Communication Technology 2008 Abstracts
Communication Technology Division (CTEC)
Only for you!: An investigation of tailored Internet services’ effects on users’ attitudes and gratifications • Keunmin Bae; Nivedita Chatterjee, Pennsylvania State University; Hyunjin Kang, Pennsylvania State University; HyangSook Kim, Pennsylvania State University • This study explored the relationship between types of tailored Web services and users’ levels of gratifications and attitude toward the services. A between-subjects experiment was designed, using iGoogle.com as the stimulus. Thirty-nine participants were randomly assigned to three different experimental settings – no tailoring, personalization, and customization. Users’ self-concept, peer pressure, and prior experience of iGoogle.com were also measured for their moderating effects.
Network structure in the political blogosphere of Korea’s National Assembly members • SungSoo Bang, University of Texas, Austin • This study examines Internet use by politicians and the network structure of the political blogosphere of Korea’s National Assembly members. By focusing on politicians, this study examines the relationship between the Internet and democracy in Korea. Through content analysis and hyperlink network analysis, this study found that the politicians’ use of the Internet reached saturation stage in Korea, but the network structure of the political blogosphere supports a fragmentation hypothesis rather than public sphere theory.
Standardization in Television and Video Technology • Stephen Bates, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • The United States is in the midst of its biggest technological changeover ever, from analog to digital television. This paper probes the history of standard-setting in broadcasting by placing it in the context of standard-setting in other realms, such as railroad gauges, AC/DC electricity, currency, and traffic rules. The paper discusses five questions: In what circumstances are standards advisable? Who should set standards? When should government set standards? When should government change standards?
Editorial Attitudes about Online Citations in Top Mass Communication Journals • Michael Bugeja, Iowa State University; Daniela Dimitrova • Previous studies documented the problem of vanishing online footnotes in academic journals. Little has been accomplished to resolve the phenomenon, of special importance to mass communication, responsible for the diffusion of new technologies in society, including the journals that represent it. Few studies have analyzed editorial policies addressing online footnotes. This study investigates whether editors of mass communication journals recognize the severity of this problem and have adopted policies to mitigate the effect.
Reaching the techno-savvy viewers: Third-person perception about the effectiveness of YouTube as a media literacy tool about body image • Kimberly Bissell, University of Alabama; Juan Meng, University of Alabama • While there is a great deal of literature available documenting the behavioral effects of the mass media on patterns of disordered-eating, a smaller band of literature examines third-person perception as it relates to the media’s effect on self and others’ body image distortion.
MySpace is your space?: Examining self-presentation of MySpace users • Kris Boyle, Texas Tech University; Thomas J. Johnson, Texas Tech University • The study examined the role of self-presentation on MySpace pages through the information users post on their sites. MySpace users were more comfortable with posting the broad pieces of information, like gender, race, zodiac sign, and hometown. They weren’t as willing to present personal information like income, whether they smoke or drank or groups they belonged to. Age and motivations for creating a page were major predictors of how much information people revealed about themselves.
The Cable Television Privacy Act: The Struggle to Define Protections for Cable Broadband Users • Mark Caramanica • Since the passage of the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, cable television operators have been required to protect cable subscriber privacy rights with respect to the accumulation and distribution of personally identifying information. As convergence has led to cable operators also increasingly operating as internet service providers, the law has struggled to determine what activities of cable modem subscribers are protected under or subject to the privacy protections found in the Cable Act.
Voice over Internet Protocol Regulations: How the FCC’s regulatory indecision permits discriminatory network practices • Andrew Carlson, Ohio University • This paper discusses the current regulatory environment surrounding the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, with a focus on reporting how FCC commissioners over the last six years have discussed the classification of this and other related technologies, including the regulation and classification of Internet infrastructure such as fiber optic and copper cable.
