The Covid-19 physical distancing measures had a detrimental effect on adolescents' mental health. Adolescents worldwide alleviated the negative experiences of social distancing by spending more time on digital devices. Through a systematic literature search in eight academic databases (including Eric, Proquest Sociology, Communication & Mass Media Complete, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Pubmed, and Web of Science), the present systematic review and meta-analysis first summarized the existing evidence from 30 studies, published up to September 2021, on the link between mental health and digital media use in adolescents during Covid-19. Digital media use measures included social media, screen time, and digital media addiction. Mental health measures were grouped into conceptually similar dimensions, such as well-being, ill-being, social well-being, lifestyle habits, and Covid-19-related stress. Results showed that, although most studies reported a positive association between ill-being and social media use (r = 0.171, p = 0.011) and ill-being and media addiction (r = 0.434, p = 0.024), not all types of digital media use had adverse consequences on adolescents' mental health. In particular, one-to-one communication, self-disclosure in the context of mutual online friendship, as well as positive and funny online experiences mitigated feelings of loneliness and stress. Hence, these positive aspects of online activities should be promoted. At the same time, awareness of the detrimental effects of addictive digital media use should be raised: That would include making adolescents more aware of adverse mechanisms such as social comparison, fear of missing out, and exposure to negative contents, which were more likely to happen during social isolation and confinement due to the pandemic.
Distrust of public serving institutions and anti-establishment views are on the rise (especially in the U.S.). As people turn to social media for information, it is imperative to understand whether and how social media environments may be contributing to distrust of institutions. In social media, content creators, influencers, and other opinion leaders often position themselves as having expertise and authority on a range of topics from health to politics, and in many cases devalue and dismiss institutional expertise to build a following and increase their own visibility. However, the extent to which this content appears and whether such content increases engagement is unclear. This study analyzes the prevalence of anti-establishment sentiment (AES) on the social media platform TikTok. Despite its popularity as a source of information, TikTok remains relatively understudied and may provide important insights into how people form attitudes towards institutions. We employ a computational approach to label TikTok posts as containing AES or not across topical domains where content creators tend to frame themselves as experts: finance and wellness. As a comparison, we also consider the topic of conspiracy theories, where AES is expected to be common. We find that AES is most prevalent in conspiracy theory content, and relatively rare in content related to the other two topics. However, we find that engagement patterns with such content varies by area, and that there may be platform incentives for users to post content that expresses anti-establishment sentiment.
Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Teny Shapiro, Siddharth Suri
Enterprise social media platforms (ESMPs) are web-based platforms with standard social media functionality, e.g., communicating with others, posting links and files, liking content, etc., yet all users are part of the same company. The first contribution of this work is the use of a difference-in-differences analysis of $99$ companies to measure the causal impact of ESMPs on companies' communication networks across the full spectrum of communication technologies used within companies: email, instant messaging, and ESMPs. Adoption caused companies' communication networks to grow denser and more well-connected by adding new, novel ties that often, but not exclusively, involve communication from one to many employees. Importantly, some new ties also bridge otherwise separate parts of the corporate communication network. The second contribution of this work, utilizing data on Microsoft's own communication network, is understanding how these communication technologies connect people across the corporate hierarchy. Compared to email and instant messaging, ESMPs excel at connecting nodes distant in the corporate hierarchy both vertically (between leaders and employees) and horizontally (between employees in similar roles but different sectors). Also, influence in ESMPs is more `democratic' than elsewhere, with high-influence nodes well-distributed across the corporate hierarchy. Overall, our results suggest that ESMPs boost information flow within companies and increase employees' attention to what is happening outside their immediate working group, above and beyond email and instant messaging.
The paper is an assessment of several efforts undertaking as well as challenges faced by National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency (NESREA) being the regulator in enforcing the provisions of various environmental laws which have been enacted from independence to the present as an unwavering answer to dealing with environmental threats challenging Nigeria as a country. The work examines the effectiveness of NESREA in Nigeria as an enforcement agency, looks in brief the environmental challenges to economic development of Nigeria and the well-being of its citizenry in line with the national and international provisions for environmental assessment in Nigeria. This work employed the use of primary and secondary sources in gathering of information. The paper identified a lot of challenges confronting NESREA to include flagrant abuse of environmental laws without commensurate penalties, weak enforcement, corruption on the part of the staff of the regulatory agency, poor public enlightenment education while also advocating for the reinforcement of the regulatory institution to make room for a broader participation, an elaborate supervisory, monitoring and enforcement of environmental rules, laws and principles.
