UK General Election 2015: dealing with austerity

This article investigates the nature of the conversation around austerity on Twitter during the 2015 general election in the UK. Specifically, it explores the kinds of messages referring to austerity, as well as the kinds of accounts involved (whether they referred to a private or public role on Twitter and in society) and their affiliation to politically or non-politically oriented organizations/bodies. The search on Twitter concerning the austerity topic (for the 39-day time period from 3 March to 8 May 2015) resulted in 16,015 tweets, which generally referred to austerity, and 11,146 tweets, which contained at least one relevant hashtag. While austerity was rarely mentioned by mainstream media accounts in the Twittersphere, this topic was widely discussed during the election campaign by private users. This could be seen as a limitation of agenda setting, since there is no correlation between the agenda set by the media on Twitter and the public discussion about it. However, we found a relationship between the offline mainstream media agenda and the discussion led by private users on Twitter, thus confirming, to some extent, the validity of intra-agenda setting. In fact, offline media events (talk shows, news articles and question times) seemed to trigger peaks in tweet-based discussions or mentions about austerity, showing that the agenda set by the offline media influenced the discussion in the Twittersphere. Finally, we found that, while austerity has clear implications for citizens’ daily life, it seems to be more of an “elitist” topic, mainly addressed by those who are already politically oriented and well informed on the topic

An Investigation of Posttraumatic Growth Experienced By Parents After a Miscarriage

This quantitative study examined relationships between demographic and pregnancy loss related predictors and scores on the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Participants included 355 women and men who had experienced at least one miscarriage before January 1, 2018. Data were collected through an online survey that consisted of the 21-item PTGI and a demographic and pregnancy loss related factors information sheet. Demographic information collected included gender, age, ethnicity, race, annual household income, and relationship status. Pregnancy loss related factors collected included number of pregnancies, number of miscarriages, length of gestation, assistance with conceiving, and whether the participant sought formal mental health support after the loss. Data analysis included descriptive statistics related to demographics and pregnancy loss related factors, correlations, validity and reliability analyses, and multiple regression analyses. Findings indicate several relationships between factors and PTGI scores, as well as predictions made through multiple regression analyses. Finally, limitations and implications for future research are discussed

A regional survey of current practices on destination marketing organizations' Facebook pages: The case of EU and U.S.

Constantly changing nature of social network sites creates the need for continuous process of online benchmarking for identifying practices used by other parties. Facebook as the most used SNS still plays an increasingly important role as a marketing channel for destination marketing organizations (DMO). This paper explores basic characteristics of the official DMO Facebook Pages in order to quantify and present those characteristics in a regional context on the case of two travel markets (EU countries and U.S. states). The results show inconsistent practices in the EU and the USA. When comparing those two markets most similarities in practices are present in general usage of Facebook Pages, while indicative differences are recorded in terms of Page popularity, some posts' characteristics and most evidently in users' engagement. Understanding the Facebook usage practice under the regional spotlight can help DMOs and other service providers to evaluate their activities and if necessary to harmonize it to regional usage practice

Facebook: Changing the face of communication research

The ubiquitous social networking site, Facebook, registered over one billion active users in 2012 and continues to grow (Facebook, 2018a). Not surprisingly, communication researchers around the world noticed this phenomenal shift in communication practice, a practice aided by a combination of digital communication tools—easy to access communication networks, low cost bandwidth, smartphones, application features, and so on. These developments transformed the understanding of “social networks,” turning them from face-to-face interactions among small groups into world spanning digital connections, from networks of business or professional associations supported by analogue or “old” communication practices (such as letter writing, telephone calls, or conference meetings) into always-on real-time tracking of people’s activities. This review examines 400 articles published between 2006 and 2017 in peer reviewed communication- related journals and listed in the EBSCO Communication Source database. The database returned the initial list of articles to a query using the single search term “Facebook.” Subsequent analysis grouped the articles into a number of themes. As we will see, much of the published research that involves Facebook addresses not Facebook itself but Facebook as a source of material or research data on more particular communication topics. In a way, Facebook appears as another medium for communication. After some introductory comments on the history and prior study of Facebook, this review will present the key themes that appear in the research. These include Facebook in theoretical perspectives, Facebook used in interpersonal communication, Facebook’s relationship to journalism, Facebook in education, Facebook in political communication, corporate and organizational use of Facebook, legal and ethical issues arising with Facebook, and other areas of research

