School of Communication and Media
school of communication and media

Studies

Montclair Social Media Study Finds Overwhelming Increase in Sadness and Disgust from SCOTUS Rulings 

A new study released on July 6, 2023 by the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University examined social media reaction to two historic rulings last week by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).

The study examined more than 150,000 posts between June 27 and July 3 on major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Twitter. The research team utilized search queries to discover how social media users in the U.S. reacted to the separate, landmark rulings regarding Affirmative Action and Student Loan Forgiveness. A press release about the study can be found here.

Study: 80%+ of the Buffalo Shooter Manifesto Copied Directly from Hate Sites Raising Concerns about Internet Dangers

A new study summarized here from Montclair Justice Studies professor Dr. Daniela Peterka-Benton and Dr. Bond Benton of the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media demonstrates the extent to which Buffalo Shooter Payton Gendron’s manifesto was derived from hate content he consumed online.  His highly planned attack on May 14, 2022 at a Buffalo, NY supermarket focused on the killing of African Americans and left 13 people dead. Understanding what motivated such a hateful attack was a focus of the research.

Specifically, the study showed over 80% of the visual and written content of the rationale sections of the manifesto came from extremist spaces he reported visiting.  The full study can be found in the Journal for Deradicalization.

Valentine’s Day Study: Does the Over-Commercialization of Valentine’s Day on Social Media Leave Us Living in a Sadder, Material World?

New research from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication at Montclair State University found that the commercialization of Valentine’s Day is more prevalent than ever, and that might not be a good thing.

To investigate the themes of Valentine’s Day messaging in social media, researchers from Montclair’s Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication analyzed over 80,000 posts using #Valentinesday and #Valentinesday2023 on various social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram over a one-month period. The full study is found Montclair State 2023 Valentine’s Day Commercialization Study, but highlights of the findings released on February 13, 2023 include:

  • Through analysis of a social media dataset using “Valentine’s Day” as a keyword, the most associated term was “shop”, with “shop” and “gift” identified 131.17% more frequently than the term “love.”
  • The commercialization of Valentine’s Day and its cultural construction as the linkage between romantic authenticity and market participation appears to have created a context that creates significant mental health challenges. The notion of “noble love” has, in many ways, been replaced by the commercialization of messaging associated with the holiday.
  • Interestingly, among the Valentine’s Day social messages targeted toward singles, the popular hashtags included “#selflove,” “selfcare,” “valentinesgift,” “#chocolate day,” “#roseday. Particularly, supportive messages encouraged singles to focus on setting healthy boundaries, focusing on mental health, prioritizing personal goals, launching positive changes, seeking love from friends and families, purchasing personal dreams, learning strategies to manage loneliness, seeking balance by turning inward, staying physically active, etc.
  • Media literacy and the ability to unpack manipulative online content should be a focus for all populations with a significant emphasis on Gen Z (Micu and Coulter 2012). The monetization of problematic messaging is noted as a function of social media (Center for Countering Digital Hate, 2021).  The coupling of love with commoditization for a holiday as seemingly benign as Valentine’s Day is indicative of the need for continued vigilance against acceptance of online messaging as being rooted in truth and legitimacy.

Study on Spike in “Grooming” Terms on Twitter After Colorado Springs Tragedy

A new study released on November 28 by the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University points to what hate speech on Twitter could look like following Elon Musk’s offer of “general amnesty” to suspended accounts on the platform.

Specifically, the study showed a dramatic spike in the use of the term “grooming” (a slur used against the LGBTQ+ community) on Twitter in the period after the shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on November 19-20. The full study can be found here.

FIFA World Cup Studies

Leading up to the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on November 20, our team from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University released separate studies surrounding the controversial tournament, one on boycotting and activism and another highlighting popular players, teams, brands and trends.

Twitter Hate Speech Study After Musk’s Acquisition

On October 29, 2022, our team from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University released a study on the increase in hate speech on Twitter in the hours immediately after Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform, a transaction that created the perception by extremist users that content restrictions would be alleviated.

Highlights from the study from the School’s Center for Strategic Communication include:

  • The seven-day average of Tweets using the studied hate terms prior to Musk’s acquisition was never higher than 84 times per hour.
  • However, on October 28 from midnight to noon (immediately following Musk’s acquisition), the studied hate speech was Tweeted some 4,778 times.
  • Terms studied included vulgar and hostile terms for individuals based on race, religion, ethnicity, and orientation.
  • The potential impact of this hate speech (the potential number of times a term posted in Twitter could have been viewed) was more than 3 million.
  • Elon Musk has promised to reduce restrictions on the platform and “free the bird.” From these results, this directive represents an obvious danger to young people using the platform.
  • Platforms with lax or no moderation are frequently spaces filled with racism, homophobia, transphobia, and antisemitism.
  • Recorded data indicating the spike in hate speech.
  • The entire study can be found here: Montclair State SCM Study- Increases in Twitter Hate Speech After Elon Musk’s Acquisition

 

Pumpkin Spice Study

On September 29, 2022, our team from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University released research that found despite what the skeptics say, Americans still really love pumpkin spice and can’t get enough of pumpkin spice foods, beverages and products.

Montclair State SCM Pumpkin Spice Study

Combing through nearly 20,000 Twitter and Instagram posts from September 2022, the Montclair team of faculty and graduate student researchers discovered that 55% of posts containing “pumpkin spice” or the hashtag #pumpkinspice were positive in nature, 8% were negative and 37% were deemed neutral.There’s no sign of the pumpkin spice latte (PSL) love dying down, either. In fact, according to Google Trends, the popular fall flavor is on pace to create more internet activity this year than ever before.

The buzz around pumpkin spice initially peaked in 2017-18 and fell slightly as a trend in the following years. But current data suggests that this year is on pace to far surpass the 2017-18 peak, meaning the seasonal star is back. Big time.“The power of pumpkin and pumpkin spice are clear in the data,” said Jin-A Choi, assistant professor of Advertising at Montclair. “While many assume the topic is polarizing, the majority of the social media data we analyzed showed that America and a wide range of companies continue to want more pumpkin spice.”The trending topic has also prompted brands and businesses unrelated to the fall flavor to use the #pumpkinspice hashtag to sell or drive interest in their products – a phenomenon known as “trendjacking.” The upside? About 2% of evaluated trendjacking posts were linked to social causes, such as dog adoption shelters.