WorldWideScience

Sample records for identifying social communication

  1. Assisting digital forensics investigations by identifying social communication irregularities

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Pieterse, Heloise

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available People are creatures of habit, favouring the familiar over unpredictability, which causes them to usually follow set patterns or routines. This is especially true for social interaction or communication where people tend to prefer familiar or well...

  2. Reduced Tract Integrity of the Model for Social Communication Is a Neural Substrate of Social Communication Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo, Yu-Chun; Chen, Yu-Jen; Hsu, Yung-Chin; Tseng, Wen-Yih Isaac; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen

    2017-01-01

    Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with social communication deficits as one of the core symptoms. Recently, a five-level model for the social communication has been proposed in which white matter tracts corresponding to each level of the model are identified. Given that the model for social communication…

  3. Reduced tract integrity of the model for social communication is a neural substrate of social communication deficits in autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo, Yu-Chun; Chen, Yu-Jen; Hsu, Yung-Chin; Tseng, Wen-Yih Isaac; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen

    2017-05-01

    Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with social communication deficits as one of the core symptoms. Recently, a five-level model for the social communication has been proposed in which white matter tracts corresponding to each level of the model are identified. Given that the model for social communication subserves social language functions, we hypothesized that the tract integrity of the model for social communication may be reduced in ASD, and the reduction may be related to social communication deficits. Sixty-two right-handed boys with ASD and 55 typically developing (TD) boys received clinical evaluations, intelligence tests, the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), and MRI scans. Generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) was measured by diffusion spectrum imaging to indicate the microstructural integrity of the tracts for each level of the social communication model. Group difference in the tract integrity and its relationship with the SCQ subscales of social communication and social interaction were investigated. We found that the GFA values of the superior longitudinal fasciculus III (SLF III, level 1) and the frontal aslant tracts (FAT, level 2) were decreased in ASD compared to TD. Moreover, the GFA values of the SLF III and the FAT were associated with the social interaction subscale in ASD. The tract integrity of the model for social communication is reduced in ASD, and the reduction is associated with impaired social interaction. Our results support that reduced tract integrity of the model for social communication might be a neural substrate of social communication deficits in ASD. © 2016 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

  4. Social communication in bats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaverri, Gloriana; Ancillotto, Leonardo; Russo, Danilo

    2018-05-15

    calls are also known to deter predators, repel competitors from foraging patches, attract group mates to roost sites, coordinate foraging activities, and are used during courtship. In addition to sound, visual displays such as wing flapping or hovering may be used during courtship, and swarming around roost sites may serve as a visual cue of roost location. However, visual communication in bats still remains a poorly studied signal modality. Finally, the most common form of tactile communication known in bats is social grooming, which may be used to signal reproductive condition, but also to facilitate and strengthen cooperative interactions. Overall, this review demonstrates the rapid advances made in the study of bat social communication during recent years, and also identifies topics that require further study, particularly those that may allow us to understand adaptation to rapidly changing environmental conditions. © 2018 Cambridge Philosophical Society.

  5. Offline Social Relationships and Online Cancer Communication: Effects of Social and Family Support on Online Social Network Building.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Namkoong, Kang; Shah, Dhavan V; Gustafson, David H

    2017-11-01

    This study investigates how social support and family relationship perceptions influence breast cancer patients' online communication networks in a computer-mediated social support (CMSS) group. To examine social interactions in the CMSS group, we identified two types of online social networks: open and targeted communication networks. The open communication network reflects group communication behaviors (i.e., one-to-many or "broadcast" communication) in which the intended audience is not specified; in contrast, the targeted communication network reflects interpersonal discourses (i.e., one-to-one or directed communication) in which the audience for the message is specified. The communication networks were constructed by tracking CMSS group usage data of 237 breast cancer patients who participated in one of two National Cancer Institute-funded randomized clinical trials. Eligible subjects were within 2 months of a diagnosis of primary breast cancer or recurrence at the time of recruitment. Findings reveal that breast cancer patients who perceived less availability of offline social support had a larger social network size in the open communication network. In contrast, those who perceived less family cohesion had a larger targeted communication network in the CMSS group, meaning they were inclined to use the CMSS group for developing interpersonal relationships.

  6. The application of "integrated marketing communications" to social marketing and health communication: organizational challenges and implications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nowak, G; Cole, G; Kirby, S; Freimuth, V; Caywood, C

    1998-01-01

    Influencing consumer behavior is a difficult and often resource-intensive undertaking, with success usually requiring identifying, describing, and understanding target audiences; solid product and/or service positioning relative to competitors; and significant media and communication resources. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is a new way of organizing and managing persuasive communication tools and functions which involves realigning communications to consider the flow of information from an organization from the viewpoint of end consumers. Although the application of IMC to social marketing remains relatively unexplored, the IMC literature and recent efforts by the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control suggest that integrated communication approaches have much to offer social marketing and health communication efforts. IMC, IMC and social marketing, and implications of IMC for public and private sector social marketing programs are discussed.

  7. Identifying Food Safety Concerns when Communication Barriers Exist

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neal, Jack A.; Dawson, Mary; Madera, Juan M.

    2011-01-01

    Abstract: Students must be prepared to lead a diverse workforce. The objective of this study was to establish a teaching method that helps students identify barriers to food safety while working in a simulated environment with communication barriers. This study employed a perspective taking exercise based upon the principles of social learning…

  8. Developing a schedule to identify social communication difficulties and autism spectrum disorder in young children with visual impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Absoud, Michael; Parr, Jeremy R; Salt, Alison; Dale, Naomi

    2011-03-01

    Available observational tools used in the identification of social communication difficulties and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) rely partly on visual behaviours and therefore may not be valid in children with visual impairment. A pilot observational instrument, the Visual Impairment and Social Communication Schedule (VISS), was developed to aid in identifying social communication difficulties and ASD in young children with visual impairment affected by congenital disorders of the peripheral visual system (disorders of the globe, retina, and anterior optic nerve). The VISS was administered to 23 consecutive children (age range 1 y 9 mo-6 y 11 mo, mean 4 y 1 mo [SD 1.6]; 12 males, 11 females) with visual impairment (nine with severe and 14 with profound visual impairment). Item analysis was carried out by fit of the items to the Rasch model. Validity of the VISS was explored by comparison with the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) score, and the clinical ASD diagnosis (n=9). Correlation between the VISS and CARS total scores was highly significant (Spearman's rho=-0.89; p=0.01). Below threshold rating on the VISS (score of 35) showed good agreement with the clinical ASD diagnosis (sensitivity 89%, specificity 100%). This preliminary study shows the VISS to be a promising schedule to aid the identification of ASD in young children with visual impairment. © The Authors. Journal compilation © Mac Keith Press 2010.

  9. SOCIAL NETWORKS AND INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Veronica GHEORGHIȚĂ

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Social networks visible influence people's ability to interact and communicate. Extending social circles by establishing virtual links involves a number of positive aspects such as: instant access to options for interaction, sharing of information to large communities of people, intensification of acts of communication, high levels of feedback and trust with people with whom we communicate. On the other hand, social networks adversely affects communication by decreasing the interaction face to face, by imposing superficial communications experiences, grammatical and spelling erosion of the language. Therefore, the study aims to capture the spread of social networks, their use and impact on interpersonal communication. More specifically, they look for the answer to the question: what is the nature of interpersonal communication that is found on social networking sites: personal, emotional, private or shared, informal, and public?

  10. Social cognitive mediators of parent-child sexual communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, W Douglas; Blitstein, Jonathan L; Davis, Kevin C

    2011-07-01

    To test a social cognitive behavior change model and identify mediators of the effects of the Parents Speak Up National Campaign (PSUNC) on parent-child sexual communication. Investigators used 5 waves of data from an online randomized controlled trial. Latent variables were developed based on item response theory and confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modeling was used to test mediation. Outcome expectations mediated effects of social norms and self-efficacy on sexual communication. Other hypothesized mediators were not confirmed. Interventions to promote parent-child sexual communication should target outcome expectations. Future research should investigate parents' health information seeking.

  11. Social communication deficits: Specific associations with Social Anxiety Disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halls, Georgia; Cooper, Peter J; Creswell, Cathy

    2015-02-01

    Social communication deficits are prevalent amongst children with anxiety disorders; however whether they are over-represented specifically among children with Social Anxiety Disorder has not been examined. This study set out to examine social communication deficits among children with Social Anxiety Disorder in comparison to children with other forms of anxiety disorder. Parents of 404 children with a diagnosed anxiety disorder completed the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ; Rutter, M., Bailey, A., Lord, C., 2003. The Social Communication Questionnaire - Manual. Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles, CA). Children with a diagnosis of Social Anxiety Disorder (n=262) and anxious children without Social Anxiety Disorder (n=142) were compared on SCQ total and subscale scores and the frequency of participants scoring above clinical cut-offs. Children with Social Anxiety Disorder scored significantly higher than anxious children without Social Anxiety Disorder on the SCQ total (t(352)=4.85, p<.001, d=.55, r=.27), Reciprocal Social Interaction (t(351)=4.73, p<.001, d=.55, r=.27), communication (t(344)=3.62, p<.001, d=.43, r=.21) and repetitive, restrictive and stereotyped behaviors subscales (t(353)=3.15, p=.002, d=.37, r=.18). Furthermore, children with Social Anxiety Disorder were three times more likely to score above clinical cut-offs. The participants were a relatively affluent group of predominantly non-minority status. The social communication difficulties measure relied on parental report which could be influenced by extraneous factors. Treatments for Social Anxiety Disorder may benefit from a specific focus on developing social communication skills. Future research using objective assessments of underlying social communication skills is required. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Sub-dimensions of social-communication impairment in autism spectrum disorder

    OpenAIRE

    Bishop, Somer L.; Havdahl, Karoline Alexandra; Huerta, Marisela; Lord, Catherine

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: More refined dimensions of social-communication impairment are needed to elucidate the clinical and biological boundaries of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other childhood onset psychiatric disorders associated with social difficulties, as well as to facilitate investigations in treatment and long-term outcomes of these disorders.METHODS: This study was intended to identify separable dimensions of clinician-observed social-communication impairments by examining scores on a wi...

  13. Social media use in the United States: implications for health communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, Wen-ying Sylvia; Hunt, Yvonne M; Beckjord, Ellen Burke; Moser, Richard P; Hesse, Bradford W

    2009-11-27

    Given the rapid changes in the communication landscape brought about by participative Internet use and social media, it is important to develop a better understanding of these technologies and their impact on health communication. The first step in this effort is to identify the characteristics of current social media users. Up-to-date reporting of current social media use will help monitor the growth of social media and inform health promotion/communication efforts aiming to effectively utilize social media. The purpose of the study is to identify the sociodemographic and health-related factors associated with current adult social media users in the United States. Data came from the 2007 iteration of the Health Information National Trends Study (HINTS, N = 7674). HINTS is a nationally representative cross-sectional survey on health-related communication trends and practices. Survey respondents who reported having accessed the Internet (N = 5078) were asked whether, over the past year, they had (1) participated in an online support group, (2) written in a blog, (3) visited a social networking site. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify predictors of each type of social media use. Approximately 69% of US adults reported having access to the Internet in 2007. Among Internet users, 5% participated in an online support group, 7% reported blogging, and 23% used a social networking site. Multivariate analysis found that younger age was the only significant predictor of blogging and social networking site participation; a statistically significant linear relationship was observed, with younger categories reporting more frequent use. Younger age, poorer subjective health, and a personal cancer experience predicted support group participation. In general, social media are penetrating the US population independent of education, race/ethnicity, or health care access. Recent growth of social media is not uniformly distributed across

  14. Subdimensions of social-communication impairment in autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bishop, Somer L; Havdahl, Karoline Alexandra; Huerta, Marisela; Lord, Catherine

    2016-08-01

    More refined dimensions of social-communication impairment are needed to elucidate the clinical and biological boundaries of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other childhood onset psychiatric disorders associated with social difficulties, as well as to facilitate investigations in treatment and long-term outcomes of these disorders. This study was intended to identify separable dimensions of clinician-observed social-communication impairments by examining scores on a widely used autism diagnostic instrument. Participants included verbally fluent children ages 3-13 years, who were given a clinical diagnosis of ASD (n = 120) or non-ASD (i.e. ADHD, language disorder, intellectual disability, mood or anxiety disorder; n = 118) following a comprehensive diagnostic assessment. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis examined the factor structure of algorithm items from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), Module 3. Results indicated that a three-factor model consisting of repetitive behaviors and two separate social-communication behavior factors had superior fit compared to a two-factor model that included repetitive behaviors and one social-communication behavior factor. In the three-factor model, impairments in 'Basic Social-Communication' behaviors (e.g. eye contact, facial expressions, gestures) were separated from impairments in 'Interaction quality.' Confirmatory factor analysis in an independent sample of children in the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) further supported the division of social-communication impairments into these two factors. Scores in Interaction Quality were significantly associated with nonverbal IQ and male sex in the ASD group, and with age in the non-ASD group, while scores in basic social communication were not significantly associated with any of these child characteristics in either diagnostic group. Efforts to conceptualize level, or severity, of social-communication impairment in children with

  15. Developing a Schedule to Identify Social Communication Difficulties and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Young Children with Visual Impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Absoud, Michael; Parr, Jeremy R.; Salt, Alison; Dale, Naomi

    2011-01-01

    Available observational tools used in the identification of social communication difficulties and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) rely partly on visual behaviours and therefore may not be valid in children with visual impairment. A pilot observational instrument, the Visual Impairment and Social Communication Schedule (VISS), was…

  16. Communication in Animal Social Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Snijders, Lysanne; Naguib, Marc

    2017-01-01

    Animal social networks and animal communication networks are key disciplines for understanding animal social behavior, yet these disciplines remain poorly integrated. In this review, we show how communication and social networks are inherently linked, with social signals reflecting and affecting

  17. Communicating science in social settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheufele, Dietram A

    2013-08-20

    This essay examines the societal dynamics surrounding modern science. It first discusses a number of challenges facing any effort to communicate science in social environments: lay publics with varying levels of preparedness for fully understanding new scientific breakthroughs; the deterioration of traditional media infrastructures; and an increasingly complex set of emerging technologies that are surrounded by a host of ethical, legal, and social considerations. Based on this overview, I discuss four areas in which empirical social science helps clarify intuitive but sometimes faulty assumptions about the social-level mechanisms of science communication and outline an agenda for bench and social scientists--driven by current social-scientific research in the field of science communication--to guide more effective communication efforts at the societal level in the future.

  18. Early markers of autism spectrum disorders in infants and toddlers prospectively identified in the Social Attention and Communication Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbaro, Josephine; Dissanayake, Cheryl

    2013-01-01

    The Social Attention and Communication Study involved the successful implementation of developmental surveillance of the early markers of autism spectrum disorders in a community-based setting. The objective in the current study was to determine the most discriminating and predictive markers of autism spectrum disorders used in the Social Attention and Communication Study at 12, 18 and 24 months of age, so that these could be used to identify children with autism spectrum disorders with greater accuracy. The percentage of 'yes/no' responses for each behavioural marker was compared between children with autistic disorder (n = 39), autism spectrum disorder (n = 50) and developmental and/or language delay (n = 20) from 12 to 24 months, with a logistic regression also conducted at 24 months. Across all ages, the recurring key markers of both autistic disorder and autism spectrum disorder were deficits in eye contact and pointing, and from 18 months, deficits in showing became an important marker. In combination, these behaviours, along with pretend play, were found to be the best group of predictors for a best estimate diagnostic classification of autistic disorder/autism spectrum disorder at 24 months. It is argued that the identified markers should be monitored repeatedly during the second year of life by community health-care professionals.

  19. Measuring Social Communication Behaviors as a Treatment Endpoint in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anagnostou, Evdokia; Jones, Nancy; Huerta, Marisela; Halladay, Alycia K.; Wang, Paul; Scahill, Lawrence; Horrigan, Joseph P.; Kasari, Connie; Lord, Cathy; Choi, Dennis; Sullivan, Katherine; Dawson, Geraldine

    2015-01-01

    Social communication impairments are a core deficit in autism spectrum disorder. Social communication deficit is also an early indicator of autism spectrum disorder and a factor in long-term outcomes. Thus, this symptom domain represents a critical treatment target. Identifying reliable and valid outcome measures for social communication across a…

  20. Identifying the new Influencers in the Internet Era: Social Media and Social Network Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MIGUEL DEL FRESNO GARCÍA

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Social media influencers (SMIs can be defined as a new type of independent actor who are able to shape audience attitudes through the use of social media channels in competition and coexistence with professional media. Being able to accurately identify SMIs is critical no matter what is being transmitted in a social system. Social Network Analysis (SNA has been recognized as a powerful tool for representing social network structures and information dissemination. SMIs can be identifi ed by their high-ranking position in a network as the most important or central nodes. The results reveal the existence of three different typologies of SMIs: disseminator, engager and leader. This methodology permits the optimization of resources to create effective online communication strategies.

  1. Leveraging Social Computing for Personalized Crisis Communication using Social Media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leykin, Dmitry; Aharonson-Daniel, Limor; Lahad, Mooli

    2016-01-01

    Introduction: The extensive use of social media in modern life redefines social interaction and communication. Communication plays an important role in mitigating, or exacerbating, the psychological and behavioral responses to critical incidents and disasters. As recent disasters demonstrated, people tend to converge to social media during and following emergencies. Authorities can then use this media and other computational methods to gain insights from the public, mainly to enhance situational awareness, but also to improve their communication with the public and public adherence to instructions. Methods: The current review presents a conceptual framework for studying psychological aspects of crisis and risk communication using the social media through social computing. Results: Advanced analytical tools can be integrated in the processes and objectives of crisis communication. The availability of the computational techniques can improve communication with the public by a process of Hyper-Targeted Crisis Communication. Discussion: The review suggests that using advanced computational tools for target-audience profiling and linguistic matching in social media, can facilitate more sensitive and personalized emergency communication. PMID:27092290

  2. Leveraging Social Computing for Personalized Crisis Communication using Social Media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leykin, Dmitry; Aharonson-Daniel, Limor; Lahad, Mooli

    2016-03-24

    The extensive use of social media in modern life redefines social interaction and communication. Communication plays an important role in mitigating, or exacerbating, the psychological and behavioral responses to critical incidents and disasters. As recent disasters demonstrated, people tend to converge to social media during and following emergencies. Authorities can then use this media and other computational methods to gain insights from the public, mainly to enhance situational awareness, but also to improve their communication with the public and public adherence to instructions. The current review presents a conceptual framework for studying psychological aspects of crisis and risk communication using the social media through social computing. Advanced analytical tools can be integrated in the processes and objectives of crisis communication. The availability of the computational techniques can improve communication with the public by a process of Hyper-Targeted Crisis Communication. The review suggests that using advanced computational tools for target-audience profiling and linguistic matching in social media, can facilitate more sensitive and personalized emergency communication.

  3. Towards identifying Collaborative Learning groups using Social Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Selver Softic

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available This work reports about the preliminary results and ongoing research based upon profiling collaborative learning groups of persons within the social micro-blogging platforms like Twitter that share potentially common interests on special topic. Hereby the focus is held on spontaneously initiated collaborative learning in Social Media and detection of collaborative learning groups based upon their communication dynamics. Research questions targeted to be answered are: are there any useful data mining algorithms to fulfill the task of pre-selection and clustering of users in social networks, how good do they perform, and what are the metrics that could be used for detection and evaluation in the realm of this task. Basic approach presented here uses as preamble hypothesis that users and their interests in Social Networks can be identified through content generated by them and content they consume. Special focus is held on topic oriented approach as least common bounding point. Those should be also the basic criteria used to detect and outline the learning groups. The aim of this work is to deliver first scientific pre-work for successfully implementation of recommender systems using social network metrics and content features of social network users for the purposes of better learning group communication and information consumption.

  4. CSR communication through online social media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Araceli Castelló-Martínez, Ph.D.

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have become essential channels in business strategies. Corporate Social Responsibility communication faces new challenges in these spaces of the Web 2.0, where companies can interact with users, generate a brand community, increase their visibility, and strengthen their position in the market. This research study aims to analyse the way companies use the major online social media to communicate their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes. The methodology involves the examination of the presence in online social platforms and the online corporate reputation of ten companies/brands. The results show that companies use these spaces as channels for business and advertising communication, but not so much for Corporate Social Responsibility communication, despite these social media offer many possibilities for interaction and dialogue.

  5. Communicating science in social settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheufele, Dietram A.

    2013-01-01

    This essay examines the societal dynamics surrounding modern science. It first discusses a number of challenges facing any effort to communicate science in social environments: lay publics with varying levels of preparedness for fully understanding new scientific breakthroughs; the deterioration of traditional media infrastructures; and an increasingly complex set of emerging technologies that are surrounded by a host of ethical, legal, and social considerations. Based on this overview, I discuss four areas in which empirical social science helps clarify intuitive but sometimes faulty assumptions about the social-level mechanisms of science communication and outline an agenda for bench and social scientists—driven by current social-scientific research in the field of science communication—to guide more effective communication efforts at the societal level in the future. PMID:23940341

  6. Social Communication between Traditional and the New Mass-Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreea-Maria Tîrziu

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The means of communication, from the most simple and natural ones – such as gestures and voice, to the most complex and developed ones – such as the new electronic media, have constantly brought changes to the society, their own transformation being due to the social environment that generated them. Nowadays, the new media – being in a rapid development unprecedented in the past – is giving new insights of communication and learning to the younger generations which, unlike those formed by elder people, manage to quickly assimilate the changes that occur. The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for public institutions for a better interaction with citizens. It shows the literature that focuses on social media statistics. At the end of our study, it is necessary to refer again to the needs of the organizations in which social communication has its origins, to exit the logic of politics and the media and to completely redefine the relationship between them and the social communication itself. We have treated the terms of the relationship between media and social communication, but it is the case to reiterate the importance of this point. In this context, we have identified the social nature still in embryo of a new relationship between media and educational sector; the more fragile the more difficult it is to overcome the stereotype of the “recreational” media.

  7. Social network analysis in identifying influential webloggers: A preliminary study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hasmuni, Noraini; Sulaiman, Nor Intan Saniah; Zaibidi, Nerda Zura

    2014-12-01

    In recent years, second generation of internet-based services such as weblog has become an effective communication tool to publish information on the Web. Weblogs have unique characteristics that deserve users' attention. Some of webloggers have seen weblogs as appropriate medium to initiate and expand business. These webloggers or also known as direct profit-oriented webloggers (DPOWs) communicate and share knowledge with each other through social interaction. However, survivability is the main issue among DPOW. Frequent communication with influential webloggers is one of the way to keep survive as DPOW. This paper aims to understand the network structure and identify influential webloggers within the network. Proper understanding of the network structure can assist us in knowing how the information is exchanged among members and enhance survivability among DPOW. 30 DPOW were involved in this study. Degree centrality and betweenness centrality measurement in Social Network Analysis (SNA) were used to examine the strength relation and identify influential webloggers within the network. Thus, webloggers with the highest value of these measurements are considered as the most influential webloggers in the network.

  8. Social communication impairments: pragmatics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Russell, Robert L

    2007-06-01

    Social communication or pragmatic impairments are characterized and illustrated as involving inappropriate or ineffective use of language and gesture in social contexts. Three clinical vignettes illustrate different pragmatic impairments and the wealth of diagnostic information that can be garnered from observation of a child's social communication behavior. Definitions of, and developmental milestones in, domains of pragmatic competence are provided. Several screening instruments are suggested for use in assessing pragmatic competence within the time-frame of a pediatric examination. Frequent comorbid psychiatric conditions are described and a sample of current neurobiologic research is briefly summarized.

  9. Social Media and HIV: A Systematic Review of Uses of Social Media in HIV Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taggart, Tamara; Grewe, Mary Elisabeth; Conserve, Donaldson F; Gliwa, Catherine; Roman Isler, Malika

    2015-11-02

    Social media, including mobile technologies and social networking sites, are being used increasingly as part of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention and treatment efforts. As an important avenue for communication about HIV, social media use may continue to increase and become more widespread. The objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive systematic review of the current published literature on the design, users, benefits, and limitations of using social media to communicate about HIV prevention and treatment. This review paper used a systematic approach to survey all literature published before February 2014 using 7 electronic databases and a manual search. The inclusion criteria were (1) primary focus on communication/interaction about HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), (2) discusses the use of social media to facilitate communication, (3) communication on the social media platform is between individuals or a group of individuals rather than the use of preset, automated responses from a platform, (4) published before February 19, 2014, and (5) all study designs. The search identified 35 original research studies. Thirty studies had low or unclear risk of at least one of the bias items in the methodological quality assessment. Among the 8 social media platform types described, short message service text messaging was most commonly used. Platforms served multiple purposes including disseminating health information, conducting health promotion, sharing experiences, providing social support, and promoting medication adherence. Social media users were diverse in geographic location and race/ethnicity; studies commonly reported users aged 18-40 years and users with lower income. Although most studies did not specify whether use was anonymous, studies reported the importance of anonymity in social media use to communicate about HIV largely due to the stigma associated with HIV. The ability to share and receive information about HIV was

  10. Social Media and HIV: A Systematic Review of Uses of Social Media in HIV Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grewe, Mary Elisabeth; Conserve, Donaldson F; Gliwa, Catherine; Roman Isler, Malika

    2015-01-01

    Background Social media, including mobile technologies and social networking sites, are being used increasingly as part of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention and treatment efforts. As an important avenue for communication about HIV, social media use may continue to increase and become more widespread. Objective The objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive systematic review of the current published literature on the design, users, benefits, and limitations of using social media to communicate about HIV prevention and treatment. Methods This review paper used a systematic approach to survey all literature published before February 2014 using 7 electronic databases and a manual search. The inclusion criteria were (1) primary focus on communication/interaction about HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), (2) discusses the use of social media to facilitate communication, (3) communication on the social media platform is between individuals or a group of individuals rather than the use of preset, automated responses from a platform, (4) published before February 19, 2014, and (5) all study designs. Results The search identified 35 original research studies. Thirty studies had low or unclear risk of at least one of the bias items in the methodological quality assessment. Among the 8 social media platform types described, short message service text messaging was most commonly used. Platforms served multiple purposes including disseminating health information, conducting health promotion, sharing experiences, providing social support, and promoting medication adherence. Social media users were diverse in geographic location and race/ethnicity; studies commonly reported users aged 18-40 years and users with lower income. Although most studies did not specify whether use was anonymous, studies reported the importance of anonymity in social media use to communicate about HIV largely due to the stigma associated with HIV. The ability to share and

  11. Social identity framing: Leader communication for social change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seyranian, Viviane

    Social identity framing (SIF) delineates a process of intergroup communication that leaders may engage in to promote a vision of social change. As a step towards social change, social identity may need to be altered to accommodate a new view of the group, its collective goals, and its place alongside other groups. Thus, social identity content may be deconstructed and reconstructed by the leader en route to change. SIF suggests that this may be achieved through a series of 16 communication tactics, which are largely derived from previous research (Seyranian & Bligh, 2008). This research used an experimental design to test the effectiveness of three SIF communication tactics - inclusion, similarity to followers, and positive social identity - on a number of follower outcomes. Students ( N=246) were randomly assigned to read one of eight possible speeches promoting renewable energy on campus that was ostensibly from a student leader. The speeches were varied to include or exclude the three communication tactics. Following the speech, participants completed a dependent measures questionnaire. Results indicated that similarity to followers and positive social identity did not affect follower outcomes. However, students exposed to inclusion were more likely to indicate that renewable energy was ingroup normative; intend to engage in collective action to bring renewable energy to campus; experience positive emotional reactions towards change; feel more confident about the possibility of change; and to view the leader more positively. The combination of inclusion and positive social identity increased perceptions of charismatic leadership. Perceived leader prototypicality and cognitive elaboration of the leader's message resulted in more favorable attitudes towards renewable energy. Perceived leader prototypicality was also directly related to social identification, environmental values, ingroup injunctive norms, and self-stereotypes. Overall, these results support SIF

  12. New Media and Leadership: Social Media and Open Organizational Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viorica Pauș

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to identify and analyze the extent to which new media have penetrated the Romanian organizations’ internal communication and have influenced the leadership. We intend also to consider how social media becomes a tool for organizational communication and contributes to the creation of a new kind of leadership associated with open communication. We start from the premise that new media and social media can contribute to the leader’s mission to create around him a vision and makes others to share this vision. In terms of open communication, the external image of organization reflects, in part, leadership practices within the organization. It is about the exercise of the shared collective leadership (Don Tapscott, 1996 that should strengthen the organization position.

  13. Identifying gender-preferred communication styles within online cancer communities: a retrospective, longitudinal analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durant, Kathleen T; McCray, Alexa T; Safran, Charles

    2012-01-01

    The goal of this research is to determine if different gender-preferred social styles can be observed within the user interactions at an online cancer community. To achieve this goal, we identify and measure variables that pertain to each gender-specific social style. We perform social network and statistical analysis on the communication flow of 8,388 members at six different cancer forums over eight years. Kruskal-Wallis tests were conducted to measure the difference between the number of intimate (and highly intimate) dyads, relationship length, and number of communications. We determine that two patients are more likely to form an intimate bond on a gender-specific cancer forum (ovarian P = communicates with more members than a female patient (Ovarian forum P = 0.0406, Breast forum P = 0.0013). A relationship between two patients is longer on the gender-specific cancer forums than a connection between two members not identified as patients (ovarian forum P = 0.00406, breast forum P = 0.00013, prostate forum P = .0.0003). The high level of interconnectedness among the prostate patients supports the hypothesis that men prefer to socialize in large, interconnected, less-intimate groups. A female patient is more likely to form a highly intimate connection with another female patient; this finding is consistent with the hypothesis that woman prefer fewer, more intimate connections. The relationships of same-gender cancer patients last longer than other relationships; this finding demonstrates homophily within these online communities. Our findings regarding online communication preferences are in agreement with research findings from person-to-person communication preference studies. These findings should be considered when designing online communities as well as designing and evaluating psychosocial and educational interventions for cancer patients.

  14. Unsolicited Communication in Social Media

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Trzaskowski, Jan

    2014-01-01

    This article discusses whether commercial communication in social media is covered by the European opt in-model concerning unsolicited electronic mail for direct marketing purposes found in the directive on privacy and electronic communications (2002/58). It is concluded that messages in social...... the consumer ombudsmen questioned inter alia whether unsolicited commercial communications sent to users’ news feeds should be considered electronic mail or other un-solicited communications for the purposes of direct marketing. This and other related questions are dealt with in this article....... found in the distance selling directive (1997/7). Now, the use of electronic mail for direct marketing purposes in social media must be assessed in accordance with the full harmonisation in the unfair commercial practices directive (2005/29). This directive does not contain a ban on »unsolicited...

  15. THE TRUST INSTITUTION ROLE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS IN SOCIAL PROJECT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ирина Николаевна КАДЫКОВА

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The authors propose expansion of the social projects classification on the basis of the magnitude of the projects products impact on the society, focusing on their role in the development of the state. The authors accept Russell D. Archibald projects classification as a whole, and expand it. Two subcategory are allocated ("social applied projects" and "socio-forming projects". Comparison was conducted on a number of indicators (project volume, project complexity, level of project risk and so on.. The innovativeness of innovative social-forming projects is identified. They are innovative in that aim formation / change of public opinion. The role of the institute of trust in building of effective system of social project communication is defined. The trust has a significant impact on the timing of the socio-forming projects. Identify priority communication channel for innovative projects of the social spectrum - online social network.

  16. Conceptualizing the social media communication impact on consumer based brand equity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ligita Zailskaitė-Jakštė

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Purpose of the article: The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of consumer-brand communication in social media on brand equity, providing conceptual model. Methodology/methods: The model was prepared using methods of comparative and systematic analysis of scientific literature. Scientific aim: The scientific aim of the article to propose the perspective of social media communication impact on brand equity conceptualization. The key factors of consumer engagement in company (brand communication process and amount of consumers created content (non-sponsored content, i.e. content created in interaction with company or brand, and sponsored content, i.e. content created in interaction with company (brand was under consideration. Findings: Our findings attempt to provide a comprehensive understanding of company (brand communication in social media seeking after a positive impact on brand equity dimensions. Theoretical analysis disclosed that it is not enough just to post message in a proper social media channel, it is essential to post appropriate content of the message and to post it in appropriate way in persuasion to engage consumers into communication. The consumer-generated content created in interaction with company and without interaction with company in social media is making impact on brand equity. Conclusions: The study extends the literature by examining communication in social media from company to consumer perspectives in order to disclose changes in marketing communication as source of brand equity in virtual context and to present key factors influencing brand equity in company (brand communication p

  17. Evaluating Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mandy, William; Wang, Adele; Lee, Irene; Skuse, David

    2017-01-01

    Background: Social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD) is a new diagnosis introduced by DSM-5, characterised by problems with verbal and nonverbal social communication. It is currently unclear whether SPCD is a valid diagnostic category, because little is known about the characteristics of those who meet its criteria. We sought to identify…

  18. Identifying Knowledge and Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduardo Coutinho Lourenço de Lima

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, I discuss how the principle of identifying knowledge which Strawson advances in ‘Singular Terms and Predication’ (1961, and in ‘Identifying Reference and Truth-Values’ (1964 turns out to constrain communication. The principle states that a speaker’s use of a referring expression should invoke identifying knowledge on the part of the hearer, if the hearer is to understand what the speaker is saying, and also that, in so referring, speakers are attentive to hearers’ epistemic states. In contrasting it with Russell’s Principle (Evans 1982, as well as with the principle of identifying descriptions (Donnellan 1970, I try to show that the principle of identifying knowledge, ultimately a condition for understanding, makes sense only in a situation of conversation. This allows me to conclude that the cooperative feature of communication (Grice 1975 and reference (Clark andWilkes-Gibbs 1986 holds also at the understanding level. Finally, I discuss where Strawson’s views seem to be unsatisfactory, and suggest how they might be improved.

  19. Social Media Communication and Consumer Brand Perceptions

    OpenAIRE

    Rizwan Ali Khadim; Bilal Zafar; Muhammad Younis

    2014-01-01

    Social media has changed the shape of communication strategies in the corporate world. Corporations are using social media to reach their maximum stakeholders in minimum time at different social media forums. Consumers being an important corporate stakeholder hold significant importance in corporate communication strategy. The current study examines the role of social media communication on consumer brand perceptions and their buying behavior. A comprehensive survey is conducted through vario...

  20. The social gradient in doctor-patient communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Verlinde Evelyn

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Objective In recent years, the importance of social differences in the physician-patient relationship has frequently been the subject of research. A 2002 review synthesised the evidence on this topic. Considering the increasing importance of social inequalities in health care, an actualization of this review seemed appropriate. Methods A systematic search of literature published between 1965 and 2011 on the social gradient in doctor-patient communication. In this review social class was determined by patient's income, education or occupation. Results Twenty original research papers and meta-analyses were included. Social differences in doctor-patient communication were described according to the following classification: verbal behaviour including instrumental and affective behaviour, non-verbal behaviour and patient-centred behaviour. Conclusion This review indicates that the literature on the social gradient in doctor-patient communication that was published in the last decade, addresses new issues and themes. Firstly, most of the found studies emphasize the importance of the reciprocity of communication. Secondly, there seems to be a growing interest in patient's perception of doctor-patient communication. Practice implications By increasing the doctors' awareness of the communicative differences and by empowering patients to express concerns and preferences, a more effective communication could be established.

  1. Crisis Communication and Social

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tække, Jesper

    2017-01-01

    The academic field of crisis communication is more relevant than ever due to the digital media revolution, setting new standards for how to manage criticism and crises. This paper presents a systems theoretical approach to crisis communication in the age of digital media with a special regard...... to social media. The paper shows that the recent changes in the media environment require that organizations be more observant, reflected and responsive to the public opinion. Correspondingly, organizations need to engage in strategic impression management with the aim to be, or to be observed to be, more...... consistent with their communicated values and strategies, thus managing to appear as trustworthy in a hyper-dynamic social surrounding world. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd....

  2. Identifying gender-preferred communication styles within online cancer communities: a retrospective, longitudinal analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathleen T Durant

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The goal of this research is to determine if different gender-preferred social styles can be observed within the user interactions at an online cancer community. To achieve this goal, we identify and measure variables that pertain to each gender-specific social style. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We perform social network and statistical analysis on the communication flow of 8,388 members at six different cancer forums over eight years. Kruskal-Wallis tests were conducted to measure the difference between the number of intimate (and highly intimate dyads, relationship length, and number of communications. We determine that two patients are more likely to form an intimate bond on a gender-specific cancer forum (ovarian P = <0.0001, breast P = 0.0089, prostate P = 0.0021. Two female patients are more likely to form a highly intimate bond on a female-specific cancer forum (Ovarian P<0.0001, Breast P<0.01. Typically a male patient communicates with more members than a female patient (Ovarian forum P = 0.0406, Breast forum P = 0.0013. A relationship between two patients is longer on the gender-specific cancer forums than a connection between two members not identified as patients (ovarian forum P = 0.00406, breast forum P = 0.00013, prostate forum P = .0.0003. CONCLUSION: The high level of interconnectedness among the prostate patients supports the hypothesis that men prefer to socialize in large, interconnected, less-intimate groups. A female patient is more likely to form a highly intimate connection with another female patient; this finding is consistent with the hypothesis that woman prefer fewer, more intimate connections. The relationships of same-gender cancer patients last longer than other relationships; this finding demonstrates homophily within these online communities. Our findings regarding online communication preferences are in agreement with research findings from person-to-person communication

  3. Identifying New Strategies to Assess and Promote Online Health Communication and Social Media Outreach: An Application in Bullying Prevention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edgerton, Elizabeth; Reiney, Erin; Mueller, Siobhan; Reicherter, Barry; Curtis, Katherine; Waties, Stephanie; Limber, Susan P

    2016-05-01

    Every day in classrooms, playgrounds and school hallways, through text messages and mobile technology apps, children are bullied by other children. Conversations about this bullying-what it is, who is involved, and how to stop it-are taking place online. To fill a need for relevant, research-based materials on bullying, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration worked with Widmeyer Communications to investigate the scope of media conversations about bullying and discover new strategies for promoting appropriate public health messages about bullying to intended audiences. Key components of the methodology included: analyzing common search terms and aligning social media content with terms used in searches rather than technical language; identifying influencers in social media spheres, cultivating relationships with them, and sharing their positive, relevant content; examining which digital formats are most popular for sharing and creating content across platforms; tracking and reporting on a wide variety of metrics (such as click-through and engagement rates and reach, resonance, relevance, and Klout scores) to understand conversations around bullying; and looking at online conversations and engaging participants using applicable resources and calls to action. A key finding included a significant gap between search terms and online content and has led to recommendations and comprehensive ideas for improving the reach and resonance of StopBullying.gov content and communications. © 2016 Society for Public Health Education.

  4. Measuring Changes in Social Communication Behaviors: Preliminary Development of the Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grzadzinski, Rebecca; Carr, Themba; Colombi, Costanza; McGuire, Kelly; Dufek, Sarah; Pickles, Andrew; Lord, Catherine

    2016-07-01

    Psychometric properties and initial validity of the Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC), a measure of treatment-response for social-communication behaviors, are described. The BOSCC coding scheme is applied to 177 video observations of 56 young children with ASD and minimal language abilities. The BOSCC has high to excellent inter-rater and test-retest reliability and shows convergent validity with measures of language and communication skills. The BOSCC Core total demonstrates statistically significant amounts of change over time compared to a no change alternative while the ADOS CSS over the same period of time did not. This work is a first step in the development of a novel outcome measure for social-communication behaviors with applications to clinical trials and longitudinal studies.

  5. Forum: Communication Activism Pedagogy. Communication Activism Pedagogy and Research: Communication Education Scholarship to Promote Social Justice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frey, Lawrence R.; Palmer, David L.

    2017-01-01

    The recent formation of the National Communication Association's Activism and Social Justice Division puts a spotlight on the extent to which instructional communication and instructional communication research have advanced--or even should advance--the goals of social justice. To examine this issue, two of the leading scholars on this topic,…

  6. Patient-provider communication over social media: perspectives of adolescents with psychiatric illness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Rensburg, Samuel H; Klingensmith, Katherine; McLaughlin, Paige; Qayyum, Zheala; van Schalkwyk, Gerrit I

    2016-02-01

    Social media is an increasingly dominant platform for communication, especially among adolescents. Statements from professional bodies and a growing body of empirical evidence support a role for social media in improving provider-patient interactions. In psychiatry, particular concerns exist about the suitability of this style of communication. Very limited data are available exploring how patients would like to incorporate social media into their communication with their psychiatric providers. We conducted a qualitative study with 20 adolescents attending the Yale Psychiatric Hospital Intensive Outpatient Programme. Interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Participants highlighted how social media could allow for constant access to a mental health provider, provide a less anxiety-provoking mode of communication, and allow for them to be monitored in a more on-going fashion. However, participants also identified many potential risks associated with these applications, including the potential for anxiety if a provider was not able to respond immediately, and a sense that online interactions would be less rich overall. Our findings suggest that adolescents are open to the idea of communicating with mental health providers over social media and are able to describe a number of instances where this could be of value. The risks participants described, as well as concerns raised by existing literature, indicate the need for further work and protocol development in order for social media to be a feasible tool for communication between providers and adolescents with psychiatric illness. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. BRAND COMMUNICATION ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Otilia-Elena PLATON

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The communication represents a basic element for the marketing activity that helps companies to achieve their objectives. Building long-term relationships between brands and consumers is one of the most important objectives pursued by marketers. This involves brand communication and creating multiple connections with consumers, even in the online environment. From this point of view, social networks proved to be an effective way of linking brands and consumers online. This paper aims to present some aspects involved by the usage of social networks in brand communication by analyzing several examples of online marketing campaigns implemented on Facebook on the occasion of Valentine's Day by six different brands.

  8. Autism, Language Disorder, and Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder: DSM-V and Differential Diagnoses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simms, Mark D; Jin, Xing Ming

    2015-08-01

    • Based on strong research evidence (1), the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has increased over the past decade, with a 2010 prevalence of 1:68 (1.5%) in children age 8 years. • Based on some research evidence as well as consensus (3), the most recent revision of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) identifies two core dimensions for the diagnosis of ASD: social (social communication and social interaction) and nonsocial (restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities). • Based on some research evidence as well as consensus (3) (31) (32) (33) (34), DSM-V identifies social pragmatic communication disorder (SPCD) as a dissociable dimension of language and communication ability that affects how individuals use language for social exchanges. SPCD is often found in children with language impairments and children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other genetic/neurologic conditions. • Based on strong research evidence (2) (26) (27) (28), childhood language disorders affect 7.4% of kindergarteners, and 50% to 80% of these children experience persistent language, academic, and social-emotional difficulties into their adult years, despite having normal nonverbal cognitive abilities. • Based primarily on consensus due to lack of relevant clinical studies, differential diagnosis of autism and language disorders may require a multidisciplinary evaluation that takes into account a child’s overall development, including cognitive, communication, and social abilities. Monitoring the response to appropriate interventions and trajectory of development over time may improve the accuracy of diagnosis, especially in very young children.

  9. Social-communicative effects of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) in autism spectrum disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lerna, Anna; Esposito, Dalila; Conson, Massimiliano; Russo, Luigi; Massagli, Angelo

    2012-01-01

    The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a common treatment choice for non-verbal children with autism. However, little empirical evidence is available on the usefulness of PECS in treating social-communication impairments in autism. To test the effects of PECS on social-communicative skills in children with autism, concurrently taking into account standardized psychometric data, standardized functional assessment of adaptive behaviour, and information on social-communicative variables coded in an unstructured setting. Eighteen preschool children (mean age = 38.78 months) were assigned to two intervention approaches, i.e. PECS and Conventional Language Therapy (CLT). Both PECS (Phases I-IV) and CLT were delivered three times per week, in 30-min sessions, for 6 months. Outcome measures were the following: Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) domain scores for Communication and Reciprocal Social Interaction; Language and Personal-Social subscales of the Griffiths' Mental Developmental Scales (GMDS); Communication and Social Abilities domains of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS); and several social-communicative variables coded in an unstructured setting. Results demonstrated that the two groups did not differ at Time 1 (pre-treatment assessment), whereas at Time 2 (post-test) the PECS group showed a significant improvement with respect to the CLT group on the VABS social domain score and on almost all the social-communicative abilities coded in the unstructured setting (i.e. joint attention, request, initiation, cooperative play, but not eye contact). These findings showed that PECS intervention (Phases I-IV) can improve social-communicative skills in children with autism. This improvement is especially evident in standardized measures of adaptive behaviour and measures derived from the observation of children in an unstructured setting. © 2012 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

  10. Measuring Changes in Social Communication Behaviors: Preliminary Development of the Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grzadzinski, Rebecca; Carr, Themba; Colombi, Costanza; McGuire, Kelly; Dufek, Sarah; Pickles, Andrew; Lord, Catherine

    2016-01-01

    Psychometric properties and initial validity of the Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC), a measure of treatment-response for social-communication behaviors, are described. The BOSCC coding scheme is applied to 177 video observations of 56 young children with ASD and minimal language abilities. The BOSCC has high to excellent…

  11. Enhancing Social Communication Between Groups

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    T. Stevens; P. Hughes (Peter); D. Williams; I. Craigie; I. Kegel; P.S. Cesar Garcia (Pablo Santiago); A.J. Jansen (Jack); M.F. Usrsu; M. Frantzis; N. Farber; M. Lutzky; S. Vogel

    2010-01-01

    htmlabstractThis paper describes a prototype software platform that supports advanced communications services, specifically services enabling effective group-to-group communications with a social purpose, between remote homes. The architecture, the individual components, their interfaces, and the

  12. Communication for Social Change Anthology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gumucio-Dagron, Alfonso; Tufte, Thomas

    for social change. The book is organised in two parts: the first part being cronological, from 1927-1995, and the second part containing 'the contemporary debate' in communication for social change, organised in 5 sub-themes: 1) Popular Culture, Narrative and Identity, 2) Social Movements & Community...

  13. Social theories for strategic communication

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ihlen, Ø.; Verhoeven, P.; Holtzhausen, D.; Zerfass, A.

    2015-01-01

    Social theory provides strategic communication with a basic understanding of the societal role of the practice, and its ethical and political consequences. This chapter draws out some key conclusions based on a wide reading of social theory approaches. First of all, building on social theory means

  14. Psycho-social impacts of virtual communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Macura Rajko

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The emergence and spread of Internet communication has led to changes in social relationships, abuse of the Internet and maladaptive behavior. Among the authors who have studied the impact of these changes there is no consensus, and the results of their research are often contradictory. Some authors conclude that Internet communication strengthens networks of its users, while others believe that such communication leads to reduced participation in real social life. In a number of people, excessive use of the Internet adversely affects the mental health and social life and can lead to obsession at the expense of other aspects of life and creating addiction. The greatest risk of negative impacts of online communication is among children and young people. This paper is meant to indicate, the good sides as well as the negative consequences of excessive and non-functional Internet use

  15. New ICT's and social interaction : modelling communication frequency and communication mode choice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Berg, van den P.E.W.; Arentze, T.A.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

    2012-01-01

    New information and communication technologies (ICTs) have provided new ways of communicating and maintaining social networks. However, relatively little is known on the effect of ICT-use on social interaction. Therefore, this article aims to explore the factors influencing individuals’

  16. Internal Social Media: A New Kind of Participatory Organizational Communication?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Vibeke Thøis

    More and more organizations develop the social media features on their intranet and encourage coworkers to communicate, connect with each other and share knowledge across departmental and geographical distance. The question is however how this internal social media (ISM) influences organizational......-censorship on Internal Social Media: A Case Study of Coworker Communication Behavior in a Danish Bank” explores coworkers’ communication strategies and behavior on ISM. Based on interviews with 24 coworkers in Jyske Bank the article explores if and how self-censorship influence their communication on internal social...... communication and the organization, and the purpose of the dissertation is to explore internal social media and coworkers as communicators on internal social media from a communication perspective to answer the overall research question: Does internal social media create a new kind of participatory...

  17. A New Dimension of Health Care: Systematic Review of the Uses, Benefits, and Limitations of Social Media for Health Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hazlett, Diane E; Harrison, Laura; Carroll, Jennifer K; Irwin, Anthea; Hoving, Ciska

    2013-01-01

    Background There is currently a lack of information about the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication among the general public, patients, and health professionals from primary research. Objective To review the current published literature to identify the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication among the general public, patients, and health professionals, and identify current gaps in the literature to provide recommendations for future health communication research. Methods This paper is a review using a systematic approach. A systematic search of the literature was conducted using nine electronic databases and manual searches to locate peer-reviewed studies published between January 2002 and February 2012. Results The search identified 98 original research studies that included the uses, benefits, and/or limitations of social media for health communication among the general public, patients, and health professionals. The methodological quality of the studies assessed using the Downs and Black instrument was low; this was mainly due to the fact that the vast majority of the studies in this review included limited methodologies and was mainly exploratory and descriptive in nature. Seven main uses of social media for health communication were identified, including focusing on increasing interactions with others, and facilitating, sharing, and obtaining health messages. The six key overarching benefits were identified as (1) increased interactions with others, (2) more available, shared, and tailored information, (3) increased accessibility and widening access to health information, (4) peer/social/emotional support, (5) public health surveillance, and (6) potential to influence health policy. Twelve limitations were identified, primarily consisting of quality concerns and lack of reliability, confidentiality, and privacy. Conclusions Social media brings a new dimension to health care as it offers a

  18. A new dimension of health care: systematic review of the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moorhead, S Anne; Hazlett, Diane E; Harrison, Laura; Carroll, Jennifer K; Irwin, Anthea; Hoving, Ciska

    2013-04-23

    There is currently a lack of information about the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication among the general public, patients, and health professionals from primary research. To review the current published literature to identify the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication among the general public, patients, and health professionals, and identify current gaps in the literature to provide recommendations for future health communication research. This paper is a review using a systematic approach. A systematic search of the literature was conducted using nine electronic databases and manual searches to locate peer-reviewed studies published between January 2002 and February 2012. The search identified 98 original research studies that included the uses, benefits, and/or limitations of social media for health communication among the general public, patients, and health professionals. The methodological quality of the studies assessed using the Downs and Black instrument was low; this was mainly due to the fact that the vast majority of the studies in this review included limited methodologies and was mainly exploratory and descriptive in nature. Seven main uses of social media for health communication were identified, including focusing on increasing interactions with others, and facilitating, sharing, and obtaining health messages. The six key overarching benefits were identified as (1) increased interactions with others, (2) more available, shared, and tailored information, (3) increased accessibility and widening access to health information, (4) peer/social/emotional support, (5) public health surveillance, and (6) potential to influence health policy. Twelve limitations were identified, primarily consisting of quality concerns and lack of reliability, confidentiality, and privacy. Social media brings a new dimension to health care as it offers a medium to be used by the public, patients, and health

  19. Heartcore Business? A study of the challenges social enterprises experience when communicating their corporate identity

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schmeltz, Line

    The aim of this paper is thus to investigate social businesses’ communication of identity in their corporate communication. Institutional theory (e.g. DiMaggio & Powel, 1983), and especially the notion of legitimacy (Deephouse and Carter, 2005; Meyer and Rowan, 1977; Suchman, 1995), provides...... responsibility values, or if they are working with two, or even more, different value systems. Accordingly, the assumption put forward by this paper is that a high degree of alignment between identity and social responsibility in the enterprise’s corporate communication will enable the enterprises to communicate...... the frame for understanding and exploring the enterprises’ communication in an organizational context. Hence, through a value-theoretical framework, the study seeks to identify the extent to which these enterprises manage to create alignment between their corporate identity values and their social...

