Online communication of visual information

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-61
Author(s):  
Wen-Hsuan Lee ◽  
Yu-Hsun Lin
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Quality Indices ◽  
Design Quality ◽  
Psychological Variables ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deepen the understanding of why text messages are superseded by using stickers, thus driving instant messaging software (IMS) users’ visual communication process. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Uses & Gratifications (U&G) theory and using a semantic technique, this research begins by identifying design indices of stickers and user’s perceived gratifications that they describe and evaluate at their first impression of using stickers in Study 1. Study 2 introduces media richness theory and the expectancy model into the framework of U&G theory and further explains several causal linkages from the LINE stickers’ design quality indices to proximal users’ perception of gratifications and distal sticker use intention. Findings Study 1 explores four variables, playfulness, variety, delicacy and uniqueness, as stickers’ design quality indices and discloses two user perceptions of gratifications, i.e., the needs of self-expression and of flaunting to someone, as main intrinsic motives for users sending stickers. The results of Study 2 further support the finding that self-expression and a mentality that seeks conspicuousness are two important psychological variables mediating the effects of three design quality indices – playfulness, variety and uniqueness – on visual image use intention. Originality/value The main contribution of this research is to verify the psychological mechanism of visualized communication between IMS users. Moreover, the finding extends the digital marketing literature by highlighting conspicuous consumption that occurs not only in consuming luxury goods, but also in costless or cheaper digital product such as IMS stickers.

Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual communities: a network perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Deng ◽  
Kun Guo
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Community Member ◽  
Bulletin Board ◽  
Linear Modeling ◽  
Basic Point ◽  
Content Type

Purpose As more and more people are beginning to take virtual communities (VC) as effective communication channels and the main places to get information and knowledge, understanding the factors that can support or hinder one’s knowledge sharing seems important for the management of VCs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents that influence people’s knowledge sharing in VCs, and to explore influence mechanism and the boundary condition of how the antecedent affect people’s knowledge sharing in VCs. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted empirical research to test our hypotheses. The authors designed a questionnaire based on previous research and collected the questionnaires from seven VCs in China, including two specific topic-based forums in Baidu Tieba which is the largest Chinese online communication platform, three in traditional university bulletin board system (BBS) forums and another two based on instant messaging service. The final sample the authors got included 96 individuals. Then the authors used the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) technique to analysis the data. Findings The results suggest that community member’s attachment can be a strong indicator of his/her knowledge-sharing intention which will possibly lead to knowledge-sharing behavior. However, this effect can be contingent on individual centrality and community member fluctuations. In a stable community, those who are in the peripheral position are more likely to transfer their attachment into knowledge sharing because they have the intention to move into central positions and knowledge sharing can help them gain status. While in an unstable environment, it does not make any difference between people in different position in the social network. Originality/value First, this paper reveals member’s attachment as the antecedent of people’s knowledge sharing in VCs. Second, this paper adopts a network perspective to construct the research model. And the basic point made is that knowledge sharing can be seen as a channel to attain status and centrality in a community. Thus, people who are in periphery positions are more likely to transfer their community attachment into knowledge-sharing intention. Third, this paper emphasizes the dynamic characteristic of members in VCs and proves the moderation effect of community member fluctuations.

Social anxiety is associated with similar emotional impairments during digital and face-to-face communication in daily life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Doorley ◽  
Kristina Volgenau ◽  
Kerry Kelso ◽  
Todd Barrett Kashdan ◽  
Alexander J. Shackman
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Digital Communication ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Medium Study ◽  
Reconstruction Method ◽  
Communication Behaviors ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Emotional Impairments ◽  
Emotional Safety

Background:Retrospective studies have found that people with elevated social anxiety (SA) show a preference for digital/online communication, which may be due to perceptions of enhanced emotional safety. Whether these preferences for/benefits of digital compared to face-to-face communication manifest in the real world has yet to be explored. Methods: We recruited samples of college students (N = 125) and community adults (N = 303) with varying levels of SA, sampled their emotions during digital and face-to-face communication using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) (Study 1) and a day reconstruction method (DRM) (Study 2), and preregistered our hypotheses (https://osf.io/e4y7x/). Results: Results from both studies showed that SA did not predict the likelihood of engaging in digital compared to face-to-face communication, and SA was associated with less positive and more negative emotions regardless of communication medium. Study 2 also showed that whether digital communication was synchronous (e.g., in real time via phone/video chat) or asynchronous (e.g., texting/instant messaging) did not impact the association between SA and emotions. Limitations: EMA and DRM methods, despite their many advantages, may be suboptimal for assessing the occurrence of digital communication behaviors relative to more objective methods (e.g., passively collecting smartphone communication data). Using event-contingent responding may have also yielded more reports of digital communication, thus strengthening our power to detect small, cross-level interaction effects. Conclusions:These results challenge beliefs that digital/online communication provides a source of emotional safety for people with elevated SA and suggests a greater need to address SA-related emotional impairments across digital communication platforms.

