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How Young Users Deal With Multiple Platforms: The Role of Meaning-Making in Social Media Repertoires
Abstract
This paper draws upon 50 interviews and a survey (N = 700) to understand how young people in Argentina manage the proliferation of social media platforms in their everyday lives. Applying work on repertoires, niche theory, polymedia, and media ideologies, we explore how users’ practices are shaped by constellations of meaning attributed to each platform. We find that WhatsApp is a multifaceted communication domain; Facebook is a space for displaying the socially-acceptable self; Instagram is an environment for stylized self-presentation; Twitter is a venue for information and informality; and Snapchat is a place for spontaneous and ludic connections. These constellations are shaped socially and comparatively, and are relatively autonomous from technical affordances. We reflect on the relationship between users’ agency and the structures where it is enacted.
... Users can choose to adopt and use platforms in different ways. Politics is only one content genre available to social media users (Newman et al., 2021;Wojcieszak et al., 2023), who may utilize platforms primarily for non-political purposes such as entertainment, networking, or to promote one's identity (Alhabash and Ma, 2017;Boczkowski et al., 2018;Kircaburun et al., 2020). Kemp (2023) reports that Facebook users' most popular motive is connecting with family and friends, Twitter users' is current events and news, Reddit users' is fun or entertainment, and Instagram and Snapchat users' posting of photos and videos. ...
... This platform has a closed network structure (Table 1), which might motivate political expression, but the platform has a large user base and does not offer anonymity as Reddit and YouTube do (RQ2). Also, Facebook served as a general-purpose platform that addressed a variety of needs (Alhabash and Ma, 2017;Boczkowski et al., 2018;Kircaburun et al., 2020), which may lead users to avoid overtly political discussions (Miller et al., 2016). Indeed, if the user does not perceive there to be a receptive audience on Facebook for political content, they will refrain from posting. ...
... We offer consistent evidence that Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp are distinctive in the results (Table 8). Snapchat and WhatsApp are instant message applications that create intimate ties among known users (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2021, Valenzuela et al., 2019Valeriani and Vaccari, 2018). Both services offer higher privacy settings than Twitter or Facebook (Table 1). ...
Citizens have increasingly diversified their use of social media platforms, raising questions about which platforms are adopted and for what purposes. We use survey data from four countries (Canada, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom) gathered in 2019 and 2021 ( n = 12,302) about Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. Political ideology predicts the adoption and political uses of all platforms, but Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp are distinctive. Right-wing users are more likely to report exposure to and posting of political content on these platforms; this pattern is consistent across all four countries. We relate these findings to the distinct network features compared to other platforms. Our large sample size allows us to document a funnel process where large numbers adopt a platform, fewer see political content, and even fewer post. In this funnel process, ideological differences become larger. The findings have implications for the formation of homogeneous communities.
... Grounded in their comparative empirical study of transnational families, Madianou and Miller proposed that polymedia represents more than a variety of platforms and the choices accompanied, but individuals' attention towards symbolic and affective consequences when they navigate the integrated mediated environment. Concretely put, when choosing from and swinging between platforms, networked dwellers are 'designers' of mediated environments who have agency in shaping what and how resources are used and for what purposes (Boczkowski, Matassi, and Mitchelstein 2018;Tandoc, Lou, and Min 2019). In this vein, the meaning-making of choosing what Chinese social media platform to use in this study can be placed in a broader context of polymedia that have been built on and supportive of the interplay between the old medium and the new, known as remediation. ...
... We developed the interview protocol (see Appendix B) by adopting and adapting the existing solutions (Boczkowski, Matassi, and Mitchelstein 2018;Dong, Ding, and Duan 2020;Hassan et al. 2024;Liu and Zeng 2022;Tandoc, Lou, and Min 2019) that was conducive to identifying themes surrounding our RQs. The interviews began by asking five factual questions about participants' demographic information, such as cultural background, linguistic profile, and duration of stay in China, to set the scene and inform further interview questions. ...
... In exploring how participants' social media practice is shaped by a constellation of meanings attributed to nominated platforms, our findings provide valuable insights into how they strategically navigate an integrated environment of mediated affordances and communication opportunities (Madianou 2014) to acculturate into Chinese society and how do they perceive their roles and challenges in this process. As multiple platforms are domesticated and platform swinging is routinised, participants' social media use evolves from remediated reactions to personalised initiative, manifesting overlapping as well as idiosyncratic choices (Boczkowski, Matassi, and Mitchelstein 2018;Lai 2024;Liu and Zeng 2022). They routinely swing between home and Chinese social media platforms to perform relationship maintenance and development, and their selective media practices are not decisions based on technical affordances. ...
In the ever-evolving landscape of globalisation and technological convergence, social media emerges as a polymedia environment rich in communication opportunities. Against the backdrop of China as an increasingly prominent global player, the above phenomenon is particularly evident among China's vast and varied international student population. Employing a qualitative approach underpinned by interpretivism, we conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 tertiary-level Chinese-as-an-additional-language (CAL) international students in emerging adulthood (18-to-29-year-old) to explore their perceptions and practices of acculturation in mainland China. Informed by thematic analysis, we categorised how participants positioned themselves into four groups: experience-oriented students, achievement-tasked students, integration-motivated students, and self-identified ambassador students. Our findings indicate that participants perceive and use home-and Chinese social media within relational nexuses, strategically navigating this integrated mediated environment to facilitate acculturation beyond mere technical considerations. Moreover, our study deepens the debate on acculturation by challenging negative inclinations common to leisure-related products and informal practices in individuals' acculturation journeys, and this conceptual expansion holds pedagogical promise for strengthening the connection between formal schooling and personalised, adaptive learning in the digital wilds. We conclude by highlighting the role of training and support systems provided by international students' home countries and host societies in facilitating acculturation.
... This might reduce the pressure to maintain a universally appealing image. In contrast, the higher visibility on Instagram and Twitter/X, driven by their unidirectional following system, amplifies the reach of posts and potentially the need to maintain a positive, attractive persona (Boczkowski et al., 2018). ...
... Facebook users often share a mix of text and images, which allows for more nuanced selfexpression and personal storytelling (van Dijck, 2013). Instagram, being predominantly imagefocused, encourages users to post visually appealing content, which often involves high levels of stylization and impression management (Boczkowski et al., 2018). Twitter/X, known for its textual content, promotes brevity and wit, often leading to oversimplified or emphatic statements. ...
... Users are aware that according to specific social media, certain actions are more accepted by othersthe injunctive norms -or more done by others -the descriptive norms (Cialdini et al., 1991;Cialdini & Trost, 1998). These social norms guide user behavior and appropriate contents for each platform (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Tandoc et al., 2019). Waterloo et al. (2018) found that positive emotions were perceived as more appropriate on Instagram and Facebook, while negative emotions were perceived as more appropriate on Twitter/X and Facebook (Waterloo et al., 2018). ...
... A burgeoning body of research has been devoted to understanding this emerging behavior, with particular attention paid to its determinants, including sociodemographic factors (Matassi et al., 2022), gratifications (Tandoc et al., 2019), and temporal management (Boczkowski et al., 2018). In spite of the encouraging findings, the current body of literature on platform-swinging has primarily focused on a general level of analysis, which has led to a lack of nuanced understanding. ...
... Under this conceptual umbrella, each individual platform is noted to be a part of a network of knitted affordances rather than discrete technologies (Madianou & Miller, 2013b). Facing the unprecedented proliferation of media options and ever-increasing content in the environment, users often selectively choose a manageable set of channels and sources as their social media repertoires (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Horvát & Hargittai, 2021;Matassi et al., 2022). Users may choose different media forms (e.g., text, picture, voice, video) and content (e.g., hedonic, eudaimonic) based on their needs in communication (Horvát & Hargittai, 2021), relationships (Boczkowski et al., 2018), and information (Taneja et al., 2012). ...
... Facing the unprecedented proliferation of media options and ever-increasing content in the environment, users often selectively choose a manageable set of channels and sources as their social media repertoires (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Horvát & Hargittai, 2021;Matassi et al., 2022). Users may choose different media forms (e.g., text, picture, voice, video) and content (e.g., hedonic, eudaimonic) based on their needs in communication (Horvát & Hargittai, 2021), relationships (Boczkowski et al., 2018), and information (Taneja et al., 2012). In this light, the repertoire approach views media users as proactive agents who make informed decisions about media use according to their preferences and interests. ...
This study seeks to advance the scholarship on the phenomenon of social media platform-swinging in the context of the polymedia environment in China. Specifically, drawing on the theoretical frameworks of uses and gratifications and channel complementarity theory, we propose that the platform-swinging behavior is driven by users’ various complementary and supplementary needs. Drawing on 32 semi-structured interviews, we identify four distinct types of platform-swinging behavior: social connecting, impression managing, information seeking, and aimless swinging. We further reveal that, depending on various complementary and supplementary needs, each type of platform-swinging behavior has distinct media affordance preferences. By profiling the distinct platform-swinging behaviors and examining their preferred affordances, the study advances our theoretical understanding of the dynamics between the polymedia ecology and users’ gratifications.
... En el amplio espectro de redes sociales, las prácticas de uso vienen marcadas por el significado y la especificidad que los usuarios atribuyen a cada plataforma (Boczkowski et al., 2018). Una parte de estos significados depende de las posibilidades que ofrece cada una de ellas en función de sus características tecnológicas (Bossetta, 2018). ...
... Una parte de estos significados depende de las posibilidades que ofrece cada una de ellas en función de sus características tecnológicas (Bossetta, 2018). No obstante, hay dimensiones de su uso que no se pueden explicar por las posibilidades técnicas, por ejemplo, "no hay nada que imposibilite subir fotos tontas a Instagram, serias a Snapchat o contenido exclusivo a Whatsapp" (Boczkowski et al., 2018). En este sentido, no hay ningún impedimento técnico para publicar en TikTok vídeos de análisis deportivos, de noticias políticas o de animales, contenido que es popular en otras plataformas. ...
