tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61278621956694072212024-02-06T21:51:25.932-05:00Sonya's Thoughts on Media and TechSonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10586699435446552851noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6127862195669407221.post-67095284410304162013-11-14T18:18:00.000-05:002013-12-11T20:30:11.731-05:00Psychology of Sharing on Social Media: Attention, Emotion and reaction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am very glad to see my <a href="http://sonya2song.blogspot.com/2013/07/proto-analysis-of-boston-globe-traffic.html"><i>Boston Globe</i>/Facebook</a> study well received by curious readers and featured by several organizations, such as the Harvard <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/07/what-works-and-what-doesnt-on-the-boston-globes-facebook-page/">Nieman Journalism Lab</a>, <a href="http://blog.chartbeat.com/2013/10/28/understanding-traffic-sources-part-3-social-traffic/">Chartbeat</a>, <a href="http://socialfresh.com/bgfacebook/">Social Fresh</a>, and <a href="http://www.ishpc.de/2013/07/30/was-wird-wie-auf-facebook-geteilt-analyse-des-boston-globe/">ISHP Consulting</a>. Meanwhile, I've been giving talks on this research at different places, including the <i>Boston Globe</i>, Mozilla Festival in London, Spiegel Online in Hamburg and Hacks/Hackers Berlin. If you find this research interesting and want to further the discussion, please buzz me on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/sonya2song" style="background-color: yellow;">@sonya2song</a> or drop me a line at <span style="background-color: yellow;">sonya2song#gmail</span>. Please also feel free to download the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx8IdMC7CoeZSkRBVi00SkhmYTA/edit?usp=sharing" style="background-color: yellow;">slides</a> (last updated on December 9, 2013) developed for my presentations.<br />
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In the previous study, I presented data analysis that examined how users read and share <i><a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/">Boston Globe</a></i> posts on its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/globe">Facebook Page</a>. In this extended analysis, I’ve included qualitative analysis with a focus on content, cognition and emotion. My goal is to help newsrooms better promote their stories on and attract more attention from social media.<br />
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To achieve this goal, I’ve been digging into psychology literature for inspirations. Overjoyed, I’ve discovered some theories and findings that are portable to the social media environment:<br />
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<ul style="background: #eeeeee; border: 1px solid #444444; margin: 10px; padding: 25px 40px 25px 40px; text-align: left;">
<li>Two modes of thinking, fast and slow, attract different types of attention.</li>
<li>Sharing on social media is</li>
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<li>Charged with emotions,</li>
<li>Bounded by self-image management, and also</li>
<li>By concerns over relationship with others.</li>
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</ul>
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Again, this report is based on the three key metrics featured by Facebook Insights: reach, engaged users, and talking about this. According to Facebook, <i>reach</i> is defined as “the number of unique people who have seen your post”; <i>engaged users</i> as “the number of unique people who have clicked on your post”; and <i>talking about this</i> as “the number of unique people who have created a story from your Page post. Stories are created when someone likes, comments on or shares your posts; answers a question you posted; or responds to your event”. These metrics are counted as absolute numbers of unique visitors in various ways and reflect user behavior from passive consumption to active interaction.<br />
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BIG PICTURES and BREAKING NEWS, OH YEAH!</h3>
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In the <a href="http://sonya2song.blogspot.com/2013/07/proto-analysis-of-boston-globe-traffic.html">proto-analysis of <i>Boston Globe</i> traffic on Facebook</a>, I reported the findings on image size and the “BREAKING” label. The general pattern is that illustrating a post with an image is associated with higher traffic compared to no image, so is a large image compared to a thumbnail. This pattern holds across three key metrics by Facebook (Figure 2). In addition, mere “BREAKING” is associated with a higher reach, although not with engagement or talking about this (Figure 1). In fact, not only BREAKING NEWS but also other uppercase words are associated with a higher reach, including WEATHER WATCH, MAJOR UPDATE, BIG PICTURE, NOW LIVE, etc. <br />
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As a hardworking journalist, you may tell me it’s upsetting to know that readers are attracted to this kind of superficial stuff like BIG PICTURES and BREAKING NEWS. But the good news for you is that the attention triggered by primitive tricks is fairly cheap. To gain more engaged attention, sophisticated messages would be a better choice, which we’ll discuss in the section on cognitive strain and System 2.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA4fFBCeEV1m8bsr32rvWYmpF858xkuZrxhsvqv_vqAaZNjwnSK7DA5cwroCPXcAYz0I4wwr2jxtzJFPRS40yuEqnVvx-Vl-9rAHXxYDbqJXnbxnUTki_WFkiYC2eauue1Ab0CN-ctpBfY/s1600/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA4fFBCeEV1m8bsr32rvWYmpF858xkuZrxhsvqv_vqAaZNjwnSK7DA5cwroCPXcAYz0I4wwr2jxtzJFPRS40yuEqnVvx-Vl-9rAHXxYDbqJXnbxnUTki_WFkiYC2eauue1Ab0CN-ctpBfY/s640/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.10.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 1: "Breaking" is associated with higher "reach" </td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrf0nMJO9AoIVJagY1yIjuc64DQD9Z3K7JFD7cDtqV8uReqbY07YJIemzprINuviPPQlz2no2x3UyrKG2YUGKquXaJgJCI0fmtdWqAi-3aLpGpxomI6_KeETvT6x5_Yg-gb5-9wDt-rNfv/s1600/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrf0nMJO9AoIVJagY1yIjuc64DQD9Z3K7JFD7cDtqV8uReqbY07YJIemzprINuviPPQlz2no2x3UyrKG2YUGKquXaJgJCI0fmtdWqAi-3aLpGpxomI6_KeETvT6x5_Yg-gb5-9wDt-rNfv/s640/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.13.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 2: Larger images are associated with higher traffic</td></tr>
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As a not quite positive example, <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/"><i>MIT Technology Review</i></a> may show us how to gain little attention. Look at its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/technologyreview">Facebook Page</a>, we can see a lot of big T’s, certainly the logo of the magazine. It’s quite obvious that the stories are shared as links and the logo is automatically extracted by Facebook. As such, these stories have failed to have an interesting or simply relevant visual companion. The repeated T’s may also have turned the fans blind toward this symbol. The sad situation is that, even though <i>the Review</i> generates a lot of thrilling stories, its Facebook presence is far from compelling—you may have noticed the small numbers of shares and likes in Figure 3.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbdNiPtHfyY0-iXeToDhnIryifPZOWiPqhoW5ekhLmcT15jdeiu5BBYYwccm5uyn0qNF7W3Nn6qVSAhSoOKue1LLU_aC5ad1GI71zkdwTIk8NKT-Q0fyytBFYaQzkuiss5tK1LdxidWp-l/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-13+at+3.47.49+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="564" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbdNiPtHfyY0-iXeToDhnIryifPZOWiPqhoW5ekhLmcT15jdeiu5BBYYwccm5uyn0qNF7W3Nn6qVSAhSoOKue1LLU_aC5ad1GI71zkdwTIk8NKT-Q0fyytBFYaQzkuiss5tK1LdxidWp-l/s640/Screen+Shot+2013-11-13+at+3.47.49+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 3: Facebook Page of <i>MIT Technology Review</i></td></tr>
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Thinking, Fast and Slow</h3>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c1/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow.jpg/200px-Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c1/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow.jpg/200px-Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow.jpg" /></a></div>
To understand how we deal with simple and complex stimuli (e.g., text, pictures, puzzles, etc.), <b>Daniel Kahneman</b>’s (2011) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow"><i>Thinking, Fast and Slow</i></a> is a good read. In this book, Kahneman examines various theories and findings related to two thinking modes of humans: System 1 (fast) and System 2 (slow). <br />
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System 1 – Unconscious Attention</h4>
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System 1 deals with innate skills that are crucial for survival and it works fast and automatically. One example is that we withdraw our fingers from fire before we realize what happened. Another one is to drive a car on an empty highway. System 1 is completely involuntary, for instance, when seeing 1 + 1 = ____, we feel compelled to fill in the blank. In other words, System 1 can’t be turned off, since it’s crucial for our survival. When hearing a sudden noise like an explosion, we’ll turn our heads to orient the source and wonder if danger arises. Besides innate skills, abilities gained through prolonged practice can also be handled by System 1, such as envisioning next steps for chess masters, or 210 = 1,024 for computer scientists. <br />
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System 2 – Conscious Attention</h4>
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By contrast, System 2 handles learned skills, such as a foreign language, logical reasoning, mathematics, etc. It’s slow and effortful, as how we feel when calculating 23 x 67 = ____. In other words, it demands much attention, like driving on the left if someone hasn’t done it before. Distinct from System 1, System 2 doesn’t always stand by and that’s why we are vulnerable to marketing and advertising techniques. In addition, System 2 can be refrained when we are tired, hungry or in a bad mood. Imagine how tough it is to take a test after staying up all night to prepare for it.<br />
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Division of Labor and Law of Least Effort</h4>
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Between System 1 and 2, labor is divided. Most of the time, we’re on the fast mode of System 1. Meanwhile, System 1 assesses the environment and determines if it needs to call System 2 for extra effort. When difficulty, conflict and pressure are detected, System 2 will be mobilized and take control. System 2 processes information perceived by System 1 and corrects it if necessary. Also, System 2 overcomes the impulse of system 1. For instance, we have to make an effort to suppress emotions at work when an argument escalates. Hence, System 2 has the last word.<br />
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However, laziness is our nature as animals and we tend to retain energy for unexpected threats in the future. Since mental effort also consumes resources (e.g., glucose), it has limited capacity. Therefore, we by nature have a constant aversion to making efforts and let System 1 take the lead. <br />
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Now consider how we use social media: We browse posts fairly fast. Although occasionally we jump into an online debate, while quickly scrolling a large or small screen, we generally feel relaxed, relieved, and even pleased. In other words, we come to social media for an easy time rather than challenges. <br />
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Cognitive Ease and System 1</h4>
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This easy time on social media is what Kahneman (2011) calls “cognitive ease”. He describes cognitive ease as “a sign that things are going well—no threats, no major news, no need to redirect attention or mobilize effort” (p. 59). In other words, System 1 is in charge and System 2 is dozing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPX-FWe8LCMaytYC9PPdDclTyUwQrpR7_qyA_fs5qr44l8jGiADoKd95e86F6lBKMkmnw9OvgT7im8iqzWdnsB9lkJBQQlSUG68sHeD0hPYeyZn0DvOsHe_8uBdrvB48jl_vaKKHxx0Hpy/s1600/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.23.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPX-FWe8LCMaytYC9PPdDclTyUwQrpR7_qyA_fs5qr44l8jGiADoKd95e86F6lBKMkmnw9OvgT7im8iqzWdnsB9lkJBQQlSUG68sHeD0hPYeyZn0DvOsHe_8uBdrvB48jl_vaKKHxx0Hpy/s640/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.23.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 4:Causes and consequences of cognitive ease</td></tr>
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Figure 4 illustrates a variety of causes and consequences of cognitive ease. (Maybe you have sensed the cognitive theories advertisers have been exploiting: Repetition, clarity, and happiness are more likely to make you feel better and persuade to believe some product or service deserves your money). Like clear display, legibility effects how easily we parse a piece of information. <br />
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BREAKING NEWS and Legibility</h4>
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Highly legible text will result in cognitive ease and pamper System 1 pretty well. Look at the following example given by Kahneman:<br />
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<b>Adolf Hitler was born in 1892.</b><br />
Adolf Hitler was born in 1887.<br />
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The experiment shows that more people would believe the first statement is true compared to the second—the fact is that Hitler was born in 1889. It’s as simple as you have guessed: the first statement is in bold font and is more legible. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU3QPn-0WG_kKGRfXIYq2MVjovHsVYARAU7fHze5jZdIPMoSWbz7G-iBh4kH3hgu2uH7GoIYVsMVeLMhlXVZQAsQ2lyOhuOjTzVfuedDj_Tsqb1ivGB0iNPV50r0KjLs5qnJxog6vsyv73/s1600/lol_cat-12926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU3QPn-0WG_kKGRfXIYq2MVjovHsVYARAU7fHze5jZdIPMoSWbz7G-iBh4kH3hgu2uH7GoIYVsMVeLMhlXVZQAsQ2lyOhuOjTzVfuedDj_Tsqb1ivGB0iNPV50r0KjLs5qnJxog6vsyv73/s200/lol_cat-12926.jpg" width="200" /></a>If we port this psychological finding to social media, we may realize BREAKING NEWS is playing a similar role and thus attracting more attention, though nearly unconsciously. Since we can’t customize the size, color or font of text we publish on social media, using uppercase is the only option we change the level of legibility of our posts. If you’re desperate to overcome the barrier on social media, you may find <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow">lolcats</a> inspiring. <br />
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Like uppercase text, large pictures are the same eye candy that soothes System 1 and attracts nearly unconscious attention from social media users. <br />
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Simple Text and Readability </h4>
