Appropriation Of Social Media Research Articles

Shia Clerics, Holy Sites, and the Online Visual Culture of the Revolutionary Youth in Iran

Since the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) called on the clergy to embark on an online jihad to rescue youngsters trapped in the “killing field” of the internet, a vast number of clerics and state-sponsored religious organizations and actors have expanded their online activities. The growing body of Islamic online contents produced by the IRI’s promoters and the proliferation of social media-related practices in religious places and events have shaped the online visual culture of the Iranian revolutionary youths. To explore this under-researched area, this study concentrates on three sets of visual tropes: (1) selfies with martyrs, (2) selfies taken by revolutionary clerics in disaster-stricken areas, and (3) shared images of the holy shrine of Imam Reza on Instagram. In addition to online documents (including posters, photographs, and reports), the data includes selectively chosen Instagram postings retrieved by searching pertinent accounts, hashtags, and locations on the platform. The investigation inquires the ways in which online image-making has been incorporated in the construction of holy sites and the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom propagated by the IRI as ideal youth aspirations. The findings demonstrate the extensive appropriation of social media and intensive integration of online image-making in this field. The study contributes to understanding of the online spaces and practices aimed at extending the influence over the online youth culture in Iran in line with the IRI’s cultural plans and policies.

The role of social media in youth civic engagement practices in the Eastern Cape

The increasing appropriation of social media by young people has impelled many scholars to study how social networks affect their civic participation. Understanding this has become more urgent since there are concerns over the growing indifference to civic participation among young people. The paper was conceptualised using the public sphere theory. A mixed research design was used and 331 questionnaires were distributed to gather quantitative data while six focus group discussions were conducted to gather qualitative data. The findings showed that there is a shifting notion of communities and that young people are using social media to interact and solve issues that affect them in their ‗communities‘. Young people also use social media to get news, to discuss community development issues and to help others within their social networks to address challenges they face individually or collectively. The study concludes that social networks are important tools for promoting civic engagement.

"Bound to Be Free: Occupational Norms, Sensemaking and the Appropriation of Social Media at Work"

In this study of a European Publishing house, we describe the ways members of two different occupations mobilize social media in order to achieve control over work. Prior studies have shown that ne...

Social Media Appropriation in Informatics Reporting—A Systematic Literature Review

Social Media Appropriation in Informatics Reporting—A Systematic Literature Review

Exploring a Curatorial Turn in Journalism

Exploring a Curatorial Turn in Journalism

New platform, old habits? Candidates’ use of Twitter during the 2010 British and Dutch general election campaigns

Twitter has become one of the most important online spaces for political communication practice and research. Through a hand-coded content analysis, this study compares how British and Dutch Parliamentary candidates used Twitter during the 2010 general elections. We found that Dutch politicians were more likely to use Twitter than UK candidates and on average tweeted over twice as much as their British counterparts. Dutch candidates were also more likely to embrace the interactive potential of Twitter, and it appeared that the public responded to this by engaging in further dialogue. We attribute the more conservative approach of British candidates compared to the Netherlands to historic differences in the appropriation of social media by national elites, and differing levels of discipline imposed from the central party machines.