Showing papers in "Information, Communication & Society in 2009"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the effects of digital inequality on economically disadvantaged American youth by analyzing primary survey and interview data and reveal the roles played by spatialtemporal constraints and emotional costs in creating disparities in usage and skills among differently situated respondents.
Abstract: 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 ...
200 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the degree to which Last.fm relationships are characterized by homophily (and particularly by shared musical taste), and the extent to which communication via last.fm is associated with other forms of communication, and whether these variables predict strength of relational development.
Abstract: Despite the popularity of social network sites based on common interests, the association between these shared interests and relational development is not well understood. This manuscript reports results of an empirical investigation of interpersonal relationships on Last.fm, a music-based social network site with a multinational user base. In addition to baseline descriptors of relational behavior, the chief goals of this study were to examine the degree to which Last.fm relationships are characterized by homophily (and particularly by shared musical taste), the extent to which communication via Last.fm is associated with other forms of communication (both offline and online), how such communication behavior is associated with demographic and relational characteristics, and whether these variables predict strength of relational development. Results indicate that although Last.fm relational partners exhibit shared musical taste, this shared taste is not associated with relational development. Rather, foll...
141 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparison of representative surveys conducted among children in three relatively high risk countries (Norway, Ireland and the United Kingdo... ) showed that parental perception of likelihood of online risk to their child is negatively associated with their perceived ability to cope.
Abstract: Research on the risks associated with children's use of the internet often aims to inform policies of risk prevention. Yet paralleling the effort to map the nature and extent of online risk is a growing unease that the goal of risk prevention tends to support an over-protective, risk-averse culture that restricts the freedom of online exploration that society encourages for children in other spheres. It is central to adolescence that teenagers learn to anticipate and cope with risk – in short, to become resilient. In this article, we inquire into children and teenagers' responses after they have experienced online content or contact risks. Pan-European findings show that especially in Northern European countries with high internet access, parental perception of likelihood of online risk to their child is negatively associated with their perceived ability to cope. A comparison of representative surveys conducted among children in three relatively ‘high risk’ countries (Norway, Ireland and the United Kingdo...
137 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the main questions dealt with by the literature on the effect of Internet on political participation are reviewed, and the authors identify the aspects on which there is a relative consensus among scholars, the debates surrounding controversial conclusions obtained from different empirical analyses, and those questions where further research seems particularly necessary.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to review the main questions dealt with by the literature on the effect of Internet on political participation. The paper distinguishes three relevant aspects: the estimation of the impact of Internet on the levels and types of political participation; the analysis of the causal mechanisms that lie behind the relationship between Internet use and participation; and the effect of the Internet on participatory inequalities. We conclude by identifying the aspects on which there is a relative consensus among scholars, the debates surrounding controversial conclusions obtained from different empirical analyses, and those questions where further research seems particularly necessary.
134 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify a construct which may be used to frame the subjective experience of surveillance in contemporary society, and explore the range of ways in which subjects can be exposed under surveillance, and theoretically locate the concept in relation to developments in organization theory, new media theory and surveillance theory.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to identify a construct which may be used to frame the subjective experience of surveillance in contemporary society. The paper's central question concerns whether there is a concept to describe the experience of surveillance which can then inform empirical studies. Surveillance practice has consequences for the individual, yet surveillance studies do not have a particular take on the subject. Building on some preliminary empirical observations from the workplace, the paper suggests that the notion of ‘exposure’ is a useful starting point. The paper explores the range of ways in which subjects can be exposed under surveillance, and theoretically locates the concept in relation to developments in organization theory, new media theory and surveillance theory. Two observations are made which support the centrality of the ‘exposure’ concept within studies of surveillance. The first argument is that the body interior of the surveilled subject is more open to division, classification an...
