Characterizing Collective Attention via Descriptor Context: A Case Study of Public Discussions of Crisis Events

Social media datasets make it possible to rapidly quantify collective attention to emerging topics and breaking news, such as crisis events. Collective attention is typically measured by aggregate counts, such as the number of posts that mention a name or hashtag. But according to rationalist models of natural language communication, the collective salience of each entity will be expressed not only in how often it is mentioned, but in the form that those mentions take. This is because natural language communication is premised on (and customized to) the expectations that speakers and writers have about how their messages will be interpreted by the intended audience. We test this idea by conducting a large-scale analysis of public online discussions of breaking news events on Facebook and Twitter, focusing on five recent crisis events. We examine how people refer to locations, focusing specifically on contextual descriptors, such as "San Juan" versus "San Juan, Puerto Rico." Rationalist accounts of natural language communication predict that such descriptors will be unnecessary (and therefore omitted) when the named entity is expected to have high prior salience to the reader. We find that the use of contextual descriptors is indeed associated with proxies for social and informational expectations, including macro-level factors like the location's global salience and micro-level factors like audience engagement. We also find a consistent decrease in descriptor context use over the lifespan of each crisis event. These findings provide evidence about how social media users communicate with their audiences, and point towards more fine-grained models of collective attention that may help researchers and crisis response organizations to better understand public perception of unfolding crisis events.Comment: ICWSM 202

The laws of "LOL": Computational approaches to sociolinguistic variation in online discussions

When speaking or writing, a person often chooses one form of language over another based on social constraints, including expectations in a conversation, participation in a global change, or expression of underlying attitudes. Sociolinguistic variation (e.g. choosing "going" versus "goin'") can reveal consistent social differences such as dialects and consistent social motivations such as audience design. While traditional sociolinguistics studies variation in spoken communication, computational sociolinguistics investigates written communication on social media. The structured nature of online discussions and the diversity of language patterns allow computational sociolinguists to test highly specific hypotheses about communication, such different configurations of listener "audience." Studying communication choices in online discussions sheds light on long-standing sociolinguistic questions that are hard to tackle, and helps social media platforms anticipate their members' complicated patterns of participation in conversations. To that end, this thesis explores open questions in sociolinguistic research by quantifying language variation patterns in online discussions. I leverage the "birds-eye" view of social media to focus on three major questions in sociolinguistics research relating to authors' participation in online discussions. First, I test the role of conversation expectations in the context of content bans and crisis events, and I show that authors vary their language to adjust to audience expectations in line with community standards and shared knowledge. Next, I investigate language change in online discussions and show that language structure, more than social context, explains word adoption. Lastly, I investigate the expression of social attitudes among multilingual speakers, and I find that such attitudes can explain language choice when the attitudes have a clear social meaning based on the discussion context. This thesis demonstrates the rich opportunities that social media provides for addressing sociolinguistic questions and provides insight into how people adapt to the communication affordances in online platforms.Ph.D

Storytelling failure in the Vale of Leven: How a bacterial outbreak became a wicked problem

This dissertation examines the rhetorical work of a public inquiry investigation into an outbreak of Clostridium Difficile at the Vale of Leven Hospital in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland that resulted in 143 cases of infection and the tragic deaths of 34 patients. In light of these deaths and subsequent protests from local citizens, the National Health Service (NHS) Scotland launched a public inquiry in 2009 to investigate the events precipitating the outbreak. Extending rhetoric and technical communication’s sustained engagement with post-accident reports, this study explores how citizens and government officials accounted for the causes, boundaries, and impact of the outbreak. Specifically, it argues that despite the NHS’s initial investigation, which grounded the outbreak in local problems of practice, infrastructure, and culture, citizens and inquiry officials worked to rhetorically re-articulate the Vale of Leven Hospital outbreak as a wicked problem and, thus, a much larger and more complex matter of concern. In doing so, the study uses the Vale of Leven inquiry to reimagine the boundaries of rhetoric and technical communication as not only a form of problem solving work but also as the articulation of wicked matters of concern

