Assignment Three

In assignment three we were asked to think about the subjects that came to light in assignment two and choose one or two to investigate further.

Following on from looking at The Law of the Few from The Tipping Point where I was thinking about how design can help tip social behaviour, movement or trends I have decided to look at where people obtain information from and how opinions are formed and shaped by the people we know. Who are society’s main influences and how do people access information in the 21st century, looking at the internet and social networking in particular.

I looked at Journals and websites using the university library's Cross-Search programme to find articles connect with my area of research.

I have put together a Harvard style bibliography to show my findings:

Andersen R, Heath A. (2003). Social Identities and Political Cleavages: The Role of Political Context. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. 166 (3), 301-327.

This paper investigates the influences of social groups and networks on attitudes and on voting. It finds a number of national and regional diversities and divisions, for example, social class and race has a widely different effect across the societies, but within societies their effects on attitudes and on voting were very similar. It highlights the importance of analysing the region rather than country, as within a country there can be many regional differences.

Chan, JKC. (2005). Lifestyles, reliance on traditional news media and online news adoption. New Media & Society. 7 (3), 357-382.

This paper studies different categories of people’s social lives and looks at how they use online news services differently. People who enjoy new things are more likely to read international news where as the demographic that live narrow focused lives, seldom do. It looks at offering a personalized edition of online news to the individual.

Ikeda K, Richey S. (2005). Japanese Network Capital: The Impact of Social Networks on Japanese Political Participation. Political Behavior. 27 (3), 239-260.

This paper looks at how social capital has a large influence on political behaviour. It tests the effects of the involvement of different environments and network structures to see different impacts on political participation in Japan.

Passy F, Giugni M. (2001). Social Networks and Individual Perceptions: Explaining Differential Participation in Social Movements. Sociological Forum. 16 (1), 123-153.

This paper explains how people participate and contribute to social movements. It is based on observations and experiences tested on social networks and within a large organisation.

It looks at factors such as the intensity of involvement and individual perceptions of different social movements and the basic functions of networks, which are, giving people opportunities to connect with others, freedom of speech and protest and giving them an chance to become involved. Being strongly involved in a social network significantly affects the individual’s involvement and feeling of contribution.

Press Trust of India. (2009). Majority of Indians use Twitter for news. Available: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Majority-of-Indians-use-Twitter-for-news/articleshow/5202132.cms. Last accessed 15 Nov 2009.

This article looks at how Indian Twitter users are using Twitter for News updates. It highlights some of the major topics it’s covered which include the US elections, swine flu updates and the first time the site was used in space. During the Mumbai attacks Twitter was used an estimated 80 tweets every five seconds.

Swaine J, Irvine C . (2009). Swine flu: Twitter used to spread news around world. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/5236447/Swine-flu-Twitter-used-to-spread-news-around-world.html. Last accessed 15 Nov 2009.

In this article talks about the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention using Twitter to get the latest official advice regarding Swine Flu to the public. It raises the point that Twitter could also be used to spread false information on the subject and could just spread fear among users.

Tewksbury, D. (2003). What do Americans really want to know? Tracking the behavior of news readers on the Internet. Journal of Communication. 53 (4), 694-710.

Widespread use of the internet for news reading has changed the way we process information, the internet gives the user a vast and varied amount of information which enables the reader to take control and read only their own interests, they are less likely to follow the cues of the news editors and producers. This study shows an assessment of how we understand news audiences. In general, online news audiences choose to read public affairs news less frequently than survey research suggests. This result has implications for the long-term health of democratic nations.