Organisaation sisäisessä sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuvaan tiedon jakamiseen vaikuttavat tekijät

Aineettoman pääoman, erityisesti tiedon, merkitykseen kiinnitetään organisaatioissa entistä enemmän huomiota. Tiedon jakamisen hyödyt ymmärretään ja siinä hyödynnetään yhä enemmän teknologiaa. Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää, mitkä tekijät vaikuttavat asiantuntijoiden tiedon jakamiseen organisaation sisäisessä sosiaalisessa mediassa. Tutkimus on kvalitatiivinen tapaustutkimus, ja sen tavoitteisiin pyritään vastaamaan puolistrukturoitujen haastattelujen (12 kpl) avulla. Tutkimuksen kohdeorganisaatio on innovaatiorahoituskeskus Tekes. Tiedon jakamista sisäisessä sosiaalisessa mediassa tutkittiin yksilön näkökulmasta motivaatioon, kykyyn ja mahdollisuuteen perustuvaa MOA-mallia hyödyntäen. Tutkimuksessa löydettiin sekä motivaatioon, kykyyn että mahdollisuuteen liittyviä tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat sisäisessä sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuvaan tiedon jakamiseen. Motivaatioon liittyvistä tekijöistä nousivat esiin erityisesti jaetun tiedon hyöty asiantuntijan työssä sekä aktiivisten sosiaalisen median käyttäjien määrä, mahdollisuuteen liittyvistä tekijöistä käytettävissä oleva aika sekä tiedon ja tiedon jakamisen kanavien suuri määrä.

Automated Discovery of Social Networks in Online Learning Communities

As a way to gain greater insights into the operation of online communities, this dissertation applies automated text mining techniques to text-based communication to identify, describe and evaluate underlying social networks among online community members. The main thrust of the study is to automate the discovery of social ties that form between community members, using only the digital footprints left behind in their online forum postings. Currently, one of the most common but time consuming methods for discovering social ties between people is to ask questions about their perceived social ties. However, such a survey is difficult to collect due to the high investment in time associated with data collection and the sensitive nature of the types of questions that may be asked. To overcome these limitations, the dissertation presents a new, content-based method for automated discovery of social networks from threaded discussions, referred to as ‘name network’. As a case study, the proposed automated method is evaluated in the context of online learning communities. The results suggest that the proposed ‘name network’ method for collecting social network data is a viable alternative to costly and time-consuming collection of users’ data using surveys. The study also demonstrates how social networks produced by the ‘name network’ method can be used to study online classes and to look for evidence of collaborative learning in online learning communities. For example, educators can use name networks as a real time diagnostic tool to identify students who might need additional help or students who may provide such help to others. Future research will evaluate the usefulness of the ‘name network’ method in other types of online communities.

Personal branding practices of adolescents on Instagram

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis was to explore adolescents’ personal branding practices in the social media environment of the photo and video sharing mobile application Instagram. As the theoretical background for personal branding is quite limited, this thesis combined concepts of personal branding and self-presentation to answer the research problems. Empirical data was collected by conducting semi-structured individual interviews with 10-14-year-old adolescent girls. The photo-elicitation method was utilized in the interviews as the participants were requested to present and discuss their Instagram accounts. The concepts of personal brand identity and personal brand positioning were found to be suitable descriptions to adolescents’ personal branding practices on Instagram. It was found that adolescents consciously consider what kind of personal brand identity they aim to portray to their audience and that authenticity of the personal brand identity is valued. Personal brand positioning, on the other hand, was found to be achieved through impression management: adolescents make strategic disclosure decisions regarding the content they post on their Instagram accounts in a way that the content is reflective of the personal brand identity. Posting brand-related user-generated content on one’s Instagram account was found to be one of the many disclosure decisions in personal brand positioning on Instagram and this type of content was very common on the participants’ accounts. Adolescents were also found to be interested in monitoring the audience reactions to their personal branding efforts.

