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Gonzalez-Bailon, Sandra, Andreas Kaltenbrunner, and Rafael E. Banchs. "The Structure of Political Discussion Networks: A Model for the Analysis of Online Deliberation." Journal of Information Technology 25, no. 2 (June 2010): 230–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jit.2010.2.
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This paper shows that online political discussion networks are, on average, wider and deeper than the networks generated by other types of discussions: they engage a larger number of participants and cascade through more levels of nested comments. Using data collected from the Slashdot forum, this paper reconstructs the discussion threads as hierarchical networks and proposes a model for their comparison and classification. In addition to the substantive topic of discussion, which corresponds to the different sections of the forum (such as Developers, Games, or Politics), we classify the threads according to structural features like the maximum number of comments at any level of the network (i.e. the width) and the number of nested layers in the network (i.e. the depth). We find that political discussion networks display a tendency to cluster around the area that corresponds to wider and deeper structures, showing a significant departure from the structure exhibited by other types of discussions. We propose using this model to create a framework that allows the analysis and comparison of different internet technologies for the promotion of political deliberation.
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Yang, Yang, Qiang Chen, and Wenjie Liu. "The structural evolution of an online discussion network." Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 389, no. 24 (December 2010): 5871–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2010.08.041.
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Vainikka, Eliisa. "The anti-social network: Precarious life in online conversations of the socially withdrawn." European Journal of Cultural Studies 23, no. 4 (November 30, 2018): 596–610. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367549418810075.
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This article presents an analysis of life-political themes in online discussions about the hikikomori phenomenon, acute social withdrawal. In a Finnish online image-board, socially withdrawn individuals anonymously take part in conversations concerning, for example, welfare and the difficulties of working life. The aim of this study is to bring new perspectives to the discussion about anonymous online communication, and especially its relationship with social exclusion and anti-social behaviour. In the article, I examine how ‘the anti-social’ is produced and understood in this anonymously used forum. Through a thematically constructed textual analysis of online discussions, the following questions are answered: What kinds of life-political themes are found in the discussion concerning social withdrawal? How is the feeling of being an outsider in one’s own society voiced in this online community? What kind of space for public discussion does this specific forum provide? In the online space, an intimate public is formed around shared narratives and the conversations seem to offer at least a space of expressive politics and social criticism for the participants in a situation that is labelled by precariousness.
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Adalat, Mohsin, Muaz A. Niazi, and Athanasios V. Vasilakos. "Variations in power of opinion leaders in online communication networks." Royal Society Open Science 5, no. 10 (October 2018): 180642. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180642.
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Online social media has completely transformed how we communicate with each other. While online discussion platforms are available in the form of applications and websites, an emergent outcome of this transformation is the phenomenon of ‘opinion leaders’. A number of previous studies have been presented to identify opinion leaders in online discussion networks. In particular, Feng (2016 Comput. Hum. Behav. 54 , 43–53. ( doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.052 )) has identified five different types of central users besides outlining their communication patterns in an online communication network. However, the presented work focuses on a limited time span. The question remains as to whether similar communication patterns exist that will stand the test of time over longer periods. Here, we present a critical analysis of the Feng framework both for short-term as well as for longer periods. Additionally, for validation, we take another case study presented by Udanor et al. (2016 Program 50 , 481–507. ( doi:10.1108/PROG-02-2016-0011 )) to further understand these dynamics. Results indicate that not all Feng-based central users may be identifiable in the longer term. Conversation starter and influencers were noted as opinion leaders in the network. These users play an important role as information sources in long-term discussions. Whereas network builder and active engager help in connecting otherwise sparse communities. Furthermore, we discuss the changing positions of opinion leaders and their power to keep isolates interested in an online discussion network.
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Strauß, Nadine, Laura Alonso-Muñoz, and Homero Gil de Zúñiga. "Bursting the filter bubble: the mediating effect of discussion frequency on network heterogeneity." Online Information Review 44, no. 6 (July 11, 2020): 1161–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/oir-11-2019-0345.
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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the structural processes that lead citizens to escape their common social circles when talking about politics and public affairs (e.g. “filter bubbles”). To do so, this study tests to what extent political attitudes, political behavior, news media consumption and discussion frequency affect discussion network heterogeneity among US citizens.Design/methodology/approachSupported by the polling group Nielsen, this study uses a two-wave panel online survey to study the antecedents and mechanisms of discussion network heterogeneity among US citizens. To test the hypotheses and answer the research questions, ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions (cross-sectional, lagged and autoregressive) and mediation analyses were conducted.FindingsThe findings imply that political discussion frequency functions as the key element in explaining the mechanism that leads politically interested and participatory citizens (online) as well as news consumers of traditional and online media to seek a more heterogeneous discussion network, disrupting the so-called “filter bubbles.” However, mediation analyses also showed that discussion frequency can lead to more homogenous discussion networks if people score high on political knowledge, possibly reflecting the formation of a close network of political-savvy individuals.Originality/valueThe survey data give important insights into the 2016 pre-election situation, trying to explain why US citizens were more likely to remain in homogenous discussion networks when talking about politics and public affairs. By using two-wave panel data, the analyses allow to draw tentative conclusions about the influential and inhibiting factors and mechanisms that lead individuals to seek/avoid a more heterogeneous discussion network.
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Yu, Li Xia, Xiao Mei Shang, Su Fen Zhang, and Yi Yang. "The Discussion about Network Application in College Students’ Employment." Applied Mechanics and Materials 473 (December 2013): 215–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.473.215.
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As the internet penetrates into all spheres of society gradually, network information technology is affecting all areas of society in a unique way. College students are an important group of Network User. In the network environment, the individual qualities, career pathways, career scope, business conditions about students have undergone great changes. Networks are becoming an important carrier for students to broaden employment channels, change the passive situation in the job market. This paper discusses the science construction of students’ employment network system in an angle of the characteristics and advantages of college students online employment, aiming at taking full advantage of Networks to promote the graduate employment, elevating employment information network to a new height, thereby increasing the employment rate of university students
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Nguyen, Nhut-Lam, Ming-Hung Wang, Yu-Chen Dai, and Chyi-Ren Dow. "Understanding Malicious Accounts in Online Political Discussions: A Multilayer Network Approach." Sensors 21, no. 6 (March 20, 2021): 2183. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21062183.
