Social telemedia: the relationship between social information and networked media

Social telemedia is a cross-breeding of social networks and networked media that allows users to capture and share live events collaboratively on mobile devices

STEER: Exploring the dynamic relationship between social information and networked media through experimentation

With the growing popularity of social networks, online video services and smart phones, the traditional content consumers are becoming the editors and broadcasters of their own stories. Within the EU FP7 project STEER, project partners have developed a novel system of new algorithms and toolsets that extract and analyse social informatics generated by social networks. Combined with advanced networking technologies, the platform creates services that offer more personalized and accurate content discovery and retrieval services. The STEER system has been deployed in multiple geographical locations during live social events such as the 2014 Winter Olympics. Our use case experiments demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the underlying technologies

Hashtags for Gatekeeping of Information on Social Media

Since the inception of gatekeeping research in the 1940s, most studies on gatekeeping have been human‐centric, treating and studying individuals as gatekeepers, who perform their gatekeeping role using a combination of the following mechanisms: forming communities, and/or broadcasting, discovering‐searching, collecting, organizing, or protecting information. However, the nature of communication channels and how information is produced by and shared with users has fundamentally changed in the last 80 years. One significant change is the growing use of technology‐enabled metadata like hashtags when sharing information on social media. Rarely any study investigates whether hashtags can perform gatekeeping of information and what it means for information gatekeeping. This paper fills in the gap by conducting a content analysis of 77 interdisciplinary studies on hashtags and gatekeeping to confirm how they can implement six gatekeeping mechanisms. This study shows that hashtags expand our understanding of the role of technology solutions in gatekeeping and advance research on hierarchical gatekeeping. The benefits of hashtags for gatekeeping suggest that they act as “information anchors” for online communities, thereby highlighting the utility of information gatekeepers for society

A netnographic sensibility: developing the netnographic/social listening boundaries

Netnography is constantly evolving as technologies and access to online data develop. Our paper outlines how large data sets of social media can be analysed through bridging the divide between the small, rich and contextually nuanced data that is the hallmark of netnography and the scope and scale of data made possible through social media listening conventions. We define this approach as netnographic sensibility and with the use of a short case study discuss the process through which social media data could be gathered, triangulated and analysed. We orientate the paper around two interrelated questions: investigating how netnographic insights can be extended using social media monitoring tools, and asking how this can be used to add richness and depth to understanding mass consumer realities. Our contribution complements the widely established methodological approach of netnography as we argue that netnography has the capacity and capability to embrace technological advances within the domain of social listening to add value for academic researchers

How Contemporary Curatorial Practice Co-opts Participatory Art

Instagram users post photos in art exhibitions all of the time. Contemporary art curators and museums have a role to play in this new phenomenon. Programming and curating participatory art exhibitions allows for the perfect art selfie which draws in visitors from around the world. But, how do curators and museums affect the significance of these artworks by placing them within the Instagram age? This thesis uses the three exhibitions as case studies: Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, Take Me (I\u27m Yours) at the Jewish Museum in New York, and Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Through an examination of the curatorial and marketing tactics used in mounting these exhibitions, this thesis determines whether or not the use of Instagram crosses a curatorial boundary

Digital Feminist Placemaking: The Case of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" Movement

Throughout Iran and various countries, the recent calls of the "Zan, Zendegi, Azadi" (in Persian), "Jin, Jiyan, Azadi" (in Kurdish), or "Woman, Life, Freedom" (in English) movement call for change to acknowledge the importance of women. While these feminist protests and demonstrations have been met with brutality, systematic oppression, and internet blackouts within Iran, they have captured significant social media attention and coverage outside the country, especially among the Iranian diaspora and various international organizations. This article, grounded in feminist urban theories of the Global South, analyzes the digital feminist placemaking movement in Iran. As the first counter-revolution led by women, the movement utilizes digital art, graffiti, and protest movements to embody women's solidarity groups and sympathy rallies. Our analysis employs various digital research methods, including social media scrutiny and the study of protest illustrations. Analyzing the digital feminist placemaking in Iran will enable us to compare the commonalities, differences, challenges, and opportunities between the minorities and majorities in the world's countries. The outcomes of this research can help international organizations such as Amnesty International and the United Nations Agency for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (UN Women), as well as policymakers, institutions, academics, and NGOs, to highlight the various ways in which broader public participation could be encouraged in the process of digital feminist insurgent placemaking

Experiential sponsorship activation at a sports mega-event: The case of Cisco at London 2012

Purpose: The application of event design principles in the creation and execution of effective experiential sponsorship activations (ESAs) by B2B brands is explored. Challenges posed by the sponsorship context to sponsors seeking to create ESAs are examined, with potential solutions proposed. Design/methodology/approach: A case study of Cisco’s ESA activities as part of its London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsorship activation is developed, drawing on interviews with key Cisco employees and secondary sources of data, both internal and external to Cisco. Findings:Blending the event design principles typically associated with B2B events with those more commonly found in corporate hospitality or B2C events, enables sponsors to address the cognitive needs of attendees as business representatives while also satisfying their needs as individuals seeking more sensorial experiences. Effective use of event design principles, creative marketing and promotion, and collaboration with other sponsors allows brands to overcome constraints placed on them by the unpredictable nature of sponsorship, sponsorship rights agreements and the increased clutter in the sponsorship environment. Research limitations/implications: Existing knowledge on sponsorship activation is extended, drawing on principles of event design to offer a sponsor-focused perspective on the creation and execution of effective ESAs for B2B brands. Existing thinking around B2B event design is challenged and augmented when considering its application to ESA design. Practical implications: Inter-sponsor collaboration and the blending of cognitive and sensorial elements of event design are important for sponsors seeking to create and deliver effective ESAs. Social implications: Originality/value: The paper draws on event design literature to appraise the execution of ESA by B2B brands within the context of event sponsorship

Towards an extended festival viewing experience

Media coverage of large-scale live events is becoming increasingly complex, with technologies enabling the delivery of a broader range of content as well as complex viewing patterns across devices and services. This paper presents a study aimed at understanding the experience of people who have followed the broadcast coverage of a music festival. Our findings show that the experience takes a diversity of forms and bears a complex relationship with the actual experience of being at the festival. We conclude this analysis by proposing that novel services for coverage of this type of events should connect and interleave the diverse threads of experiences around large-scale live events and consider involving more diverse elements of the experience of “being there”