Article

Taming the Information Tide: Perceptions of Information Overload in the American Home

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Abstract

This study reports on new media adopters’ perceptions of and reactions to the shift from push broadcasting and headlines to the pull dynamics of online search. From a series of focus groups with adults from around the United States we find three dominant themes: (1) Most feel empowered and enthusiastic, not overloaded; (2) evolving forms of social networking represent a new manifestation of the two-step flow of communication; and (3) although critical of partisan “yellers” in the media, individuals do not report cocooning with the like-minded or avoiding the voices of those with whom they disagree. We also find that skills in using digital media matter when it comes to people's attitudes and uses of the new opportunities afforded by them.

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... Yet, we know relatively little about the strategies that people use to react or to prevent this overload. Examining such strategies seems relevant because their effective use could help people experience abundance more positively and embrace the possibilities that come with it (Hargittai et al., 2012;Savolainen, 2007). Conversely, the lack of such strategies potentially leads to problematic consequences, from emotional drain or stress to decreased knowledge acquisition, well-being, and democratic behavior (Blekesaune et al., 2012;Prior, 2005). ...
... Research indicates that news abundance is experienced more negatively, whereas entertainment abundance is perceived rather positively (Boczkowski, 2021). Early adopters of new media, for example, felt empowered and enthusiastic in light of the rise in information volume (Hargittai et al., 2012). Today, the convergence of media behaviors, platforms, and devices has blurred the boundaries between media contexts (Bjur et al., 2013;Boczkowski, 2010;Edgerly, 2017). ...
... This study employs focus group discussions as a suitable and resource-efficient method to capture individuals' strategies to deal with information abundance. The choice aligns with previous studies (e.g., Hargittai et al., 2012;Mihailidis, 2014) and responds to calls for more qualitative research in this domain (Boczkowski, 2021). Focus group discussions can elicit both shared and differential experiences of abundance. ...
Article
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Information abundance has become a defining characteristic of digital media environments. Today, people have to deal with a vast amount of news, entertainment and personal communication. This study investigates the strategies that people use to do so. Conceptually, we propose to understand information abundance as a macro-level phenomenon, i.e., an external state, which is neither positive nor negative per se. However, it may be experienced differently by individuals depending on what strategies they have to navigate abundance. Information abundance can be observed at the levels of content, sources, and devices as well as across the different media contexts of news, entertainment, or personal communication. Empirically, we conduct focus group discussions with 40 participants from Switzerland and examine what strategies people use to manage or withdraw from information abundance. The findings show that the strategies of selection, avoidance, and disconnection are applied similarly across the three media contexts, both temporarily and habitually, preventively and interventively, and are often used in tandem. Our findings also reveal that all strategies are used at the content, source, and device levels, which is important to consider because avoidance or disconnection from devices can inevitably affect media use more generally. The use of strategies seems to impact how individuals experience abundance, supporting previous research that avoidance and disconnection can mitigate information overload and enhance well-being. The study contributes to a better understanding of the multifaceted application of strategies as individual responses to the increase of information supply and the blurring boundaries between different media contexts.
... On social media, there are largely two ways in which users are exposed to news and political viewpoints: (a) by following sources including journalists, news media and politicians, or (b) from individuals in their social networks. There appears an important distinction between these two types of exposure, pertaining to pulling vs. being pushed to news and political information (see Hargittai et al., 2012;Neuman, 2016). This distinction is in a way similar to exposure that is intentional vs. incidental (see Brundidge, 2010;Kim, 2011). ...
... can "pull" certain information sources including news media, journalists, and politicians, whereas they can also be "pushed" to content posted or shared by individuals in their social network (Hargittai et al., 2012;Neuman, 2016). Diverse exposure from followed sources tends to be intentional exposure while diverse exposure from individuals in one's network tends to be rather incidental (Brundidge, 2010;Kim, 2011). ...
Thesis
Put forward by democratic theory, it is normatively expected that individuals value and seek news from diverse viewpoints in order to become good citizens. In this normative assumption, this dissertation identifies two paradoxes of media diversity: First, despite values widely ascribed to diversity-seeking, some individuals fail to seek diverse viewpoints (i.e., the diversity deficit). Second, individuals who consume diverse viewpoints do not appear to uniformly garner democratic benefits by becoming more politically informed, engaged, and capable of deliberation (i.e., there are mixed effects of diverse exposure on democratic citizenship). These paradoxes are explained with two sets of moderators: first, by applying the framework of Motivation, Opportunity and Ability (MOA), and second, by expanding on the theory of motivated reasoning. To accomplish this, two waves of survey data from an online panel of 1,328 Americans were collected during the 2016 presidential election campaign. On the first paradox, the results suggest that individuals with the right motivation, opportunity, and ability successfully translate their diversity values into diverse exposure. Specifically, people with strong diversity-seeking skills who also habitually consume news better-match their diversity values with diverse exposure. Political interest additionally helps individuals actualize their diversity values through diverse exposure on social media by following information sources. To explain the second paradox, this dissertation proposes and demonstrates three distinct motivations for cross-cutting exposure—defensive dismissal, defensive deliberation and balanced deliberation. For individuals with defensive motivations (who dismiss or counter-argue opposing views), diverse exposure suppresses political knowledge, but facilitates political participation and diverse news sharing on social media. In contrast to normative expectations, for individuals who are motivated to process opposing views in a balanced fashion, diverse exposure suppresses political knowledge, but increases political participation. These individuals with strong balanced deliberation motivations reap primarily deliberative benefits through diverse exposure by engaging in more cross-cutting discussion. Furthermore, sub-group analyses suggest that the majority of significant findings take place among partisans. Despite the popular negative narrative, partisans appear to function as good citizens in a few notable aspects. Compared to weak or non-partisans, partisans make better use of resources at hand to match their professed diversity values with diverse exposure, through which they in turn garner greater democratic benefits, including political participation and cross-cutting discussion. Overall, this dissertation argues that to better understand the muddied relationship between diverse exposure and democratic citizenship, it is important to consider psychological factors such as individual diversity values, different motivations for cross-cutting exposure, and strength of party affiliation. Finally, it makes practical suggestions regarding the ways in which the news industry, policymakers, and audiences can work together to build a news media landscape for an informed, engaged, and deliberative citizenry.
... (2) Can technostress and well-being affect SM continued usage intentions? (3) Can informational well-being be considered a constituent of overall well-being? ...
... Consequently, more amount of information overload is experienced. This overload can be a function of time required to complete the information search task, the inherent nature of information, and the quality of incoming information [3]. As a result, technostress (TS) can be experienced when users are unable to cope up with eons of information [1,2,7]. ...
