The type of media shared through social media channels has shifted from text content to include an increasingly large number of images. Visual traces resulting from people's online social behavior have the potential to reveal insights about our habits, activities and preferences. The role of social network-related factors have been well studied in previous research. Yet, few studies have sought to understand how user behavior in social networks is dependent on the image itself. The goal of my dissertation is to understand how people engage with image content, and I seek to uncover the role of presentation and image content on people's preferences. To achieve this goal, I study the image sharing communities, Flickr, Instagram and Pinterest, using quantitative and qualitative methods. First, I show how colors -- a fundamental property of an image -- could impact the virality of an image on Pinterest. I consider three dimensions of color: hue, saturation and brightness and evaluate their role in the diffusion of the image on Pinterest, while controlling for social network reach and activity. Next, I shift the focus from abstract colors to a higher-level presentation of images. I study the role of filters on the Flickr mobile application as proxies to visual computation. To understand how people use filters, I conduct an interview study with 15 Flickr mobile users about their filter use. I analyze Flickr mobile images to discover the role of filters in engaging users. Presentation is not the only factor that makes an image interesting. To gain deeper insights in what makes an image more engaging in social image sharing sites, I study the images of people on the Instagram network. I compare images of people with those that do not have faces and find that images with human faces are more engaging. I also look at the role of age and gender of people in the image in engaging users. Finally, I examine different content categories, with and without filters, and study the impact of content category on engagement. I use large-scale data from Flickr and interviews with Flickr mobile users to draw insights into filter use and content engagement. This dissertation takes a first step toward understanding content and presentation of images and how they impact one aspect of user behavior online. It provides several theoretical and design implications for effective design, creation and imposition of rules on image sharing communities. This dissertation opens up a new direction for future research in multimedia-mediated communication.

<p>This thesis discusses the possibility of combining music and images through the use of metadata. Test subjects from different usability tests say they are interested in seeing images of the band or artist they are listening too. Lyrics matching the actual song are also something they would like to see. As a result an application for cellphones is created with Flash Lite which shows that it is possible to listen to music and automatically get images from Flickr and lyrics from Lyrictracker which match the music and show them on a cellphone.</p>

The advent of social media networks is radically changing the way we communicate, shareand socialize. These networks are also creating impact on consumer behavior. In this study,we tried to analyze the factors working behind the intrinsic motivation of people upon whichthey are interacting in the social networks and formulating their preferences.Based on the theory of intrinsic motivation, we identified five factors to be most relevant withthe phenomena we attempted to address which are Curiosity, Power, Status, Tranquility, andIndependence. Among these five factors, we tried to analyze the relative importance of eachone on the buying behavior of users in the form of choosing social media platforms. Westretched out inquiry to the identification of the influence of demographic factors as well.According to our analysis, it has been revealed that the relative importance of curiosity ismore than any other factors and it also has a strong association with the nationality of theuser. Again, status has been identified as the second most important factor however; itshowed no association with any demographic factor.To conduct this study, we have taken a qualitative approach. Our philosophical underpinningsare based on the positivist and objectivist perspective which defined how we are going toreceive and interpret reality as researchers. However, on more practical terms, we chosesurvey as our data collection method as it allows us to collect mentionable amount of datawithin a short time span and keeps the opportunity of higher statistical analysis open.Regarding the sampling method, we have followed both the non-probability conveniencesampling and Quota sampling method. We have collected our 206 respondents from UmeaUniversity, which was divided by equal half of male and female quota. After collecting thedata, we analyzed it and presented the empirical findings in the chapter 5. Then the analysisrelating to the research question and the hypotheses was presented in the chapter 6 where wealso decided about the null hypotheses on the basis of stringent statistical tests. At the end, wesummed up out findings and proposed some implications and future research possibilities.This study can be helpful to understand the links between human motivation and the userinteraction in the social networks. This kind of relationships has not been fully appreciated inthe literature so far. From a managerial perspective, social media platforms are continuouslybecoming one great route to reach the consumers and engage them with the brands. Thus,understanding the motivation of the users might help the marketers to formulate their strategybetter and they can also take better decisions regarding which kind of social media is to use topromote the products on. As we also studied the demographic factors and one of the uniquecapacities of social media networks is the ability to identify demographic segments veryspecifically, the managers can capitalize on our demographic findings to differentiate theirpromotion on the basis of demographics across various social media platforms.This study has several limitations as time and resource scarcity did not allow us to explore theissue more profoundly. Thus, it has kept many research opportunities open such as exploringthe influence of psychographic factors on the choice of social media, use of user generatedcontent to build a stronger brand profile, identification of extrinsic motivators behind thebuying behavior of users and so on.

