An Exploratory Analysis of Information Content of Corporate Web Pages as Advertising Media

In the case of television advertising, the advertising enters the potential buyers’ environment in an uninitiated way. In the case of Web advertising, the potential buyer must initiate the access to the corporate Web pages. Hence, the Web as an advertising media demands a much stronger access motivation than television advertising. So the need for a more meaningful information content is perhaps greater in the case of Web advertising compared to other avenues

Privacy Implications of Health Information Seeking on the Web

This article investigates privacy risks to those visiting health- related web pages. The population of pages analyzed is derived from the 50 top search results for 1,986 common diseases. This yielded a total population of 80,124 unique pages which were analyzed for the presence of third-party HTTP requests. 91% of pages were found to make requests to third parties. Investigation of URIs revealed that 70% of HTTP Referer strings contained information exposing specific conditions, treatments, and diseases. This presents a risk to users in the form of personal identification and blind discrimination. An examination of extant government and corporate policies reveals that users are insufficiently protected from such risks

Cyber-Democracy or Cyber-Hegemony? Exploring the Political and Economic Structures of the Internet as an Alternative Source of Information

Although government regulation of the Internet has been decried as undercutting free speech, the control of Internet content through capitalist gateways???namely, profit-driven software companies???has gone largely uncriticized. The author argues that this discursive trend manufactures consent through a hegemonic force neglecting to confront the invasion of online advertising or marketing strategies directed at children. This study suggests that ???inappropriate content??? (that is, nudity, pornography, obscenities) constitutes a cultural currency through which concerns and responses to the Internet have been articulated within the mainstream. By examining the rhetorical and financial investments of the telecommunications business sector, the author contends that the rhetorical elements creating ???cyber-safety??? concerns within the mainstream attempt to reach the consent of parents and educators by asking them to see some Internet content as value laden (sexuality, trigger words, or adult content), while disguising the interests and authority of profitable computer software and hardware industries (advertising and marketing). Although most online ???safety measures??? neglect to confront the emerging invasion of advertising/marketing directed at children and youth, the author argues that media literacy in cyberspace demands such scrutiny. Unlike measures to block or filter online information, students need an empowerment approach that will enable them to analyze, evaluate, and judge the information they receive.published or submitted for publicatio

The impact of brand communication on brand equity through Facebook

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to fill the gap in the discussion of the ways in which firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication impacts consumer-based brand equity metrics through Facebook. Design/methodology/approach: We evaluated 302 data sets that were generated through a standardized online-survey to investigate the impact of firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication on brand awareness/associations, perceived quality, and brand loyalty across 60 brands within three different industries: non-alcoholic beverages, clothing, and mobile network providers. We applied structural equation modeling techniques (SEM) to investigate the effects of social media brand communication on consumers’ perception of brand equity metrics, as well as in an examination of industry-specific differences. Findings: The results of our empirical studies showed that both firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication influence brand awareness/associations; whereas, user-generated social media brand communication had a positive impact on brand loyalty and perceived brand quality. Additionally, there are significant differences between the industries being investigated. Originality/value: This article is pioneering in that it exposes the effects of two different types of social media brand communication (i.e., firm-created and user-generated social media communication) on consumer-based brand equity metrics, a topic of relevance for both marketers and scholars in the era of social media. Additionally, it differentiates the effects of social media brand communication across industries, which indicate that practitioners should implement social media strategies according to industry specifics to lever consumer-based brand equity metrics

The internet milieu: individualization within a globalised community

Communication technologies have become deeply embedded in our lives, mediating the ways in which information is presented. Due to the global nature of this channel of communication, the world has shrunk and members of the internet may share similar cultural norms of thinking and behaving. Yet, paradoxically, the Internet is personal in that each individual has an interactive opportunity in choosing the options that can expand the breadth and depth of the information they are reading, who they interact with, and the means to achieve that interaction. These options can be expressed through a variety of media techniques. This paper is based on a study of selected websites hosted in English. It looks at language use in the Internet and illustrates the paradoxes between global and individual mediations of meanin

Fake News and Editing: Marketing Techniques used to Spin Controversies in Video Mediums

This thesis explores the topic of fake news in today\u27s digital landscape by analyzing how young adults (18-2) form and change prior opinions based on the media they consume. I measured this by showing respondents one of two bias montages in response to Google\u27s Project Owl initiative. Project Owl is Google\u27s controversial attempt to regulate false or abusive news by launching new feedback forms in addition to altering their algorithm in a way the company has not yet disclosed to the public (Sullivan). Each self-edited montage is two minutes in length and together they cover two radically different responses to Project Owl: one is positioned critically against the principles behind this move by Google, and one is clearly in support of the company\u27s project. To test the effects of spinning each video to change viewers\u27 perception of Project Owl, I developed a survey and designed a study to collect data from one-hundred people. Of the hundred people surveyed, half were randomly assigned to watch video A and half were randomly assigned to watch video B. Each participant was asked to answer a set of questions before and after watching their assigned video. The survey was designed to provide data on how their responses to Project Owl change after watching their assigned video. By using surveys that target the effects on audiences of informative video compilations that spin Project Owl, the thesis shows the manipulation of editing and short-form informational social media videos have on society more broadly. The intricate project is especially relevant because, while President Donald Trump regularly reprimands the promotion of fake news through Twitter, left-wing activists argue that false information spread across the Internet contributed to the outcome of the 2016 election. These arguments from opposing sides are intensified in the 21st century age of New Media and information overload, a period in media history when the fact that the production and circulation of news can come from anyone, anywhere, and at any time means that the difficulty of assessing the authenticity and reliability of that information is increasing exponentially

An Automated Approach to Auditing Disclosure of Third-Party Data Collection in Website Privacy Policies

A dominant regulatory model for web privacy is "notice and choice". In this model, users are notified of data collection and provided with options to control it. To examine the efficacy of this approach, this study presents the first large-scale audit of disclosure of third-party data collection in website privacy policies. Data flows on one million websites are analyzed and over 200,000 websites' privacy policies are audited to determine if users are notified of the names of the companies which collect their data. Policies from 25 prominent third-party data collectors are also examined to provide deeper insights into the totality of the policy environment. Policies are additionally audited to determine if the choice expressed by the "Do Not Track" browser setting is respected. Third-party data collection is wide-spread, but fewer than 15% of attributed data flows are disclosed. The third-parties most likely to be disclosed are those with consumer services users may be aware of, those without consumer services are less likely to be mentioned. Policies are difficult to understand and the average time requirement to read both a given site{\guillemotright}s policy and the associated third-party policies exceeds 84 minutes. Only 7% of first-party site policies mention the Do Not Track signal, and the majority of such mentions are to specify that the signal is ignored. Among third-party policies examined, none offer unqualified support for the Do Not Track signal. Findings indicate that current implementations of "notice and choice" fail to provide notice or respect choice

Towards an understanding of corporate web identity

No abstract available