@article{PearceOezkulaGreeneetal.2018, author = {Pearce, Warren and {\"O}zkula, Suay M. and Greene, Amanda K. and Teeling, Lauren and Bansard, Jennifer S. and Omena, Janna Joceli and Rabello, Elaine Teixeira}, title = {Visual cross-platform analysis}, series = {Information, Communication and Society: digital methods to research social media images}, volume = {23}, journal = {Information, Communication and Society: digital methods to research social media images}, number = {2}, publisher = {Routledge}, address = {London}, issn = {1468-4462}, doi = {10.1080/1369118X.2018.1486871}, pages = {161 -- 180}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Analysis of social media using digital methods is a flourishing approach. However, the relatively easy availability of data collected via platform application programming interfaces has arguably led to the predominance of single-platform research of social media. Such research has also privileged the role of text in social media analysis, as a form of data that is more readily gathered and searchable than images. In this paper, we challenge both of these prevailing forms of social media research by outlining a methodology for visual cross-platform analysis (VCPA), defined as the study of still and moving images across two or more social media platforms. Our argument contains three steps. First, we argue that cross-platform analysis addresses a gap in research methods in that it acknowledges the interplay between a social phenomenon under investigation and the medium within which it is being researched, thus illuminating the different affordances and cultures of web platforms. Second, we build on the literature on multimodal communication and platform vernacular to provide a rationale for incorporating the visual into cross-platform analysis. Third, we reflect on an experimental cross-platform analysis of images within social media posts (n = 471,033) used to communicate climate change to advance different modes of macro- and meso-levels of analysis that are natively visual: image-text networks, image plots and composite images. We conclude by assessing the research pathways opened up by VCPA, delineating potential contributions to empirical research and theory and the potential impact on practitioners of social media communication.}, language = {en} } @article{Haugsbakken2015, author = {Haugsbakken, Halvdan}, title = {The Student Learning Ecology}, series = {KEYCIT 2014 - Key Competencies in Informatics and ICT}, journal = {KEYCIT 2014 - Key Competencies in Informatics and ICT}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1868-0844}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-82659}, pages = {151 -- 169}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Educational research on social media has showed that students use it for socialisation, personal communication, and informal learning. Recent studies have argued that students to some degree use social media to carry out formal schoolwork. This article gives an explorative account on how a small sample of Norwegian high school students use social media to self-organise formal schoolwork. This user pattern can be called a "student learning ecology", which is a user perspective on how participating students gain access to learning resources.}, language = {en} } @article{StudenTiberius2020, author = {Studen, Laura and Tiberius, Victor}, title = {Social Media, Quo Vadis?}, series = {Future Internet}, volume = {12}, journal = {Future Internet}, number = {9}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {1999-5903}, doi = {10.3390/fi12090146}, pages = {22}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Over the past two decades, social media have become a crucial and omnipresent cultural and economic phenomenon, which has seen platforms come and go and advance technologically. In this study, we explore the further development of social media regarding interactive technologies, platform development, relationships to news media, the activities of institutional and organizational users, and effects of social media on the individual and the society over the next five to ten years by conducting an international, two-stage Delphi study. Our results show that enhanced interaction on platforms, including virtual and augmented reality, somatosensory sense, and touch- and movement-based navigation are expected. AIs will interact with other social media users. Inactive user profiles will outnumber active ones. Platform providers will diversify into the WWW, e-commerce, edu-tech, fintechs, the automobile industry, and HR. They will change to a freemium business model and put more effort into combating cybercrime. Social media will become the predominant news distributor, but fake news will still be problematic. Firms will spend greater amounts of their budgets on social media advertising, and schools, politicians, and the medical sector will increase their social media engagement. Social media use will increasingly lead to individuals' psychic issues. Society will benefit from economic growth and new jobs, increased political interest, democratic progress, and education due to social media. However, censorship and the energy consumption of platform operators might rise.