Chinese Social Media Users Research Articles

Does Serendipity Affect Democratic Consequences? Examining the Role of Algorithmic Awareness, Intolerance of Uncertainty in Incidental News Exposure and Online Political Participation

Abstract In the context of social media becoming users' primary access to information, such as news, incidental news exposure under the influence of algorithmic recommendation and its democratic consequences are worth studying. While studies on the relationship between social media users’ incidental news exposure and online political participation have been widely explored, we know little about the current mechanisms of variable association in the context of algorithmic recommendations. This study examines the mediating role of algorithmic awareness and the moderating effect of intolerance of uncertainty on the relationship between incidental news exposure and online political participation among Chinese social media users. Findings indicate that algorithmic awareness negatively mediates this relationship, suggesting that users’ participation in online politics is heightened by their awareness of algorithmic curation. Intolerance of uncertainty positively moderates the link between incidental news exposure and online political participation, emphasizing the impact of personality traits on democratic engagement. This study underscores the importance of transparent algorithmic systems and user-centred design in fostering informed citizen participation in the digital era and offers a comprehensive perspective on the role of serendipity in Chinese democratic participation.

Testing, revision and application of the social anxiety scale for Chinese social media users.

This study aims to modify the Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users (SAS-SMU) to make it more suitable for assessing social anxiety among Chinese social media users, taking into account the unique cultural nuances and social media usage patterns in China. Consequently, a systematic approach was adopted, involving three distinct studies. Study 1 involved translating the English scale into Chinese, conducting interviews with Chinese social media users, and subsequently revising the scale items based on the interview data to ensure cultural appropriateness. Study 2 employed an online survey to collect data and examine the reliability and construct validity of the revised scale, including a two-phase approach: an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with 500 participants to identify the underlying factor structure, and a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 408 participants was used to cross-validate the results. Thus far, this study has developed a social anxiety scale for Chinese mobile social media users (SAS-CMSMU) consisted of 11 items on three factors: Interaction Anxiety, Privacy Concern Anxiety, and Shared Content Anxiety. Study 3 (N = 1,006) applied the SAS-CMSMU to assess social anxiety among Wechat users. The results indicated that participants showed a high level of overall social anxiety (M = 3.646 > 3). Specifically, Privacy Anxiety was the most pronounced, followed by Shared Content Anxiety and Interaction Anxiety. Moreover, significant statistical differences in social anxiety levels were found among WeChat users across gender, age, education, income, and relationship status.

Fostering opinion leaders’ pro-environmental behaviour: examining the mediating role of social media expression and the moderating role of mianzi

ABSTRACT This study examines how Chinese citizens’ leadership qualities relate to their intention to engage in pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) and how socio-cultural factors, mianzi (face), may affect this relationship. By conducting a national survey (N = 995) among Chinese social media users, this study finds that those with higher opinion leadership report higher intention to engage in both public-sphere and private-sphere PEBs. Self-perceived opinion leaders are also more willing to express themselves on social media, which consequently promotes their public-sphere PEB intention but not private-sphere PEB intention. In this process, perceived interpersonal trust strengthens opinion leaders’ expressive behaviours on social media. Meanwhile, Mianzi is more effective in boosting non-opinion leaders’ intention to engage in private-sphere PEBs, catching up with self-perceived opinion leaders. These findings shed light on the differences between public- and private-sphere PEBs and provide both theoretical and practical implications for promoting PEB intentions in the Chinese context.

Determinants of users' unverified information sharing on social media platforms: A herding behavior perspective

The proliferation of unverified or false information by irresponsible users can significantly amplify the spread of misinformation or fake news. Despite growing research on unverified information sharing, a comprehensive understanding of the varying influences of different factors and strategies to mitigate this issue remains under investigation. To address this research gap, this study, rooted in the theory of herd behavior, develops, and tests a model theorizing the reasons behind social media users' unverified information sharing. Data was collected from 510 respondents across six regions of China using a convenience sampling method. The collected data was analyzed using Mplus. The results from this study indicated that perceived severity, state uncertainty, and herding have a significant positive influence on unverified information sharing. These results enrich the understanding of unverified information-sharing behavior among Chinese social media users. Drawing from these results, we suggest platform administrators and policymakers mitigate herd behavior tendencies and stem the spread of misinformation by disseminating timely, accurate, and authoritative information. Since this action will reduce users' perceptions of severity and uncertainty. Social media users are also advised to stay vigilant over the implications of herd behavior and foster a more critical attitude towards information sharing.

