Medium as King: Social Media & the Political Campaign

There is a growing need for a greater understanding of the intersection between great content, effective targeting and proper media usage in mediated communication and especially in American politics. As more campaigns move their efforts online in an attempt to reach a rapidly growing digital constituency, more content will continue to be less visible. The major quest for this study will be to challenge the long-standing idea that “content is king” which Bill Gates termed at the inception of the internet. A theoretical background of Marshall McLuhan and Kathleen Hall Jamieson will not only allow us to answer this question, but then will also allow for future researchers to build upon these concepts. This study will aim to demonstrate how the Ted Cruz presidential campaign of 2016, prior to his departure from the race, was an excellent example of the sweet spot in content creation, voter targeting and medium implementation

Disney Shanghai Park: A Cultural and Psychographic Assessment

Amusement parks occurred in Europe and North American as early as in 19 century (Clave and Clarke, 2007). Theme park in China is relatively new. Not until 1989, first attraction development, the Splendid China, was established in Shenzhen (Ap, 2008). However, witnessed the rapid economic development in China in the past decades, Chinese consumers rapidly and significantly raised their leisure expenditure, one of key growth area is to attend theme park (Martin, et al., 2018). The theme park collects recreational entertainment, leisure activities, and seeking excitement  into one entity, often preferred by visitors as one stop vacation-taking place. More important, theme park is often a center for cultural manifestation, responsiveness, and appreciation, and these attributes are often associated with the place where it is built.  The purpose of this manuscript was to understand the cultural and psychological demands for the Disney Shanghai Park in China. A Triangulation method of Critical Analysis, Word Cloud, and Thematic Content Analysis was used. Two data points were analyzed: Hotel Comments and Park Remarks.  The common thread through the Shanghai data was group processes and decisions that relate to the development of the group. Keywords: Theme Park, Hotel Evaluation, Culture, TripAdvisor, Word Cloud DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/47-03 Publication date: February 29th 202

Social Media Analytics in Food Innovation and Production: a Review

Until recently social media and social media analytics (SMA) were basically used only for communication and marketing purposes. However, thanks to advances in digital technologies and big data analytics, potential applications of SMA extend now to production processes and overall business management. As a result, SMA has become an important tool for gaining and sustaining competitive advantage across various sectors, industries and end-markets. Yet, the food industry still lags behind when it comes to the use of digital technologies and advanced data analytics. A part of the explanation lies in the limited knowledge of potential applications of SMA in food innovation and production. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of literature on possible uses of SMA in the food industry sector and to discuss both the benefits, risks, and limitations of SMA in food innovation and production. Based on the literature review, it is concluded that mining social media data for insights can create significant business value for the food industry enterprises and food service sector organizations. On the other hand, many proposals for using SMA in the food domain still await direct experimental tests. More research and insights concerning risks and limitations of SMA in the food sector would be also needed. The issue of responsible data analytics as part of Corporate Digital Responsibility and Corporate Social Responsibility of enterprises using social media data for food innovation and production also requires a greater attention

SOCIAL MEDIA FOOTPRINTS OF PUBLIC PERCEPTION ON ENERGY ISSUES IN THE CONTERMINOUS UNITED STATES

Energy has been at the top of the national and global political agenda along with other concomitant challenges, such as poverty, disaster and climate change. Social perception on various energy issues, such as its availability, development and consumption deeply affect our energy future. This type of information is traditionally collected through structured energy surveys. However, these surveys are often subject to formidable costs and intensive labor, as well as a lack of temporal dimensions. Social media can provide a more cost-effective solution to collect massive amount of data on public opinions in a timely manner that may complement the survey. The purpose of this study is to use machine learning algorithms and social media conversations to characterize the spatiotemporal topics and social perception on different energy in terms of spatial and temporal dimensions. Text analysis algorithms, such as sentiment analysis and topic analysis, were employed to offer insights into the public attitudes and those prominent issues related to energy. The results show that the energy related public perceptions exhibited spatiotemporal dynamics. The study is expected to help inform decision making, formulate national energy policies, and update entrepreneurial energy development decisions

Exploring the Perceptions of Recent High School Graduates Regarding Pk-12 School Safety Measures Considering Increased Occurrences of Mass School Shootings: A Q Method Study

School violence and mass school shootings are increasing at an alarming rate in our nation (Arnold, 2015; Ash & Sanders, 2018; Baird, Roellke, & Zeifman, 2017; Beland & Kim, 2016; De Apodaca, Brighton, Perkins, Jackson, & Steege, 2012; Duplechain & Morris, 2016; Elliott, 2015; Gerard, Whitefield, Porther, & Browne, 2016; Haan & Mays, 2013; Jonson, 2017). Institutions of learning that were once deemed safe and sacred have turned into metaphorical and literal battlegrounds (Jonson, 2017). As a result of the increased risk of mass school shootings many states have implemented laws to assist in implementing more rigid safety measures within the school setting, this is often referred to as school hardening. There has been research conducted regarding the effectiveness of these school hardening campaigns and it seems that these school hardening campaigned are counter intuitive to what their purpose serves (Cuellar et al., 2018; Lamoreaux & Sulkowski, 2019; Mann & Brock, 2020). This dissertation is a Q methodological study that aims to explore the perspectives of recent high school graduates on the effect that school hardening campaigns had on their K-12 experiences. These perceptions were collected form 61 participants that sorted a Q Sort with 37 items in the Q Set. Data analysis was conducted and themes from the analysis were fashioned and dissected. From these factor profiles, recommendations for future research and implementation strategies were suggested