3,402 research outputs found
Routinisation of Audience Participation: BBC News Online, Citizenship and Democratic Debate
Leading up to the 2010 UK general election, Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, stressed the importance of the Corporationâs ability âto provide a strong and independent space where the big debates can take place, free from political or commercial influenceâ. âIn this public space,â he continued, âeveryone can have access to the lifeblood of healthy democratic debate â impartial news and informationâ. Affirming the importance of BBC Online, Thompson described it as âbeing a cornerstone of what the BBC should be aboutâ (Thompson, 2010). As with previous elections, one of the key strategic priorities for the BBCâs Election 2010 website was to help inform the citizenry about the campaign and empower voters to make an informed choice. In the most traditional sense, this was achieved through the BBCâs journalism and a series of rich background features â e.g. guidance on voting procedures, MPs and parliamentary politics, and comparisons of party manifestos. The BBC election websites have also featured experimentation with various forms of audience engagement, exemplified by different interactive features on the BBC micro websites for the 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2010 UK general elections. This has traditionally been anchored in the Corporationâs public service commitment to facilitating âcivic engagementâ and providing âdemocratic valueâ to British citizens (see also Thorsen et al., 2009, Thorsen, 2010, 2011, Allan and Thorsen, 2010). The BBCâs news website was incredibly popular during the 2010 election according to visitor statistics. On results day, May 7, BBC News Online had 11.4 million individual users, breaking the previous record set on November 5, 2008, for the election of Barack Obama as US President (Herrmann, 2010). Comparing this to 2005, the number of unique visitors to the BBCâs election site on results day, May 6, was 3 million taking the overall BBC News Online total to 4.3 million (Ward, 2006:17). This demonstrates a near three-fold increase in individual users from one election to the next and indicates that whilst the internet might not be perceived as having had a significant impact on the election outcomes, the BBC has certainly had a considerable impact on citizensâ online activities. Based on a larger study into BBCâs election websites involving interviews, observations and textual analysis, this chapter will examine how audience participation had by 2010 become a routinised part of the Corporationâs newsroom. It will begin by providing an historical overview of how public access programming has developed within the BBC and its influence on how the Corporation has sought to facilitate participatory spaces online. Following a discussion of online participatory spaces on the BBCâs election websites, it will offer a critique of how these are operationalized internally. It will argue that despite converged newsroom practices, the scale of the BBCâs operations means facilitation of civic engagement is fragmented between competing stakeholders within the Corporation each with their own routinised practices and perception of its value. This tension has a dramatic effect not only on the dialectic relationship between BBC journalists and its audiences, but also on the type of âpublic spaceâ the Corporation is able to foster and by extension the empowerment of citizens to engage in âhealthy democratic debateâ
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Shifting themes, shifting roles: the development of research blogs
The study described in this paper investigated the use of research blogs by postgraduate students over a four-year period. An initial, one-year, pilot focused on the research blogs of three first-year doctoral students (Ferguson, Clough, & Hosein, 2007). Analysis indicated that blogs were used to promote a community where students were encouraged to reflect and share ideas, skills and stories of research life. The blogs also acted as memory repositories and encouraged collaboration. The main study followed the studentsâ blogs for another three years, as they completed their doctorates and took jobs as early-career researchers. It investigated changes in the use and content of research blogs during this period. All three students continued to make use of their blogs for reflection over this period, and the blogsâ use as a memory repository became increasingly important, especially during the period of writing up research. Once the students had made the transition to early-career researcher, the nature of their blog use changed and began to fragment. This was due, in part, to issues of confidentiality, and data protection associated with their employment. While they continued to use their original research blogs to promote community and collaboration, the constraints of their work meant that new posts were often posted in closed blogs, or were marked as protected. At the same time, they were required or encouraged to make use of project-related blogs as part of a planned communication strategy by their employers. The findings of this longitudinal study clarify the changing expectations and needs of learners, employers and society in relation to researchersâ blogs, and identify skills, awareness and knowledge needed to support the use of blogging by research students
Live Blogging and Social Media Curation: Challenges and Opportunities for Journalism
Blogging and social mediaâs contribution to a realignment of the relationship between journalists and their audiences is discussed by Einar Thorsen in Live Blogging and Social Media Curation. Journalists are facing challenges to preserve traditional standards, such as verification of information and sources, whilst also capitalising on the opportunities afforded by the immediacy, transparency and interactive nature of online communication. Thorsen analyses these issues through two case studies: one focuses on âliveâ blogging and elections, and a second looks at the role of social media in the Arab Spring. He demonstrates how journalists face new challenges in relation to social media curation, whilst the emergent forms and practices also present a wealth of opportunities
An Empirical Study of Acquiring the Health Information by Micro-blogging: Taking Plurk for Example
In view of rising micro-blogging, the searchers of health information have increased dramatically anywhere in Taiwan. The purpose of this study was designed to refine and apply the theory of health belief model and tried to explore significant affected factors on the Plurkers behavior in tracing the health information. The survey methodology of this study administered the online questionnaire procedure during a two-week period in May, 2010. The effective respondent numbers totally are 233. Moreover, the multiple regression method was also used to analyze the results. After statistical analysis, the critical finding points out that majority of micro-blogging users acquiring the health information was mainly affected by the factors of Social Influence, Trust and Perceived Barriers. Hence, the professional and convenient information might be provided for us to promote the intention of use in Plurk
