scholarly journals Exploring the knowledge of social media platforms among higher education institute students’ of Rangpur, Bangladesh

Author(s):  
Md. Tabiur Rahman Prodhan ◽  
Md. Nazrul Islam ◽  
Md. Sajjat Hossain

Social media (SM) is one of the best indicators of the technological era. Nowadays people are witnessing the rapid increase of SM in almost every field of our lives from education to politics, society, and economics. It attracts all ages of people. Especially students show an intense interest in social media. The purpose of the study was to know the most preferred SM and the using pattern knowledgeability of respondents regarding various social media platforms (SMPs). A questionnaire-based survey was conducted over 100 students (60 males and 40 females) who were selected randomly from two largest universities in Rangpur, northern part of Bangladesh, studying in undergraduate and postgraduate programs in 2019 between ages 18 and 26. 95% of the respondents used different social media platforms where the top preferred social media platforms are Facebook (88%), YouTube (81%), and IMO (45%). The mean values of the respondents' using pattern knowledgeability level were between 4.46 and 1.88, with standard deviations ranging from 1.10 to 1.83. Most of the respondents have enough using pattern knowledgeability of being a user of Facebook with a wide range of mean scores in both the variables. Respondents have less using pattern knowledgeability of being a user of Viber with a tight range of mean scores in both the variables. All the dependent variables (features), except one (r-value 0.253), showed positive and significant correlations with the usage period where both the features of Twitter have the highest positive significance (r-value 0.945, 0.941 respectively). These scores were significant at p<0.05 level of probability.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Suarez-Lledo ◽  
Javier Alvarez-Galvez

BACKGROUND The propagation of health misinformation through social media has become a major public health concern over the last two decades. Although today there is broad agreement among researchers, health professionals, and policy makers on the need to control and combat health misinformation, the magnitude of this problem is still unknown. Consequently, before adopting the necessary measures for the adequate control of health misinformation in social media, it is fundamental to discover both the most prevalent health topics and the social media platforms from which these topics are initially framed and subsequently disseminated. OBJECTIVE This systematic review aims to identify the main health misinformation topics and their prevalence on different social media platforms, focusing on methodological quality and the diverse solutions that are being implemented to address this public health concern. METHODS This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines (PRISMA). We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus and the Web of Science for articles published in English before March 2019 with a particular focus on studying health misinformation in social media. We defined health misinformation as a health-related claim based on anecdotal evidence, false, or misleading due to the lack of existing scientific knowledge. The criteria for inclusion were: 1) articles that focused on health misinformation in social media, including those in which the authors discussed the consequences or purposes of health misinformation; and 2) studies that described empirical findings regarding the measurement of health misinformation in these platforms. RESULTS A total of 69 studies were identified as eligible, covering a wide range of health topics and social media platforms. The topics were articulated around six principal categories: vaccines (32%), drugs or smoking (22%), non-communicable disease (19%), pandemics (10%), eating disorders (9%), and medical treatments (7%). Studies were mainly based on five methodological approaches: Social Network Analysis (28%), Evaluating Content (26%), Evaluating Quality (24%), Content/Text analysis (16%) and Sentiment Analysis (6%). Health misinformation proved to be the most more prevalent in studies related to smoking products and drugs such as opioids or marijuana. Posts with misinformation reached 87% in some studies focused in smoking products. Health misinformation about vaccines was also very common (43%), but studies reported different levels of misinformation depending on the different vaccines, with the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine being the most affected. Secondly, health misinformation related to diets or pro eating disorders (pro-ED) arguments were moderate in comparison to the aforementioned topics (36%). Studies focused on diseases (i.e. non-communicable diseases and pandemics) also reported moderate misinformation rates (40%), especially in the case of cancer. Finally, the lowest levels of health misinformation were related to medical treatments (30%). CONCLUSIONS Prevalence of health misinformation was most common on Twitter and on issues related to smoking products and drugs. However, misinformation is also high on major public health issues such as vaccines and diseases. Our study offers a comprehensive characterization of the dominant health misinformation topics and a comprehensive description of their prevalence in different social media platforms, which can guide future studies and help in the development of evidence-based digital policy actions plans. CLINICALTRIAL


