Browsing by Subject "social media"
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- ItemOpen AccessCitizen Science - Special Days(2014-09-12) Loftie-Eaton, Megan; Neary, TimIn this radio broadcast, Tim Neary interviews Megan Loftie-Eaton about the Animal Demography Unit's citizen science programme 'Special Days' - Mad Mammal Monday, Tree Tuesday, Weaver Wednesday, Threat Thursday, Frog Friday, Scorpion Saturday and Snake Sunday. Megan discusses strategies to engage citizens in science, including the use of social media and potential strategies for more productive strategies for mainstream media, and the valuable contributions citizens can make to scientific knowledge and wildlife conservation in South Africa. This resource introduces some of the basic citizen science initiatives undertaken by UCT and offers guidance for members of the public interested in getting involved. Image supplied courtesy of the Animal Demography Unit under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commerical Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license.
- ItemRestrictedDigital journalism and online public spheres in South Africa(2010) Bosch, TanjaThis article explores and evaluates the growth of digital journalism in South Africa, within the context of increased use of online social media in the field. Increasingly, local activists are using mobile and online social networking to promote their events and causes, and reach their constituencies. Similarly, journalists are using digital media to practise their craft, reach new audiences, and sometimes even to change the notion of who practises journalism, as in the case of citizen journalism. South African journalists, via community media and sometimes even tabloid newspapers, have long embraced the notion of civic or community journalism, framing news ‘in a way that facilitates people thinking about solutions, not just problems and conflict’ (Hoyt 1995). With the rise of Web 2.0 and increased access to the Internet, digital journalism in South Africa has spread to include a strong focus on user-generated content, with traditional news media using Twitter and other social media to generate reader feedback. Similarly, the Mail & Guardian ‘Thoughtleader’ blog, originally designed for socalled J-bloggers, is another example of the ‘convergence’ between journalism and social media. The article provides an overview of emerging trends and theories in the South African context, focusing particularly on the public sphere created by bloggers, the citizen journalism of MyNews24.com and journalists' engagement with online social media. Furthermore, the article reflects on the possibility that online news sites and blogs may represent a space for the creation of online public spheres in South Africa.
- ItemOpen AccessDigital professionalism(2012) Mitchell, Veronica; Southgate, NicoleThe rapid, expansive and evolving use of social media has prompted the need to interrogate its impact for future health professionals. A new initiative teaching first year health science students about their online identity has proven valuable. The importance of communication skills and respect for others through social media is identified and explained.
- ItemOpen Access#EvenMore than just a brand of soap: a case study analysing LUX soap's use of Instagram(2020) Venter, L'André; Irwin, RonaldThis research investigates the ways in which Unilever's LUX soap has repositioned their brand away from their historical association with beauty pageants. This research aims to unpack the ways in which Instagram is utilised by LUX soap to effectively communicate a distinct brand personality. This research identifies that the repositioning of the brand on Instagram was achieved through a strategy that integrated social media influencers and brand events, whilst incorporating social marketing. Not only does this research focus on LUX's branding on Instagram, it critically engages with the content from a postfeminist perspective. This is the secondary theoretical engagement of this work. The paper highlights the ways in which the content is postfeminist in nature and how this was incorporated into the branding messages. The main focus of this dissertation is the #MoreThanYouCanSee and #EvenMore LUX soap campaigns. Through a mixed methodology of interviews, content analysis, and survey the paper focuses on the ways in which LUX created a relationship with their customers on Instagram and effectively repositioned the brand. The research suggests that three key techniques were repeated on Instagram to effectively create new associations with the LUX brand during the #MoreThanYouCanSee and #EvenMore extension campaign. The paper, furthermore, suggests that the LUX soap campaign employs postfeminist rhetoric in their Instagram strategy. This dissertation argues that the development of a strategy consisting of branded events, social media influencers, and social marketing content allowed LUX soap to reposition their brand.
- ItemOpen AccessFactors influencing the use of privacy settings in location-based social networks(2017) Oladimeji, Henry; Ophoff, JacquesThe growth of location-based social networks (LBSN) such as Facebook and Twitter has been rapid in recent years. In LBSNs, users provide location information on public profiles that potentially can be used in harmful ways. LBSNs have privacy settings that allow users to control the privacy level of their profiles, thus limiting access to location information by other users; but for various reasons users seldom make use of them. Using the protection motivation theory (PMT) as a theoretical lens, this dissertation examines whether users can be encouraged to use LBSN privacy settings through fear appeals. Fear appeals have been used in various studies to arouse fear in users, in order to motivate them to comply to an adaptive behaviour through the threat of impending danger. However, within the context of social networking, it is not yet clear how fear-inducing arguments will ultimately influence the use of privacy settings by users. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of fear appeals on user compliance, with recommendations to enact the use of privacy settings toward the alleviation of privacy threats. Using a survey methodology, 248 social-network users completed an instrument measuring the variables conceptualized by PMT. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the validity and reliability, and to analyze the data. Analysis of the responses show that PMT provides an explanation for the intention to use privacy settings by social-network users. Risk susceptibility, response efficacy, self-efficacy and response cost were found to have a positive impact on the intention to use privacy settings, while sharing benefits and maladaptive behaviours were found to have a negative impact on the intention to use privacy settings. However, risk severity and fear were not found to be significant predictors of the intention to use privacy settings. This study contributes to existing research on PMT in a sense that fear appeal should focus more on coping appraisal, rather than on threat appraisal which is consistent with the results of most studies on protection motivation.
