Ephemerality in Social Media: Unpacking the Personal and Social Characteristics of Time Limit Users on WeChat Moments

Social media platforms increasingly give users the option of ephemerality through settings that delete or hide posted content after a set period of time. Many individuals apply these settings to manage their posting history and, in turn, reduce concerns about self-presentation. Despite the growing popularity of this feature, few studies have empirically explored it. This study examines the Time Limit setting on WeChat Moments as an example and investigates how users using the Time Limit setting differ from nonusers in terms of personal characteristics (demographics, personality traits, psychological factors, and previous behavioral patterns) and social characteristics (audience size and audience diversity). Compared with nonusers, users using Time Limit setting scored significantly higher on posting frequency and privacy setting use and scored significantly lower on audience size. We also examine how personal and social characteristics vary between user groups with different degrees of ephemerality (i.e., low, medium, or high). Our findings show that users using the Time Limit setting who scored higher on measures of life changes, self-monitoring, posting frequency, and audience size and lower on perceived stress were more likely to opt for the low (i.e., 6months) rather than the medium (i.e., 1month) or high (i.e., 3days) degree of ephemerality. Our work contributes to the understanding of ephemerality settings on social media platforms and provides insights that help practitioners design more effective platforms.

Guidelines for optimal utilization of social media for brain tumor stakeholders

OBJECTIVE Effective use of social media (SM) by medical professionals is vital for better connections with patients and dissemination of evidence-based information. A study of SM utilization by different stakeholders in the brain tumor community may help determine guidelines for optimal use. METHODS Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were searched by using the term “Brain Tumor.” Platform-specific metrics were determined, including audience size, as a measure of popularity, and mean annual increase in audience size, as a measure of performance on SM. Accounts were categorized on the basis of apparent ownership and content, with as many as two qualitative themes assigned to each account. Correlations of content themes and posting behavior with popularity and performance metrics were assessed by using the Pearson’s test. RESULTS Facebook (67 pages and 304,581 likes) was predominantly used by organizations (64% of pages). Top themes on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were charity and fundraising (67% of pages), education and research (72% of accounts), and experience sharing and support seeking (48% of videos, 60% of views, and 82% of user engagement), respectively. On Facebook, only the presence of other concurrent platforms influenced a page’s performance (rho = 0.59) and popularity (rho = 0.61) (p < 0.05). On Twitter, the number of monthly tweets (rho = 0.66) and media utilization (rho = 0.78) were significantly correlated with increased popularity and performance (both p < 0.05). Personal YouTube videos (30% of videos and 61% of views) with the theme of experience sharing and support seeking had the highest level of engagement (60% of views, 70% of comments, and 87% of likes). CONCLUSIONS Popularity and prevalence of qualitative themes differ among SM platforms. Thus, optimal audience engagement on each platform can be achieved with thematic considerations. Such considerations, along with optimal SM behavior such as media utilization and multiplatform presence, may help increase content popularity and thus increase community access to neurooncology content provided by medical professionals.

Online program engagement and audience size during television ads

This research explores how television viewers’ online program engagement (OPE)—engagement in social media conversations about television programs—relates to audience size during ads in those programs. We leverage a multisource dataset of 8417 ad instances, volume and deviation measures of OPE activity (program-related Twitter mentions), and audience size during ads. We show that increases in OPE volume and positive deviations from the episode’s average level of OPE before an ad relate to higher ad audience size. To explain, we argue that OPE reflects viewers’ program involvement which attenuates their channel-changing behavior during ads. Positive OPE deviations moreover relate to higher ad audience sizes most strongly for earlier ads in a break. Our results help television networks and advertisers strategically determine ad placements for increased ad audience size by highlighting social episodes (characterized by high OPE volume) and social moments (characterized by positive OPE deviations) as attractive advertising environments.