No right to sext? A critical examination of media and legal debates about teenage girls' sexual agency in the digital age

Advances in digital photography and distribution technologies enable many people to produce and distribute images of their sex acts. When teenagers do this, the photos and videos they create can be legally classified as child pornography since the law makes no exception for youth who create sexually explicit images of themselves. The dominant discussions about teenage girls producing sexually explicit media (including sexting) are profoundly unproductive: (1) they blame teenage girls for creating private images that another person later maliciously distributed and (2) they fail to respect—or even discuss—teenagers’ rights to freedom of expression. Cell phones and the internet make producing and distributing images extremely easy, which provide widely accessible venues for both consensual sexual expression between partners and for sexual harassment. Dominant understandings view sexting as a troubling teenage trend created through the combination of camera phones and adolescent hormones and impulsivity, but this view often conflates consensual sexting between partners with the malicious distribution of a person’s private image as essentially equivalent behaviors. In this project, I ask: What is the role of assumptions about teen girls’ sexual agency in these problematic understandings of sexting that blame victims and deny teenagers’ rights? In contrast to the popular media panic about online predators and the familiar accusation that youth are wasting their leisure time by using digital media, some people champion the internet as a democratic space that offers young people the opportunity to explore identities and develop social and communication skills. Yet, when teen girls’ sexuality enters this conversation, all this debate and discussion narrows to a problematic consensus. The optimists about adolescents and technology fall silent, and the argument that media production is inherently empowering for girls does not seem to apply to a girl who produces a sexually explicit image of herself. Instead, feminist, popular, and legal commentaries assert that she is necessarily a victim: of a “sexualized” mass media, pressure from her male peers, digital technology, her brain structures or hormones, or her own low self-esteem and misplaced desire for attention. Why and how are teenage girls’ sexual choices produced as evidence of their failure or success in achieving Western liberal ideals of self-esteem, resistance, and agency? Since mass media and policy reactions to sexting have so far been overwhelmingly sexist and counter-productive, it is crucial to interrogate the concepts and assumptions that characterize mainstream understandings of sexting. I argue that the common sense that is co-produced by law and mass media underlies the problematic legal and policy responses to sexting. Analyzing a range of nonfiction texts including newspaper articles, talk shows, press releases, public service announcements, websites, legislative debates, and legal documents, I investigate gendered, racialized, age-based, and technologically determinist common sense assumptions about teenage girls’ sexual agency. I examine the consensus and continuities that exist between news, nonfiction mass media, policy, institutions, and law, and describe the limits of their debates. I find that this early 21st century post-feminist girl-power moment not only demands that girls live up to gendered sexual ideals but also insists that actively choosing to follow these norms is the only way to exercise sexual agency. This is the first study to date examining the relationship of conventional wisdom about digital media and teenage girls’ sexuality to both policy and mass media.

“Enjoy your baby” Internet-based CBT for mothers with babies: a feasibility randomised control trial

Background: Postnatal depression is a global health problem with lasting effects on the family. Government policy is focussed on early intervention and increasing access to psychological therapies. There is a growing evidence base for the use of computerised CBT packages and this study investigated the feasibility of a CBT-based self-help internet intervention for new mothers. Objective: To assess the ability to recruit mothers, deliver an internet course, obtain follow-up data and evaluate what mothers think of the course. Design: A feasibility randomised control design was used to compare a waiting list control group (delayed access= DA) to the Enjoy Your Baby course (immediate access= IA). Measures were administered at baseline and 8 week follow-up. Methods: Adverts were placed in the Metro freesheet, on charity web pages, on social media, posters were put up in the community, and leaflets were handed out at mother and baby groups. Participants had to be 18 years old or over with a child less than 18 months old. The IA arm was given access to the course straight away. After 8 weeks all participants were asked to recomplete the original measures and those in the IA arm also gave feedback on the course. Participants in the DA arm were given access after recompleting the questionnaires. Due to a lack of follow-up data a small discussion group was conducted. Intervention: The course contains 4 core modules including helping mothers understand why they feel the way they do and helping them build closeness to their babies. Additional modules, worksheets and homework tasks were available. The DA group were given a list of additional support resources and services, and encouraged to seek additional help if required. All participants received weekly automated emails for 12 weeks as they worked through the course. It was not possible to deliver individualised support. 34 Results: Despite using a number of recruitment strategies, recruitment was lower and slower than anticipated, and attrition was high. 41 women, primarily recruited via the internet, were randomised (IA n=21, DA n=20). No significant differences were observed between participants in either arm at baseline and no statistically significant differences were identified when the demographics and baseline measures of participants who logged-on to the course were compared to those who did not, or when participants who completed follow-up measures were compared to those who did not. Pre and post intervention scores on the EPDS approached statistical significance (P=.059, r=.444) favouring the intervention arm. The discussion group suggested strengths of the course and recommended areas for improvement, including making the course more mobile friendly. Conclusion: Internet interventions show promise; however it is difficult to recruit mothers, engagement is low and attrition high. A number of recommendations are made and a further pilot or an internal pilot of a larger substantive study should be conducted to confirm recruitment and retention. Trial ID: ISRCTN90927910.

