Browsing by Author "Mathrani, Anuradha"
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- ItemAnalysing underpinning patterns in social media posts that promote fat stigmatisation : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Information Technology, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand(Massey University, 2022) Wanniarachchi, Vajisha UdayangiSocial media offers users an online platform to freely express themselves; however, when users post opinionated and offensive comments that target certain communities, this could instigate hatred towards them. With the global increase in obese/fat populations, social media discourses laced with fat hatred have become commonplace, leading to much fat stigmatising content being posted online. This research aims to investigate the patterns of fat stigma, and how female and male genders are positioned in fat stigmatising discourses that are being conducted over social media. To achieve this objective, a methodological framework is proposed for unearthing underlying stigmatising patterns prevalent in social media discussions, with specific focus on fat stigma. Methods incorporating natural language processing techniques such as sentiment analysis and topic modelling, along with discourse analysis have been described for classifying users’ emotions and comprehending the stigma patterns embedded in social big data. The framework has been applied to weight-based textual data, extracted from Twitter and Reddit, to identify emergent gender-based themes, emotions and word frequency patterns that underpin the fat stigmatising content posted online. The experiential consequences of being considered fat across both genders have been analysed with objectification theory. The findings from this study have provided a holistic outlook on fat stigmatising content that is posted online which can further inform policymakers in planning suitable props to facilitate more inclusive social media spaces. This study showcases how lexical analytics can be conducted by combining a variety of data mining methods to draw out insightful subject related themes that add to the existing knowledge base; therefore, has both practical and theoretical implications.
- ItemImproving the robustness and privacy of HTTP cookie-based tracking systems within an affiliate marketing context : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand(Massey University, 2021) Amarasekara, Bede RavindraE-commerce activities provide a global reach for enterprises large and small. Third parties generate visitor traffic for a fee; through affiliate marketing, search engine marketing, keyword bidding and through organic search, amongst others. Therefore, improving the robustness of the underlying tracking and state management techniques is a vital requirement for the growth and stability of e-commerce. In an inherently stateless ecosystem such as the Internet, HTTP cookies have been the de-facto tracking vector for decades. In a previous study, the thesis author exposed circumstances under which cookie-based tracking system can fail, some due to technical glitches, others due to manipulations made for monetary gain by some fraudulent actors. Following a design science research paradigm, this research explores alternative tracking vectors discussed in previous research studies within a cross-domain tracking environment. It evaluates their efficacy within current context and demonstrates how to use them to improve the robustness of existing tracking techniques. Research outputs include methods, instantiations and a privacy model artefact based on information seeking behaviour of different categories of tracking software, and their resulting privacy intrusion levels. This privacy model provides clarity and is useful for practitioners and regulators to create regulatory frameworks that do not hinder technological advancement, rather they curtail privacy-intrusive tracking practices on the Internet. The method artefacts are instantiated as functional prototypes, available publicly on Internet, to demonstrate the efficacy and utility of the methods through live tests. The research contributes to the theoretical knowledge base through generalisation of empirical findings and to the industry by problem solving design artefacts.
- ItemKey success drivers in offshore software development : New Zealand and Indian vendors' perspectives : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Technology at Massey University, Albany campus, New Zealand(Massey University, 2009) Mathrani, AnuradhaOffshore software development (OSD) is a leading business sector in the present ‘glocal’ IT marketplace, and vendors in different countries are opening software development centres worldwide to take advantage of the new business opportunities. However, software development is both a technical and a social process as various software modules need to be integrated, which requires ongoing interaction between the stakeholders. The software modules rely upon local knowledge regarding customer wants, project specific features, chosen design methodologies by development team members and synchronisation of activities to confirm the next design iteration. This study focuses on knowledge sharing processes involving the interplay between acquiring local knowledge and applying the knowledge acquired into the design of the client-specific software builds. New knowledge is created as new processes are applied and new outcomes realised, resulting in re-definition of software development practices. Building on existing theories with empirical case study evidence, this research reveals the socio-technical influences on knowledge management in the OSD process. Ideographic research methods have been applied to bring sensitivity in the everyday organisational activities for knowledge sharing across diverse social and cultural groups within two country contexts (New Zealand and India). Empirical data from ten case studies is used to inductively develop a conceptual framework, which has been applied to make within case and cross case comparisons across three levels of analysis (micro, meso and macro) for knowledge sharing. The micro level analysis explores individual key success drivers (behaviours and methodologies), the meso level explores organisational level practices (work processes and structures) and the macro level gives a holistic evaluation across two country contexts. Country contexts reveal that New Zealand vendors share closer cultural proximity with their clients, are engaged in client facing skills and have further outsourced software development tasks to other low cost countries. The Indian vendors are involved in software construction, prefer technical specialist skills and have defined more discipline in their software development processes. The thesis offers new insights on how vendors’ shape their software development styles based upon their beliefs and understanding of the offshore market and is especially relevant to both vendors and clients who intend venturing into the offshore market.