This survey focuses on the attitude of the consumers towards a particular brand (Starbucks) and their intention to buy before and after their exposure to consumer generated advertisements. These advertisements include both positive and negatives messages using only verbal arguments. / Αυτή η έρευνα επικεντρώνεται στη στάση των καταναλωτών προς μια συγκεκριμένη μάρκα (Starbucks) και την πρόθεσή τους να αγοράσουν πριν και μετά την έκθεσή τους σε διαφημίσεις που δημιουργούνται απο καταναλωτές. Αυτές οι διαφημίσεις περιλαμβάνουν τόσο θετικά οσο και αρνητικά μηνύματα χρησιμοποιώντας μόνο λεκτικά επιχειρήματα.

The issue of ‘race’ and policing has generated considerable public controversy. I draw the work of Norman Fairclough in analyzing online public comments responding to three Winnipeg incidents from the summer of 2008: the detainment of Robert Wilson, the inquest into the death of Matthew Dumas and the tasering death of Michael Langan. My main research questions are 1) what characterises these discourses? 2) what processes of social struggle are evident? and 3) what can this tell us about power relations and ideology in society? The analysis of 3342 comments demonstrates power dynamics in discursive struggles over the definition of the relationship between racialized group-members and the police. Specifically, a conservative discursive formation was found to have three interrelated ‘stages’: support for the police, denial of racism and mediating discourses of responsibilization/criminalization. The conclusion considers how a transformative discourse of racialized policing might mitigate prevailing justifications of racial privilege and inequality.

Consumer-generated reviews play an important role in online purchase decisions for many consumers. However, the quality and helpfulness of online reviews varies significantly. In addition, the helpfulness of different consumer-generated reviews is not disclosed to consumers unless they carefully analyze the overwhelming number of available contents. Therefore, it is of vital importance to develop predictive models that can evaluate online product reviews efficiently and then display the most useful reviews to consumers, in order to assist them in making purchase decisions. This thesis examines the problem of building computational models for predicting whether a consumer-generated review is helpful based on consumers' online votes on other reviews (where a consumer's vote on a review is either HELPFUL or UNHELPFUL), with the aim of suggesting the most suitable products and vendors to consumers.In particular, we propose in this thesis three different helpfulness prediction approaches for consumer-generated reviews. Our entropy-based approach is relatively simple and suitable for applications requiring simple recommendation engine with fully-voted reviews. However, our entropy-based approach, as well as the existing approaches, lack a general framework and are all limited to utilizing fully-voted reviews. We therefore present a probabilistic helpfulness prediction framework to overcome these limitations. To demonstrate the versatility and flexibility of this framework, we propose an EM-based model and a logistic regression-based model. We show that the EM-based model can utilize reviews voted by a very small number of voters as the training set, and the logistic regression-based model is suitable for real-time helpfulness predicting of consumer-generated reviews. To our best knowledge, this is the first framework for modeling review helpfulness and measuring the goodness of models. Although this thesis primarily considers the problem of review helpfulness prediction, the presented probabilistic methodologies are, in general, applicable for developing recommender systems that make recommendation based on other forms of user-generated contents.

The issue of ‘race’ and policing has generated considerable public controversy. I draw the work of Norman Fairclough in analyzing online public comments responding to three Winnipeg incidents from the summer of 2008: the detainment of Robert Wilson, the inquest into the death of Matthew Dumas and the tasering death of Michael Langan. My main research questions are 1) what characterises these discourses? 2) what processes of social struggle are evident? and 3) what can this tell us about power relations and ideology in society? The analysis of 3342 comments demonstrates power dynamics in discursive struggles over the definition of the relationship between racialized group-members and the police. Specifically, a conservative discursive formation was found to have three interrelated ‘stages’: support for the police, denial of racism and mediating discourses of responsibilization/criminalization. The conclusion considers how a transformative discourse of racialized policing might mitigate prevailing justifications of racial privilege and inequality.

