Online Audience Research Articles

Iran, Religious Agents, and the People: Voices from Khuzestan

ABSTRACT This article explores the significance of popular religious agents in Iran, focusing on the maddāḥān (eulogists) and their role in the Ashura processions, in the context of Iran’s ethnic minorities, looking into the unique case-study of Khuzestan. To comprehend the contemporary relevance of Ashura, this study utilizes social media, employing a hermeneutical approach to videography. The maddāḥān played a pivotal role in promoting a unifying Shiʿi and revolutionary ethos through their meticulously crafted videos and their widespread dissemination, fostering a sense of solidarity with the Islamic republic and its message of resilience. Their contribution was significant among ethnic minorities, given their numerous grievances toward the regime. The maddāḥān also played a vital role in creating space for local expressions of mourning, enhancing a unique Khuzestani identity deeply tied to its Arab tradition, but also open to multiple influences. Their emotionally charged sessions and direct engagement with the people contributed to a strong sense of connections between the maddāḥān and their extensive online audience. This popular appeal complements the established clerical authority structure but also poses a significant challenge to the formal religious hierarchy, as the maddāḥān’s approach resonates more closely with the lived experiences and cultural realities of their followers.

Directives and references in selected coronavirus-motivated internet memes

Abstract The use of directives in communicating the nature of the pandemic and reference to social experiences were promoted using images on social media platforms. The images or memes are used to create awareness and reinforce the criteria for safety during the pandemic. Previous studies on internet memes have concentrated on humor generation, speaker-hearer shared knowledge, neologism, and multimodality among others, with insufficient attention paid to the use of directives and references in such coronavirus-motivated memes. This paper, therefore, examines how directives and references are employed in conveying expected social responsibilities through coronavirus-motivated internet memes in Nigeria and other socio-cultural contexts. For data, one hundred coronavirus-motivated memes were purposively selected from Facebook, and eight representative memes were subjected to pragmatic analysis using aspects of Jacob Mey’s (2001. Pragmatics: An introduction, 2nd edn. USA: Blackwell Publishing) pragmatic acts theory to unearth insights from them. The paper observes that the various spheres of life that are relatable to an online audience help to express what the pandemic is about and enhance the meaning of the pandemic with the context of the use of the memes, giving clearer perspectives on the pandemic. Directives and references are useful tools for conveying social responsibilities to online audience.

Deep Learning Social Filtering Model for Event Recommendation Services

In the contemporary time, technology has made the determination and discovery of human preferences, priorities and personal inclinations possible through the use of recommender systems. Activities of users on the internet can be monitored, extracted, stored, analyzed and used by the recommender systems for suggesting future events to users on the web. This paper aims at developing and analyzing a model for event services recommendation for visitors to events. Event seekers, organizers and event service providers get notified, plan and book for upcoming events from their comfort zones without hassles of gallivanting nooks and crannies to enquire about prospective events. There is not any compelling need to interface with under-enthusiasts and intermediaries in the course of organizing, visiting and providing services for an event. However, it is obvious that massive amount of available information on the web exhibit frustrating attributes, hence it is increasingly a difficult task for users to find the content of interest; in other words, a huge chunk of information undiscovered on the network is left behind as “dark information”. In context, event service recommendation uses deep learning social filtering base techniques which adopt similarity computation measures with a bias for Pearson correlation coefficient, cosine similarity, and Euclidean similarity to recommend related and most relevant events/services to the targeted online audience. In this paper, the aim is to develop a deep learning model which integrates social filtering technique for enhancing the quality of event recommendation for users. A model based on the deep learning algorithm of multilayered perceptron and Neural Collaborative Filtering is proposed for event recommender services. The results from various simulations using meetup website dataset shows that the proposed model performs better than other techniques. The results yield 70% accuracy, 66% precision and 98% recall.

