RUNNING HEAD: DATA ANALYSIS 1

Data Analysis

Yelifer Al-Abdala

University Of Central Florida

Data Analysis 2

The discourse community of mental health awareness, like many others, has increased its

relevance due to the development of technology and social media. This community, centered

around providing resources and counseling to better mental wellbeing, has been proven to be a

necessity on college campuses. Here at the University of Central Florida, the UCF Cares

program is dedicated to addressing mental health in hopes of bettering the students mental

wellbeing. My project investigates the effectiveness of the program and the effect of utilizing

social media to increase their audience; two concepts I addressed by analyzing the typified

rhetoric and word choice present on their social media posts and their website, while also

surveying students on their opinion of the campaigns effectiveness.

Data Comparison Table

Instagram Post Instagram Post Twitter Post #1 Twitter Post #2
#1(Midterms) #2 (Cats) (Counseling) (Suicide)

Popularity 161 likes & 2 135 likes & 2 21 likes & 6 14 likes & 3
comments comments reposts reposts

Mental Health Stress/Anxiety Stress Discusses mental Suicide/Depressi

Topic Addressed health and on
wellbeing in
general

Purpose Remind students To invite To remind For students to

to take care of students to students that attend an event
themselves attend an event UCF has 24/7 held during
especially with where they can counseling National Suicide
midterms play with cats services that can Prevention
coming up and and relieve their help anyone who Month where
there being stress is struggling they can write a
added stress and with their mental loving message
anxiety while health to those who are
also promoting struggling with
their event about their mental
well-being wellbeing
resources and
stress relieving
Data Analysis 3

activities

Language/Word Positive and Reassuring and Positive and kind

choice caring encouraging “Write a
“take care of “You are not message of love
yourself” alone” and hope for
“reach out to “If you need anyone
your support help don't be struggling with
during times of afraid to reach depression”
stress” out”

Visual One image of a Three images Three images One image of the
quote on a 1. Poster of 1. Photo of UCF counseling
whiteboard as the event poster building
shown in 2. Photo of 2. Photo of
Appendix A students UCF
at the Event
event tent
3. Photo of 3. Photo of
event field with
table messages

Hashtags None #ucfsquadcare None #ucfcares

#ucfsquadcare

After analyzing all four of the social media posts as part of my primary research, I have

discovered several common themes throughout the platforms. My findings show that the UCF

Cares campaigns social media posts revolve mostly around advertising their events while also

reminding students about their counseling and resources. Moreover, their Instagram page is

significantly more popular than their Twitter, given that they have more than twice the likes on

their Instagram posts than they do on Twitter. In regards to their rhetoric and word choice, which

are the main components of my research question, the campaign makes sure to utilize positive

and encouraging words to appeal to their audience and make them feel invited to participate in

their events or seek counseling. These initial findings begin to answer my research question

because they show a correlation between positive typified rhetoric and the effectiveness of their
Data Analysis 4

posts. These results support the claims and conclusions made within my secondary sources

because it confirms the necessity of utilizing social media as a tool to increase mental health

awareness, especially on college campuses. However, my sources failed to discuss how to

increase the effectiveness of these posts to increase their reachability- a gap my primary research

has successfully filled. My findings reveal that utilizing both pathos and personal language (such

as “you are not alone” or “take care of yourself”, makes students more prone to visiting the

campaigns social media sites. Additionally, my findings also revealed key aspects of my chosen

discourse community. They showed the impact of social media usage on my community as well

as how popular mental health is among the internet, while also connecting rhetoric to audience

appeal. However, my research has produced many questions, most of which relate to how the

UCF Cares program could attempt to increase their audience. Given that the quote on their

Instagram page was their most liked post, does this mean that quotes are the best way to reach

the students? Are these frequent postings that mainly serve advertising purposes harming their

effectiveness? If so, how could the campaign promote their upcoming events in such a way that

they also share their message and the resources the program provides? These are definitely areas

of future research that will be essential to bettering the campaign. Future research could consist

of conducting a multimodal analysis between their advertising posts and their mental-health

centered posts to determine which is the most successful. This could aid the UCF Cares

campaign in eliminating any posts that do not increase their reachability, which will

subsequently boost their numbers and influence more students.

Data Analysis 5
Data Analysis 6

Appendix A
Instagram Post #1
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Instagram Post #2
Data Analysis 8

Twitter Post #1
Data Analysis 9

Twitter Post #2