A new trend is emerging, seeking to recognize the benefits of and encourage the use of public transportation. In the past, public transit agencies have not directed much energy or focus at marketing, seeking to use limited funds elsewhere. “The common perception is that money spent on marketing would be better spent on transit systems themselves…over time, a sustained investment in marketing increases the number of people who use transit. Increased ridership leads to increased revenue, and ideally, an increase in service to match the new demand” (Arpi, 2009). Even as marketing gains importance in the public transit world, questions remain as to how to make effective marketing choices for the public transit market. This report explores public transit marketing, and its application to the San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority. The San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority (RTA) provides regional public transportation service throughout San Luis Obispo County. Case study interviews, conversations with RTA, and review of academic and professional sources have supplied information and guidance on these questions. An interview with RTA was conducted to establish goals and guiding research questions for the exploration of marketing. A literature review provided a context of the field, through professional, academic, news, and media pieces. The research questions were explored through case study examples, in the form of interviews with Intercity Transit (Olympia, WA) and Orange County Transportation Authority (Orange County, CA). Further analysis of 2011 ridership survey data provided an additional level of information to consider. The research methods resulted in a range of findings that are applicable to RTA. The report concludes with the following recommendations for marketing RTA: 1. Focus on consistent branding. 2. Establish a system of more detailed ridership information. 3. Identify segments and direct messages. 4. Further develop new technology and social media tools.

The diploma thesis is entitled "New Media in Relation to Depressiveness and Suicidality in Adolescents". The theoretical part of the work defines terms related to suicidal behavior and defines adolescence period, further addressses suicidal behavior in adolescents and its epidemiology, risk and protective factors. In the next part, the thesis focuses on adolescent depressiveness and the characteristics of new media. Internet addiction and relationship to depressive symptomatic or suicidal behavior are described in particular. The empirical part of the thesis describes a research project dedicated to examining internet addiction in relation to depressiveness and suicidal risk in late adolescence. The research sample consists of 201 students from various high schools in Prague. Data acquisition methods included the Questionnaire for Determination of Suicide Risk (FBS), the Scale of depressiveness Dolejš, Skopal, Suchá (SDDSS) and the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) questionnaire. The results confirmed that internet addiction is significantly correlated with both depressiveness and suicidal risk. Furthermore, business academy students have been shown to have significantly higher rates of depression than grammar school students. Significant gender difference was shown in the suicidal risk rate which was...

U.S. advertisers spent over $2 billion on sporting events in 2014 directing advertisements towards consumers through digital devices used such as televisions, computers, smartphones, and tablets. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to identify motivation factors that predict the intention to view sports content on digital devices. Knowing such factors is important for advertisers to prioritize distribution channels. Uses and gratification theory formed the theoretical framework for the study. The methodology adapted a survey that encapsulated 9 motives. The research questions examined what motives influenced sports viewership, what motives predicted the intention to view specific sports content, and the differences in viewing intention across sports content types. Data were collected through a survey administered to a qualified random sample of U.S. respondents with 525 responses received. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis to group the questions into motivation factors, multiple linear regression to determine the significance of these factors in predicting viewership intent, and nonparametric Friedman testing to determine what demographics influenced viewership. Findings included: (a) 8 factors explained 76% of the variance; (b) 8 motives were significant in predicting viewership intention, with Escape (β = .714) ranking the highest; and (c) younger viewers had a greater intent to consume content on digital devices other than television, with smartphones (M = .73) ranking the highest. Social change benefits include: (a) sports content providers and advertisers could target the right content and advertisement to maximize viewership retention and revenue, and (b) users could view their desired sports content on their chosen device.

