses of social media use and factors linked to intrinsic motivation to examine the influence of these factors on university students’ creativity through the Internet. The discussion presented here starts from the viewpoint that intrinsic motivation plays an important role in the correlation between social media and students’ creativity. This study randomly surveyed 416 students from Chinese universities majoring in art to investigate the impact of social media on their levels of creativity. The analysis focused on understanding these students’ intrinsic motivation to engage in Internet use. The conclusions show that social media has a considerable impact on their creativity. Under the influence of intrinsic motivation, students’ creativity can be considerably boosted. Furthermore, it also shows that different intrinsic motivations have different effects on creativity levels. Therefore, the study is suggested that the education sector in China still needs to pay more attention to the development of students’ creative approaches to achieve better educational outcomes.
The present study aims to explore how nonprofit organizations utilize relationship investment efforts to foster positive behavioral outcomes among their donors and volunteers, including word‐of‐mouth, support retention, and social media engagement, thereby ensuring the sustainability of these relationships. Findings from a survey of 210 participants reveal that donors' and volunteers' perceived social and economic investments positively influence their organizational identification with nonprofit organizations, leading to favorable behavioral outcomes. Additionally, this research examines the moderating role of relationship proneness in the association between perceived relationship investment and organizational identification. The results indicate that low relationship proneness strengthens the impact of perceived relationship investment on organizational identification. This study contributes to the existing literature on relationship investment and identification in nonprofit contexts, offering practical insights for managers. The implications for future research are discussed, along with acknowledgment of limitations.
Public engagement on government social media platforms can boost public trust in government while also improving and speeding up the distribution of health information. The importance of public engagement and its widespread existence have promoted extensive academic research on this channel. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to identify and bridge gaps in theories and conceptual frameworks in studies of public engagement via government social media. Furthermore, the objective of this research is to establish a comprehensive framework for analyzing how the public's engagement on government social media during the COVID-19 pandemic is affected by elements including information quality, source credibility, social media characteristics, and personal trust. The PRISMA method is used to review publications from 2019. After an extensive systematic review procedure that involved searching for relevant publications and utilizing inclusion and exclusion criteria to retrieve those that met the study's purpose, 32 papers were finally selected from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases. Finally, this study's findings shed light on the interactions between the public and the government during COVID-19 and offer recommendations for further research on public engagement, including more diverse social media types, the expansion of public engagement forms on social media, and the adoption of different theory or model. This study provides more evidence for research on public online engagement and offers some practical implications for effective communication between governments and the public.
While social media platforms are valuable for examining the online engagement of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, the research considerations underlying social media data remain opaque to most. Through a systematic review of nonprofit studies that analyze social media data, I propose a methodological framework incorporating three common data types: text, engagement and network data. The review reveals that most existing studies rely heavily on manual coding to analyze relatively small datasets of social media messages, thereby missing out on the automation and scalability offered by advanced computational methods. To address this gap, I demonstrate the application of supervised machine learning to train, predict, and analyze a substantial dataset consisting of 66,749 social media messages posted by community foundations on Twitter/X. This study underscores the benefits of combining manual content analysis with automated approaches and calls for future research to explore the potential of generative AI in advancing nonprofit social media research.
Cities are challenged by the growing need to improve their management skills to maintain a high quality of life and well-being for their residents. In their ambition to achieve this goal, they set to become smart cities and therefore implement citizen engagement methods as part of smart governance as well as reach smart cities 3.0 evolvement (Flint Ashery in Scales of change, pp. 185–192, 2023). Implementation of citizen engagement takes different forms and capacities from consulting the public to cocreation of solutions for the city by citizens, city managers and other stakeholders. Neve Sha’anan neighborhood in Tel Aviv Yafo was chosen as a case study to discuss aspects of citizen engagement and its relationship with well-being. Citizen engagement in the neighborhood was implemented using Geodesign to develop a plan for the central bus station (see Steinlauf-Millo’s chapter). The process is used to analyse the mediation between citizen engagement and well-being through motivational and cognitive factors. These factors include satisfaction, place attachment and service quality. Conclusions indicate the importance of citizens in the decision-making of the local habitat and the need to include the different communities that reside in a place.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to propose and test an extended theory of planned behavior model to explain the significance of social media influencers’ credibility, social media usage (SMU) and social media marketing while simultaneously examining females’ intentions to purchase cosmetics online.
Design/methodology/approach
An online questionnaire was used to collect data from 386 female consumers of cosmetics, and the data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the help of SmartPLS version 4.
