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This paper aims to examine the recommendation system of the video-sharing website YouTube to study how control of users is effected on online platforms.

This paper conceptualises algorithmic systems as protocols – technological and social infrastructures that both facilitate and govern interactions between autonomous actors (Galloway and Thacker, 2004, 2007). It adopts a netnographic approach (Kozinets, 2002) to study not only the formal, technological systems of the platform but also the systems as they were made sense of, understood and enacted upon by actors. It relies both on information as revealed by the organisation itself, as well as discussions between lay users in online forums and press coverage.

The results of this study indicate that the ways in which platforms selectively facilitate interactions between users constitute a form of control. While maintaining the appearance of an open and neutral marketplace, interactions on the platform are in fact highly structured. The system relies on the surveillance of user interactions to rapidly identify and propagate marketable contents, so as to maximise user “engagement” and ad revenue. The systems place few demands or restrictions on individual users, instead control is effected in a probabilistic fashion, over the population of users as a whole, so as to, in aggregate, accomplish organisational goal.

This paper contributes to the literature on accounting and control practices in online spaces, by extending the notion of control beyond overt rankings and evaluations, to the underlying technical and social infrastructures that facilitate and shape interactions.

This article examines the ways in which the popular music industry markets artists through integrated transmedia marketing campaigns. These campaigns unfold across multiple media and create multiple pathways for audience engagement, particularly fan engagement, across social media platforms. The purpose is to further theorise the relationship between artists, the music industry and audiences.

The study used digital ethnography to scrutinise the activities within a contemporary music transmedia marketing campaign, focusing on the release of Taylor Swift's album Reputation as an illustrative case.

The study demonstrates how strategically curated activities encompass platforms' affordances and industry events by making use of fan engagement across social media platforms and streaming services. Fans shift through platforms, as well as across digital and physical spaces, through defined marketing activities at specific times. This article proposes the concept of choreographed engagement to specifically address the ways in which the temporal and spatial aspects of social media marketing are used at the intersection of platform logic, algorithm economy and fan engagement to reach wider audiences.

By proposing the concept of choreographed engagement, the authors bridge the gap between fan practices and marketing practices, providing insight into how commodification of fan engagement is utilised spatially and temporally within the contemporary platform economy. Choreographed engagement constitutes a significant aspect of strategic communication and marketing. The term expands the vocabulary used in the debate on the commodification of artistic work, and audience engagement in the platform era.

The use of social media tools by companies is common, but the links between the use of multiple social media tools by companies and stock price changes are largely unknown. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the value-relevance of social media activities on Facebook (FB), Instagram (IG), LinkedIn (LI), Twitter (TW) and YouTube (YT).

Stock market data and hand-picked social media data in this study were collected from Finland, a small language area with consistent International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) reporting practices, in the expectation of better comparability and lower noise in the data.This study uses correlation, regression and factor analyses for a sample of 105 Finnish public limited companies listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange.

This paper finds evidence that social media activity is an important area of analysis and that the activity and popularity of a company in social media are value-relevant variables in forecasting stock prices.

Not all social media activities are necessarily equally important for managers and investors. Focus on visual messages in social media is recommended.

The findings of this study highlight the value-relevance of using multiple visual social media channels, particularly IG and YT. This paper suggests avenues for future research and for analyzing social media information.

This study aimed to test some dynamics related to YouTube advertising clutter and viewers' attitudes towards YouTube channels operated by traditional television (TV) companies (These YouTube channels tend to have a greater ad clutter since their videos have embedded ads of programme sponsors in addition to regular YouTube advertisements).

Employing a positivistic, quantitative methodology, the study collected data through an online survey from a sample of 295 YouTube viewers in Sri Lanka. Data were analysed using the regression-based PROCESS macro, utilising the SPSS software.

Ad clutter has a negative impact on viewers' attitudes towards the YouTube channel, but only indirectly, through irritation. Skippability of advertisements does not moderate the relationship between ad clutter and ad irritation, but non-skippability increases ad irritation (direct relationship).

YouTube channel owners should pay careful attention to having an optimum level of advertising because clutter resulting in high ad irritation leading to a negative attitude towards the channel could reduce subscriptions. Offering an ad skippability option is unlikely to reduce irritation if there is high clutter.

Although ad clutter is well-researched, its impact on viewer responses to online media channels is uncommon. With YouTube poised to become a top ad revenue-generating medium, this study contributes by examining some dynamics related to ad clutter in a possibly high-clutter context.

This study examined how audience characteristics and attitudes relate to their perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness of apologies by public figures posted on YouTube.

Four hundred twenty-seven adult participants recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed an online survey via Qualtrics. Participants were randomly assigned to view two of four public figure apologies posted on YouTube.

Results indicated that audience fandom and perceived reputation and attractiveness of the public figure were related to perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness; and perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness were related to intentions of future support.

