The Journal of Social Media in Society

Clashing on social media

Ashutosh Bhave — 2024-05-30

We quantify the causal effects of viral banter on social media among rivals in the context of a new product launch by a focal brand. We argue that such a banter would not only increase user engagement but also have a substantial sales impact for the brands involved. Our analysis shows that the viral banter caused a 426% jump in online search and lead to a 54% increase in offline sales for the focal brand. Although rival brands benefited from increased user engagement, they did not see a significant change in online search and offline sales. Beyond initial success, we observe a sustained long-term growth (30%) in focal brand’s sales. Our study has key implications for firms. We suggest that brands exercise caution before disparaging their competitors on social media.

Key words: brand-to-brand communication, social media, new product introduction, causal inference

“I learned it from watching YOU!”

Kelsey Chauvin — 2024-05-30

A survey (N = 424) was used to examine the effect that parasocial relationships with lifestyle YouTubers have on self-efficacy. Primary results indicate that parasocial relationships with lifestyle YouTubers significantly influence an increase in self-efficacy in audience members (p < .001), and the amount of cumulative weekly viewing hours of lifestyle YouTubers’ videos marginally predicted levels of self-efficacy (p = .058). We theorize that parasocial relationships with YouTubers may take place primarily through “imagined interactions” (Honeycutt, 2003).

Influencers’ presentation of self-care on YouTube

Laura Knowles — 2024-05-30

Research on self-care originally focused on helping and health professionals; however, the impression of self-care continues to shift: It has become a phrase used by laypersons. As more people turn online for self-care information, and people with positive self-care experiences want to share these, there is more space for influencers to discuss self-care. The purpose of this project was to understand how online space is used by influencers to describe, promote, and present self-care. Analyzing 15 influencer videos on YouTube, we identified two themes, one explicit and one implicit: Theme 1, Self-Care is Essential (explicit), with subthemes (a) Don’t Feel Guilty, (b) Create Habits That Support Self-Care, and (c) Self-Care is Idiosyncratic; and Theme 2, Self-Care Requires Access and Privilege (implicit), with subthemes, (a) Maintenance of Beauty Ideals for Women, (b) Trendy, Expensive Lifestyle, and (c) Earn a Self-Care Day. This thematic analysis revealed that inherent privileges presented by influencers have the potential to create a fantasy of self-care that is unattainable by regular viewers and encourages adherence to aspects of consumerism, diet culture, and gender norms.

Grieving online

Emily Scheinfeld — 2024-05-30

As the world has returned to a sense of normalcy following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the compounded grief experiences continue to linger and we realized many have experienced grief to varying degrees, and about a variety of issues. The pandemic also created an environment where people where restricted to cope and seek support in virtual spaces. The realization we could turn online to find support came with the realization that we could sidestep the taboo nature of grief, and allow us to craft a narrative to help us cope with that grief. This study used text analysis of Reddit post using #grieving, #griefandloss, #grief to better understand just how people used this social media site to grieve. We found that the topics varied from death to relationships to grief experienced during role-playing games. This research opens the door to learn more about why people turn to the internet, what kind of support people find, the benefits of the interactions online, and if internet support of grief is timely or will persist.

Unvaccinated against one’s will

Amanda Bradshaw — 2024-05-30

In 2019, vaccine hesitancy was declared a global health threat. Reddit has been identified as a key source of vaccine information. In contrast to research that often portrays social media platforms as sources of health misinformation, the current study focused on individuals seeking and exchanging pro-vaccine viewpoints on Reddit as a source of validation and empowerment to become vaccinated for the first time or to make pro-vaccine choices for their dependents. Guided by the Strength of Weak Ties Theory, this qualitative study explored 1) how individuals engaged in vaccine-related subreddits to navigate conflicts with their strong-ties connections, and 2) how weak-ties commenters responded. A keyword search related to “vaccines” and “relationships” revealed pertinent posts from users seeking to navigate strong-ties relational conflicts about vaccines on Reddit. Posts were sorted using the “relevance,” “all time,” and “recency” functions. Coding employed a simultaneous and iterative thematic analysis approach using the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Emerging themes focused on contradicting values, empowerment, validation, walking away, and medical recommendations. The current study highlights the complicated relational dynamics in perceived controversial health communication choices, such as vaccination, and illustrates how social media enables this discourse, connecting otherwise-disparate weak-ties users to inform and validate vaccine decisions-- a “personal” choice which greatly impacts society via community immunity. Implications discuss vaccine information sharing on Reddit and the potential impact of Strength of Weak Ties Theory for health information seeking and decision making on social media, specifically related to social bridging capital.

