Earticle

This paper examines the newly emerging and increasingly popular social media platform and online personal broadcasting service, AfreecaTV. The website features a livestream self-broadcasting model where any individual with access to the internet and webcam/smartphone can livestream themselves. As users view these sessions, they can use the live chat function to communicate with the stream hosts (known as broadcast jockeys) and other viewers. While viewing these streams, users can donate money to the broadcast jockeys by sending them star balloons. The Afreeca TV model has become extremely popular in Korea and the rest of the world, generating ordinary people-turned celebrities, who have created various streaming show formats and even making as much as $9,000 per month. This study refers to findings from interviews with 45 broadcast jockeys, avid users of AfreecaTV and media professionals to understand how a new kind of relationship (i.e., realization of the formerly known as parasocial relationship). The paper discusses following key findings that help understand AfreecaTV and the celebrity users’ success: 1) realization of parasocial relationships as a key desired element for personal broadcasting; 2) resulting favorable attitudes toward the broadcast jockeys; 3) users’ willingness to show appreciation and support, which in turn make the broadcast jockeys even more successful; and 4) convenient expression of satisfaction through the unique “star balloon” feature and the collective attitude/culture associated with the practice. Then, the findings are further discussed to explain how these virtual celebrities have become such influential figures in the social media landscape. These celebrities gain and sustain fame with interactivity, realizing once parasocial relationships from users and fulfilling their need for companionship. They are also inspiring, given their stories of an ordinary user’s dreams of fame and popularity coming true. Therefore, they have significance influence in various aspects of society as social mediators. The above make these social media figures likable characters among users. Furthermore, the significance of this phenomenon from a public relations standpoint is discussed.

Social media have emerged as a critical element in the crisis communication process and demand new thinking for organizations facing crises. Stealing thunder is a proactive crisis communication strategy in which an organization voluntarily releases crisis information before it is revealed by a third party such as news media. Although organizations are increasingly using stealing thunder to minimize the impact of crises, little empirical data is available to understand how online users process crises when an organization proactively release the crisis information.Therefore, one objective of the current study was to test the efficacy of stealing thunder and identify attitudinal and behavioral outcome variables in an online context (i.e., Facebook). A second objective was to examine the underlying mechanism of stealing thunder and behavioral outcome variables by testing a serial mediation model. The results in an online experiment showed that Facebook users gave more favorable evaluationswhen a pharmaceutical company proactively released the crisis information (severe side effects of a drug) than when the information was released by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A serial mediation model revealed that crisis responsibility and organizational reputation serially mediated the relationships between stealing thunder and behavioral outcomes.

An online survey dealing with the purchase of potentially risky consumer products,genetically modified foods (n=379), examined behavioral intention within the framework of the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010). In addition to attitude and social norms, which are subsumed under the theory, predictors examined included cognitive and affective risk perceptions, systematic versus heuristic processing, and two personality traits: need for cognition and need for affect (specifically, the avoidance and approach sub-dimensions identified by Maio & Esses, 2001). Four hypotheses were tested and supported. High cognitive and affective risk perceptions were negatively related to attitude, adherence to social norms and purchase intent. High need for cognition was positively related to systematic processing, while negatively related to heuristic processing. High need for affect avoidance was positively related to heuristic processing, while high need for affect approach was positively related to systematic processing. Finally, higher systematic processing was positively related to both cognitive risk perception and affective risk perception, while higher heuristic processing was not. Awareness was included as a possible explanatory variable that helped explain purchase intent. In order to investigate the relationships between the key variables more closely, hierarchical regression analyses examined the combined effects of the focal and explanatory variable on purchase intent. The final regression model in the study, which explained 29.2% of the variance, suggested that purchase intention was best explained by the need for affect avoidance, low affective risk perceptions, positive attitude, and conformity to social norms. This study proposed a framework in which personality traits based on psychological needs (need for cognition and need for affect) led to different styles of processing. Then, two forms of risk perception (cognitive and affective) together were shown to influence purchase intention ofcommon technologically enhanced consumer goods. The study underscored the importance of looking into both affective and cognitive risk perceptions examining purchase intention for risky products,genetically modified organisms (GMO) foods. This study also illustrated the potential practical importance of the two sub-dimensions of need for affect identified in the literature, suggesting that each can possibly influence the processing of persuasive messages and risk perceptions and ultimately consumer actions.

When evaluating a corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign, consumers may interpret the campaign information as either an indicator of normative intention (e.g. to pursue greater social good) or an indicator of strategic intention (e.g. to increase corporate benefit). On the basis of construal level theory, we examine the effect of psychological distance on CSR perception and company evaluation. We show that the CSR message–perceived normative intention relationship is more pronounced when a CSR activity is evaluated as a far rather than near location, whereas the reverse holds true for the CSR message–perceived realistic intention relationship. Consequently, participants evaluate the CSR message more favorably from a distance than when a CSR activity is near. Study also examines the underlying cognitive processes in detail. Lastly, we report the results and provide the implications for CSR messages regarding distance perspectives.