Social Media Policies Research Articles

It’s Not How You Say It, It’s What You Say: Ambient Digital Racism and Racial Narratives on Twitter

Social media has been used to disseminate hate speech and racism. Racist opinions can be disguised through a language that may appear to be harmless; however, it can be part of a racist rhetoric toward communities of color. This type of racist communication is called Ambient Digital Racism (ADR). Through a thematic analysis, this project sought to identify and analyze social media racist discourses on Twitter in the context of George Floyd’s death. This research examined original tweets posted during the time of the protests using three known counter Black Lives Matter (BLM) hashtags, namely, #WhiteLivesMatter, #BlueLivesMatter, and #AllLivesMatter. After the analysis, two themes emerged, namely, the discourse of oppressor’s reverse racism and the social criminalization of BLM. These themes described the narratives used by these groups to develop a racist digital discourse that goes unnoticed by social media regulations and policies and that leaves an open space to negotiate what constitutes acceptable race talk and what constitutes a racist discourse. It was found that both themes were grounded on White victimization, color-blind racism, and the dehumanization of BLM as a social and racial justice movement.

Boards and social media: the institutionalization of corporate social media policy

PurposeThe authors' work examines whether coercive forces in the general regulatory environment lead to similarity in social media policy across industries and if memetic forces of industry-specific values and norms lead to greater similarity of social media policy within industries.Design/methodology/approachCorporate social media policies were analyzed using a convergent parallel mixed method design to assess and identify themes and similarities. Using an institutional theory lens, this paper examines whether coercive forces in the general regulatory environment lead to similarities in social media policies across industries, and if mimetic forces from industry-specific norms lead to greater similarity of social media policies within industries. Findings suggest that industry-specific, institutional field-level mimetic forces have a greater effect on social media policy isomorphism than environmental-level coercive forces. This study represents the first assessment of corporate social media policies across organizations and industries.FindingsFindings suggest that industry-specific, institutional field-level mimetic forces have a greater effect on social media policy isomorphism than environmental-level coercive forces.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations related to sampling were primarily related to policy collection. To deal with these limitations, the sample was planned to allow for the inclusion of both randomly selected North American companies from the Fortune 500 list and another random selection of 35 companies from within a convenience sample of 100 North American firms who had a publicly available social media policy online.Practical implicationsThe authors' research speaks to management, directors and researchers who work with policy, governance or risk management as the authors demonstrate the effect regulatory and normative institutions have on social media policies: stakeholders within and without given industries are forcing firms to develop legitimacy-providing social media policies by penalizing those that do not. The authors' findings demonstrate that firms respond to the 21st Century potential corporate risk of unsanctioned social media communications by developing corporate social media policies with similar themes. By identifying the themes common in corporate social media policies, the authors have identified best practices constituting a risk mitigation tool for boards.Originality/valueThe authors' approach is innovative in focus and approach. First, using an institutional theory lens, the authors assess the influence of regulatory and memetic forces on social media policies as a formal structure within an institutional field. Second, the authors' approach includes the first major assessment of North American social media policies across a wide array of organizations and industries, adding to understanding about approaches currently used to manage increased social media use in the workplace.

Public Employee Use of Social Media at Work: Competency, Collaboration, and Communication of Workplace Policy

Although the growth of social media has changed the way employees communicate at work, our understanding of the related workplace dynamics, particularly in public organizations, is still embryonic. This study fills these research gaps by testing hypotheses, drawn from social cognitive theory and social capital theory, using two sets of data on social media usage patterns and workplace practices among public employees. Our survey data ( n = 1,360) analysis revealed that most respondents (more than 72%) spent at least an hour per day on social media while at work, for both work- and non-work-related purposes. Furthermore, public employees with higher levels of social media competence (technical understanding and impact assessment) were more likely to report effective collaboration and seek assistance when needed. The results of scenario-based randomized survey experiment ( n = 600) show that the perceived fairness of social media-related termination decisions (or “get dooced”) was influenced by the presence of an explicit workplace social media policy.

