Search results for: media consumers

Authors: Mohammad Ali Aazami Mavaloo, Mohammad Bagher Hassanpouraghdam

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Intact leaves, leaf segments and petiole sections derived from nodal explants in vitro were employed for the optimization of Pelargonium odoratissimum micropropagation. MS and ½ MS media enriched with BAP (1, 1.5, 2 and 4.5 mg/l) and NAA (0.1, 1 and 1.5 mg/l) were the treatment combinations used for. With leaf segments, the lowest browning incidence, the greatest callogenesis and the highest number of shoots were obtained with the media containing 1.5 mg/L BAP and 1 mg/L NAA. Two mg/L BAP + 0.1 mg/L NAA hold the same results for petiole explants. Intact leaves showed the best results for the three before-mentioned traits with 1 mg/L BAP + 1 mg/L NAA. 0.2 mg/L NAA caused the highest rooting percentage and the greatest mean data for the number and length of the roots. Rooted plantlets were transferred to the pots containing 1:1 peat-moss and perlite. Acclimatization of the plantlets was followed by 90 percent of survival rate in the greenhouse.

Keywords: Pelargonium odoratissimum, micropropagation, BAP, NAA

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Authors: Theng Theng Ong

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This study adopts a multidisciplinary method by combining the corpus-based discourse analysis study and language attitude study to explore the construction of Malaysia airline tragedies: MH370, MH17 and QZ8501 in the selected Malaysian and United Kingdom (UK) online news. The study aims to determine the ways in which Malaysian Airline tragedies MH370, MH17 and QZ8501 are linguistically defined and constructed in terms of keyword and collocation. The study also seeks to identify the types of discourse that are presented in the new articles. The differences or similarities in terms of keywords, topics or issues covered by the selected Malaysian and UK news media will also be examined. Finally, the language attitude study will be carried out to examine the Malaysia and UK university students’ attitudes toward the keywords, topics or issues covered by the selected Malaysian and UK news media pertaining to Malaysian Airline tragedies MH370, MH17 and QZ8501. The analysis is divided into two parts with the first part focusing on corpus-based discourse analysis on the media text. The second part of the study is to investigate Malaysians and UK news readers’ attitudes towards the online news being reported by the Malaysian and UK news media pertaining to the Airline tragedies. The main findings of corpus-based discourse analysis are essential in designing the questions in the questionnaires and interview and therefore led to the identification of the attitudes among Malaysian and UK news. This study adopts a multidisciplinary method by combining the corpus-based discourse analysis study and language attitude study to explore the construction of Malaysia airline tragedies: MH370, MH17 and QZ8501 in the selected Malaysian and United Kingdom (UK) online news. The study aims to determine the ways in which Malaysian Airline tragedies MH370, MH17 and QZ8501 are linguistically defined and constructed in terms of keyword and collocation. The study also seeks to identify the types of discourse that are presented in the new articles. The differences or similarities in terms of keywords, topics or issues covered by the selected Malaysian and UK news media will also be examined. Finally, the language attitude study will be carried out to examine the Malaysia and UK university students’ attitudes toward the keywords, topics or issues covered by the selected Malaysian and UK news media pertaining to Malaysian Airline tragedies MH370, MH17 and QZ8501. The analysis is divided into two parts with the first part focusing on corpus-based discourse analysis on the media text. The second part of the study is to investigate Malaysians and UK news readers’ attitudes towards the online news being reported by the Malaysian and UK news media pertaining to the Airline tragedies. The main findings of corpus-based discourse analysis are essential in designing the questions in the questionnaires and interview and therefore led to the identification of the attitudes among Malaysian and UK news.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, news media, tragedies study

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Authors: D. van der Merwe

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Walter Benjamin observed a marked difference in test performances versus final performances, with special regard to film and the cinema setting versus the stage as the site of performance, exhibition, and consumption. The attention given to film is justifiable and valid given its position as the best example of media convergence of Benjamin’s era, that of late modernity. In contemporary terms, however, the film has been supplanted by content as the prime example of convergence at work, and the digital domain, materialized in the form of the mobile internet, as the substituted site for the cinema. By examining the performance of the polymediated self within social media content, this paper hopes to establish the practice of content creation as a cultural artefact evidencing exhibition value on par with -or at least comparable with- performance art.

Keywords: content creation, convergence, stage performance, test performance, polymediation, Walter Benjamin

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Authors: Ashish Kumar Dwivedi

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Uttar Pradesh is largest part of Indian Federal system encapsulating twenty two million populations and has huge cultural, economic and religious diversity. The newly elected 18 months old state leadership of Uttar Pradesh has envisaged and initiated various proactive strides for the public grievance redressal and inclusive development schemes for all the sections of population from its very day of assumption of the office by Hon’ble Chief Minster Shri Yogi Adtiyanath. These initiatives also include Departmental responses via social media handles as Twitter, Facebook Page, and Web interaction. In the same course, every department of state government has been guided for the correct usage of verified social media handle separately and in co-ordination with other departments. These guidelines included making new WhatsApp groups to connect technocrats and politicians to communicate on common platform. Minister for Department of Infrastructure and Industrial Development, Shri Satish Mahana is a very popular leader and very intuitive statesman, has thousands of followers on social media and his accounts receive almost three hundred individually mentioned notifications from the various parts of Uttar Pradesh. These notifications primarily include problems related to livelihood and grievances concerned to department. To address these communications, a body of five experts has been set who are actively responding on various levels and increase bureaucratic engagements with marginalized sections of society. With reference to above background, this piece of research was conducted to analyze, categorize and derive effective implementation of public policies via social media platforms. This act of responsiveness has brought positive change in the mindset of population for the government, which was missed earlier. Department of Industrial Development in the Government is also inclined to attract investors aiming to become first trillion-dollar economy of India henceforth department also organized two major successful events in last one year. These events were also frame worked on social media platform to update 2.5 million population of state who is actively using social media in many ways. To analyze change scientifically, this study has been conducted and big data has been collected from October 2017 to September 2018 from the departmental social media handles as Twitter, Facebook, and emails. For this data, a statistical study has been conducted to analyze sentiments and expectations, specific and common requirement of communities, nature of grievances and their effective elucidation fitted into government policies. The control sample has also been taken from previous government activities to analyze the change. The statistical study used tools such as correlation study and principal component analysis. Also in this research communication, the modus operandi of grievance redressal, proliferation of government policies, connections to their beneficiaries and quick response procedure will be discussed.

