Search Results (170)

This study examines how Generation Z’s digital practices on TikTok and Instagram shape their music festival experiences, focusing on event perception, engagement, and the development of collective identity. The aim is to identify key factors connecting online and offline aspects of festival participation. The research adopts a quantitative approach based on an online survey of 248 respondents born between 1995 and 2010 from various regions of Serbia. Data were analyzed in SPSS 26.0 using Spearman correlation, quantile regression, and the Mann–Whitney test. Given the exploratory nature of the study, the findings should be interpreted accordingly. Findings show that frequent social media use has a positive but limited effect on how important these platforms are perceived for the festival experience. However, user-generated content created by attendees plays a more significant role in shaping engagement and attitudes than influencer content. Influencer credibility also influences how festivals are interpreted digitally. The interplay between online interaction and offline participation motivates content sharing and reinforces a sense of community. Overall, the study concludes that social media and digital narratives are central to Generation Z’s festival experience. Authentic, attendee-created content strongly contributes to collective identity, helping bridge digital and physical dimensions—insights valuable for festival organizers, influencers, and cultural tourism. Full article

This study explores how young people in Finland and Portugal perceive media trust and vulnerability to information operations in the digital era. While both groups rely heavily on digital platforms for news, they view online sources as less reliable due to disinformation and fake news, especially on TikTok and Instagram. Trust and truth appear emotionally driven, with influencers and entertainment content often considered credible, increasing susceptibility to manipulation. Despite identifying as ‘digital natives’, participants rarely question source credibility or algorithmic influence, leaving them exposed to adversarial actors, such as Russia. Full article

Research on Instagram addiction (IA) has examined a range of psychological and socio-relational factors to explain the addiction, including personality traits, self-esteem, mental health, social approval, and fear of missing out (FoMO), among others. However, no study has integrated both social influence processes (subjective norms, group norms, and social identity) and meaningful relationships (attachment, dyadic, and friendship ties) with FoMO in relation to IA. This study examined the interplay among social influence processes, meaningful relationships, and FoMO on IA, as well as the moderating roles of subjective and group norms on the indirect effect of anxious attachment on IA via FoMO. The sample consisted of 180 Italian young adults (aged 18–30) who completed validated questionnaires on IA, social influence, relationships, and FoMO after providing consent. Social media use was also explored through an open-ended question. Results indicate that FoMO, social and group norms, and group identification significantly contribute to IA. Anxious attachment had a significant indirect effect on IA via FoMO, with subjective and group norms moderating this association. Qualitative analysis of open-ended responses enriched the understanding of young adults’ social media use. These findings highlight the importance of social influence, relationships, and FoMO in young adults’ Instagram engagement and suggest directions for addressing problematic use in this group. Full article

Influencer marketing practice predominantly favors same-niche partnerships; however, industry evidence suggests that unconventional pairings can sometimes outperform traditional matches, highlighting a knowledge gap regarding how collaboration structure influences consumer response. Drawing on Optimal Distinctiveness Theory, this research examines whether cross-niche collaborations enhance brand evaluations by fulfilling concurrent desires for inclusion and differentiation. Four controlled experiments (total N = 1482) employing Instagram-style stimuli and behavioral intention measures compare same- versus cross-niche alliances while manipulating or measuring consumers’ need for uniqueness and category expertise. Across studies, cross-niche (versus same-niche) collaborations consistently improve brand attitude, an effect fully mediated by heightened perceptions of brand innovation. Moderation analyses reveal that this indirect effect is amplified among consumers high in need for uniqueness but attenuated—and in some cases reversed—among category experts, who tend to prefer the depth signaled by same-niche partnerships. Alternative explanations, including curiosity, source credibility, and message liking, are empirically ruled out. These findings extend Optimal Distinctiveness Theory to influencer branding by identifying collaboration type as a market-level cue signaling innovation while refining influencer effectiveness models through a dual-contingency framework that incorporates motivational and knowledge-based audience factors. From a managerial perspective, the results suggest deploying cross-niche alliances when targeting novelty-seeking or novice segments while preserving niche purity or offering technical justification when addressing expert consumers, thereby aligning collaboration strategies with audience composition. Full article

