Social Media Sphere Research Articles

Assessment of the Activities of Russian State and Public Institutions in the Ethno-Conflict Sphere

The results of scientific research indicate that the activity of Russian state and public institutions in the ethno-conflict sphere is an important component of the national system of countering extremism. The article examines the problems of assessing the effectiveness of the activities of Russian institutions in the field of prevention and localization of ethno-national conflicts. A survey conducted by the author of the article (using the methods of questionnaires and in-depth interviews) of twenty experts who are highly qualified specialists in the field of countering ethno-extremism, the results of mass sociological studies, as well as an analysis of scientific works and media publications on the research topic allowed to determine the degree of influence of the main state and public institutions on ethno-conflict sphere. The actions of the institution of the presidency, the main religious organizations (the Orthodox Church, traditional Muslim clergy, Jewish organizations, Buddhist organizations) and the FSB were recognized as most positive (score “2”). The experts recognized the actions of the police, the prosecutor’s office, the National Guard and educational institutions as quite positive (score “1”). State legislative bodies of power do not have a tangible impact on the ethno-conflict sphere (score “0”); state executive authorities (ministries, municipal bodies) that are not related to power structures; state judicial authorities; Public Chamber of the Russian Federation; civil society organizations (human rights organizations, communities, parties, etc.). The negative influence on the ethno-conflict sphere in the Russian Federation is often exerted by the media: press, television, radio (expert assessment “-1”). The most negative impact on the ethnoconflict sphere of social media using the Internet, and politicized non-governmental organizations associated with foreign states (score “-2”). The problems of the activities of Russian institutions for the prevention, suppression and localization of ethnic conflicts have a significant impact on ensuring the national security of Russia. Therefore, they deserve the attention of the scientific community and need further sociological, political science and legal research.

Explorations on mediated communication and beyond: Toward a theory of social media

Although robust theories of radio, television, cinema, journalism, and other areas of mass media already exist, the social media sphere has received relatively little original theorizing. Modeled after Berger and Calabrese’s (1975) seminal “axioms of human communication” article, this essay takes stock of the existing research on social media, and uses the same approach to theorizing about social media, advancing 7 axioms and 21 theorems, and exploring how the propositions chronicled can be used to build social media theory and improve public relations practice.

Social media hate speech in the walk of Ethiopian political reform: analysis of hate speech prevalence, severity, and natures

ABSTRACT It is evident in this study that the social media sphere which has been highly controlled by the Ethiopian government for a long seems to untie right after the advent of the new political reform commenced in 2018. Following the transition, it is apparent that people are relatively enjoying the freedom of expression. On the contrary, the new digital platform is deemed to be subdued by the emergence of hate speech which is attributed to political, ethnic, and religious underpinnings. The study employs a quantitative approach to analyze users’ comments collected from rivalry ethnic-based Television channels’ Facebook and YouTube. Using a binary analysis, a substantial prevalence of social media hate speech is found. Mainly ethnic, religious, and political-based hate natures are also found. Most of the hate comments are offensive; however, a few comments are laid on incitement to violence, and genocide severity levels. Contesting memory of the past, associating ethnicity with religion, culture, and language issues are the main triggering factors of hate speech in Ethiopia. The online commenters imitate the offline ethnic tension in the country that upsurge during the political reform. Thus, identity-driven hate speech in tandem with the reform incidents has suffocated the Ethiopian social media.

