Communication Technology Division
2022 Abstracts
Research Paper • Faculty • Aaron Atkins • The development and exploration of immersive, 360-degree virtual reality video (360VR) and its potential as a viable medium for information dissemination, has been the subject of both speculation and exploration over the last five years. As such, it becomes important to test/examine and investigate the effects the medium itself in different message contexts. This study details an experiment designed to test memory performance, persuasion and counterargument, and mediated influence in a community news context. It will use a political ideology message factor manipulation in a virtual reality, community journalism story and utilize a general public participant pool as the foundation for the study. It will also make use of the limited capacity model for motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP) as its theoretical framework. Findings include differences in memory performance between moderate and liberal participant groups, an increase in spatial presence mediated by sense of community, differences in visual and aural recall, and a ceiling effect in perceptions of journalist and message credibility. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Research Paper • Faculty • Itai Himelboim, University of Georgia; Porismita Borah; Danielle Ka Lai Lee; Janice Lee; Yan Su; Anastasia Vishnevskaya; Xizhu Xiao • In this paper we examine Tweets related to five leading conspiracies regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the 15 conspiracy elements that were coded, content that believed in the conspiracy theories were the highest; followed by malicious purpose; and content about the conspirators. Our findings from the quantitative patterns as well as from qualitative narrative coding showed the interconnections among all five conspiracy theories. Findings showed that malicious purposes and secretive actions received the highest engagement.
Research Paper • Faculty • Yuhmiin Chang • Recent survey studies have found that media multitasking had a negative effect on mood. This study, however, proposes that media multitasking can have both positive and negative effects on mood depending on the messages in the single medium. The results of the experiment demonstrate that media multitasking lead to greater mood repair through the mediation of perceived entertainment than relevant Website and lesser mood repair through the mediation of flow than Netflix sitcoms on PC.
Research Paper • Student • Ye Chen; Carolyn Lin • This study examined the effects of augmented realness and technology fluidity of (Augmented Reality)AR applications on consumers’ experience. A posttest-only between-subjects experiment was conducted to test a series of hypotheses. Findings demonstrate that both features positively influenced consumer responses through the immersion experience of flow. Specific effects on cognitive and affective response were discussed. The study contributes to theoretical building in AR marketing research and has implications to AR marketing practitioners.
Research Paper • Student • Joshua Cloudy, Texas Tech University; Jamie Banks; Nick Bowman • Artificially intelligent (AI) journalists have the potential to lower hostile media bias by activating the machine heuristic—a mental shortcut assuming machines are more unbiased, systematic, and accurate than are humans. An online experiment targeting abortion partisans found support for the prediction: an AI journalist activates the machine heuristic that, in turn, mitigates hostile media bias. This mediation effect was moderated: perceived bias was more strongly reduced as partisanship towards the issue became more extreme.
Research Paper • Faculty • Juliann Cortese, Florida State University; Mia Liza A. Lustria; Vaibhav Diwanji, Florida State University • A randomized controlled, within-subjects experiment was conducted to compare user preferences for receiving information through a tailored video website compared to a generic website. Findings suggested that participants significantly preferred the interactive video format compared to the standard format on all but two direct-comparison variables. The interactive format outperformed the generic site in terms of behavioral intentions, user engagement, user fulfillment and positive affect, with significant order effects for information evaluation and elaboration of content.
Research Paper • Faculty • KW Fu • This study empirically examines the roles of organizational and crowd activists in social movement’s action repertoires (mobilization, framing, and tactical coordination) by analyzing 4 million Telegram channel messages collected in the Hong Kong’s 2019 Anti-Extradition Law movement. The findings highlight the logic of cross-breeding metaphorically, a hyper-hybrid mode of Bennett & Segerberg’s logics of connective and collective actions, emphasizing a dynamic power-making process of the networked media in shaping contemporary social movement.
Research Paper • Faculty • Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Salamanca/Penn State University; Manuel Goyanes, Carlos III University; Christofer Skurka, Pennsylvania State University • Recent scholarship has devoted attention to the spread of fake news in social media, suggesting systematic viable ways to slow down the spread of misinformation. Generally, effective documented interventions rely on fake news identification and social peer corrective actions. Based on a cross-cultural, mixed method sequential design, this study further investigates 1) how citizens develop strategies to identify fake news and generate rational motivations to engage in corrective actions (Study 1, based on fifty-one in-depth adults’ interviews in Spain), and tests 2) whether traditional, social media, and fake news exposure predict taking corrective measures, as well as indirect relationships explained through individual’s news cognitive elaboration (Study 2, with US survey data). Qualitative and quantitative results highlight the distinctive news use effects over fake news corrective actions, placing some individual cognitive processes at the center of fake news counteractive behavior.
