Crime prevention, swarm intelligence and stigmergy: Understanding the mechanisms of social media-facilitated community crime prevention

Author(s):  
Mark A Wood ◽  
Chrissy Thompson

Abstract Social media are now utilized extensively by Neighbourhood Watch-style initiatives; however, the impact social media have on the practices and mechanisms of community crime prevention remains under-theorized. Drawing on our observations of an Australian-based community crime prevention group over two-and-a-half years, this article develops a grounded theory of the mechanisms underpinning the group’s social media-facilitated practices of responding to local crime. We find that social media-facilitated Neighbourhood Watch is shaped by two phenomena that have yet to receive sustained attention in crime prevention research. These are swarm intelligence—a form of self-organization wherein collectives process information to solve problems that members cannot solve individually—and stigmergy: work that stimulates further work. In explaining how swarm intelligence and stigmergy interact with several of the long-acknowledged mechanisms and issues associated with Neighbourhood Watch, we emphasize the importance of examining how the media context of community crime prevention groups shapes their practices, behaviour and (in)efficacy.

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-49
Author(s):  
Katie Seaborn ◽  
Deborah I. Fels ◽  
Rob Bajko ◽  
Jaigris Hodson

Gamification, or the use of game elements in non-game contexts, has become a popular and increasingly accepted method of engaging learners in educational settings. However, there have been few comparisons of different kinds of courses and students, particularly in terms of discipline and content. Additionally, little work has reported on course instructor/designer perspectives. Finally, few studies on gamification have used a conceptual framework to assess the impact on student engagement. This paper reports on findings from evaluating two gamified multimedia and social media undergraduate courses over the course of one semester. Findings from applying a multidimensional framework suggest that the gamification approach taken was moderately effective for students overall, with some elements being more engaging than others in general and for each course over time." Post-term questionnaires posed to the instructors/course designers revealed congruence with the student perspective and several challenges pre- and post-implementation, despite the use of established rules for gamifying curricula.


2021 ◽  
Vol 00 (00) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jayeon Lee

The role of the media in informing the public has long been a central topic in journalism studies. Given that social media platforms have become today’s major source of news, it is important to understand the impact of social media use on citizens’ knowledge of current affairs. While people get news from multiple platforms throughout the day, most research treats social media as a single entity or examines only one or two major platforms ignoring newer social media platforms. Drawing on news snacking framework, this study investigates how using some of today’s most popular social media platforms predicts users’ current affairs knowledge, with particular attention to Snapchat and its news section Discover. A survey conducted in the United States (N=417) demonstrated that each of the platforms is distinct: Twitter is a strongly positive predictor of knowledge, Facebook a marginally significant negative predictor, Reddit a significantly negative predictor and Instagram not a significant predictor. Overall Snapchat use has no significant association with users’ knowledge of current affairs, whereas Discover use has a negative relationship. Further analysis revealed that mere exposure to Snapchat is positively related to soft-news knowledge and attention to Discover is negatively related to hard-news knowledge.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuhuan Zhou ◽  
Yi Wang

BACKGROUND During the COVID-19 outbreak, social media served as the main platform for information exchange, through which the Chinese government, media and public would spread information. At the same time, a variety of emotions interweave, and the public emotions would also be affected by the government and media. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the types, trends and relationships of emotional diffusion in Chinese social media among the public, the government and the media under the pandemic of COVID-19 (December 30,2019, to July 1,2020) . METHODS In this paper, Python 3.7.0 and its data crawling framework Scrapy 1.5.1 are used to write a web crawler program to search for super topics related to COVID-19 on Sina Weibo platform of different keywords . Then, we used emotional lexicon to analyze the types and trends of the public, government and media emotions on social media. Finally cross-lagged regression was applied to build the relationships of different subjects’ emotions. RESULTS The highlights of our study are threefold: (1) The public, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in China; (2) Emotional diffusion shows a certain change over time, and negative emotions are obvious in the initial phase of the pandemic, with the development of the pandemic, positive emotions surpass negative emotions and remain stable. (3)The impact among the three main emotions with the period as the time point is weak, while the impact of emotion with the day as the time point is relatively obvious. The emotions of the public and the government impact each other, and the media emotions can guide the public emotions. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study of comparing pubic, government and media emotions on the social media during COVID-19 pandemic in China. The pubic, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the pandemic. And the government and the media have better effect on short-term emotional guidance. Therefore, when the pandemic suddenly occurs, the government and the media should intervene in time to solve problems and conflicts and diffuse positive and neutral emotions. In this regard, the government and the media can play important roles through social media in the major outbreaks. At the theoretical level, this paper takes China's epidemic environment and social media as the background to provide one of the explanatory perspectives for the spread of emotions on social media. At the some time, because of this special background, it can provide comparison and reference for the research on internet emotions in other countries.


