A combined examination of the Charlie Hebdo attacks on January 7, 2015 and the November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris yields a social media movement that evolved within the 10 months between the attacks, a comparison between these terrorist attacks and those of September 11, 2001 and parallels between American First Amendment principles and France’s free expression laws.

The Charlie Hebdo attacks fueled an online debate over freedom of expression and religion, whereas the purpose of social media evolved into a humanitarian one following the November 13 attacks in Paris. This research looks into the individual evolutions of the related hashtags that surfaced in 2015, including #JeSuisCharlie (and its opposites, such as #JeNeSuisPasCharlie), #DonDuSang, #PorteOuverte and #RechercheParis, among others. Another research point was with the September 11 attacks—with the 9/11 attacks against the United States, few to no channels were available for the kind of immediate discussions and support seen after the Paris attacks. After spending time in Paris during the spring 2015 semester and researching the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the history of the publication, the conclusion rests on the idea that the online discussions perpetuated by both supporters and dissenters of the magazine contribute to a more robust, open democracy supported by these social media platforms.

A portion of this thesis also delves into the parallels and differences between the American First Amendment and the French free speech laws—all of which pertain to the Charlie Hebdo content and the online responses to the 2015 Paris attacks.

The interviews conducted include a French art history professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris, two creators of the “Je Suis Charlie” Facebook page, an American journalist living in Paris who covered the Charlie Hebdo attack and who was present during the November attacks, and a Muslim-American doctor in Phoenix who founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. The ideas surrounding free speech, the value of art such as that found within the pages of Charlie Hebdo, the media’s treatment of religion, traditional democratic freedoms and ties to social media revolutions are all components of this research thesis.

This paper examines the relationship between feminism and social media and evaluates the ability of social media to function as an effective platform for the advancement of feminism's objectives. In the decades before social media became an integral part of culture, the popularity of feminism deteriorated and feminist voices were unsure that it could be revived or popularized again. However, in recent years, women have used social media as a mechanism to communicate and disseminate feminist ideas. The birth of what is called "hashtag feminism" has been a fundamental shift in the way feminism is done and advocated for in modern culture. In light of this dramatic shift in venue for feminist conversations, academic feminists are asking a series of pertinent questions: Is social media good for feminism and the achievement of feminist objectives? What, if anything, has feminism compromised in order to fit into 140 characters or fewer? This paper argues that social media has provided a platform for feminists to share their stories, which has aided in the building of feminist constituencies. This is the most important work of feminism, because it is making society more receptive to feminist principles and ideas, transforming our culture into one that can accept and fight for feminism's objectives. This paper will examine a series of case studies in which social media has hosted feminist conversations. It will analyze the impact of this social media as a venue for feminist narratives and evaluate the use of social media as a feminist platform in the movement to achieve feminism's objectives.

Social media is a tool widely used by many organizations for purposes of spreading ideas, influencing users politically, and promoting products for purchase. Among the ideas spread on social media is religious belief, a task undertaken by religious officials and members alike, in both widespread and personal communication. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has promoted its religion online for years through official webpages and the testimonies of members, but now seeks to spread knowledge of its beliefs and increase membership by involving its full-time missionaries on Facebook and Instagram. The initiative to add online-proselytizing to a missionary’s list of duties began in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been through multiple changes to arrive at the present function of social media in full-time missionary work. Despite these positive changes, missionaries still feel that they lack the necessary knowledge and skills to conduct productive conversations online that lead to opportunities to share their message. Two separate missions are analyzed through Bolman & Deal’s Four Frames to gain a complete perspective of missionary work through social media and how it can be improved. By implementing visual symbols that relate to the importance of social media missionary work and increasing the social media training that missionaries receive, they would feel better prepared to host conversations on online platforms and share their messages. Additionally, by updating the leadership position associated with social media in a mission, more missionaries would ultimately gain expertise in this skill and better fulfill their purpose as missionaries.

Our online world has benefits such as ease of connectedness across geographical and temporal boundaries, and the sheer size of an information firehouse which lets us access effectively anything we could want to know. With increased dependence on smartphones and laptops, they steadily integrate more into daily life. But without cogent thought to each online action, however small, we fall victim to a splintering of attention. Switching from one app or task to the next becomes involuntary. In pursuit of connection, we ironically become dissociated instead.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has been turned upside down. People everywhere are recommended to self-isolate and social distance to limit the spread of the deadly virus. Older adults specifically are being forced into isolation because they are at the highest risk for severe illness—illness that can result in hospitalization, intensive care, or even death. But this isolation is not new. Even before COVID-19, the older adult population has been suffering through a social isolation epidemic. And now, with social distancing measures in place, even more adults are being socially isolated to remain safe and healthy. But when individuals are isolated for long periods of time and no longer have an active social network to connect with, this social isolation can become harmful. Social isolation is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and stroke, and it is associated with anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline. Furthermore, the risk of premature death from any cause increases because of social isolation. With all these negative consequences, it is crucial that we confront the toll that COVID-19 countermeasures have taken on older adults and look for ways to prevent social isolation. Venture Together, a multi-user social media platform designed for older adults, attempts to do just this and more.

