Viral Social Media Research Articles

Playing Make-Believe with #homemadeDisney Pandemic Ride Videos

In response to the closing of the Walt Disney theme parks at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, fans of Disneyland and Walt Disney World produced videos re-creating their favorite rides and attractions for a viral social media trend dubbed #homemadeDisney. The typically short (usually 30–90 seconds) videos from #homemadeDisney turned ‘guests’ into ‘cast members’ (staff) and smartphone owners into living room ‘imagineering’ ride designers. Participants engaged in a form of shared make-believe (Walton 1990) by assembling household objects as props, improvising ride elements, and performing as theme parkgoers for one another. The extensive collection of social media videos analyzed for this article reveals how fans interpreted attractions through a shared mimetic grammar (Milner 2016), the ride aesthetic (Telotte 2008), and the playful nature of the theme park experience.

Viral social media videos can raise pro-social behaviours when an epidemic arises

Access to information via social media is one of the biggest differentiators of public health crises today. During the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak in January 2020, we conducted an experiment in Wuhan, China to assess the impact of viral social media content on pro-social and trust behaviours and preferences towards risk taking with known and unknown probabilities. Prior to the experiment, participants viewed one of two videos that had been widely and anonymously shared on Chinese social media: a central government leader visiting a local hospital and supermarket, or health care volunteers transiting to Wuhan. In a control condition, participants watched a Neutral video, unrelated to the crisis. Viewing one of the leadership or volunteer videos leads to higher levels of pro-sociality and lesser willingness to take risks in an ambiguous situation relative to the control condition. The leadership video, however, induces lower levels of trust. We provide evidence from two post-experiment surveys that the video’s impact on pro-sociality is modulated by influencing the viewer’s affective emotional state.

Profanity in viral tourism marketing: A conceptual model of destination image reinforcement

Destination image is considered one of the most researched topics in tourism. Studies have focused on how image formation agents can be leveraged to shape the image of a destination, with research on social media emerging in prominence. Despite this growth, limited research has focused on the confluence of viral marketing, profanity and destination image, especially among young social media savvy users. Consequently, the aim of this article is to explore how a viral marketing campaign incorporating profanity impacts on the cognitive, affective and conative components of destination image. An unofficial viral social media campaign in Australia was selected as a case study. Findings revealed attitudes were overwhelmingly positive towards the viral campaign. Profanity was considered by the respondents as a novel technique for stimulating destination awareness. Although profanity stimulated awareness, and the use of profanity reinforced a stereotypical image, there was negligible evidence of transfer to intention to travel. A conceptual model of destination image reinforcement is articulated. Future studies need to consider the benefits and risks of profanity in a social media campaign and the subsequent implications for destination image.

An Investigation of the Portrayal of Social Media Challenges on YouTube and Twitter

A social media phenomenon that has received limited research attention is the advent and propagation of viral online challenges. Several of these challenges entail self-harming behavior, which, combined with their viral nature, poses physical and psychological risks for both participants and viewers. The objective of this study is to identify the nature of what people post about the social media challenges that vary in their level of risk. To do so, we conducted a qualitative analysis of three viral social media challenges, the Blue Whale, Tide Pod, and Ice Bucket challenges, based on 180 YouTube videos, 3,607 comments on those YouTube videos, and 450 Twitter posts. We identified common themes across the YouTube videos, comments, and Twitter posts: (1) promoting education and awareness, (2) criticizing the participants, (3) providing detailed information about the participants, (4) giving viewers a tutorial on how to participate, and (5) attempting to understand this seemingly senseless online behavior. We used social norm theory to discuss what leads people to post about the challenges and how posts intended to raise awareness about harmful challenges could potentially create a contagion effect by spreading knowledge about them, thereby increasing participation. Finally, we proposed design implications that could potentially minimize the risks and propagation of harmful social media challenges.

Public Interest in a Potentially Harmful, Non-Evidence-Based "Wellness" Practice: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Perineum Sunning.