The influence of social media use on corporate reputation at a higher education institution

The use of social media in organisations can assist in the creation and maintenance of a good brand, reputation and image largely due to the potential of developing interactive relationships with various stakeholders. This not only aids in building stakeholder relationships, but also in increasing an organisation’s visibility. The aim of this research was to assess how a higher education institution, specifically the Durban University of Technology (DUT) in South Africa, uses social media platforms to build and maintain a positive corporate reputation. Additionally, the research examined how the institution actively engages with their target audience on social media platforms. A quantitative methodology was adopted with a sample population of 180 students from the DUT. Data was collected through the distribution of questionnaires to students and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0. Findings revealed that social media plays an important role for organisations as a vital tool to build and maintain corporate reputation online, as well as communicating effectively and actively with various target audiences. The research recommends that organisations prioritise investing in social media platforms and communicate effectively and actively with their audiences online.

Explaining the gift-giving intentions of live-streaming audiences through social presence: the perspective of interactive marketing

PurposeLive streaming has become an extremely popular form of online service and allows live audiences to give virtual gifts or money to their favorite streamers. This study aims to investigate the impact of the audience's multidimensional social presence on their attitudes toward live streamers and intentions to give money or gifts to streamers, based on the interactive marketing perspective. This study considers live audiences' gift-giving intentions by integrating the theory of multidimensional social presence, which includes awareness, cognitive social presence and affective social interaction, and the theory of reasoned action (TRA).Design/methodology/approachThis study invited audiences who had watched live streaming from several popular live-streaming platforms to respond to a web questionnaire. The unit of analysis was at the individual level. This study applied the purposive sampling technique for data collection. A sample of 258 eligible responses to the online survey was analyzed using SPSS software and the causal relationships between the measurement variables of this research model were verified through structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results indicate that the audiences' awareness of participating in live streaming enhanced their cognitive and affective social presence, which positively affected their attitudes toward live streamers. These attitudes had a further significant effect on their gift-giving intentions. Cognitive social presence and affective social presence were found to play significant mediating roles in the relationship between awareness and attitudes toward live streamers.Originality/valueThis study examines audiences' intention to give gifts to their favorite live streamers, based on the interactive marketing perspective. The interactive relationship between live streamers and online audiences is developed by audience members through the process of inner psychological transformation, which is measured through the multidimensional construct of social presence. This occurs through a mutual influence relationship in which awareness simultaneously influences cognitive social presence and affective social presence, and cognitive social presence impacts affective social presence.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes three noteworthy findings to the theory development through the integrated perspective of the TRA and the theory of social presence. (1) Exploring the influence of belief factors on internal psychological responses and intention in live streaming to expand an innovative application of the TRA. (2) Adopting the multidimensional social presence can help researchers more clearly describe various live-streaming situations and extend the research scope of the social presence theory to live-streaming interactive marketing strategies. (3) From the perspective of live-streamer marketing, this study broadens the research fields of electronic commerce and interactive marketing.Practical implicationsThis study provides four practical implications for platform managers and live streamers. (1) To induce favorable attitudes toward live streamers, live streamers initiate various interactive activities sequentially to establish a social presence with the audience. (2) Live streamers should devote themselves to forming a joyful atmosphere for their followers, as this will trigger audiences' affective social presence to generate positive attitudes and increase followers' intentions. (3) To attract and retain young followers, live streamers must devise interesting content and provide fresh services. (4) Platform managers must create useful widgets to assist live streamers in managing their channels and followers.Social implicationsBuilding friendly real-time interaction between the live streamer and the audience is an important task in live streaming and further influences the income of the live streamer and the platform. The study provides an effective approach to building friendly real-time interaction for the live streamer and manager of live-streaming electronic commerce through the interactive marketing perspective. The approach can help the live streamer manage nice communication with their audience and obtain virtual money and gift-giving from the audience.

