<p> An online survey was utilized where 31 participants answered questions about their Facebook usage and activities. In addition, information was provided about their partner and issues that stemmed from Facebook such as relationship strain and depressive symptoms. Moreover, time spent on Facebook was also examined. Results indicated a correlation between Facebook activities and levels of depression, meaning that participants reported experiencing depressive symptoms after engaging in Facebook activities and viewing their partner&rsquo;s Facebook profile. In addition, the results revealed that there was no significant association between time spent on Facebook and levels of depression. In other words, those who reported spending more time on Facebook did not report experiencing increased depressive symptoms or relationship strain. The social comparison theory posits that if individuals cannot evaluate themselves using physical standards, they will attempt to do it using social standards, especially when they experience uncertainty about their attitudes and opinions. Results revealed that individuals were less likely to access Facebook when they were unsure of their own thoughts, feelings, and intuition about the relationship. The results of this study indicated that Facebook activities can negatively affect relationships and cause individuals to experience depressive symptoms. More attention should be paid to Facebook usage and to the activities and behaviors of its users. Despite the positive effects of utilizing social network sites, negative experiences can occur due to the nature of the environment.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation represents an in depth examination of the cultural practices, technological affordances and political economic forces that inform the publics and counterpublics formed on the website reddit. Through interpretivist netnography, textual analysis and document analysis, the research presented here establishes a variety of different events (both historical and contemporary) and discourses that have taken place on the site and shows how these events and discourses are emblematic of contemporary neoliberal ideologies. Drawing on the theoretical tradition of the &ldquo;public sphere&rdquo; established by J&uuml;rgen Habermas, this research concludes that reddit shows the potential for an effective public sphere through digital technology. However, despite this potential, much of the discourse on reddit reinforces traditional neoliberal ideologies; furthermore, actions on behalf of the administration, moderators and users on the sites also indicate that while reddit has afforded individuals the opportunity to change federal political policy, these events do not translate into an inclusive public sphere that escapes the neoliberal trappings of technological fetishism.</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative research study was to evaluate and determine if significant associations and linear correlations exist between reader socio-demographics, levels of trust and affinity in online citizen writer news story article content, brand loyalty, and acuity in newspaper organizations transitioning from print to online in a heterogeneous population. Descriptive and inferential statistics for dependent and independent variables were analyzed through <i>t</i> tests, Pearson <i>r</i> correlation coefficients, cross tabulation, Pearson Chi-Square, analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and factor analysis. Data results showed significant relationships for each of the five hypotheses between variables of readers' socio-demographics and level of trust, socio-demographics and acuity, readers' level of trust and level of desire, readers' news brand loyalty and engagement, and readers' engagement and types of online news article content. A post evaluation of observed multivariate associations was conducted through a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and factor analysis.</p>

<p> This paper examines coverage of the 2012 presidential election by television news organizations on Twitter and their legacy medium. Motivated by the possibility that those who are not interested in politics might pick up relevant political information from the individuals or news organization they follow, this study found that tweets about the election by CBS, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, NBC, and FNN were nearly devoid of substantive political information. This research will be important as news consumption habits continue to evolve and the Twitter audience continues to grow, it is important that we understand the content that is being put forward through these mediums. This will help to evaluate the democratic value of news content in terms of its role in informing the American public.</p>

<p> Social media is great resource of user-generated contents. Public attention, opinion and hot topics can be captured in the social media, which provides the ability to predict human related events. Since social media can be retrieved in real time with no building cost and no maintenance cost, traffic operation authorizes probably identify the social media data as another type sensor for traffic demand. In this thesis, we aim to use social media information to assist traffic flow prediction under special event conditions. Specially, a short-term traffic flow prediction model, incorporated with tweet features, is developed to forecast the incoming traffic flow prior sport game events. Both tweet rate features and semantic features are included in the prediction model. We examine and compare the performance of four regression methods, respectively autoregressive model, neural networks model, support vector regression, and k-nearest neighbor, with and without social media features. To the end, we show the benefit gained by including social media information in the prediction model and its computational efficiency for potential practical applications. </p>