Findings
First, the results indicated that SMU, social media influencers’ credibility and social media marketing significantly and positively impact the theory of planned behavior components, namely, attitude, subjective norms (SNs) and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Second, results confirmed that attitude, SNs and PBC significantly and positively influenced female consumers’ online purchase intentions (OPIs).
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to examine an integrated model that consisted of SMU, social media marketing and social media influencers along with the theory of planned behavior constructs in their proposed research model in the context of cosmetics in India. The study also enriched the body of knowledge about using the PLS-SEM approach to predict OPI for cosmetics.
The aviation industry can be said to be one of the industries whose star has been shining more and more recently. In its simplest form, can be defined as a process that includes all activities, details and industries related to aviation. Aviation industry institutions aim to carry out effective and sustainable communication activities with their target audience/customers and followers. Social media tools and environments are also the preferred media in this communication process. Social media influencers, which can be specified as an increasingly remarkable communication element, are also in the aviation field and their effective use is seen. Its applications are seen in many different areas such as aircraft-aviation, travel, food and beverage, destination. In the effectiveness of the communication process, online engagement is also a factor that is mentioned. Therefore, the two-way communication process that takes place in this study, which focuses on influencers in the aviation field and online engagement, is also mentioned in the specified communication process.
This research examines the influence of CEO versus brand communication on public engagement and digital activism during the Russia-Ukraine war. Brand communication refers to messages sent out through an organization's social media accounts, whereas CEO communication comes from the executive's personal account. The authors depart from an analysis of 236,119 tweets investigating the effects of message sender (CEO vs. brand), message framing (self vs. other), and message appeal (informational vs. emotional) on engagement (i.e., likes, retweets, and replies). To further understand, they subsequently deploy a 2×2 between-subjects design (N=608) that introduces scenarios where either a CEO or brand proposes a public policy campaign, advocating support for U.S. citizens (self-framing) or Ukrainian civilians (other-framing). Key findings reveal that CEO communications foster greater engagement and digital activism than brand messages. CEO communication that merges self-framed with informational or other-framed with emotional appeals outperforms brand messages regarding public engagement. Additionally, CEO campaigns centered on Ukrainian civilians amplify digital activism, mirroring findings when brands approach the war's implications for U.S. citizens. Together, these insights unveil the intricate dance of message sender, framing, and appeal during global geopolitical events, providing vital knowledge for organizations and policymakers aiming to optimize public backing in times of war.
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine an integrated model in which brand equity (BE) mediates the effects of social media usage (SMU) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on purchase intentions among Indian consumers of branded apparel.
Design/methodology/approach – An online questionnaire was used to collect data from 317 Indian customers of branded apparel, and the data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with the help of SmartPLS version 4.
Findings– First, the results indicated that SMU, eWOM and BE significantly impact consumers purchase intention; at the same time, BE is influenced by SMU and eWOM. Second, results confirmed that BE partially mediates the effects of SMU and eWOM on the purchase intentions of consumers of apparel brands.
Research limitations/implications – The study's data set is limited in its generalizability as it is based on specific responses from Indian consumers of branded apparel via an online survey. The results of this study would help marketers and advertisers create customized advertising campaigns for the people who are most likely to buy their products. Marketers can also use social media to promote the uniqueness or point of difference (PoD) of their apparel brands.
Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has been conducted on apparel brands in the Indian context that has tested an integrative model in which BE mediates the effects of SMU and eWOM on the purchase intentions of customers of apparel brands.
Keywords Social media usage, eWOM, Purchase Intention, Brand Equity, Elaboration Likelihood Model.
Paper type Research paper
Ethical social media use underpins effective online engagement for dementia prevention research. Existing social media guidelines are broad and lack empirical justification reflecting the values and priorities of the dementia community and the challenges specific to prevention research.
By engaging professional and community experts, we sought to identify the ethical issues, motivators, and barriers pertaining to social media engagement for dementia prevention research.
Semi-structured, qualitative interviews conducted online.
We recruited participants using a combination of accessible online databases, advertisements/posters through organizational newsletters and websites, social media, registries, and from our network of colleagues.
Professional experts working in dementia research (n=15; e.g., researchers, coordinators) and experts with lived experience (n=14). Experts were from Canada, the USA, the UK, and Chile.
Discussions were analyzed using thematic qualitative analysis methods.