Speculative Black Feminist Epistemologies of Worldbuilding for XR is a methodology attempting to address space, the production of space, permission of space, the economy of space, and evading the confines of space by activating possible imaginaries in the development of XR (Extended Reality) environments. Through a praxis straddling academic and artist writing, the argument explores an experimental approach to Worldbuilding for XR by upending the role of Cartesian coordinates as the default measurement of 3D space. The possibilities afforded XR technologies allow for experimenting with unrestricted navigation of Black women’s cartographic movements, which is impossible in real-world geography. The core proposition of the Black Feminist Episteme of Worldbuilding is the praxis of de-mapping. This praxis foregrounds fugitive movements and spaces by utilizing XR Worldbuilding affordances as a speculative container for reimagining navigation for identities under conditions of subjugation. Researching and speculating about the affordances of XR is a critical intervention attempting to counter mainstream development and deployment of immersive media technology dedicated to the pedagogical tasks of gaming, militarization, and other real-world training applications. The first move toward the praxis of de-mapping, an arrival, is acknowledging the material composition and operation of XR technology. The second move and the first departure explore intentional disorientation. The third move interrupts the linearity of departures and arrivals to establish mobility as a counter-cartographic methodology by referencing the female protagonists in the study by Octavia E. Butler.
O. Alvarez-Llamoza, M. G. Cosenza, J. C. Gonzalez-Avella
et al.
We investigate the collective behavior of a system of social agents subject to the competition between two mass media influences considered as external fields. We study under what conditions either of two mass media with different intensities can impose its message to the majority. In addition to a collective state dominated by the stronger mass media and a disordered phase, we characterize two nontrivial effects as the parameters of the system are varied: (i) the appearance of a majority sharing the state of the weaker mass media, and (ii) the emergence of an alternative ordering in a state different from those of either media. We explore the dependence of both phenomena on the topology of the network of interactions. We show that the presence of long-range interactions rather than random connections is essential for the occurrence of both effects. The model can be extended to include multiple mass media and we illustrate it by considering three mass media fields acting on the system. Nontrivial collective behaviors persist for some ranges of parameters: the weakest mass media can convince the majority, and the system can spontaneously order against all applied fields.
In light of the current surge in heightened social media use and its impact on familial dynamics, it is plausible to posit that social media platforms enhance the experiences of individuals and the family unit. However, submitting this assumption to thorough scrutiny and confirmation is crucial to reach a conclusive determination. Therefore, this study examines the effects of social media utilization on familial connections, with a particular emphasis on the viewpoints of individuals within a region in Abuja, Nigeria. The research maintains its contemporary significance due to the increasing societal need for familial cohesion and connection. In order to achieve the study's objectives, two research questions and their corresponding hypotheses were formulated. The researchers used the Taro Yamane sampling approach to determine an optimal sample size of 171 respondents, derived from a larger population of 300 individuals picked using random selection. The data analysis was conducted via the SPSS software, employing fundamental regression analysis procedures, with a pre-established significance threshold of 0.05. The study's findings indicate a statistically significant correlation between the use of social media and family bonding and face-to-face interaction. Therefore, the study suggests that to alleviate the negative consequences associated with excessive utilization of social media, families should impose limitations on the duration of engagement with social media platforms and prioritize face-to-face interaction. By adopting this approach, families can facilitate transparent communication within the familial setting and cultivate more robust and mutually beneficial relationships.