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Online social media platforms play an important role in political communication where users can freely express and exchange their political opinion. Political entities have leveraged social media platforms as essential channels to disseminate information, interact with voters, and even influence public opinion. For this purpose, some organizations may create one or more accounts to join online political discussions. Using these accounts, they could promote candidates and attack competitors. To avoid such misleading speeches and improve the transparency of the online society, spotting such malicious accounts and understanding their behaviors are crucial issues. In this paper, we aim to use network-based analysis to sense influential human-operated malicious accounts who attempt to manipulate public opinion on political discussion forums. To this end, we collected the election-related articles and malicious accounts from the prominent Taiwan discussion forum spanning from 25 May 2018 to 11 January 2020 (the election day). We modeled the discussion network as a multilayer network and used various centrality measures to sense influential malicious accounts not only in a single-layer but also across different layers of the network. Moreover, community analysis was performed to discover prominent communities and their characteristics for each layer of the network. The results demonstrate that our proposed method can successfully identify several influential malicious accounts and prominent communities with apparent behavior differences from others.
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Moreira, Albert, Raul Alonso-Calvo, Alberto Muñoz, and José Crespo. "Measuring Relevant Information in Health Social Network Conversations and Clinical Diagnosis Cases." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 15, no. 12 (December 9, 2018): 2787. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122787.
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The Internet and social media is an enormous source of information. Health social networks and online collaborative environments enable users to create shared content that afterwards can be discussed. The aim of this paper is to present a novel methodology designed for quantifying relevant information provided by different participants in clinical online discussions. The main goal of the methodology is to facilitate the comparison of participant interactions in clinical conversations. A set of key indicators for different aspects of clinical conversations and specific clinical contributions within a discussion have been defined. Particularly, three new indicators have been proposed to make use of biomedical knowledge extraction based on standard terminologies and ontologies. These indicators allow measuring the relevance of information of each participant of the clinical conversation. Proposed indicators have been applied to one discussion extracted from PatientsLikeMe, as well as to two real clinical cases from the Sanar collaborative discussion system. Results obtained from indicators in the tested cases have been compared with clinical expert opinions to check indicators validity. The methodology has been successfully used for describing participant interactions in real clinical cases belonging to a collaborative clinical case discussion tool and from a conversation from a health social network. This work can be applied to assess collaborative diagnoses, discussions among patients, and the participation of students in clinical case discussions. It permits moderators and educators to obtain a quantitatively measure of the contribution of each participant.
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Suh, Wonseok, and Won sug Shin. ""An analysis of discussion environment and group size in online discussion activities using Social Networking Analysis"." Journal of Educational Technology 28, no. 4 (December 30, 2012): 757–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.17232/kset.28.4.757.
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Choi, Sujin, Joshua SungWoo Yang, and Wenhong Chen. "Longitudinal Change of an Online Political Discussion Forum: Antecedents of Discussion Network Size and Evolution." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 23, no. 5 (July 31, 2018): 260–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmy013.
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Malkawi, Asma H., and Khamis Ambusaidi. "Communication ethics for online social movements: A study on Arab social networks on Twitter." Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research 14, no. 1 (April 1, 2021): 117–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/jammr_00027_1.
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Social media increasingly play a role in transforming activist movements in the Arab world into digital forms. This study examines the link between adherence of network members to digital communication ethics and the level of the movements’ success based on the conceptual grounding in communication theories of Jürgen Habermas and Taha Abdurrahman. We tried to evaluate the link between the success of online social movement actors and their ethical contents by asking: What are the ethical implications of online social movements that do succeed in actualizing their goals? Do social network users discuss communication ethics to agree on terms of use within these movements? What are the important issues of communicative action and challenges of rational discussion in Arab social media use? We used two case studies: the hashtag #with_the_teacher launched to support teachers’ rights in Jordan in 2019, and a Twitter network of Arab users discussing digital communication ethics. We used mixed-methods and case studies approaches; data collected from Twitter were analysed using social network analysis followed by qualitative content analysis. Key findings demonstrate positive effects of activists’ engagement in social networks, and that commitment to digital communication ethics, whether stemming from secular or religious frames of reference, is significant for the success of online social movements. The case of #with_the_teacher network proved itself to be an example of successful digital protest and ideal model for rational ethical communication. Content analysis revealed that teachers formed a social network that exhibited strong solidarity and cohesion, and relied – perhaps unconsciously – on rules and principles of ethical discussion, including truthfulness, credibility, transparency, respect, accuracy and responsibility. Content analysis of the ‘communication ethics’ network demonstrated that the majority of content was religiously oriented, produced mainly by religious figures, educational institutions, or accounts with pseudonyms that are influential by the sheer number of their followers.
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Il-Hyun, Jo, Yoo Yesom, Park Yeonjeong, and Kim Jeonghyun. "Mediation Effect of Online Student Activities between Network Centrality and Academic Achievement in Asynchronous Online Discussion." Journal of Educational Technology 31, no. 3 (September 30, 2015): 459–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.17232/kset.31.3.459.
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Tan, Meng Yoe. "Authenticity in Online Religion." International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation 8, no. 1 (January 2016): 44–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/ijantti.2016010104.
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In this article, the subject of online religion and how it can be researched is discussed. The dynamics of religious experience, authority, communication and more is subject of much discussion both in academia and religious discourses primarily because of the seemingly immaterial realm that is cyberspace. This article examines unique aspects of the nature of online religion and pays particular attention to the fluidity of online/offline relations and the subject of “authenticity” in the realm of online religion. Following from that is the discussion of how actor-network theory (ANT), first developed by Bruno Latour, can be deployed as a useful methodological approach to researching online religion, and to navigate potentially deterministic and oppositional discourses of online/offline relations.
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Lim, Kyu Yon, Hana Park, and Heejoon Kim. ""Effects of Social Network-based Visual Feedback on Learning in Online Discussion"." Journal of Educational Technology 30, no. 3 (September 30, 2014): 443–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.17232/kset.30.3.443.
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da Silva, Luiz Fernando Cal, Marcelo Werneck Barbosa, and Rodrigo Richard Gomes. "Measuring Participation in Distance Education Online Discussion Forums Using Social Network Analysis." Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 70, no. 2 (November 19, 2018): 140–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.24080.
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Bosman, Lisa, Nathalie Duval-Couetil, Brooke Mayer, and Patrick McNamara. "Using Online Discussions to Develop the Entrepreneurial Mindset in Environmental Engineering Undergraduates: A Case Study." International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP) 9, no. 3 (June 11, 2019): 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v9i3.9491.
