JournalTOCs

Media and Communication
Number of Followers: 14

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2183-2439
Published by Cogitatio

[4 journals]

Homophily and Polarization in Twitter Political Networks: A Cross-Country
Analysis
- Authors: Marc Esteve-Del-Valle
  Abstract: Homophily, the tendency of people to have ties with those who are similar, is a fundamental pattern to understand human relations. As such, the study of homophily can provide key insights into the flow of information and behaviors within political contexts. Indeed, some degree of polarization is necessary for the functioning of liberal democracies, but too much polarization can increase the adoption of extreme political positions and create democratic gridlock. The relationship between homophilous communication ties and political polarization is thus fundamental because it affects a pillar of democratic regimes: the need for public debate where divergent ideas and interests can be confronted. This research compares the degree of homophily and political polarization in Catalan MPs’ Twitter mentions network to Dutch MPs’ Twitter mentions network. Exponential random graph models were employed on a one-year sample of mentions among Dutch MPs (N = 7,356) and on a one-year, three-month sample of mentions among Catalan MPs (N = 19,507). Party polarization was measured by calculating the external–internal index of both Twitter mentions networks. Results reveal that the mentions among Catalan MPs are much more homophilous than those among the Dutch MPs. Indeed, there is a positive relationship between the degree of MPs’ homophilous communication ties and the degree of political polarization observed in each network.
  PubDate: Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:46 +010
The Use of Social Media by Spanish Feminist Organizations: Collectivity
From Individualism
- Authors: Celina Navarro; Gemma Gómez-Bernal
  Abstract: In recent years, social media platforms have become a popular tool for feminist activists and the main medium of communication for new feminist organizations to gain higher visibility. However, along with opportunities, they also bring a reshaping of communication forms and challenges in the modes of organization of these groups, which seek to transform the prevailing individualist logic of the mediated social media landscape into a collective identity. Through the findings of qualitative, semi-structured interviews and the analysis of the content published online, this article looks at the structures of interactions and organizing processes in the social media accounts of new Spanish feminist groups. The findings show that although the committees are aware of the importance of an online presence, they face many obstacles in the creation of collective profiles due to the lack of guidelines, having no clear organized steps on how to post content with consensus within each committee, and the many demands of the speed-driven nature of social media platforms.
  PubDate: Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:46 +010
The “Greta Effect”: Networked Mobilization and Leader Identification
Among Fridays for Future Protesters
- Authors: Giuliana Sorce
  Abstract: Drawing on walking interviews with 19 Fridays for Future (FFF) activists in Germany, this study focuses on Greta Thunberg by researching strikers’ perception, identification, and online networking practices with the movement’s central figure. With respect to protest mobilization and collective identity formation, this study finds that participants primarily identify with Thunberg via her class standing. While male activists highlight Thunberg’s gender as a mobilizing factor, female and non-binary activists often dismiss it, thereby distancing themselves from FFF’s feminized public image. Participants believe that Thunberg’s disability gives her an “edge” to generate media attention for FFF, calling it an asset to the cause. Although all participants engage with Thunberg via social media, many downplay her leadership role in the movement. Similarly, local organizers actively use Thunberg’s posts to build up their own online networks while routinely emphasizing FFF’s leaderlessness. The findings thus nuance assumptions about identity-based mobilization, explore the construction of networked leadership, and chart digital organizing practices in a transnational youth climate movement.
  PubDate: Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:45 +010
A Systems Approach to Studying Online Communities
- Authors: Jeremy Foote
  Abstract: Much early communication research was inspired by systems theory. This approach emphasizes that individuals and groups use communication to interact with and respond to their larger environment and attempts to outline the ways that different levels interact with each other (e.g., work groups within departments within firms). Many concepts from systems theory—such as emergence and feedback loops—have become integral parts of communication theories. However, until recently, quantitative researchers have struggled to apply a systems approach. Large-scale, multilevel trace data from online platforms combined with computational advances are enabling a turn back toward systems-inspired research. I outline four systems-based approaches that recent research uses to study online communities: community comparisons, individual trajectories, cross-level mechanisms, and simulating emergent behavior. I end with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges of systems-based research for quantitative communication scholars.
  PubDate: Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:45 +010
Expertise, Knowledge, and Resilience in #AcademicTwitter: Enacting
Resilience-Craft in a Community of Practice
- Authors: Sean M. Eddington; Caitlyn Jarvis
  Abstract: Online communities of practice are a useful professional development space, where members can exchange information, aggregate expertise, and find support. These communities have grown in popularity within higher education—especially on social networking sites like Twitter. Although popular within academe, less is known about how specific online communities of practice respond and adapt during times of crisis (e.g., building capacity for resilience). We examined 22,078 tweets from #AcademicTwitter during the first two months of the Covid-19 pandemic, which impacted higher education institutions greatly, to explore how #AcademicTwitter enacted resilience during this time. Using text mining and semantic network analysis, we highlight three specific communicative processes that constitute resilience through a form of resilience labor that we conceptualize as “resilience craft.” Our findings provide theoretical significance by showing how resilience craft can extend theorizing around both communities of practice and the communicative theory of resilience through a new form of resilience labor. We offer pragmatic implications given our findings that address how universities and colleges can act resiliently in the face of uncertainty.
