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This study aims to explore Twitter posts of Turkish government agencies and the public under a specific hashtag, #NotHolidayButDistanceEducation, specifically related to online distance education during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This study used a thematic analysis on 22,547 original tweets posted by 6,970 users during the first month of online distance education in Turkish K-12 schools. Based on like and retweet counts, the study further explored the extent of stakeholders’ engagement with the observed themes.

The findings showed that government agencies and citizens used Twitter to provide technical and psychological support, appreciate and motivate stakeholders, demonstrate sample distance education activities, share information and offer suggestions about the ongoing online distance education. It was also observed that the hashtag has been used for expressing negative views about online distance education and for political purposes. A positive relationship was found between social media engagement and providing technical support or sharing information for online distance education.

This study highlights the role of social media in providing practical and emotional support to education stakeholders in times of crisis. Thus, governments can use social media to provide evidence-based psychological and physical health support to their citizens during a pandemic. Social media can serve to improve education practices in schools through the interactions between the public and policymakers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study can be considered unique because it demonstrates the civic use of social media for educational crisis management. This study highlights the influence of social media in educational policy and practice development in the contemporary era.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of page-specific factors such as page language, posting frequency and community size on online engagement in the context of social media pages of news channels in Pakistan.

For this research, official Facebook pages of news channels in Pakistan were defined as the target population. Secondary data were obtained from the Facebook pages of 28 news channels in Pakistan. For the selected period between August and September 2019, a total of 420 cases were obtained and manually entered in SPSS 21 for analysis. Tweedie estimation was run to check the proposed hypotheses.

Results show that English pages are more engaging than Urdu. Additionally, posting frequency and community size have a negative relationship with online engagement.

The findings of the study suggest that administrators of social media pages of news channels should target English news readers more than Urdu news readers. Additionally, they should manage a low posting frequency so that readers may not get irritated. Administrators should not sponsor their pages to expand community size on a single page. Instead, they may opt to build a separate page for each news category with smaller community size.

While previous studies have discussed the post-specific factors of engagement, this study has checked the impact of page-specific factors such as page language, posting frequency and community size on online engagement.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of post content, post media and post scheduling strategies on online engagement on Twitter in context of micro celebrities in Pakistan.

For this research, micro celebrities of Pakistan have been defined as the target population. Secondary data consisting of 464 tweets from walls of six micro celebrities belonging to both genders and diverse set of socio-political fields was collected. Tweedie estimation analysis was run to accept or reject the hypotheses. Mean values with standard deviations were utilized to analyze the different engagement patterns of dichotomous variables (content type, content language, mentions, hashtags, text, images, links, videos, hour of the day and day of the week) on online engagement.

Content type, content language, content length, hashtags, mentions, images, links, videos, hour of the day and day of the week have been found to have a significant relationship with online engagement on Twitter.

First, the study has been conducted in context of micro celebrities on Twitter. It did not include influencers on other social media networks. Second, study considered only quantitative aspects of engagement based on secondary data ignoring qualitative aspects of phenomenon due to time and methodology constraints. Third, study did not include link clicks as a measure of engagement as clicks data is not publicly available on the posts.

The study contributes significantly to find out valuable “micro celebrity” strategies in Pakistan. The study suggests micro celebrities to tweet soft content in Urdu language along with relevant hashtags and mentions to get higher engagement on their tweets. Further, tweets should contain maximum number of characters. Micro celebrities should not insert images, links and videos in their tweets as these media types result in lower engagement on Twitter. Micro celebrities should tweet at low hours and weekends.

As this study focuses on investigation of better engagement practices for micro celebrities, it will help general public to express themselves more effectively through social media.

First, this is the first study that investigates the online engagement model for micro celebrities. Second, the online engagement model designed in this study has yet not been investigated to best of our knowledge. The theoretical model combines multiple engagement factors discussed in previous studies conducted on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.

This paper seeks to demonstrate the importance of uses and gratifications theory to social media. By applying uses and gratifications theory, this paper will explore and discuss the uses and gratifications that consumer receive from using social media. This paper seeks to provide a better and more comprehensive understanding of why consumers use social media.

Exploratory study was conducted. 25 in‐depth interviews were conducted with individuals who use social media.

This study identified ten uses and gratifications for using social media. The ten uses and gratifications are: social interaction, information seeking, pass time, entertainment, relaxation, communicatory utility, convenience utility, expression of opinion, information sharing, and surveillance/knowledge about others.

