Features of Social Media Networks - Research Paper Example

Running Head: Social Media Connections: Use Impact and Popularity Name Institution Course Professor Date Abstract Media networks are raising a lot of interest in every part of the world and hence attract academicians, investors, governments, institutions and users’ attentions. The investors are looking at ways in which social media networks can be turned into business avenues. Davies and Mosdell (2006) assert that this interesting theme of social media brings together academicians from diverse regions to study emergence, impacts and trend of this phenomenon. This introductory article describes features of social media networks and proposes definition that can be used in other studies. A general view of these social network medium is presented and key discussions on changes and developments are also presented. This discussion gives summary and conclusion of existing scholarship concerning social media on objective of further research in future. Literature Review Social media networks include MySpace, Facebook, twitter, 2go, whatsapp, Google talks, YouTube and Bebo. For less than a decade, social media have indeed attracted millions of users, most of whom have adopted these networks as their key communication elements (Connaway and Powell 2010, chapter 2). Social media networks with various applications of technologies arouse many other attitudes and interests toward growth of these media. However, new innovations try to keep track of the pre-existing connections, while to some extent help those with shared interests such as political affiliations, social or economic activities to connect. Additionally, Adler and Clark (2003, p.156) contends that networks also cater specific audiences based on common language, racial, sexual, religious or national identities. Moreover, the networks are distinct in terms of how new information is incorporated. The communication tools also bring variety of connections, for example blogs, mobile connections, photo and video-sharing. The rationale of the study Scholars from various fields examine social networks so as to know the practices and possible implications and culture arising, meaningful impacts, and how users embrace them. Adler and Clark (2003, p. 441) says, “There are unique collection of articles that analyze a wide spectrum of social network sites using various methodological techniques, theoretical traditions, and analytic approaches”. The goal here is to showcase some interdisciplinary scholarship around social networks. This introduction provides a concept, history, and scholarly context of the study, the beginning and the definition of the components of social networks. It also presents perspective on the historic development of the networks. Therefore, recent study is reviewed and an attempt to contextualize and identify key works. This proposal is concluded with a brief description of the articles suggesting future research. Theoretical perspectives used Social network sites are internet or web services that provide the connectivity which let individuals construct a public profile within common systems and connect to other users whom they share common interests. However, the connections of these social networks vary from site to another. Social network sites are unique because they create and make themselves visible on the social media. It is therefore obvious that these networks allow users meet different and strange people hence become known to each other virtually. For example, the face book users from foreign country get familiarity to the people abroad allowing them make daily greetings to their ‘strange pals’. Baxter and Babbie (2004) note that social network site bring forth connections among different users from different places of the world, though that is not the goal. It is further noted that these connections are frequently for secret dealings among those sharing offline connections. Social media have incorporated variety of technical characteristics making visible profiles that display created list of friends in the network sites. Benatar (2006, p. 223) notes that social media networks are unique in that users use their identities, some of which are not real. When users log into their network accounts, individuals identify other users who are familiar to thaem. The used terms differ depending on the network site and description on user profile (Davies and Mosdell 2006, chapter 5) Terms commonly used include "friends," "contacts," "fans," and “follow”. Social media networks vary in their basic characteristics and user perspective. Gatrell, Bierly and Jensen (2012, p.313) notes, social media allow users share photos or videos while others utilize bloggs and instant message services. Some social media based in the web support mobile interactions, for example facebook, twitter, whatsapp and 2go. Most social network sites target users basing on geographic location or the language of the users, but this did not advocate for effectiveness of the medium effectiveness. Koivisto, Juha, Thomas, and Aslama (2010, p. 162) give an example of Orkut, that aimed at English interface but Brazilians who speak Portuguese language became the majority to use this network. Social media networks are accessible most of which attract homogeneous populations making it common to find groups basing on national origin, gender, age group, level of education, or other factors (Kock 2010, p. 96). All these typically segment society even though that was not the objective of the designers. Since 2003, many social media providers have launched their services considerably, most of which took profile-centric site forms that imitated the success of early networks such as Friendster, in targeting specific demographics. Offredy and Vickers (2013, p.291) assert that passion-centric such as Dogstar made strangers connect basing on their personal shared interests. Nevertheless, while social networks and content generated for users developed, websites began to reflect on media sharing, implementing social media network features. For example, Flicker provided photo sharing; FM provided listening of music, while youtube provided video sharing (Orey, Jones, & Branch 2012, p.177). According to Wimmer and Dominick (2006, p. 222), MySpace developed its strategy by regularly differentiating itself, adding features to suit demand of the user. In 2004, teenagers began to join MySpace, because they wanted to link their favorite bands. Instead of rejecting underage users, MySpace adopted a new user policy that allowed