Tag Archives: social media

Reviewed By: Melissa Balok, Edward Pantoja, Marie Ingram, Chloe Noland, Emma Weinberg

Link to article: http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/5/2/2158244015586000

Introduction
In the world of Web 2.0, tagging behavior is emerging as an important area of qualitative research for studies interested in learning more about language, community, cultural identity, and much more. In this article, Recuero et al (2015) perform a qualitative study on the use of hashtags and tagging behavior on Twitter in a specific political and regional area: the June 2013 political protests in Brazil. By comparing the localized tweets to “a theoretical background of the use of Twitter and hashtags in protests and the functions of language” (Recuero et al, 2015), the study was able to manifest not only specific context-based trends in tagging behavior, but also identify larger trends in virtual communication, personal incentive, and emotional versus recruiting behaviors.

The article begins by giving a history of the political climate and state of Brazil at the time the hash-tagging sample was occurring. The authors explain how tweets at this time were used as both a mobilization tool by protesters, as well as a way for the community to keep abreast of real-time occurrences at the rallies. This personalization of politics is further exemplified through a discourse on the effects of social media on people’s social movements, personal lives, and documentation/spreading of information during critical times. Delving into the function of language, which can be broken up into six main sections, the authors applied these linguistic classifications to the conversational and organizational quality of tweeting. Core research questions included: what are the types and communicative functions of hashtags used during protests; how do co-occurrences of hashtags depict different meanings and functions; and what are the trends in hash-tagging behavior of users as events unfold over time?

Method
Dealing with an overwhelming content-base, Recuero et al (2015) methodically analyzed a large dataset of tweets. 2,321,249 tweets were analyzed between June 13-20 in 2013. These dates were chosen because they consisted of the most Twitter activity during the protest. To effectively create and organize a large dataset, 35 keywords were tracked and inputted into the open source software yourTwapperkeeper to archive tweets that contained keywords. Researchers then attempted to classify the meaning of hashtags and their co-occurrences. Answers to these questions helped to create a context around the function of hashtags and how different co-occurrences could depict different meanings.

In order to objectively analyze the large dataset, Recuero et al (2015) used a coding procedure to categorize hashtags. Jakobson’s (1960) model of six main language functions was used to categorize hashtags according to their linguistic and communicative purposes. From this basic foundation for classification, hashtags which were found together within the same tweet were also classified. Due to the overlap of functions in a single tweet, a hierarchy was needed to establish and identify the dominant function of each tweet. The criteria used to determine the dominant function was to ask, “What is the purpose of this message?” Co-occurrences were also used with the previous criteria in order to categorize tweets. Lastly, the 500 most retweeted tweets were analyzed using similar mechanisms to create a context around the quantitative analysis.

Findings/Conclusion
Classification of the hashtags within the dataset were thus painstakingly paired to each of Jakobson’s (1960) six language functions. Contextual hashtags that frequently related to geographical location – where the event was happening – were classified as “referential”. Hashtags which indicated user emotion, thought and opinion, including protesters’ demands, were labeled as “expressive/emotive”. “Conative” hashtags were those that urged action and served to motivate other protestors, and “metalingual” hashtags, which referred to the content of the tweet.

In regards to the co-occurrences, the authors found that the most prominent types of hashtags that occurred together were conative-conative, encouraging action and strengthening the message through emphasis. Conative-referential hashtags were also preeminent, combining the call to mobilize with a physical location. Referential-referential hashtags helped to spread contextual information. Other co-occurrences of hashtags functioned to mobilize through opinions/demands, to contextualize the tweet in entirety, or to “sign” the tweet. Re-tweeted tweets were also analyzed, finding that most re-tweets were focused on the live events of the protests as they unfolded.

Overall, the results demonstrated tagging behavior during the protests in Brazil to have several functions: to call others to action, to align and coordinate protesters, to share information including metadata regarding content, and to express and support opinions.

Questions and Further Research
It would be interesting to see studies conducted with the same classification of tweets and hashtags that this study created, but with examination of different protests in different countries. A comparison of the results with the protests in Brazil could make for a better qualitative understanding of how different countries use hashtags, in addition to furthering examination of tagging behavior across countries. Additional questions that come to mind: do Internet users use hashtags in the same way, regardless of language and country of origin? This could lead to bigger behavior studies regarding humans and Internet behavior in general and how humans adapt to technology. Alternately, is there evidence of similar tagging behavior in applications that allow more than 140 characters per post? Recuero et al (2015) briefly mention that the character limit on Twitter could potentially cause users to eliminate tags that are not as important. This leads one to ask, what information about the protests is missing from Twitter? Could additional information be found on alternative ICT platforms, such as Facebook?

