Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Research on the Internet’s impact on social capital has generally ignored its inherent sociability (Williams, 2006). In fact, the purpose of some of the most popular websites – such as Facebook and MySpace – is to increase one’s social network. Reporting the results of a survey of 507 undergraduates, this study finds that social networking use was positively associated with online bridging and bonding, but on the whole, these gains did not translate into offline contexts. Facebook intensity, defined as using relatively more of the social networking functions of the site, was associated with gains in offline bridging and bonding. In addition, being motivated to use social networking websites for their intended purpose – to stay connected to others – was positively associated offline social capital, but using them to bolster one’s public image was negatively associated with it. Discussion focuses on the implications of online social capital.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Trust is intimately tied to interpersonal communication which, in turn, can be influenced by the technology through which we interact. This study examines linguistic differences between the discussions of groups as they establish trusting behavior in face-to-face and video-mediated conditions. We find that although both conditions enable access to visual cues, the fact that mutual gaze is absent in the video-mediated environment disrupts communication, leading to more labored conversation. Adapting a framework of communication mechanisms in visual cues, we find reduced process coordination in video communication leads to shorter conversations, reduced interactivity, and less complex utterances. We also note reduced content coordination of topic and referring behaviors. Despite indicating increased social distance, groups in the video-mediated condition adapt their behavior to ensure that positive social cues are still communicated. Our results show less linguistic cues to trusting behavior namely reduced content coordination, indicators of increased social distance, and greater positivity.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Meetings not only serve an important function in organizational communication, but with the prolific use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), communicative meeting behaviors are changing. This study relies on key elements in the social influence model to better understand what influences people to communicatively multitask during face-to-face meetings. Organizational norms for meeting multitasking explain greater variance in individual behavior than experience with technology and demographic predictors. The second part of this study classifies these individual meeting multitasking behaviors�termed electronic whispering�into four factors labeled: understanding, influencing, to-do lists, and always available; which together account for over 70% of the variance in this type of behavior. Implications for workplace ICT use, meetings, and contributions to the social influence model are also discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Winner of the 2007 Knower Award: Hample, D. (2005). Arguing: Exchanging reasons face to face. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The success of contacting a household depends among other factors on the compatibility of the call schedule and the at-home patterns of the persons living in the sample unit. In face-to-face interviews, interviewer observations, such as the existence of access impediments, could be used to suggest alternative call scheduling for groups of sample units with different physical access impediments. This paper addresses thus the following questions:

1. Do various observable attributes of sample areas and housing structures predict the amount of effort required to obtain contact with a sample household?
2. For groups requiring more attempts to achieve first contact, are there different calling schedules that reduce the overall number of calls needed for a first contact?
3. Are the calling schedules reducing the overall number of calls to first contact similar across different countries; or are successful calling schedules for different groups rather country-specific?

The database to address these questions will consist of the National Survey of Family Growth data (NSFG), Cycle 6 (2003) as well as of the data of the European Social Survey (ESS), Round 1 (2003) that includes 23 European countries. Both surveys ask interviewers as part of the field administration to record observations about the existence of physical impediments and provide together with their call records a suitable database to address these questions.