... Finally, two variables relevant to information overload (see Hargittai et al., 2012;Ji et al., 2014) were assessed: "About how many hours per day would you say that you are online?" (from 0-24 hours), and a self-reported measure of Internet addition: "I am addicted to the Internet" (7-point scale from completely disagree to completely agree). ...
... There appear to be different ways of managing information overload: older traditionals spend less time online, perhaps thereby experiencing less anxiety than the other information seeking types; and they also suffered a performance deficit on most other indicators compared with the highly engaged. The high engagement repertoire was able to achieve high levels of performance across a range of indicators despite signs of information overload (see Hargittai et al., 2012 for subjective elements in information overload). Information overload hit the digitally immersed the hardest, because they allowed time on the Internet to displace traditional ways of connecting with others. ...
Article
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Masspersonal information seeking repertoires are a person-centered method of gaining insight into the relationship between Internet use, subjective well-being, and political participation. Through latent profile analysis, three person types were identified in two waves of stratified samples in 18 countries ( N = 8352). In accord with the “augmentation hypothesis,” high levels of interpersonal contact and traditional mass media usage covaried with high Internet use for the highly engaged type, that had highest political participation and life satisfaction, political knowledge, low depressive symptoms and also high anxiety. The other two types fit the “displacement hypothesis,” where Internet-based media displaces traditional media and face-to-face communication. Compared with the digitally immersed, the traditional repertoire was more knowledgeable and politically engaged, and had better well-being. Latent transition analysis showed these repertoires were stable over 6 months. Identifying different types of people with different information seeking styles clarifies mixed results on effects of online mass media use.
... In this subsection of the chapter, it is explained, how taking a critical stance may help in mitigating information overload, and it is argued that a feasible framework for looking critically at information is provided by a number of different literacies that are described in detail. The prospects of making use the information is structured and the form of being structured, in as so much it permits decision making, based on relevance judgements [13]. Essentially, this phenomenon shows similarity to a situation, where we may be overloaded because we are drawn toward information that in the past did not exist or that we did not have access to, but is available now [14]. ...
... Slow principles clearly demonstrate the importance of time sensitivity that is related to the perception of being overloaded due to the limitation of time for reviewing available information. Time constraints become even more profoundly obstructing in the case of decision making, especially if critical decisions have to be made [13]. ...
Chapter
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This chapter investigates the complex phenomenon of information overload that, despite controversies about its existence, is a major problem, the symptoms of which have to be alleviated. Its sources and nature in academia, business environments and in everyday life information seeking, its particular features in the data-intensive world are described, not forgetting about the role of information technology. The possible ways of mitigating information overload are specified, underlining the imperative of being critical against information. Potential approaches and tools, described in this chapter include utilising appropriate information architecture, applying information literacy, data literacy and other literacies, as well as making use of personal information management.
... and, increasingly, messaging applications like WhatsApp (Gil de Zúñiga, Weeks, & Ardèvol-Abreu, 2017;Nielsen & Ganter, 2017;Thorson & Wells, 2015). Whereas the practice and meaning of activities such as reading, watching, and listening have been studied in detail, we know far less about how audiences find, access, and navigate information in distributed, digital environments (for exceptions, see Bucher, 2017;Eslami et al., 2016;Hargittai, Neuman, & Curry, 2012). ...
... But for the many who combine Theories 1 and 2 with "I don't know what to believe" (Theory 3), the situation is more complex and even contradictory. These people believe they come across a lot of information via social media and expect they can find much more via search, but even if they have some confidence in the platforms via which they encounter information (Hargittai et al., 2012), they can feel paralyzed as they struggle to make sense of it, due to feelings of information overload, limited media literacy, low trust, and little political knowledge. Our interviewees often had confidence in social media and in search engines, but not always in themselves. ...
Article
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A significant minority of people do not follow news regularly, and a growing number rely on distributed discovery (especially social media and search engines) to stay informed. Here, we analyze folk theories of news consumption. On the basis of an inductive analysis of 43 in-depth interviews with infrequent users of conventional news, we identify three complementary folk theories (“news finds me,” “the information is out there,” and “I don’t know what to believe”) that consumers draw on when making sense of their information environment. We show that the notion of folk theories help unpack the different, complementary, sometimes contradictory cultural resources people rely on as they navigate digital media and public affairs, and we argue that studying those who rarely engage directly with news media but do access information via social media and search provides a critical case study of the dynamics of an environment increasingly defined by platforms.
... Focus group study was also used to identify the response strategy adopted by public and private schools in Delta, Anambra, Imo and Enugu States. Ho (2006), Hargittai, Neuman & Curry (2012), Stewart, Shamdasani & Rook (2006) and Krueger (2002) note that focus group study or interview is concerned with the application of group discussion to discover perception about their experiences or opinion about a subject of inquiry. The FGD range is between 6 to 10 participants to express their reactions to questions moderated by a researcher. ...
Conference Paper
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The study focused on rationalising human resources in Nigerian public and private schools in the era of Covid-19. The objective of the study is to examine whether the Elliott Wave theory can specifically determine the current and future wave pattern or trend of the covid-19 infection case timeline in Nigeria and how the education sector should strategise toward adjusting its human resources to fit into the new norm with exactitude. Trend analysis method was utilised in extrapolating data from Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)/Statista and juxtaposing data derived from Focus Group Study conducted at selected public and private secondary schools in Delta, Anambra, Imo and Enugu states, to identify their immediate human resources response strategy. It was argued that the complexities and confusion of Human Resources Management (HRM) strategy response to the covid19 pandemic arose from the inability for HRM managers to predict the timeline of the covid19 virus behaviour spread pattern (accounting for the virus containment, control and exhaustion) and are most actively utilising intuitive reacting response and adaptations strategies; instead of applying the Elliot wave theory to predict future wave pattern and deploy an appropriate human resources strategy that fit into the expected trend with approximate exactitude. It was recommended that HRM strategy should descale major events, activities and spending reduction programmes pending the final exhaustion of the covid19 in 2023. Keywords: Covid-19, Elliott Wave, Human Resources Strategy, Trend Timeline
... Privacy risks and misinformation were major concerns, similar to findings that older adults have lower trust in online content (Hargittai et al., 2012). Guarding against scams and falsehoods was critical for interviewees. ...
