Modelling fashion microblogs to increase the influence of social media marketing in Ireland and China

With the breakthrough of social media in the 21st century, microblogging has become an influential medium for marketing fashion brands and products online. For this reason, this study explores ten Irish and another ten Chinese fashion microblogging influencers’ microblogs using Text Mining and Netnography. By this comparison, the study finds a current model of how fashion microblogs influence fashion consumption in Ireland and China. With the help of this model, the study proposes a typology of Irish and Chinese fashion microblogging influencers and their basic microblogging strategies. The proposed typology intends to help fashion marketers to model their fashion microblogs in order to increase the influence of social media marketing in Ireland and China. Furthermore, the proposed typology is applied to develop a digital artefact that not only can deal with Irish and Chinese fashion microblogs at the same time but also show the results employing text visualisation. This bilingual digital website tries to make up for the lack of attention to text analysis on fashion-related words in the development of text mining tools. Finally, the methodological combination of Text Mining and Netnography employs digital tools and computer programming to conduct studies in the field of arts and humanities. The success of methodological combination in the study opens up a bright prospect for interdisciplinary research methodology

ANALYZING IMAGE TWEETS IN MICROBLOGS

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Mining microblogs for culture-awareness in web adaptation

Prior studies in sociology and human-computer interaction indicate that persons from different countries and cultural origins tend to have their preferences in real-life communication and the usage of web and social media applications. With Twitter data, statistical and machine learning tools, this study advances our understand ing of microblogging in respect of cultural differences and demonstrates possible solutions of inferring and exploiting cultural origins for building adaptive web ap plications. Our findings reveal statistically significant differences in Twitter feature usage in respect of geographic locations of users. These differences in microblogger behaviour and user language defined in user profiles enabled us to infer user country origins with an accuracy of more than 90%. Other user origin predictive solutions we proposed do not require other data sources and human involvement for training the models, enabling the high accuracy of user country inference when exploiting information extracted from a user followers’ network, or with data derived from Twitter profiles. With origin predictive models, we analysed communication and privacy preferences and built a culture-aware recommender system. Our analysis of friend responses shows that Twitter users tend to communicate mostly within their cultural regions. Usage of privacy settings showed that privacy perceptions differ across cultures. Finally, we created and evaluated movie recommendation strategies considering user cultural groups, and addressed a cold-start scenario with a new user. We believe that the findings discussed give insights into the sociological and web research, in particular on cultural differences in online communication

Understanding the Perceived Destination Image of New Zealand as Revealed in the Travel Blogs of Tourists from Mainland China

This thesis examines the perceived destination image of New Zealand as revealed in travel blogs written by Mainland Chinese tourists. A qualitative method with an interpretivism paradigm was used to explore travel blogs written by Chinese tourists. A textual content analysis of 139 blog entries written by 36 Chinese bloggers indicates that the overall perceived destination image of New Zealand is positive among these tourists. Chinese tourists are particularly impressed by the New Zealand landscape, the hospitality and lifestyle of New Zealanders, and customer service in i-SITEs. This study identified a holistic view of New Zealand, ‘the New Zealand Dream’, constructed by Chinese tourists. They dream of living in New Zealand, a destination that has been perceived to offer a simpler and more peaceful lifestyle compared to China. Additional findings indicate Chinese tourists welcome unfamiliarity related to landscape and lifestyle. However, tourists respond to unfamiliarity that may pose a threat such as unfamiliar driving conditions with a less welcoming attitude. Familiarity such as familiar language and food are, overall, welcomed and accepted. This study also identified neutrally-toned advice from Chinese bloggers which suggests that the blogs are not only an effective way to understand the Chinese market – their likes and dislikes – but also, potentially, a valuable information source for tourists reading the blogs. Based on the results, implications and recommendations for managers and practitioners in New Zealand’s tourism industry are discussed

The Rise of a Chinese Bourgeoisie and the Potential for Democratic Transition

This project examines the logic of China’s political history and the potential for its democratic political transformation in the 21st century. Using the ideas of Moore and Skocpol the project employs a comparative historical sociology to explain the emergence of the liberal democratic political order in the 18th century western transformations as organized by an emerging bourgeoisie. The end goal of the project is to determine if the creation of a Chinese entrepreneurial class, which does exist in economic terms as a result of market activity and the devolution of state power, can be taken as evidence of an imminent shift into social structure associated with a bourgeoisie that embodies economic, cultural and political power. The analysis of the western transformations identifies the evolution of a bourgeois culture from the 16th up until the 18th century. The 16th century saw the rise of the rationalization and secularization of the entrepreneur - reason became the standard that would guide society, not the dogmas of traditional authority. The 17th century built on this by emphasizing the importance of property and law – as ways of realizing the newfound philosophical development that emerged in the previous century. Finally, the 18th century witnessed a profound emphasis on the constitutional rule of law and democratic process. These three sets of liberal values – the rise of reason over the dogmas of the state or church; emphasis on property and law; and emphasis on democratic principles and constitutional governance – are the defining features of emergent bourgeois government. The analysis of the failed eastern transformations reveals how economy and state gravely checked the rise of a bourgeoisie and its transformation of the traditional state. The comprehensive state machinery – such as existed in China and Russia – imposed autocratic constraints on the force of the market and its social attachments and political products. Until social forces could create a space for market organization and property-law within the economic system, the state maintained its autocratic monopoly. In the last 20 years the logic of Moore has been resumed in China, as markets and property have emerged with force and the state system has resiled from its traditionally autocratic role, albeit with property-capturing and law-distorting corruptions. As Moore’s logic once more exerts itself we should see change in China from market organization to property-law to a specific culture as the foundations of bourgeois political transformation