Erasmus University Thesis Repository
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AI-Driven Voice-to-Text in Maritime Operations: Unveiling Efficiency Gains and Cognitive Relief for Seafarers
No full textExploring the Impact of Metaverse Expansion on NFT Valuation: An Event Study of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Otherdeed Launch
No full textBinary's Metamorphosis: Seeing through gender representations in Luxury Masstige Perfume Brands' Social Media Storytelling.
No full textWhen navigating the social media platforms of luxury perfume brands, it is evident that these brands rely on storytelling as well as the adoption of celebrity endorsers and influencers for their campaigns and promotional strategies. In a societal and cultural context where the issue of binary versus fluid representations is of significant importance, as advertisements and campaigns are institutions that shape common beliefs, the question of how luxury perfume brands are interpreting gender in their social media storytelling emerges. Consequently, after detecting and exposing how gender is portrayed, the question of how these representations intersect with contemporary perceptions of gender and cultural values arises. Through the use of semiotics for Visual Analysis and of Critical Discourse Analysis tools for Textual Analysis, 150 posts from the Instagram accounts of luxury perfume brands were sampled and analyzed to extract concrete and real-time evidence, thereby defining the aforementioned portrayals. The main findings suggest that the storytelling approach of these brands is persistently heteronormative, with few instances of fluid representations, which are mainly mediated by the use of community-driven storytelling or by the adoption of queer endorsers. However, there were variations in the heteronormative representations between stereotypical and non-conventional portrayals of women, as the latter emphasized androgynous style codes as well as female empowerment, liberation, and self-love. Regarding the more fluid representations, it is argued that they were partly manifested through the integration of non-binary personas, the concept of community, the use of non-binary lexical marks, or the use of concepts abstractly, while lacking gendered lexical nuances altogether. It is therefore suggested that, ultimately, some brands like Dolce & Gabbana and Dior continue to reproduce sexual representations of gender identities and roles based on a binary framework. In contrast, other brands appear more progressive through the ownership of female empowerment. Nevertheless, instances of gender fluidity are rather limited, particularly in the context of textual storytelling rather than visual storytelling
Prescribing Sustainability
No full textWithin The Netherlands, the healthcare industry is responsible for 7.3 percent of the national
climate change footprint. Within a hospital, the procurement of medicines is a significant
contributor to a hospital’s carbon footprint. This illustrates there is much to win in the reduction
of the carbon footprint associated with the procurement of medicine. This thesis explores how
economic, environmental, and social sustainability can be integrated into the procurement of
medicine for the purchasing group of Dutch academic hospitals (UMCPG) to ultimately decrease
this footprint. Recently, the UMCPG introduced a Pilot Supplier Questionnaire (PSQ) including
sustainability criteria as a tool to achieve a more sustainable supplier selection process. Semistructured interviews with both purchasers and suppliers revealed key challenges in the PSQ and
corresponding tendering process. Findings on the PSQ reveal a lack of understanding about the
goal and context of the PQ and its questions, the need for transparency about the outcome of the
tender, the need for objectivity in the evaluation of the PSQ, and the desire for a uniform supplier
questionnaire across purchasing parties. Findings on the tendering process reveal the
complexities of the PSC that impact both parties like drastic medicine shortages, price
competition, keeping general healthcare costs low, ensuring high patient safety, and the price
tag of sustainability. The theoretical foundation of this thesis builds upon the Theory of Planned
Behaviour for green procurement behaviour. Findings reveal that purchasers’ have a positive
attitude towards sustainability and green procurement, work-related stakeholders convey the
norm for keeping medicine procurement costs low, the sense of behavioural control is biggest as
being part of the UMCPG rather than on individual level, and the intention to engage in green
procurement is generally positive like the purchasers’ attitude. Based on the findings, the
following solutions are designed for the UMCPG: 1) a renewed supplier questionnaire (TSQ)
including categories, 2) a decision hierarchy, 3) ‘rebranding’ the procurement process, 4) a
recommendation for tender transparency, and 5) suggestions for improving the TSQ including
example question types and directions for moving towards a uniform TSQ across purchasing
