Communication Technology and Policy 2004 Abstracts
Communication Technology and Policy Division
The Online Shopping Profile in the Cross National Context: The Role of Innovativeness and Perceived Newness • Brian F Blake, Kimberly Neuendorf, Colin Valdiserri and Jillian Hughes, Cleveland State University • A study in five nations (Taiwan, Canada, USA, Iran, and Austria) develops a method of profiling online shoppers by their “typical”/”atypical” activity. The role of innovativeness and two dimensions of perceived newness (novelty and recency) is examined; findings refute the operation of domain-specific innovativeness as predicted. Novelty and recency do not moderate the prediction of usage from innovativeness as expected. Important cross cultural differences maintain.
The Transparent Gate: Online and Print Editions at Two Central Florida Newspapers • Matthew Blake, University of Florida • This study examines the relationship between the content in the print and Internet editions of two central Florida newspapers, representing unique classes of circulation size and corporate ownership. The researcher examined individual stories in both formats, looking at story location, and the source of written and graphical content. The findings suggest that online newspapers differ in the sources and local emphasis of content based on newspaper circulation size.
Presentation of Self on the Web: An Ethnographic Study of Teenage Girls’ Weblogs • Denise Bortree, University of Florida • Through their use of weblogs, teenage girls are bringing elements of their offline relationships online and incorporating new ways of communicating into their relationships. As the girls use this new medium to construct themselves and their relationships, they must address the dual nature of weblog as a tool for interpersonal communication and mass communication. This paper presents an ethnographic study of 40 weblogs, an in-depth analysis of weblogs, and a set of 13 in-depth interviews.
University TV on the Internet: A New Approach to Multimedia Online Journalism and Education • Antonio Brasil, Rutgers University • This paper describes the Rio de Janeiro State University Online Television , the first online university television operating in Brazil. It is part of an ongoing research study of the introduction of online journalism in Brazil and the related consequences in terms of journalism education. This academic project is developing new experimental digital formats, audiovisual languages, grammar and concepts for the future of television on the Internet.
The Half-life of Internet Footnotes • Michael Bugeja and Daniela Dimitrova, Iowa State University • This exploratory study examines use of online citations, focusing on 2003 AEJMC papers accepted by the Communication Technology and Policy division. Authors analyze papers using URL reference addresses in bibliographies and document some 40% of online citations being unavailable a year later. Results show that .edu is the most stable domain. Reasons for “dead” URL addresses also are explored. Finally authors offer recommendations for researchers who use Internet citations.
The Liberalization of Cellular Phone Services in Taiwan: A Political-Economic Perspective • Li-Yuan Chang, SUNY-Buffalo University • Taiwan’s cellular phone liberalization occurred at the late 1990s. This research adopts state theory’s perspective to explain the political and economic conditions that lead to Taiwan government’s reforms of mobile communication. The study found that the liberalization of cellular phone service reflected a complicated negotiation process among domestic economic power and the transnational economic capitalism. The economic dominants still maintain their power but in different forms.
Letters to Sarah: Analysis of E-Mail Responses to an Online Editorial • Hill Filiz Cicek, Christine Ogan and Muzaffer Ozakca, Indiana University; Sarah Shields, University of North Carolina at Chapel • An editorial that opposed the violence being perpetrated on the Palestinians by the Israeli government that was written on the Common Dreams web site prompted several hundred email responses to the author. The essay had been reposted to many listservs and other web sites. In a case study approach we track the repostings and analyze the responses to that editorial to determine the nature of the discourse in an electronic environment.
Regulation – No Regulation: The Swinging Pendulum of Regulating the Internet and Online Content • Maria Fontenot, University of Tennessee • The debate over children and media content continues with global use of the Internet. This paper examines attempted government regulation of the Internet and looks at efforts of the private sector. It also examines two Supreme Court decisions related to the statutes. It identifies regulatory patterns and addresses what lies ahead for cyberspace regulation. Content-based regulations will be nearly impossible to employ. Currently, only the private sector has been successful.
Choices Non-Commercial Radio Broadcasters Make When Deciding to Offer Internet Audio • Keith Greenwood and Kelly Marsh, University of Missouri • An internet survey was conducted to determine why non-commercial radio broadcasters that also provide audio content on the internet chose to do so, how the content is delivered to the audience and their satisfaction with the experience. Respondents chose to provide audio content on the internet for audience expansion and convenience. More respondents host the content within some division of their organization rather than using an outside provider and are generally satisfied with their experiences.
