Rudy Pugliese

Rochester Institute of Technology | RIT · School of Communication

The present study compared the levels of civic engagement, news media consumption, and preferred news media channels between a sample of deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing college students. No significant differences were found regarding civic engagement as measured by the Activity Orientation Scale. Deaf respondents overwhelmingly preferred Facebo...

Recording and distribution technologies have disrupted the music industry over the last two decades. Despite financial losses, the music recording industry has witnessed a recent turnaround, but it must consider who is listening, how best to reach them, and what needs they seek to gratify. Defined as a period from age 18 through the twenties, emerg...

A readership study, employing an online survey (n = 275), was conducted to determine the reading preferences of students, faculty, staff, and alumni for the student magazine and web site of a technological university. The print version (53%) was preferred over the online version (22%), with 25% having no preference. Internet and social media were t...

This study examined video game–playing aggression among graduate and undergraduate students at Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. The following three research questions were posed: In the context of video game playing, what differences are there in levels of aggression in relation to sex? What differences are there in levels of...

President Barak Obama's directive on transparency and open government, and the creation of the Website Recovery.gov, would seem to be concrete examples of the predictions of cyber advocates that computer-mediated communication and the Internet will change the nature of democracy and make citizens more participatory. A major goal is to try to increa...

The quality of state legislature Websites has been found to vary considerably across the 50 states. This study found Website quality to be principally related to demographic variables of household Internet access, percent below poverty, per capita income, high school education or higher, and voting in the 2000 election. Political variables such as...

Building on McMillan's two-way model of interactivity, this study presents a three-way model of interactive communication, which is used to assess political Web sites' progress toward the ideals of cyberdemocracy and the fostering of public deliberation. Results of a 3-year study of state legislature Web sites, an analysis of the community networks...

The chief information technology officers (CTOs) of the 50 state legislatures were surveyed to determine the volume of each of their legislature's Web site use, their preferences of design criteria, their methods of audience evaluation, and the structure of control over site design and content. CTOs reported receiving over 1½ million visitors each...

Forums of public discussion on Internet Web sites have been promoted by some as having the potential to improve democracy through large increases in civic engagement. Such claims are scoffed at by others. To date, such forums tend to be found more on community networks and commercial Web sites than on sites owned by governments. We thus turn to an...

The Internet, not unlike previous communication technologies, has been predicted to dramatically change the nature of democracy. The interactive nature of Web sites, in particular, is seen as the basis for a new cyberdemocracy. Although the definition of interactivity is less than precise, an evaluation of state legislature Web sites finds them lac...

The interactive nature of the Internet is seen by some as a technological innovation that might boost participation in politics and civic affairs. That potential, however, is clouded by imprecise definitions of interactivity found among scholars and practitioners alike. Evaluation of state legislature Web sites found them to not be very interactive...

The digital divide is not the only gap relating to the Internet. The Websites of state legislatures have demonstrated widespread differences in content and design so as to create a quality divide. This disparity potentially inhibits these sites from stimulating public participation. New Jersey, rated as the top site, serves as an example of best pr...

Web sites of the 50 state legislatures are evaluated on five criteria: content, usability, interactivity, transparency, and audience. An overall quality score for each site was computed. The evaluation revealed a wide range of quality in the sites, including that of features or aspects that could possibly foster citizen participation. The higher ra...

This study examined interpersonal communication patterns among 70 of 149 members in the New York State Assembly. The average member spoke frequently with about 22% of his or her colleagues, less frequently to another 44%, and virtually never to the remaining third of the membership. Shared membership in political party had the strongest relationshi...

This study investigated the constructs of loneliness, dyadic communication apprehension, two dimensions of communication competence, and locus of control as predictors of persistence in telecourses. A telephone survey was administered to 306 students at a community college in the greater New York area. None of the independent variables proved signi...