Article
Aim of the Study: Baby boomers, individuals born between 1946 and 1964, represent an influential generational cohort in several nations. This study looked at the Facebook behaviors, motivations, and perceptions of baby boomers in Pakistan. Methodology: For data collection, aged 58 and older respondents were selected. Rich insights into this generation's experiences with social media were gathered through in-depth interviews with a select sample. Findings: According to the findings, users predominantly used Facebook for social networking, entertainment, and information searching. A strong cultural emphasis on relationships with family members seems to boost the social drivers of Facebook use in Pakistan. Privacy hazards, disinformation, and addiction were major concerns. Attitudes ranged from enthusiastic to skeptical, due to gaps in digital literacy and activity levels across the respondents. The pros and cons of staying in touch were evaluated against its drawbacks of wasting time. Conclusion: The changing digital landscape involves engagement tactics that meet the needs of this cohort without assuming resistance or homogeneity. Further studies should be conducted to investigate cross-generational comparisons and how user experiences may change over time.
... In his seminal book, Schroeder (2018) stated that the Internet encompasses almost all existing information in one place, supplying easy and unlimited access to political information. Therefore, Internet users can actively seek political information; this information is not imposed on them (Hargittai, Neuman, & Curry, 2012;Neuman, Park, & Panek, 2012). While this new paradigm promises a functioning democracy (Hindman, 2009), i.e., accuracy motivations, scholars are concerned that the features of the Internet may strengthen motivated selectivity, i.e., defensive motivations. ...
Article
Facing a policy issue, citizens use search engines such as Google to seek political information. Although some scholars have expressed concern that higher user control, and high choice might induce selectivity, existing literature has neglected the role of search terms in the echo chamber debate. This study applied two cross-section surveys during two referendum votes to expose respondents to mock Google webpages (N = 728; N = 820). With thematic coding analysis and logistic regressions, the study indicates that citizens rarely use the search bar to search for only like-minded information sources and that individual-level characteristics are not drivers of search terms. Though search terms foresee self-selection in the results’ page for some motivated citizens, ranking remains the main driver of self-selection for most citizens.
... This transition of the information environment has created an easily accessible, unlimited information supply. In other words, people face not only a high-choice information environment, but they also can self-select information instead of having it imposed on them (Hargittai et al., 2012;Neuman et al., 2012). This information revolution has become a promise for enlightened decision making (Hindman, 2009) and, accordingly, for improving democracy through more informed citizen participation. ...
Article
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The emergence of the Internet has altered how individuals obtain information—this also applies to political information. Search engines have taken over the role of political information gatekeepers, thus becoming key players in democracy. However, surprisingly little is known about the role of search engines in the political information process, that is, whether they represent an opportunity or a threat to democracy. Through an online survey experiment, which mimicked a Google web interface, this study examines how Swiss citizens select political information on a political news event from a Google search results page. Although citizens consider textual cues from snippets, they are more likely to select sources of information from the top of a Google results page, regardless of the source. We discuss these findings from a democratic theory perspective.
... Previous studies also show that the elderly, minorities and those with a lower social status were more susceptible to fake news and conspiracy theories (Goertzel, 1994;Grinberg et al., 2019;Van Prooijen, 2017). Even though individuals could have developed skills and strategies to cope with the overabundance of true and false information (Hargittai et al., 2012;Mercier, 2020;Neuman, 2016), people with lower levels of education are less capable of developing skills and strategies to buffer against infodemic (Georgiou et al., 2019;Swami & Furnham, 2012;Van Prooijen, 2017). Thus, following this line of logic, it seems reasonable to speculate that the impact of an infodemic might be stronger for individuals in lower SES group as they might have less resources to buffer against it. ...
Article
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This study examines how perceived information overload and misinformation affect vaccine hesitancy and how this is moderated by structural and cultural factors. By applying and extending the fundamental cause theory, this study proposes a contextualized impact model to analyze a cross-national survey of 6034 residents in six societies in Asia, Europe and North America in June 2021. The study finds that (1) Older and highly-educated participants were less susceptible to COVID-19 information overload and belief in vaccine misinformation. (2) Perceived information overload led to an increase in vaccine acceptance and uptake, whereas belief in vaccine misinformation caused a decrease. (3) The structural differentiation of vaccine hesitancy was salient and higher socioeconomic status could buffer the negative impact of misinformation on vaccine acceptance. (4) Cultural factors such as collectivism and authoritarian mentality also served as buffers against the misinformation that reduced vaccine acceptance and uptake. These findings add nuanced footnotes to the fundamental causes theory and contribute to the discussion on the global recovery from the infodemic. Besides fact-checking and improving individual information literacy, effective and long-term information management and health policies must pay attention to stratified information gaps across socioeconomic groups, and to contextualize the communication and intervention strategies in different cultures.
... Therefore, the content of a website should be understandable, operable, and powerful for those with weak hearing. Effective solutions should be implemented to address the inability to perceive phonemes by providing alternatives such as captions, multimedia, or video accompanied by Sign Language (Hargittai et al., 2012). ...
Book
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We are very happy to publish this issue of the International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research. The International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research is a peer-reviewed open-access journal committed to publishing high-quality articles in the field of education. Submissions may include full-length articles, case studies and innovative solutions to problems faced by students, educators and directors of educational organisations. To learn more about this journal, please visit the website http://www.ijlter.org. We are grateful to the editor-in-chief, members of the Editorial Board and the reviewers for accepting only high quality articles in this issue. We seize this opportunity to thank them for their great collaboration. The Editorial Board is composed of renowned people from across the world. Each paper is reviewed by at least two blind reviewers. We will endeavour to ensure the reputation and quality of this journal with this issue.
... Focus group study was also used to identify the response strategy adopted by public and private schools in Delta, Anambra, Imo and Enugu States. Ho (2006), Hargittai, Neuman & Curry (2012), Stewart, Shamdasani & Rook (2006 and Krueger (2002) note that focus group study or interview is concerned with the application of group discussion to discover perception about their experiences or opinion about a subject of inquiry. The FGD range is between 6 to 10 participants to express their reactions to questions moderated by a researcher. ...
... Empirische Befunde zum Ausmaß des "information overload" liefern gemischte Befunde. Im Kontext der Nachrichtennutzung zeigt eine qualitative Studie von Hargittai et al. (2012), in der 77 Personen in neun Fokusgruppen zu ihrer Einstellung und ihren Gefühlen gegenüber der Informationsumgebung befragt wurden, dass einige der Befragten durchaus Überforderung im Umgang mit Informationen empfinden. Diese beziehen sich auf die große Menge an Quellen und Informationen, die ein frustrierendes Gefühl der Uninformiertheit mit sich bringt, aber auch auf Schwierigkeiten, "gute" Informationen zu finden (Hargittai et al., 2012, S. 165-166). ...