Professional experts revealed a dearth of social media guidelines for prevention research, relying on informal sources to supplement ethics board approval. They sought methods of strategic communication for public dialogue (e.g., misinformation, criticism). Experts by experience appreciated the educational benefits of social media but raised risks such as diminished online privacy, dementia-related stigma, being targeted for predatory practices, and misinformation. Various digital inequities (e.g., age, socioeconomic status) dampen social media’s reach to diverse publics. Participants acknowledged that younger aging populations have more digital fluency and may benefit more from social media research engagement.
Research professionals and community members identified ethical and contextual factors surrounding the use of social media for dementia prevention, and a need for more guidance. The next project phase will use these data to inform the co-creation of ethical guidelines for brain health research.
The advent of the digital age represents a transformative era in which technology, primarily social media platforms, has become an integral part of the daily lives of individuals worldwide. Students are the most prolific users of social media, utilizing these platforms for a variety of purposes, including communication, information sharing, entertainment, and social networking. This study evaluated the connection between student social media use and academic performance through family bonding and collaborative learning. This research also explores how mental wellbeing moderates the link between students’ family bonding, collaborative learning, and academic performance. This research article analyzes a sample of 330 university students from the public and private sectors and tests the proposed hypothesized relationships. The study used the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) methodological approach for evaluating proposed parameters. The findings indicated that social media use positively correlated with students’ academic performance. Second, family bonding and collaborative learning significantly moderated the association between students’ academic performance and social media use. Finally, mental well-being significantly moderated the connection between students’ collaborative learning, family bonding, and academic performance. This study’s findings contribute to the knowledge of global education with valuable insights into students’ psychological well-being and academic performance. In theory, the current research advances the scientific understanding of education by assessing social media usage’s effects on students’ academic performance and psychological well-being.
Web 2.0 and social media have changed the ways in which brands interact with consumers. As organizations attempt to join the conversations in the online world, brand managers need to measure their firm’s visibility in social media, just as they would with traditional media. This study proposes a tool for collecting and analyzing data on social media brand visibility information. This tool is tested by looking at the visibility of various South African university brands from a social media perspective and using correspondence analysis to compare the brands in a multi-dimensional space. Findings indicate that South African university brands are not distinctly positioned in social media and that no single brand appears to have a specific social media strategy in place. Analysis highlights opportunities for those who manage these brands, as well as threats for organizations taking a laissez fair attitude to engaging in this new sphere.
This study proposes and tests a conceptual model that not only measures public engagement with corporate pages on social networking sites, but also evaluates the influence of such engagement on important perceptual, relational, and behavioral outcomes. Study results provide empirical evidence of the positive effects of public engagement on perceived corporate authenticity, organizational transparency, organization–public relationships, and public advocacy. Findings underscore the importance of public engagement via social media on enhancing perceived corporate transparency and authenticity, and thereby cultivating strong relationships. Additionally, organization–public relationships emerged as a deciding factor driving the effects of public engagement on advocacy behaviors.
This study draws upon the revelation risk model and the disclosure decision-making model to deduce hypotheses linking perceived stigma, communication efficacy, and relational closeness to married partners’ tendencies to disclose information about their infertility experiences to members of the couple's social network. Data from 50 couples reporting on disclosures to a total of 250 social network members were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Results indicated that aspects of stigma, communication efficacy, and closeness impact infertility-related disclosures. The discussion highlights how the application of these theories sheds light on the multiple factors that influence the extent to which husbands and wives engage their social network when coping with infertility.
The principle of engagement underlies much of the relational and organization–public communication research. Unfortunately, the principle of engagement suffers from a lack of clarity in the public relations literature. Use of the term engagement varies widely. This article clarifies the principle of engagement by positioning it within dialogue theory. We posit a conceptualization of engagement as: Engagement is part of dialogue and through engagement, organizations and publics can make decisions that create social capital. Engagement is both an orientation that influences interactions and the approach that guides the process of interactions among groups.
The concept of public engagement has suffered from a lack of a clear theoretical definition and sound operationalization. This study conceptualized and operationalized public engagement at the individual level and tested the micro-model of public engagement in relation to key public relations concepts and supportive behavioral intentions. Further, the study tried to bring the affective component into public relations scholarship by introducing engagement as a behavioral motivator that elicits individual publics' supportive behaviors toward an organization. The results showed the proposed 13-item scale of public engagement was sound in reliability and validity and found support for the proposed model as well as the mediation of public engagement.