Plaridel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-295
Author(s):  
Yvonne Chua ◽  
Jake Soriano

Elections are fertile ground for disinformation. The 2019 midterm elections, like the 2016 presidential election, buttress this observation. This ugly side of electoral contests is documented by Tsek.ph, a pioneering collaborative fact-checking initiative launched by three universities and eleven newsrooms specifically for the midterms. Its repository of fact checks provides valuable insights into the nature of electoral disinformation before, during and after the elections. Clearly, electoral disinformation emanates from candidates and supporters alike, on conventional (e.g., speeches and sorties) and digital (e.g., social media) platforms. Its wide range of victims includes the media no less.


Author(s):  
Marina Amorim Sousa ◽  
Tomás Bañegil Palacios ◽  
Beatriz Corchuelo Martínez-Azúa

The aim of this study is to evaluate the degree of internationalization of Iberian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the factors that influence their internationalization process. The study begins with the contextualization of the HEI internationalization process through a brief historical synthesis and the establishment of the levels of analysis of this process, to focus, in more detail, the organizational level. To this end, it is supported in an organization dimensions model to define the components of the internationalization process and the data collection by questionnaire. The results were processed for each of its components, and the degree of internationalization was obtained by calculating the mean values of the components total. The study concludes that the Iberian HEIs have an interesting level of internationalization, which is higher for institutions with more than 5.000 students, with simultaneous focus on teaching and research, conferring the master's and doctor's degrees.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-72
Author(s):  
Saeed Rouhani ◽  
Ehsan Abedin

Purpose Crypto-currencies, decentralized electronic currencies systems, denote a radical change in financial exchange and economy environment. Consequently, it would be attractive for designers and policy-makers in this area to make out what social media users think about them on Twitter. The purpose of this study is to investigate the social opinions about different kinds of crypto-currencies and tune the best-customized classification technique to categorize the tweets based on sentiments. Design/methodology/approach This paper utilized a lexicon-based approach for analyzing the reviews on a wide range of crypto-currencies over Twitter data to measure positive, negative or neutral sentiments; in addition, the end result of sentiments played a training role to train a supervised technique, which can predict the sentiment loading of tweets about the main crypto-currencies. Findings The findings further prove that more than 50 per cent of people have positive beliefs about crypto-currencies. Furthermore, this paper confirms that marketers can predict the sentiment of tweets about these crypto-currencies with high accuracy if they use appropriate classification techniques like support vector machine (SVM). Practical implications Considering the growing interest in crypto-currencies (Bitcoin, Cardano, Ethereum, Litcoin and Ripple), the findings of this paper have a remarkable value for enterprises in the financial area to obtain the promised benefits of social media analysis at work. In addition, this paper helps crypto-currencies vendors analyze public opinion in social media platforms. In this sense, the current paper strengthens our understanding of what happens in social media for crypto-currencies. Originality/value For managers and decision-makers, this paper suggests that the news and campaign for their crypto in Twitter would affect people’s perspectives in a good manner. Because of this fact, the firms, investing in these crypto-currencies, could apply the social media as a magnifier for their promotional activities. The findings steer the market managers to see social media as a predictor tool, which can analyze the market through understanding the opinions of users of Twitter.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 2040023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mamoun Masoud Abdulqader ◽  
Yousof Zohair Almunsour

This research aims to investigate the effects of social media use on higher education teaching and learning as well as the students’ academic performance. A total of 275 students and faculty members from the College of Computer Science and Information Technology at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University took part in the study. The participants answered survey questions to analyse information on their use of social media in education and how that has affected their teaching, learning and grades. A majority of the participants reported that they used social media in training. However, they also stated that social media platforms were beneficial in academic matters. The number of participants who stated that the use of social media in learning helped improve their grades was 43%. The other 57% thought that social media had no impact on their grades or had an adverse effect or were undecided.


