0000000001262841
AUTHOR
Niina Sormanen
Issues of Ethics and Methods in Studying Social Media
The Editorial raises some challenging ethical and methodological aspects of Internet based research (such as protection of informational privacy, informed consent, general ethical guidelines vs case-based approach), which are further discussed in the five articles of this special issue.
LUOTSIVA. Luotettavuutta ja sitoutuneisuutta vahvistamassa : sanomalehtien Facebook-sivut yleisösuhteen lujittajina. Tutkimusraportti
Tässä tutkimuksessa on selvitetty, minkä tyyppisiä postauksia ja minkälaista sisältöä neljän kotimaisen sanomalehden Facebook-sivuilla jaetaan ja millaista aktiivisuutta ne lukijoissa herättävät. Tutkimuskohteina ovat kaksi maakuntalehteä (Keskisuomalainen ja Kaleva) ja kaksi paikallislehteä (Jämsän Seutu ja SisäSuomen Lehti), jotka ovat sitoutuneet hankkeeseen yhteistyöosapuolina. Kehittämishankkeen tavoitteena on kehittää postaus- ja keskustelustrategioita, jotka loisivat lukijoiden ja lehtien välille aktiivista ja tiivistä vuoropuhelua. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu neljän sanomalehden yhden vuoden Facebook-datasta aikaväliltä 1.6.2016 - 31.5.2017. Lisäksi tutkimuksen taustoittamiseksi ha…
The Role of Social Media in Societal Change : Cases in Finland of Fifth Estate Activity on Facebook
The Internet can be used to reconfigure access to information and people in ways that can support networked individuals and enhance their relative communicative power vis-à-vis other individuals and institutions, such as by supporting collective action, sourcing of information, and whistle blowing. The societal and political significance of the Internet is a matter of academic debate, with some studies suggesting a powerful role in creating a “Fifth Estate,” and other studies challenging such claims. Research on this issue has not yet comprehensively focused on social network sites and those operating in a very liberal-democratic context. Based on an embedded case study of Facebook use in …
News consumption repertoires among Finnish adolescents : Moderate digital traditionalists, minimalist social media stumblers, and frequent omnivores
Abstract Young people are perceived as heavy consumers of social media and less avid consumers of news. That notion, however, deserves nuance: Many factors, such as the national context, media system, trust in news, intentionally or incidentally encountering news from different sources, and interest in politics, influence how young people consume news. This study explores news consumption among Finnish adolescents through a representative survey of 15–19-year-olds. We seek to answer two research questions: What are the news repertoires of Finnish adolescents? And what factors predict different news repertoires? Latent profile analysis reveals three distinct news repertoires: 1) moderate dig…
Chances and Challenges of Computational Data Gathering and Analysis
Digital and social media and large available data-sets generate various new possibilities and challenges for conducting research focused on perpetually developing online news ecosystems. This paper presents a novel computational technique for gathering and processing large quantities of data from Facebook. We demonstrate how to use this technique for detecting and analysing issue-attention cycles and news flows in Facebook groups and pages. Although the paper concentrates on a Finnish Facebook group as a case study, the demonstrated method can be used for gathering and analysing large sets of data from various social network sites and national contexts. The paper also discusses Facebook pla…
Facebook’s Emotional Contagion Experiment as a Challenge to Research Ethics
This article analyzes the ethical discussion focusing on the Facebook emotional contagion experiment published by the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em> in 2014. The massive-scale experiment manipulated the News Feeds of a large amount of Facebook users and was successful in proving that emotional contagion happens also in online environments. However, the experiment caused ethical concerns within and outside academia mainly for two intertwined reasons, the first revolving around the idea of research as manipulation, and the second focusing on the problematic definition of informed consent. The article concurs with recent research that the era of social med…
Facebook’s ad hoc groups: a potential source of communicative power of networked citizens
Ad hoc groups (sporadically formed on social network sites for achieving particular common objectives) have been seen as a public space for citizen participation and debate. This study focuses on Facebook’s ad hoc groups in Finland. The aim is to detect the potential of these groups to enhance networked citizens’ communicative power for raising societally important issues to public agenda and initiate changes in society. We suggest a categorization of the groups according to their missions, and present their members’ specific motivations and objectives through an online survey. Despite the general entertainment-orientation and self-referential nature of social media, the results show that a…
Business and News Media Perspectives on the Power of Social Media Publics : Case Finland
The Internet, social media, and their varied online publics have affected the working processes of public relations (PR) practitioners and journalists. The digital era has enabled access for various online publics, both individuals and communities, to create, share and search information online and also potentially to increase their communicative power by using networks for influencing, challenging or holding businesses and news media accountable. This interview study investigated Finnish PR practitioners’ and journalists’ perceptions of the potential communicative power of individuals and communities operating on social media and the effects these publics’ online presence and activities ha…
Strategies of Eliciting Young People’s Affective and Quick Participation in a Youth Magazine’s Instagram Community
Traditional media have merged with social media and pursue to produce engaging content and form relationships with online audiences. At the same time, social media has allowed young people a venue to practice their basic needs of interaction, identity, and self-expression, and provides communities of shared issues and social/political aspirations. By analysing the Instagram post caption data of the largest Finnish (girls’) youth magazine, this case study investigated what posting strategies used by the magazine elicited youth participation, and how do the strategies and participation align with young people’s media and online communication preferences. The study found the magazine to use va…
Editorial: Issues of Ethics and Methods in Studying Social Media
The Editorial raises some challenging ethical and methodological aspects of Internet based research (such as protection of informational privacy, informed consent, general ethical guidelines vs case-based approach), which are further discussed in the five articles of this special issue. nonPeerReviewed
Vinkkejä sosiaaliseen mediaan : postaus- ja keskustelustrategioita toimituksille - julkaisualustana yhteisöpalvelu Facebook. Strategiaopas.
LUOTSIVA on Jyväskylän yliopiston kieli- ja viestintätieteiden laitoksella 2017–2019 aikana Media-alan tutkimussäätiön rahoituksella toteutettu tutkimushanke. Sen päämääränä oli löytää ja kokeilla keinoja, joilla sanomalehdet voisivat hyödyntää Facebook-sivujaan lukijasuhteen vahvistamiseen ja aktivoimiseen. Toimituksissa toteutetun kokeilujakson aikana neljä kotimaista sanomalehteä toteuttivat postaus- ja keskustelustrategioita omilla Facebook-sivuillaan. Kokeilujakso toteutettiin Keskisuomalaisen, Sisä-Suomen Lehden, Kalevan sekä Jämsän Seudun toimituksissa joulukuun 2018 ja tammikuun 2019 välisenä aikana. nonPeerReviewed