Media Habits Research Articles

Cybervictimization and mental health among Canadian youth.

Cybervictimization has emerged as a potentially serious form of victimization and has been associated with negative mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, disordered eating, and suicidality. However, very little research has examined the prevalence and correlates of cybervictimization among diverse subpopulations of youth. Data from 13,602 adolescents aged 12 to 17 were drawn from the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth. Adolescents reported on their experiences of cybervictimization in the past 12 months, general mental health, and eating disorder symptoms; adolescents aged 15 to 17 reported on suicidal ideation and attempt; and parents reported on problems with depression and anxiety. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of experiencing cybervictimization according to characteristics, including gender identity, population group, same-gender attraction, low family income, and the presence of chronic conditions and digital media habits. Logistic regression models were also used to estimate the odds of experiencing each mental health difficulty by sociodemographic characteristics and experience of cybervictimization. The odds of experiencing cybervictimization were higher among transgender and non-binary youth, females attracted to the same gender or unsure of their attraction, and adolescents living with chronic conditions (particularly females and those living in low-income households). Cybervictimization was consistently associated with a greater risk of poor general mental health, depression or anxiety, eating disorder symptoms, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempt. These associations did not differ according to the sociodemographic characteristics assessed. In terms of digital media habits, lower frequencies of use were generally associated with a lower likelihood of experiencing cybervictimization. While certain population groups appear to be at a higher risk of experiencing cybervictimization, the experience of cybervictimization is associated with similar mental health indicators for all adolescents.

Shaping the Media Landscape: Exploring Media User Consumption in the Age of Social Media

The innovation in social media and digital technology has profoundly transformed media user consumption patterns and habits, significantly impacting the Media, Entertainment, and Information (MEI) industry. Among the various sectors affected, the news industry stands out as one of the most profoundly influenced. This article employs the news industry as a case study and delves into changes in audience behavior and media organizational relationships, alterations in news content, and dissemination methods to further dissect the shifts in the ways users access news. Consequently, it derives insights into how media user behavior changes impact the news industry.

The effect of social media exposure, environmental concern and consumer habits in green consumption intention

PurposeThis study aims to look into consumers' green consumption intention by incorporating social media exposure, environmental concern and habit into theory of planned behavior (TPB) in the context of China advocating green consumption.Design/methodology/approachBased on the data collected from online survey, this study use partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analysis the measurement model and structure model.FindingsThe results show attitude, social media exposure, environmental concern and subjective norms are important determinants of consumers' intention to purchase green products.Originality/valueThis study explores the new associations between the major constructs of the TPB model in green consumption. This study also expanded the TPB model by adding three extra factors, namely social media exposure, habit and environmental concern. In addition, this study attempts to bridge the gap between attitude and intention from a new perspective by using social media exposure as a moderating variable.

Evaluation of Using Visual and Social Media and Nutritional Habits for University Staff's

Bireyler sağlık ve beslenme ile ilgili konuları özellikle yazılı ve görsel medya aracılığı ile takip etmektedirler. Bu takip kişilerin dünyaya bakış açılarını, duygularını, tavırlarını etkileyebilmekte ve değiştirebilmektedir. Bu çalışmada 207 üniversite personelinin beslenme alışkanlıkları ile görsel, sosyal medya ve kitle iletişim araçlarına karşı tutum ve davranışlarının belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Çalışmada idari personelin beden kütle indeksi ortalaması 26,9, akademik personelin beden kütle indeksi ortalaması 25,4 olup akademik ve idari personelin beden kütle indeksi ortalamaları arasında istatistiksel açıdan anlamlı farklılık bulunmuştur. Akademik personelin %62,9’unun idari personelin %80,6’sının günde üç öğün ile beslendiği, akademik personelin %75,0’inin, idari personelin %71,6’sının klasik kahvaltı yaptığı, akademik personelin %42,9’unun idari personelin %71,6’sının öğle yemeğini okul yemek hanesinde yediği ve akademik personelin %55,0’inin idari personelin %43,3’ünün bazen ara öğün yaptığı tespit edilmiştir. Akademik ve idari personelin sosyal medya ve kitle iletişim araçlarına karşı tutum ve davranışları benzerlik göstermekte olup, gıdalarla ilgili yayın ve reklamlardan etkilenmedikleri, güvenli bulmadıkları ve sağlıklı beslenmeye dikkat ettikleri sonucuna varılmıştır.

