Oliver Quiring

What Interactivity Means to the User Essential Insights into and a Scale for Perceived Interactivity

The selection and use of media depend largely on how users perceive such media. A central aspect of the “new media” is their interactivity, but how users perceive this phenomenon has rarely been researched. This study provides an in-depth investigation into the perception component of interactivity and develops a compact scale for its measurement. According to psychological approaches, practical uses (affordances) – not physical or technical characteristics – guide perception. While existing scales mostly measure whether the “interactive” technical features of devices or websites are noticed, our instrument is based on the affordances that interactivity provides. Consequently, a new research design, the use-identified meaning, was implemented. This is the first study on interactivity that empirically examines a wide range of Internet-based services, thus meeting the broad ambit of interactivity. Our results generally validate the existing constructs, which are largely based on technical characteristics, yet provide additional insights into the relevant contexts and the subjective significance of different aspects of interactivity.

Voters in a Changing Media Environment: A Data-Based Retrospective on Consequences of Media Change in Germany

The mediatization of politics in general, and of election campaigns in particular, seems to be an obvious consequence of media changes during recent decades and of an increasing interdependence between political processes and mass communication. As in many other European countries, three trends mark such development in Germany: (1) an enormous expansion of supply of new types of media and content genres, (2) the growing importance of television in political communication and (3) the transformation of election campaigning. Based on election studies and content analysis data, this article examines these changes with regard to their impact on voter behaviour. The article looks for evidence of voter mobilization, television dependency and personalization trends, and discusses potential consequences of a changing campaign style. The findings support and, at the same time, modify some implications of the mediatization hypothesis. They concur with recent scepticism about the notion of Americanization. The article discusses the results with reference to changes in campaigning strategies, e.g. tendencies towards the secularization of election research having repercussions on research concepts and results

Between idiosyncratic self-interests and professional standards: A contribution to the understanding of participatory journalism in Web 2.0. Results from an online survey in Germany

Not much is known about participatory journalists in Germany or further afield. We conducted a standardized quantitative online survey of participatory journalists at the German-language website myheimat, a German-based hyperlocal participatory journalism portal with about 37,000 contributors (as at September 2010). The purpose of the survey was to examine the individual characteristics of participatory journalists (sociodemographics, expertise, qualification and gender aspects). The survey also explored why they write articles for myheimat (societal/individual motivations), what they think about their role and function as grassroots journalists (identity/self-concept), what they know and what they think about established editorial practices (attitudes toward traditional professional journalism), how they think about their audience and how they differ in all these aspects from traditional professional journalists – if at all. Our results contribute to the understanding of the participatory system in general and of the forces behind the enormous popularity of participatory journalism, as well as its conditions and its future development.

What do users associate with ‘interactivity’? A qualitative study on user schemata

‘Interactivity’ was one of the major buzzwords of the 1990s. Although the academic discourse has produced a large number of different concepts of ‘interactivity’, in everyday life it still remains a label put on all kinds of aspects of online communication and digital media. Drawing on schema theory this article explores the concepts of ‘ordinary’ users (i.e. people who are not professional experts). The results indicate that users associate the foremost social and individual issues with the term ‘interactivity’, i.e. what they can accomplish by using media in terms of self-development, social influence and social relationships.

Digital Stress over the Life Span: The Effects of Communication Load and Internet Multitasking on Perceived Stress and Psychological Health Impairments in a German Probability Sample

The present study investigated the psychological health effects and motivational origins of digital stress based on a representative survey of 1,557 German Internet users between 14 and 85 years of age. Communication load resulting from private e-mails and social media messages as well as Internet multitasking were positively related to perceived stress and had significant indirect effects on burnout, depression, and anxiety. Perceived social pressure and the fear of missing out on information and social interaction were key drivers of communication load and Internet multitasking. Age significantly moderated the health effects of digital stress as well as the motivational drivers of communication load and Internet multitasking. The results, thus, underline the need to address digital stress from a life span perspective.