  20. [Communicating research with social media].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennato, Davide

    2014-09-01

    Participation is the new keyword of communication. In the scientific field, communication is a very complex task that can't ignore the careful consideration of the target audience. To minimize the difficulties, it is useful to rely on storytelling: it can greatly benefit from the space offered by social media that can be used to raise awareness and to engage through the sharing of experiences. The marriage between scientific research and social media can take place, as long as you carefully reflect on the roles, strategies and appropriate tools.

  1. Communicative versus strategic rationality: Habermas theory of communicative action and the social brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaefer, Michael; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Rotte, Michael; Denke, Claudia

    2013-01-01

    In the philosophical theory of communicative action, rationality refers to interpersonal communication rather than to a knowing subject. Thus, a social view of rationality is suggested. The theory differentiates between two kinds of rationality, the emancipative communicative and the strategic or instrumental reasoning. Using experimental designs in an fMRI setting, recent studies explored similar questions of reasoning in the social world and linked them with a neural network including prefrontal and parietal brain regions. Here, we employed an fMRI approach to highlight brain areas associated with strategic and communicative reasoning according to the theory of communicative action. Participants were asked to assess different social scenarios with respect to communicative or strategic rationality. We found a network of brain areas including temporal pole, precuneus, and STS more activated when participants performed communicative reasoning compared with strategic thinking and a control condition. These brain regions have been previously linked to moral sensitivity. In contrast, strategic rationality compared with communicative reasoning and control was associated with less activation in areas known to be related to moral sensitivity, emotional processing, and language control. The results suggest that strategic reasoning is associated with reduced social and emotional cognitions and may use different language related networks. Thus, the results demonstrate experimental support for the assumptions of the theory of communicative action.

  2. [Development of a staging classification for leisure activities and social communication in dependent elderly persons].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okochi, Jiro; Takamuku, Kiyoshi; Higashi, Kentaro; Orimo, Kenichiro; Honma, Tatsuya; Nishiwaki, Keiko; Ando, Shigeru

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this study was to develop a simple staging classification to measure leisure activity and social communication among the elderly at geriatric health care facilities. In order to construct a staging scale for measuring the participation of the elderly subjects, we developed a list of 28 items for three domains: leisure activities, social participation and communication. Data were obtained from users of institutional and day care services at geriatric health service facilities. The Rasch model was applied to test the degree of item fit and difficulty. Simple staging scales were constructed based on 12 leisure activity and nine social communication items. The validity and reliability were tested using these newly developed scales according to the Rasch model and assessments of the test-retest reliability. The participants were 3,458 elderly persons, of whom 1,560 were currently using institutional services and 1,898 were using day care services. Among the 28 items, "traveling" was identified as the most difficult and "watching television" was identified as the easiest. Because items related to "social participation," such as volunteer activities, exhibited a low frequency, they were not used in the further analyses. Simple staging scales were constructed by analyzing the remaining items of leisure activities and social communication according to the Rasch model. The thresholds within the scales were determined in order of item difficulty. Cohen's kappa, as assessed by two different evaluators, was 0.75 for leisure activities and 0.77 for social communication. In this study, we developed staging scales for leisure activity and social communication. The construct validity and test-retest reliability were adequate for both scales. Service providers can improve service quality by using these scales for individual case management of elderly persons in conjunction with existing scales of activities of daily living.

  3. Social Communication Questionnaire scoring procedures for autism spectrum disorder and the prevalence of potential social communication disorder in ASD.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnard-Brak, Lucy; Richman, David M; Chesnut, Steven Randall; Little, Todd D

    2016-12-01

    In analyzing data from the National Database for Autism Research, we utilized Mokken scaling techniques as a means of creating a more effective and efficient screening procedure for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) via the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). With a sample of 1,040, approximately 80% (n = 827) of the sample were males while approximately 20% (n = 213) were females. In regard to ethnicity, approximately 68% of the sample were White/Caucasian, while 7% were African American, 16% were Hispanic, 4% were Asian, and 1% were Native American or American Indian. As the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5) states that, "individuals with a well-established DSM-IV diagnosis of autistic disorder, Asperger's disorder, or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified should be given the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder," (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 51), the primary labeling difference between the DSM-IV and the DSM-5 would appear to be in identifying social communication disorder as a newly introduced disorder in the DSM-5, which we discuss. Though school psychologists are not dependent on the DSM to the same extent as clinical psychologists to provide services, school psychology is invested in the effective and efficient assessment of ASD. The current study demonstrates how Mokken scaling procedures may be utilized with respect to ASD identification via the SCQ as well as providing information regarding the prevalence of potential social communication disorder as a new disorder and its discrimination with ASD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  4. Communication Disorders in the School: Perspectives on Academic and Social Success an Introduction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thatcher, Karen L.; Fletcher, Kathryn; Decker, Blair

    2008-01-01

    The critical role of communication in schools cannot be understated. Communication skills are a necessity both in the academic and social atmosphere of the school environment. Unfortunately, there are a large number of children in the schools today identified with speech and language disorders. This special edition of "Psychology in the Schools"…

  5. Use of social media to encourage face to face communication

    OpenAIRE

    Čufer, Matija; Knežević, Anja

    2017-01-01

    Face-to-face communication is of key importance for successful socialization of a person into a society. Social media makes a good complement to such form of communication. Parents and pedagogical workers must be aware of children not replacing face-to-face communication for communication through the social media in the process of education and growing up. Young people nevertheless frequently communicate through the social media. For this reason, we tried to extract positive features of those...

  6. Three types of communication on internal social media:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Vibeke Thøis

    The aim of this paper is to explore to what extend internal social media introduces a new kind of participatory communication in organizations. The paper is based on two explorative studies: A multiple case study in ten Danish organizations and a single case study in a Danish bank. Based on the two...... studies it is proposed that it is possible to distinguish between three different types of communication arenas created by internal social media: A quiet arena, a knowledge sharing arena and a participatory communication arena. Internal social media does not in itself introduce participatory communication....... Different levels of communication might be reached in different types of organizations, and it is only when coworkers perceive a license to critique that organizations will actually develop participatory communication that has the ability to move the organization....

  7. Jana: Confidential Communications on Social Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-08-09

    consuming phone resources and privacy leakage ?” We address this challenge via an extensive user study. Next, we ask “How can we detect background apps...not support secret group communications. Furthermore, access to such social networks via mobile platforms raises a series of concerns like leakage of...not support secret group communications. Furthermore, access to such social networks via mobile platforms raises a series of concerns like leakage of

  8. Information and Communication Technologies in Social Work

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perron, Brian E.; Taylor, Harry O.; Glass, Joseph E.; Margerum-Leys, Jon

    2011-01-01

    Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are electronic tools used to convey, manipulate and store information. The exponential growth of Internet access and ICTs greatly influenced social, political, and economic processes in the United States, and worldwide. Regardless of the level of practice, ICTs will continue influencing the careers of social workers and the clients they serve. ICTs have received some attention in the social work literature and curriculum, but we argue that this level of attention is not adequate given their ubiquity, growth and influence, specifically as it relates to upholding social work ethics. Significant attention is needed to help ensure social workers are responsive to the technological changes in the health care system, including the health care infrastructure and use of technology among clients. Social workers also need ICT competencies in order to effectively lead different types of social change initiatives or collaborate with professionals of other disciplines who are using ICTs as part of existing strategies. This paper also identifies potential pitfalls and challenges with respect to the adoption of ICTs, with recommendations for advancing their use in practice, education, and research. PMID:21691444

  9. Information and Communication Technologies in Social Work

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brian E. Perron

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Information and communication technologies (ICTs are electronic tools used to convey, manipulate and store information. The exponential growth of Internet access and ICTs greatly influenced social, political, and economic processes in the United States, and worldwide. Regardless of the level of practice, ICTs will continue influencing the careers of social workers and the clients they serve. ICTs have received some attention in the social work literature and curriculum, but we argue that this level of attention is not adequate given their ubiquity, growth and influence, specifically as it relates to upholding social work ethics. Significant attention is needed to help ensure social workers are responsive to the technological changes in the health care system, including the health care infrastructure and use of technology among clients. Social workers also need ICT competencies in order to effectively lead different types of social change initiatives or collaborate with professionals of other disciplines who are using ICTs as part of existing strategies. This paper also identifies potential pitfalls and challenges with respect to the adoption of ICTs, with recommendations for advancing their use in practice, education, and research.

  10. Assessing socially situated participation: a way of integrating communication and social assessment approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duchan, J F

    2000-01-01

    We have long treated communication and social assessment as related but separate domains. Theorizing by George Herbert Mead on "the social self" offers an alternative to this conceptual separation and a means of evaluating children's social interaction, social participation, and communication simultaneously. This article describes Mead's thinking and presents a framework for assessing children's social reciprocity, interactive stances, and role participation as they participate in everyday life contexts.

  11. Social-Communicative Effects of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) in Autism Spectrum Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lerna, Anna; Esposito, Dalila; Conson, Massimiliano; Russo, Luigi; Massagli, Angelo

    2012-01-01

    Background: The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a common treatment choice for non-verbal children with autism. However, little empirical evidence is available on the usefulness of PECS in treating social-communication impairments in autism. Aims: To test the effects of PECS on social-communicative skills in children with autism,…

  12. Emoticons in computer-mediated communication: social motives and social context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Derks, Daantje; Bos, Arjan E R; von Grumbkow, Jasper

    2008-02-01

    This study investigated the role of emoticons in computer-mediated communication (CMC). The study consisted of an online questionnaire about the social motives for emoticon use and an experimental part in which participants (N = 1,251) had to respond to short Internet chats. In these chats, the interaction partner (friend vs. stranger) and the valence of the context (positive vs. negative) were manipulated. Results showed that emoticons are mostly used to express emotion, to strengthen a message, and to express humor. Furthermore, more emoticons were used in communication with friends than in communication with strangers, and more emoticons were used in a positive context than in a negative context. Participants seem to use emoticons in a way similar to facial behavior in face-to-face communication with respect to social context and interaction partner.

  13. New social communication toward the relational capital creation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sylwia Jarosławska-Sobór

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Corporate social responsibility is an example of an approach to management that emphasizes the importance of organization’s influence exerted by the company on a number of diverse groups called stakeholders. CSR sets new functions for social communication. In this paper chosen examples of social activities communication of Polish mining companies has been addressed. The main risks for the use of contemporary forms of communication as well as possibilities which are the results of application of modern management model has been indicated.

  14. Using Social Media to Communicate Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bohon, W.

    2017-12-01

    Social media (SM) is a popular and ubiquitous communication method and as such offers scientists an opportunity to directly interface with the public, improve public perception of science and scientists, and combat the growing tide of scientific misunderstanding and misinformation. It's become increasingly critical for scientists to use their voice and influence to communicate science and address misinformation. More than 60% of US adults get news from SM (1) but studies find that scientists infrequently post about science (2), missing a rich opportunity to combat scientific disinformation. While it may seem like a futile exercise to educate over SM, even passive exposure to new information can change public perceptions and behavior (3). Additionally, scientists, especially early career scientists, have social networks populated largely by non-scientists (2), allowing them an opportunity to speak to an audience that already trusts and values their scientific judgment. Importantly, these networks are often ideologically and politically diverse (4). However, science communication isn't as simple as a presentation of facts, and effective science communication via SM requires both SM competence and science communication proficiency. Thus, a discussion of best practices for both topics would benefit the scientific community. The range of potential topics for discussion is broad and could include scientific storytelling, empathetic communication, crafting a message, using SM to "humanize science", tips and tricks for broad SM information dissemination and how to run an effective SM campaign. (1) Gottfried J, Shearer E. New use across social media platforms: Pew Research Center; 2016. Available from: http://www.journalism.org/2016/05/26/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2016/. (2) McClain, Craig R., Practices and promises of Facebook for science outreach:Becoming a "Nerd of Trust". PLOS Biology 15(6). 2017; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2002020(3) Messing S

  15. Using Social Network Analysis to Investigate Positive EOL Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Jiayun; Yang, Rumei; Wilson, Andrew; Reblin, Maija; Clayton, Margaret F; Ellington, Lee

    2018-04-30

    End of life (EOL) communication is a complex process involving the whole family and multiple care providers. Applications of analysis techniques that account for communication beyond the patient and patient/provider, will improve clinical understanding of EOL communication. To introduce the use of social network analysis to EOL communication data, and to provide an example of applying social network analysis to home hospice interactions. We provide a description of social network analysis using social network analysis to model communication patterns during home hospice nursing visits. We describe three social network attributes (i.e. magnitude, directionality, and reciprocity) in the expression of positive emotion among hospice nurses, family caregivers, and hospice cancer patients. Differences in communication structure by primary family caregiver gender and across time were also examined. Magnitude (frequency) in the expression of positive emotion occurred most often between nurses and caregivers or nurses and patients. Female caregivers directed more positive emotion to nurses, and nurses directed more positive emotion to other family caregivers when the primary family caregiver was male. Reciprocity (mutuality) in positive emotion declined towards day of death, but increased on day of actual patient death. There was variation in reciprocity by the type of positive emotion expressed. Our example demonstrates that social network analysis can be used to better understand the process of EOL communication. Social network analysis can be expanded to other areas of EOL research, such as EOL decision-making and health care teamwork. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  16. [Communicative and social behavior of speech disordered children].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eiberger, W; Hügel, H

    1978-07-01

    The spheres covering behaviour disorders, social behaviour and communicative behaviour of speech impaired pupils which until now have been analyzed on a more theoretical level, ought to be studied using psychometric testing procedures and an esperimental observational situation in order to gain base data with which to set up a concrete catalogue of aims (learning program) based on the deficits thereby obtained. The study took place at the special school in Esslinger-Berkheim (Baden-Wurttemberg). By taking into account relevant specialized literature and the results of other studies, the following general hypotheses were advanced, namely, that the communication of speech handicapped children is troubled in respect of its content and relation, and that their social behaviour shows more egoistic than cooperative features. In order to determine social motivations and attitudes, we used Muller's "Social Motivation Test" (SMT) and Jorger's "Group test for the social attitude" (S-E-T). Due to the inconsistency between the attitudes measured by means of psychometric methods and the sbusequent free and genuine behaviour, an observational situation was developed during which the pupils, either in pairs or in groups of four and using puppets, took turns in thinking up a story, discussing the plot, roles, etc. and finally putting on the play. The whole was then analyzed by means of tape recordings and film shots, the interaction of the communicating partners being analyzed and categorized in two separate assessment stages: communicative behaviour and social behaviour. The pragmatic axioms of P. Watzlawick, the communication researcher, functioned as theoretical background. Flanders's linear time diagram was used as assessment system. Communicative and social learning aims were prepared in accordance with confirming hypotheses to enable a "preliminary area" for the practical work in (special) education to be defined. In addition, a rough outline was made of the conditional

  17. Impacts of Social Media (Facebook on Human Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tang-Mui Joo

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The impact of social networking is varied from good to bad. Online activities have also been categorized into pros and cons of social networking, either as reported as hiding Internet activities among teenagers or killing loneliness among elderly. In terms of relationships, there have been argument over its closeness and quality of an online relationship in Internet settings. Looking at the contradiction in an innovative interaction between classic community communication and social media, there is an unknown scent of the future struggling and challenging both human communication and relationships in the presence of digital culture. This research uses Diffusion of Innovation to study the wide and continuous spread of digital culture in human communication; and, Media Dependency in learning and structuring the cognitive, affective and behavioral effects of social media on each person uses the media in different ways. This research will be using online survey to gain opinions from a social network site as an update of views and reflection of self-awareness to all levels of people. Social media like Facebook (FB is perceived as a good tool of communication that it is able to bring closeness among the family members. The results show that social media like FB brings positive impact towards family members; it would help to build a better and harmonic society; and, relationships among family members and communication shall be improved and enhanced to the level of a united society.

  18. Characterizing Social Networks and Communication Channels in a Web-Based Peer Support Intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Owen, Jason E; Curran, Michaela; Bantum, Erin O'Carroll; Hanneman, Robert

    2016-06-01

    Web and mobile (mHealth) interventions have promise for improving health outcomes, but engagement and attrition may be reducing effect sizes. Because social networks can improve engagement, which is a key mechanism of action, understanding the structure and potential impact of social networks could be key to improving mHealth effects. This study (a) evaluates social network characteristics of four distinct communication channels (discussion board, chat, e-mail, and blog) in a large social networking intervention, (b) predicts membership in online communities, and (c) evaluates whether community membership impacts engagement. Participants were 299 cancer survivors with significant distress using the 12-week health-space.net intervention. Social networking attributes (e.g., density and clustering) were identified separately for each type of network communication (i.e., discussion board, blog, web mail, and chat). Each channel demonstrated high levels of clustering, and being a community member in one communication channel was associated with being in the same community in each of the other channels (φ = 0.56-0.89, ps < 0.05). Predictors of community membership differed across communication channels, suggesting that each channel reached distinct types of users. Finally, membership in a discussion board, chat, or blog community was strongly associated with time spent engaging with coping skills exercises (Ds = 1.08-1.84, ps < 0.001) and total time of intervention (Ds = 1.13-1.80, ps < 0.001). mHealth interventions that offer multiple channels for communication allow participants to expand the number of individuals with whom they are communicating, create opportunities for communicating with different individuals in distinct channels, and likely enhance overall engagement.

  19. Characterizing Social Networks and Communication Channels in a Web-Based Peer Support Intervention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curran, Michaela; Bantum, Erin O'Carroll; Hanneman, Robert

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Web and mobile (mHealth) interventions have promise for improving health outcomes, but engagement and attrition may be reducing effect sizes. Because social networks can improve engagement, which is a key mechanism of action, understanding the structure and potential impact of social networks could be key to improving mHealth effects. This study (a) evaluates social network characteristics of four distinct communication channels (discussion board, chat, e-mail, and blog) in a large social networking intervention, (b) predicts membership in online communities, and (c) evaluates whether community membership impacts engagement. Participants were 299 cancer survivors with significant distress using the 12-week health-space.net intervention. Social networking attributes (e.g., density and clustering) were identified separately for each type of network communication (i.e., discussion board, blog, web mail, and chat). Each channel demonstrated high levels of clustering, and being a community member in one communication channel was associated with being in the same community in each of the other channels (φ = 0.56–0.89, ps < 0.05). Predictors of community membership differed across communication channels, suggesting that each channel reached distinct types of users. Finally, membership in a discussion board, chat, or blog community was strongly associated with time spent engaging with coping skills exercises (Ds = 1.08–1.84, ps < 0.001) and total time of intervention (Ds = 1.13–1.80, ps < 0.001). mHealth interventions that offer multiple channels for communication allow participants to expand the number of individuals with whom they are communicating, create opportunities for communicating with different individuals in distinct channels, and likely enhance overall engagement. PMID:27327066

  20. Communication Ambassadors-an Australian Social Media Initiative to Develop Communication Skills in Early Career Scientists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jack T H; Power, Cheryl J; Kahler, Charlene M; Lyras, Dena; Young, Paul R; Iredell, Jonathan; Robins-Browne, Roy

    2018-01-01

    Science communication is a skill set to be developed through ongoing interactions with different stakeholders across a variety of platforms. Opportunities to engage the general public are typically reserved for senior scientists, but the use of social media in science communication allows all scientists to instantaneously disseminate their findings and interact with online users. The Communication Ambassador program is a social media initiative launched by the Australian Society for Microbiology to expand the online presence and science communication portfolios of early-career scientists. Through their participation in the program, a rotating roster of Australian microbiologists have broadened the online reach of the Society's social media channels as well as their own professional networks by attending and live-tweeting microbiology events throughout the year. We present the Communication Ambassador program as a case study of coordinated social media activity in science communication to the general public, and describe the potential for its applications in science education and training.

  1. Identifying Social Satisfaction from Social Media

    OpenAIRE

    Bai, Shuotian; Gao, Rui; Hao, Bibo; Yuan, Sha; Zhu, Tingshao

    2014-01-01

    We demonstrate the critical need to identify social situation and instability factors by acquiring public social satisfaction in this research. However, subject to the large amount of manual work cost in subject recruitment and data processing, conventional self-reported method cannot be implemented in real time or applied in large scale investigation. To solve the problem, this paper proposed an approach to predict users' social satisfaction, especially for the economy-related satisfaction b...

  2. Trends in marketing communication with a focus on social marketing

    OpenAIRE

    Taišová, Andrea

    2012-01-01

    Bachelor work deals with trends in marketing communication and their focus on solving social problems. Theoretical part generally focuses on the action of the communication and communicating mix in the marketing mix, it describes trend in marketing communication as guerilla marketing and viral marketing. It defines the terms of social marketing, cause related marketing and corporate social responsibility. The practical part describes a nonprofit organization Oxfam International and it also de...

  3. The Technical Communicator as Advocate: Integrating a Social Justice Approach in Technical Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Natasha N.

    2016-01-01

    This article argues for the need for a social justice approach to technical communication research and pedagogy. Given previous calls by scholars in technical and professional communication (TPC) for an attention to diversity, inclusion, and equality, the author examines the place and purpose of social justice in TPC and provides useful approaches…

  4. Social communication in children with autism spectrum disorder (asd): Correlation between DSM-5 and autism classification system of functioning-social communication (ACSF:SC).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craig, Francesco; Fanizza, Isabella; Russo, Luigi; Lucarelli, Elisabetta; Alessandro, Lorenzo; Pasca, Maria Grazia; Trabacca, Antonio

    2017-07-01

    The aim of this study was to classify children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) according to Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication (ACSF:SC) criteria, in order to investigate the association between social communication ability, ASD severity, adaptive functioning, cognitive abilities and psychoeducational profile. The severity of social communication impairment was specified through Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5th edition (DSM-5) and ACSF:SC tool. The ADOS-2, Vineland-II and PEP-3 were administered to all participants. We found a positive correlation between DSM-5 levels and ACSF:SC-Typical Performance (r = 0.35; P = 0.007) and ACSF:SC-Capacity (r = 0.31; P = 0.01) levels. Children included in the five levels of ACSF:SC (Typical Performance and Capacity) showed statistically significant differences in ADOS-2 (Social Affect), Vineland-II (Communication and Socialization), and PEP-3 (Communication, motor skills, maladaptive behavior) scores. The results of this study indicate that ACSF:SC provide a better understanding of functional profile of children with ASD based on the social communication abilities. Children with greater severity of social communication showed more difficulty in adaptive behavior and psychoeducational profiles. In conclusion, the ACSF:SC could help clinicians and therapists not only to understand the strength and weakness of preschool children with ASD but also to devise specific treatment in order to promote their social integration. Autism Res 2017. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1249-1258. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Impact of brief communication training among hospital social workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bunting, Morgan; Cagle, John G

    2016-01-01

    Hospital social workers are often the fulcrum of communication between physicians, patients, and families especially when patients are facing life-threatening illness. This study aims to understand the impact of a brief training for hospital social workers. The training is designed to improve communication skills and self-efficacy, as well as lessen fears of death and dying. Repeated-measures tests were used to assess outcomes across three time points. Twenty-nine university-based hospital social workers participated. Results trended in the desired directions. Communication self-efficacy improved immediately following the training, and this was sustained 1 month following training completion. Although participants were relatively experienced, improvement was still demonstrated and maintained suggesting brief communication training is promising for hospital social workers across the career.

  6. Effects of communication with important social referents on beliefs and intentions to use condoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strader, M K; Beaman, M L; McSweeney, M

    1992-06-01

    Data from a 1989 survey using the condom attitude and belief instrument with 310 clients from two sexually transmitted disease clinics identified significant social referents who influence condom-use intentions. They are sexual partner, father and friends. The present study found that communication with these referents had a positive net effect on beliefs about and intentions to use condoms. Implications applicable for intervention programmes to increase condom use are to promote talking about condoms between the sexual partners and important social referents and to develop such communication skills.

  7. Identifying and assessing the factors affecting skill gap in digital marketing in communication industry companies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fereshteh Ghotbifar

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available As far as new communication channels are concerned, there have been extensive developments in communications and marketing in digital era. Today, therefore, companies try to take advantage of digital marketing channels to provide suitable services to customers to improve their satisfaction level. However, this study aimed to identify and assess factors affecting skill gap in digital marketing. This was descriptive correlation study. The population consisted of experts in communications industry to identify most important skill gaps in digital marketing and factors affecting them; also, managers and specialists of these companies were investigated to determine the role of identified factors in reducing skills gaps. Using localized questionnaire and interviewing with ten experts who were selected by Delphi snowball method, the skill gaps in marketing and factors affecting them were identified. Also, a researcher made questionnaire with 32 questions was distributed among 226 employees to investigate the identified factors role in reducing skills gap in digital marketing. The results showed that from four identified factors, the components including operational strategic factors and environmental factors had direct and positive impact on creating skill gap in digital marketing of studied companies. The environmental factors such as social and cultural conditions, religion, technology, and economy had more proactive impact on skills gap in digital marketing. Also, the results showed that among skills gaps in digital marketing of studied companies, the skills (Principles of Communication and (Predicting Future had the highest and lowest gaps, respectively.

  8. Social Presence in the Web-Based Classroom: Implications for Intercultural Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yildiz, Senem

    2009-01-01

    Social presence is a theory derived from social psychology to explain social interactions in a mediated communication and is defined as the degree to which interlocutors in a communications medium perceive each other as real. This study investigates the effect of computer-mediated communication on the social presence of international students who…

  9. CSR Communication Strategies for Organizational Legitimacy in Social Media

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Colleoni, Elanor

    2013-01-01

    is to investigate which corporate communication strategy adopted in online social media is more effective to create convergence between corporations' corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda and stakeholders' social expectations, and thereby, to increase corporate legitimacy. Design/methodology/approach – Using....... Empirical findings show that, even when engaging in a dialogue, communication in social media is still conceived as a marketing practice to convey messages about companies. Originality/value – This paper originally investigates organizational legitimacy in the context of social media by applying advanced...... the entire Twitter social graph, a network analysis was carried out to study the structural properties of the CSR community, such as the level of reciprocity, and advanced data mining techniques, i.e. topic and sentiment analysis, were carried out to investigate the communication dynamics. Findings...

  10. Analyzing the Dynamics of Communication in Online Social Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Choudhury, Munmun; Sundaram, Hari; John, Ajita; Seligmann, Doree Duncan

    This chapter deals with the analysis of interpersonal communication dynamics in online social networks and social media. Communication is central to the evolution of social systems. Today, the different online social sites feature variegated interactional affordances, ranging from blogging, micro-blogging, sharing media elements (i.e., image, video) as well as a rich set of social actions such as tagging, voting, commenting and so on. Consequently, these communication tools have begun to redefine the ways in which we exchange information or concepts, and how the media channels impact our online interactional behavior. Our central hypothesis is that such communication dynamics between individuals manifest themselves via two key aspects: the information or concept that is the content of communication, and the channel i.e., the media via which communication takes place. We present computational models and discuss large-scale quantitative observational studies for both these organizing ideas. First, we develop a computational framework to determine the "interestingness" property of conversations cented around rich media. Second, we present user models of diffusion of social actions and study the impact of homophily on the diffusion process. The outcome of this research is twofold. First, extensive empirical studies on datasets from YouTube have indicated that on rich media sites, the conversations that are deemed "interesting" appear to have consequential impact on the properties of the social network they are associated with: in terms of degree of participation of the individuals in future conversations, thematic diffusion as well as emergent cohesiveness in activity among the concerned participants in the network. Second, observational and computational studies on large social media datasets such as Twitter have indicated that diffusion of social actions in a network can be indicative of future information cascades. Besides, given a topic, these cascades are often a

  11. Use of Social Network Sites for Communication Among Health Professionals: Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Windy Sy; Leung, Angela Ym

    2018-03-28

    Although much research has been done investigating the roles of social network sites (SNSs) in linking patients and health professionals, there is a lack of information about their uses, benefits, and limitations in connecting health professions only for professional communication. This review aimed to examine the utilization of SNSs for communication among health professionals in (1) frontline clinical practice, (2) professional networks, and (3) education and training to identify areas for future health communication research. This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines. A systematic search of the literature published in the last 10 years (January 1, 2007, to March 1, 2017) was performed in March 2017, using the following electronic databases: MEDLINE via OvidSP, EMBASE, CINAHL Complete, and InfoSci-Journals. The searches were conducted using the following defined search terms: "social media" OR "social network" OR "social network site" OR "Facebook" OR "Twitter" OR "Linkedin" OR "Instagram" OR "Weibo" OR "Whatsapp" OR "Telegram" OR "WeChat" AND "health" OR "health profession." Of the 6977 papers retrieved, a total of 33 studies were included in this review. They were exploratory in nature, and the majority used surveys (n=25) and interviews (n=6). All retrieved studies stated that SNSs enhanced effective communication and information sharing. SNSs were used for supporting delivering of clinical services, making referrals, and sharing information. They were beneficial to network building and professional collaboration. SNSs were novel tools to enhance educational interactions among peers, students, instructors, and preceptors. The application of SNSs came with restraints in technical knowledge, concerns on data protection, privacy and liability, issues in professionalism, and data protection. SNSs provide platforms facilitating efficient communication, interactions, and connections among health

  12. Use of Social Media in Corporate Communication in Latvia (2009-2011)

    OpenAIRE

    Kazaka, Olga

    2014-01-01

    ABSTRACT In the framework of the doctoral thesis „Use of Social Media in Corporate Communication in Latvia (2009-2011)” a new theoretical approach to corporate communication in social media was developed which will help companies to successfully organize their communication with target publics in social media and will provide a new social media investigation tool for the researchers. An added communicative value model was developed by the author in the framework of the new t...

  13. Marketing communication metrics for social media

    OpenAIRE

    Töllinen, Aarne; Karjaluoto, Heikki

    2011-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing communications. Specifically, we study whether the existing marketing communications performance metrics are still valid in the changing digitalised communications landscape, or whether it is time to rethink them, or even to devise entirely new metrics. Recent advances in information technology and marketing bring a need to re-examine measurement models. We combine two im...

  14. Cancer Communication on Social Media: Examining How Cancer Caregivers Use Facebook for Cancer-Related Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gage-Bouchard, Elizabeth A; LaValley, Susan; Mollica, Michelle; Beaupin, Lynda Kwon

    Americans are increasingly using social media (such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter) for health-related communication. Much of the previous research on social media and health communication has focused on Facebook groups related to a specific disease or Facebook pages related to an advocacy organization. Less is known about how people communicate about cancer on personal Facebook pages. In this study, we expand upon previous research by examining how cancer caregivers use personal Facebook pages for cancer-related communication. We examined themes in cancer-related exchanges through a content analysis of 12 months of data from 18 publically available Facebook pages hosted by parents of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (15 852 total posts). Six themes emerged: (1) documenting the cancer journey, (2) sharing emotional strain associated with caregiving, (3) promoting awareness and advocacy about pediatric cancer, (4) fundraising, (5) mobilizing support, and (6) expressing gratitude for support. Building upon previous research documenting the increasing use of social media for health-related communication and support, our findings show that personal Facebook pages offer a platform for cancer caregivers to share their cancer-related experiences, promote advocacy and awareness, and mobilize social support. Providers must recognize the importance of social media as a vehicle for support and communication for families of children with cancer. Nurses should educate parents on how to appraise information obtained through Facebook using evidence-based guidelines. Providers can encourage caregivers to use Facebook as a tool for communication, information, and support.

  15. The Role of Social Communication Tools in Education from the Saudi Female Students' Perceptions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aljaad, Nawal Hamad Mohamad

    2016-01-01

    This study aims at identifying the role of social communication tools in education from the Saudi female students' perspectives that are studying at the college of education in King Saud University-Riyadh. This study used a survey, which was distributed to 500 female students. The results showed that 90% of respondents used social media where 95%…

  16. Communication difficulties in children identified with psychiatric problems

    OpenAIRE

    Helland, Wenche Andersen

    2010-01-01

    Several studies have pointed to an overlap between different developmental psychopathological conditions and language impairments, and difficulties with communication have been identified in children of various diagnostic backgrounds. This thesis is based on three empirical studies, and the purposes are to investigate communication difficulties as reported by parents, in children identified with psychiatric problems as well as to evaluate a Norwegian adaptation of the Children’...

  17. [Social media and health communication: do we need rules?].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santoro, Eugenio

    2015-01-01

    Social media, online social networks and apps for smartphones and tablets are changing the way to communicate health and health issues to consumers and health professionals. Google, Facebook, Apple, and other companies have launched tools to make easier the doctor-patient communication, to group patients with similar diseases allowing them to share stories, experiences, and opinions, and to remotely track and monitor users health and wellbeing. However several concerns about patients' and consumers' privacy remain. Doctor-patient communication through e-mail and social media also introduces other ethical and privacy issues that were addressed only by few medical societies with appropriate guidelines and policies. In addition, pharmaceutical companies have started to use social media channels to communicate with doctors, patients and consumers. This type of communication has been only partially regulated by the Food and Drug Administration with the recently published guidelines for industries. Similar concerns exist for health and medical applications for smartphones and tablets for which only few agencies (including Food and Drug Administration) are requiring a formal (even if restricted in typology) validation. It's time for Europe and Italy to adopt appropriate guidelines for the use of the new media in health communication.

  18. How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Fue; Tao, Ran; Yang, Yanwu; Xie, Tingting

    2017-01-01

    This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users' perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users' behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users' group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it's an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users' group intentions to increase users' advertising acceptance and response.

  19. How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fue Zeng

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users’ perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users’ behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users’ group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it’s an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users’ group intentions to increase users’ advertising acceptance and response.

  20. How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Fue; Tao, Ran; Yang, Yanwu; Xie, Tingting

    2017-01-01

    This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users’ perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users’ behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users’ group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it’s an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users’ group intentions to increase users’ advertising acceptance and response. PMID:28855879

  1. Identify and analyze the opportunities and threats of social networks for shahid Beheshti University students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Tavalaee

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Due to the growth of information and communication technology in societies Especially among students, the use of these technologies has become as part of regular working people. Social networks as one of the most important and widely in cyberspace which is Used by many people in various fields. application of social network by students as young and educated population is important.In this regard, this study aimed to investigate and identify the opportunities and threats for shahid Beheshti University students in social network. This study aims to develop a practical and descriptive methodology. Information obtained from the questionnaires using SPSS statistical analysis software in two parts: descriptive and inferential statistics were analyzed.The results indicate that five variables related to social networking opportunities, including e-learning, leisure, organized social groups, the possibility of dialogue and culture, as well as five variables related to social networking threats, including transfer value unethical, abusive, spreading false information, internet & Communications destructive addiction, has a significant positive effect on students.

  2. Understanding Team Communication Characteristics using Social Network Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Ar Ryum; Lee, Seung Woo; Seong, Poong Hyun; Park, Jin Kyun

    2011-01-01

    An important aspect of human behavior in nuclear power plants (NPPs) is team interaction since operating NPPs involves the coordination of several team members among and within workplaces. Since operators in main control room (MCR) get a great deal of information through communication to perform a task, communication is one of the important characteristics for team characteristics. Many researchers have been studying how to understand the characteristics of communication. Social network analysis (SNA) which is considered as an objective and easily applicable method has been already applied in many fields to investigate characteristics of team communication. Henttonen (2010) has struggled to perform the research on the impact of social networks in a team and he found some team communication characteristics could be obtained using some properties of SNA. In this paper, SNA is used to understand communication characteristics within operators in NPPs

  3. Five challenges to ethical communication for interprofessional paediatric practice: A social work perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delany, Clare; Richards, Angela; Stewart, Helen; Kosta, Lauren

    2017-07-01

    In paediatric clinical care, what is said to a parent or carer as well as when, where, and how it is said, directly advances or diminishes parents' capacities to understand available options and to contribute to decisions about treatment for their child. This makes interprofessional and patient communication an ethical endeavour. Social workers are uniquely situated to observe, participate in, and provide an active link in the communication between families and other health team members. This article reports phenomenological research exploring ethical issues encountered by social workers in their everyday practice communicating with families and other health professionals in a paediatric hospital context in Australia. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with nine social workers and analysed thematically. Participants described two main communication-based roles: to support families through information provision and to contribute collaboratively to the interprofessional team involved in caring for a child and family. We grouped participants' descriptions of conflict between these roles into five main "communication challenges": (1) holding troublesome knowledge; (2) the need for diplomacy; (3) conciliation; (4) every man and his dog in family meetings; and (5) systems and processes presenting a brick wall. The five communication challenges provide empirically derived examples of how communication occurring within interprofessional health teams and between individual clinicians and parents can act to diminish or enhance parents' experience of care for their hospitalised child. Identifying these challenges may help to inform how communication within interprofessional teams and between clinicians and patients can benefit children and their parents.

  4. Future cooperative communication systems driven by social mobile networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blázovics, L.; Varga, C.; Bamford, W.

    2011-01-01

    In this work we are underlining the importance of social mobile networks for upcoming cooperative communication systems. The assumption of this work is that future mobile communication systems will incorporate user cooperation, i.e. a combination of cellular access in parallel with ongoing short...... cases. By the example of the Gedda-Headz gaming community, possible links between cooperative mobile communication and social mobile networks are shown....

  5. Dialogical communication and empowering social work practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Natland, Sidsel

    2015-01-01

    How to succeed in facilitating for empowering processes within social work practice is a central topic in both theoretical discussions and regarding its principles in practice. With a particular focus on how dialogical communication can play a part in order to practice empowering social work, through this text the author frames HUSK as a project facilitating the underpinning humanistic approaches in social work. Dialogical communication and its philosophical base is presented and recognized as a means to achieve empowering social work as well as highlighting the importance of the humanistic approach. The author also underscores how HUSK projects in themselves were enabled because of the required collaboration between service users, professionals, and researchers that signified HUSK. This is pinpointed as having potential for a future research agenda as well as pointing at how the outcomes of the projects may impact future social work practice when the goal is to conduct empowering social work.

  6. Small Business Social Responsibility Communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Morsing, Mette; Spence, Laura J.

    2015-01-01

    approach and we propose for SME managers to investigate Foucault’s notion of “care of the self”. Originality/value: We conceptualize how SBSR is caught in a ‘governmentality dilemma’ where simultaneous expectations to govern others (e.g. through standards) and the self (e.g. through intrinsic motivations......) are confronting owner-managers’ ethos. We explain theoretically how small business managers respond to the challenge when they are required to formalize and display for external surveillance that which would otherwise be informal and part of the non-public or private sphere.......Purpose: Corporate social responsibility communication by small and medium sized enterprises is theorized to form the concept of Small Business Social Responsibility (SBSR) Communication. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper that draws on Foucault’s theory of governmentality...

  7. How does difficulty communicating affect the social relationships of older adults? An exploration using data from a national survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palmer, Andrew D; Newsom, Jason T; Rook, Karen S

    2016-01-01

    Healthy social relationships are important for maintaining mental and physical health in later life. Less social support, smaller social networks, and more negative social interactions have been linked to depression, poorer immune functioning, lower self-rated health, increased incidence of disease, and higher mortality. Overwhelming evidence suggests that communication disorders adversely affect social relationships. Much less is known about whether some or all aspects of social relationships are negatively affected by a communication disorder. The relative impact of a communication disorder on social relationships, as compared to other kinds of disability, is also poorly understood. Data were analyzed from a representative national sample of community-dwelling adults aged 65 and older living in the continental United States (n=742). Results from multiple regressions indicated that difficulty communicating was significantly associated with several parameters of social relationships even after controlling for age, gender, partnership status, health, functional limitations, and visual impairment. Communication difficulty was a significant predictor of smaller social network size, fewer positive social exchanges, less frequent participation in social activities, and higher levels of loneliness, but was not a significant predictor of negative social exchanges. These findings suggest that communication disorders may place older adults at increased risk for mental and physical health problems because of social isolation, reduced social participation, and higher rates of loneliness. In addition, it appears that communication disorders may have a greater impact on positive, rather than negative, aspects of social relationships. As a result of this activity, the following learning outcomes will be realized: Readers will be able to (1) describe changes in the social relationships of older adults that occur as part of normal aging, (2) identify the aspects of social

  8. Early Markers of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Infants and Toddlers Prospectively Identified in the Social Attention and Communication Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbaro, Josephine; Dissanayake, Cheryl

    2013-01-01

    The Social Attention and Communication Study involved the successful implementation of developmental surveillance of the early markers of autism spectrum disorders in a community-based setting. The objective in the current study was to determine the most discriminating and predictive markers of autism spectrum disorders used in the Social…

  9. Word-of-Mouth Communication and Social Learning

    OpenAIRE

    A. Banerjee; Drew Fudenberg

    2010-01-01

    This paper studies the way that word-of-mouth communication aggregates the information of individual agents. We find that the structure of the communication process determines whether all agents end up making identical choices, with less communication making this conformity more likely. Despite the players' naive decision rules and the stochastic decision environment, word-of-mouth communication may lead all players to adopt the action that is on average superior. These socially efficient out...

  10. The power of likes: Social media logic and political communication

    OpenAIRE

    Kalsnes, Bente

    2016-01-01

    Political communication on social media is the topic of this dissertation. The Internet and social media platforms have provided participants in the public sphere with new ways to connect, communicate and distribute information. This study examines how and why the three main actor groups within political communication – political actors, media actors and citizens – connect and interact on social media during the electoral process in Norway in 2013. This hybrid media landscape is characterized...

  11. What Predicts Exercise Maintenance and Well-Being? Examining The Influence of Health-Related Psychographic Factors and Social Media Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Xin; Krishnan, Archana

    2018-01-26

    Habitual exercising is an important precursor to both physical and psychological well-being. There is, thus, a strong interest in identifying key factors that can best motivate individuals to sustain regular exercise regimen. In addition to the importance of psychographic factors, social media use may act as external motivator by allowing users to interact and communicate about exercise. In this study, we examined the influence of health consciousness, health-oriented beliefs, intrinsic motivation, as willingness to communicate about health on social media, social media activity on exercise, and online social support on exercise maintenance and well-being on a sample of 532 American adults. Employing structural equation modeling, we found that health-oriented beliefs mediated the effect of health consciousness on intrinsic motivation which in turn was a significant predictor of exercise maintenance. Exercise maintenance significantly predicted both physical and psychological well-being. Extrinsic motivators, as measured by willingness to communicate about health on social media, social media activity on exercise, and online social support did not however significantly influence exercise maintenance. These findings have implications for the design and implementation of exercise-promoting interventions by identifying underlying factors that influence exercise maintenance.

  12. Interdisciplinary Analysis of Drought Communication Through Social Media Platforms and Risk Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wygant, M.

    2015-12-01

    As droughts continue to impact businesses and communities throughout the United States, there needs to be a greater emphasis on drought communication through interdisciplinary approaches, risk communication, and digital platforms. The purpose of this research is to provide an overview of the current literature on communicating drought and suggests areas for further improvement. Specifically, this research focuses on communicating drought through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It also focuses on the conglomeration of theoretical frameworks within the realm of risk communication, to provide a strong foundation towards future drought communication. This research proposal provides a critical step to advocate for paradigmatic shifts within natural hazard communication.

  13. HIDDEN RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA AND INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erika KULCSÁR

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available If one starts from the assumption that each entity in one way or another have to communicate with consumers, then opportunities offered by the Internet are endless. As such the presence and impact of social media on communication policies of the various entities can be a remarkable one. According to experts in the field, firms thinking in a realistic way try and shall try in the future to benefit from the opportunities offered by this new medium. The aim is to attract a larger number of customers. However invariably the question arises: is the social media indeed the future, and all the existing communication techniques are no longer of any value in a communication?

  14. Social Barriers to Effective Communication in Old Age

    OpenAIRE

    Anna Sanecka

    2014-01-01

    Some communication barriers apply particularly to elderly people. The social barriers to effective communication in old age are the barriers caused by stereotypes of old age/elderly people and the barriers arising from limitations in using mass communication by seniors. Stereotypes of old age/elderly people embrace views regarding old people’s communication skills and the ideas about the correct way of communication with them. Therefore the communication problems of old people are correlated ...

  15. Developing nurses' intercultural/intraprofessional communication skills using the EXCELLence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership Social Interaction Maps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henderson, Saras; Barker, Michelle

    2017-09-27

    To examine how the use of Social Interaction Maps, a tool in the EXCELLence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership Program, can enhance the development of nurses' intercultural/intraprofessional communication skills. Nurses face communication challenges when interacting with others from similar background as well as those from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. We used the EXCELLence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership Program's Social Interaction Maps tool to foster intercultural/intraprofessional communication skills in nurses. Social Interaction Maps describe verbal and nonverbal communication behaviours that model ways of communicating in a culturally appropriate manner. The maps include four stages of an interaction, namely Approach, Bridging, Communicating and Departing using the acronym ABCD. Qualitative approach was used with a purposeful sample of nurses enrolled in a postgraduate course. Fifteen participants were recruited. The Social Interaction Map tool was taught to participants in a workshop where they engaged in sociocultural communication activities using scenarios. Participants were asked to apply Social Interaction Maps in their workplaces. Six weeks later, participants completed a semistructured open-ended questionnaire and participated in a discussion forum on their experience of using Social Interaction Maps. Data were content-analysed. Four themes identified in the use of the Social Interaction Maps were (i) enhancing self-awareness of communication skills; (ii) promoting skills in being nonconfrontational during difficult interactions; (iii) highlighting the importance of A (Approach) and B (Bridging) in interaction with others; and (iv) awareness of how others interpret what is said C (Communicating) and discussing to resolve issues before closure D (Departing). Application of the EXCELLence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership Social Interaction Mapping tool was shown to be useful in

  16. Social Network Analysis and Mining to Monitor and Identify Problems with Large-Scale Information and Communication Technology Interventions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Silva, Aleksandra do Socorro; de Brito, Silvana Rossy; Vijaykumar, Nandamudi Lankalapalli; da Rocha, Cláudio Alex Jorge; Monteiro, Maurílio de Abreu; Costa, João Crisóstomo Weyl Albuquerque; Francês, Carlos Renato Lisboa

    2016-01-01

    The published literature reveals several arguments concerning the strategic importance of information and communication technology (ICT) interventions for developing countries where the digital divide is a challenge. Large-scale ICT interventions can be an option for countries whose regions, both urban and rural, present a high number of digitally excluded people. Our goal was to monitor and identify problems in interventions aimed at certification for a large number of participants in different geographical regions. Our case study is the training at the Telecentros.BR, a program created in Brazil to install telecenters and certify individuals to use ICT resources. We propose an approach that applies social network analysis and mining techniques to data collected from Telecentros.BR dataset and from the socioeconomics and telecommunications infrastructure indicators of the participants' municipalities. We found that (i) the analysis of interactions in different time periods reflects the objectives of each phase of training, highlighting the increased density in the phase in which participants develop and disseminate their projects; (ii) analysis according to the roles of participants (i.e., tutors or community members) reveals that the interactions were influenced by the center (or region) to which the participant belongs (that is, a community contained mainly members of the same region and always with the presence of tutors, contradicting expectations of the training project, which aimed for intense collaboration of the participants, regardless of the geographic region); (iii) the social network of participants influences the success of the training: that is, given evidence that the degree of the community member is in the highest range, the probability of this individual concluding the training is 0.689; (iv) the North region presented the lowest probability of participant certification, whereas the Northeast, which served municipalities with similar

  17. Particularities of the Marketing Communication Strategy through Social Media

    OpenAIRE

    Ionescu Andreea; Ciceo Andreea Teodora

    2013-01-01

    Consumers are confronted daily with dozens of decisions on buying a product and more than ever they refer to Social Media as the main and most important source of information and impressions from consumers worldwide. This article tackles the issue that companies nowadays still struggle with: understanding, properly using and incorporating Social Media marketing efforts into the overall marketing communications strategy. Moreover, it presents the particularities of communicating through Social...

  18. Does early communication mediate the relationship between motor ability and social function in children with cerebral palsy?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lipscombe, Belinda; Boyd, Roslyn N; Coleman, Andrea; Fahey, Michael; Rawicki, Barry; Whittingham, Koa

    2016-01-01

    Children diagnosed with neurodevelopmental conditions such as cerebral palsy (CP) are at risk of experiencing restrictions in social activities negatively impacting their subsequent social functioning. Research has identified motor and communication ability as being unique determinants of social function capabilities in children with CP, to date, no research has investigated whether communication is a mediator of the relationship between motor ability and social functioning. To investigate whether early communication ability at 24 months corrected age (ca.) mediates the relationship between early motor ability at 24 months ca. and later social development at 60 months ca. in a cohort of children diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP). A cohort of 71 children (43 male) diagnosed with CP (GMFCS I=24, 33.8%, II=9, 12.7%, III=12, 16.9%, IV=10, 14.1%, V=16, 22.5%) were assessed at 24 and 60 months ca. Assessments included the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales-Developmental Profile (CSBS-DP) Infant-Toddler Checklist and the Paediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI). A mediation model was examined using bootstrapping. Early communication skills mediated the relationship between early motor abilities and later social functioning, b=0.24 (95% CI=0.08-0.43 and the mediation model was significant, F (2, 68)=32.77, pcommunication ability partially mediates the relationship between early motor ability and later social function in children with CP. This demonstrates the important role of early communication in ongoing social development. Early identification of communication delay and enriched language exposure is crucial in this population. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. A multidirectional communication model: implications for social marketing practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thackeray, Rosemary; Neiger, Brad L

    2009-04-01

    The landscape of sending and receiving information has changed dramatically in the past 25 years. The communication process is changing from being unidirectional to multidirectional as consumers are becoming active participants by creating, seeking, and sharing information using a variety of channels and devices. The purpose of this article is to describe how this shift in the communication process- where gatekeepers control the creation and content of information and consumers are less active recipients to one that reflects a multidirectional and more dynamic process with participative consumers-will affect the social marketing process. This shift in communication does not represent an option for social marketers so much as a necessity. As professionals respond to this evolving communication model, the practice of social marketing can remain vibrant as a relevant consumer-oriented approach to behavior change.

  20. The Social Perspective and Pedagogy in Technical Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thralls, Charlotte; Blyler, Nancy Roundy

    1993-01-01

    Notes that as teachers integrate social theory into the technical communication classroom, they interpret the connection between writing and culture in different ways. Describes four social pedagogies of writing--the social constructionist, the ideologic, the social cognitive, and the paralogic hermeneutic--distinguishing them by their pedagogic…

  1. Importance of Public Communication Campaigns and Art Activities in Social Education

    OpenAIRE

    Bilgehan Gültekin; Tuba Gültekin

    2012-01-01

    Universities have an important role in social education in many aspects. In terms of creating awareness and convincing public about social issues, universities take a leading position for public. The best way to provide public support for social education is to develop public communication campaigns. The aim of this study is to present a public communication model which will be guided in social education practices. The study titled “Importance of public communication campaigns and art activit...

