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This paper introduces the 'Decolonising the Internet' themed special issue which includes research presented at the 23rd annual Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference (2022). The conference theme centred on decolonisation, highlighting the persistence of colonial practices but also the resistance they generate. Focusing on the internet as entailing colonial appropriations, reproducing inequalities, and foreclosing alternative ways of being, the conference theme asked participants to consider not only the ways in which the internet walks on the path forged by colonialism, but also how research practices are implicated in reinforcing the same exploitative patterns. This special issue includes seven papers that cover new and innovative approaches to studying decolonising the internet, including contexts related to LGBTQIA + digital spaces, neighbourhood and local surveillance, data colonialism, misinformation and conspiracies, and inclusion and access problems for Indigenous peoples. The papers in this issue also focus on various geographic locations in the Global South, including Africa, South America, and the Asia Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of social network sites and online communities has offered new possibilities for older adults to stay socially connected and older adults comprise a growing user group of social media. This paper examines the relationship between older adults' online social engagement and social capital based on a national survey of adults aged 60 and over. Findings show that older adults who engage more often in specific online social activities (i.e., asking questions on social media, looking at photos of family members/others) enjoy greater bridging social capital (both in offline and online contexts) than those who do so less often. Furthermore, Internet skills moderate the relationship between online social engagement and social capital. Specifically, older adults with greater Internet skills benefit relatively more from engaging in specific online social activities more often with respect to online bridging. The paper discusses the implications for digital inequality scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines clinical-psychological and digital literacy frameworks to shed new light on explanations for excessive Internet use (EIU). The combination of these opposing approaches leads to a more comprehensive explanation of intense use with negative outcomes. A survey with a random sample of 18,709 Internet-using children between 11 and 16 years old was carried out in 25 European countries. The study shows that there are interactional and indirect relationships between psychological and digital literacy variables and EIU. Psychologically vulnerable children with higher levels of digital engagement have the most negative outcomes while the least at risk are non-vulnerable children with high levels of literacy (interactional relationship). In reality, psychologically vulnerable children's risk of negative outcomes is exacerbated by their tendency to spend more time online but countered by their lower literacy levels (contradicting direct and indirect relationships). Among those who are not vulnerable, digital literacy is weakly related to negative outcomes. The implications of these results for future research are that explanations for EIU should incorporate psychological and digital literacy indicators. Practical implications are that clinical psychologists working with EIU should consider digital literacy in developing interventions and that digital inclusion interventions should consider the potential negative impact of increased Internet use on vulnerable young people. This paper's original contribution lies in showing that whether intense Internet use is related to negative outcomes depends on the psychological characteristics of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to study the Internet's impacts on moral intolerance and social intolerance. Taking the perspective of media ecology, this paper viewed the Internet as a context and explored how it affects social context in which intolerance is formed. Using the data from the World Values Survey 2010–2014, this paper carried out multilevel analyses with 48,841 respondents in 33 countries. The results show a couple of antithetical effects. First, intolerance is enhanced by the Internet penetration as a context but is reduced by the individual use of the Internet as a medium. Second, the effects of the Internet penetration are counteracted by the Internet participation, which builds up a robust democracy that functions to buffer the informational impacts of the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork in a south-western Chinese town, this paper examines a detailed case study of a single family, and how their internet use transformed over an 18-month period following the introduction of home broadband to their house. Despite initial intentions that the connection would resolve the problem of errant offspring accessing the internet outside the home, the subsequent effects that home internet brought upon domestic life were largely unforeseen. The detailed narrative presented herein highlights how different family members' perceptions and actual use of the internet generated multiple contradictions over the fieldwork period. This paper argues that Silverstone, R., Hirsch, E., & Morley, D.’s (1992). Information and communication technologies and the moral economy of the household. In R. Silverstone & E. Hirsch (Eds.), Consuming technologies: Media and information in domestic spaces (pp. 15–31). London: Routledge] theory of domestication provides the most suitable model for understanding the introduction of information and communication technologies into the home, owing to its capacity to take into account how attitudes towards the internet are renegotiated over time. The paper proposes further refinements be made to the theory by challenging the assumption that users aspire to ‘incorporate’ the technology into the household. Instead, the ethnographic data indicate that the main drivers of the domestication process are family members' desires to use the internet as a way to transform relationships within the household. More broadly, by foregrounding participants' concerns regarding internet use as focusing chiefly on family life and education, this paper also provides an important alternative to prevailing scholarly trends that generally understand the Chinese internet through themes of politics, censorship and democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Sandra Braman on technical and legal decision-making for the Internet, one by Kjerstin Thorson and colleagues on "Proposition 8" videos generated by YouTube LLC, and one by Matthew Allen on a survey of Australian Internet users.

