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Social media have established a new way of communicating and understanding social relationships. At the same time, there are downsides, especially, their use of algorithms that have been built and developed under their umbrella and their potential to alter public opinion. This paper tries to analyse the YouTube recommendation system from the perspectives of reverse engineering and semantic mining. The first result is that, contrary to expectations, the issues do not tend to be extreme from the point of view of polarisation in all cases. Next, and through the study of the selected themes, the results do not offer a clear answer to the proposed hypotheses, since, as has been shown in similar works, the factors that shape the recommendation system are very diverse. In fact, results show that polarising content does not behave in the same way for all the topics analysed, which may indicate the existence of moderators –or corporate actions– that alter the relationship between the variables. Another contribution is the confirmation that we are dealing with non-linear, but potentially systematic, processes. Nevertheless, the present work opens the door to further academic research on the topic to clarify the unknowns about the role of these algorithms in our societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent efforts to examine the political outcomes of social media use, little is known about the reinforcement of political empowerment and moderating effect of political interest. It is vital to understand the elements that influence the level of political empowerment. Therefore, this paper used a sample of Pakistani voters (n=410) aged 18-29 to offer insight into how social media use alongside other political behaviors, such as partisanship, political expression, and political interest, affect political empowerment. Social Identity Theory (SIT) and rational choice theory provided the theoretical underpinning for the variables of this study. The statistical analyses were performed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) to assess the effects of four variables i.e., social media use, political partisanship, political expression, and political interest, on political empowerment. This study made a significant contribution to the research literature by combining SIT and rational choice theory in one framework. This study also expands the literature on political interest by introducing political interest as a moderator between the inconsistent relationship of political expression and political empowerment. Our results demonstrated that partisanship and social media use positively influenced political expression among young voters. Moreover, political interest positively moderated the relationship between political expression and political empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human trafficking is a phenomenon linked to several forms of exploitation, such as sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced marriage, begging, forced criminal activity, or organ removal. There are different debates about a potential overrepresentation of some of these exploitation purposes, such as the sexual one, in the discourses underlying international regulations, news or institutional campaigns. This may have consequences on the identification of some of the population affected by this phenomenon and the assistance provided to them. The aim of this paper is to analyse the temporal evolution of the purposes of exploitation, actors and topics most represented in the activity on human trafficking and exploitation on Twitter during the 2011-2020 period. The results show that sexual exploitation is the purpose most represented in Twitter activity and the fact that international organisations and the criminal prosecution of the crime of human trafficking have progressively become more relevant. Furthermore, the networks of topics suggest that sexual exploitation seems to be linked to the notion of prostitution. This may have consequences for the displacement of other purposes of exploitation or the approaches centred on the promotion of human rights to less relevant positions, as well as for the construction of certain images of victims of human trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to analyse the perceptions of university students in relation to the credibility of university instructors according to the tweets posted on their Twitter profiles and the academic motivation that these can generate. Thus, students' perceptions of teacher credibility are affected by what instructors post on their social media profiles. The participants in the study were 166 students from the Faculty of Education Sciences at the University of Seville, carried out using a quasiexperimental methodology for which three Twitter profiles for a university professor were created with professional, social and mixed content. For the analysis of the results, normality and homoscedasticity tests were carried out on the sample to decide which statistical tests to use. The most salient results indicated that students perceived the professional profile as more competent, more caring, and more trustworthy, followed by the mixed profile and, lastly, by the social profile. Positive correlations were also found between students who perceived the university professor as reflected in the professional profile as credible in their academic motivation. The findings and their practical implications for instructors are discussed in terms of how they can incorporate Twitter into their teaching, considering the needs of their students to enhance their learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading is essential for learning in education. However, the digital revolution has transformed the ways to encourage reading and learning about books. People who generate and share content about books on social networks are the so-called booktokers, influencers on TikTbk who have become an emerging phenomenon in this connected society. However, there is scarce research that studies them in depth. Therefore, it is crucial to explore booktokers to understand them better and to assess why they accept and use technologies to generate and share content about books on TikTbk. This paper intends to explore the acceptance and use of TikTbk to generate and share content about books on this social network as a booktoker. For this, a qualitative methodology of semi-structured interviews with thirteen Latin American booktokers was used. The analysis was developed through a thematic analysis based on the UTAUT2 theory to explain the findings. The results indicated the categories: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, habit, price value, and a new identified category related to the generation of community and networks. This study constitutes one of the pioneering works in the exploration of the booktoker phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019 the climate movement experienced an unprecedented growth in its mobilization capacity and its political and media impact. This success is closely linked to the rise of Greta Thunberg and her global impact, as well as to the organization effort of "Fridays for Future" in hundreds of local groups around the globe. This paper studies the connection between these two elements based on the movement frame analysis and its dissemination on social media. Through an analysis of the activists' speeches and social media messages, Greta's key role in the establishment and evolution of a new frame for the climate movement can be seen. This is reinforced and legitimized with her own personal story told through the hero's journey or monomyth. Then, the inclusion and adaptation of Greta's frame in the local group of "Fridays for Future" in Barcelona based on the content analysis of its publications on Twitter and Instagram will be analyzed. The results show how, despite the reluctance regarding personified leadership, Greta's frame has a significant influence on the discourse of the local movement and on the "Fridays for Future" Barcelona's social media followers. The analysis also provides empirical evidence of the relevance of glocal dynamics in online social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]