Quantitative Approaches to Comparing Communication Patterns on Twitter

To date, available literature mainly discusses Twitter activity patterns in the context of individual case studies, while comparative research on a large number of communicative events, their dynamics and patterns is missing. By conducting a comparative study of more than forty different cases (covering topics such as elections, natural disasters, corporate crises, and televised events) we identify a number of distinct types of discussion which can be observed on Twitter. Drawing on a range of communicative metrics, we show that thematic and contextual factors influence the usage of different communicative tools available to Twitter users, such as original tweets, @replies, retweets, and URLs. Based on this first analysis of the overall metrics of Twitter discussions, we also demonstrate stable patterns in the use of Twitter in the context of major topics and events.

Social media and its impact on crisis communication: Case studies of Twitter use in emergency management in Australia and New Zealand

There is a growing awareness worldwide of the significance of social media to communication in times of both natural and human-created disasters and crises. While the media have long been used as a means of broadcasting messages to communities in times of crisis – bushfires, floods, earthquakes etc. – the significance of social media in enabling many-to-many communication through ubiquitous networked computing and mobile media devices is becoming increasingly important in the fields of disaster and emergency management. This paper undertakes an analysis of the uses made of social media during two recent natural disasters: the January 2011 floods in Brisbane and South-East Queensland in Australia, and the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is part of a wider project being undertaken by a research team based at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, that is working with the Queensland Department of Community Safety (DCS) and the EIDOS Institute, and funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through its Linkages program. The project combines large-scale, quantitative social media tracking and analysis techniques with qualitative cultural analysis of communication efforts by citizens and officials, to enable both emergency management authorities and news media organisations to develop, implement, and evaluate new social media strategies for emergency communication.

Storyboard augmentation of process model grammars for stakeholder communication

Process models are often used to visualize and communicate workflows to involved stakeholders. Unfortunately, process modeling notations can be complex and need specific knowledge to be understood. Storyboards, as a visual language to illustrate workflows as sequences of images, provide natural visualization features that allow for better communication, to provide insight to people from non-process modelling expert domains. This paper proposes a visualization approach using a 3D virtual world environment to visualize storyboards for business process models. A prototype was built to present its applicability via generating output with examples of five major process model patterns and two non-trivial use cases. Illustrative results for the approach show the promise of using a 3D virtual world to visualize complex process models in an unambiguous and intuitive manner.

Development and evaluation of a program to improve clinician and patient communication during a telehealth consultation : C.R.I.S.P. Telehealth

