دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی رسانه های اجتماعی به عنوان وسیله ای برای به کارگیری کاربران با تاریخچه محلی - امرالد 2018

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine issues associated with user engagement on social media with local history in the North East of Scotland and to focus on a case study of the Buckie and District Fishing Heritage Society, a small but very successful and professionally-run community-based local heritage organisation. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach using photo elicitation on social media was deployed in conjunction with analysis of the user interactions and the reach insights provided by Facebook to the page manager. Additionally, a focus group was used. Findings – The research, although focussed on an individual case study, offers significant lessons which are more widely applicable in the local history and cultural heritage social media domain. Key aspects include user engagement and how digital storytelling can assist in the documentation of local communities ultimately contributing to local history research and the broader cultural memory. The significance of the image and the photo elicitation methodology is also explored. Social implications – The research demonstrates new opportunities for engaging users and displaying historical content that can be successfully exploited by community heritage organisations. These are themes which will be developed within the paper. The research also demonstrates the value of photo elicitation in both historical and wider information science fields as a means of obtaining in-depth quality engagement and interaction with users and communities. Originality/value – The research explored the underutilised method of photo elicitation in a local history context with a community possessed of a strong sense of local identity. In addition to exploring the benefits of this method, it presents transferable lessons for how small, community-based history and heritage organisation can engage effectively with their audience.

Conclusions

The research contributed to a previously underresearched area and, within the confines of the case study, demonstrated that social media represents a new opportunity for engaging users and displaying historical content that can be successfully exploited by community heritage organisations for whom a social media presence can often have disproportionately significant impact (and, indeed, be a requirement for funding from bodies such as Heritage Lottery Fund or various tourism- or visitor attraction-related organisations). Importantly, as noted above, the research has also demonstrated the merit and value of photo elicitation techniques not only within the local history context but also for the wider information science field due to the quality and depth of the information obtained and the levels of user engagement experienced. The research reinforced the emotional, visceral reactions that images can have within a community and its sense of its own identity. Several instances within the research strongly emphasised the collective memory of the community and the power of photographs, together with a storytelling narrative to affect or to move individuals and, indeed, the wider community. The research, although focussed on an individual case study, offers significant lessons which are more widely applicable in the local history and cultural heritage domains. The key aspects focussed on in the paper have been user engagement and digital storytelling. Digital storytelling and the documenting of local communities through social media can engender real participant engagement which ultimately contributes to local history research and the broader cultural memory. Photo elicitation has been shown to be a method which can be deployed very effectively as tool for gathering rich and varied information in a way that perhaps more traditional techniques do not encourage. The wider application of these techniques in social research as shown by Hurworth (2003) are also of significance and have been reinforced in this particular study.