Content Creation Research Articles

How influencers can enhance consumer responses by value co-creation

Purpose This paper aims to explore whether, how and when influencers’ value co-creation behavior in a post – influencers investing operant resources to enhance the value gained from using the product – shapes consumers’ responses toward an influencer’s recommendation. Based on value co-creation theory and consumer inference, this paper proposes that consumers infer influencers have more expertise with and more favorable attitude toward the product from value co-creation. Consequently, such behavior can foster consumer engagement and favorable attitude toward the recommended product. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected real-world data and conducted four sets of experimental studies. In the experimental studies, the presence of an influencer’s value co-creation behavior (i.e. co-creation vs. control) was manipulated to test the causal effect and mechanisms of co-creation on engagement and product attitude. Findings Results show that influencers’ value co-creation behavior positively affects consumers’ engagement and attitudes toward the product. These effects are driven by perceived influencer’s expertise with and favorability toward the product (Studies 1 and 2). Co-creating utilitarian value is more effective than co-creating hedonic value (Studies 3A and 3B). In addition, influencers with a larger number of followers benefit more from co-creation behavior than those with fewer followers (Study 4). Research limitations/implications This research adds to the literature on value co-creation by investigating how, why and when influencers’ value co-creation enhances consumer responses to the post. Our investigation concretizes value co-creation behavior in the context of influencer marketing and demonstrates its signaling effect with nuanced role of value type in shaping the effect. The findings provide a novel cue that influencers can use to enhance consumer responses to their posts. Practical implications Brands should encourage influencers to focus on value-in-use co-creation when promoting their products. While emphasizing value co-creation in influencer partnership, brands should also carefully consider the type and size of influencers they collaborate with based on the nature of their products and target audience. The research findings also provide practical implications for influencers, offering guidance on how they can optimize their content creation strategies and enhance their effectiveness in influencer marketing collaborations. Originality/value This research enriches understanding of value co-creation in the context of influencer marketing and the role of content specifics in influencers’ posts. The findings provide a novel cue that influencers can use to enhance consumer responses to their posts.

EXPRESS: Sponsored Content as an Epistemic Market Object: How Platformization of Brand-Creator Partnerships Disrupts Valuation, Co-production, and the Relationship between Market Actors

Sponsored content allows brands to partner with creators to reach creators’ audiences on digital platforms. However, both creators’ and brands’ incomplete understanding of this object generates two critical ambiguities: how to determine the value of sponsored content and how to effectively co-produce it. To better understand these ambiguities, we theorize sponsored content as an epistemic market object: an object that facilitates marketing functions but is only partially understood by the actors who use it . We analyze a data set of interviews, podcasts, media articles, and third-party platform reviews about—and by—content creators, brands, and intermediaries. Our findings show that brands, creators, and intermediaries create and apply knowledge to address valuation and co-production ambiguities. However, this knowledge work is incomplete, creating asymmetries in value outcomes and power relationships in a brand-creator partnership. Our paper contributes to marketing literature and practice by highlighting the role of epistemic market objects in transformative market disruptions that alter the roles of, and the relationships between, market actors. Our findings are transferable to other substantive areas such as Generative AI, Metaverse, NFTs, online news, and the sharing economy.

Youth voices: A participatory approach to promoting mental health literacy through digital means

Abstract A concerning number of young people worldwide experience mental health challenges, often compounded by limited mental health literacy, such as a lack of knowledge about how to recognize mental disorders and strategies for seeking help (Cairns & Rossetto, 2019). Therefore, it is crucial to promote mental health literacy among youth. Due to the scarcity and often high cost of readily available mental health services, as well as concerns about anonymity, digital programs have become an alternative means of reaching youth. To this end, a digital prevention program was developed. The pivotal question now is how to effectively promote young people’s mental health literacy through digital means, more specifically: How to develop (1) evidence-based and (2) target group-specific content? To investigate these questions, two systematic reviews were conducted that analyzed a total of 65 digital evidence-based mental health programs. Since the active use of programs also depends on how suitable and appealing the content is for the target group, a participatory approach was chosen to actively involve the target group in the process of developing the program’s design and content. Therefore, four participatory workshops were conducted in Slovenia, Poland, and Austria, with 12-15-year-old students (N = 182). Selected results from the systematic reviews and cross-national results from the workshops will be presented. It was found that psychoeducation is an important and effective method for promoting mental health literacy among youth and that young people prefer this content to be delivered as briefly and concisely as possible, and in a multimodal format. The discussion will highlight key takeaways regarding the benefits and challenges of this approach, emphasizing the necessity of including student voices in the creation of psychoeducational content for a digital mental health program in order to highlight and recognize young people’s right to participate. Key messages • The value of youth participation - Involving young people in the development of content for a digital mental health literacy program is a means to increase its relevance and appeal to them. • The intricacies of youth participation - Involving young people in the development of a digital mental health literacy program presents challenges that require careful consideration.