Glimpse ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-130
Author(s):  
Sarah Lwahas ◽  

Journalism like many other professions is facing a crucial phase with the emergence of Coronavirus pandemic. The impact of Coronavirus phenomenon is enormous on social and cultural relationships of many communities who depend on the media for information to connect with each other and participate in governance freely. Journalists globally are facing enormous crisis of managing the infodemic of the pandemic streaming particularly from social media; as well as controversies of the media perpetuating disinfodemic or disinformation and distrust in the society. Besides arrests and restrictions of movement, journalists are also under intense threats of losing their jobs, and exacerbated psychological and physical pressures owing to the devastating effects of COVID-19. Using the Social Responsibility theory, that emphasises improved standards of journalism, safeguarding the interests of journalism and journalists among others, and the Agenda setting theory, that controls access to news, information, and entertainment; this research interrogates how journalists from selected states in Northern Nigeria are responding to the challenges of reportage of COVID-19. This research sampled the views of journalists using structured questionnaire administered online and interviewed seven senior journalists holding managerial positions. Findings revealed that journalists are embracing fact checking of the avalanche of information even within familiar sources to verify reports on COVID-19. Similarly, they are deploying digital and multimedia strategies to provide a continuum of media services and sensitive reporting to engage this new infodemic of COVID-19, now globally considered the “new normal”. This research recommends that, since COVID-19 is a novel disease, professionals across countries need to talk with each other, and journalists particularly from Africa and indeed Nigeria; need to put some structure and some science in place, especially in the performance of their jobs, so that professionalism can be sustained without compromising the future of the journalism.


European View ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-219
Author(s):  
Juha-Pekka Nurvala ◽  
Amelia Buckell

This article argues that media regulations on correcting incorrect articles are in dire need of reform due to technological and behavioural changes. By using case studies from the UK, the authors demonstrate the huge difference between the number of people who were reached by the original article before the Independent Press Standards Organisation (the regulator in the UK) ruled it incorrect and the number reached by the correction or corrected article. The authors argue that media regulations must be reformed to ensure that corrections reach the same people as the original incorrect article to avoid misinformation impacting peoples’ decision-making, and that reforms must include social media platforms and search engines.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-123
Author(s):  
Cristiane Guilherme Bonfim ◽  
Márcia Vidal Nunes

This article aims to reflect on the impact that the campaign #PrimeiroAssédio [first harassment], created by the NGO Think Olga, in 2015, had on the perception of Facebook female users on the subject of harassment, drawing from the perspective of Cultural Studies. This hashtag encouraged the sharing of content and placed the feminist issue of combating sexual harassment on the agenda. We have used Martín-Barbero’s (1997) concept of mediation to investigate the context in which users published posts on Facebook and have conducted interviews with women who have published comments in the campaign’s posts. In a context of prolific content generation and intense participation, with many people speaking to many people, many authors see the emergence of politically driven action on social media, the so-called “digital activism”, as being relative, holding little expectations of radical social change. Our interviewees’ answers indicate that, in terms of tangible changes, they found that they were able to engage in dialogue about the topic with the people who were closest to them.         Este artigo tem como objetivo refletir sobre o impacto da campanha #PrimeiroAssédio, criada pela ONG Think Olga, em 2015, na percepção de leitoras no Facebook sobre o tema assédio, sob a perspectiva dos Estudos Culturais. A hashtag incentivou compartilhamento de conteúdo e agendou veículos de mídia sobre assédio, uma pauta que é bandeira de movimentos feministas. O conceito de mediações de Martín-Barbero (1997) é usado para investigar o contexto de postagens no Facebook e entrevistas com mulheres que comentaram em posts da campanha. No cenário de geração de conteúdo em profusão e da participação de muitos falando para muitos, a atuação política nas redes sociais, o chamado ativismo digital, é perpassada com alguma relativização, sem expectativa de mudança radical. As respostas das entrevistadas sinalizam que campanhas como essa podem  alcançar repercussão fora das redes, mas indicam que a mudança gerada foi o diálogo mais frequente sobre o tema com o círculo de pessoas mais próximo.Este artículo objetiva hacer una reflexión sobre el impacto de la campaña #PrimeiroAssédio (#Primeracoso), creada por la Organización no Gubernamental Think Olga el 2015, en la percepción de lectoras en Facebook sobre el tema acoso, bajo la perspectiva de los Estudios Culturales. La etiqueta incentivó que el contenido fuera compartido y generó agenda setting de medios de comunicación sobre acoso, una pauta que es bandera de los movimientos feministas. El concepto de mediaciones de Martín-Barbero (1997) es usado para investigar el contexto de publicaciones en Facebook y entrevistas con mujeres que comentaron en posts de la campaña. En el escenario de geración de contenido en profusión y de participación de muchos comunicando para muchos, la actuación política en las redes sociales, el llamado activismo digital, se puede identificar alguna relativización, sin expectativa de cambio radical. Las respuestas de las entrevistadas señalan que campañas como esa pueden alcanzar repercusión más allá de las redes, pero apuntan que el cambio generado ha sido el diálogo más a menudo sobre el tema con el círculo de personas más cercanas.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inayatu Solikhah