parties. Social sustainability criteria were eventually excluded in the TSQ design, since too little
information was gathered on social sustainability during the interview
The Importance of Keeping it Real
No full textToday's world of media is more saturated than ever, as companies' online presence is becoming of increased importance. However, only so much space exists in the already overcrowded minds of young adults. Brands are continuously contesting for the attention of adolescents. As a result, young consumers have created a mechanism to protect themselves from the significant quantity of persuasion attempts every day. Brands have started producing Branded entertainment (BE) in order to provide consumers with real value, hoping to achieve brand resonance and loyalty in return, as opposed to direct sales. This works most effectively when employing a resonant authentic narrative. This study aims to answer the research question: "How do adolescents (18-25) perceive the authenticity of Gymshark's branded entertainment? It will attempt to do so by conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews in order to fully grasp what authenticity means to consumers. Subsequently, a thematic analysis will be conducted in order to formulate multiple patterns that emerged from the large quantity of data. The first theme displayed the significance of the main premise of BE, which is providing genuine value. Participants indicated that they were not bothered by the apparent commercial nature of BE as long as value was provided. Secondly, participants found the authenticity of BE to be dependent on the extent to which they were able to identify with the influencer/content. Identification was possible through perceived body and lifestyle similarity. However, most participants indicated that a large extent of Gymshark content felt inauthentic to them due to the perceived unobtainable nature of both bodies and lifestyles represented. Third, the continuity of Gymshark's branded entertainment was doubted in some cases, as participants found it difficult to identify with the predominantly entertaining content due to the lack of values presented. However, the events were deemed relatable. Lastly, the quality of Gymshark clothes was found to have decreased over the years, even though product quality explained the largest part of brand authenticity according to consumers. The overarching theme found that adolescents expect company's like Gymshark to be real, displaying transparency, relatability and honesty across all forms of communications. This thesis is limited due to participants being asked to think about BE very deeply, it is possible that this evaluation does not fully align with the way they ordinarily evaluate brand communication. Future research could focus on this thesis' observation that adolescent wish to take matters into their own hands when it comes to their engagement with brands. Although this observation was true for this sample, a quantitative overview of the ways in which consumers deal with persuasion attempts would be insightful
Beware of the Wrinkles
No full textNegative emotional appeals are used by the cosmetics industry as a way to promote products while perpetuating unattainable beauty standards. Fear-based advertising is used by brands to highlight the consequences of inaction, potentially villainizing natural aging and painting it as undesirable. With such appeals brands aim to evoke anxiety and prompt consumers to adopt preventative skincare routines. While fear can incite attention and even increase purchase intent, this study aims to explore its potential to damage brand perceptions, especially in the eyes of younger consumers. Drawing on the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework (Kervyn et al., 2012), the study examines how emotional appeals influence perceived brand warmth and competence, as well as whether self-esteem, gender, and consumer involvement moderate these effects. The main research question is as follows: "To what extent do fear-based appeals in cosmetics advertising impact the brand perception of Gen Z consumers in the Netherlands?"
The research employs a quasi-experimental design with a between-subjects manipulation of fear appeal intensity in three levels - low, medium, and high. An online survey distributed among Gen Z participants in the Netherlands collected a final sample of 163 people, who were randomly assigned to view one of the three advertisements about a fictional skincare brand. Brand perception, self-esteem, and consumer involvement were measured using validated scales, and manipulation checks assessed perceived fear intensity. ANOVA results showed unsuccessful manipulation of fear conditions. Nonetheless, regression analyses showed partial support for H1, which stated that high fear appeals negatively affect brand perceptions. However, no significant moderating effects were found for gender, self-esteem, or consumer involvement. Interestingly, self-esteem was positively associated with perceived brand intention ability, suggesting that individuals with higher self-worth may evaluate brands more favorably regardless of emotional manipulation.
