What articles in Social Media + Society are getting read & cited? The top 10.

Social Media + Society is an open-access journal. That means readers may or may not be associated with academic institutions where they could access a library database. SMS readers can come from anywhere, and download articles without signing in or subscribing.

Learn more about the journal, including tips for researchers interested in submitting articles! See this Methodspace interview with the editor of Social Media + Society, Zizi Papacharissi PhD.

SMS offers three ways to identify the articles that mattered to readers: most read, most cited, and trending on Altmetric. Altmetrics reflect a broad range of online engagement with the article on blogs, media and social media, or reference managers. Altmetrics “can tell you a lot about how often journal articles and other scholarly outputs like datasets are discussed and used around the world.”

5 Most read articles in the last 6 months, listed in order of downloads:

The articles in this collection had between 19,525 and 80,085 views and downloads.

Jiang, S., & Ngien, A. (2020). The Effects of Instagram Use, Social Comparison, and Self-Esteem on Social Anxiety: A Survey Study in Singapore. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120912488

Abstract. Social media have been growing rapidly during the past decade. However, it remains unclear whether social media make people more emotionally healthy or less. This study aims to explore the effect of Instagram use on individuals’ social anxiety. With a general basis of the three-stage model of interactive media use for health promotion, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey study (N = 388) in the context of Singapore and empirically tested a mediation pathway linking Instagram use to social anxiety. The results indicated that Instagram use did not directly increase social anxiety. Instead, social comparison, a proximal outcome, and self-esteem, an intermediate outcome played mediating roles, supporting the complete mediation effects. This finding provides important theoretical and practical implications for the design of health campaigns and education in this digital era to enhance the positive effect of social media on health and emotional well-being.

Nguyen, M. H., Gruber, J., Fuchs, J., Marler, W., Hunsaker, A., & Hargittai, E. (2020). Changes in Digital Communication During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic: Implications for Digital Inequality and Future Research. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120948255

Abstract. Governments and public health institutions across the globe have set social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. With reduced opportunities to spend time together in person come new challenges to remain socially connected. This essay addresses how the pandemic has changed people’s use of digital communication methods, and how inequalities in the use of these methods may arise. We draw on data collected from 1,374 American adults between 4 and 8 April 2020, about two weeks after lockdown measures were introduced in various parts of the United States. We first address whether people changed their digital media use to reach out to friends and family, looking into voice calls, video calls, text messaging, social media, and online games. Then, we show how age, gender, living alone, concerns about Internet access, and Internet skills relate to changes in social contact during the pandemic. We discuss how the use of digital media for social connection during a global public health crisis may be unequally distributed among citizens and may continue to shape inequalities even after the pandemic is over. Such insights are important considering the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s social wellbeing. We also discuss how changes in digital media use might outlast the pandemic, and what this means for future communication and media research.

Davis, S. E. (2018). Objectification, Sexualization, and Misrepresentation: Social Media and the College Experience. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118786727

Abstract. Social media use can have major impacts on one’s construction of identity, sexuality, and gender. However, some social media sites exhibit problematic and prejudiced themes through their photo and video posts. This paper examines two Instagram sites specifically targeting traditionally college-aged individuals. These sites have tens of thousands of followers, post frequently, and solely focus on highlighting the college experience. Through a textual analysis of these two sites, problematic themes emerged, including objectification of female college students, submissiveness of female college students, and emphasis on a young white college experience. These themes are detailed and explored, followed by a discussion on their potential impacts on broader societal structures and ideas for education on gendered prejudices in the media.

Mundt, M., Ross, K., & Burnett, C. M. (2018). Scaling Social Movements Through Social Media: The Case of Black Lives Matter. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118807911

Abstract. In this article, we explore the potential role of social media in helping movements expand and/or strengthen themselves internally, processes we refer to as scaling up. Drawing on a case study of Black Lives Matter (BLM) that includes both analysis of public social media accounts and interviews with BLM groups, we highlight possibilities created by social media for building connections, mobilizing participants and tangible resources, coalition building, and amplifying alternative narratives. We also discuss challenges and risks associated with using social media as a platform for scaling up. Our analysis suggests that while benefits of social media use outweigh its risks, careful management of online media platforms is necessary to mitigate concrete, physical risks that social media can create for activists.

Plaisime, M., Robertson-James, C., Mejia, L., Núñez, A., Wolf, J., & Reels, S. (2020). Social Media and Teens: A Needs Assessment Exploring the Potential Role of Social Media in Promoting Health. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119886025

Abstract. Social media use is widespread in teens. But, few studies have developed recommendations on how social media can be used to promote teen health. The Philadelphia Ujima™ Coalition funded by the Office on Women’s Health conducted a needs assessment to explore social media as a health communication tool. This study aimed to identify (1) social media utilization practices, (2) strategies to effectively engage teens on social media, and (3) recommendations for teen health promotion on social media.