Interactivity: A review of the concept and a framework for analysis

Abstract The terms ‘interactivity’ and ‘interactive media’ became significant buzzwords during the late 1980s and early 1990s when the multi-media euphoria fascinated politicians, economists, and researchers alike. However, right from the beginning of the scientific debate, the inconsistent usage of the term ‘interactivity’ massively complicated the comparability of numerous empirical studies. This is where this article joins the discussion. First, the article sheds light on the terminological origins of ‘interactivity’ and distinguishes the term from cognate expressions. Further, it restructures and extends existing findings on the basis of a new analysis framework which considers three levels of interactive communication (action level, level of subjective situation evaluation, and level of meaning exchange). Finally, it delivers a systematic overview of specific criteria of interactive communication.

Procrastination, Distress and Life Satisfaction across the Age Range – A German Representative Community Study

Addressing the lack of population-based data the purpose of this representative study was to assess procrastination and its associations with distress and life satisfaction across the life span. A representative German community sample (1,350 women; 1,177 men) between the ages of 14 and 95 years was examined by the short form of the General Procrastination Scale (GPS-K; 1) and standardized scales of perceived stress, depression, anxiety, fatigue and life satisfaction. As hypothesized, procrastination was highest in the youngest cohort (14–29 years). Only in the youngest and most procrastinating cohort (aged 14 to 29 years), men procrastinated more than women. As we had further hypothesized, procrastination was consistently associated with higher stress, more depression, anxiety, fatigue and reduced satisfaction across life domains, especially regarding work and income. Associations were also found with lack of a partnership and unemployment. Findings are discussed with regard to potential developmental and cohort effects. While procrastination appears to be a pervasive indicator for maladjustment, longitudinal analyses in high-risk samples (e.g. late adolescence, unemployment) are needed to identify means and mechanisms of procrastinating.

Wählerverhalten in der Mediendemokratie

In Wahlanalysen, die den Aspekt der politischen Kommunikation nicht von vornherein ausklammern, hat seit den siebziger Jahren die Medialisierungsthese an Boden gewonnen. Sie besagt, das Wechselwirkungen zwischen Massenmedien und Politik das Wahlerverhalten veranderten und, mehr noch, den Wahlkampf insgesamt, also auch das Verhalten der Kandidaten, der Parteien und deren Kampagnenorganisation. Zugleich, so die Annahme, wandelte sich die Rolle der Massenmedien im Wahlkampf und damit auch die Beziehungen unter den verschiedenen Akteuren, also Parteien bzw. Kandidaten, Medien und Wahlern, insbesondere die politische Kommunikation zwischen den Akteuren (vgl. etwa Burklin/Klein 1998: 177–183; Holtz-Bacha 1999; Jarren 1998; Kaase 1998).

Privacy in Social Network Sites

Are we running out of privacy? Nowadays, for example, we are concerned about whether the maintenance of a private sphere in online environments has become a luxury commodity (Papacharissi 2009). Questions of this kind are justified as online communication plays an increasingly important role in people’s everyday life (cf., e.g., Lundby 2009). While it seems exaggerated to stigmatize today’s youth as “communication junkies” (Patalong 2010), online conversations are increasingly becoming a functional equivalent to face to face communication (Beer 2008). However, some significant differences between online and “offline” communication remain. Face to face communication may remain largely intimate in some situations. It does not necessarily require the disclosure of personal data nor does it leave behind traces (Dwyer et al. 2007; Tufekci 2008). In contrast, online communication is usually mediated by providers with commercial interests. These providers do not confine themselves to gathering personal data and the content of user communications, rather they try to make conversations as public as possible by default (Gross and Acquisti 2005; Acquisti and Gross 2006). Additionally, the speed of technological progress often exceeds the time Internet users need to cultivate awareness for potential risks resulting from the use of these communication measures (Livingstone 2008). Thus, questions about how users manage their privacy online are topical for a majority of social services of the Social Web.

Conceptualizing Online Discussion Value: A Multidimensional Framework for Analyzing User Comments on Mass-Media Websites

This chapter provides a micro-framework for analyzing the quantity and quality of online user comments on mass-media websites. On one dimension, news factors of news items and discussion factors of existing user comments are assumed to indicate the relevance of participating in online discussions. On a second dimension, specific motivational, social, and design factors are influential when reconstructing users’ decisions to participate in online discussions and when analyzing the content of online user comments. The two dimensions in combination describe the discussion value of news items. Potential applications of this framework on other forms of interpersonal communication are discussed.