Social
Media Persuasion
I chose to conduct research on social media persuasion
and from there modify an already existing theory to further strengthen the
theory as a whole. Research stated previously conducted studies and the final
results the authors concluded from them. The research was examined in terms of
Uses and Gratification Theory, which I later transformed into a new theory of
my own entitled Scavenger Hunt Theory.
The first article I referenced is entitled Social
Identity and Perceptions of Media Persuasion: Are We Always Less Influenced
than Others? This article
was written by Julie M. Duck, Michael A. Hogg, and Deborah J. Terry.
This article discusses how people typically perceive
negative media content, such as violence, to have more impact on others than on
themselves. The authors referred to this as being “third person effect” (Duck,
Hogg, & Terry, 1999). This article also examined the perceived effects of
positive content, such as, public-service advertisements and also the
moderating role of social identities amongst them (Duck, Hogg, & Terry,
1999). The authors examined students' perceptions of how they felt concerning
the impact of AIDS advertisements on self in a few different ways. “Low
identifiers displayed the typical third-person effect, whereas high identifiers
were more willing to acknowledge impact on themselves and the student in-group”
(Duck, Hogg, & Terry, 1999). The authors extended their research further
and concluded that when influence was “acceptable within the in-group, high
identifiers perceived self and students as more influenced
than nonstudents” (Duck, Hogg, & Terry). Overall, this article looks at
both negative and positive media content and draws conclusions from them.
This article by Duck, Hogg, and
Terry was very insightful and consisted of well-involved research; however, I
occasionally found the article hard to understand because of the word usage
considering I did not know the meaning of some of the words that the authors
chose to use. I liked how the article described that people are unique in their
own ways and some live by this whereas some other view themselves as primarily
being part of a group. This makes up one’s social identity in which is
influenced by the media and also social media. I have seen things like this
happen first hand, through experiences from high school. Some classmates were
so caught up in being a part of their groups and would tend to fade away from
what makes them a unique individual because of convention.
The next article I chose to
reference was entitled Political
Persuasion on Social Media: Tracing Direct and Indirect Effects of News Use and
Social Interaction. This article was written
by Trevor Diehl, Brian Weeks, and Homero Gil de Zúñiga. The author’s
collaboratively showed how expression of news media information throughout social
media sites has been “linked to pro-democratic political behaviors” throughout
their article (Diehl, Weeks, & Zúñiga, 2015). However, most people use
social media for non-political purposes; for example, staying connected with friends/family,
sharing pictures/videos, or to fill boredom by browsing news feeds. “The
authors indicate these behaviors may also have democratic benefits, by means of
political expression in social media” (Diehl, Weeks, & Zúñiga, 2015). The
study that they conducted, observed how social interaction and news-seeking
behaviors within social media sites lead to “diverse networking, exposure to
dissenting political opinion, and ultimately reconsidering and changing one’s
political views” (Diehl, Weeks, & Zúñiga, 2015). The study proved that most
users tend to build and maintain friend networks, which create a purposeful
space for political persuasion to take place driven by word-of-mouth.
This article was very informative and well-written. I
agree with the majority of points that they were attempting to prove throughout
their research and study. Observing people’s perceptions of news influence from
social media is very interesting to me, because that is a major topic of
discussion today, as social media is becoming increasingly popular amongst all different
age groups and businesses.
The last article I chose to reference is entitled, Authors Influencing Others to Follow: An
Analysis of a Social Media Platform through the Framework of Persuasion Theory.
This article was written by one author, named Philip Rothschild. He
discussed through a case study, how “authors can
use scientifically proven persuasion techniques to influence visitors to reply
to their online requests” (Rothschild, 2014). This idea comes from the author's
social media platform. The case study asked people to visit a social profile,
comment on a blog, provide a review, share a link, join the tribe, or buy a
book, and other things similar to the previous. The author defined social media
platform then examined some of the elements of a successful social media
platform. To conclude his research, he draws “conclusions on how these features
may influence a response to one of many requests” (Rothschild, 2014).
