Looking At the Other Side

Author(s):  
Rebecca English ◽  
Shaun Nykvist

The choice to vaccinate or not to vaccinate a child is usually an ‘informed decision', however, it is how this decision is informed which is of most importance. More frequently, families are turning to the Internet, in particular social media, as a data source to support their decisions. However, much of the online information may be unscientific or biased. While issues such as vaccination will always see dissenting voices, engaging with that ‘other side' is difficult in the public policy debate which is informed by evidence based science. This chapter investigates the other side in light of the growing adoption and reliance on social media as a source of anti-vaccine information. The study adopts a qualitative approach to data collection and is based on a critical discourse analysis of online social media discourse. The findings demonstrate the valuable contribution this approach can make to public policy work in vaccination.

2019 ◽  
pp. 1289-1299
Author(s):  
Rebecca English ◽  
Shaun Nykvist

The choice to vaccinate or not to vaccinate a child is usually an ‘informed decision', however, it is how this decision is informed which is of most importance. More frequently, families are turning to the Internet, in particular social media, as a data source to support their decisions. However, much of the online information may be unscientific or biased. While issues such as vaccination will always see dissenting voices, engaging with that ‘other side' is difficult in the public policy debate which is informed by evidence based science. This chapter investigates the other side in light of the growing adoption and reliance on social media as a source of anti-vaccine information. The study adopts a qualitative approach to data collection and is based on a critical discourse analysis of online social media discourse. The findings demonstrate the valuable contribution this approach can make to public policy work in vaccination.


Author(s):  
Max Z. Li ◽  
Megan S. Ryerson

Community outreach and engagement efforts are critical to an airport’s role as an ever-evolving transportation infrastructure and regional economic driver. As online social media platforms continue to grow in both popularity and influence, a new engagement channel between airports and the public is emerging. However, the motivations behind and effectiveness of these social media channels remain unclear. In this work, we address this knowledge gap by better understanding the advantages, impact, and best practices of this newly emerging engagement channel available to airports. Focusing specifically on airport YouTube channels, we first document quantitative viewership metrics, and examine common content characteristics within airport YouTube videos. We then conduct interviews and site visits with relevant airport stakeholders to identify the motivations and workflow behind these videos. Finally, we facilitate sample focus groups designed to survey public perceptions of the effectiveness and value of these videos. From our four project phases, to maximize content effectiveness and community engagement potential, we synthesize the following framework of action items, recommendations, and best practices: (C) Consistency and community; (O) Organizational structure; (M) Momentum; (B) Branding and buy-in; (A) Activity; (T) Two-way engagement; (E) Enthusiasm; and (D) Depth, or as a convenient initialism, our COMBATED framework.


Author(s):  
Daniel J. Seigler

Based on the importance of citizen participation and the collaborative potential of online social media tools, this study tests four proposed influences on administrators who are deciding whether or not to adopt these tools to engage citizens. A survey of 157 department managers from large U.S. cities shows that 82% report using some form of social media to engage citizens and that perceived organizational influences and administrator preconceptions have the strongest impact on the respondentsʼ decision to adopt social media. Possible explanations for the results are that the use of online social media in the public sector may be following a similar path of adoption as earlier forms of e-government or managers may be operating in a rational environment when deciding whether or not to adopt online social media tools.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Silvia Widya Kusumaningtyas ◽  
Zon Vanel

<span lang="IN">Social media is one type of new media that facilitates the process of communication among human. Social media makes it easy for users to communicate and share information in a wider range. At present, not only people use Instagram, but the government also needs to keep up with the time to participate in using Instagram as an online information media. Public Relations of the Salatiga Government is one of the public relations departments that uses Instagram as an online information media to provide information needed by the community.<br /> This research aimed to find out how the content of the information was<span>  </span>and how the role of instagram was as an information deliverance to the citizen by the public relations of Salatiga. Through qualitative methods research, data is collected by means of interviews and observations. The results showed that the Salatiga <span> </span>Government Public Relations Instagram account had a role to increase brand awareness, connect many people and as a source of information/ business promotion.Public Relations of the Salatiga Government considers that Instagram plays an active role in conveying information to the public. This is seen from the many positive responses received by the Salatiga City Government Public Relations during managing Instagram as a modern information deliverance.<span>     </span></span>


