Internet och sociala medier har radikalt förändrat förutsättningarna för hur människor konsumerar medier och kommunicerar med såväl varandra som företag och organisationer (Carlsson, 2011; Karlsson, 2013:265; Wadenström, 2001). Sociala mediers hastiga framväxt väcker frågor om hur och varför människor använder dessa. När företag inte längre kan skilja sig ur mängden med traditionell envägskommunikation (reklam) för att vinna konsumenternas uppmärksamhet satsar allt fler på att bygga goda, långsiktiga relationer. Sociala medier är i det avseendet ett kostnadseffektivt verktyg som nyttjas av allt fler i allt större utsträckning.   Denna kvalitativa studie syftar till att undersöka vilka tillfredsställelser användare erhåller från Instagram samt vilka förståelser och kunskaper modeföretag har av desamma, och hur dessa faktorer samspelar och kommer till uttryck i egenskap symmetrisk kontra asymmetrisk kommunikation. Studien innehar en sociologisk ansats med avstamp i bl.a. uses and gratifications och teorier om identitet och symmetrisk kontra asymmetrisk kommunikation. Det empiriska materialet har genererats från tre enskilda intervjuer med företag samt fyra fokusgruppsintervjuer om totalt 13 respondenter med de ingående företagens tilltänkta (men inte nödvändigtvis faktiska) målgrupp på Instagram.   Resultatet pekar ut fyra centrala dimensioner av tillfredsställelser respondenterna erhåller från Instagram: Eskapism/avkoppling, sociala relationer, personlig identitet och information. Företagen uppvisar överlag goda kunskaper och förståelser för dessa funktioner och använder sig också av detta i arbetet med Instagram. Dock tenderar företagen att överdriva betydelsen av den sistnämnda funktionen, vilket gör att de riskerar gå miste om att fånga upp delar av sin målgrupp.   Respondenternas allmänna uppfattning av företags kommunikation på Instagram präglas av ett asymmetriskt synsätt. Trots detta förhåller de sig alltjämt positiva till modeföretags närvaro på Instagram, tack vare de gränssnittsfunktioner som möjliggör för respondenterna att själva välja varifrån de får information.

The majority of research tends to focus on the effects of violent video games, and as a result the motivations to play games are understudied. This study used the uses and gratifications theory as a framework for investigating game player’s motivation to play video games for the purpose of catharsis. This study also proposed that in-game variables, such as level of difficulty and content of the video game, all be investigated to see the effects they have on the achievement of catharsis or the development of aggression through other mediating variables such as enjoyment, control, and frustration with the game. It was found that difficulty of the game predicted frustration with the game and that those with more game playing experience reported greater feelings of catharsis, enjoyment, and feelings of control. None of the independent variables were found to attribute to feelings of aggression, including game content. Feelings of control within the game were found to be predicted by game type. Although there were relatively few main effects with the independent variables, correlations show trends in the data between variables that would support the achievement of catharsis through greater feelings of control, enjoyment, and decreased frustration.

Prior studies have shown that the information and cultural product flow is dominantly one direction from large/wealthy markets to smaller markets. Extending this position through the underlying research, it is expected that the audiences in the United States, one of the largest cultural product exporters, may have shaped certain perceptions on the scarcity of Korean films in their domestic film market. By studying the users in an internet film discussion community, this research aims to provide useful ideas about how American audiences perceive Korean films. This qualitative case study conducted a content analysis of the actual postings by the participants on the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com) as they discuss the Korean movie "OldBoy." Then, in-depth interviews with volunteered users were performed.Foreign films, such as Asian films like OldBoy, seem to especially satisfy their needs of alternatives due to these films' scarcity in U.S. market. In other words,participating in community discussion is a means of finding new foreign films, and watching new foreign films works as a way of contributing to their film viewing communities. Also, contributing the community enhances their perceived prestige as film enthusiasts. The investigator started this research from the assumption that the scarcity of Korean films made U.S. audiences ethnocentric. However, study observed that the scarcity of Korean films and the foreignness of this film is treated as one of the most attractive aspects to this subset of viewers. This study has shown that by contributing to and participating in message board discussions, the viewers built a film viewing community in the IMDb website. The discussions with others in the film viewing community helped them build and enhance their prestige as serious film-goers as they built an interpretive community. Tracking the posts and respondents' answers, the investigator could predict that they are building exchange networks in their foreign film viewing community, and this process may influence to their future foreign film viewing.

The research engages the use of social media sites for musicians with a focus on Facebook. It determines which are the advantages the platform makes available for musicians, allowing them to employ Do It Yourself strategies of production, audience relationship management and self-management. The importance of audience response and demographics allow any musician integrate keen insight into the content delivery and thus, optimize their management accordingly. This thesis will establish the affordances that engage what aspects and uses of Facebook are changing the way amateurs operate. The research appropriates the context of professionalism to the variable of knowledgeability, know-how, and Stebbins’ (1977) seven variables (confidence, perseverance, continuation commitment, preparedness and self-conception) in order to note a definition of the modern amateur in contrast to professionals.

The uses and gratifications approach places power in the hands of the audience and is a helpful perspective when trying to understand media usage, exposure, and effects. However, while the uses and gratifications approach has been applied regularly to traditional media, research explaining why people use new social media networks as well as the gratifications they obtain from them is scarce at best. This thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the uses and gratifications approach as well as the current literature about social media networks. An argument is built within the thesis to study Twitter as one social media network through the uses and gratifications theoretical lens. Research questions are provided and a survey of 216 college undergraduates was conducted. Results show that people use a variety of Twitter functions, that the gratifications sought from Twitter are not the gratifications obtained from Twitter, and that people are careful about the types of information they share on the social media network. Additionally, results suggest that Twitter users obtain more gratifications from the passive functions of Twitter rather the active functions in terms of relational maintenance and entertainment. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future directions are also provided.