Ecclesia and Ethics: Moral Formation and the Church

The present volume is a collection of 13 papers presented at the inaugural Ecclesia and Ethics conference, a global webinar held in May 2013 organized by (then) Ph.D. students from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Those responsible for organizing the conference also serve as the editors of this publication. The chosen essays evince an array of approaches that attempt to address the problem how the ethical reasoning of Scripture informs ethical decisions of the present-day community of faith, and each makes a pointed effort to demonstrate both cogent exegesis and application to the church.The essays are organized into three parts along methodological lines. Part one collects essays that treat broad “Biblical-Theological Foundations” for ecclesial ethics. For example, Dennis P. Hollinger explores the implications of the creation narrative of Gen 1–2 for ecclesial ethics, concluding that an increased focus on this narrative adds an aspect to ethics in which the church seeks to dignify God’s creation. Part two focuses on implications of virtue ethics for ecclesial ethics, with papers from both Stanley Hauerwas and N. T. Wright. Hauerwas’s essay introduces the reader to the concept of virtue ethics through readings of Aristotle and Aquinas, drawing out how habit forms virtue and how true virtue forms Christian life. Part three contains exegetical essays focused on specific texts and contexts for application. For instance, S. Min Chun reads the story of Gideon-Abimelech for its implications for the context of the Korean church. Chun’s reading of this story against the backdrop of a “church-growth” model of ministry will find application in other, similar contexts as well.Several essays focus on Paul and his ethical teaching. The selective treatment that follows demonstrates the variety of approaches found in the book and how these approaches treat a single scriptural figure. In his chapter, Michael Gorman outlines the centrality of the cross to Paul’s ethic. Gorman reads Phil 2:6–11, rightly, as not only a theological recounting of the Christ event but also an exemplary ethical model in which Christ followers are called to “have the same mind as Christ.” Gorman carries his reading into other Pauline texts (2 Cor 5; Rom 5; 1 Cor 6), demonstrating how the cross, for Paul, models the Christian moral life, namely, in reconciliation. In his own essay, Mark D. Baker utilizes a current method from the field of missiology, the study of bounded, fuzzy, and centered groups, to study the Antioch incident recounted in Gal 2. Bounded groups focus on keeping out persons who pollute the group. Fuzzy groups, on the other hand, remove boundaries from consideration but in the process often remove group identity. Paul, in Gal 2, evinces an approach that maintains a centered identity in Christ, which falls neither into judgementalism nor into relativism.Nijay Gupta takes up the question how Paul thinks of discipleship. Paul does not use the terminology of disciple/discipleship. Instead, Gupta demonstrates, Paul consistently utilizes a doulos-ethic that uses the language of slavery when describing the relation of obedience between the believer and Christ. Gupta offers that a doulos-ethic reading of Paul can be used to nuance, with an increased emphasis on obedience, the discipleship paradigm that is current in many churches today. In perhaps the most thought-provoking essay of the volume, John Frederick couples Paul’s cruciform ethic with his ideology of powers and principalities in Colossians and applies it to the sphere of social media. Arguing effectively for the internet as a power/principality of our age, Frederick uses his reading of Colossians to form a litmus test for Christian attitude and activity in the online world.This volume introduces the reader to major conceptual frameworks from major scholars; it exemplifies direct application to the context of the reader; and it demonstrates careful exegesis of the biblical text. It thus should enjoy a broad readership in both church and academy. The volume is well-edited, and each essay is sure to provoke thought and conversation among its readers.

Characteristics of Chinese Online Movie Reviews and Opinion Leadership Identification

ABSTRACTThis article uses a case study of the reception of popular South Korean films in China to investigate aspects of proactive participation in the Chinese social mediasphere. Based on the big data collected from the popular Douban online review platform, the authors provide an in-depth investigation of the characteristics of online opinion leaders and leadership. First, we statistically analyze user-generated content-related features for both leader and non-leader groups. In addition, we employ a Bayesian optimization-based imbalanced learning algorithm to identify characteristics of the minority opinion leaders. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is evaluated based on 17,786 reviews collected from 35 popular films covering a variety of genres, and the proposed algorithm is shown to perform accurately by identifying opinion leaders, compared to other state-of-the-art approaches. Our study also reveals some major features associated with opinion leaders, such as vocabulary, viewing habits, and friendship networks. Finally, we show how these elements are contributing to new understandings of the rapidly transforming digital domain of Chinese social media and the roles of such platforms.