In this day and age many people use Indonesian language which is not in accordance with the rules of language and with the advancement of information technology which rapidly raises many social media, one of which is Instagram which is loved by almost all Indonesian people. The purpose of this study is to find out and explain how much influence instagram has in fostering the development of Indonesian. The method used is descriptive qualitative method with data collection techniques. The results of the study explained that Instagram social media was also used by the Ministry of Education and Culture to develop Indonesian language through accounts @badanbahasakemndikbud which upload many Indonesian rules and grammar, including spelling of words, equivalent words, raw words, punctuation, word terms, proverbs, and so on. Not only official accounts from the government, some communities also contribute to developing the Indonesian language through Instagram, one of which is @sastraindonesia with upload contents that together discuss Indonesian rules and grammar. The impact of the instagram as one of the media used in the development of Indonesian language is that more and more people know about Indonesian rules and grammar because of the ease of access by Instagram communities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 317 ◽  
pp. 05012
Author(s):  
Jazimatul Husna ◽  
Salsabila Sadiqin ◽  
Yahya Muhaimin ◽  
Fitriyana ◽  
Roisatul Wahdiyah

Several companies have reduced mass recovery efforts and in-person discussions for the Covid-19 pandemic password, one of which is PT Es Teh Indonesia Makmur. This study aims to: (1) Know the media for posting jobs and the application of the recruitment process through social media, including the stages and qualifications and competencies required at PT Es Teh Indonesia Makmur (2) Knowing the effectiveness of recruitment methods through social media to reduce the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic era and explains the comparison of the E-Recruitment method with the offline recruitment method at PT Es Teh Indonesia Makmur. The effectiveness of the Recruitment Method through social media by studying library data and observations shows that the electronic recruitment system for the workforce is suitable to be used to facilitate and improve human resource management in the Covid-19 Pandemic era. An increase in competent job applicants supports this, and PT Es Teh Indonesia Makmur is known to all circles to open job vacancies for more than 150 outlets in less than one year.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Baiti Rahmawati ◽  
Abdul Muhid

Da'wah and technological development are inseparable, this is based on the concept of contemporary da'wah that is easily accepted by the present, various new phenomena such as the case of rejection of clerics in several regions arise along with the rise of activity on social media, which incidentally is full of information which is not necessarily true (Tornberg & Tornberg, 2016: 132-134). The news of the pros and cons of rejecting the da'wah experienced by Ustadz Abdul Somad was forwarded freely on social media, one of the social media is twitter. In analyzing discourse on social media, especially Twitter, the author uses analysis technic of critical discourse analysis theory by Norman Fairclough to dismantle discourse practices (Eriyanto, 2015: 285), and includes Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony to see discourse battles (Ives, 2004: 63 ) in the phenomenon of Ustadz Abdul Somad's rejection. The results of this study include: (1) The issue of the affiliation of Ustadz Abdul Somad can be mediated with tabayyun and clarification through the media, both traditional and social. However, the issue of khilafah is growing until it displays a process of mutual accusation between the parties involved in the discourse of the khilafah revival; 2) The discourse of Ustadz Abdul Somad's rejection on social media in this study contains trends from two different ideologies namely Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and Hisbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI (3) The other tendencies are also influenced by political interests; 4) Between HTI and Banser has an impact on the image of Prabowo's and Jokowi's strongholds with the issue of the fight. HTI was identified as part of opposition supporters, while the impact on the Jokowi camp with anti-Islamic issues, because it was deemed not to show an attitude to clean up the chaos caused by burning the flag at the commemoration of the “Hari Santri Nasional.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Lee ◽  
Michelle Torok ◽  
Fiona Shand ◽  
Nicola Chen ◽  
Lauren McGillivray ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Researchers are increasingly using social media advertisements to recruit participants because of their many advantages over traditional methods. Although there is growing evidence for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of social media recruitment in the health sciences, no studies have yet examined this in the context of suicide prevention, which remains to be a highly stigmatized and sensitive topic. OBJECTIVE This study aims to recruit a general community sample to complete a survey on suicide literacy, stigma, and risk via Facebook advertisements. Specifically, we aim to establish the performance of the advertisements, cost-effectiveness, sample representativeness, and the impact of gender-specific advertising on recruiting men into the study. METHODS From June 2017 to March 2019, we released Facebook advertisements targeted at adults 18 years or older, residing in the New South Wales (NSW) trial or control regions, and involved in the LifeSpan suicide prevention trial. Cost-effectiveness was examined descriptively using metrics provided by Facebook. Chi-square analyses were conducted to determine demographic differences between our sample and the general NSW population as well as the impact of gender-specific advertisements on gender engagement. RESULTS The 14 Facebook advertisement campaigns reached a total of 675,199 people, yielding 25,993 link clicks and resulting in 9603 individuals initiating the survey (7487 completions) at an overall cost of Aus $2.81 (US $2.01) per participant. There was an overrepresentation of younger (<i>P</i>=.003), female (<i>P</i>=.003), highly educated (<i>P</i>&lt;.001) participants and mental health conditions (<i>P</i>&lt;.001) compared with the total NSW population. The use of male-specific advertisements resulted in a significantly higher proportion of men completing the survey relative to gender-neutral advertisements (38.2% vs 24.6%; <i>P</i>&lt;.001). CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates the potential of Facebook to be an effective, low-cost strategy for recruiting a large sample of general community participants for suicide prevention research. Strategies to improve sample representativeness warrant further investigation in future research.


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