Multilingual Use of Twitter: Language Choice and Language Bridges in a Social Network

Social media is international: users from different cultures and language backgrounds are generating and sharing content. But language barriers emerge in the communication landscape online. In the quest for language diversity and universal access, the vision of a cosmopolitan Internet has stumbled over the language frontier. Expatriates, minorities, diasporic communities, and language learners play an important role in forming transnational networks, creating social ties across borders. Many users of social media are multicultural and multilingual; they are mediating between language communities. In the microblogging site Twitter, information spreads across languages and countries. How are multilingual users of Twitter connecting language groups? What are the factors influencing their language choices? This research advances a step towards understanding the network structures and communication strategies that enable intercultural dialog, cross-language sharing of information, and awareness of global problems. This dissertation research aims at: (1) exploring the ways in which multilingual users of Twitter are connecting different language groups in their social network; (2) modeling how the network influences their language choices; (3) and exploring what the textual features of their posts can elicit about language choices and mediation between groups. This dissertation goes beyond survey information about multilingualism and provides a deeper understanding about the structural relations between language communities in Twitter. This research work is one of the few that apply social network analysis to the study of sociolinguistic questions on the Internet. Focusing on the social networks of multilingual users, this dissertation contributes an original classification of network types based on the patterns of connections between language groups. Also, it applies the novel idea of modeling the influence of network factors in the language choices of the user. Finally, this dissertation tests the hypothesis that the type of exchange influences language choice, and explores with a theme analysis how other textual features might elicit cross-cultural awareness. These results can inform the design of social media platforms

Computational consumption: social media and the construction of digital consumers

The abundance of social data and the constant development of new models of personalized suggestions are rewriting the way in which consumption is experienced. Not only are consumers now immersed in an information mediated context - decoupled from physical and socio-cultural constrains - but they also experience other consumers and themselves differently, embracing the prescriptions of a technological medium made by algorithmic suggestions and software instructions. A single case study of a social shopping platform in its start up phase has served as the empirical object of this thesis. The company investigated represents a typical case in the field of data driven consumption. The case has been conducted following the company’s infrastructure design and implementation for over a year. The analysis of the case has revealed the distinctive computational logic embedded in the platform system. The system uses the data produced by user selection as representation of consumer choice. On this account it structures social and individual consumption patterns and computes personalized suggestion. This study shows that technological information and software systems disassemble traditional practices of consumption and reassemble consumers in new and unseen ways. The research investigates technology’s role as a medium, by exposing and deconstructing the processes through which data aggregation and personalization mechanics reconfigure discovery, selection and experience of fashion. This thesis illustrates how consumption is now produced on the basis of social data structuration and how consumers are constructed out of data assemblages. Consumers select products they are suggested to like or expected to buy reacting to what social media platforms construct, compute, and fed back to them. Personalization allows consumers to see themselves as individual against the background of a computed sociality. Ultimately thus, the study discusses the impact of computational consumption as individuation process, considering its implications for consumer identity articulation and marketing practices

Geographic information extraction from texts

A large volume of unstructured texts, containing valuable geographic information, is available online. This information – provided implicitly or explicitly – is useful not only for scientific studies (e.g., spatial humanities) but also for many practical applications (e.g., geographic information retrieval). Although large progress has been achieved in geographic information extraction from texts, there are still unsolved challenges and issues, ranging from methods, systems, and data, to applications and privacy. Therefore, this workshop will provide a timely opportunity to discuss the recent advances, new ideas, and concepts but also identify research gaps in geographic information extraction

