Yes / Social media comprises communication websites that facilitate relationship forming between users from diverse backgrounds, resulting in a rich social structure. User generated content encourages inquiry and decision-making. Given the relevance of social media to various stakeholders, it has received significant attention from researchers of various fields, including information systems. There exists no comprehensive review that integrates and synthesises the findings of literature on social media. This study discusses the findings of 132 papers (in selected IS journals) on social media and social networking published between 1997 and 2017. Most papers reviewed here examine the behavioural side of social media, investigate the aspect of reviews and recommendations, and study its integration for organizational purposes. Furthermore, many studies have investigated the viability of online communities/social media as a marketing medium, while others have explored various aspects of social media, including the risks associated with its use, the value that it creates, and the negative stigma attached to it within workplaces. The use of social media for information sharing during critical events as well as for seeking and/or rendering help has also been investigated in prior research. Other contexts include political and public administration, and the comparison between traditional and social media. Overall, our study identifies multiple emergent themes in the existing corpus, thereby furthering our understanding of advances in social media research. The integrated view of the extant literature that our study presents can help avoid duplication by future researchers, whilst offering fruitful lines of enquiry to help shape research for this emerging field.

There is little attention and consensus in science education for gifted learners, leading to insufficient support and understanding of their needs, which hinders their potential development as future scientists and professionals. Utilizing a narrative research design, the study explores the experiences of nine scientists identified as gifted in childhood, through semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and document reviews. The research addresses three pivotal questions: (1) How do scientists, who were identified as gifted in their childhood, navigate their gifted identity from childhood to adulthood, and how does this affect their social relationships and self-perception? (2) How do scientists, who were identified as gifted in their childhood, perceive and describe the critical elements that contribute to their exceptional performance? (3) How do scientists, who were identified as gifted in their childhood, reflect on the impact of their K-12 science education on their development and career choice? Findings reveal that participants’ exceptional performance in science was influenced by various factors such as individual abilities, family background, motivation, support, opportunities, and luck, and education. The impact of K-12 science education varied, with dissatisfaction in early years due to a lack of challenging curriculum, but more satisfaction in high school due to advanced classes and programs. These insights contribute to the development of educational policies and programs that better meet the needs of gifted learners in science, ultimately helping them to realize their full potential as future scientists and professionals.

No description available.

When in physical proximity, data can be directly exchanged between the mobile devices people carry - for example over Bluetooth. If people cooperate to store, carry and forward messages on one another's behalf, then an opportunistic network may be formed, independent of any fixed infrastructure. To enable performant routing within opportunistic networks, use of social network information has been proposed for social network routing protocols. But the decentralised and cooperative nature of the networks can however expose users of such protocols to privacy and security threats, which may in turn discourage participation in the network. In this thesis, we examine how to mitigate privacy and security threats in opportunistic networks while maintaining network performance. We first demonstrate that privacy-aware routing protocols are required in order to maintain network performance while respecting users' privacy preferences. We then demonstrate novel social network routing protocols that mitigate specific threats to privacy and security while maintaining network performance.

System deployment projects are extremely complex and with more and more organisations now choosing to configure and deploy off-the-shelf systems, the project teams are presented with new challenges. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the issues faced during such configuration and deployment projects and see if support could be provided. A year long observational study of one of these projects was carried. While it was initially assumed that it would be technical issues related to the system’s configuration that would be the primary problems, the study revealed communication issues to be at the heart of a large number of the issues. Online social networks such as Facebook are extremely popular, allowing users to stay in touch with large numbers of distributed people. Private social network sites were applied to projects to see if they could replicate the benefits the sites provide and support project communications. A social network site was created for both a distributed research project and an administrative systems project and their use observed. Statistical data on the use of the sites and qualitative feedback from users is presented to assess the viability of the approach. The experiments showed social network sites to have many benefits when used as a complementary mechanism to traditional channels for project communications. It is clear however, that social network sites cannot solve all the problems projects may encounter. If the use of a site is to be a success it is vital it gains a critical mass of users. The approach taken to the site’s configuration and introduction will be hugely influential in its success. In order to choose the right approach a clear understanding of what the project’s communication needs are and the possible uses of the site is needed. A process of configuration and development with a small group of potential users is recommended to ensure it is as user friendly as possible before going live to a large user base.

