Matching Items (22)
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- All Subjects: Social Media
- Creators: Department of Psychology
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Social entrepreneurship has received a great deal of attention in recent years. Scholars constantly debate of the meaning of the term and the direction of the field. This paper explores literature written between the years 2010 \u2014 2015 in an effort to understand the current state of social entrepreneurship and gain insight as to the direction it is headed. This paper looks at definitions, characteristics, geographical differences, legal designations, and major themes such as social enterprise, social innovation, & social value as well as the implications for performance measures in an attempt to understand the broad concept that is social entrepreneurship.
ContributorsTalarico, Anthony (Author) / Shockley, Gordon (Thesis director) / Hayter, Christopher (Committee member) / Department of Management (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
BACKGROUND: Biotechnology can improve vitamin deficiencies, farming practices and yields, yet it is surrounded by controversy. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to better understand opinions Americans have about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), across multiple perspectives including scientists, farmers, and perceptions shared via social media. METHODS: A Google Scholar search for the term "genetically modified" (GM) produced 1,420,000 results in 0.05 seconds from the year 1988 to present, a portion of this literature was used for this study. In addition a quasi-experimental study on social media (i.e. a blog and Twitter) was performed to inspire reactions of social media users who followed the accounts @Biofortified and @BiotechFood. The study lasted for approximately three months. The analytics website, Topsy was also used to track the number of conversations that included terms like "GMO". Furthermore a plant biologist, sustainability scientist, and local farmers were interviewed to gain insights on their perceptions of GM products. RESULTS: Results generally suggest that there was no stance shared by social media users, local farmers, and researchers. It was clear however that conversation about GMOs happens daily on social media. These conversations however lack the evidence that can be learned through literature and conversations with local farmers. DISCUSSION: A plausible possible reason for the confusion and mixed opinions is that regardless of the resources (like scientific literature and agriculture workers available on GMOs), individuals appear to use moral reasoning \u2014 as defined by Jonathan Haidt \u2014 to defend their stance on GMOs, not necessarily any empirical evidence.
ContributorsHubbard, Shayla Briann (Author) / Hekler, Eric (Thesis director) / Wharton, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is an organization dedicated to defending student and faculty freedom of speech rights on college campuses in the United States. Their work has brought national attention and debate around how unbiased the foundation truly is. This thesis discusses the relevant cases around the freedom of speech such as United States v. O'Brien and Matal v. Tam in order to develop an understanding of general free speech protection. Free speech cases specifically regarding school campuses were analyzed such as Tinker v. Des Moines, Bethel v. Fraser, and Rosenberger v. University of Virginia to show the limitations of what FIRE can fight on campuses. FIRE's case selection methods were analyzed, and a bias toward conservative cases was found. This bias is disputed by FIRE supporters as natural given the liberal nature of higher education, but data surrounding professors, disinvitation attempts, and student opinions invalidate these claims. Three FIRE cases (Roberts v. Haragan, Smith v. Tarrant County College District, and the Dixie State Incident) were analyzed to show the progression and style of the foundation through the years and how they developed their aggressive and bully reputation. Finally, current large incidents of free speech oppression were analyzed to understand how they skew and affect public perception of the overall struggle for freedom of speech on college campuses. This thesis found that FIRE is in fact biased and that their efforts to make positive change are undermined by this. Keywords: FIRE, free speech, First Amendment
ContributorsRamos-Mata, Joseph Wilfrido (Author) / von Delden, Jayn (Thesis director) / Fradella, Hank (Committee member) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Although previous research has explored the relationship between social media use and well-being, many studies are contradictory of each other and conclude varying findings relating to social media use and outspokenness. This study explores the relationship between active and passive social media use, perceived social media expertise, and outspokenness using the potentially mediating variable of perceived social acceptance. 162 participants, recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and ASU’s SONA systems, completed a survey relating to their own use of social media, perceived social acceptance, and outspokenness. Contradictory to my first hypotheses, no significant correlations were found between social media use and social media expertise. However, correlation analyses revealed that active social media use is related to an increased amount of perceived social media expertise (r = 0.23, p < .004). Perceived social media expertise was significantly positively correlated with outspokenness (r = 0.19, p < 0.015); however, it was not correlated with perceived social acceptance. When examining these relationships separately by gender, a strong association was found for males between active social media use and outspokenness, whereas passive social media use and outspokenness were negatively correlated for females. The results of this study add to previous research in the field of social media and outspokenness and lend new ideas for future research on these topics, such as exploring the gender differences that are associated with these variables. Further research in the area is needed for a more complete understanding of how one’s social media use affects his/her outspokenness and how gender modifies these effects.
ContributorsRubino, Kelli Erika (Co-author) / Rubino, Kelli (Co-author) / Mickelson, Kristin (Thesis director) / Halavais, Alexander (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Since the advent of social media, researchers have studied how platforms like Facebook and Instagram can influence our relationships, and more specifically, how social networking sites can impact what happens when these relationships dissolve. Less is known about the newer platform Snapchat, which provides ephemeral updates as they occur to one's friend list, as well as self-destructing direct messages between individuals. The present study utilized survey responses from 84 college-aged individuals and eight semi-structured, in-depth interviews to study the relationship between using Snapchat to engage with or monitor one's ex-partner, the level of distress that results from these behaviors, and an individual's overall breakup distress level. A significant positive correlation was found between each of these variables, indicating that remaining connected with one's ex-partner on Snapchat may contribute to one's level of distress, or alternatively, that more distressed individuals are turning to Snapchat to monitor their ex-partner. Pairing this quantitative data with in-depth interviews allowed for more robust and generalizable findings. Qualitative details supported the statistical analysis to indicate that one's overall breakup distress level may be leading individuals to use Snapchat to monitor their ex-partner or exaggerate their own speed of recovery. Future research should analyze these same variables in a larger, more representative sample by following couples as their breakups occur in real-time to capture more comprehensive participant experiences.