Consumer value creation through WhatsApp use

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-471
Author(s):  
Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas ◽  
Jorge Guadalupe-Lanas ◽  
Ekaterina Zabelina ◽  
Andrés Palacio-Fierro ◽  
Margarita Velín-Fárez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Value Creation ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Role Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Value ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand in-depth how consumers create value in their lives using WhatsApp, the leading mobile instant messaging (MIM) application. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts the perspective of customer-dominant logic (CDL) and uses a qualitative multimethod design involving 3 focus groups and 25 subsequent in-depth interviews. The research setting was Ecuador, a Latin American country. Findings Analysis and interpretation of the participants’ stories made it possible to identify and understand the creation of four types of value: maintaining and strengthening relationships; improving role performance; emotional support; and entertainment and fun. In addition, the present study proposes a conceptual model of consumer value creation as it applies to MIM. Practical implications Understanding the way consumers create value in their lives using MIM is important not only for organizations that offer MIM applications, but also for those companies that develop other applications for mobile phones or for those who wish to use MIM as an electronic word-of-mouth vehicle. Originality/value The current study is one of the first to address the topic of consumer behavior in the use of technologies from the perspective of CDL; this perspective enables an integrated qualitative vision of value creation in which the consumer is the protagonist.

scholarly journals Correlates of social media fatigue and academic performance decrement

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aqdas Malik ◽  
Amandeep Dhir ◽  
Puneet Kaur ◽  
Aditya Johri
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Adult Students ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Online Behavior ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Antecedents And Consequences

PurposeThe current study aims to investigate if different measures related to online psychosocial well-being and online behavior correlate with social media fatigue.Design/methodology/approachTo understand the antecedents and consequences of social media fatigue, the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) framework is applied. The study consists of two cross-sectional surveys that were organized with young-adult students. Study A was conducted with 1,398 WhatsApp users (aged 19 to 27 years), while Study B was organized with 472 WhatsApp users (aged 18 to 23 years).FindingsIntensity of social media use was the strongest predictor of social media fatigue. Online social comparison and self-disclosure were also significant predictors of social media fatigue. The findings also suggest that social media fatigue further contributes to a decrease in academic performance.Originality/valueThis study builds upon the limited yet growing body of literature on a theme highly relevant for scholars, practitioners as well as social media users. The current study focuses on examining different causes of social media fatigue induced through the use of a highly popular mobile instant messaging app, WhatsApp. The SSO framework is applied to explore and establish empirical links between stressors and social media fatigue.

The evolution of rumors on a closed platform during COVID-19 (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Wen-Yi Wang ◽  
Jo-Yu Lan ◽  
Ming-Hung Wang ◽  
Chihhao Yu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Psychological Health ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Physical And Psychological Health ◽  
Health Organization

BACKGROUND In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic put the world in crisis on both physical and psychological health. Simultaneously, a myriad of unverified information flowed on social media and online outlets. The situation was so severe that the World Health Organization identified it an infodemic on February 2020. OBJECTIVE We want to study the propagation patterns and textual transformation of COVID-19 related rumors on a closed-platform. METHODS We obtained a dataset of 114 thousand suspicious text messages collected on Taiwan’s most popular instant messaging platform, LINE. We also proposed an algorithm that efficiently cluster text messages into groups, where each group contains text messages within limited difference in content. Each group then represents a rumor and elements in each group is a message about the rumor. RESULTS 114 thousand messages were separated into 937 groups with at least 10 elements. Of the 936 rumors, 44.5% (417) were related to COVID-19. By studying 3 popular false COVID-19 rumors, we identified that key authoritative figures, mostly medical personnel, were often quoted in the messages. Also, rumors resurfaced multiple times after being fact-checked, and the resurfacing pattern were influenced by major societal events and successful content alterations, such as changing whom to quote in a message. CONCLUSIONS To fight infodemic, it is crucial that we first understand why and how a rumor becomes popular. While social media gives rise to unprecedented number of unverified rumors, it also provides a unique opportunity for us to study rumor propagations and the interactions with society. Therefore, we must put more effort in the areas.