Los actores políticos han comenzado a incorporar TikTok a sus estrategias de comunicación política. Uno de ellos es Marcelo Ebrard, excanciller de México y aspirante a la candidatura presidencial en el período analizado. El político se apoyó en esta red social para promocionar los logros durante su cargo y, sobre todo, como instrumento para impulsar su candidatura. El personalismo que caracteriza los usos de TikTok permitió a Ebrard diseñar una campaña de comunicación centrada en su figura, ante la ausencia de un apoyo explícito de su partido y del presidente mexicano. El objetivo de la investigación es evaluar en qué medida la adecuación a los códigos propios de TikTok resulta en una estrategia de comunicación política exitosa. Para ello se ha seleccionado un período de estudio que abarca desde la apertura de la cuenta, en agosto de 2021 hasta noviembre de 2022, fecha que se encuentra en el marco de la disputa por la candidatura presidencial. Se ha recurrido a un análisis de contenido multimodal, con técnicas cuantitativas y cualitativas, para poner en relación el engagement con diez variables equivalentes a técnicas de comunicación. Los resultados muestran que la progresiva adaptación a los usos y posibilidades de TikTok resultan en un refuerzo de la adhesión emocional de los usuarios, un efecto logrado a través del humor y la creación de contenido exclusivo.
... Table 1 provides an overview of the sample characteristics. Our sample overrepresents younger adults because of our intended focus on this demographic, known to spend more time on social media and use a wider array of platforms (Boczkowski et al., 2018). ...
... The predominance of the relationship is based on participants' extensive use of social media and reflects the changing patterns of news consumption among young people. The general idea is that users perceive to be more persuaded by the ecologies that permeate their everyday lives than by the information sources that they rarely consume and that some individuals distrust (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Jordá and Goyanes, 2022). Moreover, our evidence reflects that this primacy is closely related to the features of social media content. ...
Research has noted that political content on social media, both accurate and fake, may lead users to reconsider their political opinions and be persuaded. This study contributes to this topic by examining how political attitude change in social media unfolds according to users’ perceptions. Our findings, based on in-depth interviews with 30 Spanish social media users, show how the centrality of social media in citizens’ everyday life nudges them into a persuasive relationship in these ecologies. We conceptualize this dynamic relationship as social media symbiosis, an analogy that draws on the biological concept of symbiosis, and that explains the characteristics of perceived online persuasion: (1) the primacy of social media persuasion over other information sources, (2) its gradual and evolutionary nature, and (3) the persuasive relationships in which users may engage: mutualism, in which both sender and receiver reciprocally benefit and persuade each other; and parasitism, in which fake news creators harmfully persuade receivers while benefitting. Our study contributes to extant literature by theorizing about the persuasive relationship in which users perceive to engage in social media, and the rationales that facilitate it.
... Despite the increasing adoption of Instagram by newsrooms for disseminating news (Hendrickx, 2023;Vázquez-Herrero et al., 2019), researchers have only recently begun to explore users' news practices and preferences on the platform (see Anter and Kümpel, 2023 for an overview). One explanation is that Instagram is typically viewed as a space for entertainment, self-presentation and social connection (Alhabash and Ma, 2017;Boczkowski et al., 2018), rather than a medium for finding and sharing information (Anter and Kümpel, 2023). Yet, survey research shows that young people are increasingly employing Instagram for news (Newman et al., 2023;Pew Research Center, 2020), in particular for breaking, positive and human interest news stories (Al-Rawi et al., 2021;Goyanes and Demeter, 2022). ...
... First, young people tend to receive news mostly incidentally here, partially via social recommendations in their Stories but mainly through Instagram's heavy algorithmic curation of its timeline and Explore page. These feature a personalized array of posts by accounts that users do not (yet) follow, based on trending content and prior browsing behavior (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Goyanes and Demeter, 2022). Second, Instagram's visual nature, with limited space for captions and hyperlinks, encourages the presentation and consumption of news in novel formats, such as memes, infographics or short explainer videos (Klopfenstein Frei et al., 2022;Vázquez-Herrero, 2019). ...
What do young people consider “news”? Now that news is dislocated from dedicated outlets of news organizations, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish from other cultural forms, including entertainment, advertising and misinformation. Especially on visual social media, where many different forms, topics and tones circulate, so-called “news feeds” offer blends of content that only partially match traditional journalistic conceptualizations. This paper advances current conceptual debates around news(-ness), by going beyond what is culturally accepted and cognitively recognized as news. We make an argument for the importance of capturing young people’s affective and tacit understandings of news, by analyzing what feels like news to them on Instagram. These judgments matter because what users understand as news or non-news also affects their assessments of trustworthiness and reliability. Drawing upon a three-wave study (2020-2022) employing in-depth interviews with and walk-throughs of the Instagram feeds of N = 111 Dutch smartphone users (aged 16-25), we find that while young people are strongly aware of societal norms around what news is or should be, these cognitive understandings do not necessarily align with what they experience as news(-like) within their everyday practices. Although some users do employ traditional journalistic conceptualizations of news, others negotiate or challenge such definitions through processes of compartmentalization, homogenization or reconceptualization, to mitigate tensions between what they cognitively recognize versus what they affectively perceive as news. Consequently, we argue that more inclusive epistemological approaches are needed to comprehend young people’s shifting experiences of news and conceptualize news from an audience perspective.
... Tweeting, posting, and sharing are new contexts to consider with the birth and dramatic rise of social media (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). Researchers have recognized that out of all the digital platforms available for youth, social media is the most dominant news source (Kahne & Bowyer, 2017;Cherner & Curry, 2019) and the most complex digital platform (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Wittebols, 2020). The nature and culture of social media enables a mass regurgitation of information (Farmer, 2019;Sommariva et al., 2018;Wittebols, 2020). ...
... Here, sharing refers to the recirculation of a post such as a comment, video, link, or picture from one person's social media profile to another's. Although each social media platform is designed with its own features, users engage with social media differently depending on the target audience of that platform, not necessarily on the social media's design and technology (Boczkowski et al., 2018). Adolescents knowingly make public and private decisions about what to share in the context of their emotions (Vermeulen et al., 2018). ...
When it comes to fake news, no medium circulates and reaches more youth than social media. Social media can provide an opportunity for students to create and post with an authentic audience; however, social media can also perpetuate the danger of fake news. Youth across the globe emotionally engage with content several hours a day and can become vulnerable to the clickbait style of news. Therefore, although research has studied how critical literacy instruction supports informed reading, literacy instruction must also address students’ emotional regulation needs. This research-to-practice article describes the dangers of fake news on youth interactions and provides practical emotional regulation tips for teachers. Emotional regulation strategies in this paper specifically concentrate on implementing affect labeling and mindful breathing in classrooms in order to support informed literacy.
... As a user, different social technologies may be associated with different meanings, e.g., Facebook as a space for presentation of the socially acceptable; Instagram, for stylized self-presentation; and Twitter as a venue for informal information exchange (Boczkowski et al., 2018). Companies and users co-create experiences with these platforms over time through features with socially embedded meanings, such as retweets on Twitter (X) and stories on Instagram. ...
Introduction. In this paper, we advocate for the development of holistic approaches, theories, and frameworks for recasting the study of information use as a dynamic, emergent process. Method. We begin by reviewing the LIS literature on information use to demonstrate the limitations of information-theoretical perspectives. We use the exemplar scenario of digital collections to demonstrate the need for open-ended, qualitative approaches for studying information in the context of its use. Results. We introduce a conceptual approach called ‘information-as-potentiality’ and articulate a set of four meta-theoretical lenses (experienced information, situated information, participatory information, and embodied information) that can be used to ground empirical inquiry into the unfolding process of information. Conclusion. We conclude by reviewing the benefits of adopting ‘information-as-potentiality’ perspectives and consider their potential value for informing the design and evaluation of digital collections.
... Certain professions, especially those related to knowledge work, require individuals to participate in multiple SM communities since they need to access information and knowledge lying both within and outside organizational boundaries. However, most social media research has focused on a single platform (Tandoc, Lou, and Lee Hui Min 2019), with only a few conducting research across multiple SM platforms (Boczkowski, Matassi, and Mitchelstein 2018;Hogan and Quan-Haase 2010;Phua, Venus Jin, and Kim 2017;Quan-Haase and Young 2010). Depending on the ownership and control of the SM platform and the organizational boundaries vis-à-vis its use, SM applications can be divided into distinct categories. ...
... This assumption derives from the notion that self-presentation on social media is predominantly positive (Verduyn, Gugushvili, and Kross 2022). Also, positive self-presentation is more pronounced on imagecentric platforms like Instagram than on text-based ones like Twitter (Boczkowski, Matassi, and Mitchelstein 2018). For example, research on the new social media platform BeReal has shown that lateral social comparison is positively associated with self-esteem (Vanhoffelen et al. 2023). ...
As social media platforms continue to expand and attract more users, there is growing interest among scholars and policymakers to understand their impact on individuals. Drawing on self‐presentation and social comparison theories, this study explores the complex dynamics of social comparison within the context of social media, aiming to identify key individual and platform characteristics that influence this phenomenon. The methodology uses two waves of qualitative studies with diverse respondent profiles to understand the complexities of social comparison across various demographic groups. Study 1 consists of 39 individual semi‐structured interviews and a thematic analysis while study 2 is made of eight case studies. The findings highlight the complex interplay of factors such as gender, age, self‐esteem, media literacy, and the type of content consumed in shaping user experiences of social comparison. Additionally, an integrative framework of the antecedents and consequences of social comparison is proposed. By providing a nuanced comprehension of these mechanisms, this research contributes to theoretical advancements and managerial implications of navigating the complexities of online social dynamics.
... However, this switching differs from "media migration, " where users abandon previous media for another 14 , as it involves building a cognitive understanding of one platform upon the cognition of prior platforms, constituting a strategy of polymedia allocation 15 . Additionally, different platforms have distinct positioning, including user identification, and belongingness is influenced by the overall service quality of social media platforms 16 , which determines the variations in their usage patterns 17 . This trend of "swinging" between platforms is increasingly strengthening and gradually becoming a norm 18 . ...