Introduction: The delivery of health care in the 21st century will look like no other in the past. The fast paced technological advances that are being made will need to transition from the information age into clinical practice. The phenomenon of e-Health is the over-arching form of information technology and telehealth is one arm of that phenomenon. The uptake of telehealth both in Australia and overseas, has changed the face of health service delivery to many rural and remote communities for the better, removing what is known as the tyranny of distance. Many studies have evaluated the satisfaction and cost-benefit analysis of telehealth across the organisational aspects as well as the various adaptations of clinical pathways and this is the predominant focus of most studies published to date. However, whilst comments have been made by many researchers about the need to improve and attend to the communication and relationship building aspects of telehealth no studies have examined this further. The aim of this study was to identify the patient and clinician experiences, concerns, behaviours and perceptions of the telehealth interaction and develop a training tool to assist these clinicians to improve their interaction skills. Methods: A mixed methods design combining quantitative (survey analysis and data coding) and qualitative (interview analysis) approaches was adopted. This study utilised four phases to firstly qualitatively explore the needs of clients (patients) and clinicians within a telehealth consultation then designed, developed, piloted and quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated the telehealth communication training program. Qualitative data was collected and analysed during Phase 1 of this study to describe and define the missing 'communication and rapport building' aspects within telehealth. This data was then utilised to develop a self-paced communication training program that enhanced clinicians existing skills, which comprised of Phase 2 of this study to develop the interactive program. Phase 3 included evaluating the training program with 26 clinicians and results were recorded pre and post training, whilst phase 4 was the pilot for future recommendations of this training program using a patient group within a Queensland Health setting at two rural hospitals. Results: Comparisons of pre and post training data on 1) Effective communication styles, 2) Involvement in communication training package, 3) satisfaction pre and post training, and 4) health outcomes pre and post training indicated that there were differences between pre and post training in relation to effective communication style, increased satisfaction and no difference in health outcomes between pre and post training for this patient group. The post training results revealed over half of the participants (N= 17, 65%) were more responsive to non-verbal cues and were better able to reflect and respond to looks of anxiousness and confusion from a 'patient' within a telehealth consultation. It was also found that during post training evaluations, clinicians had enhanced their therapeutic communication with greater detail to their own body postures, eye contact and presentation. There was greater time spent looking at the 'patient' with an increase of 35 second intervals of direct eye contact and less time spent looking down at paperwork which decreased by 20 seconds. Overall 73% of the clinicians were satisfied with the training program and 61% strongly agreed that they recognised areas of their communication that needed improving during a telehealth consultation. For the patient group there was significant difference post training in rapport with a mean score from 42 (SD = 28, n = 27) to 48 (SD = 5.9, n = 24). For communication comfort of the patient group there was a significant difference between the pre and post training scores t(10) = 27.9, p = .002, which meant that overall the patients felt less inhibited whilst talking to the clinicians and more understood. Conclusion: The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics of good patient-clinician communication and unmet training needs for telehealth consultations. The study developed a training program that was specific for telehealth consultations and not dependent on a 'trainer' to deliver the content. In light of the existing literature this is a first of its kind and a valuable contribution to the research on this topic. It was found that the training program was effective in improving the clinician's communication style and increased the satisfaction of patient's within an e-health environment. This study has identified some historical myths that telehealth cannot be part of empathic patient centred care due to its technology tag.

Nursing communication and casualisation of the nursing workforce.

Nurse researchers in Queensland •will undertake an ethnographic study of a health care facUity in order to explore the relationship between the increasing casualisation of the nursing workforce and the communication needs of full time and casual nurses.

Communication models of institutional online communities : the role of the ABC cultural intermediary

The co-creation of cultural artefacts has been democratised given the recent technological affordances of information and communication technologies. Web 2.0 technologies have enabled greater possibilities of citizen inclusion within the media conversations of their nations. For example, the Australian audience has more opportunities to collaboratively produce and tell their story to a broader audience via the public service media (PSM) facilitated platforms of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). However, providing open collaborative production for the audience gives rise to the problem, how might the PSM manage the interests of all the stakeholders and align those interests with its legislated Charter? This paper considers this problem through the ABC’s user-created content participatory platform, ABC Pool and highlights the cultural intermediary as the role responsible for managing these tensions. This paper also suggests cultural intermediation is a useful framework for other media organisations engaging in co-creative activities with their audiences.

The role of the cultural intermediary within professional participatory communication : lessons from ABC Pool

As media institutions are encouraged to explore new production methodologies in the current economic crisis, they align with Schumpeter’s creative destruction provocation by exhibiting user-led political, organisation and socio-technical innovations. This paper highlights the significance of the cultural intermediary within the innovative, co-creative production arrangements for cultural artefacts by media professionals in institutional online communities. An institutional online community is defined as one that is housed, resourced and governed by commercial or non- commercial institutions and is not independently facilitated. Web 2.0 technologies have mobilised collaborative peer production activities for online content creation and professional media institutions face challenges in engaging participatory audiences in practices that are beneficial for all concerned stakeholders. The interests of those stakeholders often do not align, highlighting the need for an intermediary role that understands and translates the norms, rhetoric tropes and day-to-day activities between the individuals engaging in participatory communication activities for successful negotiation within the production process. This paper specifically explores the participatory relationship between the public service broadcaster (PSB), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and one of its online communities, ABC Pool (www.abc.net.au/pool). ABC Pool is an online platform developed and resourced by the ABC to encourage co-creation between audience members engaging in the production of user-generated content (UGC) and the professional producers housed within the ABC Radio Division. This empirical research emerges from a three-year research project where I employed an ethnographic action research methodology and was embedded at the ABC as the community manager of ABC Pool. In participatory communication environments, users favour meritocratic heterarchical governance over traditional institutional hierarchical systems (Malaby 2009). A reputation environment based on meritocracy requires an intermediary to identify the stakeholders, understand their interests and communicate effectively between them to negotiate successful production outcomes (Bruns 2008; Banks 2009). The community manager generally occupies this role, however it has emerged that other institutional production environments also employ an intermediary role under alternative monikers(Hutchinson 2012). A useful umbrella term to encompass the myriad of roles within this space is the cultural intermediary. The ABC has experimented with three institutional online community governance models that engage in cultural intermediation in differing decentralised capacities. The first and most closed is a single point of contact model where one cultural intermediary controls all of the communication of the participatory project. The second is a model of multiple cultural intermediaries engaging in communication between the institutional online community stakeholders simultaneously. The third is most open yet problematic as it promotes and empowers community participants to the level of cultural intermediaries. This paper uses the ABC Pool case study to highlight the differing levels of openness within cultural intermediation during the co-creative production process of a cultural artifact.