Conflicts today aren’t just between two opposing parties but are delocalized for many reasons. One of those reasons is the migration of groups affected by conflict to other countries. These groups are known as Conflict-generated diaspora and even though they move across the border, they never really cease to be involved in the conflict back home. Because of this continued attachment, diasporas can play the role of a peace-maker or a peace-breaker in the homeland conflict. The literature on diasporas is still trying to understand the factors that lead to this behavior. In this context, this study attempts to answer the question - How does migration affect attitudes towards peace deals for homeland conflicts?I conduct a Structured Focused Comparison of Palestinian communities in Palestine and Sweden to test the diasporas as peace-breakers framework, which links conflict-generated migration to negative attitudes towards peace deals for homeland conflicts. The empirical findings do not find support for the hypothesis tested; since the Palestinian diaspora in Sweden showed a more positive attitude towards the Two-state solution as compared to the local Palestinian community. This is an important finding because it makes a strong case for not labeling all conflict-generated diasporas as peace-breakers.

Degree Not Listed / Department of Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and Health / Martin Talavera / Using consumer-friendly terminology is important in order to design and conduct consumer research that is relevant and impactful. As an example, today’s marketing is starting to evolve more towards catering to emotional responses, and focus groups are an effective way to gather emotional and attitudinal information in ways that surveys and questionnaires cannot. The objective of this study was to use focus groups as a tool to generate rich information related to emotions, attitudes and other aspects associated with beauty care products in order to provide terminology that is more simple, relevant and impactful. This terminology can then be used to design studies that will better help during product development and product marketing. Women in the Kansas City area were recruited for three focus groups in one of three age groups: 18-35, 36-50, and 51+ (7 women in each group). They were asked questions regarding their thoughts and emotions behind their purchasing habits and use of beauty care products, both positive and negative. Their opinions on ingredients used were also obtained. The focus groups were very useful to obtain consumer generated terminology on emotions, benefits and ingredients. For example, women reported that when not using certain beauty care products, they felt tired, dirty and self-conscious, whereas when they did use certain beauty care products, they reported feeling confident, clean, and beautiful. They also mentioned the importance of ingredients. Women overwhelmingly wanted products to have a more natural ingredient base and to be created “cruelty-free” (tested without having ever been tested on animals). These qualitative techniques will help provide terms that are more relevant and meaningful to consumers, and with this, help marketers and researchers better understand the consumer, in this case, understand women’s feelings and emotions related to the use of beauty care products so companies can better communicate with their target users.

