Title: Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China

Abstract:

Purpose. This study explores identity signaling used by an emerging class of knowledge celebrities in China – Knowledge Wanghong – who sell knowledge products on online platforms. Because identity signaling may involve constructing unique online identities and controlling over product-related and seller-related characteristics, the purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to uncover different online identities of knowledge celebrities; and (2) to examine the extent to which the online identity type is associated with their product-related characteristics, seller-related characteristics and sales performance.

Design/methodology/approach. A unique data set was collected from a Chinese leading pay-for-knowledge platform – Zhihu – which featured the online profiles of tens of thousands of knowledge celebrities. Online identity types were derived from their self-edited content using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling. Thereafter, their product-related characteristics, seller-related characteristics and respective sales performance were analyzed across different identity types using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple-group linear regression.

Findings. Knowledge celebrities are clustered into four distinctive online identities: Mentor, Broker, Storyteller and Geek. Product-related characteristics, sell-related characteristics and sales performance varied across four different identities. Additionally, the online identity type moderated the relationships among their product-related characteristics, sell-related characteristics and sales performance.

Originality/value. As emerging-phenomenon-based research, this study extends related literature by using the notion of identity signaling to analyze a peculiar group of online celebrities who are setting an important trend in the pay-for-knowledge model in China.

Sajid, M., Mahmood, K., Warraich, N. F., & Akhtar, H. (2021). Political Information Sharing through Facebook: A survey of Pakistani Netizens. Journal of Political Studies, 28(2), 23-40. http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/pols/pdf-files/3-v28_2_2021.pdf

Title: Political Information Sharing through Facebook: A survey of Pakistani Netizens

Abstract:

People engage in online political debates through Facebook and online political information sharing leads to offline political participation. This study aims to analyse the use and influence of Facebook on the information-sharing practices of Pakistani netizens. A quantitative research design based on an online questionnaire survey was used to collect data from Pakistani netizens who were also active users of Facebook. Data showed that the majority of the respondents positively used Facebook during an election to enhance their political knowledge and participation. They also forwarded political information and influenced their friends to vote for a specific candidate in the election. The Facebook campaign had a positive influence on election results as well as the turnout of the election. Findings also revealed that demographic factors of respondents did not have any effect on their information sharing practices during a general election. Moreover, caution should be exhibited to avoid posting derogatory and appalling comments and fake news. The use of Facebook among educated netizens in the Pakistani General election may fill the gap in the psephology and context of a developing country. Findings may apply to other developing countries with similar contexts.

Amina, W., & Warraich, N. F. (2021). Use and trustworthiness of Wikipedia information: students’ perceptions and reflections. Digital Library Perspectives, 38(1),16-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-04-2021-0030

Title: Use and trustworthiness of Wikipedia information: students’ perceptions and reflections

Abstract:

Hagen, L., Fox, A., O’Leary, H., Dyson, D., Walker, K., Lengacher, C., & Hernandez, R. (Accepted). The role of influential actors in fostering the polarized COVID-19 vaccine discourse on Twitter: Mixed methods of machine learning and inductive coding. JMIR Infodemiology.

Title: The role of influential actors in fostering the polarized COVID-19 vaccine discourse on Twitter: Mixed methods of machine learning and inductive coding

Abstract:
Will be published soon.

Ali, PMN & Vaidya, P (2020). Perception of Social Scientists about Use of Social Media Networks in the Central Universities of India. In Knowledge Management, Governance and Sustainable Development: Lessons and Insights from Developing Countries, Alam, MA, Alam F & Begum, D (ed.). 440pp. Routledge.

Title: Perception of Social Scientists about Use of Social Media Networks in the Central Universities of India

Abstract:  Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of social scientists about using Social Media Networks (SMNs) and to determine how they use SMN's in their scholarly communication within the Central Universities (CUs) of India. It also explores their awareness of SMN's and some of the impacts SMN's may have on overall academics. Design/Methodology/Approach: After reviewing related published literature, a web-based questionnaire was devised and formatted using Google Forms. There were 24 questions that collected three types of information: demographics, usage of SMN's, and faculty perceptions regarding SMN's in scholarly communication. Out of a total of 48 Central Universities in India, 18 CUs are located in the northern region. From the 2018 "National Institute Ranking Framework" (NIRF) the researchers randomly selected five top-ranked CUs of North India and a direct link to the web-based questionnaire was sent to the email ids of all the social scientists (faculty members) in these institutions. The social scientists surveyed were from the following departments: Economics, Education, History, Mass Communication, Psychology, Political Science, and Sociology. Survey data was imported into Microsoft Excel, then analyzed and interpreted using SSS Software (Version 20.0). Findings: The SMNs used most by the social scientists were WhatsApp, followed by YouTube, and Research Gate; while the least used SMNs were Instagram, followed by Twitter. There were multiple reasons why social scientists used SMNs and this included keeping connected with their family and friends, following other researchers in different universities, posting research articles for better visibility and accessing news and information. Faculty perceptions about the use of SMN's in scholarly communication focused on how they provide an effective means to convey information about proposed conferences, workshops, academic achievements and research outputs of the universities. More than half of the respondents disagreed with the statement that using SMNs was merely a waste of time. Rather, they perceived SMN's to be effective sources for disseminating important academic updates and research achievements of their universities. Research limitations/implications: This study was limited to the northern part of India because that is where many of the top-ranked Central Universities are located and the research population was limited to social scientists. The results and perceptions could be very different for academics from other disciplines and a recommendation for further research is to examine technical aspects of using SMNs amongst academics within disciplines such as science and technology and management. EWU_Dhaka 76 Practical and Social Implications: The researchers wanted to evaluate the understandings of and use of SMN's by social scientists in order to consider ways to increase the prominence of social science research in the academy and how the use of SMN's could further develop scholarly connections of social scientists. The findings of this study may also help social scientists begin to initiate practices to assimilate social media into their academic work thereby eliminating many of the doubts the academic community may have about the use of SMNs in teaching and research. Originality/ Value of the Study: There has been a lot of literature published regarding the use, impact, and perceptions of students (UG, PG level and Research Scholars) toward social media networking, but few studies within the context of Indian Central Universities have investigated the use of SMNs by social scientists and examined their attitudes toward using SMN's in research and teaching.

Title: Metaverse Shape of Your Life for Future: A bibliometric snapshot

Abstract: The metaverse was first introduced in 1992. Many people saw Metaverse as a new word but the concept of Metaverse is not a new term. However, Zuckerberg's press release drew all the attention to the Metaverse. This study presents a bibliometric evaluation of metaverse technology, which has been discussed in the literature since the nineties. A field study is carried out especially for the metaverse, which is a new and trendy subject. In this way, descriptive information is presented on journals, institutions, prominent researchers, and countries in the field, as well as extra evaluation on the prominent topics in the field and researchers with heavy citations. In our study, which was carried out by extracting the data of all documents between the years 1990-2021 from the Web of Science database, it was seen that there were few studies in the literature in the historical process for the metaverse, whose popularity has reached its peak in recent months. In addition, it is seen that the subject is handled intensively with virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, and the education sector and digital marketing fields show interest in the field. Metaverse will probably have entered many areas of our lives in the next 15-20 years, shape our lives by taking advantage of the opportunities of developing technology.