Media Connections Research Articles

A Multi-Scale Fractal Approach for Coal Permeability Estimation via MIP and NMR Methods

Permeability in porous media has an important role in many engineering applications, which depends mainly on the pore size, distribution, and connectivity of porous media. As the pore structure distribution of coal has a multi-scale fractal dimension characteristic, this study aimed to propose a multi-scale fractal dimension characteristics units model (MFU) to describe the pore structure distribution by analyzing the multi-scale fractal dimension characteristics of coal pore media. Then, a multi-scale fractal permeability model was established based on MFU. The pore structure distribution was obtained by mercury injection porosimetry (MIP) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. Based on MIP and NMR experimental data, the permeability contribution of different pore diameters were calculated. The results show that the permeability contribution of the micropore was minimal and can be ignored. The permeability contribution of mesopores was about 1–5%, and the permeability contribution of macropores was about 95–99%, which plays a decisive role in the seepage process. The calculated results, based on multi-scale fractal permeability model and the experimental permeability data, are in the same order of magnitude. The permeability prediction based on proposed model is better than classical single fractal permeability model.

Olympic Games, media coverage and brand image/performance from fan and gender perspectives

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore and test certain assumptions concerning the role of the media in its coverage of the Olympic Games, US men's and women's basketball in particular, and its perceived impact on brand image of the athletes' performance from a fan's motivational and financial perspective.Design/methodology/approachUses and gratifications theory and sport fan motivation scales were used to identify potential impacts of media coverage and branding on athletic performance. Based on a study of 143 working professionals that identified themselves as Olympic sport fans in the Pittsburgh, PA metropolitan area, several hypotheses were tested.FindingsThe most to least important factor-based constructs found from a PCA (Principal Components Analysis)/factor analysis included competitiveness, fan commitment, media connections, media impacts, demographics and financial impacts. When using the construct athletic performance at the Olympic level as the dependent variable, results suggested that competitiveness, media connections and fan commitment were significant for males only, while only media connections for significant for females. Males were found to be more player-centric than females, willing to be more focused on the competitive nature of the Olympic Games and to dedicate more money for such activities.Originality/valueFocusing on Olympic Games and associated athletes' competitive nature opens a unique perspective from fan's gender perspective.

Student-Professor Social Media Relationships: An Exploratory Study of Privacy and Trust

This article explores social media relationships between undergraduates and their professors. It addresses social media efficacy’s and social media privacy’s impact on students’ trust in both their professors and university. An online survey of 448 business students found that students who are in social media relationships with professors are more concerned about their own social media privacy and that these students are less likely to trust their professors and the university. When it comes to perceptions of professor and university trust, students’ perceptions of social media privacy are more important than their social media connections with professors. Implications are discussed.

Socially Connected during COVID-19: Online social connections mediate the relationship between loneliness and positive coping strategies

The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, spread across the world in early 2020. Many countries imposed social isolation restrictions where people were confined to their homes unless their work was deemed an essential service or for short outings to obtain necessary food and household supplies. We hypothesised that a lack of face-to-face social interactions would predict feelings of loneliness and reductions in healthy coping behaviours such as eating well and keeping occupied, and predicted that use of media connections to liaise with others would mediate this negative relationship. Two hundred and thirteen participants responded to an online survey with useable data available from 181 persons (147 women) with an average age of 37.82 years (SD = 13.24). Data from a series of scales designed for this study revealed moderate levels of loneliness that directly predicted reduced engagement in healthy coping behaviours. This direct relationship was mediated by the use of media connections to liaise with others during the period of social isolation. Principal Component Analyses indicated media connections included two factors: Communication (e.g., phoning, texting) and social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram). While the data were not representative of the wider population in terms of education and gender spread, the diversity of ages is a compensating factor. Suggestions for maintaining health and the importance of support during times of trauma, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are discussed.

Modeling the social media relationships of Irish politicians using a generalized latent space stochastic blockmodel

Dáil Éireann is the principal chamber of the Irish parliament. The 31st Dáil was in session from March 11th, 2011 to February 6th, 2016. Many of the members of the Dáil were active on social media, and many were Twitter users who followed other members of the Dáil. The pattern of Twitter following amongst these politicians provides insights into political alignment within the Dáil. We propose a new model, called the generalized latent space stochastic blockmodel, which extends and generalizes both the latent space model and the stochastic blockmodel to study social media connections between members of the Dáil. The probability of an edge between two nodes in a network depends on their respective class labels, as well as sender and receiver effects and latent positions in an unobserved latent space. The proposed model is capable of representing transitivity and clustering, as well as disassortative mixing. A Bayesian method with Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling is proposed for estimation of model parameters. Model selection is performed using the WAIC criterion and models of different number of classes or dimensions of latent space are compared. We use the model to study Twitter following relationships of members of the Dáil and interpret structure found in these relationships. We find that the following relationships amongst politicians is mainly driven by past and present political party membership. We also find that the modeling outputs are informative when studying voting within the Dáil.

