Digital Commons Network^™

Digital Photography As Experience Artifact, Ryan V. Brennan

Theses and Dissertations

Through the screen interface, the boundary between personal and collective experience is being redefined both spatially and temporally. Here, memories are given independent mediated existence, taking form in digital photographic artifacts that can be communally shared and manipulated into a synthetic continuum.

E-Wom Intentions Towards Social Media Messages, Soyoung Kim, Briana Martinez, Clair Sinclair Mcclure, Soo Hyun Kim

Atlantic Marketing Journal

This study investigated the influence of a consumer’s online shopping motivation, attitude, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) intention towards two social media messages while accounting for social media involvement. Using a fictitious brand and social media messages, data were collected through a snowballing technique by distributing a structured questionnaire on social media sites. It was found that a positive attitude toward task messages was influenced by both utilitarian and hedonic shopping motivations while attitude toward socioemotional messages were influenced solely by hedonic. Also, eWOM intention for both messages was influenced by attitude. Social media involvement had no moderating effect …

Automatically Characterizing Product And Process Incentives In Collective Intelligence, Allen Brockhurst Lavoie

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Social media facilitate interaction and information dissemination among an unprecedented number of participants. Why do users contribute, and why do they contribute to a specific venue? Does the information they receive cover all relevant points of view, or is it biased? The substantial and increasing importance of online communication makes these questions more pressing, but also puts answers within reach of automated methods. I investigate scalable algorithms for understanding two classes of incentives which arise in collective intelligence processes. Product incentives exist when contributors have a stake in the information delivered to other users. I investigate product-relevant user behavior changes, …

The Effects Of Social Media Use On Community College Students, Lakicha Montgomery

Theses and Dissertations

Social media is reshaping the way college students communicate within their college community, and higher education has recently begun to embrace social media. The most frequently used social networking site is Facebook, and its usage has increased tremendously among college students, impacting the students both positively and negatively. The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of community college students regarding the use of social media and social networking sites and the effect of that use on learning, GPA, and graduation as well any differences in perceptions based on students demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, class status, race/ethnicity, …

Perceptions Of College Students Towards The Use And Usefulness Of Linkedin As A Professional Networking Tool, Carlos Shantel Ewing

Theses and Dissertations

Networking is a key component of a successful professional career. Studies have shown that between 60-75% of jobs are obtained through an individual’s network. Today many professionals use the social media site such as LinkedIn to make and maintain professional connections. However college students only make up approximately 10% of LinkedIn’s 300+ million users. There has been much research done regarding the use of social networking and academic and corporate use, little has been done to investigate how college students interact with LinkedIn. Therefore the purpose of this study was to gather students’ perceptions of LinkedIn as a professional social …

Isis Rhetoric: A War Of Online Videos, Kathryn Mcdearis

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In an attempt to combat ISIS recruitment videos, the United States Department of State (USDS) developed the Think Again, Turn Away social media campaign featuring videos attempting to persuade viewers to resist the message of ISIS. In the article “U.S. government: A war of online video propaganda,” authors William Allendorfer and Susan Herring (2015) analyze the textual rhetoric of the ISIS video series Flames of War in comparison to eight Think Again, Turn Away videos. To add to Allendorfer and Herring’s (2015) textual analysis, this study uses the framework of scholar David Blakesley’s (2004) four elements of film rhetoric ( …

Advocacy Campaign For Women's Reproductive Health And Access On Social Media, Rachel Crist, Jules Montes, Lauren Frank

Student Research Symposium

Advocacy organizations increasingly rely on social media (e.g. Twitter hashtags) to foster issue awareness. Social media platforms can be promising communication channels to reach diverse audiences; however, it is unclear how effective these campaigns are at reaching audience members whose views do not align with the campaign. Using diffusion of innovations as a theoretical framework, this study examines the #BirthControlHelpedMe campaign to better understand the response to an advocacy campaign promoted via Twitter. Focus groups were conducted separately for men and women. The moderator led participants in a semi-structured discussion of perceptions of birth control. Participants were then shown example …

Writing In The Moment: Social Media, Digital Identity, And Networked Publics, Jacob Babb

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This article examines the impact of social media on digital identity. Social media reaffirms the values of communities through the repetition and reflection of those communities. The article addresses different examples of social media usage, such as the recent Internet outrage regarding Cecil the Lion, to explore the complexities of developing and maintaining digital identities.

