Search

Bridging third wave HCI with infrastructure studies, this paper examines the relationship between infrastructural visibility, breakdown, and experience through an existentialist lens. We present and theorize a state of infrastructural functionality – which we term 'hyper-functionality' – that renders infrastructure visible because of its experiential effects on end-users, not necessarily because of malfunction. We introduce this term through the presentation of a story from the life of one of the authors in which an infrastructural assemblage behaved unexpectedly, giving rise to the experience of the absurd – a feeling of alienation from oneself and the technological assemblages that constitute one's daily world. We explore the applicability of hyper-functionality for the interpretation and theorization of larger-scale scenarios by using it to interpret reactions to the role that social media – Facebook in particular – played in the troubled United States presidential election in 2016. We contend that the existentialist-tinted lens of hyper-functionality constitutes a novel and meaningful way of analyzing the human experience of the mundane in relation to infrastructures, thus forming the basis for a humanistic infrastructure studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people living in rural communities have unique needs related to cultural and information access about their identities. A growing body of literature is concerned with the experiences of rural LGBTQ people's experiences and their use of information and communication technologies for supporting identity and community. However, there is opportunity to better understand relationships between various information sources and how information access itself lends to the creation of queer communities. Seeing the need for a more holistic understanding of the LGBTQ information landscape, this study builds on existing work with rural LGBTQ people, and asks how do rural LGBTQ people get access to information about sexual and gender identity and how is that information embedded through the practice of circulation? Drawing from ethnographic research in a rural region of the Midwestern United States, this study proposes the concept of queer information literacy: a process through which LGBTQ people find, recognize, share, and create information related to their sexual and gender identities. Using queer information literacy as a framework, the paper shows how disparate information access results in the formation of different, and often conflicting, LGBTQ experiences. [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]

F. W. Taylor (1856–1915) is a seminal figure in the history of industrial society and a key reference point for the study of technology, work and the organization of production. This paper locates Taylor's work in the broad historical development of formal systems and ‘rational’ management. The paper notes the historical continuities that link the ‘technologies of control’ which emerged in US industry during Taylor's lifetime and those which appear in contemporary work organizations. This is counterpoised with recent comment on the information technology and the ‘end’ of Taylorist work practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online social networks are an important setting for understanding the intersection of online communities and offline political processes. This paper analyzes the different ways that people discuss elections on Twitter. Using data from a random sample totaling 113,985 tweets and 30,995 users, we examine the differences between users who employ various strategies to talk about US 2010 Congressional candidates. We show that users who simply include the text of a candidate's name in a message exhibit different behaviors than those who use platform-specific mechanisms. Users who employ free-text tend to have younger accounts, are less likely to be ‘verified’, and generate fewer messages about candidates. Furthermore, candidates’ share of the free-text Twitter public has a larger correlation with their vote tallies than @mentions or hashtags. This research has methodological implications for studying the dynamics between online discourse and offline behavior. Overall, our findings support the view that forms of communication that are more accessible are more indicative of broader social trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite both scholarly and popular claims that citizen journalism (CJ) represents a growing democratizing force in the journalistic field, recent scholarship in the area has noted the decline of the organizational population of CJ. In this paper, we investigate how individual characteristics of sites and the dynamics of larger organizational population affect a CJ site’s risk of experiencing a mortality. Drawing on the largest sample to date of US-based English-language CJ sites, this study examines the risk of site mortality through an event history framework. Findings indicate that the strongest predictor of a site’s mortality is the age of the site, consistent with organizational population theory’s ‘liability of newness.’ We also find that for-profit and community-based sites have lower rates of site mortality, indicating that adopting legitimate conventions of journalism may serve as a protective buffer to site death. The results offer mixed evidence on whether CJ has become more professionalized via attrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the uses of Twitter by populist presidents in contemporary Latin America in the context of the debates about whether populism truly represents a revolution in public communication – that is, overturning the traditional hierarchical model in favor of popular and participatory communication. In principle, Twitter makes it possible to promote the kind of interactive communication often praised in populist rhetoric. It offers a flattened communication structure in contrast to the top–down structure of the traditional legacy media. It is suitable for horizontal, unmediated exchanges between politicians and citizens. Our findings, however, suggest that Twitter does not signal profound changes in populist presidential communication. Rather, it represents the continuation of populism’s top–down approach to public communication. Twitter has not been used to promote dialogue among presidents and publics or to shift conventional practices of presidential communication. Instead, Twitter has been used to reach out the public and the media without filters or questions. It has been incorporated into the presidential media apparatus as another platform to shape news agenda and public conversation. Rather than engaging with citizens to exchange views and listen to their ideas, populists have used Twitter to harass critical journalists, social media users and citizens. Just like legacy media, Twitter has been a megaphone for presidential attacks on the press and citizens. It has provided with a ready-made, always available platforms to lash out at critics, conduct personal battles, and get media attention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the