{"title":"Metrics in action: how social media metrics shape news production on Facebook","authors":"Subhayan Mukerjee, Tian Yang, Yilang Peng","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqad012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad012","url":null,"abstract":"Social media metrics allow media outlets to get a granular, real-time understanding of audience preferences, and may therefore be used to decide what content to prioritize in the future. We test this mechanism in the context of Facebook, by using topic modeling and longitudinal data analysis on a large dataset comprising all posts published by major media outlets used by American citizens (N≈2.23M, 2015–2019). We find that while the overall effect of audience engagement on future news coverage is significant, there is substantial heterogeneity in how individual outlets respond to different kinds of topics. A handful of right-wing media outlets are more likely to respond to audience engagement metrics than other outlets, but with partisan politics topics and not with entertainment-oriented content. Our research sheds new light on how social media platforms have shaped journalistic practices and has implications for the future health of journalism in the United States.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"116 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165167","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}
{"title":"Misperceptions in sociopolitical context: belief sensitivity’s relationship with battleground state status and partisan segregation","authors":"Qin Li, Robert M Bond, R Kelly Garrett","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqad017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad017","url":null,"abstract":"Numerous studies have shown that individuals’ belief sensitivity—their ability to discriminate between true and false political statements—varies according to psychological and demographic characteristics. We argue that sensitivity also varies with the political and social communication contexts in which they live. Both battleground state status of the state in which individuals live and the level of partisan segregation in a state are associated with Americans’ belief sensitivity. We leverage panel data collected from two samples of Americans, one collected in the first half of 2019 and the other during the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign season. Results indicate that the relationship between living in battleground states and belief sensitivity is contingent on political ideology: living in battleground states, versus in Democratic-leaning states, is associated with lower belief sensitivity among conservatives and higher belief sensitivity among liberals. Moreover, living in a less politically segregated state is associated with greater belief sensitivity. These relationships were only in evidence in the election year.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"116 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165168","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}
{"title":"Tweeting the Holocaust: social media discourse between reverence, exploitation, and simulacra","authors":"Motti Neiger, Oren Meyers, Anat Ben-David","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqad010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad010","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the uses and abuses of traumatic memory within the context of the multifaceted discursive representation of the Holocaust on social media. Combining computational, quantitative, and qualitative methodologies, the article offers a comprehensive mapping of the mnemonic spectrum extending beyond memory work conducted during official commemorative occasions. To do so, we examined a unique case: the Twitter manifestations of one Hebrew expression—“and their collaborators” (ATC)—which echoes the Israeli “Law for punishing Nazis and their collaborators.” In contrast to the complete phrase, the truncated collocation appears in a variety of contexts across Hebrew Twitter. Thus, our investigation shows that alongside traditional awe-inspiring commemorative (“good”) uses of ATC, the conjunction between social media affordances and user practices brings to the discursive forefront exploitative political (“bad”) ATC uses and misuses that contribute to political polarization; and a plethora of playful and ironic (inappropriate-“ugly”) uses, that call for moral and aesthetic scrutiny.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"31 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165406","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}
Xuanjun Gong, Richard Huskey, Haoning Xue, Cuihua Shen, Seth Frey
{"title":"Broadcast information diffusion processes on social media networks: exogenous events lead to more integrated public discourse","authors":"Xuanjun Gong, Richard Huskey, Haoning Xue, Cuihua Shen, Seth Frey","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqad014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad014","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding information diffusion is vital to explaining the good, bad, and ugly impacts of social media. Two types of processes govern information diffusion: broadcasting and viral spread. Viral spreading is when a message is diffused by peer-to-peer social connections, whereas broadcasting is characterized by influences that can come from outside of the peer-to-peer social network. How these processes shape public discourse is not well understood. Using a simulation study and real-world Twitter data (10,155 users, 18,000,929 tweets) gathered during 2020, we show that broadcast spreading is associated with more integrated discourse networks compared to viral spreading. Moreover, discourse oscillates between extended periods of segregation and punctuated periods of integration. These results defy simple interpretations of good or bad, and instead suggest that information diffusion dynamics on social media have the capacity to disrupt or amplify both prosocial and antisocial content.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"30 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165408","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}
Abdullah S Salehuddin, Jesse King, Tamara D Afifi, Walid A Afifi
{"title":"Resilience as a predictor for why some marital relationships flourished and others struggled during the initial months of COVID-19","authors":"Abdullah S Salehuddin, Jesse King, Tamara D Afifi, Walid A Afifi","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqad011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad011","url":null,"abstract":"Using the theory of resilience and relational load, this study examined how married individuals’ baseline communal orientation (CO) and relational load (RL) at the beginning of the pandemic predicted their stress, conflict, mental health, and flourishing during quarantine. Using a Qualtrics Panel, married individuals (N = 3,601) completed four online surveys from April to June 2020. Results revealed the initial levels of CO brought to quarantine predicted less stress and conflict, and better mental health and flourishing at baseline, and these outcomes remained relatively stable across the next 3 months. RL at baseline did the exact opposite for these outcomes, making coping more difficult. We also hypothesized CO and RL moderate the impact of stress (T1) on mental health 3 months later by reducing conflict. Rather than serving as buffers, CO and RL at baseline directly affected conflict (T2/T3) and mental health (T4) throughout quarantine.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165417","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}
