Digital Commons Network^™

Worcester Chamber Of Commerce: Recruiting Minority Business Owners, Ryan Dimaria, Alexander Hull, Xikun Lu, Haopeng Wang, Jiacheng Hou, Danning Zhao

School of Professional Studies

Our capstone project was to help the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce identify how to re-frame their marketing so it would be appealing to immigrant and minority owned businesses. Based on interviews and external research, our group was able to create a tangible and resourceful data set that provided justified recommendations and ideas on how the Chamber could make adjustments to their marketing plan to attract more businesses of this particular demographic in the city of Worcester. By implementing these recommendations, we believe the Chamber has the opportunity to create a more diverse group of Chamber members, add value to …

Learning From Jesus’ Wife: What Does Forgery Have To Do With The Digital Humanities?, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

McGrath’s chapter on the so-called Gospel of Jesus’ Wife sets aside as settled the question of the papyrus’ authenticity, and explores instead what we can learn about the Digital Humanities and scholarly interaction in a digital era from the way the discussions and investigations of that work unfolded, and how issues that arose were handled. As news of purported new finds can spread around the globe instantaneously facilitated by current technology and social media, how can academics utilize similar technology to evaluate authenticity, but even more importantly, inform the broader public about the importance of provenance, and the need for …

Better, Busier, Or Stressed Out? Exploring Social Media-Induced Technostress In A Sales Context, Hayam Qasem Alnakhli

Marketing Dissertations - Archive

In this dissertation the "salesperson-technology environment interaction model" is deployed to explore the stress experienced by salespeople while using social media for work. Even though social media has numerous benefits for salespeople, an increasing number of salespeople perceive technology use as a source of stress, (i.e., technostress). Since such technostress can decrease employees' well-being (Tarafdar et al., 2015), it is important to understand what creates it. Drawing on the transaction based-model of stress (Lazarus, 1984) this dissertation investigates the direct effect of social media technology use as an antecedent of technostress, examines the stress imposed by the use of social …

The Effects Of The Source Of Celebrity Information On Parasocial Relationships, Noelle Roys, Monique Newman, Mark Spooner-Leduff

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The purpose of the study is to examine how the source of information about celebrities affects media users’ feelings toward them. Specifically, we will focus on two ways in which people relate to media figures. Parasocial relationships (PSR) are one-sided relationships that people form with media figures. The concept of parasocial interaction (PSI) is closely related in that it entails one-sided involvement with a media figure, but the experience is restricted to the duration a person is viewing the figure. Due to the nature of social media and to celebrities’ increasing use of social media platforms, existing research implies that …

Asian American Representation On Social Media Platforms, Ashley Lee

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

YouTube is a popular social media platform where anyone can make an account and post any kind of content. When YouTube launched in 2005-06, it has since allowed minorities easier access to create stories in an industry that has a history of exclusion and whitewashing, specifically speaking about Asian Americans. Asian American content creators, such as Wong Fu Productions, Michelle Phan, Ryan Higa, and many others use YouTube as an outlet to adapt existing stereotypes into entertainment while resisting whitewashing in Hollywood. By analyzing their large influence online, we try to better understand who consists of their target audience, either …

Do You Trust Me(Dia)?: How Students Perceive And Identify Fake News, Kamari Stewart

Honors College Theses

Social media has become an increasingly popular source of news among young adults. However, with the rise of “fake news,” credibility comes into question and young adults are left on their own to determine which news is real and which is false. Two focus groups were employed in this study to gain a greater understanding of how college students aged 18-24 determine what news to trust on social media and the factors that impacted those decisions. Young adults in that age group trust news found on social media based on a variety of factors including the person that is sharing …

Using Social Media Analytics: The Effect Of President Trump’S Tweets On Companies’ Stock Performance, Eric A. Fenn

Accounting

With the recent political development in the United States I was presented with a unique opportunity to examine social media’s influences on the stock market. Specifically, I analyzed the impact of tweets from President Trump’s official Twitter accounts from his election to the office to February 1st, 2019 that targeted a publicly traded company. I find that these tweets have a very minimal effect on companies’ stock prices, but there is a significant effect on the stocks’ trading volumes.

The Role Of Visual Identity Design In The Evolution Of Luxury Fashion Brand Strategy, Jia Cai

Theses

Fashion luxury brands have taken longer than other retail segments to understand and adapt to consumer behavior changes created by the digital revolution over the past decade. Digital and social media has created a fundamental shift in consumers expectations of their shopping experiences.