A VOICE OF THEIR OWN: MUSIC AND SOCIAL COHESION IN TURKISH ALEVI LIFE

This dissertation examines the role that music has played in the expression of identity and revitalization of culture of the Alevis in Turkey, since the start of their sociocultural revival movement in the late 1980s. Music is central to Alevi claims of ethnic and religious difference—singing and playing the bağlama (Turkish folk lute) constitutes an expressive practice in worship and everyday life. Based on research conducted from 2012 to 2014, I investigate and present Alevi music through the lens of discourses on the construction of identity as a social and musical process. Alevi musicians perform a revived repertoire of the ritual music and folk songs of Anatolian bards and dervish-lodge poets that developed over several centuries. Contemporary media and performance contexts have blurred former distinctions between sacred and secular, yet have provided new avenues to build community in an urban setting. I compare music performances in the worship services of urban and small-town areas, and other community events such as devotional meetings, concerts, clubs, and broadcast and social media to illustrate the ways that participation—both performing and listening—reinforces identity and solidarity. I also examine the influence of these different contexts on performers’ musical choices, and the power of music to evoke a range of responses and emotional feelings in the participants. Through my investigation I argue that the Alevi music repertoire is not only a cultural practice but also a symbol of power and collective action in their struggle for human rights and self-determination. As Alevis have faced a redefined Turkish nationalism that incorporates Sunni Muslim piety, this music has gained even greater potency in their resistance to misrecognition as a folkloric, rather than a living, tradition.

A influência das redes sociais na perceção e escolha de um destino turístico na Geração Y

As redes sociais têm potencial para influenciar os indivíduos nas suas escolhas. O objetivo deste estudo é perceber se as redes sociais têm influência na perceção e escolha de um destino turístico por parte dos utilizadores. No sentido de entender todo o processo de partilha de conteúdos por parte dos utilizadores online, no que toca à divulgação de destinos turísticos, foi escolhida como referência a maior rede social a nível mundial - o facebook. Foi adotada uma metodologia quantitativa, assente na construção de um questionário colocado online a cerca de 250 pessoas, utilizadores de facebook, de ambos os sexos, e com idades compreendidas entre os 16 e os 32 anos – Geração Y ou geração Millennium. Os dados recolhidos foram tratados e analisados com o auxílio do software SPSS e do Google Forms. Foi possível, nesta investigação, identificar a sensibilidade dos indivíduos face à partilha de conteúdos turísticos realizados por amigos, familiares e ícones nas redes sociais. Este estudo é importante no sentido em que as empresas ligadas ao sector podem incentivar os utilizadores a partilhar as suas férias e conteúdos na página da empresa e tornar-se, assim, numa estratégia de marketing potenciando quer a sua visibilidade organizacional, quer a do destino em causa.

Análise bioética da utilização de imagens de pacientes em mídias sociais eletrônicas

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Bioética, 2016.

