Mortal or Moodle? A Comparison of In-person vs. Online Information Literacy Instruction

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of online and in-person instructional methods for teaching research skills, as well as to determine student preferences for each method. Undergraduate students received librarian-led research skills instruction either through an online course management system or in person at the library. Students were surveyed about their experience and format preference, and their grades on a subsequent literature review assignment were collected. The online group’s scores were significantly (p?=?0.002) higher, and a majority of eligible participants stated a preference for the online format. Many of the students in both groups reported increased skills and confidence in conducting speech-language-hearing science research following the library instruction. The results of this study support the possibility that online instruction may be more effective than in-person for improving performance on a literature review assignment and is preferred by on-campus students for learning information literacy skills.     

Communication,cognitive processing,and public knowledge about climate change

This study advances the cognitive mediation model (CMM) by examining the factors behind acquiring knowledge about climate change. Based on a nationally representative survey of Singaporeans (N?=?1,083), this study supported the original CMM. The extended CMM showed that surveillance gratification was positively associated with traditional and online media attention, while social utility was positively associated with online media attention. While attentions to traditional and online media were positively associated with elaboration, online media attention was positively associated with selective scanning. Elaboration was positively associated with knowledge. Implications for theory and practice were discussed.     

Does Online News Reading and Sharing Shape Perceptions of the Internet as a Place for Public Deliberations?

With the rapid development of interactive communication technology, the Internet is a major source of news and also plays an important role in connecting individual members of society. However, Internet users may have different perspectives on whether the Internet positively functions as a medium for public deliberation. Based on the assumption that being exposed to information on public affairs is a crucial step for one's civic engagement, this study explores how individuals’ motives related to news consumption, elaborative online news reading, and online news sharing influence their perceptions of online deliberation using structural equation modeling method (N = 998). The study finds significant relationships between news consumption motives and elaborative news reading and sharing behaviors, but only elaborative reading behavior had a significant effect on one's perceptions of online deliberation. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Using the Quality Matters Rubric to Improve Online Cataloging Courses

Quality Matters is a program that certifies online and hybrid courses. For a course to earn Quality Matters certification, it must meet eight standards of online course design and pass a rigorous peer-review process. In fall 2008, this author's online Cataloging and Classification course went through the Quality Matters peer-review process and was awarded Quality Matters certification. It is the only cataloging course in the nation to earn this certification. The author's Quality Matters peer-review process is discussed as is the potential of the Quality Matters rubric to improve online cataloging courses.     

First-level and second-level intermedia agenda-setting among major news websites

This study investigates the extent to which major news websites influence one another's issue agendas and attribute agendas on main posting areas. To contribute to the generalization of intermedia agenda-setting effects to online media in other countries, this study chooses the South Korean major news websites, which are Joins.com, Chosun.com, Donga.com (major online newspapers) and online Yonhap News Agency. A cross-lagged panel design and partial correlations reveal that Chosun.com and Donga.com influence issue agendas of the online wire service. There is no influence over issue agendas between major online newspapers. In terms of attribute agendas, Chosun.com and Donga.com influence Joins.com, and Chosun.com affects the online wire service.     

The Tyranny of the Empty Frame

This study explores the notion of the “tyranny of the empty frame” within the online departments of the two leading Slovenian newspapers, Delo and Dnevnik, where online journalists—newsworkers with little or no training or experience in photojournalism—are required to provide each news item with at least one photograph. By adopting newsroom observation and in-depth interviews with online journalists working for Delo and Dnevnik, we investigate paradoxes associated with this imperative. Despite often being faced with a desperate search for “any image,” online journalists at both institutions are reluctant to use citizen-produced photographs—their use appears to be an aberration rather than a norm. Instead, they frequently resort to using what they refer to as a “symbolic photograph” to overcome the lack of visual material originating from the reported event. This move from indexical–iconic nexus to metaphoric visual communication signals challenges to the dominant paradigm of press photography. At the same time, we suggest that we should not view the phenomena of citizen photojournalism as a radical break with the past but as the latest development in a series of interrelated processes, intellectual projects of modernity, such as ocularcentrism, journalism, capitalism and the nation state.     

