Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Sociology, March 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M. S.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2005. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: C. Van Shelhamer. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-86).

Utvecklingen av sociala medier såsom t.ex. Facebook och Instagram har inneburit nya möjligheter att kommunicera sin livsstil och sina personliga val, som överskrider såväl kulturella som geografiska gränser. Nya gemenskaper skapas. Detta får betydelse för hur konsumenter kommunicerar med varandra samt hur märkesinnehavarna kommunicerar med sina kunder. Syftet med min studie är att undersöka hur en märkesinnehavare inom mode använder sociala medier, i detta fall Instagram, i sin kommunikation med kunderna för att skapa engagemang kring sitt varumärke. Aktuell forskning visar att värde i varumärket skapas genom en ömsesidig kommunikation mellan märkesinnehavaren och konsumenterna. Kommunikationen sker både mellan märkesinnehavare och konsumenter samt mellan konsumenterna i en märkesgemenskap. Storytelling är ett verksamt medel i denna meningsskapande process. En semiotisk analys användes för att analysera bilderna och hur de bidrar till märkets storytelling. Resultatet visar att Instagram ger märkesinnehavare och konsumenter möjlighet att gemensamt skapa värde. De tekniska funktionerna i applikationen gör det lätt för märkesinnehavare att interagera med sina konsumenter och skapa en dynamisk märkesgemenskap. På Sabo Skirts instagramkonto är märkesinnehavaren och följarna tillsammans märkets författare. Följarna använder kläderna och ger dem betydelse i sin egen vardag samtidigt som märkesinnehavaren skapar möjligheter för dem att synas på ett instagramkonto med 1,5 miljoner följare. Detta kan tolkas med hjälp av teorin uses and gratifications som säger att användningen av media alltid är målinriktad. Människor väljer aktivt media efter vilka deras behov är och hur väl användningen tillfredsställer dessa behov.

Smartphones continue to grow increasingly ubiquitous for a variety of reasons. This study employed an online survey experiment in order to determine whether perceptions of environmental/locational privacy or individual levels of self-monitoring have any effect on smartphone uses and gratifications. While perceptions of locational privacy did indeed have a modest effect on smartphone gratifications sought, self-monitoring did not, and no interactions were detected between locational privacy and self-monitoring. Implications for these findings as well as avenues for future research are discussed.

Networks of indigenous irrigating farmers played an influential role in the Cochabamba Water War of 2000 that succeeded in ousting the major water company Bechtel from Bolivia and securing changes to the national legislation to recognize indigenous water rights. In their mobilization against privatization, the irrigators used a narrative grounded in the defense of their water rights and traditional uses and customs or usos y costumbres. Following the Water War, the irrigators effectively organized to have their traditional water rights recognized in the new Irrigation Law no. 2878, which was signed into law in 2004, and the Regulations, which came into effect in 2006. This paper critically examines the impacts of the Irrigation Law on access to water in the heavily farmed region of the Cochabamba Valley. It asks whether the social inequalities amongst farming communities, often exacerbated by usos y costumbres, are being reinforced through the law’s implementation. An analysis of the political processes of institutional change and the power dynamics in the rural water sector reveals that the configuration of power asymmetries formalized in the Irrigation Law maintains unequal access to water resources.

Denna studie går ut på att undersöka vilka mediekanaler unga förstagångsväljare använde sig av för att få politisk information innan och under riksdagsvalet 2010. Syftet är också att undersöka hur traditionella massmedier, som tidigare varit den dominerande källan för politisk information, står sig i relation till sociala medier i den fragmenterade medievärld vi lever i idag. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten är utifrån Uses and Gratifications-teorin samt tidigare forskning rörande förstagångsväljare och sociala medier. Metoddelen är kvantitativ i form av en frågeundersökning med gymnasieelever som läser sista året på gymnasiet. Datainsamlingen genomfördes i Sundsvall och Jönköping under december 2010.   Resultatet visar att unga förstagångsväljare fortfarande anser att de traditionella medierna, främst TV, är de viktigaste för deras politiska information. Det framgår också i resultatet att det politiska intresset hos unga ökar under valår. Vad gäller sociala medier som kanal för politisk information ansåg respondenterna att Facebook var den mest betydelsefulla källan för information.

The roles of urban public spaces in urban cores are being re-assessed across many North American cities. Public spaces within downtown cores are essential in ensuring the long- term viability of such urban centers economically and socially. Public spaces have been researched by utilizing a number of theories and frameworks in the past few decades, most notably through a socio-cultural lens. Another possible method of assessing what makes a great public space in a downtown core is by looking at how diverse a range of activities and uses it provides. The City of Vancouver’s downtown core has undergone massive redevelopment schemes in the past two decades. The downtown area has been transformed into a hub that not only retains major commercial and retail functions in the City but also boasting an active and increasing residential population living in mixed-use high density condominiums. Downtown Vancouver’s public spaces have also been increasing in number during the past two decades, on par with promoting a more active outdoor lifestyle for both residents and visitors. Assessing the degree to which the range of uses and activities meet the diverse range of users’ expectations and requirements is a possible method of analyzing these spaces’ viability in the public realm. Data for this research was collected by reviewing previous literature, unobtrusive observation and mapping of activities, compiling contextual maps of surrounding areas and usage maps for each selected public space, administering on-site user surveys, and conducting semi-structured interviews with professional and academic actors involved with planning, maintaining, and designing public spaces. Through conducting this research, it was found out that while some public spaces in Downtown Vancouver are more successful in terms of being used in a variety of ways, others are less so. Downtown Vancouver was also found to be lacking central public spaces such as plazas and squares, as these spaces would provide for a wider range of activities in the public realm. A number of strategies need to be taken by planners, officials in the City, and other actors in order to ensure more diverse range of activities in Downtown Vancouver’s public spaces in the future.

Internet has changed People¡¦s life and brought new communication problems. Community website is a platform which combines website¡¦s content and community. This platform had changed users not only to be a message receiver, but also to be a sender, who is more active. This characteristic promises the active audience, one of the basic assumptions in Uses and Gratifications Theory. Otherwise, in previous researches, computer mediated communication lacks of some media cues. But as basic network setting has changed, the conclusion maybe has been changed. In order to understand what are user¡¦s motivations and if there are any differences among different media. This survey conducts 41 questions to evaluate user¡¦s needs and the degree of social presence based on previous studies. As a result, there are 442 valid questionnaires in this study. As for motivations, a factor analysis revealed five motivations to use community websites: communication, information, surveillance, persuasion, and entertainment. Communication is the most important motivation of all. As for social presence, the ranking decreasingly is instant message, real-time video, e-mail, chat room, and forum. These two properties, motivations and social presence, obviously affect user¡¦s using intensity.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on February 1, 2010). A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing, School of Business. At head of title: University of Alberta. Spring 2010. Includes bibliographical references.