The importance of relationship closeness expectations in brand-page communication in social networking sites

While there is extensive research regarding the way users in social networking sites (SNSs) connect and communicate with each other, literature on consumer-brand relationships in SNSs is scarce. This paper hypothesizes and tests the impact of varying the source of communication in Facebook brand pages on key characteristics of brand equity, examining whether this impact is conditioned by relationship closeness expectations. More specifically, two experiments assess how relationship closeness expectations vary according to brand category and brand affiliation and how the use of a spokes-character as the source of communication in brand pages versus communicating institutionally affects consumer’s attitudes towards two real-world brands. To measure these variables, structured questionnaires were conducted with three groups of undergraduate students. The results suggest that the appropriateness of opting for a more “informal” source of communication in brand pages such as a spokes-character varies depending on whether this is in(congruent) with existing relationship closeness expectations. Implications for researchers, brand and social media managers are presented.

Efeitos dos vídeo-blogs na decisão de compra de produtos cosméticos

Este estudo enquadra-se na área do Marketing Digital, e pretende demonstrar a influência exercida pelos vídeo-blogs no YouTube na decisão de compra de produtos cosméticos em Portugal. Aborda inicialmente conceitos como as redes sociais, mais concretamente os vídeoblogs e a rede social YouTube, o comportamento do consumidor online, o mercado da cosmética em Portugal e o Marketing ligado à industria da beleza. O objetivo deste estudo é o de demonstrar como as marcas de cosmética podem aumentar as suas vendas e notoriedade com a influência exercida pelas beauty vloggers. A fim de perceber a influência na tomada de decisão no que diz respeito a produtos de cosmética, adotámos uma metodologia quantitativa, que assentou na realização de inquéritos online por questionário. Os dados foram organizados e analisados com a ajuda do software de análise quantitativa SPSS. Os principais resultados observados determinam uma influência positiva dos vídeo-blogs na decisão de compra de produtos cosméticos. Esta influência poderá demonstrar que o sucesso das empresas de cosméticos na divulgação, venda e fidelização de clientes deve apontar cada vez mais para a utilização intensiva de video bloggers dedicadas a temas de beleza, e identificadas no estudo como líderes de opinião, para as suas estratégias de comunicação.

Augmented Dissent: The Affordances of ICTs for Citizen Protest (A Case Study of the Ukraine Euromaidan Protests of 2013-2014).

This dissertation research project uses the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine to inform and shape a theory of augmented dissent to help explain the complex ways in which protest participants guided by the political, social, and cultural contexts engage in dissent augmented by ICTs in a reality where both the physical and the digital are used in concert. The purpose of this research is to conceptualize the use and perception of ICTs in protest activity using the communicative affordances framework. Through a mixed-method research approach involving interviews with protest participants, as well as qualitative and thematic analysis of online content from social media pages of several key Euromaidan protest communities, the research project examines the role ICTs played in the information and media landscape during the Euromaidan protest. The findings of the online content analysis were used to inform the questions for the 59 semi-structured, open-ended interviews with Euromaidan protest participants in Ukraine and abroad. The research findings provide in-depth insights about how ICTs were used and perceived by protest participants, and their role as vehicles for information and civic media content. The study employs the theoretical framework of social media affordances to interpret the data gathered during the interviews and content analysis to better understand how digital media augmented citizens’ protest activity through affording them new possibilities for dissent, and how they made meaning of said protest activity as augmented by ICTs. The findings contribute towards shaping a theory of digitally augmented dissent that conceptualizes the complex relationship between citizens and ICTs during protest activity as an affordance-driven one, where online and offline tools and activity merge into a unified dissent space and extend or augment the possibilities for action in interesting, and sometimes unexpected ways. Such a conceptual model could inform broader theories about civic participation and digital activism in the post-Soviet world and beyond, as ICTs become an inseparable part of civic life.

