Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

Are Emojis The New Words? A Sentiment Analysis Of Social Media Brand Conversations, Yashodhan Karulkar, Dev T. Vora, Siddharth Vaddepalli, Yash Thakur

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Emojis have become an increasingly important aspect of consumer-brand interactions in the Indian subcontinent. However, the impact of emoji use on brand image and mental health remains underexplored, particularly in emerging economies like India, where structured research on this topic is limited. To address this gap, the present study analyzes over 4,600 consumer tweets related to 19 prominent brands across eleven industries. Using VADER sentiment analysis, the research develops a metric to assess consumer sentiment and brand engagement in relation to emoji usage. The findings indicate that effective integration of emojis contributes to positive consumer sentiment and enhanced brand engagement. …

Exploring Female-Centered Storytelling Techniques In Travel Podcasting With 'Chicks Take Flight', Layla M. Bakhshandeh

Journalism

The following study explores storytelling through the lens of podcasting to effectively engage audiences. This study addresses the gap in academic literature regarding gender-specific audio storytelling techniques by analyzing how narrative structure, vocal delivery, and content authenticity in podcasts specifically resonate with female audiences, providing practical applications for podcast creators targeting this demographic. Accompanying this literary research is a travel podcast titled Chicks Take Flight. This entertainment podcast tells the stories of young women’s travel experiences. Its goal is to provide a platform to discuss modern travel tips and stories for female audiences. Utilizing the podcasting advice from research findings …

Cripistemology And Creative Practice: Disability, Aesthetics, Digital Art, Generative Ai, Talan Memmott Phd

CLASP Lecture Series

Dr. Memmott’s presentation will showcase “Introducing Lary”—an ongoing AI project that explores the re-invention of the self following life-changing cancer surgery and treatment. This talk profiles the artist’s experience with a laryngeal cancer diagnosis and the medical interventions that follow. Utilizing a variety of AI platforms for both video and image production along with journal entries and medical reports as text prompts, the resulting work is a set of distinctive media that range, in Dr. Memmott’s words, “from the mythic to the horrific; the historical to the speculative.” Though at times the resulting media may emphasize the emergent body horror …

The Ability Of Chatgpt To Aid In The Rapid Development Of Inoculation Message Treatments: A Case Study And Recommendations, Alicia Mason, Josh Compton, Griffin Cooper

Faculty Submissions

One of the most widely known types of AI technologies in recent years is ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art language model that has revolutionized natural language processing by generating human-like text with context and coherence, enabling new possibilities for human-AI interaction (Brown et al., 2020). This case study reports on a 10-week conversational AI training initiative to assess whether ChatGPT4 can (a) identify the structural elements and features of conventional inoculation messages (i.e., forewarnings and preemptive refutations); (b) augment inoculation message design features (i.e., linguistic signatures, language, and length); (c) adapt messages for specific audiences (i.e., younger populations, experts); and …

Lindenwood Digest, February 26, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Microsimulation: A Solution For Effective Client Engagement, Girish Balakrishnan

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

A key challenge that product management professionals face is to convince their clients about the relevance of a product towards their business needs by aligning those with the product vision. To accomplish this need, new strategies to engage the clients with the product vision are extremely critical. Microsimulation is a wonderful way to not just communicate product vision but also to familiarize clients with unique functionalities offered by the product. Microsimulations avoid miscommunications by establishing interaction between provider and consumer. This research study primarily focuses on solving the problem of client disengagement in organizations involved in product development and operating …

How Effective Are Fact-Checks In Pakistan And Who Engages With Them?, Waqas Ejaz, Sacha Altay, Muhammad Ittefaq

School of Communication Studies - Faculty Scholarship

For fact-checks to be effective, they must first and foremost reach their intended audience. Yet, little is known about what determines engagement with fact-checks and how to enhance their reach. We conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment in Pakistan (N participants = 302, N observations = 1208) investigating the effectiveness of fact-checking, and the determinants of engagement with fact-checks and misinformation. We found that fact-checking reduced misperceptions, especially among the most misinformed. Trust was an important moderator of the effectiveness of fact-checking and of engagement with both the fact-checks and misinformation. For instance, fact-checks were more effective among participants who …

Lindenwood Digest, February 19, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

The Shift To Visual News Consumption: Exploring Egyptian Users' Motivations, Behaviors, And Perceptions Of News Values, Credibility, And Recognition On Instagram As A News Source., Hussein Battah