Corporate Users' Attachment to Social Networking Sites: Examining the Role of Social Capital and Perceived Benefits.

The debate on the pros and cons of employee attachment to social networking sites (SNS) has led to social media policy paralysis in many organizations, and often a prohibition on employee use of SNS. This paper examines corporate users’ attachment to SNS. An analysis of 316 survey responses showed that corporate users’ socialization in large public SNS was steeped in perceived work-related benefits, which in turn nourished their SNS attachment. Social use outperformed informational use in generating perceived work-related benefits from SNS. Weak ties in large heterogeneous networks resulted in strategic and operational benefits, whereas the effects of strong bonding in homogenous networks were limited to operational benefits. The paper contributes to research on SNS use by corporate users and the debate on the effect of SNS use for work. The findings will benefit SNS strategists of organizations and policymakers to exploit the benefit potential of public SNS.

Social Media Policies in U.S. Television Newsrooms: Changes over Time

This study analyzes survey data, gathered in 2014 and 2020, regarding local television newsrooms’ social media policies (SMPs). The purpose of the study is to explore changes to these policies. As part of this inquiry, the researchers investigate if and in which ways newsroom SMPs are evolving in four areas: journalists’ professional and personal social media activities; social media sources and content; audience complaints; and ownership of on-air talents’ accounts. The researchers found a significant increase of guidelines regarding what is and is not appropriate on the professional and personal social media of journalists, with little distinction made between these types of accounts. Although newsrooms have implemented policies to articulate what is appropriate conduct and a majority have revised policies, those guidelines don't always address the contemporary issues journalists face, specifically online threats and verification of user-generated content. The researchers found an increasing percentage of news outlets retain ownership of on-air talents’ professional accounts.

Using Social Media for government communications: A closer look at this popular communication outlet and it’s use in the local government sector.

Social media can be a marketer’s dream with the ability to engage, collect research and communicate information quickly and to a large number of people. This is likely why so many businesses have jumped on board enjoying this communication outlet after seeing its popularity from a socializing aspect. In recent years, we have found this mode of communication to begin gaining popularity in the government sector. Many politicians are using this platform to communicate, gain popularity and even gauge consumer response. This paper takes an in-depth look at government communications and political use of social media focusing on a local government level. This paper explores some of the apprehensions with utilizing this platform and strategies to mitigate problems. Finally, this paper also looks at how to implement a social media policy for local governments that don’t currently employ a strategy.

Social-Cyber Maneuvers During the COVID-19 Vaccine Initial Rollout: Content Analysis of Tweets.

BackgroundDuring the time surrounding the approval and initial distribution of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, large numbers of social media users took to using their platforms to voice opinions on the vaccine. They formed pro- and anti-vaccination groups toward the purpose of influencing behaviors to vaccinate or not to vaccinate. The methods of persuasion and manipulation for convincing audiences online can be characterized under a framework for social-cyber maneuvers known as the BEND maneuvers. Previous studies have been conducted on the spread of COVID-19 vaccine disinformation. However, these previous studies lacked comparative analyses over time on both community stances and the competing techniques of manipulating both the narrative and network structure to persuade target audiences.ObjectiveThis study aimed to understand community response to vaccination by dividing Twitter data from the initial Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine rollout into pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine stances, identifying key actors and groups, and evaluating how the different communities use social-cyber maneuvers, or BEND maneuvers, to influence their target audiences and the network as a whole.MethodsCOVID-19 Twitter vaccine data were collected using the Twitter application programming interface (API) for 1-week periods before, during, and 6 weeks after the initial Pfizer-BioNTech rollout (December 2020 to January 2021). Bot identifications and linguistic cues were derived for users and tweets, respectively, to use as metrics for evaluating social-cyber maneuvers. Organization Risk Analyzer (ORA)-PRO software was then used to separate the vaccine data into pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine communities and to facilitate identification of key actors, groups, and BEND maneuvers for a comparative analysis between each community and the entire network.ResultsBoth the pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine communities used combinations of the 16 BEND maneuvers to persuade their target audiences of their particular stances. Our analysis showed how each side attempted to build its own community while simultaneously narrowing and neglecting the opposing community. Pro-vaccine users primarily used positive maneuvers such as excite and explain messages to encourage vaccination and backed leaders within their group. In contrast, anti-vaccine users relied on negative maneuvers to dismay and distort messages with narratives on side effects and death and attempted to neutralize the effectiveness of the leaders within the pro-vaccine community. Furthermore, nuking through platform policies showed to be effective in reducing the size of the anti-vaccine online community and the quantity of anti-vaccine messages.ConclusionsSocial media continues to be a domain for manipulating beliefs and ideas. These conversations can ultimately lead to real-world actions such as to vaccinate or not to vaccinate against COVID-19. Moreover, social media policies should be further explored as an effective means for curbing disinformation and misinformation online.

