Rebecca A. Hayes

Social Media: Defining, Developing, and Divining

What is a social medium, and how may one moderate, isolate, and influence communicative processes within? Although scholars assume an inherent understanding of social media based on extant technology, there is no commonly accepted definition of what social media are, both functionally and theoretically, within communication studies. Given this lack of understanding, cogent theorizing regarding the uses and effects of social media has been limited. This work first draws on extant definitions of social media and subcategories (e.g., social network sites) from public relations, information technology, and management scholarship, as well as the popular press, to develop a definition of social media precise enough to embody these technologies yet robust enough to remain applicable in 2035. It then broadly explores emerging developments in the features, uses, and users of social media for which future theories will need to account. Finally, it divines and prioritizes challenges that may not yet be apparent to theorizing communication processes with and in mercurial social media. We address how social media may uniquely isolate and test communicative principles to advance our understanding of human–human and human–computer interaction. In all, this article provides a common framework to ground and facilitate future communication scholarship and beyond.

One Click, Many Meanings: Interpreting Paralinguistic Digital Affordances in Social Media

In this study we conceptualize cues in social media that require a single click (e.g., Likes, Favorites) as paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs). Why do people use PDAs and how do they interpret them when they are the recipient? Through focus groups (N = 25) and interviews (N = 26) we address these research questions within a uses and gratifications framework. Using adaptive structuration theory as a lens for analysis, we examine both faithful and ironic uses of PDAs, finding they contribute more than phatic communication and may indicate just as much about the relationship between sender and receiver as they do content.

ź as social support

Many social media facilitate paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs): one-click tools for phatic communication to which senders and receivers alike ascribe meaning. This research explores the nature of social support perceived from the receipt of PDAs within social media, seeking to understand how individuals ascribe supportive meaning to PDAs based on (1) their goal in the post to which the PDA was used as a reply, (2) relational closeness with the PDA provider, and (3) the perceived automaticity of the PDA received. A national survey (N 1⁄4 325) explored the receipt of PDAs across five social media, and facilitated cross-platform analysis. Analyses reveal both main and interaction effects among the three proposed antecedents, so that intentional PDAs from relationally close providers to messages seeking social support were perceived as most supportive. Findings reveal individuals heuristically make idiosyncratic sense of the same cue from different senders in different situations.

The Effect of Disclosure of Third-Party Influence on an Opinion Leader's Credibility and Electronic Word of Mouth in Two-Step Flow

Utilizing the two-step flow model, the study sought to understand the effects of perceived third-party influence in social media. Blogger relations is a common strategy in public relations, and frequently results in compensation for coverage. Disclosure of these relationships can vary in explicitness, though the impact of disclosure is unknown. A national sample (N = 405) participated in an experiment in which a blog product review varied in its acknowledged third-party influence. Results indicate explicitness of disclosure of links between message sponsor and opinion leader significantly influences the perceived credibility of the opinion leader, and in turn participants’ attitudes regarding the product being reviewed and purchase intentions.

How Affective Is a “Like”?: The Effect of Paralinguistic Digital Affordances on Perceived Social Support

A national survey asked 323 U.S. adults about paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs) and how these forms of lightweight feedback within social media were associated with their perceived social support. People perceived PDAs (e.g., Likes, Favorites, and Upvotes) as socially supportive both quantitatively and qualitatively, even without implicit meaning associated with them. People who are highly sensitive about what others think of them and have high self-esteem are more likely to perceive higher social support from PDAs.

Does Being Social Matter? Effects of Enabled Commenting on Credibility and Brand Attitude in Social Media

Public relations practitioners are actively building relationships with bloggers to obtain high-credibility brand mentions and reviews. Practitioners may request bloggers limit comments to maintain control over messages and constrain dissonant perspectives; however, the impact of limiting social features of blogs is unknown. Utilizing source credibility and warranting theory, this article examines the relationship between enabled comments on blogs and brand attitudes, with the moderating variables of credibility and expertise, from both a public relations and consumer behavior perspective. Using an online experiment (N = 527) we found that socialness increases perceptions of blogger expertise, brand attitudes, and purchase intention, but not credibility.

