International Journal of Web Based Communities (5 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• “Do I Want to Work for Him?” The Effects of Variations in Content, Source, and Age of Managers’ Social Networking Information on Prospective Job Applicants’ Attitudes  
  by William H. Ross, Christopher Ballweg, Davide Secchi 
  Abstract: Does personal Social Networking Website (SNW) content influence prospective job applicant reactions to their probable supervisor? A 2 x 2 x 2 design varied whether (a) the prospective manager’s SNW comments emphasized alcohol abuse vs. professional activities, (b) his friends emphasized alcohol vs. professional activities, and (c) SNW information was five days vs. five years old. Findings indicated that alcohol-oriented information on personal SNWs
  Keywords: Social Networking Website; Organizational Attraction; Social Media; Personnel Selection; Alcohol Abuse; Facebook; Brunswick Lens Model; Warranting; Negativity Hypothesis; Information Congruence.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2021.10033013
   
  
• Older Adults and Online Communities: Recent Findings, Gaps and Opportunities  
  by Ryan Ebardo, Merlin Teodosia Suarez 
  Abstract: Rapid population ageing and wider access to technology create opportunities for older adults to engage in online communities where they participate in various forms of social exchanges. Older adults are thriving online and it is paramount for research to present the recent directions of scholarly works to depict the everyday digital lives of this specific social cluster. Through a systematic literature review, we identify twenty papers investigating online communities of older adults from the last six years. Participation by older adults in online communities are primarily motivated by cognitive benefits, engagement and enjoyment. Further inquiry revealed that they are adopting communities in social media, that sociocultural contextualisation is vital and modern methodologies are appropriate. We direct the attention of future studies towards the impact of social media, effects of phases in late life and inclusion of older adults from different cultural backgrounds to depict today’s reality of their digital lives.
  Keywords: older adults; online communities; social media; web-based communities; literature review.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2021.10033661
   
  
• Room for E-learning Development: The Interaction between Learners and the Interface  
  by Jamil Razmak, Wejdan Farhan, Serge Demers, Ghaleb A. El Refae 
  Abstract: The present paper enhances the online interaction between teacher and student, through the proposal and development of several innovative assistive and interactional features added to a new e-learning user interface (ELUI). Using surveys distributed to 102 students and interviews with ten professors in the same community setting, the study measures student satisfaction toward the suggested interface and explores professors’ perceptions regarding the effect of these features as contrasted to the physical classroom. The results reveal that all embedded features of interactional communication in the proposed ELUI resulted in a high level of satisfaction from respondents. Interviews with professors revealed potential concerns of online teaching, suggesting that the proposed ELUI would complement, rather than replace, the traditional classroom. The results further suggest that professors, academic decision-makers and developers should all consider student satisfaction in terms of adopting these features in e-learning systems. These stakeholders should be proactive in recognising and promoting the benefits of these features to address implementation concerns and maximise the value of learning systems. The stakeholders also should offer a user-friendly system, an interactive learning environment, support for future updates through useful system content, and personalisation through the ability to modify content and layout.
  Keywords: e-learning user interface; ELUI; electronic learning; interactional communication; student satisfaction; professors’ perceptions.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2021.10038050
   
  
• Development and Validation of the Trolling Emotional Action and Response Scale (TEARS)  
  by Abigail Ginader, Marney White, Pooja Rana 
  Abstract: The aim of this scale was to understand the emotional effects of trolling on internet users, as well as coping strategies. Pilot testing was conducted with 26 students and 1 expert who is a professor of public health and psychiatry. The results of the pilot were used to develop the 22-item scale. Data were collected from 347 participants via social media platforms and analysed using SPSS. The Toronto empathy scale was used as a validity index. Three sub-scales were developed: emotional experience of trolled targets, emotional experience of bystanders, and action of bystanders. Reliability among the five items of the emotional experience of trolled targets sub-scale was 0.779, among the three items of the emotional experience of bystanders sub-scale was 0.678, and among the two item of the action of bystanders sub-scale was 0.594. The Toronto empathy scale was significantly correlated with each of the three sub-scales.
  Keywords: trolling; internet; social media; empathy; cyberbullying; dark tetrad.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2021.10038273
   
  
• A Lexicon Weighted Sentiment Analysis Approach on Twitter  
  by Mehrdad Molanorouzi, Mohammad Javad Shayegan Fard 
  Abstract: Sentiment analysis in social media has grabbed more considerable attention because the results of such studies are highly applicable in social, economic, and political contexts. This study aimed to present an approach for collecting data from Twitter while storing and analysing the data using the hadoop as a big data platform as well as a hybrid trial and error model using the Bayes theorem plus a dictionary of words for the sentiment analysis. This method classifies tweets in two positive and negative classes based on the probability of positive words and negative words. According to the results, the accuracy of the proposed approach boosted from 67% to 71%. Then a new idea was employed in form of a weighted dictionary to achieve a higher accuracy. As such. the accuracy of the proposed approach reached a rate of 78% according to the results of another analysis conducted on the same data.
  Keywords: twitter sentiment analysis; TSA; big data; lexicon sentiment analysis; hadoop.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2021.10038462