Expertise and Knowledge in the Age of Personalized Media: The Case of @anysports.faceonline Blog in the Period from 2018 to 2019

Digital age, that we are living in, enables us to instantly access great volumes of various information. The way we acquire, create and distribute knowledge is a subject to continuous transformation caused by the rapid growth of digital content and tools. Nowadays, more and more people give their own contribution in digital knowledge environment by producing and sharing their digital content. This thesis considers the impact that digital culture has put on the way we consume and create knowledge and establish the image of trustworthy expert in a certain field. This research is a case study of the Instagram account @anysports.faceonline. It represents a qualitative research aiming to analyze visual rhetoric and knowledge representation in the @anysports.faceonline blog in order to examine the mechanics of impression management, concerning the establishment and gaining acknowledgement of professionalism / expertise within online environment. By visual rhetoric is meant, in the first place, a form of visual communication the influencer uses. It involves the visual structure, displaying of information, color usage and designing of self-representation. Moreover, this research is not constrained in cultural history only, it refers to other fields such as psychology, sociology, marketing, media and gender studies. However, in order to explain the chosen visual strategies, the object of the research is, firstly, put into a broad cultural context

Exploration of user perceptions of attractiveness and functionality

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 24).People think that more attractive objects are more usable, even when they do not work. This is worrisome to the field of engineering, usually devoted to creating the most functional solution. If indeed customers are more satisfied with more attractive objects, more emphasis should be placed on object beauty, not just object functionality. Eighty subjects were interviewed and rated the attractiveness, functionality, and an unrelated factor (weight) before and after using a salt shaker. Eight different salt shakers were used, that varied in attractiveness and functionality. It turns out that people were more satisfied with the functionality of attractive, nonfunctional objects and unattractive, functional objects. They also bonded more with nonfunctional objects and found them more attractive after using them. There is a complex relationship between a person's perceived functionality of a device and its attractiveness.by Stephanie M. Schmit.S.B

Text mining approach to explore dimensions of national parks visitors’ experience and satisfaction using online customer reviews

Natural parks are gaining global popularity with millions of visits per year. However, studies evaluating park visitors\u27 experiences, satisfaction, and motivations are limited to traditional methods, such as direct observations, spatial analysis using global positioning system (GPS) trackers, interviews, surveys, and focus groups. As an alternative to these conventional methods, user-generated content (UGC) provides available, easily accessible, and consumers\u27 reliable recent experiences with services. This study investigated visitors\u27 reviews of selected Canadian national parks to explore the dimensions of the visitors\u27 quality of experience and the drivers of satisfaction based on online ratings on the Trip Advisor website. The analysis yielded various topics ranging from visitors\u27 pleasant feelings about trails, mountain views, and water activities to their unpleasant experiences regarding food, crowds, lineups, and parking lots. Besides, analysis of the reviews based on the reviewers\u27 start ratings highlighted the most important drivers of satisfaction and dissatisfaction between them. Findings suggest that topics related to schedule and weather-related hassles; food, tickets, and shopping experiences; and visitor information center and exhibitions were among the most distinguishes dissatisfied visitors (1- and 2-star) from others. On the other hand, positive vibes, expressiveness, photography opportunities, and daytime and weather experience were the principal determinants of visitors\u27 satisfaction (4- and 5-star)

User Preference in Detail-Enhancement Adjustments for Images Captured by Camera Phones

Most smartphones now come with an integrated camera. Such a smartphone is called a camera phone. Popularity of camera phones is rising and it is expected that 87.8% of United States population will possess camera phones by year 2020 (Euromonitor International, 2017). A camera phone’s workflow for capturing, editing, and sharing images on social media has become very efficient. Its ease of use, accessibility, and automatic exposure settings to capture an image has contributed to its popularity. Camera phones are more compact and convenient than professional DSLR cameras. The popularity of this technology has created a need to study and evaluate image quality of photographs from the camera phone. Numerous image-editing applications and adjustments are available to edit these images on the phone itself. Previous studies have shown the reasons why people like to edit their images captured by camera phones (Bakhshi et al., 2014; Bakhshi et al., 2015). This psychophysical study aims to determine the preference related to detail-enhancement adjustments for images captured by camera phones. The image contents used in this study are selfies and food images. Images possessing two levels of high and low ISO were evaluated. The stimuli for the psychophysical experiment were created by editing these images with clarity, contrast and sharpness adjustments. By recording participants’ response and analyzing the data, observers’ preference were determined for different detail-enhancement (DE) adjustments and content of images captured by camera phones. Results showed that the preference for detail-enhancement adjustments was subjective and varied by both person and image. Participants preferred low ISO DE images more than high ISO DE images. Overall, only slight preferences were observed between images possessing different DE adjustments, DE levels and contents, but a significant preference was not observed in any of these variables

Polymorphism of Colias croceus from the Azores caused by differential pterin expression in the wing scales

The pierid butterfly Colias croceus (Geoffroy in Fourcroy, 1785), established in the Azores archipelago, is polymorphic with six forms, C. croceus f. croceus ♂ and ♀, C. c. f. cremonae ♂ and ♀, C. c. f. helice ♀, and C. c. f. cremonaehelice ♀. We investigated the optical mechanisms underlying the wing colouration of the butterflies by performing spectrophotometry and imaging scatterometry of the variously coloured wing areas and scales. The scale colouration is primarily due to wavelength-selective absorption of incident light by pterins expressed in granular beads in the wing scales, but thin film reflections of the scales’ lower lamina and scale stacking also contribute. Three forms (croceus ♂ and ♀ and helice ♀) are consistent with the patterns of the well-known ‘alba’ polymorphism. We postulate the coexistence of a second polymorphism, ‘cremonae’, to understand the three other forms (cremonae ♂ and ♀, and cremonaehelice ♀), which are characterized by the absence of red pigment, presumably due to the differential blocking of erythropterin expression.</p