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Another way to cater to System 1 is to make the text simple and easy to parse. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readability">Readability</a> is used to measure this aspect. A number of formulas have been established to measure readability. <br />
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As expected, number of average syllables per word was negatively correlated with all three metrics, namely “reach”, “engaged users”, and “talking about this”. The implication for social media editors is to prepare messages that cater to fast reading, because people are often guided by System 1 on social media, even though audiences of various media outlets name readable language at different levels (check out Figure 8 for the readability level across newsrooms). Presumably, once people are led away from Facebook, they will switch gear from fast to slow mode. But before that, each post has merely a split second to catch people’s attention. <br />
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On the subject of simple language, Orwell stresses that, regardless of literary use, simple words enhance language as an instrument of expressing thought. You may test yourself with the following example and see if you can smoothly slide your focus from the first to the last word of this sentence.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: #eeeeee; border: 1px solid #444444; margin: 10px; padding: 25px 40px 25px 40px; text-align: left;">
“Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.” – <i><a href="http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit">Politics and the English Language</a>, </i>George Orwell, 1946</blockquote>
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This paragraph is actually “translated” by Orwell from Ecclesiastes to make the point that text can be unnecessarily difficult. The original text reads as follow:<br />
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“I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”</blockquote>
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To make Orwell’s point more precise, the original text scores at 18.5 while the translation at 27.5, based on the Flesch-Kincaid formula that I’ll cover in the section on cognitive strain and System 2. <br />
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Priming Effects and Asking Questions on Social Media</h4>
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Related to System 1, psychologists have discovered many interesting phenomena, such as priming effects. Priming effects is an overarching concept and discusses people’s behavior under nearly unconsciously influence. For instance, ask two groups of people to complete SO_P; before this task, one group saw EAT and the other saw WASH. The EAT group would more likely finish it as SOUP and the other SOAP. Here, EAT primes SOUP and WASH primes SOAP. <br />
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Another experiment relevant to unconscious influence was conducted at the University of Newcastle (<a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/3/412.abstract">Bateson et al., 2006</a>). An honesty box was placed in office to collect payment for tea and coffee. Different posters were displayed in turn above the price list. The posters had no text but featured two themes, eyes or flowers. The results (Figure 5) showed that during the “eyed” weeks, more money was paid than the floral weeks. This experiment nicely demonstrated that “priming phenomena arise in System 1 and you have no conscious access to them” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 57).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhSlQnvhFDQRfHFh_qr-fMuzEDjAXb-03jVnW_saZUt7Gc4Gb7yPXnPO1c09pd6jeavKrL3DI5uigdPsoyS0sERPVnXvy8ZeZ0KpbfxRUhoWWzpuI4D2I_EuSAlcp1K4bHfJpWIV0FLrQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-07+at+9.49.23+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhSlQnvhFDQRfHFh_qr-fMuzEDjAXb-03jVnW_saZUt7Gc4Gb7yPXnPO1c09pd6jeavKrL3DI5uigdPsoyS0sERPVnXvy8ZeZ0KpbfxRUhoWWzpuI4D2I_EuSAlcp1K4bHfJpWIV0FLrQ/s640/Screen+Shot+2013-11-07+at+9.49.23+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 5: Eyes on you, <a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/3/412.abstract">Bateson et al., 2006</a></td></tr>
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If we apply this concept to social media, what could we find? I started exploring evidence with a small task. The research question is: Could questions raised on social media prime people’s behavior of answering them? That’s to say, would a question mark generate more comments on a post?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNfByxuJIPaajkLaN_6WkXztfQwXXt3tMhXSC7_4ADIvjLd7flDyCD4jEeNLRppnrhoAjTEobwhyR8WeI-ajSbddUtfqTypd5HRRyI8AJMvCb2sYMn-AnFP4Xo-aP52r96LFbXe-VDXVYL/s1600/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.28.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNfByxuJIPaajkLaN_6WkXztfQwXXt3tMhXSC7_4ADIvjLd7flDyCD4jEeNLRppnrhoAjTEobwhyR8WeI-ajSbddUtfqTypd5HRRyI8AJMvCb2sYMn-AnFP4Xo-aP52r96LFbXe-VDXVYL/s640/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.28.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 6: Asking questions is associated with more comments</td></tr>
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Yes, questions were significantly correlated with more comments (note: not with likes or shares), after controlling news section, sharing time and other factors. The general pattern is that more reach is associated with more engagement and more engagement with more likes, shares and comments (see Figure 10). The posts with a question, by contrast, more likely appear above the trend line, indicating better performance, despite some outliers beneath. Based on a sample collected within two weeks, the posts with a question is associated with 80% more comments. <br />
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Again, the notion for this finding is that don’t overuse it like the temptation from BREAKING NEWS. Although people say there’s no such a thing called a dumb question, you’ll be well aware when your question isn’t that smart. In addition, “the effects of the primes are robust but not necessarily large” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 56). That suggests that content itself remains the main drive for the traffic, while promotions help to some extent. <br />
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In discussing a variety of priming effects and anchoring effects, two phenomena related to the fast thinking mode (System 1), Kahneman notes that it’s human nature to be influenced unconsciously, although we can make extra effort to rein in our System 1. The following quote should ease both readers and journalists who may have developed moral concerns over these findings: <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: #eeeeee; border: 1px solid #444444; margin: 10px; padding: 25px 40px 25px 40px; text-align: left;">
Your thoughts and behavior may be influenced by stimuli to which you pay no attention at all, and even by stimuli of which you are completely unaware. The main moral of priming research is that our thoughts and our behavior are influenced, much more than we know or want, by the environment of the moment. Many people find the priming results unbelievable because they do not correspond to subjective experience. Many others find the results upsetting because they threaten the subjective sense of agency and autonomy… If the stakes are high you should mobilize yourself (your System 2) to combat the effect. (p.128). </blockquote>
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Cognitive Strain and System 2</h4>
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</h4>
Now you hardworking journalists are about to learn some encouraging and exciting findings of this research: Your sophisticated messages deserve more attention, not necessarily of higher quantity but probably of higher quality. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLiYhFSOwBgQNLONIv0dT6NLay3EfstBcoyy8S-UvV-tnonDaun6AUxrgKGOePZFk-jRb9JG4m2Xk4whOVpN-a15yINNDNBWgKXb7HvsxME_iGOjQHq5yxa_UoB4NxL9UQIV-TvWy-XMB2/s1600/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.24.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLiYhFSOwBgQNLONIv0dT6NLay3EfstBcoyy8S-UvV-tnonDaun6AUxrgKGOePZFk-jRb9JG4m2Xk4whOVpN-a15yINNDNBWgKXb7HvsxME_iGOjQHq5yxa_UoB4NxL9UQIV-TvWy-XMB2/s640/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.24.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 7: Causes and consequences of cognitive strain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
In contrast to cognitive ease, cognitive strain has the opposite causes and consequences (Figure 7). Guided by System 2, people get more vigilant and make fewer errors, but meanwhile become less creative and feel more effortful. <br />
<br />
Given the pretty flowchart, in practice, how shall we activate System 2 and engage people’s slow thinking? Here’s an interesting experiment. There are some tricky questions that people often get wrong. Three of them are included in Shane Frederick’s <a href="http://www.militarymba.net/plan-and-prepare/cognitive-reflection-test.html">Cognitive Reflection Test</a>. This test is so tricky that even students from top schools would give wrong answers. However, when the test was given in a washed-out poor print, the error rate dropped from 90% to 35% (<a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=2007-16657-003">Alter et al., 2007</a>). This experiment has demonstrated that cognitive strain mobilizes System 2 and System 2 engages slow and careful thinking. <br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Complex Text and More Comments</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
</h4>
<br />
On social media, what kind of cognitive strain can we use to engage readers? More complex text may be one way to do it, such as sentences with more words and words with more syllables. <br />
<br />
To measure the complexity of the text on Facebook, I adopted the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests">Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level</a> in my study. This instrument has been tuned to reflect the number of years of education a US reader needs to understand the given text. For instance, an article scored 5.2 can be understood by fifth graders and above. The F-K Level is built upon the average number of syllables per word and the average number of words per sentence and calculated as follow:<br />
<br />
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level = (11.8 * syllables per word) + (0.39 * words per sentence) - 15.59<br />
<br />
On Facebook, various media outlets present themselves quite consistently with the styles reflected in their own publications. The readability scores in Figure 8 are calculated with the latest 200 posts from the Facebook Pages of seven media outlets. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQUgCV_i9RNG7pWOP4IaKOJa9FB1Po2pRw6IBDnPERfCPYOgiVQF66A7Fu0xvDX7-tVlZheEYxTuVqSsz53Qsq_-hz0F3_RMqFU87rXaDm0UQ5eE8_VYsvEDm-5y_dOxpCqTeNxcY9G7Yt/s1600/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.31.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQUgCV_i9RNG7pWOP4IaKOJa9FB1Po2pRw6IBDnPERfCPYOgiVQF66A7Fu0xvDX7-tVlZheEYxTuVqSsz53Qsq_-hz0F3_RMqFU87rXaDm0UQ5eE8_VYsvEDm-5y_dOxpCqTeNxcY9G7Yt/s640/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.31.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 8: The median score of Flesch-Kincaid. BuzzFeed: 4.83, Boston.com: 6.01, Boston Globe: 7.23, Washington Post: 7.37, CNN: 9.69, New Yorker: 12.91, The Economist: 14.62.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Here comes the exciting news for journalists. More complex text was correlated with more comments (note again: not with shares or likes)! The effect was modest though: 12 more points in the K-F Level was correlated with 12% more comments. In Figure 9, saturation and size of dots indicate the readability score of posts. Larger and more saturated dots more likely fall above the trend line, indicating better performance.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCK9bYUBTsnpwCKuTnVbXtQJ_ViW8G7SmRcRptD-Jv2kiuKYAi1ZM8B4XO3THIktwiFb7IXmuYIIUxfKRucx8R-e62Y3h2sw99QJu_jnSTNe_-rDqKKrRSFgWOemcqDdLlGegir39XMYN/s1600/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.32.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCK9bYUBTsnpwCKuTnVbXtQJ_ViW8G7SmRcRptD-Jv2kiuKYAi1ZM8B4XO3THIktwiFb7IXmuYIIUxfKRucx8R-e62Y3h2sw99QJu_jnSTNe_-rDqKKrRSFgWOemcqDdLlGegir39XMYN/s640/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.32.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 9: Harder text is associated with more comments</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The fast and slow thinking modes may help interpret this evidence. When the text appears difficult, some social media users give up and march on to next posts. Those who decide to read the complex posts are in fact engaged in slow thinking and slow thinking allows them to understand the message better and to form an opinion. Hence, like poor print is correlated with better answers, complex text appears to be correlated with more comments from readers. <br />
<br />
Besides the psychological perspective, other factors may help explain this evidence as well. 1) The overall complexity of the text may imply the importance of a post, and therefore more complex text may attract more views and clicks. And 2) complex messages tend to be longer, and longer messages are displayed in larger blocks of text. As such, more complex and thus longer posts take slightly more time for Facebook users to parse and therefore attract slightly more attention. These two parameters (importance of a message and parsing time) were not controlled in my statistically analysis, so their effects couldn’t be ruled out.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Tension + Relief = Conversation </h4>
<br />
The general pattern between the three Facebook KPIs is that more reach is associated with more engagement and more engagement with more likes, shares and comments (Figure 10). This trend appears in a roughly linear relationship, between reach, engaged users, and talking about this (after log-transformed). Meanwhile, we can easily discern outliers above and beneath the trend lines. So why did those stories generate fewer activities?<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeB23cCfNoBgYChGVq3FdwkRi6tBODUnddZONMz3pihsZx_asdep2v7vP6_IXUVhIctEAn0Wgj274XixNX1-YlnCmOSqwQlGaTmaqXIpWhtVlQsrn2ysCyyZwjpH3k5OJw_pK5jtqGbUwd/s1600/3kpi.corr.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeB23cCfNoBgYChGVq3FdwkRi6tBODUnddZONMz3pihsZx_asdep2v7vP6_IXUVhIctEAn0Wgj274XixNX1-YlnCmOSqwQlGaTmaqXIpWhtVlQsrn2ysCyyZwjpH3k5OJw_pK5jtqGbUwd/s640/3kpi.corr.png" width="618" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 10: Reach vs. Engagement vs. Talking about this (log-transformed)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
To quantify this question, some people have developed a metric called conversation rate. This metric is calculated as the ratio of “talking about this” to “reach”. I’ll list the least as well as the most conversational stories and give a quick summary of the observed patterns in the content. Let’s first look at the most and least conversational stories and try to investigate why they turned out to be so.<br />
<br />