Tiktok as a Source of Education and Misinformation in Lichen Sclerosus.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the content, delivery, and quality of medical information for vulvar lichen sclerosus on the social media platform TikTok. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Using the third-party data scraping tool Apify, TikTok videos tagged with #lichensclerosus or "lichen sclerosus" were identified and sorted by view count. A sample of 100 videos was reviewed by 2 independent reviewers, excluding those not discussing lichen sclerosus. Videos were assessed using a coding document, the Patient Educational Materials Assessment Tool, and the DISCERN instrument. Interrater reliability was measured, and statistical analyses included Fleiss' kappa, intraclass correlation coefficient, t tests, and Wilcoxon rank sum test with Holm-Bonferroni correction. Content creators included patients (46%), health care professionals (30%), and others. Topics focused on clinical disease (52%) and treatment (48%). Evidence-based medicine was discussed in 71.7% of treatment-related videos, while 51.7% included nonevidence-based approaches, with a neutral or positive sentiment. Videos discussing topical steroids often had negative sentiments. Quality assessment revealed 61% of videos were understandable, 27% actionable, and 46% contained misinformation. Videos by health care professionals had less misinformation and higher quality scores compared to patient-generated content. Commercially biased videos were more understandable but contained more misinformation. TikTok serves as a significant platform for sharing information on lichen sclerosus, but nearly half of the content contains misinformation. Health care professionals need to engage in social media to provide accurate information and counteract misinformation. Enhanced collaboration with patient advocates and careful resource sharing can improve the quality and reliability of medical information available online.

Joint Optimization-Based Texture and Geometry Enhancement Method for Single-Image-Based 3D Content Creation

Recent studies have explored the generation of three-dimensional (3D) meshes from single images. A key challenge in this area is the difficulty of improving both the generalization and detail simultaneously in 3D mesh generation. To address this issue, existing methods utilize fixed-resolution mesh features to train networks for generalization. This approach is capable of generating the overall 3D shape without limitations on object categories. However, the generated shape often exhibits a blurred surface and suffers from suboptimal texture resolution due to the fixed-resolution mesh features. In this study, we propose a joint optimization method that enhances geometry and texture by integrating generalized 3D mesh generation with adjustable mesh resolution. Specifically, we apply an inverse-rendering-based remeshing technique that enables the estimation of complex-shaped mesh estimations without relying on fixed-resolution structures. After remeshing, we enhance the texture to improve the detailed quality of the remeshed mesh via a texture enhancement diffusion model. By separating the tasks of generalization, detailed geometry estimation, and texture enhancement and adapting different target features for each specific network, the proposed joint optimization method effectively addresses the characteristics of individual objects, resulting in increased surface detail and the generation of high-quality textures. Experimental results on the Google Scanned Objects and ShapeNet datasets demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves the accuracy of 3D geometry and texture estimation, as evaluated by the PSNR, SSIM, LPIPS, and CD metrics.

