Differential Use,Differential Effects: Investigating the Roles of Different Modes of News Use in Promoting Political Participation

The present study clarifies the role of the informational use of media in facilitating citizens' political participation by focusing on three distinctive modes of news experience (i.e., news reading, posting, and endorsing) within the context of online social networking sites (SNSs). The findings show that news posting contributes to greater participation in politics by positively mediating the relationship between the use of SNSs and participatory activities. In contrast, news reading and endorsing were not significantly associated with political participation. In addition, the study found that the indirect effects of SNS use on participation via news posting are highest among those with a high degree of network political expertise and lower among those with an average level of such expertise.     

Gaming Social Capital: Exploring Civic Value in Multiplayer Video Games

Recent research suggests that social interactions in video games may lead to the development of community bonding and prosocial attitudes. Building on this line of research, a national survey of U.S. adults finds that gamers who develop ties with a community of fellow gamers possess gaming social capital, a new gaming‐related community construct that is shown to be a positive antecedent in predicting both face‐to‐face social capital and civic participation.     

Internet,News, and Political Trust: The Difference Between Social Media and Online Media Outlets

What is the relationship between Internet usage and political trust? To answer this question, we performed a cross‐sectional analysis of Eurobarometer survey data related to 27 countries and a supervised sentiment analysis of online political information broadcast during the Italian debate on the reform of public funding of parties. The results disclose the differences between Web 1.0 websites and Web 2.0 social media, showing that consumption of news from information/news websites is positively associated with higher trust, while access to information available on social media is linked with lower trust. This has implications for the debate on social media as a public sphere and for the tension between professional and citizen journalism.     

We Face,I Tweet: How Different Social Media Influence Political Participation through Collective and Internal Efficacy

This study advances a theoretical model centered on collective and internal efficacy to explain the separate pathways through which political sharing on Facebook and Twitter may influence individuals to engage in political activities. We test the model with data from a 2‐wave panel survey conducted with an adult population in 2013 in Chile. We found that frequent usage of Facebook and Twitter for sharing political information is conducive to higher levels of participation through different efficacy measures. Facebook has a significant effect on collective—not internal—efficacy, whereas Twitter's effect is on internal—not collective—efficacy. Results are discussed in light of the diverse affordances and strengths of network ties of Facebook and Twitter.     

Political Expression and Action on Social Media: Exploring the Relationship Between Lower‐ and Higher‐Threshold Political Activities Among Twitter Users in Italy

Scholars and commentators have debated whether lower‐threshold forms of political engagement on social media should be treated as being conducive to higher‐threshold modes of political participation or a diversion from them. Drawing on an original survey of a representative sample of Italians who discussed the 2013 election on Twitter, we demonstrate that the more respondents acquire political information via social media and express themselves politically on these platforms, the more they are likely to contact politicians via e‐mail, campaign for parties and candidates using social media, and attend offline events to which they were invited online. These results suggest that lower‐threshold forms of political engagement on social media do not distract from higher‐threshold activities, but are strongly associated with them.     

Habitual Facebook Use and its Impact on Getting Deceived on Social Media

There are a billion Facebook users worldwide with some individuals spending 8 hours each day on the platform. Limited research has, however, explored the consequences of such overuse. Even less research has examined the misuse of social media by criminals who are increasingly using social media to defraud individuals through phishing‐type attacks. The current study focuses on Facebook habits and its determinants and the extent to which they ultimately influence individual susceptibility to social media phishing attacks. The results suggest that habitual Facebook use, founded on the individual frequently using Facebook, maintaining a large social network, and being deficient in their ability to regulate such behaviors, is the single biggest predictor of individual victimization in social media attacks.     

A New Space for Political Behavior: Political Social Networking and its Democratic Consequences

Social networking sites (SNS) currently boast more than half a billion active users worldwide, the majority of which are young people. With notable exceptions, few studies have ventured into the growing political realm that exists on these sites. This study expands research on SNS by examining both what encourages people to express themselves politically in this realm, and what effects such expression may have on classic questions of political participation. We test the proposition that political use of SNS among teens offers a new pathway to their political participation using hierarchical linear regression and panel data analysis. Results demonstrate that political SNS use strongly impacted both levels of and growth in traditional political participation during the 2008 election.     

