Disentangling social media influence in crises: Testing a four-factor model of social media influence with large data

Social media empower publics by providing a platform for their voices during crises. Digital-enabled platforms allow individuals to become influentials by sharing their insights and expertise with others. Confronted with the fast-paced and complex dynamics of crises, we lack a systematic conceptualization and a valid measure of social media influence in the crisis context. By integrating diverse perspectives on influence, we propose a new framework that theorizes different dimensions of social media influence based on publics’ communicative behaviors during crises. This integrated framework offers a refined conceptualization and measurement of social media influence in crises by incorporating the network perspective. We tested the framework with large-scale Twitter data from four crises. Results from multigroup CFA on Twitter influencers suggest that social media influence is composed of four factors: output, reactive outtake, proactive outtake, and network positioning. Each factor is associated with a distinct set of users’ behavioral indicators (e.g., retweet). Implications for crisis communication and public relations are discussed.     

Generalizing from social media data: a formal theory approach

ABSTRACT

Researchers increasingly draw on social media data to answer big questions about social patterns and dynamics. However, as with any data source, social media data present both opportunities and significant challenges. One major critique of social media data is that the data are not generalizable outside of the platforms from which the data originate. Problems of generalizability stem from non-universal participation rates on various platforms, demographically biased samples, as well as limited access to data based on infrastructural constraints and/or user privacy practices. We suggest that instead of empirical generalizability, social media data are theoretically generalizable in the formal theory tradition. Through a case example in which we use YouTube comments to test and extend a key tenet of identity theory, we show how social media data can instantiate theoretical variables and thus generalize to theoretical propositions. Mediated through formal theory, social media data maintain the capacity to address broad social questions while upholding methodological integrity.     

Caregiving, ethical and informal: emerging challenges in the sociology of health and illness

The concept of care, integral to medical sociology and to the sociology of health and illness, suggests new challenges in two key areas of this field: 1) within professional socialization, an examination of socialization to ethical thinking, behavior, and identity among professional caregivers, building on the substantial literature already accumulated; 2) in the arena of hidden or informal care providers, an analysis of male and female informal providers and the productive work, other than care, done by these individuals. In both analyses, as well as in all medical sociology and sociology of health and illness, gender, race, and class require more attention. Both analytic endeavors influence the substance and the contours of the field.     

Refugee resettlement,social media and the social organization of difference

Social media platforms allow refugees separated by distance to share information, provide support and exchange resources across borders. This connection has the potential to transform resettlement experiences as people maintain significant and ongoing relationships with transnational networks. Yet, since refugee resettlement programmes generally only scale up to the national imagination, integration remains a normative framework in most policy spheres. This article presents a 12‐month digital ethnography of 15 refugees settled in New Zealand with a view to examining their transnational practices of social media and its influence on integration and belonging. Drawing on a conceptual framework based on the social organization of difference, it contains a discussion on how online global networks increasingly inform the domains of encounters, representations and configurations. The role of social media for refugee resettlement futures and its implications for integration at times of rapid political, technological and social change concludes the article.     

#Funeral and Instagram: death,social media,and platform vernacular

This paper presents findings from a study of Instagram use and funerary practices that analysed photographs shared on public profiles tagged with ‘#funeral’. We found that the majority of images uploaded with the hashtag #funeral often communicated a person's emotional circumstances and affective context, and allowed them to reposition their funeral experience amongst wider networks of acquaintances, friends, and family. We argue that photo-sharing through Instagram echoes broader shifts in commemorative and memorialization practices, moving away from formal and institutionalized rituals to informal and personalized, vernacular practices. Finally, we consider how Instagram's ‘platform vernacular’ unfolds in relation to traditions and contexts of death, mourning, and memorialization. This research contributes to a broader understanding of how platform vernaculars are shaped through the logics of architecture and use. This research also directly contributes to the understanding of death and digital media by examining how social media is being mobilized in relation to death, the differences that different media platforms make, and the ways social media are increasingly entwined with the places, events, and rituals of mourning.     

