Use Of User-generated Content Research Articles

Nature dependent tourism – Combining big data and local knowledge

The ability to quantify nature's value for tourism has significant implications for natural resource management and sustainable development policy. This is especially true in the Eastern Caribbean, where many countries are embracing the concept of the Blue Economy. The utilization of user-generated content (UGC) to understand tourist activities and preferences, including the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches, remains at the early stages of development and application. This work describes a new effort which has modelled and mapped multiple nature dependent sectors of the tourism industry across five small island nations. It makes broad use of UGC, while acknowledging the challenges and strengthening the approach with substantive input, correction, and modification from local experts. Our approach to measuring the nature-dependency of tourism is practical and scalable, producing data, maps and statistics of sufficient detail and veracity to support sustainable resource management, marine spatial planning, and the wider promotion of the Blue Economy framework.

Social media discourse and internet search queries on cannabis as a medicine: A systematic scoping review.

The use of cannabis for medicinal purposes has increased globally over the past decade since patient access to medicinal cannabis has been legislated across jurisdictions in Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Yet, evidence relating to the effect of medical cannabis on the management of symptoms for a suite of conditions is only just emerging. Although there is considerable engagement from many stakeholders to add to the evidence base through randomized controlled trials, many gaps in the literature remain. Data from real-world and patient reported sources can provide opportunities to address this evidence deficit. This real-world data can be captured from a variety of sources such as found in routinely collected health care and health services records that include but are not limited to patient generated data from medical, administrative and claims data, patient reported data from surveys, wearable trackers, patient registries, and social media. In this systematic scoping review, we seek to understand the utility of online user generated text into the use of cannabis as a medicine. In this scoping review, we aimed to systematically search published literature to examine the extent, range, and nature of research that utilises user-generated content to examine to cannabis as a medicine. The objective of this methodological review is to synthesise primary research that uses social media discourse and internet search engine queries to answer the following questions: (i) In what way, is online user-generated text used as a data source in the investigation of cannabis as a medicine? (ii) What are the aims, data sources, methods, and research themes of studies using online user-generated text to discuss the medicinal use of cannabis. We conducted a manual search of primary research studies which used online user-generated text as a data source using the MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus databases in October 2022. Editorials, letters, commentaries, surveys, protocols, and book chapters were excluded from the review. Forty-two studies were included in this review, twenty-two studies used manually labelled data, four studies used existing meta-data (Google trends/geo-location data), two studies used data that was manually coded using crowdsourcing services, and two used automated coding supplied by a social media analytics company, fifteen used computational methods for annotating data. Our review reflects a growing interest in the use of user-generated content for public health surveillance. It also demonstrates the need for the development of a systematic approach for evaluating the quality of social media studies and highlights the utility of automatic processing and computational methods (machine learning technologies) for large social media datasets. This systematic scoping review has shown that user-generated content as a data source for studying cannabis as a medicine provides another means to understand how cannabis is perceived and used in the community. As such, it provides another potential 'tool' with which to engage in pharmacovigilance of, not only cannabis as a medicine, but also other novel therapeutics as they enter the market.

Customer decision-making analysis based on big social data using machine learning: a case study of hotels in Mecca.

Big social data and user-generated content have emerged as important sources of timely and rich knowledge to detect customers' behavioral patterns. Revealing customer satisfaction through the use of user-generated content has been a significant issue in business, especially in the tourism and hospitality context. There have been many studies on customer satisfaction that take quantitative survey approaches. However, revealing customer satisfaction using big social data in the form of eWOM (electronic word of mouth) can be an effective way to better understand customers' demands. In this study, we aim to develop a hybrid methodology based on supervised learning, text mining, and segmentation machine learning approaches to analyze big social data on travelers' decision-making regarding hotels in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. To do so, we use support vector regression with sequential minimal optimization (SMO), latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), and k-means approaches to develop the hybrid method. We collect data from travelers' online reviews of Mecca hotels on TripAdvisor. The data are segmented, and travelers' satisfaction is revealed for each segment based on their online reviews of hotels. The results show that the method is effective for big social data analysis and traveler segmentation in Mecca hotels. The results are discussed, and several recommendations and strategies for hotel managers are provided to enhance their service quality and improve customer satisfaction.

