Media Connections Research Articles

The impact of an innovative education and outreach project

In 1995, the ATLAS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider embarked on an ambitious journey, driven by a passion to ignite curiosity and inspire future scientists. Our quest wasn’t just about uncovering the universe’s mysteries; it was a cosmic odyssey to share the thrill of scientific exploration with all. Our exploratory collection included engaging classroom activities, a dynamic website, captivating videos, a vibrant YouTube channel, global social media connections, and a captivating planetarium show, all intertwined with the exciting search for the elusive Higgs Boson. This scientific program celebrates the enduring curiosity of humanity and the passion that fuels discovery.

Be there or share: Emplacement and embodied protest in Facebook Live videos

Live video is often used by protesters and political activists while broadcasting from conflict arenas since it gives the viewers a sense of “how it feels to be here.” This qualitative study suggests that digital “broadcast” technologies such as livestreaming can construct new forms of place-bound media events which intertwine “liveness” and “emplacement.” The article examines 97 Facebook Live videos uploaded during the May 2021 escalation of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict from varied sites of struggle and detects three main practices among live streamers: constructing “on-location” presence, performing sensuous place-making, and producing connectivity. It proposes the concept of “networked emplacement”: a combination of social media connectivity with streamers’ techniques of embodied presence that “emplaces” viewers in a rolling event with political significance.

New clusterization of global seaport countries based on their DEA and FDEA network efficiency scores.

Global seaport network efficiency can be measured using the Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI) with Gross Domestic Product. This paper utilizes k-means and hierarchical strategies by leveraging the results obtained from Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis (FDEA) to cluster 133 countries based on their seaport network efficiency scores. Previous studies have explored hkmeans clustering for traffic, maritime transportation management, swarm optimization, vessel trajectory prediction, vessels behaviours, vehicular ad hoc network etc. However, there remains a notable absence of clustering research specifically addressing the efficiency of global seaport networks. This research proposed hkmeans as the best strategy for the seaport network efficiency clustering where our four newly founded clusters; low connectivity (LC), medium connectivity (MC), high connectivity (HC) and very high connectivity (VHC) are new applications in the field. Using the hkmeans algorithm, 24 countries have been clustered under LC, 47 countries under MC, 40 countries under HC and 22 countries under VHC. With and without a fuzzy dataset distribution, this demonstrates that the hkmeans clustering is consistent and practical to form grouping of general data types. The findings of this research can be useful for researchers, authorities, practitioners and investors in guiding their future analysis, decision and policy makings involving data grouping and prediction especially in the maritime economy and transportation industry.

Polarized social media networks: a novel approach to quantify the polarization level of individual users

ABSTRACT This paper presents a novel methodology to quantify users’ polarization within social media networks, focusing on network structure instead of content. We model polarized networks as directed graphs, collecting users’ follower/following connections data, and propose a simple algorithm to compute a Connectivity Score for each node in sub-graphs associated with identified contrary groups of the polarized network. Our method has several advantages: it relies solely on users’ follower/following connections data, which is objective, often public and easy to obtain. Also, this input data is usually memory-efficient, unlike the input data of content-based methods which may require a whole corpus. The algorithm's performance is assessed through application to Twitter's 116th Congressmembers network, comparing against a content analysis method: Sentiment score (using VADER), and two political behavior-based methods: Ideology score (based on co-sponsorship frequency) and Roll Call score (based on bill-voting similarity). The results demonstrate that: (1) users’ choice of connections on the social media can represent polarization behavior; (2) a meaningful correlation between Connectivity Scores and Ideology or Roll Call Scores shows that the political behavior of users is reflected in their social media connections; (3) Democrats’ Twitter following behavior and their bill-voting and bill co-sponsorship behavior (represented by Roll Call and Ideology) are all significantly more correlated than that of Republicans. We believe applying our algorithm in conjunction with other methods is a valuable contribution resulting in more comprehensive analysis of the social media polarization space.

