Content, conduct, and apologies in Tumblr fandom tags

The architecture of Tumblr differs substantially from many other social media platforms, such as Facebook, because there are no personal profiles and social connections are not made public. Because Tumblr's architecture lacks formal grouping structures, tags, traditionally thought of as a way of organizing resources, may take on functions otherwise associated with communities even though the affiliation is looser. Content analysis was performed to investigate content and conduct norms in two specialized fandom tags on Tumblr. This research compares the circulation of sexually suggestive material, reproaches, and apology rituals in posts tagged "zoethian" and "sjips." Even though these two tags originate from similar source material (YouTube videos produced under the Yogscast umbrella), different standards of behavior and shared content emerge among participants, which are assessed in light of the increasingly close contact and overlap between media producers and fans in social media spaces. Although the data set is from 2013, and thus describes a slightly different version of Tumblr, it serves as an historical capture of the site and behaviors from that time period.

Download Full-text

Characteristics of Gun Advertisements on Social Media: Systematic Search and Content Analysis of Twitter and YouTube Posts (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.15736 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Lisa Jordan ◽

James Kalin ◽

Colleen Dabrowski

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Systematic Search ◽

Health Concern ◽

Corporate Ownership ◽

Public Health Concern ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Streaming Services ◽

Youtube Videos ◽

Different Characteristics

BACKGROUND Although gun violence has been identified as a major public health concern, the scope and significance of internet gun advertising is not known. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to quantify the characteristics of gun advertising on social media and to compare the reach of posts by manufacturers with those of influencers. METHODS Using a systematic search, we created a database of recent and popular Twitter and YouTube posts made public by major firearm manufacturers and influencers. From our sample of social media posts, we reviewed the content of the posts on the basis of 19 different characteristics, such as type of gun, presence of women, and military or police references. Our content analysis summarized statistical differences in the information conveyed in posts to compare advertising approaches across social media platforms. RESULTS Sample posts revealed that firearm manufacturers use social media to attract audiences to websites that sell firearms: 14.1% (131/928; ±2.9) of Twitter posts, 53.6% (228/425; ±6.2) of YouTube videos, and 89.5% (214/239; ±5.1) of YouTube influencer videos link to websites that facilitate sales. Advertisements included women in efforts to market handguns and pistols for the purpose of protection: videos with women included protection themes 2.5 times more often than videos without women. Top manufacturers of domestic firearms received 98 million channel views, compared with 6.1 billion channel views received by the top 12 YouTube influencers. CONCLUSIONS Firearm companies use social media as an advertising platform to connect viewers to websites that sell guns. Gun manufacturers appropriate YouTube servers, video streaming services, and the work of YouTube influencers to reach large audiences to promote the widespread sale of consumer firearms. YouTube and Twitter subsidize gun advertising by offering server and streaming services at no cost to gun manufacturers, to the commercial benefit of Google and Twitter’s corporate ownership.

Download Full-text

A Comparative View of Censored and Uncensored Political Discussion

Handbook of Research on Citizen Engagement and Public Participation in the Era of New Media - Advances in Public Policy and Administration ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-1081-9.ch015 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 269-282

Author(s):

Qihao Ji

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Future Research ◽

Chinese Government ◽

Political Discussion ◽

Time Period ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Internet Censorship ◽

Media Discourses ◽

The Impact

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.

Download Full-text

A Comparative View of Censored and Uncensored Political Discussion

Censorship, Surveillance, and Privacy ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7113-1.ch070 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1439-1453

Author(s):

Qihao Ji

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Future Research ◽

Chinese Government ◽

Political Discussion ◽

Time Period ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Internet Censorship ◽

Media Discourses ◽

The Impact

Download Full-text

Characteristics of Gun Advertisements on Social Media: Systematic Search and Content Analysis of Twitter and YouTube Posts

Journal of Medical Internet Research ◽

10.2196/15736 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. e15736 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Lisa Jordan ◽

James Kalin ◽

Colleen Dabrowski

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Systematic Search ◽

Health Concern ◽

Corporate Ownership ◽

Public Health Concern ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Streaming Services ◽

Youtube Videos ◽

Different Characteristics

Background Although gun violence has been identified as a major public health concern, the scope and significance of internet gun advertising is not known. Objective This study aimed to quantify the characteristics of gun advertising on social media and to compare the reach of posts by manufacturers with those of influencers. Methods Using a systematic search, we created a database of recent and popular Twitter and YouTube posts made public by major firearm manufacturers and influencers. From our sample of social media posts, we reviewed the content of the posts on the basis of 19 different characteristics, such as type of gun, presence of women, and military or police references. Our content analysis summarized statistical differences in the information conveyed in posts to compare advertising approaches across social media platforms. Results Sample posts revealed that firearm manufacturers use social media to attract audiences to websites that sell firearms: 14.1% (131/928; ±2.9) of Twitter posts, 53.6% (228/425; ±6.2) of YouTube videos, and 89.5% (214/239; ±5.1) of YouTube influencer videos link to websites that facilitate sales. Advertisements included women in efforts to market handguns and pistols for the purpose of protection: videos with women included protection themes 2.5 times more often than videos without women. Top manufacturers of domestic firearms received 98 million channel views, compared with 6.1 billion channel views received by the top 12 YouTube influencers. Conclusions Firearm companies use social media as an advertising platform to connect viewers to websites that sell guns. Gun manufacturers appropriate YouTube servers, video streaming services, and the work of YouTube influencers to reach large audiences to promote the widespread sale of consumer firearms. YouTube and Twitter subsidize gun advertising by offering server and streaming services at no cost to gun manufacturers, to the commercial benefit of Google and Twitter’s corporate ownership.