  2. Analysing ESL Students’ Perceptions towards Oral Communication for Social and Occupational Purposes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fauzilah Md Husain

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Fundamental principles of public speaking and appropriate organisational structure of ideas for occupational and social communication are vital aspects for undergraduates as a pathway to overcome employers’ grievances on graduates’ lack of communication skills (Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2015. This study was undertaken to explore the perceptions of a group of ten students at a tertiary institution in Malaysia to see how they utlise the theories and practice of effective communication skills beyond their course entitled “Oral Communication for Social and Occupational Purposes”. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. The study found that these students gained knowledge about effective communication for social and occupational purposes. The findings also indicate that students have benefitted in relation to communication in a formal way especially to higher authorities, and sharpening their communication and presentation skills. However, there were shortcomings that need to be addressed, particularly related to methods of teaching Oral Communication for Social and Occupational Purposes, time constraint in preparing for the tutorial sessions and producing a good quality video. Keywords: Social and Occupational, Communication, Oral skills, Theories and Practice

  3. The use of social media in communication and branding

    OpenAIRE

    Ewa Jaska; Agnieszka Werenowska

    2014-01-01

    Searching for information on products and services combined with the growing interest in social media make them important channels of marketing communication and more and more companies see their advertising potential. In order to demonstrate the role of social media in shaping the corporate image and branding the paper discusses the reasons for companies’ interest in this form of communication, its application in the internal communication system as well as the benefits and risks of a brand ...

  4. Making sense of social media communications with chaos theory

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gyimóthy, Szilvia; Larson, Mia

    , offering a few conceptual papers which adopt complexity theories to describe destination development patterns (Russel & Faulkner, 2000, 2004; Zahra & Ryan 2007). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the validity of chaos theory in the context of strategic communications, where new (social) media has...... changed the marketing landscape beyond recognition. The exponential growth of social media platforms has led to weakened marketer control (and greater consumer sovereignty) over information about organisations and their products. In this new communications paradigm (Muniz & Schau 2007), information...... media channels. Social media users serve as gatekeepers, opting for which fluctuations to pay attention to, which to ignore. The challenge is then to establish a framework of unfolding communication patterns on social media which can eventually explain the collective behaviour of bloggers, twitters...

  5. Social communication with virtual agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Marschner, Linda; Pannasch, Sebastian; Schulz, Johannes

    2015-01-01

    In social communication, the gaze direction of other persons provides important information to perceive and interpret their emotional response. Previous research investigated the influence of gaze by manipulating mutual eye contact. Therefore, gaze and body direction has been changed as a whole...

  6. Digital Social Medias Impact on the Firms’ Organizational Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernanda Martins Romano

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the impacts caused by the adoption of the so-called digital social media on strategy and on organizational communication processes of Brazilian companies. To this exploratory study´s effect, key organizational communication executives of varied sectors, large-sized companies were interviewed. The 11 in-depth interviews were based on a semi-structured script and processed applying NVivo software. Results revealed the yet incipient adoption of digital social media in organizational communication strategy shaped in the form of a process undergoing evolution thus posing a corporate challenge. The absence of knowledge concerning platform dynamics, of benchmarks and of specialized professionals were mentioned by interviewees as factors that inhibit said adoption. Despite declaring that digital social media is an irreversible phenomenon, executives fear the potential amplification of communication crises, when sprung from web-based blunders.

  7. Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility on Social Media: Strategies, Stakeholders, and Public Engagement on Corporate Facebook

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Moonhee; Furey, Lauren D.; Mohr, Tiffany

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore what corporations with good reputations communicate on social media. Based on a content analysis of 46 corporate Facebook pages from "Fortune's" "World's Most Admired Companies," this study found that corporations communicate noncorporate social responsibility messages more frequently…

  8. Sex Differences in Technical Communication: A Perspective from Social Role Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Isabelle

    2004-01-01

    This article interprets technical communication research about sex differences according to social role theory, which argues that sex differences are enculturated through experiences associated with social positions in the family and the workplace. It reevaluates technical communication research about sex differences in communicative and…

  9. A meta-analysis of the social communication questionnaire: Screening for autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chesnut, Steven R; Wei, Tianlan; Barnard-Brak, Lucy; Richman, David M

    2017-11-01

    The current meta-analysis examines the previous research on the utility of the Social Communication Questionnaire as a screening instrument for autism spectrum disorder. Previously published reports have highlighted the inconsistencies between Social Communication Questionnaire-screening results and formal autism spectrum disorder diagnoses. The variations in accuracy resulted in some researchers questioning the validity of the Social Communication Questionnaire. This study systematically examined the accuracy of the Social Communication Questionnaire as a function of the methodological decisions made by researchers screening for autism spectrum disorder over the last 15 years. Findings from this study suggest that the Social Communication Questionnaire is an acceptable screening instrument for autism spectrum disorder (area under the curve = 0.885). Variations in methodological decisions, however, greatly influenced the accuracy of the Social Communication Questionnaire in screening for autism spectrum disorder. Of these methodological variations, using the Current instead of the Lifetime version of the Social Communication Questionnaire resulted in the largest detrimental effect ( d = -3.898), followed by using the Social Communication Questionnaire with individuals younger than 4 years of age ( d = -2.924) and relying upon convenience samples ( d = -4.828 for clinical samples, -2.734 for convenience samples, and -1.422 for community samples). Directions for future research and implications for using the Social Communication Questionnaire to screen for autism spectrum disorder are discussed.

  10. Interactive communication with the public: qualitative exploration of the use of social media by food and health organizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shan, Liran Christine; Panagiotopoulos, Panagiotis; Regan, Áine; De Brún, Aoife; Barnett, Julie; Wall, Patrick; McConnon, Áine

    2015-01-01

    To examine the use and impact of social media on 2-way communication between consumers and public organizations in the food safety and nutrition area. In-depth qualitative study conducted between October, 2012 and January, 2013, using semi-structured interviews in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Sixteen professionals worked on the public interface within 5 national organizations with a role in communicating on food safety and nutrition issues in this thematic analysis. Five main themes were identified: gradual shift toward social media-based queries and complaints; challenges and limitations of social media to deal with queries and complaints; benefits of using social media in query and complaint services; content redesign driven by social media use; and using social media to learn more about consumers. Social media penetrated and brought new opportunities to food organizations' interactions with the public. Given the increasing use of social media by the public, food organizations need to explore such new opportunities for communication and research. Copyright © 2015 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. PROBLEMS OF MODERN DOCUMENTAL COMMUNICATION (cultural-and-social aspects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergey Petrovich Kushneruk

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Some results of the official-and-business texts’ qualities revealed on communication level are presented in this article. The system of axes used for national-and-social evaluations of the business communicative instruments is under analysis. The influences of unstable social-and-cultural conditions on technological and organizational circumstances of document-oriented communication are analyzed. Some results of the out-of-officinal factors origin’ and level’s evaluation in their influence on unified forms and textual peculiarities of communicative acts in the forms of “business papers” are presented.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-7-44

  12. Using Social Media to Improve Student-Instructor Communication in an Online Learning Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Rong; Shen, Yide; Li, Lei

    2018-01-01

    The lack of effective faculty-student interaction has been identified as a main contributor to the high dropout rate in online education. For this paper, the authors conducted an empirical study using a social networking tool, specifically Facebook, to improve student-instructor communication and student performance in an online learning…

  13. The new media paradigm: From mediation to mediatisation of social communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bogdanić Aleksandar

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This study discusses the changes in character and role of social communication at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Beside itself being the subject of most thorough change under the influence of globalization and new communication technologies, communication became a key agency of social change. Mediation is seen as one of the phenomena that dominates everyday life and a common feature of almost all forms of human communication. Certain features of contemporary communication are also analyzed in greater detail, such as the new media and the culture of new 'intermediaries'. The new media, such as the internet, mobile phone, Youtube and Facebook, beside their intermediary nature, share a number of other features which are discussed in the study. The features of the culture of new intermediaries that are, among others, discussed in the study are media, content or user convergence, intertextuality, decentralization and decontextualization, media democratization, communicational reductionism, visual culture domination, new genres, planetary popularity, personal mass communication, commercialization of privacy, hypersensationalism and others. The study concludes that the new media have permeated all pores of society and became the integral part of social structure for the reason of which citizens must adapt to them. The media are not merely the means of social interaction but the place of social interaction. In other words, society and human communication have been mediatized.

  14. Development and Analyses of Privacy Management Models in Online Social Networks Based on Communication Privacy Management Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Ki Jung

    2013-01-01

    Online social networks (OSNs), while serving as an emerging means of communication, promote various issues of privacy. Users of OSNs encounter diverse occasions that lead to invasion of their privacy, e.g., published conversation, public revelation of their personally identifiable information, and open boundary of distinct social groups within…

  15. Singaporean Adolescents' Perceptions of Online Social Communication: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Robert Z.; Cheok, Angeline; Khoo, Eng

    2011-01-01

    The current study investigated adolescents' perceptions in online social communication. Three factors were perceived by adolescents as critical to online social communication. These included self-identity, self-confidence, and self-social factors. Results showed significant differences between the factors derived from the current study and those…

  16. Strategic Communication and Social Media: An MBA Course from a Business Communication Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meredith, Michael J.

    2012-01-01

    Social media offers an exciting new area for our discipline to produce research and pedagogy that is in high demand by students, industry constituents, and other disciplines. This article discusses why business communication scholars should focus on social media as an important stream of study and outlines an MBA course in social media strategy…

  17. Research on social communication network evolution based on topology potential distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Dongjie; Jiang, Jian; Li, Deyi; Zhang, Haisu; Chen, Guisheng

    2011-12-01

    Aiming at the problem of social communication network evolution, first, topology potential is introduced to measure the local influence among nodes in networks. Second, from the perspective of topology potential distribution the method of network evolution description based on topology potential distribution is presented, which takes the artificial intelligence with uncertainty as basic theory and local influence among nodes as essentiality. Then, a social communication network is constructed by enron email dataset, the method presented is used to analyze the characteristic of the social communication network evolution and some useful conclusions are got, implying that the method is effective, which shows that topology potential distribution can effectively describe the characteristic of sociology and detect the local changes in social communication network.

  18. Cognitive and behavioural predictors of adolescents' communicative perspective-taking and social relationships.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nilsen, Elizabeth S; Bacso, Sarah A

    2017-04-01

    Given the pivotal role that social interactions play for adolescents' well-being, understanding the factors that influence communication is key. The present study examined relations between adolescents' communicative perspective-taking, executive function skills, and ADHD traits and explored the role communicative perspective-taking plays in peer relations. Data was collected from a community sample of 15 to 19-years-olds (N = 46) in Waterloo, Canada. Two communicative perspective-taking tasks required participants to infer speakers' communicative intentions. A battery of tasks assessed adolescents' working memory and inhibitory control. Elevated ADHD traits were associated with weaker working memory, inhibitory control, and communicative perspective-taking. Working memory was the strongest predictor of communicative perspective-taking. Highlighting the importance of communicative perspective-taking for social interactions, adolescents with weaker skills in this area reported worse peer relations. Findings underscore the importance of communicative perspective-taking for adolescents' social relations and have relevance for understanding the social difficulties faced by adolescents with elevated ADHD traits. Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Just between us: Exclusive communications in online social networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carpenter, Jordan; Green, Melanie; Laflam, Jeff

    2018-01-01

    Social media websites such as Facebook are used for relationship development and maintenance often through self-disclosure and sharing of personal information. However, not all forms of social media communication may be equally suitable for this task. This paper explores users' norms about the appropriateness of using private vs. public Facebook messages to communicate different kinds of personal information, and the effectiveness of these types of communication in building relationships. Study 1, a survey, revealed that users endorse conflicting expectations about preferences for receiving information publicly or privately. Study 2, a field experiment testing the effects of private versus public Facebook communications on actual relationship development using participants' own Facebook pages, suggested that private messages lead to greater closeness.

  20. Social communication difficulties and autism in previously institutionalized children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levin, April R; Fox, Nathan A; Zeanah, Charles H; Nelson, Charles A

    2015-02-01

    To determine the risk of difficulties with social communication and restricted/repetitive behaviors as well as the rate of autism in children institutionalized in early infancy and to assess the impact of a foster care intervention on ameliorating this risk. Children abandoned at birth and raised in institutions in Bucharest, Romania were randomly assigned to a care-as-usual group (institutional care, CAUG), or placed in family-centered foster care (FCG) as part of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP). At approximately 10 years of age, the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) was administered to caregivers of children in both groups as well as to parents of a typically developing community sample (Never-Institutionalized group [NIG]) residing in Bucharest, Romania. Children scoring ≥12 on the SCQ underwent clinical evaluation for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Caregivers of children with a history of institutionalization reported that these children had significantly more deviant behavior than never-institutionalized children on all subdomains of the SCQ (all p communication. Three of 60 CAUG children, 2 of 57 FCG children, and none of the NIG children received a formal ASD diagnosis. Early institutional rearing was associated with an increased risk of social communication difficulties and ASD. A family-centered foster care intervention improved social communication skills. Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Integration of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Communication

    OpenAIRE

    Islam, Mohammad Nur

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to present a new perspective on the current practices in corporate communications and CSR which calls for an integration of social responsibility and communication activities of corporations as an opportunity of competitive advantage. More specifically, this study looks at this subject from the angle of how companies can use communications to achieve CSR goal, while CSR can be a way to attain efficacy in communication. The study is designed to examine the current ...

  2. Socially bold personality in the real communication and Internet communication: the analysis of representations of people of the different age

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pogodina A. V.

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The article is concerned with the results of the study, subject of which is the submis- sion of the respondents of the different age groups about the social and bold personality. Required property of the respondents was the presence in the Internet environment and participation in various social networks. They assessed social and bold personal- ity in such contexts of communication, as real communication and Internet communication. Analyses were undertaken to determine the structural and content features of emotional and semantic representations of the phenomenon of the social and bold personality, depending on the context of communication, but also the detection of age-sensitive representations of the young respondents (19—35 years, middle-aged respondents (36-55 years and older respondents (from 56 to 70 years. The concept of the “social and bold personality in real communion” is shown to have a high semantic relevance, strongly marked positive emotional coloration and a similar factor structure for respondents of all age groups. The concept of the “social and bold personality in online communication” with a high semantic significance in the perception of the young respondents moves into a zone of moderate and semantic importance in representations of the middle-aged and older respondents. In representations of the respondents of all age groups, the attractiveness of the "social and bold personality in Internet communication" is less than in comparison with the "social and bold personality in the real communication". The age-specific of the social representations about social and bold personality in the real and virtual communication has been analysed in detail.

  3. The role and importance of social media in communicating brand value

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Đukić Suzana

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Communication between consumers is the most important way of communicating value and forming opinions on brands and enterprises. The expansion of communication technologies has made communication between people easier and provided the links with consumers on a radically new basis. Virtual space represents a dominant meeting place for people with similar interests. Thus, virtual consumer communities across the world preferring and committed to same brands have been created. Members are loyal to communities they belong to and participate actively and indirectly in modeling and developing them. By expressing their own opinions and exploring others, consumers influence and help each other in finding solutions for certain situations in buying and consumption. Considering the intensity of the exchange of information, opinions, experience and ideas, one can speak about the expansion of communication messages that are exchanged in the virtual space and social media as transfer channels. These are the media formed by consumers themselves, who control the information communicated through them. Because of the importance of massages exchanged through them and their impact on consumer behavior, social media have an important place in integrated marketing communications. Although enterprises cannot completely control the communication within social media, the efficiency of marketing communication can be realized by providing conditions for friendly, correct, continuous and transparent message exchange between consumers and enterprises as well as between consumers themselves. The paper examines the communication possibilities of social media determining their role and importance in communicating value in the market for the purpose of enhancing consumer loyalty and creating image and professional respectability of the enterprise.

  4. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: COMMUNICATING IN PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Йолита Ричардовна Вайнхардт

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective: to examine the details of declared activities of social responsibility in the public sector. To achieve the objective the following tasks are formulated: (1 to review the CSR research carried out inLithuania; (2 to analyse the communicative actions of public sector organizations concerning socially responsible activities. Method of work: the article is written using the methods of content analysis, analogy and reflection.  Results: Corporate social responsibility (CSR activities focused on external interest groups and their representation are analysed in the article. The survey covers state capital enterprises or enterprises, in which a larger part of the portfolio of shares is owned by the public sector, and educational organizations, the founder of which is the state. The research of CSR carried out in Lithuania in recent years is overviewed and analysis of the way the public sector organizations, which belong to United Nations Global Compact (hereafter GC network communicate their socially responsible activities is provided. It has been found that the membership of the majority of public sector organizations in the GC is rather formal, and insufficient attention is given for communicating socially responsible activities in information carriers, most easily accessible to the user.  Application of results: management in the public sector.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-10-32

  5. Persuasion, Influence, and Value: Perspectives from Communication and Social Neuroscience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falk, Emily; Scholz, Christin

    2018-01-04

    Opportunities to persuade and be persuaded are ubiquitous. What determines whether influence spreads and takes hold? This review provides an overview of evidence for the central role of subjective valuation in persuasion and social influence for both propagators and receivers of influence. We first review evidence that decisions to communicate information are determined by the subjective value a communicator expects to gain from sharing. We next review evidence that the effects of social influence and persuasion on receivers, in turn, arise from changes in the receiver's subjective valuation of objects, ideas, and behaviors. We then review evidence that self-related and social considerations are two key inputs to the value calculation in both communicators and receivers. Finally, we highlight biological coupling between communicators and receivers as a mechanism through which perceptions of value can be transmitted.

  6. Impacto de la ansiedad social, las habilidades sociales y la cibervictimización en la comunicación online (Impact of Social Anxiety, Social Skills and Cyberbullying on Online Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raúl Navarro

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The present research examined online communication behaviour in a sample of preadolescents (10-12 years, n= 812. In addition, we examined the effect of social anxiety, social skills and experiences of cyberbullying on online communication behaviour. Online communication measures included items related to time online, platforms used, relationships and motives to go online. Social anxiety was assessed using the Social Anxiety Scale of Children Revised, social skills were measured using the Matson Questionnaire subscale and cyberbullying using the Victimization Scale via Internet. The results show that the group with high social skills and low levels of anxiety spend more time communicating online and use instant messages to talk to friends. In contrast, the online behaviour of the group with high levels of anxiety and low social skills are more motivated to communicate online by their desire to make new friends. Cybervictims spend more time online, use chat rooms and communicate more with strangers than those who do not suffer cyberbullying. These findings suggest that the Internet offers opportunities to maintain and extend social networks but also exposes young people to online risks.

  7. The Communications of Corporate Social Responsability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mihaela Bucur

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper present the role and interaction between communication and Corporate Social Responsibility, strengtheningin the same time that communication it is a key factor to begin and keep a proper Sustainable Development strategy. The importance of communication is essential, taking in consideration the awareness in the interior and in the exterior of organization strategy, ethical, ecological and socio-economical objectives, since information regarding the impact of the company’s activities, products and services as well as regarding the impacts of changes that can supervene in time, can only be provided in this way. Since there are many ways to communicate regarding the actions of CSR, it is important to know what kind of messages and ideas can resonate with a certain audience, considering the stage in which the ISO 26000 standard’s development stands.

  8. Communication, Reasoning, and Planned Behaviors: Unveiling the Effect of Interactive Communication in an Anti-Smoking Social Media Campaign.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Namkoong, Kang; Nah, Seungahn; Record, Rachael A; Van Stee, Stephanie K

    2017-01-01

    This study examines direct and indirect effects of interactive communication in an antismoking social media campaign. To that end, we pose a multitheoretical framework that integrates communication mediation models and the Theory of Planned Behavior. To test the theorized model, we conducted an experiment using a two-group pretest-posttest design. Participants (N = 201) were randomly assigned into two experimental conditions: "campaign message reception only" as a control group and "message reception and social interaction" as a treatment group, in which the participants contributed to the antismoking campaign by posting their own campaign ideas and information they found through mediated and interpersonal communication. The findings show that interactive communication catalyzes the participants' information searching behaviors through diverse communication channels. In turn, increased media use plays a crucial role in changing their attitudes and perceived social norms about smoking behaviors, and eventually reducing smoking intention. This study affirms that the theory of planned behavior is effective in predicting behavioral intention and demonstrates the usefulness of a multitheoretical approach in interactive campaign research on social media.

  9. Prospective identification of autism spectrum disorders in infancy and toddlerhood using developmental surveillance: the social attention and communication study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbaro, Josephine; Dissanayake, Cheryl

    2010-06-01

    Despite behavioral markers of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) being evident within the first year of life, there remains little research on the prospective identification of these children in a community-based setting before 18 months. The aim in the Social Attention and Communication Study was to identify infants and toddlers at risk of an ASD during their first 2 years. A total of 241 Maternal and Child Health nurses were trained on the early signs of ASDs at 8, 12, 18 and 24 months. Using a developmental surveillance approach with a community-based sample, a cohort of 20,770 children was monitored on early social attention and communication behaviors. Those infants/toddlers identified as "at risk" were referred to the Social Attention and Communication Study team from 12 months for developmental and diagnostic assessments at 6 monthly intervals, until 24 months. A total of 216 children were referred, with 110 being further assessed. Of these, 89 children were classified with an ASD at 24 months, and 20 children had developmental and/or language delays, resulting in a Positive Predictive value of 81%. The estimated rate of ASDs in the Social Attention and Communication Study cohort ranged from 1:119 to 1:233 children. Estimated sensitivity ranged from 69% to 83.8%, and estimated specificity ranged from 99.8% to 99.9%. Developmental surveillance of social and communication behaviors, which differ according to the age at which the child is monitored, enables the accurate identification of children at risk for ASDs between 12 and 24 months. Education on the early signs is recommended for all primary health care professionals to facilitate early identification of ASDs.

  10. "Social Media has Opened a World of 'Open communication:'" experiences of Adults with Cerebral Palsy who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Social Media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caron, Jessica; Light, Janice

    2016-01-01

    An online focus group was used to investigate the experiences of nine individuals with cerebral palsy who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and social media. Information was gathered related to (a) advantages of social media, (b) disadvantages of social media, (c) barriers to successful use, (d) supports to successful use, and (e) recommendations for other individuals using AAC, support personnel, policy makers, and technology developers. Participants primarily chose to focus on social media as a beneficial tool and viewed it as an important form of communication. The participants did describe barriers to social media use (e.g., technology). Despite barriers, all the participants in this study took an active role in learning to use social media. The results are discussed as they relate to themes and with reference to published literature.

  11. Music goes social! : music startups' viewpoints on marketing communications, social media and music industry

    OpenAIRE

    Vermasheinä, Kaisa

    2011-01-01

    This thesis studies Finnish music industry startups’ viewpoints on marketing communica-tions and social media, as well as their views on the future of the music business. Four Finland based music industry startups were interviewed for the study. Separate chapters deal with the framework of the study: marketing communications, social media and music industry. During the past few years a number of startup companies have been established in Finland with the aim of providing online and digit...

  12. Business communication in social networks: Content management and experiences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miguel Ángel Nicolás

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Currently, management of communication in social networks has become an indispensable strategic activity and contributes directly to change the mode of relationship between business and its stakeholders. The first section of this paper presents a brief analysis of the results reported in different specialized national studies in social networks. We analyse the general activities that users prefer to do and activities that users value most brands on networks. If an organization wants to successfully manage their communication in social networks is very important to know the behaviour of the users and design strategies based on their status and economic activity. This paper presents a brief analysis of social branding through the classification of different corporate content posted on their networks.

  13. The Role of Social Media in Crisis Communication and Crisis Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mustafa Emre Civelek

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Social media and social media tools have improved rapidly and started to influence society especially in recent years. This influence has forced businesses to revolutionize their communication with the external environment. The fact that Web 2.0 has an influence on consumer behavior, and that it makes the consumers stronger; requires faster, more flexible and more sensitive communication processes in businesses. Especially during a time of crisis, a business’ communication with the external environment is quite critical. For this reason, the way how the crisis communication is managed through social media is vital for businesses. In this article, the perceptions of how to manage businesses during a time of crisis so that they make minimum loss, is shared.

  14. The dual impact of online communication on older adults’ social connectivity

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hage, Maria; Wortmann, Johan; van Offenbeek, Marjolein; Boonstra, Albert

    2016-01-01

    Purpose – In today’s aging world online communication is often viewed as a means to enhance social connectivity, and therefore well-being, of older adults. However, previous research on the influence of online communication on social connectivity largely disregards older adults, yields conflicting

  15. Strategies for interpersonal and public communication in social movements. Transformations in informal networks and repertoires in the era of social Web

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rocío Ortiz Galindo

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This work aims to advance in the theoretical analysis of the field of communication and social movements. The article studies the new changes that have emerged in the social Web era. We will review some of the principal works of the literature to observe the communicative strategies in these collectives, which are able to influence in the social change. We will differentiate the area of interpersonal communication (the informal networks and the public communication (the repertoires of collective action. We will use this classification to analyze the communicative strategies which have born in the social cybermovements, in the ICT age.

  16. Vectors into the Future of Mass and Interpersonal Communication Research: Big Data, Social Media, and Computational Social Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cappella, Joseph N

    2017-10-01

    Simultaneous developments in big data, social media, and computational social science have set the stage for how we think about and understand interpersonal and mass communication. This article explores some of the ways that these developments generate 4 hypothetical "vectors" - directions - into the next generation of communication research. These vectors include developments in network analysis, modeling interpersonal and social influence, recommendation systems, and the blurring of distinctions between interpersonal and mass audiences through narrowcasting and broadcasting. The methods and research in these arenas are occurring in areas outside the typical boundaries of the communication discipline but engage classic, substantive questions in mass and interpersonal communication.

  17. Internet communication: an activity that appeals to shy and socially phobic people?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madell, Dominic; Muncer, Steven

    2006-10-01

    Shyness (or social anxiety) and social phobia can be viewed as two distinct conditions, and this study investigates whether they are related to use of the Internet generally, and for communication purposes. 362 participants from two schools, a college and a university in the Teesside area in England were asked to complete Mattick and Clarke's (1998) Social Phobia (SPS) and Social Interaction Anxiety (SIAS) scales and also answer a questionnaire which asked them about their use of the Internet generally and for communication purposes. The findings from these suggested that social anxiety and social phobia are not highly associated with use of the Internet either in general, or for communication purposes, although minor associations with certain aspects of Internet use are discussed.

  18. COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT CRISIS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

    OpenAIRE

    Ana Mª Enrique Jiménez

    2013-01-01

    It is often in the social networks where you detect the first signs of a potential crisis situation. Today, many companies decide to be present in social networks to communicate, listen and respond to their audiences openly with immediacy. A simple complaint is visible and propagates through the network in seconds, being capable of generating a negative impact on the corporate image of the organization. The same can happen to the contrary, ie, to praise the performance of a company, which may...

  19. Integrating Language, Pragmatics, and Social Intervention in a Single-Subject Case Study of a Child with a Developmental Social Communication Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Catherine; Gaile, Jacqueline; Lockton, Elaine; Freed, Jenny

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: This clinical focus article presents an illustration of a complex communication intervention, the Social Communication Intervention Programme (SCIP), as delivered to a child who has a social communication disorder (SCD). The SCIP intervention combined language processing and pragmatic and social understanding therapies in a program of…

  20. The “Social Gaze Space”: A Taxonomy for Gaze-Based Communication in Triadic Interactions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mathis Jording

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Humans substantially rely on non-verbal cues in their communication and interaction with others. The eyes represent a “simultaneous input-output device”: While we observe others and obtain information about their mental states (including feelings, thoughts, and intentions-to-act, our gaze simultaneously provides information about our own attention and inner experiences. This substantiates its pivotal role for the coordination of communication. The communicative and coordinative capacities – and their phylogenetic and ontogenetic impacts – become fully apparent in triadic interactions constituted in its simplest form by two persons and an object. Technological advances have sparked renewed interest in social gaze and provide new methodological approaches. Here we introduce the ‘Social Gaze Space’ as a new conceptual framework for the systematic study of gaze behavior during social information processing. It covers all possible categorical states, namely ‘partner-oriented,’ ‘object-oriented,’ ‘introspective,’ ‘initiating joint attention,’ and ‘responding joint attention.’ Different combinations of these states explain several interpersonal phenomena. We argue that this taxonomy distinguishes the most relevant interactional states along their distinctive features, and will showcase the implications for prominent social gaze phenomena. The taxonomy allows to identify research desiderates that have been neglected so far. We argue for a systematic investigation of these phenomena and discuss some related methodological issues.

  1. Testing the social dog hypothesis: are dogs also more skilled than chimpanzees in non-communicative social tasks?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wobber, Victoria; Hare, Brian

    2009-07-01

    Relative to non-human primates, domestic dogs possess a number of social skills that seem exceptional-particularly in solving problems involving cooperation and communication with humans. However, the degree to which dogs' unusual skills are contextually specialized is still unclear. Here, we presented dogs with a social problem that did not require them to use cooperative-communicative cues and compared their performance to that of chimpanzees to assess the extent of dogs' capabilities relative to those of non-human primates. We tested the abilities of dogs and chimpanzees to inhibit previously learned responses by using a social and a non-social version of a reversal learning task. In contrast to previous findings in cooperative-communicative social tasks, dogs were not more skilled on the social task than the non-social task, while chimpanzees were significantly better in the social paradigm. Chimpanzees were able to inhibit their prior learning better and more quickly in the social paradigm than they were in the non-social paradigm, while dogs took more time to inhibit what they had learned in both versions of the task. These results suggest that the dogs' sophisticated social skills in using human social cues may be relatively specialized as a result of domestication.

  2. Smart Video Communication for Social Groups - The Vconect Project

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    M. Ursu; P. Stollenmayer; D. Williams; P. Torres; P.S. Cesar Garcia (Pablo Santiago); N. Farber; E. Geelhoed

    2014-01-01

    htmlabstractThis article introduces the Vconect project. Vconect (Video Communications for Networked Communities) is a collaborative European research and development project dealing with high-quality enriched video as a medium for mass communication within social communities. The technical

  3. Social media: physicians-to-physicians education and communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fehring, Keith A; De Martino, Ivan; McLawhorn, Alexander S; Sculco, Peter K

    2017-06-01

    Physician to physician communication is essential for the transfer of ideas, surgical experience, and education. Social networks and online video educational contents have grown exponentially in recent years changing the interaction among physicians. Social media platforms can improve physician-to-physician communication mostly through video education and social networking. There are several online video platforms for orthopedic surgery with educational content on diagnosis, treatment, outcomes, and surgical technique. Social networking instead is mostly centered on sharing of data, discussion of confidential topics, and job seeking. Quality of educational contents and data confidentiality represent the major drawbacks of these platforms. Orthopedic surgeons must be aware that the quality of the videos should be better controlled and regulated to avoid inaccurate information that may have a significant impact especially on trainees that are more prone to use this type of resources. Sharing of data and discussion of confidential topics should be extremely secure according the HIPAA regulations in order to protect patients' confidentiality.

  4. Social-Aware Relay Selection for Cooperative Multicast Device-to-Device Communications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesco Chiti

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The increasing use of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to share photos, video streaming, and music among friends has generated a huge increase in the amount of data traffic over wireless networks. This social behavior has triggered new communication paradigms such as device-to-device (D2D and relaying communication schemes, which are both considered as strong drivers for the next fifth-generation (5G cellular systems. Recently, the social-aware layer and its relationship to and influence on the physical communications layer have gained great attention as emerging focus points. We focus here on the case of relaying communications to pursue the multicast data dissemination to a group of users forming a social community through a relay node, according to the extension of the D2D mode to the case of device-to-many devices. Moreover, in our case, the source selects the device to act as the relay among different users of the multicast group by taking into account both the propagation link conditions and the relay social-trust level with the constraint of minimizing the end-to-end content delivery delay. An optimization procedure is also proposed in order to achieve the best performance. Finally, numerical results are provided to highlight the advantages of considering the impact of social level on the end-to-end delivery delay in the integrated social–physical network in comparison with the classical relay-assisted multicast communications for which the relay social-trust level is not considered.

  5. The Utility of the Social Communication Questionnaire in Screening for Autism in Children Referred for Early Intervention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiggins, Lisa D.; Bakeman, Roger; Adamson, Lauren B.; Robins, Diana L.

    2007-01-01

    The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) is a brief parental screening instrument used to identify children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Screening validity for the SCQ has been supported in children 4 years of age and older, but ongoing studies indicate that the SCQ may not be effective in identifying very young children with ASD. The…

  6. System of Interactions of Social Actors in Public Communication of Science and Technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miriam Graciela Miquilena

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the results of a research aimed at explaining the system of interactions of social actors in Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST, in the context of a social web defined by the novel systems of communication sustained on informational and communication technologies. The study’s theoretical framework highlights the strategic importance of a Public Communication  which focuses on promoting public appropriation of Science and Technology, going beyond the role of Journalism and Science Communication that informs a qualified public, to one that stablishes a bond with policies and decision making in the area, made with participation of international agencies, governments, producers of science and technology, journalists’ associations, educational institutions, and citizens. The research relies on Explicative Methodology. A revision of pertinent bibliography leads to the conclusion that the system of social interactions mediated by personal, interpersonal and grupal global communications, define the relationships in the communicational exchange of the social actor with regard to public communication of science and technology and policies aimed at its appropriation.

  7. Social communication in mice--are there optimal cage conditions?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Allain-Thibeault Ferhat

    Full Text Available Social communication is heavily affected in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. Accordingly, mouse models designed to study the mechanisms leading to these disorders are tested for this phenotypic trait. Test conditions vary between different models, and the effect of these test conditions on the quantity and quality of social interactions and ultrasonic communication is unknown. The present study examines to which extent the habituation time to the test cage as well as the shape/size of the cage influence social communication in freely interacting mice. We tested 8 pairs of male mice in free dyadic social interactions, with two habituation times (20 min and 30 min and three cage formats (rectangle, round, square. We tested the effect of these conditions on the different types of social contacts, approach-escape sequences, follow behavior, and the time each animal spent in the vision field of the other one, as well as on the emission of ultrasonic vocalizations and their contexts of emission. We provide for the first time an integrated analysis of the social interaction behavior and ultrasonic vocalizations. Surprisingly, we did not highlight any significant effect of habituation time and cage shape/size on the behavioral events examined. There was only a slight increase of social interactions with the longer habituation time in the round cage. Remarkably, we also showed that vocalizations were emitted during specific behavioral sequences especially during close contact or approach behaviors. The present study provides a protocol reliably eliciting social contacts and ultrasonic vocalizations in adult male mice. This protocol is therefore well adapted for standardized investigation of social interactions in mouse models of neuropsychiatric disorders.

  8. Socialization of the Academic Chairperson: A Typology of Communication Dimensions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Staton-Spicer, Ann Q.; Spicer, Christopher H.

    1987-01-01

    Describes a typology of communication dimensions used by academic chairpersons in the early stages of the socialization process. Four new chairpersons were interviewed, and four functions of communication (informative, integrative, regulative, and innovative) guided data gathering in researching the link between communicator and role…

  9. Language and Social Inclusion: Unexplored Aspects of Intercultural Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musgrave, Simon; Bradshaw, Julie

    2014-01-01

    Social inclusion policy in Australia has largely ignored key issues of communication for linguistic minorities, across communities and with the mainstream community. In the (now disbanded) Social Inclusion Board's reports (e.g., Social Inclusion Unit, 2009), the emphasis is on the economic aspects of inclusion, while little attention has been paid…

  10. [Interventions to promote social communication in children with autism spectrum disorders].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baixauli-Fortea, I; Rosello-Miranda, B; Berenguer-Forner, C; Colomer-Diago, C; Grau-Sevilla, M D

    2017-02-24

    The difficulties encountered when it comes to social communication are one of the core disorders experienced by persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This problem leads to feelings of loneliness and social exclusion, which negatively affect the quality of life. To review the characteristics of the main interventions in this field in high-functioning ASD. Strategies employed include social stories, comic-strip conversations or videomodelling, and interventions mediated by peers and multicomponent treatments. The design of the programmes used today has evolved towards more ecological approaches that take the family, teachers and companions into account in the treatment. The most recent literature reviews have found evidence of significant improvements following their implementation, which has been reflected in better social competence and lesser feelings of loneliness. The social communication intervention must combine individualised instruction with consideration of the child's environment and the motivation towards communicative interaction.

  11. Social workers in pediatric primary care: communication, gender, and scope of practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lynch, Sean

    2014-01-01

    While many child mental health issues manifest themselves in primary care, few pediatricians have received mental health training, and their communication with social workers may be limited due to unfamiliarity with mental health professions. The purpose of this study was to use ethnographic interviews to investigate factors affecting communication satisfaction between social workers and pediatricians. The study found that scope of practice issues were a communication barrier. This barrier is significant because health reform may lead social workers and pediatricians to collaborate more frequently in the future.

  12. The Effect of Information Communication Technology Interventions on Reducing Social Isolation in the Elderly: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yi-Ru Regina; Schulz, Peter J

    2016-01-28

    The aging of the population is an inexorable change that challenges governments and societies in every developed country. Based on clinical and empirical data, social isolation is found to be prevalent among elderly people, and it has negative consequences on the elderly's psychological and physical health. Targeting social isolation has become a focus area for policy and practice. Evidence indicates that contemporary information and communication technologies (ICT) have the potential to prevent or reduce the social isolation of elderly people via various mechanisms. This systematic review explored the effects of ICT interventions on reducing social isolation of the elderly. Relevant electronic databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, MEDLINE, EBSCO, SSCI, Communication Studies: a SAGE Full-Text Collection, Communication & Mass Media Complete, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore) were systematically searched using a unified strategy to identify quantitative and qualitative studies on the effectiveness of ICT-mediated social isolation interventions for elderly people published in English between 2002 and 2015. Narrative synthesis was performed to interpret the results of the identified studies, and their quality was also appraised. Twenty-five publications were included in the review. Four of them were evaluated as rigorous research. Most studies measured the effectiveness of ICT by measuring specific dimensions rather than social isolation in general. ICT use was consistently found to affect social support, social connectedness, and social isolation in general positively. The results for loneliness were inconclusive. Even though most were positive, some studies found a nonsignificant or negative impact. More importantly, the positive effect of ICT use on social connectedness and social support seemed to be short-term and did not last for more than six months after the intervention. The results for self-esteem and control over one's life

  13. The Influence of Communicative Competence on Perceived Task, Social and Physical Attraction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duran, Robert L.; Kelly, Lynne

    1988-01-01

    Examines whether communicative competence influences perceived task, social, and physical attractiveness. Results indicated that communicative competence accounted for 17 percent, 14 percent and 8 percent of the variance in perceived task, social, and physical attractiveness, respectively. (MM)

  14. The use of a social network analysis technique to investigate the characteristics of crew communications in nuclear power plants-A feasibility study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Jinkyun

    2011-01-01

    Effective and reliable communications are very important in securing the safety of human-involved large process control systems because human operators have to accomplish their tasks in cooperative ways. This means that it is very important to understand the characteristics of crew communications, which can provide useful insights for preventing inappropriate communications. Unfortunately, in the nuclear industry, a systematic framework that can be used to identify the characteristics of crew communications seems to be rare. For this reason, the applicability of the social network analysis (SNA) technique to identifying the characteristics of crew communications was investigated in this study. To this end, the communication data of operating crews working in the main control room (MCR) of nuclear power plants (NPPs) were collected under two kinds of simulated off-normal conditions. Then the communication characteristics of MCR operating crews, which can be represented by the associated SNA metrics, were compared with communication characteristics that are already known from existing studies. As a result, it was found that SNA metrics could be meaningful for explaining the communication characteristics of MCR operating crews. Accordingly, it is expected that the SNA technique can be used as one of the serviceable tools to investigate the characteristics of crew communications in NPPs. - Highlights: → Communications are very important for the safety of complicated socio-technical systems. → A systematic framework to identify communication characteristics seems to be rare. → The feasibility of the social network analysis (SNA) technique was investigated. → It is expected that SNA metrics is meaningful for explaining communication characteristics.

  15. Development of the Aboriginal Communication Assessment After Brain Injury (ACAABI): A screening tool for identifying acquired communication disorders in Aboriginal Australians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armstrong, Elizabeth M; Ciccone, Natalie; Hersh, Deborah; Katzenellebogen, Judith; Coffin, Juli; Thompson, Sandra; Flicker, Leon; Hayward, Colleen; Woods, Deborah; McAllister, Meaghan

    2017-06-01

    Acquired communication disorders (ACD), following stroke and traumatic brain injury, may not be correctly identified in Aboriginal Australians due to a lack of linguistically and culturally appropriate assessment tools. Within this paper we explore key issues that were considered in the development of the Aboriginal Communication Assessment After Brain Injury (ACAABI) - a screening tool designed to assess the presence of ACD in Aboriginal populations. A literature review and consultation with key stakeholders were undertaken to explore directions needed to develop a new tool, based on existing tools and recommendations for future developments. The literature searches revealed no existing screening tool for ACD in these populations, but identified tools in the areas of cognition and social-emotional wellbeing. Articles retrieved described details of the content and style of these tools, with recommendations for the development and administration of a new tool. The findings from the interview and focus group views were consistent with the approach recommended in the literature. There is a need for a screening tool for ACD to be developed but any tool must be informed by knowledge of Aboriginal language, culture and community input in order to be acceptable and valid.

  16. Communicating polar science to the general public: sharing the social media experience of @OceanSeaIceNPI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rösel, Anja; Pavlov, Alexey K.; Granskog, Mats A.; Gerland, Sebastian; Meyer, Amelie; Hudson, Stephen R.; King, Jennifer; Itkin, Polona; Cohen, Lana; Dodd, Paul; de Steur, Laura

    2016-04-01

    The findings of climate science need to be communicated to the general public. Researchers are encouraged to do so by journalists, policy-makers and funding agencies and many of us want to become better science communicators. But how can we do this at the lab or small research group level without specifically allocated resources in terms of funds and communication officers? And how do we sustain communication on a regular basis and not just during the limited lifetime of a specific project? One of the solutions is to use the emerging platform of social media, which has become a powerful and inexpensive tool for communicating science to different target audiences. Many research institutions and individual researchers are already advanced users of social media, but small research groups and labs remain underrepresented. The group of oceanographers, sea ice and atmospheric scientists at the Norwegian Polar Institute (@OceanSeaIceNPI( will share our experiences developing and maintaining researcher-driven outreach for over a year through Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. We will present our solutions to some of the practical considerations such as identifying key target groups, defining the framework for sharing responsibilities and interactions within the research group, and choosing an up-to-date and appropriate social medium. By sharing this information, we aim to inspire and assist other research groups and labs in conducting their own effective science communication.

  17. Exploring online communication about cigarette smoking among Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hswen, Yulin; Naslund, John A; Chandrashekar, Pooja; Siegel, Robert; Brownstein, John S; Hawkins, Jared B

    2017-11-01

    Novel approaches are needed to address elevated tobacco use among people with schizophrenia. This exploratory study examined the frequency, timing, and type of communication about tobacco-related content on Twitter among users who self-identify as having schizophrenia compared with users from the general population. Over a 200-day period from January to July 2016, Twitter users who self-identify as having a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n = 203) and a randomly selected group of general population control users (n = 173) posted 1,544,122 tweets. Communication frequency did not differ between groups. Tweets containing tobacco-related keywords were extracted. Twitter users with schizophrenia posted significantly more tweets containing any tobacco-related terms (mean = 3.74; SD = 16.3) compared with control users (mean = 0.82; SD = 1.8). A significantly greater proportion of Twitter users with schizophrenia (45%; n = 92) posted tweets containing any tobacco terms compared with control users (30%; n = 52). Schizophrenia users showed significantly greater odds of tweeting about tobacco compared with control users (OR = 1.99; 95% CI 1.29-3.07). These findings suggest that online communication about tobacco may parallel real world trends of elevated tobacco use observed among people with schizophrenia. By showing that Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia discuss tobacco-related content online, popular social media could inform smoking cessation efforts targeting this at-risk group. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  18. Research on Czech firms’ marketing communication based on social media networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vít Chlebovský

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective of the research described in this article is to make an analysis of the usage of marketing communication using both traditional Internet communication channels as well as Social Media Networks by the Czech companies. Primary research was made through on-line questionnaire. Companies across the branches and size categories within the Czech economy were addressed. Companies were selected from the www.firmy.cz portal. Only companies with their own web domain were addressed. The typical respondents were mostly from middle management, especially managers from the marketing or commercial departments. The final number of questionnaire respondents covered in the research is 1009. The main research method was questioning. The questionnaire consisted of three sections with the scale answer questions mainly. Google Refine was used for data processing and Microsoft Excel for statistical processing and graphic outputs of the research. Evaluated results show significant gaps in usage of Internet communication tools in marketing of Czech companies and also deficiency between clear understanding of the respondents how Social Media should be used in marketing communication and real use in the companies. This deficiency was statistically tested and relation between respondents’ perception of the importance of Social Media use for bidirectional communication with stakeholders and non-use of Social Media for bidirectional communication with stakeholders by respondents’ company was confirmed.

  19. Social Networking and Smart Technology: Viable Environmental Communication Tools…?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montain, J.; Byrne, J. M.

    2010-12-01

    To what extent do popular social networking channels represent a viable means for disseminating information regarding environmental change to the general public? Are new forms of communication such as YouTube™, Facebook™, MySpace™ and Twitter™ and smart devices such as iPhone™ and BlackBerry™ useful and effective in terms motivating people into social action and behavioural modification; or do they simply pay ‘lip service’ to these pressing environmental issues? This project will explore the background connections between social networking and environmental communication and education; and outline why such tools might be an appropriate way to connect to a broad audience in an efficient and unconventional manner. Further, research will survey the current prevalence of reliable environmental change information on social networking Internet-based media; and finally, suggestions for improved strategies and new directions will be provided.

  20. The Double-Edged Effects of Social Media Terror Communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nickel, Sandro

    2014-01-01

    This paper connects the effects of social media on terror/anti-terror communication with dynamics and consequences of surveillance. Citizens become via social media more independent from mass media and more interconnected. This is also valid when citizens engage in terror/anti-terror communication...... that social media contribute to extending surveillance: by being a temptation for intelligence services, by not resisting state authorities and via constructing threat perceptions among populations which in effect deliver security politicians ‘windows of opportunity’ in order to implement ever more....... However, via social media citizens also become targets of the ‘collect-it-all’ surveillance, which was revealed to the global public in 2013. I argue that due to such surveillance some citizens might start to censor themselves and that surveillance inflicts with a number of human rights. I further argue...

  1. Social networks: communication and change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo Cardoso

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Virtual social networks have brought about the possibility for open and plural debate, where all those with the necessary literacy skills and means are able to participate in the creation and dissemination of information. By pressing political agents and determining the “agenda” of a lot of the media, users demonstrate that we stand at an ideal platform for creating both real social movements and more or less fleeting events, as manifestos or virtual campaigns. Nonetheless, in order to understand the role of virtual social networks in today’s world, we need to answer some prior questions. Are we facing a new communication model, whereby the product of “disinterested” interactivity creates an aura of confidence in disseminated information, often quite higher that that seen in the “old media”? Will that interactivity be a chance to fight-off citizens’ growing detachment with regard to the “res publica”? Will we find in citizen-made journalism, transmitted through virtual social networks, the consecration of a true fourth power? On the other hand, can we call the distinct collective movements we have seen emerging true “social movements”?The present article aims to examine this and other issues that come to the fore in the intricate social world of cyberspace.

  2. Social media and the transformation of activist communication: exploring the social media ecology of the 2010 Toronto G20 protests

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poell, T.

    2014-01-01

    How does the massive use of social media in contemporary protests affect the character of activist communication? Moving away from the conceptualization of social media as tools, this research explores how activist social media communication is entangled with and shaped by heterogeneous

  3. 'Look at me when I am talking to you': evidence and assessment of social pragmatics interventions for children with autism and social communication disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tierney, Cheryl D; Kurtz, Marie; Panchik, Ann; Pitterle, Kathleen

    2014-04-01

    This article provides an analysis of the effectiveness of commonly used interventions for social pragmatic interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and social communication disorders. Several evidence-based social skills interventions are emerging, including peer mentoring, social skills groups, and video modeling. Social stories are effective as supports for improved interactions but generalization is limited. Research supports the need for multimodality and individualized treatment programs. Research validates that video and visual learning is highly effective with children with ASD when utilized with specific, appropriate targets. Multiple studies have shown that picture-based communication systems are effective at improving functional communication with moderate effects on social communication. Despite limitations in research, there is strong evidence in the existing literature for the role of alternative augmentative communication in improving both functional and social communication. Social pragmatic interventions when individualized are effective for improving language, adaptive behavior and social skills.

  4. Engagement in social media environments for individuals with who use augmentative and alternative communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caron, Jessica

    2016-10-14

    Communicative interactions, despite the mode (e.g., face-to-face, online) rely on the communication skills of each individual participating. Some individuals have significant speech and language impairments and require the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) (i.e., signs, speech generating devices) to maximize their communication participation across a variety of on and offline contexts. Use of social media has brought about changes to communication environments, contributing new contexts for engagement. To provide a framework for considering application of engagement theory for interventions around social media use by individuals who use AAC. The author has applied examples from qualitative social media and AAC research to a framework of engagement. No formal data collection was used. Social media use has become a conventional form of communication. Yet recognition of the value of social media (and other electronic modalities) for individuals who use AAC has not been fully translated into practice. The examples used illustrated how the proposed framework can assist in clinical practice and future research directions. Engagement, including the proposed framework for considerations of social media engagement activities, can provide a systematic way to approach social media use for individuals who use AAC.

  5. Social Barriers to Effective Communication in Old Age

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Sanecka

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Some communication barriers apply particularly to elderly people. The social barriers to effective communication in old age are the barriers caused by stereotypes of old age/elderly people and the barriers arising from limitations in using mass communication by seniors. Stereotypes of old age/elderly people embrace views regarding old people’s communication skills and the ideas about the correct way of communication with them. Therefore the communication problems of old people are correlated with the little and poor communication processes they are participating in. This seems to be a result of impetuses of poor quality sent to seniors by their communication partners. Not only face to face communication but also mass communication is very important for the elderly population. Therefore limitations in using new technologies and new communication channels as well as a limited presence in the mass media of content created by seniors and for seniors have an impact on their life, their well-being, and their interpersonal relationships. These problems are especially important when we faced with the ever growing population of elderly people.

  6. The Use of Social Media for Communication In Official Statistics at European Level

    OpenAIRE

    Ionela-Roxana GLĂVAN; Andreea MIRICĂ; Bogdan Narcis FÎRȚESCU

    2016-01-01

    Social media tools are wide spread in web communication and are gaining popularity in the communication process between public institutions and citizens. This study conducts an analysis on how social media is used by Official Statistical Institutes to interact with citizens and disseminate information. A linear regression technique is performed to examine which social media platforms (Twitter or Facebook) is a more effective tool in the communication process in the official statistics area. O...

  7. Strategically using social media to communicate research

    OpenAIRE

    Rummer, Jodie; Darling, Emily

    2015-01-01

    This was a presentation given to PhD/doctoral candidates at James Cook University introducing them to developing an online presence/identity and strategically using social media to communicate their research and network within their professional communities.

  8. Is There a Need for New Marketing Communications Performance Metrics for Social Media?

    OpenAIRE

    Töllinen, Aarne; Karjaluoto, Heikki

    2011-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing communications. With recent advances in information and communications technology, especially in social collaboration technologies, both academics and practitioners rethink whether the existing marketing communications performance metrics are still valid in the changing communications landscape, or is it time to devise entirely new metrics for measuring mar...