- ItemOpen AccessMillennials' Attitudes Towards Organic Personal Care Products in South Africa: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour(2020) Lupindo, Mongezi; Madinga, NkosivileThe organic products market has grown worldwide in recent years. Increasing demand for products that are less harmful to the environment and health is one of the factors driving this phenomenon. Consumers are becoming more conscious than ever before about the environmental effects of the products they consume. Specifically, millennials have become environmentally responsible consumers. Although earlier studies have provided insights into factors influencing attitudes towards organic products in various contexts, there is limited research into organic products in the South African context, specifically research focusing on organic personal care products among millennials. Millennials are influential consumers who are environmentally conscious and digitally savvy. Recently, social media has gained increased attention for its ability to amplify environmental concerns and promote sustainable behaviour among young people. As a result, understanding how young consumers develop their purchasing behaviours towards organic personal care products is necessary. Therefore, this study investigated millennials' attitudes towards environmental issues and health consciousness, and the effects of their attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioural controls on their willingness to pay for organic personal care products. The study followed a descriptive, quantitative research design using an online selfadministered survey. A non-probability virtual snowball sample of 433 Facebook users, aged between 18 and 25 years who live in South Africa, was followed. Out of the 433 questionnaires that were collected, 377 were included for analysis. Data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results reveal that South African millennials' environmental concern and health consciousness had a significantly positive influence on their attitudes towards organic personal care products. The results also showed that attitude towards organic personal care products had a significant positive effect on subjective norms, and attitude was the strongest significant predictor of willingness to pay for organic personal care products. The results provide marketers with insights into how millennials ' attitude and willingness to buy organic personal care products can be influenced. Specifically, marketers should develop marketing strategies that incorporate environmental concerns, health awareness, and social influence to increase customer willingness to pay for organic personal care products. The findings also help policymakers understand the level of customer concern about the environment and their health, develop effective environmental policies necessary to achieve sustainability, and boost green purchasing through legislation. In addition, policymakers should be more constructive to promote ecologically conscious consumer behaviour. Collaborating with the private sector in various campaigns would help to enhance consumers' attitudes regarding the environmental concern.
- ItemRestrictedOnline content creation: looking at students’ social media practices through a Connected Learning lens(Taylor & Francis, 2016) Brown, Cheryl; Czerniewicz, Laura; Noakes, TravisAs the boundaries between technology and social media have decreased, the potential for creative production or participatory practices have increased. However, the affordances of online content creation (OCC) are still taken up by a minority of Internet users despite the opportunities offered for engagement and creativity. Whilst previous studies have addressed creative production by university students for specific purposes, there is a research gap concerning OCC in the everyday lives of African university students. This paper describes the stories of three students who are online creators of content, the social media they utilised; their trajectories; their linkages with career interests; the types of online presences they created, maintained or discontinued into their university lives. As the case studies spanned digital practices that were informal and extracurricular yet peer supported as well as interest-driven and academically-oriented, the pedagogical framework of Connected Learning proved an appropriate heuristic. The study shows that being a digital creator gives students a competitive edge in our globally competitive society.
- ItemMetadata onlyA private high school's staff responses to a Web 2.0 and "abundant digital media" presentation(2014-09-15) Noakes, TravisThis presentation sums up questionnaire feedback from fourteen South African private high school staff. This follows a talk I gave on "abundant digital culture" and its potential benefits and hazards for their school. Loud Speaker image by woodleywonderworks shared under a CC-BY license.