Quiet celebrity in the time of pandemic: stripping away artifice in performances of self, cultures of citizenship, and community care

ABSTRACT As the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly escalated in early 2020 and shelter-at-home orders cascaded around the world, celebrities streamed live performances from living rooms, home studios, and empty opera houses. Social media buzzed with gratitude for the entertainment, inspiration, and camaraderie that developed between ordinary citizens and celebrities sharing music from isolation via media technology. Celebrities also called upon their industry connections and friendships to create collaborative fundraising events, support working musicians whose tours were cancelled, and highlight amateur performers. Musicians who streamed simple performances from relatively modest homes and provided glimpses of their ‘real lives’ – their talents, personalities, homes, friendships, and families – won praise from audiences. Touring musicians and theatre performers in particular provide fascinating moments of empowered participatory citizenship during the pandemic. Beloved by relatively small, active fandoms but not widely popular outside their specific genres, these celebrities are positioned to provide meaningful social media connections with their devoted fans while not necessarily garnering high-profile media attention for their efforts. My critical analysis explores how musicians and theatre performers have responded to social distancing by sharing their music and fostering moments of connection with audiences who were seeking comfort during a global crisis.

Examining the roles of social media use and connections to public actors on democratic engagement: An analysis of young adults in three Asian societies

Social media platforms not only provide young adults exposure to information about political and social affairs, but also opportunities to curate connections with influential public actors that can engender greater public expression and participation in civic life. We examine these dynamics using probability surveys of young adults in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Results across the three samples showed that social media connections with journalists and activists were positively related to exposure to and sharing of public affairs content. Sharing public affairs content on social media in turn was related to greater willingness to speak out about political and social issues beyond the social media platforms. These experiences further empower youth to engage in civic participation. This study elucidates the importance of public actors on social media as socialization agents for youth that can engender subsequent public expression and civic participation across societies with different political and media systems.

REACHING OUT TO RETURNING STUDENTS AMIDST PANDEMIC

Some learners who had untoward experience in life turn out to be school leavers, either by their own choice or through circumstance that they did not expect. But returning after a year or more of being out of school is a new beginning for them. This study focused on investigating the experience of returning students amidst time of pandemic. Twelve returning students from grades 8 to 11 became the participants in this study. Through social media connectivity, the researchers provided assistance to them in terms of peer tutoring in different subjects, having to stay at home while doing modular tasks due to COVID 19. Seven qualitative questions were given on a weekly interval for the participants to share their experience and idea on how returning learners can adjust in schooling through the aid of peers, teachers, school, family and community. Data gathered were encoded, processed through word cloud generator, interpreted and analyzed thematically in the light of sound principles so as to construct meaningful conclusion pertaining to the assistance that can be provided to returning students. Themes were developed which surround the concept of peer assistance, teacher intervention, school program, and family and community partnership. The school system should provide safe and motivating environment, practical implementation of curriculum, and positive discipline to create a better ground for returning students. Teachers should generally improve the strategies in providing moral support and showing compassion to returning learners as part of their intervention. Peer encouragement in the form of guidance and assistance academically and morally helps returning learners pursue studies. Parents and community can collaborate in bringing about projects that promote close-family ties and academic assistance as well.

Information Source Use and Social Media Engagement: Examining their Effects on Origin of COVID-19 Beliefs

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a highly infectious virus transmitted through droplets from sneezes and coughs, was declared a global pandemic in 2020. Measures implemented by organizations as a result of COVID-19 were controversial among United States (U.S.) citizens. Perceptions of governmental and scientific information further divided U.S. citizens and distrust in science fostered conspiratorial thinking toward the origin of the virus. The purpose of this study was to determine if critical thinking style (CTS), the use of COVID-19 information sources, and social media connections were predictors of origin of COVID-19 beliefs. A survey was disseminated to 1,048 U.S. adults in May 2020 when most states were under shelter-in-place orders. Results indicated select COVID-19 information sources used and social media connections predicted origin of COVID-19 beliefs. CTS was not a significant predictor. Findings revealed a partisan divide between COVID-19 information sources. Implications for science communicators engaging the public during crisis were discussed.

ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN COVID PANDEMIC; A BOON OR BANE ???

