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Social media provides a space for female athletes to create their own media (and advertising) in order to share their lives through stories presented online – a phenomenon, that to date has been ignored in traditional media spaces. Research suggests that athletes more broadly can take a more active role in their public presentation across a wide variety of platforms (Lebel & Danylchuk, 2012) and share more aspects of their identity than typically portrayed in mainstream media coverage (Sanderson, 2013, 2014). More specifically, virtual worlds have created platforms through which female athletes can share content and present themselves to fans or followers of sport in their own way and with relative freedom (Litchfield & Kavanagh, 2018). While it is acknowledged that social media can empower the female user, simultaneously, these spaces have proven to be hostile and can serve to oppress or marginalise individuals and groups (Kavanagh et al., 2016; Litchfield et al., 2018). An intersectional, third-wave feminist lens will be adopted in this chapter in order to examine such a dichotomy (Bruce, 2016). This approach will analyse the disjunction between the rise of the female ‘@thlete’ and their adoption of contemporary digital sporting spaces and the presence of a darker narrative permeating digital environments through highlighting the presence of online vitriol and intersectional abuse (racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.) that athletes may face while navigating lives online.

In view of the influences of online videos on the cultural tourism industry, this study aims to explore the mechanisms triggered by watching online video behaviors of fans. This study examines how fans who have watched celebrities’ online videos become tourists who attend concerts held at destinations based on celebrity and destination endorsements.

This study builds for celebrity and destination endorsements on online videos by combining media richness and source model theory. This research adopts partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the mechanism triggered by online media.

Watching online media influences celebrity and destination endorsements, which, in turn, affects the concert experience and intention to return to the destination. Results reveal less intertwined relationships between celebrity and destination endorsements and the complex mechanisms between the two endorsements.

With the rise in popularity of online media, online content has become a major source of information in the tourism industry and a means of enjoying travel seamlessly. This study highlights not only the role of “watching online videos” as one of the richest media but also the role of live concerts in cultural tourism for understanding complex cultural tourism.

为了探讨在线视频对文化旅游业的影响, 本研究探讨了观看在线视频所触发旅游行为的机制。本研究考察了在名人和景区的宣传下, 观看名人在线视频的粉丝如何成为参加目的地举办的演唱会的旅游者。

基于媒体丰富度和来源模型理论, 本研究调查了名人与景区的宣传视频。本研究采用partial least squares（PLS）结构方程建模来分析在线媒体所引发的机制。

观看在线媒体影响了名人和目的地宣传效应, 进而影响了演唱会的体验和到访目的地的意愿。研究结果揭示了名人和目的地宣传之间的关系并不紧密, 这两种宣传之间存在着复杂的机制。

随着在线媒体的普及, 在线内容已成为旅游业中信息的主要来源和享受旅游的手段。本研究不仅突出了“观看在线视频”作为最丰富的媒体之一的作用, 也突出了演唱会在文化旅游中的功能, 以更全面地理解复杂的文化旅游。

The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by researching the direct effects of media and personal characteristics on online participation in climate change, indirect effects when mediated by interpersonal communication and personal characteristics as predictors of media communications as sources of information about climate change.

A structured questionnaire is distributed to collect data about the uses of communication sources and online responses toward climate change by using a quota sampling technique. The structural equation modeling by using Smart PLS 4 is used to explore the effects’ size.

Small levels of direct and indirect effects are found. Direct effects are found in online newspapers, YouTube, television news, personal relevance toward climate change and political interest in online participation in climate change. Indirect effects are found of WhatsApp on online climate participation through interpersonal communication. Personal relevance toward climate change has motivated respondents to take information about climate change from Facebook. Climate skepticism is found among respondents who have received information from television news/talk shows, printed newspapers and WhatsApp.

University teachers in Pakistan will have to work on educational strategies to increase the knowledge of university students about energy generation through carbon and renewable energy sources.

The results of this study highlight the communicative-cultural dimensions of online discourse about climate change in the context of the less-researched country of Pakistan. This is the first study of researchers’ knowledge that comprehensively defines the digital media ecology in the context of climate change considering Pakistan.

