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TopPurpose Statement
The landscape of MCTs, including social media and mobile technologies, is continuously innovating, while the user base is steadily growing over time. As a result, the process of social listening emerges as a norm for communication interactions facilitated MCTs. Technological determinism represents an opportunity through this current research comprising a critical review of literature to capture a snapshot of contemporary social listening and MCT history to better inform considerations of emerging implications and outcomes. By exploring two (2) broadly designed research questions, the purpose of this report is to capture literature findings which reveal intersecting information about social listening and MCTs across theories, communication contexts, and developing social consequences.
Research Questions
This review of existing academic and trade literature attempts to uncover potentially meaningful information regarding the intersection of MCTs, social listening, and the levels of communication. As well, the purpose of this work is to identify possible social consequences inductively as they present among these variables. The potential findings from this exploration and critical review address the following research questions:
RQ1: In what ways has the persistent user growth and technological innovation of mediated communication technologies (or MCTs) potentially influenced (a) the traditional communication hierarchy, and (b) the social listening process?
RQ2: What social consequences are emerging from the persistent user growth and technological innovation of MCTs?
Social Listening And Communication Using Mcts
Considering the stated purpose and RQs of this project, this section presents the synthesis of ideas emerging from the critical review of literature among three (3) main phenomena: (1) the social listening process, (2) the evolution and determinism of MCTs, and (3) social listening among the levels of the communication hierarchy.
Defining the Social Listening
Social listening develops from the persistent popularity of MCTs as communication channels.
Social listening is defined by Stewart and Arnold (2018) as “an active process of attending to, observing, interpreting, and responding to a variety of stimuli through mediated, electronic, and social channels” (p. 86). Traditionally, listening is described as “the process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to aural and visual stimuli” (Wolvin & Coakley, 1996, p. 69). Technological innovation and determinism warranted recognizing social listening due to its distinctiveness within mediated contexts. Social listening encompasses the means in which individuals attend to, observe, interpret, and respond to mediated, electronic, and social messages, such as those exchanged via text message, digital apps, or social media platforms (Stewart & Arnold, 2018).