Role of Social Media on Information Accessibility

Social media is the gathering place of a large pool of consumers. It is the repository of consumer information and acts as a means of spreading information to build market presence. Most literature states that organizational usage of social media enhances customer relations, but social media also acts as a medium for information acquisition. Not many previous studies have investigated the role of social media on information accessibility. Therefore this study examined the impact of social media on information accessibility. A total of 171 organization responded to the survey and the result of the survey showed that social media usage has a positive impact on information accessibility. Also it was found that factors such as interactivity, trust and institutional pressure positively influence social media usage in organizations. This study provided a clearer understanding on the real importance of social media and its benefits towards information acquisition. The results would motivate and guide organizations in the adoption of social media for information acquisition which is important for understanding the customers, competitors and the industry and to develop strategies for enhancing business performance

Social Media Communication in the European Administration. Case study: European Commission

Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) have revolutionized the communication strategies of public institutions in recent years, and communication strategies have understood the different principles on which these new media have been built, compared to traditional means of communication. The decisive role of Social Media on citizens proved especially by increasing the proximity and accessibility of online public and political life not only contributed to the extension of political information, especially on the participation and engagement of citizens in political life. Beyond the huge openness of these social environments, encouraging users to participate in content generation and public reactions, Social Media generates new social structures and, most importantly, empowers the "people" to manifest themselves and to imposes a public agenda, to the detriment of the agendas imposed by the institutional, political and media spectrum. Thus, Social Media has opened a new innovative mechanism through which institution becomes a person, and institutional communication becomes interpersonal communication. This important aspect has forced both advertisers, large corporations, and even public institutions and political parties to reconfigure social media communication strategies and to place great emphasis on personal relationships with the public and less, or not at all, on communicating under institutionalized form. This study focused on analyzing the Social Media communication strategy of the European Commission, from 1 January 2019 to 1 July 2019. Thus, we have analyzed the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that facilitate Social Media communication, we have identified and analyzed the messages that generate high engagement from users as well as the dominant reactions generated by the online audience

Analyzing the Transformative and Multifaceted Impact of Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms have revolutionized modern society by transforming the way individuals communicate, connect, and share information. This research paper explores the pervasive influence of social media on various aspects of human life and society, encompassing personal, public, and professional domains. It draws upon research conducted by Duggan and Smith (2013), revealing the widespread usage of social media across the global population. The widespread adoption of social media platforms has been facilitated by the increasing accessibility of the internet through mobile devices such as android and IOS phones. As a result, social media networking has become a ubiquitous part of everyday life. While these platforms offer numerous benefits, they also present challenges and negative consequences. In the personal realm, social media enables individuals to share information, ideas, views, and connect with others, fostering social interactions and education dissemination. In the public sphere, social media plays a significant role in promoting businesses, health and fitness campaigns, and various social causes. However, the darker side of social media includes the promotion of cyberbullying, peer pressure, discrimination, and rumor-mongering, causing harm to individuals and relationships. As double-edged swords, the impact of social media platforms depends on how users wield them. When used responsibly, they can bring positive outcomes, such as enhancing communication and knowledge sharing. Conversely, irresponsible usage may lead to negative consequences, such as privacy issues, identity theft, trolling, and the dissemination of misinformation. This research paper emphasizes the transformative power of social media on societies and individuals alike, affecting various dimensions of human life. By analyzing existing research studies, it sheds light on the multifaceted impact of social media platforms, providing insights into their positive potentials and negative implications. The findings underscore the importance of responsible usage and the need for informed decision-making to harness the benefits of social media while mitigating its risks in every aspect of human life and society

The Personalized Policy and the Engagement of the Online Political Citizens in E-Government Era

The decisive role of Social Media on citizens proved especially by increasing the proximity and accessibility of online public and political life not only contributed to the extension of political information, especially on the participation and involvement of citizens in political life. Moreover, Social Media has differentiated itself from other media through the possibility of personalizing political communication, technology that allows a large number of ordinary people to be connected and recognized by a large number of people. Also, there is an unprecedented correlation in any existing political communication system between social network mobilization process and personalization of communication. Thus, the more diverse the mobilization, the more personalized become the manifestations of the users, usually involving communication technologies that allow people to activate their fragile connections in the social networks. In the context in which politicians understand the user's psychology in social networks and behave accordingly, active presence in a social network can help in influencing the public, as a social network can be a very good channel for the propagation of messages, and through it it can interact more effectively with opinion leaders of online communities. However, these benefits only come if the candidate is personally involved in the network, without artificial messages written by campaign organizers

