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The purpose of this paper is to test the viability of the media relations framework, Mediating the Media model (Pang, 2010), and ascertains its relevance to practitioners in a changing media landscape in Singapore where social media is emerging as an alternative source of information tool.

In-depth interviews with 20 media relations practitioners who were former journalists. Practitioners with journalism experience were chosen as they perform better at media relations (Sallot and Johnson, 2006a; Sinaga and Callison, 2008).

The model posits two sets of influences, i.e. internal (journalist mindset, journalist routines and newsroom routines) and external (extra-media forces and media ideology) in media relations. Internal influences were found to be more prevalent than external influences and journalist mindset was the most pervasive factor influencing media relations.

Findings are based solely on interviews and some claims cannot be corroborated. As this is a qualitative study situated in one country, it is also not generalizable.

This study will serve useful insights for new practitioners to approach media relations in a holistic and systematic manner and for seasoned practitioners to re-evaluate their current media strategies.

This inaugural test found rigor in the model, and affords an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of journalist-practitioner relationships in a changing media landscape. It also presents an intriguing opportunity for the model to be applied to countries where the media industry operates under vastly different environments so as to ensure that the model stands up to scrutiny as it seeks to be positioned as a viable model for media relations.

Based on the importance of citizen participation and the collaborative potential of online social media tools, this study tests four proposed influences on administrators who are deciding whether or not to adopt these tools to engage citizens. A survey of 157 department managers from large U.S. cities shows that 82% report using some form of social media to engage citizens and that perceived organizational influences and administrator preconceptions have the strongest impact on the respondentsʼ decision to adopt social media. Possible explanations for the results are that the use of online social media in the public sector may be following a similar path of adoption as earlier forms of e-government or managers may be operating in a rational environment when deciding whether or not to adopt online social media tools.

Promotional media and gender have been shown to influence purchase and shopping channel choice. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the role of media influence, fashion consciousness, and fashion leadership on shopping channel choice in regard to gender.

A survey was administered using a convenience sample of male and female students at a Southwestern University in the USA. A total of 408 surveys were used for analysis. The data were factor analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical software and a structural equation model was developed to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that while the media influence factor of mass media positively influences fashion consciousness for both males and females, personalized media only indicated significant influence on male fashion leaders. In addition, both male and female consumers indicated that fashion leadership influenced non-traditional over traditional retail channels.

This research uses social cognitive theory and the theory of symbolic interaction to better understand the impact of media and fashion on shopping behavior. This paper addresses the changing media types and how they impact behavior for both men and women.

Reports on an empirical study of media decisions: the findings show, not unexpectedly, that advertising agencies with a separate media department use more information and carry out more detailed selection processes. Decides to consider some of the factors that may influence the choice of media and believes the type of insight this approach could give might be of benefit to the parties involved. Considers advertising to be an effective weapon in competition – it is they who bear the advertising costs. Sums up that it is reasonable to assume that better media choice can be achieved by taking account of the conditions to which attention is drawn.

Drawing upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the self-regulation framework, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether and how factors for social media continuance behaviors work differently between social networking sites and microblogging.

A survey method was used to collect two samples of 557 social networking sites users and 568 microblogging users. The proposed research model was tested with the structural equation modeling technique.

The empirical results demonstrate that the impacts of influencing factors on users’ continuance behaviors vary by types of social media services. Information sharing has a stronger impact on microblog users’ satisfaction than social network users while social interaction has a stronger impact on satisfaction for social network users than microblog users. In addition, interpersonal influence is more effective in shaping satisfaction for the social network users while media influence is more effective in shaping satisfaction for the microblog users.

This is one of the first studies that integrate TPB with Bagozzi’s self-regulation framework to understand the behavioral model of social networking and microblogging continuance. The findings show that the impacts of attitudinal beliefs regarding information sharing and social interaction on social media users’ satisfaction are different across social networking and microblogging contexts. Moreover, this study also reveals different effects of two specific subjective norms – interpersonal and media influence – on continued use of social networking and microblogging.

Digital intermediaries such as Google and Facebook are seen as the new powerbrokers in online news, controlling access to consumers and with the potential even to suppress and target messages to individuals. Academics, publishers and policymakers have raised concerns about the implications of this new power, from the impact on media plurality to implications for democratic discourse, freedom of speech and control over public opinion formation. After reviewing academic literature that has raised this concern and public policy addressing it, this paper aims to examine the empirical foundations for these claims. Through secondary analysis of industry data on referrals of online news traffic, the authors find that intermediaries do have the potential to exert significant influence over distribution of online news. The authors however find that not all news that is filtered through intermediary services is subject to the same shaping and editorial forces, in part, because user agency is also an important factor. The role of intermediaries in news distribution is thus complex; headline numbers do not translate automatically into influence due to the complex interplay and exchange between user agency and the editorial influence of intermediaries.

This paper is based mainly on a secondary analysis of publicly available data on news referrals, and some data provided by news publishers along with re-analysis of regulatory data from Ofcom and previously unpublished data from the BBC and SimilarWeb. These data sources are combined for the first time to investigate claims regarding the current controversy about media plurality, algorithmic power and transparency.