This study takes a cultural studies approach to investigating the ways in which the articulation of vernacular creativity with digital technologies and the networked cultural public sphere might constitute sites of cultural citizenship. In the thesis, the concept of 'vernacular creativity' describes the everyday practices of material and symbolic creativity, such as storytelling and photography, that both predate digital culture and are remediated by it in particular ways. The first part of thesis, covering Chapters 2 and 3, develops a theoretical framework and cultural history of vernacular creativity in new media contexts. Chapter 2 introduces the idea of vernacular creativity and connects it to cultural studies approaches to participatory media and cultural citizenship. Chapter 3 theorises and historicises the relationships among vernacular creativity, technological innovation and new media literacy, drawing on social constructionist approaches to technology, and discussing concrete examples. The first of these examples is the mass amateurisation of photography in the first half of the twentieth century, as represented by the monopoly of popular photography by Kodak in the United States and beyond. The second is the domestication of personal computing in the second half of the twentieth century, culminating in a discussion of the Apple brand and the construction of an ideal 'creative consumer'. The second part of the thesis, covering Chapters 4 and 5, is devoted to the investigation of two major case studies drawn from contemporary new media contexts. The first of these case studies is the photosharing network flickr.com, and the second is the Digital Storytelling movement, structured around collaborative offline workshops in which participants create short multimedia works based on their biographies and personal images. These case studies are used to explore the ways vernacular creativity is being remediated in contemporary new media contexts, the socio-technical shaping of participation in digital culture, and the implications for cultural citizenship. In Chapter 6, the thesis concludes by suggesting some further implications of the research findings for cultural and media studies approaches to the relations of cultural production and the politics of popular culture.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:18:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marina Wajnsztejn.pdf: 11454133 bytes, checksum: 6a211bef4eeb9fb26a08af88fe0e7e61 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The identities pathways traversed digitally and bodily by Flickr website users are vital for the functioning of the community, our study object. In order to analyze the website s identity, we start by conceptualizing the Flickr brand into two domains: digital and physical. In the digital field, the user participation is done contractually, with Flickr as the manipulative sender, moderator sender and judge sender. In the physical event, Flickr s role is evident to the user as a celebration, in which the recipient is invited to interact with other users in a physical realm that strengthens the community ties. This project is based on the theory and methodology of generative semiotics by A.J. Greimas, as well as on the developments provided by E. Landowski, particularly the concepts of contract, simulacrum, interaction and meaning production, and on the plastic semiotics by J.-M. Floch. We analyzed the sender s modes of presence and how it acts upon the recipients, comparing the simulacrum with visibilities that allow themselves to be seen. The photographic distribution process, in its turn, was considered under V. Flusser s concept of the human-machine and, due to its digital character, human-machine-interface. Using this construct, we studied the modes of acknowledgement through which the agent builds the site´s identity using photographs of his body present in the event. We identify how the ventures dynamic between the digital and the physical world correspond to the survival and strengthening of Flickr that brought us to the development of a results typology about the meaning effects of advertising practices considered innovative in the contemporary aesthetic / Os percursos identitários percorridos digital e corporalmente pelos usuários do site Flickr são vitais para o funcionamento dessa comunidade, objeto de nosso estudo. Com a intenção de problematizar a construção identitária do site, partimos da apreensão da marca Flickr em dois recortes: o digital e o corporal. No campo digital, a participação do usuário é feita de forma contratual, sendo o Flickr um destinador manipulador, modalizador e julgador. No evento corporal, a atuação do Flickr aparece para o usuário como uma celebração, no qual o destinatário é convidado a interagir com outros usuários, num local físico e provedor de novos laços fortalecedores da comunidade. Baseamo-nos teórica e metodologicamente na semiótica de A.J. Greimas, nos desenvolvimentos dados por E. Landowski, em especial dos conceitos de contrato, simulacro, interação e regimes de sentido, e na semiótica plástica de J.-M. Floch. Analisamos os modos de presença do sujeito destinador e como ele atua sobre o destinatário, comparando os simulacros encontrados enquanto visibilidades que se fazem ver. Por sua vez, o processo de distribuição fotográfica foi considerado sob a ótica de V. Flusser acerca do homem-máquina e, devido ao caráter digital, homemmáquina- interface. A partir desse arcabouço, foi estudado o caráter de reconhecimento por meio do qual o sujeito constrói a imagem do site a partir de fotografias do corpo em presença no evento. Identificamos como a dinâmica de passagens entre o mundo digital e o corporal corresponde às necessidades de sobrevivência e fortalecimento do site Flickr, o que nos levou à elaboração de uma tipologia de resultados sobre os efeitos de sentido de práticas publicitárias consideradas inovadoras na estética contemporânea