<b>Most Conversational Stories</b><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant today pledged $1 million to <b>recovery</b> efforts after yesterday's devastating <b>tornado</b>. http://b.globe.com/191OR6r</li>
<li>Romeo and Juliet, the <b>swans</b> who reside at the Boston Public Garden during the summer (and at Franklin Park Zoo during the winter), returned there today in a sign that the <b>spring</b> season is truly here. See photos: http://b.globe.com/ZOid4O</li>
<li>The <b>lilacs</b> are in full <b>bloom</b> at Arnold Arboretum. This photo was taken yesterday, known officially as Lilac Sunday at the Arboretum. Stop by if you have a chance. Globe staff photo / Yoon S. Byun</li>
<li>Say hello to the <b>CapeFlyer</b>. It had its inaugural run today and is scheduled to have its official <b>debut</b> next weekend, <b>the first time in about 25 years </b>service from Boston to Cape Cod will be offered. http://b.globe.com/13xiois Would you ride it?</li>
<li>The Marathon <b>bombing</b> <b>sheared off the right leg </b>of Marc Fucarile (pictured, with his fiancee Jen Regan) in a millisecond. It spared the left, but not by much. Now, he and his family are in a painful waiting game to see if his “<b>good” leg</b> <b>can be saved</b>. http://b.globe.com/11igVlA</li>
<li>A <b>child was pulled </b>from the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., after an EF-4 <b>tornado</b> struck. The tornado, with winds up to 200 mph, was up to a mile wide and left behind large areas of devastation. http://b.globe.com/12pP8KY</li>
<li>“It was one of the greatest moments in Boston sports history,” writes the Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy about the Bruins’ <b>thrilling win </b>over the Maple Leafs. “And then came a miracle… the Bruins <b>scored and scored and scored</b>.” http://b.globe.com/18H5GTZ</li>
<li>The Boston Athletic Association is inviting all runners who <b>failed</b> to <b>finish</b> 2013 Boston Marathon to run in next year's race. This affects 5,633 runners.</li>
<li>Brad Marchand scored the Bruins' <b>game-winning</b> goal over the Rangers at 15:40 of <b>overtime</b>. Story: http://b.globe.com/10vZlak (Photo credit: AP)</li>
<li>After learning she had an 87% chance of developing<b> breast cancer</b>, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a <b>preventative</b> double mastectomy. Jolie shares her story in a powerful The New York Times op-ed today: http://nyti.ms/18HZFX3 EPA photo </li>
</ol>
<br />
<b>Least Conversational Stories </b><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Keith Reddin’s thriller “Almost Blue” at the Charlestown Working Theater, isn’t so much blue as noir http://goo.gl/PwlBT</li>
<li>#Recipe for paella-stuffed peppers http://goo.gl/PwlBT</li>
<li>New: Matthew Gilbert's Buzzsaw column. As the cult favorite, "Arrested Development," returns with a season-sized “episode dump,” Globe critic Matthew Gilbert asks, does giving viewers too much leave them with nothing to talk about? http://b.globe.com/10a7Sg5</li>
<li>Make mom feel even more special with these stylish Mother’s Day gifts.</li>
<li>The Phoenix Suns named 33-year-old Ryan McDonough, formerly of the Boston Celtics, as their new general manager.</li>
<li>Album review: The soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of "The Great Gatsby," curated by Jay-Z, is a fantastical reimagining of that era, putting ‘20s jazz in the modern context of pop and hip-hop. Oddly enough, the one thing the soundtrack is missing is heart.</li>
<li>Creative restlessness and a sense of adventure are at the heart of Iron & Wine’s latest album, “Ghost on Ghost,” which Sam Beam will celebrate with a show at Berklee Performance Center tonight.</li>
<li>Book review: The beloved author of “The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini, returns to the rugged landscape of his home country, Afghanistan with "And the Mountains Echoed."</li>
<li>Jon Lester gave up six runs in six innings in Chicago as the White Sox defeated the Red Sox, 6-4.</li>
<li>Yahoo is buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Do you think this will help rejuvenate the Yahoo brand? Is Tumblr a good investment?</li>
</ol>
<br />
Here is my quick summary of patterns related to conversational potential of stories.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Beautiful and pleasant stuff was the most conversational, such as photo slides.</li>
<li>Also highly conversational: there’s a problem but there have been (or would be) a solution:</li>
<ul>
<li>Tie but broken by miracle win in sports</li>
<li>Failed to finish marathon but were invited back to do it</li>
<li>Marathon bombing victims but were given medical care</li>
<li>Natural disaster but children were saved</li>
<li>Chance of cancer but intervention minimized it</li>
</ul>
<li>Two cities were apart for 25 years but recently connected</li>
<ul>
<li>The least conversational:</li>
<li>Arts related (music, movies, books, etc.)</li>
<li>Factual information (sports scores, settled business deals, etc.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
The conversations may also be explained through the fast and slow thinking framework. Two cases of beautiful photos (swans and lilacs) likely attract System 1 and help with conversations. By contrast, the other eight top conversational stories don’t feature beautiful photos at all. Instead, they first present a problem (tied-game, tornado, cancer, disconnection, etc.) and then provide a solution or a triumph. This pattern I name as tension-relief, which is combined by a turning point. As a turning point disrupts the flow of a message, it may slow down people’s thinking and engage System 2. <br />
<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Two Routes and One Goal</h3>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZGiW8h5ztj2UxBKW-WjOkT0VLBpC0_T-FvYuPHFMhBGIFodszDVibEh__cymw1tsYBvsZLvXm8p6umAwnh_JDu1aP_O4tN3n1Wh8_gs2faUd8WyiwvpTZFlNkZ4a9Cm6flndZy2RZ4pc/s1600/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.39.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZGiW8h5ztj2UxBKW-WjOkT0VLBpC0_T-FvYuPHFMhBGIFodszDVibEh__cymw1tsYBvsZLvXm8p6umAwnh_JDu1aP_O4tN3n1Wh8_gs2faUd8WyiwvpTZFlNkZ4a9Cm6flndZy2RZ4pc/s640/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.39.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 11: How to attract System 1 and System 2 for higher traffic</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
To sum up, there are various ways to attract attention on social media. Beautiful photos, simple messages and uppercase words likely attract System 1 for some unconscious attention. To attract more conscious and meaningful attention, we can address surprises, sophisticated language, and turning points in our messages. Both approaches would help again more attention and thus more traffic on social media (see Figure 11). <br />
<br />
Some may say these approaches are deceitful. I believe, however, the judgment hinges on the goal. If our goal is as sincere as to reach out to a larger audience and increase the civic impact of a newsroom, the use of these techniques is justified and appropriate. Here I want to quote Kahneman’s thought on this:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: #eeeeee; border: 1px solid #444444; margin: 10px; padding: 25px 40px 25px 40px; text-align: left;">
All this is very good advice, but we should not get carried away. High-quality paper, bright colors, and rhyming or simple language will not be much help if your message is obviously nonsensical, or if it contradicts facts that your audience knows to be true. The psychologists who do these experiments do not believe that people are stupid or infinitely gullible. <b>What psychologists do believe is that all of us live much of our life guided by the impressions of System 1…</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
—How to write a persuasive message</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
Daniel Kahneman (2011, p. 64)</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<br />
- * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Which Number is Larger, #Comments or #Shares?</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwPTJlUTNzRTdK4IrXxDpFx62u3RKf2kDvMKwunTpjS84zyYjMPyI8A9iCfCjX9AR3x7JSpCQm0XWwYPrAxx6XRu0v6p8hNf4DSsLMIaX03_DeipfE3cP0rOUVbF20Vdlt51WzHmrUB4j/s1600/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.45.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwPTJlUTNzRTdK4IrXxDpFx62u3RKf2kDvMKwunTpjS84zyYjMPyI8A9iCfCjX9AR3x7JSpCQm0XWwYPrAxx6XRu0v6p8hNf4DSsLMIaX03_DeipfE3cP0rOUVbF20Vdlt51WzHmrUB4j/s640/Social.Share.Sonya.MozFest.Updated.45.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 12: Comments vs. shares (log-transformed)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
There are three ways for people to express on Facebook: like, share and comment. In general, likes exceed shares and comments, because it’s the cheapest expression people can afford, except some cases when the messages are negative or controversial (Figure 12), which make a “like” contradictory to people’s cognition. This finding isn’t unique to Facebook but other online media as well. On YouTube, despite a large number of views, a thumbs up or down accounted for only only 0.22% of the total views, and comments accounted for a smaller ratio of 0.16% of them would leave a comment (<a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1298309">Cha et al., 2007</a>); on Wikipedia, 4.6% of the visits were related to edits; on Flickr, 20% of the users ever uploaded photos (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/04/18/us-web-participation-idUSN1743638820070418">Auchard, 2007</a>). <br />
<br />
The question becomes tricky when I ask which number is larger, comments or shares. The best answer to it is: It depends. In Figure 12, the line marks shares matching comments; above it more shares and below it more comments. <br />
<br />
Here’s a pair of cases (Figure 13). The first post is a Rolling Stone cover featuring the Boston bombing suspect. It collected about 600 comments and 100 shares (you may also notice that it only got 57 likes, fewer than both shares and comments). The second example is an alternative cover featuring the hero police and the victims, which attracted about 100 comments and 600 shares. These two posts are about the same topic but the activities they induced are distinct. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisslU5Mck7fnXFAFejCi3AQj9gkuH7yuMn6uOgCWdXQFsHWAUZlJlJPizJOtL3FhIwSvg8gsVAVNO-_oi4kGDNGxSe5dttj938w8Z90Z2zDQQXajGz4Q2yy56tr2VSNbTvTlvTVH4MMtKZ/s1600/marathon.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisslU5Mck7fnXFAFejCi3AQj9gkuH7yuMn6uOgCWdXQFsHWAUZlJlJPizJOtL3FhIwSvg8gsVAVNO-_oi4kGDNGxSe5dttj938w8Z90Z2zDQQXajGz4Q2yy56tr2VSNbTvTlvTVH4MMtKZ/s640/marathon.png" width="450" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 13: Contrast between comments and shares</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
To answer why people react by sharing or commenting, let’s examine more examples. They’re extreme cases where shares exceed comments the most and the opposite. <br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
More Shares than Comments</h4>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>You stayed <b>classy</b>, Chicago: The Blackhawks took out a full-page Boston Globe ad today to send along thanks and praise to the <b>Bruins</b> and the people of Boston. http://bo.st/14BGdHL</li>
<li>San Francisco City Hall was all lit up with the colors of the <b>rainbow flag </b>last night following the Supreme Court's decision that cleared the way for <b>gay marriages </b>to resume in California following a bitter, five-year legal battle. Story: http://bo.st/18inxlD EPA photo</li>
<li>This is possibly the <b>best fireworks </b>over Boston photo we've ever seen. Photo by Globe staff photographer Matthew J. Lee We hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! More photos of the celebration in Boston: http://bo.st/18AIVmv</li>
<li>DeVann Vincent shared with us an <b>alternative Rolling Stone cover</b>.</li>
<li>David Ortiz doubled in his first at-bat to become baseball's all-time leader in hits as a designated hitter and hit a two-run homer an inning later, leading the <b>Red Sox</b> to an 11-4 <b>win</b> over the Seattle Mariners Wednesday night. http://bo.st/16t6Wpz</li>
<li>"<b>Boston Strong</b>" is the central theme at the 10th Annual Revere Beach Sand Sculpting Festival, taking place through Sunday.</li>
<li>One of our favorite photo collections of the year: <b>Winners of the National Geographic Traveler</b> 2013 Photo Contest. The Eastern Screech Owl is seen here doing what they do best. You better have a sharp eye to spot these little birds of prey.</li>
<li>A <b>two-headed turtle</b> born last month at the San Antonio Zoo has become so popular that it now has its own Facebook page. You find out what Thelma and Louise are up to here: http://on.fb.me/1e4rdWB</li>
<li>The <b>Red Sox</b> are back in<b> first place</b> after a 15-inning win that began in July and ended in August. Stephen Drew finally got the decisive hit that lifted Boston to a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners in a game that ended 14 minutes after midnight on Thursday. http://bo.st/169Fcrn</li>
<li>The <b>Red Sox handily beat</b> the Mariners, 8-2, at Fenway Park tonight. http://bo.st/158PjQu</li>
</ol>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
More Comments than Shares</h4>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>The latest cover of Rolling Stone magazine features a photo of <b>Marathon bombings suspect</b> Dzhohkar Tsarnaev. Is this appropriate? http://bo.st/15lJKKX</li>
<li>Very sad news: Two-year-old Logan Stevenson of Western Pennsylvania <b>died</b> last night in his mother's arms after serving as his parents' best man at their wedding last weekend.</li>
<li>This <b>dead</b> shark was found lying in front of the Sea Dog Brew Pub in Nantucket this morning.</li>
<li>Both Tedeschi Food Shops and CVS have pledged not to carry the Rolling Stone issue with <b>Marathon bombing suspect </b>Dzhohkar Tsarnaev on the cover.</li>
<li>A British researcher claims that <b>regular sex</b> could be the secret to looking up to seven years younger.</li>
<li>Following the<b> George Zimmerman verdict</b>, former Obama adviser Van Jones tweeted this image displaying Martin Luther King Jr. wearing a hoodie… Do you think this image depicting MLK in a hoodie is appropriate?</li>
<li>Nancy Kerrigan and <b>Tonya Harding</b> will be back in the spotlight in February as part of a new documentary to air on NBC during the Olympics. Will you watch it?</li>
<li>The Bruins will send forward Tyler Seguin to Dallas in exchange for Loui Eriksson as part of a <b>multi-player deal </b>on Thursday, TSN reported. The deal sends Seguin, Rich Peverley and minor-leaguer Ryan Button in exchange for Eriksson, Joe Morrow, Reilly Smith and Matt Fraser. http://bo.st/17Or9Jv</li>
<li>A Connecticut eighth-grader who <b>misspelled</b> the correct answer to a "Jeopardy!" question and lost money over it says he was cheated. Do you agree?</li>
<li>We're in the middle of a <b>heat wave</b>, so let's talk about ice cream. What's the best ice cream shop in New England? Please post your favorite here in the comments. Thanks!</li>
</ol>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Emotion and Social Sharing</h3>
<br />
