Background: Advertisements create metaphors in the consumers’ mind, which are interpretedby using their advertising knowledge, including expectations of positive messages and theawareness of different advertising formats. Advertising affects how and what consumers thinkabout a company. For online advertising, Facebook is a widely used tool by marketers toestablish and enhance the brand image, use the network for market research, target theiradvertising and create Facebook groups or pages for the company. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore what happens when the sender’s intendedmessage of online advertisements is interpreted by the consumers. Research Question: How do senders and receivers interpret a particular message in an onlineadvertisement context? Conclusion: The researchers have in this research found that not having a visible trademarkthroughout the whole communication process may result in losing part of the message when itis received by consumers. On Facebook, the initial sender can no longer control who receivetheir message and whom it will reach and hence, the brand can be lost. Consumers interpret amessage differently because of where it is sent from on Facebook, if the message is coming from the company or friends it will affect their perceptions of the advertisement’s message.

One diagnostic criterion to identify individuals as having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is that their communication patterns, social reciprocity, and interactional competence show qualitative impairment (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). And yet, my experience as an individual who was once diagnosed as ASD and my investigations of Internet websites run by and for autistic individuals led me to see that individuals who identify as ASD are not only interested in communicating with others but highly articulate in self-advocating through the affordances of online communication. My research was focused on exploring the communicative experiences of individuals who participated in two websites designed by and for autistic individuals as a means of self-advocacy, WrongPlanet and AspiesforFreedom. The method used to study the two websites was that of participant-observer. Having joined the online groups by introducing myself, I was able to peruse archived postings and current threads available on the websites. I analyzed threads of postings for themes being discussed and for features showing evidence of what Herring (2004) described as online community. Some of the postings were triangulated by interviewing participants. These interviews revealed more personal information about how one chooses to self-advocate and create community online. Results indicated that the forum posts of these two autistic-run websites demonstrated evidence of shared community and self-advocacy through the topics discussed. The autistic individuals I studied seemed to want to be seen as having a difference not a deficit. They acknowledged their struggles, but posited that individuals with ASD have strengths that are uncommon and are currently being under-utilized by society. Their use of the Internet demonstrates how autistic individuals are capable of communicating about a wide variety of topics, and are capable of contributing to the conversation about what makes them similar and different from those whom they call Neurotypical. The significance of this study is that insights I present have a different validity than other studies of autistic individuals conducted by non-autistic researchers. Also, by challenging stereotypes of the capabilities of autistic individuals, a path is created whereby all may benefit from the strengths, talents, and insights they are able to provide. / text

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to understand how crucial of importance is e-WOM within the French tourism industry with a focus on trip retailers – travel agencies and tour-operators – by observing and analyzing how they encourage and manage e-WOM.   Methodology The paper uses deductive approach with a triangulation method based on a qualitative research through 24 semi-structured telephone interviews and a quantitative research through the behavior analysis of 112 trip retailers on online communities. Findings It was found that the French trip retailers encourage e-WOM by primarily joining and using online communities via posting pictures and special offers at least twice a week on social networks. Besides, among those that collect and manage positive and negative comments, they mainly do it on Facebook by rather adopting a non-defensive attitude. Managerial implications The authors suggest trip retailers not use as many online communities they can but regularly be active on the one(s) they choose to use. Moreover, responding not only to negative but also to positive e-WOM may be a strategy that paid off since few trip retailers take it into consideration. Regarding the management of negative e-WOM, the authors recommend against deleting non-eulogistic comments and reply publicly within 24 hours.   Limitations This study was limited to French trip retailers and cannot consequently be generalised for all international trip retailers. Additionally, the specific sector trip retailers work with has not been taken into consideration. Moreover, even if trip retailers have been classified within four categories, no deeply correlation has been studied between the size and their online activity.   Further research suggestions Future research is needed to possibly confirm and subsequently generalise the findings of this paper to the overall tourism industry in France. Moreover, it is necessary to compare what trip retailers think to do and what they really do on the web and determine a degree of relevance. Furthermore, due to the constantly growing interest for online communities by tourism professionals, an updated study of that one should be conducted during the next five years and results compared. It would be finally also interesting to measure the impact of e-WOM on online communication strategies   Article classification Qualitative and quantitative studies

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown rapidly during the past 50 years both in academia and industry. Corporate social responsibilities initiatives are composed of economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities, such as producing quality products, treating employees fairly, and involving in local community. Corporate philanthropic disaster response is a common form of CSR practice and its communication to the public is normally achieved by public relations function. This study focused on how local Chinese and multinational companies in China communicated their disaster relief initiatives after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis was conducted of sampled press releases regarding the Sichuan earthquake on corporate websites in terms of their communication techniques and corporate philanthropic disaster response presented. Comparisons were made between local Chinese and multinational companies operating in China and it was concluded that local Chinese and multinational companies presented more differences than similarities in the purpose of press releases, type of disaster relief efforts, partnership with outside organizations, multimedia elements, and supplementary information. By understanding these differences in corporate philanthropic disaster response presented online, this study had implications for governments and non-profit organizations to better motivate businesses to participate in the disaster relief efforts. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research were included.

