Búú vagy Báá? Online fogyasztói vélemények állat-metaforákon keresztüli kvalitatív vizsgálata: fórumkommentekre adott érzelmi reakciók

Egy digitális eszköz megvásárlásakor különösen, de más helyzetekben is, az egyik legmeghatározóbb viszonyítási pont, az, hogy mások mit mondtak róla, mit írnak a fórumok. Egy szállodáról, egy ebook olvasóról való tájékozódás során vélemények sorozatával kerülünk szembe az online közösségi térben, ahol a vélemények sorrendje, modalitása, részletessége, pozitív és negatív kicsengése is meghatározza döntésünket. Kutatásunkban online döntési helyzeteket állítottunk elő, ahol a tájékozódási pont más felhasználók autentikus véleménye volt. Arra kerestünk a választ, hogy az online vélemények minősége milyen összefüggésben lehet a vásárlási döntésekkel, milyen érzelmi reakciókat váltanak ki az egyes vélemények. Cikkünkben a kutatás kvalitatív projektív módszertanra, állat-metaforákra (Phillips, 1996) épített részét ismertetjük. A válaszok összességében függetlenül a kommentek pozitív vagy negatív kicsengésétől bagoly, kutya, macska asszociációkat adták meg a legnagyobb számban, ugyanakkor az ellentmondásos véleményeket igen árnyaltan nagyon sokféle asszociációt felsorolva értékelték.

Az online szájreklám alapjául szolgáló magatartás és az elégedettség kapcsolata

A TANULMÁNY CÉLJA A szájreklám régóta fontos területként jelenik meg a marketing szakirodalomban. A tanulmány azonban az online word-of-mouth kutatások között új nézőpontból vizsgálja a szájreklámhoz köthető egyéni magatartáskomponensek hatását az elégedettségre, és ezen keresztül a továbbajánlási és újravásárlási szándékra. ALKALMAZOTT MÓDSZERTAN A látens változók közötti kapcsolatok elemzésére a strukturális egyenletek módszertana (SEM) került alkalmazásra. Az 1 000 fős mintavétel online kérdőíves megkérdezéssel történt azok körében, akik az adatfelvételt megelőző 3 hónapban vásároltak az interneten. Az egyes látens változók mérésére a szakirodalomban fellelhető korábbi kutatások alapján került sor és a skálák megbízhatósági mutatói megfelelőnek bizonyultak. A KUTATÁS LEGFONTOSABB EREDMÉNYE, ÚJDONSÁGOK A feltárt összefüggések többsége szignifikáns és a felvázolt modell illeszkedésmutatói is elfogadhatóak. A személyközi információs befolyásoltság, mint egyéni tényező, meghatározó jelentőséggel bír a vélemények keresésére és terjesztésére mind online, mind offline környezetben. A kapcsolat szorossága és az észlelt hasonlóság pozitív szignifikáns kapcsolatot mutat az online véleményelfogadási hajlandósággal. Az online véleménykeresés a véleményelfogadáson keresztül szintén pozitív hatást gyakorol az elégedettségre és így a továbbajánlási és az újravásárlási szándékra. Mindez fontos mozzanatát jelenti az online vásárlásoknak, hiszen a vállalattal fennálló kapcsolat nagyobb valószínűséggel folytatódik és még inkább sor kerülhet a továbbajánlásra online vagy offline környezetben. GYAKORLATI/GAZDASÁGPOLITIKAI JAVASLATOK Gyakorlati szempontból érdekes következményekkel jár a modellben feltárt összefüggésrendszer. Ezek szerint azok, akik magasabb véleménykeresési magatartással, mint általános személyes jellemzővel bírnak, az internetes vásárlásaik során egy konkrét alkalommal is magasabb elégedettséggel rendelkeznek majd. Így érdemes lehet e tényezőt önmagában is szegmentációs ismérvnek tekinteni, amennyiben a vállalati cél, hogy pozitívabb vásárlási kimeneteket, elégedettebb ügyfeleket szerezzenek. Tovább árnyalja azonban a képet az online véleményadási magatartás és az elégedettség között feltárt negatív irányú kapcsolat. E mögött számos okot feltételezhetünk, amelyek kifejtésre kerülnek a tanulmányban.

