Social Media + Society最新文献

After Twitter: Fragmentation, Platform Polities and Protective Sociality 推特之后：碎片化、平台政治和保护性社会

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-28 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251366907

Nathaniel Tkacz, Robert W. Gehl

{"title":"After Twitter: Fragmentation, Platform Polities and Protective Sociality","authors":"Nathaniel Tkacz, Robert W. Gehl","doi":"10.1177/20563051251366907","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251366907","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that a profound change has occurred in the spaces of social media, centring on the region formerly occupied by Twitter. More than Twitter rebranding as X, After Twitter refers to a historical punctuation point in the timeline of social media and an emerging social media reality. After Twitter registers the slow death of a set of ideals and related practices specific to platforms like Twitter, but also to the waning of ideals in relation to the communicative potentials of the open web more generally. We make three broad claims which characterise social media After Twitter: First, by way of an overview of alternatives and competitors including Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, Truth Social and more, we observe a social media fragmentation. Such fragmentation is not solely driven by economic forces or technological development and instead is understood along explicitly political lines. Second, we observe the rise of polarised platform polities. These polities reflect divergent political positions, create distinct political realities and foster different modes of interaction and belonging. Third, we observe a general shift from connective to protective forms of sociality, where users approach social media as if they are constantly in the presence of adversaries, and the ‘weak ties’ that once defined a web of opportunities are replaced by an assumed toxicity of ties. We conclude by reflecting on the nostalgia for the Twitter-that-was, suggesting the need to foster a critical and reflective relationship with the Twitter of old.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"90 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145181196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Video Vigilantes: The Digital Fight for Vengeance Against Perpetrators on TikTok 视频义务警员：在TikTok上为报复犯罪者而进行的数字战斗

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-28 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251382473

Sarah Witmer

{"title":"Video Vigilantes: The Digital Fight for Vengeance Against Perpetrators on TikTok","authors":"Sarah Witmer","doi":"10.1177/20563051251382473","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251382473","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines digital vigilantism videos on TikTok and their role in highlighting systemic barriers to traditional justice. Through textual analysis of 50 TikTok “vigilante videos” and the 244,600 comments supporting them, this research explores how women employ weaponized exposure to pursue informal justice across a spectrum of experienced harms. While prevailing scholarship highlights the risks of digital vigilantism, this project provides a critical feminist perspective, emphasizing the tension between carceral and anticarceral approaches to justice. Findings reveal “vigilante videos” serve three key functions: (1) facilitating retributive action against perpetrators, (2) transforming victims’ shame into collective empowerment, and (3) creating protective networks safeguarding potential future victims. By engaging with these videos, TikTok users foster a sense of crowd-sourced justice, amplifying the voices of women who have been failed by traditional legal avenues. These digital practices reflect a broader critique of the carceral state and demonstrate how women navigate justice outside of formal systems. This research contributes to scholarship on TikTok, cultural criminology activism, and anitcarceral feminism.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145181204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Fashioning Ethnic Pride: Women of Color and the Outfit Transition Trend on TikTok 塑造民族自豪感：抖音上的有色人种女性和服装转换趋势

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-28 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251382451

Melissa Carolee Brown, Reyna Rajkumar, Kaitlin Webster

{"title":"Fashioning Ethnic Pride: Women of Color and the Outfit Transition Trend on TikTok","authors":"Melissa Carolee Brown, Reyna Rajkumar, Kaitlin Webster","doi":"10.1177/20563051251382451","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251382451","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines how women of color on TikTok engage with the viral “outfit transition” trend to assert ethnic pride, resist cultural assimilation, and build digital communities. Our research builds on literature exploring TikTok’s affordances and digital fashion culture, focusing on how women of color use the application to challenge aesthetic assimilation and celebrate ethnocultural identity. Using critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) and digital ethnography, we analyzed 63 TikTok videos to explore how audiovisual features (e.g., audio, hashtags, and comments) enable marginalized creators to challenge western aesthetic dominance. The findings reveal that women of color strategically use TikTok to construct a subaltern digital commons, celebrating ethnic pride while fostering solidarity across diaspora communities. These creators promote cross-cultural engagement by inviting non-ethnic viewers to learn about and respectfully engage with their cultures on their terms. This study expands on studies of digital fashion culture to show how TikTok’s outfit transition trend functions as an online space to resist Eurocentric beauty standards while centering non-white femininities and cultural aesthetics. In addition, our analysis sheds light on how these creators navigate algorithmic biases that often limit visibility for marginalized groups. Women of color creatively rework viral trends to enhance their visibility, asserting control over how they and their communities are represented online. Ultimately, the study underscores TikTok’s potential as a site for community building and intercultural exchange, where women of color challenge colonial legacies in fashion while sustaining digital spaces for ethnocultural uplift.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145183149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Instrumental Bot Identities and the Politics of Online Discourse 工具性机器人身份与网络话语的政治

