Search

The success of the public display of restaurant hygiene scores has encouraged online review sites to display these scores digitally on their platforms. By investigating 225,252 Yelp reviews toward 1,937 restaurants in Charlotte, North Carolina, we find that while displaying hygiene scores digitally can inform consumers in a way that reduces bias in reviews, it paradoxically can also promote the creation of more reviews that are biased, something we call the cognitive–discursive dilemma. Specifically, after the digital display on Yelp, reviews mentioning hygiene were more in line with scores, indicating an improvement in "accuracy" across reviews in general. Yet, the digital display also led to greater attention to hygiene, leading to lower scores for restaurants of lower social status as measured by price and cuisine type. Our findings thus call for more attention to a broader theoretical implication about the provision of "accurate information" on review sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online reviews are found to mitigate racial discrimination in the sharing economy, but we argue that the chance of getting reviews is unequal for suppliers/workers of difference races. We test this logic with 16,674 hosts and 396,923 reviews on Airbnb in New York City. We find that the majority hosts (i.e. White) acquire their first review and third review (enough to trigger the publication of aggregate rating) more quickly than minority hosts (i.e. Asian and Black). However, setting listings instantly bookable helps reduce the racial difference in review acquisition. Our analyses also reveal that compared with Asian or Black hosts, White hosts receive higher aggregate ratings and more positive reviews at early stage of review acquisition. Such racial difference attenuates over time as the number of reviews increases. Our findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of racial discrimination against minorities in the sharing economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article approaches collective health information seeking from computational method by investigating patterns of Google Trends data in the United States during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed factors that prompted a community's curiosity, and information that communities were most curious about. The results of our cross-sectional and time-series-based analyses reveal a few salient findings: (1) Republican leaning states searched less frequently, and while states with more cases searched more, partisan lean is a more significant predictor; (2) States with greater level of poverty searched less frequently; (3) Leadership on the national level significantly influenced people's searching behavior; (4) Communities were most interested in "local risk" information as well as quantifiable information. We show in this work that established individual information seeking theoretical predictors (risk) can predict online collective information demand and information seeking subcategories with important contributions from collective conditions (leadership). Health communication practitioners can design health messages and choose media channels more purposefully according to what people are most interested in searching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problematic content on social media can be countered through objections raised by other community members. While intended to deter offenses, objections can influence the surrounding audience observing the interaction, leading to their collective approval or disapproval. The results of an experiment manipulating seven types of objections against common types of offenses indicate audiences' support for objections that implore via appeals and disapproval of objections that threaten the offender, as they view the former as more moral, appropriate, and effective compared to the latter. Furthermore, audiences tend to prefer more benign and less threatening objections regardless of the offense severity (following the principle of "taking the high road") instead of objections proportionate to the offense ("an eye for an eye"). Taken together, these results show how objections to offensive behaviors may impact collective perceptions on social media, paving the way for interventions to foster effective objection strategies in social media discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates dynamic changes in instrumental (i.e., work‐related) tie‐seeking patterns and the structure of a communication network following a downsizing event—whereby many employees are simultaneously eliminated from a network. Our analysis spans a two‐year period and applies a resource‐ and network‐change approach to examine how survivors develop revised resource‐acquisition strategies while repositioning themselves after a downsizing. Our results demonstrate that two temporary logics of tie formation—a suspension of within‐unit homophily and a preference for seeking ties with long‐tenured employees—help employees acquire betweenness centrality during the disruption period. Specifically, we find that disruption initiates a transitional period after downsizing in which new tie‐making logics are employed, including seeking out ties with long‐tenured employees and employees outside of one's department. We observed post‐disruption, during the stabilization period after downsizing, where logics used for tie‐making in the disruption period were abandoned, pre‐disruption tie‐making logics were resumed, and betweenness centrality remained relatively constant. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these results and suggest future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Styles of consumption indicate social status. This study aims to understand the influence of external constraints on status displays via two consumption styles – cultural omnivorousness and authenticity. Using a large-scale dataset of Yelp restaurant reviews and the 2015 American Community Survey, we find evidence that the ease – travel distance, neighborhood wealth, and the availability of culturally unique and authentic restaurants – with which status can be obtained via a consumption strategy influences preference for that strategy. Though limited to observations at the neighborhood level, our findings provide corroboration for existing theories about 1) individuals' motivations to display cultural omnivorousness and authenticity in online review sites, and 2) the ways that these status displays are motivated by availability. Findings also indicate that while new media increase the access to information about cultural products, status display appears to have adapted to emphasize new scarcities, particularly localized knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.00330.x Byline: Peter Monge (1), Bettina M. Heiss (1), Drew B. Margolin (1) Abstract: Organizational communities are typically defined