Digital Communication Technologies and Social Media

Communication theories evolved from early philosophers like Aristotle to communication scholars like MacLuhan and contemporary Media Scholars. These theories lay out the procedures for different kinds of communication. In contemporary times there is need to explore the possibility of postulating these same traditional theories of communication to new media and social media. The challenge is to create a synerge from these theories and see what works and what does not work. This essay through discourse analysis attempts to formulate a new theory made up of some components of the traditional theories. For instance, it has suggested a theory that works with social media like facebook.

This report analyzes the case study on metaverse written by Michael Olenick, Executive Fellow at the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute (Meta: Facebook’s Pivot to the Metaverse. A Dystopia or Blue Ocean Utopia?, no date). We will learn what metaverse is and how it began, followed by conducting a strategic analysis and looking at some advantages and disadvantages of creating such a world, we will evaluate the business strategy of creating metaverse by studying concepts of organisational decision making, different strategic approaches, learning about offensive & defensive strategies and also how we can reflect on what is ethical and what is legal when it comes to implementing such business strategy of creating a metaverse or being a part of it.

Abstract

Ethiopia has introduced plasma television education in many public high schools during the
2004/2005 academic year as part of its wide-ranged ambition to build a knowledge-based society and
economic system. Though, plasma television education was introduced with a high aspiration to
transform the old education system to a more modernized one through providing equitable and quality
education throughout the nation, various literature have shown that the technology hasn’t achieved
its intended objectives and has currently faced uncertainty. Several factors have been stated for its

failure. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore these factors emphasizing particularly on the socio-
technical challenges that embedded plasma television education and show how these factors have

negativey shaped the technology’s adaptability and sustainability processes.
The study uses the social construction of technology, which is a theory that examines the social
influence of a technological artifact and vise-versa, as an interdisciplinary theoretical framework to
qualitatively analyze the social and technical forces that have greatly influenced the application of
the technology. By using textual analysis as a research method, various data were collected through
conducting interview with students, reviewing policy documents, exploring contemporary literature
as well as analyzing various media outlets published on the case study.
Based on the analysis of those various data sources, this study finds that plasma television education
has faced various social interpretations by different relevant social groups including students, teachers
and government. Those various interpretations given to plasma television education has negatively
influenced its stabilization process and consequently the technology couldn’t get momentum and
fulfill its objectives yet. The multiple meanings given by the relevant social groups are emanated
from the various socio-technical factors that embedded the technology.
Thus, this study concludes that, though plasma television education could be an ideal technology to
improve the quality and accessibility of education, the technology hasn’t worked well in Ethiopia
because of the multiple socio-technical factors that surround it. Thus, the study suggests that in order
to effectuate the objectives of the technology, various stakeholders should scrutinize those diverse
socio-technical factors/meanings and try to modify the technology’s design and the social
environments accordingly. Moreover, further research should also be conducted to broaden the
understanding of the complexity of the problem and its corresponding solutions.

Key words: Education, Ethiopia, information communication technology, plasma television, social
construction of technology, relevant social groups, interpretation, and stabilization

The aim of this study is to determine the social media usage habits and motivations of the student groupsselected by easy sampling in Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University in 2018 -2019 academic year and to determinewhether the Geography teacher candidates have modern methods and techniques in Geography education is aresearch in the general survey model based on quantitative data and the relational survey model. Research  population, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University Geography
students (1st and 2nd grade) studying in Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2018-2019 academic year, Social Studies teacher candidates (2nd and 3rd grade) studyingin Faculty of Education and students of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (3rd grade). The sample of the study wasapplied to 190 students selected by simple sampling. In this study, social media usage habits and motivations ofstudents who continue their ed  ucation in different departments of Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University were
tried to be determined. In the research, reliability, frequency analysis, T-test and One-way ANOVA tests wereused to determine the social media usage habits and motivation levels of the students. As a result of thereliability analysis, Cronbach Alpha (a) value was measured as 0.937 and the scale used was found to be reliable. 1990
In the study, the answers given to the M21, M22 and M42 questions in the t-test were also evaluated in order totest whether the prospective Geography teacher candidates have knowledge of contemporary methods andtechniques in Geography education. As a result of the t-test, both the social media usage habit and motivation ofthe male participants and the knowledge of contemporary methods and techniques in Geography educationwere higher than the female participants. The scale was prepared by Balcı and Ayhan (2007) in order  to determine the motivations of internet use and was applied by İçirgin (2018) in a mas ter thesis. Internetexpressions in the scale items were translated as social media

Keywords: Nevşehir University, Geography education, Social media, Motivation, Habit.

