Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: With the rise of news aggregators, internet start pages and portal sites, there now exists a chain of sources for any piece of online news. Credible portals sometimes carry news items published by non-credible sources, but do users really factor in all the distal sources or do they rely simply on the proximate source delivering the news? Dual process models in psychology would predict that source is a peripheral cue and only those who are highly involved in the topic of the story would care to dig deeper.
We tested this proposition with a 2 (Issue involvement: High vs. Low) x 2 (Proximal source credibility: High vs. Low) x 2 (Distal source credibility: High vs. Low) full-factorial between-subjects experiment (N = 238) and found that while highly involved readers considered both proximate and distal sources, low-involvement readers were primarily influenced by the proximate source. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This news source survey and content analysis of 900 news stories examines source diversity and its relationship to accuracy and credibility at nine U.S. daily newspapers. Journalists identified, on average, 3.3 sources per story, though 40 percent of the stories used two or fewer named sources. On average, 42 percent of a story’s text was without any source attribution. Men outnumbered women 2 to 1 as named sources. A majority of stories relied on government and other official sources, while community members and other "ordinary" people were rarely cited. The data did not support the hypothesis that fewer errors would occur when more sources were used but the news story held greater credibility when more sources were cited. Going beyond examination of front-page news, the study provides a new benchmark in source diversity research by examining all locally produced stories (except sports and commentary) appearing throughout the newspaper.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: A temporary shutdown of radio and television reporters’ paging services in Israel used their withdrawal to study the technology’s role in journalism and the type of social arrangements it embodies in journalist–source relations. In contrast to expectations based on the "convergence" view, the ability to compensate for the absence of one technology by using an alternative one was limited. The limitations concern the technologies themselves less than their respective routine operation. The results: A large proportion of reporters missed parts of their stories and were late in discovering primary information. A small proportion lost entire stories. The greatest difficulties were encountered during live coverage of dramatic events, including terrorist attacks, during which reporters were demanded to keep on supplying information output while they received no input. Paradoxically, the pager belongs to sources but is worn on a journalist’s hip. Despite its limited features, and probably because of them, the pager is ranked as a vital journalistic tool.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper analyzed the structures of open source projects. While mainstream economists are trying to explain open source movement by self-interested economic incentives, the structures of open source projects examined based on co-membership networks of operating systems, software licenses, target audiences, and topics, showed that there is no strong tendency pursuing individual or economic incentives. Network centrality trends were traced using co-membership network analysis. Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP) method was used to compare the structures of networks.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The study examines the usefulness of eleven sources of information on sexuality, as it is
perceived in the eyes of Israeli adolescents from three ethnic groups: Jews, Moslem-Arabs and
Christian-Arabs. The sources are interpersonal (parents, siblings, peers), professional (school,
health professionals) and the mass media (television, radio, internet, films, books and
newspapers and magazines). Regardless of ethnicity, all of the sources are perceived as
moderately useful at best. Peers, television, internet and newspapers and magazines are
perceived as the most useful. Compared to Jews, Arabs perceive nearly all of the sources as more
useful, but there are no major differences between Moslems and Christians. In comparison with
males, females perceive their parents as more useful and the electronic media as less useful, but
there are no signs of a consistent gender-ethnicity interaction. Overall, the results partly replicate
the findings of American studies, but they are not strongly supportive of media system
dependency theory, since high usefulness of media sources does not correlate with lack of
usefulness of interpersonal and professional sources.