Suicide on Instagram – Content Analysis of a German Suicide-Related Hashtag

Crisis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Arendt

Abstract. Background: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15–29-year-olds globally. Unfortunately, the suicide-related content on Instagram, a popular social media platform for youth, has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. Method: The present study provides a content analysis of posts tagged as #selbstmord, a German suicide-related hashtag. These posts were created between July 5 and July 11, 2017. Results: Approximately half of all posts included words or visuals related to suicide. Cutting was by far the most prominent method. Although sadness was the dominant emotion, self-hate and loneliness also appeared regularly. Importantly, inconsistency – a gap between one's inner mental state (e.g., sadness) and one's overtly expressed behavior (e.g., smiling) – was also a recurring theme. Conversely, help-seeking, death wishes, and professional awareness–intervention material were very rare. An explorative analysis revealed that some videos relied on very fast cutting techniques. We provide tentative evidence that users may be exposed to purposefully inserted suicide-related subliminal messages (i.e., exposure to content without the user's conscious awareness). Limitations: We only investigated the content of posts on one German hashtag, and the sample size was rather small. Conclusion: Suicide prevention organizations may consider posting more awareness–intervention materials. Future research should investigate suicide-related subliminal messages in social media video posts. Although tentative, this finding should raise a warning flag for suicide prevention scholars.

Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Florian Arendt ◽  
Antonia Markiewitz ◽  
Sebastian Scherr

Abstract. Background: Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among 15–29-year-olds and Instagram is one of the most popular and fastest-growing social media platforms among this age group. A previous study presented preliminary evidence for suicide-related "subliminal messages" on Instagram, defined as very brief presentations of suicide-related content in video posts that users have no conscious awareness of. Aim: A systematic quantitative study was pending. Method: We conducted a quantitative content analysis of 100 Instagram video posts. A frame-by-frame coding procedure allowed for an assessment of whether suicide-related content was depicted in very brief segments, even when this content could not be consciously recognized when watched at regular speed. Results: Analysis indicates that a substantial amount of suicide-related content is presented in very brief shots. We identified 67 very brief shots that appeared in 21 video posts. Of interest, 13 of these video posts presented more than one very brief suicide-related shot. Limitation: The subjective threshold of conscious awareness differs inter-individually. This complicates the operationalization of subliminal messages. Conclusion: Subliminal messages are ethically highly problematic. There is a need for a greater awareness of possible suicide-related subliminal messages on Instagram.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Servet Kardeş ◽  
Çağla Banko ◽  
Berrin Akman

Bu araştırmada sığınmacılara yönelik paylaşımların yapıldığı sosyal medyada yer alan sözlüklerden birinde sığınmacılara yönelik algıya bakılmıştır. Yöntem olarak nitel desende olan bu çalışmada, bir sosyal medya sitesinde yer alan paylaşımlar içerik analizi yoluyla derinlemesine incelenip yorumlanmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucunda sosyal medya kullanıcılarının sığınmacıları büyük bir güvensizlik ortamı ve huzursuzluk yaratan bireyler olarak gördükleri saptanmış, sığınmacılarla yaşanan deneyimlerin ve medyadaki haberlerin bu düşüncelerin oluşmasında etkisinin olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bunun yanında sosyal medya kullanıcılarının devletin sığınmacılar konusunda yanlış politika izlediğini düşündükleri ve sığınmacılar için etkili bir planlama yapılmadığını ifade ettikleri görülmüştür. Çalışmanın sonuçları doğrultusunda medyada sığınmacılar hakkında çıkan haberlerde olumsuz ve şiddet temalı haberlerin azaltılması, Suriyeli sığınmacıların durumu, sahip oldukları haklar ve topluma yansımaları hakkında doğru ve bilgilendirici kamu spotları hazırlanması ayrıca sığınmacıların topluma entegre olma sürecinin her basamağında daha planlı ve etkili bir yol izlenmesi önerilebilir.ABSTRACT IN ENGLISHPerceptions about Syrian refugees on social media: an evaluation of a social media platformIn this research, posts which are about Syrian refugees were published in a social media platform, called as “sözlük” were investigated. The research is a qualitative research. The posts in this platform are analyzed with content analysis method. According to results of analyses, social media users see Syrian refugees as people who create an insecure and a restless environment. The experiences people had with them and news have an effect on this view. In addition, social media users think that government made inappropriate policies and ineffective plans about Syrian refugees. It is suggested negative news about Syrian refugees should be decreased and government should make safer policies. In addition, adaptation of refugees to society should be made in more planned and effective way.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004728162110078
Author(s):  
Shanna Cameron ◽  
Alexandra Russell ◽  
Luke Brake ◽  
Katherine Fredlund ◽  
Angela Morris

