Erasmus University Thesis Repository
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Between Struggle and Success
No full textThis study explores the differences in mental health framing across diverse media platforms between
2018 and 2025. More specifically, the case study identifies differences in the mental health framing
of the Dutch footballer Vivianne Miedema across online news articles, documentaries, social media,
and YouTube interviews. While mental health in elite sports has received increasing attention in
media coverage, academic research, and public discourse, most of the existing literature remains
limited to high profile athletes and crisis moments. This study addresses these gaps by conducting a
cross-platform framing analysis of media coverage of Miedema's mental health.
The study is guided by the central research question: How have different types of media framed
Vivianne Miedema's mental health struggles between 2018 and 2025? It draws on Entman's (1993)
four framing functions (problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and treatment
recommendation) (p. 52). Further, distinctions between episodic and thematic and generic and issue-
specific framing styles are employed. The study applied a mixed data analysis, combining qualitative
content and framing analysis with quantitative frequency counts. A total of 48 media units were
selected through purposeful and maximum variation sampling. Throughout the analysis, frames were
developed inductively and theoretically to ensure analytical rigour and depth. Subsequently, the
frames were organised into overarching framing categories. The analysis identified five overarching
framing categories: affirmative framing, personal struggle and identity framing, critical and
systematic framing, performance-oriented framing, and misrepresentative framing.
The study found significant differences between media types. Affirmative framing emerged as the
most dominant category, particularly in online articles and YouTube interviews. Social media
platforms commonly employed episodic and generic framing which simplified mental health
narratives and emphasised emotional narratives. Contrary, longer formats were more thematic and
issue-specific and contextualised her issues within broader structural dynamics.
The analysis revealed that platform-specific conventions influenced the coverage, finding that some
representations continue to simplify or individualise complex mental health issues. This study
contributed to research on framing, mental health and women's sport by offering a cross-platform
perspective. Additionally, the study emphasises the need for more context-sensitive practices in
sports media and recommendations on the adjustment of framing theory to media analyses
Echoes of Home
No full textThis thesis examines how music functions as a cultural practice through which second-generation former Yugoslavian diaspora youth in the Netherlands construct their identities. While first-generation migrants often have direct lived experiences from their homeland, second-generation individuals relate to their heritage through cultural memory, everyday cultural practices, and digital platforms. Furthermore, although cultural identity among first-generation migrants has been studied, there is little academic attention to how second-generation youth engage with their cultural background, especially through music. This study thus addresses that gap by exploring how contemporary Balkan genres influence identity formation among the second-generation diaspora. Furthermore, the theoretical framework draws from cultural identity theory, diaspora studies, and digital media studies, which allows music to be understood as a symbolic tool for negotiation and belonging. These perspectives define identity as dynamic and shaped by both shared and personal experiences, and transnational flows. Moreover, this research will be conducted using a qualitative method. Data was collected through ten semi-structured interviews with second-generation diaspora who engage with contemporary Balkan music genres. Later, thematic analysis was used to interpret the participants' reflections and identify patterns across the data. The findings revealed that music serves several important functions: it offers an emotional connection to a symbolic homeland; provides space for performing hybrid identities; supports intergenerational cultural transmission, especially through language, and makes it possible to participate in transnational cultural communities via digital platforms like TikTok and Spotify. Instead of passively inheriting culture, participants use music to reinterpret their sense of belonging as personal to them. Their engagement illustrates a dynamic process of developing cultural ties in a digitally connected and globalized society. This thesis argues that music promotes more cultural continuity and connection while acting as an essential tool for negotiating the dual context of being both Dutch and Balkan. Lastly, this research contributes to academic debates on cultural identity formation, popular music research, and digital diaspora studies. It additionally has a broader societal impact by highlighting the need for acknowledging second-generation youth as actively involved in forming their identities; on their own terms and often through the everyday, emotional interaction with music
Foster Engagement: Reconstructing Rewatching Behavior
No full textDespite the endless supply of new content at our fingertips, viewers continue to return to the comfort of the familiar. In the age of streaming, rewatching television shows has become an increasingly common behavior. However, academic research has often overlooked this phenomenon in favor of studying first-time viewing or binge-watching. With the increasing number of digital platforms and amount of content available, audiences can now easily engage in rewatching as both a personal and social activity. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the motivations behind rewatching and how these motivations relate to social engagement and repeated media consumption. Drawing on Uses & Gratifications theory and media habit theory, the central aim of this study is to investigate: To what extent do motivations for rewatching TV shows lead to social engagement, and how does this influence rewatching behavior? The research focuses on five key motivations of rewatching: nostalgia, recall, content and technical quality, parasocial relationships, and familiarity, as predictors of viewer engagement with TV show-related content on social media. Social engagement is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct, encompassing passive (e.g. reading content), reactive (e.g. liking content), and active (e.g. posting content) forms of online participation.