While there is a large literature on the determinants of generalized trust, few studies have explored the impact of internal migration and attempted to tackle potential endogeneity issues. Using nationally representative data from the latest five rounds of the China General Society Survey, this paper estimates the impact of internal migration on generalized trust by exploiting arguably exogenous, historical changes in the GDP growth target set by the government and the share of migrants at the county level. We find evidence of a significant negative impact of internal migration on generalized trust. We also investigate the moderating role of Internet use, and find that whilst Internet use significantly attenuates the negative impact on generalized trust of internal migration, this moderating effect is much stronger for urban-to-urban migrants than it is for rural-to-urban migrants. The results further indicate that internal migration in China has led to the deterioration of subjective well-being, changing perceptions of fairness, increased likelihood of downward social mobility, and deterioration in social relations, which we interpret as potential mechanisms behind our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living alone has been indicated as a key variable to explain loneliness in older adults. In contemporary society, where technology has become one of the main means of communication and personal interaction, has the internet influenced the relationship between living alone and loneliness? This paper aims to answer this research question by using a sample of 64,297 individuals who were surveyed in SHARE project wave 6 – in European countries with different welfare regimes (Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Poland, Czech Republic; Slovenia, Estonia, and Croatia). The results of the regression analysis evidence the moderating role of the internet on the relationship between living alone and feelings of loneliness in individuals aged 50 and over, so that the impact of living alone on loneliness is diminished for internet users as compared to their peers who do not use the internet. The results therefore reinforce the importance of policies aimed at fostering e-inclusion as a way of reducing the loneliness of older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the relevance of Georg Lukács' 1923 book History and Class Consciousness in the context of digital capitalism. It does so by analysing how Lukács' concepts of the dialectic of subject and object, ideology, reification, reified consciousness matter today in the context of big data and digital capitalism. The essay shows that History and Class Consciousness' critique of reification, ideology, and reified consciousness remains highly topical in the age of digital capitalism and big data. Lukács' analysis allows us to critically analyse how social media, big data, and various other Internet technologies are used as tools of reification. At the same time, Lukács reminds us that only human praxis can establish alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers on digital divides have identified demographic and attitudinal factors associated with inequalities in access, skills, and patterns of Internet use, primarily around age, income, and education. While the attitudes and values of Internet users and non-users have been studied over the years, they have rarely been used to identify broader ‘cultures of the Internet’ and their role in shaping digital divides. This paper builds on research in Britain, which focused on patterns of attitudes underpinning Internet cultures, to explore the degree that similar or distinctive cultures have developed in the USA, and whether and how they are useful in explaining digital divides. This study utilizes original data drawn from a telephone survey of residents across the State of Michigan that adapted survey items and methods from the Oxford Internet Survey of Britain. Based on these survey responses, the paper identifies and describes the cultures of the Internet among Michigan residents, as an exploratory case of the US as a whole, and shows how these cultures shape digital divides in Internet access and social media use. The robustness and explanatory power of these explorations of Internet cultures argue for further research on the United States and for comparative research with other nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of considering the family context in the adoption and use of the Internet are well recognised. Supporters of the digital inclusion agenda often see children as a way to increase the digital skills and use of the Internet by parents and older adults. However, there is a limited amount of research that has explored whether this is really the case. Using two nationally representative survey data sets from Britain, this paper aims to better understand the links between children and adults' use of the Internet within the same household. In this paper, we ask what influence children have on adults' Internet use, skills and engagement. The paper concludes that while children might influence uptake, characteristics of the adult (for example. education, age and social capital) are more important in relation to their skills and engagement with the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The socio-technological context of health care wherein patient-consumer involvement is central increases the importance of examining the impact of Internet information on health-related attitudes and behavior. This paper examined the extent to which deployment of e-health information is associated with patient distrust and non-adherence. We examined the hypothesized associations in gender-stratified subsamples to uncover whether any differential patterns of associations exist among women and men. Our analyses allowed for estimation of significant covariate effects at the composite index and item level for both men and women while controlling for the moderation effect of race/ethnicity. Results indicate differential outcomes for patient distrust and non-adherence depending on socio-demographic characteristics. Findings suggest that it is not just health-related information that influences health-related behavior, but also mechanisms through which socio-demographic characteristics shape whether Internet use is associated with distrust and patient non-adherence. e-Health information consumers are overall less trustful and more likely to deviate from health care provider treatment. Non-adherence among those who consume e-health information is more pronounced for non-white women. Highly educated non-white men were more likely to diverge from their medical care provider's treatment recommendations than White men. Given the increasing diversification of the demographic profile of the U.S. population, understanding the dynamics though which health-related Internet use becomes racialized and gendered represents a critical contribution to the literature on Internet and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a contextualized analysis of the ways that organizers did and did not use Internet-enabled communication technologies in an organizing context in which material inequality was a prominent focus: a local homeless movement. Few studies on ICTs and social movements have taken seriously the very real material inequalities that structure technology use. While all movements include participants that either do not have access to ICTs or choose not to use them based on organizing contexts, these participants have been systematically excluded from analysis in the rush to understand how a narrow technological elite think, feel, and act in relation to ICTs. This paper draws on a communication-oriented participant observation of three overlapping campaigns to examine the communication practices employed by both housed and unhoused organizers: a campaign to ‘Stop the Sweeps’ of urban homeless encampments, a direct action tent-city project aimed at providing emergency shelter for up to 1,000 people called ‘Nickelsville’, and a campaign to stop the construction of a new jail organized around the ‘No New Jail’ slogan. Four themes are presented that characterize the strategies organizers used in communicating within and between constituents: how organizers emphasized ‘relational’ face-to-face communication, used ICTs to connect with housed allies, encouraged participants to move from the computer screen to street, and relied upon existing organizationally sponsored communications infrastructure in facilitating communication tasks. This paper proposes that an analysis of communication practices broadly