More than playfulness

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiqiong Zhang ◽  
Min Wang ◽  
Ying Li
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Open Forum ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Qualitative Analyses ◽  
Chinese Social Media

Abstract This study aims to uncover the complexity of emoji usage on Chinese social media. We investigate emoji usage in comments on push notifications from the WeChat official account of Guokr, which was chosen as a representative for an open forum for public communication. The data includes 2552 comments from 90 articles pushed by the account. The analysis adopts a discourse-pragmatic perspective within the framework of intercultural pragmatics (Kecskes 2014), taking into account both the local discourse environment and the cultural context. It is found that Chinese WeChat users show a preference for using emojis that are unique to the WeChat platform. Qualitative analyses were carried out on selected WeChat emojis used in comments fulfilling the speech acts of self-disclosure, self-praise, humor and complaining. Emojis are found to be used to perform and reinforce a sense of playfulness in social media, but underlying this playfulness there is a discursive conformity to social norms in real life. The use of emojis resolves the tension between the openness and freedom in social media and the conservative, constraint-bounded nature of established social norms.

Understanding memes on Chinese social media

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-260
Author(s):  
Lu Ying ◽  
Jan Blommaert
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Facial Expression ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Online Culture ◽  
Chinese Social Media

Abstract Memes as online graphic semiotic resources have developed into a globalized genre and a cultural form. The vernacularization of this global cultural form on Chinese social media is Biaoqing (literally, ‘facial expression’). Biaoqing is a phenomenon and a genre engendered by the development of information technology and growing accessibility to the internet. The most prominent features of Biaoqing on Chinese social media (cute, mischievous, decadent, dirty, violent) are spawned by and therefore reflect the structure of society. The ludic nature of Biaoqing enables them to serve as resources for new forms of communication, potential of reshaping existing social norms, the landscape of online culture, and culture and society at large. The results of this contribution constitute an invitation for a reimagination of the role of graphic semiotic signs and digital infrastructures in society, and a rethinking of theories for sociolinguistic research in a digital era.

The Influence of Groupthink on Culture and Conflict in Twitter

2019 ◽  
pp. 1619-1639
Author(s):  
Godfrey A. Steele ◽  
Niekitta Zephyrine
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Using Data

Groupthink puts pressure on individuals to conform to social norms, but anonymity has been found to reduce or lessen such influence. Apart from anonymity, the significance of the topic and self-censorship may or may not contribute to the influence of groupthink. Groupthink has been studied in the context of social media using various approaches, but to date it remains unclear how much and to what extent it influences the conflict among users within this cultural context. This chapter describes approaches to studying the influence of groupthink on the users of an open social media platform (e.g., Twitter) and proposes a methodology for conducting a study. Using data from a selected hashtag, it reports on the application of theory to research, considers the role and influence of groupthink, and discusses the implications of the findings for reconceptualizing approaches to the study of new media.

Generating Content Increases Enjoyment by Immersing Consumers and Accelerating Perceived Time

2020 ◽  
pp. 002224292094438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela N. Tonietto ◽  
Alixandra Barasch
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Content Creation ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
Holiday Celebrations

Advances in technology, particularly smartphones, have unlocked new opportunities for consumers to generate content about experiences while they unfold (e.g., by texting, posting to social media, writing notes), and this behavior has become nearly ubiquitous. The present research examines the effects of generating content during ongoing experiences. Across nine studies, the authors show that generating content during an experience increases feelings of immersion and makes time feel like it is passing more quickly, which in turn enhances enjoyment of the experience. The authors investigate these effects across a broad array of experiences both inside and outside the lab that vary in duration from a few minutes to several hours, including positive and negative videos and real-life holiday celebrations. They conclude with several studies testing marketing interventions that increase content creation and find that consumers who are incentivized or motivated by social norms to generate content reap the same experiential benefits as those who create content organically. These findings illustrate how leveraging content creation to improve experiences can mutually benefit marketers and consumers.

scholarly journals Behavioral contagion on social media: Effects of social norms, design interventions, and critical media literacy on self-disclosure

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254670
Author(s):  
Philipp K. Masur ◽  
Dominic DiFranzo ◽  
Natalie N. Bazarova
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Critical Media Literacy ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Downstream Effects ◽  
Critical Media

Social norms are powerful determinants of human behaviors in offline and online social worlds. While previous research established a correlational link between norm perceptions and self-reported disclosure on social network sites (SNS), questions remain about downstream effects of prevalent behaviors on perceived norms and actual disclosure on SNS. We conducted two preregistered studies using a realistic social media simulation. We further analyzed buffering effects of critical media literacy and privacy nudging. The results demonstrate a disclosure behavior contagion, whereby a critical mass of posts with visual disclosures shifted norm perceptions, which, in turn, affected perceivers’ own visual disclosure behavior. Critical media literacy was negatively related and moderated the effect of norms on visual disclosure behavioral intentions. Neither critical media literacy nor privacy nudge affected actual disclosure behaviors, however. These results provide insights into how behaviors may spread on SNS through triggering changes in perceived social norms and subsequent disclosure behaviors.

scholarly journals Friends or just fans? Parasocial relationships in online television fiction communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
Charo Lacalle ◽  
Beatriz Gómez-Morales ◽  
Sara Narvaiza
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Parasocial Relationships ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
The One

This paper explores parasocial phenomena on social media pages related to Spanish television fiction by analysing the development of parasociality through relationships established between users and characters and the characteristics of this type of online community. The sample consisted of 4,762 spontaneous comments posted on social media pages (1,598 on Facebook and 3,164 on Twitter) linked to television series. Comments published between 1 January 2018 and 31 May 2020 were compiled the day after the premiere of each fiction. Our findings confirm those of previous researchs on the similarity between parasocial relationships with fictional characters and relationships in real life. This study also substantiates that women’s comments show a greater tendency to draw associations between parasocial relationships and daily life. We also find a link between programme longevity and audience success on the one hand, and the intensity of parasocial relationships with the characters on the other. The relationships among community members reveal a degree of narcissism, prompting more self-disclosure than interaction with the rest of the users. Therefore, such relationships are closer to consociality (Kozinets, 2015) than parasociality, although significant differences concerning gender identity are also found in this context.