As a comprehensive and affordable environment, polymedia lays the groundwork for exploring platform-swinging and offers a theoretical framework for investigating its dynamics. Platform-swinging and its unique niche characteristics provide a novel lens to examine the interplay between media dependency and psychological well-being. Using a survey questionnaire, this study collected data from 1210 university students in the Yangtze River Delta, China’s most economically developed region, to examine the relationship between media dependency, platform-swinging, and psychological depression. Our findings suggest that the affordances of platform-swinging influence media dependency, whereas the nature of media dependency shapes psychological depression. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how young adults navigate various media platforms and sheds light on the complex interrelations between media use and mental health. Focusing on platform-swinging in the environment of polymedia explores the relationship between media dependency, platform-swinging, and psychological depression. Moreover, it also compensates for the one-sided understanding caused by simply examining media dependency and psychological depression. This study has practical value and theoretical significance for the psychological health of college students and the research and development of the media dependency theory.
... The entanglement of social media and everyday life in digitalised worlds has been studied in relation to a wide range of topics such as social media and news, identity construction, youth cultures, ageing, networking (Barassi and Zamponi, 2020;Barney, Coleman, Ross, Sterne, and Tembeck, 2016;Johansson, 2020, 2022;Boczkowski, Matassi, and Mitchelstein, 2018;boyd, 2014;Costa, 2016;Lingel, 2017;Miller, 2016;Robards and Lincoln, 2017;Walton, 2021). Less examined is the political dimension of everyday life: engagement with social media and 'the tropes and discourses that animate such engagements' (Chua 2018, 7). ...
This article examines how individuals of diverse cultural backgrounds in Norway participate in anti-racist activism via social media. It investigates the nature of digital activism compared to traditional paradigms, highlighting the varied forms of engagement enabled by digital technology. Drawing on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork among individuals in the arts and cultural sector, it reveals how seemingly minor actions on social media can spark organized activism, unveiling the political activism inherent in daily life and social media practices. The article argues that individuals not identifying as political activists still contribute to political change through everyday social media activities, suggesting that contemporary activism can exist without activists. Introducing the metaphor of ‘water drops’ the article conceptualizes everyday politics as small contributions that may collectively shape meaningful change. Small acts can be merely drops in a vast ocean without major significance. However, if sustained over time, efforts across disparate online spaces can coalesce to challenge and subvert dominant social narratives regarding difference, racism, discrimination, and exclusion. Thus, contemporary activism can thrive with ordinary people who contribute to collective social transformation through digital and mundane interactions.
... WhatsApp does not constitute a social media platform in a narrow sense (following Ellison and Boyd (2013) definition); however, WhatsApp discussion groups can be used in ways comparable to social media and are increasingly popular in several cultural contexts (Boczkowski et al., 2018), including Israel. In this paper, we consider two WhatsApp groups devoted to political talk, moderated by a journalist. ...
... Accordingly, we argue that advertisements respond with very limited repertoires of discourses at any given moment. For this reason, frameworks such as cultural repertoires (Swidler, 1986;Tilly, 1993) or media repertoires (Boczkowski et al., 2018) could shed light on future research in this area. ...
This study critically examines post-feminism through a 50-year analysis of car advertising targeted at women in Chile. It explores feminism’s evolving significance in media culture, aiming to establish a comparative framework to identify changes and consistencies in feminist-themed media discourses over different periods. Using a qualitative approach, we analyzed 74 ads from a women’s magazine from 1967 to 2021. The results reveal changing gender role discourses, showing a nuanced interplay between progressive components and neo-conservative principles across historical periods. The evolution of female-focused advertising within post-feminist narratives depicts portrayals of women isolated or alongside family, highlighting individuality but implying limited representations of collective empowerment. The findings underscore the need to analyze media messages aimed at women in shifting temporal contexts. We argue that analytical frameworks must critically assess the progression, or lack thereof, in women’s (misleading) emancipation amidst the transitions from commodity feminism to post-feminism and femvertising.
... Facebook is used to divulge content which they want to disseminate widely; Instagram is used to post careful and stylized constructed visual portraits of everyday life; Twitter is used to get news and comment about it; and Snapchat is for fun instantaneous communication with close friends The effectiveness of storytelling in different media is an important area of research in the study of creative communication (Boczkowski et al., 2018). Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different social media, social media content creators can make more informed decisions about how to craft effective stories for different social media audiences and contexts. ...
This study discusses a content analysis of Pran Pratishtha Ram Mandir and the art of storytelling in creative communication. The study aims to examine how different aspects of storytelling, such as narrative structure, emotional appeal, and cultural factors, can influence audience engagement and persuasion. Using a random sampling method for this study to understand the Pran Pratishtha Ram Mandir storytelling impact on the audiences. The study hopes to provide practical insights into the mechanisms by which storytelling can enhance the effectiveness of creative communication and provide guidance on how to use storytelling effectively in different contexts. The study also discusses the impact of narrative structure on audience engagement, the role of emotion in storytelling, and the effectiveness of storytelling in different media. Understanding the ways in which narrative structure, emotion, and medium can enhance or detract from audience engagement can help practitioners and scholars make more informed decisions about how to craft effective stories for different audiences and contexts.
... Latin American scholars have developed critical lenses for assessing the political consequences and ethical dilemmas of datafication processes in the region and for exploring the modes in which audiences navigate daily life activities (Gómez-Cruz 2022). Researchers refer to these as 'algorithmic cultures' because the interaction between algorithms, platforms, and users and their everyday lives are characterised by patterned conventions, expectations, and even etiquette norms (Boczkowski, Matassi, and Mitchelstein 2018) but also by spontaneous appropriations and novel ways of engagement (Silva 2019). ...
... WhatsApp does not constitute a social media platform in a narrow sense (following Ellison and Boyd (2013) definition); however, WhatsApp discussion groups can be used in ways comparable to social media and are increasingly popular in several cultural contexts (Boczkowski et al., 2018), including Israel. In this paper, we consider two WhatsApp groups devoted to political talk, moderated by a journalist. ...
... But what do users discuss? Previous research has emphasized that users exist in multi-platform environments in which they utilize different platforms for different purposes (Aichner et al., 2021;Boyd, 2008;Boczkowski et al., 2018;Alhabash and Ma, 2017). On the one hand, there is the platform with its distinct affordances, user base, norms, and content policies (Boyd and Ellison, 2007); on the other, there is a user with a particular identity, interests, and needs who decides to participate on the platform in particular ways (Brandtzaeg and Heim, 2009;Chen and Peng, 2023;Shahbaznezhad et al., 2021). ...
There is scant quantitative research describing Nextdoor, the world's largest and most important hyperlocal social media network. Due to its localized structure, Nextdoor data are notoriously difficult to collect and work with. We build multiple datasets that allow us to generate descriptive analyses of the platform's offline contexts and online content. We first create a comprehensive dataset of all Nextdoor neighborhoods joined with U.S. Census data, which we analyze at the community-level (block-group). Our findings suggests that Nextdoor is primarily used in communities where the populations are whiter, more educated, more likely to own a home, and with higher levels of average income, potentially impacting the platform's ability to create new opportunities for social capital formation and citizen engagement. At the same time, Nextdoor neighborhoods are more likely to have active government agency accounts---and law enforcement agencies in particular---where offline communities are more urban, have larger nonwhite populations, greater income inequality, and higher average home values. We then build a convenience sample of 30 Nextdoor neighborhoods, for which we collect daily posts and comments appearing in the feed (115,716 posts and 163,903 comments), as well as associated metadata. Among the accounts for which we collected posts and comments, posts seeking or offering services were the most frequent, while those reporting potentially suspicious people or activities received the highest average number of comments. Taken together, our study describes the ecosystem of and discussion on Nextdoor, as well as introduces data for quantitatively studying the platform.
... Prensky (2001) defined individuals born in the 21st century as digital natives in a land of digital immigrants. They look to the online environment, almost exclusively, to meet their communication needs, and they bring everything, including their personal relationships and their knowledge of current news, into the virtual world (Boczkowski et al., 2018). Those who have grown up in this communication ecosystem are more prone to share, participate, and interact digitally, but their skill in the use of technology stands in contrast to certain gaps in education (Bartau-Rojas et al., 2018). ...
Social networks have become extremely effective platforms for the dissemination of up-to-the-minute news among ever wider sectors of the population, particularly among young people, for whom these channels are a preferred means of socialization and of understanding their environment. The main objective of this study is to analyze the news consumption of the Spanish population aged between 15 and 24 years on social networks, with the intention of understanding how they access news, what interactions take place, and what factors engender trust, as per an online questionnaire administered to a national sample representative of the population under study (n=1,067) and five focus groups (n=97). The findings reflect a high daily exposure to the networks, which are the most common means of news consumption for young people, who show little inclination to fact-check. They receive most news items incidentally; usually, they simply read them or, at most, share them with their contacts, and they tend to attribute very little trustworthiness to them. However, the analysis of sociodemographic factors shows that variables such as age, educational level, and ideological positioning influence the credibility that young people give to the current affairs content that the networks disseminate and to the sources from which they come.
... This is because seniors are still underrepresented in this research field (Czaja, 2019). Citizens aged 65 years and above are frequently excluded from studies (Ramdowar et al., 2023), the focus in the context of digital devices and media being on young people (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Fern� andez-Ard� evol et al., 2022). With regard to the older people, there is a particular lack of answers to questions such as user acceptance and frequency of use of technical devices (Awan et al., 2021). ...
... 2144). Social media users typically integrate the use of multiple platforms in their daily lives (Boczkowski et al. 2018;Phua et al. 2017), following and/or interacting with their fellow users' activities on each platform (Krishnan and Atkin 2014). ...
... Since young citizens differ from older generations in media use (Boczkowski, Matassi & Mitchelstein, 2018), it is especially important to understand the notion of quality from the perspective of this age group in the age of a high choice hybrid media environment (Van Aelst et al., 2017). This especially as the so called "news-finds-me" perception among young media consumers who perceive that important news will find them through social media, is becoming more common (de Zúñiga et al., 2017). ...
Benefits and challenges wth mixed methods using biometrics experimental and interview data when studying young citizens assesments and thoughts about quality demands in their news consumption
... In the present social media reality, users value the distinct features of each platform, and their motivations can vary widely depending on content and technological affordances. 31,34 While it is widely acknowledged that general social media use increased during the pandemic, more attention has been given to the significance of instant communication functions for maintaining social connections during periods of social distancing, which are not prominent features of short video platforms. 35 However, given that many people now use multiple social media platforms simultaneously, it raises the question of how the pandemic lockdown impacted the user behaviors of short video platforms. ...