Keywords: correlation study, principal component analysis, bureaucratic engagements, social media

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Authors: Sudha Subramani, Hua Wang

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Domestic Violence (DV) against women is now recognized to be a serious and widespread problem worldwide. There is a growing concern that violence against women has a global public health impact, as well as a violation of human rights. From the existing statistical surveys, it is revealed that there exists a strong relationship between DV and health issues of women like bruising, lacerations, depression, anxiety, flashbacks, sleep disturbances, hyper-arousal, emotional distress, sexually transmitted diseases and so on. This social problem is still considered as behind the closed doors issue and stigmatized topic. Women conceal their sufferings from family and friends, as they experience a lack of trust in others, feelings of shame and embarrassment among the society. Hence, women survivors of DV experience some barriers in seeking the support of specialized services such as health care access, crisis support, and legal guidance. Fortunately, with the popularity of social media like Facebook and Twitter, people share their opinions and emotional feelings to seek the social and emotional support, for sympathetic encouragement, to show compassion and empathy among the public. Considering the DV, social media plays a predominant role in creating the awareness and promoting the support services to the public, as we live in the golden era of social media. The various professional people like the public health researchers, clinicians, psychologists, social workers, national family health organizations, lawyers, and victims or their family and friends share the unprecedentedly valuable information (personal opinions and experiences) in a single platform to improve the social welfare of the community. Though each tweet or post contains a less informational value, the consolidation of millions of messages can generate actionable knowledge and provide valuable insights about the public opinion in general. Hence, this paper reports on an exploratory analysis of the effectiveness of social media for unobtrusive assessment of attitudes and awareness towards DV. In this paper, mixed methods such as qualitative analysis and text mining approaches are used to understand the social media disclosures of DV through the lenses of opinion sharing, anonymity, and support seeking. The results of this study could be helpful to avoid the cost of wide scale surveys, while still maintaining appropriate research conditions is to leverage the abundance of data publicly available on the web. Also, this analysis with data enrichment and consolidation would be useful in assisting advocacy and national family health organizations to provide information about resources and support, raise awareness and counter common stigmatizing attitudes about DV.

Keywords: domestic violence, social media, social stigma and support, women health

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Authors: Chih-Ping Chen

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Today, technology does not necessitate change; rather, social media has afforded a new arena and digital tools for users/individuals to be symbolized and marketed in meaningful exchanges of digital identities. We argue that these symbolic interactions may afford individuals the ability to create and present less restricted Line person-to-person (P2P) chats than would be possible in face-to-face communications. Individuals can select flexible influence strategies to market themselves, which enables them to create and present their digital identities and impressions in alternative ways within a dynamic sociocultural context. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the novel phenomenon of how individuals market themselves to manage their digital identities and impressions to connect with other users through the symbolic interactions created by new digital tools (e.g., stickers). A netnographic approach was developed by applying a triangulated methodology consisting of user self-diary reports, in-depth interviews, and observations. Totally, 20 participants (10 females and 10 males) were of Taiwanese origin, and their ages ranged from 20–47 years old. The findings of this research showed that individuals on Line P2P social media where traditional cultural gender norms have shifted. Both male and female participants market their modern digital identities by adopting a combination of flexible influence tactics/strategies when using digital stickers. Some findings showed that their influence tactics/strategies often flouted Taiwanese cultural gender norms or skirted traditional rules to fit individual or P2P needs. Finally, these findings potentially contributed to the literature regarding the consumer culture theory and symbolic interaction theory in digital marketing and social media fields.

Keywords: Consumer culture theory, Digital sticker, Self-marketing, Impression, Symbolic interaciton

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Authors: Vincenzo Piemonte

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The liver is a complex, large-scale biochemical reactor which plays a unique role in the human physiology. When liver ceases to perform its physiological activity, a functional replacement is required. Actually, liver transplantation is the only clinically effective method of treating severe liver disease. Anyway, the aforementioned therapeutic approach is hampered by the disparity between organ availability and the number of patients on the waiting list. In order to overcome this critical issue, research activities focused on liver support device systems (LSDs) designed to bridging patients to transplantation or to keep them alive until the recovery of native liver function. In recirculating albumin dialysis devices, such as MARS (Molecular Adsorbed Recirculating System), adsorption is one of the fundamental steps in albumin-dialysate regeneration. Among the albumin-bound toxins that must be removed from blood during liver-failure therapy, bilirubin and tryptophan can be considered as representative of two different toxin classes. The first one, not water soluble at physiological blood pH and strongly bounded to albumin, the second one, loosely albumin bound and partially water soluble at pH 7.4. Fixed bed units are normally used for this task, and the design of such units requires information both on toxin adsorption equilibrium and kinetics. The most common adsorptive media used in LSDs are activated carbon, non-ionic polymeric resins and anionic resins. In this paper, bilirubin adsorption isotherms on different adsorptive media, such as polymeric resin, albumin-coated resin, anionic resin, activated carbon and alginate beads with entrapped albumin are presented. By comparing all the results, it can be stated that the adsorption capacity for bilirubin of the five different media increases in the following order: Alginate beads < Polymeric resin < Albumin-coated resin < Activated carbon < Anionic resin. The main focus of this paper is to provide useful guidelines for the optimization of liver support devices which implement adsorption columns to remove albumin-bound toxins from albumin dialysate solutions.