128 citations
TL;DR: The results of a large scale web questionnaire, among 2,163 students in three countries (Italy, Spain and the Netherlands) to answer this question were used to conclude that the Internet reinvigorates political participation but does not trigger a shift from old to new politics as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Do young people participate in politics? Some claim that young people are not as much involved in politics as their parents were, others argue that young people are interested in politics but in a different way than previous generations. The Internet is said to play an important role in ‘new politics’. This raises the question whether the Internet triggers new forms of political participation by young people. We use the results of a large scale web questionnaire, among 2,163 students in three countries (Italy, Spain and the Netherlands) to answer this question. We conclude that the Internet reinvigorates political participation but does not trigger a shift from ‘old’ to ‘new’ politics. Traditional politics has managed to rethink its communication formats and therefore plays an important role in political participation by young people on the Internet.
110 citations
TL;DR: The ecology of games: Connecting youth, games and learning (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008), ISBN: 9780-69364-6, 278 pp., £10.95 (pbk) £20.95(hbk) as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Katie Salen (ed.), The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games and Learning (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008), ISBN: 978-0-69364-6, 278 pp., £10.95 (pbk) £20.95 (hbk). The study of computer games ...
104 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored how parents attempt to articulate authority in relation to digital media use among their teenage children, and how the ways in which teens interpret those parental attempts to express authority influence the strategies they themselves embrace regarding digital media.
Abstract: In many parts of the developed world, families engage with a wide range of communication media as a part of their daily lives. Parents often express mixed feelings about this engagement on the part of young people, however. Employing Baumberg's narrative-in-interaction analysis to interviews with 55 parents and 125 young people, this article explores both the discursive strategies parents employ when discussing their rules and regulations regarding digital technologies, and the strategies employed by their teenage young people in response. It considers how parents attempt to articulate authority in relation to digital media use among their teenage children, and how the ways in which teens interpret those parental attempts to express authority influence the strategies they themselves embrace regarding digital media. The article argues that although economically disadvantaged families experience the digital generation gap with particular intensity, their strategies reveal that they and their teenage childre...
77 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the phenomenon from a sociological perspective, aiming to understand how some media representations come to be perceived as virtual commodities, what motivations individuals have for spending money on these commodities, and how the resulting virtual consumerism relates to consumer culture at large.
Abstract: Selling virtual items for real money is increasingly being used as a revenue model in games and other online services. To some parents and authorities, this has been a shock: previously innocuous ‘consumption games’ suddenly seem to be enticing players into giving away their money for nothing. In this article, we examine the phenomenon from a sociological perspective, aiming to understand how some media representations come to be perceived as ‘virtual commodities’, what motivations individuals have for spending money on these commodities, and how the resulting ‘virtual consumerism’ relates to consumer culture at large. The discussion is based on a study of everyday practices and culture in Habbo Hotel, a popular massively-multiuser online environment permeated with virtual items. Our results suggest that virtual commodities can act in essentially the same social roles as material goods, leading us to ask whether ecologically sustainable virtual consumption could be a substitute to material consumerism in ...
76 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply instruments of social network analysis to a study of communication networks within the Italian and German extremist right, which includes both political parties and non-party organizations, even violent groups.
Abstract: This article applies instruments of social network analysis to a study of communication networks within the Italian and German extremist right. Web links between organizational websites are used as a proxy. Indeed, extremist groups increasingly use and abuse the Internet for their propaganda and their recruitment, and also for their internal communication. The analysis includes both political parties and non-party organizations, even violent groups. In a macro-, micro-, and meso-analysis, the various specificities of the two national political sectors are demonstrated and linked to the offline reality. The Italian network appears to be very fragmented, highly diversified, and difficult to be coordinated (‘policephalous network’), whereas the German network is denser and much more concentrated on a few central actors (‘star structure’). These differences are mainly due to political opportunity structures in the two countries. Additionally, whereas the Italian network structure allows for the construction o...
66 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the complexities of web accessibility are best analysed against a set of relevant discourses and that part of the reason for the obduracy of web inaccessibility lies in crucial gaps in engagement of these discourses, so that there is no clear avenue through which disabled people can engage effectively with the web accessibility issue to ensure their rights are met.
