{"title":"Alcohol Advertising on Social Media: A Content Analysis on Message Strategies of Alcohol Advertisements on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram","authors":"Alexis Campbell, Jee-Young Chung","doi":"10.58997/smc.v37i2.109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v37i2.109","url":null,"abstract":"In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol consumption in the United States has increased greatly (Barbosa, Cowell, & Dowd, 2020), and social media use has increased in 2020. The current paper seeks to explore strategies of alcohol-related social media advertisements across a variety of alcohol types, alcohol brands, and social media platforms. By applying the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the current study analyzed message strategies used to appeal to consumers, content patterns, and characteristics of alcohol advertisements on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). A content analysis on 596 ads of 12 alcohol brands showed that the most common themes included “taste,” “seasonal,” “holiday,” “recipe,” and “joke/humor” in captions and pictures of alcohol ads. Themes known for targeting young people in the past (“social success,” “an improved mood,” and “increased sense of self-confidence”) were not found as much as expected in captions and pictures. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116667508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Twitter Networks during the Global COVID-19 Pandemic: Online Networking at the Time of Physical “Social Distancing”","authors":"Shugofa Dastgeer, Rashmi Thapaliya","doi":"10.58997/smc.v37i2.108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v37i2.108","url":null,"abstract":"This longitudinal study examined Twitter networks during the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Networks and content from of 87,793 users, 109,204 connections, and 1,655 unique tweets were explored in a multimethod approach of social network analysis and content analysis. The findings show that Twitter users focused on medical issues, politics, and blaming during the COVID-19 pandemic more than other topics and relied more on news and self-information than official sources.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"132 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128508831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Universities and Tweeting: A Content Analysis of Collegiate Tweets","authors":"Ryan Urban","doi":"10.58997/smc.v37i2.102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v37i2.102","url":null,"abstract":"Universities promote themselves on Twitter for a number of reasons: increase enrollment, promote the institution’s programs, and more. However, while research has dictated what universities tweet about, research has not yet determined what the most popular topical frames are that universities tweet. This study utilizes a content analysis to determine the most popular topical frames, the correlation between engagements and engaging elements on university Twitter accounts, and what the “balancing act” is that universities perform in tweeting about controlled and uncontrolled events. Results indicate that tweets are monologic, most likely to post about academics such as research projects (without naming the researcher(s) in the tweets) and controlled subjects such as research, rather than uncontrolled subjects like scandals. In addition, the engaging elements such as visuals, hashtags, and polls do not appear to uphold traditions of driving engagements, instead only user comments on university tweets appear to be boosting engagements.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"59 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126156211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Examining Audience Trust of Official Source and Whistleblower Information Disclosure in News Stories","authors":"Stephenson Waters","doi":"10.58997/smc.v37i2.106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v37i2.106","url":null,"abstract":"The use of whistleblowers as sources is an important part of journalistic practice. Does news media’s reporting on information disclosed by whistleblowers affect audience trust — an already shaky relationship that has been strained over the past few decades? This study performed a 2 x 2 between subjects online experiment to test audience trust in whistleblowers and official sources, manipulating the source (official source/whistleblower) and gender (male/female) of a single news story. Preliminary findings include self-identified conservatives trusted whistleblowers more than official sources, while liberals reported the opposite. Also, considering the predominant historical use of males as official sources in stories, women were found to be overall more trustworthy than men in nearly all conditions. This research is a work in progress, though limitations and opportunities for future research are also discussed.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115204927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clay M. Craig, Shannon L. Bichard, Mary Liz Brooks
{"title":"Super Bowl LI Advertisers Strategic Playbook: Brand Promotion Working Overtime","authors":"Clay M. Craig, Shannon L. Bichard, Mary Liz Brooks","doi":"10.58997/smc.v37i1.87","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v37i1.87","url":null,"abstract":"The magnitude of the Super Bowl has prompted advertisers to produce content as grand as the sporting event itself (Veksner, 2015, p. 130). The 2017 game was particularly unique with the historic face-off between the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots (Bergman, 2017; Breech; 2017). This paper examined brand promotion during Super Bowl LI by analyzing appeals, creative strategies, and tactics in television commercials and social media as well as consumer affect from USA Today’s Ad Meter rankings. Results indicate that advertisers made great efforts to feature appeals and strategic messaging during the game to fit each promotional platform.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122052759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"Story of My Life\"","authors":"Julia Jameson","doi":"10.58997/smc.v37i1.97","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v37i1.97","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the boyband’s years-long hiatus, fans of One Direction (1D) continued actively engaging in fan activities. An online survey, which gathered 2,831 total responses, sought to explore fans’ motivations for participating in early 2020, more than four years after the hiatus began. The top four activities fans had recently spent the most time participating in were the following: listening to 1D music, supporting members’ solo careers, reading 1D fan fiction, and rewatching videos of/about 1D. Across activities, fans often participated because of missing the band, to feel like the band was still together, to feel closer to the band, to remember other times, and because the band had made lifelong impacts.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"493 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115304154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"It’s My Party, I’ll Endorse If I Want To:","authors":"Tom Vizcarrondo","doi":"10.58997/smc.v37i1.91","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v37i1.91","url":null,"abstract":"This experimental study examines the impact of endorsements by party elites with a primary election for the U.S. Senate. This experiment used a pretest-posttest design to identify and measure an endorsement’s effect on participants’ evaluations of the endorsed primary candidate and the unendorsed primary candidate, as well as their evaluations of the endorser and their political party. Results showed that such endorsements impacted participants’ assessments of both the endorsed and unendorsed candidates, while the impact on perceptions of their political party approached a level of significance. Implications of these results are discussed, and recommendations for future research initiatives are presented.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125887216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"It’s Not All Doom and Gloom:","authors":"Raluca Cozma, N. Muturi","doi":"10.58997/smc.v37i1.99","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v37i1.99","url":null,"abstract":"A nationally representative online survey was conducted in the United States in July 2020 to examine the role of social media use in knowledge about COVID-19, compliance with public health guidelines, and protective behaviors. Building on the Protection Motivation Theory, the analysis revealed that threat severity perceptions and self-efficacy, but not vulnerability perceptions, mediated the negative impact of social media use during the pandemic. Given the current debates surrounding the effect of social media use on both political and health knowledge, the study's findings suggest that rather than inundating social media with messages about the severity of the disease, risk communication that meets audiences where they are and enhance both self-efficacy and severity perceptions could lead to wider adoption of protective responses.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129204703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Review of Job Satisfaction in Journalism","authors":"Qiand Yu","doi":"10.58997/smc.v36i2.93","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v36i2.93","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides a review of literature on the concept of job satisfaction in journalism and explores how job satisfaction has been applied in the journalism field as a new theoretical framework. Specifically, the research questions are about the basic information among the 41 published articles, including (1) the popular journals, (2) the active authors in this field, (3) the popular theories, and (4) the research samples; this paper also examines whether there is a relationship between the time periods (in which the articles were published) and the different independent variables.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134539744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Company Responses in Times of Crisis: A Content Analysis of COVID-19 Emails","authors":"Ryan Urban, Alec C. Tefertiller","doi":"10.58997/smc.v36i2.89","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v36i2.89","url":null,"abstract":"This study searches for recurring themes appearing in the many emails sent during the COVID-19 pandemic from companies all over the world to their clients. The goal is to identify themes and if companies employed use of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) between national companies and local businesses. Through use of a content analysis, results indicate that many companies employed a corrective action approach to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, with national companies more likely to employ CSR than local businesses, if at all.","PeriodicalId":243613,"journal":{"name":"Southwestern Mass Communication Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130025933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}