With the prevalence of online risks encountered by youth online, strength-based approaches such as nudges have been recommended as a potential solution to subtly guide teens toward safer decisions. However, most nudging interventions to date have not been designed to cater to teens’ unique needs and online safety concerns. To address this gap, this study aimed to better understand adolescents’ perceptions and feedback on online safety nudges to inform the design of more effective online safety interventions. We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews and 3 focus group sessions with 21 teens (13 – 17 years old) to get their feedback on three types of nudge designs from two opposing perspectives (i.e., risk sender and victim) and for two different online risks (i.e., information breaches and cyberbullying). We found that teens preferred actionable nudge approaches, with the action based on the specific risk scenario. Additionally, for both the risk sender and victim, teens wanted nudges to emphasize warnings, making them harder to ignore. They desired actionable nudges that intervene early and extend beyond a bare warning notice to suggested safe responses. Teens also wanted nudges that prevent the risk sender from perpetuating harm by restricting or penalizing them. Finally, teens wanted personalized and controlled nudges that confirmed their final actions, did not interrupt their regular online activity and had no possibility of escalating the risk. Overall, we found that nudges need to be contextualized to teens' risk experiences, risk medium, personal preferences, and user perspectives (e.g., victim vs. sender).

This dissertation analyzes the athlete activism in the WNBA, the use of social media for activism, and the social media discourse during the 2020 basketball season. I applied Critical Discourse Analysis to a defined set of texts including social media posts from Instagram and Twitter, user comments on social media, news articles from sports and non-sports publications, and a documentary, all related to the activism of the WNBA athletes. I chose the 2020 season because it is an exceptional case study of athlete activism and the use of social media for activism because the season was played in a single site location due to the global pandemic. Other cultural and political factors made the season unique such as the increasingly apparent systemic racism in the United States and the impending elections in 2020. Throughout the season, the WNBA athletes devoted their activism to Breonna Taylor, the #SayHerName campaign, Black women victims of police violence, Jacob Blake, Black Lives Matter, and the Georgia Senate race between Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler and Rev. Raphael Warnock. The athletes used their platform and social media to immerse themselves in the political, social, and cultural events happening at the time, fought for social justice issues, and became a "voice for the voiceless" during the 2020 season. Through the social media discourse, I found there was a backlash towards the activism throughout the season, including consistent themes of racism, white supremacy, misogyny, and patriotism. Even though the athletes' activism contributed to Warnock winning the Senate race and becoming the first Black Senator in Georgia, there have been significant impacts of their activism seen in the changes to social media platforms that may make it more difficult for athletes' voices to be heard and for social media to be a place for activism.

The aim of the research is to evaluate how professional sport organizations communicate via social media and lay groundwork on how to effectively do so in the future. The research focuses on the history of social media and its involvement in sport, how it's used today, examples of effective communication and how it can eventually drive revenue for a sport franchise and build a stronger fan base at the same time.

The desire to be environmentally conscience, especially among those who participate in social media apps and websites, has grown significantly over recent years. This spike in participation can be partly accredited to environmental influencers on apps such as TikTok, as well as the inescapable pressure displayed by marketing initiatives produced by big name companies on the internet and social media daily. This thesis monitors the environmental friendliness fad from its early days in social media up to the prominent presence it holds today via TikTok environmental influencers. My research covers the partnership of environmentalism and social media, as well as how effective the communication techniques used by environmental influencers are proven to be through a synthesis of TikTok videos and the observation of those who engage in said TikTok videos.

Thesis advisor: Wen Fan / Over the past summer, China has intensified its anti-corruption efforts in the healthcare sector to improve access, quality, and the negative public perception of the system. In order to understand the effectiveness of these measures, public opinions are crucial. This study examines the effect of social media posts on pre-existing public opinion about the healthcare system, specifically anti-corruption incidents. I sampled 3018 comments from four posts reporting medical anti-corruption incidents on the Chinese social media site Weibo. Results from sentiment analyses indicate a generally positive, but weak level of support for the anti-corruption measures, implying latent doubt about the measures and the healthcare system. Additionally, nearly 31.12% of the comments have an emotional score of zero. This score indicates that respondents either don't have an opinion or think the measures have no effect at all. The study emphasizes the influence of social media on public sentiment towards the medical system in China’s specific socio-political system. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology. / Discipline: Departmental Honors.

