Media Psychology Matters » Social Media

Research Survey Launched: Social Media Profiles and Influence on Body Image

Pamela Rutledge — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:48:10 +0000

Social media has changed how people get information and communicate in many ways. We are not just consumers of media. With social media and new technology and tools, we also can easily make, change, and share media.

There are images everywhere generated by commercial activity and a wealth of research looking at the impact [...]

Online Safety: Educate not Legislate

Pamela Rutledge — Fri, 28 May 2010 01:23:04 +0000

Previously published in Psychology Today “Positively Media.”

Facebook’s recent privacy control changes have triggered a big response of concern, indignation, and pages of analysis. One thing you have to love about social media, when people are ticked off, you find out pretty fast. Facebook is doing some rhetorical back-pedaling but when people are angry, [...]

Mapping the Crisis in Haiti Using a Cognitively Effective Display of Data

Pamela Rutledge — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:07:19 +0000

Edward Tufte would be proud. This is an example of a brilliant use of social media and a cognitively effective display of the kind of data that social media can generate. Ushahidi are mapping crisis information from Haiti. They have integrated various data input sources, SMS, email, or web, and visually translated it onto a [...]

Five Things to Remember About Social Media

Pamela Rutledge — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:10:47 +0000

Published on PsychologyToday.com “Positively Media.”

If you had any doubts about the impact social networking tools and social media have on the world as we know it, watch this Advertising Age video of Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz talk about the changes they’ve made in their approach to reaching skiers and snow enthusiasts. While [...]

Trends and Getting the ‘Truth’ from Social Media

Pamela Rutledge — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:40:53 +0000

Trends matter in audience profiling. Even a social or politically-based trend impacts messaging on a micro-level. Some trends are more directly applicable to audience profiling than others depending upon what audience you are trying to reach. Social trending is particularly important because it sets the tone and context of how direct and specific messages [...]

The Positive Psychology of Entrepreneurship

Pamela Rutledge — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:57:02 +0000

A version of this post appeared in my blog Positively Media on Psychology Today.

There’s a lot of buzz about entrepreneurship right now. This is especially obvious if you hang out on LinkedIn, Twitter, or cruise the Ning social networks. It is not surprising, given the amount of people looking for jobs due to [...]

Do social networks like Twitter belong in media?

Pamela Rutledge — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:20:51 +0000

There’s an article on on ABS/CBN news site (Do social networks like Twitter belong in media?) discussing, among other things, the business models of social media, if it’s possible to monetize Twitter, and whether or not Murdoch will invest in Twitter after MySpace. About 3/4 of the way down the article is a statement [...]

Social Media & Network Properties In PowerPoint

Pamela Rutledge — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:32:07 +0000

I will be teaching Social Media & Audience Profiling next week in the UCI Extension Business School. As part of the course materials, I made a PowerPoint presentation explaining some of the basics of network properties to provide some background. Call me crazy, but I think it helps to understand a little of the [...]

Social Media: The Native Tongue of Teens

Pamela Rutledge — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:43:03 +0000

(This was posted June 5, 2009 on my blog “Positively Media” at PsychologyToday.com)

Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

“No man should travel until he has learned the language of the country he visits. Otherwise he voluntarily makes himself a great baby – so helpless and so ridiculous.”

Think of the tech-saavy younger generation as [...]

Twitter and Goliath

Pamela Rutledge — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:12:00 +0000

This was posted April 13, 2009 on my blog “Positively Media” at Psychology Today.

First it was “Dell Hell” and now it is “#AmazonFail.” For all the debates over the purpose, point, and value of social media, it is events like these that illustrate how important they have become and how powerful they [...]