Research Paper • Postdoctoral Fellow • Zhang Hao Goh; Edson Tandoc Jr; Bin Ng • Livestreaming has gained traction in recent years, making it a billion-dollar industry. Owing to its success, most social networking sites today have integrated livestreaming functions in their platforms, as an increasing number of users broadcast, and an even bigger number watch, livestreams. What makes people watch livestreams? Studies have acknowledged how social media use (i.e., social networking) can mitigate the effects of loneliness, but due attention has yet to be given to the consumption of livestream content. Using national survey data (N = 1,606), this study demonstrates that livestream viewing has a positive influence on individuals’ well-being. Notably, the frequency of livestream viewing moderates the negative effects of loneliness on the viewers’ psychological, social, and emotional well-being. Implications of the results were discussed.
Extended Abstract • Student • PEI-CHUAN CHANG; Ying-Chia Hsu • Guided by Information Acceptance Model, this study examines information adoption in the context of social shopping by integrating two moderators, content provider motivation and social homophily. Results of structural equation modeling verify information acceptance model: As perceived information quality increases, information usefulness would also increase, boosting the likelihood of information adoption. Meanwhile, when social shoppers perceived higher similarities with the social media groups, they would be more likely to view the provided information as useful.
Research Paper • Faculty • Yu-Huay Hsu, Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development at National Taiwan University; Shihhsien Hsu, National Taiwan University • Based on the affordance approach, this study used surveys to explore the relationship among the multi-dimensional aspects of SNS affordance (symbolic, functional, interactive), users’ perceived value, and usage loyalty. Findings indicated that site affordances contribute to perceived value and usage loyalty. Moreover, trust is a significant moderator through the mediated model of affordance and usage loyalty via perceived value. Results show that participants care about social media platforms’ offering and form value perceptions; thus, influencing their posterior behavior of commitment toward the corresponding SNSs.
Research Paper • Faculty • Li Zhong; Vincent Huang • This study explores how mobile technologies provide a communication tool to help Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong cope with social and emotional loneliness. Findings from a survey suggest that mobile phone use was only negatively associated with social loneliness. Both problematic mobile phone use and social support mediated the negative relationship, while only problematic mobile phone use was found to mediate the positive association between mobile phone use and emotional loneliness.
Research Paper • Faculty • Liefu Jiang, Chicago State University • Through an experiment with 199 participants, this paper tested the causal relationships between perceived media reach, perceived media influence, and different levels of corrective actions on social media. Findings show that only perceived media reach can influence participants’ likelihood of taking low-level corrective actions. This paper contributes to corrective action studies by providing evidence of causality between antecedents and different levels of corrective actions, which helps researchers investigate corrective actions more accurately.
Research Paper • Faculty • Shaheen Kanthawala, University of Alabama; Jessica Maddox • “WhatsApp is a highly prevalent form of communication among people in India, with India being the app’s largest market. The app has revolutionized communication within people’s day-to-day lives in the country with discussions including a wide spectrum of topics including health. Health content on these closed platforms can have long-term and dangerous ramifications, especially since WhatsApp has often been under fire for the excessive amount of misinformation spread on the platform. In order to explore the kind of health content prevalent on the platform, we conducted 19 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Indians over the age of 40.
Our findings highlight how most health discussions on the platform predominately involve natural remedies and alternative medication in order to build people’s immunity. However, this content is rarely verified, but people still engage with it in order to reduce feelings of uncertainty that come along with health issues (especially those in light of the COVID-19 pandemic). These ideas also give insights into the folk theories people have surrounding natural health solutions (as compared to Western medication), especially when tied together with historical and cultural narratives, and the role of the government in encouraging these beliefs.”
Research Paper • Faculty • Wonkyung Kim; Hyun Jung Oh • This study examined the process through which the quality of relationship between fans and a musician influences fans’ experience and engagement of virtual concerts. A structural equation model with the survey data collected from 248 Chinese participants highlights the importance of fan-artist relationship, perceived interactivity, presence, and enjoyment in predicting fans’ eWOM behaviors. Implications are provided on how to utilize virtual platforms and interactivity features to improve audience experience and engagement of the virtual concert.
