Social Media Commons^™

College Choice Criteria Utilizing Conjoint Analysis Enabled On A Saas Platform, Alison Munsch

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

College enrollments and low to moderate household incomes are stagnating while tuition costs are increasing. The New York State Legislature enacted the nation’s first tuition-free degree program, the Excelsior Scholarship, designed to make a college education more affordable to middle class families. This legislation can impact what institution of higher education students will choose upon high school graduation. In order to understand the choice criteria for selecting an institution of higher education, a research study was conducted among a representative sample of high school upper classmen and parents of this respondent segment. The data collection and analysis were accomplished using …

Personalized Web Image Organization, Lei Meng, Ah-Hwee Tan, Donald C. Wunsch

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Due to the problem of semantic gap, i.e. the visual content of an image may not represent its semantics well, existing efforts on web image organization usually transform this task to clustering the surrounding text. However, because the surrounding text is usually short and the words therein usually appear only once, existing text clustering algorithms can hardly use the statistical information for image representation and may achieve downgraded performance with higher computational cost caused by learning from noisy tags. This chapter presents using the Probabilistic ART with user preference architecture, as introduced in Sects. 3.5 and 3.4, for personalized web …

Mobilising Dissent In A Digital Age: The Curious Case Of Amos Yee, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Political containers frame opinions. They play a formative role in establishing the terms ofinterpretation, in distinguishing between assent and dissent, and in determining the extent towhich dissent is publicly tolerated. Whilst it is by now widely acknowledged that the powerand influence of political containers has been relativised by interconnection, the effects ofmoving within and between containers – and thus mediating between different framings ofopinion – is undertheorised. Also, the enabling role of digital media in disseminating dissent,and in bringing about disproportionate reach and impact, remains understudied. Addressingthese lacunae, this paper explores the ways in which dissent can be reproduced, reframed, …

The Effects Of The Source Of Celebrity Information On Parasocial Relationships, Noelle Roys, Monique Newman, Mark Spooner-Leduff

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The purpose of the study is to examine how the source of information about celebrities affects media users’ feelings toward them. Specifically, we will focus on two ways in which people relate to media figures. Parasocial relationships (PSR) are one-sided relationships that people form with media figures. The concept of parasocial interaction (PSI) is closely related in that it entails one-sided involvement with a media figure, but the experience is restricted to the duration a person is viewing the figure. Due to the nature of social media and to celebrities’ increasing use of social media platforms, existing research implies that …

Political Speech On Twitter: A Sentiment Analysis Of Tweets And News Coverage Of Local Gun Policy, Mohamed Lemine M'Bareck

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the gun debate has been one of America’s most politically contentious issues, Twitter has become, in recent years a popular venue for politicians to carry out the debate. The present thesis is aimed at better understanding of political speech on Twitter, as well as the ways in which political frames and sentiment on Twitter differ from those of news media coverage regarding gun policy in the state of Arkansas.

The study uses framing theory, which assumes that both news media and individuals use frames to construct perceptions and narratives about issues. Adopting an automated content analysis as a method, …

Socially-Enriched Multimedia Data Co-Clustering, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Heterogeneous data co-clustering is a commonly used technique for tapping the rich meta-information of multimedia web documents, including category, annotation, and description, for associative discovery. However, most co-clustering methods proposed for heterogeneous data do not consider the representation problem of short and noisy text and their performance is limited by the empirical weighting of the multimodal features. This chapter explains how to use the Generalized Heterogeneous Fusion Adaptive Resonance Theory (GHF-ART) generalized heterogeneous fusion adaptive resonance theory for clustering large-scale web multimedia documents. Specifically, GHF-ART is designed to handle multimedia data with an arbitrarily rich level of meta-information. For handling …

Adaptive Resonance Theory (Art) For Social Media Analytics, Lei Meng, Ah-Hwee Tan, Donald C. Ii Wunsch