Theses and Dissertations

With the evolution of visual social media such as Instagram, news consumption and dissemination became different, focusing on Visual and Graphic content. With the current political and social-economic challenges in Egypt and the Region, such as The war in Gaza and the Egyptian economic crisis, the need for simple and immediate news updates became essential. Instagram has now satisfied that need among various users, specifically youth. This paper explores how consuming news over "Instagram" has influenced Egyptian users' perception of News Values and their definition of what to consider news. The paper also studies how several sources on Instagram have …

Podcasting Towards Togetherness: Utilizing Podcasts To Improve Departmental Camaraderie And Well-Being, Michael Petrauskis, Colleen Gutman, Rosemarie Fernandez

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Physician burnout is on the rise, and this is of particular concern in emergency medicine. Burnout is associated with medical errors, adverse events, poor professionalism, and litigation. A sense of community can build engagement and mitigate workplace stressors on well-being. Emergency physicians may have trouble connecting due to the nature of shift-work and various practice settings. Communication technology, and particularly podcasting, has the potential to help overcome these barriers and positively impact relatedness and well-being.

Approach: We developed an inward-facing podcast, “The ER Break Room” within the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida. Through the …

Lindenwood Digest, February 12, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Lindenwood Digest, February 5, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

The Association Between Online Health Information Characteristics And Appropriate Trust In Informational Quality Among Patients With High Cardiovascular Risk, Lim Woei Xian

Student Works (2020-2029)

More patients are turning to the Internet to understand their health and make health decisions. However, the quality of online health information (OHI) is highly variable, and it may contain misinformation. Patients who lack the necessary skills to appraise OHI may trust poor-quality OHI. Thus, this study aims to examine the association between OHI characteristics and appropriate trust in patients with high cardiovascular (CV) risk. This is a secondary analysis from a quantitative cohort study of 270 patients from a primary care clinic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Patients recorded each OHI encountered over two months in a digital information diary …

Zombie-Auras: Genai And Hybrid Text Production, Joshua Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

This paper explores the iterative evolutions of textual production and their impact on the “aura” of texts, as conceptualized by Walter Benjamin. The study identifies three key phases of textual production: the natural, the mechanized, and the digitized, each progressively displacing the “cult value” of texts. This cult value is lost through increased ease of creation, reproduction, dissemination, and dislocation of creators and audiences in time and space. The advent of Generative AI (GenAI) marks the latest evolution, transforming the “aura” into a memetic “zombie” form—familiar yet opaque, evoking both the sublime and fear. By examining Benjamin’s notion of “aura” …

Impact Of Multidimensional Presence On User Well-Being In Metaverse Communities, Arslan Rafi, Sanjit K. Roy, Mohsin Abdur Rehman, Muhammad Junaid Shahid Hasni

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In metaverse communities, users engage in various activities, such as socializing, gaming, and exploration. Presence in such communities refers to the feeling of being there and being fully immersed. This study examines the role of various dimensions of presence (e.g., social, spatial, and self) in driving user well-being in metaverse communities. Moreover, the study tests the mediating roles of social connectedness and social support. The data set comprised responses from 357 metaverse users. Data were analyzed using multigroup analysis (MGA), necessary condition analysis, partial least squares path modeling, and artificial neural network analysis. Results show that social presence, spatial presence, …

Revisiting The Diffusion Of Innovations Theory In The Digital Era: Adoption Of Artificial Intelligence In Social Media, Aliaa Khaled Elshabassy

Theses and Dissertations

The present study aims at revisiting the applicability of Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory in the digital era, particularly in relation to recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence and their use in social media. The role of generational differences in influencing the adoption and non-adoption of these technologies is also explored. Drawing on the rich insights of qualitative data, the researcher adopts a multi-method approach comprising seventeen interviews with academic and professional experts and four focus group discussions among different generations to collect first-hand insights on AI adoption in the present time. AI was itself used for qualitative data analysis, including …

Lindenwood Digest, January 29, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Lindenwood Digest, January 22, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

A Multilayer, Multimethod Web And Language Accessibility Analysis Of U.S. Nonprofit Organization Websites: Considerations For The Marketing And Promotion Of Online Giving, Alicia Mason, Lauren Baldwin, Tatum Ahring

Faculty Submissions

In lieu of recent declines in individual giving to US nonprofits focused on social causes, education, environment, and animal welfare, this study examines the web and language accessibility of US nonprofit websites. By examining potential accessibility design barriers, we seek to understand whether US nonprofit organizations are limiting their outreach to online donors, specifically persons with disabilities (PwDs). Nonprofit websites were systematically and randomly sampled from Charity Navigator's Alphabetical Listing of the Top 1000 Most Visited Charities database. Using a multimethodological approach consisting of manual verification and computer-automated analysis techniques, we assess the web and language accessibility of leading US …

Lindenwood Digest, January 15, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.