description of the 2012 election as the ‘most tweeted’ political event in US history in mind, considering the relative media invisibility of the so-called ‘third-party’ presidential candidates in the US election process, and utilizing the understanding of retweeting as conversational practice, the purpose of this paper is to examine the use of Twitter by the four main ‘third-party’ US presidential candidates in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election in order to better understand (1) the volume of tweets produced by the candidates; (2) the level of interaction by followers in the form of retweeting candidate/party tweets; and, (3), the subject and content of the tweets most retweeted by followers of the respective parties. The ultimate goal of the paper is to generate a broader picture of how Twitter was utilized by minority party candidates, as well as identifying the issues which led followers (and their respective followers) to engage in the ‘conversational’ act of retweeting. [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]

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]

This paper takes a disability studies perspective on the history of the development of web content accessibility policies in the United States. Using procedural documents, popular press accounts, and policy documents themselves, augmented by personal interviews with key participants, I sketch a critical history of accessible web development. First, I argue that the world wide web consortium accessibility guidelines (WCAG 1.0, 1999) and US government Section 508 standards (2001) emerged out of the confluence of three trends: the ongoing work on telecommunications accessibility, the increasing attention to the civil rights of people with disabilities under a social model of disability, and the development of and enthusiasm for the Internet and the Web. A key tension can be traced through these historical processes, as both documents grappled with concepts of accessibility as it related to usability, universal design principles, and disability status. In my analysis of this tension, I use the recurrent theme of variation to develop a productive and progressive notion of 'access' that challenges understandings of accessibility as based on accommodating disability. By centering variation, accessibility can address a range of bodily differences, including (but not limited to) disability, and create a more inclusive cultural and political sphere online. Finally, I argue that variation has also proven productive for theoretical models of disability and for new media studies, and thus it may hold great promise for the future expansion of accessible web content across a variety of sites and Web2.0 services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the inception of electronic community networks in the LISA in the 1970s, their goal has remained the provision of support to help the organization of communities at a local level. Despite major commonalities, the authors of this paper identify three generations that coincide roughly with the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. They are clearly differentiated in terms of technology, applications, organization and key actors. This analysis of the US experience of community networks draws on Karl Mannheim's sociological concept of generations to help understand change and adaptability in sociotechnical systems. It is the combined influence of the respective zeitgeist, the advent of a new technology, the influences of technical predecessors, and the appearance of new groups of actors that lead to a generational change. Options for the future of not-for-profit community networks and the possible emergence of a fourth generation are presented which, in the opinion of the authors, lie in a return to their roots. A brief overview of community networks in Europe is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For-profit firms use the internet to offer classes, courses and degree programmes in direct competition with nonprofit and government-supported colleges and universities. At the same time, many firms seek to partner with academic institutions in offering online instruction or distance learning.This paper outlines and discusses alternative models of academic/for-profit collaboration that are being developed in the USA. Collaboration requires the partners to define responsibilities for technology, administrative services, content development, promotion and student selection, instruction, awarding of credits and overall quality control. Firms may want to 'unbundle' the traditional faculty role of both course designer and teacher,and use different professionals for the two functions. Although most collaborations today involve non-degree programmes, many schools of business are working with for-profit firms to offer MBA degrees online. The diversity of higher education in the USA means that many different models will be tried. Collaborations will expand the markets for online distance learning, but a number of difficult issues remain to be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many advocates of computer-mediated distance education emphasize its positive aspects and understate the kinds of communicative and technical capabilities and work required by students and faculty. There are few systematic analytical studies of students who have experienced new technologies in higher education. This article presents a qualitative case study of a small graduate-level web-based distance education course at a major US university.This paper examines students' distressing experiences due to communication breakdowns and technical difficulties. This topic is glossed over in much of the distance education literature written for administrators, instructors and prospective students. The intent is that this study will enhance understanding of the instructional design issues, instructor and student preparation, and communication practices that are needed to improve web-based distance education courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The USA has always prided itself on the defence of freedom for all its peoples, democracy as well as being on the leading edge of innovations. The USA, therefore, is a particularly unique setting for an examination of the rhetoric associated with the politics of adopting online learning technologies. This paper examines the context of the US on-line learning system with a particular focus on those aspects of the movement which appeal so keenly to Americans. Certain values are expressed in this movement which are almost uniquely American such as democracy, freedom, efficiency, independence, the vocational nature of education, and meritocratic schemes for education as a sorting mechanism for the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algorithmic profiling has become increasingly prevalent in many social fields and practices, including finance, marketing, law, cultural consumption and production, and social engagement. Although researchers have begun to investigate algorithmic profiling