This netnographic and autoethnographic study examines self-presentation and impression formation through photographs presented on a gay online dating community, Qruiser. The theoretical framework of Goffman’s performance of self and Asch’s formation of impression was developed based on semiotic signifiers and signified. The study was carried out through participant observation of 200 gay daters’ photographs, online interviews, group discussions and narratives of the author’s personal experience. Observation showed that gay daters primarily presented six categories of photographs: self-portrait, daily pictures, travel pictures, sexually explicit pictures, pictures of objects, and black and white pictures. The daters were asked to justify their photographs in self-presentations, and the responses showed that the signs in the photographs could be both intentional and unintentional. Online interviews and group discussion participants suggested that there were distinctions of central and peripheral signifiers in impression formation. Furthermore, participants felt that misunderstanding of impressions resulting from dating photographs was unimportant, due to the compensation of textual presentation and messages.

Thesis advisor: Ted Gaiser / This study explores the alteration of gossip as a result of new technology. Specifically, this study examines the social implications of Facebook, a popular social networking website, on college students using the Boston College undergraduate population as a lens to study the college student population in general. Drawing from the theories of Simmel, Mead, and Goffman, and others, I outline how college students present themselves on Facebook’s online environment. I employed a mixed-method research approach, collecting data from a survey of Boston College undergraduates and, subsequently, conducting a series of in-depth face-to-face interviews in order to gain an understanding of how Facebook altered the social scene and, specifically, how Facebook affects gossip. Facebook is a communication tool widely used by college students in order to present themselves online and maintain relationships. I found that due to the pervasive nature of Facebook, in junction with the simplicity of posting information about oneself and others on Facebook, an important shift occurs in which private matters are publicized to a large audience. This shift facilitates the flow of gossip amongst college students. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology.

People are motivated to self evaluate and undertake this in their interactions with others. Interactions with others are increasingly taking place online, including via social networking websites, which can contain several differences to face to face interaction. This thesis examined how specific self-evaluation factors (self-esteem, social comparison tendency and self-concept clarity) affect various behaviours on and psychological outcomes of engaging with social media sites, including Facebook. Self-esteem predicted positive mood during Facebook use, whilst one’s relationship with the site (i.e. how emotionally connected to the site one is – or ‘Facebook intensity’) predicted engagement with activities interpreted as indicative of a ‘fear-of-missing-out’ (e.g. finding out what friends were up to). High scorers in performance and appearance self-esteem reported a positive mood shift after profile editing whilst low scoring counterparts reported the reverse. Those who compared to others frequently experienced a negative mood shift after viewing the Facebook newsfeed possibly reflecting the cognitive effort associated with social comparison. Self-esteem predicted use of positive emotions in status updates whilst number of Facebook friends was negatively predicted by self-concept clarity and positively by social comparison tendency. Participants textually described both their actual and ideal self enabling consideration of the implications for self-presentation attempts in certain online environments. Low self-esteem individuals decreased their use of anxious language when idealising the self whilst those with low self-concept clarity increased their use of positive emotions. The discrepant word count between actual and ideal selves suggested that the actual self appeared more easily articulated, most 4 pronounced amongst those who infrequently compared themselves to others. When others rated these self descriptions it appeared high scorers in self-esteem and self-concept clarity and those who compared frequently to others were generally most positively received. It appears that whilst those with unclear self-concepts and low self-esteem can present a more positive and less anxious idealised self than actual self, the overall thesis findings appear to support the rich-get-richer hypothesis (Valkenburg, Schouten, & Peter, 2005) with high scorers on these self-evaluation factors garnering the most benefits from social media. Whilst those who compare frequently may be adversely impacted by viewing the Facebook newsfeed, idealisation of self attributes appears to benefit these individuals in terms of positivity of impressions formed by others. Findings suggest that social media engagement may hold advantages and disadvantages for users dependent on the type of activity engaged with and the individual differences variables of the user.