A Review of Tiktok Livestreaming Commerce

In recent years, live-streaming commerce has witnessed remarkable global growth, catalyzed in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. TikTok, originally a video-sharing app, has undergone rapid expansion and now offers livestreaming capabilities. This review aims to explore how TikTok livestreaming is reshaping the marketing landscape. The objective is to uncover the advantages of TikTok livestreaming for various stakeholders, shedding light on its potential implications for marketers, customers, and content creators. A comprehensive examination of existing literature was conducted, analyzing studies, reports, and academic papers. The analysis focused on the multifaceted benefits of TikTok live streaming for marketers, customers, and content creators. It also considered practical implications for businesses utilizing this platform. TikTok livestreaming fosters real-time engagement between marketers and customers, leading to enhanced trust and more effective product demonstrations. It appeals to younger demographics, offering a valuable marketing avenue. For customers, it facilitates interactive, informative, and emotionally engaging shopping experiences. Content creators can leverage TikTok live streaming to monetize their content and deepen connections with their audience, enhancing brand exposure. In conclusion, TikTok livestreaming is reshaping e-commerce by facilitating immersive, interactive, and trust-building experiences for marketers, customers, and content creators. Marketers should focus on quality interaction, product presentation, and partnering with suitable content creators. Collaborations with influencers should consider credibility and alignment with brand values. Leveraging TikTok's livestreaming capabilities offers the potential to cultivate customer loyalty and retention, transforming conventional marketing paradigms in the process

Unveiling the Ethical Dilemmas of Digital Piracy: A Comprehensive Exploration of Motivations, Attitudes, and Behaviors

Driven by several elements, including the unwillingness to pay for material, the spread of subscription services, and the profitability of illegal activity, digital piracy has grown to be a common problem in the contemporary world. Along with financial damages for businesses and content creators, this phenomenon has legal repercussions for individuals involved in piracy and cybersecurity issues. The effective fight against digital piracy depends on an awareness of the drivers and hazards connected with this illegal activity. With an eye towards a thorough knowledge of this intricate problem, in this study, the focus centers on the reasons, attitudes, and actions behind digital piracy. Through examining how people defend their behavior in particular situations, in this study, the aim is to clarify the ethical issues and decision-making procedures related to piracy—even among otherwise law-abiding people. Combining a variety of the relevant literature and ideas, including situation ethics theory, in this study, we seek to provide insights for legislators, business players, and academics eager to meet the difficulties presented by digital piracy. This study adds to the continuous discussion on lessening the detrimental effects of digital piracy on content creators, businesses, and cybersecurity by looking at the underlying reasons for piracy and supporting legal access to material. Along with a dearth of research on the origins and moral questions of digital piracy, there is a lot of contradictory material. By examining the factors behind this unlawful activity, clarifying the complex dynamics involved, and offering understanding of the causes of digital piracy, this study seeks to close a significant void in the knowledge. The findings of this study will enable individuals to develop strategies for handling this prevalent issue in the digital era. Developing successful interventions that can reduce this illegal conduct and safeguard the interests of content producers, businesses, and cybersecurity overall depends on an awareness of the reasons behind digital piracy. This study advances the knowledge of the difficulties presented by this global phenomenon by investigating the ethical issues and decision-making procedures related to digital piracy.

Digital tax policies and compliance challenges for MSMEs in Indonesia

As digital Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) rapidly grow in Indonesia, ensuring their compliance with tax regulations has become an urgent priority. This study delves into the challenges and innovative solutions to enhance tax compliance, focusing mainly on digital content creators. This study examines the challenges and solutions for improving tax compliance among digital Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia, mainly digital content creators. The research aims to analyze the impact of tax sanctions, modernization of tax administration, and tax policy reforms on the compliance behavior of these entities. A qualitative approach was employed, utilizing interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) with informants selected through purposive sampling. The findings indicate that tax sanctions significantly influence compliance, but modernization of tax systems improves transparency and efficiency, thus enhancing compliance. Policy reforms, particularly those tailored to the unique needs of digital businesses, offer the flexibility needed for fulfilling tax obligations. The novelty of this research lies in the proposed model that integrates tax sanctions, administrative modernization, and policy reforms, addressing the unique characteristics of digital MSMEs. The practical implications suggest that implementing a user-friendly digital tax system, supported by clear guidelines and targeted reforms, can simplify compliance for digital MSMEs, leading to better tax reporting. These findings provide actionable insights for policymakers in designing effective, adaptive tax policies for Indonesia's rapidly growing digital economy.

