Lnu’k Ktaqmkukewaq (Indigenous Newfoundlanders) face extraordinary challenges, resulting from an extensive period of assimilationist federal, provincial and colonial policy. This qualitative, phenomenological study seeks to examine how Lnu’k Ktaqmkukewaq participating in a social network group experience solidarity. Email interviews were conducted with four study participants. Data from the researcher’s experience as a participant in the social networking group was also included. Results demonstrate that social networking can provide ways for Lnu’k Ktaqmkukewaq to build solidarity by being a source of information sharing and support. Social networking is limited, however, in its ability to build spiritual solidarity. The existence of a collective Lnu identity was evident in the data, and appears to be a yet untapped basis for building solidarity. Recommendations are made as to how social networking can be optimally used for solidarity development and social work practice with Lnu’k Ktaqmkukewaq, and other Indigenous groups.

South Africa, since 1994, has developed both politically and technologically resulting in an opening of communications both locally and globally. The 2009 national elections had been earmarked as a 'make or break' milestone for the political and social future of the young democracy. This election occurred amidst media analysts‘ concerns for the level of freedom of expression allowed to traditional forms of the South African media. New media, however, is not at present subject to the same regulations. Although a few cases of slander relating, for example, to Facebook have occurred, ephemeral cyber space appears to enjoy a greater degree of freedom of expression than the press and broadcast media. As a result the ability of these traditional forms of media to function effectively as a public sphere may be questioned, and some theorists claim that the Internet may offer an alternative medium for this function. This thesis looks at the potential of online communities to facilitate democratic expression by analysing a Facebook newsgroup text at the time of the election. In my exploration of the Facebook newsgroup Help us stop Jacob Zuma from becoming SA's next President I have analysed the text using two qualitative approaches. The critical discourse analysis traces competing South African discourses relating to the myths of the inherent violence of black men and the inherent racism of whites, the topics of crime and violence, Jacob Zuma and South Africanness. This approach‘s theoretical guidelines enforced a more objective view of the text, although interpretive methods in general grapple with subjectivity at a more observable level than do quantitative methods. The ethnographic hermeneutic component of the research is aimed at "making the obscure plain" (Blaikie, 1993: 28, cited in Neuman, 1997: 68) in the text, as well as documenting the inner workings of the online community and its relation to South African issues at the time of the national election. The findings are then measured against public sphere theory from Habermas' conception of the bourgeois public sphere to revisionist accounts (Fraser, 1997 and McKee, 2005) / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

Denna examensuppsats är ett resultat av en observationsstudie utförd på ett svenskt företag, verksam inom musikbranschen. Uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkter är relationsmarknadsföringsteori och konvergensteori. Relationsmarknadsföring, även förkortat RM utgår från nätverksteori och idén om att kommunikation flödar mellan noder (som exempelvis utgörs av personer, organisationer och till och med datorer) sammankopplade av relationer i ett nätverk. Konvergensteori bygger på konvergens vilket innebär att två tidigare åtskilda ting går samman till en enhet. Utifrån detta är uttrycket konvergenskultur sprunget. Utifrån dessa teorier har Företaget* granskats i ett försök att svara på frågeställningarna: Hur arbetar Företaget* med marknadskommunikation kring sina produktioner i sociala/digitala medier? Vilka paralleller kan dras till relationsmarknadsföring? Hur påverkar arbetsförhållanden på Företaget* sättet på vilket det kommunicerar med slutkund? Hur försöker man mäta de digitala relationen till slutkund? Undersökningen är gjord som en fallstudie, vilket innebär att de resultat den ger inte är generella, utan endast beskriver detta specifika studieobjekt. Observationsstudien genomfördes under två separata veckor under vilka författaren fick följa flera olika medarbetare i deras dagliga arbete. Vissa medarbetare intervjuades även separat. Resultatet av studien visar att arbetsförhållandena hos företage i stor utsträckning påverkar deras rutiner för kommunikation med slutkund. Eftersom de anställda koncentrerar sig på att sälja spelningar mot arrangörer faller uppgiften att marknadsföra på praktikanter. För dessa finns utvecklade rutiner för hur marknadskommunikationssarbetet i den digitala världen bör skötas. I slutdiskussionen diskuteras faran med att låta tillfälliga medarbetare sköta denna uppgift då det medför risker för enhetligheten i kommunikationen. Resultaten visar även att Företaget* till viss del arbetar med konvergens och synergi bl.a. genom transmediala projekt. De verktyg Företaget* använder för att mäta utfallet av sina marknadsåtgärder beskrivs och utvärderas. Slutligen föreslås vissa åtgärdsförslag.

