Social Media Communication Research Articles

The focus on weight in the inpatient care of anorexia nervosa: A qualitative investigation of consumer perspectives.

Anorexia nervosa has a high mortality rate and is often treated in the inpatient setting, where close monitoring and medical support are available. Consistent with objective biomedical benchmarks, conventional inpatient treatment is often focussed on weight gain. Consumers report that clinicians provide care focussed on weight and physical restoration without adequate consideration of their full spectrum of needs. The aim of this study was to explore consumers' perspectives of the biomedical focus on weight gain in the inpatient care of anorexia nervosa. This study employed a qualitative approach, involving semistructured interviews, and participants were recruited from relevant social media communities. This study was ethically approved by a university ethics committee and the COREQ checklist ensured ethical reporting. Ten women participated in interviews. Participants reported that the biomedical imperative of weight gain is focussed on at the exclusion of other relevant determinants of well-being, and the narrow focus on weight gain does not suitably prepare consumers for discharge. The conflict between clinicians' biomedical focus and consumers' broader unmet needs leads to harmful interpersonal dynamics and feelings of invalidation. The inpatient care of anorexia nervosa needs to develop beyond biomedically driven objectives and incorporate the merits of an approach that substantively integrates person-centred care, therapeutic relationships and trauma-informed principles.

Public health risk communication through the lens of a quarantined community: Insights from a coronavirus hotspot in Germany.

Quarantine is one of the most effective interventions to contain an infectious disease outbreak, yet it is one of the most disruptive. We investigated the quarantine of an entire village to better understand risk communication requirements for groups. We conducted a cross-sectional, mixed-methods survey study on a single cohort of adult residents in Neustadt am Rennsteig, Germany, six weeks after the removal of a 14-day mandatory community quarantine. The survey response rate was 33% (289/883 residents). Survey participants reported a lack of information on the quarantine implementation process. What authorities communicated was not necessarily what residents desired to know. While inhabitants used social media and telephones to communicate with each other, the official information sources were regional radio, television, newspapers and official websites. Public health authorities did not employ social media communication to engage with their communities. Despite a lack of information, the majority of respondents stated that they had complied with the quarantine and they expressed little sympathy for those who violated the quarantine. After lifting the quarantine, many respondents continued to avoid places where they suspected a significant risk of infection, such as family and friends' homes, doctor's offices and grocery stores. The survey participants utilised existing social networks to disseminate vital information and stabilise its group identity and behaviour (quarantine compliance). The authorities communicated sparsely in a unidirectional, top-down manner, without engaging the community. Despite the lack of official information, the social coherency of the group contributed to considerate and compliant conduct, but participants expressed dissatisfaction with official leadership and asked for more attention. Public health risk communication must engage with communities more effectively. This necessitates a deeper comprehension of groups, their modes of communication and their social needs.

Language ideologies in a Finnish university student union’s Facebook communication practices

ABSTRACT This paper examines language ideologies – sets of normative beliefs about language and its speakers – in a Finnish university student union’s Facebook communication practices. Prior research has discussed how today’s Nordic universities appear to be caught in an ideological tension between the preservation of ethnolinguistic nationalism and the pursuit of internationalization through the use of English. We are interested in the case of university student unions in the changing landscape of communication practices today. We analyzed the student union’s Facebook posts using critical discursive psychology. Our analysis identifies the university’s Finnish–English bilingualism as discursively affording an ambiguous kind of inclusion to students as Finnish-speaking/local and English-speaking/international students, and also social media communication as possibly contributing to the inclusion of all students as social media users. We argue that multimodal affordances of social media may act as an alternative discursive resource for inclusive intergroup relations among students in a student organization on an international campus.

Social Media in Electoral Communication: A Case Study of Strategic Initiatives by Bantul Election Commission for the 2024 Elections

In the contemporary landscape of democratic processes, the role of social media has become instrumental in shaping political communication strategies. This study investigates the nuanced dynamics of social media utilization, with a specific focus on its impact on the effectiveness of communication strategies employed during the 2024 Elections by the Bantul Election Commission (KPU Bantul) in Indonesia. Recognizing the potential of social media in enhancing voter participation, KPU Bantul strategically employed platforms such as Instagram, websites, and YouTube to educate, engage, and mobilize the public. Through a qualitative analysis rooted in social media theory and communication strategy frameworks, this research explores the innovative methods used by KPU Bantul. Key findings encompass strategic networking and coordination, digital literacy initiatives targeting novice voters, challenges in measuring social media impact, and the transformative potential of integrating social media within electoral processes. The study not only sheds light on the intricate mechanisms of social media utilization but also offers practical insights for improving social media initiatives in future electoral contexts.