}, language = {en} } @article{FischerPresslerMarxBunkeretal.2023, author = {Fischer-Preßler, Diana and Marx, Julian and Bunker, Deborah and Stieglitz, Stefan and Fischbach, Kai}, title = {Social media information governance in multi-level organizations}, series = {Information and management}, volume = {60}, journal = {Information and management}, number = {7}, publisher = {Elsevier Science}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0378-7206}, doi = {10.1016/j.im.2023.103838}, pages = {1 -- 18}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Strategic social media use positively influences organizational goals such as the long-term accrual of social capital, and thus social media information governance has become an increasingly important organizational objective. It is particularly important for humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (HNGOs), whose work relies on accurate and timely information regarding socially altruistic behavior (donations, volunteerism, etc.). Despite the potential of social media for increasing social capital, tensions in governing social media information across an organization's different operational levels (regional, intermediate, and national) pose a difficult challenge. Prominent governance frameworks offer little guidance, as their focus on control and incremental policymaking is largely incompatible with the processes, roles, standards, and metrics needed for managing self-governing social media. This study offers a notion of dynamic and co-evolutionary process management of multi-level organizations as a means of conceptualizing social media information governance for the accrual of organizational social capital. Based on interviews with members of HNGOs, this study reveals tensions that emerge within eight focus areas of accruing social capital in multi-level organizations, explains how dynamic process management can ease those tensions, and proposes corresponding strategy recommendations.}, language = {en} } @article{HagemannAbramova2023, author = {Hagemann, Linus and Abramova, Olga}, title = {Sentiment, we-talk and engagement on social media}, series = {Internet research}, volume = {33}, journal = {Internet research}, number = {6}, publisher = {Emeral}, address = {Bingley}, issn = {1066-2243}, doi = {10.1108/INTR-12-2021-0885}, pages = {2058 -- 2085}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Purpose Given inconsistent results in prior studies, this paper applies the dual process theory to investigate what social media messages yield audience engagement during a political event. It tests how affective cues (emotional valence, intensity and collective self-representation) and cognitive cues (insight, causation, certainty and discrepancy) contribute to public engagement. Design/methodology/approach The authors created a dataset of more than three million tweets during the 2020 United States (US) presidential elections. Affective and cognitive cues were assessed via sentiment analysis. The hypotheses were tested in negative binomial regressions. The authors also scrutinized a subsample of far-famed Twitter users. The final dataset, scraping code, preprocessing and analysis are available in an open repository. Findings The authors found the prominence of both affective and cognitive cues. For the overall sample, negativity bias was registered, and the tweet's emotionality was negatively related to engagement. In contrast, in the sub-sample of tweets from famous users, emotionally charged content produced higher engagement. The role of sentiment decreases when the number of followers grows and ultimately becomes insignificant for Twitter participants with many followers. Collective self-representation ("we-talk") is consistently associated with more likes, comments and retweets in the overall sample and subsamples. Originality/value The authors expand the dominating one-sided perspective to social media message processing focused on the peripheral route and hence affective cues. Leaning on the dual process theory, the authors shed light on the effectiveness of both affective (peripheral route) and cognitive (central route) cues on information appeal and dissemination on Twitter during a political event. The popularity of the tweet's author moderates these relationships.