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Entrepreneurship is an important aspect of the U.S. and global economy. As such, developing an entrepreneurial mindset is crucial for both engineering students and practicing engineers. The purpose of this paper is investigate the role of online discussions, as a pedagogical approach, in the development of the entrepreneurial mindset, and explore a variety of approaches to assess student learning outcomes. Online discussions prompts were created for environmental engineering courses using the Kern Engineering Entrepreneurial Network (KEEN) framework. The framework proposes that an entrepreneurial mindset can be fostered in students by promoting curiosity, encouraging connections, and creating value. This paper describes the methodology and rationale that served as the foundation for this exploratory study. Examples are provided for online discussion prompts developed and administered in two different environmental engineering undergraduate courses: Introduction to Environmental Engineering (three credit, undergraduate, online course offered during two different summer sessions) and Seminar in Environmental Engineering (one credit, undergraduate level, face-to-face course offered during one semester). Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze and assess potential impacts of online discussion prompt use. The findings provide lessons learned for applying the KEEN framework in an engineering classroom via online discussions.
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Hopp, Toby. "A network analysis of political incivility dimensions." Communication and the Public 4, no. 3 (September 2019): 204–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2057047319877278.
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Although online political incivility has increasingly become an object of scholarly inquiry, there exists little agreement on the construct’s precise definition. The goal of this work was therefore to explore the relational dynamics among previously identified dimensions of online political incivility. The results of a regularized partial correlation network indicated that a communicator’s desire to exclude attitude-discrepant others from discussion played an especially influential role in the variable network. The data also suggested that certain facets of incivility may be likely to be deployed together. Specifically, the data suggested the existence of two identifiable groupings of incivility factors: (1) variables pertaining to violation of speech-based norms and (2) variables pertaining to the violation of the inclusion-based norms that underlie democratic communication processes. These results are discussed in the context of political discussion and deliberation.
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Turkkila, Miikka, and Henri Lommi. "Student Participation in Online Content-Related Discussion and Its Relation to Students’ Background Knowledge." Education Sciences 10, no. 4 (April 13, 2020): 106. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/educsci10040106.
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This paper presents two novel network methods developed for education research. These methods were used to investigate online discussions and the structure of students’ background knowledge in a blended university course for pre-service teachers (n = 11). Consequently, these measures were used for correlation analysis. The social network analysis of the online discussions was based on network roles defined using triadic motifs instead of more commonly used centrality measures. The network analysis of the background knowledge is based on the Katz centrality measure and Jaccard similarity. The results reveal that both measures have characteristic features that are typical for each student. These features, however, are not correlated when student participation is controlled for. The results show that the structure and extension of a student’s background knowledge does not explain their activity and role in online discussions. The limitations and implications of the developed methods and results are discussed.
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Thomas, Simone, Maike Scherrer-Rathje, Maria Fischl, and Thomas Friedli. "Linking network targets and site capabilities." International Journal of Operations & Production Management 35, no. 12 (December 7, 2015): 1710–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-10-2014-0464.
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Purpose – To cope with the increasing challenges of globalisation, various manufacturing companies have established intra-company manufacturing networks. The purpose of this paper is to link the strategic network targets (i.e. accessibility, thriftiness represented by economies of scale and economies of scope, mobility, and learning) with the capabilities and characteristics of the constituting sites of the manufacturing network and thus facilitate the identification of mismatches and the discussion of possible development paths for the network. Design/methodology/approach – The authors derive a conceptual framework from the literature which is tested with a single case; a manufacturing network consisting of eight manufacturing sites. Case data were collected based on 24 interviews with operations managers at network level and a standardised online survey among the sites’ management teams. Findings – Results indicate that manufacturing network and site levels need to be related when striving for a fit between manufacturing strategy, network strategy, and site capabilities and characteristics. Research limitations/implications – Single case studies have only limited generalisability. Nevertheless, the case demonstrates the usefulness of several dimensions when analysing manufacturing networks on site and network level. Originality/value – This paper represents the first attempt to link strategic targets of intra-company manufacturing networks with site capabilities and characteristics. Thereby, it provides a theoretical basis for future research on the relationship between strategic targets of manufacturing networks and their fulfilment. The developed manufacturing site portfolio, moreover, extends the site role typology discussion by a multi-dimensional perspective and represents a starting point for a multi-faceted discussion of site roles.
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Sands, Taylor J., Stephanie Smeltzer, Laura Covarrubias, and Terri Lynn Woodard. "Conversations about cancer-related infertility: An exploration of online discussion forums." Journal of Clinical Oncology 34, no. 3_suppl (January 20, 2016): e279-e282. http://dx.doi.org/10.1200/jco.2016.34.3_suppl.e279.
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e279 Background: Many patients use Internet discussion forums to seek support and advice on medical conditions, including cancer and fertility. Online discussions about medical issues have been demonstrated to influence patients’ decisions about their care. The objective of this study was to explore online discussions that patients have about cancer and infertility. Methods: An initial search identified the three most popular forums that contained discussions about cancer-related infertility. Within these forums, a search of “cancer” and “infertility” was performed. All threads posted between June 1, 2010, and June 1, 2015 were identified. Qualitative research methods were used to identify, code, and analyze themes within the data. Results: A total of 14 threads and 133 posts were identified. Participants were both male and female and the age range of those disclosing demographic information was 21 to 44 years old. The major themes that were identified were: 1) use of forums as a supportive network, 2) sharing of experiences with fertility counseling and/or treatment, 3) consideration of alternative methods of family building, and 4) challenges encountered when seeking fertility counseling and services. Conclusions: Individuals affected by cancer-related infertility may use online discussion forums to seek information and advice from others who have gone through similar experiences, or to share their personal stories with fertility preservation with the online community. Understanding the role that these online forums play can help health care providers address the unique concerns of this population.
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Patuelli, Alessia, Guido Caldarelli, Nicola Lattanzi, and Fabio Saracco. "Firms’ challenges and social responsibilities during Covid-19: A Twitter analysis." PLOS ONE 16, no. 7 (July 27, 2021): e0254748. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254748.