Same Problem, Different Solutions: An Analysis of College and University Responses to Music Piracy • Erica Gregory, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In recent months, copyright infringement lawsuits against college students and increased media coverage about campus music piracy have prompted concern among college and university administrators. This paper reviews the various means by which higher-education institutions have responded to the problem and analyzes those responses. The study concludes that current institutional responses to music piracy are not likely to both satisfy legal requirements and affect the desired behavioral changes on campuses.
Experiencing interactive Advertising Beyond Rich Media: Impacts of Ad Type and Presence on Brand Effectiveness in 3D Gaming Immersive Virtual Environments • Dan Grigorovici and Corina Constantin, Pennsylvania State University • The present study reports the findings of a 2 X 2 mixed factorial design with ad type (billboard vs. product placement) and IVE arousability level (high vs. low arousing 3D worlds) as independent variables and brand recall, recognition and preferences as dependent variables. Presence was used in all analyses as covariate. Results support the distinction between brand effects due to ad type. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.
Pretty Pictures or A Lot of Other Really Cool Stuff: Issues of Adoptability and Substitutability Facing HDTV and DTV • Robert Hall, Indiana State University • Adoption of DTV is fraught with numerous obstacles. Many studies and market forecasts have used color television as a model in predicting adoption of DTV and HDTV. This paper examines a significant difference between the adoption of HDTV/DTV and color—the different degree of substitutability. Other adoption characteristics are also considered in examining the adoptability of HDTV and DTV.
Using Interactive Media to Promote Health Behavior: The role of Motivation, Information Seeking, and Interpersonal Communication • Jeong Yeob Han and Eunkyung Kim, University of Wisconsin at Madison • This research examines the relationships among motivations for health web use (treatment and diagnosis motivation), information seeking, interpersonal communication, and overall health promotion within the context of Internet health communication. Regression path analysis revealed that both health information seeking and interpersonal communication are considered to be the essential route that mediates the effect of two motivations, where two motivations have marginally significant but direct influences on overall health promotion.
The Mass Media and Nanotechnology: A Small Relationship with Big Potential • Diane Hickey, University of Florida • This paper explores the relationship between the media coverage and the National Nanotechnology Initiative policy. Sources from government, the media and various entities associated with nanotechnology were interviewed to determine their perceptions of the media’s impact on the recent nanotechnology policy passed into law. Participant responses indicate that the media has influenced the legislation to some extent, though other media sources have had a greater impact than the mass media.
The Influence of Structural and Message Features on Web Site Credibility • Traci Hong, Indiana University • In a with-in subjects experiment 84 participants actively located Web sites based on two search tasks. Web sites were then content analyzed for message and structural features associated with source credibility. For both searches, message features predicted Web site credibility. Advertisements and structural features had no significant effect. Institutional-affiliated domain names predicted Web site credibility but only in the search that required more cognitive ability.
The E-Rate Program: A School Menu of Choices • Krishna Jayakar, Pennsylvania State University • Over the past five years, the E-Rate program has helped reduced the digital divide in America’s schools. However, a number of controversies, most recently allegations of fraud, have led to calls for the program’s reform. This paper compares four of these policy proposals, and recommends among other things that the future effectiveness of the E-Rate program may be best served by enabling a shift of funding from telecommunications access to software and content development.
Convenience, Recreational and Ambivalent Features: Classifying E-Commerce Web Site Features according to Their Effects on Online Browsing Behavior • Junghyun Kim, Michigan State University • The present study examined the relationship between web site features and shoppers’ browsing behavior at e-commerce web sites. It distinguished convenience features that are likely to encourage convenience-oriented shopping from recreational features that might promote impulsive shopping. The analysis of sixty-one leading e-commerce web sites showed that three types of features coexisted at e-commerce sites: convenience features, recreational features and ambivalent features supporting both types of shopping at once.
Trust, Efficacy, and Online Political Activities: How People with Low Political Trust Participate in Alternative Online Political Activities • Eunkyung Kim and Jeong Yeob Han, University of Wisconsin at Madison • This study examines the interaction effects between political trust and self-efficacy on communicative, civic conventional, and civic unconventional online political activities. As Gamson’s mobilization hypothesis suggested, the effect of political distrust on civic unconventional online political activities was amplified when political self-efficacy presents. Notably, we found the potential for Internet environments to mobilize citizen with high political self-efficacy and low political trust to become politically involved in communicative online activity.