A Study on Chinese Social Media Xiaohongshu Users' Attitudes Toward Offensive Comments

With the rapid development of emerging digital technologies, social media platforms have proliferated like mushrooms after rain. Xiaohongshu is among the highly trusted "word-of-mouth libraries" for Chinese social media users, offering numerous conveniences while also subjecting users to disruptive offensive language. This study analyzes the various emotions and behavioral mechanisms exhibited by Xiaohongshu users when confronted with offensive language, as well as the underlying reasons for these reactions. It underscores the positive impact on society of enhancing online supervision, safeguarding user privacy and security, optimizing service functionalities on social media platforms, increasing user engagement, and fostering media literacy among users to promote moderate use of social media. Through questionnaire surveys, the study reveals that offensive language on Xiaohongshu induces negative emotions such as anger, sadness, confusion, and anxiety among users. Consequently, users employ strategies such as rebuttal, reporting, and even reducing their frequency of using Xiaohongshu to counteract the harm caused by offensive language.

Public Attitudes Toward Interracial Relationships: A Case Study on Gender Comparison

In recent years, interracial relationships have been widely discussed in China. By analyzing public attitudes towards interracial relationships, this paper provides an overview of peoples different attitudes toward womens interracial relationships and mens interracial relationships on Chinese social media. It introduces three cases of interracial relationships, including two womens interracial relationships and one mens interracial relationship and compares peoples different attitudes. This approach explains why Chinese social media users have such different attitudes from the perspective of ethnocentrism and patriarchy. Through a combination of theory and examples, the study points out that ethnocentrism causes people to think negatively about interracial relationships, while patriarchy leads to gender differences in attitudes toward interracial relationships, which is a double standard. Additionally, this research highlights that the discrimination and stigmatization of interracial relationships and female groups can be improved in the long term by the policymakers efforts through publicity and education.

The role of the espoused tight culture in value assessment of social media use

ABSTRACT To advance the stream of culture-themed Information Systems (IS) research, this study ushers in the cultural tightness-looseness (CTL) theory and conceptualises the focal construct, the cultural tightness (CT), into the social media usage context. By integrating the CTL theory and the customer value perspective, this study proposes a research model to examine how an espoused tight culture affects individuals’ value assessment and behaviour of social media use. The model is validated using a cross-sectional field survey dataset of Chinese social media users, sampling a typical tight culture. The findings demonstrate that the espoused tight culture plays a paramount role in influencing users’ value assessment and usage behaviour related to social media. This study contributes to the cultural IS literature by providing a context-specific understanding of overall cultural interactions of social media use in a tight culture.

Patriarchal racism: the convergence of anti-blackness and gender tension on Chinese social media

ABSTRACT By analyzing Douyin users’ mediated interactions with interracial couples in everyday contexts, this paper addresses the convergence of anti-blackness and domestic gender tension on Chinese social media. It introduces the perspective of ‘multiple triangulations’ to examine discussions of four types of interracial relationships on Douyin: black women and Chinese men, black men and Chinese women, white women and Chinese men, and white men and Chinese women. This approach complicates explanations of why Chinese social media users have been rejecting blackness in a potentially mixed-race China in relation to whiteness and Chineseness. It also illuminates how they have encoded gender tension in marriages in China into anti-black discourses. Additionally, this research highlights the race-blind digital infrastructure and the dynamic connotations of anti-black racism in contemporary China.

Identifying Chinese social media users' need for affect from their online behaviors.

The need for affect (NFA), which refers to the motivation to approach or avoid emotion-inducing situations, is a valuable indicator of mental health monitoring and intervention, as well as many other applications. Traditionally, NFA has been measured using self-reports, which is not applicable in today's online scenarios due to its shortcomings in fast, large-scale assessments. This study proposed an automatic and non-invasive method for recognizing NFA based on social media behavioral data. The NFA questionnaire scores of 934 participants and their social media data were acquired. Then we run machine learning algorithms to train predictive models, which can be used to automatically identify NFA degrees of online users. The results showed that Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) performed best among several algorithms. The Pearson correlation coefficients between predicted scores and NFA questionnaire scores achieved 0.25 (NFA avoidance), 0.31 (NFA approach) and 0.34 (NFA total), and the split-half reliabilities were 0.66-0.70. Our research demonstrated that adolescents' NFA can be identified based on their social media behaviors, and opened a novel way of non-intrusively perceiving users' NFA which can be used for mental health monitoring and other situations that require large-scale NFA measurements.

중국 소셜미디어에서 사용자의 프라이버시 우려가 광고회피에 미치는 영향

중국 소셜미디어에서 사용자의 프라이버시 우려가 광고회피에 미치는 영향

Social media affordances and fatigue: The role of privacy concerns, impression management concerns, and self-esteem

An increasing number of scholars are focusing on the adverse effects of social media usage, such as social media fatigue. Although they have examined potential factors that may lead to fatigue, the relationship between affordances and social media fatigue is yet to be studied in depth. This study examines the relationship between affordances and fatigue and its mechanism of action through the stressor–strain–outcome (SSO) model. We combined social media affordances and technological stress (impression management concerns and privacy concerns) and fatigue to construct the research model for this paper. We collected 410 data from a group of Chinese social media users and evaluated the model presented in this paper. The results suggest that social media affordances (visibility, persistence, association, and editability) positively influence technological stress (impression management concerns and privacy concerns) and technological stress positively influences social media fatigue. Self-esteem attenuated the effect of affordances on privacy concerns, but it did not mitigate the positive effect of affordances on impression management concerns. The findings of this paper confirm the negative side of affordances and flesh out the antecedent of fatigue. Furthermore, this study helps managers develop differentiated strategies to reduce the technology stress associated with social media affordances and thus alleviate fatigue.

