scholarly journals Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512093926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Assenmacher ◽  
Lena Clever ◽  
Lena Frischlich ◽  
Thorsten Quandt ◽  
Heike Trautmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Supportive Nature ◽  
Shed Light

Recently, social bots, (semi-) automatized accounts in social media, gained global attention in the context of public opinion manipulation. Dystopian scenarios like the malicious amplification of topics, the spreading of disinformation, and the manipulation of elections through “opinion machines” created headlines around the globe. As a consequence, much research effort has been put into the classification and detection of social bots. Yet, it is still unclear how easy an average online media user can purchase social bots, which platforms they target, where they originate from, and how sophisticated these bots are. This work provides a much needed new perspective on these questions. By providing insights into the markets of social bots in the clearnet and darknet as well as an exhaustive analysis of freely available software tools for automation during the last decade, we shed light on the availability and capabilities of automated profiles in social media platforms. Our results confirm the increasing importance of social bot technology but also uncover an as yet unknown discrepancy of theoretical and practically achieved artificial intelligence in social bots: while literature reports on a high degree of intelligence for chat bots and assumes the same for social bots, the observed degree of intelligence in social bot implementations is limited. In fact, the overwhelming majority of available services and software are of supportive nature and merely provide modules of automation instead of fully fledged “intelligent” social bots.

Chinese Social Media Platforms and Microblogging in the Context of Public Diplomacy

Communicology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-179
Author(s):  
E.S. Nadezhkina
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Interactive Communication ◽  
Network Interaction ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Right ◽  
Chinese Social Media

The term “digital public diplomacy” that appeared in the 21st century owes much to the emergence and development of the concept of Web 2.0 (interactive communication on the Internet). The principle of network interaction, in which the system becomes better with an increase in the number of users and the creation of user-generated content, made it possible to create social media platforms where news and entertainment content is created and moderated by the user. Such platforms have become an expression of the opinions of various groups of people in many countries of the world, including China. The Chinese segment of the Internet is “closed”, and many popular Western services are blocked in it. Studying the structure of Chinese social media platforms and microblogging, as well as analyzing targeted content is necessary to understand China’s public opinion, choose the right message channels and receive feedback for promoting the country’s public diplomacy. This paper reveals the main Chinese social media platforms and microblogging and provides the assessment of their popularity, as well as possibility of analyzing China’s public opinion based on “listening” to social media platforms and microblogging.

Profiling the Users of High Influence on Social Media in the Context of Public Events

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-49
Author(s):  
Lu An ◽  
Junyang Hu ◽  
Manting Xu ◽  
Gang Li ◽  
Chuanming Yu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Events ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Influential Users

The highly influential users on social media platforms may lead the public opinion about public events and have positive or negative effects on the later evolution of events. Identifying highly influential users on social media is of great significance for the management of public opinion in the context of public events. In this study, the highly influential users of social media are divided into three types (i.e., topic initiator, opinion leader, and opinion reverser). A method of profiling highly influential users is proposed based on topic consistency and emotional support. The event of “Jiankui He Editing the Infants' Genes” was investigated. The three types of users were identified, and their opinion differences and dynamic evolution were revealed. The comprehensive profiles of highly influential users were constructed. The findings can help emergency management departments master the focus of attention and emotional attitudes of the key users and provide the method and data support for opinion management and decision-making of public events.

scholarly journals Social Media Behavior and Emotional Evolution during Emergency Events

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1109
Author(s):  
Mingyun Gu ◽  
Haixiang Guo ◽  
Jun Zhuang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Critical Function ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Emergency Event ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The Impact