Enhancing Public Relations (PR) as the Focus of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) for CRG Indonesia

This study investigates methods to improve Public Relations (PR) within Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) for CRG Indonesia, paying attention to the key challenges encountered in media relations, event management, and community engagement/Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Through conducting qualitative analysis and interacting with stakeholders, the research has found that there is a requirement for content which can be tailored to specific locations, a more solid sustainability message, and enhanced digital interaction. The findings show that CRG’s current public relations strategies have to be better aligned with local sensitivities and company goals. The recommended enhancements involve establishing more robust media connections, implementing thorough event organization, and integrating corporate social responsibility initiatives to cultivate community confidence. The implementation plan utilizes digital platforms, establishes explicit CSR objectives, and adheres to a comprehensive timeline based on the AISAS (Attention, Interest, Search, Action, Share) model. This strategy ensures effective involvement and extensive understanding among all parties involved. By implementing such strategies, CRG Indonesia may enhance its prominence, convey its dedication to sustainability, and establish a robust public relations structure that aids both short-term and long-term business goals.

News Bias in Financial Journalists’ Social Networks

ABSTRACTConnected financial journalists—those with working relationships, common school ties, or social media connections to company management—introduce a marked media slant into their news coverage. Using a comprehensive set of newspaper articles covering mergers and acquisition (M&A) transactions from 1997 to 2016, I find that connected journalists use significantly fewer negative words in their coverage of connected acquirers. These journalists are also more likely to quote connected executives and include less accurate language in their reporting. Moreover, they tend to portray other firms in the same network in a less negative light. Journalists’ favoritism bias has implications for both capital market outcomes and their careers. I find that acquirers whose M&As are covered by connected journalists receive significantly higher stock returns on the news article publication date. However, these acquirers’ stock prices reverse in the long term, suggesting market overreaction to news covered by connected journalists. Around M&A transactions, connected articles are correlated with increased bid competition and deal premiums. In terms of future career development, connected journalists are more likely to leave journalism and join their associated industries in the long run. Taken together, the evidence suggests that financial journalists’ personal networks promote news bias that potentially hinders the efficient dissemination of information.

Professional Versus Personal Identities of Young Health Communicators: The Social Media Connection

The proliferation of social media in the 21st century has redefined health communication, facilitating a participatory culture where individuals play a pivotal role in shaping health-related behaviors. Social networking sites have also become platforms for individuals to express their identity through self-perception and expression. This project thus investigates the relationship between social media and preventive health experts’ professional and personal identities. The study will pay particular attention to exploring how health experts and communicators balance their sense of self in their online interactions. Therefore, this project aims to unravel the ambiguity of health communicators’ online roles, making social media a safer space for them and their audiences. These individuals carry the responsibility of preserving the health and safety of others, founded in their promotion of health advice, professional guidance, and personal lifestyle demonstrations. The study targets students and experts in nutrition, mental health, and fitness and exercise based in Norway. The scope of the project is restricted to Instagram due to the platform’s visual and adaptive affordances for self-expression. The research project is thus divided into three studies: The first study will apply the survey method to explore how content consumed by health students from selected universities and colleges in Norway may impact the formation of their professional identity. The second study will use interviews and content analysis to investigate the impact of the content posted and consumed by a select number of preventive health students in forming their ideal professional and personal identities. These students should be active on Instagram and have garnered over 1000 followers. Lastly, the third study will rely on a combination of interviews and content analysis to research online strategies applied by nutrition, mental health, and exercise and fitness experts to express their professional and personal identities. These individuals will be required to have over 4000 followers on Instagram.

The Linkage Between Digital Transformation and Organizational Culture: Novel Machine Learning Literature Review Based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation

AbstractOrganizational culture is a crucial component of innovation in company success, particularly in the setting of the information economy. The purpose of this research is to conduct a bibliometric analysis in order to identify dominant research topics, their potential shifts, and recent developments in the fields of organizational culture and digital transformation. It demonstrates a machine learning–supported method for identifying and segmenting the current state of this research field. The literature was identified from the Scopus database through a search query. The analyzed amount of papers (3065) was published in 1619 sources (journals, proceedings, books, etc.) with various research impacts. Identifying the dominant research topics resulted in eight topics: Social Media Connectivity; Digital Innovation Ecosystems; Socio-economic Sustainability; Digital Workforce Transformation; Digital Competence and Cultural Transformation; Knowledge, Culture, and Innovation; Data and Resource Management; and Digital Transformation Maturity. The results showed a shift in the research field on organizational culture related to digital transformation towards the subject area of business, management, and accounting, with increasing research interest and impact for the Digital Workforce Transformation as well as for the Knowledge, Culture, and Innovation topics.