This article engages with recent discussions in the field of technical communication that call for climate change research that moves beyond the believer/denier dichotomy. For this study, our research team coded 900 tweets about climate change and global warming for different emotions in order to understand how Twitter users rely on affect rhetorically. Our findings use quantitative content analysis to challenge current assumptions about writing and affect on social media, and our results indicate a number of arenas for future research on affect, global warming, and rhetoric.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-137
Author(s):  
M. Fevzi Esen

A remarkable increase has currently been happening in social media platform content related to COVID-19. Users have created large volumes of content on various topics over a short time, interacting with people in real-time. This also has transformed social media into an indispensable information source for any crisis. This study aims to explore the information content on COVID-19 disseminated through social media and to discover prominent topics in shares on COVID-19. In this regard, we have retrieved 17,542 tweets shared in Turkish. A content analysis of social media shares has been carried out, with latent semantic indexing and network analyses being performed to detect the relationships and interactions among shares. As a result, the most shared topics have been concluded to be on yasak [lockdown], tedbir [precaution], karantina [quarantine], and vaka [case], with communication being frequently passed using this semantic string and information exchanges being faster within the network. In addition, shares related to hygiene, masks, and distancing were determined to have occurred less than shares related to precautions, rules, cases, and lockdowns. The number of likes and retweets for content with social propaganda such as #evdekal [stayathome], #evdehayatvar [lifeathome], and #birliktebaşaracağız [togetherwesucceed] were low and not found in a semantic string. This suggests social propaganda through social media to have had a limited impact on epidemic management. In conclusion, identifying the prominent issues in social media posts and the characteristics of social media networks will help decision-makers determine appropriate policies for controlling and preventing the pandemic’s spread.


2012 ◽  
pp. 1824-1837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Sadeghi ◽  
Steve Ressler ◽  
Andrew Krzmarzick

This chapter examines the growing literature on e-government and Web 2.0 with particular attention to online collaborative platforms, such as GovLoop, that complement government. The authors present a thorough background to the topic of Web 2.0 in e-government and present numerous examples of how these technologies are used across government both in the U.S. and globally. This chapter explores two main areas: first, how Web 2.0 and social media are being used as a vehicle to enhance e-government, and second, to present a case study of GovLoop, which is a collaborative social media platform designed to complement the work of government. GovLoop provides those working within and external to government—citizens, government employees, academics, non-profit professionals and contractors—with the ability to share information and collaborate on issues of public benefit. The chapter presents a starting point for future research on how Web 2.0 is changing the very nature of e-government and service delivery, and how governments are in a unique position to utilize these tools to expand collaboration and openness with their communities.


Author(s):  
Qihao Ji

Through a content analysis on Chinese online dissidents' social media discourses, this study examines the impact of Internet censorship on Chinese dissidents' political discourse in two social media platforms: Weibo and Twitter. Data was collected during a time period when China's Internet censorship was tightened. Results revealed that Chinese online dissidents are more likely to post critical opinions and direct criticism towards the Chinese government on Twitter. In addition, dissidents on Twitter are more likely to engage in discussing with others, while Weibo dissidents tend to adopt linguistic skills more often to bypass censorship. No difference was found in terms of dissidents' civility and rationality across the two platforms. Implications and future research are discussed in detail.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin D. Lo ◽  
Richard D. Waters ◽  
Nicklas Christensen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions are reflected on the official corporate Facebook pages from 259 organizations on Fortune magazine’s Global 500 list. This is the first attempt to create a conceptualization of Hofstede’s dimensions for organizational social media use. Design/methodology/approach To determine how Facebook is used by the Global 500 corporations, a content analysis was carried out based on the 2013 listing of the highest revenue corporations throughout the world. As a research method, content analysis allows researchers to examine the actual practices of communication by focusing on the information provided through textual and visual messages. Findings The results paint a mixed picture indicating that the global nature of these corporations is echoed in a somewhat similar overall presence on Facebook; but when the individual elements (About Us, updates, and media) are examined, statistical differences emerge in relation to the reflection of the cultural dimensions. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work to match Facebook behaviors with Hofstede’s dimensions. This work needs to be replicated with other organizations to determine its staying power. In addition, future research might tap into agency and any consciousness on the part of social media managers in a specific direction. Depending on those findings, they might make important statements on the emergence of a global social media culture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 2075-2092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Ge ◽  
Ulrike Gretzel

