Communication Commons^™

How Social Media Influencer Collaborations Are Percieved By Consumers, Veronica L. Thomas, Kendra Fowler, Faegheh Teheran

Marketing Faculty Publications

Within the social media community, influencers engage in a variety of collaborative practices such as tagging, reposting content from, or forming partnerships with other influencers and brands. While such collaborative efforts are a known practice, less is understood about how influencer collaborations affect consumers' perceptions of the partnering influencers, specifically when a status differential exists within the collaboration. We suggest that such collaborative practices, specifically those where the focal influencer has a higher status than the collaborating partner, may help to weaken consumers' perceptions that the influencer's actions are purely self‐focused. A pilot study, analyzing both influencer–influencer collaborations and influencer–brand …

Conspiracy Theories And Ebola: Lessons Learned Important For Future Pandemics, Shawn C. Smallman

International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The public health campaign against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo faced serious challenges, some due to conspiracy theories and denial. These beliefs were so powerful that they even caused repeated attacks upon health care providers and medical centers. These conspiracy theories were nothing new, as they are a common feature of all frightening epidemics, such as HIV and COVID-19. These narratives also circulated during the 2015 West African Ebola outbreak. Addressing conspiracy theories during an epidemic requires a coordinated campaign involving not only local leaders but also the cooperation of social media organizations

Anti-American Stance In Turkey: A Twitter Case Study, Gowri Prathap, Alex Korb, Luke Palmieri, Ekrem Kaya, Saltuk Karahan, Hamdi Kavak

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

The availability of social media and biased actors exacerbated Anti-American and Anti-Western views to extremes. In this paper, we report our efforts in analyzing anti-American views on Twitter. We have collected over three years of Turkish tweets related to the US, translated them into English, and analyzed these tweets using various computational social science tools. We found that Turkish tweets related to the US are significantly negative, and emotions reflect disgust and anger. Furthermore, we found that the source of the negative views stems from political actors like Trump or Biden rather than general hatred. Our results shed light on …

Giving Power To Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Of The Organization-Public Relationship Between A Public Utility And Its Community Stakeholders, Rhyanna C. Wiethe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this research is to examine how, if at all, relationships between public utility companies and their stakeholders changes following a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, and based on the results, how can companies restructure their initiatives to better serve their publics in order to build stronger, more positive relationships. A multi-method case study using in-depth interviews and two content analyses (a social media analysis and a news coverage analysis) was used to explore the relationship between a public utility company and a community affected by the implementation of a CSR initiative. The findings suggest that the relationship …

Empowering Elderpreneurs Scommerce For Genx Consignment Store Owners In West Virginia, Joyita Sarkar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, this research explores Generation X (GenX) consignment store owners in West Virginia and the transformative power of Social commerce (sCommerce). Despite the ubiquity of Social media platforms, little attention has been given to the impact of sCommerce on the consignment store industry. Drawing from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT), this study examines the factors influencing sCommerce adoption decisions for GenX consignment store owners.

Through qualitative research, this study uncovers untold stories within this entrepreneurial landscape. Purposeful sampling of 11 women and 20-60 minutes of in-depth interviews reveal the …

Acceptance Of Interoperable Electronic Health Record (Ehrs) Systems: A Tanzanian E-Health Perspective, Emmanuel Mbwambo, Herman Mandari

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The study assessed factors that influence the acceptance of interoperable electronic Health Records (EHRs) Systems in Tanzania Public Hospitals. The study applied a hybrid model that combined the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE). Snowball sampling technique was applied and a total of 340 questionnaires were distributed to selected clinics, polyclinics and hospitals, of which 261 (77%) received questionnaires were considered to be valid and reliable for subsequent data analysis. IBM SPSS software version 27.0 was employed for data analysis. Findings indicated that relative advantage, compatibility, management support, organizational competency, training and education, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, …

Analysis Of The Impact Of Vaccinations On Pandemic Metrics In The New York Metropolitan Area, Oredola A. Soluade, Heechang Shin, Robert Richardson

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This study evaluates the relationship between pandemic cases and vaccination usage, ICU bed utilization, hospitalizations, and deaths in the New York City metropolitan area. The study includes variables for the lockdown period and confirmed infections. The evaluation addresses three periods: (1) before vaccinations, (2) after vaccinations, and (3) the lockdown period. In addition, the number of vaccines per day for the manufacturers (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson) are included in the study. Comparisons with New Jersey and Connecticut are used to validate that New York statistics are consistent with other states. The results provide a general model of the …

Treating A Viral Culture: Using Cultural Competency And Social Informatics To Design Contextualized Information Literacy Efforts For Specific Social Information Cultures, Rachel N. Simons, Aaron J. Elkins, Shengnan Yang (Ed.), Xiaohua Zhu (Ed.), Pnina Fichman (Ed.)