With digital media and the web becoming increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives, few historians have considered in depth the impact that this is having on the ways that history is represented and communicated in the public sphere. This thesis is an examination of how the practice of public history in Australia is being reshaped in the Web 2.0 environment. In the context of new media theory, public history practice is considered in relation to identifiable changes in the ways the web is used and understood. / The public historian’s concern with interpreting the past to a public audience means that changing social practices and information patterns are pertinent to their work. This thesis highlights the ways in which different forms of history are being produced, distributed and consumed on the web. It focuses on the potential role of the web user as an active producer of personal and creative interpretations of the past and on how experimental public history practices in the Web 2.0 environment have emerged in response to changing audiences. / This study argues that the rise of Web 2.0 is reflected by personalised, ubiquitous, democratic and innovative public history practices on the web. Through an in depth analysis of The Powerhouse Museum collection search and YouTube as case studies, this thesis shows how increased participation, the proliferation of user-generated content, social networking and existing practices by users in the Web 2.0 environment reshapes public history. / This thesis goes beyond conceiving of the web as a site of historical source material, both digitised and born-digital, to an understanding of the value of participatory media and informal communication in enabling the sharing of historical knowledge and materials between and among networks of people on the web.

The web has evolved much through the years. From being a place where author and reader were clearly distinguished, it now invites everyone to take part in the development of both content and technology. Social services are central in what is called Web 2.0. Wikis, blogs and folksonomies are all examples of how the users and their communities are key to the development of services. Collaborative writing, tags and API:s are central. Social services are given an extra dimension through integration. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether it was possible to integrate an encyclopedia with a photosharing service. The issue was whether it was possible to find relevant images to the article they were connected to. The method for examining the issue was to create a service which functions was investigated through user tests. Wickrpedia was created, which is an integration of Wikipedia and Flickr. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia in the shape of a wiki, while Flickr is used to store, organize and share photos. The result shows that the images added someting to the encyclopedia; it became more entertaining and pleasant and the users’ knowledge was increased. The relevance of the images was good. The service can and should be improved. The conclusion is still that the service worked well and was seen as an improvement by the users. / Webben har förändrats mycket de senaste åren. Från att tidigare haft en tydlig uppdelning mellan läsare och författare inbjuds nu alla att delta i utvecklingen av både innehåll och teknik. Sociala tjänster är det centrala i det som benämns Web 2.0. Wikis, bloggar och folksonomies är alla exempel på hur användarna och deras gemenskap är nyckeln till utveckling av tjänster. Kollaborativt skrivande, taggar och API:er är centrala. Sociala tjänster får en ytterligare dimension genom integrering. Denna studies syfte var att utreda hur det gick att integrera ett uppslagsverk med en fotodelningstjänst. Frågan är om det gick att göra på ett sådant sätt att bilderna hade relevans för de artiklar de kopplades