This study was designed to identify trends, patterns, and academic rigor in research studies focusing on Internet-related public relations through a review of articles published between 1992 and 2009.1 This study examined the authorship, theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and research topics addressed in these published articles. Key findings suggested an increasing trend in the number of published articles, a lack of applied theoretical frameworks, a dominance of quantitative research, and an emphasis on use of the Internet in public relations.1Please see the appendix for a bibliography of the 115 articles studied.
Self-endorsing—the portrayal of potential consumers using products—is a novel advertising strategy made possible by the development of virtual environments. Three experiments compared self-endorsing to endorsing by an unfamiliar other. In Experiment 1, self-endorsing in online advertisements led to higher brand attitude and purchase intention than other-endorsing. Moreover, photographs were a more effective persuasion channel than text. In Experiment 2, participants wore a brand of clothing in a high-immersive virtual environment and preferred the brand worn by their virtual self to the brand worn by others. Experiment 3 demonstrated that an additional mechanism behind self-endorsing was the interactivity of the virtual representation. Evidence for self-referencing as a mediator is presented.
Online communities offer attractive opportunities and challenges to advertisers. Using a revised source credibility framework, this study proposes that interpersonal trust and platform credibility are core to consumer search and consumption behaviors that allow advertisers to harvest value from online communities. We postulate that (1) quality Web features, and user instrumental and relational need fulfillment are antecedents of interpersonal trust and platform credibility; (2) interpersonal trust is distinct from, and an important driver of, platform credibility; and (3) both constructs drive a user's online community usage and brand variety seeking behavior. An online survey of 899 consumers in China supports these propositions and offers both research and managerial implications for this new media platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Advertising is the property of M.E. Sharpe Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
The meaning of employee engagement is ambiguous among both academic researchers and among practitioners who use it in conversations with clients. We show that the term is used at different times to refer to psychological states, traits, and behaviors as well as their antecedents and outcomes. Drawing on diverse relevant literatures, we offer a series of propositions about (a) psychological state engagement; (b) behavioral engagement; and (c) trait engagement. In addition, we offer propositions regarding the effects of job attributes and leadership as main effects on state and behavioral engagement and as moderators of the relationships among the 3 facets of engagement. We conclude with thoughts about the measurement of the 3 facets of engagement and potential antecedents, especially measurement via employee surveys.
After more than a decade of public journalism efforts, empirical knowledge of whether these efforts have met the movement's goals remains largely based on in-depth case studies. To address this shortcoming, this study analyzes 651 cases of public journalism conducted between 1994 to 2002. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis is used to consider the predictive power of organizational factors, project features, story frames, and efforts to engage citizens and assess public opinion on three civil society outcomes: improvements in citizenship, political processes, and volunteerism. Specific effects on civil society are discussed, study limitations are addressed, and insights for future research and practice are offered.
We discuss consumer engagement with a website, provide a systematic approach to examining the types of engagement produced by specific experiences, and show that engagement with the media context increases advertising effectiveness. Based on experiments using measurement scales involving eight different online experiences, we advance two types of engagement with online media — Personal and Social-Interactive Engagement. Our results show that both types are positively associated with advertising effectiveness. Moreover, Social-Interactive Engagement, which is more uniquely characteristic of the web as a medium, is shown to affect advertising after controlling for Personal Engagement. Our results offer online companies and advertisers new metrics and advertising strategies.
User-generated online content poses a problem when it takes the form of advertising. Consumer-generated advertising challenges researchers and practitioners to understand consumers' articulated responses to ads and to the responses of other consumers, as well as the implications these may have for the brand. Traditional research methods such as viewer-response testing may be limited when the viewer becomes part of the conversation. This exploratory study attempts to interpret the conversations consumers have around consumer-generated ads using the comments they have posted to each ad's Web page. We show how conversations around ads can be mapped and interpreted, and then develop a typology of consumer-generated ad conversations. We discuss managerial implications of our findings, outline the limitations of the technique used, and trace avenues to extend the research.
The study reported here explored the social dimension of health-related blogs by examining blogging as a means to marshal social support and, as a result, achieve some of the health benefits associated with supportive communication. A total of 121 individuals who author a blog dedicated to their experience living with a specific health condition completed the study questionnaire. The number of blog posts made by respondents and proportion of posts with reader comments were positively associated with perceived social support from blog readers. The relationship between blog reader support and two outcomes related to well-being depended upon the support available in bloggers' strong-tie relationships with family and friends. Consistent with the social compensation (i.e., “poor get richer”) perspective, blog reader support was negatively associated with loneliness and positively associated with personal growth when support in strong-tie relationships was relatively lacking.
