In this study, we use electromyography data of the orbicularis oculi and zygomaticus major as indices of positive emotions to analyze facial muscle activities in computer-mediated communication. We find a difference in frequency of facial muscle activities, influence from stimuli, and other aspects under varied instructions on emoticon use. Results suggest that richness of nonverbal methods is a key factor that affects emotional activities in computer-mediated communication. Although we collected data from two counties, we could not find any significant difference between them. Instead, we found that participants from the two countries have some patterns of emoticon use in common. We believe that, in certain situations emoticon use and facial activities in computer-mediated communication can show commonality between countries on a certain level.

Contextual factors influence the ways in which social media are used in elections. By observing the 2014 U.S. midterm election campaign, this paper will consider the impact of social media on political parties, the new professionalization of campaigns, and campaign finance reform. It will first address political parties' use of social media in the election campaign. Second, it will discuss which new trends in the professionalization of campaigns have been instigated by new media. Third, it will examine the role of super PACs and 501 (c)(4) organizations in the current campaign finance regulatory regime. These questions will be tackled in this paper based on interviews with those who played a firsthand role in the campaigns, newspapers, professional journals, and official documents, including political parties' websites. In conclusion, it will reveal three significant contextual factors to consider in the polarized social media environment of American election campaigns. One is that political parties use social media to advertise their campaigns to voters, while they still prefer to use e-mails as a fundraising source. Another is how the changing media environments affect media consultants and other types of political consultants. The more digital technology advances, the more the circumstance of political consultants changes. The other factor is that super PACs play an important role in providing plentiful campaign finance for candidates, although there are regulations banning coordination with individual candidates' campaigns under the current regulatory system. Thus, in the American election system and fundraising mechanism, will American political parties really have more presence in the election campaigns by using digital media? To further research on this topic, this question needs to be considered in depth.

Development events and application contests are held in various locations as a way to promote open data, and have demonstrated results to an extent. Promotions of open data by basic units of government require implementation of open data into daily municipal services upon considering the acceptability of local governments, and not merely launching the above measures intensively in the short term. Nevertheless, many local governments are promoting open data with limited human resources and budget amid vast operations. Following such circumstances, the research attempted to create open data and develop applications from sightseeing events hosted by local governments with the objective to establish open data promotion in conventional municipal operations. Using the sightseeing events hosted by local governments as case examples, the research attempted to create open data from organizing data from pamphlets distributed by local governments. The data was leveraged to develop an application for mobile devices that guide users through sightseeing events, and its demonstration experiment using this application was conducted at the “Dai 15 kai Arukou! Bunka no Michi (15th Annual Let's Walk the Cultural Path)” event held in Higashi-ku, Nagoya. The demonstration experiment clarified the application's effectiveness, and succeeded in demonstrating that the tested open data of sightseeing event information were useful. In addition, as a result of the research, the sightseeing event information for the “Dai 16 kai Arukou! Bunka no Michi (16th Annual Let's Walk the Cultural Path)” event is now scheduled to be made public as Nagoya's open data. Based on the above, the paper discusses on the promotion of open data for conventional municipal operations while considering the acceptability of local governments.