till. Metoden för att utreda frågan var att skapa en tjänst vars funktion undersöktes med hjälp av användartester. Wickrpedia skapades, vilket är en intregrering av Wikipedia och Flickr. Wikipedia är en encyklopedi i form av en wiki, medan Flickr används för att förvara, organisera och dela med sig av bilder. Resultatet visar att bilderna tillförde något till uppslagsverket; det blev roligare och trevligare och användarna fick en ökad kunskap. Relevansen hos bilderna var god. Tjänsten har brister, och den går att vidareutveckla. Slutsatsen var ändå att tjänsten fungerade och var en förbättring för användarna.

This thesis discusses the possibility of combining music and images through the use of metadata. Test subjects from different usability tests say they are interested in seeing images of the band or artist they are listening too. Lyrics matching the actual song are also something they would like to see. As a result an application for cellphones is created with Flash Lite which shows that it is possible to listen to music and automatically get images from Flickr and lyrics from Lyrictracker which match the music and show them on a cellphone.

<p>The web has evolved much through the years. From being a place where author and reader were clearly distinguished, it now invites everyone to take part in the development of both content and technology. Social services are central in what is called Web 2.0. Wikis, blogs and folksonomies are all examples of how the users and their communities are key to the development of services. Collaborative writing, tags and API:s are central. Social services are given an extra dimension through integration. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether it was possible to integrate an encyclopedia with a photosharing service. The issue was whether it was possible to find relevant images to the article they were connected to. The method for examining the issue was to create a service which functions was investigated through user tests. Wickrpedia was created, which is an integration of Wikipedia and Flickr. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia in the shape of a wiki, while Flickr is used to store, organize and share photos. The result shows that the images added someting to the encyclopedia; it became more entertaining and pleasant and the users’ knowledge was increased. The relevance of the images was good. The service can and should be improved. The conclusion is still that the service worked well and was seen as an improvement by the users.</p> / <p>Webben har förändrats mycket de senaste åren. Från att tidigare haft en tydlig uppdelning mellan läsare och författare inbjuds nu alla att delta i utvecklingen av både innehåll och teknik. Sociala tjänster är det centrala i det som benämns Web 2.0. Wikis, bloggar och folksonomies är alla exempel på hur användarna och deras gemenskap är nyckeln till utveckling av tjänster. Kollaborativt skrivande, taggar och API:er är centrala. Sociala tjänster får en ytterligare dimension genom integrering. Denna studies syfte var att utreda hur det gick att integrera ett uppslagsverk med en fotodelningstjänst. Frågan är om det gick att göra på ett sådant sätt att bilderna hade relevans för de artiklar de kopplades till. Metoden för att utreda frågan var att skapa en tjänst vars funktion undersöktes med hjälp av användartester. Wickrpedia skapades, vilket är en intregrering av Wikipedia och Flickr. Wikipedia är en encyklopedi i form av en wiki, medan Flickr används för att förvara, organisera och dela med sig av bilder. Resultatet visar att bilderna tillförde något till uppslagsverket; det blev roligare och trevligare och användarna fick en ökad kunskap. Relevansen hos bilderna var god. Tjänsten har brister, och den går att vidareutveckla. Slutsatsen var ändå att tjänsten fungerade och var en förbättring för användarna.</p>

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