Thesis (M.A. (Media Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / The purpose of this study was to explore if new media have redefined Vodacom SA‟s advertising and if so to what extent. The research employed Vodacom SA as its case study. Quantitative and qualitative descriptive and explorative research was conducted to determine whether the new media had redefined advertising culture and if so to what extent. Data collection was collected through structured questionnaires, the administration of an intensive interview and secondary data. The structured questionnaires were filled in by 200 conveniently randomly selected University of Limpopo students who represented media audiences and their perceptions. The intensive interview was carried out with Vodacom SA‟s Senior Communications officer Ashleigh Dubbelman. The secondary data was collected from Vodacom SA‟s official documents. The research findings revealed that audience interactivity, due to the new media, has become an important aspect of Vodacom SA‟s advertising process. The uses and gratifications theory proved relevant as the research showed that it is not always how the media influences an audience but what the audience responds to media content or messages. Audience preferences and medium selection proved decisive. Social networks, proved to be the new dominant platform for new media advertising. Furthermore, the findings showed that traditional media TV still possess great influence. The digital divide amongst and within audiences were influential in the limited usage of new media in advertising in the Vodacom SA context. In terms of legislation; no explicit laws on new media and advertising have been enacted yet. On advertising expenditure, budgets have remained largely unchanged but allocation increases tilted towards new media. Conclusively; the research observed that new media has redefined Vodacom SA‟s adverting culture, though the redefinition is still minute and is to a small extent. Key Words New media, Vodacom SA, advertising culture, interactivity, digital divide, audience, social networking sites, redefinition, traditional media, uses and gratifications.

Pattern is a familiar concept ever present in our daily lives, existing in many material forms, observable in varied states, and able to be created from a diverse range of processes and events. Natural pattern forms, such as biological and chemical patterns, have been extensively studied, often within the digital environment because of its capacity to process large amounts of data which aids investigation of not only their characteristics but their potentiality. However, human designed physical patterns, while having been investigated extensively in terms of their historical, geographic and cultural significance and their aesthetic and/or mathematical characteristics, have not been fully investigated in terms of their evolutionary potential. This project explores one example of human designed physical patterns, crochet lace patterns ??? which have remained largely stable and consistent throughout various technological transformations such as the industrial revolution ??? in order to explore pattern as a process and investigate the potential for these patterns to become emergent. This exploration translated the patterns into the digital environment where, as data, the patterns become available for manipulation using a generative art practice approach. By translating the patterns into a digital environment and engaging with the pattern forms at their systematic core, where crochet pattern instructions and software programming scripts operate similarly as ???code???, this research provided a deeper understanding of the patterns and allowed exploration of whether a pattern???s developmental path can be altered to create new emergent patterns. This research draws on systems theory and systems aesthetics and their application within contemporary generative art practice and informs visual arts in several areas including showing how aesthetic values shift as work becomes cross-disciplinary and enters the digital environment, and how the introduction and location of innovation affects the relationship between the original and its copy.

This is an investigation of the diffusion of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet, by community broadcasting organisations. In order to understand ICT diffusion processes in community radio stations, this study focuses on a particular project which saw a large scale diffusion of Internet technologies across Australian community radio stations at the beginning of 1998. The Community Access Network (CAN) project was an initiative of the Australian government, and saw funding for the provision of an Internet ready computer to every licensed community radio station in Australia. In approaching this subject, this research employed social constructivist assumptions, expecting that ICT use, and in particular the CAN workstations, would vary from station to station, reflecting the cultural and organisational conditions in each environment. As such the study aimed to understand the ways in which ICT technologies have been used and understood by community ralo station management and their participants. Since community radio stations are organisations, this study employed Everett Rogers' framework for understanding diffusion of innovation processes within organisations, acknowledging that organisational variables act on innovation behaviour in a manner over and above that of the aggregate of individual members of the organisation. This approach provided scope for the investigation and comparison of organisational factors, as well as meaning making on the part of individual participants. The research was based on data collected from two case studies, chosen on the basis of their divergent social, cultural and organisational environments; 4EB in Brisbane, a metropolitan, ethnic community radio station; and 2NCR-FM in Lismore, a regional, generalist community radio station. Ethnographic methods of observation and interviews were employed to collect qualitative data, providing insider accounts of community broadcaster's use, experience, and understanding of the new technologies in their day-to-day broadcast practices. By looking at two different community radio stations, this research acknowledges points of similarity and difference across these organisational situations, identifying factors that contribute to variation in technology take-up in particular station programming emphasis, perception of need, organisational resources, role of innovation champions, training, ICT policy and broadcaster variables. Evidence drawn from these case studies, and the specific ICT investigated, contributes to a general understanding of factors in the diffusion of ICT technologies across the community broadcast sector, providing a frame of reference for anticipating subsequent innovation diffusion. In particular, there are implications for future diffusion projects which plan to deploy new technologies across the community radio sector. It also contextualises community broadcasting and ICT use within the field of new technology uptake by broadcast sectors in general.

