Communication methods in the corporate environment must change. Organisations can no longer expect effective communication when using intranet sites or sending employees countless emails. This type of communication does not create the learning environment and most employees either do not read the intranet sites, or there is just too much email which could be seen as spam by the employee. These types of technologies also create a culture where organisations are lead from the top and there is not a culture or platform to create feedback loops. Most large corporate organisations have a tendency where many silos are created and cliques are formed, which is not in line with the culture of a learning organisation. Although there are a number of studies which look at how Internet based micro-blogging affect social connectedness, there is however limited information as to the effect that micro-blogging, if used internal to the organisation, would have on employee engagement, or how it can affect the competitive nature to the organisation. The research is exploratory in nature and set out to review what impact internal micro-blogging has on the organisation. The research uses Vodacom, one of the leading Information and communications technology (ICT) and telecommunications companies in South Africa, as the case study, as micro-blogging was recently introduced into this organisation.

Viral communication method is shown to be useful for spreading messages in social media. However, only few studies have investigated how public organizations use this method successfully to promote their works in social media. To fill this gap, a qualitative analysis on data from observations and interviews has been conducted. The purpose of this study is to answer a research question: how can a government succeed in promoting their works in social media by using viral communication method? The results found several processes and factors that support the fruitfulness from three perspectives: the messenger, the message and the environment. Moreover, it is pointed out that the most important process is creating memorable messages. Therefore, this study proposes essential characteristics of memorable contents.

Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Technology plays such an important role in the lives of today’s youth, that the use of technology causes existential change in their lives and even challenges the way we understand and define church. The existential changes that will be referred to in this study refers to the influence the use of technology has on all aspects of the users life; the forming of identity as Christian, interaction with people in and outside their social grouping, in and outside congregations, online and offline, the way youth gets involved in world events and the use of material things. Throughout this study it should be evident that the use of social media must be seen as a necessity for effective communication in youth ministry. Not only should the use of social media be a part of youth ministry, but the effect it has on youth should also be noted. This study will, with the previous information in mind, develop a better understanding of how Facebook is used by youth workers to promote relational youth ministry. The research question can thus be put as follow: How can the use of Facebook make a contribution to relational youth ministry? With the goal and background of this study in mind, different chapters will be dedicated to the different goal settings for this study, like they are listed on page 3, namely: Discussion of the theological essence of this study (chapter 2), discussion of the theological grounding of relational youth ministry (chapter 3), the determining of the prominence of relationships during the phase of adolescence (chapter 4), the determining of the role of social media on the lives of adolescents (chapter 5), description of the research methodology of the study (chapter 6) and the determining of the impact the use of Facebook has on relationships in youth ministry (chapter 7). Chapter 8 concludes this study with final remarks on the findings of this research, for example: Adolescents does not use Facebook like expected, but Facebook still provides youth workers the potential to form and maintain relationships. Suggestions is also made in this last chapter for example: congregations should reevaluate the audience of their Facebook communication and also that certain other social media platforms should be used in synergy with Facebook for more effective communication with adolescents in creating, maintaining and enhancing relationships. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tegnologie speel so ’n belangrike rol in die lewens van veral die hedendaagse jeug dat die gebruik daarvan ’n eksistensiële verandering teweegbring en selfs die wyse van kerk-wees uitdaag. Die eksistensiële verandering in hierdie studie sal verwys na die invloed wat die gebruik van hierdie tegnologie het op alle aspekte van die gebruiker se bestaan, bv. die vorming van identiteit as Christen, interaksie met mense binne en buite hulle sosiale groep, binne en buite gemeentes en aanlyn en van lyn af, die manier waarop jeug betrokke is by wêreldgebeure en die verbruik van goedere. Tydens hierdie studie behoort dit duidelik te word dat die gebruik van sosiale media in jeugbediening nodig is as daar op ’n effektiewe manier gekommunikeer wil word. Nie net behoort die gebruik van sosiale media ’n deel te vorm van bediening aan die jeug nie, maar daar moet ook gelet word op die effek daarvan op die jeug. Hierdie studie wil, met bogenoemde in ag geneem, ’n beter verstaan ontwikkel van die gebruik van Facebook deur jeugwerkers ter bevordering van verhoudingsgerigte jeugbediening. Die navorsingsvraag kan dus so gestel word: Hoe kan die gebruik van Facebook bydra tot die bevordering van verhoudingsgerigte jeugbediening? Met die doel van die studie en die agtergrond daarvan in gedagte, sal in die volgende hoofstukke in diepte aandag gegee word aan die verskillende doelstellings wat gestel word op bl. 3, naamlik: Die stel van die teologiese aard van die studie (hoofstuk 2), die stel van die teologiese begronding vir verhoudingsgerigte jeugbediening (hoofstuk 3), die bepaling van die prominensie van verhoudings tydens die fase van adolessensie (hoofstuk 4), die bepaling van die rol van sosiale media in die lewens van adolessente (hoofstuk 5), Beskrywing van die navorsingsmetodologie wat gevolg is in die studie (hoofstuk 6) en vasstelling of die gebruik van Facebook enige impak het op verhoudings binne jeugbediening (hoofstuk 7). Hoofstuk 8 sluit die studie af met konklusies oor die bevindings van hierdie navorsing soos dat Facebook moontlik nie deur adolessente gebruik word soos verwag nie, maar dat die gebruik van Facebook steeds geleentheid aan jeugwerkers/jeugpredikante bied vir die vorming en instandhouding van verhoudings. Voorstelle word ook gemaak soos dat gemeentes se Facebook kommunikasie gehoor geherevalueer moet word en dat sekere ander sosiale media platforms, in samewerking met Facebook, gebruik moet word om meer effektief met adolessente te kommunikeer ter vorming, instandhouding en bevordering van verhoudings.