from various perspectives, socio-technical studies of algorithmic profiling that consider users' everyday perceptions are still scarce. In this article, we expand upon existing user-centered research and focus on people's awareness and imaginaries of algorithmic profiling, specifically in the context of social media and targeted advertising. We conducted an online survey geared toward understanding how Facebook users react to and make sense of algorithmic profiling when it is made visible. The methodology relied on qualitative accounts as well as quantitative data from 292 Facebook users in the United States and their reactions to their algorithmically inferred 'Your Interests' and 'Your Categories' sections on Facebook. The results illustrate a broad set of reactions and rationales to Facebook's (public-facing) algorithmic profiling, ranging from shock and surprise, to accounts of how superficial – and in some cases, inaccurate – the profiles were. Taken together with the increasing reliance on Facebook as critical social infrastructure, our study highlights a sense of algorithmic disillusionment requiring further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High incarceration rates and a focus on incapacitation during incarceration lead to a 'revolving door effect' in the United States, with more than two thirds of parolees rearrested within three years of release. One aspect that is missing from efforts to resolve the revolving door effect is how access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) might improve the reentry process. Focus groups with 73 male and female returning citizens in a large Midwestern city examined which types of ICTs parolees use and for what purposes; what the key barriers to access and use are; and which kinds of ICTs parolees need for reentry services. Our findings show that both access and lack of skills are barriers to using ICTs, with many perceived negative effects reported by our participants. As part of our policy recommendations, we stress the importance of including ICT training during and after incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding is becoming a popular way of financing healthcare. Some commentators suggest that crowdfunding could serve as a new institution that fills gaps in conventional safety nets. Others suggest that crowdfunding is simply another way of obtaining help from family, friends, and local associations, and has little transformative potential. We provide one of the first quantitative analyses of medical crowdfunding, and the first to model the broader societal context in which campaigns are situated. We scraped data on US medical campaigns from the leading platform and combined them with county-level socioeconomic data, to model predictors of campaign frequency and success. Our findings suggest that many seek help from crowdfunding when both formal and informal conventional safety nets fail them. Significantly more campaigns are initiated in US counties with poorer private insurance coverage, lower social security provision, fewer social associations, and weaker cultures of giving. However, few campaigns reach their goals where most needed. More successful campaigns are found in counties that are wealthier and healthier and have more social associations. Crowdfunding is not merely 'friendfunding': fundraisers can increase their chances of success by having their appeals widely shared on social media. However, the returns to sharing are greater for campaigns initiated in wealthier areas. Overall, our findings suggest that medical crowdfunding is an entrepreneurial safety net: one where protection is not afforded universally or on the basis of need, but on the basis of one's ability to appeal to the audience and out-compete rivalling needfuls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technologies have long been predicted to spread economic opportunities to rural areas. However, the actual trend in the 21st century has been the opposite. Knowledge spillovers have fuelled urbanisation and pulled job-seekers into large cities, increasing the gap with rural areas. We argue that new assemblages of technologies and social practices, so-called 'online labour platforms', have recently started to counter this trend. By providing effective formal and informal mechanisms of enforcing cooperation, these platforms for project-based remote knowledge work enable users to hire and find work across distance. In analysing data from a leading online labour platform in more than 3000 urban and rural counties in the United States, we find that rural workers made disproportionate use of the online labour market. Rural counties also supplied, on average, higher-skilled online work than urban areas did. However, many of the most remote regions of the country did not participate in the online labour market at all. Our findings highlight the potentials and limitations of such platforms for regional economic development. CODE AND DATA: www.github.com/Braesemann/Rural [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project explores the influence of discursive interactions on driving moral panics by drawing on the theoretical strands of the public sphere and the white racial frame. We apply the framework of the Latino cyber-moral panic to understand online public discourse surrounding the criminalization of undocumented immigrants in the United States. With an ethnographic approach, we find the Internet becomes a cyber public sphere where user's interactions reinforce and are reinforced by a white racial frame; this then contributes to the spread of a moral panic, and ultimately reinforces systemic racism. We argue that social media sites and their discursive tools, such as hashtags, comments, and 'likes,' help to efficiently and continuously target Latino and undocumented immigrants. By weaving communication literature and critical race scholarship, we conceptualize the Internet as a powerful mechanism for the spread of white supremacy and systemic racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pundits disagree on the extent to which hip-hop artists have used their celebrity clout to further the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This study adds to a nascent body of research on Black Twitter by examining how celebrities, in particular, hip-hop celebrities, used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to create and maintain Black identity during the 2014 Ferguson protests related to racial justice and police brutality. Using computerized and manual content analyses of 2.67 million tweets, this study found more celebrity tweets were framed as related to Black identity compared with marketing/self-promotion. Further qualitative analysis of the Black identity-framed tweets revealed four themes: speaking to whites, solidarity, Black is beautiful, and equality. Through a lens of social identity theory, this study demonstrates how hip-hop celebrities used Black Twitter to construct Black identity and community, building on research that shows group identification is fundamental for creating the solidarity and commitment