Online social networks have recently become a vital source for emergency event news and the consequent venting of emotions. However, knowledge on what drives user emotion and behavioral responses to emergency event developments are still limited. Therefore, unlike previous studies that have only explored trending themes and public sentiment in social media, this study sought to develop a holistic framework to assess the impact of emergency developments on emotions and behavior by exploring the evolution of trending themes and public sentiments in social media posts as a focal event developed. By examining the event timelines and the associated hashtags on the popular Chinese social media site Sina-Weibo, the 2019 Wuxi viaduct collapse accident was taken as the research object and the event timeline and the Sina-Weibo tagging function focused on to analyze the behaviors and emotional changes in the social media users and elucidate the correlations. It can conclude that: (i) There were some social media rules being adhered to and that new focused news from the same event impacted user behavior and the popularity of previous thematic discussions. (ii) While the most critical function for users appeared to express their emotions, the user foci changed when recent focus news emerged. (iii) As the news of the collapse deepened, the change in user sentiment was found to be positively correlated with the information released by personal-authentication accounts. This research provides a new perspective on the extraction of information from social media platforms in emergencies and social-emotional transmission rules.

scholarly journals Journalists’ Use of Social Media to Infer Public Opinion: The citizens’ perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dubois ◽  
Anatoliy Gruzd ◽  
Jenna Jacobson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Social Media Analytics ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Journalistic Practice ◽  
Media Data

Journalists increasingly use social media data to infer and report public opinion by quoting social media posts, identifying trending topics, and reporting general sentiment. In contrast to traditional approaches of inferring public opinion, citizens are often unaware of how their publicly available social media data is being used and how public opinion is constructed using social media analytics. In this exploratory study based on a census-weighted online survey of Canadian adults (N=1,500), we examine citizens’ perceptions of journalistic use of social media data. We demonstrate that: (1) people find it more appropriate for journalists to use aggregate social media data rather than personally identifiable data; (2) people who use more social media are more likely to positively perceive journalistic use of social media data to infer public opinion; and (3) the frequency of political posting is positively related to acceptance of this emerging journalistic practice, which suggests some citizens want to be heard publicly on social media while others do not. We provide recommendations for journalists on the ethical use of social media data and social media platforms on opt-in functionality.

Findings and Future Direction

2018 ◽  
pp. 65-82
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Life Challenges ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
Shed Light

Studies show that caregivers and patients use social media to exchange and gather information. A research-based understanding of conversations on social media platforms will shed light on characteristics of an autism community's support toward its members. This chapter deduces the efficacy of social support provided by the autism community toward its members to cope with daily life challenges.

Article promotion on Twitter and Facebook: A case study of Cell journal

2021 ◽  
pp. 016555152110597
Author(s):  
Yunxue Cui ◽  
Zhichao Fang ◽  
Xianwen Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Correlation And Regression Analysis ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Shed Light

Social media has become an increasingly important channel of scholarly communication, especially for promoting the latest research outputs, so its role in facilitating access to academic texts is worth exploring. Based on 324 posts containing scholarly articles shared by journal Cell on Twitter and Facebook, this study compared the user engagement performance of articles posted on both platforms and examined the effect of such social media promotion and user engagement on article visiting. The user engagement performance of the articles was measured by retweets, shares, reactions, and likes, while click data tracked through bitly.com were used to indicate article visits. Statistical analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were applied to explore and understand these data. For Cell, Facebook posts have a more significant influence than similar tweets in terms of volume. The user engagement on Facebook is 2.5~4 times as much as on Twitter. Moreover, the click metric of short links shows that Cell’s posts on Facebook directed twice as many visitors to the papers as posts on Twitter. However, the efficiency of the two platforms is approximate when the difference in the volume of followers is eliminated. The correlation and regression analysis suggested that user engagement positively affects the visiting of Cell’s papers. Both reactions and shares would affect the clicks of the short links to paper text. The results shed light on the implications of sharing scholarly articles on social media platforms for the promotion of article visits.

Ordinary celebrities related criteria to harvest fame and influence on social media

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-213
Author(s):  
Fatima Abdulaziz Al-Emadi ◽  
Imene Ben Yahia
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Opinion Leadership ◽  
Social Media Marketing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Content Quality ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Shed Light

Purpose The study aims to explore why consumers engage with ordinary celebrities on social media by identifying the influential characteristics that have engaged followers and have led to opinion leadership on visual platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data were collected from 32 social media users following at least one ordinary celebrity on Instagram and Facebook in Qatar and Tunisia. Findings The findings of this study highlight five main characteristics that lead to fame and opinion leadership on social media visual platforms: credibility, storytelling and content quality, fit with the platform, Actual and aspired image homophily and consistency. Research limitations/implications This research is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, one of the first studies that highlight the features determining opinion leadership on visual platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Second, the results of the study highlight some features that distinguish ordinary celebrities from traditional established celebrities. Practical implications The findings of this research represent a guideline for effective influential marketing development. Based on the results, recommendations are provided for companies, influencers and social media users who aspire to become influencers. Originality/value This research, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is among the first to shed light on opinion leadership through ordinary celebrities on visual social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, and thus, adds new insights to the area of social media marketing.