defined is important in understanding the role of technologies of communication more specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a fundamental empirical question using data collected in a northeastern US city: does deliberation occur in online forums? While face-to-face deliberation is well documented, there are few empirical studies that address its online counterpart. Deliberation is supposed to foster an educative, rational, open and inclusive dialogue that leads to legitimate policy outcomes. In this paper, the authors develop and operationalize a measure of deliberation in order to investigate the extent to which it is manifested online. In particular, the authors study five regionally defined web forums hosted by the primary newspaper of a mid-sized northeastern US city. Drawing a two-week sample of posts from these forums, the authors then examine them for indicators of deliberation. Firstly, this paper addresses research about if and how the internet affects social life, including traditional notions of deliberation. Next, the authors argue that sociological studies of democratic participation require conceptualization of lived deliberation, and outline a Symbolic Interactionist approach to studying online, deliberative interaction in order to do so. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this work for future theory and empirical investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how participatory inequalities are (re)produced in eDeliberation, a practice that purposely fosters open, fair, and rational discussions among citizens over the Internet. Relying on the theoretical traditions of Bourdieu's capital and actor-network theory, this paper proposes that technical capital, along with social, economic, cultural, and symbolic capital, function in eDeliberation as inequality makers. Two cases of eDeliberation practices conducted in the United States serve as the sources of data. Both statistical analyses of close-ended questions and a qualitative content analysis of open-ended questions from surveys were used to generate the empirical findings. Technical capital is found to reproduce existing inequalities through the unequal accumulation rates and the unbalanced convertibility associated with different actors. Both theoretical and practical implications of the findings are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between Internet use and political participation among Australian young people. Based on original survey data it demonstrates that there clearly exists a ‘digital divide’ amongst 18–34-year-old Australians, which is delineated on demographic characteristics of geography, education level, income level and occupational classification. While the Internet has far from replaced the traditional information sources of television and newspapers, it does, however, facilitate participation undertaken by already politically engaged young people. The Internet has fundamental importance in facilitating information sharing and organizing for young people involved in activist and community groups. The paper also provides case studies of two non-government, youth-oriented organizations with participatory Internet sites (Vibewire Youth Services and Inspire Foundation) to further explore the potential of Internet enhancement of young people's autonomous political spaces. One site provides Internet-only, youth-specific mental health services and has developed a portal for active community-based participation. It has won commendations for encouraging youth ownership of service provision and providing space for youth participation. The other site provides discussion and journalism for and by young people on a range of cultural, social and political issues. This site also engages in mainstream political issues through ‘electiontracker’, which provided four young people with the opportunity to join the mainstream media in following and reporting on the 2004 Australian federal election campaign. The focus in this paper on heterogenous acts of participation is able to expand our understanding of the democratizing potential of young people's Internet-based political practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust in the Internet and related information and communication technologies – ‘cybertrust’ – could be critical to the successful development of ‘e-services’, such as e-government, e-commerce, e-learning and democratic participation in the rapidly expanding online public sphere. This paper explores trust in cyberspace based on an analysis of data from an Oxford Internet Survey conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute using a multi-stage, national probability sample in Great Britain. The paper highlights various perspectives on the meaning of trust and draws on findings from the Oxford Internet Survey to explore and refine key social determinants of cybertrust. Evidence from this research provides fresh insights into the factors shaping trust in the Internet, arguing that cybertrust, defined as a confident expectation, is influenced by experience, defined operationally by several indicators of proximity to the Internet, in ways shaped by educational background. The potential for using these results to better understand the role of trust on Internet use is addressed, as well as the more indirect implications for reinforcing digital divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new media industries are popularly regarded as cool, creative and egalitarian. This view is held by academics, policy-makers and also by new media workers themselves, who cite the youth, dynamism and informality of new media as some of its main attractions. This paper is concerned with what this mythologized version of new media work leaves out, glosses over and, indeed, makes difficult to articulate at all. Themes include pervasive insecurity, low pay, and long hours but the particular focus of the paper is on gender inequalities in new media work. Despite its image as 'cool', non-hierarchical and egalitarian, the new media sector, this paper will argue, is characterized by a number of entrenched and all too old-fashioned patterns of gender inequality relating to education, access to work and pay. Moreover, a number of new forms of gender inequality are emerging, connected – paradoxically – to many of the features of the work that are valued – informality,autonomy,flexibility and so on. Drawing on a study of 125 freelance new media workers in six European countries, this paper explores these issues and argues that the new forms of sexism in new media represent a serious challenge to its image of itself as cool, diverse and egalitarian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses three issues: the potential trade-offs of democracy and liberty that the Internet may produce, the connection between real life and cyberspace, and the consequences for the conceptual apparatus of political science. It is argued that the Internet and real worlds are entwined, and thus classic political trade-offs remain pertinent. Important normative issues are addressed. It is established that the Internet is a nearly-neutral medium, so it is important how its development and effects are controlled. It is argued that a privately-controlled Internet would have negative implications for citizenship, political democracy and liberty.However, it is shown that existing Internet politics is significantly democratic, and if the 'net was used within a system similar to existing arrangements, i.e. with checks and balances, then one could optimistically foresee enhanced democracy. In this relatively unexplored but rapidly changing area of political life, this paper serves as a simple warning - public good, private bad - and justifies this