Closure of many mainstream media outlets in towns across the United States have left many neighborhoods bereft of any news about their community. In a number of such areas, former journalists and/or community members have started online news sites that provide news and information to the community. As these outlets focus on a small geographic location, ranging from a neighborhood to a city, they are called hyperlocal news sites. The questions that logically arise then are how are these outlets reporting the news? Are they similar to their mainstream media counterparts or is their approach to news and information different? Most importantly, how do the people who start, or work at these sites, adopt the new all-in-one roles, where they are not only the reporter but also the ad sales manager and the publisher? This dissertation, through a two-method approach, examines these questions and tries to provide answers. An online survey of the people who started and or work for hyperlocal sites, provides data that those working for hyperlocal media have the same demographics as those who work in American mainstream media. The survey results also showed that most of respondents follow the same journalistic behaviors and gatekeeping practices as their mainstream counterparts. From a role identity perspective, the study shows that in the absence of role-models, the journalists-turned-entrepreneurs are in the process of carving a niche for themselves within journalism. In-depth interviews with the respondents reveal that while they identify themselves as journalists, their active role in revenue generation requires them to frame their work identity and present a holistic, positive image of their work. What this study does is capture the dynamism of the journalists’ changing roles. It explains why journalists who start news media sites are unable to monetize their product; they lack role models/exemplars/prototypes that can provide them a blueprint for modeling their behaviors in these new roles as well as the direction in which they take their sites. This research and more in the area can be seen as building blocks towards the creation of a roadmap for them. / text

Information propagation has attracted increasing attention from sociologists, marketing researchers and Information Technology entrepreneurs. With the rapid developments in online and mobile social applications like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, large-scale, high-speed and instantaneous information dissemination becomes possible, spawning tremendous opportunities for electronic commerce. It is non-trivial to make an accurate analysis on how information is propagated due to the uncertainty of human behavior and the complexity of the social environment. This dissertation is concerned with exploring models, formulations, and heuristics for the social-network-based information propagation process. It consists of three major parts: information diffusion through online social network, modeling social influence propagation, and social-network-based information spreading in opportunistic mobile networks. Firstly, I consider the problem of maximizing the influence propagation through online social networks. To solve it, I introduce a probabilistic maximum coverage problem, and propose a cluster-based heuristic and a neighbor-removal heuristic for two basic diffusion models, namely, the Linear Threshold Model and the Independent Cascade Model, respectively. Realizing that the selection of influential nodes is mainly based on the accuracy and efficiency in estimating the social influence, I build a framework of up-to-2-hop hierarchical network to approximate the spreading of social influence, and further propose a hierarchy-based algorithm to solve the influence maximization problem. Our heuristic is proved to be efficient and robust with competitive performance, low computation cost, and high scalability. The second part explores the modeling on social influence propagation. I develop an analytical model for the influence propagation process based on discrete-time Markov chains, and deduce a close-form equation to express the n-step transition probability matrix. We show that given any initial state the probability distribution of the converged network state could be easily obtained by calculating a matrix product. Finally, I study the social-network-based information spreading in opportunistic mobile networks by analyzing the opportunistic routing process. I propose three social-network-based communication pattern models and utilize them to evaluate the performance of different social-network-based routing protocols based on several human mobility traces. Moreover, I discuss the fairness evaluation in opportunistic routing, and propose a fair packet forwarding strategy which operates as a plugin for traditional social- network-based routing protocols. My strategy improves the imbalance of success rates among users while maintaining approximately the same system throughput. / published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The online news industry faces a challenge: Whether online news media can produce enough quality content that generates revenue and profit at a level comparable to traditional media. To meet the challenge, this dissertation applied two economic models, the industrial organization (IO) and the resource-based view of the firm (RBV), to locate the determinants of market performance for the online news industry. Together, the determinants derived from both models explained 19 to 35 percent of variance in market performance among the 208 news sites in the study. Separately, IO's industry variables were twice as powerful as RBV's firm variables in explaining news sites' revenue growth, profitability, and relative performance. A post hoc analysis using a news site's traffic as another dependent variable showed that the importance of the industry and firm effects differs substantially across market performance and traffic. A detailed examination suggested that industry effects were powerful in explaining the extent of news sites' market performance, whereas firm effects were influential in explaining news sites' traffic. However, the study argued that generating traffic should not be news sites' ultimate goal but their relay station; otherwise the solvency challenge remains.