Saving E-Mail: An Evaluation of the Constitutionality of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 • Martin Kuhn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In response to tremendous political and popular pressure for the federal regulation of spam, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was passed and took effect in January 2004. This paper asks whether the CAN-SPAM Act will survive intermediate scrutiny under the Central Hudson test. It predicts the Act will be found unconstitutional for failing to directly advance government interests in controlling spam and because viable alternatives to commercial speech regulation exist.
Statewide Public Affairs Television: How the Diffusion of Technology Expands the Definition of Journalism • David Kurpius and Karen Rowley, Louisiana State University • An examination of six states — five with statewide public affairs television and one nearing start-up — shows that recent innovations in broadcast technology have enabled them to set up their operations with minimal resources. Despite this, most disseminate broadcast-quality coverage of their respective state governments. This study concludes that the diffusion of innovation in broadcast technology has helped these organizations expand the diffusion of information about state government and the definition of journalism.
Honey, I Shrunk the World: The Relationship between Internet Use and International Engagement • Nojin Kwak, Nathaniel Poor and Marko Skoric, University of Michigan • Findings of this study have demonstrated the Internet matters for international engagement. According to the results, the Internet helped users increase their knowledge around the world, facilitated their sense of belonging to the collective, and motivated them to be willing to participate in international events. Further, findings suggested that younger users of the Internet tended to get benefited more than older users from reading international news on the Internet with respect to international engagement.
Sharing or Stealing? Understanding Downloading Behavior • Robert LaRose, Ying-Ju Lai, Ryan Lance Lange, Bradford Love and Yuehua Wu, Michigan State University • File sharing was analyzed through a new model of media behavior. In a multiple regression that explained 25 percent of the variance, downloading activity was positively related to deficient self-regulation and expected social outcomes. Downloading was lessened by perceptions of social unacceptability and expectations of poor quality downloads. Discontinuation of file sharing was predicted by fear of punishment, but skilled and habitual downloaders were unlikely to discontinue.
Keeping Our Network Safe: A Model of Online Safety Behavior • Doohwang Lee and Robert LaRose, Michigan State University • The present research develops and tests a model of online safety behavior drawn from Protection Motivation Theory and Social Cognitive Theory. Protective self-efficacy, coping response efficacy, perceived vulnerability to virus attacks, and prior experience with such attacks were the most important predictors of using virus protection. However, anticipated frustration with virus protection measures was negatively related to their utilization. Combined, these variables explained 47 percent of the variance in intentions to use virus protection.
Character-Based Group Identification and Referent Informational Influence in Computer-Mediated Communication • Eun-Ju Lee, University of California at Davis • In a 2 (participant’s gender: male vs. female) x 2 (partner’s character: male vs. female) between-subjects experiment, participants played a trivia game with an ostensible partner. People exhibited stronger group affiliation with the partner whose character represented the same gender as their own, despite its mismatch with their physical gender. Furthermore, group identification enhanced perceived competence of the partner and acceptance of partner’s opinions. Implications for the Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects are discussed.
Government Surveillance and Data-Mining Since 9-11 • Laurie Thomas Lee, University of Nebraska at Lincoln • Since the 1960s, privacy rights have been increasingly recognized, but this protection ended on 9-11. The Patriot Act and other initiatives were introduced, but a public outcry ensued. Is the privacy pendulum now swinging back? This paper addresses the most recent foreign intelligence programs that threaten individual privacy: Patriot II, Terrorism Information Awareness, and Matrix. The provisions of each of these programs are analyzed. Suggestions for restoring the privacy balance follow.
Relationship between Disclosure Dimensions and Physical and Psychological Health in an Online Breast Cancer Support Group • Janice Liebhart, Suzanne Pingree, Robert Hawkins, Fiona McTavish and David Gustafson, University of Wisconsin at Madison • This study evaluated whether or not dimensions of disclosure predicted changes in the physical and emotional experience of illness for women participating in an online breast cancer support group (n=77). Although the level of positive emotion expressed positively predicted changes in physical well being, contrary to expectations, level of disclosure depth negatively predicted this outcome, and positive affect in interaction with risk factor negatively predicted both outcomes. Online health research is needed.
The Foundations of Participatory Journalism and the Wikipedia Project • Andrew Lih, Hong Kong University • This paper investigates the evolution of many-to-many online participatory journalism, by focusing on the case of Wikipedia, a multilingual, online encyclopedia created collaboratively by thousands of ordinary Internet users. It analyzes the synergistic links to the open source movement, emergence as a unique online community and role in the modern media ecology. It concludes with an interpretation of participatory journalism as an ecosystem of technology, community and content.