in terms of the potential trade-offs of political citizenship versus market consumerism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive media attention in and economic hopes placed on the Internet mean that measures of its size and distribution have been undertaken more often with an eye to business plans than to methodological rigour.This paper examines one disinterested source of Internet statistics, the Internet Domain Survey, to provide accurate measures of Internet size and distribution. Methodological issues in utilizing this survey are discussed to ensure the significance of findings is understood and to identify key methodological problems in a new field of research. Two particular problems are identified; the need to define user per computer host ratios and to identify the national origin of computers with international domain names. Statistics are presented from the five Internet Domain Surveys from January 1998 to January 2000 in the following categories: overall size, regional distribution, human development and economic distribution, linguistic distribution and user numbers. The conclusion is reached that even as the Internet is growing in all regions world-wide it remains concentrated in the highly developed nations. Some consideration of the implications of this for wider debates around the Internet is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the accelerated aging of the global population, countries must prepare to assure their older adults’ welfare. The Internet appears to be a means of ensuring that everybody, regardless of age, has access to information and can stay in touch. Data so far show the existence of a digital divide, so the question becomes: Is there a way to accelerate the digital inclusion of older adults? Using microdata from Buenos Aires (Argentina), Lima (Peru) and Guatemala City (Guatemala), this paper focuses on the role of younger people in the household in the process of Internet adoption by older adults. Regression analysis confirms that younger people play a pivotal role in the adoption process, but not in intensity of use, in which living with a spouse or partner is important for increasing the number of hours spent using the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers on digital divides have identified demographic and attitudinal factors associated with inequalities in access, skills, and patterns of Internet use, primarily around age, income, and education. While the attitudes and values of Internet users and non-users have been studied over the years, they have rarely been used to identify broader ‘cultures of the Internet’ and their role in shaping digital divides. This paper builds on research in Britain, which focused on patterns of attitudes underpinning Internet cultures, to explore the degree that similar or distinctive cultures have developed in the USA, and whether and how they are useful in explaining digital divides. This study utilizes original data drawn from a telephone survey of residents across the State of Michigan that adapted survey items and methods from the Oxford Internet Survey of Britain. Based on these survey responses, the paper identifies and describes the cultures of the Internet among Michigan residents, as an exploratory case of the US as a whole, and shows how these cultures shape digital divides in Internet access and social media use. The robustness and explanatory power of these explorations of Internet cultures argue for further research on the United States and for comparative research with other nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the process through which Occupy activists came to constitute themselves as a collective actor and the role of social media in this process. The theoretical framework combines Melucci's (1996) theory of collective identity with insights from the field of organizational communication and particularly from the ‘CCO’ strand – short for ‘Communication is Constitutive of Organizing’. This allows us to conceptualize collective identity as an open-ended and dynamic process that is constructed in conversations and codified in texts. Based on interviews with Occupy activists in New York, London and other cities, I then discuss the communication processes through which the movement was drawing the boundaries with its environment, creating codes and foundational documents, as well as speaking in a collective voice. The findings show that social media tended to blur the boundaries between the inside and the outside of the movement in a way that suited its values of inclusiveness and direct participation. Social media users could also follow remotely the meetings of the general assembly where the foundational documents were ratified, but their voices were not included in the process. The presence of the movement on social media also led to conflicts and negotiations around Occupy's collective voice as constructed on these platforms. Thus, viewing the movement as a phenomenon emerging in communication allows us an insight into the efforts of Occupy activists to create a collective that was both inclusive of the 99% and a distinctive actor with its own identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the reworking of the traditional concepts and methods of Science and Technology Studies that is necessary in order to analyse the development and use of social media and other emerging information infrastructures (IIs). Through long-term studies of the development of two contrasting IIs, the paper examines theprosumer-management strategiesby which vendors manage their relationships with their diverse users. Despite the sharp differences between our cases – an online-game with social network features and traditional enterprise systems – we find striking homologies in the ways vendors manage the tensions underpinning the design and development of mass-market products. Thus theirknowledge infrastructures –the set of tools and instruments through which vendors maintain an adequate understanding of their multiple users – change in the face of competing exigencies. Market expansion may favour ‘efficient’ quantitative user assessment methods and the construction of abstractuser categoriesfor designing new generic solutions and services around market segments. However where a productextendsinto new and unfamiliar user markets the growingsocial distancebetween developer and user may call for ‘richer’ direct ways of knowing the user. We note the emergence of collective fora, which can provide a space for independent action and innovation by users. However, these were managed communities. Certain user relations functions were pushed out to the community or third-party organizations and at other times pulled back in-house – for example, to increase vendor direct control. This picture is far removed from the visions of seamless integration of producers and users encouraged by notions such as prosumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet is causing major changes in the field of political activism. One particularly significant case is the 15M movement, which emerged from a popular initiative organized in several Spanish cities in 2011. Based on the analysis of these protests as a case study, this paper has two aims: first, to examine the role of digital technology – websites and social networks – in the online organization of political activism; second, to analyse the relationships established between the conventional media on the one hand and activists on the other. The methodology combines the technique of in-depth interviews and qualitative analysis of reports, working papers and file data about 15M. The findings show an intensive use of digital technology by activists, both of their own social networks (for example, N-1) and