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Full-Text Articles in Library and Information Science
The Schenectady Virtual Community : Exploring The Ecology Of Political Discourse In A Local Context, Andrea B. Baker
The Schenectady Virtual Community : Exploring The Ecology Of Political Discourse In A Local Context, Andrea B. Baker
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
From Facebook to Twitter, ordinary citizens' use of social media to discuss, organize, and participate in the political process continues to grow in popularity (Davis, 2005; Rainie, 2005; Kohut, 2008). Researchers interested in this area have explored the demographics, patterns of behavior and motives of participants in online communities (Stromer-Galley, 2002, 2003), the dynamics of the online discussions (Dahlberg, 2001; Davis, 2005; Wilhelm, 2000), the effect of online participation on other forms of political activity (Brunsting, 2002; Kavanaugh & Patterson, 2001), and more recently the relationship between social media and the conventional press (Hiler, 2002; Park, 2004; Cornfield, 2006; Lenhart …
The Myth Of Fragmentation : Assessing Political Information Online, Alexis Marie Wichowski
The Myth Of Fragmentation : Assessing Political Information Online, Alexis Marie Wichowski
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Internet technology has provided people with unprecedented abilities to filter the information they encounter, leading many scholars to fear that people will be exposed to less diversity of perspectives and fragment into homogeneous interest groups. Exposure to a wide range of topics and perspectives about political information in particular is considered necessary by many scholars in order for citizens to be informed participants in democratic life. However, fears that the Internet leads to fragmentation rest on three assumptions: 1. online, opportunities for unintended encounters with a diversity of information are limited, 2. people primarily pursue narrow interests when consuming online …