Showing papers in "Information, Communication & Society in 2014"
TL;DR: This chapter discusses how Wiki-Government and other open-source technologies can make government decisionmaking more expert and more democratic.
Abstract: Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think is a piece on the advancements, uses, and promises of big data. Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, Professor of Internet Governance an...
771 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a model of social media and political engagement among young people was proposed and tested using data from representative samples of young people in Australia, the USA, and the UK.
Abstract: Recent developments suggest a strong relationship between social media use and political engagement and raise questions about the potential for social media to help stem or even reverse patterns of political inequality that have troubled scholars for years. In this paper, we articulate a model of social media and political engagement among young people, and test it using data from representative samples of young people in Australia, the USA, and the UK. Our results suggest a strong, positive relationship between social media use and political engagement among young people across all three countries, and provide additional insights regarding the role played by social media use in the processes by which young people become politically engaged. Notably, our results also provide reasons to be optimistic concerning the overall influence of this popular new form of digital media on longstanding patterns of political inequality.
361 citations
TL;DR: The accusations that young people are politically apathetic and somehow failing in their duty to participate in many democratic societies worldwide have been refuted by a growing number of academic and political scientists.
Abstract: The accusations that young people are politically apathetic and somehow failing in their duty to participate in many democratic societies worldwide have been refuted by a growing number of academic...
302 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the 2010 Canadian Internet Use Survey to investigate differences in people's access to the internet and level of online activity, and found that inequality reflected existing inequalities in society with income, education, rural/urban, immigration status, and age all affecting adoption patterns.
Abstract: The present study relies on the 2010 Canadian Internet Use Survey to investigate differences in people's access to the internet and level of online activity. The study not only revisits the digital divide in the Canadian context, but also expands current investigations by including an analysis of how demographic factors affect social networking site (SNS) adoption. The findings demonstrate that access to the internet reflects existing inequalities in society with income, education, rural/urban, immigration status, and age all affecting adoption patterns. Furthermore, the results show that inequality in access to the internet is now being mimicked in the level of online activity of internet users. More recent immigrants to Canada have lower rates of internet access; however, recent immigrants who are online have significantly higher levels of online activity than Canadian born residents and earlier immigrants. Additionally, women perform fewer activities online than men. People's use of SNSs differs in ter...
288 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative analysis of data gathered from participants and organizations in nine demonstrations held in Spain between 2010 and 2011, relevant and significant differences were found in the characteristics of the 15M staging organizations, the main mobilization channels (personal contact and online so...
Abstract: The 15M demonstration (the origin of the indignados movement in Spain and the seed of the occupy mobilizations) presents some outstanding characteristics that defy the established principles of the collective action paradigm. This article develops some observable implications of the concept of connective action and tests them against the case of the 15M demonstration. Cases of self-organized connective action networks are expected to be different from traditional collective action cases with regard to the characteristics of the organizations involved, the prevalent mobilization channels and the characteristics of participants. Based on a comparative analysis of data gathered from participants and organizations in nine demonstrations held in Spain between 2010 and 2011, relevant and significant differences were found in the characteristics of the 15M staging organizations (recently created, without formal membership and mainly online presence), the main mobilization channels (personal contact and online so...
281 citations
280 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, context collapse is divided into context collusions and context collisions, where the former is an intentional collapsing of contexts, while the latter is unintentional, and the conditions under which context collapse occurs.
Abstract: The collapsing of social contexts together has emerged as an important topic with the rise of social media that so often blurs the public and private, professional and personal, and the many different selves and situations in which individuals find themselves. Academic literature is starting to address how the meshing of social contexts online has many potentially beneficial as well as problematic consequences. In an effort to further theorize context collapse, we draw on this literature to consider the conditions under which context collapse occurs, offering key conceptual tools with which to address these conditions. Specifically, we distinguish two different types of context collapse, splitting collapse into context collusions and context collisions. The former is an intentional collapsing of contexts, while the latter is unintentional. We further examine the ways in which both technological architectures and agentic user practices combine to facilitate and mitigate the various effects of collapsing co...
255 citations
TL;DR: In the age of mass media, the political economy of media and communication has engaged with political economy concepts in a rather limited way as discussed by the authors, which was mostly concerned with the ownership of means of communication.
Abstract: In the age of mass media, the political economy of media and communication has engaged with political economy concepts in a rather limited way. It was mostly concerned with the ownership of means o...