Limitations are small sample size. Research implications are that uses and gratifications theory has specific relevance to social media and should be given more prominence. Uses and gratifications theory helps explain the many and varied reasons why consumers use social media.

This paper helps organizations to understand why consumers use social media and what gratifications they receive from social media.

This paper makes the contribution that uses and gratifications theory has specific relevance and should be given more prominence within the area of social media. This paper also provides a rich and vivid understanding of why consumers use social media.

Video game streaming (VGS) is emerging as an extremely popular, highly interactive, inordinately subscribed and very dynamic form of digital media. Incorporated environmental elements, gratifications and user pre-existing attitudes in VGS, this paper presents the development of an extended model of uses and gratification theory (EUGT) for predicting users' behavior in novel technological context.

The proposed model was empirically tested in VGS context due to its popularity, interactivity and relevance. Data collected from 308 VGS users and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to assess the hypotheses. Multi-model comparison technique was used to assess the explanatory power of EUGT.

The findings confirmed three significant types elements in determining VGS viewers' engagement, including gratifications (e.g. involvement), environmental cues (e.g. medium appeal) and user predispositions (e.g. pre-existing attitudes). The results revealed that emerging technologies provide potential opportunities for new motives and gratifications, and highlighted the significant of pre-existing attitudes as a mediator in the gratification-uses link.

This study is one of its kind in tackling the criticism on UGT of considering media users too rational or active. The study achieved this objective by considering environmental impacts on user behavior which is largely ignored in recent UGT studies. Also, by incorporating users pre-existing attitudes into UGT framework, this study conceptualized and empirically verified the higher explanatory power of EUGT through a novel multi-modal approach in VGS. Compared to other rival models, EUGS provides a more robust explanation of users' behavior. The findings contribute to the literature of UGT, VGS and users' engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to explore what motivates college students to use LinkedIn and what inhibits them from fully adopting it.

A qualitative approach applying a “uses and gratifications” framework was used to identify the motives of and barriers faced by college students with respect to the LinkedIn usage. The study includes data collected from 30 upper-level, undergraduate business students.

Four uses and gratifications categories emerged explaining why college students would be willing to use LinkedIn. Three categories – interpersonal communication, online identity and information – are similar to those identified for using social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Career development was found to be a category gratifying only LinkedIn users. Barriers to LinkedIn adoption included students’ ignorance of the network and the erroneous perception that a presence on LinkedIn should be initiated and/or developed only after graduation.

College students’ behavior on social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, was extensively researched employing the uses and gratifications theory. LinkedIn has recently reached about 200 million users, of which about 30 million are college students and recent graduates. Still, students’ motives, usage patterns and barriers associated with LinkedIn have not been well-documented, which creates a gap that this study attempts to address. The aim is to shed light on what motivates students to use a professional network as opposed to using social networks and what key barriers might prevent college students from fully capitalizing on LinkedIn’s features.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of social network use behaviour using Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Uses and Gratifications Theory.

A quantitative study was carried out with data gathered by personal interview using a structured questionnaire. Relationships proposed in the theoretical model were estimated through structural equation models. In total, 811 users of social networks over 14 and residents in Spain were part of the sample.

Results indicate that use attitude and the subjective norm, both TPB variables, directly and significantly influence social network loyalty. Thus, network loyalty can be achieved if the individual shows a favourable attitude towards use and receives positive feed-back (comments, opinions, etc.) from friends, acquaintances and other individuals in their environment. Perceived control has no influence on social network loyalty. Finally, this research highlights the importance of socialisation and entertainment as antecedents of social network attitude.

Social network use has been analysed globally and database includes users with very different profiles (e.g. Facebook and Tuenti) what may skew the results.

Individuals access social networks to establish social links with friends/family/acquaintances, seeking entertainment and fun, but they are never used to be fashionable or up-to-date. Given the importance of social relations, companies should motivate participation elements in their social networks profiles.

The paper presents a model that explains the formation of loyal social network customers, integrating TPB and Uses and Gratifications Theory to enable understanding of the role of these networks in individuals’ lives.

Considering the popularity and addictive attributes of microblogging, the purpose of this paper is to explore the key drivers of the microblogging addiction tendency, and to investigate the causal relationship between microblogging usage and addiction tendency through the lens of the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory.

By extending the U&G theory to accommodate the negative consequences of gratification, a research model that explains the relationships among microblogging use, gratification and addiction tendency was developed and empirically examined based on the data collected from 520 microblogging users in China.

