The thesis consists of three essays in development and political economics. Political Connection, Government Patronage and Firm Performance: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms The paper tests whether politically connected firms receive preferential favor from the government, as measured by state capital investment from the central government and subsidies. My results suggest that firms connected with one more top leader from the State Council receive 9.4 percent more subsidies, firms connected with one more leader who holds positions on both the Central Committee and the State Council obtain 23 percent more state capital and then have a 2 percentage point higher product markup. When there is extra state capital due to political connections, other domestic capital is crowded out. The heterogeneous effects find that firms with more employees, but lower sales and less profit tend to receive more state capital if equally connected, while firms with higher sales tend to obtain more subsidies. This additional state capital and these subsidies do not seem to improve the firm's performance. The Determinants of Media Bias in China We measure and investigate the determinants of political control of newspapers in China. We find that more strictly politically controlled newspapers cover disasters and corruption more than their commercial competitors, most likely in order to monitor lower level officials. We also find that they cover leaders and the official news agency Xinhua to a larger extent. We find that in the cross section, the political control correlates negatively with GDP per capita and population size, but there is no time trend in the political control of Chinese newspapers in the 2000s. Finally, we analyze the effect of a reform to close down all county papers in 2003. The reduced competition significantly affected the degree of political control of the remaining papers. Chinese Microblogs and Drug Quality This paper examines the impact of the introduction of Sina Weibo, the most popular microblog in China, on the quality of drugs on the market. I find that the number of bad drugs is decreasing in Sina Weibo use: if the Sina Weibo use is doubled, the number of bad drugs found will be reduced by 21 percent. I show that the reduction of bad drugs is driven by two mechanisms: Sina Weibo induces more effort from the Drug Administration and it deters the production of bad drugs. The results suggest that microblogs can play an important role in monitoring both the public and the private sectors, especially in a context with media censorship.