Membangun Kapasitas UMKM dalam Pemasaran Digital di Desa Wisata Way Tebing Cepa

The Covid-19 pandemic has severely hampered the expansion of the world economy, including Indonesia. In the midst of this challenging situation, businesses are being forced to innovate and fight for their survival. On a positive note, the rapid advancement of digital technology has opened up new opportunities for MSMEs to market their products to a wider audience online. This allows MSMEs to reach a broader market and increase sales. However, to fully capitalize on these opportunities, MSMEs need to improve their human resources (HR) and information technology (IT) capabilities. This is crucial to help them adapt to the various new technologies emerging in the era of Industry 4.0. The government has high hopes for MSMEs to become major players in the development of Indonesia's digital economy. MSME empowerment can be achieved by assisting them in gaining access to finance and ensuring that their products are of sufficient quality to compete in the market. This can increase investor confidence in MSMEs and open up funding opportunities. To enter the online business, MSMEs need to make improvements in several areas, such as product quality, product standardization, HR development, and access to financing. Collaboration between the government and e-commerce platforms is essential to support MSMEs in utilizing digital technology and developing their online businesses. As a commitment to helping MSMEs, Universitas MItra Indonesia is conducting a community service activity with the theme "Building MSME Capacity in Digital Marketing in Way Tebing Cepa Kalianda Tourism Village". This activity is being held in Taman Baru Village, Penengahan District, South Lampung Regency. This activity's primary goal is to teach and advise MSMEs in the community on how to use social media to market their goods and services.

Social media: a digital social mirror for identity development during adolescence

According to recent studies, social media are settings where adolescents construct their identities while engaging in social interactions. In digital spaces, adolescents can interact with, display, and receive feedback about themselves, contributing to the development of a clear and integrated sense of self. This paper reviews the available empirical evidence and discusses four overarching themes related to identity construction in social media: self-presentation (attempting to control images of self to others), social comparison (compare themselves with others, especially evaluating the self), role model (media figures that are social references for behavior), and online audience (friends, peers, unknow/know referents with whom users may interact online). Moreover, it proposes a new contextual perspective on identity development on social media. Informed by research on these themes that social media features allow adolescents to perform self-presentations, offering the opportunity to express interests, ideas, and beliefs about themselves (identification and role exploration). The image presented on social media exposes them to feedback, online audiences, and social comparison with peers or social models. Audiences have an impact on how adolescents think about themselves (self-concept validation). Role models can facilitate the learning of behaviors through imitation and identification (exploration and commitment). Thus, the digital world provides a context for the development of adolescents’ personal identity. This proposal aims to contribute to the construction of future theories on identity in social media and advance this area of research.

INTERACTION OF CUSTOMERS WITH E-COMMERCE

In the dynamic landscape of contemporary commerce, the interaction between customers and e- commerce platforms play a pivotal role in shaping consumer behavior and driving business success. This capstone project delves into the multifaceted world of customer engagement with e-commerce platforms, examining the complexities and dynamics that define this relationship. Drawing insights from marketing, psychology, and technology, the study investigates various aspects of customer interaction, including user experience design, behavioral patterns, social influence, and customer service. A central focus is placed on user experience (UX) design in e-commerce interfaces, analyzing design elements, usability features, andinterface aesthetics to identify factors contributing to a seamless and intuitive user experience. Furthermore, empirical research and data analysis are utilized to understand the cognitive processes, decision-making mechanisms, and emotional triggers that influence consumer behavior online. By providing valuable insights and concrete advice, this study aims to assist businesses in optimizing their digital strategies and fostering meaningful relationships with their online audience in the ever-evolving digital marketplace.

Instantaneous audience responses: an organizational genre theory perspective

PurposeThe worldwide imposition of lockdown measures to control the 2020 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has shifted most executive communications with external stakeholders online, resulting in quick responses from stakeholders. This study aims to understand how presentational styles exhibited in online communication induce immediate audience responses and empirically test the effectiveness of reactive impression management tactics.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze presentational styles using MP3 files containing executive utterances during earnings call conferences held by S&P 100-listed firms after June 2020, the quarter after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Using timestamps, the authors link each utterance to a 1-minute interval change in the ask/bid prices of the stocks that occurs a minute after the corresponding utterance begins.FindingsExhibiting an informational presentation style in earnings calls leads to positive and immediate audience responses. Managers tend to increase their reliance on promotional presentation styles rather than on informational ones when quarterly earnings exceed market forecasts.Originality/valueDrawing on organizational genre theory, this research identifies the discrepancy between the presentation styles that audiences positively respond to and those that managers tend to exhibit in earnings calls and provides a reactive impression management typology for immediate responses from online audiences.