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumaran Kanapathipillaii

<p>Social media such as Facebook has become an essential strategic tool for organisations. Facebook is a platform where a large pool of consumers would use to make purchase decisions. Organisations are designing and maintaining their Facebook account to expand their social networks and build relationships with the public. This research explains current situations regarding the influence of online social media technology with reference to Facebook on employees' work performance in Malaysia. The problem statement focuses on both the public and private sectors in Malaysia. Additionally, various literature was reviewed, indicating the relationship between social media (usage at work, sociability, and trust) and work performance. The mediating role of the organisational framework on the relationship between online social media technology (Facebook) and work performance was also scrutinised to formulate the research hypothesis. The findings of this research established a significant relationship between online social media (Facebook) and organisational framework and work performance. Conclusively, the hypothesis depicted that the organisational framework fully mediates the relationship between online social media technology (Facebook) and employees' work performance in public and private sectors in Malaysia. This study also verifies that both the public and private sector organisations that incorporate Facebook can enhance networking and information sharing, influencing employees' work performance, creating a stable organisational framework, generating value for customers, and improving employee relationships with all stakeholders. In conclusion, work performance can be heightened by a well planned and structured organisational framework. Additionally, through a well planned and implemented online social media technology such as Facebook, an organisation would have a smooth operating organisational framework and a workforce with enhanced performance.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0854/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jennifer Spitulnik

The occupational folk group of Broadway musical theater performers uses folklore in public spaces as a kind of representational strategy for the group as a whole. This strategy is significant in representing the group’s identity to itself as well as to outsiders who are invested in knowing more about them, such as Broadway enthusiasts. That is, the group can and does tell the story of itself, representing itself ethnographically, by way of its individual members. Social media technologies provide a platform for Broadway performers to present these native ethnographies both to the public and to other members of the folk group. I argue that these native, self-conscious ethnographic works by musical theater performers are both concerned with representing themselves as individuals, and with representing the cultural group of musical theater performers as a whole. Exploring the folklore and folk identities performed by members of this group in online social media suggests new ways of understanding the politics and practices of ethnography, particularly on social network sites in our postmodern global economy of attention. In this project, the first in any field to consider musical theater performers as a cultural or folk group, I investigate actors’ recognition of and group use of vernacular creative expressionsâ€"folkloreâ€"as a representational strategy. Through this work, I explore the ways in which self-representation on the part of the ethnographic participants claims voice and authority for the group, while simultaneously performing group membership and identity for multiple audiences.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Jaques ◽  
Mine Islar ◽  
Gavin Lord

Contrary to what practice suggests, social media platforms may not be an appropriate forum for communicating with civil society about sustainability issues such as climate change. Misinformation campaigns are distorting the line between fact and falsity on social media platforms, and there has been a profound shift in the way that social media users consume and interact with information. These conditions have been popularly labeled as the post-truth era. Drawing from Neo-Marxian theory, we argue that post-truth can be explained as a new iteration of ideological struggle under capitalist hegemony. We substantiate this claim through a mixed methods investigation synthesizing corpus-assisted lexical analysis and critical discourse analysis to evaluate 900 user-generated comments taken from three articles on socioenvironmental topics published on Facebook by news organizations in the United States. The results showed that the nature of this struggle is tied explicitly to the role of science in society, where the legitimacy of science is caught in a tug-of-war of values between elitism on the one hand and a rejection of the establishment on the other. It follows that presenting truthful information in place of false information is an insufficient means of coping with post-truth. We conclude by problematizing the notion that Facebook is an adequate forum for public dialogue and advocate for a change in strategy from those wishing to communicate scientific information in the public sphere.


Worldview ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 14-16
Author(s):  
Bernard Murchland

When I first began to study philosophy, there was not much concern with its political implications. One thought of philosophers as being a few removes from the public forum, concerned with loftier matters, operating far from the untidiness of the social scene in a cool oasis where the imagination could play and consciousness unfold at its own pace. It was a pure world, to be sure, and the purist view is by no means an obsolete one. Just the other day I heard a well-known philosopher in heated argument with a campus activist say that the responsibilities of a professional philosopher end with his profession, that his political obligations qua philosopher were nil.


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