Net Neutrality: A Policy Analysis of Congressional Legislation and FCC Principles • Bryan Carr, Central Michigan University • This normative study of Congressional legislation and FCC statements intends to provide an overview of, and solution to, the Net Neutrality issue. The pro-Net Neutrality works of Wu, Lessing, and Zhu, as well as the critical works of Laxton and May are analyzed through the lens of Milton and Holmes’ marketplace of ideas.
A comparison of factors affecting purchase intention of real items and virtual items via the Internet • Jiyoung Cha, University of Florida • Expanding the Theory of Reasoned Action, this study compares determinants of intention to purchase “”real”“ and “”virtual”“ items via the Internet. The findings indicate that the expanded TRA model is successful in predicting purchase intention of real items, but poor for virtual items. The attitude toward online shopping, subjective norm, flow, and gender are important predictors for intention to purchase real items via the Internet. Subjective norm and gender are critical for virtual items.
Insatiable Desires to Online Network: Applying the Spectacle/Performance Paradigm to the Gratifications of Social-Networking Sites and Internet Addiction • Hsuan-Ting Chen, University of Texas at Austin • The objective of this study was to understand gratifications sought from social-networking sites and their relationship with Internet addiction. Results revealed that all gratifications are related to Internet addiction. Media Drenching and Performance & Narcissism, the main concept of the “diffused audience,” are new gratifications found for social-networking sites and strong predictors of Internet addiction.
News Cues and Most Popular News Exploring How Online Users Pay Attention to Mainstream News Sites • Ying-Ying Chen • This study builds the constructs of three kinds (four types) of gated news to explore how online users pay attention to three online mainstream news sites by defining online users from marketing and democrat perspectives. Editors’ news cues and people-gated news cues are examined in explaining online users’ most popular news attention. The results show that editors’ news cues and most popular news cues significantly explain online users’ news attention.
How Much are You into Your Mobile Phone?: Scale Development for Mobile Phone User’s Attachment to Device • Seoyoon Choi, University of South Carolina • Due to their ubiquity and personalization, mobile phones have been recognized as effective tools of marketing communications and mobile commerce. Understanding the ethos of mobile phone users is a critical issue to marketers who use mobile phones as an advertising medium and marketing tool. The purpose of this study was to substantiate relationships between mobile phone users and their devices and to develop measurement scales for users’ attachment to their devices.
How Experts Perceive the Digitalization of Broadcasting in Korea • Chung Joo Chung, State University of New York at Buffalo; Jang Hyun Kim, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Hong Gyu Choi, National Internet Development Agency of Korea • In Korea, researchers from the government, telecommunication companies, universities, and research institutions have exerted a significant role in policy-making. This paper categorizes and assesses the perceptions of twenty-two researchers from universities and public research institutions, whose areas are directly linked to digital cable television policy, technology, and industry. The respondents were selected because they are not working for company interests but frequently influence Korean digital broadcast industry and policy.
Interactive Efforts from Abroad: Perceptions of Interactivity and Uses of Interactive Features among South Korean Journalists • Deborah Chung, University of Kentucky; Dong-Hyun Byun, Sogang University; Joon-Cheol Kim, Sogang University • In-depth interviews with 23 professional journalists from major South Korean news organizations gauged their perceptions of interactivity and adoption of interpersonal interactive features, specifically blogs, forums and user comments. Using Chung’s (2007) continuum of interactive approaches, the analysis reveals that innovators work hard to find ways to make technology provide meaningful feedback opportunities for news audiences to further improve journalistic goals. Cautious traditionalists are more concerned with the quality of information communicated through online news.
Is the Internet a Lonely medium?: Taking Uses and gratification approach • Jae Eun Chung, University of Southern California • This paper examines social impacts of the Internet use. The central question of this paper is whether the Internet is a medium that enhances interpersonal relationships or a medium that isolates and dissocializes its users. By taking uses and gratification approach, this paper develops an argument that different uses of the Internet affect the way it impacts people’s social relationship.
