Kindling Social Entrepreneurial Journalism

ABSTRACT

After a decade of economic crisis and ongoing technological innovation, scholars and journalists have argued that new production patterns for news media are required befitting the emergence of entrepreneurial journalism. This study investigated the effects of prior experience with social problems, empathy, moral obligation, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and perceived social support on the social entrepreneurial intentions of 421 Taiwanese journalists. A regression analysis suggests a prominent association of social support with social entrepreneurial intentions, followed by social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, empathy, and prior experience with social problems. No significant association was found between moral obligation and social entrepreneurial intentions.     

Social media for the community college library

Abstract

This article summarizes the experience of a multi-campus urban community college library developing and managing a social media presence. The author describes the organization of social media efforts, institutional rules that affect implementation of social media, developing themes for content, and other considerations.     

Social Media Marketing: Determining and Comparing View of Public Library Directors and Users

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The present study aims to determine and compare the views of directors and users of public libraries on the use of social media for the marketing of library services.

Methodology: Data collection was done through two researcher-made questionnaires, one from the viewpoints of directors and one investigating the views of users. The questionnaires’ validity was done by four libraries and Information Science professionals, and the reliability was determined by the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The statistical population of this research is made up of all directors and users of 12 public libraries of the city of Isfahan, one of the largest cities in Iran.

Findings: In users’ viewpoints, the “interaction capability” is the most important feature that social media marketing can have in libraries. From the viewpoints of the directors, “creating a true picture of the role of the library” and “informing users about library services” are among the most important reasons for the marketing of libraries in the social media. From the perspective of both groups, the Telegram is the most appropriate medium for the marketing of library services.

Results: To maintain their customers and their market position, libraries need to use more exciting tools such as social media for marketing. Library directors of this study emphasized on this fact and 79.1% of users expressed interest in receiving library information through social media.

Value: The findings of this study would help the library directors to better decide on the marketing of their library services in social media.

Type of the study: Scientific-Research     

Using Students' Prior Knowledge to Teach Social Penetration Theory

Courses: Introduction to Human Communication, Communication Theory, Relational Communication, Interpersonal Communication

Objective: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the premises of social penetration theory based on prior knowledge as a starting point     

Leadership and Social Justice

ABSTRACT

Leaders have tremendous influence not only in their organizations but for the profession and within the communities they serve. Librarianship has strong core values that are the foundation of our services but librarians also create an environment that supports diversity of opinions. How does a library leader balance social justice while serving the broad needs of a community? Is there an inherent conflict between personal perspectives and the encompassing multiple viewpoints? Library leaders may face difficult decisions in determining social justice issues within their libraries considering personal beliefs, institutional responsibilities, and community impacts. Every library leader has opportunities to address social justice issues within libraries and in so doing, will advance community goals of inclusiveness of all members.     

The ICPSR and Social Science Research

ABSTRACT

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), a unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, is the world's largest social science data archive. The data sets in the ICPRS database give the social sciences librarian/subject specialist an opportunity of providing value-added bibliographic information. Access to the data sets is by membership in the consortium. This article gives an overview of the ICPSR database and of other services provided by the ICPSR, including sample usage statistics and reports. Research has shown that use of electronic resources, such as that provided by the data sets of the ICPSR, leads to an increase in publications by scholars. Librarians from a variety of disciplines—economics, political science, education, sociology, criminal justice, and social work—can help their researchers use the ICPSR's data sets to help further the goals of social science.     

Using You've Got Mail to Teach Social Information Processing Theory and Hyperpersonal Perspective in Online Interactions

Courses: Communication Theory; Interpersonal Communication; Computer-Mediated Communication

Objective: To illustrate the implications of social information processing and hyperpersonal perspective in CMC relationships

Time required: 1 hour

Materials needed: a DVD of You've Got Mail. scene 2 “Morning log-ons” and scene 21 “Still here” will be used     

Why Social Interaction and Good Communication in Academic Libraries Matters

SUMMARY

In these times of extraordinary development in information and communication technologies (ICT) many new tools and services, and traditional tools, such as the catalog, could be developed or enhanced by librarians to effectively support the academic community in teaching and learning. This paper will discuss how social interaction between technical and public service librarians could enhance library services to the academic faculty and students during these demanding times of technologies and information overload. The paper will also point out that the team approach to library services can improve social interaction between librarians when the perpetuation of the traditional academic organizational model is not efficient enough for the faculty and students' need-driven use of information. Rapid changes resulting from ICT demand constant social interaction that would be facilitated by establishing working teams for specific tasks.     

Czech Open Access for the Humanities and Social Sciences

ABSTRACT

This article examines the current state of Open Access for the humanities and social sciences in the Czech Republic. Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, and following the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January of 1993, the Open Access movement in the Czech context remains understudied. This article focuses on the current state of affairs of Open Access in the Czech Republic within the European Union framework for Open Access.     

Connecting Social Technologies with Information Literacy

ABSTRACT

Social technologies such as Weblogs, wikis, and social bookmarking are emerging both as information resources and as tools for research. This paper reflects on these technologies and suggests they may be well placed to build fluency in the higher-order thinking skills outlined in various information literacy frameworks, particularly in an educational context. A high proportion of today's learners are very comfortable with technology and Web 2.0 resources. The characteristics of the information they are accessing are also changing, bringing a stronger need for sophisticated evaluation and analysis skills. Where do social technologies fit within information literacy frameworks, and where can they be used in the day-to-day instruction of information skills? This paper suggests social technologies perform a dual role: they are not only useful sources of information but also resources to be used to develop ideas and research, using collaboration and community platforms that learners today are familiar with. Librarians who provide information literacy instruction would benefit from an awareness of these tools and where they sit within today's information environment.     

