Social Media Practices Research Articles

Shame of Business Failure and Entrepreneurs’ Psychological Well-being: A Moderated Mediation Model

The shame of entrepreneurial failure is a very common emotion for entrepreneurs, but its consequences have been limited to study. Based on the cognitive appraisal theory, this study investigates how the shame of entrepreneurial failure influence entrepreneurs’ psychological well-being, as well as the mechanism. This paper collects the data by tracking 96 entrepreneurs in Shandong Province, China who have experienced business failures by questionnaire. The results show that the shame of entrepreneurial failure is positively related to perceived stress, which then decreases an entrepreneur’s psychological well-being. Further, the indirect relationship between the shame of business failure and entrepreneurs’ psychological well-being (via perceived stress) will be moderated by the number of ventures started, such a relationship is less positive for those entrepreneurs who have more experience. This study contributes to the research of shame of failure in entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs’ well-being, and cognitive appraisal theory in entrepreneurship. In addition, this study also contributions to entrepreneurs, policymakers, and social media in practice.

Feminist Activism in Digital Culture: Problems of Class and Ethics

Social media is a platform used by feminist activists for activism. It overcomes spatial and temporal barriers, and helps spread the movement's message more quickly and efficiently. The participatory culture encourages the feminist movement to develop more massively. Many argue that social media helps feminist activists to empower women. Related to the statement, this study observes how activism practices in social media represent women's voices and problems. This study also seeks to reveal the problems in the movement. The researcher observed five accounts of feminist activists on Instagram (@Indonesiafeminis, @lawanpatriarki, @perempuanfeminis, @muslimahfeminis, @perempuan.merdeka). Through the virtual ethnography method, the researcher found a representation problem when digital feminist accounts published the problems experienced by women through their content. These accounts only represent middle-class women's problems. There is also an ethical problem because these accounts tend to be reactive by ignoring the ethics of doing activism.

The built environment in Social Media: towards a Biosemiotic Approach

The paper presents a biosemiotic approach to the study of the built environment, its representations and practices in social media. First, it outlines the main developments that make semiotics hold a significant position in the study of urban space and the built environment. It then goes on to overcome the limitations of the binary opposition paradigm: in particular, nature/culture is reconsidered as a category in which the two terms are in a relation of mutual participation rather than being exclusive to each other. Following this, the paper explores three participatory categories that can be useful for the study of the built environment and its social media representations and practices: (a) life/semiosis, (b) natural environment/built environment, (c) text/practice. Finally, it identifies five main topics representing the interplay between the natural and built environment: the interaction of nature and architecture, urban parks, urban agriculture, digital environmentalism and ecotourism.

The role of parents, other adults, peers and informal learning communities in shaping positive social media use in adolesent girls

PurposeThis study aims to introduce the concept of communities of social media practice where more experienced users provide guidance to female novice users, enacting a form of legitimate peripheral participation to “onboard” newcomers.Design/methodology/approachThrough surveys with 968 early adolescents (average age was 13), the authors quantitatively explored sources and types of guidance for young social media users, popularity of conversation themes related to this guidance and how these conversations are associated with positive social media engagement. The authors qualitatively documented a case study of how a summer workshop of 17 students promotes positive social media use through a community of practice.FindingsAlthough early adolescent girls reported that they more frequently talked to their parents about a wider range of social media topics, same-age peers and younger family members (e.g., siblings, cousins) were also frequent sources. Surprisingly, the authors also found that the source most strongly associated with positive social media use was the peer group. This case study of an intentional community of practice demonstrated how peers go from “peripheral” to “centered” in socializing each other for more positive social media use.Originality/valueUnlike most prior scholarship on mediating social technology use, this study focuses on a critical developmental period (e.g. early adolescents), sources of guidance other than exclusively parents, explore the specific conversation topics that offer guidance and document an informal community of practice for girls that provides the training ground for peers and adult facilitators to codesign more positive social media spaces.