The mediating role of identification on racial representations in video games • Vincent Cicchirillo, The Ohio State University; Matthew Eastin, University of Texas at Austin; Osei Appiah, The Ohio State University • The following study examines the mediating influence of ethnic identification of participant race on presence in video games. Furthermore, it examines the role of character (avatar) and opponent race on participant’s levels of presence through SEM techniques. Overall, the results suggest that Black participants have higher levels of ethnic identification than White participants. These results in turn influenced presence. The results suggest that Ethnic identification does mediate the relationship between Participant race and presence.
A Concept Explication of Digital Social Capital • Donna Davis • Media technologies have been blamed for the decline in what is known as ”social capital,” or the collective value of all social networks [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other [norms of reciprocity]. This paper offers an explication of digital social capital, providing a contradictory approach to these claims. The paper identifies how new digital media technologies can actually both create and strengthen social capital.
News in the Interstices: The niches of mobile media in space and time • John Dimmick, Ohio State U; John Feaster, Ohio State U; Gregory Hoplamazian, The Ohio State University • Access to news and other mass mediated content has become a fundamental part of modern society. In the past decade, the introduction of mobile channels has provided steadily more opportunities for individuals to access such content. According to the theory of the niche, when new media technologies are successfully introduced into a domain, available resources should become increasingly rare and displacement should occur unless the domain or resource base is altered.
Candidate Blog Strategies in the 2006 U.S. Senate Elections: Exploring Agenda Setting and Incumbent and Challenger Strategies • Kristin English, University of Georgia; John Tedesco, Virginia Tech • The 2006 Congressional elections included some of the closest elections in recent history. Party control was on the line in both houses of Congress. As a result, candidate message strategies were subject to intense scrutiny by media and voters alike since each election played a significant role in determining which party would control the Senate.
Who is viewing what online?: Distinguishing online video audience based on content viewed and forwarded • Trupti Guha, Cleveland State University • Online videos have been a central feature in discussions about the impact of user-driven Web 2.0 technologies. In the process of computer-mediated exchange, some of these video clips keep traveling from one person to another and are termed as “viral videos“. The continuous forwarding of these videos from one person to another begins the process of diffusion, growth and transmission of the video.
Instant Messenger Addiction among Teenagers: Shyness, Alienation, and Academic Performance Decrements • Hanyun Huang, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Chun Shu Chow, School of Journalism & Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Instant messenger (IM) is very popular among teenagers in China nowadays, and has become an important computer-mediated communication (CMC) for them. Some teenagers used IM frequently and spent lots of time on online chatting through IM. Griffiths (1996) proposed the concept of “”technological addiction”“ and previous research also supported that excessive use of technology can be considered problematic.
Greater Satisfaction through Consumption: A Critical Analysis of Narrativity and the Rhetorics Implicit in eBay.com • Phillip Hutchison, University of Kentucky • This paper explores the ways in which narrativity animates and synchronizes the rhetorics implicit in eBay.com. The essay argues that, at the core of its symbolic construction, eBay employs implicit and explicit narrative strategies to realize its basic motivation: to create a self-sustaining cycle of social action that moves from unsatisfied desire toward greater satisfaction through consumption. These strategies allow participant to perform eBay rituals coherently despite the website’s truncated structure and hybrid media forms.
Frame Analysis of Blogger News and Online Newspaper: The 2007 presidential election in South Korea • Jin Sook Im • This study served to expand the empirical boundaries of framing in that it showed how President Lee Myung-bak was framed in a news blogs and an online newspaper in terms of time, topic, tone and character and suggested clear differences between them. After the election, the online newspaper most often employed present, political topic, and neutral-tone frames, but the news blog dominantly used the future, domestic policy topic, and neutral and negative-tone frames.
Popularity of News Items on Digg.com: Toward a Definition of Newsworthiness for Social News Sites • Philip Johnson, Syracuse University; Si Yang • Our study examined the characteristics of news items and the titles and summaries of news items submitted by users to Digg.com, a social news site, using traditional notions of newsworthiness from previous gatekeeping studies— deviance, social significance, and comlexity. Social news sites invite users to become gatekeepers by submitting links to external content, providing descriptive titles and summarys, and allowing readers to vote and comment on those they like or dislike.