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This paper offers insights on the major issues and challenges firms face in the Covid-19 pandemic and their concerns for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) themes. To do so, we investigate large Italian firms’ discussions on Twitter in the first nine months of the pandemic. Specifically, we ask: How is firms’ Twitter discussion developing during the Covid-19 pandemic? Which CSR dimensions and topics do firms discuss? To what extent do they resonate with the public? We downloaded Twitter posts by the accounts of large Italian firms, and we built the bipartite network of accounts and hashtags. Using an entropy-based null model as a benchmark, we projected the information contained in the network into the accounts layers, identifying a network of accounts. We find that the network is composed of 13 communities and accounts at the core of the network focus on environmental sustainability, digital innovation, and safety. Firms’ ownership type does not seem to influence the conversation. While the relevance of CSR hashtags and stakeholder engagement is relatively small, peculiarities arise in some communities. Overall, our paper highlights the contribution of online social networks and complex networks methods for management and strategy research, showing the role of online social media in understanding firms’ issues, challenges, and responsibilities, with common narratives naturally emerging from data.
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Lu, Yanqin, Jae Kook Lee, and Eunyi Kim. "Network characteristics matter in politics on Facebook: evidence from a US national survey." Online Information Review 42, no. 3 (June 11, 2018): 372–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/oir-09-2016-0262.
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PurposeFacebook has been identified as a primary source of political information by a majority (63 percent) of its users. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Facebook use and political participation, and investigate the mediating effects of the characteristics of one’s Facebook network (i.e. network size, proportion of strong ties, and discussion network heterogeneity).Design/methodology/approachThis study relies on a representative survey of American adults (n=1,032) conducted during the 2012 primary election campaigns from May 3 to May 10. The sample was randomly selected from a representative online panel maintained by a professional research organization. Given this study’s focus on the influence of Facebook use and network characteristics, an online panel is suitable for testing the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show positive associations between Facebook use and both off- and online political participation. Further, the positive association between Facebook use and political participation is mediated by discussion network heterogeneity and the proportion of strong ties in one’s Facebook network, but not the network size.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on the roles played by network characteristics of Facebook. The composition of a user’s Facebook network is closely related with what kind of information she encounters and how likely she is to participate in politics. Hence, network characteristics (e.g. Facebook discussion network heterogeneity) arise as important for gaining a nuanced understanding of the relationship between general use of the medium and its political outcomes.
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Ye, Kai, Yangheran Piao, Kun Zhao, and Xiaohui Cui. "A Heterogeneous Graph Enhanced LSTM Network for Hog Price Prediction Using Online Discussion." Agriculture 11, no. 4 (April 16, 2021): 359. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11040359.
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Forecasting the prices of hogs has always been a popular field of research. Such information has played an essential role in decision-making for farmers, consumers, corporations, and governments. It is hard to predict hog prices because too many factors can influence them. Some of the factors are easy to quantify, but some are not. Capturing the characteristics behind the price data is also tricky considering their non-linear and non-stationary nature. To address these difficulties, we propose Heterogeneous Graph-enhanced LSTM (HGLTSM), which is a method that predicts weekly hog price. In this paper, we first extract the historical prices of necessary agricultural products in recent years. Then, we utilize discussions from the online professional community to build heterogeneous graphs. These graphs have rich information of both discussions and the engaged users. Finally, we construct HGLSTM to make the prediction. The experimental results demonstrate that forum discussions are beneficial to hog price prediction. Moreover, our method exhibits a better performance than existing methods.
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Šimandl, Václav. "ICT Teachers, Social Network Sites and Online Privacy." International Journal of Information and Communication Technologies in Education 4, no. 4 (December 1, 2015): 69–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ijicte-2015-0020.
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Abstract The article looks at primary and secondary ICT teachers’ attitude to social network sites and privacy protection on the Internet. Attention is devoted to student-teacher friendships within online network sites. The study includes a description of specific habits as well as a discussion of how teachers make decisions and what influences them. The research has used in-depth semi-structured interviews, focusing on ICT teachers with differing views on the issue in question. Our investigations have been supported by triangulation, which involved accessing information about given teachers on social network sites. Data gained from interviews and triangulation has been processed using open coding. The results of our investigation show that teachers appreciate SNS because of the possibility to communicate and keep in touch with people they know, including former pupils. Teachers are concerned about the risks associated with using SNS, particularly security and privacy risks, and they feel even more under threat due to their occupation. Some teachers decided not to reject their pupils’ friend requests for educational reasons, claiming SNS serve as a channel of communication to support teaching and learning.
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Wang, Yue, Qian Huang, Qiurong Wang, Yang Xun, Yujiao Tan, Shuqin Cui, Linxiao Ma, Penglin Huang, Meijuan Cao, and Bin Zhang. "Analysis of the Structural Characteristics of the Online Social Network of Chinese Professional Athletes." Complexity 2021 (February 19, 2021): 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6647664.
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In response to the lack of research on the online social network structure of athletes, elements of research on the online social network structure of athletes were constructed based on the whole network perspective and through the study of the characteristics of the whole online social network structure of athletes, in order to provide reference for the physical and mental health development of athletes from a new perspective. Data were collected through questionnaires, and several software programs were used to preprocess and analyse the collected data. Through the analysis of the online whole network structure, it was found that the network density of the online support network was generally greater than that of the online discussion network, and athletes still showed stronger practical support demands and behaved more rationally in the process of training and learning life, while from the perspective of the relationship structure, the athletes’ family and classmates’ online support is weaker than that in previous studies; in terms of the whole network, strong relationships still dominate in this population, while attention should be paid to the impact of weak relationships.
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Thormann, Joan, Samuel Gable, Patricia Seferlis Fidalgo, and George Blakeslee. "Interaction, critical thinking, and social network analysis (SNA) in online courses." International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 14, no. 3 (July 5, 2013): 294. http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v14i3.1306.
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<p>This study tried to ascertain a possible relationship between the number of student moderators (1, 2, and 3), online interactions, and critical thinking of K-12 educators enrolled in an online course that was taught from a constructivist approach. The course topic was use of technology in special education. Social network analysis (SNA) and measures of critical thinking (Newman, Webb, & Cochrane, 1995) were used to research and assess if there was a difference in interaction and critical thinking between 1, 2, or 3 student moderators who facilitated a forum discussion of an assignment in an online course. The same course was repeated over three years. Each year either 1, 2, or 3 students moderated. The analysis indicated more discussion per non-moderating student with the three student moderated group. Using SNA we found that there was only one noticeable difference among the three groups which was in the value of network centralization. Using critical thinking measures the three student moderator group scored higher in five of the eight critical thinking categories. Variations in instructor presence in the online courses may have influenced these findings.</p>
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Duong, Mai. "The Formation of Network Society in Vietnam: Promise or Peril?" Asiascape: Digital Asia 6, no. 1-2 (April 29, 2019): 17–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22142312-12340100.
