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This paper contextualizes discourses surrounding new media technologies by examining activism around independent media, using as a case study an activist group who since the mid-1990s have advocated for greater citizen access to low power FM (LPFM) radio. The continuing interest in the viability of FM radio demonstrates the need for a nuanced understanding of the uses and impacts of communication technologies. I argue that the significance of new media technologies can be grasped most effectively when considered in a dynamic field that includes older technologies; emerging technologies are often viewed through the lens of patterns of use and interpretation of older technologies, at least initially. I follow the activists' assessments of not only FM radio but emerging digital technologies, including webstreaming, "smart" (or software-defined) radio, and wi-fi networks. In practice, the activists circumspectly negotiate expanding their efforts to encompass community wi-fi networks, while trying to retain the vision, flavor, and organizing strategies from their LPFM campaigns. I trace the tensions they experience as they consider the implications of this shift for their emphasis on a "grassroots mandate", for their policy work versus hands-on technical work, and for their identification with FM radio technology versus the inclusion of computer and wi-fi technology in their conception of their work. By attending to the interplay of old and new technical options, it is possible to better understand the trajectory of technological adoption without relying on deterministic or revolutionary explanatory mechanisms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages feminist standpoint as both theory and method in defining effective ICT use for women in West Virginia. Through a 14-month ethnographic study of participants in beginner computer and internet courses, this study examines why West Virginian women are at the lower end of America's digital divide. It examines how patriarchal forces that marginalized these women in education and employment and engineered them into traditional domestic roles prevented them from accessing computers and the internet for a significant portion of their lives, thus relegating them to the peripheries of the information society. It then present participants' views of computers and the Internet, and discuss how their reasons for adopting ICTs are articulations of their standpoints that are linked to their everyday consciousness. Understanding their standpoints helps establish definitions on what effective and meaningful ICT use means to these Appalachian women. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of the niche and concepts from time geography are used to create a framework for the study of interpersonal media---the cell-phone, land-line phone, instant messaging and text messaging as well as e-mail. One hundred forty-two college undergraduates completed a time/space diary for a randomly assigned week-day in which they recorded their contacts or "bundles" with members of their personal network. Analysis of the data show that interpersonal media coexist because they are differentiated from each other in their usage patterns. Each medium is used in different time/space/network relationship contexts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper strives to put information and communication technologies (ICT) development in China at the crossroads of global and local forces. By synthesizing data from trade journals, news reports, government publications and secondary sources, this paper argues that in the globalization paradigm, the Chinese state actively pursues a nationalist ICT development. Given China's status as the potentially largest and most important ICT consumer market for global ICT manufacturers, the nationalist strategy is feasible, because the state maneuvers amidst the fierce competition among transnational players. Internally, the state forms working partnerships with domestic enterprises and uses its monopolistic ownership of the end-user service sector to protect domestic market. Externally, the state adopts a selective FDI policy to facilitate technology transfer and to upgrade the ICT production structure. As the Chinese national development is defined within globalization, developing globally competitive ICT manufacturing capacities is a crucial issue in China's globalization strategy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ICTs are fundamentally transforming the ways in which intellectual property rights will be observed and enforced. This paper examines how legally-stipulated institutional roles to ensure individuals’ data privacy are increasingly in conflict with institutional obligations to pursue copyright enforcement. This raises the larger societal debate over appropriate levels of state regulation required to balance the data privacy rights of users to freely access information against the rights of owners of information and media services to realize rents. This paper predicts that a growing public awareness of threats to their individual data privacy, increasingly understood as “identity theft,” will compel the state to a more activist role, but at the cost of the copyright advocates who increasingly depend on technological data profiling and tracking for enforcement. Examples of how the state may in the future attempt to strike the balance between data privacy and copyright enforcement are observable today on university campuses. University students and faculty (at least some faculty!) are leading the way in shaping the digitally convergent “Gigabit Society,” revealing in the campus microcosm the strengths and weaknesses of existing copyright and privacy regimes. The paper uses several examples of university data policies drawn from existing law and practices to illustrate requirements for an eventual copyright regime legitimacy and implications for an emerging “data social contract” between owners and users of ICTs. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider applications of the concept of immutable mobile for the study of organizational communication. The concept is defined and illustrated by three field studies, conducted in three environments supporting the development of new technology: police work, a hi-tech company and a teaching hospital. The paper examines development problems that emerge in the construction of a multidimensional network combining elements of technology, sensemaking and different communities of practice. We argue that the concept of immutable mobile provides a convincing framework of analysis for this and similar instances of organizational innovation but it also raises issues for management, and for the role that organizational communication researchers might be called on to play in a globalizing world. In our conclusion, we examine limits and possible extensions of the actor-network theory of immutable mobiles that provide greater explanatory power over a greater range of organizational phenomena. