Social Media Commons^™

Do Facebook Status Updates Reflect Subjective Well-Being?, Pan Liu, William Tov, Michal Kosinski, David J. Stillwell, Lin Qiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Nowadays, millions of people around the world use social networking sites to express everyday thoughts and feelings. Many researchers have tried to make use of social media to study users' online behaviors and psychological states. However, previous studies show mixed results about whether self-generated contents on Facebook reflect users' subjective well-being (SWB). This study analyzed Facebook status updates to determine the extent to which users' emotional expression predicted their SWBspecifically their self-reported satisfaction with life. It was found that positive emotional expressions on Facebook did not correlate with life satisfaction, whereas negative emotional expressions within the past 9-10 months (but …

Cross-Promotion In Social Media: Choosing The Right Allies, Tingting Song, Qian Tang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper investigates the strategic use of cross-promotion for content producers in social media. In particular, we study how a producer chooses other producers to cross-promote so as to maximize the expected benefits of them cross-promoting him/her in return. Theories on homophily effect and social influence suggest that cross-promoted producers are more likely to cross-promote the initiator in return when they are in the similar categories or share more common friends and when the initiator has higher status. However, the cross-promotion from producers of different categories and social groups (i.e., share fewer common friends) tend to benefit the initiator more. …

Structured Learning From Heterogeneous Behavior For Social Identity Linkage, Siyuan Liu, Shuhui Wang, Feida Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Social identity linkage across different social media platforms is of critical importance to business intelligence by gaining from social data a deeper understanding and more accurate profiling of users. In this paper, we propose a solution framework, HYDRA, which consists of three key steps: (I) we model heterogeneous behavior by long-term topical distribution analysis and multi-resolution temporal behavior matching against high noise and information missing, and the behavior similarity are described by multi-dimensional similarity vector for each user pair; (II) we build structure consistency models to maximize the structure and behavior consistency on users' core social structure across different platforms, …

Occupy Judaism: Religion, Digital Media, And The Public Sphere, Ayala Fader, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article provides an analysis of Occupy Judaism, an explicitly religious expression of Jewish protest, which occurred simultaneously with Occupy Wall Street, the direct-democracy movement of 2011. Occupy Judaism, like Occupy Wall Street, took place both in physical spaces of protest in New York City and digitally, through mobilizing and circulating debate. The article focuses on the words and actions of Daniel Sieradski, the public face and one of the key founders of Occupy Judaism, supplemented by the experiences of others in Occupy Judaism, Occupy Wall Street, and Occupy Faith (a Protestant clergy-led initiative). We investigate what qualified as religion …

Detecting, Modeling, And Predicting User Temporal Intention, Hany M. Salaheldeen

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

The content of social media has grown exponentially in the recent years and its role has evolved from narrating life events to actually shaping them. Unfortunately, content posted and shared in social networks is vulnerable and prone to loss or change, rendering the context associated with it (a tweet, post, status, or others) meaningless. There is an inherent value in maintaining the consistency of such social records as in some cases they take over the task of being the first draft of history as collections of these social posts narrate the pulse of the street during historic events, protest, riots, …

Not A Stitch Out Of Place: Assessing Students’ Attitudes Towards Multimodal Composition, Jeanne Law Bohannon

Faculty Articles

This article traces a brief history of multimodal composition practices in the field of writing studies. It frames writing instruction through the theoretical lens of democratic pedagogy and presents the works of key composition scholars. The author then describes a mixed methods research study, conducted with first-year students on the STEM campus of a state comprehensive university. Students participated in a survey that asked their attitudes towards multimodal writing assignments, digital literacies, and learning outcomes. The author draws conclusions about the effectiveness of multimodal composition based on students’ responses and provides supplemental information on the types of assignments and examples …

An Analysis Of Students' Perception Of Biblical Community Within The Environment Of Digital Media: A Mixed Methods Study, Matthew Alan Vander Wiele

Faculty Dissertations

This study is an examination of teen perception regarding their understanding of biblical community within the environment of digital media. The study also examines the principles, essentials, or characteristics of biblical community regardless of environment.