微博在中国的互联网上十分流行，这对中国宣传机构的信息控制形成了新的挑战。微博可以使信息得到快速和广泛的传播，从而增加了国家宣传机器进行信息控制的难度。本文试图探讨微博可以在多大程度上帮助网民挑战政府对信息的控制。通过分析在新浪微博上收集的数据，本文发现微博对宣传工作的挑战有四种机制。首先，基于对微博上热门政治信息的分析，本文发现微博上的部分话语权由媒体转向个人，同时出现了一批对政府持批判态度的超级网民。其次，对于一些热点事件，微博与传统媒体的报道角度与侧重点不同，从而使得中国的政治信息更加多元化 。第三，虽然中央政府可以实现对微博的有效审查，但地方政府时常不能控制微博上的报道。第四，网民通过微博上的信息运动，可以将某些传统媒体不愿报道的事件问题化，这对中国传统媒体的自我审查形成了冲击。本文认为微博可以帮助人民挑战国家的信息控制。 / The micro-blog, with its huge popularity in recent years, poses a new challenge to the propaganda state in China. The micro-blog is able to spread information fast and reach a wide audience. The liberating potential of the micro-blog on the information flow is in conflict with the control efforts from the propaganda state. It is puzzling then the extent to which the netizens are able to use the micro-blog to counter the information control. Based on the data collected from Sina Weibo, this study finds the propaganda state is challenged by the micro-blog through four mechanisms. First, analysis of political posts demonstrates a partial shift of discursive power from media to individuals and a rise of critical super-netizens in the micro-blog. Second, the posts in the micro-blog report the controversial issues in a different way than the traditional media that contributes to the pluralization of political information. Third, the netizens are able to use the micro-blog to expose certain information that the local government would like to censor. Forth, the netizens are able to problematize certain issues through information movement that challenge the self-censorship of media. This study concludes that the micro-blog is able to empower the people in the battle between state and society on what is fit to know. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Yang, Shen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-98). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES --- p.VI / Chapter CHAPTER I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- METHODS AND DATA --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- THE ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS --- p.7 / Chapter 1.4 --- THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY --- p.8 / Chapter CHAPTER II --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1 --- THE PROPAGANDA STATE IN CHINA: STRUCTURE, MECHANISM AND EFFICACY --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- THE INFORMATION DIFFUSION PROCESS IN THE MICRO-BLOG --- p.14 / Chapter 2.3 --- THE RESEARCH ON CHINESE INTERNET --- p.16 / Chapter 2.4 --- SOCIAL MEDIA AND AUTHORITARIAN STATE --- p.20 / Chapter 2.5 --- THE DEBATE ON TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM --- p.21 / Chapter CHAPTER III: --- MICRO-BLOG AND POLITICS: AN ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL POSTS --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2 --- WHO WRITES THE POPULAR POLITICAL POSTS? --- p.27 / Chapter 3.3 --- CONTENT OF THE POPULAR POLITICAL POSTS --- p.28 / Chapter 3.4 --- WHO SPEAKS WHAT? --- p.30 / Chapter 3.5 --- HOW POLITICAL INFORMATION IS TRANSMITTED --- p.32 / Chapter 3.6 --- THE RISE OF CRITICAL SUPER-NETIZENS --- p.35 / Chapter 3.7 --- CHAPTER CONCLUSION --- p.38 / Chapter CHAPTER IV: --- COMPARING MICRO-BLOG AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA: CONTENT ANALYSIS --- p.39 / Chapter 4.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.39 / Chapter 4.2 --- HOW MICRO-BLOG DIFFERS FROM TRADITIONAL MEDIA: FRAMING ANALYSIS --- p.45 / Chapter 4.3 --- CHAPTER CONCLUSION --- p.58 / Chapter CHAPTER V: --- MICRO-BLOG AND INFORMATION CENSORSHIP --- p.61 / Chapter 5.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.61 / Chapter 5.2 --- THE CENSORSHIP PRACTICE IN MICRO-BLOG WEBSITE: MECHANISM AND EFFICACY --- p.62 / Chapter 5.3 --- EXPOSING INFORMATION THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT WOULD LIKE TO SUPPRESS --- p.66 / Chapter 5.4 --- EXPOSING INFORMATION THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT WOULD LIKE TO SUPPRESS --- p.68 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Case of “Watch Uncle --- p.68 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Summary and Discussion --- p.73 / Chapter 5.5 --- CHAPTER CONCLUSION --- p.73 / Chapter CHAPTER VI --- MICRO-BLOG AND SELF-CENSORSHIP --- p.75 / Chapter 6.1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.75 / Chapter 6.2 --- THE REPORTING OF CHINESE MILITARY IN TRADITIONAL MEDIA --- p.76 / Chapter 6.3 --- THE MILITARY VEHICLES SNAPSHOT MOVEMENT --- p.76 / Chapter 6.4 --- HOW NETIZENS PROBLEMATIZE THE ISSUE OF MISUSING MILITARY VEHICLES --- p.81 / Chapter 6.5 --- THE POWER OF THE INFORMATION MOVEMENT --- p.83 / Chapter 6.6 --- CHAPTER CONCLUSION --- p.85 / Chapter CHAPTER VII: --- CONCLUSION --- p.87 / Chapter 7.1 --- THE PROSPECT OF THE PROPAGANDA STATE --- p.87 / Chapter 7.2 --- THE POLICY IMPLICATION --- p.91 / Chapter APPENDIX 1 --- FRAMES USED IN THIS RESEARCH --- p.92 / BIBLIOGRAPHY: --- p.94

Tesis para optar al grado de Doctor en Ciencias, Mención Computación / Las plataformas de redes sociales han cambiado la forma de buscar y encontrar información en la web. En particular, los sitios de Preguntas y Respuestas (QA: Question Answering) han surgido como plataformas diseñadas específicamente para el intercambio de preguntas y respuestas entre las comunidades de usuarios. Si bien los usuarios tienden a encontrar respuestas de buena calidad en estos sitios, hay evidencia de que existe un volumen significativo de interacciones QA en plataformas sociales como Twitter. La literatura al día de hoy indica que los usuarios eligen este tipo de plataformas, no especializadas para QA, dado que contienen información actualizada de eventos recientes, por la rapidez en la propagación de la información y además por la confianza social (con el círculo cercano). A pesar del potencial que tiene la información de las redes sociales para tareas de QA, no es sencillo utilizarla través de la aplicación de técnicas ya existentes basadas en sitios tradicionales de QA. Existen características únicas que diferencian el contenido social de las plataformas tradicionales de QA, por ejemplo; el tamaño de los mensajes suele ser corto y sin mucho contenido, por lo tanto no es simple determinar la calidad del mismo. Además el contenido es más propenso a ser ruidoso, irrelevante o por debajo del estándar. Lo anterior, en combinación con la alta cantidad de información que se genera en cada instante, constituye una sobrecarga de información que es compleja de extraer y estructurar para tareas de QA. En esta tesis, estudiamos el potencial que tienen las plataformas de microblogs para tareas de QA. Además estudiamos las características que poseen las respuestas más relevantes dada una pregunta inicial. En particular, creamos un modelo de documento a nivel de hilos de conversación en microblogs que nos permitió agregar información de contenido y entrenar un modelo de ranking basado en preguntas y respuestas de tipo factoid. Nuestros resultados experimentales, llevados a cabo en Twitter, nos indican que esta plataforma social sí provee de información valiosa para tareas de QA. Además identificamos las principales características de contenido y sociales (y la combinación entre ellas) que permiten obtener respuestas relevantes. El modelo consigue una mejora de alrededor de un 62% con respecto al método base empleado. De hecho, empleando el mismo modelo ya entrenado y la técnica de Transfer Learning, fuimos capaces de responder preguntas más complejas de tipo non-factoid capturadas directamente de Twitter. / CONICYT, INSTITUTO MILENIO FUNDAMENTOS DE LOS DATOS