Author(s):  
Niall Corcoran ◽  
Aidan Duane

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are knowledge intensive environments by nature. However, the management of organisational knowledge and the promotion of staff knowledge sharing is largely neglected in these institutions. This study examines how enterprise social networks can enable staff knowledge sharing in communities of practice in that context. The study is framed as an Action Research project, covering three cycles over a 12 month period. A conceptual model was developed for empirical testing and data was collected through focus groups and interviews, supplemented by reflective journaling and content analysis. The findings support the conceptual model and provide insight into the antecedents necessary for the creation of an enterprise social network enabled knowledge sharing environment, the motivators for and barriers to participation, and the perceived organisational and individual benefits of increased staff knowledge sharing activity. The findings indicate that the barriers to participation are influenced by the prevalent organisation structure and culture, and a divide between faculty and other staff. However, individual benefits that accrue from participation may influence greater participation, and organisational benefits that accrue may influence organisational strategies that drive change in structure and culture to promote the development of the knowledge sharing environment. A number of findings have practical implications for the management of higher education institutions, such as the evidence of a divide between faculty and other staff, and the perceived existence of an organisational culture that inhibits staff communication, interaction and collaboration. In general, the study findings provide an opportunity for educationalists to better understand the scope and impact of employing social media platforms for knowledge sharing. This study adds to the growing body of work on organisational implementations of social media, and should be of interest to practitioners and researchers undertaking similar projects.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 178
Author(s):  
Jihad Mohammed Al-Sayyed ◽  
Mohammad Sayel Alzyoud

This study aimed at investigating the degree of using social media in the educational process by the teachers of the upper-primary stage in Jordan from teacher’s perspective. The survey method used in this study is the descriptive method. The data were collected using a questionnaire and was developed to achieve the objectives of the study. The population of the study includes 37703 teachers of the upper primary stage in governmental and private schools, supervised by the Ministry of Education in Jordan for the academic year (2016/2017). The study sample consisted of 2133 teachers (766 male teachers and 1367 female teachers) who were randomly selected according to the stratified random sampling. The first question was answered by calculating the mean and the standard deviations of the sample individual’s responses based on the items of the questionnaire related to the degree of using social media in the educational process in the upper primary stage in Jordan. In answering question one, the mean and the standard deviations of the responses of the sample individuals were calculated on the questionnaire based on the degree of using social media in the educational process in the upper primary stage in Jordan in general, and also for each dimension of the study questionnaire. Results of question one showed that the degree of using social media means by the teachers of upper primary stage in Jordan was low. In answering question two, the significant statistical differences (α = 0.05) based on the degree of using social media in the educational process by the teachers of the upper primary stage in Jordan due to their gender, school type, and academic qualification were examined through calculated means, standard deviations, the independent samples t-test, and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results of question two showed that there are statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 on the scores of the respondents in the study sample. This, however, can be seen in terms of the dimensions of the degree of using social media by teachers of upper primary stage in educational process in Jordan, for the whole tool, due to gender in favor of males. The differences were in the dimension of knowledge, skills, and value for males. In terms of the social dimension, the differences were in favor of females. There are no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 on the degrees of the respondents to the study sample on the dimensions of the use of social media by teachers of upper primary stage in educational process in Jordan, and based on the degree of overall tool, according to school type variable (governmental, private). In the light of the study results, a number of recommendations were proposed, including enhancing the methods of the use of social media means in the educational process, and overcoming the obstacles that hinder the use of social media in the learning and teaching process.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512091399
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dubois ◽  
Sara Minaeian ◽  
Ariane Paquet-Labelle ◽  
Simon Beaudry

As trust in news media and social media dwindles and fears of disinformation and echo chambers spread, individuals need to find ways to access and assess reliable and trustworthy information. Despite low levels of trust in social media, they are used for accessing political information and news. In this study, we examine the information verification practices of opinion leaders (who consume political information above average and share their opinions on social media above average) and of opinion seekers (who seek out political information from friends and family) to understand similarities and differences in their news media trust, fact-checking behaviors, and likeliness of being caught in echo chambers. Based on a survey of French Internet users ( N = 2,000) we find that not only opinion leaders, but also opinion seekers, have higher rates across all three of these dependent variables. We discuss the implications of findings for the development of opinion leadership theory as well as for social media platforms wishing to increase trust.