necessary for collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of critical race studies, urban history, and information and communications technologies (ICTs) share an interest in the relationship between spatial and racial disparities, including the quality of basic infrastructure, degrees of connectivity, and participatory culture. However, contemporary research on the digital divide struggles to link historical legacies of uneven development, as well as social justice strategies, with digital participation in urban spaces. By examining contemporary digital art that critiques the spatial inequalities encountered by U.S. racial minorities, this article illustrates how public intellectuals use ICTs in ways that draw upon past strategies to territorialize space for political ends. It focuses on digital pop-ups, open-air installations that cast images onto public space using projectors. Historicizing these new efforts illustrates a continuity of tactics engaged by communities of color in response to socio-spatial inequalities in the urban United States, such as the 1970s mural movement’s efforts to re-politicize spaces of exclusion. While existing literature finds that digital inequality results in differential digital human capital, this research indicates that place-based claims, such as digital pop-ups, are important sites for combatting racial injustice and creating more inclusionary spaces, especially among youth adults. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines US legislation designed to prohibit employer access to employee and job applicant personal social networking sites (SNSs) between 2012 and 2013. It asks if the legislation addressed how employers could use SNSs in the hiring process by requesting SNS passwords, if there were consequences for violators, if employer retaliation was prohibited, if third-party access was allowed, if employee SNS monitoring was prohibited, if SNS friend requests by employers was allowed and if employer requested changes in privacy settings were prohibited. In addition, the study also examined the interest groups and political party-affiliated sponsors that were active in the creation of the legislation. The results discover important inconsistencies between the states’ legislation, which question the ability to protect worker and applicant online privacy. US policy recommendations and transnational implications follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The smartphone app market is a prime example of a digital market where consumers are tasked with selecting one option among a plethora of alternatives, at times indistinguishable from one another. Building upon findings on information processing and decision-making, we postulate that consumers follow simple (rather than complex) heuristic rules to navigate the app market. In particular, we focus on two such strategies: the recognition heuristic and the majority vote heuristic. App privacy information was also considered as a potentially salient cue in the decision-making process, given the personal data stored on smartphones. Results of a mixed-method design (behavioral analysis and think-aloud protocols) study with German (N = 18) and US (N = 25) students find a dominance of the recognition heuristic. Decisions are further supported by majority vote heuristics. Privacy information is largely disregarded, particularly by US participants. Implications for app market design and engagement are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research examining the impact of social media use on the well-being of digital natives has resulted in a myriad of opposing outcomes indicating both positive and negative effects. Focusing on positive effects only, this study examines whether there is a boundary between online and offline realms in cohorts of student digital natives and what differences exist between German and US populations. Using data collected in 2013 and 2014 we find that social grooming activities in social networking sites (SNS) significantly increase positive emotional outcomes and indirectly increase subjective well-being. We also conclude that there is a significant impact of online social grooming activities on offline social activities. But this impact is significantly moderated by cultural aspects: only within the subsample of US students is this effect of spreading social capital from online to face-to-face interaction significant. This striking result can be attributed to the stronger separation of communication activities between online and offline life among German students. Further, these differences can be explained by differences in underlying usage motives, which do also differ between US and German students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, based on a survey of 489 documentary filmmakers, is a case study in copyright policy in and through practice. It assesses the changes in documentary production practice around clearance of copyrighted material since the creation of the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in fair use in 2005. Fair use, an exotic and occasional feature of documentary film in 2004, has become well known and commonly employed. Creative options for filmmakers concerning the use of third-party material have dramatically improved with changes in norms after the issuing of the Statement. Attitudes about fair use are strongly associated with free expression and creative opportunity, and vary with experience. Where filmmakers have changed work because of copyright concerns, they themselves rather than any gatekeeper have made the decision to do so. Where change is associated with fair use, risk is a common concern. Newer filmmakers are more likely to support the use of copyrighted material to make new work, but less likely to know about fair use, and also more likely to have experienced takedowns online. Both education about and experience with fair use appear to have an effect on practice. Filmmakers continue to lack reliable information on the actual risk landscape, and about fair use on digital platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As US Internet penetration rates have climbed, digital divide researchers have largely shifted attention to differences in Internet skills. Interviews with 72 low-income US residents from both a large metropolitan city and a medium-sized Midwestern town, however, reveal that many people still struggle to maintain physical access, supportingtechnology maintenancetheory.Technology maintenancetheory argues that although most of the US poor now use digital technology, access is unstable and characterized by frequent periods of disconnection. As a result, low-income users must work to maintain access, often experiencing cycles ofdependable instability. In these interviews, nearly all used the Internet, buttechnology maintenancepractices were widespread, including negotiation of temporarily disconnected service, broken hardware, and logistic limitations on public access. As a result, participants had limited access to health information and employment, and biased attitudes toward