This thesis investigates the potential for radio on the Internet to enhance processes of communication and media practice in the form of new a public sphere. Drawing on the work of Marshall McLuhan, the early stages of this thesis present an enquiry into the unique positive qualities of both radio and the Internet. The argument that follows contends that radio presented on the Internet can draw from the perceived technological benefits of each individual medium, combining as a potential site for public spheres. Both Habermas’s liberal public sphere and contemporary critiques of the concept are examined to define a range of principles that could be tested against relevant examples. The increasing commercialisation of the Internet is presented as a challenge to the normative ideals of a public sphere and counter-balances the optimism of a technologically determinist approach. A series of thematic codes are developed from the relevant theory and combined with qualitative interviews. This forms the framework for a thematic analysis of three individual case studies: Unwelcome Guests, an anti-corporate radio programme, SW Radio Africa, “the independent voice of Zimbabwe,” and NH Making Waves, the radio arm of a community peace activist group. The study investigates opportunities for these three individual case studies to act as public spheres, by examining the interplay that occurs between both Internet and radio practices. As the thematic analysis will demonstrate, placing radio content on the Internet presents new opportunities to diversify content and audiences through collaborative production and improved distribution. Recommendations for further research emphasise the need to pursue the Internet’s role in the public sphere potential of radio.

<p>Purpose/Aim: The aim is to study the critics own views upon their profession and upon the development of criticism, and to thereafter set this in relation to contemporary theory and debates.</p><p>Material/Method: A qualitative study pursued through personal interviews. The results are categorized and split into different themes.</p><p>Main Results: Through media convergence and a changed media culture the conditions for criticism have also been altered. But in spite of various negative prophecies, these changes cause no serious threat to criticism. New forums and new forms of criticism actually increase the importance of the traditional ditto as the authoritative voice that holds the field together. Still, there are questions and fears about a future seemingly less and less predictable. The pace of these changes and the increased influence of the market can pose a threat unless the leadership doesn’t actively choose to uphold and protect traditional criticism.</p>

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Purpose/aim: The aim of this essay is to make a comprehensive study of the phenomenon of net dating, both among those who have dated on the internet and among those who haven’t tried it at all. Key questions to be answered are what attitudes are associated with net dating? How do the attitudes differ between those who have tried compared to those who haven’t? What kind of positive and negative aspects is there with net dating? Are there any prejudices against net dating and – if so, what kind of prejudices? How does the future look for net dating?</p><p>Material/method: Qualitative method with eight interviews divided into two groups depending weather the person has tried net dating or not.</p><p>Main results: The study shows that net dating is a phenomenon that will continue to grow and attract more users. The most significant result from the interviews are the different prejudices that are articulated. The common opinion amongst those who haven’t tried internet dating, is that it’s okay for everyone else to do it – but not for them selves. However, the analyse shows that the awkwardness that surrounds internet dating will probably diminish as more people start use this dating forum. The analyse also discuss how the identities are being experimented with, since internet is a place where the visible features such as body and style are unimportant. Instead it’s up to the individuals to decide how they want to present them-selves on the internet.</p><p>Keywords: Internet dating, relations, identity, new media, digitalisation, attitudes, prejudices, network society, social psychology.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: 2008- the year of the mobile-TV-markets expansion? (2008- ett år för mobil-tv-marknadens utbredning? Drivkrafter hinder och aktörer).</p><p>Number of pages: 50</p><p>Author: Hilda Engstrand</p><p>Tutor: Lowe Hedman</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>Period: Fall Semester 2007</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The aim of this research paper is to identify the main operators on the mobile-tv-market and to map out the main forces behind its growth. What are the driving forces that creates a new disribution-market? Also to study how political media-regulation effect and urge the mobile-tv- market.</p><p>Material/Method: Interviews with people from the mobile-tv-market. To read public-documents, press releases and reports from the government, media-companies and organisations has also been a method used to gain information.</p><p>Main results: That the mobile-tv-markets growth is a result of several driving forces. Political regulation is an important force that can make a difference in how and when the mobile-tv-market will expand. My research has also showed that it is beneficial if operators on the market co-operate in different ways.</p><p>Keywords: Mobile TV, Communication Techniques, Political Regulation, Broadcast Standards, New Media</p>