The researcher surveyed a sample of teens that attend classical, open enrollment, and closed enrollment Christian schools of various denominations as well as no denomination. A survey presenting a list of the essential principles of biblical community, regardless of environment, including questions for each objective was sent to the sample. The respondents were asked to participate in a quantitative Lickert-scale survey. An expert panel was …

"Up For Whatever": A Close Reading Of Anheuser-Busch Superbowl Advertisement, Jamison Jordan

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Ethnography Of Coachella: Communication Within The Intersections Of Popular Culture, Fandom, Music, And Performance, Vanessa Minh-Trang Pham

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

The Dove Real Beauty Campaign: How Does It Wash, Jessica Dieny

Journalism

This study analyzes the Dove Real Beauty Campaign including branding successes and failures, corporate responsibilities, and the evolution of the brand development and management through a two-way symmetrical model. It analyzes the DRBC from a marketing and public relations perspective as well as a women’s and gender studies perspective. Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign sprung from the idea that all women are beautiful and it sought to change the status quo by showing the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire a broader, healthier, more democratic view of beauty. As the power of the Dove Real Beauty initiative appears …

Author Topic Model-Based Collaborative Filtering For Personalized Poi Recommendations, Shuhui Jiang, Xueming Qian, Jialie Shen, Yun Fu, Tao Mei

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

From social media has emerged continuous needs for automatic travel recommendations. Collaborative filtering (CF) is the most well-known approach. However, existing approaches generally suffer from various weaknesses. For example, sparsity can significantly degrade the performance of traditional CF. If a user only visits very few locations, accurate similar user identification becomes very challenging due to lack of sufficient information for effective inference. Moreover, existing recommendation approaches often ignore rich user information like textual descriptions of photos which can reflect users' travel preferences. The topic model (TM) method is an effective way to solve the "sparsity problem," but is still far …

Should We Use The Sample? Analyzing Datasets Sampled From Twitter's Stream Api, Yazhe Wang, Jamie Callan, Baihua Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Researchers have begun studying content obtained from microblogging services such as Twitter to address a variety of technological, social, and commercial research questions. The large number of Twitter users and even larger volume of tweets often make it impractical to collect and maintain a complete record of activity; therefore, most research and some commercial software applications rely on samples, often relatively small samples, of Twitter data. For the most part, sample sizes have been based on availability and practical considerations. Relatively little attention has been paid to how well these samples represent the underlying stream of Twitter data. To fill …

A Phenomenological Study Of Facebook Messages From Female Friends To Middle School Girls And The Multi-Dimensional Effect On Self-Esteem, Eileen Elizabeth Hegel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study investigated positive and negative Facebook messages from female friends to middle school girls and the multi-dimensional effect on self-esteem. This study also examined what role these messages play in female friendships. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit nine participants, 13 years old, the minimum age to have a Facebook account or 14 years old, in the 7th or 8th grade in the South Atlantic region of the United States. Gilligan's theory of moral development underpinned this study. Data collection included a descriptive survey, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, semi-structured interviews, journals, and site artifacts. The questions framing the …

The Effects Of Humorous Facebook Posts On Messenger Credibility And Social Attractiveness, Brett A. Stoll

The Hilltop Review

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect that humorous Facebook messages have on perceived source credibility and social attractiveness. Social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook continue to rise in popularity, solidifying their ongoing presence and influence for the foreseeable future. As users continue to look for ways to manage interpersonal impressions online, many turn to humor in public wall posts and message feeds. With humor proliferating the content of nearly 20% of Facebook posts, it begs the question of what effect its use has on impression management. To address this question, the researcher asked 283 participants …

Media Use And International Engagement, Brenna Parish

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The internet’s interactive composition and fluid interface has changed the way in which individuals acquire information, and has given consumers of news media a means to access a large amount of information regarding political content and international issues. Furthermore, the internet provides users the choice of the information that they consume, which contrasts the rigid, predetermined nature of televised news media. Because of this, this research project will compare the effects of both television and internet media on engagement in international affairs in order to examine the difference between old and new forms of media. Through a statistical analysis of …

