Twitter Engagement in Media Organizations: The Case of the Greek National Broadcasting Corporation

A key parameter in the strategy of news organizations remains the exploitation of factors (such as post time and post type) that enhance the engagement level within online communities on social media. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between post time and post type in correlation with audience response in the Twitter digital platform. Specifically, the study aims to ascertain how the two specific variables affect user engagement with its Twitter posts and how they shape the effectiveness of communication on social networks. The analysis includes 7.122 tweets of the Greek National Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) over four months. Moreover, the study analyzes the tone of user comments on the Twitter posts of the specific public media organizations to understand in-depth how the users communicate their views publicly. The collection of comments lasted seven weeks and they numbered 265 in 2639 tweets. Regarding the post time variable, the study came to important findings on user behavior during the 24 h, as the number of Retweets appears to increase in the morning compared to the afternoon. It was also found that as time goes on, the user is interested in leaving his personal opinion. Regarding the correlation of post type with user engagement, it was found that the accompaniment of a tweet with audiovisual material has a tempting effect on users.

Demosthenes and Philip’s Death

This paper aims to analyse the episode about Demosthenes’ reaction to Philips’ death both in Aeschines and Plutarch, comparing persuasive devices used by each writer when searching for the audience response that each of them wants. Firstly, we will verify the rhetorical strategies from forensic oratory that Aeschines uses in Against Ctesiphon to portray Demosthenes as a threat to community welfare. Finally, we will emphasise epideictic techniques in the Life of Demosthenes, which allow Plutarch to show a much more favourable image of Demosthenes than Aeschines does.

Effects of Gamification on the Benefits of Student Response Systems in Learning of Human Anatomy: Three Experimental Studies

This paper presents three experiments to assess the impact of gamifying an audience response system on the perceptions and educational performance of students. An audience response system called SIDRA (Immediate Audience Response System in Spanish) and two audience response systems with gamification features, R-G-SIDRA (gamified SIDRA with ranking) and RB-G-SIDRA (gamified SIDRA with ranking and badges), were used in a General and Descriptive Human Anatomy course. Students participated in an empirical study. In the academic year 2019–2020, a total of 90 students used RB-G-SIDRA, 90 students employed R-G-SIDRA in the academic year 2018–2019, and 92 students used SIDRA in the academic year 2017–2018. Statistically significant differences were found between final exam grades obtained by using RB-G-SIDRA and SIDRA, U = 39.211 adjusted p = 0.001 and RB-G-SIDRA and R-G-SIDRA U = 31.157 adjusted p = 0.015, thus finding strong evidence with respect to the benefit of the badges used in RB-G-SIDRA. Moreover, in the students’ SIDRA systems scores, statistically significant differences were found between RB-G-SIDRA and SIDRA, U = −90.521 adjusted p < 0.001, and between R-G-SIDRA and SIDRA, U = −87.998 adjusted p < 0.001. Significant correlations between individual and team scores were also found in all of the tests in RB-G-SIDRA and G-SIDRA. The students expressed satisfaction, engagement, and motivation with SIDRA, R-G-SIDRA, and RB-G-SIDRA, thus obtaining a final average assessment of 4.28, 4.61, and 4.47 out of 5, respectively. Students perform better academically with gamified versus non-gamified audience response systems. Findings can be used to build a gamified adaptive learning system.

Torn Between Boundaries: Bodies-in-Pain, Christianity and Feature Film

<p>The central argument of this dissertation, contrary to the secularisation thesis which predicts the decline of Christianity, is that Christian-inspired values tacitly influence embodied experience. Crossing disciplinary boundaries, various theoretical perspectives and empirical studies, the case of bodies-in-pain is used as the focus for empirical analysis. This study draws heavily on Mellor and Shilling's (1997) ideal-type analysis of Medieval Catholic and early Modern Protestant forms of embodied sociality and knowledge to produce an original model of bodies-in-pain. This model is then used as a comparative heuristic tool to assess to what extent bodies-in-pain can be identified as communicating meaning in the 'reel world' of fiction films. Three films that on the surface do not appear to have explicit Christian motivation are chosen for detailed examination. These are: Se7en (1995), Minority Report (2002) and Cape Fear (1991). The final chapter relates the bodies-in-pain models to a pre-existing audience response study focused on Cronenberg's film Crash (1996) to indicate what it is about the body that allows it to be depicted and constructed in certain ways. Overall this dissertation departs from the idea that Christianity must be at odds with secular society, instead, secularisation is reframed as a catalyst for social change that does not mean the end of Christian influence in society. In light of this, I claim Christianity remains socially and institutionally significant for contemporary Western people and the way in which they make sense of the body.</p>

Torn Between Boundaries: Bodies-in-Pain, Christianity and Feature Film

<p>The central argument of this dissertation, contrary to the secularisation thesis which predicts the decline of Christianity, is that Christian-inspired values tacitly influence embodied experience. Crossing disciplinary boundaries, various theoretical perspectives and empirical studies, the case of bodies-in-pain is used as the focus for empirical analysis. This study draws heavily on Mellor and Shilling's (1997) ideal-type analysis of Medieval Catholic and early Modern Protestant forms of embodied sociality and knowledge to produce an original model of bodies-in-pain. This model is then used as a comparative heuristic tool to assess to what extent bodies-in-pain can be identified as communicating meaning in the 'reel world' of fiction films. Three films that on the surface do not appear to have explicit Christian motivation are chosen for detailed examination. These are: Se7en (1995), Minority Report (2002) and Cape Fear (1991). The final chapter relates the bodies-in-pain models to a pre-existing audience response study focused on Cronenberg's film Crash (1996) to indicate what it is about the body that allows it to be depicted and constructed in certain ways. Overall this dissertation departs from the idea that Christianity must be at odds with secular society, instead, secularisation is reframed as a catalyst for social change that does not mean the end of Christian influence in society. In light of this, I claim Christianity remains socially and institutionally significant for contemporary Western people and the way in which they make sense of the body.</p>

Formal Organization and Complex Responses to Video Games Narratives

The application of complex systems theories to the study of narratives proved able to offer a high heuristic value for the analysis of movies [24,26], TV series [35,36], music [45] and different other media with narrative capacity [cf. 20]. However, they were not yet thoroughly employed for the study of video game narratives. To address the relation between formal complexity and the complexity of response in video games, this paper conducts a contrastive analysis of two games of the Halo series, namely Halo 3 [6] and Halo 3 ODST [7]. Formal complexity is analyzed by applying Cutting's [13] approach for counting (narratorial) complexity. The evaluation of the responses to the narratives of these games is based on crowdsourced data, through Hven's [24] and Kiss and Willemsen's [26] understanding of audience response. The findings reveal that a complex response is at least partly predictable through an analysis of the formal quantitative and qualitative/organizational aspects of narratives, and, ultimately, that narrative complexity is a factor in the appreciation of games by the audience. The paper also poses the basis for the identification of a "Goldilocks level of complexity', which can maximize the appreciation of video games stories.