While Facebook is primarily used as a means to communicate with friends, it may serve as a distractor from study. Laptops and tablets with Internet access are almost ubiquitous among primary, secondary and tertiary students in New Zealand. Research on the effects of Facebook use on students’ academic achievement appears inconclusive and there was no New Zealand based research to date. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Facebook use, self-discipline and parenting styles on academic achievement through an online study. High school (n = 106) and university students (n = 211) and their parents were recruited from a variety of locations around New Zealand. Facebook use only affected academic achievement for high school students and the strength of the relationship between Facebook use and academic outcomes was weak. Furthermore, the regression model found that overall Facebook use did not predict academic achievement. It is argued that Facebook use does not directly affect academic grades of students as it is an amalgamation of behaviours and/or the expression of traits (e.g., low self-discipline) that lead to non-task related activities. Self-discipline and parenting style, on the other hand, were the strongest predictors of academic achievement. High school and university students who were more able to manage distractions and procrastinating activities had higher grade point average (GPA) scores and overall pass rates. Students with authoritative parents were more likely to achieve high academic grades. In contrast, students whose parents had a permissive parenting style were at high risk of low academic achievement. Teaching students to delay an immediate reward in order to achieve a long-term goal is an important skill that needs to be socialised early in life as it is a pathway to better academic outcomes. While the study does not support the idea that Facebook has a direct effect on academic outcomes, further studies on other social networking sites are needed for replication.

This thesis explores the effects of new media, specifically the Internet and the popular social networking site Facebook, on alumni engagement among Millennials in the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences. Millennials are defined as those born in or after 1982. Alumni engagement is defined as part of the larger social science term of social capital and is defined here as consisting of volunteerism and financial giving. To explore this topic, a survey was constructed and sent electronically to all Millennial alumni from the UK College of Health Sciences. Data reveal Millennial alumni from the College of Health Sciences are not particularly engaged through volunteerism or financial giving. Survey responses, however, indicated that most young alumni are recommending the college to prospective students and plan to give financially in the future. Practical implications from this study may prove beneficial for advancement practitioners and administrators in the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences.

In the context of public debates about the ‘sexualization’ of ‘tween’ (preteen) girls and their use of social network sites (SNSs), this study explores girls’ online practices, experiences and reflections of their engagement with Facebook. This project is part of a growing body of research that prioritizes talk ‘with’ girls, rather than ‘about’ girls, as a way of contextualizing issues related to their girlhood. I argue that preteen girls’ identities on SNSs can be reimagined as cyborg-subjectivities as girls disrupt binaries through ongoing discursive negotiations of gender and sexuality depending on moment to moment online/offline interactions. Utilizing examples from an online ethnographic observation of eighteen 12-13 year old girls in Christchurch, New Zealand, I discuss how these girls constituted online subject positions through co-constructive relationships with friends. I explore how girls utilized SNS technology to explore and engage with discourses of gender and sexuality. I discuss how girls’ ‘played’ with both conventional and alternative femininities and sexualities in their online photographs and discuss how these images resist classification as ‘sexy/innocent’, ‘children/teens’ and online/offline. This research also reconsiders how identity is understood on SNSs and utilizes a poststructuralist theoretical framework to explore how online identities are embodied and ‘citational’ of shared online/offline subject positions. In addition to ethnographic observation, this research explores girls’ talk and reflections about their Facebook practices through a focus group discussion and a qualitative questionnaire.

Title: Who are you? A study on companies reviewing of Facebook profiles.  Social media has opened up new possibilities in recruitment situations in forms of background checks on social networks such as facebook. Even though there are many advantages, there are few recruitment workers who choose to embrace the possibilities with social networking.

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This study examines information disclosure of Facebook users in America and Kenya. The main aim of this study is to find out the specific type of personal and demographic information that individuals disclose on their profiles. The literature review details the nature of social networking sites highlighting studies that have been carried out in the past on these sites. Self-disclosure is also discussed as described in the social penetration theory. An overview of the practice of public relations profession in Kenya is also given. The research study employs the content analysis methodology, with a total of 500 Facebook profiles being analyzed. Results of this study indicate that users disclose a lot of information on their Facebook profiles such as the use of a self-portrait as the main identifying mark on their profiles, their dates of birth, personal information such as religious and political views and education and work information. There are also major gender differences in information disclosure. There are also differences in information disclosure on Facebook between American users and Kenyan users. / Department of Journalism

This thesis examines how Baby Boomers utilize Facebook to promote radical political ideology. A convenience sample of 51 Baby Boomer Facebook profiles were selected and critically analyzed for radical content using Bernard L.Brock’s (1965) A Definition of Four Political Positions and a Description of their Rhetorical Characteristics, and Making Sense of Political Ideology: The Language of Democracy (Brock, et al., 2005). The rhetoric from these profiles was then categorized using James W. Chesebro’s (1972) Rhetorical Strategies of the Radical Revolutionary. Conclusions from the research indicate that radical Boomers on Facebook seem to have moved from real world activism to symbolic action on Facebook through the liking and sharing of radical articles and posts. Though consistent in posting radical content in their profiles, radical Boomers using Facebook in this study utilized profiles more to promote radical culture online than to foment political revolution offline. / Department of Telecommunications