Browsing by Subject "Facebook"

Now showing 1 - 12 of 12
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    College Students' Use of Facebook During Their Transition to College: Mediated Belonging at a Small, Private, Liberal Arts College
    (2015-05) Hart Ruthenbeck, Robin
    This study explored the effects of participation in a targeted Facebook group on students' sense of belonging as they transitioned to a small, private liberal arts college. Data collected through a mixed-method design illuminated the impact of participation in a targeted Facebook group on participants' sense of belonging as they made the transition to college. Evidence from this study indicates that students' participation in a targeted Facebook group may impact students' sense of belonging in various ways. Additional data indicate that the ways students engage with Facebook, their motivation to engage, the frequency of engagement and value attributed to such interactions are fluid. The intersection between perceived value, frequency and type of Facebook suggest taxonomy of Facebook usage. Understanding different types of usage will aid institutions in managing social media presence and determining best ways to introduce and engage new members within their communities.
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    The Free Speech Balancing Act of Digital Intermediaries: An explication of the concept of content governance
    (2015-05) Johnson, Brett
    This study explicates the concept of governance by mainstream online digital intermediaries such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter over extreme user-generated content (UGC)--a.k.a. "content governance."� The study synthesizes First Amendment theory and jurisprudence, as well as theories about the interconnected power roles of individuals and digital intermediaries, to explicate how such content is governed in an environment of global networked communication. Two key questions guide this explication: How and why do digital communication intermediaries respond to extreme UGC? What are the potential implications of their responses for public discourse in a system of networked communication? This study also examines ethical duties that digital intermediaries may have to protect speech or prevent harm. This synthesis of theories is applied to an empirical case-study analysis of how Facebook has changed its community guidelines throughout the 11 years of its existence. This analysis will look at examples of Facebook removing or not removing extreme UGC from its platform. The purpose of this analysis is to assess how the norms of freedom of expression are being negotiated in a networked communication environment facilitated by digital intermediaries.
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    The Influence of Social Media Use on Male College Students’ Gender Identity and Gendered Performance
    (2017-05) Potts, Lawrence
    To better understand the influence of social media use on male college students’ gender identity and male gendered performance, this research examined existing research on digital identity and social networking sites, male gender identity development, college student development theory, and the effects of living arrangements on college students. Using constructivist grounded theory, this study was guided by the following research question: How does the influence of social media use on male college students’ gender identity and gendered performance affect first-year students and graduating seniors? A total of 31 students at a private, liberal arts institution in the Midwestern United States participated in the study. Methods included individual interviews, synchronous ethnographic digital observations, and focus groups. The theory that emerged from this study was developed through analysis of students’ experiences and is a representation of the intersection and convergence of male gender identity development and digital identity development. Participants described changes that occur between the first year of college and the final year of college, both in the way that they define masculinity and the way that they describe their use social media. A shift occurs throughout time spent in college, evolving from pre-college expectations and assumptions to the intentional alignment of in-person and online values. Formative experiences and opportunities in college – including both in-classroom and out-of-classroom – provided the impetus for change that allowed the participants to better understand their identities and contexts and begin to understand how they engage with both the physical and digital world as men.
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    Like, Share, and Comment #SCOTUS: Public Engagement with the U.S. Supreme Court on Facebook
    (2022-06) Houston, Rachael
    Chapter 1: Where’s SCOTUS?: An Exploration of News about the U.S. Supreme Court on Facebook Decades of scholarship reveal that the public learns about the U.S. Supreme Court through media and, particularly, through traditional media like newspapers and television. However, new media, such as Facebook, have not been explored as means for how people may learn about the Court. In this paper, I consider people’s interactions with the Court through Facebook. Specifically, I examine whether, and to what extent, users of this platform are exposed to the Court on their Facebook Feeds and whether this exposure influences users’ perceptions of the Court’s legitimacy. This is an important inquiry, as Facebook may play a role in shaping the public’s support for the Court and offer a new and unique way for the public to engage with, and learn about, the nation’s court of last resort. Chapter 2: Framing Support for the Court: The Role of Media Frames on Facebook News Feeds In today’s social media environment, Americans learn more and more about federal institutions on Facebook. This includes the U.S. Supreme Court, a branch of government that is typically not on the minds of citizens. In this chapter, I argue that Facebook posts about the Court’s decision-making process have the ability to shape people’s support for it. To make this argument, I expose individuals to mock Facebook Feeds to determine how exposure to various decision-making frames affect people’s support for the Court. This study has significant implications for the Court’s legitimacy moving forward, as Facebook is a powerful force that has the ability to shape public attitudes toward a federal institution. Chapter 3: Cue the Court Support: The Effects of Partisan News and Social Endorsement Cues on Facebook As Facebook users scroll through their Feeds, they rely on cues to make decisions about what information to process and how deeply to process it, which ultimately contributes to what they learn through the platform. There are two primary cues that users rely on when processing news on Facebook: source cues and social endorsement cues, such as likes, shares, and comments. In this chapter, I seek to answer two main research questions. First, are individuals more likely to engage with political Facebook posts about the U.S. Supreme Court when the news source of the information aligns with their partisanship and when the post contains social endorsements? Second, do news source and social endorsement cues influence the extent to which people process political information about the Court in the form of its legitimacy? To answer these questions, I expose individuals to mock Facebook posts about the Court, varying the news source and whether the posts contain social endorsements. Ultimately, this study provides a more detailed look at how cues unique to the Facebook environment influence (or do not influence) Court support.