1968 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Walsh ◽  
J. A. F. Rook ◽  
F. H. Dodd

Summary(1) A tentative scheme is proposed for the quantitative estimation of the effects of various factors on one major milk constituent, lactose, from analyses of the milk of individual cows within herds. The potential lactose content in the milk of individual cows is predicted from the observed potassium-to-lactose ratio in the milk, and the difference between the predicted potential and the actual lactose content is partitioned into fractions that are attributed to effects due to age, inter-quarter difference and changes with stage of lactation. The scheme was applied to 2 commercial herds, one (herd A) producing milk of low and the other (herd B) milk of normal SNF content.(2) Lactation mean values for fat, SNF and lactose contents of the milk of individual cows showed a wide range of the same order in each of the 2 herds. Of the mean difference in SNF percentage of 0·30 between the herds, 0·14, or 47%, was due to a difference in lactose content.(3) The predicted potential milk lactose content of the cows in the 2 herds ranged from 5·04 to 5·66 (g/100 g milk water). Herd mean values were 5·394 for herd A and 5·244 for herd B.(4) Herd mean values for the effect on the lactose content (g/100 g milk water) of age, of changes with stage of lactation and of inter-quarter difference were −0·127, −0·080, and 0·073 respectively in herd A, and −0·197, −0·058 and −0·078, respectively, in herd B.(5) The relative importance of the various factors in accounting for differences between the herds in the lactose content of their bulk milk were: predicted potential lactose content 61%, effect of age 28%, effect of changes with stage of lactation 9% and effect of inter-quarter difference 2%.(6) The errors attached to the estimation of potential milk lactose content and the effects of age, of changes with stage of lactation and of inter-quarter difference are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Zhida Zhang ◽  
Jiening Liang ◽  
Min Zhang ◽  
Qi Guo ◽  
Lei Zhang

Surface layer turbulence has an important influence on land-air interactions and pollutant dispersion, and studying the characteristics of surface layer turbulence in complex terrain can contribute to understanding land-air interactions, improving model surface layer parameterization, and enhancing pollution prediction capabilities. The surface layer turbulence observations from the Semi-Arid Climate and Environment Observatory (SACOL) of Lanzhou University in 2008 were processed in this study. High-quality turbulence parameters were calculated, the statistical and transfer characteristics of turbulence were analyzed, and the formation of turbulence was assessed in terms of dynamics and thermodynamics. The atmospheric stability in the semiarid region of the Loess Plateau is basically dominated by neutral/near-neutral and weakly unstable/weakly stable conditions; this pattern is significantly different from the preponderance of unstable and stable layers at other sites. The turbulence intensity differs significantly in both the horizontal and vertical directions and basically shows the relationship I u ≈ I v > I w . The mean values of I u and I v are 0.42 and 0.40, respectively, and the mean value of I w is 0.14, which is different from the general pattern of I u > I v > I w , indicating that the turbulence intensity at SACOL is characterized by a large lateral wind contribution. The dimensionless standard deviations of the nonneutral wind velocity components satisfy the “1/3rd law,” and the dimensionless standard deviations of u, v , and w components are 3.35, 2.98, and 1.26, respectively, in the semiarid Loess Plateau. These values are larger than those over flat terrain. The contribution of the shear term to the formation of turbulence is greater than that of the buoyancy term, and the mean annual values of the shear term and the buoyancy in the kinetic energy budget equation in SACOL are 47.94 × 10−4 m2·s−3 and 11.32 × 10−4 m2·s−3, respectively. The annual mean values of the momentum transfer coefficient C D and the heat transfer coefficient C H under near-neutral conditions are 8.54 × 10−3 and 2.52 × 10−3, respectively.


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