Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: While the internet has revolutionized political communication, it has not eliminated the importance of established avenues of communication such as the news media. News coverage is still critical for politicians, especially members of Congress as they seek to achieve their electoral, policy, and power goals. In this paper we demonstrate how representatives use their Web pages to court journalists. We analyze the content of the Web pages of 100 members of the House in order to study the features on these sites that are intended to be useful for journalists. We then explain the variance among members and reveal some important findings regarding congressional communication behavior. Although we assume that reelection is a member's primary goal, our results show that neither a member's electoral security nor the median household income in a district have a significant impact on the extent to which congressional Web sites are media friendly. However, members' efforts to achieve their policy goals (and perhaps the power goal which is subsumed by the policy goal in this case) do have an important impact on the variance in behavior. Partisanship and ideology are important predictors of the media friendliness scores for representatives' Web sites with Republicans and more liberal members having a greater likelihood of constructing attractive sites for journalists. In addition, younger representatives are more likely to take advantage of their Web sites to court media attention. There are also two other particularly interesting variables that are very significant in explaining this behavior. Females are likely to have Web sites that are much more media friendly than those of males. However, the Web pages of minority representatives are likely to have significantly fewer features that would be sought by journalists. These results provide a much broader understanding of how Web sites are being utilized by members of Congress to help them communicate with the public.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: My interest is in the design and implementation of community-oriented online discussion groups. As the use of discussion groups became routine within cyberspace in the 1990s (following earlier developments in the 1970s and 1980s), it became clear that, by and large, system designers were simply replicating structures of communicating that, as in the past, concretized and reinforced hegemonic aspects of dialogue based on transmission and persuasion oriented theories of communication. My project has attempted to apply Sense-Making Methodology to both understand how online communicating is practiced and to intervene with designs based on communication theories of dialogue.

Publication Type: Extended Abstract
Abstract: This paper introduces a Web-based methodology to assess beliefs and attitudes toward, and perceived remoteness of, sociocultural groups. Specifically, it introduces automated content analysis techniques as a way to determine perceived characteristics and evaluations, as well as in- and outgroup indicators, for a number of groups in Dutch society.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Despite the widespread interest in utilizing web-based SAQ instruments as a primary mode of data collection, controlled experiments on the relative effectiveness are rare. The 2003 Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) has implemented such an experiment and this paper will present findings on the effects of a web-first option and a “preference” (where the respondent chooses between web and mail modes) option on survey response rates compared to CATI-first and the standard mail-first modes. The SDR is a panel survey administered biennially to a national sample of some 40,000 doctorate-holders in the fields of science and engineering. Until 2003, the primary mode has been a mail SAQ with about 40 percent ultimately completed via CATI in follow-up efforts. In 2003, stratified random subsamples of about 2,000 cases each were allocated into the web-first, CATI-first, and preference experimental treatment. Stratification factors were sample member’s doctoral cohort, prior survey outcome (complete, refused), and sector of employment (academe, business or industry, government). The experimental groups will be compared with a control group of about 28,000 cases administered the standard SDR treatment of advance letter, first mail questionnaire, postcard reminder, second mail questionnaire, and then transfer to CATI mode. The experimental groups will also be compared with each other. An interesting subset of the web-first subsample are contacted via e-mail, in order to assess whether response rate improves with e-mail contacts. Response rate differences will be assessed using simple t-tests as well as logit models for estimating interaction effects of mode and stratification variables. The 2003 survey began in October and data collection continues until April 2004; final response rate outcome data will be available immediately after close of the data collection.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Has the Internet become a democratic medium and source of alternative information, like some hoped? Or is the Internet, like other mass media, controlled by large media corporations? This study explores this question by examining the entities behind the most popular Web brands. In the end, the article finds that the most frequented portion of the Web is controlled by commercial corporations and does not appear to serve as an alternative to traditional media sources.