References:

Jakobson, R. & Sebeok, T. (1960). Linguistics and poetics. Style in Language, p. 350-377. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Recuero, R., Zago, G., Bastos, M.T., & Araujo, R. (2015). Hashtag functions in the protests across Brazil. Sage Open Journals, published 11 May 2015, doi: 10.1177/2158244015586000

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Young people and Facebook: What are the challenges to adopting a critical engagement?

December 8, 2015 Anna Legaspi, Manny Navarro, Maria Aguilar, Shibrie Wilson

By Anna Legaspi, Manny Navarro, Maria Aguilar, Shibrie Wilson

Link to article: http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/DCE_1068_Pangrazio.pdf

APA Citation:
Pangrazio, L. (2013). Young people and Facebook: What are the challenges to adopting a critical engagement? Digital Culture & Education, 5(1), 34-47.

This article focuses on a study done of experienced Facebook users (all teenage girls)–or “digital natives”, as the article calls them–in an attempt to find out how much they associate identity and how theirs are socially constructed with the use of the social media site. The study explores the complexity of social networking sites and how teens identify themselves and their “friends” (friends can be a very general word when talking about Facebook, as many times users don’t personally know their Facebook “friends”). Critical engagement is an important concept in this article and the idea of whether the study participants are actually able to effectively engage with one another without experiencing social pressures, anxiety, or having their world views skewed by the social media site, thus leading to transparency problems for them.

The impact Facebook has on the self-esteem and personal development in young people was discussed in the article. For many participants anxiety was associated with how users wanted to perceive themselves in the digital world, meaning what images, status updates they would post on their wall. Many of the participants spoke of bullying and judgmental behavior that seemed elevated on Facebook. The article also discussed how although participants were able to reflect on how Facebook was shaping the identities of others, it was more difficult for them to view their own identities.

The research questions our group found to be most important for this article are as following:

Has the manner in which an individual identifies him or herself fundamentally shifted with the advent of social networking sites and digital technology?
Is there any evidence of a critical engagement with the medium?

And, how does this social networking site influence the participants’ sense of self and engagement with others?

The study wanted to stay away from inaccurate labels used to describe relationship of this generation of young people with social network. Six volunteer female students age 13-14 years old. This group of female students attend Government school for girls in suburbs who have used Facebook daily for past 2 years. There were several methods in order to answer the research question. One of the most important out of all methods is that of “examining appropriateness of critical engagement”.

The process for this study was simple and not your traditional approach to a study:

There were class meetings
Peer administered interviews
Observations of the participants Facebook page
Follow-up interview for clarification of peer administered interview.

Non-traditional research methods used:

Participants helped construct interview questions
Participants carried out interviews on each other

There were three main themes that emerged in this study,
Main purpose of Facebook use was to present a social image
Anxiety as a result of judgment by peers and bullying
participants contradicted themselves from what they said and did.

The teens in the study reported that photos and friends were the most important over status updates and wall posts. This also ties in with what the teens themselves post and what photos are posted of them in order to maintain their social status image. Some of the girls in the study acknowledge that photos can be an inaccurate presentation of who the person really is. Several of the girls in this study expressed some levels of anxiety towards their visual representation of their photos and equating “inappropriate” to “ugly”. Some also expressed it being easier to be mean to people online due to not having that one-on-one or face-to-face interaction. While these girls are aware that photos are an inaccurate representation of people and that online friends differ from actual friends, they are still following these same behaviors to an extent. These girls know what is right and what is wrong on Facebook. However, these girls still equate having many Facebook friends, posting fun things or attractive photos as cool.

This study shows that while these girls are very much comfortable with Facebook, it doesn’t necessarily imply that their identity is formed in a positive manner. Further studies would need to be developed and completed in order to better understand the complex digital world of youth.

While we found this article to be interesting and relevant to the interests of our generation, we have some questions and would like to see similar, future research address some further issues:

The participants of this study were all female. How would the findings differ if the participants were all male, or an equal mix of both genders?

Similarly, this study took place in an affluent area of Australia. What would a study look like in areas of higher economic and ethnic diversity? For example, would teenagers of the same age in Tuskegee, Alabama have similar levels of critical engagement with Facebook? Our guess is that the results would be quite varied across the board depending on the area studied.

Related to this is the question of age. As people age, do their “critical engagement” skills get better? What about elderly Facebook users who are new to social media? A study focusing on different age group’s interactions with social media would be fascinating. We assume young people “get it”, but is that true?

In today’s social media-driven world, Facebook (and similar sites) skills are crucial to the well-being of young people. As we all know, a ‘digital fingerprint’ is extremely difficult (or impossible) to erase, meaning that everyone, especially young people, need to be very careful with what they share. Perhaps with the rise of studies like this, schools will see the importance of “critical engagement” skills and provide in-depth education to teens.