Impact of Covid-19 on the media system. Communicative and democratic consequences of news consumption during the outbreak

Covid-19 is a phenomenon of enormous magnitude and relevance. Its impact has affected various social domains, including the media and journalism. Since the beginning of this health crisis, news has become a valuable resource for citizens. Studying the dynamics of information consumption is highly relevant both for its ability to transform the media system and for its incidence in democracy. The objective of this research is to analyse the influence of the new coronavirus on news consumption, the credibility given by citizens to the media as well as their ability to detect fake news. To answer these questions, we have conducted an exploratory and initial analysis based on the secondary data from the online surveys of the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel in the United States, comparing data before and after the outbreak. The results confirm the impact of Covid-19 on the media system. The findings suggest the emergence of important developments such as the resurgence of the role of legacy media, especially on television, and the reconnection with news by citizens who usually remain far from the information. Therefore, the existing inequalities regarding news consumption among citizens have been reduced, in part. This generates potential benefits for democracy in terms of equality and accessibility concerning public affairs

Impact of Covid-19 on the media system. Communicative and democratic consequences of news consumption during the outbreak // Impacto del Covid-19 en el sistema de medios. Consecuencias comunicativas y democráticas del consumo de noticias durante el brote

Covid-19 is a phenomenon of enormous magnitude and relevance. Its impact has affected various social domains, including the media and journalism. Since the beginning of this health crisis, the news has become a valuable resource for citizens. Studying the dynamics of information consumption is highly relevant both for its ability to transform the media system and for its incidence in democracy. The objective of this research is to analyse the influence of the new coronavirus on news consumption, the credibility given by citizens to the media as well as their ability to detect fake news. To answer these questions, we have conducted an exploratory analysis based on the secondary data from the online surveys of the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel in the United States, comparing data before and after the outbreak. The results confirm the impact of Covid-19 on the media system. The findings suggest the emergence of important developments such as the resurgence of the role of legacy media, especially television, and the fact that citizens who usually remain far from the information have reconnected with the news. Therefore, the existing inequalities regarding news consumption among citizens have been reduced, in part. This generates potential benefits for democracy in terms of equality and accessibility concerning public affairs

Social media effects on the academic performance of Nile University students

The Internet and in particular social media applications such as Facebook, YouTube and many others, are obviously “overtaking the world” and could be regarded as “a global consumer phenomenon” (Camilia, Ibrahim, & Dalhatu, 2013) . Social media usage is one of the most common activities among children, adolescents, and emerging adults nowadays. It offers today’s youth a portal for entertainment and communication and it is becoming one of the main platforms for accessing information and news. This aggressive adoption of social media among the younger generation could be attributed to their up to date knowledge of and comfort with the latest technology and the convenient accessibility to these social networking tools (Vorderer, 2016). This study aims to shed the light on the social media effects on the academic performance of university students in Egypt and aims to clarify to different stakeholders the relationship between the social media usage and academic performance and to harness full potential of social media. This study examines the role of social media in students’ academic endeavors and ultimately their academic performance through their reported perceptions and reflections. It also examines factors that might influence the nature of this relationship, and its tentative impact on the academic performance of Nile University undergraduate students. An explanatory sequential mixed method approach is employed in order to get both quantitative and qualitative data, the responses of 442 Nile university undergraduate student were collected and were scored, coded and inserted into SPSS, and were analyzed using multiple statistical descriptive and inferential statistical tests based on the research question and the nature of the data to be analyzed using frequency tables, crosstabs, Anovas, post hocs and t-tests. The findings of the study explains the perception of Nile university students of social media effects on their academic performance, and to what extend do they use social media for academic related purposes, and it explores the effect of the different academic majors, academic statues and gender on the social media usage perception and usage. Significant differences in the behavior of students from different academic majors and different academic status in perceiving and using social media emerged which might require further investigation

Capturing time in space : Dynamic analysis of accessibility and mobility to support spatial planning with open data and tools