Extended Abstract • Professional • Alex Kirkpatrick, Washington State University; Amanda Boyd; Jay Hmielowski, University of Florida • We surveyed a sample of US citizens regarding their media habits related to staying informed about artificial intelligence (AI). Results suggest that those dependent on media-systems to stay informed about AI perceive the impacts of AI to be nearer and more likely to affect people similar to them. In turn, this psychological proximity increased the chances that respondents themselves would share AI contents online. Perceived rate of technological change was found to enhance this process. Results are conceptualized in relation to Construal-level of Psychological Distances, and Media-System Dependency Theory.
Research Paper • Student • Heysung Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Yibing Sun; Hernando Rojas • This research investigates relationships between engagement during live streaming, parasocial interactions (PSI), and the role of PSI as social capital promoting offline political participation, using online survey with 504 respondents in South Korea and 510 respondents in the U.S. Results shows that viewer engagement and perceived attitude homophily with the host is positively related to PSI. PSI promote political participation and political efficacy amplifies the positive effects of PSI on political participation in both countries.
Research Paper • Student • Yukyung Lee, University of Connecticut; Carolyn Lin • This study tested the effects of serial positioning of online consumer reviews on review information process and evaluation. Results suggested that consumer reviews published in the order of “lowest” to “highest” ratings alongside more positive prior brand attitude led to more systematic information processing, which was positively related to perceived review helpfulness. While perceived review helpfulness is positively associated with perceived website credibility, the latter is positively linked to intentions to shop on the website.
Research Paper • Student • Wenbo Li, The Ohio State University; Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, The Ohio State University; Chris Cosma, The Ohio State University • News recommender system and popularity metrics (i.e., bandwagon cues) have changed how users encounter and select information. Hypotheses on resulting information exposure were derived from Sundar et al.’s (2015) TIME and Knobloch-Westerwick’s (2020) UCU frameworks. A computerized lab experiment examined how a self-representation affordance (inducing focus on self vs. others) moderates bandwagon cues’ (low vs. high numbers) impact on exposure to political messages. The results show that creating a private self-representation induced self-focus and led to more exposure to messages with high bandwagon-cues numbers than to messages with low bandwagon-cues numbers. Creating a public self-representation induced other focus and led to more exposure to messages with low bandwagon-cues numbers than to messages with high bandwagon-cues numbers. An online field study followed up and yielded similar, albeit weaker effects on information exposure. The findings underscore how user profiles and recommender systems, as on Twitter or Facebook, interact to affect information exposure.
Research Paper • Student • Fanjue Liu, University of Florida; Mo Chen; Yu-Hao Lee • Computer-generated virtual influencers today have humanlike visual representations and function like human social media influencers. Virtual influencers have been increasingly adopted as brand endorsers in influencer marketing with both successes and failures. However, little is known about how consumers would attribute the success or failure regarding virtual influencers’ endorsements. Through the theoretical lens of mind perception theory and attribution theories, this study examines how people attribute responsibility to virtual influencers when they perceive the influencer as a computer-generated virtual person versus as a human in terms of endorsement failure and success. The results of a 2 x 2 experiment showed that when the endorsement had a positive outcome, people attributed more credit to the human influencers than the virtual influencers. In contrast, when the endorsement had a negative outcome, people attributed similar responsibility levels to the human influencers and the virtual influencers. Mind perception was found to mediate the effect of source identification—virtual human versus human—on the responsibility attribution toward influencers. The findings of this research provides theoretical and practical implications for both influencer marketing and human-robot interaction research.
Research Paper • Faculty • Nancy Muturi, Kansas State University; Raluca Cozma, Kansas State University; Alec Tefertiller, Baylor University; Jacob Groshek, Kansas State University • A nationally representative online survey conducted in the United States during the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic examined the moderating role of civic engagement, social capital, and misinformation concerns in the relationship between media use and self-protective health behaviors. Building on the Social Exchange Theory, analyses found that while social media as a whole negatively impacts compliance with recommended health practices, certain affordances and awareness of its potential shortcomings reverse that association. Implications for theory, risk communication via traditional and social media, and public health are discussed.
Research Paper • Faculty • Mustafa Oz, The University of Tennessee Knoxville • “This study is an attempt to further understand uncivil discourse on social media platforms. Instead of solely focusing on incivility, this study distinguishes incivility from intolerance and examines these two concepts in the context of public comments on two social media platforms. More specifically, the study examines whether uncivil and intolerant comments vary based on platforms and topic sensitivity, as well as the relationship between uncivil/intolerant discourse and deliberative attributes.