Applying advanced sentiment analysis for strategic marketing insights: A case study of BBVA using machine learning techniques

In the digital era, understanding public sentiment toward brands on social media is essential for crafting effective marketing strategies. This study applies sentiment analysis on Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) tweets using advanced machine learning techniques, particularly the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm, which showed remarkable precision (91.2%) in sentiment classification. This process involved a systematic approach to data collection, cleaning, and preprocessing. The precision of XGBoost highlights its effectiveness in analyzing social media conversations about banking. Additionally, this paper achieved improvements in neutral tweet classification, with accuracy rates at 87-88% and a reduced misclassification rate, enhancing the analysis reliability. The findings not only uncover general sentiments toward BBVA but also provide insight into how these sentiments shift in response to marketing activities and global events. This gives marketers a valuable tool for real-time assessment of campaign effectiveness and brand perception. Ultimately, employing the XGBoost algorithm for sentiment analysis offers BBVA a strategic advantage in understanding and engaging its online audience, demonstrating the significant benefits of using sophisticated machine learning in banking. The study emphasizes the crucial role of data-driven sentiment analysis in developing informed business strategies and improving customer relationships in the banking industry’s competitive landscape.

Artist’s perspectives and creative methods for online multi-sensory performances during and after COVID-19: a qualitative interview study

ABSTRACT The realm of multi-sensory performances engages various senses and frequently promotes audience participation, aiming to foster immersive and inclusive arts-based experiences. The evolution of this field saw accelerated advancements during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article aims to explore the creative methods choreographers employ to overcome the challenges of creating multi-sensory experiences for online or remote audiences. In doing so, this study emphasises exploring the intricacies of artistic methods rather than evaluating the effectiveness of specific methods. Engaging six international artists in dance, theatre, visual arts, and music, the research employs reflexive thematic analysis and an interpretivist stance. Artists used pre-recorded audio, live calls, apps, and sensory boxes to engage audiences. Creative methods encompassed the utilisation of imagination, co-presence, and various objects to recreate sensory experiences. The advantages of online work include increased accessibility, but challenges include the lack of shared physical space, which can affect the mental well-being of artists and hinder collaboration during rehearsals. The study explores the complexities of creating online or remote multi-sensory experiences, providing practical guidance for artists navigating the evolving online artistic expression landscape. It contributes to the richness of practice research and enhances the broader discourse on immersive and participatory experiences.

“On Their Own Terms”: Agency, Advocacy and Representation in Refugee Webcomics

ABSTRACT In Australia, refugees remain on the margins of the public imaginary as subjects of aversion, erasure and suspicion. The unknowability of the foreign Other carries sharp political dimensions borne out in policies of strict border control and mandatory detention that have restricted public access to the voices and stories of refugees for over two decades. However, recent life narratives by refugees provide an antidote to this dominant discourse, by testifying to the traumatic precariousness of living in detention and confronting readers with unflinching visual displays of subjects often silenced and invisible. Safdar Ahmed’s Walkley Award–winning documentary webcomic, Villawood: Notes from an Immigration Detention Centre (2015), documents the lives, experiences and drawings of detainees in Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. This article reads Villawood as an example of the vital rhetorical and representative work done by webcomics to expose the violences of Australia’s border spaces and put the personal stories of detainees in dialogue with vast audiences online. By attending to the collaborative and mediated process of its construction, this article maps the critical literacies needed to interpret webcomics as testimony and considers what this medium might offer life narrative studies and the project of ethical witnessing more broadly.

Enhancing audience engagement through ai-powered social media automation

Enhancing Audience Engagement using AI-Powered Social Media Automation is a significant part of modern marketing techniques. This research addresses the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate social media interactions to boost audience engagement. The study dives into numerous AI approaches and algorithms applied in social media automation and assesses their success in enhancing audience participation, brand exposure, and customer happiness. The research explores the influence of AI-powered automation on multiple social media platforms. It assesses its potential to boost audience engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates. The study identifies critical elements driving audience engagement through detailed analysis and modeling and suggests techniques for enhancing AI-powered social media automation processes. The results add to excellent knowledge of how AI technology may be exploited to generate more meaningful interactions with online audiences, eventually boosting corporate development and consumer loyalty in the digital age.