A scale for measuring the engagement properties of eHealth content was adapted from commercial advertising research. We define engagement as the process of involving users in health content in ways that motivate and lead to health behavior change. Complete responses were obtained from 230/260 participants exposed to health content from seven content areas in online remote testing. After viewing each of three randomly assigned health content areas, the participants completed two questionnaires. The first one assessed the appropriateness, applicability, motivation, and intentions to change or engage in health behaviors relevant to the set of content components displayed for that health topic. The second questionnaire was the eHealth Engagement Scale in which participants rated each of 12 descriptors on a 5-point Likert scale. Internal reliability of each of the two multi-item subscales of the Engagement Scale was .878 for Involving and .805 for Credible. A 4-factor solution eliminating three of the original 12 word descriptors was found to be the superior in the subsequent analysis of predictive validity. The eHealth Engagement Scale may prove to be an important mediator of user retention of information, intentions to change, and ultimately efforts to undertake and achieve behavior change.
This study examines how transnational nongovernmental organizations make use of new media tools in their public relation activities and what factors influence their online public relations. A survey of communication representatives at 75 transnational NGOs based in the United States found that promoting the organization's image and fund-raising were the two most important functions of new media for the NGOs. Organizational capacity and main objective of the organization were significant predictors of NGOs’ new media use in their public relations. However, organizational efficiency and revenue did not significantly predict NGOs’ use of new media.
Purpose
User‐generated media (UGM) like YouTube, MySpace, and Wikipedia have become tremendously popular over the last few years. The purpose of this paper is to present an analytical framework for explaining the appeal of UGM.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is mainly theoretical due to a relative lack of empirical evidence. After an introduction on the emergence of UGM, this paper investigates in detail how and why people use UGM, and what factors make UGM particularly appealing, through a uses and gratifications perspective. Finally, the key elements of this study are summarized and the future research directions about UGM are discussed.
Findings
This paper argues that individuals take with UGM in different ways for different purposes: they consume contents for fulfilling their information, entertainment, and mood management needs; they participate through interacting with the content as well as with other users for enhancing social connections and virtual communities; and they produce their own contents for self‐expression and self‐actualization. These three usages are separate analytically but interdependent in reality. This paper proposes a model to describe such interdependence. Furthermore, it argues that two usability attributes of UGM, “easy to use” and “let users control,” enable people to perform the aforementioned activities efficiently so that people can derive greater gratification from their UGM use.
Originality/value
UGM are an extremely important topic in new media scholarship, and this study represents the first step toward understanding the appeal of UGM in an integrated way.
140 characters seems like too small a space for any meaningful information to be exchanged, but Twitter users have found creative ways to get the most out of each Tweet by using different communication tools. This paper looks into how 73 nonprofit organizations use Twitter to engage stakeholders not only through
their tweets, but also through other various communication methods. Specifically, it looks into the organizations' utilization of tweet frequency, following behavior, hyperlinks, hashtags, public messages, retweets, and multimedia files. After analyzing 4,655 tweets, the study found that the nation's largest nonprofits are not using Twitter to maximize stakeholder involvement. Instead, they continue to use social media as a one-way communication channel, as less than 20% of their total tweets demonstrate conversations and roughly 16% demonstrate indirect connections to specific users.
Strategic Planning for Public Relations is in its fifth edition of offering an innovative and clear approach for students looking to learn how to develop public relations campaigns. It is a text intended for those serious about entering the rapidly changing professions of public relations and strategic communication. Ronald Smith shows how to implement pragmatic, research-driven strategic campaigns used in public relations practice, and draws from his years of experience as a professional in the industry and his years of teaching in the classroom. The approach used in this text is a threefold pattern: first, readers are exposed to new ideas, then see them in use, before finally being showed how to apply those ideas themselves. Complex problem-solving and decision-making processes in strategic communication and public relations are turned into a series of easy-to-follow steps, flexible enough to be applicable to myriad situations and organizations in the real world. This new fifth edition follows the same format as previous editions and includes numerous timely and real-world examples of cases and current events, along with classic cases that stand the test of time. It includes new research on opinions and practices within the discipline and covers several recent, award-winning public relations campaigns.