Trust and Power in the Space Between Visibility and Invisibility. Exploring Digital and Social Media Practices in Norwegian Child Welfare Services

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore how caseworkers in the Norwegian Child Welfare Services and their clients use digital and social media in information sharing. By applying Foucault’s description of Bentham’s Panopticon as an analytical tool, we show how caseworkers’ use of digital and social media without the client’s knowledge, while making themselves invisible, contribute to increase the power asymmetry of a professional–client relationship. The clients, on the other hand, have less possibilities of making themselves invisible. If they discover that caseworkers have invaded their private information, this is experienced as a breach of trust. While some studies discuss the equalising potential of using digital and social media in welfare communication, this study reveals some of the pitfalls in using these medias for communication and information exchange. Regardless of the type of media in question, their use becomes vital for visibility, trust and power. Our findings underscore that it is not only the digital tools that needs regulation. Regulations should address the participation of clients in deciding on communication tools and the all-important openness and non-covert practices necessary to build and maintain trusting relationships between caseworkers and clients.

Social Media Adoption and Labor Migrants Protection: The Case of the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs

The Philippines is internationally recognized as a best practice in advancing migration governance despite its complex, yet comprehensive landscape of migration policies, norms and structures, and institutions. More recently, the rise of social media has created ripples across sectors and actors due to its transformational power. The country’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) acknowledged this development and commenced its social media adoption process in 2011 and has rapidly evolved to keep up with the changing environment. Key informant interviews with officials and staff from the DFA reveal, that the agency has opened accounts in key social media platforms and that, this undertaking was positively received by its employees. According to the Mergel and Bretschneider model, it can be characterized as belonging to Level 3: Institutionalization and Consolidation upon the release of DO No. 16-2014, which prescribes “Guidelines on the Use of Social Media Use by All Units and Personnel of the DFA”. The cited document laid out specific rules and regulations on key facets of social media practices, such as access, content management, personal use of SM by DFA personnel, compliance mechanism, and administrative liability. Nevertheless, the DFA's social media adoption process is still challenged by inadequate resources and lack of a central sub-office, absence of success metrics, and spurious reports.

One Social Media, Distinct Habitus: Generation Z's Social Media Uses and Gratifications and the Moderation Effect of Economic Capital

This study aims at contributing to literature by investigating characteristics of Generation Z's social media uses and gratifications and the moderation effect of economic capital. Specifically, we employed online survey as the main research method to examine the connections between the young generation cohort's online motivations, social media practices, and economic capital. A total of 221 Chinese Generation Z social media users were recruited in the survey. Results indicated that (1) Generation Zs have different social media engagements depending on whether they were connected for daily routine alternatives or socialization; (2) the young cohorts from upper-mid-income families demonstrated a more instrumental-rational habitus to use social media more frequently as a communicative tool than those from low-income families; and (3) motivations and family income interacted to influence Generation Z's social media practices (e.g., social capital accumulating and exchanging and self-expression). Findings here provide empirical reference to deepened understandings of the interactions between social media and digital generations, and their connections with digital social inequalities.

Understanding Malaysian youth’s social media practices and their attitude towards violent extremism

The internet is an effective tool for learning, dissemination of information, communication, social networking and electronic commerce, among others. However, the internet, particularly through social media, has also been the source of disinformation, hate speech and the spreading of violent extremist propaganda. The use of social media to spread such information is also apparent in Malaysia. A significant number of those arrested for terror-related activities have been found to use social media to communicate, spread propaganda and recruit supporters and sympathizers. Hence, this study attempted to examine youth’s social media practices and factors that influence their support towards violent extremism on social media. This is particularly important for policy makers and practitioners to develop a more robust strategy in countering the use of social media by violent extremists and terrorists to target youth. To achieve the study aim, an online survey involving 400 respondents was conducted. The findings revealed that, youth liked video content the most, this was followed by written content, infographic and images. Information seeking continues to be an important purpose for using social media. While youth’s attitude towards violent extremism was moderate, this study found that, information or argument quality, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were factors that could influence attitude. Considering that social media technology that is constantly changing, it was proposed that, future studies in countering violent extremism to continually look into youth’s social media usage, particularly in understanding different social media platforms, types of content and the message design aspect.