commercial ones (Facebook or Twitter). These digital tools enabled them to disseminate their own information and optimize their internal organization. Theindignadosestablished an interplay between online activism and offline actions. Digital technology facilitated the organization of the mass gatherings in the streets. The possession of communicative and technical skills played an important part in organizing 15M. On the other hand, the relationship between journalists and activists was a difficult one. Theindignadosdid not follow the established patterns of the journalists’ work routines. The latter had to resort to the demonstrators’ websites and social networks to obtain information. The activists recognize that the conventional media were crucial to the protests achieving a widespread impact in the news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While internet connectivity is a key promise of progress and the rule of law, criminal contestation of state control over territory is considered one of the main obstacles for development. This article provides the first known quantitative approach to the link between urban lawlessness and internet provision. Taking the Santiago Metropolitan Region (SMR) – the capital of Chile – as a case study, the authors discuss the origins of Red Zones (areas where telecommunication companies do not provide fixed broadband). A first hypothesis is based on the corporate excuse given by telcos for Red Zones: criminal activities – and not just socioeconomic discrimination – are a force majeure that impede internet connectivity in specific neighbourhoods. An alternative hypothesis acknowledges criminal governance in Latin American cities, admitting the possibility of criminal redistribution being favourable to internet connectivity where state control is contested. Employing a random effects regression model with panel data from 52 boroughs during the 2012–2020 period, the two hypotheses are tested. Contestation of the territorial control by the state is significantly and positively correlated to fixed broadband connectivity in the SMA. In contrast, lower connectivity is linked to higher presence of poor households, favouring a profit-based explanation for the Red Zones. The results hold when replacing the percentage of contested territory per borough with the murder rates. This research contributes to heterodox views within institutional economics and highlights the need of state-led redistribution in order to retake control of contested territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes three contributions: first, we suggest a clear, concise definition of Web 2.0, something that has eluded other authors, including the Tim O'Reilly the originator of the concept. Second, prior work has focused largely on the implications of Web 2.0 for producers of content, usually corporations or government agencies. This paper is one of the few analyses of Web 2.0 from the point of view of users. Third, we characterize the creative activity of Web 2.0 users. In addition to their active content production, they are unusually active users of the Internet for entertainment. In multivariate models predicting Web 2.0, the most consistently important variables are technical ability, comfort revealing personal data and, particularly, Web 2.0 confidence. These variables suggest that despite the apparent simplicity of FaceBook or of typing a book review on Amazon, ability remains very important in the eyes of users. For many, there appears to be something daunting about contributing to Web 2.0 activity and many potential users remain, rightly or wrongly, uncertain of their ability to make a contribution. We conclude that the study of Web 2.0 can tell us much about how the Internet is unique, and that it warrants a significant scholarly attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wikipedia, a publicly edited online encyclopedia, is accessed by millions of users for answers to questions from trivial to high-stakes topics like health information. This new type of information resource may pose novel challenges for readers when it comes to evaluating the quality of content, yet very little is known about how Wikipedia readers understand and interpret the material they find on the site. Do people know that anyone can edit the site? And if so, what does this fact lead them to believe about the reliability of Wikipedia or particular articles therein? This study analyzes the information-seeking behavior of a diverse group of 210 college students from two Midwestern US universities as a first step towards addressing these questions. This paper found that a few students demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the Wikipedia editing process, while most had some understanding of how the site functions and a few lacked even such basic knowledge as the fact that anyone can edit the site. Although many study participants had been advised by their instructors not to cite Wikipedia articles in their schoolwork, students nonetheless often use it in their everyday lives. This paper lays the groundwork for further research to determine the extent of Wikipedia knowledge in the broader population and in additional diverse contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technologies such as the internet offer tremendous and potentially transformative possibilities for imagining and living with others. The possibility for new ways of being together raises the question of appropriate concepts, languages and theories to describe, analyse and engage with these social forms and practices. Network and community concepts and rhetoric are most commonly employed for this purpose, yet the differences between them and the rationale for their specific uses are unclear. In order to gain a more nuanced and informed picture, this paper attempts a very broad overview of the fields of network and community theory particularly in relation to technologically mediated social practices. The intent is to begin mapping the uses, limitations and strengths of community and network theory. In the process, the paper will bring to light some of the tensions, issues and concerns surrounding the analysis of technosociality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the consumption of online news at the place of work and during work hours, which are relatively new temporal and spatial coordinates of news consumption for large segments of the population. This novel phenomenon is analysed to make descriptive and conceptual contributions to scholarship on news consumption, in particular, and technology and society, in general. Descriptively, the analysis reveals the emergence of discontinuous features of online consumption 'at work' within the context of continuity in some elements of news consumption in print and broadcast media. Conceptually, the analysis underscores the continued relevance of the notions of routines, space, time, and sociability to make sense of news consumption. But, it also shows the need to renew the understanding of how each of these conceptual tools matter when the media change from print and broadcast to digital and the practices of consumption coincide with those of work. The paper also suggests revisiting the boundaries between work and home and between the instrumental and leisure purposes of consuming communication technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Victoria Carty on the impact of MoveOn policy advocacy organization, one by Jennifer Earl on the origin and scope of controversial politics on and offline and one by Dana Fisher and Marije Boekkooi political activism.

