Gretchen Barbatsis

Does Home Internet Use Influence the Academic Performance of Low-Income Children?

HomeNetToo is a longitudinal field study designed to examine the antecedents and consequences of home Internet use in low-income families (http://www.HomeNetToo.org). The study was done between December 2000 and June 2002. Among the consequences considered was children’s academic performance. Participants were 140 children, mostly African American (83%), mostly boys (58%), and most living in single-parent households (75%) in which the median annual income was

Internet attitudes and internet use: some surprising findings from the HomeNetToo project

15,000 (U.S. dollars) or less. Average age was 13.8 years. Ages ranged between 10 and 18 years, Internet use was continuously recorded, and multiple measures of academic performance were obtained during the 16-month trial. Findings indicated that children who used the Internet more had higher scores on standardized tests of reading achievement and higher grade point averages 6 months, 1 year, and 16 months later than did children who used it less. Older children used the Internet more than did younger children, but age had no effect on the nature or the academic performance benefits of Internet use. Implications for the digital “use” divide are discussed.

The impact of Internet use on the other side of the digital divide

HomeNetToo is a longitudinal field study to examine the antecedents and consequences of home Internet use in low-income families. Among the antecedents considered are attitudes about the Internet and their ability to predict Internet use. Participants in the project were 117 adults who completed attitude measures at pre-trial, 3 months, 9 months and post-trial (16 months) and had their Internet use automatically recorded. Ethnographic accounts of their experiences with the Internet were also obtained. Findings indicate that attitudes about privacy and reliability of information on the Internet predict Internet use, but not as expected. Participants who believed less in privacy and reliability of information used the Internet more, even after the contributions of demographic characteristics (race and age), pre-trial experience using the Internet, and actual Internet use during the preceding time period were considered. Attitudes about the potential harm to children and health from Internet use predicted less use. Implications for efforts to reduce the digital divide, the importance of gathering both quantitative and qualitative data, and directions for future research are discussed.

Personality, cognitive style, demographic characteristics and Internet use - Findings from the HomeNetToo project

Exploring factors influencing the social impact of Internet use.

Home internet use in low-income families: Is access enough to eliminate the digital divide?

Relationships between personality, cognitive style and Internet use were examined in a longitudinal field study. Participants were low-income African American and European American adults residing in a mid-size urban community in the United States whose Internet use was automatically and continuously recorded for 6 months. Results indicated that extraversion and neuroticism were related to Internet use, but only during the first 3 months of home Internet access. Preferences for global/relational and visual processing, and for abstract conceptualization were weakly related to Internet use at both time intervals. Strongest were relationships between race and Internet use and, to a lesser extent, between education, marital status, and Internet use. The importance of additional research to identify personal and cultural characteristics that may influence and sustain Internet use is discussed.

The Performance of Cyberspace : An Exploration Into Computer-Mediated Reality

Contents: E.P. Bucy, J.E. Newhagen, Preface: The New Thinking About Media Access. Part I:Introduction. J.E. Newhagen, E.P. Bucy, Routes to Media Access. Part II:Psychological Dimensions of Media Access. M.E. Grabe, R. Kamhawi, Cognitive Access to New and Traditional Media: Evidence From Different Strata of the Social Order. E.P. Bucy, The Interactivity Paradox: Closer to the News but Confused. S. Finn, A.R. Korukonda, Avoiding Computers: Does Personality Play a Role? K. Bessiere, I. Ceaparu, J. Lazar, J. Robinson, B. Shneiderman, Social and Psychological Influences on Computer User Frustration. Part III:Social and Cultural Dimensions of Media Access. V. Rojas, J. Straubhaar, D. Roychowdhury, O. Okur, Communities, Cultural Capital, and the Digital Divide. J. Youtie, P. Shapira, G. Laudeman, Reducing Barriers to Access via Public Information Infrastructure: The LaGrange Public Internet Initiative. L.A. Jackson, G. Barbatsis, F.A. Biocca, A. von Eye, Y. Zhao, H.E. Fitzgerald, Home Internet Use in Low-Income Families: Is Access Enough to Eliminate the Digital Divide? Part IV:Media Access to the Public Sphere. J.H. McCrery, J.E. Newhagen, Conceptual Elasticity of the Public Sphere: Tracking Media and Psychological Determinants of Access. C.R. Hofstetter, The Skills and Motivations of Interactive Media Participants: The Case of Political Talk Radio. J. van Dijk, Divides in Succession: Possession, Skills, and Use of New Media for Societal Participation. B. Shneiderman, Universal Usability: Pushing Human-Computer Interaction Research to Empower Every Citizen. Part V:Conclusions and Connections. L.A. Lievrouw, Integrating the Research on Media Access: A Critical Overview.

A struggle for dominance: Relational communication patterns in television drama

This phenomenological enquiry into cyberspace examines the concept of space and metaphor, explaining ‘cyberspace as a figurative term and a figurative space, as something projected as a shared mental concept. Reception theory is used to theorize this figurative space as an ideational object constituted by a ‘text-reader’ relationship. The performance of ‘cyberspace is described as a self-reflexive ideation about meaning making itself, and examined as discursive, liminal, and transformative. Examination includes examples from e-mail, chat, and 3D conference systems.

Does it speak to me? Visual aesthetics and the digital divide

Studies of gender role information in television drama focusing on personality and occupational traits provide a description of content which does not take into account the context of interpersonal interaction. Using a relational coding system based on interactional communication theory, the studies reported here investigated the association of power with gender as revealed through interpersonal interaction. Messages of dominance, submission, and neutrality were identified from the verbal interactions of gender defined speaker‐receiver dyads in three samples of television drama: primetime comedy and adventure series, soap operas, and cartoons. Content was described according to message characteristics of television drama and gender role characteristics of the messages. Results showed the predominant model of interpersonal interaction for both male and female characters was a dominant masculine‐style of interaction resulting in the portrayal of a struggle for dominance.

Hypermediated telepresence: Sensemaking aesthetics of the newest communication art

New media research suggests a significant disconnect between the life experience of minorities and the content, information and services they find available with an Internet experience. The HomeNetToo project was a three-year study that focused on understanding how communities of people on the ‘other side’ of this digital divide make sense of the Internet when access is introduced into their homes. Guided by Brenda Dervins (1989) sense-making framework, the research looked at the Internet as a social practice and sought to identify strategies with which these communities engaged and integrated this cultural form. Ethnographic interviewing and observations in respondents homes allowed access to meanings within the experience of their everyday lives. As a whole, findings lend support to the notion that the digital divide is more a design issue than it is a socio-economic phenomenon and they provide avenues to pursue for improving the cultural diversity of interface design. The patterns reported here focus on issues of interest to visual communication research and visual design.

Analyzing meaning in form: Soap opera's compositional construction of “realness”

Using the theoretical perspective and method of contextual media aesthetics, this work synthesizes and proposes a coherent set of aesthetic principles of particular relevance to understanding and investigating the sensory world created by hypermedia expressions. It advocates application of these principles in criticism and theory of hypermedia. In isolating six perceptual qualities as formal features of this medium, it discusses their sensemaking functions in terms of creating a sense of presence or immersion in a mediated environment.