CHAPTER 2: OPERATIONALISATION OF THE KEY CONCEPTS AND
2.2 DEFINITIONS AND CONTEXTUALISATION OF CONCEPTS AND CONSTRUCTS
2.2.7 Social Media
The term ‘social media’ refers to the internet-based Web sites or applications that permit users to take part in generating content (Manning, 2014). As the word ‘social’
denotes, social media also connect audiences in certain ways by permitting them to communicate and interact directly with each other. The concept ‘social media’ was first used in 1994 (Bercovici, 2010). However, it became common only about a decade later with the intensification of Web 2.0 (ibid.). Social media can be defined as a collection of internet-based applications that build on the conceptual basics of Web 2.0, and which permit the construction and exchange of user-generated content (ibid.).
Using these applications, users can create, share and exchange information, and come together in online spaces to form ‘virtual’ communities.
Greenhow and Lewin (2015) describe social media as Web-based services that engage users through cooperation and sharing, and also permit participation, connection and interactivity. In social media, people willingly share content through online platforms, using various internet applications. Fourie (2017) indicates that the concept social media signifies the nature of the content and the active social roles related to the creation and usage of the content.
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Social media is a concept frequently used to denote to new types of media which encompass interactive participation (Manning, 2014). Time and again the development of media is divided into two different phases, the broadcast age and the interactive age. In the broadcast age, media were practically centralized where one broadcasting organization, print media company, or a movie production studio distributed messages to the majority of people. Feedback to media companies was in most cases indirect and delayed. Mediated communication between the public and the media organizations usually happened on a far slighter level, typically by means of letters and telephone calls amongst other means. With the upsurge of digital and portable technologies, communication on a great scale turn out to be at ease for people than in the olden days, and fundamentally, a new media age was born where interactivity was cited as significant of new media purposes. A person could now communicate with people with the possibility of an immediate feedback. The little cost and convenience of new technology permitted more choices for media consumption as compared to the traditional media, and instead of limited media platforms, people now have the choice to look for information from numerous sources and to exchange ideas with others through the media about the information displayed (Ansari & Khan, 2020). At the centre of this continuing revolution is social media.
2.2.7.1 Characteristics of social media
All social media embrace some sort of digital platform. Nevertheless, not all that is digital is necessarily social media. Two common features assist to describe social media. Foremost, social media permit some form of contribution (Devi, Gouthami, Lakshmi, 2019). Social media are at no time entirely passive, even though at times social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and others do permit passive viewing of what other users are writing (Van Den Beemt, Thurlings &
Willems, 2020). Generally, a profile account must be created which will subsequently allow interaction. That feature alone sets social media separate from traditional media where personal profiles are not a requirement for one to participate in the platform.
Second, and coherent with its participatory environment, social media include interaction (Van Den Beemt, Thurlings & Willems, 2020). This communication is mostly instituted with friends, family, associates or with new people who share mutual interests.
51 2.2.7.2 Common types of social media
There are various types of social media applications available, and some are used mostly for recreation, communication with family and friends, others for professional reasons. Some social media outlined by (Wright & Webb, 2011; Manning, 2014;
Akçayır, 2017) are described forthwith:
a) Social networking sites
Facebook and other social networking sites are practically universal features in modern culture. An important unique feature that makes a social networking site is the list of users that one associates with, typically founded upon friendship, family, work relationships, and various relationships (Ansari & Khan, 2020). Mostly, social networking sites have become a great path to meet new people. The nature of information communicated through social networking sites permit a space for social or political perspectives to be displayed (Wright & Webb, 2011). This platform is sometimes used to communicate and share academic related information amongst students at institutions of higher learning. Students can make friendship with other fellow students from different institutions and share information among themselves.
b) Blogs
The word blog is resulting from the term Web log. A blog is a Web page where a group people can share information or ideas through the internet. It is not rare for a person to create a blog and then not update it again. Most of the most effective blogs are updated on a regular basis so the followers can identify when to anticipate new content (Wright & Webb, 2011). Blogs cover a wide range of topics, including political issues, entertainment, academic and social aspects. A common feature toward blogs is a response platform where, after reading a post, people can discuss with both the blog author and including those who have commented.
c) Mobile Applications
Mobile applications are not essentially social media oriented; but in many cases people can connect through apps through another type of social media, usually Facebook and apps have some kind of social aspect. One illustration is Grindr which is an app which affords gay men an opportunity to locate other gay men who are within
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close vicinity. Like other apps, Grindr uses a smartphone position tracker to know where the user is and to outline the distance amongst other users (Manning, 2014).