Optimizing Public Communication in the Digital Era: A Case Study of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in Indonesia

Effective public communication is pivotal in today's digital age, where the interplay of various channels and media platforms shapes societal interactions. This study delves into the intricate domain of public communication, focusing on the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (KOMINFO) in Indonesia. Employing qualitative research methods, including case studies, observations, interviews, and document analysis, this research investigates KOMINFO's strategies, particularly its social media communication initiatives. The study illuminates the challenges faced by the government in bridging communication gaps with the public and explores the innovative solutions deployed, including the utilization of social media platforms, digital literacy programs, and the engagement of skilled communicators. Despite commendable efforts, challenges persist, especially in the context of crisis communication, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study concludes by emphasizing the need for ongoing research to align expectations with outcomes and offers valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners aiming to optimize public communication strategies in the evolving digital landscape.

How social media influencer collaborations are perceived by consumers

AbstractWithin the social media community, influencers engage in a variety of collaborative practices such as tagging, reposting content from, or forming partnerships with other influencers and brands. While such collaborative efforts are a known practice, less is understood about how influencer collaborations affect consumers' perceptions of the partnering influencers, specifically when a status differential exists within the collaboration. We suggest that such collaborative practices, specifically those where the focal influencer has a higher status than the collaborating partner, may help to weaken consumers' perceptions that the influencer's actions are purely self‐focused. A pilot study, analyzing both influencer–influencer collaborations and influencer–brand collaborations, provides evidence that influencers engage in collaborations with other influencers and brands of different status levels. Two studies then support our theorizing that influencers who collaborate with lower‐status influencers are perceived as less self‐serving and more altruistic, while influencers who collaborate with lower‐status brands are only perceived as less self‐serving. This suggests that, for influencers who desire to enhance how consumers perceive them, an effective strategy is to engage in collaborations with either a lower‐status influencer or brand.

Analysing effective social media communication in higher education institutions

This paper aims to analyse the institutional communication of universities on social media by conducting a content analysis of the communication strategy of 70 higher education institutions (in the United States, Europe and Latin America). The study focuses on three social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) and the analysis three dimensions of social media institutional communication: posting, interactivity and content. Findings reveal that while most universities demonstrate a passive centripetal performance to posting, there is a significant divergence in relation to the level of activity. The study highlights that interactivity focus is predominantly characterised by monologues, despite institutions increasingly integrating various communication resources to foster stakeholder interaction. The majority of universities tend to prioritize exclusive or dominant content combination, with organizational content exhibiting a significantly greater presence. By an integrated analysis of these three key dimensions on social media, this paper this paper offers valuable insights for both academics and practitioners. It contributes to the scholars by facilitating further academic research on social media institutional communication and provides professionals with a practical guide for strategically managing communication on social media.

Responsive strategies and self-identity construction in “Versailles Humblebragging” on Chinese social media

Abstract Versailles humblebragging is becoming an increasingly pervasive pragmatic and linguistic phenomenon since late 2020 in face-to-face and social media communication in China. Despite its ubiquity, there is a relative paucity of empirical research on this new phenomenon, particularly on the reactions of followers in the digital communicative context and the self-identities constructed by the posters, as well as the theoretical limitations to explicate the social cognitive factors behind the novel pragmatic behavior. This study integrated pragmatic and social cognitive theories to conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses of the responsive strategies followers used and the self-identity the humblebraggers built in this phenomenon. Based on the data retrieved from Chinese social media Weibo, we have found generally two major types of responsive strategies, namely the explicit and implicit. A majority of followers employed the implicit strategies to express their acceptance and liking with a preponderance of clicking the “like” affordance, suggesting that Versailles humblebragging helps to build good interpersonal relationship on Weibo. We have also identified seven types of self-identities and explored the underlying factors from the perspective of social cognition. It might be concluded from the findings that certain social and cultural shared beliefs, values and patterns of life are potent factors in shaping Chinese posters’ interpretation of themselves and other people.