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-27 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251378233

Angeline Marie Letourneau

{"title":"Instrumental Bot Identities and the Politics of Online Discourse","authors":"Angeline Marie Letourneau","doi":"10.1177/20563051251378233","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251378233","url":null,"abstract":"Social media platforms are crucial for political and social engagement, where identity profoundly shapes public opinion. While existing research explores social media and identity, the rise of sophisticated bots complicates this relationship; bots programmed to mimic human identity groups may influence discourse and sway opinion on critical issues like elections and climate change. Addressing a gap in theoretical work, this article proposes the concept of instrumental bot identities, explaining how bots can be strategically designed to leverage and co-opt social identity processes for enhanced impact. By developing a theoretical framework, I outline the characteristics (e.g. relevance, familiarity, anonymity) and interaction patterns (e.g. influencing ingroup/outgroup dynamics) that could make specific identities instrumental for bot campaigns. Using the case of fossil fuel workers, a politically salient group in energy transition discussions, the article illustrates how bots could simulate classed and gendered characteristics to reinforce stereotypes, shape group norms, and ultimately influence public attitudes toward decarbonization policies. This framework highlights that bot effectiveness may stem from exploiting identity-motivated reasoning, offering crucial insights for understanding and mitigating online manipulation in polarized contexts.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145181202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Framing Under Fire: Navigating Environmental Activism on Social Media Amid Digital Repression 炮火之下的框架：在数字压抑的社会媒体上引导环境行动主义

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-24 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251380480

Dien Nguyen An Luong, Hong Tien Vu

{"title":"Framing Under Fire: Navigating Environmental Activism on Social Media Amid Digital Repression","authors":"Dien Nguyen An Luong, Hong Tien Vu","doi":"10.1177/20563051251380480","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251380480","url":null,"abstract":"Grounded in the conceptual frameworks of protest framing and digital repression, this study examines the adaptive messaging strategies employed by Vietnamese environmental activists in response to escalating repression, through physical coercion, across two key periods: before and after mid-2021. Our analysis of the Facebook content of one of Vietnam’s leading environmental groups indicates significant changes in the group’s adoption of protest frames, topical frames, and narrative roles, highlighting how activists balance public engagement with safety under authoritarian constraints. Specifically, after a wave of arrests of high-profile environmental activists, activists shifted their message framing strategies from motivational to diagnostic, focusing more on information provision rather than encouraging public engagement. In addition, after the arrests, activists increasingly shifted their narrative roles, increasing their blame on corporations as villains, while positioning the environment as a primary victim. This study enriches our understanding of digital activism in authoritarian contexts, offering theoretical insights and practical guidance for movements under similar constraints.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"103 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145141501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Exploring #Diasporawars on Black Twitter 在黑人推特上探索#散居者#

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-20 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251352834