2.2.7.3 Basic functions of social media
Social media have countless different purposes. Initially, they consent users to create their own identity profile. When people post profiles, it demands some sort of reflection (Gaile, 2013). Secondly, social media permits people to tend to their relationships in diverse ways. Research indicates that social media allow people who may not in a natural setting meet an opportunity to connect and interact (Richter & Koch, 2008).
People also testify on creating their best friendship and even meeting their spouses through online communication platforms. Thirdly, social media permit people to execute work functions. In most cases, people communicate with work colleagues through social media sites, and they execute most of their work communication by means of the social media channels. Fourthly, social media let people to search for information or even share philosophies. Information can vary from political campaigns, entertainment, local issues, academic related content to fashion (Amedie, 2015).
Again, and generally related to information sharing, social media users also offer ideas or consider the ideas of others via social media. Last but not least, social media users find entertainment through such online platforms.
2.2.7.4 Social networking sites and university students
The extensive rise of online technologies is remodelling the way academics connects, interconnect and cooperate with their varied stakeholders (Chugh, Grose & Macht, 2021). To expedite these connections, social media has swiftly come to the front.
These includes but not limited to social networking sites, video sharing sites, photo sharing sites, bookmarking sites, discussion forums and wikis (Chugh & Ruhi, 2019).
Social media is making has made its mark on academia as it unlocks new ways for students and academics to engage with a wide audience fellow students as well as academics within and outside their own discipline (O'Keeffe, 2019). Worldwide, there are more than 3.8 billion active social media users (Chaffey, 2020), this tallies to approximately half the world’s populace and hence also includes learners at various educational levels: pupils of different ages and experiences actively use social media to search for content, share information, interact with others and enhance their skills
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(Murphy, 2018), students and academic in higher education use social media to share content, promote social scholarship by making their research more available, contributing to comprehensive dialogues and permitting the public to become active participants in the creation of knowledge (Pausé & Russell, 2016). It is evident that social media usage has infiltrated in academia (Vandeyar, 2020), though it does not happen extensively. There is a growing body of scholarly literature on social media usage by students in institutions of higher learning (Al-Qaysi, Mohamad-Nordin & Al- Emran, 2020).
Forkosh-Baruch and Hershkovitz (2014) affirm that institutions of higher learning make use of social networking sites for their local management of educational matters.
Zachos, Paraskevopoulou-Kollia and Anagnostopoulos (2018) reviewed studies which revealed the useful impact of social networking sites on higher education and established that Facebook and Twitter are the basic online social networking sites mostly used for educational purposes. In most cases, Facebook was either the only online social network being used, followed by Twitter, Myspace, Google+, LinkedIn and other social media networks.
2.2.7.5 Social networks and learning processes
Nowadays, new ways to search for knowledge using social networks in both formal and informal education have arose. Formal education is described as a scaled educational structure organised in successive time periods, from early childhood education, primary, secondary and tertiary education (Sobaih, Hasanein & Elnasr, 2020). Whereas informal education is considered as the learning procedure by which an individual learns and obtains knowledge, skills and values directly from one’s everyday experience and social setting. This is also known as learning based on interaction or lifetime learning (Al-Rahmi, Alias, Othman, Marin & Tur, 2018). Several studies illustrate that students use online social networking sites mostly for socialising purposes, for exchanging opinions or ideologies, and also for entertainment (Pempek, Yermolayeva & Calvert, 2009; Tess, 2013; Sharma, Joshi & Sharma, 2016). While (Hew, 2011; Cheung, Chiu & Lee, 2011) indicate that students use Facebook mostly in order to increase their friendship, (Sturgeon & Walker, 2009; Cooke, 2017) assert that Facebook use affects their education. Likewise, in a related survey conducted at Islamia University in Pakistan, almost 90% of the participants indicated that they used
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Facebook for their academic activities (Hussain, 2012). Furthermore, at University of Delhi, more than 70% of students indicated that they used Facebook to collaborate with fellow students in their research studies (Sobaih, Hasanein & Elnasr, 2020).
As much as Twitter is concerned, Camiel, Goldman-Levine, Kostka-Rokosz and McCloskey (2014) revealed that more than 60% of the respondents used Twitter to enhance their academic profile.