A quantitative survey was conducted with 158 participants who had previously rewatched a TV show. Each participant answered questions related to their motivations for rewatching, social media engagement, and rewatching behavior. Factor analyses confirmed the reliability and construct validity of the variables, with social engagement emerging as a three-factor structure. Regression analyses were conducted in two stages. First, multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess how the motivational factors predicted the three types of social engagement. The results showed that recall and parasocial relationships were the only significant predictors, indicating the importance of cognitive and emotional investment in rewatching-related online participation. In contrast, nostalgia, content quality, and technical quality, as well as familiarity, did not significantly predict any form of engagement, challenging prior assumptions that emotionally comforting or aesthetically pleasing content naturally drives online interaction. The second part of the analysis revealed that all three types of social engagement significantly predicted habitual rewatching, supporting the idea that digital interaction reinforces routine viewing behaviors. However, only active engagement significantly predicted compulsive rewatching, pointing to a deeper emotional or behavioral attachment among users who actively contribute to media discourse.
This study contributes to media research by refining our understanding of how individual motivations relate to social media behavior and repeated content consumption. It extends Uses and Gratifications theory by demonstrating that only specific motivations translate into distinct social behaviors, and that these behaviors have differential effects on types of rewatching. The findings offer practical insights for streaming platforms and content creators seeking to improve viewer engagement and retention
Rotterdam Neighbourhoods in Action
No full textThis research examines the 'Wijk aan Zet' (Neighbourhood in Action) initiative, a neighbourhood council model launched in 2022 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It focuses on the impact these councils have on urban policy and neighbourhood development. The main research question is: To what extent do neighbourhood councils under the 'Wijk aan Zet' initiative influence urban policy and contribute to transformative changes in Rotterdam's neighbourhoods?
Written for the Global Markets, Local Creativities (GLOCAL) master program, this thesis explores how global challenges- like resident engagement, neighbourhood resilience and local governance- play out on a local level. Its findings are relevant for neighbourhood council members, municipal staff and neighbourhood residents in Rotterdam, while also offering insights for building effective neighbourhood council models worldwide. As the 'Wijk aan Zet' initiative is still relatively new, having existed for only three years, and with new elections scheduled for March 2026, now is an ideal moment to study these councils.
The research uses a mixed method approach by combining in-depth interviews with neighbourhood council members and municipal staff with document analysis via topic modelling and thematic analysis with the use of RStudio. The key findings of this research show that neighbourhood councils primarily address hyperlocal issues. Their influence on broader urban policy remains limited due to institutional constraints and unclear boundaries between neighbourhood and city governance. However, neighbourhood councils do play a meaningful role in shaping their communities and have the potential to make transformative impact on their neighbourhoods. Key challenges they face include navigating the complex bureaucratic municipal system, managing unclear expectations and sustaining resident engagement. To unlock their full potential, neighbourhood councils need the municipality to provide more trust, improved collaboration, additional training, better tools, and-most importantly-a mindset shift: it is time for the neighbourhoods to take action
Constructing Authority and Credibility
No full textAs feminist discourse circulates on Chinese social media, it increasingly adapts to the constraints of social norms, algorithmic visibility, and platform censorship. In this context, a strand of female empowerment content has emerged on RedNote (Xiaohongshu). Rather than a radical departure, this represents an adaptive branch of feminist expression-emotionally resonant, strategically curated, and publicly palatable. This study defines and examines the emerging category of female empowerment influencers, investigating how they establish trust with audiences through narrative strategies, authority-building approaches, and how these efforts are perceived by viewers.
Employing a mixed-methods design, the research combines content analysis of 115 videos with in-depth interviews with three users who regularly engage with female empowerment-related content. The content analysis involved multidimensional coding of thematic content, authority-building approaches, and narrative strategies, followed by dimensionality reduction using Categorical Principal Components Analysis (CATPCA) and correlation analysis. Interviews contextualize these patterns by revealing how audiences interpret credibility and authenticity.
