Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-110). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-113).

Thesis (M.S. in Systems Technology)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): James Bret Michael, Raymond Buettner. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-94). Also available online.

This study examined the influence of mass media on students' perceptions of terrorism by applying the situational theory of publics (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). Behavior is the consequence of perception of reality. But perception of reality is not always consistent with the reality itself. Because of the important role of the media in shaping perceptions, terrorist organizations rely on it to spread fear and advance their political goals beyond the people directly affected by their attacks. The media not only spreads the news of an attack, it contributes significantly to formulating and disseminating the message of terrorist organizations. This study explores University of South Florida (USF) students' perceptions of terrorism, and the role of mass media in shaping such perceptions. It also examines assumptions, asks pertinent questions, and seeks answers by conducting a survey of college students. The findings of this study support the basic premise of the situational theory of publics and contribute to better understanding of how media influences perceptions of terrorism. The findings of this study and future studies on the same subject might be used to better educate students, and inform communication professionals about methods to increase awareness about the U.S. position on terrorism.

While political scientists have traditionally examined social influence through social network or contextual studies, this dissertation argues for the use of spatial econometrics as an alternative approach. While spatial econometrics is not new to political science, the dissertation attempts to broaden its application by exploring spaces based on geography, demographic characteristics, and ideology. Social influence can be understood as a form of spatial interdependence among individuals in these spaces and can be analyzed as spatial autocorrelation. In the dissertation, I discuss the dimensions of the three spaces, what might account for mutual influence in these spaces, how to measure distances in these spaces, and how to use these distances for estimating social influence in models of political attitudes using ANES data. By taking a broader approach to space, I show that spatial econometrics can offer many advantages over more conventional approaches. / text

Social networking and social media technologies have greatly changed the way information is created and transmitted. Social media has made content contribution an efficient approach for individual brand building. With abundant user generated content and social networks, content consumers are constantly subject to social influence. Such social influence can be further utilized to encourage pro-social behavior. Chapter 1 examines the incentives for content contribution in social media. We propose that exposure and reputation are the major incentives for contributors. Besides, as more and more social media websites offer advertising-revenue sharing with some of their contributors, shared revenue provides an extra incentive for contributors who have joined revenue-sharing programs. We develop a dynamic structural model to identify a contributor's underlying utility function from observed contribution behavior. We recognize the dynamic nature of the content-contribution decision--that contributors are forward-looking, anticipating how their decisions impact future rewards. Using data collected from YouTube, we show that content contribution is driven by a contributor's desire for exposure, revenue sharing, and reputation and that the contributor makes decisions dynamically. Chapter 2 examines how social influence impact individuals' content consumption decisions in social network. Specifically, we consider social learning and network effects as two important mechanisms of social influence, in the context of YouTube. Rather than combining both social learning and network effects under the umbrella of social contagion or peer influence, we develop a theoretical model and empirically identify social learning and network effects separately. Using a unique data set from YouTube, we find that both mechanisms have statistically and economically significant effects on video views, and which mechanism dominates depends on the specific video type. Chapter 3 studies incentive mechanism to improve users' pro-social behavior based on social comparison. In particular, we aim to motivate organizations to improve Internet security. We propose an approach to increase the incentives for addressing security problems through reputation concern and social comparison. Specifically, we process existing security vulnerability data, derive explicit relative security performance information, and disclose the information as feedback to organizations and the public. To test our approach, we conducted a field quasi-experiment for outgoing spam for 1,718 autonomous systems in eight countries. We found that the treatment group subject to information disclosure reduced outgoing spam approximately by 16%. Our results suggest that social information and social comparison can be effectively leveraged to encourage desirable behavior. / text

The purpose of this study was to identify perceptions of superintendents and legislators regarding strategies utilized by superintendents to influence the development of educational policies. The study was guided by the following three research questions: 1) How do Texas superintendents perceive they influence state legislators in the development of educational policies? 2) How do Texas legislators perceive Texas superintendents influence state legislators in the development of educational policies? 3) What commonalities and differences exist between the perceptions of Texas superintendents and legislators in regard to how superintendents influence state legislators in the development of educational policies? A qualitative methodology and a grounded theory approach were utilized in this study (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Data was collected via in-depth interviews with three purposely selected Texas public school superintendents and three Texas legislators. The data were coded and analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding techniques (Patton, 2002). This method of data analysis allowed for themes to emerge from the data and for the identification of a single overarching theme by which all other themes were connected. This study's findings uncovered that superintendents influence the development of educational policies at the state level by interacting with legislators and their staff members, by participating as members of professional organizations, and by enlisting local stakeholders. Ingrained in each of these processes for influencing policy development is the overarching theme that superintendents must build and foster relationships to influence the development of educational policies. Based on a thorough examination of the data gathered in this study, implications for practice were offered and recommendations for consideration of future studies that build upon this research were provided. This study is one of the only research endeavors ever conducted to examine the strategies utilized by superintendents to influence the development of educational policies. It is the only study of its kind known to the researcher that utilizes qualitative methodology. The richness of the data provided by the participants of this study adds significant value to the knowledge base regarding the political role of the public school superintendent to influence policy development. / text

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

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