JOEM Updates

The Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine (JOEM) has accomplished much in 2018, but we must start by thanking the 242 dedicated reviewers and the members of the JOEM Editorial Board who volunteer their time and knowledge to review each submission. Of note is the fact that 25 reviewers completed more than one review of JOEM and one reviewer completed nine reviews, with the overwhelming percentage of reviews returned in less than the allotted time! The reviewers are listed alphabetically in the Table 1. JOEM production would not be possible without their support and enthusiasm. As always, we also thank our readership for their continued support over the past years and into 2019.TABLE 1: List of 2018 JOEM ReviewersTABLE 1: (continued) List of 2018 JOEM ReviewersTABLE 1: (continued) List of 2018 JOEM ReviewersTABLE 1: (continued) List of 2018 JOEM ReviewersIn the January issue of this year, we published “Sixty Years of JOEM and Counting” (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine: January 2019—Volume 61—Issue 1—p. e24, doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001475). In this editorial we highlighted the significant historical achievements made over this time period as well as our vision for future publications. We believe “the real value comes from the journal's impact outside of academia by influencing occupational and environmental practice resulting in improvements to the health and well-being of workers and communities” and to that end we will continue our commitment to those endeavors. JOEM will provide our stakeholders with “greater improvements in the health of the populations we serve,” even in the face of changing environmental science issues, including productivity, climate change, and wellness. A recent series of JOEM Occupational Medicine Forum climate change articles, moderated by JOEM Editorial Board member, Dr. Judith Green McKenzie is one example of our outreach efforts: How does a Changing Climate Impact the Health of Workers? Part 5: Vectorborne Disease Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine: December 11, 2018—Volume Publish Ahead of Print—Issue—doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001519 Occupational Medicine Forum: PDF Only. Carbon Emission Mitigation Strategies: What Occupational Physicians Need to Know Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine: December 2018—Volume 60—Issue 12—pp. e679–e680, doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001464 OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE FORUM. How Does a Changing Climate Impact the Health of Workers? Part 2: Weather and Climate Disasters, Worker Health, and Occupational Resiliency Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine: August 2018—Volume 60—Issue 8—pp. e426–e428; doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001356 OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE FORUM. How Can Climate Change Impact the Health of Workers? Part 1: Increased Ambient Temperature Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine: June 2018—Volume 60—Issue 6—pp. e288–e289; doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001342 OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE FORUM During 2018, JOEM publications consisted of 279 total articles, 119 as online only, and 160 utilizing the print/online option. JOEM online-only article publication continues to be increasing in popularity with authors who desire expedited publication because the JOEM online-only publication queue is considerably shorter than the print/online queue. This was borne out by the significant increase in online only adopters (43% for 2018 vs 28% from 2017). We extend a special thank you to all those who decided to take advantage of the online only benefits which include: Reduced time in the production queue. Final published version takes the place of publish ahead of print (PAP) version quicker. Expedited abstracting and indexing. Earlier access of your content to ACOEM/JOEM/Global stakeholders. Potential for increased article-level metrics. Please consider choosing the accelerated online only option when submitting your new article to JOEM! JOEM social media access continues to grow as more and more new followers join us on Facebook (+600 new followers) and Twitter (+187 new followers). Published articles receive a singular post on Facebook with concomitant author notification (date and timing of posts) as well as general posts relating to published topics. JOEM provides this notification service for authors to help them increase their individual article level metrics. Please be sure to like and share on Facebook @JOEMJournal and on Twitter @JrnlEnvirOccMed. Finally, JOEM underwent a significant branding redesign with the January 2019 issue, which included redesigns of the social media sphere also. The new branding highlights the global outreach of JOEM content as well as prominently displaying our social media links. Let us know what you think of our redesign. Thank you again for your continued support and submissions as we look forward to providing another 60 years of outstanding occupational and environmental research.

Pacific media under siege: A review of the PINA Summit 2018

The rapidly-changing technology and transforming political situation across the Pacific have seen a noticeable shift towards harsher media legislation as governments facing unprecedented scrutiny try to contain the fallout from social media, citizen journalism and fake news. These developments were at the heart of the discussions at the Pacific Islands Media Association’s PINA 2018 Summit in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, in May. The biannual event is the largest gathering of Pacific Islands journalists to contemplate issues of mutual concern, formulate collective responses and chart the way forward. This article reviews this year’s meeting, where discussions centred around the opportunities and challenges of the expanding social media sphere, as well as taking a fresh look at some perennial problems, such as corruption, political pressure and gender violence.

The Top 100 Social Media Influencers in Plastic Surgery on Twitter: Who Should You Be Following?