- ItemOpen AccessRethinking Rhetoric: An investigation of political persuasion online. A case study of Mauritian electoral interviews livestreamed on Facebook(2020) Suddason, Kelvin; Ndlovu, MusawenkosiThe live-commenting feature Facebook Live offers a unique look into how persuasion operates online. By giving citizen-users, or the viewertariat (see Anstead & O'Loughlin, 2011), the opportunity to comment on live political performances, Facebook Live presents a worthy site of investigation into how traditionally-powerful performer-persuaders (electoral candidates) now face off with traditionally-excluded masses of audience-persuadees (citizen-users). The livestream then becomes a mediated space of contestation, where the boundaries between persuader-persuadee and performer-audience fades, where, this study proposes, persuadee becomes persuader, rendering, in the process, the traditional persuader less persuasive, and thus less powerful. The study sought to understand how electoral persuasion operates online in Mauritius by using the Facebook livestreamed interviews of three candidates (incumbent, long-time, and first-time candidate) running in the December 2017 By-Election. A combined rhetorical and content analysis was conducted on candidates' representative claims (see Saward, 2006) and the viewertariat responses to these claims. This study finds that candidates employ a self-centred rhetoric, focusing on their ‘candidateness' rather than their representativeness, which, this study proposes, has ramifications on how candidates approach politics in contemporary Mauritius. The study also finds that the viewertariat is actively engaged in counter-persuasion, constructing their own (re)representative claims and exchanging primarily with other viewertariat members and lurkers (see Hill & Hughes, 1997). The viewertariat exhibits horizontal persuasion which, this study discusses, dilutes the vertical persuasion employed by candidates. The overall findings lead to the conclusion that rhetoric as a theoretical framework must be extended to adequately capture the persuasive dynamics in online electoral public spheres. A new theoretical framework is finally proposed, with the tripartite distinction between performer-text-audience rearranged to include performer-persuasive text-viewertariat-lurkers, and complemented with an argument as to the growing conceptual obsolescence of the ‘audience' in studying rhetoric online.
- ItemOpen AccessSocial media enhanced boundary crossing: exploring distance students' ecosystems of learning support(2020) Mwanda, Ziyanda; Ng'ambi, Dickson; Gachago, DanielaAs the demand for distance learning increases, traditional campus-based universities continue to struggle in supporting working distance students. This has resulted in the increased phenomena of students using social media within their ecosystems of learning support. The use of formal and informal tools such as social media gives rise to boundaries which students need to cross for effective support. How social media facilitates the crossing of boundaries within ecosystems of learning support remains an unfamiliar area of research. This study employed a predominately qualitative research methods, with a small element being a quantitative method to view and investigate postgraduate distance students' ecosystem of learning support holistically. The findings of this study revealed that participants used a combination of formal and informal tools to support their learning, including social media. In particular WhatsApp, which enables the crossing of transitional, formal and informal learning contexts, hierarchical and, time and space boundaries. Recognizing social media as an important part of students' learning support ecosystem, allowed an expanded view on learning support. As such, the study highlighted a range of different learning mechanisms which occur when students cross these boundaries, with coordination being the dominant learning mechanism. In conclusion, social media (such as WhatsApp) does indeed enhance the crossing of various boundaries to support learning. However, some students do not necessarily perceive their interaction on social media as learning, which speaks to the need of legitimising social media as learning tools by institutions. This study then recommends the need for institutions to recognize and nurture the use of social media as one element of a distance learning support ecosystem for cost-effective student support strategies guided by institutional guidelines and policies.
- ItemOpen AccessTEDI 3 Week 4 - Broadening Networks of Support(2019-06-01) Verhoef, SunaIn this video, Suna Verhoef discusses the role of social media in broadening networks of support. She discusses the role and importance of networks of social support in promoting mutual supportive relationships that can support visually-impaired individuals in accessing services, socialise, and participate in broader society. She discusses how screen readers and other accessibility software can allow people with visual impairments to participate in the kinds social media platforms popular in South Africa (particularly Whatsapp, Twitter, and Facebook). She discusses how social media is used to access information and promote awareness of the kinds of issues people with visual impairments face, and how schools and community networks can create social media networks and groups that can provide mutual support and information. She mentions several content creators who are produced by or focus on people with visual impairments.
- ItemOpen AccessTell me about your (Facebook) self: recruiter personality traits and accuracy of personality judgement of candidate Facebook profiles(2018) Rauch, Philippa; de Kock, FrancoisThe use of social networking sites, such as Facebook, in the job application screening process has changed the recruitment landscape. Many human resource (HR) professionals and recruiters have begun to use social networking sites as a tool to attract, source and screen potential candidates. When screening candidates’ Facebook profiles, recruiters make personality judgements that have important consequences for hiring decisions. However, little is known about what makes a good judge of personality in the world of online screening for recruitment. This study investigated the relationship between recruiters’ Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience and neuroticism) and their ability to judge accurately candidates’ personality traits from their Facebook profiles. In particular, distinctive accuracy measures were employed which account for personality profile normativeness, or the degree to which applicants being rated are generally alike – an important limitation of earlier profile accuracy measures. Results from 456 university students who judged five actual Facebook profiles for which ‘true score’ estimates on personality traits were possible, revealed that recruiters were generally able to infer applicants’ personality traits from their Facebook profiles. However, recruiter personality was not an important factor in their judgement accuracy, neither when accuracy was operationalised as traditional profile accuracy measures, nor as distinctive accuracy.