Physical Activity, Screen Media Use and Sleep of Children With Developmental Disorders in Singapore: A Pilot Study

Highlights More research is available on the on- and off-screen behaviors of typically developing children but substantially less research is available on these behaviors among children with developmental disabilities (CwDD). As CwDD have different lifestyle needs and profiles than typically developing children, there exists an unmet need for a lifestyle and time-use questionnaire which examines screen-viewing time, physical activity time, and sleep duration of CwDD. This behavioral research report presents pilot results on the lifestyle behaviors of CwDD in Singapore using a validated questionnaire called Parent-surveillance of digital media habits in childhood Questionnaire® (Parent-smalQ®) on this largely unexplored group of children. The Singapore integrated 24-h guidelines stipulate that for optimal development, children should acquire a lifestyle that integrates regular physical activity, limited sedentary behavior, adequate sleep, among other lifestyle behaviors. This research report provides additional insights into the prevalence of CwDD in meeting the Singapore integrated 24-h guidelines recommendations.

Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies

Media literacy is considered one of the key competencies to acquire in the 21st century. With games being recognized as having a large potential to train and educate, a wide range of games focusing on media literacy related topics such as fake news games, digital privacy, personal media habits, and practical media skills have sprung up over the years. All claim to foster media literacy skills and competencies. This begs the question how these games generally frame and understand media literacy, what competencies and skills they actually focus on, and through which game design choices. This paper thus asks: how media literacy games are designed to foster media literacy? Taking the Dutch Media Literacy Competencies Model as a departure point, we answer this question using a thematic analysis of 100 media literacy games and formal analysis of a smaller heterogeneous sample consisting of 12 games. We present a series of key findings involving the prominent presence of certain topics and competencies in the dataset, as well as prevalent design choices, allowing for a discussion of the current landscape of literacy games and underlying competencies and future potential for development.

Prospective associations between child screen time and parenting stress and later inattention symptoms in preschoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Child attention skills are critical for supporting self-regulation abilities, especially during the first years of life. On the other hand, inattention symptoms in preschoolers have been associated with poor school readiness, literacy skills and academic achievement. Previous research has linked excessive screen time with increased inattention symptoms in early childhood. However, most research has only focused on TV exposure and did not investigate this association during the COVID-19 pandemic. This atypical context has increased screen time in children worldwide, including preschoolers. We hypothesize that higher levels of child screen media and parenting stress at age 3.5 will be associated with higher child inattention symptoms at age 4.5. This study draws on participants followed longitudinally over the span of 2-years for an investigation of Canadian preschoolers' screen media use during the pandemic (N = 315, 2020). A follow-up with this sample was completed in 2021 (N = 264). Analyses using multiple linear regression, revealed a positive association between child screen time at age 3.5 and inattention symptoms at 4.5 years. Parental stress was also positively associated with child inattention symptoms. Associations were observed above individual (child age, inhibitory control, and sex) and family (parent education and family income) characteristics. These results confirmed our hypothesis and highlight that preschooler screen use and parenting stress may undermine attentional skills. Since attention is a crucial component for children development, behavior and academic outcomes, our study reinforces the importance for parents of adopting healthy media habits.

Taking a nuanced look at adolescent technology use and negative affect: the protective role of preparedness.

Adolescents are online more than any other age group, with the majority of their time on social media. Increases in technology use among adolescents have heightened conversations regarding its effects on their negative affect. There have been mixed findings regarding the relationship between technology use and adolescent negative affect; some studies present a negative association or no association, and some show a positive association. To clarify this relationship, we propose moving away from asking only how much adolescents use technology to asking how and what they use it for. We employed the Multidimensional Healthy Technology Use and Social Media Habits Scale (MTECH) and adapted forms of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) in a sample of 7,234 middle and high school students to assess the extent to which students feel prepared to use technology safely and successfully and whether this impacts the association between the amount of various types of technology they use and their negative affect. We conducted eight moderated regression analyses that, in some models, revealed preparedness had a protective role in the association between technology use and negative affect. In these models, at all levels of technology use, adolescents with higher levels of preparedness experienced lower levels of negative affect than their peers; however, in some instances, this effect was diminished for those using technology with high frequency. These findings support the notion that the association between technology and negative affect is not best modeled as a direct relationship, and instead that we must consider important moderators of this complex association.

Exploring Social Media Preferences for Healthy Weight Management Interventions Among Adolescents of Color: Mixed Methods Study.