  9. The relationship of loneliness and social anxiety with children's and adolescents' online communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonetti, Luigi; Campbell, Marilyn Anne; Gilmore, Linda

    2010-06-01

    Children and adolescents now communicate online to form and/or maintain relationships with friends, family, and strangers. Relationships in "real life" are important for children's and adolescents' psychosocial development; however, they can be difficult for those who experience feelings of loneliness and/or social anxiety. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in usage of online communication patterns between children and adolescents with and without self-reported loneliness and social anxiety. Six hundred twenty-six students ages 10 to 16 years completed a survey on the amount of time they spent communicating online, the topics they discussed, the partners they engaged with, and their purposes for communicating over the Internet. Participants were administered a shortened version of the UCLA Loneliness Scale and an abbreviated subscale of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A). Additionally, age and gender differences in usage of the online communication patterns were examined across the entire sample. Findings revealed that children and adolescents who self-reported being lonely communicated online significantly more frequently about personal and intimate topics than did those who did not self-report being lonely. The former were motivated to use online communication significantly more frequently to compensate for their weaker social skills to meet new people. Results suggest that Internet usage allows them to fulfill critical needs of social interactions, self-disclosure, and identity exploration. Future research, however, should explore whether or not the benefits derived from online communication may also facilitate lonely children's and adolescents' offline social relationships.

  10. A Social Science Guide for Communication on Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    St John, C.; Marx, S.; Markowitz, E.

    2014-12-01

    Researchers from the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) published "The Psychology of Climate Change Communication: A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public" in 2009. This landmark guide provided climate change communicators a synthesis of the social science research that was pertinent to understanding how people think about climate change and how the practice could be improved. In the fall of 2014 this guide will be rereleased, with a new title, and in a partnership between CRED and ecoAmerica. The updated guide addresses how and why Americans respond in certain ways to climate change and explains how communicators can apply best practices to their own work. The guide, which includes research from a range of social science fields including psychology, anthropology, communications, and behavioral economics, is designed to be useful for experienced and novice communicators alike. Included in the guide are strategies to boost engagement, common mistakes to avoid, and best practices that organizations around the world have used to meaningfully engage individuals and groups on climate change. The proposed presentation will provide an overview of the main findings and tips from the 2014 climate change communication guide. It will provide a deeper look at a few of the key points that are crucial for increasing audience engagement with climate change including understanding how identity shapes climate change, how to lead with solutions, and how to bring the impacts of climate change close to home. It will highlight tips for motivating positive behavior change that will lead people down the path toward solutions. Finally, it will address the benefits and challenges associated with producing a communication guide and insight into synthesizing social science research findings into a usable format for a variety of audiences.

  11. Social Media and Strategic Market Communications of Festivals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gyimóthy, Szilvia; Larson, Mia

    2010-01-01

    Since the emerging omnipresence of social media usage in Western societies, marketers have been eager to harness the strategic communication potential of new media (e.g. blogs, wikis, visual content sharing sites and online communities. This is also apparent in event tourism; for instance music...... festivals have proved to be early adopters of Facebook fan sites and Twitter in order to distribute information, campaigns and celebrity rumors to their potential visitors in an inexpensive way. On the other hand, the strategic use of social media has also been hypothesized to be paved with a number...... of challenges. In order to fill a void of empirical studies of managing festival communications, this paper explores how social media is used as a tool for marketing and service innovation. By conducting focus groups and personal interviews with larger music events (Storsjöyran, Way Out West and Roskilde...

  12. Health Communication in Social Media: Message Features Predicting User Engagement on Diabetes-Related Facebook Pages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rus, Holly M; Cameron, Linda D

    2016-10-01

    Social media provides unprecedented opportunities for enhancing health communication and health care, including self-management of chronic conditions such as diabetes. Creating messages that engage users is critical for enhancing message impact and dissemination. This study analyzed health communications within ten diabetes-related Facebook pages to identify message features predictive of user engagement. The Common-Sense Model of Illness Self-Regulation and established health communication techniques guided content analyses of 500 Facebook posts. Each post was coded for message features predicted to engage users and numbers of likes, shares, and comments during the week following posting. Multi-level, negative binomial regressions revealed that specific features predicted different forms of engagement. Imagery emerged as a strong predictor; messages with images had higher rates of liking and sharing relative to messages without images. Diabetes consequence information and positive identity predicted higher sharing while negative affect, social support, and crowdsourcing predicted higher commenting. Negative affect, crowdsourcing, and use of external links predicted lower sharing while positive identity predicted lower commenting. The presence of imagery weakened or reversed the positive relationships of several message features with engagement. Diabetes control information and negative affect predicted more likes in text-only messages, but fewer likes when these messages included illustrative imagery. Similar patterns of imagery's attenuating effects emerged for the positive relationships of consequence information, control information, and positive identity with shares and for positive relationships of negative affect and social support with comments. These findings hold promise for guiding communication design in health-related social media.

  13. Social Networking Tools for Informal Scholarly Communication Prove Popular for Academics at Two Universities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aoife Lawton

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective – To investigate the adoption, use, perceived impact of, and barriers to using social networking tools for scholarly communication at two universities. Design – Cross-institutional quantitative study using an online survey. Setting – Academics working in the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences at two universities: one in Europe and one in the Middle East. Methods – An online survey was devised based on a previous survey (Al-Aufi, 2007 and informed by relevant research. The survey was piloted by 10 academics at the 2 participating universities. Post pilot it was revised and then circulated to all academics from similar faculties at two universities. Three follow up emails were sent to both sets of academics. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS software. Descriptive and inferential statistics were analyzed using ANOVA tests. Main Results – The survey achieved a 34% response rate (n=130. The majority of participants were from the university based in the Middle East and were male (70.8%. Most of the responses were from academics under 40 years of age. The use of notebooks was prevalent at both universities. “Notebooks” is used as a term to describe laptops, netbooks, or ultra-book computers. The majority reported use of social networking tools for informal scholarly communication (70.1%, valuing this type of use. 29.9% of respondents reported they do not use social networking tools for this purpose. Barriers were identified as lack of incentive, digital literacy, training, and concerns over Internet security. Among the non-users, barriers included low interest in their use and a perceived lack of relevancy of such tools for scholarly communication. The types of tools used the most were those with social connection functions, such as Facebook and Twitter. The tools used the least were social bookmarking tools. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA test indicated that

  14. Ecology and Evolution of Communication in Social Insects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leonhardt, Sara Diana; Menzel, Florian; Nehring, Volker; Schmitt, Thomas

    2016-03-10

    Insect life strategies comprise all levels of sociality from solitary to eusocial, in which individuals form persistent groups and divide labor. With increasing social complexity, the need to communicate a greater diversity of messages arose to coordinate division of labor, group cohesion, and concerted actions. Here we summarize the knowledge on prominent messages in social insects that inform about reproduction, group membership, resource locations, and threats and discuss potential evolutionary trajectories of each message in the context of social complexity. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Deferred Imitation and Social Communication in Speaking and Nonspeaking Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strid, Karin; Heimann, Mikael; Gillberg, Christopher; Smith, Lars; Tjus, Tomas

    2013-01-01

    Deferred imitation and early social communication skills were compared among speaking and nonspeaking children with autism and children developing typically. Overall, the children with autism showed a lower frequency on measures of deferred imitation and social communication compared with typically developing children. Deferred imitation was…

  16. Three types of communication on internal social media:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Vibeke Thøis

    The aim of this paper is to explore to what extend internal social media introduces a new kind of participatory communication in organizations. The paper is based on two explorative studies: A multiple case study in ten Danish organizations and a single case study in a Danish bank. Based on the t....... Different levels of communication might be reached in different types of organizations, and it is only when coworkers perceive a license to critique that organizations will actually develop participatory communication that has the ability to move the organization....

  17. Social media in food risk and benefit communication

    OpenAIRE

    Rutsaert, Pieter

    2013-01-01

    The overall objective of this doctoral thesis was to contribute to a better understanding of the role social media can fulfil for the communication of food-related risks and benefits. Social media is the collective name for a number of online applications, including social networks, video- and picture-sharing websites, blogs, and microblogs, that allow users to generate and share information online. As a consequence users now control how information is found and used instead of the producers....

  18. AIDS communications through social networks: catalyst for ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Objective: To investigate distinctive communications through social networks which may be associated with population behaviour changes and HIV prevalence declines in Uganda compared to other countries. Methods: We undertook a comparative analysis of demographic and HIV behavioural data collected in ...

  19. Second language social networks and communication-related acculturative stress: The role of interconnectedness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marina M Doucerain

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Although a substantial amount of cross-cultural psychology research has investigated acculturative stress in general, little attention has been devoted specifically to communication-related acculturative stress. In line with the view that cross-cultural adaptation and second language (L2 learning are social and interpersonal phenomena, the present study examines the hypothesis that migrants' L2 social network size and interconnectedness predict communication-related acculturative stress. The main idea underlying this hypothesis is that L2 social networks play an important role in fostering social and cultural aspects of communicative competence. Specifically, higher interconnectedness may reflect greater access to unmodified natural cultural representations and L2 communication practices, thus fostering communicative competence through observational learning. As such, structural aspects of migrants' L2 social networks may be protective against acculturative stress arising from chronic communication difficulties. Results from a study of first generation migrant students (N=100 support this idea by showing that both inclusiveness and density of the participants' L2 network account for unique variance in communication-related acculturative stress but not in general acculturative stress. These results support the idea that research on cross-cultural adaptation would benefit from disentangling the various facets of acculturative stress and that the structure of migrants' L2 network matters for language related outcomes. Finally, this study contributes to an emerging body of work that attempts to integrate cultural/cross-cultural research on acculturation and research on intercultural communication and second language learning.

  20. Disciplines in the field of communication for development and social change

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lie, R.; Servaes, J.

    2015-01-01

    This article provides an overview of subdisciplines in the field of Communication for Development and Social Change. Different subdisciplines of communication science are analyzed to assess their connection to the field. Building on these subdisciplines the article reviews health communication,

  1. Social communication features in children following moderate to severe acquired brain injury: a cross-sectional pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breau, Lynn M; Clark, Brenda; Scott, Ori; Wilkes, Courtney; Reynolds, Shawn; Ricci, Florencia; Sonnenberg, Lyn; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie; Rashid, Marghalara; Goez, Helly R

    2015-04-01

    We compared the social communication deficits of children with moderate to severe acquired brain injury or autism spectrum disorder, while accounting for the role of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Parents of 20 children aged 6 to 10 years (10 acquired brain injury; 10 autism spectrum disorder) completed the Social Communication Questionnaire, and Conners 3 Parent Short. A multivariate analysis of covariance revealed significant differences between groups in Social Communication Questionnaire restricted repetitive behavior scores, but not reciprocal social interaction or social communication. Multiple linear regressions indicated diagnosis did not predict reciprocal social interaction or social communication scores and that Conners 3 Parent Short Form hyperactivity scores were the strongest predictor of Social Communication Questionnaire reciprocal social interaction scores after accounting for age and Intelligence Quotient. The lack of difference in social communication deficits between groups may help in understanding the pathophysiology underlying the behavioral consequences of acquired brain injury. The link between hyperactivity and reciprocal interaction suggests that targeting hyperactivity may improve social outcomes in children following acquired brain injury. © The Author(s) 2014.

  2. The developmental sequence of social-communicative skills in young children with autism: a longitudinal study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Chin-Chin; Chiang, Chung-Hsin

    2014-05-01

    To explore the different developmental trajectories of social-communicative skills in children with autism and typically developing infants, two longitudinal studies were conducted. In Study 1, we examined the developmental sequence of social-communicative skills in 26 typically developing infants when they were 9 months old and reexamined them when they were 12 and 15 months old. The results indicated a reliable developmental sequence of social-communicative skills in infants with typical development. In Study 2, we explored the emergence sequence of social-communicative skills of 23 children with autism and 23 children with developmental delay between the ages of 2 and 4 years. The results demonstrated that the developmental sequence of social-communicative skills in young children with autism and children with developmental delays was different.

  3. The Human Face as a Dynamic Tool for Social Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jack, Rachael E; Schyns, Philippe G

    2015-07-20

    As a highly social species, humans frequently exchange social information to support almost all facets of life. One of the richest and most powerful tools in social communication is the face, from which observers can quickly and easily make a number of inferences - about identity, gender, sex, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical health, attractiveness, emotional state, personality traits, pain or physical pleasure, deception, and even social status. With the advent of the digital economy, increasing globalization and cultural integration, understanding precisely which face information supports social communication and which produces misunderstanding is central to the evolving needs of modern society (for example, in the design of socially interactive digital avatars and companion robots). Doing so is challenging, however, because the face can be thought of as comprising a high-dimensional, dynamic information space, and this impacts cognitive science and neuroimaging, and their broader applications in the digital economy. New opportunities to address this challenge are arising from the development of new methods and technologies, coupled with the emergence of a modern scientific culture that embraces cross-disciplinary approaches. Here, we briefly review one such approach that combines state-of-the-art computer graphics, psychophysics and vision science, cultural psychology and social cognition, and highlight the main knowledge advances it has generated. In the light of current developments, we provide a vision of the future directions in the field of human facial communication within and across cultures. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Sniffing behavior communicates social hierarchy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wesson, Daniel W

    2013-04-08

    Sniffing is a specialized respiratory behavior that is essential for the acquisition of odors [1-4]. Perhaps not independent of this, sniffing is commonly displayed during motivated [5-7] and social behaviors [8, 9]. No measures of sniffing among interacting animals are available, however, calling into question the utility of this behavior in the social context. From radiotelemetry recordings of nasal respiration, I found that investigation by one rat toward the facial region of a conspecific often elicits a decrease in sniffing frequency in the conspecific. This reciprocal display of sniffing was found to be dependent upon the rat's social status in two separate paradigms, with subordinates reliably decreasing their sniffing frequency upon being investigated in the face by dominant rats. Failure of subordinates to decrease their sniffing frequency shortened the latency for agonistic behavior by dominant rats, reflecting that decreases in sniffing serve as appeasement signals during social interactions. Rats rendered unable to smell persisted in displaying reciprocal sniffing behavior, demonstrating the independence of this behavior from olfaction. Oxytocin treatment in rats with established social hierarchies abolished agonistic behaviors and reciprocal sniffing displays. Together, these findings demonstrate that rodents utilize sniffing behaviors communicatively, not only to collect [6, 10-14] but also to convey information. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. FACEBOOK COMMUNICATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emanuela Maria AVRAM

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The social networks have been growing steadily in recent years. Facebook, one of the most popular social networks, is a modern means of communication and socialization that has taken lately more ground in higher education becoming an important academic tool in the communication process. Many universities have their own Facebook page, being used by both students and teachers, and creating Facebook groups increasingly facilitates communication with students. Thus, this paper aims to identify the importance that Facebook holds in the academic communication process and highlights the implications it has in higher education. The results reveal that this type of communication has gained more ground in academia creating real social communities, and students use it more and more for collaboration in various activities involved in the higher education system, but also for socializing and information.

  6. Communication, knowledge, social network and family planning ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    AJRH Managing Editor

    Tanzania; 2Centre for International Development Initiatives Nijmegen (CIDIN) and ... demographic variables, social networks, knowledge and communication among the couples, whereby a stratified sample of 440 ..... FP method varies with urban- rural and regional ...... Pile JM and Simbakalia C. Tanzania Case Study: A.

  7. Simulations for Crisis Communication: The Use of Social Media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Siyoung

    2016-01-01

    Simulations have been widely used in crisis and emergency communication for practitioners but have not reached classrooms in higher education. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects that simulations using social media have on the learning of crisis communication among college students. To explore the effects, a real-time crisis…

  8. Persistence of social signatures in human communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saramäki, Jari; Leicht, E A; López, Eduardo; Roberts, Sam G B; Reed-Tsochas, Felix; Dunbar, Robin I M

    2014-01-21

    The social network maintained by a focal individual, or ego, is intrinsically dynamic and typically exhibits some turnover in membership over time as personal circumstances change. However, the consequences of such changes on the distribution of an ego's network ties are not well understood. Here we use a unique 18-mo dataset that combines mobile phone calls and survey data to track changes in the ego networks and communication patterns of students making the transition from school to university or work. Our analysis reveals that individuals display a distinctive and robust social signature, captured by how interactions are distributed across different alters. Notably, for a given ego, these social signatures tend to persist over time, despite considerable turnover in the identity of alters in the ego network. Thus, as new network members are added, some old network members either are replaced or receive fewer calls, preserving the overall distribution of calls across network members. This is likely to reflect the consequences of finite resources such as the time available for communication, the cognitive and emotional effort required to sustain close relationships, and the ability to make emotional investments.

  9. Communicating Disparity: How Social Design can create Public ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    chrischisoni

    Key words: Inequality; communication; social design; storytelling ... created unevenness, which can destroy dignity, self-confidence and esteem. .... divides, which involves gaps between groups in awareness, adoption, skills, devices, use and.

  10. Following Gandhi: Social Entrepreneurship as A Non-Violent Way of Communicating Sustainability Challenges

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafael Ziegler

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available In the context of the Rio Earth Summit numerous international regimes, national policies and organizational guidelines have appeared that help translate the normative demands of sustainable development into political reality. The implementation of these instruments, however, often runs into difficulties or fails entirely. An example is the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD, a progressive approach for the conservation of freshwater that is very unlikely to be implemented by 2015, the target year. We examine in this paper how a recent variation of Gandhian non-violent communication within social entrepreneurship suggests one way to deal with this challenge. Non-violent communication, rooted in Gandhian social action, has long been part of environmental politics. It has undergone a new variation as a mode of communication in the hands of social entrepreneurship initiatives that address urgent social and environmental issues with new, practical ideas. In the conceptual part of this paper, we outline our approach to sustainability, non-violent communication and social entrepreneurship. In a further part, we present data from a trans-disciplinary experiment to illustrate and critically discuss social entrepreneurship as a mode of sustainability communication. The experiment looked at, which is based on French social entrepreneur Roberto Epple’s idea of a Big Jump, is a collaborative campaign that invites young people to take action for water conservation in the context of the WFD.

  11. Corporate Social Responsibility: The Future of Marketing Communications

    OpenAIRE

    Zidarova, Margarita

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a contribution tool to the future practices of corporate marketing communications. Another aim was to discover the current practices of CSR within corporate marketing communications with a specific focus on corporate and stakeholder value creation gained through this merging of two disciplines. Finally, the possibility of creating future competitive advantages through the use of CSR in marketing communicatio...

  12. Peers as clinicians: Examining the impact of Stay Play Talk on social communication in young preschoolers with autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barber, Angela B; Saffo, Rachel W; Gilpin, Ansley T; Craft, Lydia D; Goldstein, Howard

    2016-01-01

    Peer Mediated Interventions (PMIs) can be incorporated into integrated early childhood and preschool settings to address socialization impairments observed in children with ASD (Katz & Girolametto, 2013). However, research examining specific PMI strategies with young preschoolers remains limited. The current study examines the efficacy of the Stay, Play, Talk PMI (English, Shafer, Goldstein, & Kaczmerek, 1997) on the social communication skills of young preschool children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Each of 3 typically developing children (ages 3-5 years) was paired with a child with an ASD (ages 3-4 years). Typically developing peers were taught to Stay with their friend, Play with their friend, and Talk to their friend. The child dyads played together during two, 20-min weekly sessions for 6-8 weeks. A multiple baseline design across participants was implemented to measure the impact of the Stay Play Talk strategies on social initiations and responses characterized by non-coordinated gestures, gestures, and words. Simulation Modeling Analysis was also conducted to confirm visual analysis. All 3 typical peer buddies and all 3 target children with ASD demonstrated increases in the frequency of their responses, reaching levels that greatly exceeded baseline levels. Further, social reciprocations increased among each dyad above baseline. Social initiations remained variable across dyads. Gains were not maintained two months post intervention. Results of this study corroborated previous findings that support the usefulness of PMIs to improve social communication of young children with ASD (Chan et al., 2009) and suggest an economical, naturally occurring approach to improve social communication during early childhood. Readers will gain knowledge regarding the social communication profile of children with ASD and how this profile can negatively impact language development and peer relationships. In addition, readers will be able to identify the

  13. Perceptions on the Effectiveness of Communication between Public Institutions and Journalists through Social Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mihaela Păun

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available This article presents the challenges and opportunities of social media for public institutions and argues that the designing and implementing government public relations using social media involves more than merely having another communication channel for publics. I will explain the “social media”, the differences between social media and electronic-Public Relations - E-PR, and the communication between public institutions and journalists. The interviews with journalists or with PR specialists in public institutions were focused on the use, the extent of this use, and the perceived value of various social media as sources contributing to agenda building (Cobb, Elder 1983. If journalists are regularly monitoring sites and forums for story ideas and information, it is necessary for PR professionals within each industry to carefully monitor the information placed there and perhaps engage content producers. In this paper, I conclude that social media is an alternative instrument to encourage a two-way communication channel between government and publics. In public relations, the emergence of social media challenges the traditional instruments of government public relations. Responding to the development of information and communication technology (ICT, social media is considered as an alternative communication channel of government public relations efforts.

  14. Examining Beliefs about Interpersonal Communication and Relationships across Generations: An Assignment of Social Constructionism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aleman, Melissa Wood; Aleman, Carlos Galvan

    2007-01-01

    A basic premise of social approaches to studying communication is that theories of interpersonal communication and personal relationships are reflexively defined, socially constructed, and historically situated. In contrast to the tradition of psychological models of relational processes and message transmission, social approaches encourage…

  15. Social Amplification of Risk and Crisis Communication Planing - Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stanciugelu, I.; Frunzaru, V.; Armas, I.; Duntzer, A.; Stan, S.

    2012-04-01

    Risk management has become a dominant concern of public policy and the ability of government to anticipate the strength and focus of public concerns remains weak. The Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) was designed to assist in this endeavor. It aims to facilitate a greater understanding of the social processes that can mediate between a hazard event and its consequences. SARF identifies categories of mediator/moderator that intervene between risk event and its consequences and suggests a causal and temporal sequence in which they act. Information flows first through various sources and then channels, triggering social stations of amplification, initiating individual station of amplification and precipitating behavioral reactions. The International Risk Governance Council Framework is an interdisciplinary and multilevel approach, linking risk management and risk assessment sphere through communication. This study aims to identify categories of mediator/moderator that intervene between the risk event and its consequences, using a survey on earthquake risk perception addressing population of Bucharest city. Romania has a unique seismic profile in Europe, being the country with the biggest surface affected in case of a serious earthquake. Considering the development of the urban area that took place in the last two decades and the growing number of inhabitants, Bucharest is the largest city in Romania and is exposed to extensive damages in case of an earthquake. The sociological survey has been conducted in December 2009 on a representative sample of the Bucharest population aged 18 and over (N=1376) using one stage sampling design. We used a stratified sample method shearing the investigated populations in six layers according to the six sectors of Bucharest. The respondents were selected using random digit dialling method (RDD) and the questionnaires were administered by research staff with computer assisted telephone interviewing method (CATI). The

  16. Honest and dishonest communication in social Hymenoptera

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Heinze, J; d'Ettorre, P

    2009-01-01

    Communication in social insects usually serves the good of the whole society and thus increases the inclusive fitness of all individuals. Hence, cheating and dishonesty are not expected when nestmates are to be alarmed or recruited to food sources. However, kin selection predicts a conflict...

  17. A Systematic Review of the Use of Social Media for Food Safety Risk Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Overbey, Katie N; Jaykus, Lee-Ann; Chapman, Benjamin J

    2017-09-01

    This article covers the current published literature related to the use of social media in food safety and infectious disease communication. The aim was to analyze literature recommendations and draw conclusions about how best to utilize social media for food safety risk communication going forward. A systematic literature review was conducted, and 24 articles were included for analysis. The inclusion criteria were (i) original peer-reviewed articles and (ii) primary focus on communication through social media about food safety and/or infectious diseases. Studies were coded for themes about social media applications, benefits, limitations, and best practices. Trust and personal beliefs were important drivers of social media use. The wide reach, immediacy, and information gathering capacities of social media were frequently cited benefits. Suggestions for social media best practices were inconsistent among studies, and study designs were highly variable. More evidence-based suggestions are needed to better establish guidelines for social media use in food safety and infectious disease risk communication. The information gleaned from this review can be used to create effective messages for shaping food safety behaviors.

  18. Fluid Centrality: A Social Network Analysis of Social-Technical Relations in Computer-Mediated Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Enriquez, Judith Guevarra

    2010-01-01

    In this article, centrality is explored as a measure of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in networked learning. Centrality measure is quite common in performing social network analysis (SNA) and in analysing social cohesion, strength of ties and influence in CMC, and computer-supported collaborative learning research. It argues that measuring…

  19. A model for Social Communication And Language Evolution and Development (SCALED).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catani, Marco; Bambini, Valentina

    2014-10-01

    In humans, brain connectivity implements a system for language and communication that spans from basic pre-linguistic social abilities shared with non-human primates to syntactic and pragmatic functions particular to our species. The arcuate fasciculus is a central connection in this architecture, linking regions devoted to formal aspects of language with regions involved in intentional and social communication. Here, we outline a new anatomical model of communication that incorporates previous neurofunctional accounts of language with recent advances in tractography and neuropragmatics. The model consists of five levels, from the representation of informative actions and communicative intentions, to lexical/semantic processing, syntactic analysis, and pragmatic integration. The structure of the model is hierarchical in relation to developmental and evolutionary trajectories and it may help interpreting clinico-anatomical correlation in communication disorders. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Identifying and Ranking the Effective Factors on Successful Implementation of Social Commerce in Iran, Using AHP Fuzzy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zahra Rahimi

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Social commerce has been introduced as a new approach to increase sales, number of customers and reduce marketing expenditures. This approach is a combination of business, communication between people, as well as communicative and informative technologies based on web 2.0 Its achievement originated from different factors relied on business, individuals, culture, and technology. These factors have been primarily identified on the basis of library researches and classified into six infrastructural groups including:  technical, economical and human resources, cultural, rules governing the countries, style of management, and business. Then, it identified priority of the factors by using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP. Innovation of this research was to extract a comprehensive list of factors and to prioritize them based on specific conditions in Iran.

  1. The geospatial characteristics of a social movement communication network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conover, Michael D; Davis, Clayton; Ferrara, Emilio; McKelvey, Karissa; Menczer, Filippo; Flammini, Alessandro

    2013-01-01

    Social movements rely in large measure on networked communication technologies to organize and disseminate information relating to the movements' objectives. In this work we seek to understand how the goals and needs of a protest movement are reflected in the geographic patterns of its communication network, and how these patterns differ from those of stable political communication. To this end, we examine an online communication network reconstructed from over 600,000 tweets from a thirty-six week period covering the birth and maturation of the American anticapitalist movement, Occupy Wall Street. We find that, compared to a network of stable domestic political communication, the Occupy Wall Street network exhibits higher levels of locality and a hub and spoke structure, in which the majority of non-local attention is allocated to high-profile locations such as New York, California, and Washington D.C. Moreover, we observe that information flows across state boundaries are more likely to contain framing language and references to the media, while communication among individuals in the same state is more likely to reference protest action and specific places and times. Tying these results to social movement theory, we propose that these features reflect the movement's efforts to mobilize resources at the local level and to develop narrative frames that reinforce collective purpose at the national level.

  2. Gender differences in the relationship between social communication and emotion recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kothari, Radha; Skuse, David; Wakefield, Justin; Micali, Nadia

    2013-11-01

    To investigate the association between autistic traits and emotion recognition in a large community sample of children using facial and social motion cues, additionally stratifying by gender. A general population sample of 3,666 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) were assessed on their ability to correctly recognize emotions using the faces subtest of the Diagnostic Analysis of Non-Verbal Accuracy, and the Emotional Triangles Task, a novel test assessing recognition of emotion from social motion cues. Children with autistic-like social communication difficulties, as assessed by the Social Communication Disorders Checklist, were compared with children without such difficulties. Autistic-like social communication difficulties were associated with poorer recognition of emotion from social motion cues in both genders, but were associated with poorer facial emotion recognition in boys only (odds ratio = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.4, 2.6, p = .0001). This finding must be considered in light of lower power to detect differences in girls. In this community sample of children, greater deficits in social communication skills are associated with poorer discrimination of emotions, implying there may be an underlying continuum of liability to the association between these characteristics. As a similar degree of association was observed in both genders on a novel test of social motion cues, the relatively good performance of girls on the more familiar task of facial emotion discrimination may be due to compensatory mechanisms. Our study might indicate the existence of a cognitive process by which girls with underlying autistic traits can compensate for their covert deficits in emotion recognition, although this would require further investigation. Copyright © 2013 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Social Networking Among Youth and Their Communication and Conflict Resolution Skills

    OpenAIRE

    Mistry DR; Verma M; Vyas SN; Kantharia SL

    2014-01-01

    Introduction: New digital media have dramatically altered the communication landscape, especially for youth. “Indian web users spend 26 minutes online each day”. This study is concerned with effect of social networking on youth regarding potential risk, safety, wellbeing & skill development because they are still maturing & forming the ability to attain & implement communication & conflict resolution skill on interpersonal level. Aim & objective: To explore the impact of social networking on ...

  4. The use of electronic communication (social network) by open and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The use of electronic communication (social network) by open and distance students, ... ODL students use face book and whatsapps as their preferred social networks. ... networks distract academic studies and it is expensive to use, also more ...

  5. Identifying Communication Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Adherence among Appalachian Kentuckians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bachman, Audrey Smith; Cohen, Elisia L; Collins, Tom; Hatcher, Jennifer; Crosby, Richard; Vanderpool, Robin C

    2017-08-18

    Utilizing data from 40 in-depth interviews, this article identifies both barriers and facilitators to colorectal screening guideline adherence among Appalachian Kentucky adults recruited through a community-based research network. Key findings identify (a) varying levels of knowledge about screening guidelines, (b) reticence to engage in screening processes, and (c) nuanced communication with healthcare providers and family members regarding screening adherence. What participants knew about the screening process was often derived from personal stories or recalled stories from family members about their screening experiences. Reticence to engage in screening processes reflected reports of cumbersome preparation, privacy issues, embarrassment, medical mistrust, fear of receiving a cancer diagnosis, and lack of symptoms. Participants cited many ways to enhance patient-centered communication, and the findings from this study have implications for health communication message design and communication strategies for healthcare practices in Appalachian Kentucky clinics.

  6. Comparative efficacy of the picture exchange communication system (PECS) versus a speech-generating device: effects on social-communicative skills and speech development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boesch, Miriam C; Wendt, Oliver; Subramanian, Anu; Hsu, Ning

    2013-09-01

    The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and a speech-generating device (SGD) were compared in a study with a multiple baseline, alternating treatment design. The effectiveness of these methods in increasing social-communicative behavior and natural speech production were assessed with three elementary school-aged children with severe autism who demonstrated extremely limited functional communication skills. Results for social-communicative behavior were mixed for all participants in both treatment conditions. Relatively little difference was observed between PECS and SGD conditions. Although findings were inconclusive, data patterns suggest that Phase II of the PECS training protocol is conducive to encouraging social-communicative behavior. Data for speech outcomes did not reveal any increases across participants, and no differences between treatment conditions were observed.

  7. Enhancing social participation in young people with communication disabilities living in rural Australia: outcomes of a home-based intervention for using social media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raghavendra, Parimala; Newman, Lareen; Grace, Emma; Wood, Denise

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a home-based intervention using social media to enhance social networks of young people with disabilities and communication difficulties. Eight young people (M(age) = 15.4 years) with communication disabilities participated from two rural Australian towns. The intervention provided assistive technology and training to learn social media use. A mixed-method design combined pre- and post-assessments measuring changes in performance, satisfaction with performance, attainment on social media goals, and social network extension, and interviews investigated the way in which the intervention influenced social participation. Participants showed an increase in performance, and satisfaction with performance, on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure; paired t-tests showed statistical significance at p communication partners, p communication frequency and nature, and speech intelligibility and literacy as a result of the intervention. The findings suggest that learning to use social media leads to increase in social participation among rural-based young people with communication disabilities. In order to benefit from advantages of learning to use social media in rural areas, parents and service providers need knowledge and skills to integrate assistive technology with the Internet needs of this group.

  8. Strategies for Teaching Social and Emotional Intelligence in Business Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sigmar, Lucia Stretcher; Hynes, Geraldine E.; Hill, Kathy L.

    2012-01-01

    Incorporating social and emotional skills (EI) training into the business communication curriculum is important for preparing students to function effectively in a global workplace with its complex informal networks, intercultural issues, team emphasis, and participatory leadership. EI skills enhance communication behavior in work groups and…

  9. Social Responsibility in Advertising: A Marketing Communications Student Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kendrick, Alice; Fullerton, Jami A.; Kim, Yeo Jung

    2013-01-01

    Although advertising has played a key role in bringing corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the public agenda on behalf of agency clients, little effort has been made to define what social responsibility means in advertising. A national survey of 1,045 advertising and marketing communications students from 176 colleges and universities were…

  10. Improving Communicative Competence through Synchronous Communication in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments: A Systematic Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xi Huang

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Computer-supported collaborative learning facilitates the extension of second language acquisition into social practice. Studies on its achievement effects speak directly to the pedagogical notion of treating communicative practice in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC: real-time communication that takes place between human beings via the instrumentality of computers in forms of text, audio and video communication, such as live chat and chatrooms as socially-oriented meaning construction. This review begins by considering the adoption of social interactionist views to identify key paradigms and supportive principles of computer-supported collaborative learning. A special focus on two components of communicative competence is then presented to explore interactional variables in synchronous computer-mediated communication along with a review of research. There follows a discussion on a synthesis of interactional variables in negotiated interaction and co-construction of knowledge from psycholinguistic and social cohesion perspectives. This review reveals both possibilities and disparities of language socialization in promoting intersubjective learning and diversifying the salient use of interactively creative language in computer-supported collaborative learning environments in service of communicative competence.

  11. Increasing Social Behaviors in Young Children with Social-Communication Delays in a Group Arrangement in Preschool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lane, Justin D.; Gast, David L.; Ledford, Jennifer R.; Shepley, Collin

    2017-01-01

    Young children with disabilities are less likely to display age-appropriate social behaviors than same-age peers with typical social development, especially children who display social-communication delays. In this study, two concurrently operating single case designs were used to evaluate the use of progressive time delay (PTD) to teach children…

  12. The construction of corporate social responsibility in network societies: A communication view

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schultz, F.; Castello, I.; Morsing, M.

    2013-01-01

    The paper introduces the communication view on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which regards CSR as communicatively constructed in dynamic interaction processes in today's networked societies. Building on the idea that communication constitutes organizations we discuss the potentially

  13. Social gating of sensory information during ongoing communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anders, Silke; Heussen, Yana; Sprenger, Andreas; Haynes, John-Dylan; Ethofer, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    Social context plays an important role in human communication. Depending on the nature of the source, the same communication signal might be processed in fundamentally different ways. However, the selective modulation (or "gating") of the flow of neural information during communication is not fully understood. Here, we use multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) and multivoxel connectivity analysis (MVCA), a novel technique that allows to analyse context-dependent changes of the strength interregional coupling between ensembles of voxels, to examine how the human brain differentially gates content-specific sensory information during ongoing perception of communication signals. In a simulated electronic communication experiment, participants received two alternative text messages during fMRI ("happy" or "sad") which they believed had been sent either by their real-life friend outside the scanner or by a computer. A region in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) selectively increased its functional coupling with sensory-content encoding regions in the visual cortex when a text message was perceived as being sent by the participant's friend, and decreased its functional coupling with these regions when a text message was perceived as being sent by the computer. Furthermore, the strength of neural encoding of content-specific information of text messages in the dmPFC was modulated by the social tie between the participant and her friend: the more of her spare time a participant reported to spend with her friend the stronger was the neural encoding. This suggests that the human brain selectively gates sensory information into the relevant network for processing the mental states of others, depending on the source of the communication signal. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Communication, knowledge, social network and family planning ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Family planning utilization in Tanzania is low. This study was cross sectional. It examined family planning use and socio demographic variables, social networks, knowledge and communication among the couples, whereby a stratified sample of 440 women of reproductive age (18-49), married or cohabiting was studied in ...

  15. Utilizing Social Network Services for Enhanced Communication with Elderly Living at Home

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wagner, Stefan

    2009-01-01

    This paper discusses whether social network services, like Facebook and Twitter, may be used by elderly living in their own homes to enhance communication with their relatives and friends. It introduces a prototype solution based on the iRobot Roomba 560, iRobot, USA, robot vacuum cleaner, which...... has been enhanced with Facebook and Twitter communication capabilities. The paper points out a number of other relevant applications where the use of social network services may provide better communication for ambient assisted living solutions and intelligent environments....

  16. Early social communication in infants with fragile X syndrome and infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hahn, Laura J; Brady, Nancy C; McCary, Lindsay; Rague, Lisa; Roberts, Jane E

    2017-12-01

    Little research in fragile X syndrome (FXS) has prospectively examined early social communication. To compare early social communication in infants with FXS, infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASIBs), and typically developing (TD) infants. Participants were 18 infants with FXS, 21 ASIBs, and 22 TD infants between 7.5-14.5 months. Social communication was coded using the Communication Complexity Scale during the administration of Autism Observation Scale for Infants. Descriptively different patterns were seen across the three groups. Overall infants with FXS had lower social communication than ASIBs or TD infants when controlling for nonverbal cognitive abilities. However, infants with FXS had similar levels of social communication as ASIBs or TD infants during peek-a-boo. No differences were observed between ASIBs and TD infants. For all infants, higher social communication was related to lower ASD risk. Findings provide insight into the developmental course of social communication in FXS. The dynamic nature of social games may help to stimulate communication in infants with FXS. Language interventions with a strong social component may be particularly effective for promoting language development in FXS. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. A Meta-Analysis of the Social Communication Questionnaire: Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chesnut, Steven R.; Wei, Tianlan; Barnard-Brak, Lucy; Richman, David M.

    2017-01-01

    The current meta-analysis examines the previous research on the utility of the Social Communication Questionnaire as a screening instrument for autism spectrum disorder. Previously published reports have highlighted the inconsistencies between Social Communication Questionnaire-screening results and formal autism spectrum disorder diagnoses. The…

  18. Reliability issues and solutions for coding social communication performance in classroom settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olswang, Lesley B; Svensson, Liselotte; Coggins, Truman E; Beilinson, Jill S; Donaldson, Amy L

    2006-10-01

    To explore the utility of time-interval analysis for documenting the reliability of coding social communication performance of children in classroom settings. Of particular interest was finding a method for determining whether independent observers could reliably judge both occurrence and duration of ongoing behavioral dimensions for describing social communication performance. Four coders participated in this study. They observed and independently coded 6 social communication behavioral dimensions using handheld computers. The dimensions were mutually exclusive and accounted for all verbal and nonverbal productions during a specified time frame. The technology allowed for coding frequency and duration for each entered code. Data were collected from 20 different 2-min video segments of children in kindergarten through 3rd-grade classrooms. Data were analyzed for interobserver and intraobserver agreements using time-interval sorting and Cohen's kappa. Further, interval size and total observation length were manipulated to determine their influence on reliability. The data revealed interval sorting and kappa to be a suitable method for examining reliability of occurrence and duration of ongoing social communication behavioral dimensions. Nearly all comparisons yielded medium to large kappa values; interval size and length of observation minimally affected results. Implications The analysis procedure described in this research solves a challenge in reliability: comparing coding by independent observers of both occurrence and duration of behaviors. Results indicate the utility of a new coding taxonomy and technology for application in online observations of social communication in a classroom setting.

  19. Chronic Media Worlds: Social Media and the Problem of Pain Communication on Tumblr

    OpenAIRE

    Gonzalez-Polledo, E.

    2016-01-01

    This paper explores dynamics of pain communication in the social media platform Tumblr. As a device of health communication, the Tumblr platform brings together a network of behaviors, technologies and media forms through which pain experience is reimaged through and against mainstream biomedical frameworks. The article develops an interpretative approach to analyze how, as social media platforms reorganize affective, emotional, physical and temporal frames of experience, communication about ...

  20. Myths on Bi-direction Communication of Web 2.0 Based Social Networks: Is Social Network Truly Interactive?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-10

    more and more social interactions are happening on the on-line. Especially recent uptake of the social network sites (SNSs), such as Facebook (http...Smart phones • Live updates within social networks • Facebook & Twitters Solution: WebMon for Risk Management Need for New WebMon for Social Networks ...Title: Myths on bi-direction communication of Web 2.0 based social networks : Is social network truly interactive

  1. TAM AIRLINES ON TWITTER: COMMUNICATION CHANNEL OR SOCIAL NETWORK?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cynthia Harumy Watanabe Corrêa

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The research emphasizes the social appropriation of Information and Communication Technologies by the Brazilian aviation industry, through a case study of communication strategies of TAM on the social networking site Twitter. TAM is a leader in the Brazilian domestic market and gradually conquering its space in Mercosul. This is an exploratory research, based on content analysis of messages sent to the company profile on Twitter, in order to check whether indeed the consolidation of a social network between TAM and its followers. We analyzed all messages posted since July 3, 2009, the date of the first post in the company profile, until the day January 31, 2010. Among the subjects discussed, there was the predominance of information and promotions. The study concludes that, under Twitter, TAM has yet reached a high degree of social interaction with his followers, because the major number of messages is directed to promotional marketing.

  2. How is Social Media Influencing the Way we Communicate?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana Gherghita-Mihaila

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Social media has transformed the way we think our campaigns and communicate with our audience, but also it changed the way we get in touch with our target and make it react to what we are saying or doing. The objective of this paper is to emphasize that we not only use social media on a personal level, but we’ve transformed it in an important marketing tool for our business. Today we live in online almost as much as we live in the real world. A company without a website and social media presence it does not exists. For researchers and headhunters, social media have become an important tool. So we have to be careful with things we post online, because they can say a lot of things about us and can influence our professional development. The fundaments for this paper are based mainly on the following studies: (1 “Social Media and the Romanian Business Milieu – Impact of Marketing through Social Media on Local Business Environment”, published in October 2013, by Ernst & Young, (2 “Social Media Primetime Survey”, publish by the Romanian consultancy and training company The Connector, (3 “Online Landscape – South-East Europe”, published by Gemius Knowledge, in 2014 and (4 “Online Social Networks”, by Daedalus MillwardBrown, published in 2011. They all show how social media and online development have impacted on traditional media and how companies cannot ignore these new communication and business channels. Studies on social media also showed that internet and mobile platforms are getting more and more popular, that people and companies are drowned into the digital world, communicating through all types of apps and networks. Used wisely, social media can generate greater and faster results with less money than traditional media (print, television, radio, outdoor. The sources used for this paper say that social media is “the it thing” in the 21st century, when almost every person on the planet has a cell phone or access to one

  3. Social Networking Among Youth and Their Communication and Conflict Resolution Skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mistry DR

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: New digital media have dramatically altered the communication landscape, especially for youth. “Indian web users spend 26 minutes online each day”. This study is concerned with effect of social networking on youth regarding potential risk, safety, wellbeing & skill development because they are still maturing & forming the ability to attain & implement communication & conflict resolution skill on interpersonal level. Aim & objective: To explore the impact of social networking on communication & conflict resolution skills among first MBBS students. Material & Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 122 first year MBBS students using semi structured questionnaire after taking their consent. Data collection was based on purposive sampling. Data entry and analysis was done using excel and SPSS v16. Result: Mean age of participants was 17.7 + 0.62 years, All the participants 122 (100% have their own cell phone & 112 (91.8% were using internet. Majority of participants have their profile on Facebook 100 (81.9% and What’s app 105 (86.1%. Twenty seven percent (33 participants strongly agreed that “people who rely on social networking are losing the ability to talk with others”, while 50 (41% strongly disagreed to it. More than forty seven percent (58 of participants were of strong belief that “people cannot effectively solve problem using social networking”. More than half (52.4% of participants said that “it’s easy to take things the wrong way during social networking”. Conclusion: The study shows that participants have replaced traditional methods of communication with social networking on which they spend a fair amount of time. Use of social networking sites helped half of the adolescents to open up to the world but these sites did not help much in conflict resolution as responded by nearly half of participants.

  4. A call for innovative social media research in the field of augmentative and alternative communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hemsley, Bronwyn; Balandin, Susan; Palmer, Stuart; Dann, Stephen

    2017-03-01

    Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) social media research is relatively new, and is built on a foundation of research on use of the Internet and social media by people with communication disabilities. Although the field is expanding to include a range of people who use AAC, there are limitations and gaps in research that will need to be addressed in order to keep pace with the rapid evolution of social media connectivity in assistive communication technologies. In this paper, we consider the aims, scope, and methodologies of AAC social media research, with a focus on social network sites. Lack of detailed attention to specific social network sites and little use of social media data limits the extent to which findings can be confirmed. Increased use of social media data across a range of platforms, including Instagram and YouTube, would provide important insights into the lives of people who use AAC and the ways in which they and their supporters use social media. New directions for AAC social media research are presented in line with those discussed at the social media research symposium at the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication in Toronto, Canada, on August 12, 2016.

  5. The Experimental Social Scientific Model in Speech Communication Research: Influences and Consequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferris, Sharmila Pixy

    A substantial number of published articles in speech communication research today is experimental/social scientific in nature. It is only in the past decade that scholars have begun to put the history of communication under the lens. Early advocates of the adoption of the method of social scientific inquiry were J. A. Winans, J. M. O'Neill, and C.…

  6. Second language social networks and communication-related acculturative stress: the role of interconnectedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doucerain, Marina M; Varnaamkhaasti, Raheleh S; Segalowitz, Norman; Ryder, Andrew G

    2015-01-01

    Although a substantial amount of cross-cultural psychology research has investigated acculturative stress in general, little attention has been devoted specifically to communication-related acculturative stress (CRAS). In line with the view that cross-cultural adaptation and second language (L2) learning are social and interpersonal phenomena, the present study examines the hypothesis that migrants' L2 social network size and interconnectedness predict CRAS. The main idea underlying this hypothesis is that L2 social networks play an important role in fostering social and cultural aspects of communicative competence. Specifically, higher interconnectedness may reflect greater access to unmodified natural cultural representations and L2 communication practices, thus fostering communicative competence through observational learning. As such, structural aspects of migrants' L2 social networks may be protective against acculturative stress arising from chronic communication difficulties. Results from a study of first generation migrant students (N = 100) support this idea by showing that both inclusiveness and density of the participants' L2 network account for unique variance in CRAS but not in general acculturative stress. These results support the idea that research on cross-cultural adaptation would benefit from disentangling the various facets of acculturative stress and that the structure of migrants' L2 network matters for language related outcomes. Finally, this study contributes to an emerging body of work that attempts to integrate cultural/cross-cultural research on acculturation and research on intercultural communication and second language learning.

  7. Just blowing smoke? Residents’ social construction of communication about wildfire

    Science.gov (United States)

    Travis Paveglio; Matthew S. Carroll; James D. Absher; Todd. Norton

    2009-01-01

    This study uses social constructionism as a basis for understanding the effectiveness of communication about wildfire risk between agency officials and wildland-urban interface (WUI) residents. Risk communication literature demonstrates a welldocumented difference in the way land managers and stakeholders conceptualize risk. This is especially true of fire because...

  8. Social Media, Traditional Media and Marketing Communication of Public Relations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Khajeheian, Datis; Mirahmadi, Fereshteh

    2015-01-01

    Public relations are undertaking more important role in the marketing communication and advertising. The present paper reports a survey conducted in three Iranian banks’ public relations departments to understand how they use different media in their marketing communications and other related...... functions. A classification of public relations functions including fourteen functions in three categories has taken as research framework and by using a questionnaire, eight media have been asked to rank for each function, includes Television, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, Classified Ads, Internet Websites......, Social media and finally Mobile and SMS ads. Findings show that traditional media still play a dominant role in media consumption of public relations, while new Web2.0 media consist of Mobile communications and Social networks, have never ranked better than fifth from eight. Some reasons have been argues...

  9. The Attempts of Pro-Social Communication Agents in Communicating and Shaping Environmental Behaviour via the Internet

    OpenAIRE

    Bailey, James A

    2009-01-01

    With the increase in focus on environmental advertising during the early 1990s, it is surprising that more research has not focused on advertisings effect on influencing and shaping consumer behaviour change. This is seen as crucial in the next few decreased due to a general agreement on the effect that consumers behaviours have on climate change. Communicating this pro-social behaviour change has in recent years diversified into Internet communications and other communication agents, as well...

  10. Marketing Communication Strategy Through Social Media to Increase Children Book Sales

    OpenAIRE

    Wardaya, Marina

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to determine the marketing communication strategy of children's books through social media in increasing sales. Qualitative research methods with the interpretive paradigm and the phenomenological approach were used in this research. The focus of this research was to observe about the children's books marketing communication strategy using social media, for instance with Facebook and Twitter to attract consumer’s interest in order to increase children's books ...

  11. Social communication: a potent force for change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lone, S

    1983-12-01

    Some of the strongest challenges to established communication structures emerge from the development arena. 1 element of the challenges comes from those working to place communication between deprived communities and those providing them expertise at the center of development planning. Communication specialists maintain that human communication is the pivot on which balances the success or failure of the whole process of development as well as individual programs. Yet, the vast majority of development programs are conceived and executed without a serious communication component. Communication personnel are irritated by the approach of planning first, and communicating only after a failure. As more and more after the fact appeals are heard, it is becoming clearer to planners that communication is more than another hardware component consisting of posters, radio messages, and so on, but a central and decisive factor of any program. The attempt to raise communications to a more appropriate place in the development context has been aided greatly by recent evidence of its impact. Among those who must be classified as successful in fully investigating their target group and understanding how to communicate with them are the commercial manufacturers. Their advertising campaigns have revolutionized consumption habits and lifestyles across the world. An increasing number of voices, recognizing the impact of commercial advertising, are advocating that their techniques be adopted in the promotion of social development. Richard Manoff is one experienced advertising man who has used his commercial skills to promote developmental messages. He maintains that there is no idea that cannot be promoted as are commercial products. Changes in communication strategies will not by themselves eliminate the most fundamental problem facing humanity, i.e., the eradication of poverty, but they can contribute to that goal. A comprehensive communication strategy can help awaken people to

  12. "You get old. You get invisible": Social isolation and the challenge of communicating with aging women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walkner, Tammy J; Weare, Andrea M; Tully, Melissa

    2017-04-04

    Social isolation is a problem facing many older women. Isolation can contribute to poor health as adults age without social support. Increased and tailored communication offers service organizations more opportunities to provide social support to these adults. This research examines perceptions of aging to explore communication behaviors, barriers, and opportunities for improved communication and service provision for aging women. Using data from focus groups and interviews, this study finds that participants from community organizations rely on word of mouth and traditional media to communicate with their aging constituents, despite opportunities to use digital communication and to develop communication plans for this population.

  13. Marketing Communication Strategy Through Social Media To Increase Children Book Sales

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marina Wardaya

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this research was to determine the marketing communication strategy of children's books through social media in increasing sales. Qualitative research methods with the interpretive paradigm and the phenomenological approach were used in this research. The focus of this research was to observe about the children's books marketing communication strategy using social media, for instance with Facebook and Twitter to attract consumer’s interest in order to increase children's books sales. The results of this study show that the children's book marketing communication strategies in publisher’s social media are fully and interactively utilized, as seen from the various activities posted on Facebook and Twitter. As well as the positive response from consumers who show their interest and desire to buy books offered or follow the event being held in order to increase sales.

