Tweets and Retweets: Racial Differences in Workplace Social Media Use Following a Police Shooting

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Grenier, K. (2020). Tweets and Retweets: Racial Differences in Workplace Social Media Use Following a Police Shooting. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

The majority of working adults routinely use social media during their workday and recent literature demonstrates that the purpose of that use varies (Olmstead et al., 2016). Research has also explored under what conditions productivity, communication, and other organizational outcomes are affected by social media use (e.g., Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014; Syrek et al., 2018). However, extant research has not examined the effect a disruptive, high-profile event has on routine social media use. With the increase of media attention to police brutality in recent years and the subsequent activism borne from social media websites, social media may offer valuable resources after these events, particularly for those employees more likely to be affected by such events, such as Black Americans. For this study, I collected employees’ Twitter data before and after the March 2018 officer-involved shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California. I use Event System Theory to justify the examination of this police shooting as a disruptive event that is likely to precipitate changes in behaviors such as social media use, particularly for employees with identity-relevant characteristics. In light of limitations in the Twitter data I collected, I supplemented said data with quantitative and qualitative analyses from the primary study and a pilot study to offer a fine-grained look at employees’ reported reasons for social media use at work. Findings support the need to examine social media use at work in more detail, taking into account not only volume but also purpose of use.Key words: social media, Twitter, workplace, race, social identity

Details
Author

Grenier, Kelcie

Title

Tweets and Retweets: Racial Differences in Workplace Social Media Use Following a Police Shooting

Physical Description

1 online resource (105 pages) : PDF

Date

2020

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

The majority of working adults routinely use social media during their workday and recent literature demonstrates that the purpose of that use varies (Olmstead et al., 2016). Research has also explored under what conditions productivity, communication, and other organizational outcomes are affected by social media use (e.g., Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014; Syrek et al., 2018). However, extant research has not examined the effect a disruptive, high-profile event has on routine social media use. With the increase of media attention to police brutality in recent years and the subsequent activism borne from social media websites, social media may offer valuable resources after these events, particularly for those employees more likely to be affected by such events, such as Black Americans. For this study, I collected employees’ Twitter data before and after the March 2018 officer-involved shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California. I use Event System Theory to justify the examination of this police shooting as a disruptive event that is likely to precipitate changes in behaviors such as social media use, particularly for employees with identity-relevant characteristics. In light of limitations in the Twitter data I collected, I supplemented said data with quantitative and qualitative analyses from the primary study and a pilot study to offer a fine-grained look at employees’ reported reasons for social media use at work. Findings support the need to examine social media use at work in more detail, taking into account not only volume but also purpose of use.Key words: social media, Twitter, workplace, race, social identity

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Psychology

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

Mixed Methods
Race
Social Identity
Social Media
Twitter
Workplace

Subject Area

Psychology Industrial/Organizational

Advisor(s)

Ruggs, Enrica
Shanock, Linda

Committee Members

Bochantin, Jaime

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2020.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Grenier_uncc_0694N_11569

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2265