The big debate in the luxury fashion industry has been whether the integration of ‘off-line’ and ‘on-line’ actually creates value or reduces the exclusivity associated with the brands. In the past, luxury brands have relied on traditional marketing channels such as print and direct mail to engage their high-value customers. Additionally, the industry has placed an enormous …

Vlogging Truth To Power : A Qualitative Study Of Resilience As Practiced By Transgender Youtube Content Creators., Corey J. Feger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an exploratory account of ways that transgender people’s personal YouTube channels, or “vlogs,” provide new avenues to cultivate resilience as a collective. To make sense of this unstable, contested model of identity and community, I apply a three-part model of “social resilience,” a theory of resilience that transcends the individual and welcomes incoherency, contradiction, and “messiness” into its analysis. In Chapter One, I provide a snapshot of transgender history and present my research objective and justification. Chapter Two consists of a literature review and argues in favor of a hybrid theory of intersectionality and assemblage. Chapter Three …

The 4m Way Of Combating Violent Extremism: An Analysis*, Kumar Ramakrishna

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article puts forth a “4M Way” of dealing with the threat of violent Islamist extremism in Southeast Asia. It argues that our narrative must be fundamentally more attractive to the target audience than the competing vision of the violent extremists. The memes that constitute our narrative in the social media space must be “stickier” than those of the violent extremists. The personal credibility of our messenger in the eyes of the target audience should exceed that of extremist ideologues vis-á-vis that same audience. The mechanisms that we employ to impart our messages to the target audience must be more …

User's Ability To Detect Fake News In Online Environments., Aleeza N. Gardner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Technology has drastically changed the way people consume news. Due to the rise of online spaces built for users to share content, there has been a rise in the spread of false information. Social media platforms, Facebook specifically, provide their users with personalized content based on their interests. The ease of spreading information online coupled with the anonymity of the Internet, creates a breeding ground for potential misuse of information. This study sought to examine how users view themselves and others were influenced by fake news on social media if the post is denoted as fake, or if the post …

The Impact Of The Web And Social Media On The Performance Of Nonprofit Organizations, Namchul Shin

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This research empirically analyzes the impact of both the Web and social media on the performance of nonprofit organizations by using 100 nonprofit organizations ranked by web traction measures, including Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers. Our findings from ANOVA and non-parametric tests demonstrate that nonprofit organizations with higher web traction have greater contributions and grants than others with lower web traction. These findings suggest that the use of the Web coupled with social media promotes better, interactive (two-way) communications with the public, as well as fundraising and that nonprofit organizations that attract more supporters on the Web and social media …

Character Count Or Vote Count: How Social Media Has Shaped Modern Politics And Challenged The Meaning Of Civic Engagement, Hannah Scott

Honors Theses

Social media has taken the world and compressed it into a single button for all to access. As tactics and protocol has already changed, social media has reached its invisible hand into modern U.S. politics and has altered the landscape of political action. Through surveys, article analysis, and social media observation, this study examined how social media has changed modern civic engagement, if social media can even be considered civic ‘engagement’, and how it has separated itself from ‘traditional’ civic engagement. Through previous literature and a conducted survey, the finding of this study suggest that social media not only positively …

Multimodal Emotion Classification, Anurag Illendula, Amit Sheth

Publications

Most NLP and Computer Vision tasks are limited to scarcity of labelled data. In social media emotion classification and other related tasks, hashtags have been used as indicators to label data. With the rapid increase in emoji usage of social media, emojis are used as an additional feature for major social NLP tasks. However, this is less explored in case of multimedia posts on social media where posts are composed of both image and text. At the same time, w.e have seen a surge in the interest to incorporate domain knowledge to improve machine understanding of text. In this paper, …

Identity And Sense-Making Through Narrative Processes On Social Media Platforms, Brenda Mandel

Anthropology

This paper provides an overview of existing research into narrative processes, sense-and identity-making, and digital social medias for the purpose of analyzing how social media platforms facilitate individual production of self under the framework of narrative. General aspects of narrative and how individual producers consciously and unconsciously adhere to those frameworks when representing themselves on virtual spaces are a central focus. This discussion further examines specifically how virtual and non-virtual spaces relate in terms of how social media platforms enforce and reinforce existing social structures in positive and negative ways. I also aim to stimulate further discussion on the implications …

"Notjustgirls": Exploring Male-Related Eating Disordered Content Across Social Media Platforms, Jessica Pater, Lauren Reining, Andrew D. Miller, Tammy Toscos Phd, Elizabeth D. Mynatt