According to the results, while incivility occurs in both platforms, there is a meaningful difference between Facebook and Twitter in terms of intolerant comments. Also, there is a positive relationship between topic sensitivity and intolerance. Finally, Facebook discussion 46% more likely to contain deliberative comments than Twitter discussion.”
Research Paper • Faculty • Mustafa Oz, The University of Tennessee Knoxville; Akan Yanik • Many surveillance studies used the panopticon analogy to understand the impact of government surveillance practices on political participation. In the light of Foucault’s thoughts, this study examined how the perception of government surveillance impacts Turkish social media users’ willingness to express an opinion on social media. Also, we examined whether online privacy skills and perceived majority variables moderate the relationship between perceived surveillance and willingness to speak out on social media. The results suggested that perceived surveillance is negatively related to one’s willingness to speak out. On the other hand, online privacy skills moderate the relationship between perceived surveillance and one’s willingness to speak out.
Extended Abstract • Faculty • Judith Rosenbaum, University of Maine; Benjamin Johnson, University of Florida; Jonathan Hinds • With social media seen as central to marketing, understanding how the source of a brand-related social media post impacts attitudes is critical. Building on research into electronic word-of-mouth and warranting theory, an experiment was used to compare the impact of content posted and reshared by peers, influencers, and brands on Facebook and Instagram. Results pointed to the value of third-party claims, but also revealed the interaction between the nature of the source and the platform.
Research Paper • Student • Olga Shabalina; Xiaohan Hu; Kevin Wise • Layout congruency and user experience are central predictors of visual search on social media feeds. However, our understanding of their effect on users’ online behavior and attitude towards social media platforms is underdeveloped. The present research fills this gap and explores what Pinterest users think about visual search in one-column (congruent) versus two-column (incongruent) conditions of Pinterest board layout, and how their experience primes perceived processing fluency and attitude towards visual search.
Extended Abstract • Faculty • Inyoung Shin; Hyunsook Youn • This study explores the roles of mass and social media use and personal networks in the judgment of COVID-related perceived risk among college students. Extending the impersonal hypothesis, we examine how mass media, social media, and personal networks related to college students’ risk perception at two different levels: personal and societal. Our study shows that mass media use can increase societal risk perception, whereas social media and network-related characteristics have the potential to increase both personal and societal risk perceptions.
Extended Abstract • Faculty • Brian Smith, Brigham Young University; Staci Smith; Danielle Hallows; Lauren Silva; Kateryna Kravchenko • The COVID-19 pandemic’s effects include extended use of communication technology. This study examines communication technology effects through the lens of missionaries, who faced an unprecedented new normal – the replacement of in-person proselyting with digitally-facilitated interaction. In-depth interviews with 17 participants who served as missionaries during the pandemic reveal both effects and effectiveness of communication technology, including effects on resilience mediated by uncertainty acceptance and integration of personal interest.
Research Paper • Faculty • Xu Song; Cindy T. Christen, Colorado State University • A post-test only 2x2x2 factorial between-subjects experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of gender and instant messaging experience on the organization-customer live chat communication in both schema-resonance and non-schema-resonance conditions. A convenience sample (N=261) was used. Compared to males, females used less live-chat time, demonstrated greater usage intent, and were more satisfied with live chat service, communication approach, and information provided. IM experience had a significant effect on customer intention in schema-resonance live chat.
Research Paper • Faculty • Edson Tandoc Jr; James Lee, Nanyang Technological University; Xin Ping Lee, Nanyang Technological U; Yu Xuan Joycelyn Teo, Nanyang Technological U; Chei Sian Lee, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technlogical University, Singapore • This experimental study investigated the effectiveness of correction message sent by different group members (in-group vs out-group) and through different modes of delivery (group vs interpersonal chat) in reducing participants’ perceived credibility of online fake news. Guided by the social identity theory, this study found that correction messages sent via interpersonal channels were more effective at lowering participants’ perceived credibility of online fake news, but we found no main effect for type of sender.
Research Paper • Faculty • Jingyuan Shi; Liang Chen; Stephanie Jean Tsang • We extended the influence of presumed media influence model by taking interpersonal communication into account. Our survey (N = 642) results revealed that individuals’ attention to COVID-19 information on social media and their engagement in interpersonal communication about the disease independently and jointly affected presumed others’ attention. The more that individuals engaged in interpersonal communication, the less that their attention to mediated content factored into how they perceived others’ attention to such content. Presumed others’ attention, in turn, was positively associated with presuming that others were influenced by COVID-19 misinformation and the intention to correct, but not censor, misinformation.
