Decreasing social contagion effects in diffusion cascades: Modeling message spreading on social media

Modeling retweeting behaviors is important for understanding and predicting how information spreads on social media platforms. The present study contributes to the literature by examining the decreasing social contagion and increasing homophily effects with the depth of diffusion cascades. To test the hypotheses, the study proposes a matching-on-followers method by combining choice and cascade models. More specifically, the study examines the impacts of interaction frequency, multiple exposures, and interest similarity between parent users and potential retweeters on the likelihood of retweeting. The study also incorporates the depth of diffusion cascades and network structures into the model. By using a random sample of original tweets, their retweets, and potential retweeters (N = 87,139), the study found that cascade depth is negatively associated with social contagion effects (interaction and multiple exposures) and positively associated with the effect of interest similarity on message sharing. These results indicate that influence-based and homophily-driven diffusion operate differently in cascades with different diffusion structures.     

Trust in open versus closed social media: The relative influence of user- and marketer-generated content in social network services on customer trust

Recently, “closed” or “private” social network services (SNSs) have emerged and become popular; this popularity is primarily driven by privacy issues and information overload in open SNSs such as Twitter or Facebook. Scholars and practitioners are interested in the relationship between product reviews and customer trust in both closed and open SNSs, but we do not fully understand why, how, or what types of online product reviews in open or closed SNSs influence trust. This paper explores how customer trust in content is influenced by different types of content generators and SNSs. The results of our experiments show that user-generated content (UGC) has a stronger effect on customers’ cognitive trust than does marketer-generated content (MGC) and that the effect of product reviews in closed SNSs on customers’ cognitive and emotional trust is greater than the effect in open SNSs. Finally, we find that the interaction between content generator types and SNS types affects customers’ emotional trust. This paper contributes to the empirical research on SNSs and online product reviews and has practical implications.     

信息时代下VIP现象对我国公共医疗资源效率影响及对策探究

随着我国市场经济的不断发展，以差异化服务为主要特征的VIP现象逐渐盛行，公共医疗领域也开始推出VIP服务。鉴于公共医疗资源市场配置的逐利性，民众不公平感骤升，公共医疗资源配置的社会效率较低的现状。信息化时代下要解决公共医疗资源配置效率问题，一是加强政府对公共医疗领域的规制监督；二是完善公共医疗领域VIP服务法律规范；三是培育普通民众的参与意识、维权意识。     

Investigating the relationship between workplace conflict and employee agility: The role of enterprise social media

The current research aims to investigate the relationship between workplace conflict and employee agility in firms that adopt enterprise social media (ESM). Using the information processing perspective, this study proposes a model for examining how task conflict and relationship conflict relate to employee agility and how ESM moderates these relationships. The regression analysis results are based on 161 respondents who adopted ESM in the workplace, and are used to examine the impact of task and relationship conflict on employee agility. The results show that relationship conflict has a U-shaped curvilinear relationship with employee agility. Conversely, the association between task conflict and employee agility is has an inverted U-shaped relationship. Moreover, the link between task conflict and employee agility is moderated by ESM usage, such that the curvilinear relationship is weakened by ESM usage. This study contributes to extant ESM literature by investigating workplace conflict and its role in developing employee agility in ESM environments. The findings indicate that managers should implement appropriate strategies to maintain a certain level of conflict in order to facilitate and achieve employee agility.     

Grassroots information divides in China: Theorising everyday information practices in the Global South

The internet is becoming a major source of everyday information, yet existing research often focuses on specific information seeking contexts such as health, climate change, news, or hobbies. In this paper, we put forward a more holistic theoretical model of information seeking practices in everyday life that combines the social phenomenological perspective of everyday life information seeking practices and the domestication framework. We extend the cultural context to the Global South countries, where there is less research on “mobile first” societies centred on emerging mobile platforms. Based on extensive and mixed-methods fieldwork in rural and industrial China about everyday information seeking practices, the paper goes beyond previous research about digital divides in internet access and internet literacy. Instead, it focuses on divides in everyday information seeking practices. We argue that new divides are emerging between those with more restricted everyday internet uses and those with broader and more diverse ones. We compare everyday information practices and divides in China with those in India and show how a theory of digital divides in everyday information seeking practices can be applied beyond both countries to the Global South. Such a theory can also contribute to the design of informatisation policies.     