Recent studies demonstrate that board-certified plastic surgeons are underrepresented amongst individuals posting public-directed marketing plastic surgery-related content on Instagram. However, peer-to-peer and education-based social media influence has not been studied. Twitter is a social media platform has been suggested to be useful for educating the masses and connecting with colleagues. The purpose of this study is to identify the top influencers in plastic surgery on Twitter, characterize who they are, and relate their social media influence to academic influence. Twitter influence scores for the topic search "plastic surgery" were collected in July 2017 using Right Relevance software. The accounts associated with the highest influencer scores were linked to individual names, status as a plastic surgeon, board certification, location, and academic h-index. The top 100 Twitter influencers in plastic surgery are presented. Seventy-seven percent of the top influencers are trained as plastic surgeons or facial plastic surgeons. Sixty-one percent of influencers are board-certified plastic surgeons or board-eligible/future eligible trainees. International plastic surgeons made up 16% of influencers. Other medical doctors made up another 10%. The other 13% of influencers were nonphysicians. Three-quarters of social media influencers were physically located in the United States. Academic h-index of social media influencers ranged from 0 to 62 (mean, 8.6). This study shows that the top plastic surgery social media influencers on Twitter are predominantly board-certified or eligible plastic surgeons and physically based in the United States. This study also provides the influencer network for other plastic surgeons to engage with to improve their own influence within the plastic surgery social media sphere.

Place Brand Authenticity in Social Media Interaction: a Postmodern Perspective

This essay aims to demystify the postmodern perspective on social media interaction in developing place brand authenticity. It is a reflective study that relies on a structure review approach. The findings denote that (1) place brand authenticity which emerges as the brand image of a place is derived from the content of the shared value in the social media sphere, where control of shaping place brand authenticity is in the hands of members of the public; (2) sustaining place brand authenticity can only be established by the producer through retaining a form of shared value, which is formed by members of the public in the social media sphere. Overall, this study offers a way of examining place brand authenticity development in the postmodern era and raises suggestions for further empirical study to test the framework and its perspectives.

The Challenges and Opportunities of Entering the Social Media Sphere: A Case Study of Polish Cities

The social media sphere is growing in Poland as more and more people embrace the new ways of communication. Cities in Poland are also slowly catching up with the social media revolution as all 16 provincial cities are present on Facebook. Profiles are static in nature and have problems with engaging the audience in any kind of meaningful conversation. The purpose of this article is to indicate the key challenges that cities are facing while entering the social sphere. Official profiles of all provincial cities in Poland will be analysed to highlight possible ways of improving their digital image.

Tweeting dignity: A practical theological reflection on Twitter’s normative function

Social media makes an important contribution to a rapidly changing world in which various domains of meaning are described anew. The evolving nature and dynamic character of social media therefore provides for a rich praxis terrain with which to interact from a practical theological orientation. More specifically associated with the theme of this contribution, the social media sphere also provides an excellent space not only to rethink but also to reenact expressions of dignity in society. The research is facilitated from a practical theological orientation, with particular focus on a normative dimension as embodied in aspects of dignity. Through the use of an interdisciplinary approach and methodology, some contours of dignity specifically associated with South African politics as well as the so-called Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015 in Paris expressed on the social media platform, Twitter, are described and discussed. From this empirical analysis, description and discussion, a practical theological reflection is offered in which aspects of dignity associated with a normativity function are described. Some practical theological perspectives contributing to future relevant tweeting on dignity are also formulated and provided in conclusion.

Second Screening Politics in the Social Media Sphere: Advancing Research on Dual Screen Use in Political Communication with Evidence from 20 Countries

The pervasive use of multiple technological tools to engage with media and political content (i.e., TV sets, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.) has deeply altered the way citizens around the world consume information and discuss public affair issues. Many are using 2, or even several “screens” at the same time to do so, a phenomenon known as second or dual screening.The goal of this article is twofold. First, it introduces a set of novel studies published as a special section devoted to second screening. Second, based on nationally representative original survey data collected in twenty societies (N = 22.033), the study depicts a snapshot of second screening habits for news and politics around the world. Findings reveal that young people tend to second screen more than older counterparts. Similarly, there are also differences in political behaviors between groups of high and low frequency second screen users. More intensive users tend to politically express themselves in social media, and participate more often in offline political activities. On the other hand, results indicate little or no differences between these two groups in terms of their voting behavior.