How user-generated content advertising influences consumer attitudes, trust and purchase intention of products and services

Due to the rapid advancement of new technologies in business, marketers’ dependency on usergeneratedcontent (UGC) is rising. This study therefore seeks to elucidate the importance of usergeneratedcontent in creating sales and establishing relationships with customers. Conveniencenon-probability sampling was adopted in selecting 330 participants. In addition, structuralequation modelling was used in testing proposed hypotheses. Findings reveal that there is apositive relationship between the use of UGC, brand trust and purchase intention. However, itis observed that subjective norms, information quality and source credibility affect the use ofUGC for decision making. The main recommendation is that it is imperative for marketers to becognisant of their online audience and engage with customers online. Overall, this study will aidmarketers in the comprehension of the factors associated with brand trust and purchase intentionin relation to UGC advertising.

Iraqi media entrepreneurs across social media: Factors and challenges

Influenced by digital technologies, the cost of media production has considerably decreased, and the traditional media is faced with new agile, flexible and low-cost media entrepreneurs. This article examines the dynamics of the Iraqi media market transformation with an emphasis on factors that help to merge media entrepreneurs and digital media firms that target an audience on social media. A qualitative method was adopted in this study using open, in-depth interviews with nineteen media entrepreneurs and three managers of media firms. The study revealed that relative freedom and advanced communication technologies have encouraged media entrepreneurs to drive the new media on producing short videos and broadcast them on social media, which has become popular among media consumers. This new era in Iraqi media entrepreneurship has created an abstract space in which media entrepreneurs get involved in the media market, collaborate with international media and deliver values through the use of user-generated content and flexible journalism. This opportunity is shaped by three key interrelated factors: first, the relative freedom of journalism that resulted from the political environment, current regulations and advanced communication technologies that provide more space of freedom; second, the development of communication technologies that allow journalists and media entrepreneurs to employ the media market effectively; third, the emergence of media entrepreneurs themselves who are convinced to seize the opportunities presented by the two previous factors.

Stance Detection Based on User Feature Fusion.

Rapid development of the Internet has contributed to the widespread adoption of social network platforms. Network media plays an important role in the process of public opinion dissemination and bears significant social responsibility. Public opinion mining is of great significance for online media to improve the quality of content provision and enhance media credibility. How to make full use of user-generated content is the key to improving the accuracy of position detection tasks. In this paper, we proposed a stance detection model based on user feature fusion by using comments of netizens in false news events on Weibo as research content. The method of feature fusion is adopted to integrate vectors including user sentiment, cognitive features, and text feature at the feature layer for model training and position prediction. The model is evaluated on a dataset of related microblog comments in false news. The result shows that our proposed method has a certain improvement in the effect of stance detection.

Application of User Generated Content by Television News’ during Pandemic

The revolution of technology has always shaped the works of journalism, including the news content and its relationship with the public. Along with the digital era, people started to participate in and contribute to journalism. User Generated Content (UGC) has regularly altered both information flows and the nature of news work for the mainstream media. By conducting a qualitative content analysis, this study tries to examine the use of UGC by 24-hour news TV channels in Indonesia in relation to the context of participatory journalism in the Covid-19 pandemic situation. The results of this study indicate that four 24-hour TV news channels in Indonesia are beginning to negotiate most of their ‘professional logic’ towards the logic of ‘adaptation’. Overall, framing analysis shows that news TV stations’ use of UGC has not optimally encouraged more constructive pandemic journalism practices.

Understanding the different types of UGC participants and social context for fashion brands: insights from social media platforms

PurposeThe study aims to look at the types of social media participants through user-generated content (UGC) and how this leads to brand engagement in a fashion retail context. In doing so, it explores the effects of social context of brand-related content on other social media users, which promotes socially influenced consumer brand engagement (SICBE) in social media settings.Design/methodology/approachThe study postulates the existence of social realities as consistent with social constructivism, with multiple realities of social influence outlined on the basis of ontological relativism. To fulfil the proposed research objectives, research data were gathered from professional and social participants based on specific inclusion criteria, purposive sampling technique and a semi-structured interview method.FindingsFindings highlighted various types of UGC participants with differing objectives in their use of UGC; these participant types are passive, creators, critics and collectors/consumers. The study uncovered many social context that can increase the effectiveness of UGC. The social context is explored through social trust, Fashion UGC expertise and relevance. These UGC participants and social context can foster SICBE in a fashion retail context.Originality/valueThis study proposes a holistic framework which highlighted the role of UGC participants and social context can foster SICBE in a fashion retail context.