}, language = {en} } @article{TjadenSeutheWeinert2024, author = {Tjaden, Jasper and Seuthe, Miriam and Weinert, Sebastian}, title = {Recruiting refugees to reduce labour shortages in health care professions}, series = {Human resources for health}, volume = {22}, journal = {Human resources for health}, publisher = {Biomed Central}, address = {London}, issn = {1478-4491}, doi = {10.1186/s12960-024-00933-w}, pages = {1 -- 9}, year = {2024}, abstract = {Background Many high-income countries are grappling with severe labour shortages in the healthcare sector. Refugees and recent migrants present a potential pool for staff recruitment due to their higher unemployment rates, younger age, and lower average educational attainment compared to the host society's labour force. Despite this, refugees and recent migrants, often possessing limited language skills in the destination country, are frequently excluded from traditional recruitment campaigns conducted solely in the host country's language. Even those with intermediate language skills may feel excluded, as destination-country language advertisements are perceived as targeting only native speakers. This study experimentally assesses the effectiveness of a recruitment campaign for nursing positions in a German care facility, specifically targeting Arabic and Ukrainian speakers through Facebook advertisements. Methods We employ an experimental design (AB test) approximating a randomized controlled trial, utilizing Facebook as the delivery platform. We compare job advertisements for nursing positions in the native languages of Arabic and Ukrainian speakers (treatment) with the same advertisements displayed in German (control) for the same target group in the context of a real recruitment campaign for nursing jobs in Berlin, Germany. Our evaluation includes comparing link click rates, visits to the recruitment website, initiated applications, and completed applications, along with the unit cost of these indicators. We assess statistical significance in group differences using the Chi-squared test. Results We find that recruitment efforts in the origin language were 5.6 times (Arabic speakers) and 1.9 times (Ukrainian speakers) more effective in initiating nursing job applications compared to the standard model of German-only advertisements among recent migrants and refugees. Overall, targeting refugees and recent migrants was 2.4 (Ukrainians) and 10.8 (Arabic) times cheaper than targeting the reference group of German speakers indicating higher interest among these groups. Conclusions The results underscore the substantial benefits for employers in utilizing targeted recruitment via social media aimed at foreign-language communities within the country. This strategy, which is low-cost and low effort compared to recruiting abroad or investing in digitalization, has the potential for broad applicability in numerous high-income countries with sizable migrant communities. Increased employment rates among underemployed refugee and migrant communities, in turn, contribute to reducing poverty, social exclusion, public expenditure, and foster greater acceptance of newcomers within the receiving society.}, language = {en} } @article{SkowronskiBuschingKrahe2020, author = {Skowronski, Marika and Busching, Robert and Krah{\´e}, Barbara}, title = {Predicting adolescents' self-objectification from sexualized video game and Instagram use}, series = {Sex roles : a journal of research}, volume = {84}, journal = {Sex roles : a journal of research}, number = {9-10}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0360-0025}, doi = {10.1007/s11199-020-01187-1}, pages = {584 -- 598}, year = {2020}, abstract = {A growing body of research has demonstrated negative effects of sexualization in the media on adolescents' body image, but longitudinal studies and research including interactive and social media are scarce. The current study explored the longitudinal associations of adolescents' use of sexualized video games (SVG) and sexualized Instagram images (SII) with body image concerns. Specifically, our study examined relations between adolescents' SVG and SII use and appearance comparisons, thin- and muscular-ideal internalization, valuing appearance over competence, and body surveillance. A sample of 660 German adolescents (327 female, 333 male;M-age = 15.09 years) participated in two waves with an interval of 6 months. A structural equation model showed that SVG and SII use at Time 1 predicted body surveillance indirectly via valuing appearance over competence at Time 2. Furthermore, SVG and SII use indirectly predicted both thin- and muscular-ideal internalization through appearance comparisons at Time 1. In turn, thin-ideal internalization at Time 1 predicted body surveillance indirectly via valuing appearance over competence at Time 2. The results indicate that sexualization in video games and on Instagram can play an important role in increasing body image concerns among adolescents. We discuss the findings with respect to objectification theory and the predictive value of including appearance comparisons in models explaining the relation between sexualized media and self-objectification.}, language = {en} } @article{SkowronskiBuschingKrahe2022, author = {Skowronski, Marika and Busching, Robert and Krah{\´e}, Barbara}, title = {Links between exposure to sexualized Instagram images and body image concerns in girls and boys}, series = {Journal of media psychology}, volume = {34}, journal = {Journal of media psychology}, number = {1}, publisher = {Hogrefe \& Huber Publ. [u.a.]