This thesis explores the use of avatars with facial expressions in social media and e-journalism communication interfaces. This thesis involved three experimental conditions. In the first experimental condition a survey (n=34) and an experiment (n=25) were carried out in order to explore the central problems faced by users during adding and retrieving comments and methods to overcome those problems. The survey intended to find out the position users took towards these metaphors. 25users from the Aljazeera Channel in Doha, Qatar took part. The first experimental condition consisted of two interfaces, TARCS (traditional adding and retrieving comments system) and CMARCS (classification multimodal adding and retrieving comments system). This was carried out in order to assess users' perception of unique text with graphic classification and multimodal in an EARCS (electronic adding and retrieving comments system) interface in the presence and absence of an interactive context. This was implemented in order to assess the role of these unique classification interfaces in a news comment in the term of usability. In the second experiment, forty users evaluated the use of the VARCS (visual adding and retrieving comments system) and MMARCS (multimodal adding and retrieving comments system). Both interfaces evaluated the effect on public opinion as media study and effectiveness, interactivity and user satisfaction in HCI studies. The third experimental condition consisted of one study that investigated the impactbility and usability of facial expressions compared text with graphic and multimodal metaphors. Sixty six users from Al-Arabiya Channel in Dubai, UEA took part in these two experiments. The results obtained show that users had some problems with adding and retrieving comments in social media such as missing data and lack of organisation. Also, the new classification performed better and faster under an interface that implemented avatars with specific facial expressions compared to a textual interface and multimodal. Practical guidelines were also introduced to provide assistance to multimedia designers who use avatars with facial expressions in e-journalism interactive systems as well as its impact on the public opinion.

The use of social media has increased the need of interactivity and information sharing. Individuals are sharing thoughts about different issues. Today, environmental issues have become an everyday matter for many. This matter is manifested through opinion leaders and their blogs or accounts. These opinion leaders possess an incredible power to influence others, which they in many cases take advantage of to inform their readers about topics that matters. This thesis will study how individuals respond to opinion leaders’ publications of green product exposure on social media. The purpose is to deepen the understanding and analyze possible influences related to the individuals’ responses. Green consumption habits are being highlighted as important and green products are exposed through many opinion leaders’ profiles on social media, since they often have an influence on individuals purchasing decisions. To investigate consumer responses on social media a qualitative study has been implemented. This has been done through observations and the construction of a focus group with the aim to strengthen the observational results. The results have mainly showed that individuals often respond positively to opinion leaders’ posts of green products, but their positive responses are related to the opinion leader rather than highlighting the green attributes. These results have been discussed to arisen from the individuals strive to identify themselves with opinion leaders. Furthermore, additional theory has been used to analyze the comments and explain possible influences. The conclusion of this thesis includes proposals for future research related to this topic.