As projections of climate change effects in the media persist, current research suggests that threatening climate change content circulating social media and knowledge of threats to the Earth system and human health may lead to the development of eco-anxiety. If social media exposure to climate change content influences eco-anxiety, there is a need for psychological interventions to help manage climate change-related negative affect. A systematic review was conducted 1) to investigate the relationship between the use of social media and eco-anxiety in young adults and 2) to explore methodological factors involved in eco-anxiety research, including measurements and potential moderating factors. The review included seventeen articles that studied the measurements of eco-anxiety, the relationship between social media and eco-anxiety, or negative affect related to climate change and potentially moderating risk factors. A thematic analysis of the included articles yielded four central themes: (1) The Operationalization of Eco-anxiety, (2) Climate Change Perceptions and their Effects on Impairments, (3) The Relationship between Social Media Usage and Eco-anxiety, and (4) Potential Factors Influencing Climate Change Perceptions. The results suggest that eco-anxiety is real and common, especially amongst young people, and that it may be reliably measured using the Climate Change Anxiety Scale. Due to the limited and heterogeneous literature on the problem, no definitive conclusions can be drawn about how potential factors influence eco-anxiety. Future research should further explore the relationship between social media and eco-anxiety. In addition, the problem of eco-anxiety should be studied in underrepresented, vulnerable populations at higher risk for weather-related events.

Boy’s Love (BL) and yaoi are a subculture that originated in Japan that refers to sexually explicit male-to-male romantic fantasies in Japanese popular culture (Martin, 2012, p. 365). The term fujoshi, a belonging term of BL and yaoi, refers to females interested in male-to-male romantic relationship fantasies (Suzuki, 2013). In the early 2000s, cultural consumption and artistic communication between China, Japan, and Korea became more frequent (Oh, 2009). A large number of Japanese animations and television series have been imported to China for national communication and cultural sharing. Since then, various genres of Japanese popular culture, including BL (relating to intimate relationships) and yaoi (relating to sexual content), have become widespread in China. Globally, the public understands BL and yaoi as a subordinate portion of the otaku culture that heavily relates to Japanese anime, games, and manga (or comics in English); and a broader homosexual subculture with a deep connection to sexual desires (Bai, 2022). However, in China, the focal point of BL and yaoi is relatively different from the fujoshi communities elsewhere. This project explores BL and yaoi’s development in China, introducing perspectives of what, how, and why the Chinese fujoshi form their community within the public digital spaces shared by the mainstream media culture.
Additionally, through anonymous personal interviews, this project brings Chinese fujoshi’s consumer views on their past and current BL and yaoi consumption within and outside of the fujoshi community (see detailed interview process and interviewees’ information in Appendix C-E). Eight Chinese females who have self-identified as fujoshi or had similar practices were selected for the interviews. The chosen participants’ age is from twenty-two to mid-thirties. All of them have had at least five years’ access to BL and yaoi and received higher education. Each participant had at least two interviews answering questions regarding their attitudes as fujoshi and their viewpoints on consuming BL and yaoi products. This thesis analyzes the Chinese fujoshi community’s uniqueness in making BL content visible and yaoi content invisible in China. Consequently, they are forced to have a limited preference for BL and yaoi content, adapt the shared space with other popular cultures on mainstream social media, and utilize alternative communication methods to avoid violating China’s law and censorship. These factors indicate the need for specified classifications or designated digital spaces for BL, yaoi, and even the greater homosexual culture.

This creative project aimed to combine knowledge, qualifications, and experience in networking and marketing to host a live music event. As a social media industry employee, an avid concertgoer, and a digital marketer, I felt sufficiently able to complete this task. The process included working within the Barrett budget to secure a venue and acts with the option of paid marketing for the event. Once I secured The Graduate Hotel and three acts— bands Study Habit and Moose Titans and DJ/emcee Malcolm Alexndr—it was time to publicize the event. I found a photographer and organized a photo shoot then created social media profiles and a website with these photos. In total, the attendance was roughly 100 people, and the night was a smash success.

Keywords: event planning, social media, music

This study looked at the Women's March's use of social media to communicate their organization's mission. Data was collected from their official Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts. Facebook posts were collected manually, Twitter data was collected with a Google Sheets add-on and Instagram was collected by Picodash. All the posts were shifted through multiple times to identify the key narratives of the Women's March. These narratives were then compared to the stated "Unity Principles" of the organization to see if they aligned with what the Women's March attempted to fight for. The five narratives were "everyone should have access to affordable health care," "women should have access to positions of power and be respected," "immigrants should be welcomed within the United States," "society will be stronger if it addresses issues intersectionally," and "everyone should be safe in the world and treated as equals." Analysis showed that each of these narratives reflected the "Unity Principles" in some form. While certain narratives were related to more principles than others, it does not diminish the importance of each message.