Tinkering With Policies in the Digital Age: How Interscholastic Athletic Directors Address Social Media Use by Student-Athletes

Social media use by student-athletes has become a topic of concern for interscholastic athletic directors. The recent Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. Supreme Court case highlighted how student speech has evolved in the digital age. This study explored how Texas interscholastic athletic directors view social media policy implementation and the effect it has on student-athlete behavior. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 athletic directors across all six University Interscholastic League enrollment classifications. Analysis revealed that athletic directors do have legal concerns when restricting online off-campus speech but see a need for promoting positive social media use by their student-athletes. The results suggest high school athletic departments must update their policies frequently to ensure that the information relayed to student-athletes is current, relevant, and based on recent case law.

Use of Social Media in Marketing Library Resources and Services

This study has investigated the use of social media in marketing library resources and services at MUHAS and SUA. A mixed research approach was used to process, collect and analyse data in the study. While some library staff and all users were conveniently selected, key informants were purposively selected. The data were mainly collected through survey methods. The qualitative data collected were subjected to content analysis while quantitative data were analysed using SPSS. The study’s findings suggest that Facebook is the effectively used platform by both the studied libraries in the marketing of library services and resources due to its popularity and convenience. The other effectively used media is WhatsApp, although this was noted only at MUHAS. However, notwithstanding this, the media’s usage to market library resources and services has been found generally ineffective. This has been attributed to different challenges such as lack of a written policy for social media usage, unreliable internet connectivity, low promotion, content obsoleteness, and inadequate computer facilities. The study recommends that social media policies should be formulated, investment in ICT infrastructure development should be made, and promotion of social media usage among information users should be done.

Unsilenced Employee Voice in South Africa: Social Media Misconduct Dismissals as Evidence of E-Voice

Social media has transformed various aspects of daily life, particularly influencing communication and interaction in both physical and digital spaces. The South African employment relationship is no exception. Social media also creates opportunities for the articulation of employee voice. Through the content analysis of 118 South African first-instance social media misconduct dismissal decisions, this paper argues that employees use social media as a mechanism to express dissenting employee voice. There is evidence of individual employee voice notwithstanding employers implementing rules and social media policies to curtail expressions of dissent. It also persists despite the dismissal of employees for expressing employee voice through social media. Significantly, employee voice in the form of racialised speech badmouthing and cyber-criticising employers continues in the digital realm despite the legislative prohibition of hate speech. Despite high power disparities, the sample reveals a perfusion of individual e-voice by South African employees.

#WhiteSaviorComplex: Confidentiality, Human Dignity, Social Media, and Social Work Study Abroad

ABSTRACT Many American social work education programs now offer study abroad components, which provide significant advantages to students, including cross-cultural exposure, personal and professional development, and preparation for a globalizing profession. However, multiple ethical challenges are presented when North American (often White) students interact with vulnerable populations abroad, including the use of social media. We searched for relevant institutional social media policies and found very little, except those encouraging students to post often while traveling. We offer case studies of potential model policies for both North American based universities and international-based hosting sites. Finally, we argue that study abroad programs in general, and social media policies specifically, must center the dignity, worth, and best interests of vulnerable populations.