Short-form video platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have become influential social commerce and interactive marketing tools, shaping consumer attitudes and behaviors beyond the digital environment. This study examines how short-form video content affects consumers’ intention to visit destination retail stores by integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) with the constructs of perceived usefulness, curiosity, and envy. Data from 423 Gen Z and Millennial consumers were collected through an online survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that perceived usefulness, curiosity, and envy significantly influence attitudes toward short-form video content, which subsequently drive intentions to visit destination retailers. Social influence also emerged as a stronger predictor of behavioral intention than practical barriers such as cost or accessibility, underscoring the importance of peer validation in motivating digital-to-physical consumer behavior. This study advances electronic commerce research by extending TPB to short-form video marketing and identifying key emotional and cognitive triggers that facilitate consumer engagement. Practically, the results highlight strategies for retailers to develop video campaigns that spark curiosity, evoke aspirational emotions, and leverage social endorsement. More broadly, the study demonstrates how short-form video platforms operate as interactive ecosystems that merge emotional engagement, social validation, and technological affordances to shape hybrid consumer journeys from digital exposure to in-store action. Full article

Social media has become a dominant channel for food marketing, particularly targeting youth through visually engaging and socially embedded content. This study investigates how young adults visually engage with food advertisements on social media and how specific visual and contextual features influence purchase intention. Using eye-tracking technology and survey analysis, data were collected from 35 participants aged 18 to 25. Participants viewed simulated Instagram posts incorporating elements such as food imagery, branding, influencer presence, and social cues. Visual attention was recorded using Tobii Pro Spectrum, and behavioral responses were assessed via post-surveys. A 2 × 2 design varying influencer presence and food type showed that both features significantly increased visual attention. Marketing cues and branding also attracted substantial visual attention. Linear regression revealed that core/non-core content and influencer features were among the strongest predictors of consumer response. The findings underscore the persuasive power of human and social features in digital food advertising. These insights have implications for commercial marketing practices and for understanding how visual and social elements influence youth engagement with food content on digital platforms. Full article

The increasing use of social media by religious organizations has opened new spaces for the construction of institutional identity. While there is a growing body of research on how churches use social media platforms, the visual practices of these institutions remain understudied. This article examines the visual social media practices of local Free Churches in Sweden, focusing on their visual self-representation and the logics behind the construction of these public narratives. The study shows that these visual practices are often shaped by practical constraints and legal–ethical cautiousness, rather than by media logic. Hence, rather than evidencing a mode of communication strongly influenced by “the agency of media” these visual practices reflect what I term bounded mediation. The study further demonstrates that this bounded mediation leads local Free Churches to depict themselves on social media in ways that simplify, and sometimes distort, their theological identity. The analysis is based on data from nine local Free Churches’ Instagram accounts and interviews with individuals responsible for managing social media in 24 congregations across Sweden. Theoretically, the study draws on mediatization theory and Stuart Hall’s theory of representation. Full article

Social media has developed into a leading advertising platform, with Instagram likes serving as visual cues that may influence consumer perception and behavior. The present study investigated the effect of Instagram likes on visual attention, memory, and food evaluations focusing on traditional Greek food posts, using eye-tracking technology. The study assessed whether a higher number of likes increased attention to the food area, enhanced memory recall of food names, and influenced subjective ratings (liking, perceived tastiness, and intention to taste). The results demonstrated no significant differences in overall viewing time, memory performance, or evaluation ratings between high-like and low-like conditions. Although not statistically significant, descriptive trends suggested that posts with a higher number of likes tended to be evaluated more positively and the AOIs likes area showed a trend towards attracting more visual attention. The observed trends point to a possible subtle role of likes in user’s engagement with food posts, influencing how they process and evaluate such content. These findings add to the discussion about the effect of social media likes on information processing when individuals observe food pictures on social media. Full article