This study focuses on the motives that recruiters can or may have within companies, organizations and authorities of using Facebook as a complement in the investigation of potential work-candidates. The study also explores the consequences that could occur regarding the boundaries of private and public spheres when recruiters are researching Facebook-pages of potential work-candidates. The results were collected by qualitative interviews with eight different recruiters from a wide range of businesses in Kalmar. By applying a framework of already identified uses and gratifications, we discovered six different motives of why recuriters would use Facebook as a complement while recruiting work-candidates. The motives are; security, guidance and advice, convenience utility, surveillance, curiosity and economic motives. We also discovered that the following consequences of researching Facebook-pages of potential workcandidates are that candidates are restricted in the possibilities of acting private on their Facebook-pages and that candidates have zero control of their published materials since recruiters sets the limits of what can be thought of as private and as public.

This study examined the context of browsing behaviors. According to uses-and gratifications approach, the motives of World Wide Web (mentioned as WWW later) generate the expectations of the WWW and other sources, which lead to differential patterns of browsing behaviors. On-line facus groups were performed three times in Decemember 1999 and January 2000. The criterion used when we choose the respondents of the focus group is that they should have experienced in Internet at least one year. The purpose of the focus groups is to explore the context of browsing. In addition, an on-line survey was undertaken on http://www.k4.com.tw and http://www.moex.gov.tw. The session of http://www.k4.com.tw is from March 25, 2000 to April 20, 2000, and the session of http://www.moex.gov.tw is from April 11, 2000 to April 12, 2000. The primary purpose of the survey was to test hypotheses related to browsing motives, browsing strategy motives, and browsing activities. This study found that surfers were segmented into four groups accoring to the motives of WWW: ritualistic dominant motives, instrumental dominant motives, high motives, and low motives. Besides, the motives of browsing strategies were probed in this study. Six factors of the motives of browsing strategies were extracted: to increase data completeness, to help awareness of site options, to avoid site redundancy or information duplicate, job factor, no scare at the loss in cyberspace, and to kill time in a high-speed or favorable site. These factors co-operated with browsing skills explaining medium to low variance of the browsing behaviors.

For western youth social media has become an everyday occurrence. An abundance of information is delivered right to them. But how do they evaluate the credibility of the information they encounter? Web 2.0 and social media has created an easy access to information, but has also made it harder to identify who the creator of the information is when anybody can create content. Which makes it important to constantly critically evaluate the sources one is faced with. T​his study aims to examine how adolescents judge the credibility of information they meet on social media, and also how they use social media and how they see themselves as creators of information. The data was accumulated by conducting two group interviews with three participants in each group. The results has been analyzed with two separate theories, cognitive authorities and also with the theory of uses and gratifications. The results showed that they are more critical to information created by sources that the do not know personally, than they are of users that the know on an closer level. The study also shows that they do not ​perceive that they create content themselves on a regular basis. But they are still constantly connected with their friends on some sort of social media. Based on this study future relevant studies can be made with social media as the focus. This study focus on adolescents with a similar socioeconomic background, the same study but with different socioeconomic backgrounds would be interesting to make. Results in this study shows that an older generation is starting to use social media in a different degree then before, therefore studies in how this generation evaluate information the meet on social media could be interesting since they have an education that differ from the one adolescents get today.

The parallel between e-government and e-Inclusion research are critically important. It helps to understand how policies, society, organizations, and information technologies come together and it also helps to understand how the e-Inclusion factors impact e-government use and vice versa. This study attempts to explore the theoretical and practical intersections of e-Inclusion and e-adoption (Particularly e-government) and to show how they complement and possibly enrich the potential of e-Inclusion research. The rationale for this approach is that combining research on e-Inclusion and e-government has the potential to better understand the factors influencing e-Inclusion since they both share a common theme of Inclusive e-government. The aim of this research is to examine the factors that influence e-Inclusion in the context of e-government in the UK, through combining the decomposed theory of planned behaviour with Use and Gratification Theory (U&G). These two theories are used to develop a conceptual model for studying the multi-facetted dimensions of e-Inclusion. The two theories are chosen because of their appropriateness for e-Inclusion research; the critical factors that influence e-inclusion can be covered by (DTPB) constructs while the individual’s gratifications that determine using specific Internet activities is covered by (U&G) To fulfil the research aim and objectives, a quantitative research method was employed. The research subjects were citizens who are Internet users. Their views were sought through a survey that included 510 self-administered and group-administrated questionnaires. The conceptualisations of e-Inclusion and e-government have important implications for both researchers and policymakers. For researchers, this study delineates the complex and recursive relationships between e-Inclusion and e-government contributing towards the exiting limited body of knowledge in the field. For practice, it offers directions to help create a more comprehensive strategy that takes into consideration the alignment of e-government initiatives and e-inclusion policies.

A qualitative interview study aimed at investigating the role of training images for people and the needs of Instagram users. The study focuses on the Actic gym in Kalmar, which is a relatively unexplored area. The questions that the study asks are; What does Instagram mean for media users at Actic? What results of workout does skilled Instagram users experience on Actic? Is there any visible difference between the sexes that practice at Actic and their experience of exercise pictures at Instagram? Semi-structured interviews have been made with eight people age 18-24, as this is the age group that is most active on Instagram. The interviews were transcribed and resulted in a discussion that we lean against the Uses and Gratifications theory and the social comparison theory. The result shows a number of needs that users are considered to need to fill and the perception of training-influenced images that are both positive and negative. The needs are such as inspiration and motivation as well as the help that may be needed to go to the gym.