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge management entails the processes of creating, storing/retrieving, transferring, and applying knowledge, often through information and communication technologies. Scholarly debate surrounding the philosophical underpinnings of knowledge has largely overshadowed the importance of these processes. In returning to an investigation of knowledge management, this paper explores how various aspects of context and individual expertise place limitations on the extent to which knowledge can be shared and applied. More specifically, context is examined in terms of its physical, activity-oriented, social, and cultural properties. The limitations posed by context and expertise are described as boundary conditions, holding the potential to hinder KM processes. This paper explores these boundary conditions by looking at how they influence knowledge that is shared (and subsequently applied) through knowledge repositories. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the historical, political and economical background conceptualizing ICT for development in the Sub-Saharan African region. Through a critical analysis and review of the NWICO debate and issues around imbalances in international communication resources and infrastructures, ICTs for development in the Sub-Saharan African region is situated within the contemporary global discourse of telecommunications reforms (such as privatization and liberalization of the telecommunications sector), globalization and trade. The paper also explains that the market-based approach of the ICTs for development agenda further consolidates the dependency of the developing countries on Western countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on one facet of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education--their use in support of classroom instruction at the university level--by way of a case study of the Jumpstart Assistance Program for Curricular Technology at the University of Southern California’s Center for Scholarly Technology (CST). Jumpstart was initiated in 1995 to provides grants, consultation, and technical implementation to faculty interested in bringing new media into their instruction. Using Dutton’s (1999) model of tele-access as a theoretical framework, and based on Web site analysis and interviews with CST staff and faculty participants, the paper considers whether and how the Jumpstart program achieved its goal of developing pedagogical innovations. Several themes emerge from the analysis of nine Jumpstart projects: increased tele-access to primary images and documents on the Web; a shift in pedagogy towards the visual and away from the verbal; a shift in student work from linear text to hyperlinked multimedia; and the asynchronicity of tele-access by the students to course information. The paper concludes that the innovations in the Jumpstart courses promote a shift from a passive to an active learning role for participating students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MIT Center for Civic Media (civic.mit.edu) has developed a system called Promise Tracker (www.promisetracker.org) comprised by a Web platform and a mobile app that help citizens to keep track of promises made by government officials during campaign season in order to hold them accountable for their commitments. The system has been tested in different cities of Brazil. The stated goal of this social technology is to promote the engagement of ordinary citizens in the political life of their communities between election cycles. This paper reflects on the premises and preliminary results of this experience using Alexis de Tocqueville's insights about the early development of democracy in America. For him, democracy was not a mere political system, but first and foremost a social state that stemmed from the egalitarian trend in Modernity and that encompassed all dimensions of communal life. His rich view of democracy is used here to explain and evaluate the aforementioned experience to engage civil society and broaden the public dialogue in Brazilian cities with the aid of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses uses of alternative forms of media and information communication technologies (ICTs) by NGOs and advocacy organizations for underprivileged and marginalized groups in China, specifically rural-to-urban migrant workers. Drawing from the conceptual framework of alternative media and ICTs for social change, I analyze a local NGO's community newspaper for migrant workers and an online advocacy media organization targeting female migrant workers. The two cases present sustainable and organized modes of alternative media production that enable deliberative spaces for migrant workers' collective expression. Analyzing semi-structured interviews with editors and migrant worker authors as well as published articles and reader responses, I examine thematic content and processes of production and distribution. Migrant workers' articulations through alternative media constitute a daily mode of activism and resistance. Demonstrating that communal and organizational support can mobilize underprivileged groups to participate in alternative and collective media production for social inclusion and equality, the study considers the transformative potential of alternative media and ICTs. I argue that such transformative potential should not be taken for granted. Integrating local conditions into analysis is crucial to clarifying how, and with what constraints, alternative forms of media and ICTs may contribute to social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing number of activities to provide access to ICT for development (ICTD) in developing countries, evidence on positive impacts and sustained ICT usage is still scarce. This is due in part to difficulties in contextualizing the system both in physical and socio-cultural environment. The paper presents a case study on an ICTD project in two rural schools in Tanzania. We provide an exploratory survey result on internet use behaviors among teachers and students