A critical analysis of the social media policies in Ontario's healthcare system

PurposeSocial media has made a revolutionary change in the relationship between the customers and business or service providers by enabling customers to publish and share feedback and views about product or service quality. This revolutionary change has not been echoed in some healthcare systems. This study analyses the social media policies of healthcare regulatory authorities in Ontario and explores how these policies encourage or discourage healthcare professionals' use of social media for collecting patient stories and understanding patient experience.Design/methodology/approachThe study used qualitative content analysis to analyse the policy documents, focusing on the manifest themes in these documents. It used convenient sampling to select 12 organizations, including regulating and licensing bodies and health service delivery organizations in Ontario. The authors collected 24 documents from these organizations, including policies, practice standards and social media learning materials.FindingsIn Ontario's healthcare system, social media is perceived as a source of risks to the healthcare professions and professionals. Healthcare regulators emphasize that the codes of conduct and professional standards extend to social media. The study found no systematic recognition of patient stories on social media as a source of information on healthcare quality that can be useful for healthcare professionals.Originality/valueThe study identifies potential unintended consequences of social media policies in the healthcare system and calls for policy and cultural changes to enable the development of safe social media platforms that can facilitate interaction between healthcare providers and patients, when necessary, without the fear of legal consequences or privacy breaches.

The Role of LinkedIn Profile on Hiring Preference: Evidence from Bangladeshi Employers

This empirical paper aims to identify the role of LinkedIn, a profession based social networking site (SNS) on overall hiring preference (HP) in Bangladesh. As the independent components, the author considered LinkedIn profile richness (LPR), LinkedIn skill endorsement (LSE) and self-presentation on LinkedIn (SL). The author collected primary data based on 391 survey responses. For descriptive statistics, the author utilized SPSS (version 24) and for examining the hypotheses, he utilized structural equation modeling technique through AMOS 24. After a careful and thorough analysis, it was found that all the independent components have significant positive roles over HP. This empirical paper is expected to be a founding guideline for the jobseekers having active LinkedIn profiles. Further, it can also guide the hiring managers to formulate and implement an efficient social media policy (SMP) for hiring.

Social media policies, promotional support can impact student‐athletes’ NIL rights

Collegiate institutions are confronting the new world of name, image, and likeness issues on a daily basis. Although states with applicable laws provide helpful guidance, many institutions are located in states without any form of regulation, largely leaving these schools to address NIL rights and any related issues on their own.

SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT, A NEW SCOPE FOR AUDITING

The social media audit/assurance program aims to provide the management with the results of an assessment of the effectiveness of control over social media policies and processes in a company. Assurance program, this relates to audits that focus on operational effectiveness and how to monitor it and the effectiveness of strategies within the organization. Not only for the financial sector, audit activities can also be carried out for social media accounts. The term for this is a social media audit. The social media audit/assurance program aims to provide the management with the results of an assessment of the effectiveness of control over social media policies and processes in a company. The growing use of social media for entities/corporations can be used to create company publicity when someone finds an interesting story about the company in the online world. The existence of social media provides a new channel for companies to interact differently with consumers. If it is able to be utilized and managed properly, it can provide many positive impacts for the company. Social media can also be used as a media campaign that has a function as a strategic policy maker, which has various programs or policies that must be disseminated to the public.
 
