Empowering Online Methods of Student-Teacher Communication: The Opportunities and Challenges of Web-Based Technologies and Social Media During COVID-19 Lockdown
The use of web-based technologies and social media to enhance student-teacher communication is a growing trend in education in recent times. After the COVID 19 pandemic, the worldwide network has been widely used and the infrastructure for information quickly developed. This study aims to explore the perceptions of teachers and students about the use of web and social media during the COVID-19 pandemic at postgraduate level. Firstly, this study employs a questionnaire to examine student perception about uses of web-based technologies and social media. Data were collected from 500 students from different departments at the universities. Secondly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 teachers. The findings indicate that the social media are revolutionizing communication systems and are helpful in on-line classes, with collaborative work and research coordination during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study recommended extensive use of webs and social media for efficient communication between teachers and students.
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Key Words: Web-based Technologies, Social Media, Enhancing Communication, Students
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(1) Nasrin Akhter
Associate Professor, Department of Science, University of Okara, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Muhammad Naseer Ud Din
Professor, Institute of Education & Research, Kohat University of Science & Technology, Kohat, KP, Pakistan.
(3) Muhammad Imran
Assistant Professor, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.
Analyzing the Role of Social Media in Strengthening Democracy in Pakistan
Modern innovation in communication has changed patterns of socializing. Advance forms of communication are paving ways for people to convey their ideologies to others. This study attempts to analyze the role of social media in strengthening democracy in Pakistan and highlights the importance of media in democratic states by an extensive review of the literature. The core concern of the study was to observe how mass media contributes to the socialization of democracy. Quantitative research methodology opted, and research findings concluded that social media advocates the public on general political issues that increase the political efficacy and resulting in more political participation in Pakistan. Web 2.0 platforms such as Twitter and Facebook provide new opportunities to create a political environment in Pakistan. In the presence of these platforms, a bridge is developed between the citizens for strengthening a strong democratic setup.
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Social Media, Democratization, Political Awareness, Political Efficacy, Political Participation
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(1) Sumera Batool
Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Saba Sultana
Lecturer, Department of Mass Communication and Media, University of Narowal, Narowal, Punjab, Pakistan.
(3) Farrah -ul- Momineen
PhD Scholar, Department of Mass Communication, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
Measuring the Dynamic Predictive Relationship of Social Media Metrics with Firm Equity Value: A Time Series Analysis
In the online environment, social media metrics offer a credible basis of customer feedback in anticipating the firm performance. This study verifies the association of social media metrics of Face-book and Twitter to financial market performance. Data were collected from official Facebook pages and Twitter accounts of 3 fast-food companies over the time period of 6 months. Then established multiple metrics for respective social media platforms and develop outcomes using Vector Autoregressive time series models to evaluate the instantaneous and continuing relationship between social media metrics and financial market performance of the firms in terms of unusual returns and idiosyncratic risk. Results indicated that FB metrics are significant leading indicators of firm equity value. However, Twitter metrics, have a weaker relationship with firm value as compared to FB metrics. Collectively, current research extends new visions for organizational top executives and investors concerning organizational equity valuation and the social media power transformation.
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Firm Equity Value, Social Media Metrics, Facebook, Twitter, Social Media Marketing.
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(1) Zeshan Ahmad
Assistant Professor, Business Administration,Air University Multan Campus, Pakistan.
(2) Imran Khan
Senior Lecturer, Department of Management Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
(3) Muhammad Abbas
Associate Professor, Business Administration, Air University Multan Campus, Pakistan.
Social Media's Moral Reckoning and Positive Engagement: Analyzing Its Effectiveness for Peace and Prevention of War
Today, technological advancement has largely altered human existence and has turned this globe more interdependent. In this development, means of communication play a substantial role in promoting peace, harmony, and interaction among multi-cultural societies and discouraging notions of conflict and animosity. Communication is the carrier of culture; it is the key of any relationship, be it interpersonal or intrapersonal. Without communication, no dialogue is possible. Social media, being the cheapest source of communication, is considered only a reliable and effective way of universal interaction, which is tremendous for a peaceful global relation. Social media, along with its approaches, has helped prevent conflict and has helped link people with the world. It breaks the communication barriers and opens opportunities for a peaceful international connection. Its proliferation has served as a bridge between the states and cross-cultures. Moreover, it promotes education, awareness, and a sense of belonging among people and sensitizes them about adverse repercussions of war, terrorism, climate degradation, and cultivates positivity to reserve the amity sphere. This research attempts to analyze social media as an effective tool to bring peace and harmony in the world and can help prevent an environment of animosity and conflict.
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Social Media, Communication, Harmony, Global Peace, Conflict Prevention
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(1) Inayat Kalim
Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Islamabad, Pakistan.
(2) Muhammad Mubeen
Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Islamabad, Pakistan.
(3) Sohail Ahmad
Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Islamabad, Pakistan.
Investigating the Support of Social Media for Leadership Styles: A Survey of Teachers from Higher Education in DI-Khan KP Pakistan
People with some digital literacy using social media seem more inclined to transformational leadership style and simultaneously, dislike and avoid a preference for the transactional type of leaders. The reason is that TRF is based on high connectivity between leader and followers, while TRS runs on the documented rules and regulations without any continuous change so subordinates are given guidelines once and no need of constant communication. This study investigates the existence of these links among the Faculty members of universities in D.I.Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The objective is to statistically measure the nature and strength of the hypothesized links among educated citizens. The statistical results are supportive at the level of positive and negative relations; however, the readings from connections show varying statistics regarding the power of the links. The simultaneous existence of both positive and negative impacts of SM has been well established with huge statistical scores. Further, the demographic impacts have also been verified from the field study. The findings contain a package of guidelines for the concerned people to focus on their SM and TRF to get more effective results from the connections.