21st century political science has seen a growing field of research focused around the idea of political polarization. While authors like Fiorina and Abramowitz have been debating the existence of such polarization, the literature has come to understand that perhaps the root of the issue lies in differing definitions. The never-ending quest for clarity has produced a variety of measures of polarization and, subsequently, theories on why 21st century Americans may be experiencing such polarization. Unsurprisingly, as political science questions what may be causing various trends in 21st century voter behaviors and attitudes, the Internet is often mentioned. With the Internet being a clearly powerful tool for political mobilization, whether or not it is divisive among the public could have politically consequential implications. Because of its interactive nature, it is difficult to evaluate a person's social media use. This study uses a unique survey to evaluate a respondent's general social media and internet use, as well as measures of political polarization. Using this information, along with analysis of the 2016 ANES, I am able to make associations of various levels of social media activity and political polarization. Using means comparison and multivariate regression, I am able to evaluate social media use controlling for effects of age and other confounding variables and how it relates to measures of political polarization. The survey results ultimately provide some evidence for the claim that increasing social media use is associated with higher levels of political polarization. Additionally, in an OLS regression model testing the effects of different sources of political news, increases in internet use are highly correlated with an increase in political polarization. / Master of Arts / Since the 2016 US Presidential election, there have been increasing concerns over how divided the country is getting. Part of the reason why people feel so polarized is likely being exaggerated by social media and breaking news headlines. While Americans may be closer on the issues than they care to believe, the perception of a divided country may be just as consequential. It is difficult to say to what degree our country is truly polarized, if at all. What we can be sure of is that political activists are able to be heard much louder given the platform of the internet. What motivates people to spend hours of their day scrolling through platforms like Facebook is an individual preference, but it is clear that these companies can directly profit from click-bait news headlines. In order to explore the degree to which different groups are polarized in America, I used an online survey asking respondents about their internet use and political leanings. Using this information, I am able to see what associations might exist between things such as amount of time spent on social media per day and how committed one is to their ideology. These measures themselves are widely debated in political science, so the study also aims to examine in what ways different measures of polarization may be used effectively. The results of the study do find some evidence that increased social media use is correlated with an increase in political polarization. However, other measures of political activity on the internet are seen to be highly correlated with an increase in political polarization.

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Background: Social media is connecting billions of people from across the globe by fulfilling basic human needs of socializing and getting entertained. While companies are now actively turning to social media to know their customers better, build strong relationships, and spread marketing messages, many are still struggling to figure out what corporate social media content actually works on social media. Purpose: This research aims to understand what type of corporate social media content generates the most consumer response. Methodology: This study employs content analysis of recent social media posts by a selection of top brands in Sweden on two main social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter. A total of ten brands with origin from Sweden were selected, based on 2015 Swedish Brand Award ranking, and their posts were examined to find out influence of corporate social media content on consumer response. A total of 400 posts were examined on verified Twitter profiles and Facebook Pages of these brands. Findings: Type of content which refers to whether the post has image, video, or text-only content, and content orientation which can be task-oriented, self-oriented, or interaction-oriented have a statistically significant relationship with consumer response. In terms of type of content, posts with video and image content can lead to higher consumer response and in terms of content orientation task-oriented content can lead to higher consumer response. Other variables in the study, namely, communication cues, traceability cues, and time-frame have not emerged as significant in this study. Implications: When developing corporate social media content, it’s important to focus on type of content and content orientation. In terms of type of content, managers need to focus on having video and image content as this could lead to higher consumer response and in terms of content orientation, content related to brand / product / promotion (task-oriented) can lead to higher consumer response. Limitations: The study relies only on two main social media platforms and on the last 20 posts of each brand on each of these platforms and doesn’t take into account any seasonality as a full year period has not been studied. The study also relies on a general brand ranking list based in Sweden and not a ranking of brands on social media space. Further Research Suggestions: Future studies could focus on bringing more social media platforms into inquiry, improving sampling robustness by having a larger sample size and broader coverage of time period to account for any seasonality in data, comparing results between different countries, having a broader mix of brands in terms of type of business area or sector or stage of brand development, and blending together the corporate and consumer perspectives. Finally, to account for platform size differences, researchers need to come up with a measure that controls for this variation across platforms. Keywords: Social Media Content, Social Media Platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Communication

Der Forschungsbericht enthält studentische Arbeiten zu Analysemethoden, Anwendungsfällen und Technologien des Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Die einzelnen Beiträge betrachten das Konzept eines integrierten Social CRM aus verschiedenen Perspektiven und anhand konkreter Beispiele. Grundlage des Forschungsberichts sind Ergebnisse aus zurückliegenden Forschungsprojekten des Instituts für Wirtschaftsinformatik und des Seminars Enterprise Systems 2 an der Universität Leipzig.

Der Forschungsbericht stellt anhand einer Fallstudie mit dem Unternehmen Spreadshirt die Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Social CRM vor. Es werden die genutzten Social Media, unterstützten CRM Prozesse und eingesetzten Technologien vorgestellt und aus der Perspektive des integrierten Social CRM vorgestellt.