Gina Masullo Chen

Why do women bloggers use social media? Recreation and information motivations outweigh engagement motivations

Analyses of survey results from a random sample of women bloggers (N = 298) show three motivations drive women to use social media – information, engagement, and recreation. The recreation motivation outweighs the other two motivations in predicting frequency of social media use. However, when differences between Facebook, Twitter, and other social media were considered, results show women bloggers turn to social media in general for recreation, but to Facebook for engagement and to Twitter for information. Findings also show that psychological needs for affiliation and self-disclosure are related to the engagement motivation, and self-disclosure is associated with the information motivation. The results are discussed in relation to need theory.

Why do we tag photographs on Facebook? Proposing a new gratifications scale

Using a multi-stage investigation, this study developed and validated a 35-item instrument for measuring gratifications of photo-tagging on Facebook. The questions were developed based on open-ended responses of 141 people who use photo-tags on Facebook. From their answers, 58 items were extracted and then tested on 780 people. This resulted in a 35-item scale that was re-examined with 313 adolescents and 186 adult photo-taggers. The 35-item instrument offers nine gratifications: likes and comments, social influence, peer pressure, gains popularity, entertainment, feels good, social sharing, affection, and convenience. The factorial structure and instrument validity and reliability were high and fairly stable over time. The findings are discussed in relation to the uses and gratifications theory, and the practical implications of this new instrument are explored.

Online Political Discourse: Exploring Differences in Effects of Civil and Uncivil Disagreement in News Website Comments

An experiment (N = 272) demonstrated that disagreement—either civil or uncivil—may have a chilling effect on the public discourse vital to a deliberative democracy. Both forms of disagreement—in comments posted on a news story about abortion—caused negative emotion and aggressive intentions. However, only uncivil disagreement led people to respond back uncivilly and indirectly led to greater intention to participate politically, if it aroused aggressive feelings. Findings support extending face and politeness theories to the computer-mediated space of online commenting. Results are discussed in relation to the impact on the public discourse.

Exploring differences in how men and women respond to threats to positive face on social media

A three-condition (rejection, criticism, control) experiment (N=78) with gender treated as an additional factor and moderating variable examined gender differences in response to two types of threats to positive face - rejection and criticism - on a social-networking site. Results showed it did not matter if men or women were rejected or criticized on a social-networking site; both threats to positive face lead to more retaliatory aggression, compared to the control. However, men retaliated to a greater extent than women to both types of threats. Also, men responded differently to criticism than to rejection, while womens results did not vary. Findings are discussed in relation to face theory and politeness theory, particularly in regard to computer-mediated communication.

Third-person perception of online comments

Using online comments posted on news stories as the context, this study aimed to examine the interplay between the third-person perception (TPP) - that people believe media message have a greater effect on changing the attitudes of others compared with themselves - and online incivility. It also examined whether peoples agreement with the content of the comments would influence the TPP. Results of an experiment (N?=?301) showed incivility muted the persuasive effect of online comments, so only civil comments produced a TPP, whereby people felt comments had greater persuasive power over others compared with themselves. However, counter to predictions, whether people agreed with the comments did not influence the TPP. Findings also supported the TPP social distance corollary such that subjects perceived comments as having the largest third-person perceptual gap between the self and those who disagreed with them. Results are discussed in relation to TPP and face and politeness theories. People perceive civil online comments as more persuasive than uncivil comments.People perceive civil online comments as having more persuasive power on others, than the self.People perceive social distance with others online based on agreement on social issues.