Introduction
The study addresses a gap in research on media use during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the overlooked role of short video social media platforms in stress management. It builds on transactional stress model and coping flexibility to advance the understanding of the strategy-situation fit, particularly the alignment of coping strategies with platform affordances.
Methods
Our study investigated the detailed use of short video platforms and coping strategies during the pandemic lockdown through an online survey of 1569 respondents conducted immediately after the lockdown. We characterized lockdown duration as a situational stressor attribute and explored variations in the coping process. Assessing changes in user behavior across the top four Chinese short video platforms, we examined anxiety induced by lockdown and the use of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies.
Results
Significant changes in user behavior in response to lockdown-induced stress were observed. Structural model analyses reveal that people employed both coping strategies to manage heightened anxiety, primarily through increased viewing behavior over interaction behavior.
Discussion
The findings underscore the positive implications of short video platforms on individual well-being. This study argues for a deeper research focus on coping flexibility within the realm of social media, accompanied by a comprehensive assessment of platform user behavior. Future research should also consider the influence of algorithms on platform functionality.
... For instance, Facebook Messenger displays green dots next to someone's name when they are active, WhatsApp displays blue check marks next to messages when they have been read, and Instagram stories show the list of people who have seen your content. Still, despite similar opportunities for surveillance, these platforms differ from each other because of their culture of use (Boczkowski et al., 2018). Whereas Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger are mostly used for interacting with (close) friends (Bayer et al., 2016;Sevenhant et al., 2021), Instagram is, despite its direct messaging function, still known for self-portrayal needs (Sheldon & Bryant, 2016). ...
Research has shown that young individuals frequently turn to social networking sites (SNSs) to monitor others’ behaviors. This is especially likely with Snapchat, as this platform offers extensive monitoring options in real time, for instance through the use of the “snap map”. However, despite the growth of surveillance features, little is known about the use of these features and their possible association with individuals’ mental health. Consequently, this cross-sectional survey among 16- to 25-year-olds (N = 360, Mage = 19.51) examines (1) whether individuals with a higher need for popularity are more likely to engage in Snapchat surveillance behaviors, (2) whether these behaviors, in turn, are associated with indicators of individuals’ mental health, specifically feelings of loneliness and depressive symptoms, and (3) whether fear of missing out mediates the association between surveillance behaviors and these mental health indicators. The findings show that a higher need for popularity is associated with the monitoring of others through Snapchat, which, in turn, was associated with health indicators via fear of missing out. These associations were, however, not found for general Snapchat use, indicating that specific uses of this platform are more detrimental than others. Future research should, therefore, focus more thoroughly on the relationships between specific SNS behaviors and individuals’ mental health.
... Similar results were found by Park, Kee, and Valenzuela (2009), who found that Facebook users are motivated to interact with friends, find entertainment, seek social status, and obtain information. Boczkowski, Matassi, and Mitchelstein (2018) reveals that individuals were strategic when choosing a social media platform: WhatsApp was mostly used for communication purposes, Facebook for displaying a socially acceptable profile, Instagram for stylized self-presentations, Twitter for information and informality, and Snapchat for spontaneous and playful connections. Lastly, Grieve (2017) found that Snapchat users are more motivated by social connectedness, social interaction, and graphics in communication than individuals who do not use Snapchat. ...
... This study provides evidence for the importance of Social Norms and Goals in making social media posting choices. Previous research examining social media ecology points to Goals as part of the reason people use different media but doesn't highlight the potential importance of Social Norms [7,69]. It's not just Goals that affect how users in our population use social media but also how they interpret its Social Norms. ...
How do Millennial and Gen-Z young adults decide between competing social media when choosing where to post? Previous research argues that decisions can be modeled based on these users' Goals, and the Affordances, Features1, and Social Norms of those media. To evaluate this model, 19 participants were given different self-presentation scenarios and asked to choose between Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. Participants also constructed a flowchart to represent their mental model of factors influencing their choices. Data suggest revisions to the model; rather than reflecting Affordances and Features, we found that Social Norms and Goals primarily drove participants' choices. Participants choose media based on a direct match between Goals and existing Social Norms. Only when they failed to detect such a match did participants consider Affordances and Features. We present a revised conceptual model based on these results and discuss social media design and theory implications.
... Yerel ve küresel düzeyde faaliyet gösteren yeni ve eski kurumlar, çok sayıda birey ve çeşitli gruplar bu süreçlere katılmaktadır. Bu varlıkların her birinin ideoloji, kültür ve gerçeklik kodlamalarına sosyal medya platformlarının normları, imkânları ve mimarileri tarafından izin verilmekte veya yasaklanmaktadır (Boczkowski, Matassi ve Mitchelstein, 2018). Dolayısıyla geleneksel medya karşısındaki izler kitle ana akım medyanın etkisine maruz kalmamak ve alternatif medya kaynaklarından faydalanmak için medya okuryazarlığı becerilerini geliştirmek zorundayken sosyal medyanın bu çok yönlü güç dağılımı ve çok katılımlı yanı kullanıcıları sosyal medya okuryazarlığı becerilerinin gelişmesi yönünde zorlamaktadır. ...
Η παρούσα έρευνα εστιάζει σε μια ηγεμονική, εντούτοις, υπομελετημένη όψη της
σύγχρονης αναγνωστικής πραγματικότητας, την κυλιόμενη ανάγνωση τύπου «scrolling». Με μια πολλαπλή μελέτη περίπτωσης, η τελευταία προσεγγίζεται εθνογραφικά, μέσα από την ψηφιακή εμπειρία δύο έφηβων αγοριών, 11 και 12 χρονών αντίστοιχα, στις πλατφόρμες TikTok και Instagram. Υπερβαίνοντας τα διχοτομικά δίπολα ψηφιακό – συμβατικό και εξωσχολικό – σχολικό, το scrolling συσχετίζεται παράλληλα με τη σχολικού τύπου ανάγνωση, όπως αυτή αναδύεται μέσα από τις αφηγήσεις των ερευνητικών συμμετεχόντων, αλλά και τις σχεδιαστικές επιλογές των σχολικών εγχειριδίων για τη διδασκαλία της νεοελληνικής γλώσσας στο Γυμνάσιο. Υιοθετώντας την άποψη ότι η ανάγνωση είναι μια εγγενώς πολυτροπική, διαμεσολαβημένη και τοποθετημένη διαδικασία αποκωδικοποίησης και ερμηνείας του νοήματος, θεωρούμε ότι αμφότερες οι υπό εστίαση αναγνωστικές πρακτικές συνιστούν δύο ισχυρά «κέντρα» διαμόρφωσης των αναγνωστικών έξεων (habitus) των παιδιών. Προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση, αξιοποιώντας θεωρητικά και μεθοδολογικά εργαλεία από παραδόσεις, μεταξύ των οποίων η κοινωνική σημειωτική, οι σπουδές στους (νέους) γραμματισμούς και οι σπουδές στις πλατφόρμες και τα μέσα, η αναγνωστική πραγματικότητα εξετάζεται
συνολικά ως κόμβος (nexus) σημειωτικών, τεχνικών, κοινωνικοπολιτισμικών και
ιδεολογικών παραγόντων. Ως εκ τούτου, οι ανακύπτουσες συνέχειες και ασυνέχειες ανάμεσα στη σχολική και την ψηφιακή αναγνωστική συνθήκη αναδεικνύονται πολυεπίπεδες και πολυπαραγοντικές, εφόσον συνιστούν απότοκο της συνέργειας των εφήβων με τις αναγνωστικές ιδιαιτερότητες των εκάστοτε πλατφόρμων, του σχολικού συγκειμένου και των ευρύτερων παγκοσμιο-τοπικών λόγων που επενεργούν κάθετα και οριζόντια στη δυναμική του αναγνωστικού γίγνεσθαι. Ταυτόχρονα, τόσο οι τομές όσο και οι διαφοροποιήσεις των αναγνωστικών πρακτικών θέτουν κρίσιμες προκλήσεις για την εκπαίδευση, αναδεικνύοντας, συνακόλουθα, ότι η χαρτογράφηση του μεταψηφιακού αναγνωστικού φάσματος συνιστά ένα κρίσιμο εγχείρημα για τον εκπαιδευτικό σχεδιασμό.
Previous studies have discussed digital dating by the “love-is-fast” metaphor and the successful and failed stories on dating platforms to debate the ideal of modern intimacy; however, the conceptualization of rituals and mechanisms for constructing intimacy in a continuum of online and offline everyday life has been left unstudied. Drawing on Eva Illouz’s argument on a regime of performativity of emotions and ritual scholarship, this study investigates the staged (dys)functioning of platform-constructed acts. Based on 35 interviews and 14-month user-led cross-platform walkthroughs, this study examines how users deployed and interpreted the platformed monetized ritual in emotions to (de)code and (de)construct intimacy, and how users act on encountering the “unconcealed concealment” of mundane considerations, as well as the discontinuity of online/offline experiences of constructing intimacy. Reflecting on users’ choices and gender dynamics entangling the hybrid social orientations of materialism, individualism, and intervention of social institutions, this study underscores the fragile mechanism of digital dating and users’ trade-offs in the conundrum of heterosexual intimacy.
Chinese students engaged in a broad conversation on the British Museum’s tweet, “Join us in celebrating Korean Lunar New Year with magical performances,” which resulted in both online and real protests. In-depth interviews with eleven attendees of the event were done for this study with the objective to illustrate how Chinese youth organizations create communication strategies in an unfriendly and foreign setting. According to the research, the actors used Western social media as a “medium of resistance” early in the conflict, but their demands were not realized by the system’s embedded unequal discursive order. As a result, they wore Hanfu to perform peaceful cultural performances in the museum space, making up for the “uselessness” of the digital space by using their bodies as “mediums of performance.” Local Chinese social media functions as an “organizing medium,” combining local Chinese social networks with information from around the country and abroad. This brings disparate actors together in the museum setting, and the body in Hanfu becomes a “compensatory” medium, connecting the shared Hanfu experience and upending the Western-dominated media order.
