Digital Commons Network^™

Digital Word-Of-Mouth And The Gender Implications, Deborah H. Lester, Andrew M. Forman, Dolly D. Loyd, Tyra A. Burton

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Consumers can now easily access data and exchange sentiments regarding products and services on an unprecedented scale, and often in real time, through digital connections. The Internet and mobile technologies have made sharing of information and opinions among consumers easier than ever. The capacity of online participants to inspire and transform perspectives has been touted to surpass the radical potency of television when it entered the consumer’s province during the 50’s. Men and women use social media sites to learn about new products, to become smarter shoppers and to feel good about a purchase they might have already made. College …

Using Twitter To Facilitate Case-Based Instruction In A Nursing Classroom, Sherleena Ann Buchman, Patricia Burke Snider, Tian Luo, Kaboni Gondwe

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This paper is a report on the use of Twitter within a sophomore level course in the baccalaureate nursing program at a rural Appalachian university. Students enrolled in the Foundations of Nursing course were in their second year of a traditional nursing program. Meeting the challenge of providing students with a ubiquitous learning environment that extends beyond their rural environment is important in the education of many students in the Appalachian region. The preliminary study looks at the usability of Twitter as the medium that will assist nursing students to build the confidence that comes from completing a case study …

Social Data, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

As online social media grow, it is increasingly important to distinguish between the different threats to privacy that arise from the conversion of our social interactions into data. One well-recognized threat is from the robust concentrations of electronic information aggregated into colossal databases. Yet much of this same information is also consumed socially and dispersed through a user interface to hundreds, if not thousands, of peer users.

In order to distinguish relationally shared information from the threat of the electronic database, this essay identifies the massive amounts of personal information shared via the user interface of social technologies as “social …

Obscurity By Design, Woodrow Hartzog, Frederic D. Stutzman

Faculty Scholarship

Design-based solutions to confront technological privacy threats are becoming popular with regulators. However, these promising solutions have left the full potential of design untapped. With respect to online communication technologies, design-based solutions for privacy remain incomplete because they have yet to successfully address the trickiest aspect of the Internet — social interaction. This Article posits that privacy-protection strategies such as “Privacy by Design” face unique challenges with regard to social software and social technology due to their interactional nature.

This Article proposes that design-based solutions for social technologies benefit from increased attention to user interaction, with a focus on the …

Multitude Of Needs Met By An Online Mom Community, Shannon Alexis Snell

LSU Master's Theses

Online communities for expectant mothers have existed for many years, but newer social media sites are allowing these groups to exist in different formats. This study features an online community of 94 women that originated from TheBump.com’s forums who then formed their own community, a Facebook group for February 2012 moms. The women exist in many different social media spheres including the group, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a separate Buy/Sell/Trade Facebook group. This study used a survey questionnaire to determine whether these different social media sites and platforms met different needs for this specific group of women. The study also …

The Walker Art Center Website : A Study Of Cultural Administration, Rae Jung Wilburn

LSU Master's Theses

On December 1, 2011, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, launched a new website that presented a completely new format for its museum’s online presence and a new strategy for museums in general. The Walker’s new site adopts an online journalistic platform for its homepage, which it dubbed its “front page.” It functions as an online arts magazine showcasing the museum’s activities, exhibitions, informational resources and collections material, but also placed in a wider field of related cultural material aggregated from other online sources. Indeed, the new website is distinct from any previous museum website on these two points: …

Corporate Use Of Social Media, Viktorya Mirzoyan

LSU Master's Theses

Despite significant and constantly increasing volume of social media use by both individuals and corporate entities, scarce scholastic attention has been paid to practices undertaken by companies and organizations in creating presence on social media, managing social media accounts and communicating with constituents on social media. New social media platforms appear regularly, attracting millions of daily visitors, however, this new type of communication media still lacks in-depth analysis, which would provide guidelines to be used by corporate entities to make their presence on social media most effective. This study makes the first step to analyze possible relationships between companies’ practices …