Media Business Development in the Context of Global Digitalization

In the context of global changes in the media market under the influence of Internet technologies, it becomes necessary to identify the main trends of its development, so the characteristic of the market trends, the integration process of entrepreneurial structures in the media industry, aimed at increasing their competitiveness at the present stage of development of the market economy. In the context of an ever-changing, competitive digital ecosystem and against the background of General cuts in advertising budgets in the print press, radio, and television, advertising investments in the digital environment are increasing starting in 2019. Revenues of legacy news media organizations (also called old or traditional media organizations) are constantly declining due to the high degree of audience participation in new media due to the use of user-generated content, media automation, and new digital media organizations. Using mathematical-statistical and logical research methods, the article identifies specific features of the media business sphere, which include audience fragmentation, culture of creative destruction, and hypercompetition in the media market. In addition, key issues and current changes in the media industry in the context of global digitalization are highlighted, reflecting the introduction of innovative technologies that affect the media industry, and the decline in traditional methods of delivery and media consumption. Global digitalization has affected the growth of media platforms, resulting in an increase in the supply of content itself, as well as significant changes in its consumption by the advertising market.

“It’s Not Just Instagram Models”: Exploring the Gendered Political Potential of Young Women’s Instagram Use

With over one billion monthly users worldwide (Constine, 2018) and being embedded in the everyday lives of many young people, Instagram has become a common topic of discussion both in popular media and scholarly debates. As young women are amongst the predominant active users of Instagram (WeAreSocial, 2019) and the demographic stereotypically associated with online self-representation (Burns, 2015), Instagram carries an underlying gendered political potential. This is manifested through online political practices such as hashtag activism (Highfield, 2016), as well as through Instagram’s use of user-generated content to challenge existing politics of representation, broadening the scope of who is considered photographable (Tiidenberg, 2018). This article explores how this gendered political potential is understood by young women using Instagram. This research is based on 13 in-depth interviews with a theoretical sample of female ‘ordinary’ Instagram users (i.e., not celebrities or Insta-famous), aged 18–35. Our findings illustrate how the perception of political potential is grounded in the participants’ understanding of Instagram as an aesthetically-oriented platform (Manovich, 2017). Most participants recognised the potential for engaging in visibility politics (Whittier, 2017), representing a wider diversity of femininities often absent from popular media. However, this was seen as tempered by the co-existence of idealised beauty conventions and the politics of popularity within social media (Van Dijck & Poell, 2013). Furthermore, this political potential is accompanied by the possibility of receiving backlash or being dismissed as a slacktivist (Glenn, 2015). As Instagram becomes a central part of contemporary visual cultures, this article seeks to critically explore the nuanced ways in which young women’s everyday experiences of Instagram intersect with broader cultural and political questions of gender representation.

Purchase Situations and Information-Seeking in Brand-Related User-Generated Content

Consumers use brand-related user-generated content (UGC), such as online consumer reviews, for their pre-purchase information seeking. However, previous research on consumer information seeking has scarcely explored how purchase situations and product type influence one’s use of brand-related UGC. The purpose of this study is to shed light on this area of consumer behavior. By utilizing linear mixed effect models, we examined several hypotheses relevant to relationships between four purchase variables (PDI, think purchase, feel purchase, online/offline purchase) and one’s reliance on brand-related UGC. The results indicate that all of the purchase variables are positively associated with the use of UGC. Furthermore, the study found several more associations between demographic factors and the reliance on UGC. Age, gender, marital status, number of children in a household, and employment status showed significant associations, whereas education, household income, and ethnicity did not. Implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are also noted.

Reading between the lines: analyzing online reviews by using a multi-method Web-analytics approach

Purpose The dynamic yet volatile nature of tourism and travel industry in a competitive environment calls for enhanced marketing intelligence and analytics, especially for those entities with limited marketing budgets. The past decade has witnessed an increased use of user-generated content (UGC) analysis as a marketing tool to make better informed decisions. Likewise, textual data analysis of UGC has gained much attention among tourism and hospitality scholars. Nonetheless, most of the scholarly works have focused on the singular application of an existing method or technique rather than using a multi-method approach. The purpose of this study is to propose a novel Web analytics methodology to examine online reviews posted by tourists in real time and assist decision-makers tasked with marketing strategy and intelligence. Design/methodology/approach For illustration, the case of tourism campaign in India was undertaken. A total of 305,298 reviews were collected, and after filtering, 276,154 reviews were qualified for analysis using a string of models. Descriptive charts, sentiment analysis, clustering, topic modeling and machine learning algorithms for real-time classification were applied. Findings Using big data from TripAdvisor, a total of 145 tourist destinations were clustered based on tourists’ perceptions. Further exploration of each cluster through topic modeling was conducted, which revealed interesting insights into satisfiers and dissatisfiers of different clusters of destinations. The results supported the use of the proposed multi-method Web-analytics approach. Practical implications The proposed machine learning model demonstrated that it could provide real-time information on the sentiments in each incoming review about a destination. This information might be useful for taking timely action for improvisation or controlling a service situation. Originality/value In terms of Web-analytics and UGC, a comprehensive analytical model to perform an end-to-end understanding of tourist behavior patterns and offer the potential for real-time interpretation is rarely proposed. The current study not only proposes such a model but also offers empirical evidence for a successful application. It contributes to the literature by providing scholars interested in textual analytics a step-by-step guide to implement a multi-method approach.

