Social Presence Theory

Social media might represent the greatest social innovation/revolution in the history of communication, fundamentally altering how humans communicate, and the practice of public relations, journalism, advertising, marketing, and business. Dozens of theories and concepts including dialogue, engagement, identification, social presence, uses and gratifications, conversational human voice, and many others inform social media. However, what has commonly taken place in social media contexts and public relations has been the importation and application of other theories and concepts, rather than exploring and clarifying the unique features and capabilities of social media per se. This essay argues that social media represent a new communication paradigm, and this essay takes up the challenge of building social media theory for public relations by identifying features of social media that have emerged from existing research as fundamental to understanding social media, and eventually developing a theory(s) of social media for public relations.

Social presence in online learning, particularly through graduate programs in adult education, is considered through the use of “small story” (Georgakopoulou, 2015) and Bhabha’s (1994) thirdspace. Attention is given to the theoretical development and history of social presence research, including social presence within the framework of online communities of inquiry (Garrison, 2009) as a model of online learning. Storied presence, as small story applied to social presence, is explored within this framework with the intention to use small story as a way to help graduate students come to terms with challenges experienced, for example, through differences in culture, race, and gender. In this sense, storied presence may serve as a form of experiential learning that draws upon lesser known aspects of adult education with attention, for instance, to emotions, relationships,and spirituality in learning, as well as a sense of belonging among graduate students. Prospective research will include an inquiry into the effects of emotion-laden experiences upon the self (Dirkx, 2018), and potentially the Buddhist notion of non-self or “anatta” in adult learning. Further research will also explore the presentation ofself in online learning environments through reflective practice (Bolton, 2014) with consideration of theatrical masks as metaphor (Ross, 2011), including masks of protection, disguise, performance, discipline, trace, and transformation.Keywords: Social presence, community of inquiry, thirdspace, small story, sense of belonging, emotions in adult learning.

In this proceedings paper, self-study research methodology is applied toward an understanding of social presence as transformative learning in my educative practice online with graduate adult education students. The paper offers a brief account of social presence and transformative learning theories in response to research questions about adult educator roles in support of transformative learning through social presence, and the educator's transformative process with attention to an integrative, or holistic, approach to transformative learning, inclusive of its extrarational and spiritual realms.

Information systems (IS) research has demonstrated that humans can and do trust technology. The current trust in technology literature employs two different types of trust in technology constructs. Some researchers use human-like trust constructs (e.g., benevolence, integrity, and ability), while other researchers use system-like trust constructs (e.g., helpfulness, reliability, and functionality). Interestingly, past research shows that both sets of measures influence important dependent variables, but the literature does not explain when one type should be used instead of the other type. In this paper, we use trust, social presence, and affordance theories to shed light on this research problem. We report on two studies. In study 1, we argue first that technologies vary in their perceived “humanness”. Second, we argue that, because users perceive two technologies to differ in humanness, they will develop trust in each technology differently (i.e., along more human-like criteria or more system-like criteria). We study two technologies that vary in humanness to explore these differences theoretically and empirically. We demonstrate that, when the trust construct used aligns well with how human the technology is, it produces stronger effects on selected outcome variables than does a misaligned trust construct. In study 2, we assess whether these technologies differ in humanness based on social presence, social affordances, and affordances for sociality. We find that these factors do distinguish whether technology is more human-like or system-like. We provide implications for trust-in-technology research.

Online education in the United States continues to experience significant growth as research suggests that online instruction is as effective as traditional face-to-face instruction. As the number of students studying in online doctoral programs continues to grow, research has primarily focused on undergraduate and masters level online programs leaving a void in the literature regarding online doctoral studies. This quantitative correlational study examines perceived student perception of social presence and its relation to learner satisfaction in an asynchronous fully online doctoral program. As the number of full-time online students continues to increase, so does the need to understand the implications of studying online. This research is focused on social presence as experienced among adults in a fully asynchronous online doctoral program. The results of this study reveal a strong positive correlation between social presence and learner satisfaction among 422 online doctoral students and recent graduates. This study demonstrates the importance of social presence in online doctoral programs to increase student retention, improve instructor effectiveness, build a sense of community, and increase knowledge.

