Forum: New Media & Society

Much has been written about digital television. Mainstream reports range from a vague televisual utopia where one need never unplug oneself from the TV ever again to the social realities and practicalities of a consumer driven market. This study examines how the media constructs the meaning of digital television in Britain, the United States and Australia. Rogers’ (1983, 1995) diffusion of innovation theory to assess the rate of diffusion the role that media communication (language) plays in this process. It uses a content analysis methodology to examine 1836 digital television articles, drawn from mainstream newspaper publications from 1996 to January 2002. Results from the analysis show a correlation between the extent of media coverage; the media’s strategic, flexible and timed use of technological determinism—social construction language structures; and the degree and success of the diffusion of digital television in these research settings.

This study looked into the way in which Singapore implemented the use of information technology in its schools. It adopted a process framework in using the diffusion approach to study the issue. Instead of focusing primarily on the outcome of adoption it also looked at context and actors’ dimensions. The study found that the communication process was persuasion-oriented instead of interaction-oriented as intended by the new communication model. The communication process was outcome-oriented; communication was pro-innovation-biased and the message preoccupied with persuasion. Little room was given for the active interpretation of recipients and involvement of the recipients in planning. The study found that the practical operation of the two-way communication model was limited by the inherent top-down approach of the diffusion approach. It also found that the integration of IT into lessons was best achieved by granting autonomy to the schools.

This article offers the idea of voice as a way to think of cyberspace and the internet. It is argued that web pages represent the presence of individuals and institutions representing what they have to say. Consequently, we would argue that a robust construct such as voice might offer an unique theoretical lens through which to examine the internet and cyberspace phenomenon. This article argues that cyberspace can be conceptualized as a discursive space, and calls for a textual/discursive/rhetorical analysis focusing on the eloquence of representation as a principal means by which people and institutions voice themselves in this space.

Instantaneous representation offers the promise of showing reality itself, but as all representation removes context, it still relies on what are traditionally considered to be elements of writing, rather than existing in opposition to writing. Narrative is essential in any form of representation, as the proliferation of talk radio, `reality television’, docu-dramas, etc. shows. Virtual reality can also be seen as a type, or a continuation, of the writing process. Furthermore, editing, whether in television or photography, makes the delivery of `reality’ an idiosyncratic process rather than an impartial reporting, even in the case of instantaneous representation (i.e. live television).

Proponents of new technologies argue that new media forms could have a dramatic impact on the way in which citizens gain political information, including important information regarding international affairs. This article argues that foreign policy is constrained by public opinion, which is in turn affected by media portrayals of other nations. Moreover, the impact of a particular media form is mediated by the `logics’ of the format. The article proposes a conceptual scheme and criterion for determining the impact of media format in presenting international issues; it also proposes that the logic of new media, in contrast to the logic of traditional media, brings greater information, but less knowledge and critical awareness of foreign affairs.

This study presents a theoretical and methodological review of communication research about the internet. Through a thematic meta-analysis of recent research publications about the internet, we identified topical, methodological and theoretical trends of current internet studies. The patterns of the internet research agenda are discussed in relation to a development model of communication research. We hope the findings of this study provide not only an overview of current internet research trends but also new insights for future research directions regarding this new medium.

Social scientists are increasingly interested in innovative organizational forms made possible with new media, known as epistemic communities, knowledge networks, or communities of practice, depending on the discipline. Some organizational forms can be difficult to study qualitatively because human, social, cultural, or symbolic capital is transmitted over significant distances with technologies that do not carry the full range of human expression that an ethnographer or participant observer hopes to experience. Whereas qualitative methods render rich description of human interaction, they can be unwieldy for studying complex formal and informal organizations that operate over great distances and through new media. Whereas social network analysis renders an overarching sketch of interaction, it will fail to capture detail on incommensurate yet meaningful relationships. Using social network analysis to justify case selection for ethnography, I propose `network ethnography’ as a synergistic research design for the study of the organizational forms built around new media.

This exploratory article builds upon industrial organization theory to discuss, clarify and tentatively predict how electronic publishing affects the performance of professional information markets in the Netherlands. First, it explains how the availability of low-cost electronic reproduction and distribution technologies initiates new entry and vertical disintegration in the professional information value chain. It then argues that traditional publishers use electronic publishing strategies to counter these threats and to regain control over professional information markets. It subsequently theorizes how these changes are likely to affect market performance. Finally, it predicts that electronic publishing is likely to improve performance of professional information markets, by reinforcing competition between traditional publishers that operate on information markets, and new entrants that operate on attention markets.

Videogames represent what may be the current apotheosis, and certainly most widely available implementation, of high-level human-computer interaction. As such, they must be viewed as a paradigmatic emblem of the new media. This article presents findings from two longitudinal studies that highlight the analytical and methodological weaknesses of the (sparse) extant scholarly studies of the medium, and calls for a more sensitive approach to investigating and interpreting the composition of the interactive experience of videogame play. The article offers an integrative model describing the complex of dialectical relationships and interactions between previously discrete concepts and constructs of player, system and gameworld.

A shift in the horse racing industry toward the satellite simulcasting of races for wagering at off-track betting facilities has driven horse racing toward the use of interactive communication technologies. The result is a structure of economic, social, and policy relations that is intended to organize the public and private spaces of members of the industry’s target markets.

The use of interactivity as a variable in empirical investigations has dramatically increased with the emergence of new communication channels such as the world wide web. Though many scholars have employed the concept in analyses, theoretical and operational definitions are exceedingly scattered and incoherent. Accordingly, the purpose of this project is to engender a detailed explication of interactivity that could bring some consensus to how the concept should be theoretically and operationally defined. Following Chaffee’s (1991) framework for concept explication, we generate new theoretical and operational definitions that may be central to future work in this area. In particular, we suggest that interactivity is both a media and psychological factor that varies across communication technologies, communication contexts, and people’s perceptions.

In this article we describe research that overcomes some of the flaws of Uses and Gratifications research by combining information need concepts with concepts from Media Choice models, and by making use of the Policy Capturing method. Using this method, we obtained in-depth knowledge about the basic characteristics of information needs that can be used to explain a choice for specific media, i.e. traditional mass media and Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-based media. In two studies regarding users’ information needs in an academic context, and employees within an organizational setting, we found that the same characteristics of information need, such as topicality and context, are important predictors of media choice. The results show that more refined analyses with regard to dimensions underlying information need can contribute to insight into when and how media, including new technologies, can be successful in the emerging information society, for example, by taking context issues into account.

In the wake of globalization, the idea of electronic government (e-government) has become an integral part of modernization efforts undertaken by countries with a variety of political systems. This article will examine how it is being pursued in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in order to contribute to our understanding of how e-government works in a non-liberal democratic polity. The analysis will start by focusing on the issues of how the Chinese understand the concept of e-government, continue by looking at what is actually being done by the state for the purpose of establishing it, and finish with a discussion of the methods that can best be used to assess the achievements and problems that are being met.

Existing communication models and definitions of interactivity provide both background and structure for a new model of cyber-interactivity that is introduced and explored in this article. Two primary dimensions, direction of communication and level of receiver control over the communication process, provide the primary framework for this new model of computer-mediated cyber-interactivity. A study designed to explore the applicability of this model analyzed 108 health-related websites using both perception-based and feature-based measures of these two dimensions. No significant correlation was found between the perception-based and feature-based models. The perception-based model was a better predictor of attitude toward the website and perceived relevance of the subject of the website than the feature-based model. However, the feature-based model may hold greater promise as a tool for website developers who seek to incorporate appropriate levels of interactivity in their websites.

As the People’s Republic of China (PRC) accedes to the World TradeOrganization (WTO), much speculation has been generated about the political impact of the opening of its telecommunications market to foreign firms and investors. This article evaluates the assumptions behind competing views from the West and China, drawing out the implications for international politics. It argues that international economic, technological and security regimes fail to address human rights concerns that arise from the globalization of information and communication technologies (ICTs), despite the fact that serious problems are generated by the need for cooperation between liberal- democratic and authoritarian regimes to preserve state security. To redress the balance, it is necessary to move away from assumptions of technological determinism held by policy-makers, in favour of developing a communication analysis of security that can embrace broader political issues.

In this article, critical discourse analysis is utilized to scrutinize the discursive structure of an increasingly contested debate over the social, cultural and economic impact of the ‘information society’ within the European Union (EU). This debate has informed the development of information policy goals and affected their implementation. This analysis builds upon previous critiques of language and policy by focusing on language as a mode of social action. Four major discourses are identified: threat/opportunity, technological determinism, market dominance and citizen vs consumer. Despite the articulation of a broad set of policy goals, it is argued that these discourses act to structure the debate in such a way that its economic parameters become privileged, at the expense of social and cultural factors. Further, it is contended that this has consequences for information policy, and the type of information society that will ultimately be achieved.

Addressing the debate over the emancipatory potential of the internet, this article analyses the archival data of an electronic discussion group (e-group), Hong Kong Net (HKnet), to assess the use of the internet by a group of Hong Kong Chinese in the United States to engage in the construction of their own identity within the context of decolonization and the transfer of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. The study adopts a Foucauldian perspective to examine not only the significance of the texts but also what marginal groups actually do with the text and the internet. The argument is developed that while the Hong Kong Chinese cannot not evade the power of the dominant discourses of the social networks within which they are located, they are able to confirm their own independent subjectivity for themselves in this specific local site through online practice at a specific historical juncture.