<p> This study examined impulse cues on the Facebook pages of apparel retailers by extending previous research by Dawson &amp; Kim (2010), which examined impulse cues on the websites of top apparel retailers. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between impulse cues (Facebook content that entices consumers to buy) and web sales. The percentage of Facebook traffic website referrals for apparel retailers was also examined. The potentially influential role of impulse cues on web sales is highlighted in this study with distinct marketing implications for apparel retailers. When retailers use impulse cues on Facebook as part of their marketing strategy, they increase the potential for user engagement. The purpose of increasing user engagement is to increase conversion to web sales. The Facebook posts of the top apparel retailers were examined to identify the number of times impulse cues were used over a 30-day period in 2012. The top apparel retailers were extracted from InternetRetailer.com's 2012 Top 500 list. The Top 500 list ranks Internet retailers of all categories (electronics, books, apparel, beauty, etc.) using 2011 web sales data. Additional impulse cue categories were added to Dawson &amp; Kim's original impulse cue categories. The relationship between Facebook likes, comments, and shares and web sales of the retailers' was also analyzed.</p>

<p> This project investigates the way that larger power structures and highly specific site architectures affect voices of contestation through a situated ethnographic study of the #BlackLivesMatter movement on Tumblr. Rather than a comprehensive study, this project looks at how protesters may utilize high media and social network literacy to strategically make their voices heard by seemingly isolated and uninvolved users. Rather than ignorant to the structures around them, the specifics of these choices or e-tactics demonstrate a degree of awareness by protesters of larger cultural forces that may limit or constrain their ability to be heard. Through this lens, this thesis compares the role of Tumblr and other social sites as arenas for democratic dialogue and the insertion of previously marginalized peoples and narratives. The use of blogs by #BlackLivesMatter protesters and other counter-hegemonic movements as a realm for civic journalism and &ldquo;counter media-errorism&rdquo; is also analyzed. Ultimately, this project shows a clear need for further ethnographic study on the particulars of Internet and information and communication technology structures and how activists pursue social change within these structures. </p>

<p> The ever increasing prevalence of electronic information online has provided a medium that allows for greater access to a wider range of users. It is important that user groups such as older adults, or individuals with visual impairments or disabilities, have an equal level of access to electronic information as do individuals without visual impairments or disabilities. This study examined whether allowing older adults the ability to customize various aspects of text would improve their reading performance and subjective usability ratings, while reducing the level of reported visual fatigue for online reading. Data from 16 older adult participants (age 49 to 69) and 16 younger adult participants (age 18 to 22) were analyzed. Participants were asked to read text passages using a big or small screen size, and answer reading comprehension questions under conditions where they were able to customize text or not able to customize text. Reading performance and ratings of usability and visual fatigue were obtained. Results showed an interaction between customization condition and age group. In the customized reading conditions, younger adults were more accurate than older adults, but their performance did not differ significantly in the non-customized reading conditions. There was no effect of screen size on any of the dependent measures. Implications of these findings are discussed. </p><p>

<p> Traditionally, the field of rhetoric and composition has valued long-form essay writing, which requires students to engage patiently and at length with revision. In contrast, students today spend much time outside of school producing fast-paced and short posts for social media. This dissertation argues that students&rsquo; social media interactions provide them nuanced, dialogic, and complex rhetorical understandings about writing&mdash;but that students need help developing discursive processes to support transfer of their social media knowledge to other writing contexts, including long-form academic writing. Drawing from two semesters of in-class study, I construct for first-year composition classrooms a pedagogy that embraces and cultivates the rhetorical knowledge students gain from social media; I demonstrate how students can analyze, reflect on, and transfer this knowledge to academic contexts. Citing students&rsquo; social media and academic writing, I draw from students&rsquo; intuitive understandings of the rhetorical concepts medium, context, audience, <i>ethos</i>, and purpose to illustrate how these concepts can productively shift and expand in FYC instruction. To situate this pedagogy within contemporary practices, I analyze leading FYC textbooks and highlight how textbook pedagogies can acknowledge and foreground students&rsquo; expanded rhetorical understandings of social media for richer composing processes in all media and for all contexts, digital and non-digital.</p><p>

<p> Buy24x7.com is an online pharmacy registered as a limited liability company with its head office in Los Angeles, CA. The sole purpose of Buy24x7.com is to provide prescription medicines at a reasonable price to its customers and we plan to achieve this by working efficiently and cutting down the operating cost. The company&rsquo;s top three goals are to provide prescription medicines to the customers at a lower price in the market, make prescription medicines easily available to the customers and be known as Americas most reliable and trusted pharmacy. Buy24x7&rsquo;s unique selling proposition is an overnight delivery system which promises to deliver drugs to the doorsteps. Additionally, there will be a discount for the customers within 5-km radius of the warehouse. This business plan will present an analysis of target market, company&rsquo;s marketing goals and objectives and the strategies to attract customers, a SWOT analysis discussing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the company, a birds-eye view of the legal and regulatory concerns surrounding the business, and finally a review of the financial viability </p><p>