Communication models of institutional online communities : the role of the ABC cultural intermediary

The co-creation of cultural artefacts has been democratised given the recent technological affordances of information and communication technologies. Web 2.0 technologies have enabled greater possibilities of citizen inclusion within the media conversations of their nations. For example, the Australian audience has more opportunities to collaboratively produce and tell their story to a broader audience via the public service media (PSM) facilitated platforms of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). However, providing open collaborative production for the audience gives rise to the problem, how might the PSM manage the interests of all the stakeholders and align those interests with its legislated Charter? This paper considers this problem through the ABC’s user-created content participatory platform, ABC Pool and highlights the cultural intermediary as the role responsible for managing these tensions. This paper also suggests cultural intermediation is a useful framework for other media organisations engaging in co-creative activities with their audiences.

The legitimacy disconnect: Exploring the why and how of CSR communication

Whilst there is a growing body of research considering corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication, calls have been made to consider the ‘how’ of CSR communication (Maon, Lindgreen, & Swaen, 2010). The challenge with exploring this however, is that communication research has largely been criticised for failing to consider the macro-phenomena impacting communication (Jones, Watson, Gardner, & Gallois, 2004; Lammers & Barbour, 2006). As such, limited attention has been given to who organisations need to indicate their responsiveness to in relation to CSR, and in turn, why they communicate about certain activities in their CSR reports. Without exploring these ideas, and hence, gaining an understanding of the macro-phenomena impacting CSR communication, we limit our understanding of the ‘how’ of CSR communication. As such, this study sought to explore both the why of CSR communication, and in turn, the implications this may have for the how of CSR communication. To do this, this study drew on the notions of institutional theory, legitimacy, and rhetoric, and explored propositions drawn from these concepts to consider the why and how of CSR communication. Extended abstract attached

Policing Transnational Organized Crime and Corruption : Exploring the Role of Communication Interception Technology

Technology has advanced in such a manner that the world can now communicate in means previously never thought possible. These new technologies have not been overlooked by transnational organized crime groups and networks of corruption, and have been exploited for criminal success. This text explores the use of communication interception technology (CIT), such as phone taps or email interception, and its potential to cause serious disruption to these criminal enterprises. Exploring the placement of communication interception technology within differing policing frameworks, and how they integrate in a practical manner, the authors demonstrate that CIT is best placed within a proactive, intelligence-led policing framework. They also indicate that if law enforcement agencies in Western countries are serious about fighting transnational organized crime and combating corruption, there is a need to re-evaluate the constraints of interception technology, and the sceptical culture that surrounds intelligence in policing. Policing Transnational Organized Crime and Corruption will appeal to scholars of Law, Criminal Justice and Police Science as well as intelligence analysts and police and security intelligence professionals.

Privacy concerns and the purchasing of travel services online

The travel industry has come to rely heavily on information and communication technologies to facilitate relations with consumers. Compiling consumer data profiles has become easier and it is generally thought that this has led to an increase in consumers' privacy concerns, which may have an adverse impact on their willingness to purchase online. Three specific aspects of privacy that have received attention from researchers are unauthorized secondary use of data, invasion of privacy, and errors. A study was undertaken to examine the effects of these factors on prior purchase of travel services via the Internet and future purchase probability. No evidence was found to indicate that such privacy concerns affect online purchase behavior within the travel industry. Managerial implications are discussed.

