Keeping pace with journalism training in the age of social media and convergence: How worthwhile is it to teach online skills?

Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 877-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ainara Larrondo Ureta ◽  
Simón Peña Fernández

Media organizations are immersed in a significant process of technological, professional and business restructuring driven by multimedia convergence and the impact of social media. Regardless of their size and scope, they are becoming increasingly aware of the need to enhance their multiplatform delivery strategies and respond more closely to their audiences’ needs and interests. Professionals working for these organizations therefore must cope with, and learn to thrive in, convergent media environments that call for a high level of cooperative effort and multitasking. These requirements seem to be even higher with regard to online journalism, a sector exposed to continual technological change and oriented towards the development of content in a variety of formats. In the light of this scenario and the recent debates regarding the best way to keep journalism training up to date, this article offers a subject-based case study to examine the challenges involved in incorporating convergence and social media into journalism university curricula. By means of a mix of data methods, the study focuses on the planning, practices and ramifications of a specific course on online journalism newswriting and reporting. The conclusions provide a critical discussion of the objectives and tools used by educators in the classroom and discuss the appropriateness of courses devoted to online journalism for preparing future journalists to cope with daily newsroom challenges resulting from media convergence and social media content production.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
SANGHAMITRA CHOUDHURY ◽  
Shailendra Kumar

<p>The relationship between women, technology manifestation, and likely prospects in the developing world is discussed in this manuscript. Using India as a case study, the paper goes on to discuss how ontology and epistemology views utilised in AI (Artificial Intelligence) and robotics will affect women's prospects in developing countries. Women in developing countries, notably in South Asia, are perceived as doing domestic work and are underrepresented in high-level professions. They are disproportionately underemployed and face prejudice in the workplace. The purpose of this study is to determine if the introduction of AI would exacerbate the already precarious situation of women in the developing world or if it would serve as a liberating force. While studies on the impact of AI on women have been undertaken in developed countries, there has been less research in developing countries. This manuscript attempts to fill that need.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-216
Author(s):  
Akif Al-Khasawneh ◽  
Bassam Abu Khadar

The research aims to investigate the most common types of organizational conflicts among employees in private hospitals and discover the impact of organizational conflicts on employee turnover. The research outlined the relationship between the variables to present the idea of organizational conflicts and employee turnover. The hypotheses were tested using a survey data of 340 questionnaires distributed randomly to employees working in four private hospitals in Jordan. Random selection of private hospitals was made among eight hospitals in the northern governorates of Jordan (Irbid, Jerash, Mafraq, and Ajlun), which are considered the largest districts in the country. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS program, and initial statistical techniques were applied. The results showed that the highest level of impact of organizational conflicts on the internal turnover of employees was related to the conflict between employees and direct supervisors. However, the highest level of the impact of organizational conflicts on the external turnover of employees was related to the conflict between employees and top management. The low-level job conflicts of employees were those with owners and middle management. Thus, to create stability, prevent work pressure, and retain employees, managers of private hospitals necessarily need to provide an appropriate work environment, develop high level of well-being, and decrease the workload. AcknowledgmentsWe would like to thank Al-Balqa Applied University in the Kingdom of Jordan and the Institute of Public Administration in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their kind support and for giving us access to the research facilities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 00 (00) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Joseph Njuguna

With the integration of social media in journalism practice, media training institutions must focus on preparing future media professionals with the right mix of digital skills for the industry. Although efforts to improve students’ online skills readiness are evident in schools, no reliable tool exists to assess students’ confidence in doing online journalism tasks upon graduation. This study develops and validates an Online Journalism Self-Efficacy Scale (OJSES) that can be used to measure mass communication students’ perceptions of their self-efficacy for online journalism work. Items for the proposed scale were developed from a comprehensive literature review and refined by eight online journalism professionals (five online journalism lecturers and three online news editors). To explore the factor structure of the tool, exploratory factor analysis of data from a sample of finalist undergraduate mass communication students (n = 182) in five Rwandan universities was done. Results suggested that the OJSES is a five-dimensional tool that comprises 27 items. This scale measures online journalism self-efficacy in terms of students’ capabilities to conduct online journalism research, communicate with social media tools, create and share multimedia content online, observe ethical online publishing and use social media to solve organizational problems. The scale demonstrated reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.785 and the five self-efficacy dimensions explaining 51.1 per cent of the total variance. The scale’s psychometric soundness implied its suitability not only to empirically measure the students’ confidence in working in online environments but also guide capacity-building for the required online skills for the media industry.