  14. Impacts of Social Media (Facebook) on Human Communication

    OpenAIRE

    Tang-Mui Joo; Chan-Eang Teng

    2017-01-01

    The impact of social networking is varied from good to bad. Online activities have also been categorized into pros and cons of social networking, either as reported as hiding Internet activities among teenagers or killing loneliness among elderly. In terms of relationships, there have been argument over its closeness and quality of an online relationship in Internet settings. Looking at the contradiction in an innovative interaction between classic community communication and soci...

  15. Mutual friends' social support and self-disclosure in face-to-face and instant messenger communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trepte, Sabine; Masur, Philipp K; Scharkow, Michael

    2018-01-01

    In the present study, we investigated long-term effects of self-disclosure on social support in face-to-face and instant messenger (IM) communication between mutual friends. Using a representative sample of 583 German IM users, we explored whether self-disclosure and positive experiences with regard to social support would dynamically interact in the form of a reinforcing spiral across three measurement occasions. If mutual friends self-disclose today, will they receive more social support 6 months later? In turn, will this affect their willingness to self-disclose another 6 months later? We further analyzed spill-over effects from face-to-face to IM communication and vice versa. We found that self-disclosure predicted social support and vice versa in IM communication, but not in face-to-face communication. In light of these results, the impact of IM communication on how individuals maneuver friendships through the interplay between self-disclosure and social support are discussed.

  16. Perceptions on the Effectiveness of Communication between Public Institutions and Journalists through Social Media

    OpenAIRE

    Mihaela Păun

    2009-01-01

    This article presents the challenges and opportunities of social media for public institutions and argues that the designing and implementing government public relations using social media involves more than merely having another communication channel for publics. I will explain the “social media”, the differences between social media and electronic-Public Relations - E-PR, and the communication between public institutions and journalists. The interviews with journalists or with PR specialist...

  17. Augmentative and Alternative Communication System (AAC) for Social Inclusion of People With Complex Communication Needs in the Industry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krüger, Simone; Berberian, Ana Paula

    2015-01-01

    Inclusion of people with special needs in the labor market has been increasing in some regions of Brazil as a result of the Articles 6 and 7 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Brazil and the Quota Law (No. 8.213/91, Art. 93) which entitle people with disabilities to work in order to improve their social condition. To support persons with complex communication needs in the workplace, 40 graphic symbols termed "symbols of industrial expressions" were developed within the framework of the COMMUNIS package. The symbols were developed for a company of the food sector in the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba, Brazil. Individual interviews were held with the human resources professionals, as well as with employees with complex communication needs in order to identify problems, assess requirements, and generate a list of specific symbols to develop. The symbols were then validated with regard to their ease of recognition. Only five symbols needed revision. The results suggest that it is possible to develop a set of symbols for the workplace that are judged to be iconic by human resources professionals and employees with complex communication needs.

  18. Study on Communication System of Social Risk Information on Nuclear Energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hidekazu Yoshikawa; Toshio Sugiman; Yasunaga Wakabayashi; Hiroshi Shimoda; Mika Terado; Mariko Akimoto; Yoshihiko Nagasato

    2004-01-01

    As a new risk communication method for the construction of effective knowledge bases about 'safety and non-anxiety for nuclear energy', a study on new communication method of social risk information by means of electronic communication has been started, by noticing rapid expansion of internet usage in the society. The purpose of this research is to enhance the public acceptance to nuclear power in Japan by the following two aspects. The first is to develop the mutual communication system among the working persons involved in both the operation and maintenance activities for nuclear power plant, by which they will exchange their daily experiences to improve the safety conscious activities to foster 'safety culture' attitude. The other is the development of an effective risk communication system between nuclear society and the general publics about the hot issues of 'what are the concerned involved in the final disposal of high-level radioactive waste?' and 'what should we do to have social consensus to deal with this issue in future'. The authors' research plan for the above purpose is summarized as shown in Table 1. As the first step of the authors' three year research project which started from August 2003, social investigation by questionnaires by internet and postal mail, have been just recently conducted on their risk perception for the nuclear power for the people engaged in nuclear business and women in the metropolitan area, respectively, in order to obtain the relevant information on how and what should be considered for constructing effective risk communication methods of social risk information between the people within nuclear industries and the general public in society. Although there need to be discussed, the contrasting risk images as shown in Fig.1, can be depicted between the nuclear people and general public these days in Japan, from the results of the social investigation. As the conclusion of the authors' study thus far conducted, the

  19. Social referencing and cat-human communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merola, I; Lazzaroni, M; Marshall-Pescini, S; Prato-Previde, E

    2015-05-01

    Cats' (Felis catus) communicative behaviour towards humans was explored using a social referencing paradigm in the presence of a potentially frightening object. One group of cats observed their owner delivering a positive emotional message, whereas another group received a negative emotional message. The aim was to evaluate whether cats use the emotional information provided by their owners about a novel/unfamiliar object to guide their own behaviour towards it. We assessed the presence of social referencing, in terms of referential looking towards the owner (defined as looking to the owner immediately before or after looking at the object), the behavioural regulation based on the owner's emotional (positive vs negative) message (vocal and facial), and the observational conditioning following the owner's actions towards the object. Most cats (79 %) exhibited referential looking between the owner and the object, and also to some extent changed their behaviour in line with the emotional message given by the owner. Results are discussed in relation to social referencing in other species (dogs in particular) and cats' social organization and domestication history.

  20. The human face as a dynamic tool for social communication

    OpenAIRE

    Jack, Rachael E.; Schyns, Philippe G.

    2015-01-01

    As a highly social species, humans frequently exchange social information to support almost all facets of life. One of the richest and most powerful tools in social communication is the face, from which observers can quickly and easily make a number of inferences — about identity, gender, sex, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical health, attractiveness, emotional state, personality traits, pain or physical pleasure, deception, and even social status. With the advent of the digit...

  1. Communicative action: the Habermasian and Freirean dialogical approach to participatory communication for social change in a post-1994 South Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Otto

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available Despite its almost four decade mainstay, the field of parti-cipatory communication for social change still experiences a definitional and pragmatic problem regarding what exactly participation is (cf. Jacobson & Storey, 2004; Chambers, 1994; Melkote & Steeves, 2001; Rogers, 1976; Lerner, 1964; Schramm, 1964; Servaes, 1995. What remains is a vastly under-theorised field of participatory communication for social change. This article examines the possibility of participatory communication approaching the Habermasian “ideal speech situation” in which people, as communicators, are seen as having a value in their own right and not simply regarded as a means to an end (cf. Habermas, 1984; 1987; 1989. Consistent with the Freirean “liberal pedagogy”, the praxis of dialogical communication or intersubjective communication is seen as putting right the “participative” quality of participatory com-munication (cf. Freire, 1970. For both theorists, transformative action can only occur if reflective and collective learning occurs in linguistically constructed settings where the normative dimensions of truth (logos, rightfulness (ethos and truthfulness (pathos are raised and met in the developmental conversation. This is especially significant in a globalised world and fragmented, post-bourgeois public sphere where debate among developmental stakeholders is becoming more marginal, in-strumentalist, and less public. Based on available analyses of development communication literature, this article proposes that the chosen dialogical approaches share a type of communi-cative behaviour (i.e. action theoretic, rather than representing a particular paradigm or school of thought. This could offer further definitional clarification of proper participatory communi-cation for social change in a post-1994 South Africa.

  2. New insight for social risk communication of nuclear power towards social consensus for HLW disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kugo, Akihide; Yoshikawa, Hidekazu; Shimoda, Hiroshi; Uda, Akinobu; Wakabayashi, Yasunaga

    2004-01-01

    For the construction of effective knowledge base on safety and non-anxiety for nuclear power, a study on new communication system about social risk information has been initiated by noticing the rapid expansion of Internet in the society. By constructing Internet Website communication system on the geological disposal of high-level radioactive wastes, we conducted the experiment of communication for verifying the principles such as that the basic technical knowledge and trust, and social ethics are indispensable in this process to close the perception gap between nuclear specialists and the general public. The cognition structural equation model by means of the variables reduction method of multiple regression analysis and by compiling the significant paths by covariance structure analysis was built based on this experimental data. Moreover, by investigating more detailed public subconscious on the high-level radioactive wastes by 'text mining method' with the special reference to the Public Comment in July 2000 and the literature survey, it was found that the freely discussing ideas based on the environmental ethics such as 'fairness in results' and 'fairness in opportunity' from scratch would gain a potential of enhancing the social receptivity. (author)

  3. Social attraction in video-mediated communication : The role of nonverbal affiliative behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Croes, Emmelyn; Antheunis, Marjolijn; Schouten, Alexander; Krahmer, Emiel

    2018-01-01

    The first aim of this study was to analyze video-mediated communication (VMC), in comparison to face-to-face (FTF) communication, and the effect it has on how communicators express nonverbal affiliative behaviors relevant for social attraction. Second, this study aimed to discover whether these

  4. Computer-mediated communication preferences predict biobehavioral measures of social-emotional functioning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babkirk, Sarah; Luehring-Jones, Peter; Dennis-Tiwary, Tracy A

    2016-12-01

    The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as a form of social interaction has become increasingly prevalent, yet few studies examine individual differences that may shed light on implications of CMC for adjustment. The current study examined neurocognitive individual differences associated with preferences to use technology in relation to social-emotional outcomes. In Study 1 (N = 91), a self-report measure, the Social Media Communication Questionnaire (SMCQ), was evaluated as an assessment of preferences for communicating positive and negative emotions on a scale ranging from purely via CMC to purely face-to-face. In Study 2, SMCQ preferences were examined in relation to event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with early emotional attention capture and reactivity (the frontal N1) and later sustained emotional processing and regulation (the late positive potential (LPP)). Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while 22 participants passively viewed emotional and neutral pictures and completed an emotion regulation task with instructions to increase, decrease, or maintain their emotional responses. A greater preference for CMC was associated with reduced size of and satisfaction with social support, greater early (N1) attention capture by emotional stimuli, and reduced LPP amplitudes to unpleasant stimuli in the increase emotion regulatory task. These findings are discussed in the context of possible emotion- and social-regulatory functions of CMC.

  5. Using social media to communicate child health information to low-income parents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stroever, Stephanie J; Mackert, Michael S; McAlister, Alfred L; Hoelscher, Deanna M

    2011-11-01

    The objective of this study was to determine the value of using social media to communicate child health information to low-income parents. We evaluated qualitative data obtained through focus groups with low-income, predominantly Hispanic parents. Results were mixed; lack of time and credibility were the primary objections parents cited in using social media to obtain information about their children's health. Social media has value as part of an overall communication strategy, but more work is needed to determine the most effective way to use this channel in low-income populations.

  6. Preschool-based social communication treatment for children with autism: 12-month follow-up of a randomized trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaale, Anett; Fagerland, Morten W; Martinsen, Egil W; Smith, Lars

    2014-02-01

    This study reports 12-month follow-up data from a randomized controlled trial of preschool-based social communication treatment for young children with autism. A total of 61 children (48 males) with autism, 29 to 60 months of age, had earlier been randomized either to 8 weeks of preschool-based social communication treatment in addition to standard preschool program (n = 34) or to standard preschool program only (n = 27). Significant short-term effects on targeted social communication skills have previously been published. Long-term gains in social communication, language and global social functioning and communication were assessed from video-taped preschool teacher-child and mother-child interactions, Early Social Communication Scales, Reynell Developmental Language Scale, and Social Communication Questionnaire. Compared with those in the control group, the treated children achieved significantly larger improvements in joint attention and joint engagement from baseline to 12-month follow-up. However, no effects were detected on language and global ratings of social functioning and communication. The treatment effect on child initiation of joint attention increased with increasing level of sociability at baseline, whereas nonverbal IQ and expressive language had no moderating effect. This study is the first to show that, similar to specialist-delivered treatment, preschool-based treatment may produce small but possibly clinically important long-term changes in social communication in young children with autism. The treatment did not affect language and global ratings of social functioning and communication. More studies are needed to better understand whether treatment effects may be improved by increasing the intensity and duration of the treatment. Clinical trial registration information--Joint Attention Intervention and Young Children With Autism; http://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT00378157. Copyright © 2014 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

  7. MARKETING COMMUNICATION IN ONLINE SOCIAL PROGRAMS: OHANIAN MODEL OF SOURCE CREDIBILITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serban Corina

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available The development of the Internet as a medium for interaction with customers has resulted in many changes regarding the promotion of organizations. Online marketing is nowadays used not only to sell a product on the market, but also requires ideas and behavioral change. Non-profit organizations active in online communication are based on the quality of their provided information. Crediblity, attractiveness and usefullness are the key elements that provide effective online social programs. This paper aims to extend the scope of research in the field of social marketing by studying the Ohanian model in the online environment. The goal is to highlight the important theories and social models intrinsic to the online non-profit organizations’ communication. The results show that the efficiency of social programs depends on the level of incorporated elements of social theories in the design, content and structure of the website.

  8. Teaching Students How to Integrate and Assess Social Networking Tools in Marketing Communications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlee, Regina Pefanis; Harich, Katrin R.

    2013-01-01

    This research is based on two studies that focus on teaching students how to integrate and assess social networking tools in marketing communications. Study 1 examines how students in marketing classes utilize social networking tools and explores their attitudes regarding the use of such tools for marketing communications. Study 2 focuses on an…

  9. Multimodal Aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmen Daniela Maier

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This article addresses how the multimodal persuasive strategies of corporate social responsibility communication can highlight a company’s commitment to gender empowerment and environmental protection while advertising simultaneously its products. Drawing on an interdisciplinary methodological framework related to CSR communication, multimodal discourse analysis and gender theory, the article proposes a multimodal analysis model through which it is possible to map and explain the multimodal persuasive strategies employed by Coca-Cola company in their community-related films. By examining the semiotic modes’ interconnectivity and functional differentiation, this analytical endeavour expands the existing research work as the usual textual focus is extended to a multimodal one.

  10. Applying social marketing in health care: communicating evidence to change consumer behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, W Douglas; McCormack, Lauren

    2008-01-01

    Social marketing uses commercial marketing strategies to change individual and organizational behavior and policies. It has been effective on a population level across a wide range of public health and health care domains. There is limited evidence of the effectiveness of social marketing in changing health care consumer behavior through its impact on patient-provider interaction or provider behavior. Social marketers need to identify translatable strategies (e.g., competition analysis, branding, and tailored messages) that can be applied to health care provider and consumer behavior. Three case studies from social marketing illustrate potential strategies to change provider and consumer behavior. Countermarketing is a rapidly growing social marketing strategy that has been effective in tobacco control and may be effective in countering pharmaceutical marketing using specific message strategies. Informed decision making is a useful strategy when there is medical uncertainty, such as in prostate cancer screening and treatment. Pharmaceutical industry marketing practices offer valuable lessons for developing competing messages to reach providers and consumers. Social marketing is an effective population-based behavior change strategy that can be applied in individual clinical settings and as a complement to reinforce messages communicated on a population level. There is a need for more research on message strategies that work in health care and population-level effectiveness studies.

  11. The Social Impact of Communication during Epidemics: Bioethical and Public Health Perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduardo Alfredo Duro

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Public health communication and, especially during a crisis scenario such as an epidemics, is mediated by ethical conflicts ranging from values to deontology. In an intercommunicated world, the social support during outbreaks and epidemics becomes global and the state presence is a key to social protection. This should also be translated into timely, urgent and effective communication strategies from the public health perspective as well as efforts to prevent and avoid fake news or skewed information from any sources. Scenarios with lack of connection and obstacles in mass communication in public health major threats are described.

  12. The relationship between social anxiety and online communication among adolescents in the city of isfahan, iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esfandiari, Narges; Nouri, Abolghasem; Golparvar, Mohsen; Yarmohammadian, Mohammad H

    2013-04-01

    The internet is a phenomena that changes human, specially the younger generation's, life in the 21(st) century. Online communication is a common way of interacting among adolescents who experience feelings of social anxiety. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social anxiety and online communication in adolescents. Three hundred and thirty students aged 13-16 years were selected from eight middle and high schools in Isfahan by multistage cluster sampling. Each of them completed a survey on the amount of time they spent communicating online, the topics they discussed, the partners they engaged with and their purpose for communicating over the internet. They also completed the social anxiety scale of adolescents. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple regression. Results of the Pearson analysis showed that online communication has a significant positive relationship with apprehension and fear of negative evaluation (AFNE), and a significant negative relationship with tension and inhibition in social contact (TISC) (P communication is AFNE, TISC. It is suggested that students from middle school get assessed in terms of the level of social anxiety. Then, the quality and quantity of their online communication should be moderated through group training and consulting and referral to medical centers, if needed. The results of this study may lead to optimal use of online communications and reduce the personal, social and psychological problems of adolescents.

  13. Social Communication Questionnaire Scoring Procedures for Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Prevalence of Potential Social Communication Disorder in ASD

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnard-Brak, Lucy; Richman, David M.; Chesnut, Steven Randall; Little, Todd D.

    2016-01-01

    In analyzing data from the National Database for Autism Research, we utilized Mokken scaling techniques as a means of creating a more effective and efficient screening procedure for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) via the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). With a sample of 1,040, approximately 80% (n = 827) of the sample were males while…

  14. Identifying the Essential Elements of Effective Science Communication: What Do the Experts Say?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bray, Belinda; France, Bev; Gilbert, John K.

    2012-01-01

    Experts in science communication were asked to identify the essential elements of a science communication course for post-graduate students. A Delphi methodology provided a framework for a research design that accessed their opinions and allowed them to contribute to, reflect on and identify 10 essential elements. There was a high level of…

  15. Harnessing social networks along with consumer-driven electronic communication technologies to identify and engage members of 'hard-to-reach' populations: a methodological case report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rock, Melanie J

    2010-01-20

    Sampling in the absence of accurate or comprehensive information routinely poses logistical, ethical, and resource allocation challenges in social science, clinical, epidemiological, health service and population health research. These challenges are compounded if few members of a target population know each other or regularly interact. This paper reports on the sampling methods adopted in ethnographic case study research with a 'hard-to-reach' population. To identify and engage a small yet diverse sample of people who met an unusual set of criteria (i.e., pet owners who had been treating cats or dogs for diabetes), four sampling strategies were used. First, copies of a recruitment letter were posted in pet-friendly places. Second, information about the study was diffused throughout the study period via word of mouth. Third, the lead investigator personally sent the recruitment letter via email to a pet owner, who then circulated the information to others, and so on. Fourth, veterinarians were enlisted to refer people who had diabetic pets. The second, third and fourth strategies rely on social networks and represent forms of chain referral sampling. Chain referral sampling via email proved to be the most efficient and effective, yielding a small yet diverse group of respondents within one month, and at negligible cost. The widespread popularity of electronic communication technologies offers new methodological opportunities for researchers seeking to recruit from hard-to-reach populations.

  16. Design of a Physiology-Sensitive VR-Based Social Communication Platform for Children With Autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuriakose, Selvia; Lahiri, Uttama

    2017-08-01

    Individuals with autism are often characterized by impairments in communication, reciprocal social interaction and explicit expression of their affective states. In conventional techniques, a therapist adjusts the intervention paradigm by monitoring the affective state e.g., anxiety of these individuals for effective floor-time-therapy. Conventional techniques, though powerful, are observation-based and face resource limitations. Technology-assisted systems can provide a quantitative, individualized rehabilitation platform. Presently-available systems are designed primarily to chain learning via aspects of one's performance alone restricting individualization. Specifically, these systems are not sensitive to one's anxiety. Our presented work seeks to bridge this gap by developing a novel VR-based interactive system with Anxiety-Sensitive adaptive technology. Specifically, such a system is capable of objectively identifying and quantifying one's anxiety level from real-time biomarkers, along with performance metrics. In turn it can adaptively respond in an individualized manner to foster improved social communication skills. In our present research, we have used Virtual Reality (VR) to design a proof-of-concept application that exposes participants to social tasks of varying challenges. Results of a preliminary usability study indicate the potential of our VR-based Anxiety-Sensitive system to foster improved task performance, thereby serving as a potent complementary tool in the hands of therapist.

  17. Educating to Tolerance: Effects of Communicating Social Psychology Research Findings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesco La Barbera

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The effect of communicating social psychology research findings on ingroup bias in a classroom setting has been investigated. Two hundred and twenty one high school students either read or did not read a brief report about three classical social psychological studies, then completed evaluation scales for the ingroup and the outgroup. Participants’ motivation was manipulated, and the messages were different as regards the congruency between the content and participants’ actual intergroup experience. Results showed that communication exerted a significant effect in reducing ingroup bias for participants in the high motivation/high congruency condition, that is, the communication effect was moderated by the individual’s level of motivation and the content of the arguments proposed in the report. Practical implications of results for education work and stereotype change, limitations of the study, as well as possible directions for future research are discussed.

  18. The Importance of Packaging and Graphic Design to Communicate Corporate Social Responsibility

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Listia Natadjaja

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Graphic design’s function develops through time. It does not only function to inform a product but also elements to communicate Corporate Social Responsibility. As happened in catastrophic areas in Indonesia like Aceh in 2004, Nias in 2005, Jogjakarta in 2007, Bekasi District in 2009, etc. many donated products had their contributor’s information, especially the ones from corporations. There are many ways a company could implement their social responsibility. Graphic design cannot stand alone, it needs an effective media for its placement, one of them is packaging design. By using a Biskiz Susu packaging design as a case study, I try to analyze the design elements, like color, shape, brand, illustration/character, typography, and layout and then connect them with aspects like: the visual perception impact of packaging design and the importance in communicating Corporate Social Responsibility. For input information, I also discuss some consideration aspects of placing the contributor’s identity on the packaging. Based on this study, the contributor’s information in the products gives many advantages. The result shows that graphic design could be the effective element for communicating Corporate Social Responsibility and packaging design can be one of the recommended media for graphic design placement. Hopefully, this analysis could help a corporation, organization or the government in organizing the graphic design elements and considering a packaging as a medium to communicate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR.

  19. The Relationship Between Social Anxiety and Online Communication Among Adolescents in the City of Isfahan, Iran

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esfandiari, Narges; Nouri, Abolghasem; Golparvar, Mohsen; Yarmohammadian, Mohammad H

    2013-01-01

    Background: The internet is a phenomena that changes human, specially the younger generation's, life in the 21st century. Online communication is a common way of interacting among adolescents who experience feelings of social anxiety. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social anxiety and online communication in adolescents. Methods: Three hundred and thirty students aged 13-16 years were selected from eight middle and high schools in Isfahan by multistage cluster sampling. Each of them completed a survey on the amount of time they spent communicating online, the topics they discussed, the partners they engaged with and their purpose for communicating over the internet. They also completed the social anxiety scale of adolescents. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple regression. Results: Results of the Pearson analysis showed that online communication has a significant positive relationship with apprehension and fear of negative evaluation (AFNE), and a significant negative relationship with tension and inhibition in social contact (TISC) (P online communication is AFNE, TISC. Conclusions: It is suggested that students from middle school get assessed in terms of the level of social anxiety. Then, the quality and quantity of their online communication should be moderated through group training and consulting and referral to medical centers, if needed. The results of this study may lead to optimal use of online communications and reduce the personal, social and psychological problems of adolescents. PMID:23671769

  20. Influence of social connectedness, commu-nication and monitoring ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper examines connectedness to, communication with and monitoring of unmarried adolescents in Ghana by parents, other adults, friends and key social institutions and the roles these groups play with respect to adolescent sexual activity. The paper draws on 2004 nationally-representative survey data and ...

  1. Inferring social status and rich club effects in enterprise communication networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Yuxiao; Tang, Jie; Chawla, Nitesh V; Lou, Tiancheng; Yang, Yang; Wang, Bai

    2015-01-01

    Social status, defined as the relative rank or position that an individual holds in a social hierarchy, is known to be among the most important motivating forces in social behaviors. In this paper, we consider the notion of status from the perspective of a position or title held by a person in an enterprise. We study the intersection of social status and social networks in an enterprise. We study whether enterprise communication logs can help reveal how social interactions and individual status manifest themselves in social networks. To that end, we use two enterprise datasets with three communication channels--voice call, short message, and email--to demonstrate the social-behavioral differences among individuals with different status. We have several interesting findings and based on these findings we also develop a model to predict social status. On the individual level, high-status individuals are more likely to be spanned as structural holes by linking to people in parts of the enterprise networks that are otherwise not well connected to one another. On the community level, the principle of homophily, social balance and clique theory generally indicate a "rich club" maintained by high-status individuals, in the sense that this community is much more connected, balanced and dense. Our model can predict social status of individuals with 93% accuracy.

  2. New challenges for communication for sustainable development and social change: a review essay

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Servaes, J.; Lie, R.

    2015-01-01

    This article provides an overview of subdisciplines in the field of Communication for Development and Social Change. Different subdisciplines of communication science are analyzed to assess their connection to the field. Building on these subdisciplines the article reviews health communication,

  3. Identifying Error in AUV Communication

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Coleman, Joseph; Merrill, Kaylani; O'Rourke, Michael; Rajala, Andrew G; Edwards, Dean B

    2006-01-01

    Mine Countermeasures (MCM) involving Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are especially susceptible to error, given the constraints on underwater acoustic communication and the inconstancy of the underwater communication channel...

  4. How is Social Media Influencing the Way we Communicate?

    OpenAIRE

    Diana Gherghita-Mihaila

    2016-01-01

    Social media has transformed the way we think our campaigns and communicate with our audience, but also it changed the way we get in touch with our target and make it react to what we are saying or doing. The objective of this paper is to emphasize that we not only use social media on a personal level, but we’ve transformed it in an important marketing tool for our business. Today we live in online almost as much as we live in the real world. A company without a website and social...

  5. Social Media Communication and Rhetoric in the Age of Weibo

    OpenAIRE

    Li, Xin

    2017-01-01

    The rapid rise and popularization of social media has a profound impact on the society today. The emergence of the social media broadens the channels of communication and the people's vision. Citizens can freely express information such as words and pictures, and freely exchange their views on social media. This study will focus on Sina Weibo which is the most popular social media in China. The purpose of this research is to study how to attract so much attention by protagonist‘s post and thi...

  6. Social media marketing communication plan for Hauskafe Oy

    OpenAIRE

    Uzunova, Aleksandra; Franko, Jan

    2017-01-01

    The case company of this project-based thesis is Hauskafe Oy, an SME company located in Espoo, Finland. Following examples of best practices in the field, Hauskafe Oy recognised the need of designing a social media marketing plan that will allow to build the brand, improve customer loyalty and as a final goal – increase the sales. A social media marketing communication plan for Hauskafe Oy is the outcome of this thesis. The theoretical framework of the thesis is a desktop study that discu...

  7. Integration of social aspects in radiation protection. The AIRP Work group on communication

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cantone, Marie C.; Magnoni, Mauro; Sturloni, Giancarlo

    2008-01-01

    Radiation protection has never been confined just to its scientific and quantitative aspects as it also incorporates a real and proper social factor. In most developed countries, considerations on the social and ethical issues of radiation protection and discussions on the approaches to stakeholder involvement are in a state of positive turmoil. Scientific and practical experts are identifying and promoting dialogue procedures, embracing ethical and social aspects, and are moving together to add to their experience in new and improved practices for the decision-making process. In early 2006, the Italian Radiation Protection Association (AIRP) set up a workgroup for the purpose of: 1-) Promoting dialogue among RP experts, experts in other disciplines, national and local authorities and the public, in relation to social awareness issues in the fields of ionising and non-ionising radiation protection; 2-) Promoting reflection on the mutual interactions between radiation protection and society; 3-) Contributing to the development and diffusion in the RP community of the culture of stakeholder engagement in the decision-making process. Aiming at promoting continual dialogue between the radiation protection community and society, an initial meeting was held in June 2006 on the fundamentals and objectives of RP communication, by focusing on issues such as: the credibility of information sources, the role of the mass media and institutions in risk communication. A workshop was held in November 2006 on the social aspects of radiation protection: experts in scientific journalism, sociology and medical physics, representatives of consumer associations, participants in a Government task commission, local authorities and representatives of the leading local and national institutions involved in RP, were given the opportunity of communicating and discussing the main socially-sensitive aspects of RP. The work of the AIRP group continued in 2007 with two events related on the

  8. The communications model of using social network by sports clubs

    OpenAIRE

    S. Kowalski

    2012-01-01

    This article presents a model of marketing communications using social network by sports clubs. It presents the links between the sports club and its environment and uses of the Internet to promote it. The model of communication is composed of the elements responsible for the success of marketing in the web. Article also includes recommendations for using the model in practice.

  9. The Effect of Communication Skills and Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills on Social Self-Efficacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erozkan, Atilgan

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine communication skills, interpersonal problem solving skills, and social self-efficacy perception of adolescents and the predictive role of communication skills and interpersonal problem solving skills on social self-efficacy. This study is a quantitative and relational study aimed at examining the…

  10. Metapragmatic Explicitation and Social Attribution in Social Communication Disorder and Developmental Language Disorder: A Comparative Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Catherine; Lockton, Elaine; Collins, Anna

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: The purposes of this study are to investigate metapragmatic (MP) ability in 6-11-year-old children with social communication disorder (SCD), developmental language disorder (DLD), and typical language development and to explore factors associated with MP explicitation and social understanding (SU). Method: In this cross-sectional study,…

  11. Patients’ perspectives on antenatal group consultations: Identifying communicative strengths and weaknesses

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Matilde Nisbeth; Fage-Butler, Antoinette Mary

    Introduction and objectives: The doctor-patient dyad has constituted the main paradigmatic relationship in Western medicine, and provided a central focus for health communication research and clinical teaching endeavors. With new technologies, other constellations are enabled, such as patient......-patient communication, which is increasingly taking place in online patient communities. One novel offline setting which can support patient-patient communication is the group consultation where an individual healthcare professional and a group of patients engage. The purpose of this study is to investigate how patient......-patient communication unfolds in a group consultation with a midwife in order to identify its communicative strengths and weaknesses. Methods: Using a sequential multi-methods design, we performed eight individual interviews with pregnant women from a Danish antenatal clinic about their experiences of two group...

  12. Perceived neighborhood walkability and physical exercise: An examination of casual communication in a social process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamamoto, Masahiro; Jo, Hyerim

    2018-05-01

    Despite the accumulated evidence for the environmental correlates of physical activity, social processes underlying this association are not entirely clear. This study positions communication characterized by weak ties as a social mechanism linking neighborhood walkability with physical exercise. Data from a survey of Chicago residents show that perceived neighborhood walkability is positively related to frequency of weak-tie communication. Frequency of weak-tie communication is related positively to perceived social cohesion and negatively to anonymity, both of which are significantly related to frequency of physical exercise in the neighborhood. Data also show a sequential indirect relationship involving perceived neighborhood walkability, weak-tie communication, anonymity, and physical exercise. Implications are discussed in terms of the role of communication in promoting locality-based physical exercise. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. How do you perceive this author? Understanding and modeling authors’ communication quality in social media

    Science.gov (United States)

    2018-01-01

    In this study, we leverage human evaluations, content analysis, and computational modeling to generate a comprehensive analysis of readers’ evaluations of authors’ communication quality in social media with respect to four factors: author credibility, interpersonal attraction, communication competence, and intent to interact. We review previous research on the human evaluation process and highlight its limitations in providing sufficient information for readers to assess authors’ communication quality. From our analysis of the evaluations of 1,000 Twitter authors’ communication quality from 300 human evaluators, we provide empirical evidence of the impact of the characteristics of the reader (demographic, social media experience, and personality), author (profile and social media engagement), and content (linguistic, syntactic, similarity, and sentiment) on the evaluation of an author’s communication quality. In addition, based on the author and message characteristics, we demonstrate the potential for building accurate models that can indicate an author’s communication quality. PMID:29389979

  14. How do you perceive this author? Understanding and modeling authors' communication quality in social media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Kyungsik

    2018-01-01

    In this study, we leverage human evaluations, content analysis, and computational modeling to generate a comprehensive analysis of readers' evaluations of authors' communication quality in social media with respect to four factors: author credibility, interpersonal attraction, communication competence, and intent to interact. We review previous research on the human evaluation process and highlight its limitations in providing sufficient information for readers to assess authors' communication quality. From our analysis of the evaluations of 1,000 Twitter authors' communication quality from 300 human evaluators, we provide empirical evidence of the impact of the characteristics of the reader (demographic, social media experience, and personality), author (profile and social media engagement), and content (linguistic, syntactic, similarity, and sentiment) on the evaluation of an author's communication quality. In addition, based on the author and message characteristics, we demonstrate the potential for building accurate models that can indicate an author's communication quality.

  15. COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT CRISIS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Mª Enrique Jiménez

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available It is often in the social networks where you detect the first signs of a potential crisis situation. Today, many companies decide to be present in social networks to communicate, listen and respond to their audiences openly with immediacy. A simple complaint is visible and propagates through the network in seconds, being capable of generating a negative impact on the corporate image of the organization. The same can happen to the contrary, ie, to praise the performance of a company, which may affect the creation or strengthening of the good reputation of the company. However, we know that this does not happen with the same intensity. In this paper we analyze the decisions and actions of two opposing companies, Nestlé and Panrico, in front of a possible crisis situation.

  16. Breaching or building social boundaries? : SIDE-effects of computer-mediated communication

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Postmes, T; Spears, R; Lea, M

    1998-01-01

    Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is sometimes heralded for its power to break down social boundaries and to liberate individuals from social influence, group pressure, and status and power differentials that characterize much face-to-face interaction. We review research conducted within the

  17. International scientific communication in the context of social networking sites for scientists

    OpenAIRE

    Stachowiak, Beata

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, the author considers the alterations that occurred in the international scientific communication. It is mainly technological development that exerts the influence over these alterations – particularly the emergence of new media. The major part of this paper is dedicated to the issue of the use of social networking sites in scientific communication. In her considerations, the author refers to the world-wide research pertaining to social media in the meantime demonstrating the at...

  18. How Does Difficulty Communicating Affect the Social Relationships of Older Adults? An Exploration Using Data from a National Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palmer, Andrew D.; Newsom, Jason T.; Rook, Karen S.

    2016-01-01

    Healthy social relationships are important for maintaining mental and physical health in later life. Less social support, smaller social networks, and more negative social interactions have been linked to depression, poorer immune functioning, lower self-rated health, increased incidence of disease, and higher mortality. Overwhelming evidence suggests that communication disorders adversely affect social relationships. Much less is known about whether some or all aspects of social relationships are negatively affected by a communication disorder. The relative impact of a communication disorder on social relationships, as compared to other kinds of disability, is also poorly understood. Data were analyzed from a representative national sample of community-dwelling adults aged 65 and older living in the continental United States (n = 742). Results from multiple regressions indicated that difficulty communicating was significantly associated with several parameters of social relationships even after controlling for age, gender, partnership status, health, functional limitations, and visual impairment. Communication difficulty was a significant predictor of smaller social network size, fewer positive social exchanges, less frequent participation in social activities, and higher levels of loneliness, but was not a significant predictor of negative social exchanges. These findings suggest that communication disorders may place older adults at increased risk for mental and physical health problems because of social isolation, reduced social participation, and higher rates of loneliness. In addition, it appears that communication disorders may have a greater impact on positive, rather than negative, aspects of social relationships. PMID:27420152

  19. Social and Communicative Functions of Informed Consent Forms in East Asia and Beyond

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Go Yoshizawa

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The recent research and technology development in medical genomics has raised new issues that are profoundly different from those encountered in traditional clinical research for which informed consent was developed. Global initiatives for international collaboration and public participation in genomics research now face an increasing demand for new forms of informed consent which reflect local contexts. This article analyzes informed consent forms (ICFs for genomic research formulated by four selected research programs and institutes in East Asia – the Medical Genome Science Program in Japan, Universiti Sains Malaysia Human Research Ethics Committee in Malaysia, and the Taiwan Biobank and the Taipei Medical University- Joint Institutional Review Board in Taiwan. The comparative text analysis highlights East Asian contexts as distinct from other regions by identifying communicative and social functions of consent forms. The communicative functions include re-contact options and offering interactive support for research participants, and setting opportunities for family or community engagement in the consent process. This implies that informed consent cannot be validated solely with the completion of a consent form at the initial stage of the research, and informed consent templates can facilitate interactions between researchers and participants through (even before and after the research process. The social functions consist of informing participants of possible social risks that include genetic discrimination, sample and data sharing, and highlighting the role of ethics committees. Although international ethics harmonization and the subsequent coordination of consent forms may be necessary to maintain the quality and consistency of consent process for data-intensive international research, it is also worth paying more attention to the local values and different settings that exist where research participants are situated for research in

  20. Social and Communicative Functions of Informed Consent Forms in East Asia and Beyond.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoshizawa, Go; Sasongko, Teguh H; Ho, Chih-Hsing; Kato, Kazuto

    2017-01-01

    The recent research and technology development in medical genomics has raised new issues that are profoundly different from those encountered in traditional clinical research for which informed consent was developed. Global initiatives for international collaboration and public participation in genomics research now face an increasing demand for new forms of informed consent which reflect local contexts. This article analyzes informed consent forms (ICFs) for genomic research formulated by four selected research programs and institutes in East Asia - the Medical Genome Science Program in Japan, Universiti Sains Malaysia Human Research Ethics Committee in Malaysia, and the Taiwan Biobank and the Taipei Medical University- Joint Institutional Review Board in Taiwan. The comparative text analysis highlights East Asian contexts as distinct from other regions by identifying communicative and social functions of consent forms. The communicative functions include re-contact options and offering interactive support for research participants, and setting opportunities for family or community engagement in the consent process. This implies that informed consent cannot be validated solely with the completion of a consent form at the initial stage of the research, and informed consent templates can facilitate interactions between researchers and participants through (even before and after) the research process. The social functions consist of informing participants of possible social risks that include genetic discrimination, sample and data sharing, and highlighting the role of ethics committees. Although international ethics harmonization and the subsequent coordination of consent forms may be necessary to maintain the quality and consistency of consent process for data-intensive international research, it is also worth paying more attention to the local values and different settings that exist where research participants are situated for research in medical genomics. More

  1. Social context influences chemical communication in D. melanogaster males.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kent, Clement; Azanchi, Reza; Smith, Ben; Formosa, Amanda; Levine, Joel D

    2008-09-23

    Chemical communication mediates social interactions in insects. For the fruit fly, D. melanogaster, the chemical display is a key fitness trait because it leads to mating. An exchange of cues that resembles a dialogue between males and females is enacted by pheromones, chemical signals that pass between individual flies to alter physiology and behavior. Chemical signals also affect the timing of locomotor activity and sleep. We investigated genetic and environmental determinants of chemical communication. To evaluate the role of the social environment, we extracted a chemical blend from individual males selected from groups composed of one genotype and compared these extracts to those from groups of mixed genotypes. To evaluate the role of the physical environment, these comparisons were performed under a light-dark cycle or in constant darkness. Here, we show that chemical signaling is affected by the social environment, light-dark cycle, and genotype as well as the complex interplay of these variables. Gene-by-environment interactions produce highly significant effects on chemical signaling. We also examined individual responses within the groups. Strikingly, the response of one wild-type fly to another is modulated by the genotypic composition of his neighbors. Chemical signaling in D. melanogaster may be a "fickle" trait that depends on the individual's social background.

  2. Promoting language and social communication development in babies through an early storybook reading intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Michelle I; Westerveld, Marleen F; Trembath, David; Gillon, Gail T

    2017-12-15

    This study examined the effectiveness of low- and high-intensity early storybook reading (ESR) intervention workshops delivered to parents for promoting their babies language and social communication development. These workshops educated parents on how to provide a stimulating home reading environment and engage in parent-child interactions during ESR. Parent-child dyads (n = 32); child age: 3-12 months, were assigned into two intervention conditions: low and high intensity (LI versus HI) groups. Both groups received the same ESR strategies; however, the HI group received additional intervention time, demonstrations and support. Outcome measures were assessed pre-intervention, one and three months post-intervention and when the child turned 2 years of age. A significant time-group interaction with increased performance in the HI group was observed for language scores immediately post-intervention (p = 0.007) and at 2-years-of-age (p = 0.022). Significantly higher broader social communication scores were associated with the HI group at each of the time points (p = 0.018, p = 0.001 and p = 0.021, respectively). Simple main effect revealed that both groups demonstrated a significant improvement in language, broader social communication and home reading practices scores. ESR intervention workshops may promote language and broader social communication skills. The HI ESR intervention workshop was associated with significantly higher language and broader social communication scores.

  3. Second language social networks and communication-related acculturative stress: The role of interconnectedness

    OpenAIRE

    Marina M Doucerain; Raheleh eShiri Varnaamkhaasti; Norman eSegalowitz; Norman eSegalowitz; Andrew G Ryder; Andrew G Ryder

    2015-01-01

    Although a substantial amount of cross-cultural psychology research has investigated acculturative stress in general, little attention has been devoted specifically to communication-related acculturative stress. In line with the view that cross-cultural adaptation and second language (L2) learning are social and interpersonal phenomena, the present study examines the hypothesis that migrants' L2 social network size and interconnectedness predict communication-related acculturative stress. The...

  4. Participation in Social Media: Studying Explicit and Implicit Forms of Participation in Communicative Social Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mikko Villi

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The diverse forms of participation in social media raise many methodological and ethical issues that should be acknowledged in research. In this paper, participation in social media is studied by utilising the framework of explicit and implicit participation. The focus is on the communicative and communal aspects of social media. The aim of the paper is to promote the reconsideration of what constitutes participation when online users create connections rather than content. The underlying argument is that research on social media and the development of methods should concentrate more on implicit forms of participation.

  5. Facebook as communication support for persons with potential mild acquired cognitive impairment: A content and social network analysis study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eghdam, Aboozar; Hamidi, Ulrika; Bartfai, Aniko; Koch, Sabine

    2018-01-01

    Social media has the potential to increase social participation and support for the well-being of individuals with chronic medical conditions. To date, Facebook is the most popular social medium for different types of communication. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the potential use of Facebook as a means of communication for persons with potential Mild Acquired Cognitive Impairment (MACI), a non-progressive mild cognitive impairment after an acquired brain injury. The aim of this study was to explore how persons with potential MACI, specifically persons with perceived brain fatigue after brain injury, communicate through Facebook, to classify the content of the communication and to visualize the frequency and types of interactions. A social network analysis of the interactions between members' and a qualitative content analysis of a whole year's communication of a public Facebook group for Swedish speaking persons (1310 members) with perceived brain fatigue after an illness or injury to the brain were performed. The results showed how members use social media technology and Facebook as a means for communication and support for their condition. Individual group members showed very different patterns of communication and interactions. However, for the group as a whole, the most frequent topics in their communication were related to informational support and banter in posts, and socialization in comments. The findings also showed that the majority of members only communicated with few other members and had few direct communications. The most used communication feature of Facebook was likes in form of "thumbs-up". This study indicated that social media and in this case Facebook is used for communication and social support by persons with potential MACI, and revealed that their communication behavior is similar to the healthy population. Further studies relating specific cognitive problems of the participants to the use of social media would provide more

  6. Communicative social capital and collective efficacy as determinants of access to health-enhancing resources in residential communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matsaganis, Matthew D; Wilkin, Holley A

    2015-04-01

    This article contributes to the burgeoning literature on the social determinants of health disparities. The authors investigate how communication resources and collective efficacy, independently and in combination, shape residents' access to health enhancing resources (including healthcare services, sources of healthier food options, and public recreation spaces) in their communities. Using random digit dial telephone survey data from 833 residents of South Los Angeles communities the authors show that communicative social capital-that is, an information and problem-solving resource that accrues to residents as they become more integrated into their local communication network of neighbors, community organizations, and local media-plays a significant role in access to health resources. This relationship is complicated by individuals' health insurance and health status, as communicative social capital magnifies the sense of absence of resources for those who are in worse health and lack insurance. Communicative social capital builds collective efficacy, which is positively related to access to health-enhancing resources, but it also mediates the negative relationship between communicative social capital and access to health resources. Residents with richer stores of communicative social capital and collective efficacy report better access to health resources. The authors conclude with a discussion of implications of these findings and suggestions for future research.

  7. Young people, social media, social network sites and sexual health communication in Australia: ‘this is funny, you should watch it

    OpenAIRE

    Evers, Clifton Westly; Albury, Kath; Byron, Paul; Crawford, Kate

    2013-01-01

    Social media and social network sites (SNS) are an evolving area for sexual health communication with young people. They present opportunities and challenges for sexual health professionals and young people alike, such as learning through interactivity and addressing concerns about privacy. In this article, we present and discuss the findings from six rural and urban focus groups with young people in Australia about the use of social media and SNS for sexual health communication. We discuss a...

  8. The Use of Social Media for Communication In Official Statistics at European Level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ionela-Roxana GLĂVAN

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Social media tools are wide spread in web communication and are gaining popularity in the communication process between public institutions and citizens. This study conducts an analysis on how social media is used by Official Statistical Institutes to interact with citizens and disseminate information. A linear regression technique is performed to examine which social media platforms (Twitter or Facebook is a more effective tool in the communication process in the official statistics area. Our study suggests that Twitter is a more powerful tool than Facebook in enhancing the relationship between official statistics and citizens, complying with several other studies. Next, we performed an analysis on Twitter network characteristics discussing “official statistics” using NodeXL that revealed the unexploited potential of this network by official statistical agencies.

  9. Time Allocation in Social Networks: Correlation Between Social Structure and Human Communication Dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miritello, Giovanna; Lara, Rubén; Moro, Esteban

    Recent research has shown the deep impact of the dynamics of human interactions (or temporal social networks) on the spreading of information, opinion formation, etc. In general, the bursty nature of human interactions lowers the interaction between people to the extent that both the speed and reach of information diffusion are diminished. Using a large database of 20 million users of mobile phone calls we show evidence this effect is not homogeneous in the social network but in fact, there is a large correlation between this effect and the social topological structure around a given individual. In particular, we show that social relations of hubs in a network are relatively weaker from the dynamical point than those that are poorer connected in the information diffusion process. Our results show the importance of the temporal patterns of communication when analyzing and modeling dynamical process on social networks.

  10. Social Communication between Traditional and the New Mass-Media

    OpenAIRE

    Andreea-Maria Tîrziu; Cătălin I. Vrabie

    2014-01-01

    The means of communication, from the most simple and natural ones – such as gestures and voice, to the most complex and developed ones – such as the new electronic media, have constantly brought changes to the society, their own transformation being due to the social environment that generated them. Nowadays, the new media – being in a rapid development unprecedented in the past – is giving new insights of communication and learning to the younger generations which, unlike those f...

  11. ASD and schizophrenia show distinct developmental profiles in common genetic overlap with population-based social communication difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    St Pourcain, B; Robinson, E B; Anttila, V; Sullivan, B B; Maller, J; Golding, J; Skuse, D; Ring, S; Evans, D M; Zammit, S; Fisher, S E; Neale, B M; Anney, R J L; Ripke, S; Hollegaard, M V; Werge, T; Ronald, A; Grove, J; Hougaard, D M; Børglum, A D; Mortensen, P B; Daly, M J; Davey Smith, G

    2018-02-01

    Difficulties in social communication are part of the phenotypic overlap between autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia. Both conditions follow, however, distinct developmental patterns. Symptoms of ASD typically occur during early childhood, whereas most symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia do not appear before early adulthood. We investigated whether overlap in common genetic influences between these clinical conditions and impairments in social communication depends on the developmental stage of the assessed trait. Social communication difficulties were measured in typically-developing youth (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, N⩽5553, longitudinal assessments at 8, 11, 14 and 17 years) using the Social Communication Disorder Checklist. Data on clinical ASD (PGC-ASD: 5305 cases, 5305 pseudo-controls; iPSYCH-ASD: 7783 cases, 11 359 controls) and schizophrenia (PGC-SCZ2: 34 241 cases, 45 604 controls, 1235 trios) were either obtained through the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) or the Danish iPSYCH project. Overlap in genetic influences between ASD and social communication difficulties during development decreased with age, both in the PGC-ASD and the iPSYCH-ASD sample. Genetic overlap between schizophrenia and social communication difficulties, by contrast, persisted across age, as observed within two independent PGC-SCZ2 subsamples, and showed an increase in magnitude for traits assessed during later adolescence. ASD- and schizophrenia-related polygenic effects were unrelated to each other and changes in trait-disorder links reflect the heterogeneity of genetic factors influencing social communication difficulties during childhood versus later adolescence. Thus, both clinical ASD and schizophrenia share some genetic influences with impairments in social communication, but reveal distinct developmental profiles in their genetic links, consistent with the onset of clinical symptoms.

  12. ?When ?Bad? is ?Good??: Identifying Personal Communication and Sentiment in Drug-Related Tweets

    OpenAIRE

    Daniulaityte, Raminta; Chen, Lu; Lamy, Francois R; Carlson, Robert G; Thirunarayan, Krishnaprasad; Sheth, Amit

    2016-01-01

    Background To harness the full potential of social media for epidemiological surveillance of drug abuse trends, the field needs a greater level of automation in processing and analyzing social media content. Objectives The objective of the study is to describe the development of supervised machine-learning techniques for the eDrugTrends platform to automatically classify tweets by type/source of communication (personal, official/media, retail) and sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) expre...