Revisiting Entertainment Theories from a Role-Play Perspective • Younbo Jung, Nanyang Technological University • The purposes of the current paper are (1) to review theories that explain our entertainment experience; and (2) to propose a new theoretical perspective of role enactment that may enhance our understandings of how we enjoy the entertainment product. Six entertainment theories of identification, sympathy, empathy, flow, transportation, and presence are categorized into three sections based on how each theory explains entertainment experience: feeling within, feeling for, and feeling overall.
The Truth on Image: An Examination of Effect of Image Shot on Perceived Emotional Information and Judgments of Deception • Sinuk Kang, University at Buffalo. The State University of New York; Daejoong Kim, University at Buffalo, The State of Univeristy of New York • This present study explored the effect of image shot on perceived emotional cues and judgments of deception. Using a high-stakes deception paradigm, it addressed the effect of image shot and perceived emotional cues when individuals were asked to make an assessment of whether the speaker is lying or telling the truth. The study approached these questions through two studies. Study 1 (pilot study) was designed to assess the baseline levels of judgment accuracy rate.
Abandoning Traditional Media?: Examining Factors Influencing the Displacement Effects of Online News • Daekyung Kim, Idaho State University; Thomas J. Johnson, Texas Tech University • This study examined time and functional displacement effects of online news on use of traditional news media, based on two theoretical approaches to media use and effects: media substitution and uses & gratifications theories. An online survey was conducted toe explore how and why politically Interested Internet user use and access online news media for political information and the consequent effect on changes in time spent with traditional news media since using online news.”
A Rediscovery of Web as a Medium of Political Alliance and Support • Jang Hyun Kim, University of Hawaii at Manoa; George Barnett, State University of New York at Buffalo; Han Woo Park; Yun Ho Shin, University of Tennessee at Knoxville • This study describes the structure of hyperlinks (inlinks and co-inlinks) and shared-issue networks among United States senators on the web. The web sites of politicians have been considered a medium of organizing, mobilizing, and agenda-setting, but extant literature lacks a systematic approach to interpret the Web of the senators: A new medium for political communication. This study classifies the role of political web sites into relational (hyperlinking) and topical (shared-issues) aspects.
Strength of Online Tie & Source Credibility • Hyunjung Kim; Chung Joo Chung, State University of New York at Buffalo; Michael Stefanone; Heasun Chun • The current study investigated how people perceive online friends and the referral message from online friends in terms of three sub-dimensions of source credibility (expertise, trustworthiness, likeability), and online social tie strength (strong/weak tie).
My Desired Self, Avatar: The Impact of Avatar Creation on the Persuasion • Youjeong Kim, Pennsylvania State University; S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University • The current study aims to answer the following questions: 1) as the extension of identity, how do people customize their avatars? How does the avatar look like the user? Does it look like the user’s actual self or their desired self? Are there any perceptional differences between the actual avatar and the desired avatar? 2) If they are different, how do users perceive the desired avatar?
Why “digital divide” not “digital difference”?: Two conceptual conditions of the digital divide • Jin Woo Kim, Seoul National University • Aiming to extend the understanding of the digital divide, this research explores 1) the extent to which Internet use patterns are influenced by demographic variables, and 2) the degree that the difference in Internet use pattern in turn produces social capital. Arguing that those two associations are conceptual conditions of the digital divide, this paper discusses what kinds of Internet use patterns, in what sense, were found to dimensions of the digital divide.
Predicting DVR Use: Structural and Individual Determinants of Time-Shifting • Thomas Ksiazek, Northwestern University • This study analyzes DVR use by fitting regression models to test the predictive power of a number of determinants of time-shifting across 60 television networks. The analysis relies on a sample of 1216 individuals armed with Portable People MetersTM (Arbitron, Inc.) to measure patterns of time-shifting. The results indicate that network share and household size have the most predictive power, while other variables (dayparts, employment, and premium channel subscriptions) exhibit more limited influence.
