Personal Facebook Pages Research Articles

An Analysis of the Social Roles and Practices and Interactional Metadiscoursal Resources in American Former President Trump’s Facebook Text Messages

Facebook is a means of interaction through which individuals most frequently relate to others. Most of the studies that have attempted to analyze Trump’s messages or speeches were descriptive. They have not critically pinpointed some of the socio-cultural motivations that have given rise to the linguistic options utilized by the writer. Therefore, the present study purports to critically analyze the experiential social roles and practices articulated by Trump's Facebook messages and the socio-cultural factors motivating these roles. It also attempts to examine the interactional meta-discoursal persuasive linguistic strategies employed to qualify these roles and practices. To this end, a corpus of two hundred posted texts was selected from Donald Trump’s personal Facebook page. We drew on Van Laween’s (2008) CDA model and Hyland’s (2005) interactional meta-discourse framework to analyze these texts. The results have provided insights about Trump’s identity and his various relationships. Trump utilized a high frequency of active material social processes to construct a positive image of himself as an active leader who shares common concerns with his audience, whereas he evaluated his opponents negatively by presenting them as always being involved in negative social processes. Besides, he utilized certain interactional cues to affect his addressees’ attitude in order to secure their positive reaction to the propositional content and to involve them collaboratively through his messages. Keywords: Interactional Meta-Discourse, Social Processes, Trump, Critical Discourse Analysis.

186 Preventing and responding to a hack of a professional Facebook page

Krishona Martinson, Equine Extension Specialist at the University of Minnesota (UMN), established the UMN Extension Horse Facebook page in June 2010 to disseminate research-based information to horse owners and professionals. With Martinson as the owner, the page grew to over 25,000 followers and averaged an annual reach of 2.7 million people. In December 2022, hackers compromised Martinson's personal Facebook page, which was then disabled by Facebook, and gained ownership of the UMN Horse page. The goal of this abstract is to highlight the top 10 lessons learned, which can help others prevent and respond to a hack of a Facebook page. First, install 2-factor authentication. Martinson had not enabled this security feature because she was not comfortable sharing her contact information with Facebook. Second, use a passphrase instead of a password. Passphrases tend to be more difficult to crack due to their length. Third, delete unused social media accounts. The breach occurred when hackers connected Martinson's unused Instagram account to her personal Facebook page. Fourth, ensure the page has other administrators. Before the hackers removed all page administrators, the UMN quickly updated the page banner to notify followers of the hack, stopped all scheduled posts, and removed the branded profile photo to distance the UMN from any unwanted posts. Fifth, be aware of risks and have a plan. Martinson and the UMN page were likely targetssince she managed several Facebook pages and the UMN page had a sizable following. When planning, consider pulling metrics monthly and ensure content created specifically for Facebook (e.g., Live videos) is saved elsewhere so it is not lost if a hack occurs. Sixth, report the hack immediately to direct supervisors, your employers general counsel, and communications and cyber security teams. Seventh, change other account passwords that use the same email and the same or similar password. Eighth, as a precaution post-hack, remove page administrators who are also owners of other pages to reduce the risk of additional pages being hacked. Nineth, take screenshots of any unwanted posts or page changes. Proof of the hack is necessary when reporting to Facebook. Finally, complete as many Facebook forms as possible to report the hack. Martinson was able to file a trademark infringement report through Facebook but was unsuccessful in submitting other reports because her personal page was disabled. Despite efforts shared here, the UMN and Martinson's personal Facebook pages have yet to be recovered. We hope these tips will result in others being able to avoid a frustrating and disruptive Facebook hack or be more prepared when responding to one.

СТИЛІСТИКА ЛОКАЛЬНОГО ПОЛІТИЧНОГО ДИСКУРСУ В СОЦІАЛЬНІЙ МЕРЕЖІ (НА ПРИКЛАДІ СТОРІНОК ДНІПРОВСЬКИХ ПОЛІТИКІВ У МЕРЕЖІ ФЕЙСБУК)