Keywords: adsorptive media, adsorption equilibrium, artificial liver devices, bilirubin, mathematical modelling

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Authors: Ayesha Hasan

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This study offers unique perspectives and analyses of peace and conflict journalism through interpretative repertoire, media frames, and critical discourse analyses. Two major English publications in Pakistan, representing both long and short-form journalism, are investigated to uncover how the Afghan refugee repatriation from Pakistan in 2016-17 has been framed in Pakistani English media. Peace journalism focuses on concepts such as peace initiatives and peace building, finding common ground, and preventing further conflict. This study applies Jake Lynch’s Coding Criteria to guide the critical discourse analysis and Lee and Maslog’s Peace Journalism Quotient to examine the extent of peace journalism in each text. This study finds that peace journalism is missing in Pakistani English press, but represented, to an extent, in long-form print and online coverage. Two new alternative frames are also proposed. This study gives an in-depth understanding of if and how journalists in Pakistan are covering conflicts and framing stories that can be identified as peace journalism. This study represents significant contributions to the remarkably limited scholarship on peace and conflict journalism in Pakistan and extends Shabbir Hussain’s work on critical pragmatic perspectives on peace journalism in Pakistan.

Keywords: Afghan refugee repatriation, Critical discourse analysis, Media framing , Peace and conflict journalism

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Authors: Andrew Kurochkin, Kostiantyn Bokhan

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In this study, a new meme dataset of ~650K meme instances was created, a technology of meme generation based on the state of the art deep learning technique - GPT-2 model was researched, a comparative analysis of machine-generated memes and human-created was conducted. We justified that Amazon Mechanical Turk workers can be used for the approximate estimating of users' behavior in a social network, more precisely to measure engagement. It was shown that generated memes cause the same engagement as human memes that produced low engagement in the social network (historically). Thus, generated memes are less engaging than random memes created by humans.

Keywords: content generation, computational social science, memes generation, Reddit, social networks, social media interaction

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Authors: Gameel Abdelmageed

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Arabs have a rhetorical heritage which has greatly contributed to the monitoring and analyzing of the rhetoric of the Holy Quran, Hadith, and Arabic texts on poetry and oratory. But Arab scholars - as far as the researcher knows – have not contributed to monitoring and analyzing the rhetoric of digital Arabic discourse although it has prominence, particularly in social media and has strong effectiveness in the political and social life of Arab society. This discourse has made its impact by using very new rhetorical techniques in language, voice, image, painting and video clips which are known as “Multimedia” and belong to “Digital Rhetoric”. This study suggests that it is time to draw the attention of Arab scholars and invite them to monitor and analyze the rhetoric of digital Arabic discourse.

Keywords: digital discourse, digital rhetoric, Facebook, social media

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Authors: Gaurav Kumar

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An information literate person is one who uses information effectively in all its forms. When presented with questions or problems, an information literate person would know what information to look for, how to search efficiently and be able to access relevant sources. In addition, an information literate person would have the ability to evaluate and select appropriate information sources and to use the information effectively and ethically to answer questions or solve problems. Information literacy has become an important element in higher education. The information literacy movement has internationally recognized standards and learning outcomes. The step-by-step process of achieving information literacy is particularly crucial in an era where knowledge could be disseminated through a variety of media. What is the relationship between information literacy as we define it in higher education and information literacy among non-academic populations? What forces will change how we think about the definition of information literacy in the future and how we will apply the definition in all environments?

Keywords: information literacy, human beings, visual media and computer network etc, information literacy

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Authors: Jens Hagman, Jenny Janhager Stier, Ellen Olausson, Anne Y. Faxer, Ana Magazinius

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Sweden has the second highest electric vehicle (plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicle) sales per capita in Europe but in relation to sales of internal combustion engine electric vehicles sales are still minuscular (< 4%). Much research effort has been placed on various technical and user focused barriers and enablers for adoption of electric vehicles. Less effort has been placed on investigating the retail (dealership-customer) sales process of vehicles in general and electric vehicles in particular. Arguably, no one ought to be better informed about needs and desires of potential electric vehicle buyers than car salesmen, originating from their daily encounters with customers at the dealership. The aim of this paper is to explore the conditions of selling electric vehicle from a car salesmen’s perspective. This includes identifying barriers and enablers for electric vehicle sales originating from internal (dealership and brand) and external (customer, government) sources. In this interview study five car brands (manufacturers) that sell both electric and internal combustion engine vehicles have been investigated. A total of 15 semi-structured interviews have been conducted (three per brand, in rural and urban settings and at different dealerships). Initial analysis reveals several barriers and enablers, experienced by car salesmen, which influence electric vehicle sales. Examples of as reported by car salesmen identified barriers are: -Electric vehicles earn car salesmen less commission on average compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. -It takes more time to sell and deliver an electric vehicle than an internal combustion engine vehicle. -Current leasing contracts entails relatively low second-hand value estimations for electric vehicles and thus a high leasing fee, which negatively affects the attractiveness of electric vehicles for private consumers in particular. -High purchasing price discourages many consumers from considering electric vehicles. -The education and knowledge level of electric vehicles differs between car salesmen, which could affect their self-confidence in meeting well prepared and question prone electric vehicle buyers. Examples of identified enablers are: -Company car tax regulation promotes sales of electric vehicles; in particular, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are sold extensively to companies (up to 95 % of sales). -Low operating cost of electric vehicles such as fuel and service is an advantage when understood by consumers. -The drive performance of electric vehicles (quick, silent and fun to drive) is attractive to consumers. -Environmental aspects are considered important for certain consumer groups. -Fast technological improvements, such as increased range are opening up a wider market for electric vehicles. -For one of the brands; attractive private lease campaigns have proved effective to promote sales. This paper gives insights of an important but often overlooked aspect for the diffusion of electric vehicles (and durable products in general); the interaction between car salesmen and customers at the critical acquiring moment. Extracted through interviews with multiple car salesmen. The results illuminate untapped potential for sellers (salesmen, dealerships and brands) to mitigating sales barriers and strengthening sales enablers and thus becoming a more important actor in the electric vehicle diffusion process.