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Abstract Empowered by information technology, the Vietnamese online community is becoming the most progressive and active social group in Vietnam. Using network society theory developed by Manuel Castells, this article investigates the impact of Facebook on the formation of cyber-networks in which internet users access uncensored information and voice their opinions about politics and everyday life. My arguments are based on an analysis of blogs, online discussion groups, and semi-structured interviews with Vietnamese activists, bloggers, and journalists. While the Vietnamese authorities struggle to find ways to control the dynamism of the developing cyber-society, these networks are leading Vietnamese netizens into the habit of using new media such as Facebook to become familiar with the basic values of cyber-democracy.
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Larsen, Rebekah. "Mapping Right to be Forgotten frames: Reflexivity and empirical payoffs at the intersection of network discourse and mixed network methods." New Media & Society 22, no. 7 (July 2020): 1245–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444820912534.
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Networks are almost ubiquitous in the social sciences, in terms of method and structure. Dominant discourses around networks–concerning their purported democratic, progressive values and capacities–also impact how they are approached in research. This article illustrates the potential of this impact by tracing the trajectory and findings of a project focused on networked discussion of an Internet privacy debate. Using mixed methods—hyperlink network mapping, textual analysis (qualitative and quantitative), and semi-structured interviews—I examine online framing of a controversial data protection concept, the Right to be Forgotten. Initial, more “traditional” research approaches allowed for insight only into the most central and visible frames and sources. This led to a reorientation of research approach. In attempt to diversify sources and framings, I began focusing on the margins and off the “networked public sphere.” This article thus also recounts the significant empirical findings that resulted from such reflexivity and reorientation.
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Shaw, Frances. "The Politics of Blogs: Theories of Discursive Activism Online." Media International Australia 142, no. 1 (February 2012): 41–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1329878x1214200106.
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Many discussions of discursive politics online take a deliberative democracy, or public sphere, approach. Public sphere theory has had value for the discussion of discursive politics online, but I argue that the problems of public sphere theory have led to the neglect of counter-hegemonic political projects in understandings of online deliberative democracy. Agonistic democracy should be explored further as an alternative framework for the study of online political communities. In addition, I propose that this conception be modified with greater analysis of the affective dimensions of online politics, the productive uses of conflict, the role of political listening and an understanding of discursive activism informed by feminist philosophy. The Australian feminist blogging community, a network comprising group and individual blogs, provides a case study for my research into discursive activism in online contexts.
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Barnet, Susan, Anne Brunswic, Michelle Deignan, Liza Dimbleby, Ruth Maclennan, Ana Mendes, Manuela Morgaine, Natacha Nisic, and Esther Shalev-Gerz. "The Crown Letter roundtable discussion." Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ) 9, no. 2 (September 1, 2020): 264–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/miraj_00051_1.
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Natacha Nisic recognized that the conditions of confinement created by the COVID pandemic and lockdown posed a threat to the visibility, exchange and experience of contemporary art, particularly of the work of women artists. Nisic invited women in her global network to contribute to the project and over time the network has expanded. Over 50 artists have now contributed to the publications and they maintain the online project collectively. As well as weekly publications, since the beginning The Crown Letter has hosted a weekly Salon for its contributors, where the artists exchange experiences, ideas and stories. In these times of confinement, where the effects of systemic inequality are felt across the globe, The Crown Letter harnesses the power of artistic exchange, collective energy, support and dialogue. As it approaches its first anniversary, some of the artists gathered at a salon to reflect on what The Crown Letter means to them.
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Ghadirian, Hajar, Keyvan Salehi, and Ahamd Fauzi Mohd Ayub. "Assessing the Effectiveness of Role Assignment on Improving Students' Asynchronous Online Discussion Participation." International Journal of Distance Education Technologies 17, no. 1 (January 2019): 31–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/ijdet.2019010103.
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Taking into account prior research suggesting a lack of student participation in online discussions, this study examines the influence of peer moderator (PM) role assignment on students' participation and that of their peers' participation in online discussions. Eighty-four participants operated in a moderator role, reciprocally. Moreover, the study examines the differences in the level of e-moderation supports enacted by PMs of high-and low-density online discussions. Online participation was assessed using log files of seven-week discussions and social network analysis techniques. Quantitative content analysis was applied with online interaction transcripts of PMs for two groups of online discussions. The results indicated that students in the PM role reached significantly higher level of participation quantity and patterns and their non-posting participation significantly influenced all indicators of group participation. Further, high-and low-density online discussions differed significantly with regards to frequency of PMs' e-moderation supports.
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Bosco-Ruggiero, Stephanie, Virginia C. Strand, Sharon Kollar, and Robin Leake. "Supporting Child Welfare Traineeship Students through an Online Peer Network." Advances in Social Work 16, no. 1 (July 27, 2015): 170–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.18060/17978.
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This article describes the implementation of a peer network for social work traineeship students pursuing or continuing careers in child welfare. Literature on the best principles and practices for online community building reviewed and an explanation of how these best practices were utilized to build the online community is provided. Initial program design is described as well as program developments that occurred over four years of the program. The article then examines how the program’s evaluation was carried out and reviews some of the evaluation data. The article concludes with a discussion about the successes and challenges experienced in building the peer network and how other social work or traineeship programs, or agencies, might use an online peer network to support social work students and professionals.
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Lemay, David John, and Tenzin Doleck. "Online Learning Communities in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Social Learning Network Analysis of Twitter During the Shutdown." International Journal of Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for Education (iJAI) 2, no. 1 (June 16, 2020): 85. http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijai.v2i1.15427.
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This paper presents a social learning network analysis of Twitter during the 2020 global shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research concerning online learning environments is focused on the reproduction of conventional teaching arrangements, whereas social media technologies afford new channels for the dissemination of information and sharing of knowledge and expertise. We examine Twitter feed around the hashtags #onlinelearning and #onlineteaching during the global shutdown to examine the spontaneous development of online learning communities. We find relatively small and ephemeral communities on the two topics. Most users make spontaneous contributions to the discussion but do not maintain a presence in the Twitter discourse. Optimizing the social learning network, we find many potential efficiencies to be gained through more proactive efforts to connect knowledge seekers and knowledge disseminators. Considerations and prospects for supporting online informal social learning networks are discussed.