The Influence of the Congruence Between Brand and Consumer Personality on the Loyalty to Print and Online Issues of Magazine Brands

An important development in the theory of brands has been the concept of a brand personality as part of the brand image. The construct of congruence relates the personality of brands to the self-concept of consumers. It is assumed that congruence between the recipient's perception of his or her own personality and his or her perception of the brand personality leads to a higher degree of loyalty. The congruence construct has been proven to be a loyalty-promoting factor in various studies for consumer good brands. Whether the influence of congruence also exists with regard to media brands has, however, not yet been examined. As a step to close the gap, this research explores the effects of congruence on consumer loyalty in the media, taking the leading German news magazine brands— Focus, Spiegel, and Stern—which are published in print and online, as a case. The study uses a structural equation model, which is estimated by the partial least squares method, based on a questionnaire answered by 736 respondents. The model was tested for all respondents and those with print and online preference separately. As a result, the influence of congruence on loyalty could also be detected in our media case. Differences of the impact within the models for print and online give rise to the assumption that a differentiated approach to brand management in these two fields has to be taken into consideration.     

Predictors of Relationship Satisfaction in Online Romantic Relationships

Based on traditional theories of interpersonal relationship development and on the hyperpersonal communication theory, this study examined predictors of relationship satisfaction for individuals involved in online romantic relationships. One hundred-fourteen individuals (N = 114) involved in online romantic relationships, and who had only engaged in computer-mediated communication (CMC) with their partners, completed an online questionnaire about their relationships. Intimacy, trust, and communication satisfaction were found to be the strongest predictors of relationship satisfaction for individuals involved in online romances. Additionally, perceptions of relationship variables differed depending on relationship length and time spent communicating. Implications for interpersonal and hyperpersonal communication theories, and future investigation of online relationships, are discussed.     

The impact of online social capital on social trust and risk perception

This study investigated how social media use and online social capital might have influenced social trust and risk perception of a public health crisis in China. It also tested the validity and reliability of the online social capital measurement in the context of a Chinese food-safety crisis. Study findings validated the impact of online social capital on social trust and risk perception. In addition, two new dimensions of online social capital scale were identified; these two dimensions are in parallel to Putnam’s [2000. Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of american community. New York: Simon and Schuster] conception of ‘bonding social capital’ and ‘bridging social capital.’ Social and policy implications of the study results are discussed.     

Modeling the Effects of Political Information Source Use and Online Expression on Young Adults’ Political Efficacy

This online survey conducted at a public university in the Northwest (N = 434) examines the influence of political involvement, information source attention, and online political discussion on young adults’ political efficacy. A factor analysis indicated that political information sources loaded into three factors including conventional and online hard news media such as newspapers, opinion and social media such as blogs or social networking websites, and public affairs websites including government and candidate websites. A path analysis revealed significant differences in their association with online political expression and external efficacy. As an entry point in the theoretical model, involvement in public affairs positively associated with attention to political information sources, online political expression, and external political efficacy. Attention to hard news and to public affairs websites positively predicted political efficacy. Attention to online opinion and social media and to public affairs websites positively predicted online political expression.     

Challenges to Selective Exposure: Selective Seeking and Avoidance in a Multitasking Media Environment

The present research investigated selective exposure online, treating selective seeking and selective avoidance as independent phenomena. A behavior tracking measure was employed. Study 1 used an online quasi-experiment with voluntary national samples (n = 271). Consistent with early reviews on selective exposure, participants sought out attitude consonant information but did not systematically avoid attitude dissonant information compared to neutral information. Study 2 involved an experiment with student samples (n = 185) to examine the impact of cognitive load on selective behavior. The results revealed that those who were asked to multitask during an information search did not exercise any selectivity in information selection. The implications of information selection behavior in a multitasking media environment are discussed.     

Launching an online‐only journal

In May 2006, the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) launched its first exclusively online journal, Education for Chemical Engineers ( http://www.icheme.org/ece ). The author describes the editorial and marketing strategy behind the successful launch of the new title and the challenges facing a publisher when launching an ‘online‐only’ title. The article discusses how IChemE's established presence in the chemical engineering community benefited the new journal's launch and concludes with a list of key points to remember when launching a new product – with particular relevance to online titles.     

Online Environmental Engagement Among Youth: Influence of Parents,Attitudes and Demographics

Although young citizens may not always politically engage in the same fashion as their elders, research suggests they are using Facebook, Twitter, and other newer communication systems to mobilize politically both generally and around environmental issues. Given the declining environmental conditions facing young citizens, a national stratified quota sample of 1,096 U.S. parents and their children between the ages of 12 and 17 was conducted to investigate the factors potentially related to their efforts to persuade members of their online social networks to be more environmental. We believe that online peer persuasion is an important concept to investigate because peer persuasion can create subjective norms that ultimately may influence behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that, although parents influence youth behavior (Adj. R ² = .11), the greatest variance in behavior was explained by the youth's own environmental self-efficacy, environmental news consumption, political interest, time spent online, gender, and environmental consumerism (ΔR ² = .29). Youth political interest and environmental consumerism were especially important variables in the final model. Structural equation modeling reinforced that parental influence is primarily indirect. This study appears to be among the first to link environmental consumerism with youth online peer persuasion.     