Identification of monolingual and code-switch information from English-Kannada code-switch data

<span lang="EN-US">Code-switching is a very common occurrence in social media communication, predominantly found in multilingual countries like India. Using more than one language in communication is known as code-switching or code-mixing. Some of the important applications of code-switch are machine translation (MT), shallow parsing, dialog systems, and semantic parsing. Identifying code-switch and monolingual information is useful for better communication in online networking websites. In this paper, we performed a character level n-gram approach to identify monolingual and code-switch information from English-Kannada social media data. We paralleled various machine learning techniques such as naïve Bayes (NB), support vector classifier (SVC), logistic regression (LR) and neural network (NN) on English-Kannada code-switch (EKCS) data. From the proposed approach, it is observed that the character level n-gram approach provides 1.8% to 4.1% of improvement in terms of Accuracy and 1.6% to 3.8% of improvement in F1-score. Also observed that SVC and NN techniques are outperformed in terms of accuracy (97.9%) and F1-score (98%) with character level n-gram.</span>

Hybrid representative sampling of social media

Social media communities are understudied due to the difficulty of obtaining data with any amount of generalizability. This research proposes a method of hybrid probability sampling of social media ecosystems (collections of communities) using network theory, stratified sampling methods, theoretical saturation, and widely available social media activity statistics. Because of the unique venue of research, these methods create an opt-in sample, where every member of a community is given an equal chance to participate. The proposed methods were then used to obtain a sample representative of a digital political ecosystem with a population size of 8 million. The results illuminate stark polarization resulting from algorithmic opinion aggregation, with implications in online extremism, media literacy, demographic representation in public discourse, and more.

The Social Media Communication Vision of Archaeological Site Museums

The Social Media Communication Vision of Archaeological Site Museums

Regional Political Communication in Social Media: Comparative Analysis

Political communication has its pecularities in each subject of the Russian Federation. This research compared the official website and Instagram of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation with those of the Communist Party of the Republic of Tyva. The research revealed the basic characteristics of political communication in Tyva, the integration of regional political organizations into Internet communication, and their ability to use the manipulative potential of social networks. The Tuva Communist Party demonstrated a high level of virtual communication with social network users. The regional political communication was oriented towards unique content that reflected the regional specifics of political discourse. The posts were short, with a lot of infographics; the material was adapted to the requirements of the addressee by highlighting key categories.

Local News Deserts in China: The Role of Social Media and Personal Communication Networks

The field of local news is often associated with news deserts, commonly defined as geo-based communities without newspapers or other legacy media as providers of locally oriented news and civic information. This phenomenon is expanding in global society due to the diminishing presence of newspapers at moments of accelerated digitization. This study examines the multiplex nature of news deserts in rural and suburban areas in China. Data were collected through a multi-methods approach combining two focus groups and 44 semi-structured in-depth interviews. Patterns of engagement among interviewees reveal that smartphone-based social media applications and digital platforms function as viable sources of news, and incidental exposure to news has become the norm of digital news use. Government-orchestrated convergent media services and WeChat channels are preferred choices by most research participants for local news. We argue that a media ecology perspective may be a productive approach to understanding community news and local newspapers.

“The problem is not lack of information”: A qualitative study of parents and school nurses’ perceptions of barriers and potential solutions for HPV vaccination in schools

BackgroundHPV vaccination has been offered in school programs for over a decade in Quebec, Canada, but the vaccine coverages are not reaching the target coverage in several regions. This qualitative study aimed to describe barriers and enabling conditions of HPV vaccination as perceived by parents and school nurses and identify potential solutions to improve HPV vaccine uptake rates and acceptance in school-based programs. MethodsThree focus group discussions were conducted with parents of children in Grades 2 or 3 who were unsure or unwilling to vaccinate. Individual interviews were conducted with 24 school nurses. A thematic content analysis was performed using N'Vivo. ResultsThe main parental questions and concerns regarding the HPV vaccination were the children’s young age, the possible side effects, the rationale behind boys’ vaccination and the possible interaction with COVID-19 vaccination. Except for interaction with COVID-19 vaccination, these concerns remain similar to those identified before the pandemic. Interviews highlighted that the information on HPV vaccination provided by the public was not well understood by parents. Parents suggested different tools to access information tailored to their concerns and situation. From the nurses’ perspective, HPV vaccination promotion tools such as decision-aids and social media communication campaigns were needed and could reduce their work. ConclusionCOVID-19 may have disrupted the acceptance of the vaccines. While strategies to catch up on missed doses and reduce access barriers to vaccines are urgently needed, our findings highlight that a shift in attitudes toward routine vaccines may pose further challenges even if HPV vaccine coverage appears to have returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Language Visibility and Audibility: Discussing the Dominant Status of Yoruba on Social Media

