Theorizing platformization from the perspective of the connection between mobile journalism and political participation

Digital media platforms are used to make social contacts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journalism also adopts mobile and social platforms into news production and distribution. The usage of digital media platforms in journalistic practices has shown some interlinkage with political participation. Against these backdrops, there is a need for a theoretical framework to analyze the interlinkage and the relevant influence on social activities. This article uses a conceptual approach and theorizes platformization to explicate the rationale behind the interaction between digital platforms, mobile journalism, and political participation. Platformization in this study inspects media as mediated and dynamic platform that values interactivity and data. We also argue that the thesis of platformization derives from mediatization theory, and consists of platform logic and platform architecture. Platform logic is represented by platform functionality, platform automation, mobile mediality, and platform-based sociality. Platformization is structured by the platform architecture in the communication activities. Platform architecture has two senses. Firstly, it has the sense of internal structure, i.e., the engineering structure of software and hardware. Secondly, it contains the sense of external structure, i.e., the platform's structural position in the platform ecosystem

Theorizing platformization from the perspective of the connection between mobile journalism and political participation

Digital media platforms are used to make social contacts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journalism also adopts mobile and social platforms into news production and distribution. The usage of digital media platforms in journalistic practices has shown some interlinkage with political participation. Against these backdrops, there is a need for a theoretical framework to analyze the interlinkage and the relevant influence on social activities. This article uses a conceptual approach and theorizes platformization to explicate the rationale behind the interaction between digital platforms, mobile journalism, and political participation. Platformization in this study inspects media as mediated and dynamic platform that values interactivity and data. We also argue that the thesis of platformization derives from mediatization theory, and consists of platform logic and platform architecture. Platform logic is represented by platform functionality, platform automation, mobile mediality, and platform-based sociality. Platformization is structured by the platform architecture in the communication activities. Platform architecture has two senses. Firstly, it has the sense of internal structure, i.e., the engineering structure of software and hardware. Secondly, it contains the sense of external structure, i.e., the platform’s structural position in the platform ecosystem

Graphs behind data: A network-based approach to model different scenarios

openAl giorno d’oggi, i contesti che possono beneficiare di tecniche di estrazione della conoscenza a partire dai dati grezzi sono aumentati drasticamente. Di conseguenza, la definizione di modelli capaci di rappresentare e gestire dati altamente eterogenei è un argomento di ricerca molto dibattuto in letteratura. In questa tesi, proponiamo una soluzione per affrontare tale problema. In particolare, riteniamo che la teoria dei grafi, e più nello specifico le reti complesse, insieme ai suoi concetti ed approcci, possano rappresentare una valida soluzione. Infatti, noi crediamo che le reti complesse possano costituire un modello unico ed unificante per rappresentare e gestire dati altamente eterogenei. Sulla base di questa premessa, mostriamo come gli stessi concetti ed approcci abbiano la potenzialità di affrontare con successo molti problemi aperti in diversi contesti. ​Nowadays, the amount and variety of scenarios that can benefit from techniques for extracting and managing knowledge from raw data have dramatically increased. As a result, the search for models capable of ensuring the representation and management of highly heterogeneous data is a hot topic in the data science literature. In this thesis, we aim to propose a solution to address this issue. In particular, we believe that graphs, and more specifically complex networks, as well as the concepts and approaches associated with them, can represent a solution to the problem mentioned above. In fact, we believe that they can be a unique and unifying model to uniformly represent and handle extremely heterogeneous data. Based on this premise, we show how the same concepts and/or approach has the potential to address different open issues in different contexts. ​INGEGNERIA DELL'INFORMAZIONEopenVirgili, Luc

The Minimum Wiener Connector

The Wiener index of a graph is the sum of all pairwise shortest-path distances between its vertices. In this paper we study the novel problem of finding a minimum Wiener connector: given a connected graph $G=(V,E)$ and a set $Q\subseteq V$ of query vertices, find a subgraph of $G$ that connects all query vertices and has minimum Wiener index. We show that The Minimum Wiener Connector admits a polynomial-time (albeit impractical) exact algorithm for the special case where the number of query vertices is bounded. We show that in general the problem is NP-hard, and has no PTAS unless $\mathbf{P} = \mathbf{NP}$. Our main contribution is a constant-factor approximation algorithm running in time $\widetilde{O}(|Q||E|)$. A thorough experimentation on a large variety of real-world graphs confirms that our method returns smaller and denser solutions than other methods, and does so by adding to the query set $Q$ a small number of important vertices (i.e., vertices with high centrality).Comment: Published in Proceedings of the 2015 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Dat

Social media hook sports events: a systematic review of engagement

Social media are nowadays used in all sectors, and likewise frequently within the sports industry. However, there is a lack of studies that offer a holistic understanding of the phenomenon of social media engagement (SME) in this area. Thus, the main object of the present study was the elaboration of a systematic review of the existing literature of the past ten years about SME within the field of sports events. The study was carried out following the PRISMA guidelines. By searching the databases Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, and Academic Search Ultimate, we identified 208 studies. After screening and reviewing for eligibility, we finally included 28 articles in the present study. The methodologies, types of analysis applied, main objectives, and the results on SME of the articles included in the synthesis were systematically reviewed. The findings showed that only four articles had as a principal theme the SME. Social media offer a useful tool for engagement, but SME adopts must still gain greater recognition. The need to co-create with users and engage them on social media, due to the great utility of social media in this sector is highlighted based on the results. It was found that SME around sports events remains an emerging and still developing research field which presents a wide range of future research lines

Structure and dynamics of core-periphery networks

Recent studies uncovered important core/periphery network structures characterizing complex sets of cooperative and competitive interactions between network nodes, be they proteins, cells, species or humans. Better characterization of the structure, dynamics and function of core/periphery networks is a key step of our understanding cellular functions, species adaptation, social and market changes. Here we summarize the current knowledge of the structure and dynamics of "traditional" core/periphery networks, rich-clubs, nested, bow-tie and onion networks. Comparing core/periphery structures with network modules, we discriminate between global and local cores. The core/periphery network organization lies in the middle of several extreme properties, such as random/condensed structures, clique/star configurations, network symmetry/asymmetry, network assortativity/disassortativity, as well as network hierarchy/anti-hierarchy. These properties of high complexity together with the large degeneracy of core pathways ensuring cooperation and providing multiple options of network flow re-channelling greatly contribute to the high robustness of complex systems. Core processes enable a coordinated response to various stimuli, decrease noise, and evolve slowly. The integrative function of network cores is an important step in the development of a large variety of complex organisms and organizations. In addition to these important features and several decades of research interest, studies on core/periphery networks still have a number of unexplored areas.Comment: a comprehensive review of 41 pages, 2 figures, 1 table and 182 reference

The language and social behavior of innovators

Innovators are creative people who can conjure the ground-breaking ideas that represent the main engine of innovative organizations. Past research has extensively investigated who innovators are and how they behave in work-related activities. In this paper, we suggest that it is necessary to analyze how innovators behave in other contexts, such as in informal communication spaces, where knowledge is shared without formal structure, rules, and work obligations. Drawing on communication and network theory, we analyze about 38,000 posts available in the intranet forum of a large multinational company. From this, we explain how innovators differ from other employees in terms of social network behavior and language characteristics. Through text mining, we find that innovators write more, use a more complex language, introduce new concepts/ideas, and use positive but factual-based language. Understanding how innovators behave and communicate can support the decision-making processes of managers who want to foster innovation