This paper provides insights on how five different frames of the Edward Snowden issue (Hero, Patriot, Traitor, Whistleblower, Dissident) have been diffused on the Twitter platform. This study uses NodeXL to collect, analyze and visualize all the tweets including the keyword “Edward Snowden” from February 17 to April 10, 2014 to examine the flow of information and the interaction between opinion leaders along with the characteristics of opinion leaders in this specific issue. Findings provide insight about future strategic communication for general branding and public image maintenance. / text

To αντικείμενο της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η μελέτη της συμπεριφοράς των χρηστών της Wikipedia, όταν πραγματοποιούν μια τροποποίηση περιεχομένου ενός άρθρου, σε σχέση με την χώρα καταγωγής τους. Η μελέτη ξεκινάει με μια γενική παρουσίαση των ιστοσελίδων κοινωνικής δικτύωσης με έμφαση στις Wikipedia αλλά και της έρευνας του ολλανδού κοινωνιολόγου Geert Hofstede και τις θεωρίας του περί την ύπαρξη πέντε κοινωνικών διαστάσεων που μπορούν να περιγράψουν αρκετά ικανοποιητικά κάθε κράτος και τους κατοίκους του. Στην συνέχεια, κατασκευάζουμε μια εφαρμογή η οποία αντλεί και συλλέγει δεδομένα σχετικά με τις τροποποιήσεις από πέντε διαφορετικές εκδόσεις – γλώσσες της Wikipedia για 8 διαφορετικά άρθρα και τα κατηγοριοποιεί ανάλογα με το είδος της τροποποίησης. Τέλος, γίνεται η προσπάθεια εξαγωγής κάποιων συμπερασμάτων σχετικά με τον τρόπο συμπεριφοράς των χρηστών που προέρχονται από το ίδιο κράτος συγκρίνοντας τα δεδομένα που συλλέξαμε για κάθε διαφορετική γλώσσα με τις διαστάσεις που έχει μετρήσει ο Geert Hofstede για το αντίστοιχο κράτος. / The subject of this thesis is to study the behaviour of the users of Wikipedia when editing the content of an article, with respect to the country of origin of the user. The study begins with an overview of social networking websites with a focus on Wikipedia and a presentation of the research of the Dutch sociologist Geert Hofstede and his theory of the existence of five social dimensions that can describe quite well each country and its residents. Afterwards, we develop an application that draws and collects data from the article history about the edits of eight Wikipedia articles from five different editions – languages of Wikipedia and classifies them according to the type of the edit. Finally, we attempt to export some conclusions about the behaviour of users from the same country by relating the data we exported for each language to the dimensions measured by Geert Hofstede for the corresponding country.

This dissertation has two overall aims; to explore and develop the use of SNA in sociology, and to demonstrate that sociology has much to give to other sciences. Interdisciplinary collaboration is necessary because we do not live in a world in which subject areas are strictly isolated. Human beings are social animals, and a sociological understanding is crucial in all human-related science. The examination in this thesis of different kinds of social networks and how they affect the lives of individuals (and vice versa) will provide knowledge both in the development of methods for analyzing social networks, and in their areas specific scientific areas. Paper I-III investigates sexual networks and how the number of sexual encounters involving intercourse in combination with the number of sexual partners affects the dynamics of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The results show that this relationship is non-linear, indicating that it may not be the individuals with the largest number of partners who have the most impact on the spread of STIs. One might also have to focus interventions on individuals who have a large number of sexual encounters involving intercourse per partner, and who have several (but not necessarily a very large number of) partners. In the fourth paper, we apply the theoretical concept of so-called small worlds to a sexual network. The spread of epidemics can be difficult to stop in such networks, and we show that the sexual network of individuals infected with chlamydia can be characterized as such. The fifth and last paper differs from the four first. In this paper, we focus on how individuals who committed suicide in Stockholm during the 1990s where connected to each other. The social-interaction exposure effect is larger for the individual within the family than at the workplace; yet work-domain exposure is more important for the overall suicide rate because individuals are more often exposed to suicides of co-workers than family members.