Since mid-March 2020, educational systems around the world and particularly Ghana were under increasing pressure to use the new Digital Technologies (DTs) and mobile applications(apps) to assist teachers to guide students to continue with online learning activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The study is aimed at assessing the utilization of DTs and apps tools by students, during the COVID-19 pandemic and how those technologies have affected online learning in institutions of higher education in Ghana. The researcher adopted an online survey and exploratory-based design that utilized quantitative and qualitative approaches to purposively collect data from N=784 students from three major public universities in Ghana. Also, the study applied Uses and Gratification as the theoretical basis in understanding the utilization of DTs and their possible limitations for remote learning during the peak of COVID-19 in Ghana. This study reported that the specific DMTs and mobile apps used by students in higher education for online learning are smarts phones and apps such as ClassIn, Zoom, Skype, and Instagram live stream. This study also revealed that Personal Learning Network (PLN) such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter were also actively used by students for remote online learning. Again, the study shows that 77.1% of students in the sampled three universities were fully aware of the DTs and apps utilized for online learning during COVID-19. Also, the findings from this study report that, students in higher institutions identified unstable electricity for continuous online learning, especially for those students in rural areas, unreliable internet service, poor WiFi connections, expensive smartphones/laptops, and high cost of inter bundle as key challenges of using DMTs and mobile apps for online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, on the perceived usefulness of DTs and mobile apps among students for online learning in higher educational institutions, the findings from this study suggest that DMTs and apps were of great benefit to students for remote online learning.
Keywords: educational systems; Digital Technologies; applications(apps); COVID-19 pandemic; online learning

Social media are growing drastically representing a further step in the ongoing deterioration of journalism profession and ethics. The lines between professional journalists and amateurs have been blurred; consequently, the structure of news media has substantially changed affecting the core traits of the profession and its ethics. This phenomenon has challenged the already disputed concepts of journalism as profession and journalists as professionals. While this challenge is tremendous, research on its implications to journalism identity and ethics is scant. The existing literature focuses on new or digital media usage, news gathering, production, dissemination, and consumption, with little emphasis on journalism ethics or the profession itself. This chapter seeks to examine how social media contribute to the ethical dilemmas off and online journalism encounter and how this transformation puts the profession at risk.
The article full text link http://mts.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/social-media-a-turning-point-into-global-journalism-identity-and-ethics

Este ensayo sobre los sentidos del silencio se concibe como una reflexión
epistemológica en torno a la pregunta: ¿qué es comunicación? El objetivo
es plantear una base que permita abordar los fenómenos digitales desde
una perspectiva comprensiva, sin el pre-juicio de la crítica común. Se
parte de una tesis central: el silencio constituye el ethos del lenguaje, el
silencio es la condición ontológica de la palabra. La comprensión del silencio
nos remite a la naturaleza lingüística de los seres humanos. Si callar
manifiesta un alto en el diálogo, el soliloquio evoca la perennidad del
pensamiento y la imaginación en los seres humanos; la imposibilidad de
vivir sin palabra. La reflexión que se plantea se circunscribe a la condición
hablante (dialógica e imaginativa) del ser humano en tiempos de lo digital.
Se plantea que la virtualización de la vida cotidiana es una evidencia del
silencio discursivo que habita en todos y ahora se comparte, se irrumpe,
se invade. La virtualidad constituye un espacio donde por primera vez
nuestra imaginación (véase phantasia) se pone en sintonía y se visibiliza
–tan es así que hoy en día las discusiones sobre el derecho a la privacidad,
el anonimato y la censura son parte de las agendas internacionales–.
La virtualidad constituye un espacio de extensión para el imaginario
social. Internet es una “vitrina de lo social”, en la cual podemos observar
lo que somos, sin tapujos. Pensar en los sentidos del silencio en tiempos de lo
digital es pensar en una transfiguración humana sin precedentes que deriva
de la tecnología. Vivimos en una época silenciosa, ensimismados en un
mundo virtual donde la palabra es implosiva, donde el imaginario impera
y su exposición produce múltiples encuentros y desencuentros. Bajo un
enfoque filosófico, se plantea que la causalidad y el uso de las tecnologías
digitales constituyen una clave para comprender lo humano que vislumbra
y justifica la emergencia de los Estudios Digitales. Con esto se abunda en
la relación existencial de lo humano frente a la tecnología, y en los alcances
sociales de lo que llamo el destape imaginario del presente.