Home on the electronic range: bringing the Journal of Animal Science online

This article describes why the American Society of Animal Science decided to make the Journal of Animal Science available online, some of the issues that were considered before and during the project, and the responses of those who use the electronic journal. The article also contains discussions of new additions to our electronic offerings and the challenge of granting library access to electronic publications. Based on feedback received from American Society of Animal Science members, our online endeavors have been well received, and members perceive these offerings as an important enhancement of membership services.     

The Croatian national open access journal platform

Until recently, Croatian scientific journals were accessible only in print form and only to a relatively small audience. A national online journals platform was therefore planned to offer publishers a simple tool for building online versions of their journals and to make them open access. The platform, named Hr?ak, was launched in 2006, supported by governmental funds. It currently includes 170 open access (OA) journals. Most journals include backfiles from 2006 onwards; the average archived period is 6.3 years. 56.5% of the journals come from the fields of social sciences and humanities. Metadata from the Hr?ak platform are regularly harvested by OA repositories. To increase the number of Croatian journals covered by relevant bibliographic and full‐text databases, Hr?ak has forged links with Elsevier, Thomson Reuters and EBSCO. So far, the main achievements include assisting publishers in the process of electronic publishing, and improving accessibility to Croatian scientific output.     

Wikipedia versus Encyclopedia Britannica: A Longitudinal Analysis to Identify the Impact of Social Media on the Standards of Knowledge

The collaboratively edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia is among the most popular websites in the world. Subsequently, it poses a great challenge to traditional encyclopedias, which for centuries have set the standards of society's knowledge with their printed editions. It is, therefore, important to study the impact of social media on the standards of our knowledge. This longitudinal panel study analyzed the framing of content in encyclopedia entries of top Fortune companies in Wikipedia and the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica in 2006, 2008, and 2010. Content analyses of the length, tonality, and topics of 3,985 sentences showed that Wikipedia entries were significantly longer, were more positively and negatively framed, and focused more on corporate social responsibilities and legal and ethical issues than the online entries of the traditional encyclopedia, which were predominantly neutral. The findings stress that the knowledge-generation processes in society appear to be fundamentally shifting because of the use of social media collaboration. These changes significantly impact which information becomes available to society and how it is framed.     

The attribute agenda-setting influence of online community on online newscast: investigating the South Korean Sewol ferry tragedy

The Sewol ferry tragedy was a major event in South Korea in 2014. This study examines the agenda-setting links between a Korean online newscast (Naver) and a Korean online community (Daum). Although each portal initially focused on different crisis attributes and stakeholders regarding the ferry tragedy, their agendas became more alike over time. Notably, the cross-lagged analysis shows significant influence of the online community (Daum) on the online newscast (Naver). This study also expands on Son and Weaver’s [2006, Another look at what moves public opinion: Media agenda setting and polls in the 2000 U.S. election. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 18(2), 174–197] theoretical model for a stratified agenda, providing a more nuanced look at attribute agenda setting.     

Formation of a talking space and gender discourses in digital diaspora space: Case of a female Korean im/migrants online community in the USA

This article explores an online community of female Korean im/migrants in the USA in order to investigate the formation of a digital diaspora of women on the web. Employing multiple research methods including in-depth interviews, textual analysis, and participatory observation, this article examines the largest online community of female Korean im/migrants in the USA (www.MissyUSA.com), focusing on how their unique talking space was created on this site and the ways in which the relevant gender discourses are presented and constructed in relation to their diasporic conditions. The findings show that these women's shared identity (i.e. being Korean, married, female, and living in the USA) is an important element in the formation and development of this online community, especially in the creation of a candid talking space – sokpuri – where they vent their innermost feelings about their lives in the USA. The Missy and ajuma are the two salient identity discourses and selective use and flexible appropriation of the terms are found. The ajuma image (less individualistic, more active in sharing information and helping others) is adopted when these women identify their online community as a place where the empowering ajuma spirit is alive; meanwhile, they still adopt the Missy image of a young, independent, and modern woman for their individual identities, despite its consumerist origin. Although the issues of housewifization and having an enhanced gender relationship are quite often discussed, this online community has a limitation in that it does not produce a consistent and systematic challenging voice.     

A system for the publication of biomedical journals in multiple formats

This article outlines a system developed by Oxford University Press for the publication, in print and multiple electronic formats, of the Journal Nucleic Acids Research. It describes how procedures have been developed to provide a single production process from which print, CD-ROM and online editions can be produced. Usage analysis data for the first year of publication of the online edition are presented. Extension of the system to other biomedical journals is also briefly discussed.