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    Our News, For Us, From Us: Social Identity and Rural News and Information
    (2022-07) Mathews, Nick
    This dissertation explores how rural residents obtain news and information that is salient in their everyday lives and what guides their evaluations of their choices. Utilizing 40 in-depth interviews with residents of Nelson County, Virginia, this study finds, participants express a rejection of the weekly newspaper that has covered the county for almost 150 years and an acceptance of a location-based Facebook group that serves as a supplement, if not an outright replacement, to the traditional news organization. The participants perceive the weekly news organization to be “not local” on three levels — the organizational level, the content level and the journalist level. Participants express that they want their news and information to be about them and from them, meaning from a person who lives in the county, is engaged in the county and cares about the county. Alternatively, participants turn to a location-based Facebook group, created by county residents, moderated by county residents and sourced by county residents. Participants perceive the Facebook group content is useful news and information, meaning real-time, immediate tools for daily living. They also value the democratic nature of the platform, how everyone potentially can have a voice. Theoretically, drawing from social identity theory, rural social identity and collective psychological ownership, I argue that participants perceive “local” as “ours,” or a “shared sense of ownership.” In this vein, the participants do not perceive the county news organization is “ours.” In response, I conclude that news organizations should strive toward a theoretical notion of Our Good Neighbor.
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    The politics of personal information privacy for the Facebook Age - towards an articulation and assemblage theory of PIP
    (2014-05) Weise, Lars
    Located at the intersection of privacy studies, media studies, and cultural studies, this dissertation challenges the notion of post-privacy and radical transparency. It argues for the reinvigoration of the political dimension of personal information privacy and challenges readers to scrutinize the ways in which journalists, politicians, Facebook officials, and scholars alike make it more difficult for ordinary people to define and negotiate for themselves the meaning and relevance of their personal information privacy. The first chapter looks at seven years of journalistic reporting, Facebook's data use policy as well as The White House Guidelines for Consumer Privacy. I argue that journalists, Facebook officials, and politicians alike overemphasize individual user control and technical options as solution to the complicated relationship between PIP and Facebook. I criticize that journalists make no or only superficial attempts to connect Facebook's privacy policy to larger contextual factors - either political, cultural, or economical. The second chapter investigates the economic dimension of the PIP discourse and examines more closely Facebook's SEC statements, Facebook's quarterly business reports as well as other internal documents, and newspaper articles from the The Wall Street Journal and Fortune Magazine. I argue that journalists provide a one-dimensional and trivializing account of the economy. The chapter demonstrates how journalists and prominent scholars help to perpetuate the myth of the technological sublime and, in so doing, render themselves involuntary allies to Facebook's misleading rhetoric of individual user empowerment.The third chapter attempts to correct the mistakes above and suggests first steps towards an articulation and assemblage theory of PIP. The chapter outlines how such a theory relies on the ordinary and pragmatic tradition of cultural studies while simultaneously introducing the notion of accountability for information. The final chapter applies the articulation and assemblage theory of PIP to the college class room. It discusses the foundations of a new PIP pedagogy, introduces a number of guidelines and exercises for the classroom, and discusses a variety of readings that address the issue of PIP in a network culture. The chapter culminates in a syllabus that is designed with a college class room in mind.
