Real-time social systems are the fastest growing phenomena on the web, enabling millions of users to generate, share, and consume content on a massive scale. These systems are manifestations of a larger trend toward the global sharing of the real-time interests, affiliations, and activities of everyday users and demand new computational approaches for monitoring, analyzing, and distilling information from the prospective web of real-time content. In this dissertation research, we focus on the real-time social trails that reflect the digital footprints of crowds of real-time web users in response to real-world events or online phenomena. These digital footprints correspond to the artifacts strewn across the real-time web like posting of messages to Twitter or Facebook; the creation, sharing, and viewing of videos on websites like YouTube; and so on. While access to social trails could benefit many domains there is a significant research gap toward discovering, modeling, and leveraging these social trails. Hence, this dissertation research makes three contributions: • The first contribution of this dissertation research is a suite of efficient techniques for discovering non-trivial social trails from large-scale real-time social systems. We first develop a communication-based method using temporal graphs for discovering social trails on a stream of conversations from social messaging systems like instant messages, emails, Twitter directed or @ messages, SMS, etc. and then develop a content-based method using locality sensitive hashing for discovering content based social trails on a stream of text messages like Tweet stream, stream of Facebook messages, YouTube comments, etc. • The second contribution of this dissertation research is a framework for modeling and predicting the spatio-temporal dynamics of social trails. In particular, we develop a probabilistic model that synthesizes two conflicting hypotheses about the nature of online information spread: (i) the spatial influence model, which asserts that social trails propagates to locations that are close by; and (ii) the community affinity influence model, which asserts that social trail prop- agates between locations that are culturally connected, even if they are distant. • The third contribution of this dissertation research is a set of methods for social trail analytics and leveraging social trails for prognostic applications like real-time content recommendation, personalized advertising, and so on. We first analyze geo-spatial social trails of hashtags from Twitter, investigate their spatio-temporal dynamics and then use this analysis to develop a framework for recommending hashtags. Finally, we address the challenge of classifying social trails efficiently on real-time social systems.

The purpose of this research was to understand how the risks associated with West Nile virus (WNV) were presented by the Winnipeg Free Press. A detailed content analysis was completed on all Winnipeg Free Press articles and Manitoba Health news releases, between 1999 and 2008, containing information related to West Nile. Additional data included interviews with government and media representatives. Several recurring frames, including blame, controversy, rights and fairness, risk, and uncertainty were found in the newspaper data. Over time there was a decrease in both the coverage and prominence of WNV-related issues by the Winnipeg Free Press. In terms of the use of sources by media, the provincial government was found to be the most commonly used source in this context. Reporting of WNV-related issues by the Winnipeg Free Press has been relatively clear and balanced despite some initial alarmist coverage surrounding the uncertainty of the arrival of WNV.

The purpose of this research was to understand how the risks associated with West Nile virus (WNV) were presented by the Winnipeg Free Press. A detailed content analysis was completed on all Winnipeg Free Press articles and Manitoba Health news releases, between 1999 and 2008, containing information related to West Nile. Additional data included interviews with government and media representatives. Several recurring frames, including blame, controversy, rights and fairness, risk, and uncertainty were found in the newspaper data. Over time there was a decrease in both the coverage and prominence of WNV-related issues by the Winnipeg Free Press. In terms of the use of sources by media, the provincial government was found to be the most commonly used source in this context. Reporting of WNV-related issues by the Winnipeg Free Press has been relatively clear and balanced despite some initial alarmist coverage surrounding the uncertainty of the arrival of WNV.

