Date of Award

2024

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Communication

Faculty Advisor

Platt, Carrie Anne

Description

In this dissertation, I explore experiences of disagreements on Facebook with strong ties through a theoretical lens of the Masspersonal Communication Model. The goal of this dissertation is to (a) understand how perceptions of personalization and accessibility influence disagreement decisions on Facebook with strong ties and (b) how relationships with the sender impact the decision to engage. I employ semi-structured, in-depth interviews (n = 27) to assess why people engage in disagreements, their motivations for engagement, and the impact of these interactions on their relationship with their strong ties. In doing so, I propose the personalization-accessibility model of online disagreements to identify motivational types influencing participants’ decisions to engage in social media disagreements. Findings reveal that the interplay of accessibility and personalization perceptions influence the decision to engage in disagreements, especially for the need to correct misinformation and protect marginalized groups from harmful rhetoric. Relationships with strong ties played a role in disagreeing, though participants were more concerned about advocating and informing than preserving their relationship. The implications of this study stress the importance of developing and promoting the use of relationship-conscious social media and identifying the risks that social media disagreements pose to our personal relationships and democracy.

Rights

NDSU policy 190.6.2

Rights Link

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Handle Identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/10365/33972

Download

Share

COinS