Research Paper • Student • Yunwen Wang, University of Southern California; Yusi Aveva Xu; Jiaxi Wu, Boston University; Hye Min Kim, University of Southern California; Traci J. Hong, Boston University; Margaret L. McLaughlin, University of Southern California • A recent surge of e-cigarette use raised serious public concern. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, this study integrated computational and human strategies to disentangle vaping controversies. We conducted time-series analysis, topic modeling, classification, and chi-square tests on 2,669 public Facebook posts. Results revealed pro-vapers cited more Fairness/Cheating and Authority/Subversion than anti-vapers, while anti-vapers cited more Sanctity/Degradation. Referencing to Care/Harm as well as Loyalty/Betrayal in similar sheer volumes, the two opposing communities sometimes contextualized them differently.
Research Paper • Faculty • Yuan Wang, City University of Hong Kong; Yang Cheng, North Carolina State University • This study examines the patterns and trends of social media-related public relations (SMPR) research published in 14 journals from 2006 to 2018. It analyzes the theoretical trends (i.e., research topics, theories and theoretical models, hypotheses, and research questions), methodological trends (i.e., sample types, sampling methods, and research methods), and social media platforms used in 357 published journal articles. The results reveal the trends of SMPR articles across journal areas and stages of social media development.
Research Paper • Student • Luxuan Wang, Rutgers University; Inyoung Shin; Yi-Ta Lu • Our study examined how the unique social endorsement systems on Twitter indicating who retweets a post and how many like that post, affected perceived credibility of misinformation and sharing intention. By conducting a 2 by 2 survey experiment among 267 Twitter users, we found the relative effects of an acquaintance as a retweeter over a celebrity on misinformation credibility and retweeting intention and the presence of bandwagon cues increases information credibility and retweeting intentions.
Research Paper • Student • Yi-Ning Katherine Chen, National Chengchi University; CHIA-HO RYAN WEN, Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University • Enhancing public confidence in revolutionary technology is possibly the most consequential job of government when developing novel science, and one of the greatest obstacles is to figure out why the masses hold highly discrepant views on any specific technology. Based on previous literature, this study hypothesizes that the discordant perceptions of science arise from individuals’ intrinsic divergent world views built upon political orientations, content knowledge, perceived knowledge, and habitual consumption of scientific news. Analysing 502 survey participants, our research concludes first that the dichotomous political ideology (liberalism versus conservativism) is a feeble predictor in Taiwan’s social context and not as indicative as it is for the U.S. society. Second, content knowledge of AI predicts positive attitudes towards AI and its regulation, whereas perceived knowledge of AI predicts risk perceptions of AI. Third and finally, in accordance with content knowledge, scientific news consumption has a direct bearing on both the benefit perceptions of AI as well as its regulation support.
Extended Abstract • Faculty • David Wolfgang, Colorado State University; Manu Bhandari • Negative online reader comments on news sites can hurt journalists’ credibility but much could depend on how the comments are constructed and presented. This study considers how differences in the argument strength of negative comments and the individual’s level of media trust could influence journalist’s credibility ratings. An experimental study with 122 U.S. participants showed comment argument strength can affect a journalist’s credibility and, more importantly, media trust can influence perceived argument strength effects.
Extended Abstract • Faculty • Yuehua Wu; Jie Hu; Wu Li • Using online survey, this study examines a sample of Chinese college students to assess the relationship between online gaming intensity and real-life unethical decision-making. Results show that gaming intensity has no direct effect on unethical decision-making yet has indirect effect on it via game cheating and serial indirect effect via game cheating and moral disengagement. The relationship between these two variables is positive at low levels of peer cheating and negative at high levels.
Research Paper • Faculty • Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina; Taylor Wen, University of South Carolina • In this study, we explored the practitioner perspective of AI advertising by analyzing the articles that mention AI and its related terms from an important advertising trade publication. A computational analysis of natural language processing discovered five salient topics from these articles, including “platform/companies leverage AI in business,” “AI powers content creation,” “AI battles against human wrongdoing,” “using AI for consumer marketing,” and “exhibiting AI-involved work/cases.” We compared these topics with the existing scholarly research of AI advertising and identified the gap between academic and practitioner perspectives. Implications of this study to both researchers and professionals are discussed.
