Esta pesquisa propõe-se a estudar a apropriação do aplicativo Snapchat pelo Portal UOL para produção de conteúdo jornalístico. O foco está em observar as stories, que são narrativas criadas a partir de fragmentos de até 10 segundos que desaparecem após 24 horas, produzidas pelo perfil do UOL. Para isso, selecionamos as stories que foram produzidas sobre política e republicados no site TV UOL, totalizando 28 vídeos com 657 fragmentos, chamados de snaps. A análise empírica foi dividida em duas etapas: uma de caráter quantitativo, que busca observar a ocorrência de elementos previamente mapeados nos snaps; e outra qualitativa, cujo olhar recai sobre como esses snaps são estruturados para criar as stories. Como resultados, apontamos elementos frequentes, como o uso de snaps nativos e a preferência por vídeos frente a outros formatos multimídia, como fotos, textos e áudios. Também observamos que as stories não seguem um padrão e aliam formatos narrativos diferentes, como cobertura do local dos fatos, entrevistas e bastidores. / This research proposes to study the appropriation of the Snapchat application through the UOL Portal for the production of journalistic content. The focus is on watching stories, which are narratives created from fragments of up to 10 seconds that disappear after 24 hours, produced by the UOL profile. For that, we selected the stories that were produced on politics and republished on the site TV UOL, totaling 28 videos with 657 fragments, called snaps. The empirical analysis was divided in two stages: one of quantitative character, which seeks to observe the occurrence of previously mapped elements in the snaps; and another qualitative, whose look falls on how these snaps are structured to create the stories. As results, we point out frequent elements such as the use of native snaps and the preference for videos versus other multimedia formats such as photos, texts and audios. We also note that stories do not follow a pattern and link different narrative formats, such as spot coverage, interviews, and backstage.

Digital Identity

While there is a growing trend to use social media for public health promotion, research on its actual potential to influence health behaviors is limited. This dissertation explores whether and how social network sites (SNSs) can be used to promote physical activity (PA) through electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Composed of two studies, this dissertation explores PA-related eWOM from both the senders' and receivers' perspectives, and examines actual messages. The first study uses a web survey and explores the antecedents and communication consequences of eWOM about leisure-time PA (LTPA), and the behavioral consequences of eWOM among college students. The second study is based on a content analysis of public Twitter posts in the U.S. in 2011 regarding PA. Based on Sun et al.'s (2006) Path Model of Antecedents and Consequences of Online Word of Mouth, it was found that undergraduate SNS users with higher affective involvement and stronger social ties with their SNS contacts were more likely to provide opinions or information about PA. People with stronger social ties were also more likely to seek opinions or information. Both opinion leadership and opinion seeking were associated with forwarding and chatting. Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior, the first study also found social support of PA via eWOM on SNSs is associated with both affective and instrumental attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC), while social negativity of PA via eWOM on SNSs is associated with instrumental attitudes and PBC. Affective attitude, instrumental attitude, and PBC, in turn, predict intention to participate in LTPA. Moreover, when putting all these different constructs together to predict intention, social support via eWOM was found to indirectly influence the intention to participate in LTPA through the constructs in the Theory of Planned Behavior (including affective and instrumental attitudes and perceived behavioral control). Applying the components of both the Path Model of Antecedents and Consequences of Online Word of Mouth and the Social Cognitive Theory, the second study examined Twitter posts of PA-related eWOM. PA modeling dominated the different aspects of social influence. Most people chat rather than forward information, and provide rather than seek opinions and information about PA. PA type is associated with PA modeling in multiple ways. People with more followers are more likely to forward information about PA. This dissertation widens and deepens the understanding of PA-related eWOM on SNSs by the application of theoretical frameworks from both marketing and health behavior fields. The results suggest that people who find PA interesting and fun, perceive themselves as close to their contacts on SNSs, and have larger social network on SNSs can be recruited as opinion leaders in future interventions to promote PA. These opinion leaders can provide PA modeling and social support though SNSs which will increase their contacts' positive attitudes and PBC and consequently increase their intention to participate in PA.