The role of media in user participation: Focusing on the knowledge activity in online space

Media technology have been considered a catalyst for boosting communication between the sources of information. Contrary to traditional media, new media which use online communication shows high interactivity properties. This characteristic allows people to participate in collective activities such as discussion, evaluation, or creating documents. Consequently, the role of media in online space has focused on delivering individual knowledge to others rather than just adopting selected information. We studied the effect of media usage patterns on creating knowledge in online communities. In our study, we divided user groups into three based on the degree to which people participate in knowledge collaboration in the online space: active participant, passive participant, and bystander. The results indicate that the active participant group is most likely to use smartphone and tablet PC to create knowledge in online space which means they prefer high accessibility rather than familiar mediators.     

Reexamining the relationship between social media and happiness: The effects of various social media platforms on reconceptualized happiness

The current study reexamined the relationship between social media use and happiness by broadening the scope of social media and rethinking the conceptualization of happiness. Specifically, this study included platforms other than Facebook and tested differential effects of each platform. Because happiness is not entirely relative, it was hypothesized that social comparison would influence only relative happiness, which is only one part of overall happiness. A two-wave longitudinal survey among Korean females revealed that the use of blogs, Instagram, and LinkedIn is positively associated with social comparison at Wave 1 (W1), whereas Twitter is negatively associated. LinkedIn use was most strongly associated with social comparison. In turn, social comparison at W1 negatively predicted relative happiness at W2 (“I am happier than my friends”) but did not predict overall happiness at W2. Social media may lead us to believe that other people’s lives are better through social comparison. However, such comparison influences only part of overall happiness or life satisfaction. Without social comparison, social media have the potential to make us happier.     

The risk of social media addiction between the ideal/false and true self: Testing a path model through the tripartite person-centered perspective of authenticity

Much previous research has focused on the important role played by personality constructs in developing addictive use of social media. However, no investigation has yet been conducted examining the association between dispositional authenticity and online self-idealization, or the authentic self-expression hypothesis and the risk of becoming addicted to social media. To fill this gap, the present study tested a path model that hypothesized direct and indirect effects of the three components of authentic personality on social media addiction via selfitis behaviors. Participants (N = 490; M_age = 20.31 years, SD = 3.76) recruited from high schools and universities completed a self-report survey assessing the three authentic personality traits, selfitis behaviors, and social media addiction. Results generally confirmed the supposed pathways. Direct and indirect effects on social media addiction were discussed by integrating the two mechanisms of compensation related to individual dispositions with the online self-idealizing and authentic self-expression hypothesis underlying selfitis behaviors. Whereas self-alienation was found to have positive direct and indirect effects on increasing of the likelihood of becoming addicted to social media, both traits of the tendency to accept external influence and authenticity showed indirect effects in opposite directions on the risk of addictive use of social media. Findings from the present study extend previous research by exploring inter-individual differences in predisposing and reinforcing factors associated with the online self-presentation.     

Online identities and social influence in social media gambling exposure: A four-country study on young people

Social media tends to gather users around social cliques consisting of similar-minded individuals and shared identities. These online group processes can have significant influence on user behavior, which is alarming when considering risky behaviors such as gambling. This study examined how online clique involvement predicts young people’s interest in gambling content and following observed group norms on social media. Survey respondents were 15–25-year-olds from Finland (n = 1200), the United States (n = 1212), South Korea (n = 1192) and Spain (n = 1212). A self-reported measure of online clique involvement and a gambling-related social media vignette experiment were utilized. The results show that online clique involvement was related to higher interest in gambling content. Content liked by a majority gathered more interest, indicating conformity to a group norm. This finding was especially true among participants with past involvement in online cliques, and the association was strongest in South Korea. The tendency to participate in online clique behavior creates a potentially risky setting when encountering online gambling content, because it may accentuate the effect of observed group norms. Interacting with gambling content increases the visibility of such content due to algorithmic filtering technologies, which can fuel gambling-related intentions and behaviors, and normalize gambling.     

