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Tourism social networking sites (SNSs) are websites that provide users with templates for describing their travel experiences and an infrastructure to share such travel posts with a network of like-minded individuals. Tourism SNSs represent an important advertising channel for the tourism industry, as they may assist travelers in selecting destinations and planning vacations on the basis of other travelers’ experiences, which may further stimulate travel and generate income for the tourism industry (Yazdanifard & Yee, 2014). User-generated content (UGC) in the form of travel posts is the core offering and key success factor of tourism SNSs. Travel posts constitute a valuable resource that attracts users to these websites, and they serve as a key data feed into the data mining process that is used to develop travel products on tourism SNSs. However, one problem with tourism SNSs is that their users, especially the new ones, do not publish their travel experiences on these SNSs as often as they do on traditional SNSs, such as Facebook. This may result in a lack of content and, therefore, a loss of potential consumers and, consequently, revenue. Therefore, a study on self-disclosure behavior in writing travel posts may contribute to understanding the reasons why this problem exists and help tourism SNSs improve their service accordingly. The author used multiple theoretical perspectives (social exchange theory and social cognition theory) to develop a comprehensive self-disclosure framework. The framework was tested by using a partial least squares based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach with data from 443 participants recruited from the two most popular Chinese tourism SNSs: Qyer.com and mafengwo.cn. The findings show that self-disclosure behavior on tourism SNSs was significantly affected by self-benefit, positive feedback from other users, social benefits, rewards, tourism SNSs’ security mechanism, and ease of use. However, habit and motive did not have a statistically significant effect on self-disclosure behavior. Moreover, self-disclosure behavior positively affected electronic word of mouth (EWOM) relating to the tourism SNSs. Finally, the findings have theoretical and practical implications, and the thesis ends with a discussion of the limitations of this study and suggestions for future research.

Magister Artium - MA / Social networking sites are used on a daily basis, to communicate with friends we have known for quite some time as well as make new friends from all over the globe - a global phenomenon. According to Aparicio (2011) the use of social networking sites have given way to a new “social dynamic” where friendships are formed with individuals from diverse backgrounds and geographical locations. Larsen (2007) continues to state that social network sites make for the creation of new friendships and the maintenance of new relationships. Using social networking sites to develop relationships provides us with new social skills, but through constant use of these sites we lose valuable interpersonal skills learnt through the use of face to face interaction (Aparicio, 2011). This thesis investigated the notion of social networking sites, specifically focusing on interpersonal relationships and language use within the networking context. The social networking site in question is that of Twitter, as majority of existing studies in this area focuses on the more popular Facebook. The main objective was to determine whether social networking sites, specifically Twitter, influence the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships and language use. Participants included a group of 11 males and 11 females (22 in total), ranging from the ages of 17 to 33 and from different geographical locations (e.g. United Kingdom, South Africa, Tokyo, and so on). These participants frequently keep in contact with each other. Four ways in which Twitter has been adapted to emulate face to face communication have been found, namely: (1) the use of Paralinguistic and Prosodic Features to imitate speech, (2) Ustream, although not prominent within the data collected, is used to make up for the lack of face to face communication.This, however, is one-way; only one user provides a video link while those communicating with him or her (as there can be more than one) would type messages, (3) as expected a variety of shortenings can be found within the data collected. Shortenings imitate speech among the younger generation, and (4) participants make use of an informal register, as the most common type of relationship found on Twitter is that of friendships. Both strong and weak ties exist in the collected data; with weak ties being the majority. It is possible for weak ties to become strong ties. All online relationships start off as weak and gradually, over time, become strong ties. This is done through establishing trust between participants and communicating on a regular basis. Paolillo (1999) found that online relationships manifests as both weak and strong. However, “online ties are not ‘branded’ as weak ties” and these ties differ in quality; “those who have regular contact have strong ties and those with less frequent contact have weaker ties weak”. Social support is evident in the collected data and possible in online, textbased communication. In is manifested in four types of support, namely: instrumental, emotional, informational, and appraisal. The most common type of support found in the collected data is that of informational support. With regards to support activation strategies, most tweet fall under the ‘ask’ and ‘cry’ types of strategies. Also, considering the amount of emoticons found in the data, little or no emoticons were found in the activation strategies. There are also more indirect support activation strategies as opposed to direct. This could possibly be due to the fact that majority of the ties are ‘in the weak stage’. Textese has not been adapted in anyway; the same elements used by texters and IMers are used by tweeters, such as initialisms, phonetic spellings and contractions. Although present in the Twitter data, elements of textese did not occur as frequently as that found in e.g. Bieswanger’s (2007) and Thurlow’s (2003) studies; however more elements of Twitter language was found. If anything, the characteristics of textese are well-suited for Twitter; as shortened forms of words would make it easier for users to maintain a character count below the imposed limitation and it promotes the idea of writing quick and concise messages instead of filling message space with irrelevant content. With regards to the difference in the way male and female participants use language in terms of the linguistic characteristics of textese and the language unique to Twitter and the use of paralinguistic and prosodic features, it can be said that females tend to use these characteristics more than males do.