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Education Remix: New Media, Literacies, and the Emerging Digital Geographies

December 8, 2015 Sara Evans, Jessica Gilbert Redman, Joanne Rumig, & Marcia Seaton-Martin

By Sara Evans, Jessica Gilbert Redman, Joanne Rumig, & Marcia Seaton-Martin

Link to article: http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dce1034_vasudevan_2010.pdf

Article Synopsis & Core Research Questions

Vasudevan (2010) explores the way in which emerging digital geographies are making a difference in the way our youth population are being educated today, whether in the classroom or outside the school, as well as how technology is changing the way in which they communicate with their peers and teachers. Her research focus is to examine the types of digital spaces that youth are participating in and how they can be incorporated into current education practices. YouTube, Flickr, and other digital literacies such as cell phones, mp3 players, social networking sites, and virtual worlds have all contributed to this movement where students are engaged in the learning process both online and in the classroom. This affects the instruction models and assessment tools already in place.

In this particular article Vasudevan examines the social media practices and the technologies used by two youths, Joey and EJ, that are currently involved in an alternative to incarceration program (ATIP). Using portable technologies, Joey and EJ explored digital geographies in various workshops and improved writing skills using various digital spaces. In both examples the relationships between literacies and modalities are highlighted, and how their experiences will shape curriculum design in youth education.

Methods Used

The primary methods employed are case study examples from Joey and EJ in the ATIP workshops. Both completed different creative projects in different cycles of the program. Joey’s project was a part of a digital media workshop, where students were asked to create “movies,” and EJ’s project was a part of a larger program called The Insight Theatre Project, where students were asked to co-write scripts which were performed by other participants. The researchers used ethnography styled approaches to examine the processes of the either student in creating their projects, though these approaches were complicated by the students immersion in virtual spaces where the researcher could not necessarily situate themselves.The focus, however, was examining how either project highlighted the digital literacy and level of media engagement of the student, and how either changed throughout the course and with the addition of more virtual spaces for the students to occupy.

Findings & Conclusions

As a result of the digital medial workshop, Joey was able to use a digital camera not only as a tool but as a space to show the layered geography of his life. He used his PSP as a tool to transfer files from the camera to his online profile, while gaining new skills of customizing backgrounds and uploading music and multimedia poems. Through the use of ProTools, Joey was able to create beats for his multimedia narrative and later create a collection of beats for other multimodal compositions. He got a renewed sense of exploring his personal history with the PSP and the digital camera.

EJ began to navigate new spaces, starting with writing blogs, which helped him develop more of an appreciation for multiple audiences. With the blogging and observations he made, he started to identify himself not only as an intern but also as an ethnographer. As his composing evolved, his digital geographies began to include Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. By accessing many digital composing spaces, EJ was able to participate in new communities, be recognized for new identities, and gain new audiences.

“By paying attention to digital geographies, particularly the navigation across digital spaces and orchestration of multiple modalities, educators can cultivate youth’ literacies while at the same time inspire new sites of education” (Vasudevan, 2010, p. 79).

Further Research Opportunities & Unanswered Questions

Given the few student examples we see, it would be interesting to see how students use the digital landscape on a wider basis. One student uses technology in interesting and unusual ways, but how common is this “thinking outside the box”? What percentage of students get to know their technology this well, so they are able to think up new ways to use the technology? It would be helpful to know what students are using and to what point they are being creative with technology.

We often see students who are so-called digital natives who do not have what many consider basic digital skills (e.g., being able to enter a web address in the address bar of a browser instead of using Google to find the site and then clicking on it from the search results). Based on these observations, how many students are actively and eagerly participating in furthering their technological skills and knowledge beyond what is required for basic interpersonal communication (texting, Facebook, etc.)? By this, what we really want to know is if the Joeys and the EJs of the student world are outliers or if they are the norm. How much technological inquisitiveness can we expect from the average student? Are they willing (and/or able) to go above and beyond the normal requirements of a task or project to learn new skills or to bring together disparate skills in order to create something new?

Is it logical to believe that schools should have such varied types of technology (such as gaming systems or different types of computer OSes) available to students, just in case they might be able to use it creatively? Beyond that, do budgets allow for this possibility?

With schools fighting the influx of technology by often passing “screens down” or “phone basket” (where students put their phones in a basket upon entering a classroom to avoid the temptation of looking at it throughout class) regulations school-wide, where is the happy medium to make sure students are using technology effectively but not tuning out during the school day?

References
Vasudevan, L. (2010). Education remix: New media, literacies, and the emerging digital geographies. Digital Culture & Education, 2(1). Retrieved from http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com

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