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This chapter proposes a novel theoretical framework, Social Information Cultural Competency (SICC), that may be used for designing contextualized information literacy efforts. The SICC approach leverages the frameworks of social informatics, cultural competency, and psychosocial understandings of information behavior to encourage information professionals to develop more nuanced understandings of specific social information cultures. After defining this approach, the chapter then applies the SICC framework to a case study considering information literacy interventions addressing a social information culture engaged in sharing COVID-19 misinformation through social media. As part of this case study, the chapter discusses three current information literacy approaches to …

Sport Celebrities’ Covid-19 Prevention On Social Media: The Effect Of Credibility, Social Distance, Identification, And Message’S Power Style On Health Behavioral Intentions, Kyu-Soo Chung, Chad Goebert

Faculty Articles

During the COVID-19 outbreak, there emerged on social media an active cohort of sport celebrities, promoting through their messages virus-prevention behaviors. The study tested how people’s intentions to adopt COVID-19 prevention practices were affected by their perceived credibility of sport celebrities, perceived social distance of sport celebrities, and identification with sport celebrities. The study also tested how the message’s power style moderated those relations. The researchers selected four sport celebrities who were active on social media and applied powerful and powerless linguistic styles in developing their social media messages. College students (N = 284) were randomly exposed to one of …

Personal Branding, Reality Television, And Social Media: How Former Big Brother Contestants Create, Maintain, And Alter Their Public Image, Justin L. Richards

Masters Theses

This study interrogated how these theories were potentially used, or aspects of the theories used to create, alter, or maintain, the contestant’s personal brands on two social media platforms. Informed by previous literature on personal branding and impression management, 1,021 pieces of social media communication were analyzed, 499 pieces of communication from Taylor Hale, and 522 pieces of communication from Paulie Calafiore. This study determined that there were up to five different patterns on the kind of content produced that still qualified under these theories for Taylor Hale, and up to four different patterns for Paulie Calafiore. Some patterns appeared …

Marketing Ploy Or Mental Health Crisis? An Analysis Of Fan Responses To Celebrity Narratives, Kayla M. Ostrander

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Recently, celebrities have become more candid with their narratives than ever before through use of their social media accounts. While most celebrities use their social media accounts for purposes such as showing a positive or unknown side of them or to promote their work, others have posted narratives that have come under public criticism, especially Kanye ‘Ye’ West with his recent antisemitic-themed posts. In my study I examine what Kanye’s fans and the public believes to be his motivation for his recent narratives in October 2022 and December 2022, and their reasoning for assigning these motives. I collected a total …

Digital Collectibles: Exploring Non-Fungible Tokens (Nfts) Through Twitter Messages, Peter Haried, James Murray

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The growing popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has created a new digital collectibles asset class and market. NFTs are unique digital tokens built on blockchain technology that can represent anything from art, property rights, certificates of authentication to sports collectibles. The use of blockchain provides the framework for digital ownership and brings the notion of scarcity to the digital NFT asset class. With the emerging NFT market and growing consumer base little work has investigated the factors behind NFT interest and participation. Using a dataset of 26,444 tweets on NBA Top Shot, one of the largest and most popular NFT …

Pursuing Professional Learning By Using Social Media: How Do Instructional Designers Apply Self-Regulated Learning?, Pauline Salim Muljana, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The instructional design and technology field are dynamic, requiring instructional designers to stay abreast through timely professional learning. Social media offers characteristics to collapse the time, geographical, and financial limitations of informal professional learning, but challenges exist. Continuous professional learning requires proactive actions, wherein self-regulated learning (SRL) plays an important role. How-ever, not all professionals know the effective strategies to promote SRL skills. This study examines instructional designers' (N = 17) experiences of professional learning on social media through an SRL lens. Data collected through semi-structured inter-views were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings include SRL strategies con-ducted by instructional designers …