Book
Durch das Internet hat sich der Zugang zu Nachrichten maßgeblich verändert. Informationen stehen nicht nur unbegrenzt zur Verfügung, sondern sie sind auch zu einem omnipräsenten Bestandteil in digitalen Informationsumgebungen geworden. Dadurch werden Internetnutzer*innen, auch ohne bewusst danach zu suchen, wiederholt mit tagesaktuellen Schlagzeilen konfrontiert, z.B. wenn sie ihren Browser öffnen, oder sich auf sozialen Netzwerkseiten bewegen. Diese kurzen Nachrichtenkontakte haben aufgrund der geringen Informationsmenge wenig Potential für Lerneffekte, können jedoch das Gefühl vermitteln, sich mit einem Thema auszukennen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich die Frage, inwiefern Nachrichten in digitalen Informationsumgebungen die Entstehung einer Wissensillusion begünstigen, wie sich dieser Prozess erklären lässt und mit welchen Folgen dies verbunden ist. Im theoretischen Teil der Arbeit werden dazu Erkenntnisse zum Gedächtnis, dem Metagedächtnis und der Rolle von Medien für Wissen und Wissenswahrnehmung aufgearbeitet. In Studie 1 wird mit einer experimentellen Studie untersucht, wie sich Nachrichten auf sozialen Netzwerkseiten im Vergleich zu vollständigen Nachrichtenartikeln auf objektives und subjektives Wissen auswirken. Außerdem werden Effekte einer Wissensillusion für Einstellungen und Verhalten untersucht. Studie 2 untersucht mit qualitativen Leitfadeninterviews, welche Rolle Medien für Wissen und Lernen aus Sicht der Nutzer*innen spielen. Diese Erkenntnisse liefern Erklärungen dafür, weshalb und aufgrund welcher Merkmale unterschiedliche Nachrichtenkontakte eine Wissensillusion begünstigen können.
... In contrast, there has been far less research examining information overload outside workplace settings, and the small handful of studies that have done so often find that its impact is overstated. An examination of the American home, for example, found that people who noted feeling overwhelmed by new media environments were in the minority (Hargittai et al., 2012), while Savolainen's (2007) study of environmental activists noted a similar lack of concern about excessive news and media. Notwithstanding, a significant proportion of respondents in Ndumu's (2019; 2020) study of Black diasporic immigrants to the United States reported experiencing information overload. ...
Article
Purpose The purpose of this second study into information literacy practice during the COVID-19 pandemic is to identify the conditions that influence the emergence of information literacy as a safeguarding practice. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative research design comprised one to one in-depth interviews conducted virtually during the UK's second and third lockdown phase between November 2020 and February 2021. Data were coded and analysed by the researchers using constant comparative techniques. Findings Continual exposure to information creates the “noisy” conditions that lead to saturation and the potential for “information pathologies” to act as a form of resistance. Participants alter their information practices by actively avoiding and resisting formal and informal sources of information. These reactive activities have implications for standard information literacy empowerment discourses. Research limitations/implications The paper is limited to the UK context. Practical implications Findings will be useful for librarians and researchers who are interested in the theorisation of information literacy as well as public health and information professionals tasked with designing long-term health promotion strategies. Social implications This paper contributes to our understandings of the role that information literacy practices play within ongoing and long-term crises. Originality/value This paper develops research into the role of information literacy practice in times of crises and extends understanding related to the concept of empowerment, which forms a central idea within information literacy discourse.
... Therefore, the content of a website should be understandable, operable, and powerful for those with weak hearing. Effective solutions should be implemented to address the inability to perceive phonemes by providing alternatives such as captions, multimedia, or video accompanied by Sign Language (Hargittai et al., 2012). ...
Article
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The electronic press has constituted a real civilized renaissance in the field of media, and the younger generation has benefited from it. This will make it the first medium during the coming period to become a new media system that enjoys the characteristics and advantages acquired from the traditional press, of which the electronic press is an extension, and those from the new method. The study identifies the impacts of the cyber press on the development of religious knowledge among hearing-impaired students from their teachers’ point of view. Hearing-impaired students need more attention to develop their religious knowledge through the electronic press, as hearing impairment has many adverse effects on their learning. It affects their ability to move freely and interact with the environment. In addition, it affects their skills in interacting with others and their insecurity and confidence, resulting in an isolated social life. We used means, standard deviations, and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to identify the impact of the cyber press on the development of religious knowledge among hearing-impaired students. The study sample consisted of 80 teachers who teach hearing-impaired students. A questionnaire about teachers’ perspectives on the impacts of the cyber press on the development of religious knowledge among hearing-impaired students was used to collect data after checking the validity and reliability indicators. Results show that the impact of the cyber press on the development of religious knowledge is moderate. The results also show statistically significant differences in the gender variable in favor of males, and in the years of experience variable in favor of 10 years and more. Results also show statistically significant differences attributable to the impact of academic qualification in favor of the postgraduate category. We recommend that the cyber press pay more attention to religious education for hearing-impaired students through a broader and deeper presentation of contemporary religious issues.
... Instead, overabundance is a common feature in modern high-choice digital media environments (Van Aelst et al., 2017), where traditional media are now competing with a multitude of other digital information sources, such as social networking sites or digital-born news outlets (Bennett and Pfetsch, 2018). An extensive discussion of this literature goes beyond the scope, but we can say the following: despite many people saying that they perceive information overload, many seem to cope well with the abundance of information they are exposed to and consume on a day-to-day basis (Hargittai et al., 2012;Neuman, 2016). Audiences have evolved skills in engaging in a sophisticated mix of attention and inattention (Graber, 1988) in responding to 'too much news'. ...
Article
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In 2020, the term 'infodemic' rose from relative obscurity to becoming a popular catch-all metaphor, representing the perils of fast, wide-spreading (false) information about the coronavirus pandemic. It featured in thousands of academic publications and received widespread attention from policymakers and the media. In this article, we trace the origins and use of the 'infodemic' metaphor and examine the blind spots inherent in this seemingly intuitive term. Drawing from literature in the cognitive sciences and communication studies, we show why information does not spread like a virus and point out how the 'infodemic' metaphor can be misleading, as it conflates multiple forms of social behaviour, oversimplifies a complex situation and helps constitute a phenomenon for which concrete evidence remains patchy. We point out the existing tension between the usefulness of the widespread use of the term 'infodemic' and its uncritical adoption, which we argue can do more harm than good, potentially diluting the quality of academic work, public discourse and contributing to state overreach in policymaking.
