Using tweets posted with #SOPA and #PIPA hashtags and directed at members of Congress, we identify six strategies constituents employ when... Show moreUsing tweets posted with #SOPA and #PIPA hashtags and directed at members of Congress, we identify six strategies constituents employ when using Twitter to lobby their elected officials. In contrast to earlier research, we found that constituents do use Twitter to try to engage their officials and not just as a “soapbox” to express their opinions. Show less
Through analyzing data from posts and about users, we describe how one particular Facebook group helps immigrants to the U.S. use social media... Show moreThrough analyzing data from posts and about users, we describe how one particular Facebook group helps immigrants to the U.S. use social media to build a local community. As a preliminary study in intercultural communication through social media, we analyze one case, the Asian American Chicago Network (AACN) Facebook group, and uncover common topics users discuss and relationships between user tenure and various indicators of leadership and interaction. Our small finalized results from this preliminary project suggest that members of AACN likely use it (1) to build a professional network in the U.S.A., and (2) to reinforce and affirm their Asian culture and identities. Sponsorship: National Science Foundation Award Number 1525662 Rao, X., & Hemphill, L. (2016). Asian American Chicago Network: A Case Study of Facebook Group Use By Immigrant Groups. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Companion (pp. 381–384). New York, NY, USA: ACM. http://doi.org/10.1145/2818052.2869077 Show less
I used the motivation concept from activity theory to derive a fundamental notion of why workers at nonprofit organizations (NPOs) use social... Show moreI used the motivation concept from activity theory to derive a fundamental notion of why workers at nonprofit organizations (NPOs) use social media sites. This study rejects the notion that practitioners are not taking full advantage of social media sites by not using every available feature and engaging in dialogic communication. Existing work relies too extensively on the dialogic model of communication and frequently focuses on only top-tier NPOs, ignoring the context in which smaller NPOs operate and producing recommendations that are of little practical value. To investigate this issue, I reviewed existing best practices as portrayed in NPO social media strategy guides, and used the principles of activity theory to survey practitioners at human services NPOs in Chicago. I collected data on user motivation for using Facebook and Twitter by asking users to review past posts on these sites and describe their purpose in posting this information. Using this information, I trained an automated text classifier to classify a large corpus of posts based on four types of motivations: soliciting, promoting, sharing, and credit-giving. This dissertation builds off recent studies that question existing wisdom on “effective” use of social media by NPOs and argues for an expanded consideration of user agency and intent when using social media. Ph.D. in Technical Communication, May 2017 Show less