Extended Abstract • Faculty • YOWEI KANG, NTOU; KENNETH C.C. YANG, UTEP • “The convergence of mobile technologies and location-aware AR applications in museums has presented an interesting phenomenon for both researchers and practitioners to develop best practices and theoretical exploration. Particularly, the pervasive nature of mobile technologies and the heavy reliance on consumers’ locational information are two major technological advantages that make digital reality applications possible. An important question to explore is how users’ privacy concerns would affect the emerging AR applications in museums that rely on consumers’ locational information to generate location-relevant cultural contents. To better understand these relationships between consumers’ privacy concerns, consumer autonomy, and their privacy management strategies, this employed a questionnaire survey to collect empirical data from conveniently recruited 263 participants. Findings from this study did not support the role of consumer autonomy on concerns over location privacy. However, museum-goers’ own privacy concerns do predict 2 out of 3 privacy management strategies to better protect their location privacy. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.
Keywords: Augmented Reality (AR), Communication Privacy Management (CPM) Theory, Consumer Autonomy, Location Privacy Concerns, Privacy Management Strategies, Self-Determination Theory, Questionnaire Survey”
Extended Abstract • Faculty • Xinzhi Zhang, Hong Kong Baptist University; Dion Deng • By analyzing users’ real-time comments on the video streaming platforms—known as Danmaku comments—the present study advances research on co-commenting and distinguishes co-commenting based on the same time (two users sending comments at the same time) versus co-commenting based on the same timeline point (two users sending comments at the same points of the video’s timeline). Two co-commenting networks based on users’ danmaku commenting on Bilibili are constructed and analyzed.
Research Paper • Student • Ying Zhu; David Silva, kent State University; Michael Beam, kent State University • Internet censorship and VPN restrictions prevail in mainland China. This study investigates factors influencing overseas Chinese VPN users’ attitudes toward censorship and VPN use guided by theories of the third-person effects and social norms. Results show that third-person effects, injunctive norms, and censorship attitudes influence people’s VPN use. Both injunctive and descriptive norms influence censorship attitudes. Chinese social media use impacts people’s injunctive norms while U.S. social media use influences both injunctive and descriptive norms.
Research Paper • Student • Annalise Baines; Muhammad Ittefaq, University of Kansas; Mauryne Abwao • Using echo chambers as a framework, we analyzed 400 Parler posts using the hashtag #COVID19Vaccine and #NoCovidVaccine to understand users’ discussions through text analytics approach. Findings reveal five themes: reasons to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine, side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine, population control through the COVID-19 vaccine, children getting vaccinated without parental consent, and comparison of other health issues with COVID-19. Findings suggest users adopted various terms to express their beliefs regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.
Extended Abstract • Student • Jaewon Royce Choi; Sharon Strover, University of Texas at Austin; Soyoung Park, University of Texas at Austin; Mackenzie Schnell, University of Texas at Austin • This study examines relatively understudied aspect in disinformation research: affective nature of contents. We investigate the visual elements of images used in the Facebook ads purchased by Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA). Following systemic functional visual semiotic theory, visual elements of gaze, social distance, and efficacy statement were coded for images in IRA Facebook ads. Multiple regression analysis reveals significant joint effects of these visual elements and political leaning of ads on IRA ad engagements.
Extended Abstract • Student • Lingbo Gan; Peng Xu • This study examines the types and motivations of Chinese elderly adults using social media to share health information through in-depth interviews. Chinese elderly adults tend to share health information about healthcare and specific diseases through group and private chats with their strong relationships. This study concludes five motives for Chinese elderly to share information, and categorizes them according to relationships and information appeal. The cultural traits and local psychology behind the behaviors are also discussed.
Research Paper • Student • Ashley Hedrick • This paper uses interviews with 15 One Direction fanfiction writers on Wattpad.com to learn more about the interactions between Wattpad’s technological affordances and fans’ erotic writing about “bad boy” characters. Fanfiction bad boys often mistreat women, sometimes escalating to sexual coercion. While the popularity of erotic writing decreased teen girl writers’ internalized stigma regarding sex, some young writers learned to seek out bad boys in real life romantic relationships.
Research Paper • Student • Mengru Sun, Zhejiang University; WEI HUANG; Wencai Hu • The proposed perception-behavior linkage effect in present study bridges the gap between perceptions of social media affordances and behaviors, shedding new light on how disclosure perceptions may trigger communication behavior in CMC. Based on Hyperpersonal communication model, it was found that asynchronicity indirectly influence the self-disclosure processes through the affordance of editability, whereby the intensified perception of asynchronicity (or anonymity) could lead to stronger perception of editability as well as more amount of disclosure and depth of disclosure. Meanwhile, the relationship between perception of asynchronicity (or anonymity) and perception of editability was contingency depend on the frequency of social media use. More specifically, suggested by cognitive load theory, the working memory would decay the self-disclosure amount as the increase use of social media. The results are critical to understanding the dynamics and opportunities of self-disclosure in social media services that vary levels of identification and types of audience.