Communication Technology: The Challenge and Opportunity of Online Technology • Jackie Layng • In the age of information, the use of new technologies in communication has virtually exploded. The last twenty years have moved college instructors from chalkboards to digital presentations to using the Internet in the classroom. In the haste to use technology in communication classrooms, steps may have been skipped and many students left behind in order to provide ease of access to digital learning.
Factors influencing Illegal download behavior of movie digital contents • Sun-hee Lee • In Korea movie industry foreign films are distributed online by illegal circulation even before the first official theater showing, and domestic films are on the Internet as soon as DVD/VHS come out in the market. The Korean movie industry has lost 937 million dollars from illegal circulation. Approximately 75 percents of Koreans has experienced illegal download of movie directly or indirectly.
Analog vs. Digital Instruction and Learning: Teaching within First and Second Life Environments • Paul Lester; Cynthia King, California State University Fullerton • Pre and post surveys were administered and analyzed regarding student knowledge of course content and attitudes concerned with the instruction for two groups of students for the same classóone taught completely in a traditional, face-to-face classroom setting and the other taught completely online with Blackboard and Second Life software products Both groups were taught by the same instructor.
“It’s Not Who You Know, but Who You Add:” Exploring Self-Disclosure and Friending on Facebook • Anthony M. Limperos, Pennsylvania State University; Julia K. Woolley, Pennsylvania State University; Daniel J. Tamul, Pennsylvania State University; S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University • This research experimentally explored the relationship between (1) friend adding, (2) gender of the Facebook profile owner, and (3) self-disclosure (low, medium, high) on levels of interpersonal liking, homophily, and behavioral intent. Results indicated that friend adding and self-disclosure led to greater feelings of interpersonal liking and homophily between participants and profile owners. Male participants had greater behavioral intent toward male profiles with moderate amounts of disclosure and female profiles with high levels of disclosure.
Does Offline Life Matter? An Analysis of U.S. Adolescent Instant Message (IM) Use • Amy Shirong Lu, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UNC-Chapel Hill • Two alternative views, displacement and stimulation, have been offered as competing hypotheses to describe the function of adolescent online interpersonal communication. A survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescent Instant Message (IM) users was analyzed, and the results supported the stimulation perspective. This relationship was mediated by a social motivation for using IM, especially for females. Among males, more time spent on IM predicted use of more content devices, such as webcams.
Bottoms Up!: The Internet Considered within the Media Systems Dependency Framework • Wendy Maxian, Texas Tech University • The role of the Internet within media systems dependency (MSD) is explored in terms of the Internet’s ability to disseminate information bottom-up. Specifically, bloggers and non-bloggers perceptions of the Internet and MSD ecosystem are examined. Bloggers do perceive the Internet to have a bigger impact on their daily life and activities, and they also have more goals within the ecosystem as a whole. Implications and future directions for researchers are also discussed.
Web persistence, continuity and change on pro-white sites • Michael McCluskey, Ohio State University • Despite the ability of Web sites to change quickly, little attention has been paid to how Web content changes over time. Examination of pro-white Web sites (n=163) showed 33% disappeared after one year. Text content about group dynamics and ideology from sample (n=28) was more likely to remain on the site one year later, while examples of what group opposed disappeared more often. Discussion highlights trends that are applicable to other activist groups’ Web sites.
The Strength of Weak Ties: Assessing the Democratic Potential of the Moderate Blogosphere • Sharon Meraz • This study examined the democratic potential of the moderate blogosphere through comparing its linking practices with that of left leaning and right-leaning blog networks. Selecting 18 of the top political blogs (6 moderate, 6 left-leaning and 6 right leaning), hyperlink analysis of 3,1 72 links was conducted through three separate issue time periods in 2007. As hypothesized, moderate bloggers were significantly less likely (f(3, 20)=.965, p>.05) to link in a partisan manner when compared with their partisan blog counterparts.