Social media holds promise as an intervention platform to engage youths in healthy weight management and target racial inequities in obesity. This mixed methods study aimed to examine social media habits, preferences, and obesity-related behaviors (eg, diet and physical activity) among adolescents of color and understand preferences for healthy weight management interventions delivered via social media. This mixed methods study is comprised of a cross-sectional web-based survey and a series of digital focus groups. Study participants (English-speaking youths of color ages 14-18 years) were recruited from high schools and youth-based community settings in Massachusetts and California. For surveys, participants were invited to complete an anonymous web-based survey assessing self-reported sociodemographics, social media habits and preferences, health behaviors (diet, physical activity, sleep, and screen time), and height and weight. For focus groups, participants were invited to participate in 45- to 60-minute web-based group discussions assessing social media habits, preferred social media platforms, and preferences for physical activity and nutrition intervention content and delivery. Survey data were analyzed descriptively; focus group transcripts were analyzed using a directed content analysis approach. A total of 101 adolescents completed the survey and 20 adolescents participated in a total of 3 focus groups. Participants reported most frequently using TikTok, followed by Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter; preference for platform varied by purpose of use (eg, content consumption, connection, or communication). TikTok emerged as the platform of choice as an engaging way to learn about various topics, including desired health information on physical fitness and diet. Findings from this study suggest that social media platforms can be an engaging way to reach adolescents of color. Data will inform future social media-based interventions to engage adolescents of color in healthy weight management content.

Knowledge about COVID-19 and Perception of the Role of Media Among Non-Medical Students

Objective: The study aimed to determine the knowledge about disease and perception of the role of media regarding COVID-19 among non-medical students.Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical study.Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in educational institutions of Punjab including University of Lahore, National University of Science and Technology, COMSATS University, Forman Christian College University, University of Management and Technology, Punjab University, GC University Faisalabad, The University of Agriculture Faisalabad, University of Engineering & Technology, University of Central Punjab, Islamia University Bahawalpur and Lahore College of Women University from June 2021 to November 2021.Materials and Methods: Using the convenience sampling technique, a sample of 400 non-medical students was included in the study. A self-constructed pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was entered and analyzed in SPSS version 23. Independent t-test and ANOVA were applied to find the association between variables. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Mean age of participants was 21.45± 2.16 years. About 38.7% used three or more sources of information. The most reliable source of media (37.75%) was social media updates. About 77.5% of participants used mass media daily and an increase in social media usage was reported by 88% of participants. The mean score related to knowledge was 14.09±4.5 out of 20. A statistically significant difference was found in the knowledge score of groups based upon sources of information (p = <0.001), communication practices (p = <0.001), gender (p=0.01), reported an increase in social media usage (p=0.04) and habit of seeking medical advice from media influences (p =0.05). The majority of participants agreed that media is creating awareness but also increasing fear and anxiety. Conclusion: Respondents had good knowledge about COVID-19. Gender, information sources, communication practices, increase in media usage and taking medical advice from media influenced the knowledge. Participants agreed that media is creating awareness but also increasing fear and anxiety. 

Art and Entertainment as Representation of Urban Community Lifestyle in Indonesian Metropop Novels

As a popular novel genre, Indonesian metro pop novels are claimed to represent a cultural phenomenon of urban communities who live and settle in big cities. This cultural phenomenon is closely related to the behavior and lifestyle of the urban community. The study of urbanism is assumed to attempt to understand the patterns, attitudes, and lifestyles of urban people reflected in various aspects and activities of life. The results of this study indicate that people who live in metropolitan cities and urban communities featured in Indonesian metro pop novels are described as people who have a luxurious lifestyle, hedonic, instant, consumptive, well-established profession, and have a pragmatic approach. In addition, the lifestyle of the urban community in the metro pop novel is also reflected in the model of clothing (fashion) used, the food and beverages consumed, the language used, ways of communicating, use of various devices, forms of art and entertainment, and habit of social media.

Postgraduate-Year-1 Residents' Perceptions of Social Media and Virtual Applicant Recruitment: Cross-sectional Survey Study.

The dissemination of information about residency programs is a vital step in residency recruitment. Traditional methods of distributing information have been printed brochures, websites, in-person interviews, and increasingly, social media. Away rotations and in-person interviews were cancelled, and interviews were virtual for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of our study was to describe postgraduate-year-1 (PGY1) residents' social media habits in regard to residency recruitment and their perceptions of the residency programs' social media accounts in light of the transition to virtual interviews. A web-based 33-question survey was developed to evaluate personal social media use, perceptions of social media use by residency programs, and perceptions of the residency program content. Surveys were sent in 2021 to PGY1 residents at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota who participated in the 2020-2021 interview cycle. Of the 31 program directors contacted, 22 (71%) provided permission for their residents to complete the survey. Of 219 residents who received the survey, 67 (30%) completed the survey. Most respondents applied to a single specialty, and greater than 61% (41/67) of respondents applied to more than 30 programs. The social media platforms used most regularly by the respondents were Instagram (42/67, 63%), Facebook (36/67, 54%), and Twitter (22/67, 33%). Respondents used the program website (66/67, 99%), residents (47/67, 70%), and social media (43/67, 64%) as the most frequent resources to research programs. The most commonly used social media platforms to research programs were Instagram (38/66, 58%), Twitter (22/66, 33%), and Doximity (20/66, 30%). The type of social media post ranked as most interesting by the respondents was "resident life outside of the hospital." In addition, 68% (39/57) of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their perception of a program was positively influenced by the residency program's social media account. In this multispecialty survey of PGY1 residents participating in the 2020-2021 virtual interview season, respondents preferred Instagram to Twitter or Facebook for gathering information on prospective residency programs. In addition, the program website, current residents, and social media platforms were the top-ranked resources used by prospective applicants. Having an up-to-date website and robust social media presence, particularly on Instagram, may become increasingly important in the virtual interview environment.

