Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, East Asian Languages and Literatures

The concept of a profitable online influencer economy has developed rapidly over the last five to ten years. From the first social media platforms, rise to `internet fame' isn't an uncommon phenomenon, but more and more people who have captured internet fame have started to turn into profitable avenues for businesses to take advantage of – they've become a great way to not only market products but also to grow the fan base for a company. Additionally, these influencers are able to make a profit for themselves, creating a whole new kind of business and economy – influencer economy. Internet culture isn't locked by geography, thus allowing many new opportunities for brands as they branch out into online markets. Both the West and the East have started to develop their influencer economies into what they are today. This thesis examines the current state of online influencer economy as well as various success stories of this growing economy. Focusing on the Chinese influencer economy, an extensive survey was conducted to gather data from average Chinese consumers. A close reading of the survey results provides us opportunities to have a more realistic understanding of the influencer economy model in China and to have a more informed prediction of its future trends. Using this survey method in addition to other research allows for the creation of a more in-depth analysis of various topics that fall under the umbrella of influencer economy. Finally, this paper examines the differences between the current Western influencer economy and the Eastern influencer economy set up and tries to propose methods for these markets to interact and grow. Although internet culture isn't locked by geography, there are instances in which understanding the cultures of another country greatly play a part in how successful a business can be.

Committee: Xiaobin Jian (Committee Co-Chair); Galal Walker (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Business Community; Marketing

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Media and Communication

This dissertation investigates the effectiveness of counterspeech strategies employed on Twitter in response to anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research delves into the communicative strategies, emotional tones, and geospatial distribution of counterspeech, specifically focusing on its effectiveness in the United States. A supervised machine learning was employed to classify counterspeech tweets and counterspeech strategies based on empirical typology. By analyzing 106,388 tweets associated with the hashtag #StopAsianHate collected from November 2021 to May 2022, this research provides insights into the varied effectiveness of counterspeech strategies. The analysis revealed that though counterspeakers were using more negative tones in counterspeech tweets, the tweets with visual media and positive emotional tone received more engagement on Twitter through retweets and favorites compared to those with a negative or neutral tone. This study also breaks new ground by recognizing that higher level of racial diversity does not facilitate higher level of counterspeech against hate speech and hate crime. Additionally, this study highlights the varying degrees of participation in counterspeech across different ethnic groups within Asian American community and underscores the importance of tailored strategies in addressing hate speech. Recognizing this distinction proved essential in crafting evidence-based guidance for community and individual interventions while fostering support from allies of diverse racial backgrounds.

Committee: Louisa Ha Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lisa Hanasono Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yanqin Lu Ph.D. (Committee Member); William Sawaya Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Artificial Intelligence; Asian American Studies; Communication; Mass Media; South Asian Studies

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Leadership Studies, Xavier University, 2023, Leadership Studies and Human Resource Development

This study was designed to explore the relationship between normal, non-SMI Instagram users' Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) attitudes (Fiedler, 1971) and their self-reported purposes (self, social, therapeutic, and directive) for posting on Instagram, as measured by Wang's (2020) Purposes of Online Memory Sharing Scale (POMSS) assessment. A convenience sample of participants was solicited from the employees of a Midwestern marketing and data analytics company, who were also invited to post the solicitation message to their contacts on social media. Anonymous survey respondents completed the two validated assessment instruments on a secure Qualtrics server. Linear correlation analysis conducted by the dissertation advisor was used to test directional hypotheses predicting statistical relationships between LPC scores and four POMSS subscales assessing reasons for posting on Instagram: self, social, therapeutic and directive. LPC was predicted to be positively correlated with social and therapeutic motivations for posting on Instagram and negatively correlated with self and directive motivations. None of the correlations between LPC and POMSS were significant, thus none of the directional hypotheses tested were supported. LPC was found to have no utility for predicting reasons why individuals post to Instagram.

Committee: Gail F. Latta Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Karin Hansee Ed.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Marketing; Multimedia Communications; Social Research; Web Studies

MFIS, Kent State University, 2023, College of the Arts / School of Fashion

Social media advertising (SMA) has become a go-to marketing method for fashion and beauty brands. This marketing shift is supported by literature that explores changes in consumer attitudes toward various advertising methods (Kim & Kim, 2021; Pudvelis, 2020). Along with this, existing research provides insight into consumer attitudes toward brands and social communities involving social media influencers (SMI) concerning their purchase intentions (Masuda et al., 2021; Sanchez-Fernandez & Jimenez-Castillo, 2021). Despite the insight previous studies provide, their contributions are limited in the topic of embedded SMAs as many do not include how the inclusion or omission of disclosure labels may impact the attitude to purchase intention relationship. This study aims to analyze consumer attitudes towards 1) SMIs 2) brands, and 3) SMAs and purchase intention. A quantitative study was conducted and gathered 228 participant responses to identify if consumers' attitude to purchase intention relationships was attenuated due to a lack of advertising disclosure. Respondents were exposed to simulated social media profiles along with either a disclosed or undisclosed SMA to understand their general attitude and purchase intention based on their interpretation of the images. Analysis showed significance between attitude and purchase intention in three of the hypotheses when looking at disclosed vs. undisclosed SMAs. The findings contribute to the current gap in the literature involving SMA disclosure and provide support for the stricter enforcement of SMA disclosure.