Abstract: Much of the World Wide Web remains inaccessible or difficult to access by people across a spectrum of disabilities and this may have serious implications for the potential use of the web for increasing social inclusion. We argue that the complexities of web accessibility are best analysed against a set of relevant discourses and that part of the reason for the obduracy of web inaccessibility lies in crucial gaps in engagement of these discourses, so that there is no clear avenue through which disabled people can engage effectively with the web accessibility issue to ensure their rights are met. We characterize the relevant discourses in terms of the digital divide discourse, the social construction of disability discourse, focusing on the historical relationship between disability and technology, the legal discourse where we briefly describe the burdens which disability discrimination demands of those who design websites and the web accessibility discourse, including a discussion of the development of web accessibility standards. We argue that there are crucial gaps in engagement of these discourses, signalling that important groups are not engaged with the dominant policy making agenda. Notably disability activists are not included in the standard making agenda of the web accessibility movement. Unless ways of including such groups can be found, we argue that the current state of web accessibility and hence the potential for social inclusion to be increased is unlikely to be ameliorated.
TL;DR: The authors traces efforts to theorize the intersection of interpersonal and media communication, and in particular the concept of mediation, from Lazarsfeld and Katz's two-step flow in the 1950s to the challenge of digital media technologies in the 1970s and 1980s, to the rise of new media studies and digital culture scholarship from the 1990s onward.
Abstract: The division of the communication discipline according to whether people communicate face-to-face or via a technological medium has shaped the field's development from the outset. The divide has been institutionalized over time in the structures of academic departments and schools, professional training and degrees, scholarly societies and publishing, and in the field's larger research agendas. However, critics inside and outside the field have long insisted that the differences between the two subfields actually obscure the shifting, contingent nature of communication in everyday experience, social formations, and culture. This paper traces efforts to theorize the intersection of interpersonal and media communication, and in particular the concept of mediation, from Lazarsfeld and Katz's two-step flow in the 1950s, to the challenge of digital media technologies in the 1970s and 1980s, to the rise of new media studies and digital culture scholarship from the 1990s onward.
TL;DR: Gurstein this paper, What Is Community Informatics (and Why Does It Matter)? (Milan: Polimetrica, 2007), 107 pp., ISBN 978-88-7699-097-7 (pbk), [euro]25.00.
Abstract: Michael Gurstein, What Is Community Informatics (and Why Does It Matter)? (Milan: Polimetrica, 2007), 107 pp., ISBN 978-88-7699-097-7 (pbk), [euro]25.00. This book is structured as a series of ques...
TL;DR: It is argued that near-synchrony creates interactional advantages for SMS and that these help to explain the popularity of the medium, and that the temporal affordances of media are socially shaped and not technologically determined.
Abstract: This paper argues that near-synchrony creates interactional advantages for SMS and that these help to explain the popularity of the medium. The research included 32 interviews with adult mobile phone users, 24-hour communication diaries, and an analysis of respondents' text messages. Many of the text messages collected were short, phatic messages. These distinctive messages exploit the near-synchrony and brevity of SMS. Text messages combine low-contact threshold with immediate direct personal contact; consequently users can send ‘thinking of you’ messages, creating social connection with negligible effort and disruption. The near-synchrony of SMS also enables a distinctive form of conversation. In SMS conversation, the brevity of messages often creates ambiguity, but asynchrony limits scope for collaborative interpretation, making it harder to clarify meaning. However, instead of treating this as a problem for repair, users sometimes deliberately exploit this, using SMS as an equivocal, open-ended form o...
[...]
