Online Content Creators Research Articles

An investigation of the online presence of UK universities on Instagram

PurposeRising tuition fees and a growing importance on league tables has meant that university branding is becoming more of a necessity to attract prospective staff, students, and funding. Whilst university websites are an important branding tool, academic institutions are also beginning to exploit social media. Image-based social media services such as Instagram are particularly popular at the moment. It is therefore logical for universities to have a presence on popular image-based social media services such as Instagram. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the online presence of UK universities on Instagram in an initial investigation of use.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes webometric data collection, and content analysis methodology.FindingsThe results indicate that at the time of data analysis for this investigation (In the Spring of 2015), UK universities had a limited presence on Instagram for general university accounts, with only 51 out of 128 institutions having an account. The most common types of images posted were humanizing (31.0 percent), showcasing (28.8 percent), and orienting (14.3 percent). Orienting images were more likely to receive likes than other image types, and crowdsourcing images were more likely to receive comments.Originality/valueThis paper gives a valuable insight into the image posting practices of UK universities on Instagram. The findings are of value to heads of marketing, online content creators, social media campaign managers, and anyone who is responsible for the marketing, branding, and promoting of a university’s services.

Alternative Pathway to Television: Negotiating Female Representation in <em>Broad City</em>’s Transition from YouTube to Cable

Alternative Pathway to Television: Negotiating Female Representation in <em>Broad City</em>’s Transition from YouTube to Cable

Social media framing within the Million Hoodies movement for justice

•This article examines activism and social media framing.•Textual analysis was conducted of activist network Million Hoodies’ Facebook page.•Examples of core framing and frame alignment processes were identified and illustrated through posts’ texts and shared content within posts.•Core framing and alignment processes were determined to be an efficacious theoretical framework for understanding how online content creators use strategic messaging to engage and motivate followers as well as broaden their base of support.

Are We All Online Content Creators Now? Web 2.0 and Digital Divides

Despite considerable interest in online content creation there has been comparatively little academic analysis of the distribution of such practices, both globally and among social groups within countries. Drawing on theoretical frameworks used in digital divide studies, I outline differences in motivation, access, skills, and usage that appear to underlie and perpetuate differences in online content creation practices between social groups. This paper brings together existing studies and new analyses of existing survey datasets. Together they suggest online content creators tend to be from relatively privileged groups and the content of online services based on their contributions may be biased towards what is most interesting or relevant to them. Some implications of these findings for policymakers and researchers are considered.

The chilling tale of copyright law in online creative communities

Online content creators are making decisions every day based on copyright laws that even judges have trouble interpreting. What impact does this confusion over the law have on our technology use and our creativity online?

Helpful Reviewers in TripAdvisor, an Online Travel Community

ABSTRACT Online communities need a critical mass for communication, information, and entertainment and should provide useful information for their members in order to obtain this critical mass. The abundance of online travel reviews increases cognitive costs of travelers, and travelers use extrinsic cues to judge the quality of online reviews to eliminate costs associated with the information process. Of various cues used in online environments, this study examined an online reputation system in TripAdvisor.com and profiled the reviewers who post helpful reviews in the online travel community. The key findings include that helpful reviewers are those who travel more, actively post reviews, belong to any age and gender groups, and give lower hotel ratings. This study adds to research of online travel reviewers by characterizing helpful information creators among online content creators.