Exploring the Dynamics of Webcasting Adoption • Carolyn Lin, Cleveland State University • This study explored the profile of webcasting adopters, the potential predictors of webcasting adoption, and audience interest in local webcast features, via a national telephone survey. Study results found that webcasting adopters suited the profile of “early adopters” of online technology; personal innovativeness, perceived utilities of webcasting and online-use level were also revealed as significant predictors of webcasting adoption.
The Dynamics of the 3G Wireless Standards Competition in China and Its Implications for Telecommunications Policy • Chun Liu and Feng Wu, Pennsylvania State University • This paper is one of a series of working articles that study the rapid transition of China’s telecommunication service market. This paper will identify different stakeholders and their goals in China’s 3G standards setting, address their strategies and predict the outcome.
Pricing, Content And Identity Issues At U.S. Newspapers—A Survey Of Managers • Jack Lovelace and Kirk Hallahan, Colorado State University • A survey (n=106) of editors/managers at America’s largest online newspapers examined opinions of senior online executives about pricing and content practices and the identity of online versions of newspapers. Findings suggest that online editors are divided about future pricing practices, but feel strongly that archival access should and will require payment. Online content will continue to include both original material and information from the print edition.
Internet Technology and Long-Arm Jurisdiction: Are New Standards Required? • Robert Magee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • The growth of the Internet has begun to change the nature of personal interaction, and courts have sought to interpret the legal notion of minimum contacts, a key element in determining long-arm jurisdiction, while taking into account the many ways people can have an effect on one another across geographic boundaries. Is the presence of a website changing the way state courts are determining whether to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant?
Decentralized Campaigning from the Bottom Up: Assessing the Impact and Significance of the Howard Dean Campaign to Internet Politics and Online Campaigning • Sharon Meraz, University of Texas at Austin • Many political commentators have declared the year 2004 to be the year of Internet politics. This paper assesses the contributions Dean has made to Internet politics through examining his decentralized, bottom-up, open style of campaigning. By embracing social software to bridge the online and offline worlds, Dean revolutionized and reinvigorated a powerful grassroots movement, while becoming the trendsetter in the use of technology for both the democratic and republican parties.
Commercialization of Cyberspace: Experiences and Expectations of Young Consumers • Sally McMillan and Margaret Morrison, University of Tennessee • Today’s college students are in a unique position to provide insight into the commercial development of the Internet. Seventy-two students wrote extended essays about their Internet use. The grounded theory approach was used for data analysis. Five axial codes were identified: ration, emotion, social interaction, personalization, and privacy/security. In the selective coding process, a single overarching concept was found: pervasiveness.
The Language of Online Privacy Polices: Ethics, Power and the Information Gap • Irene Pollach, Vienna Institute of Economics and Business Administration • Since the quality of online privacy policies may be critical to user trust in Web sites, this paper sets out to examine the communicative adequacy of privacy policies on commercial Web sites. The findings of a linguistic analysis suggest that companies abuse their power as data collectors and post ambiguously worded privacy policies which obscure the agency of actions and mitigate or enhance ethically questionable data handling practices.
Staged News and the Online Audience: Participatory Journalism’s Criteria for “Misleading” Representations by Government Perception Managers at Times of Social, Political and Economic Stress • Larry Pryor and Stephen O’Leary, University of Southern California • The staging and manipulation of news events has reached an unprecedented degree of sophistication, posing ethical and practical dilemmas for journalists. This essay examines “staged news” in the media coverage of the Iraq conflict to assess the effectiveness of political propaganda in a media environment transformed by the Internet. We argue that new media shift the balance of power by creating an unregulated public sphere in which critical analysis of propaganda images can
flourish.
Bringing an Old Model into the 21st Century: Rubin & Windahl’s Uses and Dependency Model and the Internet • Sue Robinson, Temple University• Theorists have explored the Internet’s macro impact on democracy. Others have scrutinized Internet use by individuals. This theoretical essay suggests a marriage of the two perspectives, examining the Internet from a socio-economic-structural view in which the individual is both an active and passive player dependent on this new medium. A 20-year-old theory, the Uses and Dependency model by Rubin & Windahl (1986), could well uncover the Internet’s implications for democracy and society.