... In recent years, many new technologies have been involved in human life. Among these technologies are smartphones, Internet, smart tools and social networks (SNS) that are central to people's lives (Farhoomand and Drury, 2002;Hargittai et al., 2012). SNS have increased in popularity, especially with the development of mobile technologies. ...
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... Hargittai et al. [155] produced a questionnaire and the respondents shared their nearly overwhelming passion for the new media climate for the record. Those who had just dial-up access in rural areas were looking forward to becoming more reliable in broadband services. ...
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... Therefore, the ingestion of information by the students has less effect on the relationship between the reading attitude and information avoidance. Various scholars mentioned that people experiencing information overload may be the effect of data quality or quality of information (Chen et al., 2011;Hargittai et al., 2012;Lines and Denstadli, 2004), quantity of information (Burge (1994), as cited in Shrivastav and Hiltz, 2013), and cultural background (Haase et al., 2014), and time (Mostak and Hoq, 2014), among others. By having a positive attitude towards reading, students are less likely to experience information overload. ...
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Information avoidance is a behavior that could either prevent or delay consumption of information. While information avoidance has been documented in various fields of interest, its overall dynamics in the context of library and information science remains a research blankspot. The overall intent of this paper is to develop a model that examines the moderating effect of information overload and academic procrastination on the information avoidance behavior among Filipino undergraduate thesis writers. Capitalizing on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) design, a total of 215 Filipino undergraduate thesis writers participated in the study. A multi-aspect questionnaire was used to measure the following variables: information overload, academic procrastination and information avoidance. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results show that when students have a positive attitude towards reading, the more likely they are to employ better reading strategies and the less likely they are to exhibit information avoidance. On the other hand, the more reading strategies are used, the lower is information avoidance. Additionally, the tendency to procrastinate has less effect on the relationship between reading strategies and information avoidance and the tendency to procrastinate and acquire excessive information has less effect on the relationship between reading attitudes and information avoidance. Implications for university settings are also discussed in this paper.
... The usefulness of the information for guidance is perceived as higher if it comes from (or is recommended by) someone with expertise in the relevant field (Metzger & Flanagin, 2013). Especially on Facebook, where users feel (more) overloaded with news and information than, for example, while watching television (Hargittai, Neuman, & Curry, 2012), politico-social cues gain importance. Turcotte et al. (2015) demonstrated that opinion leaders' news recommendations on SNS increased the trust in the recommended news outlet and led to more intentional news exposure (news seeking) in the recommended news outlet than recommendations by persons not perceived as opinion leaders. ...
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... The selection of information sources and the decision-makers' source preferences are fundamental to determining what he or she will consider in his or her information search and information processing. The subjective perception of the characteristics of the source (e.g., trust, reputation) and the characteristics of (2011), Simnet (1996) IS Gupta et al. (2013), Speier et al. (1999Speier et al. ( , 2003, Wang et al. (2014) MAR Hunter and Goebel (2013) MS Kock (2000), Tushman and Nadler (1978) Task novelty, task too innovative MS Tushman and Nadler (1978), Herbig and Kramer (1994) Task interdisciplinarity IM/LS Bawden (2001), Foster (2004) Varying task priorities IS Sharma et al. (2014) Goal specificity IS Tam and Ho (2006) Information collection and availability is a company goal IS Farhoomand and Drury (2002) Decision-maker's attention ECS Anderson and de Palma (2012) IS Hargittai et al. (2012), Tam and Ho (2006) Overall diversity of the provided information in task Awasthi and Pratt (1990), Tuttle and Burton (1999) Mood congruency bias ACC Ding and Beaulieu (2011) Personal characteristics ...
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... Credibility's direct effects on opinions may be greater than the effects of media use. Scholars have increasingly employed credibility as an independent variable predicting public opinion because credibility is a measure of information quality; credible information satisfies user's needs and is considered more relevant in making decisions than noncredible information (Hargittai, Neuman, & Curry, 2012;Johnson & Kaye, 2014). ...
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Chapter
Information is a vital concept today. However, the beginning of the information age can be traced back to the periods when clay tablets were used. Information has impact on individual and corporate success. However, information overload occurs when information, whose positive characteristics are highlighted, reaches an excessive amount. Besides, information overload may cause negative consequences. Technostress and information overload, which have negative effects, need to be managed. Information management is useful to reduce the effects of information overload. It will also be possible to deal with information overload through information literacy, which can be taught to individuals. Useful information can only be obtained when these factors are taken into account.
Article
One critical yet understudied concept associated with cancer information is cancer fatalism, i.e. deterministic thoughts about the cause of cancer, the inability to prevent it and the unavoidability of death upon diagnosis. The aim of this study is to understand how information seeking about cancer online influences cancer fatalism and whether and to what extent education and eHealth literacy moderate the relationship between them. Findings from an online survey of a nationally representative sample in the United States (N = 578) showed differential impacts of using the internet to search for information about cancer among the more and the less educated. For the less educated, more exposure to information about cancer via medical and health websites led to an increased level of cancer fatalism, whereas among the more educated, greater exposure lowered cancer fatalism. These differences were explained by the fact that the more educated were equipped with a higher level of eHealth literacy skills than the less educated. Findings show that only when one has necessary skills to apply digital resources can those resources help mitigate cancer fatalism. We suggest the need to enhance eHealth literacy skills among the less educated to reduce cancer fatalism.
Article
This study established a multi-item measure of news overload. It also examined the effect of media use on perceived news overload. Three findings merit notice. First, we identified multiple attributes of news overload and constructed a valid and reliable multi-item news overload measure. Second, we found active news consumption is positively related to perceived news overload whereas passive news consumption is negatively related to news overload. Third, online news was not responsible for news overload. Implications of these findings for practitioners are discussed.
Article
Social media is an increasingly widely used and important source of news. News on social media is ‘selected’ by a variety of actors, including the editors and journalists that produce the content, and the algorithms developed by technology companies to make automatic display decisions based on users’ past behaviour and the actions of their friends. We analyse how people navigate news on social media, and focus on their perception of the different kinds of news selection involved. The analysis uses a mixed-methods design based on focus group material and survey data from Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Across all four countries, with their different political and media systems, we find (i) that the majority do not understand exactly how the information they receive is filtered by algorithms, but they do not uncritically accept it either, because they are sceptical of all forms of selection ‒ including that performed by editors and journalists, (ii) that approval for algorithmic selection is stronger amongst younger people, and (iii) that those with a high level of interest in ‘soft’ news topics (and low interest in ‘hard’ news topics) are more likely to approve of news algorithmically selected on the basis of what their friends have consumed. We argue that the way in which most people navigate news on social media is thus based on a ‘generalised scepticism’ where people question all kinds of selection.