Transitional Entrepreneurship: Unleashing Entrepreneurial Potential Across Numerous Challenging Contexts, Golshan Javadian, Anil Nair, David Ahlstrom, Kaveh Moghaddam, Li-Wei Chen, Younggeun Lee

Management Faculty Publications

[First paragraph] We are pleased to publish the special issue of the New England Journal of Entrepreneurship on transitional entrepreneurship. Transitional entrepreneurship refers to the practices of entrepreneurs from communities facing adversity who navigate substantial life transitions as they launch and manage new ventures in response to various changes and challenges in their environment. Entrepreneurship is not only a critical driver of economic growth and social development (Ahlstrom et al., 2019; McCloskey, 2010) but can also represent a life-changing transition for most, if not all, of the entrepreneurs themselves. Transitional entrepreneurship entails strategic pivots or transformations that enable entrepreneurs to …

A New Era Of Policing: Uncovering Ways Officers Believe Community Relations Can Be Restored, Bradi Kai Kooyman

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The present study qualitatively investigated law enforcement officers’ opinions on creating more positive relationships with community members and how news media can play a role in deteriorating community attitudes and perceptions of law enforcement officers. A total of six participants were selected to participate in a forty-five-minute interview. Participants were asked questions regarding positive and negative factors in their relationship with their communities, local and national law enforcement portrayals in news media, reforms needed within law enforcement, beliefs toward community policing, and factors that lead to success in their relationships with citizens. This study discovered that building trust, implementing community …

(Un)Successful Use Of Apologia: A Case Study Of Mayor Shubert's Resignation, Alexis Raineri

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With the growing tension in the political climate of the United States, political figures often use apologia in their attempt to repair a damaged image due to their mistakes or wrongdoings. This project reviews several scholars’ image repair typologies and strategies, applying them to the case of Craig Shubert, former mayor of Hudson, Ohio. While the specific image repair strategies employed can vary from one case to another, Shubert’s use of evasion of responsibility and reducing offensiveness proved to be ineffective and resulted in his resignation before completing his term at the end of 2023. Although it is recommended to …

Right Turn At Reality: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Right Wing Negotiations On Race And Masculinity In Online Spaces, Andrew R.J. Hart

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The effects of right wing politically charged violence are more visible now than at any other point in recent American history. The Internet, and social media more specifically, has become a crucial nexus point in the dissemination of decentralized Alt-Right propaganda. The visual nature of social media has increased the importance of images a means of communication. Through this thesis, I analyze artifacts coming out of these spaces representing a conversation between creators and audiences, and how they work dialogically to introduce and reify symbols of white masculine supremacy within this subgroup. Through this process, I find multiple recurring patterns …

The Meta Oversight Board's Human Rights Future, Laurence R. Helfer, Molly K. Land

Faculty Scholarship

Responses to the new Oversight Board created by Facebook (now Meta) have run the gamut from enthusiastic to overtly suspicious. Many observers are highly skeptical of the Board’s ability to hold Meta accountable or to protect the company’s users. Much of this skepticism is based on a misplaced analogy between the Board and domestic courts. We argue, in contrast, that the core challenges and opportunities that the Oversight Board faces are similar to those confronted by international human rights tribunals. Analyzing the Oversight Board as a de facto human rights tribunal sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses of its …

Champions For Social Good: How Can We Discover Social Sentiment And Attitude-Driven Patterns In Prosocial Communication?, Raghava Rao Mukkamala, Robert J. Kauffman, Helle Zinner Henriksen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) is pursuing a social media strategy to inform people about displaced populations and refugee emergencies. It is actively engaging public figures to increase awareness through its prosocial communications and improve social informedness and support for policy changes in its services. We studied the Twitter communications of UNHCR social media champions and investigated their role as high-profile influencers. In this study, we offer a design science research and data analytics framework and propositions based on the social informedness theory we propose in this paper to assess communication about UNHCR’s mission. Two variables—refugee-emergency and champion …

Twitter Sentiment About The Us Federal Tobacco 21 Law: Mixed Methods Analysis, Page D. Dobbs, Allison Ames Boykin, Nnamdi Chika Ezike, Aaron Myers, Jason B. Colditz, Brian A. Primack

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: On December 20, 2019, the US “Tobacco 21” law raised the minimum legal sales age of tobacco products to 21 years. Initial research suggests that misinformation about Tobacco 21 circulated via news sources on Twitter and that sentiment about the law was associated with particular types of tobacco products and included discussions about other age-related behaviors. However, underlying themes about this sentiment as well as temporal trends leading up to enactment of the law have not been explored.