Underperforming policy networks : the biopesticides network in the United Kingdom

Loosely integrated and incomplete policy networks have been neglected in the literature. They are important to consider in terms of understanding network underperformance. The effective delivery and formulation of policy requires networks that are not incomplete or underperforming. The biopesticides policy network in the United Kingdom is considered and its components identified with an emphasis on the lack of integration of retailers and environmental groups. The nature of the network constrains the actions of its agents and frustrates the achievement of policy goals. A study of this relatively immature policy network also allows for a focus on network formation. The state, via an external central government department, has been a key factor in the development of the network. Therefore, it is important to incorporate such factors more systematically into understandings of network formation. Feedback efforts from policy have increased interactions between productionist actors but the sphere of consumption remains insufficiently articulated

An Exploration of the Application of Crowdsourcing to Health-Related Research

Background: A growing number of health research projects are employing crowdsourcing as part of their methods, leveraging it to inform everything from study design to participant recruitment to data collection and analysis. Therefore, greater understanding of how crowdsourcing is being used and how it can be applied in the research contexts warrants further exploration. Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation was to explore crowdsourcing as a means of research inquiry, and to locate it amidst research paradigms; understand how crowdsourcing in research is used in practice; and, create a framework, and guidelines, for researchers using crowdsourcing in their research. Research Questions: The following research questions were posed: a) What are the core principles and philosophies of crowdsourcing as a research paradigm? b) How and why are researchers using crowdsourcing? c) How are researchers addressing the basic characteristic of crowdsourcing in research studies? d) How could researcher address the basic characteristics of crowdsourcing in research studies? Methodology: To answer the first question, the ontology, epistemology, methodology and axiology of crowdsourcing as a research paradigm was explored. An observational study then analyzed 227 publically available research projects on a crowdsourcing website. Finally, a modified Delphi technique was used to determine whether there was a consensus among 18 experts regarding the use of crowdsourcing for the purposes of research. Based on these studies, a conceptual framework for crowdsourcing research studies emerged. Findings: The core principles and philosophies of crowdsourcing resemble those of the participatory paradigm. Crowdsourcing is being used primarily as a method for participant recruitment, data collection and analysis. The most plausible framework for the application of crowdsourcing in studies is based on the research paradigm which in turn defines the roles of the crowd. The role of the crowd defined in generally acceptable research terms (i.e. participant, data collection, analysis, study design etc.) makes it feasible to align the role with the research paradigms to define the crowd as subjects or participants, citizen scientists, or co-researchers. Implications: These findings suggest that crowdsourcing as a method should align with the research paradigm within which it is being applied. Implications for future research are discussed