Purpose This paper aims to develop a taxonomy of value co-creation types occurring in firm-customer interactions on social media. Design/methodology/approach In total, 570 destination marketing organization (DMO)-initiated posts on Weibo and 3,137 responses were collected to develop a taxonomy by conducting qualitative empirical-to-conceptual analysis. To apply the taxonomy through conceptual-to-empirical analysis, 100 DMO-initiated posts and 823 responses were collected. Findings The communication-focused value co-creation taxonomy shows a variety of co-creators, verbal and non-verbal communicative co-creation actions facilitated by social media, and different co-created value types. Research limitations/implications This study used a single social media platform and selected three DMOs’ Weibo accounts. Future research should focus on other types of firms and different social media platforms. Practical implications This study used a single social media platform and selected three DMOs’ Weibo accounts. Future research should focus on other types of firms and different social media platforms. Originality/value This study enriches the tourism literature and the general marketing literature by examining value co-creation from a communication perspective and provides a comprehensive classification of value co-creation opportunities on social media.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 757-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Abisaid ◽  
Bo Li

The professional role and responsibilities for sports journalists have evolved to now include using social media. In this study, we explore how male and female print sports journalists use Twitter to communicate with their followers about sports. Relying on previous research showing disparities in sports coverage and gender as well as assertive and affiliative language theory, we employ a content analysis of tweets from 57 sports journalists ( N = 4,897). We find that male and female sports journalists tweet at statistically the same rate, but male sports journalists are more likely to tweet about sports than female sports journalists, less likely to tweet about women sports and athletes, and more likely to use assertive language in their tweets. Findings are discussed with suggestions for future research.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mujde Yuksel ◽  
Lauren I. Labrecque

Purpose This paper aims to focus its inquiries on the parasocial interactions (PSI) and relationships (PSR) consumers form with personae in online social media communities. The authors extend the marketing literature on parasocial interaction/relationship beyond brands by focusing on personal social media accounts (public student-athletes). Design/methodology/approach The authors adopt a grounded theory methodology (Glaser and Strauss, 2009) triangulating observational netnographic data (Kozinets, 2010) of 49 public student-athlete accounts on Twitter (34,500 tweets) with in-depth interviews. The findings emphasize that PSI/PSR occur not only from interactions with brands but also through personal accounts on social media platforms. Findings The investigation reveals that through such social media platforms, PSI/PSR influence consumers cognitively, affectively and behaviorally. In terms of cognition, the data suggest that PSI/PSR can influence opinion, interests, attention allocation and construction of relations, specifically through the availability of in-depth knowledge about the social media persona. Additionally, the research findings indicate that affect-laden messages from persona can alter emotion and mood, induce empathetic reactions and trigger inspiration, especially in relation to the shared interest of the online community of the social media account. Behaviorally, the findings suggest that personas’ messages can direct and inspire both online and offline actions through endorsed behavioral parasocial interactions. Research limitations/implications This research focused on one specific social media platform, Twitter. Twitter was specifically chosen, because it is a popular social media platform and allows non-reciprocal relationships. Although the authors feel that the findings would hold for other social media platforms, future research may be conducted to see if there are differences in PSI/PSR development on different types of networks. Additionally, the authors focused on a specific type of personal account, student-athletes. Future research may wish to extend beyond this population to other personal social media accounts, such as fashion bloggers, diy bloggers and others. Originality/value This research reveals that PSI/PSR can occur not only from interactions with brands but also through personal accounts on social media platforms. The findings give support for the value of brand spokespersons and brand ambassadors and suggest that brands should take careful consideration into who is chosen to represent the brand.


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