abstract: Broadcast journalists often report on people dealing with illness or physical hardship, their difficulties and triumphs. But what happens when journalists personally experience those kinds of health-related issues? This study explores how 24 local and national on-air journalists share how they manage life with illness and hardship using personal narratives shared on their professional social media pages, detailing how the journalists navigate sharing a deeply personal experience while maintaining a professional journalistic persona. Thematic analysis found the journalists’ performed three acts when sharing personal health information in a public forum: they reported on their illness, they were transparent, and they justified their actions. Within the three themes a range of expression – from personal to professional – and influences over content were found, leading to the final overarching theme, implications and consequences on content creation. This dissertation finds a complicated struggle to maintain a professional self while acknowledging the urge to connect with others through a deeply personal experience. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Journalism and Mass Communication 2019

Three aspects of renal function were measured in the toad, Bufo marinus (N=lO): (1) effect of rate of blood volume expansion on renal functions (UFR; GFR; urine and plasma ion concentrations; and ion excretion rates), (2) effect of hypo- and hyperosmotic blood volume expansions on renal functions, and (3) role of GFR and tubular processes in the differential response of UFR under different osmotic expansion stresses. Renal responses to differential rates of blood volume expansion have not been investigated in amphibians. Rate responses will be analyzed considering effects: ( 1) during infusion (neural, or, short term regulation of extracellular fluid volume) and (2) post infusion (hormonal, or, long term regulation of extracellular fluid volume). Volume expansions were administered with hypoosmotic (0.4%) saline and hyperosmotic (1.4%) saline, and ranged in rate from 4.0 to 20.6 ml/kg/min. This protocol is designed to present volume regulatory mechanisms with increased volume stimuli and different osmotic stimuli. Overall, infusion rate had no significant effects on renal responses measured: urine flow rate (UFR); glomerular filtration rate (GFR); urine and plasma ion concentrations; natriuresis; or kaliuresis. This was true for the infusion period and for the observed post infusion period (90 min). Rate was correlated with GFR in the hypoosmotic group (r=0.30, p=0.04) and natriuresis in the hyperosmotic group (r=0.34, p=0.03). A significant positive correlation was observed between UFR and GFR. Relative to treatment, UFR differed significantly; GFR response was inherently similar despite differences at individual intervals, indicating UFR differences between the treatments is due to tubular processes. Responses to hypoosmotic infusion included a significant diuresis, natriuresis, and a decreased urine sodium concentration, relative to hyperosmotic infusion. At low UFRs the hyperosmotic group produced urine relatively concentrated in sodium. Urine sodium concentration and UFR were positively correlated in the hypoosmotic infusion group -- at high UFRs, kidneys were unable to produce a dilute urine.

Narcissists typically present themselves in self-enhancing ways to gain validation (through positive social appraisals) of grandiose, yet uncertain self-views. Using e-mail, Studies 1 and 2 investigated several intra- and interpersonal variables that may influence narcissists� self-presentational behaviour. University students rated themselves on self domains requiring either external validation (e.g., attractiveness) or internal validation (e.g., morality), after being randomly assigned to be either accountable or non-accountable to an evaluative audience for their self-ratings (Study 1), to present their self-ratings to either a single or multiple person evaluative audience (Study 2), and to expect to present their self-ratings to either a high or low status evaluative audience (Studies 1 and 2). Results suggested that when degree of external self-worth contingency (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001) was high, narcissists were insensitive to strategic self-presentational requirements, presenting themselves in a typically self-enhancing manner on external domains when accountable and when presenting to a multiple person audience. Non-narcissists showed more contextual sensitivity when degree of external self-worth contingency was high, and were more modest when these social contextual variables were present. Participants in Study 3 were given bogus positive or negative personality feedback on either their moral virtue or competitive spirit. Narcissists reported greater anger after receiving negative feedback, while also responding to negative feedback with inflated self-presentations. A key finding was that the combination of a high degree of self-worth contingency and negative feedback resulted in increases in self-reported depression and drops in state self-esteem in narcissists. Results suggest that narcissists are chronically vigilant for self-enhancement opportunities, but may be insensitive to social constraints and norms in their efforts to construct their grandiose identities. Narcissists are especially vigilant for self-enhancement opportunities on contingent domains, yet when negative feedback is received in these domains where self-worth is staked, depression and lowered self-esteem may result.