ToPI - uma abordagem online para identificar locais de interesse utilizando fotografias geo-referenciadas

Due to the growing use of social networks people no longer just consume data, they also produce and share it. Geo-tagged information, i.e., data with geographical location, have been used in many attempts to identify popular places and help tourists that will visit unfamiliar cities. This Master Thesis presents an online strategy that uses geo-tagged photos and their metadata in order to identify places of interest inside a given geographical area and retrieve relevant related information. The whole process runs automatically in real time, returning updated information about places. The proposed strategy takes into account the inherent dynamism of social media, and thus is robust under inconsistencies and/or outdated information, a common issue in solutions that rely on previously stored data. The analysis of the results showed that our approach is very promising, returning places that present high agreement with those from a popular travel website.

Food Swamps, Obesity & Health Zoning Restrictions on Fast Food Restaurants

Protecting public health is the most legitimate use of zoning, and yet there is minimal progress in applying it to the obesity problem. Zoning could potentially be used to address both unhealthy and healthy food retailers, but lack of evidence regarding the impact of zoning and public opinion on zoning changes are barriers to implementing zoning restrictions on fast food on a larger scale. My dissertation addresses these gaps in our understanding of health zoning as a policy option for altering built, food environments.

Chapter 1 examines the relationship between food swamps and obesity and whether spatial mapping might be useful in identifying priority geographic areas for zoning interventions. I employ an instrumental variables (IV) strategy to correct for the endogeneity problems associated with food environments, namely that individuals may self-select into certain neighborhoods and may consider food availability in their decision process. I utilize highway exits as a source of exogenous variation .Using secondary data from the USDA Food Environment Atlas, ordinary least squares (OLS) and IV regression models were employed to analyze cross-sectional associations between local food environments and the prevalence of obesity. I find even after controlling for food desert effects, food swamps have a positive, statistically significant effect on adult obesity rates.

Chapter 2 applies theories of message framing and prospect theory to the emerging discussion around health zoning policies targeting food environments and to explore public opinion toward a list of potential zoning restrictions on fast-food restaurants (beyond moratoriums on new establishments). In order to explore causality, I employ an online survey experiment manipulating exposure to vignettes with different message frames about health zoning restrictions with two national samples of adult Americans age 18 and over (N1=2,768 and N2=3,236). The second sample oversamples Black Americans (N=1,000) and individuals with high school as their highest level of education. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of six conditions where they were primed with different message frames about the benefits of zoning restrictions on fast food retailers. Participants were then asked to indicate their support for six zoning policies on a Likert scale. Subjects also answered questions about their food store access, eating behaviors, health status and perceptions of food stores by type.

I find that a message frame about Nutrition and increasing Equity in the food system was particularly effective at increasing support for health zoning policies targeting fast food outlets across policy categories (Conditional, Youth-related, Performance and Incentive) and across racial groups. This finding is consistent with an influential environmental justice scholar’s description of “injustice frames” as effective in mobilizing supporters around environmental issues (Taylor 2000). I extend this rationale to food environment obesity prevention efforts and identify Nutrition combined with Equity frames as an arguably universal campaign strategy for bolstering public support of zoning restrictions on fast food retailers.

Bridging my findings from both Chapters 1 and 2, using food swamps as a spatial metaphor may work to identify priority areas for policy intervention, but only if there is an equitable distribution of resources and mobilization efforts to improve consumer food environments. If the structural forces which ration access to land-use planning persist (arguably including the media as gatekeepers to information and producers of message frames) disparities in obesity are likely to widen.

