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(1 - 8 of 8)
Korea's Environmental Sustainability Leadership in East Asia and Beyond
Title
Korea's Environmental Sustainability Leadership in East Asia and Beyond
Creator
Shapiro, Matthew A.
Date
2013, 2009
Challenge to the Pollution Haven Hypothesis: A Study of Northeast Asia and China
Title
Challenge to the Pollution Haven Hypothesis: A Study of Northeast Asia and China
Creator
Shapiro, Matthew A.
Date
2013, 2013
Description
This paper explores the phenomena of environmental coordination within Northeast Asia. I initially frame the discussion around claims that...
Show moreThis paper explores the phenomena of environmental coordination within Northeast Asia. I initially frame the discussion around claims that China is a pollution haven for its neighboring countries, and I look for evidence in the domestic and regional environmental institutions which challenge China’s pollution haven status. I find that that there is a science and technology-based epistemic community in Northeast Asia which provides an important theoretical response to counter the pollution haven hypothesis. As well, given its strong science and technological output, Japan is poised to assume leadership of the Northeast Asian environmental regime for at least the short- to medium-term.
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Doing What Others Do: Norms, Science, and Collective Action on Global Warming
Title
Doing What Others Do: Norms, Science, and Collective Action on Global Warming
Creator
Shapiro, Matthew A.
Date
2013, 2013
Description
Does rhetoric highlighting social norms or mentioning science in a communication affect individuals’ beliefs about global warming and / or...
Show moreDoes rhetoric highlighting social norms or mentioning science in a communication affect individuals’ beliefs about global warming and / or willingness to take action? We draw from framing theory and collective-interest models of action to motivate hypotheses that are tested in two large web-based survey-experiments using convenience samples. Our results show that attitudes about global warming, support for policies that would reduce carbon emissions, and behavioral intentions to take voluntary action are strongly affected by norm-based and science-based interventions. This has implications for information campaigns targeting voluntary efforts to promote lifestyle changes that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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Relationships Among Twitter Conversation Networks, Language Use, and Congressional Voting
Title
Relationships Among Twitter Conversation Networks, Language Use, and Congressional Voting
Creator
Hemphill, Libby, Otterbacher, Jahna, Shapiro, Matthew A.
Date
2012-12-20, 2012
Description
As Twitter becomes a more common means for officials to communicate with their constituents, it becomes more important that we understand just...
Show moreAs Twitter becomes a more common means for officials to communicate with their constituents, it becomes more important that we understand just how that communication relates to other political activities. Using data from 411 members of Congress' Twitter activity during the summer of 2011, we examine relationships among the resulting conversation networks, language use, and political behavior. The social networks that result from their communications have surprisingly low density and high diameter, indicating a level of independence that is surprising for a group so tightly connected offline. Our findings also indicate that officials frequently use Twitter to advertise their political positions and to provide information but rarely to request political action from their constituents or to recognize the good work of others. Our analysis suggests strong relationships between anti-social behaviors indicated by the loosely connected network and low incidence of pro-social conversations and polarized or extreme Congressional voting records.
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What's Congress Doing on Twitter?
Title
What's Congress Doing on Twitter?
Creator
Hemphill, Libby, Otterbacher, Jahna, Shapiro, Matthew A.
Date
2013-10-23, 2012-10-23
Description
As Twitter becomes a more common means for officials to communicate with their constituents, it becomes more important that we understand how...
Show moreAs Twitter becomes a more common means for officials to communicate with their constituents, it becomes more important that we understand how officials use these communication tools. Using data from 380 members of Congress’ Twitter activity during the winter of 2012, we find that officials frequently use Twitter to advertise their political positions and to provide information but rarely to request political action from their constituents or to recognize the good work of others. We highlight a number of differences in communication frequency between men and women, Senators and Representatives, Republicans and Democrats. We provide groundwork for future research examining the behavior of public officials online and testing the predictive power of officials’ social media behavior.
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Chicago Politicians on Twitter
Title
Chicago Politicians on Twitter
Creator
Hemphill, Libby, Shapiro, Matthew A., Otterbacher, Jahna
Date
2012-03-12, 2012-03-12
Description
This paper uses data from 1,042 tweets posted by or mentioning Chicago Aldermen or Mayor Rahm Emanuel to examine how Chicago politicians use...
Show moreThis paper uses data from 1,042 tweets posted by or mentioning Chicago Aldermen or Mayor Rahm Emanuel to examine how Chicago politicians use social media. Twitter provides a public communication medium in which constituents and their representatives can have two-way conversations that others can witness and record, and we used qualitative and social network methods to examine conversations between Chicagoans and representatives in city government. We coded the contents of each tweet over the two-week time period (e.g., official business, fundraising) and created representations of the social networks created by the users’ following behaviors. These networks indicate who receives politicians’ tweets and help identify the audiences for political messaging in social media. Our analysis indicates that Chicago’s Aldermen and Mayor use Twitter for social conversations more often than political ones, and that only a small number of Aldermen dominate the resulting conversation networks.
Sponsorship: Social Network Research Group at IIT, IIT Graduate College
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Tweeting Vertically? Elected Officials’ Interactions with Citizens on Twitter
Title
Tweeting Vertically? Elected Officials’ Interactions with Citizens on Twitter
Creator
Otterbacher, Jahna, Shapiro, Matthew A., Hemphill, Libby
Date
2012-12-05, 2012
Description
Enthusiasts propose that social media promotes vertical political communication, giving citizens the opportunity to interact directly with...
Show moreEnthusiasts propose that social media promotes vertical political communication, giving citizens the opportunity to interact directly with their representatives. However, skeptics claim that politicians avoid direct engagement with constituents, using technology to present a façade of interactivity instead. This study explores if and how elected officials in three regions of the world are using Twitter to interact with the public. We examine the Twitter activity of 15 officials over a period of six months. We show that in addition to the structural features of Twitter that are designed to promote interaction, officials rely on language to foster or to avoid engagement. It also provides yet more evidence that the existence of interactive features does not guarantee interactivity.
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Doing What I Say: Connecting Congressional Social Media Behavior and Congressional Voting
Title
Doing What I Say: Connecting Congressional Social Media Behavior and Congressional Voting
Creator
Shapiro, Matthew A., Hemphill, Libby, Otterbacher, Jahna
Date
2012-03-10, 2012-03-10
Description
Public officials’ communication has been explored at length in terms of how such their statements are conveyed in the traditional media, but...
Show morePublic officials’ communication has been explored at length in terms of how such their statements are conveyed in the traditional media, but minimal research has been done to examine their communication via social media. This paper explores the kinds of statements U.S. officials are making on Twitter in terms of the actions they are trying to achieve. We then analyze the correlation between these statements, Congressional communication network structures, and voting behavior. Our analysis leverages over 29,000 tweets by members of Congress in conjunction with existing DW-NOMINATE voting behavior data. We find that pro-social and self-promoting statements correlate with Congressional voting records but that position within the Congressional communication network does not correlate with voting behavior.
Sponsorship: Social Networks Research Group at IIT, IIT Graduate College
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