Perineum sunning/tanning is a potentially harmful yet popular new health trend cultivated by a viral social media post, famous public figures, and subsequent media coverage. Our primary objective is to evaluate public interest in perineum sunning/tanning. Using an observational study design, we extracted data from Google Trends for the terms "perineum sunning," "perineum tanning," "Metaphysical Meagan," and "Josh Brolin"; and Twitter (via SproutSocial) for "perineum sunning" and "perineum tanning" from November 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019. UberSuggest was used to investigate monthly search volumes and user engagement. We used data from Google Trends and Twitter to construct autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models to forecast public interest in perineum sunning and perineum tanning had the post on social media never occurred. Next, we performed an integral function to calculate the cumulative increase in "perineum tanning" from the day after the post occurred to the end of the year as the area between the forecasted values and the actual values. Using Welch t tests, we compared forecasted and actual values for "perineum sunning" and "perineum tanning" using Twitter and Google Trends data over 1-, 2-, and 4-week periods after the social media post to determine if the increased volumes were statistically significant over time. Lastly, we monitored Google Trends for "perineum sunning" and "perineum tanning" through September 30, 2020, to capture trends during the summer months. Before the Instagram post went viral, there was no search interest in perineum sunning. ARIMA modeling for perineum tanning forecasted no increase in searches (0.00) if the post had not gone viral, while actual interest conveyed a relative cumulative increase of 919.00% from the day the post went viral through December 31, 2020. The term "perineum sunning" was mentioned on average 804 (SD 766.1) times daily for this 7-day period, which was also significantly higher than predicted (P≤.03), totaling 5628 tweets for these 7 days. The increased volume of tweets and relative search interest from Google Trends remained significantly higher for both terms over the 1-, 2-, and 4-week intervals. User engagement showed that nearly 50% of people who searched for "perineum sunning" were likely to click a returned link for more information. Continued observance of search interest in perineum sunning demonstrated interest spikes in the summer months, June and July 2020. Google Trends and Twitter data demonstrated that one social media post claiming non-evidence-based health benefits of regular sun exposure-without the use of sunscreen-generated significant public interest. Medical journals, dermatologists, and other health care professionals are obligated to educate and correct public misperceptions about viral wellness trends such as perineum sunning.

Language framing shapes dehumanization of groups: A successful replication and extension of Cooley et al. (2017).

In this journal, Cooley et al. (2017, Study 3) showed that presenting a social target as a group, as opposed to a group composite (i.e., people in a group) or as an individual, lowered perceptions that the target had a sense of mind (perceived capacity for experience and agency), both of which subsequently predicted lower sympathy for the target. In a direct replication but using double the sample size and preregistered hypotheses and methods, we found results strikingly supportive of the target article. We also expanded their findings, showing the effects (particularly of perceived experience) on willingness to help a target in need. The implications for using short communications to promote social change, particularly in a viral social media world, are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Poetry and Pandemic: A Study of Two Viral Social-Media Poems During COVID 19 Lockdown

Poetry and Pandemic: A Study of Two Viral Social-Media Poems During COVID 19 Lockdown

Diskursus Kredibilitas dan Pertimbangan Etika Pers dalam Proses Produksi Berita Viral #Justiceforaudrey di Liputan 6 Siang SCTV

Viral events on social media are often made into the news. One of the social media viral events that made the news in mid-2019 was #JusticeforAudrey. Allegations of violence against Audrey made headlines in all mass media, including on Liputan 6 Siang SCTV. During April 2019, projections related to Audrey's coverage were submitted by producers every day. The news values that is the basis for determining the feasibility of an event to become news is no longer the priority of producers. This research paradigm is critical with a qualitative approach and uses the Fairclough Critical Discourse Analysis method. Theory of Political Economy Vincent Mosco explains the practice of viral news values is the practice of commodification of content and audiences. Viral social media events are considered attractive to internet users and expected to attract tv viewers. The practice of viral social media news is the commodification of content. Meanwhile, in the commodification of audiences, television news viewers in the form of rating & share are used as sales to advertisers, which in turn become an economic advantage for media corporations.