We want to know that how student are familiars with social networking sites and what sites they mostly use for social networking. With this study we find that students mainly using Facebook for social networking site. They are doing Facebook for communication and many purposes in day to day lives.

This paper will explain how, from a blended teaching experience1 in CFM (Communication, Photography and Multimedia) Course at FAUP (Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto) that lead to several didactic experiences and research projects on architecture and public space (seminars, workshops, publications and editorial projects), CCRE (Centre for Spatial Communication and Representation) Research Group has been able to interrelate a set of significant experiences and results coming from the former work and activities with the on-going R&D project DARC, more specifically with its City Spaces|Culture module, directed towards the communication of content related to cultural events and spaces as architectural heritage, identity and historical places. All these projects, together with CCRE’s communication philosophy, its online platforms and physical outputs — such as publications and exhibitions — constitute a blend between direct and “indirect” pedagogy strategies on architecture, p...

Adolescents are immersed in an appearance culture sustained by their peers, which includes being exposed to norms and expectations of physical attractiveness. A new avenue for transmitting these appearance messages may be digital technologies, including text messaging. Little is known about how appearance messages may naturalistically occur in adolescents' text communication. This study employed observational methods to quantitatively and qualitatively examine the transmission of appearance evaluative text messages in an ethnically diverse sample of U.S. 10th graders (M age = 15.98, 47% girls). Quantitative descriptive analyses indicated that appearance evaluative texting was relatively infrequent but was still observed in text messages sent by over half of participants. These text messages were typically positive, but valence varied depending on toward whom the evaluation was targeted. Receiving these appearance evaluative messages was correlated with lower global self-worth. A qualitative content analysis suggested that appearance evaluative messages serve to (a) provide a negative or positive assessment of the self, (b) transmit and elicit feedback, and (c) cultivate a culture within romantic partnerships in which appearance is valued. Findings are discussed in the context of existing digital theories (i.e., co-construction theory, the transformation approach) and appearance-oriented theories (i.e., objectification theory).

This research explores the corollary development of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in post-socialist Albania and digital communication technologies.  The last of the communist countries to open its borders and among the poorest countries in SEE, Albania’s technological infrastructure was completely unprepared to enter the world stage at the cusp of the digital revolution.  Similarly, the country’s social services were devastated by a combination of an already backward economy and the state’s disinvestment in the public sector.  The emerging NGO sector was thus under a double burden: stripped of any financial resources and devoid of a communications infrastructure, NGOs were challenged not only to provide social, health and welfare services for the marginalized but also to function as a forums of empowerment that could introduce necessary skills –such as job training and networking – important to the integration of the individual into the new globalized, market-based economy (Amy and Gjermeni 2011). 

This paper focuses on women’s and human rights NGOs in post-socialist Albania to analyze how they developed in-tandem with the country’s technological infrastructure and their methods for designing and using virtual space as a forum for intercommunication, information dissemination, and critical analysis of projects.  Few studies have examined how virtual spaces such as social networks and the World Wide Web have affected the postsocialist NGO scene in Albania, which has grown alongside these major technological advances.  Previous studies have focused primarily on print media as a venue for producing and disseminating research, analysis, and policy on issues of gender, politics, and inequality –issues that, in the complex political terrain of the twenty-first century, have been in constant flux (Phillips 2011:14; Zarkov 2010).  This research fills this gap by exploring how Albanian NGOs have developed and used virtual space in the quest for gender equality and to empower individuals on the periphery as well as a space for intellectual and critical debate between and within the local and international humanitarian scene.     

Amy, Lori and Gjermeni, Eglantina. "Where is the 'State' in Albania? The Unresolved

Contradictions Confronting Civil Society in the 'Transition' from Communism to Free

Market." In  Studies of Transition States and Societies 5(1): 7-21, 2011.

Phillips, Sarah. Disability and Mobile Citizenship in Postsocialist Ukraine. Indianapolis: Indiana

University Press, 2011.

Zarkov, Dubravka. The Body of War: Media, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Break-up of 

Yugoslavia. Next Wave: New Directions in Women's Studies. Eds. Grewal,Inderpal, Caren

Kaplan and Robyn Wiegman. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.