The current research examined whether motives, traditional mass media consumption and individual differences (social activity and political interest) predicted the use of social media among a group of university students in China. In coherence with Uses and Gratifications assumptions the study found that the factors differentially predicted the extent of media use. Information seeking, social interaction and affinity were the main reasons for using social media. There was a negative correlation between television viewing and use of social media, in addition to a negative correlation between information seeking and use of the media. Results further suggest that social media are used to enhance social capital, since student?s being socially active offline, tend to use the media to a greater extent than those less active..

Syfte: Vårt syfte är att redogöra för hur nyhetskonsumtionen bland Twitter-användare har förändrats sedan de startat ett konto.Problem: De flesta tidningar har en webbupplaga som finns tillgänglig på internet och många finns även tillgängliga på sociala medier, där läsaren kan ta del av, dela med sig av och diskutera nyheter. Hur har Twitter som fenomen förändrat användarnas sätt att konsumera nyheter?Metod: Kvalitativa enkätintervjuer på internetResultat: Resultatet visar att användarnas sätt att konsumera nyheter mer eller mindre har förändrats sedan de startat konto på Twitter. De ser Twitter som en möjlighet till att få nyheter i ett flöde under dagen och kunna diskutera dessa med andra användare. De ser samtidigt Twitter som ett komplement till tidningarnas pappers- och webbupplaga, där de under dagen kan ta del av de uppdaterade nyheterna..

The purpose of this paper is to examine how contemporary attitudes towards death andsexuality is made visible and connected in the vampire novels Interview with the Vampire andDead Until Dark. The aim is to investigate why the vampire novel has reached today?samount of popularity and if it can be explained by theories of death and sexuality in modernsociety and in popular culture.The most important theories in this examination are Zygmunt Bauman?s theories aboutmodern society, Jean Baudrillard?s thoughts about death in the postmodernity and MichelFoucault?s studies regarding sexuality in the Western societies. The conclusion presented isthat sexuality and death are well connected in the examined novels and in popular culture as awhole and death?s popularity in popular culture could be a result of repressed emotionsregarding death and sorrow, which can be helped by us working on handle death more visiblyand with higher regard..

Title: I saw it on Facebook ? Youth presentation of self on FacebookAuthors: Nicole Dreher & Anders SkoglundPresented: 01.06.2010Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to examine how the, in the study, participating youths make their presentation of self on their Facebook profiles.Methodology: The method used in the thesis was a social semiotic analysis focusing on the social semiotic concepts: semiotic resource, semiotic potential, affordance, denotation and connotation. A social semiotic analysis of composition was also used with the purpose to gain a deeper knowledge of the social semiotic affordances of Facebook?s composition.Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical base of this thesis consists mainly of Erving Goffman?s theory on presentation of self in everyday life as well as relevant theories to youth culture in sociology and identity in social psychology.Conclusions: The results show that the youth?s presentations of selves mostly takes place in their profile picture, status updates, groups, fan pages and through their communication with other users on their wall. The borders between front and back stage on Facebook entirely depends on the norms that the reader expects the profile owner to uphold.

Title: The role of social media on today?s markets ? Companies? desire to understand theircustomersAuthors: Kristoffer Avci-Nåmark & Patrik WidlundBackground: The markets of today are characterized by dynamic conditions because of thecontinuous change in consumer preference. Due to this, the interaction between the company and its consumers is gaining importance as companies find the need to increase their knowledge about the market. Out of this need social media has emerged as a tool forcompanies to improve their communication with customers. The popularity of social media isincreasing at a rapid rate and sites such as Facebook now has around 500 million usersworldwide.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the communication between exchange students and their host student trough Facebook. The study shows the importance of social cues and self-disclosure to maintain a relationship. The students? everyday use of Facebook helps them to remain connected to their social life locally and create new friendships. Cultural differences were shown in the way the students formed their expressions trough their messages to each other.

This paper is about our collective fascination for the social medium Instagram, and our lively discussions about why certain images may be more so-called "Liked" than others and why some individuals becomes more successfull on Instagram than others. Thanks to our own daily use of Instagram, the idea was born to study and look at how some individuals build their brand through this social medium. With social media new ways to construct and communicate images have appeared. Artists, celebrities and companies use media as a channel for communication and marketing. In our study, we focus on the use of Instagram for marketing purposes by Rachel Brathen, one of the worlds most well-known yogainstructors.