L'aide à la décision se fonde sur l'observation d'un environnement évolutif dont on scrute les évènements. Ces évènements peuvent être de différentes natures, dont les connexions qui peuvent se créer au sein d'un réseau d'acteurs. L'observation des bases documentaires ne semble plus suffisante pour nourrir l'aide à la décision. En effet, les nouveaux outils de communication et de collaboration, dont l'usage se répand rapidement au sein des organisations, sont sources de nouvelles formes d'informations peu ou mal utilisées par les systèmes actuels d'aide à la décision des organisations. L'objectif de la thèse est de concevoir une plate-forme (modélisation et développement) pour les organisations permettant à leurs membres de bénéficier de médias sociaux et à leurs décideurs de bénéficier d'outils d'aide à la décision prenant en compte tous les types de ressources circulant sur cette plate-forme. / Decision support is partly based on the observation of a dynamic and mutating environment (Situation Awareness). The events of such environments can be of different types, including new relations created within a network of actors. We think classical documentary databases are no longer sufficient to serve situation awarness. The quick spread and adoption of new communication and collaboration tools in organizations, bring new kind of information, like the social network of the organization, which are currently not or badly taken in account by organizational decision support systems. The aim of this thesis is to design a platform, which provides to organizations both the social media to help their members to collaborate and the decision tools, which take into account all types of information exchanged in the platform.

A dissertation in fulfilment for Master of Arts in Media Studies Faculty of Humanities School of Language, Literature and Media Studies (SLLM) University of the Witwatersrand 2016 / This research study essentially sets out to explore the practices of young, ordinary, South African women who take and post selfies on social media platforms, like Instagram. The general commentary surrounding selfies is typically negative, and tends to frame the selfietaker as a narcissistic, self-absorbed individual. Therefore, this study is interested in understanding what this very particular smartphone-enabled photographic technique means to this group of women, and in doing so, aims to determine whether or not there are underlying significances to such practices. This research study adopts a vast framework of literature in order to conceptualize and contextualize selfies in contemporary culture, by drawing on the rich history of self-portraiture and snapshots as well as concepts of mediation and the representation of the self online; in addition to describing the role that mobile technologies and social media platforms have played in contributing to cementing selfies as a cultural hallmark in today’s society. This study is additionally grounded upon three dominant theoretical themes, namely: narcissism, self-exploration, and self-regulation; and Christopher Lasch, Michel Foucault, Angela McRobbie and Rosalind Gill’s theoretical contributions are predominantly referred to in an attempt to explain such principles adequately. Through the responses that were yielded by interviewing 14 young, ordinary, South African women, this research study essentially established that the practices of selfie-taking do in fact play a significant role in the lives of these young women, from empowering them and teaching them to learn to love and accept themselves again, to inspiring personal growth, capturing special moments and memories, and allowing them to feel accepted and as though they belong and have a fixed placed in society. Therefore, this study argues that selfies are not necessarily only about narcissism and self-obsession, but rather more about the notion of self-love and acceptance (for this group of participants at least). / MT2017

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Communication

by Yeung Chiap-to. / Thesis (M.S.W.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 166-178.

Chen Yun. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-100). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; appendix in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Prologue --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2： --- "Internet, J-blog, and the Public Sphere..…" --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1. --- The Public Sphere： from West to East --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2. --- Internet and the Public Sphere --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3. --- A Brief History of blog and its Development in China --- p.11 / Chapter 2.4. --- Blogs and the Public Sphere --- p.14 / Chapter 2.5. --- Blogs and Journalism --- p.18 / Chapter 2.6. --- Media and Journalism in China --- p.22 / Chapter 2.7. --- Identity and Public Sphere --- p.26 / Chapter Chapter 3： --- Research Question and Research Methods --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1. --- Research Scope and the Selected Sample --- p.30 / Chapter 3.2. --- A Single Case Study of Anti blog --- p.31 / Chapter 3.3. --- Research Questions: --- p.35 / Chapter 3.4. --- Qualitative methods： --- p.37 / Chapter 3.5. --- Quantitative method： --- p.39 / Chapter Chapter 4： --- Findings --- p.40 / Chapter 4.1 --- Anti blog as alternative public sphere --- p.40 / Chapter 4.2 --- Identity and authority construction of Anti blog --- p.66 / Chapter 4.3. --- The Personalization of j-blog： empowerment and its discontent --- p.76 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- "Discussion： Internet, public sphere and identity construction" --- p.78 / Appendix --- p.90 / Bibliography --- p.92