The Long Interview provides a systematic guide to the theory and methods of the long qualitative interview or intensive interviewing. It gives a clear explanation of one of the most powerful tools of the qualitative researcher. The volume begins with a general overview of the character and purpose of qualitative inquiry and a review of key issues. The author outlines the four steps of the long qualitative interview and how to judge quality. He then offers practical advice for those who commission and administer this research, including sample questionnaires and budgets to help readers design their own. The author introduces key theoretical and methodological issues, various research strategies, and a simple four-stage model of inquiry, from the design of an open-ended questionnaire to the write up of results.
Competitiveness debates have contrasted countries that have industrial policies, like Japan, with more laissez-faire countries like the United States. But the pivotal difference is the level of a people's trust. High-trust societies are interlaced with voluntary organizations--Rotary clubs, Bible study groups, private schools--and thus have "social capital," which makes for the growth of large corporations in highly technical fields. Low-trust societies--France, Italy, China--tend toward small, family-owned businesses in basic goods. Social capital is not necessary for growth, but its absence tempts governments to intervene in the economy and imperil competitiveness.
This study proposes and tests a conceptual model that not only measures public engagement with corporate pages on social networking sites, but also evaluates the influence of such engagement on important perceptual, relational, and behavioral outcomes. Study results provide empirical evidence of the positive effects of public engagement on perceived corporate authenticity, organizational transparency, organization–public relationships, and public advocacy. Findings underscore the importance of public engagement via social media on enhancing perceived corporate transparency and authenticity, and thereby cultivating strong relationships. Additionally, organization–public relationships emerged as a deciding factor driving the effects of public engagement on advocacy behaviors.
Engagement has emerged as important concept in public relations, as stakeholders challenge the discourse of organizational primacy and organizations prioritize the need for authentic stakeholder involvement. As a multidimensional concept, engagement offers a foundation for building organizational relationships, and provides a means to facilitate community–organization interaction. This special issue on engagement and public relations presents a body of work that both explicates and expands the theoretical foundations of engagement, and contributes to scholarly understanding of its contexts, processes, and outcomes.
This study explores how audiences seek information from social and traditional media, and what factors affect media use during crises. Using the social-mediated crisis communication (SMCC) model, an examination of crisis information and sources reveals that audiences use social media during crises for insider information and checking in with family/friends and use traditional media for educational purposes. Convenience, involvement, and personal recommendations encourage social and traditional media use; information overload discourages use of both. Humor and attitudes about the purpose of social media discourage use of social media, while credibility encourages traditional media use. Practically, findings stressed the importance of third-party influence in crisis communication and the need for using both traditional and social media in crisis response.
In the last three decades, an influential research stream has emerged which highlights the dynamics of focal consumer/brand relationships. Specifically, more recently the ‘consumer brand engagement’ (CBE) concept has been postulated to more comprehensively reflect the nature of consumers' particular interactive brand relationships, relative to traditional concepts, including ‘involvement.’ However, despite the growing scholarly interest regarding the undertaking of marketing research addressing ‘engagement,’ studies have been predominantly exploratory in nature, thus generating a lack of empirical research in this area to date. By developing and validating a CBE scale in specific social media settings, we address this identified literature gap. Specifically, we conceptualize CBE as a consumer's positively valenced brand-related cognitive, emotional and behavioral activity during or related to focal consumer/brand interactions. We derive three CBE dimensions, including cognitive processing, affection, and activation. Within three different social media contexts, we employ exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to develop a reliable, 10-item CBE scale, which we proceed to validate within a nomological net of conceptual relationships and a rival model. The findings suggest that while consumer brand ‘involvement’ acts as a CBE antecedent, consumer ‘self-brand connection’ and ‘brand usage intent’ represent key CBE consequences, thus providing a platform for further research in this emerging area. We conclude with an overview of key managerial and scholarly implications arising from this research.
To investigate the relationship between actual and perceived interactivity, this study combines a content analysis of interactive functions on the Web sites of the top 100 global brands with a survey (n = 715) that measures the perceived interactivity of the same Web sites. The study has three main findings: (1) there is great incongruence between the level of actual and perceived interactivity, (2) adding interactive functions to a Web site does not guarantee a stronger perception of interactivity, and (3) six unique Web site characteristics contribute positively to perceived interactivity. These novel or unexpected characteristics make the Web sites of global brands truly interactive.
This study analyzed a social media campaign promoting child welfare to explore the associations among people's social media use, their engagement with different social media platforms (blog, Facebook page, Twitter account), and three intended behavioral outcomes (social media behavior, offline communication behavior, and helping behavior). An online survey of 73 participants shows that people's use of each social media platform was significantly related to their engagement with it at a bivariate level (when the other control variables were not considered). Social media use was also related to all three behavioral outcomes. Additionally, users’ engagement played a significant mediating role in the relationship between their social media use and their offline communication behavior.