With billions of users worldwide, social media has become a powerful force in shaping lifestyle behaviors, including physical activity (PA), particularly among young adults. This narrative review examined the growing role of social media–driven interventions in promoting PA among young adults at risk of obesity. We analyzed the application of behavior change theories, including Social Cognitive Theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior, the COM-B, and specific behavior change techniques, alongside the role of intersectionality in shaping intervention effectiveness. Platform-specific strategies across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook were summarized, highlighting engagement mechanisms, personalized content delivery, and behavior change approaches that influence behavioral, physiological, and motivational outcomes. Despite these opportunities, challenges such as ethical concerns, misinformation, accessibility barriers, and quality control issues remained significant. Finally, future directions were outlined, including integration with wearables, AI-driven multi-platform strategies, co-designed interventions, and policy frameworks to optimize digital health promotion. In conclusion, social media offers considerable potential as a cost-effective, accessible tool for promoting PA and preventing obesity in young adults, though effectiveness is limited by misinformation, unregulated content, and poor quality control. Full article

As social media became essential for communication, organizations collected vast data from platforms like Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, and LinkedIn. However, turning this data into actionable insights for strategic decision-making was often inconsistent. This study explored ways to enhance social media reporting to improve strategic outcomes. Through literature review and expert interviews, it identified challenges such as misaligned metrics, low data literacy, siloed departments, and limited integration of insights into planning. Despite investments in dashboards and analytics tools, these resources were often underused due to interpretive gaps and a focus on vanity metrics. The findings highlighted the importance of aligning social media KPIs with organizational goals, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and enhancing interpretive capabilities among staff and executives. Importantly, the study also underscored the broader public value of effective social media reporting, particularly in the public sector, where data-driven communication enhanced transparency, responsiveness, and citizen trust. This research contributed to the growing discourse on data-driven strategy by emphasizing not only the technical and analytical dimensions, but also the often-overlooked human, organizational, and public value factors that influenced the real-world effectiveness of social media reporting. Full article

Selfies of nurses and healthcare workers (HCWs) with painful personal protective equipment (PPE) injuries posted to social media provided early warning of the global PPE shortage impact during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aim to describe contextual factors associated with these injuries and describe factors that influenced posting on social media. A social media ethnographic study used purposeful sampling of Instagram posts (selfies/text) from March–October 2020 (170 posts; 26 countries). Posts were coded using focused content analysis to identify contextual factors. Data were reduced to understand and interpret the “essence” of the posts and discern themes. Themes included the following: (1) grueling shifts filled with unimaginable loss; (2) faces forever marked by the physical and emotional scars of COVID-19; (3) the COVID-19 battlefront; (4) dire and unprecedented PPE shortages; (5) pervasive fear (for self, colleagues, and family); (6) extreme emotional and physical consequences; (7) creating a collective voice. Examining injuries within the context of the nurses’/HCWs’ experiences provided new insights into the emotional scars, pervasive fears, and extreme emotional and physical consequences. An urgent need exists to address these harms and facilitate recovery. Before addressing emergency preparedness for the next pandemic event, psychosocial support is needed to address the harms incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it is critical to understand past experiences to truly prepare for future pandemics. Full article

The global creator economy has generated standardised monetisation strategies, yet their effectiveness varies significantly across regional contexts. This study examines how South African student influencers adapt global monetisation approaches to local market conditions on TikTok and Instagram. Using a mixed-methods approach, we collected data from 20 student influencers (aged 18–28, 1000–50,000 followers) through structured surveys and thematic coding of social media content across diverse categories including beauty, lifestyle, and gaming. Our findings reveal three key adaptation patterns: (1) Strategic localisation—influencers modify brand partnership approaches to align with local business practices and payment capabilities; (2) Platform arbitrage—creators leverage platform-specific features differently than global best practices due to regional access limitations, particularly TikTok’s creator fund restrictions; and (3) Resource-constrained innovation—student influencers develop alternative monetisation methods, including direct product sales and educational content, to overcome socio-economic barriers. Beauty influencers demonstrate the highest adaptation success with brand sponsorships (35% of participants), whilst micro-influencers pivot towards affiliate marketing and entrepreneurial ventures. The study contributes to platform economy literature by demonstrating that successful monetisation requires strategic adaptation rather than direct replication of global models. These findings offer practical insights for creators in emerging markets and platform developers seeking to support regional creator economies. The research highlights the need for context-sensitive approaches to digital entrepreneurship in the Global South. Full article