Användningen av sociala medier ökar allt mer i dagens samhälle och banker använder sig i dagsläget av sociala medier till kundservice samt i marknadsföringssyfte. Banker är den vanligaste finansieringskällan av externt kapital för små företag i Sverige och för att undvika kreditförluster gör banker en kreditbedömning av det kreditsökande företaget. I en anställningsprocess som kan likna personbedömning vid kreditgivning används sociala medier, detta väckte författarnas intresse att undersöka möjligheten att även använda sociala medier vid kreditgivning. Användning av sociala medier vid kreditgivning har tidigare inte studerats och syftet med denna studie är därför att skapa förståelse för hur och varför sociala medier beaktas i bankers kreditgivning till företag samt beskriva i vilka delar av kreditgivningsprocessen banker använder sig av sociala medier. Genom tolv kvalitativa intervjuer med kreditgivare och ansvariga för sociala medier har studiens problem- formulering besvarats. Hur och varför används sociala medier i bankers kreditgivning till företag? Resultatet av denna studie visar att kreditgivare använder sig av samt kan tänka sig att använda sociala medier vid kreditgivning till företag. I dagsläget är användningen begränsad men sociala medier används till viss del för att skapa ett första intryck och känsla för kredittagaren innan första mötet. Detta leder till både teoretiska och praktiska implikationer beträffande sociala mediers användning vid kreditgivning. Sociala medier inverkar i olika utsträckning i kreditgivningsprocessen med störst påverkan i det första steget, kreditansökan, men även vid kredituppföljning som varningssignaler och indirekt vid kreditbedömning och när kreditbeslutet tas. Sociala medier kan dessutom utgöra ytterligare ett nätverk för kreditgivaren och leda till att en bättre personbedömning görs, banken kan därmed undvika kreditförluster. Studien har även bidragit till att utveckla en modell som förenklar kreditgivarnas förståelse för hur de kan beakta sociala medier vid kreditgivning. / The use of social media is increasing in today's society, and in the current situation, banks use social media for customer service and for marketing purposes. For small businesses in Sweden, banks are the most common source of financing of external capital, and to avoid credit losses, banks makes a credit assessment of the credit applicant. In the recruitment process, that could resemble the personal assessment when granting loans, social media is used; this has brought the authors interest in exploring the possibility of also using social media in the lending process. Since the use of social media in lending previously never have been studied, the purpose of this study is to understand how and why social media are taken into account in banks lending to companies, and also to describe in what parts of the lending process banks use social media. Twelve qualitative interviews with lenders and managers of social media have been done to answer the problem statement. How and why do banks use social media in lending to businesses? The results of this study show that creditors use and are willing to use social media in credit granting for companies. In the current situation, the use of social media is limited but is to some extent used to create a first impression and feeling of the borrower before the first meeting. This leads to both theoretical and practical implications regarding the use of social media in lending. Social media affects the credit granting process in varying degrees with the greatest impact at the first stage, the credit application. It also affects the follow-up of the credit as warning signals, and indirectly the credit assessment and credit decision. Social media can also form an additional network for the creditor and lead to a better assessment of the applicant, through this; the bank can avoid credit losses. The study has also developed a model that facilitates lenders understanding of how to incorporate social media in credit granting.

Corporations are increasingly using social media as a tool for communicating Corporate Social Responsibility. Marketing researchers have conducted ample research on the topic, however, a communication perspective is missing. In order to fill this gap and gain a nuanced understanding of how corporations are communicating CSR and potentially enacting power relations, this thesis focuses on linguistic elements in CSR- related Facebook posts. A content analysis was performed on the Facebook pages of three oil corporations, covering a total of 120 posts. Results demonstrate that all three companies aim for engagement with the audience, using various semantic and sensory interactivity elements, and maintaining an informal writing style. Despite the latter seemingly contradicting the assumption that corporations are enacting power, there are elements that support this claim. The corporations implement a constraint of content in their posts through the use of abstract writing, and include a constraint on positions through the narrative styles of accounting and advertisement, which offer limited encouragement for participation. Regarding rhetoric, the ethos included in the posts carried significant interconnection with the CSR topics discussed, through which the companies seemed to enforce constraints of content. Shell and Total emphasize certain environmental issues, while not focusing on other impacts. BP does not not target environmental issues and mainly highlights positive social impact. Although the enactment of power is not present in each of the linguistic structures of the posts, there are elements that indicate the presence of power relations, which could offer groundwork for further research.