Ethical challenges of community based participatory research: exploring researchers’ experience

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has been proposed as an equitable, empowering partnership approach to collaborative research. International literature about the ethical implications of CBPR suggests a continuing strong interest in the topic. However, there is a notable lack of research that captures the experience of ethical challenges of researchers from different countries who engage in CBPR. The aim of this research was to address this lack of evidence by exploring researchers’ experience of ethical challenges in CBPR at an international level. An innovative data collection method was designed utilising a purpose-built blog. Balancing participant protection and autonomy, partnership tensions, and enduring impacts of the researcher role emerged as the main themes. These findings illustrate the specific conflicts faced by researchers engaged in CBPR. This is largely as a result of the complexities of CBPR coupled with rigid ethics committee review that does not always take into account the more fluid nature of the approach.     

Blaming the messenger: The media,social workers and child abuse

Abstract

This paper explores the agenda-setting role of the media in child abuse, citing local and international examples. The author argues that much media coverage of child abuse promotes a conservative, pro-family political agenda, offering a narrow individualistic/legalistic view of child abuse as opposed to a broader structural definition. This conservative agenda is particularly reflected in media hostility to social workers involved in child abuse cases. Attention is drawn to the major manifestations of this criticism, and to some of the reasons why social workers experience disproportionate media censure. Suggestions are then made regarding the potential for a more effective and pro-active social work response.     

Editor's introduction: visual studies,digital imaging and new media

This study explores the repetitive patterns of visual representations in contemporary U.S. local television news by looking at the coverage of the ‘fall of the Berlin Wall’ in November, 1989. Feature stories from three television stations in Minneapolis‐St. Paul are examined as typical examples from a local U.S. television station. The main research questions are: what aspects of the conflict between East and West Germany were included in the television coverage, and which were left out? How was the background to the event, both historical and ideological, presented in the reports? How was the Berlin Wall and the changes associated with its dismantling represented visually? The project has been informed by the analysis national news coverage in the United States and West Germany which provided a cross‐cultural dimension to the study.     

Intersectionality and social movements: Intersectional challenges and imperatives in the study of social movements

Intersectionality emerged in the border space between social movements and academic politics as a means of better understanding and confronting interlocking systems of oppression. For scholars studying social movements, it offers a framework for better understanding the power dynamics of movements (the inclusions and exclusions). It is also something to be studied. Women of color, and other groups at the intersection of multiple marginalities conceptualized intersectionality as not only a type of integrated analysis or heuristic, but as an active political orientation to be put into practice. In this essay, I review and discuss the benefits and challenges of studying social movements intersectionally (an analysis that might be applied to the study of any movements), as well as the growing literature focused on social movement intersectionality, that looks for and at intersectionally oriented movements and the praxis of intersectionality within movements. This developing area of study provides new ways of understanding and troubling social movement solidarity.     

Diverse social movement coalitions: Prospects and challenges

Coalitions are among the most important tactical tools available for social movements and civil resistance campaigns, as they enable the sharing of networks, resources, expertise, and information, while simultaneously projecting an image of power through unity and numbers. Though exceptionally challenging to build, diverse coalitions are viewed by many as particularly important. However, there is considerably less literature that explicitly discusses them. In this article, I review the literature on diverse coalitions, with a focus on both their theorized and documented importance for social movements and civil resistance campaigns, and the challenges they face (including the factors working against their formation and sustainability). To do so, I bring two closely related but often separate literatures into conversation: social movements and civil resistance. I conclude by evaluating the state of this research area, highlighting remaining gaps, and suggesting directions for future research.     

The bad and the ugly: ethical concerns in participatory photographic methods with children living and working on the streets of Lima,Peru

Visual methods are particularly well suited for getting at the ways in which children living and working on the street understand their socio-spatial environment, and can bridge gaps between researcher and researched. In this study, adolescents who live and work on the streets of Lima are asked to take photographs, documenting their lives and their socio-spatial environments. While participatory methods such as photovoice can bring children and adolescents into the research process and can provide significant benefits to research and its participants, the introduction of photographic methods with marginalised populations carries with it important ethical concerns. This article explores the various critiques of documentary photography, and ethical concerns that arise when using visual methods, including issues of exploitation and intrusion in research with adolescents living on the streets. It also examines the ways in which researchers must continuously reassess their methodological practices in order to protect the best interests of the participants involved.     