Inspiring and Informing Citizens Online: A Media Richness Analysis of Varied Civic Education Modalities

Public deliberation on the Internet is a promising but unproven practice. Online deliberation can engage large numbers of citizens at relatively low cost, but it is unclear whether such programs have substantial civic impact. One factor in determining their effectiveness may be the communicative features of the online setting in which they occur. Within a Media Richness Theory framework, we conducted a quasiexperiment to assess the civic outcomes of interventions executed online by nonprofit organizations prior to the 2012 U.S. presidential election. The results assess the impact of these interventions on issue knowledge and civic attitudes. Comparisons of the interventions illustrate the importance of considering media richness online, and our discussion considers the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Incidental Exposure,Selective Exposure,and Political Information Sharing: Integrating Online Exposure Patterns and Expression on Social Media

Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage with news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Using two‐wave panel survey data collected in the United States, we examine the relationship between incidental and selective exposure and their consequent links to political information sharing, across different levels of strength of political party affiliation. Our results demonstrate that incidental exposure to counter‐attitudinal information drives stronger partisans to more actively seek out like‐minded political content, which subsequently encourages political information sharing on social media. The results highlight the need to consider both types of political information exposure when modeling citizens' political behavior online.     

Ferguson on Facebook: Political persuasion in a new era of media effects

In 2014, media outlets deemed political satirist John Oliver's show the best of the year. Described as “the online water-cooler,” his show has become a talking point for many on social media. In this study, we tested the effects of such political comedy and the influence of social pressure in a simulated Facebook environment (N = 189). Participants in this experiment were asked to view a video clip from Oliver's show (high or low salience topic) and in two of the four conditions, a series of Facebook comments contradicting Oliver's views (as a form of social pressure) were provided. Results support a message-consistent persuasive effect of political comedy for both high and low salience issues but finds that message-incongruent commentary reduces this persuasive effect. Thus, the current study provides further insight regarding persuasive effects of sharing political information on social media and new opportunities for exposing entertainment seekers to politics.     

News Recommendations from Social Media Opinion Leaders: Effects on Media Trust and Information Seeking

Polls show a strong decline in public trust of traditional news outlets; however, social media offers new avenues for receiving news content. This experiment used the Facebook API to manipulate whether a news story appeared to have been posted on Facebook by one of the respondent's real‐life Facebook friends. Results show that social media recommendations improve levels of media trust, and also make people want to follow more news from that particular media outlet in the future. Moreover, these effects are amplified when the real‐life friend sharing the story on social media is perceived as an opinion leader. Implications for democracy and the news business are discussed.     

Effects of the News‐Finds‐Me Perception in Communication: Social Media Use Implications for News Seeking and Learning About Politics

With social media at the forefront of today's media context, citizens may perceive they don't need to actively seek news because they will be exposed to news and remain well‐informed through their peers and social networks. We label this the “news‐finds‐me perception,” and test its implications for news seeking and political knowledge: “news‐finds‐me effects.” U.S. panel‐survey data show that individuals who perceive news will find them are less likely to use traditional news sources and are less knowledgeable about politics over time. Although the news‐finds‐me perception is positively associated with news exposure on social media, this behavior doesn't facilitate political learning. These results suggest news continues to enhance political knowledge best when actively sought.     

Inventing the Election: Civic Participation and Presidential Candidates’ Websites

In this article I propose a three-part schema for analyzing and categorizing the civic participatory potential of three presidential candidates’ websites. Focusing my analysis on the sites of Barack Obama, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, I examine how the rhetorical and technological features of the sites’ interfaces promote robust, moderate, or superficial participatory invention, interaction, and dialogue. My research highlights the ways in which the design of websites may enable users to become more active agents in political campaigns and in the election process. In addition, the three-part schema I propose provides what I hope will be a useful analytic lens for writing instructors to use when seeking to engage students with civic rhetorical analysis.     