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Marsden, J., S. Drebit, R. Lindstrom, C. MacKinnon, C. Archibald, R. Abu-Laban, K. Eggers, et al. "P023: The BC Emergency Medicine Network: Evaluation approach and early findings." CJEM 21, S1 (May 2019): S71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cem.2019.214.
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Introduction: September 2017 saw the launch of the British Columbia (BC) Emergency Medicine Network (EM Network), an innovative clinical network established to improve emergency care across the province. The intent of the EM Network is to support the delivery of evidence-informed, patient-centered care in all 108 Emergency Departments and Diagnostic & Treatment Centres in BC. After one year, the Network undertook a formative evaluation to guide its growth. Our objective is to describe the evaluation approach and early findings. Methods: The EM Network was evaluated on three levels: member demographics, online engagement and member perceptions of value and progress. For member demographics and online engagement, data were captured from member registration information on the Network's website, Google Analytics and Twitter Analytics. Membership feedback was sought through an online survey using a social network analysis tool, PARTNER (Program to Analyze, Record, and Track Networks to Enhance Relationships), and semi-structured individual interviews. This framework was developed based on literature recommendations in collaboration with Network members, including patient representatives. Results: There are currently 622 EM Network members from an eligible denominator of approximately 1400 physicians (44%). Seventy-three percent of the Emergency Departments and Diagnostic and Treatment Centres in BC currently have Network members, and since launch, the EM Network website has been accessed by 11,154 unique IP addresses. Online discussion forum use is low but growing, and Twitter following is high. There are currently 550 Twitter followers and an average of 27 ‘mentions’ of the Network by Twitter users per month. Member feedback through the survey and individual interviews indicates that the Network is respected and credible, but many remain unaware of its purpose and offerings. Conclusion: Our findings underscore that early evaluation is useful to identify development needs, and for the Network this includes increasing awareness and online dialogue. However, our results must be interpreted cautiously in such a young Network, and thus, we intend to re-evaluate regularly. Specific action recommendations from this baseline evaluation include: increasing face-to-face visits of targeted communities; maintaining or accelerating communication strategies to increase engagement; and providing new techniques that encourage member contributions in order to grow and improve content.
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Chesnokov, V. O. "Software for Crawling and Analysis of Ego-Network Graphs from Social Networking Services." Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, no. 8 (October 22, 2018): 34–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.24108/0818.0001427.
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Online social networks are one of the main platforms for arbitrary subjects of discussion. They are one of the main sources of data to analyse public opinion. For crawling and analysis of data from online social networks, are used data monitoring systems, which include a data collecting system. A typical system for collecting data from the Internet contains a crawler, parsers, a collection queue of tasks, a task scheduling subsystem, and a module for writing structured data to a storage system. The crawling from online social networks has a number of features. The paper considers methods of access to data from online social networks and a task planning subsystem. Formulates and underpins the requirements for a data collecting system to provide crawl results from online social networks, namely scalability, extensibility, and availability of a data storage subsystem and a queue of collection tasks.Describes main data accessing methods to have information from online social networks: API-based access, access through processing of HTML-pages and specialised interfaces for bots. Provides a description of main restrictions, which an online social network imposes, namely the need to register the application, the limited number of requests, the need to obtain user‘s permission to collect his (her) data. According to the analysis results, the anonymous download and processing of HTML pages were chosen, as a data access method.Formulates the task subsystem requirements, namely available types, hierarchy, and context of the task to be done. Describes the general architecture of the developed software system for crawling and analysis of data from online social networks, justifies its compliance with the earlier raised requirements.The problem of crawling and analysis of users’ ego-network graphs (sub-graphs of a social graph) are considered. Their collecting features are described and options of implementation are proposed depending on the amount of data collected.The results obtained can be used to build monitoring systems for online social networks and collect test data for experimentally estimated algorithms of social graphs analysis. Further development may be concerned with a detailed consideration of the problems of collecting other types of data from online social networks.
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Erlin, E., R. Rahmiati, and Unang Rio. "Two Text Classifiers in Online Discussion: Support Vector Machine vs Back-Propagation Neural Network." TELKOMNIKA (Telecommunication Computing Electronics and Control) 12, no. 1 (March 1, 2014): 189. http://dx.doi.org/10.12928/telkomnika.v12i1.17.
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Erlin, E., R. Rahmiati, and Unang Rio. "Two Text Classifiers in Online Discussion: Support Vector Machine vs Back-Propagation Neural Network." TELKOMNIKA (Telecommunication Computing Electronics and Control) 12, no. 1 (March 1, 2014): 189. http://dx.doi.org/10.12928/telkomnika.v12i1.1798.
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Robitaille, Caroline. "Networked psychostimulants: a web-based ethnographic study." Drugs and Alcohol Today 20, no. 1 (January 22, 2020): 50–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/dat-06-2019-0024.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand contemporary psychostimulant use among members of online discussion fora. Two objectives are addressed: to describe accounts of practices related to psychostimulant use, and to examine how these pharmaceuticals may shape contemporary subjectivities. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a qualitative analysis of three online discussion fora belonging to Reddit. Drawing on actor-network theory, psychostimulants are envisaged as networked actants to understand the underlying logics related to their use. Non-participant observation of r/Adderall was carried out over an 18-month period. A qualitative analysis of postings on the three selected fora was also performed. Findings For each discussion forum, a network comprised of human and non-human actors was observed: members of the forum, psychostimulants as objects and subreddits as agentic spaces. This study reveals the emergence of multiple subjectivities associated with psychostimulant use: productivity, wellness and enhancement‐related. Practical implications Findings open to a wider debate regarding public health’s and healthcare professionals’ understanding of psychostimulant use outside of the clinical setting and how this may contrast with how psychostimulant use is practiced in context. Originality/value This research shows new online socio-cultural spaces formed around psychostimulant use. Calling upon a web-based ethnographic approach, this research presents a new perspective on the contemporary use of psychostimulants.
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Piercy, Cameron W., and Sun Kyong Lee. "A typology of job search sources: Exploring the changing nature of job search networks." New Media & Society 21, no. 6 (October 30, 2018): 1173–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444818808071.
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This study explored American job seekers’ network of information sources using a random sample. Results revealed a pattern that job seekers segmented information sources by social (i.e. personal and professional acquaintances, family, and friends), formal (i.e. employment agencies, printed advertisements, and career events), and online (i.e. online pages and social network sites) types. Although online sources were particularly central in the network, job seekers who used one source type did so at the expense of other types of sources. Older and poorer job seekers were more likely to use formal sources, while online sources were used more by job seekers with higher education and Internet efficacy. The discussion offers advice for job seekers and those who coach job search. This study extends strength of weak ties theory by demonstrating the importance of online sources in job search.
