Assimilation, social network sites and Asian stereotype : understanding Chinese-American teenagers in Austin

textGiven the increasing number of younger immigrants from China, we have noticed diversified performances of Chinese-American teenagers based on the age they come to the U.S. This thesis thus examines three specific aspects—assimilation, social network site (SNS) use, and reaction to Asian stereotype—of Chinese-American teenagers living in Austin, regarding intraethnic differences between and among different clusters of this cohort as the second generation immigrant. By employing semi-structured interviews conducted with teenagers who have respective immigrant history and family background, a wide array of patterns about assimilation, SNS use, and reaction to Asian stereotype are traced and analyzed alongside demonstrating outlines and traits in terms of different generation clusters (1.25ers, 1.5ers, 1.75ers and 2.0ers). A total of ten Chinese-American teenagers, aged from 15 to 18, are recruited and interviewed through snowball approach, allowing for the surface of intraethnic variations on the aforementioned aspects. Preliminary discussions are made to tease out how these three aspects are intertwined.Radio-Television-Fil

Community Investment in the Digital Divide Pays Dividends for Years to Come

As the COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented trials experienced by almost every population in the way of public health, food systems, businesses and families, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have helped to mitigate many challenges. The hope of the many academic research efforts taken during this time will help those in civic authority understand these impacts as civic leaders make decisions about the areas of society and the community that need emergency funds and how to allocate future expenditures to best serve the populations within the community. At-risk populations that have limited or no access to the Internet / ICT or who lack the skills to effectively use it can fall into a state of social isolation which prior research has shown can have costly health implications such as an increase in cardiac disease, diabetes and liver disease which is due to lack of exercise and depression brought on by the isolation. An investment in ICT now will strengthen communities and families. This research in progress paper investigates the barriers to getting ICT to at-risk populations and the present and future costs to society for failing to do so. Finally, several implications will be extracted, particularly those that will become part of a Strategic Framework that can be implemented in every city across the United States to pinpoint at-risk populations and define the best remedies per demographic to bridge the digital divide so that every population is connected to their caregiver network and the latest health information

Big Data and the Right to Political Participation

In recent years, the big data revolution has rapidly expanded from the private to the public sector. Today, government authorities at all levels analyze mass amounts of digital data produced by citizens and use it to inform their policy choices in such diverse areas as healthcare, education, transportation, and urban planning. Proponents of this trend assert that it not only yields better policies, but also facilitates political participation by allowing more people to influence governmental decisions at a low cost and with little effort. This Article argues, however, that the political participation that big data analysis currently enables is flawed in two main respects. First, such participation is usually passive and unintentional, and does not leave room for public deliberation over contested issues. Second, the apparent neutrality of big data may obscure the systematic exclusion of socioeconomically disempowered groups who do not produce digital data that can affect public policy. To explicate these problems, the Article turns to the work of political philosopher Hannah Arendt, especially to her conception of political action and speech and to her idea of the “right to have rights.” It then demonstrates these problems in recent big data initiatives in the fields of healthcare and urban planning. Finally, the Article asserts that in view of its participatory deficits, big data-based policymaking in its present form may be incompatible with constitutional norms. It argues that under an uncommon yet plausible interpretation, the First Amendment may be understood to establish the positive right of citizens to participate in governmental policymaking in a manner that allows them to express reasoned opinions and engage in public deliberation. It also argues that the Fourteenth Amendment may be understood to establish the right to equal participation in policymaking of all segments of the population, including socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. The Article explains how exactly these alleged constitutional rights apply to big data analysis and discusses some measures that government authorities can take to meet their corresponding obligations without giving up the efficiency advantages of big data-based policymaking

The Digital Divide: Current and Future Research Directions

The digital divide refers to the separation between those who have access to digital information and communications technology (ICT) and those who do not. Many believe that universal access to ICT would bring about a global community of interaction, commerce, and learning resulting in higher standards of living and improved social welfare. However, the digital divide threatens this outcome, leading many public policy makers to debate the best way to bridge the divide. Much of the research on the digital divide focuses on first order effects regarding who has access to the technology, but some work addresses the second order effects of inequality in the ability to use the technology among those who do have access. In this paper, we examine both first and second order effects of the digital divide at three levels of analysis ? the individual level, the organizational level, and the global level. At each level, we survey the existing research noting the theoretical perspective taken in the work, the research methodology employed, and the key results that were obtained. We then suggest a series of research questions at each level of analysis to guide researchers seeking to further examine the digital divide and how it impacts citizens, managers, and economies

Korean Migrant Youth Identity Work in the Transnational Social Field: A Link between Identity, Transnationalism, and New Media Literacy

Informed by the new understandings of space, culture, and identity in the fast-changing world where communication technology connects and compresses multiple spaces, this qualitative study examines how Korean migrant youth understand, negotiate, and articulate their complex identities across and beyond various borders. The research questions were: (1) What are the contexts in which migrant youth negotiate their identities? (2) How do youth understand and negotiate their sense of belonging? (3) How do youth’s cultural and literacy practices, particularly in new media, inform and shape their identities? Using an ethnographic case study design, I collected data from 32 survey participants and four core participants. Data included 32 surveys, 32 identity maps, 25 interview transcripts, 200 pages of field notes from observations, and 91 literacy documents across online and offline. A grounded theory approach and concepts of design and curatorship were used to analyze the data. Analysis demonstrated the intersections of conflict and flexibility, resistance and resilience, and vulnerability and agency in youths’ identity work. When youths’ identity was confined by the border-oriented discourses such as citizenship, race, and ethnicity, they expressed a sense of dissonance and felt that they were identified by who they are not. However, when they were able to cross national, linguistic, and cultural borders, they flexibly code-mixed and switched between languages, affiliated with audiences of diverse backgrounds, and positioned themselves resiliently. In this trans-bordering identity construction, new media played a crucial role by creating third spaces where youth could draw on their daily cultural practices, hybridizing diverse identity resources across contexts and audiences. New media served as a dialogic space for identity co-construction between youths and their audiences, an interactive learning platform, and a communicative medium for transnational relationships. Despite their relatively unsettled lives, the young migrants in this study behaved as agentive authors and designers of their identities with and in new media. Educational implications include the need to broaden the concept of literacy, to make connections between students’ lives and school curriculum, and to incorporate students’ voices in developing new pedagogy