minors. Thereafter, three different groups began to participate; the artists, teenage group, and the post-college social group. According to Priest (2005, p.286), Facebook was designed in 2004 to strictly support different college networks, unlike other social media networks. In due time, Facebook raised interests amongst high school students, professionals and eventually everyone in the social media network. Unlike other social media networks, Facebook does not allow users make their personal profile visible to public users. Rogers (2009, p.411) observes that a characteristic that distinguish facebook is its ability to allow users to customize individual profiles and can compare preferred movies and photos. Currently, the number of people using the social media networks are not known, although Rubin, Rubin, & Piele (2005) says that marketing research shows social media is gaining popularity in the world. This is why research is carried out to give clear approximation of the users. Covering laws applicable Researchers at the department of media and technology should retain records that are associated with media and it components research project in accordance with research conducts and policies (Tracy, 2012, p.242).  Data must be kept in a secure and protected manner as per the institution’s policy. The following are the laws that will be applicable in the research i. All members of a research unit are to be fully informed with respect to what is expected of them at the time they join the unit. Clear and achievable goals and expectations should be defined. ii. Obligation of the research leaders is to make sure that research abides by the university and department guidelines, maintaining a financial responsibility in operation and create protected research outcome. iii. In joint efforts, the individual roles and authorships of all participants should be clearly distinguished at beginning of the project. iv. It is a professional responsibility of faculty, students to inform institution heads if they have uncertainties about the reliability of the work of another member of this academic community and to follow appropriate procedures. The social medium influences the behavior of the users considerably. For example, Facebook users cannot get all the satisfaction reading from the site once. A repetitive behavior is developed where a user keeps logging into the social site account regularly. However, every different medium have different information richness. So a person using Facebook daily will probably have different version of information from the person using MySpace. Methodology For purpose of this research, study survey will be conducted to find out the use, users, impact and the popularity of the use of social media. The target group in this research will be the young and educated group, preferably college and university students. Four main hypotheses will be used in the study, i. That use of social media increase with time in the colleges, ii. That demographic phenomenon will affect media sources sought to be used, iii. That surveillance needs will affect relationships with other media, and iv. That certain modality of information will affect individual knowledge, behavior and decisions. Tracy (2012, p. 354) argues that the last hypothesis above will mean that researchers must predict whether social media drag the users to some non-existent beliefs, become knowledgeable or if they spent their time in what is not deriving benefit. The research will involve conducting a survey in learning institutions particularly colleges and universities. The participants in the respective universities or colleges will be selected at random to obtain samples of users. The survey used will contain estimately 50 items. Of these, ten will be demographic questions about age, gender and culture; ten will be about the needs of the users about the media such as connecting new friend, searching relationships, adventure and entertainment. Ten will be about users’ connection to the relatives, friends or clients, either by person or by family member. The last twenty will be about students’ and business people’s connection about corporate employments and trade deals respectively. Measurements For the research to obtain reliable information for analysis, questionnaires will be prepared. The questions will bear the information mentioned above. To determine people’s habit and perspective regarding the social medium the following are some of the questions that will be used: Approximately how many hours per week do you spend using any of these social media? Where do you get most of the current social events information from? Select from these: Facebook, twitter, whatsapp, MySpace, Skype, Google talks. How many days of the week do you use any these social media, and which one? What benefit do you derive from using one site (for example Facebook if you are using it) from other networks? Could you be able to rate these networks out of ten according to your opined popularity of the respective networks? If yes, give the rates Facebook { } out of 10 Twitter { } out of 10 MySpace { } out of 10 Whartsapp { } out of 10 Google talks, { } out of 10 YouTube { } out of 10 Bebo { } out of 10 Ordinal scale will be used as a measurement instrument. This instrument will give the ranking from the most popular to the less popular media network. Researchers will carry out random web samples to identify the respective social medium connectivity before conducting external physical surveys. Website contacts of various institutions will be obtained from the internet and assistant supervisors before articulating and requesting those selected to respond. Previously available research opines that most social media networks basically boost pre-existing social relations. Wimmer and Dominick (2006, p. 54), suggest that Facebook has been used in maintaining existing offline relationships, as opposed to making new deals or meeting new people. However weak relationship ties exist, some common offline relationships among individuals looking for friends in the networks still exist Budget In the derivation of the budget for this study, it is important to know the participants and the method of data collection and analysis. Random selection of the institutions will be done by the panel of this study. Sampling users of the social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Google talks, 2go, YouTube and Bebo will be helpful in this study. Using mail survey, questionnaires disseminated through mail, and positioning a questionnaire assessor