  PubDate: Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:45 +010
Community-Building on Bilibili: The Social Impact of Danmu Comments
- Authors: Rui Wang
  Abstract: Danmu commenting is a new feature of the streaming industry, popular in East Asia. Danmu comments are displayed as streams of comments superimposed on video screens and synchronised to the specific playback time at which the users sent them, moving horizontally from right to left. Interestingly, users do not have options such as “replies” to structure their comments; their interactions commonly include poor addressivity, hidden authorship, and unmarked sending time. The ways in which users actually interact with each other and, more importantly, the implications of such danmu-enabled social interactions on building virtual communities are so far understudied. Through a case study centred on Bilibili, a leading Chinese danmu platform, this article argues that in spite of their visually chaotic manner, the social interactive patterns of danmu commenters contribute to community building. Under the theoretical framework of “sense of virtual community,” the study adopts a data-driven methodology to qualitatively analyse such fragmented data. Results show that Bilibili users have discovered various ways to initiate social contact with each other through the creative use of linguistic and semiotic resources. Their ritualised performance in the Bilibili community is centred around the social aims of danmu comments, danmu clusters, and danmu language, all of which strengthen their sense of virtual community on the dimensions of membership, influence, and immersion. This article contributes to the research on this emerging media phenomenon by illustrating a new mode of watching and engaging in a participatory online community of practice that this platform encourages.
  PubDate: Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:45 +010
Election Fraud and Misinformation on Twitter: Author, Cluster, and Message
Antecedents
- Authors: Ming Ming Chiu; Chong Hyun Park, Hyelim Lee, Yu Won Oh, Jeong-Nam Kim
  Abstract: This study determined the antecedents of diffusion scope (total audience), speed (number of adopters/time), and shape (broadcast vs. person-to-person transmission) for true vs. fake news about a falsely claimed stolen 2020 US Presidential election across clusters of users that responded to one another’s tweets (“user clusters”). We examined 31,128 tweets with links to fake vs. true news by 20,179 users to identify 1,069 user clusters via clustering analysis. We tested whether attributes of authors (experience, followers, following, total tweets), time (date), or tweets (link to fake [vs. true] news, retweets) affected diffusion scope, speed, or shape, across user clusters via multilevel diffusion analysis. These tweets showed no overall diffusion pattern; instead, specific explanatory variables determined their scope, speed, and shape. Compared to true news tweets, fake news tweets started earlier and showed greater broadcast influence (greater diffusion speed), scope, and person-to-person influence.
  Authors with more experience and smaller user clusters both showed greater speed but less scope and less person-to-person influence. Likewise, later tweets showed slightly more broadcast influence, less scope, and more person-to-person influence. By contrast, users with more followers showed less broadcast influence but greater scope and slightly more person-to-person influence. These results highlight the earlier instances of fake news and the greater diffusion speed of fake news in smaller user clusters and by users with fewer followers, so they suggest that monitors can detect fake news earlier by focusing on earlier tweets, smaller user clusters, and users with fewer followers.
  PubDate: Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:45 +010
Editorial: Networks and Organizing Processes in Online Social Media
- Authors: Seungyoon Lee
  Abstract: Online social media present unprecedented opportunities and challenges for a range of organizing processes such as information sharing, knowledge creation, collective action, and post-disaster resource mobilization. Concepts and tools of network research can help highlight key aspects of online interaction. This editorial introduction frames the thematic issue along three themes of networked processes: identity and identification; interaction patterns in online communities; and challenges and cautionary notes concerning social media organizing. A diverse range of country contexts, as well as theoretical and methodological approaches illustrated in this issue, represent the multifaceted research that scholars can undertake to understand networked organizing on social media.
  PubDate: Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:44 +010
Entanglements of Identity and Resilience in the Camp Fire’s Network of
Disaster-Specific Facebook Groups
- Authors: Bailey C. Benedict
  Abstract: The Camp Fire in California (November 2018) was one of the most destructive wildfires in recorded history. Dozens of Facebook groups emerged to help people impacted by the Camp Fire. Its variety and prevalence throughout recovery make this network of disaster-specific, recovery-oriented social media groups a distinct context for inquiry. Reflexive thematic analysis was performed on 25 interviews with group administrators and publicly available descriptive data from 92 Facebook groups to characterize the composition of the network and explore identity in the groups. Group members’ identities fell into two categories—helpers and survivors—while the groups consisted of six identities: general, specialized, survivor-only, pet-related, location-specific, and adoptive. Administrators established group identity around purpose, through membership criteria, and in similarity and opposition to other Camp Fire Facebook groups. The findings contribute to social identity theory and the communication theory of resilience at the intersection of resilience labor, identity anchors, and communication networks.
  PubDate: Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:44 +010