Evolution of audience duplication networks among social networking sites: Exploring the influences of preferential attachment, audience size, and niche width

This study examines the evolution of social networking sites (SNSs) from a networked audience duplication perspective. Guided by social network theory, the theory of double jeopardy, and niche theory, this study proposes an integrated framework to explain the evolution of SNS choices of the US audience between 2016 and 2019. Shared traffic data were retrieved from comScore’s Media Metrix Multi-Platform database. The empirical results of the separable temporal exponential random graph model (STERGM) confirm that preferential attachment, audience size, and niche width significantly drive the likelihood of tie formation and dissolution in the evolving audience duplication network. These effects hold true even when other endogenous structural features and exogenous nodal attributes are taken into account. Theoretical implications for the networked media landscape are discussed.

Publishing Patterns in Greek Media Websites

The concept of different publishing patterns during a day has been employed for many decades in the broadcasting industry. These patterns are close related with dayparts, which are defined as sequential time blocks on comparable days during which the audience size is homogeneous, as is the group depiction using the specific medium. During the first decade of the World Wide Web, Internet media strategy was focused on total web reach, demographics and affinity of content without particular attention to how the nature of the audience changes by time of day. This paper studies the variation of publishing patterns of the top 22 Greek media websites. More than 550 thousand articles were indexed in a period of four and a half months. The study identified distinct WWW time periods that exhibit specific publishing characteristics. Specifically, different categories of news articles present different publishing patterns during weekdays and weekends. The results appear to be in agreement with findings of previous studies.

COVID-19, Social Media, and the Role of the Public Physician

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an avalanche of information, much of it false or misleading. Social media posts with misleading or dangerous opinions and analyses are often amplified by celebrities and social media influencers; these posts have contributed substantially to this avalanche of information. An emerging force in this information infodemic is public physicians, doctors who view a public presence as a large segment of their mission. These physicians bring authority and real-world experience to the COVID-19 discussion. To investigate the role of public physicians, we interviewed a convenience cohort of physicians who have played a role in the infodemic. We asked the physicians about how their roles have changed, how their audience has changed, what role politics plays, and how they address misinformation. The physicians noted increased audience size with an increased focus on the pandemic. Most avoided confronting politics, but others found it unavoidable or that even if they tried to avoide it, it would be brought up by their audience. The physicians felt that confronting and correcting misinformation was a core part of their mission. Public physicians on social media are a new occurrence and are an important part of fighting online misinformation.

Criminological Cinema

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the relationship between pedagogic and aetiological value within the criminology of narrative fiction. The chapter’ focus is on criminological cinema – Hollywood feature films that take crime or social harm or the control of crime or social harm as their subject – on the basis of the relevance of audience size to pedagogic value. Pedagogic value is a function of accessible communication and audience engagement and both of these features are enhanced by the characteristic realism of the cinematic mode of representation and the mythic storytelling characteristic of the Hollywood film industry. The chapter concludes with a demonstration of pedagogic value that employs Martin Brest’s Beverly Hills Cop (1984) as a case study.

Public communication for the fight against syphilis: an experience report of the campaign “Eu sei. Você sabe?” (2020-2021)

Introduction: Aiming at strengthening the discourse about syphilis prevention and promoting organic actions with strategies directed to digital communication platforms, the campaign “Eu sei. Você sabe?” (“I know. Do you?”) was developed and placed between mid 2020 and early 2021, within the scope of the project “Sífilis, não” (‘Syphilis, No’). Objective: In this article, we aim to report the planning and execution of this public communication campaign to combat syphilis by reflecting on the aspects of conception, strategic and creative planning, and placement of the campaign. Methods: The reflection was anchored in a descriptive study and in the report of this experience through a scientific narrative, considering the guidelines established in the planning and the period of execution (still under development). Results: The results of this campaign include the production and placement of various materials for digital circulation to disseminate content, such as cards (posts) for different social media websites in different formats; layouts for posters, banners and handouts (printed and digital); institutional website; card videos; sound spots; layouts for digital booklets and newsletters, among others. Conclusion: From the point of view of planning and production, the goal of the campaign was to contemplate the diversity of audiences with actions and materials, by adapting imagery, language and communication channels. It is not yet feasible to measure the reach or the audience size and response, although we can project it as positive in view of its context.