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Teachers from Higher Education, Social Media, Transformation al & Transactional Leadership Style
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(1) Azmat Ali Shah
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Qurtuba University of Science & Information Technology DI Khan, KP, Pakistan.
(2) Muhammad Zubair Baloch
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Gomal University DI.Khan, KP, Pakistan.
(3) Raza Ullah Shah
Assistant Professor, Department of Management Sciences, Qurtuba University of Science & Information Technology DI Khan, KP, Pakistan.
Social Media Habits of Youth in Pakistan and the Role in Developing Social Capital
The core objective of the study was trifold in nature (i) to investigate the social media habits among youth. (ii) To analyze the magnitude and direction of relationship among communicative use, friending, self-disclosure, bonding and bridging social capital among youth. (iii) To investigate the magnitude regarding the impact of communicative use, this includes the phenomenon of bonding, friending, bridging social capital and selfdisclosure among youth. A cross-sectional research design was followed, and n=384 students were selected from 6 renowned public universities of Punjab, Pakistan. Data was collected through a questionnaire comprised of socioeconomic status, media habits, friending, and self-disclosure, bridging and bonding capital items. Acquired responses were analyzed through SPSS-21, and hypothesis was tested through Pearson Correlation coefficient p<.01<0.5, and the magnitude of the effect was determined through a linear regression model. There was a significant positive correlation found between friending, communication use, bonding, self-disclosure, and bridging the social capital through social media and regression model findings showed a significant effect of communicative use on bonding social capital and self-disclosure on bridging social capital through social media among youth.
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Social Media, Social Capital, Self-Disclosure, Friending, Communication
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(1) Muhammad Bilal Nawaz
Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Jhang Campus, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Rao Shahid Mahmood Khan
Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.
(3) Malik Adnan
Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.
Political Communication With Social Media In Pakistan: Internal And External Efficacy
Political knowledge influences political behavior and political participation as the person who has sufficient political knowledge will contribute his part in political issues and get engage himself in political campaigns. Hence, a politically informed person put an impact upon others by sharing his views and information. Now a day social media has revolutionized the world due to its unlimited features, and it made it easier for everyone to spread the news and especially the political content. Different political parties use social media platforms to engage their voters and especially youth. This study suggests that social media plays a critical role for youngsters to disseminate information regarding politics and affects the internal and external efficacy of youth by the transmission of knowledge and political participation through social media.
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Political Participation, Social Media Usage, Internal Efficacy, External Efficacy
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(1) Hannan Khan Tareen
PhD Scholar/ Associate Lecturer, Department of Media Studies, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.
(2) Malik Adnan
Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.
YouTube Usage Motivation among Students: Uses and Gratification Analysis
YouTube grow into one of the potential commercialization platforms after the inception of the Internet. Users can decide the content of the video by subscribing to popular trends. This research also aims to examine the motivation behind YouTube usage among the young generation in Pakistan. The researchers employed a descriptive quantitative approach and gathered data from n= 105 respondents from young students. Results indicated that the YouTube watching pattern among the students of AIOU showed that students use YouTube to satisfy their cognitive needs and gratify their personal, effective, and social integrative needs. Students also use YouTube for tension release. The majority of the students of AIOU use YouTube to get extra information about the topic they want to prepare for their exams. The students use YouTube to clear their concepts about specific topics and courses. Thus, it is concluded that students watch an aspiring video on YouTube, and they not only get entertained and are also motivated by these videos. Further, the research has concluded and highlighted significant study limitations accordingly.
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YouTube, Social Media, Uses and Gratification Theory, Pakistan Videos
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(1) Saadia Anwar Pasha
Department of Mass Communication, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(2) Amina Rasheed
Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan
(3) Sana Ali
MPhil Scholar, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan
The Importance of Social Media ads in Enhancing Brand Equity: A Study on Fast- Food Restaurants in Lahore
Social media platforms are used in many businesses for the marketing of their products and operations. The Lahore based restaurants are under observation of this research, and the impact of social media is highlighted in the meantime. The major objective of this study is to examine the impacts of social media in doing food business and how it influences their activities. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods along with individual interviews was conducted. The results of the study showed that in the case of the restaurants business, social media has a positive impact and an increment in sales and flow of consumers. Facebook and Instagram are the major social media platforms used by restaurants. Word of mouth also plays a huge role.Nonetheless, social media provides cheap and accessible marketing to reach numerous people instantly.
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Social Media, Brand Equity, Fast-Food, Lahore, Pakistan, Facebook
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(1) Muhammad Shabi ul Hasnain
MPhil Scholar, School of Media and Communication Studies, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
(2) Tanveer Hussain
Assistant Professor, School of Media and Communication Studies, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
(3) Faiza Aslam
Research Associate, Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
Traditional versus Social Media News Coverage: An Analysis of the Topic Selection Priorities
The current study was carried out on framing the ongoing debate on the inter-relationship which exists between social media and traditional media news coverages. Its particular focus is to analyze how both mediums focus on their topic selection when it comes to prioritizing an issue to be presented at the top. By employing the content analysis technique of the Facebook posts and newspaper articles the study tried to sort out to what extent differences exist in traditional media and social media coverage with respect to the selection of the topic in Pakistan. The researchers used Chi-square tests to weigh up the use of alternative media and the frame selection of social media in the selected timeline. The study concluded that social media and traditional media react differently when covering social issues. Social media showed better interaction patterns on grass root issues whereas traditional media focused more on covering political issues.
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Social Media, Traditional Media, News Coverage, Issues, Priorities
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(1) Sadaf Asif
Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication Studies, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(2) Noor-ul -Ain
Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication Studies, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(3) Ayesha Siddiqua
Associate Professor, Department of Media and Communication Studies, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.