Exploring the affordances of social networking sites: an analysis of three networks
Social network sites (SNS) are becoming increasingly important, both for individuals and organizations. These systems have affected social and cultural activities, work practices, and in particular the ways in which we discover, share and consume information goods. The functionality of SNS is emergent, shaped by user appropriation choices. In this paper, affordances are proposed as a way to understand the potential uses and future evolution of SNS. Affordances describe the characteristics of an interactive system which suggests how the system should be used. The objective of this study is to explore the affordances of SNS. The study comprises an inventory of the affordances of three popular SNS. The study reveals a diverse collection of software features which afford user behaviour in six areas of activity: social connectivity, social interactivity, profile management, content discovery, content sharing and content aggregation. The findings of the study provide a rich foundation for future research on user appropriation of SNS, the future evolution of SNS, and the design of SNS systems
EXPLORING THE AFFORDANCES OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITES: AN ANALYSIS OF THREE NETWORKS
Social network sites (SNS) are becoming increasingly important, both for individuals and organizations. These systems have affected social and cultural activities, work practices, and in particular the ways in which we discover, share and consume information goods. The functionality of SNS is emergent, shaped by user appropriation choices. In this paper, affordances are proposed as a way to understand the potential uses and future evolution of SNS. Affordances describe the characteristics of an interactive system which suggests how the system should be used. The objective of this study is to explore the affordances of SNS. The study comprises an inventory of the affordances of three popular SNS. The study reveals a diverse collection of software features which afford user behaviour in six areas of activity: social connectivity, social interactivity, profile management, content discovery, content sharing and content aggregation. The findings of the study provide a rich foundation for future research on user appropriation of SNS, the future evolution of SNS, and the design of SNS systems
Crowdsourcing User-Contributed Solutions to Aerospace Product Development Issues through Micro-Blogging
Revenue and production output of the United Kingdomâs Aerospace Industry (AI) is growing year on year and the need to develop new products and innovative enhancements to existing ranges is creating a critical need for the increased utilisation and sharing of employee knowledge. The capture of employee knowledge within the UKâs AI is vital if it is to retain its pre-eminent position in the global marketplace. Crowdsourcing, as a collaborative problem solving activity, allows employees to capture explicit knowledge from colleagues and teams and also offers the potential to extract previously unknown tacit knowledge in a less formal virtual environment. By using micro-blogging as a mechanism, a conceptual framework is proposed to illustrate how companies operating in the AI may improve the capture of employee knowledge to address production-related problems through the use of crowdsourcing. Subsequently, the framework has been set against the background of the product development process proposed by Maylor in 1996 and illustrates how micro-blogging may be used to crowdsource ideas and solutions during product development. Initial validation of the proposed framework is reported, using a focus group of 10 key actors from the collaborating organisation, identifying the perceived advantages, disadvantages and concerns of the framework; results indicate that the activity of micro-blogging for crowdsourcing knowledge relating to product development issues would be most beneficial during product conceptualisation due to the requirement for successful innovation
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A literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education
This review focuses on the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education. It provides a synthesis of the research literature in the field and a series of illustrative examples of how these tools are being used in learning and teaching. It draws out the perceived benefits that these new technologies appear to offer, and highlights some of the challenges and issues surrounding their use. The review forms the basis for a HE Academy funded project, âPeals in the Cloudâ, which is exploring how Web 2.0 tools can be used to support evidence-based practices in learning and teaching. The project has also produced two in-depth case studies, which are reported elsewhere (Galley et al., 2010, Alevizou et al., 2010). The case studies focus on evaluation of a recently developed site for learning and teaching, Cloudworks, which harnesses Web 2.0 functionality to facilitate the sharing and discussion of educational practice. The case studies aim to explore to what extent the Web 2.0 affordances of the site are successfully promoting the sharing of ideas, as well as scholarly reflections, on learning and teaching
Toward a Uses and Gratification\u27s Model of Twitter
This study proposed a uses and gratifications model of Twitter, an internet medium and micro-blog--a platform with both mass and interpersonal communication features for sending short messages to others. A survey was conducted among 242 Twitter users to test the model, including a standard investigation of gratifications sought and gratifications obtained of Twitter usage. In addition, expectations and availability of usage behaviors from McLeod and Becker\u27s (1981) uses and gratifications model were examined. In the model, expectations were conceptualized as user expectations of satisfaction and operationalized as the difference between users\u27 gratifications sought and gratifications actually obtained. Usage behavior availability was conceptualized as accessibility. The model hypothesized that (a) expectations of satisfaction are positively related to Twitter use; (b) accessibility is positively related to both expectations of satisfaction and Twitter use; and (c) that prior Twitter experience is negatively related to expectations of satisfaction and positively related to Twitter use. Multivariate analysis found two gratifications factors--social and information. Accessibility was positively related to expectations of satisfaction, but not Twitter use. Prior Twitter experience was positively related to Twitter use, but not expectations of satisfaction. Expectations of satisfaction also did not significantly predict Twitter use as the differences between gratifications sought and obtained were small. Counterintuitive to previous research noting social aspects of the internet, information gratifications significantly predicted Twitter use, while social gratifications did not
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