Instagram is a hugely popular social media site; however, it has also been cited in many times as being a source of low self-esteem, unhappiness, and body dissatisfaction. Despite this, there is potential to use Instagram as a self-care delivery system and create positive changes in users’ mental health by showing them a specific type of image. In this paper, we use Stress Reduction Theory to demonstrate that viewing images of nature on Instagram can improve well-being (H1), by increasing feelings of connectedness with nature (H2). Furthermore, we posit this same influence will elicit more altruistic behaviour from users (H3). In a laboratory experiment, participants accessed images using either the #naturephotography hashtag, or a control hashtag (#bookshelves). Analyses showed that, in line with the proposed positive effects of SRT, viewing natural images improved well-being and positive emotions, and this was at least partially mediated by increased connectedness to nature. Future studies that use a more longitudinal approach, and examine how images can be presented within a more robust psychiatric intervention are then discussed. Full article

The growing influence of social media on political processes extends beyond electoral campaigns and is rapidly transforming the communication practices of incumbent leaders. We address the gap between populist practices in electoral marketing and the implementation of the Ecuadorian president’s discursive strategies from a geopolitical perspective, with a special focus on the use of two platforms: Instagram and TikTok. While existing scholarship has generally analyzed populist discourse on social media, this article applies theoretical and methodological tools to analyze the grammar of war and the performative strategies used to build leadership in contexts of high social unrest. Grounded in contemporary perspectives. This article reveals how populist leaders mobilize emotions through narratives on digital platforms to frame political crises. Using qualitative critical discourse analysis with multimodal and semiotic tools, we examined 156 posts from the official TikTok and Instagram accounts of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, published between January and July 2024. The findings highlight the strategic use of patriotic symbolism, personalization, and emotional appeals to legitimize executive actions and disseminate polarizing narratives. The proposed framework demonstrates how social media communication simplifies complex crisis scenarios into affect-laden “good versus evil” narratives. This model is transferable to other geopolitical and digital contexts, offering both conceptual and methodological tools for analyzing conflict-driven political communication. Full article

Background: Evidence suggests that the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated changes have negatively influenced breastfeeding practices. Considering that breastfeeding women are already known to be more vulnerable in terms of emotional status, the aim of our study was to evaluate the experiences and concerns of breastfeeding women in Romania during the pandemic. Also, we tried to identify the most effective measures for mitigating the negative impacts. Methods: A 46-item questionnaire was developed for data collection and it was shared on Facebook and Instagram, with networks of women who breastfed during the pandemic and with obstetric communities. Our cross-sectional survey recruited 261 Romanian breastfeeding women. Among general questions about basic demographic information and details about changes experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey included questions about their breastfeeding experiences during the pandemic, whether they had contracted SARS-CoV-2 while breastfeeding, their concerns, and their overall perceptions of the period. Results: In our study, we observed that women who breastfed during the pandemic—especially those who had contracted SARS-CoV-2—experienced significant fear that their newborns or children might become infected. These mothers also expressed deep concern for their own health and the wellbeing of their loved ones. The experience of contracting SARS-CoV-2 was a major source of psychological stress. Despite these challenges, the participants, especially women who contracted SARS-CoV2, reported a notably longer overall duration of breastfeeding and higher rates of exclusive breastfeeding. However, access to breastfeeding support during this period was generally limited. Conclusions: These findings highlight the negative impact of the pandemic on breastfeeding mothers and the adaptability of mothers under crisis conditions, emphasizing the need for improved support systems and targeted interventions to assist mothers during public health crises. Full article