When Celebrity Women Tweet: Examining Authenticity, Empowerment, And Responsibility In The Surveillance Of Celebrity Twitter, Megan M. Wood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a textual analysis of stories in online celebrity news articles about celebrity women and their use of Twitter. It adds to the burgeoning discussion about gendered and racialized bodies online using scholarship from critical feminist, surveillance, and digital media studies. Throughout, my work attends to notions of authenticity and surveillance, examining how what I term a "call to authenticity"--the use of technologies of self-surveillance to verify "authentic" displays of the self--serves to animate contradictory post-feminist paradigms of femininity which function together to discipline and subjugate femininity. I ask: How do post-feminist questions of empowerment and responsibility become …

Facebook Users' Feedback Of Restaurants: Does It Affect Other Users?, Lauren Rose Webber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to the popularity of social media and an increase in the engagement of social care, traditional word-of-mouth communications has been replaced by electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Facebook, the most popular website in the United States, is home to nearly 18 million brand or business pages and may be accessed by social media-users aiming to engage in social care, which is customer service via social media. Extending existing research, this study employed in-depth interviews to determine whether or not social media-users are affected by the feedback of other users on restaurants' Facebook pages. The results of this study suggest that Facebook …

The Frame Of Social Media In Academic And Industry, Weiwen Zhou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the development of technology, the communication between people has changed rapidly. Social media is a type of digital network designed to share content with other internet users based on their preferences and associations. The purpose of this research was to understand how industry press and the professional market place frame social media today. Moreover, this research showed the explored current social media pedagogy in business and communication programs to see if it matches the need of industry expectations. This study was a content analysis of the text-based study that uses a qualitative software-Leximancer to analyze data. The result suggested …

The George-Anne, Georgia Southern University

The George-Anne

• News
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• Classifieds
• Puzzles/ Comics
• Sports

Al-Jihad Fi Sabilillah: In The Heart Of Green Birds, Robyn Torok

Australian Counter Terrorism Conference

With an increasing focus on lone-wolf operations, al-Qaeda is becoming increasingly focussed on its internet discourses and propaganda. One of its most significant discourses is the importance of jihad and martyrdom in carrying out a terrorist attack. This study looks at Facebook pages and profiles and examines the discourses presented in relation to jihad and martyrdom. Three important concepts including their justification are considered: Al-Jihad fi Sabilillah (just fight for the sake of Allah), Istishhad (operational heroism of loving death more than the West love life) and Shaheed (becoming a martyr). Results supported previous studies indicating the strong seductive nature …

Can You Get Beliefs From Retweets? An Examination Of The Extended Parallel Processing Model On Social Media, Xialing Lin

Masters Theses

The Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM; Witte, 1992) has been applied as a framework to examine risk information dissemination and effective sensation seeking in various health communication scenarios. Previous studies suggest that it is worth examining whether Twitter could have potential efficacy effects similar to face-to-face interaction or traditional media interventions. Given the overload and discrete information in the medium environment, people would adapt information processing short cuts, to tend to similar perceptions from various sources rather than reading specific messages.

The current study investigates the threat appeal perceptions of EPPM on system-generated and other-generated message cues in social media. …

Branding For A New Wellness Program: The Importance Of Brand Identity And Using Social Media, Jennifer Jenkins

Journalism

In today’s world, health organizations are all about losing weight and getting into shape. While this is important to maintain one’s health, it is not the only factor in a healthy lifestyle. Lou F. saw this great discrepancy in the wellness field, and decided that what was needed was an organization dedicated to mental health as well as physical health, encompassing fitness training, nutrition, and counseling for the everyday individual as well as the corporate world. With this idea in mind, Lou set out to create this type of organization. This paper addresses the importance of creating a strong brand …

Social Media And Political Changes In Al-Alam Al-Arabi, Jabbar Al-Obaidi

Bridgewater Review

The Arab countries are typically described as lacking democratic traditions, freedom of the press, human rights and civil liberties. The utilization of social media for political purposes became crucial to the widespread expression of pent-up social discontent that precipitated the Arab Spring. Uploaded videos, photos, and Twitter feeds served to outrage people in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria. This volatile combination of a young population, authoritarian rule, corruption and poverty is prompting youth to spearhead political demonstrations and the demand for regime change.

