Semantic Wide and Deep Learning for Detecting Crisis-Information Categories on Social Media

When crises hit, many flog to social media to share or consume information related to the event. Social media posts during crises tend to provide valuable reports on affected people, donation offers, help requests, advice provision, etc. Automatically identifying the category of information (e.g., reports on affected individuals, donations and volunteers) contained in these posts is vital for their efficient handling and consumption by effected communities and concerned organisations. In this paper, we introduce Sem-CNN; a wide and deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model designed for identifying the category of information contained in crisis-related social media content. Unlike previous models, which mainly rely on the lexical representations of words in the text, the proposed model integrates an additional layer of semantics that represents the named entities in the text, into a wide and deep CNN network. Results show that the Sem-CNN model consistently outperforms the baselines which consist of statistical and non-semantic deep learning models

Media Consumption Trends in Russia under Digitalization

The paper analyses media consumption in Russia and media business strategies. The authors describe the media environment and identify the central trends typical of the transition to digital communication in society. The research approach implies evaluating the volume and distinguishing features of information consumption using the main media resources (the Internet, television, radio and print media). The information and empirical base of the research include the data of the Mediascope analytical agency, the statistical data provided by the Russian Federal State Statistic Service (Rosstat) and the results of research studies performed by consulting companies for the period of 2003-2017/2018. The paper presents the dynamics and specificity of transformation in the media environment and discusses a range of trends in media consumption: such as communication technology development; changes in the structure of media consumption; an increase in online advertising; a gradual transformation of media, etc. The results obtained show that the share of organizations and households in Russia that use the Internet in their work is constantly growing, but this growth is uneven and heterogeneous. Our findings prove that there are age (generation) differences in using traditional and new media, and the frequency of using information resources is changing

Analyzing the Impact of Food Safety Information on Food Demand in China

This study analyzed the impact of food safety information on food demand in urban China. The LA/AIDS model was estimated by using national province level food consumption data and quantities of articles about food safety event on public media from 2000 to 2008. The results of the study show that urban Chinese consumer food demand was influenced by food safety information from daily newspapers and GM labeling policy. This paper also indicates food price elasticities, expenditure elasticities by categories and the effect of food safety information.food safety, food demand, Linear Approximated Almost Ideal Demand System( LA/AIDS), Genetically modified( GM), food consumption, price elasticity, expenditure elasticity, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, D12, Q11,

Analysing acculturation to sustainable food consumption behaviour in the social media through the lens of information diffusion

Drawing on theories of acculturation and information diffusion, this paper examines whether social media usage, intergroup contacts and information dissemination influence the cultural adaptation of three ethnic groups, and its implications on sustainable consumption behaviour. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews containing multiple dimensions of social media uses, acculturation, food consumption behaviour, and information diffusion were administered to a sample of Indians (living in the home country), British Indians (living in the host country for more than 10 years) and White British (natives of Britain) users of social media. Our findings suggest that there is a clear link between the integrated strategy of acculturation and information diffusion on social media, which influences acculturation to sustainable food consumption behaviour among social media users. Managerial implications of this research finding are that intervention in information diffusion aids acculturation through the social media, which serves to infuse social media and sustainability strategist with knowledge to best influence the consumers in developing sustainable food consumption behaviour. This research also identifies opportunities to expand this academic research and contribute further to the theories of remote acculturation on which limited research has been done

Stressogenicity of Media Noise in the Conditions of Background Media Consumption

The authors of the paper present for the first time the concept of media noise in the living space of modern children; they also introduce the concept of media noise as forced media consumption in a background (backdrop) format, and consumption in parallel with the main activity (foreground). The stressful effect of the operation of screens and players in the background on people in this space, and the impact of the inclusion of children in a continuous media stream are assessed. It is noted that pervasive media increase the potential of psycho-emotional impact through trance methods of exposure affecting the cognitive, affective and behavioural sphere of individuals, and this forces them to consume information, burden the information space of children, and qualitatively change the social situation of their development. The paper presents the findings concerning pilot studies of the media noise phenomenon and the state of media noise. The existence of a relationship between various parameters of forced background media consumption is shown; the main situations of background media consumption, as well as the reasons for the independent media noise initiation and its duration, are given. The aggravated negative impact of background media consumption in connection with the new life realities of mankind during the period of total immersion in the media space is noted; the last is caused by the need for social distance

Media Knowledge Consumers Protection

Complex and interdisciplinary researches demonstrate today, more powerful than ever, that we live in a knowledge-based society, a society in which the production, distribution and consumption of knowledge are fundamental processes. Land, labor and capital, the production factors that characterized previous societies, have been replaced in the macroeconomic indicators hierarchies by intellectual capital. Knowledge-based economy means not only the development of knowledge production and distribution, but also knowledge consumption. The new class of workers, the knowledge workers, signaled by Peter Drucker a few dcades ago, led to the development of a new class of consumers: knowledge consumers. From the wide class of knowledge consumers we will focus our attention on media knowledge consumers, respectively press and audiovisual media. The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the necessity of the conceptualization of this important class of consumers and to formulate a series of requirements for their protection. Having in mind the main purpose of this paper, we conducted a series of researches on two fundamental dimensions: a) the gathering of media information and knowledge from the most important newspapers and TV channels from Romania; b) the estimation of the degree of awareness of media knowledge consumers’ protection among members of the Romanian Parliament, members in change of legislating in our country. This paper presents the results of the first series of researches, on the two above mentioned dimensions.knowledge, knowledge consumers, consumers rights, media knowledge suppliers, knowledge consumers’ protection

Does Algorithmic Awareness Inculcate Mindful News Consumption in Social Media?

Social media curation algorithms can raise problems in terms of distortion of reality and mindless news consumption behaviors. This paper proposes algorithmic awareness as a plausible tool towards instilling mindful news consumption on social media platforms. Specifically, the paper investigates the effects of an Algorithmic Awareness (AA) intervention on 1) users perceived awareness about algorithmic curation and filter bubble effect and 2) news consumption behaviors in social media platforms. Based on concepts from information processing and mindfulness, we propose that imparting algorithmic awareness can coerce social media users to make more mindful decisions about whether to believe news posts and perform activities that contribute to their spread (e.g., read, share, fact check, customizing feed). To this end, we design an explanation-based intervention and propose to conduct a between subject’s online experiment

Friend Network as Gatekeeper: A Study of WeChat Users' Consumption of Friend-Curated Contents

Social media enables users to publish, disseminate, and access information easily. The downside is that it has fewer gatekeepers of what content is allowed to enter public circulation than the traditional media. In this paper, we present preliminary empirical findings from WeChat, a popular messaging app of the Chinese, indicating that social media users leverage their friend networks collectively as latent, dynamic gatekeepers for content consumption. Taking a mixed-methods approach, we analyze over seven million users' information consumption behaviors on WeChat and conduct an online survey of $216$ users. Both quantitative and qualitative evidence suggests that friend network indeed acts as a gatekeeper in social media. Shifting from what should be produced that gatekeepers used to decide, friend network helps separate the worthy from the unworthy for individual information consumption, and its structure and dynamics that play an important role in gatekeeping may inspire the future design of socio-technical systems