One perspective for examining the above 20 posts is emotion. Some psychologists study the relationship between emotion and dissemination of information (<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699939108411052%23.UoKZaJRVQvo">Rimé, 1991</a>; <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.523/abstract"><span id="goog_2108571738"></span>Peters, 2009<span id="goog_2108571739"></span></a>). When stories are episodes about other people, emotions would play a role as follows:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>People share stories charged in different emotions with different audiences, such as family and friends as opposed to strangers. </li>
<li>Among different types of emotions, some are shared more than others. In an offline setting, interest, happiness and disgust were found more shared. </li>
<li>The more intense an emotion is, the more likely a story will be shared.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Some scholars have already applied emotion research to the media sphere. For instance, <a href="http://journals.ama.org/doi/abs/10.1509/jmr.10.0353">Berger and Milkman</a> (2012) have examined 6,956 articles collected from the front page of the New York Time and the frequency of email shares. They have found that high-arousal emotions were associated with more email shares, including both positive (awe and amusement) and negative (anxiety and anger)emotions. In addition, the investigators found readers were likely to share a story when it became less emotional. They have controlled other factors like position on the front page and discussed the complex relationship between emotion and transmission of information. Their findings are in line with prior ones conducted in an offline setting. <br />
<br />
Please note this study was carried out in 2008, when the investigators focused on new media rather than social media and on narrowcast via email rather than broadcast via social media. Still their findings have implications on social media. From the above 20 posts on Facebook, we can also observe a pattern related to emotions. Happy (gay marriage, Red Sox’s victory) and interesting (best fireworks, two-headed turtles) stories were shared more than commented. <br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Social Relation Maintenance</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
By contrast, sad (death, loss) and contemptible (various suspects, sport scandal) stories were commented more than shared. <br />
<br />
Looking at Facebook, we recognize it as a venue connecting friends and family members. This characteristic may contribute to the divide between shares and comments, because commenting would allow users to keep their involvement within a semi-anonymous space and away from their friends and families. <br />
<br />
There may be other reasons explaining why some stories are more sharable than others on Facebook. Facebook is famous for a positive emotional climate (<a href="http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Social-networking-climate.aspx">Pew Research, 2012</a>) and harmonious social relations—guess why no dislike button has been ever introduced to Facebook. <br />
<br />
There are a variety of motivations we can suspect why we prefer to maintain good social relations. Some scholars believe good social relationships indicate interpersonal attraction and trust, help receive social support, and assist in transmitting information and resources crucial for professional performance (<a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2657354?uid=3739696&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102910736977">Podolny and Baron, 1997</a>). Others name reciprocity, postulating that people give while expecting returned favors at a later point (<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ncr.4100820204/abstract">Putnam, 1993</a>). <br />
<br />
As diverse as these motivations are, people generally aim to maintain good social relations. Hence, such behavior should also be observed on Facebook, a hub of social connections, and its users should try to please others and avoid offending them. That means, if a post warns of severe weather, people are more likely to share it among social connections (information exchange). On the other hand, if a political or religious story will certainly upset some users’ parents, friends, or bosses, they will feel reluctant to throw it in their faces by sharing it. Or, if it’s aligned with the belief of a social circle (sports triumphs, gay marriage, sense of justice), sharing is preferred. <br />
<br />
Nonetheless, when a story reads controversial and emotional, people develop a compulsion to voice their opinions. In these cases, we’ll notice a lot of comments generated under a post though it may not result in many shares.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Self-Image Management</h3>
<br />
Besides maintaining relations with others, people also tend to improve and mange their presence in social life. <a href="http://clockwatching.net/~jimmy/eng101/articles/goffman_intro.pdf">Goffman</a> (1959) compares everyday life to theatrical performance; in both scenarios people recognize a specific setting and present themselves in front of a known audience. Not only through face-to-face interactions, people also attempt to build ideal self-images by associating themselves with tangible objects, such as branded goods. As <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1996-13171-001">Thompson and Hirschman</a> note: “Consumption serves to produce a desired self through the images and styles conveyed through one’s possessions” (1995, p. 151). <br />
<br />
Similar phenomena have also been observed on the Internet. For example, personal website owners may follow a motto that “we are what we post”, because they can manage their online self-images by presenting brand logos and products at whim, as opposed to a real life with financial constraints (<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/378616">Schau & Gilly, 2003</a>). On dating websites, people get fairly cautious because profiles and photos are often carefully selected if not completely misleading. We have also heard that teens are obsessed with and exhausted by frequent improvements of their online presence. Similarly, we suspect that Facebook Pages (brands, celebrities, news media, etc.) are also used to craft and improve people’s online presence, or an ideal self-image. <br />
<br />
On social media, “I share therefore I am”. The news stories curated and shared by Facebook users inevitably signal their ideal self-images as well. Take <i>Wired</i> as an example, it frequently “geeks out” its fans. Complex circuits and charts are often highly shared, as shown in the following screenshots. I believe <i>Wired</i> has a high-tech audience, but still these “geeky” stories can be curated by non-technical readers as decorations. <br />
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Another example is the Facebook Page of <i>the New York Times</i>, as shown in the following screenshots. Its posts that are hip and smart (science, health, cute tips) are highly shared. <br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Summary and Implications for Newsrooms</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
In this post, I have highlighted my research on social media, especially how <i>Boston Globe</i> posts are perceived on Facebook. It’s a follow-up study after my first analysis that was focused on empirical evidence. Explaining why various types of reading and sharing behavior are observed is the aim of this study. The theories I've adapted and the conclusions I've reached include:<br />
<br />
<ul style="background: #eeeeee; border: 1px solid #444444; margin: 10px; padding: 25px 40px 25px 40px; text-align: left;">
<li>People constantly switch between fast and slow thinking modes. </li>
<li>On social media, people are mostly guided by the fast mode.</li>
<li>To cater to the fast thinking mode, we should make better use of image and keep our language simple.</li>
<li>On the other hand, don’t hesitate to tell complicated stories, because they may engage people in slow thinking and result in receiving more feedback. </li>
<li>If you want to encourage a discussion, please ask questions. </li>
<li>If you want to make a story conversational, show a turning point with a tension and a relief, because a turning point attracts attention.</li>
<li>If you want to see more shares, consider infusing emotions into the stories; both positive (awe and amusement) and negative (anger and anxiety) emotions may work. </li>
<li>Besides emotions, smartness also works, because people try to present themselves in an ideal way. Show some good taste in science, health, and hip stories and they’ll have a better chance to be picked up. </li>
<li>If your stories aren’t widely shared but feverishly commented, it may be caused by the controversies in them, because people cherish social relations and avoid upsetting families, friends and colleagues by sharing offensive stories. </li>
</ul>
<br />
This guideline will go even longer as my research develops, but I by no means present it as a recipe that newsrooms should adopt strictly, because 1) overuse of these strategies may wear out readers and 2) creativity works the best.<br />
<br />
The purpose of this list, I think, serves as a nutrition facts label that helps newsrooms investigate why some posts take off while others never, because you include or exclude some ingredients. Still, it’s completely up to individual social media editors to craft their best strategies to promote the already-published news stories. <br />
<br />
That said, in my opinion, sharing news stories on social media may be more relevant to advertising than journalism, because the stories have been finished as a final product. Coming next is a battle for attention and an effort to persuade readers to share.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Details in Statistics </h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
The statistical tool I used for this analysis is negative binomial regression to control the various aspects of news stories. The factors I’ve controlled are news section (defined by <i>the Boston Globe</i>) and share time in a day and the day in a week. When analyzing each of the three KPIs, I’ve controlled the other two. For more detailed explanation about omitted variables, please check the section on “Independent Variables, Dependent Variables, and Negative Binomial Regression” in my previous blog post focused on empirical evidence: <a href="http://sonya2song.blogspot.com/2013/07/proto-analysis-of-boston-globe-traffic.html">Proto-analysis of Boston Globe Traffic on Facebook</a>.<br />
<br />
Another note is that Facebook has recently <a href="https://www.facebook.com/facebookforbusiness/news/pageinsights">redefined the metrics</a>, so future research may show different numbers. Nonetheless, the underlying theories should remain applicable, as we humans are quite persistent with our behavior. <br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Acknowledgement </h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
As a <a href="http://opennews.org/">Knight-Mozilla OpenNews Fellow</a>, I’ve been receiving constant support from <i>the Boston Globe</i> and their support has made this research happen. I’m very grateful to the staff at <i>the Globe</i> for sharing the data with me, because their kind offer has helped me as well as many other newsrooms understand how people read and share news on social media. I hope this research helps secure its leading position in the online media world, not only through responsive design but also through strategic use of social media. <br />
<br />
Working with <i>the Boston Globe</i> is a privilege, and this privilege is offered through OpenNews. I can't express how <a href="http://sonya2song.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/why-opennews-fellowship-is-great.html">grateful</a> I feel to <a href="https://twitter.com/dansinker">Dan Sinker</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/erika_owens">Erika Owens</a>, the people behind the fellowship program, for their trust and support. This year has been amazing!<br />
<br />
In addition, I want to thank Steve Wildman, my advisor at Michigan State University, for his continuous support in my research. Daniel Kahneman’s <i>Thinking, Fast and Slow</i>, the book Steve recommended, has inspired me a lot in this research. I also want to thank Professor Ann Kronrod and my fellow student Guanxiong Huang at MSU. Their expertise in advertising and marketing has helped me enrich this research. <br />
<br /></div>
Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10586699435446552851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6127862195669407221.post-41360043701113309702013-08-21T17:12:00.000-04:002015-07-31T12:40:58.386-04:00Cataloguing Internet Censorship<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="indent" style="color: #a64d79;"><b>Note: this blog post is a republication of my recent contribution to <i><a href="http://china-outlook.net/">China Outlook</a> </i>with permission. <i>China Outlook</i> is “an online, subscription-only newsletter that specialises in writing and research about China’s future. Based in Hong Kong, it is editorially independent.” </b></span><br />
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<span class="indent"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/47/128740538_90a4cbda70_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/47/128740538_90a4cbda70_z.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: right;">The composition in this photo is a very visual allegory for the attitude of many citizens towards what the government wants them to believe. The photo was taken outside a disco club by the name of “Propaganda” at Wudaokou, Beijing, in 2005. This sleeper is most likely a migrant worker from the surrounding countryside. He was </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: right;">using his shoes as a pillow, the only comfort he could afford, </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: right;">while resting on the hard concrete stairs. Credit: the same as the author of this blog.</span></td></tr>
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<span class="indent"> </span><span class="indent"> </span><br />
Just before 6 am on 26 June 2013, rioting broke out in the town of Lukqan Township in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in northwest China and home to millions of Uyghur Muslims. At least 24 people were killed by suspected Islamists, who set about them with swords and knives.<span class="indent"> </span><br />
<span class="indent"><br />