Formation of professional social networks via physicians’ online engagement: Evidence from Sina Weibo and Sina Health

The professional social networks of physicians are an essential source of health-related user-generated content and online social capital. Yet limited research has examined how social networks of physicians emerge at the level of relationships between physicians. To help fill this gap, this study investigates the formation of followship between physicians (i.e., when one physician follows another) from the perspectives of network structures, actor attributes, and external contextual factors. Using exponential random graph models and strategic network formation models, this study analyzes the effects of reciprocity and transitive closure, physicians’ social media and online healthcare community (OHC) engagement, and physicians’ interaction networks. The results reveal that physicians’ professional social networks have a reciprocated and open structure. Physicians’ social media connectivity and content, online service performance, professional capital, and social identity homophily facilitate the formation of professional social networks. In addition, the interaction networks have an entrainment effect on professional social networks. This study reveals the mechanism of social processes, including reciprocity, preferential attachment, and homophily, in the formation of social networks. The results also extend social cognitive theory and signaling theory into the context of physicians’ professional social networks.

Application of Photovoltaic Panels as Producers of Electrical Energy With IoT Technology Based on Programmable Logic Controller

The process of converting solar cell electrical energy is a form of utilizing environmentally friendly alternative energy sources (renewable energy). The conversion system is in the form of PV panels that are installed in a location exposed to sunlight and unobstructed. Monitoring is carried out when the sun shines from morning to evening. The location of the panel is in the vehicle parking lot of the engineering faculty, while monitoring is carried out in the Control Laboratory of the Tanjungpura University Engineering Faculty, which is 300 meters away. Factors that determine the quality of PV panels are the system and dimensions. This shows that fluctuations in current (I), voltage (V) and power (P) need to be controlled so that load distribution and reserves can prevent reduced energy generation. Observation and control using Long Range Area (LoRa) radio transmission media connections, Internet of Things (IoT) and Programmable Logical Control (PLC) in real-time. Observation and test results show that energy generation has experienced an increase in temperature which has an impact on reducing power. Meanwhile, the effect of the distance between the installed panels produces an average delay of 7 milliseconds (midday conditions). Meanwhile, the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) value for data transmission is 30 dBm at the device frequency of 868.125 MHz. Baud rate 2400-9600 bps with a speed of 0.3 bps – 62.5 Kbps. The application of this system is a research novelty because it can determine and control the generation of electrical energy at minimum, maximum and optimum conditions with a certain distance between the observer and the installed panel.

Integration of Smart Cane with Social Media: Design of a New Step Counter Algorithm for Cane

This research introduces an innovative smart cane architecture designed to empower visually impaired individuals. Integrating advanced sensors and social media connectivity, the smart cane enhances accessibility and encourages physical activity. Three meticulously developed algorithms ensure accurate step counting, swing detection, and proximity measurement. The smart cane’s architecture comprises the platform, communications, sensors, calculation, and user interface layers, providing comprehensive assistance for visually impaired individuals. Hardware components include an audio–tactile interaction module, input command module, microphone integration, local storage, step count module, cloud integration, and rechargeable battery. Software v1.9.7 components include Facebook Chat API integration, Python Facebook API integration, fbchat library integration, and Speech Recognition library integration. Overall, the proposed smart cane offers a comprehensive solution to enhance mobility, accessibility, and social engagement for visually impaired individuals. This study represents a significant stride toward a more inclusive society, leveraging technology to create meaningful impact in the lives of those with visual impairments. By fostering socialization and independence, our smart cane not only improves mobility but also enhances the overall well-being of the visually impaired community.

Friends in media: Implications of media connections for analyst forecast optimism

We investigate the effect of corporate executives' connections with financial media on analyst forecast optimism. Some studies document that managers use their connections to benefit the firm. Alternatively, other studies show that managers use their connections to benefit themselves at the expense of the firm. Thus, it is difficult to predict ex-ante whether executives use their media connections to enhance information efficiency or distort information environment. We propose two hypotheses on the impact of financial media connections: information efficiency and manipulation. We estimate managerial media connection by using the BoardEx database, and apply standard OLS regression, mediation analysis, propensity score matching, 2-SLS instrumental variable regressions, and difference-in-difference regressions to test the two alternate hypothesis. Consistent with the manipulation hypothesis, our results suggest that corporate executives use media connections to exacerbate analyst forecast optimism. Mediation analysis suggests that media connections are related to not only more news coverage but also more positive news sentiment. We further find that managerial incentives and board monitoring moderates the relationship between media connections and analyst forecast optimism. Our study makes several contributions to academic literature and is interesting to regulators and investors. As corporate executives tend to exploit their friendship with the media to achieve enhanced analyst forecast optimism, it would have a negative impact on the efficiency of the capital markets. Our results suggest that regulators and investors should more closely scrutinize the social ties of corporate executives.