Objective: This study sought to examine (1) sentiment (pro-, anti-, and neutral policy) about Tobacco 21 on Twitter and (2) volume …

S-400s, Disinformation, And Anti-American Sentiment In Turkey, Russell "Alex" Korb, Saltuk Karahan, Gowri Prathap, Ekrem Kaya, Luke Palmieri, Hamdi Kavak, Richard L. Wilson (Ed.), Major Brendan Curran (Ed.)

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

As social and political discourse in most countries becomes more polarized, anti-Americanism has risen not only in the Middle East and Latin America but also among the U.S. allies in Europe. Social media is one platform used to disseminate anti-American views in NATO countries, and its effectiveness can be magnified when mass media, public officials, and popular figures adopt these views. Disinformation, in particular, has gained recognition as a cybersecurity issue from 2016 onward, but disinformation can be manufactured domestically in addition to being part of a foreign influence campaign. In this paper, we analyze Turkish tweets using sentiment analysis …

Social Protection And Foundational Cognitive Skills During Adolescence: Evidence From A Large Public Works Program, Sirunya Silapunt

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: Reddit, a popular social media website, has numerous forums where users may discuss healthcare-related topics and request diagnostic and treatment advice for dermatologic conditions. We sought to analyze and grade user-submitted requests for dermatologic advice and their top responses on Reddit.

METHODS: User-submitted posts requesting diagnostic advice and their respective responses on two popular Reddit forums, SkinCareAddiction (ScA) and DermatologyQuestions (DQ), were reviewed by three board-certified dermatologists using a grading rubric designed for this study.

RESULTS: 300 posts and comments were reviewed. Diagnoses among all graders matched in 52.3% of posts with a mean grader confidence score of 4/5 …

Investigating Collaborative Explainable Ai (Cxai)/Social Forum As An Explainable Ai (Xai) Method In Autonomous Driving (Ad), Tauseef Ibne Mamun

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Explainable AI (XAI) systems primarily focus on algorithms, integrating additional information into AI decisions and classifications to enhance user or developer comprehension of the system's behavior. These systems often incorporate untested concepts of explainability, lacking grounding in the cognitive and educational psychology literature (S. T. Mueller et al., 2021). Consequently, their effectiveness may be limited, as they may address problems that real users don't encounter or provide information that users do not seek.

In contrast, an alternative approach called Collaborative XAI (CXAI), as proposed by S. Mueller et al (2021), emphasizes generating explanations without relying solely on algorithms. CXAI centers …

Is A Pretrained Model The Answer To Situational Awareness Detection On Social Media?, Siaw Ling Lo, Kahhe Lee, Yuhao Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Social media can be valuable for extracting information about an event or incident on the ground. However, the vast amount of content shared, and the linguistic variants of languages used on social media make it challenging to identify important situational awareness content to aid in decision-making for first responders. In this study, we assess whether pretrained models can be used to address the aforementioned challenges on social media. Various pretrained models, including static word embedding (such as Word2Vec and GloVe) and contextualized word embedding (such as DistilBERT) are studied in detail. According to our findings, a vanilla DistilBERT pretrained language …

Twitter Sentiment Analysis: Applications In Healthcare And Finance, Jiali Wang

Dissertations

This research explores the influence of Twitter sentiment on healthcare and finance industries. It assesses how Twitter sentiment and culture measure influence COVID-19 statistics, and it investigates the impact of Twitter sentiment on S&P 1500 stock mispricing. Furthermore, it examines how tweet sentiment predicts major industry returns.

