¡mAbstract¡n This research examines six presses of Kaohsiung journalists', China Times, Liberty Times, United Daily News, Taiwan Times, Taiwan Shin Wen Daily News, and Public Daily News, the intra-organization media usage for Media Richness and Social Influence Model. It tests four media which are face to face, telephone, e-mail, and written document, and tests which one is suitable for Kaohsiung journalists use in formal communication and informal communication. The result is that the most journalist use face to face as their intra-organization media. Not only testing media usage, this research is also examining the prediction of media usage by Media Richness and Social Influence Model. The result is except downward communication media usage which lacks sufficient samples, the other communication flows' media usage prediction are Media Richness explanation of predicting media usage is better than Social Influence Model. For each press, face to face is the main choice for six presses' journalists in upward communication, horizontal communication and downward communication flow. However, United Daily News' journalists use written document as the main media in informal communication, but the other presses' still use face to face The finding in formal and upward communication, the prediction of media usage by Media Richness and Social Influence Model in Liberty Times doesn¡¦t have significant level. Meanwhile, Liberty Times and Taiwan Shin Wen News' prediction of media usage in horizontal communication don¡¦t have significant level. At last, there are only Liberty Times and Public Daily News's media usage prediction have significant level in informal communication. Keywords:intra-organization, media usage, face to face, telephone, e-mail, written document, formal communication, informal communication, upward communication, horizontal communication, downward communication, Media Richness, Social Influence Model.

Consumers acquire products to enhance their lives, but the happiness from these acquisitions generally decreases with the passage of time. This process of hedonic adaptation plays an integral role in post-acquisition consumer satisfaction, product disposal and replacement behavior, and the "hedonic treadmill" that partially drives the relationship between consumption and happiness. Humans are social animals, however, and we know little about the relationship between the social environment and hedonic adaptation. My dissertation addresses this gap by exploring the moderating role of social presence (Essay 1) and self-concepts (Essay 2) on hedonic adaptation to products. Essay 1 explores how social presence affects hedonic adaptation to products. Research on general happiness has shown that significantly positive life events tend to maintain their positivity for longer periods of time when they involve active social interactions. I examine a more common situation in the domain of product consumption, i.e., the presence of others during consumption, and test whether hedonic adaptation to products is moderated by public contexts. By tracking happiness with products over time, I show that a "social audience" (i.e., the presence of others and the perception that those others notice the consumer) moderates hedonic adaptation through a consumer's inference of the social audience perspective. Inferring that the social audience is admiring one's product slows down adaptation, and inferring that the social audience is negatively viewing one's product accelerates adaptation. Essay 2 explores the role the identity-relevance of a product plays in hedonic adaptation. Extant research illustrates that consumers avoid consuming identity-inconsistent products in order to avoid dissonance arising from product choices conflicting with important self-concepts. I show that dissonance can also arise from consuming identity-consistent products because of the force of hedonic adaptation. I provide evidence that consumers feel uncomfortable experiencing declining happiness with identity-consistent products and thus resist hedonic adaptation to such products in order to resolve the dissonance. / text

With the increased use of online communication in our everyday lives, there is a growing need to understand social influence in such settings. The current research posits that online social norms can influence readers‟ anti-social and pro-social behaviours online, specifically individual expressions of prejudice. Participants read an online article proposing an increase to international student scholarship funding, then were randomly placed in one of two normative conditions where they read Anti-Prejudiced or Pro-Prejudiced comments allegedly placed by other users. Participants then left their own comments before completing a self-report prejudice questionnaire and an implicit association test (IAT). Social norms created by the fictitious comments influenced respondents to comment with more or less bigoted sentiments aligned with the fictitious social norm. Participants reading prejudiced online comments showed increased implicit and explicit prejudice, while those reading anti-prejudiced online comments showed the reverse. Participants‟ internal and external motivations to control prejudice were also measured and hypothesised to moderate the effects of social norms on bias expressions. However, this hypothesis was unsupported with participants‟ internal and external motivations to control prejudice inconsistently moderating the effects of the social norm on their prejudice expressions. These findings suggest possible avenues for social change in online environments, and criteria to help establish more positive online social norms.

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Have you ever listened to a speech, seriously attempted to discern the speaker’s message, then realize you have forgotten most of, if not, the entire message moments after the speech is finished? Far too often audiences sit through a presentation focusing as best as they can, only to have the speaker craft a message in a way that is nearly impossible for the audience to remember. The best speakers not only deliver a memorable message, but also one that inspires their audience to action or change of mindset. Speakers at Ted Conferences are faced with a difficult challenge: they are given roughly 20 minutes to deliver a speech that is both unforgettable and inspiring. This thesis will examine how to craft speeches that are both memorable and inspiring.