Tyler Musgrave, Yuning Ye, Kentaro Toyama, Sarita Schoenebeck, Megan Threats

{"title":"Exploring #Diasporawars on Black Twitter","authors":"Tyler Musgrave, Yuning Ye, Kentaro Toyama, Sarita Schoenebeck, Megan Threats","doi":"10.1177/20563051251352834","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251352834","url":null,"abstract":"Black Twitter, now operating on X (formerly Twitter), is a crucial online platform that shapes cultural production, political activism, and educational exchange within the global Black community. This study broadens the scope to examine the global influence of Black Twitter, with a focus on the hashtag #diasporawars. This hashtag serves as a lens through which we can observe the tensions and interactions across the global Black community. Black Twitter’s significance extends beyond the United States, deeply embedded in the historical and cultural contexts of Blackness, which inform global conversations on identity. By employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods to analyze #diasporawars, this study aims to shed light on the complexities of global Blackness and how social media platforms contribute to shaping these identities and connections. Our findings reveal that #diasporawars reflects broader dynamics within the global Black community, highlighting how platforms like X both facilitate positive engagement and exacerbate conflicts. This research underscores the multifaceted nature of Black digital spaces, illustrating how they serve as arenas for collaboration and contention, influenced by diverse experiences and perspectives within the global Black diaspora.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145093594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Black Twitter as “Master” Social Architects: Maintaining Online Community Boundaries Through the Production of Time and Place 黑推特作为“大师”的社会建筑师：通过时间和地点的生产来维护网络社区边界

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-20 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251374500

Cynthia N. McLeod

{"title":"Black Twitter as “Master” Social Architects: Maintaining Online Community Boundaries Through the Production of Time and Place","authors":"Cynthia N. McLeod","doi":"10.1177/20563051251374500","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251374500","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores how Black Twitter, an online community of Black users, creates a place for itself online and how the historical positioning of Black populations worldwide informs the users’ placemaking practices. Using an online ethnography and Brock’s Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis, I analyzed how Black Twitter users communicate to create a sense of place on the platform. Findings indicate that Black users experience time on social media in layered ways, such that they blend historical and contemporary cultural experiences to connect with one another and defend against outsiders. Extending previous work that examines Black Twitter as a cultural formation, this study explores two dimensions: (1) how Black users’ temporal practices challenge notions of digital behavior that reduce user agency and (2) how users perform boundary work by using the platform to defend themselves from outside influences. For example, #YourSlipisShowing enabled Black users to call attention to accounts posing as Black users, effectively turning a platform feature into a defense method. In addition, Black users often call on their collective memory to identify community members through shared cultural experiences and emotional connection. In some ways, Twitter supports the process of collective memory (re)production and engagement through platform features, such as retweets and non-chronological timelines. These observations offer additional frameworks for analyzing community maintenance and agency within hostile digital spaces.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145093611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Religious Institutions’ Use of Social Media Platforms During COVID-19 in Kenya 肯尼亚宗教机构在COVID-19期间使用社交媒体平台的情况

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-13 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251372530

Raphael K. Birya, Mohammed Mwamzandi

引用次数: 0

Putting Trust to the Test: Making Sense of Human–Machine Interactions on TikTok 测试信任：理解TikTok上的人机交互

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-09 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251370905

Andreas Schellewald

{"title":"Putting Trust to the Test: Making Sense of Human–Machine Interactions on TikTok","authors":"Andreas Schellewald","doi":"10.1177/20563051251370905","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251370905","url":null,"abstract":"People’s interaction with online content is increasingly facilitated by intelligent user interfaces and artificial agents. In this article, I explore this shift by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with users of the TikTok app. More specifically, I write on their interactions with the TikTok algorithm as a form of human–machine interaction and through the lens of trust. Along concrete ethnographic data, this article lays out the multifaceted process in which participants negotiated trust in the TikTok algorithm as an interaction partner in their everyday pursuits for relaxation and entertainment. Understanding trust as something deeply relational, mediating the position that one takes to another, this article outlines the constitutive embodied and affective dimensions of trust. It shows how participants dealt with feelings of their trust in the TikTok algorithm being put to the test, as well as how they negotiated their distance and closeness to it accordingly. By doing so, this article will demonstrate how trust functions a key mediator of meaningful human–machine interaction – shaping not just meaningful outcomes but also meaningful processes of interaction. From this angle, this article closes with an argument for research on the foundational role of trust in human–machine interaction, specifically in ways that look beyond the cognitive processes of judging trust and broadening the scope towards the material and cultural contexts in which people trust others.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145056752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Imagined Democratic Affordances: Persistent Faith in the Democratic Power of the Internet among Sanders Supporters on Reddit 想象中的民主支持：Reddit上桑德斯支持者对互联网民主力量的坚定信念

IF 5.2 1区文学

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-09-06 DOI: 10.1177/20563051251363213

Omri Cohen

引用次数: 0