The theory of affordances

The article reviews the book "Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other," by Sherry Turkle.

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.

A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies. Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 398 pp. $59.95 hbk. $21.95 pbk. The main finding of Pippa Norris's study is that exposure to the news media is positively related to citizens' levels of political knowledge, trust, and participation, even after controlling for demographics, attitudinal factors, and cultural differences. Although various positive contributions of exposure to news media already have been documented in other research, never was the amount of evidence as monumental as in this book. Norris analyzed European Community, Eurobarometer, European Election and Post-election, British Campaign Panel, U.S. National Election, and Pew Center for the People and the Press surveys, providing individual and aggregate level, over-time and cross-sectional evidence supporting her virtuous media thesis. The book is set up as a challenge to "conventional wisdom" or "unquestioned orthodoxy" of media malaise theories that argue that "exposure to the news media discourages learning about politics, erodes trust in political leaders and government institutions, and dampens political mobilization." The problem is that there is a huge gap between the abundance of glib charges and the scarcity of empirical evidence of negative effects of news media. Consequently, Norris mostly relies on Michael Robinson's long ago retracted videomalaise claim and strays away from her main line of theorizing by reviewing studies that deal with the issues well outside the scope of her own study, such as effects of framing news stories, political advertising, and television entertainment. Findings of negative media effects in contexts other than elections and those tapping more specific types of media content and their particular features remain unchallenged by the Norris study. Norris acknowledges that "we need to compare the effects of variance in the media messages so that we can see whether people who consistently use one distinctive source (such as crime-focused local TV news) differ from those who use others (such as rightwing talk radio)" and that "our measures of media habits are often diffuse and imprecise," but she is still restricted in her research to measures of frequency of general newspaper and television news use. Nevertheless, Norris urges us to stopblaming the news media for political problems and instead to direct our attention to "the problems themselves." This call, without showing that media in many of their specific content characteristics or structures are not a part of problems that extend beyond voting and political campaigning, seems premature at best. However, Norris's study makes a significant contribution to communication research by most convincingly showing that the news media may be an important part of solutions to some of the social ills. …

A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies

THE purpose of this work, which the authors regard as a pioneer attempt, is the accomplishment in the field of masculinity and femininity of something similar to Binet's early achievement in the field of intelligence, inasmuch as they have endeavoured to apply psychometric methods in the form of a test to the study of sex temperaments. The test was originally devised by the senior author, Lewis M. Terman, in 1922 in the investigation of intellectually superior children, and has since been applied in the examination of a great variety of groups, including college students, office workers, athletes, delinquents, homosexuals and prostitutes, the ages ranging from early adolescence to extreme old age.Sex and Personality': Studies in Masculinity and Femininity. By Lewis M. Terman and Catherine Cox Miles., assisted by Jack W. Dunlap, Harold K. Edgerton, E. Lowell Kelly, Albert D. Kurtz, E. Alice McAnulty, Quinn McNemar, Maud A. Merrill, Floyd L. Ruch, Horace G. Wyatt. (McGraw-Hill Publications in Psychology.) Pp. xii + 600. (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1936.) 25s.

Sex and personality

Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life

As traditional news media struggle to adapt their practices to discontinuous changes resulting from technological advances, a digitally native nonprofit news model has emerged in the United States. Framed by management theories of creative destruction and disruptive innovation, this study explores how the journalists who lead these small firms view digital and social media as opportunities to revitalize public service reporting, re-create journalism practices online, and encourage consumer participation in the news-gathering process. Findings show online news entrepreneurs are strategically using their digital-first platform to focus primarily on their public service mission, engage consumers, publish information through a variety of methods and formats, collaborate with outside media, diversify revenue sources, and provide technology training to journalists and the public.

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Creative Destruction: An Exploratory Study of How Digitally Native News Nonprofits Are Innovating Online Journalism Practices

Television (TV) audiences are increasingly using portable communication technologies to multitask, look up information online, check social network sites, and comment on the programs being watched....

Second screen effects: Linking multiscreen media use to television engagement and incidental learning

As the size and scope of the commercial media shrink, some veteran journalists are picking up the mantle of socially responsible journalism by establishing nonprofit news websites. Numerous reports have noted the potential of these outlets to fill gaps in public affairs reporting and serve vital information needs in American democracy. The economic sustainability of these startups is tenuous, however. While some scholars have called for more government intervention to ensure community journalism survives, the Internal Revenue Service has questioned the nonprofit eligibility of news outlets. The purpose of this study is to determine how leaders of these civic journalism startups view the government’s role in ensuring their survival. Findings show the online news managers view their nonprofit status favorably. Most are not open to direct government subsidies, but have not ruled out assistance in the form of advertising, contracts for services, and payments in kind.

Social responsibility theory and the digital nonprofits: Should the government aid online news startups?:

The coronavirus pandemic dominated headlines at the same time that mainstream news organizations began adding more podcasts to their digital storytelling platforms. This popular form of audio journ...

Podcasting the Pandemic: Exploring Storytelling Formats and Shifting Journalistic Norms in News Podcasts Related to the Coronavirus

Teaching information verification skills has become increasingly important in the current post-truth era. Through surveys and interviews with teenagers and young adults in the Middle East and Unite...

Rebecca Coates Nee

Papers

Creative Destruction: An Exploratory Study of How Digitally Native News Nonprofits Are Innovating Online Journalism Practices

Second screen effects: Linking multiscreen media use to television engagement and incidental learning

Social responsibility theory and the digital nonprofits: Should the government aid online news startups?:

Podcasting the Pandemic: Exploring Storytelling Formats and Shifting Journalistic Norms in News Podcasts Related to the Coronavirus

Youthquakes in a Post-Truth Era: Exploring Social Media News Use and Information Verification Actions Among Global Teens and Young Adults: