An Analysis of a Text-Based Information Academic Web Page: Internet Usage at the ASA Section on Labor and Labor Movements.

Analyses of academic site internet usage are not well developed and, for all but the largest and better funded sites, remain simply speculative in nature. This paper provides an exploratory examination into the internet usage of a primarily information based academic web page. Two related questions are addressed in this paper: Does the use of an academic web page effectively disseminate information, particularly at the sub-disciplinary level and, is it necessary to use multimedia to generate internet traffic interest? The American Sociological Association's Section on Labor and Labor Movements web page internet usage visitor traffic for the years 2006 and 2007 is the source of data for the paper. The paper demonstrates that internet usage continues to increase and that information dissemination is broad-based throughout the global academic community, although primary usage remains concentrated in the United States. The findings are speculative with regards the second question and suggest that multimedia materials would increase internet usage traffic to a larger audience although may not necessary in meeting the needs of the primary user audience. The paper concludes that a text-based information academic web page is an effective means of disseminating information to a target constituent audience but not for a broader global audience including as a means of providing information to the individuals under study by the sub-discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]