Rethinking Interactivity: An Examination of Interactivity in Early Broadcast Radio • Charlene Simmons, Univeristy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In the last two decades the broadcast industry has attempted to create new interactive technologies. Yet is interactivity new? The purpose of this paper was to examine early broadcast radio to determine whether the medium attempted to interact with listeners. Research found early radio to be more than a medium broadcasting message to a passive mass audience. It was also an interactive medium allowing listeners to take an active role in their listening experience.
The Political J-Blogger • Jane Singer, University of Iowa • As Web logs or “blogs” gain popularity, more journalists are becoming bloggers. Through content analysis of twenty “j-blogs” covering politics or civic affairs, this study explores how the format affects traditional journalistic norms and practices, focusing on non-partisanship, transparency and the gatekeeping role. Although expressions of opinion are common, most journalists are seeking to remain gatekeepers even in this highly interactive format. Political j-bloggers use links extensively – but mostly to other mainstream media sites.
Effects of Hypertext Structure and Learning Style on Learning from Online Instructional Materials • Carmen Stavrositu, Pennsylvania State University • A 2 (learning style) X 3 (hypertext structure) experiment was conducted in order to determine how learning is affected in an online environment. Results reveal strong evidence that the hypertext structure of a Website plays a crucial role in how people learn from online contents. Further, learning style was shown to be a key individual difference variable: active and passive learners do not learn the same way from online materials.
Municipal information Web Sites and the Language Divide • Amanda Sturgill, Baylor University• This paper examines the availability of foreign language information on municipal web sites for the largest cities in the United States. An examination of these websites found that very few had information in Spanish and fewer had information in other foreign languages. There was no relationship between presence of foreign-language information and percent of the population living in households without an English speaker. The implications of these findings for English-challenged Americans are discussed.
Rural Voters’ and Local Elections on the Internet: Implications for Web Site Design • Amanda Sturgill, Baylor University • As part of an effort to provide Internet-based election information to rural voters, this study asked more than 250 voters if and how they used the Internet to get information about the election. More than three-quarters of voters who answered primary election exit polls used the Internet, mostly from home. More than 25 percent used the Internet to get election-specific information. The relation of findings to designing an election information site are discussed.
How to Compete with Free: College Students’ Views on Copyright Debate over P2P Music File Sharing • Dongkyu Sung, Minjeong Kim and Koang-Hyub Kim, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • The music industry has tried to extricate itself from the danger of losing its control over copyrighted music by launching a series of legal suits against music file sharing over peer-to-peer networks, including recent lawsuits against individual users. This paper explored how college students, many of whom have been engaged in music file sharing legally or illegally, understood these lawsuits and the copyright issues over digital music.
Information and Communication Technology and Public Policy: Diffusion of Broadband in the U.S. and Korea • Eunjung Sung and George Barnett, SUNY at Buffalo • Broadband has become an essential component of information and communication technology, as well as an important issue for national technology policies, in the 21st century. What are the reasons for the differences between the U.S. and Korea in terms of diffusion of broadband? This study compared communication technology policy as the main factor influencing the adoption of broadband in the U.S and Korea. Differences and directions of the policy between two countries were discussed.
China’s National Information Infrastructure Initiative: Informatization with Chinese Characteristics • Zixue Tai, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville • Information revolution with the Internet at its forefront has led nation-states to develop their own National Information Infrastructure initiatives over the past decades. These initiatives reflect different rationales, visions, and strategies in embracing the new information age. This paper examines China’s informatization effort to build a Chinese National Infrastructure by maximizing economic and technological gains through internationalizing while at the same time minimizing political risks to a repressive regime by localizing with content control.
The Fate of Rural America in the Information Age: An Introduction and Preliminary Application of the 4Cs Theory • Marsha Tate and Sheila Sager, Pennsylvania State University • Using data gathered for five rural counties in North Dakota and Pennsylvania, this paper frames rural high-speed Internet access in terms of the 4C’s theory: context, connectivity, capability, and content. Our analyses suggest that there are significant variations between the two states and among individual counties. Nonetheless, despite these variations, in order to sustain socio-economic success, each of the 4C’s must be considered both individually and collectively in all of the cases.
The Role of Mobile Communication in International Telecommunication: Applying an Aspect of the World Systems Perspective • Varsha Tickoo, SUNY at Buffalo • The aim of the present paper is to examine the structure of the telecommunication network of the world in relation to global cellular phone usage. The core-periphery aspect of the world-systems theory is utilized here. Data concerning telecommunication flow and cellular phone subscriptions for 105 countries is analyzed and the results are discussed in a world-systems context, demonstrating the core-periphery structure of the telecommunication system and its relation with cellular phone usage.