Popular culture as a powerful destination marketing tool: an Australian study

This thesis is concerned with the marketing possibilities of popular culture tourism (PCT). There is promise in developing alternative forms of cultural communication and cultural representation in tourism. Specifically, PCT is explored as a way to enhance and reshape the current approach to destination promotion in Australia. Through the arrival of new and diversified cultural experiences, Australia can improve the existing tourism portfolio. Although there have been many studies which describe the marketing practice of using elements of popular culture in destination promotion, few, if any, effectively address the issue of usability of such methods in Australia. To understand the nature of the challenge, it is important to acknowledge the diversity inherent within popular culture, as well as the huge diversity of individual experiences and responses to such cultural practices. This work is concerned with the richness of individual experience, the multi-form qualities of interpersonal encounters with popular culture in Australia. This thesis uses pragmatism as the main interpretive framework, with its powerful ability to disambiguate and clarify the research questions. To study the phenomenon the researcher uses a combination of three research methods: survey research, descriptive study, and exploratory study. Each study contributes a unique perspective to the literature on popular culture tourism. To answer the research questions considerable data comprising 253 detailed questionnaires, 20 unstructured interviews, 648 blogs and social media posts, and marketing materials of over 50 DMOs were collected and analysed. The thesis has six chapters in total. The first chapter introduces the concept of PCT. It discusses how popular media and tourism, and thoughtful engagement of these forces, have created a phenomenon with great potential and strong commercial and popular impact. PCT is an umbrella term comprising several fields, such as film-induced, literary, and music tourism, as well as special events, and technology tourism, among others. The chapter argues that PCT can encourage youth tourism and help accommodate the needs of tourists coming from diverse households and families (multi-generational groups, singles, 'second' families). The chapter highlights the need to diversify the traditional tourism product by embracing specialty markets. The second chapter outlines the theoretical framework, rationale, and conceptual structure for the materials to follow. The third chapter introduces Study 1. The first study uses survey data to uncovers behaviour patterns and preferences of local popular culture tourists. It compares the events and locations in the context of PCT, and works with important cues (e.g., associations and preferences) and key features (e.g., consumption rates and travel intentions) by matching them with several hypotheses related to the consumption of popular culture. In Chapter 4, the scope of the investigation widens to include the international perspective. Study 2 is concerned with qualitative aspects of the cultural economy, namely the subjective experiences and expectation of past, existing and potential visitors. This study employs social listening and content analysis to observe and analyse online discussions related to popular culture events and locations in Australia. The captured experiences (impressions, feelings, thoughts, and observations) helped: (1) identify how Australia is being represented in popular culture discourse; (2) identify how the particular imagery of local popular culture commodities can influence the Australian tourism development strategy. The last study, Chapter 5, is concerned with practical applications. It offers a rigorous analysis of the marketing strategies that utilise popular culture in destination promotion. It discusses how these integrations are carried out by the DMOs in real-world practices. The chapter identifies seven advanced destination marketing tactics as efficient methods that can be used for tourism promotion in Australia. It offers recommendations and comments on the use of PCT in national tourism campaigns. Chapter 6 is devoted to the discussion of findings, implications, and limitations. The key findings contribute to the academic literature on cultural tourism. This thesis investigates the possibilities of using location-specific popular culture tools in 'narrative' marketing campaigns. The work identifies different PCT activities and their impacts on destination's image and tourists' experiences. The results and work also emerge as practical solutions for implementation of PCT tools in destination promotion for Australia

What elements are required to achieve sustainable business change using health and safety as a lens?

Business change continues to be an ongoing challenge. New consultancy models are required to suit the changing financial landscape, which requires businesses to outperform their competitors in order to survive; minimising overheads and removing waste in processes. Whilst business change is a broad topic area, the use of health and safety as a lens through which change can be made is less widely-discussed. This model for change has been utilised successfully in this business with great success. This D Prof project analyses that change programme to establish which elements of it can be applicable to other businesses undertaking change in a first-generation family business, but is applicable to any business. The starting point for the business was to facilitate a cultural shift by approaching the change through a behavioural programme that made safety personal to each employee. It focused on behavioural safety as the lens for change within the business over two iterations/interventions. This D Prof Project is the third iteration. The co-researchers have been immersed in the transformation programme, as insider researchers with the defined objectives of lowering the Accident Frequency Rate (AFR), preventing a fatality, increasing turnover and profitability as well as getting the business fit for rail and nuclear projects. The business has a proven ‘balanced’ safety culture, with much work having been done on Systems, People, and Culture to therefore establishing balance in all areas. The researchers had undertaken Iteration One and Iteration Two of the transformation change programme over a period of five years using health and safety as the focal lens for change, the work represented here in the D Prof project is Iteration Three, providing a new and fresh perspective.We found that to make improvement to safety culture it is essential to already have a ‘balanced safety culture’. Our project work uncovered key issues relating to the cultural differences between different nationalities when working together in close proximity and in a polymorphic society such as London, where our company is based. National identities possess varied power distance and uncertainty avoidance types and when people from diverse cultural mixes are concentrated in small areas such as construction projects there is an impact upon how they work together, how they are able to assimilate information, how they best receive instruction and how they communicate with their peers and managers. We found that the works of Hofstede and Choudray are particularly relevant to improving the way in which construction projects and construction businesses further improve their safety culture and performance once a balanced safety culture has been achieved. Sampling 900 individuals across our business identified 47% as foreign nationals whereas suddenly when you review the London region there is a larger percentage which is around 60% migrant workers or foreign nationals. This indicates that the project findings are relevant to a number of businesses who operate not only in London but in polymorphic environments. We are now reviewing the nationalities and culture of our projects to access the underlying key cultural differences within a polymorphic London environment and concentrating of the Power Distance (PDI) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) of the various work crews and the supervisor nationality to gain a shared understanding of risk and further improve communication and safety performance. Given the complexity of the issues Hofstede’s work on nationality is not a panacea but it is an area of consideration when undertaking high risk construction based projects this has been overlooked particularly in the UK and the South East with a polymorphic London workforce inside the M25. We had to consider ‘Power Distance’ PDI and its relationship to safety performance. The indicators in relation to nationality have led the business to start looking at how we change our methodology and risk assessment into visual method statements and visual risk assessments. Work commenced in the business outside of the Doctorate and we are starting to get varied nationalities to create these visual method statements so it is not only being created from an Irish/English paradigm. The project provides the opportunity for other stakeholders, clients and the wider construction industry to use the model for delivering change within their businesses where they may not have access to the significant resources required to make business change on a large scale. Understanding the elements which are critical to such change upfront will enable efficient and effective targeting of their valuable and scarce resources. The project was carried out in its entirety and completed while both parties were employed within the business. Since completing the project both parties have moved on to other carrier opportunities and the change has been sustained in their absence