Fides in parenthesis: A spirituality of leadership for a (post-)secular(ising) world

From the viral social media feeds showing Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng in fervent prayer for the nation, to professed Christian Thuli Madonsela’s careful expression of the separation between religion and state, faith identity in the public sphere emerges as anything but a straightforward matter. By placing ‘Christian’ in parenthesis, the 2019 theme of the Theological Society of South Africa conference acknowledged that leaders operate in negotiated spaces and confirmed the complexity of the context in which we attempt to conceptualise leadership from a theological perspective. This raises the question of the role that personal faith convictions play and may be allowed to play in public life. While conceptualising leadership from a faith perspective in a context that is at once secular(ising) and post-secular(ising) may be complex, evidence emerging from leadership studies of the importance of spirituality in leadership necessitates such a reflection. This article considers the problem from a theological point of view, drawing on Schleiermacher and Bonhoeffer’s later letters from prison to provide a theological foundation for a public spirituality of leadership.

Can hype be a force for good?: Inviting unexpected engagement with science and technology futures.

Hype, or simplified and sensationalised science, appears to be inescapable in science communication with examples extending from viral social media accounts and 'breakthrough'-themed press releases, to the mediated claims of the celebrity scientist. In science communication, the negative effects of hype are familiar. The question is whether hype is always a distortion and a lie, or can it be redeemed? This essay reviews the contribution of hype to science, specifically in terms of encouraging reflexivity for science and technology. I present three perspectives on hype and invite further conversation on the role of hype in science communication.

Reputational Threats Online: Social Media as a Simultaneous Agent of Crisis and Tool for Response and Resolution in the Case Study of an American Academic Library

This paper details a reputational threat to an American academic library where a viral social media post and associated negative comments misrepresented the institution and brand’s values. Immediately, the marketing librarian responsible for social media responded to the threat by engaging directly with the library consumers, sharing content and information with the broader online community, and reinforcing the library’s values and commitment to consumers. While the resolution to the crisis was mostly favourable, the event was unanticipated and invited a keen learning opportunity that is documented in this case study. Reflections and takeaways from this incident are discussed in the context of emerging literature on crisis communication, reputation threats, and social media.

After Aylan Kurdi: How Tweeting About Death, Threat, and Harm Predict Increased Expressions of Solidarity With Refugees Over Time

Viral social media content has been heralded for its power to transform policy, but online responses are often derided as “slacktivism.” This raises the questions of what drives viral communications and what is their effect on support for social change. We addressed these issues in relation to Twitter discussions about Aylan Kurdi, a child refugee who died en route to the European Union. We developed a longitudinal paradigm to analyze 41,253 tweets posted 1 week before the images of Aylan Kurdi emerged, the week they emerged, and 10 weeks afterward—at the time of the Paris terror attacks. Tweeting about death before the images emerged predicted tweeting about Aylan Kurdi, and this, sustained by discussion of harm and threat, predicted the expression of solidarity with refugees 10 weeks later. Results suggest that processes of normative conflict and communication can be intertwined in promoting support for social change.

Palestine Unbound

This section, updated regularly on Palestine Square, strives to capture the tenor and content of popular conversations related to the Palestinians and the Arab-Israeli conflict held on new and dynamic platforms, unbound by traditional media. Items that either have gone viral or represent a significant cultural moment or trend during the quarter 16 August–15 November 2017 include: global protests marking one hundred years since the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the Palestinian Authority arrest of human rights defender Issa Amro for allegedly violating its new cyber crimes law, an update on Rasmea Odeh's deportation from the United States, and a viral social media campaign initiated by a youth group in Gaza called “Breakthrough,” which used sarcastic tweets to laud supposed advancements there.

