Sydney Pendergrass

ENC 1102-0M64

Professor Melissa Pompos-Mansfield

4th March 2021

Annotated Bibliography

Kain and Wardle discuss in their article the framing concept of activity theory. This helps

us analyze a community to see how the subjects, tools, rules, division of labor, community and

objective all affect each other and work together for a group to run. I am using this as the

framing concept for my research this semester. Research done by De Salve, Guidi, Mori, and

Ricci explores the internal structure of online social networks (OSNs), specifically Facebook

groups. This relates to activity theory by showing how Facebook groups are run internally

(division of labor). The investigations of Colbert, Lerma, and Venegas-Vera explore the effects

the pandemic had on social media use. They show that social media use increases significantly

during a crisis (the COVID-19 pandemic). There isn’t much crossover between the claims of my

secondary sources as each of them covers a different basis of my research.

While research has been done on the individual topics of activity theory, the structure of

Facebook groups, and how the pandemic affected social media use as individual subjects, no

research I found has specifically investigated how the pandemic affected the content of

individual Facebook groups and how the content itself changed from prior to the emergency

precautions taken due to the pandemic to after the precautions were initiated. I've decided to

narrow in on the specific community of the Disney College Program and how the content of their

Facebook group (an OSN) changed from before versus after the termination of the DCP due to

closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 To fill the niche I've found, I will be investigating, in depth, posts within a Disney

College Program Facebook group. I will analyze all posts in one DCP Facebook group from two

days prior to termination, the day of termination, and one day after termination of the college

program. I will be investigating the change in content to see how program participants use the

Facebook group as a tool and how the use of this tool was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Secondary Sources

Colbert, Lerma, and Venegas-Vera. “Positive and negative impact of social media in the

COVID-19 era.” Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine, vol. 21, iss. 4, 30 Dec. 2020, pp.

561-564. IMR Press, 10.31083/j.rcm.2020.04.195. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. This scholarly

article discusses the affect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on social media use.

Authors Colbert, Lerma, and Venegas-Vera cite previous work done by Gotlieb and Dyer

who state that social media usage typically increases during crises. Additionally, they cite

work done by Almansoori and Habtoor that determined sharing data during the pandemic

has been important to improving conditions of the crisis. Work previously done by

Gupta, et al. and Hermida, et al. says that social media became the primary resource for

spreading information during the Coronavirus pandemic. Colbert, et al. are insistent about

the fact that using social media as a primary resource for information during the

pandemic has positive and negative aspects. While it is a good source for the mass

distribution of information, it also allows for misinformation to be spread quickly, which

can be critical during a global pandemic. This article is important to my research because

I am investigating how the pandemic affected the content in the Disney College Program

Facebook group, which is related to their general research on all social media’s influence
 due to the pandemic. I will use this in the literature review and possibly the

findings/analysis sections of my research paper.

De Salve, Guidi, Mori, and Ricci. “An Analysis of the Internal Organization of Facebook

Groups.” IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, vol. 6, iss. 6, 2 Oct. 2019,

pp. 1245-1256. IEEE Xplore, 10.1109/TCSS.2019.2942076. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. This

journal article investigates the internal structure of online social networks (OSNs). De

Salve, et al. cite previous research done by themselves as well as Ginsca, Popescu,

Borgne, and Ballas who investigated the structure of OSNs. Additionally, work done by

De Salve, De Pietro, Mori, and Ricci discussing the hierarchy of OSNs. This established

how Facebook groups are structured to maintain the privacy of group members. De

Salve, et al. conclude that most Facebook groups have an internal structure that clusters

groups by the strength of their relationships between users. These clusters can signify

how important users are within the OSNs. This article is important to my research

because it discusses the division of labor as part of the internal structure of OSNs. Since

division of labor is part of activity theory, this will help me understand the activity

system of my community, the DCP Facebook group. I will use this in the literature

review section and possibly the findings/analysis sections of my research paper.

Kain, Donna. “Activity Theory: An Introduction for the Writing Classroom.”  Jan. 2002, pp. 1-

9. ResearchGate. Accessed 6 Nov. 2018. This scholarly article focuses on activity theory

as a way to analyze social groups and communities. Kain cites previous research done by

Russel and Engestrom who define the term “activity systems,” and determine the social

basis of the activity system influence triangle. In Kain’s studies, she draws the

conclusions that nodes within an activity system all influence each other because they are
 connected. She defines those nodes as motives, community, rules, division of labor,

subjects, and tools. This article is helpful to my research because I am using activity

theory as my framing concept. I am evaluating the way Disney College Program

Facebook groups function as an activity system and how the content of the group shows

how it is used as a tool within the activity system. I will use this in the literature review

and possibly the findings/analysis sections of my research paper.

Primary Sources

Darling, Wendy. In search of cast member working at MouseGear. Facebook, 12 March 2020.

Accessed 24 February 2021. This social media post from a Disney College Program

Facebook group is intended to find a Walt Disney World cast member who was working

in the MouseGear gift shop the night before this post was created. The user who posted it

had her hope regained in getting into the DCP after talking with a cast member working

there who gave her encouragement. It follows the format of a Facebook post of (from top

to bottom) author of the post, date of the post (March 12, 2020), textual content, and

number of reactions/likes and comments (this post has five likes and zero comments).

This post is important to my research because it is an example of a post from a DCP

hopeful in the Facebook group from prior to the termination of the program due to the

COVID-19 pandemic. It shows me that prior to the termination of the program, one of the

ways program participants used the Facebook group as a tool was to find and make

connections with other participants as a way to form friendships. I will include this in the

findings/analysis section of my research paper as part of my textual analysis.

Pan, Peter. Giving the resource of #CPHELP on social media to help people looking for housing

assistance. Facebook, 15 March 2020. Accessed 24 February 2021. This social media
 post from a Disney College Program Facebook group was intended to provide a resource

for college program participants in search of housing assistance as a result of being

displaced due to the termination of the college program. It follows the format of a

Facebook post of (from top to bottom) author of the post, date of the post (March 15,

2020), textual content, number of reactions/likes and comments (this post has nine likes

and two comments), and commented responses. This post is important to my research

because it is an example of a post from a current (at the time of the post) college program

participant from the day after the college program was terminated due to the COVID-19

pandemic. It shows me that after the termination of the program, a way that program

participants used the group as a tool was to share and find resources for assistance for

issues caused by the termination. I will include this in the findings/analysis section of my

research paper.

Porter, Jane. Offering mattress toppers for sale at Vista Way Apartments. Facebook, 14 March

2020. Accessed 24 February 2021. This social media post from a Disney College

Program Facebook group was intended to sell an item. This user was selling two mattress

toppers at the Vista Way Apartment complex after being sent home from the DCP after it

was terminated. It follows the format of a Facebook post of (from top to bottom) author

of the post, date of the post (March 14, 2020) and textual content. This post is important

to my research because it is an example of a post from a current (at the time of the post)

college program participant from the day that the college program was terminated due to

the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows me that one way program participants were using the

Facebook group as a tool after the termination of the program was to sell items they
didn’t want to take home with them due to the termination. I will include this in the

findings/analysis section of my research paper.