Most of us are used to being able to search for a specific phrase in Google by putting the phrase in “quotation marks”. This is a simple thing to do, and very useful for narrowing down searches. In databases you can use Boolean search terms such as ‘AND’, ‘OR’, etc. These are also mostly self-explanatory […]
Moodle Workshop Module Tutorial
This video gives a short introduction to the Moodle Workshop Module, and how it can be used to set up an anonymous peer review exercise for students. Students submit a short written piece, and are then randomly allocated submissions from other students which they have to assess following criteria set by the instructor. I used […]
History of Social Media Influencers
How did social media influencers start? Also known as ‘microcelebrities’, social media influencers are an increasingly important part of the digital marketing landscape – mostly on Instagram and YouTube, but across many other platforms too. Basically, they attract an audience by providing content based on their personal lives and/or interests – and when enough people […]
Facebook is Commercialising our Humanity
Following all the recent interest in Facebook engendered by the revelation of the misuse of users’ personal data (though all the indicators have been around for a while, for example in a very interesting article from January 2017: The Data That Turned the World Upside Down), I was asked by Lens at Monash University to […]
BFM Radio Interviews
I’ve been interviewed on the BFM Evening Edition a couple of times recently – here are the links to the relevant extracts: Cambridge Analytica: Damaging Democracy with Data Video Killed the Radio Star It’s interesting how it works. They will contact me in the early afternoon with some questions and ask if I can comment. […]
How to Define Social Media – An Academic
Social media are a central part of the experience of using the internet, and indeed much current research tends to be about social media rather than ‘the internet’ as such. Recently there was a discussion on the AoIR email list regarding definitions of social media, and I’m just summarising what was said there for my […]
Your Sample Is Not Random
When collecting data on what people do, you need to communicate with them (unless you are doing observation only), and you need some system for deciding who you will select for communicating with (i.e. interviewing, online survey, etc.). These people you select are your sample. A truly random sample means that everyone within a pool […]
Celebrity Studies Conference Presentatio...
I presented some of my ongoing research in July at the Celebrity Studies Conference in Amsterdam. Microcelebrity and Parenting in Malaysia from Julian Hopkins Abstract Lifestyle blogging has become an established part of the Malaysian internet, and these ‘microcelebrities’ (Senft 2012) develop parasocial relations through the interactive affordances of social media, leveraging authenticity through a carefully […]
CURIOSITY casting shadows on the rocks, sand, pebbles and dirt. but is it Earth over which the shadows lengthen through the sol? it’s curious how it’s the same Sun on Mars warming the earth and the rocky plains, with half an hour and seven minutes to spare.
Flashpacking – Travelling with Social Me
Last year I went to Sri Lanka for a short visit. It was the first time I had been travelling by myself since I went to Laos in 2008. When I was much younger, I went backpacking in India and I used to hitchhike quite a lot around Europe. I would go off, and be […]