Limor Shifman’s research while affiliated with Hebrew University of Jerusalem and other places

The term _values_ is prominent in political discourse. Yet its ubiquity is matched by its vagueness, especially when considering usage among different cultures. Twitter provides a promising venue for exploring the contested political discourse surrounding this term. In this paper, we study the use of the term values on Twitter across different language communities. We ask: _what meanings do users ascribe to the term “values”?_ and _what are the social and political discursive functions of the term?_ For both questions, we will explore cross-cultural similarities and differences. We compiled a corpus of around 15 million tweets containing the term _values_ from 2019-2021 in English, German, Italian, Japanese, and Korean. We use two complementary methods for analyzing the data: 1) a big-data computational analysis, finding the most prominent terms co-occurring with and phrases containing the term _values_; 2) a systematic content analysis of a smaller subset of the corpus. *Preliminary Results of English and Japanese tweets suggest* fundamental differences in how the two languages frame _values_: while the term in English appears mainly in a partisan political context, Japanese usage is far more personal and apolitical. In the English corpus, the term is often invoked in politically motivated rhetorical attacks, often alleging hypocrisy. In the Japanese corpus, tweeters use the term to promote a societal norm of respecting others’ values and to discuss generational gaps. Our analysis demonstrates the potential of Twitter-based research for unpacking the meanings and functions of this core concept, across cultures.

Personal portraits on social media are value-laden constructs. Whether documenting graduation or flexing in the gym, users express what they care about and present it for others to evaluate. Since “global” portrait genres are produced and consumed in different locales, their interpretation and evaluation may vary. We thus ask: What values do people identify in different types of social media portraits? Which evaluative criteria do they use when judging them? An analysis of 100 interviews with users from Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United States reveals that people consistently recognize genre-specific values in portraits and evaluate them through a narrow set of communication-related criteria. Such evaluations vary somewhat cross-culturally in ways that only occasionally match established comparative literature on values. We reflect on the relational character of the criteria adopted for the evaluation of portraits worldwide, highlighting its association with new modes of sociability in digital spheres.

Portraits on social media are value-laden constructs. Whether documenting graduation or flexing in the gym, users express what they care about and present it for others to evaluate. Since “global” portrait genres are produced and consumed in different locales, their interpretation and evaluation may vary. We thus ask: What values do people identify in different types of social media portraits? Which evaluative criteria do they use when judging them? An analysis of 100 interviews with users from Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United States reveals that people consistently recognize genre-specific values in portraits and evaluate them through a narrow set of communication-related criteria. Such evaluations vary across cultures in ways that only occasionally match established comparative literature on values. We reflect on the relational character of the criteria adopted for the evaluation of portraits worldwide, highlighting its association with new modes of sociability in digital spheres.

As sites where social media corporations profess their commitment to principles like community and free speech, policy documents function as boundary objects that navigate diverse audiences, purposes, and interests. This article compares the discourse of values in the Privacy Policies, Terms of Service, and Community Guidelines of five major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok). Through a mixed-methods analysis, we identified frequently mentioned value terms and five overarching principles consistent across platforms: expression, community, safety, choice, and improvement. However, platforms limit their burden to execute these values by selectively assigning responsibility for their enactment, often unloading such responsibility onto users. Moreover, while each of the core values may potentially serve the public good, they can also promote narrow corporate goals. This dual framing allows platforms to strategically reinterpret values to suit their own interests.

In 2017, the MeToo hashtag spread across the globe. However, it showed limited success in the Japanese Twittersphere and instead inspired local initiatives such as #WeToo and #Furawādemo (“flower demo”). To understand this reformulation, we analyzed 15 interviews with Japanese social media users and 119 Japanese newspaper articles. The results corroborate the framework we label VTM (values, topics, media), suggesting that an intersection between perceived Japanese values, the topic’s gendered and sexual nature, and media affordances explain the movement’s local development. While perceived Japanese values clash against those associated with #MeToo, new formulations “soften” the protest by blending in values such as reserve and harmony. Overall, we show how perceptions of popular values rather than values as essential orientations shape activism. Finally, we discuss the study’s implications for understanding cultural variance in cyberactivism, highlighting how divergent notions of “safe space” shape such movements.

