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This study aims to examine the motivations of a group of music fans of the Eurovision Song Contest to seek information about the competition and to participate in a virtual community of fans.

The study draws from the uses and gratifications framework to understand the needs that a particular mass medium fulfills for its users. Fifteen Eurovision fans were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. Interviewees were asked to talk about how they seek information about the competition, to relate their engagement and participation with the virtual community and to reflect on the role that the community of fans and the Eurovision have in their lives.

Content analysis revealed four themes that reflect the motivations that shape many aspects of participants lives, relating to seeking information about the Eurovision Song Contest, fulfilling the need for serious leisure, making social connections, finding a sense of belonging and forming an identity.

The study examines the motivations of a group of people who share a common interest that shaped the ways the seek information, related to others, view themselves and construct their identity and make social connections, all to satisfy their love and admiration for the competition, and this regardless of the societal stigma that the competition might carry.

This study extends the literature on serious leisure information seeking by exploring the role that information and social media play in different aspects serious leisure activities.

The study aims to explore the concept of the indigenous and how Greenlandic and Sámi indigeneities is expressed, made sense of and contested within a Nordic context by using the Eurovision Song Contest as a branding platform.

Initiating with an introduction of the historical and political contexts of Sámi and Greenlandic Inuit indigeneity, the study compares lyrics, stage performances and artefacts of two Sámi and Greenlandic contributions into the European Song Contest. This is used to discuss the situated ways in which indigenous identity and culture are branded.

The study shows how seemingly “similar” indigenous identity positions take on very different expressions and meanings as Arctic, indigenous and global identity discourses manifest themselves and intertwine in a Greenlandic and Sámi context. This indicates, as we discuss, that indigeneity in a Nordic context is tightly connected to historical and political specificities.

The study argues against a “one size fits all” approach to defining the indigenous and even more so attempts to “pinning down” universal indigenous issues or challenges.

The study highlights how decisions on whether or how to use the indigenous in place or destination branding processes should always be sensitive to its historical and political contexts.

By focusing on the most prevalent European indigenous groups, the Sámi from the Northern parts of Norway and Greenlandic Inuit, rather than existing nation states, this study expands on current research on Eurovision and nation branding. By exploring the role of the indigenous in place branding, this study also contributes to the existing place branding literature, which overwhelmingly relates to the branding of whole nations or to specific places within nations, such as capital cities.

“Good morning, this is Vienna calling”. The temptation was strong to ask Vienna for the votes of the Austrian jury, but I remembered in time that this was not the Eurovision Song Contest, but the IFLA Information Desk and this was my first call. It was only Friday, the desk was still being organised, the exhibition did not begin until Sunday and the Conference proper not until Monday. However, the enquiries were already beginning to trickle in. This one turned out to be a cancellation from a delegate, so she was referred to the Registration Desk.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interrelationship between television (TV) consumption (viewing ratings), engagement behaviors of different actors on Twitter (TV programs, media, celebrities and viewers) and the content of engagement behaviors (affective, program-related and social content).

TV ratings and Twitter data were obtained. The content of tweets was analyzed by means of a sentiment analysis. A vector auto regression model was used to understand the interrelationship between tweets of different actors and TV consumption.

First, the results showed a negative interrelationship between TV viewing and viewers’ tweeting behavior. Second, tweets by celebrities and media exhibited similar patterns and were both affected mostly by the number of tweets by viewers. Finally, the content of tweets matters. Affective tweets positively relate to TV viewing, and program-related and social content positively relates to the number of tweets by viewers.

The findings help us understand the online engagement ecosystem and provide insights into drivers of TV consumption and online engagement of different actors.

The results indicate that content producers may want to focus on stimulating affective conversations on Twitter to trigger more online and offline engagement. The results also call for rethinking the meaning of TV metrics.

While some studies have explored viewer interactions on Twitter, only a few studies have looked at the effects of such interactions on variables outside of social media, such as TV consumption. Moreover, the authors study the interrelations between Twitter interactions with TV consumption, which allows us to examine the effect of online engagement on offline behaviors and vice versa. Finally, the authors take different actors into account when studying real-life online engagement.

To provide insights into approaches for conceptualising and producing case studies that will be appropriate for inclusion in educational and training programmes.

The efficacy of a new process adopted in case writing, through “front loading” production of the teaching note, is described. An analogy is derived with crossword puzzle compilation and an approach to developing “entertaining” cases from the creative industries sector is provided. Experiences are recounted on production and use in classroom/examination sessions of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance studies.