TL;DR: The authors examines the production of race on the Internet by examining the elements that make up the weblog Freakonomics: the topic, the environment, the medium, and the users.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the construction of racial identity online through the mediating influences of popular culture, old media, weblogs, and Internet users. This paper examines the production of race on the Internet by examining the elements that make up the weblog Freakonomics: the topic, the environment, the medium, and the users. Recent cyberculture research has called for Internet studies to integrate critical theories of race and culture into its analyses. The argument, which this paper seeks to extend, is for the increased recognition of the salience of race in understanding Web content and production. In examining the blog's structure, posts, and comments, I applied Omi and Winant's racial formation theory to the cultural representations and structural phenomena articulated with respect to themes of race, racial interactions, media, and geography. Omi and Winant argue that people interpret the meaning of race by framing it in social structures, and that conversely, recognizing the racial dimension...
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of Internet use on political information exposure was investigated using representative survey data from Japan and the USA using a multivariate quantitative analysis, showing 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.
Abstract: 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 Int
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of a book that has been written on the application of new information technologies in education is presented, and the review considers the research and its objectives, before making a number of points about the contribution the book makes to existing teaching practices.
Abstract: This output is a review of a book that has been written on the application of new information technologies in education. The review considers the research and its objectives, before making a number of points about the contribution the book makes to existing teaching practices.
TL;DR: McQuire as discussed by the authors, The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space, London: Sage, 2008, ISBN 9781412907934 (hbk), £72.00.
Abstract: Scott McQuire, The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space (London: Sage, 2008), ISBN: 9781412907934 (hbk), £72.00. The title of this book may seem familiar; have not we seen numerous treat...
TL;DR: The Digital Economy, Business Organization, Production Processes and Regional Developments (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 274 pp., ISBN-10: 0415396964 (pbk),...
Abstract: Edward J. Malecki & Bruno Moriset (eds), The Digital Economy, Business Organization, Production Processes and Regional Developments (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 274 pp., ISBN-10: 0415396964 (pbk), ...
TL;DR: The authors used interviews with committed anti-war and peace activists to offer an overview of both the benefits and challenges that social movements derive from new communication technologies, showing contemporary political activism to be intensely informational; dependent on the sensitive adoption of a wide range of communication technologies.
Abstract: This article uses interviews with committed anti-war and peace activists to offer an overview of both the benefits and challenges that social movements derive from new communication technologies. It shows contemporary political activism to be intensely informational; dependent on the sensitive adoption of a wide range of communication technologies. A hyperlink analysis is then employed to map the UK anti-war movement as it appears online. Through comparing these two sets of data it becomes possible to contrast the online practices of the UK anti-war movement with its offline ‘reality’. When encountered away from the web, recent anti-war contention is grounded in national-level political realities and internally divided by its political diversity; but to the extent that experience of the movement is mediated online, it routinely transcends national and political boundaries.
TL;DR: This paper found that many young people have acquired a large amount of music in file formats and relate to their music in ways that show their music functions as a "collection" and that the process of classifying, organizing and accessing music that has no physical or material presence gives it a materiality.
Abstract: Despite the importance of digital music in most young people's lives, there has been little academic research into the meanings attached to these acquisitions and the patterns of organization of and access to them. This study reviewed the existing research into music collections, and interviewed 35 young people whose first music acquisitions were music files or whose current collections consisted predominantly of music files. The results suggest that many young people have acquired a large amount of music in file formats, and relate to their music in ways that show their music functions as a ‘collection.’ The examination of personal archives of music primarily existing as music files suggests that the process of classifying, organizing and accessing music that has no physical or material presence gives it a materiality.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the consequences of D/deaf people's personal information landscapes of their exclusion from traditional off-line Information sources. But they did not examine how deaf people are using the Internet to access general and Deaf information sources, and how these practices are affecting their information capacities, and social relations.
Abstract: Communication technologies have historically isolated D/deaf and hard of hearing people from information in mainstream society, for example, the telephone, radio, and television are all inaccessible to D/deaf without relay services or subtitles. This paper therefore begins by examining the consequences for D/deaf people's personal information landscapes of their exclusion from traditional off-line Information sources. It then goes onto examine how D/deaf people are using the Internet to access general and Deaf information sources, and how these practices are affecting their information capacities, and social relations. The paper concludes by reflecting on some of the constraints on Deaf people's abilities to make full and effective use of this information and communication resource and the complex, and sometimes paradoxical roles, the Internet plays in relation to D/deaf people's integration in hearing society. It important to know more about how the Internet is currently benefiting/failing to meet the ne...
