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UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER PRESS RELEASE
ACADEMICS AT UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER TO TWEET DURING‘PAPER-FREE’ SOCIAL MEDIA SEMINAR 
 Event on 26 June to present research identifying the uses and abuses of social media viaTwitter 
Academics from across the country are to gather at a ‘paper-free’ seminar to discuss theimpact of social media on practice as well as theory.
 
Organised by doctoral students from the Department of Media and Communication at theUniversity of Leicester, the event will connect in real time to outside, with online discussionand collaboration.Event co-ordinator Jennifer Jones said: “Social media is becoming integrated into our dailyinteractions in the form of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, alongsidewebsites which allow everybody and anybody to create and share media content, easier thanever before. We will be incorporating such tools within the seminar, whilst presenting currentresearch from the arena. “We are aiming to make this an exciting ‘first’ in terms of bringing together the theory and practice of social media, as it offers new ways of thinking about the media’s role in our publicand private lives. There is no better way to demonstrate social media tools than to get peopleto use them in collaboration with an offline ‘face-to-face’ event.” Presenters will include academics, politicians, journalists and PhD students. The plan is tomake it an entirely paper free seminar – with a blog forming the central communications hubfor all information about the day. “After being fed up with the packs of paper I receive at conferences, it’s about time we, asacademics, should be setting an example and not be so wasteful. It’s online, it’s sharable andit’s open for all,” said Ms Jones. A Twitter tutorial will be offered for those unfamiliar with the popular micro-blogging serviceto enable participation, with Jones believing, “One of the biggest abuses is those who make judgement of a particular online phenomenon without actually giving it a try.” Senior Lecturer Dr Gillian Youngs, who will also be speaking at the event about the impact of social media use on identity, said: “Real-time virtual exchange via social media means that people can be involved in an ‘event’ such as this whether they are physically present or not. Italso means that those taking part can share ideas online, virtually, as well as offline, face-to-face. It’s a new kind of multilevel communication.” Other topics which will be explored include: new rules for human interaction, social mediaand the digital divide and the role of new media in politics and citizen engagement. Thetweets, blogs, photos and videos from the event will be available online via the hash tag#uanda and will also be accessible through the event’s website.Ms Jones added: “Images can be tagged on photo hosting sites, blog entries can beaggregated and we’ll have a dynamic and multimedia stream of information that can be
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