PERILAKU PENGGUNA DAN INFORMASI HOAX DI MEDIA SOSIAL

User behavior in sosial media and hoax information are an interesting phenomenon today. Social media is the most effective medium in Hoax's acceptance and dissemination of information. Various backgrounds of user behavior becomes one of the factors that make it easier for them to disseminate information without going through the verification process. Research method uses a qualitative descriptive method with research object of civitas academic environment of President University. The results show the behavior of social media users in responding Hoax information is quite diverse with a variety of user backgrounds. Users understand the Hoax information and impacts that arise after disseminating the information. The main reason the users spread the information Hoax is to influence the opinions/ attitudes of others. The other reason is to become a viral Social media users also understand that Hoax information can divide the nation. To inhibit the dissemination of hoax information, the role of government and parents is needed as well as the literacy/education of social media usage so that user behavior will be wise in responding to all information received. https://doi.org/10.26905/jmdk.v5i1.1342

Phenomenology of stochastic exponential growth.

Stochastic exponential growth is observed in a variety of contexts, including molecular autocatalysis, nuclear fission, population growth, inflation of the universe, viral social media posts, and financial markets. Yet literature on modeling the phenomenology of these stochastic dynamics has predominantly focused on one model, geometric Brownian motion (GBM), which can be described as the solution of a Langevin equation with linear drift and linear multiplicative noise. Using recent experimental results on stochastic exponential growth of individual bacterial cell sizes, we motivate the need for a more general class of phenomenological models of stochastic exponential growth, which are consistent with the observation that the mean-rescaled distributions are approximately stationary at long times. We show that this behavior is not consistent with GBM, instead it is consistent with power-law multiplicative noise with positive fractional powers. Therefore, we consider this general class of phenomenological models for stochastic exponential growth, provide analytical solutions, and identify the important dimensionless combination of model parameters, which determines the shape of the mean-rescaled distribution. We also provide a prescription for robustly inferring model parameters from experimentally observed stochastic growth trajectories.

Child’s play at war memorials: insights from a social media debate

ABSTRACTEach year, thousands of children visit memorials and other heritage sites during family or school trips, yet heritage scholars possess little understanding of their experiences. Despite its absence from the scholarly literature, children’s exploratory play at war memorials recurs frequently in the popular media. Extensive social media interest suggests that public sentiment, often emotional and vividly expressed, deserves study as a potential influence on children’s experiences at these and other dark heritage sites. This paper provides new insights of behavioral expectations for children at memorials, based on content analysis of 150 comments on a viral social media post picturing children playing on the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, DC. Conducting a stance analysis of comments, we considered commenters’ behavioral expectations, meanings they ascribed to memorials, and rationales for their intensely worded positions. Commenters shared several values: that memorials represented soldiers’ sacrifice, veterans’ service, general places for respect or to do what is right, or artistic value. Yet despite these shared rationales, many commenters expressed polarized opinions of children’s play at memorials. Commenters also referenced memorials and battlefields worldwide. This study provides greater understanding of the cultural context of children’s visits to memorials and other sites of painful heritage.

Viral Social Media Campaigns Changing the Dynamics of Marketing

The success of an advertising and promotional campaign, off late is not only dependent on the creativity of a marketer and his team but is largely dependent on the medium chosen to run the campaign. The digital marketing per se has been evolving itself in to a new phase with the advent of internet related online environment which has become a major medium of digital marketing spend. Social media the new paradigm in online has recreated and made the marketing mega minds rethink their business strategies in exploiting the potential of the new age technology which has given them a medium of reach where making the customers communicate without any inhibitions is possible. “Viral” is the buzz word in online marketing, especially in social media which is gaining unprecedented momentum. Smarter companies are exploding in to people’s minds and consciousness by developing campaigns which in turn compel their target consumers to share their content with among their social circle which creates a circle effect and created unprecedented interest. This paper analyses how social media is changing the dynamics of online marketing especially with special reference to viral campaigns which has created a new breed of customers who become addicted to such campaigns and in turn become brand advocates. The findings are drawn from analysis of secondary sources collected from different sources such as internet, industry data and quoted references shows that Viral Campaigns are not a fad but are becoming a way of changing dynamics of online marketing process. Also examples for successive viral campaigns and failures are discussed with.