  13. Police message diffusion on Twitter : analysing the reach of social media communications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van de Velde, Bob; Meijer, Albert; Homburg, Vincent

    2015-01-01

    Social media are becoming increasingly important for communication between government organisations and citizens. Although research on this issue is expanding, the structure of these new communication patterns is still poorly understood. This study contributes to our understanding of these new

  14. Social marketing-based communications to integrate and support the HEALTHY study intervention

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeBar, LL; Schneider, M; Ford, EG; Hernandez, AE; Showell, B; Drews, KL; Moe, EL; Gillis, B; Jessup, AN; Stadler, DD; White, M

    2009-01-01

    The HEALTHY study was a randomized, controlled, multicenter, middle school-based, multifaceted intervention designed to reduce risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes. The study randomized 42 middle schools to intervention or control, and followed students from the sixth to the eighth grades. Participants were a racially, ethnically and geographically diverse cohort from across the United States. Here, we describe the conceptual underpinnings and design of the social marketing-based communications component of the HEALTHY study intervention that combined changes in the school nutrition and physical education (PE) environment with behavior change initiatives. The communications intervention component coordinated multiple elements to deliver campaigns that served to integrate and support all aspects of the HEALTHY intervention. The campaigns unfolded across five semesters of middle school, each targeting a specific theme related to the HEALTHY objectives. Communications campaigns comprised (1) core elements such as branding, posters, banners and visual and verbal messaging, (2) student events supporting the nutrition, PE and behavior intervention components through the application of social marketing and communications strategies, including the incorporation of student-generated media and (3) distribution of premiums and theme enhancers to extend the visibility of the study beyond the intervention environment. Formative research conducted with students, parents and school administrators was used to refine the communications strategy. Student peer communicators selected from the student body were involved to influence the normative student environment. Marketing and creative design experts developed a brand, logo, activities and materials. In the latter half of the study, student-generated messages and media were used to reflect local interests and culture and enhance peer influence. The HEALTHY intervention delivery and impact were strengthened by the

  15. Social marketing-based communications to integrate and support the HEALTHY study intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeBar, L L; Schneider, M; Ford, E G; Hernandez, A E; Showell, B; Drews, K L; Moe, E L; Gillis, B; Jessup, A N; Stadler, D D; White, M

    2009-08-01

    The HEALTHY study was a randomized, controlled, multicenter, middle school-based, multifaceted intervention designed to reduce risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes. The study randomized 42 middle schools to intervention or control, and followed students from the sixth to the eighth grades. Participants were a racially, ethnically and geographically diverse cohort from across the United States. Here, we describe the conceptual underpinnings and design of the social marketing-based communications component of the HEALTHY study intervention that combined changes in the school nutrition and physical education (PE) environment with behavior change initiatives. The communications intervention component coordinated multiple elements to deliver campaigns that served to integrate and support all aspects of the HEALTHY intervention. The campaigns unfolded across five semesters of middle school, each targeting a specific theme related to the HEALTHY objectives. Communications campaigns comprised (1) core elements such as branding, posters, banners and visual and verbal messaging, (2) student events supporting the nutrition, PE and behavior intervention components through the application of social marketing and communications strategies, including the incorporation of student-generated media and (3) distribution of premiums and theme enhancers to extend the visibility of the study beyond the intervention environment. Formative research conducted with students, parents and school administrators was used to refine the communications strategy. Student peer communicators selected from the student body were involved to influence the normative student environment. Marketing and creative design experts developed a brand, logo, activities and materials. In the latter half of the study, student-generated messages and media were used to reflect local interests and culture and enhance peer influence. The HEALTHY intervention delivery and impact were strengthened by the

  16. Differential associations between sensory response patterns and language, social, and communication measures in children with autism or other developmental disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Linda R; Patten, Elena; Baranek, Grace T; Poe, Michele; Boyd, Brian A; Freuler, Ashley; Lorenzi, Jill

    2011-12-01

    To examine patterns of sensory responsiveness (i.e., hyperresponsiveness, hyporesponsiveness, and sensory seeking) as factors that may account for variability in social-communicative symptoms of autism and variability in language, social, and communication skill development in children with autism or other developmental disabilities (DDs). Children with autistic disorder (AD; n = 72, mean age = 52.3 months) and other DDs (n = 44, mean age = 48.1 months) participated in a protocol measuring sensory response patterns; social-communicative symptoms of autism; and language, social, and communication skills. Hyporesponsiveness was positively associated with social-communicative symptom severity, with no significant group difference in the association. Hyperresponsiveness was not significantly associated with social-communicative symptom severity. A group difference emerged for sensory seeking and social-communicative symptom severity, with a positive association for the AD group only. For the 2 groups of children combined, hyporesponsiveness was negatively associated with language skills and social adaptive skills. Sensory seeking also was negatively associated with language skills. These associations did not differ between the 2 groups. Aberrant sensory processing may play an important role in the pathogenesis of autism and other DDs as well as in the rate of acquisition of language, social, and communication skills.

  17. Harnessing Social Networks along with Consumer-Driven Electronic Communication Technologies to Identify and Engage Members of 'Hard-to-Reach' Populations: A Methodological Case Report

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rock Melanie J

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Sampling in the absence of accurate or comprehensive information routinely poses logistical, ethical, and resource allocation challenges in social science, clinical, epidemiological, health service and population health research. These challenges are compounded if few members of a target population know each other or regularly interact. This paper reports on the sampling methods adopted in ethnographic case study research with a 'hard-to-reach' population. Methods To identify and engage a small yet diverse sample of people who met an unusual set of criteria (i.e., pet owners who had been treating cats or dogs for diabetes, four sampling strategies were used. First, copies of a recruitment letter were posted in pet-friendly places. Second, information about the study was diffused throughout the study period via word of mouth. Third, the lead investigator personally sent the recruitment letter via email to a pet owner, who then circulated the information to others, and so on. Fourth, veterinarians were enlisted to refer people who had diabetic pets. The second, third and fourth strategies rely on social networks and represent forms of chain referral sampling. Results Chain referral sampling via email proved to be the most efficient and effective, yielding a small yet diverse group of respondents within one month, and at negligible cost. Conclusions The widespread popularity of electronic communication technologies offers new methodological opportunities for researchers seeking to recruit from hard-to-reach populations.

  18. The networked communications manager: a typology of managerial social media impression management tactics

    OpenAIRE

    Fieseler, Christian; Ranzini, Giulia

    2015-01-01

    This is the accepted and refereed manuscript to the article Purpose: The rise of social media has caused a shift in organizational practices, giving rise, in some cases, to genuinely "mediatized" organizations. With the present paper, we aim to explore how communications managers employ social media to influence their professional impressions. Design: Analyzing a sample of 679 European communications professionals, we explore with factor and cluster analysis these emerging impression ma...

  19. Self-censorship on Internal Social Media : A Case Study of Coworker Communication Behavior in a Danish Bank

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Thøis Madsen, V.; Verhoeven, J.W.M.

    2016-01-01

    Internal social media (ISM) or social intranets provide organizations with a communication arena in which coworkers can actively contribute to organizational communication. Coworkers are, however, far from impulsive and spontaneous when they communicate on ISM. A case study in a Danish bank found

  20. Social media as a risk communication tool following Typhoon Haiyan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine Tiffany Cool

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Problem: In the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, the World Health Organization (WHO Representative Office in the Philippines had no social media presence to share timely, relevant public health information. Context: Risk communication is essential to emergency management for public health message dissemination. As social media sites, such as Facebook, are popular in the Philippines, these were adopted for risk communication during the response to Haiyan. Action and outcome: The WHO Representative Office in the Philippines established Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Thirty days after these social medial channels were established, a gradual increase in followers was observed. Facebook saw the largest increase in followers which occurred as posted content gradually evolved from general public health information to more pro-active public health intervention and preparedness messaging. This included information on key health interventions encouraging followers to adopt protective behaviours to mitigate public health threats that frequently occur after a disaster. Lessons learnt: During the response to Haiyan, creating a social media presence, raising a follower base and developing meaningful messages and content was possible. This event underscored the importance of building a social media strategy in non-emergency times and supported the value of developing public health messages and content that both educates and interests the general public.

  1. Social media as a risk communication tool following Typhoon Haiyan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cool, Christine Tiffany; Claravall, Marie Chantal; Hall, Julie Lyn; Taketani, Keisuke; Zepeda, John Paul; Gehner, Monika; Lawe-Davies, Olivia

    2015-01-01

    In the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative Office in the Philippines had no social media presence to share timely, relevant public health information. Risk communication is essential to emergency management for public health message dissemination. As social media sites, such as Facebook, are popular in the Philippines, these were adopted for risk communication during the response to Haiyan. The WHO Representative Office in the Philippines established Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Thirty days after these social medial channels were established, a gradual increase in followers was observed. Facebook saw the largest increase in followers which occurred as posted content gradually evolved from general public health information to more pro-active public health intervention and preparedness messaging. This included information on key health interventions encouraging followers to adopt protective behaviours to mitigate public health threats that frequently occur after a disaster. During the response to Haiyan, creating a social media presence, raising a follower base and developing meaningful messages and content was possible. This event underscored the importance of building a social media strategy in non-emergency times and supported the value of developing public health messages and content that both educates and interests the general public.

  2. Introduction to Visual Communication in the Age of Social Media: Conceptual, Theoretical and Methodological Challenges

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Uta Russmann

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This thematic issue of Media and Communication focuses attention on the shift towards visual images on social media as well as the transformation of visual communication which has occurred within the online ecology of social media platforms. The sharing of images is becoming an integral part of the social media experience today, and given that social media platforms are the prime locus for sociability—at least among young people in the West—this shift towards visuals arguably transforms how we relate to each other and the world around us, as well as how we perceive and construct our sense of self. For researchers, this raises conceptual, theoretical and methodological challenges. This thematic issue presents six articles as well as a book review on visual communication in social media focusing on developing a conceptual apparatus and precise definitions of objects and practices of study as well as contributions that address and discuss the methodological challenges as well as their potential solutions. The idea was to synergize research from a wide variety of communication-related disciplines on this rather new topic.

  3. Ethics of clinician communication in a changing communication landscape: guidance from professional societies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gollust, Sarah E; Dwyer, Anne M

    2013-12-01

    Cancer experts engage in public communication whenever they promote their research or practice, respond to media inquiries, or use social media. In a changing communication landscape characterized by new technologies and heightened attention to cancer controversies, these activities may pose ethical challenges. This study was designed to evaluate existing resources to help clinicians navigate their public communication activities. We conducted a systematic, qualitative content analysis of codes of ethics, policy statements, and similar documents disseminated by professional medical and nursing societies for their members. We examined these documents for four types of content related to public communication: communication via traditional media; communication via social media; other communication to the public, policy, and legal spheres; and nonspecific language regarding public communication. We identified 46 documents from 23 professional societies for analysis. Five societies had language about traditional news media communication, five had guidance about social media, 11 had guidance about other communication domains, and 15 societies offered general language about public communication. The limited existing guidance focused on ethical issues related to patients (such as privacy violations) or clinicians (such as accuracy and professional boundaries), with less attention to population or policy impact of communication. Cancer-related professional societies might consider establishing more specific guidance for clinicians concerning their communication activities in light of changes to the communication landscape. Additional research is warranted to understand the extent to which clinicians face ethical challenges in public communication.

  4. Improving therapeutic outcomes in autism spectrum disorders: Enhancing social communication and sensory processing through the use of interactive robots.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sartorato, Felippe; Przybylowski, Leon; Sarko, Diana K

    2017-07-01

    For children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), social robots are increasingly utilized as therapeutic tools in order to enhance social skills and communication. Robots have been shown to generate a number of social and behavioral benefits in children with ASD including heightened engagement, increased attention, and decreased social anxiety. Although social robots appear to be effective social reinforcement tools in assistive therapies, the perceptual mechanism underlying these benefits remains unknown. To date, social robot studies have primarily relied on expertise in fields such as engineering and clinical psychology, with measures of social robot efficacy principally limited to qualitative observational assessments of children's interactions with robots. In this review, we examine a range of socially interactive robots that currently have the most widespread use as well as the utility of these robots and their therapeutic effects. In addition, given that social interactions rely on audiovisual communication, we discuss how enhanced sensory processing and integration of robotic social cues may underlie the perceptual and behavioral benefits that social robots confer. Although overall multisensory processing (including audiovisual integration) is impaired in individuals with ASD, social robot interactions may provide therapeutic benefits by allowing audiovisual social cues to be experienced through a simplified version of a human interaction. By applying systems neuroscience tools to identify, analyze, and extend the multisensory perceptual substrates that may underlie the therapeutic benefits of social robots, future studies have the potential to strengthen the clinical utility of social robots for individuals with ASD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. A Review of Information and Communication Technology Enhanced Social Work Interventions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Chitat; Holosko, Michael J.

    2016-01-01

    Objectives: Information and communications technology (ICT) has impacted almost all human service disciplines and currently is evolving in social work. This study provides a systematic review of ICT-enhanced social work interventions, with particular reference to their intervention fidelity (IF), validity, and the role of ICT in the helping…

  6. Public outreach, participatory communication, and communication impact assessment in Paris flood resilience policies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vicari, Rosa; Tchiguirinskaia, Ioulia; Schertzer, Daniel

    2017-04-01

    Adverse social impacts can reduce the intended benefits of a project aimed to reduce flood risks, and can threaten its viability if they are severe enough. In some other cases, the diverse impacts may mutually counter-balance each other, by furthermore strengthening and amplifying the social resilience. Social changes include those associated with the phenomenon known as the social construction of reality. In the case of proposed actions that involve controversy, attitudes and perceptions toward a proposed policy change are one of the variables that must be considered in determining the significance of impacts. This research entails an analysis of public authorities strategic documents developed during the last ten years in the context of strengthening Paris flood resilience. The review highlights a clear trend to encourage citizen participation and to share responsibilities with the population. This trend does not only express a political will to apply the principle of subsidiarity and decentralise risk management, it also springs from a growing awareness among public institutions of the impact that social construction of the reality can have. Hence the communication between local governments and citizens, especially a two-ways dialogue (i.e. participatory communication), has become a keystone of resilience strategies since it facilitates mutual understanding, shared goals identification and cooperation. More and more frequently flood resilience projects entail a communication strategy or focus on communication actions. However not all these project identify clear communication objectives, target audiences or monitor communication impact. Measuring communication indicators allows decision makers to compare the costs of communication actions with the economic, environmental, social, and sanitary costs of non-action. Those metrics also help to set up clear communication objectives at the beginning of a project, to evaluate and improve management capacities, to

  7. The relationship of motor skills and social communicative skills in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacDonald, Megan; Lord, Catherine; Ulrich, Dale A

    2013-07-01

    Motor skill deficits are present and persist in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Staples & Reid, 2010). Yet the focus of intervention is on core impairments, which are part of the diagnostic criteria for ASD, deficits in social communication skills. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the functional motor skills, of 6- to 15-year-old children with high-functioning ASD, predict success in standardized social communicative skills. It is hypothesized that children with better motor skills will have better social communicative skills. A total of 35 children with ASD between the ages of 6-15 years participated in this study. The univariate GLM (general linear model) tested the relationship of motor skills on social communicative skills holding constant age, IQ, ethnicity, gender, and clinical ASD diagnosis. Object-control motor skills significantly predicted calibrated ASD severity (p skills have greater social communicative skill deficits. How this relationship exists behaviorally, needs to be explored further.

  8. Profiles of Social Communicative Competence in Middle School Children with Asperger Syndrome: Two Case Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bellon-Harn, Monica L.; Harn, William E.

    2006-01-01

    Among characteristics of children diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (AS) are difficulties in social communication. This study describes the social communicative competence of two middle school children with AS participating in conversations in three different situational contexts. The conversations were transcribed and submitted to three kinds of…

  9. Are language and social communication intact in children with congenital visual impairment at school age?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tadić, Valerie; Pring, Linda; Dale, Naomi

    2010-06-01

    Development of children with congenital visual impairment (VI) has been associated with vulnerable socio-communicative outcomes often bearing striking similarities to those of sighted children with autism.(1) To date, very little is known about language and social communication in children with VI of normal intelligence. We examined the presentation of language and social communication of 15 children with VI and normal-range verbal intelligence, age 6-12 years, using a standardised language assessment and parental reports of everyday social and communicative behaviours. Their profiles were compared to those of typically developing sighted children of similar age and verbal ability. Compared to their sighted peers, and relative to their own good and potentially superior structural language skills, children with VI showed significantly poorer use of language for social purposes. Pragmatic language weaknesses were a part of a broader socio-communicative profile of difficulties, present in a substantial proportion of these children and consistent with the pattern found in sighted children with autism. There are ongoing socio-communicative and pragmatic language difficulties in children with congenital VI at school age, despite their good intellectual abilities and advanced linguistic skills. Further research is required to unpack the underlying causes and factors maintaining this vulnerability in such children.

  10. Computer-mediated-communication and social networking tools at work

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ou, C.X.J.; Sia, C.L.; Hui, C.K.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose – Advances in information technology (IT) have resulted in the development of various computer‐mediated communication (CMC) and social networking tools. However, quantifying the benefits of utilizing these tools in the organizational context remains a challenge. In this study, the authors

  11. Attitude Ambivalence, Social Norms, and Behavioral Intentions: Developing Effective Antitobacco Persuasive Communications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hohman, Zachary P.; Crano, William D.; Niedbala, Elizabeth M.

    2018-01-01

    This study assessed the moderating effects of attitude ambivalence on the relationship between social norms, attitudes, and behavioral intentions to use tobacco. It was predicted that people would use social norms to reduce attitude ambivalence, and that reduced ambivalence would lead to changes in attitudes and behavioral intentions. To test this hypothesis, participants (N =152) were exposed to persuasive communications designed to influence attitude ambivalence and perceived social norms regarding tobacco use. Analysis indicated that providing a social norm antagonistic to tobacco use significantly reduced ambivalence among participants reading the ambivalence message (p changes in tobacco attitudes from pre- to postpersuasive communications demonstrated a significant decrease in tobacco attitudes only for participants reading the ambivalence message who were provided with the antitobacco use norm (p changes in attitudes toward tobacco. These results point to the important role of social norms in mediating the effects of attitude ambivalence on subsequent behavior in preventative programs targeting tobacco use. PMID:26460476

  12. Attitude ambivalence, social norms, and behavioral intentions: Developing effective antitobacco persuasive communications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hohman, Zachary P; Crano, William D; Niedbala, Elizabeth M

    2016-03-01

    This study assessed the moderating effects of attitude ambivalence on the relationship between social norms, attitudes, and behavioral intentions to use tobacco. It was predicted that people would use social norms to reduce attitude ambivalence, and that reduced ambivalence would lead to changes in attitudes and behavioral intentions. To test this hypothesis, participants (N = 152) were exposed to persuasive communications designed to influence attitude ambivalence and perceived social norms regarding tobacco use. Analysis indicated that providing a social norm antagonistic to tobacco use significantly reduced ambivalence among participants reading the ambivalence message (p attitudes from pre- to postpersuasive communications demonstrated a significant decrease in tobacco attitudes only for participants reading the ambivalence message who were provided with the antitobacco use norm (p attitudes toward tobacco. These results point to the important role of social norms in mediating the effects of attitude ambivalence on subsequent behavior in preventative programs targeting tobacco use. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. Facebook as communication support for persons with potential mild acquired cognitive impairment: A content and social network analysis study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamidi, Ulrika; Bartfai, Aniko; Koch, Sabine

    2018-01-01

    Introduction Social media has the potential to increase social participation and support for the well-being of individuals with chronic medical conditions. To date, Facebook is the most popular social medium for different types of communication. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the potential use of Facebook as a means of communication for persons with potential Mild Acquired Cognitive Impairment (MACI), a non-progressive mild cognitive impairment after an acquired brain injury. The aim of this study was to explore how persons with potential MACI, specifically persons with perceived brain fatigue after brain injury, communicate through Facebook, to classify the content of the communication and to visualize the frequency and types of interactions. Methods and materials A social network analysis of the interactions between members’ and a qualitative content analysis of a whole year’s communication of a public Facebook group for Swedish speaking persons (1310 members) with perceived brain fatigue after an illness or injury to the brain were performed. Results The results showed how members use social media technology and Facebook as a means for communication and support for their condition. Individual group members showed very different patterns of communication and interactions. However, for the group as a whole, the most frequent topics in their communication were related to informational support and banter in posts, and socialization in comments. The findings also showed that the majority of members only communicated with few other members and had few direct communications. The most used communication feature of Facebook was likes in form of “thumbs-up”. Conclusions This study indicated that social media and in this case Facebook is used for communication and social support by persons with potential MACI, and revealed that their communication behavior is similar to the healthy population. Further studies relating specific cognitive problems of the

  14. Analysing ESL Students' Perceptions towards Oral Communication for Social and Occupational Purposes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Husain, Fauzilah Md; Ganapathy, Malini; Mohamed, Akmar

    2015-01-01

    Fundamental principles of public speaking and appropriate organisational structure of ideas for occupational and social communication are vital aspects for undergraduates as a pathway to overcome employers' grievances on graduates' lack of communication skills (Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2015). This study was undertaken to explore the…

  15. The Impact of Modern Information and Communication Technologies on Social Movements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Konieczny, Piotr

    2012-01-01

    Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have empowered non-state social actors, notably, social movements. They were quick to seize ICTs in the past (printing presses, television, fax machines), which was a major factor in their successes. Mass email campaigns, blogs, their audio- and video- variants (the podcasts and the videocasts),…

  16. Seeking informed consent to Phase I cancer clinical trials: identifying oncologists' communication strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Richard; Bylund, Carma L; Siminoff, Laura A; Slovin, Susan F

    2011-04-01

    Phase I clinical trials are the gateway to effective new cancer treatments. Many physicians have difficulty when discussing Phase I clinical trials. Research demonstrates evidence of suboptimal communication. Little is known about communication strategies used by oncologists when recruiting patients for Phase I trials. We analyzed audio recorded Phase I consultations to identify oncologists' communication strategies. Subjects were consecutive cancer patients from six medical oncologists attending one of three outpatient clinics at a major Cancer Center in the United States. Sixteen patients signed informed consent for audio recording of their consultations in which a Phase I study was discussed. These were transcribed in full and analyzed to identify communication strategies. Six communication themes emerged from the analysis: (1) orienting, (2) educating patients, (3) describing uncertainty and prognosis, (4) persuading, (5) decision making, and (6) making a treatment recommendation. As expected, although there was some common ground between communication in Phase I and the Phase II and III settings, there were distinct differences. Oncologists used persuasive communication, made explicit recommendations, or implicitly expressed a treatment preference and were choice limiting. This highlights the complexity of discussing Phase I trials and the need to develop strategies to aid oncologists and patients in these difficult conversations. Patient centered communication that values patient preferences while preserving the oncologist's agenda can be a helpful approach to these discussions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  17. Two Types of Social Grooming discovered in Primitive and Modern Communication Data-Sets

    OpenAIRE

    Takano, Masanori

    2017-01-01

    Social networking sites (SNS) provide innovative social bonding methods known as social grooming. These have drastically decreased time and distance constraints of social grooming. Here we show two type social grooming (elaborate social grooming and lightweight social grooming) discovered in a model constructed by thirty communication data-sets including face to face, SNS, mobile phones, and Chacma baboons. This demarcation is caused by a trade-off between the number and strength of social re...

  18. The Effects of Structured Physical Activity Program on Social Interaction and Communication for Children with Autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Mengxian; Chen, Shihui

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of structured physical activity program on social interaction and communication of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Fifty children with ASD from a special school were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. 25 children with ASD were placed in the experimental group, and the other 25 children as the control group participated in regular physical activity. A total of forty-one participants completed the study. A 12-week structured physical activity program was implemented with a total of 24 exercise sessions targeting social interaction and communication of children with ASD, and a quasi-experimental design was used for this study. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative instruments. SSIS and ABLLS-R results showed that an overall improvement in social skills and social interaction for the experimental group across interim and posttests, F = 8.425, p = 0.001 ( p social interaction, and self-control subdomains ( p 0.005). The study concluded that the special structured physical activity program positively influenced social interaction and communication skills of children with ASD, especially in social skills, communication, prompt response, and frequency of expression.

  19. The Effects of Structured Physical Activity Program on Social Interaction and Communication for Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Mengxian

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of structured physical activity program on social interaction and communication of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Fifty children with ASD from a special school were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. 25 children with ASD were placed in the experimental group, and the other 25 children as the control group participated in regular physical activity. A total of forty-one participants completed the study. A 12-week structured physical activity program was implemented with a total of 24 exercise sessions targeting social interaction and communication of children with ASD, and a quasi-experimental design was used for this study. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative instruments. SSIS and ABLLS-R results showed that an overall improvement in social skills and social interaction for the experimental group across interim and posttests, F = 8.425, p = 0.001 (p social interaction, and self-control subdomains (p 0.005). The study concluded that the special structured physical activity program positively influenced social interaction and communication skills of children with ASD, especially in social skills, communication, prompt response, and frequency of expression. PMID:29568743

  20. The Developmental Sequence of Social-Communicative Skills in Young Children with Autism: A Longitudinal Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Chin-Chin; Chiang, Chung-Hsin

    2014-01-01

    To explore the different developmental trajectories of social-communicative skills in children with autism and typically developing infants, two longitudinal studies were conducted. In Study 1, we examined the developmental sequence of social-communicative skills in 26 typically developing infants when they were 9 months old and reexamined them…

  1. The Private Communications of Magnetic Recording under Socialism (Retrospective Disco Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oleg Vladimir Sineokij

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The article analyzes the formation and development of a general model of rare sound records in the structure of institutions of a social communication. The author considers psychocomminicative features of the filophone communication as a special type of interaction in the field of entertainment. The author studied the causes and conditions of a tape subculture in the USSR. It is observed the dynamics of the disco-communication in limited information conditions from socialism till modern high-tech conditions.At the end of the article the author argues based achievements in the field of advanced technology systems, innovation revival in the industry of music-record. Hence, using innovative approaches in the study, the author sets out the basic concept of recording popular music as a special information and legal institution, in retrospect, the theory and practice of the future needs in the information society.

  2. Relationship between motor, imitation and, early social communication skills in children with autism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    hooshang Dadgar

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Background: The aim of this study was investigation the association of motor skills and imitation ability with early social communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD.Method: Twenty children with ASD aged 3-5 years (M=4.05, SD=0.55 were tested with Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2, the Motor Imitation Scale (MIS and, the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS.Results: There was significant and strong correlation between TGMD total score and imitation total score(r =.776; p <0.001.However, the relationship between MIS subscales and TGMD-2 locomotor subtest scores was not significant (P>0.05. A significant correlation was found between MIS and TGMD total scores with ESCS subscales except social interaction and responding to behavioral requests subscales.Conclusion: The results support previous studies that indicated both imitation ability and motor function have association with some early social communication skills. However, these results showed the needs for clinicians to target imitation and motor skills in early intervention programs in ASD.

  3. Social influence in computer-mediated communication : The effects of anonymity on group behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Postmes, T; Spears, R; Sakhel, K; de Groot, D

    2001-01-01

    Two studies examined hypotheses derived from a Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) as applied to social influence in computer-mediated communication (CMC) in groups. This model predicts that anonymity can increase social influence if a common group identity is salient. In a first

  4. The communicative ecology of Web 2.0 @ work : Social networking in the workspace

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Davison, R.M.; Ou, C.X.J.; Martinsons, M.G.; Zhao, A.Y.

    2014-01-01

    Social media have transformed social interactions and now look set to transform workplace communications. In this exploratory study, we investigate how employees use and get value from a variety of social networking technologies. The context of this research is 4 software firms located in China.

  5. In-House Communication Support System Based on the Information Propagation Model Utilizes Social Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takeuchi, Susumu; Teranishi, Yuuichi; Harumoto, Kaname; Shimojo, Shinji

    Almost all companies are now utilizing computer networks to support speedier and more effective in-house information-sharing and communication. However, existing systems are designed to support communications only within the same department. Therefore, in our research, we propose an in-house communication support system which is based on the “Information Propagation Model (IPM).” The IPM is proposed to realize word-of-mouth communication in a social network, and to support information-sharing on the network. By applying the system in a real company, we found that information could be exchanged between different and unrelated departments, and such exchanges of information could help to build new relationships between the users who are apart on the social network.

  6. Communicative Dynamics and the Polyphony of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Network Society

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Castello, Itziar; Morsing, Mette; Schultz, Friederike

    2013-01-01

    This paper develops a media theoretical extension of the communicative view on corporate social responsibility by elaborating on the characteristics of network societies, arguing that new media increase the speed and connectivity, and lead to higher plurality and the potential polarization...... of reality constructions. We discuss the implications for corporate social responsibility of becoming more polyphonic and sketch the contours of “communicative legitimacy.” Finally, we present this special issue and develop some questions for future research....

  7. Analysing ESL Students’ Perceptions towards Oral Communication for Social and Occupational Purposes

    OpenAIRE

    Fauzilah Md Husain; Malini Ganapathy; Akmar Mohamad

    2015-01-01

    Fundamental principles of public speaking and appropriate organisational structure of ideas for occupational and social communication are vital aspects for undergraduates as a pathway to overcome employers’ grievances on graduates’ lack of communication skills (Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2015). This study was undertaken to explore the perceptions of a group of ten students at a tertiary institution in Malaysia to see how they utlise the theories and practice of effective communication skil...

  8. Fast, Broad, and Frequent: Campus Crisis Communications Today Demand Social Media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liggett, Billy

    2012-01-01

    The importance of communication during a school crisis has not changed in the 21st century. What has changed--and quite dramatically since 1999--is the way people communicate. Social media tools are now used in some form by 100 percent of all four-year universities in the United States as a way to reach students, according to a 2011 University of…

  9. Development of a Social DTN for Message Communication between SNS Group Members

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hidenori Takasuka

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Smartphones have the ability to communicate with other terminals through ad hoc connections. A variety of applications have been developed to exploit this ability. The authors have developed an Android OS (operating system application (called “social DTN manager” that builds a DTN (delay, disruption, disconnection tolerant networking among members of a social networking service (SNS community using a community token. The members can exchange messages over this network. Control messages for building a DTN are forwarded to only those nodes that use the same community token in order to reduce flooding of message copies. When a source node sends a communication request to its destination node, they exchange control messages to establish a communication route. Relay nodes use these messages to create and hold routing information for these nodes in their routing tables. Thereafter, relay nodes can forward data messages based on their routing tables. This again reduces flooding of message copies. The social DTN manager incorporates these functions, Facebook Graph API and Google Nearby Connections API. The authors have installed it in Android terminals and confirmed that a social DTN can successfully be built using this application and that data messages can be exchanged between terminals via reactive routes.

  10. Technology and social communication

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moore, G.A.

    1996-12-31

    For centuries advances in what we now term media have generated concerns about the effect these advances have on values and morality-books, stage drama, movies, TV, and now computer-based fantasy and Internet-based distribution. These media comprise some of the most powerful agents for developing our fundamental strategies for living. Computer-based fantasy can provide waves of sensations that everyday life does not prepare us for; they create a wow effect. The implications are especially, strong for adolescents. Wow effects come to seem ordinary. We can easily overdose on them with a subsequent dulling of sensibility that motivates one to seek the next level. As the wow effect is numbed, socializing restrictions break down. A psychological strategy of distancing is one defense against enhanced imagery - a strategy of cool as antidote. The wow-cool dipole can foster a role as spectator that inhibits empathy and a fundamental distancing from the self. Technology - the source of our concerns-can also help to counteract them. The most powerful drive in children is to learn mastery of the world. New input and output devices and especially properly designed software can enhance the capacity to learn and to be creative, i.e. to gain mastery over the world. These powerful new modes of communication not only give us great access to the world, they give the world great access to us. We must supplant what is now mostly a passive broadcast system with interactive exploration and two-way communication.

  11. Role of social media and networking in volcanic crises and communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sennert, Sally K.; Klemetti, Erik W.; Bird, Deanne

    2017-01-01

    The growth of social media as a primary and often preferred news source has contributed to the rapid dissemination of information about volcanic eruptions and potential volcanic crises as an eruption begins. Information about volcanic activity comes from a variety of sources: news organisations, emergency management personnel, individuals (both public and official) and volcano monitoring agencies. Once posted, this information is easily shared, increasing the reach to a much broader population than the original audience. The onset and popularity of social media as a vehicle for eruption information dissemination has presented many benefits as well as challenges, and points towards a need for a more unified system for information. This includes volcano observatories using social media as an official channels to distribute activity statements, forecasts and predictions on social media, in addition to the archiving of images and data activity. This chapter looks at two examples of projects that collect / disseminate information regarding volcanic crises and eruptive activity utilizing social media sources. Based on those examples, recommendations are made to volcanic observatories in relation to the use of social media as a two-way communication tool. These recommendations include: using social media as a two-way dialogue to communicate and receive information directly from the public and other sources; stating that the social media account is from an official source; and, posting types of information that the public are seeking such as images, videos and figures.

  12. In times of war, adolescents do not fall silent: Teacher-student social network communication in wartime.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ophir, Yaakov; Rosenberg, Hananel; Asterhan, Christa S C; Schwarz, Baruch B

    2016-01-01

    Exposure to war is associated with psychological disturbances, but ongoing communication between adolescents and teachers may contribute to adolescents' resilience. This study examined the extent and nature of teacher-student communication on Social Network Sites (SNS) during the 2014 Israel-Gaza war. Israeli adolescents (N = 208, 13-18 yrs) completed information about SNS communication. A subset of these (N = 145) completed questionnaires on social rejection and distress sharing on SNS. More than a half (56%) of the respondents communicated with teachers via SNS. The main content category was 'emotional support'. Adolescents' perceived benefits from SNS communication with teachers were associated with distress sharing. Social rejection was negatively associated with emotional support and perceived benefits from SNS communication. We conclude that SNS communication between teachers and students may provide students with easy access to human connections and emotional support, which is likely to contribute to adolescents' resilience in times of war. Copyright © 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Corporate Social (Ir)Responsibility in Media and Communication Industries

    OpenAIRE

    Sandoval, M.

    2013-01-01

    Microsoft is the most socially responsible company in the world, followed by Google on rank 2 and The Walt Disney Company on rank 3 – at least according to the perceptions of 47,000 people from 15 countries that participated in a survey conducted by the consultancy firm Reputation Institute. In this paper I take a critical look at Corporate Social Responsibility in media and communication industries. Within the debate on CSR media are often only discussed in regard to their role of raising aw...

  14. Communicative Informatics: An Active and Creative Audience Framework of Social Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linda M. Gallant

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Communicative informatics reflects the interactive complexity of web-based communication and a paradigm shift away from mass communication. Three discursive spheres (database and information systems, human computer interaction, and active audiences work together to control online communication openness and its consequences for post-mass media society’s public common. This has implications for communication freedom, creativity, and constraints in an information-based society. Four propositions shed light on how online audience activity is encouraged by and imperative to corporate interests; how audience creativity can create, accept, or reject messages; how the online audience is monitored; and how online rhetoric can produce or inhibit public commons. Evidence shows that social media’s corporate interests can be at odds with online privacy and citizen communication. This tension is explored with a unique focus on rhetoric, argument, and the communication between audience members and Internet-based corporate media by way of digitized communication feedback loops.

  15. Early career researchers and PhD students from the social sciences use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) for science communication: an affordances approach

    OpenAIRE

    Manco Vega, Alejandra

    2017-01-01

    This research aims to understand the different practices and strategies early career researchers and PhD students from the social sciences have in Social Networking Sites (SNSs) for science communication in one particular country: Brazil. Following this purpose, the central research question is which are the motives and rationale of the researchers for using social networking sites for science communication. Two sub-questions arise from this general research question: How do practices and str...

  16. A Model for Enhancing Social Communication and Interaction in Everyday Activities for Primary School Children with ASD

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peters, Brenda

    2016-01-01

    Children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder may find the social aspects of learning particularly challenging because of the traits of diffculty with social communication and interaction. This paper evaluates the impact of an interactive model designed to support social communication and interaction for twelve students with ASD, who…

  17. The Effects of Structured Physical Activity Program on Social Interaction and Communication for Children with Autism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mengxian Zhao

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of structured physical activity program on social interaction and communication of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD. Fifty children with ASD from a special school were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. 25 children with ASD were placed in the experimental group, and the other 25 children as the control group participated in regular physical activity. A total of forty-one participants completed the study. A 12-week structured physical activity program was implemented with a total of 24 exercise sessions targeting social interaction and communication of children with ASD, and a quasi-experimental design was used for this study. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative instruments. SSIS and ABLLS-R results showed that an overall improvement in social skills and social interaction for the experimental group across interim and posttests, F=8.425, p=0.001 (p0.005. The study concluded that the special structured physical activity program positively influenced social interaction and communication skills of children with ASD, especially in social skills, communication, prompt response, and frequency of expression.

  18. Transformation of Traditional Marketing Communications in to Paradigms of Social Media Networking

    OpenAIRE

    Nair, T. R. Gopalakrishnan; Subramaniam, Kumarashvari

    2012-01-01

    Effective Communication for marketing is a vital field in business organizations, which is used to convey the details about their products and services to the market segments and subsequently to build long lasting customer relationships. This paper focuses on an emerging component of the integrated marketing communication, ie. social media networking, as it is increasingly becoming the trend. In 21st century, the marketing communication platforms show a tendency to shift towards innovative te...

  19. Social networking sites: a novel portal for communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farmer, A D; Bruckner Holt, C E M; Cook, M J; Hearing, S D

    2009-09-01

    The internet has transformed many spheres of society. Most notably the advent of social networking websites, such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, have attracted many millions of users worldwide. There are over 350 such sites in operation across the internet. There is a paucity of data in the adult literature examining the medical usage of this interesting facet of modern life. To ascertain whether Facebook has user groups that are connected with common medical conditions, and to classify the user groups that were identified as well as enumerating the number of individual users contained therein. We conducted a search of the entire Facebook website between December 2007 and January 2009. We used medical and lay nomenclature for the most prevalent non-communicable diseases as identified from the World Health Organisation Burden of Disease publication to identify whether they were represented among individual Facebook users and user groups. We identified 290,962 individual users who were part of 757 groups. Patient groups accounted for 47.4%, patient/carer support groups 28.1%, fund raising groups 18.6%, and others 5.8%. Notably, there were other groups containing representations from the scientific research community in addition to educational resources. The groups with the most individual members pertained to malignant neoplasms and cardiovascular disease (141,458 users) consistent with their worldwide prevalence. Facebook is providing a readily accessible portal for patients, carers and healthcare professionals to share their experiences of investigation, diagnosis and management of disease. Furthermore, this technology is being used for research, education and fundraising. Further research is warranted to explore the further potential of this new technology.

  20. BOOK HERITAGE OF THE LIBRARY OF ODESSA I. I. MECHNIKOV NATIONAL UNIVERSITY AS A DOCUMENT OF THE HISTORY OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    І. В. Сидун

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This article provides information on the book ofOdessanineteenth century of scientific libraries ONU Mechnikov. The purpose of the study was to show a book as a tool for social communications in the past. The role of books in social communications. The place of books in communication and information processes. Publication analyzes some of the funds of the university library, which occupied an important place in the development of social communications inOdessaof the nineteenth century. In particular, the article analyzes theOdessahistorian, social activist A. Skalkovsky. Results of the study can be used by teachers, students and researchers interested in the history of social communication issues. Study and analysis of library book collections have helped to create a coherent picture of the formation and development of book heritage ofOdessa. Social communication is an important requirement scientific progress and the basis for the dynamic development of social relations. The book was one of the oldest means of communication, which occupies an important place in communication and information processes.

  1. Communication at Work: An Ethnography of Checkout Operators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Searle, Jean

    1991-01-01

    A framework for identifying information regarding workplace communication requirements is presented that assumes communication involves sign systems as well as spoken and written language. Research with suburban supermarket checkout operators indicates that communication is deeply embedded in the social context. (Contains 18 references.) (LB)

  2. Human sensorimotor communication: a theory of signaling in online social interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pezzulo, Giovanni; Donnarumma, Francesco; Dindo, Haris

    2013-01-01

    Although the importance of communication is recognized in several disciplines, it is rarely studied in the context of online social interactions and joint actions. During online joint actions, language and gesture are often insufficient and humans typically use non-verbal, sensorimotor forms of communication to send coordination signals. For example, when playing volleyball, an athlete can exaggerate her movements to signal her intentions to her teammates (say, a pass to the right) or to feint an adversary. Similarly, a person who is transporting a table together with a co-actor can push the table in a certain direction to signal where and when he intends to place it. Other examples of "signaling" are over-articulating in noisy environments and over-emphasizing vowels in child-directed speech. In all these examples, humans intentionally modify their action kinematics to make their goals easier to disambiguate. At the moment no formal theory exists of these forms of sensorimotor communication and signaling. We present one such theory that describes signaling as a combination of a pragmatic and a communicative action, and explains how it simplifies coordination in online social interactions. We cast signaling within a "joint action optimization" framework in which co-actors optimize the success of their interaction and joint goals rather than only their part of the joint action. The decision of whether and how much to signal requires solving a trade-off between the costs of modifying one's behavior and the benefits in terms of interaction success. Signaling is thus an intentional strategy that supports social interactions; it acts in concert with automatic mechanisms of resonance, prediction, and imitation, especially when the context makes actions and intentions ambiguous and difficult to read. Our theory suggests that communication dynamics should be studied within theories of coordination and interaction rather than only in terms of the maximization of information

  3. Human sensorimotor communication: a theory of signaling in online social interactions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giovanni Pezzulo

    Full Text Available Although the importance of communication is recognized in several disciplines, it is rarely studied in the context of online social interactions and joint actions. During online joint actions, language and gesture are often insufficient and humans typically use non-verbal, sensorimotor forms of communication to send coordination signals. For example, when playing volleyball, an athlete can exaggerate her movements to signal her intentions to her teammates (say, a pass to the right or to feint an adversary. Similarly, a person who is transporting a table together with a co-actor can push the table in a certain direction to signal where and when he intends to place it. Other examples of "signaling" are over-articulating in noisy environments and over-emphasizing vowels in child-directed speech. In all these examples, humans intentionally modify their action kinematics to make their goals easier to disambiguate. At the moment no formal theory exists of these forms of sensorimotor communication and signaling. We present one such theory that describes signaling as a combination of a pragmatic and a communicative action, and explains how it simplifies coordination in online social interactions. We cast signaling within a "joint action optimization" framework in which co-actors optimize the success of their interaction and joint goals rather than only their part of the joint action. The decision of whether and how much to signal requires solving a trade-off between the costs of modifying one's behavior and the benefits in terms of interaction success. Signaling is thus an intentional strategy that supports social interactions; it acts in concert with automatic mechanisms of resonance, prediction, and imitation, especially when the context makes actions and intentions ambiguous and difficult to read. Our theory suggests that communication dynamics should be studied within theories of coordination and interaction rather than only in terms of the

  4. Communicating corporate social responsibility to suspicious audiences: beyond identity washing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Elving, W.; van Vuuren, M.; Bech-Larsen, T.; Frandsen, F.

    2010-01-01

    Organizations need good reputations among their stakeholders. One way of creating a better reputation might be the engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Corporate Responsibility (CR) programs. However, since several organizations were greenwashing their communication (suggesting a

  5. “Thanks for sharing”—Identifying users’ roles based on knowledge contribution in Enterprise Social Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cetto, Alexandra; Klier, Mathias; Richter, Alexander

    2018-01-01

    in the network and help others to get their work done. In this paper, we propose a new methodological approach consisting of three steps, namely “message classification”, “identification of users’ roles” as well as “characterization of users’ roles”. We apply the approach to a dataset from a multinational......, are a central element of the network. In conclusion, the development and application of a new methodological approach allows us to contribute to a more refined understanding of users’ knowledge exchanging behavior in Enterprise Social Networks which can ultimately help companies to take measures to improve......While ever more companies use Enterprise Social Networks for knowledge management, there is still a lack of understanding of users’ knowledge exchanging behavior. In this context, it is important to be able to identify and characterize users who contribute and communicate their knowledge...

  6. How Peer Communication and Engagement Motivations Influence Social Media Shopping Behavior: Evidence from China and the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muralidharan, Sidharth; Men, Linjuan Rita

    2015-10-01

    Based on consumer socialization theory, this study proposes and tests a conceptual model of social media shopping behavior, which links the antecedents of user motivations of engagement and peer communication about products to shopping behavior through social media. A cross-cultural survey was conducted with social media users in two culturally distinct markets with the largest Internet population: China (n=304) and the United States (n=328). Findings showed that social interaction, information, and remuneration were positive antecedents of peer communication for users from both countries. Peer communication positively impacted social media shopping behavior, and cultural differences were observed, with social interaction being important to Chinese users' shopping behavior, while remuneration was more important to American users. Implications are discussed.

  7. Using Social Networking Sites for Communicable Disease Control: Innovative Contact Tracing or Breach of Confidentiality?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mandeville, Kate L; Harris, Matthew; Thomas, H Lucy; Chow, Yimmy; Seng, Claude

    2014-04-01

    Social media applications such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have attained huge popularity, with more than three billion people and organizations predicted to have a social networking account by 2015. Social media offers a rapid avenue of communication with the public and has potential benefits for communicable disease control and surveillance. However, its application in everyday public health practice raises a number of important issues around confidentiality and autonomy. We report here a case from local level health protection where the friend of an individual with meningococcal septicaemia used a social networking site to notify potential contacts.

  8. Remediation of social communication impairments following traumatic brain injury using metacognitive strategy intervention: a pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finch, Emma; Cornwell, Petrea; Copley, Anna; Doig, Emmah; Fleming, Jennifer

    2017-01-01

    To perform a pilot study to evaluate whether a novel metacognitive, goal-based intervention improved and maintained the social communication skills of adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Eight community-dwelling participants with TBI completed three study phases: (1) baseline, (2) eight-week intervention targeting social communication impairments and (3) follow-up. Participants completed the Profile of Pragmatic Impairment in Communication (PPIC), LaTrobe Communication Questionnaire (LCQ) and Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) at the commencement of baseline phase, pre- and post-intervention and completion of the follow-up phase. During the intervention programme phase, participants attended two 1-hour therapy sessions (one individual; one group) per week focusing on remediating impaired social communication skills using metacognitive strategy intervention and goal-based therapy. Variable changes in PPIC feature-summary scores were observed post-intervention. A non-significant improvement in LCQ scores was also observed. There was a significant increase in GAS goal T-scores following the intervention, with six of the eight participants achieving or exceeding their expected level of performance on all goals. A goal-driven, metacognitive approach to intervention may assist individuals with TBI to achieve their personal social communication goals, with benefits reported by participants and observable during conversations. Further research is required.

  9. Communication and Social Exchange Processes in Community Theater Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kramer, Michael W.

    2005-01-01

    This study explores the communication experiences of two volunteer groups involved in the production of community theater musicals. Based on social exchange theory, it examined what group members perceived to be the positive benefits (primarily meeting people and having an opportunity to perform) and the negative costs (primarily disorganization,…

  10. How can online communication enhance older adults’ social connectivity? : Implementation and adoption issues

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hage, Maria Louisa

    2015-01-01

    It is often assumed online communication can enhance older adults’ social connectivity. However, previous studies have indicated two obstacles. First, older adults tend to be late adopters, or laggards. This raises the question how online communication tools can be implemented among a population

  11. Gaps in Perception on Social Media Use in Crisis Communication Between Vietnamese Organizations and Stakeholders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tuong-Minh Ly-Le

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Despite the emergence of social media in many aspects of Vietnamese lives, including marketing and promotional activities, Vietnamese organizations have used little social media in their crisis communication efforts. The organizations are hesitant to adopt social media in crisis communication and prefer to use traditional media because of its controllability and professionalism. However, with the increasing number of organizational crises that started on social media in the past years, it is arguably that Vietnamese stakeholders use social media as one of their main communication channels during crises. Should the organizations use social media in response? Through a series of interviews to PR practitioners and stakeholders in Vietnam, this research aims to find out the similarities and gaps in the perception of social media use for crisis communication between these two groups, and to guide a crisis communication practice that is appreciated by stakeholders.   Bahasa Indonesia Abstrak: Meskipun munculnya media sosial dalam banyak aspek kehidupan Vietnam, termasuk kegiatan pemasaran dan promosi, organisasi Vietnam telah menggunakan sedikit media sosial dalam upaya komunikasi krisis mereka. Organisasi ragu-ragu untuk mengadopsi media sosial dalam komunikasi krisis dan lebih suka menggunakan media tradisional karena pengendalian dan profesionalisme. Namun, dengan meningkatnya jumlah krisis organisasi yang dimulai di media sosial dalam beberapa tahun terakhir, dapat dibilang bahwa pemangku kepentingan Vietnam menggunakan media sosial sebagai salah satu saluran komunikasi utama mereka selama krisis. Haruskah organisasi menggunakan media sosial sebagai jawaban? Melalui serangkaian wawancara kepada praktisi PR dan pemangku kepentingan di Vietnam, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui persamaan dan kesenjangan dalam persepsi penggunaan media sosial untuk komunikasi krisis antara kedua kelompok ini, dan untuk memandu praktik komunikasi krisis yang

  12. Predicting Social Networking Site Use and Online Communication Practices among Adolescents: The Role of Access and Device Ownership

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Drew P. Cingel

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Given adolescents' heavy social media use, this study examined a number of predictors of adolescent social media use, as well as predictors of online communication practices. Using data collected from a national sample of 467 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17, results indicate that demographics, technology access, and technology ownership are related to social media use and communication practices. Specifically, females log onto and use more constructive communication practices on Facebook compared to males. Additionally, adolescents who own smartphones engage in more constructive online communication practices than those who share regular cell phones or those who do not have access to a cell phone. Overall, results imply that ownership of mobile technologies, such as smartphones and iPads, may be more predictive of social networking site use and online communication practices than general ownership of technology.

  13. Predicting Social Networking Site Use and Online Communication Practices among Adolescents: The Role of Access and Device Ownership

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Drew P. Cingel

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Given adolescents' heavy social media use, this study examined a number of predictors of adolescent social media use, as well as predictors of online communication practices. Using data collected from a national sample of 467 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17, results indicate that demographics, technology access, and technology ownership are related to social media use and communication practices. Specifically, females log onto and use more constructive com-munication practices on Facebook compared to males. Additionally, adolescents who own smartphones engage in more constructive online communication practices than those who share regular cell phones or those who do not have access to a cell phone. Overall, results imply that ownership of mobile technologies, such as smartphones and iPads, may be more predictive of social networking site use and online communication practices than general ownership of technology.

  14. Social Communication as the Means of Preschool Children Education: Research and Development Opportunities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antopolskaya, Tatyana A.; Zhuravleva, Svetlana S.; Baybakova, Olga Y.

    2017-01-01

    The article reveals the problem of developing the ability of preschool children to socialize. It covers the theoretical aspects of the issue and draws attention to the association between the social communication of preschool children and their ability to interact and intercommunicate as well as the development of their social and emotional…

  15. Agricultural informational flow in informal communication networks ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Agricultural informational flow in informal communication networks of farmers in Ghana. ... should identify such farmers who can serve as intermediaries between actors to help disseminate information in rural communities. Keywords: key communicators, farmers, rural communities, social networks, extension agents ...

  16. Social communication : the impact of online customer reviews on purchase intention

    OpenAIRE

    Johansen, Kai Vegard; Hovland, Filip Lundberg

    2013-01-01

    Consumer-generated product reviews have proliferated online. Driven by the notion that customers’ decision to purchase a product is influenced by the information they obtain from online customer reviews, this thesis examines the impact of online customer reviews on purchase intention. To do so, the research integrates traditional communication theories, in particular social communication by Hovland (1948), with the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to build a theoretical model. Importantly, ...

  17. Social media experiences of adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy who use augmentative and alternative communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caron, Jessica Gosnell; Light, Janice

    2017-02-01

    This pilot study aimed to expand the current understanding of how adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy (CP) and complex communication needs use social media. An online focus group was used to investigate the social media experiences of seven individuals with CP who used Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Questions posed to the group related to social media: (a) advantages; (b) disadvantages; (c) barriers; (d) supports; and (e) recommendations. Adolescents with CP who use AAC used a range of communication media to participate in daily interactions, including social media. An analysis of the focus group interaction revealed that the participants used social media to: bypass the constraints of face-to-face interactions; communicate for a number of reasons (e.g. maintain relationships, share experiences); and support independent leisure (e.g. playing games, looking at pictures/videos). Despite the advantages, the participants discussed barriers including limitations related to AAC technologies, social media sites and literacy skills. The results suggest that service providers should implement interventions to support social media use, including enhancement of linguistic, operational and strategic competence. Technology manufacturers should focus on improving the designs of AAC apps and social media sites to facilitate access by individuals who require AAC.

  18. Towards a Renaissance in Communication for Social Change Redefining the discipline and practice in the post ‘Arab Spring’ era

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tufte, Thomas

    2013-01-01

    calls for social change and their principles and communicative practices influencing and informing the thinking and practice of institutionalized communication for development and social change? And what are the underlying conceptual differences in the notions of action, participation and social change......Worldwide, we have experienced a resurgence in practices of bottom-up communication for social change, a plethora of agency in which voice, citizenship and collective action have centre stage as core values, principles and practices. This resurgence sparks a series of questions; How are these new...... which inform the new generation of social movements, on one side, and the established field of communication for social change, on the other? These are the questions that drive this chapter....