Applying a family stress model to understand U.S. families’ patterns of stress, media use, and child behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly altered family life, and research among adults and families has found increases financial stress, mental health problems, screen time, parental conflict, and child behavior problems. Given these patterns, we sought to replicate these findings with a younger and largely non-white sample. Using the Family Stress Model, we consider how these constructs might relate to each other during the pandemic. From surveys of 247 predominately Latine mothers and fathers of children under 4 years of age in the U.S., we found that financial strain was related to children’s media exposure and use, largely through impacts on parents’ mental health and coparenting relationship. Interestingly, only use of television in the background and during mealtimes were associated with increases in parents’ perception of increases in children’s behavior problems. Such findings better capture how stress may operate in a family system and offer a way to counsel parents about healthier media habits for young children.

Examining Assumptions Around How News Avoidance Gets Defined: The Importance of Overall News Consumption, Intention, and Structural Inequalities

ABSTRACT News avoidance research has been hampered by confusion about how to define and operationalize the concept. Here we intervene in two ongoing debates: first, what is the relationship between selective news avoidance—that is, when people say they sometimes or often avoid news—and overall rates of news consumption? Second, how well do terms intended to distinguish between types of news avoidance based on underlying motivations, such as “intentional” vs. “unintentional” or “news non-use,” capture the lived experiences of people who consistently consume little news? We examine these questions using the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report survey data from 46 media markets, as well as interviews with 108 people who consume little-to-no news in the UK, US, and Spain. Survey results show that most people who selectively avoid news consume almost as much news as those who do not, while interviews show that distinguishing types of news avoiders based solely on stated motivations poorly captures how media habits develop through a mix of deliberate choices and socially constructed preferences. We conclude that categorizing news avoiders based on motivations risks misunderstanding the kind of news avoidance that matters most from a normative standpoint: that which is linked with low news consumption.

Armchair citizenship and ontological insecurity: Uncovering styles of media and political behavior

Media effects research has established a positive relationship between media and news consumption and political action—a “more-more” pattern. This paper identifies a coexistent “more-less” pattern in which more political engagement on social media is associated with limited political behavior offline. Traditional approaches that treat media behavior as an independent variable and political behavior as dependent miss this finding. Instead, this paper treats configurations of media and political behavior as styles, identified through latent class analysis (LCA). The data come from an original survey of American citizens about their encounters with political content on social media, their media habits, and their online expression of political attitudes to assess whether and how these media behaviors undermine their political and civic engagement offline. The latent class analysis of these data reveals three styles, which we label “actives,” “passives,” and “armchair citizens” (i.e., more-less). We then seek to make sense of this armchair citizen style—who would choose this style of media and political participation? An LCA regression model predicting membership into the armchair citizen class suggests that armchair citizen style is associated with experiencing what Giddens’ called “ontological insecurity.”

Stunting and its associated factors in under-five children: evidence from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014

Impaired growth and development experienced by children, referred to as stunting, is a major impediment to human development. Although the Bangladesh economy has experienced high growth in recent decades, malnutrition still remains a public health problem. This study assesses the prevalence and risk factors associated with stunting among children under-five in Bangladesh. This analysis uses data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014, a community-based cross-sectional study. A total of 6,965 children were enrolled in the study. The prevalence of stunting was 36.5% [95% confidence interval (CI): 34.8-38.3%] and 40.2% [95% CI: 37.4-43.1%] for children aged 0-59 months and 0-23 months respectively. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that the significant factors for stunting for children aged 0-59 months and 0-23 months were maternal working status, mother education, mothers age at childbirth, birth order, delivery mode, receiving antenatal clinic visit, media habits, perceived size of child at birth, child sex, children having had diarrhea in last two weeks, wealth and geographical region. In order to meet the nutrition indicators under zero hunger sustainable development goal and 2025 target of World Health Assembly, policy interventions are needed to reduce stunting specially focusing on eastern region of Bangladesh.