<p><strong><em>The study objective </em></strong><em>is to identify the linguistic and stylistic features of modern political discourse in social networks at the local level and the most common stylistic devices of various authors.</em></p><p><strong><em>Research methodology. </em></strong><em>The key research methods are discourse analysis and stylistic analysis of texts. The empirical basis of the study were publications for the period from November 2020 to October 2021 on the personal Facebook pages of Dnipro politicians: Borys Filatov, Gennady Korban, Zagid Krasnov, Andrii Denysenko, Maxym Buzhansky, Olexandr Vilkul.</em></p><p><strong><em>Results.</em></strong><em> It is established that the authors of the posts use a wide range of stylistic means in their texts. Mainly used: epithets, metaphors, irony. Peculiarities of the author's stylistics are revealed: elements of conversational style are mainly used by B. Filatov and Z. Krasnov, methods of artistic and journalistic style are characteristic of A. Denysenko and M. Buzhansky, G. Korban's style is mostly journalistic, contains elements of the official style of O. Vilkul. The style of comments of page subscribers to the texts of politicians, which is a component of political discourse on social networks, mainly corresponds to the style of the comments that are commented.</em></p><p><strong><em>Novelty.</em></strong><em> The essence of the concept of "local political discourse" is clarified, it is substantiated that during the stylistic analysis of the discourse in social networks, it is necessary to study comprehensively the texts of posts and comments to them. The main stylistic figures used by the authors of the posts are revealed.</em></p><p><strong><em>Practical significance.</em></strong><em> Generalized theoretical and methodological approaches and identified stylistic features of local political discourse in social networks on the example of the city of Dnipro can be the basis for further comparative research, and can also be used in the educational process.</em></p><p><strong><em>Key words:</em></strong><em> stylistics of mass communication, author's style, stylistics of text, social networks, political communication, political discourse.</em></p>

Language mechanisms of political campaigning among the youth in the 2019 presidential election in Ukraine

This article looks into the linguistic mechanisms designed to establish communication between the presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelens’kyi and the youth in the 2019 Ukrainian election campaign. The young voters, who are less familiar with the political, economic, and social processes in the country due to their age and little life experience are at risk of falling victim to political technologists. The article examines Zelens’kyi’s political projects on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tele-gram, and Viber channels, the Twitter page of his campaign stuff, and the personal Facebook page. Aside from technological techniques, the paper focuses on the discourse of the election campaign built by the technologists to win the favor of young voters. It examines a linguistic component of the election rhetoric of this particular political project and reconstructs the main messages addressed to the youth. A complex of special linguistic methods has been applied to the texts,e.g., content analysis, discourse analysis, and critical discourse analysis, which helps “to deci-pher” the ideological components. Successfully selected channels, practices, and methods of virtual communication, “cor-rect” messages, and manipulative methods of the language use of the election campaign waged by Zelens’kyi, e.g., the clash of two generations theme, were converted into the votes “in favour” for the previously inactive electoral group. Convergence tactics were used to adjust the language to the younger generation. These in-clude the use of vocabulary from the Internet and the latest technologies, borrowings, informal youth forms of address, slang forms, language games, graphic capabilities of electronic space, in particular hashtags, stickers, and emojis. Keywords: communication, social networking, targeting, Facebook, vulgarisms, slang.

Regulation FD in the Age of Facebook and Twitter: Should the SEC Sue Netflix?

The Staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced its intention to recommend to the Commission that enforcement proceedings alleging a violation of Regulation FD be instituted against Netflix, Inc. and its CEO, Reed Hastings, because of a posting on Mr. Hastings’ personal Facebook page. Mr. Hastings’ webpage had more than 200,00 followers, including reporters who covered the posting in the traditional press. The posting was also the subject of a tweet by TechCrunch, which has approximately 2.5 million followers on Twitter. This article is in the form of an amicus Wells Submission suggesting that the Commission would, for nine distinct reasons, be prudent not to initiate an action on the facts of the Netflix posting. In particular, the public record suggests that the posting did not contain material information, was not a selective disclosure, and because of its spread through social media constituted a “broad non-exclusionary distribution” that did not violate Regulation FD. A prosecution would also diverge dramatically from all prior Regulation FD enforcement proceedings, and would violate the Commission’s prior representations not to “second guess” good faith efforts to comply with Regulation FD. In addition, the posting is not inconsistent with the Commission’s 2008 Guidance on the Use of Company Webpages -- guidance that is seriously outdated because of the emergence of social media. The enforcement action on the facts of the Netflix posting would, moreover, raise serious constitutional questions. Regulation FD is a restraint on truthful speech and, as applied on the facts of a Netflix prosecution, would involve discrimination against social media and in favor of more traditional media channels. There is also doubt that Regulation FD would pass muster as a restraint on commercial speech, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Sorrell and the Second Circuit’s decision in Caronia. A loss on constitutional grounds would also call into question a large panoply of Commission regulations that act as restraints on truthful speech, including, without limitation, quiet period restrictions and restriction on communications with analysts. Further, the issuance of the Wells Notice has already chilled the use of social media as a form of corporate communication absent the filing of a Form 8-K with the Commission. It also constitutes a questionable allocation of scarce Commission resources and raises questions that should be addressed through rulemaking and not through prosecution. The submission closes with suggestion for a reformulated Regulation FD that should be better able to pass constitutional muster and that would embrace social media technology rather than confront it.