Author(s):  
Collen Sabao ◽  
Tendai Owen Chikara

The chapter examines and discusses the role and communicative potential of social media based platforms in citizen political participation and protests in Zimbabwe specifically focusing on the #thisflag movement on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. #thisflag is a social media-based platform that rose to challenge the Zimbabwean government over the political and economic decay as well as rampant corruption characterising the country contemporarily. While a new phenomenon to Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean politics, the impact and communicative potential of social media as an alternative public sphere was recently tested in nationwide protest stayaway organised through the Facebook and Twitter movement under the #thisflag handle/brand. This chapter discusses the manners in which such social media platforms impact national politics in Zimbabwe as well as globally, specifically looking at the #thisflag movement as a case study.


2020 ◽  
pp. 772-786
Author(s):  
Collen Sabao ◽  
Tendai Owen Chikara

The chapter examines and discusses the role and communicative potential of social media based platforms in citizen political participation and protests in Zimbabwe specifically focusing on the #thisflag movement on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. #thisflag is a social media-based platform that rose to challenge the Zimbabwean government over the political and economic decay as well as rampant corruption characterising the country contemporarily. While a new phenomenon to Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean politics, the impact and communicative potential of social media as an alternative public sphere was recently tested in nationwide protest stayaway organised through the Facebook and Twitter movement under the #thisflag handle/brand. This chapter discusses the manners in which such social media platforms impact national politics in Zimbabwe as well as globally, specifically looking at the #thisflag movement as a case study.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nada Marzouk

On a high level, this research project explores the impact of the Virtual Fitting Room (“VFR”) technology on e-commerce. More specifically, this project is concerned with exploring the impact of the VFR technology in relation to online fashion sales. The central question this project has considered is: Does a virtual fitting room lead to an increase in 1) social media engagement and 2) product sales? VFR technology provides end users with an understanding of how a piece of clothing fits. This project oversaw the implementation of a series of interventions to measure the value of VFR. To test the premise of this research, six Egyptian fashion designers with an ineffective online presence were assigned to an e-commerce platform with VFR technology. To measure the impact of VFR, the researcher targeted three key audiences: 1) designers who only use social media, 2) designers who use social media and have a website, and 3) designers who use social media and have an e-commerce store with VFR. A benchmark for each of social media engagement, sales, and returns were provided by each designer. Results demonstrated that the presence of VFR significantly increased curiosity, customer loyalty, and engagement, while reducing uncertainty about sizing. However, the data collected was not sufficient to prove a direct correlation between the conversion rate and sales


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Czajkowski

This paper looks at how social media is used as part of company branding to encourage customer loyalty. The research presents a case study of lululemon andIts Facebook page and customer product review page to illustrate the importance of social media, using content analysis to interpret the data gathered. The case study shows evidence that a brand community exists on lululemon’s Facebook page, illustrating the importance of social media to customers. The paper concludes that because customers have a high level of involvement in social media, companies would benefit from maintaining a high level of involvement in that same media. The Paper suggests that further research could determine whether the involvement of companies via social media does affect their level of loyalty.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-54
Author(s):  
Craig A. Escamilla ◽  
Katharine A. Fraccastoro ◽  
Emily Ehrlich

This case study concerns how the personal behavior of students involved in fraternal organizations is depicted in social media, and how that behavior impacts the organization and its image. The legal and ethical implications of individuals’ behaviors in social media has become a major issue for many organizations. This case follows an example of a fraternal organization and how the governing body must handle the information members post on social media. The mission of many fraternal organizations is to champion or contribute to specific causes. Members’ social media postings may reflect poorly on the organization and may not always align with the principles of the organization. This case examines how those postings impact the organization, and what it can do to mitigate the effects. The ethical issues that can affect the actions of both the governing body and the members are probed throughout the case.


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