Full length articleThird-person perception of online comments: Civil ones persuade you more than me

Using online comments posted on news stories as the context, this study aimed to examine the interplay between the third-person perception (TPP) - that people believe media message have a greater effect on changing the attitudes of others compared with themselves - and online incivility. It also examined whether peoples agreement with the content of the comments would influence the TPP. Results of an experiment (N?=?301) showed incivility muted the persuasive effect of online comments, so only civil comments produced a TPP, whereby people felt comments had greater persuasive power over others compared with themselves. However, counter to predictions, whether people agreed with the comments did not influence the TPP. Findings also supported the TPP social distance corollary such that subjects perceived comments as having the largest third-person perceptual gap between the self and those who disagreed with them. Results are discussed in relation to TPP and face and politeness theories. People perceive civil online comments as more persuasive than uncivil comments.People perceive civil online comments as having more persuasive power on others, than the self.People perceive social distance with others online based on agreement on social issues.

Revisiting the social enhancement hypothesis

Extroversion directly predicts number of Facebook friends.Extroversion directly predicts number of months people are active on Facebook.Extroversion indirectly predicts number of Facebook friends, mediated through Facebook usage. An online survey of college-age Facebook users (N=209) found that extroversion, narcissism, openness, and agreeableness predicted friending more people on Facebook. However, only extroversion continued to exert an effect when these and other personality variables were examined together in one regression model, while controlling for frequency of Facebook usage and gender. Also, a path analysis model showed that extroversion directly predicted number of Facebook friends and the number of months people were active on Facebook. In addition, extroversion indirectly influenced number of Facebook friends, operating through months active on Facebook and hours per week spent on Facebook in a parallel mediation effect. Findings offer support for the social enhancement hypothesis, which argues that extroverted people benefit the most from social media.

Normalizing Online Comments

This study sought to understand the role of online comments—particularly uncivil ones—in journalists’ routines. In-depth interviews with 34 journalists reveal they are becoming more comfortable with online comments and often engage with commenters to foster deliberative discussions or quell incivility. However, our data also suggest some journalists feel discomfort with engaging in this way for fear it breaches the journalistic norm of objectivity. Overall, findings suggest journalists are not ceding their gatekeeping role to the public through comments, but rather re-asserting it through moderating objectionable comments and engaging. In addition, findings suggest journalists are participating in “reciprocal journalism” by fostering mutually beneficial connections with the audience.

Twitter versus Facebook: Comparing incivility, impoliteness, and deliberative attributes:

Using two quantitative methods, this study sought to understand whether user-generated posts would vary in frequency of incivility, impoliteness, and deliberative attributes on Twitter versus Facebook. A quantitative content analysis (N = 1458) revealed that posts responding to the White House’s tweets were significantly more uncivil and impolite and less deliberative than responses to White House Facebook posts. Also, comments on posts that concerned sensitive topics (such as same-sex marriage) were more uncivil, impolite, and deliberative than comments regarding less sensitive topics (such as technology). An experiment (N = 198) showed that people were more deliberative when responding to White House Facebook posts, compared with White House tweets, but no differences were found for incivility and impoliteness. Results suggest that both the varying affordances of the two platforms and the fact that the two sites may attract different types of people might explain these results.

‘You really have to have a thick skin’: A cross-cultural perspective on how online harassment influences female journalists:

In-depth interviews with 75 female journalists who work or have worked in Germany, India, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America reveal that they face rampant online gendered harassment that influences how they do their jobs. Many of the women report that if they aim to engage with their audience online – which is a job requirement for many of them – they frequently face sexist comments that criticize, attack, marginalize, stereotype, or threaten them based on their gender or sexuality. Often, criticism of their work is framed as misogynistic attacks and, sometimes, even involves sexual violence. The journalists have developed a variety of strategies for dealing with the abuse, including limiting what they post online, changing what stories they report on, and using technological tools to prevent people from posting offensive words on the journalists’ public social media pages. Results show that this harassment disrupts the routinized practice of reciprocal journalism because it limits how much these women can interact with the audience in mutually beneficial ways without being attacked or undermined sexually. While experiences of harassment were consistent across the countries studied, cultural differences were evident in how much the journalists were expected to engage online. Results are discussed in relation to the hierarchy of influences model that aims to explain how multiple forces influence media content.