This dissertation explores the production, circulation, and regulation of Shanzhai online videos in order to understand how people's everyday lives are governed and how the governing power is resisted through the media system in contemporary China. This research is situated in the specific socio-cultural and historical context where Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have proliferated among various social strata, where the media are both the propagandistic mouthpiece and a profit-oriented industry, and where people are encouraged to pursue their life goals under a neoliberal rationality that is pervasive in media. I use a Foucauldian framework to examine the power modalities and power relationships manifested in the Shanzhai practices. I argue that both disciplinary power and the power of governmentality are found in this cultural practice. It is through the production, circulation and regulation of Shanzhai videos that power is exercised on different parties involved in this process as governance and resistance. This power relationship, I argue, is explicated through a ritualistic view of the reality presented in the trans-media, trans-genre narratives that people internalize in order to develop specific ways of using media to pursue their life goals. Meanwhile, people also employ various strategies to negotiate for resources to achieve these goals. In these negotiations, power relationships manifested themselves as their actions upon each other. Ordinary people are disciplined through patterned uses of media to live their lives and governed by a neoliberal mentality to pursue their life projects on the Internet. However, there is more than one set of discourses with a claim to the "truth" about Shanzhai in Chinese media. Thus, people are also empowered to take advantage of this discrepancy to gain symbolic as well as material favors. This study examined a nuanced and dialectic power relationship in contemporary Chinese society. First, it is found that people are both empowered and subjected to the ways they use media to pursue personal goals. Second, the resistance in the Shanzhai practices not only brought them symbolic power as much previous literature suggests, but also material resources such as media access and sponsorship. Last, the holistic view of the media system helps us situate Shanzhai online videos in the convergent media environment and draw a better picture of the web of power relationships.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Wes Wise / Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) contamination has been a long-existing concern for those engaged in cattle production, often causing negative public health and economic consequences. The existence of pre-harvest practices that reduce E. coli contamination creates the opportunity to support human health by focusing on modifying behaviors in cattle production through educational communication. It is vital to consider how the communication can be modified to persuade the audience. This study examined the effects of different sources, such as a veterinarian or a cattle producer, presenting the educational message in a training video. An experimental design was used to examine how the information source used in a video relates to the source’s credibility, as well as testing concepts related to the theory of planned behavior. A link to a video and an online questionnaire were distributed to cattle producers through the weekly news e-mail distributed by several beef industry organizations. The data analysis of 106 complete questionnaires found that no matter how a presenter was described in a training video there was no difference in the perceived credibility of the presenter. Also, no matter how the source was identified there was no difference in the variables related to the theory of planned behavior and possible behavior adoption. In addition to these results, this study found that no matter how the source was labeled, higher perceived credibility correlated with more positive attitudes, perceived norms, perceived behavior control and reported intention to adopt the suggested behaviors. This pattern provides evidence for credibility’s relationship with possible behavior adoption, indicating that credibility of the source is an important consideration when message designers are constructing training videos.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-09-14T13:48:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ivofernandesgomes.pdf: 1097882 bytes, checksum: b231d0c464c09116566b084db43c4194 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-10-04T13:10:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ivofernandesgomes.pdf: 1097882 bytes, checksum: b231d0c464c09116566b084db43c4194 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-10-04T13:11:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ivofernandesgomes.pdf: 1097882 bytes, checksum: b231d0c464c09116566b084db43c4194 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-04T13:11:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ivofernandesgomes.pdf: 1097882 bytes, checksum: b231d0c464c09116566b084db43c4194 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-31 / Esta pesquisa buscou analisar a utilização de