These findings highlight the delicate role of fear in skincare marketing. Overall, the research suggests that fear-based tactics seem to not be particularly effective in the context of young consumers who value honesty and authenticity. The study contributes to existing literature by expanding the understanding of emotional appeals within beauty and cosmetics marketing. It offers practical insights for brands seeking to engage Gen Z audiences ethically and effectively
Digital Blue: Investigating Sentiment and Bias in Human and AI narratives on Police Officers
No full textThe pervasive influence of media on public perceptions of critical societal institutions, particularly law enforcement, forms a significant area of academic research. Existing literature offers a comprehensive understanding of how human-generated media shapes attitudes towards police, evolving from broad observations to detailed analyses of specific formats and audience roles. However, an emerging and crucial dimension - how Large Language Models (LLMs) generate text on police officers - remains unexplored. LLMs, trained on vast textual datasets, inherit and can propagate social biases present in their training data, raising concerns that AI models might capture, reproduce, and even intensify existing stereotypes when generating content about police officers.
Building on cultivation theory, which posits that the long-term impact of consistent media exposure on social reality perceptions, and social location theory, which highlights how an audience's background shapes media interpretation, this thesis aims to study and compare language generated by humans and AI-generated text regarding police officers. Specifically, it investigates how biases from traditional media and digital media translate into both human perception and AI models.
To address this, a mixed-method exploratory design was employed, utilising both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis techniques. Human participants completed a survey involving four open-ended prompts designed to elicit perceptions of neighbourhood crime and police, police-civilian communication, trust and authority, and media portrayals of the police. Concurrently, AI models, specifically GPT-4 and Gemini, were prompted with the same scenarios to generate comparable textual data. The collected textual data underwent qualitative thematic analysis to identify patterns and meanings, complemented by quantitative sentiment analysis to compare sentiment distributions. This comparison of human and AI-generated narratives revealed a significant divergence in sentiment concerning police trust and authority, with AI models often articulating a more critical stance than human respondents. This outcome suggests that LLMs may not only reflect but also potentially reinforce existing societal biases embedded within their training data
Promoting the balance between online and offline
No full textSociety is more and more connected through digitalization with a constant need to pick up our phones, which in turn creates a constant need to stay in control of your phone. Mass media present unplugging from smartphones as a trendy way to reduce the negative impact from smartphone use on health-related outcomes. Telephone providers, such as Odido and Vodafone, partner up with or follow the example of these campaigns and created their own advertisements. While telephone providers profit from longer screentimes, they now advertise the message to lower these screentimes and to put your phone away once in a while. A lot of scientific research has been done on internet addiction with its risks and several methods to mitigate these risks, but not specifically on advertisements promoting a healthy online diet and their influence on adolescents. This research tries to fill this gap in literature. "How do advertisements from Odido and Vodafone, promoting digital detoxing, influence attitudes towards digital detoxing among adolescents?". With H1: When adolescents are exposed to advertisements from telephone providers promoting digital detoxing, their attitude towards digital detoxing will be more positive and H2: When adolescents are exposed to the campaign on digital detoxing promoted by Odido their attitude will be more positive than when exposed to the campaign of Vodafone. A quantitative methodology was used to test both hypotheses and answer the research question. This methodology employed a survey (N = 70) with pretest-posttest design, which includes questions before and after the exposure of the advertisement. A paired samples t-test was conducted to examine the difference between digital detoxing attitudes before and after the exposure to an advertisement about digital detox from a telephone provider, whether Odido or Vodafone. The digital detoxing attitude after seeing the advertisement appeared to be significantly higher compared to the participants' attitude before seeing the advertisement. An ANCOVA followed to research the difference in digital detoxing attitudes after the exposure to the advertisements about digital detoxing, comparing Odido and Vodafone. Between the different conditions, the advertisements from Odido compared to the one from Vodafone, there is no significant difference between the attitudes in the posttest. Thus, advertisements promoting digital detoxing have a positive influence on the attitude towards digital detoxing among adolescents