Given the profound impact of social media on civic activism, as demonstrated by the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements, the current study aimed to examine the factors that influence the public to engage in civic activism on social media platforms.

This study used the responses from 4,316 social media users who participated in the 2018 American Trends Survey (Wave 35) conducted by Pew Research Center. The dataset was analyzed using hierarchical regression.

The results suggest that respondents who were younger, female, White and liberal were more likely to participate in activism-related behaviors, such as using hashtags, changing profile pictures and participating in groups with shared interests in political and social issues. Respondents' engagement in online civic activism increased particularly when they had a strong motive for expressing and sharing their opinions. In contrast, external online political efficacy – the belief that social media influences policymaking and decision makers – was not significantly associated with activism engagement on social media.

This study identified key demographic characteristics of social media users who participate in online civic activism. In addition, the findings extend previous lines of inquiry by examining and assessing the impact of external online political efficacy and opinion expression motive. We conclude that individuals engage in civic activism on social media mainly because they find it important to express views on political and social issues and to find others who share these views, as opposed to thinking that social media can be used to exert influence on policy decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the synergistic effects of online multimedia by categorizing it into online broadcast media (OBM) and online interactive media (OIM).

The authors used an online experiment method to manipulate the online message stimuli level (online media synergy and online single media repetition).

The results revealed that participants exposed to message stimuli of online media synergy reported greater source credibility, cognitive responses (brand credibility and positive thoughts about the brand), attitude toward the brand and purchase intention. In online multimedia, source credibility influences attitude toward the brand through brand credibility and positive thoughts about the brand; in online single media repetition, source credibility influences attitude toward the brand through only brand credibility.

In addition, the relationship between online media synergy and marketing outcomes might be moderated by consumers’ goals and thought patterns, and future research could further explore the moderating effects of these variables.

This study contributes to media synergy research, assists marketing planners in their understanding of the importance of online media synergy and serves as a reference for marketing planners considering an integrated online marketing plan.

The current study investigated how the synergy of OBM and OIM influences message persuasiveness for consumers (cognitive responses, attitude toward the brand and purchase intention).

Drawing upon the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the purpose of this paper is to examine how the characteristics of social media moderate the effect of a firm’s apology on the attitude of its customers.

An online experiment including 360 active users of internet was employed to test the research model.

Results revealed that an after-crisis apology and firm reputation both have a positive effect on after-crisis user attitude toward the firm. Furthermore, the positive effect of apology becomes stronger as online media interactivity increases, whereas the positive effect of reputation becomes weaker.

This study included only one important characteristic of social media, and experimental scenarios were limited to car recall crisis. Considering that social media has so many platforms that may have different kinds of interactivity, further studies can be conducted to figure out the most suitable social media for firms to deal with an online crisis.

The results inform managers of the importance of after-crisis apology and firm reputation. It is worthwhile for managers to find out the levels of online media interactivity at which users focus on apology and reputation and accordingly conduct an effective online crisis management response strategy.

This study extends the literature on online crisis management and the literature on ELM by highlighting the role of online media interactivity in influencing the persuasive effectiveness of firm’s crisis response in the context of social media.

Social media facilitates the communication and the relationship between healthcare professionals and patients. However, limited research has examined the role of social media in a physicians' online return. This study, therefore, investigates physicians' online economic and social capital return in relation to physicians' use of social media and consumer engagement.

Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with fixed effects (FE) and panel data collected from Sina Weibo and Sina Health, this study analyzes the impact of physicians' social media use and consumer engagement on physicians' online return and the moderation effect of professional seniority.

The results reveal that physicians' use of social media and consumer sharing behavior positively affect physicians' online economic return. In contrast, consumer engagement positively impacts physicians' online social capital return. While professional seniority enhances the effect of physicians' social media use on online economic return, professional seniority only enhances the relationship between consumers' sharing behavior to the posts and physicians' online social capital return when professional seniority comes to consumer engagement.

This study reveals the different roles of social media use and consumer engagement in physicians' online return. The results also extend and examine the social media affordances theory in online healthcare communities and social media platforms.