Perceptions of Hearing-impaired Students on the Role of Social Media for their Inclusion into Mainstream Society


 
 
 
 
 
 
 Purpose: The students with hearing impairment have the facility to use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter for their interaction with mainstream society. This study investigated the social media practices of students with hearing impairment studying at the college and university levels for their social inclusion in mainstream society.
 Design/Methodology/Approach
 A cross-section survey design was followed to gather data. The population of the research was hearing-impaired students enrolled in graduation in Lahore city. A sample of 85 students with hearing impairment was selected through a non-probability sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was developed and got validated by establishing validity with the help of relevant experts. Reliably was .81 estimated through Cronbach alpha.
 Findings: The inferential statistical analysis shows no difference in the social media practices on the basis of gender and level/degree of hearing loss, social media has added great value in integrating SWHI within mainstream society, but students are still unaware of using this platform for their broader social networking and academic inclusion globally.
 Implications/Originality/Value: The study will add in the existing body of the knowledge and will guide the students to use social media for inclusion in all segments of mainstream society in a better way.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

From Bonehead to @realDonaldTrump

In many online services, we are identified by self-chosen usernames, also known as nicknames or pseudonyms. Usernames have been studied quite extensively within several academic disciplines, yet few existing literature reviews or meta-analyses provide a comprehensive picture of the name category. This article addresses this gap by thoroughly analyzing 103 research articles with usernames as their primary focus. Despite the great variety of approaches taken to investigate usernames, three main types of studies can be identified: (1) qualitative analyses examining username semantics, the motivations for name choices, and how the names are linked to the identities of the users; (2) experiments testing the communicative functions of usernames; and (3) computational studies analyzing large corpora of usernames to acquire information about the users and their behavior. The current review investigates the terminology, objectives, methods, data, results, and impact of these three study types in detail. Finally, research gaps and potential directions for future works are discussed. As this investigation will demonstrate, more research is needed to examine naming practices in social media, username-related online discrimination and harassment, and username usage in conversations.

Predicting social media engagement with computer vision: An examination of food marketing on Instagram

In a crowded social media marketplace, restaurants often try to stand out by showcasing elaborate “Instagrammable” foods. Using an image classification machine learning algorithm (Google Vision AI) on restaurants’ Instagram posts, this study analyzes how the visual characteristics of product offerings (i.e., their food) relate to social media engagement. Results demonstrate that food images that are more confidently evaluated by Google Vision AI (a proxy for food typicality) are positively associated with engagement (likes and comments). A follow-up experiment shows that exposure to typical-appearing foods elevates positive affect, suggesting they are easier to mentally process, which drives engagement. Therefore, contrary to conventional social media practices and food industry trends, the more typical a food appears, the more social media engagement it receives. Using Google Vision AI to identify what product offerings receive engagement presents an accessible method for marketers to understand their industry and inform their social media marketing strategies.

Mediating Pain: Navigating Endometriosis on Social Media.

With the rise of social media, many people with endometriosis have turned to platforms such as Facebook and Instagram in the face of lacking care. This qualitative study focuses on why and how people with endometriosis use these platforms. Despite the risks of misinformation and conflict on social media, the results of this research show that many people with endometriosis find these spaces beneficial, particularly for information sharing, social support, representation, and advocacy practices around endometriosis. Using data collected from surveys and interviews, this study reveals that people with endometriosis often use social media to understand, experiment with, and navigate their symptoms and that these efforts deserve recognition by endometriosis researchers and practitioners. This article proposes that, in order to improve future patient-practitioner and patient-researcher relationships for endometriosis, we must understand, not dismiss, the social media practices of those with endometriosis. By understanding how and why patients turn to social media, clinicians and researchers can build toward more patient-oriented futures.