What role does the Internet play in mobilizing participants in days of action? Although most research has focused on the way that computer-mediated communication is changing transnational collective action, it is unclear how social movement reliance on this new form of communication is modifying protest within nation-states. This paper analyses how participants in a national day of action in the United States were mobilized, focusing on the role that the Internet played. We find that a very high percentage of participants in all cities heard about the day of action through e-mail lists or websites. Those who mobilized through the Internet, however, were very different from those who mobilized through personal and organizational ties. In particular, the participants who heard about the event through all channels of mediated communication - including the Internet - were much more likely to come to the event alone than those who heard about it through their social networks. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of our findings to collective action and civic participation in the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on several larger literatures on diffusion processes, including literatures on the diffusion of innovations, disease spread, and the diffusion of information, this paper examines the classes of diffusion processes that may be relevant to understanding online protest and social movements. The author also argues that one commonly studied type of online, protest-related diffusion process - the online diffusion of information - has only minor theoretical implications for social movement theory. Two other diffusion processes - the diffusion of online, protest-related innovations and the diffusion of protest in its many forms as a problem-solving heuristic to new populations - are likely to qualitatively alter other (non-diffusion) social movement processes, creating important second-order, theoretical effects from these types of diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to review the main questions dealt with by the literature on the effect of Internet on political participation. The paper distinguishes three relevant aspects: the estimation of the impact of Internet on the levels and types of political participation; the analysis of the causal mechanisms that lie behind the relationship between Internet use and participation; and the effect of the Internet on participatory inequalities. We conclude by identifying the aspects on which there is a relative consensus among scholars, the debates surrounding controversial conclusions obtained from different empirical analyses, and those questions where further research seems particularly necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication technologies have historically isolated D/deaf and hard of hearing people from information in mainstream society, for example, the telephone, radio, and television are all inaccessible to D/deaf without relay services or subtitles. This paper therefore begins by examining the consequences for D/deaf people's personal information landscapes of their exclusion from traditional off-line Information sources. It then goes onto examine how D/deaf people are using the Internet to access general and Deaf information sources, and how these practices are affecting their information capacities, and social relations. The paper concludes by reflecting on some of the constraints on Deaf people's abilities to make full and effective use of this information and communication resource and the complex, and sometimes paradoxical roles, the Internet plays in relation to D/deaf people's integration in hearing society. It important to know more about how the Internet is currently benefiting/failing to meet the needs of this group in order to further develop appropriate information resources and services for D/deaf people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of ways that people communicate with their social networks has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Traditionally, the local community was the basis for people's social interactions; most of people's closest friends resided locally and face-to-face communication was the predominant mode of communication. Yet, today face-to-face meetings are no longer the primary way to communicate as one can use a landline telephone or any number of the computer mediated communications such as email. This paper explores the modes of communication rural individuals use most often with their three closest friends and how these modes of communication vary by three factors: (1) social tie locality, (2) frequency of communication, and (3) degree of Internet usage. Using a 2005 random sample mail survey of 1,315 residents in an isolated region of the Western United States, the results show that people actively use email to maintain core social networks, particularly when alters live at a distance. However, contradictory to previous research, the results suggest that increases in Internet usage are associated with decreases in other modes of communication, with proficiency of Internet use serving as a mediating factor in this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usage of technologies, it has been argued, creates social and political malaise. Television was perceived to be the first culprit and it seems that the internet is being dubbed as the 'new television'. As such, this paper focuses on the relationship between internet usage and time spent with friends and family, as well as other associational activities. A secondary concern is the impact of internet usage on traditional media usage, namely watching television and reading newspapers. By critiquing methods and results in this area, and by offering further empirical evidence, it will be argued that the internet has yet to have a significant impact on time use in social life. Using Home Online (HoL) data, and employing factor analysis and lagged regression models, it will be demonstrated that some negative, marginal effects appear to have taken place in terms of reducing bonding social capital. It will also be demonstrated that counter-intuitive positive effects appear to have taken place in terms of reading newspapers. Given the negative time elasticity effects of internet usage on seeing close friends as well as some domestic activities, analyses of the internet's impact on relationships within the home, that is, family life, should be the focus of future research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major debate has erupted in recent work on social movements about the role of the state in protest, with some advocating alternative approaches to the study of social movements, such as a focus on institutional authorities. Using data on four types of online protest (petitions, boycotts, and letter-writing and email campaigns), acquired using an innovative new methodology that produces a generalizable sample of online protest actions, this paper addresses this debate. While the state is a frequent target of online protest, a significant portion of protest activity targets other institutional authorities. The authors' analyses disaggregate the state and distinguish between types of institutional authorities, further deepening the understanding of both state and non-state actors. Their data also suggest an association between tactical forms and their targets. Finally, by using Internet data, this paper contributes to an under-studied area of social movement research: online protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the rapid adoption of online social network sites (also known as social networking sites) (SNSs) by students on a US college campus. Using quantitative (n = 713) and qualitative (n = 51) data based on a diverse sample of college students, demographic and other characteristics of SNS users and non-users are compared. Starting with