In 2025, China witnessed its own “Year of the Podcast.” Podcast, an auditory medium that dominates the Western market, is once again enjoying a “renaissance” in China after years of silence. This article begins by tracing the development trajectory of Chinese podcasting and examining the reasons behind its “renaissance.” Then, based on Grounded Theory Methodology, this article utilizes user reviews from Little Universe, the first Chinese RSS podcast application on the App Store, as research samples. Assisted by qualitative research software Nvivo12, it analyzes the motives of Chinese podcasting users and the corresponding development strategies of Chinese podcasting. The research reveals that emotional needs, platform needs, and cognitive needs are the three prominent categories of needs, accounting for 45%, 34%, and 22%, respectively. Chinese podcasting users are particularly concerned about the adaptability of podcasting platforms to various devices in changing usage scenarios, the future direction of commercialization, and the usefulness and diversity of podcast programs. Unlike Western podcasting, social needs play a crucial role in Chinese podcasting, but there are divergent opinions among Chinese users regarding them. Therefore, the development of social functions needs to be carefully controlled within certain limits.
The advancement of technology has seen the growth of online news platforms where users can interact and share their views in the comments section. The comments section, therefore, has become a site for the expression of divergent views, leading to linguistic practices such as verbal attacks. This study sourced data from GhanaWeb, an online news platform that focuses on sociopolitical occurrences in Ghana, to demonstrate how users rely on insults, alongside other strategies like endorsement, irrelevancy claims, ill-wishes and unpalatable questions to create enmity with the out-group and build solidarity with the in-group. It was also found that there were cases where two participants or commenters who seem to share the same viewpoint were challenged by a third participant. This study makes a fair contribution to the emerging research on the linguistic practices on online communication platforms and highlights areas for further inquiry.
Self-presentation has been identified as a key practice within digital youth cultures. The scholarship on youths’ self-presentation has extensively investigated how young people negotiate affordances in ways that optimally support their transitions into adulthood. However, the scholarship’s focus on identity development and technological affordances risks constructing a homogeneous, de-contextualized, and media-centric representation of digital youth cultures. To unveil how self-presentation practices are embedded within a broader socio-cultural context, I conducted a 15-month hybrid ethnographic study with 23 ethno-religious minority young men living in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The observations illustrate that these young men attempt to reclaim agency over their identity representations by performing “masculine ideals” of the self in response to racialized discourses. Overall, the results underscore the necessity of adopting an intersectional perspective that considers the interplay between self-presentation on social media and the threats and opportunities within youths’ (digital) neighborhoods.
In the past few years, young people have been using social media platforms to inform, share, and deliver their feelings. However, social media platforms like Facebook lost popularity among the young generations. Now, they prefer to interact via social media sites, such as Instagram, as narrative-based features. This study explores how young people use social media to their daily concerns. This article employs an anthropological methodology and discourse analysis to investigate the social media discourses among Padang's young people. As the capital of West Sumatra, Indonesia, Padang city provides a warm and welcoming environment for the young generation, making it an ideal place to grow spiritually and socially. Therefore, these young people's participation in the platforms are influenced by the issues reflecting their daily life. Nevertheless, it is considered that some of their behaviors can be explained by the trend of increased social media usage among their citizens.
El presente artículo forma parte de los resultados de la investigación de doctorado de su autora, apuntando a abordar las decisiones que se toman en el proceso de guionado de una propuesta transmedial, tomando como caso de análisis la producción De barrio somos, del equipo DCMTeam de la ciudad de Rosario, Argentina. En esta oportunidad se parte de desarrollar el concepto de narrativas transmediales y sus implicancias a nivel general, para luego orientar el análisis a identificar algunas estrategias posibles para desplegar un universo narrativo, conservando su coherencia interna y respetando el objetivo narrativo planteado por los creadores al iniciar la propuesta.
On social media, people often value authenticity and realness, yet the ways in which platforms promote authenticity may conflict with people’s goals to present an idealized self. Launched in 2020, the social media app BeReal encourages authenticity by prompting users to post unfiltered front and back camera photos at a particular time, thereby limiting control over their online self-presentation. We interviewed 25 BeReal users, exploring how they understand, perform, and evaluate authenticity given these unique constraints. Our findings reveal that participants resist BeReal’s prompts and encouragements, employing strategies to regain control over their self-presentation. Yet participants simultaneously ascribe to BeReal’s notion of realness, believing posts should appear effortless, branding themselves and others as fake when they ignore BeReal’s prompts. Ultimately, we discuss authenticity as sociotechnical and reflect on the ways in which people’s values around authenticity shift over time.
In the contemporary digital age, the experience of intimacy, sex, and love has been profoundly transformed, in part due to technological transformations. How do individuals navigate the evolving landscape of dating in the digital age to seek meaningful connections? To answer that, I conducted 30 individual, in-depth interviews with queer men in Argentina. Drawing on the conceptual apparatus of the sociology of sexuality and research on social media repertoires, I argue that different platforms elicit specific imaginaries, relationships, and pleasures. While Grindr emphasizes sexual explicitness and anonymity, Tinder offers a more conversational and personal experience. However, scripted and repetitive conversations tend to foster feelings of anxiety, boredom, and fatigue. Thus, many interviewees opt to escape the dating environment to Instagram, a platform that provides them a space for more authentic and pleasant interactions. These findings expand the notion of networked intimacy beyond the realm of dating platforms to social media and messaging apps.
Purpose
As a high-reward strategy to differentiate social platforms, value co-creation is increasingly becoming a tool to enhance customers' social attachment. However, there is still a lack of academic understanding of the value co-creation that enables users to build social attachment with social platforms. To address this challenge, we develop and then examine a theoretical model grounded in value co-creation theory considering the relationship between value co-creation and social attachment, and also explore the mediating effect of user experience and the moderating effect of self-disclosure.
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes representative social platform users as the research object, chooses Questionnaire Star as the platform for questionnaire distribution and collection and collects 531 eligible data through the snowball sampling questionnaire method. And then, MPLUS7.4 is used to analyze the data and thus examine our proposed theoretical model.
Findings
The results of structural equation modeling analysis suggest that two dimensions of value co-creation (i.e. initiated value co-creation and spontaneous value co-creation) affect social attachment not only directly but also indirectly (i.e. the mediating role of user experience) and that self-disclosure moderates the impact of value co-creation affecting social attachment.
Originality/value
This study verifies the impact of different dimensions of value co-creation toward social platforms on social attachment, showing that value co-creation plays an important role in developing users' social attachment and provides practical implications for promoting the sustainable development of social platforms and building users' psychological well-being.
El presente artículo reflexiona sobre las rutinas productivas en los tres sitios de noticias con mayor tráfico en Argentina (Clarín.com, Infobae.com y LaNación.com) y pone el foco en la percepción que editoras y editores tienen respecto de la aplicación de métricas de audiencias y herramientas con lógica algorítmica y el rol predominante que adquirieron las redes sociales y la plataforma Google. El análisis se desarrolló desde un enfoque cualitativo, basado en diez entrevistas en profundidad. Los testimonios de los periodistas coinciden en que seleccionan y jerarquizan información en función de los sistemas de medición de contenido digital. Los roles emergentes vinculados con las audiencias participan cada vez más en el proceso de toma de decisión editorial, lo cual genera tensiones entre aquello que los públicos demandan, los tradicionales criterios de noticiabilidad y los intereses de las empresas para las que trabajan.
Después de dar un viraje a los objetivos del proyecto de investigación, centrando los esfuerzos en analizar la manera en que comunican sus mensajes los influencers que hacen parte de la generación de los centennials o Generación Z
Symbolic interactionism is useful for examining how various socialization contexts (e.g., family and media) inform adolescents' identity construction and role making. Some research supports the theory's application in understanding White adolescents' racial socialization and identity development. The theory has yet to be applied to understanding the critical components that are essential for understanding how individuals interact with a digital society where racial inequality is pervasive. We propose a model of White adolescents' racial identity in response to racial socialization, and how that relationship manifests in social media contexts. We discuss how racial and social media literacies interact with family socialization and identity‐related experiences to promote White adolescents' critical race consciousness and introduce a novel application of digital critical racial literacy and digital anti‐racist action. The model advances symbolic interactionism by incorporating a critical lens, and can inform interventions aimed to educate parents, White youth, and social‐media developers on anti‐racist development.
Social media platforms use permanent suspension as a measure of last resort to intervene with users who spread harmful or misleading content. However, permanent suspension does not signify the end of a user's online presence, but rather on that specific platform. This issue is particularly salient for influential users with large audiences, as they have the potential to cause substantial shifts in the overall social media information landscape when suspended. Our work employs a mixed methods approach to study the context around, and behavioral patterns after, permanent suspension. We find that migration is a common step after suspension, and characterize a number of behavioral strategies and patterns that occur after influential users are suspended. By focusing on consequences of suspension across more holistically, we have identified numerous opportunities for design and future research to mitigate the potential negative effects of permanent suspensions on the broader social media information landscape.
This article discusses how legacy media companies are responding to the real or imagined challenge of reaching young people in the age of digitalization, by investigating two different strategies for how to make use of the so-called Generation Z’s preference for sensory and visual journalism. Through expert interviews, we present how the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK P3 and the biggest newspaper in Norway, VG, approach the challenge of catching young people’s attention. We identify two strategies for how legacy media companies work with visual expressions and designing their digital content when trying to reach a wide, fragmented young target group on digital platforms. VG is a platform-oriented storyteller where design is connected to the direction and mode of storytelling and tailored to fit certain platforms. Their area of focus is to be where their target groups are and to meet the visual expectations of these audiences by taking cues from what is trending on different platforms. NRK P3 takes the approach of a traditional brander that works in both visionary and traditional ways to build a strong, trustworthy and visible brand. We conclude by pointing out possible problems with both approaches.
