The issue of high school dropouts has been an ongoing concern for educators, community stakeholders, and politicians on local, national, and global levels. Little was known about students' experiences before they enrolled in a workforce development program and how their earlier experiences may have caused them to drop out of high school. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to understand the school-related experiences of high school dropouts enrolled in a workforce development program, and how the innovation and integration of social media technologies during academic instruction helped reengage these learners. The research questions focused on how the participants described their personal and academic experiences before they dropped out of high school, their collaborative learning and social-relational experiences while enrolled in the New Hope workforce development program, and how the infusion of social media technologies during academic instruction impacted their development. Yin's descriptive qualitative case study model was used to capture the academic and social experiences of 20 program participants from one-on-one interviews and focus groups. Cross-unit evaluation was used to identify emerging codes and themes. Results revealed the importance of sustainable relationships between the students and instructors. Findings may be used to promote functional learning communities with conscientious and compassionate instructors.

The work in this thesis sets out to explore how students perceive social media use in the context of higher education. More precisely, the focus is on students' use of, experience with, and attitudes toward the integration of social media into their learning environment. To complement this, teachers' incentives for including social media have been studied; to some extent their communication, attitudes, and online activity were also analyzed. The four different studies included in this thesis incorporated three major types of social media technologies: a social networking service (Facebook), a collaborative editable webpage (Wikipedia), and a microblog (Twitter). The studies adopted different approaches to data collection and analysis, including both qualitative and quantitative methods. The specific methods for each study were chosen to accommodate the research questions, for reasons of access to information, and due to ethical considerations. While each study differs in starting point and scope and provide particular contributions to the research area, the main contributions of the work as a whole are connected to findings on attitude changes, the professional role in students' use of social media, their teacher-like actions, confusion regarding moving between the identified roles, and the implementation of social media in higher education. The findings presented here are appropriate for guiding a nuanced discussion regarding the implementation of social media technologies in higher education, an implementation that was found to be contingent on appropriate use and a suitable social context. The findings suggest that the inclusion of social media in non-private contexts generally needs to have a clear aim and strategy for achieving it. The roles defined in this work - in terms of both being a student and the private and professional roles - could also serve as the basis for further exploration in other areas with comparable hierarchies in which it is necessary to understand how the individual relates to self-presentation, technological constraints, and roles, such as the relation between an employer and employee. / Denna avhandling avser att utforska hur studenter upplever användningen av sociala medier i högre utbildning. Närmare bestämt så ligger fokus på studenternas användning, erfarenhet och attityder till sociala medier när dessa integrerats i studenternas lärmiljö. Som komplement har också lärarnas incitament för inkludering av sociala medier belysts, samt i viss utsträckning även deras attityder, användning och kommunikation i respektive socialt medium. Fyra olika studier inkluderas i denna avhandling, och inkorporerar i sin tur tre olika typer av sociala medier: en social nätverkstjänst (Facebook), en publikt redigerbar webbplats (Wikipedia), och en mikroblogg (Twitter). Vidare har studierna använt olika metoder för datainsamling och analys, där både kvalitativa samt kvantitativa metoder finns representerade. Metoderna valdes med hänsyn till forskningsfrågorna, men baserades även på informationstillgång och etiska överväganden. De enskilda studierna hade olika syften och omfattning, och därigenom har de bidragit till specifika forskningsfynd. Huvudbidraget från detta arbete är kopplat till slutsatser kring studenters attitydförändringar, den professionella rollen i studenters användning av sociala medier, deras lärarliknande agerande, förvirring beträffande att röra sig mellan de identifierade rollerna, och implementeringen av sociala medier i högre utbildning. Resultaten utgör en grund för en nyanserad diskussion kring implementeringen av sociala medier i högre utbildning; en implementation som beror på lämpligt användande i lämplig social kontext. En tolkning av detta är att inkluderande av sociala medier i icke-privata kontexter bör ha ett klart mål och en tydlig strategi. Rollerna som definieras i detta arbete - student, privat och professionell - utgör underlag för utforskande inom områden där jämförbara hierarkier finns representerade och där det är nödvändigt att förstå hur individen förhåller sig till självpresentation, tekniska begränsningar och roller. Exempel på ett sådant är relationen mellan arbetsgivare och arbetstagare. / <p>QC 20171211</p>