"Debate: Millennials Don't Stand A Chance" Devised, Documentary And Immersive Theatre: The Story Of Everymillennial, Sean R. Byrne

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This thesis aims to discover how communitas can be created through theatrical performances by blurring the line between audience and performer as well as performer and character. The topic of the Millennial generation is used as a thematic element in performance to emphasize the creation of community. A theatrical form will be introduced, called the “Living Biography:” a method of devising based on devising, documentary, and immersive theatre. This form will be shown as one possible option in creating communitas in a performance. While other forms of audience inclusion are frequently used, it will be argued that the “Living Biography” …

"All The World's A Stage:" A Social Media Project For The American Shakespeare Center, Lauren D. Ambrose

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

As the nation’s only original re-creation of Shakespeare’s indoor theater, The American Shakespeare Center plays a lead role in its local area of Staunton, Virginia. The organization boasts a prominent following in the theatre and on Facebook; however, its remaining social media accounts have been stuck in the Renaissance. In November 2014, the ASC got an update in the form of a new cast member—the “What’s Your Shakespeare Personality?” quiz and web based application. Using extensive research into local demographics, audience and arts trends and social media usage, this project sought to assist the organization in the application’s launch and …

Organizational Use Of Social Media: The Shift In Communication, Collaboration And Decision-Making, Dhruvi A. Naik

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Organizational use of social media: The shift in communication, collaboration and decision-making

Social media has driven organizational communication, collaboration and decision-making in recent times. This thesis focuses first on the popularity and widespread usage of social media like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and how it has provided businesses with platforms to collaborate and communicate virtually. It then explores how organizations can implement social media for the purpose of external marketing and advertising, to connect to consumers and for the purpose of internal communications. For example, how can organizations tap the potential of social media and connect with consumers? Social media …

The Sentence Continues: Breaking Silences And Becoming Authors Through The Semicolon Project, Brooke E. Covington

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Through its many digital platforms, The Semicolon Project, a suicide and self-harm prevention initiative, offers its users a creative means of using writing to heal. As its name suggests, the semicolon is an essential mark for this group—grammatically a semicolon represents a place in the sentence that an author could have ended and for the members of this prevention initiative, the semicolon acts in a similar way. By tattooing or drawing a semicolon on the body, the semicolon bearer embody a sense of authorial agency, positioning herself as author and using the semicolon as a representation of her dedication to …

7 Tips To Grow Your Rural Business With Purpose And Meaning, Connie I. Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. The purpose of this article is to help rural entrepreneurs discover ways to grow their businesses with Living with Purpose and Meaning Megatrend.

Student-Athletes’ Attitudes And Beliefs Towards Social Media, Emily Boissonneault

Graduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to identify the attitudes and beliefs of student athletes towards social media. To address this question, student athletes completed a survey focused specifically on: the image they present on social media profiles, content included, and their thoughts on the social media education provided by their athletic department. Student athlete (SA) responses were also compared to non-athletes (NA) for a better understanding of social media profiles. Frequencies showed strong similarities in a number of content shared or not shared, like humorous photos (SA 74.1% and NA 73.3%) and sexy photos (SA 82.4% and NA 82.6%). …

Approaching Ideals Through Innovation: Twentieth And Twenty-First Century Mass Media Technology And American Democracy, Elizabeth Brand Cermak

Senior Theses

From the moment our First Amendment was adopted, America’s ideal of democracy has been firmly intertwined with media communications between the President and the citizenry. Over time, technological advancements have altered the way this communication is facilitated, increasing the public’s access to the Office of the Presidency, and visa versa, via new forms of media. Through an examination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s use of the radio, the first televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960, and Barack Obama’s use of Social Media and the Internet, this thesis will seek to answer the question of whether the …

Social Media Marketing In Midterm Political Campaigns & Its Effect On Political Activity, Samantha M. Beaupre

Honors Projects in Marketing

No abstract provided.