vídeos disponíveis na Internet por estudantes de Licenciatura, partindo da prática desses sujeitos e identificando as finalidades de uso dessa ferramenta. A pesquisa toma como base a consideração de que a utilização desses vídeos pelos alunos seja recorrente e que essa prática possa interferir de alguma maneira no processo de aprendizagem deles, bem como em sua formação para a docência. Para execução da pesquisa foi realizado um estudo de caso, em um campus da Universidade do Estado da Bahia (UNEB) em Teixeira de Freitas, envolvendo 371 graduandos de todos os cursos daquela unidade. O processo de coleta de dados aconteceu por meio de questionários e entrevistas, e os resultados obtidos permitiu sinalizar para uma prática densa e crescente de utilização de vídeos disponíveis na internet por estudantes das 5 licenciaturas investigadas (biologia, letras, pedagogia, matemática e história). Prática que, na maioria dos casos, se iniciou antes da graduação, sofrendo influência desses estudos e de outras experiências que juntos contribuíram para a construção de alguns pressupostos por parte desses estudantes sobre as potencialidades da utilização de vídeos curtos extraídos da internet. / This research sought to analyze the use of videos available online by undergraduate teacher-training students, identifying the purpose of using this tool based on the subjects' practice. Taking into account the undergraduates' recurrent use of these videos and how this practice may somehow interfere on their teacher-training education and learning process. To conduct the research, a case study was performed on one of University of Bahia's (UNEB) campuses located in Teixeira de Freitas, involving 371 undergraduate students from all courses from that location. The data collection process was carried through questionnaires and interviews. The results obtained allowed to point out a dense and growing practice of using videos available online by the students of the five surveyed degrees (biology, literature, pedagogy, mathematics and history). A practice which, in most cases, began prior to graduation influencing said studies as well as other experiences that collectively contributed toward building students' numerous assumptions over the prospective use of short online videos.

College students are increasingly engaged in watching online videos and using social media. Therefore, researchers should attempt to better understand how these variables as well as other social and cognitive variables, affect the communication competence of students. The researcher administered a questionnaire to 392 college students from a private medium-sized West Coast university using various modified scales examining student-to-student confirmation, social support through social media, online video viewing, self-esteem, personal reports of public speaking anxiety, and communication competence. Student-to-student confirmation and online video viewing were measured using new sets of scales developed by the researcher. The data from the surveys was analyzed to determine which independent variables have the greatest influence on communication competence. Student-to-student confirmation, social support through social media, online video viewing, and self-esteem all have a significant positive relationship with communication competence. The correlation analysis also found a significant negative correlation between personal reports of public speaking anxiety and communication competence. A regression analysis showed that the combination of social support through social media, online video viewing, self-esteem, and personal reports of public speaking anxiety demonstrated predictive power regarding communication competence. These results suggest that there are important relationships between both social and cognitive variables and communication competence.

Submitted by Louis-Jean de Gastines (lj.degastines@gmail.com) on 2013-04-25T07:48:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Emotions and viral videos - LJ de Gastines - vf.pdf: 1615622 bytes, checksum: 9282d09dd6cedfa6ea6976869600e8ad (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Eliene Soares da Silva (eliene.silva@fgv.br) on 2013-04-25T12:26:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Emotions and viral videos - LJ de Gastines - vf.pdf: 1615622 bytes, checksum: 9282d09dd6cedfa6ea6976869600e8ad (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-04-25T13:14:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Emotions and viral videos - LJ de Gastines - vf.pdf: 1615622 bytes, checksum: 9282d09dd6cedfa6ea6976869600e8ad (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-27 / Going viral' is seen by marketers as the new grail to reach large online communities. In this viral scene, videos have a special role, given their strong tendency to spread exponentially over the internet via social sharing. Every year sees the breaking of new records for virality. In March 2012, the video 'KONY 2012' calling for united action against the eponym African militia leader, reached over 34,000,000 of views on its first day of launch. In December 2012, the 'Gangnam Style' music video became the first YouTube video to reach over a billion views, totalizing over 1.4 billion views in March 