No abstract

We propose a three-pronged framework to study discourses surrounding social media activism initiated by networked counterpublics: personalized expressions that share stories and support, demands for changes that address systematic problems, and contentions between various actors and perspectives. Situating our analysis in discourses related to sexual violence and gender justice activism on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, we use supervised machine learning to quantify three discourses—networked acknowledgment, calls to action, and feminism contention—and apply time series analysis to model their interrelations. Results show that networked acknowledgment stimulated both calls to action and feminism contention and that calls to action predicted feminism contention across all platforms. These discourses were more sensitive to real-world events on Twitter and Facebook, but more ephemeral and cyclical on Instagram and more persistent and coupled on Reddit. Our findings speak to the opportunities and challenges in social media activism and underscore cross-platform similarities and differences.

A major challenge facing female sportscasters resides in their being frequently judged based on physical appearance. However, little is known about the influence of audience perceptions of female sports podcasters’ physical attractiveness when their image is unavailable. Drawing from source credibility and social role theories, the present study employed a posttest-only quasi-experimental design to examine whether Chinese female sports podcasters’ auditory cuteness influences audience perceptions of their credibility, information satisfaction, and podcast continuance intentions. Results demonstrate that female podcaster auditory cuteness is positively connected with audience information satisfaction and perceived attractiveness, both of which further predict perceived expertise. Moreover, audience gender role beliefs dampen their perceived expertise, which along with information satisfaction, is positively associated with podcast continuance intentions. Finally, stronger gender role believers rely more on perceived attractiveness when rating the female sportscaster’s expertise—and less on perceived expertise—when evaluating their podcast continuance intentions.

The current study drew from emotional contagion and source credibility theories to investigate whether watching differentially sourced panda videos may influence attitudes toward the “brand” image of China. An experiment (N = 245) conducted with a U.S. college student sample showed that perceived source credibility and nature relatedness were positively linked to emotional response toward the video. A non-governmental video source was perceived to be more credible than a governmental video source in influencing attitude toward Chinese culture, emotional response toward the video, and attitude toward wildlife conservation. The latter two variables and nature relatedness likewise positively predicted attitude toward Chinese culture, which in turn had a positive effect on attitude toward Chinese people; attitude toward Chinese people further positively affected attitude toward Chinese government. These findings suggest that panda diplomacy as a soft-power nation-branding device might have been relatively effective in building goodwill toward Chinese culture, people, and government overtime.

No abstract