Platform Feminism: Celebrity Culture and Activism in the Digital Age

Platform Feminism: Celebrity Culture and Activism in the Digital Age tells the story of digital platforms' role in the feminist movement during the early 21st century. Taking celebrity culture as a potent site at which to analyze the new visibilities of feminism and its responses to a new wave of conservative and deeply reactionary politics, I explore the ways in which networked publics coalesce around celebrity events and, in discussing, analyzing, and critiquing various actors within these events, engage in boundary work around what it means to “be a feminist.” From responses to celebrity harassment to hashtag campaigns supporting celebrity feminism to critiques of imperfect feminist celebrities, this dissertation explores the contentious debates about feminism that arise around celebrity culture within digital spaces. To analyze these discourses, this project draws together literature from three often-disparate academic subfields: platform studies, feminist media studies, and celebrity studies. Using a case study approach, each chapter draws on intersectional feminist theory to examine a celebrity event from 2014-2016 that incited controversy across a variety of media platforms around issues of gender, sexuality, race, and class. I track each event across online and legacy media outlets and engage in multiplatform critical technocultural discourse analysis to analyze how discussions amongst issue publics that coalesce around each event both reflect and further define contemporary feminist discourses in ways that are often distinctly shaped by the digital platforms on which they emerge (Burgess & Matamoros-Fernández 2016, Brock 2016). In contrast to prior feminist media studies research that argues popular culture is largely postfeminist, I demonstrate that feminism, amplified by the famous voices that espouse it and the broad reach of the digital spaces in which it appears, has increased its discursive power so greatly that many aspects of popular culture no longer take for granted the gains of the feminist movement but rather feminism itself. Further, the iteration of feminism that is ideologically dominant espouses the importance of intersectionality, calling out the limitations of white liberal feminism and foregrounding the importance of a feminist platform that interrogates racial, sexual, and class differences. Overall, I argue that digital platforms have emerged as a major techno-cultural infrastructure for the dissemination and negotiation of the positions, goals, and actions of the contemporary feminist movement, which experienced a resurgence in the wake of the crisis of neoliberalism. While established media institutions continue to inform popular understandings of feminism, it is the recirculation, re-mediation, and conversations around print, film, and television media images and discourses on digital platforms that are driving the ongoing shifts in the feminist movement. More specifically, I contend that celebrity culture is a potent site at which the very category of “feminism” is being challenged in these digital spaces. Together, digital platforms and celebrity culture form a crucial discursive arena where postfeminist logics are unsettled, opening up the possibility of a more radical, intersectional, and activist popular feminism.PHDCommunicationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145855/1/lawsonc_1.pd