in every randomly selected institutions. For purpose of this research, 200 staff in the department of media and technology of Deakin University will be involved. The persons will be divided into ten groups, each with 18 members, and a group research leader. The remaining individuals will be principal supervisors of the research, and will be the ones travelling when need be. This research is intended to take two months of the semester. Therefore, to undertake the study, the research team requests an exact total amount of $200,000. Large percentage of the funds will be directed to facilitate personnel expenses for conducting sampling and analyzing questionnaires. The expenses will include compensation for sub-contractors who will conduct foreign interviews. The Principal supervisors will be responsible for the successful execution of the project. Sub-contractors will assist the principal supervisors conduct domestic interviews. Together with the students, they will code make analysis of the data generated from these survey questions. The students’ assistants will also provide intensive administrative and research support for the project. The total costs are: i. Personnel expenses - $150, 000, This will cater for sub-contract expenses for assistant foreign interview supervisors. Facilitate research release for the project’s administration, coordinating and data analysis of the study. This will also support for the two months of research; administrative assistance, data coding and analysis. This will include tuition waiver and benefits. ii. Direct expenses for the project -$30,000, these will include the costs of sampling, interview questions transcription and supplies. It will also include internet costs and sampling expenses that will be paid to the supervisor’s assistants. iii. Travel costs - $20,000 this will enable the researchers to conduct direct interviews from the appropriate domestic locations. Domestic travel (transportation, accommodation, meals) domestic trips requiring travel overnight to interviews, respondents interviewer per trip expenses such as airfare, lodgings, food and miscellaneous. In addition to the above, research team also request a 10% overhead to cover facilities and other support provided by Deakin university. Ethical issues and precautions Ethics are principles and guidelines that help determine and uphold morality in carrying out research. Ethics is important in research industry and any study, and therefore researchers will rely on the following Goodwill of the respondents reveals information on their awareness, attitude and general behavior in relation to social media. Developing trust, the researchers must ensure that the decisions made are upon trusting in their goodwill study. Professionalism and confidence in carrying out research Therefore the research will consider the following ethical issues: Informed consent: The respondents will be informed why they have been chosen to participate before research begins. They will know exactly what information is required of them to provide. Respect of privacy and avoiding harmful consequence: for the respondent to participate openly the researcher will avoid unpleasant code of behavior. Judgments will be made about information and questions will be used. Maintaining anonymity and confidence: this is removing the participant’s name in the data of research. Other information like age, job title, business name, academic positions, and club membership will be kept secret upon the demand of the respondent. However, some participants may like that their identity appear in the research. Wimmer and Dominick (2011, p. 213) suggest that in some research contexts, it is possible that participants may be keen for their own voices to be acknowledged, and be happy to have their identity made known alongside their contribution to the research.  Therefore, participants will be allowed to be in control the disclosure of their identity and their participation. Individuals will not be pressured to participate: generally incentives for participants will not be provided. Where desirable, only tokens meant not to encourage individuals to participate, who would otherwise prefer not to participate (Maxfield & Babbie 2012, p. 46). This makes why this research proposal will to cover its target, and therefore expect funding. References Adler, E. S & Clark, R 2003, How it is done: an invitation to social research, 2nd edn, Thompson-Wadsworth, Southbank, Vic. Baxter, L.A & Babbie, E 2004, The basics of communication research, Thompson-Wadsworth, Southbank, Vic. Benatar, D 2006, Cutting to the core: exploring the ethics of contested surgeries. Lanham, Md. [u.a.], Rowman & Littlefield. Connaway, L. S., & Powell, R. R 2010, Basic research methods for librarians. Santa Barbara, Calif, Libraries Unlimited. Davies, M. M., & Mosdell, N 2006, Practical research methods for media and cultural studies: making people count. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. Gatrell, J. D., Bierly, G., & Jensen, R. R 2012, Research design and proposal writing in spatial science. Dordrecht, Springer Science Business Media B.V. Kock, N. F 2010, Evolutionary psychology and information systems research: a new approach to studying the effects of modern technologies on human behavior. New York, Springer. Koivisto, Juha, Peter D. Thomas, and Minna Aslama 2010, Mapping communication and media research: conjunctures, institutions, challenges. Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press. Maxfield, M. G., & Babbie, E. R 2012, Basics of research methods for criminal justice and criminology. Belmont, CA, Wadsworth/Cengage Learning Meade, A 2009, 'Where they find the cast', The Australian, 2 March 2009, Retrieved: Offredy, M., & Vickers, P 2013, Developing a Healthcare Research Proposal An Interactive Student Guide. Hoboken, Wiley. Orey, M., Jones, S. A., & Branch, R. M 2012, Educational media and technology yearbook. Volume 36, 2011 Volume 36, 2011. New York, NY, Springer.  Priest, S. H 2005, Communication impact: designing research that matters. Lanham, Mar, Rowman & Littlefield. Rogers, R 2009,The end of the virtual: digital methods. Amsterdam, Vossiuspers UvA. Rubin, R. B, Rubin, A.M & Piele, LJ 2005, Communication research: strategies and sources, 6th edn, Thomson-Wadsworth, Belmont, California Tracy, S. J 2012, Qualitative Research Methods Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact. Chicester, Wiley Wimmer, R.D & Dominick, J.R 2006, Mass media research: an introduction, 8th edn, Thompson-Wadsworth, Southbank, Vic. Read More