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    Power of consumers: Examining the influence of brand-related user-generated content on consumer response
    (2014-06) Kim, Angella
    This study was designed to test a model examining the influence of brand-related UGC shared via Facebook on consumer response. Specific research objectives were to 1) investigate whether brand-related UGC act as stimuli to activate consumer response in relation to brands, 2) examine the process by which brand-related UGC influences consumer behavior via emotional and cognitive responses, and 3) test whether brand-related UGC source and receiver characteristics moderated the relationships between brand-related UGC and emotional and cognitive responses. The model tested was derived from the S-O-R consumer response model (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) that depicts the effects of environmental stimuli on consumer responses (i.e., emotional, cognitive, behavioral). Data were collected from individuals participating in consumer panels (n = 533) managed by a marketing research company. Participants were individuals who were at least 18 years old and who had a Facebook account. An online self-administered survey methodology was employed. Mock Facebook fan pages were developed as visual stimuli and presented participants with brand-related UGC. Participants also completed a questionnaire containing measures of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the proposed hypotheses indicated in the model. The study examined brand-related UGC as stimulus, pleasure and arousal as emotional responses and perceived information quality as cognitive response. Information pass-along, impulse buying, future-purchase intention, and brand engagement were treated as behavioral response constructs (i.e., behavioral outcomes in relation to brand) in the S-O-R model. Homophily and brand involvement were tested as moderators in the S-O relationships. Brand-related UGC were informational stimuli that activated consumers' emotional and cognitive responses (i.e., pleasure, perceived information quality). However, arousal as an emotional response was not significantly influenced by brand-related UGC. The eWOM source characteristic (i.e., homophily) moderated the relationships between brand-related UGC and emotional and cognitive responses. Both emotional and cognitive responses examined (i.e., pleasure, arousal, perceived information quality) significantly influenced behavioral responses. Thus, information pass-along, impulse buying, future-purchase intention, and brand engagement were behavioral responses stimulated by brand-related UGC. Discussions of the findings, theoretical and practical implications, and limitations and suggestions for future research were provided based on the findings.
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    Silha Bulletin Summer 2019 Volume 24, No. 3
    (University of Minnesota, 2019-08) Kirtley, Jane E.; Memmel, Scott; Arch, Eric; Hargrove, Elaine
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    Using Social Media Data for the Common Good
    (2019-09-12) King, Gary; Jacobs, Lawrence R.; McGeveran, William
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    Wall of me: facebook self-disclosure and partner responsiveness resulting in confirmation or violation of expectations and consequences for intimacy and relationships.
    (2011-11) Freeman, Linda Kramer
    In a study of self-disclosure and intimacy on Facebook, research in a survey of 274 undergraduates found interaction processes generally conformed to those found in face-to-face interactions. However, four findings from this study, in particular, elaborate how self-disclosure operates in a Facebook social media context. First, as in the face-to-face context, self-disclosure and partner disclosure were directly related to greater feelings of intimacy. But in contrast to face-to-face communication, in a test of the interpersonal process model of intimacy (Reis & Shaver, 1988), perceived partner responsiveness fully mediated the effect of self-disclosure on intimacy for a self-disclosure Facebook status update. Second, those who self-disclose on Facebook tend to expect and receive positive responses from Facebook friends, and self-disclosers generally classify this positive feedback as an expression of emotionally supportive caring, respect, and/or liking. Third, when participants receive unexpected responses to status updates, these surprise responses (expectancy violations) are generally viewed as positive. Expectancy violations to a self-disclosure status update on Facebook were significantly positively correlated with perceived partner responsiveness and greater change in intimacy toward those who responded unexpectedly. Fourth, in contrast to face-to-face communication, no gender differences were found in self-disclosure behavior, closeness with Facebook partners, or change in intimacy on Facebook as a result of a self-disclosure status update. Additionally, associations between attachment, frequent Facebook participation, relationship type, self-monitoring, and intimacy in Facebook interactions involving participant self-disclosures and responses from Facebook friends resulted in weak or inconsistent findings. The survey also explored participants' motivations for posting a status update, finding that sharing news, posting humorous information, and seeking emotional support were common reasons to post a status update. Motivations for responding to someone else's status update included sharing close feelings and humor.
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    Writings on the Wall: The Need for an Authorship-Centric Approach to the Authentication of Social-Networking Evidence
    (University of Minnesota. Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences, 2013-04-15) Robbins, Ira P.
    People are stupid when it comes to their online postings. The recent spate of social-networking websites has shown that people place shocking amounts of personal information online. Unlike more traditional modes of communication, the unique nature of these websites allows users to hide behind a veil of anonymity. But while social-networking sites may carry significant social benefits, they also leave users - and their personal information - vulnerable to hacking and other forms of abuse. This vulnerability is playing out in courtrooms across the country and will only increase as social-networking use continues to proliferate. This Article addresses the evidentiary hurdle of authenticating social-networking evidence, a novel legal issue confronting courts today. The Article explains and critiques four approaches used by different jurisdictions, concluding that each approach fails to adequately address the critical issue of authorship. The anonymous nature of social-networking websites, coupled with the extent of users’ personal information available online, raises serious concerns about the authorship of any piece of evidence posted to one of these sites. Litigants are using social-networking postings in court, attributing authorship to a particular person without demonstrating a sufficient nexus between the posting and the purported author. Absent this nexus, however, the evidence fails to meet even the low hurdle of authentication. To remedy this problem, this Article proposes that courts shift their focus from account ownership and content to authorship of the evidence. Working within the existing rules of evidence, this approach underscores the importance of fairness and accuracy in the outcome of judicial proceedings that involve social-networking evidence.