Este documento apresenta um estudo que avalia o uso de informação temporal na tarefa de recomendação de tweets no twitter. Foram explorados dois aspectos temporais: a vida útil de tópico de informação e a sua versão personalizada para cada usuário. A aplicação destes aspectos temporais foi avaliada utilizando-se três sistemas de recomendação implementados. Também avaliamos dois modelos de tópicos utilizados para representar tweets: o modelo bag of words e um modelo de tópicos latentes extraídos por LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation). Além disso, avaliamos o uso de máquinas de vetor de suporte para estimar o perfil de interesses de usuário, comparando esta abordagem com uma outra mais simples. Os experimentos foram executados utilizando-se um conjunto de dados com 414 milhões de tweets publicados por 321 mil usuários. Os resultados apresentados demonstram que o uso de vida útil de tópico na tarefa de recomendação melhora a qualidade das recomendações, e o uso da versão personalizada desta informação melhorou ainda mais a qualidade destas / This document presents a study that evaluates the use of temporal information in the task of recommending tweets on Twitter. Two temporal aspects have been analysed: the lifespan of information topic and its personalized version for each user. The application of such temporal aspects has been evaluated using three recommendation systems implemented in this work. We also evaluated two topic models considered to describe tweets: a bag of words model and a model of latent topics extracted using LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation). Furthermore, we evaluated the use of SVM (Support Vector Machines) to estimate the user profile, comparing this approach with a simpler one. The experiments have been executed using a dataset with 414 millions of tweets published by 321 thousands of users. The results show that the use of topic lifespan information increases the quality of recommendation, and the personalized version of this information increases the quality even more

Este documento apresenta um estudo que avalia o uso de informação temporal na tarefa de recomendação de tweets no twitter. Foram explorados dois aspectos temporais: a vida útil de tópico de informação e a sua versão personalizada para cada usuário. A aplicação destes aspectos temporais foi avaliada utilizando-se três sistemas de recomendação implementados. Também avaliamos dois modelos de tópicos utilizados para representar tweets: o modelo bag of words e um modelo de tópicos latentes extraídos por LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation). Além disso, avaliamos o uso de máquinas de vetor de suporte para estimar o perfil de interesses de usuário, comparando esta abordagem com uma outra mais simples. Os experimentos foram executados utilizando-se um conjunto de dados com 414 milhões de tweets publicados por 321 mil usuários. Os resultados apresentados demonstram que o uso de vida útil de tópico na tarefa de recomendação melhora a qualidade das recomendações, e o uso da versão personalizada desta informação melhorou ainda mais a qualidade destas / This document presents a study that evaluates the use of temporal information in the task of recommending tweets on Twitter. Two temporal aspects have been analysed: the lifespan of information topic and its personalized version for each user. The application of such temporal aspects has been evaluated using three recommendation systems implemented in this work. We also evaluated two topic models considered to describe tweets: a bag of words model and a model of latent topics extracted using LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation). Furthermore, we evaluated the use of SVM (Support Vector Machines) to estimate the user profile, comparing this approach with a simpler one. The experiments have been executed using a dataset with 414 millions of tweets published by 321 thousands of users. The results show that the use of topic lifespan information increases the quality of recommendation, and the personalized version of this information increases the quality even more