</span> <span class="indent">About seven hours later the state-run Xinhua News Agency broke the news on its English news wire service, followed closely by numerous Chinese news portals that covered the story with a Chinese translation.<span class="indent"> </span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent">A few hours later, Chinese speakers living in the United States <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23050288">first heard the news on the BBC</a> and CNN, both of which quoted the original report from Xinhua. But when they began to look on Chinese websites, they could find hardly a trace of the story. The censors had been at work.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">For those living in China and China observers such censorship of important events is not unusual. China has never been far from the bottom of the <a href="http://fr.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/classement_2013_gb-bd.pdf">Press Freedom Index </a>published by Reporters without Borders and is presently in 173rd position, with just six countries worse . Foreign websites are routinely blocked and Chinese websites are under continual, close scrutiny.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">According to the <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1655006">Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society</a>, </span>China devotes “substantial technical, financial, and human resources” to develop the apparatus of censorship and has instituted “by far the most intricate filtering regime in the world.” Since censorship is a common practice in China, censored information has become an alternative perspective that we should not neglect when seeking to understand this country.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">Censorship is a crude tool at the best of times and often the material censored carries crucial information for people both inside and outside China – even if it is too inconvenient for the Chinese authorities. The outbreak of SARS in 2002-3, for instance, was censored from Chinese media for five months, presumably to avoid spoiling the harmonious atmosphere created for the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party. However, the decision was not without implications: it allowed the virus to travel irreversibly across continents until a worldwide epidemic emerged.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">So too with other subjects, which, like SARS, are not only inconvenient but also crucial; in fact, it hardly makes sense to devote huge resources in terms of human labour and computing power to monitor and eliminate subject matter that was merely trivial.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">At the same time, the authorities’ decision to censor information that is inconvenient, even if it is important, provides an opportunity to observe China from the standpoint of what it discards, rather than what it consumes. And that is precisely what a number of researchers outside China have now begun to do – namely, to examine and assess news stories that have been censored from the Chinese media.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">Of course, the analysis of deleted stories will never provide a full picture of media control. In many cases journalists familiar with a particular regimen will know not to write certain kinds of stories. This is a form of pre-censorship. The journalists in a newsroom may often be privy to certain information that they know it would be foolish to circulate.</span> </span></span></span></span></span></span>But with articles that have appeared and then just as rapidly have disappeared, there is a different situation. In these cases, the material has been published, but is subsequently judged to be unsuitable and is removed.<span class="indent"> </span><br />
<span class="indent"><br />
</span> <span class="indent">But how to collect this censored information before it vaporizes? In recent years scholars and institutes have been trying to uncover information censored from news portals and social media in China. A common technique involves two steps: collect and check. First, information published online in China is collected using big data techniques and, in the second stage, is repeatedly and continuously checked for availability. Once a link appears broken, it is “red flagged” for suspicion.<span class="indent"> </span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent">While it is possible for articles to be removed completely for editorial purposes, in practice this is rare. In such cases, as with corrections to, say the <em>New York Times</em> website, it is usually possible to identify the corrections, through the use of italics or some similar device.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">Even stronger evidence to rule out alternative explanations beyond censorship can be obtained by comparing deletions in a variety of news media to see if they cover similar topics. If so, then censorship is a strong possibility, because similar deletions reflect the systematic control of content, which in turn is a good indication of regulated behaviour.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx8IdMC7CoeZb2tZRTVSOGxheWc/view"> One recent censorship study</a> conducted jointly by Michigan State University and the City University of Hong Kong focused on <a href="http://ir.netease.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=122303&p=irol-IRHome#">NetEase</a> and <a href="http://www.sina.com.cn/">Sina</a>, two major news portals in China.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">From November 2011 to October 2012, the researchers found on average that two articles were deleted from each website per day and that the deletions from the two websites followed similar patterns. In particular, domestic news had a significantly higher probability of being deleted compared to international news: twice as likely for NetEase, and six times for Sina. Beijing stories had twice the probability of deletion compared to news covering other places in China. Surprisingly, very few articles on Tibet appear to have been deleted, a fact that the researchers put down to pre-censorship. Compared to neutral stories, for NetEase, positive news had one third the probability of being deleted whereas negative news nearly four times, and for Sina, negative news had three times the probability of being deleted.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">From a list of 13 news topics, five were strongly associated with deletions: politics, business, foreign affairs, food and drugs, and military. These topics frequently included sensitive keywords or phrases, such as land acquisition, death toll, social unrest, poor working environment, food safety, and disputed territories.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">These findings are in line with sociological theory on censorship, which suggests that the elimination of improper political news helps keep ideological purity, the removal of military news reflects a concern over national security, the ban on news covering disputed territories indicates the protection of national interest, and the expurgation of news on unsafe foods is one approach to maintaining social order. Like all modern states, China is wrestling with the impact of the growth in social media. It is aware of just how quickly online media can amplify the impact of events and invite participation, as seen in the Arab Spring movement. In his well-received book <a href="http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/rewire-digital-cosmopolitans-in-the-age-of-connection/"><i>Rewire</i></a>, <a href="http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/">Ethan Zuckerman</a>, director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, narrates how this movement started with a family’s protest against government corruption in Tunisia, spread beyond one town, and eventually reached over a dozen countries.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">Over a decade before the Arab Spring, China’s leadership had foreseen the potential threat of online media and started developing censorial strategies and tools. What it aims to constrain is the mobilizing power of online media, as indicated by a study conducted by <a href="http://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-censorship-china-allows-government-criticism-silences-collective-expression">Gary King and his colleagues at Harvard University</a>.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">From the messages deleted from nearly 1,400 Chinese social media platforms, they observed that the state aims to prevent and suppress ongoing and potential collective activities. This is in contrast to the widely held view that first and foremost the Chinese censors target harsh criticism of the state. Hence, on the one hand, social media are censored to prevent mobilization, and on the other hand, news media are censored to eliminate possible triggers for such mobilization. That is why international news was found to have been much less deleted than domestic news from NetEase and Sina, because remote events are not relevant enough to provoke strong reactions among citizens.<span class="indent"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent">China is not the only country to censor social media. Censorship exists in all societies and all forms of media. For example, there is presently a growing international debate on the ease with which pornography can be accessed online and whether or not this is a danger to children. Websites regarded as promoting Islamic fundamentalism are routinely banned in certain countries. In China, whilst censorship is pervasive, the debate over who controls online access to information and what are its limits has barely begun.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"><span class="indent"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10586699435446552851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6127862195669407221.post-79705147805522652013-08-08T13:06:00.002-04:002014-12-16T23:17:25.514-05:00Q&A on Censorship with the Oxford Internet Institute<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After presenting my study on China's censorship of online news at the Oxford Internet Institute (<a href="http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/">OII</a>), I had a great talk with David Sutcliffe, the editor of the OII <a href="http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/policy/">Policy and Internet Blog</a>, and went through the following questions. The full conversation is published on the blog post titled <a href="http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/policy/uncovering-the-patterns-and-practice-of-censorship-in-chinese-news-sites/"><i>Uncovering the patterns and practice of censorship in Chinese news sites</i></a>. <span style="color: #555555; font-family: arial, san-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 26px;"> </span><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>How much work has been done on censorship of online news in China? What are the methodological challenges and important questions associated with this line of enquiry?</li>
<li>You found that party organs, ie news organizations tightly affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, published a considerable amount of deleted news. Was this surprising?</li>
<li>How sensitive are citizens to the fact that some topics are actively avoided in the news media? And how easy is it for people to keep abreast of these topics (eg the “three Ts” of Tibet, Taiwan, and Tiananmen) from other information sources?</li>
<li>Is censorship of domestic news (such as food scares) more geared towards “avoiding panics and maintaining social order”, or just avoiding political embarrassment? For example, do you see censorship of environmental issues and (avoidable) disasters?</li>
<li>You plotted a map to show the geographic distribution of news deletion: what does the pattern show?</li>
<li>What do you think explains the much higher levels of censorship reported by others for social media than for news media? How does geographic distribution of deletion differ between the two?</li>
<li>Can you tell if the censorship process mostly relies on searching for sensitive keywords, or on more semantic analysis of the actual content? ie can you (or the censors..) distinguish sensitive “opinions” as well as sensitive topics?</li>
<li>It must be a cause of considerable anxiety for journalists and editors to have their material removed. Does censorship lead to sanctions? Or is the censorship more of an annoyance that must be negotiated?</li>
<li>What do you think explains the lack of censorship in the overseas portal? (Could there be a certain value for the government in having some news items accessible to an external audience, but unavailable to the internal one?)</li>
</ol>
</div>
Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10586699435446552851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6127862195669407221.post-13218624047529688182013-07-23T00:30:00.000-04:002013-07-23T08:29:08.353-04:00Why I Love OpenNews Fellowship and Why it's a Great Opportunity for Graduate Students<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://knightfoundation.org/media/uploads/media_images/Knight_Mozilla_Fellows.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="http://knightfoundation.org/media/uploads/media_images/Knight_Mozilla_Fellows.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.53; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;"><a href="http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/7/17/knight-mozilla-fellows-strive-global-impact-in-journalism/" style="border: 0px; color: #ba0077; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Knight Blog</a></span>: Knight-Mozilla fellows strive for global impact in journalism. Photo credit:<a href="http://www.mozillaopennews.org/" style="border: 0px; color: #ba0077; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Knight-Mozilla Fellows</a></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have always been an intellectual drifter and the <a href="http://mozillaopennews.org/">OpenNews</a>
fellowship has been the best reward for my adventures. When I first saw the
post calling for <a href="http://mozillaopennews.org/fellowships/2013meet.html">2013 applicants</a>, I was so surprised and also excited to know such
an opportunity was being created for the people just like me. <o:p></o:p></div>
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My background is highly mixed. I am currently a doctoral
candidate in an interdisciplinary program at Michigan State University. At MSU,
I have been studying media economics with my advisor <a href="http://www.fcc.gov/document/steven-wildman-appointed-chief-economist-fcc">Steve Wildman</a>, a world-renowned scholar and Chief Economist at the FCC, along with courses in psychology,
communication, and large-scale data analysis. Prior to MSU, I studied computer
science and journalism and worked in both industries. <o:p></o:p></div>
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If you are also a graduate student, you will probably enjoy
the Knight-Mozilla fellowship just like I do because it provides opportunities
that you may not easily find in academia. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>You'll get to work on real-world problems. </b>Through my
work experience and academic training, I gained a better understanding of how
people consume media content, how they behave on the Internet, and how content
providers could better cater to consumers’ demands and therefore develop
sustainable business models. I have been able to contribute my expertise on
these topics to the <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/">Boston Globe</a>, my newsroom host. With the support of the
staff here, I conducted an empirical study of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/globe">Boston Globe's Facebook Page</a>.