Volatility Wisdom of Social Media Crowds

In this article, the authors provide new evidence on the usefulness of investor sentiment extracted from social media by taking advantage of a new data source covering a more comprehensive social media sphere. They use a unique dataset of social anomaly scores (SAS) to assess the volatility wisdom of crowds and develop trading strategies constructed using social-media-based market volatility sentiment. Using market prices of the VIX-related (CBOE Volatility Index) exchange-traded products, the authors find that these strategies economically outperform a benchmark, while taking into account commissions and management fees.

Volatility Wisdom of Social Media Crowds

In this article, the authors provide new evidence on the usefulness of investor sentiment extracted from social media by taking advantage of a new data source covering a more comprehensive social media sphere. They use a unique dataset of social anomaly scores (SAS) to assess the volatility wisdom of crowds and develop trading strategies constructed using social-media-based market volatility sentiment. Using market prices of the VIX-related (CBOE Volatility Index) exchange-traded products, the authors find that these strategies economically outperform a benchmark, while taking into account commissions and management fees.

Vineyard Vines and the Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants

This case, “vineyard vines and The Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants,” introduces students to a unique partnership in the social media advertising world. Preppy clothing powerhouse vineyard vines had a history of interacting with its customers by featuring user-generated content in its catalogs and on its website and decided to continue this tradition on social media by partnering with a group of fans called The Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants. This successful and authentic social media marketing campaign resulted in increased sales for vineyard vines and influencer status for the members of The Brotherhood. At the end of the campaign, the vineyard vines marketing team is left debating how to grow its social media presence through partnerships. The case has been used as part of a social media marketing course and would be effective in any undergraduate- or graduate-level marketing course. Excerpt UVA-M-0909 Rev. Dec. 15, 2016 vineyard vines and The Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants Shep & Ian Murray, brothers, cofounders, and CEOs of the growing lifestyle apparel company, vineyard vines, stepped out of their office and paced the dock overlooking the Long Island Sound in Stamford, Connecticut. vineyard vines had focused on marketing user-generated content since its inception in 1998 to show the authenticity of both the brand and the people who wore it. Shep & Ian featured their valued customers in seasonal catalogs and on the company's website, displaying the “Every day should feel this good” lifestyle the brand promoted. The rise of social media had brought more opportunities for vineyard vines customers and fans to submit content, and the Murray brothers wanted to make sure they leveraged this user-generated content in a meaningful way. Shep & Ian knew their customer base had room for further growth if vineyard vines could continue to expand its effective social media marketing strategy. vineyard vines had a strong online presence already, but given its younger customers and strong brand identity, vineyard vines needed to be on the cutting edge in the social media sphere. Over the past two decades, vineyard vines had taken the “preppy” East Coast clothing market by storm, making it difficult for traditional brands such as L.L.Bean to remain relevant. With the new wave of social media platforms, Shep & Ian knew vineyard vines would need to get creative to continue its success. If done correctly, a social media marketing strategy could catapult vineyard vines' brand and top line much further than ever before. The question was, how? vineyard vines debated whether to rely on traditional internal marketing content, turn to loyal followers for user-generated marketing material as they had done in the past with catalogs, or partner with popular social media influencers. They wondered whether partnerships with social media influencers would help vineyard vines grow or if they would propel newer, smaller, and nimbler brands born out of social media to compete for vineyard vines' top spot in the preppy clothing market. When vineyard vines received an unopened e-mail from The Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants Shep & Ian wondered…was this spam? . . .