This study sheds light on the differential impact of social media brand engagement on two distinct types of purchase intentions, i.e. online and physical, in the special context of the post-COVID-19 situation in Pakistan. It has shed light on the factor (trust in online purchases during COVID-19) that has shaped the post-pandemic purchasing attitude. The above-stated association is unlocked based on the mediating role of brand equity.

The people who followed the social media pages of major sellers (apparel, grocery, food items and medical supplies) in Pakistan were included as the target population. A time-lagged web-based survey method was employed to collect primary data which generated 308 responses. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0. After checks for validity and reliability, mediation and moderation analysis were run by Hayes PROCESS model 4 and 14 respectively.

Results show that brand equity mediates the relationship of social media engagement with both online and physical purchase intentions. Further, results confirm that trust in online purchases during COVID-19 19 weakens the relationship of social media engagement with physical purchase intentions but strengthens with online purchase intentions.

This study attempts to unveil the moderation of trust in online purchases during COVID-19 on the relationship of social media engagement with online and physical purchase intentions through the mediation of brand equity.

In this study, the authors aim to probe the relationship between listening and lurking and discuss types of lurking that occur on social media sites based on the motivations driving them. Although listening is a significant practice of online attention, intimacy, connection, obligation and participation as much as voice is, it is yet to receive the kind of attention voice is given in the context of social media. In the rather limited studies on online attention, the concept that has gained consideration is “lurking”, and this practice has often been treated as a derogatory non-activity or as passivity. The interest to study lurking is based on the premise that lurking is a significant ground on which listening occurs in social media and through which voice can be given attention.

This study adopted a phenomenological approach to understand motivations for lurking in online spaces. Phenomenological research involves data gathering through inductive, qualitative methods with the aim of explaining specific phenomena from the perspective of research participants. In this research, the lived experience studied was lurking and what drives lurking. A total of 12 members of the Licence to Talk project, a research project based at the School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa, took part in the study. They shared their personal experiences of online lurking through a critical reflective writing. Based on the experiences shared, the authors identified and categorised the various types of lurking based on the varied motivations driving them.

Through the phenomenological approach, the study has theorised a more useful understanding of lurking as a form of online listening by identifying and categorising seven lurking behaviours that are nested within the lurking activity. This study, thus, provides a tentative framework for studying online lurking by bringing to bear listening theory and by reasoning that lurking is a needs-based activity that has purpose imbedded within it.

The authors recognise that this study is limited by its small number of participants. Nevertheless, as researchers with a strong grounding in listening theory, the authors thought it valuable to interrogate their own practices on social media and to develop a more useful understanding of what lurking might entail and, on the lurking-listening relationship. A larger study would provide stronger evidence to test the hypothesis about lurking as a very interesting form of listening with a relationship to complex behaviours and needs.

It is expected that by conceptualising the various forms of lurking based on the motivations that drive online lurking (listening), it will provide an empirical and theoretical/conceptual basis for further investigations into this pervasive mode of online attention.

As of December 2021, WeChat had more than 1.2 billion active users worldwide, making it the most active online social media in mainland China. The term social commerce is used to describe new online sales through a mix of social networks and/or peer-to-peer communication or marketing strategies in terms of allowing consumers to satisfy their shopping behaviour through online social media. Thus, given the numerous active users, the development of online social media and social commerce on WeChat is a critical issue of internet research.

This empirical study takes WeChat as the online social media research object. Questionnaires for WeChat users in China were designed and distributed. All items are designed as nominal and ordinal scales (not Likert scale). The obtained data was put into a relational database (N = 2,342), and different meaningful patterns and rules were examined through data mining analytics, including clustering analysis and association rules, to explore the role of WeChat in the development of online social media and social commerce.

Practical implications are presented according to the research findings of meaningful patterns and rules. In addition, alternatives to WeChat in terms of further development are also proposed according to the investigation findings of WeChat users’ behaviour and preferences in China.

This study concludes that online social media, such as WeChat, will be able to transcend the current development pattern of most online social media and make good use of investigating users’ behaviour and preferences, not only to stimulate the interaction of users in the social network, but also to create social commerce value in social sciences.