UGC involvement, motivation and personality: Comparison between China and Spain

This cross-cultural study investigates antecedents of travel-related user-generated content (UGC) in China and Spain. Based on a critical literature review, a theoretical model was developed and tested. Co-creation, empowerment, community, and self-concept were proposed as the precursors of UGC. Personality traits (i.e. neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) were tested as potential moderators. Study results indicate that empowerment has the greatest influence on involvement in UGC in China, whereas co-creation is the most important driver of motivation in Spain. Whereas neurotic individuals in China engage with UGC for self-empowerment, novelty seekers tend to cooperate better with others. Tourists play an essential role in the value creation process through their use of UGC. UGC has key implications for the tourism industry, as it influences tourist behavior as well as destination image and performance.

Determinants of the Effective Use of UGC (User-Generated Content) on Hotel Room Bookings by Portuguese Travellers

The presence of user generated content (UGC) on online platforms of hotel room booking operators is changing the way consumers book a hotel room. After a critical evaluation of the technology acceptance models (TAM), the authors discuss the variables that will be employed to predict the effective use of online hotel room bookings by Portuguese travellers. The empirical investigation consists of a linear regression model that was built in order to analyse the data obtained from an online survey of 624 customers of the website Booking.com. The results showed that attitude towards UGC and the perceived ease to use of UGC are important determinants on the buyer's decision-making process of booking a hotel room. This result shows the relevance of UGC (ratings and reviews) for online booking operators, as UGC could influence the booking of a particular hotel room. Further, the result also brings important implications for hotel managers that pay less attention to the feedback of the customers.

Online news media website ranking using user-generated content

News media websites are important online resources that have drawn great attention of text mining researchers. The main aim of this study is to propose a framework for ranking online news websites from different viewpoints. The ranking of news websites provides useful information, which can benefit many news-related tasks such as news retrieval and news recommendation. In the proposed framework, the ranking of news websites is obtained by calculating three measures introduced in the article and based on user-generated content (UGC). Each proposed measure is concerned with the performance of news websites from a particular viewpoint including the completeness of news reports, the diversity of events being covered by the website and its speed. The use of UGC in this framework, as a partly unbiased, real-time and low cost content on the web distinguishes the proposed news website ranking framework from the literature. The results obtained for three prominent news websites, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable News Network (CNN) and New York Times (NYTimes), show that BBC has the best performance in terms of news completeness and speed, and NYTimes has the best diversity in comparison with the other two websites.

Iraqi media entrepreneurs across social media: Factors and challenges

Influenced by digital technologies, the cost of media production has considerably decreased, and the traditional media is faced with new agile, flexible and low-cost media entrepreneurs. This article examines the dynamics of the Iraqi media market transformation with an emphasis on factors that help to merge media entrepreneurs and digital media firms that target an audience on social media. A qualitative method was adopted in this study using open, in-depth interviews with nineteen media entrepreneurs and three managers of media firms. The study revealed that relative freedom and advanced communication technologies have encouraged media entrepreneurs to drive the new media on producing short videos and broadcast them on social media, which has become popular among media consumers. This new era in Iraqi media entrepreneurship has created an abstract space in which media entrepreneurs get involved in the media market, collaborate with international media and deliver values through the use of user-generated content and flexible journalism. This opportunity is shaped by three key interrelated factors: first, the relative freedom of journalism that resulted from the political environment, current regulations and advanced communication technologies that provide more space of freedom; second, the development of communication technologies that allow journalists and media entrepreneurs to employ the media market effectively; third, the emergence of media entrepreneurs themselves who are convinced to seize the opportunities presented by the two previous factors.