Cuando las instituciones de educación pública abren y gestionan redes sociodigitales, el número y el tipo de problemas jurídicos que se generan en las redes tienen alcances distintos a los acontecidos en el ámbito privado. La mayoría de las transgresiones a derechos con motivo de su empleo son desconocidas, no se tiene claro cuál es su alcance y la defensa de los afectados es irregular. Las razones son varias, desde la incorrecta elección de la vía jurisdiccional para impugnar una transgresión hasta la falta de herramientas adecuadas que garanticen la prevención, mitigación y no repetición de las afectaciones. Para enfrentar los problemas jurídicos generados por su uso, proponemos considerar los siguientes aspectos: cuál es el derecho aplicable del acto digital que lo generó —civil, penal, administrativo, laboral o varios simultáneamente—; quién funge como infractor —un funcionario, un académico, un alumno, un grupo de ellos o una persona externa a la institución—, y cuál es el contexto en el que se generó. Bajo este panorama, se analizan los riesgos de las redes, para lo cual estudiamos cuatro casos de instituciones educativas públicas federales, a fin de identificar los problemas jurídicos frecuentes, el tipo de colisiones entre derechos que se exhiben en las redes —entre el derecho a la libertad de expresión, el derecho a la información, el derecho a la privacidad, el derecho al uso de la propia imagen, el derecho a la protección de datos personales, los derechos de autor y propiedad industrial, el derecho del patrón a la secrecía laboral del trabajador—, así como los delitos que se actualizan —ciberacoso, violación a la intimidad sexual y discriminación—. A la par, presentamos alternativas de solución a los problemas antes referidos, consistentes en tres soluciones jurisdiccionales y una autoimpositiva, a veces concurrentes: a) la administrativa o sancionatoria; b) la laboral; c) la civil, y d) la autorregulatoria.
Si l’utilisation des médias sociaux en période électorale a déjà fait l’objet de nombreuses études, il apparaît pertinent de prolonger ces recherches en raison notamment de l’émergence de nouvelles plateformes. À ce titre, nous proposons d’analyser, à partir d’une enquête post-électorale spécifique, les profils des citoyens qui utilisent les différents médias sociaux pour s’informer ou être actifs politiquement à l’occasion de la campagne présidentielle française de 2022. Nous montrons que les usages politiques des réseaux sociaux restent relativement minoritaires et dépendants tant de variables sociodémographiques que politiques, mais qu’il existe une certaine différenciation de ces usages en fonction des plateformes et des pratiques.
Continuous usage behavior among millennials is crucial, yet factors influencing this behavior are not well understood. This study integrates human-computer interaction and marketing research to investigate the relationship between persuasive dialogue support (PDS), attitudinal loyalty (AL), and continuous-use intention (CI) in the context of WhatsApp. The study also examines the moderating role of four cultural dimensions: uncertainty avoidance (UA), power distance (PD), masculinity (MAS), and individualism (IND) in these relationships. Data was collected from 287 WhatsApp users in four countries, and the proposed theoretical model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM-PLS). The results indicate that PDS has a direct positive impact on AL, which in turn leads to CI. The study also found that cultural differences can moderate the relationship between PDS and AL and between AL and CI. Therefore, app developers need to consider cultural differences when designing their products and implement persuasive design aspects to boost user loyalty and intention to use. To ensure optimal app performance in diverse cultural settings, developers should strike an appropriate balance between universal design principles and culturally sensitive adaptation. However, the study’s limitations, such as reliance on self-reported data and a relatively small sample size, suggest the need for future research to expand its scope to include participants from a broader range of cultural backgrounds.
Purpose
In recent years, instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp have gained substantial popularity in both academic and practical domains. However, despite this growth, there is a lack of a comprehensive overview of the literature in this field. The primary purpose of this study is to bridge this gap by analyzing a substantial dataset of 12,947 articles retrieved from the Dimensions.ai, database spanning from 2011 to March 2023.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the authors' objective, the authors employ bibliometric analysis techniques. The authors delve into various bibliometric networks, including citation networks, co-citation networks, collaboration networks, keywords and bibliographic couplings. These methods allow for the uncovering of the social and conceptual structures within the academic discourse surrounding WhatsApp.
Findings
The authors' analysis reveals several significant findings. Firstly, the authors observe a remarkable and continuous growth in the number of academic studies dedicated to WhatsApp over time. Notably, two prevalent themes emerge: the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the role of WhatsApp in the realm of social media. Furthermore, the authors' study highlights diverse applications of WhatsApp, including its utilization in education and learning, as a communication tool, in medical education, cyberpsychology, security, psychology and behavioral learning.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the field by offering a comprehensive overview of the scholarly research landscape related to WhatsApp. The findings not only illuminate the burgeoning interest in WhatsApp among researchers but also provide insights into the diverse domains where WhatsApp is making an impact. The analysis of bibliometric networks offers a unique perspective on the social and conceptual structures within this field, shedding light on emerging trends and influential research. This study thus serves as a valuable resource for scholars, practitioners and policymakers seeking to navigate the evolving landscape of WhatsApp research. The study will also be useful for researchers interested in conducting bibliometric analysis using Dimensions.ai, a free database.
Over seven decades of political stalemate, Taiwan's sovereign status vis-à-vis Mainland China remains an unresolved and volatile issue. The 21st century has witnessed spiraling cross-Strait tensions due to pro-independence endeavors by the Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), challenging the fundamental One China Principle. This delicate equilibrium has experienced further strain by the DPP's employment of digital campaigns to influence Taiwanese citizens' perceptions of Mainland China, while simultaneously bolstering ties with the US in support of autonomy. Amid this complex landscape, media and political propagandas have surfaced as the DPP's prominent instruments to sway its citizenry. However, the potency of digital media in sculpting public opinion and steering political discourse is met with a scarcity of research exploring the DPP's methodologies in advocating for an autonomous Taiwan. To address this gap, this paper offers a preliminary outlook by analyzing the DPP's deployment of digital media and political rhetoric as influential mechanisms to shape its citizens' perceptions of identity.
Whereas the bulk of research on social media has taken a granular approach, targeting specific behaviors on one site, or to a lesser extent, multiple sites, the current study aimed to holistically examine the social media landscape, exploring questions about who is drawn to popular social media sites, why they prefer each site, and the social consequences of site preference. Survey data was collected from 663 college students regarding their use and preference for Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Results highlight the popularity of Instagram for college students, and women in particular. Personal characteristics such as gender, age, affordances on specific sites, and privacy concerns predicted social media preference. Expanding upon the privacy paradox, we found that participants who preferred Twitter were more likely to have a public (vs. private) profile, reported higher levels of self-disclosure, and indicated more bridging social capital. Participants who preferred Facebook reported lower levels of self-disclosure, but higher levels of bonding social capital compared to those who preferred Instagram. These findings suggest that associations between privacy settings, disclosure, and social capital vary as a function of both user motivations and the affordances of specific social media sites.
The main aim of this study was to examine the norms of expressing emotions on social media. Specifically, the perceived appropriateness (i.e. injunctive norms) of expressing six discrete emotions (i.e. sadness, anger, disappointment, worry, joy, and pride) was investigated across four different social media platforms. Drawing on data collected in March 2016 among 1201 young Dutch users (15–25 years), we found that positive expressions were generally perceived as more appropriate than negative expressions across all platforms. In line with the objective of the study, some platform differences were found. The expression of negative emotions was rated as most appropriate for WhatsApp, followed by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For positive emotion expression, perceived appropriateness was highest for WhatsApp, followed by Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Additionally, some gender differences were found, while age showed little variations. Overall, the results contribute to a more informed understanding of emotion expression online.
People are spending increasingly more time on social media platforms, with Facebook being the biggest and most successful. Historically, media technologies have for long been considered of importance for the structuration and the experience of time in general. In this article, we investigate the technological affordances of Facebook for the temporal experiences of its users. Relying on a case study of a Facebook page dedicated to media memories, we link user experiences to technological and institutional affordances. By doing so, we seek to answer the question of how a business model and an infrastructure that largely build on immediacy and newness are experienced and negotiated by users that engage in a multiplicity of durations and time layers in their everyday lives. Drawing on a platform analysis, in-depth interviews and a survey among the users of the page “DT64—Das Jugendradio der DDR,” we develop the concept of “social media time” while considering notions of the archive, flow, and narrative, which contribute to shedding light on how specific media technologies afford specific temporalities. We conclude by discussing the consequences for the users and society at large.
In the contemporary urban environment, the conditions for communication are in abundance, having shifted and extended to include multiple overlapping possibilities for interaction through mobile devices, personal computers, and online platforms such that traditional domains of activity have been subsumed within a relational domain of communication activity. This involves not only an extension of interaction across spaces of activity but also the remapping of how interpersonal communication practices are woven into the temporality and embodied practices of everyday life. The conditions for networked communication partially emerge through a consistent set of embodied background communication practices. These include practices of the individual maintaining contact with technological objects in their environment and also the habitual rhythms of interface-level practices, which together contribute to the forms of networked connection.
Mobile media have the potential to affect how one remembers and exercises the past as they offer new and creative ways to record and document the current. These new ways of preserving the past could be in the form of sharing locational information (e.g., geotagging, camera phone photos, check-ins), which would remind our future selves where we come from and how we used to be. We sometimes consciously create our everyday life narratives intending to hang onto a moment, or simply because the technology automatically saves our experiences, we unconsciously preserve our pasts. Mobile media can contribute to the existing ways of narrating places and the self because locational information can communicate multiple and different aspects of places. Situating our analysis within the broader literature on memory and media, we draw on three different studies conducted in the UK and the US in order to analyze different uses of mobile media in remembering associations with places, past experiences, and creating a nostalgic sense of place. More specifically we draw on notions of memory work and mediated memories to explore the mutual shaping of media, place, and memory.
Media users receive an overwhelmingly large supply of media content from multiple media, yet much research on media use examines the use of a single medium. This study investigates patterns of media use across multiple media platforms by taking a media repertoire approach. Using single-source data that merge television peoplemeter data and a survey on other media use of the same respondents, this study identifies five distinctive media repertoires (TV-Oriented Entertainment, Internet Only, News on Traditional Media, Tabloid Newspapers, and Cable TV Only). This study finds significant differences in user background characteristics, total news media use, political interest, and political knowledge among representative users of each media repertoire. Regression analyses on factor scores reveal that media repertoires are explained by individual and structural factors of media choice discussed in previous research. The implications for future research on media repertoires as news, information, and entertainment sources are discussed.
