Is the Uses and Gratifications Approach Still Relevant in a Digital Society? Theoretical and Methodological Applications to Social Media

A wide range of new theories, approaches, and methodologies have been proposed as a response to the changes occurring in the digitization of content, the creation and distribution of digital artifacts (e.g., documents, images, and videos), and the increasing production and dissemination of news on the Internet. These new trends have also motivated scholars to revive traditional theories in the field of mass communication and journalism, which could aid in examining digital communication. In this editorial note, the uses and gratifications approach (U&G) is presented as a theoretical lens and empirical means for studying how audiences engage with digital media. U&G provides a unique perspective on digital media as it stresses the relevance of media in the context of everyday life, examining uses, gratifications sought and obtained, and media practices over time

Changing Chance Encounters: Historians, Serendipity, and the Digital Text

Twenty academic historians in Southern Ontario were interviewed about their use of e-books and the role of serendipity in their research. A central theme that surfaced from the grounded theory analysis was that their use of digital tools and texts is limiting their opportunity for a chance encounter with information

Persistence and change in social media

In ―Star Trek‖, Scotty suggests that Transwarp beaming is ―like trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet, whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse‖ (Abrams, 2009). The study of social media faces similar challenges because new tools are developed at a rapid pace and existing tools are constantly being updated with new features, policies, and applications. Users tend to migrate, in often unpredictable ways, to new tools as well as to adopt multiple tools simultaneously, without showing consistent media preferences and habits (Quan-Haase, 2008). As a result, for scholars it sometimes feels as if the social media landscape changes too quickly to fully grasp and leaves scholars permanently lagging behind. We argue in this paper that beyond the ebb and flow of everyday events and seemingly idiosyncratic usage, trends exist underlying long-term trajectories, persistent social practices, and discernable cultural patterns

Rethinking Tradition: The Impact of Technology & the Loss of Serendipity on the Historical Research Process

The move towards the digital humanities will see a growing interest in tools such as Ebooks. This study examines how historians perceive Ebooks and other technologies as impacting their research process. Findings indicate that historians are concerned that the digital environment reduces the possibility of chance encounters with a text. They continue to recreate the environment that encourages serendipity to occur within their field, and would readily welcome tools that facilitate this

A retrospective on state of the art social media research methods: Ethical decisions, big-small data rivalries and the spectre of the 6Vs

This concluding chapter offers critical reflections on some of the key themes covered in the Handbook. Ethics emerged as a concern for many scholars, both for those engaging in quantitative and qualitative approaches. Scholars agree in that there is no overarching set of rules that can be applied to all projects blindly, rather they see ethical decisions as being grounded in the specifics of the data being collected, the social group under study, and the potential repercussions for subjects. A second central theme was the value of qualitative approaches for understanding ‘anomalies’ within larger data sets. Qualitative approaches are seen as valuable and a stand-alone means of collecting, analyzing and making sense of social media data, in particular for projects where context is essential. Finally, as the contributions in this volume demonstrate that many of the challenges posed by the nature of social media data are being tackled and addressed, this chapter ends with a reorientation of the 6Vs which focuses on the primacy of the researcher in the decision-making process. We argue that the provision of technical solutions alone do not entirely address the 6V problem and clarity of thought around research design is still just as important as ever

Seeking Knowledge: The Role of Social Networks in the Adoption of Ebooksby Historians

The research objectives are: To investigate how history faculty are adopting Ebooks. To understand the role of social networks in the adoption process. To examine the perceived barriers by historians to Ebook adoption and use

Social Media Use By Ontario University Libraries: Challenges and Ethical Considerations

The application of social media by academic libraries is re-shaping traditional ideas of library services. The use of social media in Ontario’s university libraries demonstrates the divergent modes by which information technologies are utilized, as well as the challenges facing libraries in both adopting and using these tools

Real Life Sociology: A Canadian Approach

Together, the authors have edited Anabel Quan-Haase’s previously written textbook Real Life Sociology: A Canadian Approach, a textbook used in the first year course Introduction to Sociology, to implement more Indigenous content into each chapter. Our motive with modifying the content in this textbook is to give first-year or new students a chance to learn about Canada’s history. Ideally, implementing such content into this textbook will make future students not only aware of what their fellow brothers and sisters have endured, but how they continue to suffer. We can not change the past, but we can shape the future. Young scholars are the future and they have the strength in their voices to influence change in society.https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/headandheartprogram_2019/1003/thumbnail.jp

Appendix A: Interview guide with privacy-related questions (full version)

Interview Guide: Networked individualism, East York Projec