ContributorsAter, Brittany Alexis (Author) / Parker, John (Thesis director) / Bodford, Jessica (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
An information influx and numerous modes of content delivery has resulted in local governments competing for the public's attention. A recent poll from the Public Technology Institute discovered that although 85% of Local Governments use social media to disseminate information to their constituents, only 37% have an enterprise-wide social media strategy (PTI, 2017). Without a clear approach towards social media, Local Governments are failing to maximize their voices and often ineffective when reaching out to their constituents. Research has suggested, charisma is a successful tool for capturing an audience's attention and conveying a memorable message. Charisma can also be taught and executed not only through spoken rhetoric but in online social media platforms. Within this study, 18 local government employees participated in an educational workshop on the use of nine non-verbal "Charismatic Leadership Tactics". Participants completed a pre-workshop assignment which was later compared to a post-workshop assignment. Results showed, participants on average, increased their use of Charismatic Leadership Tactics by a mean of 61%. Researchers collected social media analytics one month prior and one month following the workshop from the City's social media accounts in which participants managed. Collectively, of the thirteen social media accounts, the overall total engagement was greater the month after the educational workshop compared to the month before the workshop. These results suggest charisma can be taught, charisma can be conveyed through micro-blogosphere platforms such as Twitter, and the use of Charismatic Leadership Tactics could be responsible for increasing follower engagement with social media content.
ContributorsPrior, Thomas Cole (Author) / Jensen, Ulrich (Thesis director) / Lewis, Natalie (Committee member) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This project is meant to measure and assess empathy through the Empathy Assessment Index (EAI) and Social Empathy Index (SEI) instruments. Researchers believe that empathy is an involuntary but dynamic aspect of people's affective and cognitive responses to emotional stimuli. This project used the EAI and SEI instruments to see whether a course taught at Arizona State University \u2014 PAF 300 \u2014increased empathy and its seven components within students. The results suggest that different modular interventions were effective in increasing four of the seven empathic components \u2014 affective response, perspective-taking, contextual understanding of systemic barriers, and macro self-other awareness/ perspective-taking \u2014 but that it was detrimental to two components, self-other awareness and affective mentalizing. Future studies are necessary to understand how aspects of a course curriculum can target and increase the seven components in individuals, as well as how these components relate to one another within the greater concept of empathy. Still, this research is important in the greater scheme of empathy as it seeks to understand and expand individuals' empathic levels in an increasingly bleak and desolate political climate.
ContributorsPirkl, Audrie Madison (Author) / Johnston, Erik W., 1977- (Thesis director) / Minrichs, Margaret (Committee member) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In 2012, Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy's "came out" about his anti-same sex marriage views, launching an enormous negative backlash across social media networks. To counteract this, former governor Mike Huckabee called on his Facebook fans to support the company on "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day," both on Facebook and in person. The project examines both the backlash and Appreciation Day on social media networks. Posts on the Appreciation Day Facebook event page and similar posts on Twitter were first broken down in the framework of supportive and oppositional posts and then analyzed in further contexts. Comments on official Chick-fil-A Facebook statuses were then examined in a similar fashion. The research concludes that a strong support system both online and offline were necessary for Chick-fil-A to recover from its backlash. The controversy that ensued is ultimately a case study in the growing influence of Facebook as a tool for small-scale activism.
ContributorsKuiland, Zachary Rico (Author) / Cheong, Pauline (Thesis director) / Szeli, Eva (Committee member) / Lim, Merlyna (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Social media has quickly become a dominant tool for businesses across all sectors due to its two-way communication capabilities. Previous research has suggested that companies, particularly the hospitality and travel industry, should be engaging in authentic dialogue with its audience members, be using vibrant imagery and be monitoring and promoting user-generated content and electronic-word-of-mouth. These elements were observed for six luxury hotels and resorts in the Southwestern United States over the course of a month on Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor. In addition, three two-part electronic-questionnaires were administered to three of the six luxury hotels and resorts to determine industry perspectives on these subjects and to serve as a comparison of social media tactics in this sector. There were social media differences and similarities based on the location and size of the hotel. Facebook was comprised of 42 percent advertising and used large amounts of imagery to promote the properties. There was very little user-generated content and word-of-mouth. Twitter was comprised of 31 percent dialogue and 22 percent user-generated content. Five of the six properties responded to reviews on TripAdvisor. Three crisis responses via social media were also observed. Later research may choose to include more analytic-based research and examine other social media platforms.
ContributorsWininger, Emily Renee (Author) / Wu, Xu (Thesis director) / Ostrom, Amy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
In recent years, social media has become more prevalent as a platform for political discussion and organization, especially among younger voters. This study sought to determine the relationship between social media use and the formation and evolution of political identity among undergraduate college students. The three research questions created for study are as follows: how does peer discussion impact political participation, how do news outlets impact political ideology, and what is the perceived effectiveness of online activism. Results revealed that peer discussion does not significantly impact political participation, that news outlets most often reinforce the user's original position, and that online activism is most commonly seen as an effective medium for awareness. Overall, it appears that social media use does have a mild impact on a user's political identity formation and evolution.
ContributorsWhile, Grace (Co-author) / Curry, Laura (Co-author) / Cheong, Pauline (Thesis director) / Kwon, Kyounghee (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12