The first lady of social media: The visual rhetoric of Michelle Obama’s Twitter images

While American first ladies have long used media to craft their image, Michelle Obama is the first contemporary first lady to use social media to promote her public persona. We use the lens of symbolic convergence theory to explore the fantasy themes incumbent in images shared through Michelle Obama’s Twitter account. Since first ladies have long been perceived as representing the American “everywoman,” understanding the fantasies built into the social media image of the first lady extends knowledge about the perception of American women more broadly. Our findings indicate that Michelle Obama’s Twitter images are strategic in that they reflect the visual themes that the media traditionally use in their coverage of first ladies. Specifically, Michelle Obama’s social media messaging portrays her as an activist mother—who espouses noncontroversial causes such as education and children’s health—and a nonpartisan figure with deep familial ties.     

Politicians,celebrities and social media: a case of informalisation?

With electoral politics no longer organised by social class, politicians increasingly seek to relate to a broad spectrum of citizens and part of their relatability is conjured through more casual, informal performances aimed at cultivating authenticity. The various platforms of social media promote forms of authentic communication by blurring the public/private divide, creating ‘spontaneous’ and instant access to ‘real life’. This article seeks to investigate the informalisation thesis by applying it to data from young people aged 16–21 years in Australia, the UK and the USA, asked about the way politicians and celebrities use social media. Findings reveal respondents’ desire for more authentic and accessible politicians, but this was in direct tension with traditional views and expectations of politicians needing to be professional, informed and worthy of respect. Informalisation amongst politicians is evident and welcomed by young citizens but persistent traditional views means it also threatens their credibility.     

Globalisation and gender training for the media: challenges and lessons learned

This article discusses the experiences of the author in developing gender training for media professionals. The media has been known to be a key institutional player in holding governments and other institutions accountable for adhering to the democratic ideals of transparency, accountability, and good governance. Likewise, this article discusses the experience of Inter Press Service (IPS), a global information and communication service that aims to report more competently on gender issues. During the implementation of the IPS, several steps were taken: 1) examination of gender roles and responsibilities; 2) creation of gender-responsive editorial and employment policies towards better practices; 3) provision of training and seminars. In the same manner, there have been several challenges faced by media during gender training: the need to understand the basics, and the move from awareness-raising to provision of professional tools. To conclude, several lessons were learned during the course of its implementation: 1) the significance of policy as the initial step in mainstreaming; 2) training as the key to change; 3) the difficulty of practicing what has been learned; 4) monitoring; and 5) the importance of new partnerships.     

Towards more confidence: about the roles of social scientists in participatory policy making

From June 26 to 27, the workshop “Ironists, Reformers, or Rebels? The Role of the Social Sciences in Participatory Policy Making” took place at the Collegium Helveticum of the UZH/ETH in Zurich. The organisers’ motivation was the apparently missing involvement of social scientists in public engagement processes. This impression persists because, while social scientists often observe public debates or develop participatory methods for public policy-making, they rarely take part in those processes themselves. A closer look at ethics commissions, expert committees or public hearings concerned with science and technology issues shows natural scientists, physicians, lawyers and the occasional philosopher. Sociologists, anthropologists and other social scientists, on the other hand, are often not involved. Because of this imbalance, the organisers’ aim was to bring together scholars and researchers from different areas of the social sciences to consider the role of their disciplines in public policy making. This article will focus on some of the ideas about specific roles of social scientists in participatory policy-making, discussed at the workshop, and their implications and give a commentary on some future prospects of the social sciences.     

Critical perspectives on brand culture in the era of participatory and algorithmic media

Brands have become a ubiquitous feature of life in market‐based consumer societies. While marketers aim to establish brands as efficient devices for guiding purchase decisions, critical scholarship investigates how branding functions as a mode of exercising power by shaping consumers' identities and consumer culture more broadly. Beginning in the 1950s as a predominantly semiotic critique of advertising, critical research into branding has over the decades developed a more complex conceptualisation of brands and their interrelationship with “active” audiences and the cultural environment in which they operate. The first part of this essay summarises this conceptual evolution. It provides the necessary background for interrogating how brands engage with, shape, and capitalise on “algorithmic culture”. Recent dramatic changes in the data‐processing power of the developing algorithmic, platform‐dominated media environment is significantly altering the way brands operate and capitalise on consumer participation and popular culture. The present moment is therefore a crucial one to survey and evaluate emerging critical perspectives on brands and branding. By engaging with the current scholarship on social media, algorithms, and platforms, the second part of this essay outlines a number of novel and distinctive critiques emerging from this literature, which can help inform further research.