technology. That is, in some cases, negative attitudes toward Internet adoption reflected a rational response to disconnection rather than cultural norms or fears of the Internet, as suggested by previous research. Findings support and extend the theory oftechnology maintenanceby emphasizing a shift in the US digital divide from issues of ownership to issues of sustainability; they also provide insight into the interrelated nature of access and attitudes toward technology. This new theoretical approach complements other theoretical approaches to the digital divide that foreground a contextualized understanding of digital disparities as embedded within a history of broad social disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The popular microblogging social media platform Twitter has been prominently covered in the press for its perceived role in activism, disaster recovery, and elections amongst other things. In the case of elections, Twitter has been used actively by candidates and voters alike in a diverse range of elections around the world including the 2010 UK elections, the 2012 US presidential elections, and the 2013 Italian elections. However, Twitter has often been found to be a poor predictor of electoral success. This article investigates what role tweets play during elections and whether they are more reactive than predictive. Using the specific case of the 2012 US Republican presidential primary elections, this article explores how candidate's Twitter presence affects electoral outcomes and whether the sentiment and frequency of candidate-related tweets is related to campaign success and offline success at the ballot box. This study finds that tweets were more reactive rather than predictive. Additionally, sentiment analysis revealed that tweets were generally neutral towards candidates. An interesting finding of our study is how candidates used Twitter to generate ‘buzz’, political capital that did not translate to success at the ballot box. We specifically explore how Huntsman's daughters used YouTube videos and tweets that were perceived as a ‘backstage’ look into the campaign and ultimately generated high levels of buzz. Though tweets do not seem to be reflective or predictive of an election campaign offline, they are being used for social media campaigns which can and do get covered by traditional media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distrust in the American government is a persistent problem for democracy, and civic education is thought to be the best hope for its mitigation. Scholars have found that new forms of playful, digital civic education can encourage youth civic engagement, and video game theory suggests that the properties of games make them well suited to the problem at hand. This study experimentally tests whether a custom-designed video game simulating the budgetary process can have an effect on political trust, particularly stealth democracy attitudes. Youth who played the game showed a lower level of stealth democracy attitudes than those who did not, but there was no difference in more general trust beliefs. This suggests that games could play a part in youth engagement efforts, but that such efforts are most effective when they are narrowly targeted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Social networking sites (SNS) are credited with organizing protesters in Colombia and Guatemala, and mobilizing voters in the United States. With SNS increasingly used to mobilize collective action, this cross-cultural study surveyed activists in the United States and Latin America to examine how respondents perceived the usefulness and the potential of SNS for activism. This quantitative and qualitative research found that respondents from both regions use SNS to mobilize supporters both online and offline. Whether respondents' activism occurred mostly offline, mostly online, or equally offline and online, they all participated equally in offline activism. Countering previous research doubting the ability of online activism to inspire offline actions, results show respondents believe that online activism translates into offline activism, and that SNS play an important role in contemporary activism. Still, US activists were more likely than those in Latin America to use SNS for activism, or to say their activism occurred mostly online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US hybrid comedy/public affairs programs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have become surprising media spaces in which a wide variety of political and social activists are allowed to advance ideas and advocate issues rarely given voice on corporate television. Increasingly, that novel source of political information and argument is converging with internet-based activist networks, which are using information communication technologies (ICTs) to reappropriate television clips in pursuit of socially and politically transformative agendas. This study explores the convergence between alternative political television and these emergent public spheres. We consider a set of environmental advocacy clips from TDS and Colbert first broadcast in the spring and summer of 2009, respectively, and then track their circulation on-line. Identifying both websites that link to the original clips and sites that in turn link to those linking sites, we examine the multi-tiered networks of information and activism within which contemporary political television is now embedded. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for both political media and networked collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, an increasing amount of attention has been placed on improving access to Information and Communication Technology in the United States. With the rapidity at which broadband construction projects are dotting America, it is important to understand the social impacts of these infrastructural projects. One particularly salient issue is whether access to the Internet would decrease the involvement of youth in their home communities since youth and issues of talent retention are crucial to the long-term viability of rural communities. However, findings on this topic have been a mixed bag with some studies suggesting that the use of online social networking decreases community involvement while others have found that it may maintain or even increase community involvement. This study set out to clarify the conflicting findings and in the process, it has found support for both the displacement effect as well as an augmentation effect. The dual processes suggest that merely examining time spent on social networking sites does not provide a complete picture of the effects of Internet use on community involvement. The nature of the interactions and the participants in the online social networking also play an important role. For rural community leaders working towards the long-term viability of their communities, the findings suggest that efforts should be directed towards mitigating the displacement effects of Internet use while harnessing popular Internet applications such as social