Keywords: customer barriers, electric vehicle promotion, sales of electric vehicles, interviews with car salesmen

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Authors: Sayaka Ono, Ryutaro Imai, Tomoko Ehara, Tetsuya Matsumoto, Hajime Matsumura

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Background: Wound pH affects a number of important factors in wound healing. We previously measured the pH value of the exudates collected from second-degree burns and found that the increase in pH was observed in the burn wounds in which colonized by Staphylococcus spp., and the increase in pH was evident prior to the clinical findings of local infection. To investigate the relationship between the changes of pH value and bacterial growth, we performed in vitro study using Pseudomonas aeruginosa and liquid medium as a locally infected wound equivalent model. Methods: Pseudomonas aeruginosa standard strain (ATCCR 10145TM) was cultured at 37 °C environment in Luria Broth Miller medium. The absorbance rate which means the amount of bacteria was measured by a microplate reader 2300EnSpireTM). The pH was measured using pH-indicator strips (MColorpHastTM). The statistical analysis was performed using the product-moment correlation coefficient of Pearson's. Results: The absorbance rate and pH value were increased along with culture period. There was a positive correlation between pH value and absorbance rate (n = 27, Pearson's r = 0.985). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between pH value and the culture period (n = 18, Pearson's r = 0.901). The bacteria was well growth in the media from pH 6.6 to pH 8.0 and the pH of culture media converged at 8 -9 along with the bacterial growth. Conclusion: From these results, we conclude that pH value of the wound is correlated with the number of viable bacteria and bacterial growth periods.

Keywords: colonization, potential of hydrogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, wound

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Authors: Mohammed Murtuza Soofi

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Purpose: Marketers and Researchers alike have simultaneously, yet in mutually exclusive instances, promote the use of humour by brands in their communication and gendering of brands, as both enhance brand equity and can generate positive attitudinal responses from customers. However, the gendering of brands comes with associated gendered stereotypical expectations. The current paper consolidates the long standing literature on gender role/stereotype theory and brand gender theories establishing a theoretical framework for understanding how gender-based stereotypes about humour can influence consumers’ attitudinal responses towards brands. Design/methodology/approach: Using parallel constrain satisfaction theory as domain theory to explain the highhandedness of stereotypes and gender stereotype theories (particularly around feminine use of humour), we explain why gender based stereotypes could constrain brand behaviors, and in turn, feminine brands get penalised for using witty, aggressive and self-enhancing humor. Findings: Extension of gender stereotypes to anthropomorphised brands will lead consumers to judge the use of negative humour by a feminine brand as less appropriate, which will trigger the causal chain of reduced sense of communal appropriateness and brand warmth which will result in a negative attitude towards the brand. Originality/value: Brand gendering being susceptible to gender based stereotypes, has very little attention in the literature and hence use of negative humour (stereotypical male behaviour), has never been studied in the context of gendered brands. It also helps understand to what extent stereotypes will impact attitudinal responses to the brand. Our work can help understand when heavily gendered brands can optimise the use of humour and when they can avoid it.

Keywords: brand femininity, brand gender, gender stereotypes, humour

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Authors: Suchart Tripopsakul

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This paper uses data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) to investigate the difference of attitudes towards entrepreneurial intention (EI). EI is generally assumed to be the single most relevant predictor of entrepreneurial behavior. The aim of this paper is to examine a range of attitudes effect on individual’s intent to start a new venture. A cross-cultural comparison between Asia and Europe is used to further investigate the possible differences between potential entrepreneurs from these distinct national contexts. The empirical analysis includes a GEM data set of 10 countries (n = 10,306) which was collected in 2013. Logistic regression is used to investigate the effect of individual’s attitudes on EI. Independent variables include individual’s perceived capabilities, the ability to recognize business opportunities, entrepreneurial network, risk perceptions as well as a range of socio-cultural attitudes. Moreover, a cross-cultural comparison of the model is conducted including six ASEAN (Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand) and four European nations (Spain, Sweden, Germany, and the United Kingdom). The findings support the relationship between individual’s attitudes and their entrepreneurial intention. Individual’s capability, opportunity recognition, networks and a range of socio-cultural perceptions all influence EI significantly. The impact of media attention on entrepreneurship and was found to influence EI in ASEAN, but not in Europe. On the one hand, Fear of failure was found to influence EI in Europe, but not in ASEAN. The paper develops and empirically tests attitudes toward Entrepreneurial Intention between ASEAN and Europe. Interestingly, fear of failure was found to have no significant effect in ASEAN, and the impact of media attention on entrepreneurship and was found to influence EI in ASEAN. Moreover, the resistance of ASEAN entrepreneurs to the otherwise high rates of fear of failure and high impact of media attention are proposed as independent variables to explain the relatively high rates of entrepreneurial activity in ASEAN as reported by GEM. The paper utilizes a representative sample of 10,306 individuals in 10 countries. A range of attitudes was found to significantly influence entrepreneurial intention. Many of these perceptions, such as the impact of media attention on entrepreneurship can be manipulated by government policy. The paper also suggests strategies by which Asian economy in particular can benefit from their apparent high impact of media attention on entrepreneurship.

