User interaction profiling on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ across radio stations

Abstract

Given the proliferation of social media in mass media contexts, how do media and their users interact on them? Guided by Para social interaction and multiplexity theory, the interaction between 223 Italian radio stations and their users was analyzed. Social network analysis was performed to identify the interconnectedness across radio stations and three social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Findings revealed that radio stations did utilize multiple platforms, yet, the interactions were limited to content redistribution and repetition. As for the users, contrary to expected favoring of one specific radio, a large proportion of users interacted with multiple radio stations by fulfilling their individual instrumental goals. The results of this study were fore grounded in instrumental social capital framework. Implications of multiple interaction across platforms and radio stations signal the need to reconceptualize the instrumental needs users in light of this cross-platform behavior.