Extreme right-wing violence has increased in recent years. Social media technologies and self-made media platforms have allowed extreme right-wing groups to create and push narratives online. These narratives have inspired others to act outside of the digital world and commit horrendous [GH1] attacks targeting minorities. These narratives are also published in a hybrid media system where audience-driven content is favored by social media, rather than objective and correct content. Therefore, it is important to understand the use of digital storytelling and social media technologies in a political context to push political views and stories online. This thesis studied how The Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) uses digital storytelling strategies to build and push narratives on Twitter and self-made media platforms. This was conducted through a network and qualitative content analysis. 400 000 tweets were collected using Twitter’s API from 1/1-2022 to 31/3-2022. The outcome indicates that NRM dilutes its hateful narrative on Twitter but uses digital storytelling to evoke interest in the movement and combines it with influential hashtags according to the network analysis to force users onto self-made media platforms. This is when the narrative changes to the extreme. The study concludes that NRM uses social media in combination with its digital storytelling to attract users from traditional political spaces on Twitter through intriguing storytelling as part of an initiation process to attract new members and visitors to their self-made media platforms. Further research is suggested to be done on media ecology concerning self-made media platforms to gain further insight into how the platforms affect each other and the storytelling in the hybrid media system.

In recent years, there has been extended research on the Big Five and social media, especially Facebook. Snapchat, a fast-growing photo-sharing app, has however not been thoroughly researched yet. This paper aimed at closing this research gap and at investigating the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and Snapchat users and nonusers. Additionally, it researched the potential of the app to advertise new music published by music labels. The sample consisted of 124 self-selected Snapchat users and non-users (94 Snapchat users and 30 Snapchat non-users), between the ages of 18 and 55. Approximately 53% of the participants were from Sweden, 24% from Germany and the rest from other countries. Participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire comprising the Big Five Inventory and demographic questions. Snapchat users also completed a Snapchat usage questionnaire. Additionally, a short interview about Snapchat was held with a representative of a music label. The results showed that there are only minor differences between Snapchat users and non-users regarding the Big Five personality traits. However, male Snapchat users tend to be more open to new experiences. The usage of specific Snapchat features could be connected to more extraverted, neurotic and conscientious individuals. The overall interest for musicrelated content on Snapchat was rather low. Therefore, Snapchat can be used as a complementary marketing action to raise awareness, but cannot stand alone. / Under de senaste åren har det gjorts utökad forskning om Big Five och sociala medier, särskilt Facebook. Snapchat, en snabb växande bilddelning app, har dock inte undersökts noggrant. Detta examensarbete syftade till att undersöka det outforskade området kring förhållandet mellan Big Five personlighetsdrag och Snapchat-användare och icke- användare. Dessutom undersökte den möjligheten för skivbolag att annonsera ny musik i appen. Urvalet bestod av 124 självvalda Snapchat-användare och icke-användare (94 Snapchat-användare och 30 Snapchat-icke-användare), mellan 18 och 55 år. Ungefär 53% av deltagarna var från Sverige, 24% från Tyskland och resten från andra länder. Deltagarna blev ombedda att fylla i ett online frågeformulär som omfattade Big Five Inventory och demografiska frågor. Snapchat-användare slutförde också ett Snapchat-användningsformulär. Dessutom hölls en kort intervju om Snapchat med en representant från ett skivbolag. Resultaten visade att det endast finns mindre skillnader mellan Snapchatanvändare och icke-användare angående Big Five-personlighetsdragen. Manliga Snapchat-användare tenderar att vara mer öppna för nya upplevelser. Användningen av specifika Snapchat-funktioner kan kopplas till mer extravert, neurotiska och samvetsgranna individer. Det övergripande intresset för musikrelaterat innehåll på Snapchat var ganska lågt. Därför kan Snapchat användas som en kompletterande marknadsföringsåtgärd för att öka medvetenheten, men inte som enda marknadsföringsåtgärd.