New Media Research

1. July 11, 2012 New Media Research

2. What is Interactivity? • What would be your definition?

3. Let’s broadly define “Interactivity” • allowing or relating to continuous two-way transfer of information between a user and the central point of a communication system, such as a computer or television • (of two or more persons, forces, etc.) acting upon or in close relation with each other; interacting • Source: Dictionary.com

4. Let’s break it down • inter-: • a prefix occurring in loanwords from Latin, where it meant “between,” “among,” “in the midst of,” “mutually,” “reciprocally,” “together,” “during” • active: • engaged in action; characterized by energetic work, participation, etc. • being in a state of existence, progress, or motion • characterized by action, motion, volume, use, participation, etc. • Source: Dictionary.com

5. Interactivity and New Media • But what does it mean in the realm of new media?

6. Spiro Kiousis • University of Florida • Professor and Chair - Department of Public Relations • Director of Distance Education - College of Journalism and Communications

7. Interactivity: a concept explication (Kiousis, 2002) • Aim of this study: • to explicate, in detail, what interactivity is • Why? • to bring about a consensus of how it should be theoretically and operationally defined • (p. 355)

8. Common questions in theoretical discussions • Is interactivity a characteristic of the context in which messages are exchanged? • Is it strictly dependent upon the technology used in communication interactions? • Is it a perception in users’ minds? • (p. 356)

9. Background of Interactivity • Associated with new media technologies (Internet & WWW) • Level of interactivity varies across media • Overall lack of theoretical consensus of the meaning of “interactivity” • p. 356-7

10. Question Should interactivity be solely used as a way to describe relationships based on new media?

11. General understanding of Interactivity • Operational definitions revolve around measuring specific dimensions or subconcepts • Used as a descriptive characteristic of new media • Feedback is key • Different communication types exist (two-way, one-to-many, many-to-many)

12. Principal domains of Interactivity definitions • Technological properties • Communication context • User perceptions

13. Tentative definition of Interactivity “Interactivity can be defined as the degree to which a communication technology can create a mediated environment in which participants can communicate (one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many), both synchronously and asynchronously, and participate in reciprocal message exchanges (third-order dependency).” • p. 372

14. Tentative definition (cont.) “With regard to human users, it additionally refers to their ability to perceive the experience as a simulation of interpersonal communication and increase their awareness of telepresence.” • p. 372

15. Operational definition • “Operationally, interactivity is established by three factors: technological structure of the media used (e.g. speed, range, timing flexibility, and sensory complexity), characteristics of communication settings (e.g. third-order dependency and social presence), and individuals’ perceptions (e.g. proximity, perceived speed, sensory activation, and telepresence).” • p. 379

16. Operational definition (cont.)

17. Edward J. Downes &Sally J. McMillan Associate Professor, Public Relations at Boston University Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at University of Tennessee - Knoxville

18. Defining Interactivity (Downes & McMillan, 2000) Aim of this study: • To formulate an operationalized concept of interactivity in computer-mediated environments Why? • To fill the gap that has formed as a result of assumptions made about the definition of interactivity p. 127

19. Common themes associated with Interactivity • User effort • Sender and receiver roles • Timeliness • Characteristics of both the medium and the communicator • Control • Activity tracking • Advantages and disadvantages • Potential threats

20. Qualitative approach • Based on concepts/themes found in the literature, 10 “elite” individuals who were involved with emerging communication technologies were asked to provide their insights about interactivity in computer-mediated environments • p. 161

21. What did they find? • Three major categories of findings: • Impacts • Messages • Participants

22. Impacts • Revolution • No clear consensus about revolutionary nature (“viewed as something old, something new, something borrowed…”) • Consequences • General agreement that computer-mediated interaction has far-reaching consequences; potential to change entire industries and forge new paradigms • Uncertainty • Overall unsure of the meaning of interactivity, regarding computer-mediated communication technologies • General agreement that the concept is multi-faceted • p. 163-5