Since its inception, online continuing education programs have experienced great variation in the degree of participation among students. There is a growing body of literature suggesting that a sense of community is a possible predictor of participation in educational programs. Since online instruction is not conducted face-to-face, direct social interaction is missing. However, there exists a variety of online instructional methods that are designed to create social interaction and thus facilitate and foster a sense of community among participants in these programs.This dissertation sought to identify a model that would suggest what variables related to a sense of community might predict participation among students enrolled in an online continuing education program. This investigation included development of an instrument to measure participants' feeling of a sense of community, and examination of the relationship of the instrument scores with three components of participation (overall participation, interactive participation, and non-interactive participation).This investigation was conducted on a two-year online continuing medical education program at a university located in the southwestern United States. The participants were physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants representing three different cohorts.Item analysis of the instrument to measure sense of community revealed a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .89. A principal components analysis using an orthogonal (varimax) rotation produced four factors (subscales) with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from .70 to .86.The overall sense of community and four subscale scores were then compared to participation scores of participants. Preliminary analyses revealed no gender or cohort differences. A significant correlation was found between communicating for understanding subscale scores and interactive participation scores. Significant positive correlation coefficients were also found between the overall sense of community score and overall participation score as well as interactive participation score.This preliminary investigation indicated that the sense of community instrument developed for this study is a reliable measure including four factors which constitute a definition of sense of community. Further, it revealed that interactive participation in the course may be predicted from communicating for understanding and that sense of community is positively correlated to overall participation and interactive participation, but not to non-interactive participation.

This paper gives an account of themes that emerged from a preliminary analysis of a large corpus of electronic communications in an online, mediated course for intercultural learners. The goals were to test assumptions that electronic communication is internationally standardized, to identify any problematic aspects of such communications, and to construct a framework for the analysis of electronic communications using constructs from intercultural communications theory. We found that cyberspace itself has a culture(s), and is not culture-free. Cultural gaps can exist between individuals, as well as between individuals and the dominant cyberculture, increasing the chances of miscommunication. The lack of elements inherent in face-to-face communication further problematizes intercultural communications online by limiting opportunities to give and save face, and to intuit meaning from non-verbal cues. We conclude that electronic communication across cultures presents distinctive challenges, as well as opportunities to course planners.

How can we help university students make connections between ‘academic knowledge’, and their roles as members of local and global communities? How do we create a forum for students to engage in issues of social and ecological justice through critical thought, moral commitment and meaningful engagement in their learning and coming to know as global citizens? We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers and instructors who have collaboratively developed, and are now co-teaching an international, interactive, fully online university course: Introduction to Global Citizenship, available to students at five universities around the world. Our course combines academic rigour with personal reflection and group discussion. It provides students with a broad understanding of barriers and bridges to global citizenship, brings greater awareness of key global issues, and encourages individual and collective action and accountability on issues of sustainability and social justice. Pilot delivery of our course in 2005-2006 suggests that it offers students an extremely challenging, thought-provoking, international educational experience, as we learn about and discuss global issues together. In this working session, we hope describe our experiences with this course project, and to facilitate a productive dialogue with colleagues around teaching strategies for transformative learning in higher education. What ‘kinds’ of transformative learning are we seeking and how can we recognize it? Which instructional strategies facilitate deeper critical analysis and personal reflection? What roles might technology and interdisciplinarity play in this undertaking? Which investigative approaches might help us move our institutions beyond lipservice to global education?

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This study sought to understand: Why do young men play online games? How are the social aspects of the online gaming community governed? How is this virtual gaming world connected to the real world? The study explored the motivations and social conventions in online first person shooter games, and how they impact each other. As well, this study examined the relationship between this virtual world and the real physical world. A group of six young males between the ages of 18-30 years shared, in-depth, their opinions during individual interviews and a focus group discussion. First hand data were observed and collected during live online video gaming sessions. The data were coded and sorted according to themes in order to identify coding groups. The data revealed several motivating factors to play online first person shooter games, which are discussed in detail. As well, the research provided a better understanding of the social conventions in the online gaming community and how motivating factors and social conventions influence and impact one another. Many different ways in which this virtual environment is connected to the real world were discovered and many different factors can carry over into real life, such as relationships and money.

The advent of the internet has changed the mode of delivery for many courses in the tertiary sector and courses are now offered in an online learning environment with variable success. There has been a range of studies concerning online learning however there is little research about the role of information technologies in promoting professional learning for teaching practitioners. Initially courses were posted online using the resources from a face-to-face course for the course members to download. Now the capabilities of the internet allow for a range of technologies to be used to enhance the learning in an online learning environment. Educational practitioners undertake professional development to either develop their skills and knowledge to improve student learning in their classrooms or for promotional reasons. Educational practitioners want to be inspired by their teachers when undertaking professional development. Some researchers point to the relationship between the teacher and the course members as being an important factor in the success of a course. As many professional development courses are being delivered in an online learning environment the course members never meet the teacher and the teacher needs to develop strategies to allow these relationships to develop. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of educational practitioners who are undertaking an online professional development course. It sought to understand the teaching practitioners’ expectations of the teacher in the online environment. A range of strategies was used to collect the data including questionnaires, data gained from the online learning environment, email correspondence and semi-structured interviews. The findings from this study identify the importance of the teacher designing an online learning environment to enhance learning, by having tasks and assignments related to the course members’ own practice, and by having a range of interactions that provide reflection opportunities to enhance thinking and learning. Other important findings included the importance of the teacher taking an active role in the interactions. .