TL;DR: This paper analyzed how Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs combine the Internet and airplane travel in their business activities and found that the use of new communication and transportation technologies are positively related to the creation and maintenance of "glocalized" networks, a function of both local embeddedness and global outreach.
Abstract: How does the connectivity afforded by new communication and transportation technologies affect entrepreneurs' geographic and social closeness to each other? Using qualitative and quantitative evidence we analyse how Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs combine the Internet and airplane travel in their business activities. Our results show that the use of new communication and transportation technologies are positively related to the creation and maintenance of ‘glocalized’ networks, a function of both local embeddedness and global outreach. We find that online interaction cannot replace face-to-face interaction; travel abroad is crucial for adding a human touch to glocalized networks. Moreover, while technologies help to liberate communication from being local, Internet use and travel have limited impact on the ethnic diversity of the entrepreneurs' social networks.
TL;DR: In this paper, an ethnographic examination of local-level music production and distribution in two American college towns was conducted to demonstrate how musicians cultivate audiences through social capital that is exchanged both on-line and off-line active social networking is crucial to their music distribution and promotion.
Abstract: This paper builds upon existing work regarding the social contexts of interactive on-line content creation Through an ethnographic examination of local-level music production and distribution in two American college towns, I demonstrate how musicians cultivate audiences through social capital that is exchanged both on-line and off-line Active social networking is crucial to their music distribution and promotion Through digital file sharing and social networking sites, musicians mobilize bonded social capital around their image and music However, they have difficulty bridging the networks they cultivate with a broader audience, despite their desire to do so This paper concludes with a sketch of the possibilities for musicians to develop bridging social capital, noting that new media industries capitalize on this desire, turning producers of on-line content into consumers of on-line media content and services By employing a framework of social networks and social capital, this paper contributes more
TL;DR: This article used structural equation modeling to assess the effects that format has on the interrelationship between such crucial factors as motivations to deliberate, perceived diversity, elicited emotions, enhanced understanding, and goal evaluation.
Abstract: Does deliberative setting, online versus face-to-face, influence citizens' experiences? Are certain factors differently influential in one setting than in the other? We draw on a nationally representative survey and identify citizens who participated in both online and face-to-face settings (n = 82). We use structural equation modeling to first assess the effects that deliberation format has on the interrelationship between such crucial factors as motivations to deliberate, perceived diversity, elicited emotions, enhanced understanding, and goal evaluation. We later employ network analysis to ask which factor or which cluster of factors is more central to an overall experience in which format. Relying on citizens who participated in both settings and using within-subject analyses, we assure that the previously unnoted findings are attributable to the format per se rather than to individual characteristics. We discuss the theoretical, practical and methodological implications.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined three email lists devoted to the organizing of the London 2004 ESF - a European list, a national and a national factional - and explored the communicative affordances of the lists for the process of collective identity formation by looking at bonding, trust-building and interactivity.
Abstract: Known for its internal plurality, the 'movement for alternative globalization' regularly comes together in events such as the European Social Forum (ESF), which are integral to the process of networking and cross-fertilization among its diverse participants. Yet apart from physical meetings, 'alter-globalization' activists also meet in a variety of online spaces. This article investigates the role of such spaces in the communicative process of collective identity construction by examining three email lists devoted to the organizing of the London 2004 ESF - a European list, a national and a national-factional. Considering collective identity formation as a communicative process, the article has focused on the design of the selected lists and the social context or 'we' that each one helped constitute. It also explored the communicative affordances of the lists for the process of collective identity formation by looking at bonding, trust-building and interactivity. The results show that depending on their purpose, accessibility and geographical scale, the email lists served as distinct but overlapping loci of collective identity. These settings displayed varying degrees of breadth and heterogeneity in terms of their themes and focus, their types of author, as well as the language in which messages were written. They also exhibited different degrees of interactivity with the factional list helping the formation of a cohesive collective identity for its members, while the European one allowed the emergence of a much looser, open and fragmented sense of the collective.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the combination of creative ideas and skills, social learning processes, content creators, management, market and business knowledge that underpin the development of new digital media applications and services.