Download Full-text

Penggunaan Clickbait Headline pada Situs Berita dan Gaya Hidup Muslim dream.co.id

MediaTor (Jurnal Komunikasi) ◽

10.29313/mediator.v11i1.2751 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 31-43

Author(s):

M Rizky Kertanegara

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Performance Indicator ◽

Digital Age ◽

Key Performance Indicator ◽

Analysis Techniques ◽

Shared Content ◽

Ethics Code ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Journalistic Ethics

The rapid flows of information in the digital age makes online site producers create news that attracted the attention of netizen not only on their main sites but also for social media platforms. The goal is to get a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) which will be useful for the purpose of advertising. The existence of this KPI can be seen from the number of interactions made by readers who clicked, commented, or shared content on their social media accounts. This phenomenon then raises the use of Clickbait Headline, an attractive headline but sometimes trap the curiosity of the readers. To that end, the author wants to see how far the use of Clickbait Headline in Dream.co.id, a news and lifestyle of Muslim sites. In addition, the author also wants to see the use of journalistic ethics code standards on Clickbait Headline. Using content analysis techniques, the author selected samples using purposive sampling from the most viewed article samples in the period 1-21 June 2017. As a result, most articles in Dream.co.id using Clickbait Headline with catafora techniques and have met The Journalistic Ethics Code standards.

Download Full-text

Comparing Representation of Depression on Reddit and Twitter Social Media Platforms (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.26363 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ethan Kaji ◽

Maggie Bushman

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Media ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Relative Frequency ◽

Social Activity ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Dsm Iv ◽

Twitter Users

BACKGROUND Adolescents with depression often turn to social media to express their feelings, for support, and for educational purposes. Little is known about how Reddit, a forum-based platform, compares to Twitter, a newsfeed platform, when it comes to content surrounding depression. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to identify differences between Reddit and Twitter concerning how depression is discussed and represented online. METHODS A content analysis of Reddit posts and Twitter posts, using r/depression and #depression, identified signs of depression using the DSM-IV criteria. Other youth-related topics, including School, Family, and Social Activity, and the presence of medical or promotional content were also coded for. Relative frequency of each code was then compared between platforms as well as the average DSM-IV score for each platform. RESULTS A total of 102 posts were included in this study, with 53 Reddit posts and 49 Twitter posts. Findings suggest that Reddit has more content with signs of depression with 92% than Twitter with 24%. 28.3% of Reddit posts included medical content compared to Twitter with 18.4%. 53.1% of Twitter posts had promotional content while Reddit posts didn’t contain promotional content. CONCLUSIONS Users with depression seem more willing to discuss their mental health on the subreddit r/depression than on Twitter. Twitter users also use #depression with a wider variety of topics, not all of which actually involve a case of depression.

Download Full-text

“At Least until the Second Wave Comes…”: A Twitter Analysis of the NHS and COVID-19 between March and June 2020

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18083943 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (8) ◽

pp. 3943

Author(s):

Kathy McKay ◽

Sarah Wayland ◽

David Ferguson ◽

Jane Petty ◽

Eilis Kennedy

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Social Media ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Well Being ◽

Profound Impact ◽

Time Period ◽

Twitter Analysis ◽

The Uk ◽

Media Narratives ◽

Second Wave

In the UK, tweets around COVID-19 and health care have primarily focused on the NHS. Recent research has identified that the psychological well-being of NHS staff has been adversely impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate narratives relating to the NHS and COVID-19 during the first lockdown (26 March–4 July 2020). A total of 123,880 tweets were collated and downloaded bound to the time period of the first lockdown in order to analyse the real-time discourse around COVID-19 and the NHS. Content analysis was undertaken and tweets were coded to positive and negative sentiments. Five main themes were identified: (1) the dichotomies of ‘clap for carers’; (2) problems with PPE and testing; (3) peaks of anger; (4) issues around hero worship; and (5) hints of a normality. Further research exploring and documenting social media narratives around COVID-19 and the NHS, in this and subsequent lockdowns, should help in tailoring suitable support for staff in the future and acknowledging the profound impact that the pandemic has had.

