Gregor Petrič

Social uses of interpersonal communication technologies in a complex media environment

This article investigates the patterns of social use of interpersonal communication technologies that can be discerned in today’s complex media environment, in which people have many channels available for interpersonal communication. The article starts with a comprehensive review of the comparative uses and gratification research of interpersonal communication media. It argues that these studies are efficient in answering questions such as why one device is preferred over another, but the approach they take is less suitable for an analysis of the patterns of actual use of interpersonal communication devices. While they build on various typologies of motives for media use, based upon psychological theories of motivations and needs, this article proposes that a valid typology of actual social uses of interpersonal media should be based on a social action theory in order to find general patterns of social use of interpersonal communication devices. Hence, this article follows recent developments of the uses and gratification approach which suggest treating social use as a social action and finds a fruitful starting point in Habermas’s typology of social action. From this, a typology of social uses of communication devices is derived, allowing a general and comprehensive, yet condensed empirical insight into the social uses of contemporary interpersonal communication technologies within a nationwide sample. Using various statistical techniques, an assessment is made of how five communication channels (i.e. mobile phone, short text messages, telephone, face-to-face and the Internet) are employed for four social uses, i.e. informational-cooperative, strategic, relational and expressive.

Conceptualizing and Measuring the Social Uses of the Internet: The Case of Personal Web Sites

The researchers working on information society measures have recently started to consider how people use the Internet not only as a tool but also as a platform for social relations. As the ultimate objective of information society measures is to provide reliable guidelines for social policy, finding criteria for separating “positive” uses of Internet from “negative” ones is an important task. This article employs the concepts of communicative and strategic action as defined by Habermas for that purpose. A general conceptual typology of three communicative and three strategic social uses of Internet is offered, which can be applied to measure uses of any of the Internets interactive services. A specific empirical application to social uses of personal web sites demonstrates that the deduced measurement instruments achieve satisfying levels of validity and reliability.

Differences in intrapersonal and interactional empowerment between lurkers and posters in health-related online support communities

Abstract Participation in health-related online support communities plays an important role in the psychological empowerment of people who are faced with health problems. Research has suggested that important differences exist in terms of psychological empowerment depending on the form and intensity of participation in such domains by showing that users who contribute to health-related online support communities by posting messages (posters) generally experience greater benefits in terms of intrapersonal empowerment, compared to participants who only read messages (lurkers). However, as yet, very little is known about how the often-neglected interactional aspect of psychological empowerment is associated with participation in these online domains. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore how different forms and intensity of participation in health-related online support communities are associated with both dimensions of psychological empowerment. Drawing on a nonprobability sample of 616 participants in two health-related online support communities, the analysis of the data, obtained with an online questionnaire, revealed that posters scored significantly higher in degree of interactional empowerment than lurkers, whereas no difference was observed in terms of intrapersonal empowerment. In addition, high posting frequency was significantly associated with a high level of interactional empowerment but not intrapersonal empowerment. The study suggests that to better understand the empowering potential of participation for users of health-related online support communities, it is important to distinguish not only between various forms of participation but also between different aspects of psychological empowerment.

The effect of email invitation elements on response rate in a web survey within an online community

In the research of online communities and web survey methodology little is known about how elements in email invitations to list-based web surveys can be used to obtain higher response rates. In the present work, we investigated whether making authority, plea for help, and sense of community salient in email invitations determines the response of survey participants. Drawing from both survey methodology and recent research on online communities, this study also tested a hypothesis on the relationship between activity in an online community and survey response. Using a full-factorial experiment based on a simple random sample of 2500 members from the largest online health community in Slovenia, the results support only the hypothesis that plea for help is an effective response-inducing element in email invitations. Furthermore, the results support the hypotheses that online community activity, related to the frequency of visits and number of posts to an online community, are positively associated with response in list-based web survey. Since this study also shows that combining more than one element in email invitations does not necessary improve response rates, web survey research and practice may benefit from future research on this topic. We experiment with content of email invitations to web survey in online community.Authority, plea for help, and sense of community are tested as soliciting elements.Plea for help in an email invitation increases the response rate.Using more than one element does not necessary improve the response rate.Visits and posts to online community are positively related to the response rate.

Individual and Collective Empowerment in Online Communities: The Mediating Role of Communicative Interaction in Web Forums

The role of online communities in empowerment has received only limited attention in theory-based empirical research, with the focus predominantly on individual empowerment of people in online support groups. This article proposes that to analyze the empowering opportunities of online communities, both individual and collective dimensions of empowerment need to be taken into account, considering the suggestion that the relationship between the two can be an opposing one. The empowerment theory developed in community psychology allows the analysis of empowerment outcomes in the realm of online communities on the psychological level; however, to understand the conditions of congruency between individual and collective empowerment, we introduce the mechanism of communicative interaction. Hypotheses deduced from empowerment theory are contested with the hypotheses of our complementary approach and tested on a convenience sample of online community members. Results indicate that the psychosocial understanding of empowerment processes in the field of community psychology might get new insights by considering a communication perspective for such processes.

