Social Media Commons^™

Writing Towards Radicalism: On Biased Reporting & Its Effects On U.S. Extremism, Martha Tyler

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

Perceived influxes in biased reporting, disparities in reporting versus reality, and other factors have led many Americans to question the legitimacy of their most-frequented sources. These sentiments have encouraged migration from traditional sources to alternative ones, exposing many Americans to polarizing media. This report argues that unaddressed inadequacies in reporting force Americans to contend with a distorted reality or try their luck on the path toward alternative media.

Social Media And Journalism: How Twitter Impacts News Coverage In Kenya, Philip Mwaniki Njung’E

Master of Arts in Digital Journalism

Twitter had been extensively adopted by the public, journalists, and news organizations as a new digital tool for disseminating information. Therefore, if Twitter is considered a new and effective way of gathering information that makes up news content, an investigation on how it impacts news coverage, journalists, and newsroom practices is significant. The present study conducted said investigation and came up with findings that significantly contributed to the available information about the relationship between Twitter and news dissemination. It particularly investigated how Twitter impacts news content and coverage, journalistic routines, and newsroom practices in Kenya. This study draws its data …

Investigating The Effects Of Negative Influence Gradients And Emotion Contagion On The Information Processing Capacity Of Social Media Users: Information Diffusion Modeling Approach, Nisha Baral

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

With the growing use of Online social media (OSM), users are observing a substantial amount of information in their social feeds. Moreover, people often use multiple OSM platforms because of each platform's unique features. Because of the huge volume of information present in social feeds, it restricts a user's ability to process the relevant information since the most important information may be overwhelmed by unimportant information. For information to diffuse in OSM, the receiver's attention is the most important condition. Cognition plays an important role in determining a user's attention/responsiveness. If OSM users receive the information above their cognition limits …

Evolution And Diffusion Of Icts In The Indian Railways: A Historical Analysis, Ramesh Subramanian

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The Indian Railway system is one of the largest socio-technical systems in the world. It has existed for over 160 years, starting from the British Colonial times. It continues to play a critical role in present-day India. It’s continued functioning is dependent not only on the personnel who are employed in the railways, but also the technologies that go into the system. A critical technology in the functioning of the railway system is information and communications technologies (ICTs). ICTs are deployed in almost every facet of the railway system. But these ICTs did not manifest themselves recently. They have been …

Online Discussion Forum And Pre-Migration Information Seeking: An Affordance Perspective, Daniel Gulanowski, Luciara Nardon, Michael J. Hine

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Potential immigrants increasingly rely on online technologies to access needed information as they have limited access to offline sources of information at the pre-arrival stage. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of online discussion forums in facilitating potential immigrants’ access to relevant information about the host country labor market. This paper draws on extant literature on computer-mediated communication and a qualitative content analysis of 363 forum discussions to explore the phenomenon of increased use of online forums by prospective immigrants to Canada to access relevant labor market information. We draw on existing concepts of technology affordances …

Jitim Table Of Contents - Vol. 31 Issue 2 - 2022

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

JITIM ToC

Assessing Performance Impact Of Digital Transformation For Instructors In The Covid-19 Era, Shailja Tripathi Dr., Shubhangi Urkude Dr.

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Digital transformation has evolved as the main issue for higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance impacts of digital transformation for instructors of HEIs during the pandemic. The technology-to-performance chain (TPC) model pursues to predict the influence of an information system on the performance of an individual user. Hence, TPC model is used to evaluate the performance of instructors due to digital transformation in the institutions during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data is collected from instructors of higher educational institutions. Recently, partial least squares path …

“Green” Marketing In The Apparel Industry: The Spectrum Of Veracity, Stephanie R. Keane

Honors Theses

Apparel companies’ propensity for manipulation in their marketing of environmental initiatives contributes to immense environmental pollution from petrochemical textile material production. Public scrutiny pressures these businesses to adopt “green” initiatives to avoid losing devoted consumers. In some cases, these initiatives disguise the real operations of a company or claim benignity for the company when this is not the reality. Previous business ethics research analyzed the emergence of “greenwashing” in corporations and thus concluded that corporations market themselves as eco-friendly to portray commodification as sustainable. In the form of case studies, this paper scrutinizes four companies: Zara, Patagonia, Lululemon, and Pact. …