Placing "trust" in science: The urban-rural divide and Americans' feelings of warmth toward scientists.

Long-standing discussions of the so-called urban-rural divide in the United States have uncovered meaningful differences between urbanites and rural residents, but much of this work has focused on political attitudes. However, there is reason to believe that geographic divides also influence Americans' science attitudes, including, for example, positive affect toward scientists and levels of trust in them. Unfortunately, existing work has not clearly ruled out confounding factors such as religiosity, political views, media habits, and conspiracism. This brief article addresses this problem by drawing on survey data from 2016 to test the hypothesis that rural residency will be associated with colder feelings toward the scientific community, even with controls in place. The results offer support for this expectation. These findings lend support to recent arguments that rural Americans' science attitudes are influenced by factors that go beyond demographics, conspiracism, political polarization, differences of religiosity, and (partisan) media consumption.

Influence of Social Media Usage on Study Habits of Undergraduates in North Central Nigeria: Implications for Counselling

The study investigated the influence of social media usage on study habits of undergraduates in North Central Nigeria: Implications for counselling. Four objectives and research questions guided the study and four hypotheses were formulated. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design. The population for this study comprises 13,292, 400 level students from four Federal Universities in North Central Nigeria. The sample size for the study was 388 400 level students who were drawn using proportionate stratified and accidental sampling techniques. Two instruments, a structured questionnaire titled “Social Media and Study Habits Questionnaire” (SMSHQ) and a semi-structured interview were used for data collection). The instruments were validated by experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was established using Cronbach Alpha method which yielded a coefficient of 0.71. Data collected for the study were analyzed using Means and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions while Chi-Square Goodness of Fit was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that, Facebook usage, Twitter usage and Instagram usage have no significant influence on the study habits of undergraduates in North Central Nigeria. WhatsApp usage was however found to significantly influence the study habits of the undergraduates positively. The study concluded that except for WhatsApp platform, the usage of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram negatively affect the study habits of undergraduates in North Central Nigeria. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that University management in collaboration with counsellors should make strict rules and regulations on the use of smart phones for accessing social media platforms during lecture hours and lecturers should be supported by the management to implement these rules and through counseling, undergraduates should be made to realize all the potential harm from excessive use of social platforms and responsibly approach the learning process.

Utilization patterns of social media platforms for learning purposes among emergency medicine residents in Saudi Arabia

Background: Digital platforms' usage in medical education is pivotal worldwide. Despite the benefits and hazards of social media use in emergency medicine (EM) education, little is known about young medical residents\' attitudes and social media habits whe n they begin their EM careers. Objectives: The study aimed to estimate the utilization rates of different social media platforms for educational purposes by EM residents in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A focused revisit of this relationship between hand size and ventilation performance through manikin simulation testing of 122 emergency medical services professionals in Maryland evaluated the ventilator parameters of breath rate (BR), tidal volume (TV), and MV. Results: A total of 110 EM residents participated in the study. Data showed that the most used platforms for professional purposes were medical applications (29.1%), WhatsApp, and YouTube (20.0% and 16.4%), and the least used application was Instagram (0.9%). Medical applications were the most utilized platform for knowledge searching (61.8%). More than half of the participants (55.5%) believe that social media's impact on their knowledge and clinical skills is high/very high. There was no significant difference between males and females regarding the utilization pattern of social media platforms. Conclusion: EM residents consider social media a vital source of knowledge and skills required for their practice. Residents are aware of the benefits and harms of the professional use of social media platforms for medical education.

How Mass Public Shooters Use Social Media: Exploring Themes and Future Directions

This mixed-methods study examines social media use among public mass shooters in the United States as an extension of a comprehensive database of 170 mass shooters from 1966 to 2021. Here, we report findings from a systematic content analysis of public data and detailed timelines that were constructed for 44 mass shooters’ social media habits and changes to those habits during the period of time leading up to their shooting. The paper also presents as a case study, a sentiment analysis, and term-linkage network for one perpetrator’s total 3,000 tweets. Several themes were found in the data—there were shooters who changed their posting habits and in some cases, stopped using social media entirely in the lead up to their crime; shooters who used hate speech and were “radicalized” to violence online; shooters with a demonstrable interest in violence, who referenced past mass shooters in their own communications; shooters who exhibited signs of mental illness and suicidality; shooters who were already known to authorities; and shooters who like those described above, actively posted while shooting, presumably to boost their own celebrity status. The findings from this study provide insight into commonalities among mass shooters in terms of their social media usage, which could lead to new pathways for prevention and intervention.