This thesis explores national and international news reporting of a major controversial news story – the sinking of South Korean corvette, Cheonan in March 2010. The thesis draws upon a comparative analysis of major news coverage pertaining to the incident with a sample of US/UK and South Korean media (AP, CNN, The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, Yonhap,The Hankyoreh Shinmun, The DongA Ilbo). In addition 18 semi-structured interviews with foreign correspondents and Korean journalists were conducted in order to explore news gathering practices concerning the incident and to investigate factors that influence news production. There has been a growing debate that a paradigm shift in journalism theory is necessary in the post-Cold War era. This study examines how a new paradigm shift might be applicable in the case of North Korea. This study also addresses international news flow and explores the propaganda model by Herman and Chomsky (2002) in light of media influence in foreign policy. Specifically, this study attempts to investigate the applicability of some filters in the propaganda model in the context of the North and South Korea’s conflict coverage, concentrating on the use of news sources and the impact of new media on journalism practices. This is contextualised by addressing journalistic challenges of covering South and North Korean conflicts. Key findings are that the dominant news frames identified were conflict frames in international news media and human interest frame in national news respectively. The primary factor that influenced journalism practices at a national and an international level include a journalist’s ideology - one of the most significant factors in news framing. Moreover, a routinized journalism practice, and inaccessibility to North Korea that entailed limited news sources also influenced the ways in which news relating to the Cheonan incident was reported. Some filters of the propaganda model, which are routinized news sources relying on officials and ideological convergence such as anti-communism were operationalised in the case of the Cheonan. The international news agencies also played a pivotal role as primary definer and seemed to influence national and international mainstream media. Correspondents perceived that the Korean news media’s ideological cleavage hampered Korean social integration. On a global scale, South Korea’s security is under the influence of geopolitical power control with peripheral countries. Given the impact of newsmaking on society and policy making, this study highlights that investigative journalism practices based on gathering ‘facts’ and the personal ethics of journalists themselves are indispensable.

The “global war on terrorism” has pervaded the social scene following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Although the ripple effects of the wars are continuing to spread across the globe in the various political and foreign policy arenas, the aim of this study is to turn attention to the individuals who bore the battle, have returned home, and now face new challenges. The United States veteran population has experienced an unprecedented increase in numbers as a response to troop withdrawals in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although previous research has considered the potential difficulties veterans face when reintegrating into society, this study goes a step further and investigates how news media sources are called to participate in narrating veteran stories of war and specifically their stories documenting post-traumatic stress disorder. Drawing on a variety of theoretical perspectives and utilizing a multi-methodological approach, this study seeks to answer four central questions: First, how and by what channels do sources enter the news media conversation to comment on the veteran experience? Second, are veterans the main sources narrating their experiences or do other individuals, groups, or organizations speak more often in the news media? Third, what stories circulated and gained traction by narrating the lived experiences of veterans with PTSD? And fourth, what stories did veterans tell about their experiences, and what stories were told about veterans who suffer from PTSD? This study is organized in two distinct parts. Part one employs a quantitative content indexing analysis of four veteran related news media events across various newspaper, broadcast television news, and cable television news outlets in order to determine how sources entered the news media landscape, and who the sources were. Part two turns to examine four dominant news narratives that emerged from the direct quotation and paraphrased remarks gathered from part one’s analyzed news media texts. The study concludes by illustrating the powerful role news media sources play in the news, as well as the stories that emerge to define the lived experiences of veterans who suffer from PTSD. / text

This master thesis deals with analysis of crisis communication of the Volkswagen Group in the Czech Republic and its presentation in media. The theoretical part presents particular components of public relations and the crisis communication and its rules as a part of them. Then some basic principles in media analysis and marketing research are presented. The practical part starts with an in-depth overview of the emission scandal as a crisis situation for Volkswagen with an analysis of selected PR components impact of several indicators and also analysis of the media picture of the company. The research focuses on customer s attitude towards the emissions issue and VW s reaction. Finally the SWOT analysis is assembled and on its basis the solution for post-crisis communication is offerred.