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The last decade has witnessed how social media in the era of Web 2.0 reshapes the way people communicate, interact, and entertain in daily life and incubates the prosperity of various user-centric platforms, such as social networking, question answering, massive open online courses (MOOC), and e-commerce platforms. The available rich user-generated multimedia data on the web has evolved traditional ways of understanding multimedia research and has led to numerous emerging topics on human-centric analytics and services, such as user profiling, social network mining, crowd behavior analysis, and personalized recommendation. Clustering, as an important tool for mining information groups and in-group …

Resisting Industrial Food Systems On The Web: How Non-Profit Organizations Use Digital Technology For Sustainability Education, Aleksandr Segal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the link between how community-based organizations use digital tools with the fundamentally resistance-based philosophy that these organizations have at the core of their mission. It aims to uncover how non-profit organizations (NPOs) that work in community development through food and agriculture use digital tools, and how their digital communication strategies relate to issues of resistance to neoliberalism and industrialization in the food and agriculture sectors.

Using a foundation of existing literature on food and agriculture, climate change and waste management, critical theory, and technology in pedagogy, this thesis will contextualize how non-profits resist neoliberal regimes of de-traditionalization …

Rape Culture: Tools Of Oppression, William Wehrs

History Honors Papers

My project deals with rape culture and the tools of oppression. It looks at the history of rape culture from biblical times to the present. It then examines how schools indoctrinate people to participate in rape culture. It then moves to a backlash towards feminism from the 1970s to the present. The paper then connects said backlash to Men’s Activist Websites. Finally, my paper examines rape culture in the Media, such as the James Bond films or the video game, Super Seducer.

Cda: Glitz & Glam Of Youtube, Haley Enriquez

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

My analysis demonstrates a critical discourse analysis by taking a closer look at a textual analysis of two videos of two very different Youtube beauty influencers. My main goal was to find main themes that could potentially correspond with the level of success that these two influencers have reached. My findings connect with my literature review as we know that formulaic expressions and constructing an identity are two very important mechanics that play into the behind the scenes blueprint of how a makeup tutorial usually looks. With my two main themes being presentation of self and self promotion, my themes …

Sexualized Labour In Digital Culture: Instagram Influencers, Porn Chic And The Monetization Of Attention, Jenna M. Drenten, Lauren Gurrieri, Meagan Tyler

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The rise of digital technologies and social media platforms has been linked to changing forms of work, as well as the mainstreaming of pornography and a ‘porn chic’ aesthetic. This article examines some of the ways in which these themes coalesce, and interrogates the conceptual boundaries of sexualized labour, extending beyond traditional organizational settings and into Web 2.0. The study explores performances of sexualized labour on social media by analysing visual and textual content from 172 female influencers on Instagram. This article contributes to the literature on sexualized labour in three ways. First, by demonstrating how sexualized labour is enacted …

The Bride, Millennial Identity, And Instagram: A Case Study Of Hillsong Australia’S Instagram Account, Jessica Delp

Senior Honors Theses

Identity has become an incessant focus for millennials. They ascribe ever-growing significance to identity anchored in an accepting community that elevates their perception. Subsequently, identity is increasingly significant for brand and consumer relationships. Successful brands understand this and incorporate a pervasive sense of their unique identity into their brand, visually and otherwise. This case study of Hillsong Church hopes to help churches understand the importance of visuals in communicating identity. Hillsong Australia’s Instagram is examined using the Saussure model of visual semiotic theory to understand how they present their church identity in relation to millennial identity. The two most dominant …

140 Characters Of News: An Examination Of Twitter Usage During The 2016 Presidential Election And How Candidate’S Tweets Are Reported In Traditional Media Nationally, And In Red, Blue, And Swing States, Lillee Hill

Theses and Dissertations

During the 2016 federal election cycle, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton made use of the social media tool Twitter in opposing ways. The thesis looks at how the print media reported on candidate’s uses of Twitter on a national level by looking at The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today. On a state level, papers in Georgia, Ohio, Florida, Washington, and California were examined to see how the tweets were reported on. Qualitative content analysis was used to determine how the papers reported on tweets sent by the candidates from the date when each was formally nominated …