The Covid-19 pandemic has struck at a moment when the natural world is more intertwined than ever before. It's the rst pandemic of the digital era, and never before has it been possible to communicate and stay connected so swiftly during a pandemic.Though physical connectivity has hastened the disease's spread over the globe due to extensive travel, social media connectivity is a tool that, when utilised properly and judiciously, can inuence people's behaviour and enhance individual’s and global health.These social media portals may be used to quickly broadcast signicant new information, relevant new scientic results, discuss diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up protocols, and evaluate alternative techniques globally, removing potential geographic barriers. Simultaneously, a massive volume of potentially harmful misinformation is spreading at a faster rate via social media than the disease itself. As a result, it is vital to give timely, reliable, and trustworthy information addressing critical infection control issues. In this review, we present the most signicant facts on the impact, benets, and drawbacks of using social networks during the COVID-19 pandemic .

Tutorials

The ICWSM 2012 conference tutorials will be How to Analyze Massive Social Network Datasets without a Cluster, presented by Derek Ruths; Charting Collections of Connections in Social Media: Creating Maps and Measures with NodeXL, presented by Marc Smith; Evidenced-Based Social Design of Online Communities: Getting to Critical Mass and Encouraging Contributions, presented by Paul Resnick and Robert Kraut; Sentiment Mining from User Generated Content, presented by Lyle Ungar and Ronen Feldman; and Information Extraction for Social Media Anaylsis, presented by Denilson Barbosa.

Media connection and return comovement

Media news may cover multiple firms in one article, which establishes a media connection across firms. We propose a media connection strength (MCS) measure between two given firms, which is defined as the number of news articles co-mentioning these two firms. We show that the MCS measure can significantly explain and forecast return comovement of media-connected firm-pairs. Further analyses show that our results are robust to various alternative explanations. We argue that the MCS measure can capture comprehensive and complex correlated fundamental information among media-connected firms and hence may provide a new mechanism for return comovement beyond the existing rational- and behavioral-based explanations.

Does Active Service Intervention Drive More Complaints on Social Media? The Roles of Service Quality and Awareness

ABSTRACT Despite many advantages of social media as a customer service channel, there is a concern that active service intervention encourages excessive service complaints. Our paper casts doubt on this misconception by examining the dynamics between social media customer complaints and brand service interventions. We find service interventions indeed cause more complaints, yet this increase is driven byservice awareness rather than chronic complaining. Due to the publicity and connectivity of social media, customers learn about the new service channel by observing customer service delivery to others—a mechanism that is unique to social media customer service and does not exist for traditional call centers. Importantly, high-quality service reduces future complaints. As a result, proactive customer service is a sound strategy on social media, as long as firms dedicate to service quality. Hence, firms should be less concerned about whether to respond and more focused on how to respond to customer complaints.

Kenya’s digital diplomacy amid COVID-19: New tools in an old toolbox?

ABSTRACT Digital diplomacy has become indispensable amid COVID-19-imposed travel restrictions, social distancing and stay at home guidelines, causing many African countries to increasingly utilise social media platforms for the conduct of diplomacy. This study examines how the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) practises digital diplomacy, and specifically ‘social media diplomacy’. It analyses the MFA’s posts on Twitter and Facebook in terms of content, in addition to a network analysis of connections. The study aimed to determine the government’s tactics and strategies, and to consider its challenges. Findings indicate that the number of social media connections have not changed significantly relative to the pre-COVID-19 period, suggesting that while the MFA is equipped to deploy social media diplomacy to conduct public diplomacy, its tactics and strategies are not optimal. This article proposes alternative tactics and strategies, such as networking and coalition-building with other actors, to achieve the country’s overall foreign policy objectives.

Initiation and changes in use of social media for peer support among young adult cancer patients and survivors.

Social isolation is a prominent challenge for many young adults with cancer. Despite desires for peer-to-peer connections through technology, little is known about how young adults initiate or use social media for support over time. We interviewed young adults with cancer (n=45; age 18-39, in or post cancer treatment) to explore their initiation of social media for support, changes in use over time, and types of connections sought. Young adults with cancer learn about online support through individual personal recommendations, advocacy organizations, or searching on Google or social media. Most were reluctant to use social media support initially because of feeling overwhelmed-from diagnoses, abundance of online information, or demands of participation-and joined when informational and emotional needs arose. Many wished they had joined earlier. Some participants use social media to make close connections while others simply want to "see" others' shared experiences or crowdsource information. Young adults with cancer often haphazardly find online support from personal recommendations or Internet searches. Desires for social media connections are not one-size-fits-all; there are important audience segmentations for the degree and type of peer support. Better promotion of online social support options and benefits-early in one's cancer timeline and systematically through healthcare providers, cancer organizations, or family and friends-could improve access to helpful peer-to-peer support.