The first part examines how Hofstede’s Culture Dimensions (HCD) and Twitter economic uncertainty index (TEU) relate to COVID-19 infection rate and death rate. The results show certain aspects in HCD, such as power distance index (PDI) and masculinity (MAS) both are negatively and significantly associated with the infection rate, while indulgence (IVR) and …

The Role Of Social Media As A Communication Facility For Hydrometeorological Disasters In Shallot Farming Activities, Nurul Khotimah, Dyah Respati Suryo Sumunar, Suhadi Purwantara, Nugraho Sistu Prabintoro, Mohd Hairy Ibrahim, Nasir Nayan

Informasi

Social media as a means of communication plays a role in building a new paradigm of disaster. One of the social media users for hydrometeorological disaster communication is a shallot farmer in Parangtritis Village, Kretek Subdistrict, Bantul District, Yogyakarta Special Region. This study aims to determine the role of social media as a means of communication for hydrometeorological disasters in shallot farming activities. The design of this research is descriptive quantitative research. The research was carried out from April to October 2021 by taking the location of shallot farmers in Parangtritis Village, Kretek Subdistrict, Bantul District, Yogyakarta Special Region. The …

The Influence Of Social Media Of Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta Gunungkidul Campus To Create Brand Image On Student Decision Making, Anugerah Tesa Aulia, Ignatius Agung Satyawan, Albert Muhammad Isrun Naini

Informasi

In 2020, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (UNY) opened a new vocational campus in Gunungkidul Regency. The Socialization of UNY Gunungkidul campus by the admission department cannot be performed face-to-face due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, UNY Gunungkidul Campus socializes the enrollment programs via online mode. The opening of the campus aims to equalize and improve the quality of high school education in Yogyakarta. Gunungkidul is the regency with the second highest number of poor people in Yogyakarta. UNY Gunungkidul Campus utilizes social media as a promotional media to support the formation of a brand image for student decision making. This study …

Editorial Policy Of Kedaulatan Rakyat, Tribun Jogja, And Harian Jogja In Reporting Regional Management By Kasultanan Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, Gilang Jiwana Adikara

Informasi

The Province of the Special Region of Yogyakarta is an anomaly in a democratic country. The position of regional head in this province is held by the Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat Sultanate which adheres to a monarchical system so that regional management experiences various obstacles, such as internal palace conflicts or allegations of maladministration. As mass media whose freedom is regulated by law, the three mass media in DIY also have to deal with a unique local government system. This study discusses the editorial policies of three local media in Yogyakarta: Kedaulatan Rakyat, Tribun Jogja, and Harian Jogja regarding the DIY government …

Social Media, Mass Mobilization And National Development In Nigeria: Lessons From The #Endsars Protest, Eno-Obong Blaise Akpan, Tordue Simon Targema

ASEAN Journal of Community Engagement

This study explored the potential of social media for effective mass mobilization and community engagement to attain national development in Nigeria. Premised on the fact that social media have become popular platforms attracting millions of subscribers, the study examined how the opportunities they offer could be harnessed and purposefully deployed to galvanize the citizens to pursue national development causes. This was done against the backdrop of the technological determinism theory that provides the framework for investigating the indispensable role which technology plays in the advancement of a nation’s socio-economic development. The secondary research approach was adopted to carry out the …

Pengaruh Work From Home Terhadap Kinerja Pegawai Melalui Work Life Balance Dan Work Stress Di Satuan Kerja Dinas Pangan Tanaman Pangan Dan Hortikultura Provinsi Riau Pada Saat Pandemi Covid19, Syahira Rahmadani, Samsir Samsir, Any Widayatsari

Jurnal Sosial Humaniora Terapan

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh Work From Home terhadap Kinerja Pegawai Untuk menganalisis pengaruh Work From Home terhadap Work Life Balance Untuk menganalisis pengaruh Work From Home terhadap Work Stress. Untuk menganalisis pengaruh Work Life Balance dan Work Stress terhadap Kinerja Pegawai. Untuk menganalisis pengaruh Work From Home terhadap Kinerja Pegawai melalui variabel Work Life Balance dan variabel Work Stress pada pegawai di Satuan Dinas Pangan Tanaman Pangan dan Holtikultura Provinsi Riau. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah Pegawai Negeri Sipil Satuan Kerja Dinas Pangan Tanaman Pangan dan Holtikultura Provinsi Riau Tahun 2020 sebanyak 273 orang. Sedangkan sampel yang digunakan …