244 citations
TL;DR: In 2013, the year 2012 witnessed the global popularity of the Korean singer Psy and his horse-dancing song Gangnam Style as mentioned in this paper, and this sweeping fanaticism was replaced by another v...
Abstract: Most noticeably, the year 2012 witnessed the global popularity of the Korean singer Psy and his horse-dancing song Gangnam Style. However in 2013, this sweeping fanaticism was replaced by another v...
240 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors develop an analytical framework for examining the organizational processes of crowd-enabled connective action such as was found in the Arab Spring, the 15-M in Spain, and Occupy Wall Street.
Abstract: How is crowd organization produced? How are crowd-enabled networks activated, structured, and maintained in the absence of recognized leaders, common goals, or conventional organization, issue framing, and action coordination? We develop an analytical framework for examining the organizational processes of crowd-enabled connective action such as was found in the Arab Spring, the 15-M in Spain, and Occupy Wall Street. The analysis points to three elemental modes of peer production that operate together to create organization in crowds: the production, curation, and dynamic integration of various types of information content and other resources that become distributed and utilized across the crowd. Whereas other peer-production communities such as open-source software developers or Wikipedia typically evolve more highly structured participation environments, crowds create organization through packaging these elemental peer-production mechanisms to achieve various kinds of work. The workings of these ‘produc...
227 citations
TL;DR: All public tweets sent by a set of official government accounts during a 48-hour period of the Waldo Canyon wildfire are collected to answer the central question: How do message content, message style, and public attention to tweets relate to the behavioral activity of retransmitting a message in disaster?
Abstract: Serial transmission – the passing on of information from one source to another – is a phenomenon of central interest in the study of informal communication in emergency settings. Microblogging services such as Twitter make it possible to study serial transmission on a large scale and to examine the factors that make retransmission of messages more or less likely. Here, we consider factors predicting serial transmission at the interface of formal and informal communication during disaster; specifically, we examine the retransmission by individuals of messages (tweets) issued by formal organizations on Twitter. Our central question is the following: How do message content, message style, and public attention to tweets relate to the behavioral activity of retransmitting (i.e. retweeting) a message in disaster? To answer this question, we collect all public tweets sent by a set of official government accounts during a 48-hour period of the Waldo Canyon wildfire. We manually code tweets for their thematic cont...
TL;DR: This work examines the dimensions of Internet use based on a representative sample of the population of the UK, and identifies 10 distinctive types of Internet activities, the first typology of Internet uses to be based on such a comprehensive set of activities.
Abstract: We examine the dimensions of Internet use based on a representative sample of the population of the UK, making three important contributions. First, we clarify theoretical dimensions of Internet use that have been conflated in prior work. We argue that the property space of Internet use has three main dimensions: amount of use, variety of different uses, and types of use. Second, the Oxford Internet Survey 2011 data set contains a comprehensive set of 48 activities ranging from email to online banking to gambling. Using the principal components analysis, we identify 10 distinctive types of Internet activities. This is the first typology of Internet uses to be based on such a comprehensive set of activities. We use regression analyses to validate the three dimensions and to identify the characteristics of the users of each type. Each type has a distinctive and different kind of user. The Internet is an extremely diverse medium. We cannot discuss ‘Internet use’ as a general phenomenon; instead, researchers ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed survey data on various forms of offline and online political engagement among undergraduate students from 2011 and found that young people were known to be the most fervent Internet users.
Abstract: Political participation refers to all forms of involvement in which citizens express their political opinion and/or convey that opinion to political decision-makers. Some of the most innovative forms of political participation developed during the past decade are based on the use of online communication tools. There is still no consensus in the scientific literature, however, about the impact of online communication on citizens’ civic and political engagement. The main goal of this article is therefore to understand whether specific online and/or offline political participation patterns exist especially among young people who are known to be the most fervent Internet users. The analysis utilizes survey data on various forms of offline and online political engagement among undergraduate students from 2011.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the role of websites and social networks in the online organization of political activism and analyzed the relationships established between the conventional media on the one hand and activists on the other.
Abstract: The Internet is causing major changes in the field of political activism. One particularly significant case is the 15M movement, which emerged from a popular initiative organized in several Spanish cities in 2011. Based on the analysis of these protests as a case study, this paper has two aims: first, to examine the role of digital technology – websites and social networks – in the online organization of political activism; second, to analyse the relationships established between the conventional media on the one hand and activists on the other. The methodology combines the technique of in-depth interviews and qualitative analysis of reports, working papers and file data about 15M. The findings show an intensive use of digital technology by activists, both of their own social networks (for example, N-1) and commercial ones (Facebook or Twitter). These digital tools enabled them to disseminate their own information and optimize their internal organization. The indignados established an interplay between on...