}, address = {G{\"o}ttingen}, issn = {1864-1105}, doi = {10.1027/1864-1105/a000296}, pages = {55 -- 62}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The current study examined the links between viewing female and male sexualized Instagram images (SII) and body image concerns within the three-step process of self-objectification among adolescents aged 13-18 years from Germany (N = 300, 61\% female). Participants completed measures of SII use, thin- and muscular-ideal internalization, valuing appearance over competence, and body surveillance. Structural equation modeling revealed that SII use was associated with body image concerns for boys and girls via different routes. Specifically, female SII use was indirectly associated with higher body surveillance via thin-ideal internalization and subsequent valuing appearance over competence for girls. For both girls and boys, male SII use was indirectly linked to higher body surveillance via muscular-ideal internalization. Implications for the three-step model of self-objectification by sexualized social media are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{BiermannNowakBraunetal.2024, author = {Biermann, Kaija and Nowak, Bianca and Braun, Lea-Marie and Taddicken, Monika and Kr{\"a}mer, Nicole C. and Stieglitz, Stefan}, title = {Does scientific evidence sell?}, series = {Science communication}, volume = {0}, journal = {Science communication}, publisher = {Sage}, address = {Thousand Oaks, Calif.}, issn = {1075-5470}, doi = {10.1177/10755470241249468}, pages = {34}, year = {2024}, abstract = {Examining the dissemination of evidence on social media, we analyzed the discourse around eight visible scientists in the context of COVID-19. Using manual (N = 1,406) and automated coding (N = 42,640) on an account-based tracked Twitter/X dataset capturing scientists' activities and eliciting reactions over six 2-week periods, we found that visible scientists' tweets included more scientific evidence. However, public reactions contained more anecdotal evidence. Findings indicate that evidence can be a message characteristic leading to greater tweet dissemination. Implications for scientists, including explicitly incorporating scientific evidence in their communication and examining evidence in science communication research, are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{MeierKrause2022, author = {Meier, Adrian and Krause, Hannes-Vincent}, title = {Does passive social media use harm well-being?}, series = {Journal of media psychology}, volume = {35}, journal = {Journal of media psychology}, number = {3}, publisher = {Hogrefe}, address = {G{\"o}ttingen}, issn = {1864-1105}, doi = {10.1027/1864-1105/a000358}, pages = {169 -- 180}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Research into the effects of social media on well-being often distinguishes "active" and "passive" use, with passive use supposedly more harmful to well-being (i.e., the passive use hypothesis). Recently, several studies and reviews have begun to question this hypothesis and its conceptual basis, the active/passive dichotomy. As this dichotomy has become a staple of social media research but evidence challenging its validity is mounting, a comprehensive debate on its pros, cons, and potential future is needed. This adversarial review brings together two voices - one more supportive, and the other more critical - toward the active/passive model. In constructive dialogue, we summarize and contrast our two opposing positions: The first position argues that the active/passive dichotomy is a useful framework because it adequately describes how and why passive use is (more) harmful for well-being. The second position challenges the validity of the dichotomy and the passive use hypothesis specifically. Arguments are presented alongside (a) the empirical basis, (b) conceptualization, and (c) operationalization of active and passive use, with particular focus on the passive use hypothesis. Rather than offering a conciliatory summary of the status quo, the goal of this review is to carve out key points of friction in the literature on the effects of social media through fruitful debate. We summarize our main agreements and unresolved disagreements on the merits and shortcomings of the active/passive dichotomy. In doing so, this review paves the way for researchers to decide whether and how they want to continue applying this lens in their future work.}, language = {en} } @article{KapidzicFreyNeubergeretal.2023, author = {Kapidzic, Sanja and Frey, Felix and Neuberger, Christoph and Stieglitz, Stefan and Mirbabaie, Milad}, title = {Crisis communication on Twitter}, series = {International journal of communication}, volume = {17}, journal = {International journal of communication}, publisher = {The Annenberg Center for Communication}, address = {Los Angeles, Calif.}, issn = {1932-8036}, pages = {735 -- 754}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The study explores differences between three user types in the top tweets about the 2015 "refugee crisis" in Germany and presents the results of a quantitative content analysis. All tweets with the keyword "Fl{\"u}chtlinge" posted for a monthlong period following September 13, 2015, the day Germany decided to implement border controls, were collected (N = 763,752). The top 2,495 tweets according to number of retweets were selected for analysis. Differences between news media, public and private actor tweets in topics, tweet characteristics such as tone and opinion expression, links, and specific sentiments toward refugees were analyzed. We found strong differences between the tweets. Public actor tweets were the main source of positive sentiment toward refugees and the main information source on refugee support. News media tweets mostly reflected traditional journalistic norms of impartiality and objectivity, whereas private actor tweets were more diverse in sentiments toward refugees.