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

First Nations and Adaptive Water Governance in Southern Ontario, Canada

Water quality and quantity are prominent concerns for First Nations across Canada. The federal government shares the responsibility with First Nations to ensure water resources on-reserves meet the needs of First Nations. Federal approaches have been predominantly technical, focused on addressing issues related to infrastructure, maintenance, training, and monitoring. This approach is important. However, water issues concerning First Nations go beyond technical issues and relate to inadequate participation in decision making, poorly defined roles and responsibilities, and approaches to managing water resources on-reserve that have not accounted for local context. These issues parallel historical nation-to-nation (i.e., First Nations and federal government) governance challenges in a broader range of social and economic development settings. The purpose of this research was to examine the potential emergence of adaptive forms of water governance in three First Nations contexts in southern Ontario to ameliorate current limitations in practice. The key objectives that guided this research were to: (1) characterize and assess water management and water governance in the three case studies using the multi-barrier approach for drinking water safety; (2) identify and critically examine institutional attributes and conditions (i.e., capacity) that facilitate or constrain adaptive forms of water governance in each of the case study sites, with particular reference to opportunities for analytic deliberation, institutional variety, and linkages across scales; and (3) examine the multi-level institutional setting of the case studies for empirical evidence of adaptive water governance and to identify opportunities to foster it. Three First Nation communities were the setting for this research: Six Nations of the Grand River, Oneida Nation of the Thames, and Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. The research involved actors both on-reserve and off-reserve including representatives from federal, provincial, and municipal governments, watershed organizations, non-government organizations, and citizen groups. Multiple qualitative methods were used to triangulate the findings (i.e., semi-structured interviews, archival data gathering, secondary date gathering, and direct observation). The research utilized the multi-barrier approach to safe drinking water to characterize and assess water management and water governance issues in the case studies. Drawing from this characterization and assessment, the research identified and critically examined institutional attributes and conditions that facilitate or constrain adaptive forms of water governance in the case studies utilizing an institutional lens. Finally, the research examined the multi-level institutional setting of the case studies for empirical evidence of adaptive water governance and identified opportunities to foster it and enhance water quality and quantity. The findings shed light on community perspectives that are often absent in literature discussing the social and political contexts that define First Nations water rights and responsibilities in Canada, including experiences with colonialism and discrimination. Community perspectives have revealed divergent understandings of decision making authority and legitimacy, formal institutions for managing water on-reserve that are incompatible with cultural norms, and a lack of community engagement in water issues. Poor sharing of knowledge (both scientific and traditional) and unclear roles and responsibilities constrain First Nations from responding effectively to the water issues they confront. In response, this research identified governance opportunities to foster adaptive forms of water governance in First Nation contexts, including acknowledgment of underlying socio-political conditions, creating space within current formal arrangements for alternative approaches to water management to be recognized and substantiated, and mediating divergent assumptions about rights and responsibilities among water managers. The research offered several important contributions to theory, practice, and methodology in water governance. For example, this research contributed conceptually to an emerging literature on adaptive water governance, and in particular, how it resonated (or does not resonate) within First Nations contexts. It did this by drawing attention to the role current institutions (e.g., rules, legal frameworks and norms) may have in constraining or creating opportunity for adaptive forms of governance. The research also contributed conceptually to understanding what a multi-barrier approach means in the context of First Nations in Canada. The insights here are relevant in Ontario and Canada more broadly, where challenges implementing the Multiple Barrier Approach (MBA) in First Nation contexts have been voiced. Empirically, this research reinforced the need to acknowledge and include First Nation approaches in water management practice. It did so by bringing to the forefront First Nation water management practices of three First Nation communities, particularly for protecting water resources on-reserve, and in terms of highlighting what is working and what is not. These insights provide guidance for advancing water policy and practice toward the meaningful involvement of First Nations in decision making, and a commitment to include the cultural practices required to foster more adaptive forms of governance. Methodologically, the research made a contribution by utilizing two analytical frameworks. First, the research made a contribution through the use of the multi-barrier approach as a framework to characterize and assess water management and water governance in First Nations contexts. The adaptability of this framework may be useful for use in First Nation contexts as a way to identify key drinking water management and governance challenges. Second, the research extended Dietz et al.’s (2003) framework depicting institutional strategies for adaptive governance to examine and understand how these strategies may be operationalize and assessed in First Nations contexts. The extension of the framework may be helpful to explore constraints and opportunities to manage and govern resources in other marginalized communities. This research presented five recommendations to enhance opportunities for more adaptive forms of water governance in First Nations in southern Ontario: (1) Give further attention to potential divisions between groups on-reserve and the implications for water governance, (2) build support for and maintain the relationships that enhance water governance but which often transcend legally defined mandates and/or jurisdictions, (3) foster a common understanding of the different ‘legitimate voices’ that must be incorporated in efforts to support adaptive water governance, (4) be open to First Nation approaches to managing water resources that may be based on cultural practices and norms, and (5) identify new opportunities to foster the financial stability needed for adaptive water governance. Collectively, the findings and recommendations from this research developed the concept of adaptive water governance and help to bridge the gap between concept and practice

Cognitions of the community: The worldview of U.S. intelligence

This dissertation attempts to determine what the worldview of U.S. intelligence looks like so that it can be incorporated into America\u27s intelligence identity. I argue that this is necessary to gain a better understanding of why the agencies that comprise the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) share several behaviors despite having different interests and preferences. To answer my research question, which asks what the worldview of U.S. intelligence is, I conceptualize the IC\u27s core belief system about world politics (its worldview) as the five philosophical beliefs in an operational code. I hypothesize about how the IC views each of these cognitions in accordance with my theory that the IC\u27s worldview underlies several U.S. intelligence norms. I also posit that the worldview of U.S. intelligence is specific and longstanding. However, after testing my hypotheses using automated content analysis and statistical methods, I only find strong support for two of my six propositions. The beliefs that comprise the IC\u27s worldview are well-established and continuous, and U.S. intelligence believes that it has a low degree of control over historical development. My primary conclusion is that the IC\u27s worldview is a topic that warrants further study given that cognitions underlie all political behavior and form the foundation for how power and interests are understood (Young and Schafer 1998, 84). I also conclude that the ultimate value of this dissertation lies not in what its analysis found, but in the fact that it is first study to empirically analyze the set of core beliefs that U.S. intelligence holds about foreign affairs and global issues among state and non-state actors