The pragmatics of text-emoji co-occurrences on Chinese social media

Pragmatics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Xiran Yang ◽  
Meichun Liu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Verbal Language ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Functional Patterns ◽  
Chinese Social Media

Abstract This paper explores the pragmatics of emojis co-occurring with or embedded in text on Chinese social media with this central research question: what are the patterns and the communicative functions manifested by emojis in co-occurrence with Chinese text? Building on the metafunctional approach of multimodal analysis, popular online posts from Sina Weibo which contain both emoji(s) and text have been collected and analyzed to discover the representational, interactive, and compositional features manifested by emojis co-occurring with text. We have found that these emojis on Weibo appear most frequently at the end of the posts and reflect some unique Chinese cultural and linguistic features. Based on recurring pragmatic and functional patterns of text-emoji co-occurrences, it is proposed that emojis are used to perform speech acts, highlight subjective interpretations, and enhance informality, while substituting, reinforcing, and complementing the meanings conveyed by verbal language.

The Influence of Groupthink on Culture and Conflict in Twitter

2018 ◽  
pp. 223-249
Author(s):  
Godfrey A. Steele ◽  
Niekitta Zephyrine
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Using Data

Groupthink puts pressure on individuals to conform to social norms, but anonymity has been found to reduce or lessen such influence. Apart from anonymity, the significance of the topic and self-censorship may or may not contribute to the influence of groupthink. Groupthink has been studied in the context of social media using various approaches, but to date it remains unclear how much and to what extent it influences the conflict among users within this cultural context. This chapter describes approaches to studying the influence of groupthink on the users of an open social media platform (e.g., Twitter) and proposes a methodology for conducting a study. Using data from a selected hashtag, it reports on the application of theory to research, considers the role and influence of groupthink, and discusses the implications of the findings for reconceptualizing approaches to the study of new media.

A cross-cultural analysis of celebrity practice in microblogging

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Zhang ◽  
Doreen D. Wu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Small Talk ◽  
Virtual Identity ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
Rapport Management

This study attempts to explore how celebrities manage rapport with followers through an array of speech acts in microblogging – the essential building blocks of virtual identity on social media. Six months of postings of eight of the most-followed Twitter and Weibo celebrities from USA and China were retrieved and analysed. A taxonomy of nine speech acts for rapport management was identified to give a categorised descriptive snapshot of celebrities’ microblogging discourse. The results revealed that the celebrities from both countries employ self-disclosing speech acts extensively to report events, anecdotes, or initiate small talk with fans for solidarity building. In addition, the attention fostered by the personalised, affective, and eye-catching self-disclosure posts is frequently directed to the posts promoting their professional activities or products to commercialise the solidarity as much needed for maintaining a strong fan base. In general, the celebrity practices in USA and China display a converging trend as the prevalent speech acts are largely overlapping across cultures, while culture-specific microblogging behaviours were also identified from the less frequently performed speech acts.

scholarly journals Behavioral Contagion on Social Media: Effects of Social Norms, Design Interventions, and Critical Media Literacy on Self-Disclosure

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp K. Masur ◽  
Dominic James DiFranzo ◽  
Natalie Bazarova
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Critical Media Literacy ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Downstream Effects ◽  
Critical Media

Social norms are powerful determinants of human behaviors in offline and online social worlds. While previous research established a correlational link between norm perceptions and self-reported disclosure on social network sites (SNS), questions remain about downstream effects of prevalent behaviors on perceived norms and actual disclosure on SNS. We conducted two preregistered studies using a realistic social media simulation. We further analyzed buffering effects of critical media literacy and privacy nudging. The results demonstrate a disclosure behavior contagion, whereby a critical mass of posts with visual disclosures shifted norm perceptions, which, in turn, affected perceivers’ own visual disclosure behavior. Critical media literacy was negatively related and moderated the effect of norms on visual disclosure behavioral intentions. Neither critical media literacy nor privacy nudge affected actual disclosure behaviors, however. These results provide insights into how behaviors may spread on SNS through triggering changes in perceived social norms and subsequent disclosure behaviors.

Audience engagement with news on Chinese social media: A discourse analysis of the People’s Daily official account on WeChat

2021 ◽  
pp. 175048132110265
Author(s):  
Geqi Wu ◽  
Chunlei Pan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
News Story ◽  
News Values ◽  
Audience Engagement ◽  
Human Interest ◽  
News Reports ◽  
People’S Daily ◽  
People's Daily ◽  
Chinese Social Media

Delivering news on social media platforms is an increasingly important consideration in journalism practice. However, little attention has been paid to audience engagement with news on social media, especially the discursive presentation of news on the Chinese social media platform WeChat. Based on 36 news reports collected from the People’s Daily official account, this study analyses how news discourse is constructed and presented to engage audiences. The results suggest that highlighting proximity, personalisation, positivity and human interest in news values are the strategies adopted by journalists to engage audiences. The headline tends to use forward-referring terms and performs the speech acts of assertives and expressives to construct news values of proximity and positivity. The news story makes use of particular addressing terms, reported speeches and evaluative markers to construct news values of personalisation, positivity and human interest. The study enriches the analysis of journalistic practice of news on social media in the Chinese context.

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