the theoretical frameworks of Robin Dunbar and Erving Goffman, this paper situates SNS activity under two rubrics: (1) social grooming; and (2) presentation of the self. This study locates these sites within the emergence of social computing and makes a conceptual distinction between the expressive Internet, the Internet of social interactions, and the instrumental Internet, the Internet of airline tickets and weather forecasts. This paper compares and contrasts the user and non-user populations in terms of expressive and instrumental Internet use, social ties and attitudes toward social-grooming, privacy and efficiency. Two clusters are found to influence SNS adoption: attitudes towards social grooming and privacy concerns. It is especially found that non-users display an attitude towards social grooming (gossip, small-talk and generalized, non-functional people-curiosity) that ranges from incredulous to hostile. Contrary to expectations, non-users do not report a smaller number of close friends compared with users, but they do keep in touch with fewer people. Users of SNS are also heavier users of the expressive Internet, while there is no difference in use of instrumental Internet. Gender also emerges as an important predictor. These findings highlight the need to differentiate between the different modalities of Internet use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to technologically deterministic approaches that focus on how communication technology affects social relationships, this paper examines how individuals draw on a variety of commonly used communication media in conjunction with in-person contact to stay connected to their personal networks. I term this use of multiple communication media the 'personal communication system'. Findings are based on a random sample telephone survey of 2200 adults living throughout the continental USA. Descriptive statistics show that despite the popularity of email and mobile phones, in-person and landline phone contact are still the most common ways of connecting with personal networks. Multivariate analysis reveals a more complex picture of media use, showing that the extent to which each medium is used varies to differing degrees with the size and diversity of personal networks. Hierarchical cluster analysis is used to explore the possibility that individuals may have different types of personal communication systems. Results show only two distinct clusters: those who draw heavily on all types of media to connect with their personal networks and those who draw less heavily on all types of media. Heavy communicators typically have larger and more diverse personal networks than light communicators. When taken together, the results presented in this paper suggest that rather than radically altering relationships, communication technology is embedded in social networks as part of a larger communication system that individuals use to stay socially connected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadband changes everything. Or so we are told. But does it? There is only one way to find out - follow people who move from narrowband to broadband internet access and see what changes. This paper reports exactly this kind of analysis using data from a two wave European panel study (e-Living) and the lagged endogenous regression approach to see if switching to broadband increases the time spent online, the use of online communication services, the breadth of internet activities and the amount of online spend, and whether it decreases the time spent watching TV and the level of social leisure activities. The results suggest, in the main, that switching to broadband made little difference for this group of early broadband adopters who were already heavy internet users. There was no evidence of an online spend or social leisure substitution effect although there was evidence of a reduction in time spent watching television, and an increase in email in use, time spent online and breadth of internet use. In all cases however it was the previous levels of behaviour that were the most significant and switching to broadband was, in general, one of the least strong effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the metaphor of mapping has been formative in the public's apprehension of Internet technologies since the early 1990s. It explores how cyberspace was represented as a map in popular films and novels as well as by popular commentators and thought leaders. Jean Baudrillard's contention that the 'map precedes the territory' is indicative of a view of cyberspace or virtual reality that was contained and separate from lived experience. But with the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies, this began to change. Frederic Jameson's conception of the cognitive map better describes how users have come to order and plot their lives into dynamic interfaces. Google Maps and the myriad of applications that followed brought the physical location of users and data into clear view. While location has promised tremendous freedoms for users, this paper questions whether or not those freedoms are outside the significant constraints of the consumer network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into the adoption and use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) pays increasing attention to social context; however, the social fabric of contexts of use is often poorly theorized. This paper presents an investigation into the formation and operation of informal local networks of collaboration and knowledge exchange. It highlights the role of local experts in sustaining these informal networks and helping individuals and groups adopt and cope with new ICTs. The paper draws on a range of analytic traditions, including domestication and consumer research, to assess how local experts transfer knowledge, ideas of use and even new technologies across social networks and across the boundaries between home, work and education and other domains of life. The methodology deployed attempts to overcome the limitations of many studies of the adoption and diffusion of innovations in sample selection, especially the inclusion of non-adopters. It addresses the social dynamics of engagement with new technologies and proposes a move beyond a simple individualistic adopter/non-adopter model, with consequent implications for understanding digital inclusion and exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet is becoming an integral part of everyday life and digital inclusion is becoming a prerequisite for social inclusion. There is a risk that marginalized groups in deprived areas may be excluded from the Information Society, being affected by the ‘dual digital divide’. This paper concerns two community initiatives designed to encourage digital and social inclusion in a disadvantaged area: a Local Net and an IT-Café. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data from a case study in a suburb of Stockholm is used to examine the two schemes in terms of their success in bridging the dual digital divide. Despite good intentions, the Local Net, with its provision of home access to local web pages, largely failed to achieve its goals. In contrast, the IT-Café, with its public access to ICTs, has increased digital and social inclusion of those residents who make use of it. Six reasons for the difference in success between the two computer projects are identified: (1) timing, (2) management, (3) cost, (4) support and training, (5) context of access and (6) project focus. The provision of subsidized public access, the informal face-to-face computer support and training provided by a local resident working in the IT-Café, and the ease with which both virtual and physical meetings can be supported are factors underlying the success of the IT-Café. The paper concludes that access, skills and motivation are prerequisites for a digitally inclusive society. To be on the right side of the (dual) digital divide it is vital to have physical access to technologies, but also to have the skills and motivation to use them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the dystopian and utopian academic literature on technology present either a pessimistic or optimistic picture of its societal impact, people's everyday uses of technology often counter such views. This paper examines the selective uses of technology, and particularly communications technology, in the everyday practices of homesteaders, or members of the ‘back to the land’ movement in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. Using an ethnographic approach, this study analyzes how homesteaders' ideology of voluntary simplicity informs their complex, everyday engagement with technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, there has been limited research into the issue of the digital divide. Even less attention has been given to the social and spatial characteristics of this phenomenon, particularly within metropolitan areas. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining the social and spatial characteristics of computer and Internet use in Sydney. The findings suggest that those individuals who are socially and economically disadvantaged have lower rates of computer and Internet use, and that these individuals also risk exacerbating their disadvantage status if these demand-side barriers are not addressed. If we are to address disparities in computer and Internet use in Australia we need to consider more fully the social and spatial nature of such disparities that prevent individuals from accessing such technologies in an increasingly ‘wired’ world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of communication media and the Internet on connectivity between people. Results from a series of social network studies of media use are used as background for exploration of these impacts. These studies explored the use of all available media among members of an academic research group and among distance learners. Asking about media use as well as about the strength of the tie between communicating pairs revealed that those more strongly tied used more media to communicate than weak ties, and that media use within groups conformed to a unidimensional scale, showing a configuration of different tiers of media use supporting social networks of different ties strengths. These results lead to a number of implications regarding media and Internet connectivity, including: how media use can be added to characteristics of social network ties; how introducing a medium can create latent tie connectivity among group members that provides the technical means for activating weak ties, and also how a change in a medium can disrupt existing weak tie networks; how the tiers of media use also suggest that certain media support different kinds of information flow; and the importance of organization-level decisions about what media to provide and promote. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for Internet effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Websites are often used by governments to articulate particular views on international affairs, and even to lobby for a particular position. Using work by Arquilla and Ronfeldt (1999), Castells (2001) and Chadwick (2001) as a theoretical framework for understanding the importance that cyberspace holds for governments and states, the author analyzes the efforts of the Slovenian Ministry of Defense (MoD) to adopt the Internet to communicate with publics it defined as important. Through this website, the MoD literally served as a combatant in the noosphere, while displaying tendencies that Chadwick argues serves particular purposes in maintaining domestic political legitimacy. The analysis is based on a socio-semiotic approach (Hodge & Kress 1988) dependent on a well-developed understanding of the context within which signs and symbols exist. The paper outlines the role of the military in Slovenia, incorporates interview data with public relations staff in and then links these to a descriptive analysis of website content. The paper concludes that it is important for non-hegemonic states to actively contest cyberspace images in the noosphere, if only to serve the domestic public the state needs for legitimacy. Further directions in comparative work are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a number of analysts have argued that the Internet demonstrates an inexorable pull towards democratization of public life. The overwhelming majority of analysis conducted to understand the democratic potential of the Internet has taken place in Western Europe and North America, where democratic traditions are firmly established, and there is widespread acceptance of the liberal democratic norms arising from three hundred years of a set of religious and philosophical traditions. To date, research on the democratizing impact of the Internet outside these traditions has been sparse and incidental, rather than comprehensive and sustained. In Asia, however, recent events have threatened the vision of the democratizing power of the Internet, as politically oriented websites have suffered from dwindling economies and governmental pressure, as well as hackers. This paper will survey the state of the Internet and democracy in Asia, drawing from data compiled as part of two recent research projects, the most systematic and sustained efforts yet to take place to examine these questions. The paper will present data from nine nations across Asia, including China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and others, and identify the critical variables that are most directly affecting the ability of new political participants to effectively deploy the Internet for mobilization. This analysis will demonstrate the ways in which the reality of politics in Asia significantly modifies the findings of researchers examining the political impact of the Internet within the established democratic nations of North America and Western Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper raises the question of the significance of information practices for individuals' management of personal health. In particular, it focuses on the notion of an 'informed patient'. The question of expertise is examined first through an analysis of the nature of information sought, the trust placed in information sources and the challenge to professional authority, and then in the light of the everyday dimension of information seeking that pervades all living interactions. Taking the case of online health information seekers, the paper is based on interviews conducted with Internet users, using the electronic medium for health information. Study findings reveal the everyday dimension of the information sought and the importance of 'experiential knowledge' over medical expertise. Rather than dismissing experts' authority, findings show how the mediated environment of the Internet favours a process of displacing and regaining trust in professionals. The paper argues that the use of the Internet by a lay public for health information reflects individuals' socio-cultural information contexts, drawing the contours of a responsible project of health by means of information. 'Informed patients' are negotiating agents whose health responsibility is both a matter of increasing knowledge about everyday experience as part of a reflexive project and a matter of locating this project within a broader informational environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]