It’s the Audience: Differences in Social Support Across Social Media

Responding to recent calls to transcend social media platforms when examining media effects, and using the social information processing model to predict and explain results, this multi-method study first uses a US national survey (N = 325) to examine perceived effectiveness of social support and relational closeness via paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs; e.g., “Likes,” “+1s,” and “Upvotes”)—the one-click tools for phatic communication—between social media platforms. Results of the survey reveal some significant between-platform differences in perceived effectiveness of social support provided by a PDA, but no significant differences in the relational closeness of ties across platforms. These findings were used to design and conduct focus groups (N = 36) to understand why the identified differences exist. Focus groups reveal that although social support is exchanged across all platforms, different dimensions of social support are sought and received depending on the platform and the network audience that platform accesses. In addition, the focus groups revealed meaningful differences in the nature of network relationships between the platforms, if not the degree of closeness. Taking the two studies together, it seems the adoption and continued use of a platform is an idiosyncratic function of both the social and the technological. Findings underscore the importance of conducting cross-platform studies and demonstrate the value of using PDAs as a convenient cross-platform comparison tool, as they are one of the few common features across social media.

Predicting a Threshold of Perceived Facebook Post Success via Likes and Reactions: A Test of Explanatory Mechanisms

Individuals frequently engage in self-presentation via social media and can subsequently receive various simple communicative cues (paralinguistic digital affordances; PDAs) from which they may determine the success of their self-presentation, including Likes and Upvotes. Previous research has found these communicatively abstract one-click cues are interpreted idiosyncratically when received, but the quantity received matters to users in determining whether a post is “successful.” The present work probes explanatory mechanisms behind the use of PDA responses as a metric of self-presentational success, deriving hypotheses from social comparison theory, social penetration theory, and expectancy violations theory. Results from a survey (N = 255) reveal that social comparison and communicative reciprocity provide explanatory power regarding the threshold of Likes and Reactions to a Facebook post needed to consider a post successful.

The Incident: Not Just Another Organizational Disruption

Issue and crisis: These concepts are well-understood, even though various definitions exist. A third concept, incident, is less defined. This article reports a content analysis of articles from two public relations journals (n = 67) and three prominent public relations industry publications (n = 56) to understand how incident is contextualized and applied. Findings reveal a statistically significant difference in how academic and industry publications contextualize the concept and expose a need for a formal conceptualization. Building on the results of the analysis, this article, then, argues that incident is (a) defined as a theoretical concept and pragmatic communication-management matter, (b) implemented within a continuum of organizational disruption, (c) presented as a necessary concept for greater precision for the reporting and analyzing of disruptive events, and (d) needs to be included in future scholarly research about and models of disruptive events.

When Nobody “Likes” You: Perceived Ostracism Through Paralinguistic Digital Affordances Within Social Media

This research explores the processes of perceived ostracism ensuing from a lack of feedback via paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs), the one-click tools (e.g., Likes and +1s) which are one of the most used features of social media, provided to an individual’s posted social media content. The positive and negative psychological outcomes of social media communication have been well-documented. However, as social media have become entrenched as some of our most common communication channels, the absence of communication via social media has been underexplored and may have negative psychological and communicative outcomes. We utilized focus groups (N = 37) to examine perceptions of ostracism when individuals did not receive PDAs to their posted content across social media platforms. Participants reported feeling excluded only when they did not receive PDAs from select relationally close or socially superior network members, suggesting audience targeting and expectations when posting. Users frequently attributed low PDA counts to system and content factors. These results contribute to a developing understanding of the psychological effects of lack of communication via social media and provide insight for future research, demonstrating that social exclusion may not manifest from a complete lack of social interaction but rather may occur when individuals do not receive expected or desired feedback.