This study aimed to get a deeper understanding of how people interact within groups on social media that originally stems from a hashtag-activistic campaign. The study was conducted on an empirically selected group using the hashtag #Trashtag on Facebook. #Trashtag is a hashtag used when picking up garbage in order to document pictures of ones work on social media. This study attempts to find out how the interaction within this group works and what makes people engage in the matter.  This study is conducted through content- and text analysis as well as ethnographic observation online. The observation method is also the means in which the data for this study is collected. The following three theories is used as the theoretical framework for this study, participatory culture, making is connecting and uses and gratification alongside with an hermeneutic perspective. The main results for this study was found by observing 45 publications from one Facebook group with the mission to clean up a beach in Ireland.  The observation showed that publications posted in the group varied between subjects concerning the constant litter and contamination on the beach too publications designed to inform about possible or direct causes of the problem. The main result of this study was an observation that a recurring way of motivating the group members to participate in the Facebook group was through emotionally charged content designed to provoke some kind of reaction. The engagement however is driven by positiveness and unconditional encouragement between the participants, negative vibes are not answered upon. Furthermore the study found that the urge to participate and contribute gives people a satisfactory feeling of achievement. Therefore activist groups like the one being researched in this study are important not just for the environment itself but also for the individual. The presented material in this study could be used for further research within this subject.

The present study explored Swedish students’ motives for using Facebook and how those motives were influenced by various factors. By employing a uses and gratifications (U&G) approach, students’ motives, use intensity and network size were examined and assessed through quantitative measures. Data collected from university students (N = 139) via a web-based survey revealed that students’ primary motives for using Facebook are relationship maintenance, passing time, entertainment and social information which suggests that Facebook is about social interactions, having fun and knowing about the activities and events taking place among one’s peers. Additionally, the results showed no major differences between males and females in their motives. Data analysis of students’ use intensity showed that high-intensity users were generally more motivated to use Facebook regardless of motive, than low-intensity users. Furthermore, regression analysis revealed no significant correlations between motives for using Facebook and network size. Findings are discussed within the framework of uses and gratifications and in relation to prior U&G research of Facebook and social media.

The master thesis entitled "Podcasting - audio content in the digital era and its listeners in Czechia" is devoted to the phenomenon of podcasting which connects the traditional audio format with new digital technologies. It deals with its history and current state both abroad and in Czechia. It also describes the specifics of podcasting, compares it with radio programs, mentions the importance of podcast applications or the funding issue of independent podcasts. It focuses attention on the role of the audience in today's world and the associated concepts of participatory culture and user generated content. The audience is also associated with the uses and gratifications theory which tries to understand why people consume media content. The aim of the research part of the thesis was to obtain information about Czech podcast listeners with whom semi-structured interviews were conducted. The collected data were then processed using the grounded theory method. The findings are organized into five chapters in order to answer five research questions. They revealed the motivations of Czech listeners for listening to podcasts, their perception of podcasts in comparison with radio programs, their attitude to listening to Czech and foreign podcasts, their perception of podcast presenter and their attitude...

<p>This study uses Incivility Spirals and Uses and Gratifications frameworks to explore how people discuss scientific topics on the social media site Reddit. Specifically, the goals of this project were to develop a new typology of online messages, examine how different factors influence online discourse, and determine whether uses and gratifications vary between Subreddits. The dataset consisted of comments on the top ten posts of 2019 from r/EverythingScience and r/Science. These Subreddits were examined because, although they both focus on science, they differ in terms of group rules and moderator style. Human coders and the text analysis software Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count were used to evaluate the comments on a series of dichotomous and continuous variables. These variables were used in a two-step cluster analysis to identify message typologies. Results indicate that there were three types of messages in the dataset: Polite Participation, Emotional Interrogation, and On Topic Information. Further analysis demonstrated that group norms and the first comment in a conversation impact the quality of discourse that takes place. Conversations on r/Science (the more strict Subreddit) that begin with an On Topic Information comment are more likely to be extremely deliberative, while conversation on r/EverythingScience that begin with an Emotional Interrogation comment are more likely to result in incivility spirals. Results also suggest differences in gratifications between Subreddits, with Redditors using r/Science for productive discussion and r/EverythingScience for heated debate. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, along with avenues for future research. </p>

Background: LANs are popular due to the unique social features where gamers share the samepassion, meet, and compete with like-minded gamers. Further, a LAN forms new and unexploredfeelings and impressions for gamers; therefore, it should be further explored. Therefore,understanding the gamers' motivations will allow for a better understanding of the unexploredbenefits gained. Purpose: By studying the phenomenon of LANs, this research aims to explore the motivationsfor attending a LAN by discovering and understanding the connection between benefits andmotivations. Method: To fulfil the purpose of this thesis, being of exploratory nature, qualitative research wasused. The empirical data was accumulated through fifteen semi-structured interviews. The datahas been analysed and interpreted using an abductive approach incorporating a thematic analysis. Conclusion: This study explored the motivations and benefits of LAN attendance from a U&amp;Gperspective. The findings showed three motivations for attending a LAN competition, diversionand social interaction. Furthermore, the gained benefits are rewards, information, skills, escape,entertainment, relationships, socialisation and finding new teammates. The analysis resulted indeveloping a conceptual model illustrating the motivations and benefits.

Sharenting is a new term used to define the action of parents posting about their children online. Social media provides parents with an easy to use outlet for image distribution to all family and friends that simultaneously archives the images into a digital baby book. While convenient, once publicly posted anyone can gain access to the images of the children. Instagram is a favorable social media channel for sharenting. A popular hashtag on Instagram, #letthembelittle, contains 8 million posts dedicated to child imagery. A set of 300 randomly selected images under the hashtag were coded. Images tended to contain personal information such as the child’s name, age, and location. Communication Privacy Management and Uses and Gratifications theories provided the theoretical frameworks for this study. The results suggested a possibly dangerous pattern of parental oversharing that could negatively impact the child and the child’s safety.