Abstract: Academic research on service innovation has highlighted the distinct characteristics
of services innovation, the knowledge complexes involved, and how services can be
autonomous sites of innovation. It also highlights that successful services innovations
are often not technology based but can depend on new organizational or managerial
practices or marketing and distribution strategies. This paper makes an empirical
and a conceptual contribution to this literature by focusing on one sub-sector of
the services sector: digital media applications and services. Conceptually, this
paper is interdisciplinary and draws upon a range of work on innovation and
production in media and communication studies, innovation studies, evolutionary
economics, and sociology. Empirically, this paper draws on ten years of qualitative
case study research focused on innovation in the digital media sector in Ireland and,
to a lesser extent, Europe. More specifically, we draw upon research on the internet,
mobile, and games sectors. A key finding emerging from this research is that, despite
the widespread popular and academic focus on technology and codified knowledge, a
much broader knowledge base (particularly tacit, creative and non-technological
knowledge) underpins successful innovative practices in digital media firms. This
paper examines the combination of creative ideas and skills, social learning processes
of content creators, management, market and business knowledge that underpin the
development new digital media applications and services. It argues that a better
understanding of the character of knowledge inputs and the innovative practices
in digital media companies may contribute to a better understanding of innovation
in the knowledge economy.
TL;DR: Commenting patterns of a sample of 6,468 users on Digg.com demonstrate that feedback from other users affects participation in three ways, and Digg provides an opportunity to observe the process of socialization into a community and inculcation of community standards.
Abstract: The commenting patterns of a sample of 6,468 users on Diggcom demonstrate that feedback from other users affects participation in three ways First, the more explicit feedback a user receives, in the form of moderation votes on their comment or responses to their comment, the sooner they contribute again Second, commenters generally become more able to generate feedback as they become more experienced contributors to the site Third, there are some common features of comments that receive more feedback, and the feedback system reinforces these standards By making the process of community feedback relatively accessible and measurable, Digg provides an opportunity to observe the process of socialization into a community and inculcation of community standards
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the difficulties involved in using the concepts of "communities of practice" and "networks of practice", when understanding the exchange of knowledge among globally dispersed communities of professionals.
Abstract: This paper discusses some of the difficulties involved in using the concepts of ‘communities of practice’ and ‘networks of practice’ when understanding the exchange of knowledge among globally dispersed communities of professionals. It proposes rethinking ‘networks of practice’ as heterogeneous networks in the sense used by the actor-network theory. The revised concept is illustrated with examples from the author's study of software developers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and their ties to global technology.
TL;DR: In this article, an analysis on local participatory experiences in Catalonia, both online and in-person, is presented, taking into account political variables and also classical socio-economic variables that characterize municipalities.
Abstract: This article presents an analysis on local participatory experiences in Catalonia, both online and in-person. The analysis is based on a database set up by the authors. The article carries out an explanatory analysis of local participatory initiatives (on- and offline) taking into account political variables (not usually considered in this kind of analysis) and also classical socio-economic variables that characterize municipalities. Hence, we add a quantitative analysis to the numerous case studies on local e-participation experiences. We have chosen Catalonia because it is one of the European regions with more initiatives and a considerable local government support for citizen participation initiatives since the 1980s. The article offers a characterization of these experiences and an explanatory analysis, considering: (i) the institutional context in which these experiences are embedded, (ii) the citizen participation processes and mechanisms online and (iii) a set of explanatory variables composed of t...