In recent times, there is evidence of the emergence of new linguistic dynamics in the social media communication engagements in the Nigerian social media culture which have consequently impacted the visibility of the Yoruba language. The use of Yoruba has become part of a lot of users’ everyday social communication practices thereby promoting the language to be more visible in the arena of social media platforms. This study is interested in evaluating the nature of and the extent to which the language is used on social media, understanding its presence to the development of social media repertoire, and how it has become the dominant local medium through which many Nigerian social media users negotiate and express their identities. The motivation for this practice, and how it is employed as a discoursal means of language promotion will also be investigated. The data contain Instagram comments that exhibit pure Yoruba and code mixing between Yoruba and English/Nigerian Pidgin English; and from the data, it is evident that Yoruba is gaining more popularity on social media networks amidst the dense multilingualism of Nigeria. The findings reveal that social media provide a discursive platform for the users to be able to reinforce dominant representation of the language. The paper concludes that Yoruba is emerging as a popular language of the Nigerian internet culture.

Communication aimed at engendering trustworthiness: An analysis of CSR messages on Twitter

AbstractA growing body of research is exploring corporate communication in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on social media (SM). Nonetheless, while these studies have shown that SM communication may be an effective tool for reaching and engaging various stakeholders, how the design of corporate CSR communication engenders trustworthiness has yet to be examined. To address this gap, we suggest that SM communication may include important signals related to trust; thus, we investigate whether companies use sources of trustworthiness (reputation, performance, and appearance) while communicating with stakeholders and the response of the latter to such communication. Our empirical analysis is based on a database containing over 66,000 CSR‐related messages from eight companies focusing on communication extracted from Twitter. These data are coded according to three sources of trustworthiness and two dimensions of CSR communication (social and environmental). Our findings indicate that all three attributes of trustworthiness are used by companies in their CSR social media communication. We also document how corporate efforts to use CSR communication that engenders trustworthiness influence stakeholder engagement. Our study therefore contributes to the literature on trust in relation to CSR by illustrating the importance of signaling that includes different sources of trustworthiness or their combination in corporate communication. By analyzing how the various trust attributes included in CSR communication affect SM reactions, we also identify which attributes lead to greater stakeholder engagement overall, particularly for the two analyzed dimensions of CSR communication.

Consumers’ persuasion knowledge of algorithms in social media advertising: identifying consumer groups based on awareness, appropriateness, and coping ability

Advertising and brand communication in social media are increasingly driven by algorithms. Theoretically rooted in the Persuasion Knowledge Model, we aim to identify and investigate the prevalence of specific consumer groups that differ in their awareness levels, critical evaluations, and abilities to cope with such algorithmic persuasion in social media, as well as to investigate the predictors of these groups. By performing an online survey among a Dutch sample (n = 450) and a two-step cluster analysis, we identified four groups: the Control Paradox (the largest group), Fatigued, Uninformed but Critical, and Skilled and Critical. The four groups differed in respect to gender, age, education level, internet skills, self-reported knowledge of algorithms, privacy concerns, and perceived personalization of branded social media messages. Theoretically, this paper contributes to our understanding of algorithmic persuasion by proposing a consumer typology and discussing implications for the Persuasion Knowledge Model. Practically, this study provides evidence-based recommendations for policymakers on how to empower different types of consumers.

BİR TIP FAKÜLTESİ 4. VE 5. SINIF ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN KORONER ARTER HASTALIĞI HAKKINDAKİ BİLGİ VE FARKINDALIK DÜZEYLERİ

Objective
 Coronary artery disease (CAD) ranks first in mortality
 and morbidity in the World. Physicians' high level of
 knowledge, skills, and awareness on this subject
 is essential in the fight against this chronic disease.
 This study aimed to determine the knowledge and
 awareness levels of physician candidates about
 CAD and to contribute to the areas that need to be
 developed after the survey.
 Material and Method
 This cross-sectional and descriptive study was
 conducted on 600 students from the 4th and 5th
 grades of Suleyman Demirel University Faculty of
 Medicine between April 1, 2022, and May 1, 2022. The
 questionnaire that measured the level of knowledge
 and awareness about CAD was administered through
 social media communication networks or face-to-face.
 Results
 Of the 348 participants included in our study, 200
 (57.5%) were women. The mean age of the participants
 was 23.14±1.1, their average weight was 68.6±
 10.7, and their average height was 169.73± 12.7.
 Of the students who participated in the survey, 223
 (65%) were fifth-grade students, and 125 (35%) were
 fourth-grade students. Of the students, 314 (90%)
 completed their cardiology internship. When we asked
 the participants to rate their level of knowledge about
 CAD between 1 and 5, 48.2% of the participants gave
 3 points to their knowledge level. In addition, 74.7%
 (n=260) of the students who participated in the survey
 know that troponin I is the most specific marker in
 myocardial ischemia. 52.2% (n=182) marked smoking
 as the question of which lifestyle changes the most
 in the follow-up of CAD and gave the correct answer.
 When they surveyed the life-saving treatment in CAD,
 24.4% (n=85) of the study population gave the correct
 answer by marking the stent implantation option. This
 response was followed by the fast-acting nitrate option
 with 36.2% (n=126).
 Conclusion
 As a result, increasing the knowledge and awareness
 of the faculty of medical students about CAD is
 important for the fight against CAD, and this study
 contributed to the determination of the missing points.