Public relations,media coverage,and public opinion in contemporary China: Testing agenda building theory in a social mediated crisis

This study investigates a social mediated crisis triggered by the Guo Meimei incident that negatively affected the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC). RCSC’s public relations efforts, media coverage, and public opinion on micro-blogs are examined through the theoretical grounding of agenda building. Evidence shows that organizational public relations activities strongly influence media coverage at the first level, but exert no influence upon online public opinion. RCSC’s agenda neither forms issue salience of online public opinion, nor effectively influences public’s attitude on the issue. This study extends the theorization of the effects of agenda building by adding contextual factors about social media, political, and cultural characteristics in China.     

大数据时代国内传媒产业的挑战与机遇研究

作为我国现如今的传媒产业生产方式,大数据技术在传媒行业的诸多领域都得到了充分的利用,极大地推动了传媒产业形成传媒类型、提升传媒质量工作的进展。文章将会针对大数据时代国内传媒产业的挑战与机遇展开研究,希望能促进我国传媒产业的发展。     

大数据时代中性水介质中的无机缓蚀剂应用研究

缓蚀剂在中性水介质中使用时要满足苛刻的条件,根据其生成保护膜的类型可分为钝化膜型、沉淀膜型、吸附膜型三类。介绍了中性水介质中常用无机缓蚀剂如传统的铬酸盐、亚硝酸盐以及钼酸盐、亚铁氰化物、硼酸盐等新型无机缓蚀剂的应用现状及优缺点。     

Social participation of the elderly in China: The roles of conventional media,digital access and social media engagement

China is the most rapidly aging country and has the largest aging population in the world. However, social participation is an important intervention to boost the active and healthy aging. The present study investigated the effects of media usage, together with social-demographics and health variables, on Chinese older adults. Drawing upon a national research project with a representative sample (N = 1,399) of older adults (55+) from 58 cities in China, the research findings revealed that conventional media, digital access and social media usage had positive effects on older adults’ informal social participation, while age moderated the relationship between informal social participation and digital access, particularly regarding access to tablet PCs and smartphones. Moreover, conventional media, digital access and social media engagement largely explained seniors’ formal social participation regardless of their social-demographic backgrounds. Finally, the roles of conventional media and digital media in older adults’ social participation are discussed.     

Exploring public perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccine online from a cultural perspective: Semantic network analysis of two social media platforms in the United States and China

The development and uptake of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccine is a top priority in stifling the COVID-19 pandemic. How the public perceives the COVID-19 vaccine is directly associated with vaccine compliance and vaccination coverage. This study takes a cultural sensitivity perspective and adopts two well-known social media platforms in the United States (Twitter) and China (Weibo) to conduct a public perception comparison around the COVID-19 vaccine. By implementing semantic network analysis, results demonstrate that the two countries' social media users overlapped in themes concerning domestic vaccination policies, priority groups, challenges from COVID-19 variants, and the global pandemic situation. However, Twitter users were prone to disclose individual vaccination experiences, express anti-vaccine attitudes. In comparison, Weibo users manifested evident deference to authorities and exhibited more positive feelings toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Those disparities were explained by the cultural characteristics' differences between the two countries. The findings provide insights into comprehending public health issues in cross-cultural contexts and illustrate the potential of utilizing social media to conduct health informatics studies and investigate public perceptions during public health crisis time.     

Turkish diasporic responses to the Taksim Square protests: Legacy media and social media uses in Belgium,the Netherlands and Germany

Based on an offline and online survey of 967 people of Turkish origin living in these countries, we test how legacy and social media have influenced the participation of the members of the Turkish diaspora in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in the mid-2013 protests in Turkey’s social movement referred to as Gezi Park. This study also investigates how living in Europe can influence the behavior and attitudes of the sampled individuals from the Turkish Diaspora of Germany, Belgium and Netherlands during the period when the Gezi Park demonstration took place. Our results make it clear that social media were used by those who supported the protest movement, while those who opposed the protest movement primarily used or followed traditional sources of media, including Turkish and European television. Furthermore, supporters amongst the diaspora for the Gezi-protests were primarily active in accruing social capital through bonding and social networking among those who belong to the Turkish diaspora under the guise of the Gezi Park protests. Finally, a significant number of the supporters of the protests in the three countries took part in several different means of supporting the movement, including: disseminating awareness about the Gezi protests through social media, engaging in meetings, and in some cases, even severing contact with friends and acquaintances who did not share their support for the protest movement.     

