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CLAUDINE LAGUNDINO- BA COMMUNICATION III

Social Media and Changing Communication Patterns among MMSU-CAS Students:

An Analysis of Twitter

Review of Related Literature

Social media has exploded as a category of online discourse where people create

content, share it, bookmark it and network at a prodigious rate. Because of its ease

of use, speed and reach, social media is fast changing the public discourse in society

and setting trends and agenda in topics that range from the environment and politics

to technology and the entertainment industry(Asur and Huberman, 2010).

Martn, (2008) & Lusk, (2010) share the same concept of social media. To them

social media is the use of Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, My Space and LinkedIn for the

purpose of communication, sharing photos as well as videos. However for the

purpose of this study social media is captured within the use of internet through

Facebook, Whatsap, Twitter, Skype, MySpace as well as Yahoo Messenger for

communication sharing of ideas, sharing of photos and videos by users. The

increased use of Social Networking Websites has become an international

phenomenon in the past several years. What started out as a hobby for some

computer literate people has become a social norm and way of life for people from

all over the world (Boyd. 2007). Teenagers and young adults have especially

embraced these sites as a way to connect with their peers, share information,

reinvent their personalities, and showcase their social lives (Boyd, 2007).

The media (magic gun) fired the message directly into audience head without
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their own knowledge. The message cause the instant reaction from the audience

mind without any hesitation is called “Magic Bullet Theory”. The media (needle)

injects the message into audience mind and it cause changes in audience behavior

and psyche towards the message. Audience are passive and they can’t resist the

media message is called “Hypodermic Needle Theory”. Both theories are deals with

impact of media messages in audience mind and how audience react towards the

message without any hesitation.

Social networking websites provide tools by which people can communicate,

share information, and create new relationships. With the popularity of social

networking websites on the rise, our social interaction is affected in multiple ways as

we adapt to our increasingly technological world. The way web users interact and

talk to each other has changed and continues to change. These users now socialize

through the internet and it takes away from the person socialization that has been

around forever. Social networking websites have affected our social interaction by

changing the way we interact face-to-face, how we receive information, and the

dynamics of our social groups and friendships (Asur and Huberman, 2010).

Two studies or research articles were chosen as literature cited to help on the

development of this research. These studies shows the motivations on students

adoption, influence and preferences regarding the different possibilities to integrate

Twitter in the learning process and the experimental evidence that Twitter can be

used as an educational tool to help engage students and to mobilize faculty into a

more active and participatory role.

A study of the use of Twitter by students for lecture engagement and discussion- A
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Case Study (Tiernan, P., 2014)

This research by Peter Tiernan shows the motivations on students adoption,

influence and preferences regarding the different possibilities to integrate Twitter in

the learning process.

The research shows that students used twitter at a low rate due to technical

difficulties and the absence of motivation. However, there was a high degree of use

from shy and introvert students. The main reason was the feeling of comfort

communication with a large number of users, without any fear or shame. Students

reported that Twitter positively influences the interaction between the stakeholders

of a course in four distinct ways. Firstly, they are able to submit questions for the

course. Secondly, the brainstorming sessions between students. Finally, the third

and the fourth way were about the comments and the conversations related to the

courses from the students.

In the research, the students mentioned three possible uses of Twitter in higher

education. More specifically, 38% of the students want to use the tool not only in,

but outside the classroom. 28% want to use Twitter as the official digital space of the

course and 31% of students want to use it supplementary, as a complementary way

to communicate with the educator. Junco, Heibergert and Loken (2010) investigated

the Twitter use by students and its influence on their academic engagement and

their final grades. 125 students participated in a carefully designed study.

The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades by R. Junco,G.

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Heiberger & E. Loken.

This study was conducted by R. Junco, G. Heiberger and E. Loken which shows

the experimental evidence that Twitter can be used as an educational tool to help

engage students and mobilize faculty into a more active and participatory role. Also,

the study examine student grades as an outcome variable and conduct a qualitative

analysis of tweets to provide examples of how students engaged via twitter. The

research questions examined were: “What effect does encouraging the use of

Twitter for educationally relevant purpose have on student engagement?” and “

What does encouraging the use of Twitter for educationally relevant purposes have

on semester grades?

Seven sections of a one-credit first-year seminar course for pre-health

professional majors were used for the study. Four of the sections were randomly

assigned to the experimental group and three to the control group. The

experimental group use Twitter as part of the class while the control group did not.

None of the students used Twitter before participating in the study. Results on

Twitter usage shows that students participated in Twitter throughout the semester.

The spike in Twitter activity at week 12 was because of the start of the required

Twitter assignments. The average number of students tweets sent over the entire

study was 48.20, with a standard deviation of 52.87 and a median of 30. on the other

hand, no students in the control group reported using Twitter during the study

period.

On the discussion or analyses of different scores on the research questions,

question one show that there was a greater increase in engagement scores for the
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experimental group than the control group. From this, the researcher conclude that

using Twitter in educationally relevant ways had a positive effects on student

engagement as measured by their instrument. Question two on the other hand

analyses show that encouraging the use of Twitter for educationally relevant

purposes has a positive effect on grades. The researches found out that pre-existing

differences between the groups were equivalent in terms of academic ability.

Under the analyses on Twitter activity, the examination of tweet content shows

that students were motivated and engaged with each other. The results suggest that

Twitter can be used to engage students in ways that are important for their

academic and psychosocial development. The researchers were able to leverage

Twitter to support Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) seven principles for good practice

in undergraduate education.

CONCLUSION
The findings presented by Peter Tiernan indicate that while adoption of Twitter

was low, the platform provides engagement opportunities for timid members of the

group, while having a generally positive impact on engagement and discussion for

the group as a whole. Finally, emerging uses of the Twitter platform are examined,

allowing the reader glimpse possibilities for future integration.

According to (R. Junco et al, 2010), using Twitter in educationally relevant ways

can increase student engagement and improve grades and thus, that social media

can be used as an educational tool to help student reach desired college outcomes.

The researchers have successfully provided evidence to suggest that students and

faculty were both highly engaged in the learning process through communication
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and connections on Twitter.

How these findings will guide your study?

Despite the widespread use of social media by students and its increased use by

instructors, very little empirical evidence is available concerning the impact of social

media use on student learning and engagement (R. Junco et al, 2010). Although

some research has been conducted that examined the effect of using Twitter as part

of an educational intervention on student engagement, there are still no study

available that focuses on set out to determine the topological characteristics of

Twitter, its power as a new medium of information sharing and social convergence,

and dimensions of usage by students. Therefore, the current study serves to extend

previous research by using an experimental design to examine how Twitter change

the patterns of information exchange compared to traditional mass media

specifically to students.

REFERENCES:

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1083595.pdf

https://www.communicationtheory.org/magic-bullet-or-hypodermic-needle-theory-

of-communication/

Tiernan, P. A study of the use of Twitter by students for lecture engagement and

discussion. Educ Inf Technol 19, 673–690 (2014).

R. Junco,G. Heiberger & E. Loken- The effect of Twitter on college student

engagement and grades. cal_387 1.doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00387.x

 Organize your paper according to topic. Summarize the major findings of

the research you cited. Include only the important / relevant details without
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copying word for word

 Briefly explain how the literature cited / enumerated above are relevant or
related to your topic / proposed research. How are you going to use these
literature / studies as guides in your research?
 Highlight the parts in which you have summarized, paraphrased, or
included your own commentaries in the RRL
 As much as possible, include only those sources that you actually consulted;
avoid copying and pasting verbatim from available sources
 Include the list of references (there should be at least three sources /
references)