Influence of Facebook Content Marketing on E- Brand Loyalty; Examine the Mediating Effect of Online Consumer Engagement with Special Reference to Telecommunication Industry in Sri Lanka

Purpose: The continuous advancement in digital technology allows the audience to find more updated information through the different digital platforms. In today’s context, Sri Lankan online audiences are highly active on Facebook platform. Therefore, all telecommunication service providers publish their content via Facebook to attract and retain their online audiences. Thus, this study tries to interpret the influence of Facebook Content Marketing on E- brand loyalty with paying special attention to the mediating effect of Online Consumer Engagement.
 Design/methodology/approach: As a quantitative research strategy, it used a structured questionnaire to obtain primary data from the sample. Finally, it was able to collect three hundred ninety-five responses by adopting a convenience sampling method which comes under non-probability sampling.
 Findings: The findings of the study demonstrate that the Facebook Content Marketing has positive and significant impact on E- brand loyalty while online consumer engagement has positively and significantly mediated the impact made by Facebook content marketing on E- brand loyalty.
 Originality: This research makes a particular attempt to fill the prevailing literature gap on how Facebook content marketing impacts to e- brand loyalty in the telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka depending on the high level of brand-switching behavior carried out in this service sector. 
 Implications: Managerial implications were made for the Telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka to identify the importance of the valuable and relevant Facebook content to attract and retain their defined online audience.
 Keywords: Consumer Engagement, Content Marketing, E- Brand Loyalty, Facebook Content Marketing, Online Consumer Engagement

The Case of Language Media Content (Memes) of the Pandemic

The pandemic period gave rise to numerous memes in response to online audiences. In this article, the authors analyze the corpus of memes of Italian and Russian language media content during the 2020 pandemic from the perspective of a sociolinguistic approach, identifying the most significant groups of memes-markers as a response to the network audience involvement. The authors point out the ability to spread and maintain a stable form as an important component of these memes, as well as the emotional and phatic functions of a meme in the sociocultural space of the Internet community in Italy and Russia. Emerging in the media space and reproduced through reposting, memes have become a sociocultural phenomenon and can manage information flows. Besides, thanks to the halo of mass coverage, entertaining character, and affinity to the emotions of the addressee, the meme reflects the opinion of many users and does not need the category of authorship. It makes no difference whether a meme is a picture or has only a verbal component, and it is essential to be recognized in any of the many variations. At the same time, if the created meme has gained popularity and has become entrenched in the virtual environment, it can later form a way of realizing urgent needs or suppressing some trends while strengthening others.

Reimagining the Rural Hinterland: an investigation of participatory digital placemaking in rural communities

Rural locations often form a hinterland – geographically and culturally - for large conurbations that dominate a particular region. They are interconnected, sometimes interdependent, but also separated by the social and spatial perceptions of a place. For urban dwellers the hinterland is a place to ‘escape to the country’; for rural dwellers the town is the place of ‘bright lights’. The norms of either location often sit juxtaposed. This sense of place may be constructed from traditional, stereotypical ways of seeing and understanding communities. Digital technology has provided a platform to challenge these norms and provide new ways of representing the physical and cultural landscape of urban and rural spaces. In this conceptual paper we explore digital placemaking in the hinterland of the North-East of Scotland. In this region, the city (Aberdeen) dominates, but it is the rural hinterland that charms. Through an examination of co-created content of rural spaces in this region we consider the role of participatory digital placemaking. Drawing on an extensive body of previous research that has explored community heritage in the North-East of Scotland, we use case studies to consider the ways in which images, iconography and language shape and inform perceptions of the rural space in the digital environment. We argue that this bottom-up approach to placemaking in rural areas can help to shape the way that places are seen, understood, and valued by communities, visitors and wider online audiences. To conclude, this paper reflects on how rural participatory digital placemaking counteracts the urban norm and connects communities across town and country through a reimagined digital hinterland.