Keywords: an entrepreneurial intention, attitude, GEM, ASEAN and Europe

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Authors: Nikou Javadi, Uğur Dağlı

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The importance of culture and tourism in the attractiveness and competitiveness of the countries is central, and many regions are evidencing their cultural assets, tangible and intangible, as a means to create comparative advantages in tourism and produce a distinctive place in response to the pressures of globalization. Culture and tourism are interlinked because of their obvious combination and growth potential. Cultural tourism is a crucial global tourism market with fast growing. Regions can develop significant relations between culture and tourism to increase their attractiveness as places to visit, live and invest, increasing their competitiveness. Accordingly, having new and creative approach to historical areas as cultural value-based destinations can improve their conditions to promote tourism. Furthermore, in 21st century, media become the most important factor affecting the development of urban cities, including public places. As a result of the digital revolution, re-imaging and re-linkage public places by media are essential to create more interactions between public spaces and users, interaction media display, and urban screens, one of the most important defined media. This interaction can transform the urban space from being neglected to be more interactive space with users, especially the pedestrians. The paper focuses on The Walled City of Famagusta. As many other historic quarters elsewhere in the world, is in a process, of decay and deterioration, and its functionally distinctive areas are severely threatened by physical, functional, locational, and image obsolescence at varying degrees. So the focus on the future development of this area through tourism promotion can be an appropriate decision for the monument enhancement of the spatial quality in Walled City of Famagusta. In this paper, it is aimed to identify the effects of these new digital factors to transform public spaces especially in historic urban areas to promote creative tourism. Accordingly, two different analysis methods are used as well as a theoretical review. The first is case study on site and the second is Close ended questionnaire, test many concepts raised in this paper. The physical analysis on site carried out in order to evaluate the walled city restoration for touristic purpose. Besides, theoretical review is done in order to provide background to the subject and cleared Factors to attract tourists.

Keywords: historical areas, media façade, sustainable tourism, Walled city of Famagusta

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Authors: Chiao-Chen Chang, Yang-Chieh Chin

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The mobile phone has no longer confined to communication, from the aspect of smartphones, consumers are only willing to pay for the product which the added value has corresponded with their appetites, such as multiple application, upgrade of the camera, and the appearance of the phone and so on. Moreover, as the maturity stage of smartphone industry today, the strategy which manufactures used to gain competitive advantages through hardware as well as software differentiation, is no longer valid. Thus, this research aims to initiate from brand image, to examine exactly whether consumers’ buying intention focus on smartphone brand or operating system, at the same time, perceived value and customer satisfaction will be added between brand image and continuous usage intention to investigate the impact of these two facets toward continuous usage intention. This study verifies the correlation, fitness, and relationship between the variables that lies within the conceptual framework. The result of using structural equation modeling shows that brand image has a positive impact on continuous usage intention. Firms can affect consumer perceived value and customer satisfaction through the creation of the brand image. It also shows that the brand image of smartphone and brand image of the operating system have a positive impact on customer perceived value and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, perceived value also has a positive impact on satisfaction, and so is the relation within satisfaction and perceived value to the continuous usage intention. Last but not least, the brand image of the smartphone has a more remarkable impact on customers than the brand image of the operating system. In addition, this study extends the results to management practice and suggests manufactures to provide fine product design and hardware.

Keywords: smartphone, brand image, perceived value, continuous usage intention

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Authors: Asim Majeed, Anwar Ul Haq, Ayesha Asim, Mike Lloyd-Williams, Arshad Jamal, Usman Butt

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This study aims to investigate the impact of data leak of M&S customers on digital communities. Modern businesses are using digital communities as an important public relations tool for marketing purposes. This form of communication helps companies to build better relationship with their customers which also act as another source of information. The communication between the customers and the organizations is not regulated so users may post positive and negative comments. There are new platforms being developed on a daily basis and it is very crucial for the businesses to not only get themselves familiar with those but also know how to reach their existing and perspective consumers. The driving force of marketing and communication in modern businesses is the digital communities and these are continuously increasing and developing. This phenomenon is changing the way marketing is conducted. The current research has discussed the implications on M&S business performance since the data was exploited on digital communities; users contacted M&S and raised the security concerns. M&S closed down its website for few hours to try to resolve the issue. The next day M&S made a public apology about this incidence. This information was proliferated on various digital communities and it has impacted negatively on M&S brand name, sales and customers. The content analysis approach is being used to collect qualitative data from 100 digital bloggers including social media communities such as Facebook and Twitter. The results and finding provide useful new insights into the nature and form of security concerns of digital users. Findings have theoretical and practical implications. This research will showcase a large corporation utilizing various digital community platforms and can serve as a model for future organizations.

