Theme 1: reflection

During the week I have learnt a lot of new information, e.g. how to select a research journal and paper, to find an “impact factor”, to use Google Academia etc. Further I will focus on it more deeply.

To select a relevant journal for media technology research I had to use Web of Science database. With Web of Science one can easily find high-impact articles, discover relevant results in related fields and emerging trends to do a good research. Every journal, which is included in Web of Science, has met the high standards of an objective evaluation process. One can find the “impact factor” of the journal not only on the Web of Science but on the journal’s web page.

I  know that the “impact factor” (IF) of an academic journal shows the frequency with which the journal's articles are cited in the scientific literature. And it’s obviously used to compare different journals within a particular field. The IF of the selected journal (Communication Research) for 2011 is 2.014

If one wants to calculate the IF, it's possible to apply the following method:

A is the number of times articles published in 2009 and 2010 were cited by indexed journals during 2011.

B is the total number of "citable items" (articles, reviews, notes etc) published by the journal in 2009 and 2010.  

2011 impact factor = A/B.

In order to evaluate a paper we don’t need to find the IF because it’s a journal metric. For the paper we should find out the citations and Google Academia can definitely help with it. I searched for this information on http://scholar.google.se.focus.lib.kth.se

It provides an easy way to widely search for scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources: articles, abstracts, books from academic publishers,  online repositories, professional societies, universities etc.

On the seminar we have discussed various journals and papers with my colleagues. It was really useful to know more about the analysis of publications: the purpose of the study, the main concepts, what research design is used etc. I discovered an interesting journal (New Media & Society) on the Course wiki after the seminar.

I really liked the discussion on Wed. We shared our thoughts about Russell's book. I must say that now I have better understanding of all issues.
Follow up:
* sense-data  is a data by yourself, a kind of mental data (the world of a happy person is different from the world of an unhappy person). Its a basis for perception.
* a proposition and a statement of fact are a sort of synonyms. What kind of verbal expression is the proposition? (questions, conditions, suggestions, performatives)

Theme 1

Communication Research publishes articles that explore the processes, antecedents and consequences of communication in a wide range of societal systems.

IF: 2.014 

I selected a research paper Hanna et al., 2011 R. Hanna, A. Rohm, V.L. Crittenden We are all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem. (Citations:40)  
The main research question of this study is to show the integration of online social media and traditional media. A lot of companies recognize the need to be active in social media, but they do not actually understand how to do it effectively. The paper highlights a case study of an organization's successful efforts to use social media in reaching an essential audience of young consumers.

The purpose of the study is descriptive. The main concepts in the paper are the next: social media, online ecosystems, traditional media, marketing communications, marketing metrics, consumer engagement, and interaction. The relationships between concepts described and it is undoubtedly stated how they are connected. The presentation of arguments seems to be relevant and the authors found a support in the literature. 

There are some lessons to be learned and adopted and implications for practice. The study case indicates several insights related to the strategic integration of social media into a marketing strategy. The companies should visualise the ecosystem, define and track key performance indicators (KPI),  as well as customize user engagement.  The authors suggest that companies have to consider both social and traditional media as a part of the ecosystem in which all elements work together toward a commom objective.

Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy

1. Russell explored the twin concepts of appearance and reality. He believed that all knowledge is ultimately derived from our sensory perceptions of the world around us. However, individual perception is easily affected and disposed  to error.

Russell created the term “sense-data” in his attempt to observe the relationship between appearance and reality. Sense-data are the particular things humans perceive during the act of sensation. Sense-data are supposed to be the mental images (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory) we get from a given object in the physical world. 

2. Rassell suggests that “every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted”. He stressed that we have to define some meaning to the words. In the book the author made a statement about Julius Caesar. We know some description of Julius Caesar: 'the man who was assassinated on the Ides of March', 'the founder of the Roman Empire'. In the description Julius Caesar is a sort of shape with which we are acquainted. The  statement does not symbolize  what it seems to mean, but denotes something involving, instead of Julius Caesar, some descriptions of him which is created of particulars and universals with which we are acquainted.

3. Russell calls a 'definite' description as a phrase of the form 'the so-and-so' (for example, 'the man with the iron mask' is a definite description).  Apparently we can say that an object is 'known by description' when we know that it is 'the so-and-so'. It is when we know that there is one object, and no more, having a particular property, and it will commonly be implied that we do not have knowledge of the same object by acquaintance. 

4. Russell doesn’t consider a priori knowledge to be always analytic but he agrees with Kant in some point. Rationalists keep stating that this kind of knowledge is mental because it’s how we reflect on something. But the thing is that all our experiences can be specific.

Rassell upbraids the idea of universals but he is one of the supporters of the 'theory of ideas'. He also put the relation between things (I mean that they don’t have any relations) in a claim but only the mind can link them together.