Managing and evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social media: a Generation X perspective
Report
Frances RyanFollow
Sep. 16, 2016•0 likes•1,957 views
Managing and evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social media: a Generation X perspective
Sep. 16, 2016•0 likes•1,957 views
Report
Education
This paper was delivered at the ISIC : The Information Behaviour Conference, 22 September 2016, University of Zadar, Croatia Abstract Introduction. The means by which individuals evaluate the personal reputations of others, and manage their own personal reputations, as determined by information shared on social media platforms, is investigated from an information science perspective. The paper is concerned with findings from a doctoral study that takes into account prior work on the building and assessment of reputations through citation practice, as explored in the domain of scientometrics. Method. Following the practice of studies of everyday life information seeking (ELIS), a multi-step data collection process was implemented. In total forty-five participants kept diaries and took part in semi-structured interviews. In this paper fifteen of these participants are represented. Analysis. A qualitative analysis of the data was undertaken using NVivo10 to consider the information practices of one of three age group cohort generations: Generation X. Results. Results generated from this initial analysis show some clear alignments with established knowledge in the domain, as well as new themes to be explored further. Of particular note is that social media users are more interested in the content of the information that is shared on social media platforms than they are in the signals that this information might convey about the sharer(s). It is also rare for these users to consider the impact of information sharing on personal reputation building and evaluation. Conclusion. The analysis of the full dataset will provide further insight on the specific theme of the role of online information in personal reputation management, and contribute to theory development related to the study of information seeking behaviour and use.
Frances RyanFollow
Recommended
Perspectives, People and Projects: Social Informatics Research within the Sch...Hazel Hall
Inclusivity in the delivery of teaching: from agendas to actions #TFConf17Hazel Hall
School of Computing PhD Research Conference PresentationFrances Ryan
Proposed Title: Youth digital culture co-creation | Measuring the social impa...Alicja Pawluczuk
CoLIS presentationJohn Mowbray
Equality and Athena SWAN: The Edinburgh Napier University experienceHazel Hall
More Related Content
More from Frances Ryan
Build, manage, and evaluate: Information practices and personal reputations o...Frances Ryan
Blurred reputations: Managing professional and private information onlineFrances Ryan
Building your academic reputation onlineFrances Ryan
Academics online: Alternative reputationsFrances Ryan
Online information: Building reputation one status update at a timeFrances Ryan
Online information's role in reputation: A thesis in three minutes Frances Ryan
Recently uploaded
9.21.23 Nationalism, Globalism, and Transnationalism.pptxmary850239
Theoretical Considerations of Financing Education.pptShrutiMahanta1
Models of Communication.pptxMYDA ANGELICA SUAN
ACTIVITY BOOK key 00.pptxMar Caston Palacio
Presentation on Online Child Sexual AbuseVoiceofChildren
'RAY'-volution (Akademos-2021).pdfAshishBagani2
Managing and evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social media: a Generation X perspective
- 1. Managing and evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social media: a Generation X perspective Presented by Frances VC Ryan 2016 ISIC: Information Seeking in Context Conference University of Zadar, Croatia Co-authors: Peter Cruickshank, Hazel Hall, and Alistair Lawson Edinburgh Napier University | Centre for Social Informatics
- 2. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com What’s the research about? How online information contributes to the building, maintenance, and evaluation of personal reputations ►Personal reputation: Private individuals, rather than corporate identity and brand
- 3. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com Two broad research themes The means by which people evaluate or assess the personal reputations of others from the online evidence available to them How people manage their own personal reputations through their use of online information, and to what extent those behaviours are intentional
- 4. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com ►Facebook ►Twitter ►LinkedIn
- 5. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com The literature Personal reputation (Private and professional) InformationSocial media
- 6. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com Research questions RQ1: How do individuals build identities for themselves online? RQ3: How do individuals evaluate the identities and reputations of others based on the online information available to them? RQ2: How do individuals use online information to build and manage their reputations? RQ4: To what extent do individuals actively practise identity and reputation building and evaluation online?