who accessed computers for the first time in their life. The so-called "hole-in-the-wall" effect did not happen in our project, and many students and teachers reported a need for training. Using a mixed-method approach, the paper supplements the survey results with the findings from field observation and informal interviews to address the reasons behind the barriers to computer use, and to discuss how the project and other similar initiatives can be improved by taking a more comprehensive and participatory approach. We recommend a comprehensive framework with a participatory approach, with a strong emphasis on training and motivation-building as a key to succeed in ICTD projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the scholarship on agency in the appropriation of information and communication technologies in communication and media research and science and technology studies. It discusses how scholars in these and some neighboring fields have studied issues of materiality and matters of content in the use of media technologies. The analysis suggests that, despite its many contributions, work in these fields has been limited by the inability to depict the ways in which materiality and content intersect in technology use and why that matters for making sense of agency dynamics. To overcome these shortcomings, this paper articulates a "texto-material" perspective that combines an analysis of users' content creation and interpretation practices with an assessment of how they appropriate and shape artifacts. Building on the relatively small body of work that has explored the intersections of these two dimensions, we propose a programmatic research agenda that begins operationalizing this perspective by fostering an examination of media technologies as texto-material assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on a research paper which analyzes the relationship between access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) and empowerment. The paper uses survey data gathered from three different ICT projects in Ghana, and also addresses gender and social inequalities in access to ICTs.

This paper examines the role of cold war communication science and technology in the work of African American musicians and social movements during the 1950s-1970s with an eye toward showing how artifacts carry different cultural meanings across racial lines and within political and social groups. Through a comprehensive survey of the recordings, liner notes, performances, and films of Sun Ra and the 1960s jazz avant-garde and the documents, art, and writings of Black Panther Party members this paper presents an African American uptake of cold war information science and technology. While a number of studies have explored the cultural use of cybernetics and technology in the 1960s among primarily white cultural and political movements, this paper demonstrates how Sun Ra, the jazz avant-garde and members of the Black Panther Party appropriated technologies and made them central to their identities as core components of their fundamentally performative projects to change consciousness in response to the psychological alienation caused by racism and the workings of a technocratic, capitalistic society. As such, their work represents a cultural proto-informational imagining that runs parallel to much of the cybernetic research of these two decades. Yet, the different artifacts they appropriated and contrasting ways in which they redeployed and reconceived technologies reveals competing ideologies and broader conflicts during the 1960s over the meanings of black consciousness, politics, and social change. This paper concludes by suggesting how a re-signification of technologies occurred as they circulated outside of the communities that had access to the science itself. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse the complex and diverse ways in which audiences engage with media in the context of domestic social change and globalisation. Theoretically it is to develop a diversified rather than polarised or reductionist conception of the active audience, thereby showing a possibility for a convergence of a variety of active audience studies, in terms of the concept of ‘audience engagement’. Empirically, it looks at the various ways in which Japanese audiences engage with the media and ICT in the global rich media environment. It makes use of previously identified dimensions of audience activities from several traditions of audience research and adds to these new dimensions revealed from my ethnography of so-called ‘modern’ Japanese families living in the media-rich Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The seven modes of engagement I will consider are: information-seeking activity, connectivity, ‘world-creation’, parasocial interaction, utility, interpretation and, finally, participation. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s, the way the Internet was framed by popular media and academic discourse alike was manifold: The Internet has appeared as a powerful force for integrating local economies into the global economy, an engine for economic growth, a force for freedom, a threat to revenue streams of telecommunications providers and their governments, a facilitator of terrorist activities, and a corruptor of social values (Goodman et al., 1998). A global, neo-liberal policy agenda was popularized by the Clinton-Gore administration in 1993 through their proposal for the establishment of a Global Information Infrastructure (GII) and Global Information Society (GIS), which overlapped with both the GATS and the US’ own National Information Infrastructure (NII). The aim of this paper is to, first, briefly reflect on the policy and academic discourse on information infrastructure and digital divide in terms of the implications of the ways these concepts were regarded; secondly, to analyze the current situation in Turkey, a candidate to the EU, concerning access to the ICTs and factors affecting the digital divide; and thirdly, to discuss the vision offered by government-level IST policies and international events such as WSIS. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of recent ICT policy formation in Ghana that shows how the country is responding to the pressures of globalization, and whether responses are geared towards improving quality of life for citizens or towards securing a place in the global network. It identifies the goals of ICT policy, the processes and institutions involved in designing and implementing the policy, assesses the comprehensiveness of the policy development process, and discusses whether the policy formation process so far creates the necessary conditions for ICTs to contribute to national and global development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sankhya Vahini was an ambitious project to build an education-oriented broadband fiber-optic network in India. It started in 1998, gained momentum in 2000, ran aground in 2001 and was officially buried in 2002. Using media and government sources, this paper traces the chronology of Sankhya Vahini and examines the controversies about the project. It analyzes the political and procedural circumstances that surrounded its failure, and suggests lessons from the case study for the formulation of future ICT policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential roles of media industries and technologies in the context of four different models of democracy: market liberalism, deliberative, communitarian and activist. The models are analyzed in terms of their assumptions as well as their deontological and teleological aspects. From these models the author derives four distinct doctrines of the proper role of media in democratic society: the market doctrine, the public sphere doctrine, the public improvement doctrine, and the anti-establishment doctrine. Implications and recommendations for policy makers for each doctrine are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is extensive research on emotion in the workplace and on information and communication technology (ICT) implementation, largely ignored is the emotionality of ICT implementation and change management more generally, even though the emotional experience of such processes is critical to their success. The current paper integrates insights from research on emotion at work and the social construction of technology to demonstrate the role of emotion in ICT-based organisational change through a case study of a Not-For-Profit organisation's implementation of a web-based case management system. In particular, I argue that emotions and new ICT systems are experienced as ambiguous phenomena, which makes people susceptible to influence through interaction. Furthermore, such interaction to negotiate meanings for the emotional experience of ICT implementation is critical to its success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past two decades there has been a proliferation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education initiatives and models with a wide range of aims including to equip students with essential "twenty-first century skills" and narrow the achievement gap for under-served communities. These initiatives and models are at the centre of a contemporary reform movement that is characterised by market-based initiatives where federal and regional Departments of Education are increasingly looking to and depending on industry leaders for solutions and resources to ameliorate what is perceived as a failing public education system. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, there is still little evidence that these initiatives are achieving such aims. As such, educators and researchers continue to wonder why there continues to be sustained investments in these initiatives without evidence to suggest they are actually working. To begin answering this question, this paper conducts a Social Network Analysis (SNA) of a rapidly expanding IBM-led public private partnership high school model called Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH). The P-TECH model, intending to serve marginalised youth, has been touted by President Obama as the future of American secondary education (Shapiro, 2013). This model was chosen as an emblematic example of the foundational transformation the U.S. K-12 education system is seeing. Along with the market-driven education policies it is a transformation where governance and control continues to shift from the public to private sector. Utilising a Political Economy of Communication (PEC) framework, the analysis illuminates the ways in which forces of digital capitalism are propelling these models and the sustained investments without evidence to suggest their aims are being realised. The findings show how key interpersonal ties play a large role in shaping the shifting landscape of U.S. K-12 public education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, many social movements have occurred in squares. This paper identifies the characteristics of the square movement young activists and conceptualizes this phenomenal group "Net generation square people." The aim is to study how they serve as agents in the process of mediatization in social movement arena throughout the years. Previous studies usually focus on the sole agent of media and single case based. Three social movement cases in Hong Kong are employed: the Anti-express Rail Link Movement, the Anti-moral and National Education Movement and the Umbrella Movement. Findings show that equipped with sophisticated media and information literacy, the Net-gen square people gradually transformed social movement into a media-centric way. Information becomes essential movement resource. They modified the strategies and re-allocated resources according to media logic. Connecting the participants via multiple channels and doing their own media, the Net-gen square people have mobilized social movements heavily media-mediated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and attributions of expertise in two different public relations agencies. Drawing on Status Characteristics Theory the paper suggests that the use of mundane, widely diffused ICTs may led to different forms of attributions of expertise than those resulting from use of novel ICTs in organizations. Data from interviews and observations at both organizations revealed that mundane technology use led to attributions relating to the general level of expertise of workers, and use of novel technologies led to attributions of a specialist type of expertise. Additionally findings revealed that both generalist and specialist experts were afforded more influence in organizational practices. Implications for theory related to the communication of expertise and the use of technology in organizations is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on factors affecting knowledge hoarding. Based on a series of interviews, the study finds that knowledge hoarding is caused by (1) a lack of ability to share (both cognitive and situational), (2) various motivations to hoard knowledge (related to rewards, safety and enjoyment) and (3) a lack of awareness what to share, with whom to share, why to share and how to share. In turn, these three main reasons for knowledge hoarding are influenced by the organizational (1) culture, (2) structure, (3) management and (4) ICT infrastructure. With this, we contribute to the literature on knowledge and organizations by developing a comprehensive, yet extensive typology of reasons for knowledge hoarding in organizations, and the organizational antecedents of these reasons. By focusing on hoarding instead of sharing, our findings provide deeper insights into how to manage the process of making individual knowledge collective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations use policies to shape and regulate the behaviors of teleworkers although such policies may create some ambiguity and tensions. This paper examines how teleworkers manage their ICT practices in regards to ambiguity of their policies. As there is no empirical research in this body of literature, inductive qualitative method was used. Based on the data analysis of 8 interviews, injunctive and descriptive norms and formal communication themes emerged as the ways for teleworkers to manage the ambiguity of their ICT policies. It is concluded that formal communication is central in moderating the injunctive norms of teleworkers and their behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question what factors influence the value of Networks of Practice or NoPs. The discussion focuses on two sets of variables: the embeddedness of the network and the use of different media. In terms of embeddedness, three dimensions are distinguished: (1) embeddedness in practice: the extent to which the knowledge shared in the network is relevant for and integrated in members' practices; (2) structural embeddedness: the extent to which network members are connected to each other and know who knows what and (3) relational embeddedness: the extent to which the network is characterized by strong social ties, as a mechanism for gaining fine-grained information. In terms of communication media, a distinction is made between an integrated ICT environment on the one hand, and face to face communication on the other. A survey study among members of different NoPs using the Viadesk ICT environment reveals that all three forms of embeddedness are important antecedents of value of a NoP (explaining 43% of the variance in value) and that these forms of embeddedness are interrelated. Further, we find that ICT use positively influences the network's embeddedness in practice, while face-to-face communication is primarily conducive to the structural and relational embeddedness of an NoP. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flight of rural youth to suburban and urban areas contributes significantly to the plight of rural communities. Social capital has been shown to affect this migration pattern (Tolbert, Irwin, Nucci, & Lyson, 2002). This paper details a web-based intervention aimed at increasing the social capital of rural youth. Researchers linked high-school aged students with rural community business and volunteer leaders through an online class to teach skills and provide the project with the necessary opportunity to build a web-based community information resource. Results show that the experience had a significant impact on the participant's social capital, increasing local career plans and volunteer and social networking efficacy. ICT literacy also significantly increased. This study provides evidence that the creation of web-based community information resources can lead to increased social capital in rural communities. Results of this study are valuable for researchers developing ICT solutions to address the flight of rural youth and the plight of rural communities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treating metropolitan areas as information or communication systems is not novel, but our approach has generally focused on aspects of communication rather than the "whole." Recently, the Urban Communication Foundation has focused on cities and the extent to which their planning, programs and use of technology encourage the type of social interaction that strengthens ties and is functional for urban areas. This paper is an attempt to apply the concept behind the ICA Communication Audit to urban communication systems, mapping out the turf and providing a sample of measures. When we talk about the "communicative city," we're referring to a community whose environment facilitates development of a communication system that integrates its residents into a dynamic whole, that enables its citizens to get involved in civic activities and participate in a variety of roles, and makes possible a balance between mobility and stability. To identify how well a community matches this picture, we need an inventory of the city's communication activities and its relationship to the urban environment. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how electronic technology use in organizations can contribute to destructive communication and outcomes. We propose that destructive communication consists of intentional or unintentional communication acts that are predominantly harmful to organizational members, groups within organizations, or organizations as a whole. Working from this definition, we examine the potentially destructive aspects of electronic technology use in organizations, by introducing five types of destructive activities. We elaborate on the various types of destructive communication behaviors within each category and, using an organizational case study, illustrate one example of how destructive communication acts may occur and discuss its consequences. We conclude by discussing processes for improving technology use within organizations and by offering suggestions on how to limit and prevent destructive communicative practices. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of small and mobile screen being used for entertainment is growing daily. This paper presents the findings of a series of studies exploring the impact of smaller video format, specifically the Apple iPod, on audience responses. Two experiments were conducted with participants being exposed to one of two presentations on either an iPod or on a 32-inch television. Participants saw either a 10-minute fast-paced (multiple cut) action sequence or a 10-minute slow-paced (long cut) conversation sequence from a feature length motion picture. The two experiments each had a 2 x 2 design examining differences in immersion, spatial presence and social realism dimensions of presence. While previous research suggests that larger format presentations should generally result in higher levels of presence, experiment one found that subjects viewing the iPod reported higher levels of immersion. In experiment two, participants reported higher levels of spatial presence and social realism. The results suggest that sound merits further investigation and arguably should be included in all experiments with audio/visual stimuli. Implications are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the efforts to provide the access to the internet and mobile phones for development continue to grow, the research findings on its positive impacts seem to be limited. The paper argues that the problem of the elusive impacts is generated by the simplistic assumptions within the access-centric approach, which tend to overlook the complex relationship between access, usage, and development, or to overstate the role of ICTs within the development project. The paper also examined the implication of the capability approach (CA) as a potential framework to approach the ICTD research and practices. The case of mobile money under the CA framework and the possible research directions are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines technology use among journalists in six European countries (Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Estonia). The ongoing technologization of journalism is analyzed using a framework contrasting two discourses of professionalism: organizational (managerial, rational, focused on surveillance and control) and occupational (discretionary, autonomous, value-led). Technology is viewed as an area where ongoing negotiation as well as conflict between discourses take place. The study finds great similarities between journalists across nations in terms of how they understand and use technology, but there are also differences. The paper indicates there is a 'European continuum of technologization': journalism in Britain, Sweden and to some extent Germany is thoroughly technologized; technologization is still an ongoing process in Poland and Estonia; and least advanced in Italy. The data comes from a series of 62 semi-structured interviews with journalists from all six countries, but some results from an email survey (n=2238) are also presented. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores ICT use by Indian and Filipino female migrant workers who are employed as live-in maids in Singapore through ethnographic interviews with twenty women. Their particular employment circumstances translate into a circumscribed and isolated living and working experience which makes their access and use of ICTs even more significant. Our findings show that these women employ a variety of technologies for everyday communication, including letters, the mobile phone and the Internet, with the mobile phone being the most crucial communication device for most of them. Mobile communications enable them to foster emotional links with their friends and family back home, grow their social networks in their host countries and afford them greater autonomy in seeking better job opportunities and the management of their personal matters. The paper concludes by making three policy recommendations aimed at improving ICT access for migrant workers. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ICT and the death of distance. Although ICT is often promoted as a tool to coordinate between/among distant individuals and organizations, this distance is rarely specifically modeled. To operationalize this, this paper examines the link between ICT use and transportation infrastructure in the context of a supply chain in a developing country. The analysis provides insight into whether ICT is a complement or a substitute for physical infrastructure. If it is a substitute, then ICT could have great value in stimulating economic growth. If it is a complement, then it may be of limited value in economies with poor infrastructure. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explain the ways in which habitual uses of communication technologies occur in people's every day lives. Given the roles of communication media as a means to support social relationships, it is crucial to understand the nature of the habitual use of communication technologies as an outcome of personal relationships. Drawing upon Giddens' concept of ontological security and relational pragmatics, this paper argues that the habitual use of communication technologies may persist to the extent that people do not want the ontological security built to their every day lives to be breached. This paper suggests that there are several relational conditions that help to preserve ontological security. Such relational conditions include attribute-driven relational conditions (i.e., homophily and kinship network) and interaction-induced relational conditions (i.e., multiplexity, role complexity, and reciprocity). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online participatory culture equates access to the means of communication with renewal of democratic participation, thus offering a compelling answer to concerns about control over the media. Yet, efforts to understand the power dynamics that shape cultural practices of communication online should not be abandoned. The new context of online user-generated communication requires tracing how online media systems set up the parameters of interaction and experience among users and between users and means of communication through networks of software systems, new types of communicative activities, social norms and cultural practices. This paper presents a cultural theory framework that includes Actor-network theory to trace the nascent power dynamics in the user-generated content context. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates how question of meaning needs to be integrated with that of media and software technologies in order to examine how user-generated content platforms set up the conditions for experiencing and sharing meaning online. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature has linked some occupational transitions to the pervasive application of ICTs. In order to clarify the relationship between ICTs and occupational transformation in Taiwan, this paper will take a look at the extent of informatization of different occupations and also at the relationship between informatization and income; the occupation structure changes in Taiwan's information economy; and finally, the determining factors of these occupational structure changes by using regression analyses. The research results found that the changing trends of occupation structure under the transformation to an information society has made Taiwan's labor market more unbalanced, benefiting workers more skilled with information, more professional, and having a higher level of education, which inevitably deteriorates the labor market inequality and bias. Also importantly, the paper found that although the information economy did lead to an unbalanced occupation development in Taiwan, however, among these processes, other political and economic determinants also matter. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure continues to grow as does the use of this media to negotiate social change and justice. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), grassroots activists, and social movement actors are becoming more intertwined, working within transnational advocacy networks (TANS) to leverage their strengths and make a social impact. Through new and established social networks and the use of the Internet and other technologies, these TANS are contributing to what some consider to be a global civil society operating outside of state and market control. While recognizing the value and importance of these networks and their capacities for social change, it is equally important to understand how these networks facilitate representation among local and global actors. In this paper I examine theories of global civil society and the intersection between TAN actors and their use of the Internet to achieve their objectives. These findings are then compared to broader issues relating to the digital divide, hierarchies of global power, and representation. What is revealed is that large economic, technical, and educational gaps continue to exist between rich and poor that affect network actor involvement. Additionally, little cross-cultural dialogue or communication is being facilitated. I argue that NGOs working within the TANs are in a perfect position to implement and facilitate greater cross-cultural communication and that this act may serve to create more sustainable, long-term social change, rather than traditional reactionary network responses to crisis. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze scholarship on media and information technologies at the intersection of Communication Studies and Science and Technology Studies. More specifically, we focus on three conceptual bridges that have been especially fruitful in both fields: a) prevailing notions about causality in technology-society relationships, b) the process of technology development, and c) the social consequences of technological change. We begin by defining key terms and concepts, and in subsequent sections move to discussions of causality, process, and consequences. We conclude with a summary of the media and information technologies research landscape framed by the three bridges, and consider the implications of that landscape for continued intellectual dialogue between the two fields. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores older New Zealanders' perceptions of the barriers to, benefits of, and negative consequences of computer-based ICTs through the analysis of focus group discussions involving a total of 98 respondents. The authors conclude that gender as well as age are critical determining factors in how older people evaluate the difficulties, benefits, and negative consequences of computer use. Significant gaps between the New Zealand Government's identification of the benefits of computing for older people and the benefits identified by older people themselves are highlighted. The authors consequently argue for the need to promote the "people-centred" benefits of computer use over and above the national economic benefits that are emphasised in the New Zealand Government's drive to encourage older people's uptake of computer based ICTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster relief is intertwined with many social marketing objectives which often include health, livelihood, social welfare and community rebuilding issues. Using the social marketing framework, we examine case examples from recent tsunami disaster relief efforts in Asia (primarily from Banda Aceh and Tamil Nadu, India) which utilized Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). We draw lessons on how and when ICTs can play a focal role in influencing collective welfare, education levels, livelihood generation activities, sharing health resources, improving mortality and in shaping communal roles. Implications for policy and disaster relief agencies are proposed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the UNDP-supported ICT Project for rural development at Tongnan County in western China. It aims to explore various factors that affect the Internet diffusion among the rural people and the implications that the Internet diffusion may have on the rural social and economic development. This study also addresses the issue of sustainability of ICT development in the rural context. Its ethnographic research design allowed the researchers to interact with the rural people under study and obtain first-hand data on their experiences in the Internet diffusion. TongnanÂ’s experiences with the Internet show that the top-down project structure, the bureaucratic interventions, the prevailing mode of small-peasant economy as well as the disempowered administrations all contribute to the failure of this short-lived project. As the Internet does not come to the rural people as a natural stage of the economic and infrastructural development in the rural areas, its diffusion and usage are strongly influenced by the change agency, whose purposes to introduce the new technology shape the diffusion patterns of the Internet, which in turn mold the rural usage of the Internet and its implications for development. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The average number of structural onsets per second is used as an indication of structural complexity. Two measures of information introduced by structural features--one for auditory structure and one for visual structure--are used to quantify information density. Then an experiment is conducted to test predictions of variations in these two variables on secondary task reaction time measures and recognition memory. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an improved theoretical approach to the rich variety of collective action now present in public life, as a way to reconcile theoretical problems in collective action theory, social capital theory, and organization theory. Toward this end, we advance a conception of collective action as communicative in nature, and offer a two-dimensional model of collective action space, comprising dimensions for (a) the mode of interpersonal interaction and (b) the mode of engagement that shapes interaction. We illustrate the perspective by describing the location of a variety of contemporary collective action groups within it and by an explication of the space that reveals its utility for making sense of modern collective action efforts. Specifically, we apply the collective action space to illustrate the changing presence of collective action groups over time, deviations in collective action groups through changes in size, shape, and location, and variations in the experiences and motivations of people engaged in collective action efforts. Finally, we show how our communicative approach to collective action can integrate the insights of several theoretical traditions, including collective action theory, social capital theory, and aspects of organization theory. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The democratic potential of ICTs has been both celebrated and criticised. This article wants to take these analyses one step further, by analysing the power relations in two specific virtual communities, both Multi User Domains/Dungeons (MUDs). The framework for analysis is provided by the writings of Giddens and Foucault, which allows us to distinguish between the generative and restrictive aspects of power, without disregarding their dialectical nature and, in combination with the induced resistance, their productive capacities. Using participant observation, the focus is placed on the power relations between 'ordinary' players (mortals) and the 'owners' (immortals annex implementators) of the two MUDs. Although some room exists for negotiation, solidarity, collaboration and co-deciding, the overall effect produced by the dialectics of control approximates a quasi-authoritarian situation. The only room for ‘real’ resistance that remains open to the mortals is to simply leave the MUD. Despite the specific playfulness of the environment and the pleasure it does generate to both mortals and immortals, its troublesome negation of democracy is difficult to combine with the concern for the democratisation of society at all levels and with the blind celebration of the democratic potential of ICTs. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent thesis of the "gap in the law" is such of crises which draw a model of the cyber criminality, releasing in hollow the process of social integration of a technical invention (ICT) in phase of democratization. Which conclusions have we to draw from the thesis of the impotence of the State-Nation face to the omnipotent of ICT? Within the framework of our research on the changes of infrastructures of the public space, we have followed the negotiation and the institutional process within the French State to respond to this “crisis”. In the framework of this you study, we are focus on a recent institutional innovation which challenges the concept of governance in France: The Forum des Droits sur Internet (FDI). Between Public policies studies and Pragmatics communication theories, we were enabled to reveal how the "Forum" engages a new model of governance, with pragmatic dimension, within the meaning of Austin and Habermas, resting entirely on information and communication processes. The FDI would be defined as an institution of treatment of the knowledge and standard in the order of Law. The communication and the power becoming two concepts deeply intermingled in the stakes of institutionalized procedures, we will try to show how the configuration of a libertarian self-regulation gradually makes place with a new model of regulation which transforms the nature of the traditional kingly State, while being based on a new "software power" which calls upon relations of communication. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay traces the ethnogenesis of Cyber Yugoslavia (CY), a virtual community that became known as the first online nation. Unlike other groups established online, CY has a form of a state. CY has its emblems, governmental structure, as well as the Constitution, and it issues its own digital passports. The chapter outlines both historic and symbolic links between "real" Yugoslavia and its online namesake. To explain this relationship, the development of the Yugoslav national idea from the nineteenth century origins to the present times is described. Further analysis presented in the essay seeks to explain reasons behind the fact that Cyber Yugoslavia has developed into a large, international community consisting of 16,573 members from 150 countries. In the chapter I argue that Cyber Yugoslavia is not an attempt of constructing Yugoslav or any other national identity on the Internet, but an attempt of deconstructing national identity as such. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the culture-dependent paths of communication technology development in the post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), as well as their implications for political and economic development. I find that religious traditions and political histories have significantly affected the quality of governance and legal environment, and have consequently shaped the development, modernization and restructuring of large telecommunications systems. The findings indicate that slower growth of horizontal communications in predominantly Orthodox and Muslim societies of CEE can be partly attributed to their religious and historical heritage. I suggest that this pattern of communications underdevelopment has slowed down their political and economic progress, especially when compared to the progress made by the neighboring Catholic and Protestant countries. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with a study that examined changes taking place in teaching and learning process of higher education systems (HES) and the role that information and communication technologies (ICT) have played in this transformation. It focuses on three aspects concerning the impact of ICT on teaching and learning at a Mexican higher institution: the role of the instructor, in the way students learn, and the impact of ICT use in HES themselves. The study also adds to the body of literature that considers the conditions under which the potential of the new technologies can be realized in a developing country.