 Keywords: social media audit, auditing, assurance program

E-professionalism and social media use amongst nurses and midwives: A cross-sectional study

AimTo describe nurses’ and midwives’ social media use, knowledge, attitudes and information needs, in the context of e-professionalism. A secondary aim was to identify any relationship between these variables and age, or professional role. BackgroundMidwives and nurses are viewed by the public as trusted professionals. On social media, the boundary between professional and personal identities can be blurred. Previous research has explored how student nurses navigate professional behaviour online, or e-professionalism. However, confusion persists amongst established nurses and midwives, despite the policies which guide and regulate their online conduct. DesignA cross-sectional designwas applied. The STROBE guideline informed reporting of the findings. MethodsA validated survey tool was modified to the study setting. Responses to 17 survey items were analysed using Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on responses to two open-ended questions. ResultsIn total, 311 nurses and midwives from one Western Australian tertiary hospital participated between August 2019 and February 2020. Social media use was widespread (97.4%, n = 299). Associations were identified between age group and eight survey items assessing social media use, knowledge and attitudes. No associations were identified between professional role and social media use, knowledge and attitudes. Content analysis revealed five themes: Maintaining professional boundaries; Avoidance; Protecting self; Responsibilities and consequences; and Social media as a tool. ConclusionsMidwives and nurses in this study approached social media with caution yet many were curious about its potential. If midwives and nurses are to be held accountable to social media policies and use the benefits social media affords, they must be supported to evolve into proficient users by educators and policy makers. Tweetable abstractNurses and midwives must be supported through policy and education to embrace social media as a tool of the future.

Farmers’ Use of Social Media and its Implications for Agricultural Extension: Evidence from Thailand

Social media are viewed as having potential for agricultural extension. This study therefore surveyed social media use by farmers in a developing country, and their role as a source of agricultural information. To this end, 365 farmers in Chiang Mai, Thailand, were sampled and interviewed using a questionnaire. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents (81.92%) did not adopt social media and, these remained marginal as a source of agricultural information for farmers. Those using social media (18.08%) employed certain applications, i.e., LINE, Facebook and YouTube, mainly for communication, new updates and entertainment. Younger farmers and farmers with a higher formal education related to social media use significantly. To fully harness the potentials of social media for agricultural extension, more farmers need to be encouraged to use them, while relevant agencies also are required to provide support for this effort, such as staff training in social media use, and enabling a social media policy.

A social media strategy for academic libraries

This study was carried out to analyse strategies regarding the use of social media for academic library services in Ghana. The research design was quantitative and adopted the survey approach. Questionnaires served as the main data collection instrument. The study population comprised of one hundred and ten library staff from public and private universities in Ghana. As indicated by the study results, the library staff agreed that there was a need for a well-formulated social media strategy to help academic libraries identify the most appropriate social media tools, establish contact with targeted audience, and increase engagement rates to enable an effective and efficient distribution of its resources and services. The results also indicated that the academic libraries, however, seem to neglect these strategies which could drive patrons' use of such platforms. Recommendations therefore suggest the need to implement social media plans and policies, user engagement, social media update, and dedicated staff with the requisite skills in the use of social media platforms for library services delivery.

Employee Sensitivity to the Risk of Whistleblowing via Social Media: The Role of Social Media Strategy and Policy

Employee Sensitivity to the Risk of Whistleblowing via Social Media: The Role of Social Media Strategy and Policy

From Disruption to Dialog: Days of Judaism on Polish Twitter

While social media platforms afford visibility to marginalized voices and enable dissemination of alternative narratives, their own “power laws” can make few users responsible for most of the attention. New power users can redirect discussion away from those who initiate a conversation. The aim of this study is to examine relations between the network “gatekeepers” and “gatewatchers” following the announcement of the Days of Judaism celebrated by the Polish Episcopate every January. Two methodological approaches were taken over two consecutive years: social network analysis (SNA), and linguistic analysis of social media discourse. The linguistic analysis confirmed importance of classical rhetoric effects on Twitter. The social network analysis revealed that a balanced, personal statement given by users with high network standing outside of the Twittersphere can ignite constructive dialogue in the spirit of the inter-religious exchange that the idea behind Days of Judaism stands for. Our conclusion is that a careful social media policy of the Church, a controlled engagement in the public conversation, possibly by lay sympathizers of high standing in the real public life, have the potential for dispensing with the infamous toxicity of Twitter, and for turning conversation on any topic, even the most controversial, into positive exchange within the community of believers.