Thesis Ph. D. Michigan State University. Communication Arts and Sciences – Media and Information Studies 2012.

This dissertation participates in the grand debate on whether ideas or technology change social structures that affect the lives of individuals. At its broadest and based on its findings, this dissertation makes the argument that neither ideas nor technology takes precedence. While technology can drive economic and social changes, it cannot do so in the absence of human agency. Insofar as technology drives social change, it does so by amplifying human intent and capacity. Through an examination of mobile phone use by 335 female microentrepreneurs in Chennai, India, this dissertation found that: (1) microentrepreneurs who are highly motivated to grow their businesses experience higher business growth, demonstrating a fairly strong link between attitudes and desired outcomes; (2) business growth is a function of both the use of mobile phones for business processes and the entrepreneurial intent to grow one's business; (3) the economic consequences of mobile phones use may sometimes be over-estimated by the users themselves; and (4) the social use of mobile phones may have a social development outcome in that female microentrepreneurs who use mobile phones for social purposes more frequently also reported a greater sense of self-worth. This dissertation also contributes to the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) field by introducing and testing the concept of mattering, a construct that measures self-perception of how significant one is to others. The generalizability of the findings in this dissertation is limited in part by the cross-sectional survey method that was used to collect the data. While claims of causality are made, they should be verified through longitudinal data and can be tested using more powerful statistical procedures. The generalizability of the findings are also limited to historic time and to Chennai, India, home of female microentrepreneurs with their own set of personal and business characteristics. Policy recommendations arising from the findings are also made.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF t.p. (ProQuest, viewed Mar. 15, 2013)

Thesis Ph. D. Michigan State University. Media and Information Studies 2013.

Online communities support extensive interactions among their members. Membership in most of these communities is voluntary, content supplied by other members is typically a primary attractant to new members, and barriers to admission and exit are minimal (Lampe, 2009; Lampe, 2010). For a community to thrive, it is necessary that members remain active in the community and continue to interact with others. Given that sustaining a solid base of active long-term members is critical to the sustainability of an online community, it is important that factors that contribute to the length of active membership are identified. Addressing certain limitations of prior studies, this dissertation examines key factors such as rate of participation, rate of feedback received, early participation and early feedback received that may influence the length of time members stay active in a community. A mixed method approach that included server log analyses for two online communities, Everything2 and Sploder, and qualitative interviews with members of Everything2, was used to study how these factors are related to how long members remain active in a community. A Cox proportional hazard rate model and a Granger causality test were employed to analyze the server log data. The results suggest that certain types of early participation (first post submitted in Sploder and first post and first message submitted in Everything2) and certain type of early feedback received (deletion of post in Sploder and first positive and negative vote and deletion of first post in Everything2) are significant predictors of how long a member remains active in Sploder and Everything2. A member's average rate of participation (writeups, votes given, and messages sent) in Everything2 is positively correlated with length of active membership, but not in Sploder. The rate of feedback received is not significantly correlated in either community. It is well-known that correlational evidence is not dispositive proof of a causal link. Therefore, the relationships between the dependent variable and the independent variables identified by the Cox Proportional Hazard Rate model are further examined using a Granger causality test, with which time series data can be employed for a more rigorous test of causality. The results showed no causality between rate of participation and the length of time a member remains active in a community. Findings from the quantitative studies are expanded on, based on interviews with long-term members in the community. These results show that the factors contributing to length of active membership may vary among online communities. While some results may generalize to other communities if the communities are similar enough, not all results do generalize. The findings also suggest that early negative feedback has a strong negative impact on how long a member will remain active in an online community, as both Everything2 and Sploder had a significant negative…

Thesis Ph. D. Michigan State University. Media and Information Studies 2014.

Over the last decade, mobile communication has become increasingly available, affordable and accessible even to the poor and disadvantaged at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) in developing countries. This unprecedented connectivity at the BOP introduces not only an untapped group of media users for communication researchers, but also a new hope among development practitioners of fostering social change through innovative mobile-based intervention services. Despite the mounting interest, however, little is known about how individuals at the BOP adopt and use mobile phones. This dissertation investigates the factors influencing mobile use behaviors at the BOP in South Asia, with a particular interest in their motivational drives behind the utilization of mobile phones for services other than voice calls. Guided by the well-established technology adoption theories, including the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the dissertation examines the cognitive process behind mobile use involving technological utility (perceived usefulness), social influence (subjective norms) and contextual conditions (perceived behavioral control). The study also extends the model with multiple antecedents addressing `what makes a mobile useful' and `what contributes to the enabling conditions' pertinent to the context of the BOP users. Furthermore, pointing out the limitations of the adoption theories in their tendency to overlook socio-demographic effects, the dissertation examines whether and where such demographic effects intervene in the motivational process. Based on a large-scale multi-country random survey conducted in South Asia by LIRNEasia (N=4,023), the dissertation empirically validates the proposed model using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). It also takes a novel approach to define a multi-dimensional effect of socio-demographic factors using a two-step cluster analysis method and compares the path differences between the sub-groups. In addition, it provides a supplementary analysis to explore the moderating role of mobile efficacy in the actualization of the behavioral intention to mobile use behavior. The dissertation finds that, first, the western-oriented technology adoption theories successfully explain the formation of behavioral intentions (BI), but they fail to explain the full process of the actualization of behavioral intentions that lead to more-than-voice mobile use among the BOP owners. Second, socio-demographic factors partially moderate the degree of different effects of the motivational factors, indicating that the poor is not a homogenous mass and there exist considerable differences in their cognitive evaluations relating to their socio-demographic conditions. Third, in exploring the additional factors affecting the behavioral intentions to behavior path, the study suggests a tentative finding on the interaction effect of mobile efficacy and behavioral intention on the actualization of BI among…

In recent years, attempts by Muslims all across the U.S. to build worship spaces have been met with opposition. Some opponents questioned whether Islam should be considered a religion afforded all the protections of the First Amendment, or whether it is a sinister ideology that posed a threat to American values and should therefore be opposed. Supporters, on the other hand, argued that protecting the rights of Muslims to worship freely is a validation of important American principles. This debate played out in news coverage of the issue.This dissertation examines the discourse in the debate through a framing analysis of news articles and editorials (n=349) from five U.S. newspapers between 2010 and 2013. Framing is the selection and emphasis of certain problem definitions, causal attributions, moral evaluations, and treatment recommendations in discussion of an issue. This research makes a contribution to framing theory by using Moral Foundations Theory to improve the operationalization of the moral evaluation dimension of framing. A cluster analysis of moral foundations was conducted, which four moral foundation profiles, all of which were strongly rooted in socially binding moral foundations. Those moral foundation variables were subsequently incorporated into a full framing analysis. A cluster analysis of all the framing components revealed five frames: Local Regulation, Political Debate, Muslim Neighbors, Islamic Threat, and Legal Authority. A subsequent qualitative analysis validated that these five frames encompassed the bulk of the debate.

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