Turning The Tides: An Inoculation Theory And Theory Of Planned Behavior Approach To Developing Mental Health Help-Seeking Interventions For Gen Z, Sarah Ann Geegan

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Extensive research, predating and during the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrates the rising prevalence of anxiety and depression among Gen Z college students in the United States—findings which are accompanied by rising rates of suicide, the second leading cause of death among people aged 15-24. Although college campuses often offer mental health resources, the number of college students utilizing them is significantly less than the number of students reporting mental health challenges. A dearth of empirical evidence, focused on Gen Z specifically, exists as a basis for developing interventions to address this issue. This investigation addressed this gap through two component studies. …

A Content Analysis Of Reddit Comments Discussing Fibroadenoma Appraisal And Decision Making, Hayley Marie Kay Stahl

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Though fibroadenomas are clinically benign in most cases, clinical research suggests that these lesions can cause diagnosis-related physical health complications and psychological distress. However, this research is limited and should be investigated further. Thus, this study aimed to explore how patients appraise their fibroadenoma diagnosis uncertainty. Additionally, this study sought to determine if a correlation existed between appraisal and decision making as well as identify the factors that influence the most common treatment decision: removal. Data was retrieved from Reddit discussions for a content analysis. These discussions were then qualitatively analyzed using codebooks associated with this study’s research questions. Findings …

Reddit As A Source Of Covid-19 Information: A Content Analysis Of R/Coronavirus During The Early Pandemic, Brent Hale, Mark Alberta, Seung Woo Chae

Faculty Publications

Emerging research has begun examining the utility of social media platforms for information dissemination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this developing thread, this work examines discourse within r/coronavirus, a Reddit forum (i.e., subreddit) developed to curate COVID-19 information that burgeoned during the early months of the pandemic. Through a content analysis of 226 posts and 2260 corresponding comments generated between February and May, 2020, this study investigated early-pandemic communication patterns in this platform, including what information was deemed important and how users framed causes and solutions. Overall, findings indicate that users of r/coronavirus prioritized information about COVID-19 spread, public health …

Paying Attention: The Effects Of Different Social Media Posts On Consumers, Noah Lapointe

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Self-Sexualization And Sexually Objectified Experience, Dooyoung Choi, Ha Kyung Lee

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Will women who use their sexuality as a source of power, empowering themselves through self-sexualization, experience negative consequences resulting from sexually objectifying experiences? This study explored the relationship between self-sexualization and sexually objectifying experiences, which leads to body shame, with age as a moderator. An online questionnaire was created to measure the four variables (self-empowering sexualization, general self-sexualization, sexually objectified experiences; body shame). A total of 308 female respondents participated through MTurk, and the data were analyzed with SEM. The findings showed that not all self-sexualizing women experienced a negative consequence from sexually objectified experiences; the use of self-sexualization for …

Deepfakes, Shallowfakes, And The Need For A Private Right Of Action, Eric Kocsis

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

For nearly as long as there have been photographs and videos, people have been editing and manipulating them to make them appear to be something they are not. Usually edited or manipulated photographs are relatively easy to detect, but those days are numbered. Technology has no morality; as it advances, so do the ways it can be misused. The lack of morality is no clearer than with deepfake technology.

People create deepfakes by inputting data sets, most often pictures or videos into a computer. A series of neural networks attempt to mimic the original data set until they are nearly …

An Examination Of Trust In News Mediums By College Students: A Comparison Of Egypt And The Usa, Karim Soliman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polls have shown a decline in trust in the USA when it comes to trust in Media. This study looks at if trust in news mediums really does matter. The study also compares a sample from USA to Egypt. The study finds that American college students have more trust in traditional news media but use it less than newer forms such as social media. The Egyptian sample has high trust in social media and low trust in traditional news media that are normally under the influence of the Egyptian government. The frame works used are the uses and gratification theory, …

Corporate Activism Best Practices In The Age Of Social Media, Fransisco Flores

Theses and Dissertations

Corporate activism, or the act of corporations speaking out on sociopolitical issues, has become more common with technological advances and social media access. Corporations’ role in society has evolved to include non-economic functions that aim to improve societal conditions. Despite corporations fulfilling additional societal roles, they face increased scrutiny from shareholders and stakeholders alike. Speaking out on social issues or staying silent causes ripple effects amongst their internal and external networks. Speaking out on social media while working for a private or publicly traded corporation can be challenging as it entails weighing a wide array of conditions, stakeholder desires, and …

