ISBN-13: 9780805841091 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 316 str.
ISBN-13: 9780805841091 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 316 str.
This study assembles and presents, as an integrated whole, the cross-disciplinary research being conducted on access to new technology. It departs from popular understandings of new technology use by recognizing the distinction between having access to the Internet as a technology and being able to access the content that resides on it. While much research attention and policy discussion remains focused on physical access to information technology, profitable use of new media actually hinges on the motivations, characteristics, and abilities of individual users - dimensions of access that have thus far received only scant attention by researchers and policymakers. The book explains the digital divide based on education, income, gender, geography and other demographic characteristics that we now face. an array of fields, including journalism and mass communication, telecommunications, information studies, human-computer interaction, policy analysis, media sociology, and political science. The varied conceptual and methodological approaches originate from large-scale survey data, cultural explanations derived from depth interviews, and ethnographic methods and psychological explanations inferred from experimental data. pertaining to online content and computer avoidance, focusing on the psychological criteria of technology use and the role of education in facilitating cognitive access to new and traditional media. Part II compares social access to new technology among traditionally disadvantaged communities in disparate regions of the United States. Part III offers another level of analysis examining media access to the public sphere. This book is intended for professors and graduate students, as well as members of the policy community interested in media and information technology research.
In Media Access: Social and Psychological Dimensions of New Technology Use, editors Erik P. Bucy and John E. Newhagen present the latest work, theoretical explorations, and original research findings on media access from a team of internationally renowned media and technology researchers. Chapters develop expanded definitions and conceptual understandings of access to stimulate further research, offer new perspectives on policy discussions, and facilitate media participation among those at risk of being left behind.
Broadening our understanding of information technology use, this collection offers:
*Novel perspectives--chapters demonstrate new methods of addressing persistent questions regarding motivation, cultural context, socioeconomic resources, technical knowledge, and psychological skills required for effectual use of information and communication technologies.
*Conceptual integration--each chapter addresses a vital aspect of media access and summarizes pertinent findings, weaving together results to provide much-needed integration across communication and technology studies.
*Multidisciplinary approaches--chapters represent a variety of conceptual and methodological approaches, deriving social explanations from large-scale survey data, psychological explanations from experimental data, and cultural explanations from depth interviews and ethnographic methods.
*Shifting the policy and research agenda--this volume extends and redirects aspects of the digital divide debate while elaborating the "media access" approach to studying new technology use.
Taken as a whole, Media Access reveals complications associated with full access to new communication technologies and proposes analytical frameworks that open new avenues of scholarly investigation and policy consideration. It is intended for scholars and graduate students in journalism, mass communication, telecommunications, media studies, information science, public policy, psychology, sociology, informatics, human-computer interaction, and other disciplines concerned with the issue of media access.