Organizational Use Of Social Networking In Employment Actions, Cameron R. Lile

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined federal court cases related to the use of social media websites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn) in various employment practices (e.g., selection, promotion, employee monitoring, layoffs). Court cases were identified using various online databases in an attempt to create an exhaustive list of cases to be used to better understand the role that social media has played in organizational settings and the legal implications of its use. The results of this study show that there were a significant number of cases involving termination and Facebook, and organizations prevailed in court significantly more than the defendant did. The …

External Organizational Identification, Parasocial Relationships, And Social Media Use, Lindsey Webb Dancy

Dissertations

The pervasive use of the Internet for social purposes has led to organizational and social change, as well as social movements online throughout the world. Of particular interest in this study is commitment to organizations by patrons and stakeholders showcased via social media outlets. This research includes a review of organizational identification, parasocial relationships and social media research followed by a detailed description of the method, which included the creation and testing of a questionnaire examining the organizational identification and parasocial relationships of external publics, and their social media use. A hypothesis is put forth suggesting that there is a …

Facing Technology : Creative Solutions To Real-World Problems., Taylor Juanita Beisler

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

We are shaped by technology. This simple idea has become more familiar to social scientists, technical engineers, and some tech users. The first section of this thesis finds unfavorable consequences of constant social media usage, such as unawareness, behavioral and cogitative modifications, and disconnection as societal ills. The second part of this thesis explains how these social side effects can be best ameliorated by “serious” designers, or those whose work is conceptual with real world applications (McLuhan, 8). The final section proposes a creative expression as it relates to bringing awareness to the social side effects of tech usage, linking …

Media And Self Representative Perceptions: Deception In Online Dating, Lindsay Hildebrandt

Honors College Theses

Even with the increasing popularity of online dating, stigmas surrounding this form of internet connection persist. Since society is inundated with images of deception in online dating, those who have never experienced online dating may believe that mass media accurately represents this type of communication. This study’s main research question asks if perceptions about online dating differ between users and non-users; furthermore, these differences will be taken into account when regarding the prominence of mass media in shaping these impressions.

Currently, digital communication is a societal norm; more and more of our lives are documented and facilitated by the internet. …

Narrative Advertising, Meng Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Brand meaning, which is often used in narrative advertising, is an important value that companies try to build around their loyal consumers. This exploratory research aims to explore brand meanings from consumers’ narratives. This study analyzed 2,382 consumer submitted narratives for a real brand in the food service marketplace. Brand narratives were analyzed using a mixed method content analysis approach by applying Leximancer software to generate key themes and their related concepts. The results indicate brand meaning with some thematic similarities as well as differences when comparing narratives submitted by females and males. This exploratory study introduces analyzing narrative as …

Gender, Personality, And Self Esteem As Predictors Of Social Media Presentation, Heng Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In an age when people make and maintain relationships in online environments, creating and sustaining impressions online becomes equally important. For a better understanding of social networking sites usage, the present study examines the influence of gender, personality, and selfesteem on social media presentation. The goal of this study is to investigate individuals‘ expressions through social media in order to determine if they reflect the author‘s gender, personality, and levels of self-esteem. Quantitative analysis was used in this study through survey and SPSS content analysis. The researcher found that neuroticism was related to selfpresentation, and agreeableness is related to Facebook …

Characterizing Silent Users In Social Media Communities, Wei Gong, Ee-Peng Lim, Feida Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Silent users often constitute a significant proportion of an online user-generated content system. In the context of social media such as Twitter, users can opt to be silent all or most of the time. They are often called the invisible participants or lurkers. As lurkers contribute little to the online content, existing analysis often overlooks their presence and voices. However, we argue that understanding lurkers is important in many applications such as recommender systems, targeted advertising, and social sensing. This research therefore seeks to characterize lurkers in social media and propose methods to profile them. We examine 18 weeks of …