Evaluating the Impact and Perception of Influencer Marketing Among Romanian Consumers—Insights from Quantitative Research

Currently, one of the most widely used marketing techniques is influencer marketing, but is its true impact on Romanians truly understood? This article aims to establish the perception of influencer marketing activities by Romanian consumers. A quantitative study was conducted, gathering 618 responses through an online questionnaire. It was found that 92% of the respondents made at least one purchase based on content creator recommendations, with Instagram being perceived as the most impactful platform for such campaigns. However, the success of these campaigns relies on several strategic elements. These include selecting content creators who align with the product or service being promoted and ensuring that the influencer’s audience demographics match the target audience. Companies must also prioritize transparency and the seamless integration of products into influencers’ daily lives, as well as considering factors like content type, the frequency of posts, and budget. The results indicate that well-structured influencer partnerships, particularly on Instagram, enhance consumer trust and enhance marketing impact. These insights offer valuable guidance for developing effective digital marketing strategies emphasizing to specific business needs.

Blurring the lines: the vague boundary between mainstream and deviant internet pornography tags for at-risk viewers

ABSTRACT Illegal material is increasingly appearing on popular mainstream websites. Many commentators worry about the impact of such material on adolescents' psycho-sexual development and the potential for some legal pornography to act as a gateway to child sexual exploitation material for users of any age. In this study, we collected publicly available data from a popular legal pornography website to assess the risk of adolescent exposure to content that may hinder healthy psycho-sexual development. We analysed over 27 million customer searches involving 149 video tags from this site. Five international experts on the effects of pornography rated the tags, categorising them into five overlapping genres: mainstream, incestuous, underage, aggressive and non-consensual. They also assessed the potential risk each genre posed. Our analysis found a significant positive correlation between the harm ratings and the frequency of tags used as search terms. Additionally, eleven of the twelve tags with the highest mean risk scores involved potential underage and/or incestuous content. This study highlights a concerning relationship between the harm ratings of various pornographic genres and their popularity as search terms. While exploratory, these results emphasise the need for regulatory measures to address the presence of harmful material on mainstream websites. PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT The study has practical implications for the regulation of potentially harmful pornography by legal pornography sites. The sites should (a) control the use of tags and how new tags are developed in order to prevent content creators from advertising potentially illegal material, (b) vet all content before it is uploaded for public consumption, and (c) implement screening systems to retrospectively find and eradicate all illegal or harmful content already in their collection.

All ears on? A survey on podcasters’ profiles, practices and self-perceptions

Despite the continuous growth in podcast consumption among listeners and podcast offerings on various streaming platforms, there remains a lack of research concerning podcasters. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the profiles, practices, role perceptions, and values of podcasters based on the results of an online survey among 1 073 podcasters from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. The findings reveal that podcasters are predominantly male, middle-aged, and academically educated. Regarding their professional practices and profiles, the majority of podcasters lack prior experience in the field of journalism despite often taking on journalistic functions. Concerning their perception of their roles and values, podcasters place significant emphasis on the relevance of entertainment, education, and information dissemination. Overall, they demonstrate a strong orientation towards the needs of their audiences. As podcasts continue to gain popularity among audiences, studying podcast producers helps to better understand their content creation processes, prioritized topics, and approaches to engaging with their audiences.

The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Education: A Comparative Study

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), also known as creative AI, is a technology capable of independently producing original and creative content, such as text, images, videos, music, or code. It uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and learn from a vast amount of data to generate similar or even innovative content. This type of AI is used in several fields, such as health for the production of new drugs, design to generate adaptive designs, video games to create immersive environments, and artificial intelligence to generate training data for new networks. Seizing the opportunities offered by AI innovations in education is crucial. We cannot afford to let time pass without doing anything and without benefiting from this technique. It is time to enhance traditional learning methods and adopt more innovative approaches that take advantage of the potential of AI, like content and exam generation, and also improve students' learning experience by exploiting their closeness to the technology. This paper aims to answer the question of when and how to use artificial intelligence responsibly, considering it as a technology and limiting its excessive use. Additionally, we present the impact of GAI through a comparative study of student performance in three exam types: a classical MCQ exam written by the teacher, an adaptive MCQ exam generated by GAI from a topic, and a third MCQ exam generated by GAI based on the content of the provided documents. This study is conducted on students undergoing a software testing training program. By evaluating their performance in the AI-generated adaptive MCQ exams and the traditional MCQ exam, we can gain insights into the potential of this technology to enhance educational practices and provide personalized learning experiences. This research will contribute to the ongoing discussion on responsible and effective utilization of GAI in education, paving the way for future advancements in the field.