Theoretical perspectives used Social network sites are internet or web services that provide the connectivity which let individuals construct a public profile within common systems and connect to other users whom they share common interests. However, the connections of these social networks vary from site to another. Social network sites are unique because they create and make themselves visible on the social media. It is therefore obvious that these networks allow users meet different and strange people hence become known to each other virtually.

For example, the face book users from foreign country get familiarity to the people abroad allowing them make daily greetings to their ‘strange pals’. Baxter and Babbie (2004) note that social network site bring forth connections among different users from different places of the world, though that is not the goal. It is further noted that these connections are frequently for secret dealings among those sharing offline connections. Social media have incorporated variety of technical characteristics making visible profiles that display created list of friends in the network sites.

Benatar (2006, p. 223) notes that social media networks are unique in that users use their identities, some of which are not real. When users log into their network accounts, individuals identify other users who are familiar to thaem. The used terms differ depending on the network site and description on user profile (Davies and Mosdell 2006, chapter 5) Terms commonly used include "friends," "contacts," "fans," and “follow”. Social media networks vary in their basic characteristics and user perspective.

Gatrell, Bierly and Jensen (2012, p.313) notes, social media allow users share photos or videos while others utilize bloggs and instant message services. Some social media based in the web support mobile interactions, for example facebook, twitter, whatsapp and 2go. Most social network sites target users basing on geographic location or the language of the users, but this did not advocate for effectiveness of the medium effectiveness. Koivisto, Juha, Thomas, and Aslama (2010, p. 162) give an example of Orkut, that aimed at English interface but Brazilians who speak Portuguese language became the majority to use this network.

Social media networks are accessible most of which attract homogeneous populations making it common to find groups basing on national origin, gender, age group, level of education, or other factors (Kock 2010, p. 96). All these typically segment society even though that was not the objective of the designers. Since 2003, many social media providers have launched their services considerably, most of which took profile-centric site forms that imitated the success of early networks such as Friendster, in targeting specific demographics.

Offredy and Vickers (2013, p.291) assert that passion-centric such as Dogstar made strangers connect basing on their personal shared interests. Nevertheless, while social networks and content generated for users developed, websites began to reflect on media sharing, implementing social media network features. For example, Flicker provided photo sharing; FM provided listening of music, while youtube provided video sharing (Orey, Jones, & Branch 2012, p.177). According to Wimmer and Dominick (2006, p. 222), MySpace developed its strategy by regularly differentiating itself, adding features to suit demand of the user.

In 2004, teenagers began to join MySpace, because they wanted to link their favorite bands. Instead of rejecting underage users, MySpace adopted a new user policy that allowed minors. Thereafter, three different groups began to participate; the artists, teenage group, and the post-college social group. According to Priest (2005, p.286), Facebook was designed in 2004 to strictly support different college networks, unlike other social media networks. In due time, Facebook raised interests amongst high school students, professionals and eventually everyone in the social media network.

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