More than half a billion people use Online Social Network Sites (OSNS) today. They disclose personally identifiable information such as names, date of birth, email address, phone numbers, and home address on their profiles. Some OSNS users also disclose their political and religious views and personal interests. The huge commercial potential of OSNS users’ information and the integration of OSNS with third party advertisers and/or aggregators pose threats to users’ privacy. This thesis reports a study which contributes to our understanding of the form and nature of online privacy by critically analysing the privacy concerns related with the failed launch of Facebook’s advertising tool Beacon. Beacon is an interesting case study because it highlighted the privacy concerns of OSNS users. Qualitative data was gathered from 29 weblogs (blogs) representing user opinions (492 comments) published between 6th November 2007(when Beacon was launched) and 28th February 2008 (when commentary had dwindled). A thematic analysis of the blogs contributed in the development of a taxonomy of privacy concerns of OSNS users specifically related with the third party information use. Noticeably, the concerns such as commercialism, terms of service (TOS), lack of user control, lack of user awareness and data protection influence user perceptions of online privacy. The limitations and key implications for designers and service providers of OSNS are also discussed.

My dissertation is an ethnographic study of Asian-American users on the social network site, Xanga. Based on my analysis of online texts, responses to texts, and participants' discussions of their writing motivations, my research strongly suggests that examining digital writing through participants' complex and overlapping constructions of their community and public(s) can help the field reconsider digital writing as a site of Asian-American rhetoric and as a process of constructing and transforming racial identities and relations. In particular, I examine how community and public, as interconnected and shifting writing imaginaries on Xanga, afford Asian-American users on this site the opportunity to write, explore, and circulate their racial and ethnic identities for multiple purposes and various audiences. Race and ethnicity, as many scholars argue, are shifting and unstable concepts and experiences. Therefore, writing about race and ethnicity may be done best in environments that can accommodate complex and multiple acts of racial and ethnic formations. While my research demonstrates how participants "want to be heard" on their own terms, whom they imagine (or want to imagine) as listening/reading significantly informs their writing. That is, participants' conceptions of their writing goals and their audiences are multiple and simultaneous--these racial and ethnic writing acts are often inflected by intersecting issues of gender, sexuality, class, culture, and intergenerational tensions--and, hence, traditional writing genres that limit such goals, audiences, and complexity do not always reflect how writers conceive of their own racial and ethnic experiences and their writing in the world. This study, then, examines Xanga as a flexible writingecologythat affords Asian-American users opportunities to compose their continuously transforming and complex racial and ethnic identities across multiple niches of representational sites and, specifically, in public and community spaces.

Social Network Sites (SNSs) have emerged as a new way of socializing in the internet age with TikTok being the latest platform to emerge as a worldwide phenomenon, particularly popular amongst the youth. However, there is a knowledge gap about how youth in Sweden’s self-presentation is shaped by the design of TikTok. This explorative study aims to examine what possibilities and restrictions TikTok facilitates for self-presentation and what relevance the users’ physical location, more specifically Sweden, has for their content. We conducted qualitative interviews with ten individuals between the ages of 18 and 23, living in Sweden and that have all created videos on the platform. The gathered data, analyzed using thematic analysis, resulted in five different themes, Usage, Functionality/Platform design, Socializing, Personal life and Expressing oneself; each with underlying categories and codes. From the analysis it became apparent that it is not only the design of the platform, but also its use in relation to other SNSs which shapes how users present themselves on it. The unique downplay of following friends and family as well as the encouraged use of filters and sounds from other users’ videos result in a distinct freedom of expression as well as video creation based on imitation. We also found that the platform seems to offer easy accessible tools for creative exploration without the imposed expectation of posting publicly. These findings show that youths in Sweden have a profound understanding and awareness of how SNSs can be utilized regarding self-presentation in daily life.

No description available.