Consumer usage of online travel reviews: Expanding the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 model

The present study examines a comprehensive model of travelers’ use of online travel reviews as a form of user-generated content (UGC) through an expanded unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) framework. The UTAUT2, which includes Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI), Facilitating Conditions, Hedonic Motivation (HM), Price-Saving Orientation, and Habit, within this study incorporates two new variables: Trustworthiness and Homophily. We empirically examine the expanded model on a sample of 200 residents in the United Kingdom. The partial least squares–structural equation modeling analysis revealed that Homophily, PR, and Price-Saving Orientation are the strongest predictors of individual usage intentions’ of UGC. Moreover, the dimension of Habit, operationalized as a subjective measure of impulsive and automatic use of UGC, was found to be the strongest predictor of travelers’ actual UGC usage. This study enhances our understanding of the explanatory variables driving the usage of online reviews (e.g. contrary to prevalent knowledge from previous works, Trustworthiness in the present study was nonsignificant), thus providing far-reaching theoretical and practical recommendations for tourism researchers and practitioners.

Technology as an Emerging Educational Tool for Tourism Information Sourcing: A Content Analysis 2006 to 2018

Emerging technologies present an increasing assortment of approaches to support and enrich learning environments. The purpose of this study was there-fore to investigate the impact of technology as an educational tool for tourism in-formation. Based on content analysis a total of 22 studies on technology and tourism published over a 12 year period from 2006 and 2018 were examined, systematically presented and discussed. The presented study was qualitative in nature. It highlighted the extent to which travellers have embraced technology for tourism information searches and sources. Recurring trends based on review of literature were identified. Two main themes were observed, first, being technolo-gy in tourism education and second, being the use of user-generated content in tourism. In conclusion it can be established that learning about travel and tourism through social media was not only for travellers who depend on tourism information but also tourism companies who depend on traveller re-views and marketing promotions for their facilities.

Global patterns in mangrove recreation and tourism

The use of mangroves as a travel and tourism destination has not received much attention, but provides a high-value, low impact use of these important ecosystems. This work quantifies and maps the distribution of mangrove visitation at global scales using keyword searches on user-generated content of the popular travel website, TripAdvisor. It further explores the use of user-generated content to uncover information about facilities, activities and wildlife in mangrove tourism locations world-wide. Some 3945 mangrove “attractions” are identified in 93 countries and territories. Boating is the most widespread activity, recorded in 82% of English-language sites. Birdlife is recorded by visitors in 28% of sites, with manatees/dugongs and crocodiles/alligators also widely reported. It is likely that mangrove tourism attracts tens to hundreds of millions of visitors annually and is a multi-billion dollar industry.

User-generated place brand identity: harnessing the power of content on social media platforms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use user-generated content (UGC) on social media platforms to infer the possible place brand identities of two famous metropolitan areas in Bangkok, Thailand, namely, Khaosan Road and Yaowarat (Bangkok’s Chinatown), both of which are famous for their street vendors and nightlife. These two places are interesting study sites because of recent identity conflicts among their stakeholders. The method developed in this research can help other places to better understand place brand identities and, as such, effectively plan for and manage those places.Design/methodology/approachThe author used content analysis to study 782 user-generated images on Flickr and 9,633 user-generated textual reviews of Khaosan Road and Yaowarat from TripAdvisor and Google Maps’ Local Guide. MAXQDA was used to code all the images. User-generated textual reviews were studied using Leximancer. The author also introduced a positivity of concept analysis to identify positive and negative components of place brand identity.FindingsThe author developed a place brand identity framework that includes three pillars, namely, place physics, place practices and place personality. Content analysis of the images generated 105 codes and a count of the frequency of the codes that represent place brand identity. Content analysis of textual reviews created the concepts in the three pillars and identified the positive and negative concepts for both places. The results of both image and text analyses showed that street food vending is one of the most salient components of place brand identity for both Khaosan Road and Yaowarat.Practical implicationsThe author suggested several place branding strategies for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration such as turning Khaosan Road into a music scene for both visitors and locals, controlling excessive and aggressive commercialism, sponsoring the production of creative and authentic content, initiating a compelling online campaign that focusses on the items sold in Yaowarat, hosting a spotlight event such as a seafood festival and improving hygiene and walkability.Originality/valueBoth the advancement of digital technologies and the complexity of stakeholders create a need for empirical studies on place branding involving the participation of the widest possible range of stakeholders and studies on the influence of social media. This research is the first to use both image and text analyses to study place brand identity from UGC. The use of both analyses allows the two methods to complement one another while mitigating the weaknesses of each.