TY - JOUR
T1 - Generating Science Buzz
T2 - An Examination of Multidimensional Engagement With Humorous Scientific Messages on Twitter and Instagram
AU - Su, Leona Yi Fan
AU - McKasy, Meaghan
AU - Cacciatore, Michael A.
AU - Yeo, Sara K.
AU - DeGrauw, Alexandria R.
AU - Zhang, Jennifer Shiyue
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This material is based on work supported by a funding incentive seed grant from the University of Utah and the National Science Foundation under Grant Number DRL-1906864. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Utah or the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - This study investigates the types of humor embedded in funny scientific posts on social media and their effects on engagement. We mapped the landscape of such posts on Twitter and Instagram through content analysis of their message attributes. Regression analyses were then conducted to examine how different humor types, communicative functions, and visual attributes were associated with liking, retweeting, and commenting. On Twitter, wordplay and satire were found to be positively related to posts’ engagement levels, while anthropomorphic humor was negatively associated with the presence of comments. On Instagram, humor had no relation to engagement.
AB - This study investigates the types of humor embedded in funny scientific posts on social media and their effects on engagement. We mapped the landscape of such posts on Twitter and Instagram through content analysis of their message attributes. Regression analyses were then conducted to examine how different humor types, communicative functions, and visual attributes were associated with liking, retweeting, and commenting. On Twitter, wordplay and satire were found to be positively related to posts’ engagement levels, while anthropomorphic humor was negatively associated with the presence of comments. On Instagram, humor had no relation to engagement.
KW - anthropomorphism
KW - sarcasm
KW - satire
KW - science humor
KW - social media metrics
KW - wordplay
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122134024&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85122134024&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/10755470211063902
DO - 10.1177/10755470211063902
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122134024
SN - 1075-5470
VL - 44
SP - 30
EP - 59
JO - Science Communication
JF - Science Communication
IS - 1
ER -