The Online Looking Glass: The Study of Self Esteem and Narcissism on Instagram within a Patriarchal and Collectivist Society

Online social networking sites have revealed an entirely new method of impression management and self-expression. These user-generated social tools present a new and evolving medium of investigation to study personality and identity. The current study examines how narcissism and self-esteem are demonstrated on the social networking application Instagram. To frame our research, we utilized the Uses and Gratifications Theory, which explains why audiences consume mediated messages and how and why authors create user-generated media (UGM). In this research our objective was to understand how and why users of Instagram in Kuwait were using the social media platform and how it related and impacted their self-esteem and how it revealed, if any, narcissistic personality traits. To do so, self-esteem and narcissistic personality self-reports were collected from 79 Instagram users in Kuwait and we also followed and analyzed their Instagram accounts. In our analysis, these participants’ profiles were coded on self-promotional content features based on their Instagram photos and captions posted on their Instagram accounts. By probing the relationship between this new medium, we can begin to understand the relationship amongst technology, culture, and the self. Keywords: social media, Kuwait, Instagram, self-esteem, narcissism, social networking

Stories Collectively Engage Listeners’ Brains: Enhanced Intersubject Correlations during Reception of Personal Narratives

Audiences’ engagement with mediated messages lies at the center of media effects research. However, the neurocognitive components underlying audience engagement remain unclear. A neuroimaging study was conducted to determine whether personal narratives engage the brains of audience members more than non-narrative messages and to investigate the brain regions that facilitate this effect. Intersubject correlations of brain activity during message exposure showed that listening to personal narratives elicited strong audience engagement as evidenced by robust correlations across participants’ frontal and parietal lobes compared to a nonpersonal control text and a reversed language control stimulus. Thus, personal narratives were received and processed more consistently and reliably within specific brain regions. The findings contribute toward a biologically informed explanation for how personal narratives engage audiences to convey information.

The spread of fake science: Lexical concreteness, proximity, misinformation sharing, and the moderating role of subjective knowledge

The spread of science misinformation harms efforts to mitigate threats like climate change or coronavirus. Construal-level theory suggests that mediated messages can prime psychological proximity to threats, having consequences for behavior. Via two MTurk experiments, I tested a serial mediation process model predicting misinformation sharing from lexical concreteness, through psychological proximity and perceived threat. In Study 1, concrete misinformation primed psychological proximity which, in turn, increased perceived threat. Perceived threat then increased the likelihood that misinformation would be shared. Source credibility was also shown to positively influence misinformation sharing. Study 2 advanced this by showing this process was moderated by subjective knowledge. Specifically, the effect of perceived threat on misinformation sharing was stronger for those with higher subjective knowledge. Furthermore, the indirect effect of lexical concreteness on misinformation sharing was stronger for those with higher subjective knowledge. Results and limitations are discussed within the lens of construal-level theory and science communication.

Africa and Africans in Wolf Warrior 2: Narratives of Trust, Patriotism and Rationalized Racism among Chinese University Students

This paper analyses responses from Chinese university students to China’s most successful blockbuster to date, Wolf Warrior 2. Responses revealed racialized language objectifying the black African Other and affirmation of existing scepticisms towards Sino-African relations. It is argued that these responses must be understood within the context of trust these students have in the mediated messages they encounter, the Chinese leadership, the hearsay of social networks, and film industry standards established by Hollywood, all of which precondition Chinese student understandings of ‘Africa’ and ‘Africans’ that informs their viewing experience. Trust in the nation’s film industry, however, also suggests Chinese cinema may have the ability to improve racial awareness among Chinese audiences. To do so though, would require a shift in the film industry’s objectives from its current efforts in patriotic education, to portraying China and the Chinese as one of many within an interconnected global community.

Holding on and letting go: Memory, nostalgia, and effects of virtual possession management practices on post-breakup adjustment

When people end their relationships, they must choose which parts of the relationship to remember and forget as they prepare themselves for future partners. This memory process is complicated by the recordability and permanence of mediated messages because individuals must actively curate their virtual possessions—such as pictures with a previous partner or online relationship statuses. Using the relational dissolution model framework, this study investigated the behaviors people use online to manage the end of their relationships and how these choices may influence the way they adjust to the breakup. College students ( N = 234) were surveyed to examine how their keeping and deleting of virtual possessions are related to their post-breakup adjustment. Results suggest that keeping virtual possessions negatively relates to post-breakup adjustment. Participants who were more nostalgic were more likely to keep virtual possessions following a breakup, which mediated the relationship between nostalgia and post-breakup adjustment. The implications show how the persistence of mediated possessions has the potential to affect the breakup process as people struggle to manage their relational memories.

Communications, New Technologies, and Innovation

This chapter outlines the discussion over the influence of new media and communications technologies on the spread of (particularly charismaticized) Protestantism in Africa. It links the contemporary debate to the debate about the origins of Protestantism in the sixteenth-century communications revolution sparked by the invention of the printing press. Building on the work of scholars such as Lamin Sanneh, the chapter addresses issues of translation, the nature of modern media technologies and their semiotic impact on mediated messages; the construction of the public square and the ‘re-publicization of religion’. Particular attention is given to the rise of charismatic media empires, involving integrated print, digital, and satellite/television media, often in support of pentecostal/charismatic prosperity-preaching megachurches and their celebrity pastors.

The Impact of Emotional Words on Listeners’ Emotional and Cognitive Responses in the Context of Advertisements

The study examined how individual words occurring in mediated messages affect listeners’ emotional and cognitive responses. Scripts from actual radio advertisements were altered by replacing original words with target words that varied in valence—either positive, negative, or neutral. The scripts were then reproduced by nonprofessional speakers. Real-time processing of the target words was examined through the use of psychophysiological measures of dynamic emotional and cognitive responses collected from subjects ( n = 55) and time-locked to the stimuli. Recognition memory provided a measure of encoding efficiency. As predicted, listeners had greater frown muscle responses following the onset of negatively valenced words compared with positively valenced words. Results also showed that positively valenced words elicited orienting responses in listeners but negatively valenced words did not. Recognition data show that positively valenced words were encoded better than neutrally valenced words, followed by negatively valenced words, which was consistent with the finding for the impact of emotional words on orienting responses.

A Counterpoint on American Education and Media

Coming from Azerbaijan to America as a Fulbright Scholar, I packed as many assumptions as I did suitcases. After conducting my research, I realized that everything I learned while visiting the United States should be shared with my students, to prevent them from some culture shock and to prepare them to be globally-minded, thinking of mediated messages about foreign countries in a critical manner. This chapter is a result of this endeavor, a sort of auto-ethnographical tour through the America that I saw through my positionality as an Azerbaijani woman.