Tesla är ett multinationellt företag som tillverkar och säljer elbilar bland många andra produkter och tjänster. Vår studie kommer primärt fokusera på Tesla Motors, den del av företaget som producerar och säljer bilar. Tesla är inte ett traditionellt företag när det gäller reklam och marknadsföring då de aldrig har marknadsfört sig via traditionella mediekanaler som TV-reklam, tidningar eller radio. Istället förlitar de sig på sina fans, och använder deras sociala mediekanaler för marknadsföringsändamål. Eftersom Tesla är ett modernt och tekniskt företag som får stor uppmärksamhet runt om i världen är det inte konstigt att människor finner företaget och deras produkter intressanta, därav har en fan-gemenskap vuxit kring upp företaget. Fandom är en kultur baserad på ett gemensamt intresse kring ett visst ämne eller en specifik sak. Kulturen är byggd på gemenskap och ett gemensamt intresse kring ämnet i fråga där fansen delar samma värden. Syftet med fandomproduktioner är inte att tjäna pengar, utan att dela materialet med andra personer som har samma intresse för ämnet. Tesla är medvetna om att det finns en stark fangemenskap runt företaget, vilket ledde till att de lanserade "Project Loveday" - ett projekt där deras fans fick möjligheten att skapa egna Tesla-reklamfilmer som senare skulle sändas och publiceras på Teslas egna hemsida. Syftet med vår studie är att få fram vad Teslas fans och entusiaster vill kommunicera i sina egenproducerade filmer under kampanjen “Project Loveday”. Detta kommer göras genom att vi besvarar våra frågeställningar som innefattar hur fans och entusiaster framställer Teslas elbilar i sina egenproducerade filmer, samt vilka futuristiska konnotationer, symboler, ideologier, och myter som syns i dessa filmer. Med hjälp av semiotisk analys som metod kommer vi kunna tolka de olika tecken som förekommer i de utvalda filmerna, samt analysera dess innehåll på ett begripligt sätt för att sedan skapa en djupare förståelse kring vad man försöker förmedla. Studiens resultat visade att de föreställningar kring framtiden som förekommer i Project Loveday innefattar associationer till rymden och den teknik den bär med sig, samt att Tesla Motors besitter denna teknik och därmed kan ses som en del av framtiden. / Tesla is a multinational company which manufactures and sells electric cars among many other products and services. However, our study mainly focuses on Tesla Motors – the part of the company which produces and sells automobiles. Tesla is not a traditional company when it comes to advertisement or marketing – they have never advertised themselves through traditional media channels such as TV-commercials, newspapers, or radio. Instead they rely, and use their own fans and consumer’s media channels for marketing purposes. Since Tesla is such a modern and technological company which gets a lot of attention around the world, it is not strange that people find them and their products interesting. Therefore, a fan community has grown around the company. Fandom is a culture based on a mutual interest about a certain or specific matter. The culture is based on community, values and a shared interest in the subject. The purpose is primarily so share material with people with the same interest, not to profit on it. Tesla is aware that they have a strong fan community, which led them to launch “Project Loveday” – a project where their fans got the possibility to create their own Tesla commercials which later would be broadcasted and posted on Teslas own website. The purpose with this study is to obtain what Teslas fans and enthusiasts wants to communicate in their own produced movies in the “Project Loveday” campaign. This will be done by answering our questions of issue, which includes how fans and enthusiasts presents Teslas electric cars in their own produced movies, as well as what kind of futuristic connotations, symbols, ideologies, and myths that can be seen in these movies. By using semiotics as our choice of method we will interpret the different signs which occurs in the chosen movies, and analyze their content in an understandable manner regarding what they try to mediate. The result of the study shows that the perceptions about the future which occurs in “Project Loveday” includes associations to space, and the technique it brings along. It also shows that Tesla possesses this technique and therefore can be seen as a part of the future.

Technological advancements in computing have led to a reality where computational devices are more mobile, connected and context aware than ever before. Several of these devices are primarily designed for or support the creation of digital content via built-in or attachable sensors, e.g. mobile phones. The portability and connectivity of mobile devices make them suitable tools to support learning experiences; their features can be used to generate digital content and metadata related to the particular learning situation. These types of objects, referred to as Emerging Learning Objects (ELOs), introduce challenges in terms of metadata enrichment as their metadata should reflect aspects related to the particular learning situation in which they were created to be properly indexed. A claim made in this thesis is that semantic interoperability of ELO metadata is an integral concern that needs to be explored in order to benefit from these metadata outside custom tailored applications and systems. Therefore, the main research question explored in this thesis focuses on the ability to enrich ELOs with semantically interoperable contextual metadata. This thesis is comprised of a collection of five peer-reviewed articles that describe interrelated stages of research in pursuit of an answer to the main research question. The overall research process consisted of three main stages: a literature review; the development a system artefact; and the exploration of the technological solution (Linked Data) applied in the system artefact. An instantiation of the Unified Process guided the development of the system artefact. The outcomes of these activities provide insights on how to perceive the relationship between context and contextual metadata, as well as properties related to a particular technological solution, namely data distribution, flexibility and expressivity. In order to decouple the findings from a particular instance of technology, a generalization effort in the analysis identified two generic factors that affect the semantic interoperability of metadata: the level of ontological consensus and the level of metadata expressivity. The main conclusion of this thesis is that until the constituent parts of context are agreed upon, metadata expressivity is an important feature for promoting semantic interoperability of ELO contextual metadata.Technological advancements in computing have led to a reality where computational devices are more mobile, connected and context aware than ever before. Several of these devices are primarily designed for or support the creation of digital content via built-in or attachable sensors, e.g. mobile phones. The portability and connectivity of mobile devices make them suitable tools to support learning experiences; their features can be used to generate digital content and metadata related to the particular learning situation. These types of objects, referred to as Emerging Learning Objects (ELOs), introduce challenges in terms of metadata enrichment as their metadata should reflect aspects related to the particular learning situation in which they were created to be properly indexed. A claim made in this thesis is that semantic interoperability of ELO metadata is an integral concern that needs to be explored in order to benefit from these metadata outside custom tailored applications and systems. Therefore, the main research question explored in this thesis focuses on the ability to enrich ELOs with semantically interoperable contextual metadata. This thesis is comprised of a collection of five peer-reviewed articles that describe interrelated stages of research in pursuit of an answer to the main research question. The overall research process consisted of three main stages: a literature review; the development a system artefact; and the exploration of the technological solution (Linked Data) applied in the system artefact. An instantiation of the Unified Process guided the development of the system artefact.The outcomes of these activities provide insights on how to perceive the relationship between context and contextual metadata, as well as properties related to a particular technological solution, namely data distribution, flexibility and expressivity. In order to decouple the findings from a particular instance of technology, a generalization effort in the analysis identified two generic factors that affect the semantic interoperability of metadata: the level of ontological consensus and the level of metadata expressivity. The main conclusion of this thesis is that until the constituent parts of context are agreed upon, metadata expressivity is an important feature for promoting semantic interoperability of ELO contextual metadata.