This chapter presents the effect of social presence in learning with social media. It is divided into four parts: introduction, theoretical background, effect of social presence in learning, and conclusion. The introductory section provides the historical background to CMC research in educational technology with special attention to the concept of social presence. The second section reviews previous research on social presence from the viewpoints of social psychology and educational technology. The third section presents the effects of social presence within social media as described in previous research, particularly Yamada (2009). Social presence appears to have an effect on motivation and other aspects of the affective side of learning. Avenues for future research are considered.

While cocreation research proliferates, existing studies fail to isolate its manifestation through digital (vs. non-digital) platforms. Moreover, extant research predominantly explores the cocreation process (vs. its outcome of cocreated value), which therefore merits further scrutiny, particularly in the digital context. Based on these gaps, we explore consumer digital cocreated value (CDCV), which reflects the consumer-perceived value that arises by interacting, collaborating, or communicating with or through digital platforms (touch-points). We classify digital platforms as (i) human-to-human platforms (H2HPs; e.g. social media), and (ii) human-to-machine platforms (H2MPs), which comprise the sub-types of (a) robotic process automation-based platforms (e.g. call centers), and (b) machine/deep learning-based platforms (e.g. service robots). We next compose a social presence theory-informed framework that explores the effect of perceived platform intimacy and immediacy on CDCV for our proposed platforms. We formalize the framework's associations by developing a set of Propositions, and conclude by discussing important implications that arise from this research.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of transactive memory system (TMS) and interaction platforms in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) on social presence perceptions and self-regulation skills of learners. Within the scope of the study, social presence perceptions and self-regulation skills of students in collaborative groups constructing knowledge in wiki, blog, podcast and Facebook platforms in CSCL processes were compared. The study is designed as a pretest and post-test control group study and was carried out with 97 university students. Social presence and self-regulation scales were administered as pretest in the study. At the end of process, social presence, self-regulation, transactive memory scales and semi-structured student opinion forms were administered as post-test. When the findings were examined, it was seen that interaction platforms and the TMS level of the group did not have a significant impact on social presence perception individually; yet common impact of these two variables was significant. When the impact of interaction platforms and the TMS on self-regulation skills was examined, it was found that whilst interaction platforms had a significant impact, the TMS alone and interaction platforms–TMS common impact were not significant. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10494820.2016.1224905 İşbirlikli bilgi inşasında geçişken bellek sisteminin ve etkileşim platformunun sosyal bulunuşluk algısına ve öz düzenleme becerilerine etkisi Bu çalışmanın amacı, bilgisayar destekli işbirlikli öğrenmede (CSCL) geçişken (transaktif) bellek sisteminin (TMS) ve etkileşim platformlarının öğrencilerin sosyal bulunuşluk algıları ve öz düzenleme becerileri üzerindeki etkilerini incelemektir. Çalışma kapsamında, CSCL süreçlerinde wiki, blog, podcast ve Facebook platformlarında bilgi oluşturan işbirlikçi gruplardaki öğrencilerin sosyal varlığı algıları ve öz düzenleme becerileri karşılaştırılmıştır. Çalışma, ön test ve son test kontrol grubu çalışması olarak tasarlanmış ve 97 üniversite öğrencisiyle yürütülmüştür. Çalışmada sosyal varlığı ve kendi kendini düzenleme ölçekleri öntest olarak verildi. İşlemin sonunda, sosyal varlığı, öz düzenlenmesi, geçişken bellek ölçeği ve yarı yapılandırılmış öğrenci görüş formu, son test olarak uygulanmıştır. Bulgular incelendiğinde, etkileşim platformlarının ve grubun TMS düzeyinin sosyal bulunuşluk algısı üzerinde bireysel olarak önemli bir etkisi olmadığı; ancak bu iki değişkenin ortak etkisinin anlamlı olduğu görülmüştürı. Etkileşim platformlarının ve TMS'in öz düzenleme becerileri üzerindeki etkisi incelendiğinde, etkileşim platformlarının önemli bir etkisinin olduğu ancak tek başına TMS’nin ve etkileşim platformu-TMS ortak etkisinin anlamlı olmadığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.