Awareness,Reporting, and Branding: Exploring Influences on Brazilian Journalists’ Social Media Use across Platforms

ABSTRACT

This study examines the individual and organizational level factors shaping Brazilian journalists’ use of social media. Results from a survey of 774 reporters show that individual factors influence awareness and reporting uses, while organizational factors are associated with branding. Results suggest no difference between groups of journalists, when it comes to incorporating social media for reporting; but online reporters engage in branding and use social media as an awareness system more than their counterparts. Findings also reveal that journalists have not fully embraced the participatory potential of social media, as only trust in information posted by other journalists relates to adoption.     

Developing Social Media to Engage and Connect at the University of Liverpool Library

ABSTRACT

This case study presents the Liverpool experience of using social media as an academic library to enhance audience engagement and create a community of users. It looks at the development of social media in the library, focusing on the concerted effort to grow followers and develop a meaningful use of these tools. It considers the value of taking a team approach, ensuring a diversity and breadth of output. Using social media effectively enables libraries to connect with users in a space they already occupy and bring added value to existing activities. A strong, well maintained social media presence enhances a library's national and international profile and ensures good on campus relationships with main stakeholders. This case study demonstrates the relevance of social media as a communication channel and the importance of selecting the correct platform depending on audience or aims. A literature review and recommendations based on experience are included.     

Social media listening and Title IX training crisis: Implications for discourse of renewal

Courses: Undergraduate or graduate organizational/crisis communication or public relations courses

Objective: The goal for this single class activity is for students to apply discourse of renewal to an organizational crisis fueled through social media.     

Reviewing Social Democratic Corporatism: Differentiation Theory and the Norwegian Labor Press

This article reviews the problem of disciplinary isolation in the human sciences, especially as it relates to psychology, and outlines how this problem can be addressed with the help of ideas of two figures—L. S. Vygotsky and M. M. Bakhtin. Vygotsky's claims about the social origins of individual mental functioning and his analyses of how cultural tools mediate social and individual functioning provide a means for relating individual mental functioning to cultural, historical, and institutional settings. Bakhtin's ideas about dialogicality, multivoicedness, and related phenomena complement and extend Vygotsky's claims and provide further theoretical means for integrating various disciplines’ contributions to the human sciences through the study of communication. After reviewing the contributions of Vygotsky and Bakhtin, an illustration concerned with multivoicedness in historical representation is provided.     

Social media,legacy media and gatekeeping: the protest paradigm in news of Ferguson and Charlottesville

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the site of intersection between legacy and social media, whereby it asks how local legacy media (St Louis Post-Dispatch and Richmond Times-Dispatch) invoked social media (Facebook and Twitter) discourse within their coverage of the Ferguson (2014) and Charlottesville (2017) events. It thus explores how gatekeeping is manifested and, consequently, how the protest paradigm emerged in a news landscape of proliferating social media. Thematic textual analysis indicates that coverage of Charlottesville and Ferguson clearly relied on indulging the social media sphere in important ways. Common themes of social media as multipurpose platforms, as interfacing with law and order, and as reconciling material and digital modes culminating in social activism were revealed. The study shows that the protest paradigm that has long characterized legacy media’s coverage of social protest is not as “pure” as it may once have been, since a social media component is helping define the contours and content of legacy media’s landscape.     

Social Media Followership as a Predictor of News Website Traffic

ABSTRACT

News organizations increasingly focus their efforts to boost traffic on their websites to grow their share of online advertising. We investigated the relationship between news websites’ traffic ranking and their social media tools of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google Plus. For a year we monitored the followers of all Greek regional newspapers in relation to the traffic on their websites. We continued monitoring for a second year to validate the robustness of the findings and we hereby present results for 86 weeks. Statistical analysis leads to the conclusion that the number of social media subscribers can predict the competitive position of a newspaper in the market based on its website traffic. The effect lasts for a limited period of time, one to three weeks, depending on the specific medium. Importantly, results indicate the potential of developing a prediction model of the website’s traffic, based on the social media metrics of the organization, as a useful tool to increase traffic and revenues from online advertising.     

Global Mistrust in News: The Impact of Social Media on Trust

ABSTRACT

Digital platforms such as search engines and social media have become major gateways to news. Algorithms are used to deliver news that is consistent with consumers’ preferences and individuals share news through their online social networks. This networked environment has resulted in growing uncertainty about online information which has had an impact on news industries globally. While it is well established that perceptions of trust in news found on social media or via search engines are lower than traditional news media, there has been less discussion about the impact of social media use on perceptions of trust in the news media more broadly. This study fills that gap by examining the influence of social media as news sources and pathways to news on perceptions of the level of news trust at a country level. A secondary data analysis of a 26-country survey in 2016 and 2019 was conducted. The analysis revealed an increase in social media use for accessing news resulted in a decline in trust in news media generally across the globe. Higher levels of general mistrust in news were related to an increased use of sharing of news. This paper argues the use of social media for news is closely linked to the increase in news mistrust, which is likely to continue to rise as the number of people using social media to access news continues to grow.