New Media & Society current issue

'It could be useful, but not for me at the moment': older people, internet access and e-public service provision

Sourbati, M. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

Older people are commonly constructed as a group of heavy users of public services that misses out on opportunities presented online, mainly due to age-related barriers to accessing the internet. Drawing on a study of internet access in sheltered homes for older people, this article argues for the need to focus electronic service provision around the needs, preferences and abilities of the users of public services. A user-centred perspective in e-government and e-service provision requires an understanding of the socially shaped and locally situated nature of media use, which can in turn help prevent the tendency to see chronological age as the sole factor determining (non-) engagement with the internet. It also requires investment in making available assistance and support to access online digital media in order to prevent the disadvantaging of vulnerable service users.

Being young and feeling blue in Taiwan: examining adolescent depressive mood and online and offline activities

Hwang, J. M., Cheong, P. H., Feeley, T. H. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

This study investigates the relationship between Taiwanese adolescents’ depressive mood and their self-reported online and offline activities. The results indicate that adolescents who reported higher depressive mood were more likely to use the internet to make friends and express feelings compared to those who were lower in depressive mood. Teens higher in depressive mood reported to have fewer individuals in their immediate social network to speak with, either online or offline, when feeling blue. Hierarchical linear regression analysis shows that adolescents higher in depressive mood reported to engage in more online activities in the areas of communication, entertainment and information seeking. Further, a positive relationship between depressive mood and participation in risk behaviors is identified. These findings shed light on earlier studies that focus predominantly on US internet users, suggesting that the role that the internet plays for youths with depressive mood may vary by cultural context.

Mediated health: sociotechnical practices of providing and using online health information

Mager, A. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

While most of the existing research about online health information focuses exclusively on either the provider or the user side of communication circuits, this article aims to integrate and discuss both sides and their mediated relation to one another. Drawing on actor-network theory, it conceptualizes the provision and use of online health information as sociotechnical. It questions concretely how website providers position their websites and information, how users browse through the web and assemble information, and interrogates the various concepts of online health information these different practices imply. Further, it asks how search engines, and Google in particular, come to play such a dominant role in the way health-related web information is provided and used. The article concludes by evaluating the implications of the findings in regard to debates about the quality of online health information and the way in which web information is distributed and acquired on a broader scale.

When you retire, does everything become leisure? Information and communication technology use and the work/leisure boundary in retirement

Buse, C. E. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

This article explores how computer technologies relate to experiences of work and leisure in retirement. It is argued that the literature on information and communication technology (ICT) use and leisure has neglected older age groups, while research on older adults and internet use fails to explore the subjective meanings of activities as work or leisure. This article examines these issues, drawing on qualitative data from interviews with eight retired couples in the UK. The findings show varied levels of engagement with computer and internet technologies as leisure and illustrate how the boundaries of work/leisure/retirement are challenged and reconstructed in relation to technology use. The use of computers and internet for leisure was not differentiated according to gender, although there were gender differences in negotiation of work/leisure/ retirement boundaries. The hesitance among many retirees to define computer technologies as leisure, and their restriction of other leisure technologies, suggests generational and possibly class issues.

Old wine in a new technology, or a different type of digital divide?

Cotten, S. R., Anderson, W. A., Tufekci, Z. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

Gender differences exist in both general and specific uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Most of this research has focused on computers and the internet to the exclusion of mobile phones. Little research has examined gender differences in specific types of mobile phone usage, especially among youth. This issue is examined using data from a random sample of middle-school students. Although gender differences exist at the bivariate level, the picture changes in multivariate models. Boys exhibited greater frequency of use for non-social, gadget-like features of mobile phones; no gender differences existed in more traditional communicative mobile phone uses.

Patterns of media use and multiplexity: associations with sex, geographic distance and friendship interdependence

Ledbetter, A. M. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

This study examines patterns of interpersonal media use in same-sex friendships. Using a refined version of Scott and Timmerman’s media use scale, participants reported the extent to which they used eight different communication media and the level of interdependence in the friendship. The results revealed four distinct factors of media use: asynchronous public communication, asynchronous private communication, social networking communication and synchronous offline communication. Both sex and geographic distance differences emerged on these factors and all factors except asynchronous private communication predicted friendship interdependence. These findings clarify underlying patterns of media use and suggest that both privacy and orality are salient properties delineating media types.

'Friending': London-based undergraduates' experience of Facebook

Lewis, J., West, A. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

Facebook offers the possibility of increased social contact via a process known as ‘friending’, whereby users create personal profiles and accumulate ‘friends’ on a reciprocal basis. The making and maintaining of friendships has been shown to be particularly important to young adults, but there is a strong debate in the literature on computer-mediated communication about the value of the often weak ties that are created. Relatively little is known about the kind of contact that is made on Facebook in the UK context. This study interviewed 16 second-and third-year undergraduates who all joined Facebook soon after it was launched in UK universities in October 2005. This article explores the extent to which the nature of the Facebook site fosters particular kinds of social interaction, and how students seek to manage their Facebook ‘friendships’. It finds that Facebook promotes mainly weak, low-commitment ties.

Community business: the internet in remote Australian Indigenous communities

McCallum, K., Papandrea, F. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

This article reports on the findings of a research project that mapped the patterns of internet access and use in remote Indigenous communities in Australia. Remote Indigenous communities comprise some of Australia’s most disadvantaged users of internet services. Taking a case-study approach, the article raises challenging theoretical questions for those seeking to understand the extent and nature of the digital divide in relation to indigeneity and remoteness. It suggests approaches for more sustainable introduction of internet facilities to remote Indigenous communities in Australia and improved practices for better delivery of training to users. It reinforces the need for research and collaboration at the community level so that the introduction of facilities is conducted in a culturally and technically appropriate manner.

Review Article: To be networked, hyperlinked, portable: Kazys Varnelis (ed.), Networked Publics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. x + 176 pp. ISBN 9780262220859, $35 (hbk) Joseph Turow and Lokman Tsui (eds), The Hyperlinked Society: Questioning Connections in the Digital Age. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008. vi + 319 pp. ISBN 9780472050437, $24.95 (pbk) Mary Chayko, Portable Communities: The Social Dynamics of Online and Mobile Connectedness. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2008. x + 306 pp. ISBN 9780791476000, $24.95 (pbk)

Erickson, I. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

Book Review: Terry Harpold, Ex-foliations: Reading Machines and the Upgrade Path. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. 351 pp. ISBN 9780816651023, $25 (pbk)

Wofford, J. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST

Book Review: Jill Walker Rettberg, Blogging. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008. viii + 176 pp. ISBN 9780745641348, $19.95 (pbk)

Scheidt, L. A. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:56:05 PST