Web surveys in higher education are particularly important for evaluating the quality of academic teaching and learning. Traditionally, mainly quantitative data is used for quality assessment. Increasingly, questions are being raised about the impact of attitudes of individuals involved. Therefore, especially the analysis of open-ended text responses in web surveys offers the potential for impact evaluation. Despite the fact that qualitative text mining, sentiment analysis, and network analytics are being introduced in other research areas, these instruments are still slowly gaining access to evaluation research. On the one hand, there is a lack of methodological expertise to deal with large numbers of text responses (e.g. via semantic analysis, linguistically supported coding, etc.). On the other hand, deficiencies in interdisciplinary expertise are identified in order to be able to contextualize the results. The contribution contributes to the field of impact evaluation and reveals methodological implications for the development of text mining, sentiment analysis, and network analytics in evaluation processes.

This research sought to explore the patterns of co-authorship collaboration between African and international authors who have published together in journals relating to the field of social psychology. Bibliographic data was used to extract and produce social network maps of academic co-author collaborations in which one of the authors was African or affiliated to an author from an African country. These patterns of collaboration were analysed using social network analysis and it was found that, on average, African authors are poorly interconnected with other international authors in the field of social psychology and are also poorly interconnected with other African authors across the continent. It is likely that these structures of collaboration constrain the ability of African authors to produce their own relevant knowledge within the field of social psychology, in that their collaborations are limited and usually mediated by international connections. This pattern of interconnection makes it more likely that African social psychologists will operate within paradigms generated by academics in international and well-resourced countries and militates against the development of African paradigms. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2014.

隨著網路資訊技術的進步，同時也建構了人與人之間知識傳遞與情感維繫的各種不同社會網路形式與空間，透過瞭解人際之間的社會網路運作，不僅關係個人是否能成功實現目標，亦可協助組織解決問題與意識傳遞及運行。加上近年來「性別主流化」(Gender mainstreaming)政策影響，從過往兩性到現今多元性別的轉變，希望建立尊重多元性別的態度及平等相處的互動。本研究試圖將多元性別族群意識傳遞與社會網路分析技術做結合，以社會網路分析方法，來描述網路上多元性別族群意識傳遞之社會活動的特徵與其意義，對多元性別族群網路使用者的網上集體行為進行剖析，以社會網路分析方法呈現，從人與人的互動分析中，探討多元性別族群意識如何傳遞。並延續看見尊重多元性別做努力，不僅瞭解性別的多樣差異，更重要的是結合資訊管理方式，營造一個資訊管理融合社會多元性別族群友善的環境與資源連結。 / With the advancement of Internet and information technology, various online social platforms have been constructed for interpersonal affiliation and knowledge dissemination. Understanding how the interpersonal social network works helps not only a person fulfill goals but an organization resolve problems and spread its ideas. In recent years, under the influences of the gender mainstreaming policy, the idea of two genders has shifted to the idea of various genders with the hope to encourage a tolerant attitude toward LGBTIQ community and promote equal interaction among all people. The study intends to combine the dissemination of LGBTIQ community awareness and social network analysis. The intention is to depict online dissemination of LBGT community awareness and to dissect the collective behaviors of LGBTIQ community with social network analysis. The analysis of interpersonal interaction is employed to see how the LGBTIQ community awareness has been disseminated. The result not only helps understand differences among genders but also gives insights to know that the most important is to combine LGBTIQ community awareness with information management with the purpose to create a friendlier environment for LBGTIQ community combined with information management.