TikToks Lead to Higher Knowledge and Perceived Severity of Sexual Violence among Adolescent Men.

Social media communication is a promising way to deliver important health messages about sexual violence to a key population of adolescent men. The researchers conducted an online, between-participants experiment to examine the impact of personal narrative TikToks about sexual violence on adolescent men. Participants were adolescent men (n = 580) aged 15 to 19 (M = 17.3, SD = 1.43). Participants were randomly assigned to treatment (personal narrative TikToks about sexual violence) or control (hair braiding TikTok tutorials) conditions. Adolescent men who viewed personal narrative TikToks about sexual violence had higher knowledge of consequences and higher perceived severity of sexual violence. Additionally, adolescent men found personal narrative TikToks more attention-grabbing (vs. control) and did not have negative reactions. Findings that short (approximately one-minute) TikTok videos led to differences in knowledge and beliefs among, and were interesting and not aversive to, adolescent men are important for sexual violence prevention research. Health messages on TikTok can help shift adolescent perceptions of sexual violence, which is a key starting point towards changing norms.

Kampania społeczna jako narzędzie rządowego komunikowania kryzywsowego w mediach społecznościowych w pierwszym roku pandemii COVID-19 w Polsce

Celem artykułu jest identyfikacja kampanii społecznej jako narzędzia rządowego komunikowania kryzysowego w mediach społecznościowych w pierwszym roku pandemii COVID-19 w Polsce oraz próba analizy i oceny informacji przekazywanych za pośrednictwem spotów reklamowych poświęconych tej pandemii w świetle opinii internautów. Wykorzystano metody badawcze ilościowe oraz jakościowe, w tym: studia źródłowe, analizę zawartości mediów, analizę danych zastanych oraz studium przypadku. Autorki postawiły tezę, że za pomocą wybranych spotów emitowanych w ramach prowadzonej przez Ministerstwo Zdrowia kampanii społecznej w okresie pierwszego roku pandemii w Polsce (od 4 marca 2020 roku do 4 marca 2021 roku) resort ten starał się poinformować i wyedukować społeczeństwo na temat bezpieczeństwa zdrowia publicznego w związku z rozprzestrzenianiem się wirusa COVID-19. Wyniki badań wskazały na brak doświadczenia rządu w posługiwaniu się nowymi kanałami medialnymi w komunikowaniu kryzysowym, co wywołało gorącą dyskusję społeczeństwa w mediach społecznościowych, na którą rządzący nie byli przygotowani. Dyskurs w polskim społeczeństwie, wyłaniający się z komentarzy użytkowników wybranych mediów społecznościowych na temat informacji przekazywanych za pośrednictwem spotów reklamowych poświęconych pandemii COVID-19, pobudza i stymuluje do działania, wzbudzając niepokój nadawców z powodu zakłócania ustalonego porządku informacyjnego. Można więc mówić o jego potencjale do generowania zmian. Należy traktować go jako impuls do zmiany, a w szczególności do starannego przygotowywania informacyjnych kampanii społecznych. Social Campaign as a Tool for Government Crisis Communication in Social Media in the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland The aim of the article is to identify the social campaign used as a tool for government crisis communication in social media in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland and to attempt to analyse and evaluate the information provided through advertising spots dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic in the light of Internet users’ opinions. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used, including source studies, media content analysis, desk research and case study. The authors put forward the thesis that by means of selected spots aired as part of the social campaign conducted by the Ministry of Health, during the first year of the pandemic in Poland (from March 4, 2020, to March 4, 2021), this Ministry tried to inform and educate the public about safety and public health measures implemented to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The results of the research showed the government’s lack of experience in using new media channels in crisis communication, which caused a fierce public discourse in social media, for which the rulers were not prepared. The discourse in Polish society, emerging from the comments of users of selected social media on the information provided through advertising spots dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic, stimulates and encourages action, arousing anxiety due to the disruption of the established information order. We can discuss its potential to generate changes, on condition that social information campaigns are carefully prepared.