Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In-depth interviews with 23 professional journalists from major South Korean news organizations gauged their perceptions of interactivity and adoption of interpersonal interactive features, specifically blogs, forums and user comments. Using Chung’s (2007) continuum of interactive approaches, the analysis reveals that innovators work hard to find ways to make technology provide meaningful feedback opportunities for news audiences to further improve journalistic goals. Cautious traditionalists are more concerned with the quality of information communicated through online news. Purists believe traditional journalism practices and goals remain in tact and are irritated by flashy presentation styles that draw away from serious information dissemination.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The present article examines the effect of information seeking role (participation versus observation) on computer-mediated initial interactions in interpersonal and group contexts. The results of both studies indicate that information seeking role and information valence significantly influenced reports of the degree of interactivity (involvement, mutuality) experienced and positivity of relational outcomes forecasted. The communication format moderated the effect of information seeking role on post-interaction uncertainty. Consistent with the principle of interactivity, regression analyses supported the claim that the effect of the structural affordances on initial interaction outcomes was partially mediated by the experiential properties. The implications of the present study for understanding online relationship development are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Interactive narratives are increasingly technologically possible and are expected to become an everyday form of entertainment, but for now actual implementations are rare. This 2x2 experiment compares group (2 person) versus alone viewer emotional reactions watching either a linear or an interactive version of a 7 minute digital video narrative, Modern Cinderella. Eighty subjects were randomly assigned to each of the four conditions. Enjoyment, story involvement, and arousal were not different across conditions. The interactive version sparked more viewer curiosity, more laughing out loud, and more discussion than the linear version. Those who experienced the interactive version were enthusiastic about being able to make choices. Interactive narratives appear to be fall in between high and low involvement. Group viewing of interactive narrative was different than alone viewing. Those watching with others thought less carefully about the choices and paid less attention. Alone viewers were the most curious.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Forty three websites nominated for the Online Journalism Awards by the Online News Association in 2002 were content analyzed using a six-dimensional conceptualization of interactivity. The researcher placed special emphasis on the distinction between medium and human interactivity dimensions. Results show that the nominated websites used medium interactivity dimensions extensively but showed more resistance toward medium-human and human interactivity dimensions. However, overall, the websites displayed moderate to significant amounts of interactivity. While the human interactivity dimensions are still lacking and market forces still appear to dictate the decisions about how a website should or can be presented, the findings from this study suggest that the news industry is slowly sharing their control and power of news delivery with the audience.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: Interactional sociolinguistics (IS) has its origin in the search for replicable methods of qualitative sociolinguistic analysis that can provide insights into the linguistic and cultural diversity characteristic of today’s communicative environments, and document its impact on individuals’ lives. IS analysis therefore concentrates on speech exchanges involving two or more actors as its main object of study. The aim is to show how individuals participating in such exchanges use talk to achieve their communicative ends in real life situations by concentrating on the meaning making processes and the taken-for-granted background assumptions that underlie the negotiation of shared interpretations. IS focuses on the context and culturally specific situated inferences that members rely on to convey communicative intent. There is no a priori assumption that communicative resources are shared. IS assumes that interpretive assessments always build on locally or context specific background knowledge that takes the form of presuppositions that shift in the course of an encounter. A main purpose of IS analysis is to show how diversity affects interpretation. In IS analysis, speaking is treated as a reflexive process such that everything said can be seen as either directly reacting to preceding talk, reflecting a set of immediate circumstances or responding to past events, whether directly experienced or indirectly transmitted. By revealing the underlying and otherwise bound to remain hidden interpretive process that affects an encounter, IS analysis of key situations in institutional life can provide insights into the ways in which communication works in interaction, and can distinguish between ideologically based assessments and matters of discursive form. At the same time it enables participants to learn from the difficulties arising in their contacts with others.