Humor That Harms? Examining Racist Audio-Visual Memetic Media on TikTok During Covid-19

During times of crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic, digital platforms are under public scrutiny to guarantee users’ online safety and wellbeing. Following inconsistencies in how platforms moderate online content and behavior, governments around the world are putting pressure on them to curb the spread of illegal and lawful harmful content and behavior (e.g., UK’s Draft Online Safety Bill). These efforts, though, mainly focus on overt abuse and false information, which misses more mundane social media practices such as racial stereotyping that are equally popular and can be inadvertently harmful. Building on Stoever’s (2016) work on the “sonic color line,” this article problematizes sound, specifically, as a key element in racializing memetic practices on the popular short-video platform TikTok. We examine how humorous audio-visual memes about Covid-19 on TikTok contribute to social inequality by normalizing racial stereotyping, as facilitated through TikTok’s “Use This Sound” feature. We found that users’ appropriations of sounds and visuals on TikTok, in combination with the platform’s lack of clear and transparent moderation processes for humorous content, reinforce and (re)produce systems of advantage based on race. Our article contributes to remediating the consistent downplaying of humor that negatively stereotypes historically marginalized communities. It also advances work on race and racism on social media by foregrounding the sonification of race as means for racism’s evolving persistence, which represents a threat to social cohesion.

Social Media Application as a New Paradigm for Business Communication: The Role of COVID-19 Knowledge, Social Distancing, and Preventive Attitudes.

Business firms and the public have encountered massive consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has become the most significant challenge and influenced all communities. This research study focuses on exploring the relationship between COVID-19 knowledge, social distancing, individuals' attitudes toward social media use, and practices of using social media amid the COVID-19 crisis. This study examines how attitudes toward social media use mediate the linkage between COVID-19 knowledge, social distancing, and practices for social media use. This survey uses a non-probability convenience sampling approach to collect samples and recruit willing respondents with their consent for data collection. This study recorded the feedback from 348 participants who encountered the indirect/direct effects of nationwide lockdowns, restrictions on social gatherings, and COVID-19 infection. The findings validate the proposed hypotheses for their direct effects and indicate significant β-values, t-statistics, and the p-values at p <0.001. The results validate a relationship between the COVID-19 knowledge of and social distancing practices. Similarly, the results approved a positive link between social distancing and attitudes toward social media use amid COVID-19. The findings validate the relation between social distancing and attitudes toward social media use during COVID-19 challenges (β-value = 0.22 and t-statistics = 3.078). The results show the linkage between attitudes toward social media use and practices of using social media (β-value = 0.41, and t-statistics = 7.175). Individuals' attitude toward social media use during COVID-19 mediates the connection between COVID-19 knowledge and COVID-19 practices of using social media use. The results validate the first mediation at β-value = 0.21 and t-statistic = 5.327. Similarly, the findings approve that attitudes toward social media use in the pandemic have positively mediated the relation between distancing and practices for social media use amid the crisis of COVID-19 (β-value = 0.09 and t-statistic = 2.633). The findings indicate how people have been indulged in social media to pave their business communication needs. The results provide valuable insights for the global business community. This study provides a systematic and holistic research model that helps in exploring the consequences of COVID-19. The generalizability of the findings provides valuable directions for future research related to the current pandemic.

Developing and sustaining a social media ecosystem in speech-language pathology: Using innovative qualitative methods to visualise and cultivate a social media garden

Purpose: Qualitative research methods, grounded in an inductive analytic paradigm, increasingly inform clinical practice in the field of speech-language pathology. Social media research, often including qualitative methods, provides a valuable way to connect and listen to the voices of people with communication disabilities. With growing empirical evidence on the ways that people with communication disabilities use social media, and recognition of both benefits and limitations of its use, it is important to consider what will support clinicians to translate this work conceptually and safely into clinical practice. Method: In this paper, we use the tools of metaphor and arts-based knowledge translation to promote the translation of evidence into social media practice. Results: With social media being an important ecosystem to grow and nurture in speech-language pathology, a “picturing a social media garden” metaphor is proposed to further research translation. The metaphor will be used to frame strategies for applying qualitative techniques for speech-language pathologists to consider how to use social media in clinical and professional practice, as well as citing supporting literature to guide further reading. Conclusion: The suggested approaches could augment existing methods of assessment and intervention for people with communication disabilities and provide support for clinicians who want to develop their own strategy for using social media, build a vibrant social media ecosystem, and integrate social media interventions into their clinical services.