Legitimizing Wikipedia: How U.S. National Newspaper Frame and Use the Online Encyclopedia in Their Coverage • Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University; Jeff South, Virginia Commonwealth University • Within only a few years, the collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia has become one of the most popular websites in the world. At the same time, Wikipedia has become the subject of much controversy because of inaccuracies and hoaxes found in some of its entries. Journalists, therefore, have remained skeptical about the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia’s information, despite the fact that research has consistently shown an overall high level of accuracy compared to traditional encyclopedia.
Choosing the Right Media for Mobilization: Understanding Issue Advocacy Groups’ Media Choice Strategies • Seong-Jae Min; Young Mie Kim • At the heart of the current pluralistic democratic system lie issue advocacy groups that mobilize citizens on specific public issues. This study explores issue advocacy groups’ media choice strategies to communicate with the public. 209 issue advocacy groups in North America were telephone surveyed to find out their media usage and gratifications obtained from the media use.
Webmasters Reveal the Rules: Do Restrictions Compromise Legislators’ Online Communication with Constituents • Amber Narro, Southeastern Louisiana University • In a nationwide study of state legislative websites, Narro, Mayo and Miller (2006) found the communication tools (i.e., weblogs, electronic newsletters, online polling) state legislators offer vary more from state-to-state than legislator-to-legislator. Taking their information into account, this paper addresses restrictions put on legislators’ homepages. The author interviewed webmasters in 44 states and found allowing legislators freedom to manipulate their sites encourages them to utilize their homepages for active communication.
Still Minding the Gate? Journalists on Whether the Rise of the Internet Imperils Their Gatekeeper Role • Shawn Neidorf, University of Illinois at Chicago • Drawing on a 2007 survey of 585 American journalists, this project looks at their attitudes about the rise of the Internet and how such attitudes might affect journalists’ beliefs about the endurance—or end—of their traditional gatekeeper role. The study finds that regardless of personal characteristics, professional background or attitudes about whether or not technological changes brought by the Internet are good for journalism, the belief that traditional journalists are gatekeepers endures.
Wireless Cities: Local Governments’ Involvement in the Shaping of Wi-Fi Networks • Namkee Park, University of Oklahoma • This study examines the role of local government and its impacts on municipal Wi-Fi networks’ implementation from the perspectives of path dependency and social shaping of technology. By employing a case study method, the study investigates the ways in which municipal networks in four cities have been constructed and operated. It uncovers that the local government’s role in the shaping of the networks still matters even in the era of deregulation in communication technologies.
Gendered Faces in MySpace: Self-inflicted Face-ism in Online Profile Photos • Zengjun Peng, St Cloud State University; Mei Hong Cher, St Cloud State University; Chin-yu Chang, St Cloud State University; Haowen Hsiao; Xiaomi Li • This study tested gender differences in facial prominence in the profiles photos posted on MySpace.com. Applying face-ism theory in social psychology, which was used mainly to examine gender bias in media visual representation, we measured the head-body ratios of 4,156 photos posted on the profile pages.
A qualitative approach to understanding how we help one another • Jack Powers • The advent of computer-mediated communication has fundamentally changed the context for how some people seek help and help others. This qualitative study is based on Dervin’s (1983) idea of cognitive motion from her Sense-Making approach to help us arrive at a framework as to how people behave in helping and being helped situations. The results suggest that web site designers may be able to improve the effectiveness of their sites by adopting some of the recommendations.
Uses and Gratifications among Korean Cyworld Social Network Users • Marilyn Roberts, University of Florida; Eun Soo Rhee, University of Florida; Chunsik Lee, University of Florida; Jinsoo Kim • The purpose of this exploratory study is to gain new insights about social network users’ communication behaviors, media usage and lifestyles. The research examines Korean Cyworld social network users. Uses and gratification theory is used as a major theoretical framework. Kim (2005) suggested four classifications of Cyworld users, which formed the basis of the study’s focus.