When I presented <a href="http://sonya2song.blogspot.com/2013/07/proto-analysis-of-boston-globe-traffic.html">my
findings</a> to colleagues, some people responded, “Thank you for sharing your
findings. We didn’t know those things!” It is thrilling and satisfying to find
truths and share knowledge in a practical setting.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Often as a graduate student, you may only have the privilege
and support to work on problems like this during summer internships. The
Knight-Mozilla Fellowship offers even more because it lasts beyond a summer and
allows you to fully immerse yourself in a world-class newsroom. If you hold a
similar belief that research should work toward real-world impact, definitely <a href="http://mozillaopennews.org/fellowships/apply.html">apply for this fellowship program</a> and aim to make an impact on the world. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>You'll have the support you need to work quickly. </b>As
you may have experienced, funding is an issue for a number of universities. You
will be surprised how much support you can get from this Fellowship: a generous
research budget and travel funding are among them. Moreover, a frustrating side
of academia is that research results may take months or years to get published.
In contrast, as an OpenNews Fellow, we can organize our own seminar or attend a
workshop to reach out to a larger audience. With this support, we are able to
give a louder shout to the world about what amazing things we have created or
found. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>You'll have the freedom and flexibility to follow where
your curiosity leads. </b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although
Fellows often offer a helping hand to our hosts, we are not obliged to commit
to any task in the newsrooms, because all our funding is from OpenNews. This
independence lets us pursue our own interests without being bound by routine
work that regular employees have to undertake. Meanwhile, we are encouraged to
work with other Fellows and organizations. Right now, I am working with two
other Fellows, <a href="https://twitter.com/stdbrouw">Stijn Debrouwere</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/brianabelson">Brian Abelson</a>, on measuring news impact and
contributing my knowledge to ProPublica on a project related to Internet
policy. We don't only collaborate remotely and virtually, but we also reunite in
person on different continents, to put our heads together and hack on
something. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Certainly, there are more opportunities and privileges for
you to discover in this fellowship program. If you are an adventurer like me, I
encourage you to step out of your ivory tower and <a href="http://mozillaopennews.org/fellowships/apply.html">join us</a> to explore
this fast spinning world where technology meets news. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10586699435446552851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6127862195669407221.post-72138550882756418882013-07-14T23:08:00.001-04:002013-11-14T18:22:55.067-05:00Proto-analysis of Boston Globe Traffic on Facebook<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Update</b> on 7/18/2013: In this post, you'll find a fair amount of explanations about statistics and key metrics. If you're already familiar with them, please refer to a neat <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/07/what-works-and-what-doesnt-on-the-boston-globes-facebook-page/">summary</a> published by the <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/">Nieman Journalism Lab</a>.<br />
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Last week, I gave a little talk at the <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/">Boston Globe</a>, presenting my preliminary analysis that examined how the Boston Globe articles were perceived through its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/globe">Facebook Page</a>. Through my analysis, I hoped to answer two questions. What types of stories are shared by the Boston Globe staff on the social media platform? In turn, how do different types of shared stories differently affect Facebook users’ reading and sharing? By answering these two questions, I aimed to find out how well the staff’s intentions were aligned with readers’ interest as measured through three metrics offered by Facebook, and whether there were gaps between the intentions and perceptions that would signal room for improvement.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Highlights of the Study</h3>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>I examined 215 stories shared in two weeks on the Facebook Page of the Boston Globe.</li>
<li>I found several attributes correlated with attention:</li>
<ul>
<li>Image size (none, thumbnail, single-column, and double-column)</li>
<li>Without or without a “breaking” label in the caption</li>
<li>Time of sharing (hour and weekday)</li>
<li>News topic defined by editors (business, metro, sports, etc.)</li>
<li>Related to the Boston Marathon bombing or not</li>
</ul>
<li>There were gaps between staff’s efforts and Facebook users’ reading and sharing.</li>
</ul>
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</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Facebook Insights and its Metrics</h3>
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</h3>
I exported the data through <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/399262596797358/">Facebook Insights</a>, a built-in feature for Page administrators, to a spreadsheet file and later analyzed them in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_(programming_language)">R</a>, an open-source statistical tool. I kept the dataset fairly small to save time, especially since I cleaned data and labeled some of the variables manually, as automation was infeasible for them. In total, I examined 215 stories shared from May 7 to 21 this year.<br />
<br />
My analysis was completely dependent on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/131809553587433?q=insights%20metrics&sid=0NDB0gSO5KWZiEVUt">three metrics</a> Facebook Insights features: <i>reach</i>, <i>engaged users</i>, and <i>talking about this</i>. According to Facebook, <i>reach</i> is defined as “the number of unique people who have seen your post”; <i>engaged users</i> as “the number of unique people who have clicked on your post”; and <i>talking about this</i> as “the number of unique people who have created a story from your Page post. Stories are created when someone likes, comments on or shares your posts; answers a question you posted; or responds to your event”. These metrics are counted as absolute numbers of unique visitors in various ways and reflect user behavior from passive reading to proactive sharing.<br />
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The next section discusses statistical details that may not appear familiar to some people. Please click here to jump directly to the section on findings and implications.<br />
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</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Independent Variables, Dependent Variables, and Negative Binomial Regression</h3>
<br />
The statistical tool I used for this analysis is negative binomial regression, and I want to explicate the two terms, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_analysis">regression</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_binomial_distribution">negative binomial</a>, to justify my choice of research method. Regression is a statistical process employed to estimate the relationships among variables. Variables serve different functions on analysis and some are labeled as independent variables and some others dependent variables. Dependent variables measure the attributes we expect to increase or decrease, such as life expectancy, happiness, and crime rate. Independent variables measure the factors that affect, predict or are associated with the outcome of dependent variables, such as educational level, blood pressure, police numbers, etc. Independent and dependent variables are by no means predetermined, but instead they are assigned freely for various research questions. For instance, we can estimate a graduate’s income from her educational level, or estimate how likely someone holds a master’s degree given her income.<br />
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In my case of analyzing Facebook data, I chose the three key metrics, namely <i>reach</i>, <i>engaged users</i> and <i>talking about this</i>, as dependent variables. The independent variables are different aspects of shared posts that possibly affect these outcomes. The aspects I included are news section, image size, “breaking” label, publication hour and weekday. Especially, I created a binary independent variable that marked stories as relevant or irrelevant to the Boston Marathon bombing, because this topic has been a beat followed closely by the Globe staff.<br />
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The reason why I chose regression is because it allows for assessing the association of each independent variable with the dependent variable separately. This is very important for the analysis. For example, more black women were reported to die of breast cancer than white women. Then could we assume that, biologically, black women confront a higher risk of the disease? Maybe not. If we include women’s occupation, education and income into the analysis, we could find that black and white women are not significantly different in developing breast cancer if they are at the same <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socioeconomic_status">socioeconomic status</a> (SES).<br />
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Taking the study of analyzing news stories as another example, we may observe story A is read by more people than story B. Can we claim that story A is more interesting than story B? Again, maybe not. We may find story A was shared at 8 am when people tend to check Facebook on their commute to work, whereas story B was shared at 11am when people are often busy working. Also, story A covers sports and story B covers international relations, while sports news is generally more popular than international news. Therefore, to control the various aspects of news stories, I need to run regression for more robust and reliable results.<br />
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On the question of which type of regression is most appropriate, a quick response is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution">Poisson regression</a> because it handles count data, such as how many times a week people watch TV, how many times a year tornados break out in the US, and how many people are waiting in front of you at a cashier. Because the data I collected violated an assumption for Poisson regression (equal mean and variance), I chose an alternative approach called negative binomial regression, because it is a good choice to deal with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdispersion">overdispersion</a> expressed by my data. For those interested in a description of these and other analysis methods, <a href="http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/">UCLA</a> shares a lot of tutorials on statistical analysis, including <a href="http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/r/dae/nbreg.htm">negative binomial regression</a>.<br />
<br />
Coefficients generated by negative binomial regression are log ratios. To make the findings more comprehensible, in the following section, I present the ratios using the exponentiated coefficients.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6127862195669407221" name="findings"></a> <br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Findings and Implications</h3>
<br />
This study was inspired by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-media/12-pages-best-practices-for-media-companies/518053828230111">Facebook’s report</a> on good practices for media companies. Facebook collected a sample of news institutes using Facebook Pages and reached the conclusions based on various practices of them. By contrast, my study was only focused on the Boston Globe and my findings were not always consistent with the suggestions given by Facebook.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
“Breaking” Label</h4>
Facebook found that ‘posts that included “breaking” or “breaking news” received a 57% higher engagement over posts that were not identified as breaking news.’ In contrast, I did not find any significant difference in engaging users or going viral. The only difference I found is a significant increase in reach by 60%. From this, we could infer that the “breaking” label did not inhibit “engaged users” or talking about this and increased reach.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Image Size</h4>
In terms of illustrative images, four sizes can be observed in the posts on Facebook Pages. They are zero or no image, thumbnail images, single-column images and double-column images, but the double-column images cannot be seen on users’ news feeds, and is only available on Facebook Pages. For research purposes, I retained “double-column” as an image size. From the following chart, you can see how image size affected the amount of attention drawn from Facebook users. The ratios are exponentiated coefficients.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Quite obviously, illustrating a story with an image was better than with no image.</li>
<li>A thumbnail image appeared not to make a significant difference than no image.</li>
<li>The larger an image was, the more popular a shared story was likely to be.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZeJSkLjmn6HP5Q6YN7ZUP9xsQujKOWRm3KbrWEWX65FCkGpGyWKp5kY98wpcY-kLkYA_q7HcHN-HdFdRZSSexYTgNR0Voy9UEf59WhCjc4nKurugKjojJUvEgYGla7GGjs36rtNj1Jutq/s1600/image.size.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZeJSkLjmn6HP5Q6YN7ZUP9xsQujKOWRm3KbrWEWX65FCkGpGyWKp5kY98wpcY-kLkYA_q7HcHN-HdFdRZSSexYTgNR0Voy9UEf59WhCjc4nKurugKjojJUvEgYGla7GGjs36rtNj1Jutq/s1600/image.size.png" /></a></div>
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Marathon Bombing</h4>
