Facebook Idio-Culture: How Personalisation Puts the Me in Social Media

The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which cultural preferences in music in the UK have changed as a result of personalised social media. It is an exploration of the extent to which the boundaries of musical subcultures, and other such cultural groupings have been smudged by a customised Internet, and by the quotidian routine of using social media sites led by influential algorithms, designed to offer us an experience tailored to our own tastes. It also investigates the ways in which a person’s need to use their taste as an outward display of identity or subcultural capital (Thornton 2006) has altered, now that every aspect of life can be advertised on Facebook, Twitter and other such websites. With the rise of technologies such as ‘online recommenders’ this research evaluates whether the new technology, rather than helping, has hindered our ability to predict the tastes of an individual, and instead, whether it shepherds us through the abundance of data now readily available to us at the touch of a button. It examines, also how the filtering of accessible information, deemed relevant for us by such technologies affects our tastes and behaviour. In terms of primary research, an Investigation is conducted, focussing on a target group of individuals linked by a Facebook fan Page, following a mixed methods approach, consisting of an in-depth, self-completion questionnaire designed to collate quantitative data on the demographic, an observation by means of analytical tracking software, written specifically for this thesis examining the online behaviour of the participants as they create and recommend a musical playlist, and also a series of more open, qualitative interviews. The thesis concludes by acknowledging that musical taste is affected both implicitly by our habitus (Bourdieu 1984) and explicitly by means of algorithmic personalisation in a pincer movement, narrowing our tastes and channelling our musical choices

Assuming Data Integrity and Empirical Evidence to The Contrary

Background: Not all respondents to surveys apply their minds or understand the posed questions, and as such provide answers which lack coherence, and this threatens the integrity of the research. Casual inspection and limited research of the 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), included in the dataset of the World Values Survey (WVS), suggested that random responses may be common. Objective: To specify the percentage of cases in the BRI-10 which include incoherent or contradictory responses and to test the extent to which the removal of these cases will improve the quality of the dataset. Method: The WVS data on the BFI-10, measuring the Big Five Personality (B5P), in South Africa (N=3 531), was used. Incoherent or contradictory responses were removed. Then the cases from the cleaned-up dataset were analysed for their theoretical validity. Results: Only 1 612 (45.7%) cases were identified as not including incoherent or contradictory responses. The cleaned-up data did not mirror the B5P- structure, as was envisaged. The test for common method bias was negative. Conclusion: In most cases the responses were incoherent. Cleaning up the data did not improve the psychometric properties of the BFI-10. This raises concerns about the quality of the WVS data, the BFI-10, and the universality of B5P-theory. Given these results, it would be unwise to use the BFI-10 in South Africa. Researchers are alerted to do a proper assessment of the psychometric properties of instruments before they use it, particularly in a cross-cultural setting

YOUMARES 9 - The Oceans: Our Research, Our Future

This open access book summarizes peer-reviewed articles and the abstracts of oral and poster presentations given during the YOUMARES 9 conference which took place in Oldenburg, Germany, in September 2018. The aims of this book are to summarize state-of-the-art knowledge in marine sciences and to inspire scientists of all career stages in the development of further research. These conferences are organized by and for young marine researchers. Qualified early-career researchers, who moderated topical sessions during the conference, contributed literature reviews on specific topics within their research field