- ItemOpen AccessTowards a Shared Understanding of emerging technologies: experiences in a collaborative research project in South Africa(Kennesaw State University, 2013) Ng'ambi, Dick; Gachago, Daniela; Backhouse, Judy; Bozalek, Vivienne; Ivala, Eunice; Bosman, Jan PetrusWhile the practice of using educational technologies in Higher Education is increasingly common among educators, there is a paucity of research on innovative uses of emerging technologies to transform teaching and learning. This paper draws on data collected as part of a larger study aimed at investigating emerging technologies and their use in South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to improve teaching and learning. The research employed a mixed method research design, using both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods—quantitative data from a survey of 262 respondents from 22 public HEIs in South Africa and qualitative data gathered from 16 experts/practitioners on their self-reflective definition of the term "emerging technologies". The paper concludes that levels of institutional development, access to resources, discipline, group belonging and individual motivation of respondents influenced the way they defined emerging technologies including what constituted an innovative use of technology, foregrounding the contextuality of emerging technologies.
- ItemOpen AccessTowards the Design of a Networked Social Services Media Model to Promote Democratic Community Participation in South African Schools(2013) Monson, Michael Leslie; Brown, IrwinThe belief that society benefits from the adoption of democratic practices and a desire to improve schooling in South Africa, motivate this research. The social objective of the research is therefore to determine what are the causes of the persistent failure of the South African schooling system and to what extent community participation may serve to resolve them. The technological objective is to determine the feasibility of utilising social media for addressing social problems through enabling participative democracy. The potential for community participation in South African schools is therefore viewed through the lens of Internet enabled participative democracy. A design science-inspired research framework is devised in a qualitative study adopting a critical interpretevist epistemology. The study entails three phases applying a mixing of methods to perform critical research, context-based evaluation and critical interpretive evaluation. The first phase reveals the fundamental problems impacting the schooling education system in South Africa and determines that the underlying cause for their persistence lies in a systemic problem of conflicting legislation and policies caused by ideological differences within the ruling tripartite alliance. It further identifies through critical inference, specific practices by school communities which could improve the education system by participative, democratic action. The second phase evaluates the capacity for selected, popularly used social media artefacts to serve as communication and collaboration tools, in the schooling context, to enable community participation. These are found to be inadequate. The third phase is an evaluation of the technologies capable of facilitating activities required to achieve democratic participation of communities in schools and results in the description of an artefact that could enable a “networked social service media” system. The paper substantiates the notion that an appropriately designed, Internet enabled social media artefact, can promote the participation of communities in schools in South Africa.
- ItemOpen AccessThe use of social media by organisations when engaging with their online community: the collective storytelling phenomenon(2017) Davids, Moegamat; Brown, IrwinThe pervasive nature and use of social media has transformed society and this transformation has attracted significant attention from both industry and academia. The organisational implementation and use of social media are plagued with many challenges, leaving managers frustrated at not achieving the desired results. This emergent and complex nature of the social media phenomenon requires researchers to consider novel approaches when conducting social media research. As the number of Information Systems (IS) researchers conducting research on the social media phenomenon increases, so too does the need to develop relevant and rigorous social media theories. This challenge must be addressed by IS researchers who are contemplating, or are busy conducting research on the social media phenomenon. My PhD thesis responds to the call made by academics and practice for the development of relevant and rigorous social media theories, with the aim of providing a better explanation than what is currently found in the social media literature on social media use within an organisational context. Owing to the emergent nature of the social media phenomenon, the grounded theory method (GTM) is used to develop a substantive theory that increases understanding of this particular phenomenon. Two organisations are selected as the case studies. Both are industry leaders in South Africa, with one being a prominent retailer with a very visible social media presence and the other, being a leading university in South Africa, which is actively growing its social media presence. The results show that organisations enter into a collective storytelling process with their online community. Risk to reputation and the need for online community engagement are identified as reasons for this. Organisations using social media need to be aware of the following conditions that impact on social media use: (1) the social media landscape, (2) the characteristics of social media for use, (3) the relationship between content and social media, (4) content quality, (5) the online community-organisation power dynamic, and (6) the provision of a seamless online experience for the community. Challenges during the collective storytelling process lead to organisations experiencing social media use failures. To overcome these failures, organisations implement education interventions. An evolving supportive social media strategy that provides formal guidelines for social media use ultimately leads to a reduction in the organisational risk to reputation and an improvement in online community engagement, initially identified as the reasons why organisations decide to use social media. The main theoretical contribution is the development of a holistic theoretical framework using the GTM to better explain social media use within organisations when engaging with their online community.