  19. Like, comment, share and all that jazz : social media as communication and marketing tool case: Social media marketing approaches used by MaiJazz music festival

    OpenAIRE

    Tanaskovic, Nenad

    2014-01-01

    Master's thesis in International hotel and tourism management Social networks have become an integral part of everyday life for many. With an increasing number of companies using social media to communicate and build relationships with their customers, social media might be considered as the newest element of the marketing mix. The thesis’ objective is to explore the use of social media communication tools used by the jazz music festival, MaiJazz, in Stavanger, to define key...

  20. Corporate social responsibility as communicational strategy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moraes, Jorge C. [PETROBRAS, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2009-07-01

    Based on a concrete case, the negotiation of compensation and reparation for environmental damage in the state of Rio de Janeiro, this paper deals with the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as main strategic instrument to set up a relationship among state, businesses and the civil society in the process of licensing and deploying gas pipelines. In this kind of process, a few cultural aspects, such as a social pattern based in philanthropy and paternalism, make difficult for any agreement to be reached among the stake holders. As a result, the process of licensing becomes slow and fragile. In some cases, negotiation ends up unsuccessful. This mental model coexists with an imperious need for investments in energy, leading to a hard contradiction between a traditional behavior and the surge of modern consumerism habits. Besides, local legislation and bureaucracy allow for few or no options to solve the conflict. In this context, as will be seen, CSR is a preferential way to establish fruitful dialog. By means of Corporate Social Investments (CSI), it is possible to create a common experience of local development among entrepreneurs, the state and the community, by this breaking communication barriers and providing alternatives to solve the original contradiction. (author)

  1. Social Function and Communication in Optimal Outcome Children and Adolescents with an Autism History on Structured Test Measures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orinstein, Alyssa J.; Suh, Joyce; Porter, Kaitlyn; De Yoe, Kaitlin A.; Tyson, Katherine E.; Troyb, Eva; Barton, Marianne L.; Eigsti, Inge-Marie; Stevens, Michael C.; Fein, Deborah A.

    2015-01-01

    Youth who lose their ASD diagnosis may have subtle social and communication difficulties. We examined social and communication functioning in 44 high-functioning autism (HFA), 34 optimal outcome (OO) and 34 typically developing (TD) youth. Results indicated that OO participants had no autism communication symptoms, no pragmatic language deficits,…

  2. The Impact of Communication Technologies on Social Structure--Take the Example of Smart City

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Nie Zhou

    2016-01-01

    Human society has entered the era of digit and internet, and the communication technology is one of the important factors which result in changes of social structure. Smart City is an active attempt to future urban development, to use the communication technology as an constitutive element of smart city from the economic base to the superstructure, production relation to exchange relation. Digitization and networking are committed to reflect the state of human's comprehensive development, which is an important stage of emancipation of humanity itself. Communication technology can bring people's initiative into full play and learning in development and establish the harmonious relationships during the interaction. This article is based on the example of smart city, which analyzed the impact of communication technologies on social structure from different aspects.

  3. Identifying Witness Accounts from Social Media Using Imagery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marie Truelove

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available This research investigates the use of image category classification to distinguish images posted to social media that are Witness Accounts of an event. Only images depicting observations of the event, captured by micro-bloggers at the event, are considered Witness Accounts. Identifying Witness Accounts from social media is important for services such as news, marketing and emergency response. Automated image category classification is essential due to the large number of images on social media and interest in identifying witnesses in near real time. This paper begins research of this emerging problem with an established procedure, using a bag-of-words method to create a vocabulary of visual words and classifier trained to categorize the encoded images. In order to test the procedure, a set of images were collected for case study events, Australian Football League matches, from Twitter. Evaluation shows an overall accuracy of 90% and precision and recall for both classes exceeding 83%.

  4. Usage Patterns of Communication Interfaces for Social Support among At-Risk Adolescents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Passig, David

    2014-01-01

    Social and interpersonal support has mostly been carried out face-to-face. However, the internet was able, in the last couple of decades, to facilitate social interactions through a range of computer-mediated communication (CMC) interfaces--from email applications, chat-rooms, forums, instant messages (IM), short text messages (SMS), social…

  5. Nonverbal Synchrony in Social Interactions of Patients with Schizophrenia Indicates Socio-Communicative Deficits.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zeno Kupper

    Full Text Available Disordered interpersonal communication can be a serious problem in schizophrenia. Recent advances in computer-based measures allow reliable and objective quantification of nonverbal behavior. Research using these novel measures has shown that objective amounts of body and head movement in patients with schizophrenia during social interactions are closely related to the symptom profiles of these patients. In addition to and above mere amounts of movement, the degree of synchrony, or imitation, between patients and normal interactants may be indicative of core deficits underlying various problems in domains related to interpersonal communication, such as symptoms, social competence, and social functioning.Nonverbal synchrony was assessed objectively using Motion Energy Analysis (MEA in 378 brief, videotaped role-play scenes involving 27 stabilized outpatients diagnosed with paranoid-type schizophrenia.Low nonverbal synchrony was indicative of symptoms, low social competence, impaired social functioning, and low self-evaluation of competence. These relationships remained largely significant when correcting for the amounts of patients' movement. When patients showed reduced imitation of their interactants' movements, negative symptoms were likely to be prominent. Conversely, positive symptoms were more prominent in patients when their interaction partners' imitation of their movements was reduced.Nonverbal synchrony can be an objective and sensitive indicator of the severity of patients' problems. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of nonverbal synchrony may provide novel insights into specific relationships between symptoms, cognition, and core communicative problems in schizophrenia.

  6. Do Children with Social Communication Disorder Have Explicit Knowledge of Pragmatic Rules They Break? A Comparison of Conversational Pragmatic Ability and Metapragmatic Awareness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lockton, Elaine; Adams, Catherine; Collins, Anna

    2016-01-01

    Background: Children who have social communication disorder (CwSCD) demonstrate persistent difficulties with language pragmatics in conversations and other verbal interactions. Speech-language interventions for these children often include promotion of metapragmatic awareness (MPA); that is, the ability to identify explicitly and reflect upon…

  7. Unmasking the social engineer the human element of security

    CERN Document Server

    Hadnagy, Christopher

    2014-01-01

    Learn to identify the social engineer by non-verbal behavior Unmasking the Social Engineer: The Human Element of Security focuses on combining the science of understanding non-verbal communications with the knowledge of how social engineers, scam artists and con men use these skills to build feelings of trust and rapport in their targets. The author helps readers understand how to identify and detect social engineers and scammers by analyzing their non-verbal behavior. Unmasking the Social Engineer shows how attacks work, explains nonverbal communications, and demonstrates with visuals the c

  8. Communication and Consumer Activities of Social Networking Sites Users: Cases from Germany, Poland and Russia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malgorzata Bartosik-Purgat

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The growth of the Internet heavily influences people’s lives every day, especially by the development of Social Networking Sites (SNS, which since their first appearance have been constantly recording a growing number of users. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the significance of SNS in relation to two activities of individual users: communication and consumer behaviour. The study focuses on the three most popular SNS in three neighbouring countries (Germany, Poland, and Russia namely, FACEBOOK, VKONTAKTE, and YOUTUBE. The methodological approach is twofold: firstly, the authors developed a theoretical background of the areas of using SNS and formulated research questions; secondly, they applied the PAPI and CAWI methods for the data analysis. Regarding the researched activities, it should be noted that SNS users use these platforms more often for communication than consumer actions. The most useful here is FACEBOOK in comparison to YOUTUBE. This study provides results, which can be useful in the management of the enterprises that use SNS for their marketing communication in Germany, Poland, and Russia.

  9. Children's Play Behaviour and Social Communication in Integrated Special Day-Care Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suhonen, Eira; Nislin, Mari A.; Alijoki, Alisa; Sajaniemi, Nina K.

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate children's social communication abilities and play to reveal possible changes during a one year period in the context of Finnish early childhood special education. The data we collected during 2012-2013 consisted of assessments of play behaviour (Preschool Play Behavior Scale) and social communication…

  10. Social-aware data dissemination in opportunistic mobile social networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Yibo; Zhao, Honglin; Ma, Jinlong; Han, Xiaowei

    Opportunistic Mobile Social Networks (OMSNs), formed by mobile users with social relationships and characteristics, enhance spontaneous communication among users that opportunistically encounter each other. Such networks can be exploited to improve the performance of data forwarding. Discovering optimal relay nodes is one of the important issues for efficient data propagation in OMSNs. Although traditional centrality definitions to identify the nodes features in network, they cannot identify effectively the influential nodes for data dissemination in OMSNs. Existing protocols take advantage of spatial contact frequency and social characteristics to enhance transmission performance. However, existing protocols have not fully exploited the benefits of the relations and the effects between geographical information, social features and user interests. In this paper, we first evaluate these three characteristics of users and design a routing protocol called Geo-Social-Interest (GSI) protocol to select optimal relay nodes. We compare the performance of GSI using real INFOCOM06 data sets. The experiment results demonstrate that GSI overperforms the other protocols with highest data delivery ratio and low communication overhead.

  11. Metacognition in speech and language therapy for children with social (pragmatic) communication disorders: implications for a theory of therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaile, Jacqueline; Adams, Catherine

    2018-01-01

    Metacognition is a significant component of complex interventions for children who have developmental language disorders. Research into how metacognition operates in the content or process of developmental language therapy delivery is limited. Identification and description of proposed active therapy components, such as metacognition, may contribute to our understanding of how to deliver complex communication interventions in an optimal manner. To analyse aspects of metacognition during therapy derived from a manualized speech and language intervention (the Social Communication Intervention Programme-SCIP) as delivered to children who have social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD) and to examine the dynamic process of delivering therapy. A purposive sample of eight filmed therapy sessions was selected from the video data corpus of intervention-arm participants within a randomized controlled trial. The child-therapist interactions during therapy sessions from five children (aged between 5;11 and 10;3) in the SCIP trial were transcribed. Filmed sessions represented a variety of communication profiles and SCIP therapy content. Starting from existing theory on metacognition, cycles of iterative analysis were performed using a mixed inductive-deductive qualitative analysis. A preliminary list of metacognitive content embedded in the intervention was developed into a metacognitive coding framework (MCF). A thematic analysis of the identified metacognitive content of the intervention was then carried out across the whole sample. Thematic analysis revealed the presence of metacognition in the content and delivery of SCIP intervention. Four main themes of metacognitive person, task and strategy knowledge, and monitoring/control were identified. Metacognition was a feature of how children's ability to monitor language, pragmatic and social interaction skills, in themselves and other people, was developed. Task design and delivery methods were found to play a

  12. The networked communications manager: A typology of managerial social media impression management tactics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fieseler, C.; Ranzini, G.

    2015-01-01

    Purpose – The rise of social media has caused a shift in organizational practices, giving rise, in some cases, to genuinely “mediatized” organizations. The purpose of this paper is to explore how communications managers employ social media to influence their professional impressions.

  13. Role of Social Media and Networking in Volcanic Crises and Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sennert, S.; Klemetti, E. W.; Bird, D. K.

    2016-12-01

    The growth of social media as a primary and often preferred news source has led to the rapid dissemination of information about volcanic eruptions and potential volcanic crises as they begin, evolve, and end. This information comes from a variety of sources: news organisations, emergency management personnel, individuals (both members of the public and official representatives), and volcano monitoring agencies. Once posted, this information is easily shared, increasing the reach to a much broader population than more traditional forms of media, such as radio and newspapers. The onset and popularity of social media as a vehicle for dissemination of eruption information points toward the need to systematically incorporate social media into the official channels that volcano observatories use to distribute activity statements, forecasts, and images. We explore two examples of projects that collect/disseminate information regarding volcanic crises and eruptive activity via social media sources; the Smithsonian/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report (WVAR), which summarizes new and on-going volcanic activity globally and on a weekly basis, and Eruptions, a blog that discusses eruptions as well as other volcanic topics. Based on these experiences, recommendations are made to volcanic observatories in relation to the use of social media as a communication tool. These recommendations include: using social media as a two-way dialogue to communicate and receive information directly from the public and other sources; stating that the social media account is from an official source; and posting types of information that users want to see such as images, videos, and figures.

  14. Participatory communication on internal social media - a dream or reality?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Vibeke Thøis

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: The aim of this article is to explore the extent to which internal social media introduces a new kind of participatory communication within organizations with a capability of influencing and moving the organization. Design/methodology/approach: The article is based on two exploratory stu...

  15. Using social media for business communication : A symbolic interaction perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Chen, R.; Davison, R.M.; Ou, Carol

    2016-01-01

    It is important to understand the symbolic meaning of social media perceived by users in a particular communication context, as it may completely deviate from designers’ original intentions. In the exploratory case study of Moon Struck hotel in China, we investigate how customers interpret this

  16. Identifying the Enemy: Social Categorization and National Security Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unsworth, Kristene

    2010-01-01

    This dissertation seeks to understand the interplay between informal articulations of social categories and formal instantiations of those categories in official language. Specifically, it explores the process of social categorization as it is used to identify threats to national security. The research employed a qualitative, document-based,…

  17. Using the picture exchange communication system (PECS) with children with autism: assessment of PECS acquisition, speech, social-communicative behavior, and problem behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charlop-Christy, Marjorie H; Carpenter, Michael; Le, Loc; LeBlanc, Linda A; Kellet, Kristen

    2002-01-01

    The picture exchange communication system (PECS) is an augmentative communication system frequently used with children with autism (Bondy & Frost, 1994; Siegel, 2000; Yamall, 2000). Despite its common clinical use, no well-controlled empirical investigations have been conducted to test the effectiveness of PECS. Using a multiple baseline design, the present study examined the acquisition of PECS with 3 children with autism. In addition, the study examined the effects of PECS training on the emergence of speech in play and academic settings. Ancillary measures of social-communicative behaviors and problem behaviors were recorded. Results indicated that all 3 children met the learning criterion for PECS and showed concomitant increases in verbal speech. Ancillary gains were associated with increases in social-communicative behaviors and decreases in problem behaviors. The results are discussed in terms of the provision of empirical support for PECS as well as the concomitant positive side effects of its use.

  18. The Impact of a Well-Developed Social Media Communication Strategy on K12 Schools in a Social Media Age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chesick, Curtis W.

    2015-01-01

    The digital revolution has created a new ways for society to interact. As technology continues to evolve so does the way culture begins to use it as a channel for communication. Social media has developed as a two way communication tool used by both corporate America as well as individuals. This research begins to look at how Missouri school…

  19. Health-Related Disaster Communication and Social Media: Mixed-Method Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eckert, Stine; Sopory, Pradeep; Day, Ashleigh; Wilkins, Lee; Padgett, Donyale; Novak, Julie; Noyes, Jane; Allen, Tomas; Alexander, Nyka; Vanderford, Marsha; Gamhewage, Gaya

    2017-08-21

    This mixed-method evidence synthesis drew on Cochrane methods and principles to systematically review literature published between 2003 and 2016 on the best social media practices to promote health protection and dispel misinformation during disasters. Seventy-nine studies employing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods on risk communication during disasters in all UN-languages were reviewed, finding that agencies need to contextualize the use of social media for particular populations and crises. Social media are tools that still have not become routine practices in many governmental agencies regarding public health in the countries studied. Social media, especially Twitter and Facebook (and equivalents in countries such as China), need to be incorporated into daily operations of governmental agencies and implementing partners to build familiarity with them before health-related crises happen. This was especially observed in U.S. agencies, local government, and first responders but also for city governments and school administrations in Europe. For those that do use social media during health-related risk communication, studies find that public relations officers, governmental agencies, and the general public have used social media successfully to spread truthful information and to verify information to dispel rumors during disasters. Few studies focused on the recovery and preparation phases and on countries in the Southern hemisphere, except for Australia. The vast majority of studies did not analyze the demographics of social media users beyond their geographic location, their status of being inside/outside the disaster zone; and their frequency and content of posting. Socioeconomic demographics were not collected and/or analyzed to drill deeper into the implications of using social media to reach vulnerable populations. Who exactly is reached via social media campaigns and who needs to be reached with other means has remained an understudied area.

  20. "While you still think, I already type": experienced social power reduces deliberation during e-mail communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scholl, Annika; Sassenberg, Kai

    2014-11-01

    E-mail allows individuals to deliberate on their communication before sending it off. For instance, communication partners can easily take their time to ponder how best to frame a request before they actually send a message. Individuals at times strategically exploit this opportunity to deliberate in order to tailor messages to their communication partner, such as when communicating with a relatively more powerful person. As social power reduces concerns about impression management, we predicted that individuals deliberate more while composing e-mail messages under low (vs. high) power. This assumption was tested with well-established power priming. As such, we expected that experienced power in one context would diminish deliberation times during a subsequent e-mail communication. An experiment manipulating the experience of (low vs. high) power and measuring deliberation times during e-mail composition supported this hypothesis. The findings thus indicate how social power alters deliberation times. More importantly, the results show that individuals not only strategically deliberate during e-mail communication in line with their current situation, but also in line with their social standing in a previous situation (here, their experience of power).

  1. Methods for Inferring Health-Related Social Networks among Coworkers from Online Communication Patterns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matthews, Luke J.; DeWan, Peter; Rula, Elizabeth Y.

    2013-01-01

    Studies of social networks, mapped using self-reported contacts, have demonstrated the strong influence of social connections on the propensity for individuals to adopt or maintain healthy behaviors and on their likelihood to adopt health risks such as obesity. Social network analysis may prove useful for businesses and organizations that wish to improve the health of their populations by identifying key network positions. Health traits have been shown to correlate across friendship ties, but evaluating network effects in large coworker populations presents the challenge of obtaining sufficiently comprehensive network data. The purpose of this study was to evaluate methods for using online communication data to generate comprehensive network maps that reproduce the health-associated properties of an offline social network. In this study, we examined three techniques for inferring social relationships from email traffic data in an employee population using thresholds based on: (1) the absolute number of emails exchanged, (2) logistic regression probability of an offline relationship, and (3) the highest ranked email exchange partners. As a model of the offline social network in the same population, a network map was created using social ties reported in a survey instrument. The email networks were evaluated based on the proportion of survey ties captured, comparisons of common network metrics, and autocorrelation of body mass index (BMI) across social ties. Results demonstrated that logistic regression predicted the greatest proportion of offline social ties, thresholding on number of emails exchanged produced the best match to offline network metrics, and ranked email partners demonstrated the strongest autocorrelation of BMI. Since each method had unique strengths, researchers should choose a method based on the aspects of offline behavior of interest. Ranked email partners may be particularly useful for purposes related to health traits in a social network. PMID

  2. Methods for inferring health-related social networks among coworkers from online communication patterns.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luke J Matthews

    Full Text Available Studies of social networks, mapped using self-reported contacts, have demonstrated the strong influence of social connections on the propensity for individuals to adopt or maintain healthy behaviors and on their likelihood to adopt health risks such as obesity. Social network analysis may prove useful for businesses and organizations that wish to improve the health of their populations by identifying key network positions. Health traits have been shown to correlate across friendship ties, but evaluating network effects in large coworker populations presents the challenge of obtaining sufficiently comprehensive network data. The purpose of this study was to evaluate methods for using online communication data to generate comprehensive network maps that reproduce the health-associated properties of an offline social network. In this study, we examined three techniques for inferring social relationships from email traffic data in an employee population using thresholds based on: (1 the absolute number of emails exchanged, (2 logistic regression probability of an offline relationship, and (3 the highest ranked email exchange partners. As a model of the offline social network in the same population, a network map was created using social ties reported in a survey instrument. The email networks were evaluated based on the proportion of survey ties captured, comparisons of common network metrics, and autocorrelation of body mass index (BMI across social ties. Results demonstrated that logistic regression predicted the greatest proportion of offline social ties, thresholding on number of emails exchanged produced the best match to offline network metrics, and ranked email partners demonstrated the strongest autocorrelation of BMI. Since each method had unique strengths, researchers should choose a method based on the aspects of offline behavior of interest. Ranked email partners may be particularly useful for purposes related to health traits in a

  3. Methods for inferring health-related social networks among coworkers from online communication patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matthews, Luke J; DeWan, Peter; Rula, Elizabeth Y

    2013-01-01

    Studies of social networks, mapped using self-reported contacts, have demonstrated the strong influence of social connections on the propensity for individuals to adopt or maintain healthy behaviors and on their likelihood to adopt health risks such as obesity. Social network analysis may prove useful for businesses and organizations that wish to improve the health of their populations by identifying key network positions. Health traits have been shown to correlate across friendship ties, but evaluating network effects in large coworker populations presents the challenge of obtaining sufficiently comprehensive network data. The purpose of this study was to evaluate methods for using online communication data to generate comprehensive network maps that reproduce the health-associated properties of an offline social network. In this study, we examined three techniques for inferring social relationships from email traffic data in an employee population using thresholds based on: (1) the absolute number of emails exchanged, (2) logistic regression probability of an offline relationship, and (3) the highest ranked email exchange partners. As a model of the offline social network in the same population, a network map was created using social ties reported in a survey instrument. The email networks were evaluated based on the proportion of survey ties captured, comparisons of common network metrics, and autocorrelation of body mass index (BMI) across social ties. Results demonstrated that logistic regression predicted the greatest proportion of offline social ties, thresholding on number of emails exchanged produced the best match to offline network metrics, and ranked email partners demonstrated the strongest autocorrelation of BMI. Since each method had unique strengths, researchers should choose a method based on the aspects of offline behavior of interest. Ranked email partners may be particularly useful for purposes related to health traits in a social network.

  4. Advances in segmentation modeling for health communication and social marketing campaigns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albrecht, T L; Bryant, C

    1996-01-01

    Large-scale communication campaigns for health promotion and disease prevention involve analysis of audience demographic and psychographic factors for effective message targeting. A variety of segmentation modeling techniques, including tree-based methods such as Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection and logistic regression, are used to identify meaningful target groups within a large sample or population (N = 750-1,000+). Such groups are based on statistically significant combinations of factors (e.g., gender, marital status, and personality predispositions). The identification of groups or clusters facilitates message design in order to address the particular needs, attention patterns, and concerns of audience members within each group. We review current segmentation techniques, their contributions to conceptual development, and cost-effective decision making. Examples from a major study in which these strategies were used are provided from the Texas Women, Infants and Children Program's Comprehensive Social Marketing Program.

  5. Social Media & the Arab Spring: How communication technology shapes socio-political change

    OpenAIRE

    Hanska Ahy, Maximillian

    2016-01-01

    Although social media was not insignificant, we need to take a wider view examining the interac- tion between interpersonal communication, social media, and satellite TV to understand how the Arab Spring was documented and witnessed by local and global audiences, and how the protests were mobilised. Social media was a clearly important catalyst for the uprisings, but it may also ex- plain why the Arab Spring failed in the medium-term: Multimedia and multi-platform communica- tion environments...

  6. Clinical social networking--a new revolution in provider communication and delivery of clinical information across providers of care?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolowitz, Brian J; Lauro, Gonzalo Romero; Venturella, James; Georgiev, Veliyan; Barone, Michael; Deible, Christopher; Shrestha, Rasu

    2014-04-01

    The adoption of social media technologies appears to enhance clinical outcomes through improved communications as reported by Bacigalupe (Fam Syst Heal 29(1):1-14, 2011). The ability of providers to more effectively, directly, and rapidly communicate among themselves as well as with patients should strengthen collaboration and treatment as reported by Bacigalupe (Fam Syst Heal 29(1):1-14, 2011). This paper is a case study in one organization's development of an internally designed and developed social technology solution termed "Unite." The Unite system combines social technologies' features including push notifications, messaging, community groups, and user lists with clinical workflow and applications to construct dynamic provider networks, simplify communications, and facilitate clinical workflow optimization. Modeling Unite as a social technology may ease adoption barriers. Developing a social network that is integrated with healthcare information systems in the clinical space opens the doors to capturing and studying the way in which providers communicate. The Unite system appears to have the potential to breaking down existing communication paradigms. With Unite, a rich set of usage data tied to clinical events may unravel alternative networks that can be leveraged to advance patient care.

  7. Logging On, Bouncing Back: An Experimental Investigation of Online Communication following Social Exclusion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gross, Elisheva F.

    2009-01-01

    A majority of U.S. adolescents at least occasionally communicate on the Internet with unknown peers. This study tested the hypothesis that online communication with an unknown peer facilitates recovery from the acute aversive effects of social exclusion and examined whether this benefit may be greater for adolescents compared with young adults. A…

  8. Internet-communication disorder: It’s a matter of social aspects, coping, and Internet-use expectancies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elisa Wegmann

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Online communication applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter are some of the most frequently used Internet applications. There is a growing amount of individuals suffering diminished control over their use of online communication applications which leads to diverse negative consequences in offline life. This could be referred to as Internet-communication disorder. The current study investigates the role of individual characteristics (e.g., psychopathological symptoms, feelings of loneliness and specific cognitions assessing the contribution of an Internet-communication disorder (ICD. In a sample of 485 participants a structural equation model was tested to investigate predictors and mediators which may predict an excessive use. The results emphasize that a higher level of social loneliness and less perceived social support enhance the risk of a pathological use. The effects of psychopathological symptoms (depression and social anxiety as well as individual characteristics (self-esteem, self-efficacy, and stress vulnerability on ICD symptoms are mediated by Internet-use expectancies and dysfunctional coping mechanisms. The results illustrate mediation effects which are in line with the theoretical model by Brand et al. (2016. As suggested in the model social aspects seem to be key predictors of ICD symptoms. Further research should investigate convergent and divergent factors of other types of specific Internet-use disorders.

  9. Game-Theoretic Social-Aware Resource Allocation for Device-to-Device Communications Underlaying Cellular Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lei Wang

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Device-to-Device communication underlaying cellular network can increase the spectrum efficiency due to direct proximity communication and frequency reuse. However, such performance improvement is influenced by the power interference caused by spectrum sharing and social characteristics in each social community jointly. In this investigation, we present a dynamic game theory with complete information based D2D resource allocation scheme for D2D communication underlaying cellular network. In this resource allocation method, we quantify both the rate influence from the power interference caused by the D2D transmitter to cellular users and rate enhancement brought by the social relationships between mobile users. Then, the utility function maximization game is formulated to optimize the overall transmission rate performance of the network, which synthetically measures the final influence from both power interference and sociality enhancement. Simultaneously, we discuss the Nash Equilibrium of the proposed utility function maximization game from a theoretical point of view and further put forward a utility priority searching algorithm based resource allocation scheme. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme attains better performance compared with the other two advanced proposals.

  10. Social psychological determinants of mobile communication technology use and adoption. A comparison of three models to explain and predict mobile communication technology behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Peters, O.

    2007-01-01

    This dissertation focuses on the social psychological determinants of mobile communication technology use and adoption in an attempt to better understand people’s behavior for adopting and using innovative information and communication technologies. In particular, this study emphasizes the

  11. The sciences of science communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischhoff, Baruch

    2013-08-20

    The May 2012 Sackler Colloquium on "The Science of Science Communication" brought together scientists with research to communicate and scientists whose research could facilitate that communication. The latter include decision scientists who can identify the scientific results that an audience needs to know, from among all of the scientific results that it would be nice to know; behavioral scientists who can design ways to convey those results and then evaluate the success of those attempts; and social scientists who can create the channels needed for trustworthy communications. This overview offers an introduction to these communication sciences and their roles in science-based communication programs.

  12. Automatic jargon identifier for scientists engaging with the public and science communication educators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapnik, Noam; Yosef, Roy; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

    2017-01-01

    Scientists are required to communicate science and research not only to other experts in the field, but also to scientists and experts from other fields, as well as to the public and policymakers. One fundamental suggestion when communicating with non-experts is to avoid professional jargon. However, because they are trained to speak with highly specialized language, avoiding jargon is difficult for scientists, and there is no standard to guide scientists in adjusting their messages. In this research project, we present the development and validation of the data produced by an up-to-date, scientist-friendly program for identifying jargon in popular written texts, based on a corpus of over 90 million words published in the BBC site during the years 2012–2015. The validation of results by the jargon identifier, the De-jargonizer, involved three mini studies: (1) comparison and correlation with existing frequency word lists in the literature; (2) a comparison with previous research on spoken language jargon use in TED transcripts of non-science lectures, TED transcripts of science lectures and transcripts of academic science lectures; and (3) a test of 5,000 pairs of published research abstracts and lay reader summaries describing the same article from the journals PLOS Computational Biology and PLOS Genetics. Validation procedures showed that the data classification of the De-jargonizer significantly correlates with existing frequency word lists, replicates similar jargon differences in previous studies on scientific versus general lectures, and identifies significant differences in jargon use between abstracts and lay summaries. As expected, more jargon was found in the academic abstracts than lay summaries; however, the percentage of jargon in the lay summaries exceeded the amount recommended for the public to understand the text. Thus, the De-jargonizer can help scientists identify problematic jargon when communicating science to non-experts, and be implemented

  13. Automatic jargon identifier for scientists engaging with the public and science communication educators.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tzipora Rakedzon

    Full Text Available Scientists are required to communicate science and research not only to other experts in the field, but also to scientists and experts from other fields, as well as to the public and policymakers. One fundamental suggestion when communicating with non-experts is to avoid professional jargon. However, because they are trained to speak with highly specialized language, avoiding jargon is difficult for scientists, and there is no standard to guide scientists in adjusting their messages. In this research project, we present the development and validation of the data produced by an up-to-date, scientist-friendly program for identifying jargon in popular written texts, based on a corpus of over 90 million words published in the BBC site during the years 2012-2015. The validation of results by the jargon identifier, the De-jargonizer, involved three mini studies: (1 comparison and correlation with existing frequency word lists in the literature; (2 a comparison with previous research on spoken language jargon use in TED transcripts of non-science lectures, TED transcripts of science lectures and transcripts of academic science lectures; and (3 a test of 5,000 pairs of published research abstracts and lay reader summaries describing the same article from the journals PLOS Computational Biology and PLOS Genetics. Validation procedures showed that the data classification of the De-jargonizer significantly correlates with existing frequency word lists, replicates similar jargon differences in previous studies on scientific versus general lectures, and identifies significant differences in jargon use between abstracts and lay summaries. As expected, more jargon was found in the academic abstracts than lay summaries; however, the percentage of jargon in the lay summaries exceeded the amount recommended for the public to understand the text. Thus, the De-jargonizer can help scientists identify problematic jargon when communicating science to non-experts, and

  14. Automatic jargon identifier for scientists engaging with the public and science communication educators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rakedzon, Tzipora; Segev, Elad; Chapnik, Noam; Yosef, Roy; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

    2017-01-01

    Scientists are required to communicate science and research not only to other experts in the field, but also to scientists and experts from other fields, as well as to the public and policymakers. One fundamental suggestion when communicating with non-experts is to avoid professional jargon. However, because they are trained to speak with highly specialized language, avoiding jargon is difficult for scientists, and there is no standard to guide scientists in adjusting their messages. In this research project, we present the development and validation of the data produced by an up-to-date, scientist-friendly program for identifying jargon in popular written texts, based on a corpus of over 90 million words published in the BBC site during the years 2012-2015. The validation of results by the jargon identifier, the De-jargonizer, involved three mini studies: (1) comparison and correlation with existing frequency word lists in the literature; (2) a comparison with previous research on spoken language jargon use in TED transcripts of non-science lectures, TED transcripts of science lectures and transcripts of academic science lectures; and (3) a test of 5,000 pairs of published research abstracts and lay reader summaries describing the same article from the journals PLOS Computational Biology and PLOS Genetics. Validation procedures showed that the data classification of the De-jargonizer significantly correlates with existing frequency word lists, replicates similar jargon differences in previous studies on scientific versus general lectures, and identifies significant differences in jargon use between abstracts and lay summaries. As expected, more jargon was found in the academic abstracts than lay summaries; however, the percentage of jargon in the lay summaries exceeded the amount recommended for the public to understand the text. Thus, the De-jargonizer can help scientists identify problematic jargon when communicating science to non-experts, and be implemented by

  15. Narrowing the broader autism phenotype: A study using the Communication Checklist - Adult Version (CC-A)

    OpenAIRE

    Whitehouse, AJ; Coon, H; Miller, J; Salisbury, B; Bishop, DV

    2010-01-01

    This study investigated whether the Communication Checklist – Adult (CC-A) could identify subtypes of social and communication dysfunction in autism probands and their parents. The CC-A is divided into subscales measuring linguistic ability as well as two aspects of social communication: the Pragmatic Skills subscale assesses the level of pragmatic oddities (e.g., excessive talking), while the Social Engagement subscale picks up on those behaviours that reflect a more passive communication st...

  16. The Impact of Interactive Corporate Social Responsibility Communication on Corporate Reputation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    D. Eberle (David); G.A.J.M. Berens (Guido); T. Li (Ting)

    2013-01-01

    markdownabstract__Abstract__ Companies increasingly communicate about corporate social responsibility (CSR) through interactive online media. We examine whether using such media is beneficial to a company's reputation. We conducted an online experiment to examine the impacts of interactivity in

  17. Social Communication Effects of Peer-Mediated Recess Intervention for Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    McFadden, Brandon; Kamps, Debra; Heitzman-Powell, Linda

    2015-01-01

    Children with ASD face enormous challenges in the area of social functioning. Research has shown that impairments in social functioning distinguish this population from both typically developing children and children with disabilities. This study incorporated several evidence-based social skills-teaching procedures (i.e., direct instruction, priming, prompting, peer-mediation, contingent reinforcement, and token economies) directly in the recess setting to increase appropriate social behaviors for four children with ASD (ages 6–8). Elements of Peer Networks and Pivotal Response Training (two types of social skills intervention packages in the literature) were included. Results showed significant increases in social communication between focus children and their peers, as well as generalization of skills to non-intervention recesses. PMID:26312064

  18. Let's Go Toy Shopping! Exploring Early Anticipatory Socialization for Careers and Gender Expectations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones-Bodie, Ashley

    2016-01-01

    Courses: Gender Communication, Communication and Careers, Organizational Communication. Objectives: At the end of the activity, students will be able: to identify and analyze the socialization of gender expectations, to recognize and describe how early this type of socialization can occur, to critique the early socialization of gendered career…

  19. CONSUMER OPINIONS TOWARDS ONLINE MARKETING COMMUNICATION AND ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    GHEORGHE ORZAN

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available On the Internet, a medium that has already proven its effectiveness in marketing activities, changes take place with astonishing speed. The recent explosion of social networking applications and their number of users has captured the marketers’ attention. Companies have started to rethink their relationships with consumers and adapt to the new online world. In this virtual world of social networks the public is the key element. Consumers perceive the social network as a personal space where they control the content. They decide on their own what they want to see and share with others. Thus, in order to manage marketing communications effectively, marketers must know the consumers’ opinions towards their presence in social networks.

  20. Involving Parents in Teaching Social Communication Skills to Young Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weiss, Amy L.; Theadore, Geraldine

    2011-01-01

    This article focuses on why and how speech-language pathologists and other professionals can encourage the involvement of parents in teaching social communication skills to their young children. Four main topics are explored: (1) the evidence that many of the children with special needs served by speech-language pathologists and other…

  1. The evolution of honest communication: integrating social and physiological costs of ornamentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tibbetts, Elizabeth A

    2014-10-01

    Much research on animal communication has addressed how costs such as social costs or physiological costs favor the accuracy of signals. Previous work has largely considered these costs separately, but we may be missing essential connections by studying costs in isolation. After all, social interactions produce rapid changes in hormone titers which can then affect individual behavior and physiology. As a result, social costs are likely to have widespread physiological consequences. Here, I present a new perspective on the factors that maintain honest signals by describing how the interplay between social costs and physiological costs may maintain an accurate link between an animal's abilities and ornament elaboration. I outline three specific mechanisms by which the interaction between social behavior and hormones could favor honest signals and present specific predictions for each of the three models. Then, I review how ornaments alter agonistic behavior, agonistic behavior influences hormones, and how these hormonal effects influence fitness. I also describe the few previous studies that have directly tested how ornaments influence hormones. Finally, opportunities for future work are discussed. Considering the interaction between social behavior and physiology may address some challenges associated with both social and physiological models of costs. Understanding the dynamic feedbacks between physiology and social costs has potential to transform our understanding of the stability of animals' communication systems. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  2. Selected Functions of Narrative Structures in the Process of Social and Cultural Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wojciech Alberski

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available The art of narrative stems from the art of rhetoric and modes of persuasion and in this meaning is understood not just as a form of entertainment but also as a tool of communication. Any narrative communicates and conveys a message. Narrative is an important aspect of culture and as a ubiquitous component of human communication is conveyed by different works of art (literature, music, painting, sculpture, and illustrates events, emotions, phenomena and occurrences. Narrative as a form of communication involves its participants, a teller and a receiver of the message. The relation and the distance between the participants of the narrative communication process may have a different configuration and presents different effect of closeness and distance in narrative. In this meaning narrative is not just the art of telling stories, but it serves various functions, it communicates information, expresses emotions and personal events, transmits morals and cultural knowledge, provides entertainment and also helps in many ways to depict thoughts and feelings, along with disclosing the beauty of language. Narrative knowledge and narrative perception of social and cultural processes, is one of the most natural ways for a human being to acquire and organize their knowledge about the world. The ability to create narratives leads to a better understanding of the surrounding reality, and significantly influences the interpretation of social and cultural relationships.

  3. Corporate social responsibility and policy making: what role does communication play?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mathis, A.

    2007-01-01

    Communication is of central importance for business and public authorities to make substantial progress on the sustainability ladder. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is about the contribution of business to sustainability, and stakeholder theory is an integral concept of CSR. The literature

  4. The relationship between social anxiety and online communication among adolescents in the city of Isfahan, Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Narges Esfandiari

    2013-01-01

    Conclusions: It is suggested that students from middle school get assessed in terms of the level of social anxiety. Then, the quality and quantity of their online communication should be moderated through group training and consulting and referral to medical centers, if needed. The results of this study may lead to optimal use of online communications and reduce the personal, social and psychological problems of adolescents.

  5. The Impact of Social Interaction and Communications on Innovation in the Architectural Design Studio

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bhzad Sidawi

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Design is a social phenomenon and researchers suggest that social interaction, negotiations and communication between designers are essential to initiate creativity. Within the design studio environment, a number of factors affect the healthy social interaction and design negotiations, such as the teaching style of tutors and the culture that governs a design studio’s environment. This may in turn affect the utilization of the outcome of negotiations in the design project. Design studio students from the third to fifth years at the College of Architecture, University of Dammam (UD, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA, were surveyed to find out how far the design studio’s culture and communication would impact the production of innovative design projects. The results show that frequent communication and the establishment’s shared grounds are essential to develop knowledge and positively influence the design outcome. On the other hand, the research found that negative qualities on a personal level and on that of a design studio environment would hinder a student’s creativity. However, to develop students’ design/innovative abilities, the researcher recommends that certain measures should be considered. These would include transforming the design studio into an interactive and friendly learning environment, adjusting the teaching methodology, and developing interactive communication abilities of students and tutors.

  6. ROLE OF IMAGE IN MARKETING PERFORMANCE ODEL SUPPORTED BY MARKETING COMMUNICATION AND COMPANY SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eddy Soeryanto Soegoto

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available AbstractBanking industries have not been effective yet in implementing marketing communication and company social responsibility programs. The establishment of image has not been done effectively yet; accordingly marketing performance cannot be implemented as it is expected. This research was done in the banking industries at Bandung City with sample as much as 42 banking industries drawn using a random sampling method. Thaanalysis procedure used Structural Equation Modeling based on Partial Least Square. This study generates anew model different with the previous researches where marketing communication and company social respon-sibility programs do not affect directly on the banking industries’ marketing performance. Nevertheless the image affect the marketing performance moderately. In conclusion, banking industries’ marketing perfor-mance can be maximal when the marketing communication is implemented effectively and the company social responsibility is implemented conducively in order to shape positive image.

  7. Japanese Intercultural Communication Strategies in Multinational Companies

    OpenAIRE

    大山, 中勝

    1997-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to describe, from a sociolinguistic perspective, major language functions during which Japanese-American communication occurs in multinational companies in the United States. Comparing communication problems across major language functions and research memos, five major themes emerged: (1)foramlity; (2)social hierarchical distinctons; (3)ambiguous communication strategies; (4)consensus making; and (5)language attitudes. This paper also aims to identify the intercu...

  8. Adolescent Peer Relationships and Behavior Problems Predict Young Adults' Communication on Social Networking Websites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikami, Amori Yee; Szwedo, David E.; Allen, Joseph P.; Evans, Meredyth A.; Hare, Amanda L.

    2010-01-01

    This study examined online communication on social networking web pages in a longitudinal sample of 92 youths (39 male, 53 female). Participants' social and behavioral adjustment was assessed when they were ages 13-14 years and again at ages 20-22 years. At ages 20-22 years, participants' social networking website use and indicators of friendship…

  9. Social media and its dual use in biopreparedness: communication and visualization tools in an animal bioterrorism incident.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sjöberg, Elisabeth; Barker, Gary C; Landgren, Jonas; Griberg, Isaac; Skiby, Jeffrey E; Tubbin, Anna; von Stapelmohr, Anne; Härenstam, Malin; Jansson, Mikael; Knutsson, Rickard

    2013-09-01

    This article focuses on social media and interactive challenges for emergency organizations during a bioterrorism or agroterrorism incident, and it outlines the dual-use dilemma of social media. Attackers or terrorists can use social media as their modus operandi, and defenders, including emergency organizations in law enforcement and public and animal health, can use it for peaceful purposes. To get a better understanding of the uses of social media in these situations, a workshop was arranged in Stockholm, Sweden, to raise awareness about social media and animal bioterrorism threats. Fifty-six experts and crisis communicators from international and national organizations participated. As a result of the workshop, it was concluded that emergency organizations can collect valuable information and monitor social media before, during, and after an outbreak. In order to make use of interactive communication to obtain collective intelligence from the public, emergency organizations must adapt to social networking technologies, requiring multidisciplinary knowledge in the fields of information, communication, IT, and biopreparedness. Social network messaging during a disease outbreak can be visualized in stream graphs and networks showing clusters of Twitter and Facebook users. The visualization of social media can be an important preparedness tool in the response to bioterrorism and agroterrorism.

  10. Communication Media, Memory, and Social-Political Change in Eric Havelock.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gronbeck, Bruce E.

    2000-01-01

    Seeks to rehearse E. Havelock's arguments about relationships among communication modes or media, memory, and social-political change to specify his primary contributions to the so-called orality-literacy theorems, or to what is now beginning to be called theories of media ecology. Describes Havelock's evolutionary journey from the late 1950s to…

  11. Variability in classroom social communication: performance of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and typically developing peers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kjellmer, Liselotte; Olswang, Lesley B

    2013-06-01

    In this study, the authors examined how variability in classroom social communication performance differed between children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and pair-matched, typically developing peers. Twelve pairs of children were observed in their classrooms, 40 min per day (20 min per child) for 4 days over a 2-week period. Coders documented classroom social communication during situations of Cooperation and following School Rules by recording performance on handheld computers using the Social Communication Coding System (SCCS). The SCCS consists of 6 behavioral dimensions (prosocial/engaged, passive/disengaged, irrelevant, hostile/coercive, assertive, and adult seeking). The frequency of occurrence and duration of each dimension were recorded. These measures were then used to examine variability in performance within and across days (changeability and stability, respectively). Independent of classroom situation, children with FASD were more variable than their typically developing peers in terms of changing behavioral dimensions more often (changeability) and varying their behavior more from day to day (stability). Documenting performance variability may provide a clearer understanding of the classroom social communication difficulties of the child with mild FASD.

  12. Improving social and communication skills of adult Arabs with ASD through the use of social media technologies

    OpenAIRE

    Mashat, Alaa; Wald, Mike; Parsons, Sarah

    2014-01-01

    People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) find it hard to communicate and interact with other people. Although technology has been involved in sup-porting people with ASD in developed countries, research on such technologies has been mainly related to Western culture. Arab adults with ASD require sup-port for improving their social skills. However, cultural differences could limit the usability of existing technologies. The proposed study aims to investigate the use of social networks for su...

  13. PSYCHO-PEDAGOGICAL MAINTENANCE OF SOCIAL AND COMMUNICATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF SENIOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina Vasilievna Sklezneva

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In the article the questions of creation of conditions for formation of game rules in children of preschool age and the role of game rules in a socio-communicative development of senior preschool children. Goal. The article is devoted to the work of the teacher-psychologist at psycho-pedagogical support of social-communicative development of senior pre-school educational activities, including the development of senior preschool children in the game rules. Methods and methodology of work. Built in accordance with the cultural-historical approach to the study of child development, the study was conducted on the basis of the observation of the free play of older preschoolers and formative experiment. Results. The results are that the features of psychological and pedagogical support of social and communicative development in different types of activities, including game rules, which involves: business educators in the successful development of children in all activities; work with educators about the organization of subject gaming environment; diagnostic work with the aim of the organization is directly educational work aimed at socio-communicative development. The scope of the results. The results of the study can be applied in the activities of the teacher-psychologist of preschool education.

  14. Communication access to businesses and organizations for people with complex communication needs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collier, Barbara; Blackstone, Sarah W; Taylor, Andrew

    2012-12-01

    Human rights legislation and anti-discrimination and accessibility laws exist in many countries and through international conventions and treaties. To varying degrees, these laws protect the rights of people with disabilities to full and equal access to goods and services. Yet, the accessibility requirements of people with complex communication needs (CCN) are not well represented in the existing accessibility literature. This article describes the results of surveys completed by disability service providers and individuals with CCN due to cerebral palsy, developmental delay, and acquired disabilities. It identifies accessibility requirements for people with CCN for face-to-face communication; comprehension of spoken language; telephone communication; text and print-based communication; Internet, email, and social media interactions; and written communication. Recommendations are made for communication accessibility accommodations in regulations, guidelines, and practices.

  15. Narrowing the Broader Autism Phenotype: A Study Using the Communication Checklist-Adult Version (CC-A)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitehouse, Andrew J. O.; Coon, Hilary; Miller, Judith; Salisbury, Bryanna; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

    2010-01-01

    This study investigated whether the Communication Checklist-Adult (CC-A) could identify subtypes of social and communication dysfunction in autism probands and their parents. The CC-A is divided into subscales measuring linguistic ability as well as two aspects of social communication: the Pragmatic Skills subscale assesses the level of pragmatic…

  16. Lost in translation: Cultural divides in communication skills teaching identified in the ICCH 2016 student symposium.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schopper, Heather K; Mohamed, Nasteha A; Seegel, Max; Gorina, Kseniya; Silverman, Jonathan; Rosenbaum, Marcy

    2017-11-01

    To provide a platform for learners' voices at an international conference on communication in healthcare. A group of medical students were invited to explore their experiences with communication skills learning at a symposium at the 2016 International Conference on Communication in Healthcare in Heidelberg, DE. Students from the US, Denmark, Germany, and Russia discussed their experiences with communication skills curriculum at their institutions. We identified divides that have challenged our ability to develop and maintain strong communication skills: 1) valuation of communication skills vs. other topics, 2) curricular theory vs. practice, 3) evaluation vs. feedback, 4) preclinical vs. clinical learning, and 5) the medical student vs. practicing clinician role. The points of transition we identified on the road of communication skills teaching highlight opportunities to strengthen the educational experience for students. Without an effort to address these divides, however, our communication skills may be lost in translation. Students value communication skills teaching during their medical education and there are opportunities to translate this to countries that currently lack robust curricula and to the real-life post-graduate setting. Support is necessary from students, teachers, and administrators, and focus on translation of skills during role transitions is needed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Novel Opportunistic Network Routing Based on Social Rank for Device-to-Device Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tong Wang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, there has been dramatic proliferation of research concerned with fifth-generation (5G mobile communication networks, among which device-to-device (D2D communication is one of the key technologies. Due to the intermittent connection of nodes, the D2D network topology may be disconnected frequently, which will lead to failure in transmission of large data files. In opportunistic networks, in case of encountering nodes which never meet before a flood message blindly to cause tremendous network overhead, a novel opportunistic network routing protocol based on social rank and intermeeting time (SRIT is proposed in this paper. An improved utility approach applied in utility replication based on encounter durations and intermeeting time is put forward to enhance the routing efficiency. Meanwhile, in order to select better candidate nodes in the network, a social graph among people is established when they socially relate to each other in social rank replication. The results under the scenario show an advantage of the proposed opportunistic network routing based on social rank and intermeeting time (SRIT over the compared algorithms in terms of delivery ratio, average delivery latency, and overhead ratio.

  18. Social Media as a strategic tool for Corporate Communication/ Los Medios Sociales como una herramienta estratégica para la Comunicación Corporativa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivette Soto Velez

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Companies around the globe are embracing and adapting social media for many differentintentions: customer service, marketing, internal communications, public relations orcorporate social responsibility, etc. It is now a reality that social media is channging the waystakeholders and companies communicate daily, providing opportunities for collaboration,participation, interactivity, and engagement. Therefore, social media is conceived today inthe corporate world as a strategic communication partner, driving new and uniquepossibilities for organizations to engage stakeholders in conversations. We are witnesses of anew digital era where consumers are becoming active users rather than passive individuals,changing dramatically how society operates. But these useful technological tools areemployed widely and precisely by corporations in order to facilitate and improvecommunications? This research aims to discover the usage of different social mediaplatforms by Puerto Rican companies. A content analysis was performed to the Facebookand Twitter official profiles of the top 400 locally owned Puerto Rican companies of 2009.The principal objective was to find if social media sites were mainly used as a strategic toolfor corporate communication that can enhance stakeholder participation and engagement.Results showed that Puerto Rican companies are not employing social media platforms forimproving communications with different stakeholders, failing to take advantage of theenormous possibilities that social media has for communication./Compañías alrededor del mundo están utilizando los medios sociales para diferentespropósitos: servicio al cliente, mercadeo, comunicaciones internas, relaciones públicas oresponsabilidad social corporativa, etc. Hoy en día es una realidad que los medios socialesestán cambiando la manera en que se comunican las compañías con los distintos públicos deinterés, trayendo consigo oportunidades para la colaboración, el

  19. Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder and Its Relation to the Autism Spectrum: Dilemmas Arising from the DSM-5 Classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brukner-Wertman, Yael; Laor, Nathaniel; Golan, Ofer

    2016-01-01

    DSM-5 introduced two diagnoses describing neurodevelopmental deficits in social communication (SC); Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SPCD). These diagnoses are differentiated by Repetitive and Restricted Behaviors (RRB), required for an ASD diagnosis and absent in SPCD. We highlight the gaps between the…

  20. Internet-Communication Disorder: It's a Matter of Social Aspects, Coping, and Internet-Use Expectancies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wegmann, Elisa; Brand, Matthias

    2016-01-01

    Online communication applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter are some of the most frequently used Internet applications. There is a growing amount of individuals suffering diminished control over their use of online communication applications which leads to diverse negative consequences in offline life. This could be referred to as Internet-communication disorder (ICD). The current study investigates the role of individual characteristics (e.g., psychopathological symptoms, feelings of loneliness) and specific cognitions. In a sample of 485 participants a structural equation model was tested to investigate predictors and mediators which may predict an excessive use. The results emphasize that a higher level of social loneliness and less perceived social support enhance the risk of a pathological use. The effects of psychopathological symptoms (depression and social anxiety) as well as individual characteristics (self-esteem, self-efficacy, and stress vulnerability) on ICD symptoms are mediated by Internet-use expectancies and dysfunctional coping mechanisms. The results illustrate mediation effects which are in line with the theoretical model by Brand et al. (2016). As suggested in the model social aspects seem to be key predictors of ICD symptoms. Further research should investigate convergent and divergent factors of other types of specific Internet-use disorders.