Youth activism and (de)personalized remix on TikTok

ABSTRACT Social media has provided everyday actors with a platform to share their personal stories and ideas. This has had a profound effect on activism, as movements are increasingly built up and amplified through the circulation of participants’ individualized motivations, experiences, and sentiments. TikTok has emerged as a salient site for studying this turn: it has proven to be a highly successful tool in activist campaigns, strongly affords personalized communication, and supports a main user base of young people known for emphasizing self-expression in their online participation. Since remix is the core form of sharing on TikTok, users are encouraged to insert and articulate themselves not only in the process of content creation, but in the process of circulation as well. Here, we focus on the way remix is exploited as a mode of personalizing activist content on TikTok, particularly among young users. We do so by qualitatively coding and analyzing remixed content associated with the digital activist organization Gen-Z for Change. We find that, despite expectations based on prior research and the observed behavior of older users, young users tended to resist personalization in their remix strategies. Yet, they simultaneously managed to assert their presence in ways that are meaningful on the app. Our results elaborate on digital activist strategies and the role of platform affordances therein, and add important nuance to common conceptions of youth political participation styles.

Gaming the conflict: Fursan Al-Aqsa’s narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle and its reception through moral disengagement

This study explores Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (developed by Nidal Nijm Games in 2022) highlighting its role in the portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a paradigm between propaganda and entertainment. By examining the game’s discourse, and its impact on player perceptions, this research sheds light on how video games can shape understanding and engagement with geopolitical issues. The research utilises Albert Bandura’s concept of moral disengagement to analyse the game’s content and its reception on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. By assessing how the game frames moral considerations through its narrative and gameplay, this study reveals the potential of digital games to affect player perceptions and contribute to the broader media landscape surrounding political issues. The analysis also explores the reception and re-interpretation of the game by players and content creators, thus offering insights into the complex interplay between video game content, ideological influence, and audience engagement.

Walking the Digital Tightrope: Diversity and voice in creative platform work

This study examines how diversity shapes creative platform workers’ access to and exercise of voice within the precarious landscape of platform capitalism. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of capital and field, we explore unique qualitative materials collected from 40 Brazilian literary content creators. The findings show that creative platform workers’ access to and exercise of voice is based on three conditions of privilege: playing the rules of the game; drawing on bundles of resources; and leveraging intermediation capacity. We identify four forms of voice among creative platform workers – shielding, demonstrating, ingroup-focused gatekeeping and affirmative voices – and highlight the relational dynamics of power in this context. This research contributes to understanding diversity in creative platform work through a privilege lens, thereby revealing the complex dynamics of power and dependence that creative platform workers experience with different industry stakeholders. This study contributes to the literature about diversity and voice by: showing that online prestige alone does not ensure voice opportunities; unveiling the variety of targets and agents in the four forms of voice in creative platform work; and highlighting the limitations of collective voice in challenging existing privilege and disadvantage systems.

It’s ‘Gut Feeling’ Mostly: Online Hate, Uncivil Comments and Content Moderation in Australian Sports Media

There is evidence that online hate speech is increasing significantly on social media pages related to sport, but less research on how sport and media organisations are managing it. This research explored the management of content moderation in Australian sport media through qualitative interviews (16) with social media and communications staff in Australian sport and media organisations. It found that content moderation, or the moderating and removal of comments under social media posts, happened mostly as an addition to content creation work. Strategies for dealing with online hate and incivility were mostly the same between media and sport organisations, interviewees used some automated filters, but mostly manually hid, deleted and blocked comments and users to ‘clean’ their spaces. Overall there was a lack of formal guidelines and policies to direct moderation. Instead the work of content moderation was reliant on the actions of individuals, who took it on with a significant level of personal responsibility, and developed individual coping mechanisms to deal with the work. With its focus on communication staff in sport and media organisations this research contributes a different and important perspective to the growing field of research of online hate in sport.