Breaking Television News: Is Social Media Coverage You Can Count On?, Eileen Canosa Teves

Theses & Dissertations

This mixed methods study explored how 10 television journalists and photojournalists handled social media’s integration and its impact on television news. A quantitative survey modeled after Moore and Benbasat’s (1991) instrument using the Diffusion of Innovations theory as a foundation measured how participants adopted social media in newsgathering and dissemination. Through qualitative one-on-one interviews, data revealed that participants believed social media was advantageous in collecting and reporting television news. Television journalists were able to locate sources, experts, and visual images. Social media allowed participants to report live from the scene and deliver news quickly. The innovation enabled participants to connect …

Relationships Between Social Media Exposure & Levels Of Body Dissatisfaction, Helen Nguyen, Andrea L. Paiva

Senior Honors Projects

The digital age has resulted in major technological inventions leading to great advances; however there are also clear costs. Television allows identical picture images to be broadcasted into millions of homes, the internet is a gateway to seemingly limitless information, and the cell phone is the ultimate connection device. Each of these communication modalities have spread the thinness ideal that is prevalent in Western societies, with the Internet being ridden with pro-eating disorder websites, cell phones providing handheld excess to peer- comparison, and all mediums presenting images of the thin body as ideal. The prevalence of eating disorders is still …

Overview: The Social Media Data Processing Pipeline, David David Brown,, Adriana Soto Corominas,, Juan Luis Suárez, Javier De La Rosa

CulturePlex Lab Publications

This chapter provides a broad introduction to the modelling, cleaning, and transformation techniques that must be applied to social media data before it can be imported into storage and analysis software. While each of the above topics in itself encompasses a wide range of issues, they are also inextricably related in that each relies in some way upon the others. In order to discuss these processes as a group, we employ the term data processing to describe the preparatory phase between data collection and data analysis. The sections that follow demonstrate how data processing can be broken down into a …

#Greysanatomy Vs. #Yankees: Demographics And Hashtag Use On Twitter, Jisun An, Ingmar Weber

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Demographics, in particular, gender, age, and race, are a key predictor of human behavior. Despite the significant effect that demographics plays, most scientific studies using online social media do not consider this factor, mainly due to the lack of such information. In this work, we use state-of-the-art face analysis software to infer gender, age, and race from profile images of 350K Twitter users from New York. For the period from November 1, 2014 to October 31, 2015, we study which hashtags are used by different demographic groups. Though we find considerable overlap for the most popular hashtags, there are also …

Is Social Media The New Era’S “Water Cooler”? #Notifyouareagovernmentemployee, Sabrina Niewialkouski

University of Miami Law Review

Current Free Speech doctrine does not sufficiently protect government employees’ First Amendment rights. There are two major flaws in the test implemented by the Supreme Court in order to find whether the First Amendment protects an employee. First, the Garcetti test, where a government employee loses First Amendment protection if her speech is pursuant to her official duty, is inadequate, overbroad, and should be done away with completely – or at the least interpreted more narrowly. Secondly, the Pickering balancing test is less of a balancing and more of a prioritization of the government’s interests and should be interpreted to …

Identifying Facebook-, Twitter-, And Instagram-Specific Rhetoric And Interaction: A Case Study, Sharon Kathleen Jones

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

A great deal of research has examined social media best practices; however, there has been a gap in looking at nonprofits to examine the efficacy of Facebook-, Twitter-, and Instagram-specific rhetoric to engage stakeholders. This study examined a small, local nonprofit's posts on each of the above platforms, and used surveys and interviews to find which types of rhetoric create the best dialogue between the nonprofit and stakeholders. This study found that for Facebook, the best rhetoric to use are pictures and videos; for Twitter, the best rhetoric to use are retweets; and Instagram, the best types of rhetoric are …

An Evaluation Of College Students’ Use Of Social Media In Nutrition Education For Lifestyle Behavior Changes, Cassandra Crawford-Ciglar

All Theses And Dissertations

Behavior change is a process. College students routinely have poor eating habits during a time of life that can negatively impact health outcomes for the adult years. While knowledge of nutrition is essential to promote health and wellness, other components are required to change behavior. Specifically, nutrition education must be paired with behavior change skills or goal setting strategies in order for a change to occur. In a college classroom setting, many examples of such strategies already exist. Literature supports evidence that interventions combining social media and behavior change techniques incorporating online social networks may be effective. The purpose of …