A study of non-profit social media engagement

As more nonprofit organizations increase their usage of social media to reach new audiences, audience research is needed to help practitioners formulate strategic communications plans that reach the goals of the organization. Too often nonprofit communicators drive top-down communication strategies using social media that have very little audience engagement. This study looked at the user interactions with nonprofit organizations on Facebook and attempted to categorize user-generated content based on the AEIO model (attention, emotion, information, opinion). The goal of this study was to determine the most common types of interaction Facebook users have with nonprofit organizations as well as the types of content users create to initiate engagement with a nonprofit organization via Facebook. This study found that the most common type of engagement with a nonprofit organization was a user reacting (i.e., using Facebook's like, love, anger, or wow reactions) to an organization's post, with sharing an organization's post a distant second, followed by commenting on the organization's post and a user creating their own message. To the extent they existed, messages seeking the attention of the users' friends to highlight the users' involvement with the organization were the most common overall user-generated content.Includes bibliographical reference

Assessment Reactivity within the Context of a Web-Based Brief Intervention for Alcohol Use

Introduction: Unhealthy alcohol use is a substantial problem among college students and can lead to a variety of negative consequences. Commercially available web-based brief alcohol intervention (WBI) programs have demonstrated efficacy in a range of student groups and have been widely disseminated to colleges to address this issue. However, the majority of published WBI studies required participants to complete baseline research assessments (RA) about their alcohol use before the WBI and reactivity to the RA may have inflated WBI efficacy estimates in these studies. The present study tested whether there was an additive effect of RA administered online plus a WBI on alcohol consumption, alcohol consequences, and protective behaviors related to alcohol used in the past month compared to the effects of only a WBI. It was hypothesized that participants randomized to the RA+WBI condition would have significantly lower alcohol consumption in the past month, fewer alcohol-related problems, and use more protective behaviors related to alcohol consumption in the past month than participants randomized to the WBI only condition. Methods: Undergraduate students (n= 856) from universities in the United States and Canada were recruited for this online study. Seventy percent of the sample was female and 82% were Caucasian. The sample had a mean age was 20.0. Sixty four percent (n= 547) of participants who were randomized completed the WBI. Sixty-eight percent completed the one month follow up questionnaire. Results: Multiple regression analyses using 20 multiply imputed datasets revealed that there were no significant differences in groups at follow up on alcohol use measures, alcohol related problems, or protective behaviors used when controlling for variables with theoretical and statistical relevance to the models. A repeated measures analysis of covariance indicated that there was a significant decrease in peak estimated blood alcohol concentration from baseline to follow up, but no differential effect by randomization group. The results suggested there was a moderate effect of the WBI consistent with studies of WBI efficacy in the literature and that there were no substantial assessment reactivity effects. Discussion: The current study contributes to the literature by identifying an experimental condition under which assessment reactivity may not be present and does not appear to cloud the detection of WBI efficacy when measured within subjects. The results indicate that WBI researchers may be justified in conducting brief pretreatment research assessments online to collect information about participant alcohol use without biasing within subjects estimates of WBI efficacy. Universities using these programs may likely observe similar effect sizes to those reported in the literature, however effectiveness studies are warranted

Australians\u27 beliefs, values, and attitudes towards offenders with intellectual disability

This thesis examined the beliefs, values and attitudes of Australian community members and professional groups toward people with intellectual disability who criminally offend. The findings have real-world implications for the training and ethical practice of professionals working with these offenders, and for de-stigmatising interventions for the broader Australian community