Self-endorsing-the portrayal of potential consumers using products-is a novel advertising strategy made possible by the development of virtual environments. Three experiments compared self-endorsing to endorsing by an unfamiliar other. In Experiment 1, self-endorsing in online advertisements led to higher brand attitude and purchase intention than other-endorsing. Moreover, photographs were a more effective persuasion channel than text. In Experiment 2, participants wore a brand of clothing in a high-immersive virtual environment and preferred the brand worn by their virtual self to the brand worn by others. Experiment 3 demonstrated that an additional mechanism behind self-endorsing was the interactivity of the virtual representation. Evidence for self-referencing as a mediator is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Advertising is the property of M.E. Sharpe Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
This piece speculates on the internet’s wider influences on the shape of institutional politics in representative ‘actually existing democracies’. Findings, based on 100 semi-structured interviews with political actors (politicians, journalists and officials) operating around the UK Parliament, suggest two contrasting trends. On the one hand, more political actors at the immediate edges of the UK institutional political process are being further engaged in a sort of centrifugal movement going outwards from the centre. At the same time, the space between this extended political centre and its public periphery is increasing. This fatter, democratic elitist shift in UK politics may be interpreted as ‘new’ and ICT-driven. It might equally be argued that new media is exacerbating pre-existing political party and media trends in mature democracies which fail to engage ordinary citizens.
This study extends the U&G theoretical perspective to account for the situated, adaptive, and dynamic nature of mediated cognition and behavior. It specifies dynamic uses and gratifications of social media (compared to other media) in the everyday lives of college students using experience sampling data across 4 weeks. The study tests and quantifies reciprocal causal relationships between needs, social media use, and gratifications, as well as their self-sustaining endogenous (i.e., feedback) effects. Social media use is significantly driven by all four categories of needs examined (emotional, cognitive, social, and habitual), but only gratifies some of them. Ungratified needs accumulate over time and drive subsequent social media use. Interpersonal social environments also affect social media use. In particular, solitude and interpersonal support increase social media use, and moderate the effects of needs on social media use.
In what ways do online groups help to foster political engagement among citizens? We employ a multi-method design incorporating content analysis of online political group pages and original survey research of university undergraduates (n = 455) to assess the relationship between online political group membership and political engagement—measured through political knowledge and political participation surrounding the 2008 election. We find that participation in online political groups is strongly correlated with offline political participation, as a potential function of engaging members online. However, we fail to confirm that there is a corresponding positive relationship between participation in online political groups and political knowledge, likely due to low quality online group discussion.
To investigate the relationship between actual and perceived interactivity, this study combines a content analysis of interactive functions on the Web sites of the top 100 global brands with a survey (n = 715) that measures the perceived interactivity of the same Web sites. The study has three main findings: (1) there is great incongruence between the level of actual and perceived interactivity, (2) adding interactive functions to a Web site does not guarantee a stronger perception of interactivity, and (3) six unique Web site characteristics contribute positively to perceived interactivity. These novel or unexpected characteristics make the Web sites of global brands truly interactive.
Applying a typology of social network site (SNS) usage that takes into consideration the intensity with which people use such sites, this piece offers an empirical investigation of how users' social practices on SNSs differ and whether different levels of engagement have consequences for academic performance. We rely on a unique survey-based data set representing a diverse group of young adults to answer these questions. We find, not surprisingly, that the more intense users of such sites engage in more social activities on SNSs than those who spend less time on them and only use one such site. This finding holds in the realm of both stronger-tie activities and weaker-tie activities, that is, social practices involving one's close friends as well as less established ties. Our analyses suggest gender differences in level of engagement with SNS social practices. Women pursue more stronger-tie activities than men, such as interacting with existing friends. In contrast, women engage in fewer weaker-tie activities than men, such as developing new relationships on such sites. However, neither SNS usage intensity nor social practices performed on these sites is systematically related to students' academic performance, findings that challenge some previous claims to the contrary.
The discipline of communication is marked by an increasing number of means of understanding. Given the recent research explosion, specialization has accordingly become a major way of dealing with research and methodological diversity. Within this context, this analysis is predominantly definitional, seeking to isolate the unique features of qualitative research. This analysis first provides a survey of six major definitions of and approaches to qualitative research. Second, commonly shared characteristics of qualitative research are outlined, including the role that natural setting plays in the research design, the role of the researcher as both observer and participant, how subjects influence the content of a communication study, the influence of subject intentionality on the research report, and the pragmatic uses of qualitative research. Third, it is suggested that qualitative research is theoretically unique, satisfying the requirements for grounded theory. Finally, it is concluded that qualitative research is increasingly finding its own identity when viewed in terms of the goals and procedures of quantitative and critical approaches to communication.
