The article examines lecturer creativity in the context of social media use in the process of teaching and learning. Social media have been recently extensively used in educati-onal settings, including higher education, and are becoming an integral part of the process of teaching and learning. Learning supported by the use of modern technologies has made creati-vity and its expression particularly important. The concept of creativity is multifaceted and still under development. Applying social media in the process of teaching and learning, mastering social media and using them for teaching, lecturers get involved in the continuous process, the success of which is determined by creative personal characteristics and the creativity-supportive environment. Lecturer creativity determined by the intertwined factors of the environment and personal characteristics stands out as the impetus of social media use in the process of teaching and learning. The present qualitative phenomenological research focuses on the factors influencing lecturer creativity while using social media in the process of teaching and learning at the university. The study of the phenomenon is based on lecturers’ “lived” experience while using social media in this process. Two major categories related to the factors affecting lecturer creativity were established, including external factors that promote lecturer creativity and internal factors that predetermine successful use of social media by lecturers in the process of teaching and learning.

Straipsnyje aptariama viešosios erdvės komercializmo problematika šiuolaikinėje visuomenėje. Straipsnio tikslas – išanalizuoti viešosios erdvės koncepciją ir atskleisti viešosios erdvės funkcijas informacinėje visuomenėje. Teorinėje analizėje pristatoma Jürgeno Habermaso suformuluota viešosios erdvės teorija, detaliau nagrinėjamos viešosios erdvės funkcijos. Pristatytos Frankfurto atstovų kritinės įžvalgos apie viešosios erdvės problematiką leidžia atitinkamai įvertinti viešosios erdvės funkcionalumą. Klasikinės viešosios erdvės ir šiuolaikinės skaitmeninės viešosios erdvės funkcijų palyginimas atskleidė viešosios komunikacijos specifiką socialinėse medijose.

For several years, the key issue in EU debates has been the “flood” of refugees and illegal migrants in Europe. Since 2011 more than 4 million people were forced to leave Syria due to a civil war. The integration of refugees in Lithuania is becoming a pressing question, because the panic in society is caused by the information provided on the media which often fosters negative attitudes towards refugees. Traditional as well as social media contribute to the negative discourse regarding refugees in Lithuanian society. Unfortunately not much research has been conducted on the formation of refugee images in social media and the issues of integrating refugees into society. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the formation of public discourse on refugees and asylum seekers in social media. In order to achieve this purpose the following tasks were undertaken: introducing the latest studies regarding discourse on refugees and asylum seekers in the context of the European migrant crisis; discussing how different representations of refugees determine public discourse; and comparing how different groups of actors are involved in the construction of stereotypes in different Facebook pages entitled “Refugees Welcome” and “Public Committee against Forced Immigration.” The qualitative and quantitative analysis of social networking websites confirmed the hypothesis that the European migrant crisis is presented in opposite ways depending on the target group to which the message is supposed to be addressed. In the case of the “Public Committee against Forced Immigration,” the information is deliberately intended to form a negative perception of refugees in an emphasis on the economic burden refugees supposedly bring and on the terrorism, the rapes, and the threat of Islamization supposedly associated with them. [...]

Social media and their effects on society have come under increased scrutiny and have merited increasingly divergent evaluations. They are usually seen either as natural promoters of emancipation and democracy or as tools for manipulation, oppression, and disempowerment. This introductory article seeks to develop a balanced account of social media and their effects, and presents a case for rethinking the architecture of today’s environment of information. It then concludes with an overview of the articles in this special issue.

“With the introduction of social media into every field of our life, cinema and film industry also has become a medium which benefits from social media” (Kuruca, 2013). As a tool of marketing, social networks increase popularity and ratings of film before it reaches the big screen. This strategy is often used by individual film production companies, but what if we take European cinema as a whole and try to bridge its diverse identity and reach the audience by “mapping” and communicating it on social media? However, if we want to put European cinema on social media map, we have to understand the complexity of European identity as well as learn the rules of social media marketing. “Understanding and defining European, let alone the identity of European cinema, involves an obsessive wrestling with contradictions, suspicions, and uncertainties, and that fundamental complexity” (Everett, 2005). This paper analyses the potential of mapping European cinema on social media as well as introduces current audience development practices of European cinema industry. It also looks into European commission initiative, Creative Europe MEDIA sub-program. Mapping or communicating European cinema on social media includes various strategies, concepts and various stakeholders’ interests, therefore, looking at European cinema from institutional point of view is as important as understanding potential audience of supranational cinema.