The Effect Of Social Media Use On Foreign Fighter Recruitment For Isis, Emily Schlierer

Criminal Justice

In recent years the Islamic State has been gaining strength and followers from around the world. Individuals from other countries will leave their homes and families after contact through social media to travel to Syria and fight alongside the organization. These individuals, known as foreign fighters, are not being evaluated in terms of environmental factors and reasons behind their motivation to join ISIS. While limited in resources and scope, this study is an attempt to raise awareness about the issue of foreign fighter recruitment over social media and point out possible environmental risk factors that may compel someone to join. …

The Role Of Social Media As A Constraint Negotiation Resource: Implication For Collegiate Women's Sporting Event Attendance, Yuilynn Miao

All Theses

Clemson University has experienced low attendance rates at women's sporting events over the past few years. Undergraduate students are possibly limited in their intention to attend these events by various constraints (i.e., intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural). Although these constraints can reduce students' intention to attend women's sporting events, the negotiation process can reduce and possibly overcome the impact of these barriers through various resources and strategies. Social media is one popular negotiation tool that provides equal opportunity for many potential users and is not limited by time or location. This study framed social media as a constraint negotiation resource, exploring …

Understanding How The Southeastern Conference Football Teams Use Twitter Through A Content Analysis, Kristin Elise Pearson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The influence of Social media on intercollegiate athletic departments has been prominent in the past few years. With tight budgets, the departments are forced to find different means of marketing and promoting their brand – through embracing Social media platforms. Research on Social media and intercollegiate athletics is limited; therefore, it is necessary to research how the departments are utilizing Social media. With the agenda setting theory as a foundation, this study explores how the 14 SEC football teams are utilizing Twitter. A total of 3,176 tweets were collected from two constructed weeks. Overall, the findings show that the information …

“Texts From Hillary:” Political Meta-Meming, Likeability, And Social Presence, Hanna Katharina Birkhead

Dissertations - ALL

In the age of viral social sharing, memes have become an increasingly important way for the public to engage in political debate and discussion. Through social media, politicians have an opportunity to participate in meme sharing with their followers, and to gain valuable likeability points with them by doing so. Hillary Clinton is one such politician, who created a meta-meme by participating in a viral meme about her, and was able to have some control over the narrative about her image as a result. The present research examined the uses of and responses to political meta-meming through analysis of both …

"Nobody Can #Dragmedown": An Analysis Of The One Direction Fandom's Ability To Influence And Dominate Worldwide Twitter Trends, Nicole Kelsey Santero

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With more than 25 million followers and counting, One Direction is currently the biggest boy band in the world, and its fans—known as “Directioners”—have become one of the most visible and recognizable fandoms to utilize social media, especially Twitter. Drawing upon an updated version of a fan theory highlighting the interpretive community and social hierarchy that exist within a fandom, this study examines the participatory culture among One Direction fans online that helps them create and dominate worldwide Twitter trends, as well as overshadow what is regarded as more serious news topics. Although previous research studies have examined Directioners and …

Gendered Self-Presentation On Social Media: A Content Analysis Of Tweets From Unlv Men's And Women's Athletic Teams, Alexandra Nicole White

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

ABSTRACT

This thesis examines how sports teams vary by means of self-presentation on a social media

platform in relation to gender and sport. Building on Erving Goffman’s (1959) constructs of selfpresentation

and operationalizing impression management strategies, this study content analyzed

seven UNLV teams’ Tweets. The analysis spanned from August 2015 to October 2015. Every

Tweet posted, during these three months, from the seven different sporting teams was coded to

compare and contrast the men's teams accounts with the women’s teams accounts, as well as one

account that combines the men’s and women’s team on one Twitter page. The study found …

Increasing User Engagement On Social Media, Emily Grasso

Business/Business Administration

For my thesis, I explored the question of what type of content will increase user engagement on social media. I’ve had the opportunity to work on a live project, for a New York-based recruiting agency, Careers on the Move, founded by University at Albany graduate, Richelle Konian.

The goal of the project was to establish, through research, what engages users on social media and then test my findings.