Social media transparency reports

Amanda Reid — 2024-05-30

Our research offers a longitudinal content analysis of news coverage and framing of social media ‘transparency reports.’ For over a decade, major social media companies (like Google, Facebook, and Twitter) have used these reports to disclose how often governments around the world are requesting user data or content removals. These voluntary disclosures aim to signal good corporate citizenship and thus are situated within the genre of CSR reporting. In addition, civil society organizations laud these disclosures as an important accountability mechanism for government surveillance efforts. Yet this accountability mechanism may be in jeopardy. As a complement to research identifying a decline in transparency reporting practices among social media companies, our findings suggest that news coverage is similarly declining. This finding is problematic because meaningful transparency and accountability require more than a few companies providing information. Transparency reports need interpreters to translate them for the relevant publics; if news coverage wanes, it risks that translation and attention wanes. To hold the powerful accountable, the fourth estate has an indispensable role to play.

Moving away from the margins

Jared Johnson — 2024-05-30

This research seeks to illuminate the impacts of social media on indigenous identities and cultures. Specifically, this research explores how the indigenous people in Peru experience social media and how their cultural perceptions are impacted by media use. Using grounded theory methods, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews in various locations in Peru. The results of those interviews suggest that, for individuals within indigenous populations, social media can inform a stronger sense of self and be an effective tool for identity reconciliation (indigenous, Hispanic, and Peruvian). This research further posits that new media may be helping to reduce the impact of discrimination against indigenous people that has existed for centuries in Peru.

Online information-sharing during crises

Neelam Sharma — 2024-05-30

Social media platforms have emerged as preferred channels to disseminate information and seek help during a public health crisis. Yet, an examination of users’ information-sharing behavior during a crisis remains an under-researched area. With the public health infrastructure in shambles, people in India posted messages on Twitter (currently known as X) to seek help during the devastating second wave of the Covid-19 crisis in April-May 2021. Using content coding and inductive qualitative thematic analysis, we examined users’ behavior online by analyzing tweets and retweets posted with the hashtag #COVIDSOSINDIA. We found that while tweeters used the platform both for information-sharing and for seeking help during the crisis, they, in a bid to get immediate help, prioritized sharing the completeness of personal information online. While tagging officials on help-seeking tweets was rampant, the SOS messages used very few emotional appeals. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The shifting foundations of current social media research and systems thinking as a remedy

Josh Anderson — 2024-05-30

The current state of social media research struggles to keep pace with a social media ecosystem that features quickly proliferating new platforms and the reinvention of existing platforms. In this perspective article, we encourage social media researchers to adopt systems thinking perspectives to cope with this reality. By thinking systemically, we hope that scholars of social media may be able to uncover complex phenomena that may help to address some of the wicked problems in social media research. We also hope that the field may benefit from scholars discussing the implications of their work in ways that relate to the systemic context of the social media platforms that they study.

Review of Social Media and Genre Studies: An Investigation of Facebook and Twitter Higher Education Web Pages

Jacob Edwards — 2024-05-30

Social Media and Genre Studies is an exploration of the form used in social media pages managed by higher education institutions to find if there is a consistent set of genre rules and what these may be. For those interested in this field of study—social media and its uses in higher academia—this is a worthwhile text. However, for those searching for ways to improve their engagement and audience size on these platforms, this is not an appropriate text.