The development of media quality in the Digital Age

AbstractThe Digital Age has revolutionized the media landscape, reshaping how consumers access and interact with content. Consumers now have access to a wide range of media content, from physical copies to digital downloads and streaming. This has led to content creators detaching from traditional publishing and self-publishing their content on platforms like Wattpad, SoundCloud, and YouTube. The Digital Age has also added more remedies to signal quality to consumers, such as online reviews and personalized recommendations. This paper aims to analyze the impact of the Digital Age on the quality of media content in three different media fields (books, music, and films and series) by conducting an online survey among 245 German-speaking internet users in May 2022. Findings reveal a significant increase in access to content creators and content availability for consumers in the Digital Age. Moreover, the Digital Age introduces mechanisms that assist consumers in evaluating content quality, mitigating the adverse selection problem. The study concludes that media content quality in the Digital Age surpasses that of the Pre-Digital Age. For an enhanced consumer experience in the field of books, media providers should reconsider their algorithms, prioritizing content over purchasing patterns. Caution is advised in reinforcing intellectual property rights, emphasizing the need for judicious application to preserve content creation incentives.

Key Factors in Virtual Gift Buying Behaviour in the Live Game Category Streaming: A Social Cognitive and Cultural Perspective

As live streaming based on a variety of content is growing globally, viewers are becoming accustomed to a model that allows them to interact with content creators in real time; as a result, commercialization businesses based on live streaming are proliferating. These commercialization businesses include live-streaming platforms offering virtual gifts that viewers can purchase to give to content creators, purchasing a streamer's fan badge to show continued support for the streamer, or purchasing merchandise from the streamer's merchandise window, among others. Among them, virtual gifts are the paying behaviour with the highest percentage of viewers. Based on this background, studying what influences consumers' decisions about virtual gifts is essential. This paper adopts a literature review approach to analyze several academic literatures as well as identify the key factors, social, cultural, and psychological, of virtual gift purchasing behaviours of consumers in the live gaming industry, and comb through the key findings of these current studies. In addition, this paper also proposes future research directions and relevant suggestions for specific practices based on the above factors, providing ideas and references for researchers and practitioners of virtual gift marketing. Due to the diverse perspectives of existing related research, the integration, analysis and recommendations in this paper will be of significance to future researchers and stakeholders in systematically understanding viewer behaviour, helping the function of virtual gift rewards on live broadcasting platforms in China, and enhancing the economic benefits as well as live broadcasting viewers' experience.

Negotiated authenticity: An ethnographic study by an onlyfans girl

Following in-depth interviews with users and my own experiences as an adult content creator, this study explores authenticity on Onlyfans. I develop the term negotiated authenticity to explain the process whereby subscribers and creators make active and passive choices and take on collaborative or solitary roles in negotiating a satisfying fantasy of authenticity. Understanding authenticity as a social construction, this work challenges the conventional understanding of sex work services and products. Moving beyond the real or fake binary in pornography, negotiated authenticity frames sex work as a relational and creative performance of the self.

Revolutionizing Retail: An Empirical Study on the Impact of Generative AI in Omnichannel Strategies

This article examines the transformative impact of Generative AI (Gen AI) on omnichannel retail, exploring its role in enhancing customer experiences and streamlining operations across digital and physical platforms. Through a comprehensive analysis of current literature, industry case studies, and empirical data, the study investigates six key applications of Gen AI in retail: personalization and dynamic content creation, virtual shopping assistants, inventory and fulfillment optimization, marketing content generation, customer insights and sentiment analysis, and immersive AR/VR experiences. The findings reveal that Gen AI significantly improves personalization, operational efficiency, and cross-channel integration in retail. However, the research also identifies challenges in implementation, including data privacy concerns and the need for seamless technology integration. This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge on AI in retail and provides practical insights for retailers seeking to leverage Gen AI in their omnichannel strategies. The paper concludes by discussing future research directions and the potential long-term implications of Gen AI on consumer behavior and global retail practices.