Theme 3: Research and theory

I believe that the journal IEEE MultiMedia is important for media technology research since its technical information covers a broad range of issues in multimedia systems and applications and provides a forum for researchers and practitioners to present new findings and discuss experiences with multimedia systems and applications. The journal’s subjects are Communication, Networking & Broadcasting as well as Computing & Processing. It has an impact factor of 1,694.

From IEEE MultiMedia volume 22, I choose the article “Social Media, Democracy, and Democratization” published by Daniel Gayo-Avello in 2015. The paper is about the confluence of social media with political action. Since Gayo-Avello calls it “a complex field raising important questions”, the paper addresses the blending of social media and politics. First, Gayo-Avello states that not all social media users are similar. He differentiates between media elites, such as politicians and journalists, and non-elite users, such as common citizens. To support his theory, Gayo-Avello states why political discussions in social media are not always rational due to e.g. the generally lack of strong arguments and coherency. Therefore, the article “Social Media, Democracy, and Democratization” states that promises of social media to boost political engagement and democracy are still unfulfilled. Accoring to Gayo-Avello, social media is the product of communicative capitalism, and the goal is not to boost political action. He suggests to continually work on information provenance in social media and credibility assessment.

Briefly explain to a first year university student what theory is, and what theory is not.

A theory is an abstract scientific model or concept that tries to explain a part of reality. Furthermore, a theory could be a way of thinking, that tries to solve problems without inclusion of practice.

  

Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?

In the paper “The Nature of Theory in Information Systems”, Gregor describes five different theory types: Analysis, Explanation, Prediction, Explanation and Prediction (EP), and Design and Action. In Gayo-Avello’s “Social Media, Democracy, and Democratization”, he describes what the problem is and how, why and when it occurred. At the end, Gayo-Avello suggests on how to improve the prospects of political action in social media. According to the table it would probably be the number five “Design and Action”.

  

Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?

A benefit of the theory “Design and Action” is that it “Says how to do something”. The theory gives explicit prescriptions. The limitation of the theory on the other hand is that it lacks scientific data which mean that the theory can’t apply on every similar case and make a generalization.