Keywords: Digital, communities, performance, dissemination, implications, data, exploitation

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Authors: Valarmathi Subramaniam

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Ever since the first Indian feature film was produced and released by Shri Dada Saheb Phalke in the year 1931, the Indian Film Industry has grown leaps and bounds. The Indian Film Industry stands as the largest film industry in the world, and it produces more than a thousand films every year with investments and revenues worth several billion rupees. As per the official report published by UNESCO in the year 2017 on their website, it states that in the year 2015, India has produced one thousand nine hundred and seven feature films using digital technology. Not only is the cinema adapted to digital technologies, but the digital technologies also opened up avenues for talents to enter the cinema industry. This paper explores such talents who have emerged in the film industry without any background, neither academic nor from their family background, but holding digital media as their weapon. The research involves two variants of filmmaking technology – Celluloid and Digital. The study used a selective sampling of films that were released from the year 2020-to 2022. The sample has been organized, resulting in popular and fresh talents in the editing phase of filmmaking. There were 48 editors, of which 12 editors were not popular and 6 of them were fresh into the film without any background. Interview methods were used to collect data on what helped them to get into the industry straight. The study found that the digital medium and the digital technology enabled them to get into the film industry.

Keywords: digital media, digital in cinema, digital era talents, emerging new talents

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Authors: Ranis Cheng

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Corporate identity is an asset of a company that is unique, valuable and provides a source of competitive advantage. This research taking a holistic view to explore all dimensions of corporate identity and influence of each on customers’ shopping experience in the fast fashion retail sector in the U.K. Unfortunately these issues have not been explored sufficiently in the extant literature, especially in the area of the identity gap. To date, there is still a lack of empirical research on corporate identity, especially in the retail sector despite the importance of the concept to all organisations. Furthermore, although customer group is one of the essential audiences of organisations and the importance of customers in corporate identity management cannot be ignored, to date limited studies have been conducted in order to understand how customers interpret and perceive corporate identity (perceived identity). Therefore, this research investigates customers’ perceptions of corporate identity in the fast fashion retail sector. 1) To explore customers’ perceptions of fast fashion retailers’ corporate identities; 2) To uncover the important constructs of corporate identity which contribute to the U.K. fast fashion retail sector. 40 semi-structured interviews with the fast fashion consumers have been carried out to identify their perceptions of fast fashion retailers' corporate identities. Secondary research on retailers' websites and press releases have been evaluated to identify their desired corporate identities. The findings have revealed that there are significant gaps between how fast fashion retailers present their identities and how their consumers perceive them. This has posed customers' negative perceptions towards the retailers and their shopping experience as a whole. This study has studied how the corporate identity constructs could be applied in the fashion context and has helped retailers to shed lights on how to minimise the gap between desired and perceived identity.

Keywords: corporate identity, fast fashion, fashion retailing, identity gap

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Authors: Bailey Houghtaling, Sarah Misyak

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Food access; the availability, affordability, convenience, and desirability of food and beverage products within communities, is influential on consumers’ purchasing and consumption decisions. These variables may contribute to lower dietary quality scores and a higher obesity prevalence documented among rural and disadvantaged populations in the United States (U.S.). Current research assessing linkages between food access and obesity outcomes has primarily focused on distance to a traditional grocery/supermarket store as a measure of optimality. However, low-income consumers especially, including U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants, seem to utilize non-traditional food store formats with greater frequency for household dietary needs. Non-traditional formats have been associated with less nutritious food and beverage options and consumer purchases that are high in saturated fats, added sugars, and sodium. Authors’ formative research indicated differences by U.S. region and rurality in the distribution of traditional and non-traditional SNAP-authorized food store formats. Therefore, using Virginia as a case study, the purpose of this research was to determine if a relationship between store format, rurality, and obesity exists. This research applied SNAP-authorized food store data (food access points for SNAP as well as non-SNAP consumers) and obesity prevalence data by Virginia county using publicly available databases: (1) SNAP Retailer Locator, and; (2) U.S. County Health Rankings. The alpha level was set a priori at 0.05. All Virginia SNAP-authorized stores (n=6,461) were coded by format – grocery, drug, mass merchandiser, club, convenience, dollar, supercenter, specialty, farmers market, independent grocer, and non-food store. Simple linear regression was applied primarily to assess the relationship between store format and obesity. Thereafter, multiple variables were added to the regression to account for potential moderating relationships (e.g., county income, rurality). Convenience, dollar, non-food or restaurant, mass merchandiser, farmers market, and independent grocer formats were significantly, positively related to obesity prevalence. Upon controlling for urban-rural status and income, results indicated the following formats to be significantly related to county obesity prevalence with a small, positive effect: convenience (p=0.010), accounting for 0.3% of the variance in obesity prevalence; dollar (p=0.005; 0.5% of the variance), and; non-food (p=0.030; 1.3% of the variance) formats. These results align with current literature on consumer behavior at non-traditional formats. For example, consumers’ food and beverage purchases at convenience and dollar stores are documented to be high in saturated fats, added sugars, and sodium. Further, non-food stores (i.e., quick-serve restaurants) often contribute to a large portion of U.S. consumers’ dietary intake and thus poor dietary quality scores. Current food access research investigates grocery/supermarket access and obesity outcomes. These results suggest more research is needed that focuses on non-traditional food store formats. Nutrition interventions within convenience, dollar, and non-food stores, for example, that aim to enhance not only healthy food access but the affordability, convenience, and desirability of nutritious food and beverage options may impact obesity rates in Virginia. More research is warranted utilizing the presented investigative framework in other U.S. and global regions to explore the role and the potential of non-traditional food store formats to prevent and reduce obesity.