Submitted by Biblioteca de Pós-Graduação em Geoquímica BGQ (bgq@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-12-18T15:08:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Verônica de Souza Gomes_UNIRIO_2017.pdf: 2390659 bytes, checksum: 1d9ff7f83da9d70b3a822a7bacc7743b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-18T15:08:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Verônica de Souza Gomes_UNIRIO_2017.pdf: 2390659 bytes, checksum: 1d9ff7f83da9d70b3a822a7bacc7743b (MD5) / Universidade Federal Fluminense. Instituto de Química. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geoquímica, Niterói, RJ / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo investigar a estrutura científica do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências (Geoquímica) da Universidade Federal Fluminense, tendo como referência os atores científicos, a fim contextualizar e verificar o desempenho do PPG-Geo/UFF, e contribuir com o alinhamento às diretrizes do SNPG. Tem-se como premissa que a complexidade da pesquisa científica envolve uma organização social dos atores na forma de rede. Neste sentido, a pesquisa é um estudo de caso, que parte de uma fase exploratória, que adota como metodologia uma pesquisa documental, Análise de Reses Sociais (ARS) e aplicação de questionário. O resultado contribui sistematicamente para identificar os atores que sustentam o campo científico da Geoquímica na UFF e suas comunidades epistêmicas, o conhecimento das práticas de produção e compartilhamento do conhecimento e de informações considerando a Política de Pós-Graduação no Brasil. Por fim, a contribuição da pesquisa para o campo da Geoquímica está representada na construção de diretrizes, entre elas a identificação de projetos já existentes a fim de atender a demanda do SNPG em relação à Educação Básica; ampliação da visibilidade do Programa por meio da implantação da plataforma ‘SOMOS UFF’; complementar a inserção de itens importantes para ampliação do conhecimento e da visibilidade no site do Programa; e o fortalecimento dos elos com a biblioteca, em busca de uma relação maior entre pesquisador e bibliotecário. Conclui-se que através das pesquisas, atividades desenvolvidas, relações estabelecidas, entre outros meios, o PPG-Geo/UFF na sua área de atuação vem contribuindo fortemente para o progresso da Ciência. / This research aims to investigate the scientific structure of the Graduate Program in Geosciences (Geochemistry) of Universidade Federal Fluminense, with reference to the scientific actors, in order to contextualize and verify the performance of PPG-Geo/UFF, and contribute to the alignment with the SNPG guidelines. The premise is that the complexity of scientific research involves a social organization of the actors in the form of network. In this sense, the research is a case study, which starts from an exploratory phase, which adopts as methodology a documentary research, Social Network Analysis (SNA) and questionnaire application. The result contributes systematically to identify the actors who sustain the scientific field of Geochemistry at UFF and their epistemic communities, knowledge production practices and knowledge sharing and information considering postgraduate policy in Brazil. Finally, the contribution of research to the field of Geochemistry is represented in building guidelines, including the identification of existing projects in order to meet the demand of SNPG in relation to basic education; increasing the visibility of the program through the implementation of the platform ‘We are UFF’; complementing the insertion of important items for broadening knowledge and visibility on the site of the Program; strengthening links with the library in search of a larger relationship between researchers and librarians. Concluding that through research, activities developed, relations established, among other means, the PPG-Geo/UFF in its area of action has been contributing strongly to the progress of S