Article
In contemporary urban settings, information seekers may face challenges assessing and making use of the large quantity of information to which they have access. Such challenges may be particularly acute when laypeople are considering specialized or technical information pertaining to topics over which knowledge is contested. Within a constructivist grounded theory study of the health information practices of 39 young parents in urban Canada, a complex practice of information triangulation was observed. Triangulation comprised an iterative process of seeking, assessment, and sense-making, and typically resulted in a decision or action. This paper examines the emergent concept of information triangulation in everyday life, using data from the young parent study. Triangulation processes in this study could be classified as one of four types, and functioned as an exercise of agency in the face of structures of expertise and exclusion. Although triangulation has long been described and discussed as a practice among scientific researchers wishing to validate and enrich their data, it has rarely been identified as an everyday practice in information behavior research. Future investigations should consider the use of information triangulation for other types of information, including by other populations and in other areas of contested knowledge.
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Az információs túlterhelés jelensége korunk „információs betegsége”, amely számtalan területen és változatos módon okoz nehézséget. A tanulmány egyaránt kitér a túlterhelés kialakulásának okaira és történetére. Nagy súlyt helyez annak tárgyalására, hogy miként enyhíthetők szimptómái technológiai jellegű és (főként) társadalmi természetű megközelítések adta eszközökkel. Az előbbiek szinte kizárólag az információépítészet megoldásai közül kerülnek ki, míg az utóbbiaknak három főbb útja van. Talán a legelterjedtebb az „új írástudások” propagálása, oktatása és alkalmazása, de élhetünk a személyes információkezelés eszközeivel, vagy követhetjük az új típusú információs viselkedési normákat is, amelyek elsősorban a Lassú Mozgalom (Slow Movement) elveire és gyakorlatára épülnek. --- Information Overload: an evergreen topic Information overload is one of the “pathologies” in our present information environment that causes difficulties in several fields and in varied ways. Nonetheless, it can be “cured”. This paper explains both the causes of Information Overload and its history. It points out that there are various ways of mitigating the symptoms of Information Overload when taking both technical and social approaches. The former of these are limited almost exclusively to the scope and capabilities of information architecture, while social approaches have many directions. The approaches that are perhaps the most prolific are propagating, teaching and applying “new literacies”, but we can make use of Personal Information Management skills, and can follow new norms of information behaviour, based mainly on the principles and practice of the Slow Movement.
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Sensationalism in journalism has been a popular topic of fiery discussions for centuries. Yet, it appears that this topic is more often debated than systematically investigated. Indeed, the word, sensationalism, has become an easy name-calling device for those who are in the mood for criticizing the mass media. Even in academic circles, the term has been used with little precision. The goal of this study is to take a step towards explicating the concept. The most common but vague classification of the concept is by content. stories about crime, accidents, disaster, and scandal. A few scholars acknowledge that formal features may play a role in what we have come to call sensational, but precisely how the packaging of stories contributes to sensationalism remains virtually unexplored, especially in terms of television news. This study focuses on both the content and form of two television news magazine programs on opposite ends of the sensational/"proper" journalism spectrum to provide insights into the dimensions of sensationalism.
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Based on literature from the domains of organization science, marketing, accounting, and management information systems, this review article examines the theoretical basis of the information overload discourse and presents an overview of the main definitions, situations, causes, effects, and countermeasures. It analyzes the contributions from the last 30 years to consolidate the existing research in a conceptual framework and to identify future research directions.
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Interactivity has been identified as a core concept of new media, yet despite nearly three decades of study and analysis, we scarcely know what interactivity is, let alone what it does, and have scant insight into the conditions in which interactive processes are likely to be consequential for members of a social system. This article attempts to address this deficiency by critiquing three self-defeating tendencies and an erroneous assumption of interactivity research, then proposes four basic propositions around which systematic knowledge regarding interactivity in society may be built. In the spirit of bridging mass and interpersonal processes, a model of in- teractivity is proposed to initiate discussion about the concept as ac ross-level and multivalent phenomenon—one with both positive and negative consequences—and to spur more socially relevant re- search. For interactivity to succeed as a concept, it must have some meaningful social and psychological relevance beyond its technical status as a property of media systems or message exchanges.
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This article looks back at the publication of Personal Influence (Katz and Lazarsfeld 1955) to bring into focus the multistranded history of discussion and debate over the mass media audience during the twentieth century. In contrast with the heroic narrative, constructed retrospectively, that prioritizes cultural studies' approaches to audiences, the author suggests that this rich and interdisciplinary history offers many fruitful ways forward as the agenda shifts from mass media to new media audiences. Although audience research has long been characterized by struggles between critical and administrative schools of communication, and between opposed perspectives on the relation of the individual to society, Katz and Lazarsfeld's work, and subsequent work by Katz and his collaborators, suggests possibilities for convergence, or at least productive dialogue, across hitherto polarized perspectives as researchers collectively seek to understand how, in their everyday lives, people can, and could, engage with media to further democratic participation in the public sphere.
Book
'Imagined Communities' examines the creation & function of the 'imagined communities' of nationality & the way these communities were in part created by the growth of the nation-state, the interaction between capitalism & printing & the birth of vernacular languages in early modern Europe.
Book
Originally published in 1984, Reading the Romance challenges popular (and often demeaning) myths about why romantic fiction, one of publishing's most lucrative categories, captivates millions of women readers. Among those who have disparaged romance reading are feminists, literary critics, and theorists of mass culture. They claim that romances enforce the woman reader's dependence on men and acceptance of the repressive ideology purveyed by popular culture. Radway questions such claims, arguing that critical attention "must shift from the text itself, taken in isolation, to the complex social event of reading." She examines that event, from the complicated business of publishing and distribution to the individual reader's engagement with the text. Radway's provocative approach combines reader-response criticism with anthropology and feminist psychology. Asking readers themselves to explore their reading motives, habits, and rewards, she conducted interviews in a midwestern town with forty-two romance readers whom she met through Dorothy Evans, a chain bookstore employee who has earned a reputation as an expert on romantic fiction. Evans defends her customers' choice of entertainment; reading romances, she tells Radway, is no more harmful than watching sports on television. "We read books so we won't cry" is the poignant explanation one woman offers for her reading habit. Indeed, Radway found that while the women she studied devote themselves to nurturing their families, these wives and mothers receive insufficient devotion or nurturance in return. In romances the women find not only escape from the demanding and often tiresome routines of their lives but also a hero who supplies the tenderness and admiring attention that they have learned not to expect. The heroines admired by Radway's group defy the expected stereotypes; they are strong, independent, and intelligent. That such characters often find themselves to be victims of male aggression and almost always resign themselves to accepting conventional roles in life has less to do, Radway argues, with the women readers' fantasies and choices than with their need to deal with a fear of masculine dominance. These romance readers resent not only the limited choices in their own lives but the patronizing atitude that men especially express toward their reading tastes. In fact, women read romances both to protest and to escape temporarily the narrowly defined role prescribed for them by a patriarchal culture. Paradoxically, the books that they read make conventional roles for women seem desirable. It is this complex relationship between culture, text, and woman reader that Radway urges feminists to address. Romance readers, she argues, should be encouraged to deliver their protests in the arena of actual social relations rather than to act them out in the solitude of the imagination. In a new introduction, Janice Radway places the book within the context of current scholarship and offers both an explanation and critique of the study's limitations. © 1984, 1991 The University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved.