Keywords: food access, food store format, non-traditional food stores, obesity prevalence

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Authors: R. Alrashedi, A. Persaud

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This study provides insights into the readiness of users to participate in e-government activities in Saudi Arabia. A user-centric model of e-participation is developed based on a review of the literature and empirically tested. The findings are based on an online survey of a sample of 200 hundred Saudi citizens and residents living in Saudi Arabia. The study found that trust of the government, attitude towards e-participation, e-participation through the use of social media, and social influence and social identity positively influence e-participation while perceived benefits of e-government is negatively related to e-participation. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the drivers of e-participation. The study also provides insights that could be used by policymakers to increase the level of e-participation in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: e-government, e-participation, social media, trust, social influence and social identity

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Authors: Mona Solvoll, Ragnhild Kr. Olsen

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Background and significance of the study: Newspapers are going through radical changes with increased competition, eroding readerships and declining advertising resulting in plummeting overall revenues. This has lead to a quest for new business models, focusing on monetizing content. This research paper investigates both how local online newspapers have introduced user payment and how the audience has received these changes. Given the role of local media in keeping their communities informed and those in power accountable, their potential impact on civic engagement and cultural integration in local communities, the business model innovations of local media deserves far more research interest. Empirically, the findings are interesting for local journalists, local media managers as well as local advertisers. Basic methodologies: The study is based on interviews with commercial leaders in 20 Norwegian local newspapers in addition to a national survey data from 1600 respondents among local media users. The interviews were conducted in the second half of 2015, while the survey was conducted in September 2016. Theoretically, the study draws on the business model framework. Findings: The analysis indicates that paywalls aim more at reducing digital cannibalisation of print revenue than about creating new digital income. The newspapers are mostly concerned with retaining “old” print subscribers and transform them into digital subscribers. However, this strategy may come at a high price for newspapers if their defensive print strategy drives away younger digital readership and hamper their recruitment potential for new audiences as some previous studies have indicated. Analysis of young reader news habits indicates that attracting the younger audience to traditional local news providers is particularly challenging and that they are more prone to seek alternative news sources than the older audience is. Conclusion: The paywall strategy applied by the local newspapers may be well fitted to stabilise print subscription figures and facilitate more tailored and better services for already existing customers, but far less suited for attracting new ones. The paywall is a short-sighted strategy, which drives away younger readers and paves the road for substitute offerings, particularly Facebook.

Keywords: business model, newspapers, paywall, user payment

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Authors: Aamir Ayub, Yasir Shehzad, Shakeel Ahmad

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This research paper aims to understand how the Pashtuns have been represented in relationship to terrorism in post-9/11 Bollywood and Lollywood movies. It focuses particularly on ‘Torbaaz’ from Bollywood and ‘Waar’ from Lollywood in order to define the nature of Pashtun characterization, the functioning of intelligence agencies, as well as the socio-political side of the represented narratives. In this research, the analytical approach developed is applied to contemplate how these films represent or fail to represent Pashtun identity, taking into consideration the cultural, historical and social dimensions. The study also aims to examine the effects of the media, particularly on the different ethnic groups’ perceptions of terrorism. In this case, it covers how the movie relates actual events in society – specifically, socio-political – to the messages in the film regarding the Pashtun people and their portrayal. Such elements may constitute the portrayal of intelligence agencies and their fight against terrorism, state-security dynamics, and the Pashtun society. In conclusion, this research paper focuses on the representation of Pashtuns in films after 9/11 and addresses the issue concerning the representation of ethnic groups in the method of the theme of terrorism. It provides ideas about the role of media in influencing the mind of the society and their attitude towards certain communities after geopolitics upheavals.

Keywords: pashtun representation, terrorism, 9/11 attacks, socio-political implications, ethnic representation in media

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Authors: Muhammad Irfan

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The rise of radicalization within Islam has spawned a new era of global terror. The battlefield Successes of ISIS and the Taliban are fuelled by an ideological war waged, largely and successfully, in the media arena. This research will examine how Islamic extremist groups are using media modalities and populist narratives to influence migrant Muslim populations in Europe towards extremism. In 2014, ISIS shocked the world in exporting horrifically graphic forms of violence on social media. Their Muslim support base was largely disgusted and reviled. In response, they reconfigured their narrative by introducing populist 'hooks', astutely portraying the Muslim populous as oppressed and exploited by unjust, corrupt autocratic regimes and Western power structures. Within this crucible of real and perceived oppression, hundreds of thousands of the most desperate, vulnerable and abused migrants left their homelands, risking their lives in the hope of finding peace, justice, and prosperity in Europe. Instead, many encountered social stigmatization, detention and/or discrimination for being illegal migrants, for lacking resources and for simply being Muslim. This research will examine how Islamic extremist groups are exploiting the disenfranchisement of these migrant populations and using populist messaging on social media to influence them towards violent extremism. ISIS, in particular, formulates specific encoded messages for newly-arriving Muslims in Europe, preying upon their vulnerability. Violence is posited, as a populist response, to the tyranny of European oppression. This research will analyze the factors and indicators which propel Muslim migrants along the spectrum from resilience to violence extremism. Expected outcomes are identification of factors which influence vulnerability towards violent extremism; an early-warning detection framework; predictive analysis models; and de-radicalization frameworks. This research will provide valuable tools (practical and policy level) for European governments, security stakeholders, communities, policy-makers, and educators; it is anticipated to contribute to a de-escalation of Islamic extremism globally.