Social media today is a dominant communication tool, which structures not only our social interactions but also filter the information users are getting displayed. The big social media platforms use our interaction data to analyse our behaviour and sell the data for commercial interest. But not only the pure interaction data is valuable for these platforms. Also hidden information, which can be derived from our interactive networks, about our social structures, social classifications and social status are gathered and monetised. This research attempts on the one hand to uncover some of these methods used by social media platforms, and on the other hand, also wants to show how useful these new methods can be for research on social phenomena. Therefore, this study goes beyond the confining limits of traditional sociology, where either qualitative or quantitative methods are applied. Following the idea of Critical Realism, the positivist and constructivist methods are applied in combination in order to provide thick accounts of the studied material. In this study, varying socioeconomic classification systems (like the Sinus-Milieu models) are investigated and evaluated against the background of Bourdieu’s ideas on cultural and social forms of capital. The present study uses a mixed method approach (Social Network Analysis and Sentiment Analysis) to analyse quantitative data from Twitter conversations which were collected during the Austrian EU Election 2019. In conclusion, one could say that the overall purpose of this study is to demonstrate the usefulness of Critical Realism for social media research, since this approach can create a thicker account of the studied material than other, more traditional methods. This undertaking is demonstrated by the findings of the study. These findings are the building of specific sub-clusters of EU candidates which are not related to the same political background and traditional demographics but whose relation can be detected and described using Bourdieu’s concepts of social and cultural capital. As a mean for gathering empirical data, Twitter turned out to be a useful and accessible tool for this study.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Introduction: National community health worker (CHW) programmes are to an increasing extent being implemented in health systems globally, mirrored in South Africa in the ward-based outreach team (WBOT) strategy. In many countries, including South Africa, a major challenge impacting the performance and sustainability of scaled-up CHW programmes is ensuring adequate support from and supervision by the local health system. Supervisory systems, where they exist, are usually corrective and hierarchical in nature, and implementation remains poor. In the South African context, the absence of any guidance on CHW supportive supervision has led to varied practices across the country. Improved approaches to supportive supervision are considered critical for CHW programme performance. However, there is relatively little understanding of how this can be done sustainably at scale, and effective CHW supervisory models remain elusive. Research to date has mostly positioned supervision as a technical process rather than a set of relationships, with the former testing specific interventions rather than developing holistic approaches attuned to local contexts. This doctoral study was exploratory in nature, seeking to generate an in-depth and contextualised understanding of the supervision phenomenon in one specific district in the North West Province (NWP) in South Africa. Using co-production methodology in an iterative approach, the study culminated in the formulation of a supportive supervision framework with CHWs and other frontline actors. Methods: The study was based on a holistic conceptual framework of supportive supervision, which was viewed as comprising three core functions ‒ accountability, development and support ‒ embedded in a complex and multi-level system of resources, people and relationships. To address the study objectives, the research used a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Three studies were conducted in a phased process: study 1 comprised a qualitative description of policy and practices in two districts related to the supervision of WBOTs; study 2 identified the main actors and mapped the supervisory system of WBOTs in the district, using social network analysis (SNA); and study 3 involved a qualitative exploration of workplace and interpersonal trust factors in the district and the supervisory system of WBOTs in the district. These three studies provided inputs for a workshop aimed at developing recommendations for a district-level, WBOT supportive supervisory framework. Four published papers reporting on the research conducted are presented in this thesis. It should be noted that the research was conducted during a turbulent political and administrative period in the NWP, when the WBOT programme changed from being a flagship programme for the country to one in crisis. This shifting context needs to be borne in mind when the findings are viewed and interpreted. Results: The study identified weaknesses in both the design and implementation of the supervisory system of WBOTs, with the absence of clear guidance resulting in WBOTs and PHC facilities performing their roles in an ad hoc manner, defined within local contexts. The study documented evidence of high internal cohesion within WBOTs and (where present) with their immediate outreach team leaders (OTLs). However, the relationships between WBOTs and the rest of the primary health care (PHC) and district health system were characterised by considerable mistrust – both towards other workers and the system as a whole. This occurred against a backdrop of increasing OTL vacancies, and the perceived abandonment of WBOT training and development systems and career opportunities. These findings are not dissimilar to those reported previously on the WBOT programme in South Africa and in programmes in other low-resource settings. Nevertheless, through its in-depth, exploratory and participatory approaches, this study provides additional insights into the phenomenon of supportive supervision. Firstly, in conceptualising supportive supervision as a set of ‘bundled’ practices within complex local health systems, the findings reflected the complexity of everyday realities and lived experiences. Secondly, through the embedded nature of the research and the phased data-collection process, the study was able to observe the impact of wider health system contexts and crises on the coalface functioning of the WBOT programme. Thirdly, the study emphasised how supportive supervision depends on healthy relational dynamics and trust relationships, and, finally, how a co-production approach can translate broad guidance, experience and theoretical understanding into meaningful, local practice owned by all the actors involved. Ultimately, the process of engagement, building relationships and forging consensus proved to be more significant than the supportive supervision framework itself. Conclusion: The lack of explicit, coherent and holistic guidance in developing CHW supportive supervision guidance and the failure to address supervision constraints at a local level undermine the performance and sustainability of CHW programmes. Effective supportive supervisory systems require bottom-up collaborative platforms characterised by active participation, sharing of local tacit knowledge and mutual learning. Supervisory systems also need to be designed in ways that promote relationships and generate trust between CHW programmes, other actors and the health system.

<p>In April and May 2015 Nepal suffered two massive earthquakes of 7.5 and 6 5 magnitudes in the Richter scale, killing 8856 and injuring 22309. Two years later in September 2017, Puerto Rico underwent the Category 5 Hurricane Maria, killing an estimate of 800 to 8000 people and displacing hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans (Kishore et al., 2018). This dissertation project is the comparative study of Nepal’s and Puerto Rico’s networked communities, their actors, participants (Potts, 2014), and the users (Ingraham, 2015; Johnson, 1998) who used crisis communication practices to address the havoc created by the disaster. Using a mixed-methods research approach and with framework created with the Assemblage Theory (DeLanda, 2016), I argue that disasters create situations in which various networked communities are formed into transnational assemblages along with an emergence of innovative digital technical and professional communication practices.</p>