Why do supporters to ice hockey teams in Sweden engages with their team on Twitter? The Swedish Hockey League season 2020/2021 was different than the previous ones in the league history. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the league to play games without any spectators. This study aims to understand why fans, to the teams who came in 13th and 14th in the league table during the season, engages with the teams Twitter accounts. The study will do that with the help of uses and gratifications theory, agenda setting theory and priming theory. The method used in the study was to check tweets from the teams during a specific time period and code the tweets to get a result and find a conclusion. The result showed that fans to the two teams engages with the teams Twitter accounts when they either win or lose games. The conclusion showed that fan engagement was mostly driven by results.

The aim of this study was to examine young adults media behaviors during the times of the covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative interviews were conducted with five men and five women studying at Linnaeus University in Kalmar. The theoretical framework used are Uses and Gratification and New media theory.  The result shows that the young adults have increased their screen time, which is a direct effect of the fact that they are spending more time at home due to home education through zoom. Another conclusion is that the screen time has increased due to not being able to meet up with friends as they did before covid-19. Therefore their social needs are being filled with the use of social media and communication media such as zoom and facetime. It’s not a change persey, it’s more of an amplified use.

The phenomenon of Live Video Shopping (LVS) has gained increased attention in recent years. Sinceapproximately 2017, the Chinese market has brought LVSto the attention of the public. In terms of overall market share, LVS was projected to account for roughly 20% of the overalle-commerce volume in Chinauntil 2021. Despite that, within Europe LVS has not seen such rapid growth and seems to be still a neglected domain,both in practice and in academia.Most academic research on LVS has originated in China and took place in an Asian setting. From a European standpoint, these findings can onlyserve as a starting point for further researchdue to cultural differences. Sincemost extant research on the topic of LVS adopted a quantitative research design, we could clearly identify a lack of qualitative studies in a European context. Therefore, our study aims to fill this research gap by investigating European consumersperceived value of LVS and their motivations to engage in it. A qualitative research design is particularly suitable for the exploratory nature of ourresearch. For the collection of data, we conducted three synchronous online focus groups through purposive sampling of European participants. In addition to that, and as a triangulation for our data sources, Pål Burman, the CEO of the LVS provider Zellma, was interviewed. With this we were able to includedifferent perspectives on the topic. It also helped us to increase thevalidityofthemanagerial implications.Usingthematic analysis, we could identify themes that theparticipants associated with the concept of LVS. The findings suggest that the perceived value of LVS for European consumers is not indisputable. Based on the theoretical concept of perceived value,LVS has to solve the trade-off between give and get components. This means that the committed time for attending an LVS stream has to be compensated by certainbenefits, such asdiscounts, enhanced product information, exclusivity of content,or inspiration. By using the theoretical framework of Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), we were able to divide the motivations of European consumers to engage in LVS in three types of gratifications: hedonic, utilitarian, and social. As opposed to prior Asian research on the topic, social gratifications only played a minor role forEuropean consumers. Reasons for an interaction between the viewer and the broadcaster were primarily product-related and utilitarian by nature. Engagement for the sake of social motives could not be confirmed. Utilitarian gratifications desired byEuropean consumers were mainly connected to theobtainment of enhanced production information, leading to more informed purchase decisions. Hedonic motivations were for exampleentertainmentand inspiration. When connecting UGT to the TechnologyAcceptance Model (TAM), we have also been able to identify consumers' approachesto LVS as a new technology.Crucial here weretheperceived ease of use and perceived usefulnessof LVS.It was shown that consumers require LVS to be as easy or easier than normal e-commerce shopping is already.LVS would further be perceived as useful if it could provide the viewers with something uniquethat old technologies are not able to provide.Asa new digital phenomenon, itis expected to serve as a complement to physical and online stores. In fact, LVS might not only serve as a platform of sales, but also tocreate long-lasting relationships between a brand and its consumers with consumer engagementas a main desired outcome.

The first aim of this SAG is to present and study three different researchers: Dahl (2021),Thorp (2016) and Johansson (2012) on how the subject of the use of history can beimplemented into history teaching and evolve students' way of thinking towards a betterhistorical consciousness. The second aim of this paper is to reflect on how the term uses ofhistory can be best implemented in a multicultural classroom. The third aim is to determinehow the terms use of history, historical consciousness and multiculturalism is defined inacademic research. To make these definitions we used the researchers Aronsson (2002),Karlsson (1999), Nordgren (2006, 2016), Rüsen (2004), Jeismann (1979), Koselleck (2004),Jensen (2003) and Runblom (2006). The material we have been using are doctoraldissertations and licentiate degrees which have been gathered from the digital platformsResearchgate, ERIC and DiVA. In our paper’s result the focus has been to present and reflectthe theoretical approaches that each researcher has obtained through their respective studiesregarding multicultural education, uses of history and historical consciousness. These resultsbecame the basis of a discussion of advantages and disadvantages regarding the optimal wayto construct an education plan for teachers. In our conclusion we presented the case that noneof the researchers' work was complete in itself and can be used in conjunction with each otherto better create a whole sided perspective on the best plan for history teaching. We also cameto the conclusion that terms uses of history, historical consciousness and multiculturalismcan be defined in a variety of ways. There are some disputes between each researcher in howthe relation between historical consciousness and uses of history can be defined. Thoughmost of them agree that multiculturalism includes a variety of aspects such as normality,individuality and that creation of identity is a big part of the multicultural classroom.