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper examined information diffusion and the follower network among a group of Sina Weibo users interested in homeowners associations, and explored the network structure, the formation of follower relations and information diffusion.
Abstract: This study examines information diffusion and the follower network among a group of Sina Weibo users interested in homeowner associations. Using social network analysis techniques, this paper explores the network structure, the formation of follower relations and information diffusion. It reveals that micro-blogging is an important online platform because it can conveniently and inexpensively foster public online issue-networks beyond geographical boundaries. Specifically, Weibo has the potential to enable cross-province networking and communication, although geographical proximity is still at work; the trustworthiness of micro-blog users indirectly contributes to information diffusion by facilitating the formation of follower relations; and issue-specific follower networks facilitate information diffusion pertinent to the issue at stake. These findings suggest that micro-blogging services might have long-term effects on collective action by fostering issue-networks among civil society organizations or ac...
TL;DR: This paper explored how the social ambiguities concerning audience and reception of posts on Facebook shape the forms of political interaction among young citizens on the site and used interviews to illustrate the ways that uncertainties about audience reception on Facebook inspire strategies for "inventing" modes of political interactions on the one hand, and suppress opinion expression by creating the sense that talking politics on Facebook is a high risk endeavor.
Abstract: This article explores how the social ambiguities concerning audience and reception of posts on Facebook shape the forms of political interaction among young citizens on the site. Two sets of in-depth interviews are used to illustrate the ways that uncertainties about audience reception on Facebook inspire strategies for ‘inventing’ modes of political interaction on the one hand, and, for others, suppress opinion expression by creating the sense that talking politics on the site is a high risk endeavor.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare the Internet Social Capital Scales (ISCS) developed by Williams [2006] to established, structural measures of social capital: name, position, and resource generators.
Abstract: Social capital has been considered a cause and consequence of various uses of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). However, there is a growing divergence between how social capital is commonly measured in the study of ICTs and how it is measured in other fields. This departure raises questions about the validity of some of the most widely cited studies of social capital and ICTs. We compare the Internet Social Capital Scales (ISCS) developed by Williams [2006. On and off the ’net: scales for social capital in an online era. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2), 593–628. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00029.x] – a series of psychometric scales commonly used to measure ‘social capital’ – to established, structural measures of social capital: name, position, and resource generators. Based on a survey of 880 undergraduate students (the population to which the ISCS has been most frequently administered), we find that, unlike structural measures, the ISCS does not distinguish betwe...
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study on the social media reporting efforts of the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, which coordinated and facilitated the protests against the 2010 Toronto G-20 summit is presented.
Abstract: How does the massive use of social media in contemporary protests affect the character of activist communication? Moving away from the conceptualization of social media as tools, this research explores how activist social media communication is entangled with and shaped by heterogeneous techno-cultural and political economic relations. This exploration is pursued through a case study on the social media reporting efforts of the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, which coordinated and facilitated the protests against the 2010 Toronto G-20 summit. The network urged activists to report about the protests on Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr, tagging their contributions #g20report. In addition, it set up a Facebook group and used a blog. The investigation, first, traces the hyperlink network in which the protest communication was embedded. The hyperlink analysis provides a window on the online ecology in which this communication unfolded. In addition, the examination interrogates how the particular technologi...
TL;DR: The role of bespoke code in Wikipedia is introduced, which is code that runs alongside a platform or system, rather than being integrated into server-side codebases by individuals with privileged access to the server.
Abstract: This article introduces and discusses the role of bespoke code in Wikipedia, which is code that runs alongside a platform or system, rather than being integrated into server-side codebases by individuals with privileged access to the server. Bespoke code complicates the common metaphors of platforms and sovereignty that we typically use to discuss the governance and regulation of software systems through code. Specifically, the work of automated software agents (bots) in the operation and administration of Wikipedia is examined, with a focus on the materiality of code. As bots extend and modify the functionality of sites like Wikipedia, but must be continuously operated on computers that are independent from the servers hosting the site, they involve alternative relations of power and code. Instead of taking for granted the pre-existing stability of Wikipedia as a platform, bots and other bespoke code require that we examine not only the software code itself, but also the concrete, historically contingent...
