$1.00 per RT #BostonMarathon #PrayForBoston: analyzing fake content on Twitter

This study found that 29% of the most viral content on Twitter during the Boston bombing crisis were rumors and fake content.AbstractOnline social media has emerged as one of the prominent channels for dissemination of information during real world events. Malicious content is posted online during events, which can result in damage, chaos and monetary losses in the real world. We analyzed one such media i.e. Twitter, for content generated during the event of Boston Marathon Blasts, that occurred on April, 15th, 2013. A lot of fake content and malicious profiles originated on Twitter network during this event. The aim of this work is to perform in-depth characterization of what factors influenced in malicious content and profiles becoming viral. Our results showed that 29% of the most viral content on Twitter, during the Boston crisis were rumors and fake content; while 51% was generic opinions and comments; and rest was true information. We found that large number of users with high social reputation and verified accounts were responsible for spreading the fake content. Next, we used regression prediction model, to verify that, overall impact of all users who propagate the fake content at a given time, can be used to estimate the growth of that content in future. Many malicious accounts were created on Twitter during the Boston event, that were later suspended by Twitter. We identified over six thousand such user profiles, we observed that the creation of such profiles surged considerably right after the blasts occurred. We identified closed community structure and star formation in the interaction network of these suspended profiles amongst themselves

Influence of leaders' loneliness on voice-taking : the role of social self-efficacy and performance pressure

This paper attempts to unlock how and when leaders’ loneliness influences their voice-taking behavior in the workplace by integrating the regulatory loop model of loneliness and the affect theory of social exchange. Through collecting a daily diary study of 87 paired leader-follower samples from two electronics industry companies based in Guangzhou, China, this study finds that (1) leaders’ loneliness has a significant negative impact on social self-efficacy and voice-taking behavior; (2) leaders’ social self-efficacy mediates the relationship between their loneliness and voice-taking behavior; (3) performance pressure moderates the relationship between leaders’ loneliness and voice-taking behavior; and, (4) the indirect effect between leaders’ loneliness and voice-taking behavior (through social self-efficacy) becomes stronger when performance pressure is higher. Therefore, this study provides some practical implications on: (1) how to provide a series of loneliness interventions to address loneliness in all areas of life; and, (2) how to establish an internal culture or atmosphere within the organization to encourage leaders to adopt followers’ suggestions for improvement

Requests in Brazilian Portuguese : new theoretical and methodological approaches in interlanguage pragmatics

Abstract unavailable please refer to PD

Transformational Leadership and Moral Discourse in the Workplace and Civil Society

This study was grounded in the theory and practice of transformational leadership, where leaders function as moral agents of change as they facilitate values talk (moral discourse) among their constituents. The study took its cue from Rost\u27s call for a new paradigm for leadership ethics that calls for methods of group moral decision making to assess organizational and social ends. The inquiry sought to better understand how leaders engage others in moral conversation and how such processes influence organizational culture and democratic civil society. The methodology was qualitative and phenomenological as it was centered on leaders\u27 perceptions of their experiences in diverse organizational settings across public, private, and social sectors. Data was collected through focus groups and individual interviews and analyzed through the constant comparative method. Data was also interpreted within the socio-political context of a communitarian worldview that postures moral discourse as a means to identify shared values that build social capital and sustain the common good. Other theoretical contexts draw from discourse ethics, adult critical pedagogy, and moral development. The findings of the study put forth a typology of moral discourse framed in categories that include: conversational venues, individual and social impediments to the conversation, communicative dynamics that stimulate the conversation, speech actions, speech styles, functions of moral discourse, and specific leader practices that advance the conversation. Implications for practice in the workplace are framed in areas of organizational development and business ethics. Other implications are considered for the practice of democratic deliberation

Openness Disposition: readiness characteristics that influence participant benefits from scenario planning as strategic conversation

In this paper we examine the impact of participant readiness to engage with, perform and benefit from scenario planning processes. Central to our examination is the concept of ‘openness disposition’, which in the context of scenario planning refers to the tendency to seek either to hold open ambiguity, complexity and uncertainty, or look for closure, simplification and surety when engaging in strategic conversations. Readiness indicates the capacity of individuals and collectives to work with competing narratives, dilemmas, tensions and differences of opinion, as may occur in scenario work. A focus on readiness through openness disposition enables critical evaluation of the utility of scenario planning to different individuals and groups based on their capacity to engage with equivocality during structured, exploratory strategic conversations. Based on findings emerging from a longitudinal field study with ProRail N.V. Holland, we empirically identify three characteristics of participant readiness, which are theorised to extend understanding of how individuals and groups might engage in, cope and benefit from, scenario planning processes

Notions of impoliteness at the Argentinian workplace. Representations and evaluations from users and learners of EFL for business purposes

Treball Final de Màster Universitari en Ensenyament i Adquisició de la Llengua Anglesa en Contextos Multilingües. Codi: SAY531. Curs acadèmic: 2011-2012Despite some attention given to the teaching of politeness phenomena from a non-universalistic view (Brown, 2010; Cashman, 2006; Meier, 1997; Nurmukhamedov & Kim, 2010; Sharifian, 2008; Uso-Juan & Martinez-Flor, 2007), impoliteness has largely been ignored by both teachers and researchers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) (Mugford, 2008, 2009). This is particularly true in the area of English for Business Purposes (BP), where the understanding of cross-cultural variation in the perception of impoliteness is but starting (Culpeper, Crawshaw, & Harrison, 2008; Culpeper, Marti, Mei, Nevala, & Schauer, 2010). Given such state-of-the-art, I contribute to this area by researching first-order notions of impoliteness (Watts, 2003) as it emerges from Argentinian users and learners of EFL-BP when exchanging emails with U.S. American employees in workplace contexts. From a natural corpus of emails, I select two syndicated conflictive email sequences (words=939) as the basis for the design of research instruments. These involve a questionnaire and a discourse completion test to Argentinian participants (n=22), as well as a semi-structured interview to U.S. American interviewees (n=10). Argentinian participants characterize impoliteness through features referring to aggressiveness, imperativeness, inappropriateness, inconsiderateness, heedlessness, unfairness, and evasiveness, while U.S. Americans referred to interrupting, tardiness, and uncooperativeness. Initial pedagogic implications for the teaching of impoliteness are derived from these results