Does Active Service Intervention Drive More Complaints on Social Media? The Roles of Service Quality and Awareness

Despite many advantages of social media as a customer service channel, there is a concern that active service intervention encourages excessive service complaints. Our paper casts doubt on this misconception by examining the dynamics between social media customer complaints and brand service interventions. We find service interventions indeed cause more complaints, yet this increase is driven by service awareness rather than chronic complaining. Due to the publicity and connectivity of social media, customers learn about the new service channel by observing customer service delivery to others – a mechanism that is unique to social media customer service and does not exist for traditional call centers. Importantly, high-quality service reduces future complaints, thereby proactive customer service is a sound strategy on social media, as long as firms dedicate to service quality. Hence, firms should be less concerned about whether to respond and more focused on how to respond to customer complaints.

Challenges in the collaboration between researchers and in-house communication professionals in the digital media landscape

In the changing science communication landscape, researchers may govern their public science-society relations through the social media connections at their fingertips. However, digital media outreach may create challenges for researchers and cause changes in the communication professionals' role. The aim of this qualitative interview study was to enhance understanding of the challenges in the rarely explored organizational collaboration between researchers and communication professionals. The results identify ambiguous duties and responsibilities, as well as blurring boundaries of occupational roles and coordination challenges in content production.

Enhancing Students’ Performances by Integrating Social Media in Undergraduate Learning

Use of social media among youth is growing rapidly around the world. This is more common among the young undergraduates. As a consequence of high usage of social media, ability to support learners via social constructed learning has increased. This study focuses on enhancing undergraduate’s academic performance via social media intervention. This was an action research and used mix methods inquiry employed quantitative and qualitative studies. Open face to face interviews, semi structured and structured questionnaires were conducted among 94 (n=94) undergraduates at the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Findings of the study will incorporate the new insights of learner on social media adaption in academic work in meaningful ways. The results of open-ended face to face interviews, semi structured and structured questionnaire demonstrate multiple contextual relationships exist in adaption of social media in formal academic setup. Furthermore, perceptions of undergraduates on social media intervention illustrate the prominent relationship between peer groups, instructors, and learning content. Results of the study indicate that the learners are reluctant to adapt to the traditional learning setups and communication modes, but they appreciate the use of state of art social media connections in learning. Findings will further offer better and important information for both learners and academics to uplift communication, collaboration, and development of conducive learning environments.

Toward a new normality in Via Paolo Sarpi (Milan, Italy)? Social behaviors and spatial transitions during and after the lockdown

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 crisis (February–September 2020), Lombardy—the most populous region in Italy—suffered more than 101,705 contagions with more than 16,880 deaths. Such an amount of cases (38,9% over the total Italian COVID-19 patients and 47,8% over Italian deaths) imposed a severe lockdown that affected ten million inhabitants in one of the larger urban regions of Europe that includes the cities of Milan, Bergamo, and Brescia. Social contact where forbidden, and civil rights and mobility dramatically reduced. Therefore, over two months, three urban values (the density, the proximity, and the continuous interaction) that shaped the European lifestyle in cities were considered dangerous. The urban space itself turned in a risky environment for its inhabitants. The disruptive result has been a general decline of urban public life, and this reduction has been evident in high streets and other public spaces. Hoping that the current situation will change rapidly, we recognize that we must adapt to a new normality, where public spaces and social encounters will still have a crucial role in cities. Regarding the rapid and profound transformation of social behaviors in Milan during the COVID-19 crisis, the research will be picking the focus on the street space as a suitable environment for converting more sociable anwctd healthy public spaces. Starting from the case of a multiethnic consolidated neighborhood in Milan (around Via Paolo Sarpi, a pedestrian-oriented street marked by the presence of the Chinese community), the proposed chapter explores how social behaviors and their spatial impacts changed—and adapted—during the lockdown. We will involve the analysis of the changes in the living practices of the street during the pandemic not only physically but also performed as booming social media connections. In the conclusions, we will point out how several reflections about the new normality that is rising out after this extra-ordinary situation at the local level, and how this original knowledge must support a new approach to the urban planning and territorial governance in the next years.

Social Isolation - a Prerequisite for Forced and Intensive Development of Media Literacy and Digital Education of Society

The paper analyzes the behavior of society in a crisis and social distance and the increased influence of the media. Data on the level of training of teachers, students and parents related to media and information literacy are presented. The degree of forced media literacy in crisis conditions is measured. Models and methods of distance and media learning within the European Union are compared. In conclusion, examples are given of media connections and media literacy in the absence of a social environment and live communication among children and students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.