This article definitely kept my
interest and made me want to continue learning about this viewpoint of social
media. It was interesting that the persuasive techniques were actually
scientifically proven. I also like how Rothschild used things like blogs and reviews
in examining the case study. I do not personally have a lot of experience with
dealing with blogs or reviews through the use of social media; however, I found
that approach was very effective. Overall, I liked this author’s way of getting
his point across concerning the topic at hand.
This particular area of research regarding social media
and its influences on persuasion contains a variety of things that would be
evaluated into the future. I could see Snapchat being something that would
provide a future study. Snapchat could have the ability to influence
perceptions of trust; for example, when Snapchat had the top three “best
friends” viewable to all. The viewable “best friends” section raised many
problems among romantic relationships. This section would not seem like a big
deal to many, but it definitely caused issues and could be something that one
could form a study from. One could ask why Snapchat should have a “best friend”
feature and why it influenced or persuaded trust/distrust in relationships.
Another
future study could be a study based on how social interactions could differ in
regards to arguments of controversial subjects. One could conduct a study that
shows the difference of how one responds to a controversial post on social
media compared to how one responds to a controversial issue face-to-face. This
could be studied under spiral of silence theory to see if there is any trend in
theories concerning the different responses of individuals between the two
forms of communication.
A theory I would apply to my research would be Uses and
Gratification Theory, although I would modify this theory by adding a 5th
aspect to it and renaming it. The theory is already divided into 4 aspects,
surveillance, curiosity, diversion, and personal identity. I would rename this
theory by calling it Scavenger Hunt Theory. I would give it this name because
the theory explores all the possibilities of why one using social media,
similar to how things are explored throughout a scavenger hunt. I would create
the 5th aspect of the theory and call it F.O.D. which would stand
for fear of disconnect. The 5th aspect of the theory would mean
someone uses social media sites because they are concerned to a high degree
that they will feel disconnected from their friends/family. In other words,
they are afraid of feeling left out and they will feel this when their friends
make statements, such as, “did you see that video John posted last night?” Their other friends know what was meant by
that question because they have those social media sites when one person may
not. I came up with this idea through discussions I recall having with my
cousin last year. She had told me that she really wanted to delete her Facebook
because she hated the amount of time she spent on it, although, she stated that
she was scared to do this because all of her friends used it. She also stated
that since all of her friends had it, that she would feel like she was missing
out on everything; for example, missing out on hearing about certain events or
upcoming parties. I imagine that I would feel similarly if I were to delete my
social media accounts. I can see this being a common trend among high school or
college age kids, or even adults for similar reasons. A survey could be
conducted from social media users to prove how many people actually feel the
same way as my cousin did. This theory would be complete after this modification
and would cover all aspects of decisions people make regarding how often and
why people use their social media.
To conclude my findings, social media is an increasingly
popular thing among all ages and can affect almost everyone’s lives in today’s
society. I developed a new communication theory that I entitled the Scavenger
Hunt Theory, which covers all aspects of one’s social media use today and how
it relates to persuasion. I also developed a 5th aspect of this
theory entitled F.O.D. My research has given me a new way of viewing social
media persuasion and its overall effects.
References
Diehl, T., Weeks, B. E., & Gil de
Zuniga, H. (2015). Political Persuasion on Social Media: Tracing Direct and Indirect
Effects of News Use and Social Interaction. New Media &
Society, DOI: 10.1177/1461444815616224.
Duck, J. M., Hogg, M. A., &
Terry, D. J. (1999). Social Identity and Perceptions of Media Persuasion: Are
we always less influenced than others? Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 29(9), 1879-1899. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1999.tb00156.x.
Rothschild, P. C. (2014). Authors
Influencing Others to Follow: An Analysis of a Social Media Platform through
the Framework of Persuasion Theory. MEIEA Journal, 14(1), 251.
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