A creative exploration of the consequences of public speech in the era of freely accessible, social media, as the author, a former elections official, records and explores the consequences of public dissent in the case of President Barack Obama’s eligibility controversy. This non-fiction narrative culminates with the author’s analysis and observations on both his personal experiences and the state of public speech and political power in contemporary America.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Research shows that black people watch more television than any other race of people, and, given that television is the most influential media tool, the content of what may affect an audience’s behavior and beliefs deserves analysis. This study examines the black family, alleged pathology, strengths that are specifically associated with them, its portrayal on television, and how television is used as a tool for socialization and influence. A content analysis of the top thirty black family shows that appeared on major network television between 1980 and 2000 was conducted to determine if the family framed was portrayed realistically. Each show analyzed was found to portray some characteristic of strong black families, attributes some media and social critics had not previously recognized or acknowledged. This study suggests that further research is warranted from black family, cultural, and media scholars, as well as social policy and program makers, and on how television influences entire cultures to shift socially and economically.

Considerando-se a importância das relações sociais e da influência interpessoal no comportamento dos indivíduos de baixa renda, este estudo apresenta como objetivo identificar e analisar os grupos de referência valorizados pelas consumidoras de baixa renda em seu processo de decisão de compra. Para a coleta de dados, utilizou-se uma abordagem multimétodo fundamentada, primeiro, em entrevistas em profundidade com 12 mulheres e, depois, na técnica de Análise Conjunta com uma amostra de 53 entrevistadas pertencentes a esse segmento. Devido à crise econômica vivida atualmente, mostrou-se necessário delimitar o contexto da pesquisa a um bem que permanecesse atrativo nessas circunstâncias: o batom. Trata-se de uma categoria de produto de alto envolvimento, capaz de representar o segmento de cosméticos como um todo, associando-se à autoestima, à sensação de bem-estar e ao reconhecimento social. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que as consumidoras de baixa renda valorizam a presença de diferentes grupos de referência em seu processo de decisão. Especificamente, identificaram-se dois grupos de respondentes com preferências distintas quanto aos grupos de referência. Diante disso, ressalta-se que as principais contribuições desta pesquisa foram a observação de perfis diferentes dentro do segmento de baixa renda, o desenvolvimento do conhecimento sobre o processo de decisão de compra dessas mulheres e a identificação de apelos de grupos de referência que as empresas podem usar para atrair consumidoras de baixa renda. / Considering the importance of social relations and interpersonal influence on the behavior of low-income individuals, this study aims to identify and analyze the reference groups valued by low-income female consumers in their decision-making process. A multimethod approach was employed. First, the data were collected through in-depth interviews with 12 low-income women. Subsequently, a conjoint analysis technique was applied with a sample of 53 female interviewees belonging to this segment. Due to the current economic crisis, it was necessary to delimit the research context to a product that remained attractive in these circumstances: lipstick. It is a high involvement product category, capable of representing the segment of cosmetics as a whole, being related to self-esteem, a sense of well-being and recognition. Results showed that low-income female consumers value the presence of different reference groups in their decision-making process. Specifically, it was possible to identify two groups of respondents with distinct preferences regarding the reference groups. Therefore, the main contributions of this research were the observation of different profiles within the low-income segment, the development of knowledge about the decision-making process of these women, and the identification of reference group appeals that companies can use to attract low-income female consumers.

This work is motivated by several modern applications involving social networks, crowds, and markets. Our work focuses on the theme of designing effective incentive strategies for these applications. Viral marketing is receiving much attention by practicing marketers and researchers alike. While not a new idea, it has come to the forefront because of multiple effects – products have become more complex, making buyers to increasingly rely on opinions of their peers; consumers have evolved to distrust advertising; and Web2.0 has revolutionized the way people can connect, communicate and share. With power shifting to consumers, it has become important for companies to devise effective viral marketing strategies. Incentives are also a critical aspect of crowd sourcing tasks and play a crucial role in attracting, motivating and sustaining participation. The thesis addresses the following problems. (i) Optimal Control of Information Epidemics: We address two problems concerning information propagation in a population: a) how to maximize the spread of a given message in the population within the stipulated time and b) how to create a given level of buzz- measured by the fraction of the population engaged in conversation on a topic of interest- at a specified time horizon. (ii) Optimal Control Strategies for Social Influence (SI) Marketing: We investigate four SI strategies, namely, recommendation programs, referral programs, consumer reviews and campaigns on on-line forums. The campaign is assumed to be of finite duration, and the objective is to maximize profit, the (un-discounted) revenue minus the expenditure on the SI strategy under consideration, over the campaign duration. For each SI strategy, we focus on its timing, i.e., determining at what times to execute it. We address two important questions pertaining to them: a) how to execute a given SI strategy optimally? and b) having executed it so, what gains does it lead to? (iii) Optimal Mix of Incentive Strategies on Social Networks: The reach of a product in a pop- ulation can be influenced by offering (a) direct incentives to influence the buying behavior of potential buyers and (b) referral rewards to exploit the impact of social influence in inducing a purchasing decision. The company is interested in an optimal mix of these incentive programs. We report results on structure of optimal strategies for the company with significant practical implications. (iv) Truthful Tractable Mechanisms with Applications to Crowd sourcing: We focus on crowd- sourcing applications that involve specialized tasks for which the planner hardly has any idea about crowdworkers’ costs, for example, tagging geographical regions with air pollution levels or severity level of Ebola like disease. The mechanisms have to be robust to untruthful bidding from the crowdworkers. In our work, we propose tractable allocation algorithms that are monotone, leading to design of truthful mechanisms that can be successfully deployed in such applications.