The stories about the Boston Marathon bombing significantly attracted more attention on Facebook. Across the three key metrics, <i>reach</i>, <i>engaged users</i>, and <i>talking about this</i>, these stories increased the metrics by 31%, 97%, and 64%. However, when I looked at how users were engaged in doing likes, comments and shares, I realized people didn’t necessarily “like” bombing-related stories. It’s not surprising because “liking” a horrible story may create a cognitive conflict for some people and therefore they don’t feel comfortable “liking” it. Regarding comments and shares, bombing-related stories enjoyed increased performance by 90% and 80%. Again, the ratios here are exponentiated coefficients.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Sharing Hour and Weekday</h4>
Because the data set spanned only two weeks, I don’t consider correlations to sharing weekday to be reliable. However, it’s large enough to compare 24 hours across a day. The following chart shows how the stories were shared by the staff and perceived by Facebook users. From it, we can see:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>More stories were shared during business hours.</li>
<li>However, across the three metrics, the performance was not great during business hours.</li>
<li>The traffic seemed to peak around 8 am and around 11pm - 2am EST.</li>
<ul>
<li>West coasters may contribute to after-midnight lags.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtoGqBv6AHIQUchDtvamSy03jk8OgqrDMSskI0TJK5yFT1l3koey5OOvgiTH0cUCJ3uVu7d3rRT4voBDk5bGoWCmBUtnXqxPBuKIqAk6CcLAiV9d5N4WtIeVZ2J6MlXkVDQVDKyZzCZIFP/s1600/hour.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtoGqBv6AHIQUchDtvamSy03jk8OgqrDMSskI0TJK5yFT1l3koey5OOvgiTH0cUCJ3uVu7d3rRT4voBDk5bGoWCmBUtnXqxPBuKIqAk6CcLAiV9d5N4WtIeVZ2J6MlXkVDQVDKyZzCZIFP/s1600/hour.png" /></a></div>
<br />
I talked with Joel Abrams at the Boston Globe about why peaks appeared in the early morning and late night. We’ve conjured up two theories for the phenomenon. First, people check Facebook more frequently before and after work, for instance, on commute or in bed. Second, quite uncooperatively, newsrooms share fewer stories during those “idling” hours because social media editors are also not at work. As such, those hours may see a shortage of new posts and therefore there is less competition for attention seekers. In the future, we could experiment with sharing stories in the early morning and late night to see if we could possibly boost traffic.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
News Sections</h4>
There are in total 12 news sections predetermined by the Boston Globe staff: art, business, ideas, lifestyle, magazine, metro, news, opinion, slides, specials, sports, and upgrade. (Upgrade posts are advertising that invites people to upgrade their membership to subscribers.) The following chart shows how many stories the staff shared across topics and how different topics were associated with reach, engaged users and talking about this. Between the staff’s shares and the readers’ attention, there were in fact some gaps.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_tkiChEsRZq1KrJ09S85sLIP3CSO6kcEsuIWKnlYKDzo2mChfDObJ2i0f2p7MIDb6Bih4LQNnxr8Djx21lJQ706FLjybAPTBi6wFxeulr-QDkFM1X-bACtNmT3Rp1HRPfqCKbOVQZuREE/s1600/section.sum.ave.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_tkiChEsRZq1KrJ09S85sLIP3CSO6kcEsuIWKnlYKDzo2mChfDObJ2i0f2p7MIDb6Bih4LQNnxr8Djx21lJQ706FLjybAPTBi6wFxeulr-QDkFM1X-bACtNmT3Rp1HRPfqCKbOVQZuREE/s1600/section.sum.ave.png" /></a><br />
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The regression analysis assessed with higher precision how different news sections affected stories' performance on Facebook. Art news was taken as the baseline and the other news sections were compared to it. The results were shown as ratios (e.g., 20% means only one fifth as good as art news, and 300% means three times as good as art news). Please note that the confidence intervals were exponentiated from regression estimates and that's why the upper interval is larger than the lower interval. Now we can sort out news sections by their impact on performance:<br />
<ul>
<li>Sorted by the amount shared by staff, high to low are:</li>
<ul>
<li>Metro, sports, news, lifestyle, arts, business, opinion, slides/mag/upgrade, ideas, and special.</li>
</ul>
<li>Sorted by reach, top ones are:</li>
<ul>
<li>Opinion, slides, lifestyle, and business</li>
</ul>
<li>Sorted by engaged users, top ones are:</li>
<ul>
<li>Opinion, metro, lifestyle, and business</li>
</ul>
<li>Sorted by talking about this, top ones are:</li>
<ul>
<li>Slides, opinion, sports, and metro.</li>
</ul>
<li>The misalignment between staff’s shares and readers’ perception may be a starting point for adjustments.</li>
</ul>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZznaN7m40qF_DFdfOCv4Q9qjjRxhCYbVqCmHdAKmrEhIH3lDcb1zOz-TfXLkoPMo08o7jQZ3YcIS8djnZDIv9bSjNewlP30_WgEGxItn1LUwKufWf6Yha3gfQVKUZIomtI8FWzDqHeauM/s1600/section.coef.confint.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZznaN7m40qF_DFdfOCv4Q9qjjRxhCYbVqCmHdAKmrEhIH3lDcb1zOz-TfXLkoPMo08o7jQZ3YcIS8djnZDIv9bSjNewlP30_WgEGxItn1LUwKufWf6Yha3gfQVKUZIomtI8FWzDqHeauM/s1600/section.coef.confint.png" /></a></div>
To compare the two dimensions (staff’s posts and readers’ attention), I scatter-plotted them together on one chart. In this chart, the horizontal axis represents how many stories were shared by the staff, and the vertical axis denotes how the stories were perceived by Facebook readers, in terms of <i>reach</i>, <i>engaged users</i>, and <i>talking about this</i>. The data were log transformed so that the data points could be squeezed together for a more sensible view. The units in fact didn’t matter here, because what we hope to see is the ratio of effort to outcome. or efficiency. To indicate their efficiency in the readers’ responses to the staff’s efforts, I roughly grouped the news topics into high, medium and low and colored the background with yellow, grey and white. It appeared that, given the same amount of posts, opinion engaged more activities and photo slides tended to go more viral. Meanwhile, we could see that the shared posts of opinion and photo slides were fairly scarce. There is a gap between the amount of articles published by section and the traffic they capture, and this could be a fruitful point of analysis for future adjustment in article sharing choice. Specifically, this study suggest that more readers will be engaged if there were more posts of opinion, photo slides, business, and lifestyle.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEwG73-T5xcVsILS7NqB7Lq0Qhlsy7y6tzjI0VHxVXUiIWlZiLXv55AL6Sn15fb7I3maFdzYJ8toTIyakRhkE7fEG0DGqhf4X6Mwe2m4pUlsPGKA4yf-sY9-JpvrZnnMZUGI95k4zcUCZ_/s1600/seciton.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEwG73-T5xcVsILS7NqB7Lq0Qhlsy7y6tzjI0VHxVXUiIWlZiLXv55AL6Sn15fb7I3maFdzYJ8toTIyakRhkE7fEG0DGqhf4X6Mwe2m4pUlsPGKA4yf-sY9-JpvrZnnMZUGI95k4zcUCZ_/s1600/seciton.png" /></a></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Virality or Conversation Rate</h4>
The following chart shows a trend: when stories reached a larger amount of readers, more readers would be engaged in more activities around the stories, with each dot representing one shared story. This trend appears in a roughly linear relationship, between <i>reach</i>, <i>engaged users</i>, and <i>talking about this</i>. Meanwhile, we can easily discern some circles dangling beneath the trending lines, residing in the red circles. So why did those stories generate fewer activities?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_7ZVWa5J8iRYkCZYN_LudwTrzOoukV7yRObtZW5my7YmdwdFOs49Y-tXilSmRHC31CSy7XwRHQmswbVHv0aPKSc__60lqxmqxEDLGdUiDtSADjbI3Jj91drKD54q8e4q72fK8bxGZ-rvW/s1600/3metric.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_7ZVWa5J8iRYkCZYN_LudwTrzOoukV7yRObtZW5my7YmdwdFOs49Y-tXilSmRHC31CSy7XwRHQmswbVHv0aPKSc__60lqxmqxEDLGdUiDtSADjbI3Jj91drKD54q8e4q72fK8bxGZ-rvW/s1600/3metric.png" /></a></div>
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The virality extent, or so-called conversation rate, helps to discover these underperforming stories. This metric is calculated as the ratio of talking about this to reach. I’ll list the least as well as most conversational stories and give a quick summary of the observed patterns in the content.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Most conversational stories</h4>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant today pledged $1 million to <b>recovery efforts</b> after yesterday's devastating <b>tornado</b>. http://b.globe.com/191OR6r</li>
<li>Romeo and Juliet, the <b>swans</b> who reside at the Boston Public Garden during the summer (and at Franklin Park Zoo during the winter), returned there today in a sign that the <b>spring</b> season is truly here. See photos: http://b.globe.com/ZOid4O</li>
<li>The <b>lilacs</b> are in full <b>bloom</b> at Arnold Arboretum. This photo was taken yesterday, known officially as Lilac Sunday at the Arboretum. Stop by if you have a chance. Globe staff photo / Yoon S. Byun</li>
<li>Say hello to the <b>CapeFlyer</b>. It had its inaugural run today and is scheduled to have its official <b>debut</b> next weekend, the first time in about 25 years service from Boston to Cape Cod will be offered. http://b.globe.com/13xiois Would you ride it?</li>
<li>The Marathon bombing <b>sheared off the right leg</b> of Marc Fucarile (pictured, with his fiancee Jen Regan) in a millisecond. It spared the left, but not by much. Now, he and his family are in a painful waiting game to see if <b>his “good” leg can be saved</b>. http://b.globe.com/11igVlA</li>
<li>A <b>child was pulled</b> from the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., after an EF-4 <b>tornado</b> struck. The tornado, with winds up to 200 mph, was up to a mile wide and left behind large areas of devastation. http://b.globe.com/12pP8KY</li>
<li>“It was one of the greatest moments in Boston sports history,” writes the Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy about the Bruins’ thrilling <b>win</b> over the Maple Leafs. “And then came a miracle… the Bruins <b>scored and scored</b> and scored.” http://b.globe.com/18H5GTZ</li>
<li>The Boston Athletic Association is <b>inviting</b> all runners who <b>failed</b> to <b>finish</b> 2013 Boston Marathon to run in next year's race. This affects 5,633 runners.</li>
<li>Brad Marchand scored the Bruins' game-<b>winning</b> goal over the Rangers at 15:40 of <b>overtime</b>. Story: http://b.globe.com/10vZlak (Photo credit: AP)</li>
<li>After learning she had an 87% chance of developing <b>breast cancer</b>, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a <b>preventative</b> double mastectomy. Jolie shares her story in a powerful The New York Times op-ed today: http://nyti.ms/18HZFX3 EPA photo</li>
</ol>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Least conversational stories</h4>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Keith Reddin’s thriller “Almost Blue” at the Charlestown Working Theater, isn’t so much blue as noir http://goo.gl/PwlBT</li>
<li>#Recipe for paella-stuffed peppers http://goo.gl/PwlBT</li>
<li>New: Matthew Gilbert's Buzzsaw column. As the cult favorite, "Arrested Development," returns with a season-sized “episode dump,” Globe critic Matthew Gilbert asks, does giving viewers too much leave them with nothing to talk about? http://b.globe.com/10a7Sg5</li>
<li>Make mom feel even more special with these stylish Mother’s Day gifts.</li>
<li>The Phoenix Suns named 33-year-old Ryan McDonough, formerly of the Boston Celtics, as their new general manager.</li>
<li>Album review: The soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of "The Great Gatsby," curated by Jay-Z, is a fantastical reimagining of that era, putting ‘20s jazz in the modern context of pop and hip-hop. Oddly enough, the one thing the soundtrack is missing is heart.</li>
<li>Creative restlessness and a sense of adventure are at the heart of Iron & Wine’s latest album, “Ghost on Ghost,” which Sam Beam will celebrate with a show at Berklee Performance Center tonight.</li>
<li>Book review: The beloved author of “The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini, returns to the rugged landscape of his home country, Afghanistan with "And the Mountains Echoed."</li>
<li>Jon Lester gave up six runs in six innings in Chicago as the White Sox defeated the Red Sox, 6-4.</li>
<li>Yahoo is buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Do you think this will help rejuvenate the Yahoo brand? Is Tumblr a good investment?</li>
</ol>
Here is my quick summary of patterns related to conversational potential of stories.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Beautiful and pleasant stuff was the most conversational, such as photo slides.</li>
<li>Also highly conversational: there’s a problem but there have been (or would be) a solution:</li>
<ul>
<li>Tie but broken by miracle win in sports</li>
<li>Failed to finish marathon but were invited back to do it</li>
<li>Marathon bombing victims but were given medical care</li>
<li>Natural disaster but children were saved</li>
<li>Chance of cancer but intervention minimized it</li>
</ul>
<li>The least conversational:</li>
<ul>
<li>Arts related (music, movies, books, etc.)</li>
<li>Factual information (sports scores, settled business deals, etc.</li>
</ul>
<li>The high and low engagement is consistent with prior research that higher emotional reaction leads to more frequent expression.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Limitations and Future Research</h3>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Limitations</li>
<ul>
<li>The data set is fairly small (n = 215)</li>
<li>Hence, more sampling errors and biases in results</li>
<li>Also omitted to examine how the frequency of shares would affect readers’ perceptions (the more shared stories the better, or vice versa, or doesn’t matter?)</li>
</ul>
<li>Future research</li>
<ul>
<li>Time-series data</li>
<li>Demographics (gender, age ranger, location, etc.)</li>