There are two opposing views when considering economic development strategies in the digital age: some insist that the ‘new economy’ applies mainly to the industrialized countries and are doubtful that new information and communications technologies (ICTs) will allow developing countries to leapfrog to higher levels of development; others argue that ‘jump-starting’ development may not be as difficult as the pessimists think. Through a case study on China’s ‘twin-track strategy’ for economic development, which involves merging industrialization and informatization, this article aims to investigate whether developing countries are able to play a significant role in shaping the digital revolution and the global ‘new economy’. The evidence presented in this article suggests that China’s status as a poor and developing country has not prevented its government from making effective preparations to embrace the opportunities and challenges associated with new ICTs in ways that are compatible with indigenous socioeconomic factors.

Surveillance-based reality television has emerged as a resurgent programming genre in the US and Western Europe during a time when the online economy is becoming increasingly reliant upon surveillance as a form of economic exploitation. The portrayal of surveillance through ‘reality TV’ as a form of entertainment and self-expression can thus be understood as playing an important role in training viewers and consumers for their role in an ‘interactive’ economy. This article relies on interviews with cast members and producers of MTV’s popular reality show ‘Road Rules’, to explore the form of subjectivity that corresponds to its implicit definition of ‘reality’. This form of subjectivity reinforces the promise of the interactive economy to democratize production by relinquishing control to consumers and viewers. Surveillance is portrayed not as a form of social control, but as the democratization of celebrity – a fact that has disturbing implications for the democratic potential of the internet’s interactive capability.

This article introduces the idea of ‘risk societies’ to highlight how conventional views of the information economy are confounded by the productivity paradox, uncertain demand for new information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the heterogenous qualities of information. Confronting these realities, the communication industries are using monopolization strategies, surveillance, and technological design in their, often elusive, attempts to manage risk and turn the scarce resources of the media economy – time, money and attention – into economic value. These strategies erode the ‘soft factors’ of trust, confidence, social networks and privacy that are vital to people’s willingness to embrace new ICTs and the legitimacy of the information society. Although these trends have created space for new privacy enhancing technologies and trust-brokers, the translation of sociocultural norms into technology and market-based solutions renders communicative spaces more opaque than ever.

This article examines the common computer-mediated communication (CMC) phenomenon of ‘flaming’ from a rhetorical perspective, situating the phenomenon diachronically in the histories of invective in art and society. An examination of the notorious alt.flame newsgroup draws connections between the political and sexual content of the flames and the rants and dozens genres of invective. The article concludes with an argument against the still prevalent media-determinant view that holds that flaming is somehow caused by the medium of CMC itself. Given the strategic nature of the different kinds of flames, it makes more sense to view them as performative enactments of identity which stress either group or individual identity depending on the genre of invective utilized by the flamer. This article demonstrates that the more historical approach offered by rhetorical criticism gives a vital perspective to an area of study from which rhetorical critics have for too long been absent.

Despite extensive popular press coverage of the dark side of the internet, apparently no social scientific research has yet been published on the topic of cyberstalking. This report summarizes three pilot studies conducted in the process of developing a satisfactory factorially complex measure of cyberstalking victimization, and then investigates the incidence of such victimization, and its interrelationships to obsessive relational intrusion. Findings indicate that cyberstalking is experienced by a nontrivial proportion of the sample, and that there are small but generally consistent relationships between facets of cyberstalking and spatially based stalking. In addition, the results suggested that only interactional forms of coping were related consistently with forms of cyberstalking.

The internet and its surrounding technologies hold the promise of reviving the public sphere; however, several aspects of these new technologies simultaneously curtail and augment that potential. First, the data storage and retrieval capabilities of internet-based technologies infuse political discussion with information otherwise unavailable. At the same time, information access inequalities and new media literacy compromise the representativeness of the virtual sphere. Second, internet-based technologies enable discussion between people on far sides of the globe, but also frequently fragmentize political discourse. Third, given the patterns of global capitalism, it is possible that internet-based technologies will adapt themselves to the current political culture, rather than create a new one. The internet and related technologies have created a new public space for politically oriented conversation; whether this public space transcends to a public sphere is not up to the technology itself.

To understand issues involved in designing entertainment technology for women, we conducted a preliminary study of the leisure practices of earlier adopting women. Fourteen women kept track of their leisure activities for one week and were interviewed about definitions of leisure, contexts of leisure activities, and the role of technology in their leisure. Four dimensions underlie the participants’ understandings and use of leisure: activities performed alone, versus with others; a primary versus secondary focus; integration versus segmentation; and stimulation versus recuperation. These women rarely used computer-based technologies for leisure. Findings suggest that women might make more use of computer-based technology for leisure if it was designed to fit into existing routines of leisure activity. We propose ways that these findings could inform the design and content of entertainment technologies for women.