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Hamminger, Leopold. "Graphical representation of online discussion threads from an academic course in a constructivist setting." Virtu@lmente 4, no. 2 (September 21, 2017): 6–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.21158/2357514x.v4.n2.2016.1789.
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Constructivist teaching in virtual environments places particular emphasis on the use of discussion forums. This article presents the implementation of a concept of constructivist didactics through an e-learning course on the Blackboard platform of the Department of Education at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Students were motivated to build knowledge through their participation in discussion forums on the Blackboard platform. Teachers, in their role of moderators, expected to be able to gradually reduce their presence in the debates. The challenge was to be able to measure the extent to which this was achieved, considering that thousands of discussion contributions had to be analyzed. This document describes how the discussion lines can be extracted from Blackboard to be used by UCINET software for social network and thus produce a graphic presentation of the discussion sequences.
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Charalampidi, Marina, and Michael Hammond. "How do we know what is happening online?" Interactive Technology and Smart Education 13, no. 4 (November 21, 2016): 274–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/itse-09-2016-0032.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of analysing online discussion and argue for the merits of mixed methods. Much research of online participation and e-learning has been either message-focused or person-focused. The former covers methodologies such as content and discourse analysis, the latter interviewing and surveys. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches in the context of a study of an online social educational network for gifted students. Design/methodology/approach The design of this study included the use of content analysis, visualisation diagrams, interviews and questionnaire survey to understand the nature of online discussion and the experience of taking part. Findings It was found that the message-focused analysis provided insight into participation and interaction patterns, whereas the surveys and interviews enabled access to members’ preferences and attitudes. Originality/value The contribution of the paper is to argue for a mixed approach in which different types of data can be compared and contrasted. While the use of mixed methods in social research in general has long been suggested, its adoption in the field of online learning is yet to be widely established, possibly because of its time-consuming and demanding nature. Despite these constraints, a mixed-methods approach is advocated, as it allows for a comprehensive picture of the use of the network and the experience of online participation.
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Baek, Seung Ik, and Young Min Kim. "Longitudinal analysis of online community dynamics." Industrial Management & Data Systems 115, no. 4 (May 11, 2015): 661–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/imds-09-2014-0266.
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of an online community by examining its participants’ centrality measures: degree, closeness, and the betweenness centrality. Each centrality measure shows the different roles and positions of an individual participant within an online community. To be specific, this research examines how an individual participant’s role and position affects her/his information sharing activities within an online community over time. Additionally, it investigates the differences between two different online communities (a personal interest focussed community and a social interest focussed community), in terms of the interaction patterns of participants. Design/methodology/approach – For this research, the authors collected log files from Korean online discussion communities (café.naver.com) using a crawler program. A social network analysis was used to explore the interaction patterns of participants and calculate the centrality measures of individual participants. Time series cross-sectional analysis was used to analyze the effects of the roles and the positions on their information sharing activities in a longitudinal setting. Findings – The results of this research showed that all three centrality measures of an individual participant in previous time periods positively influenced his/her information sharing activity in the current periods. In addition, this research found that, depending on the nature of the discussion issues, the participants showed different interaction patterns. Throughout this research, the authors explored the interaction patterns of individual participants by using a network variable, the centrality, within a large online community, and found that the interaction patterns provided strong impact on their information sharing activities in the following months. Research limitations/implications – To investigate the changes of participant’s behaviors, this study simply relies on the numbers of comments received and posted without considering the contents of the comments. Future studies might need to analyze the contents of the comments exchanged between participants, as well as the social network among participants. Practical implications – Online communities have developed to take a more active role in inviting public opinions and promoting discussion about various socio-economic issues. Governments and companies need to understand the dynamics which are created by the interactions among many participants. This study offers them a framework for analyzing the dynamics of large online communities. Furthermore, it helps them to respond to online communities in the right way and in the right time. Social implications – Online communities do not merely function as a platform for the free exchange and sharing of personal information and knowledge, but also as a social network that exerts massive influence in various parts of society including politics, economy, and culture. Now online communities become playing an important role in our society. By examining communication or interaction behaviors of individual participants, this study tries to understand how the online communities are evolved over time. Originality/value – In the area of online communities, many previous studies have relied on the subjective data, like participant’s perception data, in a particular time by using survey or interview. However, this study explores the dynamics of online communities by analyzing the vast amount of data accumulated in online communities.
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Jansson, André. "Mediatization, Spatial Coherence and Social Sustainability: The Role of Digital Media Networks in a Swedish Countryside Community." Culture Unbound 2, no. 2 (June 11, 2010): 177–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.10211177.
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What does the implementation of new communication networks mean for the spatial coherence and social sustainability of rural communities? This paper takes its key from Wittel’s discussion of network sociality, understood as the opposite of Gemeinschaft. Wittel’s argument may inform our understanding of how communicative patterns in rural communities are partly reembedded through ongoing media transitions. But it must also be problematized. Relating Wittel’s discussion to Halfacree’s model of spatial coherence and Urry’s notion of network capital, as well as to findings from an ethnographic study in a Swedish countryside community, a more complex view is presented. It is argued that global communication networks under rural conditions contribute to the integration and sustainability of the community, as much as to processes of expansion and differentiation. The results show that network sociality and community constitute interdependent concepts. Through their capacity of linking people to external realms of interest, while simultaneously reinforcing their sense of belonging in the local community, online media promote ontological security at the individual level, thus operating as a social stabilizer.
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Gabbay, Michael, Zane Kelly, Justin Reedy, and John Gastil. "Frame-Induced Group Polarization in Small Discussion Networks." Social Psychology Quarterly 81, no. 3 (August 31, 2018): 248–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0190272518778784.
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We present a novel explanation for the group polarization effect whereby discussion among like-minded individuals induces shifts toward the extreme. Our theory distinguishes between a quantitative policy under debate and the discussion’s rhetorical frame, such as the likelihood of an outcome. If policy and frame position are mathematically related so that frame position increases more slowly as the policy becomes more extreme, majority formation at the extreme is favored, thereby shifting consensus formation toward the extreme. Additionally, use of a heuristic frame can shift the frame reference point away from the policy reference, yielding differential polarization on opposing policy sides. We present a mathematical model that predicts consensus policy given group member initial preferences and network structure. Our online group discussion experiment manipulated policy side, disagreement level, and network structure. The results, which challenge existing polarization theory, are in qualitative and quantitative accord with our theory and model.