Sarcastic Meaning of the Slightly Smiling Face Emoji from Chinese Twitter Users: When A Smiling Face Does Not Show Friendliness

In most cultures, the Slightly Smiling Face (smiley) icon indicates friendliness and niceness. However, this SSF symbol in emoji may also indicate a negative meaning of sarcasm and irony to some Chinese social media users. This research analyses the sentiment reflected in the use of the SSF emoji as used by Chinese users on Twitter and applies quantitative methods to investigate the linguistic and social constraints of the SSF emoji's negative variable from 2016 to 2020. Results show that positive or negative emotional expression of SSF emoji is highly dependent on the content of the sentence and its context. Therefore, the SSF emoji has no semantic value as a word for expressing emotions but acts as an emotive anaphora or a modal particle. Simplified Chinese users from mainland China use the SSF emoji with a negative sense more than Traditional Chinese users from Taiwan. These differences may reflect the users’ media preference and cultural identification through the use of emoji, a global language for the digital age. Most Chinese users use a single SSF emoji, which can convey either emotion, at the end of the sentence, but when the SSF emoji is used in a repetitive manner, it is more likely to indicate a sarcastic emotion. Both variables, (single use / repetition) and Chinese types (Simplified / Traditional), significantly correlate with the use of the negative variant of the SSF emoji (p < 0.05). The change in the meaning of the SSF emoji from the expression of positive to negative sentiment demonstrates that emojis may change through time in ways similar to other forms of language.

Social support to mitigate perceived risk: moderating effect of trust

ABSTRACT During a crisis period, the transmission of travel information is faster than ever via social media (Wut, T. M., Xu, J. B., & Wong, S.-m. (2021). Crisis management research (1985–2020) in the hospitality and tourism industry: A review and research agenda. Tourism Management, 85, 104307). Social media influencers provide opportunities to mitigate perceived risk and rebuild travel confidence. Based on both customer socialization theory and dual-process theory of cognitive reasoning, we propose that trust would moderate the relationship between social support from social media influencers and perceived risk. The research model was tested using 738 questionnaires collected from Chinese social media users. Findings from statistical analyses have shown significant relationships among the research variables, and the moderating role of cognitive and affective trust was supported. Our findings could provide implications regarding how to utilize social media influencers wisely to mitigate perceived risk in the post-COVID-19 period.

Spreading Scientific Knowledge in China: Personalized Social Media Influence Elements

China’s society continues to be shaped by social media, which is both inescapable and indispensable. Remarkably, the majority of Chinese firms and private organizations have achieved success by making use of the possibilities provided by social media platforms. Notwithstanding incredible successes via social media, the majority of Chinese social media users lack scientific understanding, and as a result, there is a deficiency in the dissemination and popularization of scientific information among users of Chinese social media platforms. To bridge this gap, this study investigates specific features of social media based on scientific knowledge and proposes a scientific information propagation framework characterized by individual impact characteristics such as personal message, personal branding, service mentality strategy, exciting content, accurate and authentic, real-time streaming, and exclusive events. Among these factors, personal branding acquired a factor score of 23%, real-time streaming acquired a factor score of 20%, and service attitude approach received a factor score of 19.5%. Similarly, real and authentic personal messaging had a factor score of 15.6%. From the outcomes, we anticipated that personal or individual impact elements, such as personal branding, might affect the diffusion and popularization of scientific information among Chinese social media users.

What influences people to click ‘like’ on posts of branded content?

ABSTRACT Social media is a strategic marketing tool that creates powerful brand communities. This study explores what influences people to click ‘Like’ on posts of branded content and whether clicking ‘Like’ motivates people to search for more information on branded products. Using the stimulus-organism-response model, the study proposed a model in which the attractiveness of posts of branded content and source closeness (stimuli) influenced perceived value (organism), leading to people’s clicking ‘Like’ behavior (response). The model was tested using responses from 509 Chinese social media users. Results showed that the attractiveness of posts of branded content directly and indirectly linked to clicking ‘Like’ behavior through perceived value while source closeness only exerted a direct effect on clicking ‘Like’ behavior. People’s clicking of ‘Like’ behavior positively motivated them to search for more information on branded products. The study’s findings advanced our understanding of the drivers, process, and outcome of clicking ‘Like’ behavior.

