شعله معراجی اسکویی

Background: Social media has enabled both intentional and incidental user exposure to diverse cultures and subcultures. This exposure fosters the socialization of similar cultural elements or produces changes in original cultural patterns through cyber-acculturation, which arises from continuous contact with culturally distinct groups. Aims: This study aimed to develop models of social media users’ cyber-acculturation in their exposure to cyber-subcultures. Methodology: Using a Q methodology research design, the study employed convenience snowball sampling and an online questionnaire to collect data from 52 participants, who freely rated 61 statements derived from interviews. Exploratory Factor Analysis, treating participants as variables, was conducted to identify distinct cyber-acculturation models. To further examine the characteristics of each factor, network analysis was applied. Discussions: Users demonstrated varying patterns of cyber-acculturation. Comparable to the model proposed by Sam and Berry (2006)— which outlines the strategies of assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization— this study identified five distinct models of social media users’ acculturation in exposure to cyber-subcultures: 1) Conservative Socialization Adopters, 2) Media-Literate Non-Adopters, 3) Media-Literate Acculturation Adopters, 4) Change-Aspirant Semi Non-Adopters, and 5) Risk-Taking Socialization Adopters. Each of these categories, to some extent, reflects the integration strategy, particularly motivated by social mobility, self-actualization, well-being, and personal advancement. Conclusion: Understanding the variations in how users adopt cultural elements enables governance bodies, policymakers, and professionals in media, culture, and education to design and implement more effective measures with greater impact across different user types.

Background: Space is a constructed concept: a cultural and ideological segmentation, and a translation of the sociopolitical structures of society. On social media platforms, the public becomes a composite of privates, where individuals’ multiple selves are (re)presented before a multiplicity of audiences within a third type of space, which we coin the “publivate” sphere. This sphere emerges from the combination and blurring of public and private spaces on social media platforms.Aims: This article aimed to shed light on issues related to cyber self-(re)presentation within this “publivate” space.Methodology: We utilized cross-level integration, synthesizing micro- and macro-level theories, and interdisciplinary integration, incorporating concepts and theories from diverse fields, including social media studies, sociology, psychology, and regulatory perspectives.Discussions: We discussed how the interplay among public, private, and “publivate” selves, along with the reciprocal influences of conformity, pluralistic ignorance, normalization, and normativity, have been transforming the traditional compartmentalization of spaces in Iranian social life. Additionally, we discussed the complications of trans-jurisdictional regulation of cyberspace and their implications for users, particularly Iranians.Conclusions: Given the dynamic nature of societies, norms, and cultures, effective governance of cyberspace and cultural practices should account for sociocultural dynamics.

Purpose : Social media governance is a multifaceted and complex sociotechnical process, particularly when exposure to different cyber- subcultures leads to acculturation and subsequent cultural change. This research addresses the cyber-acculturation dilemma in the context of social media governance. Method : We explored the opinions of 18 Iranian media experts through online interviews to examine the manageability of the cyber-acculturation process and the measures that may guide users toward adopting positive aspects of cyber-subcultures while avoiding negative ones. Using a basic qualitative approach, we employed Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis with an inductive (bottom-up) method for data analysis. Findings : Our findings are presented in a thematic map of social media governance for cyber acculturation, which includes: Infrastructural Measures (10 sub-themes); Educational Measures (Cultural, Moral, and Media Literacy Education); Cultural Measures (6 sub-themes); Media-Based Measures (4 sub-themes); and Social Control Measures (Formal and Informal Social Control, and Inaction). We also acknowledge the unmanageable aspects of cyber acculturation (the inherent nature of acculturation and social media, and the indefinability of comprehensive criteria). Conclusion : This research contributes to ongoing debates on how governments can govern social media and cyber acculturation in the context of exposure to cyber-subcultures. The suggested map can inform governments about the nature of cyber acculturation and cyber-subcultures, enabling them to govern social media more effectively.

Cyberactivism, as civic engagement, is enabled by social media, and has attracted many users to participate in leading social change. To shed more light on the relationship between cyberactivism and real-world (social) activism, within a quantitative approach, employing correlational research design, and a group comparison research design, the current research examined two linear regression models for the relationships among online sharing, homophily, attitudinal influenceability, and behavioral influenceability, and also, among behavioral influenceability, cyberactivism and social activism, and then examined the effects of sociodemographic characteristics of Iranian Instagram users on these variables in a 393-participant sample. The alternative hypotheses about the relationships among the variables in these two models, were retained. The results also showed that age, gender, and occupational status had effects on almost all variables. This study contributes to the existing literature by introducing attitudinal and behavioral influenceability as important factors influencing cyberactivism and social activism. It encourages governments to take full advantage of online activities and cyberactivism to promote social participation and real-world activism, especially among youth and females, to transcend society, and better solve societal and global problems with the collective wisdom.