No description available.

The ways in which death, bereavement, and memorialization are expressed and experienced have begun to take on historically unique forms due largely to the widespread permeation of the Internet and social media within Western culture. Mourning and the memorialization of the deceased are increasingly being expressed in an online capacity through the mediums of social networking websites such as Facebook. This study endeavors to uncover the ways in which newly emergent, technologically mediated forms of bereavement and memorialization occur, how these online practices differentiate from conventional offline grieving procedures, and in what ways they impact the cultural visibility of death in society. A mixed-method research design incorporating both a content analysis of existing Facebook memorial pages as well as interviews with those who have engaged with them was conducted in order to elucidate the various ways in which the relatively new phenomena of online mourning and memorialization occur on Facebook. / Graduate

Social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, enable the wide spread of information through users’ influence on each other. These networks are very useful for marketing purposes. For example, free samples of a product can be given to a few influencers (seed nodes), with the hope that they will convince their friends to buy it. One way to formalize marketers’ objective is through the influence maximization problem, which is to find the best seed nodes to influence under a fixed budget so that the number of people who get influenced in the end is maximized. Recent solutions to influence maximization rely on the knowledge of the influence probability of every social network user. This is the probability that a user influences another one, and can be obtained by using users’ history of influencing others (called action logs). However, this information is not always available. We propose a novel Online Influence Maximization (OIM) framework, showing that it is possible to maximize influence in a social network in the absence of exact information about influence probabilities. In our OIM framework, we investigate an Explore-Exploit (EE) strategy, which could run any one of the existing influence maximization algorithms to select the seed nodes using the current influence probability estimation (exploit), or the confidence bound of the estimation (explore). We then start the influence campaign using the seed nodes, and consider users’ immediate feedback to the campaign to further decide which seed nodes to influence next. Influence probabilities are modeled as random variables and their probability distributions are updated as we get feedback. In essence, we perform influence maximization and learning of influence probabilities at the same time. We further develop an incremental algorithm that can significantly reduce the overhead of handling users’ feedback information. We validate the e↵ectiveness and efficiency of our OIM framework on large real-world datasets. / published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

Recent advances in communications technologies enable access to the Internet from anywhere in the world. This has generated interest, demand and research into methods of using and enhancing this technology to deliver Continuing Professional Development (CPD). This research examines issues relevant to the electronic delivery of professional updating to marine engineers in a pro-active manner locating the learner at the centre of the CPD process. Educational theories including experiential learning, andragogy, constructivism and Laurillard's conversational framework are investigated and the importance of learning styles in the design of material based on user needs is examined. A needs analysis of 1117 marine engineers revealed which subjects were in most demand for CPD and showed that individuals have different learning requirements. An accompanying survey of learning styles showed the respondents to be strong reflector/theorists but indicated that learning designed to be effective for all styles would be most appropriate. The conclusions drawn from the review of CPD, Internet and educational theory were combined with the results of the survey to derive the principles necessary for the creation of an innovative approach to online learning. The outcome was the synthesis, development and construction of the Marine Engineers' Managed Environment for Learning (MEMEL); an Internet based learning environment for the delivery of CPD to marine engineers. MEMEL has the ability to deliver online learning to a variety of learners on a range of subjects. As the evaluation of managed environments for learning is a comparatively new undertaking it was necessary to develop a novel framework specifically for the purpose. The evaluation indicated that MEMEL is a valid vehicle for the delivery of online learning. Two areas that have been specifically identified for further research are the use of electronic media to facilitate the process of reflection and enhancing access for users with a disability.

No description available.

Human behaviors and social norms are transferred to the Internet in complex and divergent ways. The term online disinhibition has been coined to describe situations when Internet users seem to behave more openly and unrestrained online, often acting in ways they would not dare to act in the face-to-face world. According to Suler, there is a need for future research to "focus on which people, under what circumstances, are more predisposed to the various elements of online disinhibition." With this in mind, this descriptive study sought to determine whether or not people are more true to their authentic psychological identities (i.e., genders) during online interaction or create completely new identities because of the more permissive social norms created by cyberspace. Through video recorded face-to-face discussions, reflective online discussions, open-ended online surveys, and semi-structured interviews, qualitative data was collected for analysis. The results and findings demonstrated that some personality traits are magnified during online interaction, but individuals ultimately stay true to their established gender roles.