The Zombie Apocalypse: The Viral Impact of Social Media Marketing on Health

Social media platforms Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook facilitate the communication and sharing of ideas across people and populations. Large corporations often leverage consumer impressions ascertained through viral, social media trends, and act on these data through marketing campaigns. These campaigns are dually inexpensive and extensive, sometimes reaching millions of users simultaneously, exploiting their impressions for consumerism purposes. Whether these purposes have an adverse effect on consumer health through the promotion of behaviors, content, or goods which are nonconductive to good health outcomes is a consideration secondary to the extent to which these marketing agendas are reaching patrons of social media. This report informally explores the domains of these social media giants and contends that they are facilitating the propagation of negative as opposed to positive health promotion, including commentary on potential solutions or approaches to mitigating these negative exploitations of consumers' impressions through viral social media marketing campaigns.

Connecting with prostate cancer survivors

It is that time of year again when men around the world will begin to sport a moustache (with many of their significant others patiently showing solidarity) in support for men’s health issues and, more specifically, prostate cancer. The Movember campaign is an enigma that has blossomed over the decade; last year it raised 41 million dollars in Canada. Through its word-of-mouth campaign, backstopped by viral social media exposure, Movember has quickly become one of the most effective forces in prostate cancer advocacy, demonstrating a public voice that many of our professional organizations have difficulty achieving. The subsequent fundraising has facilitated infrastructure development and substantial research funding with a global perspective.1 Over a similar period, there has been a shift in our understanding of prostate cancer biology and even its definition, with significant downstream implications on diagnosis and treatment paradigms. The substantial focus on technology adoption and comparative efficacy of treatments for localized disease is a fascinating foil to the outcomes of the large randomized trials that have informed us on the potential harms of PSA screening and over-treatment of low-risk disease. This has culminated in the USPSTF recommendation on PSA screening earlier this year and fueled scrutiny and, arguably, healthy debate on the management of prostate cancer in most advanced nations. Leung and colleagues highlights yet another concern central to this conversation – the ability of clinicians to effectively identify men with sufficient life expectancy to benefit from the early diagnosis and intervention.2 These results are perhaps not surprising in the face of previous reports suggesting that almost 10% of men treated in Ontario die of other causes within 10 years of definitive treatment of their disease.3 The “layers of uncertainty” 4 that have resulted from this knowledge gap have complicated our ability to communicate and support our patients, especially those who are considering PSA testing or contemplating their preferred management for localized disease. This underscores the need to re-double our efforts to create, study and implement effective health communication for the benefit of men and their families, and not lose site of some of the gains realized over the years. This is no less true for those men with advancing disease given the complexity arising from the multiplicity of new and emerging therapies for castration resistant prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer Canada, funded by the Movember Foundation, has announced the establishment of “A Survivorship Action Partnership” (ASAP), a multidisciplinary collaborative network that draws on healthcare professionals from various settings to help improve the lives of prostate cancer survivors, their partners and family members across Canada. ASAP aims to create strategies that will positively impact clinical practice and create supportive environments to increase self-management and improve the quality of life of men facing a diagnosis of prostate cancer. Undoubtedly this will require up-to-date, comprehensive and widely applicable solutions to effective health communication and informed treatment decision-making. This is perhaps a tall order given the rapidly changing landscape that is prostate cancer, but such endeavors do need to be lauded.

Social connections and the persuasiveness of viral campaigns in social network sites: Persuasive intent as the underlying mechanism

Social media are increasingly popular. Consequently, marketers more and more recognize social network sites as a platform for commercial campaigns. Social network users forward these campaigns to their online connections. However, our understanding of the persuasiveness of these campaigns is scarce. This study takes on the perspective that social context plays an important role in explaining campaign effects, and investigates whether the social connection between the sender and the receiver of a viral social media campaign predicts its persuasiveness. More specifically, it is tested whether strength of tie between the sender and receiver of a campaign predicts receivers' affective and behavioural responses, and whether perceived persuasive intent is the underlying mechanism. The results of a survey among social media users obtained support for this idea. Thereby, this study contributes to our understanding of viral marketing communications in social network sites. Implications for the prospect of marketing activities in social media are discussed.