The Multiplicity and Dynamics of Functional Crisis Memories in Crisis Communication: How Chinese Social Media Users Collectively Reconstructed SARS during COVID-19

ABSTRACT By incorporating the concept of collective memory into the field of crisis communication, this study examined crisis memories (i.e., SARS memories) that were collectively constructed on social media to help make sense of and respond to an unfolding crisis (i.e., COVID-19). From a content analysis of 4,673 Weibo posts, along with a repost network analysis of these posts, various functional crisis memories constructed by multiple users (multiplicity) and in different stages (dynamics) were identified. Our findings provide a new perspective on crisis communication and management by including crisis memories as an extended part of multivocal crisis communication. We suggest that memory narratives surrounding similar past crises can be utilized as important information and resources in crisis communication, especially during public health crises with high uncertainty and widespread effects. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings for crisis communication are discussed.

Understanding Rumor Combating Behavior on Social Media

ABSTRACT Social media services become a hotbed for rumors and lies during health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. While previous literature studies the negative role that social media users play in spreading rumors during crises, this study explores how users can be motivated to combat COVID-19 rumors. We build a research model that is based on the Awareness-Motivation-Capability framework and empirically test our model using data collected from 279 Chinese social media users. Our results show that rumor combating behavior, defined as users’ actions to discourage others from sharing information from unverified sources, is influenced directly by the personal norm, altruism, social ties, and knowledge, and indirectly by perceived severity and perceived vulnerability through the personal norm. Our study highlights the importance of prosocial behavior such as rumor combating on social media during health crises.

What Does Channel Say? Understanding How Social Media Social Capital Facilitates COVID-19-Related Information-Seeking and Opinion-Expression on Two Types of Platforms: User-oriented versus Content-oriented.

Social capital (i.e., resources obtained from social relationships) facilitates informational use of media, yet how in detail the mechanism functions in a multi‐platform social media environment remains underexplored. Taking an affordance approach, this study aimed to investigate the differentiated effects of social media social capital on COVID‐19‐related information behaviors on user‐oriented and content‐oriented social media (USM&CSM). It was hypothesized that information exposure on USM mediates the relationship between social capital and information‐seeking intention, whereas exposure on CSM was expected to mediate the relationship between social capital and opinion expression. Web‐based survey data collected among Chinese social media users (N = 256) supported the hypotheses, and in‐depth interviews (N = 15) further revealed how people explored the affordances of different platforms to enjoy the information resources. Implications were discussed.

Trust in social media brands and perceived media values: A survey study in China

Chinese social media platforms such as WeChat, TikTok (Douyin in Chinese), and Weibo have become increasingly popular, attracting large amounts of loyal users in and outside of China. Borrowing theories on brand trust and perceived brand values from Marketing and Management, this study examines how perceived media values influence trust in Chinese social media brands such as Weibo and WeChat. Utilizing original survey data collected from Chinese social media users, our study finds that: (1) Chinese users perceive five layers of values in using social media applications, including information value, entertainment value, social networking value, social status value, and organizational communication value; (2) these perceived media values have different effects on trust in social media brands: while entertainment value, social networking value, and social status value directly affect social media brand trust, information value and organizational communication value indirectly affect social media brand trust through social status value, social networking value and/or entertainment value. Our study suggests an important explanation for trust in social media and develops a scale of perceived media values (PMV) that can be used by future researchers.

Reaching for the stars: DingTalk and the Multi-platform creativity of a ‘one-star’ campaign on Chinese social media

This study explores mediated forms of creativity and multi-platform affordances used by Chinese social media users and producers in a ‘one-star’ rating campaign aimed at DingTalk, an online teaching platform. In February 2020, in response to delays to resuming in-person instruction due to the COVID 19 pandemic, DingTalk launched a new feature called ‘Zaixianxuexi’(online learning) which was then used across the country. However, users became increasingly critical of the platform and mounted a ‘one-star’ campaign through the Apple’s App Store rating system to try to have the platform removed. In response, the producers of DingTalk released a short-animated video and promotion campaign through Weibo and Bilibili, rather than the DingTalk platform. The video literally begged users to give it more stars. Adopting a social semiotic multimodal analytical approach, we examine the mediated interaction between users and the producers of DingTalk across three Chinese social media platforms. In particular, we examine the mediated forms of creativity and technological affordances across multiple social media platforms during the three stages of the event. The analysis focuses on the creative strategies adopted by both users and the producers of DingTalk as they engaged with each other across platforms. The study highlights Chinese social media as rich spaces where technological and cultural resources are creatively co-ordinated across platforms. In situating modality within a cross-media environment, the research underscores the creativity that characterises Chinese social media within an interconnected multi-platform social media ecology.