Previous research has mainly focused on the social capital formation process on Facebook. In general, professionally-oriented social network sites (P-SNSs), such as LinkedIn, are under-researched in the Information Systems discipline. In addition, current studies do not include the effects of important elements of social network sites (SNS) such as one’s profile on social capital formation. As such, the main objective of this research is to propose and validate a model that explains the process by which individuals develop and accrue social capital through using P-SNSs. The theoretical framework of the proposed research draws upon Social Network Analysis, Social Media Analysis, and Social Capital Theory. Using an online survey of 377 LinkedIn users, this study finds that: (1) P-SNS users’ actions (perceived profile disclosure, active participation, and passive consumption) have significant positive effects on perceived social connectedness; (2) perceived social connectedness on P-SNSs has a significant positive effect on perceived networking value on these sites; (3) perceived profile disclosure and passive consumption have significant positive effects on network size; (4) active participation does not have any effect on network size; and (5) network size does not have a significant effect on perceived networking value. Overall, this investigation advances our understanding of how social capital is formed in P-SNSs. Additionally, by including the profile disclosure construct in the research model, this is the first study in the P-SNS context that investigates the role of the user profile in the social capital formation process, along with user actions such as active participation and passive consumption. From a practical perspective, this study has implications for different audiences such as job seekers, policy-makers, and P-SNS providers, assisting them in playing a more effective role in the social capital formation process on P-SNSs. / Thesis / Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) / In recent years, people increasingly spend their time on various social network sites (SNSs) such as Facebook and LinkedIn. This raises a serious question as to how people gain actual benefits from using these sites. This research examines this question from the lens of social capital. As such, the main objective of this research was to propose and validate a model that explains the process by which individuals develop social capital through professionally-oriented SNS such as LinkedIn. This study finds that to gain actual benefits from professionally-oriented SNS, such as networking value, people need to feel connected to their social networks on the site. This feeling of connection requires that people actively participate on the site (e.g., share a post) rather than just reading and following other people’s posts. Also, to connect with more people, individuals should disclose more information on the site.

The focus of this diploma thesis is the development and change in printed media. It is aimed at fashion periodicals from their beginning to present time. Czech mutations of ELLE and Harper's Bazaar were chosen as specific examples. The thesis is divided into several independent sections. In the first one, terms and theoretical solutions are defined and later further examined. The theory of parasocial interaction is used to view the chosen media as if they were individuals able to establish relationships with their readers through social media. Media are also assessed as a constituent of an industry field, in which rivalries take place and therefore it is necessary to adjust to the changing technological environment. Next part of the thesis is an attempt to describe the development of fashion magazines with an extra focus on visual transformation as well as on the change of communication strategies towards readers. Situation abroad and in the Czech Republic is detailed. In the practical section, there is an attempt at answering the research question, what are the communication options and how are they used in the traditional printed fashion magazines in the online setting. This part is based on quality and quantity methods such as questionnaires, elite interview, descriptive analysis of web pages...

This study’s purpose was to provide a deeper understanding regarding how millennials’ attitudes towards brands are influenced by online communication. With the aim of fulfilling the purpose of the study, two research questions of descriptive and explorative kind were stated; “How can the factors that influence millennials’ use of electronic word-of-mouth be described?” as well as “How does electronic word-of-mouth influence millennials’ brand attitude?”. In order to generate potential answers to the stated research questions, a conceptual framework was conducted by reviewing scholarly literature. The conceptual framework then provided the study with a theoretical foundation of which was utilized during both the data collection and the data analysis. Methodologically, this was a case study analyzing qualitative data that was collected through eleven semi-structured and in-depth interviews with both male and female millennials. The findings and conclusions of this study implied that electronic word-of-mouth has a meaningful impact on both the formation of and influence on attitudes towards brands amongst the millennials. Moreover, this was heavily dependent on the one disseminated it. However, with regard to the ever-evolving area of social network sites, other noteworthy factors such as millennials’ need for affiliation, aesthetically appealing firm-generated content and intense exposure to digital advertising were emphasized as components of which too formed their attitudes towards brands. Furthermore, the results suggested that adopting personalization- and social interaction strategies will encourage the spreading of positive electronic word-of-mouth. Lastly, positive electronic word-of-mouth was then for its part related to brand loyalty, which was reckoned to promote the persistency of positive brand attitudes.