The search for mechanisms to encourage pro-environmental behavior has ranged from marketing to community events. This study continues the search by exploring how the language and features programmed into mobile social networking applications influence users to experience nature and share those experiences. To guide data analysis, the study uses the social influence network theory and adapts components of influence from the field of online social networking. One hundred posts, spanning almost two years, were analyzed from the Sierra Club's mobile Facebook page, Foursquare's Outdoors Raleigh search, and #Litterati's Instagram feed. Results point to the language and features that can help mobile application developers, government agencies, and environmental advocates to better design mobile apps for pro-environmental behavior. The author concludes with a call for more novel data uploading options outside of text, such as uploading video, creating music to represent nature e.
See Full PDF See Full PDFThe search for mechanisms to encourage pro-environmental behavior has ranged from marketing to community events. This study continues the search by exploring how the language and features programmed into mobile social networking applications influence users to experience nature and share those experiences. To guide data analysis, the study uses the social influence network theory and adapts components of influence from the field of online social networking. One hundred posts, spanning almost two years, were analyzed from the Sierra Club’s mobile Facebook page, Foursquare’s Outdoors Raleigh search, and #Litterati’s Instagram feed. Results point to the language and features that can help mobile application developers, government agencies, and environmental advocates to better design mobile apps for pro-environmental behavior. The author concludes with a call for more novel data uploading options outside of text, such as uploading video, creating music to represent nature experiences, or use of external sensors with mobile devices.
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Breaking boundaries: Innovative practices in communication and public participation
This chapter discusses “eco-apps” as technology the enables users opportunities for tagging, posting, and commenting, as well as offering visualizations related to local geographic contexts and concerns. The author provides recommendations for how to best use mobile phone applications to support environmental public participation efforts.
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IAIA15.Impact assessment in the digital era. Florence, Italy
New Media has significant impacts on social and cultural contexts of developing countries and creates new challenges in these contexts. Although many research centers have been established with respect to new communication technologies and new media in particular in developed countries, but these studies have not attracted attention of scholars in developing countries yet; despite exceptional impacts on society. Research on this topic is sporadic and there has not been significant research tradition. One of the most important impacts of digital media is impacts on social movements in specially environmental activism. Internet represents an attractive new opening for activists. Cyberspace offers room for expression in a relatively uninhibited space with low financial and social costs (Sullivan and Lei Xie,2009:424). In fact, with expansion of new media, environmental activities and campaigns have taken a new form and various discourses can easily spread in societies. In this paper, after briefly reviewing some theoretical considerations of new media, we will focus on a web-originated “Environment Cleaners Group” (ECG) which mobilizes environmental enthusiasts via social media. Regarding to our findings, we will have some arguments about the future of environmental activism in Iran. ECG is a group of volunteers for picking up trash from natural area and was founded by Kazem Najjarian. He created a page in Facebook with the campaign slogan of “We will not throw garbage anymore." Now this group has branches in 31 provinces of Iran. He was picking up trashes while visiting natural landscapes with his family. He has taken some pictures from trashes by his cell phone when he was visiting Chooret Lake at north of Iran and has posted and shared on Facebook. These photos were very welcoming. He created a page on Facebook called “Iranian Environment Cleaners Group” and has about 40 thousand members now. It should also be noted that participatory approach is one of the important approaches in social impact assessment. In this approach the question is how to improve the life and reduce the environmental and urban issues by local community's involvement. This article seeks to identify how new media can facilitate community involvement in environmental issues.
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Environmental Education Research