{"title":"Visual misinformation on Facebook","authors":"Yunkang Yang, Trevor Davis, Matthew Hindman","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqac051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqac051","url":null,"abstract":"We conduct the first large-scale study of image-based political misinformation on Facebook. We collect 13,723,654 posts from 14,532 pages and 11,454 public groups from August through October 2020, posts that together account for nearly all engagement of U.S. public political content on Facebook. We use perceptual hashing to identify duplicate images and computer vision to identify political figures. Twenty-three percent of sampled political images (N = 1,000) contained misinformation, as did 20% of sampled images (N = 1,000) containing political figures. We find enormous partisan asymmetry in misinformation posts, with right-leaning images 5–8 times more likely to be misleading, but little evidence that misleading images generate higher engagement. Previous scholarship, which mostly cataloged links to noncredible domains, has ignored image posts which account for a higher volume of misinformation. This research shows that new computer-assisted methods can scale to millions of images, and help address perennial and long-unanswered calls for more systematic study of visual political communication.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"14 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165622","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}
Matthew Grizzard, C Joseph Francemone, Rebecca Frazer, Kaitlin Fitzgerald, Charles K Monge, Christina Henry
{"title":"A comprehensive experimental test of the affective disposition theory of drama","authors":"Matthew Grizzard, C Joseph Francemone, Rebecca Frazer, Kaitlin Fitzgerald, Charles K Monge, Christina Henry","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqac053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqac053","url":null,"abstract":"Using a three-act written narrative, a preregistered 2 (Act 1 Moral/Immoral Character Behavior) × 2 (Act 3 Moral/Immoral Character Behavior) × 2 (Positive/Negative Narrative Outcome) study provides a comprehensive test of affective disposition theory (ADT) that simultaneously manipulates disposition formation and outcome evaluation processes. We convert ADT’s conceptual hypotheses into testable path models. Consistent with theory, we find (a) moral behavior creates positive dispositions which predict hopes for positive outcomes and (b) dispositions interact with outcomes to predict affect, liking of ending, and narrative enjoyment/appreciation. Consistent with Raney’s ADT extension, participants wanted liked/moral characters to engage in immoral actions that increase the odds of a positive outcome for the character. Findings also indicate variance in ADT’s predictive power: ADT better explained immediate responses (liking of ending) as compared to holistic responses (narrative enjoyment/appreciation). Our results contribute to work on enjoyment/appreciation by identifying areas where enjoyment and appreciation are more/less distinguishable.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"13 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165625","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}
Kai Kuang, Steven R Wilson, Timothy Betts, Josephine K Boumis, Elizabeth A Hintz, Dennis DeBeck, Patrice M Buzzanell
{"title":"A longitudinal analysis of involuntary job loss and communication resilience processes during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Kai Kuang, Steven R Wilson, Timothy Betts, Josephine K Boumis, Elizabeth A Hintz, Dennis DeBeck, Patrice M Buzzanell","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqad004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad004","url":null,"abstract":"This longitudinal study explored associations between communication resilience processes, job-search self-efficacy, and well-being for a sample of US adults who involuntarily lost their jobs during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the communication theory of resilience (CTR), we tested four possible models regarding how the enactment of resilience processes would be associated with job-search self-efficacy and well-being over time. Participants (N = 595) described their job loss story and completed measures of communication resilience processes, job-search self-efficacy, and well-being (perceived stress, mental health, and life satisfaction) in February 2021, then completed measures again 2 and 4 months later. Findings from random intercept cross-lagged panel analyses suggested that after accounting for between-person associations, resilience enactment shared significant within-person reciprocal relationships with job-search self-efficacy, perceived stress, and mental health over time. Theoretical implications for CTR, future directions for communication research, and practical implications for supporting diverse job seekers are discussed.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165781","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}
Deen Freelon, Meredith L Pruden, Kirsten A Eddy, Rachel Kuo
{"title":"Inequities of race, place, and gender among the communication citation elite, 2000–2019","authors":"Deen Freelon, Meredith L Pruden, Kirsten A Eddy, Rachel Kuo","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqad002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad002","url":null,"abstract":"A recent wave of studies has focused on the identities of communication scholars, quantifying the degree to which Whites, men, and Americans dominate the discipline.This study analyzes the communication citation elite (CCE)—a group of 1,675 highly cited scholars in communication research—in terms of race, gender, and country of employment over 20 years. Applying computational methods and content analysis, we find that 91.5% of first-author CCE members are White, 74.3% are men, and 78.6% work in the United States. Longitudinal analyses of each identity category reveal only minor shifts, most prominently slight gains for women and non-U.S. scholars. White representation among first authors decreased less than 4 percentage points over the study period (from 95.1% to 91.2%), with Black representation ending lower than it began (0.61% to 0.54%). Data from the International Communication Association indicate that the CCE is substantially more American and male than the organization’s full membership as of 2021.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"14 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165791","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}
Emil Husted, Sine N Just, Erik Mygind du Plessis, Sara Dahlman
{"title":"The communicative constitution of atomization: online prepper communities and the crisis of collective action","authors":"Emil Husted, Sine N Just, Erik Mygind du Plessis, Sara Dahlman","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqad005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad005","url":null,"abstract":"As environmental and societal crises increase in numbers, severity, and urgency, online forums for so-called “doomsday preppers” have seen a concomitant surge in membership. Beginning from the perspective of communicative constitution of organization, we explore the sociotechnical communities that emerge on such forums. Methodologically, we use netnographic observations to show that online prepper communities are organizational, in the sense of being networks of communicative episodes that use common narratives to build identities around material objects and physical practices. However, the online prepper communities do not move from the enactment of organization to acting as organizations. This observation leads us to conceptualize online prepper communities as atomizations whose communicative constitution does not entail a capacity for collective action, but only manifests the similarity of disparate individuals. The communicative constitution of atomization, we argue, is symptomatic of an underlying social logic, which promotes individualized responses to collective problems.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"13 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50165793","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}