Understanding the spatial patterns of accessibility and mobility are a key (factor) to comprehend the functioning of our societies. Hence, their analysis has become increasingly important for both scientific research and spatial planning. Spatial accessibility and mobility are closely related concepts, as accessibility describes the potential to move by modeling, whereas spatial mobility describes the realized movements of individuals. While both spatial accessibility and mobility have been widely studied, the understanding of how time and temporal change affects accessibility and mobility has been rather limited this far. In the era of ‘big data’, the wealth of temporally sensitive spatial data has made it possible, better than ever, to capture and understand the temporal realities of spatial accessibility and mobility, and hence start to understand better the dynamics of our societies and complex living environment. In this thesis, I aim to develop novel approaches and methods to study the spatio-temporal realities of our living environments via concepts of accessibility and mobility: How people can access places, how they actually move, and how they use space. I inspect these dynamics on several temporal granularities, covering hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly observations and analyses. With novel big data sources, the methodological development and careful assessment of the information extracted from them is extremely important as they are increasingly used to guide decision-making. Hence, I investigate the opportunities and pitfalls of different data sources and methodological approaches in this work. Contextually, I aim to reveal the role of time and the mode of transportation in relation to spatial accessibility and mobility, in both urban and rural environments, and discuss their role in spatial planning. I base my findings on five scientific articles on studies carried out in: Peruvian Amazonia; national parks of South Africa and Finland; Tallinn, Estonia; and Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland. I use and combine data from various sources to extract knowledge from them, including GPS devices; transportation schedules; mobile phones; social media; statistics; land-use data; and surveys. My results demonstrate that spatial accessibility and mobility are highly dependent on time, having clear diurnal and seasonal changes. Hence, it is important to consider temporality when analyzing accessibility, as people, transport and activities all fluctuate as a function of time that affects e.g. the spatial equality of reaching services. In addition, different transport modes should be considered as there are clear differences between them. Furthermore, I show that, in addition to the observed spatial population dynamics, also nature’s own dynamism affects accessibility and mobility on a regional level due to the seasonal variation in river-levels. Also, the visitation patterns in national parks vary significantly over time, as can be observed from social media. Methodologically, this work demonstrates that with a sophisticated fusion of methods and data, it is possible to assess; enrich; harmonize; and increase the spatial and temporal accuracy of data that can be used to better inform spatial planning and decision-making. Finally, I wish to emphasize the importance of bringing scientific knowledge and tools into practice. Hence, all the tools, analytical workflows, and data are openly available for everyone whenever possible. This approach has helped to bring the knowledge and tools into practice with relevant stakeholders in relation to spatial planning

Social media in food risk and benefit communication

The overall objective of this doctoral thesis was to contribute to a better understanding of the role social media can fulfil for the communication of food-related risks and benefits. Social media is the collective name for a number of online applications, including social networks, video- and picture-sharing websites, blogs, and microblogs, that allow users to generate and share information online. As a consequence users now control how information is found and used instead of the producers. New levels of public engagement have emerged ranging from passive information acquisition through one’s social network to active deliberation with communicators. The research is based on data which were collected through four consecutive studies with qualitative, quantitative and experimental research designs. The outcome indicated that particularly a younger audience appreciates social media to acquire and seek information about food risks and benefits. Social media can act as a complementary information channel, but is not seen as a substitute for traditional or online media. Additionally, actively engaging consumers in discussion about food risks and benefits can lead to better informed consumers. Although the use of social media will not be the answer for all communication difficulties, its advantages such as the accessibility, speed and interaction cannot be ignored to improve food risk and benefit communication

Mental disorders on online social media through the lens of language and behaviour:Analysis and visualisation

Due to the worldwide accessibility to the Internet along with the continuous advances in mobile technologies, physical and digital worlds have become completely blended, and the proliferation of social media platforms has taken a leading role over this evolution. In this paper, we undertake a thorough analysis towards better visualising and understanding the factors that characterise and differentiate social media users affected by mental disorders. We perform different experiments studying multiple dimensions of language, including vocabulary uniqueness, word usage, linguistic style, psychometric attributes, emotions' co-occurrence patterns, and online behavioural traits, including social engagement and posting trends. Our findings reveal significant differences on the use of function words, such as adverbs and verb tense, and topic-specific vocabulary, such as biological processes. As for emotional expression, we observe that affected users tend to share emotions more regularly than control individuals on average. Overall, the monthly posting variance of the affected groups is higher than the control groups. Moreover, we found evidence suggesting that language use on micro-blogging platforms is less distinguishable for users who have a mental disorder than other less restrictive platforms. In particular, we observe on Twitter less quantifiable differences between affected and control groups compared to Reddit.Comment: To appear in Elsevier Information Processing & Managemen