More than just friends? Facebook, disclosive ethics and the morality of technology

Social networking sites have become increasingly popular destinations for people wishing to chat, play games, make new friends or simply stay in touch. Furthermore, many organizations have been quick to grasp the potential they offer for marketing, recruitment and economic activities. Nevertheless, counterclaims depict such spaces as arenas where deception, social grooming and the posting of defamatory content flourish. Much research in this area has focused on the ends to which people deploy the technology, and the consequences arising, with a view to making policy recommendations and ethical interventions. In this paper, we argue that tracing where morality lies is more complex than these efforts suggest. Using the case of a popular social networking site, and concepts about the morality of technology, we disclose the ethics of Facebook as diffuse and multiple. In our conclusions we provide some reflections on the possibilities for action in light of this disclosure

'Sand in the hand': young people's relationships with commercial media in the digital age

This thesis explores young people's experiences of contemporary, commercial media. It aims to provide a holistic understanding of new and more traditional media use.The study draws its theoretical framework from the fields of communication studies, consumer behaviour, cultural studies, marketing, sociology and social psychology. Despite several studies investigating young people and new media, a richer understanding of media consumption is needed, located within an ever more commercialised landscape. Assumptions of new media participation are frequently taken for granted, with limited critical analysis of the consumer experience. Studies from a marketing perspective have focused exclusively on managerial effectiveness to the detriment of consumer realities. Moving beyond media effects, it takes an active consumer-centered approach, contextualising new media consumption within the everyday lives of young people. It compares and contrasts practitioner tactics with young people's lived experiences of new and traditional media.Multiple methods of enquiry were used, informed by an interpretive approach. The initial fieldwork consisted of 15 interviews with 'expert' agency practitioners, investigating perceptions of youth marketing and the tactics deployed. Following a pilot study, the main consumer phase explored the mediated experiences of adolescents aged 13-17. A total of 175 secondary school pupils from three diverse school settings participated. Each completed a self-completion questionnaire, a smaller sample also contributing a time-based diary. 45 pupils participated in the qualitative phase, guided by the principles of phenomenology. Photo-elicitation and psycho-drawing techniques were utilised to enrichen discussions.The new media experiences of young people in this study were indeed bound up in their everyday lives. Young people were found to have a complex range of 'newmedia' experiences, embedded in their 'in home' and 'out of home' lifestyles. Their active use of the internet, for mood enhancement, experiential learning, escapism and communication, rarely encompassed commercial motivations. Of several barriers to new media use, online practitioner tactics caused the greatest concern. For many young people, such actions were deeply de-motivating, constituting an unwanted intrusion, in contrast to the symbiotic relationship synonymous with traditional advertising. Their consequent elusiveness is epitomised through the metaphor "sand in the hand"

The Crescent Student Newspaper, November 26, 2008

Student newspaper of George Fox University.https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/the_crescent/2319/thumbnail.jp

SME Access to Finance: An exploration into the demand and supply contraints around SME access to finance

In March 2011, the Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University was commissioned by North East Access to Finance (NEA2F) to undertake a major piece of independent academic research to explore both the demand and supply sides of SME access to finance in the North East of England. The aim of the research was to gain insight and understanding into the challenges faced not only by the SME sector but also by the key suppliers of finance to that community, specifically the banking sector and Business Angels. Thus we do not take a position on what we think is right or what a best practice approach might be but rather reflect, as accurately as possible, the information that was shared with us. The research project commenced in May 2011 and was completed at the end of March 2012

A Straights Only Island? The Tellings Of How Homosexual Jamaicans Survive Heteronormative Communities

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

The Agricultural Labourer in Worcestershire: Responses to Economic Change and Social Dislocation 1790-1841.

The study of rural history and social unrest in the English countryside has concentrated largely on East Anglia and southern England. Apart from one or two recent studies, the western agricultural counties have been relatively ignored. More importantly, apart from giving some detailed accounts of the lives of rural political activists, many historians have paid less attention to the daily lives of the majority of agricultural labourers. This has led to a general acceptance that most labourers were part of a rural proletariat whose loss of common rights and declining living standards culminated in the Last Labourers’ Revolt of 1830. This thesis seeks to broaden this view by providing a more holistic view of labourers’ lives in Worcestershire in order to determine what social and economic changes had the most impact on rural life in general and on three settlements in particular. The introduction demonstrates how romantic views of the past have influenced some historians’ attitudes. It then determines the empirical basis for this study