Elements of the management of norms and their effects on the sense of virtual community

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how decisions of managers and administrators of online communities on norms and rules affect the sense of virtual community (SOVC), which is an important factor of the quality of online information. Design/methodology/approach – The study followed a two-level research design based on 970 online community members, nested within 36 online communities. Data collection consisted of two stages: first a web survey of a sample of online community members was conducted, followed by a web survey of administrators of the same online communities. A two-level hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Findings – The empirical results suggest that prominence of rules under the condition of members’ participation in their creation, presence of reputation mechanisms, and content moderation contribute significantly to the SOVC , while presence of lighter sanctions and interactive moderation do not. Research limitations/implications – Since this ...

Factors of collective psychological empowerment of active users in the online health community med.over.net

Izvleček Namen: V članku raziskujemo v literaturi pogosto spregledano vprašanje kolektivnega psihološkega opolnomočenja uporabnikov spletnih zdravstvenih skupnosti. Izhajajoč iz teorij opolnomočenja s področja psihologije skupnosti, preverjamo, kateri dejavniki, ki obenem odražajo pomembne lastnosti spletnih zdravstvenih skupnosti, so povezani s kolektivnim psihološkim opolnomočenjem njihovih uporabnikov. Metode: Vlogo štirih dejavnikov kolektivnega opolnomočenja smo analizirali s pomočjo multiple linearne regresije na podatkih, zbranih konec leta 2010 s spletno anketo na neverjetnostnem vzorcu (n = 235) aktivnih sodelujočih na forumih največje slovenske spletne zdravstvene skupnosti Med.over.net, ki je vključeval 8,5% moških, 49,7% vsaj visoko izobraženih in 41,5% poročenih anketirancev, ki so bili v povprečju stari 35,1 leta (SD = 9,1). Rezultati: Ugotavljamo, da se predstavljeni teoretični model dejavnikov ustrezno prilega podatkom (F = 8,65, df = 8, p < 0,001) in z njim lahko pojasnimo 23,4% variabilnosti občutka kolektivnega opolnomočenja. Občutek pripadnosti spletni skupnosti (β = 0,279, p < 0,001), vključenost v organizacijske aktivnosti skupnosti (0,194, 0,001) in zaznana participacija spletne skupnosti v širšem okolju (0,157, 0,02) vplivajo na kolektivno opolnomočenje uporabnikov spletne zdravstvene skupnosti Med.over.net, medtem ko tega ni mogoče trditi za intenzivnost participacije v forumskih razpravah (0,029, 0,65). Zaključek: Za povečevanje kolektivne komponente psihološkega opolnomočenja uporabnikov spletnih zdravstvenih skupnosti je treba v prvi vrsti graditi na kakovosti odnosov med člani, vključevanju članov v strateške odločitve o skupnosti in na vključenosti skupnosti v širše družbeno okolje, saj sama participacija uporabnikov v spletnih skupnosti še ne zagotavlja njihovega višjega kolektivnega opolnomočenja. Abstract Objective: This paper investigates the collective psychological empowerment of users of online health communities, which has been often overlooked in literature. Drawing on the theories of empowerment in the context of community psychology, it explores the factors - that are also an important characteristic of online health communities - that are associated with the collective psychological empowerment of online health community users. Methods: Four factors of collective empowerment were analysed and evaluated using multiple linear regression on the data collected at the end of 2010 through a web survey on a non-probability sample (n = 235) of active participants in the web forums on Med.over.net, the largest online health community in Slovenia. Among them 8.5% were male, 49.7% had some kind of university education and 41.5% were married respondents with a mean age of 35.1 years (SD = 9.1). Results: The study found that the theoretical model of factors adequately fits the data (F = 8.65, df = 8, p < 0.001), explaining 23.4% of the variability of collective empowerment. Sense of community (β = 0.279, p < 0.001), organisational involvement in community activities (0.194, 0.001), and perceived online health community participation in the wider environment (0.157, 0.02) contribute to the collective empowerment of users of the online health community Med.over.net. Conversely, the frequency of posting messages to online health forum discussions is not associated with collective empowerment (0.029, 0.65). Conclusion: In order to improve the collective empowerment of users of online health communities, it is necessary first of all to build on the quality of relationships between its members, involve them in strategic decisions of the community and foster online health community involvement in the wider social environment, since the participation of users in online communities itself does not lead to a higher level of their collective empowerment.

Quality of impact measurement revised: a case of evaluating the impact of Lifelong Learning Programme in Slovenia

European Union programmes in the field of education and training demand regular evaluation. However, due to several conceptual and measurement issues, the validity of evaluation results is put into question. The paper proposes to assess the programmes from a refined perspective of impact, calling for the clarification of some key methodological issues. Two groups of problems for the validity of evaluation research in the field of educational programmes are identified, one referring to causality and second to the absence of proper conceptualisation and operationalisation. The case of LLP impact evaluation in Slovenia is used to present the solutions to outlined problems.