Psychometric studies suggest that observed self-concept deficits in addicted massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) are compensated through the replacement of their ideal (i.e., how an individual would like to be) by their own avatar (i.e., graphical agent in the virtual world). Neurobiological studies indicate that increased identification with their own avatar in regular MMORPG gamers is possibly reflected by enhanced avatar-referential brain activation in the left angular gyrus (AG). However, the neurobiological correlates reflecting the relations of the avatar to addicted gamers' self and ideal are still unexplored. Therefore, we compare these relations between addicted and nonaddicted MMORPG gamers. A sample of n = 15 addicted and n = 17 nonaddicted players underwent functional MRI (fMRI) while completing a Giessen-Test (GT)-derived paradigm assessing self-, ideal-, and avatar-related self-concept domains. Neurobiological analyses included the comparisons avatar versus self, avatar versus ideal, and avatar versus self, ideal. Psychometrically, addicts showed significantly lower scores on the self-concept subscale of 'social resonance,' that is, social popularity. In all avatar-related contrasts, within-group comparisons showed addicted players to exhibit significantly higher brain activations in the left AG. The between-groups comparisons revealed avatar-related left AG hyperactivations in addicts. Our results may suggest that addicted MMORPG players identify significantly more with their avatar than nonaddicted gamers. The concrete avatar might increasingly replace the rather abstract ideal in the transition from normal- controlled to addictive-compulsive MMORPG usage.

Avatar's neurobiological traces in the self-concept of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) addicts.

The rising popularity of Twitter and the concurrent decline in audience size for local television sportscasts has fueled concern that the new medium is displacing traditional broadcasters. A model is offered that identifies the salient latent constructs that make Twitter a more attractive medium for connected fans in ways that transcend Twitter’s obvious advantage in timeliness. Issues relating to Twitter’s brevity, the public–private blending of athletes, parasocial interaction between users and who they follow, community building, homophily, and self-presentation are all addressed. The model offers propositions that can be tested by future research and provides guidance to broadcasters willing to adapt to what Twitter offers. Understanding why Twitter engages sports fans in a manner unlike that of previous technologies offers application for sports broadcasters trying to maintain audience share, as well as guidance for researchers seeking to explain the allure of the 140-character medium.

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Why Twitter Displaces Broadcast Sports Media: A Model

When the online social networking market is no longer a “blue ocean,” retaining existing users and maintaining their satisfaction with the current social network site (SNS) become SNS providers' most important tasks. This study applies Self-Determination Theory and examines the relationship between trust, relatedness need, and users' satisfaction with SNSs. Using Facebook as the context, we tested our hypotheses with the student sample from a large state university in U.S. The results show that competence and benevolence trust beliefs positively influence relatedness need satisfaction; relatedness need satisfaction and relatedness need level significantly influence uses' satisfaction with SNSs. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are also discussed.

Users' Satisfaction with Social Network Sites: A Self-Determination Perspective

This study examines the amount of coverage given to women’s sports by local television sports broadcasters on Twitter. A total of 19,649 tweets from 201 local sports broadcasters throughout the Uni...

An Examination of Women’s Sports Coverage on the Twitter Accounts of Local Television Sports Broadcasters

The author examined the top 20 viral videos as determined by Time Magazine. Each video’s content was recorded for analysis of its main features. Eventually nine factors were deemed “important determinants” for a viral video: title length, run-time, laughter, element of surprise, element of irony, minority presence, music quality, youth presence and talent. This research is important because an understanding element within viral videos, such as “Charlie Bit Me,” can help explain why they have become fixtures in today’ s popular culture. Likewise, understanding the prevalent elements within viral videos will allow for the prediction of which videos will become popular. This information will be useful for viral marketing campaigns.

Going Viral: Factors That Lead Videos to Become Internet Phenomena

Internet over the last decade has been astounding. It took the telephone seventy-1⁄2ve years to reach 1⁄2fty million users; it took television thirteen years. It took the Web just 1⁄2ve.1 In a few short decades, the Internet has gone from an obscure technological novelty to something as basic and essential to our lives as electricity. It now connects nearly a quarter of the total world population, having succeeded in reaching the farthest stretches of the globe where simpler necessities, such as clean running water, have not. By 2013, there will be 2.2 billion Internet users worldwide, and the technological trends we are seeing today–rapid-1⁄2re growth in broadband, wireless, and video on the Internet–foreshadow an accelerated pace of innovation and breadth of impact that will be felt for generations to come.2 Over the past decade, we have begun to see how the Internet is transforming nearly every industry and aspect of society–from news to entertainment, politics to business, and communications to commerce. The impact of the Internet on journalism is simply a microcosm of the larger phenomenon of dramatic change brought about by the online digital revolution. The Internet’s ubiquity and easy accessibility offer an immediacy of information that no other news medium can match. This has irrevocably accelerated the pace of the news, as journalists race to stay ahead of each other as well as their audiences’ demands. Similarly, the way people consume the news has changed. People are no longer restricted to their morning papers and the evening news broadcasts. They listen to podcasts on their way to work; check for news updates on their cell phones; watch, pause, and rewind live video newsfeeds on the Internet; and read and comment on blogs at the of1⁄2ce, the gym, or the corner coffee shop. Even more signi1⁄2cantly, the Internet has endangered the concept of one-way news, be it in print or broadcast. News is now personalized and interactive; the audience is taking charge. Viewers choose from more sources of news than ever before. They share news stories with their social networks, helping to dictate a story’s distribution. They shape the discourse and coverage of the news. And more and more, they are helping to capture, write, and share the news themselves over the Internet. Paul Sagan & Tom Leighton

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Paul Sagan

Papers

The Internet & the future of news