Sociolinguistic upsets and people of color in social media performances

Abstract Particularly since the refugee “reception crisis” in 2015, Finland has started transforming into a more diverse and multicultural society. These societal changes have also been accompanied by sociolinguistic change, as well as language ideological debates and tensions, often manifesting in explicitly racist and xenophobic bursts of upset. In this article, our focus is on social media as a space where such societal and sociolinguistic upsets are articulated and re-worked. Drawing on recent sociolinguistic and discourse analytic work on transformative and critical popular cultural practices in social media, and studies on rap and belonging, we discuss how, in a mediatized society such as Finland, social media serve as a forum for antagonism and conflict, but also as a site for ‘talking back’. As our illustrative cases, we investigate two heteroglossic social media performances by entertainers and artists of color. In our analysis, we will show how these performances highlight and contest ideological notions of the way particular language resources are considered a key to Finnishness, as well as their role in the racialization and othering of people of color.

Adjusting sails for changing winds: exploring Reddit use for professional purposes in higher education.

Emerging practices of social media for professional purposes in higher education merit further attention. Reddit, a social media platform, is under-studied despite its significant presence. This study explores participation patterns on Reddit for two summer periods during 2019–2020, before and during COVID-19. We collected a total of 82,494 contributions from two subreddits, r/highereducation and r/Professors. Results show changes in contributions and interactions, with more consistent growth in r/Professors. Major topics discussed in both subreddits during summer 2020 had shifted from 2019, largely related to COVID-19. Findings are discussed with a community of practice lens, noting changes in participation and adjustment to the crisis. Additionally, we present implications for supporting and sustaining higher education professionals through Reddit during and after massive disruptions like those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Privacy Concern Behaviour on Social Media Sites: A Comparative Analysis of Urban and Rural Users

Numerous researchers have examined various aspects of privacy concern and information-sharing behaviour for online social networking sites; few past researches stated that social media users' privacy concern behavior influenced by their demographic profile. This article attempts to analyse social networking users’ privacy concerns and information-sharing behaviours for urban and rural areas of India. It additionally investigates privacy concerns among users with distinctive levels of Internet addiction. It has been observed that are most of the respondents are susceptible to privacy infringement because of their online social media awareness. The examination finds that urban and rural users vary in their information-sharing practices and privacy adaption. Urbanites might be at more serious risk to privacy infringement and information sharing on account of their valuable data and their social media practices. Furthermore, social media users are dependent on the privacy alerts and settings available to them while sharing information on the various social media sites. Users with low social media awareness might be powerless against privacy infringement in the absence of such alerts from the site administrators. Potential implications of discoveries are given and advice for future research had been also discussed.

Understanding “Good” and “Bad” Twitter Practices in Alternative Media: An Analysis of Online Political Media in the UK (2015–2018)

ABSTRACT Alternative Online Political Media (AOPM) have become increasingly important within international news landscapes, but their social media practices have received limited academic attention. Our large-scale content analysis (N = 14807) offers the first comprehensive study of how APOM in the UK use Twitter. Drawing on a pertinent model of social media use that enhances notions of “good” and “bad” journalism, and through our own sentiment analysis, we find Twitter norms closely aligned with those of legacy media, including a relatively limited online interaction with audiences. We conclude that while AOPM follow many social media logics consistent with mainstream news sites and add to the wider realm of political analysis, their highly partisan content means that their Twitter use cannot be considered balanced, neutral or objective.

Political participation in transition: Internet memes as a form of political expression in social media

Internet memes have become a popular format for expressing individual political opinions in social media. Based on a quantitative online survey of political Internet meme users from fringe web communities and sharing platforms (n = 482), this study examines the factors related to political expression in Internet memes. The analysis reveals that political Internet meme usage depends on users’ political interest and the intensity of social media prosumption. Political Internet meme usage is also positively related to users’ motivations for political engagement and internal political efficacy. Moreover, the use of Internet memes for the expression of political opinions is related to users’ online and offline political participation. This study represents the first empirical exploration of users who create and share political Internet memes. The results contribute to the body of knowledge on changing and elusive participatory practices in social media and shift the focus from general social media usage to a specific type of content.