networking sites to augment the involvement that youth have in their home communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few decades, the anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States has been influenced, in part, by the massive immigration of Latinos to the United States. The internet technology in the Web 2.0 age offers a new medium in which this anti-immigrant movement can appear and create what Cohen calls a 'moral panic', which we claim to has become a Latino cyber-moral panic. Of a subsample taken from 170 anti-immigrant websites, the authors examine the role of internet in the creation of a cyber-moral panic against Latinos in the United States in which they find the classic stages of moral panic must be modified and updated. Facilitated by the internet, a 'call for civil action' stage is added to the classic moral panic process in which donations and direct civil and political action are sought from online visitors. Recycled information is spread via other anti-immigrant websites, blogs, forums, and other social media, helping to accelerate the moral panic process due to the ability to quickly spread information, reach those who have access to online technologies and hardware, the assumption of anonymity, etc. Using the updated moral panic process model, the authors apply these stages to the current nativist movement which has resulted in a wave of hate crimes against immigrants, several pieces of new anti-immigrant legislation, and fostered an environment widespread discrimination, oppression, and dehumanization against the contemporary 'folk devils', or Latinos in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School systems in the United States are increasingly integrating computers into the classroom. Yet, we know little about the factors that determine successful adoption, use, and attitudes toward the computers. The City Council of Birmingham, Alabama is the first in the United States to provide One Laptop Per Child XO laptops to all students in first-fifth grades in the Birmingham City School System. The purpose of this study is to present the survey results examining factors that are related to XO laptop usage and attitudes among fourth- and fifth-grade students in Birmingham City schools. The results indicate that factors vary depending upon the type of use or attitudes being examined. Teachers' use of the XO laptop in the classroom is a primary factor that is related to the frequency of XO activity use and students' attitudes toward the XOs, while teachers' ability is related to the hours of XO usage in school. These results highlight the importance of having well-trained teachers who embrace using the XO laptop in the classroom in order to facilitate positive attitudes toward technology and its use among students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary research on disparities in access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) - what is commonly referred to as the digital divide - is limited in terms of its ability to explain the interrelationships between digital and urban inequalities. Drawing upon critical geographical conceptualizations of the relationships between power, place, and scale, and a Bourdieusian conceptualization of technological and social capital, this article proposes a model of the interconnections between urban and digital inequalities from the vantage point of the everyday experiences of economically marginalized urban residents in the United States. On the basis of this model, the author suggests a future research agenda that examines the empowerment or disempowerment of people related to ICTs in relation to their own frameworks for ICT use; how technological capacity is related to technological and social capital embedded in particular places; and how technical capacity is developed across multiple spaces and multiple arenas situated in a broader analysis of inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass media in the USA have hosted news content and delivered audiences to advertisers. While advertiser support for traditional news media has been dropping, activities of online 'citizen journalists' have been on the rise. A key question for both traditional news organizations and citizen journalists is who will pay for online news. In-depth interviews were used to gain insight into consumer understanding of changes in the relationship between news and advertising as both adapt to the online environment. Three types of news and advertising users emerged: engagers, receivers, and avoiders. The research also identified three approaches to user-generated content: broad participation, participation primarily in interpersonal exchanges, and avoidance. Implications are discussed for how these consumer perceptions and activities might shape future funding of online news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses open source software development and the open source movement and critically examines their utility as a metaphor for conceptualizing the new politics of networked organizations. We apply the open source metaphor to the World Social Forum (WSF), which in terms of its Charter of Principles, and its notion of open, horizontal and inclusive space appears, as a new form of civil society, to embody the ethos of the open source movement. We analyse the forums since 2001, up to, and including, the United States Social Forum of 2007, examining them both in terms of the ideal of open, horizontal and inclusive space and in terms of the practices of the forums in advocating for, and using, open source software. The article then argues that both the concept of open source and the WSF are embedded in the realities of global digital divides and the struggle over access to the digital means to communicate, frequently expressed in terms of communication rights. We describe the role of the WSF in advocating for those rights and mobilizing civil society. We show how the WSF and its charter, which challenges corporate power in the name of social justice, must do so using networks within a digitally divided neo-liberal system, which itself must be overcome if networked politics are to be fully democratic and inclusive. The article concludes that issues of power, conflict, hierarchy and exclusion must be taken more seriously by supporters of open source and the WSF. That said, we acknowledge the contribution the open source ideal and the WSF have made to revitalizing discussions of politics and the political. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of Internet use on political information exposure is investigated using representative survey data from Japan and the USA. Internet users can simply choose political information that is consistent with their political attitudes. This selectivity in information exposure via the Internet might have serious consequences on the democratic social system, such as fragmentation of shared information and a decrease in political tolerance. Three research questions were empirically investigated as to the presence of selective exposure in political web browsing, the effect of political web browsing on political tolerance, and the contingencies on which selective exposure occurs. Multivariate quantitative analyses show that web browsing, as a form of Internet use for seeking political information, facilitates exposure to arguments that are consistent with one's attitudes. However, selective avoidance, which suppresses exposure to heterogeneous arguments, is not empirically supported. Moreover, although Internet use as a source of information facilitates exposure to homogeneous arguments under certain conditions, it does not have a negative effect on political tolerance. This is because selective exposure to homogeneous arguments takes place if and only if the perceived issue's importance is high. That is, even if selective exposure has an effect on a few issues perceived as highly important, there is no such bias in other less-important issues, which attenuates the effect of selective exposure on the homogeneity of the information environment surrounding each person. It is concluded that the fear of a fragmented society due to selectivity in using the Internet seems to be empirically groundless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While American teenagers are often presumed to be uniformly 'wired', in reality, segments of the youth population lack high-quality, high-autonomy internet access. Taking a uniquely holistic approach that situates new media use within respondents' larger lifeworlds, this study examines the effects of digital inequality on economically disadvantaged American youth. Analyzing primary survey and interview data, findings reveal the roles played by spatial-temporal constraints and emotional costs in creating disparities in usage and skills among differently situated respondents. A close examination of the interview material discloses a dramatic divergence in the informational orientation or habitus internalized by respondents with more- and less-constrained internet access. Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of skhole, the work outlines the differences between the playful or exploratory stance adopted by those with high-quality internet access and the task-oriented stance assumed by those with low-quality internet access. Analysis reveals that those with low-autonomy, low-quality access enact a 'taste for the necessary' in their rationing of internet use to avoid what they perceive as 'wasteful' activities with no immediate payoff. The article closes with an eye to developing a theory of information habitus, a potentially invaluable concept in future research on digital inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broad and diverse civic participation is essential to a democratic society. Studies of opinion leadership show that politically active citizens report that Internet information and communication helped increase civic involvement by enabling them to keep up more easily with news, interact with fellow citizens or engage in collective action. Yet information about less active citizens remains scant. Does the Internet influence the politically passive majority of citizens to become more involved in political talk or other forms of participation? Do they report that the Internet has been helpful in increasing their involvement in political issues, interactions with other citizens, or with local government? These kinds of impacts that follow the primary effect of gaining access to information are considered secondary effects of the Internet upon political participation (Sproull & Kiesler 1991). This article presents quantitative and qualitative findings from a case study of local political participation from the Blacksburg, Virginia region, within the context of a mature community computer network (the Blacksburg Electronic Village). Not only do politically active, but some politically passive citizens also report increased Internet use to communicate with other citizens and with fellow members of local groups about local or national issues. Further, in addition to politically active citizens, some politically passive citizens report that web logs (blogs) have fostered greater online exchange with other citizens through ad hoc political talk and knowledge sharing. These research findings help us to understand the secondary effects of the Internet on political participation in local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the way politicians package themselves to their constituents via the Web. It looks at various aspects of online self-promotion by incumbent representatives in two advanced industrial democracies - the US and the UK. It seeks to ascertain the extent to which personal qualities are a key aspect of an elected representative's online persona, and any differences that exist between these democracies with different electoral cultures. It concludes by considering the findings of empirical research and what it reveals about the relationship between national electoral cultures and the politician's persona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, candidates and other political actors have dramatically increased their presence and activities online. Although the notion of these activities reaching beyond a limited set of early-adopters is relatively new, younger citizens have long been at the forefront of new developments on the web and continue to make up a substantial proportion of those seeking political information online. Given longstanding concern over levels of civic and political engagement among young people, questions concerning what young people seeking information and opportunities for political involvement online might find there are particularly relevant. In particular, we explore political websites that are directly targeted at younger voters (e.g. Rock the Vote and similar sites), websites produced by candidates and political parties, and possible linkages between these two web spheres. Based on content and hyperlink analyses spanning the 2002 and 2004 US election cycles, we find a complex evolution of the online political information environment offered to youth. Although the youth engagement web sphere experienced dramatic growth during this time period, our data also identify a reluctance of many mainstream political actors to speak directly to young people through the web, and a surprising underdevelopment of linkages between youth politics websites and the wider web of political information online. We conclude by considering the implications of these patterns for future research on the role of new media in processes of political communication and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A few studies examine what types of health information people seek online, yet we know little about how this varies by health status. To examine this question we used data collected from a random sample of 2,038 adults for the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which asked respondents in the United States whether they searched for 16 different types of information. These 16 topics were grouped into three broad areas, including medical conditions and treatments, health