Social media influencers, post-feminism and neoliberalism: How mum bloggers’ ‘playbour’ is reshaping public relations

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Archer
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

The rise of blogging mothers as precariat workers conducting ‘playbour’, a combination of play and labour, and as subjects of neoliberalism, requires a re-examination of virtually mobile mothers and their role in 21st century society. At the same time, public relations (PR) and marketing practitioners are grappling with how to interact and ‘work’ with these, among other, social media influencers who are increasingly seen as able to sell products and ideas through their blogs, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms. The relatively new relationships between PR practitioners and social media influencers raise questions of unequal power and vulnerability for both the largely amateur influencers and the PR practitioners. The relationship between the two means that ethical questions around exploitation, authenticity, professionalism and control have arisen, with both sides feeling their way in new terrain. This article uses the concepts of precarity and liminality and applies them to a group of ‘mommy/mummy/mum bloggers’, that is, blogging mothers of young children, negotiating their identities as mothers, and moving beyond their homes using social media to, in part, create a sense of belonging (but also, in some cases, to make money). The article is based on the author’s own longitudinal digital ethnography within online influencer territory, and includes mainstream and online media reports and interviews with both mum bloggers and PR practitioners. It is argued that the marketisation of motherhood within a dominant culture of neoliberalism means that practitioners may wrongly assume that mum bloggers are acting freely to engage with entrepreneurial endeavours.

scholarly journals Fandom and identity construction: an analysis of Thai fans’ engagement with Twitter

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pitchapa Smutradontri ◽  
Savitri Gadavanij
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Text Production ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Different Sources

AbstractIn our digital era, fandom has become a social and cultural phenomenon, notably in Thailand. Fans are dedicated, and creating fan text (i.e., text production made by fans about their object of fandom) is one way of showing dedication and passion to the fan base. This article explores how Thai fans engage with fan text on popular social media platforms such as Twitter, and how fandom relates to identity construction among Thai fans who are online media users. The results from a selected sample comprising 100 fan tweets from four different sources, suggests five types of fan tweets, including: hypothetical interpretation, fan art, narrative concerning an anecdote regarding the source text, expression of personal opinions and feelings, and fan parody. Moreover, this article discusses fans’ shared lexicon called ‘fan talk,’ and how fans position themselves as relatives and friends of the source texts. This article further discusses the humorous nature and the transcultural elements found in fan tweets, especially the ‘Thai-ifize’ method that fans use in creating fan tweets.

scholarly journals Journalists’ Use of Social Media to Infer Public Opinion: The Citizens’ Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dubois ◽  
Anatoliy Gruzd ◽  
Jenna Jacobson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Social Media Analytics ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Journalistic Practice ◽  
Media Data

Journalists increasingly use social media data to infer and report public opinion by quoting social media posts, identifying trending topics, and reporting general sentiment. In contrast to traditional approaches of inferring public opinion, citizens are often unaware of how their publicly available social media data are being used and how public opinion is constructed using social media analytics. In this exploratory study based on a census-weighted online survey of Canadian adults ( N = 1,500), we examine citizens’ perceptions of journalistic use of social media data. We demonstrate that (1) people find it more appropriate for journalists to use aggregate social media data rather than personally identifiable data, (2) people who use more social media are more likely to positively perceive journalistic use of social media data to infer public opinion, and (3) the frequency of political posting is positively related to acceptance of this emerging journalistic practice, which suggests some citizens want to be heard publicly on social media while others do not. We provide recommendations for journalists on the ethical use of social media data and social media platforms on opt-in functionality.

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