“Sameness” between the public figure and audience did not garner a more favorable response to the apology, and this is not consistent with earlier studies. For race similarity, the results could have been a reflection of the low number of non-White participants. However, results could indicate that “sameness” is not as simplistic as demographic sameness, such as race, sex or age.

The authors’ findings elevate the importance of gathering and benchmarking pre-crisis attitudinal research to better equip and inform communication professionals for crisis response. In addition, the study suggests that a public figure's strong reputation and fanbase provide a type of inoculation, lessening reputational damage.

The finding that perceived attractiveness relates positively to perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness is consistent with psychological research indicating attractiveness has many positive social implications – even in mediated communication.

Evidence suggests social media apologies matter. Communication professionals need to approach apology opportunities with a keen awareness that relational outcomes and intentions of future support can shift based on social media audiences' attitudes related to the public figure.

This paper aims to explore the perspectives of university students on the learning management system (LMS) and determine factors that influence user experience and the outcomes of e-learning.

This paper employs a mixed-method approach. For qualitative data, 20 semi-structure interviews were conducted. Moreover, for quantitative data, a short survey was developed and distributed among the potential respondents.

The results showed that students, particularly in programs where courses are mainly offered online, are dependent on such learning platforms. Moreover, the use of modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment (Moodle) as an application of LMS was rated positively, and e-learning was considered as an effective sustainable learning solution in current conditions.

The authors have illustrated empirically how the notion of UX of the LMS provides a means of exploring both students' participation in e-learning and their intention towards using such learning platforms.

The research objective of the paper is twofold. First, it scrutinises the current state of the art concerning adopting the most popular social media by European port managing bodies (PMBs). Second, it investigates the use of social media in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication strategies of European PMBs.

The paper carries out online field research on the use of social media by the top-25 European ports. Then, it provides an in-depth case study of the use of Twitter by the Port of Rotterdam for CSR communication. Finally, a content analysis of the tweets published in the 2017–2019 timeframe is performed.

Empirical results demonstrate the extensive use of social media by European PMBs to reach a wider array of stakeholders. Uneven approaches emerge considering port sizes and cultural clusters. The content analysis shows that one-third of tweets published by the Twitter account of the Port of Rotterdam address CSR issues, especially green initiatives, advocating the use of social media to communicate CSR.

The study focuses on the European domain. A broader sample of ports worldwide should be examined to further investigate the drivers affecting PMBs' strategic adoption and use of social media, mainly to communicate CSR.

The paper provides port managers with insights to strengthen CSR communication. Given the increasing pressure of the public opinion on environmental and social issues, the ability of European PMBs to communicate their CSR commitment through social media represents a key driver when searching for consensus of stakeholders and “licence to operate”.

The paper adds to the existing maritime logistics literature by introducing a promising field of research.

Drawing on a unique case of a Web 3.0 recruitment campaign, the purpose of this paper is to explore how a Web 3.0 social media recruitment communication strategy influence, add value to and challenge conventional recruitment communication management.

The study draws on a reflexive dialogical research approach, which means that it is methodologically designed as a critical dialogue between on the one hand an empirical case and on the other hand theories on social media and strategic communication.

The study points toward a fundamental new approach to recruitment communication. The application of a Web 3.0 strategy entails what we term an open source recruitment strategy and a redirection of employee focus from work life to private life. These insights point toward ontologically challenging the basic assumptions of employees, work life and the employing organization.

The paper presents a single-case study, which prepares the ground for larger, longitudinal studies. Such studies may apply a more long-term focus on the implications of applying Web 3.0 recruitment strategies and how they may be integrated into – or how they challenge – overall corporate communication strategies.

A turn toward Web 3.0 in recruitment communication affects the degree of interactional complexity and the level of managerial control. Furthermore, the authors argue that the utilization of a Web 3.0 strategy in recruitment communication put forth precarious dilemmas and challenges of controllability, controversy, ownership and power relations, demanding organizations to cautiously entering the social media 3.0 employment market.

This study indicates how the value and potentials of social media as facilitating participatory processes and community conversations can be strategically used in and fundamentally alter recruitment communication, and hence offers new insights into a paradigmatically new way of understanding what strategic social media recruitment is, can and do.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how an organization can achieve successful change implementation with Kotter’s eight-step organizational change model and 3-H (heart–head–hand) theory.

With the case study approach, the author recollects his career experience in Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited from 2007 to 2011 to find out why and how the top management can balance 3-H factor to bridge the “knowing” and “doing” gap to engage right talents and motivate them to achieve peak performance and company goal.

To create talent culture, the company implemented two policies including Mini-CEO management and Talent Engagement Department. The former is a vertical management model to empower and enable department heads. The latter is a way to change the role of human resources department from passive to proactive.

The implications of this case study are to encourage public and private organizations to rethink the factors including talent development and empowerment that can have a positive impact on innovative work behavior. Moreover, organizations can rediscover the value of “unique” talent culture as a sustainable competitive advantage.