}, language = {en} } @article{MarxBlancoAmaraletal.2023, author = {Marx, Julian and Blanco, Beatriz and Amaral, Adriana and Stieglitz, Stefan and Aquino, Maria Clara}, title = {Combating misinformation with internet culture}, series = {Internet research}, volume = {33}, journal = {Internet research}, number = {5}, publisher = {Emerald}, address = {Bingley}, issn = {1066-2243}, doi = {10.1108/INTR-07-2022-0573}, pages = {1990 -- 2012}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Purpose This study investigates the communication behavior of public health organizations on Twitter during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Brazil. It contributes to the understanding of the organizational framing of health communication by showcasing several instances of framing devices that borrow from (Brazilian) internet culture. The investigation of this case extends the knowledge by providing a rich description of the organizational framing of health communication to combat misinformation in a politically charged environment. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected a Twitter dataset of 77,527 tweets and analyzed a purposeful subsample of 536 tweets that contained information provided by Brazilian public health organizations about COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. The data analysis was carried out quantitatively and qualitatively by combining social media analytics techniques and frame analysis. Findings The analysis showed that Brazilian health organizations used several framing devices that have been identified by previous literature such as hashtags, links, emojis or images. However, the analysis also unearthed hitherto unknown visual framing devices for misinformation prevention and debunking that borrow from internet culture such as "infographics," "pop culture references" and "internet-native symbolism." Research limitations/implications First, the identification of framing devices relating to internet culture add to our understanding of the so far little addressed framing of misinformation combat messages. The case of Brazilian health organizations provides a novel perspective to knowledge by offering a notion of internet-native symbols (e.g. humor, memes) and popular culture references for misinformation combat, including misinformation prevention. Second, this study introduces a frontier of political contextualization to misinformation research that does not relate to the partisanship of the spreaders but that relates to the political dilemmas of public organizations with a commitment to provide accurate information to citizens. Practical implications The findings inform decision-makers and public health organizations about framing devices that are tailored to internet-native audiences and can guide strategies to carry out information campaigns in misinformation-laden social media environments. Social implications The findings of this case study expose the often-overlooked cultural peculiarities of framing information campaigns on social media. The report of this study from a country in the Global South helps to contrast several assumptions and strategies that are prevalent in (health) discourses in Western societies and scholarship. Originality/value This study uncovers unconventional and barely addressed framing devices of health organizations operating in Brazil, which provides a novel perspective to the body of research on misinformation. It contributes to existing knowledge about frame analysis and broadens the understanding of frame devices borrowing from internet culture. It is a call for a frontier in misinformation research that deals with internet culture as part of organizational strategies for successful misinformation combat.}, language = {en} } @article{AbramovaBatzelModesti2022, author = {Abramova, Olga and Batzel, Katharina and Modesti, Daniela}, title = {Collective response to the health crisis among German Twitter users}, series = {International Journal of Information Management Data Insights}, volume = {2}, journal = {International Journal of Information Management Data Insights}, number = {2}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {2667-0968}, doi = {10.1016/j.jjimei.2022.100126}, pages = {13}, year = {2022}, abstract = {We used structural topic modeling to analyze over 800,000 German tweets about COVID-19 to answer the questions: What patterns emerge in tweets as a response to a health crisis? And how do topics discussed change over time? The study leans on the goals associated with the health information seeking (GAINS) model, discerning whether a post aims at tackling and eliminating the problem (i.e., problem-focused) or managing the emotions (i.e., emotion-focused); whether