Using Facebook to reduce smoking among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a participatory grounded action study

BackgroundThere is limited evidence for the effectiveness of social media to promote healthy behaviour among Indigenous Australians, including to reduce smoking. Social media has significant potential to stimulate interpersonal influence to quit, however an important knowledge gap is how and what content people choose to share with friends and family. This paper explores the decision making processes of community members for sharing tobacco control content with family and friends on Facebook.MethodsCommunity researchers were paid to choose and share at least one tobacco control post per week for a period of 6 months on their personal Facebook page. They documented reasons for their choices, which were coded and analysed to determine features of messages most likely to be shared, and salient considerations in the decision-making process.ResultsPosts which are child-focused, feature Indigenous content, and are perceived as practical, relevant and credible, with a direct and unambiguous message, were most likely to be shared. Posts which included disgusting imagery about health impacts, were focused on the environment, or were ambiguous or sarcastic were less likely to be shared. Decisions were also based on whether content was perceived to contain new information, to be helpful for their friends, and to be consistent with the participant’s online identity, as well as the perceived sensitivity of content. The potential impact on expensive mobile data for videos was also a factor.ConclusionsWhen designing tobacco control messages to be shared on social media, health promoters should take into account how information will align with positive self-image and can contribute to social capital among the intended audience, and generate interpersonal engagement. Content should complement, rather than attempt to replicate, some message features that are effective on traditional broadcast media. This study shows the potential for health services to incorporate a strategy of using paid local social media ‘champions’ or ‘ambassadors’ to disseminate tobacco control messages on Facebook through community networks.

Commerce and crossover of resources in Facebook Groups – A qualitative study

This paper presents a study on communal coping processes on Facebook. In interviews (N = 68), participants describe their Facebook behavioral patterns they engaged in when coping once offline and a second time during an online tour through their personal Facebook page. This exploratory study concluded that users prefer to turn to specific Facebook groups in order to cope with a particular stressor. These groups can be small, including only people from their individual network, or larger, comprising several members, which may include unknown contacts. Focusing on communal coping processes in Facebook groups, results of content analyses show four types of communal coping: (1) individual coping (through social support), (2) delegated coping, (3) commerce of resources and (4) crossover of resources. The results indicate how communal coping occurs on Facebook.

'I still remember your post about buying smokes': a case study of a remote Aboriginal community-controlled health service using Facebook for tobacco control.

Many Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) embrace Facebook as an organisational tool to share positive stories, which counter the negative narrative surrounding Aboriginal issues. However, the Facebook algorithm prioritises posts on personal pages over organisations. To take advantage of the algorithm, this project paid three Yolŋu employees of a north-east Arnhem Land ACCHS to share quit smoking messages on their personal Facebook pages. Smoking prevalence among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians is nearly three-fold higher than non-Indigenous Australians, and previous research has identified the need for culturally appropriate communication approaches to accelerate the decline in Indigenous smoking. This research found Yolŋu participants nurtured healthy behaviours through compassionate non-coercive communications, in contrast to fear-inducing health warnings prevalent in tobacco control. Cultural tailoring of tobacco control messages was achieved by having trusted local health staff sharing, and endorsing, messages regardless of whether the content was Indigenous specific. This research also revealed online Facebook activity does not reflect the reach of posts, which may extend beyond social media users to individuals who do not have a Facebook profile.

Прецедентні феномени у промовах бізнес-коучів (на матеріалі персональних сторінок соціальної мережі Facebook)

Прецедентні феномени у промовах бізнес-коучів (на матеріалі персональних сторінок соціальної мережі Facebook)

Editors' Note.

