Examining social media adoption and change to the stakeholder communication paradigm in not-for-profit sport organizations

The purpose of this study was to examine social media adoption within not-for-profit sport organizations to illuminate the impetus for change, the type of change undertaken, and change resistance. Using a contextualist approach depicting the external and internal forces as well as the change process, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Canadian national sport organizations (NSO) representing varying degrees of social media presence. The findings suggest that, although social media is espoused as a radical, transformational vehicle, NSOs have only made incremental adjustments to their stakeholder communication and have situated social media within their extant organizational condition due to capacity constraints and resistance from staff and reticent stakeholders. Adopting social media in light of limited organizational capacity thus diminishes the utility of the communications tool. Theoretical and practical implications include how to improve social media-related capacity and the importance of continuing the social media and sport domain’s organizational theory agenda

Trolling in asynchronous computer-mediated communication: From user discussions to academic definitions

Whilst computer-mediated communication (CMC) can benefit users by providing quick and easy communication between those separated by time and space, it can also provide varying degrees of anonymity that may encourage a sense of impunity and freedom from being held accountable for inappropriate online behaviour. As such, CMC is a fertile ground for studying impoliteness, whether it occurs in response to perceived threat (flaming), or as an end in its own right (trolling). Currently, first and secondorder definitions of terms such as im/politeness (Brown and Levinson 1987; Bousfield 2008; Culpeper 2008; Terkourafi 2008), in-civility (Lakoff 2005), rudeness (Beebe 1995, Kienpointner 1997, 2008), and etiquette (Coulmas 1992), are subject to much discussion and debate, yet the CMC phenomenon of trolling is not adequately captured by any of these terms. Following Bousfield (in press), Culpeper (2010) and others, this paper suggests that a definition of trolling should be informed first and foremost by user discussions. Taking examples from a 172-million-word, asynchronous CMC corpus, four interrelated conditions of aggression, deception, disruption, and success are discussed. Finally, a working definition of trolling is presented

Subwavelength grating metamaterial waveguides and ring resonators on a silicon nitride platform

We propose and demonstrate subwavelength grating (SWG) metamaterial waveguides and ring resonators on a silicon nitride platform for the first time. The SWG waveguide is engineered such that a large overlap of 53% of the Bloch mode with the top cladding material is achieved, demonstrating excellent potential for applications in evanescent field sensing and light amplification. The devices, which have critical dimensions greater than 100 nm, are fabricated using a commercial rapid turn-around silicon nitride prototyping foundry process using electron beam lithography. Experimental characterization of the fabricated device reveals excellent ring resonator internal quality factor (2.11x10^5) and low propagation loss (~1.5 dB/cm) in the C-band, a significant improvement of both parameters compared to silicon based SWG ring resonators. These results demonstrate the promising prospects of SWG metamaterial structures for silicon nitride based photonic integrated circuits.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Laser & Photonics Reviews for publicatio

A Randomized Comparison of Aripiprazole and Risperidone for the Acute Treatment of First-Episode Schizophrenia and Related Disorders: 3-Month Outcomes

Research findings are particularly important for medication choice for first-episode patients as individual prior medication response to guide treatment decisions is unavailable. We describe the first large-scale double-masked randomized comparison with first-episode patients of aripiprazole and risperidone, 2 commonly used first-episode treatment agents. One hundred ninety-eight participants aged 15-40 years with schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, schizoaffective disorder or psychotic disorder Not Otherwise Specified, and who had been treated in their lifetime with antipsychotics for 2 weeks or less were randomly assigned to double-masked aripiprazole (5-30mg/d) or risperidone (1-6mg/d) and followed for 12 weeks. Positive symptom response rates did not differ (62.8% vs 56.8%) nor did time to response. Aripiprazole-treated participants had better negative symptom outcomes but experienced more akathisia. Body mass index change did not differ between treatments but advantages were found for aripiprazole treatment for total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting glucose, and prolactin levels. Post hoc analyses suggested advantages for aripiprazole on depressed mood. Overall, if the potential for akathisia is a concern, low-dose risperidone as used in this trial maybe a preferred choice over aripiprazole. Otherwise, aripiprazole would be the preferred choice over risperidone in most situations based upon metabolic outcome advantages and some symptom advantages within the context of similar positive symptom response between medications

“Birds of a feather”: an institutional approach to Canadian national sport organizations’ social-media use

The purpose of this study was to examine sport organizations’ social-media activity using an institutional approach, specifically, to investigate the main themes emanating from Canadian national sport organizations’ (CNSOs) social-media communication and the similarities and differences in social-media use between the CNSOs. An exploratory qualitative thematic analysis was conducted on 8 CNSOs’ Twitter accounts ranging from 346 to 23,925 followers, with the number of tweets varying from 219 to 17,186. Thematic analysis indicated that CNSOs generally used tweeting for promoting, reporting, and informing purposes. Despite the organizations’ differing characteristics regarding seasonality of the sport, Twitter-follower count, total number of tweets, and whether the content was original or retweeted, themes were generally consistent across the various organizations. Coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphic pressures help explain these similarities and offer reasons for a lack of followership growth by the less salient CNSOs. Implications for research and practice are provided

Illuminating centralized users in the social media ego network of two national sport organizations

The purpose of this study was to examine national sport organizations’ (NSOs’) social networks on Twitter to explore followership between users, thereby illuminating powerful and central actors in a digital environment. Using a stratified, convenience sample, followership between the ego (i.e., NSO) and its alters (i.e., stakeholders) were noted in square, one-mode sociomatrices for the Fencing Canada (381 × 381) and Luge Canada (1026 × 1026) networks on Twitter. Using social network analysis to analyze the data for network density, average ties, Bonacich beta centrality, and core–periphery structure, the results indicate fans, elite athletes, photographers, competing sport organizations, and local clubs are some of the key stakeholders with large amounts of power. Though salient users, such as sponsors and international sport federations, are also present in the network core, NSOs seem better able to increase visibility of their content by targeting smaller scale users. The findings imply managers may wish to reflect upon how these advantaged users can be incorporated into their social communication strategies and how scholarship should continue examining followership as well as content in online settings