Findings suggest that digital authority and credibility is co-constructed through layered strategies. While authenticity is frequently used, audience trust is more consistently conferred when influencers demonstrate ideological coherence, contextual appropriateness, and alignment with perceived feminist values. The study further highlights that credibility is not merely a function of content or credentials but is shaped by platform affordances, socio-political norms, and relational dynamics. This research contributes to digital feminist media studies by refining the concept of authenticity labor and claiming the contingent and negotiated nature of trust in influencer culture. It also offers insight into how feminist influencers can more effectively cultivate credibility and authority by aligning their content with audience expectations and broader cultural imaginaries of empowerment
The Desire for Gender Order
No full textIn the Western world, the far-right is increasingly opposed to transgender identities, which is
remarkable as opposition in prior decades came primarily from Christian parties. The position of the
far-right begs the question of whether their supply of anti-transgender opposition reflects a demand
by an electorate holding anti-transgender attitudes. Building on prior literature on the dimensions of
cultural conflict, this study posits two theories to understand anti-transgender attitudes among the
electorate. The dominant theory suggests that anti-transgender attitudes have a social basis in
religious orthodoxy and is prevalent among those with traditionalist attitudes. Alternatively, this
study - inspired by the reification theory - proposes that the far-right electorate also holds anti-
transgender attitudes, which has a social basis in an aversion to diversity and is prevalent among
those with authoritarian attitudes. Analysing data from the Dutch Parliamentary Election Study of
2023 (DPES), this study tests these two theories about the place of anti-transgender attitudes within
the dimensions of cultural conflict and assesses its electoral relevance in the Netherlands. The
findings indicate that both theories are necessary to explain anti-transgender attitudes in the
Netherlands. First, authoritarianism as well as traditionalism relates to anti-transgender attitudes,
which indicates that it is not evidently an issue of the traditionalist dimension, and substantiates the
relevance of both theories. Second, those with more traditionalist attitudes vote for Christian parties,
while those with more authoritarian attitudes vote for the far-right, which aligns with the dominant
theory. Third, those who hold anti-transgender attitudes are more likely to vote for either Christian
parties or the far-right, which also substantiates the relevance of both theories. These findings -
consistent with the reification theory - show the existence of a (non-religious) authoritarian electorate
that holds anti-transgender attitudes for distinctly different reasons than the traditionalist electorate.
This implies that - contrary to some secularisation theories - a post-Christian morality does not
equate a morally progressive worldview
Behind the Screens: Gendered and Generational Divides in Understanding Deepfake Violence
No full textIn 2024, all eyes turned to South Korea as it became the first victim of an epidemic of AI-generated deepfakes that disproportionately targeted women and minors. This technological threat, now surfacing worldwide, involves the non-consensual creation and distribution of hyper-realistic imagery, with current approaches to regulating this technology highlighting a societal unpreparedness and disconnect in understanding its true impact. This thesis thus explores the intricate issue of gendered digital violence, exploring how different groups perceive these harms, and the unexpected dual role of minors as both victims and perpetrators within this. Grounded in a virtual feminist theoretical framework, this multi-method qualitative research utilises focus groups and critical discourse analysis, with findings uncovering a 'Digital Violation Discrepancy' suggesting that the lack of women's perspectives, in AI development and regulation shapes understandings of deepfake harms. This discrepancy stems from a compounded issue: AI tools, instilled with patriarchal biases, birth an exploitative harm rooted in consent violation, further exacerbated by the crime's sui generis anonymity affordance that disrupts traditional legal and judicial proceedings relying on traceable evidence. These complexities were seen to be less understood by the male perspective, mirroring a critical gap in regulation and development measures that reflects this underrepresentation of women in these spheres. Consequently, deepfake creation's primary consent violation remains inadequately addressed in regulation, reflecting news representation where platform accountability is lacking, and fabricated harms, such as AI-generated child sexual abuse material, are normalised due to a misunderstanding of digital native behaviours. To address this, the research advocates for a foundational paradigm shift that prioritises women's experiences across all phases of AI development, ethical deliberation, and regulatory oversight, spanning AI governance and development reform, strengthening societal and educational responses, and encouraging international cooperation to harmonise legal frameworks. Ultimately, this thesis stresses that achieving an authentically equitable and secure digital future, safe from the uniquely gendered harms of deepfakes, requires challenging existing power structures within technology, ensuring AI empowers rather than exploits, particularly for women and minors
Human, Virtual Human-Like, and Anime Influencers in the Fashion Industry: Examining the Mediating Role of Perceived Authenticity and Parasocial Interactions in the Relationship Between Perceived Novelty, Purchase Intentions, and Word-of-Mouth Intentions
No full textAs social media continues to transform the marketing landscape, influencer marketing has
emerged as a powerful and influential strategy across various industries, particularly within the
fashion sector, changing the way brands connect with consumers and build trust in the digital age. The
rise of virtual influencers has introduced new dynamics into this domain. These digitally fabricated
figures are gaining increasing power in shaping consumer behavior. This study investigated how
perceived novelty influences consumers' purchase intentions and word-of-mouth intentions, and
whether these effects are mediated by perceived authenticity and parasocial interactions. Additionally,
the study explored whether these relationships differ across three types of influencers, more
specifically human, virtual human-like, and anime influencers. To determine this, a between-subjects