Editors' Note James M. DuBois, Ana S. Iltis, and Heidi A. Walsh In March of 2014 the editors of Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics opened a call for stories entitled Veterans' Health Care on the Home Front. In the call for stories we sought a collection of narratives from war veterans, including both combatant and non-combatant individuals, about meeting their health care needs. We were interested in both positive and negative experiences with health care systems and aimed to learn about what could have been done, or could be done, differently to improve the health care experiences of veterans. We encouraged authors to share advice for veterans about to return home. The call for stories was announced in the NIB newsletter and on the NIB Website. Additionally, the call was posted on several NIB social media platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. It was distributed through the American Society for Bioethics (ASBH) and Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) list serves. Susan DuBois, former managing editor of NIB, determinedly worked to share the call with countless experts and individual contacts, veterans' organizations, veterans support groups, advocacy organizations, national associations, and veteran community websites. Several organizations added the call to their e-newsletters including the American Military Retirees Association (AMRA) and the American Academy of Nursing. Several authors and colleagues shared the call with friends, family members, and acquaintances and shared the call on their personal Facebook pages and on social media pages followed by veterans (e.g., Operation Amped and Military with PTSD). The call was shared with students attending a veterans writing workshop at South Dakota State University, the Saint Louis University Veterans' Group, and with Student Veterans of America. Physicians, therapists, and medical anthropologists working with veterans personally asked patients to write their stories. Despite these efforts, response to the call was minimal. We received several inquiries from family members and friends of veterans asking if they could submit a story about a veteran. At first, we sought only first-hand personal stories from veterans but after extending the call deadline four times the editors decided to open the call up to stories from family caregivers in July of 2015. Despite our efforts, we ultimately received just six stories—five from veterans and one from a veteran's wife. We are not entirely sure why we failed to get enough stories to do a full symposium on this topic. In general, when we engage topics that equally affect men and women, we receive far fewer stories from men. We also suspect that for veterans, talking about their health needs and about the Veteran's Affairs system with non-veteran civilians is awkward. There may be reluctance to criticize the system to the public. Nevertheless, we wanted to honor the current collection by including all the stories we received in response to this call in this supplement of NIB 8.1. The stories included in the supplement depict a range of experiences from veterans who served in Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Iraq War. We expected to get stories from authors detailing their health care needs upon returning home from war. While we did receive stories that [End Page 79] discussed war-related injuries we also received stories from veterans about experiences using the VA to obtain healthcare for injuries or illnesses sustained after military service. There were conflicting opinions among the authors about the quality of care received. Some authors wrote about being very satisfied with and thankful for the care received through the VA medical system while others appear to be disillusioned and have not been able to get needed services. The supplement in this issue of NIB also includes a commentary article by E. Ann Jeschke, a bioethics consultant who specializes in post-deployment medicine and veteran's health care. The commentary draws out themes and lessons learned from the narratives. The first story, by Keynan Hobbs, taps into two themes that recur throughout the collection of stories. People malign VA Healthcare for "not doing enough." Sometimes they are the same people with anti-"Obamacare" stickers ironically placed on the cars they park just before walking into the closest thing America has to socialized medicine. We are responsible...

Is Cancer Information Exchanged on Social Media Scientifically Accurate?

Cancer patients and their caregivers are increasingly using social media as a platform to share cancer experiences, connect with support, and exchange cancer-related information. Yet, little is known about the nature and scientific accuracy of cancer-related information exchanged on social media. We conducted a content analysis of 12months of data from 18 publically available Facebook Pages hosted by parents of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (N=15,852 posts) and extracted all exchanges of medically-oriented cancer information. We systematically coded for themes in the nature of cancer-related information exchanged on personal Facebook Pages and two oncology experts independently evaluated the scientific accuracy of each post. Of the 15,852 total posts, 171 posts contained medically-oriented cancer information. The most frequent type of cancer information exchanged was information related to treatment protocols and health services use (35%) followed by information related to side effects and late effects (26%), medication (16%), medical caregiving strategies (13%), alternative and complementary therapies (8%), and other (2%). Overall, 67% of all cancer information exchanged was deemed medically/scientifically accurate, 19% was not medically/scientifically accurate, and 14% described unproven treatment modalities. These findings highlight the potential utility of social media as a cancer-related resource, but also indicate that providers should focus on recommending reliable, evidence-based sources to patients and caregivers.

Cancer Communication on Social Media: Examining How Cancer Caregivers Use Facebook for Cancer-Related Communication.