Managing social media as a marketing tool in the Greek business environment

The rapid expansion of the global social media sphere has revolutionised the way people communicate, access information and interact. Consumers are no longer passive receivers but actively participate in the marketing and buying process. On the other hand, although companies need to adjust to the new market rules in order to gain competitive advantage, many of them are unable to comprehend social media's broad environment and evaluate its effective use as a marketing tool. This paper aims to conceptualise the integration of social media into the marketing process focusing on the Greek business field, through the conduction of a quantitative online survey research. The main findings indicate that Greek companies acknowledge its importance as a marketing tool while indicating that the main benefits are the increase of exposure and sales' improvement. Among those companies that do not use social media, a significant number show eagerness in incorporating it into their marketing strategies in the near future. Almost half of the respondents seem to follow a certain social media strategy, a significant number use a distinct budget for social media, while only a small number of companies were able to measure its usefulness and return of investment.

How does the front page of the Internet behave? Readability, emoticon use, and links on Reddit

Reddit, known as “the front page of the Internet,” has been one of the most widely visited Web sites since its inception in 2005. As a social networking site it is unique in that the personal relationships between its users are considered secondary to its content, which includes both original, user-generated content and links to outside sources. Although previous research has investigated other social networking platforms in depth, relatively little has been written on Reddit. The present research considers a variety of indicators, including text readability, emoticon usage, and domain linkage. It was found that the most popular communities on Reddit behave very differently from each other, in terms of language sophistication, sentiment, and topicality (as measured by top-level links to outside sources). The results can be used to inform future investigations of online discourse spaces, particularly those in the contemporary social media sphere.

Cognitive Benefits for Senders

Using panel data, this article examines the democratic benefit of expressing political messages on social media, by looking into the sender effect of information processing. Results suggest people who post textual and visual content tend to elaborate upon information themselves. The effect is different depending upon types of discussion motivations for discussion. Civic intentions such as persuasive discussion motivation led to elaboration about the information, while social discussion motivation did not. The relationship was mediated by news-seeking behaviors. Combining findings, this study proposes a theoretical model that implies a virtuous cycle of information flow on the social media sphere.

The underdog effect and social media

Social media platforms have removed many of the entry barriers for global communications and global brand marketing. It is as easy to create and manage a twitter feed if you are a micro-organisation as it is if you are a global player. In the social media sphere the political outsider can compete on a par with the frontrunners. What is needed are the skills to craft a message that appeals within the social media sphere. But removing barriers to entry does not necessarily level the existing playing field: it sometimes tilts the field against the established players.

Agenda Setting for Health Promotion: Exploring an Adapted Model for the Social Media Era.

BackgroundThe foundation of best practice in health promotion is a robust theoretical base that informs design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions that promote the public’s health. This study provides a novel contribution to health promotion through the adaptation of the agenda-setting approach in response to the contribution of social media. This exploration and proposed adaptation is derived from a study that examined the effectiveness of Twitter in influencing agenda setting among users in relation to road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia.ObjectiveThe proposed adaptations to the agenda-setting model to be explored reflect two levels of engagement: agenda setting within the social media sphere and the position of social media within classic agenda setting. This exploratory research aims to assess the veracity of the proposed adaptations on the basis of the hypotheses developed to test these two levels of engagement.MethodsTo validate the hypotheses, we collected and analyzed data from two primary sources: Twitter activities and Saudi national newspapers. Keyword mentions served as indicators of agenda promotion; for Twitter, interactions were used to measure the process of agenda setting within the platform. The Twitter final dataset comprised 59,046 tweets and 38,066 users who contributed by tweeting, replying, or retweeting. Variables were collected for each tweet and user. In addition, 518 keyword mentions were recorded from six popular Saudi national newspapers.ResultsThe results showed significant ratification of the study hypotheses at both levels of engagement that framed the proposed adaptions. The results indicate that social media facilitates the contribution of individuals in influencing agendas (individual users accounted for 76.29%, 67.79%, and 96.16% of retweet impressions, total impressions, and amplification multipliers, respectively), a component missing from traditional constructions of agenda-setting models. The influence of organizations on agenda setting is also highlighted (in the data of user interactions, organizational accounts registered 17% and 14.74% as source and target of interactions, respectively). In addition, 13 striking similarities showed the relationship between newspapers and Twitter on the mentions trends line.ConclusionsThe effective use of social media platforms in health promotion intervention programs requires new strategies that consider the limitations of traditional communication channels. Conducting research is vital to establishing a strong basis for modifying, designing, and developing new health promotion strategies and approaches.