Abstract

This study investigates the benefits of Mobile Mediated Communication (MMC) to develop oral skills in second-language learners. A total of 80 Spanish students taking a B1 English course at the University of Almería were studied in this research. According to treatment type, subjects were divided in two groups, experimental and control. A “Whatsapp” group was created where 40 of these students participated in a daily interaction during six months. The samples collected in the application as well as a speaking were used to measure the students’ degree of oral development and the type and triggers of the language related episodes (LRE) given rise to mobile chat-based oral interaction. This study focuses on such interaction and seeks to measure the students’ degree of oral development through a mixed analysis approach. A temporal axis is used to measure the differences between the groups studied. Significant improvements in term of oral proficiency were observed in the experimental group and negotiations were the LRE most common throughout the activity. It is worth mention that Mobile learning offers an environment where learners can ubiquitously negotiate meaning, reflect and evaluate on their own performance through authentic interaction and feedback, constituting a powerful tool for developing second language proficiency.

Abstract

Mobile devices (phones and tablets) have become the main means of access to the internet in Spain. This has caused a change in the way the public is informed and interacts with information content. This research examines how this change impacts internet users’ habits in relation to the consumption of political information. The aims of this study are to determine how users consume political news on mobile devices and to better understand their information behavior.

Abstract

With the increasing adoption of information and communication technologies among youngsters, it has become common for high school students to incorporate the use of multiple devices and digital platforms in their study habits. Although these digital resources support and motivate them to learn, these are also a source of continuous distraction. This research analyzes the impact of studying with handwritten notes, WhatsApp, YouTube and searching the Internet in academic performance, through a mixed method that combines 31 focus groups and a survey of 7,217 students from 12 to 18 years of age in Chile. The results of the focus groups show that the positive impact of technologies in learning would depend on the students’ motivation for learning, their ability to efficiently control and manage the available digital resources, and their capacity to search and evaluate information on the Internet. The survey concludes that those who study with their notes more frequently have better academic performance, whereas those who frequently study with YouTube and WhatsApp have a lower GPA, with no significant differences when it comes to internet browsing. These results reinforce the need raised by scholars to generate policies that promote digital literacy both inside and outside the school.

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the existing literature on social networks in Ibero-America, with the objective of organizing the main topics covered, highlighting findings, and proposing future research paths. The four thematic areas that stand out are political communication and electronic government; journalism and traditional media; social groups (including adolescents and young people, those marginalized, women, entrepreneurs and influencers, students, and older adults) and areas of use (including commerce, tourism, education, health, professional communication); and political and civic participation. In addition, we review the literature from the perspective of the platforms (Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat) and from the geographical regions and countries that make up Ibero-America, to observe similarities and differences. We conclude with the mention and analysis of the two most outstanding patterns of the studies examined: 1) a tendency to expect from the networks a transformative potential that is not necessarily proven, especially in the case of political communication and journalism; 2) transformative capacity of networks in the areas of tourism, education and health, in which traditional media have not been characterized by having a prominent role. Finally, we propose some paths for future studies, among them the pursuit of comparative works, the incorporation of relational perspectives in the treatment of networks, the addition of mixed, experimental and computational methodologies, and the consideration, from the research design standpoint, of the acceleration of technological change and the need to generate questions and conceptualizations capable of surviving the passage of time.

Abstract

Given user choices and the commercial offerings of internet providers, WhatsApp has increasingly become established as a new standard for communication by audio, image, and text. This paper explores the role of misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic by using content disseminated through WhatsApp, thereby making three main contributions: a discussion about the potential shift toward nontextual and nonvisual forms of misinformation; the new social role of audio, namely related to the critique of policies and political actors during the early stage of the Covid-19 pandemic; and the questioning of the First Draft News disinformation conceptual model by proposing a complementary approach that focuses only on factuality. Conclusions were drawn after conducting a content analysis of 988 units of Covid-19-related audio files, images, videos, and texts shared via WhatsApp during the early stage of the pandemic. A typology was identified to address distinct claims that focus on five different topics (society, policy and politics, health science, pandemic, and other), as well as audio messaging trending as a novel format for spreading misinformation. The results help us to contextualize and discuss a potential shift toward nontextual and nonvisual forms of misinformation, reflecting the increasing adoption of the audio format among WhatsApp users and making WhatsApp a fertile environment for the circulation and dissemination of misinformation regarding Covid-19-related themes. In a society characterized by the rapid consumption of information, the idea that content must have a degree of falsehood to mislead is an indicator of the distance between theoretical models and social reality. This indicator is important to identify true content as potential misinformation on the basis of its factuality.