The paper finds that evidence that intermediaries wield concentrated editorial power is mixed. While other, non-intermediated news distribution platforms such as TV and the press remain highly important, online is heading towards being the most important distribution platform, particularly for younger demographics. The authors found that intermediaries such as search and social control access to a significant proportion of online news content. Not all use of intermediaries is indicative of online gatekeeping however. User agency also determines how content is prioritised and thus consumed. The news consumed is therefore a product of a complex interplay between user agency and intermediary influence. In contrast to traditional discussions of media power and its regulation (for example the notion of mass media plurality); it is thus not possible to make inferences on influence simply by noting the market share of intermediaries. The role of intermediaries is much more subtle and opaque.

This paper is mainly based on publicly available data. It is crucial to find out what is possible with such data as regulators with responsibility for monitoring and regulating media plurality are similarly limited to such data. The implications are that further research with a wide range of methods and data sources will be necessary to update research on media plurality and diversity.

The implications of these findings are that independent public authorities should have access to much more revealing data about public opinion formation processes, including referrals and other data currently held only by publishers. The three stage analytical framework will be of use to regulators and policymakers currently looking into these issues.

Civil society and public debate about digital intermediaries is currently intensively discussed in policy debate. Taking these debates forward will depend on whether existing public policy frameworks (such as limits on news plurality) are able to accommodate the new challenges such as intermediary influence on news distribution and public opinion formation.

The recent special issue of INFO, including contributions from Mansell and Helberger, raised a range of similar issues with regard to media plurality and intermediaries. These papers did not seek empirically to examine in depth, using all available publicly relevant data, the implications for media pluralism and diversity in one particular media market. The paper is theoretically original, contains some previously unpublished data and an entirely new empirical and theoretical analysis. The models and tables are previously unpublished.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the influence of social media in the development of brand sacralization in young consumers in emerging Asian market. Brand sacralization is the phenomenon where consumers (especially young) become an adherent of brands and consider brands as sacred entities. The paper specifically explores the influence of social media interaction and social media usability on brand sacralization and consequently its influence on online purchase intention (PI) and brand loyalty.

Perceptual responses were gathered from 232 undergraduate and postgraduate students (age: 17-27 years) studying in an Indian private university and is subsequently analyzed using structural equation modeling. The young population is chosen as the target sample as they possess majority stake in final product purchase decision nowadays and also contribute as a dominant consumer category in online market places.

The researcher found a strong positive influence of social media interaction and social media usability on brand sacralization. Further, brand sacralization is found to have a positive and significant influence on online PI and brand loyalty of young consumers. However, social media interaction does not contribute significantly to usability of social media. The researcher has also found a significant influence of brand loyalty on online PI for these young shoppers.

The study is the foremost to investigate the influence of social media in developing brand sacralization and its influence on online PI and brand loyalty. Further the study is the first to develop a measurement instrument for brand sacralization. The study is the foremost in developing measures for social media interaction and social media usability.

The purpose of this study is to explore “how social media influence the way consumers search, evaluate and select a hotel within the ‘evaluation stage’ of the wider hotel decision-making process”.

An exploratory qualitative research has been carried out, conducting 12 individual face-to-face, semi-structured, in-depth interviews with social media users, followed by a qualitative thematic analysis.

Social media transform the consumers’ hotel decision journey by influencing the way consumers search, decide and book hotels. The findings reveal the determinants shaping this process, by shedding light on the perceived value of using social media, consumers’ information search behaviour “then and now”, the advantages and disadvantages of social media use for decision-making, their trustworthiness and the factors that influence the consumers’ hotel decision-journey. The findings are conceptualised in an integrated theoretical model, entitled “hotel consumer decision-journey through social media”.

The study’s scope for qualitative in-depth insights into the “hotel consumer decision-journey through social media” asked for a compromise on a larger sample size and in turn the transferability of the theoretical model beyond service, hospitality and tourism consumer decision-making contexts.

This paper provides strategic implications for hospitality marketing and management for a better understanding of the influence of social media on the hotel customer decision journey. The study shows that a variety of social media with associated content sources and levels add to the complexity of hotel-related information search and decision behaviour. The developed framework not only helps hotel professionals understand consumers’ different levels (e.g. type of content, content source, content level) through which social media might influence decision-making. Various real-life scenarios presented also help practitioners understand the fine nuances of how consumers are influenced by social media and how this causes them to iteratively change their minds and make a final decision towards the rejection or selection of a hotel.

Consumers use social media for a wide spectrum of scenarios in tourism and hospitality, while the influence of social media on the consumers’ hotel decision-making process remains little understood. This study makes a theoretical contribution in that it addresses these existing gaps and bridges consumer behaviour and social media literature in the hotel context to shed light on the “hotel consumer decision journey through social media”. The core contribution is an integrated theoretical model and real-life scenarios that depict the impact of social media on the hotel decision-making.

The present study aims to examine how business-to-business (B2B) marketers can influence content creation in social media. Social media tools are becoming an interesting component of B2B marketing because of the roles of personal relationships and interactions in these markets. However, research has not approached social media content creation from a B2B marketing perspective.

Social media tools are becoming an interesting component of B2B marketing because of the roles of personal relationships and interactions in these markets. However, research has not approached social media content creation from a B2B marketing perspective. The present study examines how B2B marketers can influence content creation in social media.

The paper proposes that B2B firms engaging in social media as part of their marketing efforts should carefully consider the roles and activities of various users, which are directed to and by different internal and external users. B2B companies can influence content creation in social media directly by adding new content, participating in discussions and removing content through corporate user accounts and controlling employee social media behavior or indirectly by training employees to create desired content and performing marketing activities that influence other users to create content that is favorable for the company.

The study contributes to the theoretical discussion over B2B marketing communication and the role of social media in it.