Mirro Center Articles

ABSTRACT: Eating disorders (EDs) are a worldwide public health concern that impact approximately 10% of the U.S. population. Our previous research characterized these behaviors across online spaces. These characterizations have used clinical terminology, and their lexical variants, to identify ED content online. However, previous HCI research on EDs (including our own) suffers from a lack of gender and cultural diversity. In this paper, we designed a follow-up study of online ED characterizations, extending our previous methodologies to focus specifically on male/masculine-related content. We highlight the similarities and differences found in the terminology utilized and media archetypes associated with the social …

The Challenges Of Creating Engaging Content: Results From A Focus Group Study Of A Popular News Media Organization, Kholoud Khalil Aldous, Jisun An, Bernard J. Jansen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The process of content creation for distribution via social media platforms is not a trivial one for social media editors as the goal of creating both serious and engaging content is challenging, with no clear or differing guidelines or rules across and between platforms. For creators of serious content, such as news organizations, advertisers, or educational institutions, engagement has a deeper meaning beyond likes, shares, etc. that is aimed at the audience actually processing the underlying content associated with a social media post. In this research, we report findings from a group study that aimed to understand the process and …

Foster Care Support Foundation Volunteer And Capital Outreach Analysis, Abeer Bhatti, Alexandro Martinez, Sunny Patel, Desmond Vail

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Care Support Foundation (FCSF) provides free goods to children in Georgia. Annually, 11,000 volunteers are needed to deal with the massive influx of donations and fundraising events. Through our analyses, we aim to make recommendations to the FCSF, which can help raise funds and implement mitigating strategies that would increase funds and improve the foundation.

Strategic Audit Of Facebook Through The Lens Of International Reputation, Ryan M. Mcmanaman

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This report investigates the history and current situation of Facebook, an international social media firm based in Menlo Park, CA. Facebook faces a number of international controversies and growing resentment from its userbase. In an industry where people are synonymous with capital, a strategic recommendation will be made to help Facebook regain some of its users’ lost faith and hopefully recapture old markets.

This report will analyze Facebook’s internal situation using the framework of SWOT analysis, and the external environment Facebook exists in through PEST analysis. These tools will provide a helpful foundation to understand Facebook’s competitive advantages, and render …

Relationships Between Rejected And Accepted Romantic Initiation Behaviors On Social Media: Self-Esteem And Depressive Feelings In Face-To-Face Interactions, Katie Walker

Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research

Snap, write, upload; smile, tag, post. These are the sequence of actions that have become prevalent amongst social media users. Now, more than ever, such platforms have enabled users to connect with each other, share information, and even initiate romantic relationships. Most social media are designed to stimulate positive interactions among users, for example via “likes” and “favorites,” (Valkenburg, Koutamanis, & Vossen, 2017). However, with this sense of empowerment through a screen also comes the possibility of becoming negatively affected by the interpersonal responses that one receives on social media. Romantic Initiation Behaviors (RIBs) occur anytime one reaches out to …

Rhetorical Theory In The Age Of Social Media In Dear Evan Hansen, Katherine Quick

Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research

Broadway hit musical, Dear Evan Hansen, has revolutionized the culture of theater, as the show discusses many issues facing society such as loneliness and anxiety as caused by the increasing use of social media. This musical creates a space to talk about important issues that often go unsung. In the song, “Waving Through a Window”, the main character Evan details many of his anxieties and worries, as he desires to fit in at school and navigate the world around him. This paper argues that the writers of Dear Evan Hansen effectively argue that today’s society is one in which teenagers …

The Protective Influence Of Relationship Commitment On The Effects Of Facebook Addiction On Marital Disaffection, Irum Saeed Abbasi, Michelle Drouin, Jayson L. Dibble, Brandon T. Mcdaniel Phd

Health Services and Informatics Research

ABSTRACT Previous research has suggested that Facebook use can lead to adverse romantic relationship outcomes due to interpersonal conflicts, interactions with potential romantic alternatives, and jealousy. However, these associations have been explored mainly with undergraduates, focusing primarily on conflict rather than emotional disengagement. The current study examined the associations between Facebook addiction and marital disaffection (e.g., loss of love, emotional disengagement) amongst 138 (95 females and 43 males) cohabiting married Facebook users residing in the United States. The results revealed that Facebook addiction and marital disaffection were positively related, even after controlling for relationship commitment. Additionally, greater relationship commitment weakened …

The Visibility Of Authority Records, Researcher Identifiers, Academic Social Networking Profiles, And Related Faculty Publications In Search Engine Results, Rebecca B. French, Jody Condit Fagan