SWIFTIES Online: Using Vietnam War Snapshots to Create a Virtual Community for Swift Boat Sailors • Jennifer Tiernan, University of Oklahoma • Vietnam veterans created thousands of personal snapshot images during the Vietnam War that document individual wartime experience. This paper explores how Vietnam-era Swift Boat veterans use their snapshot images and computer mediated communication to revisit wartime experiences and reconnect with their past. In the process, this group is creating a virtual interpretive community of Vietnam veterans who share common experiences and interpretations of the Vietnam War.
News Web Sites as Gated Cybercommunities • Mark Tremayne, University of Texas at Austin • This study tested emerging network theory against a sub-sample of the Web: stories on national news Web sites. It found that news Web stories contain links to external sites less frequently than just a few years ago. As each organization builds up its own archive of Web content, this material appears to be favored over content that is off-site.
Untangling Interactivity on the Web • Mark Tremayne, University of Texas at Austin • Two recent conceptualizations of interactivity propose that it resides in three elements of the communication process: channel structures, messages, and user perceptions. It is argued here that considering each of these as parts of one variable introduces confound that may obscure the effects of interactivity. An alternative model for interactivity research is proposed along with ways to measure interactivity on the Web.
Gender Differences in Need for Acceptance and the Use of Computer-Mediated Communication • Mina Tsay, Bimal Balakrishnan, Keston Pierre, Joy Vincent-Killian, Pennsylvania State University • This study examines how gender differences color an individual’s need for acceptance, the frequency and purpose of CMC use, sense of presence, and perception of CMC as a social medium. Survey (N=138) findings show that gender predicts the need for belonging and CMC use. This study suggests that incorporating applications which improve perception of CMC as a social medium may enhance their appeal as a means for gratification, leading to greater CMC use.
Health Information Credibility and Influence via the Internet, Part I: Web Variables • Joseph Walther, Zuoming Wang and Tracy Loh, Cornell University • Concerns over health information on the Internet have generated efforts to enhance credibility. How users actually assess credibility for online health information is unknown. In this study we refined a health site credibility measure and tested effects of domains and advertisement presence in two illness-related topics. Interaction effects suggest that credibility depends to a great extent on topic and the joint effects of domain and advertising.
Values, Lifestyles and New Media: A Psychographic Analysis of the Adoption and Use of Wireless Communication Technologies in China • Ran Wei, University of South Carolina • This study examines the relationship between lifestyles of Chinese consumers and the ownership and use of pagers and cell phones. Using a probability sample of 7,094 respondents, the study shows that consumers who pursue fashion-conscious, information-oriented and Westernized lifestyles tend to integrate pagers and cell phones into their lives to achieve social differentiation. Multivariate results further suggest that pursuit of particular lifestyles motivates cell phone and pager use.
The Agenda-Setting Function of Controversial Websites: Media Exposure, Levels of Agenda-Setting Process, and Behavioral Consequences • Tae-Il Yoon and Jae, C Shim, Korea University • This study reports the agenda-setting function of controversial websites. The more often respondents were exposed to websites advocating a controversial issue, the more likely they were to perceive the issue as important (= issue agenda-setting) and to agree with the issue (= attribute agenda-setting). In addition, those who perceived the controversial issue as important and agreed with the issue were more likely to express intentions to participate in issue-related activities online and offline.
Uses and Gratifications and Exposure to the Internet: A Discrepancy Approach • Xingpu Yuan, Southern Illinois University • This study adopted a discrepancy approach which made a distinction between gratifications sought (GS) and gratifications obtained (GO) and examined how the GO–GS discrepancy is related to people’s Internet use and Internet affinity. Several other variables, including income, duration of Internet use and skill at using the Internet were also tested as predictors. It was found that the GO–GS discrepancy significantly predicted Internet affinity but not Internet use.
What’s Behind the “Great Firewall”: Discovering and Interpreting China’s Internet Media Policies • Lena Zhang, San Francisco State University • China’s Internet blocking raised concern of cyber society. To unfold what’s happening behind the foggy “Great Firewall,” this research provides unusual in-depth insights from inside through face-to-face interviews of 18 key Chinese Internet policymakers about China’s Internet content policy – its nature, making process, major driving forces and the trend in the context of China’s transforming social environment. It’s the first research approach of its kind on the topic.
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