TL;DR: The authors proposed a mediated moderated communication process model focused on what conditions lead people to engage in aggressive online communication behaviors, otherwise known as flaming, arguing that online political discussion socializes individuals to see flaming as an acceptable behavior.
Abstract: Communication scholars have examined the potential pitfalls and rewards associated with the ability to communicate in online spaces. We continue in that line of research by proposing a mediated moderated communication process model focused on what conditions lead people to engage in aggressive online communication behaviors, otherwise known as flaming. Specifically, we argue that online political discussion socializes individuals to see flaming as an acceptable behavior. This increase in perceived acceptability in turn increases intention to flame. Results demonstrate that this increase in intention to flame is greater among those with high levels of verbal aggression. To test our model, we conducted two surveys that asked students and blog users questions about their online media behaviors. Results replicate across both surveys.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a conceptual framework that challenges what they regard to be the institutionally nullified dimensions of autonomy, and illuminate the informal contexts of play within the hidden and null curricula of digital game-based learning.
Abstract: The recent promotion and adoption of digital game-based learning (DGBL) in K-12 education presents compelling opportunities as well as challenges for early childhood educators who seek to critically, equitably and holistically support the learning and play of today's so-called digital natives However, with most DGBL initiatives focused on the increasingly standardized ‘accountability’ models found in K-12 educational institutions, the authors ask whose priorities, identities and notions of play this model reinforces or neglects Drawing on the literatures of early childhood studies, game-based learning, and game studies, they seek to illuminate the informal contexts of play within the ‘hidden’ and ‘null’ curricula of DGBL that do not fit within the efficiency models of mainstream education in North America In the absence of a common critical or theoretical foundation for DGBL, they propose a conceptual framework that challenges what they regard to be the institutionally nullified dimensions of autonomy,
TL;DR: In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, young Europeans have borne the brunt of austerity in public spending: from spiralling youth unemployment, to cuts in youth services, to increased university tuition fees as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Public involvement in traditional political institutions has declined significantly over the past few decades, leading to what some have seen as a crisis in citizenship. This trend is most striking amongst young people, who have become increasingly alienated from mainstream electoral politics in Europe. Nevertheless, there is overwhelming evidence to show that younger citizens are not apathetic about ‘politics’ – they have their own views and engage in democracy in a wide variety of ways that seem relevant to their everyday lives. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, young Europeans have borne the brunt of austerity in public spending: from spiralling youth unemployment, to cuts in youth services, to increased university tuition fees. In this context, the rise and proliferation of youth protest in Europe is hardly surprising. Indeed, youth activism has become a major feature of the European political landscape: from mass demonstrations of the ‘outraged young’ against political corruption and y...
TL;DR: This article examined how 11 in-game chat, movement, and appearance behaviors differed by gender and by men who did and did not use a female avatar, arguing that gender differences in behavior align with the social roles and norms that establish appropriate and inappropriate behavior for men and women.
Abstract: As players craft and enact identities in digital games, the relationship between player and avatar gender remains unclear. This study examines how 11 in-game chat, movement, and appearance behaviors differed by gender and by men who did and did not use a female avatar – or ‘gender-switchers’. Drawing on social role and feminist theories of gender, we argue that gender differences in behavior align with the social roles and norms that establish appropriate and inappropriate behavior for men and women. Thus we complicate questions of ‘gender-switching’ by examining not only player gender, but also player psychological Gender Role as measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory to examine how gender does – and does not – manifest in digital worlds. Analysis revealed that men may not necessarily seek to mask their offline gender when they use a female avatar, but there is evidence they do reinforce idealized notions of feminine appearance and communication. Movement behaviors, however, show no differences across me...
TL;DR: The results reveal that online social spaces are indeed loci of public display rather than private revelation: online profiles are structured with the view that ‘everyone’ can see them, even if the explicitly intended audience is more limited.
Abstract: Social networks have become a central feature of everyday life. Most young people are members of at least one online social network, and they naturally provide a great deal of personal information as a condition for participation in the rich online social lives these networks afford. Increasingly, this information is being used as evidence in criminal and even civil legal proceedings. These latter uses, by actors involved in the justice system, are typically justified on the grounds that social network information is essentially public in nature, and thus does not generate a subjective expectation of privacy necessary to support a civil rights-based privacy protection. This justification, however, is based on the perceptions of individuals who are outside the online social network community, rather than reflecting the norms and privacy practices of participants in online social networks. This project takes a user-centric approach to the question of whether online social spaces are public venues, examining...