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Personal website is a new political communication channel of politicians in recent years. Websites can be politicians¡¦ personal media because of distinguishing features of unlimited space and hypermedia. Politicians present various kinds of information, political opinion and great self-image in their personal websites. This interactive media also provides the interaction between politicians and citizens. This thesis mainly uses content analysis to discover how 4th-term legislators present themselves in WWW as well as their websites¡¦ functionality and design. Then it also uses Web-based questionnaire to understand the usage and utility of websites¡¦ feedback mechanisms. The conclusions are as followed: (1) The DPP legislators are the most likely ones when it comes to establishing personal websites among the lawmakers. Although KMT has more than half shares in the Legislative Yuan, they have less than fifty percent of share in those who create their own personal websites. However, judging from the percentage of those who have websites in regard to their own party, the TAIP and New Party legislators, with more than fifty percent of them creating their own sites, are the most willing ones. (2) The research validates that politicians are experts of self-presentation. There are 70% of legislators using one or more self presentation strategies in their website and presenting various kinds of images in front of citizens. Self-promotion and ingratiation strategies are utilized the most. In addition, female legislators use more ingratiation strategies and present more professional image than male legislators. (3) There are 80% of legislators using at least one or more feedback mechanisms in their websites. It shows most of legislators realize the significance of their interaction with Internet users. But further analysis reveals that they didn¡¦t try to use the advantages brought from the Internet-based interaction, as there are nearly 40% of their websites having only one feedback mechanism. (4) Internet users think that the most important functions of legislators¡¦ websites are feedback mechanisms such as email, guest book and discussion group, etc. But these websites aren¡¦t doing a good job in providing feedbacks to their supporters. Judging from the evidence of users¡¦ usage of email boxes and services of petition, those who have never received a reply from the websites are the majority, which means that while the legislators¡¦ websites provide a space for public disclosure, there¡¦s much room to be desired when it comes to the legislators¡¦ and their staffs¡¦ regards to the public opinion.

Since APRANET, the predecessor of global internet, came into being during the 1960s, the advancements of networking technologies over the decades have created online communities such as MUDs, BBS, and newsgroups that allow users in different locations to exchange messages and share information. Nowadays, there are even wiki websites that invite all users to edit any page or to create new pages, and Yahoo! Answers, a community-driven knowledge market website where users can submit their questions and answer questions asked by other users. With such a variety of digital communities, individuals choose their own favorites to interact with others. Especially in recent years, with personal blogs, online photo albums, and micro-blogging taking the lead, more personalized features such as the display picture and user name, deep profiling, avatar and even personal page, are integrated into online discussion forums for individual users to freely present themselves. On the other hand, there are Wikipedia and MIT OpenCourseWare, both web-base collaborative projects that invite the collaboration and contributions of users identifying with their founding goals. Based on these observations, this thesis takes personal and social perceive into account. The research adopted self-presentation and social identity as the factors that can affect community member¡¦s participation, commitment, and knowledge contribution in the online communities. As hypothesized, community member¡¦s participation can motivates their commitment and knowledge contribution to the community. Furthermore, community member's identification with the online communities fosters their participation and commitment while community member¡¦s self-presentation, reflecting the degree of their participation and commitment though, has no direct relation in making any knowledge contribution to online communities.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2008. / Directed by Nancy Hodges; submitted to the Dept. of Consumer, Apparel and Retail Studies. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 28, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-221).