Committee: Jonghan Hyun (Advisor); Jihyun Kim-Vick (Advisor) Subjects: Marketing

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, Journalism (Communication)

The study examined the effects of emotional appeals, message sources, and social endorsement on message elaboration, social media engagement, and other persuasive outcomes. The study employed a 2 (emotion appeals: guilt and hope) x 2 (message sources: influencers and organizations) x 2 (social endorsement: high and low likes) between-subjects design. From the perspective of a dual-processing theory (i.e., heuristic-systematic model), the study tested how systematic cues (i.e., emotional appeals) and heuristic cues (i.e., message sources, and social endorsement) influenced the persuasive effects of a campaign message. 350 participants were recruited for an online experiment through a panel service company. Each participant was exposed to a nonprofit organization's Facebook message encouraging blood donations. The results showed that hope appeals produced higher message elaboration than guilt appeals, but guilt appeals had higher comment intentions and greater donation intentions than hope appeals. Also, influencers produced greater like and comment intentions, higher self-efficacy, and better attitudes than organizations. Moreover, high likes had higher message elaboration than low likes. Furthermore, influencers produced greater social media engagement than organizations in hope appeals with high likes. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Committee: Jatin Srivastava (Committee Chair) Subjects: Communication; Mass Communications; Public Health

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, American Culture Studies

This dissertation analyzes the ways in which social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are utilized by Indian feminists to facilitate feminist teaching and learning. Additionally, it grapples with the constraints and negotiations surrounding such digital feminist efforts, including the politics of visibility and labor. This project is particularly interested in understanding the modes and labor of feminist (activist) content creation, the role of such content creation as digital public pedagogical resources to learn about feminist histories and contemporary discourse, and the politics of performing activism online. I use critical feminist and intersectional approaches in my textual analysis of feminist content creation as pedagogy and to examine the complexities of performing resistance online, and critical autoethnography to weave in my experiences of embodying feminist spaces on social media as a learner.

Committee: Radhika Gajjala PhD (Committee Chair); Francisco Cabanillas PhD (Other); Sandra Faulkner PhD (Committee Member); Timothy Messer-Kruse PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Communication; Gender Studies; Pedagogy; South Asian Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Media and Communication

This cross-cultural comparison study between China and the U.S. aimed to examine the short video-sharing social media platform, TikTok/Douyin, particularly its use in the two countries. Other than analyzing how people use the short video app platform and their influencer video use, the study further explored how cultural values influenced user behaviors on TikTok/Douyin. Using Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions as a theoretical framework, this study investigates the impact of cultural differences on the gender fit expectation and influencers' endorsement effectiveness (product attitude and purchase intention) between China and the U.S. An online survey was conducted in each country. In general, Chinese participants were more likely to be persuaded by influencers to make purchase decisions than US participants. Unexpectedly, Chinese participants claimed a higher individualism score and a lower power distance score than US participants, which contradicts with Hofstede's original cultural scores for each country. The findings supported that participants' gender fit expectations positively predicted influencers' endorsement effectiveness, and Chinese users were more influenced than the U.S. users. Besides, the influencer's expertise-product congruency and gender congruency impacted people's product attitudes and purchase intentions independently for the gendered product, and expertise congruency was less influential than gender congruency. The impact of influencers varies by consumers gender, influencers' gender, and consumers' age. In both countries, old users were more easily persuaded than young users. Male influencers more influenced the US TikTok users, both male and female. In China, female influencers were more persuasive than male influencers among male and female Douyin users. Therefore, marketing practitioners should consider the demographic characteristics and user preferences of TikTok and Douyin for their marketing practices. In addition, the study confirmed th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Louisa Ha Ph.D. (Committee Chair); J.P. Oehrtman Ph.D. (Other); Ilyoung Ju Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yanqin Lu Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Comparative; Gender; Mass Communications

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Ohio University, 2018, Business Administration

YouTube has grown from a platform to merely host video content into a brand powerhouse growing revenue for large corporations and independent content creators. This thesis analyzes previous literature to understand the growth and development of YouTube and where YouTube stands in the current marketplace. This thesis also combines both qualitative and quantitative primary research methods in order to understand how YouTube has impacted business strategy and millennial attitudes. Specifically, the study aims to answer two major questions: 1. How do advertising professionals view the importance of utilizing YouTube for their company, how do they approach ads and sponsored content, and what are the implications of that? 2. How do college-aged millennials interact with YouTube and view sponsored content, and what are the implications of that? Each research question was answered through different research methods. The first question was explored through in-depth interviews, specifically with advertising and marketing professionals. The second question was answered through an online survey geared specifically to college-aged millennials at Ohio University. The only way to leverage video content as a medium for growth in business is to gain a well-rounded understanding of how it works, how people interact with it on a daily basis, and how it affects consumer perceptions. By gaining insight into the YouTube community and the rise in sponsored and advertised content, marketers have the opportunity to tap into a new and growing trend to access a loyal audience.

Committee: Dan Dahlen (Advisor) Subjects: Business Administration; Marketing

MA, Kent State University, 2015, College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism

This exploratory qualitative study supports the applicability of Latane's Social Impact Theory to the measurement of influence, particularly online. Depth interviews and ethnography produced a lexicon of influence attributes that fit into Latane's hierarchy of Strength, Immediacy and Number of sources. The research shows that strength factors dominate in impact on influence, namely importance (mainly who the influencer is) and salience (what characteristics the influencer possesses,) with closeness in space/time also a contributory attribute. The data also indicate that the way the communication industry has been measuring influence, by social media activity, a la Klout, is not as important as evaluating the propensity to be influenced as well as the characteristics of the influencer. A robust review of relevant literature grounds the research, and specific recommendations for measuring influence in a holistic manner are included.

Committee: William Sledzik MA (Advisor); Michele Ewing MA (Committee Member); Stefanie Moore MA (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Marketing; Mass Communications