The Impact Of Facebook Affordances On Doomscrolling Behaviors During The Relational Dissolution Process, Emma Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The affordances provided by social networking sites (SNSs) impact how different social media platforms are used. Facebook has unique affordances such as ease of use, community, information seeking, escapism, and common interests that impact Facebook use. Interpersonal electronic surveillance, categorized as doomscrolling for this study, is a behavior of continuous scrolling and consumption of negative content. Facebook affordances, paired with digital artifacts from terminated relationships, create an environment for doomscrolling (IES) behavior. Building off of the “grave-dressing” and “resurrection” stages of relational dissolution, I examined the relationships of these Facebook affordances with doomscrolling (IES) behaviors through an online survey (N …

Religious Violence And Twitter: Networks Of Knowledge, Empathy And Fascination, Samah Senbel, Carly Seigel, Emily Bryan

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

Twitter analysis through data mining, text analysis, and visualization, coupled with the application of actor-network-theory, reveals a coalition of heterogenous religious affiliations around grief and fascination. While religious violence has always existed, the prevalence of social media has led to an increase in the magnitude of discussions around the topic. This paper examines the different reactions on Twitter to violence targeting three religious communities: the 2015 Charleston Church shooting, the 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, and the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings. The attacks were all perpetrated by white nationalists with firearms. By analyzing large Twitter datasets in response to the attacks, …

Cultural Materialism Theory & The Kardashian Family, Jaylin Redman

Capstone Showcase

Raymond Williams popularized cultural materialism theory and used it to help understand cultural texts and their contribution to society. This theory is used to understand societal interactions and cultural shifts. This includes areas of society such as economics and politics. We focus on the Kardashian family as a cultural product used to influence society, using cultural materialism theory to understand them.

Reconsidering The Nomos In Today’S Media Environment, Kimberlianne Podlas

Touro Law Review

Today’s media landscape is wholly unlike that which existed when Cover first discussed narrative and the nomos; specifically, the status of television as both a cultural messenger and object of scholarly study has changed significantly. Accordingly, this article contemplates narrative in the contemporary media environment, specifically, television as an essential source of narratives. To enhance understandings of the roles television narratives play and which narratives play a role, this article employs an empirical perspective. Surveying Media Theory, it outlines research on television effects, including when and why television’s representations of law can impact audience attitudes, behaviors, perceptions, knowledge, and judgements. …

Social Media Influencers In Crisis: Providing Counsel On Instagram, Pang, A., Debbie Lee, Gindelin Low, Valerie Hum

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Increasingly, organizations are harnessing social media influencers (SMIs) as third-party advocates or key opinion leaders (KOLs). Consumers view them as knowledgeable sources of information (Tuten & Solomon, 2017). In the United States, the Kardashians are used by a number of organizations to promote their products. Yang (2019) noted that while Western influencers are mostly video bloggers on Instagram or YouTube, Chinese KOLs have multiple channels, including social media platforms WeChat and Weibo, social networking sites Douban or TikTok. Figures from 2016 point to it as a US$8.6 billion industry in China (Yang, 2019).

“Every Beat You Make Has A Time Of Day Or Color”: How Producers And Rappers Changed The Course Of Sampling Music, Elvin M. Castellanos

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis demonstrates the importance of the producer and artist relationship in hip hop songwriting and sampling, focusing on producers The Alchemist, Madlib, Sounwave, and Terrace Martin, and artists Freddie Gibbs, MF DOOM, Prodigy, and Kendrick Lamar. Topics covered range from sampling lawsuits and their impact on producers and artists in songwriting; what a producer and artist relationship looks like and how they benefit from their relationship; and the quality of music that comes from a close relationship between a producer and artist. I build upon research about the effects of sampling on hip hop by musicologist Amanda Sewell; sampling …

The Impact Of Social Media On The Participant Turnout Of An Event, Leah Gombosch

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For my Honors Research project, I will be creating and implementing a social media plan to promote a charity 5k that will benefit Akron Children's Hospital. This social media plan will identify a target audience and key publics and use research on these publics to identify the best platforms to utilize in order to reach them. I will create content that will engage my audience and encourage them to participate in the 5k race. After developing and utilizing this social media plan and after the conclusion of the event, I will compare the participant turn out from the current event …