Americans are increasingly using social media (such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter) for health-related communication. Much of the previous research on social media and health communication has focused on Facebook groups related to a specific disease or Facebook pages related to an advocacy organization. Less is known about how people communicate about cancer on personal Facebook pages. In this study, we expand upon previous research by examining how cancer caregivers use personal Facebook pages for cancer-related communication. We examined themes in cancer-related exchanges through a content analysis of 12 months of data from 18 publically available Facebook pages hosted by parents of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (15 852 total posts). Six themes emerged: (1) documenting the cancer journey, (2) sharing emotional strain associated with caregiving, (3) promoting awareness and advocacy about pediatric cancer, (4) fundraising, (5) mobilizing support, and (6) expressing gratitude for support. Building upon previous research documenting the increasing use of social media for health-related communication and support, our findings show that personal Facebook pages offer a platform for cancer caregivers to share their cancer-related experiences, promote advocacy and awareness, and mobilize social support. Providers must recognize the importance of social media as a vehicle for support and communication for families of children with cancer. Nurses should educate parents on how to appraise information obtained through Facebook using evidence-based guidelines. Providers can encourage caregivers to use Facebook as a tool for communication, information, and support.

Organizational and Individual Promotion Strategies. The Use of Social Media among the Journalists of the Romanian Public Television

IntroductionMedia organizations all around the world have been gradually transformed by the evolution of technology. The interlocking of computers, information technol- ogy, telecommunication networks and the media content generated by newspapers, radio and television transformed the single media, traditional organizations into convergent media or multimedia organizations. Media professionals are required to extend their skills beyond their traditional comfort levels, facing changes in their professional routines and organizational cultures (Quinn & Filak, 2005; Boczkowski, 2004; Rabasca, 2001).The process of digitalization and the growing popularity of social media forced media companies to change their production, editorial and promotion strategies at different levels and paces, depending on their organizational culture. The author selected the Romanian Public Television as a case study because it is interesting to see how a traditional media organization, with a complicated human resources and production system faces the challenges of adopting the new technologies. The case study chosen by the author of this article illustrates how the use of social media as a promotion strategy tool differ significantly, both by department and individual journalists. For instance, while the News Department has live interviews on its social media page, in convergence with the personal Facebook pages of the journalists, as a promotion strategy for the upcoming newscasts on television, other departments or journalists only update their social media pages once a week or even two weeks. According to their level of acceptance of the necessity of social media, and their ability to understand and use the new technologies, various departments, reporters, producers and presenters employ the most appropriate strategies in order to promote their media products. The author of this article uses qualitative methods, such as content analysis and semi-structured interviews with journalists from different departments of the Romanian Public Television, because qualitative inquiry is more suitable to highlight the significant differences in the organizational culture of a media company. The theoretical framework of this research, fragmented organizational culture, successfully supports this analysis, as it illustrates the difference of values and attitudes towards social media and the new promotion technologies.This original research, carried out for the first time in a Romanian media company, has the potential to provide important insight for media practitioners confronted with the challenges of adjusting to the transformations in their organization and trying to perform on a changing media market. They are usually involved in the development of their business or media products through the new technologies, either as free lancers or employees of a small or large media company. This article also provides valuable data for the scientists interested in investigating the effects of the new technologies and promotion strategies through social media on the culture of the media organizations, either in Romania or elsewhere.Theoretical frameworkRomanian media is currently going through the process of adopting and implementing media convergence at organizational, technological and economic level. Convergence is a revolutionary form of journalism which is evolving in many parts of the world; therefore it may vary from country to country, from culture to culture both within countries and media companies. Media convergence is influenced by the power of digital technology, and the legal and economic factors in various countries and media trusts. The success of convergence depends on having journalists able to think multiple media and comfortable with working across several media platforms (Haile, 2003). Media convergence and the implementation of the new technologies forced the organization and its departments into adopting new digital production systems and devices and adapting to a new, dynamic workflow. …

Is cancer information exchanged on social media scientifically accurate?