This article takes note of affordances for counterpublic communication on social networking sites (SNSs). Because of the important ways that counterpublic communication is tied to specific platforms, it is necessary to understand why certain platforms are especially conducive (or are seen to be conducive) to counterpublic address. This article uses the example of the asexual community’s use of the SNS Tumblr to explore the affordances of the Tumblr platform for counterpublic communication, comparing Tumblr to the bulletin boards on the popular Asexuality Visibility Education Network website. This article modifies and extends boyd’s analysis of SNSs as networked publics to account for the technological affordances for networked counterpublics. It ends by briefly considering ways that networked counterpublics can be antagonized.
A large body of research argues that self-presentation strategies vary based on audience. But what happens when the technical features of Web sites enable—or even require—users to make personal disclosures to multiple audiences at once, as is often the case on social network sites (SNSs)? Do users apply a lowest common denominator approach, only making disclosures that are appropriate for all audience members? Do they employ technological tools to disaggregate audiences? When considering the resources that can be harnessed from SNS interactions, researchers suggest users need to engage with their network in order to reap benefits. The present study presents a model including network composition, disclosures, privacy-based strategies, and social capital. Results indicate that (1) audience size and diversity impacts disclosures and use of advanced privacy settings, (2) privacy concerns and privacy settings impact disclosures in varying ways; and (3) audience and disclosure characteristics predict bridging social capital.
Social network sites (SNSs) are becoming an increasingly popular resource for both students and adults, who use them to connect with and maintain relationships with a variety of ties. For many, the primary function of these sites is to consume and distribute personal content about the self. Privacy concerns around sharing information in a public or semi-public space are amplified by SNSs’ structural characteristics, which may obfuscate the true audience of these disclosures due to their technical properties (e.g., persistence, searchability) and dynamics of use (e.g., invisible audiences, context collapse) (boyd 2008b). Early work on the topic focused on the privacy pitfalls of Facebook and other SNSs (e.g., Acquisti and Gross 2006; Barnes 2006; Gross and Acquisti 2005) and argued that individuals were (perhaps inadvertently) disclosing information that might be inappropriate for some audiences, such as future employers, or that might enable identity theft or other negative outcomes.
This article develops a new theory of polymedia in order to understand the consequences of digital media in the context of interpersonal communication. Drawing on illustrative examples from a comparative ethnography of Filipino and Caribbean transnational families, the article develops the contours of a theory of polymedia. We demonstrate how users avail themselves of new media as a communicative environment of affordances rather than as a catalogue of ever proliferating but discrete technologies. As a consequence, with polymedia the primary concern shifts from the constraints imposed by each individual medium to an emphasis upon the social, emotional and moral consequences of choosing between those different media. As the choice of medium acquires communicative intent, navigating the environment of polymedia becomes inextricably linked to the ways in which interpersonal relationships are experienced and managed. Polymedia is ultimately about a new relationship between the social and the technological, rather than merely a shift in the technology itself.
The theory of the niche predicts that a new medium will compete with established media for consumer satisfaction, consumer time, and / or consumer advertising dollars. Competition between e-mail and telephone use was measured in this study at the level of gratifications derived by consumers. Gratifications and gratification opportunities (consumers' beliefs that a medium allows them to obtain greater opportunities for satisfaction) were derived from an analysis of open-ended questions. A second sample was interviewed by telephone and rated both mediums on gratification and gratification-opportunity scales. Forty-eight percent of respondents reported using the phone less since they adopted e-mail. Results indicate that a wider spectrum of needs is being served by the telephone, whereas e-mail provides greater gratification opportunities. The results indicate competition, but also indicate that the two mediums are not close substitutes.
The theory of niche proposes that a new medium competes with older, more established media to fulfill users' needs. This study uses niche theory, a macrolevel theory, as well as social information processing theory and the theory of electronic propinquity, both microlevel theories, to examine the niche of instant messaging (IM) in providing general gratifications. Results indicate that IM is characterized by a broad niche, surpassed only by that of the cell phone. IM had substantial niche overlap with e-mail and the cell phone, indicating a degree of substitutability between them; the least overlap was with the landline telephone (LLP). The hierarchy that emerged indicated that the cell phone was superior to IM, which was superior to e-mail, followed by the LLP for providing general gratifications. Finally, displacement tests indicated that IM use displaced e-mail and LLP but not cell phone use. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Channel repertoire, traditionally the sum of the number of channels accessed by a television/cable viewer, is extended. (1) via frequency weightings, (2) with a distinction between primary and specialized repertoires, and (3) by comparing repertoires across achievement and ascriptive social categories (e.g., income, race). In a probability computer-aided telephone interviewing (CATI) survey of 319 metropolitan cable subscribers, analyses of the new repertoires show novel discrimination among social categories and differential predictions from media and attitudinal variables.
New media have made available a wide range of platforms and content choices. However, audiences cope with abundant choices by using more narrowly defined repertoires. Unfortunately, we know little of how users create repertoires across media platforms. This study uses factor analysis to identify user-defined repertoires from data obtained by following 495 users throughout an entire day. Results indicate the presence of four repertoires that are powerfully tied to the rhythms of people’s daily lives. These were in turn explained by a combination of factors such as audience availability and individual demographics.
This study was designed to explore the similarities between television and the World Wide Web (WWW). We adopted a uses and gratifications framework to assess whether Web surfing is a functional alternative to television viewing. A sample of computer-experienced students completed an on-line questionnaire and a three-day on-line media-use diary. We found that three major and two minor television-like reasons for Web surfing: Entertainment, Pass Time, Relaxation, Social Information, and Information. Our respondents used the Web for school, play, to acquire information and materials, and, to some extent, for work. The WWW may be functionally similar to television, especially in its use for diversion. But there are indications that the WWW may not be as relaxing a use of time as television viewing.
The need for an integrated social constructivist approach towards the study of science and technology is outlined. Within such a programme both scientific facts and technological artefacts are to be understood as social constructs. Literature on the sociology of science, the science-technology relationship, and technology studies is reviewed. The empirical programme of relativism within the sociology of scientific knowledge and a recent study of the social construction of technological artefacts are combined to produce the new approach. The concepts of `interpretative flexibility' and `closure mechanism', and the notion of `social group' are developed and illustrated by reference to a study of solar physics and a study of the development of the bicycle. The paper concludes by setting out some of the terrain to be explored in future studies.
Channel repertoire is the number of available channels that viewers choose to watch. This study examined channel repertoire in the presence of several “new media environment” variables, including remote control devices (RCDs). Channel repertoire and RCD usage were measured within a 2X2 matrix of VCR ownership and cable subscription. Results indicate that the use of RCDs and VCRs do not substantially increase channel repertoire. The study suggests the influence of some motivations that underlie RCD usage and channel repertoire.
Over the last decade, the Internet has become one of the most popular vehicles facilitating a variety of communication and information-sharing tasks worldwide. Its growing popularity as a new medium of communication has resulted in changes in use of traditional media. The purpose of this study was to better understand the uses of online news compared with news use via traditional media. In light of the niche theory and the theory of uses and gratifications, a new medium survives, grows, competes, and prospers by providing utility or gratification to consumers. In doing so, it may have effects on existing media by providing new solutions to old needs or to more contemporary needs. Data were collected in a telephone survey with 211 respondents in the Columbus, Ohio (Franklin County), metropolitan area. The results clearly indicate that the Internet has a competitive displacement effect on traditional media in the daily news domain with the largest displacements occurring for television and newspapers. The findings also show that there is a moderately high degree of overlap or similarity between the niches of the Internet and the traditional media on the gratification-opportunities dimension. In addition, the results suggest that the Internet has the broadest niche on the gratification opportunities dimension, providing users satisfaction with more needs than any of the traditional media on this dimension.
With over 500 million users, the decisions that Facebook makes about its privacy settings have the potential to influence many people. While its changes in this domain have often prompted privacy advocates and news media to critique the company, Facebook has continued to attract more users to its service. This raises a question about whether or not Facebook's changes in privacy approaches matter and, if so, to whom. This paper examines the attitudes and practices of a cohort of 18- and 19-year-olds surveyed in 2009 and again in 2010 about Facebook's privacy settings. Our results challenge widespread assumptions that youth do not care about and are not engaged with navigating privacy. We find that, while not universal, modifications to privacy settings have increased during a year in which Facebook's approach to privacy was hotly contested. We also find that both frequency and type of Facebook use as well as Internet skill are correlated with making modifications to privacy settings. In contrast, we observe few gender differences in how young adults approach their Facebook privacy settings, which is notable given that gender differences exist in so many other domains online. We discuss the possible reasons for our findings and their implications.
Users have adopted a wide range of digital technologies into their communication repertoire. It remains unclear why they adopt multiple forms of communication instead of substituting one medium for another. It also raises the question: What type of need does each of these media fulfill? In the present article, the authors conduct comparative work that examines the gratifications obtained from Facebook with those from instant messaging. This comparison between media allows one to draw conclusions about how different social media fulfill user needs. Data were collected from undergraduate students through a multimethod study based on 77 surveys and 21 interviews. A factor analysis of gratifications obtained from Facebook revealed six key dimensions: pastime, affection, fashion, share problems, sociability, and social information. Comparative analysis showed that Facebook is about having fun and knowing about the social activities occurring in one’s social network, whereas instant messaging is geared mor
This article uses the concepts of polymedia and accentuated ambivalence to analyse the results of an interview study with New Zealand migrants in Australia. The participants in the study exploited the polymedia environment they have access to in relation to three areas of interest: consuming media representations of New Zealand, staying connected with people they have left behind and engaging with special interests such as music and sports from New Zealand. The article argues that in order to comprehend contemporary migrant audiences, scholars need to take into account the entire range of media that migrants have at their disposal. An expansion of the concepts of polymedia and accentuated ambivalence can facilitate this perspective. Polymedia theory is a vital tool for the analysis of how migrants manage their affective relationships with places and people through media consumption.