Social media consume an increasing portion of people’s daily lives and are important platforms in the realms of politics and marketing for reaching out to voters and consumers. Describing and predicting the behaviour of users on social media is thus of interest for companies and politicians, as well as researchers studying information diffusion and human behaviour. Twitter is a fast-paced microblog that is host to debates, conversations, and campaigns between users as well as organisations all over the world. As all interactions on Twitter are publicly available, the platform has been used as a data source for many studies. While previous works have mainly focused on interaction dynamics for specific user groups or topics, or on predicting virality, the perspective we take in this thesis is to focus on the level of the individual conversation and to use dynamical models to characterise user interactions. The most prominent characteristic of Twitter conversations is the clear presence of peaks in engagement. We introduce a classification scheme based on peak configurations to quantify the interaction patterns present on Twitter and find that around 70% of conversations exhibit a single peak in user engagement, usually followed by a slower decay. A second order linear model describes the dynamics of the single peak scenario well, indicating that most conversations have two phases - an initial phase of rapid rise and decline in interaction rate, followed by a phase of slowly decreasing interaction rate. We quantify the characteristic life span of Twitter conversations in terms of the second order system time constants. Furthermore, we investigate the impact that users with many followers, so called influencers, have on conversation dynamics, and in particular on the emergence of interaction peaks. The data suggests that influencers do have a noticeable, albeit limited effect on the spreading of conversations to other users.

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of cases of criminal charges laid against those who do not disclose their HIV-positive status to their sexual partners. The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure has generated an intense debate which is the object of this analysis. Using a social constructionist framework, particularly the work of Donileen Loseke, a leading social problems theorist, and documentary data drawn primarily from the internet, my goal is to shed light on the debate. More specifically, I am concerned with definitional contests or competing constructions inherent in the debate. The dissertation is organized around three papers. The first paper explores how the condition of HIV itself is socially constructed in the debate. Claims-makers who support criminal sanctions construct the disease as deadly and devastating, while claims-makers who oppose criminalization construct HIV as chronic and manageable. The second paper explores the rhetorical strategies used by those who support criminalization to construct non-disclosers as villains. I coined the term techniques of vilification to capture these strategies. The third paper examines the rhetorical strategies used by those who oppose criminalization to neutralize the label of victim for partners of non-disclosers. As a whole, the dissertation contributes to a better understanding of social problems claims-making processes, particularly around the construction of conditions and people. The dissertation also makes contributions to ongoing discussions in the sociology of health and illness, and victimology. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the debate around the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure with an emphasis on the Canadian context. Adopting a social constructionist approach, particularly as it has been used in the sociological study of social problems, and building on the work of social problems theorist Donileen Loseke, the thesis explores three themes: 1) how claims-makers understand HIV as a condition based on whether they support or oppose criminalization, 2) how claims-makers who support criminalization vilify those who do not disclose their HIV-positive status, and 3) how claims-makers who oppose criminalization work to downplay claims to victimhood by partners of non-disclosers. This work contributes to our understanding of the definitional contests underlying the debate. More broadly, it contributes to our understanding of social problems claims-making processes.

A study was conducted to develop, demonstrate and assess the Pour-through nutrient extraction procedure for bedding flats and plug trays. The Pour-through technique involves pouring a prescribed volume of water on a recently irrigated medium, then collecting and analyzing the leachate to predict nutrient availability in the medium. The volume of water necessary to collect a Pour-through from a 1204 bedding flat was determined to be 5 ml per cell based on leachate pH and electrical conductivity (EC) at various volumes of water applied. Impatiens wallerana ‘Super Elfin Red’ and Tagetes erecta ‘Apollo’ were grown in 1204 bedding flats at three fertilizer concentrations to assess the overall potential of the Pour-through procedure. Analysis of leachate EC, pH, and macro- and micro-nutrients indicated that the Pour- through method of nutrient extraction was sensitive and effective in extracting available nutrients. Leachate analysis was positively correlated to fertilizer nitrogen concentration, shoot tissue dry weight, and nutrient concentrations of conventional Saturated Media Extract methods. Preliminary studies indicated that evenly applying 200 ml of water per plug tray cells produced adequate leachate (50 ml) for laboratory analysis of EC, pH, and macro- and micro-nutrients. Impatiens wallerana ‘Super Elfin Red’ and Tagetes erecta ‘Apollo’ were grown in plug trays at three fertilizer concentrations to assess the overall potential of the Pour-through procedure. Analysis of leachate EC, pH, and macro- and micro-nutrients indicated that the Pour-through method of nutrient extraction was sensitive and effective in extracting available nutrients. Pour-through leachate analysis was positively correlated to fertilizer nitrogen concentration and to whole shoot tissue. / Master of Science

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