A Nemzeti Média- és Hírközlési Hatóság 2023 januárjában „Szabadság és biztonság a digitalizálódó világban” címmel közzétett aktuális stratégiája értelmében a hatóság egyebek között a digitális szolgáltatásokról, valamint a digitális piacokról szóló európai uniós rendeletek alkalmazásából eredő és azokat kiegészítő hazai szabályozási igények vizsgálatát, szabályozási javaslatok előkészítésének szabályozási és szakértői támogatását határozta meg egyik kiemelt feladataként. A Gazdasági Versenyhivatal 2023 márciusában tagságot nyert abban a magas szintű nemzetközi munkacsoportban, amely az Európai Bizottságot segíti a digitális piacokról szóló rendelet szabályainak betartatásában. A jelen tanulmány a Nemzeti Média- és Hírközlési Hatóság, a Gazdasági Versenyhivatal és egyéb érintett hazai döntéshozók, ágazati szereplők stratégiájához és feladatköreik ellátásához oly módon kíván szakmai támogatást nyújtani, hogy részletesen bemutatja a német jogrendszerben körvonalazódó változásokat, gyakorlatokat a digitális szolgáltatásokról és a digitális piacokról szóló jogi aktusokkal kapcsolatban. A kutatást a német piac mérete és az ebből fakadó számos jogeset indokolja. Fontos tényező továbbá, hogy a német társadalom hagyományosan érzékeny az adatvédelem, a média és a demokrácia, továbbá a fenntartható gazdaság közötti kapcsolatokra, így a digitális szolgáltatásokról és a digitális piacokról szóló rendeletek végrehajtása során sok impulzusra számíthatunk Németország részéről, amely – a kevés ilyen tagállam egyikeként – már az uniós jogalkotást megelőzve, saját nemzeti jogszabályokban foglalt versenyjogi vagy médiaszabályozási eszközökkel beavatkozott a digitális piacok folyamataiba.
Rachith Aiyappa, Matthew R. DeVerna, Manita Pote
et al.
Social media are utilized by millions of citizens to discuss important political issues. Politicians use these platforms to connect with the public and broadcast policy positions. Therefore, data from social media has enabled many studies of political discussion. While most analyses are limited to data from individual platforms, people are embedded in a larger information ecosystem spanning multiple social networks. Here we describe and provide access to the Indiana University 2022 U.S. Midterms Multi-Platform Social Media Dataset (MEIU22), a collection of social media posts from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and 4chan. MEIU22 links to posts about the midterm elections based on a comprehensive list of keywords and tracks the social media accounts of 1,011 candidates from October 1 to December 25, 2022. We also publish the source code of our pipeline to enable similar multi-platform research projects.
The prevalence of social media platforms and their use across the globe makes them attractive options for studying large groups of people, particularly when some of these platforms provide access to large amounts of structured data. However, with the collection, storage, and use of this data comes ethical and legal responsibilities, which are particularly important when looking at social groups such as migrants, who are often stigmatised and criminalised. Various guidelines, frameworks and laws have been developed to ensure social media data is used in the most ethical way. However, they have quickly evolved within the past few years and are scattered across various fields and domains. To help researchers navigate these issues, this chapter provides an overview of the ethical considerations of studying migration via social media platforms. Building on relevant academic literature, as well as national and supranational frameworks and legislations, we review how the main ethical issues related to social media research have been discussed in the past twenty years and outline good practice examples to mitigate them. This overview is designed to provide researchers with theoretical and practical tools to consider and mitigate the ethical challenges related to social media research in migration-related contexts.
Social media have become essential for crisis communication. While past research has focused on their role in corporate communication, studies largely ignored how public organizations use social media. Among these, the police are a particularly relevant case due to their responsibilities in society. Using a sequential mixed-methods design that combines qualitative interviews with an automated content analysis, this study analyzes how the German police use social media during community (e.g. mass shootings) and organizational-level crises (e.g. misdemeanors within the police). The results demonstrate that Twitter and Facebook are the primary platforms for crisis communication, with their unique affordances shaping the communicative styles of the police. We also find police communication strategies to differ between the two crisis types. During community-level crises, the main goal of the police is to provide information in a largely unidirectional manner, while communication during organizational-level crises is more dialogue-oriented to prevent reputational damage.
