William E. Loges

Exploring the Digital Divide Internet Connectedness and Age

The existence of a digital divide between old and young Americans has been well documented. It is usually defined as access or lack of access to the Internet. This study adds context to the understanding of the digital divide by demonstrating differenes in Internet connectedness, a multidimensional concept that includes consideration of the scope and intensity of the relationship that people develop with the Internet. Age is shown to be significantly associated not just with access, but with a tendency to pursue a more narrow range of personal goals online and with a pattern of connecting to the Internet from a smaller range of places. Nonetheless, older respondents evaluate the Internet to be as central to their lives as younger people do. Some support is offered for the idea that the digital divide is not merely a generational effect.

Canaries in the Coal Mine Perceptions of Threat and Media System Dependency Relations

This article tests the proposition that the intensity and scope of media system dependency relations are positively related to perceptions of threats in the environment. Theoretical and operational definitions of threat are introduced. The results of multiple regression equations support the hypothesis that dependency relations with newspapers, radio, magazines, and television are more intense the more one perceives ones social and natural environment to be threatening. Hierarchical regression analysis shows threat to add significantly to the explanation of variance in dependency when demographic variables are controlled. Logistic regression fails to support the hypothesis that the scope of dependency relations becomes wider as threat perceptions increase. In fact, the opposite is supported; threat is negatively associated with scope.

Dependency Relations and Newspaper Readership

Newspaper readership often has been studied with the aim of developing demographic profiles of readers. This paper considers the goals readers are pursuing and the importance of media system dependency relations in explaining the amount of time spent reading newspapers. In a regression analysis, we find that dependency relations for social and self understanding explain a considerable amount of variance in readership beyond the variance explained by demographic variables. Differences in the dependency relations between more and less affluent readers, as well as between male and female readers, are noted as well.

Parent, Student, and Teacher Perceptions of Parental Involvement

Parental involvement is a key predictor of a students academic success. However, little research has explored whether parent, student, and teacher perceptions are similar regarding what constitutes parental involvement and the communication activities it entails. The present study examines parent, student, and teacher perceptions of parental involvement and communication. While agreement exists on the importance of monitoring a childs academic performance and constructive teacher-parent communication, disagreement on the role of discipline and the use of extracurricular programs exist. Two discourses surrounding parental involvement are articulated--information transmission and partnership--and the implications of these discourses for developing parental involvement interventions are examined.

Neighborhood Governance Reform and Networks of Community Power in Los Angeles

This article applies network theory to consider the effects of neighborhood council reform on city governance in Los Angeles. The authors argue that neighborhood councils have the potential to change elite-dominated governance through several network effects: development of bridging social capital—network relationships that cross-cut traditional community cleavages, broadening of horizontal networks that improve information required for collective action, and creation of newties that elevate previously peripheral groups in the system of political communication. Based on field research and a network survey of neighborhood council board members, the authors find that although bonding ties help facilitate collective action, they also maintain social stratification because they develop between similar groups and involve status seeking. The development of weaker bridging ties among more diverse groups appears to promote mobilization through information sharing. Thus, bonding and bridging ties appear to play complementary roles in promoting information dissemination and mobilization among neighborhood councils.

Does the Internet Enhance the Capacity of Community Associations

We employ a social network approach to explore the Internets impact on the capacity of community associations. We focus on how increased e-mail use affects the cohesion and democratic character of associations, and operationialize these concepts employing the standard social network measures of density and centralization. The analysis employs network data from 41 community associations that are comparable on a variety of factors, but which vary in their use of the Internet. It finds that the technological nature of e-mail as well as the background and interests of its users matter. Members of community associations do consider e-mail to be a distinctive communication mode and employ it differently from other modes such as phone and face-to-face communication. Increased use of e-mail is found to be associated with increased network density, a critical support for collective action. In contrast, increased e-mail use can either lead to increased or decreased network centralization, an indicator of the degree to which associational activities provide opportunities for the development of civic skills. In associations with relatively similar levels of e-mail use among members, the technology leads to more decentralized communication patterns, but in associations with disparate reliance on e-mail, e-mail use is associated with increased centralization.

Radio as a Successful Local Storyteller in Los Angeles: A Case Study of KKBT and KPCC

This case study examines the local storytelling practices of two radio stations in Los Angeles: one a commercial hip-hop station, the other a public radio station managed by Minnesota Public Radio with a news-talk format. Interviews with station staff and direct observation of station practices provide data that reveal specific practices showing how stations can apply communication infrastructure theory in attempts to forge the connections between the media, community residents, and the local organizations that bind neighborhoods. Obstacles to sustaining these practices are noted, including commercial pressures and journalistic principles that may hinder advocacy.

The influence of heterogeneous exposure and pre-deliberation queries on pretrial publicity effects

ABSTRACT Prior research on pretrial publicity has produced mixed results and a roughly equal number of studies show an effect, show no effect, or show mixed results. We explored the effects of (a) homogenous vs. heterogeneous exposure (whether deliberating jurors were all exposed to the same publicity or not) and (b) pre-deliberation queries as potential contributors to mixed results. We found an effect for positive but not negative publicity on conviction rates but not evidence ratings. Exposure heterogeneity appears to explain these differences and pre-deliberation queries did appear to play some role in the obtained outcomes. Overall these findings do not replicate a robust publicity effect and future research should consider how homogeneous exposure and pre-deliberation opinion queries influence results.

The Trial in American Life (review)

desire to repair the wounds created by this event for the credibility of America’s traditional narrative of “Victory Culture.” Now, as the War on Terror drags on, shaped in part by the catalytic effects of U.S. hypocrisy in preempting international nuclear proliferation while failing to abolish its own obsolete and dangerous nuclear arsenal, we should consider how this “wisdom” is taken up as a resource for other debates in other settings.