Van oorlog naar vrede in Syrië
No full textOp 8 december 2024 kwam met de val van het regime van Bashar al-Assad, na dertien jaar conflict, een einde aan de burgeroorlog in Syrië. Deze gebeurtenis markeert een historisch keerpunt voor Syrië, maar vormt ook een kwetsbare overgangsfase van oorlog naar vrede. Dit onderzoek richt zich op hoe Westerse en Arabische media de overgang van oorlog naar vrede in Syrië framen, in de periode 27 november 2024 tot 31 maart 2025. Aan de hand van een thematische analyse van nieuwsartikelen van de NOS, de Volkskrant, The Guardian en Al Jazeera is onderzocht hoe deze transitie werd geframed door Westerse en Arabische media en of er sprake was van vredesjournalistiek. De thema's die uit de analyse kwamen zijn: HTS, het regime van al-Assad, buitenland en de toekomst van Syrië. De resultaten laten zien dat HTS in de vier media op een dubbelzinnige manier wordt gepresenteerd, zowel als een bevrijdingsbeweging als een extremistische organisatie. Daarnaast bekritiseren alle vier de media het regime van Bashar al-Assad in hun berichtgeving, het regime wordt verantwoordelijk gehouden voor geweld en verwoesting in Syrië. Buitenlandse actoren worden vanuit verschillende invalshoeken bekeken, Westerse media richten zich vooral op de belangen van het Westen, terwijl Al Jazeera de Syrische belangen benadrukt. De berichtgeving over de toekomst van Syrië zijn hoopvol, met de nadruk op inclusiviteit en wederopbouw, maar wijzen ook op de kwetsbaarheid en uitdagingen van de transitie in Syrië. De verslaggeving van de onderzochte media toont elementen van vredesjournalistiek, de nadruk ligt op oplossingen en inclusiviteit. Opvallend is dat de verschillen tussen Westerse en Arabische media kleiner zijn dan verwacht, wellicht door de unieke omstandigheden van de overgangsfase van oorlog naar vrede in Syrië
IFFR and the Role of Cross-Cultural Dialogue Among Young Audiences
No full textIn an era of cultural polarization and algorithmic media consumption, it becomes increasingly important to encourage cross-cultural dialogue among young people. This thesis explores how the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) facilitates cross-cultural dialogue between young audiences (ages 18-25). While the literature is rich in examining programming and the festival industry, little is known about how young audiences experience cultural difference through film festivals. By acknowledging festivals as curated contact zones, this research highlights the ways in which young attendees engage emotionally, socially, and digitally with international cinema.
Using a qualitative research methodology, this study featured ten semi-structured interviews with young IFFR attendees. The thematic analysis of the interviews illustrates the ability of IFFR's programming, filmmaker Q&As, and spatial arrangement to help facilitate cross-cultural dialogue by encouraging emotional identification and intercultural exchange. The participants reported how they connected with unfamiliar cultural contexts, engaged with peers through post-screening discussions, and broadened their dialogue into online spaces such as Instagram and Letterboxd.
Physical and symbolic barriers to access were also present, including ticket prices, prioritizing festival industry representatives, and limitations regarding institutional outreach. Although they did have institutional outreach components and aimed to attract youth through student program participation and digital communication, structural inequalities and varying levels of engagement prevented equal access. Despite this, young audiences were found to be active cultural interpreters who reframed global cinema through personal experience, digital commentary, and social dialogue.
This research contributes to festival studies through the lens of young audiences as co-creators of cultural meanings. The practical implications of this research refer to ways in which festivals can enable equal active participation and amplify diverse voices. On a social level, this research finds value in illustrating the transformative capacity that cinema has to generate opportunities for intercultural empathy, meaningful engagement, and youth agency in an increasingly polarized media landscape