as populations of organizations that are tied together by networks of communication and other relations in overlapping resource niches. Traditionally, evolutionary theorists and researchers have examined organizational populations that comprise organizational communities by focusing on their properties rather than on the networks that link them. However, a full understanding of the evolution of organizational communities requires insight into both organizations and their networks. Consequently, this article presents a variety of conceptual tools for applying evolutionary theory to organizations, organizational communities, and their networks, including the notions of relational carrying capacity and linkage fitness. It illustrates evolutionary principles, such as variation, selection, and retention, that lead to the formation, growth, maintenance, and eventual demise of communication and other network linkages. This perspective allows us to understand the ways in which community survival and success are as dependent on their communication linkages as they are on the organizations they connect. The article concludes with suggestions for potential applications of evolutionary theory to other areas of human communication. Abstract (French) Resume L'evolution des reseaux de communication dans les communautes organisationnelles Les communautes organisationnelles sont generalement definies comme des populations d'organisations liees ensemble par des reseaux de communication et par d'autres relations, dans des niches de ressources qui se chevauchent. Traditionnellement, les theoriciens evolutionnistes et les chercheurs ont examine les populations organisationnelles constituant les communautes organisationnelles en se concentrant sur leurs proprietes plutot que sur les reseaux qui les lient. Toutefois, une pleine comprehension de l'evolution des communautes organisationnelles requiert un apercu a la fois des organisations et de leurs reseaux. C'est ainsi que cet article presente une variete d'outils conceptuels permettant d'appliquer la theorie evolutionniste aux organisations, aux communautes organisationnelles et a leurs reseaux, incluant les notions de capacite de transport relationnel et de valeur selective des liens. Il illustre certains principes evolutionnistes, comme la variation, la selection et la retention, qui menent a la formation, la croissance, le maintien et la mort de la communication et d'autres liens de reseaux. Cette perspective nous permet de comprendre les facons par lesquelles la survie et le succes des communautes dependent autant de leurs liens de communication que des organisations qu'elles lient. L'article se termine par des suggestions d'applications possibles de la theorie evolutionniste a d'autres domaines de la communication humaine. Abstract (German): Abstract Die Evolution von Kommunikationsnetzwerken in Organisationsgemeinschaften Organisationsgemeinschaften werden typischerweise als Populationen von Organisationen definiert, welche miteinander verknupft sind durch Kommunikationsnetzwerke und andere Beziehungen in sich uberlappenden Ressourcen-Nischen. Traditionell haben Evolutionstheoretiker und Forscher Organisationspopulationen, welche Organisationsgemeinschaften ausmachen, eher fokussiert auf ihre Eigenschaften untersucht als hinsichtlich des Netzwerks, was sie verbindet. Ein umfassendes Verstandnis der Evolution von Organisationsgemeinschaften verlangt allerdings Einsichten in die Organisationen wie auch ihrer Netzwerke. Folglich prasentiert dieser Artikel eine Vielzahl von konzeptuellen Werkzeugen fur die Anwendung der Evolutionstheorie auf Organisationen, Organisationsgemeinschaften und ihrer Netzwerke, einschlie[sz]lich der Idee von relationaler Tragfahigkeit und Verknupfungstauglichkeit. Aufgezeigt werden evolutionare Prinzipien wie Variation, Selektion und Erinnerung, die zu Formation, Wachstum, Aufrechterhaltung und moglichem Niedergang von Kommunikation und anderen Netzwerkverbindungen fuhren. Diese Sichtweise erlaubt uns zu verstehen, dass das Uberleben und der Erfolg von Gemeinschaften genauso abhangig sind von ihren kommunikativen Verbindungen wie von den Organisationen, welche sie verbinden. Der Artikel schlie[sz]t mit Vorschlagen fur eine mogliche Anwendung der Evolutionstheorie auf andere Gebiete der menschlichen Kommunikation. Abstract (Spanish): Resumen La Evolucion de la Red de Comunicacion de las Comunidades Organizacionales Las comunidades organizacionales son tipicamente definidas como poblaciones de organizaciones unidas por las redes de comunicacion y otras relaciones en nichos de recursos superpuestos. Tradicionalmente, los teoricos evolucionistas e investigadores han examinado las poblaciones organizacionales que componen las comunidades organizacionales focalizandose en las propiedades en vez de en las redes que los vinculan. No obstante, una comprension completa de la evolucion de las comunidades organizacionales requiere el entendimiento de ambas, las organizaciones y sus redes. Consecuentemente, este articulo presenta una variedad de herramientas conceptuales aplicando la teoria de la evolucion a las organizaciones, a las comunidades organizacionales, y sus redes, incluyendo las nociones de apoyo relacional - capacidad y aptitud de vinculacion. Se ilustran los principios evolucionarios, incluyendo la variacion, la seleccion, y la retencion, que lleva a la formacion, el crecimiento, el mantenimiento y la desaparicion eventual de la comunicacion y las otras redes de vinculacion. Esta perspectiva nos permite comprender las formas en las que la sobrevivencia comunitaria y el exito son tan dependientes de sus vinculos de comunicacion como lo son de las organizaciones a las que ellos se conectan. Este articulo concluye con sugerencias para la aplicacion potencial de la teoria evolucionaria a otras areas de la comunicacion humana. Author Affiliation: (1)Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0281, USA Article note: Peter Monge; e-mail: monge@usc.edu

This article derives a theory of informative fictions (TIF). Common forms of misinformation—fake news, rumors, and conspiracy theories—while dysfunctional for communicating property information—information about the state and operation of things—can actually be valuable for communicating character information—information about the motivations of social agents. It is argued that narratives containing "false facts" can effectively portray a speaker's theory of another individual's character. Thus, such narratives are useful for gathering information about leaders and other important individuals who are evaluated in the community. After deriving the theory, TIF is used to derive propositions predicting the empirical conditions under which misinformation will be accepted, tolerated or promoted. The implications of the theory for addressing the normative problem of misinformation are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]