How social media groups influence people Flashcards
How many monthly active users does Facebook now have?
Over 2 billion.
How many hours do people spend browsing the web each day, on average? What is the change like since 2012?
2 hours, an increase of about 45 minutes since 2012.
How many social network accounts does a person have, on average?
Five.
List several benefits that social media groups typically offer their members.
- A means of disseminating information quickly and cheaply directly to relevant peers.
- A single repository for information relevant to the group’s needs.
- A private, exclusive space to communicate within.
List seven theories that attempt to explain group interaction over social media.
- Agenda setting theory.
- Cultivation analysis.
- Social information processing theory.
- Amplification hypothesis.
- Media richness theory.
- De-individuation theory.
- Spiral of silence theory.
Which topics were deemed ‘very important’ by registered voters in the US during 2016?
The economy, terrorism, and foreign policy.
What does the Theory of Agenda Setting conjecture? What evidence is used to support this?
That the media influence public perception of reality through the topics they choose to report on. Terrorism in the US is an example of this - the topic is heavily reported, and voters indicate that they feel it is an important topic, although few terrorist attacks actually take place in the States.
What is cultivation theory?
That a person’s behaviour will tend towards what they consistently observe in the media.
Draw a diagram representing Social Information Processing Theory.
Sender (selective representation) -> Receiver (idealised perception) -> Channel (communication control) -> Feedback (Receiver indicates desired sender attributes, sender refines behaviours accordingly)
What is the Amplification Hypothesis?
That an argument presented with confidence is perceived to be stronger than the same argument presented timidly.
What is Media Richness Theory? What does it suggest in the context of social media?
Media Richness Theory is a framework for describing how expressive a given form of communication is. When applied to social media, the Theory might suggest that a given platform’s communication interface (e.g. text, emojis) might not permit users to express themselves accurately to one another in some contexts, possibly because immediate feedback is absent.
Explain how de-individuation takes place in a group.
The group’s size initiates social arousal and physical anonymity, which respectively lead to a decreased sense of self-awareness and personal responsibility. These effects constitute de-individuation.
How might de-individuation affect a person’s behaviours?
They may become more responsive to situational cues, and lose their typical inhibitions.
What is the Spiral of Silence Theory?
That groups tend to suppress the broadcast of minority opinions, because minorities fear isolation. Lack of airtime means that minority opinions will tend to disappear, since people can only be influenced by the dominant opinion.
What was the Emergency Law in Egypt?
A law enacted in 1967 after the Sixty-Day war that prevented political demonstrations and unsanctioned political parties.