The present era is defined by sweeping changes in economies, social institutions, political party systems, and communication processes in many nations. These changes go by various names from globalization to poststructuralism. The impact of these tectonic shifts in the political foundations of nations is greatly debated. In particular, considerable uncertainty surrounds the effects of various changes on the importance of politics for individual citizens and for the kinds of civic activities that people engage in and even regard as political. This is an important time for communication scholars to develop comparative frameworks that bring conceptions of social change together with how people located in various cultural, demographic, and audience groups define their relations to government and, more broadly, to civil society. At stake is our understanding of the role of communication in shaping these political relations, and in shaping the attitudes of citizens about politics, government, and society itself.
Validation of qualitative research is here discussed in relation to postmodern conceptions of knowledge. A modernist notion of true knowledge as a mirror of reality is replaced by a postmodern understanding of knowledge as a social construction. Of the common psychometric concepts of validity, predictive validity is related to a modernist correspon dence theory of truth, whereas construct validity may be extended to encompass a social construction of reality. Three approaches to validity are outlined in some detail. First, validity is treated as an expression of craftsmanship, with an emphasis on quality of research by checking, questioning, and theorizing on the nature of the phenomena investigated. Second, by going beyond correspondence criteria of validity, the emphasis on observation is extended to include conversation about the observations, with a communicative concept of validity. Third, by discarding a modern legitimation mania, justification of knowledge is replaced by application, with a pragmatic concept of validity. In conclusion, the validity of the validity question is questioned.
This study proposed and validated a measurement scale of blog engagement. The researchers explicated the concept of blog engagement as the likelihood and outcomes of interactive blog communication that encompass cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral attachment. Following this definition, a four-dimensional scale was tested. This study suggests that interactive blogs can enhance self-company connection, positive attitudes toward the company and supportive WOM intentions.
Communication aimed at promoting civic engagement may become problematic when citizen roles undergo historic changes. In the current era, younger generations are embracing more expressive styles of actualizing citizenship defined around peer content sharing and social media, in contrast to earlier models of dutiful citizenship based on one-way communication managed by authorities. An analysis of 90 youth Web sites operated by diverse civic and political organizations in the United States reveals uneven conceptions of citizenship and related civic skills, suggesting that many established organization are out of step with changing civic styles.
Twitter is rapidly gaining attention from strategic communicators for its ability to enhance communication campaigns. Whether using the site to augment word-of-mouth marketing campaigns or engage in conversations with stakeholders, Twitter has become the leading online social media outlet for marketing and public relations efforts. However, despite the service's ability to provide a forum for interacting with stakeholders, the site primarily began as a way for its users to provide one-way updates and disseminate information. By using the models of public relations as its framework, this study examines how government agencies are using Twitter to communicate with their audiences through content analysis of 1800 updates from 60 government agencies. Contrary to public affairs practitioners' claims of interactivity on Twitter, government agencies primarily relied on one-way communication that sought to inform and educate rather than two-way symmetrical conversations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Most writing on sociological method has been concerned with how accurate facts can be obtained and how theory can thereby be more rigorously tested. In The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss address the equally Important enterprise of how the discovery of theory from data--systematically obtained and analyzed in social research--can be furthered. The discovery of theory from data--grounded theory--is a major task confronting sociology, for such a theory fits empirical situations, and is understandable to sociologists and laymen alike. Most important, it provides relevant predictions, explanations, interpretations, and applications. In Part I of the book, "Generation Theory by Comparative Analysis," the authors present a strategy whereby sociologists can facilitate the discovery of grounded theory, both substantive and formal. This strategy involves the systematic choice and study of several comparison groups. In Part II, The Flexible Use of Data," the generation of theory from qualitative, especially documentary, and quantitative data Is considered. In Part III, "Implications of Grounded Theory," Glaser and Strauss examine the credibility of grounded theory. The Discovery of Grounded Theory is directed toward improving social scientists' capacity for generating theory that will be relevant to their research. While aimed primarily at sociologists, it will be useful to anyone Interested In studying social phenomena--political, educational, economic, industrial-- especially If their studies are based on qualitative data.