Consumer-generated reviews play an important role in online purchase decisions for many consumers. However, the quality and helpfulness of online reviews varies significantly. In addition, the helpfulness of different consumer-generated reviews is not disclosed to consumers unless they carefully analyze the overwhelming number of available contents. Therefore, it is of vital importance to develop predictive models that can evaluate online product reviews efficiently and then display the most useful reviews to consumers, in order to assist them in making purchase decisions. This thesis examines the problem of building computational models for predicting whether a consumer-generated review is helpful based on consumers' online votes on other reviews (where a consumer's vote on a review is either HELPFUL or UNHELPFUL), with the aim of suggesting the most suitable products and vendors to consumers.In particular, we propose in this thesis three different helpfulness prediction approaches for consumer-generated reviews. Our entropy-based approach is relatively simple and suitable for applications requiring simple recommendation engine with fully-voted reviews. However, our entropy-based approach, as well as the existing approaches, lack a general framework and are all limited to utilizing fully-voted reviews. We therefore present a probabilistic helpfulness prediction framework to overcome these limitations. To demonstrate the versatility and flexibility of this framework, we propose an EM-based model and a logistic regression-based model. We show that the EM-based model can utilize reviews voted by a very small number of voters as the training set, and the logistic regression-based model is suitable for real-time helpfulness predicting of consumer-generated reviews. To our best knowledge, this is the first framework for modeling review helpfulness and measuring the goodness of models. Although this thesis primarily considers the problem of review helpfulness prediction, the presented probabilistic methodologies are, in general, applicable for developing recommender systems that make recommendation based on other forms of user-generated contents.

This study was conducted to better understand how teachers use an argument-based inquiry technique known as the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach to address issues on teaching, learning, negotiation, argumentation, and elaboration in an elementary science classroom. Within the SWH framework, this study traced the progress of promoting argumentation and negotiation (which led to student-generated questions) during a discussion in an elementary science classroom. Speech patterns during various classroom scenarios were analyzed to understand how teacher-student interactions influence learning. This study uses a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative aspect of the study is an analysis of teacher-student interactions in the classroom using video recordings. The quantitative aspect uses descriptive statistics, tables, and plots to analyze the data. The subjects in this study were fifth grade students and teachers from an elementary school in the Midwest, during the academic years 2007/2008 and 2008/2009. The three teachers selected for this study teach at the same Midwestern elementary school. These teachers were purposely selected because they were using the SWH approach during the two years of the study. The results of this study suggest that all three teachers moved from using teacher-generated questions to student-generated questions as they became more familiar with the SWH approach. In addition, all three promoted the use of the components of arguments in their dialogs and discussions and encouraged students to elaborate, challenge, and rebut each other's ideas in a non-threatening environment. This research suggests that even young students, when actively participating in class discussions, are capable of connecting their claims and evidence and generating questions of a higher-order cognitive level. These findings demand the implementation of more professional development programs and the improvement in teacher education to help teachers confidently implement argumentative practices and develop pedagogical strategies to help students use them.