This Bachelor thesis is a case study that explores the possibilities and complications to use social media in marketing purposes. The case involves a company that sells garments for men. The company, named Mouli, has decided to use social media as their marketing platform. The company makes an interesting case, since they are still quite new on the market and have all the possibilities to succeed.The purpose for the thesis is to examine Mouli?s use of marketing in social media and to evaluate what could be done to amend the communication.

The purpose of this essay is to explore how social media affect the political orientation and commitment of youths. Three scientific questions highlight the purpose from different angles. The didactic perspective is discussed in the initial and closing discussion, and is analyzed in the corresponding chapter. Two methods are involved in the study; one survey and one interview with a focus group. The survey had a total of 98 respondents from four different classes, all in the first grade of upper secondary school.

This essay is a meta study of essays published at theInstitution of Library and Information Sciences at theUniversity of Borås in 2009. It aims to answer the followingquestions:What attitudes about new media can be found in essayswritten within SSLIS and are there traces of media panic inthe discourse?The theoretical framework of the essay is based on a theoryof the concept of media panic as defined by Kirsten Drotneret al, and the concept of moral panic as defined by StanleyCohen.The method used is derived from Klaus Krippendorff?sideas on content analysis, as published in the book ContentAnalysis. The method in this study uses computerizedsearches for target words. The target words used were:Internet, web, e-, blogg, facebook and twitter.

Sociala nätverk har fått en alltmer betydande roll i våra liv och samhällen. Nya sätt för människor och organisationer att interagera skapas och förnyas hela tiden med hjälp av sociala nätverk och Web 2.0-teknologier.Företag förväntas numera ha en närvaro inom sociala medier där de erbjuder information eller deras företagstjänster, de största av dessa sociala plattformar är i dagsläget Facebook och Twitter. Utvecklingen och framgången av de sociala nätverken har lett till att flera studier[1][2][3] genomförts för att bättre förstå hur människor fungerar i kontexten av sociala nätverk. I detta examensarbete har en webbapplikation utvecklas samt en tävling genomförts inom Facebook -plattformen för att utreda hur människor beter sig inom sociala nätverk, arbetets hypotes baserar sig i att utreda om arketyperna connectors, salesmen och mavens går att identifiera inom Facebook..

This essay deals with the subject of communication through Facebook. In this survey we studied 100 youths from Karlstad and their communication habits and behavior patterns on Facebook. The social network site Facebook has since its start in 2004 made a mark in modern communication. Today in 2010 the site has more than 500 million users. This paper wants to study what happens to other types of communication.

Changes in media technology and markets create new demands and challenges for society. The relationship between sport and the media is an example. Sport as a form of entertainment provides pleasure and excitement for the audience and high ratings for networks and media companies. This study examines elite athletes? views of media coverage and the extent to which such coverage affects their athletic performance.

Bakgrund: Facebook är ett socialt onlinenätverk som under sina levnadsår har ökat explosionsartat i popularitet. På Facebook sköter många användare stora delar av sina sociala relationer och delar med sig mycket av sig själva. Det finns inget tidigare socialt nätverk i stil med Facebook som har haft samma genomslagskraft hos internetanvändarna. I användandet skapas en digital identitet som lämnar spår på Facebook, även om en användare är död. Kring dessa kvalämnade digitala identiteter vill vi undersöka unga vuxnas syn. Syfte: Vårt syfte med denna uppsats är att ta reda på hur unga vuxna ser på sitt och andras användande av Facebook  kopplat till digitala spår och döden. Metod: Vi har valt att använda fokusgruppssamtal som metod för insamling av det empiriska materialet.

Many social services cases have been reviewed in the media during the last years. One of those cases is ?Lasse and Karin?, handled by the Social Services in Oskarshamn in 2002. Lasse and Karin had their son taken into custody by the Social Services and the case was reviewed in national media. Through this case the Social Services received much attention, of which most was negative, and their handling of the case was greatly criticized.