Drawing on qualitative data obtained from mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong, this research uses polymedia theory to analyse the social implications of media use and interpersonal communication by migrant students. It looks at how migrant students use media to communicate with family members and friends in mainland China compared with Hong Kong locals. When communicating with family and friends, their media usage is intense, close and emotion-oriented, forming a warm and supportive virtual network that provides familiarity, a sense of belonging and emotional attachment. In contrast, their media usage to communicate with Hong Kong locals is limited, functional and study-oriented, and although it becomes a platform for practical help, it also demonstrates deep contradictions and conflicts with members of the host society.
What kind of news time does a public need? The production, circulation, and interpretation of news have always followed timelines and rhythms, but these have largely been seen as artifacts of press sociology, not central aspects of journalism’s public mission linked to the design and deployment of journalism infrastructure. Since different types of news time make possible different kinds of publics, any critique of the press’s material cultures of time-keeping is a critique of the press’s power to convene particular people and issues, at particular times. Motivated by the temporal needs of one type of public (a pragmatic public that ensures a public right to hear), this paper proposes a unit for studying news time (the temporal assemblage), and traces it across four intertwined sites in the contemporary, networked press: labor routines, platform rhythms, computational algorithms, and legal regulations. Beyond this article’s investigation of this public in relation to these dynamics, my aim is to contribute to the emerging “slow journalism” movement by asking: how slow—or fast—do different publics need news to be? And how are networked press paces set?
Social network sites (SNSs) are becoming an increasingly popular resource for both students and adults, who use them to connect with and maintain relationships with a variety of ties. For many, the primary function of these sites is to consume and distribute personal content about the self. Privacy concerns around sharing information in a public or semi-public space are amplified by SNSs’ structural characteristics, which may obfuscate the true audience of these disclosures due to their technical properties (e.g., persistence, searchability) and dynamics of use (e.g., invisible audiences, context collapse) (boyd 2008b). Early work on the topic focused on the privacy pitfalls of Facebook and other SNSs (e.g., Acquisti and Gross 2006; Barnes 2006; Gross and Acquisti 2005) and argued that individuals were (perhaps inadvertently) disclosing information that might be inappropriate for some audiences, such as future employers, or that might enable identity theft or other negative outcomes.
The present study sheds light on the nature of the multi-dimensional aspects of news consumption by focusing on three different news-related activities on online social networking services (SNSs): news reading, news posting, and news endorsing. Borrowing from the literature on uses and gratifications theory, as well as media attendance theory and the concept of a technology cluster, the study investigated why people consume news differently on SNSs.
The results show that each type of news activity may derive from different kinds of motivations, media habits and technology clusters. For example, the motivation of “getting recognition” was found to be an important driving force for news posting, while it was not a significant predictor of news reading and news endorsing. On the other hand, the “entertainment” motivation was revealed to be positively associated with news reading and news endorsing, while it was not with news posting.
In addition, those who have an internet-based news repertoire were more likely to participate in news activities on SNSs and those who have many mobile devices were found to participate in news reading more frequently. The study was conducted using a national online survey.
Ephemeral social media, platforms that display shared content for a limited period of time, have become a prominent component of the social ecosystem. We draw on experience sampling data collected over two weeks (Study 1; N=154) and in-depth interview data from a subsample of participants (Study 2; N = 28) to understand college students’ social and emotional experiences on Snapchat, a popular ephemeral mobile platform. Our quantitative data demonstrated that Snapchat interactions were perceived as more enjoyable – and associated with more positive mood – than other communication technologies. However, Snapchat interactions were also associated with lower social support than other channels. Our qualitative data highlighted aspects of Snapchat use that may facilitate positive affect (but not social support), including sharing mundane experiences with close ties and reduced self-presentational concerns. In addition, users compared Snapchat to face-to-face interaction and reported attending to Snapchat content more closely than archived content, which may contribute to increased emotional rewards. Overall, participants did not see the application as a platform for sharing or viewing photos; rather, Snapchat was viewed as a lightweight channel for sharing spontaneous experiences with trusted ties. Together, these studies contribute to our evolving understanding of ephemeral social media and their role in social relationships.
Mobile devices allow users to keep ubiquitously connected to the internet. Consequently, they change the reception of information by faster access, greater timeliness, and new media usage contexts. At the same time, many traditional media organizations already produce content for mobile websites and apps in line with cross-media strategies. Reflecting severe structural changes in the journalism market, they are hoping to manage the digital transition successfully by mobile publishing, (re)gaining especially the digital natives. Referring to the media repertoire approach, we examine the role of mobile devices on two different levels. First, from a technical point of view, we consider the platform repertoire of mobile internet users for information. Focusing on the use frequency of online (computer, mobile devices) and offline media (printed newspaper, television set, radio set), a quantitative study (N = 498, face-to-face interviews) reveals six different user types. Second, we examine the new medium’s use for information purposes by drawing on the unique specifics of mobile devices compared to other media. Results show that the new medium is frequently used for information due to its particular qualities. Third, we look at the users’ selected mobile news sources from an institutional perspective. Our results indicate that, although new online-only providers are of a certain relevance to mobile internet users, traditional journalism’s content dominates the mobile information repertoire.
This article investigates whether smartphones function as environments of polymedia (Madianou & Miller, 2012) and assesses their consequences for transnational families. Drawing on research with UK-based Filipino migrants, the article observes that users treat smartphones as integrated environments of communicative opportunities and exploit the differences within media in order to express emotions and manage their relationships with their family members who remain in the Philippines. For smartphone users, being online emerges as the default position and there is evidence that new media become constitutive of relationships in situations of extreme separation. However, technology cannot overcome difficulties that are fundamentally social. Moreover, the article observes the emergence of a new ‘care divide’ between those who own smartphones and those who do not.
Social media are popular stages for self-expression, communication and self-promotion. Rather than facilitating online identity formation, they are sites of struggle between users, employers and platform owners to control online identities – a struggle played out at the level of the interface. This article offers a comparative interface analysis between Facebook and LinkedIn. While Facebook is particularly focused on facilitating personal self-presentation, LinkedIn’s interface caters towards the need for professional self-promotion. And yet, both platforms deploy similar principles of connectivity and narrative – strategies that can be succinctly revealed in recent interface changes. These changing digital architectures form the necessary backdrop for asking critical questions about online self-presentation: How are public identities shaped through platform interfaces? How do these features enable and constrain the sculpting of personal and professional persona? And what are the consequences of imposed connectivity and narrative uniformity on people’s online identities?
This study provided a comparative analysis of three social network sites, the open-to-all Facebook, the professionally oriented LinkedIn and the exclusive, members-only ASmallWorld.The analysis focused on the underlying structure or architecture of these sites, on the premise that it may set the tone for particular types of interaction.Through this comparative examination, four themes emerged, highlighting the private/public balance present in each social networking site, styles of self-presentation in spaces privately public and publicly private, cultivation of taste performances as a mode of sociocultural identification and organization and the formation of tight or loose social settings. Facebook emerged as the architectural equivalent of a glasshouse, with a publicly open structure, looser behavioral norms and an abundance of tools that members use to leave cues for each other. LinkedIn and ASmallWorld produced tighter spaces, which were consistent with the taste ethos of each network and offered less room for spontaneous interaction and network generation.
A model of program choice focusing on the decision-making process is developed and applied to cable television viewing. The process concepts of orienting search (becoming aware of alternatives to watch) and revaluation (reconsidering a choice) are found to be positively correlated with channel familiarity (awarensss of available cable channels) and channel repertoire (use of cable channels). Viewers appear to have their own routine means of choosing what to watch that vary according to personality characteristics and demographics. Young, male adults with a high need for stimulation engage in more active choice processes.
Digital media offer countless options that compete for a limited supply of public attention. The patterns of use that emerge in this environment have important social implications, yet the factors that shape attendance are not well integrated into a single theoretical model. This article posits such a theory using Giddens's notion of structuration as an overarching framework. It identifies public measures that distill and report user information as a pivotal mechanism that coordinates and directs the behaviors of both media providers and media users, thus promoting the duality of media. The theory is then used to understand evolving patterns of public attention in the digital media environment.
In this essay I analyze how technologies and users relate to each other in a national virtual community. I argue that a mutual shaping perspective is best suited to capture the complexity, unpredictability, and recursivity of the interactions among technological features and users' discourses and practices. Drawing from recent developments in the study of computer-mediated communication, mutidisciplinary technology scholarship, and social psychology of nationhood, I show the mutual shaping of hardware capabilities, national identities, collective remembering, software configurations, and coordination practices that took place during my investigation of the Argentine Mailing List.
This article briefly reviews research on the principle of relative constancy and concludes that further research using aggregate consumer and advertiser spending data should be suspended because the principle does not represent a theoretically based hypothesis but is simply an unexplained empirical generalization. Instead, I propose that further theory building and research is necessary to explain consumer and advertiser spending on the media and offer suggestions on the conduct of such research. I employ the theory of the niche and elements of the theory to explain the anomaly of the "video revolution" that stands as a major exception to constancy.
Online social networks such as Friendster, MySpace, or the Facebook have experienced exponential growth in membership in recent years. These networks oer attractive means for inter- action and communication, but also raise privacy and security concerns. In this study we survey a representative sample of the members of the Facebook (a social network for colleges and high schools) at a US academic institution, and compare the survey data to information retrieved from the net- work itself. We look for underlying demographic or behavioral dierences between the communities of the network's members and non-members; we analyze the impact of privacy concerns on members' behavior; we compare members' stated attitudes with actual behavior; and we document the changes in behavior subsequent to privacy-related information exposure. We find that an individual's privacy concerns are only a weak predictor of his membership to the network. Also privacy concerned individ- uals join the network and reveal great amounts of personal information. Some manage their privacy concerns by trusting their ability to control the information they provide and the external access to it. However, we also find evidence of members' misconceptions about the online community's actual size and composition, and about the visibility of members' profiles.
We present a study on current, real-world communication of location and activity information based on analyzing context-sharing practices in recorded mobile phone calls. In 176 conversations, we found that over 70 percent contain disclosures of location or activity for one of eight main purposes. Based on our observations, we provide implications for the design of new systems for mobile social software.
Networked news time: How slow—or fast—do publics need news to be?
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Program selection with abundance of choice
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