186 Background: Cancer patients and their caregivers are increasingly using social media as a platform to share cancer experiences, connect with support, and exchange cancer-related information. Yet, little is known about the nature and scientific accuracy of cancer-related information exchanged on social media. Methods: We conducted a content analysis of 12 months of data from 18 publically available Facebook pages hosted by parents of children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (n = 15,852 posts), and extracted all exchanges of medically-oriented cancer information. We systematically coded for themes in the nature of cancer-related information exchanged on personal Facebook pages, and two oncology experts independently evaluated the scientific accuracy of each post. Results: Of the 15,852 total posts, 171 posts contained medically-oriented cancer information. The most frequent type of cancer information exchanged was information related to treatment protocols and health services use (35%) followed by information related to side effects and late effects (26%), medication (16%), medical care-giving strategies (13%), alternative and complementary therapies (8%), and other (2%). Overall, 67% of all cancer information exchanged was deemed medically/scientifically accurate, 19% was not medically/scientifically accurate, and 14% described unproven treatment modalities. Conclusions: These findings highlight the potential utility of social media as a cancer-related resource, but also indicate that providers should focus on recommending reliable, evidence-based sources to patients and caregivers.

Pediatric Residents’ Perceptions of Potential Professionalism Violations on Social Media: A US National Survey

BackgroundThe ubiquitous use of social media by physicians poses professionalism challenges. Regulatory bodies have disseminated guidelines related to physicians’ use of social media.ObjectiveThis study had 2 objectives: (1) to understand what pediatric residents view as appropriate social media postings, and (2) to recognize the degree to which these residents are exposed to postings that violate social media professionalism guidelines.MethodsWe distributed an electronic survey to pediatric residents across the United States. The survey consisted of 5 postings from a hypothetical resident’s personal Facebook page. The vignettes highlighted common scenarios that challenge published social media professionalism guidelines. We asked 2 questions for each vignette regarding (1) the resident’s opinion of the posting’s appropriateness, and (2) their frequency of viewing similar posts. We also elicited demographic data (age, sex, postgraduate year level), frequency of Facebook use, awareness of their institutional policies, and prior social media training.ResultsOf 1628 respondents, 1498 (92.01%) of the pediatric residents acknowledged having a Facebook account, of whom 888/1628 (54.55%) reported daily use and 346/1628 (21.25%) reported using Facebook a few times a week. Residents frequently viewed posts that violated professionalism standards, including use of derogatory remarks about patients (1756/3256, 53.93%) and, much less frequently, about attending physicians (114/1628, 7.00%). The majority of the residents properly identified these postings as inappropriate. Residents had frequently viewed a post similar to one showing physicians drinking alcoholic beverages while in professional attire or scrubs and were neutral on this post’s appropriateness. Residents also reported a lack of knowledge about institutional policies on social media (651/1628, or 40.00%, were unaware of a policy; 204/1628, or 12.53%, said that no policy existed). A total of 372/1628 respondents (22.85%) stated that they had never received any structured training on social media professionalism.ConclusionsToday’s residents, like others of their generation, use social media sites to converse with peers without considering the implications for the profession. The frequent use of social media by learners needs to change the emphasis educators and regulatory bodies place on social media guidelines and teaching professionalism in the digital age.

Utilizing Facebook pages of the political parties to automatically predict the political orientation of Facebook users

Purpose Social network sites have been widely adopted by politicians in the last election campaigns. To increase the effectiveness of these campaigns the potential electorate is to be identified, as targeted ads are much more effective than non-targeted ads. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose and implement a new methodology for automatic prediction of political orientation of users on social network sites by comparison to texts from the overtly political parties’ pages. Design/methodology/approach To this end, textual information on personal users’ pages is used as a source of statistical features. The authors apply automatic text categorization algorithms to distinguish between texts of users from different political wings. However, these algorithms require a set of manually labeled texts for training, which is typically unavailable in real life situations. To overcome this limitation the authors propose to use texts available on various political parties’ pages on a social network site to train the classifier. The political leaning of these texts is determined by the political affiliation of the corresponding parties. The classifier learned on such overtly political texts is then applied on the personal user pages to predict their political orientation. To assess the validity and effectiveness of the proposed methodology two corpora were constructed: personal Facebook pages of 450 Israeli citizens, and political parties Facebook pages of the nine prominent Israeli parties. Findings The authors found that when a political tendency classifier is trained and tested on data in the same corpus, accuracy is very high. More significantly, training on manifestly political texts (political party Facebook pages) yields classifiers which can be used to classify non-political personal Facebook pages with fair accuracy. Social implications Previous studies have shown that targeted ads are more effective than non-targeted ads leading to substantial saving in the advertising budget. Therefore, the approach for automatic determining the political orientation of users on social network sites might be adopted for targeting political messages, especially during election campaigns. Originality/value This paper proposes and implements a new approach for automatic cross-corpora identification of political bias of user profiles on social network. This suggests that individuals’ political tendencies can be identified without recourse to any tagged personal data. In addition, the authors use learned classifiers to determine which self-identified centrists lean left or right and which voters are likely to switch allegiance in subsequent elections.

