KOME

How Do Social Media Machines Affect Self- Concept Research?

Fehér Katalin, Katona I. Attila — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Advanced digital technologies broadly penetrate self-activities, such as algorithms, machine learning, or artificial intelligence. This trend is most evident on social media, where contents, attitudes and evaluative judgments meet on technology-driven platforms. Moreover, human networks also started communicating with social bots or conversational interfaces. All these challenges can trigger a redesign of self-concept via technology. Therefore, the paper investigates how social media machines affect self-concept-related academic research. First, pioneers of the field are presented. Second, the self-concept research in digital technology and social media is summarised. Topic networks illustrate critical research fields with the latest trends and future implications. Last but not least, we also investigate how emerging media phenomena affect academic trends in the case of social bots or fake news. The study aims to support the connected research in psychology, business, management, education, political science, medicine and media studies with an understanding of the latest trends. The additional goal is to highlight the potential of market-based research cooperation with academia supporting significant developments and funding.

Corpus Linguistics on the Impression Management Strategy of Indonesian Public Officials after Covid-19 Denial Statements

Miftha Pratiwi, Rindang Senja Andarini, Rini Setiyowati; Anang Dwi Santoso — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

With the Covid-19 pandemic, public officials in Indonesia were prone to making inaccurate claims and to enacting policies that the public might have overlooked due to a lack of understanding of complex situations. However, after making these mistakes, public officials needed to restore their reputation and create a positive impression. This study aimed to investigate the impression management strategies employed by Indonesian public officials following such incidents. The researchers analysed a dataset of 2,000 Instagram captions from seven public officials over the course of a year, totalling 13,725 words and 196,154 tokens, using corpus linguistic techniques such as frequent words and keyword lists. The findings revealed that officials used different strategies such as ingratiation, self-promotion and supplication to manage their impression, and that positive attitudes and hard work were the main tools used by officials to improve their public image.

Depiction of the Balkans on Internet Memes from 9GAG

Veczán Zoltán — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Contrary to all the techno-optimistic expectations regarding the liberating and equalising impacts of online communication – especially of web 2.0 and the emerging social media – stereotypes and oppressive practices are still widespread in discourses on online platforms in many online genres, including Internet memes or meme-aggregating platforms. Researchers have studied many aspects of emergence of stereotypes regarding skin colour, sexual orientation, or gender, but there is a notable research gap in analysing stereotypes towards a special region of Europe: the Balkan Peninsula and its nations. What is more, no research can be found that examines Balkan stereotypes in Internet memes, especially not in a quantitative way on a larger sample. Working with 595 meme specimens from the popular 9GAG portal, this research seeks to learn more about this phenomenon: to find signs of the asymmetric relationship between the Western centrum and the periphery or semi-periphery, as represented by the Balkan states. This study seeks to identify the critical elements of how these stereotypes are displayed, and to compare these elements and their correlations. Another dimension of this research is a review of audience reactions as gauged by “likes”, comments and relative popularity.

Low Civility and High Incivility in Russian Online Deliberation

Daniil Volkovskii, Olga Filatova — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

One of the most studied fields in deliberative research is (in)civility in Internet-based political discussions on issues of common concern. Uncivil behaviour demonstrated by participants in online communication has various forms and negative effects on the process and outcomes of e-deliberation as well as on deliberators’ reactions and attitudes, which have been predominantly investigated in Western democracies. However, this issue has been poorly covered in the countries with less stable democratic traditions and values. This paper explores speech culture with a focus on civility and incivility in Russian political conversations conducted on Russian social media. The authors analyse mass-scale web political discussions on a polarising issue of the court sentence of the politician Alexei Navalny (2021), taking one of the most popular Russian social networks VKontakte. For this study, scholars use discourse analysis based on the works on deliberative democracy proposed by J. Habermas (1996). They conclude that Russian political speech regarding Navalny’s sentence and conducted on the VKontakte social media platform can be characterised by a great extent of uncivil speech unbalanced by a low extent of civil speech. The conversations are not oriented towards mutual recognition or reaching a consensus, as participants are often distracted from the main issue being discussed, and turn to interpersonal topics instead.

The Role of Visual Identity in Music Perception

Adrian Cheţan, Ioana Iancu — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Since the music industry is oversaturated, the role of branding becomes of great importance. Although of a paramount value for success, the influence of visual identity on contemporary music perception is still poorly discussed. The present paper aims to exploratory assess the role of visual elements on the way music is perceived. Sixteen semi-structured interviews with music specialist are conducted. The primary topic approached refers to the role of visual identity in terms of song likability, perceived music quality and emotional reactions. The results suggest that branding may help in the differentiation process by creating memorability and clarity on the market. However, for a valuable creative product, there must be a balance between shaping the brand identity and maintaining the artist’s authenticity.