issues (e.g. diet and smoking cessation), and providers and payment (e.g. a particular hospital). To build on prior literature, two measures of health status were used: a self-report and the presence of a medical condition. The data suggest that health status impacts the types of health or medical information people seek on the Internet. Self-reported health status was not significantly related to any of the topics; however, respondents diagnosed with a disability or chronic disease were more likely to seek medical information on 13 of the 16 topics addressed. These include specific diseases or medical conditions, medical treatments or procedures, experimental treatments or medicines, alternative treatments or medicines, pharmaceutical or over-the-counter drugs, diet, immunizations, smoking cessation, depression, sexual health, environmental health hazards, a particular physician or hospital, and Medicaid/Medicare (governmental health programs in the United States for the poor and elderly). These results suggest that individuals in the United States who have a medical condition are more likely than healthy individuals to research most health topics online. The Internet can provide consumers with a wealth of information on issues of health and illness, yet healthcare providers need to educate consumers to be cautious given the range in quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the lead-up to the Iraq War, the Bush administration rallied the American public for war via claims that they held unassailable evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and through the insinuation that links existed between Iraq and al Qaeda, and Iraq and the 11 September 2001 attacks. Despite the introduction of compelling evidence that these claims were false, more than 18 months after the official end of the war half of the American population continued to believe that either weapons of mass destruction had been found or that Iraq possessed a developed program for creating them. The prevalence of these misperceptions suggests important questions: How and why could such a significant percentage of the population remain so misinformed? What was the social process leading to the widespread adoption of misinformation? And what were the political effects of these misperceptions? This article proposes an analytical model that outlines both the production of these misperceptions and their political ramifications. It argues that the misperceptions about the Iraq war were socially produced via a complex interaction between a variety of factors including: the general climate of fear in America in the post-9/11 era, Bush administration agenda-setting strategies, and brokering between the political and communication establishments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrest of Pete Townshend, lead guitarist for The Who , for downloading and possessing Internet child pornography and the publicity surrounding the case provides an initial point of discussion concerning the emergence of an ethics of the image that is not predicated on the actual evidential status of that image but on more virtual forms of observation. The discussion in this article focuses on three substantive aspects of this event – legislation in the UK and the US, expert psychological discourse, and public discussion in the UK press – in order to present a particular and situated rendering of forms of virtual observation. The context to this discussion concerns the notion that digital imaging technology presages a need for new legislation, law enforcement and social analytical frameworks for understanding and tackling the production, distribution and consumption of images of child sexual abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the US, community technology centers (CTC) are a policy response to facilitate the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICT) to citizens who might otherwise lack access to these resources. The implicit assumption guiding CTC initiatives is that access to ICT will improve the life chances of the individuals who become involved in these centers. It is, however, prudent to empirically examine this assumption because the case for community technology interventions is somewhat weakened if the benefits of ICT use fail to accrue to those who are disadvantaged. Informed by Bourdieu's theory of reproduction, this study of a CTC initiative in an inner-city community explores the role of culture in reproducing digital inequality. Digital inequality reflects not only disparities in the structure of access to and use of ICT; it also reflects the ways in which longstanding social inequities shape beliefs and expectations regarding ICT and its impacts on life chances. While this initiative is considered successful in the sense that it provided access and basic computer literacy to residents lacking these resources, it represents a technology-centric fix to a problem that is deeply rooted in systemic patterns of spatial, political and economic disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community informatics provides new ways of approaching old problems of community development and enhancing civic society. Building on a theoretical analysis, this article discusses research in the area of the efforts of community networks in the USA to achieve outcomes in these two areas using the tools of community telecommunications and networking. The analysis matches the theoretical arguments for how community building and civic society are achieved against the practice of community networks trying to implement the new communications technologies. The analysis shows that achieving these goals is difficult for community information networks and that a full understanding of the nature of community information infrastructures could likely be very helpful in this task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This overview of an online degree programme aims to develop a concrete illustration of an exploding array of courses and programmes. The approach at the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, at the University of Southern California, seeks to address a targeted audience and to build on the special strengths and more unique degree programmes of the University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New media technologies provide opportunities to expand academic curriculum offerings and enhance student learning. Yet web-based and online learning tools should not be just repurposed text and information, or videotaped faculty lectures. Instead, the web calls for the inclusion of sound, text and visuals for learning tools that provide a media-rich environment. This allows faculty to create multidimensional experiences that cater to different learning styles and provide opportunities for problem solving. Drawing on my production experiences at HBS, as well as my own experience teaching visual anthropology and creating films, videos, photographs and web products, I discuss the teaching opportunities that new technologies and media can provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]