23. Messages • Nature & direction • Benefits of interactive messages recognized, in addition to perceived limitations of computer-based interactivity; a sense of falseness • Time • Consensus that digital media (e.g. Internet) allow interaction to occur at different times; no clear consensus as to whether real time is necessary for interactivity • Place • Consensus that the more interactive a computer-mediated communication environment becomes, the more likely the individual will feel “transported” • p. 165-9

24. Participants • Control • Consensus that sender has control over sending message, receiver has control over feedback loop (similar to mass media) • Responsiveness • May require more effort and/or activity than passive message receptions; unanimous consensus that responsive communication has many benefits, outweighing effort exerted • Perceived goals • Individual perceptions recognized as an important aspect of interactivity; response choices seen as consistent with perceptions, as opposed to content creators’ goals • p. 169-172

25. Question Out of the three major categories of findings (impacts, messages, participants), which two do you think had the most significant implications?

26. So, what the heck is their definition? • Conceptual definition of interactivity based on six dimensions (message-based and participant-based): • Message-based: p. 173

27. So, what the heck is their definition? (cont.) • Conceptual definition of interactivity based on six dimensions (message-based and participant-based): • Participant-based: p. 173

28. The Microscope and the Moving Target (McMillan, 2000) • Aim of this study • To examine how researchers have begun to apply content analysis to the WWW • Why? • To provide researchers with a potential way/s to adapt a stable research technique to a dynamic communication environment p. 80

29. Advantages of content analysis • Unobtrusive • Accepts unstructured material • Context sensitive, able to process symbolic forms • Can cope with large volumes of data • All apply to the web

30. Quantitative approach 19 published and unpublished studies identified that applied content analysis techniques to the web were analyzed to determine if stable research techniques could be applied to a dynamic environment

31. Key themes found • Diversity found at web sites (in content, funding sources, communication models) • Commercialization of the web • Many developers were not found to be using the web to its full potential (as a multimedia interactive environment)

32. Question Do you think the key themes found in this 2000 would still ring true today? Why or why not?

33. ‘New media’ research publication trends and outlets in communication, 1990–2006 Tami K.Tomasello, YoungwonLee, April P. Baer

34. Research Trends • Researching research • “Our study assesses publication patterns and outlets for new media research articles focusing on the Internet and related contemporary digital technologies.”

35. Theoretical Framework • Mediamorphosis (Fidler, 1997) • Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers, 2003)

36. Mediamorphosis • Widespread adoption takes 1 human generation (20-30 years) • Takes 30 years to go from What is that? You don’t have that!? to Examples???

37. Mediamorphosis • Delayed adoption • Coevolution and Coexistence • Metamorphosis • Propagation • Survival • Opportunity and Need

38. Literature Review • Increase in: • Internet related articles published • Articles about applying theory to new media • Research topic shift Media effects studying how people adapt to new media

39. Results Phasing out?

40. Discussion Top keywords used • Computer • Digital • Internet • Online • Web

41. Discussion • Journals shift focus from: mass media all media • Why do you think this is so?

42. Theoretical Explanation • New media research mimics Roger’s S curve Rogers Research

43. Theoretical Explanation • Coevolution and Coexistence • Metamorphosis • Propagation • Survival • Opportunity and Need • Delayed adoption

44. Methodological challenges in measuring online news content Helle Sjøvaag and Eirik Stavelin The University of Bergen, Norway

45. Introduction • Content Analysis of Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) • Mixture of qualitative andquantitative nrk.no

46. Goals • Continuous and updated online news agenda? • Patterns in the geographical and thematic distribution of its news content • What the focus of the front page? • The depth and perspective of the news content • Interactive tools used?

47. Content Analysis Bonus of this study: “does not try to categorize content through the words of the stories, but through the structured markup and URL structure of the website.”

48. Separating content Actual News Content Dynamic Elements

49. Filtering the Content • Date stamp • Misleading because of updating • Selectors • Specify certain elements of the page to extract

50. Categorization • “This difference between the GUI categories and the URL structure indicates the ‘front page’ of a website does not necessarily reflect what is published inside.” • 71% Local News • Latent content variables contained up to eight sub-variables