Self-Image Congruence With Communication Channels And Its Impact On Reward Program Loyalty, Orie Berezan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Loyalty programs have become products in and of themselves. They need to maintain member loyalty in order to survive. It is proposed that communication has a larger impact on program loyalty than previously thought. This study utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the influence of communication typologies and dimensions on hotel reward program loyalty via self-image congruence, service quality, satisfaction, and trust. Moreover, this dissertation presents a communication identity model, which focuses on promoting hotel reward program loyalty via self-congruence with communication channels.

Newly discovered significant paths were found between: communication style and self-congruence with communication channels; self-congruence with …

Examining Social Media Use In Fashion: The Need For Industry Standards, Hillary Preece

Journalism

Social media is an evolving platform used by the fashion industry to generate discussion, brand recognition, and improve consumer relations through interactivity and networking. The following study examines the current uses and standards of industry professionals regarding the different social media platforms to determine effective practice. The innovative new instruments in public relations strategy provide key benefits and widespread impact for users, designers, firms and publications that are transforming relationships and brands in the fashion industry.

As a means of guiding the literary research and the collection of expert opinion, Bourdieu’s Social Capital Theory (1985) says, “the profits which accrue …

Examination Of How One's Perceived Online Identity On Social Media Affects One's Perceived Real-Life Identity, Kelly Marie Mccarty

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Over the past few decades, the internet has become an important aspect of people's social lives. It has created a place where individuals can express themselves and define themselves to much more than those they live around. A whole new world has been opened for individuals to connect and remain in contact with others. This has created new environments in which to play at identity. Social identity theory states that how one perceives his or her own identity is affected by the environment and those that individual is around. Participation in social media, therefore, should have some effect on how …

Community-Based Classification Of Noun Phrases In Twitter, Freddy Chong Tat Chua, William W. Cohen, Justin Betterridge, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Many event monitoring systems rely on counting known keywords in streaming text data to detect sudden spikes in frequency. But the dynamic and conversational nature of Twitter makes it hard to select known keywords for monitoring. Here we consider a method of automatically finding noun phrases (NPs) as keywords for event monitoring in Twitter. Finding NPs has two aspects, identifying the boundaries for the subsequence of words which represent the NP, and classifying the NP to a specific broad category such as politics, sports, etc. To classify an NP, we define the feature vector for the NP using not just …

Social Media In Diabetes Education: A Viable Option?, Julie Cooper, Jill N. Cox, Marilyn A. Corbin

Journal of Extension

As Extension educators are encouraged to implement more cost-effective and efficient means of programming, the use of Web-based social media has become a popular option. Penn State Extension implemented a social media awareness survey among participants in its community-based diabetes education program to determine familiarity with this medium, along with rates of current and future use. Results indicated a level of comfort with email and Facebook options, while many preferred more traditional methods of communication. Future research is needed to determine if this online mode of learning may be more effective in targeting a younger Dining with Diabetes population.

The Rise Of Transparency And The Decline Of Secrecy In The Age Of Global And Social Media, P.J. Crowley

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

News reporting of a wide range of sensitive government policies, operations, and internal deliberations has raised understandable concerns that U.S. national security is being compromised. In response, there is an increase in investigations and prosecutions and proposed legislation to plug government leaks. But a broader reality may be at work. In the increasingly interconnected and transparent world of the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, satellite television, WikiLeaks, omniscient cellphones and technology-enhanced revolutions such as the Arab Awakening, governments have lost their ability to control the flow of information. More people have access to more information, with the ability to communicate anything from …

Social Media And Negative Word Of Mouth: Strategies For Handing Unexpecting Comments, Jane B. Thomas, Cara O. Peters, Emelia G. Howell, Keith Robbins

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Increased usage of social media by consumers impacts businesses that find it necessary to participate to connect with customers. Because social media is conversational in nature, marketers have little control over the message, unlike more traditional forms of marketing communication. The purpose of this paper is to flesh out the tensions that exist as marketers deal with consumer-generated negative social media messages and present possible responses for marketers dealing with this form of negative word of mouth (WOM). Its contribution lies in unpacking options for companies dealing with such negative social media. Case studies and a conceptual model identifying possible …