Gaya Komunikasi Dakwah Era Digital: Kajian Literatur

This research provides a deep understanding of the transformation of preaching or dawah communication styles in the digital era. Against the backdrop of technological advancements, preaching is no longer confined to conventional methods but has evolved into multi-directional communication that is more interactive and responsive. Preachers now adopt various strategies to enhance the effectiveness of preaching in the digital world. The research results highlight the shift in preaching communication styles from traditional lectures to utilizing social media, video platforms, and instant messaging applications. Prominent preachers in Indonesia, such as Abdul Somad, Adi Hidayat, and Khalid Basalamah, serve as successful examples in reaching audiences through digital channels. Various strategies for enhancing preaching in the digital era are identified, including mastering various digital platforms, developing storytelling skills, understanding online audience trends and habits, collaborating with digital content creators, implementing interactive technology, optimizing search and online visibility, and maintaining branding and messaging consistency. In conclusion, the utilization of digital technology can create preaching content that is more dynamic, relevant, and easily accessible to audiences increasingly connected through technology. Thus, this research provides practical guidance for preachers and researchers to enhance preaching communication in the digital era, making preaching more effective and relevant in the face of the dynamic developments in communication technology.

Sustainable affordances of information systems for cultural tourism: An organisational aesthetics perspective

AbstractAlthough information systems (IS) are increasingly used to provide sustainable solutions for tourism, our understanding of the social mechanisms whereby IS contribute to a sustainable visitor economy is limited. This paper fills the gap by investigating how organisations enact the affordances of IS in preserving intangible cultural heritage (ICH) to contribute to a sustainable visitor economy. Using an organisational aesthetics perspective, we explore the mechanisms through an in‐depth case study of an ICH‐based company in Jingdezhen, a famous historical porcelain city in China. Through the effective use of IS tools, the case organisation has successfully transformed from a ceramic manufacturing plant to a popular tourist attraction. Our study unveils six sustainable affordances of IS in three dimensions, wherein ICH aesthetics act as direct stimuli, knowledge tools and experiences. Affordances emerge from the processes of both creating and managing aesthetics. By enacting these affordances, the case organisation builds a more profound engagement with online audiences, attracts more ICH visitors and transfers ICH knowledge to potential inheritors of the tradition, creating a sustainable visitor economy. Our findings, summarised into a sustainable affordances model, contribute to the IS for sustainable tourism literature by shedding light on the black box of the social mechanisms of IS‐enabled ICH preservation. The sustainable affordances model can also help ICH‐based organisations reflect on how to build a sustainable visitor economy using IS.

Artificially disinformed and radicalised: How AI produced disinformation could encourage radicalisation

Key digested messageThe rapid advancements in artificial intelligence technologies have enhanced the ability for individuals who want to generate a substantial amount of seemingly genuine discussions, images and/or videos that are tailored to promote specific narratives. Unfortunately, this advancement has also provided a valuable tool for actors who seek to promote potentially harmful ideologies and share disinformation to large online audiences. By leveraging AI, these individuals can significantly enhance their recruitment efforts and bolster their perceived credibility, by producing seemingly legitimate but artificially fabricated evidence that supports their proposed narrative. This pressing issue is discussed in terms of its potentially negative consequences on the encouragement of radicalisation in users exposed to this artificially produced disinformation. Not only does it pose a risk to the integrity of people’s perception of truth, but it also has the potential to exacerbate the likelihood of radicalisation occurring.

Directed propaganda in the majority-rule model

Advertisement and propaganda have changed continuously in the past decades, mainly due to the people’s interactions at online platforms and social networks, and operate nowadays reaching a highly specific online audience instead targeting the masses. The impacts of this new media effect, oriented directly for a specific audience, are investigated on this study, in which we focus on the opinion evolution of agents in the majority-rule model, considering the presence of directed propaganda. We introduce p as the probability of a “positive” external propaganda and q as the probability to the agents follow the external propaganda. Our results show that the usual majority-rule model stationary state is reached, with a full consensus, only for two cases, namely when the external propaganda is absent or when the media favors only one of the two opinions. However, even for a small influence of external propaganda, the final state is reached with a majority opinion dominating the population. For the case in which the propaganda influence is strong enough among the agents, we show that the consensus cannot be reached at all, and we observe the polarization of opinions. In addition, we show through analytical and numerical results that the system undergoes an order–disorder phase transition that occurs at [Formula: see text] for the case [Formula: see text].