Joey Reagan

Factors affecting Internet use in a saturated-access population

Abstract There is a large body of literature that focuses on technology and innovation adoption. Much of that deals with the factors that affect adoption at different stages. Some research deals with early adoption, such as that by Rogers (1995) . Other research looks at innovations as they begin to penetrate the general population, such as Lin’s (1998) study of personal computer use. Across these studies the impact of the factors changes. For example, demographics are better at predicting early adoption but become less important for general adoption. This study looks at factors that affect usage of an innovation when it is available to most of the population. In this case the population was the faculty and staff at Washington State University, where 97% had access to the Internet. Like Lin’s study, the present research used the four scales of adoption factors (resources, need for innovativeness, complexity, advantages), media use, technology clusters, and demographics as predictors. Unlike Lin’s study which predicted PC adoption, this study predicted Internet use. Based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 296 faculty and staff in the Spring of 1998 the major findings were: 1. The four factors found in Lin’s study were replicated, but the strengths differed. 2. Gender and age were significant demographic predictors of use, younger males being heavier users. 3. Those owning more technologies were heavier users. 4. Those more positive on two perceptual factors (viewing the Internet as less complex and seeing more advantages) were heavier users.

The "Repertoire" of Information Sources.

“Information source”; studies presumed that media exposure led to different attitudes and behaviors. Recent research suggests that motivations and interests lead to the selection of a set of information sources. Using ten topics this study focused on the relation of the interest people had in these topics and the sources they selected for information about the topics. As interest in a topic increased so did the number of sources, and as interest changed so did the information “repertoire.”

Classifying adoptors and nonadoptors of four technologies using political activity, media use and demographic variables

Abstract This article explores the media, demographic, and political activity and knowledge relations to adoption of four technologies: cable television, videotex, personal computers and video casette recorders. In a search for a more generalizable model of adoption, especially for later adoptors, this paper assesses the usefulness of four models: Rogers early adoptor expectations, Robinsons leisure time model, Baldwin, et al.s media environment model, and Krugmans disruption model. The findings suggest that expectations about early adoptors cannot be uniformly applied to all technologies. Each model, however, has some validity when approached at a very general level. Except for videotex, there was no relation between the adoption of the technology and political activity and knowledge.

How do technologies relate to the repertoire of information sources

Abstract This study applies “channel repertoire” to information sources. Interviews were conducted with 251 residents of Pullman, Washington, and Moscow, Idaho, in which respondents were asked to assess how interested they were in two topics (sports and whats going on in the community) along with how useful traditional media sources (tv, radio, etc.) and technologies (VCR, PC, etc.) were for information about each source. Based on a regression that controlled for demographics, separate repertoires were found for each topic. Sports had only a traditional media repertoire that consisted of tv and newspapers while whats going on in the community had a combined traditional and technology repertoire of newspapers, radios, personal computers, and cellular telephones.

A Factor Analysis of Broom and Smith's Public Relations Roles Scale

This mail survey of 136 public relations practitioners in Washington State reveals that public relations tasks are most easily sorted into two — those of manager or technician. Factor analysis suggests that earlier study divisions into four distinct roles are hard to defend because of role overlap. This study suggests the need to rework the Broom and Smith public relations role scale.

Predicting cable subscribership: Local factors

A model predicting cable subscribership is developed for larger markets, focusing on variables not used in earlier models: household composition, ownership and type of residence are found to be of predictive value in this single community study.

The role of individual motivations in information source use and knowledge concerning divergent topics

A survey (n=280) was conducted to examine the motivational nature of enduring involvement in terms of its relationship to information source usefulness and knowledge. The results of the study indicate that enduring, or personal, involvement is associated with perceptions of greater information source usefulness and high topic knowledge. High involvement also is linked to the use of a smaller group—or repertoire—of information sources that are topic dependent. These findings suggest that highly involved audiences are active information seekers and help to clarify conflicting findings from the media reliance literature concerning the impact of reliance on knowledge.

Practitioner Roles and Uses of New Technologies

New technologies are used by both public relations managers and technicians and seem to be related, for technicians, to production of more news releases, graphics and literature searches. As a group, eight of 10 used personal computers daily and one of five was involved daily with desktop publishing, but managers, according to this mail survey of public relations practitioners, use technologies in more “strategic” ways, such as in budgeting or market and demographic data research.

Local Predictors of Basic and Pay Cable Subscribership

Table 1 presents the rank order of the six subissues of the media and the two audience agendas. All measures of association were computed using Spearman-rho rank-order correlation. Means for each measure of the audience are presented in parentheses beside each rank. The media subissue agenda was moderately but not significantly correlated with the intrapersonal agenda (&=.54). The media and perceived-media agendas correlated at .84 (p<.05). The two audience agendas were correlated with each other to determine whether respondents could distinguish among intrapersonal and perceived-media salience. A high correlation between intrapersonal salience and perceived-media salience would suggest that when individuals say environmental subissues are personally important to them, those judgments are not made independent of perceptions of media presentation. The correlation between the intrapersonal with perceivedmedia agendas was .67 (NS).

Building a set of standards for use of regression in the journal of broadcasting & electronic media

Our use of regression has evolved over the last quarter century, much of which should be applauded. This article is meant to begin the process of setting standards for using regression in JOBEM while still allowing room for the evolution to continue. Some uses of regression are commendable — such as the increased use of hierarchical regression. Other practices are inconsistent, and some practices — such as ignoring assumptions — may need to change. Precise use of regression still does not make up for poor study design or measurement.