The number of studies employing mediation analysis has increased exponentially in the past two decades. Focusing on research design, this study examines 387 articles in the Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Communication Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and Media Psychology between 1996 and 2017. Findings show that while most studies report statistically significant indirect effects, they are inadequate to make causal inferences. Authors also often infer that they uncovered the “true” mediator(s) while alternative models and mediators are rarely acknowledged. Future studies should pay more attention to the role of research design and its implications for making causal inferences.
El objetivo de este articulo es describir los mecanismos semióticos de las correlaciones semánticas que la comunicación política crea con el fin de convertirlas en "gramáticas políticas" y, por tanto, en "normas". Se trata, pues, de estudiar la transformación a través de operaciones de "síntesis de lo heterogéneo" realizadas por la vinculación de elementos del discurso político con otros pertenecientes a paradigmas semánticos en principio completamente ajenos a éste, con el objetivo de producir generalizaciones explicativas del mundo político en su totalidad. Este tipo de operaciones, que se inician a nivel de los textos y que acaban produciendo metasemióticas políticas, son posibles gracias a una propiedad especifica del lenguaje, a saber, la de su “elasticidad”.
Jongchul Park, Matthieu Davy, Victor A. Gopar
et al.
The statistics of transmission through random 1D media are generally presumed to be universal and to depend only upon a single dimensionless parameter-the ratio of the sample length and the mean free path, s = L/l. Here, we show in numerical simulations and optical measurements of random binary systems, and most prominently in systems for which s is less than unity, that the statistics of the logarithm of transmission, ln T, are universal for transmission near the upper cutoff of unity and depend distinctively upon the reflectivity of the layer interfaces and their number near a lower cutoff. The universal segment of the probability distribution function of the logarithm of transmission P (ln T) is manifested with as few as three binary layers. For a given value of s, P (ln T ) evolves towards a universal distribution as the number of layers increases. Optical measurements in stacks of 5 and 20 glass coverslips exhibit statistics at low and moderate values of transmission that are close to those found in simulations for 1D layered media, while differences appear at higher transmission where the transmission time in the medium is longer and the wave explores the transverse nonuniformity of the sample.
The title of this paper is ‘Pidgin and Creole in advertising and marketing’ in Nigeria. The data for analyses was elicited through recording, transcribing, and translating. The focus of this study is the inconsistencies in spellings and choice of words, which leads to frustration and ambiguities as observed by the target audience in the adverts. Considering the serious nature of the messages they intend to pass across and the cost incurred in designing and airing the adverts, one is worried why a little bit of imagination, creativity and seriousness is not applied in the crafting of the advertisements. We are aware that standard pidgin orthography exists which conforms to the principle of good orthography; organizations and individuals seeking to develop adverts or broadcast in pidgin should consult this document for consistency. Nigerian Pidgin English is already an unauthorized lingua franca; therefore, all efforts should be on the deck to standardize it. We have presented some adverts done in pidgin, analysed them to evince their inadequacies, ambiguities, conflicting messages, poor effects, and argue that although many people are often easily carried along with adverts in pidgin, the message is essentially lost ab initio. Pidgin and creole can only be used nationally, meaning they cannot communicate internationally, or even with neighbouring countries. For this reason, adverts cannot be done in pidgin and creole with the intention of getting international patronage. They are often viewed as low class, grammatically incorrect, and with no well-structured syntax or phonology, so adverts done in pidgin and creole are often selective. Hence, if the customers are those from the upper class, an advert in pidgin or creole is a wrong move.
The Igbo people believe that a well done burial ritual would determine the well-being of the deceased in the land of the “living-dead”. It is therefore expected that their loved ones perform proper burial rituals to ensure the peaceful rest of the deceased and to avert the wrath of the dead. This study examined modernity and burial rituals in Igbo land from a paranormal communication perspective. The Functionalism approach as propounded by Smith, Burner and White in 1956 was used as the theoretical underpinning for this study. This study adopted textual analysis of historical and oral literature. The findings of this study revealed that modernity has affected the Igbo culture, and also showed that there are socio-religious consequences of not meeting up with the burial ritual demands. As a result, the researchers recommend amongst others that stakeholders in the community and the society at large come together to revive the Igbo culture. They also recommend that families do the needful to ensure that their 'dead' is properly buried to avoid certain misfortunes.