Chapter
This paper discusses three questions: 1. Is there a problem of ‘information overload’ and, if so, how should it be defined? 2. Will the newer communication technologies tend to ease or aggravate this condition and, if so, how? 3. What policy implications, if any, flow from these concerns?
Article
Public opinion and the media form the foundation of the United States' representative democracy, and are the subject of enormous scrutiny by scholars, pundits, and ordinary citizens. This handbook takes on the big questions about public opinion and the media both empirical and normative focusing on current debates and social scientific research. Bringing together the thinking of a team of academic experts, its chapters provide an assessment of contemporary research on public opinion, the media, and their interconnections. Emphasizing changes in the mass media and communications technology the vast number of cable channels, websites and blogs, and the new social media, which are changing how news about political life is collected and conveyed they describe the evolving information interdependence of the media and public opinion. In addition, the handbook reviews the wide range of influences on public opinion, including the processes by which information communicated through the media can affect the public. It describes what has been learnt from the latest research in psychology and genetics, and studies of the impact of gender, race and ethnicity, economic status, education and sophistication, religion, and generational change, on a wide range of political attitudes and perceptions. The handbook includes extensive discussion of how public opinion and mass media coverage are studied through survey research and increasingly through experiments using the latest technological advances.
Article
Anecdotal reports indicated that some on-line users were becoming addicted to the Internet in much the same way that others became addicted to drugs or alcohol, which resulted in academic, social, and occupational impairment. However, research among sociologists, psychologists, or psychiatrists has not formally identified addictive use of the Internet as a problematic behavior. This study investigated the existence of Internet addiction and the extent of problems caused by such potential misuse. Of all the diagnoses referenced in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1995), Pathological Gambling was viewed as most akin to the pathological nature of Internet use. By using Pathological Gambling as a model, addictive Internet use can be defined as an impulse-control disorder that does not involve an intoxicant. Therefore, this study developed a brief eight-item questionnaire referred to as a Diagnostic Questionnaire (DQ), which modified criteria for pathological gambling to provide a screening instrument for classification of participants. On the basis of this criteria, case studies of 396 dependent Internet users (Dependents) and 100 nondependent Internet users (Nondependents) were classified. Qualitative analyses suggest significant behavioral and functional usage differences between the two groups such as the types of applications utilized, the degree of difficulty controlling weekly usage, and the severity of problems noted. Clinical and social implications of pathological Internet use and future directions for research are discussed.
Article
This paper reports an observational study of families watching television in their own homes. Observational data were collected via a video camera housed within a special television cabinet placed in six family households. Results show that family members were absent for substantial proportions of the time the television set was in operation, and even when present did not pay full attention to the screen for more than a minority proportion of that time. Families and family members varied significantly in respect of certain patterns of television watching, but were similar in other respects. The results have implications for understanding the nature of television viewing in the natural viewing environment. Recommendations are offered for further analysis of these data.
Article
The audience experience with home video cassette recorders (VCRs) is examined from the perspective of the active audience concept. Based on interviews and mail questionnaires with a representative sample of Israeli VCR owners, the study finds that the orientation of VCR users to this new technology can be characterized as selective, somewhat involved, and generally productive of gratifications. Moreover, the kinds and levels of activity associated with VCR use are found to be modestly consistent across the communication sequence. Implications for the conceptualization and measurement of audience activity are also discussed.
Article
The authors conceive of this work as not only examining the social and behavioral scientific evidence for the influence and role in society of a mass medium, but also as implicitly advocating certain principles for the aggregation and interpretation of scientific findings. The pattern of findings across bodies of data becomes the central element in teaching conclusions. It is expected that answers will come not from a single study, but from the clustering of outcomes, whether in the form of an estimate of the relationship between variables in the meta-analytic sense or the convergence of findings of a disparate order that encourage a particular broad interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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A study of "the dynamics of person-to-person communication and influence" as compared to the apparent direct effect of mass media. The authors have found evidence of the "possible relevance of interpersonal relations as an intervening variable in the mass communications process." The latter half of the book is concerned with a research carried on in Decatur, Illinois, upon a cross-section sample of 800 women in which a variety of reaction producing influences were studied to determine the degree and extent of their impact on ultimate behavior. Factors influencing leadership status were analyzed. 180-item bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
For the past several years, scholars of mastication have reflected on the history of American media research and found it lacking. This article is an attempt to address questions about the history of mass communication research in the United States by examining a particular research domain, that of media affects on children. Our study is part of a larger ongoing analysis of the history of public controversy about the media affects on children and youth. A major thesis of our project is that the traditional history of media affects research is biased toward considerations of public opinion, propaganda, Public affairs, and voting. As embodied in basic textbooks, this history can be outlined as follows. Earliest concerns about the mass media at the turn-of-the-century and Through the 1920s twenties and early 1930s Took the form of the direct effect or "hypodermic needle" model of media impact. Language: en
Article
This article seeks to reframe the selective exposure debate by demonstrating that people exhibit a preference for opinion-reinforcing political information without systematically avoiding opinion challenges. The results are based on data collected in a national random-digit-dial telephone survey (n = 1,510) conducted prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Analyses show that Americans use the control afforded by online information sources to increase their exposure to opinions consistent with their own views without sacrificing contact with other opinions. This observation contradicts the common assumption that reinforcement seeking and challenge avoidance are intrinsically linked aspects of the selective exposure phenomenon. This distinction is important because the consequences of challenge avoidance are significantly more harmful to democratic deliberation than those of reinforcement seeking.