New channels of communication and new gadgets reshape the definitions in every sphere, sending social interaction to the new level of expedition, awareness and transparency; not to mention creating the leader’s desirable image and public relations. From the non-binding socializing networking, social media quickly became an important and powerful tool for establishing leadership. This unprecedented communication channel had opened totally new ways for leaders to their public and plenty of topics for social research. The main insight in Erving Goffman’s theory was that there is a bond between the peoples’ acting in everyday life and the theatrical performance. This allows us to review the socializing and creating content online similarly as one of the stage performances. In the context of representing oneself in the new media channels, the leader’s communication is reviewed. Further, the process also changes the role of the follower and raises new questions such as the risk the self-presenting leader takes entering the changing media and the control he has or has not on the communication channel.

This essay looks at the way intellectual property is treated on the Internet, specifically on social media in terms of sharing work not created or owned by the person sharing it. The article overviews both business and artistic interests inherent in the spread of copyrighted material online before moving to the historic antecedents of such actions, most notably – illegal music records. Another important issue considered in the article is the use of copyrighted material for self-expression, particularly in the form of memes. Through the use of both contemporary and historical examples, the author explores the challenges and benefits of such use.

The article discusses how new communication and information technologies have brought changes in the contemporary social and political life. It is stated that the increasing use of the Internet and new mobile and wireless devices have brought social changes and also changed the established standards of how people socialize. It is mentioned that the debate regarding deliberative democracy has become more complicated due to online communication.

Despite often being lauded as a crucial tool for democratisation, social media can just as easily harbour more negative intentions, including stigmatisation and exclusion of certain groups. Part of the explanation lies in the nature of social media and the way information circulates there. However, this leaves the crucial question of motivation unanswered: why do individuals engage in negative deeds online and why are the narratives of otherness-qua-menace particularly attractive? For this reason, the article employs Lacanian psychoanalysis to delve into the drives that make the Other a crucial benchmark. It is, therefore, claimed that there are crucial synergies to be teased out from simultaneous use of social media analysis and psychoanalysis.

Internetas ir interaktyviosios socialinių medijų priemonės ne tik užima vis svarbesnę vietą kasdieniame žmonių gyvenime, bet ir tampa plačiai naudojamu politinės komunikacijos kanalu, kuriame politikų generuojamo komunikacinio turinio apimtys nuolat didėja. Dėl savo ypatybių, kaip antai, laisva ir nemokama prieiga, socialinių medijų priemonės yra prieinamos visiems politikams. Tačiau iki šiol mūsų šalyje nebuvo analizuota, kokiomis apimtimis socialinių medijų kanalus politinio proceso dalyviai naudoja politinės komunikacijos tikslams. Šiame straipsnyje skaitmeninės atskirties aspektu analizuojamas interaktyviųjų socialinių medijų priemonių naudojimas politinės komunikacijos tikslams. Tekste aiškiai apibrėžiama skaitmeninės atskirties sąvoka ir samprata, išskiriamos skirtingos šio proceso raiškos kategorijos. Taip pat straipsnyje pristatomi mūsų šalies politikų naudojimosi socialinių medijų priemonėmis 2011 metų savivaldybių tarybų rinkiminės kampanijos metu tyrimo rezultatai. Jie atskleidžia įvairias skaitmeninės atskirties apraiškas pagal skirtingas politikų demografines ir sociopolitines charakteristikas, kaip antai, savivaldybės dydis, politikų lytis, amžius, išsilavinimas, gaunamos pajamos, partinė priklausomybė ir institucinė pozicija.