面向社会媒体的信息抽取：任务、挑战与机遇

社会媒体是人们用来分享意见、见解、观念和经验的平台或工具,目前已经发展成具有日益重大影响力的新媒体。面向社会媒体的信息抽取就是要从充满噪音的、零碎的、非结构化的社会媒体的自由文本中提取有价值的结构化的信息,以利于从社会媒体内容中有效地获取信息。介绍了面向社会媒体的信息抽取这一任务的诞生背景、要解决的主要问题、面l临的主要挑战、相关工作以及未来的研究方向。     

Social Media and Trust during the Gezi Protests in Turkey

The Gezi Protests, an environmental sit‐in that turned into a social movement in Turkey, is often compared to the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement with regard to the importance attributed to social media. This paper examines the role that social media played during the protests, with an emphasis on how trust was built and maintained among the protestors. In‐depth interviews with 21 active Gezi protestors revealed that social trust and system trust were intertwined in actual practices. On one side, technological affordances worked as an interface that facilitated social identification, which helped in trusting the person behind the information. On the other side, technological affordances themselves invited different levels of trust, subject to both physical constraints and technological barriers.     

Understanding How People Select Social Networking Services: Media Trait,Social Influences and Situational Factors

Social networking services (SNSs) have become very popular, and many Internet users use two or more SNSs. However, little research has been done to understand how and when users select multiple SNSs in series. This study investigates Internet users’ SNS selection behavior in daily life. We adopt the notion of media repertoire to explore how Internet users select SNSs in combination, and we adopt uses and gratifications theory to identify the values that drive these users to choose specific SNSs. We interviewed 40 Taiwanese people to explore the media traits, situational factors and social influences that affect users’ SNS selection behavior. The findings of this study can help SNS companies to improve SNS functions, and help marketers devise marketing strategies for target audiences and find suitable SNS platforms on which to communicate with consumers.     

Civic engagement among educated Chinese youth: The role of SNS (Social Networking Services), bonding and bridging social capital

This study conducted a stratified and cluster sampling on Chinese college students (N = 654) to investigate how SNS usages and social capital elicit impact on civic engagement. The results of path regression model shows that using SNS to meet new people is positively correlated with bonding and bridging social capital in the virtual world, using SNS to contact existing friends contributes to both bonding and bridging social capital in the real world. Online bonding and bridging social capital are positively related to online civic involvement, but not significantly related to offline civic behaviors. Offline bonding and bridging social capital are positively associated with offline civic participation, but not significantly related to online civic participation. The direct effect of using SNS to meet new social ties on civic engagement is partially mediated by social capital, whilst the effect of using SNS to connect friends on civic participation is completely mediated by social capital.     

网络化社会媒体的传播及应用

介绍社会媒体的网络特性与信息传播特点和社会媒体的传播机制．以及当前主要的研究课题,其中包括社会媒体的传播方法与模型、传播影响力、主题模型发现和情感倾向性分析等,简单介绍社会媒体信息传播在虚拟社会管理和社会媒体服务中的应用前景。     

浅析服装品牌市场定位中社交网络的应用

多样化的网络媒体深刻的改变了现代生活方式,也覆盖了整个消费社会。今天在服装产品的设计前期,传统的市场调研方式因其深度、广度的制约已经很难能够把握整体市场的定位。文章介绍了社会化媒体中应用最为广泛的社交网络媒体及其在服装品牌市场定位中的应用及价值。     

The Identification and Influence of Social Roles in a Social Media Product Community

This research focuses on the identification of social roles and an investigation of their influence in online context. Relying on a systemic approach for role conceptualization, we investigate member's activity, shared content and position in the network within a consumer to consumer social media‐based community (SMC) around a product. This investigation led to the identification of ten core roles, based on three key elements: object of interest (product, practice, and community), main contribution type (sharing information and seeking information), individual orientation (factual, emotional). We propose an explanation about how these roles, through their positioning, participate in the community dynamics and how they contribute to the creation and diffusion of cookery as a social practice, shaping the periphery around this practice.