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An observational study of social media technology conversations: Exploring how members of the Alberta public, organizations and health care professionals express wellness, in relation to children
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- Author / Creator
- Martz, Patricia A
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The October 2013 release of the Alberta Strategic Approach to Wellness - Health for All…. Wellness for Life, indicated that the Government of Alberta wanted to engage Albertans in conversations about wellness. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to ascertain how Albertans express wellness in their social media technology conversations, and in particular, what dimensions of wellness they commonly express with respect to children’s wellness.
This study explored the social media technology conversations generated by Albertans using Twitter™ and the content of Alberta on-line news media and on-line blog articles that had a focus on children’s wellness. The content analysis of Twitter™ data was made possible through use of the computer program NodeXL™, and the creation of an additional computer program, referred to in this study as the Hamman Program. The latter was designed specifically to streamline the process of identifying Alberta generated Twitter™ data.
The findings of this study have led to a deeper understanding of public conversations around children’s wellness, the possibilities of social media research, and how the study of social media technology conversations can contribute to government policy agenda setting.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2015
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.