it strives to maximize positive outcomes (promotion focus) or to minimize negative outcomes (prevention focus). The findings indicate four clusters salient in public reactions: 1) "Understanding" (problem-promotion); 2) "Action planning" (problem-prevention); 3) "Hope" (emotion-promotion) and 4) "Reassurance" (emotion-prevention). Public communication is volatile over time, and a shift is evidenced from self-centered to community-centered topics within 4.5 weeks. Our study illustrates social media text mining's potential to quickly and efficiently extract public opinions and reactions. Monitoring fears and trending topics enable policymakers to rapidly respond to deviant behavior, like resistive attitudes toward containment measures or deteriorating physical health. Healthcare workers can use the insights to provide mental health services for battling anxiety or extensive loneliness from staying home.}, language = {en} } @article{Gabowitsch2021, author = {Gabowitsch, Mischa}, title = {Belarusian protest}, series = {Slavic review : interdisciplinary quarterly of Russian, Eurasian and East European studies / publ. by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies}, volume = {80}, journal = {Slavic review : interdisciplinary quarterly of Russian, Eurasian and East European studies / publ. by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies}, number = {1}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {0037-6779}, doi = {10.1017/slr.2021.28}, pages = {27 -- 37}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The Belarusian protest movement that started in August 2020 has been discussed from the point of view of strategy and objectives, and as the cradle of a new subjectivity. This essay goes beyond those two perspectives by looking at the regimes of engagement, developing in interaction with the material and technological environment, that have given the protests their distinctive style. The first part looks at coordination and representation at protest events and in producing protest symbols such as flags. The second part discusses the role of Telegram and the emergence of local protest groups. Even though the movement did not grow organically out of everyday concerns, there are some signs that it has begun to reassemble local communities from above. Yet there are also indications that politics continues to be seen as distinct from everyday life, making it uncertain that the movement will lead to a deeper transformation of society.}, language = {en} } @article{KrauseGrosseDetersBaumannetal.2022, author = {Krause, Hannes-Vincent and Große Deters, Fenne and Baumann, Annika and Krasnova, Hanna}, title = {Active social media use and its impact on well-being}, series = {Journal of computer-mediated communication : a journal of the International Communication Association}, volume = {28}, journal = {Journal of computer-mediated communication : a journal of the International Communication Association}, number = {1}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {1083-6101}, doi = {10.1093/jcmc/zmac037}, pages = {12}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Active use of social networking sites (SNSs) has long been assumed to benefit users' well-being. However, this established hypothesis is increasingly being challenged, with scholars criticizing its lack of empirical support and the imprecise conceptualization of active use. Nevertheless, with considerable heterogeneity among existing studies on the hypothesis and causal evidence still limited, a final verdict on its robustness is still pending. To contribute to this ongoing debate, we conducted a week-long randomized control trial with N = 381 adult Instagram users recruited via Prolific. Specifically, we tested how active SNS use, operationalized as picture postings on Instagram, affects different dimensions of well-being. The results depicted a positive effect on users' positive affect but null findings for other well-being outcomes. The findings broadly align with the recent criticism against the active use hypothesis and support the call for a more nuanced view on the impact of SNSs.
Lay Summary Active use of social networking sites (SNSs) has long been assumed to benefit users' well-being. However, this established assumption is increasingly being challenged, with scholars criticizing its lack of empirical support and the imprecise conceptualization of active use. Nevertheless, with great diversity among conducted studies on the hypothesis and a lack of causal evidence, a final verdict on its viability is still pending. To contribute to this ongoing debate, we conducted a week-long experimental investigation with 381 adult Instagram users. Specifically, we tested how posting pictures on Instagram affects different aspects of well-being. The results of this study depicted a positive effect of posting Instagram pictures on users' experienced positive emotions but no effects on other aspects of well-being. The findings broadly align with the recent criticism against the active use hypothesis and support the call for a more nuanced view on the impact of SNSs on users.}, language = {en} }