The role of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) is coming under increased scrutiny as their online prowess grows. The objective of this research work is to investigate the students’ perception of this reality and try to understand their understanding of the SNSs potential for learning. The theory of Social Presence provides the academic impetus as the main conceptual framework for the study. Students of the Virtual University, Pakistan, were interviewed to understand their sense making of the SNSs role as platforms for learning in a virtual setting. The results highlight the importance of social presence dependent on myriad other factors, significant in their own right but extremely potent when they act together and thus influence the role of SNSs as virtual online conduits. It also indicates that our understanding of these networks, in the context of online learning especially in a developing country environment is still in its infancy and the numerous external environmental factors equally play a significant impact on the students’ perception of the role of these SNSs.

本研究企圖探討當代插畫創作者之於角色的創作能力生成歷程，因應行動網路成熟與社群網路崛起，插畫創作者如何運營社群平台，提供角色展演舞台，並能更進一步衍生角色商品。據此，本研究試圖討論：（1）插畫創作者如何形塑角色？（2）參與社群平台的插畫創作者如何以角色衍伸經濟效益？ 本研究將引用李仁芳（2008，2015）、李世暉（2013）與黃鈺茗（2015）分別主張之「創意心靈」、「A型團隊」、「角色」、「情感資本」、「粉絲」、「漣漪效應」作為架構主體，以次級資料分析法、深度訪談法為資料蒐集方式，借質性研究之解釋型個案研究，對研究個案整理歸納、分析後詮釋。本研究依據角色之生命週期而擇定處於養成期初、後階段與流行期之三個案：吃貨雞仔、保羅先生與Duncan（當肯）。 本研究發現：創意心靈為插畫創作者孕育角色之技術、內容與情感的孵化器，且其飽滿度影響角色的感染力。藉由社群平台的傳播效力，對於角色產生認同與感動的粉絲，由於來自社群平台的參與感而更累積情感資本，並依附情感資本於角色商品。插畫創作者還可與守門人以A型團隊的合作模式，額外增加經濟效益。 / This paper attempts to explore the shaping process of the charactors established by illustrators in recent years, and to discover, with the flourishing of Internet and Social Networking, how illustrators manage their own SNSs that the characters could perform on, furthermore, how illustractores change the characters into the characterized products. Consequently, the research questions are: (1) How do illustrators shape the stylization of the charactors? (2) How do economic benefits come with illustrators engaging in social networking? The study applies concepts of “Creative Mood”, “A-type Team”, “Character”, “Affective Capital”, “Fans” and “Ripple Effect” as the research framework, and develops according to Explaining Qualitative Research Methods as Secordary Date Analysis and In-Depth Interviewing and Case Writing. Three cases investigated in this study are (1) Eating-Chick, (2) Mr. Paul and (3) Duncan complying with the life period of characters. Summarized as follows: Illustrators with the creative mood could inject technology, content and emotion into the characters. The deeper the creative mood saturation is, the more the influences of the characters have. Besides, with the communication effects of SNS, the fans that have made identify and impressions on the characters will join SNSs accompanying with storaging more affective capital for the characterized products. Illustators and gatekeeper could cooperate as A-type team for additional economic benefits.

網際網路的發展讓人們的生活起了變化，Web2.0的概念更是增加了人們對網際網路的依賴性，我們成為網路內容的生產者、我們在社交網站上發表、追縱朋友的動態，以及取得全球世界各地的資訊。在這無限的虛擬空間中隱含的巨大商機，讓各大企業紛紛而至，因而加速了Web2.0社群網站的發展，維持與增加網站流量更是成為社群網站生存的關鍵與重要的績效指標。但社群網站該如何從流量指標之變化來評斷社群網站之績效呢?這是令我們最好奇之處。 藉由Google Analytics提供的流量分析工具，本研究蒐集了台灣四間社群網站1-3年間的流量資訊進行分析，考量蒐集之資訊具時間序列性質特性，本研究首先採用移動視窗法重新進行資料的整理，並據此概念應用在後續的統計分析。此外，本就以指數加權平均法及多元迴歸分析進行流量異常值之偵測，最後，對照各網站重大事件里程碑並與各網站業主進行一對一深訪。故本研究實際上包含質、量化之分析結果。 本篇研究四間個案網站為例，並依網站創造的服務與使用者互動情形流量將其區分為社交互動型與資訊交換型網站，並歸納其在網站流量指標上不同特徵表現及各自可參考之績效評估指標。同時，本研究採用多元迴歸分析做為社群網站績效評估模型，並企圖建構一績效評估分析流程期以做為後續研究者針對網站流量相關研究之參考。 / The development of Internet makes a great influence on human society and the development of Web2.0 enhances human’s dependence on the internet and becomes a channel of social connections. Currently, most contents of the Internet are generated by common users who could retrieve information through the entire network and trace their friends’ actions over the Social Network Sites (SNSs).Owing to the potential business opportunities on the internet, companies try to enter the market causing the prosperities of SNSs. Maintaining or even increasing traffic flows become a critical issue for SNSs to survive in the competitive market. However, how to evaluate the performance of SNSs based on traffic flow indices remains unsolved.This study collected Google Analytics data for 1-3 years from four SNSs’, respectively.Consider the time series charactics, this study applied “Moving Windows“ to organize the data for further statistical analysis.In addition, Exponentially Weighted Moving Average and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to detect the abnormal traffic flows. Finally, these abnormal records were compared with the important events and one-on-one interviewings with the SNSs operators were conducted. The results of this study are based on qualitative and quentitative analysis. This research studiesd four SNSs that were categorized into information-oriented and interaction-oriented services based on their services and users’ interaction. The SNSs at different categories behaved differently following certain characteristics defined previously.A performance evaluation process was developed as a reference for further studies.