Communication & The Body Positivity Movement, Alyssa Cannaday

Student Scholar Showcase

The Body Positivity Movement has gained a presence on social media. In this study, social media outlets were examined (such as Twitter and Instagram) to explore the communication within the movement, both from those advocating body positivity and from individuals responding in the comments. A variety of respondents, most of whom were women, give a broad perspective of the movement as a whole. Some respondents who contribute their viewpoints have educational backgrounds in counseling or work in the field. Themes uncovered in this study reveal the Body Positivity Movement to be welcoming, open minded, and expressive of messages of self-love …

Toxic Culture: An Emotion And Sentiment Analysis Of College Football Fans In Relation To Controversy And Win-Loss Records, Joshua R. Jackson

LSU Master's Theses

Fans of certain college football teams will experience a wide array of emotions when their team is involved in a scandal. This study examined the fan bases of three university football teams as they learn about and react on social media to their schools and head coaches becoming implicated in controversies. Under the protection of those with similar likes and the secrecy of social media, users can voice opinions in favor of and against the football team’s firing of a coach or handling of an investigation. Fan bases analyzed in the study are Ohio State University, Maryland University, and Baylor …

Type Of Facebook User And Correlational Relationship With Social Comparison And Self-Esteem Along With The Moderating Variable Of The Big Five Model, Amanda Lilly

Theses

This thesis examines different types of Facebook users and how different types of participation on Facebook are associated with social comparison orientation scale and self-esteem level of the users, and how personality variables moderate the relationship between social comparison scale and types of Facebook use. Previous research has investigated the relationship between Facebook use, self-esteem, and social comparison; however, the results have been mixed, and research on how personality traits are related to different types of active use of Facebook is needed. Study 1 of this thesis examines how social comparison orientation and self-esteem relate to how individuals actively use …

Artificial Intelligence, Real Concerns…And Cash, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Regulating development of self-aware robots is crucial. Data privacy is key to user-app power dynamic

Cultivating Student Philanthropy: Putting The Fun Into Fundraising, Ady Dewey

Strategic Public Relations Projects

Public relations can be seen as merely promotion – whether a product, an organization, a place or even a person. The essence of PR work, however, is about building relationships to help people gain a deeper understanding or connection to a particular subject-object-concept. The 2019 Strategic PR class (COMM 347) partnered with the college’s office of Alumni Relations to explore how PR seamlessly relates to fundraising by cementing connections between donors and a cause and motivating people to give.

For this project, three areas were identified to address: general philanthropy education, the annual Senior Class Gift, and the annual Day …

Cyberbullying And Suicide Among Lgbtq Youth: Is There A Connection?, Holly Wright, Victoria Wilson Townley

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

The suicide rate among children and teens has been rising over the last decade, and members of the LGBTQ youth population are at considerably greater risk for suicide than their heterosexual peers. LGBTQ youth are also at heightened risk of being bullied due to sexual orientation. Recent technological advancements have created a new platform for bullying, that of cyberbullying, which can contribute to feelings of depression and low self-esteem. The detrimental impact that cyberbullying can have on mental health suggests the possibility of a potential connection between cyberbullying and LGBTQ youth suicide. This qualitative study examines the possible link between …

Lgbt+ Teens, Social Media Use & Depressive Symptoms, Megan Curtis, Danielle Ryder

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Sexual and gender minority youth are statistically more likely to face severe mental health challenges than their cisgender, heterosexual peers; they consistently comprise a disproportionate percentage of youth who report experiencing depression, suicide ideation and attempted suicide in the United States every year (e.g. Abreu & Kinney, 2018). The aim of this study was to fill a gap in the current literature base by investigating the effects of social media use on sexual and gender minority youth mental health. The researchers conducted an online anonymous questionnaire targeted toward American LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, etc.) youth ages 14 to 18, …