A Swipe To The Right: Exploring Tinder Use In College Students, Madisyn Smith

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A Swipe to the Right: Exploring Tinder Use in College students set out to explore different ways in which college students used the dating application Tinder . More specifically, the study focused on what kind of relationships college-aged users were hoping to form on Tinder (i.e. committed, casual, or neither) and what factors determined whether these users swiped right versus left on other Tinder users. This study was conducted by way of five qualitative, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews between participant and researcher. While Tinder is commonly thought of as a "hookup app", the results of the interviews proved otherwise; college students …

Social Media Use, Disordered Eating, And Body Image In Adolescent Females: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Alara Ozpolat

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescent females are especially at risk of developing eating disorders due to expectations surrounding body image, social pressures, and influence from peers. With the significant role of social media in daily life, the average adolescent currently spends several hours a day engaging with content on social media. The overall aim of this review was to better understand the impact of social media consumption on disordered eating and body image among female adolescents. The primary research questions explored within this systematic review were as follows: Is there a relationship between social media use, body image concerns, and/or eating disorder symptoms in …

The State Of Innovation And Media Viability In East Africa: From Indepth Media House Surveys, Hesbon Hansen Owilla, Rose Kimani, Ann Hollifield, Julia Wegner, Dennis Reineck, Roland Schürhoff

Graduate School of Media and Communications

Media houses globally are grappling with how best to produce quality content while at the same time remaining financially viable in the wake of shrinking revenues, technological disruptions, the emergence of peripheral content creators, competition for advertisement revenues from big tech platforms, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a myriad of other changes in the ecosystem. Despite these challenges, it is in the interest of the public that news media organisations (NMOs) produce quality content and do so in a financially sustainable fashion. Media viability, that is, producing quality journalism in a financially sustainable way, is, therefore, a growing area of focus. …

Evaluating The Factors Influencing Alignment Of It And Business In A Cloud Computing Environment, Dr. Shailja Tripathi

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Aligning IT with business strategically is the recent area of attention among researchers and practitioners because of its potential impact on organizational performance. Currently, large numbers of enterprises are migrating towards cloud computing as on-premise implementation of Information technology (IT) infrastructure is expensive. The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that influence the alignment of IT and business in cloud computing environment. Therefore, this study used the Strategic Alignment Maturity (SAM) model as a framework to validate the evolution of IT-business alignment in a cloud computing platform. A questionnaire-based survey method was employed for data collection. The …

Social Word Of Mouth Valence And Role Of Moderators: An Integrated Model Of Consumer Decision Making, Angshuman Ghosh Dr, Sanjeev Varshney Dr, Shabbirhusain R.V. Dr

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The study aimed at coming up with an integrated model of consumer decision making that captures the impact of social media word of mouth (SWOM) on consumers’ decision influencing variables including perceived risk, its impact on attitude towards the brand, and eventually on intention to purchase. The integrated model incorporates the impact of SWOM message valence along with moderating role played by various source and receiver level characteristics on the variables mentioned above. Two experiments with between-subject factorial designs were conducted for testing the hypotheses. The first study had 128 participants divided into eight groups and their responses were collected …

How Do Aspects Of Chain Restaurants Affect The Overall Rating: Trip-Advisor Multi-Dimensional Rating System Analysis, Yuanyuan Gao, Anqi Xu

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

In this study, we analyze the aspect ratings and overall ratings of chain restaurants retrieved from the TripAdvisor multi-dimensional rating system. We gain aspect ratings including food aspect rating, value aspect rating, service aspect rating, and atmosphere aspect rating and their corresponding overall restaurant rating from individual reviews and each restaurant. We build three econometric models to examine how overall rating is affected and found that the food aspect has a significant positive impact on the overall rating. Another interesting finding of our analysis is that the service aspect negatively affects the overall rating. This is explainable under the chain …

Examining Factors Influencing Intention To Use M-Health Applications For Promoting Healthier Life Among Smartphone Users In Tanzania, Herman Mandari, Mahija Yahaya

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Deaths related with Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) have recently increases, similarly, development of mobile technologies have paved a way in which Smartphone users can use m-health applications to address high level of sedentary behaviours that relates to negative health consequences. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine factors which may influence generation Y who are Smartphone users to adopt m-health applications in controlling NCDs in Tanzania. TAM theory was extended with awareness, trust and perceived cost to develop a research conceptual model of this study. Google form was used to developed online questionnaire which was distributed through social media platforms to …