Punks and believers An ethnographic study of subcultural, religious and non-religious identities in Indonesian punk scenes

Punk subculture is often assumed to have an antagonistic disposition towards religion. In this thesis, I examine this relationship in the Indonesian context, where the level of religious devotion is higher than in Western societies. I concentrate on how Indonesian punks who belong to secular punk communities negotiate the relationship between their religious or non-religious and subcultural identities. In addition, I examine the status of religion on the collective level in the punk communities. I collected the ethnographic data on Java in 2012. In addition to semi-structured interviews and participant observation, the analyzed data consists of social media sites, punk records and an online enquiry. I utilized thematic analysis in the study. The notion of identity is understood the way Stuart Hall has conceptualized it. Another essential concept, affect, is derived from Lawrence Grossberg’s theorization. The religious participants separated punk and religion in their lives. Many Muslim informants used an Islamic typology to separate one’s personal relationship with Allah and one’s relationship with other people. While some participants filtered away certain elements of “Western punk”, the majority of them saw ideological similarities between punk and Islam. This relationship was negotiated using both affective and ideological rationalizations. Non-religious punks respected religious people, but criticized radical forms of religiosity. Some of them described the difficulties of maintaining a non-religious identity in Indonesia, and that they have felt less marginalized in the punk community. Almost all of the participants stated that punk scenes should be religiously neutral and viewed integrating punk and religion as a problematic phenomenon.

Utility-aware social network graph anonymization

As the need for social network data publishing continues to increase, how to preserve the privacy of the social network data before publishing is becoming an important and challenging issue. A common approach to address this issue is through anonymization of the social network structure. The problem with altering the structure of the links relationship in social network data is how to balance between the gain of privacy and the loss of information (data utility). In this paper, we address this problem. We propose a utility-aware social network graph anonymization. The approach is based on a new metric that calculates the utility impact of social network link modification. The metric utilizes the shortest path length and the neighborhood overlap as the utility value. The value is then used as a weight factor in preserving structural integrity in the social network graph anonymization. For any modification made to the social network links, the proposed approach guarantees that the distance between vertices in the modified social network stays as close as the original social network graph prior to the modification. Experimental evaluation shows that the proposed metric improves the utility preservation as compared to the number-of-change metric.

Remixing as a creative and social approach to learning design

This paper discusses the concepts of remixing and morphing in learning design. In particular, it focuses on how the authors used approaches and findings from a high school action research study to inform their work in higher education. This was done in an attempt to build authentic and active student learning experiences that align with the needs of the 21st Century, and they argue that remixing offers a creative and social approach to the designing of learning. The high school study embedded social and participatory media into the face-to-face classroom. This opened up opportunities for students to interact and share user-generated content. The authors discuss how they have used the approaches and findings from this high school study in their work in teacher education and pre-service teacher education, as well in as learning design in the Business and Law Faculty. The authors' university has a strategic plan that identifies the world as globally connected, with new ideas available at the touch of a button and innovation 'anywhere' and at 'any time' and this paper supports that agenda. Using the concept of remixing the authors build on their previous work in learning design and make explicit the sharing nature within a remix approach. The use of the concept of remix is demonstrated within a bigger picture of what is sometimes called 'course-wide' thinking. The authors argue that this work contributes evidence and analysis that can inform course designers, practitioner-researchers and the work of academics, from across disciplines, to design courses that recognise and support active student learning.

An ensemble learning approach for addressing the class imbalance problem in twitter spam detection

Being an important source for real-time information dissemination in recent years, Twitter is inevitably a prime target of spammers. It has been showed that the damage caused by Twitter spam can reach far beyond the social media platform itself. To mitigate the threat, a lot of recent studies use machine learning techniques to classify Twitter spam and report very satisfactory results. However, most of the studies overlook a fundamental issue that is widely seen in real-world Twitter data, i.e., the class imbalance problem. In this paper, we show that the unequal distribution between spam and non-spam classes in the data has a great impact on spam detection rate. To address the problem, we propose an ensemble learning approach, which involves three steps. In the first step, we adjust the class distribution in the imbalanced data set using various strategies, including random oversampling, random undersampling and fuzzy-based oversampling. In the next step, a classification model is built upon each of the redistributed data sets. In the final step, a majority voting scheme is introduced to combine all the classification models. Experimental results obtained using real-world Twitter data indicate that the proposed approach can significantly improve the spam detection rate in data sets with imbalanced class distribution.