Libraries

Information about faculty and their publications can be found in library databases such as the Library of Congress Name Authority File, VIAF, WorldCat, and institutional repositories; in identifier registries like ORCID and ISNI; and on academic social networking sites like Academia, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate, but the way search engines use such identifiers and profiles is unclear. Therefore, researchers at a large comprehensive university conducted several rounds of web searching before and after the creation and modification of faculty authority records. The sample consisted of 24 faculty and the 35 publications associated with their authorities. The researchers searched for the …

Evaluating The Undergraduate Marketing Curriculum: Utilizing A Swot-Based Approach To Identify And Incorporate Meaningful Digital Skills, Concepts, & Competencies, Kayla Noel Sapkota

Theses and Dissertations

Marketing professionals commonly use technology for communications, advertising, and data collection and analysis. Entry-level marketers who can harness the power of digital tools will be favorably situated to meet the challenges of today’s digitally-based world of work. This qualitative study investigated the undergraduate marketing curriculum with a focus on preparing students for careers in digital marketing. The two, main research questions are as follows: (1) how well are colleges and universities preparing students for technology-based marketing jobs upon graduation, and (2) what knowledge/skills do employers seek when hiring employees for technology based marketing jobs? Data were collected from four sources, …

The Impact Of Policies And Infrastructures On The Access And Use Of Library Electronic Resources: A Case Study Of National Open University Of Nigeria (Noun), Babarotimi Oluwaseun

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The aim of this study was to investigate the Impact of policies and infrastructures on the access and use of library electronic resources the extent of access to and use of library electronic resources and their implications on remote users at the National Open University of Nigeria. The study adopted a quantitative research approach and survey research method was employed. The study targeted 1,680 population samples of which include 1,513 Students, 140 Academic staffs, and 27 Academic Librarians. Probability (Stratified random and systematic) sampling and nonprobability (purposive) sampling methods were adopted. Two sample frames were used: Students - classified into …

The Selective Perception Of Filter Bubbles And Echo Chambers On Twitter, Justin Walker

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

The purpose of this study is to determine how web user’s searches may alter their filter bubbles on any particular device and which they utilize.

Relationship Stress: Social Media Edition, Sidney Stover, Natalie Ross, Tish Whitney, Laura Rice

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

Couples involved in a romantic relationships (dating, engaged, married) face a variety of stressors that can determine the quality and sustainability of the relationship. These stressors can include money, children, work schedules, and opinions of family and friends about the relationship or one’s significant other. With arrival of the internet, the use of social media has become a new source of stress among relationships. Altshule (2015) found social media use negatively impacts a relationship when one’s significant other is always on social media, engages in appropriate activity online, or is overly private when online (i.e. hiding online activity from their …

Don't Delete That Tweet: Federal And Presidential Records In The Age Of Social Media, Gabriel M. A. Elorreaga

St. Mary's Law Journal

Statutes governing preservation of presidential records must be adapted to accommodate presidents’ evolving use of social media accounts. The Freedom of Information Act is meant to promote government transparency, and subjects governmental agencies to information requests from members of the public. However, as it relates to social media records, the problem is one of volume; are the means of preservation currently in place able to adequately address the vast amount of records created by a President’s use of social media? This Comment argues that they are not, although they do provide a useful basis for how to adapt record preservation …

The Indecency Of The Communications Decency Act § 230: Unjust Immunity For Monstrous Social Media Platforms, Natalie Annette Pagano

Pace Law Review

The line between First Amendment protection and the innovation of social media platforms is hazy at best. Not only do these platforms increasingly encompass the lives of many individuals, but they provide incredible new opportunities to interact from near and far, through sharing photographs, videos, and memories. The Internet provides countless outlets that are available at the tip of users’ fingers: thriving forums to communicate nearly whenever and wherever desired. Users effortlessly interact on these platforms and are consistently exposed to numerous forms of speech, including messages through posts, chat room discussions, videos, polls, and shared statements. From 2010 to …

Expanding The Hat Rack: Investigating The Roles Of Writing Center Social Media Content Creators, Amory Orchard

East Central Writing Centers Association 2019 Conference

New adventures mean new possibilities and challenges. Adopting social media for one's writing center is no exception. The level of writing center activity on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram has soared within the past 10 years. Despite writing scholars calling for more replicable, agreeable, and data-supported “RAD” research (Babcock and Thonus; Driscoll and Wynn Purdue; Gillespie et al.), the conversation surrounding this topic remains anecdotal and without regard for individual writing centers’ local contexts and needs.

With this gap in mind, the speaker highlights major findings from her year-long qualitative interview project consisting of 30 high school and college writing centers …