I established, through baseline analytics reports using LinkedIn Analytics, Facebook Insights, and Hootsuite reports that the most appropriate dependent variables will be on LinkedIn, Engagement and Reach; on Facebook, Page Likes and …

Social Media As A Tool To Effectively Communicate With Stakeholders: School Administrators And Superintendents' Perceptions, Steven Coleman Hampton

Dissertations

This quantitative research study analyzed the perceptions of school administrators on the effectiveness of using social media outlets to communicate with stakeholders. School administrators throughout the State of Mississippi completed an online survey developed by the researcher identifying the social media outlets they use to communicate with their stakeholders and the effectiveness of using social media outlets. Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents, Principals, Assistant Principals, and Public Relations Directors with various years of experience completed the survey. The study revealed there was a statistical significant difference between age groups of the school administrators with the concerns of using social media outlets as …

Millennial Skepticism And Susceptibility To Media Persuasion, Olivia K. Lee

Honors Theses

This study examines the disconnect between millennials' perceived and actual skepticism toward news media outlets as well as the Third Person Effect in millennials' attitude toward others' skepticism. This body of work includes survey research to examine these theories in the context of millennial news consumption.

A Content Analysis Of Social Media Policies Of Police Departments And Sheriffs' Offices In The State Of Idaho: Congruency To The Model Policy, Kourtnie R. Rodgers

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The use of social media as a medium of communication has increased significantly over the past decade, and as such, there is huge potential for reaching a large audience with any information one wishes-positive or negative. Law enforcement is no exception to the social media craze. Agencies across the country have begun to use social media in their departments for public relations activities, and investigations, among other goals. The rapid growth and adoption of social media brings with it the potential for important precautionary steps to be overlooked. Due to this rapid shift in online communication and ever-increasing popularity of …

Social Media: How A University's Student Organizations Communicate With Students, Becky R. Freeman

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explored the use of social media at one Midwestern University to understand how student organizations used social media to communicate with students. Through a review of existing research, it was found that past research has focused on how institutions used social media. No studies were identified that examined student organizations' use specifically. The research sought to understand if social media was used to engage more students on campus. The research is important to understanding strategies to increase student engagement. Data were collected using an online survey that was sent to presidents of student organizations (designed to understand if …

#Socialsupport For Diet And Physical Activity Via Web 2.0: A Qualitative Study Of College Women, Bethany Kies Kies

Dissertations

Like other adults in the U.S., college students, have high rates of obesity and overweight, and they have a pattern of poor diet and physical inactivity. Emerging adulthood is a key developmental period for building life-long habits and behaviors, and health theory suggests that one’s social environment and amount of social support affects health behaviors, particularly among women. With the technological advances of Web 2.0, or social media, the opportunity for providing social support for health behaviors through the online social environment now exists; social media is a game changer for both research and practice related to understanding the social …

Can Social Media Reduce Discrimination And Ignorance Towards Patients With Long Term Conditions? A Chronic Kidney Disease Example In The Uk And More Widely, Shahid N. Muhammad, Amy J. Zahra, Howard J. Leicester, Heather Davis, Stephen Davis

Patient Experience Journal

Long Term Conditions (LTCs) are increasing in prevalence and cost in Western healthcare. Patients with such conditions are often classed as “disabled”, because of impacts of self-care on “activities of daily life” or secondary consequences of conditions (impairments) affecting factors such as mobility, concentration and communications. Disability needs are often ignored in the design of services and treatment of individuals. It manifests as services which some find difficult to use and lack of personal respect (discrimination) often based on lack of understanding by the healthcare profession itself (ignorance). This paper explores how Social Media (SM), an example “Assistive Technology” in …

Learning Through Design: Mooc Development As A Method For Exploring Teaching Methods, Robin Bartoletti

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Exploring new pedagogical approaches and technologies in learning experiences such as MOOCs offers educators a clear opportunity to reflect on and expand their teaching methods and document effective practices. However, while research has affirmed the value of self-reflection as an important means to improve one’s pedagogical practices, very limited data about self-reflection during course design exists for online instructors in higher education. A team of MOOC course designers thus seized the opportunity to investigate whether they could improve their teaching practices by engaging in a connectivist and reflective process to create an innovative MOOC. The MOOC design team for Educational …

He Used The Internet - I Used The Encyclopedia, Rebekah Mccloud

UCF Forum

I was talking recently with one of my students who will graduate in May. He told me about his first year in college and began his reminiscence with: “Back in the day…”