The relationship between internet usage habits and student achievement

The invention of the Internet has brought countless advancements in communication, research, knowledge, and entertainment. Over the course of time, and as the Internet expanded, there have been mixed opinions in regard to the Internet’s place in schools. This has brought on the need for schools to develop policies to monitor and regulate student Internet activity in order to teach students to use the Internet as a tool to increase academic achievement. Michigan has consistently been one of the lowest performing states in regard to the SAT; thus, it is important for teachers and administrators to determine why. Through an Internet use survey adapted from The Pew Research Center’s Internet and Technology report titled “Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015,” this study surveyed 12th grade students at Blueville High School in Blueville, MI, to determine their levels of Internet access, Internet usage habits, and overall opinions of the Internet. Additionally, a focus group interview was conducted to further gain an understanding of Internet usage impact on student achievement. Survey results were compared to individual composite and component SAT scores, grade point averages, and socioeconomic factors (free/reduced lunch status). Results indicate some connection between Internet usage habits and student achievement, especially for those students who use the Internet for school-specific work

Advancing Democracy One Tweet at a Time

This thesis takes a broad look how citizens use social media to foster political discussion, enhance political knowledge and engage in political participation in the United States. In this study, democracy is broken down into three empirically measurable components: political discussion, knowledge and participation. To begin, I provide an in-­‐depth review of past research examining the impact social media has on each element of democracy. In addition, I analyze data collected from a novel social media panel of 3,811 Twitter users by researchers from Louisiana State University (Davis et. al, 2017). From this, I measure the impact that Facebook and Twitter have had on political discussion, knowledge and participation. I found that Twitter users use both Twitter and Facebook in ways that foster political discussion and enhance political knowledge. The results indicates that Twitter users are in fact using social media to share political news, further enhancing these platforms’ democratic potential

2019 Oklahoma Research Day Full Program

Oklahoma Research Day 2019 - SWOSU Celebrating 20 years of Undergraduate Research Successes

Evidence from Google Trends of a Widening Second-level Digital Divide in Brazil. Even Worse with the Covid-19

Background: While Brazilian governmental initiatives focused on home broadband Internet access, availability of computers for students in schools has been drastically reduced since 2010. Furthermore, schools usually prohibits mobile Internet access in its premises, contrarily to the migration of students’ access to smartphones.  Objectives: This study investigates the impact of the increasing home and mobile Internet access on the existing educational inequalities. Design: This study made use of quantitative, locally statistical research to investigate the reproduction or closing of existing educational digital divide across already contrasting Brazilian regions. Setting and Participants: Child or adolescent from 9 to 17 years of age and their guardians, interviewed by CETIC.br. Data collection and analysis: Data was obtained from the CETIC.br data portal and the Google Trends webpage. Data were analysed by means of local geostatistical measures of spatial autocorrelation and inequality, as well as bivariate choropleth maps. Results: Our results suggest that the Brazilian school system is failing to cultivate in their students the more productive use of Internet access and therefore contributing to the widening of the existing second-level digital divide between regions and social classes. Conclusions: This digital divide was critically exacerbated by the arrival of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the suspension of presential classes.Brazilian policymakers should concentrate efforts and resources in addressing this large-scale second-level digital divide, possibly by equipping educators and students with the knowledge and skills towards the educational, productive and responsible use of the Internet, as well as allowing mobile Internet access in school premises

From the sky to the smartphone: Communicating weather information in a digital age

As new technology has emerged in the digital era, the public can now choose from a variety of new media from which to get weather information. Weather applications (apps) and social media have emerged as some of the popular new media. This study sought to understand the extent to which these new media are used, how weather apps are perceived, how the news media used Twitter during Hurricane Irma, and how the public engaged with the news media’s tweets. A survey and dataset of tweets were used to evaluate the research questions and hypotheses of this research. The study found that most survey participants used digital sources for weather information, even in severe weather. The weather app was the most used source of all age brackets, though held a stronger majority amongst younger demographics. Numerous relationships were found between weather app usage and gender, smartphone brand and reliance, time of app usage, and app usage frequency. Participants who downloaded a non-standard weather app onto their phone had higher self-perceived weather knowledge and interest. Weather app users perceived their app to be accurate and sometimes inconsistent, which were both found to be correlated to trust. Perceived app accuracy was also moderately correlated with other aspects of the field of meteorology. Respondents indicated that they accounted for uncertainty in a forecast with time and for regional variability of weather when determining if the forecast verified. However, both conclusions will require further research. The final study of this dissertation found that content, frequency, and engagement with news media tweets during Irma fluctuated over the storm’s duration and a relationship was found between content and engagement. Smaller television markets showed less coverage and overall change in coverage and engagement compared to larger markets. Finally, a meteorologist’s tweeting of personal content prior to the storm was found to be weakly correlated with the number of retweets received during the storm