Confidence Levels Measurement of Mobile Phone Selection Using a Multiattribute Decision-Making Approach with Unknown Attribute Weight Information Based on T-Spherical Fuzzy Aggregation Operators

Advancement in mobile phone (MP) technology has revolutionized the lifestyle. In recent years, we observed that MP technology had been involved in almost all aspects of life, such as communication purposes, e-commerce, mobile baking, and social media connectivity. So, it becomes a hot research topic to select the best MP that fulfills the desired feathers requirement. In this paper, the expert’s familiarity with the examined objects is factored into the initial judgments under the T-spherical fuzzy sets (T-SFSs) environment. The T-SFS is the extension of the picture fuzzy (PF) set (PFS), which gives wider scope for finding the most precise options than existing fuzzy frameworks. The multiattribute decision-making (MADM) is a common and valuable method for aggregating information. For MADM, various aggregation operators (AOs) have been created over the years. The article introduces the newly proposed approach T-spherical fuzzy (T-SF) confidence level weighted averaging T−SFWAc and T-SF confidence level weighted geometric T−SFWGc. Also, some desired properties of AOs are discussed, and the T-SF entropy measure is introduced for selecting the weight criteria. A MADM framework is introduced, on the behalf of proposed operators. The proposed MADM framework is applied to solve the real-life example of consumers’ preferences to show effectiveness and practicality. Lastly, the developed framework is set side by side with other prevailing approaches to demonstrate the superiority and significance of other existing AOs.

Fashion Activism of Extinction Rebellion and Fashion Act Now

This article examines the fashion activism of Extinction Rebellion (XR) through a comparative analysis of literature, media, and interviews with activists. We argue that their decentralized organizational structure allows the individual local chapters and action groups to function and organize independently, quickly, and more efficiently than many other current and past organizations, in part thanks to social media connectivity, trans-national communication channels, multi-generational involvement of activists and researchers, and the nonhierarchical structure of the action groups. This is significant because despite the criticism they have received from sociologists, media critics, and other analysts, currently they are one of the most effective organizations in terms of raising awareness and provoking public debate about the climate emergency and how it relates to fashion.

The role of media connections in seasoned equity offerings

AbstractWe present evidence that corporate connections to the media are associated with a greater likelihood of a seasoned equity offering (SEO), more negative announcement returns, and poorer long‐term performance. The effect of media connections on announcement returns is more pronounced for firms with higher information asymmetry, greater financial constraints, and lower advertising expenditures. Media connections are positively associated with media coverage and sentiment before the SEO announcements. Our findings are consistent with the notion that SEO issuers use their connections with media firms to actively manage media coverage and successfully offer new equity.

The impact of culture perception on kinship disconnection of Chinese youth: examining the chain mediating effect of kinship support, kinship burnout, and social media interaction

Kinship connections are an essential foundation of social relationships in China, yet in recent years there has been an increasing tendency toward kinship disconnection (Duanqin) among Chinese youth. In this study, based on online survey data of 555 Chinese individuals aged 18–35 years under a comprehensive explanatory framework of culturalism, functionalism, and behaviorism, regression and mediation analyses found that (1) cultural perception based on family-state values is the dominant factor influencing people’s tendency to disconnect. (2) Kinship support decreases people’s propensity to break off relatives, while kinship burnout increases people’s propensity to cut off relatives. Both act as functionalist factors in the chain that mediates the effect of cultural perception on the propensity to break kinship, and kinship burnout obscures the effect of kinship support and becomes a differentiating variable. (3) Both social media kin interaction size and kin group activity significantly reduce people’s propensity to disconnect. However, group activities are more significant in cultural perception’s mediating effect on disconnection propensity. It indicates that truly “active” social media connections are more important. The study attempts to propose a framework of “cultural perception + functional satisfaction and burnout + social media” to interpret Chinese youth kinship communication activity. On a practical level, more support for young people in social media interactions could slow or even reverse the trend of disconnection.