Mining the Online Social Network Data: Influence, Summarization, and Organization

Online Social Network (OSN) services provided by Internet companies bring people together to chat, share the information, and enjoy the information. Meanwhile, huge amounts of data are generated by those services (they can be regarded as the social media ) every day, every hour, even every minute, and every second. Currently, researchers are interested in analyzing the OSN data, extracting interesting patterns from it, and applying those patterns to real-world applications. However, due to the large-scale property of the OSN data, it is difficult to effectively analyze it. This dissertation focuses on applying data mining and information retrieval techniques to mine two key components in the social media data — users and user-generated contents. Specifically, it aims at addressing three problems related to the social media users and contents: (1) how does one organize the users and the contents? (2) how does one summarize the textual contents so that users do not have to go over every post to capture the general idea? (3) how does one identify the influential users in the social media to benefit other applications, e.g., Marketing Campaign? The contribution of this dissertation is briefly summarized as follows. (1) It provides a comprehensive and versatile data mining framework to analyze the users and user-generated contents from the social media. (2) It designs a hierarchical co-clustering algorithm to organize the users and contents. (3) It proposes multi-document summarization methods to extract core information from the social network contents. (4) It introduces three important dimensions of social influence, and a dynamic influence model for identifying influential users.

Lost in Translation? Russian Media Portrayals and Laypersons’ Interpretations of Angelina Jolie’s Breast Cancer Discourse

In May 2013, Angelina Jolie revealed that because she had a family history of breast and ovarian cancer and carried a rare BRCA gene mutation, she had undergone a preventive double mastectomy. Media coverage has been extensive around the world, including in Russia, not an English-language country, where all global news is inevitably filtered by translation. After examining the reactions of Russian mass media and members of the public to Jolie’s disclosure, I consider what transformations have occurred with Jolie’s message in the process of cross-cultural transfer. I explore the mass media portrayal of Jolie’s announcement, laypersons’ immediate and prolonged reactions, and the reflections of patients involved directly in the field of hereditary breast cancer. To my knowledge, this multifaceted and bilingual project is the first conceptualization of Jolie’s story as it has been translated in a different sociocultural environment. I start with examination of offline and online publications that appeared in Russia within two months after Jolie’s announcement. In this part of my analysis, I conceptualize the representation of Jolie’s case in Russian mass media and grasp what sociocultural waves were generated by this case among general lay audiences. Another part of my study contains the results of qualitative in-depth interviews. Eight women with a family history of hereditary breast cancer were recruited to participate in the research. The findings represent Jolie’s case through the eyes of Russian women with the same gene mutation as Jolie. Consolidating my findings, I argue that Jolie’s announcement was misinterpreted and misrepresented by Russian mass media, as well as misunderstood by a considerable part of the media audience. Jolie’s perspective on hereditary breast cancer mostly remained unheard among members of the Russian public. I make suggestions about the reasons for such a phenomenon, and demonstrate how Jolie’s case is implicated in politics, economics, and the culture of contemporary Russia.

Scenes of provincial life: an online video sequence and commentary

I present here a sequence of short videos, Scenes of Provincial Life, forming a unified, ongoing online work. In my written commentary I discuss the work‘s context, genesis and facture and presentation and thereby demonstrate its claim to originality as art work. I go on to suggest one possible interpretive framework for it. I then discuss the nature of art works as candidates for the generation of new knowledge and conclude that art works in general fulfil this function, in a very carefully defined way, as a necessary condition of being art works. I further connect the success of any work as art work with the richness of its knowledge generating capacity, inseparably allied to its aesthetic force. I conclude that if Scenes of Provincial Life is seen to have value as artwork it will therefore by definition be a creator of new knowledge.