Research Paper • Student • Muhammad Fahad Humayun, U of Colorado-Boulder • Previous research has concluded that online social network sites (SNS) may be benefiting their users by connecting and communicating with others (Donath & Boyd, 2004; Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008) while there is also a growing body of research focusing on social media and privacy concerns (Bode, 2012). In this study, we aim to demonstrate that privacy concerns might limit political participation online using a convenience based sample. Through previous literature review, we hypothesized that a) Individual privacy concerns will predict lower levels of online political participation, b) Individuals’ privacy concerns will predict lower levels of the political use of Facebook, c) Individuals’ privacy concerns will predict higher levels of the political use of Instagram d) Individuals’ privacy concerns will predict lower levels of the political use of Twitter. Results show that the privacy concerns of citizens predict lower political participation on the Internet in general along with Facebook and Twitter but predict higher participation on Instagram.
Extended Abstract • Student • Fanjue Liu, University of Florida; Mo Chen • COVID-19 is fundamentally changing the way people connect, collaborate and socialize. With the ongoing pandemic amplifying people’s feeling of loneliness, technology has been integrated into peoples’ lives and used to solve challenges induced by social distancing and quarantines. Specifically, voice assistants are growing as a pandemic-era staple. Combining the uses and gratification approach and three-factor theory of anthropomorphism, this study investigates the psychological factors underlying the interaction between users and voice assistants that motivate users to anthropomorphize voice assistants, and tests whether the lack of sociality during COVID-19 pandemic motivates people to regain the feeling of connectedness through anthropomorphizing voice assistants.
Research Paper • Student • Muira McCammon • This study examines how government agencies negotiate and navigate what is appropriate for users acting on behalf of the U.S. administrative state to say. It traces the digital labor of government employees tasked with intervening when official government social media accounts amplify inappropriate content. The analytical framework proposed—government content moderation—is meant to extend understandings of how digital workers at government institutions negotiate the continued importance of information technology in promoting organizational identity.
Research Paper • Faculty • Emily McCaul, Virginia Tech; Jocelyn Hotter, Virginia Tech; Jess King, Virginia Tech; Jenna Davis • Brands increasingly utilize Instagram influencers as a digital marketing tool, because influencers have shown to be effective in engaging customers by offering them relatability and trustworthiness online via digital communication, as suggested by source credibility theory. This study seeks to explore the questions: How do Instagram users identify an Instagram influence, and what factors communicate to the consumer that a user carries “influence?” In this experiment, a 2×2 factorial design is used to present participants with two visual cues: follower counts and verification badges. Then, participants’ attitudes towards the product, attitudes towards the influencer and purchasing intentions are measured via a questionnaire. The results of this study found no significant interactions between the independent variables (i.e., follower count and verification badge) and the attitude towards the product, attitude towards the influencer’s credibility, or purchasing intention. These results carry implications for source credibility of influencers, as this study suggests, that perhaps follower count and verification badges do not play as big of a role in determining an audience’s trust and relatability to an influencer.
Research Paper • Student • Anneleen Meeus, KULeuven • This cross-sectional study examined how preadolescents’ different (i.e.,real and false) online self-presentation strategies are associated with their appearance-related perceptions. Results (n=638;52.4% girls,Mage=10.94,SDage=0.85) showed that when preadolescents engaged in more truthful self-presentations, they also felt more positive about their appearance. A significant moderation effect was found for social feedback, with the association becoming stronger as online popularity (e.g., likes) increased. Conversely, false self-presentation was negatively related to appearance-related perceptions, while no significant interaction effect was found.
Research Paper • Student • Jessica Wyers, Louisiana State University; Ayla Oden, Louisiana State University • Although the divide in terms of technological access has largely been flattened, there remain large disparities in digital and online privacy literacy. Individuals with lower rates of digital literacy are often more vulnerable to online surveillance and privacy invasion threats. Using 2019 data collected by the Pew Research Center, this study investigates how digital literacy can play a mediating role in the perceived understanding of online institutional threats by the government and private companies.
Extended Abstract • Student • Giang V. Pham, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign • This study examines the process through which flow absorbs media users’ attentional resources and results in a cost of time and effort for goals outside of the flow-inducing activity. An eye-tracking experiment is conducted to observe how video game players– who were assigned a single goal or multiple goals– allocate their attention to the game vs. to external cues. The findings will enhance the understanding of flow’s negative aspects and technology that alleviates flow costs for users.
