Zizi Papacharissi

Predictors of Internet Use

We examined audience uses o f the Internet from a uses-and-gratifications perspective. We expected contextual age, unwillingness to communicate, social presence, and Internet motives to predict outcomes of Internet exposure, affinity and satisfaction. The analyses identified five motives for using the Internet and multivariate links among the antecedents and motives. The results suggested distinctions between instrumental and ritualized Internet use, as well as Internet use serving as a functional alternative to face-to-face interaction.

The virtual geographies of social networks: a comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld

This study provided a comparative analysis of three social network sites, the open-to-all Facebook, the professionally oriented LinkedIn and the exclusive, members-only ASmallWorld.The analysis focused on the underlying structure or architecture of these sites, on the premise that it may set the tone for particular types of interaction.Through this comparative examination, four themes emerged, highlighting the private/public balance present in each social networking site, styles of self-presentation in spaces privately public and publicly private, cultivation of taste performances as a mode of sociocultural identification and organization and the formation of tight or loose social settings. Facebook emerged as the architectural equivalent of a glasshouse, with a publicly open structure, looser behavioral norms and an abundance of tools that members use to leave cues for each other. LinkedIn and ASmallWorld produced tighter spaces, which were consistent with the taste ethos of each network and offered less room for spontaneous interaction and network generation.

The Presentation of Self in Virtual Life: Characteristics of Personal Home Pages:

This study focused on how individuals used personal home pages to present themselves online. Content analysis was used to examine, record, and analyze the characteristics of personal home pages. Data interpretation revealed popular tools for self-presentation, a desire for virtual homesteaders to affiliate with online homestead communities, and significant relationships among home page characteristics. Web page design was influenced, to a certain extent, by the tools Web page space providers supplied. Further studies should consider personality characteristics, design templates, and Web author input to determine factors that influence self-presentation through personal home pages.

The Self Online: The Utility of Personal Home Pages

The objective of this study was to understand the utility of personal home pages for their creators. Combining survey research and content analysis, the study investigated how demographic and medium use variables, home page motives, unwillingness to communicate, and contextual age were reflected through Web page design. Data analysis revealed that most Web authors hosted a page for information and entertainment purposes, some for self-expression and for communicating with friends and family, and fewer for professional advancement or to pass time. Design tools supplied by the personal home page providers, Web page location, expertise with computers and the Internet, and Web author motivation influenced the look of personal home pages.

Networked Gatekeeping and Networked Framing on #Egypt

Using prior seminal work that places emphasis on news framing and its relevance to sociocultural context, this study describes, maps, and explains evolving patterns of communication on Twitter through the events of the 2011 Egyptian uprisings, which led to the resignation of President Mubarak. Using a multimethodological approach, we conducted a network, content, and discourse analysis of randomly sampled tweets from approximately one million tweets over a month-long time period to study broadcasting and listening practices on Twitter. The findings suggested networked framing and gatekeeping practices that became activated as prominent actors and frames were crowdsourced to prominence. Quantitative findings underscored the significant role of ordinary users who both rose to prominence and elevated others to elite status through networked gatekeeping actions. In depth, discourse analysis of prominent actors and frames highlighted the fluid, iterative processes inherent in networked framing as frames were persistently revised, rearticulated, and redispersed by both crowd and elite. The ambience and affect afforded by the platform further supported conversational practices that enabled combined processes of networked framing and gatekeeping. The findings point to new directions for hybrid and fluid journalisms that rely on subjective pluralism, cocreation, and collaborative curation.

Affective publics : sentiment, technology, and politics

Acknowledgments Prelude Chapter One: The Present Affect Chapter Two: Affective News and Networked Publics Chapter Three: Affective Demands and the New Political Chapter Four: The Personal as Political: Everyday Disruptions of the Political Mainstream Chapter Five: Affective Publics Notes References Index

An Exploratory Study of Reality Appeal: Uses and Gratifications of Reality TV Shows

A survey administered to reality TV viewers revealed that the most salient motives for watching reality TV were habitual pass time and reality entertainment. Additional analysis indicated that those who enjoyed reality TV the most for its entertainment and relaxing value also tended to perceive the meticulously edited and frequently preplanned content of reality interaction as realistic. Concurrently those externally controlled, with low mobility and low levels of interpersonal interaction, were more likely to watch reality TV programming to fulfill voyeuristic and companionship needs. Functional alternative uses of reality TV and the appeal of realistic programming were documented.

News Frames Terrorism: A Comparative Analysis of Frames Employed in Terrorism Coverage in U.S. and U.K. Newspapers

Scholars have been increasingly concerned with portrayals of terrorism in mainstream and alternative media outlets following the September 11 and subsequent terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Spain. Communication researchers have examined public response and reaction to terrorist attacks, definitions of terrorism, policy questions, media portrayals of terrorism, and framing across different media and nations. This study undertakes a comparative framing analysis of media coverage of terrorism, as reported by prominent U.S. and U.K. newspapers, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings revealed that the U.S. papers engaged in more episodic coverage and the U.K. papers in more thematic coverage of terrorism and terrorism-related events. The U.S. papers were consumed with presenting news associated with the military approach, whereas the U.K. papers were oriented toward diplomatic evaluations of terrorist events.

Affective publics and structures of storytelling: sentiment, events and mediality

ABSTRACT In this essay, I further explicate the construct of affective publics by drawing elements from two case studies, the first focusing on uses of Twitter leading up to and following the events surrounding the resignation of Hosni Mubarak via #egypt, and the second one focusing on online iterations of the Occupy movement, and specifically #ows, one of the more connective and central tags of the movement. I explore what mediated feelings of connectedness do for politics and networked publics in the digital age, and explore their impact on structures of storytelling, sentiment, and the mediality of events broadcast through different platforms. Technologies network us, but it is our stories that connect us.

Online privacy as legal safeguard: the relationship among consumer, online portal, and privacy policies

Several surveys attest to growing public concerns regarding privacy, aggravated by the diffusion of information technologies. A policy of self-regulation that allows individual companies to implement self-designed privacy statements is prevalent in the United States. These statements rarely provide specific privacy guarantees that personal information will be kept confidential. This study provides a discourse analysis of such privacy statements to determine their overall efficacy as a policy measure. The in-depth analysis of privacy statements revealed that they offer little protection to the consumer, instead serving to authorize business practices which allow companies to profit from consumer data. Using public good theory as a foundation, policy implications are discussed.