Introducción: En el Perú, la industria de los juegos online ha crecido de manera desmedida, lo cual se está convirtiendo perjudicial para la sociedad, ya que esta invasión de videojuegos influye mucho en los adolescentes. Objetivo: es determinar el nivel de conocimientos y la práctica sobre los juegos online en los adolescentes de 1er año de educación secundaria de la Institución Educativa Fe y Alegría N° 3 - S.J.M. Metodología: El estudio fue de tipo cuantitativo, diseño descriptivo de corte transversal, aplico el muestreo probabilístico quedando una muestra conformada por 82 adolescentes de 1er año de educación secundaria que corresponden a cinco aulas de la Institución Educativa. Se utilizó un cuestionario estructurado que evaluó el conocimiento y la práctica que aplican los adolescentes sobre los juegos online, la recolección de datos se realizó en el mes de octubre y se aplicó la estadística descriptiva. Resultados: Los adolescentes de 1er año de educación secundaria tienen en su mayoría 12 años con un 82% y pertenecen al género femenino 54% y masculino 46%. Teniendo un nivel de conocimiento medio sobre los juegos online de 71%, lo practican 93% de los adolescentes y el 51% de ellos lo hacen de manera inadecuada. La conclusión fue que existe un porcentaje significativo de los adolescentes del 1er año de educación secundaria de la Institución Educativa Fe y alegría N° 3 posee un conocimiento medio sobre los conceptos generales, efectos y consecuencias de los juegos online. Y que sin embargo lo practica un porcentaje alto en su casa con tendencia a los juegos de guerra o pelea haciendo uso de manera inadecuada.

Faculty of Arts School of Humanities 9407042h grule@polka.co.za / The simplistic, optimistic view surrounding Internet discourse suggests that because of the Net's ability to quickly and cheaply distribute vast amounts of information and facilitate communication, citizens can use digital networks to influence decision-making in society, which will lead to democratisation in communication. While there is indeed an inherent interactive capacity in the technologies of new media that facilitates discussion and debate, computer-mediated communication generally does not live up to the democratic hype. More to the point, the discursive inequalities and exclusions that result from the uneven distribution of power in society tend to be reproduced in the online environment.

O processo de inovação na distribuição do conteúdo por conta das plataformas digitais vem redimensionando o mercado da mídia em todo o mundo. A migração das notícias da estrutura física impressa para a internet mudou a percepção de valor do jornalismo na medida em que houve uma disponibilização gratuita e massiva do produto. Essa mudança veio tanto de leitores quanto de compradores de mídia, principais geradores de receita para os jornais, e exigiu das empresas, especialmente na última década, uma reestruturação dos seus modelos de negócio e, mais especificamente, um esforço de busca por fontes de receita que garantissem a manutenção de suas operações. O caminho adotado pela maioria dos jornais tem sido o da venda de assinaturas para o acesso ao conteúdo digital, mas a menor percepção de valor para conteúdos publicados na internet diminui drasticamente a disposição dos leitores em pagar por eles. Em se tratando de um campo com poucas pesquisas que oferecem uma análise teórica e empírica sobre o processo de rentabilização por meio da venda de conteúdo digital no jornalismo brasileiro, esta dissertação se propõe a contribuir propondo um esquema interpretativo dos fatores determinantes na disposição para pagar por conteúdo jornalístico digital e verificando, na prática do jornalismo brasileiro, a presença e a aplicabilidade desses fatores. Para isso, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura sobre os fatores que determinam a disposição a pagar por notícias, reportagens e demais produtos jornalísticos. O trabalho identifica 19 elementos, organizados em quatro esferas distintas. Dessas esferas, vê-se que os elementos relacionados à especialização do conteúdo são os mais explorados nas pesquisas. Tendo isso, faz-se uma proposição, em cima dos resultados obtidos, de um esquema interpretativo dos cenários em que a disposição do leitor em pagar por conteúdo tende a 6 ser maior.. Em um segundo momento, com o intuito de verificar a presença desses elementos no jornalismo digital brasileiro e testar o esquema desenhado no capítulo dois, foram entrevistadas 60 pessoas. O grupo contempla leitores recorrentes e assinantes de conteúdos digitais, além de profissionais dos jornais Folha de S. Paulo, Zero Hora, Valor Econômico, Nexo Jornal e Jota. Para os jornais de origem impressa, notou-se uma menor disposição a se pagar pelo conteúdo digital, especialmente por conta da baixa percepção de elementos relacionados ao jornalismo. Para os digitais, o Jota ganha destaque e uma maior disposição a pagar entre os leitores conta do seu conteúdo especializado. No caso do Nexo Jornal, iniciativa exclusivamente digital, identificou-se, além de uma maior incidência dos elementos, que o leitor se dispõe a assinar como forma de manifestar apoio ao propósito da empresa e ao tipo de conteúdo que é produzido, elemento incomum tanto entre leitores das demais iniciativas quanto na literatura sobre o tema.