The Influence of Social Media on Interpersonal Relationships

With the rapid popularization and development of social media, the way people socialize in the new digital society is changing. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of social media on interpersonal relationships, and to explore in depth the relationship dependent on network social platforms, new media, social media and short video social media. While providing diversified communication channels, social media also brings negative effects, such as loneliness and anxiety caused by lack of face-to-face communication. Different types of social media, such as network social platforms, new media and social media, have different influences on interpersonal relationships. The influence of social media on interpersonal relationship is also influenced by individuals social media dependence, usage habits and other factors. The author observes the connection of the social media and interpersonal relationship to have some analyzes and give some advice which may decrease the negative effects and increase the positive effects.

Mental health prediction from social media connections

ABSTRACT The relation between mental health and the language employed by social media users has been the focus of a wide range of studies in Natural Language Processing and related fields intended to predict early signs of a mental disorder. In many cases, however, text data alone is considered to be a sufficient source of learning features, and other possible sources also available from social media are often neglected. To shed light on these issues, the present work addresses the use of social media connections information — represented by the identities of Twitter friends, followers and mentions — to predict depression and anxiety disorder. Using a large multimodal dataset of over 31K unique Twitter timelines (555 million words) and associated network data, we built a number of network-based models (using network embeddings representations), and text-based alternatives (bag-of-words and LIWC baseline models) to these tasks. Results suggest that not only network connections may act as strong predictors of mental health, but that these models may actually outperform standard baseline alternatives that rely on text data alone, which may be seen as a first step towards more sophisticated architectures that may actually combine textual and non-textual information.

Effect of Technology and Digital Media Use on Adolescent Health and Development: Protocol for a Multimethod Longitudinal Study.

Technology and digital media (TDM) use is integral to modern adolescence; adolescents have been labeled as "digital natives," since they have had exposure to digital technology for their entire lives. Previous evidence has illustrated TDM's connections with adolescent risk behaviors such as increased alcohol use and social media exposure, as well as relationships with adolescent well-being such as improved socioemotional health and social media connections with peers. Although several recent review articles have described both the benefits and risks of technology use, most individual studies adopt a singular risk-centered approach. In addition, reviews suggest that little evidence exists on the potential mediating and moderating factors between TDM use and well-being and health outcomes, which limits our understanding of what influences the outcomes of interest. Therefore, there is an urgent need to fill these gaps. This protocol addresses the need to understand how TDM exposure and use affect multiple developmental domains and health outcomes. We address the fragmented nature of previous research, the common focus on single behaviors or conditions, and the typical narrow lens on risks. Our approach further aligns with reviews that called for studies identifying and investigating the factors that moderate the relationships between social media and health behaviors and outcomes. We will address our objective by longitudinally examining over a 2-year period a common set of adolescent participants (N=400, aged 13-15 years) across 3 studies that adopt a multimethodological approach. Study 1 will use TDM to understand the mechanisms behind adolescent health and risk behaviors. Study 2 will use functional magnetic resonance imaging to understand how positive and negative TDM experiences relate to mental and behavioral health in a subsample of 150 adolescents. Study 3 will use a mixed methods design to evaluate self- and other-generated TDM content as the predictors of socioemotional well-being in sexual and gender minority and non-sexual and gender minority adolescents. Recruitment is ongoing, and the initial results from the first wave of recruitment are expected in 2024. This integrated approach to longitudinal data collection from a shared adolescent participant pool will lead to novel analyses and findings, allowing for the examination of the health and well-being risks and benefits associated with TDM use and factors that moderate these relationships. The findings from this study will advance conceptual models and inform new interventions to improve adolescent health. DERR1-10.2196/50984.

Investigating the Influence of social factors on learning performance in collaborative learning environments

Developing classrooms for active learning is a more popular component about higher education institutions' instructional efforts to interest and engage students in their academics. Social elements have been determined to impact student learning performance and participation in collaborative learning. This research examined social factors' capacity to encourage collaboration and participation and whether these concepts mediate in connecting social factors and student learning outcomes. The student's academic conduct has been observed using the constructivism theory. Students at universities completed surveys to provide that data. Results assessed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) show that societal factors, including connection, social connection, and usage of social media, improve active learning with peers also teachers, collaboration in Education, and participation of students, impacting educational performance. The results support this study's use of two-fold mediation. Online learning should be encouraged because it affects students' academic development in higher education institutions' teaching and learning. Collaborative learning and social component involvement have been found to enhance student learning activities.