User-Generated Content: How Social Networking Translates to Social Capital • Cindy Royal, Texas State University at San Marcos • The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of user-generated content on social networking sites on the creation of social capital. Social networking sites rely on content created by the millions of users who develop profiles, communicate with friends, meet people, participate in communities, post comments to Web logs, and create multimedia.
Communicating about Self and Others within an Online Support Group for Breast Cancer Patients • Bret Shaw, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jeong Yeob Han; Hawkins Robert, University of Wisconsin Madison; Fiona McTavish, University of Wisconsin-Madison; David Gustafson, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Research suggests communicating too much about one’s self within an online support group may amplify breast cancer patients’ focus on their own problems and exacerbate negative emotions while focusing on others may have the opposite effects. This study explored how pronoun usage within an online support group was associated with subsequent mental health outcomes.
Examining use of the Internet and traditional media in Chinese college students • Linsen Su; Kenneth Fleming, University of Missouri-Columbia • This study uses the uses and gratifications theory to examine the relationship between Internet use and traditional media use using data from college students in four universities in People’s Republic of China. The study shows that frequent Internet users also used television, radio, newspaper, and magazines more than less frequent Internet users. Each medium has its own functions, and Chinese college students used different media for different purposes to gain corresponding gratifications.
Media Use and Frame Susceptibility in Comparison: The Case of Blog Readers and Frame Effects • Aaron Veenstra, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kjerstin Thorson; Stephanie Edgerly, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Rachel Vallens, UW – Madison • Recent research suggests that political blog readers react to some news frames differently than those who don’t read political blogs (Authors, forthcoming), but is unable to explain this difference based on individual characteristics. In this study, we move the focus from individual characteristics to characteristics of the medium.
The Impacts of Internet Knowledge on College Students’ Intention to Continuously Use the Internet • Lu Wei, University of Rhode Island; Mingxin Zhang, Wuhan University • The role of knowledge in the process of Internet use deserves more scholarly attention. Based on a survey of college students in China, this research establishes Internet knowledge as a reliable and valid construct, distinguishes it from Internet experience and self-efficacy beliefs, and demonstrates its significant effect on behavioral intention to continuously use the Internet.
Latest News on the Web: Content Change and News Topic and Type • Jin Xu • The research examines content change in CNN.com’s latest news and how it is different regarding news topics and news types. Real-time updates to 228 randomly selected stories from June to August, 2007 were content analyzed. The findings suggest that timely content is a distinct hallmark of the latest news at CNN.com, that the updates may provide “”substantial background information,”“ and that users’ interest in disruptive and episode-oriented news coverage are catered to by content change.
Toward a Integrated Model For Engagement and Understanding of Complex News Online • Ronald Yaros • The content is not new but the challenge is. How can journalists effectively communicate complex issues – such as stem cells, nanotechnology and climate change online – so that more citizens will engage in important debates such as these? Unlike other media, the Web prompts users to scan and select content from a virtually endless collection of hypertext links, graphics photos, animation and ads.
Values vs. Costs: Predicting Podcast Adoption among Non-adopters • Lily Zeng, Arkansas State University; Xigen Li, City University of Hong Kong • An increasing array of podcasting content is being produced, ranging from news and entertainment to education and hobby. Some college students are joining early podcast adopters as their professors employ podcasting in the educational experience, particularly in online courses. Although podcasting might be an effective and low-cost means of address individual learning styles and enhance academic performance, it is not widely adopted and well supported in most educational institutions.
Exploring the Impact of State Surveillance on Individuals’ Political Expression in Chinese Cyberspace • Yushu Zhou, Murrow School of Communication, Washington State University • Drawing on Focucault’s insights concerning panoptic surveillance and the individuation-deindividuation theory, this study examined how Chinese Internet surveillance mechanism impacts individuals’ online political expression via a national survey (N=3010) in China. The results showed that the perceptions of government’s surveillance and potential threats of surveillance significantly impacted individuals’ online political expression.
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