The results showed that different types of microblogging use lead to different categories of gratification to different extents, while different categories of gratification play different roles in determining the level of addiction tendency. Specifically, the effect of content gratification on addiction is marginal, while social gratification has significant effects on all dimensions of addiction tendency.

The present study has both theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, unlike many previous studies applied the U&G theory to explore the positive outcomes of media uses, this paper extends the U&G by including addiction tendency as a negative psychological outcome of U&G., resulting a research framework (use-gratification-addiction framework). Meanwhile, this paper contributes to the extending literature by examining the constructs of U&G at a granular level and investigated the causal relationship between “uses” and “gratifications.”

Some aspects of technology behaviour remain unclear, such as the generation of technology use and engagement. So, this study aims to address the following question: does engagement with technology drive the use of technology?or does the use of technology create the engagement with technology?

Based on the uses and gratifications theory, this study compares three alternative competing models that explain technology behaviour on a sample of 715 individuals, using the selection criteria proposed by Mathieson. A comprehensive analysis and comparison of three structural competing models on technology behaviour, namely, “use-and-engagement”, “use-to-engagement” and “engagement-to-use”, are presented.

Findings show that the “use-and-engagement” model provides a better explanation of technology behaviour and is superior to predict technology behaviour, suggesting that both technology engagement and use could be considered as consequences.

This study’s major contribution is the empirical examination of three structural competing models and the selection of the best explaining model of technology behaviour.

Algunos aspectos del comportamiento tecnológico permanecen sin aclarar, como la creación del uso e implicación hacia la tecnología. Así que abordamos la siguiente pregunta: ¿La implicación con la tecnología impulse su uso?, o ¿es el uso de la tecnología el que impulse la implicación?.

Basándonos en la Teoría de los Usos y Gratificaciones se han comparado tres modelos alternativos que compiten entre sí para explicar el comportamiento tecnológico, en una muestra de 715 individuos utilizando el criterio de selección propuesto por Mathieson. Se presenta un análisis y una comparación exhaustive de tres modelos estructurales competitivos sobre el comportamiento tecnológico, que son “uso-e-implicación”, “uso-para-la implicación” e “implicación-para-el uso”.

Los resultados muestran que el modelo “uso-e-implicación” proporciona la mejor explicación del comportamiento tecnológico y es superior para predecir el comportamiento tecnológico, lo que sugiere que tanto la implicación como el uso de la tecnología podrían considerarse como consecuencias.

Nuestra principal contribución es el análisis empírico de tres modelos estructurales competitivos y la selección del mejor de ellos para explicar el comportamiento tecnológico.

技术行为的某些方面仍然不清楚, 例如技术使用和参与的产生。因此, 我们意在解决以下问题：对技术的参与是否推动了技术的使用,还是技术的使用创造了技术的参与？

基于 “使用与满足 “理论, 我们使用马蒂森提出的选择标准, 在715人的样本上比较了三种解释技术行为的替代竞争模型。即我们对三个关于技术行为的结构性竞争模型, “使用和参与”、“使用到参与 ”和 “参与到使用 ”进行了综合的分析和比较。

研究结果显示, “使用和参与 “模型更好的解释了技术行为, 并且其优于预测技术行为, 这表明技术参与和使用都可以被认为是后果。

我们的主要贡献是对三个结构性竞争模型进行了实证检验, 并选择了对技术行为的最佳解释模型。

The purpose of this paper is to propose a robust framework for assessing motivations to use Twitter. Drawing on previous studies, diffusion of innovations, unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, and uses and gratifications frameworks were incorporated to capture the variety in Twitter gratifications.

This study explored the motivations to use Twitter through data mining and content analysis of #IUseTwitterBecause trending topic in Turkey. The sample was consisted of 4,465 tweets posted by 3,794 unique Twitter persona.

Findings revealed 13 distinct Twitter gratifications which were grouped under four main categories: content, process, social and technology. Process gratifications were found to be the strongest motives for using Twitter whereas content gratifications were the weakest. The current findings indicated that Turkish users engage with Twitter mostly for self-expression, escapism, and social interaction. Moreover, the study found a novel campaign gratification for using Twitter solely to make political or social agenda visible in the society.

The current study extends the previous literature on motivations in using social networking services from both analytical and methodological perspectives. The naturally occurring data and relatively large sample size in this study provides a deeper look into social media gratifications and yields more generalizable findings. Besides, this study contributes to the alleviation of conceptual confusions among the past social media gratification studies.