3 Most cited articles in the last 3 years, listed in order of citations:

Ernst, N., Blassnig, S., Engesser, S., Büchel, F., & Esser, F. (2019). Populists Prefer Social Media Over Talk Shows: An Analysis of Populist Messages and Stylistic Elements Across Six Countries. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118823358

Abstract. For studying populism in a hybrid and high-choice media environment, the comparison of various media channels is especially instructive. We argue that populism-related communication is a combination of key messages (content) and certain stylistic devices (form), and we compare their utilization by a broad range of political actors on Facebook, Twitter, and televised talk shows across six countries (CH, DE, FR, IT, UK, and US). We conducted a content analysis of social media and talk show statements (N = 2067) from 31 parties during a nonelection period of 3 months in 2015. We place special emphasis on stylistic devices and find that they can be grouped into three dimensions—equivalent to three dimensions used for populist key messages. We further find that political parties are generally more inclined to use populism-related communication on Facebook and Twitter than in political talk shows and that both new challenger parties and extreme parties use higher amounts of populist key messages and style elements.

Nguyen, M. H., Gruber, J., Fuchs, J., Marler, W., Hunsaker, A., & Hargittai, E. (2020). Changes in Digital Communication During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic: Implications for Digital Inequality and Future Research. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120948255

Abstract. Governments and public health institutions across the globe have set social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. With reduced opportunities to spend time together in person come new challenges to remain socially connected. This essay addresses how the pandemic has changed people’s use of digital communication methods, and how inequalities in the use of these methods may arise. We draw on data collected from 1,374 American adults between 4 and 8 April 2020, about two weeks after lockdown measures were introduced in various parts of the United States. We first address whether people changed their digital media use to reach out to friends and family, looking into voice calls, video calls, text messaging, social media, and online games. Then, we show how age, gender, living alone, concerns about Internet access, and Internet skills relate to changes in social contact during the pandemic. We discuss how the use of digital media for social connection during a global public health crisis may be unequally distributed among citizens and may continue to shape inequalities even after the pandemic is over. Such insights are important considering the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s social wellbeing. We also discuss how changes in digital media use might outlast the pandemic, and what this means for future communication and media research.

Matias, J. N. (2019). The Civic Labor of Volunteer Moderators Online. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119836778

Abstract. Volunteer moderators create, support, and control public discourse for millions of people online, even as moderators’ uncompensated labor upholds platform funding models. What is the meaning of this work and who is it for? In this article, I examine the meanings of volunteer moderation on the social news platform reddit. Scholarship on volunteer moderation has viewed this work separately as digital labor for platforms, civic participation in communities, or oligarchy among other moderators. In mixed-methods research sampled from over 52,000 subreddit communities and in over a dozen interviews, I show how moderators adopt all of these frames as they develop and re-develop everyday meanings of moderation—facing the platform, their communities, and other moderators alike. I also show how this civic notion of digital labor brings clarity to a strike by moderators in July 2015. Volunteer governance remains a common approach to managing social relations, conflict, and civil liberties online. Our ability to see how communities negotiate the meaning of moderation will shape our capacity to address digital governance as a society.

2 Most mentioned articles in the last 3 months on altmetrics:

Hopke, J. E., & Hestres, L. E. (2018). Visualizing the Paris Climate Talks on Twitter: Media and Climate Stakeholder Visual Social Media During COP21. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118782687

Abstract. In 2015, meeting in Paris for the Conference of the Parties (COP21), representatives of 195 nations set an ambitious goal to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by mid-century. This research uses the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which took place in Paris during 30 November to 11 December 2015, as a case study of Twitter coverage of the talks by mainstream and alternative media outlets and other climate stakeholders, including activists and fossil fuel industry groups. It compares the British Guardian with other media and climate stakeholders’ visual framing of climate change on Twitter during COP21, because the publication had launched an advocacy campaign in March 2015 promoting fossil fuel divestment in the lead-up to COP21. Findings show that individual activists and movement organizations functioned similarly in climate change visual framing in Twitter posts, as did individual and organizational multinational representatives and scientific experts. The news media categories varied by type of news organization. The major outliers were the fossil fuel industry and trade association accounts. Industry stakeholders largely focused on former US President Barack Obama’s climate policy, promoting the perception of a lack of domestic support for his climate policies in their visual Twitter postings.

Goodwin, I., Griffin, C., Lyons, A., McCreanor, T., & Moewaka Barnes, H. (2016). Precarious Popularity: Facebook Drinking Photos, the Attention Economy, and the Regime of the Branded Self. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116628889

Abstract. Young people are often accused of being foolhardy for posting photos on Facebook that depict drinking and intoxication. However, in this article, we argue young people’s predilection for posting Facebook drinking photos must be understood in relation to Facebook’s specific architecture and affordances, and is symptomatic of new forms of online sociality and “required” aspects of identity work which are tied to imperatives for self-promotion in the current conjuncture. Focusing on young people’s own accounts of Facebook drinking displays derived from 24 focus groups in Aotearoa New Zealand, we develop an interpretative thematic analysis which suggests drinking photos facilitate valued forms of “amplified,” “authentic” sociality, visibility, and popularity. Our analysis highlights young people as negotiating forms of social connection and precarious popularity online in an active effort to navigate the risks and opportunities associated with drinking as a site of pleasure, leisure, and self-display. However, their experiences remain differentiated and entail the uneven distribution of risks and opportunities due to elided structural power relations. Moreover, while individuating imperatives for self-promotion are in one sense unavoidable, they are also contested through forms of evasion, resistance, and broader struggles for value linked to articulations of alternate senses of selfhood.