Social Media and TV: A Preliminary Review of Interaction

This paper review the role of social media and social networks sites in promoting social TV as a new emerging platform for people who tend to socialize around TV shows and programmes . Social media which are used in connection with television, have made TV watching experience much more interactive and social than before. Thanks to social media and social networks, television has gradually become a driving force for social interaction among the viewers. On social TV platform, people use social media networks to be more interactive in their online communications including sharing, posting comments, putting like and dislikes under TV related posts, or tagging and recommending  certain TV shows to their friends and families via social media platform. All these facilities, innovations and activities can be taken into consideration as a new emerging television viewing habit. In this article researchers evaluated different opportunities and possibilities that social media offer to TV content creators and broadcasters as well as TV users and viewers. The findings of paper indicate that social media facilitate television viewer to socialize and interact around TV content in deferent conditions.  Keywords: Interaction, social media, social TV, televisio

Influence of ICT Adoption on Tertiary Education: Investigating ICT Usage in E-learning Context among Nigerian Students

Abstract Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been employed in various fields of human endeavours, especially to engender socio-economic development. One key sub-sector in which the adoption of ICTs is increasingly becoming critical is the farm-based (agri-based) enterprises. This study was prompted by the urge to determine the critical factors that affect ICT usage in e-learning by students of post-secondary schools.  The concept of e-learning, through the application of information and communication technology (ICT) has been increasingly attracting the attention of researchers. Recent studies found that there is quite a number of factors that affect students’ adoption (usage) of ICT for learning purposes. However, students’ expectation toward effort-free (easy-to-use) ICT hardware and software has been singled out as one of the major factors that becloud their perceptions of adopting ICT in their academic activity. In addition, the literature has highlighted that students’ ICT adoption expectancies in e-learning context is influenced by their prior experience and inexperience (e.g., anxiety). This study therefore, was prompted by the urge to determine the effect of ICT usage expectancies and prior usage experience (via-a-vis inexperience) on tertiary institutions students’ ICT adoption in e-learning context. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model was adopted and a pre-tested and validated questionnaire was administered to 400 students that were randomly selected in Yobe State University Damaturu, in Nigeria.  The study found effort expectancy explains about 80% of the variance in ICT usage, and only prior experience moderated the relationship significantly and positively. Keywords: Effort Expectancy, Experience, e-Learning, Tertiary Institutions, ICT Usage, the UTAU

Utaut factors influencing intention to use social TV among university students

Recent research shows that in line with the advent of broadband Internet and more connectivity through online channels and platforms such as social media, social networking sites, and smartphone messengers, TV viewers are involved in several activities including sharing, commenting, recommending, rating, and liking posts while watching TV. Such activities have led to a new concept in TV viewership known as 'Social TV'. As social TV is in its infancy, research on its multifaceted aspects is scant. In the context of Malaysia, the frequency of use, as well as the factors that determine individuals’ intention to use social TV have not been investigated. Thus, the main objective of this study is to determine factors that influence the intention to use and the frequency of social TV usage among Malaysian students. To achieve this, a quantitative research method based on the UTAUT and UTAUT2 model, utilizing a cross-sectional survey was designed. The respondents of the study were 774 students from both the public and private institutions of higher education in Malaysia that were selected through a multi-stage cluster sampling method. A slightly modified Likert scale questionnaire designed and validated by Venkatesh et al. (2012) was adopted to collect data and finally, Pearson’s Correlation and Multiple regression, as well as Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) as an appropriate statistical analysis method run by SmartPLS 3.0, applied to analyze the data.The findings of the study revealed that Malaysian students are involved in several activities including sharing, recommending, rating, and commenting on TV programs from a daily to weekly basis. The findings also showed that student’s expectance toward the usefulness of social TV is among the main factors that positively affect their intention to use it. Students' perceptions of the resources and support available to use social TV also have a positive influence on the usage of social TV among them. Similarly, the price of social TV-related services and applications as well as habits play a key role in student’s intention to use social TV. Additionally, the findings of the study revealed that the influence of hedonic motivation and habit, as well as friends and family encouragement on the intention to use social TV, was more significant among the male students. Besides, the moderation effect of gender on the path relationship between performance expectancy on behavioral intention was supported for the female group. It was also found that older students were more influenced by the provision of amenities such as educational services, etc. In addition, the influence of habit on behavioral intention to use social TV was moderated by age in favor of older students. Also, younger students were found to be more influenced by friends and family when it comes to social TV usage. Furthermore, it was also found that social TV users in the early stages of their experience require more educational materials and tutorials and they are almost influenced by friends and family when it comes to social TV usage. Theoretically, the findings of the current study provide significant contributions to research in the field of computer-mediated communication, social media, and social TV studies. Results from current study can have implications for broadcasters, marketers, mobile app developers, and IPTV service providers practically