Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Communication Technology and New Media

The University of Akron

2016

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Network Engagement Behaviors Of Three Online Diet And Exercise Programs, Hillary Stark, Abdulrahman Habib, Duha Al Smadi Dec 2016

Network Engagement Behaviors Of Three Online Diet And Exercise Programs, Hillary Stark, Abdulrahman Habib, Duha Al Smadi

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Online diet and exercise programs offer individuals many benefits not previously afforded, such as convenience and an increased network of like-minded individuals who share relevant information, while at the same time providing different levels of anonymity and engagement. While studies conducted of users engaging in groups on the popular social media platforms of Facebook and Twitter, when dieting have produced notable results, including the most frequent content shared between users, research has not yet been published regarding this topic, in relation to the social media site Instagram. There is also a lack of literature regarding the most engaging type of …

Go to article

Recent Semantic Changes For The Term "Digital", Tore Brattli Dec 2016

Recent Semantic Changes For The Term "Digital", Tore Brattli

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The term digital originates from the Latin word for finger/counting and has for many years been used to denote discrete signals and information, as opposed to analog. Discrete representation is an important principle, not only in computers, but also for (printed) text, music scores and even our genes. Recently however, the use of the term has increased and the meaning expanded to include almost everything related to information technology, e.g. digital natives and digital addiction. This study investigates the core principles of digital representation and compares this concept with the recent usage, with a focus on Norwegian media. The purpose …

Go to article

Subjectivity Filtering: Finding Cognitive Authority In Online Social Media Opinion Posts, Laurie J. Bonnici Dec 2016

Subjectivity Filtering: Finding Cognitive Authority In Online Social Media Opinion Posts, Laurie J. Bonnici

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The technological explosion of information ushered in by the Internet, and more so with online social media (OSM), has provided a forest of personal opinions from which hunters forage. Personal opinions abound in OSM, serving as secondhand knowledge sources that inform everyday decisions. This research proposes a new lens, Cognitive Authority Framework – Quality Information Source (CAF-QIS), to explore the nature, tone, intentions, and believability of OSM postings. The conceptual framework is informed by Wilson’s four dimensions of cognitive authority (CA) combined with the five traditional criteria used as a common (unnamed) model for the identification of information quality in …

Go to article

How It All Started: 1996, The First Year Of Dokvit, Niels W. Lund Jun 2016

How It All Started: 1996, The First Year Of Dokvit, Niels W. Lund

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article describes in detail the first year of the Documentation Studies (Dokvit) program in Tromsø (1996) in attempt to offer an understanding of how Dokvit was part of the neo-documentation movement that began in the mid-90s with the rediscovery of Suzanne Briet and discussions on "What is a 'document'?" This article discusses how the Dokvit program was structured, including its curriculum, syllabus and teaching principles. In particular, it details the undergraduate student projects done this year and demonstrates how they were embedded within the historical and media situation of 1996. In conclusion, this article discusses how the experience of …

Go to article

Analyzing The Pvcs Documents: A Multimodal Rate-Based Approach To Understand Community’S Goals And Values, Anastasia Sergeeva, Bogdan Kirillov, Ekaterina Voronina Jan 2016

Analyzing The Pvcs Documents: A Multimodal Rate-Based Approach To Understand Community’S Goals And Values, Anastasia Sergeeva, Bogdan Kirillov, Ekaterina Voronina

Proceedings from the Document Academy

A significant amount of modern professional communication takes place in the so-called Virtual Communities of Practice or Professional Virtual Communities (PVCs): social systems of individuals who use Information Technologies to mediate their relationships and facilitate knowledge exchange and generation. In current research we analyze one of the biggest Russian IT-PVCs, Habrahabr.ru. The community’s official goal is connecting the IT-specialists; communication takes form of users articles and comments; users can rate the articles, the comments and the other users themselves. Using the number of SNA instruments, community’s metadata, linguistics statistics and discourse analysis we show the structure of the community, main …

Go to article

Wikia: Between Documentary Simulacra And Documented Fictions, Caroline Courbières, Sabine Roux Jan 2016

Wikia: Between Documentary Simulacra And Documented Fictions, Caroline Courbières, Sabine Roux

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Wikis are digital community spaces that have attracted high traffic but virtually no study as socio-communicational platforms. These platforms offer individuals the possibility of engaging in unique writing activities by defining a distinct material configuration and imposing a protocol of enunciation. Wikis are platforms developed through the contributions of anyone, and constitute collaborative encyclopedias dedicated to a cultural topic. This article more specifically examines the Harry Potter Wiki, which is devoted to the literary universe of J.K. Rowling. Our semio-communicational analysis concerns the structure, the authors and the contents of the French and Anglo-Saxon versions of this wiki. First we …

Go to article

What Makes A Man?: An Alpha Male’S Fight For Masculinity Against The Media’S Muscular Ideals, Julie A. Yockey Jan 2016

What Makes A Man?: An Alpha Male’S Fight For Masculinity Against The Media’S Muscular Ideals, Julie A. Yockey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Previous studies have focused heavily on media effects on women however growing trends in male ideals are finding that men are no longer static observers. The media constructs the ideal male body as lean, strong and muscular and men exposed to these idealized images may experience body dissatisfaction. Therefore, this project explores the effects of media ideals on men and the possible relationship between the media depictions of the muscular ideals and masculinity. Current research analysis shows that exposure to media ideals not only causes body dissatisfaction among men; trying to achieve the perfect body may result in unhealthy behaviors. …

Go to article

Newsrooms And Social Media, Hanna E. Steinker Jan 2016

Newsrooms And Social Media, Hanna E. Steinker

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this research is to identify how local newspapers and newsrooms are converging to social media. An Ohio newspaper, The Post volunteered to have its Facebook Pages analytics studied over the course of two months, August through September. A constructed week was formed and four of the company’s Facebook Pages were analyzed. The study intends to examine the current social media position of The Post, assess the potential or areas of growth, and create a best practices manual to propel the selected newspaper’s social media accounts forward. Unlike traditional newspaper consumers, social media users tend to gather their …

Go to article

The Religion Of Social Media: When Islam Meets The Web, Zaina Salem Jan 2016

The Religion Of Social Media: When Islam Meets The Web, Zaina Salem

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this feature article is to identify the reasons why some social media users disclose their religious beliefs through sites such as Facebook and Twitter. According to the Pew Research Center, 20 percent of Americans share their faith online. After a series of in-depth interviews, I discovered that for some, religious-related posts serve as personal religious reminders. Others share their religious views on social media to feel a sense of community, or to eliminate stereotypes and ignorance surrounding their religion.

Go to article