- 7. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com An overview of the data collection process
- 8. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com An overview of the data collection process
- 9. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com Generation X subset ►Fifteen participants ► 13 females; 2 males ►Born 1965-1980 ► Average age: 41 ►Platforms used: ► Facebook: All ► Twitter: 12 ► LinkedIn: 10 ►Self-reported SNS use: ► 11 moderate; 4 heavy
- 10. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com RQ1: How do individuals build identities for themselves online? ►Identity (or identities) are based on offline personas
- 11. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com RQ1: How do individuals build identities for themselves online? ►Naming conventions ► No current anonymous accounts ► Pseudonyms are of greater interest ► Seen as “user names” or “nicknames” ► Point to the “offline” person “I like to have a consistent social media handle and I hate it when I can’t. [To me] it’s like a suite of information [about me]. … I like the idea of being consistent and being open about who I am.” (Gillian)
- 12. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com RQ1: How do individuals build identities for themselves online? ►Social media use is an extension of everyday lives
- 13. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com RQ2: How do individuals use online information to build and manage their reputations? ►Managing the blur between their private and professional lives “I'm not Facebook friends with any current colleagues … that’s what LinkedIn is for.” (Laura)
- 14. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com RQ2: How do individuals use online information to build and manage their reputations? ►Undertaking some level of self-censorship “There’s certain information that I won’t share, or I’ll think twice about sharing publicly.” (Gillian)
- 15. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com RQ3: How do individuals evaluate the identities and reputations of others based on the online information available to them? ►Difficult to convey or talk about evaluations ►Views in stark contrast to own = negative evaluation ►Frequency matters
- 16. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com RQ3: How do individuals evaluate the identities and reputations of others based on the online information available to them? ►Conflicting views of anonymity and pseudonyms by others ► Not completely acceptable, even when it’s understood “If you haven’t used your real name, I’m not sure if I want to give credence to what you’re saying...” (Jacqueline)
- 17. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com RQ3: How do individuals evaluate the identities and reputations of others based on the online information available to them? ►Having an offline connection provides a level of forgiveness or leniency “You personalise the information. It’s not just information … you have [an] emotional engagement to it.” (Sharon)
- 18. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com RQ4: To what extent do individuals actively practise identity and reputation building and evaluation online? ►Levels of intentional reputation management varies ► First concern is how information will be received ►The diary made them do it! ► Participation in the study prompted considerations of personal reputation management and evaluation
- 19. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com Do the empirical study findings support those of the literature review? Social media users self-regulate their information sharing taking into account platform and audience Hiding information related to ‘offline’ identity through the use of anonymity or pseudonyms is less prevalent than reported in other studies Second-level connections (“friends of friends”) are not regarded as important to the evaluation of reputation as has been reported elsewhere
- 20. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com New contributions relate to awareness ►People build and evaluate identity and reputation on the basis of online information ► Even if unconsciously ►Overall levels of active identity and reputation building and evaluation using social media information vary ► On the whole, they are low ►Individuals rarely consider the impact of information sharing on personal reputation building and evaluation
- 21. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com Next steps ►Detailed analysis of all 45 sets of participant data in progress ►Final stages of analysis to be completed by November 2016 ►Main thesis writing over winter 2016/17 ►Findings of full study will be shared in 2017
- 22. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com Full text of paper available ►Full text available ► Conference proceedings ► Information Research (coming soon) ► From Frances after the presentation Ryan, F., Cruickshank, P., Hall, H., Lawson, A. (2017). Managing and evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social media: a Generation X perspective. Information Research. Copyright attributions: Bottom image on slide 8 (Generation X subset): Roy Cook Social networking icons: Iconfinder (iconfinder.com) Political signs and ISIC logo used under Fair Use concepts All other images: Frances Ryan
- 23. Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com Thank you! f.ryan@napier.ac.uk @cleverfrances www.JustAPhD.com