Social media and expressive citizenship: Understanding the relationships between social and entertainment expression on Facebook and political participation

Substantial research has explored the political significance of social media use in the context of collective actions. Yet much remains unknown about whether common, day-to-day, nonpolitically oriented activities on social media relate to political engagement. Focusing on Facebook, the primary social media platform for most Americans, this study investigates whether and how social and entertainment expression on the site are associated with political participation among a diverse online sample of American adults. Results show that social and entertainment expressive Facebook use are indirectly associated with political participation through political communication in the form of interactive political expression on the site. In addition, findings demonstrate that social expressive use is also conducive to political participation via offline political talk, but entertainment expressive use is not significantly related to political talk in offline settings. Further analysis shows that the interactions between political interest and each of the expressive uses are largely insignificantly related to political communication and participation. Overall, the study’s findings help to clarify the distinctions between the two types of nonpolitical Facebook use and the underlying process by which these uses contribute to political participation.     

Let me take a selfie: Exploring the psychological effects of posting and viewing selfies and groupies on social media

Taking selfies and groupies and sharing them to social media has become a popular online activity. This study aimed to examine the psychological effects of posting and viewing selfies and groupies on social media by conducting a survey (N = 275). Results indicated frequent selfie viewing behavior led to decreased self-esteem whereas frequent groupie viewing behavior led to increased self-esteem. Frequent selfie viewing behavior led to decreased life satisfaction while frequent groupie viewing behavior resulted in increased life satisfaction. However, neither selfie nor groupie posting behavior was associated with self-esteem or life satisfaction. In addition, individuals high in need for popularity were more likely to be affected by selfie viewing behavior in terms of life satisfaction and self-esteem compared with individuals low in need for popularity.     

Facebook ads not working in the same way: The effect of cultural orientation and message construals on consumer response to social media ads

The research examined the impacts of psychological distance and message type on social media by cultural orientation. This research assessed social media usage and construal levels on Facebook pages in two cultures (Individualism – the U.S. vs. Collectivism – South Korea). While the U.S. participants had different levels of construals in two Facebook pages (News Feed vs. Timeline), the Korean participants did not. Further, the results demonstrated that for U.S. Facebook users, the different distances from the two Facebook pages impact their evaluation of ad messages framed with different construal terms: In News Feed that U.S. users feel distant from, an ad message framed with high construal terms (vs. low construal terms) was more effective. In Timeline that U.S. users feel proximal to, an ad message focusing on low construal terms (vs. high construal terms) led to more favorable response. However, Korean Facebook users did not exhibit varying psychological distances from those two Facebook pages. Rather, they consistently preferred high-level construal messages regardless of where the ad messages were posted. The importance of this study is the suggestion that cultural orientation and social media usage need to be considered for the development of particular ad messages that engage social media users across the globe.     

The role of online news and social media in preventive action in times of infodemic from a social capital perspective: The case of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea

Infodemic, the spread of false information during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been raised as one of the major concerns aggravating the confusion in the global society. In this regard, the role of media as an information channel in delivering the reliable information and motivating the active participation of citizens in complying with government’s preventive actions becomes much more important. In this study, the role of online news and social media on people’s preventive actions considering the role of trust in citizens and government from the perspective of social capital is investigated. For the empirical study, a structural equation modeling is employed by using survey material gathered from South Korea in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak. South Korea was selected as its COVID-19 prevention strategy focused not only on the provision of medical support, but also on the enhancement of social trust through active engagement with people through media channels. Our results reveal that the perceived characteristics of online news and social media influence preventive actions through the trust in citizens or in government. In addition, while online news media enhances trust in both the citizens and the government, social media only influences trust in citizens. Based on our findings, the role of media in preventing the spread of COVID-19 is dicussed.     

Reflections of entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized enterprises concerning the adoption of social media and its impact on performance outcomes: Evidence from the UAE

There have been numerous studies on the adoption of social media among individuals as well as organizations. Nevertheless, most of these studies were conducted in developed economies and focused on large organizations. This study, therefore, fills the gap by looking at the adoption of social media among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East region; specifically, in the UAE. In addition, this study analyzes the adoption phenomena through word of mouth, viral marketing and social presence theory using in-depth semi-structured personal interviews with entrepreneurs of SMEs. Another significant contribution rendered by this study is its examination of social media adoption in terms of the business performance of firms.