Research Paper • Student • Caleb Porter, Brigham Young University; Camilla Owens; Ljubica Ivanović • Clubhouse is a new anonymous, audio-only, invitation-only communication technology. In the year since its inception it has amassed an enormous following. The current study seeks to build foundational knowledge on Clubhouse user’s motivations for use, in accordance with the Uses and Gratifications theory. A big data, computational content analysis was performed using text mining to evaluate the conversation surrounding Clubhouse on Twitter. Results showed “communication utility” and “exclusivity,” among others, as key motivators for use.
Research Paper • Student • Mingzhen Megan Tan; Bing Ming Woo; Dilys Ting Ying Woon • This study investigates the role of multimodal disinformation and fact-checks on message credibility and the intention to share disinformation online. Using the Heuristic Systematic Model (HSM) to control for variables that could impact credibility perceptions, this study features a 2 x 2 factorial design conducted on a Singapore sample (N = 205). The results show that multimodal fact-checks are more effective than monomodal fact-checks in debunking disinformation, with its impact mediated by message credibility.
Research Paper • Student • RYAN TAN, Pennsylvania State University; Cheng Chen • Discord is a videogame-related social platform allowing gamers to join or host and customize chat servers. Customization allows each server to have a unique interface design. With the thousands of servers currently run by players and various corporations, why are some Discord servers more popular than others? We explored these questions through an online experiment (N = 130) coupled with a content analysis of Discord servers’ interface elements at varying levels of popularity. We discovered that players perceived lower community-building opportunities in the presence of automated role assignment and role restricted channels but these perceptions were elevated in the presence of hierarchical roles in the member-list and voice channels. These perceptions of community-building further influenced users’ attitudes and behavioral intention towards the server. These findings have theoretical implications for building an integrated model of new technology adoption as well as practical implications for building better platforms for game communities.
Research Paper • Student • Dongya Wang; Yang Liu • The prevalence of masculinity on gay dating apps has negative impacts on gay men’s mental health. When cruising on gay dating apps, gay men often encountered the representation of masculinity from other users, which in turn provoked their own masculinity consciousness. Given masculinity consciousness’ association with internalized homophobia, gay dating apps use may further deteriorate gay men’s mental health. However, few studies have been conducted in the Chinese context. The current study utilized an online survey to examine how gay dating apps use influenced gay men’s depressive symptoms in the Chinese gay community in the neoliberal era. Eventually, 236 eligible participants were recruited via snowball sampling. The results demonstrated the positive relationship between gay dating apps use and users’ depressive symptoms. Moreover, the mediation effect that masculinity consciousness and internalized homophobia respectively had on gay dating apps use and depressive symptoms were demonstrated. Those findings called for attention to the negative impact of heave gay dating apps use, the prevalence of masculinity consciousness and internalized homophobia had on users’ mental health.
Research Paper • Student • Wenting Yu • The actions that news audiences take to verify news bear great theoretical and practical relevance to journalism and communication studies. In existing literature, there is no standardized scale for measuring news verification behavior. The purpose of this study is to develop and to validate a multidimensional scale of news verification. The model is developed based on U.S participants, and then validated with Sweden samples. The results show that news verification can be considered a hierarchical factor (of second-order), which consists of three lower-order factors: message elements, social cues, and third-party sources. This model is the first news verification behaviour measurement scale developed with validation in communication research.
Research Paper • Student • Ali Zain, University of South Carolina • This study uses the theory of planned behavior to predict individuals’ intentions to quit social media. Attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control significantly predicted intentions to quit social media, accounting for 68 percent of variance among participants (N = 525) representing the US census data. Political partisanship and belief in misinformation were also slightly increasing predictability of the TPB, indicating that they can be used as moderators or antecedents of subjective norms in future.
Research Paper • Faculty • Yulou Jiang, Beijing Normal University; Wanci Li, Beijing Normal University; Jing Lu, Beijing Normal University; Yicheng Zhu, Beijing Normal University; Anan Wan, Kansas State University • Combining gamified interfaces with popular online influencers, Social Livestream Shopping (SLS) has emerged recently as a powerful format of online marketing in East Asian societies and the West. This paper explores the effect of gamification and influencer perception on Chinese college students’ competitive arousal and impulsive buying tendency. Building on S-O-R model and Competitive Arousal Model, our path analysis found gamification and influencer perception influences competitive arousal through the mediation of immersion.
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