Expanding third-person effect (TPE) research to digital disinformation, this article investigates the impact of COVID-19 digital fake news exposure on individuals' perceived susceptibility of influence on themselves, their close others, and their distant others. Findings from a survey of 511 Chinese respondents suggest that, overall, individuals would perceive themselves to be less vulnerable than close others and distant others to the impact of COVID-19 digital disinformation. The highest self-other perceptual discrepancy is found when individuals receive disinformation on mobile social networking apps. Also, individuals who practice more active fact-checking perceive themselves to be less susceptible. The perception of disinformation effects on self as well as the self-other perceptual discrepancy is both positively related to emotional responses (anxiety, fear, and worry) to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study contributes to existing research by linking exposure to disinformation in different digital channels, the TPEs, and emotional outcomes in the context of a public health crisis. It also highlights the importance of educating and enabling factchecking behaviors on digital media, which could help to reduce negative emotional impact of the disinformation.
Purpose To better understand executive communication on social media, the purpose of this paper is to examine the pattern of messages posted by chief executive officers (CEOs) on Twitter and their retweetability (rate of reposting by other users). Design/methodology/approach The study data comprises 1,068 original tweets randomly selected from all Fortune 1000 CEOs’ tweets in 2014. The impact of the contextual factors (industry background, activeness, and Twitter age) and content factors (content types, supplementary information, and linguistic features) on retweetability was examined through regression analyses. Findings CEOs tweet to share information and insights, to promote their companies or products, to update work or life status, and to interact with the public. Original insights, promotional messages, and seasonal greetings were most likely to be retweeted. CEOs’ backgrounds, usage of hashtags, and certainty of language were also positively associated with retweetability. Practical implications CEOs may enhance their online social influence through demonstrating leadership by sharing insights about their organization or industry and posting topical messages (e.g. season’s greetings). Furthermore, CEOs could use hashtags strategically to initiate or participate in discussions and promote their personal visibility. Originality/value This study is one of the first to evaluate how leaders of the largest companies in the USA communicate on Twitter. It contributes to a theoretical understanding of the factors underlying online influence – the influence of the status of the online communicator vs the message content on information forwarding.
Narcissism has been shown to have a positive and significant impact on uses of microblog services and features for self-presentation (SP). Little is known with regard to whether and how narcissism and valence of online SP could jointly influence the gratifications of microblog uses. This study explores how narcissism influences the uses and gratifications of Weibo via positive and negative SP. Results from a survey of Weibo users in China suggest that narcissism generates positive effect on both gratification sought (GS) and gratification obtained (GO). GS fully mediates the effect of narcissism on GO. Moreover, positive SP plays a mediating role between GS and GO, while negative SP does not. The mediation mechanisms within narcissism, the valence of SP, GS, and GO suggest that differentiating the gratification processes could help us better understand uses and gratification of microblog services.
Due to separation from their families and friends in their home countries and constrained living conditions in the host countries, migrant workers usually are found to experience loneliness. Compared with male migrant workers, female migrant workers are more vulnerable and likely to experience higher levels of psychological problems. The ubiquity of mobile phones enables migrant workers to access resources and social support to help to alleviate loneliness. However, research also suggests that mobile phone use may lead to a higher level of loneliness because problematic or excessive use displaces meaningful social interactions. This study investigates this mobile phone paradox among Filipino domestic workers (FDWs) in Hong Kong. Specifically, it explores the relationships between mobile phone use and two types of loneliness, namely social and emotional loneliness. Further, informed by the augmentation hypothesis and the displacement hypothesis, this research advances a two-path model to illustrate how mobile phone use connects with loneliness through social support and problematic mobile phone use. Findings from a survey of 492 FDWs reveal disjunctive effects. There is no direct correlation between mobile phone use and the two types of loneliness. Both problematic mobile phone use and social support are found to mediate the negative association between mobile phone use and social loneliness, while only problematic mobile phone use mediates the positive association between mobile phone use and emotional loneliness. Implications of the research on migrant workers’ mobile phone use and practical implications for social work and government efforts in helping FDWs dealing with loneliness are discussed.
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