<li>Devices (web vs. mobile, platform types, etc.)</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10586699435446552851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6127862195669407221.post-28525430223748277612013-06-10T10:15:00.000-04:002014-12-16T23:17:11.662-05:00Talk on News Censorship<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'm fortunately funded by the <a href="http://www.mozillaopennews.org/"><b style="background-color: yellow;">Knight-Mozilla OpenNews Fellowship</b></a> program to attend a conference on <a href="http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/china-niw/events/preconference/programme">China and the New Internet World</a> organized by the <a data-mce-href="http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/" href="http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford Internet Institute</a>. There I will give a presentation on China's news censorship. I've uploaded the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx8IdMC7CoeZb2tZRTVSOGxheWc/view?usp=sharing">full paper</a> and the <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ne20jvci5gljtat/Censorship.Sonya.Song.HHBer.2013.pptx">slides</a> online, please feel free to download them for more information. Also, I have more data and preliminary findings unpublished and I'd love to share and discuss them. My email address is <u>songyan at msu dot edu</u>. </div>
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</strong></div>
<div>
<strong>Prior and Ongoing Research on Internet Censorship</strong></div>
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Internet censorship has been attracting much attention from various academics and institutes. For example, the <a data-mce-href="https://opennet.net/research/profiles" href="https://opennet.net/research/profiles">Open Net Initiative</a> (<b>ONI</b>) has been constantly testing the availability of websites in 74 countries and rating government control of content related to politics, social issues, Internet tools, and conflict/security (<a data-mce-href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1655006" href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1655006">Palfrey, 2010</a>). The <a data-mce-href="http://openitp.org/OpenITP/about-the-open-internet-tools-project.html" href="http://openitp.org/OpenITP/about-the-open-internet-tools-project.html">Open Internet Tool Project</a> (<b>OpenITP</b>) surveyed circumvention tool users living in China to understand how they bypass the Great Firewall in hopes of building better tools to serve the needs of internet users in China and other censored regimes (<a data-mce-href="http://openitp.org/News-Events/collateral-freedom-a-snapshot-of-chinese-users-circumventing-censorship.html" href="http://openitp.org/News-Events/collateral-freedom-a-snapshot-of-chinese-users-circumventing-censorship.html">Robinson et al., 2013</a>).</div>
<div>
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Among the empirical studies focused on online media, <a data-mce-href="http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/3943" href="http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/3943"><b>Bamman et al.’s (2012)</b></a> work claimed to be “the first large–scale analysis of political content censorship” that investigates messages deleted from <b>Sina Weibo</b>, a Chinese equivalent to Twitter. They found 16.25% of posts were deleted after their publication time and recognized some characteristics related to post deletions, including 295 sensitive keywords and the outlying provinces such as Tibet and Qinghai. Beyond Sina Weibo and on an even larger scale, <b><a data-mce-href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2104894" href="http://gking.harvard.edu/files/censored.pdf">King et al. (2013)</a> </b>collected data from nearly <b>1,400 Chinese social media platforms</b> and analyzed the deleted messages with the aid of linguistic software. In contrast to previous presumptions that its harsh criticism of the government is the target of censors, King et al. found that indeed it's ongoing and potential collective activities that the state aims to prevent and suppress. </div>
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</strong></div>
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<strong>Research Methods in a Nutshell</strong></div>
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To our best knowledge, however, censorial practices in online news media have never been studied, not to mention extensively investigated through computing approaches. Therefore, our study may be the first empirical attempt that systematically examined the news articles deleted from the Chinese cyberspace. </div>
<div>
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We developed scripts to <b>collect</b> news articles published on NetEase and Sina, two major news aggregators headquartered in China. Meanwhile we continuously <b>checked</b> whether or not these articles remained available and we marked a news article as deleted once its link was found broken. In fact, to make sure that the news story was really deleted due to its content rather than editorial or technical reasons, we searched across the websites for the articles with the same title but under a different link. Only when duplicates were unavailable did we claim that a particular story was deleted. </div>
<div>
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After collecting thousands of deleted news stories, we ran a regression over these data to detect patterns associated with deletion. The technique we adopted is <b>ReLogit</b> (King and Zeng, <a data-mce-href="http://pan.oxfordjournals.org/content/9/2/137.short" href="http://pan.oxfordjournals.org/content/9/2/137.short">2001a</a> and <a data-mce-href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=1468B4B9F527AF8A300E6F4C7AC38720.journals?fromPage=online&aid=164681" href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=1468B4B9F527AF8A300E6F4C7AC38720.journals?fromPage=online&aid=164681">2001b</a>), a logistic regression handling <b>rare events data</b>. This tool was developed by political scientists to analyze rare events, such as wars and coups. For this reason, this is an appropriate tool for our study because the over deletion rates across the two websites were under 1%, as summarized below. </div>
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<strong>Findings and Conclusions</strong></div>
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<div>
During the course of our study, on each website, <b>about two articles were deleted per day</b> and the overall <b>deletion rate</b> was <b>0.05% </b>on NetEase and <b>0.13% </b>on Sina Beijing.<br />
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<div>
Several similar patterns have been found across the two news portals: </div>
<ul>
<li><strong>Domestic</strong> news had a significantly higher chance of being deleted than <b>international</b> news: twice as likely for NetEase, and about six times for Sina Beijing.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>News covering <strong>Beijing</strong> had twice the chance for deletion compared to news covering other places in China.</li>
<li><strong>Tibet </strong>as a subject matter had little relation with deletion. </li>
<li><strong>National</strong>, compared to <b>local</b>, news was significantly associated with deletion for both websites: For NetEase, one and a half times as likely to be deleted, and for Sina Beijing one third times as likely to be deleted.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Nature of events</strong> was another strong indicator. Compared to neutral stories, for NetEase, <strong>positive</strong> news had one third the chance to be deleted whereas <strong>negative</strong> news nearly four times, and for Sina Beijing, <strong>negative</strong> news had three times to be deleted.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Five out of 13 coded <strong>news topics</strong> were strongly associated with news deletions, including <strong>p</strong><strong>olitics, business, foreign affairs, food </strong><strong>and</strong><strong> drugs, </strong>and<strong> military</strong>, although the strengths varied across the categories and the websites.</li>
</ul>
<div>
From this evidence, we reached the following conclusions: </div>
<ul>
<li>The two Chinese news portals deleted news with <strong>similar patterns</strong>.</li>
<li>These similarities are translated to the practice of <strong>systematic control</strong>, the quintessential component of the <strong>definition of censorship</strong> (<a data-mce-href="http://sites.lafayette.edu/pelegi/" href="http://sites.lafayette.edu/pelegi/">Peleg, 1993</a>). </li>
<li>Hence, for the first time, we have <strong>confirmed and quantified</strong> the online news censorship in China. </li>
</ul>
<div>
<strong><br />
</strong> <strong>Taboo Words</strong></div>
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</strong></div>
<div>
Beyond news deletion, I've been examining comment deletions as well. I've created some word clouds with the help of <a data-mce-href="http://www.wordle.net/" href="http://www.wordle.net/">Wordle</a> and highlighted the keywords most commonly found in deleted comments. They're not included in the paper or the slides. </div>
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These keywords are aligned with our general understanding of taboo topics, such as land acquisition, death toll, social unrest, food safety, pollution, and lamentable work environment. </div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
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<img alt="image" data-mce-src="http://media.tumblr.com/eb831495ff23b3a51cfb937e6f0c2122/tumblr_inline_mo5guoHIjZ1qz4rgp.png" src="http://media.tumblr.com/eb831495ff23b3a51cfb937e6f0c2122/tumblr_inline_mo5guoHIjZ1qz4rgp.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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<strong>Comments Prohibited and Suppressed</strong></div>
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A second research topic of mine is how comments are manipulated and what patterns are associated with the manipulation. Various types of manipulation have been observed and they include having commenting function disabled, screening and filtering submitted comments before publication (i.e., pre-censorship), and deleting published comments after publication (i.e., post-censorship). This topic isn't included in the paper or the slides. </div>
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To make this research topic more understandable, I'll first elaborate on the general practice of Chinese news portals. Most of the time, news portals welcome and encourage comments because interactions boost web traffic. However, a small portion of news stories have their commenting feature disabled. There are two way to implement this function. On NetEase, a notification is put under a story, informing "commenting is disabled" and the button for commenting is unavailable. Sina takes a more subtle approach and puts no such a notification and meanwhile users can submit comments as usual but the comments are never displayed on the website. These are pre-censorship techniques. As to post-censorship, both websites simply remove comments quietly after their publication. A third type of manipulative technique is different from passively pre- or post-censoring comments, but to proactively hire Internet commentators, or so-called <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party">50 Cent Party</a>, to propagate orthodox ideas endorsed by the government. </div>
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The following time-series chart demonstrates the first type of comment manipulation, which is to prohibit comments. In this way, party organs attempt to impose official opinions through one-way communication on issues on North Korea, outlying provinces, controversial territories, major criminal case, and so on. </div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="image" data-mce-src="http://media.tumblr.com/6ff5a3ff972e9cd13c7e4a9e8b2509d3/tumblr_inline_mo5dn7qJLs1qz4rgp.png" src="http://media.tumblr.com/6ff5a3ff972e9cd13c7e4a9e8b2509d3/tumblr_inline_mo5dn7qJLs1qz4rgp.png" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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More subtly, Sina "allows" comments but never shows some of them on the website. I've figured out how to send parameters to the API to request the numbers of pre-censored comments and drawn the following chart that shows the new stories having no comment at all although their commenting function is "available". </div>
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<div style="color: #444444; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="image" data-mce-src="http://media.tumblr.com/e00955b2fdc4d2eff88a87200be91421/tumblr_inline_mo5dnqvXaz1qz4rgp.png" src="http://media.tumblr.com/e00955b2fdc4d2eff88a87200be91421/tumblr_inline_mo5dnqvXaz1qz4rgp.png" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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The third time-series chart exhibits the amount of comment deletions on a weekly basis. The topics found in the deleted comments are fairly aligned with those deleted from news stories. </div>
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<div style="color: #444444; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="image" data-mce-src="http://media.tumblr.com/5fb633cceca8eae665a03e5b7a3df08d/tumblr_inline_mo5dni1UYl1qz4rgp.png" src="http://media.tumblr.com/5fb633cceca8eae665a03e5b7a3df08d/tumblr_inline_mo5dni1UYl1qz4rgp.png" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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This study was funded by the <b style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.google.com/policyfellowship/">Google Policy Fellowship</a></b> 2012 and collaborated between the <a data-mce-href="http://quello.msu.edu/" href="http://quello.msu.edu/">Quello Center for Telecom Management and Law</a> at MSU and the <a data-mce-href="http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/ccr/" href="http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/ccr/">Center for Communication Research</a> at the City University of Hong Kong. Please send your comments and questions to <u>songyan at msu dot edu</u>. Thank you for reading this post. </div>
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Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10586699435446552851noreply@blogger.com