Understanding Esports Teamplay as an Emergent Choreography

We, as analysts and researchers of game play, may be overlooking important aspects of players’ actions that may help us understand the interconnectedness of interactional resources, such as body, gaze, talk and avatar actions, in players’ gaming experiences. Players, from their perspective, do not necessarily concern themselves with making distinctions between, for example, off-screen and on-screen actions at all. They employ all, and whatever, interactional resources that are available to them to play together as a team. This may become especially salient in multiplayer esports games where players are geographically dispersed. This study analyses several Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) matches being played by esports teams, in an attempt to, from an ethnomethodological (EM) participant perspective, understand how teams coordinate, or choreograph, their game play as part of larger sequences of situationally emergent tactics. We incorporate an understanding of expanded choreography developed within the field of dance and draw on the structural possibilities of choreography, seeking to understand the actions, collaboration, and coordination in the players’ game play through analyzing interactional resources and movement qualities enacted when playing. Understanding individual players’ actions and team actions as part of a larger, emergent, choreography may help us to better realize how esports players in a team, intersubjectively, construct a ’mental map’ of current and next actions, which affect their own (individual) current and next actions

Testing How to Form a Learning Community Where Pastors Develop Habits for Increased Missional Influence

The purpose of this project was to test whether creating a short term learning group with pastoral leaders around simple practices of neighborhood engagement would lead to any shifts in priorities or weekly habits. The assumption was that most pastors of recognized churches in West Michigan take a chaplaincy approach to leadership, using work hours to prepare for worship gatherings, provide congregational care, and manage established programs. The thesis was that a time-limited commitment to specific practices and mutual learning would allow participants to gain new insights about their personal contexts and move toward a different set of leadership behaviors such as modeling hospitality and training others for neighborhood involvement. Over seven months’ time, eight seminary-trained leaders living in distinct neighborhoods and representing five denominations went on a shared journey to explore whether increasing their own neighborhood presence was sustainable or linked in any way to organizational influence. Participants, with approval of their church councils, were asked to devote six hours a week to “good neighbor” activities. They also agreed to take part in two one-day retreats, attend at least three monthly roundtables, and read two recommended books. The assumption and thesis were examined by comparing early and late reflection papers, responses to two similarly constructed interviews, and scores from a time management assessment tool. This paper demonstrates that group members remained challenged by internal expectations of clergy, even as hopes for other possibilities were renewed. It affirms heightened awareness for each participant and greater potential for engaging congregational systems with missional imagination. However, it also acknowledges the limited behavioral impact of this approach and offers an assessment of contributing factors. A more comprehensive strategy is proposed for future learning communities that help shift leadership priorities. Throughout, interpretive links are made to larger social, historical, and theological narratives. Content Reader: Alan J. Roxburgh, DMi

Ready, willing, and able – establishing the mission essentials for Air Force chaplains

Effective spiritual care is difficult to define and evaluate objectively. As chaplains and Religious Support Teams endeavor to provide care in the highly mission-focused and objective-driven context of the United States military, this difficulty becomes uniquely problematic. The author demonstrates this reality using an exemplar Air Force Reserve chapel team as a case study. Blending transformational leadership, situational leadership, and John Kotter’s change model, the author constructs a vision for change culminating in a base level Operating Instruction that offers specific objectives, measurable tasks, and qualification metrics. Alongside this instruction, he crafts an Implementation Strategy designed to strategically inspire and motivate teams toward change. In doing so, he provides a path forward to allow chaplains to not only evaluate ministry effectiveness but also enhance communication with leaders at the base level and up into the highest levels of the Department of Defense

A discursive analysis of politeness in Love Actually

This dissertation endeavors to describe politeness theory – depicting its characteristics, defining their strategies and illustrating those with examples – to show the importance politeness has in everyday-life conversations. To this end, Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987) is used to justify the definition of politeness strategies, providing the initial classification for the analysis to be done. These theoretical definitions are illustrated with the examples of speech taken from the script of Love Actually, which provides the communicative acts’ cases. Then, the characterization of the movie’s characters is explained through the different politeness examples found in the analysis so as to highlight the importance of politeness in our communicative performances.Esta disertación intenta explicar la teoría de la cortesía – describiendo sus características, definiendo sus estrategias e ilustrándose con ejemplos – para demostrar su importancia en las conversaciones de nuestro día a día. Para ello, la teoría de la cortesía de Brown y Levinson (1987) se usa para justificar la definición de las estrategias de cortesía, otorgando la clasificación inicial para el posterior análisis realizado. Estas definiciones teóricas han sido relacionadas con los diálogos encontrados en el guión de la película Love Actually, que proporciona los casos de actos comunicativos. Después, se explica la caracterización de los personajes de la película a través de los ejemplos de esta estrategia comunicativa encontrados en el análisis para ensalzar la importancia de la misma en nuestros actos comunicativos cotidianos.Departamento de Filología InglesaGrado en Estudios Inglese