Communication and Exchange of Specialized Health-Related Support Among People With Experiential Similarity on Facebook

ABSTRACTSocial support is an important factor that shapes how people cope with illness, and health-related communication among peers managing the same illness (network ties with experiential similarity) offers specialized information, resources, and emotional support. Facebook has become a ubiquitous part of many Americans’ lives, and may offer a way for patients and caregivers experiencing a similar illness to exchange specialized health-related support. However, little is known about the content of communication among people who have coped with the same illness on personal Facebook pages. We conducted a content analysis of 12 months of data from 18 publicly available Facebook pages hosted by parents of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, focusing on communication between users who self-identified as parents of pediatric cancer patients. Support exchanges between users with experiential similarity contained highly specialized health-related information, including information about health services use, symptom recognition, compliance, medication use, treatment protocols, and medical procedures. Parents also exchanged tailored emotional support through comparison, empathy, encouragement, and hope. Building upon previous research documenting that social media use can widen and diversify support networks, our findings show that cancer caregivers access specialized health-related informational and emotional support through communication with others who have experienced the same illness on personal Facebook pages. These findings have implications for health communication practice and offer evidence to tailor M-Health interventions that leverage existing social media platforms to enhance peer support for patients and caregivers.

‘Your momma is day-glow white’: questioning the politics of racial identity, loyalty and obligation

ABSTRACTThis article utilizes discourse analysis and an auto-ethnographic approach to explore the impact of US racial and ethnic categorization on the experiences of an individual marked as ‘mixed-race’ in terms of individual identity and familial/cultural group loyalty and obligation(s). This essay focuses on an incidence of public policing through the popular social networking platform Facebook, centring on the invocation of racial obligation by white friends and family members. I analyse how racial loyalty is articulated by friends and family members in their posts on my personal Facebook page and how this ‘loyalty’ is used as means of regulating my mixed-race identity performance. This essay aims to understand several things, namely how identity is mediated through the invocation of racial obligation and how tension around identity plays out in the multiracial family.

A Research on Presentation of Violence in Social Media: Opinions of Facebook Users

Element of violence which was seen almost every day in all media but in no way could be prevented is reflecting a bitter side of life. Today that we called age of information, technology rapidly improved, and thanks to this there found solutions for a lot of matters, we are unfortunately are living violence more heavy day by day. Consequently, elements of violence lived are taking part in television and computer screens, and magazine and newspaper pages. Although it is an un approved and unwanted matter of fact, violence’s existing in life is keeping this phenomenon fresh in media’s agenda. It is known that there executed researches and studies about in what direction violence was presented in almost all units of media organs. In this study, how violence was used on Facebook that was used especially among young ones in last ten years and had high popularity had been searched. With this aim, a focus group study had been executed in November 2015 on university students. Information that representation of violence was done over Facebook had been obtained in the study. Violence done over Facebook is conceiving alienation, polarization and hate together with itself. As a consequence, shares done through Facebook can last with very close friends’ erasing each other from their personal Facebook pages in time, and this situation is called as violence.

Examining social media use among parents of children with cancer

ABSTRACTAmericans are increasingly using social media for health‐related communication. Facebook is the most widely used social media platform in the US. Much of the previous research on social media and health communication has focused on Facebook Groups related to a specific disease, or Facebook Pages related to an advocacy organization. However, less is known about how people communicate about health on personal Facebook Pages. In this study we expand upon previous research by examining the patterns of Facebook use among one unique population: parents caring for a child with cancer. We examined themes in cancer‐related exchanges through a content analysis of 12 months of data from 18 publically available Facebook Pages hosted by parents of children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (15,852 total posts). Four categories of health‐related Facebook usage emerged: documenting the cancer journey, (2) promoting awareness and advocacy about pediatric cancer, (3) sharing emotional strain associated with caregiving, and (4) mobilizing symbolic and instrumental forms of support. Our findings show that Facebook Pages offer a platform for people to share their cancer experiences, promote advocacy and awareness, and mobilize social support. Information professionals, particularly those who work with consumer and patient populations, should remain aware that social media platforms can provide layperson‐generated, user‐centered content that meets the informational, emotional, and logistical needs of caregivers and patients.