Given its massive volume and rapid development of new trends, the universe of user-generated content may seem utterly chaotic. Yet the flow of content is underlined by deep-rooted patterns of communication. In this article, we present the first systematic attempt to identify these patterns using the concept of social media rituals. Understood as typified communicative practices that formalize and express shared values, rituals offer a productive path to categorize popular genres of content and trace the values they convey. Integrating theoretical literature on rituals with empirical studies of social media genres, we develop a typology of 16 rituals that express diverse values, ranging from respect and responsibility to materialism and pleasure. Furthermore, we show that rituals embed different notions of good communication, as reflected in the values of authenticity, persuasion, affiliation, and demonstration. Finally, we discuss how our framework can facilitate comparative investigations of user-generated content and platform values.

New Year’s resolutions are acts of valuation where people express ideas about what is important and worthwhile in life. Although resolutions have a long history, the twenty-first century has transformed the practice into a social media ritual with greater visibility, interactivity, and reach. Using this unique event to explore the globalization of values, we analyze tweets about New Year’s resolutions in English, German, Italian, Japanese, and Korean. Combining network analysis (n = 160,592) and content analysis (n = 2000), we compare discursive topics, modes of ritual participation, and the values expressed in resolutions. Our findings indicate both that the ritual crosses cultures and that there are language-specific dynamics that do not map neatly onto established divisions between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ value orientations. Instead, we identify three underlying tensions organizing the articulation of values: self-acceptance vs. self-improvement, public vs. private, and conformity vs. oppositionality. We discuss these in relation to an overarching tension between local contexts and global platform cultures. Finally, we explore the study’s broader implications for understanding the interaction between values, norms, and global communicative practices.

This paper examines memetic content as a window into the values expressed by far-right constituents. Our main premise was that far-right memes are a site of interaction between two types of values: those of the far-right as a social movement and those characterizing memetic communication on social media. We studied this notion through a case from Italy: the photo-based meme genre of ‘alternative calendar commemorations’ that memorialize events or figures important to the far-right imaginary. A multi-modal qualitative analysis based on Schwartz’s theory of personal and political values yielded mixed results. As expected, we found strong appeals to collectivistic values such as patriotism and tradition. Yet some of the individualistic values associated with memes, such as self-direction and authenticity, were also evident in the corpus. We conclude by discussing how this blend of values challenges both well-established value theories and perceptions about the political work of far-right memes.

In 2017, the #MeToo movement lit up Twitter. In Japan, however, it was almost nonexistent and morphed into other forms of hashtag activism: #WeToo, #WithYou, and #furawademo (“flower demo”). This paper investigates both the absence of #MeToo in Japan and its reformulations. We hypothesize that these could be explained through the interplay of three avenues: (1) values—the literature on values in Japan foregrounds harmony, collectivism, and the avoidance of shame; (2) Topic—gender and sexual harassment—drawing on literature on the rootedness of sexism in this society; (3) Platform—mounting concerns over privacy issues on Twitter in Japan. We conducted fifteen interviews with Japanese men and women from varied backgrounds and assembled 119 newspaper articles that explain why people are reluctant to speak up. We applied a combination of grounded and thematic analysis to analyze these samples. Our analysis affirmed that the three avenues are key to understanding the movement’s absence and reformulation. Perceived Japanese values clash against the values that respondents and newspapers detected in the movement, and the new formulations are evaluated as “softening” the protest by blending in acceptable values. However, while most participants appreciated the movement, they were afraid of retaliation and isolation, given their perception of Japanese values. We tentatively argue that it’s not values as essential orientations but the prevalent perceptions of popular values that limit activism. Such perceptions of national values become self-fulfilling prophecies; people “perform” the values that they think others will appreciate and, in so doing, reinforce those values.