Exploring CSR communication: Linking institutional pressures, legitimacy, and rhetoric

By presenting an overview of institutional theory, specifically the concepts of organizational fields, institutional pressures, and legitimacy, in addition to classical rhetoric, we have sought to highlight that there are links within the literature between the concepts of institutional theory and legitimacy, and also legitimacy and classical rhetoric. To date however, the three concepts – institutional pressures, legitimacy, and rhetoric – have not been explicitly linked. Through building on the current literature, and using the notion of legitimacy as the axis to connect institutional pressures with rhetoric, we argue that certain rhetorical devices may in fact be used to build and construct legitimacy in relation to the different institutional pressures an organization may face within a field. We believe that this preliminary framework may be useful to the field of CSR communication, whereby it may assist in constructing legitimate CSR communication in response to the various pressures an organization may face in relation to CSR.

Evaluating the use of online synchronous communication to enhance learning in statistics

According to social constructivists, learners are active participants in constructing new knowledge in a social process where they interact with others. In these social settings teachers or more knowledgeable peers provide support. This research study investigated the contribution that an online synchronous tutorial makes to support teaching and learning of undergraduate introductory statistics offered by an Australian regional university at a distance. The introductory statistics course which served as a research setting in this study was a requirement of a variety of programs at the University, including psychology, business and science. Often students in these programs perceive this course to be difficult and irrelevant to their programs of study. Negative attitudes and associated anxiety mean that students often struggle with the content. While asynchronous discussion forums have been shown to provide a level of interaction and support, it was anticipated that online synchronous tutorials would offer immediate feedback to move students forward through ―stuck places.‖ At the beginning of the semester the researcher offered distance students in this course the opportunity to participate in a weekly online synchronous tutorial which was an addition to the usual support offered by the teaching team. This tutorial was restricted to 12 volunteers to allow sufficient interaction to occur for each of the participants. The researcher, as participant-observer, conducted the weekly tutorials using the University's interactive online learning platform, Wimba Classroom, whereby participants interacted using audio, text chat and a virtual whiteboard. Prior to the start of semester, participants were surveyed about their previous mathematical experiences, their perceptions of the introductory statistics course and why they wanted to participate in the online tutorial. During the semester, they were regularly asked pertinent research questions related to their personal outcomes from the tutorial sessions. These sessions were recorded using screen capture software and the participants were interviewed about their experiences at the end of the semester. Analysis of these data indicated that the perceived value of online synchronous tutorial lies in the interaction with fellow students and a content expert and with the immediacy of feedback given. The collaborative learning environment offered the support required to maintain motivation, enhance confidence and develop problemsolving skills in these distance students of introductory statistics. Based on these findings a model of online synchronous learning is proposed.

Concealing their communication : exploring psychosocial predictors of young drivers’ intentions and engagement in concealed texting

Making a conscious effort to hide the fact that you are texting while driving (i.e., concealed texting) is a deliberate and risky behaviour involving attention diverted away from the road. As the most frequent users of text messaging services and mobile phones while driving, young people appear at heightened risk of crashing from engaging in this behaviour. This study investigated the phenomenon of concealed texting while driving, and utilised an extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) including the additional predictors of moral norm, mobile phone involvement, and anticipated regret to predict young drivers’ intentions and subsequent behaviour. Participants (n = 171) were aged 17 to 25 years, owned a mobile phone, and had a current driver’s licence. Participants completed a questionnaire measuring their intention to conceal texting while driving, and a follow-up questionnaire a week later to report their behavioural engagement. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed overall support for the predictive utility of the TPB with the standard constructs accounting for 69% of variance in drivers’ intentions, and the extended predictors contributing an additional 6% of variance in intentions over and above the standard constructs. Attitude, subjective norm, PBC, moral norm, and mobile phone involvement emerged as significant predictors of intentions; and intention was the only significant predictor of drivers’ self-reported behaviour. These constructs can provide insight into key focal points for countermeasures including advertising and other public education strategies aimed at influencing young drivers to reconsider their engagement in this risky behaviour.