Policy Solutions and International Perspectives on the Funding of Public Service Media Content for Children: A Report for Stakeholders

This project on Policy Solutions and International Perspectives on the Funding of Public Service Media Content for Children began on 8 February 2016 and concludes on 31 May 2016. Its outcomes contribute to the policy-making process around BBC Charter Review, which has raised concerns about the financial sustainability of UK-produced children’s screen content. The aim of this project is to evaluate different funding possibilities for public service children’s content in a more challenging and competitive multiplatform media environment, drawing on experiences outside the UK. The project addresses the following questions: • What forms of alternative funding exist to support public service content for children in a transforming multiplatform media environment? • What can we learn from the types of funding and support for children’s screen content that are available elsewhere in the world – in terms of regulatory foundations, administration, accountability, levels of funding, amounts and types of content supported? • How effective are these funding systems and funding sources for supporting domestically produced content (range and numbers of projects supported; audience reach)? This stakeholder report constitutes the main outcome of the project and provides an overview and analysis of alternatives for supporting and funding home-grown children’s screen content across both traditional broadcasting outlets and emerging digital platforms. The report has been made publicly available, so that it can inform policy work and responses to the UK Government White Paper, A BBC for the Future, published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in May 2016.

Power, Arab media Moguldum & gender rights as entertainment in the Middle East

Discourse is a giant field of research and gender related rights are still a disputed area of thinking. Thus, when Arab transnational satellite televisions produce dialogues, images, stories and narratives about the disputed “universal” gender rights in the Middle East, the big questions remain how and why. According to De Beauvoir (1949), one becomes woman and to Butler (1990) one is not born a gender at all but is “done” and “undone” to become one via discourse. Islamic feminism speaks of a cultural/religious specificity in defending women rights and even gender diversity based on new Quranic interpretations. The gender, “Al-Naw’u”, remains synonym to sex “Al Jins” as gender and queer theories never developed in Arabic in tandem with the European institutions or the theories of the19th century– especially those ideas emerging from studies of the mental asylum. This research tries to understand gender related “rights” and “wrongs” as manifest in the discursive institutions owned by media mogul Prince Al Waleed Ben Talal Al Saud. The trouble of such a study is lexical, ideological and institutional at the same time. Since we lack a critique of the discourses and narratives addressed in the pan-Arab satellite channels, in general it is difficult to understand their significance and influence in everyday life practices. What language is used to speak of gender rights or wrongs? Which ideology is favoured in this practice of legitimisation and/or policing? Using case studies, CDA of social and religious talk shows, narrative analysis of Arabic cinemas, this research adapted triangulation to show the complexity of conversing and narrating gender related content at the micro and macro levels within an institution of power. Using semi-structured interviews from fieldwork in Egypt (2009) and Lebanon (2011), archive research and online ethnography, the research exposes the power structure under which gender discourses evolve. It emerges that gender content is abundant on the Pan Arab satellite space, “manufactured” on talk shows and plotted tactfully in the cinematic “creative-act”. The result is a complex discourse of gender content that scratches the surface calling for interpretation. So how and why do gender rights and wrongs find place on Prince Al Waleed’s Media Empire?

Racism, nationalism and right-wing extremism online: The Austrian Presidential Election 2016 on Facebook

Thee 2016 Austrian presidential election saw a run-o between the Green party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen and the Freedom Party of Austria’s (FPÖ) far-right candidate Norbert Hofer. This paper asks: How did voters of Hofer express their support on Facebook? It presents the results of a qualitative ideology analysis of 6755 comments about the presidential election posted on the Facebook pages of FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache and FPÖ candidate Hofer. The results reveal insights into the contemporary political role of the online leadership ideology, online nationalism, new racism online, the friend/enemy-scheme online, and online militancy. Right-wing extremism 2.0 is a complex problem that stands in the context of contemporary crises and demagoguery.