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M. Tech. (Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / While more than half of the South African adult population are active microbloggers, the most common topics that are discussed include current affairs, sports and music entertainment. Nonetheless, there exists intrinsic fear about the credibility of digital content, which stems from the fact that there are limited standards for quality control in the microglogging sphere. Consequently, this apprehension exacerbates potential problems pertaining to ascertaining the reliability of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication. In this vein, this study seeks to investigate the salience of selected determinants on consumers’ perceptions about the credibility of microblog music reviews and future eWOM adoption. The sample comprised 485 self-reporting microbloggers residing in the southern Gauteng region of South Africa. The study applied a quantitative approach, whereas cross-sectional data were collected only once from the sample using a paper and pencil based self-administered questionnaire in 2018. Moreover, a positivist philosophy was followed, whereas hypotheses were framed from the credibility heuristics theory, posited as the underlying cues that aid consumers in the online credibility verification process. The formal protocol for research ethics were followed upon collecting empirical data, whereas the multi-item survey questionnaire was tested for reliability and validity. The hypotheses testing comprised an estimation of two regression models. From the findings obtained, it is evident that source credibility, information quality, homophily and prior beliefs confirmation are the four heuristics that pose a significant effect on the evaluation of microblog music reviews by consumers, yielding approximately 43.3 percent explanatory power on the overall credibility of microblog music reviews. Moreover, the second regression model proved the positive effect of microblog music review credibility on eWOM adoption, whereas the independent variable explains 30.7 percent of the variance in eWOM adoption. These findings point to the significance in applying the heuristics in evaluating microblog music reviews created by South African consumers. As such, the findings could assist both microblog administrators and marketing communication practitioners to better design the platforms to facilitate reader credibility evaluations about various products.

This qualitative phenomenological study involving in-depth interviews with seven educators in K-12 and higher education examines the role that the microblogging service Twitter plays in the formation and development of Personal Learning Networks (PLN) among educators. A double hermeneutic data analysis shows that Twitter plays a role in the formation and development of PLNs by allowing educators to; engage in consistent and sustained dialogue with their PLN, access the collective knowledge of their PLN, amplify and promote more complex thoughts and ideas to a large audience, and expand their PLN using features unique to Twitter. This research also examines the nature of a PLN and shows that participants believe their PLN extends beyond their Twitter network to encompass both face-to-face and other ICT mediated relationships. Secondary research questions examine how Twitter differs from other social networking tools in mediating relationships within a PLN, what motivates an educator to develop a PLN, how trust is established in a PLN, what the expectations of reciprocity are within a PLN, and what is the nature of informal learning within a PLN. Keywords: Twitter, microblogging, Personal Learning Network, PLN, informal learning

Viele neue Orte des akademischen Lesens und Schreibens sind Anfang der 2000er im Mitmachnetz „Web 2.0“ entstanden, die heute als „Soziale Medien“ Forschung und Lehre sowohl hinsichtlich Produktion und Rezeption als auch als Gegenstand massiv beeinflussen. Zu diesen Formen zählt u.a. auch die Wissenschaftsvermittlung auf (Micro-)Blogs, an der (beinahe typisch) die nicht immer reibungslosen Annäherungen einer Fachkultur an digitale Formen der Textproduktion im Beitrag nachgezeichnet werden. Angesichts der ambivalenten Bewertung dieser neuen Formen der Fachkommunikation wird dafür votiert, (Micro-)Blogs als Arbeitsplattformen zur Kollaboration und nur als solche zu begreifen.

Im Social Commerce entwickeln sich die Kunden zu einer bedeutenden Informationsquelle für Unternehmen. Die Kunden nutzen die Kommunikationsplattformen des Web 2.0 (z.B. Twitter), um ihre Meinungen und Erfahrungen über Produkte zu äußern. Diese Diskussionen können sehr wichtig für die Entwicklung von Produkten eines Unternehmens sein. Ein modellbasierter Ansatz soll es einem Unternehmen ermöglichen, die Meinungen zu seinen Produkten in Microblogs zu betrachten. Der erste Schritt dafür ist die Erkennung von Themen in einem spezifischen Kontext. In einem weiteren Schritt müssen die zu den Themen korrespondierenden Einträge bezüglich der geäußerten Meinungen analysiert werden. Für die Erkennung der Themen kommt ein Verfahren zum Einsatz, das auf der Latent Dirichlet Allocation basiert. Das Verfahren identifizierte eventbasierte Themen im Zusammenhang mit den 3D-TV-Anlagen von Sony.