Dark side of instant messaging: an empirical investigation from technology and society perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheshadri Chatterjee ◽  
Ranjan Chaudhuri ◽  
Demetris Vrontis
Keyword(s):  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Common People ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Common ◽  
Society Perspective ◽  
Unique Study

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the dark side of instant messaging from the technological and societal perspectives.Design/methodology/approachWith the help of literature review and different theories, a model has been developed conceptually. Later the model has been validated using statistical method. The authors have used 304 responses from the survey method, and this sample has been used to statistically validate the conceptual model.FindingsThis paper has been able to explicitly investigate and identify how different instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, WeChat in the form of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) are contributing toward increase of mob lynching cases. The paper also highlights the important to have effective and enforceable regulation to regulate instant messaging services to the citizens.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings cannot be generalized as the data is collected from India only. Moreover, the study is cross-sectional in nature. To get the comprehensive results, a longitudinal study needs to be conducted. This study considered seven constructs with one moderator. Having more predictors with other boundary conditions might have increased the explanative power of the model.Practical implicationsInstant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, WeChat and so on are disseminating quick unverified information to the common people. This information sometimes is disseminated in inappropriate and exaggerated forms. This makes the instant messaging (WhatsApp) users' sentiment readily heated in some cases. They take such an action as mob lynching. This study determines the predictors of mob lynching along with the moderator impact of instant messaging in the society.Originality/valueThere are only a few studies those have explored the dark side of instant messaging. The proposed theoretical model is a unique model, which shows the predictors of mob lynching along with the negative consequences of the instant messaging (WhatsApp) in the society. From this perspective, this study can be considered as a unique study.

Relational cultivation strategies and community building on Fortune 500 company corporate blogs

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tugce Ertem-Eray ◽  
Eyun-Jung Ki
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Communication Channel ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
Corporate Blogs

PurposeAs the number of corporate blogs has continued to increase over the years, this study examines the use of relationship cultivation strategies of Fortune 500 companies on their corporate blogs. Moreover, it focuses on how companies use corporate blogs as interactive online communication channels to create a sense of community among their publics.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis of Fortune 500 company corporate blogs was conducted to examine the use of relational cultivation strategies and their methods of promoting a sense of community.FindingsFindings indicate that networking and sharing tasks are used most frequently among all relational cultivation strategies on corporate blogs, and that there are statistically significant differences among industries for using relationship cultivation strategies on corporate blogs. The most frequently used dimension of sense of community on corporate blogs is shared emotional connection.Originality/valueStudies analyzing social media as public relations tools have not yet focused on community building. In fact, few studies have examined the community building aspect of corporate blogs in the public relations field. To fill this gap, this study focuses on community building and analyzes how companies use corporate blogs as an interactive online communication channel to create a sense of community among their publics.

Analysis of technological, individual and community factors influencing the use of popular Web 2.0 tools in LIS education

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 977-993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chokri Barhoumi
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Web 2.0 Tools ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Community Factors ◽  
Factors Influencing

Purpose This research paper aims to explore the technological, individual and community factors influencing the use of popular Web 2.0 tools in library and information science (LIS) education to prepare LIS students for Library 2.0. The study was guided by the activity theory (AT) and technology acceptance model (TAM) of Davis as a lens. The study reveals a set of factors concerning the technical tools, subjective perceptions, goals of online discussion, social presence within a community, rules for participation and roles of the participants that affect their online engagement patterns. Design/methodology/approach This study was performed during the 2015 academic year; it used a descriptive analytical research approach for exploring and analysing technological, individual and community factors influencing the use of the popular Web 2.0 tools in LIS education. Findings The results show that at the technological level of the AT, educators in the sample found the WhatsApp instant messaging and Twitter to be the easiest tools to use, selecting those tools at, respectively, 73.2 per cent (standard deviation = 0.450) and 61.1 per cent (standard deviation = 0.490). WhatsApp and Twitter also lead at the individual level of the AT, as the most valuable platforms for sharing information and knowledge. Video, text and photo objects are the most commonly shared items, used by 90.7, 93.5 and 98.9 per cent, respectively. Originality/value This study may be useful to help information science educators to prepare graduates for the emerging Web 2.0 environments and to prepare students for Library 2.0.

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