El impacto de la presencia online en las cuentas de Twitter de las universidades vascas y navarras

Las Universidades han tenido que adaptarse a los nuevos modelos de comunicación surgidos en la época de Internet. Dentro de estos nuevos paradigmas las redes sociales han irrumpido y Twitter se ha establecido como una de las más importantes. El objetivo de esta investigación es demostrar que existe una relación entre la presencia online de una Universidad, definida por la cantidad de información disponible en Internet, y su cuenta en Twitter. Para ello se analizó la relación entre la presencia online y los perfiles oficiales de las cinco universidades del País Vasco y Navarra. Los resultados demostraron la existencia de una correlación significativa entre la presencia online de las instituciones y el número de seguidores de sus respectivas cuentas. En segundo lugar, esta investigación se planteó si Twitter puede servir para potenciar la presencia online de una Universidad. Es por eso que se formuló una segunda hipótesis que buscaba analizar si tener varias cuentas en Twitter aumentaría la presencia online de las Universidades. Los hallazgos para esta segunda hipótesis demostraron una correlación muy significativa entre tener varios perfiles en Twitter y la presencia online de las Universidades. Así queda demostrada la importancia de la presencia online para las cuentas de Twitter y la relevancia de Twitter a la hora de potenciar la presencia online de los centros.

Media web sites interactivity: Searching new ways to dialog with their users

Currently the media have made many new tools on their websites in order to broaden the dialogue with its users, a feature that has been called interactivity. The objective of this research is to describe the interactive resources of Chilean media websites. The analysis was conducted at 20 sites using a pattern of six dimensions with interactive forms which are today using identified. The findings indicate that digital media Chileans are expanding the possibilities of dialogue with users on social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, and the mediauser interaction is monological, that is to say, from the media to the user, but with very low feedback.

Myanmar DIL WORKSHOP SERIES Unit 4: Working Online and Using Information

The Mobile Information Literacy curriculum is a growing collection of training materials designed to build literacies for the millions of people worldwide coming online every month via a mobile phone. Most information information and digital literacy curricula were designed for a PC age, and public and private organizations around the world have used these curricula to help newcomers use computers and the internet effectively and safely. The better curricula address not only skills, but also concepts and attitudes. The central question for this project is: what are the relevant skills, concepts, and attitudes for people using mobiles, not PCs, to access the internet? As part of the Information Strategies for Societies in Transition project, we developed a six-module curriculum for mobile-first users. The project is situated in Myanmar, a country undergoing massive political, economic, and social changes, and where mobile penetration is expected to reach 80% by the end of 2015 from just 4% in 2014. Combined with the country’s history of media censorship, Myanmar presents unique challenges for addressing the needs of people who need the ability to find and evaluate the quality and credibility of information obtained online, understand how to create and share online information effectively, and participate safely and securely.

“Refugee Voices,” New Social Media and Politics of Representation: Young Congolese in the Diaspora and Beyond

This article examines the role of new social media in the articulation and representation of the refugee and diasporic “voice.” The article problematizes the individualist, de-politicized, de-contextualized, and aestheticized representation of refugee/diasporic voices. It argues that new social media enable refugees and diaspora members to exercise agency in managing the creation, production, and dissemination of their voices and to engage in hybrid (on- and offline) activism. These new territories for self-representation challenge our conventional understanding of refugee/diaspora voices. The article is based on research with young Congolese living in the diaspora, and it describes the Geno-cost project created by the Congolese Action Youth Platform (CAYP) and JJ Bola’s spoken-word piece, “Refuge.” The first shows agency in the creation of analytical and activist voices that promote counter-hegemonic narratives of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, while the second is an example of aesthetic expressions performed online and offline that reveal agency through authorship and ownership of one’s voice. The examples highlight the role that new social media play in challenging mainstream politics of representation of refugee/diaspora voices.

Tropes and Trench Cakes: The Home Front in the Media and Community History

The recent WW1 'fest' has provided a multitude of different engagements with the history of this conflict by media and community groups. The relationship between these histories and academic history is not unproblematic. It provides space for a greater emphasis on the home front but there are questions to be asked about the politics and the accuracy of such history. It is up to academics to find ways of working with popular histories which ensure that troublesome knowledge of the conflict continues to be explored.