The emergence of social media changed the communication landscape and the way people interact. Additionally, instead of being only a digital content consumer, one can also be a digital content producer. The interactivity of social media also provides potential for enhancing the student experience within the higher education. Various types of social media platforms could be used as instructional and communication tools, since student adoption rate of social media is very high. In recent years, social media use in higher education received some attention among academic researchers. As some studies suggest, social media facilitates dynamic interactivity, accessibility, and a new level of semi-formal relations between students and instructors. Social media will continue to play an important role within the constantly changing learning environment. However, the perceived semi-formal character of social media can limit its use. Especially, from a lecturer perspective. On one hand, students seem more willing than faculty to interact through social media while faculty seem relatively cautious toward interaction with students through different social media platforms. Using data from a convenience sample of undergraduate students in Croatia and Germany, this article focuses on the use social media for student-lecturer interaction. . The main aim of this study is to investigate what motivates students to use social media in a course, together with their perception of student-lecturer interaction through social media. The study also focuses on attitude differences between Croatian and German students.
Within the trend of growth of sustainable business and corporate responsibility, sustainable consumerism has doubled or tripled in some developed European countries and in U.S. in the last ten years. Despite a certain growth in green products consumption, an increasing number of national cause related marketing campaigns and some sustainability driven trends in tourism, it is generally taken that Croatia still lags behind this trend. Since in ethical consumerism, not only fresh rules of marketing are considered, but, also, the crucial role of corporate communications as business function is widely acknowledged, the purpose of this paper is to debate the role of public relations function, particularly in consumer goods companies, in the development of sustainable consumerism. In a desk research of the role of public relations function in the corporate responsibility context, some basic public relations theories are used to clarify the importance of communication in addressing the needs of ethical consumers, and particularly the importance of communication or public relations corporate function in this context. Finally, a case of a global company oriented towards ethical consumers that is not yet present on Croatian market is used to simulate possible communication strategies that would be in compliance with the company’s corporate social responsibility strategy. A conclusion is drawn regarding the role of public relations function in the growth of sustainable consumption in general, and in the Croatian context in particular and some recommendations for future research made.
This paper presents the results of a research that investigated the extent in which volunteering is present in the population of unemployed in Croatia (in Split-Dalmatia county), and in which way volunteering can be a useful way and measure for their faster and more productive (re)employment. Attitudes and perceptions of unemployed volunteers have been compared with those from non-volunteers, as well as unemployment records of those two populations. Finally, the potential of volunteering as a tool for faster and more productive employment of unemployed has been assessed. Strong evidence that volunteering helps to faster and more productive employment of unemployed has been found. Research showed that population of unemployed is very good target group to promote volunteering as the way to acquire new knowledge and skills. Unemployed see volunteering, among other, as a good vehicle to improve their employability and entry into the 'world of work'. Promotion of volunteering among unemployed should be seen as the activity that contributes not only to develop volunteering and increase individual and social benefits from volunteering itself, but as activity and tool to reduce unemployment, shorten unemployment duration for individuals, and increase productive utilisation of human capital.