Keywords: populism, radicalization, de-radicalization, social media, ISIS, Taliban, shariah, jihad, Islam, Europe, political communication, terrorism, migrants, refugees, extremism, global terror, predictive analysis, early warning detection, models, strategic communication, populist narratives, Islamic extremism

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Authors: Daria Lozovskaia

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This paper is focused on the news coverage of public opinion polls about Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Russian state-controlled media. After the announcement of the start of the so-called “Special Military Operation” on February 24, 2022, the number of publications of the results of public opinion polls increased many times over, and the poll numbers began to be discussed on social media and in the Kremlin’s official informational agenda. Headlines like "72 Percent of Russian Citizens Support the Operation " or "Russians Believe in Victory in the Special Military Operation" have become prominent parts of Russian state propaganda news stories and newspapers. At the same time, public opinion in Russia, as a concept and model, differs from the generally accepted democratic concept and has its own specifics. As a result, public opinion polls and their results, especially after February 24, have a number of features in the form of the dominance of the discourse of political elites in the media, which leads to a decrease in public awareness, the prevalence of the effect of joining the majority and a high number of non-responses due to fear of reprisals. The aim of this study was to determine the role of public opinion polls in the system of Russian war propaganda in Ukraine. For this purpose, were selected publications of the Russian media, the agenda of which corresponds to the official information policy of the Russian authorities. First, using frame analysis for the categories "Explicit trust", "Implicit trust", "Implicit distrust" and "Explicit distrust", provided by Irina Dusakova, the broadcast level of trust in the data of public opinion polls was determined. The results of this phase of the study showed that the Russian media broadcast an absolute level of confidence in public opinion polls regarding support for the war in Ukraine. The second stage of the study was the content analysis of publications. The categories of this analysis were derived from Anna Morelli's 10 Principles of Military Propaganda and Haavard Koppang's Definition of Propaganda to determine the purposes of the use of public opinion polls by Russian propaganda. The results of the study not only confirmed the widespread hypothesis that public opinion polls in Russia are used as a tool of state propaganda, but also showed that their purpose is to demonstrate the consolidation of society in support of the war and President Vladimir Putin.

Keywords: propaganda, public opinion, public opinion polls, Russian studies

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Authors: Marlin Killen

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The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) describes academic freedom as essential to the purposes of research and teaching. The importance of academic freedom as a bedrock foundation that supports the work of the professoriate cannot be overstated, and there have been innumerable challenges that have attempted to curtail it. These challenges come from a variety of sources that span legal, ethical, cultural, institutional, and professional perspective and are amplified by social media, traditional media, and political action efforts. Because of these challenges, the development of a comprehensive institutional policy on academic freedom that addresses the principles, practices, and appropriate responses to modern challenges can be a daunting task. This presentation will focus on a case study of a university’s effort to develop an updated, evolving policy on academic freedom that provides a framework and remedies for contemporary challenges to this critical function in higher education.

Keywords: academic freedom, academic freedom policy, higher education policy

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Authors: Francisco Guimarães, Mauro Figueiredo, José Rodrigues

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Cities are spaces of memory with several zones (parts of cities) with their own history and cultural events. Today, cities are also marked by a form of intangible cultural heritage like street art, which creates a visual culture based on the process of reflection about the city and the world. To link these realities and create a personal user interaction with this cultural heritage it is important to capture the story and aesthetics, and find alternatives to immerse the user in these spaces of memory. To that end, this article presents a project which combines Augmented Reality technologies and concepts of Transmedia Storytelling applied to Lisbon City, using Street Art artifacts as markers in a framework of digital media-art.

Keywords: augmented reality, cultural heritage, street art, transmedia storytelling, digital media-art

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Authors: Zhen Li

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In contemporary China, the rise of consumer culture and feminism has facilitated the ‘She-Economy’, where Chinese women’s consumption power has been boosted along with the thriving Chinese economy. Domestic reality TV shows such as Sisters Who Make Waves (hereafter SWMW) target female audiences by bringing women's issues such as age, appearance, and balance between family and career to the discussion. Against this backdrop, this study adopted multimodal content analysis to investigate how SWMW failed to live up to the feminist goals the show had claimed and how serious women’s issues were consumed and capitalized by the consumer media culture from consumer culture and feminist perspectives. The findings reveal that while the female-themed work claims to uncover the charm that age brings to women over their thirties, it merely mentions female anxiety and uses feminism in disguise to achieve commercial success without in-depth thinking and discussion of what real-life issues women in China are tackling. They further show that the mass media-promoted modern femininity combined with consumerism deepens anxiety over aging among female audiences. The study sheds light on understanding the new development of Chinese femininity and the impact of consumer culture on feminist consciousness in contemporary China.

Keywords: consumer culture, feminism, multimodal content analysis, she-economy

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Authors: Kate Barnett-Richards, Marie Sams

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As the need for integration between students and industry grows, classroom practitioners must find ways of engaging students whilst also involving industry professionals to help shape the changing nature of university level education. As part of a project funded by the Disruptive Media Learning Lab at Coventry University, traditional case study based seminars on two modules were replaced by interactive live cases. Utilising Google+ as a social media platform allowed students and industry professional to come together and share ideas on a range of current issues. As technology becomes an ever increasingly important part of the higher education landscape, classroom practitioners need to adapt and find ways of utilising technological tools which can enhance the overall classroom experience. Given that many of these innovations come from the individuals involved in delivering classroom based sessions it is vital to share ideas, experiences and best practices so as to allow and encourage others to use the numerous free tools and platforms available. This poster presents the reflections, challenges, and problems faced by education practitioners when engaging students with industry partners in live case study discussions via Google+ within a classroom setting. It is expected that this poster will be of interest to a number of academics and teaching fellows who may be considering utilising social media tools to connect their students with industry.

Keywords: case study, Google+, practitioner, reflections.

Procedia PDF Downloads 307