2013. Such illustrations clearly underline the new scale that the internet gave to word-of-mouth sharing. Marketers understood the fantastic lever of viral videos and tried to seize the phenomenon so as to replicate it for business purposes. This research aims at providing insights to academics and marketers on the determinants to online commercial videos sharing. The focus was set more specifically on the role of emotions in the sharing, to identify which emotions lead and how they lead to the sharing of online commercial videos. The research was conducted leveraging two scientific methods, a survey and a text-mining analysis that attributed emotions to comments from the most shared YouTube videos. The research confirms with new means a number of hypotheses previously tested and validated by Academics. It shows that positivity and strength are larger drivers for video sharing than negativity and weakness (Lindgreen and Vanhamme, 2005; Dobele et al., 2007). It also argues that video content as well as its context are very significant determinants of online video-sharing (Laskey et al., 1989; Taylor, 1999). Beyond validating existing theories, the research brought new elements to the table, notably the role of strength/weakness dimension of emotions to analyze virality, and the importance of a clear 'call to action' embedded in the video to boost its sharing. These novel concepts enrich the very quickly evolving literature on the topic and pave the way for further research. / Se tornar viral' é visto pelos comerciantes como o novo Graal para alcançar grandes comunidades online. Neste contexto viral, vídeos têm um papel especial dada a forte capacidade deles de se espalhar exponencialmente pela internet através do compartilhamento social. Cada ano se vê a quebra de novos recordes através deste tipo de viralidade. Em março de 2012, o vídeo 'Kony 2012' envolvendo a ação unida contra o líder de milícia Africano epônimo, atingiu mais de 34 milhões de visualizações em seu primeiro dia de lançamento. Em dezembro de 2012, o vídeo-clipe da música 'Gangnam Style' tornou-se o primeiro vídeo do YouTube a alcançar mais de um bilhão de visualizações, totalizando mais de 1,4 bilhões de visualizações em março de 2013. Tais ilustrações mostram claramente a nova escala que a internet deu ao fenômeno do boca-a-boca. Os comerciantes entenderam o potencial fantástico dos vídeos virais e tentaram aproveitar o fenômeno de modo a reproduzi-lo para fins comerciais. Esta pesquisa oferece para os acadêmicos e os profissionais de marketing uma análise dos determinantes do compartilhamento de vídeos comerciais online. Mais especificamente, o foco da dissertação foi definido sobre o papel das emoções no compartilhamento, para identificar quais delas levam e como levam à partilha de vídeos comerciais online. A pesquisa foi realizada a partir de dois métodos científicos: uma pesquisa e uma análise de texto sobre a atribuição de emoções para comentários dos vídeos mais compartilhados do YouTube. A pesquisa confirma, com novos métodos, hipóteses previamente testadas e validadas por acadêmicos. Ela mostra que a positividade e a força das emoções são determinantes de compartilhamento maiores do que a negatividade e a fraqueza (Lindgreen and Vanhamme, 2005; Dobele et al., 2007). A dissertação também argumenta que o conteúdo do vídeo, bem como o contexto são determinantes significativos de compartilhamento de vídeo (Laskey et al., 1989; Taylor, 1999). Além de validar teorias existentes, a pesquisa trouxe novos conceitos para a discussão, especialmente o papel da dimensão força / fraqueza de emoções para analisar o fenômeno viral, e a importância de uma clara 'chamada à ação' incluída no vídeo para aumentar a sua partilha. Estes novos conceitos enriquecem a literatura do tema – que evolui muito rapidamente – e preparam o caminho para futuras pesquisas.

The primary goal of this study is to observe how the meaning of nostalgia is negotiated and remediated in Li Ziqi’s short videos, and understand the construction and expression of pastoral images in the video, by examining its social modality of the audiencing site and the compositional and social modalities of the image site through a Critical Visual Approach(CVA). Except for CVA, Remix as a thinking tool helps to frame data selection, mixed methods and theories throughout. To be specific, the aim of this study is to examine Li Ziqi’s communication of nostalgia online via short videos, showcases how the pastoral characteristics are evoked in the videos and the relationship between nostalgia of pastoral life and short videos. Moreover, it is of interest to think about what nostalgia communication on short videos say about society. When it comes to the two sites, firstly, an ethnographic method of thick descriptions is used to study media text and selected comments on the audiencing site. Secondly, on the image site, compositional analysis on selected visual materials is used to examine its compositions and then signs and meanings embedded in them are analyzed through semiotic analysis and interpreted by thick descriptions. As for theories, nostalgia and media, the logic of social acceleration, remediation and new media, and simulacra and simulation are applied to facilitate discussion.