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Shih, Yen-An, Ben Chang, and Jonathan Y. Chin. "Data-driven student homophily pattern analysis of online discussion in a social network learning environment." Journal of Computers in Education 7, no. 3 (March 23, 2020): 373–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40692-020-00160-x.
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Sobko, Sophia, Devanshi Unadkat, Jessica Adams, and Glynda Hull. "Learning through collaboration: A networked approach to online pedagogy." E-Learning and Digital Media 17, no. 1 (November 4, 2019): 36–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2042753019882562.
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This qualitative study explores networked collaborative learning in the context of an online undergraduate education course, analyzing the talk, thinking, and media that students jointly produced during a discussion hosted via video conference. Our work speaks to recent interest in online instruction, particularly in post-secondary institutions, as well as the challenge of making online courses engaging, critical, and inclusive educational spaces. Working from a sociocultural frame on learning and development, we demonstrate how synchronous engagement online with multiple digital technologies facilitated students’ knowledge construction and analysis of assignment content. Additionally, we illustrate how the students and the technologies influenced each other, co-functioning reciprocally as elements within a broader “actor-network”. Human and non-human “actants” worked together, affording small but noteworthy shifts in students’ perspectives and thinking. We offer a definition of networked collaborative learning, positing that it is constituted by the dynamic convergence of actants working toward multiple and competing goals, and we discuss its potential for teaching and learning in online spaces.
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Maireder, Axel, Brian E. Weeks, Homero Gil de Zúñiga, and Stephan Schlögl. "Big Data and Political Social Networks." Social Science Computer Review 35, no. 1 (August 3, 2016): 126–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894439315617262.
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Social media have changed the way citizens, journalists, institutions, and activists communicate about social and political issues. However, questions remain about how information is diffused through these networks and the degree to which each of these actors is influential in communicating information. In this study, we introduce two novel social network measures of connection and information diffusion that help shed light on patterns of political communication online. The Audience Diversity Score assesses the diversity of a particular actor’s followers and identifies which actors reach different publics with their messages. The Communication Connector Bridging Score highlights the most influential actors in the network who are potentially able to connect different spheres of communication through their information diffusion. We apply and discuss these measures using Twitter data from the discussion regarding the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership in Europe. Our results provide unique insights into the role various actors play in diffusing political information in online social networks.
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van den Hooff, Bart, Femke de Leeuw van Weenen, Maura Soekijad, and Marleen Huysman. "The Value of Online Networks of Practice: The Role of Embeddedness and Media Use." Journal of Information Technology 25, no. 2 (June 2010): 205–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jit.2010.11.
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This article addresses the question how networks of practice (NoPs) can create value (operationalized as their contribution to individual members’ performance) for organizations through knowledge integration and management. The discussion focuses on two sets of variables influencing member performance: the embeddedness of the network and the use of different media. Three dimensions of embeddedness are distinguished: (1) embeddedness in practice: the extent to which the knowledge shared in the network is integrated in members’ (local) practices; (2) structural embeddedness: the extent to which network members are connected to each other and know who knows what; and (3) relational embeddedness: the extent to which the network is characterized by strong social ties. In terms of communication media, information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled and face-to-face interaction are distinguished. A survey study among 206 members of different NoPs reveals that all three forms of embeddedness are important antecedents of NoP member performance (explaining 43% of the variance in performance) and that these forms are interrelated. Furthermore, ICT use positively influences embeddedness in practice, whereas face-to-face communication contributes to the structural and relational embeddedness of an NoP. This contributes to knowledge management and ICT literature in general and NoP theory in particular.
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Mascheroni, Giovanna. "Remediating Participation and Citizenship Practices on Social Network Sites." MedienJournal 34, no. 3 (March 27, 2017): 22–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.24989/medienjournal.v34i3.185.
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Being mainstream places where a variety of online practices converge and are integrated, social network sites have also witnessed the emergence of grassroots and topdown political uses: from candidates’ and parties’ profiles, to single-issues campaigns’ discussion groups, to petitions and forms of ‘political fandom’, political content is now a constant presence in social media. Since social network sites are pervasive in young people’s everyday lives, questions of the efficacy of the internet in engaging disaffected youth and expanding the opportunities for participation are under debate. This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative study aimed at investigating political uses of social network sites and emerging practices of online participation among Italian youth. Participatory uses of social network sites are unevenly distributed among young people: political content tends often to be incorporated as identity marker, while other young people actively engage in citizenship practices online. Therefore, it is argued, civic and political uses of social media have to be contextualised in young people’s every day lives, especially in their ‘civic cultures’ and in the particular ‘convergent media ecology’ in which they are immersed. Depending on the civic cultures young people form and shape, and the digital literacy they develop, political uses are either a further outcome of networked individualism or the signal of new modes of participation which is mainly grassroots, non conventional and concerning identity and lifestyle choices.
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Fuster, Héctor, Ander Chamarro, and Ursula Oberst. "Fear of Missing Out, online social networking and mobile phone addiction: A latent profile approach." Aloma: Revista de Psicologia, Ciències de l'Educació i de l'Esport 35, no. 1 (October 13, 2017): 22–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.51698/aloma.2017.35.1.22-30.
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Background and aims: Fear of missing out (FoMO) is described as a pervasive unpleasant sensation that others might be having rewarding experiences of which one is not part, as well as the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing. It has shown to play an important mediating role in predicting negative outcomes of heavy use of these networks. The aim of the present study was to analyze the different profiles found among users. Methods: 5,280 Spanish speaking social media users from Latin America replied in an online survey to the Spanish version of the FoMO scale, to a short set of questionnaires on online social network use (frequency, intensity and type of access) and indicators of mobile phone addiction. Results: FoMO correlated with the number of different networks used and with all indicators of social network use and mobile phone addiction. Using a Latent Profile Analysis, four classes of users were identified: low-engagement light users, high-engagement heavy users, high-engagement low-risk users, and high-engagement high-risk users; individuals from the fourth class can be considered at risk for developing addiction to online social networks (7.6 % of the sample). Discussion: Accessing the social networks via the mobile phone and presenting addictive behavior seem to be important correlates of FoMO.