  1. Internet-Communication Disorder: It's a Matter of Social Aspects, Coping, and Internet-Use Expectancies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wegmann, Elisa; Brand, Matthias

    2016-01-01

    Online communication applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter are some of the most frequently used Internet applications. There is a growing amount of individuals suffering diminished control over their use of online communication applications which leads to diverse negative consequences in offline life. This could be referred to as Internet-communication disorder (ICD). The current study investigates the role of individual characteristics (e.g., psychopathological symptoms, feelings of loneliness) and specific cognitions. In a sample of 485 participants a structural equation model was tested to investigate predictors and mediators which may predict an excessive use. The results emphasize that a higher level of social loneliness and less perceived social support enhance the risk of a pathological use. The effects of psychopathological symptoms (depression and social anxiety) as well as individual characteristics (self-esteem, self-efficacy, and stress vulnerability) on ICD symptoms are mediated by Internet-use expectancies and dysfunctional coping mechanisms. The results illustrate mediation effects which are in line with the theoretical model by Brand et al. (2016). As suggested in the model social aspects seem to be key predictors of ICD symptoms. Further research should investigate convergent and divergent factors of other types of specific Internet-use disorders. PMID:27891107

  2. Comparison of Czech, Slovak and Swiss Product Innovation Oriented Firms’ Communication in Social Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vít Chlebovský

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective of the research described in this article is to analyze and compare the use of social media communication channels in Czech, Slovak and Swiss product innovation oriented companies, where Swiss set of the companies is used as a benchmark. Primary research was made through manual activity scanning of the selected companies within social media. European company database Amadeus provided by Bureau van Dijk was used for the company selection in all three countries under the same search criteria. There were made two research sets of the companies in each country. One set covers top turnover product innovation oriented companies, second set avoided product innovation orientation search criteria and covers top companies by turnover in the respective country. Each particular sample set covered 74 to 100 companies.Activities of the selected companies on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn were manually scanned and particular metrics were scaled. Microsoft Excel was used for storing, statistical processing and graphic outputs of the research. Evaluated results show significant gaps in use of social media communication tools in Czech and Slovak companies comparing to Swiss benchmark. It has been also confirmed that social media communication activity in product innovation oriented companies is equal to other companies. The hypotheses were statistically tested and results confirmed.

  3. COMMUNICATION BY MEANS OF THE NEW SOCIAL NETWORKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Purice Suzana

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available In our days, the electronic communication media is important because the communication forms based on interactivity lead the participants in the act of sending and receiving information to become more than simply issuers, listeners or viewers, integrating them into a dynamic system. In this approach, the study paper aims to prove the relationship between personal development and that of society determined by the new interactive communication instruments. At the individual level, training, education, health, interpersonal relationships are easier to be acquired and amplified Also, the local communities, companies, educational institutions or non-profit organizations increasingly approach themselves to the citizens, receive their problems and try to solve them efficiently. On the other hand, the expansion of the modern means of communication became possible by the steadily decreasing costs of information and of the appropriate management technologies. Virtual communities may, however, only partially replace the traditional communities and the direct physical interaction between people, because online connections are made between people, not between places. Moreover, a high degree of interconnection involves the spreading of ideas, links and various discoveries or improvements of some already existing equipment and processes. The content of this study paper is created using secondary sources of information – with limited and also limiting feature – in an office research, the areas of analysis being studied separately. The result of the study paper is to evidence the fact that the interest for the interactive electronic communication is increasing. We support the idea that such communication contributes to business development in a particular field, in the social sector, but it is better to be aware of its less desirable effects from which we can notice the loss of privacy, the identity theft, the aggressive promotion etc. In our

  4. Social Movements and Political Agency in the Digital Age: A Communication Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anastasia Kavada

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Digital media pose a dual challenge to conventional understandings of political agency. First, digital media destabilize long-held assumptions about the nature of collective action, about social movements and their capacity to effect change. This is because digital media are thought to facilitate more decentralized, dispersed, temporary and individualized forms of political action that subvert the notion of the collective as singular, unified, homogeneous, coherent, and mass. One way of resolving this challenge is to view the collective in looser terms, as a process rather than as a finished product, a conceptualization that can be influence our understanding not only of social movements, but also of other political actors and of society as a whole. Second, digital media highlight the need to take communication seriously in how we conceptualize both collective action and political agency. Placing communication at the centre allows us to develop this looser and more processual understanding of the collective by studying it as a process that is constituted in and through communication. Inspired by organizational communication and particularly the work of Taylor and van Every (2000, this essay proposes a conception of collective action as emerging in conversations and solidified in texts. This conceptualization allows for a more multiplex and variegated view of political agency that takes into account the specific context where agency is exercised and the power that different actors can exert in a communicative process of negotiation, persuasion and claim-making.

  5. Monitoring of social networks and their links with the external communication plan of Cofrentes NPP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gomez Garcia, C.; Tejedor Garcia, E.

    2015-01-01

    Currently, new communication models are being established in the society. Companies, as part of society and as socially responsible entities should be part of these changes and, therefore, adapt themselves to these new models of communication. In one approach and study of this new model, some experiences obtained by Cofrentes Nuclear Power Plant are studied, a SWOT analysis of the situation is made and are raised the three main objectives Cofrentes NPP should pursue if it enters in the social networks field. (Author)

  6. Motor competency and social communication skills in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craig, Francesco; Lorenzo, Alessandro; Lucarelli, Elisabetta; Russo, Luigi; Fanizza, Isabella; Trabacca, Antonio

    2018-03-01

    This study aimed to investigate the association between motor competency and social communication in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared with children with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and typically developing (TD) children. Motor competency, ASD symptoms, and nonverbal Intelligent Quotient (IQ) were investigated through the following tests: Movement Assessment Battery for Children, second edition (MABC-2), Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication (ACSF:SC) and Leiter International Performances Scale Revised (Leiter-R). The ASD + ID and ID groups had lower MABC-2-manual dexterity mean scores, MABC-2-aiming and catching mean scores, MABC-2-static and dynamic balance mean scores and MABC-2-TTS compared with the TD group (P < 0.05). In addition, the ASD + ID group had lower MABC-2-aiming and catching mean scores compared with the ID group. In the ASD + ID group, we found a significant negative correlation (P < 0.001) between MABC-2-aiming and catching scores with SCQ scores, nonverbal IQ and ACSF:SC levels. Our findings provide new insight into the common neuropsychological mechanisms underlying social communication and motor deficits in ASD. Multiple deficits in motor functioning may be present in ASD and ID, however deficits involving the ability to integrate motor and social cues are somewhat specific to ASD. Autism Res 2018. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This study highlighted the specificity of motor impairment in ASD comparing performances on a frequently used measure of motor impairment between clinical groups (ASD + ID and ID) and a non-clinical group. While previous research has suggested that multiple deficits in motor functioning may be present in ASD, our findings suggest that deficits in tasks involving the ability to integrate visual and motor cues (aiming and catching task) are somewhat specific to

  7. Planning, implementing and evaluating a social and communication skills course for riding instructors

    OpenAIRE

    Seefeld, Annika

    2016-01-01

    Social and emotional skills are very important for effective coaching. As research in this field is still very limited, the purpose of this study was to plan, implement and evaluate a course teaching social and emotional skills to riding instructors. The objective of this research project was to analyse the usefulness and feasibility of a social and communication skills course for riding instructors. The present research study is an educational action research case study approa...

  8. Social participation for people with communication disability in coffee shops and restaurants is a human right.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Clare; Guinan, Nicole; Kinneen, Libby; Mulheir, Denise; Loughnane, Hannah; Joyce, Orla; Higgins, Elaine; Boyle, Emma; Mullarney, Margaret; Lyons, Rena

    2018-02-01

    Although Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "everyone has a right to freedom of opinion and expression", for people with communication disability this may not be a reality. This commentary shares a practical example of how people with communication disabilities together with speech-language pathology (SLP) students, academics and clinical staff co-designed and co-implemented a Communication Awareness Training Programme for catering staff to enable communication access in coffee shops and restaurants. This is an example of how SLPs can embrace their social responsibility to break down barriers for people with communication disabilities. This commentary shares the reflections of those involved and how they felt empowered because they had learned new skills and made a difference. This commentary highlights the need for co-design and co-delivery of programs to raise awareness of communication disability among catering staff and how the stories of people with communication disabilities served as a catalyst for change. It also highlights the need to SLPs to move intervention to a social and community space.

  9. Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Identify as a Professional Social Worker Subscale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farmer, Antoinette Y.

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Identify as a Professional Social Worker Subscale, which assessed the Council on Social Work Education--prescribed competency "identify as a professional social worker and conduct oneself accordingly." The results of confirmatory factory analysis indicated that…

  10. Identifying context factors explaining physician's low performance in communication assessment: an explorative study in general practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Essers, Geurt; van Dulmen, Sandra; van Weel, Chris; van der Vleuten, Cees; Kramer, Anneke

    2011-12-13

    Communication is a key competence for health care professionals. Analysis of registrar and GP communication performance in daily practice, however, suggests a suboptimal application of communication skills. The influence of context factors could reveal why communication performance levels, on average, do not appear adequate. The context of daily practice may require different skills or specific ways of handling these skills, whereas communication skills are mostly treated as generic. So far no empirical analysis of the context has been made. Our aim was to identify context factors that could be related to GP communication. A purposive sample of real-life videotaped GP consultations was analyzed (N = 17). As a frame of reference we chose the MAAS-Global, a widely used assessment instrument for medical communication. By inductive reasoning, we analyzed the GP behaviour in the consultation leading to poor item scores on the MAAS-Global. In these cases we looked for the presence of an intervening context factor, and how this might explain the actual GP communication behaviour. We reached saturation after having viewed 17 consultations. We identified 19 context factors that could potentially explain the deviation from generic recommendations on communication skills. These context factors can be categorized into doctor-related, patient-related, and consultation-related factors. Several context factors seem to influence doctor-patient communication, requiring the GP to apply communication skills differently from recommendations on communication. From this study we conclude that there is a need to explicitly account for context factors in the assessment of GP (and GP registrar) communication performance. The next step is to validate our findings.

  11. Social networking sites and older users - a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nef, Tobias; Ganea, Raluca L; Müri, René M; Mosimann, Urs P

    2013-07-01

    Social networking sites can be beneficial for senior citizens to promote social participation and to enhance intergenerational communication. Particularly for older adults with impaired mobility, social networking sites can help them to connect with family members and other active social networking users. The aim of this systematic review is to give an overview of existing scientific literature on social networking in older users. Computerized databases were searched and 105 articles were identified and screened using exclusion criteria. After exclusion of 87 articles, 18 articles were included, reviewed, classified, and the key findings were extracted. Common findings are identified and critically discussed and possible future research directions are outlined. The main benefit of using social networking sites for older adults is to enter in an intergenerational communication with younger family members (children and grandchildren) that is appreciated by both sides. Identified barriers are privacy concerns, technical difficulties and the fact that current Web design does not take the needs of older users into account. Under the conditions that these problems are carefully addressed, social networking sites have the potential to support today's and tomorrow's communication between older and younger family members.

  12. Digital diplomacy in GCC countries: strategic communication of Western embassies on Twitter

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Strauß, N.; Kruikemeier, S.; van der Meulen, H.; van Noort, G.

    2015-01-01

    Drawing upon online communication research, this study identifies six effective communication strategies for social media-based diplomacy on Twitter: interactive, personalized, positive, relevant, and transparent communication among a broad network of stakeholders. By using an extensive mix-method

  13. Increasing the Social Communication of a Boy With Autism Using Animal-assisted Play Therapy: A Case Report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fung, Suk Chun

    2015-01-01

    Although research has shown that animal-assisted play therapy (AAPT) is associated with increased positive social behaviors in children with autism, the related literature on AAPT and autism is very limited. The study tested the effectiveness of AAPT in increasing the social communication of a boy with autism. The treatment's effects on specific types of social communication were also investigated. An A-B-A single-subject design was adopted to examine treatment effectiveness. Follow-up assessments were made at 1 mo posttreatment. The videotaped treatment sessions were held in the multipurpose room of the participant's school. A 7-y-old boy who had a diagnosis of autism and mild-grade intellectual disability participated in the study. AAPT was implemented in 20-min sessions held 3 ×/wk. The 14 AAPT sessions occurred in 4 phases, covering child-dog relationship building and interaction in the presence of the therapist, with the diminishing presence of the dog occurring in phase 4. Naturally occurring social behaviors were measured in 3 baseline sessions, during the 14 AAPT sessions, during 3 posttreatment sessions, and again during 3 follow-up sessions. Momentary time sampling was used to estimate the frequency of target behaviors, using a 15-s interval. Behavioral categories were checked at every interval during each 20-min session in all 23 sessions. The study showed that the boy's social communication increased during treatment and remained higher than baseline at follow-up. An analysis of specific types of social communication showed that the benefits of AAPT were most apparent in the joint-attention and waiting behaviors. The findings provide support for using AAPT as an intervention to facilitate the social communication of children with autism.

  14. Putting the "we" into teamwork: effects of priming personal or social identity on flight attendants' perceptions of teamwork and communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ford, Jane; O'Hare, David; Henderson, Robert

    2013-06-01

    The study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of a manipulation derived from social categorization and social identity theory to promote greater cabin crew willingness to engage in intergroup communication and teamwork in airline operations. Failures of communication and teamwork between airline crew have been implicated in a number of airline crashes. Flight attendants based domestically (n = 254) or overseas (n = 230) received a manipulation designed to prime either their social identity or personal identity and then read a brief outline of an in-flight event before completing a teamwork questionnaire. Flight attendants who received a social identity prime indicated increased willingness to engage in coordinated team action compared with those who received a personal identity prime. Priming social identity can enhance attitudes toward teamwork and communication, potentially leading to increased willingness to engage in intergroup cooperation. Social categorization and social identity theories can be used to inform joint training program development for flight attendants and pilots to create increased willingness for group members to participate in effective communication and teamwork behaviors.

  15. Identifying and assessing the factors affecting skill gap in digital marketing in communication industry companies

    OpenAIRE

    Ghotbifar, Fereshteh; Marjani, Mohammad Reza; Ramazani, Abbas

    2017-01-01

    As far as new communication channels are concerned, there have been extensive developments in communications and marketing in digital era. Today, therefore, companies try to take advantage of digital marketing channels to provide suitable services to customers to improve their satisfaction level. However, this study aimed to identify and assess factors affecting skill gap in digital marketing. This was descriptive correlation study. The population consisted of experts in communications indust...

  16. The Relationship between Motor, Imitation, and Early Social Communication Skills in Children with Autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dadgar, Hooshang; Alaghband Rad, Javad; Soleymani, Zahra; Khorammi, Anahita; McCleery, Joe; Maroufizadeh, Saman

    2017-10-01

    Objective: Development of early social skills in children is a complex process. To understand this process, it is important to assess how strengths or weaknesses in other developmental domains may be affected by these skills. The present study aimed at investigating the association of motor skills and imitation ability with early social communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Method: In this study, 20 children with ASD aged 3 to 5 years (M = 4.05, SD = 0.55) participated. All children were diagnosed as ASD based on the DSM-V criteria by an independent child psychiatrist. Additionally, Autism Diagnostic interview-Revised was used for subsequent diagnostic confirmation. Children were tested with Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2), the Motor Imitation Scale (MIS), and the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS). All examinations were videotaped for subsequent scoring. The relationship between these skills was estimated by Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: A significant and strong correlation was obtained between TGMD total score and imitation total score (r =.776; p 0.05). A significant correlation was found between MIS and TGMD total scores with Initiating Joint Attention and Responding to Joint Attention (p≤0/025) as ESCS subscales. But MIS and TGMD total scores were not correlated with social interaction and responding to behavioral requests subscales. Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that indicated both imitation ability and motor function have an association with each other and with early social communication skills.

  17. Communication perspectives on social networking and citizen journalism challenges to traditional newspapers

    OpenAIRE

    Katz, James E.

    2011-01-01

    Communication perspectives are presented on the challenges posed to traditional newspapers by social media and citizen journalism, with special reference to the United States. This is an important topic given the critical role investigative reporting, long the domain of newspapers, plays in fostering democratic practices. New Media and social networking technology are evaluated in terms of their impact on the newspaper enterprise. Alternative scenarios for future developments are examined as ...

  18. Networked Scholarship and Motivations for Social Media Use in Scholarly Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manca, Stefania; Ranier, Maria

    2017-01-01

    Research on scholars' use of social media suggests that these sites are increasingly being used to enhance scholarly communication by strengthening relationships, facilitating collaboration among peers, publishing and sharing research products, and discussing research topics in open and public formats. However, very few studies have investigated…

  19. Toward economic reward: Corporate social responsibility communication of SMEs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mulović Ana

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In business world of today, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs play the part of an increasingly important role in the world economy. Currently, SMEs are thought to be the backbone of economic growth in many countries, contributing to the creation of job opportunities and acting as suppliers of goods and services for large organizations. Internationally, various studies are related to the importance of SMEs for a country's development and economic stability. SMEs also play an important role in European economies and their form according to some authors is a pillar of business structure. Academics emphasise in many ways Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR as a mantra for our time, a time which they characterised as 'the era of compassionate capitalism' or 'the age of sustainability'. CSR communication is an important element of the strategic approach to communication, which rests on the idea that enterprises can create a strong identity by implementing a systematic and proactive strategic communication practice within their organisations, establishing the way for 'the building and maintaining of favourable reputations and relationships with key stakeholders'.

  20. Philosophy of social networking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markova T. V.

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available the article is devoted to the study of social networks impact on an individual, which are an important part of a modern society. Through reflections the reasons of the popularity of the phenomenon of virtual communication in the 21st century are determined: what drives a person when he / she registers on the sites for communication, premises for his / her actions and consequences. The latter is viewed from both a social and a personal point of view. After analyzing the charts of social networks popularity, the authors come to the conclusion that there is an increase in the population of the virtual communication supporters. It allows to assert that the problem of the termination of live communication is relevant to this day. Dualism of social networks influence on the consciousness of an individual is stated: together with negative consequences positive aspects are considered. By analyzing social media researches, as well as by the means of a survey, the dominant reason for the world wide web entering is identified. After that, it is clearly shown what a typical site for communication is; as a result, the pros and cons of such time spending are specified. The conclusion states the predominance of the Internet dependence over the other types of dependencies, also forecasts are made for the future of both social networks and the people caught in their web.

  1. Executive function predicts theory of mind but not social verbal communication in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kouklari, Evangelia-Chrysanthi; Tsermentseli, Stella; Auyeung, Bonnie

    2018-05-01

    The association between Executive Function (EF) and Theory of Mind (ToM) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been mainly investigated using false belief tasks, whilst less is known about the EF effect on other ToM facets. Furthermore, the role EF plays in social communication in ASD is mainly assessed using parent-report EF ratings rather than direct assessment. The aim of this study was to shed more light on the effect of performance-based EF measures on ToM and social communication in middle childhood in ASD relative to neurotypical controls. Cross-sectional data were collected from 64 matched, school-aged children with and without ASD (8-12 years old), tested on measures of EF (inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility), ToM mental state/emotion recognition and social verbal communication. Significant group differences were observed only in selective EF skills (inhibition &cognitive flexibility) and social verbal communication. EF working memory contributed to the explained variance of ToM but not social verbal communication in middle childhood. These findings suggest that EF and ToM are still associated in middle childhood and EF may be a crucial predictor of ToM across childhood in ASD. Implications are discussed regarding the social-cognitive impairment relationship in ASD. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Developing a classification system of social communication functioning of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Rezze, Briano; Rosenbaum, Peter; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie; Hidecker, Mary Jo Cooley; Stratford, Paul; Cousins, Martha; Camden, Chantal; Law, Mary

    2016-09-01

    Impairments in social communication are the hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Operationalizing 'severity' in ASD has been challenging; thus, stratifying by functioning has not been possible. The purpose of this study is to describe the development of the Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication (ACSF:SC) and to evaluate its consistency within and between parent and professional ratings. (1) ACSF:SC development based on focus groups and surveys involving parents, educators, and clinicians familiar with preschoolers with ASD; and (2) evaluation of the intra- and interrater agreement of the ACSF:SC using weighted kappa (кw ). Seventy-six participants were involved in the development process. Core characteristics of social communication were ascertained: communicative intent; communicative skills and reciprocity; and impact of environment. Five ACSF:SC levels were created and content-validated across participants. Best capacity and typical performance agreement ratings varied as follows: intrarater agreement on 41 children was кw =0.61 to 0.69 for parents, and кw =0.71 to 0.95 for professionals; interrater agreement between professionals was кw =0.47 to 0.61, and between parents and professionals was кw =0.33 to 0.53. Perspectives from parents and professionals informed ACSF:SC development, providing common descriptions of the levels of everyday communicative abilities of children with ASD to complement the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Rater agreement demonstrates that the ACSF:SC can be used with acceptable consistency compared with other functional classification systems. © 2016 Mac Keith Press.

  3. The Effectiveness of Social Media as a Marketing Communication Tactic : Case Gina Tricot Ltd

    OpenAIRE

    Kallio, Kira

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this thesis was to discover whether social media is an effective marketing communication tactic for Gina Tricot or not. The objective was to find out how customers experience Gina Tricot’s marketing and social media activities and whether social media accounts are able to serve customers as aimed. The case company Gina Tricot is presented in the introduction chapter. The theoretical study focuses on social media marketing and on the transition from traditional outbound marketing to...

  4. Active music classes in infancy enhance musical, communicative and social development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerry, David; Unrau, Andrea; Trainor, Laurel J

    2012-05-01

    Previous studies suggest that musical training in children can positively affect various aspects of development. However, it remains unknown as to how early in development musical experience can have an effect, the nature of any such effects, and whether different types of music experience affect development differently. We found that random assignment to 6 months of active participatory musical experience beginning at 6 months of age accelerates acquisition of culture-specific knowledge of Western tonality in comparison to a similar amount of passive exposure to music. Furthermore, infants assigned to the active musical experience showed superior development of prelinguistic communicative gestures and social behaviour compared to infants assigned to the passive musical experience. These results indicate that (1) infants can engage in meaningful musical training when appropriate pedagogical approaches are used, (2) active musical participation in infancy enhances culture-specific musical acquisition, and (3) active musical participation in infancy impacts social and communication development. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  5. Integrating Language, Pragmatics, and Social Intervention in a Single-Subject Case Study of a Child With a Developmental Social Communication Disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Catherine; Gaile, Jacqueline; Lockton, Elaine; Freed, Jenny

    2015-10-01

    This clinical focus article presents an illustration of a complex communication intervention, the Social Communication Intervention Programme (SCIP), as delivered to a child who has a social communication disorder (SCD). The SCIP intervention combined language processing and pragmatic and social understanding therapies in a program of individualized therapy activities and in close liaison with families. The study used an enhanced AB single-subject design in which an 8-year-old child with an SCD participated in 20 therapy sessions with a specialist speech-language pathologist. A procedure of matching assessment findings to intervention choices was followed to construct an individualized treatment program. Examples of intervention content and the embedded structure of SCIP are illustrated. Observational and formal measurements of receptive and expressive language, conversation, and parent-teacher ratings of social communication were completed before therapy, after therapy, and at a 6-month follow-up session. Outcomes revealed change in total and receptive language scores but not in expressive language. Conversation showed marked improvement in responsiveness, appreciation of listener knowledge, turn taking, and adaptation of discourse style. Teacher-reported outcomes included improved classroom behavior and enhanced literacy skills. Parent-reported outcomes included improved verbal interactions with family members and personal narratives. This clinical focus article demonstrates the complexity of needs in a child with an SCD and how these can be addressed in individualized intervention. Findings are discussed in relation to the essential nature of language support including pragmatic therapy for children with SCDs. Discussion of the role of formal and functional outcome measurement as well as the proximity of chosen outcomes to the intervention is included.

  6. Social Robotic Experience and Media Communication Practices: An Exploration on the Emotional and Ritualized Human-technology-relations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine Linke

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This article approaches the subject of social robots by focusing on the emotional relations people establish with media and information and communication technology (ICTs in their everyday life. It examines human-technology-relation from a social studies point of view, seeking to raise questions that enable us to make a connection between the research on human relationships and the topic of human-technology relation, especially human-humanoid-relation. In order to explore the human-technology-relations, theoretical ideas of a mediatization of communication and of a ritual interaction order are applied. Ritual theory is particularly used to enable a focus on emotion as a significant dimension in analyzing social technologies. This explorative article refers to empirical findings regarding media communication practices in close relationships. It argues that following the developed approach regarding mediatized and ritualized relational practices, useful insights for a conceptualization of the human-social robot relation can be achieved. The article concludes with remarks regarding the challenge of an empirical approach to human-social robot-relations.

  7. The Fukushima nuclear crisis reemphasizes the need for improved risk communication and better use of social media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ng, Kwan-Hoong; Lean, Mei-Li

    2012-09-01

    The potential of social media has expanded far beyond the initial function of social communication among a network of friends. It has become an increasingly important tool in risk communication to allow the dissemination of timely and accurate information to global citizens to make more informed choices regarding a particular crisis. The Fukushima nuclear crisis is an example where the potential of social media was not fully tapped. This caused undue stress and distrust of authorities. While the use of social media in this crisis could have altered significantly the level of trust in authorities and others, two additional points should be considered. One point is the use of plain language versus scientific language in order to reach a wider audience. The other is an urgent need to improve public information especially in the event of a nuclear emergency and to enhance educational efforts and action by improving radiological protection communication from regulatory bodies and international agencies. These are points that also play a large role in the use of social media.

  8. Social Networks Used by Teens and Parental Control of Their Online Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Shehu

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The Internet plays important functions in identity formation, personal autono-my, and relationships outside the family. It allows teens to develop their own interests, to identify with others. The aim of the study is to present concrete evidence regarding to the communication through social networks and parental care in the management of online communication. Referring questionnaire “Student Needs Assessment Survey” by N. E. Willard (2007, but the author has selected questions to the scope of its study. The sample of the study includes 255 pupils aged 15 – 19 (110 Male and 145 Female. The statistical data processing was performed by SPPS statistical program, version 20. Cronbach’s Alpha 0.764 were used to assess the reliability of the instrument. The most favorite activity on the Internet by the teens is navigation on the In-ternet to see/learn new things (68.6%, during the week the subjects spend ap-proximately less than 2 hours per day (34.1% of them. Most of teenagers (82.7% claims to have communication with their parents about how they treats their friends and 56.5% of them say that sometimes have control by their par-ents for what they do online. If pupils would victim of pressure on the internet and do not have opportunities to can be contained by those 69% of them approve that they would tell to their parents and also (63.9% to school staff members. When there have been cases of violence, even threatening suicide rate of reporting and collaboration between parent - teacher is high, while in other elements resulting lower interest rates. One of the main factors in man-agement of this online communication and Internet is the parent care, which is considered most important in terms of education and not only.

  9. CSR Communication Strategies for Twitter : Microblogging as a Tool for Public Relations

    OpenAIRE

    Etter, Michael; Plotkowiak, Thomas; Stanoevska-Slabeva, Katarina

    2011-01-01

    This study explores how companies use the social media tool Twitter for CSR communication. By analyzing CSR communication conducted by 30 most central corporate Twitter accounts, identified through social network analysis within a CSR-Twitter-network consisting of 19'855 Twitter members, we contribute to the understanding of Twitter's role for CSR communication and public relations. Manually conducted content analysis of totally 41‘864 corporate Twitter messages gives insights into different ...

  10. Computer Mediated Communication for Social and Academic Purposes: Profiles of Use and University Students' Gratifications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vrocharidou, Anatoli; Efthymiou, Ilias

    2012-01-01

    The present study approaches the Internet as a social space, where university students make use of computer mediated communication (CMC) applications, i.e. e-mail, instant messaging and social network sites, in order to satisfy social and academic needs. We focus on university students, because they represent one of the most avid groups of CMC…

  11. The Communication of Naïve Theories of the Social World in Parent-Child Conversation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chalik, Lisa; Rhodes, Marjorie

    2015-01-01

    Three studies examined the communication of naïve theories of social groups in conversations between parents and their 4-year-old children (N = 48). Parent-child dyads read and discussed a storybook in which they either explained why past social interactions had occurred (Study 1) or evaluated whether future social interactions should occur…

  12. Social validation of vocabulary selection: ensuring stakeholder relevance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bornman, Juan; Bryen, Diane Nelson

    2013-06-01

    The vocabulary needs of individuals who are unable to spell their messages continue to be of concern in the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Social validation of vocabulary selection has been suggested as one way to improve the effectiveness and relevance of service delivery in AAC. Despite increased emphasis on stakeholder accountability, social validation is not frequently used in AAC research. This paper describes an investigation of the social validity of a vocabulary set identified in earlier research. A previous study used stakeholder focus groups to identify vocabulary that could be used by South African adults who use AAC to disclose their experiences as victims of crime or abuse. Another study used this vocabulary to create communication boards for use by adults with complex communication needs. In this current project, 12 South African adults with complex communication needs who use AAC systems used a 5-point Likert scale to score the importance of each of the previously identified 57 vocabulary items. This two-step process of first using stakeholder focus groups to identify vocabulary, and then having literate persons who use AAC provide information on social validity of the vocabulary on behalf of their peers who are illiterate, appears to hold promise as a culturally relevant vocabulary selection approach for sensitive topics such as crime and abuse.

  13. Internal Communication and Social Dialogue in Knowledge-Based Organizations

    OpenAIRE

    Diana-Maria CISMARU; Cristina LEOVARIDIS

    2014-01-01

    Knowledge-based organizations are constructed on intangible assets, such as the expertise and the values of the employees. As a consequence, motivation and professional excellence of employees are the main objectives of management teams. For this type of organizations, considered as true “knowledge systems”, the employees represent the most valuable resource that is not motivated only through financial means, but also through internal communication, autonomy or social rewards. The research of...

  14. ASD and schizophrenia show distinct developmental profiles in common genetic overlap with population-based social-communication difficulties

    OpenAIRE

    St Pourcain, B.; Robinson, E.; Anttila, V.; Sullivan, B.; Maller, J.; Golding, J.; Skuse, D.; Ring, S.; Evans, D.; Zammit, S.; Fisher, S.; Neale, B.; Anney, R.; Ripke, S.; Hollegaard, M.

    2017-01-01

    Difficulties in social communication are part of the phenotypic overlap between autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and\\ud schizophrenia. Both conditions follow, however, distinct developmental patterns. Symptoms of ASD typically occur during early\\ud childhood, whereas most symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia do not appear before early adulthood. We investigated whether\\ud overlap in common genetic influences between these clinical conditions and impairments in social communication depends ...

  15. Effects of Communication Competence and Social Network Centralities on Learner Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jo, Il-Hyun; Kang, Stephanie; Yoon, Meehyun

    2014-01-01

    Collaborative learning has become a dominant learning apparatus for higher level learning objectives. Much of the psychological and social mechanisms operating under this complex group activity, however, is not yet well understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of college students' communication competence and degree…

  16. Emotional Intelligence, Communication Competence, and Student Perceptions of Team Social Cohesion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Troth, Ashlea C.; Jordan, Peter J.; Lawrence, Sandra A.

    2012-01-01

    Students generally report poor experiences of group work in university settings. This study examines whether individual student perceptions of team social cohesion are determined by their level of emotional intelligence (EI) and whether this relationship is mediated by their communication skills. Business students (N = 273) completed the 16-item…

  17. Identifying "social smoking" U.S. young adults using an empirically-driven approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villanti, Andrea C; Johnson, Amanda L; Rath, Jessica M; Williams, Valerie; Vallone, Donna M; Abrams, David B; Hedeker, Donald; Mermelstein, Robin J

    2017-07-01

    The phenomenon of "social smoking" emerged in the past decade as an important area of research, largely due to its high prevalence in young adults. The purpose of this study was to identify classes of young adult ever smokers based on measures of social and contextual influences on tobacco use. Latent class models were developed using social smoking measures, and not the frequency or quantity of tobacco use. Data come from a national sample of young adult ever smokers aged 18-24 (Truth Initiative Young Adult Cohort Study, N=1564). The optimal models identified three latent classes: Class 1 - nonsmokers (52%); Class 2 - social smokers (18%); and Class 3 - smokers (30%). Nearly 60% of the "social smoker" class self-identified as a social smoker, 30% as an ex-smoker/tried smoking, and 12% as a non-smoker. The "social smoker" class was most likely to report using tobacco mainly or only with others. Past 30-day cigarette use was highest in the "smoker" class. Hookah use was highest in the "social smoker" class. Other tobacco and e-cigarette use was similar in the "social smoker" and "smoker" classes. Past 30-day tobacco and e-cigarette use was present for all products in the "non-smoker" class. Young adult social smokers emerge empirically as a sizable, distinct class from other smokers, even without accounting for tobacco use frequency or intensity. The prevalence of hookah use in "social smokers" indicates a group for which the social aspect of tobacco use could drive experimentation and progression to regular use. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. A Classical Delphi Study to Identify the Barriers of Pursuing Green Information and Communication Technologies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gotay, Jose Antonio

    2013-01-01

    This qualitative, classical Delphi study served to explore the apparent lack of corporate commitment to prioritized Green Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), which could delay the economic and social benefits for maximizing the use of natural energy resources in a weak economy. The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership…

  19. The usage of social media as a form of external public communication (Case study on Ridwan Kamil as the mayor of Bandung)

    OpenAIRE

    Hafizatullah, Medika Adel; Salamah, Ummi; Wangi, Dorien Kartika

    2017-01-01

    This research entitled “The usage of social media as a form of external public communication (case study on Ridwan Kamil as the Mayor of Bandung)” aims to perceive how Ridwan as a leader can utilize social media as a form of external communication to Bandung people, as well as to perceive what communication and leadership style he applies based on the communication messages through his social media. This research uses qualitative method by content analysis. The data is being collected through...

  20. The Relationship Between Social Anxiety and Online Communication Among Adolescents in the City of Isfahan, Iran

    OpenAIRE

    Esfandiari, Narges; Nouri, Abolghasem; Golparvar, Mohsen; Yarmohammadian, Mohammad H

    2013-01-01

    Background: The internet is a phenomena that changes human, specially the younger generation′s, life in the 21 st century. Online communication is a common way of interacting among adolescents who experience feelings of social anxiety. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social anxiety and online communication in adolescents. Methods: Three hundred and thirty students aged 13-16 years were selected from eight middle and high schools in Isfahan by multistage cl...

  1. Image Gently(SM): a national education and communication campaign in radiology using the science of social marketing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goske, Marilyn J; Applegate, Kimberly E; Boylan, Jennifer; Butler, Priscilla F; Callahan, Michael J; Coley, Brian D; Farley, Shawn; Frush, Donald P; Hernanz-Schulman, Marta; Jaramillo, Diego; Johnson, Neil D; Kaste, Sue C; Morrison, Gregory; Strauss, Keith J

    2008-12-01

    Communication campaigns are an accepted method for altering societal attitudes, increasing knowledge, and achieving social and behavioral change particularly within public health and the social sciences. The Image Gently(SM) campaign is a national education and awareness campaign in radiology designed to promote the need for and opportunities to decrease radiation to children when CT scans are indicated. In this article, the relatively new science of social marketing is reviewed and the theoretical basis for an effective communication campaign in radiology is discussed. Communication strategies are considered and the type of outcomes that should be measured are reviewed. This methodology has demonstrated that simple, straightforward safety messages on radiation protection targeted to medical professionals throughout the radiology community, utilizing multiple media, can affect awareness potentially leading to change in practice.

  2. Using Social Media Sentiment Analysis to Understand Audiences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    McGuire, Mark; Kampf, Constance Elizabeth

    2015-01-01

    approach for contextually understanding social media posts. The human interaction step in ad-hoc corpus analysis is central to this methodology as it provides a means to ask critical questions of the content curated through the ad-hoc corpus directly. Results of ad-hoc corpus analysis from this critical......Social media communication is changing the opportunities for technical communicators to really understand audiences when these audiences are active about issues on social media platforms. Through applying ad-hoc corpus building processes to create word lists relevant to specific organizational...... projects, technical communicators can listen to their external users and identify areas of importance with greater accuracy. While other methods of sentiment analysis look for a solution that leads to artificial intelligence in the program, this paper identifies the present needs of a human interaction...

  3. A Measure of the Personal Perception of In-group Communication about Social Objects

    OpenAIRE

    João Wachelke

    2016-01-01

    The aim of the study was to create a measure of group communication on social objects. An instrument was elaborated, and validity evidence was sought for two topics. The participants were 803 undergraduate students. For both topics, the instrument was adequate to the theoretical structure of three factors: communication frequency; importance of group opinion; similarity with group opinion. Other than presenting satisfactory indexes and precision, the instrument discriminated parti...

  4. Culture and Social Relationship as Factors of Affecting Communicative Non-verbal Behaviors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akhter Lipi, Afia; Nakano, Yukiko; Rehm, Mathias

    The goal of this paper is to link a bridge between social relationship and cultural variation to predict conversants' non-verbal behaviors. This idea serves as a basis of establishing a parameter based socio-cultural model, which determines non-verbal expressive parameters that specify the shapes of agent's nonverbal behaviors in HAI. As the first step, a comparative corpus analysis is done for two cultures in two specific social relationships. Next, by integrating the cultural and social parameters factors with the empirical data from corpus analysis, we establish a model that predicts posture. The predictions from our model successfully demonstrate that both cultural background and social relationship moderate communicative non-verbal behaviors.

  5. Toward a holistic view of parents' discourse: Indirect communication as an emotion socialization strategy

    OpenAIRE

    Hernandez, Erika

    2016-01-01

    Parents teach their children about emotions through a process called emotion socialization and one way that they can do so is through shared discussions about emotions. Research in developmental psychology indicates that parental emotion socialization strategies through discourse such as elaboration and labels and explanations are related to children's emotion understanding and social competence. In the current study, I apply the concept of indirect communication, which has been used in lingu...

  6. The social media cocktail party : A qualitative study of how companies and organizations communicate online

    OpenAIRE

    Ryrhagen, Sarah

    2017-01-01

    Due to the development of, and the opportunities that social media provides for different groups in society, companies and organizations are encouraged to be present on, and be a part of the new social media landscape. This research examines how five companies and five organizations use social media as a tool to create relationships with individuals, and what role social media plays in the daily communication work. The social media platforms discussed in this research companies and organizati...

  7. An exploratory study of communication, gender-role conflict, and social support of parents of children treated at children's hospital.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Jeffrey A

    2010-01-01

    This article explores the relationships between communication and social support of parents of children with cancer (N = 44), and the importance of gender-role conflict in fathers. Structural equation modeling and the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model were used to test the expected relationships between communication, social support, gender-role conflict, and anxiety, and to control for sample nonindependence. Results suggest communication increases perceived emotional and instrumental social support between parents, and instrumental support from fathers results in less anxiety for mothers. When fathers experienced more conflict about their role as financial supporter for the family (i.e., career achievement gender-role conflict), fathers perceived less instrumental and emotional support from their wives. However, fathers who experienced more conflict about career achievement were also less anxious. A second measure of fathers' gender-role conflict (i.e., emotional expression) was unrelated to either mothers' or fathers' outcomes. The role of gender, communication, and social support in the context of pediatric oncology is discussed.

  8. The effect of computer-mediated social support in online communities on patient empowerment and doctor-patient communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oh, Hyun Jung; Lee, Byoungkwan

    2012-01-01

    In the context of diabetes, this study tested a mechanism through which Korean diabetes patients' exchange of computer-mediated social support (CMSS) in diabetes online communities influences their sense of empowerment and intention to actively communicate with the doctor. Analysis of data from 464 Korean diabetes patients indicates significant relationships among diabetes patients' online community activities, perceived CMSS, sense of empowerment, and their intention to actively communicate with the doctor. Diabetes patients who have engaged more in online community activities perceived greater social support from other members of the community. Perceived CMSS significantly predicted their intention to actively communicate with the doctor through sense of empowerment. Sense of empowerment was a valid underlying mechanism that explains how patients' perceived CMSS influences their intention to actively communicate with the doctor. The implications for health communication research and practice are discussed.

  9. Social-Psychological Training as a Tool to Foster Communicative Competency of Students Specialising in Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena N.

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: communicative competency serves as the basis for individual development of students specialising in management as well as a factor of successful managerial career. The implementation of competency-oriented approach in education and modern requirements of the labour market provide for the relevance of fostering communicative competency including its psychological features such as communication knowledge and skills. The specific trait of the author’s approach in the research is a shift from psychological characteristics diagnosis of communicative competencies to their amelioration through social psychological training of students specialized in management. The aim of the research is to elaborate, verify and assess the training programme effectiveness in forming psychological traits of communicative competencies. The article might be of interest for trainers and high school staff, students, specialists in human resources departments of various organisations. Materials and Methods: the research includes the following steps: choosing the testees, selecting diagnostic methodology to identify the level of communication knowledge and skills, pre-testing, elaborating the training programme of communicative competency, getting feed-back from the testees on completing the programme, post-testing diagnostics, comparing the results of testing before and after the training, drawing conclusions. Results: the prospect of formation of students-managers’ preparedness to manage the dynamic correlation of communicative knowledge, abilities, and skills for future professional activity in management students is substantiated. As a result of diagnostics, better knowledge acquisition, higher values of indicators and higher level of development of communicative abilities were revealed. An original author’s approach was proposed. The distinctive feature of this method was the transition from the diagnostics of psychological characteristics of

  10. Digital Inclusion & Health Communication: A Rapid Review of Literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borg, Kim; Boulet, Mark; Smith, Liam; Bragge, Peter

    2018-06-11

    Information and communication technologies can be a valuable tool for enhancing health communication. However, not everyone is utilising the wide suite of digital opportunities. This disparity has the potential to exacerbate existing social and health inequalities, particularly among vulnerable groups such as those who are in poor health and the elderly. This review aimed to systematically identify the common barriers to, and facilitators of, digital inclusion. A comprehensive database search yielded 969 citations. Following screening, seven systematic reviews and three non-systematic reviews were identified. Collectively, the reviews found that physical access continues to be a barrier to digital inclusion. However, provision of access alone is insufficient, as digital ability and attitude were also potential barriers. Social support, direct user experience and collaborative learning/design were identified as key strategies to improve inclusion. These review findings provide guidance for health communication practitioners in designing and implementing effective programmes in the digital environment.

  11. Are Language and Social Communication Intact in Children with Congenital Visual Impairment at School Age?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tadic, Valerie; Pring, Linda; Dale, Naomi

    2010-01-01

    Background: Development of children with congenital visual impairment (VI) has been associated with vulnerable socio-communicative outcomes often bearing striking similarities to those of sighted children with autism. To date, very little is known about language and social communication in children with VI of normal intelligence. Methods: We…

  12. The usage of Internet social networking as a tool of linguist students' intercultural communication competence growth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Сергей Владимирович Сороколетов

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available In work concepts «the intercultural communicative competence», «a social network», possibilities of use social the Internet of network FaceBook in training of students-linguists are described.

  13. Alternative Communication: A Tool for Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María del Rocío Deliyore-Vega

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In a mainly oral society, those who use alternative forms of communication tend to be marginalized, and this limits equal opportunities. Therefore, this article is based on qualitative documentary research in which the problem posed determines how access to alternative and augmentative communication affects the social inclusion of people with disabilities. The objective is to determine the relationship existing between the theoretical assumptions about inclusive processes and their connection with alternative communication. To achieve this objective, the paper offers a compilation of updated sources on the subject the main researchers in the field have proposed. Subsequently, the contents involved are related using a conceptual scheme. Finally, an analysis of the data is carried out to achieve the proposed research objective. As a result, it was found that both national and international legislation, as well as research and pedagogical currents, promote equal opportunities and the inclusion of the population with disabilities. In spite of this situation, even people with communication barriers still do not have adequate access to dialogue. Results show that alternative communication is an indispensable right for a process of learning; however, students with communication barriers still attend classes without resources allowing their participation. It is also shown that there can be no learning without communication. Thus, the population with communication barriers that attend the classes without an assisted resource sees not only its right to expression violated, but also their right to education.

  14. Coaching Teaching Assistants to Implement Naturalistic Behavioral Teaching Strategies to Enhance Social Communication Skills during Play in the Preschool Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frantz, Rebecca Jane

    2017-01-01

    Naturalistic behavioral interventions increase the acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of child social communication skills among children with developmental delays (DD). Teaching Assistants (TAs) are ideal interventionists for delivering social communication interventions because of the significant amount of time they spend working…

  15. Media use, face-to-face communication, media multitasking, and social well-being among 8- to 12-year-old girls.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pea, Roy; Nass, Clifford; Meheula, Lyn; Rance, Marcus; Kumar, Aman; Bamford, Holden; Nass, Matthew; Simha, Aneesh; Stillerman, Benjamin; Yang, Steven; Zhou, Michael

    2012-03-01

    An online survey of 3,461 North American girls ages 8-12 conducted in the summer of 2010 through Discovery Girls magazine examined the relationships between social well-being and young girls' media use--including video, video games, music listening, reading/homework, e-mailing/posting on social media sites, texting/instant messaging, and talking on phones/video chatting--and face-to-face communication. This study introduced both a more granular measure of media multitasking and a new comparative measure of media use versus time spent in face-to-face communication. Regression analyses indicated that negative social well-being was positively associated with levels of uses of media that are centrally about interpersonal interaction (e.g., phone, online communication) as well as uses of media that are not (e.g., video, music, and reading). Video use was particularly strongly associated with negative social well-being indicators. Media multitasking was also associated with negative social indicators. Conversely, face-to-face communication was strongly associated with positive social well-being. Cell phone ownership and having a television or computer in one's room had little direct association with children's socioemotional well-being. We hypothesize possible causes for these relationships, call for research designs to address causality, and outline possible implications of such findings for the social well-being of younger adolescents. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

  16. Social Communication Anxiety Treatment (S-CAT) for children and families with selective mutism: A pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Evelyn R; Armstrong, Sharon Lee; Skira, Kathryn; Gordon, Janice

    2017-01-01

    This research assessed the feasibility of Social Communication Anxiety Treatment (S-CAT) developed by Elisa Shipon-Blum, a brief multimodal approach, to increase social communication in 40 children aged 5-12 years with selective mutism (SM). SM is a disorder in which children consistently fail to speak in specific situations although they have the ability to do so. Key features of this approach are the SM-Social Communication Comfort Scale (SCCS), transfer of control (ToC), a nonchalant therapeutic style, and cognitive-behavioral strategies over a brief time frame. Following 9 weeks of treatment, children showed significant gains in speaking frequency on all 17 items from the Selective Mutism Questionnaire (SMQ), a standardized measure of SM severity. Children also showed decreased levels of anxiety and withdrawal as reported by parents on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). SM initial symptom severity and family therapy compliance, but not duration of SM, contributed to treatment outcomes.

  17. Measuring Metrics for Social Media Marketing : Case: Marsaana Communications

    OpenAIRE

    Yli-Pietilä, Heidi

    2016-01-01

    This thesis looks into social media marketing, what relationship public relations has with social media marketing and brand equity. The challenge with utilizing social media marketing is identifying the right tools to use in measuring the success or effectiveness of it. In this thesis I investigate a set of tools a Finnish PR agency could utilize in measuring the effects of their social media marketing efforts on their client’s brand equity. This thesis topics include new media in specifi...

  18. Having Older Siblings is Associated with Less Severe Social Communication Symptoms in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ben-Itzchak, Esther; Zukerman, Gil; Zachor, Ditza A

    2016-11-01

    Among typically developing children, having sibling relationships promotes the development of social skills. This is a retrospective study of the effect of having sibling/s on the severity of the clinical presentation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study included 112 children, 99 males and 15 females, mean age 29.6 ± 9.2 months, diagnosed with ASD. The study population was composed of a group of children with ASD who had older typically developing sibling/s (n = 56) pair-matched for age and cognitive level to a group of children with ASD without sibling/s. Each participant underwent a comprehensive assessment using standardized tests. The group with older sibling/s had less severe observed social deficits (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Social Affect calibrated severity scales [ADOS-SA-CSS]) and fewer reported non-verbal communication impairments (Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised [ADI-R]). Regression analyses revealed that, for the ADOS-SA-CSS, higher cognitive level and having older sibling/s were associated with less severe observed social affect deficits. This model explained 32.0 % of the variance. For the ADI-R communication scores, older age, higher cognitive level and having older sibling/s were associated with less severe reported non-verbal communication impairments. This model explained 33.0 % of the variance. The main finding in this study is that a familial factor, specifically having older sibling/s, was associated with better social communication abilities in children with ASD, in addition to age and cognitive ability. Having sibling/s may offer opportunities for the child with ASD to experience social interactions with children and to acquire communication skills.

  19. ASD and schizophrenia show distinct developmental profiles in common genetic overlap with population-based social communication difficulties

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    St Pourcain, B; Robinson, E B; Anttila, V

    2017-01-01

    Difficulties in social communication are part of the phenotypic overlap between autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia. Both conditions follow, however, distinct developmental patterns. Symptoms of ASD typically occur during early childhood, whereas most symptoms characteristic......-developing youth (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, N⩽5553, longitudinal assessments at 8, 11, 14 and 17 years) using the Social Communication Disorder Checklist. Data on clinical ASD (PGC-ASD: 5305 cases, 5305 pseudo-controls; iPSYCH-ASD: 7783 cases, 11 359 controls) and schizophrenia (PGC-SCZ2: 34...... 241 cases, 45 604 controls, 1235 trios) were either obtained through the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) or the Danish iPSYCH project. Overlap in genetic influences between ASD and social communication difficulties during development decreased with age, both in the PGC-ASD and the iPSYCH-ASD...

  20. Psychological distress in women at risk for hereditary breast cancer: the role of family communication and perceived social support.

    Science.gov (United States)

    den Heijer, Mariska; Seynaeve, Caroline; Vanheusden, Kathleen; Duivenvoorden, Hugo J; Bartels, Carina C M; Menke-Pluymers, Marian B E; Tibben, Aad

    2011-12-01

    Hereditary breast cancer has a profound impact on individual family members and on their mutual communication and interactions. The way at-risk women cope with the threat of hereditary breast cancer may depend on the quality of family communication about hereditary breast cancer and on the perceived social support from family and friends. To examine the associations of family communication and social support with long-term psychological distress in a group of women at risk for hereditary breast cancer, who opted either for regular breast surveillance or prophylactic surgery. The study cohort consisted of 222 women at risk for hereditary breast cancer, who previously participated in a study on the psychological consequences of either regular breast cancer surveillance or prophylactic surgery. General and breast cancer specific distress, hereditary cancer-related family communication, perceived social support, and demographics were assessed. Using structural equation modelling, we found that open communication about hereditary cancer within the family was associated with less general and breast cancer specific distress. In addition, perceived support from family and friends was indirectly associated with less general and breast cancer-specific distress through open communication within the family. These findings indicate that family communication and perceived social support from friends and family are of paramount importance in the long-term adaptation to being at risk for hereditary breast cancer. Attention for these issues needs to be incorporated in the care of women at risk for hereditary breast cancer. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.