Article
The focus group is a research method frequently used in the social sciences. It is particularly useful when researchers seek to discover participants' meanings and ways of understanding. In this paper, we relate the history of the focus group as a research tool, from its original uses by Lazarsfeld and Merton in early communications research to its decline in usage as social science research became more quantitative and experimental. We explore the recent revival of the focus group in audience reception studies, review contemporary uses of focus groups conducted within the critical tradition, and reappraise the method and its appropriateness for media and communications research. We argue that the focus group discussion should be regarded as a socially situated communication and discuss the various relations this may bear toward different approaches to mass communication, together with their implications for research practice.
Article
People who have grown up with digital media are often assumed to be universally savvy with information and communication technologies. Such assumptions are rarely grounded in empirical evidence, however. This article draws on unique data with information about a diverse group of young adults’ Internet uses and skills to suggest that even when controlling for Internet access and experiences, people differ in their online abilities and activities. Additionally, findings suggest that Internet know-how is not randomly distributed among the population, rather, higher levels of parental education, being a male, and being white or Asian American are associated with higher levels of Web-use skill. These user characteristics are also related to the extent to which young adults engage in diverse types of online activities. Moreover, skill itself is positively associated with types of uses. Overall, these findings suggest that even when controlling for basic Internet access, among a group of young adults, socioeconomic status is an important predictor of how people are incorporating the Web into their everyday lives with those from more privileged backgrounds using it in more informed ways for a larger number of activities.
Article
Effects of accounting expertise and information load upon predictions made from accounting reports were explored in a laboratory setting. Both greater expertise and lower information load (where achieved by increasing the processing time available) were associated with the placement of wider confidence intervals around predictions by subjects. These two variables also had systematic (though generally not statistically significant) effects upon the dispersion of predictions made by the subjects (auditors and students).
Article
Web mining is used to automatically discover and extract information from Web-related data sources such as documents, log, services, and user profiles. Although standard data mining methods may be applied for mining on the Web, many specific algorithms need to be developed and applied for various purposes of Web based information processing in multiple Web resources, effectively and efficiently. In the paper, we propose an abstract Web mining model for extracting approximate concepts hidden in user profiles on the semantic Web. The abstract Web mining model represents knowledge on user profiles by using an ontology which consists of both ‘part-of’ and ‘is-a’ relations. We also describe the details of using the abstract Web mining model for information gathering. In this application, classes of the ontology are represented as subsets of a list of keywords. An efficient filtering algorithm is also developed to filter out most non-relevant inputs.
Article
Although a growing body of empirical research has assessed the relationship between Internet use and social capital, little is known about what mechanisms underlie this relationship. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by articulating and testing a multi-step model specific to the development of interpersonal trust, a critical component of social capital. In considering the influence of Internet use on interpersonal trust, this model takes into account motivation and information overload. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model with data from the 2006 Gadgets Survey of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. This analysis indicates that the effects of social resource motivation for Internet use on interpersonal trust were mediated by Internet use and perceived information overload. In addition, Internet use inversely influenced perceived information overload, Internet use influenced interpersonal trust, and perceived information overload inversely influenced interpersonal trust. These findings are considered in reference to previous literature on Internet effects, uses and gratifications, information processing, and the cognitive mediation model.
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Includes bibliographical references, index
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Combining shrewd analysis of contemporary practices with a historical perspective, Breaking Up America traces the momentous shift that began in the mid-1970s when advertisers rejected mass marketing in favor of more aggressive target marketing. Turow shows how advertisers exploit differences between consumers based on income, age, gender, race, marital status, ethnicity, and lifesyles. "An important book for anyone wanting insight into the advertising and media worlds of today. In plain English, Joe Turow explains not only why our television set is on, but what we are watching. The frightening part is that we are being watched as we do it."—Larry King "Provocative, sweeping and well made . . . Turow draws an efficient portrait of a marketing complex determined to replace the 'society-making media' that had dominated for most of this century with 'segment-making media' that could zero in on the demographic and psychodemographic corners of our 260-million-person consumer marketplace."—Randall Rothenberg, Atlantic Monthly
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Estudio panorámico sobre la saturación de imágenes y sonidos producidos por los medios de comunicación, que caracteriza a las sociedades de inicios del siglo XXI. Lejos de suscribir la existencia de una nueva era de la información, el análisis muestra que el torrente mediático de sensaciones incesantes, transiciones instantáneas y estímulos imparables alienta emociones desechables y compromisos casuales, al tiempo que desafía convertir la democracia en una atracción secundaria.
Article
As the founder of MIT's Media Lab and a popular columnist for Wired, Nicholas Negroponte has amassed a following of dedicated readers. Negroponte's fans will want to get a copy of Being Digital, which is an edited version of the 18 articles he wrote for Wired about "being digital." Negroponte's text is mostly a history of media technology rather than a set of predictions for future technologies. In the beginning, he describes the evolution of CD-ROMs, multimedia, hypermedia, HDTV (high-definition television), and more. The section on interfaces is informative, offering an up-to-date history on visual interfaces, graphics, virtual reality (VR), holograms, teleconferencing hardware, the mouse and touch-sensitive interfaces, and speech recognition. In the last chapter and the epilogue, Negroponte offers visionary insight on what "being digital" means for our future. Negroponte praises computers for their educational value but recognizes certain dangers of technological advances, such as increased software and data piracy and huge shifts in our job market that will require workers to transfer their skills to the digital medium. Overall, Being Digital provides an informative history of the rise of technology and some interesting predictions for its future.
Article
The article focuses on issues dealing with information overload and cyberspace. Together with perhaps fossil fueled transportation, electricity and television, cyberspace seems to have far reaching consequences for the society. The installment of "Digital Village" is the first of several columns that will look at the future of cyberspace in the next decade. The most immediate cause of information overload on the Web is caused by the Web trying to fill the dual role of being both a private and public information and communication medium. Issues that are privately important tend to be publicly uninteresting. When the background noise of the medium drowns out most of the useful content for the wider audience, as is now happening on the Web, the effectiveness of the medium is undercut. The first attempt to deal with the information overload on the Web was the search engine. Modern species of search engine typically consists of an HTML, form-based interface for submitting a query, an index database with an internal string matching routine and some form of network indexer.
Article
This study reports the results of a meta-analysis of empirical studies on Internet addiction published in academic journals for the period 1996-2006. The analysis showed that previous studies have utilized inconsistent criteria to define Internet addicts, applied recruiting methods that may cause serious sampling bias, and examined data using primarily exploratory rather than confirmatory data analysis techniques to investigate the degree of association rather than causal relationships among variables. Recommendations are provided on how researchers can strengthen this growing field of research.
Article
The article examines responses of more than 500 physicians questioned about the time available for reading professional journals over the past 5 years as well as their utilization of information retrieval systems. It also examines physicians' perceptions of professional medical sales personnel as medical information sources.
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