Communicating Strategically – Talking Less, Targeting Better. Qualitative Study On Corporate Communication‘S Learning In Leading Global Companies, Lukasz M. Bocheneki, Sam Blili

UBT International Conference

Companies need to communicate strategically in order to maintain dialogue and relationships with their stakeholders. In the crowded media and social media space the messages disappear in the noise generated by multiple actors. Therefore, to be heard the enterprises need to consider their communication strategically. It is not about the amount of information, it is about right targeting and usage of the right tools and channels. Social media allowed the companies to communicate directly with their stakeholders and customers. Different channels can address different stakeholders. This study focuses on a qualitative assessment of the learning patterns and profiles among 60 …

Campaign Strategy In The Internet Age: The Use And Effectiveness Of Internet Advocacy Tools In American Political Campaigns., Andrew J. Shapero

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the use and effectiveness of Internet Advocacy Tools, including Twitter, Facebook, Email, and blogs, in American Political campaigns in order to better understand their role in the American electoral process. Data was collected through a census of political campaign professionals immediately following the 2010 Congressional elections. The results of this research indicate that simply utilizing Internet Advocacy Tools is not enough to win an election, and that campaign professionals of all political persuasions have reservations regarding their across-the-board usefulness and effectiveness, despite presenting some certain advantages over traditional campaign methods and tools.

Colleges’ And Universities’ Use Of Twitter: A Content Analysis, Darren Linvill, Sara E. Mcgee, Laura K. Hicks

Publications

This study explored how colleges and universities are employing Twitter, a popular micro-blogging tool. Using Kent and Taylor's principles of dialogic communication, a content analysis was performed on individual tweets (n = 1130) from 113 colleges and universities. Tweets were coded for whether or not they met each principle of dialogical communication and why. It was found that institutions are not employing Twitter in a dialogic way and they are, instead, employing it primarily as an institutional news feed to a general audience. The implications of this finding are discussed.

Correlating Social Media Policy To The Isllc Standards, Bret Gowin

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) was a committee developed in 1996 by the Council of Chief School Officers (CSSO) that created standards to direct the training of aspirant school administrators. The objective of each of these standards also may provide guidance for administrators in their daily mission to lead their school to providing the highest quality education possible. Social media is a fairly new communication tool that school leaders must consider in the development of school policy. This communication tool has an overabundance of considerations, both positive and negative, that must be measured when developing policy on its …

Labor And Employment Law, Eric Wallace

Law Student Publications

During the past two years, there have been several significant developments in labor and employment law, both on the state and federal levels. Because developments in both state and federal law likely will have a profound impact on employers and employees throughout Virginia, they warrant significant discussion in this survey. In addition to examining notable decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the United States District Courts for the Eastern District and Western District of Virginia, this survey also discusses decisions of the Supreme Court of Virginia …

Labor And Employment Law, Vijay K. Mago, Elizabeth E. Clarke, Eric Wallace

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Understanding Information And Knowledge Sharing In Online Communities: Emerging Research Approaches, Hsin-Liang Chen, Anatoliy Gruzd, Xiaozhong Liu, Eric Meyers

University Libraries Faculty Research & Creative Works

Social media have become an important component of contemporary information ecosystems. People use social media systems, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Tumblr to communicate ideas and information needs, seek advice and solve problems, show appreciation and disagreement with a person or issue. These tools facilitate the emergence of communities, often resembling the communities of practice that arise in workplaces and educational institutions, where a common interest, identity and set of norms and structures for communicating develop through interaction. But while it seems easy to "suck in" data streams from social media to understand online communities, making sense of the …

Public Forum 2.1: Public Higher Education Institutions And Social Media, Robert H. Jerry Ii, Lyrissa Lidsky

Faculty Publications

Public colleges and universities increasingly are using Facebook, Second Life, YouTube, Twitter, and other social media communications tools. Yet public colleges and universities are government actors, and their creation and maintenance of social media sites or forums create difficult constitutional and administrative challenges. Our separate experiences, both theoretical and practical, have convinced us of the value of providing guidance for public higher education institutions wishing to engage with their constituents-including prospective, current, and former students and many others-through social media.

Together, we seek to guide public university officials through the complex body of law governing their social media use and …