Download Full-text

Embed2Detect: temporally clustered embedded words for event detection in social media

Machine Learning ◽

10.1007/s10994-021-05988-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hansi Hettiarachchi ◽

Mariam Adedoyin-Olowe ◽

Jagdev Bhogal ◽

Mohamed Medhat Gaber

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Event Detection ◽

High Volume ◽

Detection Methods ◽

Word Embeddings ◽

Agglomerative Clustering ◽

Data Set ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Media Data

AbstractSocial media is becoming a primary medium to discuss what is happening around the world. Therefore, the data generated by social media platforms contain rich information which describes the ongoing events. Further, the timeliness associated with these data is capable of facilitating immediate insights. However, considering the dynamic nature and high volume of data production in social media data streams, it is impractical to filter the events manually and therefore, automated event detection mechanisms are invaluable to the community. Apart from a few notable exceptions, most previous research on automated event detection have focused only on statistical and syntactical features in data and lacked the involvement of underlying semantics which are important for effective information retrieval from text since they represent the connections between words and their meanings. In this paper, we propose a novel method termed Embed2Detect for event detection in social media by combining the characteristics in word embeddings and hierarchical agglomerative clustering. The adoption of word embeddings gives Embed2Detect the capability to incorporate powerful semantical features into event detection and overcome a major limitation inherent in previous approaches. We experimented our method on two recent real social media data sets which represent the sports and political domain and also compared the results to several state-of-the-art methods. The obtained results show that Embed2Detect is capable of effective and efficient event detection and it outperforms the recent event detection methods. For the sports data set, Embed2Detect achieved 27% higher F-measure than the best-performed baseline and for the political data set, it was an increase of 29%.

Download Full-text

Avenues to News and Diverse News Exposure Online: Comparing Direct Navigation, Social Media, News Aggregators, Search Queries, and Article Hyperlinks

The International Journal of Press/Politics ◽

10.1177/19401612211009160 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 194016122110091

Author(s):

Magdalena Wojcieszak ◽

Ericka Menchen-Trevino ◽

Joao F. F. Goncalves ◽

Brian Weeks

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Search Engines ◽

Direct Access ◽

Data Set ◽

Individual Level ◽

News Sources ◽

Internet Users ◽

News Websites ◽

The Us ◽

Social Media Platforms

The online environment dramatically expands the number of ways people can encounter news but there remain questions of whether these abundant opportunities facilitate news exposure diversity. This project examines key questions regarding how internet users arrive at news and what kinds of news they encounter. We account for a multiplicity of avenues to news online, some of which have never been analyzed: (1) direct access to news websites, (2) social networks, (3) news aggregators, (4) search engines, (5) webmail, and (6) hyperlinks in news. We examine the extent to which each avenue promotes news exposure and also exposes users to news sources that are left leaning, right leaning, and centrist. When combined with information on individual political leanings, we show the extent of dissimilar, centrist, or congenial exposure resulting from each avenue. We rely on web browsing history records from 636 social media users in the US paired with survey self-reports, a unique data set that allows us to examine both aggregate and individual-level exposure. Visits to news websites account for about 2 percent of the total number of visits to URLs and are unevenly distributed among users. The most widespread ways of accessing news are search engines and social media platforms (and hyperlinks within news sites once people arrive at news). The two former avenues also increase dissimilar news exposure, compared to accessing news directly, yet direct news access drives the highest proportion of centrist exposure.

Download Full-text

A shift from science to politics : a content analysis of COVID-19 Videos on YouTube (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.33948 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Chyun-Fung Shi ◽

Matthew C So ◽

Sophie Stelmach ◽

Arielle Earn ◽

David J D Earn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Media ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Large Scale ◽

Control Measures ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Health Campaigns ◽

Public Attention ◽

Conflicting Information ◽

Social Media Platforms

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic is the first pandemic where social media platforms relayed information on a large scale, enabling an “infodemic” of conflicting information which undermined the global response to the pandemic. Understanding how the information circulated and evolved on social media platforms is essential for planning future public health campaigns. OBJECTIVE This study investigated what types of themes about COVID-19 were most viewed on YouTube during the first 8 months of the pandemic, and how COVID-19 themes progressed over this period. METHODS We analyzed top-viewed YouTube COVID-19 related videos in English from from December 1, 2019 to August 16, 2020 with an open inductive content analysis. We coded 536 videos associated with 1.1 billion views across the study period. East Asian countries were the first to report the virus, while most of the top-viewed videos in English were from the US. Videos from straight news outlets dominated the top-viewed videos throughout the outbreak, and public health authorities contributed the fewest. Although straight news was the dominant COVID-19 video source with various types of themes, its viewership per video was similar to that for entertainment news and YouTubers after March. RESULTS We found, first, that collective public attention to the COVID-19 pandemic on YouTube peaked around March 2020, before the outbreak peaked, and flattened afterwards despite a spike in worldwide cases. Second, more videos focused on prevention early on, but videos with political themes increased through time. Third, regarding prevention and control measures, masking received much less attention than lockdown and social distancing in the study period. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that a transition of focus from science to politics on social media intensified the COVID-19 infodemic and may have weakened mitigation measures during the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is recommended that authorities should consider co-operating with reputable social media influencers to promote health campaigns and improve health literacy. In addition, given high levels of globalization of social platforms and polarization of users, tailoring communication towards different digital communities is likely to be essential.

Download Full-text