The focal point of this thesis is on whether and how digital practices can challenge and reintroduce values and concepts related to self-awareness and spatial sensitivity. It uses prosuming practices of food and social media as a research and learning tool. Prosumption is a compound word formed by joining the words production and consumption and, in brief, it means producing for one’s own consumption. This study is conducted in the area of digital media and architecture. The main architectural interest lies in the way that place (and notions related to the private and public spheres) is perceived by its users and how this experience can be affected by prosuming social media platforms every day. In particular, this study explores if and how digital media, especially the prosuming of social media content, alters preestablished issues related to spatial sensitivity. A thorough critical examination of the prevailing views on these topics, as well as their evolution in time, is described. The present status of the matters studied is approached by a literature review and an empirical study using mainly phenomenological methods of approach. Food prosuming is explored first and the conclusions reached, related to self awareness and spatial sensitivity, are then further tested and attempts are then made to apply these to social media content prosuming. The research methods used involved in-depth interviews with 35 participants over a period of two years. Individuals who covered a spectrum of different ages, social groups and professional categories were selected for interview. Data relating to the documentation of prosuming practices of the participants, questionnaires, and personal reflections through blogging and social media practices were recorded. Furthermore, one intervention of public prosuming activity was also investigated. As it was found in food prosumerism, there is a significant difference if practiced occasionally and when practiced in the frame of habitual everydayness. This differentiation can be related to and affect issues such as privacy and the personal and social spheres. It was also found that while casual prosuming in the digital domain of social media involves aspects and values of the public domain, everydayness transforms these digital prosuming practices into familiar practices as they are habituated in the private domain. Schematically, this can be represented as: Public → Casual → Private. Everyday digital prosumerism cultivates and incorporates issues of the private domain, whereas by definition it should incorporate issues of the social domain. This is what in this thesis is referred to as issues of the public-private domain. This remark, though, affects the essence of spatial sensitivity, the understanding of the private and the social sphere and the values and tendencies involved. Our findings suggest that, in most cases of food prosuming, when sharing, the host aims to instil a specific mood for the event, to be responsible for the setting, the ambience, the atmosphere of the sharing experience with the guests and the facilitation of sharing. In the digital domain, the mood and ambience of the sharing setting might follow the same pattern as is facilitated by the host, but at the same time the process of sharing sets the mood in an accelerated process; it is co-created, continued or totally altered by the public private sphere. Prosumerism as explored so far is correlated positively to issues of selfactualization and personal wellbeing (Xie, Troye and Bagozzi, 2008). Do digital prosuming practices share the same qualities? Personal atmospheres today, or what we call in this thesis aetherspheres, incorporate values and issues cultivated and fed by the fused atmosphere of the physical and the digital domain, forming a new ethos of prosumerism and crafting new norms.

Social computing initiatives that mark a shift from personal computing towards computations involving collective action, are driving a dramatic evolution in modern decision-making. Decisionmakers or stakeholders can now tap into the power of tremendous numbers and varieties of information sources (crowds), capable of providing information for decisions that could impact individual or collective well-being. More information sources does not necessarily translate to better information quality, however. Social influence in online environments, for example, may bias collective opinions. In addition, querying information sources may be costly, in terms of energy, bandwidth, delay overheads, etc., in real-world applications. In this research, we propose a general approach for truth discovery in resource constrained environments, where there is uncertainty regarding the trustworthiness of sources. First, we present a model of diversity, which allows a decision-maker to form groups, made up of sources likely to provide similar reports. We demonstrate that this mechanism is able to identify different forms of dependencies among information sources, and hence has the potential to mitigate the risk of double-counting evidence due to correlated biases among information sources. Secondly, we present a sampling decision-making model, which combines source diversification and reinforcement learning to drive sampling strategy. We demonstrate that this mechanism is effective in guiding sampling decisions given different task constraints or information needs. We evaluate our model by comparing it with algorithms representing classes of existing approaches reported in the literature.

Communicating archaeological findings to the public has become increasingly important in contract archeology in recent years and is now a legal requirement. Public contacts earlier meant that it was the experts, the archaeologists, who would communicate the knowledge to the public. Today, social media offers new opportunities to reach new groups and to communicate. Simultaneously the archaeologists, employed by different firms, find themselves in a new competitive situation. It may therefore be important to present the own activities in a way that strengthens the brand and to legitimize the business for the County Administration that shares the commissions, as well as for those providing the funding, the taxpayers. This paper is based on a case study on how archaeologists produce narratives on themselves, their profession and archaeology as a science on a Facebook page and on blog posts, connected to an archaeological project in the county of Östergötland in Sweden. The Facebook posts and snapshots from the blog have been reviewed and classified in an analysis of the narrative the archaeologists mediates. The study shows how building a brand is as prominent a reason for using social media as presenting the scientific findings. It is also evident that as an information source with great potential, social media could be utilized much more structured and focused.