online experiment (n = 154) was conducted, where participants were randomly exposed to one of
three Instagram posts from a fictional fashion brand, each featuring a different type of influencer. The
findings revealed that perceived novelty significantly and positively influences both purchase and
word-of-mouth intentions. Moreover, perceived authenticity and parasocial interactions each partially
mediate these relationships, indicating that psychological engagement plays a key role in shaping
consumer responses. Importantly, the influence of perceived novelty on perceived authenticity was
moderated by influencer type, being strongest for the anime influencer, followed by the human
influencer, and weakest for the virtual human-like influencer. However, influencer type did not
significantly moderate the direct effects of novelty on purchase or word-of-mouth intentions, nor on
parasocial interactions. This research contributes to the growing literature on influencer marketing by
offering a nuanced understanding of how various types of digital personas influence consumer
behavioral intentions. Additionally, the insights from this study offer useful implications for brands
and marketers seeking to design effective influencer campaigns, particularly by incorporating virtual
influencers as a strategic tool in an increasingly fast paced, digitized and saturated media
environment
Framing Green
No full textThe growing urgency to address the current environmental crisis, accompanied by its significant social and economic impacts, demands new and innovative strategies to encourage individuals to adopt sustainable habits. Due to its universal necessity and position as one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation, the food industry offers a significant potential for change and targeted intervention. While past research has extensively studied how demographic variables influence sustainable behaviour, little attention has been paid to the role of underlying cultural values. Drawing on the Schwartz theory of basic human values, the present study investigated how advertising frames that emphasise specific values affect purchase intention for sustainable food products. This theory identifies two pairs of dichotomous value dimensions: self-enhancement versus self- transcendence, referring to whether goals focus primarily on the self or others, and conservation versus openness to change, regarding whether an individual prioritises stability or novelty. Using an unifactorial between-groups design, 235 responses were collected from participants from 35 countries through an online experimental questionnaire. Through random assignment, each participant was exposed to one of the four advertisements framed around one of the value dimensions, or the control. The outcome variables were product attitude and purchase intention. Results, however, indicate that there was no significant difference in purchase intention across experimental groups. When examining the direct effects of values, endorsement of self-enhancement and conservation values was unexpectedly positively associated with the outcome variables. For the former, this finding strongly deviates from previous literature which has frequently tied self-transcendence to sustainable behaviour. Further analyses indicate that value congruence, the alignment between participants endorsed values and those framed in the advertisement did not significantly affect purchase intention. Overall, the findings challenge assumptions related to Schwartz's value theory, framing theory, and value congruence, therewith providing novel practical and theoretical implications. Notably, the results suggest shifting target audiences from those motivated by concern for others, the environment, or openness to change, toward those driven by self-improvement, status signalling, and a desire for stability. Moreover, it suggests that value-based framing may be detrimental to the cause, possibly due to psychological mechanisms that make such frames appear broad, prescriptive, irrelevant, or exaggerated. Instead, it introduces the idea that advertisements framed without value-linked messages may be more effective. This suggests future research is needed to create effective tailored messages, potentially by combining values with demographic factors. Overall, these findings highlight the complexity of sustainable consumption and consumer decision-making, emphasising the need to consider a number of alternative variables in this phenomenon
Cultural Participation and Life Satisfaction in Rotterdam Neighborhoods: a Multilevel Analysis of the Moderating Effect of Collective Efficacy
No full textThe effect of cultural participation on life satisfaction has become a central issue in both scholarly debate and cultural policies. Although many academic studies demonstrate a positive relationship between cultural participation and life satisfaction, empirical evidence remains inconclusive. Additionally, although scholars emphasize the importance of including contextual factors in research on cultural participation, the way social context shapes this particular relationship has often been neglected in previous research. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of cultural participation on life satisfaction among residents of Rotterdam, and the potential moderating role of neighborhood collective efficacy in this relationship. As a superdiverse city, Rotterdam functions as a relevant case study for understanding how the neighborhood context affects the relationship between cultural participation and life satisfaction. This study draws on data from the 2024 set of the Wijkprofiel Rotterdam, with 13,917 cases nested in 85 neighborhoods. Through a four-step multilevel regression analysis, this study tested the direct effects of three types of cultural participation on life satisfaction, followed by the interaction effects between neighborhood collective efficacy and cultural participation. The results show that the frequency of participating in both receptive cultural activities and sports or creative cultural activities has a positive effect on life satisfaction, with the strongest effect for receptive activities. No effect was found for local cultural attendance. Additionally, the results show that the effect of cultural participation does not vary across neighborhoods, and collective efficacy does not moderate the effect of cultural participation on life satisfaction. These findings indicate that both receptive and creative forms of cultural participation have a positive effect on life satisfaction, but that these effects are not moderated by the level of collective efficacy in the neighborhood of residence. The results of this thesis contribute to a better understanding of the effects of cultural participation on well-being, and how these effects may be shaped by local contextual factors