Conclusions are drawn from primary research undertaken with nine cohorts, totalling over 320 students, (undergraduate/graduate, spread over three university campuses), in relation to the effectiveness of the case assessment process in end‐of‐term examinations.

The existing academic literature provides a limited information base on topics concerned with case writing and experiences in regard to student performances in case study discussion sessions/assessment procedures. The implication is that further original research is called for in the area.

Educators and trainers must be more immediately concerned with establishing the particular roles that case studies can play within their programmes. They should also ensure that the cost effectiveness of case production systems is optimised.

The paper fulfils a number of identified needs, including development of a more efficient method of case writing and supplementation of the limited knowledge base within the current literature on the topics covered. This is particularly so in regard to the efficacy of the case method in terms of student learning and assessment processes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature and extent of corruption in the telecommunications sector in Azerbaijan and the associated issues of governance.

A case study examining a wide range of sources on Azerbaijan.

Unusually, perhaps uniquely, ownership of major operators has been concealed. Nonetheless, the presidential family controls one of three mobile operators and has a stake in a second.

A law from 2012 conceals the beneficial ownership of some operators, others merely use offshore registries.

One of only half a dozen case studies on corruption in telecommunications. It is very unusual in the extent to which ownership of operators is hidden.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it investigates the relationship between television, its audiences and Twitter around the creation of social TV events. Here it contributes to knowledge by charting usage in relation to different types of programmes and by comparing Twitter to Facebook data. Second, it evaluates the way in which student-led research can be used to conduct audience studies with the help of Twitter.

The research applies a quantitative approach, measuring the volume of Twitter messages before, during and after two different types of television programmes, i.e. Reality TV (The X Factor and The Only Way is Essex) and sports broadcasts (football and Formula One). Brief comparisons are also drawn with data collected from Facebook. The pedagogical evaluation of the research is based on self-reflection by the author/tutor.

The research established similar trends and patterns of viewer engagement for both types of television programming, with key activity during and towards the end of a broadcast which points to viewers using Twitter, or Facebook, while watching the event. The findings are compared to previous studies on television programmes and Twitter use. The study also identified that student research using Twitter can lead to a valuable learning experience as it allows students to use their own knowledge of social media to inform the research process.

This research makes a contribution to the small yet growing body of studies examining Twitter activity in relation to TV events. It also contributes to knowledge on the educational use of social media by providing an account of how Twitter can be applied as a research tool by students.

This paper aims to introduce the papers in this issue and explain the pertinence of the strategic question.

A brief context for the strategic question is provided, as well as the issue alignment and a content analysis of the papers selected.

From the analysis of the papers selected for this theme issue, it becomes clear that tourism has become one of the major players in international economic, social and technological sectors, while representing one of the main income sources for developed and developing countries.

The papers selected for this issue shed light on an important problem: increasing tourist flows and overtourism at some world top destinations.

Moral values and behavioural codes that governed the urban life and the appropriation of urban spaces changed significantly in Baku over the last two decades leading to conflicts over the right behaviour in the city and about the question who has the right to set the rules in public spaces. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current political as well as social rules that govern the public spaces in Baku and how they are discussed in order that the city should appear “European” in contrast to “oriental”.

The author focuses on everyday practices of people acting in the public sphere, how they use the space and which discussions emerge around different behaviour in public places. The paper is based on observations and interviews the author made between August 2010 and May 2012.

The paper shows new ways of appropriation of public space and dealing with social as well as official control.

The paper presents new research on a quickly changing post-Soviet city.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how Twitter is used as a political backchannel and potential agenda setter during two televised political debates during the Norwegian election in 2011. The paper engages with current debates about the role of social media in audience participation and traditional media's changing role as gatekeepers and agenda setter.

A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. By introducing and using the IMSC multiple step analysis model on the Twitter datasets, the authors are able to analyse the flow of thousands of tweets and compare them with topics discussed in the televised debates.

The paper finds that the same topics are discussed on Twitter as on TV, but “the debate about the debate” or Meta talk tweets reveal critical scrutiny of the agenda. The paper identifies a clear pattern of political fandom and media criticism in the “debate about the debate”, indicating that Meta talk in social media can function as a critical public sphere, also in real time, which has not been identified in existing studies of Twitter and political TV shows.

The analysis is unique in the sense that the paper analyses a smaller, national Twitter population in deeper detail than what is common in larger Twitter studies related to political televised debates. The IMSC model can be used in future Twitter studies to uncover layers in the data material and structure the findings.