This study investigated the students&amp / #8217 / and teacher&amp / #8217 / s perception of a web-based learning tool for an English course which was given as a second language at elementary level. The site was used as a supplementary material for 8th grade students in METU College. The researcher developed the site specifically for this study and in the development process internet and database technologies were used.The data were collected from the 22, 8th grade students through a computer attitude scale and a questionnaire, which was developed by the researcher. An interview with the course teacher was conducted. Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions and researcher observation were used to express the results of the study. The results showed that the site was perceived positively by more than half of the students in terms of vocabulary learning through the dictionary and activities page. The site was evaluated by the students and nearly most of the students found the site to be useful in terms of acquiring hearsay through the dictionary and the chat page of the site. More than half of the students perceived the chat environment more suitable for communication than classroom environment. The course teacher evaluated the site to be useful in terms of vocabulary learning, hearsay and online communication.

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Using Grounded theory this thesis analyses the forms of support that are present on two online anorexia forums. Data was collected through non-participant observation and online interviews with members of two online anorexia forums, one pro-anorexic in orientation, one pro-recovery. Despite the clear differences that exist between the two communities, continuities are strongly apparent, especially when looking at these forums as support environments. This thesis illustrates that support is conditional, that is takes on a variety of forms in any one environment and highlights the role of offline discourses in shaping online support. It also provides an in-depth comparison of two online anorexia forums.

Recent changes in the media environment have generated serious debates about whether these changes will foster or hamper the proper functioning of democracy. Along this line, the tendency toward audience fragmentation has arisen as one of the main concerns that might undermine a healthy democracy. People are not likely to discuss common social problems and understand each other in fragmented society, much less agree on methods to solve them. This dissertation investigates whether the environmental changes result in the audience fragmentation. This study first clarifies conceptual and operational definition of fragmentation. It is conceptualized as division of the general public into small groups not communicating with each other, and operationalized as existence of a common agenda by means of incidental news exposure facilitated by structural factors of online communication, an exemplar of the new information environment. Data from several different methods are employed to investigate effects of new media on fragmentation: a content analysis, a survey, and a laboratory experiment. The results provide evidence supporting that the public still can share experiences by learning a common agenda from the media on the Internet, the medium considered an icon of the new media environment. Findings of the content analysis found significant positive correlations between news agenda of different media outlets, indicating that there is a common agenda in the media. Environmental factors of the media environment rather than individual differences in political predispositions have strong influence on people’s incidental news exposure, a key route to acquire a common agenda. A series of analyses based on the survey found that overall frequency of Internet use significantly predicted individuals’ reports of incidental news exposure online, whereas there was no significant relationship between political predispositions and incidental exposure. It also appears that certain online activities such as getting entertainment/sports information significantly predicted the incidental news exposure. The incidental news exposure was found to have actual effects on people’s learning of a common agenda and recognition/recall of information carried by stimulus messages in the experiment. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of communication research and media/democracy. / text

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: See each other on the Internet or on a café? A survey about social consequences of Internet usage. (Umgås på Internet eller på ett café? – en studie om Internetanvändningens sociala konsekvenser.)</p><p>Number of pages: 34 (including enclosures).</p><p>Author: Carolin Johansson.</p><p>Tutor: Else Nygren.</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C.</p><p>Period: Fall 2007.</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose is to get increased knowledge about the social consequences that may come up when young people at the age of 16-20 are using the Internet.</p><p>Material/Method: The material consists of a questionnaire that I made with questions about Internet usage that 84 young people from five classes (from three different upper secondary schools) answered.</p><p>Main results: To have access to a computer and Internet and the fact that broadband is more inexpensive now than before leads to an increased usage of the Internet. I found out that chatting, music/movies, searching for information and using the Internet for entertainment is what most of the participants spent the most time on while using the Internet. I also found out that an increased usage of the Internet could lead to decreased time together with friends/family.</p><p>Keywords: Internet usage, social consequences, Instant Messaging, Community, online communication.</p>

Title: Blogs as a new tool of communication and promotion of fashion brands. Research question: How do fashion companies make use of bloggers as a new tool of communication to promote their brands? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to observe and explore how the fashion brands use bloggers and their blogs as a new method to advertise and communicate about them and their products to consumers. The study is conducted from an external point of view. Design/methodology/approach: This study is exploratory and descriptive and uses a qualitative method, with non-randomly method where the sample is composed of six international fashion blogs. To collect data the authors used guideline to conduct the content analysis of these selected blogs. Findings: This study shows that brands use the blogger as human being with the phenomenon of the word-of-mouth and opinion formers/leaders and they also make us of the blog content to incorporate ads to directly communicate to the online communities.