The purpose of this study was to explore the community college students’ perceptions on the use and effects of social media and social networking sites as well as any differences in perceptions based on students’ demographic characteristics. A community college in the state of Mississippi was chosen for this study. This community college is a comprehensive educational institution, accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The population for this study was currently enrolled freshman and sophomore students at one of the multiple locations. The respondents in this study were gathered by using a convenience sampling of students enrolled in academic core courses and electives or career and technical programs of study during the spring 2018 semester. The instrument that used for data collection in this study was a modified version of the Social Media Updates Survey (Pew Research Center, 2016). This study was quantitative in design, and a descriptive research methodology was used to conduct the study. The results revealed that students 25 years and older had significantly different social media habits than the students in the other age groups. Female students used social media more often than male students. More females than males used social media to interact with family. The data revealed that students mostly used mobile devices/tables to access social media and social networking sites. More students from academic programs accessed social media using desktops and laptops. More students from career technical education accessed social media using mobile devices. The most preferred social media websites were Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and SnapChat. Of the 201 respondents 41.3% agreed to social networking sites help them academically in getting educational materials for assignments or projects in class and 48.8% agreed that social networking sites are an effective tool for e-learning. 45.8% disagree to social media sites having positively affected their GPA. When asked the question, Social media networking sites have been effective in enhancing my active learning skills, 41.3% disagreed.

This study expanded on the previous research surrounding the Facebook and Twitter use of non-governmental sport for development and peace (SDP) organizations as well governmental Ministries of Sport. Following the theoretical framework of Lovejoy and Saxton (2012) this research examined specifically how non-governmental and governmental sport organizations share information, form a community and encourage action with their social media audiences. A content analysis of 6003 social media posts demonstrated that both Ministries of Sport and SDP non-governmental organizations (NGOs) primarily use social media to disseminate information to their followers, however, SDP NGOs were more likely to use social media posts for a community function compared to governmental sport organizations. Lastly the use of social media to encourage further action was limited by both types of organizations and on both platforms. The content analysis also revealed that cabinet ministries were more likely to discuss on social programming (e.g., education, youth development) compared to posting about sport. This study also has important theoretical and practical implications and provides further insight into the social media use of sport organizations based in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Facebook has become as natural as having a phone” The use of social media in three libraries in the Umeå region – an evaluation Social media has come to be an integral part of people’s everyday life, as well as the business world in terms of communication and marketing. More and more libraries also embark in the use of social media, and the purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of social media in three libraries in the Umeå region. The libraries all use Facebook as their current, primary social media. Thus this study focuses partly on the analysis of the content on each library’s Facebook page, and partly on the experiences of the responsible librarians.  The evaluation is based on a mix of existing tools in evaluating social media that are relevant in a library context. The posts on the Facebook pages are analyzed in three levels: activity, type of content and themes. This result is complemented with qualitative interviews with librarians who are working with social media at each library.  One thing that is made clear in the study is the importance of having a plan for your use of social media as a library. The study also shows that posts that contain pictures are more likely to be “liked” or commented on than posts that consist of exclusively text or links to the library website. The most popular content, in regards to activity on the Facebook page, can also be categorized as “behind the scenes” material, such as posts about weather conditions.