TL;DR: In this paper, a survey was administered to over 800 university students, asking about their social media habits across six categories: news, politics, privacy, leisure, education, and relationships.
Abstract: The emergence of social media tools and technologies to facilitate daily information and communication needs has called into question the relationship between these new spaces and traditional formulations of engagement in daily life. Recent scholarship has exposed both the newfound connectivity that social networks provide, and at the same time questioned the value of these spaces for meaningful participation in social and civic life. This study attempts to provide an insight into the perceptions of young adults toward their social media habits and dispositions. In the 2010/2011 academic year, a survey was administered to over 800 university students, asking about their social media habits across six categories: news, politics, privacy, leisure, education, and relationships. Additionally, focus groups conducted with 71 study participants explored how students saw the role of social media in their personal and civic lives. The results show a population that increasingly uses social media spaces and for all...
TL;DR: In this paper, a computer-assisted analysis of Weibo communications about two recent mass incidents in China, offers a model for understanding online communication's influence on government legitimacy, based on a computer assisted analysis.
Abstract: This article, based on a computer-assisted analysis of Weibo communications about two recent ‘mass incidents’ in China, offers a model for understanding online communication's influence on government legitimacy. This study explores the discourse of Weibo discussions on social protests and what impacts this discourse may have on the legitimacy of Chinese government in the digital environment. The Weibo discourses on the two mass incidents suggest two modes of online communication: one-way communication, where local residents have taken the initiative and two-way communication, initiated by both local residents and national elites. Different themes the discourses have touched suggest different types and levels of impacts Weibo discussions have on government legitimacy. More precisely, the discourse in which there is a critique of the current national political system in China is more challenging to government legitimacy than the one in which there are only demands for local changes. The online discourse abo...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the case of the largest online mass incident in China since the advent of Chinese micro-blogging services in 2009, prompted by the crash of two high-speed trains near the city of Wenzhou in July 2011.
Abstract: Social media have both enabled and reinforced a shift towards the personalization of politics and collective action that is also occurring in China. In addition to street actions, the country is seeing a continuously growing number of so-called online mass incidents. While they have been attracting growing scholarly attention, most analyses have been based on anecdotal evidence and have treated netizens as a uniform group without evaluating the event's internal discursive dynamics. In order to assess such micro-blogging incidents' actual potential for political change, we investigate the case of the largest ‘online mass incident’ in China since the advent of Chinese micro-blogging services in 2009, prompted by the crash of two high-speed trains near the city of Wenzhou in July 2011. Drawing on the systematic content analysis of more than 4600 micro-blog posts published in the aftermath of the accident, we analyse the events' discursive dynamics, focusing on the composition, transformation, and radicalizat...
TL;DR: Looking at social media messages, and in particular at the Twitter conversations of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Segerberg, Bennett and Walker convincingly demonstrate how such operations are responsible for ‘connecting different networks in a meaningful way’ allowing such networks ‘to demonstrate a strong degree of coherence despite their complexity and diffuseness’.
Abstract: ‘How are technology-enabled crowds activated, structured and maintained in the absence of recognized leaders, common goals, or conventional organization, issue framing, and action coordination?’ Th...
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of how teachers and students at a sixth-form college in the north of England used this social media platform to help construct a "community of practice" that enabled micro-processes of recognition and mutual learning.
Abstract: This article contributes to an emerging field of ‘small data’ research on Twitter by presenting a case study of how teachers and students at a sixth-form college in the north of England used this social media platform to help construct a ‘community of practice’ that enabled micro-processes of recognition and mutual learning. Conducted as part of a broader action research project that focused on the ‘digital story circle’ as a site of, and for, narrative exchange and knowledge production, this study takes the form of a detailed analysis of a departmental Twitter account, combining basic quantitative metrics, close reading of selected Twitter data and qualitative interviews with teachers and students. Working with (and sometimes against) Twitter's platform architecture, teachers and students constructed, through distinct patterns of use, a shared space for dialogue that facilitated community building within the department. On the whole, they were able to overcome justified anxieties about professionalism and privacy; this was achieved by building on high levels of pre-existing trust among staff and by performing that mutual trust online through personal modes of communication. Through micro-processes of recognition and a breaking down of conventional hierarchies that affirmed students' agency as knowledge producers, the departmental Twitter account enabled mutual learning beyond curriculum and classroom. The significance of such micro-processes could only have been uncovered through the detailed scrutiny that a ‘small data’ approach to Twitter, in supplement to some obvious virtues of Big Data approaches, is particularly well placed to provide.